Chapter Text
Well, huh, so this is it? After two months of fighting we all made it through, alive and well. From European assholes and glorified pimps, through emo hackers and steroid-pumped wrestlers, all the way to a fuckin’ task force with a sole purpose to fight against gang activity with their space-age shit… It has been a pretty rough couple of weeks.
Now, it was time to leave this shithole of a city and go home to Stilwater. It was strange to for once be considered a hero by everyone after saving the monument dedicated to the Steelport’s founder, Joe Magarac. Maybe it was finally time for Saints to become something else? Retire this old, patched up pimp cane and do something along the lines what the original Third Street Saints stood for, and not greed powered terrorist. Tickets for the next flight back to the Stilwater have already been booked, is it time to disband the game? Or maybe give it a new purpose it at least?
The first next flight to Stilwater is at 4 in the morning, which means, alongside the delays, they’d be in Stilwater by 8am. Getting through security would take 2 minutes thanks to their dedication to the job, and about 20 minutes’ drive to the home, a 10 minute warm shower to take off the stench of Steelport off his skin and several more minutes to unpack and get cozy. That would be 10 a.m. is a perfect time for a meeting.
Ryan opened his contacts tab, and started looking for the right contact. He smiled, looking at all the new numbers he got in Steelport. Angel, Zimos, Kinzie; God is he ever again going to even dial one of these numbers? Finally, after scrolling down through most of the list, he found the contact he was looking for; Troy Bradshaw, he pressed ‘Dial’. “Hey Chief, long time no see… I am doing good, what about you?” Ryan started off with some small catching up chatter, after all, that was his former boss he was about to ask the favor of. “Look, Chief, I had this idea that I wanted to run by you, nothing illegal. Would you be free for a meeting tomorrow at 10 a.m.?”
The meeting was set, all that’s left now is to say good-bye to the Steelport crew and start packing for the trip back to Stilwater, but knowing the crew, it won’t be that simple. Pierce would definitely want a good-bye party organized in the penthouse, so it would seem he won’t be getting the 6-hour beauty sleep. But let’s face it, when was the last time he did have a peaceful 6 hours of undisturbed sleep. It seems like again, it all falls in Shaundi’s hands and she’ll be left again waking them all up at 3:30 in the morning, if they even get any sleep.
Back at the penthouse, some of the members have already started partying, taking shots and playing Beer Pong. The Boss wasn’t really in the partying mood after all the shit that went down in the city, but what the hell, not everyone is like him and most of these kids will really benefit from a small celebration after such a huge battle today. Most of them are lucky that they get to see a sunset tonight which was a milestone.
Pierce has started doing some real great work on setting up for this party. He really got a hang of this whole organizing thing he had going in the recent few years, which filled Ryan with pride. Booze was there, hard liquor was ready, best drugs in the city got put aside for it and even a few of the prettier strippers in the city. Who knows, maybe this time Ryan won’t be going directly to bed after his speech?
“Boss, you comin’ or what?”
“Yeah Pierce, I am, I am” He put on his party shirt, which was really only thinner than his regular sweater he’d wear. Still depressingly black, he doesn’t own a lot of shirts in color, he didn’t feel like wearing anything flashy.
Ryan walked out of his room in the penthouse onto the balcony of crib. And he leaned onto the fence, standing in a way to protect people from falling off. As he did, all the music started getting quieter, and so did the chatters from all the guests at the party. They stopped what they were doing, and out of the sudden all the eyes were focused on Ryan, waiting for him to speak.
“Well, Saints, after two months, we finally made it.” Ryan began his speech “We lost our best friend, Gat, and after two months of hard work from everyone in this room, we made those motherfuckers that killed him pay for what they did. And now, their precious little palace is ours.” The crowd of Saints cheered, a lot of ‘fuck yeah!’, and ‘whoo!’ were heard from the first floor. The Boss raised his arm, as the indication that he wasn’t finished yet with the speech. “Tonight, let’s enjoy ourselves; a celebration to our victory. This our city now,” He paused, then smirked “We do whatever the fuck we wanna do.” Ryan said, and the crowd started cheering, with a lot of whistles coming from individuals. This was the moment of pride; an accomplishment. Johnny Gat didn’t come back, but at least he could rest in peace knowing that his friends avenged him.
After the speech was done, Pierce handed a glass of rum, one ice, to the leader of the Saints, just the way he liked it “Nice speech, Boss. Here yo’ go.” Pierce said and smiled at him, to which Ryan took gladly and replied: “Thank you, Pierce. You did good” That was all Pierce wanted to hear Boss say, he likes it when he is appreciated for his hard work. Ryan patted Pierce’s shoulder, and continued to walk right past him and head towards the bar. He took a sip of the drink pierce handed. He felt a burning sweetness on his tongue from it. Perfect, just the way he likes it. When he reached the bar, he saw Shaundi sitting there, all alone.
Ryan sat down next to Shaundi and spoke to the bartender “One Rutherford Beer, cold.” As the bartender turned, he turned his head to Shaundi and talked to so. “We did it, we avenged Gat.” Shaundi was however sorrow, she felt like the Saints did not quite accomplish the mission like they should have. Killbane escaped from the city, he’s still alive somewhere out there, and same goes for Cyrus Temple. He’s just and spoiled and dirty player as Killbane is, and she believe they shouldn’t be partying, but hunting them down.
“You should’ve gone after Killbane…” She said, in a cold, dead tone.
“Maybe…” Ryan replied, then paused to thank the bartender for bringing him the beer. “But I didn’t.” He took the sip of his beer “And you know why? I lost Vince several years ago… A couple months ago, Johnny died too. I wasn’t going to let that whore from STAG take you too.”
“But now, Johnny can’t rest yet, and we’re throwing another fuckin’ party.”
“I know, but our work here is done. Killbane and Cyrus ran away, there’s no point in staying here anymore.” He paused, took another sip from the beer and Shaundi looked at him, not feeling like partying “You know how I hate parties; you remember that from back in the day. The only reason I agreed to this is to give the kids some teambuilding and motivation. We’ll forget about them anyway if they don’t come back with us-”
“But we shouldn’t do that, we should group up and go after those two assholes.”
“Shaundi…” Ryan stopped her, looked her in her brown eyes and put his arm on top of her shoulder “Do you trust me?”
“I- What?”
“Do you trust me?”
“I do, Boss… That’s why I am here.”
“Well, I kind of got a big plan on how we’re gonna hunt down and put a bullet in both of their skulls.”
“Oh? And how do you mean to do that? By letting the crew party them to death?” Shaundi said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Ryan smiled, and then replied “I have still to figure out few logistics. But trust me, you’ll love it? We’ll talk more about it in Stilwater?”
“Fine. More about it in Stilwater.” Shaundi took a shot of her tequila. “But you know, I still won’t rest until Killbane pays for running Johnny’s funeral. Not until his memory is honored.”
Ryan paused for a second, looking back at his two drinks; a glass of rum, his favorite, and a bottle of cold Rutherford brand beer. “Did I ever tell you what I do to honor Vincent’s memory?”
“What?”
“You see, every time I accomplish something, mostly in the name of the gang, or something I know he’d be proud of, I go into a bar, and have his favorite drink along mine.” He played with the label of the beer bottle, as he looked at it fondly and told the story “In a way, it reminds how proud he’d be of me right now. It reminds me of the good old days when we would chat and go out on a beer after a stressful day, or an accomplishment. It feels like his spirit is still with me, being my guardian angel” He finished it up, and looked back into Shaundi. “Anyway, I think you should try this with Gat.”
“Yeah, that kinda sounds stupid.”
“Just try it, it will make you feel a bit better. Maybe say something you didn’t get to say to him before he left us?”
She sighed and rolled her eyes “Fiiine.” Shaundi signaled the bartender “Hey, could you get me one Rutherford beer please? Room temperature.” Gat always loved his beer at the room temperature. When the bartender brought her the she raised the bottle and looked at it. Her eyes started getting teary.
“Johnny… Hey… I am sorry I was there looking behind your back. I should’ve been there, protecting you, making sure Loren died on that plane. I probably disappointed you but…” A single tear dropped from her eye “This is stupid…”
“No, no!” Ryan replied “Keep going, you were doing great!”
She wiped the tear with her wrist, and with a half-broken voice, she continued “I am sorry I disappointed you. If I maybe took your word that I won’t always have a gun with me more seriously, maybe you would’ve made it out alive…” She stopped, and tried to calm those tears down. After around 15 seconds of silence, “I really wish you were here right now, just to have a beer with me, call me kid, make a joke at my expense, have me say fuck you to it… I miss you, and I love you. I’d do anything to have you actually drink beer with me right now…”
“Now, take a sip” Ryan interrupted, he felt like it was time for to wrap it up, before declaring it useless.
She followed as instructed, she closed her eye, and remembered Gat. Not for his faith, like she couldn’t stop thinking for two months already, but from all their fond moments between the last few years. Their first beer together, when he hit that hobo while she was high, him teaching her self-defense takedown… All those wonderful memories just came back to her. It was truly a wonderful moment, finally, Gat wasn’t a victim in her mind, he was a friend she’ll always have fond memories of.
She swallowed, and opened her eyes. With a calm, yet quiet voice, she said “Wow… I can’t believe that actually worked.” She has a soft smile on her face “Thank you, Ryan.”
Ryan got up from his chair, and smiled again, he rubbed her shoulder soft with his palm “You’re welcome, Shaundi. I am glad I could help.” He patted it twice “Have fun tonight”, and left to see if any other lost soul needs a chat in this crib.
He needed the full strength and focus of his team if he was going to pull his plan off. He has to convince Troy it’s going to work with it. Saints are powerful, but they aren’t stable. Nobody will respect them like that, no matter how Ryan felt about them. He needed powerful warriors, and not people that hate themselves and regret everything. He needs the best of the best.