A Touch of Blue - 15. Special Delivery

Zafiro

Pain is all that I feel. It was to the point that I wanted to die. I felt that I needed to die. I would take anything just to end this constant wave of pain, after pain, after pain.

I felt new parts of my body growing inside me. Bones were being pushed around and new ones began to form. I felt it all and it was excruciating.

It was like some animal had crawled its way under my skin, grinding between all my bones and shoving them aside to make room for a nest. Then it wanted to force its way out.

My skin on my back had split open and I could not help but scream. I did not want to let anyone here hear me in pain but it just became too much to bother with their satisfaction.

All I felt was a white hot pain and I wanted it all to end. I wanted to wrap my arms around me, to somehow have some small form of comfort, but I could not. I was chained up and too tired to try anything.

Soon I felt light touches behind me. Small feathers were brushing against me and it left me confused. I could not see what was happening. All I knew was that something had grown out of me and it was terrifying.

Cody had spoken to his men but I did not hear anything. There was a high pitched ringing in my ear and it blocked out all the sounds around me.

The only thing I could concentrate on were the feathers brushing against me.

Cody left and then people looked towards me.

I wanted to hide and hug myself to curl into a ball but again, I could not. Instead, a blue curtain of feathers had wrapped around me. It startled me but I felt...safe.

Everything that happens after that becomes a blur.

I felt the new body parts being sawed off without any care of the pain I was feeling. I am not sure if that was worse or when the wings had grown out of me.

To have a newly formed body part simply be cut off minutes later was excruciating. Newly formed nerves that were sensitive caused the pain to feel as though it had tripled.

I wanted to die.

Somehow I had not passed out after both wings were gone. I had lost all feeling at this point. Everything was numb except for the cold breeze that would lick at the new scars along my back.

I could no longer keep my eyes open, yet I wanted to. Why did I want to? There was no reason to bother staying awake. No reason to fight on.

My body was trying to pull me down with it. The edges of my sight were turning black and everything in the middle had started to become blurry and distorted. It was almost like I was looking through a glass cup.

My body felt stiff from hanging here for too long and I so badly wanted to lay down on a soft bed. Preferably on my stomach.

One moment I see what looks like wolves clawing at my newly formed wings and then in the next moment, I see a silver knight in green.

Glowing eyes stared at me through his helmet.

I tried to blink to see him more clearly but then he had turned away. He had begun to fight the wolves and I could only watch. It almost felt like I was watching a movie.

The knight in green defeats the wolves who were destroying my wings and then he turns to me.

My knight is rather huge. No wonder the wolves were no match for him.

He frees me from my chains and then he catches me before I hit the ground. His hands and arms are massive.

He grabs a tree and knocks out more wolves. Next he picks me up. His arms run against my cuts and then the sharp jab of pain seems to clear my vision a bit. Bringing me out of the haze of everything around me.

Squinting my eyes, I find myself looking up at Soul.

“Soul?” I ask. My voice sounds like a frog at the moment. It burns just to speak.

I smile when he uses our special greeting. I knew he was more than just a machine. I always did.

I close my eyes now that I feel safe.

That only lasted for a few seconds.

I whimper as I find myself rolling on the ground. I landed hard on my side and end up laying on my stomach.

It makes it harder to breathe and I can only take short breaths.

I stare at Soul. He is laying right next to me. The usual glow in his eyes have disappeared. Now they are just greyed out lightbulbs.

Is he...dead?

Biting back the pain that spikes through my shoulder and back, I reach my hand out to touch his hand.

As always, the metal is cold. He does not move. Not even the soft hum of the components working inside him can be heard.

Soul died for me? Why?

Tears begin to well up in my eyes again. I close my eyes and wrap my fingers with his.

Voices can be heard talking to one another. They ask what they are supposed to do with us now.

They mention throwing Soul into a garbage dump. They laugh at that. Their cruel words bring a burning anger inside my chest.

Cody’s voice then comes up.

“What on earth is going on here?” He says.

A woman speaks for everyone else. “Soul went haywire then tried to grab Zafiro and run. We had to put him down.”

Cody sighs.

“Dammit,” He says. He comes closer to Soul and bends down to inspect something behind his back and head. “What a waste.”

“Sir, what are we going to do with the thief?” The woman asks.

There a moment where I can feel all their eyes on me. I still keep my eyes closed. However, this actually bites me in the back because keeping my eyes closed pulls my body to rest.

The last thing I hear is something about dumping me off at Arturo’s front door.

Does this mean I am going to die? They shove an augment inside me and then they toss me over for him to do the same thing?

Surely this is it for me. I asked for this.

How am I not dead?

~~~
~~~

Roy

I am pretty disturbed by the phone call. I immediately tried calling Avery again. Still no answer from her.

What could she possibly be doing at this moment? She would not happen to be down by the train wreck would she? Based off the footage they were showing on the monitor, it looked taken care of rather quickly.

It was disturbing to see all those bodies lined up. The officers that were present there had simply ignored them. I can happily say that pissed me off.

Now I always knew of the ‘divide’ in the city. The people on the Poor Side have it rough but they are too stubborn to accept some help.

Now when they ask, everyone ignores them. It is wrong.

The people on the ‘Rich’ Side are too scared to watch out for others. A lot of people like to try and one up one another. Because of that, if you are to even be seen whispering to a person who lives in the Poor Side, you would be considered dirty. People would try and avoid you at all costs.

When U.U.P.P. was more on top of the crime in Sector 4, everyone here would consider us ‘heroes’ but not exactly for the best reasons.

Now there is some kind of mindset used in the Poor Side that seems to create a bunch of criminals.

Zafiro included.

Well...at least I think he is.

Come to think of it, I am not entirely sure where his origins are from. I just assumed he was from the Poor Side but we did not even know where his Mother was from either. What if he is from a wealthy family and we just do not know?

Eh, nevermind. That seems like quite a big secret to hide here. If they were from here, they would have been caught by now.

The security put in place would have alerted us of their location years ago.

Everyone here has a special chip planted into the backs of their necks. Whenever you walk into a building, a detector keeps tabs of when you arrived or left.

The only ones without such a thing would be the people in the Poor Side.

So yes, Zafiro and Sophie Banderas are not from here.

Zafiro and his Mother must be residing somewhere in the Poor Side. We probably would have found them by now if Mekaias had not brought a shit ton of life forms with him.

U.U.P.P. was about to perform a sweep of the Poor Side. We were going to go door to door, searching through all the homes for any criminals in hiding.

At the time, there were only a few causing havoc in the Rich Side. Zafiro was definitely one of them.

Everytime we would bring someone in, I could not help but think that if this city was not so divided, then maybe these criminals would stop coming up.

Of course, nobody else really cares enough to put that thought in motion.

I suppose I could go out and spread the word like some kind of religious missionary, but who has the time for that?

Alright...so maybe I do, but that is too much work for something as simple as bringing a city together.

You would think that everyone would realize that they are acting stupid but nope. We let a train track place a line between us all.

It is a bit ironic that I am literally in the furthest part of the city from the Poor Side, so obviously I am part of the problem.

I just realize that when Zafiro makes his way here, he travels across the entire city just to make fun of me.

Ok, not entirely to make fun of me, but he comes a long way just to speak with me which is strange.

Maybe it is because I don't really have any friends, but the fact someone bothers to come by is kind of nice.

Sure he is a criminal but Zafiro for some reason is putting in more work than me and most people.

Honestly now that I have gotten to speak with him, he does not seem like such a terrible person. Obviously he cares about his family, which is sweet, but there is that stealing problem.

It is weird that I am thinking too much into it?

Sure, it is nice that I am somewhat getting to know him, but why is this happening in the first place?

Obviously he is scared and wants help, but why me? Couldn’t he just go find some other U.U.P.P. Officer? There are plenty living in the city. Some even live closer to the Poor Side.

All of it is getting to my head. Am I overthinking this? I get he flirts and stuff but why is it that he chose me out of everyone in Sector 4 that has my stomach feeling all fluffy?

I wrinkle my nose in disgust at myself.

Here I am thinking like some schoolgirl with a crush.

I do not have a crush on Zafiro, I do not have a crush on a criminal, and I definitely do not find him irritably attractive.

Not. One. Bit.

My phone going off pulls me from my thoughts.

Thank god for that.

“Hello?” I answer.

“When I do not answer the first time, that means I am busy. Do not call again.”

I smile at Avery’s voice.

“I guess I won’t be checking to see if you are alright,” I say.

She scoffs. “Oh please. That is not at all important so no reason to call.”

Raising an eyebrow, I smirk when I say, “Oh really? Not even the latest Zafiro stuff?”

At that she does not give a smartass response.

“Gotcha!” I grin. “You should come over to pick someone up.”

“Wait,” She says. “Is it him?”

“No of course not,” I say. “He brought someone for you to bring in and question.”

Now that she mentions it, I am sadly certain that I will probably never bring Zafiro in. It will make me feel bad since he saved my life.

“Someone?” She says slowly. “So now he is some kind of bounty hunter now?”

I laugh. “If he was, don’t you think he would be on our side?”

She does not laugh. The thought of Zafiro working alongside us has usually made her laugh before. I guess she really is getting over Zafiro. That makes me feel kind of bad.

Here I am, talking about ‘Zafiro this’ or ‘Zafiro that’ and each call just pulls Avery out of her work. Am I being a bad friend? I am starting to second guess this call now.

“I’ll be right over if you have some left over ice cream,” She says.

I roll my eyes. “Whatever. It is not like you fucking ate it all or something. Oh wait! You did!”

“Not like you needed it,” She chuckles. “I take it you had another exciting talk with Zafiro? Did he make you question your single life again?”

I narrow my eyes. “No. Of course not. The fuck? Why would you say that? Absolutely not!”

She cackles through the phone and I pull it away to save my eardrums.

“Whatever you say,” She chuckles. “You see that train wreck over on the Poor Side? A real shame. There were so many bodies.”

I nod along. “Yeah. Meanwhile U.U.P.P. was ignoring all the families in need. What happened to them, Avery? Why did we get so neglectful with our city?”

“I wish I knew,” She sighs. “Just know that you were definitely not part of the problem. It is why I consider you one of the best Officers here.”

That makes me bite my tongue to keep from saying anything hateful. Not to Avery of course. For all I know, she was probably fighting for me but she does not have a ton of power.

Other Officers like Avery because she tends to get shit done. She has been in charge of setting up special I.D cards with the Aliens from Ember. That takes a lot of time and effort. So yeah, I cannot blame her for possibly being annoyed with my Zafiro shenanigans.

“Does anyone know what happened to the train?” I ask. “They never said anything on the news so I assume U.U.P.P. is holding the information at the moment.”

“No, not at all,” She says. “Some say that the tracks were just old and were bound to someday break. It looks like that might be the case.”

Damn. It was looking old and we never bothered fixing it? How old even is that track? It has been here longer than me but I would not ever imagine it possibly breaking.

“Any idea what they are going to do with the bodies?” I ask with a frown.

“You know the answer to that already,” She says.

I do sadly.

Again, another thing that makes me dislike this city.

Seriously. Was it so hard to station me literally anywhere else?

Wait a minute. Now that I am fired, I really have no reason to stay here. I could just up and leave and it will all be fine. I could explore the universe, maybe meet new people, and possibly find something I would enjoy more.

Yet there is something stopping me.

I blame my conscience. Why do I have to have the feeling that I should help people? Can I not just say fuck it and let Zafiro handle this all for himself?

It is Zafiro. Nobody in U.U.P.P. could catch him so why would he be worried about some damn gangs full of bitches? He could run around them in circles, laughing and calling them names, and he wouldn’t need to stop for a breather.So why can’t I just move on?

Sure, there is Avery, but even I know this friendship was more of a work thing. Plus, her constant nagging about how I should hangout with people my age is really irritating.

I am pretty sure the only reason she has held those comments back is because of being let go.

Why is Zafiro all of a sudden such a big deal to me that it is keeping me from wanting to leave Sector 4?

Maybe I can just tie him up and haul his ass to another planet. That would be nice...for the city I mean!

“You there?” Avery asks.

I blink from my thoughts. “Uh, yeah. Sorry, what did you say?”

She chuckles. “Thinking about your thief with sapphires for eyes?”

My face heats up at that but I still roll my eyes at the comment.

I say, “Of course not. I was actually thinking about leaving you.”

“Aww but you’d miss me!” She laughs.

Not going to lie, that comment about the eyes sounds pretty nice.

“The sapphire thing was cheesy,” I say. “Especially for you.”

Avery scoffs. “The fuck do you think his name means?”

I get a confused look on my face. “What?”

“Zafiro is spanish for ‘sapphire’,” She says. “I take it the mother may have named him that because of his eyes. That or she is just that obsessed with jewels.”

Huh...that explains a lot honestly. A bit of a girly name now that I know though. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

“Maybe she was prepping Zafiro up for stealing after all,” I say. “Especially with a name like that. It is like she was asking for her son to start stealing.”

Avery hums in response. “I guess she was. A bit of a dumb bitch in all honesty.”

“I wouldn’t say that. She is still out there because she was smart enough to get away from U.U.P.P.”

She chuckles. “Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“So are you coming over here to pick up the tied up man in my garage or not?” I ask.

“Yeah, of course,” She says. “I’ll, uh...see you in about an hour or two. You should really stop staying up past midnight by the way. You no longer have a job where you should be doing that.”

I smirk at that. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the advice, Mom.”

“See you in a bit, Roy,” She says before ending the call.

Not entirely sure on what to do now, I decide to watch the latest documentary on Mekaias.

Apparently he has started to tell his story more so I am pretty excited about this one.

~~~

Thirty minutes later

Correction. I was excited.

How is this person still living? It made my stomach turn when it started talking about how Mekaias was trapped for ten years. Ten years!

What kind of fucked up mess is that? How does he even function now?

My doorbell rings throughout the house just as the documentary starts speaking about how he was about to meet up with the best friend of his deceased mother.

Who could possibly be here at this time? I know it is not Avery because it has only been thirty-ish minutes. I am also pretty sure it is not Zafiro. He ran off to check on his family I think. So who is this?

I was watching the documentary in my room so I have to go down two flights of stairs.

After taking my sweet ass time, I reach the door.

Usually people ring more than once but I guess this person is patient.

Looking through the peephole, I see that nobody is there.

Frowning, I unlock the door and swing it open.

What I find is a beaten up Zafiro on the ground. He is leaning against my doorway and it looks like he is dead!

My eyes widen at the sight and I quickly look around to see who brought him here.

Down the street is a black limo driving away.