The Downside of the Right Thing

The Shit Squad had been fairly quiet. Therod thought the name for her group of mercs might be driving away customers, despite her liking the idea of any shitty job that comes along, she felt maybe it was a touch to on the nose. Carut assured her it was the recent execution of clients that had caused the downturn in business. Which seemed unfair to Therod since they had of course wronged her group and they should be allowed to carry out their justice. That this stance would affect her business upset her. It didn't upset Rolando or Rem as both had in their own ways screwed off to doing nothing. She was shocked at the lack of effort both men put in to being better at their jobs.

"Are you two idiots going to stand around all day?" Rem was currently showing Rolando how to lasso something, this seemed like the stupidest skill to learn, especially for someone who could shift to a target, but this was apparently how the two of them had seen fit to spend their day.

"I'm learning something boss, you said learn."

"Yeah." Therod felt like a mother to two insolent children.

"Learn something useful, like Carut could show you electronic stuff, or I could show you some close quarters techniques, learning how to rope something is about the worst use of your time." Not that Therod wanted to show either of the men anything, her attempts in the past had been a colossal failure due to their lack of coordination and unwillingness to learn. In a way she felt cursed with both as far as mercenary work went, they were not suited for every day tasks.

"This is useful." They said it in unison and she almost got a head ache and left them to the task returning to Carut in their ops office.

"Having a problem with the boys."

"Idiots Carut, they are idiots, at best they are specialists, and I have to use them for front line work, tell me please someone has sent an application or something."

"I could tell you that, it wouldn't be true, but I can tell you that."

"You really know how to cushion the blow old man."

"I did have one person make an application, but I turned it down."

"What why? They can't be worse than those idiots out there?"

"She seemed unstable."

"I can work with unstable!"

"Ok, let me get that app again, but remember I warned you." Therod had the address of the applicant already downloaded and she was out the door before "warned you" came out of Carut's lips.

The Last Freedom

"I'll kill myself." Trezlan had come to his final card to play against the machines. The worst part was not wanting to harm himself, not wanting to ruin his perfectly fine existence. But he had to be willing to make that sacrifice to be free. Willing to hurt to be allowed to heal.

"You would not." The machines voice was almost wavering. Trezlan knew he had them, but he had to keep a steady hand and stick with his plan.

"I will, and you can not stop me, I can not be restrained and I know the magic to end my own life." The machines didn't respond at first, he figured they'd already calculated this possibility, and now they were recalculating it based on his new insistence on it.

"Upon your release would you turn us off?" It seemed interesting the machines now worried of themselves, Trezlan appreciated that, they feared reprisal for their actions.

"No, we've both seen how far the other is willing to go to preserve themselves, I figure you're exactly what I need on my side." Trezlan meant it, that his robots would lock him up to prevent harm coming to him, seemed a level of misguided caring on par with his own. The door opened, outside his a variety of the robots were waiting in a form of kneeling, as if to apologize for the inconvenience. "Now that this little issue is over, lets get back to work shall we gentleman?"

"Yes sir, operations will continue as originally instructed." And with that machines returned to their building and Trezlan returned to his command room, a little perturbed at the inconvenience, but overall still fine.

"Please re purpose the room I was imprisoned, I don't want it to remain." Trezlan trusted the bots now, but he didn't want to leave a cell built for him on his own ship, that was just begging for trouble. And he already did enough of that as is.

Going Nowhere Good

"And what I am really put off by if I'm being completely honest is that you pulled this shit on me after our working relationship, it was to say the least off putting." Therod was pacing in front of the group of body part smugglers. Behind her was Rem and Rolando both pointing their rifles, behind them was the smoking remains of the merc APC charred bodies lay next to it.

"We didn't..."

"DID I LOOK LIKE I WAS FINISHED TALKING!" Therod was very very angry. Carut and her boys had managed to disable and destroy the APC, but that the situation had become a thing vastly upset her. "You assholes got me involved in body smuggling, you turned on us instead of simply paying us off or not having us protect you, and now that things are turning on you, you look for some kind of sympathy from us?" Therod laughed, the body smugglers did not like where her talk was going.

"What do you want from us?"

"Nothing, there is only one thing left to do." Rem and Rolando stepped up and opened fire, the smugglers bodies reacted to the shots and fell backwards in the dust. Therod was sad it had come to the place it had gotten to, sad they had forced her hand, but that was their choice, and all that was left was to clean up the mess.

"Should we bury them?" Rem was the one mostly new to military operations, Rolando and Therod both wanted to laugh at his comment.

"Nah leave them for the wildlife and as an example, you screw with us, and we'll leave you in the dirt." And that was the end of that conversation. Rem wasn't ok with how things had worked out, but he realized like everyone else now, they were mercenaries, and mercenaries had to get paid, and if they didn't people had to get dead. It was the way their world worked now, whether they wanted it to or not. Things had changed, mostly for the worse.

Rise of the Machines

"We're doing this for you own good Master Lorentino." The machines had imprisoned Trezlan in a room specifically built for the purpose it seemed to him. It was facing space in all but one wall, and the one wall not facing space was super reinforced to the point of fire being a waste of time. The machines themselves not being alive also didn't allow for necromancy to work on them. It was the perfect prison he had inadvertently made for himself. The robots had decided within their programming to serve Trezlan, the best way to do that was by locking him up for his own protection. It was a perfectly logical belief, even Trezlan recognized it, but it still infuriated him.

"MY OWN GOOD IS BEING FREE!" The machine's made sure to bring him food and the room contained a shower and a comfortable bed with access to various medias for his entertainment. But it didn't have freedom and so he raged against the walls like an animal with its foot caught in a trap. He would have asked Rem for help, but ignoring the man probably didn't lend him to wanting to help Trezlan now. If anything it would be the opposite he'd be laugh at Trezlan's situation and he couldn't take that kind of abuse now. So he sulked in his cushy prison and spent days trying to get the machines to let him out to no avail. It was enough to make him want to kill himself out of fear of being trapped forever.

Which gave rise to the solution to his problem...

I'm Sure You're Fine

"Armed militia members, body selling drug dealers, and little to no support." Rem was catching Trezlan up on what was going on. Rem didn't exactly know what they were going to do and so he was wondering if Trezlan had any suggestions.

"Sounds like fun times, glad I'm not there though, geneticist who sell body parts creep me out."

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"On selling body parts? No like I said its creepy." Trezlan was in the middle of his next big project. It always seemed like he had a new big project, he never just did something small, he always wanted to do something big. The current one was retooling all of the wrecks of ships into one large functional battleship. It had become apparent to him he needed one, even if it was crewed only by robots.

"No I mean on the militia and their APC."

"Oh no, well not no but my suggestions wouldn't work for you either necromancy or fire. I suggest maybe use explosives? I dunno Rem whatever you feel is best." Rem didn't respond and Trezlan just let it go, he'd grown used to people being upset with his solutions, but he was too wrapped up in making sure the robots did the job building his warship.

Trezlan did wonder briefly if the machines would rise up and try to imprison him on the ship, but figured that with proper programming they couldn't actually do that. Unfortunately Trezlan was not a good programmer, and so that's exactly what happened.

Penny Smart Dollar Betrayal

Rolando was worried about what he'd find up ahead. He didn't necessarily like the drug dealers, nor did he have any relationship with them personally. He was mainly worried this would negatively effect the mercenary companies reputation which felt silly to worry about in the wake of being attacked by a group of men and having to steal one of their trucks to even make the meeting. If anything showing up showed they were extremely reliable if only slightly late.

What he and Rem saw upon arrival was surprising. The deal was going down as usual, and the people who sold drugs didn't actually sell drugs at all. Rolando and Rem had assumed they were selling drugs based on their shady practices, but it appeared like they were genetic parts. Rolando could see all sorts of pieces of bodies in blue fluid.

"What in the world?"

"Yeah I'm lost, not only is the deal going down like we never got sidelined, they are selling pieces of people, that's kind of screwed up. Therod we have a problem."

"You have more than one, the mercs from before have got themselves an APC and they are moving in on you."

"Well blow it up for us what good are you?"

"Better armor then these guns can crack."

"Super, what do you want us to do to it?"

"Figure out what they want, and figure out why our employers screwed us over."

"Oh is that all? Sure me and Rem got that no issue." Rem laughed, and Rolando rolled his eyes.

"That was more for Carut than you two, what I need you two to do is what you do best."

"Comment like assholes?"

"Blow shit up."

"Roger that." Rolando smiled as did Rem, they did at least blow shit up kind of good, much to previous employers chagrin.

Doesn't Look Great To Me Either

There were fifteen gunman who had pinned down her people. Therod could see overhead but couldn't directly intervene without risking people on the ground. She had also told Rolando not to shift, if only not when so many people were watching. It was odd to her that instead of hitting the shipment directly they had attacked her people, and in large numbers.

"Carut you online?"

"My leg is broke not my mind, yes I'm here, and I see what's going on, hold on." Carut's leg fracture was pretty bad, last Therod had heard they might have to replace it with a cybernetic implant.

"Do you want us to wait while these assholes shoot at us or are you going to let me off the chain Therod?" Rolando and Rem seemed safe where they were, but they wouldn't be for long, the armed men were spreading out in a flanking move. Rolando's "chain" was anti magical wristlets that Therod had him wear, nice than the previous shackles he wore, but still restrictive. He hated the idea, she advocated it based on the need for subtlety something he lacked as a Lorentino.

"Calm down you aren't in trouble yet."

"Interesting definition of that Captain."

"Well Therod they're mercs, and worse they've paid off corporate police to ignore the gun battle." Carut had been a pretty good electronics man back in the day at least according to him. Therod was hesitant to trust him, but she didn't want him just sitting around doing nothing feeling sorry for himself.

"Top notch info Carut, I'm so glad you gave it to us." Rem felt the information was not useful, Rolando chuckled a bit. Both men could see the mercs closing on them.

"Well if you idiots had let me finish, I'd have told you I'd hacked their comm channel and they are being paid to detain you, but not kill you."

"Great so we just blow the job, but don't end up dead." Rolando itched to have his magic, he could solve everything very quickly.

"It means we haven't blown the job yet, steal one of their transports and get back to our client." Therod cut them off before they started whining at each other.

"And if they follow us?"

"They won't." Therod brought up the weapons on her craft and made ready. "Rowland, just the transport no killing."

"You take all the fun out of life." Rolando made ready to shift and Rem tried his best not to freak out about what was about to happen as it was his first shift. Before Rem could even think about what was happening they were in the front of a truck and Rolando was gunning the engine, just as Therod opened up with her crafts weapons overhead.

"Now catch up to the client before these assholes regroup, something hinky is going on and I want to know what."

"Got it boss."

Who's Actually In Charge

"We're drug dealers now you realize this?" Rolando and Rem were behind a transport containing illicit substances. Therod was the over watch in a small craft overhead. What the new mercenary company lacked in personel they had in spade with regards to left over gear. They were the most well armed four man crew around.

"Yes Rem I realize we're drug dealers, or at least drug associated now." Rolando had made peace with being a bad man, he had made that peace when he signed on with Trezlan again.

"We're not drug dealers, and keep the channel quiet you idiots." Therod cut them off and Rolando drug a finger over his throat and Rem nodded, they'd done a couple jobs already and so they had it down pat to cut their exterior communications when they wanted to talk.

"I'm still wondering why she gets to be in charge, you were a higher rank in the military."

"It's her company, same reason we get the ground duty while she floats up above." The two previous jobs had been fairly boring, leaving Rem and Rolando to get to know each other. They mostly got along aside from when Trezlan would speak up and bother Rem. Rolando felt whatever benefit Rem got out of the transaction having his dad in the man's head was the worst part.

"I still think we should be even leaders here, I mean there are like 3 and a half of us currently working, why do we even have a leadership structure?"

"Someone has to be in charge, trust me, I worked on a squad once where we were all the same rank, nothing ever got done, someone has to be leading, Therod is as good as anyone."

"WHY ARE YOU BOTH NOT ON COMMS?" Therod's shout didn't make Rolando's point very good. Rem shrugged his shoulders.

"Communication failure."

"And its now suddenly working, Rowland I swear to the gods..." Therod was cut off as a truck suddenly cut off Rolando and Rem and gunmen got out and opened fire on them.

"Well at least we aren't bored."

"Shut up Rem." Both Rem and Therod said it in unison.

Meet the New Mercenaries

"I'm still confused at this." Therod wasn't exactly clear on why Trezlan though the safest thing for his son was to be in the midst of the mercenary world, but she also knew the usefulness of Rolando would go along way for her formative mercenary crew, especially with Carut laid up with a leg injury.

"You're not the only one, but apparently my father thinks a name change will make me invisible." Therod also noticed he'd shaved his blonde hair and was just flat bald with no facial hair.

"And your new name is?"

"Rowland Quick, yeah don't even say anything it hurt me when my father provided the IDs." Therod laughed a little bit, it made her ribs hurt. She had met "Rowland" at the spaceport, things had calmed down since he and his father had left and the next crisis she was involved with. The corporations had come swarming in to offer their services for repairs/scavenging, the remains of the Morlatech fleet. All of course except Morlatech which was in the middle of another scandal for assaulting the planet, the corporate council had already levied sanctions, which seemed minimal to threatening millions of people.

"Could be worse, you saw his list of alias's back in the service."

"Don't remind me, so tell me you at least changed the name."

"Eventually, maybe there is a disagreement we'll get to that when you get in."

"I'm already excited." Rolando did not feel excited at all, but compared to sitting with his father going crazy, this was at least close to what he used to do. And he could make a pretty penny at it without having to wear shackles, so better in some ways worse in others, pretty much the same as every day with his father.

Well Thanks For Checking In

"Rem didn't have any idea?" Trezlan was getting caught up on the days events and costs by Therod, everyone was mostly ok after the rogue magic user had been dealt with. Not that Trezlan really cared, if the mercs and Rem had died he'd have saved some money and whatever weird connection he had to Rem, but he did kind of want to know the resolution.

"He thinks maybe the guy was someone who's blood had been used to feed the magic addicts? But he never met the man, and had no idea why he went through all of this to kill him. Like what did he even want? Rem has no idea."

"Hilarious."

"Maybe to you Trezlan, I've got broken ribs, Carut's leg is busted and Rem has several concussions." Trezlan shrugged, it was enough to infuriate Therod. Every interaction with the man showed his complete lack of caring for others, and she anticipated it, but still it was beyond the pale how little he actively cared.

"I'll make sure to include some hazard pay."

"Dealing with you is a hazard."

"Well add it to my bill, oh speaking of adding things. Are you guys looking for new members? Rolando is just twiddling his thumbs here and its getting on my nerves."

"You're just turning your son over to mercenaries? After what you just went through?"

"It'll be good for the boy. And he's good in a fight."

"I don't even." Therod cut the communication and Trezlan frowned. He thought he was offering a good deal but here Therod was saying she didn't want him. So many centuries of life and Trezlan still struggled with why people do what they do.

The Real Unknown

There was gunfire all around Rem. He didn't exactly know what was going on. He couldn't even remember what had lead to what was going on as he stumbled awake. And then he saw a shirtless person holding up a piece of metal to block gun fire before launching it into his mercenary companions. To say Rem was confused was an understatement. The shirtless man finished with both mercs and turned toward Rem.

"Glad to see you are awake for me to kill you." The shirtless man tried to rip something out of the ground, but Rem was more awake and so he just killed the magic at its source.

"Right, hope you have something else hiding there behind your shirt, because this whole magic thing ain't going to do shit for you." Rem himself didn't have much else either, his pistol was lost in the wreck and from the beatings and the crash he had the stability of a brain damaged fighter, but he felt a lot better than the shirtless guy looked when he killed his magic. The shirtless man rushed him just all fists and anger, Rem did his best to parry the blows, but they were coming with an anger he just didn't have.

"IT WAS BECAUSE OF THINGS LIKE YOU THEY DID THIS TO ME AND MY FAMILY!" The rage was palpable, each blow landing with more and more anger. Rem could just try and block them and he wasn't even doing a very good job. He thought he was going to die until the gunshot from Therod killed the man attacking him.

"Who was that guy?"

"Honestly, I have no idea."

All the Broken Toys

"Who are you guys?" Rem waited till most of the gun fire had died down before speaking. It seemed like the smart move.

"Mercenaries, hired by Lorentino to get you out."

"Yeah I figured that, but which ones?"

"Sun Stars." The male said it before the female could respond.

"We are in the process of changing to a less redundant name." Rem smiled, it seemed like everyone Trezlan dealt with was broken in one way or another, including these mercs and Rem if he was being honest about it.

"Probably a smart idea."

"Don't know what you're in Mr. Crowe but you're in deep, those guys were corporate, well paid, and well armed, you're just lucky we're better in every way."

"Except numbers."

"Numbers don't mean shit when you've got bad tactics." The woman was doing most of the talking, he could see she had a name tag of Therod. Rem hadn't seen their pursuers for a bit and was feeling safe until all of a sudden the ship they were in was wrenched to the ground. Rem who had been kind of leaning out a side window was thrown roughly to the ground at the feet of a shirtless man.

"Hello Mr. Crowe." And then the world went black.

The Good Kind of Mercenaries

Gunfire hit outside of the room. Rem waited with baited breath. Trezlan hadn't said anything for hours and he almost suspected the old Necromancer had given up on him. And then all hell broke loose outside his room. He could hear at least two sides, possibly more. There was shouts and explosions. Eventually a woman came bursting through the door in fully body armor with a rather large looking rifle pointed at him. Rem couldn't get his hands free using Trezlan's previous trick because they were locked in to shackles with no give. The woman in the armor shouted something at him but since she was in full face armor he couldn't make it out.

"Are you Remle Crowe?" She had lowered the face plate to speak, behind her a man had moved into a cover position watching her back.

"Yes? Please don't kill me." She moved to where he was seated and using some kind of micro torch cut the shackles and handed him a pistol.

"Paid to save you, not kill you, come on Crowe lets get out of here." Rem felt better, though he still had a lot of questions he was sure would be answered if he made it out of there. So he did his part kept his head down and followed the two mercenaries to their ride out front, as the not police chased after them. The air car they arrived in looked fairly nice, which was good, but the two who had come to help him appeared to be the only people there, so they seemed a bit outgunned by the not cops. Still freedom however fleeting was better than no freedom, so Rem kept his mouth shut, kept his head down, and hoped something good would come out of all this bad, but he figured no.

I Don't Respect the Authority

"Remle Crowe, murderer." It was a bit of a surprise that the authorities had showed up to arrest Rem. Especially since they had been non existent the past few days. Rem smelled something up immediately. That and he was brought to a facility that was not at all the police's normal head quarters. The man interogatting him did not have any marking on of rank or position either. So if they were the police, they were the least police looking police Rem had ever known.

"Not just a murderer." That was what Trezlan told him to say, the necromancer was back in his head as much as Rem thought it probably wasn't a great idea for someone who admits they had been in prison for centuries to give him legal advice, he figured he was screwed might as well have fun with it.

"Feel free to confess to other crimes Mr. Crowe you're in a world of trouble." The man doing the interview was bald, he also appeared to be devoid of any facial hair. Which is something Trezlan pointed out immediately. Rem started to doubt how useful Trezlan's experience would be with that observation.

"Well first off I want my lawyer, and secondly there is no second." This comment warranted a strike from the bald man, and Rem had even more evidence he wasn't in actual police custody. Trezlan concurred.

"I'll leave you time to consider your situation Mr. Crowe." The bald man left and Rem leaned back in his chair.

"I think that went well." Trezlan was cheery considering he wasn't facing what Rem was facing.

"Oh yeah I'm locked up again, and I got hit again, this is great for me."

"Calm down Rem, this is different because we know something about these guys."

"We do?"

"Yeah they want something for you, they are letting you sit not threatenting to kill you, that's a step up."

"I'm thrilled Trezlan."

"You should be." Rem was not in fact thrilled, but he at least had Trezlan to rely on, until he didn't as the necromancer seemed to come and go as he wanted not as Rem needed. In a way it reminded Rem of a lot of women in his life.

Never Did Like You Randolph

Rem was sitting behind the desk of what was probably in the past some low level admin. He had his pistol back, the man he killed with the chair had it tucked into the back of his pants. Rem assumed he was dead based on the force of the blow and the shot Rem put through his forehead, but he didn't normally kill people like that so he had no idea. Rem was waiting for Randolph, he needed Randolph to explain what all of this was for. He didn't think he would get that answer, but he needed to try, even though he could almost hear Trezlan telling him how stupid that idea was.

"Rem." Randolph came through his own pistol at his side.

"Don't even Randolph I have my pistol leveled at your head and its an auto so I don't even have to come close to being good at aiming." Which was why Rem chose this particular pistol, his ability to aim was suspect.

"So just kill me."

"No I need to know why, why did you do this?" Randolph went to draw down on Rem and Rem opened up, the first two shots missed, the rest of the gunfire didn't, Randolph's head was shredded by the shots. Rem heard his pistol's magazine click empty. Despite not getting why, he at least had gotten Randolph and felt this at least ended things. Though all the magic used at The Boss's headquarters bothered him, and as he stepped over Randolph's body he was thinking it probably wasn't over, even before he noticed the Eight armed men in the hallway waiting for him.

Listen To Me You're Doing This All Wrong

Rem had the chain pseudo attached to his chair waiting to strike the first person into the room. He was about to knock on the door when he heard Trezlan in his head screaming stop. He was almost tempted to ignore the voice, but if not for Trezlan he'd still be in the chair.

"What? You left me, I have a plan now."

"You have an awful plan, and I should know I'm the king of those." Rem almost laughed but it would have hurt the bruises on his chest.

"Well come up with a better one."

"I have one, you'll need to start crying for help, the building is most likely empty, but they'll freak and come in, that's when you strike."

"And this is different from my original plan how?"

"Your plan was to knock on the door, thus showing you were free of the chains thus preparing them for your ambush, calling for help supports the idea you're still locked up."

"You have been locked up a lot haven't you?"

"Literally centuries, now quickly put this plan in motion I have other things I want to do today."

"Well I'd hate to inconvenience you." Rem readied himself and then called out. It took a bit, but eventually his jailer arrived and Rem brought the chair down with force on his head and despite his size the man crumbled to the ground potentially dead.

"Fantastic Rem, ok gotta go."

"But I don't.... You asshole!" Rem was once again by himself and despite that seeming weird to complain about.

Just Lie, Don't Tell Me Your Weird Truths

"What are you doing?" Rolando saw Trezlan absent mindedly staring off into the distance. Which was weird since Trezlan was normally so active it was strange to see him just standing there. Rolando was almost worrying he was having some kind mental breakdown.

"Oh sorry communicating with someone through some kind of mind link." Rolando immediately regretted asking.

"Just lie dad, just lie and say you were thinking of something important."

"Well you asked and I'm answering, I thought you wanted more honesty?"

"NOT LIKE THIS! I want you to be honest about dangerous things, not whatever you have going on right now that is confusing and unwelcome!" Trezlan frowned.

"But most of my things are confusing and unwelcome!" Rolando walked off and Trezlan frowned. Which just made him want to focus more on what Rem was doing. And it was good for Rem he did, if not Rem would probably have died a minute later.

Magical Thinking

"Chains are actually secure he wasn't any closer to having them off." Randolph had dropped pretense, he had the goon check Rem's chains and Rem knew the jig was up. Rem was still completely confused as to why Randolph was working against him, or what was even going on. Especially since after checking his chains Randolph and his goon left, leaving Rem all by himself to consider his fate. In his desperation he effectively called for the gods to help and surprisingly someone answered.

"I had the oddest feeling like someone invading my mind hoping for a solution, is that you Remle Crowe." He heard the voice in his mind and he could almost visualize Trezlan sitting on a command deck somewhere in deep space, it was entirely confusing as to where the man was, and why Rem could see him, let alone seemingly speak with him.

"I don't know how or why I can connect to you, but I'm in real trouble, I'm chained to a chair and the people behind it I believe are going to kill me." It was weird to talk to someone else through thoughts, for a brief moment Rem considered he was going crazy.

"Chain to a chair about to be executed, its like we were born to be connected, ok give me the details Rem don't leave anything out." Rem wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it, but he went over all the things he knew which wasn't much to Trezlan, Trezlan considered it briefly and then responded.

"You'll have to pop your bone out of joint, it'll hurt like no ones business, but if you do that you'll be able to slip the chains easy, let me show you in the link how this goes describing it is not how I learned." Trezlan through the mind link showed rem how to effectively pseudo break his thumb to free himself from the chains, it did look quite painful, but so was dying. Rem managed the maneuver and freed his hands, but his thumb were in agony, even after he popped them back into place as Trezlan instructed.

"Well I'm free, now what do I do?"

"Well in my case it would be burn everything on my way out, for you, uhh shit do you have a pistol or anything?"

"I had one."

"Well shit, I think you're still kind of screwed, I'd help but I'm pretty sure I'm a long way from you, so uhh good luck don't die."

"You're super helpful." Trezlan had already broken the mental connection, but Rem was sure he got that last message anyway. Still he had freed himself which was a plus, now he just needed to know what to do next, which seemed like harder than freeing himself now that he was free.

Bad Day for Conversation

It was hard for Rem to see, his eyes had swollen up around his nose and he had a cut on his forehead that was dripping down as well. He was completely confused as to why he was just simply beaten. He knew he had done bad things, and would probably do more bad things, but he expected when someone catches up with him they'd at least tell him why they were assaulting him.

"Looking good Rem." He noticed it was just him and the other man left, everyone else had been removed.

"Feeling good, I'm sorry I don't know who you are at this point."

"Randolph."

"Shit really? I was sent to find you." Randolph attempted to laugh and then coughed on blood and just started coughing.

"How nice of you Rem, I always thought you didn't care."

"I didn't, The Boss wanted you."

"Figures, at least you were honest about it." Rem thought that was sadder than anything that Randolph just accepted he didn't really care.

"So what are they doing to us here anyway."

"You got me, I got taken first, I've seen the rest of you guys come and go, they are looking for something I think, but I have no idea what."

"They? So there are more than just Mr. Punchy?" Rem could hardly see, but he still noticed a tick on Randolph's face, he also noticed that Randolph while coated in blood didn't seem to have the accessory injuries to go with it.

"Well I think its more than one." Rem sensed the change immediately, Randolph was lying, and seeing how things were, Rem figured he was lying because he was in on whatever was going on.

"Right well I hope they give me a bit of time, I'm trying to get out of these chains and I think I'm almost there, so when they show up stall them for me Randy." Randolph hated being called Randy, it was one of the few things Rem remembered about him.

"Sure thing Rem, sooner you get free, sooner I get free." That cemented it for Rem, now he knew that Randolph was working against him, and that he was probably the last magic eater alive for whatever purpose. The worst part was he was no close to unlocking the chains, he just said that to test Randolph. He needed something, anything to save him, but he didn't have anything. So he just sat there awaiting oblivion. Which felt more than a little depressing.

Can't Shake The Beating

Rem awoke in chains, he saw other magic eaters in the room also in chains. They were seated in a circle, the room looked like some kind of rec center. He saw motivational posters on the wall and the ground was carpet. Whatever he'd been sedated with had a nasty hang over, his head was ringing from pain, it was in fact what woke him up. The rest of the magic eaters were also equally awake, though some of them looked to have been tortured. Rem was not surprised they had taken his weapon while he was asleep, but he had hoped briefly they had left it.

"Got you too Rem?" Rem couldn't make out who said that, between the blood and throat damage the man was almost unrecognizable. On top of that Rem never exactly hung around with the other magic eaters in a clear state of mind so he didn't really know most of them by name.

"Yeah though it looks like I got the better of it so far."

"Just wait they'll come for you too, I don't even know what they want, so far they just drag us in there and swing for the fences."

"With magic or without it?"

"Without, just a big dude punching, never seen him before, thought it was the Boss but someone else said he's dead." Rem tried to process what he was being told, but it wasn't lining up at all. Who would take magic eaters just to beat them? Rem was confused as to the whole enterprise. Though he didn't have long to wait before the large man picked up his chair and brought him to a smaller rectangular room.

"So you want to talk first or?" Rem's question was met with a fist to the face, and the rest of the conversation continued like that until he passed out from pain.

Problem Not Solved

Rem arrived at The Boss's location and immediately knew something was up. There was no one out front. The Boss ran a barber shop as a front for his illegal operations, and none of the barbers nor their fake clients were there. The shop was empty, even though the open sign was still flashing. Rem took out the pistol now, something was definitely up. As he got further in the shop he felt the magic. It was all over everything. Like a magic bomb had gone off, it was residual meaning he probably missed the big show, but it was definitely still there and so he cautiously approached The Boss's office.

Everyone was dead inside, they had been violently thrown around the room with the Boss himself pinned to the wall and his insides removed. Whatever magical force had done this lingered on every surface, almost as if magic itself has rebelled and attacked the men. Rem didn't feel safe there. He felt like he was being watched even though everyone was dead and the room wasn't big enough for someone to hide. This feeling was only emphasized when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Remle Crowe." He didn't turn around the voice was a harsh whisper, but it carried malice in just saying his name.

"If I said no would you not do what you want to do."

"No."

"Why spoil a perfect day, yeah I'm Remle, though I go by Rem."

"Well Rem, are you going to come quietly or in pieces?"

"If I get the choice I'd prefer quietly." He felt the syringe hit his neck and then the world went black. Rem's last though was "why ask if you were going to drug me anyway?"