Shackles of the Past

[lawna]

"If he doesn't deserve my help, then who does?" Monica snapped. "Certainly not you. You seem to be doing just fine: mowing people down, burning them when they're already out of the fight. You're insane, and not at all in a good way. If I can't heal him and he dies," Monica said, pointing back to Roman. "It will obviously be all your fault. Don't you dare try to stop me."

Roman thought he was going to die. He should have just shot the bastard instead of lunging at him, but Zrion had taken the last person he could think of as family in Charlie. If Roman had a personal vendetta against the Spec Ops commando, it would seem that Zrion returned the revenge-like urges with full vigor.

It was one thing to get shot in the leg or arm, which had happened to Roman before in some extremely violent scuffles. He had even been shot in the right shoulder before, and that was one of the most painful wounds he had ever suffered, until this.

But now, he was glad that he was starting to go into shock, because it was causing some of the pain to numb, especially his leg. His whole body was doing nothing but throbbing in a couple of different heart beat rhythms.

There was his actual heart, which was alternating between pumping rapidly, and barely thudding in his chest, causing it's own suicide as blood was freely flowing from his gut. Then, his torso itself didn't feel so good, as there was a foreign object lodged in it which had effectively blown his stomach open. Then his leg, whose smell was making his head spin, let alone the pain. Roman had burnt himself before, probably as every other yellow ecoist had, but no one could have ever accidentally given themselves this kind of self-inflicted wound.

And those were his thoughts, as he laid there thinking he was going to die all alone, when he heard Monica speak. He didn't catch the actual words that she said, just the fact that words seemed to be coming out of her mouth. He wondered what she was saying, when he suddenly remembered that this furious looking girl had the ability to heal.

It took more energy than Roman thought he could ever muster in his body to reach his hand out and touch Monica's bare ankle, almost in a gentle way.

When Monica felt the touch on her leg, she finally went to her knees next to Roman's injured body, and touched his forehead, hoping the heat of his skin would cool as she worked. She blamed his temperature on his flambéed leg, which was open to the air. His jean leg had fallen away, leaving scarlet, blistered skin to be exposed to the slightly cool, damp air of the house.

That was going to take a lot of time and energy to heal, but a gunshot wound always took precedent. When Zrion had come home with a 'minor' shot to the arm or shoulder, Monica was always the assistant, sometimes being promoted to co-surgeon, but she had never done something like this, start to finish, all by herself.

She tried not to sigh as she thought, 'Well, that ends now.'

[Darkjak87]

Zrion stared in shock as Monica condemned him, calling him insane, telling him it was all his fault. He still wasn't convinced he had been wrong by clearing the room; that was just basic military training. But her words dug up old wounds, doubts and guilt that had lingered in his mind for years now. It was enough to make him hesitate, long enough for Monica to remove Roman's shirt and start tending to his injury.

Zephan watched with a conflicted expression. He still believed that Monica was simply in shock, angry and lashing out at anyone and everyone, in addition to having serious emotional scars. Her attachment to her captors was unfortunate, but not necessarily unusual. And he did have to admit, while he may have had no sympathy for Roman, Zrion torturing a disabled and dying man purely out of spite was not something he approved of.

Monica then knelt down next to Roman, taking a shaky breath as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Zephan felt as much as saw when Monica summoned her powers, a soft green glow appearing around her hands as she pressed them to Roman's abdomen. His teacher's instinct kicked in, and he tapped into a small portion of his own power. It wasn't enough to make him start glowing, but he was able to piggyback on Monica's Green Eco feelers as she assessed the damage, in effect allowing him to see through her 'eyes'.

Monica's efforts were slightly rough, but would have been passable in most situations. However, she was nervous, uncertain, and it was affecting her performance. Worse still, Roman's stomach was probably ruptured, and that type of injury was extremely difficult to repair. If Zephan didn't step in, Roman would almost certainly die no matter what Monica did.

Whether the patient was a rebel or not, Zephan wasn't about to let his student do a shoddy job. With little hesitation, he walked forward and stood next to Monica. "Stop," he said commandingly.

Monica looked down at with him a furious look on her face, but her reply was forestalled when Zephan held up a hand. Angry as she was, Monica still had a hard time shaking off her learned instinct to not interrupt Zephan when he was lecturing her. "This is not a scrape or a bruise. It's a gunshot wound to the stomach. Frankly, you are out of your depth, and you need my help. I may not agree with what you're doing, but you're a healer, not a butcher."

Zephan closed his eyes and summoned his own power, his hands glowing softly as he pressed them to Roman's abdomen. "Firstly, the bullet has to be removed, but it must be done delicately. When the bullet comes to a stop inside your body, it can act as a plug against further blood loss. Furthermore, if you are careless, you can cause even more damage by pulling it out."

"Okay," Monica said hesitantly. "What about infection? Don't we have to worry about that?"

"Normally, that would be true," Zephan said, giving her an approving nod. "But bullets are different. They become so hot when fired that they're sterile by the time they reach the target. Infection would only be a risk if the wound were handled poorly or exposed to other contaminants, which isn't the case here."

Monica nodded, relief clear on her face. "What do you need me to do?" she asked. She was much more sure of herself now; the two of them had done this dance before, and Monica easily slipped back into her role as the healer's assistant.

"Stabilize him," Zephan said. "Use your Eco to keep his heart-rate steady. Slow it down if you can, to reduce the bleeding. I need time to work."

Monica immediately complied, extending a sliver of Green Eco into Roman's chest. Gradually, his breathing steadied, and the bleeding seemed to slow. "Okay, done," Monica said, all business. She was no longer a scared victim; she was a healer, and she was determined to save this man's life. It was enough to make Zephan feel a small measure of pride.

"Good. I'll start healing him now," Zephan said. "Watch while I do it. Link your Eco to Roman so you can see what I'm doing."

He felt it when she did so, her mental presence brushing against his. Once Monica was paying attention, Zephan concentrated and reached out with a delicate sliver of Green Eco. It sank into Roman's body, following the canal the bullet had left behind and giving Zephan feedback of the damage. He found the bullet a moment later, flattened against one of Roman's ribs near his back. That was fortunate; if it had fragmented the damage would have been much worse, and he'd have had to remove each piece individually.

Carefully, Zephan gripped it with a sliver of telekinesis and began to extract the bullet. Roman cried out in pain and started thrashing, but his limbs were quickly wrapped in Zephan's aura and held down. He could tell that Monica wanted to stop him, but she bit her lip and ignored Roman's cries, knowing that the pain was unavoidable. Slowly, Zephan removed the bullet, pulling it back out through the path it had carved through Roman's abdomen. After a few moments of careful work, Zephan held a flattened lump of lead in his hand. He gave it a cursory glance, then tossed it away.

He returned his focus to Roman's arteries, as blood loss was the most immediate threat to his life. The damage to them was relatively minor, which he knew simply because Roman was still alive. Zephan began repairing them one by one, putting a stop to the worst of the bleeding.

That done, Zephan began examining the rest of Roman's body. His stomach was punctured, and the acid that had been released had caused serious damage to his insides. Frowning, Zephan first repaired the stomach, then the rest of the organs one at a time. Once he had finished, he switched to the smaller blood vessels and other tissues, mending them as well.

Zephan was completely entranced, working with haste as he repaired Roman's body from the inside out. Soon, all that remained of the damage was the wide canal that the bullet had left behind. With another few seconds of thought, and a bright flare of Green Eco, the hole was filled in with new tissue. By the time Zephan allowed his Eco to fade away, there was no sign of the injury other than the dried blood that remained.

Zephan was clearly winded, the fur on his forehead matted with sweat as he panted softly. He turned his attention to Monica, who was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and gratitude. "His life is out of immediate danger," Zephan said tiredly. "He's still suffered moderate blood loss, but he'll recover with time."

He stepped back and gestured at the burn on Roman's right leg. It was quite severe, second-degree at the least, and covered most of his shin. "Burns are painful, and potentially deadly, but relatively simple to deal with. Zrion's intention was to cause pain, not death."

Zephan's tone wasn't accusative, just matter-of-fact. Nonetheless, Zrion couldn't help but look a bit guilty.

"You should remember how to treat burns," Zephan said. "Humans have three layers of skin. Begin with the lowest, and work your way up to the outer layer, repairing any blood vessels as you go."

[lawna]

Roman breathed somewhat forcefully, the procedure the Ottsel was preforming taking some of the pain away, but more still remained. Especially his leg, which, now that the distraction of his ruptured stomach was gone, hurt even more so.

But, Roman's eyes flitted after Monica as she moved from his side down toward the burnt leg and he hissed as the cool eco hit it. That shock didn't last long though, as soon his whole leg felt like it was emerged in a cool pool of water.

Then, he let his head roll to the side, and eyed the KG up and down. Then he rolled his head the other way, getting an eyeful of the stuff that had been in Charlie's head splattered up against the wall. Charlie himself was laying lifeless on the floor, and Roman sputtered as tears suddenly flooded his eyes.

His parents had left he and his sister alone, not caring if they were cold or scared or starving. Roman had vowed to do better for his sister, as his parents had refused to. He thought he was doing right by letting his sister stay in the safe house. He had put Larissa in danger, and she was dead. Now, Charlie was dead, the last thing he had to a family.

Roman wasn't going to let Zrion get away with this. He couldn't go unpunished for the things he did.

Suddenly, the cool pressure was gone and Monica seemed to slump from the tense frame she had been holding herself in. She stood up on slightly trembling legs, and offered her hand to Roman. He refused it, and struggled to his feet by himself.

The injuries themselves were gone, along with the pain it came coupled with, but he was still really weak. He didn't know what he would do, but he knew he had to do something.

"What has made you live with yourself this long?" Roman hissed, his abdominal muscles feeling nonexistent. "How can you stand being a mass murderer, hiding behind the mask of justice? There is nothing fair in what you did today, or ten years ago, when you slaughtered my little sister. Slaughtered her. A seven year old girl, a bullet ripping through her chest. Did you even blink?" He literally spit the last phrase out, saliva hitting the concrete floor.

[Darkjak87]

As Roman's words sank in, Zrion involuntarily lost himself in his memories.

"Men, make no mistake. This is an extermination."

"I had orders," Zrion said. It sounded hollow, even to him.

Several bodies would have been heard hitting the ground had it not been for the overwhelming noise. The assault team stormed into the building without hesitation, gunning down anything that moved.

"Those people chose to take up arms against us. Against the common good. We had no choice."

Their judgement would be decisive, not selective.

"Everyone in that building was a rebel. A criminal." His words were toneless, as if read from a script without enthusiasm. They were his own feeble excuses, the same ones he had been using to allay his conscience for over a decade now.

A sobbing woman was cowering in the corner, curled into a ball. Upon closer inspection he could see a young child, a girl, held in her grasp. His breath caught in his throat, as the scene finally impressed upon him what they were doing. He raised his rifle threateningly, finger twitching on the trigger, but could not bring himself to complete the action. Even he could not murder a woman and her daughter like this.

"I didn't have a choice," Zrion said. His voice was barely above a whisper now. His eyes were closed tightly, his expression set in a grimace as he fought against his rebellious thoughts. He wasn't sure who he was trying to convince anymore.

He could have left them there. They would not have escaped, but their blood would not be on his hands. And he almost did, but in the end, the choice was clear. Orders were orders.

Zrion pulled the trigger, and the woman cried out as the bullets tore into her, before they were ended abruptly by a final round piercing her skull. The least he could do was kill her quickly. The little girl screamed, and Zrion turned to aim at her, before his eyes widened and his heart seemed to stop.

"In the end, there was nothing I could have done," Zrion said solemnly. "Even if I hadn't fired... They would have been shot by someone else." It was becoming clear to him now—Roman had not blamed him, not specifically. He needed a focus for his rage, his hatred, and Zrion had been a convenient target. A face for a faceless enemy.

The commandos held a loose perimeter around the building. Mangled bodies were being hauled outside and tossed into a raging bonfire. Zrion had thrown his helmet aside, disgusted by what it represented for the first time ever. Eventually, he felt eyes on him and his head snapped up. His eyes met those of a young boy, watching from the other end of the street. His expression was one of horror, as if his entire life was being destroyed before his eyes. In a moment of clarity, Zrion realized that it probably was.

The boy's expression turned to that of recognition, and then fury as the two stared each other down. Technically, Zrion should have shot him, since the area was under lockdown. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, or even reach for his weapon. After a few moments, the boy broke eye contact and ran, disappearing into the night.

Zrion realized it now. "That was you," he said to Roman. "You were that little boy, weren't you?"

[lawna]

Roman shook his head, teeth grinding. "I didn't think you saw me." He admitted.

The commander's words had been hollow, almost monotone. They lacked remorse, or any kind of emotion.

"It's pathetic, how you can still make excuses, when I was there. Right there. You had orders, you didn't have a choice, you couldn't have done anything. Everyone was a criminal? What had Larissa ever done?!" Roman shouted, almost involuntarily taking a step forward. His heart was pounding again, yellow eco threatening to burst from his body. "How could a seven year old be a threat? You aren't anything but a coward, hiding behind your excuses."

Monica felt bad for Zrion in that moment, agreeing with what Roman was saying. She had always associated all the great qualities and attributes she could think of with Zrion, and he was being stripped of them right in front of her eyes.

"You've always taught me what was right and wrong Zrion." Monica started, and then faltered. She still couldn't believe this was happening, maybe there was a possibility this could still be a dream.

However, she rubbed her tongue over the empty space her teeth had once occupied, and the possibility that any of the situation was fake left as fast as it had come. She also glanced around at the dead men around her. Finally, she looked back up, into Zrion's face. "This doesn't make you any better than a Metal Head."

[Darkjak87]

Zrion felt his feeble defenses crumbling under Roman's assault, as he threw the excuses, the flimsy justifications back in his face. Zrion had always known they were weak, but at least he hadn't tried to tear them down himself, if only for his own sanity. Roman had no such compunction.

But it only truly sank in at Monica's words. "This doesn't make you any better than a Metal Head." Upon hearing them, Zrion literally recoiled as if he'd been slapped, disbelief on his face. It quickly became an expression of despair at Monica's hardened expression. Her words hadn't been spontaneous; she had meant what she said, and she didn't regret saying it. Beaten, battered, and abused as she was, she was still on Roman's side. What did it say about Zrion when Monica saw Roman as the moral high ground?

However, Zephan had finally had enough. "That is out of line," he said angrily, causing everyone to look at him. "How dare you compare him to a Metal Head? A mindless monster that lives for nothing but slaughter? Would a Metal Head have saved you? Fed you? Held you after you were woken by your nightmares?"

Zephan shook his head. "No one is perfect, and Zrion would be the first to admit it, but he always tried to do right by you. Yes, he has done bad things, but does that truly mean that all the good he's done is irrelevant? You said it yourself. Zrion always taught you what was right and wrong. Do you really think that this is what's right?"

[lawna]

Monica shook her head. "None of this is right. People killing each other isn't right, period. The policy of an eye for an eye is dead for a reason. Besides..." She backed up from where she stood, leaning on the desk for support. "Like you always thought Zephan. He didn't save me because I was Monica, because I was anything special. I was a symbol. Whenever he felt bad, he used me to puff himself up. One right does not cancel out a wrong. And Zrion's wrong scale is tipping itself over."

Roman kept himself from whistling at the sting Monica's words must have delivered. The girl had the commando practically bending over in pain.

"And there's a plenty just like him. Pathetic cowards, crawling around in their black armor, playing soldier. Too spineless to stand for what is right."

Monica heaved a breath in and out, finding Roman's statement odd. At any prior time, Zrion could have said that about the Underground.

[Darkjak87]

Like flipping a switch, Roman's words caused Zrion to straighten his back, his expression of stunned disbelief replaced with a mask of cold fury. One fist clenched at his side, while the other hand rested on the grip of his pistol as he fixed Roman with a glare that could have drilled through steel.

"You son of a bitch," Zrion growled. "Who the hell are you to call us cowards? You, who kidnapped a little girl and sent your buddies after me because you didn't have the balls to slit my throat yourself."

Zrion's shoulders began shaking with rage. "And too spineless to stand up for what's right? You don't know the first fucking thing about standing up for what's right. We spent a decade out in the Wasteland, dying by the thousands to protect people like you." He jabbed a finger at Roman. "Ungrateful shits like you, who only have the right to live because of us, and our reward is to get murdered in our sleep."

His gaze suddenly turned toward Monica. "Saving people like her, who couldn't help themselves." He looked back at Roman. "You're spitting on everything I fought for, everything we fought for. We put our lives on the line for this city, ready to sacrifice ourselves for the cause. And a lot of us had to do just that."

He took a threatening step forward, squaring his shoulders and staring into Roman's eyes. "You can stand there and call me a monster all day. But think very carefully before you call me a coward. I might just decide to prove you wrong."

[lawna]

"You think you can throw threats at me?" Roman asked, almost calmly.

However, the sudden surge in Roman's eco that even Monica could feel was not in the least bit calm. The bolt that came out of Roman's hand made Monica turn her head and fear for her eyesight, as the bolt seemed thousands of times brighter than the sun.

She fell back against the desk again, face in the crook of her elbow, and she never wanted to look up to see the damage Roman's fury had caused.

[Darkjak87]

Zrion was not expecting Roman to attack him, but to his credit he reacted quickly. He immediately leapt back, but Roman was too close and the bolt struck him squarely in the chest. He hissed in pain as his armor heated up and cracked under the intense heat, but fortunately it held. If it hadn't been for the insulation layer between his skin and the outer ceramic, it would have boiled his skin away. As it was, he was left with some rather painful blisters.

"Monica, get down!" Zephan shouted. Before she could reply, an emerald dome of Green Eco flared into existence between the two of them and the unfolding battle.

Zrion them paid no mind as he snarled in anger. His body suddenly erupted with a massive aura of Yellow Eco, making him appear almost as if he were on fire as he raised his arm to retaliate. A gout of flame erupted from his palm, aimed directly at Roman who currently looked just as furious as him.