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Before he could reply to that, the man they were here to meet walked in.

Brendan Simpson was currently the second-in-command of Rondel’s organization.

Ronnie didn’t trust Mull with the position, obviously, so he had Brendan around to take care of all of the stuff that he didn’t have time to do, because he was too busy making Mull’s life a living hell.

Brendan was a prick. And not in an endearing way. He was that perfect point on the graph where you could be a prick, but not be so big a prick that it was funny or worthy of respect. He was the kind of prick who just made you hate him.

Ronnie was evil, but at least he was intelligent. Brendan was greedy and stupid. What he lacked in brains, he made up for in brawn and an eagerness to do whatever monstrous things Ronnie thought up.

Ronnie liked the guy, for some reason. Was always nicer to him than he ever was with her.

She wasn’t sure why.

“Hey,” Brendan nodded at them as he sat down at the table, “how you doing?”

Ronnie didn’t bother looking up at the man. "Still insane, but with long fits of horrible sanity.”

Brendan didn’t appear to have any idea how to respond to that. “Okaaaaaay,” he cleared his throat nervously, “the Agletarians will be here in a minute. You ready?”

Ronnie just watched him, like that was a tremendously stupid question. “Have you ever known me not to be?”

“No, but…” Brendan began.

“Then stop wasting my time.” Ronnie snapped. “I don’t pay you for your conversation.”

Brendan looked furious, but didn’t have the balls to object to that.

“I still don’t understand what this meeting is even about.” Mull protested.

Brendan looked up at her in surprise, then casually helped himself to a drink from the table. “They want us to kill some piece of shit villain group in the States.” He gave a helpless, disinterested shrug. “’The Consortium of Corruption,’ or some shit? I don’t know.”

Mercygiver placed more cards on the table. “Don’t I pay you to know?”

Brendan nodded and grew quiet, recognizing that he’d overstepped.

Mull’s eyes squinted, trying to figure this job out. “Why?”

“Why do you pay me?” Brendan frowned, his idiot mind visibly racing. “Because I’m…”

“No, why are they looking to wipe out the C of C?” She pressed.

Brendan shrugged. “How should I know. The Agletarians rarely need a reason to do what they do. Who gives a shit? As long as their money is good, we’re for hire, right?”

“I cannot be bought.” Mercygiver shook his head. “I do jobs because I want to do them and because I enjoy the work.”

“Well, I do them because I need the money.” Brendan decided, shifting in his seat. “That’s why most people go to work.”

Several people in suits arrived at the bar, and Brendan rushed to meet them at the door.

She watched the man silently for another moment.

He was… twitchy. Sweating.

Brendan appeared very nervous today. More than usual.

Her gaze flicked over to look at Ronnie out of the corner of her eye, to find that he had done the same.

Ronnie’s head nodded ever so slightly, indicating that he recognized the man’s change in attitude as well.

She leaned back in her chair, preparing to jump to her feet if the situation went south. “What would you do if you knew you were going to die?” She asked Ronnie. “If you had one day to live?”

“Kill my enemies.” Ronnie announced.

“No, no,” she shook her head, “I mean, how would you want to spend your final moments on this Earth?”

“…Killing my enemies.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s sad.” She frowned at him, oddly pitying the monster. “There’s a lot of hate there. Seems like life should be about more than that.”

“Murder is an important thing.” He placed the last of his cards on the table, finishing his game. “If you care enough to do it, then it’s probably the most important thing you’re doing that day. ”

“I don’t know how I’d spend mine.” She looked down at the table. “I guess none of us really know. Until we do.”

“You’ll spend your last day however I tell you to spend it.”

Her hands clenched into fists under the table, trying to keep herself from hitting him. Now wasn’t the time. But soon.

At the door, Brendan continued to chat with the assembly of men who arrived for the meeting.

“Well… they certainly seem chummy.” She remarked, returning to the matter at hand.

Ronnie turned to watch the meeting. “Yes, indeed they do.” He agreed. “Brendan is loyal.” He insisted, like he was trying to cut off her looming statement to the contrary, and to convince himself.

She shook her head. “No, he’s not. And you know it.”

They watched the drama playing out for another moment.

“We’re in a crowded bar right now,” she warned, “you could destroy a lot of things if you fight here.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He set to work reshuffling his cards. “You only exist because a beautiful star was destroyed, and scattered into billions of microscopic pieces, perhaps taking a thousand inhabited worlds with it when it blew...”

She put her fingertips up to her temple in irritation and boredom.

Jesus. She was going to kill him for the abuse alone, but his weird little monologues were just the icing on the cake.

She was going to kill him slowly for making her listen to years of his boring historical little life lessons, which he wrongly believed were somehow making a coherent philosophical point.

He pointed at her. “…You are destruction, on the deepest of levels. Every piece of you is rubble of something better. Something made of fire and gold and cosmic power, which shined for billions of years. You, Kitten, are just a tiny piece of shit that was left behind when it died. We all are. And every day of your life is spent destroying things. Everything you eat, breathe and do. Every movement you make is destroying something else. Destruction is creation. It breeds change. Change breeds evolution. And evolution breeds betterment.” He paused, taking on a contemplative tone.

“I… I would not be who I am today if not for evil men who wanted to destroy things. ‘Good’ people who let their hate get the better of them…” He snapped back to reality. “I’m sorry, Kitten. Where was I?”

“Brendan.” She pointed at his underling. “The meeting with the Agletarians.”

He nodded. “Ah, yes. ”

Brendan and the Agletarians started to walk over to them.

The leader of the men extended his hand to Ronnie… then stopped. He frowned in confusion for a moment, then retreated to talk to his companions.

Several of the men at the bar turned to look at the goings-on, and Mull noticed that they were wearing hidden earpieces.

Brendan hurried over to the men to discuss what had just happened.

Mull turned to look at Ronnie out of the corner of her eye again.

He nodded, understanding what she’d silently told him. “Well Kitten,” he heaved a sigh, “I would say that either we’ve become irresistibly popular since we left… or they’re planning on killing us.” He put his cards down slowly. “We’ve been sold out.”

She didn’t say anything because she couldn’t argue with that. The men were obviously here to kill them. And Brendan was the only possible suspect on who could have set them up.

Mercygiver looked at Brendan, silently coming to terms with his betrayal. The man’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly, his usual mask of calm menace cracking for the briefest of moments to reveal someone who was… hurt.

She smiled, getting the oddest joy out of watching the man’s anger and pain at being betrayed.

Good.

No one in their right mind would be loyal to Ronnie.

If he wanted people to feel loyal to him, he should have stopped being a fucking nightmare who tried to kill them all the damn time.

Ronnie deserved this. And even though it was about to end in her death, she was genuinely glad she got to see it.

Fuck Ronnie.

Mercygiver nodded to himself, coming to terms with the situation. “So,” he leaned forward in his chair, “I suppose the only question then is: what are we going to do about it?”

“I’m not dying today.” She announced. “I refuse to die until I’ve killed you .”

He nodded. “My feelings exactly.”

The Agletarians and Brendan finished their talk and turned to look at them, friendly smiles gone. They were about to make their move against them.

Ronnie flipped the table over, sending the playing cards up in a cloud, then they both went to work killing the men…