Thicker Than Water 1/?
Title: Thicker Than Water - Suit up
Author: diabolicalfiend
Characters/Pairing: Jeb, Zero, Wyatt, Adora, mention of Adora/Zero
Rating: PG
Summary: Zero kills Adora
Warning: Character death
Disclaimer: Don't own Tin Man
Word Count: 1821
Of all the wheeling nerve! Adora Wheeling Cain had the temerity to summon him, like some kind of servant. The only reason Zero answered was that he could beat the snot out of her for even trying it.
He’d heard about her little dalliances with the Resistance. Or rather the Resistance Leader. For that alone he brought along a couple of Tin Suits. His mother always taught him to have a spare of everything.
He jumped off his horse, blasted uncooperative thing, and stormed towards that pokey little Cain Cabin. “What the wheel do you want?” he spat at Adora. He dropped a disc onto the grass, to prepare for the TDESPHTL’s recording.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeb react to his presence and Adora’s boy toy, whoever he was, had to hold him back. How sweet. The kid remembered him.
Adora looked back at Jeb. She went right up to Zero. “He’s ALIVE!” she hissed at Zero.
Zero glared at her. “Cain? What? Sugar Lump over there not good enough for you? Got small feet, does he?”
“I’m going to get him.”
“And what? You want me to help you? Huh? Cause, see, the thing with that is… I HATE HIM!”
“Jeb needs a father. His real father.”
Zero grabbed her throat. “MOM!” Jeb pulled himself free, only to get captured by one of his men. ‘Hero’ stayed right by the cabin.
“Even if I were to let you go,” Zero hissed at her. “How far did you think you’d get, hmm? You’d get yourself killed, wouldn’t you? And then what about Jeb, huh? You gonna get him killed too, huh? Or are you going to leave him with Pansy over there? Have him be just another orphan? All for Wyatt Wheeling Cain!?”
“Yessss,” Adora could barely speak, but she managed that and Zero saw the truth of it in her eyes.
He squeezed tighter. “Wrong answer. Jeb doesn’t need a mother like you.” He promptly snapped her neck. Jeb screamed as she fell to the floor. Zero stared at her for a moment. Bitch. He shrugged her off for the last time. “Grab him,” he pointed at Wimp who was trying to edge away.
As bad as Adora. Zero realised what a favour he was doing Jeb. Jeb apparently didn’t share this view as he wept and trashed in the Longcoats’ grip.
Much to his pleasure, his men were already removing both Tin Suits from the truck. Ah, initiative. “Get the Teddy,” Zero ordered another, using the nickname rather than the unwieldy acronym that Ambrose came up with. It also had an irony to it that Zero appreciated.
Zero walked over and found the disc he tossed, hoping that the image was clear enough.
In the meantime, Jeb and that other guy, was being ‘prepared’ for the Suit. “Have one at right angles to the other,” he ordered his men with the Suits. They looked confused, but did so.
Slipping the disc into the Teddy, Zero shoved it into the post within What’s His Face’s eye line. “Sir?” one of his men asked, shrugging and indicating Jeb’s Suit, which was facing away from the Teddy.
“Just put him in there to cool off,” Zero explained. “Kid’s got too much potential.”
The officer considered that. “Understood, sir.”
“We need to bury the body,” Zero indicated Adora. “Make it look nice.”
“Yes, sir.”
~*~
Jeb swung out at Zero when he opened the Suit. Unfortunately, part of the Suit’s properties was to pretty much kill one’s reflexes, so Jeb ended up eating dirt. “Watch out,” Zero remarked.
He pulled the boy up before Jeb yanked himself away again. “You KILLED MY PARENTS!”
“I kill lots of kids’ parents, Jeb. I’m a bad guy.”
“I‘M GOING TO KILL YOU!”
“No, you’re not. You won’t survive out here on your own, Kid.”
“The Resistance…”
“If the Resistance gave a shit about you and your mom, or Shit Face in there,” he waved in the direction of the Suit. He’d turned off the Teddy, figuring that would make things worse. “Then it wouldn’t be me pulling you out of here. Nobody cares about a snotty kid like you. Sooner you learn that the better.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I’m taking you in. Looking after you.”
“You’re joking.”
“I got a sick sense of humour.”
“So I’m some kind of a game?”
“For a game, you need players, not just pawns, Kid. I’m serious. That’s something else you got to learn. See? Two things already. I can do this. Enough talk. Come on.”
“No!” Zero rolled his eyes. “Please. Just let me go to Mom’s grave.”
Zero sighed. “Fine.”
~*~
It was difficult to connect with his mother with Zero looking over his shoulder. He found a flower, just something that was growing wild nearby and laid it on her grave. He could see Zero roll his eyes in disgust when he cried. “Mom,” he whispered. “What’s going to happen to me?” Adora didn’t answer.
“Come on!” Zero had finally lost his patience - Adora didn’t deserve that kind of devotion. “Before I die of waiting!”
Jeb glared at him. “Fine with me.”
Zero glared back. Jeb pulled himself off his mother’s grave. “Let’s go!” When Jeb didn’t respond fast enough, Zero just grabbed the boy’s arm and pulled him behind.
~*~
To Jeb’s surprise, Zero had come alone. Guess he thought Jeb was no kind of threat. Well, you aren’t, Jeb. You’re just sitting there, staring at him. I’m a kid. And that was the simple truth. He’d tried going up against Zero before and Zero had tossed him away like some kind of rag doll.
You just better hope you don’t die. Even as he thought this, Zero handed him the food he’d been cooking. Jeb stared at it. Zero sighed. “If I wanted to kill you, I’d have used this,” he held up his pistol. “Poison’s a woman’s weapon.”
Tentatively, Jeb tasted it. “Wow,” he whispered. It was divine. He almost didn’t recognise Zero’s smile at first. He’d never seen one on him. Zero smirked, he didn’t smile.
“You gotta learn how to cook, Jeb. Attracts the ladies. Uh… and the guys, I guess.” He shrugged. “Which do you like?”
“What?”
“She not teach you the mating game?”
“Uh…” Jeb blushed.
Zero shook his head. “Ok, you know that thing you piss out of? That has, uh, other uses. You know sometimes it kinda stands on end? Like in the mornings? Well, when you’re near someone you’d like to, uh, tango with, well, uh, it stands on end too. So I’m asking: does it do that when you’re around a girl or a boy or both?”
Jeb stared at his trousers. “Uh… girl.”
Zero nodded. “Ok. Your birthday is in October, that’s two months. I’ll make sure you’ll know all there is to know to bag that girl, ok? Best wait until you’re fifteen.”
“How do you know my birthday?”
“I know. Eat up. I’ll get the beds ready.”
~*~
It took a few hours but Zero finally fell asleep. Jeb had closed his eyes but they opened to check. And now finally was his chance. Going to Zero’s supplies, he found a dagger that he’d spotted earlier.
He moved over to Zero’s still form and raised the knife. He swung it down half way then stopped. Glaring at Zero, he held it for a few moments, before letting out a sigh and throwing the blade away. He stared at the thing, before finally picking it up and replacing it back into Zero’s pack.
He was back in his bed and staring up at the stars when he jumped to hear Zero’s voice. “Why didn’t you kill me?” he whispered.
“You were awake?”
“You honestly think I’d get some sleep when I’ve got a roommate who wants to kill me?”
“Suppose not.”
“You’re your father’s son.”
“Why didn’t you kill me? Or at least leave me in that Suit?”
“You don’t answer my questions so I don’t answer yours.”
“Fine!”
~*~
“Why am I being called your son!?” Jeb demanded, on their third day at the Longcoat stronghold.
“If The Sorceress found out that I didn’t kill you and your mother when I was supposed to, then she’d rip the soul from my body. I do NOT want that to happen!”
Jeb frowned at him, though less through anger than confusion. The same question rattled through his head. Why? Asking the question seemed more and more futile each day.
~*~
Zero found Jeb in the infirmary. “Feel better now?”
Jeb was currently ensnared in his own t-shirt, apparently in too much pain to finish putting it on. “Yeah,” his voice filtered through.
“Mentally and spiritually, I’m assuming, because, physically, you’re seriously messed up here.”
Jeb cried out in pain as he finally pushed his shirt down. “I’m better, ok? Better.”
“Well, I can’t promise that the guys will respect ya, but they’ll definitely like you better.”
“I’m all about the Longcoats liking me.” Jeb was starting to be less bitter towards them, recognising them, well, some of them, as people. But they still supported The Sorceress which Jeb found vexing. Surely, if all of them sided with the Resistance, we’d be able to oust her easily?
Zero’s sergeant stepped in. “Surprise inspection, sir. She is coming.”
“Get the men on parade. Jeb, stay here.”
Jeb nodded. Morbid curiosity aside, he wasn’t suicidal. It was that curiosity that led him, when the camp was deathly quiet, to peer out the infirmary tent.
His first impression of The Sorceress when she stepped out of her royal cab was how small she was, followed closely by how beautiful she was. Except for her smile. Well, it wasn’t a smile - it was one of those death grimaces that an animal gives you before it tried to maul you.
Still, if you didn’t look at that, like when she had her back to him, she was very beautiful. Jeb found himself reaching and trying out a technique one of the Longcoats taught him for when he thought about women or read those magazines they traded about.
Then Jeb realised why the Longcoats were so scared of The Sorceress. Apparently displeased, she approached one of Zero’s officers. She stepped in close enough to kiss him but raised her hand instead, her fingertips facing the guy’s cheek then something got pulled out of the guy’s mouth. It travelled into hers and the guy, now blue fell to the ground. The look of pure satisfaction on her face made him come and simultaneously chilled him to the bone.
She then spoke with Zero before disappearing back into her carriage. Zero ordered the body be taken away before returning to the tent. With one look at Jeb, Zero knew what the boy was doing.
“I think it’s time you took care of that, safely.”