Weghorst Pub

Two people are carrying a third between them. On of the carriers is Haaku while the other is a stranger. The unconscious one is Shinn. The third is a female. Shoulder length black hair and red eyes that are familiar to anyone that resides at the pub. They set Shinn down as gently as they can...it's easy to see they were involved in heavy fighting. The female straightens up and wanders around the pub before finally stopping at the wedding picture.

"Is anyone here?" Haaku calls out not used to the pub being so quiet. Not hearing an immediate answer he slumps into one of the chairs.

"You two clean up well." The female tell Haaku as she sits across from him.

"I can't believe you got involved in all this 'Everlast'." Haaku says with a grimace.

A truck can be heard outside, coming to a slow stop a building down. It can be heard idling in place for about a quarter minute before a banging is heard and it drives off. A figure approaches the doors and slowly pushed the door open with his boot, stepping through with their M4 6.8SPC Carbine at half ready.
Evan (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/01/21/article-1244913-07D97E83000005DC-66_306x352.jpg) looks tired as he looks around, his eyes locking on Shinn then The others. He leaned against the doorframe without uttering a word.

The sleeping figure woke with a slight jerk, body on high alert. She sat up quickly, on hand already on the gun that she kept beside while the other moved to push off of the bed. She rose silently, knowing the weak spots in the floor well enough to make it to the top of the stairs without a creak. She slowly made her way down, on step at a time until she heard a voice. She froze at Haakus call, her body relaxing a bit. She was intent to go down and greet until she heard an unfamiliar female voice. She stayed where she was, flat against the stair wall, gun at the ready.

"How did you guys find this place?" The female voice asks as she glances around her mind analyzing defensive spots and possible escapes.

"I found it through Shinn...which is a long story. It became a home to me...but it's much more to Shinn...The people that are usually here...the people in that photograph are why he fought back...why he called us together and why the idiot took it upon himself to cut the head off the project." Haaku was almost shouting by this point. His nerves having been frayed during the walk back.

"Do you think anyone is here?" She asks to try and distract him. "If there is they're either asleep or just not up to be talkative." He replies easily.

"Shinn never was one to ask for anyone else to do anything he felt obligated to do." Moses said in his deep voice. (Imagine Michael Ironside)
"I'm surprised he involved anyone else, to be frank." He shifted his weight from the right side of the door frame to the left. His fatigues and body armor were frayed, tattered, and singed. His skin looked twice as dark from dirt and dust, and he had blood caked at his hairline and under his fingernails.

Shinn had called on him for a strike against a building. Lacking the proper artillery resources at the time, having been allocated to another operation, him and his unit went in with C4 and det cord. The attempt was successful... But had taken a toll. He'd been spiraling since then.

In a blur of motion both conscious occupants were turned around with weapons pointed. Upon seeing him Haaku holsters his weapon and pushes Everlast's down. Smiling in happiness for the first time in a while.

"Long time no see Ev. How have you been? Shinn may be stubborn but he knew without help he'd lose...and you know why he refused to go down."

"Who are you?" The woman asks bluntly not exactly bringing her gun back up but not putting it away either. We just went through hell and just got here...and all of the sudden you show up?" She narrows her eyes in distrust.

"Haaku... I've been existing..." Moses said solemnly. "Let's just... Leave it at that." He shrugged half heartedly. It was readily apparent that something in the soldiers demeanor was broken.
He pointed down at his feet, where a small golf ball sized glass sphere lay on a aluminum plate, with a small spring between two posts inside the sphere. "Vibration sensor, hooked up to my uplink computer. Told me we had activity in here." He looked around, and stepped with a small limp towards the pictures on the wall. "I keep tabs on a lot of buildings in the area, this one holds special interest." He stared at a picture of him in a clean-ish set of beige tactical pants and a black shirt, an arm wrapped around a panting German Shepherd. Alandra was in the background, walking out of the kitchen door, towards a smiling Deville at the bar. "It used to be my home."

"Doors always open Ev" Fade said, knowing her time hiding in the stairs was over. "As a matter of Fact, sheets are in the upstairs closet... true the door was blown off.." she trailed off and started toward the bar, intent to find something to drink at this hour, and keeping an alert eye on the stranger in the room.

"You're as bad as Sirus was with his traps around here Ev. Haaku says with an easy smile happy to be back among those he considers family. Looking up as Fade walks to the bar his smile widens as he stands to greet her. "Hey Sis..how ya doing?" He asks never really losing the smile.

Everlast narrows her eyes on seeing Fade only glancing away as Shinn lets out a groan but doesn't wake. "It's your fault he's like this..."She directs at Fade her voice almost a growl. Haaku moves to stand between the women. "He went after Horn just because he knew about HER!" She screams into Haaku's face. Looking towards Evan and seeing no quarter given there she retreats to stand close to Shinn with her hands near her weapons.

"Uh... Excuse me, whatever your name is... Yeah, you're right. It's her fault he's like this. That he's still breathing. She's saved his life-hell, most of our lives more than any one of us can count." Moses said, hinting with a menacing tone, but not overtly so. He seemed to tense up, then unwind as pain sent a shock through his body. "So before you go off and start screaming and pointing fingers, I want you to remember where you are. And what company you're in. In case you haven't figured that out yet, we're Shinn's family, what's left of it."
He looked at Fade, trying to muster a smile but not doing that well. "Hiya, Fade... Good to see you." He paused, exhaling a heavy breath. "Are my things still upstairs, do you know?"

Fade nodded to Evan, her eyes still heated and gestured. "Go up, get cleaned up, then I wanna see where you hurting, Ev" She advised, walking past Evelast without sparing a glance and bending behind the bar. "Haaku, usual?" she asked bringing up one or two bottles and settling them down. She glanced down to uncap them. "Med supplies are in that cabinet there-" She gestured with a bottle while she walked to get a glass "-might want to patch yourselves up."

Moses nodded and walked over to the stairs, moving slowly and hoisting himself up slowly with the handrail.

Making it to the room that belonged to him, he pushed on the door with some force to open it, it having warped in the frame. He looked at the wooden crate at the foot of the bed, the tall grate locker against the wall, the pictures hanging up on the wall above the desk, and the maps on the next wall of the town. He stepped to his bedside table, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a frayed rag with something wrapped inside it. He flipped the rag open, staring at the object inside for a few moments.
The collar was made of well worn leather, black, but looked gray. The tag was so tarnished it was hard to read, but the name inscribed was short, and unmistakable.
Kira
He lay the collar down on the nightstand gingerly, stared at it once more, and sniffed slightly. He turned and went to the wall of pictures. He reached up, taking two from the wall that contained a brunette woman in her thirties. Samantha, his wife- now ex, as of a few days ago. He looked at them, then turned and hurled the frames out into the hall, glass exploding from them when they hit the wall.
He glared at the now destroyed frames and turned to take a seat on the bed, sinking heavily into the mattress from his additional foreign object weight. He reached at his hip and rest his hand on the grips of his Para 1911, slowly pulling it from the holster after a moment of concentration. Bringing it up in front of him, he studied it, thinking. Wondering...

Fire! Fire! Fuck, GET THAT EXTINGUISHER!

He shut his eyes, brought the .45 up to his head suddenly.
TIA, HANG ON! RUSS! FUCK!
He pushed the barrel into his head, violently shaking
TREY, WHERE ARE YOU?! KIRA??
He let out an infuriated scream and threw the handgun at the wall, bouncing off and skittering against the floor. He put his hands on his knees and stared at his feet, panting lightly...

"The usual sounds good...and you know me..I'll start to heal soon as i've gotten some rest...And you!" He growls out turning towards Everlast. "The only thing Fade is guilty of in that regard is being my brother's whole world. You weren't here..You weren't being attacked near daily with the Company's half-breeds. You were out there with your team having them thinking you had super powers.."

Hearing first glass breaking then something impacting the wall he rushed up the stairs guessing Fade would follow. "Evan...is everything ok?" He asks with concern evident in his voice.

Evan glared down at the floor. "No. No, everything is NOT okay. Everything is FUCKED." He put a hand to his forehead and let himself lean and fall backwards on the bed. "Everything is fucked..." He repeated. "And I can't fix it this time..."

Fade, close behind Haaku, yelled a quick "take Care of him" To Everlast and made it up stairs in time for Evan to fall back. She took stock of the shattered glass, torn picture and strewn gun and gazed at Evan. She bent, slowly, as if to not alarm any one and lifted his gun from the ground, holstering it for now. She kept her eyes calm, and with a steady motion swiped some glass out of her way before she crouched next to him. She cast her eyes on the empty spot on the wall where the picture of Evan and Samantha used to hang, it's paint free of the dust and soot from a warzone, making the memory stand out even more. Then her eyes fell to the collar on the stand, and her heart turned over, giving a few broken beats. "Ev," She murmured. "I'm sorry." She gingerly placed a hand on his shoulder, unable to think of the words that would make it better.

Evan just seemed to deflate. He looked up at Fade with hurt in his eyes, the look of someone lost and confused. "I had her since she was a pup... Five years... I... I don't know what went wrong... And... And she..." He held up his arms trying to grasp the words of what he was feeling...

"Evan...." Hakku starts...at a loss of words for once. "What happened?" He asks being blunt about it knowing no way else.

Everlast is close to the stairs trying to overhear what's going on up there when she hears Shinn start groaning. Looking towards him she sees him coming to.

It took him a moment to realize that he'd been asked a question. "The building, the one Shinn had me and my team take down... The extraction went bad. We got caught up in a battle with some fucking sort of human demon mixes... Flames, the shock wave..." He trailed off, taking a breath.
Flames flashed outward from the Blackhawks fuel lines, sending most of its passengers bailing and rolling out of the side doors to the dirt below. Garbled yells were heard over the radio as he rolled down the steep bank, before catching himself on an exposed root. The chopper spun above him, losing engine power. The pilot, Tiamat, nosed it as well as she could and it smacked right into the river below. Metal sheared, the rotars ripping at the water and tearing themselves apart, pieces of steel and aluminum and water flying in all directions. Yells were heard, screaming. He heard barking up the bank behind him...
He opened his eyes. "It's not just Kira..." He said after a moment

Fade settled next to Evan, brushing stray shards out of the way and reaching for the collar. "What else Ev?" She asked, Her eye touching on the blank spot on the wall while her fingers played over the collar absently.

Evan didn't say anything. Just slowly reached up into a pocket on his plate carrier, undoing the clip that kept it locked shut. He pulled out a ball bearing chain, with several dog tags attached to it. He held it, suspended in the air, watching them swing above his head left and right. Justine Tiamat Morales, Russel Jordain, Charles Medina. Familiar names to anybody who had met Moses's team. The names hung over him, whispering his name, calling him...
"I didn't see it..." He whispered slow and soft.

He slid down the bank, falling into the water and treading over to the sinking chopper, steam and smoke coming up from the surface as water met heat. He wrapped his fingers around the submerged side door and pulled himself under the surface and into the back compartment. He floated up to the front, finding the co-pilot had cut himself free and was attempting to free the pilots leg from the warped console.
Tiamat looked at Moses in fear, bubbles escaping her nose. Blood was wisping off of her face, neck, and trapped leg. He tried to help the copilot free her, but his tension on her limb made her scream, air rushing out of her mouth in a stream of bubbles.
His lungs started burning, and his attempts became more desperate...

Helping Shinn sit up Everlast fills him in on what she was able to hear. Hearing it is almost like a physical blow to Shinn. Looking down for a second to let everything that happened catch up to him he turns to her. "Get me up there..."He says his voice harsh from not being used.

"Evan..."Haaku begins..not knowing what to say. "We...Shinn should've never called you in...He wouldn't have if he knew it was that unsafe...He thought you'd be able to radio a strike or something." He moves towards Evan. "You're family...don't...bottle it up."

Shinn's eyes linger on the scene in front of him. All this pain was directly related to his selfish actions. His eyes dim even further seeing Fade.
"He's both right and wrong..."Shinn says from the doorway still using Everlast as support. "The blame is mine though." He tries to catch Evan's eyes. "As one soldier to another in this godforsaken war though...Mission Accomplished.."He manages in a broken whisper as h digs out the tags of Horn,high ranking officials and scientists from the company.

"I tried the strike first, command couldn't scrape the resources." Evan said, staring up at the tags. "I knew it had to be important if Shinn was reaching out to somebody else..." He saw Shinn limp in, supported by the bad tempered woman. A flash of resent came across him, and not for Everlast. He tried to push that away, but it couldn't be helped.
He heard what Shinn had to say, and was silent for more than just a moment. He closed his eyes, almost trying to will himself out of the room. "So... What happens now?"

Fade placed a hand on his shoulder before she rose, setting the color back down on the night stand and gingerly as she picked it up. She jutted her chin and fought back the wave of pity for her friend, offering her hand to help her up. "First, wash up, and then I'll take care of any injuries.. Then I want you to rest... thats what happens now.." She glanced back at the rest of the current crew in her pub, all looking a little less for ware. "That goes for all of you" She added. "I'll prep the first aid kits, Haaku, if you can show your.. friend an empty room, that would be great.." She finished, gesturing to Everlast.