The Peace Treaty

Smoothing Over Checkered Pasts...

“The fuck you think this buddy cop bullshit is, Leo!? I gotta get chummy with the fucking cunt who dropped 5-Os on my ass back in—”

The sharp slap of her superior officer knocked Lita into the board room wall. General Godred snapped the dark gray punk up by her tank-top with one hand, and pulled her right to his flaming mad eyes. “And you think I liked partnering with a mouthy bitch who gets my men killed because she can’t use her words for five seconds!?” the black cowboy roared. “A stupid, doped-up junkie who can’t go two without sucking off green lung darts like a man’s dick!”

He dropped her to the floor and glowered. She had never seen the old Hound in Black in such a feral rage, and for the first time in a long time, fear crept in those crimson eyes. Upon that subtle widening of eyelids, Godred’s expression softened, and he helped her up off the floor. “Now you know what you look like.”

It was a hard pill to swallow, but the scruffy wolf made sure it went down all the same. “All of us, in this life, have done things we can only atone for with the man upstairs. I could lord that shit over you, Lita, but I don’t. Every bitch and bastard on this force knows the score; if you’re good, it ain’t your last. If it’s your last, take the enemy on your way out. When you got a war on like this, you’ll find that your bedfellows ain’t all that strange when you get to know ‘em.”

Lita dusted off her denim jacket, slipped back into her sandals, and nodded.

“Alright, Leo, show me ‘im.”

The crossed from one room to the next, and there at the table’s end was a wolf. The same color as her, wearing jeans, boots, a plain white T-shirt and a bulky, silver arm. “Lita,” Godred announced, “meet Adam Knox, Second General of the Ambiorixian Ascensores.”

Her half-gloved hand met the cold steel of Knox’s as they all took their seats.

“As you might’ve heard,” Godred continued regally, “you two have some—”

“History, yes.” came Knox’s haggard rasp. “For the record, just be glad you weren’t in Triple-2. That was before this happened.” He twitched the fingers of his metal hand. “And it wasn’t pretty. In fact, all I remember was the kill count on the bulletin board. Last thing I saw before Empire. Before this.”

Lita’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, that was you at the gates?”

Those steely blue eyes gazed blankly into her reds, the head nodding involuntarily. “Like I said,” he solemnly replied, “be glad you weren’t there.”

For a while, silence hung in the air. Godred wanted the two to come to their own senses before interjecting, and with a saint’s patience, let that quiet cool both punk and cop’s nerves.

“Blood washes easy enough in the sink I ‘spose,” Lita sighed, breaking the stillness of the black-tiled board room. “Just gotta soak your fur for a bit before it comes out.”

Knox nodded. “Best practice I’d say.”

“Besides,” smiled the punk, “I ain’t quite the firecracker I used to be.”

“Sure sounded it over in the next room,” Knox scoffed.

Lita chuckled. “I said firecracker, not cunt.”

A smirk flashed across the gray commander’s face.

“You ain’t much of a General right now, are ya?” she pressed. “Bit too moody blue.”

Knox straightened up in his seat, tapping the ash from his cigarette. He caught a glance from Godred, a smile on his elder’s black muzzle, before turning back to Lita, stoic as ever.

“Frankly, my temperament is of no concern. This is…a clearing of the air. I asked him to bring you here because I knew this would be the roughest transition.”

Knox expected his new-old acquaintance to meet his earnestness with her own. Instead, he got more of Lita being Lita.

“All for moi?” she gasped, feigning surprise.

“Yes for moi!” Knox spat venomously. “You think this is all a fucking joke!? You think living with THIS is a fucking joke!?” He launched from his seat, ripped the silver arm from its shoulder socket, and slammed it down on the table. Breath heavy, she saw in Knox that same, terrible expression Godred gave her, only this time, it was real. All too real as his ice-cold eyes screamed, and she gazed upon that limbless shoulder where a real arm once sat.

The mohawked punk looked to Godred, only to be met with the elder black wolf cocking his head towards the maddened Knox. It was a blank expression, neither condemning nor endorsing the outburst, merely observing. Observing what she was about to do about this.

As she looked back to the towering gray lording over her, Lita could see something she knew was her reason for being here; the pain in his eyes. She stood up and walked over to hound, and did something she never thought she’d ever do in a million years; she hugged a cop.

“I know that face,” she sighed in his ear, arms wrapped tight. “I’ve seen ‘er in the mirror too many times. You’re a brave man, coming this far. I’ve seen fellas kill themselves for less. Hold tight to that pain, and kill that digital bitch with it. I’m trying every fucking day, man, every fucking day.”

She pulled back and looked into those pained eyes of ice. They had softened now. He was a strong man, but a man with limits, that she now knew. The dark gray punk popped a smile on her muzzle, which broke the air at last.

Knox, in turn, let out all the tension with a sigh. “Angel told me it’d feel good getting off the chest. I think it’s starting to anyway. Besides, now I can see why Nic digs ya. And why Leo’s been running with ya since you were in diapers.”

“Hol’ up, sunshine!” she chuckled, “‘Bout hows much older are you?”

“Five give-or-take.” Knox shrugged.

Lita raised an eyebrow, only to lower it and break up all over again. “Hope I didn’t cause you too much trouble,” the punk guffawed, helping the hefty metal prosthetic back to its proper place.

“Same.” Knox nodded, shaking her hand with his remounted silver arm.

“Another feather in the Ascensorian cap,” Godred beamed, crossing the room to meet the two. “We ain’t all gonna be buddy-buddy all the time, but I think we’ve all been in the shit so long we can stand each other stinking for a bit.”

On that, the punk, the cop, and the old general all agreed.

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