Darkness Depths

“You never explained, what happened?” Abioye asked as he brought a tray of hot soup to Juliet.
“I don’t know…This is the second time this happened in less than 24 hours. The first time was last night, an hour or so before we landed. This episode was worse. All I saw was…was red. It’s like I couldn’t escape. I felt my heart being clenched tightly, as if someone had a hold of it. It was horrible. I saw visions. I don’t know of what. I saw shadowy figures. I heard screams and…and chants! It was something out of a horror story.” Juliet enlightened, taking shallow sips of her soup. “Oh wow good stuff, this soup.”
“Glad you like it. Made it myself. Frog legs and bull testicle soup.”
Juliet gagged, upon hearing the contents of the soup.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! It’s normal chicken soup with some special spices.”
Juliet let out a sigh of relief, grinning again.
“So, visions, you say? And this started last night? Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I didn’t want to worry you guys. And plus…I sort of forgot…” Juliet trailed off, bashfully.
“Of course you did. Caught up in the thrill of adventure. Let me tell you a story, about when I was a child in Africa. I lived in my village, and my grandmother was the grand priestess of our tribe. We were as civilized as tribal people could get, mind you. But oi, one day, a boy my age claimed he got visions. Visions of different things. Shadow creatures, glowing orbs, things like that. It started after he said he found this ball in the wilderness one day. He claimed this ball glowed or something. But as fate would have it, he lost the damn ball. Or orb. Or whatever. But he displayed symptoms you did. And others, like the sharpening and yellowing of the teeth. My grandmother had to take him to the wilderness one day when he killed his family. Randomly did it…” Abioye went on.
“How is this supposed to make me feel better?” Juliet interrupted, staring at Abioye in slight horror.
“Well, you’re already doing better than he was. He was in a permanent sort of state. You’re fine right now, and probably for good.”
“That does make me feel a little better. But is there more to the story?”
“In fact, there is. The boy, he claimed he saw his nightmares appear. He said he heard voices in his head. That’s what I heard. You, you heard voices, correct?”
“I did, but I couldn’t make out what they said.”
“Juliet is going crazy. Well, crazier.” Lugnut spoke up.
Abioye chuckled as Juliet scolded the robot, while the robot displayed the mannerisms of laughter.
“Abioye Okoro, you have been requested in the training room. Abioye Okoro, you have been requested in the training room.” The announcer informed over the intercom system.
“I wonder what this is about. I’ll be back soon, Stonebridge. Rest up, eat your soup. Go to sleep. Whatever a girl like you would do.” Abioye instructed as he exited the room.
“She will. She’s too crazy to do anything else.” Lugnut teased again.
“I swear, I’m going to pour this soup on you and shorten you out.” Juliet threatened.
“I’d like to see you try, human!”
. . .
Abioye entered the training room, curious as to why he was called there. The lights where dim, and no one was around to intercept the large man.
“We need to talk, doctor.” Anthony appeared out of the shadows, rapier in his hand.
“What do you want?” Abioye tensed up, readying his mechanical arm.
“You know you killed my wife when you burnt down those buildings, right?”
“I didn’t. I made sure no one was in those buildings.”
“Well, you did a pretty shitty job of checking.” Anthony grabbed a second rapier and tossed it to Abioye, the large man catching it in his robotic arm.
“What’s this for?”
“We’re going to spar.”
“You’re going to try and kill me and make it look like it was an accident.”
“No, I’m going to kill you and make it as vicious as possible.” Anthony lunged forward, slightly smaller body moving fast.
“You’re going to have a tough time, I promise you.”
Abioye parried the lunge, sending the long haired mercenary to the left. Anthony regained his balance and readied for another strike. He took off his long trench coat and whipped Abioye, stunning him temporarily. His sword swung about, trying to block off any attacks Anthony was throwing at him.
The metal swords clashed multiple times, loud chinks echoed in the training room.
“You killed my wife! You killed my wife and you tried to kill me!” Anthony roared, swiping away at Abioye.
“I didn’t kill your wife! You bloody idiot!” Abioye retorted, pinning the man to the wall.
“It was your fire. It was you!”
Abioye grabbed the arm wielding the sword with his mechanical arm, smashing it against the wall.
“She died because the people you were working for killed her. They blamed it on me. I swear to you, I will rip off your arm if you keep attacking me. I will, Braddock.”
“They told me..”
“Get it through your fucking skull. They made her die. It was them. I don’t lie. Never been a fan of it. If I killed someone, I would tell you straight out. Do you understand? I’m not like your bastard father who went along killing as he pleased. He killed my parents. And you helped him. You remember because I can see it in your eyes.”
“They deserved it. They stole from my father.” Abioye threw Anthony to the ground, his rapier bouncing away.
“HOW DARE YOU? YOU BOTH STOLE FROM US. YOU USED US FOR YOUR GAIN.” Abioye howled, wrath showing in full force. He grabbed the legs of Braddock, pulling him off the ground. The enormous man flung the hired gun ten feet, the mercenary colliding with the wall.
“You asshole. You and your father burned down my village. All because you wanted money and land. Well did you get what you wanted? Tell me,” Abioye went on as he grabbed Anthony by the back of the neck. “…Did you?”
“Yes…We did.” Anthony grinned with teeth covered in blood.
“I hope it was worth all the blood on your hands. I hope you realize that you and your father are at fault for the death of many. For what? Fame? Power? Some mystical orb? And you even lost it, along with your coward of a father. May he rot in hell. And may you rot with him. You never had an ounce of honor.”
“What makes you so high and mighty? You stand on the bodies of at least a hundred dead, and you claim that you’re a man of honor. You’re just as bad as I am. You’re exactly like me. Granted, in different ways, but in the grand scheme of things, we’ll be in the same level of hell, burning exactly the same.” Anthony cackled, still in Abioye’s grip.
“No,” The man dropped the mercenary to the ground. “…the difference between you and I is that I don’t continue with my sins. The difference is that I’m trying to atone for what I’ve done by saving lives. All you do is continue to take them.”
“You took lives not long ago.”
“That was to protect the team. That was out of self-defense.”
“You don’t remember the times we were on a job together, do you?”
“I don’t need to listen to you try and speak any more.” Abioye walked toward the door, ignoring the words slithering from Anthony’s bloodied mouth.
“Before you became a damn doctor. After that girl left with her partner. Remember that? I know you do. You killed people, and you did it brutally. You used that arm to do what you couldn’t do to me. I’m sure if you looked hard enough, you could see the blood stains on the palms.”
Abioye stopped, back to the beaten man.
“What you don’t understand is I’ve saved more lives than I’ve taken. Out of the genuine desire to help others. I’ve had enough of you.”

. . .

“I grew up in the Grey Quarter, like you.” Jess detailed to the bed-ridden Juliet. “And all I had was my mother. I loved the woman so much, and she loved me. She provided by working in as many places as she could. Poor thing. She passed away when I was 14. Died from the stress. It was hard for me for a long time. But I knew how to take care of myself. Things got easier. It wasn’t like my mom, who had to provide for two. I provided for myself, and lived anywhere I wanted. I created portable fire places, and built as much as I could. That’s how I got started. You know what they say, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’!”
“Where was your dad, if you don’t mind me asking?” Juliet timidly asked, Lugnut also wondering.
“I don’t mind at all! My father disappeared, taking my older brother and younger sister with him. I don’t know why he left my mother or me. I don’t even know where they are if they’re alive.”
“Obviously he knew you two were too good for him.” Lugnut sounded.
“Hey, how come you’re not sweet to me?” Juliet interrogated the robot.
“Shut up, Jess is talking.”
“Who knows why he left?” Jess chuckled. “But I never needed him. Time carried on, and I was in my late teens. I worked odd jobs, of varying sorts. On the side, well really the rest of the time, I was busy creating. I helped bring clean water to the Grey Quarter with this purifier I created. That’s when Gold Quarter or private scientists started stealing my inventions. It started with them taking credit for the purifier. Then they got a hold of a gun I created one day, after sending some goons after me. They began ‘inventing’ ray guns directly from my own design. One day, they stole parts of a robot I was working on. Funny thing is, they didn’t succeed. Even funnier, Lugs is the final product.”
“See, Juliet? I’m valuable.” Lugnut gloated.
“Yeah, in your technological dreams. Keep going, Jess.”
“They stole the part I finished, which was the torso. I decided to take the fight to them. This cold war between me and this league of scientists started heating up. I made these gauntlets, inventing a secret process and never writing it down. That way there’s no paper trail. No way of duplicating it unless by random chance. Anyway, I sought them out. I went to every source I could, and eventually I found the buggers. Things got…violent. I killed them. I admit that. But I did leave one alive, feeling a sense of mercy was in order. He was blonde, not much older than I was. He was skinny. He actually looks similar to that pompous asshole Jacob.”
“Really? Maybe Jacob has a brother!”
“I’m not going to find out. The less I talk to the man, the better. But yeah, I also destroyed any evidence linking me to the crime. Or so I thought. Grateful Wilson came across it rather than the police. Not long after this, I met Abioye. Poor thing didn’t have an arm, so I built him one. We got close after that. We drank, we fought, we were like siblings. But then I made the mistake of falling for a girl. She did give me the place I live in now, but it was still a bloody mistake. She was crazy. But she let me keep the penthouse. Me and Abioye drifted apart, obviously. We met again at the party and here we are now! That’s my life’s story in a nutshell!”
“I think you skipped a few details.” Lugnut pointed out.
“Shut up, Lugs.”
“Well, I’m off to work. Visit me soon, okay love?”
“I will, Jess. Thanks for stopping by.” Juliet gave off her smile, and Jess waved goodbye.
Jess returned to her lab, ready to continue working on her latest project. She grabbed her wrench and entered the workshop. She looked upon her work in process, and nodded in approval.
“Alright, let us see how great we can make this vehicle.” She spoke proudly.