Resurrection

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. - Psalms 116:15


There had been a time when things had been simple. When it had been a fight between good and bad, the ultimate goal to be able to live as free as one wanted and enjoy a life of love, sorrow, colour and laughter. For a while it had all seemed possible, the nuclear wasteland and blank sterility of BLI could be washed away in bright neon colour and the world would bloom and blossom again. The Fabulous Killjoys had made that seem possible, they had destroyed Battery City in one violent night of fire and death, Korse and his minions seemingly destroyed and for that brief, bright moment everyone had been free.
Then it went wrong.
Government is harder than it looks and the Killjoy council suddenly had several hundred thousand refugees, its own people and a great big radioactive blot on the landscape that had been BLI’s number one city . Bloodshed had continued, the zones falling in on each other and yet even that had been workable, Party Poison had sent his boys to each of the Zones and set up districts to feed and shelter the populace, a fledgling democracy that was free from drugged apathy and alive, for want of a better word.
Problem was BLI rose again like a hydra, the removed head spouting again in another Battery City, another Korse as he had been one of many cyborgs and all of a sudden it was starting all over again. The Zones went back to war, the Killjoys slowly pushed back until it had been like before, the former victories lost and the casualties rising. Even then they had not lost hope, the bushy haired little girl had somehow been important to BLI and her rescue on the night the original city had fallen had been merely the beginning of a cat and mouse game to keep her safe. Both sides had traded losses and victories until the four leaders had been pulled into a trap and suddenly the unthinkable had happened.
Rainbow Revolver sat in the bar at the Crater Club and reflected on it. They had seemed so invincible, she hadn’t even entertained the thought of never seeing him again when Fun Ghoul had kissed her goodbye that night. Even though they had been going into the heart of the new city, even though everyone had said it was a suicide mission, she had thought they would pull it off. Like every other time Party led them all into something stupid. Her best friend had disagreed, Crimson Suicide had argued with Party, called him an asshole despite their love for each other and had gone to get drunk. Rainbow had known she had expected to wake up with him beside her and an apology. A shared breakfast with Kobra and Jet, Missile playing with her food and telling them all about the adventure.
Except it hadn’t ended that way.
Instead they had died, the kid rescued but at a cost of their own lives and she saw every frame of their deaths in her mind whenever she closed her eyes. BLI had triumphantly broadcast the footage across the Zones so that everyone knew the Fabulous Killjoys were no more and the dream of a free life would die with them. Rainbow had been on autopilot, taking the leadership of the Council that first day and somehow trying to make sense of it all. She would never see her laughing boy again, never hear his voice or feel his arms around her. That Ghoul had died a hero, that he had stayed back in an effort to save Jet and the kid was a hollow triumph, they were all gone just the same.
Slowly but surely the killjoy network had gone underground, BLI once again controlling the outside and Rainbow had been forced to listen to the infighting, the recriminations that had ripped the heart out of everyone. Without their leaders it was harder to carry on fighting and many had gone back into the drugged populace to get away from the pain, the others reduced to hit and run resistance again. Some had been like her, a grim determination to carry on because that would have been what the boys would have wanted or they would have died for nothing. Others, like Crimson, had gone the other way and become lawless, killing for the sake of it. Drac, civilian, didn’t really matter and that was now why she was alone, a scar snaking down below her right eye and over her nose to end by her lip. Her best friend had done that after one to many arguments and now Rainbow didn’t bother to hide it. Her hair was still a rich red, her purple shirt and tight leathers hadn’t changed but Ghoul would no longer recognise the colder, more focused woman she had become.
That fight had been brutal and would probably have ended in death for both of them if others hadn’t intervened. Crimson was done with causes, it had taken Gerard from her and she had wanted to leave, not bound by duty or any sense of loyalty to those left and unable to understand that Rainbow was, Missile had no-one else and there was a war to win. The verbal fight had become viciously physical and while Rainbow was now scarred, Crimson had nearly died after Rainbow had fired her gun in desperation and caught her friend in the head. They had all thought she would die, somehow no one had wanted that but instead she had vanished out into the desert. Rainbow heard stories of her occasionally, out in Zone 6 and now a story to scare the children with. The silent killer….
“You going to the meeting at four ?”
Rainbow looked up at Neon Viper with a smile and a shrug. The kid had become a man in the last year and now ran the Crater Club, still the main rally point for the killjoys that remained true to their colours. He was on the Council and eager to hear about some new propaganda that had been leaked out of the city. He would have done anything Rainbow had asked of him, the young man still eager for glory which was precisely why she wouldn’t let him.
“I guess. Dr D said it was important.”
“The Inside Man is getting us some good stuff now.”
Rainbow nodded absently, stirring her drink with the tip of one finger and reminding herself that Kobra had always said that getting someone inside Battery City would be the key to victory. They had that now but her tall, blond friend had not lived to see it and she missed him all the more. The agent himself was Toxic Monster, a former protégé of Party’s that had been able to join the flood back to the city but feed them information. It was starting to prove useful.
“Keep focused Neon, we have a long way to go.”
The barkeep nodded and left her with the bottle. Rainbow Revolver was fearsome when roused, the carefree good natured girl lost when Frank hadn’t come home. She held them all together with a rod of steel and the rank and file, those who had not known her before now feared her. The old guard respected her as a true fighter, the battle of Battery City had proved that and now she kept them all together by sheer force of will alone. When she walked into the packed room, it fell silent and Dr D waited until she was seated before addressing the packed assembly room deep underground.
“This information came at great cost and we need to know if what it shows us is true. If it is then we may have suffered the most devastating propaganda loss of this war. On the other hand, if it is true then we may have the first chance to really hit BLI back and hit them hard. These posters have been going up over Battery City and I warn you, they are shocking.”
A slide came up on the wall, an audible gasp going around the room as the two hundred or so killjoys squinted and stared. Rainbow could do nothing but stare, it was impossible and yet she knew him, had known him intimately as friend, leader and occasionally lover and knew him now. The red hair was gone, replaced with a short ginger spike cut that accented his cheekbones and the blue suit he wore. Gerard Way, formerly Party Poison, restored by BLI and happily presenting kids tv to the brats of Battery City with a pink monkey creature….it was weirdly like a sick joke.
A voice came from the back of the room, soon joined by others.
“Is it him ?”
“It can’t be, Party is dead.”
“It’s a trick.”
“It’s a lie. We saw the body.”
“Where are the others ?”
Dr D raised his hand again and the noise died down as everyone turned to look at Rainbow. She hadn’t moved, her eyes fixed to the screen as she reread how Gerard credited BLI with saving his life and giving him a wonderful new one. She felt sick, hope and terror merging as she looked at the DJ, the scar livid against the pallor of her skin and the words whispered.
“We need to find Crimson.”

Notes

the anniversary prompted a re-write and a resurrection of this story.
Sequel to Scarecrow and The Rainbow Connection but not required reading for this one :)