Miss Murder

So my stay in Vegas has gone a little like this: I almost got married. Then I almost got crushed by roller-snake. Almost got stripped of my birthrights, then I got arrested, almost lost my car to a gaping chasm, almost got charged with murder, and almost completely destroyed a friendship.
Almost.
I suppose the highlights aren't much good without the details, even if I'm just talking to myself.
I almost married Gunnar. We were doing recon and when the receptionist asked who was the lucky guy, both Nate and Gunnar volunteered. I picked Gunnar, and at first I wasn't completely sure why. It makes sense now, for a lot of reasons, half of them I don't know yet. The other half are reasons I'm not sure I want to explore in full right now. Though after last night, I'm dead certain Nate and I would never work. Ever. I still have a lot of respect for him, but something changed.
But, it seems weird to say this, almost getting married was only the smallest part of yesterday's excitement.

I took out another Scion last night. Shot her in the head. Screamed when I did it. Probably looked like a crazy woman. Maybe I always have.
In my head, in that moment, everything was clear. She was the enemy, and she had all but walked in with a big red bullseye on her forehead.

I'm getting ahead of myself again.

After I almost got married, and the fight with the roller-snake was over, we all met back up at Gunnar's room where I've been staying pretty much since I met him (it only sounds weird if you think about it. He offered and I accepted without really thinking about it). I patched the guys up, those who needed it, and we just kinda sat around for a bit. Nate came in, grumbling something about how we should have moved the roller-snake. Then Victor came in with uzis pointed at us, that greasy snake Sly, the asian guy I saw at the demolition and the voodoo woman who hurt Nate that same night followed.

I don't remember exactly how things happened from there. The asian guy was named Kane. Gunnar knew about him. Fucker started making demands, telling us to put our birthrights in a godsdamned pillowcase. He walks in and demands our surrender. I think I got a little angry; I started acting without really thinking. I remember Gunnar telling me to get off the bed. Then there was a gunshot. Kane had ordered a hostage shot, thinking that would stop us. We were going to fight anyway (even though Nate looked like he really didn't want to), and then the voodoo lady... did something. She moved something on a doll she carried, and then Nate was holding his gun to his head.

Bitch painted a bullseye on her face, is what she really did.

Gunnar gave the cape over to Kane. I don't really know what happened then. I got thrown back on the bed. Kane went crazy...er. He started growing taller, shrieking and ignoring the rest of us. I know the limits of my abilities. I am no good against guys like Kane, even when they're not trying to go all Kronos on their parents. I turned my sights on his peons.

And that's what they were to me. In a battle, which they decided this was when they asked for our surrender, you pick sides. Victor, Sly and the voodoo girl picked Kane's side. I wanted to scream at Sly when he tried telling me he didn't mean for it to go this far. How far did he mean for it to go? Just far enough so that he could betray Kane and wear the shroud himself? Even if he had the best of intentions, how else did he expect things to go? I made my way over to the voodoo girl, crouching over her until she came to. I might have taunted her a little bit into waking up. I pointed Sibyl at her forehead and kept my eyes open. I waited.
When her eyes opened and met mine, she stiffened a little. I waited until she was fully aware and pulled the trigger. I remember her skull disintegrating under Sibyl's blast. I remember Nate, furious with me. He didn't understand that she would have just done it again, and maybe next time pulled the trigger. He didn't understand that her entire attitude was an affront to the very tenet which I hold most dear: first do no harm.
With Jack having taken care of Victor and vikings beginning to take care of Kane (I don't know, I was busy), Nate decided to arrest me. The ground started caving in where... something had punched through. I'm guessing someone was taking care of the hostages, because Nate escorted me to his SUV. I said something about my car and Nate said he was willing to let it fall into the pit. It would have, if Gunnar hadn't managed to grab the keys before the whole building started coming down.
Since Kane and company walked through that door, it kept feeling like he was trying to take from me everything I cared about. My birthrights. My friends. And now my car. Hal's car. I owe Gunnar for saving it for me.
So I was handcuffed. I had a feeling that if I really wanted to, I could have slipped the cuffs whenever I pleased. I shouldn't have been cuffed in the first fucking place, especially not by the guy I was trying to protect, but ... I wanted to make it right with Nate. I saw the look on his face when he decided to cuff me. He didn't like it, but he had to. I respect that, honestly. It still pisses me off.
Eventually he uncuffed me, after we butted heads for a while about whether or not I should have been cuffed in the first place. Brendan was on my side, Gunnar too. Nevermore was curiously silent. I think I confused him. Nate wanted me to promise I wouldn't shoot any more "defenseless" people before he uncuffed me and gave me back my gun. I couldn't and I won't make a promise I don't think I can keep. Even if I could have, I wouldn't. I was only in the army a year but that shit gets drilled into your head. She was the enemy. She made it clear she was willing to fight dirty, so I did too. The difference was, I was better at it.