Fic: Darkest Before Dawn (8/?)
Title: Darkest Before Dawn (8/?)
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: War Boys/Capable, War Boys/Toast, War Boys/Cheedo, Nux/Capable, Slit/Toast, Morsov/Cheedo, The Dag/Cheedo
Word Count: ?
Summary: AU. The escape fails and Immortan Joe punishes the Five Wives by giving Capable, Toast, and Cheedo to the Citadel's War Boys. In the aftermath, Capable tries to induce Lima Syndrome in the War Boys, Morsov begins to understand the horror of what he's done, and Toast is just angry.
Warnings: Non-con, gang rape, forced pregnancy, knifeplay, Lima Syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome
Toast XIV
When he’d seized her in front of other people yesterday and whispered in her ear where he was going to be today, she’d punched him for it. But now Toast found herself feeling antsy enough to seek Slit out. Just like he’d said, this tunnel was empty. It appeared to be a dead end, but when she reached him, she realized there was a short ladder and a sturdy-looking metal hatch in the ceiling.
“Does that lead outside?” she asked.
He pulled her against him and tried to kiss her.
Toast smacked his shoulder. “Answer me.”
“Yeah, I suppose. I’ve never seen it open. Immortan had it built when I was a pup just in case.”
“Speaking of pups, yours is kicking me kami-crazy.”
He laid his palm flat on her swollen belly and appeared delighted to feel the baby kicking her. “Shine!”
That, as well as the feel of his arm around her, seemed to settle or satisfy something inside her. She felt calmer and almost contented in a way that she knew was totally false and yet felt real. She also didn’t feel particularly in the mood for sex.
“That was it,” she said, reluctantly pulling away from him. “That’s all. I’m not in the mood for sex of any kind.”
He pulled her back against him and held her tight. “Alright. But stay and keep me company. It’s so fucking boring having guard duty here.”
Toast didn’t believe it at first. He’d accepted that there would be no sex and he was not only not upset, he still wanted her company? It was too good to be true. But moments passed and he made no move to touch her sexually. She could lose herself in his arms if she let herself. But Toast refused to do that. She struggled until he released her.
“Your Immortan says I’m a breeder, but you want to know something? He hardly ever did any breeding with me. Most of the time, he shoved his cock where there could never be a baby, where he would just get off while causing me pain.”
Slit looked shocked.
Toast slapped him. “Guess I’m not a bad breeder when I’m actually bred, right?”
She’d cut her hair this morning. The memory of what it felt like when Immortan Joe held her hair while he raped her, how he liked to pull her hair while he fucked her from behind, had resurfaced vividly and she hadn’t been able to get it out of her head.
“You are the shiniest and most chrome of breeders,” he said. He dropped to his knees. “And your pup will be the healthiest and most shine pup.”
Stupid battle fodder. Joe’s mindless cannon fodder. But for one desperate moment, Toast wanted to pretend he wasn’t, that he was the strong warrior he looked like, that he was the sort of man whose child she would be happy to bear. She hated that she was crying.
“Please don’t cry,” he said.
She hadn’t thought the word ‘please’ was part of his vocabulary, but it wasn’t the first time he’d surprised her. Probably why she kept fucking him.
“And what if this baby dies before it’s born or it’s born dead? Or it’s not even human? What will you think of me then?”
“It happens.”
“What?” She was beyond surprised, she was shocked.
“Babies die or get so you wish they’d died all the time. Not your fault or mine. Immortan’s had plenty of babies die before they were born, and he has Corpus, that useless smeg.”
It was true, and more truth than Toast had thought a War Boy could recognize. She sank to her knees and let Slit wrap himself around her. It felt good if she could only stop thinking.
Toast was in a much better state of mind when she returned to the Blood Shed, only for the Organic Mechanic to inform her that Joe had summoned him and she was coming with him.
Immortan Joe frowned when he saw her, and Toast realized he hadn’t ordered her presence or expected it, that the Organic Mechanic had brought her along for his own amusement. If only she had a gun and she could put a few bullets in them both.
“How long before the breeder Capable can breed another pup?”
“There was no tearing and she’s recovering well. It should be safe to resume breeding her in five or ten days. But the chances of conception are reduced while she’s breastfeeding.”
Joe nodded. “All the more reason to take the pup from her. The milkers can nurse him, and she will put her energy to better use breeding another pup.”
“The Boys won’t like losing their pup, Immortan,” the Prime Imperator said.
“My Boys will be happy to sire more pups for me.”
They were going to take Capable’s baby away from her, and hers too when it was born and Cheedo’s as well. They were going to be used as breeders in the truest and worst way and never be allowed to be mothers.
Toast wanted to scream. She wanted to tell Joe what a disgusting monster he was. She wanted to kill him. But she kept quiet, too afraid that he would find some additional way to punish her for any open defiance.
“You want to tell Capable the good news or should I?” the Organic Mechanic asked once they were out of Joe’s presence. He sounded sadistically delighted.
Toast couldn’t even form an insult to spit at him. She stumbled away and found a dark corner and allowed herself to cry freely. She wasn’t sure how long she was there. Every time the tears stopped and she thought she had control of herself, she broke down again.
“What’s the matter, Toast?” she heard a young male voice ask.
Toast quickly wiped away her tears and turned to see a very young War Boy whose name she didn’t know standing there. He looked concerned.
“Nothing more than usual,” she replied, before walking away.
He must have hurried off to inform the other War Boys that he’d seen her crying because only a couple of minutes later Throttle caught up to her.
“Heard you were crying,” he said.
Crying was seen as weakness and regarded with contempt, especially by War Boys like him and Slit. Yet he didn’t seem disgusted. He looked worried. He liked her because he thought she was strong and tough, so maybe to him her crying portended a catastrophic disaster for the whole Citadel and the world as he knew it.
Would he or any other War Boy care that their children were taken away if it meant they got to make more? Joe thought they wouldn’t, that they would feel and think whatever he told them to. Before the failed escape or even a hundred days ago, Toast would have thought he was right, that his War Boys were mere puppets he controlled.
Somehow, though, she’d developed a desperate hope that Joe was as wrong about his Boys as he was about practically everything else. A foolish desperate hope.
When she didn’t reply, Throttle touched her face almost tentatively, as if he wasn’t even sure how to touch someone gently or comfort them. But he was trying, so Toast let him. It was shocking, especially since he’d never gotten what she’d given Slit and there should have been nothing to evoke tenderness from him.
“They’re our children. Ours. He has no right to take them from us.”
Throttle frowned. “No one’s taking our pups.”
“Immortan Joe is.”
He gave her a look of incomprehension.
“He’ll take them and keep them away for hundreds and hundreds of days, and when you see them again, you won’t even know which are your children and which children came from the Wretched.”
“The Immortan wouldn’t do that.”
“He will, you’ll see.”
Capable XVII
It’d been hours since the Organic Mechanic gleefully informed her that she had five more days with her baby and then he’d be taken away and she’d have to begin trying to conceive another baby. She’d begged, and promised that she’d breed with every single War Boy in one day if he let her keep Sunny, but he’d only laughed and said Joe had made the decision.
Capable had been sitting here ever since, trying desperately to think of some way to change Joe’s mind. Perhaps if she begged to be allowed to conceive his offspring… But no, even if he agreed, he wouldn’t reward her efforts until after she’d produced a child for him and then only if the child was healthy and male.
A pair of War Boys came to sit beside her. One of them stroked the top of Sunny’s head and the other kissed the soles of his tiny feet.
“That’s a good name you gave him, Capable. He’s as shiny as the sun.”
“What’s the matter? You look sad.”
“Is it Sunny? Is something the matter with our pup?” He looked very worried.
The other War Boy was alarmed too. They thought of Sunny as theirs even though neither of these two particular War Boys could have fathered him. His skin would have been darker if Pierce had fathered him, and Sprockets was part of the war rig crew and had raped Cheedo, not her, the day of Fury Road. But they considered her baby theirs anyway because War Boys weren’t used to having anything as individuals.
Even the things they scavenged and seized in the wasteland were considered property of Immortan Joe, and his imperators allotted things to them on his behalf. They knew that their very lives belonged to him, too, and they considered it an honor and a privilege.
“Nothing’s the matter with my baby.”
She wanted to tell them what Joe planned and beg them to demand to keep Sunny, but she knew better. All Joe had to do was appear in person and they would gladly hand their baby over to him and believe it was an honor to have him take him. She didn’t tell them because they wouldn’t do anything to stop it and it’d only make her hate them.
“Is it you? Are you okay?”
“No.”
“Organic,” one of the two shouted.
But before she could explain that she wasn’t that kind of not-okay, several Pups ran into the Blood Shed shouting for the Organic Mechanic. Their words didn’t make sense at first.
“Immortan’s been shot! The Ace shot the Immortan!”
The Organic Mechanic ran, and Capable ran behind him, clutching her baby. She had to see for herself. She prayed silently for it to be true.
It was chaos. War Pups and War Boys were praying loudly, and Rictus Erectus was wailing.
“Organic, do something,” the Prime Imperator ordered urgently.
The Organic Mechanic stated the obvious. “There’s nothing I can do.”
The upper half of Joe’s head was gone, blood and brain splattered all over the ground. The Ace was in the same state. He must have shot Joe in the head and then given himself the same quick and merciful death he’d given Furiosa.
“He’s dead,” Toast said, joining them.
“He’ll live again!” insisted a War Boy.
“Why’d the Ace do it?” someone asked.
“Traitor.”
The War Boy Sprockets had followed her and now another War Boy attacked him. “It’s a crew of traitors. First Imperator Furiosa, and now Ace. Let’s shred the whole crew!”
Other War Boys joined in, and Sprockets fought back. Capable moved away from them, lest her baby was accidentally hit. But other fights were breaking out.
“War Boys!” the Prime Imperator bellowed, trying to restore order.
“Immortan’s going to rise again,” insisted a very thin War Boy. He knelt beside Joe’s body, raised his arms in a salute, and bowed his head as if he intended to wait for his hoped-for miracle.
“He’s dead,” Toast shouted. “DEAD! His corpse will start to stink and rot just like any other corpse.”
There was silence for a moment. Then somebody declared, “Immortan has gone to Valhalla and left us behind!”
“We have to go with him!”
There was the sound of a gunshot and Capable pinpointed it just in time to turn and see a War Pup fall dead, killed by a deluded War Boy who’d loved him enough to want him to enter Valhalla though it was an honor usually reserved for War Boys who died in combat or by Joe’s own hand.
“No,” she screamed. She knew herself onto the ground, trying to shield her baby without crushing him.
“Yeah, we gotta take the Pups, and our wives, and his wives.”
“War Boys,” the Prime Imperator roared. “Stand down. You are not to kill anybody. Return to your barracks. I’ll have orders for you shortly.”
“Why didn’t you go to Valhalla with the Immortan?” a War Boy demanded.
There was a brief pause before the Prime Imperator was able to marshal together Joe-esque bullshit. “Immortan left me behind to keep things running. He doesn’t want anyone else joining him now. We’ve got to keep the Citadel running smooth for Adam. Immortan’s left his sons to lead us in his stead.”
A War Boy laughed harshly, and Corpus gave a squeal as he picked him up one-handed, holding him by an ankle.
Rictus rose to his feet and started towards them angrily. “Let go of my brother!”
“What are you doing, Throttle?” asked Imperator Jacks. “That’s Immortan Joe’s son.”
“It’s a useless lump of misshapen flesh that wouldn’t have been allowed in the Citadel if it wasn’t Immortan Joe’s.”
“But he is Immortan Joe’s,” the Prime Imperator reminded him sternly.
Throttle had backed away from Rictus to the edge of the room where there was only half a wall and a large opening to the sky and the wasteland below.
Almost a dozen War Boys had encircled Rictus and drawn knives and other cruel-looking implements. One of them darted close and pulled at his oxygen tank, dislodging the hose that carried pure, clean air. Rictus swatted him and he fell in a crumpled heap, but other War Boys were swarming him. Capable saw War Boys cutting his hamstrings.
“War Boys, stop this insanity!” the Prime Imperator ordered.
Throttle flung Corpus out of the window, and a War Boy plunged a knife hilt-deep into Rictus’s back.
“Why should we listen to you?” demanded the War Boy Slit. Rictus was still alive, moaning piteously as Slit sliced his stomach open and reached inside.
“I didn’t like taking orders from those two either,” Imperator Luger said. “But the insubordination ends with this.”
Imperator Ryan was smiling oddly. He was younger than the other imperators. He had only been promoted a couple hundred days ago and he had more friends among the War Boys than his fellow imperators. “It was a good question, Prime.”
“He’s the Immortan’s prime imperator,” Imperator Luger answered for him.
“The Immortan is not so immortal after all.”
There were some gasps at that. It was a shocking blasphemy, and even more so coming from an imperator.
“Yes, Joe’s very much mortal and dead,” Toast said. She spat on him and kicked at his ruined head.
A War Boy lunged at her, but before he could punish her disrespect, Throttle wrapped his arms around her from behind and turned aside, shielding her.
“He’s dead,” she repeated. “He was no god. He was just a liar. If some of you are stupid enough to want to join him, then go ahead. But there’s no reason for the rest of us to keep living like nothing’s changed.”
“There will be no changes for now,” the Prime Imperator decreed.
But hardly anyone was listening. War Boys were chattering among themselves, trying to make sense of what had previously been unthinkable to them. Despite how quickly some of them had turned against Rictus and Corpus and the Prime Imperator, most of them still seemed to believe that Immortan Joe had chosen to abandon the wasteland for the shining halls of Valhalla where he awaited them.
“I’m going to ride to Valhalla proper.”
War Boys began streaming away, and Capable hurried after them.
They were getting their vehicles ready, and arming themselves, and drums had started pounding to announce a war party departing. They were going to go off to pick a fight with Buzzards or some other hostile group and get themselves killed.
“No! Don’t!”
She grabbed a War Boy’s arm, but he kissed her cheek and petted Sunny, and then carried on preparing for his suicide mission.
“Don’t throw your lives away for no reason, please!”
She saw Nux, her innocent monster, and threw herself against him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
“I’m going to miss you, Capable.”
It was a horrible, tragic waste. It repulsed her viscerally. They were going to seek death because of that evil old man’s lies. He was gone and they still wanted to give him their lives.
“War Boys,” Capable yelled, trying to imitate an imperator’s command voice. “Joe lied. I swear to you, he lied. He was your Immortan, but I was his wife and I saw him without his armor and without his clothes. I swear to you, he was only a man. He was a wicked man who figured out how to use other people’s sons and make them die for his benefit and use their daughters to breed him sons.”
They were listening, but they weren’t really hearing her. To hear what she said and accept it would be too devastating. So Capable said what she knew they could bear to hear and might accept.
“I need you all, and our baby needs you. Please don’t go die. I love you.”
“I love you, Capable,” Nux said. “We all love you.”
Two other War Boys were also hugging her, squeezing her tight between the three of them, and others laid their hands on whichever part of her they could reach.
“So don’t leave me. Please, don’t go. Stay.”
A War Boy forced his way to her and kissed her. Capable couldn’t understand at first why the others had let him displace them until he released her and stepped back. It was a farewell kiss. Over a dozen other War Boys came to bid good-bye to her and their baby.
She dug her nails into Nux’s arm. “No.”
“I’m going to die soon anyway. Best to follow the Immortan.”
“You thought you were going to die when you chased after the rig on Fury Road, but here you are and here I am and Sunny too. You don’t know what you might miss by letting yourself die before you had to.”
Capable pressed her mouth to his and kissed him desperately.
“So you do have a favorite,” another War Boy said.
“I don’t want any of you to die.”
Half of them who’d intended to follow Joe in death had listened to her. Capable mourned for the ones who hadn’t, and then she finally allowed herself to marvel at the fact of Immortan Joe’s demise. The Ace had finally done something. Nobody would be able to take her baby away now, and the Citadel would change.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: War Boys/Capable, War Boys/Toast, War Boys/Cheedo, Nux/Capable, Slit/Toast, Morsov/Cheedo, The Dag/Cheedo
Word Count: ?
Summary: AU. The escape fails and Immortan Joe punishes the Five Wives by giving Capable, Toast, and Cheedo to the Citadel's War Boys. In the aftermath, Capable tries to induce Lima Syndrome in the War Boys, Morsov begins to understand the horror of what he's done, and Toast is just angry.
Warnings: Non-con, gang rape, forced pregnancy, knifeplay, Lima Syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome
Toast XIV
When he’d seized her in front of other people yesterday and whispered in her ear where he was going to be today, she’d punched him for it. But now Toast found herself feeling antsy enough to seek Slit out. Just like he’d said, this tunnel was empty. It appeared to be a dead end, but when she reached him, she realized there was a short ladder and a sturdy-looking metal hatch in the ceiling.
“Does that lead outside?” she asked.
He pulled her against him and tried to kiss her.
Toast smacked his shoulder. “Answer me.”
“Yeah, I suppose. I’ve never seen it open. Immortan had it built when I was a pup just in case.”
“Speaking of pups, yours is kicking me kami-crazy.”
He laid his palm flat on her swollen belly and appeared delighted to feel the baby kicking her. “Shine!”
That, as well as the feel of his arm around her, seemed to settle or satisfy something inside her. She felt calmer and almost contented in a way that she knew was totally false and yet felt real. She also didn’t feel particularly in the mood for sex.
“That was it,” she said, reluctantly pulling away from him. “That’s all. I’m not in the mood for sex of any kind.”
He pulled her back against him and held her tight. “Alright. But stay and keep me company. It’s so fucking boring having guard duty here.”
Toast didn’t believe it at first. He’d accepted that there would be no sex and he was not only not upset, he still wanted her company? It was too good to be true. But moments passed and he made no move to touch her sexually. She could lose herself in his arms if she let herself. But Toast refused to do that. She struggled until he released her.
“Your Immortan says I’m a breeder, but you want to know something? He hardly ever did any breeding with me. Most of the time, he shoved his cock where there could never be a baby, where he would just get off while causing me pain.”
Slit looked shocked.
Toast slapped him. “Guess I’m not a bad breeder when I’m actually bred, right?”
She’d cut her hair this morning. The memory of what it felt like when Immortan Joe held her hair while he raped her, how he liked to pull her hair while he fucked her from behind, had resurfaced vividly and she hadn’t been able to get it out of her head.
“You are the shiniest and most chrome of breeders,” he said. He dropped to his knees. “And your pup will be the healthiest and most shine pup.”
Stupid battle fodder. Joe’s mindless cannon fodder. But for one desperate moment, Toast wanted to pretend he wasn’t, that he was the strong warrior he looked like, that he was the sort of man whose child she would be happy to bear. She hated that she was crying.
“Please don’t cry,” he said.
She hadn’t thought the word ‘please’ was part of his vocabulary, but it wasn’t the first time he’d surprised her. Probably why she kept fucking him.
“And what if this baby dies before it’s born or it’s born dead? Or it’s not even human? What will you think of me then?”
“It happens.”
“What?” She was beyond surprised, she was shocked.
“Babies die or get so you wish they’d died all the time. Not your fault or mine. Immortan’s had plenty of babies die before they were born, and he has Corpus, that useless smeg.”
It was true, and more truth than Toast had thought a War Boy could recognize. She sank to her knees and let Slit wrap himself around her. It felt good if she could only stop thinking.
Toast was in a much better state of mind when she returned to the Blood Shed, only for the Organic Mechanic to inform her that Joe had summoned him and she was coming with him.
Immortan Joe frowned when he saw her, and Toast realized he hadn’t ordered her presence or expected it, that the Organic Mechanic had brought her along for his own amusement. If only she had a gun and she could put a few bullets in them both.
“How long before the breeder Capable can breed another pup?”
“There was no tearing and she’s recovering well. It should be safe to resume breeding her in five or ten days. But the chances of conception are reduced while she’s breastfeeding.”
Joe nodded. “All the more reason to take the pup from her. The milkers can nurse him, and she will put her energy to better use breeding another pup.”
“The Boys won’t like losing their pup, Immortan,” the Prime Imperator said.
“My Boys will be happy to sire more pups for me.”
They were going to take Capable’s baby away from her, and hers too when it was born and Cheedo’s as well. They were going to be used as breeders in the truest and worst way and never be allowed to be mothers.
Toast wanted to scream. She wanted to tell Joe what a disgusting monster he was. She wanted to kill him. But she kept quiet, too afraid that he would find some additional way to punish her for any open defiance.
“You want to tell Capable the good news or should I?” the Organic Mechanic asked once they were out of Joe’s presence. He sounded sadistically delighted.
Toast couldn’t even form an insult to spit at him. She stumbled away and found a dark corner and allowed herself to cry freely. She wasn’t sure how long she was there. Every time the tears stopped and she thought she had control of herself, she broke down again.
“What’s the matter, Toast?” she heard a young male voice ask.
Toast quickly wiped away her tears and turned to see a very young War Boy whose name she didn’t know standing there. He looked concerned.
“Nothing more than usual,” she replied, before walking away.
He must have hurried off to inform the other War Boys that he’d seen her crying because only a couple of minutes later Throttle caught up to her.
“Heard you were crying,” he said.
Crying was seen as weakness and regarded with contempt, especially by War Boys like him and Slit. Yet he didn’t seem disgusted. He looked worried. He liked her because he thought she was strong and tough, so maybe to him her crying portended a catastrophic disaster for the whole Citadel and the world as he knew it.
Would he or any other War Boy care that their children were taken away if it meant they got to make more? Joe thought they wouldn’t, that they would feel and think whatever he told them to. Before the failed escape or even a hundred days ago, Toast would have thought he was right, that his War Boys were mere puppets he controlled.
Somehow, though, she’d developed a desperate hope that Joe was as wrong about his Boys as he was about practically everything else. A foolish desperate hope.
When she didn’t reply, Throttle touched her face almost tentatively, as if he wasn’t even sure how to touch someone gently or comfort them. But he was trying, so Toast let him. It was shocking, especially since he’d never gotten what she’d given Slit and there should have been nothing to evoke tenderness from him.
“They’re our children. Ours. He has no right to take them from us.”
Throttle frowned. “No one’s taking our pups.”
“Immortan Joe is.”
He gave her a look of incomprehension.
“He’ll take them and keep them away for hundreds and hundreds of days, and when you see them again, you won’t even know which are your children and which children came from the Wretched.”
“The Immortan wouldn’t do that.”
“He will, you’ll see.”
Capable XVII
It’d been hours since the Organic Mechanic gleefully informed her that she had five more days with her baby and then he’d be taken away and she’d have to begin trying to conceive another baby. She’d begged, and promised that she’d breed with every single War Boy in one day if he let her keep Sunny, but he’d only laughed and said Joe had made the decision.
Capable had been sitting here ever since, trying desperately to think of some way to change Joe’s mind. Perhaps if she begged to be allowed to conceive his offspring… But no, even if he agreed, he wouldn’t reward her efforts until after she’d produced a child for him and then only if the child was healthy and male.
A pair of War Boys came to sit beside her. One of them stroked the top of Sunny’s head and the other kissed the soles of his tiny feet.
“That’s a good name you gave him, Capable. He’s as shiny as the sun.”
“What’s the matter? You look sad.”
“Is it Sunny? Is something the matter with our pup?” He looked very worried.
The other War Boy was alarmed too. They thought of Sunny as theirs even though neither of these two particular War Boys could have fathered him. His skin would have been darker if Pierce had fathered him, and Sprockets was part of the war rig crew and had raped Cheedo, not her, the day of Fury Road. But they considered her baby theirs anyway because War Boys weren’t used to having anything as individuals.
Even the things they scavenged and seized in the wasteland were considered property of Immortan Joe, and his imperators allotted things to them on his behalf. They knew that their very lives belonged to him, too, and they considered it an honor and a privilege.
“Nothing’s the matter with my baby.”
She wanted to tell them what Joe planned and beg them to demand to keep Sunny, but she knew better. All Joe had to do was appear in person and they would gladly hand their baby over to him and believe it was an honor to have him take him. She didn’t tell them because they wouldn’t do anything to stop it and it’d only make her hate them.
“Is it you? Are you okay?”
“No.”
“Organic,” one of the two shouted.
But before she could explain that she wasn’t that kind of not-okay, several Pups ran into the Blood Shed shouting for the Organic Mechanic. Their words didn’t make sense at first.
“Immortan’s been shot! The Ace shot the Immortan!”
The Organic Mechanic ran, and Capable ran behind him, clutching her baby. She had to see for herself. She prayed silently for it to be true.
It was chaos. War Pups and War Boys were praying loudly, and Rictus Erectus was wailing.
“Organic, do something,” the Prime Imperator ordered urgently.
The Organic Mechanic stated the obvious. “There’s nothing I can do.”
The upper half of Joe’s head was gone, blood and brain splattered all over the ground. The Ace was in the same state. He must have shot Joe in the head and then given himself the same quick and merciful death he’d given Furiosa.
“He’s dead,” Toast said, joining them.
“He’ll live again!” insisted a War Boy.
“Why’d the Ace do it?” someone asked.
“Traitor.”
The War Boy Sprockets had followed her and now another War Boy attacked him. “It’s a crew of traitors. First Imperator Furiosa, and now Ace. Let’s shred the whole crew!”
Other War Boys joined in, and Sprockets fought back. Capable moved away from them, lest her baby was accidentally hit. But other fights were breaking out.
“War Boys!” the Prime Imperator bellowed, trying to restore order.
“Immortan’s going to rise again,” insisted a very thin War Boy. He knelt beside Joe’s body, raised his arms in a salute, and bowed his head as if he intended to wait for his hoped-for miracle.
“He’s dead,” Toast shouted. “DEAD! His corpse will start to stink and rot just like any other corpse.”
There was silence for a moment. Then somebody declared, “Immortan has gone to Valhalla and left us behind!”
“We have to go with him!”
There was the sound of a gunshot and Capable pinpointed it just in time to turn and see a War Pup fall dead, killed by a deluded War Boy who’d loved him enough to want him to enter Valhalla though it was an honor usually reserved for War Boys who died in combat or by Joe’s own hand.
“No,” she screamed. She knew herself onto the ground, trying to shield her baby without crushing him.
“Yeah, we gotta take the Pups, and our wives, and his wives.”
“War Boys,” the Prime Imperator roared. “Stand down. You are not to kill anybody. Return to your barracks. I’ll have orders for you shortly.”
“Why didn’t you go to Valhalla with the Immortan?” a War Boy demanded.
There was a brief pause before the Prime Imperator was able to marshal together Joe-esque bullshit. “Immortan left me behind to keep things running. He doesn’t want anyone else joining him now. We’ve got to keep the Citadel running smooth for Adam. Immortan’s left his sons to lead us in his stead.”
A War Boy laughed harshly, and Corpus gave a squeal as he picked him up one-handed, holding him by an ankle.
Rictus rose to his feet and started towards them angrily. “Let go of my brother!”
“What are you doing, Throttle?” asked Imperator Jacks. “That’s Immortan Joe’s son.”
“It’s a useless lump of misshapen flesh that wouldn’t have been allowed in the Citadel if it wasn’t Immortan Joe’s.”
“But he is Immortan Joe’s,” the Prime Imperator reminded him sternly.
Throttle had backed away from Rictus to the edge of the room where there was only half a wall and a large opening to the sky and the wasteland below.
Almost a dozen War Boys had encircled Rictus and drawn knives and other cruel-looking implements. One of them darted close and pulled at his oxygen tank, dislodging the hose that carried pure, clean air. Rictus swatted him and he fell in a crumpled heap, but other War Boys were swarming him. Capable saw War Boys cutting his hamstrings.
“War Boys, stop this insanity!” the Prime Imperator ordered.
Throttle flung Corpus out of the window, and a War Boy plunged a knife hilt-deep into Rictus’s back.
“Why should we listen to you?” demanded the War Boy Slit. Rictus was still alive, moaning piteously as Slit sliced his stomach open and reached inside.
“I didn’t like taking orders from those two either,” Imperator Luger said. “But the insubordination ends with this.”
Imperator Ryan was smiling oddly. He was younger than the other imperators. He had only been promoted a couple hundred days ago and he had more friends among the War Boys than his fellow imperators. “It was a good question, Prime.”
“He’s the Immortan’s prime imperator,” Imperator Luger answered for him.
“The Immortan is not so immortal after all.”
There were some gasps at that. It was a shocking blasphemy, and even more so coming from an imperator.
“Yes, Joe’s very much mortal and dead,” Toast said. She spat on him and kicked at his ruined head.
A War Boy lunged at her, but before he could punish her disrespect, Throttle wrapped his arms around her from behind and turned aside, shielding her.
“He’s dead,” she repeated. “He was no god. He was just a liar. If some of you are stupid enough to want to join him, then go ahead. But there’s no reason for the rest of us to keep living like nothing’s changed.”
“There will be no changes for now,” the Prime Imperator decreed.
But hardly anyone was listening. War Boys were chattering among themselves, trying to make sense of what had previously been unthinkable to them. Despite how quickly some of them had turned against Rictus and Corpus and the Prime Imperator, most of them still seemed to believe that Immortan Joe had chosen to abandon the wasteland for the shining halls of Valhalla where he awaited them.
“I’m going to ride to Valhalla proper.”
War Boys began streaming away, and Capable hurried after them.
They were getting their vehicles ready, and arming themselves, and drums had started pounding to announce a war party departing. They were going to go off to pick a fight with Buzzards or some other hostile group and get themselves killed.
“No! Don’t!”
She grabbed a War Boy’s arm, but he kissed her cheek and petted Sunny, and then carried on preparing for his suicide mission.
“Don’t throw your lives away for no reason, please!”
She saw Nux, her innocent monster, and threw herself against him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
“I’m going to miss you, Capable.”
It was a horrible, tragic waste. It repulsed her viscerally. They were going to seek death because of that evil old man’s lies. He was gone and they still wanted to give him their lives.
“War Boys,” Capable yelled, trying to imitate an imperator’s command voice. “Joe lied. I swear to you, he lied. He was your Immortan, but I was his wife and I saw him without his armor and without his clothes. I swear to you, he was only a man. He was a wicked man who figured out how to use other people’s sons and make them die for his benefit and use their daughters to breed him sons.”
They were listening, but they weren’t really hearing her. To hear what she said and accept it would be too devastating. So Capable said what she knew they could bear to hear and might accept.
“I need you all, and our baby needs you. Please don’t go die. I love you.”
“I love you, Capable,” Nux said. “We all love you.”
Two other War Boys were also hugging her, squeezing her tight between the three of them, and others laid their hands on whichever part of her they could reach.
“So don’t leave me. Please, don’t go. Stay.”
A War Boy forced his way to her and kissed her. Capable couldn’t understand at first why the others had let him displace them until he released her and stepped back. It was a farewell kiss. Over a dozen other War Boys came to bid good-bye to her and their baby.
She dug her nails into Nux’s arm. “No.”
“I’m going to die soon anyway. Best to follow the Immortan.”
“You thought you were going to die when you chased after the rig on Fury Road, but here you are and here I am and Sunny too. You don’t know what you might miss by letting yourself die before you had to.”
Capable pressed her mouth to his and kissed him desperately.
“So you do have a favorite,” another War Boy said.
“I don’t want any of you to die.”
Half of them who’d intended to follow Joe in death had listened to her. Capable mourned for the ones who hadn’t, and then she finally allowed herself to marvel at the fact of Immortan Joe’s demise. The Ace had finally done something. Nobody would be able to take her baby away now, and the Citadel would change.