Shackles of the Past

[lawna]

Marcus nodded. "You've read my mind." However, he still hesitated to knock on Monica's door. He was going to give his daughter permission to go on at least one date. Couldn't she be contented to just practice her eco and chase Ace around the house, like she used to?

Marcus knocked, and there was no answer. So he knocked again and opened the door. "Monica?"

She had heard the first knock, and so did Ace, who looked up at Monica expectantly.

"Let whoever it is squirm for a second," Monica grumbled into Ace's fur, from where she was laying on her bed. Sometimes, especially when they were together, her dad and Zrion annoyed her, or made her otherwise upset. She would have bet on her life a couple of years ago that would never have happened. But, as you grow up things change.

There was another knock, and her dad let himself and Zrion in.

Zrion perched himself on the edge of the bed as Marcus made himself at home on it, snuggling up next to Ace, scratching her belly and chest. "Baby, we're sorry we made you upset, we were just joking around. We're excited that you found a boy that you like. But there has to be rules about this stuff. First, he comes in Friday when he picks you up, and we will try hard not to catch him on fire. There shall be a time that you will be required to come home, and that will be- You said you're leaving at six? How about... 6:30?"

When that didn't even get a smile Marcus reverted back into seriousness. "Fine Grumpy. Two hours should be enough time to get into trouble. You will be home at eight, or Acey here will sniff you out."

That about checked off everything he was going to say. He looked to his partner in crime and asked, "Anything else?"

[Darkjak87]

While Marcus was talking, Zrion was wondering if he should call in a favor with Major Daelos and have the Second Echelon look into Monica's new boyfriend. Of course, he doubted that having him spied on by Black Operatives would earn him any favors with Monica, so he'd just wait to see for himself.

"Alright, go for it," Zrion decided. "It's not that we don't want you to enjoy yourself Monica, it's just that there's a lot of people in this world that have less than noble intentions. We just worry about you, is all."

He sighed. "I guess we'll have to turn you loose sooner or later. We'll see how it works out. Sorry for teasing you, but it was all his idea," he said, hooking his thumb at Marcus.

He snickered slightly at the look on Marcus' face at his accusation. It had been a joint effort, after all. "Well, we'll leave you to it. Just remember to stand up for yourself if he does something to make you unhappy, alright? Or tell us to do it, either way."

With those parting words, the two of them left her alone with Ace, shutting the door behind them. "Well," he said, visibly relieved. "That could've gone worse."

[lawna]

"Yeah, it could have," Marcus sighed, running a hand over his face. His baby was going on a date on Friday.



Monica really did want to go back out and eat, as Zrion's spaghetti was as decent of anything he usually made, but she was too stubborn, and didn't want to see the amused glint shine in Zephan's eyes. It made her on edge for his next barb.



So Ace kept her company as Monica fidgeted around her own room. She hung the dress up she had bought on the top knob of her dresser, set the matching jewelry on her vanity, rearranged her minimal knick knacks, books, and other junk. She was even considering moving the little bit of furniture she had, but Ace's look told her that she was going off the deep end.



'How can Zephan just sit in his room all day. I'm going nuts in one evening.'



When Monica's stomach finally grumbled in complaint, she thought it might be safe to emerge. Zrion must have already gone to bed, because all the lights were off, except for the light over the kitchen sink, which gave off a surprising amount of light. Maybe there would be enough left overs for a plate.



When she opened the fridge, she immediately felt bad that she had acted like such a brat. Somebody wrapped her plate up, exactly as she had left it, and stuck it in the fridge for her. It was probably Zrion.



She took the wrap off and put the plate in the microwave to warm back up. In the meantime, she scanned the contents of the fridge. Maybe she would make some apologetic breakfast in the morning.



Roman was done running messages relatively early for a change, getting back to the warehouse at eleven instead of his usual one or two in the morning. He could tell a couple of the other messengers were picking up the slack, so Roman decided being in charge of wooing a Krimzon Guardsman's daughter had it's advantages.



After he had actually met Monica, he had went to a safe house across town to report what happened, and the address Monica gave him went into the ever growing 'file' the mission was developing. He was congratulated on his accomplishments, and sent about his business, which didn't include much but a long nap, and then getting back up for work around nine.



Now, he fell through Charlie's door, only getting a grunt of acknowledgment and a, "How'd it go?"



"We have a 'date' Friday night. I got her address, so I don't know what they're going to do, spy a little more and then try to off the KG I'm guessing."



"You got a date? Didn't say she was blind." Charlie muttered, stopping his writing to proof read what he just wrote.



Monica's patience was so thin waiting on Friday, that it felt like it was Christmas when she sprung out of bed Friday morning. She needed to eat breakfast, and get a shower, brush her teeth, do her hair and make up, and a zillion other things. Would she have enough time before 6:30?



She stopped into the bathroom before almost running Ace over going through the kitchen door. "Sorry baby," Monica cooed, scratching her ear.

[Darkjak87]

Well...Today's the day, Zrion thought unhappily. He was of two minds about the whole ordeal. On one hand, like with all problems, Zrion felt an inclination to shoot Roman, preferably many times. However, unlike Metal Heads, Zrion couldn't just shoot Monica's boyfriend. She most likely wouldn't forgive him for it, no matter how many times he apologized or gave her money for shopping.

On the other hand though, Monica was growing up and developing as a person, something that he as a pseudo-father to her should be, and was, proud of. But Zrion didn't like change. He liked his scars, his aging-but-familiar weapons, and the young asexual version of Monica. Thus, his mind couldn't help but wander toward assassination plans.

Hmm, I could be subtle about it, Zrion considered. A bomb in his basement with a long-range detonator. Throw the switch while I'm here and Monica won't think it was me. Call it a terrorist attack. She'd believe that.

"Uh...That's your definition of 'subtle'?" Zephan asked from across the coffee table, giving Zrion a look.

Zrion blinked. "Did I say that out loud?"

Zephan rolled his eyes. "Yes, you did. And I heard the one about thermite five minutes ago too. You talk to yourself a lot, actually. Be thankful Monica wasn't here for it. If she was we'd be subjected to a cluster-teenage-drama bomb ourselves. Also, in case it has to be said, I do not in fact think that a bomb is subtle."

"Okay, maybe not," Zrion conceded. "Now, a few ounces of poison on the other hand..."

Uncertain if Zrion was being serious or not, Zephan wisely decided to back off and leave the weary soldier to his moderately-psychotic musings.

After a few more minutes, Zrion sighed. "Okay, am I being too hard about this? I know I should worry, but am I smothering her?"

"I can't even hear her words past the pillow on her face these days," Zephan deadpanned. "You aren't exactly giving her a lot of breathing room."

"I suppose I'm not," Zrion admitted. "But I already said she can go on the date."

"And you didn't even order the Second Echelon to spy on them," Zephan said. "Quite an improvement."

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up," Zrion grumbled. "When do you think she'll be ready anyway? She's been hogging the bathroom all day."

"Let's see," Zephan began. "Teenage girl, first date, overbearing father-figure, just went on a shopping trip...You might want to start building an outhouse."

Zrion groaned and sagged deeper into the couch. I almost prefer being shot at compared to this, he thought sadly.

[lawna]

Monica had just kind of assumed the men in the house would know better than to try to communicate with her until she was completely ready.



After her shower, and after her hair was dried, disaster struck. Why did her hair decide to curl in the back? It hadn't done that in months, perhaps a whole year, but on this day, it decided to be a Bad Hair Day.



While she internally cried about that, she looked at her face, and then her dress, and then her make up. She had decided she needed a 'look' for tonight. After starting over four times and a dozen wet wipes, her face was finally ready.



To get revenge on her hair, she plugged her flat iron in. She was going to look perfect, and this night was going to be perfect... If all the menfolk behaved.



Roman rolled over around noon. He had been living on Charlie's couch since his sister was killed. That was, he stayed there when it was convenient for both of them. Roman could stay in a Safe House for a couple of days, and did most of the time because of all the message running at night.



Once he stretched and opened his eyes, fully awake, he realized it was Friday, and he had something to do today...



'Oh, Monica,' he thought, finally remembering. He rubbed his hand over his face, and threw the blanket over the back of the couch. He had to eat something before his stomach ate itself.



Marcus rattled around his apartment for hours before finally not being able to stand it any more. His daughter was getting ready to go out with a boy, and he felt he had to witness the process, or at least get yelled at to leave her alone, as Zrion wasn't the hovering type, but Marcus sure was. He was half tempted to invite himself along. Perhaps make Monica order off the kid's menu.



He hated the fact she was growing up. She was almost as tall as he was, and all he wanted to do was put a cinder block on top of her head to keep her from growing any more. He also wished she was still eight, not almost eighteen.



He wondered about Monica's first choice in a potential boyfriend. Girl's seemed to have 'types', and if this guy wasn't the satisfactory 'type' right off the bat... It would be a long couple of years.



He managed to hold off until five before locking his apartment up and practically sprinting to Zrion's.



Once arriving on the block, he stopped to rearrange himself, and walked through the gate, and through the front door.



He found Zrion and Zephan sitting in the living room, Zrion slumped in the couch, his face expressing what Marcus was feeling on the inside.



"Hey," Marcus greeted, announcing his presents. "How's it going?"

[Darkjak87]

"About as well as you'd expect," Zrion said dully. "She's been in the bathroom for hours, and I don't think she'll emerge until Roman's knocking on the door."

Zrion then sat upright, a certain gleam in his eye. "Knocking on the door..." he repeated under his breath. "Pressure plate attached to a claymore..." he trailed off, apparently deep in thought.

Zephan sighed. "He's been doing this all day," he explained to Marcus. "I've learned that he can get very creative when conspiring. Word to the wise: you probably don't want to ever be involved in a prank war with Zrion."

"Well, it's better than what you're doing," Zrion said, glaring at the ottsel. "All you've been doing is laughing it up and stoking the fire. You just had to make a comment about crow's feet while she was in earshot."

Zephan snickered at the memory. "I still can't believe that worked. I mean, does she really think she'll have crow's feet at her age? Priceless."

"Hell is too good for you," Zrion growled. Zephan only smirked in response.

"Well, the various annoyances around here aside, how are you holding up?" he asked Marcus.

[lawna]

"Crow's feet? Really?" Marcus asked, with a laugh. "I'll send you the bill for her extensive therapy."

With the joke over, Marcus helped himself to the other end of the couch, holding back a sigh. "If sawing my left hand off would make her be seven again, I would be doing that." Marcus said, rubbing the hair that was standing up on the back of his neck. He then took a pause, finally going to voice what he was thinking about all day.

"I can't help but think Veronica would know what to do. She was the girl in the relationship, after all." Marcus paused, and wished he would have said that a little bit better. "All I know about this is that I remember Veronica's dad and brother scaring the ever living life out of me the first time I picked Veronica up. I have a Super Solider up my sleeve, I think I win, but... That helps Monica out zero."

That being said, he heard the bathroom door open, and Zrion and Marcus practically broke their necks trying to catch a glimpse of what they were letting walk out of the house.

Her hair was down her back, and it reminded Marcus of Veronica, even though her hair was dark like his. Her dress was blue, in his opinion too short, but not as bad as it could be. The hall light caused her necklace to sparkle. Her eyes really popped, the... eyeliner, that's what Monica called it. The eyeliner framed her eyes.

'Those better be what he pays attention too.' Marcus snarled to himself.

Roman spent must of his day getting lectured about how to conduct himself on this date. Oh, yeah, and he took a shower and put clean clothes on.

He was let loose when he could recite what he was supposed to get out of Monica forward and backwards, and he used the hours he had left to take a nap. Charlie shook him awake at six, and he washed his face and ran his hand through his hair before heading out to find this house.

The ironic thing was that it was the same street that Roman, his parents, and his sister lived on. Roman really missed his sister lately, probably because he was using Monica to get to a KG.

He came to the address he remembered Monica telling him, and whistled at how suburban it looked. Mr. KG was trying to be the normal man next door.

He slipped through the gate, climbed the steps of the front porch, and knocked on the door.

[Darkjak87]

Before Zrion could comment on Monica's appearance (and he had to admit, she had done a good job prettying herself up), a knock on the door caused him to snap his neck in the opposite direction.

"Well, it looks like the deceased, er, the date, is here," Zrion remarked.

"It's almost like you're not happy about it," Zephan commented, feigning surprise.

Zrion responded by flipping him off. "Well, I'm getting the door," he said quickly, since Monica seemed to be trapped somewhere between a paralyzing squee and paralyzing fear. "Besides, the hardass KG look might scare him out of trying anything."

He quickly ducked out of the room before Monica could throw anything at him, and proceeded to the front door. Zrion took a moment to put on his best "I-will-kill-you-at-the-slightest-opportunity" expression, and opened the door.

His first impression of Roman was that he was surprisingly tall, almost at eye level with Zrion. Before now, he'd been picturing Roman as being up to his chest at most, and in hindsight, wasn't sure why. He seemed to be groomed well enough, if a bit disheveled, but wasn't dressed nearly as well as Monica. He hoped that wouldn't make her too uncomfortable (or, if it did, enough to make her dump him immediately. Then everyone would be happy). Though, in fairness to Roman, Monica was a bit overdressed in the first place.

Roman's first reaction was shock, which quickly turned to anger, before his face went expressionless. It was a brief occurrence, but telling. So, not fond of Guards huh? Figures. I like this guy already, he thought dryly.

The next thing he noticed was that, to his surprise, Zrion could sense a faint spark of yellow eco within Roman. While in theory any ecoist could detect another with some concentration, there was a sort of 'kinship' with those who shared the same type that made it more readily noticeable. As a result, while Zrion picked up on it immediately, Zephan, Marcus, and Monica most likely wouldn't unless they were actually looking for it.

Hmm...It's not very potent, but it's there all right. Enough to be dangerous, he noted. He was immediately concerned for Monica, since all she needed was a boyfriend who was a walking weapon in his own right, but he managed to push his concerns aside once he recalled Zephan's lessons. Monica's green eco shield was now nearly as strong as his red eco shield, despite Zrion having a significant edge in raw power. If it came down to it, Zrion had to have faith that she could protect herself.

"Roman, I assume?" Zrion asked neutrally, his expression remaining hard. He certainly wasn't about to relax with a KG-hater about to take his daughter out on a date.

[lawna]

It took a lot of energy on Roman's part not to set the front porch on fire with a nervous fireball.



This man has been haunting Roman's dreams, been the main character of many unfortunate accidents Roman had arranged in his head, the victim of a vengeful murder. This man has been Roman's enemy since Arissa's death, and he was standing right before him.



He felt the emotion flash across his face, and cursed himself. He would have no need to feel that way, had he been a normal guy picking a girl up. He relaxed his face, trying to get a handle on himself.



That's when he felt the eco in the Guardsman, and Roman almost rolled back on his heels. It was so much stronger than his own, he was almost jealous. Very powerful. So, if being a Spec Ops KG wasn't enough, he also had very powerful yellow eco powers. Someone was going to have their hands full arranging his murder.



Roman finally looked him in the face when the guardsman said his name, and he figured this was a good spot to start over, throw some dirt over those awkward few seconds.



He mustered a smile, somewhere deep inside himself, since it made sick to look at this guy, and nodded. "Yes sir," he responded, trying to ease his jaw. "I'm here to pick up Monica."



When Zrion didn't back away from the door, and his knuckles started turning white on the door handle, so Monica decided she should probably step in. They wanted to meet him, but maybe he didn't even have to come inside, they could rush the introductions and then rush off.



Before she could wiggle her way into the group, her dad just had to chime in, "Let him in Zrion, let's all meet him." He was leaning on the wall of the foyer, close to where it opened up to the rest of the house, and Zephan was close by, surprisingly without a bucket of popcorn.



That caused Zrion to move out of the way, and Roman took a seemingly hesitant step in, but the smile he gave Monica made her smile back, even through the blush she had due to what she expected to happen.



"You look nice," Roman complimented. Monica smiled even more, teeth showing, but it was quickly squashed when her father left his position on the wall.



"Why thank you," Marcus proclaimed. "I just got a hair cut."



Monica rolled her eyes. He always had a joke.



"I'm Marcus Lorenzo," Marcus said, holding his hand out to shake Roman's. Roman had to make sure his wasn't hot with Yellow Eco before shaking Marcus'. "And this is my friend, James Zrion, Monica's godfather. Now, sir, where are you taking my daughter?"



Monica gave an impatient 'humpf', but just leaned her hip against the wall. This wasn't going to end until they got it out of their system. She then checked out of the conversation, until her name was said.



"What time are you supposed to be home?" Her father asked.



Monica's mind scrambled, trying to remember. "8:30?"



"Yes, very good, don't forget."



Marcus looked between them, probably trying to think of at least one more thing to say to delay them, and Zrion stood with arms crossed, looking like he was going to kill whoever came up with the concept of dating.



"I guess you are both free to go now." Marcus said. "But I am serious, 8:30."



"Thanks Dad, we appreciate it." Monica said sarcastically, but the feeling of dread was leaving her, and it was filling back up with the excitement she had felt all week. "I'll see you later."



Marcus held his arms out and Monica was embarrassed that he actually wanted her to hug him, but did it anyway, knowing not to take things for granted. She paused to squeeze Zrion, and he opened the door for them, Roman letting Monica through first.



They made it to the gate when Marcus called, "8:30!" at them again, and Monica raised her hand in a wave, actually stepping on the sidewalk beside Roman.



"Did his replies seem..." Marcus was searching for the right word. "Forced to you?"

[Darkjak87]

"Yeah, they did," Zrion said, sounding troubled. "I think he was tense because he hates Guards and knows I'm one of them. It makes me wonder if Monica really likes him or if she's just trying to spite me."
 
He sighed, running a hand through his crimson-edged hair. "I can't say I'm surprised though. The KG have had to do a lot of bad things to keep this city in one piece. We've had to crack down hard to prevent a civil war. If that happens, the city would fall apart and the Metal Heads would crush us while we're busy fighting each other. We can't let that happen, this place is humanity's last hope. Still...It's hard to sleep some nights."

"You're doing the right thing Zrion," Zephan assured him. "It might not be pleasant, but sometimes being a good person means doing a bad thing. You have to live with that, and the way you keep going in spite of that is...admirable," he finished, somewhat uncomfortably.

Zrion blinked. That actually sounded like a compliment. "Maybe," he answered grimly. "But I don't think that's much comfort to the ones that are already dead."

Suddenly, catching both Marcus and Zephan by surprise, Zrion drew himself up and smirked. "So, who votes that we grab some binoculars and spy on them all night?"

Zephan sighed. "Of course, Zrion. That will really make Monica appreciate you."

"She doesn't have to know!" Zrion said defensively. "Nobody expects a spy, that's the whole point."

"She's not a moron," Zephan retorted. "I made sure of that. I give it a 50/50 chance that she's going to be looking for your eco signature while she's out to make sure you aren't doing exactly what you're planning. She knows you too well."

Zrion slumped slightly in defeat. "Fine, no spying. But Roman's gone, so tell me where you hid all my guns!"

"I'm not telling you until Roman is gone for the night," Zephan said stubbornly. "I refuse to listen to Monica crying for the next three weeks because you murdered her boyfriend."

"It's not murder if he has a gun! That makes it self defense!" Zrion insisted.

"Self defense with an automatic weapon?"

"That just lets me defend more efficiently."

"It's called an assault rifle, not a defense rifle," Zephan said dryly.

Zrion threw up his arms in defeat. "Fine, if anyone needs me I'll be in the living room trying to pretend that Monica is still twelve years old." He stalked off, grumbling all the while.