| . | . | Stirring the PotRazorback
Razorback stared up at the ceiling. Xena was still asleep, though it had been years since Razor had gotten a full night's sleep. Not that it bothered him. In fact, lately his sleep hadn't even been troubled by his dark nightmares. It seemed Xena kept them away. Or replaced them. Razor decided that while Xena could sleep as long as she wanted, staring off into space was no way for him to spend the rest of the night. Kym Mee sat at a table in the Deep End with a man from each of her three survey teams, discussing the cavern far below. Mee said nothing of the object she'd found at the bottom of the lake. As they talked she noticed a man walk past their table, headed for an empty booth in the corner. Glancing up she recognized him. "Hey, Ghost! I never caught your name." As he turned and walked up to their table one of the men beside her leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Be careful around this one. I hear he's crazy." The man glanced at her companions before finally answering, "Razorback." "That all the name you got?" one of her companions asked. "All you need to know," he responded tonelessly, "That it?" "Yeah," blurted one of the men before Mee could answer. Razorback glanced at the man and then turned back to Mee waiting for an answer. Mee thought back to her invasion of Fantasma, he had been one of the first she'd captured, though he had managed to thwart her interrogation by ignoring her. "I'd like to talk to you later." One of her companions whispered to another and they snickered. Razor ignored the two. "Alright, later." This time when the two whispered together Mee heard one of the clearly say, "If he has a later." Razorback walked of without a word, and Mee followed him until they were out of earshot of the table, then she stopped him. "Don't let them scare you," Mee said Razorback stared at her for long moments before he replied, "Lady, only two things in God's creation ever scared me. Your boys rank about even with freezing to death on the sunside of Mercury." He left. * * * Razorback sat on his cot, drawing in his notebook. The picture was of a Goad speeding through the Mercurian wastes. That's good. The voice seemed to come from nearby, but he was unable to locate an origin. "Thanks." What're you thinking of? Xena sounded a bit concerned. "Right now, I'm thinking of Earth. Of the beautiful displays at sunrise and sunset. The feel and smell of the air before a storm." He stopped drawing and leaning back he stared at the door. That's not all of it. She knew him nearly as well as he knew himself. "I was thinking of the encounter with Commander Mee." Why? "I don't know. Though for some reason I don't like her." Maybe because she killed our people and then we had to take care of her? "Maybe. More likely because the last ranking Imp I knew was Navarre." During the conversation, you said you were only afraid of two things, what are they? Razorback closed his eyes and could clearly see Xena's face. He saw concern in her eyes. "One was fear for you." You don't need to worry about me. She seemed a little defensive there. They both knew she could take care of herself. "You'll have to pardon me for being a little overprotective of one of the few good things I have." You're forgiven. Now he saw her smile, and she continued. What was the other? "Myself." Why? What's so bad about you? "Nothing right now, what scares me is what I might have become." And that still haunts you? You defeated it. "It haunts me because I can still feel it. I won the battle, but I'm afraid to lose the war." You won't lose, dear heart, because that's not who you are. "Then who am I?" Now she smiled again. You're Razorback, Ghost of the Antipode, and my favorite part of Fantasma Colony. Razorback smiled slightly at this and after a short consultation, the two headed off to Fantasma Gardens. * * * Mee sighed and rubbed her temples. This was going nowhere. The problem officers, mostly young and completely loyal to the emperor, saw giving up as treason. What they refused to accept was that they had no chance and that the emperor was so far away that even if they did betray him, he couldn't do anything about it. Not to mention he had condemned them to death already, though not in such plain words. Hearing a beep, she activated her communicator. "Xenogears here, you requested a free Ghost?" Mee sighed. Xenogears was probably her least favorite of the Ghosts. She was almost Cybrid. "Ops said Razorback was coming." "He is near." "All right, how long until you get here?" "As soon as you open the door," Xeno answered dryly. Mee signaled to one of the men to open the door and Xenogears walked in. She was as cold as ever, though she drew the eyes of many of the men. "What exactly do you want me to tell them, Commander?" Mee thought for a minute. She really had no idea. She had been expecting Razorback to come with a speech prepared. "Tell us about what?" called one of her officers. "Why the mission is over," Mee answered. Xenogears nodded and considered for a moment, then she turned to face the troops. Before she could begin one of the men yelled out an insult only a sailor would know. Mee stalked over to the man jerked him to his feet and pushed her face up to his. "Look! They saved us from the Cybrids and let us stay here. You ought to at least be grateful for that! If that's not enough for common courtesy, think of it like this: if they get too mad, they take away our air, power, and water. Unless you wanna die you'll behave!" The man forced a "yes ma'am" through gritted teeth and the room turned its attention back to Xeno. Except that Razorback was standing there. Razor stared at the man, expressionless. The man in turn seemed transfixed by the gaze. As Mee watched a silent message passed between them and the officer glanced away. Razorback glanced around the room gauging the mood of the troops. "Well," he said, "Diplomacy doesn't seem to be working." He pulled out his comm and flipped it on. "Razor to Ops. It seems that our guests need a little convincing. Shut down power to Level 1 for one minute." Without waiting for an answer he flipped his comm off and stalked out the door. The power almost immediately shut off, and with no power the door was stuck shut so they couldn't follow him. By the time power returned, he was long gone and the troops were feeling less like behaving than ever. / < / << / |
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