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[msskagpocalypse]

Since finding herself a somewhat alternative form of employment as a lab rat - before reverting back to her former fighting, stealing and screwing job - Lilith has found herself in receipt of a large amount of cash. When you've bought all the guns and eyeliner a girl could want and you find yourself in some really bizarre excuse of a bar where you'

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[brainventilator]

Mordecai isn't one to give her a medal for anything, but he has to admit that she's come a long way from some teenage girl drinking more than she can handle. Well, she has and she hasn't, in different ways.

"Looks like somebody's having some fun by herself," he remarks, his feet propped up on a nearby table as he picks his teeth clean. "Special occasion, or...?"

[msskagpocalypse]

"Day that ends in Y." The words roll automatically off her tongue before she even turns to look at him. She'd know that voice anywhere. It's the voice of her past, deeper and more cultured, but still familiar.

"No rest for the wicked." She tips her glass at him.

[brainventilator]

Typical answer from her. Some things never change, even when they do.

"That what you're calling yourself now? 'Wicked'?" He cocks an eyebrow from beneath his mask, only visible by the slight crinkling of leather and the shifting of his goggles. He's use the same word to describe himself, of course, but that's not the point.

"You must be pretty good at this 'wicked' thing to afford all this."

[msskagpocalypse]

You know what they say. The more things change the more they stay the damn same.

"If the boot fits --" Steal it from the store and wear it. "Hey, being a human lab rat has it's perks." There's a brief pause during which Lilith's alcohol brain tries to connect the dots and finally realises what she's just said.

Shit

[brainventilator]

Mordecai barely had two dots to go on until just now, but the strange things he saw her do, the eerie look in her eyes...well, let's just say the girl he knew couldn't turn invisible or explode. Not to his knowledge anyways.

"That what you've been up to?" His tone isn't quite cold, but it's hardly an invitation to laugh and pat each other on the back. "Being a guinea pig? That's the big amazing future you went off adventuring for?"

He isn't sure if he's more hurt or disappointed.

[msskagpocalypse]

"None of your damn business." She's said it before and she'll say it again. She's not fifteen years old anymore. He can't tell her what to do, who not to sleep with, where to go.

He can't tell her what weapons manufacturing giant to get experimented on by.

"I had no fucking idea what they were going to do."

[brainventilator]

He never could tell her about any of those things. She made that clear then, just as she's making it clear now. Mordecai can do whatever he wants with himself, but when it comes to Lilith?

Back off.

"But you got paid for it." He's not one to judge when it comes to taking money for less-than-honorable deeds. He's simply noticing and making a statement. "What'd they do to you?"

[msskagpocalypse]

"I don't know." There's a tension in her voice that has little to do with anger. It sounds suspiciously like fear. But that's not possible, right?

No point in telling Mordecai she tried to back out. No point in telling him just how fucking terrifying the whole ordeal was. He hears exactly what he wants to hear.

Lilith deserved whatever the hell she got.

[brainventilator]

He's always heard what he wanted to hear. Sometimes that was a good thing, back when they were close. These days it's rarely anything but trouble, either for him or for somebody nearby.

"You planning on asking them?" His feet are planted firmly on the floor as he leans forward, his fingers drumming against the barrel of the pistol on the table.

"Or did you guys part ways in a less-than-ideal situation?"

[msskagpocalypse]

She taps the seat across from her and tilts her head at it, an invitation to join her. She doesn't want half the bar hearing this conversation.

"You try to cage a wild animal, you get bit." Is the only answer she gives.

[brainventilator]

He suspects that half the bar isn't very interested in their conversation, and the other half is probably not even aware they exist. Nevertheless, Mordecai shifts out of his seat and moves closer to her, laying his weapon on her table as he sits once more.

"You made that clear when we were kids. I'm pretty sure I still have bite marks from all the times we wrestled and you fought dirty."

That's how he remembers it anyways. Those childhood, far-off memories can sometimes get mixed up over time. Still, he's sure he'd never bite a lady. Or Lilith. Not even if she wanted him to.

[msskagpocalypse]

"I fought to win." She flashes her teeth at him before taking a long swig from the bottle of Firewhiskey. Not for the first time that night it set her choking. She can hold her liquor, but this stuff is something else alright.

"What are you getting at, Mord? I know you're dying to ask."

All of her seedy past, exactly what's wrong with her eyes. He's too damn nosy for his own good and she doesn't mind half as much as she pretends to.

[brainventilator]

"I want to know what the hell happened to you, Lily." He leans in close, taking the bottle from her hand and keeping a firm grip on it as he continues. "I get that you wanted to do your own thing, I get that Hera was too small-time for you. I get that."

He didn't understand for a long long time why she left. Maybe he knows better know, maybe he just thinks he does. "I want to know who the fuck you signed up with to change you like this. And I want to know what the fuck else changed."

She seems like herself, talks like herself and walks like herself and acts like herself. But when he looks into her eyes, there's a different person staring back at him, and when he watched her fight...well, it wasn't natural, and it wasn't Lily.

[msskagpocalypse]

"I grew up." There's no point in going over and over what made her leave. He's never going to be less bitter about that. She shakes her head, eyes flicking to the bottle in his hand.

"Have a drink, you'll need it."

[brainventilator]

It takes a long time to get over a betrayal that deep and a grudge this stubborn. Mordecai takes her advice nonetheless, tipping his head back and almost choking on the liquid fire that burns his throat. Coughing, he hands it back to her.

"Tell me," he says again between bouts of coughing. "Just tell me what the fuck happened."

[msskagpocalypse]

"Atlas. Field-testing some new weapon." She gets the word out through gritted teeth, clenching and un-clenching her fist; she half expects to see a purple glow erupt from beneath her skin...just one more way to destroy everything.

"Never knew I'd be the weapon. Figured it was easy money."