"Please, you have to respond to the call," The Shield agent said, "Its from the UN!"
"And I told you. I won't answer it," Shiro said, "None of us will."
"But..."
"I'm sorry, but the life of a teammate is not worth that call. Tell him to go find another person to lord his authority over cause I'm not answering."
"There will be consequences for this," The shield agent said, "I understand your feelings, but they will not take no for an answer."
Just as Shiro was about to reply, Kanon appeared from behind, taking the phone from the Shield agents hand.
"Hello... yeah, no. Listen, an Inquisitor was lost due to the foolishness of one of your own and we are the ones going to be burying him, not you. So he'll have to compensate with his resignation as well as an official apology... Frankly I don't care, but if you have any issues, you can talk to Klaus Alderwolf about this 'cause he will hear about this."
Kanon ended the call promptly, tossing the phone over to the shield agent and winking at Shiro. Shiro let out a sigh of relief as he sat down on the hard ground. It hurt that he lost a friend. But what hurt even more was that it did not even move him to tears.
Kanon passed by the sleeping head of Frank, approaching Rachel who sat at the edge, dangling her feet above the water. The small pat on her head made her look up at Kanon.
"Heard you guys went through hell." Kanon said with a smile, "That's very cool,"
"Yeah, right." Rachel groaned, "Honestly if Prime Klaus hadn't interfered, we'd have been like James."
"But you're alive."
"Yeah. We are. But James isn't. I guess that comes with the job, right."
The small pat turned into a sharp knock on the head.
"OW! What was that for?"
"I taught you to be strong. I didn't tell you to be heartless."
"But aren't you?" Rachel asked, "You literally walk around, not being fazed by death and laughing at misfortune."
"Yeah, sure. I do that a lot, doesn't make it right." Kanon said, sitting down beside her. "Grey hair over there..."
"Shiro."
"...is mourning. Sure it might seems like he isn't but he is. Frank's asleep, but he mourns in his own way. Laughing is my thing. Its my way of not trying to accept the fact, to face the reality of the situation. Which means that when I'm alone, it hurts like hell."
"But burying that grief is what makes moving on easier."
"Easier. Not beneficial. A body is buried in the ground, but it is when you accept that the person is dead that a funeral means something." Rachel said, "Its better to cry now and laugh later than to laugh now and cry later, trust me on that."
Kanon stood up stretching. "And what's the deal with that banging sound from that ship. Its so eerie."
Rachel sighed. "Its Brandon."
Brandon broke through the door, his fist covered in blood. He gave the wall one last kick before sitting back down, covering his face with his hands. tears falling down his face.
"Did that make you feel better?" Jake asked. Brandon ignored him for awhile, wiping the blood, sweat and tears off his face.
"Every single time. Every single time!" Brandon cried, "Right in front of me a daemon kills someone and I'm too weak and powerless to do anything about it."
"Somethings are just beyond your control."
"HOW LONG ARE THINGS GOING TO BE BEYOND MY CONTROL!!!" Brandon cried banging his fist on the metal walls again, rattling the entire ship. Jake looked around, momentarily stunned before looking back at Brandon.
"First Aaron. Now James. Who else Jake? Who else. Who else has to die right in front of me before I can do anything. Rachel? Shiro, hell even you? Do I really have to be powerless every single damned time, waiting for someone to save me?"
"Brandon..."
"No, Jake, when I tried to walk in Barry's footsteps, I was told to forge my own path. This is my path!! Look where I am now!"
"I never said it would be easy."
"I never expected it to be easy, I just..." Brandon sighed. "I just..."
Jake stood still, not looking at Brandon as he covered his face again.