Because I’m always a slut for validation. If this looks familiar to you, it’s because I originally posted it to an account I used to be a mod on.
It’s a major WIP and the jumps from one unfinished part to the next will be indicated by a break so you won’t be more confused than necessary
DenNor (NorDen?)based on the 90′s animated show Aeon Flux. There’s a sexual reference or two but it’s not too spicy. Yet.
Please, if you would, take like two seconds to let me know if you like this and want me to continue. Or tell me it’s a piece of shit and you hated every minute of it. Whatever, I just need feedback.
Recently, Mathias Kohler has staged a coup d’état, ousting former leader Romulus Vargas and seizing control of Meridia for himself. His first order of business: to capture the elusive Iurisan agent, Lukas Bondevik.
“You requested my presence, sir?” Eduard tried to force himself to sound mature and intelligent, but his voice cracked and waivered. He wasn’t even sure if Chairman Kohler had heard him.
Kohler was standing at the large glass window that made up one of his office walls. His posture was impeccable and his arms were folded military-style behind his back. Had the chairman ever served in the military? Maybe he’d heard some of his coworkers gossiping about it before…
He turned to face Eduard, a big smile on his handsome face. “Ah, Eduard! Thank you for coming!” Eduard felt his cheeks warm. Chairman Kohler was so kind, greeting his inferiors like old friends.
“Please, have a seat.” Kohler gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk. “Make yourself comfortable.”
Eduard placed himself gingerly into the seat, not wanting to plunk himself down, and found himself easily taking Kohler’s advice about getting comfortable.
“Like the new chairs?” Kohler asked as he lowered himself into his own seat. “They’re ergonomic, the latest and greatest! They’re made of a bio-compatible materiel that actually analyzes and molds to the exact contours of your spine and the rest of your body.”
“Oh, they’re wonderful. Ah, Chairman Kohler?”
“What-what would you like us to do when we locate Lukas Bondevik?” Fear bubbled up in the pit of Eduard’s stomach. He knew that Bondevik was a terrorist but he disliked the idea of possibly having to help execute someone.
“Bring him to me the minute you capture him. Whatever I’m doing, don’t worry about interrupting me and don’t try to imprison him. He is highly intelligent and very skilled at escaping. I will personally handle him.”
“Yes, sir.” Eduard bowed his head slightly, a bit concerned at the grave tone Chairman Kohler’s voice had taken. He was normally so kind and cheerful; this whole thing with Bondevik must be weighing on his mind. Suddenly, the idea of helping Chairman Kohler take down such a threat to Meridia filled him with excitement.
He turned around to leave, making sure his footfalls were soft so as not to disturb Chairman Kohler. Just as he was about to place his fingers on the door handle, “Oh, and Eduard?”
He turned back around. “Yes, Chairman?”
He smiled in a comfortingly paternal way. “Don’t look so gloomy. I know that we will find him soon and prevent him from harming our people. You just keep up the good work, and leave the worrying to me.”
Eduard mirrored his confident grin. “Of course, Chairman.” Chairman Kohler waved goodbye and Eduard exited the office with a renewed sense of purpose. What a wonderful man he was. It was such a good thing he’d taken control of Meridia. Romulus had been old and corrupt. It only made sense that he’d been ousted. Like cutting away dead branches to make room for new, healthy ones. Meridia was in good hands.
When he was sure he’d gone, Mathias activated the security system on the door. The sound of large titanium reinforcements clicking into their place in the door made him exhale a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.
“Oh Lukas, I hate knowing that you are so close and being unable to touch you. Running around, hiding in shadows, risking your life for silly, false ideas like freedom. You’re not meant for that kind of life. You should be worshipped as the object of desire you are. But we’ll be together soon enough. I’ll make you see, Lukas, that freedom is worthless when you are with the person you love. I’ll carve out a place for us, away from this world and its ugly truths.”
“I think you should know that I’m not a mercenary, if that’s what you’re looking for.”
The auburn-haired intruder jumped at the sound of his voice. His eyes grew wide when they looked up at him and he raised his hands over his head.
Lukas sauntered into his darkened apartment, flicking his eyes over the boy. Small, slender build. Child-like. It was nothing short of astounding that the world hadn’t eaten him alive already.
A sweet kid that didn’t know his ass from his elbow. Frightened but unlikely to do anything erratic. Lukas’ gun remained in his holster.
He relaxed his body slightly and watched the young man do the same, a shy smile forming.
“I know,” he began in a breathy voice. “You’re Lukas Bondevik. You- ah, a lot of people really admire you. You’re very brave to liberate my people from Kohler.”
“I’m Feliciano Vargas. Romulus is my grandfather.”
Romulus’ grandson. Shit, Mathias had probably killed the bastard months ago. This was going to be an exercise in futility.
Suddenly, Lukas was hit with suspicion. He shifted his weight and put his hands on his hips. “How did you manage to escape Meridia?” There was no way this spoiled brat who’d only known the type of luxury and excess Romulus had been infamous for had managed to breach all of Mathias’ security measures alone.
“It was before Kohler installed all those security things. You know, the sensors that give people electric shocks if they activate them. I got out in District C, by the monorail platform on this side.”
Lukas narrowed his eyes. “Those walls are at least thirty feet high and concrete reinforced with steel. You couldn’t have just climbed over them and there wouldn’t have been any weak spots you could have broken through.”
Feliciano smiled and dipped his head modestly. “Ve, I know I don’t look it, but I’m actually pretty good at scaling. My grandfather thought it was important that my brother and I have special combat training in case something ever happened.” His eyes began to water and his voice wavered. “I guess he was right. Now, I’m scared that Grandpa might be dead.”
Lukas felt sorry for this kid, although he himself had never truly known what it was to have familial bonds. He wanted to comfort Feliciano, to assure him that his grandfather was still alive and there was an easy solution to all his problems. But unfortunately, the world they lived in had no place for white, sympathetic lies.
Never one to waste time, Lukas quickly restarted the conversation. “And your brother? What happened to him?”
“Roma… I don’t know. When-when those guards came for us, Romano had his gun, so he shot a couple guards and he was able to climb through the ventilation system and escape before more came.”
“Has he tried to contact you in anyway?”
“I don’t think so. Romano is very careful, he’s always prepared for the worst.”
Lukas rolled his eyes in exasperation. The crazies were always a pain in the ass to deal with. “So he’s paranoid?”
Feliciano’s shy, soft expression suddenly pulled into a snarl. “No, he is not! I know my brother, he just wouldn’t want to contact me if he thought it might put me in harm. He probably doesn’t even know where I am.” When he’d finished his little speech, Feliciano’s body folded into a self-hug and he slouched down.
Lukas quirked his lips to the side. This Vargas kid was clearly way in over his head. He didn’t work contracts, but he couldn’t stand by and do nothing either. Besides, investigating this whole Romulus disappearance had been part of the original plan anyway. A quick pit stop wouldn’t hurt.
“Hey, if you’re trying to avenge your family or something, find someone else who wants to go on a suicide mission.” The look of hurt and despair on the young man’s clean-shaven face was painfully obvious.
“But… I’ve been looking into Kohler’s coup d’état and I would be willing to help you locate Romulus.”
Huge amber eyes gleamed sweetly at Lukas and Feliciano began bouncing eagerly on the balls of his feet. This enthusiasm was not good, Lukas decided. He’d have to squash it immediately.
“I do not work for anyone. And I’m not going to guarantee that if I find Romulus alive, he’s going to get back into power. I’m doing this as a favor to you.”
Feliciano nodded solemnly. “What can I do to help?”
“Don’t draw attention to yourself and stay out of my way. I like to think that I’m one of the good guys but right or wrong, if you get in my line of fire, I will shoot you with no hesitation. Do you understand?”
The boy pressed his lips together into a thin line and nodded again.
“Then go home,” Lukas said, not unkindly. “When the time comes, I’ll get in touch with you.”
Lukas watched Feliciano as he exited the apartment. Like an afterthought, he turned around and said, “Thank you, Lukas.”
Lukas nodded curtly. As he began his new mental calculations, Lukas thought that perhaps he should have been the one to thank Feliciano. What scant bit of information the kid had given him might just have been the angle he needed to figure out what Mathias was up to.
When Lukas swung through the open vent, he had already calculated the spot he needed to land on and the proper way to distribute his weight. What he hadn’t anticipated, however, was landing on top of someone. Whomever was unlucky enough to have served as Lukas’ cushion was neither large nor soft. In fact, the landing seemed to have injured both of them when Lukas’ own rather lithe body had met with this person’s bony, sharp-edged body.
Lukas, who reoriented himself first, realized that the person he’d landed on was one of Mathias’ goons and wasted no time in arresting the guard’s movements. Straddling the guard’s chest with his knees on his forearms, Lukas looked down at his captive and smirked.
“As much as I would enjoy sitting on your face, I’m afraid I don’t have time for that.”
Just as he began to remove his gun from its holster, the guard cried out, “Wait, wait, don’t shoot! I’m not with Mathias.”
As if he hadn’t heard, Lukas pressed his gun against his target’s forehead.
“You’re trying to kill Mathias Kohler, right? You’re part of the resistance? We’re on the same side. And I have something I think you might be interested in.”
“I’m running on a strict schedule. You have ten seconds to convince me that you’re worth keeping alive or I shoot.”
“You’ve done something with Romulus, haven’t you? Where are you keeping him?”
Mathias rolled his eyes good-naturedly, as if Lukas was an amusingly absurd child. “You hate everything Romulus stood for. What do you care if I’ve disposed- excuse me- deposed him?”
“Of course I don’t care. I just like to keep tabs on you. There’s no point to our relationship if you’re not under my thumb.”
Mathias smirked. “And they call me a hypocrite. However do you manage the cognitive dissonance that comes from your love of anarchic self-governance and your throbbing desire to humiliate and abuse me?”
“Unlike you, most people don’t enjoy being beaten into submission.”
“So you’re giving me what I want?”
“I’m giving myself what I want. Whether or not you get off is a negligible consequence.”
“How charitable of you. But we can discuss our sexual proclivities later this evening. You might as well take the night off. Romulus is already dead.”
When Lukas narrowed his eyes to doubtful slits, Mathias continued. “Not under my orders. Frankly speaking, I wanted to keep him alive. I suppose my guards got a bit… overzealous.”
“Your affection for your citizens moves me.” Lukas thought of doe-eyed Feliciano and was sorry for him.
“I resent that, Lukas. I care very much for the citizens of Meridia. Romulus wasn’t a citizen, though. He was an enemy of the state. His fate was sealed long before I ever came into the picture.”
“Funny,” Lukas began as he loped through the door, “I never pictured you as the marrying kind.”
Mathias smiled in a way that made his eyes look sad. “Perhaps you don’t know me as well as you think.”
Lukas ran a finger across the smooth surface of the chrome table near the entryway. “You know me. Enough to know that I would never choose this of my own volition.” He turned on Mathias. “Honestly, how stupid do you think I am? Did you really think I would fall for your little gilded cage trick?”
Mathias’ eyes hardened and he stood up, his body one austere, angry line. “This isn’t an illusion. This is reality. An example of an illusion is your commitment to flimsy ideologies like autonomy and self-governance.”
“You try to create reality in your own image and force everyone else to comply. You want to trap me here in this postmodern bunker, away from the world so you can have me all to yourself.”
“I’m trying to make you happy, Lukas.”
Brushing imaginary dust from the sleeve of his suit, he said, “If that was the case, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“You live in the past, Lukas. Don’t you see that being selfish is what got our predecessors into such a terrible situation? They isolated themselves, destroying family ties because all they could be bothered to care about was themselves. They didn’t understand that humans are social creatures. We’re meant to live in groups, with those we love.”
“Love is a trite and unfashionable concept, I assure you.”
“Love is the only saving grace we have. In this god-forsaken world, there’s nothing else that can make our lives meaningful. Empires, industries, philosophies, all crumble eventually. And what are we left with? If we don’t have love, we’re worth nothing.”
“Love is worth nothing if it’s based upon constraint. I can never love you if you keep me here.”
Mathias’ mouth twitched and his voice became a violent snarl. “You don’t love me out there! Out there, where there’s a dead-eyed mass of people that can never feel with the intensity and depth of my feelings. Of your feelings. What do you have to hide in here? I’m the only other person. And you and I have, as you are well aware, a very intimate knowledge of each other.”
Lukas relaxed his muscles slowly and sighed. Mathias, ever quick to notice when someone was being receptive to his advances, caught Lukas in his arms with a gentle swoop.
Lukas made a sharp, sardonic noise through his teeth. “How arrogant. I haven’t given in yet. Are you going to beg me like the greedy dog you are?”
“Where did you get that child, Mathias?”
In decidedly more quiet tone, Mathias said, “I didn’t get him anywhere. He is ours.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
“I’m saying that his genetic makeup is exactly one half my DNA and one half yours. He is our son.”
“You grew an innocent child in a lab because you wanted to prove a point? Because you wanted to show me that you are the one in control?”
This seemed to enrage Mathias. “No,” he hissed, shifting the baby in his arms. “I created him from our DNA because I love you. Because I want us to love each other and be a family. It’s what I’ve wanted since I met you. You keep resisting! You won’t let yourself feel anything because you think you’ve evolved past emotion. Human beings haven’t evolved, Lukas. We’re just animals that have gotten good at walking on two feet. We want to procreate. We want to have social units, families. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve given us a family.”
Lukas was silent, glaring at his captor and the tiny piece of the two of them he was gently bouncing.
“I’ve already named him. I hope you don’t mind. I just didn’t like referring to our son as ‘it.’ I decided on Emil. I thought you’d find the name as amusing as I do.”
“Nothing about this situation amuses me. How many more innocents do you want to make complicit in your delusions?”
Mathias shrugged and then smiled down at the baby, rubbing their noses together. “The citizens of Meridia are no worse than they were before. In fact, I’d say they’re even doing better. The economy is experiencing growth at rates that haven’t been seen in decades. Everyone has everything they could ever need provided to them. They’re no longer living in the haze of some decadent orgy. Romulus wanted things vulgar and excessive. Now, I’ve set everything just right. Just as it should be.”
“And where do I fit into this?”
Mathias chuckled from deep in his throat. “Where would you like to be? You and Emil will want for nothing, of course. You’ll be my equal in everything. We can share political power just as much as we share parenting duties. Who knows? Perhaps our hardline views will come together to form a more temperate state.”
“Fattening a cow before the slaughter,” Lukas muttered.
“Now, Lukas, there are many things I’m willing to allow, but filicide is not one of them.”
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