Chapter Text
Bam woke up to the sound of a cannon ripping through the sky. He rolled over to stare out the window, taking care not to disturb Khun. The sky coming through the window was indigo, dark yet bright, the color that buffered in between night and day.
The sound rang out again, this time syncopated with a revolting and desperate wail. It warbled into something so raw and painful Bam felt it shear against his eardrums. He clutched his bedsheets closer about him. In all his muted years living in the C.A.V.E., he had never heard anything so tragic.
"Bam?"
He flipped back around to see Khun observing him.
"Mr. Khun, what was that sound just now?"
Khun glanced upwards towards the window. The gauzy curtains rustled endlessly, as if they were pushed by the escalating sounds of shouts and sirens outside.
"You mean the gunshots?"
Khun sighed as Bam cocked his head to the side. There was only one way to introduce the concept. Slowly, he slipped two fingers underneath his pillow to withdraw the angled, matte silhouette of a pistol.
"Bam, do you know what this is?" He asked this with a pointed tone as he sat up.
"No...a hard thing to sleep upon?"
Khun only smiled ruefully.
"Sure."
Bam reached out towards the pistol, his innocence in plain view with the way he palmed the barrel. Two seconds would have been all it would have taken to punch a hole through his hand.
"This is a gun."
Bam shuddered. The fingers that had coiled around the grip and grazed the trigger suddenly slackened. The gun fell to the mattress, abandoned.
"Good. So you know it's dangerous."
"You sleep on that?" Bam repeated himself in a dry whisper. Khun only nodded.
"That's what caused the sound out there."
Khun dropped back on his side again and deposited the pistol back under the pillow.
Bam laid down hesitantly. "Why? What do you think happened out there?"
"Violence, Bam."
"Violence over what?"
Hierarchy. Power. Ideals. These were the answers that were at the tip of his tongue. Khun wondered why he could not say them and why they seemed fleeced of all worth when he looked into Bam's guileless face.
"Nothing, Bam. I hope one day you can go beyond this world's hierarchy."
"Don't be so cryptic, Mr. Khun."
"Then don't think about it and go to sleep."
When Bam had succumbed to sleep once more, Khun reached for the pistol. He rotated the gun within his palms, appraising its leaden weight and the deep void of the bullet barrel. Slowly, he pulled his hands into formation around the handle, aimed towards the ceiling, and slipped a finger around the trigger.
Like this, he mutely pantomimed the process to fire a gun ten times.
He had brought Bam to the gun range and into his stained world. Now he had to keep him out of the crossfire.
The next day, Khun led Bam down to the lobby again, where they found the rest of the team playing cards.
"Hello, patron. How was your stay at Khun's Bed and Breakfast?"
Shibisu greeted them from across the room as he shuffled a deck. The cards looked like a blurry accordion in between his hands, flying first right-to-left and then left-to-right. He began to sloppily deal them out.
"What Bed and Breakfast? There is no breakfast." Hatz nodded by way of hello.
"Well Khun's not really known for hospitality." Endorsi winked towards Bam as he approached.
"You know what? Now that I think about it, I don't even know if Bam got a bed. Khun's got two, but there were three people in total…"
Shibisu wagged an eyebrow suggestively.
"I didn't mind sharing at all!"
Shibisu outright guffawed as he began to deftly fling cards in their direction. "There we go. He said it. They slept together."
"Wait what?" Bam cried, more alarmed by guffawing than the insinuation.
Khun rolled his eyes and declined to say anything. Instead he tidied the mess of cards before him into a thin slice and stalked towards Shibisu. He was still laughing when Khun leaned against the back of the sofa he had been sitting on and looped an elbow around his throat. The edge of the cards were pressed against his throat, with full intent to slit.
"Okay, Khun my love, I'm sorry," Shibisu squeaked.
Hatz nonchalantly grabbed the deck to continue dealing.
"You hungry? The vending machine has some nutrition bars and shrink-wrapped sandwiches. They're probably expired but still good."
"His breakfast is right here." Anaak used her tail to bat him his rations. Bam caught the crumpled strudel, heartily accepting it even though it was wilting in plastic wrap.
Endorsi piped up. "Okay obviously, nobody around here knows anything about hospitality. Bam's a growing boy, he needs more than this instant crap."
"Tough luck." Anaak shrugged. Endorsi clucked her tongue and put her cards down. She leaned over to pluck the soggy rations out of Bam's hands and slid him the plate of microwaved omelette that had been sitting in front of Shibisu. Shibisu, still within Khun's chokehold, was too busy gasping for air to protest.
She raised a spoon of runny egg and undated green onion up to Bam, intending to feed him.
"Bam, last night I gave it some thought and I changed my mind."
Bam took the spoon from her to feed himself. "Changed your mind about what?"
She pouted. "I've decided that you can come with me to the courthouse today."
"Oh...! Thanks for offering! What for?"
"Endorsi," Hatz cut in with a sigh. "You can't just bring random people or whoever you like into the courthouse like that. It's sentencing day."
"She just wants some arm candy for the cameras when she walks in."
She ignored Hatz and Anaak. "What do you say? I'll let you meet Rachel."
Bam inhaled sharply. Endorsi smiled. Hook, line, and sinker.
"I'll go." There was a tungsten edge in Bam's voice that was not there before. "I'll be there."
"Sounds good."
Bam turned to Khun. "Mr. Khun will you come?"
Shibisu wagged his finger at Bam, jest alive in his manner even though his face was as purple as his tracksuit. "What's with the 'mister'! Drop the formalities! We're all just Regulars here."
Khun folded his arms around his chest, finally releasing Shibisu. "No, I think I'll come along later. Once I take care of some business."
"Sure." Bam smiled. The smile was incandescent yet distant, directed towards Khun, yet not for him. It tied knots around Khun's heart, and he did not want to think about why.
Though they had arrived at the courthouse early, a crowd of reporters had already assembled. They flanked the left and right of the marbled staircase leading up to the building entrance, like twin hedges of human shrubbery, flowering with DSLR cameras.
"There's so many people! Are they all for you, Endorsi?" Bam exclaimed.
"Yes, Bam. They're for me." Endorsi hopped out of the car on the other side, clutching the door Hatz held out for balance as her kitten heels found purchase on the pavement.
Bam held up the back of his hand over his eyes against the incessant camera flashes splintered at his vision.
"Don't worry. You're a nobody to the papers, so they won't print you." Endorsi sounded very cavalier as she strode forward. Together with Hatz, Bam trailed a few paces behind her to stay outside the frame of cameras
"Are there usually this many reporters?"
Hatz shrugged. "Yes, well, it's also sentencing day. Today, the case of Michelle Light vs. Jyu Viole Grace comes to a close. You know Michelle Light as Rachel."
"Michelle Light as Rachel...Hatz, how did that happen? How did Endorsi come to represent Rachel?"
"Rachel is her charity case for the year. Endorsi sometimes does these because she's under the public eye a lot as someone in contention to be Jahad's attorney general. This case has flown relatively low on the press radar, but it actually has some potential to be a landmark one."
"Why is that?" Bam scanned the dense corral of reporters to their left and right. He could not understand how this could be considered light media attention.
"This is the first time the city of Jahad is trying an absentee defendant."
"Absentee? Who is Rachel fighting against then?"
Hatz' gaze slid over to meet Bam's. "This long-lost Viole Grace guy. For what reason? I don't know. No one really knows. I don't think Endorsi even really gets Rachel's intentions, but Rachel must have had some deep connections to have gotten Endorsi pulled on as attorney. Endorsi got the jury on her side within two days. Rachel barely had to say anything before they pronounced Viole Grace guilty."
Viole Grace. Something resonated within him at the sound of that name.
"We'll hear his sentence today." Hatz concluded as they passed through a set of rotating glass doors. They entered a lobby built of pink-veined marble. The veins confluenced at the farthest wall from them, where an effigy of Jahad was erected. At various positions around the room, small beams of marble created trellises for three-eyed security cameras.
"The marble looks alive." Bam commented, taking in the way the veins pulsed asynchronously with light.
Hatz hummed. Khun had reluctantly pulled him aside that morning to explain how little Bam knew of the city lore. "Those channels in the building ferry data. That light is data, the lifeblood of our city. It's how Jahad has its eyes on us and maintains order."
"I see…" As he studied the highways of light running through the wall, he abruptly noticed that Endorsi was long gone. "Hey, where did Endorsi go?"
A worker passed by and caught the question. "She's gone to meet Rachel in private."
"I see." Hatz squared on Bam. "Do you want to go see Rachel now?"
"But they are meeting in private, right? I can wait and give them their space." Hatz nodded in approval.
"Also Hatz, are you sure it's okay that you're with me instead of Endorsi? You're her security detail after all."
For the first time, Bam saw a smile flicker across Hatz' face. "She's strong enough to handle herself. I trust her."
One reporter broke away from the pack long before the rest of them dispersed. She scrubbed through her shots, all of which centered upon the boy lagging behind Endorsi Jahad rather than the celebrity herself.
She opened up her group channel for FUG and attached a few shots to her message.
11:23 am This is Jyu Viole Grace, the one with the marigold eyes. He is our savior.
11:24 am But before that he will be our target.
The replies came almost reflexively.
11:24 am Got it.
11:24 am Understood, Hwaryun .
She took the steps up to the courthouse leisurely, one at a time, taking care not to disturb the powders and concentrate neatly buckled into her suitcase.
Metal-free, she breezed through security easily and had her contraption planted before noon.
The court was to convene at one o'clock.
The bomb would detonate at one o'two.
"You!"
Bam and Hatz looked up from where they had been waiting on a granite bench. A lady stared down at them, dressed in a scarlet pantsuit with a three-eyed lacquer brooch pinned over her heart. A dwarfish man waited behind her.
She had been pointing and addressing Bam, but Hatz replied instead. "You're Yuri Jahad."
"Yes, I am." The smile on her face was big and lopsided.
"What business do you two have with us?" Bam gaze skittered back and forth between Hatz and Yuri. Hatz was acting different; he addressed her warily and with a skim amount of respect that was still more than he showed anybody else.
"Plenty of business." Yuri said. Bam jolted as she dropped down before him to grab his chin. She tilted his face this way and then that way, upwards and then from side to side. Her fingers traced his jaw and trailed down to his collarbones before they finally dramatically latched upon his wrist.
"Aha! There's my Black March." She rotated the bracelet on his wrist until its inset obsidian faced her. "I see. I had a hunch that she liked her owners handsome."
Bam flushed a little at the compliment. Hatz watched from the sidelines, keeping his surprise in check.
"Tell me exactly what you, a Jahad councilwoman, want with Bam."
Yuri released Bam's wrist, and immediately Bam attempted to pull the Black March off of it. She held up a hand to stop him.
"Bam, is it? Save it. You've worn her, so you've contracted with her. The Black March will be your server from here on out, and you will be her client."
The dwarfish man, who had been primly watching, suddenly started. "Yuri Jahad! You've got to be kidding me! You're giving him one of the Thirteen? Why did you send it off in the first place?"
"Calm yourself Evan. I sent it off to do a bit of research."
"Yuri, that's one of the city's access tokens! What do you mean by a 'bit' of research? You of all people know what Jahad decreed! You can't be digging too deep--!"
"I know. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. The Black March was being a bit too precocious with me, so I thought I'd give her an impossible task." She licked her lips, amused. "And yet she boomeranged this adorable boy back to me as her answer. Tell me, have you initialized her yet?"
But Bam was not listening. His gaze was leashed to someone behind Yuri, who was surreptitiously trying to roll past their party in a wheelchair.
His companions turned to appraise what had caused a lapse in Bam's attention: a homely girl, dressed in a grey turtleneck and a pair of charcoal slacks. She looked nondescript and somewhat dull, like pyrite just off the mark of gold.
But Bam's eyes seemed to cry eureka .
"Rachel!" His voice came out in a quiver just loud enough for her to hear him. Slowly and with friction, her wheels reversed to turn towards Bam.
Her gaze alighted first on Bam and then Yuri. Something amorphous took shape in her expression. For a moment, all the shadows in her face united into something stony and ugly.
Bam could not see any of this. He lightly shoved Yuri aside to call out to her."Wait, Rachel! It's you right--Rachel!"
Rachel pushed her wheels forward with undeniable violence. She rolled into the first open door she came to and knocked the door shut with her back wheel. Bam and company could hear the latch of the lock loud and clear from across the hallway.
Yuri was the first to speak. "What just happened?"
"I…don't know." Bam spoke, deflated.
Yuri patted his shoulder as she concurrently exchanged a look with Evan. There was something off about that girl.
12:55 pm. -- seven minutes to detonation.
Khun found Bam inside the gallery of the courtroom, sitting on a pew alongside his new companions. To his credit, he did not even bat an eyelash at the presence of a councilwoman and civic assistant. He thought to ask about them, but all his thoughts disintegrated the moment he noticed how sunken Bam looked.
"What did you two do--what happened to him?" Khun rounded on Hatz, immediately incensed.
"You prick, I didn't do anything. Ask him."
"It's true, Mr. Khun. Nothing happened. I just...I met Rachel."
"And?"
Bam hung his head, and Hatz replied for him. "She looked at him like he was nothing."
Khun wordlessly took in the situation. So it was Rachel who had made Bam look and sound so hollow.
"Maybe she was being like that because this is a serious day for her. Seeing you probably didn't help the nerves." Khun rationalized in Rachel's defense, if only for Bam's sake.
"Ah! Maybe." It was worth it to see Bam brighten a little.
The atmosphere in the room bristled as the judge appeared. Pew after pew hushed as he strode by leisurely with a manner that was simultaneously jovial and serious.
Yuri nudged an elbow into Bam's ribs. "Judge Leroro has arrived. We're about to get started."
He nodded as Leroro convened the room to order.
"Welcome to the sentencing day."
"Today we have gathered to hear the case of Michelle Light v. Ryu Viole Grace.
"Due to the unusual circumstances of these proceedings, today's process will be expedited. In our last session, we found Ryu Viole Grace guilty on the count of aggravated assault.
"The jury and court have been able to examine exhibits demonstrating the extent of her injuries. Attacked by her business partner in the privacy of their store, she stated how she was thrown against hard electronics until her spine was fractured. The court can all see how she has since lost the ability to move.
"I am now to read the defendant's sentence after describing what terms will be awarded to the plaintiff, Ms. Light. As Mr. Jyu Viole Grace, possesses little to no assets, he can only default on these reparation payments to Ms. Light. Thus the court has settled that the transfer of custodial accounts from Mr. Grace to Ms. Light will be sufficient recompense. As Mr. Grace is a minor, the contents of these accounts have not been examined in the court of law. Nonetheless, they will be Ms. Light's once Mr. Grace turns eighteen."
"By my decree, this settlement shall now be in effect."
"Bam, didn't the V in your C.A.V.E.'s name stand for Viole?" Khun turned to look at Bam, who was frozen with shock. His eyes glazed over as he pored through his memories, trying to make Rachel's narrative add up in his head. But no such violence had ever taken place at C.A.V.E.
One o'two.
Suddenly, the petrified amber of his eyes melted into a reflection of ash and flame.
"KHUN, watch out!"
A shockwave fractured the pews they sat on. Its aftershocks centrifuged the electronics and granite of the room, splintering them into uneven bits of shrapnel. Khun's elbows instinctively flew up to protect his head. Shards of granite stabbed the backs of his hands before they could sink into his temples.
Fractured tiles embedded his hands and forearms like so until they became chipped mosaics. He breathed in and out, swallowing as sawdust and ash coated his throat.
He only noticed the arms encircling his shoulders when the worst of the blast had died down. The arms barricaded his heart and ribcage, spots he had left open as he sheltered his head.
His eyes shot open, but he hardly noticed how much the smog made them sting. "Bam!"
An ashen face tepidly smiled up at him. "Khun…"
Khun wrapped his arms around Bam's back and felt wildly for injury. They had similarly splintered arms, though Bam's were worse for wear. It was Bam's back, however, that made Khun stop cold.
In the small of Bam's back, shrapnel impaled and erupted out of the skin like stalagmite, sharp and cruel.
"Why...how did this have happened?" He did not know why he asked. He pieced it together immediately after. Bam had instinctively thrown himself over Khun to shelter him, a human shield against the detonation.
Somewhere off in the distance, he could hear Yuri's furious voice. "What the hell happened?"
"Bam." Khun shook Bam. "Hey, Bam. Stay with me." Please . He had not thought or said that word in years. Asking, begging, pleading was doublethink to him, and yet all he could think was --damn it, please .
"Khun." Bam did not seem to have enough energy to say his usual overpolite formalities. His eyes were fluttered open and close, like an indicator for his state of consciousness.
Khun shook him harder.
"Why did you protect me, Bam? We've known each other for a matter of days..."
Bam slumped against Khun like a ragdoll and collapsed his head onto Khun's shoulder. His hair was suffocating in dust, grey where it should have been midnight brown.
A tear trailed down Khun's cheek and into his lips. It tasted like brine and ash.
Bam stirred one last time before conceding his consciousness.
"Because you're a good guy, Khun."