Aromantic Assassins

1) Ace's Dream:
What the fuck was going on here? There were only Pups, and no Wardens on the lift. But someone was walking out onto the lift. Someone in the flimsy cloth the breeders and the milkers wore. Something had changed.
Ace watched the lift coming down, praying to his mother’s God with half-remembered words.
He recognized the breeders on the lift before they got down too close, thank Immortan. It gave him time to call Axel to him.
“Get me something of Bolt’s,” he said.
“Ahead of ya, Ace,” Axel said, and handed him Bolt’s favorite salvage from the Mall. It was pretty shine, Ace had always thought, the little bit of cloth with pictures of green things on it.
“You not gonna keep it?” Ace asked. Axel was owed something of Bolt’s, too.
“I got my own things,” Axel said. “Ningura’s owed somthin’.”
“Yep,” Ace said, and got out of the car. “Dao Vu,” he called, “Ningura.” He stopped. What did one say to a couple of breeders standing on the lift?

2)Suddenly Sam/Steve:
Someone had screamed. That was the last thing Steve remembered clearly. Now, the world was full of frightened soldiers, his soldiers, and fallen enemies. He was growling, and he wasn’t sure he could stop. His Sentinel was hurt, he could feel the pain rattling through the air.
“Call medics,” he growled, or tried to. Bucky wasn’t there to translate for him, and he wasn’t sure he’d gotten the words all the way out. He couldn’t focus. Not with his Sentinel zoning out on the pain. Steve settled into a crouch beside his Sentinel. He swept his gaze around the area, searching for further threats.
“You got them all, man,” one of Steve’s soldiers said, “You take care of Sam, and we’ll keep watch.”

3)Something Leverage:
Hardison grumbles absently about how Eliot’s in the way, but he slings an arm around Eliot’s shoulders and mouses with his other hand. Eliot watches him move little bright shapes on the screen. He hasn’t seen this game before. He’s beginning to catch the rules when Parker brings out dinner. She runs her fingers through his hair and settles herself on his other side. Eliot sighs.
“Shall we kill them?” Parker asks, in that horribly everyday way she has. Hardison, normally a voice of reason, only hums noncommittally. Eliot thinks about it. About no-one living having to deal with those people again. About not having to be afraid of their next counterattack. About knowing that he’d killed them. And, God knows, he would be the one to kill them. He won’t let the others do it.
“Nah,” he says, almost - almost sounding normal. “Let’s just destroy everything they love.”

Not in Parker’s system. They use other ways of keeping track of what plan they’re on. There is no plan M. In plan M Hardison dies. That is unacceptable.

There are plans where Eliot dies. They tend to be backups to backups to backups, but they exist. There are some goals (Hardison’s survival, most pressingly) that Parker would willingly sacrifice Eliot for. He knows. (He wishes her own survival made the list.)

There are plans where Parker dies. They are also backups to backups, but they exist. There are many things Parker would be willing to die for. (Hardison. Eliot. Possibly even Nate or Sophie, but they don’t figure into the plans these days.)

Even after the kids are born, there is no plan where Hardison dies. Not even to save the children.

There’s an absolutely pragmatic reason for that.

Both Parker and Eliot think that Hardison’s kids would be better off dead than raised by monsters.

If Hardison dies by violence, if Hardison is killed, if there is someone to blame, and Eliot or Parker is still alive -

The world will burn.

There are some things you can never be clean of.

And the vengeance they would exact would be such a thing.

You’ve learned to read the city by the way the Hardison kids get home from school. There are three of them, the oldest 16, the youngest 12. Cute biracial kids who know some rather worrying things. (Like the details of the Burmese Civil War. Or the name of the current President of San Lorenzo. Or how to properly clean a rifle. Or the classifications of computer viruses. Or …) Their parents work at the Bridgeport Brewpub, about five blocks away. They live in the facing building.

So when everything’s normal, they just walk home. All three together.

When an adult comes to walk with them you worry. (The Bridgeport Crew is somewhere between Batman and a Mafia, as far as you can tell. The kids come unarmed to school. But the adults who meet them at the edge of the property - probably don’t. They have the courtesy to keep the distribution out of sight. You only spotted it once, and only because you were leaving early.) The adult is usually a parent. Parker or Hardison. (He has a first name. Once, you heard his wife use it.) Almost as often, though, it’s Eliot or Amy. The kids will call Eliot an uncle, if pressed. Amy is always an aunt.

When Eliot picks them up in his flashy car, you tell your friends to be extra careful for the next few nights. (The Bridgeport Crew doesn’t use guns. Their enemies do.)

When the unmarked van makes an appearance, you call your friends and hide in the safest basement you can find. (The unmarked van’s name is Lucille. You almost wish you didn’t know that.)