[FIN] A Murder of Crows

[BlackFireKitsune]

One hand slid up to tangle itself in his boyfriend's blond hair while the other lowered a bit to rub over his back, subconsciously smoothing itself over the burn scars there. "So the warehouse then, and..." He'd said as soon as possible, so maybe... "...are you going to see if he'll agree to tonight then?" Was tonight too soon?

Of course it was, doing it at all was too soon, but it was something he'd have to face sooner or later. Abel couldn't blame him at all for wanting to get it over with sooner rather than sit and dwell on it forever.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran closed his eyes, jaw tense, and nodded. "Yes. Tonight."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Tonight then," he agreed in a soft murmur as he hugged him tighter, his fingers gently playing through his hair. As much as he didn't want to do this - as much as he didn't want either of them do to it - they had to. They would get through it somehow, or else it'd be the last thing they did. It wouldn't be the last though, he'd make damn sure of it. "I guess we'd better pack up then and head out to go find her phone, yeah? Whenever you want to leave, we'll go."  

[TawnyAngel]

Tonight, just a few hours and it would be over. They had only the vaguest notion of a plan but when had he ever had more than that? Plans only slowed him down.

Zevran pulled back from Abel's embrace and gave him a tight and sharp-edged grin, his amber eyes just as keen. "Well then, let us go." What he was trying not to think about, really trying not to think about, was that if Taliesen was here on an officially sanctioned mission this would not be the end of it. If he had been sent to do this there would be more Crows sooner or later, and again and again until the job was done. The tone of the messages from Callisto's phone gave him hope that his old friend was here of his own accord, had not informed his superiors, but the worry that he could be wrong joined the others twisting in his gut. No need to tell Abel about it though, he would find out the truth when they met Taliesen and his retinue.

It did not take too long to get everything he needed together; jacket, boots, gloves, the pistol and the knife he had taken from Patty's apartment, and four pokemon.

Here Zevran paused, running his fingers over the pokeballs, and turned to Abel. "Who will be coming with you? Only Sonia?" After some deliberation he himself had selected Amigo, Estoque, Invierno, and Clara. He was unsure if Amigo really had the temperament for this work but the Butterfree already knew what was going on and would not be left behind. Estoque was reliable now and as she had demonstrated the previous night not at all averse to human death. Invierno was large and intimidating, if that was all it provided that would still be an edge. Finally Clara, Clara had stuck to his heels since they had gone back out into the living room, there was no more point trying to leave her behind than there was Amigo.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

And just like that Zevran withdrew, and the taller blond gave him a smile in return, controlled and determined. "Alright."

It took him just as long as Zev to ready himself, perhaps a little longer; sneakers, jacket, black leather gloves, one of the handguns from inside the box in his closet that had taken but a few moments to load, a holster, and four pokeballs, the occupants of three of which had already been recalled. "Caleb, Elizabeth and Tania too," he said as he pocketed the pokeballs, Sonia standing ready at his side and watching the pair expectantly. Isaac whined as he circled Abel's ankles for probably the umpteenth time since they'd started preparing, and the blond knelt down for a moment to rub his hands over the psychic-type's large ears as he offered him a small, apologetic smile. "Sorry bud, you can't come. I need someone to hold down the fort and keep an eye on everyone else, yeah? Don't worry, everything'll work out." Once more the eeveelution whined as he pressed his face into his friend's hands, not wanting him to go but knowing there was nothing he could do to sway him.

After a moment or two Abel stood again and glanced over at his boyfriend. "Ready to go?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Humm." Zevran looked at his remaining pokeballs thoughtfully for a few moments before selecting a fifth and adding it to his belt. "Azul," he explained, "we may need some water."

That was it then, nothing more to prepare.

Zevran turned to Abel and nodded, his expression inscrutable. "Ready."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Some water and sharp teeth, maybe. All the same Abel nodded his head and, since they were as ready as they ever could be for such a situation, he turned and slipped out of the apartment with Zevran and Sonia.

On their way to the park the dark-type disguised the pair of them with an illusion, allowing them to focus on getting to the park and thereafter the general area they'd disposed of the phone in. Since it was heavily wooded and no one else was around - that and if anyone did approach they'd hear them coming - the Zoroark dropped her illusion to conserve energy, because she'd surely need it later, and joined the pair of humans in searching for the device.  

[TawnyAngel]

He really did need to improve on Vision's training, if he had done so his own Zoroark could be helping right now. Everything had seemed so peaceful, where was the rush to prepare such skills? Foolish.

"I think it was close to here, I remember walking by that tree as we left," Zevran said with a gesture to the distinctive gnarled thing. "I'm sure I threw it into some bushes... though I was paying little attention at the time. Over there maybe?" Zevran gestured again, this time to a nearby tangle of undergrowth.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"We'll find it," Abel replied as he headed towards the undergrowth Zevran had gestured to, keeping his voice even and calm and patient. They had time, they had all the time in the world to find the phone. It was after they found it that they'd give themselves a time limit. Sonia made a vague noise of acknowledgement in the back of her throat and moved to join her human, though she picked an area nearby to search rather than get underfoot.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmh, yes, we will find it." Zevran's brows knit together as he moved to the bushes and started to poke around for the the void-damned thing. "It would be easier if I had thought of this at the time, but I am not surprised that I did not."

After a bit of muttering in Spanish and pulling aside branches Zevran gave a grunt of satisfaction and straightened up holding the phone; that he didn't crow cheerfully about the small victory spoke of his serious mood.

"Here," he said as he pressed the said button, "and it still has battery too." Waiting for it to power up and then accept its password seemed to take forever but at last it allowed him access. After a few moments more its messaging app flashed to inform the user that there were 20+ messages waiting for them, with a :O! for emphasis at just how exciting this must be for them.

Zevran huffed and tapped the app.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Zevran's exclamation drew his attention and both Abel and Sonia looked up to find him already turning on the phone, so both straightened up and moved to join him. Abel waved his Zoroark away though and she padded off a few feet to stand guard. "Ah, that's good," he noted as he peered over his love's shoulder and slid an arm around his waist. He could at least understand the number of messages, that wasn't in Spanish. "Mmh, that's a lot of messages since last night."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Indeed," Zevran murmured as he scanned down the thread. "This is where I stopped reading last night... They have been searching the city as Taliesen commanded last night, reporting where they have been. Velasco and Belladonna have sent several messages asking that Callisto update them on her status, I think they must know her better than the others... At four in the morning Taliesen calls a halt to the search and orders them to regroup at their hideout. The last message is to Callisto it is..." Zevran frowned a little as he ran the translation through his head so that it made sense, word for word never did. "He says that if she is not dead already she soon will be, her bid to restore honour to her broken house by betraying him was foolish. That was why she wished to take me alone, then."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel continued to peer over his boyfriend's shoulder despite the fact he couldn't read Spanish, though he could sort of pick of the various names, so he could at least follow along to some degree. Not a very big degree, of course, but it was better than nothing at least. Once Zevran finished detailing the general contents of the messages, the taller blond hummed thoughtfully, a frown tugging at his lips and furrowing his brows. "Yeah, that'd explain why she came after you alone. Broken house... I wonder if the two, Belladonna and.. what was it? Velasco? D'you think they were in the broken house too, maybe?" He wasn't entirely sure what having a broken house meant in this context, but he at least knew what Zevran's house had been and it hadn't sounded broken - by their standards, at least - and in the end it didn't really matter too much.

"So her trying to take you alone was for her own benefit, and a betrayal to him... So what does that mean for him, did he want to do it himself, or did he want... some other end result or something?" He mused aloud, trying to puzzle out the situation to get a better understanding of it. Perhaps if they could understand it better, they'd be in a better position to give themselves more of an advantage? Maybe? This was all absolutely nothing he'd ever done before and had no experience with, which was more than a little frustrating.  

[TawnyAngel]

"I think you might well be right there - about Velasco and Belladonna - but why then did she not take them with her? Could they not escape his scrutiny? Did she not believe they would take the risk?" Zevran frowned and shrugged. "Without knowing the players we can only guess at their motives and hers... But I do know Taliesen."

The keen, livewire intensity that had been driving Zevran so far seemed to fade a little as he said this; his shoulders slumped a little and he rubbed his face. "Perhaps this is another test for him, kill your other old associate and advance; he was always ambitious though I was no different I suppose... Up until a point." If this was a test that meant that he had been sent deliberately, and that meant....

Zevran drove the thought down and squared his shoulders again, there were still other possibilities. "Or perhaps he is doing it for himself. I cannot believe he feels no guilt over what he did, perhaps he thinks tying up loose ends will cut him off from that. How do you say... he seeks closedness? Very final closedness."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"All good points," he noted aloud, frown still persisting on his face, "we can guess all we want but we don't really know..." How must it feel, knowing your best friend was doing his best to track you down to kill you? The thought was practically unfathomable, and yet there they stood while Zevran suffered through that very situation. Friendship and loyalty to each other only went so far, he supposed, and not farther than the door if one of them left. Or tried to leave, for some.

The desire to hug him, to hold him, to touch his face and kiss his hair all swirled around inside his heart and his mind but he stifled them all for now; there'd be plenty of time for such tender fondness later. He would make sure there would be. For now, though, he reached a hand out to give the shorter man a reassuring, firm squeeze on his shoulder, gazing at him with his colorful eyes alert and filled with determination. "Closure, probably, but we'll find out what his reasoning and motives are soon enough. And they can try whatever they want to, but you know they're expecting you to be alone; they're not expecting you to have any pokemon with you - or me - and that'll make all the difference, I know it will. They might outnumber us but we still have the advantage, we just need to make the best use of it." The odds weren't as high as he'd like them but that was fine; they would fight their way out of this together one way or another.