Renascence

[hobbes]

Renascence
A anything-but-normal story about the unusual events surrounding the unrest in Nova Ardia.
written by hawkwick, hobbes, CGJ and (previously in Season 1) SatanLord.

Chapters 1 and 2 are written for the Nova Ardian revolution RP, Chapters 3+ are for this vignette series. But you'd need to read 1 and 2 to understand what is going on in 3.

CHAPTER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

    1. THE STORY SO FAR
    2. INTERVIEWING FOR YOUR LIFE
    3. WHAT RYAN?
    4. SMALL TALK
    5. WHAT HOUSEWIFE?
    6. THE BRUTALITY OF THE EVIL...AND THE SILENCE OF THE GOOD Mild Torture, Violence
    7. ...SNITCHES
    8. HOPE


CHAPTER 2: ON THE RUN

    1. BREAKOUT Mild Torture, Attempted Sexual Assault, Violence
    2. TERRIBLE PUNS AND HIPSTER BEANIES
    3. I HUNG MY HEAD
    4. STUPID DECISIONS & PTSD Violence


CHAPTER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS

    1. WHOSE HIGH AS A KITE NOW?
    2. SOB STORIES AND GETTING DRUNK ON A PLANE
    3. INSANE ASYLUM
    4. THOUSAND YARD STARE
    5. HIS MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
    6. INFORMATION AGE OF HYSTERIA


CHAPTER 4: MONEY

    1. THE SPY WHO SAVED ME
    2. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS TRUMPS ROMANCE
    3. BENCHES AND DOCTORATES
    4. SHOCK THERAPY
    5. WHO BUYS PLASTIC CHAIRS?
    6. EVICTION NOTICE

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 1. THE STORY SO FAR

This series runs through the series of events leading from Aurelia Octavia's capture to her arrival at the detention facility in Northern Nova Ardia, nicknamed 'The Farm' in the intelligence community. It probably will come off as less coherent to read than usual because it's a series of posts mashed together.


Aurelia stared blankly at the now black stream and the flooding comment section. Her thoughts drifted from the fairly mundane ones she'd been having just before to thoughts of survival; undoubtedly, if they'd found Andrew Ryan, they'd find everyone else sooner rather than later. Even assuming that his security was worse than hers, she'd simply bought her VPN. If they needed to, they could track her card back to her, and then she'd be toast.

She stood up slowly from her desk, noticing her hand was trembling. It means you're not stupid. she thought, going over to the window of her rather run-of-the-mill apartment and parting the curtain, and revealing a good view of Roma. Her apartment was situated directly in front of Primarch Pepe Germanicus Boulevard, placing her in the south side of the Capital. And the Capital was not a safe place to be at the moment. She took in the view momentarily before turning around and quickly going over to her laptop, shutting it and disconnecting it from the Ethernet cable. The blog, as awesome and supportive as it had been, would have to wait. She had to think over her predicament briefly for possible solutions.

Her phone suddenly went off, blasting indie rock into her apartment. She sighed, walking over to where she'd left it on the kitchen counter and checking her messages. Unknown number, yet her phone had somehow recognized it as Andrew Ryan's. Her heart raced. He's looking for me? I'm just a blogger... she thought, checking the text and frowning slightly. 'Meet me at the bunker.' What the hell was that supposed to mean? Andrew Ryan had a bunker?

"Shiiiit." she mumbled. Well this was intriguing and all, but it didn't do anything to remotely un-fuck her situation. Where was this bunker? Was there only one for the whole nation? She briefly considered possible locations before stopping that tangent of thought, too. It was useless to theorize when she had no context. She went back to her desk and sighed, propping her head up on her arm and thinking.

If the secret police didn't bash down her door in the next thirty minutes, she was going to pack up, say her goodbyes, collect her last paycheck from the Pharmacy, and get the hell out of the capital.



Four black SUV's rolled up infront of a seemingly inconspicious apartment complex. About a dozen heavilly armed soldiers exited, making their way into the building.

"What is the meaning of this?" Demanding the apartment complexes owner, blocking the entry upstairs.

"Remove him" echoed a man behind a mask, seemingly the commander. The owner was grabbed and thrown away from the doorframe and into the lobby, as the team began to make its way upstairs. They were searching for a certain apartment...

The sound of a yell from downstairs led to Aurelia suddenly dropping her plastic lunchbox on her foot. They're here. she thought, quickly remembering Andrew Ryan's escape from the stream and speedwalking over to her window, throwing the curtain aside to reveal four Black SUVs parked directly below her aparment. A knot was starting to form in her stomach.

Another knock, a yell from downstairs she couldn't make out. She took a deep breath and looked down. The fall would break her legs, and she'd be twice as fucked as she was now. She needed to hide. She quickly went over to her kitchen drawer and pulled out a kitchen knife, before walking into her bedroom and shutting the door, waiting, trying to steady her breath. They were probably outside now.

The troops moved straight to her apartment, and with a hard kick burst inside. They looked around the immediate vicinity, before going straight for her laptop and bagging it. They looked around the kitchen, seeing a drawer open. They noticed how her stuff was strawn around the apartment.

"Left in a hurry?..." questioned one of the soldiers

"Shhh...Or she's still here" whispered the other. They moved toward the closed bedroom door, and one of them tried to open it...

She could barely breathe. They were already ransacking her apartment. She didn't want to die. Just as she'd gotten set up again, the government fucked her over yet again. She waited for the first man to open the door before lunging with the kitchen knife at him in a fit of rage, brand new tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Get out of my apartment!" she shrieked.

The first man to open the door took several steps back, peddling backwards while pointing his rifle at the knife weilding woman. The others did the same.

"Drop it now! We will shoot! Drop the fucking knife!" They pressed their fingers on the triggers, aiming right for her chest and ready to shoot on a seconds notice.

Aurelia dropped the knife and fell to her knees, sobbing. She hadn't even gotten a moment's notice before they arrived. She could have run, she could have done something except for pack stupid useless lunches and clothes. But now she'd pay the price. Filled with sadness and grief and rage, here she was. For the first time ever, she wanted nothing more than their deaths. The very thought repulsed her, but so did they. She stopped thinking and started listening. She would try to prolong her pointless life as long as she could.

Upon dropping to her knees, one of the soldiers moved behind her back and handcuffed her. "Get moving, you're lucky we didin't shoot you the first time." They moved her - more like dragged her - out of the apartment and down to the cars below. The apartment manager was still tidying up the lobby from the previous confrontation when they left with Aurelia, not saying a word to him. She was tossed in the middle SUV with a guard next to her and after all the soldiers had loaded up, the SUV's peeled off.

Aurelia took a deep breath in the SUV, looking up at the plain brown roof of the thing. She supposed she'd be staring at a lot of plain colors soon, or, if things went really bad, at no color at all. She didn't know what type of punishment to expect. She just knew that typically, once people got caught by the Gestapus, that was it. You never heard a word out of them again.

She blinked out the last of her tears, trying to blow the bit of her shoulder-length blonde hair that had fallen on her face off of it. Her view drifted from the ceiling to the black-clothed figures of the secret police. There were probably legitimate incentives to doing it. She wondered how many of them had doubts, how many of them had been legitimately indoctrinated. She wondered if anyone she had known in school or in college was one of them now.

Most of all, she wondered if they felt anything at all when they burst into her apartment and cuffed her. They must have. she thought. They didn't shoot me, but they had a valid excuse.

The SUV's rolled past several other scenes of police in action; men and women being rounded up, at least one being executed. It quickly became evident a citywide, perhaps even nationwide crackdown was underway. They soon picked up speed; speeding right past the usual police headquarters, seemingly head out of the city. A black bag was placed over her head as the left the city limits, masking where the SUV's were going to her eyesight.

After driving for about another 25 minutes, the SUV's made a sudden turn and came to a abrupt stop. She heard the doors opened and she was pulled out of the SUV, placed on her knees with the bag on her head and her hands still handcuffed behind her back. She felt the cold press of what felt like a barrel against the back of her head. A rather...rotton stench was in the air.

"Orders, sir?" barked a operative behind her. She heard footsteps, and the smell of a ciggarrete competed with the rotten stench in the air.

"Let's see what she has to say, first." said the man infront of her, with a almost robotically calm voice. He crouched down infront of her, taking another puff of his cigarrette and blowing it right at the bag concealing her face.

"And why, dear, are you here?"

Aurelia closed her eyes, gasping slightly when she felt the barrel on the back of her head. She wouldn't be bullshitting anyone here. So when the man with the cigarette puffed into her face and asked her for the truth, she blinked behind the bag, her eyes mildly irritated by the cigarette smoke, and quickly stammered out what she knew.

"I-I ran a blog! An anti-government blog!" she admitted, perhaps a bit too loudly. The fear in her voice was very apparent.

She heard a slight chuckle from infront of her, almost maniacle. "Search her and take her inside". Before the man had even finsihed his sentence, the two guards holding her upright let go, and she suddenly and abruptly fell on her face onto what turned out to be concrete. They patted her down and searched - rather intrusively - all of her pockets and areas she could conceal a weapon or electronci device. They found her wallet, with ID and money, and a phone. She heard them playing with her phone, before the battery popped out and it completely died.

"As fortunate as it is that we have so much, unfortunately this staging area is compromised. Amputate the concompliants, we have what we need."

"Copy." echoed, and a single volley of rifle shots rang out, before what sounded like sacks of potatos hit the concrete. "Clean up crews on the way - Load up the compliants." She felt herself being picked up and placed - moreso thrown - back into the SUV. One of the soldiers spoke, jokingly. "It'le be a bit of a drive to 'home', sweetheart." She heard the SUV pull out, and within a few seconds it was on the move again.

Aurelia let out a small shriek when she heard the gunshots, one that quickly dissipated when she was thrown backwards into the SUV, where, after a painful landing, she rolled to a stop, letting out an desperate groan as the SUV started moving again. "Where are we going?" she asked the man who had given her the snarky comment.

"The farm, of course!" He laughed, seemingly the senior operative in the car. He didin't respond to her after that, and the car drove for what felt like a hour, maybe more, before the car pulled up to what seemed like a gate, but it opened with a much louder sound. As they entered, all light stopped entering the SUV's; pitch dark besides the lights inside the SUV. The door opened, and she was pulled out of the SUV again; this time the operatives pulling the bag off of her head; it looked like old abandoned parking garage, dimly lit. The operatives pulled her by her arms to a large door; what turned out to be a blast door. They pulled her along a long hallway, making several turns and passing the occasional secret police officer or military officer passing them by, seemingly without a care for her prediciment. She was tossed into a cell, alone and still handcuffed, and the cell door was slammed shut.

They no longer seemed to care what she saw or didin't saw, perhaps they thought she was to terrified to recall, or, perhaps, more cynically, they just thought she would never leave?

Aurelia responded in kind, not saying anything for the rest of the ride either, instead just pondering various theories inside her head. The first thing that came to mind was a server farm, but the words 'kill farm' also popped into her mind, undoubtedly from some TV show or game somewhere. Isn't that a type of military training area though? Nothing makes sense.

Once she was thrown into the cell, she sighed, looking around at the featureless walls in desperation. It appeared her prediction from the car had come true. She sat down and pulled her handcuffed hands under her legs, which were still barefoot and wearing pocketed pajama pants, before bringing them back up. If she was going to rot in here, she might as well have her hands in front of her.

She examined her handcuffs, which appeared fairly run-of-the-mill, and frowned. She really wanted to kill someone right now.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 2. INTERVIEWING FOR YOUR LIFE

This series runs through the series of events leading Aurelia Octavia through her first interview with a shady man revealed to be Francis Keeves. May be slightly less coherent than usual as it's several posts mashed together.




After what seemed like at least 45 minutes, the door was opened suddenly.

"Octavia, Aurelia. You're up." Two guards entered the cell, immediately noticing she had shifted her handcuffs to her front. "That's not regulation. Let me fix that for you." The first guard seemed to rather innocently uncuff her, when the second send a forceful thrust into her back; knocking her to the floor. They recuffed her behind her back before pulling her over to a interrogation room. "Don't do that again, Yeah?"

"Mmf." she grunted in understanding at the guard, not saying anything as she went over to the interrogation room, which looked quite a bit similar to what she had expected. Her heart was still racing; her hands were probably still mildly shaking. She simply wasn't okay right now. She sat down in the chair in the interrogation room, frowning and trying to rub her aching wrists through the cuffs, before waiting again. For something to happen.

The guards sat her down, one standing in the doorway. A simple man wearing a suit entered through the other door, and signalled for the guard to uncuff her. Without question, the guard uncuffed her and left the room, presumably to watch through the inevitable one-way glass.

"Howdy" said the man, in a simple, plain spoken voice. "I'm frank." He extended his hand over the interrogation table, offering to shake her now-uncuffed hand. He was holding a yellow vanilla folder in his other.

"I'm sure you are." quipped Aurelia, rubbing her wrists properly now, and examining the man. Her eyes were probably slightly red; she was sure this man could read her recent history like a book. The crying and all.

The man sighed, retracting his hand and sitting across from her. He did, indeed, read her recent story rather well. But it was a story he had read many times before from people in her situation. He opened the folder, pulling out several IP logs, conversation histories, ecetera; it was plenty of information against her. He laid these out on the table, before getting to her information file.

"Ms. Aurelia Secunda Octavia, 24, lives in Roma. But it seems, you live two lives; one as a respectable four year university student, paid for by the state, Working now as a licensed pharmacest, also heavily subsidized by the state, and making a respectable income. Yet, you live a second life, under the alias Juno, and defile the same government which has molded you into a otherwise productive member of our society; to which I simply ask, Why?"

She didn't stop rubbing her red wrists when the man asked his question, instead looking around the empty interrogation room, and sighing. "Really?" she asked, a knot forming in her throat already. "You start abducting people and your army starts a crackdown on free speech and you wonder why people try to go against you?" she paused, sniffing a bit. "Was that a rhetorical question? You know why."

He sighed, re-adjusting his sunglasses. "The crackdown only became a necessity due to some of the more...radical...members of your persay organization. People speaking out so brutally against the state weakens it. Anyone with half a brain would recognize that and I am sure you are smarter than you come off as, Ms. Octavia. Now, what do you know that we don't know already?"

"Maybe you shouldn't be so afraid of change." retorted Aurelia, trying to look through his sunglasses. "We shouldn't be torching each other. But we shouldn't be barging into people's apartments because they criticize you." she continued uneasily, trying to grasp for justification that didn't immediately paint her as a radical. "Besides," she said. "I don't know anything. I swear." she said.

"The high level activists were running streams, but you sure as hell saw that. I just ran blogs, I didn't communicate with any of them." Her brown eyes blinked, and the hint of red around her eyes was unmistakeable. She really had been crying too much.

He chuckled loudly. "We have access to your laptop your blog and your phone. Do you honestly expect that story to hold when we go through them? The consequences would be...most dire if you're lieing to me, Ms. Octavia." He retained his cold stare through the sunglasses and calm expression.

"I swear. Please. I ran blogs, I shat all over your government. I urged people to watch Ryan. But I didn't do anything more!" she insisted, looking down, and blinking out more tears. His laugh had made her extremely uncomforatble. It was...artificial. But questions about him would have to wait for her. She was more focused on self-preservation at the moment.

"I'm just...I'm just a pharmacist."

He nodded, she was starting to crack. "And what do you know about this... Ryan?"

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 3. WHAT RYAN?

This begins our co-op series and covers the second half of Aurelia's first interview with Frank.


He nodded, she was starting to crack. "And what do you know about this... Ryan?"


"R-ryan?" asked Aurelia, looking up at her interrogator. "Well, he's uhm, he was a journalist, and he's a writer, and, er, he's a big anti-fascist. He ran the streams. He jumped out a window. He sent all of us a text. That's it, that's all I know!"
she spurted out in a panic.

He nodded, not writing anything down; either the conversation was being recorded, he already knew this, or both. "And what did the text say?"

"Uhm." she paused, trying to remember the exact wording in the heat of the moment. Her day had been hectic. "Meet me at the bunker. The status quo has changed." she recalled.

"That we knew, but it had been assumed you understood the meaning."

She shook her head. "Nononono. I don't. I don't know where he is. I don't know where his bunker is." she paused. "I don't even know why I got the text!"

He nodded, making a signal to the man behind the one way glass that looked like a phone. "And what do you know of the man who hacked our systems today?

A face of mild shock went over Aurelia. "What? I'm in the dark about that too, seriously." she paused. "I sure as hell didn't help the man, if that's what you're asking. I write blogs, I don't break into government systems."

He nodded, and, as if on que, a guard entered, bringing Aurelia's phone. The man in sunglasses took it, thanking the guard pleasantly. He casually began typing away on Aurelia's phone, as if sending out a message. She didin't know the phone had been modified to give off a false GPS signal.(edited)


She stared at the man briefly. "W-what are you doing with my phone?" she asked.

"What am I doing? Nothing. What you are doing is messaging your dear Ryan back saying you're being chased by secret police and need him to help you find the Bunker."(edited)
Soon enough, he finished his message, pressed 'send', and placed the phone on the table infront of him, but just out of her reach.

"Oh my God." said Aurelia. "You're using me as bait? Is that what you wanted from me?" she asked the man, her furrowing her brow.

"It took you this long to figure out?" He chuckled, stretching himself out. "You're low down enough to be expendable either way but high up enough that they'd probably come for you"
"And the best part, dear, is in the 21st century you can be the bait without leaving the comfort of this facility!"

"High up enough?" she paused. "I've never met them!" she said. "Why would they care about me? I have two blogs! I don't get up and yell on camera like they do!" she ranted.

"Well, of course if they don't bite we go one up the rung. It's not hard to follow."
He shifted his position, repositioning his sunglasses. "In any case, you are in a Classified Level Three installation which mandates the wrong people seeing it don't live to tell the tale. If you're suggesting you're not useful to us now I highly suggest you find a way to make yourself useful."

Aurelia paused to wipe her face. "Ugh." she grunted, clenching her fists in frustration for a second. "Fuck off!" she hissed, tears starting to flow again. "You're just gonna turn my life upside down and then blackmail me with my life to help you?"

"I believe you perfectly knew the risks when you took on your side-professions." He retained his calm, emotionless state.

"I wasn't expecting you to care when I took on my 'side-professions'! And then you went and-" she paused. "Fuck it. You know what your felllow government assholes did with Vienra and all that. I'm not going to convince you." she sighed, looking down and leaning back in the chair. "I'm not gonna alter your viewpoint in any way, am I, you automaton?"

He nodded and stood up "We're done for tonight. Get some sleep." , he then walked out, briefly leaving her alone. Guards then arrived and attempted to handcuff her again, before moving her to her cell.

Aurelia had a feeling in her chest she hadn't had in quite some time. Some sort of raw emotion that was a mix of regret and anger had taken her over. And she hadn't even gotten the chance to act on it because, like her, the interrogator had just given up. As soon as she got back into her cell, she sat down in the corner, slightly trembling.

The guards moved her to the cell, this time having the coutesy to uncuff her before moving her back inside. The door slammed shut and locked again.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 4. SMALL TALK

This co-op further introduces Aurelia and Frank, who begin speaking more frankly (pun intended)



The guards opened the door again, "Hands against the wall." They moved to handcuff her again, this time having brought the black bag again.

She was jolted awake, sluggishly standing up and waiting for the guards to handcuff and bag her head again.

The guards handcuffed and bagged her again, moving her outside of the cell. They walked for what seemed like a few hallways before entering what turned out to be a elevator; going straight up a couple of floors.

The elevator moved up, stopping abruptly at what seemed to be the top of the shaft. The doors opened, and what sounded like a blast door opened before a rush of fresh air surrounded them; she was now walking on what felt like hard wood floors (since she's barefoot). She was sat down in a chair and uncuffed with the bag removed on a front porch of what seemed to be a cabin in the woods. Woods surrounded the area, but the occasional soldier can be seen walking around and a indescrept fence can be seen a mile or so down the road leading to the cabin. "Wait here" ordered a guard, and he left, leaving the other one with her. Some bagels and milk were on the table.

Aurelia took a second to examine her newfound surroundings. "What...the fuck?" she mumbled to herself, looking around at her surroundings. But then something clicked. The elevator. Clearly, they had some sort of underground base, and this was just one of the exits. She briefly looked over the other soldier and then the food. I'm totally the bait. And this is the trap. she thought, at first.

The interrogator exited through the front door of the cabin, this time wearing a dayshirt and jeans, but still wearing sunglasses. "What a beautiful morning outside" he said, mostly to himself, before moving over to the seat ajacent to her and taking a seat. Still completely calm and carefree.

"I see you recharged." she told him mockingly. "What's the catch this time? Is this the trap?" she asked.

"Fortunately for you, no." He nodded, "Your cooperation was never necessary for the trap. As valuable as your friend is, this facilities location is far more valuable. You'll never hear or see him again, most likely."

She took another deep breath; this time of fresh air. "Well, he's not my friend. And I don't know him." she paused. "I thought you already knew that. Surely you've been through my files."

"In a interconnected world, dear, one doesn't need to meet face to face to know someone." He looked out into the forest, spreading his feet out.
"Why do you suppose this place is off the grid?"

"Because you don't want the international community taking satellite pictures of your little farm?" she asked, almost in disgust.

He chuckled, almost mockingly. "You don't think every nation on this planet doesn't have installations like this one?"

"No, because most nations don't round up people who write blogs against their government." she quipped.

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid you'd be misinformed, but that is aside the point. Tell me, what is, or rather, was, your end goal?"

"I..." she paused, thinking over her end goal. "I guess...help convince people to try and change the government for the better?" she said, unsure. "I had no end goal, really. I just wanted to spread and discuss my views somewhere." she paused, trying to word it carefully. She had a feeling that if she called Mr. Robot, as she'd christened him, anything more drastic than automaton, she might end up a lot worse than she started. Unfortunately for her, right now, she was trying to hide a type of rage she'd never experienced before. And she could only hope it would work.

He rather evidently seemed to be able to tell she was holding back. "You are free to speak candidly. I am not here to lay a hand on you..." He slyly pointed to a guard watching them "They, however, I'd be far more careful what you say around them."

"You got my answer. Not 'candid' enough?" she asked.

"I expected something far more snappy and to the point." He seemed to already be learning her traits.

"Well, you're not gonna get something to the point, because I haven't made up my mind on what my end goal was." she said. "Happy?"

"Mhm" He smirked as he grabbed a bagel, "You're free to eat. I imagine you haven't ate or drank anything in a day or so."


Aurelia kept her arms crossed. briefly before she noticed him grab a bagel too. Uneasily, she took one into her hand. She was starving, but she wasn't going to bite into it until he did. Instead, she examined it, wondering why they would increase the percieved comfort of the interrogation room each time. First a gun barrell, then a textbook interrogation room, and now this.

He confidently took a bite of the bagel, noticing her apprehension. "If we were going to kill you, don't you think it would've been using a method far cheaper than food poisoning?" He downed it with milk, continuing to observe the woods peacefully with his shaded eyes.

She took a bite immediately after his, satisfying her grumbling stomach with her favorite breakfast food. He was right. "Why do this?" she asked.
"Why feed me and bring me to a cabin?"

"I like changing up the atmosphere. You are, indeed as you said, useless tactically and strategically. But what you can offer us is the mindset of the average dissenter. And that, indeed, is useful information."

"Forcing me to make myself useful?" she asked the man. "I'm surprised you care. You could snatch a lot more 'average dissenters' if you tried." she paused to chew.


"Unfortunately 'the list' that got you caught is content contributors of dissenting information - yourself included. We were watching you for some time, but were force to act when the aforementioned Ryan decided to blow the cover on it. We were forced to act on the information ad had. Some, arguably many, put up a fight immediately and were more radical. A few like you got caught in the crossfire." He paused to drink, "Which, of course, is what he wants as a terrorist; he knew we'd have to crack down or the people we want would slip away, which is precisely what he wants to paint it as we're violently cracking down on dissenters and start his little guerrila war. He's killed before, he'll kill again, and he made himself the perfect mechanism to do it." He paused again, taking another bite from his bagel. "What it comes down to is you're a pawn in a rather large and dangerous game."


"And what if I don't want to be anyone's pawn?" she asked. "Before your asshole party took over, this place wasn't so bad. I'm sure Ryan remembers it. We're all just trying to get back to what it was like before." she explained. "That's my end goal. Normalcy. Peace. Not living in a police state."

"The police state was relatively normal to you before you got rounded up and sent here. Which is understandable. Unfortunately, it looks like you're making the rhetorical 'police state' worse rather than better." He reached down to his other side, picking up a briefcase from the ground and opening it. He placed several photos of a torched van, complete with bodies of Roma police officers, on the desk facing her. "This was something a..."acquatance" of yours did last night."

He paused, taking a drink while she inspected the photos. "As expected, they're setting up checkpoints around the capitol and the government quarter has been completely sealed."

Aurelia examined the photos. "Ugh." she frowned, looking at the torched bodies. "Obviously nobody in their right mind wants to see people die." she started. "But the cops weren't the target, you know that, right? It was your government. People are really gunning after the leaders. I'm sure you know that. Deny it or don't, but everyone at the top just wants power, or they want to keep the power they already have. That's what people don't like. We want to share power, like most of the rest of the world." she explained calmly. That sounded a bit preachy. she thought to herself.


He reflected on what she said, taking another sip from his milk. "And what would make your so called revolutionary leader - Ryan - any different than the current government? Perhaps it is the case he just wants power as well?"


"He's an anarchist." she explained. "So he goes too far the other way. But it's not the same."


"What is same or not is purely a matter of opinion, unfortunately. Furthermore, I fail to come up with a anarchist state in recent memory that actually was able to survive"


"I'm not supporting an anarchist state. And if it was him versus another democratic movement, I wouldn't choose him. I'm only choosing him because he's the last chance for someone more sensible to actually make a working government."


"History is written by the victors, I am afraid, and propelling a Anarchist into power seems far from practical for a democratic state. And the democratic state was not without its problems; you may of been lucky, being born to a family of note, but povery and unemployment have both decreased dramatically under the new state. People are earning more money and are able to spend more"

Aurelia frowned slightly. "It's not about getting an Anarchist into power, it's about getting the NLP out of power. And that's us. There's other countries out there that have democracy even better than we had it. And people are happier when they're not rounded up, threatened with death, and thrown into cells."


"I'm afraid democracy is, as well, relative. Rokkenjima was toppled for a democratic regine a hundred years ago, the 'democratic regime' was far worse than the one you live under now in repressing liberties and people, so much so that the ruling family revolted and took control back for the Empress three years ago. We, fortunately, do not have a hereditary regime, rather than a system ran by people who understand it rather than making blank checks. You have exchanged the ability to choose your leader - a ability that is always abused regardless - for prosperity." He took another sip of his drink, looking out into the woods.


"A lot of us aren't happy with it. But you know that already." she said, now straightfaced, as she finished the bagel. Something clicked in her mind. Maybe she didn't have to be a pawn.


"Or, perhaps, the Supreme Empire of the North, which had 'democracy', but the outcome of a election and its elected leaders actions led to a civil war - which destroyed the entire country. One hundred million dead. A number so high it's hard to fathom outside of a statistic. Needless to say they now operate under a different system; I am curious to imply, What nations perceive your definition of 'superior' democracy?"


"Mm. South Hills comes to mind. Veduro somewhat comes to mind." she paused. "But I can't think of any that don't also have a king or Emperor at the top. Maybe we should get a king instead of your little pisspot government. Even a four hundred year old family works better." she said.


"South Hills almost elected a idiot billionare as its President. And the same royal families who conveniently make people who speka out against them dissapear. Covnenient. Hell, I recall a article on the Rokkenjiman and Dartfordian royal families funding genocide."

"What's the point of this? You're not going to convince me. And I'm not going to convince you." she took a quick look at the guard.

"We have nothing but time, hon." He grabbed another bagel, taking a bite from it firmly.

"You organized this little picnic. I'm sure you can organize a bunch of other shit too." she said, looking up at the ceiling. "If you have an interrogation cabin. you'll have a bunch of other wastes of money somewhere, too."

"Well, it's not actually a interrogation cabin. This is actually the main recepticle for food and supplies. But it's nice for taking people outside now and then as well."(edited)
He finished his second bagel. "Officially, all I have is the interrogation room, which I'm sure you also find dull."

Aurelia responded by crossing her arms. "So, that's it? You just have a bunch of conversations with me? I mean, I know you're using me as bait, but what's next? What's your end goal?"

"Well, at the least you're here - at least - into this blows over. Or into your 'violent revolution' happens. Whichever happens first. But next I presume the guards would take you back to your cell, and we'd meet sometime later. Possibly tonight or tomorrow. We'll see."

"And then you send me home?" she asked. "I doubt that. I attacked one of your grunts with a kitchen knife." she remembered. Scariest moment of her life, probably.

"That certainly would complicate things." he remarked, taking another sip of his drink.

"You didn't know?" she asked. "Fuck, maybe I shouldn't say anything else then." she shrugged.

"I imagine the people who would be sorting your release - if that is their intention, would know, That's not my job however."

"And what is your job, exactly? Interrogator?" she asked, curious.

"That would be correct. Needless to say I disagree with the usual bloody torture that title invokes."

"Good for me." she said, deadpan.

He laughed slightly, observing the woods as the sun continued to rise.

"Well..." she said. "You do this with all of your prisoners?"

"Most are usually far more deliberate and less cooperative. Some get passed on to more..direct...interrogators, some I need to work with."

"I'm only cooperative because I'm afraid."


"That seems to be a common theme, but the question is afraid of what. People are afraid of change, afraid of captivity, afraid of the system. Many are afraid fo changing the system. Everyone is afraid, in the end."


"I'm afraid I'm gonna disappear forever like everyone else the Gestapus caught." she paused, trying to convey exactly what she felt. "Maybe I worded that wrong. I'm only cooperative because I care more about me than I care about some political cause."

"There is not precedence for your situation, I'm afraid. The usual horror stories you hear are in situations where it was decided the person would do more harm than good to continue being in the public light. Hence why you weren't grabbed some time ago. Unfortunately, external factors forced our hand. There is, fortunately, a difference between wanting change in the government and actively attempting to overthrow it. That is where the metaphorical line is drawn, though now more than ever the actions of some have forced it to be blurred." He took another sip of his drink. "And I fear, indeed, things will get worse before they get better. Whether that pertains to my definition or your definition of better, is up for grabs."

"Someone always figures something out. Some compromise. Something that makes everyone happy." she said. "At least, I hope."

"Of course, however, torching cars and forming a armed insurgency is far from the most practical way of doing that. Any government would crack down, not just ours."

"Mm. Vaimeria. Republic. Same response you assholes had. Different reasons." she remembered the newsreel from the week before. "The government marched into another nation. Shot into crowds, apparently. That justifies it for a lot of us."


He nodded, staring into the forrest. "We'll go for a walk around the perimiter tonight." He looked at her, reminded she still did not have shoes. "I'll tell them getting you some clothes and shoes by then. Don't expect them to be too nice, of course."

"Gonna find a nice place to shoot me in the back?" she asked, half smirking. The truth was, she had no idea if she had meant it in jest or not.

He chuckled, assuming it was the former. "The guards will take you back now. Try to be curteous, I don't control them." He signalled for guards to come over, who went through the usual bagging + cuffing protocol to bring her back downstairs

"You like your job?" she asked one of the guards on her way down. As with protocol, the guard didn't respond, placing her back in her cell and uncuffing and unbagging her, before closing and locking the door after he left.

She sighed. Back to the mundane cell for her. She'd probably catch some sleep come night-time.

Around 11 or noon, sure enough the clothes arrived; a rather dull pair of coveralls which read 'INMATE' on the back and a pair of older shoes was slid through the rack usually reserved for food "We'll be expecting your old clothes in the rack" beckoned the guard.

She sighed, taking her pajamas off and replacing them with the coveralls and putting the old shoes on. They were too big, but at this point, complaining wouldn't do anything. She tossed her clothes through the hole, not giving them much thought, before slumping back into the corner.

The old clothes were taken from the slot and presumably disposed of, leaving her with her thoughts for a couple of hours...

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 5. WHAT HOUSEWIFE?

This co-op between Hobbes, SatanLord and Hawkwick goes into Viducia's arrival at 'The farm' and how she plays into the cell hierarchy. She would in the end be a minor character but it's worthy of note.




The men lifted Viducia up from the ground as tears began to pour out of her eyes, "How...how, did you find out about me?" she asked shaken by there abrupt entrance. Viducia's breathing was heavy and her heart pumped fast as she waited for a response.

The men elected not to respond, as if by protocol. They quickly handcuffed her and searched her for any additional items, patting her down briefly.

Viducia seemed unshaken by them patting her down, she continued to try and calm herself inhaling and exhaling. She thought about how her husband could do this to her as she waited for them to take her to a car and drive her away to her doom.

They lifted her up to her feet, not saying a word, and moved her to a waiting car. The raid lacked the usual complexity associated with these operations; several local police cars and one unmarked car which she was loaded into, perhaps indicating they were tipped off and rushed here. She was placed in the back of the car and a bag was placed over her head, masking her vision of where the car went. The doors to the car closed shut and it drove off.

With the mask over her eyes Viducia decided now was a better time than ever to plan her strategy. "I will not say a thing, I will not say a thing" she said to herself over and over in her head, Viducia tried to clasp her stomach as it turned making her feel sick, "how had this happened?" is all she could think about.

She would have plenty of time to think about it, as light from outside stopped entering the car and they drove into the night, about a hour and a half or a full two hours. None of the operatives spoke to her.(edited)

She jutted forward as the car pulled to a halt. In her mind Viducia had planned the perfect escape. But, in her heart she knew it would fail and that she would never get to live the perfect life she had always dreamed of.

The car stopped only momentarily, as the operators spoke to a guard. A gate opened, and they drove downhill seemingly, into all light evaporated. The car came to a stop and she was pulled out of the car, with the bag being removed. It looked like a old underground parking garage, and they pulled her by her handcuffed arms through a blast door and down a long narrow hallway, with several gestapus and soldiers passing them in the hallway, not even noticing Viducia. They turned a corner and came to a steel door, which slid open. She was tossed into a cell, as per protocol for the first interview, still cuffed, and the door shut. Another inmate was sleeping on the other bunk when she was tossed in, and the door slammed shut.

Aurelia jolted awake, quickly looking over her new cell-mate. "Ugh.." she said, not a fan of being woken up so abrubtly. "Hi...hi there." she stuttered.

"H...Hi" Viducia said before sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. "I'm sorry if I react strangely, it's ...just I've had a stressful day" she then proceeded to cry tears flowing down her cheeks muttering to herself she said "He'll do anything just to get a new wife, he's a urghhhh, I want to kill him" she then went quiet.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 6. THE BRUTALITY OF THE EVIL...AND THE SILENCE OF THE GOOD NSFW WARNING - MILD(?) TORTURE

This co-op establishes Maximillion Kuns as a major villian. NSFW.



Briefly after Viducias arrival, two guards arrived and ordered both women get up against the wall. They both did as instructed, but the guards went directly for Auralia and handcuffed her. They moved her directly out of the cell before closing it and leaving Viducia alone in the cell.

Aurelia went along willingly, wondering why she hadn't had the walk she was promised yet.

She was moved along, and placed in a different interrogation room. The guards left, this time abnormally leaving her handcuffed sitting in a chair. They left her in there alone for a minute, shutting the door after them

Furrowing her brow, she nervously looked around the new interrogation room. This was different. Much more along the lines of what she'd expected when she first arrived. And that could be bad.

A man entered, wearing what seemed like combat fatigues. He was smoking a familiar smelligng cigarrete in his mouth, and the same manilla folder from before. He placed the folder on the table, electing to sit on the table directly next to Aurelia. "I believe we may have met before, albeit under slightly different circumstances." He took a puff from his cigarrete, blowing it at the ceiling fan.

Aurelia looked uncomfortably at the man, recognizing it from the day she was caught. "Uhm." she sputtered involuntarily. I'm so fucked.

The man let out a slightly familiar laugh, flicking his cigarrete in a way that ashes of it landed on her coveralls harmlessly. "So, I'll make this simple, you'll tell me what I want to know, or we'll have quite a bit of fun and -then- you'll squel to me what you know"

"W-what do you want to know?" she quickly replied, her eyes darting around the room and generally avoiding eye contact with the man.

"There is a hacker, who has been up to quite a bit of trouble. I believe you know about him."

"Uhm. uh. I don't know any hackers, I already told your friend that."

"And why, sweetheart, would I have any reason to believe that? You've been in their chatrooms, you converse with them. You know and you're covering their asses."

"I ran chatrooms with ordinary people," she tried to explain, her voice clearly getting to be quite a bit panicky. "I-I don't know the higher ups at all. Unless one of them came on my chatroom anoymously, and then you have my logs, so-so-so you'd know that, uhm, that there's nothing." she explained, her voice wavering.

"You're a pretty bad liar, Auralia". He flicked his ciggarette, staring at her directly.

Her eyes went wide. "W-what...what the shit are you talking about?" she asked the man, hoping this was some sort of trick.

"I believe you know more than me." He was watching her intently, occasionally taking a break from his ciggarrete.

"L-look man, your people have already squeezed everything out of me. I swear, I know nothing else!" she blurted.

He looked her over, withdrawing his ciggarette briefly. "Unfortunately, I don't agree with that."

She briefly tried to go back to her senses. "L-look, man, making me 'squeal' isn't gonna get you anything, please." she paused. "I swear I know nothing."

He took one last puff of his cigarrete, before moving forward and placing the red-hot ciggarrete butt near her neck, letting it fall into her coveralls. "Why do I think you're lieing?"

Aurelia let out a brief shriek from the sudden burn, trying to shake in her chair to get the cigarette butt off of her. "I-I don't know!" she shouted

The ciggarrette butt just settled near her stomach underneith the coveralls, cooling down enough to not be a immediate irritation. "You know we have your chat logs. Why are you still lieing?"

"I'm not fucking lying!" she shouted, crying properly now.

"You still hold on to false promises..."He trailed off, grabing Auralia by the collar of her coveralls. He started forcefully dragging her, "False hopes, false dreams. And yet, even in captivity, you continue to deny authority" He had now pulled her up against a wall, her oversized shoes tumbling off in the process, and held her by her neck for a moment, causing her to briefly choke there.

A jolt of some prehistoric instinct went through Aurelia as the man grabbed her, and she tried and failed to resist, tears running down her face as she got pressed into the wall. She didn't say a word, but her mind had decided on one bleak thought: I'm gonna die.

He let her hang for a moment, struggling to breathe, before he suddenly let go, causing her to hit the tile floor. He stood over her, grabbing another cigarrete from his front pocket and lighting it.

She fell do the ground, coughing her way back into breathing properly.

He grabbed her by the collar again, not directly grabbing her neck so she could still breathe and speak,but rising her back up against the wall. "Have I jogged your memory yet?" He seemed rather mocking, having her pinned against the wall.

Aurelia almost felt tempted to lie...but she knew that in a day's time, she'd be dead at that rate. Telling the truth seemed to do nothing, yet, in her desperation, she did it anyway. "I don't know who the fuckwit hacker is! Please!" she pleaded

"I'm not sure that I fucking believe you!" He had raised his voice, and after finishing his sentence he threw her against the other wall, sending her flying. He took a puff from his cigarrete as he watched her fall. "Who the fuck -do- you know?"

She hit the wall and tumbled to the ground the breath knocked out of her and her body aching. After a brief coughing fit, she spoke up, trying to get up to her feet. "I don't know any of them!" she coughed, repeating herself again.

He delivered a swift kick to her stomach as she tried to get up, sending her tumbling back over, then kicking her both in her rear and her back. "You're fucking lieing. How the fuck do you not know anyone!"

She gasped, hitting the ground again. "Because I'm low-level!" she shrieked, continuing to cry but not attempting to get up again.

He kneeled down next to her, pulling her by her hancuffed hands toward him, and he looked directly at her. "How many readers do you think your blog has?"

"Eight hundred!" she remembered, not making eye contact.

He pulled her closer to him, forcing her to look at him. "Yes, eight hundred, including much of the movements leadership." He slowly took his cigarrete out, pressing it briefly against the sensitive skin around her neck. "Do you honestly expect me to believe you had contact with none of them?"

Aurelia screamed again, writhing from the pain and trying to get the cigarette off of her. "You-you fucking sadist!" she blurted out, losing all semblance of self-preservation.

"Oh, I'm the sadist now?" He formed his hand into a fist, delivering a strong punch into her stomach. "We're fucking playing ball now, girl." He stood up, grabbing her by her hair, and throwing her onto the table.

Aurelia's ears were ringing after the last throw, and she could barely move from the stomach punch. "Uugh..." she groaned, not even fit to reply to the man.

Maximillion sat down, comfortable smoking his cigarrete while staring at her laid out on the table. "And to think how good you had it." He chuckled, exhaling smoke.
"Pharmacist...four year degree....making comfortable money...And you threw it all away....for what?" He now was droning off, not really caring if she was replying to him. "Some noble one-off goal by a anarchist terrorist...What a shameful way to destroy a life. Your parents I'm sure are proud." He made the intentional jab at her, knowing her parents would be most displeased.

Panting now, she turned her head on the table to him. In a way, he was right. She did have it better than most. But she'd traded it all for what she thought was right. To send a message to the government, and right now, that message was clear in her mind. "Fuck you!" she growled.

He responded by lifting his feet up, and delivering a kick right to her chest, launching her off the table and back onto the ground, pobably breaking a rib or two in the process.

She grunted, coughing on the the ground now, a sharp pain coming from her chest with every breath.

He looked at her on the ground , dropping his cigarrete next to him and stamping it out. "We're done for tonight." As if by protocol, he calmly left and left her there on the floor for a minute.

After about five minutes, Aurelia had tried and failed to get up to her feet twice.
She was in pain, and still crying, but the back of her mind had given her one silver lining: she wasn't dead.

Two guards then entered, and grabbed her, they more or less dragged her by her arms back to her cell before hasilly uncuffed her and threw her into the cell. "Other girl, you're up" barked one of the guards, as the other tossed Auralia's shoes into the cell, landing near her in the corner of the cell.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 7. SNITCHES...

This co-op establishes Viducia further as a character, albeit she no longer has a major role in the story after this post.




Viducia stood up trembling as she waited to see what would happen, she looked around the cell whilst waiting for the men to handcuff her.

The guards handcuffed her, as with protocol, and moved her out of the cell, stepping around Auralia who was still sprawled out on the floor. The door shut behind them and they moved into a interrogation room, where they uncuffed Viducia, sat her down and left.

Viducia looked around as she waited for her interrogator to arrive, she put her hands through her hair and curled up in the chair scared for what was to come but happy it would soon be out of her way.

A man wearing sunglasses and a nicely pressed suit soon entered, holding a manilla folder. He moved towards the other side of the table, politely extending his hand "Hi, I'm Frank."

Viducia stood up and shook his hand "Hello Frank", "Well, he seems nice enough" she thought to herself.

He confidently shook her hand, before sitting across from her. "Pleasantries aside, I believe we both know why you're here" He pulled open the folder, looking at its contents(edited)

Viducia sat down and sighed "Yes, I believe we do" she said whilst rolling her eyes. she rested her face on her hand and prepared for what he had to say.

He looked at the contents of the folder through his sunglasses, nodding. "Well, admittingly, 'Mrs. A', I am quite amused that you lasted this long"

"Well, it's not like I have a husband in the Gestapus or anything is it" she said sarcastically. she tried to read his facial expression to get an idea of his tactics.

He retained a charismaticly calm, unreleaving expression. "Mhmmm." He closed the folder, placing it down. "Well, what else do you know?"

She smiled at him, she had decided to ditch her plan of saying nothing in hopes of saying something that would give her better treatment "Well, I know where the magazine I write for is printed, I also know that no matter what I do I'll never make it out of here alive".

"Well, assuming you've seen the condition your cellmate is currently in, I need something to work on to continue to have you with me." He was staring directly at her through his sunglasses with a rather blank expression. "Lest that my superiors decide to pass you on to someone...more direct in their methods"

It felt as if her future had suddenly been planned about before her and Viducia was definitely going to try and change it "Okay, okay, in the magazine editors apartment there's a list he made which contains the name of all the subscribers and other column writers". She then proceeded to reveal the address of the editor and some other workers she knew of.

He nodded, writing this information down. "Very good...now....Several other detainees have received a text message about a...bunker...Do you know the relevance of this?"

"Well no you see, I was never involved with the internet side of things as all my columns were wrote on paper so that the Gestapus couldn't read them or know I was involved, obviously that method was stupid however, I did here of some others setting up proxy servers so they couldn't be tracked and one guy even had a massive network of servers in his basement" she shrugged hoping she was helping so that she was let off easily.

"What do you know about this guy with servers in his basement?"

"Well not much I do know that he lived in the North East of Roma in one of the traditional style houses, I only know about him because I got a message from his wife about what to do, but she committed suicide before I could reply" after saying that she smiled sadistically.(edited)

"I see.. Thank you for this." He stood up, shaking her hand briefly. "We'll meet again tomorrow, and tell Ms. Octavia that I apologize for the delay and we'll meet tomorrow as well."

"No, no problem, Thank You it's nice to speak to someone without being beaten up for your feelings" she said smiling. She waited for the guards to return her to her cell.

The guards did exactly that, moving her to her cell handcuffed as with protocol. She was placed back in and uncuffed, before the door slammed shut. Soon afterwords, the slot underneith the window opened and a pair of coveralls with the words 'INMATE' on the back came through. "Put your old clothes through the slot" ordered a guard

Viducia did as she was told slightly embarrassed by what she had to do. The guards took her old clothes through the slot, leaving her in there with Aurelia. She walked over and shook Aurelia "Umm, excuse me, I was told to tell you that you will meet Frank tomorrow". She then sat on the floor to meditate.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 1: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
PART 8. HOPE

This co-op makes it clear Frank intends on breaking Aurelia out.



Aurelia's eyes fluttered open, one of them now slightly bloodshot. Frank. she thought. "Uugh. Okay...." she droned off, trying to get into a position that wasn't painful.

The next morning guards entered again, taking Aurelia out of the cell and up the same elevator. She was going to the cabin porch again, or so became immediately evident. They sat her down in a chair again, uncuffed her, and left. Frank was already sitting there, staring into the forest as usual as the sun rose above the horizon. She was completely slumped down, not speaking, and not staring forward. She had barely even recognized that she was in the cabin now.

"They tried the...more direct methods...as you undoubtably knew. They thought I wasn't the best way to get information out of you. They thought you had been withholding something" He tapered off...still looking at the sunrise. "I assume the fact that you're back with me means they where incorrect in their judgement."

Her voice wavered in the first word. "I don't know anything else." she blinked out a tear out of her good eye, shaking slightly. "I'm serious, I'm a pharmacist." she insisted. "You don't have to convince me of that." He didn't look at her, staring into the rising sun. "They expect a certain level of information out of each detainee, and you didin't meet their criteria."

"I..." she stopped. "I've never been that afraid... What the fuck do you people really want with me?"

"Our motives differ as much as each person. Some want glory, some 'justice', some notability, most rank....for me it's purely right information. Needless to say there are some who disagree with my methods." He tapered off somewhat, taking a sip from some coffee. "Perhaps that would be why they took you, to prove that I was doing something wrong and you knew more."

"They fucked me up because they don't like you?" she said, barely above a whisper, almost in disbelief. "That's..." she stopped. "That's not right...that's..."

"They didn't give me much notice of it, and had they I wouldn't of told you anyways. All it would've done was gotten you worked up for a day or two for something that was inevitable and you couldn't prevent." He took another sip from his coffee, seemingly disconcertingly. "Being anxious about something makes it ten times worse than it is. You were better off not knowing."

"That's..." she stopped again, grasping her chest. That last breath had been particularly painful. "It was better off not happening. If those sadists want to kill me, then just kill me already..." she said. He shifted his position slightly. "There goal is not death. Death is quick and easy, they want something far more lasting." He sat there for a second, before trying to change the subject. "Fortunately, your new cellmate gave my superiors enough information to likely keep both of you off the hook for at least a little while...

"Not death?" she asked, shocked and clearly angered. "Why do they want to see us suffer?" she said, loudly this time.

"Don't get yourself angry. You'll just make the pain worse. They don't want to kill you because of the fear value; You don't find dissenters who 'disappear' in a ditch for a reason, but you hear stories of them suffering in captivity. In their minds, it's far more effective in keeping people under control." He took a sip from his coffee. "And in reality, I'd imagine that's unfortunately true."

Aurelia let out an almost guttural growl of frustration. "Fuck!" she yelled out, not directing it at Frank so as to not to get the guards riled up. The yell had sent another stabbing pain through her chest. He looked over, noticing her in pain. "See what happens when you get angry?"

"Just kill me!" she suddenly shouted. "What's it matter to your stupid government if anyone hears about me suffering or not? I'm not getting out, am I? And to the outside, it's all the same!"

"I'll talk to my people" he interrupted, now staring into his coffee. "In the meantime, you need to rest. We're scratching the walk in case it isn't obvious already." he explained. "Talk to them about what? More torture?" she asked. "Fuck your walk. I've got nothing to tell you and even if I did, I wouldn't give it out. It seems that the outcomes' identical no matter what I say..."

He sipped his coffee, sighing. "Those people weren't who I had in mind, but alright."

"Who did you have in mind?"

"I have some people who owe me favors, but don't count on miracles. I wouldn't count on getting out in any circumstance into at the least this whole thing calms down." A half smile came across Aurelia's face, followed by a twisted, nervous, laugh. "Why do you care what happens to me?" she asked, bewildered yet bewildering.

"You're the first person I've had who hasn't actually done anything violent or inherently evil." He said, in a half whisper. "This sets a new precedent, don't think I'm the only one who doesn't inherently agree with it. But you need to keep yourself out of trouble." Her lip quivered, and she involuntarily winced from what was probably an attempted gasp. "They're...they're angry at me because they're wrong?" she asked, a bit loudly, letting the conversation go somewhere yet giving the interrogator a knowing look, one that certainly had a hint of desperation.

He leaned back into his chair, choosing not to answer her. "Sometimes I wish I left this place long ago, moved to another country, lived out in the countryside on a little farm. And spend my life there in peace. Unfortunately life took another path."

"Shit..." she said in disbelief."This is so fucked up." she noted. "Everything right now is just...ugh."

"Remember about the pain, don't get yourself worked up."

She nodded a couple of times, glancing outside. "Are we getting recorded?" she quipped, staring at the perimeter.

"No, albeit not for the reasons you'd think. They don't like any evidence of...physical confrontation after a recent clusterfuck..."

"My clusterfuck?" she asked. "Not yours specifically, but someone decided to leak videos and recordings of other previous beatings.." He took a sip from his coffee. "Things are starting to go down hill, whether that's a reassurance or a concern to you."

"Mmf. They broke your network once, they can probably do it again." she said with a slight frown. "I just hope it doesn't mean more broken bones for me." she rubbed her chest.

"They responded by just shutting the network off" He murmered, taking another slight sip from his coffee. "Just take it easy for a couple of days, either things will blow over or you'll be freed by a angry mob and I'll be shot." He chuckled, "Whichever happens first."

"The whole network?" she asked. "That'll make even the common people angry." He shrugged. "Not my decision, not within my ability to understand it."

She shrugged, slightly in pain. "I think your friend broke some of my ribs..." she droned off. "I can barely move."

"Surprised, he's usually far more rough."

"Do you...do you think I'll be seeing him again?"

"Well, did you give him anything?"

"N-no...I just..." she gulped. "I had nothing to give. I, uhm, I called him a sadist."

"Yeah, that'd probably be why he broke your ribs." He pondered for a second. "Probably not then, it depends if you pissed him off enough for him to want seconds. But he usually has several more dangerous individuals on his plate to deal with." Aurelia's face seemed to drain of all color. "Oh no..." she grimaced. "I don't want to...I don't wanna see him again." she whispered. He sighed, "I...I don't think I can say he won't...I don't know."

She closed her eyes briefly, laying her head down on the cabin's table, and trying to block out the pain. He sighed, looking out the window. "I'm sorry."

Aurelia looked up at Frank, her bloodshot eye barely opening. "Not sure if I'm ready to believe that." she said. He sighed, "That's understandable..."

"I know..." she droned off. "This is probably an unusual situation..."

"Indeed."

"I haven't gotten a chance to meet my, er. My roommate. Who did she rat out?"

"The newspaper she worked for, although she's more than happy to snitch and she has plenty of information to keep my superiors happy. I wouldn't worry too much about her." Aurelia scowled slightly. "I wonder how many of those people she ratted out are gonna be just like me..." He shrugged, sighing. "A downward spiral."

"What?" she asked, her mind not following along like it normally would. "Nevermind" He took a sip from his coffee, looking over her injuries briefly. She paid it no mind, noticing the stare. "What?" she asked, again. "Don't mind it. I think we're done for now. We'll keep in touch. You eat yet?"

She shook her head. "No." she sighed. "I'll grab you something, anything in particular?" He stood up. She shook her head. "Anything." she said. She wasn't going to be picky now. She just wanted to survive. He nodded, and left her, coming back in a minute with a bagel on a plate. It wasn't anything particularly amazing but it'd do.

She grabbed the bagel weakly and bit into it, wincing slightly. The interrogator from earlier had likely loosened one of her fillings. "Thanks." she said, finishing it after a while, and staring outside. "Where is this place, anyway?"

"That I don't really know too much about, it's a mess." He continued, sitting back down. "I live nearby but it's not marked on any map. Somewhere up in the north." he said. "Mmf." she grunted. "Far away."

"Mhm." He nodded, taking the last sip from his coffee. "Alright, I think that wraps it up for today. Get some rest." He stood up, nodding to her and signalling for guards to take her back to her cell. "If your new cellmate causes you any trouble, let me know now." He nodded to her, as the guards re-cuffed and re-bagged her, moving her back downstairs to her cell. They opened the door and placed her back in, uncuffing and unbagging her before closing the door.

She sat in the cell, awkwardly staring at her cell-mate. "Uhm.." she droned off.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 2: ON THE RUN
PART 1. BREAKOUT

This is where Frank actually breaks Aurelia out of prison. Big NSFW, mild torture, attempted sexual assault, murder, etc.


It was about three in the morning, with both women sleeping. A single guard opened the door, "Octavia, Aurelia" He commanded, not being familiar with either prisoner.

Aurelia groggily opened her eyes, one of which was now pink, and grunted to show the guard that she was awake.

He was loosing his paitence, or rather, had none to begin with. "Up, Wall."

She staggered to her feet with a light clank from the bunk and put bot of her hands up against the wall.

The guard moved to handcuff her, systematically. He forced her out of the cell before shutting the cell door with Veducia inside. The guard walked her over to the other interview room, sat her down in the chair, and left the key to her handcuffs on the table. He left, slamming the door and leaving her inside.

Recognizing the room, Aurelia almost sighed, and she felt a rush of adrenaline, remembering what had happened in the room the last time she was in it.

As if on que, Maximillion entered. He was twirling a baseball bat around in his hand. "Since we had so much fun the first time" he chuckled, almost maniacly. "I figured I'd mix things up this time."

Aurelia scowled, although internally she was quite a bit unbalanced; she felt a sudden urge to antagonize him against her own hope, after what Frank had said. Stay out of trouble. she remembered the advice.

He sat down opposite of her, setting the baseball bat inbetween his legs and resting his hands on it. "Let's talk about your primary interrogator, the guy who calls himself Frank." He pulled a cigarrete out of his breast pocket, lighting it and placing it in his mouth. "Tell me what he's talked to you about."

"Finally asking me something I can actually reply to?" she scoffed .

"You're awfully tempting me to just beat the shit out of you outright. Have some more respect."

She gave in. "I told him what I told you. Or tried to tell you." she said, her eyes darting to the edges of the room.

"That's not what I asked. What has he told you?"

She bit her lip, thinking about it for a second. "He told me he wasn't as direct." she said. "He debated politics with me." she said, hoping that part wasn't incriminating in any way. "He got more out of me than you did."

"Talked politics now, mhm?" He shifted himself over, walking around toward her. "Tell me more."

"He asked me why I wanted to do what I did." she remembered. "Said my insider's view was valuable."

"Bullshit." He snapped, like the flick of a lightswitch, sending the baseball bat into her chest and knocking her backwards out of the chair. "He's been working with you. We know it."

She coughed on the ground, unable to grab the stabbing pain in her chest the bat had created. "He's not!" she spit out, lying. "He's just as bad as you." she lied though gritted teeth.

"You're changing your fucking story, already? How fucking cute!" He sent the baseball bat down again, this time into her right femur on the ground, forcefully slamming it down

She gasped, feeling her bone crunch, and her chest hurt just from the shock. "Fuck!" she cried out, her eyes shifting in a rage to Maximilion. "Fuck you, you dumbass Sadist!"

He placed the baseball bat aside, crouching ontop of her and pinning her down. "Say that to my fucking face, you dumb dissenting bitch."

Feeling the pain in her chest amplified by the man pinning her to the ground, she tried to spit into his face, preferably one of his eyes.

She spat right into his left eye, and he closed it repeatedly to try and flush the spit out "Oh, you've done it now you fucking bitch" He fumbled to his belt, pulling out a knife, and started to cut downwards on her coveralls, but as he was positioning the knife the door creaked open; a single silenced gunshot rang out, He dropped the knife, holding his chest and fell over next to her.

She had closed her eyes, fully expecting the worst when Maximillion had started cutting her clothes open, and she opened her eyes a moment after the unrecognizably muffled gunshot, surprised to see the man clutching his chest. A weak smile went across her face, and she sighed in relief.

Frank crept into the room, aiming the pistol at his head as he struggled on the ground. A second gunshot rang out and he stopped moving. He picked up the handcuff keys from the table and pocketed them. He looked over at Maximillions body, before lookign down at Aurelia. "Alright, I need you to play along very, very, carfully. Got it?"

Wide-eyed, she nodded.

"This may hurt a bit, but it's the only way." He grabbed of her handcuffed shoulders, dragging her out of the room so as to feign moving her unwillingly. As he heard footsteps, he tuckets the pistol away and his attitude changed. "I swear to god I'm going to take you out back and beat the shit out of you, you dumb bitch." He seemed to have a well-enough feigned conviction to his words to as not to raise suspicion of two passing guards.

She winced as she felt Frank pull her beyond-fucked up body, trying to feign some sort of visible anger towards him, despite the overwhelming feeling of relief she felt.

He dropped her suddenly, near a large door. He rounded a corner to a guard post, and a gunshot rang out, followed by what sounded like a body hitting the floor. He entered the room briefly, pulling a lever. Two seconds later, a loud fire alarm began blaring and all of the doors in the prison opened up loudly; the sounds or riled up inmates began echoing through the hallways as all of the cell doors opened. He left the room, returning to Aurelia on the floor, grabbing her again and dragging her through the doors to the underground garage where she had first arrived.(edited)

She blinked a few times, finally working up the courage to say something. "Holy shit! You're a madman!" she whispered, clearly delighted.

"Shh" He knew they weren't out of the woods yet, and he pulled her over to his car, popping the trunk and placing her inside hastilly, next to a brick inside the trunk. "I have a safe place twenty or thirty minutes away. I'll take you out there. Sorry about this." He elected not to give her a chance to respond, slamming the trunk and moving over to the front of the car. He quickly started the engine and began moving out of the garage.

"Mmh! What the fuck?" she whispered, not to pleased about having her already uncomfortable position made worse by the fact that she'd been shoved in the back of a car

The car pulled up a steep incline, leaving the facility. The gate guard had evidently abandoned his post at the start of the now full-blown prison riot. The car drove for about fifteen minutes, before slowing sharply. Voices could be heard outside of the car. "Right, sticking to the plan" he whispered, and withdrew his wallet as he pulled up to a checkpoint ran by two local cops. "I apologize officers, what happened? I'm in a real rush, my mother just was in a accident and is in the hospital." He managed to feign sincerement, perhaps from his time as a interrogator. The officers took his wallet, looking at his ID. "James Monroe" They looked at him for a second, before light crept into the trunk from their flashlights. One used their radio, "One occupant, no signs of a prisoner." He stood their, waiting for a reply. Frank prepared himself to shoot if this didin't work.

Aurelia s squinted from the one ray of light that had managed to fill her eyesight, but didn't make a sound. Any more tense moments and her heartbeat would be audible.

"Pass em' through" echoed the other end of the radio. The cop signalled to move along, and Frank thanked him and left. The car drove down what seemed like a empty road, driving another twenty minutes. The car made a sharp right turn, coming to a stop. The engine stopped and footsteps could be heard, before the trunk opened with Frank looking back down at her. "Sorry about that." He moved over, uncuffing her with the key he stole from the interrogation room and leaving the handcuffs in the trunk. "Hop on out." He evidently wasn't aware of the severity of her injuries.

Aurelia sighed lightly in relief when the trunk opened and it was still Frank. She didn't know why she'd expected somebody else; but right now, she wasn't having very many logical thoughts. "Thank fucking God. " she said with a weak smile of hope when she saw his face. Her smile disappeared when she was ordered to hop out. Her leg was broken, she'd heard it break. But in her adrenaline rush, she decided to check, getting out of the car and immediately falling to the ground after a stabbing pain. "Fuck." she noted, calmly this time." He-he broke my leg, I think."

"Fuck, that complicates things." He sighed, lifting her up completely this time, trying to avoid further damage to the leg. The car was parked in a empty rural parking lot, overlooking a deep valley and a river down below. There wasn't a guardrail seperating the parking lot and the virtual dropoff to the river below; a sign read 'BRUIMS RIVER SCENIC OUTLOOK'. The only other car in the parking lot was a late 2000's model white sedan, and Frank carried her over to it. Struggling to open the door, he sat her down in the passenger seat. He moved over and around her, placing the silenced pistol underneth the center console. He left the passenger door open, pulling something from the back seat and tossing a bag on Aurelia's lap. "Try to change, I'll need the prison clothes when you're done so I can dump them with the car." Inside the bag was a woman's black T-shirt and a woman's pair of jeans, both of which were slightly too large for Aurelia based on Frank's lack of knowledge of what size she was. He turned around and went to his car to give her some privacy, taking the brick from the trunk and shutting it, before moving back into the drivers compartment to jerryrig the car.

She winced when she pulled off her pants, but was relieved to not find a bone sticking out of her leg. She changed the rest of her clothes as quickly as she could, wiping her face of her sweat and Maximilion's blood with her old clothes before tossing them out and physically rolling down the car's window. "Ey!" she said, trying to keep her voice down. "Clothes." she pointed to the stack on the ground.

He moved back over from his old car, nodding, himself moving to the trunk of the Rental and popping it. He changed as quickly as he could, closing the trunk. He now was wearing himself a t-shirt and basketball shorts, and had dumped the sunglasses for a pair of old bulky prescription glasses. He picked up his old clothes and her prison coveralls, throwing them into the back of his old car. He grabbed the brick, starting the car and placing it into gear, before laying the brick on the accelerator and backing off. The car sped off of the parking lot and down the embankment, careening into the water below with a spe-luuunk. He hastilly walked back to her at a fast-walking pace, evidently pumped with adrenaline himself. "Ain't a house for twenty five fucking miles, No one hears or sees shit, no crime to witness." He got into the rental's drivers seat, starting the engine, clicking his seatbelt and shutting his door. "Shut your door."

She shut her door and put her seatbelt on, following his lead. "Oh shit." she said, oddly giddy. She stared at Frank in the driver's seat. "I owe you. That asshole wasn't finished when you took him out." she mumbled., looking out at the cliff where the old car had been.

"Let's talk about that shit later, yeah?" He shifted the car into reverse, backing up into a turn. He briefly looked down the embankment, ensuring the car had settled below the waves. He shifted into drive, looking at the watch on his left hand. "We lost 5 minutes, should still be plenty of time to get out of dodge before the perimiter widens." He drove out of the scenic outlook and back onto the main road, which was still more or less empty. He turned on the radio, immediately hitting a station broadcasting on the latest terror attack in Roma. "Fuck that." He changed channels into he found a station playing 90's rock, and left it there, They had a bit of driving ahead of them. "You ever been this far up north?"

She shook her head. "Barely left home 'til I moved to Roma." she explained, staring at the view and half-listening to the old tunes as she leaned her head on the window.

"Beautiful countryside, aside from all the fucked up shit that goes on up here." The car slowed as they approached a onramp to a major highway, getting on it. It was now shortly before sunrise and traffic was picking up. "Oh, almost forgot." He fumbled into the passenger compartment as he drove, pulling out a feminime-ish (as much as a guy picking out a girl's items could get) wallet/handbag, handing it to her. Inside was a fake ID, fake passport, both with her government photo, and about twenty Ardian Pounds. "You're now Abigail Brown, at least for a little while".(edited)

"Damn, man." she said, examining her new identity. "Who are you gonna be?" she asked, yawning slightly as the sky around them turned the usual pre-sunrise shade of pink.

"Thought you heard me bluff the local cops before, I'm James Monroe now. These weren't cheap, particularly on short notice, but figured If I'm going to be on the run they'll be taking my savings account anyways." He chuckled, looking on the other side of the divided highway; a convoy of police and military vehicles evidently going to the prison, but they drove right past them without noticing. "Seems we beat rush hour traffic." He turned his attention back to her, remembering her leg. "We'll have to get you to a doctor."

She nodded, having filtered out the pain by now. "Probably." she quipped. "But we've gotta be careful. They've got databases at major hospitals." she explained, knowing quite a bit from her former job as a Pharmacist. "Then, I guess..." she paused. "I mean...I want to help these people...but nobody in Ardia can help them now. We should probably get out of the country. Guess you already had that in mind." she waved around her passport.

"Your ID card should be good as a real person, even if that person isn't precisely you. They won't notice it, the main thing will be thinking of a story besides 'Almost beaten to death by government agent' to explain the trauma. If they do catch on to us stealing peoples identities, we'll be long gone by the time it gets investigated."
He paused briefly, "Particularly with the recent shitstorm, Identity theft is going to be very low on their list of priorities."

"Woah, you stole these identities?" she asked with a satisfied smile, a little surprised. "Mm...as long as they're party members."(edited)

He laughed slightly, trying to push the fact he had just killed two people out of his mind. That would come later, inevitably, he thought, but now wasn't the time. "Have you thought of any heroic stories to explain the broken leg and broken ribs?"

She smiled a little., her mind too flooded with a plethora of thoughts to consider anything for too long at the moment. "Maybe you backed into me with the car?" she asked.

"Well gee, way to make me the bad guy." He laughed, "Besides, rental car company wouldn't like that too much."

"Fell off a balcony?" she asked. "Different car backed into me?" she paused. "I dunno."\

"We'll go with me accidentally backing into you. Avoids them trying to involve the police for the rude person who hit you." He exited at a moderate-sized town, with a small hospital, and pulled into its parking lot. "Ready to pretend you're in drama club?"

They entered a deserted hospital lobby, Aurelia leaning heavily on Frank, and noticed that only one nurse was manning the front desk.

He helped her limp over to the front desk, and Frank put on his belt sob story. "Please...can you look at Au-...Abi....I was leaving for work this morning and....and....she just popped up behind my car....I think I ...I think I broke her leg...Please...."

The nurse, a rather plump woman, raised her eyebrow, looking over the two. Aurelia grimaced a bit. "A-and my ribs!" she paused. "It was an accident."

"Please..."He thought to himself he was rather overdoing it, but then again a good show masks their true intentions. "I feel so fucking...I didin't mean...Yeah....please just look at her..."

"Chill, dude. Man." said Aurelia, as the nurse looked straight at Frank. "Don't go hitting people with cars, ya hear?" she nagged. "Let's get you in a chair..." she said to Aurelia. A short ride later, they were in a consultation room, waiting for the doctor to show up.

The doctor showed up within a few minutes, looking over the early charts. He was a older, scruffy guy. She looked between Frank and Aurelia, focusig on Aurelia. "So...leaving for work...acidentally hit you...Right.." He paused, looking at the nurse "Get her in a wheelchair and get her to a room". He looked back at the two, "This guy staying here in the lobby or are you two a couple or something?"

"Uuhm." she looked over to Frank. "He feels responsible."

The doctor sighed as she averted the question, summing it up to a women thing in his mind. "Well, guess she wants you to come too then." He looked at Frank as if trying to affirm she's been acting weirdly, but didin't get a solid response. "Let's move her then." The nurse moved her into the room, sitting her down in a bed. "We'll get some X-ray's on that leg and chest." noted the Doctor, before leaving to another paitent. A X-Ray tech, obviously a disgruntled college student, entered with a large doohicky that he identified as a mobile X-Ray machine. "Don't move the leg." he said, with a voice ever-so-hinting as to his hatred of being there. Frank stepped out briefly so the tech could get the X-Ray's

"Did you see all the police cars?" asked the nurse, trying to get a conversation going. Aurelia nodded nervously. "Uhm, yeah. Crazy." she said as the tech took her X-rays. "Yeah..." he mumbled. "Broken."

The tech mumbled 'Broken', sighing and handing the X-ray files to the Doctor who had re-entered. "Well, Femur is fractured, and you have three broken ribs. Shouldn't need a cast the way it broke, but I'll write you a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers. You should be able to walk on it again in a week or two." He seemed rather disconnected with her personal ordeal, for him it was just another patient on the job.

"Oh, uhm. That's good." she said sleepishly, partially relieved it wasn't worse. The crunch had certainly sounded a bit more serious. She glanced towards Frank, giving him a 'well, shit' look.

"I'll leave you with the nurse who will formalize your discharge and give you the first round of the painkillers and antibiotics. The painkillers will make you drowsy so, no driving or strenious activity. Take care now." He left, and the nurse signalled for them to follow her back to the lobby. Frank stood up and helped Aurelia out of the bed and back to the lobby.

Aurelia leaned into Frank. "That was really lucky. Your friend was weaker than he seemed, apparently." she said, having an overwhelming sense of dread about the hospital experience. It probably reminded her of her old job, and by extension, her old life.

He whispered back, jokingly. "Or you're stronger than you seem, apparently." He cracked a grin, as they moved over to the nurse who already had the baggie with her prescription in it. "Your visit and the first filling of the prescription was covered by the national health administration, as you undoubtably know. Follow up refills are at your own expense. Take the pain killers four times a day and the antibiotics twice a day. This should last you seven days each." She handed the baggie out to them, somewhere in the middle of Frank and Aurelia, not sure which one of them would take it.(edited)

Aurelia snatched the bag. "Can...can I get something to help me walk?" she asked, hating to prolong the visit but needing some mobility. "Uhm, thank you, besides that." she continued. The nurse cocked an eyebrow and went to one of the back rooms , getting a pair of aluminium crutches and handing them to Aurelia. "There." she said, matter-of-factly. Aurelia got adjusted and turned to Frank. "Alright.."

Frank sighed, taking the baggie and her handbag as Aurelia now had no free hands due to the crutches. "Let's get back to the car then." They walked back to the car, exiting the hospital seemingly calmly. "I've never been more scared shitless in my entire life." He finally admitted, opening the passenger door for her to get in the car.

"Welcome to my world the last few weeks. But yeah." she said, having hated the place as well, as she got inside and threw her crutches in the back. "I need to sleep. And we're gonna talk about all the shit that went down today sometime." she said as she shut the passenger door.

He started the car, pulling out of the hospital and into a nearby gas station. He popped the door open at the now busy gas station; it was morning rush hour. He turned back to her with his feet halfway out the door "I'm getting gas and drinks for you to wash down the first pills before you sleep. Want anything else?"

"No more bagels. And watch out for your former coworkers."

He laughed, "I'll get donuts instead, Coffee or Soda?"

"Neither. I need to sleep."

He exited the car, leaving the drivers door ajar. He entered the gas station's store, and a minute later exited with a box of donuts, some coffee, and a cup of water. He leaned into the car, giving her the cup of water and setting the donuts on the dash. "Take your pills before you sleep." He then exited the car again, pumping gas and leaving the door open so he still could talk to Aurelia.

She quickly ate a donut to satisfy her hunger before gulping down the first set of painkillers with the entire cup of water. "So..." she said, her mouth full. "Are we gonna stay somewhere, or head straight for the border?"

He laughed as she tried to get out a full sentence with half of a donut in her mouth, finishing pumping and entering the car. "Driving all day today to another province before we try to cross. They'll be expecting us to head straight for the border. We need to lay low for a bit first. We'll stay at a motel tonight." He reached into the center dash, pulling out a aging smartphone; it was a burner credit phone without any name attached to it. He opened the GPS app, showing her their 12-13 hour route for the day across much of northern Ardia. He let her look at it for a second, "Once in Luvonia, we get the first available flight out of dodge."

She blinked a bit. "Oh, man. Alrighty then. We better get out of this region, then. Those cop cars were going straight to the Farm."

He looked at her, starting the car. "The Farm?...Never heard it called that before. Must be somethin' the spec ops jockeys use." He put the car into gear, looking at her again and remembering her pink eye. "Surprised the doctor didin't bring up your eye. Lucked out I guess." He drove out of the gas station, re-entering the highway to head East.

She blinked. "That'll go away soon enough." she said. "I've had worse." she mumbled, closing her eyes and leaning her head on the window.

"Mhm...I'll let ya get some sleep". He took a sip of his coffee, turning down the radio slightly and driving onto the highway, which was now bustling with rush-hour traffic. He honestly thought to himself how he got this far, having previously mentally prepared himself for the plan to fail spectacularly within the opening minutes of the prison break. But it worked, and he was this far. Time would only tell if they make it to the border, and thus safety.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 2: ON THE RUN
PART 2. TERRIBLE PUNS AND HIPSTER BEANIES

Title kinda sums it up, honestly.



The sun had now risen, it was about 11 in the morning or so. Frank was still driving on a major highway, about four or five hours away from the facility now. The highway was busy, but not packed. Normal highway traffic, The radio was still playing when Aurelia started to wake up from her nap. She blinked once, taking in the sunlight and groaning slightly, turning her head to face Frank. "Hey." she said nonchalantly. "Where are we?"

"Erm..."He looked down at the burner phone, toying with it. "20 Miles out of Kilpul, whatever the hell that is." They were definitively out in the country, with more or less all of the towns existing purely to service traffic on the highway. She nodded sleepishly, sitting up straight and taking a look at the largely rural view. "Yesterday was insane." she remarked.

"Mhm.." He trailed off, checking the phone. "We're actually making decent time, may have some time to go to a restaurant or something tonight. Don't know about you but I'm dying for some real food." She nodded. "You weren't the one that lived off of bagels for a week." she joked. "Yeah, I'll eat. Where's that bag...' she said, mumbling the last part to herself as she fished up the plastic bag with the pills and popped some into her mouth, forcing herself to swallow Batch #2 and making her cough a couple of times.

He laughed, "That was for the best. You don't want to know what most of their food tastes like." She finished coughing. "You're probably right." she admitted, pausing briefly. "You did the right thing, you know." Frank sighed, trying to focus on driving. "I'm trying not to think about it into we're in a place where they can't get us." She shrugged. "You saved my life, man. Just sayin'. That was cool of you." she trailed off, looking into the fields and the farms.

"Yeah, I guess." He kinda trailed off the conversation, still not sure how to feel about the ordeal. He hadn't exactly planned his career ending up like this. "You alright?" she asked, looking towards him. Odd of her to do it when she was the one who'd suffered more, but right now, they both needed to stick together to have a shot of making it. "I don't know..." He kinda felt awkward, moreso aware of her situation than his own. "I can't get it out of my head that I killed two people. Even if their totally fucked pyschopaths, it still leaves a toll, I guess."

"Fuck, man..." she frowned, only faintly remembering the gunshots. "I mean...one of those guys was torturing me, but, uhm..." she paused, feeling she'd made it more awkward. "Er. Yeah. Fucked up thing to do in general. Let's hope we don't need to do it again." she said, biting her lip in self-induced embarrassment from continuing the clearly uncomfortable conversation. "I guess, yeah...' He sighed, continuing to drive; mentally he was trying to avoid any form of breakdown into at the least they had left the country. "So, what did you do before all of this shit? Pharmacist right?"

She nodded twice, sitting up again and turning the music up. "Yeah. Thought you read my file."

"Mhm, lived in Roma, right? How were things for you? Never really went there besides visiting a few times."

"Nice city, for like, a while." she remembered. "Had friends. Had a job. Et-cetera. When they started cracking down, one of those friends disappeared in Vienra, and we just kind of stopped meeting. I dunno if we were afraid or..." she paused. "Either way. That's the past now."

"Mhm..."He tapered off again, driving. "Any favorites for food?"

"Uhm, no seafood." she told him. "I hate fish." she declared. "Ask for favorites and you get what she hates the most" He laughed, making a joke. "Woman thing, right?" She cocked an eyebrow. "Er. I guess?" she asked rhetorically, mildly smirking since she was just out of it at the moment. "Here's how this'l go" he said, obviously jokingly, "I'll pick somewhere, then you'll say you hate it and demand why we didn't go somewhere else. That's how this always goes." He laughed, "So, just pick somewhere to eat and save us the trouble."

"Damn, man, I feel like you've got history with this type of stuff." she said in jest, leaning her chair back a bit. "I'll eat anything but seafood. I'm serious. I can't be very picky now." He laughed, "Only dating sorority girls in College, so can't say standards were very high." He pulled the car off a exit on the highway, turning into a small diner. "We're a couple of hours ahead of schedule so might as well eat some real food."

She cringed a bit at hearing of his escapades. "Oof, I might've been guilty of being one of those people." she smiled. The diner seemed fair enough. "This place is fine." she noted, squinting to read the sign. "Yeah, well, the fact you weren't with a pretend jock on the football team when they got you means neither of us got what we wanted out of that deal." He laughed, turning the car off and reaching in the back to grab Aurelia's crutches and fumbling to hand them forward to her.

She chuckled, sitting up and hopping out on her good leg before grabbing her crutches from Frank. "I sure hope those docs knew what they were doing, she said, bending her knee weakly, and nudging the car door shut. He opened his car door after she was able to start getting out, shutting his own door. "Well, you are the medical expert here. I'd hope if they fucked something up you'd be onto it by now." He grinned, opening the door to the diner for her to hop in with the crutches.

"I don't know that much about bone setting." she said, stumbling inside and feeling the classic 'diner' smell hit her. She immediately gravitated towards a table and clumsily sat down as fast as she could. He helped her fumble toward a table, sitting himself down. "Well, you are technically a doctor I believe, right?" The waitress walked over, asking them both what drinks they'd like and handing them menus. Frank asked for a soda.

Aurelia asked for a water bottle. "I don't think you're supposed to call me a doctor." she paused. "I don't have a doctorate, after all. I just worked in a Pharmacy."

"I thought the Pharmacutical problem was a doctorate?" He shrugged, taking a sip of the soda. "Far from my area anyways I guess." She didn't touch her water. "And what was your area, exactly?"

He sighed, "Before all of this? I was in my second year of my History major shooting for law school, when a recruiter came to the college and promised glory, honor, bla bla bla for signing up for national service. They said they'd pay in full for me to finish when I had done my four or five years. Of course, what they don't tell you is they don't let you choose what specifically you do for the national service. So, here I ended up, but I did luck out better than people who sign up straight out of high school; those are the grunts and prison guards."(edited)
He swirled his drink, taking a sip from it. "Of course, many get sucked into the glory and Authority that the Gestapus brings, so they stick around for much longer than required. You could argue the reason crime rates were so low is that the government found another use for the psychopaths, but of course I wasn't so easily indoctrinated."

"Clearly." she agreed. "I only heard of recruiters, but I never I saw any. In person, at least." she remembered, smiling at the waitress that had started coming over to them. "Hey." she said, pointing to the standard burger on the menu and ordering it.

Frank smiled, ordering a double cheeseburger and fries. He clearly hadn't eaten for a while. He waited for her to leave, "They shoot for the football players and sports jocks. They probably know a average twenty-something year old girl has a lot more of a clear mind than dudes who are looking for 'Adventure' and 'Glory'. They knew how to hook us, anyways, Half the class must've signed up." He laughed, "Didn't keep in touch with them though for whatever reason."

"Probably for the best, considering." she mumbled, poking her water bottle out of boredom. "You read my file, right? So you know about my parents."

"Bits and pieces, what they want me to know. There's really not as much in there as you'd think; a lot of it is bluffing and quite a bit is blacked out before it reaches us."

"Oh really? I'm curious as to what they blacked out and what they didn't." she said. "I can fill in the parts they blacked out. For the most part."

He nodded, taking a sip from his drink. "The most I got out of it is rather nationalistic, not the most proud of you, but in a 'That one batshit family member' way. Not as bad as your cellmate who was literally actively sold out by her husband."

She chucked at the thought of her family. "They're not wrong about that part." she concluded, pausing as their food came in. She quickly examined her burger, removing some of the pickles. "Never properly spoke to my cellmate. She was...odd, though."

"Quite so, immediately sold out her entire operation within three minutes of talking to me." He took a bite into his cheeseburger, placing the rest of it back down as he chewed. "We do have one thing in common, if we went back to civilized life trying to tell our story everyone would find both of us batshit crazy before we'd quickly disappear again."

She followed suit, picking up her burger and taking a sizable chunk out of it, nodding as she chewed. "So, what's next? What's this schedule of yours?"

"We're staying the night in a motel about two hundred miles from here, another five or six hour drive. Not too bad of a motel but of course we can't expect five star. From there we cross into Luvonia and we should be home free to fly wherever." He took another bite from his food after finishing his sentence.

"Wonder where I'll go." she mumbled through her second burger bite.

He finished chewing, "Well, your pharmaceutical degree should be easily transferable. I'm rather clueless myself. I guess I could try making it as a cop somewhere, but I don't even know about that. I honestly hadn't anticipated on making it this far."

"I wasn't expecting to make it at all." she repeated, gulping down another chunk of the burger.

He nodded, noting before he ate another section of his burger. "Well, that's something we both need to be thinking about then."

"Yeah. Assuming nothing happens along the way." she said, opening her water with a plastic popping sound and gulping a bit.

"Yeah, let's hope to that." He chewed the last bit of his burger, starting going into his french fries.

"Mmh, yeeeeeah." She took the final bite out of her own, looking around the diner for potential eavesdroppers.

He noticed her looking around the diner, flipping the topic on its head as he finished his food. "Would really be cool to get to travel the world though, right?"

"And really expensive." she retorted. "I've always wanted to go out and see all the other countries. But something's always prevented me from doing it."

"Well, the leg would probably be a starters for now." He chuckled, placing cash on the table to pay the bill and a $7 tip. "Let's get you back home, yeah?" He stood up, helping Aurelia out of her chair and back onto the crutches.

"Home, as in, 'the ca-" He flicked her hard in the back of the neck right as she got to 'the car', cutting her off mid sentence. Aurelia winced ; Frank had hit her right in the cigar burn Maximillion had left. "The, uhm, the Caaaroli street...house." she improvised on the spot. He then helped her leave the diner, ignoring the angry look she gave him. When the left the diner, he spoke "Way to ruin the cover story." He chuckled, opening the door for her to get in and placing her crutches back in the rear seat of the car.

She hopped inside, shutting the door, and he also got into the car, starting the engine. "Doc's right, painkillers do make you high as a kite." He laughed, pulling the car out of the diner and back onto the interstate. "Yeah, they do. I would know." she said, blinking a few times. "Wouldn't it be safer if we take side-roads? Interstate might have checkpoints."

"You're not thinking militarily, dude." He laughed, poking fun at her incapacitated mental state. "They'd expect us to take the side roads. That's where the check points are really going to be. Plus it looks bad if they block major highways. Makes them look like they're loosing control."

She rubbed her face a little bit, bewildered. "Fuck, whatever, man." she conceded defeat, leaning back in her chair and clicking her seatbelt closed.

The clicking sound reminded him about his own, and he clicked his own seatbelt in. "Wouldn't like to get stopped for not wearing a seatbelt right now." He laughed, turning onto the highway and merging into traffic. "Strict asshole laws." she mumbled in response. "Turn on the news. I wanna know if there's anything remotely interesting going on."

He nodded, switching it over to the news channel. Frank more or less tuned it out in his mind, but at this point he'd rather keep everyone happy. Aurelia frowned when the news channel was just some happy propaganda music. "Uuugh." she groaned, switching it back to the rock station. "They do that a lot more these days."

He laughed, "Yeeeeeeeah, We should be close enough to the border to get Luvonian stations by now but of course that's officially 'frowned upon'" He paused. "AM stations anyways. Quality's going to be dogshit."

"I wanna know how bad." she replied, pressing the switch button and trying to find a Luvonian station. "C'mon..." Frank continued to drive as she tried to find a Luvonian station, eventually hitting one with a rather piss-poor quality and a guy reading news.

"...led to a 14-point scoring victory for the FC Turtlenecks. In other news, unconfirmed reports from northern Nova Ardia indicate an increased police concentration in the northern province, as well as increased border activity. What does this mean for Nova Ardia? More at 11. And now, weath-" said the announcer, in a foreign-sounding, but fully understandable accent.

Frank tried to ignore the broadcast, continuing to drive. Not because he didn't like what he was saying more than he choose to be as out of the loop with world events as possible; knowing it'd only serve to bring him down. "Mmh. Increased border activity." she repeated. "Probably won't be a problem, if we play it safe."

"Shouldn't be...yeah.." He honestly didn't know what that meant, but he choose to push it to the back of his mind; He was slowly loosing grip on it already, and attempted to prolong the surge of adrenaline that kept him going as long as possible.

Aurelia laughed nervously. "Heh. Yeah. Right?" she asked, hoping for some of assurance. He sighed, at this point just hoping that his negatively wouldn't spread. "Yeah."

"Alright. We need...music. More music." she said, switching back to the 90's rock. "You've been awake for a ridiculously long amount of time. You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah...just a few more hours of driving and we'll be fine." He stretched out in his seat, repositioning himself.

"Alright, dude. Hang in there." she said, leaning back in the chair. "Any...er. Any random trivia about how the government operates that could be useful?"

"Nothing particularly useful to us right now." He laughed, yawning. "Come on, you've gotta have something like that side-roads shit." she insisted. "How do they scan passports? Does their system suck, or something?" she asked. "Relies on a 90's era system, possibly older, We'll be fine because these identities are legit." he replied.

She nodded. "Alright. Alright, it sucks. Good." she said, trying to assure herself. "I'm sorry I called you an automaton, by the way."

"To be fair, I pretty much was. Same shit, day in, day out. Kinda glad I'm not stuck there anymore."

"Makes two of us, then." she repeated the sentiment from the diner. "Who ran the jail? They might be the only person that could ID us."

"Some Captain, never left his office. Probably never even met you. I wouldn't worry about him."

"Alright. So the only people who could actually ID us are either dead or dealing with a riot?" she asked.

"More or less, yeah." He yawned again, turning up the radio slightly to help keep himself awake. The conversation was helping as well. "How many more miles?" she asked, hoping it wouldn't be long enough to where she would have to take over driving with her bum leg.

"Hour and a half, we'll be fine" He seemed intent on making it all the way to the motel, looking over at her. "We'll need to mix up your appearence when we get there, dye your hair, maybe a ponytail. I'll dump the five o clock shadow for a clean shave." Aurelia examined her wavy blonde hair. "Mmf. Fine. I'm gonna look ridiculous, though." she sighed.

"Which is why they wouldn't expect you to dump that faaaaaaaabulous (He jokingly tried to sound as gay as possible with his pronunciation of fabulous) blonde hair for a brunette dye."

She burst out into giggles, uncharacteristic for such a shitty joke on his part. "How much money have ya got, anyway?" she quipped, hoping she could at least get some fitting clothes alongside her new hair. "Maybe I can get one of those hipster beanies while I'm at it to hide how shitty the dye'll look."

"I sold most of my shit....so....enough for you to appease your hipster looks." He laughed, "We'll be there about five, plenty of time to go shopping for your hipster shit and eat again before we crash for the night."

"And maybe some sort of bandage for the leg. Hurts to bend it, still." she said with a sigh, and shuddering at the thought of having another hospital experience. "But that would require going to a-" he gasped dramatically. "Pharmacy!" At this point he was just cracking puns left and right to try and keep himself up; hoping a second wind would come when they reach the town.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 2: ON THE RUN
PART 3. I HUNG MY HEAD

Hipster beanies acquired. Oh and Frank has a emotional break down over the fact he orphaned some kids and killed people.



They drove for another hour or two, finally pulling into a sleepy town about a hour from the border at 6pm, and a three-star motel. Frank left Aurelia in the car as he went to check in, walking back out with a key. "Alright." He opened the back door, giving her the crutches so she can walk to the first-floor motel room.

Aurelia hopped up to the door, examining the old thing to try and gauge the quality they could expect.

It wasn't particularly amazing, but it also wasn't exactly bad. He opened the door with the key to show a somewhat modest room with two beds and a full bathroom/shower, as well as a television.

"Thank fuck." she said as she hobbled inside, immediately sitting down on the bed closest to the door and leaning her crutches on it.

"Mhm..." He looked around the room briefly, grabbing the remote near the TV and tossing it on Aurelia's bed. "I'll run out for hair dye and a razor, anything else for tonight?"

"Something for my leg. " she paused. "Yes, that means you're going to the Phaaaarmacy!" she said, smiling deviously, as if the pharmacy was some prison. "And get us both some new clothes. You're about two sizes too big." she said, pinching her shirt and letting it fall again to show how large it was. Oh, and some non-Prison shoes would be nice. And that hi--" she stopped. "Maybe I oughta come with." she shrugged.

He lost her at about 'two sizes', "Yeah, hop back in the car. We'll go to the department store or some shit."


She jumped back up, grabbing her crutches and limping to the car as fast as she could, before hastily throwing them in the back over the dashboard and properly sitting down.

Frank kinda laughed at her giddyness, locking the motel room and getting back in the car. He started the car, riding up the towns strip before making a turn on a side-road towards the local department store. But a long line of cars made them stopped, and several police officers were waiting up ahead. He sighed, looking at Aurelia, "See what I mean about side roads?"

She nodded, not saying a word, remembering the drill from Roma. She got her fake ID out. "No way in hell these guys are fact-checking." she assured herself out loud.

"The ID's are fine, we need a story. Couple going to the department store for your leg and clothes. No need to lie, just don't want to tell too much truth."

"Couple?" she asked, deciding internally that it was probably the best story. "Mmf. I read once that the best lies are the ones that are 90% true."

"If you want to be picky about the platonic nature of our relationship, now is definitively not the time." He reaches into his wallet, grabbing his ID. "Give me yours so I can hand it to em."

She conceded, handing him her fake ID and bringing her leaning seat upwards into a relatively sitting position. "You're right." she said, voicing her thoughts.

The car pulled up to where the cop signalled them to stop, leaning in and taking the ID's from Frank. "James Monroe and a ...Abigail Brown." he echoed into his radio. He looked them both down with his flashlight, "Where you two headin' tonight?" Frank looked at him, "Just takin Abi here down to the department store, she needs somethin' for her leg and probably some clothes." The cop nodded, looking over at Aurelia, "How'd that happen?"

She leaned her head down so she could actually see the cop's whole head. "Got backed into. It's all fixed now, though." she said, upholding the story from the last time she was Abigail Brown.

Frank blushed, "Yeah...she decided it would be a good idea to round the garage corner right as I was backing up..." He laughed, keeping the story convincing. "Wasn't one of my proudest moments." - The cop looked at them, laughing with Frank if only for the politeness. "Yeah, you keep yourselves safe and" He looked directly at Frank, "Stop backing into your girlfriend, it's a rather abrupt way to end a relationship." He laughed, passing the ID's back to Frank. "You keep safe as well, Officer." He put the car into gear, driving out of the checkpoint as politely as possible so not to arouse suspicion.

"He didn't seem so bad." noted Aurelia as soon as they were fully clear of the checkpoint.

He rolled the window up, handing Aurelia's fake ID back to her. "Most local cops aren't, they don't know about the shit that goes on and it's probably better off that way." He pulled into the department stores rather large parking lot, pulling as close to the sliding doors as possible to shorten the walk, before cutting the engine and hopping out to help Aurelia exit the vehicle.

She hobbled out, ready to go. "Wonder if that'll change if Ryan kicks the hive he's been stirring up for months." she asked Frank while already starting to hop her way over to the doors.

He walked with her to the front door, "All about access to information, one can fight for the most honorable causes with no reward if no one knows about them. Anyways, let's talk about that back in the motel." He walked with her inside the rather large department store, bustling with evening shoppers.

About an hour later, they were back at the motel room. Using Frank's money they'd bought dark brown hair dye, a knee bandage, and several articles of clothing, including a hat, for Aurelia. Frank, however, had elected to only buy a razor and shaving cream. Aurelia had spent about thirty minutes in the bathroom, successfully dying her hair and taking a shower she urgently needed after the jail. She finally finished up, hopping out of the bathroom on one crutch, and looking considerably different as a brunette. Excess dye still clung to the edges of her hair.

Frank nodded as she exited the bathroom, "You got a bit of extra there." He laughed, pointing to the remote on her bed. "Put something good on, I guess." He hopped into the bathroom, taking a shower and shaving, giving her about 15-20 minutes to herself.

Aurelia changed into some light cropped tracksuit pants and a simple tanktop for sleeping, and by the time Frank walked out of the bathroom, clean shaven, she was struggling to bite open the wrapper around the bandage.

He exited the bathroom in his shorts and a plain white t-shirt, now clean shaven , and plopped himself down on the other bed, looking over at her trying to open the wrapper on the bandage. "You got that there?" He kinda chuckled, looking at her struggle with it.

After another tug from her, the wrapper ripped open. "Yeah, I got it." she said, unfurling the wrap and poking her leg to find out the most painful areas. She had been surprised to find a largely bat-shaped bruise on her leg. Fuck that guy. she thought of Maximillion.

He nodded when it opened, repositioning himself in his bed to sit upright and look at the TV. "Found anything good?"

She shook her head. "More news, if you're interested. Some stupid reruns of detective shows."

He sighed, rolling over and digging his head in his pillow. "Yeah, fuck that."

"Yup." she said, finishing her sloppy leg bandage job. "If you wanna look something up, feel free." she said, holding up the remote in her hand.

"Yeah, you can keep it." He kept his head buried in the pillow, rather affecting his ability to talk, mostly decompressing from the day.

"You sure you're alright?" she asked.

"I don't know..." He sighed into the pillow, kinda just laying there. "Being completely honest, I figured we'd both be dead by now so I hadn't quite anticipated going this far into the plan."

"You already said that." she remembered clearly. "You sure that's it?" she insisted.

He sighed, probably was time to stop bullshitting. "I'm still having a hard time dealing with the fact I've directly killed two people, and knowing the riot i probably caused, probably indirectly another dozen or so, just for us. You kinda ask your self like, was it worth it, y'know?"

"Was I worth a dozen others, you mean?" she asked meekly, biting her lip. "I think I'm biased on that one..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry."


"They had families, y'know? I mean, we can say in hindsight they where bad people..but like...were they bad for what reasons?....I mean...we just have ourselves and our shit. I probably orphaned some kids today." He trailed off, digging deeper into his pillow..."Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck."

Aurelia blinked. "Listen...it's...it's fine, okay." she paused, her mind racing through the memories of the previous night. "Just...just, just don't think about it." her voice wavered slightly. The thought of orphaned kids, even in this context, made her emotional, and for good reason. Her own parents had disowned her.

"Yeah, you're right I guess." He dug himself into the pillow, just laying there, thinking about all the shit he had done over the last 24 hours. It made him wonder if it was worth it, the means he had gone through for the ends - and he wasn't even confident they'd actually make it to safety.

"I mean, they wouldn't have...you did what...seriously." she said, not being very coherent. "Just. Stay strong, Frank. I'm counting on you. Make it worth something."

He sighed, not directly answering; but she was right. He did kind of get them both into this shitfest, even if the alternative was much worse. He rolled back over, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

With that last statement, Aurelia turned around in her pillow and threw the whole blanket over herself, trying to fall asleep.

He pulled his own blankets up, "Don't forget your pills before you go to bed" Part seriously, part naggingly to play on her last comment.

She stuck her arm outside of the blanket and quickly fished for the plastic bag, opening it and getting Batch III, swallowing the pills without any water "Mmh." she grunted, wanting to be left alone right now.

He smiled slightly, pulling himself into the blankets more to go to bed, turning the light out next to him.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 2: ON THE RUN
PART 4. STUPID DECISIONS & PTSD

Aurelia has a PTSD problem. Someone decides it would be a good idea to blow through the border. Someone else gets shot.




Aurelia sat in a dark room, blinking to find the lights on and Maximilion facing at her smiling. Stay out of trouble. echoed a voice as the lights flickered. Your parents, I'm sure, I'm proud. echoed another. End the oppression! yelled the last. They all stopped their nagging, and Maximilion smiled, taking a step forward. Aurelia tried to back up, but she was stuck in place. You're a pretty bad liar. echoed another voice. The consequences would be...most dire if you're lying to me, Ms. Octavia. Maximilion was cloaked in darkness now, and he smiled far too wide. Out of seemingly nowhere, he produced a baseball bat. "Oh, you've done it now you fucking bitch" echoed the last voice and the figure lunged at her and grabbed at her clothes with one arm. She screamed and opened her eyes.

The motel room was barely lit through the blinds. Aurelia immediately shot upwards, after her very real scream, panting in a dream-induced panic.Frank jolted awake by the sound of a loud scream, shooting upwards himself. The room was empty besides him and Aurelia... "Was....was that you?...." She was already blinking out tears, and shaking, but didn't say a word, instead just trying to kick it all out of her head. He sighed, knowing something was off. He hopped out of his own bed and moved over next to hers, still half asleep. "You alright?"

"Oh fuck.." she whispered, as if she'd realized something. "D-dream..."

He nodded, turning the light on. "You sure you're alright?"

"T-they...he...he was right in front of me..." she trailed off.

He sighed, instantly knowing who she was talking about. "He's gone now, you know it." He tried to think of what little comfort he could offer; he wanted to say he had been in that situation before but he honestly hadn't. "Y-yeah?" she said, intending to agree but coming off skeptical. She looked down, blinking again, before turning her gaze to Frank again. "That was scary..."

"Yeah....yeah it was." He sounded sincere, standing next to her bed. "We've almost done it though. Just a hour or so from the border." She wiped her eyes with her arm, her breathing beginning to slow to more reasonable levels. "Yes...yeah..." she said, nodding sadly. He sighed, looking through the curtains to see it was getting lighter outside. "Might as well get up then."

"Right, yeah. Just...give me a minute." she said, burying her face into her pillow quietly. "Alright." He walked over to the bathroom, leaving the door open and washing his face off quickly; evidently he wanted to go back to bed, but since they where both up they might as well go for the border.

By the time he came back, Aurelia was up, having thrown a light hoodie on and tied her hair up. She was in the process of pulling her new pair of canvas shoes on; still not saying anything. Frank took off his white t-shirt, putting on a polo shirt. "Well, mightaswise get this over with, huh?" He grabbed her crutches, handing them to her as he collected their various items. She nodded meekly, getting up on her feet and shoving her pain pills and the half-empty water bottle from the diner into her hoodie's pocket.

He opened the door, letting her out before shutting the motel door. They got in the car and he started the engine, leaving the motel and heading for the border. "Almost there."

She just grunted in approval, choosing not to speak as she stared at the motel getting smaller and smaller in the distance. He sighed, the lack of quippyness from her was legitimately starting to be of concern; "You sure you're alright?"

"I never said I was." she muttered, straight faced, as she watched a grain silo go by in the distance. "Fair enough..." He sighed, looking at the road ahead as he drove. "I don't...well....yeah...I don't know what I can say besides..well...you're not there anymore."

"I know. Doesn't make me feel any better." she frowned, her gaze turning down to the road markings. "It's fine. Just..." her voice faded and she didn't finish.

He frowned, at this point not sure what to say. "Yeah..." He kept his eyes on the road, continuing towards the border; traffic started to thicken into stop-and-go traffic.

Aurelia sighed and closed her eyes. By the time she opened them again, they were barely moving. She grunted, getting up and wiping her eyes again, before focusing on the road in front of them. "The fuck is this?" she asked.

"I have no clue." Traffic heading in the opposite direction was thick, but Frank noticed it composed almost entirely of Nova Ardian license plates..."What the actual fuck.." He tried looking over the cars in front of them, but he had no success. Aurelia flipped the radio back to the news only to once again blast the car with propaganda music. "Fuck." she frowned, punching the radio button and turning it off in frustration. "What the hell is happening? Should we roll down the windows and ask someone?"

He sighed, rolling the window down as they stopped near a border agent walking down the medium. "What's going on?" he asked, directing it at the border agent. The border agent shrugged, "Roma decided to close the border. Don't ask me but you'll be stuck here for a little while before someone up that way tells you to turn back around. " He pointed up towards the checkpoint in the distance. "Just turn around now." He tipped his hat at Frank, before walking down to the next car in the line. Frank let his head sink into the steering wheel. "That's juuuuust fucking fantastic."

Aurelia sat dumbfounded briefly before her eye twitched slightly and she threw a rather loud punch at the dashboard, growling in frustration before crossing her arms. "What the fuck do we do now?" she asked.

His head was still sitting on the steeling wheel. "Fuck if I know. Fuck this." He waited for a clearing in traffic before busting a U-Turn, heading back where they had came. He merged over and pulled off at the first available rest stop, before slamming his hands on the steering wheel. "Fuck!"

Aurelia kicked the floor of the car with her good leg, throwing out a 'damn it' every time she did. "We did not just get this fucking far so we can turn around. We've gotta get out..."

"Fucking how?"

"We...we...we jump a fence. Or drive a car through it." she said. "Or....go out in the middle of nowhere..." she theorized helplessly, knowing that her ideas really had no weight or any possibility of happening.

He sighed, resting his head on the steering wheel. "Fuck!" He slammed his head into the steering wheel again, setting off the car horn for a second. "I don't know..Okay...Fuck..."

"God fucking damn it!" she shouted. "Think of something!"

"I don't....I don't fucking know! Okay! I don't fucking know!" He was shouting too at this point. "Fuck!"

"We're fucked! We're so fucked!" she yelled in frustration. "Fuck...Right...we need time to think"...He sat there..."I'll get a few more nights on the Motel...yeah...we can think of something from there..." He sighed, lifting his head out of the steering wheel. "We just need to...stay calm...right?"

"NO! I don't want to go back to that god-damn motel!" she said, seething. "We gotta go up somewhere like, really in the middle of nowhere, and then we cross, and then..." she stopped, suddenly overrun with emotions. "I...fuck...I don't know..." she mumbled. He reached over, wrapping his arm around her shoulder for whatever consolation he could offer. "We're probably stuck here for the time being." She leaned her head on his shoulder, trying to comfort herself as her brain worked on theories for getting the hell out of the country.

"I-...I don't think I know right now....but we'll find a way out..You have my word on that." He didn't know if he was lying or not, but it was the best he could do right now.

She sighed. "I hope you're right."

He sat there for a second, "I do too."

She watched yet another car drive into the rest stop. "Wonder if any of these people are...like us."

"In that case, for our sake and theirs, I prefer we don't find out nor do they" He sighed, leaning back into his seat as Aurelia dug her head into his shoulder. "It's all fucked anyways."

"I think that the resistance is basically dead. Either that or they've been hopelessly driven underground." she remarked as she turned her head to face the roof of the car, eerily reminded of the roof of the SUV that had started this. "We really are on our own."

"The fact they'rebroadcasting propaganda instead of reading news makes me think they're up to something. Fuck if I know." He sighed, this was the first time in quite a long time he was truly as clueless as her. It made him feel rather powerless and that agitated him. "We mightaswise find something to do to kill time for today then, any ideas?"

"No." she admitted, after a long pause. "Unless everyone else here sets up a mobile campsite or something, we're outta shit to do, as well."

"Well, shit..." He handed her the phone, sighing. "Just find something to get this shit out of our minds please."

"Well, they locked the network, and they blocked us out of international TV, clearly. So..." she paused, trying to browse the web on the shitty default web app. "Mh. This thing'll die if we do anything for fun with it, and we might need it later."

"Burner cell phone, charger's in the bag somewhere. Just don't do anything stupid with it."

"And where would we charge it?" she asked. "We're not going back to that shithole motel, right? If they figure out you escaped, then they'll eventually sweep the highways, right?" she asked, fiddling with the apps for the GPS.

"Car charger..." He pointed to the bag, there was a cigarette-hole type charger in it. "Just....I don't know...yeah...we may need to find another motel or something..." he said. "We need to find like, some sort of bed and breakfast in a small town while we figure out this shit. Preferably one not run by obvious fanatics." she advised.

"You have the phone, find something that works for you and won't rob us dry." he said. "Why just for me?" she asked, looking at Frank, upside down. "It has to work for both of us, right?" He sighed, "I guess at this point I'm trying to keep you happy...I don't know....yeah..something that works for both of us."

"Sorry if I'm freaking you out...it's just overwhelming." she explained in a moment of clarity. "Been a fucking roller-coaster so far."

"It's fine...I feel you...Just...find something that works for both of us online I guess." She scrolled through the listings. "How cheap was that motel?" she asked, for a reference. "Erm, hundred or so per night. I forget exactly."

"Fuck, that, then. Guess we stay in the car and think of something." she replied. "Yeah...Just try and find something for us to kill some time with..I need something to clear my head of all of this shit." He was still leaning back into his seat, watching her play on the burner phone.

She reached over for one of the doors, barely touching the handle enough to open it, before she put kicked it open with her good leg and hanged both of her legs out of the door. "Fresh air'll help." she said as she shifted her position from leaning on his shoulder to his lap. "Trying to see if they have any full episodes of any non-reality TV show."
"Mmhmm...Yeah." He rolled his window down, looking out at the scenery and the mob of cars heading southbound away from the border.

"You ever seen Parks and Rec?" she asked. "I can only find the blooper reel, but it's like 45 minutes long." He sighed, "Fuck it, nothing better to watch right?" She nodded, turning on the video and angling the screen so he could see.

After hours of sitting around in the car, trying to find something to entertain themselves, and thinking of places to go, something interesting finally came on the news; a list of the most wanted men in Nova Ardia alongside their bounties.He elected to tune out the most wanted list in his mind, he was sub-consciously expecting Aurelia to be listening and repeating anything interesting to him anyways. Aurelia listened to the names. Andrew Ryan was first. Naturally, that wasn't a surprise to either. But as the list descended, into the twenties, she too, stopped listening, for the most part. '#21, Germanicus Kornelius, eighty thousand. Manslaughter.' said the radio. "Hey, I know that g-" she paused, as the next name went through. "#22, Francis Keeve, eighty thousand, treason." she said, giving him a little punch to get his attention. "That was fucking YOU."

He jolted out of his daydream, "Huh...what?....Really?...Shit...Fuck...Fuck....What the fuck are we going to do-...Are you on the list?"

"Not yet." she said. "But they're fucking onto us!" she said, shutting the door, finally. It had gotten rather cold as night fell. She opened the glove box and pulled out the gun. "I got an idea. We're gonna ram straight through that border post." she advised.

He stood there, bewildered by her sudden brazenness; his hands were trembling. "They'll fucking..shoot us....Are you sure about this?..They're not onto you yet...I can drop you off somewhere and-...."He trailed off, quickly loosing cohesion as he thought of the implications of them being onto him. "We're in this together!" she insisted sincerely as she stood up. "We get the hell down, we drive in a straight line, and we get through. That's it."

He sighed, pushing his head into the steering wheel in a attempt to prepare himself mentally. "Fuck it..." He put the car into gear, leaving the rest area and busting another U-Turn to head towards the checkpoint

Aurelia held up the pistol; her hands were shaking too now. "Headlights off." she told him, hoping she was right that it would affect visibility.

He switched his headlights off, looking over at her. "Been a real fucking ride, hasn't it?" The border agents looked at the car approaching in the distance, confused

"Hell yeah!" she replied, trying to get herself amped up and barricade all her emotions as she rested her shaking hands and the gun on the dashboard.

"Don't play a hero, shooting them won't help us none." He pointed down to the passenger compartment by where her feet are. "Firewall, that'le stop the bullets. Make yourself as small of a target as possible." He paused..."If-....When we get across, don't let them see you holding that gun. Don't make it to the other side to get shot by the Luvonians. You're here for political Aslyum."

"You're probably right!" she exclaimed as they approached, quickly opening the window and tossing the gun out before rolling it up again and ducking underneath, trying to fit into the passenger compartment without rebreaking anything. "How much longer?" By now the agents had starting raising their pistols and rifles, as the unlit car approached. "Duck, Now!" Frank got down as much as he can while still peaking over the steering wheel, and put his foot down. The car accelerated and within a few seconds shots started hitting the car as it barreled toward the border.

Aurelia let out a "Holy Shiiiit!" as the shots started hitting, closing her eyes and bracing for a potential impact. As the car neared the border, shots began piercing through the windshield; they had switched from trying to disable the vehicle to trying to kill the driver. A shot ripped through Frank's shoulder, before passing right through the driver's seat and out the rear window. He instantly slumped over, loosing motor function, and the car began careening toward the border police building on the side of the road.

"Fuck!" exclaimed Aurelia as she tried to clamber upwards and grab the wheel despite the pain in her gut; nothing was registering at the moment but her survival instinct. "Punch it!" she yelled as she straightened out the steering wheel as best as she could with the limited field of view that she had. She shrieked when one of the bullets flew just above her head, shattering the windshield completely and sending a gust of wind into the car.

The car plowed through the border checkpoint, as stunned Luvonian agents who were having a conversation due to the lack of activity looked on. It came to a slow stop on the Luvonian side, and the Luvonian agents stopped the Ardian ones from crossing over. The Luvonians approached the car with guns drawn as Frank was still laying in his seat, unresponsive. Aurelia painfully clambered upwards and pushed Frank out of his side of the door, and then onto the ground, and she followed. "Wake up!" she shouted at him. "Wake the fuck up!" she shrieked as she slapped his face, trying to get him to come around. The Luvonian turned their weapons to her and she quickly shot her hands up into the air. "Help him, can't you see he needs help?"

Frank fell out of the car, still completely unresponsive and breathing very shallowly; albeit easily confusable for not breathing at all in the heat of the moment. "Ma'am..I need you to calm the fuck down...What the hell were you doing running the border?.." echoed one of the Luvonians, still raising his pistol at her. Another looked down at Frank and began applying basic medical care to him.

She started crying yet again, hoping this was the last stop the rollercoaster would have. "We're escaping! We-we-we want asylum!" she stuttered.

"Okay, miss, we have a ambulance coming for him, but I need you to get on your knees and place your hands on your head so we can figure out who you are" Sirens could be heard further north, from Luvonian police and emergency medical services rushing to the border. Two border agents still had their weapons drawn on Aurelia with the third doing basic care on what appeared to be Frank's body.

A fourth, fifth, and sixth agent were right on the border line, arguing with several very angry Nova Ardian border guards.

Her hands slapped to the back of her head, she was shaking all over now, hearing the shouting match between the two factions of border guards.

A ambulance arrived briefly thereafter, as well as several squad cars full of Luvonian border guards, who joined the argument on the border. The guards holstered their weapons and handcuffed Aurelia, pulling her to the Luvonian border police building. Paramedic's had arrived to treat and transport Frank.

"Watch my leg!" she shouted, still filled with adrenaline as she saw the Paramedics surround Frank.

She was pulled into a interview room inside the police building, and left there for about 25 minutes as the scene unfolded outside. At about the 30 minute mark, a uniformed border police agent entered. He asked her for the whole story around her and Frank and why they are in Luvonia. "Well, I got arrested, and sent to a place where I was tortured for information I didn't have." she pointed to the burn on her neck. "He worked there, but he never did anything bad to me." she paused. "He defected and broke me out, and we've been running ever since. We were hoping to get through the border normally...but we were too late." she said, stopping to catch her breath briefly.

He nodded, writing some information down. "What are your real names?"

"I'm Aurelia Octavia and he's, uhm, he's Frank Keeve." she explained. "I see". He wrote down some more information. "You'll have to spend the night here, I apologize, a judge will make a preliminary ruling on your case in the morning."

"Oh, thank you! Thanks so much!" she said sincerely. "Is he alright?"

"Critical condition, they're operating on him now. Medically induced coma. I don't know if he'll make it or not." He closed his notpad, standing up. "You'll know in the morning on if they'll let you stay or not, most likely yes given your case."

She looked down, sighing. "Fuck." she mumbled to herself. "Keep me updated and thanks for having us." she muttered.

He nodded, "I'll have someone wake you if anything develops during the night. Follow me please." He opened the door, letting her limp out towards a cell. It had a abnormal amount of blankets and sheetings; evidently it was made for prisoners rather than someone in her situation, so someone spruced it up a little, but as a sign of consolation they left the cell door open. She sighed in relief upon seeing the arrangement. "Thank you, again." she said, referring to everything, watching the man depart before heavily limping over to the bed and sitting down. She wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 1. WHOSE HIGH AS A KITE NOW?

Frank is hilariously high as a kite after being shot in the shoulder (Your fault if you read this far down without knowing that by now). Aurelia needs to go get their shit back. They decide to GTFO to Dartfordia.

Despite her prediction, Aurelia did eventually drift to sleep, and luckily, today's was dreamless. When she finally woke up, she found that someone had laid her stuff from the car just on the outside of the cell. Changing out of her hoodie and quickly into a sweater, she got a crutch and limped out of the room, checking to see if anyone was there.

There was a border agent at the front desk, but otherwise the events from last night had calmed. "Oh, you're awake" she said, standing up. "I have your preliminary travel documents here, Judge signed. Take a copy for your friend as well. Sarge said I can give you a ride to the hospital where he's staying."

"So he's alive?" she chuckled nervously. "Good." she continued, briefly examining the papers for any questionable wording before signing it in her original name. Felt good not to lie about who she was. She grabbed another copy for Frank and nodded to the clerk.

"Ready." she declared.

"Well, I don't know what his cond-.." The officer was cut off by Aurelia's chuckling and saying "Good", choosing not to ruin the moment for her. "Let's go then." They left through the front door, letting Aurelia into the front seat of her squad car before she got in the drivers side, driving the short distance to the hospital.

Aurelia hopped in the front, taking a look at the couple of visible Ardian guards staring her down before blinking away and not saying a word during the entire trip.

The officer drove her to the hospital, stopping outside the front doors. "Best of luck to the both of you."

"Thank you. Sorry about the whole...ordeal." she apologized, before she began limping into the hospital. The clerk in the hospital directed her two floors up, and she hitched a ride on the conveniently-placed elevator to get there, surprised to not find the hospital as unwelcoming as the clinic back home had been.

She entered a rather peaceful room, with just Frank inside, still sleeping, a large bandage over his right shoulder. The TV was buzzing with the world news, the story of a showdown at the border only being a 30 second tabloid.

She hobbled over to the seat next to his bed, setting her crutch down and wondering if he was still in a coma. "Hey." she quietly mumbled.

A doctor poked his head in, noticing Aurelia trying to wake Frank up, "Oh, you're the Ms. Octavia the border agents told us about." The doctor walked over to the bed, looking at his chart, "They took him off of the anesthesia two hours ago, he should be up soon enough but he'll be out of it."

"Now he's the high one." she chuckled., looking over him. "How bad is it?" she asked, still keeping her voice down.

"Missed the heart by about three or four inches. Had to operate to prevent loss of executive function to his arm. There's a few titanium plates in there but he'll be fine." The doctor was still looking over his chart.

"Oh, that's a relief." she said, weakly smiling, and kind of looking towards her crutch. "I got a leg fracture. Not sure of the Nova Ardians knew what they were doing but..." she paused. "I'm sure it's fine."

The doctor quipped, "The fact you're walking on it with relative ease tells me you should be fine. He'll be up any minute now, just find a seat and relax I guess." The doctor put the chart back, leaving the room to go attend another patient

"Alright, I'm more of a Pharmacist anyway." she joked, sitting back in the chair after he left and waiting.

After a few minutes, Frank slowly started to wake, immediately jumping up in his bed. He looked around, seemingly not immediately noticing Aurelia....the only thought in his head was if he actually made it across or if it was in a Nova Ardian hospital waiting to be executed.

"Hey, sleepy-head." said Aurelia giddily. "We made it."

He noticed Aurelia's existence, falling back into the bed slightly. "What the fuck happened? I feel like I just got ran down by a tank."

"You scared the shit out of me, that's what happened." she explained. "Took a bullet to the shoulder while you were driving and just kinda went into a coma." she informed him, gauging his reaction briefly.

"Just kinda.....went into a coma?....I can do that now?" He looked down at the IV in his arm, "Ohhhhhh......riiight."

"Apparently." she crossed her arms. "Anyway, I got a paper for you to sign. Travel documents." she grinned, placing it on the end-table alongside the pen she stole from the border post. "Just, when you can move you arm, you know?"

"Yeah...I guess...."He picked up the pen, but quickly dropped it on the table again due to a tremor in his hand, mostly caused by the meds and fluids. "I'll get to it later I guess...unless you wanna try your luck at signing my name."

"I'll pass." she chuckled, looking at the TV. "We made the news, by the way. I wonder if we'll get any journalists."

He reclined further into the hospital bed. "As long as you answer the questions." He laughed, but was legitimately in no mood to be talking to reporters.(edited)

She shrugged. "Sure. I guess." she said. "So, what now?"

He sat there for a second, evidently not getting the context of her question due to the anesthesia. "Watch TV I guess, maybe ask for some food."

"I mean, after we get out of here, dude." she said. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

He shrugged, "I still have no idea about that, honestly."

"Well, I don't know why I asked that question, because know I'm thinking too much." she said, biting her lip. "Uhm..."

He continued watching the TV, not responding to her, either missing her point or choosing not to respond to it.

"I just wanted to say...like.." she paused. "Not sure how to make it sound like I actually mean it. But thank you. For everything. You really saved my ass repeatedly."

He continued to just kinda lay there, perhaps she knew there was a exceptional likelyhood of him not really remembering this conversation.

"Yeah..." she said. "You okay?" she asked, knowing he was probably high as a kite and unlikely to act normally.

"I dunno man...do you ever feel like...you got hit by a tank...but then like....it feels muffled...like...I'm being slowly killed but they're sedating me to the point I'm supposed to enjoy my slow agonizing death...do you ever have that feeling?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Uhm, yeeeah. For sure, dude. Man." she said, thinking that maybe keeping him in his little world would be best for now.

He nodded, "I knooooow....right?" He was evidently completely out of it, hilariously so.

Aurelia fought back an urge to giggle, instead electing not to say anything and watch the news.

He nodded, taking that as a form of acceptance, staring at the TV.


About forty five minutes passed, with them barely exchanging any words, instead just focusing nonchalantly on the news. It appeared that their little escape had now made a minor headline in the national news. She fully expected someone would come see them eventually, but for now, she was happy with just chilling in the hospital room. Who would have thought that the blunt and rather emotionless fascist interrogator would end up saving her life and more? She sure couldn't believe it, even now. Although she'd been trying to get around actually thanking him for fear of being awkward, instead resorting to doing it when he was either distracted or inebriated, but now she'd decided that she'd do it for real, as soon as he was having properly coherent thoughts.

He wasn't thinking of much of anything, mostly due to the medicine making him high as a kite, but over time he slowly came more into coherence. "So.....what'd you do when I got shot?"

Aurelia blinked once, a bit surprised by the sudden question. "Uhm. well. I grabbed the steering wheel, got us through the border, then threw you out of the car and tried to get you to wake up." she explained.

He sat there for a minute, maybe two, seemingly having forgotton her response, before saying out of the blue "Ya' did good."

"Oh, uhm. Thanks?" she laughed. "It was all just a bunch of snap decisions." she explained, turning her gaze to the window.

He nodded, "I'm serious, You did good."

She turned back to him, examining him briefly. "Thanks." she said, turning back to the window.

He kinda sat there, acknowledging her silently.(edited)

"You still high?" she queried, looking back at him again.

"I dunno...I guess?..." He honestly didin't know the answer to that question.(edited)

"If I told you something right now, would you remember it?" she asked. "I've been putting it off..."

He shrugged, "Fuck if I know"

She scooted a bit closer to him. "I told you this earlier, but I don't think you even registered me saying it." she said. "Thanks for saving me. Repeatedly." she paused. "But that's not all of it. You threw away everything to save me." she bit her lip. "Why?"

He sat there for a second. "Honestly? I figured it would happen sooner or later. They never liked me where I was because of my tactics, figured I'd end up in your shoes one day...." He pondered for a second..."Figured I mightaswise make it worth something, or, rather, someone."

She didn't say anything for what seemed like a minute, instead just pondering it. "Well...you did it. You gave me my life back."

He sat there for a minute..."I guess...what's left of it. I still don't know what we're going to do, or if you even want to stick with me."

"It's okay if I do?" she asked. "At least...until we both get situated, right?"

"Of course....I need to figure out what I'm doing first..."

"You've got most of a major locked down. You have a lot of government experience." she said, remembering their conversations in the car. "And I'm a licensed pharmacist. I'll probably have to retake the exam to get qualified in any other country..."

"Retaking the exam is better than retaking the whole course" He chuckled, nodding

"Depends on the exam..." she laughed along. "But you're right. Honestly, I don't really wanna stay in Luvonia. Place is kinda...close to home, you know?"

"Yeah, I was thinking the same" He was still staring at the TV

"So, where do we go, then?" she asked. "Anywhere in the world, I guess. But I can't choose."

He shrugged at her question, "Why not?"

"Too many choices. I end up not being able to choose." she shrugged. "Let's just say it took a long time for me to settle on a major." she giggled.

He shrugged, "Yeah, I can feel you on that."

"We'll decide that after you get out. I guess I'll sleep in this chair." she pondered.

"Don't know how long they want me to stay here. Mightaswise think about it while we got time and aren't actively being chased."

"Fine, then, where do you want to go?" she asked, crossing her arms teasingly.

"Dartfordia, East Moreland, South Hills are all alright...Rokkenjima and Achkaerin are undesirable right now."

She nodded. "Yeeeeah. Yeah, let's stay away from anywhere remotely like home."

"Mhm...East Moreland is peaceful...so is South Hills...Dartfordia is nice if you like suburban life I hear..." He paused for a moment... "But I am a bit biased against cities."

"And I'm biased towards cities." she smirked. "I got no problem with like, suburbs, though."

"Dartfordia may be a nice compromise then" he noted, watching the TV.

"Alright. That's settled, then." she said. "Man, I want a drink right now."

"Soda machine out in the hall, i think." He pointed generically where he assumed it to be beyond the wall of his room. "Get me something too."


"I mean a drink drink." she clarified, getting up and limping over outside, returning with two Cokes. She handed one to Frank. "I'll look into flights. And into getting our stuff from the car back..."

"Yeah, probably should being as our money cushion was in the trunk of that car." He took his coke, popping it open.

She set her coke on the end-table. "And most of our clothes." she frowned. "I hope none of it get shot."

"Yeah...that'd be unfortunate." He pointed to his shoulder jokingly. "I probably saved your beanie in the trunk, fortunately."

"Good. I'm gonna get this god-awful dye out of my hair as soon as I can." she said, taking a gulp of her coke and setting it down again.

He laughed, "Sooner you get my-..our money back, sooner you can get a real hotel while I'm stuck in here." He took another sip of his drink, watching the TV.

"Yeah. Our money." she grinned. "Although that's a total waste. They'll let me crash here, probably."

He looked around the hospital room, sighing. "You didin't just sleep on a rack in a prison for two weeks, then in a shot-up rental car for two days for you to spend the next week in a chair in ICU. Go get a hotel room."

"I'm not going to blow a thousand bucks of perfectly good money we can use later for groceries on a hotel room for a week." she insisted, crossing her arms. and looking down at the chair. "Besides, this place is actually kinda nice for a hospital. Looks so much better than any place I interned at in college."

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnne" he consented, knowing she wasn't going to give in. "When your back starts giving out, don't complain to me."

"I got plenty of other parts of me giving out." she said, poking her bandaged leg. "I just need a blanket and I'll be good."

"Nurses'll probably give ya one." he nodded, looking at the TV. "You do need to get our shit back though." He leaned over, signing his name on the document with a slight tremor, but still keeping it legible. "Take that shit with you if they need it."

She grabbed the paper and stood up, leaning on her crutch. "I'll be back with all our shit." she declared. "You rest your ass here."

He responded jokingly in tone, "Happily sitting on my ass, Ma'am!"

She grinned, stepping out and going to get their crap. Mostly their money.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 2. SOB STORIES AND GETTING DRUNK ON A PLANE

Frank is still high. Aurelia still likes beanies. Nurses are asshats. People cry. People get drunk on planes.




Aurelia had lost track of the time when a knock at the door finally forced her to pay attention to reality. It was the same doctor from before. Noticing Frank was once again asleep, the doctor quietly beckoned her outside, and she nodded, getting her crutch and limping out after him before gently shutting the door behind her, trying not to make any loud noises.

He waited for her to shut the door, holding a new clipboard and chart. "Well, we noticed he was having issues eating so we ran some more tests on his shoulder and arm. I figured we should tell you this rather than him directly because he's still partially under IV Sedation. He put you on as his guardian before we put him under general anesthesia for the operation the night this happened."

"Oh." she said, raising an eyebrow in genuine surprise. "What's the deal?" she asked.

The doctor shifted himself slightly, evidently uncomfortable with what he was about to tell her, but he elected to go straight to the point. "Our tests indicate he's lost about 80% of the executive function in his left arm, due to the nerves cut by the gun shot wound."

She sighed, hearing the news. It had been her idea to rush the border - and now someone was going to pay for it. She bit her lip. "Oh." was all she said, electing to let the doctor finish what he was saying.

He was expecting more of a immediate barrage of questions, but after just hearing "Oh" he elected to continue. "The decision you need to make, on his behalf, is whether to keep the arm or not. There's a possibility he can regain some function through more surgery or more likely physical therapy, but it'd be hit and miss. If you keep the arm, he'd have immediate issues with things as simple as changing clothes, probably eating into he can adjust to using his right hand, driving is out of the question, and as I believe he's a lefty, writing." He paused, ensuring she was still following. "Amputation would obviously mean no chance of recovery, how ever small it may of been otherwise, but he'd immediately be better off, it's far easier to adapt to no arm than having one you can't use." He ensured she still was with him, "The main thing that it comes down to is if you'd have someone able to take care of him for at least the time it'd take him to learn to make the best of it - possibly years, or, if it doesn't get better, which I must stress there's no gaurentee it will get better, the rest of his life."

She looked down, letting out a second and more prolonged sigh. "I can't make this decision for him. Not now." she frowned. "I assume it's...alright if he, uhm. If he keeps the arm?" she asked. "At least, until I've talked it over with him. Although I assume we'll be long gone by then." she said, with a third sigh, clearly distraught. "Listen, doc. If you know any good places for him to potentially heal up, like...anywhere in the world, I'd like to know. I'm sure he will too." she trailed off on the last word.

The doctor paused, reminding himself of their situation. "In terms of rehabilitation, East Moreland, Dartfordia, Rokkenjima, Achkaerin all have exceptional programs." He thought more for a second, "I understand you wanting to talk it over with him, but know he's still on a IV so his emotions are going to be hit and miss. You probably already found that out by now." He shifted the clipboards position, nodding at her. "If you need me for anything, let me know." He thanked her before leaving her alone in the hallway.

She stood quietly for a bit, leaning on the crutch and quietly whispering another "Damn it." silently, before heading inside. She'd brought their stuff from the police station earlier, and luckily, they hadn't taken any of the money. She sat back on the chair, leaving her crutch on the floor, and threw a blanket over herself, pondering her options.

After about 15 minutes, a nurse entered sheepishly, moving over to the stand next to Frank's bed and replacing the now-depleted IV bag with a new one. She noticed Aurelia was still awake, going up to her and whispering "I-...uhm...just want you to know..Your story has spread all over the hospital....that was...awfully brave of you two..."

"Thank you." she half-whispered, almost sounding like she'd squeaked, watching her fiddle with the bag, and not saying a word. She'd met Frank and hated him simply for his affiliation with the government; and now she was his guardian. Life was strange oftentimes.

"Oh...no miss..thank you.." She left sheepishly, whispering when she was almost out so as not to wake Frank, "Best of luck to the both of you!". The nurse closed the door quietly, careful not to stirr Frank or patients in other rooms.

Aurelia smiled sleepishly at the Nurse's words after she closed the door, looking down at the recovered burner phone and fiddling with travel locations. They'd decided earlier to avoid Rokkenjima and Achkaerin, so the choice now resided between the rather quaint Dartfordia and the famous East Moreland. Although they'd compromised on Dartfordia earlier, she'd always wanted to go to East Moreland most of all; and their rehabilitation systems were reportedly amazing. She'd talk it over with Frank when he came around properly. No point in getting worked up over it, she presumed. Some decisions are better put off.

The story had taken more interest on Luvonian television, with them even showing images of the hospital where they had been taken to, but with Luvonian border police repeatedly refusing to release names or exact accomodations; it became evident the only way the media would find out their exact whereabouts was if someone in the hospital leaked the information.

Aurelia had learned of the media obsession when she'd retrieved their stuff; she'd narrowly missed a reporter, according to the clerk at the border post. She'd decided that, for both of their sakes, they should stay as anonymous as possible. And while the nurses certainly were interested, none of them had blabbed, yet, which meant they were safe from any paparazzi. For now. Hopefully, leaving Luvonia would alleviate things on that front.

Frank slowly stirred, pushing himself up slightly to see what was going on; he had been sleeping since about five o clock in the afternoon and felt like he could go right back to sleep. He eventually looked over at Aurelia... "Can you get me some water.." He sounded rather parched.

She nodded silently, digging into her bag and taking out the water bottle from the Ardian diner. "This good enough?" she asked sincerely, putting it up to his mouth and frowning. "It's late..."

"Yeah..." He tried grabbing it with his left arm, but it just kinda moved a few inches before falling back down. He tried this a few times before finally grabbing it with his right arm, drinking what was left of it before setting it down on the table next to him. He heard her mention it's late, "Yeah..I know...." He looked down at his left arm, failing to move it much. "God damn meds they have me on..haven't been able to do much of anything....I asked them about it but they didin't get back to me on it..."

"Yeah, uhm." she paused, frowning at watching him struggle. "You still high?" she asked. "I wanna tell you something now, so I don't have to later." she gulped, hoping she wouldn't be causing an awkward situation.

He looked at her, telling the despair in her face at a seconds glance "Go ahead and tell me now..." His right arm moved over to the table, grabbing his prescription glasses and placing them on as least-awkwardly as he could with the use of only one hand.

"Uhm...you're arm's gonna be fucked for a while." she said, barely audible. "Got nerve damage and shit...and...you'll need rehab. The doc asked me if I wanted to cut it off, even. Oh, it's a mess." she frowned. "I'm sorry. It's my fault..."

He looked at her with a blank expression, causing her to be unsure if he was comprehending her. He slowly reclined back into the bed, and the heart montior, which had been beeping so rhymicly they both forgot about it, began beeping faster as his heart rate rose. He looked down at his arm, trying and failing to move it again. Frank slowly reclined further into the hospital bed, closing his eyes as tears began to form. It quickly appeared to him this was the first time she'd seen him cry, but at this point it didin't matter to him; He was crippled.

Almost instinctually, Aurelia got up on her good leg and tried to clumsily hug him over the hospital bed, repeating to him that she was sorry countless times. She was unsure if he was aware that she would blame herself for this, but she was very sure of it; she'd suggested it when there were potentially better solutions, and now she'd never forgive herself.

He sat there, sobbing, when Aurelia moved over to hug him. After about ten seconds of this, his good arm instinctively moved around her back, trying to hug her back as much as he could and pull her closer to his chest. "I mean...at least we've still got ourselves..right...?" He sounded virtually incoherent with the amount of sobbing, still coming to grips with the situation.

Emotionally compromised as she'd been recently, Aurelia had started crying too, hugging him as close as she could. To his barely understandable silver lining, she only responded with a choked "Yeah.", not saying anything else after that, and not going into what it meant.

They both sat there, crying and hugging for a few minutes, when Frank, who had been thinking about her choice of words, blurted "The doctor thought you should...cut it off?..."

"We're not gonna!" she replied as quickly as she could. "You're gonna get better!" she insisted, choosing consciously to deny the very real, and very unfortunate probability of that actually happening.

He sat there for a minute, having cried himself out for the time being, still hugging her. All the things that he wouldn't be able to do came to mind, "I can't drive...I can't eat...I can't type...I can't even change my own clothes..." He trailed off, holding her closer as he realized either way he was loosing his independence. He slowly began sobbing again as he held her, trying at this point to hold it back as it was giving him a massive headache.

"Y-yeah you can! It's just slower!" she insisted, trying to make him feel better, her voice muffled. "I'm sorry. " she said, one last time.

He pulled her closer for a second before letting go of his side of the hug, "Thank....Thank you...for everything." Her reassurements having some effect; whether it was geniune or just him trying to subconciously push it out of his mind, he didin't know.

She lingered a while longer before slumping back into her chair, wiping her eyes. "You're the one that saved me." she noted meekly as she threw the blanket over herself again. "We'll get through this. Together."

He sat there for a second after she finished, before recalling "I believe we're even now, actually." He slyly smirked to her before turning back to the television.

She half-smiled, a bit taken aback by his sudden joke. "Yeah, I guess we are." she chuckled sadly. "Listen..." she frowned. "There's some epic rehab centers in Moreland...dunno if you wanna change our plans now or not."

He nodded, still looking at the TV. "They also have a culture-shock thing going on with their religion, their Cultists or whatever. Dartfordia has good rehab places as well.." He trailed off, before continuing. "I guess what I'm trying to say is don't change our plans because of this. Anything will be better than the medical care I'd get back home, that's for sure."

She sighed. "I don't know..." she said, as she looked over the TV briefly.

He continued to stare at the TV, "I know you wanted me to make the decision, but it's probably going to come back to you." He paused, trying to think of how to word it. "What it comes down to now is I'm stuck with you now, not the other way around."

"We've been stuck with each other for a while." she quipped. "And I don't feel comfortable making decisions for you." she explained depressingly.

"Yeah...we have havn't we...And it looks like a while longer." He thought for a second, "If my arm wasn't a factor, where would you want to go?"

"I don't know." she said, looking at the night sky through the window. "Someplace exciting that doesn't want to kill me, that's a start." she said, her frown barely reflecting in the window.

"Yeah." she frowned. "So was I." she turned back to him, her eyes still slightly red. "You know, the news cares about us now. I really want to leave as soon as possible. I don't want to become a sensation..."

"Yeah well...sooner we figure out where were going the sooner we can leave" He chuckled, thinking. "Either way, it's me, you, and a long boring ass plane ride with as much wine as the airline wants to overcharge us for."

"Oh yeah. I've been wanting to get drunk for a while now." she chuckled. "And I think those airplane wines are tax free, too." she said. "So we get to save even more of this giant chunk of cash."

He laughed, "Yeah, I could get hammered right now too. But this fucking hospital doesn't serve alcohol." He paused, "Soooo...we still need to decide where the fuck we're doing."

"Give me a minute, you know I'm shit at this." she frowned. "Advantages, disadvantages, costs, all that shit. Gotta think about it."

He yawned, taking his glasses back off. "It's a bit late for poor old' me. I'll head back to bed and let you do your math and shit. Let me know what you think in the morning." He smiled at her, reclining back into the bed and eventually dozing back off.

Shortly after Frank went back to sleep, the news cycle was cut into by a breaking announcement; "Nova Ardian officials have confirmed a massive prison break from a facility close to the Luvonian border." The announcer showed the relative GPS imaging of the area. "Officials say it started when a former intelligence agent, Frank Keeve, broke out with a thusfar unidentified prisoner and fled heading east. Mr. Keeve is reported to have killed between one and five officials in his escape, and thusfar unidentified terrorist sources infiltrated the prison following his escape, leading to the remaining prisoners being armed and - allegedly - killing the remaining guards. Nova Ardian state news lists the casualties at 53 guards, 27 prisoners. They are still working to contain the situation. Luvonian Border Police officials refused to comment on if the two individuals who ran the checkpoint in Nasiyiah last night were part of the prison break, but Lieutenant James Brown stressed that they posed no current or future threat to Luvonian citizens."

Aurelia went from a state of near-sleep to a state of utter shock yet again. But after the reel finished; she'd made her decision. She'd purposefully remain clueless to this, and Frank wouldn't have to suffer any more. A short while later, she silently laid her head back in frustration.


She shut the news off and curled up in the blanket, trying and failing to sleep.

By the time the sun had risen in the morning, Aurelia had only gotten a couple hours' worth of sleep; she still hadn't made her decision. She properly got out of the chair with a yawn.

Frank was still slumbering peacefully in the hospital bed, evidently still resting from his injuries. The hospital was as quiet as ever, with morning activity just picking up.

She got up and checked the phone again, immediately putting it away after being hit by a sudden feeling of dread. She limped out and quickly checked the hallway, finding nothing, before sitting outside, briefly, simultaneously bored and mildly depressed. Luckily, she hadn't had a had a nightmare, but she felt like she was living in one these days.

She got up again with a light ache in her leg and limped back into the room, changing out her clothes, careful not to disturb Frank, and re-bandaging her leg. After a while, she turned the TV on again, muting it and continuing to read the headlines briefly, hoping that she could find out about imminent reporters before they arrived.

She turned off the TV before she could read anything. She knew deep down that all she was really doing was wasting time on her decision. They were going to try to get into Dartfordia. It was peaceful. It was quiet, for the most part. It had everything she missed. She blinked, her eyes taking a second longer to refocus than normal, before slowly turning and giving Frank a gentle poke. "Wake up, sleepyhead." she repeated what she'd said earlier. "It's the morning." she said softly.

"Mfmmmmhmmmmm...Yeah i'm up..." He slowly stirred, wiping his eyes with one hand as Aurelia came into focus. His right hand fumbled over to the table, placing his glasses on awkwardly, almost poking his eye out in the process. "...Yeah?" He looked out the window, sighing that he had been woken from his slumber. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"I think we oughta go to Dartfordia...Moreland has a weird chivalry obsession and it's just..." she paused. "I'm still not one hundred percent, but I stopped beating around the bush, and made a decision, y'know?" she explained.

"About fucking time." was all he said, at this point anxious to get out of the hospital. "You should probably get them to get this fucking needle out of my arm while they're at it." He raised his right arm, his good arm, with a IV inserted into it. "Makes it about as useless as the other one."

She nodded. "I don't know if you're clear to leave." she confided. "I'll go ask. Don't try to go anywhere." said Aurelia as she got up and limped towards the door.

He laughed, reclining back into the bed. "Glad to see your leg is getting better at least!" he shouted as she walked out the door. He went back to staring out the window as Aurelia had turned the TV off and left the remote in her chair across the room.

She looked back at him, smirking a bit sincerely, before heading out the door and fetching the nearest medical professional, which happened to be leaning back on a stretcher in the hallway, looking at his phone. "Hey, I'm Aurelia from Room 3A. Uhm. I'm with Frank. I was wondering when we could leave?"

The nurse looked up from his phone , "Urm....Ask the lobby, they'd know..." He trailed off, looking back at his phone, evidently he was on break

She muttered something a bit too rude under her breath and hobbled over to the elevator, waiting in it for what seemed like far too long for a four story building before getting out at the lobby and narrowly avoiding another nurse and patient standing at the door as she limped towards the lobby. "Hey." she greeted the clerk. "We're in 3A. When can we get out?"

Three people were standing next to the clerk, a nurse and a janitor, and they were conversing when she walked up. The clerk looked down at her computer, checking some charts as the nurse and janitor watched. The nurse, a guy in his 20's, spoke up, "Francis...Keeve...Holy shit...you're the crazy fuckers who broke out of the Ardian prison, right? Wicked shit, man." He quickly realized he may of been offensive after he finished, correcting himself, "Erm, I mean, sorry to hear about your ordeal Miss." The clerk kicked the nurse under the desk, before responding formally "Assuming you don't want the amputation, now is fine."

She scratched her head, finding a way not to cringe somehow. She ignored him, nodding. "Alright, thank you." she muttered condescendingly, before signing them out and going upstairs again. According to the office, a nurse would be coming to help them out. Finally limping into their room, Aurelia quickly threw on her beanie and hoodie, before turning to Frank. "We're cleared to leave. You need any help?" she asked, wondering when the nurse would show up.

"Waiting for the nurse to pull this shit-...Oh." Right as he got to 'shit', a nurse walked in, nonchalantly removing the IV and heart monitor from Frank, before leaving without saying a word, seemingly in a rush. "Right." He pushed himself off of the hospital bed, "You got my clothes anywhere in that pile of stuff?" He moved over in the hospital gown to the pile of items, pulling out a polo shirt, jeans, his shoes/socks, and a belt, managing to hold all of it in his right hand. "I'll be out in a second." He moved over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

She nodded, starting to pack the rest of their stuff, and pocketing the burner phone. She supposed now would be a good time to call a taxi or an Uber to get them to the nearest international airport.

She heard a few minutes of grunting and squirming, before finally a loud crashing sound came out of the bathroom with a loud "FUCK!"

She dropped the phone, trying to limp over to the bathroom as fast as she could, pushing the door open with her crutch.

He was sprawled out in the bathtub, trying to push himself up with his one good hand; He had managed to get his jeans on and buttoned, but failed to get the belt on. Trying to put his shirt on with one hand made him loose his balance and tumble over, leaving the shirt covering much of his face and neck. "I can't even...fucking...put a shirt on..." He grunted as he tried to push himself out of the bathtub, eventually getting himself up right by trying to climb up the side

"Dude..." she said, crouching over with a groan to try to help him. "It's probably a technique. Just give it a bit of time." she assured him, pulling the shirt down properly and picking his belt up off the ground.

He, with help, was pulled up to the side of the bathtub and sat on it. "I don't know, I guess." He struggled pulling his limp arm up to make it go through the hole for it in the shirt, failing due to the awkwardness of grabbing his own arm "Give me a hand here, would you?"

She helped his limp arm through his shirt properly, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub next to him and letting her crutch fall to the floor, before pulling down his shirt all the way for him.

He let out a deep sigh as she helped dress him. "I think we might need to get used to mornings like this." He held back the anxiety and depression of this thought, trying to think of the plane ride and plenty of alcohol.

"Chill." she said, trying to console him. "It'll be fine. Hard part's over." she frowned, putting her arm around him. "We're both alive. Somehow. And in my book, that's gotta count for a lot."

"Yeah, I guess you've got a point." He reached for the belt with his right hand, pulling it through the slots on his jeans to the best of his ability, which wasn't very good. He managed to get it most of the way around before failing to buckle it up all the way.

Her arm went from the half-hug to the belt, helping him fasten it lightly. "There's probably a technique to it." she frowned.

"Probably" he said, more in doubt than belief. He tried buttoning the collar to his shirt with one hand, being evident he was unable to after about twenty seconds. "One final thing then..."

"I think the issue here is the shirt, not you." she joked, reaching over and buttoning the first two buttons on his collar. "Now, if you're ready, I say we get the hell out of here."


"Yeah," he said, digging his head into her shoulder. "I'm sorry you have to deal with me like this." He stood up, being careful not to fall over again. "Mightaswise get the hell out of here. Alcohol awaits."

"Let's get drunk on a plane." she agreed, picking up her crutch and heading out. "I called a taxi...I think." she said, going over to the now-cracked burner phone on the ground and picking it up, revealing that the taxi-driver had already arrived and was waiting for them. "Surprised you even get signal in Luvonia." she noted. "We got a guy waiting outside." she said. "Could you get the backpack? I'm not exactly good with weights right now. Just one-strap."

"Yeah.." He grabbed the backpack with his good hand, forcefully slinging it over his back. "Let's go."

They headed down the elevator and into the lobby, garnering quite a number of stares. "Don't mind them." whispered Aurelia as she adjusted her beanie.

The front desk clerk watched them walk by, noticing the attention they were already gathering, and decided it was better to call Aurelia's name as it wasn't published yet. "Miss Octavia!" She had a white bag on her desk, signalling both of them over.

She looked towards the clerk. "What?" she spat at the man, clearly annoyed for having been held up. "I already signed out."

"Medication and bandages." echoed the Clerk, pointing to the bag; inside was a whole coctail of steriods, antibiotics, painkillers, and bandages. "Painkillers every 4 hours, steriods and antibiotics twice a day. Bandage needs re-applied once a day for 7 days." The clerk, seemingly also annoyed by Aurelia's negative attitude, just held the bag up expecting one of them to take it.

"Mmh. Thanks. For everything." she replied, a little coldly, as she grabbed the bag with her free hand and gave Frank a poke before beginning to head out.

"Huh? Oh." Frank snapped back to attention from his daydreaming, walking out the door with Aurelia, mostly due to the medication which was still fresh in his system he didin't notice the looks they where getting.

Giving both directions a look to watch out for potential reporters, she instead spotted their ride, a yellow taxicab, waiting just off of the edge of the entrance, in a designated no-parking zone. "There." she said, pointing as she walked up to the cab.

He nodded, walking up to the taxi with her. He sat down in the seat next to her, placing the backpack in his lap and shutting the door. He murmered "I still fucking hate hospitals.", leaning his head against the window drowsily.

"I agree." she said, reluctantly, as she pulled out a wad of cash from her pocket trying to maneuver around her crutch to hand some to the driver. "Nearest international airport." she told him.

The driver happily took her money; happy to profit off of foreigners who didin't know the true fares. He sent a reliable "Yes ma'am" before pulling out of the hospital, right as a news van pulled up into the parking lot, not noticing their departure; perhaps someone in the hospital had snitched them out after all.

She pointed to the van and gave Frank a nudge. "Look." she said. "Our timing is impeccable." she noted. The ride was due to be relatively long, almost an hour, so she tried as best as she could to stretch her broken leg in the cramped cab.

"You got some kind of sixth sense I guess" he smirked, still resting his head on the cab window. He looked down at her leg, "Didin't the doc say that'd be good enough to walk on in a week or two?"

"Hasn't even been a week." she sighed. "I lost one crutch in the car. I probably shoulda asked for a second one but...I hate hospitals."

"Really? Time is relative I guess." He shrugged, kinda unaware of just how little time had passed. He shifted his position in the cramped cab, trying to make himself more comfortable, and he rather quickly found out that the most comfortable position was laying his head into Aurelia's side, which is what he did. "You ever like...imagine you'd end up here? In another country running off to Dartfordia with a guy you met a week or two ago?" Part of his question was the meds, surely, but he was at least partially serious

"Nope." she admitted. "I never thought they'd catch me either, though. I thought I was too low-level." she said, as the cab started down the road, and she leaned her head against Frank's. "Life is weird, bro."

He sat there for a few minutes, evidently still high as a kite "So like, if we stick together and get married, would our anniversary be the day we met in the prison or the day we 'actually' met when I broke you out, or would it be the day we actually were able to have a real relationship when we decided to run the border into Luvonia?"


She was entirely taken aback by his utter bluntness with it, so she pondered the question for a bit, not saying anything. They undoubtedly had grown to rely on each other, and Aurelia had a strong respect for Frank based on what he'd done to her, regardless of how they felt about each other. But people who were ridiculously high were often honest. Throughout the course of their trip, she'd brushed any thought of what he was suggesting aside. And after today, after all she'd learned and had to deal with...things were slightly different. "It'd be today." she whispered, still a bit unsure if she was making a mistake. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt like she'd inadvertently Stockholm syndromed him along the way at some point.

He sat there, leaning against her, almost forgetting he asked the question into he heard her reply. He smirked, slightly, though it wasn't really noticeable, and dug himself deeper into her shoulder, watching the trees and signs go by as they approached the airport. He didin't detect any of her body language or thoughts involved, mostly due to the drugs, and took the answer at face value - provided he actually remembers it.

Five or so quiet minutes later, they pulled in front of the airport, and Aurelia waited for Frank to get out on his side, leaning over to the driver in the meantime. "That extra cash? It's for your mouth being shut about us. Media attention and all, you know?" she explained, as she hoped that she had actually given him enough to warrant a sort of half-assed bribe.

Frank exited the car, unaware of her conversation with the driver, who quickly took the extra cash with a "Yeah, OK, this ride was for a Mister and Misses Anonymous."

"Thanks for understanding." she told the driver, before clambering out, leaning on the crutch and trying not to fuck up her leg as she hopped up on the curb. They both entered the terminal and Aurelia went over to the boarding pass printer before realizing she didn't have one. They'd have to buy them here. "Come on." she told Frank, as they headed to the ticket booth.

"Mhm..." He walked along with her, looking around the lavish airport in a sort of constant daydream. It certainly was far nicer than anything at home.

"Heya." she greeted the woman behind the counter. "Two tickets to Hematite, please. One-way, no luggage but carry-on." she explained.

"Business or Economy?" remarked the woman, "And I need your passports, please." She began dabbing information on the computer.

She nodded, digging out the temporary asylum passports the border guards had given them and setting them down. "Business." she said, turning to Frank and tugging on his arm. "Think we've earned it."

He let out a simple "Yea", kinda staring around nonchalantly. The lady took their passports, taking a few minutes to type up their information. She seemingly didin't catch a connection to the names, and printed out their tickets. "Flight boards in a hour 30 minutes. Have a safe trip."

Aurelia almost had an urge to say 'My pleasure.' from her days as a pharmacist, but caught it at the last second, doing a double take. The lack of sleep would eventually get to her. She nodded. "Thank you." she said, as they headed to the concourse through a surprising lack of security. "Alright," she told Frank. "We're in. Since you're still clearly high, I'm gonna drop you off at the gate and go get some airport food; I won't be long." she said, staying true to her word as they found their gate and she turned around. "Wait here, yeah?"

"Yeah, allright." he said, moving over to a seat and sitting down with their bags, kinda staring off into space.

Aurelia returned a bit later with two rather large burgers and a plastic bag with some drinks, chocolate, and snacks for the plane. She tried to hand one to Frank, digging into her own as they stared at their ticket out of Luvonia, a Dartfordian two-engined passenger jet, just outside their window.

He grabbed his burger with his good hand, biting on to it and taking bites of it, eating it with surprising quickness; evidently he didin't like the hospital food. "Well.." he said, starting to come off the peaked high caused by the morphine withdrawal, albeit only slightly. "Better than anything back home."

"You never went to Roma, then. Some of those local places were amazing." she said, remembering the famous spaghetti place down the road from her apartment. "But this totally tastes like...freedom." she said, likely referring to the commercialized ingredients that Ardian food lacked, leaving it quite a bit...blander.

He poked fun, whispering, "Don't let their food fool you, this place is truly ran by masters over slaves. Nova Ardia is home of the truly freeeeeeeeee!" he tapered off, evidenly poking fun at the usual propaganda, albeit he thought it was funnier than it actually was due to the drugs.

She giggled. "I never bought that crap." she said. "But I will buy their crap." she said, waving her half-eaten burger around before biting another chunk out of it.

He took another bite of his food, finishing off the burger quickly. "Well, at least this shit is edible." He laughed, leaning his head onto her shoulder again as they waited to board.

"Fuck yeah." she said, biting into the remainder of her burger and checking the time. "Thirty minutes left." she said. "They'll start boarding any time now." she told him, waving around their passports and tickets.

"Yeah...and then alllllcooohooollllll" he said like a drummed up frat college boy, making her wonder if she actually should get him any. "So, like, wouldn't passing the exam in Dartfordia make you a doctor or some shit?"

"Yeah, probably. If they consider my degree." she noted, with her mouth full of burger.

"That's cool, like, really cool." he remarked, "Like, how many doctors do you know? That's pretttyyy cool."

"I knew like, four. And I worked for one." she remembered, right as they got the calls for business class boarding. She hobbled up from her seat and managed to get in near the front of the line, mainly because the gate was relatively deserted. She handed their passports to the lady at the counter, still chewing burger.

The lady at the counter nodded, letting them both on. They sat down in business accomodations in their seats, a rather spacious set of two seats next to the window, with TV's embedded in the seat infront of them, which immediately caught Frank's interest even though they wouldn't be powered on into they took off. "Oooh, TV's on planes? That's cool."

"That's a standard, I heard. Even for economy class, sometimes." she told him, pulling out some of the stuff she'd bought. "Alright. We're on the plane. The seatbelt light's on, now. I think that means we're about to leave." she said, giving him a poke and then pointing to the drinks. "As soon as we take off, we're gonna get hammered. Like you said."

"Yes please..." He bucked his seatbelt in as the announcements came on and the plane started moving, going through basic safety protocols and the flight time to Hematite, Dartfordia; 11 hours and 36 minutes. The plane rolled to the runway, getting ready to take off.

They felt themselves get pressed into their seats as the plane took off....Aurelia felt her ears pop, despite her beanie. Eventually, the jet steadied out and the seatbelt light turned off. 11 hours, 24 minutes, now. "You first." she said, gesturing to the drinks. "You need it more than I do."

He reached down with his good hand, grabbing whatever the first alcoholic beverage was that he could find in the bag. "Ask a steward for two cups. We're getting hammered together."

Aurelia had bought some sort of surprisingly marked down Vodka, alongside some wine. "Couldn't find any beer..." she frowned, as she waved over the approaching peanut-giving stewardess. "Hey, we wanna drink, could we have a couple of cups? Thank you." she said. The stewardess raised an eyebrow at them, before dropping down plastic cups alongside the traditional peanuts and graham crackers planes usually served. Aurelia got one of the wines and uncorked the top, pouring it into her cup.

He struggled to open the Vodka, popping it open and pouring it into his cup "At this point, can't complain". He took a sip from the vodka, being slightly repulsed by how strong it was, but going immediately for another sip.

She raised her cup. "For survival, bro." she grinned, before downing the wine much faster than most would advise. This would be the first set of many drinks

[hobbes]

CHAPER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 3. INSANE ASYLUM

Frank and Aurelia try to keep themselves together through Dartfordian airport customs.


The annoying beep that signaled the seatbelt sign caused Aurelia to drift back to consciousness about ten and a half hours after their departure; the first thing she noticed was her splitting headache. She blinked, trying to get her eyes working right, before giving Frank an elbow to wake him up.

He jumped awake, looking around. "Oh...." He slowly shuffled to get his seatbelt on, struggling with his one good hand before succeeding. "Here already?...

She nodded silently as the stewardess said something she didn't care to pay attention to, looking out the window to see only clouds.

He held his head, reclining back into his chair..."The last few days..ever since I got shot...it's just been...a blurr...you know?" He whispered, careful that no one else would hear their conversation

"I know." she frowned. "Just wait 'till we get settled." she advised. "Then we can relax..."

"Yeah...well...we still need to get through customs..." He trailed off, watching the plane descend. "Whatever." replied Aurelia. "That's like five minutes." He sighed, clearly having regained some of his judgement after the nap. "Not for aslyum, we may be there a little while."
"Mmh. It won't be an issue." she replied, trying to be hopeful as she looked back towards him. "You...you okay?" He held his head, coming off of both the morphine withdrawal and their drinking last night. "I have a bit of a headache, but otherwise I'm good...you?"

"No tolerance..." she frowned, poking her head for emphasis and almost feeling her brain rock around inside. "This stupid plane isn't helping." she continued with a sigh. "Maybe it was a bad idea..." He tried wrapping his arm around her shoulder, before remembering she was sitting on the side of his 'bad' arm, so the best he could do to comfort her was lay his head onto her shoulder. "Any decision was better than sitting in that hospital, that's for sure." She nodded, hearing a sort of clambering through the aisle before a stewardess came and dropped cards on their laps with a smile. Aurelia sleepishly picked one up and read it, letting out a groan when she got to the bottom and taking the pen she stole from the border post out of her pocket. "Customs declarations." she told Frank. He sighed, "You know I'm a lefty....They won't be able to read shit if I fill this out."

"I guess I can write it for you...but you've gotta sign." she told him. "Yeah...that'll be one awfully illegible signature but we'll make it work." He smiled, watching her file the papers out as he had nothing else to be doing. She slowly began writing on hers, finishing after about five minutes and trying not to lie or stretch the truth in any way. She went over to Franks and filled out the parts she could before showing the rest to him. "Alright. You can check boxes, right?"

"Yeah, whatever." He took the form, checking various boxes to the best of his ability with his right hand, before getting to his signature. He uses his right hand to guide his incapacitated left, forming a barely legible signature. "Right...that'll do it...Probably." He shrugged, handing the paper back to her. She stacked the papers and folded them into her pocket, yawning a bit loudly afterwards. "I'm sooo out of it." she frowned as a voice came over the intercom again and said they had started their descent. He tried stretching himself out a bit, "Welcome to the club, sister." He waited for the plane to make its landing, rather anxious at this point to get off the plane. Something suddenly hit him as the plane was making its descent, leaning over. "Is the hoodie to cover the burn marks on your neck?" he whispered, rather sincerely.

She sighed, not having thought anyone would see through it. "I mean..." she frowned, trying to sound clueless momentarily. "I like hoodies, but, uhm...yeah." she mumbled. As the plane made it's final descent,she moved the window open only to discover a rather breathtaking view of Hematite.

He moved over his good arm around his chest, rubbing Aurelia's shoulder for a moment. "Yeah, I feel you." he whispered, "Beautiful city though, isn't it?" He was still whispering, for whatever reason, probably habit from the last few days on the run.

She blinked, nodding lightly. "It really is." she agreed. "It'll be fun." she continued. "Yeah." He let go as the plane came into final, touching down at a busy and frantic airport; it'd be a good minute or so before they actually made it to the gate. "Well, we made it this far." he reassured, moreso himself than her. The plane eventually pulled into the gate, and after a minute or so deplaning began. Frank stood up, pulling the backpack from the overhead compartment. "About time, you're up first" He smiled, letting Aurelia walk infront of him, mostly because she had their papers.


The airport was rather imposing. Packed full with people making their escapes from metal flying machines and into the relatively peaceful realm that was Dartfordia. Away from the Tarmac, the customs building was large and spacious, though was packed to the brim with people. There were two queues, 'Dartfordian, Cross-Straits Union and Tytorian citizens only' and 'Other nationalities.' Beneath the second sign, an information board detailed a list of nationalities that had visa free access to visit, including the likes of South Hills, Nya Åland and East Moreland. Most importantly, however, were the words: 'ASYLUM REQUESTS: Those requesting asylum from any nation please use this queue and request to speak to an Immigration Officer'.

Reading the sign as they exited, she gestured to Frank, assuming she wouldn't have to lead him this time as they limped over to the extremely short queue in the asylum line, Aurelia brandishing their Luvonian temporary passports.

There was a woman at the immigration desk, breaching at least fifty and five sizes too big for the small, uncomfortable stool she was required to sit on. There was a look of almost absolute boredom adorning her face, and total disinterest in her eyes. "Passport and landing card," she mumbled, not looking up at either of them.

Frank sighed, tagging along. He didn't even have the phone to play with because Aurelia stole it in the hospital, He sighed, leaning against the desk and waiting for her to give the lady what she asked for.

She awkwardly handed the lady the landing cards and passports, which she had stored together in her offhand, smiling awkwardly to try and be polite.

The woman sighed, staring at the documents for a few moments before looking up at them both. "Follow me," she ordered curtly, heaving herself up into a standing position. Her whitish blue shirt had visible sweat stains, with steaks wrapping around her arms to touch the black badge with 'His Majesty's Border Force' and the Dartfordian cost of arms incredible in white. She lead them to a side room, still holding their passports and landing cards, and asked them to sit and wait.

Frank sighed, finding slight amusement in her attire, but then again he wasn't one to speak as the cripple. He sat himself down next to Aurelia, sighing more heavily this time. "Well, here goes."

"Mmh." grunted Aurelia in approval, limping after the lady and not making much of a note of her appearance; she'd learned to filter out that type of stuff when she was a Pharmacist. She then sat down next to Frank, tapping her good foot on the ground, and humming something to get the anxiety out.


The two would be in the room for a good two hours, occasionally joined and abandoned by various others. Some looked rather shady, others nervous, but they all seemed to come and go. The room was small, and had the feel of a doctor's surgery. There was a cold water dispenser in one corner of the room, and a flag stand with the orange, white and blue of the Dartfordian flag shrouding it. Eventually, a short man with a moustache summoned them from the door opposite the one they had entered, taking them to an office. "Now, Ms Octavia, Mr. Keeve," he began, "I am told that you are here to formally request asylum?"

Frank had long fallen back asleep, waking with a stir when his name was called "Who? Oh...right." He looked over at Aurelia, ensuring she was awake as well. "Yeah, I guess that's right." Aurelia had been mostly awake, and she nodded, trying to look attentive despite her overall level of fatigue. "Yeah...yes."

"I see," he murmured, taking out two forms and laying them on his desk in front of him. "The requirements for entry for asylum in the Kingdom of Dartfordia are more stringent than other countries, however it will be up to both myself and those superior to me to determine whether we can process that application. So...tell me, why do you need asylum?"

Frank kinda shifted awkwardly, expecting Aurelia to answer the question. He had noticed himself being more socially reclusive lately, but not as directly as this.

"We, uhm, we escaped together from Nova Ardia." she paused. "It's gotten brutal there...I was kidnapped...he defected." she stated, giving a pause after everything to make sure it was heard. "I was tortured." she said, her voice barely audible, before she pulled down her hoodie's collar, revealing several cigarette burns. "The same man broke my leg as well..." Frank spoke up, muttering shortly after she finished "I...uhm....killed the guy who was torturing her....if it's any help..." He spoke in a near whisper, trying to control his emotions "They

The man nodded, his look one of seriousness, with a hint of empathy. "I see," he murmured, staring at the burns. "As I am sure you've both had a turbulent night, we're going to find you some emergency temporary accommodation for tonight. We'll have to process you through the system, but I won't make you go through the asylum request form today." He slipped the forms back into the drawer. "Come this way."

Frank shrugged at Aurelia, trembling slightly he grabbed the backpack. He walked with her, following the man out of the room to wherever he led them.

The two were taken from the office and into another room, where officials took down extra information, and also took their fingerprints, iris scans and mug shots. The whole thing took about an hour, and then they found themselves back in the waiting room - but with two shiny visas that entitled them to 30 days in the country.

Frank sighed as they where put back into the waiting room, "Didn't that guy say he'd find us accommodations for the night?" he asked. "Yeah. I think we're supposed to wait." she replied, looking down and gently sighing.

"Well" he said, finding some optimism at last. "They didn't immediately kick us out, so I think we did something right."

"No. Someone else just did something wrong. That's why we're here." she frowned. "I don't like telling people that a guy beat me half to death and shoved a cigarette into my neck..." she trailed off.

Another two hours of waiting passed, then the man from earlier called them from the door. "Ms. Octavia, Mr. Keeve, your transport is ready." The pair were taken to an official car, which was driven to a nearby hostel. The immigration officer accompanied them inside. "You will be sharing a room with two single beds together," he told them, "unless you both would rather stay in separate accommodation areas?"

"Uhm, no, we're okay together." Aurelia assured the man, smiling a little sleepishly, and feigning a lack of discomfort from her headache.

"Excellent," the man replied, eager to not have to file additional paperwork. "A car will be waiting outside at 11am, which conveniently is also the time you need to be out of the hostel. As it stands you are not yet formally asylum seekers, so failure to report may result in your immediate arrest, imprisonment and deportation." He looked physically uncomfortable telling them that, even if it was merely a requirement. "Have a good sleep." The officer nodded, turning slowly and heading off outside.

Frank mumbled "Fuck it" and started entering the room as the officer was halfway through his spiel, sure Aurelia would repeat any details he missed. He laid the bag on the table and immediately flopped onto his bed, not changing out of his clothes for the sure discomfort of not being able to without the use of his left arm. He just kinda laid there, sprawled out, and slowly dug his head into the pillow.(edited)

"Mhm, riiight." she said, her voice peaking a little when Frank just kind of left. "I'll set an alarm. Thank you for everything." she said, awkwardly smiling yet again. The agent left and she limped inside, noticing Frank hadn't changed. "Dude..." she trailed off, a hint of sympathy in her voice.

He only responded with a grunt, still shoving his face into the pillow of the single bed. Deciding to let it be for now, she slowly changed out of her traveling clothes, and jumped under the thick blanket before jumping under the thick blanket of her bed. After noticing how warm it was, she sighed, shifting her position with a pain in her ribs and getting out from under the blanket. They'd flipped hemispheres, and it showed. She couldn't wear anything with long sleeves now. She threw off her sweater, too, and replaced it with a tank-top, before getting in her bed. "We're changing that bandage tomorrow." she told Frank. "And you're gonna get dressed on your own. I know you will."

After a few minutes with his head in the pillow, he spoke up, revealing he had been concealing a break down, "I felt like I was about to break down for that entire process." An "I'm sorry." was all she could muster.

He let out a loud sigh into the pillow, before sitting up on the bed. He fumbled with the buttons on his shirt eventually succeeding in undoing the top one, holding it close enough to unbutton by holding part of his collar with his teeth. Undoing one was enough to take his shirt off over his head, and, with much struggle, he succeeded in taking it off from his head and good arm, sliding it off of his bad arm and onto the floor. He struggled using his good hand to unbuckle his pants, eventually succeeding and sliding the jeans off. He struggled to pull a pair of basketball shorts back up, and he slid underneath the blankets. All in all, the rather hilariously bad struggle to get undressed took him about

Hearing the commotion but having closed her eyes, Aurelia sighed slightly. "You'll get it eventually..." she murmured from her bed, with obvious sincerity.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 4. THOUSAND YARD STARE

Frank has a major PTSD problem and looses it. Dartfordia loves its paperwork. No one knows what to do next.



Aurelia woke up first around 10 AM, having actually slept properly for once. Not one dream, not one inkling of discomfort. After reflecting momenterily in bed and checking the time on the burner phone, she stood up, unsurprising to find that her leg still hurt like shit. She quietly took the pills before getting her crutch and limping over to Frank, giving him a gentle nudge to wake him up.

He shifted after being nudged, eventually waking up. "Mmf....shit....What time is it?" he looked around, noticing the sun was already well up. He shifted himself upright in bed.

She briefly looked towards the window. "Like, ten." she told him.

"Oh, okay." He repositioned himself in the bed, now sitting upright. "So....that guys coming for us at what..eleven?.." She nodded. "Yeah." She told him, sitting down on his bed and plopping the huge bag of medical supplies onto the bed next to her. "This is first."

"Great" He let out a long, exasperated sigh, but otherwise not challenging her decision. She started unwrapping his bandage, scooting a bit closer. "After this, you get painkillers, and we get this stupid asylum thing resolved." she mumbled, close enough for him to hear. Unwrapping the bandage revealed it was still red with bruising; two lines of stiches concealing where the bullet had gone through on both the front and back of his shoulder. He elected not to look at it, instead choosing to focus on her. "Mhm." was all he said. She had an almost overwhelming urge to poke it but abstained from doing it for his sake. "Doesn't look so bad." she commented. "At least your bruising's all in one spot." she sighed quietly as she began wrapping the new bandage.

He resisted the urge to look down, thinking she was probably concealing how bad it really was. "Yeah..." he nodded, not looking around into after she finished with the new bandage. She finished wrapping it, giving him a pat on the back and a mountain of pills. "Get those." she told him. "You can probably use the sink or something...I dunno." He almost laughed, taking one set of pills from each bottle before walking over to the run-down sink; the Hostel was far from five stars. He chugged them down one at a time, eventually getting all of them into his system.

Aurelia limped back to her bed and put on some actual clothing, starting to gather all of their stuff from where they'd thrown it.

Frank shuffled over to the bag, grabbing a t-shirt this time, having learned somewhat from yesterdays mistakes. He'd leave the shorts on. He fumbled to pull the shirt on, only having a real struggle pulling his limp arm through, but he eventually succeeded with a struggle. "They can get me dressed themselves if they want me in something formal" he joked.

"Fuck that." she agreed as she threw her hoodie on and started tying her hair back. "I haven't looked at myself in a mirror since I dyed my hair..." she realized. "Can't wait to go back to normal."

He shrugged with his one arm, before grabbing their backpack "Depends on your definition of normal, I guess."

"Normal hair, genius." she giggled as she stood up a second time, this time throwing the backpack over her back. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" he said, now aware of his mistake. "Right. I was getting used to you being a poorly-dyed brunette"

"Aw, shut up." she chuckled, going to the door and outside to find a car in the process of pulling up. "Hey!" she called out to the driver, raising her hand at the car and motioning for Frank to go first.

The driver took them back to the airport, where the immigration team was waiting for them. "Alright," the man from the day before began, smiling up at them. "So I need to talk you through the process. As it stands you are both here on a temporary visa. Today you will be required to fill in an asylum request form, at which point we will be granting you a new six month visa." From his drawer, he took out the two applications that he had shown them the night before. "You will be required to fill out this form in its entirety, answering as truthfully and comprehensively as you can. It's a long form, so it might take you a couple of hours to fill in. In about an hour or so we'll drop off a couple of sandwiches and drinks. Any questions?"

Aurelia shook her head, looking to Frank, briefly. "Uhm. No." she said, internally cringing at the thought of filling out forms for hours.

He shuffled in his seat for a second, "Are we filling this out together or...?" He looked around, awkwardly, "Because I can't write as it stands right now..." He moved his right hand to his left, picking it up before letting it fall again. The recently applied bandage would still be partially visible through the collar of his shirt

Bruce paused, thinking for a moment. "I'll have an officer come scribe the document for you," he murmured, "he will also be able able to help you with any queries you have with the application itself." He waited for them both nod in affirmation, before sliding the documents over. The covering sheet of the asylum request form had a large picture of the Dartfordian Coat of Arms, and, below it: 'A humble request to His Majesty to seek refuge amongst his subjects in his Kingdom of Dartfordia.' The document looked thick, at least thirty pages long. "Now if you'd like to follow me," Bruce smiled, taking them into another vacant office. They were joined shortly afterwards by a younger female officer, who was there to offer Frank additional assistance.

Frank sat down, immediately resting his face on the desk for a minute. "If I had the option, I'd take jumping off a bridge right about now." he joked, looking over at Aurelia as the officer entered.

Aurelia eyed Frank as she immediately started filling out her form with the Luvonian pen when she got them. "We didn't get this far so you could jump off of a bridge." she frowned. Perhaps the subject was a bit sensitive to her. He patted her on the back briefly, "Yeah." He turned to the officer who was filling out his form, reading things aloud and telling her what to fill in.

An hour and a half later, Aurelia finished her form, and already felt like she was going to fall asleep all over again. It was much easier to outline what happened in paper. She supposed it added a layer of perceived anonymity to it, because she wasn't going to have to say it aloud. Yet.

Frank, however, took about a hour and fifteen minutes to get to the narrative, where he immediately froze up. He would have to say his story aloud, and to a customs officer he only met a hour ago. He froze up, struggling to put it into words, causing the officer to erase it several times. She reminded him about how she knows it must be hard, but he'd have to do it if he wants his application to be considered.

Aurelia watched him struggle and sighed. She supposed it wasn't alright to just butt in - which meant she was stuck as an observer.

He struggled through his story into about the two hour mark, which to say it was written well would definitvely be a lie. She passed the bottom paper to him, and he stammered out a barely legible signature. She took both papers and left, leaving them there for a minute. Frank heavilly leaned into Aurelia's shoulder, he was shaking; recalling the situation verbally was far harder than writing it down yourself, it seemed.

She hugged him gently, trying to calm his shaking and silently sitting after filtering out the conversation so she didn't get affected by remembering it herself.

He sat there, leaning against her as she hugged him; his calm expression had developed into a mild form of a thousand yard stare, staring straight at the door to the office. One thought was stuck in his mind; Maximillion struggling on the floor to breathe after his first shot, so he shot him again and he jumped before he stopped moving outright. This scene replayed itself countless times in his mind as he sat there, loosing all control of his thoughts. Aurelia kept hugging him, trying to ignore anything he was doing for the sake of her own mental stability.

He struggled to push the thought out of his mind, but it was just replaced by a guard turning towards him, halfway through saying "Need anything?" when Frank shot him squarely in the head, his head virtually exploding on the wall and control panel behind him before Frank pulled the lever to open all the doors. The shaking worsened, as he stil looked straight ahead at the door to the office. He struggled to pull himself out of the cycle that recalling his story had thrown him into, one thought just being replaced by another.

She hugged him tightly as he started shaking. "Chill.." she whispered. "You're okay..." she told him. "It's fine. Shh.' she shusshed him sincerely, trying not to let her emotions show for her sake.

He didin't come to immediately, but his head shifted when the door opened again. He still shook now and then but he went back to pushing the thoughts out of his mind.

Bruce had returned about twenty minutes later, politely informing them that their application requests had been submitted as high priority to the Home Office. "I cannot guarantee anything, I've sent it in with the highest priority I can. I have also spoken to my supervisor who is getting the gears of government grinding just a little bit faster. It's likely intelligence agencies will be used to verify the events you've described, and we will also be getting a full medical assessment to be sent as supplementary evidence." The man let out a sigh. "I am so very sorry this has happened to you both. We're going to take you to a local hospital, where they'll do a full medical assessment and look to begin treating you both, is that okay?"

Aurelia nodded silently. "Thank you...thank you so much." she said, trying not to raise her voice yet having an obvious sincerity within it all.
((trying to learn Fluorescent Adolescent, sorry for the wait, lmao))

Frank slowly came too, spiking his interest at 'hospital.' He felt his underlying, newfound hatred for hospitals returning but he elected not to let it show, just following Aurelia's lead.

"Excellent," Bruce smiled, standing and leading them to the exit again. From there, the two were taken by hospital transport vehicle down to the hospital facilitiy a few miles away.

Aurelia and Frank were taken to a rather cold hospital and checked for injuries. The doctors verified Frank's gunshot wound and loss of motor function, as well as Aurelia's clearly tortured state. After they sent the information back, they took Aurelia's crutch away as evidence and put her in a walking cast, sending them on their way.

The two were finally driven back to the hostel, late at night, and dropped off at the lobby. They were told they'd have news soon. "Hopefully the hard part is over" sighed Frank, as he opened the door

"I said that yesterday." remarked Aurelia as she limped a bit robotically inside, setting their backpack down again. "But I think you're right."

He sighed as he sat down on his bed. "Probably the only thing keeping us going at this point; One of the times we say it's almost over we oughtta be right."

She sat on her bed, burying her face in her hands briefly as she thought. After a few moments, she opened her mouth to speak. "This is a nightmare." she said, nearly whispering. "Do we live in a nightmare?" she asked Frank, having suddenly cracked.

He stood up, moving over to her bed and falling over onto it intentionally, before pulling himself up next to her. "Well, if it was, we probably would've woke up before it started getting better, right?"

Aurelia eyes were a bit watery and Frank could tell from this distance. "I-I don't know." she mumbled, looking down.

He scooted himself over, now sitting directly next to her and wrapping his functional arm around her shoulder. "Yeah..I'm not sure I know either."

"It's...all my fault, you know.." she looked up at him briefly. "If I had been more careful with my blog...if...if I hadn't told you to rush along the border..." she paused again, wiping her eyes briefly. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

He held her closer, as much as he could with his functioning arm... "No...no....it's not..." was the best he could muster. "What we need to think about is we're how now, what are we going to do next."

"What are we gonna do next?" she asked him, hoping for guidance. "I'm a mess..." she said. "I'm such a mess...I won't be able to talk about what happened with anyone.."

He laughed slightly, "No, I'm the mess" he reaffirmed, more to reassure her confidence than anything. "You told me what to do when I lost it on the border. You got us into Luvonia, you got us here and you got us through the process when I completely broke down..." He continued after a seconds pause..."You have control. Don't let you tell yourself otherwise."

"Not that..." she frowned. "I got...I got tortured, Frank...and...if you hadn't come in..." she blinked, stopping her train of thought and closing her eyes after a moment's pause, taking a deep breath.

He grabbed her, bringing her closer to him in a hug and resting his head on her shoulder. He had the scene when he burst into the interrogation room engraved in his memory as well. "And that's the past, Aurelia,"....He trailed off..trying to think of what to say. "And we both know what happened to the guy who did that to you." He knew he was going into dangerous territory in his own mind, but at this point it was needed.

"We should go back to sleep." said Aurelia, choosing to avoid her problems and laying back in her bed, throwing her remaining shoe off.

He sat on her bed for a second after she laid down. "I don't like talking about it either. Hell, I don't really think I like talking to most people anymore, because you know there's no way they'd understand..." He trailed off, laying his good hand on Aurelia's cast. "But that doesn't have to be us...as far as they know...we can pretend to be 'normal'...You can take the exam and find work again..I'll find...something....we'll find a place to settle down and be happy....Right?" He realized as he got to 'something' that he really had no real work outlined for him, his arm meant he couldn't do anything physical and 'Gestapus' wasn't exactly a good thing on a resume.

She didn't reply immediately. "It's...it's just a lot of pressure." she told him, after a little bit, before throwing the hoodie off and throwing a pillow over her head.

"Yeah..." he said. "I guess it is." He hopped off her bed, extending over it to hug her one last time, holding it for a minute before turning her light out and moving over to his bed.

Aurelia couldn't even muster a smile when she was hugged, as much as she wanted to. Her lack of proper sleep over the last few days was really showing; she drifted to deep sleep within 15 minutes.

He moved over to his bed and more or less just flopped onto it and passed out, not at all getting undressed beyond taking his shoes off.

[hobbes]

CHAPER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 5. HIS MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

Frank finds a jerb. Aurelia ponders becoming Dr. Aurelia. Aurelia is not a true human being when it's discovered she eats fries with a fork. Suspected reptillian spy. Pls send help.


The next few days in the hostel were rather unventful, besides Frank leaving for hours at a day, being picked up by a government car in the morning and dropped off by the same car at about one or two afternoon. He wouldn't talk much about what he was talking about, or with whom, but it met a pattern, into on that Friday night, their fourth in Dartfordia, when he didin't come back into about five or six. He trotted into the room, closing the door after him, seemingly rather happy. There was a envelope with the Dartfordian coat of arms on it in his good hand. "Bored out of your mind yet?" he remarked as he looked at Aurelia, sitting on her bed and watching the older TV.

She nodded meekly. "Yeah," she began, not particularly noticing the object in his hand. She was covered in a blanket and seemed to have pulled her now ubiquitous beanie down almost to her eyebrows, likely to cover wet hair from a decidedly recent shower.

"Cool" he remarked, not paying attention to her beanie; she was almost always wearing it anyways. He walked to her bed, laying the envelope on her lap before falling over on the bed next to her. "Let's go out and do something, yeah?"

She yawned loudly, stretching out her arms. "But I'm still tired." she complained .

He shrugged, spreading himself out on her bed. "But like, cmooooonnnn." He prodded her with the letter, evidently excited.

"What is it?" she finally gave in, scooting over to give him some room with a slight hint of pain. "Did we get approved?"

"Not yet, but I'm told they're pushing us through. This is better." he nodded, waiting for her to open it.

She sheepishly snatched the letter and struggled at opening it momentarily, before finally ripping it open, taking a look at it's contents.

It had the shield of Dartfordia on it, and the contents detailed a job offer for one Francis Keyes as a intelligence advisor, Central Ardian Sector. It went into the starting salary, etcetera. He waited for her to start reading the contents, before saying "Hiiiisss majjessttiess Seccrreeett Serrrviicccee" in the most stupidly fake Dartfordian accent possible.

Aurelia's hand started visibly shaking and her eyes went wide as she got to the bottom of the letter. "Holy...holy shit!" she shrieked in surprise, going over to hug him. "We're set, fuck you life! We are set!"

"Shh...." He was actually caught off guard by her spasm, albeit, knowing her by now he totally should have expected it. "If anyone asks, we're supposed to say I'm working a desk at the Home Office." He chuckled, returning the hug with his good hand. "Let's go out to eat, yeah?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah...yeah. We got a lotta shit to talk about." she grinned.

"Yeah." He hopped off her bed, letting her uncacoon herself from the blanket and get dressed.

A moment later Aurelia was ready to go, still wearing the hoodie but having traded the beanie for a ponytail and her shorts for the original loose-fitting jeans Frank had gotten her.

He took the rented suit off he had acquired for the interviews, as with the tie, but left the polo shirt and tan pants on, opening the door for Aurelia and walking out after her. "I feel like I'm with a entirely different person" he joked, about her now going back to being blonde "A better looking person, mind you."

She smirked, turning around to awkwardly limp backwards to look at him. "I know, right?" she agreed.

"Much better, yeah." He grinned as they left the building and walked down the packed sidewalk; the Hostel was in downtown Hematite. "So, anywhere in particular? You can have higher standards than "Anything" now." He joked, noting their previous conversation in the rental car.

She shrugged, turning to hobble the right way up so she wouldn't hit anyone. "I want some like little cozy place." she started. "And it's gotta have...fries. Like, good fries."
ethan - Today at 5:48 PM
He chuckled, "The hell is it with you and burgers and fries? Thought they'd be on Bagel level of hatred by now."

"You kidding me?" she grinned. "I survive on fries. Burgers, eh. I dunno." she said. "Just decide, damn it!" she joked, completely aware that it would be hours if she tried.

"Fuck it." They went into a middle-class restuarant, seemingly without any particular theme to it, but it was packed as with any friday night. Frank asked for a booth or table for two, and they lucked out and got one within five minutes. They sat down, looking over the menu. "So, we do need to decide what we're doing, I guess."

"What do ya mean?" she asked, reading over the much more expansive menu than the earlier diner's. "I go take that test and work somewhere, you become a nice little Home Office clerk, it all works out." she smiled.

He frowned, he had been planning on talking about this but actually talking about it made him anxious. "Well..." his voice dropped, getting queiter, primarily from embarrasment. "If we're both together and we both want to do this, that's one thing....but..." He took a deep breath, speaking low enough that only she could hear him. "I don't want you to think you have to be with me because....because of what happened on the border."u to think you have some obligation to be with me or take care of me or any of that bullshit."

Aurelia frowned, almost too slightly to notice. "Well, I'm-" she stopped, clearly thinking for a bit, before starting again. "I guess-" she stopped a second time, clearly confused. "I...kinda...I'm confused. I feel like you're the only one who would ever 'get' me..." she stopped. "But..." she didn't finish.

He rested his good hand on her hand, around at the middle of the table. "All I ask is that we're in this legitimately from this point - not for the pity or guilt. -..." He paused for a minute, "Because if we keep doing that we're never going to dig ourselves out of this hole."

She looked up at him and nodded. "We'll see if this works out...normally. Like we just met or some shit." she said. "I...guess, I kinda...need to know if this-" she pointed to both of them. "Is possible." she cocked her head to the side as a waitress dropped breadsticks on the table with a smile.

He paused, waiting for the waitress to leave for a moment. "Well, I don't know about -thaatt-. We're already living together which I'm sure is second or third base in most relationships." He laughed, trying to make the conversation less serious. "But we do-....We do need to at least attempt to make this 'normal'."

"You know what I meant." she told him as she grabbed a breadstick and bit into it, and deciding not to follow up on the conversation.

He nodded, smiling somewhat. The waitress came back, asking for drinks and their orders. Frank decided to try something different and got Lasagna, briefly looking at his watch when it came to the drinks. "Almost 7.....I think we can handle some wine" He looked over to Aurelia, expecting a form of approval as the waitress asked her what she wanted.

Aurelia got some random combination of Chicken and Fries, and nodded at him, going as far as to order the wine. "Mhm." she agreed nonverbally, waiting until the waitress left again. The waitress nodded, writing their orders down before leaving. Frank took one of the breadsticks, taking a bite out of it.

"So." she started, trying to find a way to express herself. "About, uhm, your arm." she paused. "Any word on rehab?" He frowned, taking a bite from the breadstick before responding. "Not yet, I'm supposed to see a specialist some time next week."

"Shit..." she frowned, finishing the first breadstick. "I...you know I'll probably never stop blaming myself for that...you didn't deserve this." He sighed, "You made the right choice. I was a stammering wreck on the side of a highway. It was only a matter time that they'd find us sitting there if you didin't act."...He paused, carefully wording his response. "We have the two of us, here and now, if you didin't make that call we'd probably both still be back there, be it on the run or locked back up. I'd tell you to do it again, if it came to it." He smiled, trying to dance around the sensitive topic. "Have you thought about houses?"

"Remind me to hug you later." she said sincerely, thinking briefly as she spotted the waitress coming with their food. "I want to get somewhere where I can walk to everywhere I need to walk to." she said. "Like, city center...but not in some busy-ass street." she told him as she found a pile of fries and chicken covered in various condiments in front of her.

He nodded as the waitress sat down their food and wine, "So like, city center but not city center" He laughed, taking the first bite of the lasagna. "I was still sold on the suburbs. I don't like all the action, and anything in the city center would be like a shitty apartment."

"Not with our jobs." she said, being optimistic. "Imagine like, a decked out studio apartment...man, I always wanted one." she giggled, using her fork to stick some fries into her mouth.

"About that..." he nodded, finding a way to pack it in with humor "Number one, you're not a real human for using a fork to eat fries. Number two, I think you should go back to college, transfer the credits and get your MD." He paused a second, before explaining himself. "You know as much as me you'll hate going back to working in a pharmacy after about a day, and I'll be making enough to sustain us both for three or four years. We won't exactly be high-rollers but we'll survive into you graduate."

"Dr. Octavia?" she asked, continuing to eat fries with her fork. "I...I mean...aw, shit, I never liked college." she frowned. "But...it's kinda...we'd be so rich." she grinned.

He played with his food for a minute, mostly due to only having one hand to cut it up. "If you can honestly say you'd still enjoy working in a pharmacy, then do it, You'd be making far more money than me either way." He paused, taking a bite of his now cut-up lasagna. "But if you don't want to do it, don't shackle yourself to it and get the college out of the way now when you're twenty four and not thirty four."

"I wonder.." she began. "I wonder if they'd give me some credits towards the MD. You know, since our courses back home are strict as shit."

"I bet at least some of them would transfer. Look into it" he remarked, his mouth half full. He swallowed, continuing. "I think you'd enjoy it far more than sitting in a pharmacy. Maybe you could help with this too." he said, motioning to the limp arm.

She grinned. "Maybe." she stabbed a chicken wing with her fork and took a chunk out of it. "This food is so good...I love Dartfordia."

He nodded, taking another bite out of his food. "Yeah..." He swallowed again. "So...you want a apartment for now or?"

"Hell yeah." she told him. "But only if you're okay with it."

He sighed, looking out the restuarants window at the busy street. "Fine, but only if we agree not to get stuck in a rut with it. I don't want to spend any longer in a apartment than we need to."

"A shitty apartment." she corrected. "You'd probably like a penthouse."

"With government salary and a college student?" He laughed, "Probably not getting into the suites any time soon, honey."

"I'm a liscenced Pharmacist. And if I become a doctor, that's our target. Bro."

"You think you can work and survive med-school simultaniously? I thought I already succeeded in destroying your social life but you are obviously going out of the way for social self-destruction" He remarked, obviously joking.

"Not immediately. I mean, long term."

"Yeah, that's what I meant. I don't want to get stuck in a shitty apartment." He took another bite of his food, almost finishing it. "But I see what you mean now.." He paused for a minute. "So, we're doing this then?"

"Yeah. Yeah we are." she said with a smile.

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 3: NEW BEGINNINGS
PART 6. INFORMATION AGE OF HYSTERIA

Frank and Aurelia get a home and deal with the media.


A day or so later, Frank had gone away for another long absence, and Aurelia had decided that the inside was too gloomy, so she set up two chairs outside the hostel and sat down in one while laying her broken leg on the other, plugging in some cheap earphones into the burner phone and trying to find some calmness among her hectic life. A car pulled up outside the hostel. It was one of those immigration officials. The man, bald on top with thin hair around the sides began to head towards the door until he noticed Aurelia outside. "Ah, Ms [Surname–srry guys], I'm going to need you to come with me." With Aurelia safely in the car, she was taken up to the airport's immigration office, where Bruce and Frank were waiting for her.

Aurelia limped inside. "Heeey." she said, smiling awkwardly and pulling off her beanie out of courtesy, revealing a mess of hair. "Up already?" joked Frank, He sat across from Bruce, reclined in his chair.

Bruce smiled awkwardly at them both. "Nice to see you both again," he began. "Now I suppose it's worth me explaining the process before I give you the result. Your asylum applications were submitted five days ago with the highes tpriority level we could use. Your medical evidence, as well as the biometric information, were submitted supplementary to your applications. The Home Official reviewed this information the next day and ordered intelligence agencies to...investigate." He took a momentary breather. "After having a good few civil servants and intelligence specialists on the case, the matter was referred directly to the Home Secretary earlier today." Another pause, his face turning sour. "However, we received an extradition request from Nova Ardia, Frank, for murder, inciting a prison riot and treason." Bruce shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "The Home Secretary told them where to shove it, which means...both your applications for asylum have been accepted, and..." he leaned forward to glance down at the sheet in front of him. "Following advice from the Secretary of State, His Majesty graciously invites you to seek refuge amongst his subjects for an indefinite term as is so required." He looked up at them. "You've both got asylum!"(edited)

Frank kinda shifted in his seat after hearing about the extradition request, expecting Aurelia to offer some kind of guidance. "So like....that's it then?..." He had never anticipated them actually trying to go after him, and he was unsure of the implications involved.
Aurelia went over to hug Frank. "We did it !" she grinned. 'Hell. Yes."

He was still thinking about the request, "Yeah....yeah we did, huh?" He tried pushing the thought out of his mind, "Oh, I got us something when I was out today." He reached under his seat, grabbing a bag and handing it to Aurelia.(edited)

Aurelia grabbed the bag and looked inside, trying to read Frank's expression.

He pushed the extradition request to the back of his mind, smiling, inside the bag was a Macbook and two iPhones. "Figured we've earned something better than the burner phone. And I gave up trying to buy clothes for you a while ago." He laughed, watching her open it.

Looking at her new toy and examining it, she grinned. "Oh my gods, yes!" she grinned, immediately dropping it in her pocket next to the burner phone and hugging him again before nodding in approval to the border agent. "Thank you so much."

Frank was half-debating trying his luck with a kiss when he remembered they were still sitting next to the border agent. "Right, yeah, Thank you for everything, sir."


"I must admit," Bruce chuckled, "this is the first time I've ever seen someone whipping out two iPhones and a MacBook as a celebratory gift. Anyway, we'll be in touch later to sort out permanent accommodation, and you'll receive your confirmation letters in the next few days." Bruce stood. "In all my time I have never met two people so deserving of asylum, and I've done this job for 15 years. Have a good life, the both of you."

Frank laughed, "Admittingly, I haven't planned on this happening today." He laughed, standing up to shake the mans hand. Aurelia followed suit, "Thank you, again." They both left, and were transported back to the hostel by a government car. Aurelia limped back inside and sat back down on the bed. "Gods! Yes! Yesss!" she grinned with excitement, dropping down backwards.

Frank looked at her, laughing and smiling. "So, when are we getting a real apartment?"

"As soon as possible, duh!" He sat down next to her. "Well, look stuff up I guess." He fell backwards, sprawling out on her bed as is customary of him when he's tired. "Sooner we get out of this shithole the better. Anything with two beds and pre-furnished works for me."(edited)

"You sure you'll need two beds?" she asked him. "I mean, I'll look for it...."

He grinned, "Well gee, one bedroom then. Just get a king sized bed I guess." He wasn't aware she wanted to get things rolling that quickly, but was happy to take the opportunity. "Mhm. Up to you, bro." she said. "I'm just saying."

"Yeah, yeah" he said, very well knowing she was teasing him. "We can survive on one bed." She smiled, pulling up her new phone and immediately going for searches.


After about six hours of searching, debating, and looking up reviews, they had finally settled on a relatively cheap place two blocks away from one of Hematite's major boulevards. It was, as Frank had wanted, prefurnished, and with one bed.

About noon the next day (Sunday) they got the keys to the place and signed the rent agreement. It wasn't top of the line, but it definitively wasn't bad; a living room with a couch, a recliner, and a flat screen TV, a decent kitchen, a bathroom with a full shower/bath, and a single bedroom with a king sized bed and its own smaller TV. It had a half-decent view of Hematite, though much of it was blocked by larger buildings. Frank shut the door after they both entered, laying their stuff down. "Well, can't complain, right?"(edited)

"Nope." said Aurelia as she limped inside, taking a good look around. "It's just the stairs that are giving me problems..."

"Probably shoulda asked them where the elevator was then, silly." He laughed as he looked around, it definitively wasn't a bad place, and it was somewhere he could see himself living in for at least a couple of years, causing his moaning about a suburb house to subside, at least somewhat.

"Not sure if we have an elevator..." she remarked as she sat down. "Whatever. This thing'll be off in like a week and a half anyway." He shrugged, "Took some elbow grease for them to get all this shit up here then. Glad we got it prefurnished." He sat down on the couch, looking around. "All in all, I think we've found our place."

"Yeah..." she murmured, looking around for the remote.

He watched her find the remote, turning the TV on, Frank sighed, "Put something good on. I still need to look up how the fuck to use public transit in this town to get to work tomorrow. They've stopped sending cars for me, unfortunately." He laughed, pulling out his phone and toying with it.

She grunted in agreement. "What do you wanna watch?" she asked, fishing for the ottoman to rest her leg on and leaning back diagonally over the couch. "Anything that's not cable crap."

"Fine." she conceded, flipping through the channels until she got to some mockumentary comedy series she'd never seen. He shrugged, still toying on the phone. "Whatever isn't too cringeworthy" he remarked, occasionally looking up at the screen. Another three or so hours passed before a sudden bout of tiredness hit Aurelia and she retreated to the bedroom, changing and showering properly before burying her face in a pillow.Frank stayed in the living room for about another hour, before taking a quick shower himself and moving over to the bed. Noticing she was already asleep, he crept into his side of the bed and quickly fell asleep himself.

Aurelia woke up in the early morning, first, having heard some voices again. Sighing, she got up and limped over to the TV in her pajamas, crossing her legs as best as she could and proceeding to turn on the news, keeping the subtitles on so it wouldn't wake Frank up.The TV was blasting about how a accused murderer had been granted aslyum against a extradition request; eventually naming him as a Francis Keyes. It detailed the prison escape, the fatalities involved, and what he was accused of doing. Various speakers came on, speaking for and against granting him asylum; the media, at least, seemed very split on the issue.

Aurelia shut the TV off, lying still for about five minutes as she went over how to deal with it. Those bastards! she thought, clenching her fists. Liars. He's a hero. her mind echoed. About twenty minutes later, at 7am on the dot, a alarm went off in the bed room. Frank shuffled out of the bed, struggling to put his dress pants on. He eventually wandered out, wearing his dress pants for work but not having put a shirt or shoes on yet. "What are you doin' up already? Not like you have anything to be doing today." he joked, making his way into the kitchen.

"Nothing..." she trailed off. "Uhm...listen." she began, immediately being interrupted by a ringtone going off.

He picked up his phone, looking at her confused as he answered. "Frank....Oh...yes sir, about to come in now...Don't come in?...Huh?...No sir, I haven't checked the news-....Paid leave?...No I should be fine to make it in....Right...." He audibly sighed into the phone. "What do you want me to do?....You sure it'll die down?...Yeah...I'll hold tight...No...I have someone who can get food and supplies for me" He looked right at Aurelia as he said that, sure she already had known. "Yeah, I'll take it easy. You too, sir, bye." He hung up the phone, sighing. "Right...That'd be why you where up."

She cringed during the phone call, blinking a couple of times and sighing. "Yeah..."

He sighed, placing the phone into his pocket..."Whatever you do, don't let me watch the news." He knew he'd be tempted to see them fight over him, but knew he'd get worked up more over nothing.

"Frank..." she shifted her position on the couch. "You...you know they're wrong? You know you did the right thing, right?" she asked, trying to console him. "You saved me. Please don't get worked up over it."

He sighed, reclining into the couch. "I-...I never told you the full story on that...." He thought about how to word what he was saying next, "The...The interrogator was one thing...but I killed that guard in cold blood. He wasn't....He wasn't even armed....."

"Oh, Frank." she frowned, hugging him from the side clumsily. "You did what you had to do." she insisted. "Yeah.." he frowned, "I kinda got around it by just not thinking about it too much. But I don't know what this changes.." He hugged her back with his good hand, thinking about his options.

"Nothing. It changes nothing, okay? You were justified." He squeezed her towards him in the hug, "Yeah, yeah, you're right." it became evident, at least to him, the only way he'd seriously be able to live with what he had done was to let himself be convinced it was justified. "So, I'm stuck here with you for a while, it seems."

"We've been stuck together since before you broke me out." she smiled weakly.

"Well, before we've had more exciting things to do than sit around in a apartment and dodge the mob of reporters outside" He chuckled, smiling as he pushed his previous thoughts out of his mind. She took his limp hand into hers. "Although....we do kinda need food, still. And clothes. And...a bunch of other stuff." she frowned. "I don't want to leave you alone in here, but like, I'l need to go, because we're both hungry..."

"Yeah, you mightaswise go and pretend you don't know me then. Buy plenty of beer" he joked, letting her take his limp hand. "Mhm. Please hang in there." she told him as she slipped up to her feet. "Seriously."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine" he remarked, letting her leave as he grabbed the remote, turning it on and immediately switching from the news to a movie channel. "Don't take too long, yeah?"

"No promises. I got a lot of shit to buy." she said with an apologetic shrug before disappearing back into the bedroom and coming back out dressed in the hoodie, ready to go.

He sighed, laying out fully on the couch as he watched the TV. "Mightaswise take a nap then. Don't get yourself killed now, yeah?" He let out sarcastically, fluffing the pillow before laying down and placing a blanket over himself. "Relax, I'm not going out into a warzone. The only thing that might kill me are these stairs..." she trailed off as she went to the door and unlocked. "Bye." she said meekly, closing the door behind her.

"Bye" he remarked, before laying down fully. He quickly drifted back to sleep, part wishing the whole new chapter of his ordeal was just a dream. Aurelia finally returned a whopping four hours later with a pound of clothing, groceries, fast food, and keys to a bike chain, limping inside quickly before closing the door so nobody who was snooping would be able to tell she was in the same room as Frank.

He apparently had just woken up, now watching the history channel of all things when she walked in. "Damn, buy the whole farm while you're at it." He joked, sitting down wrapped in the blanket. She didn't laugh, instead placing a bagged sandwich wrap on the counter island. "You sure you're okay?" she asked him, clearly worried.

"What? Oh..." He had apparently forgotton about it, most likely due to just waking up. "Yeah, just can't leave my own fucking apartment. Free country my ass." He took the sandwich wrap, assuming she had bought it for him. "How is civlized life?" he joked, evidently sarcastic. "It's epic out there." she said half-enthusiastically ."I can't wait until you can actually see it. Even shopping was fun." she said with a shrug as she tossed the bag over to him on the couch, immediately throwing her hoodie and shoe off and dropping down on the couch next to him.

He shrugged, making space for her in the blanket as he sat there wrapped up in it, taking a bite from the sandwich. "Sounds amazing" he joked. She threw the other half of the blanket over herself and shoved her own wrap in her mouth. "You know how much crap they have in the stores here?"

He shrugged, mouth half full. "Don't care, it's delicious crap." He was assuming she was talking about food, rather than products. "Mhm. It's all green. Not rotten. And the department stores..." she grinned. "Whole different level, that's what it is." He laughed, looking over at the bags on the table. "So, that'd be where you spent most of the morning at then?" He smiled, looking over at the bags of clothes in particular.

"Yeah. I know your size, so...I hope you like what I got." she said, this time with her mouth as similarly full of sandwich as Frank's. "I got...well, I got actual clothes. Not just...hoodies and tanktops." He swallowed after sufficiently chewing, "But like, I thought you couldn't wear anything other than tank tops and hoodies. Second law of being a Reptilian spy. First of course being eating fries with forks."

"The fuck is it with you an that?" she asked, appearing mildly annoyed. "I don't eat all fries with forks, just those fancy restaurant fries. I'm not some savage." she grinned."As any reptilian spy would say!" He joked, at this point just teasing her. She giggled, finishing half of her sandwich. He laughed, finishing his and turning back to the TV. "So like, probably should get used to at least a few days of this."

"No shit." she agreed. "Mhm..." He leaned into her, sighing. "Was nice while it lasted, being able to leave whenever you want and do whatever you want." He sighed, "Media's camping out outside?"

"Yeah. Some of them are being sneaky as shit. Nobody asked me anything, though." she sighed.

"Yeah, good thing we're on the third floor" he laughed. "I'll just try not to go too close to any windows."

"Hah. No. Sucks that we can't use the balcony, though."

"Fucking for real." he frowned, "You thought about going back to college yet?"

"Mh...still thinking about it." she admitted. "It's a big decision."

"Yeah, I feel you" he remarked, staring at the T.V. "But I think you should."

"Probably..." she trailed off, not saying much. "I probably will, just not immediately. I need to settle down first."

"Yeah, ya got a month or so before fall classes start. Plenty of time." he agreed. "Mhm. And if I do, I'll get it over with quickly."

"That's what I'm saying." nodded Frank, "Get it over with now." He yawned, looking at the TV.

"Yeah..." she agreed. "I'll look into it."

He yawned, looking at the TV. "Kinda didn't expect this to be this boring, already."
"Well, it's not my fault. I don't really have that much to talk about anymore." she shrugged, resting her head on his good shoulder. He brought his good arm around her back, resting it on her other shoulder. "Fair enough."

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 6. THE SPY WHO SAVED ME

Frank and Aurelia get discover a new way to deal with their cabin fever.


They both had fallen asleep early Monday night, still finding their natural sleep cycle 12 hours and one hemisphere ahead of Nova Ardia. At about four a.m, Frank's phone rang on his nightstand, and he sheepishly fumbled his hand over to it, picking it up expecting it to be his boss. "Yeah?" The phone immediately blast into his ear about the other end of a call being a DBC reporter wanting to ask him questions. He hung up, just for the phone to ring again, this time from a Hematite reporter. He sat up, frustrated as he kept handing up his phone and it kept ringing off the hook; a 'Missed calls - 22' notification appeared, counting up every few seconds. "What the FUCK!" he was now shouting, pissed, and he was halfway through throwing the new phone at the wall when he was reminded just how new it was, and he fumbled with the phone, popping it open and popping the battery out, using the assistance of his teeth as he only had one hand, causing both to fall on his lap in bed. "Motherfuckers." he ranted, muttering on a series of insults quietly mostly to himself. Aurelia's eyes shot open with the first phone call, but she didn't elect to say anything until Frank got shouty. "Hey...hey!" she called out to him, trying to interrupt his rant. "What the fuck-" she paused, watching him dismantle his new phone. "What's happening?" she finally settled on saying, more confused than anything.

He took a breath, sighing. "Reporters got my fucking phone number." he muttered, still upset. "Twenty fucking calls in fourty seconds. Someone did their fucking homework." He slammed his good fist into the matress, pissed. "Can't even fucking get a full nights sleep." She growled in frustration, throwing her pillow over her head. "This calls for a lawsuit!" she told him. "That's just rude."

He sighed again, falling back into his pillow. "Mmf...whatever...Fuck them." he grumbled. "Yes!" agreed Aurelia. "Get some sleep!"

"Yeah...." He sighed, placing the remnants of his phone on his night stand. "Fuck life, man."

"Yup." she agreed, trying desperately to sleep again after Frank's yelling fit. He sighed a bit obnoxiously, eventually calming himself back to sleep. Aurelia didn't sleep the rest of that night, instead putting in some earbuds and lightly listening to music for the next three or so hours. Frank slowly woke up a hour or two later at around six am, shuffling over to see Aurelia with earbuds in. He kinda assumed she was sleeping, poking himself back up, putting some shorts on and fumbling out to the kitchen to make coffee.


Aurelia blinked as Frank got out and yawned loudly as soon as he had left the room, getting up and limping into the kitchen after him. "So." she said, coming out of the short hallway that led to the bedroom. "What's up?"

"Same shit, different day..." he murmered, turning the coffee machine and peeking out the window briefly; of course media trucks were still camped out in the parking lot. "Why do they care so much?" she asked, looking over at him as he looked out the window. "There's gotta be some law that's against this...I mean, we can't leave our apartment." she half-frowned, venting her frustration. "Free country, my ass."

He smirked as she quoted him, watching the coffee slowly come out of the machine into the pot with a steady drip. He tried applying his usual silver lining, "For real, but hey, we got coffee, beer somewhere in here, and no responsibilities for a week. Guess we ought to enjoy it." She looked down. "Mmh...come to an exciting new city and we don't even get to walk outside without them following us." she noted. "Not that I can walk very far. I'm sore as shit after yesterday and the broken leg isn't helping..." she added. "What about you, your arm okay?"

"Can't use it, but on the other hand I can't feel it so I guess it evens out." He shrugged with his one arm, grabbing a mug and pouring some coffee into it before taking a sip. "Leg's still getting better though, you couldn't walk on it a few days ago." She shrugged. "That's the cast." she noted. "And the painkillers. And I don't think I'm supposed to put all my weight on it either but I have...ah, well, fuck it."

He took a sip from is coffee, nodding. "Mhm...Yeah...You want any?" he remarked, leaning towards the half-full coffee machine. She shook her head. "I'm awake already." she insisted. "Not like we have to be awake during the day, anyway." He shrugged, moving over to the living room with her. "Good point, actually." He sat down on the couch nearest a nightstand, placing the coffee on it. "I kinda wish I was capable of just sleeping for a week. Let this whole thing blow over."

"That's my plan." she said, sitting down next to the TV. She had a surprisingly clear mind today; she'd slept easy and her thoughts had been mostly rational so-far. "Want to turn on the news? I kind of feel like they went full conspiracy mode about you."

"Dunno if I'm ready for the tinfoil hats today." He joked, "And I'm already feeling like killing the media, let's not amplify that."

"Fine. Music?" she asked, flipping over to the Dartfordian MTV before realizing it wasn't actually music anymore. "Yeesh, never mind." she sighed, continuing to flip through the channels. "Mhm." he noted, taking a sip from his coffee. "They, unfortunately, stopped making good music right about the time we both were born..."

"Uhm, not true. There's plenty of good music. It's just not on the radio." she countered. "Okay, fine, Mainstream music" he retorted, taking another sip from the coffee. "Yeah, I guess I agree with that." she shrugged, sighing, and settling briefly on a documentary on the Ardian Empire before flipping it to another channel, and briefly cringing at the thought of home. Francis sighed, finishing the coffee and thinking of topics to talk about. "So you....had any friends back home?"

"Yup." she replied, her efforts to think about something else clearly ineffective. "Thought I already told you about them." she said, checking her notifications on her phone to find them surprisingly empty. "Not really, only your family" he recalled, or at least, he thought he did. "They probably got mine through the phone company somehow. They don't know your name so you should be fine."

"Had a couple of old friends...but after one of us disappeared in Vienra, we stopped talking. I hope they're alright..." she trailed off. "I had a few, two were more or less like you, but we stopped talking after i got put into service. But that was mostly because they stuck me out in the middle of nowhere. No idea what they're up to now, or if they're okay.' He shrugged, electing not to think too much about it.

"Like me?" she asked, curious. "Antifa, Anti Fascist, whatever the groups called." he remarked. She laughed at the ridiculous names for her former colleagues. "Resistance." she corrected. "But all of those apply. And, really? They didn't check you for, like, relations or anything?"

"Not really." he shrugged, "But then again, this was back before they kept databases of that kind of stuff."

"Can we change the subject?" she asked, trying to be casual. "It's just you're reminding me about a lot of stuff...you know?" she frowned. "Like, I don't think now's the time to worry about former friends."

"By all means..." he agreed, he himself having began to think of it and trailed off to related topics. They sat in silence for about another five minutes before Aurelia spoke up. "Hm....shit, well, this is boring. We've gotta have something to talk about, right?" she asked, having been searching herself for an actual conversation topic. "And who knows how many more days of this" he frowned, "Boring as all hell."

"Yeah..." she frowned, starting to change the channels again before settling on some superhero movie. "I haven't even heard of half of these things." she noted."Culture shock." he reminded, scooting closer to her as he had finished his coffee. "Probably will get used to it with time, I guess." he said hopefully. "Yeah..." she frowned, scooting closer to him in response. "I mean, we had some television back home, but look at this. That's a lot of TV." she paused. "I guess we're supposed to be calling it the telly now."

"Oy, honey, what's on the telly?" he responded in a fake Dartfordian accent. "I kind of still prefer TV.." She pointed at him extravagantly. "That's on you, mate." she joked. "What's the first thing you want to do once we get to leave this place?" she asked him. "I'm not that far ahead yet" he laughed, "Don't want to get my hopes up. But a chance to actually see the stuff downtown would be nice." Aurelia nodded. "It's great down there." she told him, remembering her trek through while on a bus the day before. "We might have to save an actual tourist trip until after my leg heals, though. But even walking on the streets out here is fun." She smiled at him before looking back towards the TV.

Frank paused, thinking deeply, resting his right hand on her left. He muttered 'fuck it' below his breath, just too low for her to hear. "Mhm...but I've been thinking about it, and I suppose the one thing that I want to see the most I get to see every day. And that'd probably be you." His hand shifted to the back of her neck, and he went in for the kiss.

He waited for them to finish, before remarking "I had a far better lead-up to that, but meh, fuck it, This worked out better because I was never going to grow the balls to say it otherwise." He smirked, revealing the anxiety he had been putting off this moment. Aurelia spent the next fifteen seconds after their kiss completely taken aback by what Frank had just done. She blinked back into reality, a big goofy grin spreading across her face. She started giggling once he started talking about his justification. "Frank--" she said in between giggles. "You are one awkward motherfucker." she said, before hugging him tightly, still holding back giggles. She hadn't felt like this type of happiness in a very long time, not since she was still living comfortably in Roma. He returned the laughter, "A loveably awkward motherfucker, mind you." He saw her grin and quickly realized he made the right decision, causing the anxiety to evaporate. He returned her hug, holding her tightly next to him. It was, honestly, the first time he felt real love for a woman other than his mother; rather than stupid one-night stands in college.

"Frank Keeve, you loveably awkward motherfucker." she corrected herself, the giggles only slightly subsiding as she closed her eyes in his hug. He regained his confidence, kissing the side of her neck briefly. "I mean, I don't know that I'm thaaat awkward. But I mean I must be pretty lovable to be here with you." He went in for a second kiss, this time holding it much longer. They finished, and he continued hugging her for a minute, before mumbling "We really do need to find a way out of this apartment, huh?"

She nodded silently, a slight smile seemingly fixated on her mouth at all times. "Wait until the media gets a load of this..." she laughed. He chuckled loudly, much happier now that he got that off of his chest. "Scandal of the century, right?"

"Scandal? I mean, it's not a scandal. You're not having an affair. Are you?" she asked jokingly. "Na, but on the other hand, You're not supposed to exist" he joked. "So they can think I'm making out with myself in here all day. That's fine by me."

"Making out with yourself. Sure. Mhmm." she sputtered into giggles again. "Yeah, I think it's best they don't find out about this." He chuckled with her, "Yeah, that's probably for the best." He had never intended for things to go this way when he broke her out, he expected them to go their own ways shortly after leaving the country, mostly due to how awkward he perceived any potential relationship being, but now that he was with her, he was incredibly happy that things didn't go that way.

Aurelia hadn't planned for it either; however, she'd had thoughts of the sort forming in the back of her mind as early as the first car ride. She sighed. "My boyfriend is the spy who saved me. That could be a movie title." she claimed. He laughed, "You would make a nice 'Bond Girl" he joked, "Blonde, beautiful, smart, But also self-reliant."

"Beautiful?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I was under the impression I've looked like shit since I was dragged into the prison." she paused., aiming to take her thoughts right off of her personal appearance right now. "Speaking of which, remember that time Bond got shot in the shoulder and had to recover? Sound familiiar?" she asked, a hint of hope in her voice. He rebutted her, "Beauty isn't just on the outside." with his usual philosophical spin, "Yeah, it does, actually." He smiled, at this point anything would keep him happy, regardless of how really feasible it was. She rolled her eyes at his statement about beauty. "Are you calling me ugly?" she teased, thinking for a second and choosing to avoid the shoulder topic. Perhaps it was for the better.

He smirked, holding her closer. "Now, I don't know that you can get out of this relationship by calling yourself ugly....buuuuttt...You certainly didn't hear that from me." he smirked. "I'm not trying to get out of this." she giggled, stating something that was probably obvious and flipping through the TV channels with her off hand, not sure what to settle on. He knew she was joking, laughing and holding her shoulder with his good hand. He continued with the laughter, noting "Don't know about the TV, we seem to have found a pretty good way to entertain ourselves as is." He kissed at her neck again, at this point far more comfortable with approaching her. "But yeah, we should definitively find something that isn't shit if we want to survive however much longer we're locked in here." he said, with a somewhat more serious tone.

"It's the telly, mate." she replied in her newfound accent as she settled on the first episode of a show in a marathon. "There, that'll keep us occupied." He smirked, resting his head on hers. "Telly...yeah...That'le take some getting used to."

"Mhm." she agreed, lightly feeling the place where he was shot with her right hand. "Does it still hurt?" she asked nonspecifically. "Don't feel a thing on that entire arm, actually." He shrugged with his other shoulder, focusing on the TV as she prodded it. "Huh, that's just weird." she frowned. "Yeah, it kinda is. I get this occasional tingling but like, that's it." He slowly moved his fingers on his left hand a inch or so, very slightly. "That's about the most I can get out of it right now."

"Oh, that's a bit more than you could earlier." she said optimistically. "Don't worry about it." the advised. "Yeah, it's the least of my problems." he said, more optimistically than anything. "And I do have a good distraction from all of this." he whispered, obviously referring to her. "Even better than alcohol?" she asked him, not keen to drink again after passing out on the plane. "Mhm." he said with a slight laugh "Though the alcohol does help."

"Oh, come on. It's the morning, we're not going to get wasted this early." she asserted. "Nah, that comes later." he said with a laugh. He initially hated being couped up in the apartment, but it was starting to grow on him. She closed her eyes, hearing some character on the television speak about some impossibly high stakes. She supposed she'd appreciate realism a lot more in fiction after what she'd been through. "Mh...let's not get drunk right now."

He nodded, telling she had became serious. "That's fine." he noted. He sat there for a minute, thinking. "I don't remember much from leaving the hospital in Luvonia to here. Assuming we got drunk as fuck?" she nodded lightly. "Yeah." she told him. The last thing she wanted was for them to become alcoholics. "You blacked out completely..."

"Yeah...that's fair enough..." He pondered. "Was I funny at least?"

"You, uhm..." she paused. "You kind of asked me out." He barely held back the laughter. "Well, I guess it worked." She hugged her arms around his neck. "I guess it did." she cocked her head to the side. "Oh, fuck it." He kissed her again, wrapping his arm around her neck and making out (that's snogging for the brits) completely. He spoke inbetween kisses, "You know, I never actually thought this would work out."

"Same." she agreed, going back in for another kiss before finally slowly breaking it off and standing up slowly, regaining her faulty balance before limping over to the fridge, proceeding to get some waffles out and put them in the toaster oven. "There's breakfast." she pointed to the toaster, before leaning on the kitchen counter, looking at him, one eyebrow raised, wondering how boring today would be.

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 2. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS TRUMPS ROMANCE
This post ties in with the Hematite CSU summit

Dart-ach relations aren't the only thing being spoiled by the CSU.

#darxit


After a day of lounging around and not doing much, both Frank and Aurelia tired early and went to bed by about 9 at night. He had made sure to shut off his alarm so they could, hopefully, sleep in. Frank woke up at about 11 in the morning, carefully moving to avoid waking Aurelia. Comfortable that he had gotten a good nights rest, he stumbled out of bed and moved into the living room. Oddly enough, he poked his head out the window and noticed the news vans were gone. Odd. He moved over to the couch, not immediately grasping what that meant, and turned he TV on, keeping it on a low volume to try and avoid waking Aurelia. It was on the same cable channel as yesterday but he didin't bother with changing it.

It would be almost an hour before she would wake up, her earlier sleepless night having taken its toll on her. She stumbled out of bed and got dressed, limping out into the living room yet again to find Frank watching TV. She didn't say anything, instead hobbling over to the couch and sitting down right next to him.

"Morning" he remarked, casually looking at the TV. "Well, actually, I think it might be afternoon now. You enjoy sleeping in?"

"Mhm." she murmured, holding back a yawn, not saying much.

He nodded, looking at the TV. "News trucks were gone this morning when I checked, Odd, huh?" He still wasn't putting two and two together or thinking much of it. "Maybe they moved on?" quipped Aurelia, having immediately done what Frank hadn't, despite not even checking to see if he was correct. "Shit....really?" He shrugged, flipping to the news channel to see nothing but coverage regarding a CSU summit in Hematite. "Holy shit, Holy shit, I think they're gone." He suddenly became energized, as if he was freed from his own little prison. He instintively tried standing up to walk back to the bedroom to change, only to immediately trip on the blanket he had subconciously wrapped himself in and tripping onto the living room floor with a thud. Completely unphased, he pushed himself back up "We need to like, get the fuck out of this apartment, now, Don't care where we go. Annnywhere but here." He dissapeared back into the bedroom, presumably to change into some real clothes.

She felt an overwhelming urge to giggle at his fall and sudden energy. "Alright...alright." she grinned, getting up and taking a quick look at their messy kitchen before deciding they would eat outside somewhere. He re-emerged from the bedroom a relatively short period later, wearing a t-shirt and shorts. He was now wearing shoes for the first time in a few days. "Where we going?" he asked, realizing she knew her way around and he definitively did not. "Uhm...downtown?" she asked him as she looked him over briefly. "Or...wherever. We could just walk around. " she joked, putting on a sandal before going to stand behind him. "Whatever works for me as long as we get to do something" he echoed, opening the door for her before closing it. They made their way down to the bottom floor, taking a bit of extra time because of Aurelia's leg, and finding themselves on the main boulevard; full of more traffic than usual. He looked around, shrugged and looked back at Aurelia, "So, erm...you know where we're going?"

"Not exactly." she looked around awkwardly. "We're pretty close to downtown, we could just walk." He nodded, expecting her to take the lead as he hadn't had a chance to really get his bearings. "Sure." They began towards downtown on foot, occasinally stopping for a crosswalk or so one of them could check something on the sidelines out. Aurelia was clearly in her element here, often taking the lead in crowds and in crossing roads, despite her leg. It quickly became evident how much Frank was out of his comfort zone; having only really entered big cities a few times in his life. But, he had found someone who evidently knew what she was doing, so he didin't have to. He just kinda hung with her to avoid getting himself lost in what seemed like a maze.

They eventually stopped at a major intersection which looked like it was going to take a while. Aurelia tugged at Frank's hand. "You like it? If you see something cool...y'know, like...tell me." she grinned. He seemed rather confused, "How...how are you so good at this?" He saw himself as a dazed tourist and Aurelia already seemed like she lived here her whole life. He chalked it up to her living in cities her whole life. He held onto her hand, leaning in to whisper "You're going to have to teach me how not to look like a idiot in all of this hustle" jokingly. "Just follow what the other people are doing." she told him. "It's like any old sidewalk, it's not that hard." she insisted, having no notion of what Frank was talking about.

He shrugged, following her through the intersection. "Just...so many people....so little space...it's confusing I guess." He, likewise, didin't grasp how she was such a natural at the system, but he could only assume he'd get better with time. She looked up at him right as the light went green and they started walking. "Yeah, but you can see over half of these people." she assumed.

He laughed, looking back down at her. "I guess that's true. So, you got anywhere in particular or are we just out for a walk?"

"I dunno...coffee would be nice." she smiled up at him. "We could probably also check whatever protest is going on from the news. But I'd prefer not to get involved..."

"Same, but it's nice to not be the focus of attention for once" He smiled, looking up ahead as the crowd thickened. He kinda went tippy-toed a bit, trying to look over the crowd "Heeeyyyyy....speaking of that." He strained to get a view over the crowd as sirens could be heard in the distance, the two of them shuffling through a crowd to reach a barricaded street. "I can't see shit..." trailed off Aurelia, staring at someone's back. "What's happening?" He noticed a opening in the crowd, and kinda forced Aurelia through it, following right behind her. They managed to pop up right infront of a Dartfordian police barricade, both sides of the street blocked, with several police and blacked out limousines approaching. "That'd be your CSU meeting" he noted. Both sides of the barricaded intersection were packed with people, some cheering, but with many jeering, some holding signs like "CSU GO HOME" and "#DARXIT" up towards the approaching vehicles.

Aurelia winced as Frank had forced her leg a bit, but stopped in her train of thought when she saw the limousines. "The fuck is this? World leaders?" she said towards Frank, clearly not impressed. They approached, armed Dartfordian officers with them, at a rapid speed - obviously trying to speed past the crowds of protestors. One had the flags of Dartfordia and Achkaerin, the one immediately behind it - with its own envoy of security vehicles, the flags of Dartfordia and Rokkenjima. "In my absolutely unqualified opinion", he remarked sarcastically, "Yeah. World leaders." He shrugged, watching them approach. A protester tried throwing a egg at the Achkaerinese vehicle as it approached, missing by a virtual mile and shortly thereafter being tackled by multiple Hematite police officers. Another was shouting something about genocide at the Rokkenjiman limousine.. "Brunch and a theatre" he joked.

Aurelia still couldn't see very well, but she'd seen enough. "Lame. I think they closed off a coffee shop because of this shit." she said, pointing over the barricade at a vacated set of tables. "Yeah." he sighed, as the convoy of vehicles sped past at a speed that normally wouldn't be remotely safe, causing each to catch a little bit of air as they sped past trying to avoid the protestors. "We'll have to think of something else, I guess."

"Well...I'm out of ideas. I guess we could just keep walking or something." she told him, speaking up because of the crowd. "Yeah, we'll have to backtrack" he spoke up, grabbing her hand so they wouldn't loose eachother as they went back through the massive crowd. Things began to clear up again as they hit the intersection they just crossed, this time they took a right turn to try and find another restuarant. "Well, that was interesting, I guess."

"Mmf. Whatever." she replied, unfazed. "That happens every week here, I bet." He laughed, "Keeps things entertaining, I bet." They found another coffee shop, this one with a balcony. "That'le do, yeah?" They entered and slowly ascended the stairs, finding a table on the balcony above the hustle and bustle below. "This place is nice" reaffirmed Frank, looking around at the view of the street below. Aurelia got situated, laying her legs in Frank's lap under the table. "Yep." she replied concisely, pausing for a bit. "Wow, I'm being awkward. I have no idea what I'm doing." she confided in him, having expected to be stuck in the apartment for much longer.

He joked in return, "Hey! I thought that was my job!" He laughed, before whispering. "I think we're both just figuring it out as we go along at this point. I've had no idea what I've been doing since I got here."

"Yeah, I guess. Just..." she trailed off, electing to stare at him briefly instead. "Mind getting us coffee?" she asked with a smile, probably trying to goad him into doing all of the work because of her leg. "Fiiine....what do you want in it?" He said as he was getting up."Creamer. Lots of creamer." she grinned. "Nothing else."

"Mhm." He decided not to poke fun at her choices like usual, deciding to just go get the cups of coffee. He came back a few minutes later, holding the coffees on a plate with one hand, kinda like a waiter. He had a bit of a hard time balancing it, and a tad bit of coffee spilled onto the plate, but he made it back to the table without any major mishaps. "Send the guy with one arm to get the coffee" he retorted. "I probably shoulda had that in mind when I went to get them."

She crossed her arms. "You don't have one arm. You have one working arm. For now." she said optimistically as she grabbed her coffee. "I was expecting you to call me a savage for not drinking pure black coffee, or something." She grinned.

He showed her his coffee, which was brown with creamer itself, before taking a sip of it. After he swallowed, he responded "There's something up with you for not wanting sugar, though." He smiled before taking another sip, shifting his eyes to the road below before back up to her. "Creamer's already sugary as shit. But I'd still take sugar." she grinned, pleasantly surprised to find that Frank at least drank Coffee exactly as she did, more or less.

"Natural solution is, of course, more sugar." He grinned, taking another sip of his coffee. "But I think we're close enough" She nodded, gulping down half of her cup immediately, as if she was rushing somewhere. "So..." He took casual sips, before noticing her gulping down half of her cup, "We in a rush anywhere or..?"

"No..no.' she said, wiping her mouth of excess coffee. "I just really needed that." His smile widened goofily, clearly holding back laughter. "Right." He took another sip of his coffee. "You didin't take any when I made some yesterday, Ya just don't like my coffee or?" He was more teasing her than anything, just prolonging conversation. "No, it's cause I'm a moron." she answered. "Yesterday just...came outta nowhere, you know?" she asked, blinking once at him. "I guess today did, too..."

"To be honest, if anyone's the moron, it's me for not doing it sooner" he sighed, placing his hand on hers on the table. "I'm still kinda amazed I did it at all. I'm really good at well, what I do, but when it came to you I-...I-...I guess I just kinda froze up." He paused, awkwardly so, before continuing. "But now that I've done it, I don't regret a second."

"Good at interrogating?" she asked him jokingly. "And it makes sense for you to freeze up... I mean..." she paused. "I'm the same. You worked for the people I hated...but something...something kept us together. Aaaaand. Here we are."

"I was going to say intelligence, but, yeah, I guess that works." He sighed heavily, "Yeah, you're right." He paused again, taking a sip from his coffee. "I guess if there was a 'two most awkwardly different people to start dating' award, we would've won it hands down." She laughed, finishing the coffee. "I guess, yeah." she said. "But that's all behind us now, right?"

"Right" he reaffirmed, finishing his.

"We ought to go out on a day that isn't so crowded." she told him, poking his knee with her foot. "Let's chill here for a little bit...I'm not really into walking right now." she noted, looking down. "But the media's gone. We finally get freedom."

He nodded, "Yeah, i'm enjoying the breeze. And the lack of media, for sure." He pondered a second, "Maybe I can turn my phone back on and not get mobbed, once we get back home."

"Yup. Don't worry, they'll forget." she grinned.

He returned the smile, before it quickly dimmed. "Shit...they'll want me to come into work tomorrow then." He laughed, "We should probably enjoy my paid vacation while it lasts, then."

"Well, we do need money. And you need to be a superspy." she laughed.

He grinned, "Unfortunately, we both know I'm spying on a desk." he laughed, smiling. Regardless of all the shit up to now, the prospect of working tomorrow, he was happy, right here, with her. And that was a feeling he'd try to extend as long as possible.

"Epic hacking backup dude then." she corrected. "I dunno. Something way cooler than I'll ever do, even if I become a doctor." she said. "Speaking of which...I'm definitely going to become a doctor." He grinned, "I don't know how to work my phone let alone a computer. More like constant briefing guy." he corrected again, jokingly, upon hearing about her doctorate. "That's great. Because you'll still be making far more than I'll ever make." he laughed, smiling. "You started talking to universities yet?"

"Nope. We went to sleep together dude. You'd know if I did." she raised an eyebrow. "But yeah. I'll look into it."

He sighed, "I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm spending every waking moment with someone else, y'know? It takes some getting used to." She grinned, poking him in the leg again. "That's not a bad thing."

"Not at all, but it's different." He smiled.

"I guess. I had a roommate for a while, so I'm used to it." she told him.

He smiled affectionately, "Well, this is a bit different. In a good way."

'In an excellent way." she corrected, yawning despite the coffee. He grinned, "I'd kiss you again if I didin't have to bend over this table awkwardly."

"Mmh, that's a terrible excuse.." she said, bending over the table anyway and stopping halfway, hoping for his prediction to come true. He responded, "You're really enjoying this." Now seeing the real reason behind this was so they could kiss publicy, he moved right up and kissed her on the lips, holding it into she stopped. "I'd guess that's the real reason for going out for coffee?" he joked.

Her lips curled upwards into an even bigger and goofier smile. "We can kiss wherever we want." she cocked her head to the side. "It's not like any of these people are gonna notice."

"Mhm" he laughed, taking that as a yes. He stood up, offering his hand to her to help her up. "Might as well get moving, yeah?" But upon lifting her up, he immediately launched into another kiss, this time the both of them standing next to their table, and after kissing for a moment they began walking back to the stairs, him discreetly squeezing at her rear before wrapping his arm around her neck as they started walking back down, whispering "Still getting the hang of this, but I can get used to more of this." He smiled at her, descending the stairs back downward to the ground floor.

She grabbed his hand and looked down the road. "Let's take a longer walk..." she looked back to him, beaming. "We got a lot more city to explore."

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 3. BENCHES AND DOCTORATES
Aurelia passes out on a bench, they walk on the way hom, and she wonders if she'd seriously be able to be a doctor.


Aurelia opened her eyes at around 8 PM, discovering they were still on the bench; after they'd left the coffee shop, they'd taken a tour of virtually the whole city, seeing all of the popular sights and then some. But as the day came to a close, Aurelia had once again needed to sit down, and in the process of doing that, fallen into a spontaenous nap generated by caffeine withdrawal, sleeping for about 45 minutes. She sat up, immediately swinging her head the other way onto Frank's shoulder. "What time is it?" she asked him quietly.

He looked up from the newspaper he was reading, having resigned himself to relaxing while she slept "Well, you went out like a light." He looked around after she asked her question, "My phones still half-destroyed in the apartment, so...not sure....But i'd wager probably seven our eight given the sun's just about to go down."

"Shiiit..." she said, taking a quick look at the newspaper articles. "We'd better..." she paused, yawning and stretching her arms. "Start, uhm, heading home, yeah?"

"Mhm." He stood up, folding the newspaper and leaving it on the bench. "You alright?" he asked as they started walking back towards the apartment Aurelia kept leaning on him as he stood up, eventually just limping along with her head against his arm. "Yeah." she replied quietly. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged, "You did just pass out on a bench for like a half hour." He smirked, walking along with her. "I'm fine." she asserted as they got to the road and waited for the crossing.

He wrapped his arm around her, letting her dig her head into his chest as they crossed the street. "Alright. We're not too far from home anywyas."

"Don't need to take the tube...or the subway. Whatever." she said, yawning briefly again. "You got a job tommorow...'

"Yeah yeah, I need to return to civilization while you get to keep lounging around for another month." he said jokingly, looking down and smiling at her.

"Probably for the best..." she whispered, tugging at his hand. "I need to get used to...people." she frowned, although he couldn't see it. He just nodded, not responding to her verbally. They crossed another intersection, the crowds dieing down as it was a weeknight. "I never really appreciated how nice and lit up this place looks like at night."

"It's pretty..." she thought out loud, inadvertantly replying to him. "I love this..."

Even though he wasn't precisely sure what she meant, he had a good idea. "Me too." he remarked, holding her a bit closer.

Aurelia hadn't intended for her words to address Frank in addtion to the pretty lights surrounding them, but she decided not to specify. It was good no matter what she chose, which to her was calming. She hadn't had a win-win scenario in weeks.

Frank wasn't truly aware of her intent, but given the last two days he assumed his interpretation was the right one. They finally crossed the street to the apartment, walking in the main lobby and slowly ascending the staircase up to the third floor.

Aurelia fished the key from her pocket and stuck it in the keyhole, opening their apartment to find it exactly as they had left it in the morning.

Frank walked in after her, closing the door and locking it from the inside. He fumbled over to their bedroom, coming back out with his phone which he turned back on. No more phone calls, and he elected to just flush his voicemail without listening to any of the calls. "These guys have the attention span of small dogs." he joked, sitting down on the couch as he mitigated the damage of the last few days on his phone.

She nodded silently at Frank's comment on the couch, walking into the bedroom and promptly throwing herself in the bed, not bothering to take her shoe off or change into something more sensible. Not five minutes in the house and she was ready to go back to the sleep she'd briefly had on the bench.

Frank looked down at the time he had on his phone, and sighed. It was just before nine, and he had to be up at seven. He stood up, walked over to the bed and hastilly kicked off his shoes and his shirt before plopping into the bed next to Aurelia. He crept up behind her, laying his arm over her. He mumbled "Goodnight", not sure if she was already sleeping, and quickly felt himself getting pulled to sleep as well.

She blinked, turning around to hug him and trying to kick off the sandal she'd put on earlier. "Mh...how am I supposed to be a doctor if I only want to save the good people?" she asked him quietly. He kissed her, before replying in a whisper "Make sure you spend more time with the good people than the bad.", referring to the time they spent together.

She took the advice at face value, not recognizing it's meaning. "You don't get to choose in a hospital..." she frowned after their kiss, choosing to bury her face in his chest in frustration, more than anything.

He sat there, kinda thinking of how to reply. "Some of us have to deal with the bad so the rest of us can be good." He immediately thought that sounded stupid, correcting himself. "Okay, I'm fresh out of philosophical wisdom bullshit for the day." he grinned at her.

"Thanks, Batman." she teased. "Also, that makes no sense." she sighed, turning to stare at the ceiling. "Yeah I kinda noticed." he smiled, himself laying on his back. "I mean, if you don't want to become a doctor-...well...don't I guess...I don't want you doing something you don't think you'd like doing."

"But I like helping people!" she insisted. "Just not all of them..."

He smiled, "I think you'll do fine. I never could do something like that. Work twelve hour shifts in a crowded hospital. Yuck." He turned on his side, facing her. "I don't have remotely the compassion or care needed for that. But you definitively do." he reaffirmed

"I do?" she asked him, hoping he'd continue consoling her.

"Well, if you didin't, I would be short a arm by now and I probably would'nt of cared to try and get it to rehab. That was you. You didin't want to take it off and you're still pushing me to make the best of it. That's compassion if you ask me." He moved some of her hair back to behind her ear, ensuring she could see him properly.

She smiled gratefully. "But that's...you. Not someone else." He grinned, nodding. "I think you'll find people are nicer than you think." He paused for though, "And, besides, I think it doesn't matter about if the person you're treating is 'good'. What matters is you having the compassion to take care of them anyways, and we both know you have that."

"I can't imagine myself fixing up a rapist. For whatever reason. Ever." she told him. He sighed, "Then it's simple, don't let yourself know he's a rapist. You need to see them as patients, not the stories of their lives. They'll be counting on you either way."

"I...I guess I'll try..." she said, closing her eyes. "Thanks, Frank..."

He kissed her on her cheek briefly before getting himself comfortable to sleep. He murmered "Any time." before himself closing his eyes to drift off.

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 3. SHOCK THERAPY
Frank goes to rehab. Aurelia tags along.



The previous day and night had gone usually, Frank was getting back into the swing of work and Aurelia was looking at medical schools. On Friday, however, he was due to start the physical rehabilitation program, so he was let out of work early at lunch. He went home to pick up Aurelia, twisting the key and entering before closing the door behind him. Aurelia looked up at the newly-arrived Frank from the couch. She was watching a cartoon. "Yo." she greeted him.

"Yo", He walked over past her, kissing her briefly before starting to walk back towards the bedroom, changing out of his dress clothes. He re-emerged a few minutes later in jeans and a polo shirt, but still struggling to button the collar of his shirt. "Just one thing" he looked at her, evidently motioning to the buttons he was having a hard time getting to go in. "Mhm." He hugged her with his one arm, before speaking lowly. "I'm anxious as fuck right now."

"It'll be fine." she reassured him, finishing the last button. "You saw the reviews this guy got. There's a reason for them. He's helped a bunch of people just like you."

"Mhm. That'd be why I want to bring you along" He kissed her again, more to calm his nerves than anything, "You ready to go?" She nodded, looking down at herself. "As ready as I can get."

He smiled, leading her out of the apartment before shutting and locking the door behind them. They descended the stairs, popping out of the lobby on the boulevard. "Think we're taking the tube, yeah?"

"Yeah. But you know where." she said, pointing to his pocket. "I can't even remember what his name is." He shrugged, reaching into his pocket and grabbing the business card. "Doctor....Nicholas Brown." He shruged, walking down into the nearby station with her; it was bustling with lunchtime activity. They paid for the tickets before waiting on the platform for the train to come. "I still prefer the countryside" murmured Frank to her, quietly. "I just don't like the bustle, I guess."

"Weirdo." she teased, watching the train arrive and limping on, immediately gravitating to the only empty seat she could find. "Tell me about it." he agreed jokingly, boarding the train with her, but not being able to immediately find a seat so he stood next to her with his hand on the railing. "Three stops down the line is where we're getting off" he reassured as the train started moving. She nodded silently, waiting for their train journey to start as others came walking into the train. The train began its movement, only going for about a mile or so before stopping at the first stop on their route. The person who was sitting next to Aurelia stood up to get off, causing Frank to immediately steal his seat. He was shaking his left leg, presumably as a way to deal with the anxiety. "I really don't know why I'm so nervous about this..." he tried explaining, "I can't make any sense of it."

"It's because you're gonna have to talk about it, right? Chill. It'll be fine." she theorized, reassuring him. "I guess." He sighed as the train made its second stop, "Or i'm worried about what he'll tell me about it."

"Guess you'll find out." she shrugged. "Seriously, don't worry. We'll go watch a movie or something after, yeah?"

"Mhm. You're right." he was more reassuring himself than anything. The train came to a stop, and Frank stood up with Aurelia, shuffling out of the underground station and appearing up near a medical complex and hospital. "He's in building 7A...4th floor." said Frank, looking at the business card as he walked. "They better have an elevator..." she trailed off, looking at the building. She grabbed his hand and looked up to him. "Lead the way."

"They ought to have." he joked, "Only got one hand so carrying you up would be difficult." He joked, as they entered building 7A. There was immediately a bank of elevators near the lobby, and they walked into one and Frank pressed the '4' button. The second the elevator doors closed, he locked in a prolonged kiss, afterwords holding the hug and whispering "I have no idea where I'd be without you...and I have no idea how I'd live without you. " He trailed off, in a normal relationship it'd just be lovey-dovey talk, but given the context of their relationship, it was entirely truthful, at least in his mind. Aurelia returned the hug. "Holy Gods, dude." she giggled. "Me too...for real." she said, telling the truth. After all, he'd broken her out.

He held the hug for a little while as the elevator went up. "It's like....weird...We've known each other for such a small relative period of time, but we're also so...well...intertwined." He shrugged, finally letting go as the elevators doors opened. "They say scary experiences form bonds." she grinned, looking out towards the hallway and pulling him out after her, searching for the right door. He smiled, letting her pull him along 'til she found the door, leading them both inside. The waiting room was surprisingly empty, given the specific nature of the specialist and Dartfordia's lack of interventionism, only three other people were inside. Frank sat down, electing to let Aurelia check them in with the clerk.

Aurelia let go of his hand and walked up to the clerk. "Hey." she smiled. "I'm here with Frank...uhm, Francis Keeve. He had an appointment." The clerk nodded, "Yeah, doc'll be with you shortly" She gave her a patient information clipboard and a pen. "Bring this back when you're done." Aurelia nodded with a faked smile and went back over to Frank, sitting down next to it and beginning to fill it out for him from memory, before handing it to him so he could sign. "This is my least favorite part of any doctoral visit." she confessed. "Including processing these..." He sighed, forcing out a barely legible signature with both hands. "Yeah, same here. Particularly now." She stood up slowly, limping back to the clerk and handing it to her. "Right. He'll be with you lot shortly." she said. Aurelia nodded, sitting back down.

They held hands for a minute, sitting there into a assistant opened the door and called Frank's name. They stood up, moving over to a room by themselves and waited for the doctor. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck..." he confided, quietly, as they both sat down. Aurelia looked around the rooms, spotting the familiar implements that every doctor's office had, including posters of the muscular system. "Well...now we wait, yeah?"

"Worst part." he confided, sighing and closing his eyes as he reclined his head backwards. "It's gonna be fine, Frank..." she trailed off, holding his hand. "Come on. Just a doctor, and we go to the movies after, yeah?"

He sighed in agreement right as the Doctor entered, closing the door behind him. He was a man in his early 30's, rather young for the profession. Frank and Aurelia both stood up as he went to shake their hands, "I'm Doctor Brown" remarked him as he shook Frank's hand. "Nice to meet ya, Frank." He went over to Aurelia, shaking hers as well. "I don't believe I have your name, though?"

"Aurelia." she said at the doctor. "I'm his...girlfriend. And kind of indirectly the reason he got his injury." she told the Doctor. He nodded, writing something on the clipboard. "What was the story behind that, if you don't mind? All I had down was gunshot wound."

"He, uhm..." she looked to Frank briefly, letting him make up his own lie, because there was no way in hell she could think of something believable. That is, if he even chose to lie.

"We....uh......well...." He froze up again, "We had to...er..Luvonia....uhm...border..." He was cut off by the Doctor, "Hard to talk about. I understand that. We'll get to it another time." he reassured them, "Go ahead and lay on the bed then, take your shirt off so I can look at the wound-..." He looked over at Aurelia, unsure how far along the relationship was. "She can stay or?.." to which Frank quickly responded it was fine if she stays, laying down upright in the medical bed as the doctor visibly inspected the wound and the stitches.

Aurelia crossed her arms and bit her lip, feeling the situation had become a bit awkward before the doctor had done his job and dispelled it. Still, she felt a little guilty...she shouldn't have put Frank in that situation. He poked at the wound, running his hand down Frank's disabled arm and toying with it, asking him if he felt anything to which he got varying replies from "No" to "Kinda, it tingles somewhat." The doctor asked him if it was his dominant hand, to which he responded "Yes. I can't write." The doctor sighed, looking between them. "You two really have it cut out for you, yeah?"

She shrugged, looking down. "Yeah, yeah, I guess." she half-smiled helplessly. He nodded, "Well, we're going to need to have him come in twice a month to get working on that arm. Probably start him on classes to learn how to write on his right hand as well...Anything else you two think I should know? Anything in particular he has problems with?"

Aurelia's eyes darted side to side. "Uhm...it was kind of traumatizing for both of us..." she looked down again. "But...no, not really, nothing else physical except what you saw." The doctor nodded, "Well, usually with incidents like this, I won't auger coat it, it'd be unlikely he could regain 'full' control of the arm. But we can make the best of what we have and definitively make life at least slightly easier for him" Frank nodded, sitting up to the side of the bed and starting to fumble to get his shirt back on. He already wasn't enjoying being here, but he was glad this appointment was only to get a feel for his injuries.

"What's the best we can do, then?" she asked, gravitating next to Frank and helping him pull his shirt down. The doctor shrugged, "It depends person to person. We won't really know what his 'limits' are, per se, until we reach them."

"Hm, okay...thanks." she looked down, sighing a bit, and taking Frank's hand. "I understand this is going to be a bit hard long term for the both of you, but we'll do the best we can to make the best out of it. Thank you both, Frank, Aurelia, I'll see you both next week." He left the room, leaving it open for them to leave. Frank stood up off of the bed, feigning politeness as they both left the office and re-entered the elevator, before letting out a long exasperated sigh as the elevator doors closed to bring them back down to the ground floor.

Aurelia looked up for the first time in a while in the elevator. "Fuck..." she hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry..." He held her, whispering "This whole thing is...so fucked....I know I never should've joined, but I know if I didn't, we'd never meet and you'd probably be dead by now....We probably shouldn't of ran the border, but if we didn't, we very well could both be dead right now...I don't really know what to do, Aur.....This whole thing is so fucked, no decision is right, or wrong...I'm going to drive myself nuts just thinking about it." She broke the hug and looked him in the eyes. "You know which decision was the right one? The one where we're both guaranteed to survive." she told him. "You did the right thing." she asserted. "You did. Look, we're alive. And we've got each other." she told him, stretching the one leg she could to reach his face and kiss him.

He kissed her briefly, electing not to continue the conversation for the sake of both their sanities. "Thanks." was all he elected to say as the elevator doors opened, "So, where are you taking us? Movie?"

"Yeah, she said, pulling out her phone and starting to walk. "We're gonna watch some fun movie and have a great time. Because I just saw a bunch of trailers and I need to see one of those movies." she joked, heading out the front door.

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 5. WHO BUYS PLASTIC CHAIRS?

they both screw up their sleep schedule because they can and wake up at 4am to enjoy the sunrise on really crappy plastic lawn chairs.

really not much else to this one.


The following six days had been more or less uneventful; Frank had gone back to work and Aurelia had sulked around the apartment hoping for a school to accept her existing college credits. Both had visited the doctors, too, with Frank going to the rehabilitation center, alone this time, and Aurelia going to get her cast off. It was now the following Friday.

Frank came in after work that Friday at about five thirty, immediately entering and more or less collapsing on the couch. "I never appreciated how much I'd hate a nine to five job." he murmered. Aurelia had been totally asleep, and for once, seemed to have stayed asleep despite the commotion of Frank entering and him addressing her.

He sighed, snapping his fingers infront of her for a second before realizing she was completely asleep. He sighed, before seeing her comfortably napping drew him to the same conclusion; without bothering to get out of his work suit he crept in between her and the back of the couch, trying his best not to wake her. Once he had shifted himself into position on the sofa he quickly fell asleep next to her.

Aurelia woke up sometime in the night, surprised to see Frank had gone to sleep up against her.She quickly fished her phone from the ground and checked the time. 4:31 AM. She blinked, having slept something like thirteen hours, turning to Frank and gently rocking him to wake him up. It'd been something around eleven hours for him, she assumed. He slowly shook awake with a sigh, "Urgh...fuck..what time is it?"

"4:30, sleepyhead." she whispered, stretching out her arms. "In the afternoo-.." He looked outside with the corner of his eye, noticing it was still dark outside. "Fuuuuuuuuuck..." He slowly pushed himself up on the couch. "We really need to stop sleeping for like, twelve hours a day..."

"Shoulda woken me up when you got home, then." she said, rolling off of the couch and onto the floor with a light thump, and stretching out some more, her joints popping.

"Well, like, you looked pretty comfortable...and I was tired...so i thought we'd take a nap..." He sighed...stretching his arms. "Obviously that went well." She jumped up to her feet, looking out the window to see the glow of the city - and the earliest twinge of the sun behind that. "Hm." she said, pondering something. "I don't think we've used our balcony yet."

"Yeah, you're right." He fumbled to get his jacket off, trying to get himself more comfortable before standing up next to her. "Probably too early for alcohol." he remarked.

"We're not gonna drink all the time, Frank." she sighed, strolling over to the balcony door and opening it, a slight hint of a limp still in her gait.

"We haven't drank anything since the plane!" he reaffirmed, before confining himself to her judgement. He went over to the balcony with her, plopping himself down in one of the two lawn chairs. She raised an eyebrow. "That's because you passed out on the plane and I can't remember if I puked or not..." she frowned. "And you're on medicine. It's not good to drink while taking that."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right." He was already getting used to letting her have her way, mostly to avoid upsetting her but at least partially he recognized she was probably right. "So, anything new on med schools?"

"I'll probably be able to get into the big one in Hematite - whatever it's called." she yawned loudly, stretching her arms out again. "But I'd have to see if they can accept my credits from home..." she sighed, watching the lights go on in a neighboring apartment building "No reason why they shouldn't" he reaffirmed, resting his arm on her shoulders. "Hopefully you won't be there long, either."

"Yup." she agreed, looking to his face, cloaked in shadow.

He smiled at her, "Dr. Octavia sounds good. That's probably the best part. Anywhere you sign you're name they'd immediately know you're smart."

She giggled. "I'm not that smart..." she grinned.

He pulled her closer slightly, whispering "That's what all the smart people say."

The sun was properly rising now. "Really? " she grinned deviously. "I'm apparently not smart enough to realize they do that then." she said, looking around a bit awkwardly. "I see it more as a defense instinct; Naturally, if I was smart, I wouldn't want to be telling everyone about it." he reaffirmed. "So, naturally, your mind tells you you're dumb."

She put her arm around his shoulders, dragging the plastic chair over a bit to get closer to him. "You're probably a really good spy." she laughed. He was now more focused on her than the sunrise, "Did I tell you about the time I infiltrated Luvonia?"

"No. What happened?" she asked sarcastically. "Nothing. It was a bullshit story I told to pick up girls in bars. I still spy on desks." he joked, relaxing himself in the chair. "Well, that was anticlimactic." she grinned, looking out at the sunrise.

"I would make up some story about infiltrating in, about how their country was shit and nothing like Nova Ardia, I'd shoot a person or two-..." He trailed off suddenly, unwillingly walking into a very bad memory, but he quickly pulled himself out of it. "And escape in Bond-style."

"Lame." she remarked. "Luvonia's just boring. Should have infiltrated foreign terrorists or something."

"That would've been a far better story for picking up chicks." He grinned, "But I don't think I'll need one of those anymore anyways." She cocked her head to the side, looking up at him now. "Good." He leaned over to kiss her, holding her kinda awkwardly through both the lawn chairs. "We probably should buy something that seats two." he said sarcastically.

She kissed him back, closing her eyes briefly as the sun shined straight onto them, before breaking off. "Why do we have plastic chairs?"

"Came with the apartment." he reminded, rubbing her shoulder as they broke off. "We'll need to go out and find something better."

"There's a lot of stuff we need to update on..." she noted. "I haven't had makeup in weeks. You need new glasses. Chairs...couch...cable package..."

He chuckled, "Yeah, we got a busy weekend. Let's just try to enjoy this now, I guess."

"Yeah..." she agreed, poking him playfully. "I like this place."

"Mhm...me too." he responded, holding her as the sun continued to rise, albeit obstructed mostly by buildings. "Takes some getting used to, but I can live with it."

"Good. Because I love it." she grinned, resting her head on his arm.

He nodded, repositioning her arm wrap around her and whispering. "I'm alright in most places as long as I'm with you." He paused, "Preferably some time in a actual house would be nice though" he grinned. "Lame. Maybe later." she responded. He laughed, just enjoying the moment for now. "We'll be fine for now, I guess."

He sat there for a minute as the sun continued to rise, thinking of conversation "So you said I asked you out when I was high in Luvonia...what'd I say?"

"You asked me when I'd consider our relationship as being a thing. When we left the prison or when we left Ardia." He sat back, slightly taken back by the question; perhaps wondering why he said it, or perhaps because it actually was now a valid question. "What'd you say?"

"I said it would be today. Back then. Uhm." She paused. "So, like, it would be when you asked me." He laughed, squeezing her that much closer to him. "You're still cute when I'm high, I guess."

"And you're still cute when you're high." she replied, clearly in sincerity. "Cuter." she corrected herself. He laughed, before remarking "Wait...are you implying I'm high [/i]now[/i] or? Didin't think the meds were that bad" jokingly. She shook her head. "No. I'm talking about those opiates they had you on in Luvonia."

He smiled, nodding. "Mhm...I still don't remember shit so...if you did something to me when I was out you'd tell me, right?" he spoke with a obvious sense of sarcasm.

She nodded twice. "No shit." she smirked.

"Dunno..." he said, continuing to reek of sarcasm. "Could've slipped me one of those drugs that makes someone love someone...." he remarked as he kissed her neck. "You are a pharmacist and soon to be med student...I wouldn't put it above you..."

"There's no such thing as a love potion." she paused. "Only love." she grinned, congratulating herself internally for hopefully saying something poignant. Even if she was jumping for the 'L' word a bit soon for relationship standards. "Dunno..." he remarked. "Coulda slipped me some ecstasy before we got on the plane or something." He laughed, "But at this point, whatever you did worked.... I guess I can just live with 'love' as a explanation." He kissed her, closing his eyes for a moment as they held it, before breaking off. "I'm still wagering you put something in my drink though, because I had no clue this would actually work out."

"Have it your way, then." she giggled, staring at the sun briefly. "But seriously...we gotta stop talking about how impossible all this seemed or my head's gonna explode."

"Yeah, same..." he sighed, staring outwards as the city woke up. "I'll go get some coffee I guess, you want any this time?"
He nodded, standing up to leave for the kitchen. Several minutes later he returned with two cups of coffee, both with creamer, setting them both down on the plastic table infront of their chairs. He sat back down, grabbing his coffee. "At least that's one thing we don't have to be picky about" he referred, referring to the identical coffees.

"Yeah..." she trailed off, grabbing her coffee and gulping it down almost immediately. He nodded, sipping his far more gently. "Well, mightaswise get going soon. Plenty of shit to do today."

[hobbes]

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 6. EVICTION NOTICE

Aurelia is studying to become a doctor, has no social life, more stuff happens




I. 1. A. Some congenital diseases can lead to... The words went until they nearly fell off of the page before beginning again on the other side. Aurelia had really lost track of time these days, unless it was a deadline or an exam. She was sprawled out on the living room floor, four textbooks at her right side and a stack of paper on the other. Studying for what seemed like an eternity only broken by the brief moments where she wasn't alone. Frank had a job, and apparently, a job that involved people counting on him, so he couldn't hang around much. At least, that was what it seemed like to her, now. She hadn't done anything for fun in weeks...

Frank shifted into the apartment at about 6 in the afternoon, he had left at 7 in the morning. A eleven hour day was far from unheard of for him. He originally just gave Aurelia a nod as he shifted into the kitchen, setting down the groceries he had brought in, before he realized they both were stuck in a bit of a rut. He shifted back to the living room, plopping himself down on the couch and looking at her. "We haven't really like, done anything in weeks. Let's go do something." he paused, "Any ideas?"

Aurelia gave him only a passing glance, not out of indifference, but out of sheer concentration on the stack of papers in front of her. "No, I gotta take these notes and then, I have to review that old chapter and..." she sighed. "Too busy." before beginning to write again.

He himself sighed, reclining to lay across the couch as he watched her. "You've been doing nothing but studying for the last two weeks. You could stand to get out of the house." She looked up at him again, not saying a word before delving back into the textbook. He was right, and perhaps she was rationalizing it in her mind, but she had always blamed the accelerated course for that. The bags under her eyes might have been telling a different story, not one of sheer determination, but perhaps one of situational depression just as she'd had back in the prison. She lacked enthusiasm, and her entire mind had been laced with doubts over her morality with the people she could be helping. "I'm fine." she insisted almost involuntarily under her breath as she continued reading.

He grunted, rolling off of the couch and onto the floor next to her. When she turned to look at him, he crawled up next to her, doing his best to fix her messy hair and trying to wipe away the bags under her eyes. "You really need to get out of the house." he remarked again, rolling on his back to look at the ceiling, being careful not to disrupt any of her study items as he shifted around.

"I'm fine." she repeated, flipping the page over to the other side and beginning to write the next section's notes. He continued to look up at the ceiling, "I think we know each other well enough that we both know you're not fine." She didn't respond, feeling she didn't have time to doubt herself, and instead continuing to write, the sounds of the pencil writing on the paper creating an almost monotone scraping they could both hear.(edited)

He sighed, deciding not to prod the problem further. He pushed himself up, being careful not to disrupt her. "Well, I guess if you need anything, let me know." He sighed, leaving her to her studying and going to the bedroom to change into more comfortable night clothes.

As he left, she gave him a brief glance, before returning to her studies. Half of her had almost been hoping he'd insist, or close the book in her face. But the other half was only focused on work. And as she thought of her own internal struggle, her mind drifted over to her Psychology course. Superego and Id? Fucking...fucking Freud. She thought, referring to some outdated and arguably disproven theory she'd still have to learn for historical context on the whole course. And then she remembered she had a quiz on that soon, and she started writing down notes twice as fast, almost to the point of scribbling.

He eventually re-emerged, in far more comfortable clothing; shorts and a t-shirt, and shifted himself around Aurelia to get to the recliner, popping it out and plopping himself into it. He was debating turning the TV on before deciding against it due to her studying. After sitting there for a minute, he decided to just take the question out of it. "We'll go somewhere after I take a quick nap. Maybe the waterfront." he trailed off, Internally he thought he'd just drop it if she seriously opposed, but he was having real difficulty reading what she wanted. He eventually just sighed and drifted off to sleep in the recliner.(edited)

Aurelia once again didn't respond, but her mind had made itself up. She had to finish all of her shit if she was going to get dragged off anywhere. But minutes of studying turned to an hour turned to two, and every second she'd found her face a bit closer to the book until finally she dropped into a very light sleep and her mind entered surrealistic nightmare territory. But today wasn't like usual. Occasionally, she'd have some brief PTSD episode, some anxiety attack over some issue that didn't exist, but never some weird slow motion fever dream. That was, until today.

Frank had, himself, shifted into a uneventful nap, until he was awoken at around 9pm suddenly by the loud thunk of a book hitting the ground; Aurelia had shifted in her sleep, hitting a leg of table on the edge of the living room and causing a book on it to fall off. She was mumbling loudly in her sleep and her arms occasionally shifted violently, He immediately knew what was happening, and jumped out of the recliner and crouched down next to Aurelia, rolling her over onto her back. He lifted her head up slightly, slapping her lightly to try and wake her up. "Hey now...hey.....hey...it's alright...Relax..." He mumbled, trying to pull her out of the dream as he laid the back of her head on his lap.

Aurelia's eyes shot open at the first slap, and she spent the next ten seconds trying to swat Frank's hand out of the way. "There's...there's probably better ways to wake me up.." she mumbled, before yawning loudly. He smiled at her, retracting his hand. "You scared me there." he remarked.

"I what?" she squinted. "What time is it?"

He looked around, her tossing and turning had made a bit of a mess out of her little study area. "Nine at night." he said.

"Ugh..." she wiped her eyes before closing them. "I'm tired..."

"You sure you're alright?" he asked sincerely, still sitting down next to her and holding her upright. He slowly came down from the adrenaline rush seeing her struggle had put him in. She hugged him. "I had a dream where we died." she whispered.

He laid himself, and thus them both backwards onto the floor, staring at eachother in a hug. He elected not to respond to her directly, just holding her closer as she whispered to him. They hugged for at least several minutes, before he whispered. "Do you just want to go to bed or should we still go out?"

"I don't know..." she trailed off, "I don't know anything anymore except that I have a defense mechanism and shit's firing off in my brain and I've been studying too much and you're never around-" she said, rocketing off like a twelve year old with ADHD.

He cut her off at 'never around', just kissing her briefly in their embrace, before running his good hand down her cheek. "We both knew the first few months of this would be hard." He paused, ensuring she was paying attention. "I'm only on overtime because of the whole Ionia thing, it'le blow over in a month, tops, and I'll be home sooner. You'll have the credits you need soon, too, then you'll be a Doctor and everything will work out. I promise." He was reassuring himself just as much as her, at this point.

"What Ionia thing?" she asked, totally clueless to anything going on outside of a twenty meter radius of their apartment.

"They walked into Vienra" he remarked, sighing. "I heard it's rather messy."

"Oh, right." she trailed off. "So nothing's changed." she sighed. "Mmf..."

"Well..." he remarked "...The Ionians tried taking it back, Ionians got routed...Rumors aren't good about what's going on in the city..."

"Oh, I don't give a shit anymore..." she frowned, burying her face into him.

"You did ask..." he said, obviously in jest, He rested his head ontop of hers. "But we shouldn't worry about that now. You want to go out or stay here?"

"I want to go out." she said, breaking from the hug and rolling off of him before standing up and straightening herself out. Her hair was hanging messily over her face, blocking out one of her eyes from view and making her look more like a moody teenager than an almost-doctor.

He pushed himself up, looking her over briefly and fixing her hair - again -. "You sure you don't want to get changed or put any makeup on?" he remarked, trying to avoid a situation where they leave and she immediately regrets not fixing it.

"No. I don't care." she told him, looking down at her sweatpants and mismatched socks. "I look fine..."

"To me, yes, but you need to also look beautiful to everyone else." he teased, backing her into the wall next to the apartment door before kissing her neck affectionately. He figured making her feel wanted was the easiest way to get all of this off of her mind.

She squeezed his wrist. "It's 9 PM...who the hell's gonna care?" she asked.

He smirked, whispering "Aren't you the one who wants everyone to see us kiss in public?" He paused a second, shifting his position as he kissed her. "I'll make this easier for you." he said with a smirk, and his hand shifted to her rear, squeezing it for a second passionately before using it as a platform to lift her up onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry, making out with her as he brought her up; one major benefit of only having one arm is the other one had become necessarly stronger. She felt herself being placed onto his shoulder, and looked backwards as he carried her back to the bedroom. He plopped her down next to the closet, which mostly had her clothes in it. "Surprise me." he whispered giddily, before leaving to wait for her in the living room. Though Frank was having at least some fun, he knew the main purpose of overdoing this was to get Aurelia's mind off of studying and the many problems they faced ahead.

She giggled as he lifted her up, wiggling her legs around briefly to try and get him to set her down early. After getting set down, she looked at the closet, her eye twitching a little bit at the thought of looking passable now. She delved into the closet and put on some shorts and a tank top filled with pictures of cats that she'd found for some extremely reduced price three weeks before. She threw her socks off, took a brief look at herself in the mirror, and headed out, groggily smiling at Frank when she got out into the living room.

He looked her over, smirking before taking her hand and opening the door for her. "You look great." he whispered with a smile as they descended the stairs to the boulevard below.

She shoved some shoes on and followed him down. Gone were her days of hobbling down stairs, but she nevertheless disliked them. "So, where are we going now? Another walk?"

"Going to hop on the tube to the waterfront" he announced, "Shouldn't take long." They entered the tube station, boarding the next train, and arrived at the waterfront district 10 minutes later; most promiment was a long boardwalk with various shops and restuarants. "Anything in particular you wanna do?" he asked as they exited the tube station, crossing a street to reach the boardwalk. Various container ships, cruise liners, warships, sailboats, and etcetera were in the harbor, lit up at night, and it offered a nice view of downtown Hematite on the other side of the harbor.

"Uhm, no, not really. I want to study..." she trailed off, looking at the view. One of the many buildings in the skyline was partially a hospital. She wondered if she'd ever get to work there. "Oh, shhh." he remarked. Knowing neither of them had ate dinner, he went looking with her. Finding a place was actually kind of difficult though; most places were exclusively seafood because of the locale, which neither of them were particular fans of seafood. They settled on a family ran restuarant that seemed to offer most common dishes, and more importantly had tables outfront overlooking the bay. Frank got a table for two outfront and they sat down.

Aurelia proceeded quietly alongside him, sitting down and waiting. Her mind was a frustrating amalgamation of wanting to do nothing and wanting to do everything and it served nothing more than to piss her off. She hoped she wasn't pissing Frank off, too.

"I...well...I just need you to know I'm here for you." Frank was aware he sounded more or less cliche, but it was the most he could muster right now given their circumstances. "I, mean, well, we're here for each other." Right as he finished a waitress arrived, taking their orders for drinks.

Aurelia ordered beer. "Haven't we already been over this?" she asked him. "Just..." she looked down. "I don't know..."
She looked up, clearly wanting to tell him something but waiting for the waitress to leave.

He was halfway through ordering a soda when she ordered a beer, and internally decided to just get a beer as well. The waitress left them with the drinks, when he continued, "We have...just...you know...It hasn't been easy."

He corrected himself in his seat, sipping the beer. "I guess you're right, yeah, we shouldn't talk about this." referring to the initial circumstances of their relationship.

"I'm starting to hate things I shouldn't hate..." she frowned.

He smirked, happy to change the subject. "Like?"

"Sleeping. Studying. The thought of being a doctor. Food. Comfy couches. Music..." she sighed.

"So basically you're starting to hate life." he joked, "That's more common than you think."

"I...I don't hate life..." she frowned.

He sighed, "Mhmf...." waiting for a waitress to take their orders for food before continuing; Frank ordered a sandwich. Aurelia reluctantly ordered a different sandwich, smiling weakly at the waitress.

Once she left, he continued. "I...erm...talked to my boss the other day." He took a sip of the beer, to calm his nerves. "He recommended we may want to look into, well, therapy. Said he knows someone." He paused awkwardly, evidently not sure himself how to see the suggestion.

"For-for me?" she asked, looking down. "For us? We're fine. Our relationship's fine."

"I was referring to both of us." he said, seriously, "Not for our relationship, but for what we've been through..." He sighed, drinking more of his beer. "I don't know if we can keep going just pretending that it didn't happen."

Aurelia looked down at the bubbles on her beer. She hadn't even touched it. "It happened...but....I mean, that's behind us now. My dreams have been getting better. Just...I still occasionally get a weirder one like this."

He frowned, electing not to push the idea harder. "Just keep it in mind, I mean." He looked out over the bay, a sailboat was cresting waves at speed, but the sail had been replaced with a gigantic Dartfordian flag illuminated by a spotlight. A flashing neon sign saying 'LEAVE' flickered in various colors. Just another day in Hematite. "I'm just...worried about it...you know? I mean, I don't know, am I being paranoid?"

"Yeah, you are." she assured him, wondering if he was being paranoid. "Actually..." she paused. "I think I only hate stress."

He smiled at her assurances, deciding to himself that he probably was being paranoid. "Well, when you coop yourself up in the apartment for weeks at a time looking at the same chapters of a textbook you get plenty of that." he smirked. She shook her head. "They're not the same chapters and they're not the same textbooks. I gotta lot of shit to do."

"Oh shush, you know what i'm saying. You need to find time to like, enjoy life." he smiled, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Life is..." she was about to say 'unenjoyable' impulsively but caught herself, recognizing not only the red flags that would set off but the fact that it wasn't true at all. "...tolerable." He looked at her, slightly confused by the...oddity...of that statement, "I expected something more..flamboyant, I guess." He shrugged, thinking she had intended on saying that.

"I mean, like...It's not very fun at the moment."

He nodded, "Well, the suckiest things are that much more fun if you're doing it with someone you love." He still felt slightly odd about using the word 'love' - even if they had been together for some time by now, but he traced that back to the way they met.

"Do you want to study for me? That's academic dishonesty." she teased.

He smirked, "I mean, I couuuuullld, but you wouldn't be able to read the notes"

"Bullshit. You seen my handwriting? It's not much better than yours, now." she grinned. He laughed, "Well, someone's got the makings of a good doctor then." She started giggling perhaps a bit too loudly. "Aw, stoooop!" He smiled, placing his hand on hers "Just think, in a few months you'll be a doctor making four times my salary and it'll all work out"

"And you'll be a-" she paused suddenly, a weird expression going over her face. She held on it for a second, before immediately sneezing into her elbow. He grinned, almost laughing, "A what?"

"A-a-a-a-" she started again, sneezing a second time into her elbow before blinking a couple of times. He laughed, when suddenly his phone started ringing. His hand moved to his front right pocket, pulling it out before answering it with a sigh. "Yeah? - Oh, hello, sir...No...I'm kinda of in the middle of something, sir..."
Aurelia nodded at Frank, having noticed that it was job related.

He was on the phone for another two or three minutes or so, mumbling things like "I'd really prefer if I didn't..", "Nowhere near the line...?" and "Tomorrow at five?" With each passing minute of the conversation, he shrunk in his chair, looking down at the ground near his feet. He finally ended the conversation with a "Understood", hanging up the phone and putting it in his pocket. He sighed, looking over at the harbor and deciding very carefully how to address this.

Aurelia grinned at him. "Hm. What is it?" - He was thinking of a long way to dabble around the issue, but all of that went out the window. "They're sending me to Ionia." Her grin disappeared, forming into a totally neutral expression, but she didn't say anything.

He also elected not to say anything else, still looking at the harbor, tapping his hand on his leg. He finally blurted out "They want me to leave tomorrow at five in the afternoon." She didn't react. Perhaps her brain had gone numb, or perhaps she'd simply filtered him out, distracted by some sort of morbid internal screaming, pleading with nothingness for him to stay.

He pulled out his wallet, deciding to pay for the food. Neither of them were likely to finish it given that announcement. He left a somewhat hefty tip before electing to stand up and placing his hands in his pockets. She didn't stand, but her eyes followed him, a hint of a shine in them that usually wasn't there perfectly obvious in the light of the city.

He half-assedly signaled her to follow him before walking over to the railing of the bay, wrapping his hand around her waist when they both reached the railing. He whispered what little encouragement he could offer, truth be told he wasn't a huge fan of going himself. "They said I won't be anywhere near the fighting...I can...erm...call every night, yeah."

She sluggishly got up and followed him, stopping at the Railing and grabbing his hand lightly. "I'll be...it'll...fine...I'm fine..." she mumbled, not even properly audible. He leaned over to kiss her, holding her over the railing for a moment before breaking it and holding the hug. "You will. You're strong, we both know it." he whispered.

"Please don't die." she whispered. "Please."

He held her closer, trying to ignore the fact he himself was tearing up. "I won't." He lifted her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. "Promise." She blinked once, sighing, before closing her eyes completely.

They held each other for a few more minutes, before Frank finally broke it off. "We should get going." He took her hand as they began walking back to the train station.