You Want The Heart, Or To Be Saved

To say Party Poison and Hex didn't work well would be putting it mildly, the two could be compared to dogs and cats with how they spoke; Hex had been tasked with retrieving information from the renegade but to an observer it would seem her job was to trade insults with him.

So long as she could help it she wouldn't stay in the room with him for long because despite the insults and how often they would come to blows over one thing or another she couldn't stand the logic behind his words.

Hex could try all she wanted to, to deny it but there was a truth in everything he would say, that the residents and citizens of Battery City were dead while the killjoys on the outskirts of the new American capital were alive.

Unlike many of the others she worked with Hex had not been hypnotized, she had not been given the pills that would take away any discerning thought, she had simply spent so much time with those who hated the rebels - those who came up with more and reasons to hate them - that she had forgotten how to form her own opinion and instead relied on the gospel truth that BLI mass manufactured as much as their magic pills.

That is why when she sat down in that cold metal chair across the from the killjoy's bed and heard the real truth - not the falsities of Better Living Industries - she could feel a churning in her gut that made her feel sickened.

She wanted to believe what she had been told when younger, she wanted to believe what she had gone on to tell herself each morning when she woke up and every night when she went back to sleep; that she was on the winning side of a war. She was fighting for the side that wanted to keep a sense of society, it was the side that wanted to make sure children could grow up properly educated, a side that wanted to ensure there were jobs and food for all.

If they were all of these things, then why did her beliefs feel like a lie?

"You're unusually quiet this afternoon," Party Poison commented as he looked at the blonde girl who was slumped rather low in her chair. "Didn't you sleep well?"

That was one of the things she hated most about him, how she could spend an entire morning doing nothing but insulting him and then he could so easily ask how she was, as if they were friends chatting over coffee and cake or the like.

"How could I sleep? Even when I leave this room I've still got your chatter in my ears." To most it would sound like she was insulting him again, it would have probably seemed the same to him but in truth she meant that she had spent an entire night awake in her bed and thinking about what he had said to her; and whether or not she should listen.

Party Poison laughed but the sound was weak and failed to reach his eyes, seeing this made Hex think of what he had said to her over a month ago 'I thought it would be much more pleasant but instead it feels like I'm dying inside'. He may have felt like he was dying inside once but now it could be seen on the outside when she looked at him.

His skin was pale, any remaining color had drained from his lips - effectively making him look like a corpse - and whatever light was left in his eyes when she had first seen him had faded away to nothing. BLI had done their best to pull the color from his hair and what used to be bright red was now a mousey brown, making him look as if he were any other perfectly normal resident of Battery City; it wouldn't surprise her if they intended to cut it next, actually she wondered why they hadn't done it already since they didn't exactly approve of the rebellious, long hair thing.

"Well at least you won't have to worry about me keeping you awake any longer. I heard them talking outside my door earlier today, they said I was going to be 'reprieved' soon; apparently you've done your job," the killjoy's voice was hoarse and tired as he spoke, "have I told you something and forgotten?"

That was another of the many things that had occurred as the days went by, Party Poison's memories were beginning to falter, just as he had claimed would happen. He'd spent an entire day talking about his brother, about their time as children when they were carefree before the fires and BLI's establishment.

Hex had asked the killjoy what his brother's name was, he had only smiled and whispered that he couldn't remember.

"No you haven't," Hex replied as she stared at the white folder in her lap.

Last night after a particularly long story from Party Poison she had returned to her room and gotten ready for bed, the same routine she would go through every single night but when it came time for her to lie down, close her eyes and go to sleep she was unable to.

She spent five hours staring at her ceiling and wishing that she would doze off, even nap if nothing else but her body, tired or not had refused to shut down and after long enough of wishing she had stood up and began to pace the room, sorting through her thoughts to find the reason for why she was unable to rest.

Hex had not needed to dig deep.
Right there, sitting at the top of her pile of problems was a file labeled Party Poison and inside was everything he had told her.

What it was like to spend an entire night out in the dusty desert, sleeping under the stars and the colored yet cloudy methane sky, waking the next morning to an nearly extinguished fire, a group of loud killjoys and a meal of nothing better than dog food.

At first it sounded horrible, having no warm bed to protect against the chill of the deserts night air, sleeping in your unclean clothes, having no sense of personal space because killjoys never understood what politeness was and eating dog food, actual canned dog food in place of a real and healthy meal made of real food.

To Hex it seemed like a nightmare in the flesh...but then she thought about it more and more.
You would never hear her say it out loud but in spite of everything she had, the lovely room in one of the highest ranked buildings in Battery City, as many clothes as she could ever want, better food than most could expect to eat and such a high level of authority she could go almost anywhere in the city and the surrounding zones that she wanted, she felt empty inside.

She'd never taken any pleasure from killing renegades, not even a bit while everyone else working for BLI had, she would see them smile and laugh when another killjoy was felled but she never laughed, never smiled, never enjoyed it.

At first she felt a harsh ache in her chest, a sharp pain that made her feel as if she had been the one shot but after long enough - after killing and disposing of so many of the rebels - she had stopped feeling anything at all; even the wrenching remorse that once ate away at her insides and left her nothing but countless nights without sleep or even a reprieve from the regret.

She wasn't like the Exterminators and draculoids, if anything she had once been a survivor; it was Hex that had been the one to mold herself into a vicious killer.

That is why as her act of atonement when she found herself without a chance of sleep she had gotten out of bed, walked a few short paces across the room to her desk then sat down and spent the remainder of the night writing out her report that would soon be turned in to Harukichi Kurofuji, the CEO of Better Living Industries and the most powerful woman in the country.
Possibly the world.

"I turned in my report this morning," Hex told Party Poison as she lifted her head to look at him. "I didn't need to come visit you this morning, I was supposed to interrogate another killjoy."

"What was in the write-up?" Party asked tiredly, shifting position and laying down as if he intended to go to sleep.

"Lies, I lied a lot; much more than I should have. I made up a few names and terms and places. I guess you could say that my job is done, yours is too." The girl ran her fingers over the file, for a moment as she decided whether what she was about to do was right or wrong; it didn't take long for her to make up her mind and she stood before tossing the confidential folder onto the killjoy's chest.

He moved his arm away from his eyes and picked up the file with a confused frown on his face that showed he had no idea what she was doing or why; Hex had yet to come up with a reason for why she did it as well, the best excuse she had at the time was that it made her feel a little less empty inside, a little less hollow.

"What is it?" Party Poison struggled as he sat up before leaning against the wall at the side of his bed and opening the folder, asking no more questions and reading the contents instead; strictly that acting as his answer.

He was quiet as he read, scanning the classified pages that were meant to be only seen by Hex the killjoy hunter.

Losing such an important set of documents would get her demoted to nothing better than a draculoid but showing them to the leader of the Fabulous Killjoys, an icon and a symbol of hope for all renegades in the zones; that could, would get her killed.

"My brother, he's in here? He's alive? My friends are alive?" The light that had disappeared from his eyes many days ago came back for a moment, it could hardly be called anything more than a faint spark but it was there nonetheless and it was more hope than she had seen at any time in her life.

"Fun Ghoul is in room seventeen and Jet Star is in fourteen. Your brother, Kobra Kid is only two doors away in room eleven." Hex's voice was uncharacteristically soft as she spoke, it was because she knew what was coming for her; what she had done was unforgivable and the moment BLI became aware of what she had done they would have a bounty on her head and an Exterminator at her heels.

"I don't understand, why would you be showing me this?" Party asked, putting the file beside him on the bed as he watched Hex cross the room and retrieve a bag from under her chair, rifling through it briefly before finding something and returning to him.

"Because I'm already gonna get killed for this." She held out a set of keys and jingled them in front of him before quickly unlocking the handcuffs around his wrists.

"They're letting me go?" He wondered as Hex pulled him up from the bed by the arm, she shook her head before turning around then reaching into the bag she had looked in only moments earlier, next thing he knew there were clothes being thrown at him.

Since she had only decided upon helping the killjoys early in the morning she hadn't been given time to properly assemble things and has only realized at the last moment that it would be a little too obvious who the killjoys were if they went running around in clothes that would instantly label them as prisoners who were not meant to be out of their rooms.

That's why she had taken a sneaky trip to the basement and retrieved some old draculoid uniforms, if they were lucky no one would give them much more than a second glance and just automatically assume she was with some other killers.

"I'm letting you go and I'm going to be bloody killed for it if I'm caught. I'll be outside, get dressed then we're getting your friends, okay? Okay, good." Hex said nothing further and grabbed her bag before slipping out of the room, making sure to close the door behind her before checking both ways down the hall; it was probably the emptiest it would ever be.

It didn't take long for Party to get dressed and come out of the room, even when he was dosed up on monochrome pills and Hex had to admire him for it; when she had started taking the higher grade medicine she struggled to even brush her hair in the morning, let alone get dressed in a hurry.

"Why did you change your mind, why do you want to help?" He was talking quickly as she led him down the hall at a hurried pace, knowing it wouldn't be long before the daily rounds were done and someone would realize that the notorious Fabulous Killjoys were gone, if she had the choice Hex would rather not be in the building when the alarms went off and the lockdown procedure started.

"I'm still trying to figure that out myself but if you ask any more questions I might get my common sense back and return you to your room so stop talking." They stopped at door number eleven and Hex gave Party Poison a fierce look before stepping into the room, already retrieving her keys.

"What? What's going on? Gerard, is that really you?" Although it was a serious time Hex couldn't help but snort when she realized Party Poison's name was Gerard but she didn't allow it to stop her from moving and the handcuffs were off Kobra before he had finished speaking.

"It's really me, Mikey." With both of them free to move about as they liked the two brothers were given a moment to hug before Hex interrupted them with a loud and purposeful cough.

"Who are you?" Kobra asked while staring at Hex, everything about the girl screamed Better Living Industries from the black and white clothes to the white ray gun and even the platinum blonde hair; she looked like she would rather kill and dispose of the pair than go out of her way to help them.

"Hex, I work here. As much as I would like to get all friendly and chat we don't have the time. I'd say we've got ten minutes before the dracs do their rounds. If we're lingering then I'll get killed and you guys will be back in your rooms so let's go. Put this on, wait here, I'll get the other two." She threw the same outfit Party Poison wore at Kobra then left, instantly falling into a jog as she moved down the hallway, counting the doors as she went.

She'd already pulled the clothes and keys from her bag when she reached room fourteen and Jet Star was just as confused as Kobra when she took removed his handcuffs and put the clothes beside him on the bed, answering the 'who are you' with 'I'm a good guy now get dressed because your friends are waiting', then she was gone once more and heading for the last room.

It seemed the last one - Fun Ghoul as his file labelled him - was a little more resilient than he had been given credit for and when she entered the room she could see him quickly stop trying to remove his restraints and feign being dead which in her book was a pretty bad act since she could see him breathing quickly.

"I so haven't got time for your bullshit," Hex sighed as she closed the door and the killjoy sat up once she called him out, realizing she wasn't stupid enough to believe he was actually dead.

"Nice to meet you too," he retorted as she walked over, pulling the keys and clothes from the duffel bag. "I've got a name by the way."

"I know, you're Fun Ghoul, buddies with Party Poison, Kobra Kid and Jet Star. I'm Hex and for some inexplicable reason I'm helping you guys out so don't be a jerk because I'm putting my life on the line for the lot of you." She stepped back once his hands were free and almost hit him in the face when she tossed the bundle of clothes at the black-haired killjoy.

"Sorry." He offered her a slightly apologetic smile before standing up and nearly completely stripping out of his grey jumpsuit in a single motion, making Hex quickly turn around and walk to the door since she had no intention of seeing any unsavory body parts at that time.

"Yet you don't seem sorry," Hex told him, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for him to finish getting dressed.

"That's probably because I'm not. It's gonna take a lil' bit more than a suicide mission for me to change my mind on you, I've heard the name Hex before and I can't say I like the reputation that comes with it." Although she thought she more than deserved to be liked by him because of what she was doing she still respected him for speaking his mind and when Hex really thought about it she hadn't been a martyr and would need to do much more atoning before her slate was wiped clean.

"Well I don't care what you think of me, just do as I say."

"Hey, as long as it gets me and my friends out of here alive I'll do whatever you want," Fun Ghoul said casually, ever so briefly resting his hand on the blonde's shoulder to let her know that he was fully dressed and she was now safe to turn around.

He damn well took his time, she thought but nodded at him and ducked under his arm when he held the door open for her.

Another glance at her watch showed they had two minutes left and she went from a jog to a sprint, running down the halls with Ghoul at her side, talking to himself about how good it was to run around; apparently the killjoys weren't let out of their rooms all that often.

The two only took a moment to collect Jet Star from his room before hurrying to where Party Poison and Kobra Kid waited, the rebel brothers talking to one another with large and bright smiles on their faces that made Hex feel slightly jealous since she had never had a sibling but she didn't allow it to stay on her mind for long since it felt to hear that there was a clock ticking in the back of her head.

"Okay, I've got the others. Let's go, we've only got like one minute." Thankfully they weren't stupid enough to linger or talk and as soon as she bolted from the room they came with her, moving just as quickly without them asking too many questions.

"Just wondering, where the hell is my car?" Party Poison asked as they ran along and she could feel a part of her mind demanding an answer for why he would care about a stupid car, on the other side of things the rest of the killjoys weren't all that surprised since he'd always loved the old trans am.

"It's in a parking lot outside, along with everyone else's things. Harukichi Kurofuji wanted to see it put in the Battery City museum today, she'd arranged for there to be dummies of you guys so everyone can remember BLI defeating the symbol of hope for the rebellion." It sounded ridiculous, if anything it would seem as if Better Living was intending to immortalize the Fabulous Killjoys, not make them out to be horrible rebels that wanted nothing more than the world to fall into disarray.

The group came to a halt at the end of the hall and Hex peered through a glass pane in the door before turning around to face them, "I want you to stay here, do nothing, say nothing because if I get caught for this heaven help me I'll kill all of you."

Hex drew her ray gun and held it up so it could clearly be seen before going running through the door, into the main office of the building, the ground floor where the killjoys had been put to rest the first time and considering how much trouble she'd gone through, there better not be a second.

"Wave-heads and killjoys in first and second quadrant! They've broken in and are making a mess of the place! Everyone move now!" Since she had never put a foot wrong and was well-known for her no-nonsense attitude the room burst into action at her command, not daring to question whether or not her claims were false.

Alarms wailed, ray guns were readied and draculoids were called then as soon as she had burst in the office was emptied not even an office worker remained, all of them too busy running to another section of the building to wake up Korse.

Once she had called out to them the killjoys stepped out of the hallways and into the office, Ghoul letting out a low whistle and murmuring about something being impressive. After a few more words were exchanged, she'd handed Party one of her two ray guns then ordered them out the front door, telling them nothing more than to get the car ready and wait before she had ran into a glass office, disappearing from sight.

Party Poison slid into the front seat of the trans am and started it up as if he had been in old Eight-Legs only yesterday, Ghoul, Jet and Kobra jumping in and closing the doors behind them; and then they waited with tension crackling through the interior of the car.

The wailing of sirens could be heard from where the car was parked but all of a sudden there was something else, a sound that the four knew well, you could probably say too well.
It was the firing of a laser blaster.

Party's hands were in two different places, one on the steering wheel and the other on the shift; he wanted nothing more than to slam the car into gear and hit the gas, to tear out of the city but Hex had said to wait and he owed her as much considering what she had done.

Eager to see what had started the sound Fun Ghoul stuck his head out the window of the car, squinting his eyes to see into the building but as soon as he saw inside he'd grabbed the ray gun from Party Poison and was shooting at the draculoids that had come running out of the building, their backs turned to the car as they shot at the girl emerging.

The first few dropped to the ground once Ghoul had taken some shots then more when Hex stopped midway to lower the number of dracs aiming for Fun; but as soon as she thought it was safe the former Better Living Industries agent was running again, a flat-out sprint that could likely rival the speed of a professional runner.

"Hit the gas!" Hex yelled, once the car was within reach and moments after the order had been shouted the trans am was racing out of the parking lot as fast as it was able, the blonde girl safe and halfway into the car all with the help of the sunroof.

She dropped unceremoniously into the passenger seat with a huff, her head falling against the back of the seat with loud sigh escaping her pale lips; the whole situation had turned out to be a much closer call than she would have liked, much closer.

Beside her Party murmured something too low for her to clearly hear and she turned to look at him, "what did you say?" Hex wondered, strain and exhaustion apparent in her voice as she slid her ray gun into its holster under her jacket.

"Run away with me?" Party Poison asked with a bright smile and Hex's eyes narrowed from deep thought as she processed what the killjoy leader meant and what she should or at the very least could say in response to such a strange line.

"Well damn, does it seem like I have much of a choice?"

Notes