Rocky Bits, Friday Morning

[moodyvagrant]

It was a cold morning, and Anders shivered inside his ragged jacket as he picked through the rubble on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. It wasn't a bad place to scavenge: Sometimes there was wire there, or glass, and once a plastic bag holding a precious half-full box of bandages

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[godilovedthis]

If anybody asked, Kathy would swear to her dying breath that she'd always intended to come up here. Sure, climbing was hell on her legs and the rocks were an omnipresent danger, but whatever--good scavenging, wire, glass, et cetera. The fact that Anders was up here was purely coincidence.

Cresting the rise, she paused for a moment--to catch her breath, the do a quick scan for hollows...but mostly, just to watch him. How close was Justice to the surface right now? How careworn did Anders look today?

Foolishness. She blamed it on all the new people, constantly trying to make her feel things. So when she did speak, it was to drawl, "Fancy meeting you here," like she didn't care one way or another.

And maybe, if she concentrated, she could believe it, too.

[rebelscreams]

"I met mine," Dante said mildly. "He was jumpy."

Or, y'know. Vastly more emotive than he was.

[moodyvagrant]

"Maker, don't make me wonder what mine is like," Anders said, looking down at himself. "I'd likely scare him to bits."

[godilovedthis]

Young, Kathy could have said. Angry, perhaps, or hurting. Instead, she decided to go with the simplest answer.

"Mine died," she said with false cheer. "So there's that."

And Anders could probably surmise from there.

[rebelscreams]

"You got off light."

That was a joke.

Maybe.

Dante walked past the both of them, taking a moment to take in the coastline. "I haven't seen yours yet, Anders," he added. "So I have no clue."

[moodyvagrant]

"Hopefully he's hiding somewhere with those cats we used to have," Anders said wistfully. (He missed his cats.)

He crouched, sifting pebbles between his fingers. "I'm sorry you died, Kathy. But at least you missed all this."

[godilovedthis]

"Yes," Kathy said. Her voice was a quarry pool: placid on the surface, but cold and deep below. "I'm sure that other her was grateful to die early, leaving everyone she lo--cared about behind in order to be spared this." Her jaw was set for a few seconds before she forced herself to relax, brushing her hair away from her face.

"Besides, why should I care what happened to her? She's not me. She's some otherworldly twin that died. Doesn't affect me at all, save for having some people think they know me because they knew her."

[rebelscreams]

"Blah blah I don't care doesn't matter to me, we could just play off the entire record by now," Dante said.

He swiped some dirt off a glove. "Fact is they're here," he said, "That might mean something."

He glanced over his shoulder. "Or not."

[moodyvagrant]

"It means the island decided to have some extra fun," Anders shrugged. "They'll die or go hollow soon enough, unless we step in."

[godilovedthis]

"I've mentioned it to some of them." Kathy's shrug mirrored his. "What happens next is on them."

Kathy's days of stepping in were long over.

[rebelscreams]

Dante shrugged.

He stared down at his hand, where once one of his gloves had shown blood and a deep gash.

"You two do whatever you want," he said. "I'll keep on keeping an eye on the newbies."

[moodyvagrant]

"I don't want them to get hurt either," Anders explained. "I'm just not sure we can stop it."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy had learned the hard way not to play hero. And she wasn't going to be much use to anyone in a fight anyway. There was a reason her current way of handling hollows was letting everyone else fight while making her getaway.

Or sometimes pushing someone in the way while she did the same. She wasn't proud of it, but it kept her alive.

"We can't," she said. "Even if we stop people from getting killed, they'll just turn into hollows instead."

[rebelscreams]

And there was the number one reason Dante wasn't making more steps to get close to them.

... Kathy's bitterness and the thing in Anders' head being some other good reasons, but still.

"So what?" Dante said. He pulled his gaze away from his hands and looked back at them. "I don't see you guys complaining every time you make it through another day."

[moodyvagrant]

"There's still work to do," Anders said, in a way that suggested it was more Justice's opinion than his. "It would be wrong to just give up already."

Not that Anders was always sure how much good he was doing, or if he was doing any at all. But he couldn't lie down and give up. Not yet.

And then he sighed. "Dante, if you're talking to us again, could you at least take off the mask?"

[godilovedthis]

They were all haunted, Kathy realized, started. Her, by the past and who she used to be. Anders, by that damn voice in his head that hadn't been invited to the conversation anyway. And Dante, by the loss of Vergil and his own mortality.

"Best of luck with that," she said quietly.