With a man holding him on each side and another one watching him from behind, Demilan was dragged through the main entrance of the Godly Succubi. He never saw the three armed men coming, and by the time he did, they were already pointing their guns at him. The one behind him held his Skyla rifle, as well as his knife. It happened very shortly after he drew closer to the club to ready himself for the infiltration. The first thing Demilan tried to do was to warn Maileena and Winselt via the earpiece, but the men managed to notice the small device in his ear and confiscated it.
As he entered, the loud electronic music greeted him, along with the purple-blue colors that dominated the hall he entered. A bar with a wide variety of bottles stood on the left side of the hall, manned by a single bartender. Several wide pillars stood around the club, tiled purple and going all the way up to the ceiling. There were two large stages, both with a pathway leading to a circular smaller stage that had a dancing pole on it. Several rectangular tables were scattered around, most were currently empty, but Demilan was being escorted to one that wasn’t nearly as such. A man with spiky, bleached-blonde hair sat there, with two ladies leaning on each of his shoulders while his arms wrapped around them. The girls were dressed in a minimal outfit, covering only their breasts and groin. Heavy make-up adorned their faces. The man had a tribal tattoo above his right eye, and his short sleeves revealed he had long, variant tattoos on his arms as well. His left eyebrow and ears were pierced, and a sly smile appeared on his face. It didn’t take Demilan more than a second to realize that the man he faced was Kleon Hanford. As he sat down in front of Kleon, he spotted Winselt sitting only a table away from Kleon's but chose to not have any eye contact with him in an effort to keep Winselt's cover intact for the time being.
"You've been one hell of a nuisance, my boy," Kleon said, confidently. This is the man who offers young girls to his special clients without batting an eye, Demilan reminded himself. It pains me to think and Telia and Vera are in the custody of such a vile man. "I'm sure Reus would highly appreciate me when I bring you to him."
"You goddamn motherfucker," Demilan spat. "Where is my wife?!"
"Yes, yes, we've all heard by now that you're looking for your precious wife and that bitch's little sister." Kleon shrugged.
"How… how do you know that?" Demilan was appalled.
Kleon giggled. "Your old boss cared to inform us." Blackburn? "It seems the General still resents your old drug habits." Kleon smiled, showing off crooked teeth. The music kept booming around Demilan, making him feel as if the floor beneath him was shaking. "He's the one who let us know you were going to come here. Thanks to him we were smart enough to place lookouts around the club. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to capture you." Damn you, Blackburn. Back there you spared my life. I thought it was your way of showing gratitude for my long service. Then again, Blackburn always preferred to look at the bigger picture, and with that logic in mind, he'd rather rat me out to further tighten his relations with Reus. "Not only that," Kleon continued. "We also increased our security." As Demilan looked around him, he suddenly noticed how the club was getting filled with armed men. Three came from the hallway to the right, and two more appeared upstairs. As Demilan scanned his surroundings, he realized that there were more than a dozen armed men in the club. Some had submachine guns while other carried assault rifles. Even the bartender pulled a shotgun from beneath his counter. Once again that sly smile reappeared on Kleon's face. That motherfucker… we never expected this many guards. Blackburn fucked us.
"Where… is… my… wife?" Demilan grunted through his grinding teeth. His hand clutched the table in anger. Not even all those men would stop him from saving Telia.
"You're not going to see your woman or that little girl anymore," Kleon said. "Speaking of little girls, where's that little bitch you're supposed to be roaming around with? I have a little score to settle with her."
"Where… is… my… wife?" Demilan breathed heavily. "I am not telling you shit until I know where my wife is."
Kleon let go of the two girls around him and leaned over the table. "You know, when I first laid my eyes on your little cunt, back when she was brought to me by Odis Maben, I felt blessed to have such a new product to offer. She had such a lovely face," Demilan's finger burrowed deeper into the table. "And such a lean, nice body." His other hand clenched into a fist. "Her hair felt so soft when I ran my fingers through it. Every strand felt like velvet." His blood boiled. "I thought to myself, such a woman should be worshiped." His heart rushed. "Instead, her fate was to marry a Vex junkie who abandoned her and allowed her to be taken away." The loud music kept booming around. "Oh, what a cruel, dark world we live in. If she'd been my wife, I'd treat her like a queen."
Demilan looked down at his necklace, the same dream catcher necklace that Telia once gave him to rid him of his nightmares. Yet ever since she's been gone, Demilan had felt that he was living in a nightmare, one that he couldn’t wake up from until he got her back. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out of it.
"You're right, Kleon. It IS a cruel, dark world, but it's not like that because of people like me." Maileena had told him that he wasn’t rotten, and so did Telia. Suddenly a thump was heard underneath the table. "Your men should've searched me better than just take away my gun and knife. Now, there's a Dynadisc attached to our table, and if you're not going to answer my question, I'm going to blow us all up." Demilan landed his hand with a mighty pound on the table, revealing the rod he held in it, the one that could detonate the Dynadisc. Flames of fury raged in his eyes. He seemed more determined than ever. Kleon's smile evaporated and a frown replaced it. "Where is my wife?" Demilan asked once again. In the corner of his eye, he saw Winselt backing away, slowly.
"She's not here." Kleon finally answered. The two girls beside him rose from their seats and backed away, looking frightened.
"What do you mean?"
"After Blackburn warned us about you, Reus told me not only to increase security but to also take Telia McCloud and Vera Banister away from here."
Suddenly, Demilan's heart felt heavy. "Then where is she?"
"I'm not sure. He sent some of his men here to take them. He never told me where he was taking them."
"You're lying!" Demilan yelled. "Tell me where she is!"
"I don’t know!" Kleon said. He's not lying… I can tell… she's really not here. Oh, Telia… my sweet love… I've failed you once again. Tears begged to roll out of his eyes, yet he stopped them.
Suddenly a loud gunshot was heard, and all faces turned to its direction. Demilan recognized the unique, mighty roar of a revolver as its firing. Maileena! He realized where it came from. In that split-second of inattention, Demilan jumped from his seat as far away from the table as he could, pushing the button on his rod just before hitting the hard ground, detonating the Dynadisc.
Shrouds of the table flew everywhere, several pieces even hit Demilan. A veil of smoke started to cover the club, and the men around started coughing as they tried to make sight of their surroundings. Demilan's ear buzzed from the explosion, and his head spun around, yet he forced himself to regain his balance while he still had any kind of advantage. Among the very brief chaos, Demilan charged on his feet for the man that held his weapons, taking his Skyla rifle, his knife and his earpiece by force from the disoriented man's hands and stabbing his stomach with his dark blade. He then ran over to the bar, shooting one of the men in his way. Ready to aim at the bartender, he saw Winselt instead, hiding behind the counter, holding the same shotgun that Demilan saw in the bartender's hands when he walked into the club. Demilan hid behind one of the large pillars, knowing that they may provide decent cover.
By that time, the smoke screen had evaporated and all the armed men were ready to fight back. Demilan knew that they were far more than they ever anticipated, perhaps even far more than they would be able to handle, yet not even all those men would stop him from saving Telia.
Demilan peeked above his cover, only to be greeted by a hail of bullets. Some of the firepower flied above and near him while some of it was blocked by the thick pole. "Winselt," Demilan talked through his earpiece. "I need you to lay down some fire. There's too many of them right now."
"Roger that," Winselt said. Demilan looked over at the bar and saw Winselt's shotgun peeking above the counter. Glass bottles shattered all above Winselt and various kinds of alcohol spilled on him, soaking the scarred soldier. Taking use of Winselt's covering fire, Demilan leaned behind the pillar and took aim at his enemies. He counted eight of them. He aimed his assault rifle at two of the armed men. Being the sharpshooter that he was, both of the men went down, but as soon as they did, the firepower of the rest of them shifted towards Demilan again, forcing him to hide again. Earlier, I saw more than eight men. Did the rest of them go for Maileena?
"Maileena!" Demilan called. "Where are you? What's your situation?" he never knew why she fired her revolver. "Maileena!" he called again after getting no answer. The electronic music kept getting blasted off the speakers, but by now its tremendous volume drowned under the sea of bullets that flew around the club. "Maileena!" he called again. The pillar crumbled beside him under the heavy rain of fire.
"Goddamn it!" Winselt cursed. "I need Umbra and Lux!" he popped from behind the counter and fired several rounds at the men. Demilan saw one of them go down. "Demilan, the bartender only held a few extra shells for this shotgun! I'm going to run out of bullets very soon!" the situation was far from what the three originally planned, yet not even all these men would stop Demilan from saving Telia.
"Maileena, answer me! Where the fuck are you?" Demilan called for her again. He tried firing a few more rounds, only to find his magazine empty quickly enough. He ejected the empty magazine and loaded a new one from his pockets. He noticed that he had only two more magazines left to load, and started to fear that without Maileena's duffel bag, Winselt and him would remain with no means to fight.
More bottles shattered over Winselt's head, as another hail of firepower came down on the bar. Seven men were left firing at them. Three of them were hiding behind a flipped-over table and the rest hid behind pillars like the one Demilan was behind. Peeking from his cover, Demilan couldn’t see Kleon anywhere. The table that he sat on earlier was in pieces, blasted, yet Kleon was nowhere around it. Did he survive the explosion?
"Demilan!" Winselt called as he rose from his cover, only to be greeted with a wall of bullets racing towards him. He cowered instantly. "We can't keep going like this! We're pinned down over here!" Winselt said. He's right. We need to do something.
"Winselt, draw their fire. I'm going to go around them and flank them," Demilan said.
"Alright, go." Winselt rose again from behind the bar, letting off two shots. Demilan quickly sprung from his cover, crouching, and went around the group of armed men, flipping over the tables that cross by him to use as cover. Demilan hoped to go all the way around them so he could take them out from behind. He kept on making his way, flipping another table to hide behind. He barely made another step from that table when someone lunged at him from behind, making him fall on all fours. Looking behind him, he saw a most hideous image. The man's face was bloody and mangled. The entire right side of his face looked like a mutilated mesh, with many cuts and exposed flesh. His right eye seemed pale and colorless, suggesting he had lost his ability to see with that eye. The hair on his head now had patches where it was scorched or even completely burnt off. Demilan also noticed little pieces of shrapnel stuck at various points on the man's face. The monster stared right at Demilan's eyes. It was only then when he realized that the man before him was Kleon.
Kleon punched Demilan's face, but his punch felt weak and frail. Demilan tried aiming his assault rifle at him, but Kleon stopped him with his hands, hanging on to the Skyla rifle, preventing it from being aimed at him. The flesh on his hands was just as burned and scarred as his face was. Yet despite his attempt, Kleon wasn’t much in terms of strength, particularly in his current state, and Demilan quickly overcame him, ramming his weapon's barrel into his face, sending him down on his back. He then raised his gun and readied his trigger finger. Maileena has every right to be the one to take his life. Killing him would be unfair of me. As much as he wanted to make the bullet hit Kleon's head, he fired it instead at Kleon's leg, incapacitating him.
While Kleon moaned and shrieked, Demilan left him behind and made his way around the armed men. "Demilan, I'm out of bullets!" Winselt cried.
"Keep drawing their fire!" Demilan said. Creeping up behind two of the men who hid behind the pillars, Demilan fired two bullets into the first, hitting him in the chest, and then in the head. By the time the other one realized what was happening behind him and turned around, Demilan plunged his knife into his neck, making a spatter of blood leak out. An ooze of red ran down the black blade.
The rest of the men, who had now noticed that Demilan was at their flank, split their fire evenly between Winselt and Demilan. The bullets gnawed at the pillar Demilan now hid behind. Maileena, his thoughts returned to her. Where are you?
