Chapter One
The noise of the battle stilled. Hunter, Justice and Logan looked round, watching to see where Pen would emerge from next. He landed behind them, shooting a beam from his glove that sent Hunter and Justice flying into the room behind them, before blasting the door controller, leaving them locked in there, and Logan alone on the platform to fight him.
"We need to get out of here, and find some way to defeat Pen!" Justice shouted.
"The only weakness I know of is his reflection. Can we find something shiny, a mirror or something?" Hunter replied.
They looked round, and Hunter found a broken mirror.
“Brilliant, we can use that!” Justice smiled. “You’re wonderful!” He gathered Hunter into his arms and kissed her long and hard. “Just in case we don’t make it out of here!”
“Don’t say that! Of course we will!”
Hunter took her pickhammer to the door controls, just in time to see Logan climb back onto the platform, glowering at Pen.
“Oh ho! You’re back! This is going to make it all the sweeter when I kill your friend here!” Pen exclaimed.
All three of them aimed their guns at him, letting loose a stream of bullets. As they got closer, Hunter flashed the mirror at Pen, causing him to lose his focus. However, this meant the shot that was aimed at Logan hit Justice instead, throwing him over the edge of the platform.
One last shot from Logan sent Pen over the edge as well.
“Justice! No!” screamed Hunter, looking over the edge at his broken body.
“Come on!” Logan yelled, tugging her arm, “We can mourn him later, we need to finish this!”
They continued down to the next level and spotted the entrance to the final chamber. Before they entered, Logan pulled Hunter to him. “We will finish this for Justice. And for my pa. Pen admitted he killed him, as well.”
He pushed his mask up and kissed Hunter, before squaring his shoulders. “Let’s do this,” he said, with grim determination.
They entered the room and, to their shock, found Matilda in a mech-suit.
“Finally!” she cackled over the speaker. “Time to end this!”
A blast from her laser hit Logan square in the chest, evaporating his body.
“NO!” screamed Hunter.
“Logan!”
Hunter sat bolt upright, panting heavily. Sunlight streamed in, and it took her a moment to recognise the unfamiliar furniture. Owen's room.
Memories of the previous night came flooding back, thoughts of Justice and Logan both alive battling with her nightmare.
Arms came round her waist, dragging her onto a warm, naked lap. Justice pulled her to him, stroking her back. "Ssh, darlin', it's okay, you're safe here."
She cupped his face, looking at him in disbelief, and whispering, “you’re here, you’re okay,” over and over.
The door banged open, and Logan ran in. Owen was a couple of steps behind him but hung back at the door.
“I heard shouting, is everythi—”
Hunter launched herself at him, repeating the same mantra.
Justice looked at them over Hunter’s head and mouthed “nightmare”, before Logan settled Hunter back on the bed, sandwiched between him and Justice. Satisfied that they had everything under control, Owen slipped back down to continue breakfast. With both Logan and Justice fussing, he figured that sorting her breakfast and coffee was the most useful thing he could do for Hunter right now.
The warmth of their bodies, and simply the fact they were there and alive, helped Hunter calm down enough to pull back and look at them.
“Sorry y’all, didn’t mean to wake up like that.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Justice asked.
Hunter shrugged. “Nightmare from the ruins. Had a few since the battle, but it’s normally just wandering round a town with nothin’ but Duvos soldiers, no one else to be seen. That one, though, the three of us going through the ruins, like we did, only I watched you both…” she stopped and swallowed, “I watched you both die.”
Now the sobs came, and she buried her head against Justice, while Logan stroked her back.
The guys looked at each other, neither quite sure what else to do, other than hold Hunter and let her cry it out.
Eventually, the tears stopped, and Hunter pulled out of their embrace.
“I’m sorry, that’s not me, I don’t—”
“Hunter, stop apologising.” Justice said. The use of her name, rather than Justice’s normal endearment, jarred her enough to get her attention. “What you went through - what we all went through, dammit - in there was tough. We all realised what we could lose down there, and now we’ve found it, well…”
“Come on, princess,” Logan said, “let’s get you downstairs, smells like Owen’s got the coffee just about ready. You want your mornin’ brew, dontcha?”
Hunter nodded. “Let me just get some clothes on.”
“Need me to borrow something else of Owen’s?” Logan offered, grinning at her. Hunter realised that instead of his normal bandit’s armour, he wore Owen’s spare sweatpants and a vest. And he still hadn’t put his mask back on.
“Looks good on you, but no.” She smiled for the first time since she woke up, swung her legs over the side of the bed and reached for the bottom drawer of the cabinet.
“Wait, you’ve got clothes stashed at Owen’s?”
“Yep, so does Justice!” She shrugged, tossing a fresh t-shirt and a pair of shorts over her shoulder at Justice as she spoke. “And they’ve got stuff stored at mine!
“We realised that we were falling asleep so often at each other’s houses that it was easier to leave a couple of changes of clothing at each other’s places. Got toothbrushes, too!”
“Makes sense, I suppose," Logan said with a frown. "I don’t reckon I’ve been back long enough to have anything stored anywhere.”
“Well, we can sort that out, pardner,” Justice added. “Guess we also need to talk about where.”
“Need coffee before any serious discussion,” Hunter stated, grabbing her clothes, and heading to the bathroom. It was obvious that she didn’t want to discuss her nightmare any further, so both Justice and Logan decided to let it lie. For now.
Downstairs, Owen was serving up breakfast as Hunter walked in. Logan and Justice had headed down before her, giving her the few moments peace that she needed. That nightmare was something she didn’t want to revisit.
Owen held up a technomug filled with coffee topped off with yakmel milk, just the way she liked it. Before he handed it to her, he pulled her into a tight hug. “When you’re ready to talk, I’m here, darlin’, OK?” he murmured. Hunter nodded against his chest, and he dropped a kiss on the top of her head, before releasing her, and handing her the mug.
As always, Owen’s cooking was excellent, and Hunter felt her stress drain away as she ate. Yakmel belly sliced paper-thin and fried, piled onto thick sliced bread, and served with eggs. She didn’t know how he did it.
“So,” Owen asked as the plates were finally empty, “What’s the plans for today?”
“Need to get back to the station, I guess,” Justice answered. “Unsuur drew the short straw for the early start today, but I ought to go along and join him.”
“I’ve got to catch up with Mi-an,” Hunter said, “discuss what’s happening with the Guild.”
“I thought you said Mi-an was going to take the Commissioner’s job?” Logan asked.
“Probably, yeah, but there’s so much more than that. Yan has done so much damage to that place, every time we open another drawer, we find more shitstorms he’s caused. We need to get that sorted, so we can get on with rebuilding the town. I was serious about there being another builder’s vacancy if Haru’s interested, though.”
Logan frowned at that thought. He hadn’t seen much of Haru since they’d come back to town. “Might be better talkin’ to Elsie about that rather than me, these days!”
“Yeah, I do need to catch up with Elsie, too!” Hunter replied with a grin.
“I ought to get back to the saloon,” Owen admitted. “Don’t normally leave it in the hands of temporary staff for so long. Cora did well last night, though. I might look to take her on to replace Grace, if she wants to stick about.”
“Is Grace definitely going back to Atara, then?” Hunter asked.
“Guess so, if she wants to stay with the ACI.”
“What about you, Logan?” Hunter asked.
“Nothin’ much if I’m honest. Might tag along with you, if you don’t mind, princess?”
"Fine by me, so long as you won't be too bored listenin' to us gossiping?"
"Never! Give me five minutes to get ready?"
"I'll be here!"
"I'm gonna head out now," Justice said. "Need to get my uniform on, too."
With a brief kiss for each of them, he left.
"Thanks for not fussing this morning, Owen " Hunter said, as they waited on Logan.
"I figured all three of us might be a bit much," he replied, "but I meant what I said earlier, whenever you need me, I'm here."
"I know. Thank you."
Logan reappeared wearing a mix of his own clothes and Owen's. Most significantly, his hair was loose, and he'd left off his hat and mask.
"Ready to face the town?" Owen asked.
"As I'll ever be!"
The three of them headed towards the Blue Moon, and Hunter's workshop.
"I'll be there in about 10 minutes," Hunter said, "want to go and change into something more builder-like."
"I'll come with you," Logan said.
"It's fine, besides how do I know it's not just an excuse for you to get my clothes off?" she teased.
"Babe, that's exactly what it is," he drawled.
Owen shook his head. "If you make Mi-an wait more than 10 minutes, I'll send her over, you know!"
He hugged them both and headed into the saloon.
Hunter wasn't joking about getting changed quickly, grabbing jeans and a shirt that were far smarter than the shorts and t-shirt she'd had at Owen's.
What caught Logan’s attention was watching her braid her hair, keeping it neatly out her way, and tying it off again with his bandana.
“You know folk’ll realise what that is?” he asked her, lifting up the bow that hung over her shoulder.
“I’m countin’ on it!” Hunter replied, hugging him. “Now let’s get your new look on show as well.”
“Feels strange,” Logan admitted, running his hand over his exposed jaw.
They made it back to the Blue Moon before Mi-an arrived and settled into their normal booth. Logan wrapped an arm round Hunter’s shoulder, tucking her against his side. They teased each other as they waited, and Hunter felt the final chills of her nightmare leave her.
“Well, I guess I lost that bet!” Mi-an giggled, sliding into the opposite side of the booth. “I’da sworn you’d’ve ended up with Owen!”
“Yeah, “I was bettin’ on Justice!” added Elsie as she and Haru joined them. “Told you Logan was in there!” he countered, as he wrapped an arm round Elsie’s shoulder.
Hunter and Logan looked at each other and laughed. “You gonna tell them, princess, or should I?”
Hunter shrugged, “All y’all got it right.”
“Wait, what?” asked Mi-an.
“All of them?” squealed Elsie.
“Good for you. All of you,” added Haru.
Questions flew from Mi-an and Elsie at a mile a minute, until Hunter put her hand up for quiet.
“Yes, all of them. Let’s save the details for the next girls’ night though? Unless you’re ready to spill, too, Elsie?”
“Don’t know what you mean,” Elsie replied, snuggling into Haru. “Anyway, didn’t y’all want to talk borin’ business?”
“Did you make up your mind, Mi-an?” Hunter asked.
“Yep, I’m going to accept the offer of Commissioner - on condition that you are my second in command!”
“Works for me. However, shall we make plans for our first official meeting for tomorrow and just relax today? The Guild reps seem to think they'll be done going through Yan's records by then, plus it looks like our planning meeting has been gatecrashed!”
The next few days passed without too much trouble. Hunter had no further nightmares, in fact was sleeping better than she had in ages. Each morning she woke up with one of the guys snuggled up to her. She suspected they had an unwritten rota to share out mornings evenly, which was fine by her. Although they all knew she wasn’t a morning person, they seemed to have found ways to wake her that she didn’t mind at all.
The reps from the Commerce Guild in Atara had finally finished reviewing the mess Yan had left behind. Hunter had worried about Hans and Jon being of the Yan school of builders, but they’d turned out to be pretty cool guys. They were fully behind Hunter and Mi-an’s plans for a more equitable Guild, and while they didn’t think it would catch on everywhere, were happy to endorse their plans.
They interviewed Haru and were pleased to assign him to Hunter and Mi-an as an apprentice builder.
Justice finally got the paperwork sorted to enact Unsuur’s long overdue promotion to Deputy.
“Ceremony’s at Martle Square tomorrow, 9am sharp,” he said over dinner that night, “All y’all gonna be there, right?”
There was enthusiastic agreement from all of them.
“Don’t I contractually have to attend, anyway?” Hunter asked.
“What’s bein’ a builder got to do with that?” Logan asked, confused.
“Justice swore me in as an honorary Corps member ages ago,” she replied. “Didn’t you know? Why’d you think I got to tag along when they were trying to catch you?”
“Well now, I thought you were just chasin’ after me for my charm an’ good looks, princess!”
Hunter and Justice laughed, but Owen caught the slight flicker of discomfort that crossed Logan’s face.
The deputy ceremony went off without a hitch, everyone was delighted to see Unsuur finally achieve his dream.
As people mingled about the square afterwards, most of the town still wanted to talk to Hunter, Justice and Logan about their part in defeating Duvos. Hunter and Justice took it in their strides, Logan, not so much.
He was still too used to being alone, or at least just in the cave with Haru, and later Andy. Being around so many people made him uncomfortable, and he itched to put his mask back on to try and keep them away. The fact that they all thought he’d done something special, something important, also made him uncomfortable. He’d been brought up a monster hunter, it was all he knew, so he just did what he did. Despite Pen’s revelations about killing Howlett, fighting, injuring, or killing another human just didn't sit right with him.
Andy ran over to greet Logan and, after checking no-one was looking, threw his arms round Logan’s waist. In return, Logan ruffled his hair.
“How you doin’, kid? Burgess treatin’ you right?”
“Meh, he’s ok, not as strict as Pastor Miguel was. Knew he was a slimy one from the moment I met him. But I wanna be back out there with you and Haru, when we goin’ back out as the gang again?”
“Might be a while, Andy, sorry, just stick in with the schoolin’ for now, ok?”
“Yeah, I guess. At least Jas is there, she makes it fun. Heh, everyone says you’re a hero now, Logan, didja know?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard.” Didn’t matter how often he heard it, he didn’t feel like a hero. He’d done what he needed to do, and now he was worried what they expected of him next, what he could even offer them.
“Anyway, I’m off to find Jas, she says she found a cave, but I’mma bet it’s the one I found last week!”
Logan smiled as he watched Andy run off. When they’d found him lost in the desert, he and Haru had tried to locate his family, but with no luck. He might talk to Justice about putting an official search in place, Light, he might even go looking for them himself since there didn’t seem to be anything else for him to do in town.
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