Chapter Text
"You all want a southside gang experience? I will fucking give you a Southside gang experience." Chem's eyebrows narrowed and his emotionless face shifted to a sudden rage. He pulled out a class 1 from the back and reloaded. "Kaiba. Leave the fucking room."
Ray felt like the ground under his feet was turning into quicksand and he was drowing, suffocating helplessly. He took a second to realize what happened. "CHEM STOP!" He grabbed Chem by his wrist and took the gun from his hand. "Why the fuck are you pointing a gun? Don't you dare hurt anyone in this room, you fucking idiot."
"This is what he wants, Ray."
"Are you listening? He said he's leaving the gang, motherfucker. I'm NOT letting him leave."
Ray sighed looking at the man walk out of the room. Everyone ran after Kaiba, leaving the leader and the second in command standing in front of the RUST flag. He slowly took a step back.
"We can't force him to be in the gang. Let him go." Chem was visibly irritated and frustrated, the sudden burst of rage had left some bitter and painful wrinkles on his forehead.
"Okay but. We- we need Kaiba." Ray knew it was a weak protest, but he valued what Kaiba brought to the gang. He really did, and that's why it was a difficult pill to digest.
"We'll manage."
Chem dropped his shoulders and glanced at the door. From the window, Ray watched Kaiba hop in his Aventador and leave the compound. The rest of the members gathered around the parking lot, confusion and shock visible in their movements. His vision blurred, a tear rolled down his cheek, and his legs felt too weak to hold the weight of what just happened.
An hour back he had felt a similar urge to cry, but he couldn't. The classic RUST meetings often ended up being a four hour long pointless discussion. He was expecting one of those meetings when he heard Wren wanted to talk. When he showed up to the Rogers, his whole gang was standing there waiting for him.
When Wren declared that he wanted to leave the gang and join Redline, no one was really surprised. Sad, of course. But not shocked. They had seen it coming, ever since they found out Wren had stopped calling any of the RUST members and he had been spending his time with Redline. Ray and Meelo were the ones who introduced Wren to Redline and since then, Wren had distanced himself from RUST.
Ray and Chem were not disappointed. They understood. They understood how Wren didn't enjoy the gang shit and he always wanted to be in a racing crew. Holding him back was going to be pointless. And hence, they let him go. A hug and a goodbye smile later, a shitshow started.
"If anyone has any complaints about our leadership, now is the time to speak up, my friends. No one is leaving this room until you guys speak up and we solve our internal issues." And oh boy did they have complaints!
The complaints turned into accusations and the accusations turned into arguments. The collective decibels of the room exponentially increased. Ray tried his best to keep the calm. Whenever he looked at Chem, the frustration was clear and loud on his face. Ray felt the urge to punch someone in the face atleast seven times. The classic RUST meeting.
"I can not handle this anymore. I'm done. I'm leaving." Kaiba announced crossing his hands.
"What do you mean leaving? You started this, Kaiba."
"I'm leaving the gang. I can't do this gang shit when none of you can take it seriously."
Everyone froze in the moment when Kaiba turned around and started walking towards the door. Chem pulled out a gun and ordered him to stop. Ray replayed the whole scene in his head multiple times. The view outside the window blurred and he felt a sharp bitter sting in his guts. "I failed!" He whispered.
Ray walked down the stairs and joined the group in the parking lot. With a hazy glare, he observed the crowd, his own gang, looking at him as if they just saw a ghost.
Leadership was one thing he had learned from THE Lang Buddha. No one taught him, he just observed Lang and noted down the pointers. He considered himself lucky that he was close to a lot of powerful men in the city, all thanks to Buddha. He learnt a lot about gang life from Speedy, his constant support. He mastered all the skills he could. He was a good shooter, a good driver, a decent hacker, a lone wolf with a whole gang on his back. And none of it seemed to matter right now.
Lang told him to make his own crew when he complained about not having the boys around, and he did. He made his own heist crew, his second family, that eventually became a southside gang. None of them knew how gangs work, but they just said 'Fuck it we ball' and jumped into the ring to make a place for themselves. Hackers, drivers, racers, drug connects, gun connects, shooters, planners, they had everything. When people laughed at him for making a gang out of a bunch of no-ones , he kept his hopes and his head up. He had faith, the only thing that kept him going.
After all these months, they had reputation and a strong turf and wars to fight. Whenever he asked for any help, his gang was there for him. Whenver he asked someone new to join the gang, they all welcomed the new members. Then why the hell did they shut up when he asked if there were any issues, any problems in the gang? Ray was smart enough to know that this was not a sudden storm. This must have been brewing for a long long time, and today was the last stroke. How the hell did he not have a single clue?
They all stood there quietly for a moment, probably they were waiting for Ray to speak up. Ray could see they all had so many questions, complaints, and suggestions too, but none of them opened their mouth. No one said a word. This was familiar, this was how their 4hr meetings ended.
He finally gathered his thoughts to make a coherent sentence. "If any of you want to leave too, now is the time. You may leave. I don't want you to be suffocated by me or Chem or any other RUST member. It's not healthy for our gang. You can leave if you want. I won't hold any grudges."
No one moved a single muscle. Ray expected an answer, or even a protest. But not even a single nod, or even a sigh. They all stood there like a lifeless mannequin. He looked at Chem, and he was the only one who seemed to be in his senses. Chem rubbed his temples and sighed. Ray knew he could trust chem with internal conflicts, he was the second-in-command for a reason.
"At least say a no, you dumbfucks!" Angry Chem was scary. "Ray, I can't deal with this. You can't be this soft, Ray, you're a fucking gang leader. You HAVE to tell them to grow up and deal with it if you want this ego-fiesta to function."
The whole situation had hit Ray in his guts like a bullet. He was not really ready to face his own people. He gave one last glance to the glorious cumstack and turned around to unlock his car.
He pushed himself on the couch and took a sip from the bottle of vodka. He hadn't eaten much for the whole day so his stomach burned and a shiver passed through his body. This was going to be a terrible mistake, but he had survived even bigger mistakes. It's just the vodka, an old companion.
When he woke up next afternoon feeling like shit, it disheartened him that the series of unfortunate events, unfortunately, wasn't a dream. The proof, an outgoing call of 3minutes 26seconds to Kaiba and an advertisement for a freelance hacker on yellowpages.