117 Charisma is the Best Stat

Standing in the small forest clearing, surrounded by rabbit corpses and a single adult deer, it doesn't take too long for Sibby to arrive, carrying a deer of her own in one hand while she uses her mouth and other hand to carry a few rabbits.

Yet, in spite of all the blood leaking from the animals' wounds, her skin is completely untouched by it, which means that she is simply not allowing the blood to stick to her for once.

I guess she prefers hunting humans then, because she generally walks around covered in gore for at least a little while after hunting people.

We're far enough away from the others that I'm pretty sure Jack's mind reading thing that he can do won't work, se we've got time, and if it turns out that I don't actually have time, then I guess I'll just have to brute force things.

Jack's pretty weak anyway.

"Heya Tiger!~ Looks like I caught more than you~", I say, gesturing to my own corpse pile that is almost twice as large as her own.

Pockets for the win.

Naturally, she doesn't say anything in return, only giving me her usual smirk as a response as she saunters up to me.

Knowing that she won't speak, I continue doing so instead.

"You know what that means, one favour is owed~", I say, matching her smirk with one of my own, even as I ready myself to jump away if she turns violent.

Her smirk widens slightly and she adds a distracting sway to her hips as she struts forward until she is right in front of me, clearly expecting my favour to be the 'fun' kind of favour.

Sorry to disappoint, but I've actually thought this through, if only a little bit, and I've come to the conclusion that the best way to keep her on my side is to just be blunt and forthcoming.

Most relationship problems can all be solved with just a little communication after all, I just need to lay everything out before she can come to conclusions of her own.

So, blunt admission it is.

"I want you to do nothing as I kill Jack.~"

Immediately, her eyes narrow at me, but I don't back away, matching her stare with my own, much more carefree one.

Thankfully, she doesn't immediately resort to violence, and I make sure to keep still so as to avoid setting her off as I prepare my argument.

"Jack and I are going to have a disagreement, one that cannot be solved without one of us dying. I'm asking you to stand on my side, instead of his."

Putting it like this will hopefully give the impression that it's not 'my' fault this is happening, keeping myself firmly out of the blame.

Though, frankly I think I've been overthinking this whole thing. It's not like it's unheard of for members of the Nine to kill each other, so I don't think that will be much of an issue.

The issue is that Jack is the lynchpin holding the group together, and for Siberian, Jack is Bonesaw's 'uncle' and effective father figure of sorts, so while I doubt she really cares much about his life, she definitely cares about Bonesaw's feelings for him.

That is the challenge here, getting Siberian to see Jack's death as less impactful than my own.

The others are honestly more likely to side with me, I think. A lot of us are newer, meaning Jack wouldn't have had the time to sink his metaphorical claws into them, the only issue being Shatterbird's little crush on Jack, but I think he's helped me out with that anyway, since all I should have to do is point out how he's never returned her affections.

I just need to get him to admit to knowingly ignoring them and I win.

"Why. Should I?" The voice, barely a whisper, shocks me out of my thoughts like the tolling of the final bell.

I almost recoil as I look at Siberian in complete shock, unable to even formulate a coherent thought as her voice, silent as a whisper, but as clear as day, echoes in my mind.

She can speak!?

"...You can speak?", I mutter, but she does not respond and I quickly do my best to gather myself, deciding to ruminate on this revelation at a later date, "right, of course you can talk, why not."

Taking a deep breath, I attempt to bring back my previous thoughts on what I was going to say, mostly succeeding in my endeavour.

"Jack is a manipulative Edgelord. He's a self absorbed child with the ego of a god and a compulsive desire to destroy everything around him. I'm way more fun than him, and besides, aren't you tired of following orders? Don't you want to be free? 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 free? It's 𝘌𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨." I breathe, letting my feelings of wanderlust infuse with my voice.

Her squinted eyes gain a dangerous gleam to them as I speak, and though her response is whispered all the same, there is a hint of threat to it that wasn't there prior.

"I 𝘢𝘮 free", is all she says, causing my smirk to widen.

"Maybe for now.~ You have freedom to run, to do as you like. It's nice.~ But you're going to chafe at it sooner or later.~ You're going to realize that you're still in a cage 𝘩𝘦 made. You're still following 𝘩𝘪𝘴 rules, in the end.~"

I can tell that I'm only pissing her off more, but that's the thing about communication in relationships, you have to work through the hard stuff first, as things will only get better once everything is on the table. Got to rip the band-aid off, so to speak.

"Maybe you can be happy like this.~ A dog, collar around your neck, a long chain. You'll never 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 be free. The best you could hope for is a pat on the head when you're good, when you do as you should, maybe some freedom to hunt whenever you're a 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭.~ But maybe that's what you want.~"

The thing with changing peoples minds about things, is that people are stubborn, and don't like accepting new thoughts if they don't come up with them themselves.

The trick, is making them come to the conclusion you're painting for them by themselves, which is best done by getting them to actually engage in the conversation, to slip up, give you something to work with.

She moves closer, one of her clawed hands gently resting on my neck, the threat clear as moves her face close enough that our noses are almost touching.

"Jack does not 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 me. No one does. No one could", she breathes, her voice sounding almost ethereal.

Heh. My smirk widens.

Checkmate.

"Really?~", I ask, smugly, "maybe not directly, no. But can you honestly tell me that there is anything you 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 do, if Bonesaw were to simply ask you to?~"

Her eyes widen marginally, turning slightly less accusatory as she thinks about my words, but I don't want her to come up with any kind of explanation by herself. I need to control the outcome.

"Bonesaw controls you, though she'd probably never try and take your freedom away, but 𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬 controls 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘸 and he won't share the same compunctions about controlling 𝘺𝘰𝘶. Yet, he does not care for her, not like you and I. He doesn't view her as a daughter, but as a tool. She'd be better with us than with 𝘩𝘪𝘮. He keeps her on a leash, one far tighter than your own. We could show her 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘰𝘮. We could teach her that 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 feeling. All we have to do first, is get rid of Jack."

I honestly can't tell what she's feeling. Siberian has been impossible to read since I first saw her and that's not going to suddenly change, even with the revelation that she's not actually a mute.

But she's not ripping me to pieces, so I'm probably getting to her, maybe.

"Join me. You know Jack well enough to know that he'll get bored of Bonesaw eventually, that he'll break her and toss her away like the petulant child that he is. 𝘐 will let her be 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦."

I'm pretty sure I'm convincing her, but I don't really know for certain until she leans forward and surprises me by giving me a short, soft kiss on the lips.

Before I can even say anything about it, she peaks up again, her voice just as soft as ever. "As of this moment, you're the only one to hear me speak and live afterwards."

...Ok. I think that means I win, right?

Sibby doesn't wait up for me after saying her piece, choosing instead to simply pick up her deer and a couple rabbits and start walking back to the RV, casual as can be.

...I guess that means she's on my side, right?

I'm just going to move forward with the assumption that I've won her over, which means that Jack has already lost. All that's really left to see is if Shatterbird will die as well.

I type out and send off a quick text before turning back to my corpse pile and grabbing most of it, setting off after Siberian immediately after in a light jog.

I catch up to her in no time and we both stroll together in comfortable silence, completely casual despite what is about to happen, though that's probably just got to do with how neither of us believes we can be killed by any of the others.

Well, I know Sibby and Crawler 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 probably kill me, but they're too slow to actually do so.

A short walk later and the forest starts tapering away, making way for the dirt road we were traveling down.

The RV is parked right in the middle of the road, none of us worried about being in peoples' way since if they see us, they'll probably just be killed anyway, probably by their own car's glass too.

I've noticed that Shatterbird tends to get antsy if she doesn't get to prover her superiority over others as much as she wants, so she's generally trigger happy after a couple days of not killing anyone.

Honestly, sometimes I get the feeling that she's going to pick a fight with someone, only to remember that everyone else would beat her in a fight, or at least be capable of hurting and matching her, which is a humiliation she wouldn't be able to stand.

Well, except for Bear I guess, because she's pretty weak, so picking on her wouldn't really prove anything. It's like kicking a sad, wet, disabled puppy that just got hit by lightning.

Not exactly something to be proud of.

Though it would be pretty funny to see that series of events play out.

I'm actually kind of surprised that she's even still alive. It's probably a testament to her mind really.

Speaking of though, as we enter the clearing I catch no sight of Bear, or Crawler for that matter.

Instead, there is only Burnscar, Shatterbird and Crusher sitting around a campfire, the former two sitting next to each other and chatting quietly while Crusher is just sitting on the floor, leaning back against a log as she stares blankly up at the stars.

Jack and Bonesaw are probably still in the RV.

"Just keep Bonesaw safe", I whisper to Sibby right before the three take notice of us.

When they do, all three heads turn to face us, and immediately put on a wide smile, drop my game and spread my arms wide, as if expecting a hug.

"Lucy!~ Did ya miss me!?~", I exclaim as I run up to her and right as I am about to jump at her, I feel my entire body Break apart.

But, she has Broken me so many times by now that my healing seems to have gotten even faster, meaning that I am fully fixed before my body even hits the floor, allowing my to catch myself and keep moving.

Naturally, she just Breaks me again, and just leaves her power active this time, causing my body to break and fix itself over and over again, which, by the way, 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴, but I push through, struggling with each step until I reach her.

Not really having the strength to do much else, I simply let myself fall onto her, resting my head on her shoulder.

I open my mouth in an attempt to speak, but my vocal cords keep getting Broken so nothing comes out, which is slightly annoying.

My solution to that is to take a bite out of her shoulder. My regeneration speeds up exponentially when I'm eating, and I know she can heal herself by Breaking other things.

As evidenced by how quickly her shoulder fixes itself as her power continues to Break me, and I take another few couple of bites before being satisfied that my regeneration will be boosted enough for me to actually talk.

"I'm going to kill Jack", I whisper to her, barely audible even with my mouth mere inches away from her ear, yet she clearly hears me just fine, going by how my body suddenly stops feeling like it's on fire, and I continue whispering, "I just need you to stand next to Shatter, keep her under control. You in?"

She doesn't respond verbally, but she does turn to stare into my eyes, and I simply nod my head slightly in the direction of the other two, who have gone back to their own thing, ignoring our interaction as it is a fairly common event.

I can't see Sibby anywhere though, which is worrying.

Lucy gives me a single brief nod and gets up, and walks over to the other two.

They both give her a curious look, but they're already in her range so it doesn't matter.

That's check Jack, what will you do now?

As if to answer my unspoken question, the RV door suddenly bursts open to reveal a rather irritated looking Jack Slash.

Heh. He seems upset.

I guess that mind reading thing of his really is area based.

Ah well, he's already in check, now all I need to do is get mate.

Shouldn't be too hard.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

This chapter kicked my ass, and I'm not really all that happy about it, I kinda wanna go back and delete this one as well as the one before and just start over, maybe further back, but I'm way too lazy to do that, and pokemon has ingrained in me a hatred of redoing things. (I used to keep forgetting to charge my ds and I never saved, so I ended up doing the first gym battle in heart gold about 30 times)

Also, some of you attentive worm fans may have found some parts of this chap familiar, and that would be because I love it when stories mirror things, idk how to explain it properly, but I love parallels, like when a show's first episode's soundtrack is played in the final credits but in a lower pitch to show how things have changed, little stuff like that, like Tear using Sibby's own future words to convince her

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)

Also, join the discord with this invite code! Pj3Dttwses