Ravens of Eternity

60 The Seven, Pt Nightmare found himself visibly shaking and sweating after hearing Eva’s voice. He had only run into her twice before, and she had shook him to his core.

He always won, except against her.

His goons – the ones who were still alive anyway – looked at him for direction. They were in a serious mess and needed real leadership to get out of it.

But they all knew deep down that Nightmare wasn’t a real leader. He was the kind of person who gave in to his base temptations, and there was a certain magnetism in that.

They followed him so they too could indulge in those base feelings.

They spent years harassing gamers for fun.

In their new universe, they spent more than a hundred cycles harassing and killing people for fun and profit.

But now they were all caught in Eva’s sights, and there wasn’t anything they could do but surrender.

Things had run their course, and it was useless to think otherwise.

.....

They had heard how Nightmare had tried to ambush her, and yet he was the one who lost out instead. He was clearly outmatched then, and was still clearly outmatched now.

She and her crew had reduced their two dozen strong to a whimpering few in the span of ten minutes. There was no way the five of them could put up a fight against that sort of terror.

Had they known she was gunning for them, they probably would have cut their losses and ran far away.

Instead, they ended up trapped like rats in a cage.

Of course, Nightmare didn’t feel like a rat. Or at least, he refused to feel like one. He rather felt like he was more of a tiger trapped in a corner. In a way, he was. He was panicked, angry, and desperate.

The piles of furniture that blocked the doors certainly filled him with a sense of security, but deep down he knew it was fleeting.

He supposed that it was time for a final stand.

Nightmare versus Freya the Bone Breaker.

He convinced himself that a show of strength was the only way out, so he quickly reloaded his handgun. Then urged his boys to do the same.

They did so, but with great hesitation.

“Let’s negotiate,” he yelled. But he didn’t mean it one bit.

Outside, Eva sighed and shook her head.

Does this idiot think he’s actually got leverage to bargain? she thought. Or did he think he was being tricky? Either way, he’s got some huge fucking balls.

Xylo walked up, her overly huge sniper rifle slung on her shoulder. Its barrel pointed up into the sky.

“Couldn’t we just burn it down?” she asked. “Could nab ’em if they ran out. And if they don’t... Well, still a job well done.”

“I don’t think it’d be wise to burn down the whole house just to smoke out a couple rats,” Amal replied. “Buuuut I don’t think Jionna would mind if we were forced to do a little redecorating. She always did say the foyer needed opening up.”

Eva grinned, then turned her attention back to Nightmare.

“I dont think you’ve got much to offer,” she said to him. “I mean, the only thing we want of yours, is, well, whatever’s left of you.”

Nightmare’s face contorted as she spoke.

“Hell,” she continued, “even if you starve to death in there, we’ll still be able to collect your bounties. Dead or alive, we’re gonna gather up your ships, your gear, and sell ’em to the galaxy. We’re gonna make a real killing!”

“Damit,” cursed a thug, “I don’t wanna get spaced by that witch.”

“Me neither,” said another. “I’m turning myself in.”

“What the fuck!” cursed Nightmare. “You chickenshits! We can take those assholes!”

Eva’s voice boomed once again. It sent shivers down their spines.

“We’re gonna give you five seconds to give yourselves up peacefully. If you don’t, well, we’re gonna come in there to get’cha.”

A thug turned to Nightmare. His face was plastered with fear.

“Yo, you saw what her gun did to Vinny,” he said. “Straight turned him into a red cloud. I ain’t going down like that. No fuckin’ way.”

“In five,” she continued.

Then, he moved to the barricade that kept the front door shut. He swiftly pulled a bunch of things off of them.

“Don’t do that,” warned Nightmare

“Four.”

Another one joined him, and the two pulled the barricade apart faster and faster.

“We’re comin’ out!” shouted one of them. “Don’t shoot!”

“Three.”

“Shut the fuck up!” yelled Nightmare. “Put that shit back right now!”

He pointed his gun at the two thugs.

“You insane?!” a thug shrieked. “We aint trying to die on some shit ass bumfuck farm! For your bullshit!”

“Two...”

“Die to her, or die to me,” Nightmare said flatly.

His hand shook as he aimed his gun at his own posse. His finger was tense on the trigger.

He began to squeeze it.

“Wait!” yelled a thug. “Fucking wait, goddammit!”

There was dead silence after the thug had yelled.

The tension broke a little, as the moment when Eva should have said ‘one’ passed without a word. It was far too quiet, and that allowed everyone a moment of respite.

Slightly confused, Nightmare lowered his weapon and looked around.

Without warning, the wall in front of them burst open. A shaped sonic blast ripped through the wood and ferrocrete like it was made of foam.

The sonic blast had also struck everyone inside, who were immediately dazed.

Their minds spun as their sense of balance was completely shattered. Unable to tell left from right or up from down, they stumbled around as the dust settled.

Eva and a handful of the Seven burst into the room and quickly disabled the thugs with merciless precision and brutal strikes. The thugs stood no chance.

All but Nightmare were thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious in a flash.

Amal ran straight up to Nightmare and struck him squarely in the chest with the butt of Dareon’s rifle.

He fell in a stupor as the breath was knocked completely out of him. He weakly clambered away as his mind fought to regain itself.

When his senses had returned moments later, he realized that he had crawled into a corner, and that Amal’s gun was pointed right at his head.

The tip of the barrel shook wildly as she fought against herself.

She wanted to end Nightmare right then and there.

The pain of her loss bore deep into her, and ate away at everything that mattered. It might’ve only been only a month, but it was the best hundred cycles she had ever experienced in her whole life.

She had wanted the rest of it to be just as fulfilling.

Nightmare had taken the promise of it away. And for what? Money? Amusement?

Her thoughts turned to her abuse under his hands. His disgusting breath and fetid sweat. His domineering, sneering grin. His sad excuse for a member. What he did to her was awful, and not just her, but what he did to the other women, too.

What he did to Jionna...

Her hands tightened around the grip, and her finger tugged at the trigger.

Eva saw that Amal was on the verge of killing Nightmare. She wondered if she should stop her, if she even had the right to.

She stepped forward to say something, but was stopped by Locke.

He shook his head – Amal needed this moment to herself.

“So shoot me already, you bitch,” sneered Nightmare. “I know you want to. All of you want to.”

His head fell backwards as he slumped down on the ground.

And laughed.

“I always knew it was all gonna end something like this,” he continued. “I woulda done this back on Earth, you know? Woulda been one of those guys on the news. I’da been that guy who shot up a church or a school or ran over some people in a truck or someshit. Why? Because fuck other people.”

Amal listened intently as Nightmare descended into his own mental hell. Her conflict had cooled greatly as he spoke.

She knew that even if she blew a hole in his head, it wasn’t enough of a punishment. Not even close.

Like the others had said, he needed to feel the weight of everything he had done.

So she lowered her gun.

.....

“Fuck. Other. People,” he kept going. “They don’t give a fuck about you unless you’re hot or smart or funny or whatever. Just thrown to the side like garbage. So what if I took some pride back for myself, huh? So what if I hurt some people? All those assholes hurt plenty others themselves!”

Nightmare huffed as he sat up and leaned on the wall behind him. His anger for people had stewed inside him for so long. It ate away at him slowly, until all that was left were the bitter parts.

Eva walked over and crouched down next to him.

She picked up his gun, which sat a few inches away from him. She looked right into his eyes, but all he could see was the featureless faceplate of her helmet.

Her voice was calm and cold.

“I’ve been there,” she said. “I know what it’s like to be at the bottom, to be thrown aside. To be considered less than trash. ‘Cept I didn’t lash out at everyone. Well, almost everyone. I only went after the ones who fucked with me first. Where did that lead me?”

Nightmare scoffed and turned his head away.

“And where did that lead you?” she continued.

She shoved a finger in his chest. He winced from the pain.

Of course she was right. In the end it didn’t matter what his reasons were. It was still his choice to be a murderous asshole. He simply reaped what he sowed.

“Get fucked,” he spat.

~

The doors to the police precinct suddenly opened with a SWISH.

The Seven walked in triumphantly with their quarries bound up. The thugs had thick, yellow shock collars on their necks. Each one was emblazoned with multiple warning labels on the dangers of improper use.

The thugs tried their best not to read them.

Amal walked up to the counter with Nightmare in her grip. She pushed him into the counter, and knocked some of the air out of his lungs.

“Hi!” she said. “We’re here to turn in a couple dozen bounties.”

Claire looked up from her terminal and glanced at the group. Seven hardened bounty hunters and five of their grizzled prey.

The thirteen of them were a sight to behold.

She recognized a number of them.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Miss Freya! Miss Raijin! So good to see you both! And so nice to see you bring in bounties that are alive and conscious! That will make the boys in processing quite happy!”

Eva scratched the back of her neck.

“Ah, well, about that,” she said. “Not all of the bounties... made it back in one piece. But we’ve got all their genetic markers, along with proof of death!”

Locke’s eyebrow arched, and he leaned in towards Eva.

“You seem to be real popular with all sorts of folk,” he whispered.

“I’m a people person deep down,” she replied softly.

He glanced down at the Handcannon holstered on her thigh. He was certain that it wasn’t standard issue equipment for any kind of ‘People Person’.

“This is Nightmare,” said Amal. “He’s got a boatload of felonies under his belt, but they aren’t even the last of it. We did a whole lot of digging and found way, way more.”

She quickly transferred everything that they had on Nightmare and his gang over to Helios Police. It was a massive amount of data for a relative handful of people.

The dossiers were packed with all sorts of evidence – security footage, witness and victim testimony, various financial records, logs, and so on.

Every single iota of information helped incriminate Nightmare and confirm the hundreds of crimes he and his crew had committed.

It was an overwhelming amount for a hundred cycles or so. Nightmare had been busy as hell.

Claire struggled to make sense of it all, and did the only thing that she could – she marked it as evidence and attached it to their files.

Someone was going to read that, but it certainly wasn’t going to be her.

Thankfully.

“Well, you all really helped put away some truly awful people,” she said.

She entered in more information in her terminal before she handed Amal a datapad.

“To finalize the bounties, we’ll need you all to do a tiny bit of paperwork,” she continued.

There was a collective groan behind Amal.

They all knew how much paperwork was actually involved. Each form they needed to file for each thug was pages and pages long.

Claire leaned in towards Amal slightly.

“Er,” she said quietly. “I know most of your compatriots behind you, but we haven’t been introduced yet. What callsign should I put down for you?”

Amal looked at her and gave a sad smile. Her voice sounded worn, but her tone was strong.

“Call me Azrael,” she said.