Austin Goodmen.

[Shrui Ken]

One eye cracked open. Every nerve was on fire, every sense alight. She tried in vain to pry open her other eye, before trying to move her hand to rub away the congealed liquid that had sealed it shut. She pulled. Once. Twice. Three times, before finally with a limp jerk it fluttered a fraction of an inch and returned to its dormant state.

A tear escaped from the open eye, unwilled but a natural reaction to the pain she felt. Through it all, a thought reached her.

Goodmen.

It wasn't the most important thing in her world, but it was enough to focus on to try and block out some of the pain.

Where was she? Who was she?

She pushed the unanswered questions away and returned to focussing on that name. That two syllable, easy to form, sound. That man, who she had hunted as a personal vendetta for so long... slippery as an eel but so delectable.

Then she enabled her ears. Listening. Humming. Machinery? The Anguish? A rush of memory. The Elegant Anguish. Harry.

Salazar.

Groaning slightly, a pitiful sound for a creature so powerful, she wrenched that arm once more into service, across the hard metal tiles underneath her. Where was she? What had happened? New London... the fighting... the Immortal Hunter, ripping a hole in time and space in order to let her escape. Then, the explosion.

The explosion. Siona. Bretonia. Goodmen.

Slowly her fingers curled into claws, feeling the sticky, hot liquid across the cold hard floor her cheek was pressed against. Blood. Her head was pounding, her breath staccato, her heart skipping.

Goodmen

She would not die like this, with one eye closed, on the floor of her own goddamn ship. She kept repeating that name, again and again, focussing, ignoring all else. Dragging her body from its death throes. Slowly, majestically, she rose. One shaking hand found a console to lean against while her second started to claw the drying blood from her face.

Her memories were coming back. Slowly. She could hear the quiet hum of the secondary life support running. Main power was off. Blood was running in a steady drip from her cracked skull, and her arm was definitely broken. So was her ankle from the shape it was currently pointing.

Goodmen

Her resolve would only last so long. She turned to look at the front of the ship, and there, obviously dead from the position his neck was in, was Harry. Her façade slipped for the briefest of moments as a sob choked her throat. She collapsed, screaming in agony as her ankle bent again. Almost blacking out from the pain, she pulled out her mantra once more.

Goodmen

She knew her ship was floating, now under its own inertia, probably heading out into the middle of nowhere. Right now, she had more pressing matters to attend to. She slowly reached out her non-broken hand, grabbed ahold of one of the metal rivets in the floor, and grunting, pulled herself a foot along the floor. Towards the medical bay, far away on the other side of the ship.

She gritted her teeth, before screaming so it reverberated around the silent bridge.

'GOODMEN'.

6 Months Later. Now.

The broken and battered Kusari Destroyer roared its way back towards Sirius space. The failed jump had left her ship without power flying blindly away from the centre of Sirius. Now, after 6 weeks lying in the medical bay, dosing herself with painkillers while she conducted surgery on herself, then endless days of fixing the engines to the point they could limp back to Bretonia, days where she had sat, plotting, thinking, debating and deciding.

She knew who had killed her father. She knew who had brought this destruction upon her ship, murdered her beloved servant and decimated her and her fathers legacy.

Goodmen.

By the time she had arrived at Phoenix Shipyards, it was destroyed. She had predicted it, knew that the blazing wreck of the Immortal Hunter would have lead the Bretonian Military straight to the base. But she had gotten what she had needed. Some spare parts. Some of her personal effects from the wreckage.

Now, it was time to take up her fathers mantle, but not against Bretonia. No mindless killing sprees at a people who merely shrugged them off. No, she would be after one man. One man only. She did not even want to kill him, she was just going to find him, and then, knowing his will, she would slowly, exquisitely, beautifully, completely destroy his soul. Bend him to want her. Mould him to need her.

Her finger pressed slowly down on the transmission button, and the message she had prepared broadcast itself across Bretonia.

'Let's see if your determination outdoes mine' muttered Siona Kithe.

[Incoming Transmission]
[Error: Location Code displays destination as location]
[Opening file]
[Video file enabled]
[]

Goodmen.

I am coming for you.

You have stripped everything from me, and now it is time for me to take it back. The Immortal Hunter never dies, and my Anguish never ends. You won the last round. In fact, you won the last war. That was a war with my father, and my father was old. My father was a man.

My father is dead you son of a bitch, and you will pay.

[Transmission ends]

---

[Wolfs Ghost]

Looking over at the flashing dot, Austin shuddered at the sudden moment of dejavu that washed over him. He shook his head, knowing that it was probably nothing more but an incoming message from the Lane Hackers, after all, they were the last organization to receive a transmission strictly from him.

Life hasn't been the same since his years in virtual solitude, at least, that was what he considered it as. The light continued to flash on his display, and he, himself, continued staring straight at it. Of course, knowing his curiosity as of late, he pressed the button, and that cold chill ran down his spine.

So, she's still alive..I was wondering what happened to her. Hesitantly he reached for the communications, clearing his throat, and shaking away the slight fear that befell him.

<div align="right]Location: New York


"Well. I apparently didn't strip that much away from you. Unless you're still naked and horribly ugly. So, if I won the war, does this mean you're coming back to start a new one? I doubt you want to chit-chat with me while having tea, crumpets, and a fun night at the carnival. Like, fair people would. Heard your non-dying father ran off to the join 'em too. Maybe he isn't dead after all.

Well, that's about it. Oh, one more thing before I return to ignoring your futile and abject life, if there is going to be anything between us, it'll be a bullet, in your skull. Toodles, dear."

He winks playfully to the camera, before reaching over and shutting off the communication channel.

[Transmission Terminated]

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