Confinement

Day 1

A blinding light, then darkness...

I knew, I've always known. They have followed me from the beginning, since the day I learned of the truth. Today they mean to strip it from me. I wont let go, I wont give in. They shroud me in darkness, yet it's the darkness that clouds my mind that is most unsettling, I can feel them, their fingers working inside my brain, trying to tell me what I know, what I believe.

I'm so sorry Red, I wish I could have done something. I wish you didn't need to be subjected to this...to me.

Day 4

Another day and it feels like more of my soul has been taken. Another day...I say that but I don't really know. The darkness is all I have and right now, the light is so bright, the shadow it casts seems inescapable. Hurry Red, Hurry.

I tell myself to sleep, but without you next to me, I cannot. Each night that passes I stay awake to suffer their torture, perhaps they wanted it this way. Maybe they knew separating us would be the ultimate torture. Four days, four days without sleep, four days without you....

Day 42

Is it day or is it night? Have hours passed...days...years...seconds? Red... the only thing I'm still sure of, the only thing I still know. The darkness has encompassed me. My arms and legs, bound, tied, restrained, along with my mind.

I can hear them...outside...does that mean I'm in something? They poke and prod but I will not yield. Red please... find me. Save me.

How to Cut a Ruby - Chapter 6

The footsteps of Zack and Julie faded into silence as the portal closed behind them. Ruby gazed at the empty hallway, then carefully twisted her aching body to look at the man standing behind her.

She spoke softly, "No goin' back now."

Reinhold smiled at her, "I never would have went back before..." He slid an arm around her shoulder and leaned down for a long kiss. She turned the rest of her body around and slipped her arms around him to embrace him tightly. He brushed her hair from her face and winked at her. "...But you are definitely going to owe me after all this."

She let her arms slip from their locked position and smirked as she lightly slapped him across the face. "Well, mebbe after I stop feelin' like a piece of tenderised meat."

His mask disguised the concern in his face, and he carefully gathered her into his arms. Her face twisted in discomfort as his arms held her bruised body, but she made no verbal complaint.

Big girls don't cry.

Reinhold placed her upright in bed and turned to close the door. She stripped to her boy-shorts and tossed her clothing into the corner of the room. She laboriously leaned forward to unlace and pull off each boot and set them at the foot of the bed. Reinhold rolled her onto her stomach and began to knead the muscles in her shoulders. She closed her eyes and sank into the mattress, allowing only a soft moan of relief to escape her parched lips.

Ruby's heavy eyelids closed halfway and her vision blurred as Reinhold worked her aching back muscles with his strong hands. She turned her head to the left to stare blankly at his neat desk and the meticulously sorted stack of paper on the corner. She allowed her eyes to close the rest of the way and immediately, her mind started to race.

The District Attorney. The son of a bitch. Ruby shivered as Rein traced her spine with his fingertips and opened her eyes a slit. He was using her like a chump this whole time. She had no idea she would be faced with a choice of life in the Zig, or death by his hand. It was difficult to decide which would be worse.

He never anticipated he'd have to deal with a force like Ruby Phoenix. Another Outcast street thug. No big deal, right? She'd do his dirty work to stay out of the Zigg, and he'd hide her body in his skeleton-filled closet.

Then there was Reinhold. Nobody expected Ruby to associate herself with someone like him. She smiled slightly as she felt his hands run up her back, over her ribs, the sides of her breasts, and onto her shoulders again. She shivered slightly at the sensation of his lips kissing between her shoulder blades. Reinhold was the ace on the river.

Ruby winced slightly as Reinhold applied pressure to her spine, but instead of complaining, she let him work on her sore muscles and released a controlled breath. The DA had to go, but she couldn't kill him. Killing the DA would likely be traced back to her by now, and the last thing she wanted was to be sent to the Zigg after all this effort. She held up her end of the bargain, and despite all the terrible things she did in her past, she felt she was finally on the right path. The last thing she needed was to go back to jail.

She thought about the list. Half the people were dead, and the other half were surely captured, hiding, or on the run. The list would be the key to it all. She yelped in pain as Reinhold put pressure on a rather sizable bruise on her lower back. He paused the massage and placed his flat palm on the small of her back.

"You all right, Red?" He lifted his hand as she twisted her body and nodded slightly. He traced his fingers over the yellowing bruises covering her ribcage, kidneys, and spine, then carefully resumed the back rub.

If they could pin the murders to the DA, his campaign for Mayor would be ruined. They needed to find his itinerary, trace the bodies, and link the two without implicating either Ruby or Reinhold. She squeezed her eyes shut as Reinhold moved his hands to her muscular legs. She spread her toes when he reached her ankle and softly chuckled when he ran a finger along the bottom of her foot.

Surely there was a cop they could trust with the information. Ruby scowled at the idea of trusting anyone in the PPD, but with enough digging, surely the information could make it to someone who wasn't in the DA's pocket. There were hundreds of officers. They couldn't ALL be dirty, could they?

They just didn't have the resources.

Ruby kicked Reinhold's hand as he tickled the bottom of her foot. He chuckled and pressed his thumbs above her heel. Her entire body trembled with relief as the pressure on her foot seemed to relieve stress in other places. She smiled lopsidedly at him and wiggled her foot out of his hands. He crawled back up her body, pausing briefly to kiss the small of her back, and curled up next to her on the bed.

Zack and Julie had resources. The lab alone was state of the art, and definitely not linked to official avenues. Surely, they had to deal with more injuries than they wanted the city to know about. She was positive they had Reinhold's attention, but the fact that he wasn't able to dig up any information both worried and reassured her.

Reinhold snaked his arms around her midsection and pulled her against his warm body. He nuzzled his nose in her hair and inhaled deeply, then kissed the top of her head. She tried to stifle her fatigue, but failed miserably as her jaw relaxed to release a big yawn. Reinhold yawned in turn and chuckled at her. She smiled lazily and wrapped her hands around his wrists to silently assure him she wanted nothing more than to be laying there right then with him.

It had been a dark couple of months, but she almost swore she could see an exit at the end of the tunnel. She turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. He had removed his mask at some point. She studied his face: he really was quite handsome. A face like his was certainly memorable without the mask. It was no wonder he wore it... and his face was hers alone to see. Her emerald eyes locked to his startling azure eyes, but she couldn't formulate the words she needed.

He moved a hand from around her midsection to the side of her face and kissed her warmly. He was here for her. He had never abandoned her. He took her in when she was stalked by the hitman. He came for her when Burkholder was ready to kill her. He tended her wounds, watched her while she slept, and did everything in his power to protect her. She rolled to face him and wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"Y'know, Rein," she murmured. "Y'really are somethin' special. Y'always seem t'know what's best. Ain' y'glad y'decided t'slosh 'round in th' sewers that day?" She traced his brow with her fingers, ran her hand through his hair, and closed her eyes halfway.

He simply nodded and kissed her again. "If we make the right moves, it will all be over soon, Red."

He hugged her tightly against his chest and rested his chin on the top of her head. She yawned again, cocooned safely in his embrace, and drifted to sleep.

How to Cut a Ruby: Chapter 5 D

The outside of the Council base erupted into a firefight as Reinhold used his abilities to fling the Freaks into the Council Soldiers standing guard. The Freaks were freed just as the men regained their bearings, and in the confusion they began fighting amongst themselves. Reinhold would have normally used the distraction as a chance to disappear into the shadows and sneak inside, but today... today was all about revenge. He summoned up his living shadows and leaped from his perch to engage the lot of them.

The Council and Freaks united in their screams as Reinhold flung all of them heavily into the entrance of the base. By now, whether or not the guards had been able to radio it in was irrelevant. It was clearly obvious to the men near the door that someone or something was outside. As the door blew open, the Council soldiers that were waiting were knocked over like a series of bowling pins.

Before order could be restored, Reinhold had strolled through the door, and without so much as a twitch, his living shadows began to tear through the soldiers. Their master watched briefly before deciding to take a more active role, using the soldiers' own shadows to grip them tightly to the floor. He hammered them with wave after wave of dark energy, staggering their senses and leaving them stunned. The dozens of troops melted under Reinhold's assault, and more and more came, only to meet the same fate.

Relativity was in full effect. To Reinhold, the minutes passed like seconds as he unleashed a darkened hell upon the base. To the Council, however, each second seemed to last an eternity, as they were crushed wave after wave by one man. After the onslaught seemed over, Reinhold made his way through the now relatively peaceful base, leaving the bodies of the fallen wherever they may have landed in the exchange.

Senses kicking back in, Reinhold slipped into the shadows and quickly navigated the base, searching for wherever they might have been keeping her. Spending so much time infiltrating bases seemed to come in handy in this sort of situation. With a quick survey of the base he could take a strong, educated guess as to where they might be holding her, and once he had his bearings, he rushed off to find her.

As Reinhold ran quickly through the halls, he suddenly spotted a group of Council soldiers that seemed to be guarding something. Quickly shifting direction, he raced towards them, sending his minions to hit them head on, and distracting them just long enough for him to take advantage of the situation and completely lock them down. Again, relativity took effect, and the seconds both flew by and slowed to a crawl, depending on which end of the attack you were on. In either case, the ambush was brief, ending with Reinhold waving a hand and flinging all but one of the Council bodies away from the guarded door.

Sounds of heavy impact, muffled by the walls, made their way to Reinhold's ears. Fearing the worst and visualizing Red being beaten, his anger finally bubbled to the surface. Without making contact, he raised the one Council body he had left aside, and with tremendous force and fueled by his own rage, he flung the body against the door. The body hit the door with a sickening thud and the sound of numerous bones snapping, but the door remained in place. Anger still fueling him, he motioned to the pile of Council he had made, and with a quick snap of his wrist he flung every man at the door.

The steel was strong, but after taking numerous hits from Reinhold's human pinballs, it began to give way, warping and contorting the center, and finally bending the hinges. Scattering the Council with a flick of his wrist, he walked to the door and knocked it from its hinges with a swift kick. He rushed in, ready to turn one unfortunate individual's last few moments on this earth into an unspeakable hell, but all he found was an fist swirling with dark energy flying straight towards his head. Quickly ducking, he saw Red look at him with shock, clearly having thought he was another interrogator. She looked at him, eyes all but swollen shut, blood seeping out from more places than he cared to count. She was a wreck, but she was alive, and living on borrowed adrenaline. Seeing him was too much for her to process, and she limply collapsed.

Reinhold quickly caught her, looking her over, and searching for anything that would demand immediate attention. Seeing nothing necessarily life threatening, he cradled her in his arms and quickly got her out of the base. The run home was a quiet one. He looked down at her, her body resembling a tenderized piece of meat more than the woman he knew and cared for. He couldn't help but wonder if it had all been worth it: worth the sacrifice.

His question was answered when he noticed a buzzing coming from one of Red's pockets. Quickly realizing it wasn't her phone, he stopped to pull it out. The name, Nathaniel Miller, flashed across the screen. Reinhold instantly recognized it: the name of the District Attorney. He slid the phone into his pocket. Getting Red home safe was more important. This could wait.

How to cut a Ruby - Chapter 5 C

Rough calloused hands gripped Ruby's chin and forced her to look up. Her eyes were nearly swollen shut, and her entire body ached from the pounding of fists and stomping of reinforced steel toes. She struggled through the blood, sweat, and haze in her eyes to focus on the face of the man craning her neck back, but the bright light directly behind him made him nothing more than an impending silhouette.

Ruby could barely hear his voice through the thumping in her head. It was as though her ears were smothered in a soft down pillow, like when she was a kid, trying to bury out her mom's voice when it a Monday morning school day: only this was far from soft and comfortable. She focused on the man's muffled voice, making out only bits of the conversations.

"...her the drug as soon as we ... won't pose a threat ... enough to stop a man twice her ... for Burkholder to get here..."

She defiantly struggled to lift her chin from the man's hand and tugged against her binds. The hand slapped her across the face as she resisted him, and she responded in turn by spitting a mouthful of blood into his face.

Ruby's actions earned her another swift punch to the face. She started to laugh loudly at her captors, tilting her head back and closing her bruised eyes to feel the room spin haphazardly. She called out to them in a sing-song voice, "Ain' gonna make me say nothin', twats! Jus' you wait till I get free! Boy, will you be fuckin' sorry!"

One of the men in the room had obviously had enough. He stormed towards her, grabbed her hair roughly, and pressed his pistol against her temple. This only made Ruby laugh even harder. "Shoot me, motherfucker! See how Burkholder likes THAT!" The man cocked the barrel and jerked her head by the hair. "DO IT, YOU FUCKING PUSSY!", Ruby taunted.

The door to the room busted open, and a familiar authoritative voice bellowed.

"Stand down! Don't kill her until we know what she stole from us!"

The rough hands released her, and the cold nozzle of the gun was taken from her head. She couldn't help but smirk.

"'ey Burkholder. That you? I'm sorry, did yer men drag you away from yer pedestal o'bullshit jus' t'deal with li'l ol' me?"

Burkholder growled and kicked the chair out from under her. She slumped heavily to the floor. Her legs and wrists were both tightly bound, but she still managed to find the strength to try rolling away. Burkholder grabbed her roughly by the elbow and tugged her 5 foot tall frame to her knees. He growled at his guards to leave the room and waited for the heavy steely clang of the door before he started his work.

"Arrigh' Burkholder. Y'got me, but y'don' got what we took from ya. Now what?" Ruby smugly grinned at him. He kicked her in the stomach and she buckled over, laughing at him as more blood poured from her mouth and spattered onto the floor.

"You've been more trouble than you're worth, little girl." Burkholder dragged her to her knees again and started circling her. "If you didn't destroy our databases, steal our secrets, and threaten our security, I would have killed you a very long time ago. I'm going to enjoy making you tell me what you were after."

"So, why didn't ya? Why don't ya now? Is th' stuff we stole that important?"

"Shut up!" He punched her between the shoulders and kicked her in the ribs while she was down. She gasped for breath and choked slightly on the fluids in her throat. She forced herself to start laughing again, despite how her entire body screamed at her to give in. She would give Burkholder no satisfaction.

"Y'can' handle a WOMAN! Fucking PATHETIC! How'd you even manage t'make it past Colonel, Burkholder? Whose dick did you suck, HUH?"

Her taunting was rewarded with a surly kick to the face, and her battered body was flung to the floor, her head cracking sickly against the concrete. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but flashing and stars, she felt the gooey heat of blood spilling out of her nose and all over her face, and she tasted copper in her mouth. She vaguely wondered how much blood she had swallowed. She rolled onto her side and spat another mouthful of blood on the floor, her laughter starting up again. She couldn't help it at this point: it was the only thing keeping her in the right mindset.

Burkholder's heavy footsteps approached her, but stopped short as the shrill ring of a cell phone pierced the room. He turned away from her and stepped towards the door.

"Yes? Yes. She's here. No, nothing. Are you sure?" Burkholder glanced over his shoulder at Ruby, who had stopped laughing and was laying very, very still apart from her ragged breathing. "If I do this, we're even. I don't owe you anything else. We won't be needing your assistance," he hissed. "She's a real fucking problem, but it will be over soon."

Burkholder balanced the phone between his shoulder and ear as he tugged his gloves on. He took the phone in a gloved hand and nodded at the voice that had been speaking to him. "It won't get back to you. I'm taking care of her, myself." He watched Ruby, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the possibility that she may have passed out again without giving him what he wanted to know. He addressed the voice on the phone one last time. "Don't worry. It won't be found. We're very good at hiding them. You'll hear from me when it's done."

The clamshell cell phone was snapped shut and placed in his pocket. Ruby had been taking deep breaths to focus her strength. She felt the fury of Hell burning in her chest and begging to be freed. Burkholder isn't the guy? Who is he working for? That cell phone...

Burkholder grabbed Ruby's arm and roughly pulled her to kneel. She tilted her head back and grinned at him mirthlessly. Burkholder wound up to punch her in the face for taunting him again, but couldn't swing fast enough to connect it. The Crey drug worked. Ruby's body exploded into flame with a sonorous roar, and the sheer force of the inferno nearly threw Burkholder through the wall.

Ruby rose to her feet, her body running on nothing but pure willpower, and focused her fires to burn hot enough to disintegrate the ropes binding her wrists and ankles. She tugged an epi-pen from its hidden spot in her boot and thrusted the needle into her chest with a shaky hand. She threw the empty syringe on the floor and turned her penetrating green eyes on Burkholder. She grabbed the chair she had been sitting on earlier and wedged it between the floor and the doorknob to buy a few minutes of time. She then turned to the stunned and disoriented Burkholder, that same mirthless grin plastering her bruised and battered face.

Rein... if yer out there... now's th' time t' come in an' help me!

How to Cut a Ruby: Chapter 5 B

Reinhold alternated his view between the building and his watch at a steady pace. He had told Cecily to keep an eye on the front, and Andie on the back, but something told him this was the door. Call it gut instinct, intuition, or just a lucky guess: something told him this would be the way she came out. Perched on this rooftop, covered in the shadows, he was safe from any wayward glance a soldier might make. Positioned just so, if she went any way, he could move. His bases were covered.

The hands on his watch seemed to struggle to move, fighting against time itself. He knew what was happening, and every fiber of his being, every scrap of emotion, was crying out to him to storm the building and save her... but no. He couldn't. Moving now would only mean that everything was for nothing. The night air screamed as crimes were committed by whichever nefarious force lurked the streets, each feminine shriek tricking him into thinking it was her. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction. Deep down, he knew that. Each question they asked, each strike they landed, would be met with a snide remark and a blood-infused spit.

Almost beyond the point of bearing this torture, Reinhold peered down at the doorway. His patience was rewarded when the door burst open. The small hallway spat out what must have been twenty to thirty Council soldiers, many of them looking like they needed desperate medical attention. The sight of each beaten and battered face could only make Reinhold grin for the briefest of moments -- until he laid eyes on Ruby's limp, unconscious body. They dragged her, not so gently, to a military-esque vehicle that undoubtedly belonged to the Council. They tossed her body into the rearmost section of the vehicle and quickly drove into the night.

This city was good to Reinhold. If he needed something, he knew that the city would provide it so long as he knew where to look. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, springing off of a TV antenna, sliding down power lines, utilizing fire escapes: the tools were all there. So, he pursued. The vehicle pulled away from him, but never out of his sight as he pushed himself to keep up.

Eventually, the vehicle came to a stop in front of what looked like a warehouse, but Reinhold knew better. When you see enough Council bases, you eventually can tell what’s inside from a quick glance at the outside. The lab inside would be large, extending deep underground. Stainless steel walls stretch off into the distance as they yanked her from the vehicle and dragged her inside. A few select soldiers stood guard by the door as it quickly slammed shut behind them.

Perched atop his roof, he looked for an opening. He needed a way in, and he didn’t have time to wait around. Of course, this is the moment a small gathering of Freakshow tried to jump him. At first, he looked up at the Freaks, his face saying Not now, before his lips could ever move. But, of course, they didn’t listen. They never listened. In a split second, they lunged at him, and in that same second, he waved his hand and locked them to the ground. Another wave, and they didn’t know which way was up.

A light bulb flicked on in his head as he looked between the Freaks and the Council base. A faint grin spread across his face, “Two birds, one stone. I’m coming Red. Hang in there.”

How to cut a Ruby - Chapter 5 A

The evening screamed by as though the night was made of seconds rather than hours. Ruby stared at herself in the mirror, tracing her fingers over the faded lines that were once cuts made from a piano wire. So much had happened since the day she earned them. She raked her fingers through her shiny white hair, thumbed over a few fresh cuts on her face, and neatly pulled her neck cover on.

Placing a hand on each side of the mirror, she leaned forward to study her own fierce jade eyes. Arrigh', Red. Time t' lose a fight.

Reinhold was waiting at the kitchen table. She glanced at the items he had spread out before him: the drug (in a rather scary looking needle), rubber cord, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, a vial of adrenaline, and the first aid kit. She forced herself to smile at him, and he returned an equally fake grin. They watched each other in silence for a minute before he piped up.

"Ready, Red?"

She unclasped and resnapped her gloves tightly. "'Bout as ready as I'll ever be, I guess." She took a seat at the table, rolled her sleeve up, and snugly wrapped the rubber cord around her tricep. "Are the others ready to go?"


*****


Infiltrating a Council base was never an easy task. Nor had it ever been such a forced and unwilling task. The four friends approached the base just as the sun set over the dreary Striga horizon. Their usual banter had died to a thick and heavy silence.

Reinhold jogged ahead of the three women, breaking into a sprint and expertly using trees, rocks, and his own will to propel, kick, and launch himself onto the towering wall surrounding the bustling base. He crouched momentarily to ensure the soldiers were in the midst of changing shifts, then lowered a rope to pull the others to his level. Ruby placed a flat palm against his back and lightly patted him. She glanced over her shoulder at the wide-eyed Cecily Fay and the reluctant, but still willing, Andie.

The four silently dropped from the wall and rolled neatly onto the ground below. They crept through shadows, around warehouses, avoided patrols, and finally made it to the building of their choice: a central control bunker. Ruby gave Andie and Cecily a tight hug each, then turned to Reinhold. He pulled her close and squeezed her lovingly before planting a kiss on her lips. "We'll come for you, Red. This, I promise." She tore her eyes from his face and nodded curtly to the others.

"Arrigh' guys. Time t'dance."

The door to the bunker flew open from the force of Ruby's steel-toed combat boot. It barely hung on its hinges as the blazing white inferno of the petite woman screamed past the guards and into the central chamber. The men started to yell frantically, and the alarm was set.

The others filed into the building quickly as Ruby filled her role as "The Diversion".

"Get the fuckin' file, arready, Rein!" She barked, "We gotta get th' fuck outta here before it's fulla rats!"

Reinhold, Andie, and Cecily sprinted towards the central database as Ruby battled the growing number of Council soldiers at the door, using the small entrance to bottleneck them. They quickly downloaded a file to a flash drive and prepared for their departure.

Ruby screamed as she drove her fist into the face of one of the soldiers. His nose exploded with a mixture of blood and cartilage and he dropped to the ground, unmoving. His buddies, just as stupidly fearless and loyal to their organization, rushed Ruby.

The fires surrounding her body mercilessly seared the men around her and turbulently deflected most of their bullets. Her fist made contact with more faces, chins, and chests than she could keep track of. She kneed more groins, legs, and heads than recent memory could recall. The natural adrenaline flowing through her body made her feel as though the fire in which she was engulfed also ran through her veins.

The alarm echoed throughout the complex, calling more troops. It was the perfect spot to hit. The perfect, less than obvious, hot spot to attract their attention. She felt rough arms wrap around her waist and concentrated to increase the heat of her fire. The man screamed in agony as he released her and curled into a trembling ball of burning misery. She stepped on his head as she sprinted towards another soldier about to open fire at her, point-blank. She grabbed his gun before he could squeeze the trigger and ripped it from surprised hands. She threw the gun across the room, picked him up with alarming strength, and threw him into the growing group of men at the door.

The men began to push their way through the entrance, past the man she threw, and quickly towards her. Their sheer force in numbers was far too much for Ruby to handle by herself. She threw her arms down to summon an blazing inferno of flames at the entrance of the door before taking a step back, clearing the room of as many stragglers as possible, and preparing for the main assault.

"Get outta here, guys! I'll be arrigh'....!" Ruby called out to them as the force of soldiers at the door fearlessly dove through the flames and began to pile into the room. Cecily and Andie darted out of the building through the back fire exit with Reinhold heading up the rear.

He paused at the door for one final moment as the few men inside the building doused the fire she had set with an extinguisher. With the hazard cleared, several dozen soldiers stormed in to surround her. The angry mob knocked her to the ground, and despite her very enthusiastic and completely genuine efforts to fight back, they easily, viciously, relentlessly, and furiously beat her like she had never been beaten before.

The Mission

Ruby Phoenix lifted her head from her pillow. Her body was tired and sated, and her eyes were clouded with fatigue. There were no windows to let in the sun, but the clock on the bedside tabled indicated it was exactly 9:24 am. Ruby closed her tired eyes halfway and smiled contentedly. She squeezed Reinhold’s arm around her naked form and pulled the sheet over her goosebumped flesh.

9:25 am. Ruby brought Reinhold’s hand to her lips and gently kissed his knuckles. The last time she had seen the clock, it told her the time was 3:47 am. She had only seen it from the corner of her eye before their bodies collapsed in a heap of tired but satisfied flesh and covers.

When the clock turned 9:26, Ruby pulled Reinhold’s arm from around her midsection and gently laid it on the bed where she had lain. She raked her hands through her striking white hair and smiled at him for an extra moment before pulling on one of his starched button up shirts and a pair of her boy-shorts, then padding barefoot into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

Cecily Fay sat at the dining room table in her fuzzy bunny jammies. She couldn’t help but grin at Ruby as she rolled her eyes and fished through the drawers for a coffee filter. Despite her morning pleasantries, and the previous night’s exertions, Ruby was hardly in the mood to talk.

The only thing on her mind right now was the upcoming sacrifice.

The council had been after them for far too long. What had started with Lou’s hitman had escalated to a series of questionings and break-ins. Then, they took Andie. Beat her to a pulp. What was left? They did their digging. They searched for weeks, but it felt like years. Who was behind it? What do they want? No. They knew what they wanted.

Ruby Phoenix.

But she kept asking herself, “Why?” Who had she pissed off this much? Why would anyone want her dead? Maybe the gangs, but Outcasts had no links to Council. It didn’t make sense.

With no other leads, Ruby had formulated a plan of action. She hated sitting around and doing nothing. She hated being hunted. She hated the ambushes. She hated living in fear. She hated the fact that her friends were endangered. Why had she let them get close? Andie: already beaten. Cecily: so vulnerable by nature. Reinhold… Rein… well, Rein could take care of herself, she mused. How many times had he pulled her out of trouble, now? Far too many times to possibly keep track of.

Ruby scooped the coffee into the filter and filled the pot, then poured herself a glass of orange juice. She gazed vacantly over at the living area where Cecily was saying something to her, but she couldn’t make out the words. She felt as though she was a million miles away. She simply nodded absently to the younger woman’s words and drank her orange juice. What was she thinking about, again?

Oh, right. The plan.

Ruby thought of it in the shower, of all places. As the steaming water scourged the filth from her body, her mind often tended to race. She was struck with the thought as she was twisting the tap into the off position.

What if the council captured her?

Andie and Cecily were immediately against the idea. Rein wasn’t particularly fond of it, either, but after a night’s thought, he warmed up to it. With the four of them working together, the risk was minimal. The only problem would be giving them the impression that Ruby Phoenix, of legendary anger-fame, was unable to activate her powers should they implement a power suppression device or technique.

Rein had done a bit of digging, bless his soul. Ruby smiled down into her glass of orange juice and took a long draw from the glass. It turns out the Crey had developed a pharmaceutical for such a purpose. It was how they infiltrated their competitors with their Paragon Protectors. It was the easiest way for them to break their tights-clad soldiers out of the Zigg.

Ruby came to her senses as the coffee maker chattered its completion. She slammed the rest of her orange juice and brought 3 coffee mugs to the counter. Rein must have realized the bed was cold, for he had woken up and pulled on his daytime clothes. He walked over to the countertop, greeting Cecily on the way out, and adjusted his mask with a smile.

“Good morning, Red. How did you sleep?” He took his cup from her and added way too much sugar. Ruby wrinkled her nose and poured her own coffee, quickly adding a small amount of cream and sugar. She only winked in response to his greeting, but stepped on her tip toes to return the favour as he leaned over to kiss her good morning.

The Crey facility raid was only days away. She both anticipated and dreaded the mission she would have to carry out. She forced a smile at Rein, than turned to Cecily with a nod.

As far as she wanted them to know, today was all about friendship and coffee.