Challenge table fic: Tangible, 24/30: Underground (R)
Headers in part 1
24. Underground
Carrying Glitch’s bag as well as his own, lighter now without the blanket he’d sacrificed for a greater good, Cain walked outside to secure the parcels to the horse they would be sharing for the ride home. It would take most of the day to get back to the palace in Central and he was anxious to get on the road home.
He hesitated for a moment when he saw Zero already with the horses, the soldier tying his own pack down securely. They made eye contact briefly then went on with their tasks.
The Tin Man broke the silence with the question that had kept him awake most of the night. “Did you kill Adora?”
Zero paled at the direct inquiry but his answer was firm. “No.”
Cain clenched his jaw. “Then what happened to my family?”
“I don’t know all the details,” Zero snarled at him, jerking roughly on the rope he was knotting. “After we locked you up, we took them to Central, stuck them in a hostel with the rest of the women and children of resistance fighters we’d caught. They tend to disappear after that, it’s not our job to keep track of ‘em.
“Probably headed underground, got involved with the resistance themselves from there. Next time I found them was in a cabin. Locked up your boy but the woman was already dead. Found the grave marker with her name carved in it.”
Wyatt was disappointed and unsettled by the lack of answers, but knew that was all he would get out of Zero. His eyes stung at the thought of his wife dying without him there to protect her, or ease her pain.
And he marveled at his own willingness to do it all again, to start a life with someone new, a man he was drawn to unerringly.
The two men finished their preparations in uneasy silence.
next
24. Underground
Carrying Glitch’s bag as well as his own, lighter now without the blanket he’d sacrificed for a greater good, Cain walked outside to secure the parcels to the horse they would be sharing for the ride home. It would take most of the day to get back to the palace in Central and he was anxious to get on the road home.
He hesitated for a moment when he saw Zero already with the horses, the soldier tying his own pack down securely. They made eye contact briefly then went on with their tasks.
The Tin Man broke the silence with the question that had kept him awake most of the night. “Did you kill Adora?”
Zero paled at the direct inquiry but his answer was firm. “No.”
Cain clenched his jaw. “Then what happened to my family?”
“I don’t know all the details,” Zero snarled at him, jerking roughly on the rope he was knotting. “After we locked you up, we took them to Central, stuck them in a hostel with the rest of the women and children of resistance fighters we’d caught. They tend to disappear after that, it’s not our job to keep track of ‘em.
“Probably headed underground, got involved with the resistance themselves from there. Next time I found them was in a cabin. Locked up your boy but the woman was already dead. Found the grave marker with her name carved in it.”
Wyatt was disappointed and unsettled by the lack of answers, but knew that was all he would get out of Zero. His eyes stung at the thought of his wife dying without him there to protect her, or ease her pain.
And he marveled at his own willingness to do it all again, to start a life with someone new, a man he was drawn to unerringly.
The two men finished their preparations in uneasy silence.
next