Chapter 17: Chapter Seventeen

It took quite a while to calm everyone down. Nightstrike spent half the meeting glaring daggers at her stepmother, who seemed to do her best to ignore her. Cap looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown the entire time, and Jessie looked almost as uncomfortable as I felt. Still Shadowthorn had questions about the case, so we all stuffed our discomfort in a box and saved it for later. Even Nightstrike managed to answer questions, albeit in the most irritated and venomous possible way.

Shadowthorn to her credit basically ignored all of the animosity and discomfort. "Now. I've read over all the witness statements from the previous murders. Nothing useful there. That said we don't have any statements from you Solomon. You were the one who found Verdant, so you may have seen something you didn't even notice." She turned to Jessie, her voice kind even behind her mask. "Agria, I was hoping to go over the events of that day with him, but I know it may be hard for you to hear. If you'd like to wait outside that would be perfectly fine."

Even Nightstrike didn't bitch about that, she just looked at Jessie in concern. My friend closed her eyes behind her mask, took a deep breath, and let it out. She shook her head. "No. Thank you for your concern, but I need to learn about these kinds of things eventually." She hesitated. "Though, if you don't mind me asking, why are you going over the witness statements? I thought Nightstrike was in charge of the case." Her tone was hesitant, clearly uncomfortable questioning a superior, but unable to hold herself back.

Shadowthorn chuckled. "Callie is more than capable of doing the leg work. I'm reading over the witness statements to try to piece together some semblance of an idea of the killer's combat style. While finding him will be up to Callie-er Nightstrike, putting them down will be my job. The better idea I have of what they can do in combat, the more prepared I'll be to counter them. Despite the high ranked dagger we don't actually know for sure that the killer is a low ranker." Her tone was serious, and it honestly made me like her more that she was being so thorough.

With Jessie's permission she turned her head to me. It was kind of unnerving to be looked at from behind a blank full face mask like that. I wondered if other people felt this off balance when they talked to me. Shadowthorn cleared her throat. "Ok Solomon. I'm going to ask you to retell the story of what happened as best as you can remember it. Just keep going unless I stop you, and if I ask any questions answer them as best as you can then move on ok?" I nodded. "Ok, start from the patrol beforehand. Tell me what happened."

So I did. I told her about The Nobody Men, and the scream we heard, I told her about finding Verdant's body, and what condition he'd been in. As I spoke Shadowthorn would ask me to repeat parts of my story, or ask for more details. I found her calling attention to things I hadn't noticed or really even processed, asking questions that made me really have to think. It was an odd experience, having the story change so much from telling it to her, like she was reaching into my head and dragging out the details.

By the time she finished Jessie was barely keeping it together. She stood up, took a deep breath and apologized, saying she needed a minute. Cap followed her out, clearly worried about his late friend's sister. Once she was gone Shadowthorn packed up the case files and gave a sad sigh. "I respect her for staying, but I wish she hadn't. We go through enough pain in this line of work without inflicting it on ourselves intentionally." She looked hard at Nightstrike then sighed again and left the room with a nod goodbye.

Nightstrike watched her go, staring after her, and I could tell she wasn't doing well. Jessie wasn't the only one who was upset. I walked over to sit down next to her. I didn't speak, didn't ask her anything, just sat there, silently waiting with her. She looked at me sideways and then let out a long, exhausted sigh. "She was my best friend." I turned to look at her, curious about who she meant. "Shadowthorn. Annie. She was my mentor. Like a big sister to me. She taught me how to use my abilities."

I winced. That was...that was rough. She must have seen me flinch because she chuckled bitterly. "Fucked up right? She was the first person to take me under her wing when I joined the guild. She taught me the skills I used to alter my ability to what it is. She was so...cool. So strong and brave and heroic. I used to be afraid that my shadow manipulation ability would get me judged as corrupted, but Annie showed me that people could still look at me as a hero. " Her voice was sad, and I saw a tear slide down from under her mask though neither of us mentioned it.

Finally I couldn't help but ask. "What happened? I heard that your dad left when he ranked up, got offered the guild master spot in the capital. That she went with him. What changed between you two?" It seemed hard to imagine that Shadowthorn would just up and announce 'banging your dad, sorry about that, but hey we're moving to the capital want to come with?' There had to have been some kind of connecting event between those two things. Based on her earlier statement I had a guess what it was.

She chuckled. "What happened is my all powerful F rank father was too stupid to realize he should wear a condom. Because hey, finding out your best friend is hooking up with your dad doesn't hurt nearly enough, she needed to get knocked up just to really twist the knife." She let out a bitter laugh. "You know she wanted me to go with them? She begged me to see her side of it. Said she loved him. Said she loved me. Wanted us to be a family. Except I found out she only started mentoring me because he told her to. Wanted her to babysit his bratty daughter so she didn't get into trouble."

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I put a hand on her shoulder. "Nightstrike. Calliope, if that's your name, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your dad sounds like kind of a bag of dicks." She snorted out a laugh, dissolving into giggles. I reached up and took my mask off. "Shane, by the way. Since I already heard your name a few times, it only seems fair. Plus you're an executive and could easily find out my name if you don't already know it anyway."

She took her own mask off, rolling her eyes. "Callie. Please. I hate my name. Everyone I don't want to punch in the throat calls me Callie." She was... insanely pretty. Like supermodel gorgeous. She had cute features, surprisingly delicate for someone as tough as she was. I reached out my hand and we shook. "Sorry to dump that on you. Annie being here is...unpleasant for me. Which he knew. It's why he sent her. He likes to remind me he can make me uncomfortable if he feels like it. I think he's under the impression it'll make me grateful for all the time he spends leaving me alone when I ignore him."

I really didn't like her dad. I made a mental note to have Zeke kick his teeth in once I left the planet. I was pretty sure when I was gone my Uncle would be free to do whatever he felt like doing. Nothing permanent, just a light ass kicking, maybe have him shaved and tied to a tree in public or something. It was a satisfying mental image, even if it was probably not going to happen anytime soon. Hell by that point I could probably just kick his ass myself. I decided we needed a subject change. "So, do you think Jessie will be alright?"

She winced. "I...don't know. Probably. It's hard to say. Some people never recover from loss. It consumes them, becomes part of them. Jessie seems to be trying to move on, I just think she might be trying to do it a bit too fast. Alan was a good guy, he wouldn't want to see her hurting like this but..." She shrugged and I nodded. We couldn't take her pain away. We just had to let her deal with things in her own time. It just sucked. She didn't deserve what she was going through, but then, no one said people always got what they deserved.

As I stared at her downcast expression I decided to offer my help as best I could. "Look. I know it's not worth much coming from some low ranked newbie, but I'm on your side here. Maybe together we can find and take down this killer before Shadowthorn gets to him." Honestly I kind of felt for Shadowthorn too, she seemed like she was genuinely hurt by how much Nightstrike hated her, but that wasn't anything I could or should try to fix as a stranger anyway. Nightstrike needed someone who had her back, someone she felt she could trust.

She looked surprised. "Really? You know that even if Annie doesn't get mad about that my old man will probably pitch a fit at having his plans disrupted. I suspect he's hoping once I see how strong she's gotten in the capital I won't be able to resist coming back and begging for his help. He rarely ever does things for one reason. I know you're trying to move up in the Unity, he can make that pretty difficult if he decides he doesn't like you." Her voice was disdainful, showing what she thought of that plan, and even having known her a short time I could tell that wouldn't work.

I just smirked at her. "You're not the only one who can be stubborn." She smirked back at me, eyes flashing with gratitude. In all honesty, while I did like Callie, the reason I was helping her wasn't because her story had touched my soul, or because she was gorgeous and I wanted to look good, or even because it was the right thing to do. It was because fuck her dad, that was why. Seriously. His whole attitude pissed me off. I admit there may have been some projecting going on there, I may have been focusing my anger at my own dad at Callie's shitty absentee father, but honestly, I didn't care.

Besides, the Unity was a convenient cover for my growth, not some sort of necessity. I liked the place and the people seemed nice, but I could get just as strong somewhere else. Hell, with my abilities I could just catch a trip off planet and register at another Unity branch. I wasn't really interested in the other factions for various reasons, but I could even leave the Conglomerate altogether. The Empire wasn't THAT different I was pretty sure. Regardless I had options no matter what, I could afford to be a little immature and irrational.

With the mutual understanding between us in place, Callie and I nodded to each other in silent agreement and stood to head to the door. Cap was still tracking down and trying to comfort Jessie, and it was shitty to leave them on their own. We were a team after all, and even if we hadn't been together long, I kind of wanted that to mean something. I wanted to have people who would have my back like Zeke had my dads. Obviously Benny would be one of those people once I could help him get an ability, but until then? I'd have to take care of the team I had.

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