'Brian Loveless' Rough Draft (Don't Say I Didn't Warn Ya!)

[aunt_zelda]

What follows are several excerpts from ‘Brian Loveless’ a book Molly picked out in ‘The Quiet Life: Part 2’ as much as I like the title, I haven’t got much written … Azazeal kinda stole me away … so I’ll post clips from that seconds after this! Then you’ll all be REALLY confused!

 

Brian Loveless

 

“Find anything?” Brian asked the man climbing out of the manhole.

“Nah, Brian, just sludge and stink,” the man wrinkled his nose. “That’s where scum like him belong, with the rest of the vermin, why don’t we just leave him to die?”

Brian scowled. “Because I won’t believe he’s dead until I feel the life leave his body. I’ll take the West Side, you and the others cover the Lower City and the East. Find him – contact me immediately.”

The man nodded. “Sir, yes sir!” he smiled, attempting a salute.

Brian didn’t smile back.

~*~

Two figures were locked in a passionate, bloody embrace down in the sewers, hardly able to be seen, their black clothes and dark hair melting into the dank pipes around them.

“Stab me in the back,” the taller – a man – hissed. “And let the blood run down,”

The shorter figure – a woman – sighed, tears soaking her face. “Why do you maim, hack, and paint red the town?”

The two figures hummed morbidly as they staggered to the surface, the old metal song summoning memories they weren’t sure they wanted to recall.

~*~

(Stuff about Brian and the associates I haven’t written yet  …)

~*~

Taylor stared across the room at the man she’d been hugging in the sewers twenty-minutes ago. Three years – he hadn’t changed a bit.

She tried to say something, then stopped. Murderer … hissed through her brain.

He pivoted on the spot. “Are you going to kill me now? I don’t see why here is any better than in the sewers … you could have just led your friends right to me … I’m sure Brian would be proud to do the honors …”

Taylor scowled. “They’re not my friends – war changed them. Brian never let that thing out before … now he gives lets it go free, especially where you’re concerned …”

He shrugged. “Comes of being a traitor, I suppose. Matilda and Trevor Sherwood’s blood is always going to be on my hands, Taylor, no matter how many barrage balloons Sherwood Associates blow up.”

Taylor lunged across the room, tackling the man to the floor, the knife she kept up her sleeve at his throat. “Don’t you talk about them!” she demanded.

He gazed up at her, leaning up so that her knife cut into his skin – drawing blood. Taylor jumped back, tossing the knife away as if it burned her skin.

“Samell, you sick bastard!” she screeched, tears trickling down her face.

Samell sat up, rubbing his neck. “I love you too, Tay,” he raised his eyebrows. “Fine – I won’t mention what I’ve done. Does that mean I’m moving back in?”

Taylor stood up and crossed the floor to the window, biting her lip. “Yeah, I guess so …”

Samell shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I'll go and get some coffee, then."

Taylor. "Ok,"

He left.

She sighed, fingers entwined in the curtain, eyes cast out into the dimly lit street. "You're in love with a murderer, you're in love with a murderer," she repeated over and over to herself.

 

(Something happens that night, I don’t know what, but everyone but Brian dies. Well, Samell survives, and Taylor probably too, but the rest of the Sherwood Associates team die. Several years pass.

This is how Tira and Brian (who become partners in … time travel? Dimension-hopping? Brian’s quest to find his son? I haven’t exactly figured that out yet. Sherwood Associates is re-built eventually …)

 

The raven-haired girl coolly strode up the gangplank, dropped her duffle bag by the hammock, and hung her jacket on a peg.

"Who are you?" Brian demanded.

The girl glanced at him. "Tira. Flood's coming. I'm staying with you on this barge." Tira set about unpacking.

Brian stared at her. "Um ...

 

(Another lapse of time. Sorry … I really don’t have much yet … anyhoodle, Brian’s found his son – but ends up getting into a headed argument with his son’s girlfriend, Kyle – who’s a girl … don’t ask, I haven’t figured it out yet – in a bar. Tira is off to the side. Seventh Twilight Devotees drag people’s greatest fears out and make them face them psychologically – they believe that nobody should hide from their fears and weaknesses but recognize and embrace them. Not too many people share this view.)

 

"People should face their fears, not hide them away in their subconscious!" Kyle retorted.

Brian glared into her purple eyes. "Nightmare-seamstress -" he began.

Leroy stepped forward. "Leave her alone!" he snapped, shoving Brian back and wrapping an arm around Kyle's shoulders.

Kyle exchanged a glance with Leroy. "I can handle myself," she said.

"I know, but there's no reason for him to get all up in your grill." Leroy's lips brushed against Kyle's forehead. She sighed gently and closed her eyes. "Let's blow this joint, I'm sick of cantinas,"

They left, entwined together so tightly it was hard to discern whose legs were around whose hips and which fingers were in whose hair.

Brian stared after them. "So," he murmured to himself. "That's my son, eh?"

Tira - who'd been sitting at the bar - swung around in her spiny stool. "Yeppers."

They sat and stood in silence for a while.

"He's got your eyes," Tira ventured.

"Thanks," Brian shifted from foot to foot. "That girl with him ... she's a Seventh Twilight Devotee, right?"

Tira raised her eyebrows at him. "Purple eyes, little horns in her forehead, black leather? Of course she's a Seventh Twilight Devotee!" she sipped her neon-green drink.

Brian sighed. "Didn't think my son would be the fanatical religious type,"

Tira shrugged. "Could just be hanging out with the Devotee. She's wicked hot for a humanoid: you're son's got good taste." Tira giggled and downed the rest of her drink. "So," she slammed a bill onto the table and jumped off her stool. "Shall we follow them?"

Brian shook his head. "Nah, I'd rather not," he took Tira's recently vacated stool and ordered a shimmering beer. "All grown up," he muttered to himself. "All grown up ..."

 

(Samell – who is kinda the arch enemy of Brian – decided to please us slash-fans. He loves us, like ZQ …)

 

“You know people are going to write slash fanfic about us if this is ever a show, right?” Brian asked idly.

Samell grinned. “I welcome the idea,” he trailed his teeth along Brian’s neck. “Let’s see …” he laughed and began to narrate:

 

Brian whimpered slightly as Samell’s teeth caressed his neck. “You’re a murderer! You killed my father!” he protested.

“Clichés, Brian, clichés …” Samell laughed a chilling laugh and began to suffocate the other man in a passionate kiss.”

 

In real life, Samell did kiss Brian: passionately, suffocatingly, on the lips. Brian was so taken aback he couldn’t move.

It was only by the time Samell drew back that Brian’s mind started working again.

Samell smiled and shrugged. “For the fans,” he explained, and vanished down the street. 

 

(A while later. Sherwood Associates is re-built. Brian and Tira are a part of it. Brian has a Jekyll/Hyde thing going on, and is sent to get information out of Azazeal, a mysterious ‘woman’ who he HATES. I have no clue why yet, or why she hates everyone. I have her backstory in the post following this one though! Azazeal’s been through some pretty intense torture that I’ll write eventually, and this is just jumping right in towards the end.)

 

“Didn’t …” Azazeal gasped. “Didn’t …”

He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back. “Didn’t what?” he demanded.

She locked eyes with him. “You … didn’t … change …” she sputtered. “Didn’t change ...” she rocked forward, vomiting onto the floor. “Not him … you … all this time …” she threw up some more. “Your eyes … didn’t switch … still ... you … not him …” she managed to turn her head and stare into his violet and green eyes. “How does it feel, Loveless, to be a monster all on your own?” she doubled over, twitching and coughing.

The others were in the cell seconds later.

“What the hell, Loveless?!” Adam demanded, grabbing Brian by the shoulders and shaking him. “It was you doing all that?!”

“Dear God – Shiva, Zeus, Buddha, Apollo …” Tira knelt down next to Azazeal.

“Don’t touch me, egg-breaker,” Azazeal hissed, turning slightly to flash her golden eyes at the now recoiling Tira. “I’ll kill you all … but I’m saving him for last …” she moaned and pressed her hands onto the floor, coughing up more of the contents of her stomach.

~*~

They were back in the control room now, Azazeal hadn’t tried to stop them from leaving for the first time; she’d thrown up a bit more and curled up into a corner, rocking back and forth.

Tira was scanning computer images, old recordings, jaw set. She paused and zoomed in on an image of Azazeal being electrocuted. A pair of unequal eyes filled the screen.

“That was you!” Tira stared at Brian. “You did that … not him … you did that!” she sorted through more clips, coming to the violet and green eyes again and again.

Brian seemed to be a statue, arms crossed, eyes unblinking as he was revealed again and again.

Tira rose and started for him, shock and pain in her eyes. “You did all that, to her!” she drew back her arm and hit Brian in the face. He reeled back.

“Can you feel that?” Tira demanded, cocking her head. She slapped the other side of his face. “How about that?”

 

(Sorry, that’s all I’ve got for Brian right now. But Azazeal, on the other hand … dare ya to read my next post!)