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Sevika glanced down into the endless stairways, the shadows that hung down and over. Bits of light clung to peaks, and a sniff confirmed her suspicion. There was the sharp stench of sweat and grime. A tinge of alcohol. Whether it was from patching someone up or for drinking, she couldn't say.
She sighed. Why she was bothering, she had no idea.
Fetching a toy for the new tag-a-long? At this point in her career? A quick grumble escaped her lips. She stomped down the steps, disgruntled. Her height and weight would at least give her some leeway down here. It counted for a lot in the Undercity but here especially. Might makes right, they always said. Frankly, Sevika didn't care if she was right.
She cared about follow-through. She cared for an even hand and an even mind.
“Shit, Sevika,” muttered some friend of a former associate. “You still come to these things?”
“When I have a reason,” she muttered, deciding not to get into it. Best not to shake the rat's nest. She didn't want them all scurrying out. Not yet.
She pushed ahead and shoved her way into the crowd. Her eyes sought out a familiar build. Wiry figure, bad posture, pink hair. Her mouth twisted when all she saw was the same as usual.
When an announcer's voice rang out, her ears were listening in on the periphery. She tried to filter through the noise to find the necessary syllables. She needed a lead more than anything else.
“What even happened to Silco, anyhows?” The voice was shrill, rough with drink or maybe something else. Not a pretty voice, that one.
“Dead, or worse than dead,” came the reply.
“Heh,” then, when Sevika thought it was done, the exchange continued.
“Good riddance.” Sevika's eyes narrowed.
And finally, “think I could find him? Kick the corpse around for a minute?”
Sevika kept her eyes away from the source of the conversation. It was for the best that pest Jinx didn't come with. She would have had the mother of all tantrums. The kid steadied her at times, but that didn't mean she was any different than who she was. Who she always was. Sevika scanned the outskirts, looking for those coming in and out.A bell rung, someone hopped into the ring. Wrong height, wrong frame. Vi, Vi, Vi, she smirked. Always making it tough with your disappearing acts, huh? Some things never changed.
A big muscled guy covered in bruises pushed his way past some guy, who was knocked into her. She ignored the nervous, apologetic sound and focused her attention on the large man. Her line of sight caught his leaving through another door. Slowly, she weaved through the crowd. A faint bit of light framed the doorway, and she assumed it was no exit.
The edges of the crowd were getting restless. One shouted for the fight onstage to show more blood. Another threw his skewer of food – from the street market, she guessed – into the air, to fall and disappear into the crowd. Cursing, shouting, and then the sound of fists hitting flesh. Sevika felt herself pushed into the back wall. A few feet from the door, she slid her way closer.
She tried the knob. Locked. Thankfully, it was one of the older models, and her lockpicks were always handy.
She crouched down, sliding her tools out discreetly. Another one knocked into her. She grumbled under her breath. She couldn't even hear herself over the crowd. From what she could tell, one of the fighters got in a good strike, from the cheers of the crowd. She took an elbow to the ribs. The pick nearly snapped, and she was half-tempted to get tangled up in a fistfight of her own but no. She sighed, deep, rattling her insides.
She needed to focus. She narrowed her attention on the lock in front of her. Even hand and even mind. Nothing else. Her pick slid into place, and she found a divot that seemed promising. Just as she was about to get it open, the door swung inward.
“Sevika.”
And there she was. As soon as she got close, too. Sevika rose to tower over her. “Miss me?”
“No,” her eyes caked in grime and soot, maybe warpaint too. Underneath, there was a spark. Deep underneath. She turned on her heel and went back inside, into the glow of better lighting and the stench of disinfectant.
Sevika shrugged and followed her in. “Feeling's mutual.”
She shut the door behind her, and she heard it lock with a click. “I see you're hard at work,” Sevika continued.
“And what're you doing these days, huh?” Vi shot back, sitting herself down at a bench. She grabbed a towel that looked nearly half-clean and rubbed at a spot on her neck. She looked tired and rundown, she looked angry, but she looked alive. Still couldn't believe it. She thought she'd be knocked down in some alley by now.
She wondered what she'd tell Jinx. What would that psycho even believe? She wondered if she could make up some story and make it convincing enough. “I'm getting by.”
“Right,” Vi scoffed, half muffled by her rubbing the towel around.
A moment of quiet, as Sevika took in the locker room. Or rather, it was a room with some lockers in it. There was a rusted sink and a mirror. Some benches. She wondered how good the water was, if it was even drinkable. They said the topsiders had unlimited running water, pure enough that it didn't need diluting or boiling. Even bathing had the good stuff.
Some people had all the luck.
“I need to find where you and your sister lived before.”
“Fat chance,” Vi answered. “Fuck off.”
All the luck, but no common sense.
“It's not for anything with Silco,” she said.
“Yeah,” and a breath of anxious laughter followed. “Yeah, I know.” She watched her hand grip the underside of the bench.
“It's-” She wasn't sure how to put it. Either she tried to intimidate her, which wasn't going to work, or she brought up Jinx, which also wasn't going to work. “It's for a kid.”
Her brows raised. “Don't tell me you're a mother now,” she said, a question in it. At least the surprise of it brought her guard down.
“No, call it work. I'm supposed to get some supplies, some shit for a kid,” she said. “And I know Vander had that spot protected when he was still running things. It wouldn't be picked clean.”
“Back then, yeah.” Then, Vi brushed her dark oilslick hair out of her face. There were hints of the brat Sevika remembered. It was papered over with this pathetic brooding display. “What's it mean to you?” Sevika met her gaze. “Really?”
“Really?” Sevika rolled her eyes.
Vi set out some small cups of water, dimmed with dust or debris. Sevika drank it, a familiar sharp tang. She could taste the mingling with heavy metals.
“I want to know.” Her brows knit, eyes staring out. Her voice bordered on fragile. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me everything, her eyes seemed to say. Maybe sisters had some psychic bond, and Vi knew it on a cosmic level that Jinx was involved. Or maybe she just knew she was still alive out there. Continuing to cause chaos just as usual.
Did she want Sevika to assure her of Jinx's soon-to-be demise? Or was Vi hoping to carry that out herself?
Sevika thought of her own shit. Families, friends, bosses, false ties and false promises. Another sip of the water. She looked out over the room, thinking of how small and cold it was. How many walked in and out of here? How many left alive, rather than on the way to an early grave? Or with that Shimmer injected into them? Finally, she set it down and crossed her arms over her chest.
“No,” Sevika said. “You do not.”
“I'm not stupid, you know,” she said.
She could say it a million times. It didn't make it true.
Sevika got up from her seat. This was pointless. She'd just have to find another way. Worst case scenario, they would find what they needed somewhere else. Jinx owed her for this. “I'll leave you to your – whatever the fuck this is.” She didn't want to call it a job. It was one, but, to Vi, it was more than that and less than that all at once.
She was running away from something and in the process running into something. She wasn't going to stick around to see the inevitable fallout from her life choices. That seemed to be a running theme with them. Brats, the both of them. Explosions and chaos and lives lost.
Was that why Sevika was still around? To clean up their messes?
Vi's jaw was working, and her eyes shone. “Don't.” Her voice broke.
Sevika finished her cup and set it down.
“Don't leave,” Vi said again, cradling her other arm. She looked restless. Wired up. She didn't even take any Shimmer.
Why, she wanted to ask. There was no reason to stay, other than this brat asking her. No money in it, unless she wanted to take the stage. No worth in it, when they'd just shove each other away again. It was like circling a drain waiting to sink down already. The cycle continued.
“You say it like I even have a choice,” and Sevika threaded her fingers through her hair as she turned away. At least Sevika was clean. She didn't have much, but she'd been able to live semi-comfortably. Even with everything that happened to Silco. Even with hanging around Jinx. Vi, on the other hand... She looked like a bad fight away from rotting in some sewer.
“You had choices,” Vi reminded her. “You just always chose to make the worst ones.”
As if Vi made better choices, and the thought nearly made Sevika laugh. But she stomped it down deep. It would have been needlessly cruel to voice it. It would have been like drowning a mangy stray. Vi was all muscle and bruises and pain now - putting aside the sad look in her eyes. Maybe she was just a stray, pleading with friendly faces to take her in.
Sevika was never the friendliest face.
But, as she went to the doorway, she paused. “I'll-” She swallowed. “I'll come back tomorrow night, you fucking brat.”
“Like I care.” Her voice was acid.
Sevika rolled her eyes. Idiot just told her to stay, and that's how she reacts. “Yeah, yeah,” Sevika grumbled under her breath.
Then, more quietly, she told Sevika, “See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” and she felt as though she had to force out every syllable. She opened the door and left to go back into the crowd. She heard yelling, some jeering, nothing special. Sevika had no idea why she even bothered with this. There were more important things for her to be doing.
Just then, another wave of chaos. The announcer cried out a winner, and the crowd reacted in kind. Excitement thundered throughout the room. Sevika just got to the steps when they announced the next match. Getting to the third or fourth step, she caught the familiar face, just as she took the stage. Then, she saw her opponent.
Sevika swallowed down bile as she turned to finally leave. She'd see her tomorrow, if she lived to see tomorrow.
Maybe some people were just gluttons for punishment. Not Sevika, of course. She wasn't brought that low yet.