Collateral Damage - Tumblr Posts

Collateral Damage

"You coming back to life is worse on me than this glass."

She'd been jokingly serious at the time. Well, more serious than joking. Nothing truly terrible had befallen her at that point but Annie had been well aware of the potential fallout of interacting with a dead man. Even if the rumors of his demise had been greatly exaggerated.

For her sake, he should have stayed dead.

Months later, she was just collateral damage in the unavoidable feud between two asshole men with too much pride. Brothers in arms, they'd been. Cut from the same cloth and all that. Until one day something within Spike had changed. His soul had cried out against their lifestyle and he'd subsequently altered course which had somehow bound their destinies together in bloody finality.

Many people would lay the blame at Julia's feet. Hell, even Annie probably thought that Julia was the cause of Spike's deviation. Although she'd adored them together - was in fact one of the few not only aware but also supportive of their union - she had been as wrong as the rest.

Julia, and Spike's helpless love for her, were separate from the shift in his conscience that had led him to undergo such an obnoxious change of heart. Her hands, in their own fashion, had been just as bloodstained as anyone's in the Syndicate, after all. And she'd never truly been driven to seek escape.

But he didn't care to think about Julia right now. The beautiful phantom trying to wrap him around her pinky yet again. No, her love was both freeing and a trap, and above all only served her own purpose despite whatever good it did him in the process. These days that good was far less than it'd been back then.

Anastasia...

The woman who'd watched Spike grow from a troubled youth filching porno from her store into a deadeyed sharpshooter jumping at the beck and call of the Van. The woman who'd quietly served the Syndicate in her own way - which should have lent her protection! Her value to the Red Dragons should have outweighed the flimsy bond of her affiliation with Spike.

She was a fence and operated a Red Dragon weapons cache. She should have been immune to repercussion despite her ties with Spike. She should have never been at risk of such a lethal reprisal.

Vicious wasn't playing fair. He was flouting the rules of the game. It had been one thing to take out Mao - no matter how Spike felt about that. Arguments could be made for the necessity of it and likely had been since the Van had ultimately permitted such an act without consequence to the perpetrator.

The Van would never have allowed this. Resources such as Annie were valuable and respected. There was simply no sense in murdering anyone and everyone who'd known a renegade member of the Syndicate, especially if those other folks were loyal members themselves. That renegade's friends and family - if such existed outside of the Syndicate - sure, those individuals were considered expendable and used as a threat to keep people in line. But Annie was a Dragon through and through. She'd been there for the rise of Mao and the indoctrination of both Spike and Vicious.

She was off limits.

Clearly the Van was no longer calling shots. Most likely they'd been ousted as well. Annie had suspected as much given what she'd told him before dying. This entire thing reeked of Vicious. A bloody coup utilizing scorched earth policy. It was mindless brutality.

Jet's injury had been collateral damage in a way, though anything he or Faye or - heaven forbid, even Ed - suffered would have been considered an appropriate response to having aided and abetted Spike in his abandonment of the Syndicate. There was no protection for any of them.

Jet understood that. Faye probably would as well if she knew the situation better. Ed though, wherever she was, she wouldn't have had a clue that anyone was gunning for her simply because she'd been on board the wrong ship and befriended the wrong man.

All these thoughts raced through Spike's mind as he rifled through Annie's store of artillery while Julia looked on. He didn't bother to glance back at her, uncaring of the expression she wore. He didn't need to read her cues any longer. Her role in his life was over and done as far as he was concerned. Extracting her from this situation was the only thing he still owed her, if indeed he owed her a damn thing at all.

But Annie... His heart clenched. She shouldn't have been a target, dammit!

And now Jet, nursing a bullet wound on his broken down ship. And Faye, who'd returned despite her hot words - she was always coming back, no matter what her voice claimed. They were going to be killed.

A steely resolve had settled over him. It had begun to blanket him long before this but now there was no escaping it.

Even Ed would be doomed if he didn't end it now.

Vicious had shown what he was capable of, and it was indeed monstrous. Collateral damage and then some.

Annie...

So this was it. He'd rescue Julia after all, no matter if she wanted that or not, and then he'd face the beast. Finish it at last. Sever their connection and ensure that Vicious could no longer hurt anyone he cared for.

It should have been done long ago but he'd been too weak. Bested at the cathedral and then treated like a pawn piece of no consequence on Callisto. He should have tracked Vicious down after that but his head had been full of contemplation and realizations that had shuttered his heart and kept him distracted.

He'd been a fool to think things could stay the way they were.

To think no one would get hurt.

Annie...

Julia was talking to him. He tuned in, listening with half an ear while the rest of him remained consumed with pain as he remembered his last two encounters with Annie and all the better times before that.

"I'm sorry." Spike told her then, speaking not to Julia but to Annie's spirit. "I'm gonna make a bit of a scene."

Ah, who was he fooling - she'd expect nothing less from him.

In that case, it was time to do her proud.