The New Recruit: Chapter 2

"Hey, you're welcome, Erron!" Nac hissed as she took out a rag from her pocket to wipe the blood off herself. She figured he was going to start yelling at her or something for interfering and being completely ungrateful that she helped him out.

Erron put his revolvers back in their holster before nodding at her. "Not bad, kid. Would have rather you hadn't interfered at all, but you did well."

Nac widened her eyes in surprise before smiling at him.

"We got a location for Kharankui. He's in the city of Lei Chen. If we move quickly we could be there by sundown.  He was supposed to meet the group here at midnight, so we should get moving so we catch him before he makes his way back here." Erron told her.

"Hey but what about your hand?" she asked him with concern.

"I'll take care of it." Erron brushed it off.

Nac reached into her pocket and took out another rag.

"How many of those do you have?" he asked her.

"I get blood on me alot" she giggled as she approached him. She took his hand and tied the rag over his wound. "When we get a minute in the city we're gonna have to clean that up." she told him.

"I told you I'd take care of it." he insisted, taking his hand away from hers. "Now let's go."

Nac sighed and began to follow him again. There was more silence between them like before. She figured she'd try one last time to try and get him to talk to her about more than just business. She did just help him out, after all. The least he could do was talk to her a little bit.

"So you never told me where you were from." she stated.

She could hear Erron give an audible sigh. "Do you do this to everyone you work with?" he asked her.

"Depends~" she had a flirty tone to her voice as she said it. She was flirting with him the entire time so far, even though she knew she wasn't going to get very far.

"You're not gonna quit, are you?" he asked her, shaking his head.

"As long as I'm not hindering the mission, I don't see why I should quit." she put her hands on her hips and gave a sassy face to him, but he couldn't see it. He was missing all of her golden facial expressions, and that bummed her out a little, but who knows how he'd even react.

"I suppose..." Erron sighed again before turning back to look at her briefly. "And as long as you don't hinder the mission, I can just continue to ignore your annoying questions."

"You're doing a bad job at ignoring me because you keep answering. Even if it's not the answer I'm looking for." Nac retorted back with a smirk on her face.

Erron clenched his fists for a moment before releasing it. Nac laughed, but ceased her questions. She didn't want him to turn around and tell her she wouldn't get her pay. She definitely needed that.

They were travelling for quite some time. Nac got bored and started playing cats cradle with a string as she walked. If she didn't keep herself occupied, she'd be staring at Erron the rest of the time, and that would make her want to keep trying to talk to him which she knew he didn't want.

Nac had finished creating Jacob's Ladder for the umpteenth time when something she didn't expect would happen happened.

"I'm from Earthrealm. I came here because the pay is better." Erron finally spoke after what seemed like forever.

Nac was so shocked she almost fell over. She didn't think he'd actually care to remember her questions, let alone answer them.

"Oooh Earthrealm! That's cool! I've always wanted to visit Earthrealm!" she told him with a smile.

"No you don't." Erron shook his head.

"Yes I do! It seems like so much fun!" Nac insisted.

"It's not as fun as you think, another reason I'm in Outworld now." Erron told her.

"Aww" Nac frowned. "Outworld's not much better though. Either everything is trying to kill you or it's boring. There's no in between."

Erron nodded at her statement before becoming silent again. This time he only left a brief silence before speaking to her again.

"Now you tell me where your from, because you are definitely not from Outworld nor are you from the Chaosrealm." he slightly demanded an answer.

"I actually used to live in Edenia! It was great there!" Nac giggled. "I used to be a princess for a small town called Persephenia!"

"Princess, eh?" Erron seemed interested, but it was hard for Nac to tell. "Now you're a mercenary like me. Why?"

"Eh..."  Nac was going to answer him, but fell silent as she thought about how after her mother died she was ruling Persephenia. Things were going great for her! She made sure everyone wore a hat on Crazy Hat Day, a holiday she made up herself but swore to everyone it was Chaosrealmer tradition. Anyone who didn't wear a hat was personally executed by her. In fact, she fired all the executioners so she could be the executioner, since she was sick of having to beat them up in secret and disguise as one when her mother was in power. After a while of what she deemed was awesome ruling, her people up roared and had her overthrown and exiled from Edenia. Thinking about the people who used to work for her turning against her and literally throwing her with the little she was able to take with her out of Edenia and into Outworld's portal saddened her. She teared up a bit as she thought about being hurled into the portal and people shouting 'GOOD RIDDANCE' at her.

"Well?" Erron broke through her thoughts.

"Let's just say, the people of Persephenia weren't ready for my progressive and new age ideas!" Nac gave him a goofy grin to try and hide the fact she was upset, but she wasn't good at hiding that. Erron noticed her eyes were watery, but didn't say anything about it.

They continued to travel on, arriving in Lei Chen almost exactly at the time Erron said they'd arrive.

"Let's see if we can get information!" Nac suggested before pointing at what looked like a bar. "Perhaps in there"

Erron shot her a look. "You just want to get a drink."

"I can get a drink AND do a mission at the same time, believe it or not!" Nac giggled.

Erron rolled his eyes before walking away from where she said she wanted to go. Nac jogged after him.

"Heeeyyy the bar is this way!" she whined.

Erron ignored her and kept walking. He then stopped abruptly and turned to face an alley. Nac bumped into him, which earned her a glare.

In the alley, a group of men were gathered around each other. One was holding a package. Erron motioned for Nac to follow before approaching them. The men immediately became defensive and formed a blockade around the alley. The guy holding the package slipped it behind his back.

"This alley is off limits! Beat it!" one of the men commanded.

"Ah don't mind us, we're just passing through!" Nac told him.

The man shot her a look. "Go another way! We don't want any trouble, now!"

"Who said anything about trouble?" Erron asked as he nodded his head to the guy holding the package. "What are you hiding?"

The man with the package gave a nervous expression as his eyes darted back and forth between his buddies. "N-Nothin'! We ain't got nothin'!" the man tried to laugh it off, but it was obvious the laugh was forced. "Nothin' to see here!"

Erron raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that? I just saw you holding a package a second ago."

"No you didn't!" the guy lied.

"No I'm pretty sure you were. I saw it too!" Nac pointed out.

"What's it to ya'?" the guy asked aggressively.

"Let's see it." Erron crossed his arms.

The guy showed them the package for one second before putting it behind his back.

"There! You saw it!" the guy hissed.

"Why is it such a big secret?" Nac asked.

"Alright, that's enough! Get out of here already!" one of the other guys piped in.

Erron didn't like that answer, because he immediately drew out his guns and began shooting them in the knee caps. Once they were all incapacitated, he took the package from the guy and opened it, revealing a dagger with the Chaosrealm kamidogu engraved on it.

"What's this?" Erron picked up the dagger and practically shoved it into the guys face.

"Fuck you!" the guy hissed.

Nac took out her axe and placed it against the guys neck.

"Talk!" she demanded, giving him an angry scowl.

One of the other guys tried to grab Nac, but Nac turned around and sliced his head off with the axe. The guy with the package let out a whimper as Nac turned back to him with a crazed look on her face.

"I'll do that to your limbs one by one if you don't start talking!" she told him.

"P-Please! D-Don't!" the guy pleaded.

"Tell me what this is and where you got it from!" Erron demanded again.

"It's for someone!" the guy answered.

"Who?" Erron asked.

"I don't know!" the guy shouted.

Erron looked at Nac. Nac nodded and lifted up her axe.

"What are you doing? No no please! Don't-" the guy pleaded, but it was too late. Nac sliced his arm off as he screamed. Tears were streaming down his face. "It's for the Kharankui!" he finally announced.

"Where is he now?" Erron asked.

"I don't know I swear!" the guy was crying.

Erron looked at Nac again. The guy began to beg. "No please! Not my other arm!" he cried.

Nac lifted up her axe again.

"HE'S GOING TO ASSASSINATE THE OVERSEER OF LEI CHEN! PLEASE DON'T CHOP MY ARM OFF!" he cried.

Nac looked at Erron as she held her axe above her head, ready to strike down. Erron nodded. "That's all we needed to know. Chop off his other arm and let's go."  Erron turned and began to walk away, holding the package with the dagger in it. Nac gladly chopped the guy's other arm off and ran to catch up with Erron, leaving the guy bleeding to death and crying on the ground.

When Nac caught up with Erron, she took out another rag and wiped whatever blood she got on herself off. "Hey, are we gonna get in trouble for killing some random dude and leaving him in the alley?" she asked.

"If they say something I'll tell them it was the Kahn's orders." Erron told her.

"Good." she smiled. "So now we just need to find the Kharankui and we're done!"

Erron ignored her and focused on the task at hand. Nac frowned upon noticing he was ignoring her. She decided to focus on the task at hand as well, since there was nothing else left to do.

"SWEET MOTHER OF CHAOS! WHO DID THIS?" a voice shrieked not to far from where they just left.