Reconciliation

Letting the last body fall, Ketna did a sweep of the fallen bodies, to see if anyone was left to shoot them in the back, then made way to return to the group she had left in the loading docks. Xerxes followed not far behind grinning at the results of his involvement in what was left behind.

Following behind her through the doors, Xerxes took to cleaning off anything that had been caught on his claws that had been irritating him. Shaking the remnants of viscera off his hands, had him recall something.

"Why you even bother with a knife when I know you can tear people apart with your hands?"

Having gotten used to signing to the group earlier, Ketna instinctively answered by signing that 'it's faster than using my hands'.

Xerxes stared blankly at her, hand on the door, before responding with a casual wank and toss motion. Ketna hung her head and turned her attention back to the abductees. It appeared the Volunteer had found the keys to the Vans in question, and the group was already in the process of being loaded. Most of the ones unable to walk had been settled inside. Ketna went to go for her phone to communicate with Xerxes what she meant, when the sound of engines could be heard down the tunnel.

The loud roar meant they didn't have much time left, and someone would need to occupy the tanks to ensure the group could get away, which meant her plan to drive them was now no longer viable. Xerxes had caught the sound too, lifting his head to look at the tunnel. Devising a plan of action, Ketna grabbed one of the cards and a pen from a pack, using it to quickly write down an address. Dashing over to the loading vans, she handed it to the volunteer, pointing to the address on it as she did, followed by resting a finger on his chest, and then to the van.

"Drive here?" He asked, noticing the address, then looked to the van and back again. "I drive?"

Ketna nodded aggressively to ensure he could tell her confirmation. The moment he got that, he awkwardly ran up to the driver's seat of the nearest van.

Ketna signed to the rest of the group. 'Who else can drive.'

The interpreter who had lingered back just in case, did their best to raise their voice to the group, just as the semi heard down the tunnel was visible. It sped in fast, the whole thing lurching in a sharp turn that nearly lifted one side off the ground. The large automaton that was covered on the truck bed could be heard moving before its bonds snapped. The tarp that covered it slid with the lack of nylon straps keeping it in place, revealing the mobile tank hidden beneath it.

"ME!" One of the patients dashed up to the driver's seat of the other van, seemingly all too eager to take the wheel.

One more note was made of the location they needed to get to, she passed along one of the phones she swiped to give the driver something to look up the location.

While the remaining patients scrambled to get in, Ketna stood on guard, waiting to protect them in the event the drivers or tank attempted to take shots at any of them. What she was not expecting was the sound of the minigun firing back up again, taking slow careful shots at the tank as it moved. Whatever rounds he had left, Xerxes was using to draw the attention of the mech. It worked and was just enough to ensure the two vans could move out unhindered by the mech that was now completely free of its binds.

Ketna shut the door as the last patient got in, then beat on the back of the van next to her to signal it to go. Both vans spun their wheels, moving into gear to get out as fast as either of them could manage. Any gates that lay ahead in the tunnels, Munin could take care of them. Now Ketna was free to stay behind and ensure that Mech couldn't incapacitate either of the vehicles before they picked up enough speed.

When the driver of the semi saw the vans peeling out towards the access tunnel, the large vehicle began to move to cut off the Vans in their advance. This was quickly thwarted by a few rounds from Xerxes' gun, a few high power rounds in the engine and it wasn't moving any further. Xerxes shout of triumph were cut short by the Tank warming up its top mounted laser, a flash of light and sweep up cut through the ground up to where Xerxes had stationed himself on the dock.

Ketna shouted Xerxes' name reactively at seeing him fall, laser slicing through where he stood, but no sound accompanied it. When the debris settled from the swipe of the laser, Xerxes was still moving, very much alive from the attack but presently lacking one of his legs. Not wanting the tank to take advantage of Xerxes' lack of mobility she lept into action to force its attention on her.

Rushing in she threw her weight on one of the legs at its side, it was only enough to make it creek but she had its attention. Giving it clear notice that she was there, she hopped up the leg, scaling up its side to get to the top. Now that it was aware that it had an unwanted passenger, its attention finally moved from Xerxes, to get rid of the new pest, pitching and turning to make the climb more difficult. It only managed to cause her to misplace a footing or two but she scaled it without issue.

Once on top she bolted for the large plasma laser that had done the damage to Xerxes' leg. She had been holding back the extent of her strength from the fight before, but this time she held nothing back. Bracing her feet at the base, she lifted under the canon pulling it upward from the base. Metal whine and strain could be heard from her efforts. Underneath her the tank tried to shake her, speeding up back and forth across the ground.

When the maneuvers did not result in getting rid of its pest, the tank attempted to fire up the cannon she was in the process of ripping from it. The sound was loud in her ear, the cannon's barrel heated up to an unbearable degree. Even with the protective gear, it was beginning to warp the fabric of her gloves. To keep her hands or anything else from burning, Ketna had to let go of it seconds before it fired off, slicing through parts of the ceiling and wall of the underground loading dock. The base of the cannon was safe to lock her legs around, keeping her on-board even as the tank attempted to throw her again.

With the cannon cooled down just enough, Ketna went back to work. This time the metal gave, anchors snapped, wires pulled along with it, power supply to the cannon sparking dangerously as the cannon was ripped from its base. Robbed of its biggest threat, she let the canon fall useless and heavy to the ground.

"HEY, CATCH." Xerxes' voice shouted from across the dock.

From his spot, Xerxes had hoisted himself to a leaning position on the rails on the dock, using it to support himself as he tossed a somewhat familiar object in Ketna's direction, echoing the act from earlier.

The tank lurched once more to knock her off. Kenta had to navigate the moving platform while she made for the object Xerxes had tossed in her direction. It caught the tips of her fingers, she fumbled at it, back and forth precariously before she had her hand snuggly wrapped around it. Getting a good look at it, it was a grenade like she suspected but not just a frag grenade, Xerxes had gotten his hands on a Plasma grenade at some point. Good thing there was now a gaping hole where the cannon she had ripped out once sat. Arming the grenade, she lodged it snug within the cavity of the tank and slid off the top of the tank and booked it for the docks.

Hitting the ground hard made her head spin, tremors ran through her arms as her efforts caused them to flare up, but that wasn't enough to throw her off. Miniguns that were mounted on the lower sides of the mobile tank followed her movement but none made contact. In a swift, unbroken motion, she leapt to the top of the dock platform, scooping up Xerxes' by his waist, lifting him off the ground and running for the door, back to the hall for cover. Bullets followed her path the whole way, the doors she slammed behind her prevented any of them from catching her. Shortly thereafter, the grenade she had left in the tank went off. Between the force of the plasma grenade and the power supply of the tank itself, the damage turned into a cascading explosion, one thing igniting another bringing down the tank in chunks.

Shrapnel from the explosion coated the docks, large pieces wrecking any remaining vehicles. The blast was enough to reach the doors of the dock, knocking back Ketna and Xerxes in tow. They were jostled but the distance and doors had protected them from the bulk of the heat and projectiles of the explosion. However, the force of it all had brought the nausea back in full force. Ketna rolled onto her back, covering her helmet with her hands to block light as she waited for it to pass.

"You uh- sick?" Xerxes asked, recalling what she said before.

She nodded, switching from hands on her helmet to an arm draped over it.

While waiting for the nausea to pass, Ketna could both hear and feel Xerxes move. Claws scraping against the wall he was using to support himself while he hopped on one foot back to the doors, if there was anything left of them.

"Shit." Xerxes' muttered in the distance.

Ketna forced herself into a sitting position, then slowly to her feet, the disorientation beginning to ebb as she caught up to Xerxes on the dock to see what it was that brought on that utterance.

When he caught her movement, Xerxes' head motioned in the direction where the remaining vehicles were kept. All of them had been set ablaze or were crushed by pieces of metal. What wasn't set on fire by the initial explosion, had been caught up in a secondary explosion caused by the fuel station getting set on fire.

"Not getting out of here by any wheels, that's for sure."

Ketna fished the phone out from its protective case to continue her communication.

'Looks like we're going to have to walk.'

Before Xerxes could ask, Ketna slipped herself under his arm on the side his leg had been shorn off.

"'Spose that'd work." He looked up to the tunnel down past the loading dock. "If we make it up there I can get a ride out."

'That's what I had in mind.' Ketna tapped out on her phone, before walking the two of them off the ramp and onto the asphalt.

It wasn't an especially long walk, they just had to get past the entrance, but it was a quiet walk with no other distractions, in very close proximity to one another, that made it particularly awkward for Ketna. She tapped out something to pass the time while they made their way up the incline.

'You okay, apart from the leg?'

Xerxes looked briefly confused at the question, like he wasn't expecting it, before returning to his usual expression.

"Yeah, yeah. Just got the leg, melted." He smirked and continued. "The goods are fine if you're worried about that."

'For fucks sake. I wasn't asking about that.' Ketna huffed, and focused on getting them up that tunnel as quickly as possible.

Xerxes didn't let the awkward topic linger, shifting right into another course of discussion.

"Made a good team. Should do this again some time."

'Oh? You planning on leaving the crime boss life and joining me as a vigilante?'

Xerxes barked a laugh before he spoke. "Fuck no! I'm thinkin', you help me with my competition. I get more territory, you get rid of the business you don't like. Then we can keep playing cat and mouse till one of us offs the other."

'Yeah, no thanks, I'm not handing you more territory.'

"You just fuckin' did, sweetheart, or did you forget." Xerxes motion ahead and back, indicating the base they were still in the process of leading. "I think you know I run things better than most these fucks."

Ketna shook her head while she tapped out her reply.

'You can believe what you like, it doesn't make it true.'

Xerxes scoffed but smirked when reading the screen. He looked off into nothing in particular while processing what he was about to pick at next.

"This just cus you're feeling guilty about all the people you had t'kill back there? Bet that's the biggest body count you've had to deal with in one day."

Ketna stared at the screen of the phone in her hand, she considered how much she wanted to admit in this conversation, then composed her response tilting it out of Xerxes way, not presenting it to him until he was finished.

'I am no stranger to taking life, not even of that amount. I assure you, my kill count far exceeds your own.' the screen read.

"T'ch, highly doubt that's possible, unless.." Xerxes paused in thought, recalling something. "Ex-military, Marine or somethin', Black Ops?"

It didn't take Ketna as long to tap out a response. 'You're getting warm.'

Xerxes looked particularly chuffed. "Now I see it. Lemme guess, y'joined the military cus you thought change the world or defend the people or some shit like that, and you're service shattered all your fuckin wide-eyed ideals 'bout makin' a better world cus y'finally realized the government don't give a shit 'bout anybody. So y'thought ya'd take matters into your own hands."

Her next response was about as fast. 'Very, Very Cold.'

Xerxes huffed at the screen but still appeared self-assured. "Sure, y'ain't lyin' to keep up this benevolent hero act?"

Ketna's next response took her more time than the last. 'If you genuinely did manage to guess my origin story, I'd be so impressed I'd concede it on the spot.'

"Guess I better keep digging."

Silence lingered between them, the sound of the footsteps were more obvious than they were before. Xerxes might have been preoccupied with trying to figure out her past, but Ketna's thoughts drifted to something else. Being in such close proximity to him like this, his occasionally gripping at her waist or hip with each hop, made her mind drift to more intimate things, and the last time they were together.

The more she thought about it the more her perception had softened over what happened during their last hookup. Regardless of the surrounding conditions, she was partially to blame for Xerxes' lashing out. Sure, he should have been more forth-coming about whatever it was that made him respond like that, but she also should have walked away after he goaded her on like that. As the dom in that setting, she had a certain responsibility to not let things cross a line, and in that much she was culpable for her actions. She mulled over the thought in her head before tapping out something on her phone. She kept the screen tilted away while she tried to form her words, which only made Xerxes more curious about what she was doing. When fully composed, she presented the screen in Xerxes' direction.

'I don't know if you remember, but I wanted to apologize more directly for yanking the collar you were wearing that night. I acted out of frustration, I shouldn't have done that, not in that situation, and I'm sorry.'

Xerxes' eyes darted over the words. The expression on his face seemed confused, but it didn't last when he finally responded.

"What- 'ch- naw, wasn't any problem with it." There was a strain in Xerxes' voice, but he tried to play it off smooth.

Anger welled up in Ketna immediately when Xerxes deflected the apology, her body shook with fury as she attempted to type out what she could not shout.

'So when youbclawed out my back and attemtotrs to choke me thay was intentional???????!!!?!!?!?!?'She was too angry to ensure the composition was accurate, leaving errors in. She all but avoided thrusting it in Xerxes' face, wanting to ensure he could read it.

Xerxes' expression was strained, but he attempted to play it cool in his response. "I mean- it wasn't like I really-"

Xerxes had hardly got a few words out before Ketna weaved out from under his arm and dropped him heavily on the ground, tense anger in her posture indicated the scream she could not release. She had given the violence a pass with the understanding he was likely in a fugue state, but if it was all deliberate and intentional, it changed everything about that night.

"Look! Okay- Maybe-" Xerxes reached in Ketna's direction as he called out. "Maybe I was kinda... Upset about th'whole collar thing." He glanced off, a hand that was gesturing out to Ketna now found its way behind his neck. "Might not've exactly been thinkin' straight. And a- maybe I said some things I didn't, 'xactly intend to."

Ketna stopped, it was the first time he sounded like he may have had some remorse over what he had done. She turned her head in his direction, waiting cautiously for Xerxes to continue his awkward explanation.

"Fuck, okay, you were right, didn't want that fuckin' collar. Didn't wanna admit I didn't want it." He paused while he was preoccupied with getting back on his feet. But being far away from the wall as he was, and still on an incline, he didn't have much success.

Ketna turned around, providing her full attention. With Xerxes on the ground, still not able to quite get back on his remaining leg, it was almost as though he was groveling.

"Don't like wearing 'em, sure as fuck don't like getting yanked around by 'em, reminds me of things I don't wanna think about.." His words trailed off with the sense that he might have spoken too much. His head snapped back up.

"But if I hear you goin' around tellin' anyone that, I will gut you and it won't be a fuckin' mistake." His voice was low with a very genuine ire in it.

It wasn't an out-right apology but it was a show of humility she didn't often see him take. Ketna took a kneeling squat on the ground in front of Xerxes and displayed the response she had been working on.

'Unlike you, I don't go bragging about my conquests to people that have no business hearing it.'

In one hand she held the phone with the message, the other hand she offered for Xerxes. Taking what time he needed to read it, Xerxes grasped hold of her hand, the two of them working to hoist him back up off the ground. Ketna slipped herself back under his arm when he was steady.

"So we're square, then?" Xerxes asked before he was even settled.

'Oh we are very far from square. I am only barely entertaining the concept of a chance.'

Sympathetic as she was, she wasn't stupid enough to let him off the hook for his lukewarm admission.

A few more steps in silence, Xerxes glanced about the dull tunnel, with a look on his face that conflicted, before he spoke again.

"Y'know I uh-"

Ketna looked up at Xerxes, waiting for him to continue.

Xerxes glanced down in hesitation, but continued. "Didn't really, hate that uh. Soft stuff. You know, if you felt like doing that again."

'What makes you think I'm going to fuck you, again?'

"Wouldn't be the first time you came back to me after making a grand statement about it being over."

Ketna stewed on his words. He certainly wasn't wrong about that, she could have left the first time and never looked back. But she came back, and even now she was thinking about going back, again.

"How 'bouta do-over." Xerxes made another proposition to break the silence, just as they finally hit the top of the incline, the asphalt leveling out beneath them.

'A do-over of what.'

"Y'know-a, th'last time I had ya over. Could pick that up again like it didn't happen."

'But it did happen.'

Xerxes huffed.

"Come'on y'can pin me down n' fuck me, that's gotta count for somethin'." Xerxes insisted on selling the idea of his being the sub as something that would be enticing or make up for what happened.

He really had no idea what her motivation was for domming him and why she even agreed to it, but now was not the time to unpack that specific element. She mulled over the offer. Every time she had dommed him, not counting the corrective action, it had been for his sake, not for her own. She wasn't keen at the idea of servicing him after everything, but she was deliberating instead on using that framing as a form of asserting control over the activities and how far it went. Going back to him at all with her in a submissive position felt more unsafe than her playing the dominant. She went on to try to form the words on the last concern that her decision hinged on.