Chapter 17: CLXI-CLXX 1/2

Author's Note : I did not intend for last chapter to end on a cliff-hanger. It wasn't supposed to read that way, but you all had a point that Fon wouldn't have just left it there. We're doing this today, because I've got diver's training tomorrow and wouldn't be able to do this over the weekend. So I rushed it a bit, excuse any minor editing issues. I'll fix them on Monday.

guest : …speaking as a decedent of the Romani people, through my mother no less, I'm offended at your automatic assumption of my bigotry. Gypsy can be used as a racial slur, yeah. Do I use it as such? No. It's also a heavily romanticized word for those that wander and didn't have entirely legal sources of income… i.e. Sonya herself.

Edited (4/26/2017) - Minor grammar and story element corrections/additions.

Edit (3/21/2018) - Final formatting and minor corrections.

Edited (9/7/2018) - Minor corrections.

Russian Roulette : Reloaded

CLXI-CLXX

CLXI (Monday the 8th of May, 1967 continued. Shanghai International Settlement, People's Republic of China.)

Sonya had to give Fong some credit, he was markedly persistent even when taken by surprise.

After getting a message taken to Cherep by paying one of the boys running around the wharf to do it, she had to bolt again to keep him from catching her.

The man chased her up the Shanghai fishing docks, sopping wet and still dodging pedestrians with enviable skill, and down the connected market street, only a bit damp that time, until they started attracting attention neither really wanted to deal with. When the Red Guard members and the Shanghai police started popping up with alarming frequency, the thief ducked into the busier traders' markets with Fong hot on her heels.

Annoyingly persistent, but at least the Chinese man was considerate enough about the inconvenience as he tried talking her into helping him with whatever in between streets or when scaling a building or two to get around traffic-clogged streets.

She could fully understand why he kept on chasing her, even between the port's midday foot traffic and through Shanghai's oppressively wet almost-summer heat. Beyond whatever it was he wanted to ask or was responsible for asking of her, if she got loose and reported to Mafia Land that the Triad organization she had taken a job for had tracked one of their supposedly 'anonymous' thieves down...

The Triad organization responsible for this little game of tag would be blacklisted from Mafia Land for a few years. One year if nothing else came from this incident and two if anything semi-serious or lethal happened.

From the looks of things, especially since Sonya had to be hired to help keep up Omertà, they probably couldn't afford that.

That didn't mean she was only amused by this little diversion. Rapidly becoming annoyed was a better explanation for her state of mind.

Her brother and fellow Cloud would start to worry when Crina got back to the circus alone, that message of hers may or may not help that much. The stuntman wasn't a fighter, he was way too much of a pacifist to be comfortable harming another person. If he attracted attention to himself and the fact he was her brother got mentioned...

Well, she wouldn't restrict herself to maybe a bit of property damage in response.

It really should've occurred to her to wonder why only three men had been tasked to approach her when they probably knew full well she was at least a Dying Will Flame user of the Storm, or where any other triad members were during that little chase one of their own was doing.

Her general feeling of rapid annoyance changed suddenly to flat out irritated when Fong managed to corner her in a strangely empty warehouse district.

Liqin looked cringingly apologetic behind the first rank of very angry looking Chinese men who likely belonged to the local chapter of the Triads. He was still somewhat damp, the only reason the Chinese man in red with the braided hair wasn't was because of the speed the two of them got up to while racing up and down a dockside or three.

Fucking fuck nuts.

She couldn't just beat them bloody or murder them, if she could in the first place, without the Triads actively bothering the circus she had been seen with. Cherep was likely to stay with them for another few years, and he might not be able to afford that kind of attention even if he got wildly popular. "I am never coming back to China."

The man who had done most of the chasing slid to a halt a respectable distance behind her, probably only that far away because she did just crush a man's hand in front of him not an hour before.

"I cannot allow you to leave it at this time, unfortunately."

Tilting her head back, to see Fong a clearly over her shoulder, Sonya gave him a wan smile. "Know the problem with assumptions, Fong?"

"Other than that delightful pun thought up by the American soldiers?" He asked pleasantly, and she did admire the fact he wasn't even breathing hard.

She wasn't either, but she had a cheat for that. She was a hell of a lot sweatier than him, but that might be because he was wearing recently damp and loose clothing while she had some leather and a few layers on.

"Other than that one." The thief agreed easily, sliding a hand to the leather bracer on her left forearm.

Fong meant the 'assume makes an ass- out of -u- and -me' saying, which was a play on the English spelling and pronunciation. She had a different one in mind.

"Sometimes, when you assume, you overestimate things. Namely yourselves." Sonya had all seven of her mini Bec de Corbin copies on her, and she slipped a Flame resistant one out into her right palm. "Other times, you do not assume nearly enough. Namely me."

A twist of will, not quite a desire or a demand but a flex of something innate in nature she had long gotten used to doing over her childhood, and in a flair of lilac Flames she had a fully sized polearm in her right hand.

The purple would out her as a Cloud Flame user, but right now that wouldn't exactly impair her any.

Sonya set the butt end on the ground next to her feet and twisted around far enough to squarely face the man behind her. "I really do not wish to damage anything, yourselves or this city, but I really must insist to be let go. You are trying to trap a Cloud, and I should not have to inform you how that typically ends."

His expression was interesting. He wasn't surprised, which meant he had paid some attention when she dunked him into the harbor by shattering the docks from under him. He also didn't look as enthusiastic as he had trying to chase her down earlier, but that may be attributed to anything from her gender to a lack of desire to tangle with a Cloud Flame user.

The man sighed heavily after a long moment, adopting a martial arts stance Sonya couldn't identify.

Not that she had much exposure to many martial arts.

"I am afraid I have to insist you remain, Miss Sonya."

...great. They knew her name.

She allowed a wry smile to twist her lips, turning back to the no-longer-so-angry looking men that were part of this little confrontation. "You... are a very stubborn man."

"I have been informed of such."

"I... will let you have this one. I don't really want to deal with angry Triad members actively hunting me."

She could no longer see him behind her, but there was a shift of a soft shoe's sole over hard packed dirt that let her know he had shifted slightly. "Are you giving up?"

Fong was suspicious. Good for him, but a bit too late.

"No, I merely meant I won't report this. So, you no longer have a reason to chase me more." Sonya flashed him a smirk, then gripped her Bec de Corbin in both hands and smashed the hammer end into the earth.

With how dry the dirt underfoot was, a sudden effusion of sheer overpowered force threw up a great cloud of dust and grit.

His aborted dart forward gained him a face full of it, and the consequence of applied force through her swung polearm vaulted the Russian up and forward at a rate they probably didn't have time to adjust to.

She twisted in mid-air and easily cleared the heads of the men that had barred her way forward, then a tuck and a roll once her heels hit dirt meant she was back on her feet and running for the outer edges of the city before they could clearly see what had happened.

Screw Shanghai, she'd catch a boat in another port.

CLXII (Tuesday the 6th of June, 1967. Bengaluru, Karnataka, Republic of India.)

Given how worriedly Cherep fussed over her when she reappeared Sonya assumed Crina had reported some of what she had seen, and rumors probably did the rest of informing him of why it took her so long.

Civilians only fled from their usual areas like that for a few things, namely either military or underworld operations taking place in their midst.

Also, the fact that it took her nearly a month and until India to join back up with the circus might have had something to do with it.

She'd had to head south-west out of Shanghai to Hangchou on foot, catch a lift to Mafia Land and snatched her mail from Tatiana, then catch another boat to Singapore. Then track the circus' route to Chennai, India.

Then she had to skip town almost immediately and head off to Bangalore on her lonesome.

Which she wasn't ever doing again. If she lost track of the circus, they could go on without her.

Sonya told a small fib to Master Liam, claiming the stone carving without actual tools for it attracted attention she couldn't afford. It did at least prevent any awkward questions of being asked, and she didn't mind lying for Omertà.

Actually, she had to figure out if Dying Will Flame use was actually covered by Omertà or if it was just something 'everyone knows' but wasn't quite true. If it was, then how the hell did Cherep get away with an innate use of Cloud Flames to survive any crashes in another life?

The Vindice weren't particularly concerned with if you knew the laws you were breaking or not, just if you broke them at all.

She wrote off India as a lost in terms of searching out the underworld, because she had already sped through half of the region the Groβes Volksfest would be passing through. Which wasn't much of a pity, because the countryside was interesting enough she had more than enough to do.

India only had about a decade and most of another as an independent country anyways, the underworld was probably not quite settled enough for foreigners to poke their noses into it without risking said nose.

Additionally, her brother wasn't interested in letting her out of his sight any time soon. Which was cute of him, but not helpful.

He spluttered at being called so. "CUTE! Sonya, you just-"

"Stop." She even helpfully held up a hand to get his mind the time to process things again. "Think. You know full well what I am. This last month? Will become more and more of a common thing the longer I go on doing what I am trained for. You know this."

"...you can't go back to China."

"Probably not. And when you go back, you are going to have to be a little wary of what you say and to whom." The thief shrugged that off easily, scuffing her boots deeper into the sandy earth they were taking a break on from setting up the circus. "China is a big country, though. I could probably do one-day jumps across the border, but that would be my limit from now on."

Cherep slouched down next to her, gazing in the same direction at the distant city, digging his fingers into the same gritty ground. "I don't like it."

"I will be sure to convey your dissatisfaction to them the next time I see a Triad member."

Snorting, the stuntman let himself fall backwards to stare up at the starry night sky overhead. "Kick one for me instead, yeah?"

Sonya laughed lightly, leaning back to stare up at the same sight he was looking at. "I will. A bone-breaking one even. That will certainly show our displeasure at their audacity."

He kicked out his feet, so he was fully comfortable while they stargazed, and laced his fingers together behind his head. "So... someone missed my last few shows."

"Not my fault. You may blame Crina... or Master Liam."

His next show was the very next stop, and they were only about halfway into their first day in Bellary. Which was, from what she had seen of it on the circus' way into the city, a rather cool city built right on top of the bones of the old city.

The thief kind of wanted to go exploring but there was more than enough to do as is, so she was putting it off until they broke down the circus again.

"I will be there this next time." Even if she didn't really like watching him performing.

A sharp tug on the back of her vest had her dropping back to lay supine as well.

"Perfect." Came her fellow Cloud's annoyingly cheerful voice. "You can bite your nails to the quick, maybe put some more finger-dents into a metal rail, and I'll... what did you call it? Get myself an adrenaline rush in front of spectators."

Sonya blindly thumped his chest with a free hand. "I said I was sorry."

"No, you didn't."

Blinking, she cast back for what she had snapped at him in a fit of pique. "Oh... no. I did not, did I? Sorry Cherep, I did not mean to take out my frustration on you."

A hand patted her on the head, which was rather annoyingly patronizing. Probably the point.

"It's alright, I had already known you're socially incompetent."

"...I will stab you."

"No, you won't."

"Want to bet?"

There was a pause, then Cherep scrambled to his feet and bolted. With a snort, Sonya pushed herself upright as well and followed him back to the fairgrounds at a more moderate pace.

India was hot country, after all.

CLXIII (Thursday the 15th of June, 1967. Hubballi, Karnataka, Republic of India.)

Hubli-Dharwad was... strange. Sonya had never seen a twinned city before, and she frankly didn't understand how it worked at all.

However, her inability to understand didn't change the fact it was basically two cities in one massive area. While Dharwad was the administrative headquarters the city it was Hubballi, situated south-east a respectable distance away, that was the commercial center and business hub of north Karnataka.

The Russian thief was also somewhat suspicious of the recently established Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, which governed the entire thing. That had some of the signs of a mafia cover business, yet... it still seemed too civilian to be really connected to the underworld.

She wanted to poke it a little, so she could understand what it really was, but that also wasn't the best idea ever.

Frankly, she had already had way too much mafia involvement in her little 'hiatus' already, she didn't need more.

The Groβes Volksfest had set up in the more southern city, not only was it closer to their last stop but it did deal with the more trade-central and entertainment orientated services than Dharwad.

Due to the troubles up north, the circus was really only hitting the bigger cities on their way through to Saudi Arabia and then Egypt, Faris' home country. Which did mean longer hours for their performers, but more income was generated.

Sonya kind of wondered whose bright idea it was to go through the Mediterranean and northern Africa in the middle of the bloody summer, but she'd live.

It was very hard to avoid heat exhaustion or a heat stroke, given the mainly Russian and Scandinavian homelands of the bulk of the circus' members. A lot of them had already experience some bad sunburns before they even left China behind, and when she caught up to them it seemed as if Singapore had been just as bad.

There were buckets of water set aside for any performers stuck in the hot sun or performing for the big-top shows, and the biggest cost Master Liam was shelling out a crazy amount of money for was just water.

For the thief herself, she came to love her canteen.

The only thing her minor amount of Sun Flames did, as far as she could tell, was crank up her internal body temp a small bit. It made it hard for her to become sick, and winters weren't so bad for her aside the whole not liking the cold part, but hot and muggy temperatures like the middle of the Indian peninsula?

Sonya was a miserable thief, for sure.

While she watched Cherep gear up into his Skull persona, she was taking semi-regular sips from her personal water source. In between making her foster brother drink some himself, because he was wearing a large amount of padding, she wondered over the changes she was seeing.

It was... interesting, to see him go from a mechanically inclined, bit of a math geek, but more importantly understanding when she screwed up lovable dork of a foster brother into... a reckless and silly daredevil with maybe a bit of an ego that sorely needed to be popped.

Lisa didn't just teach Tatiana and Sonya how to act unlike themselves, Cherep had a flair for dramatics and drama the younger thief just didn't have that the older woman had adored developing.

'Skull' was a daredevil, of course because stunt-work was something only an adrenaline junky would attempt doing for a living. He had an ego, which both explained why he would boast about himself loudly and why he was performing for a crowd. It was also shallow and off-putting, which would hopefully steer away anyone too interested in the man under that mask.

Unfortunately, it also made him a reckless loud-mouth. The silliness made him seem untrustworthy, flighty. Someone that only knew mechanics of motorcycles because 'only the Great Skull can work on his stunt-bike', which would also prevent sabotage as well as allow him to tune his motorcycle to do all those tricks and hopefully catch any mechanical problems early.

She could understand it, and marvel over a mastery of acting she couldn't match... but she still didn't like 'Skull' too much.

Give her plain old Cherep any day of the week.

Skull flashed her a grin when she made a comment to that effect, putting on a heavy silver ring bearing an amethyst carved in the likeness of a skull. She had given him his first birthday in the circus and he loved it to pieces. "I know, bear with it. It's just for the moment, or really, for the show."

"Had I met you like this... I probably would have punched you in the mouth." Sonya informed him blandly, nudging his arm with his canteen until he obligingly took it.

"If you had talked to me at all, you mean." He commented with a self-deprecating laugh, taking a swallow and passing it back. "That's the point, really. It's enough not-me that, even with the hair and eye coloring staying the same, Cherep wouldn't be automatically connected to Skull. Hiding yourself in plain sight, Lisa called it."

The thief smirked a bit tiredly, settling in to watch him poke through the rest of the dressing-tent to see if there was anything else he could incorporate into his 'Skull' personality.

She did wonder how Skull came to be if she had never met the little Czechoslovakian run-away named Cherep, and... if Skull could ever shed being a reckless daredevil and just be Cherep in that other lifetime.

"A-HA!"

Glancing up, Sonya almost dropped her face in her palms out of sheer exasperation.

Skull was holding a tube of purple lipstick aloft, probably a bit of makeup left over from the Arabian Night themed trapeze show from yesterday. He was also beaming at it.

She didn't want to know why.

CLXIV (Wednesday the 21st of June, 1967. Bombay, Maharashtra, Republic of India.)

"No," Sonya informed him flatly, "we are not doing that."

This year's midway rest-stop was in Bombay, which the Russian thief highly appreciated. Not only was it a highly-traveled international port city, it also had direct service to her other workstation.

Which was decently close for the time being according to the schedule it stuck to, in a few days it would take an additional day by ship to reach land again.

The circus' performers had an entire week off, allowed to go where they wanted and do what they wanted to do without too much worry of where they would live and eat during that time. Next week was a full week of performances and shows, but the rest was appreciated anyways.

They had to leave before monsoon season started, or risk getting set back weeks in traveling time.

Since she had the free time, she wanted to spend it how she preferred.

Especially since Saudi Arabia and most of the Middle East was dry country, meaning no alcohol. Jaq was way ahead of her, and he had given her an open invitation to go bar hopping with him.

Cherep let his knees hit the sand, hands folded before him in a begging pose. "Please? It looks so cool."

"You go learn to surf, I would much rather sit on the beach and watch." She would rather catch a ride into Mafia Land for a few days, but that kind of went without needing to be said.

Tatiana had said something weird was up when the foster sisters met up earlier, and she kind of wanted to know what. She hadn't had the time then, especially since dodging the Triads out of Shanghai then in a close port to that city ate up nearly two weeks and caused her to miss the circus in Singapore.

He probably knew that and was determined not to let her out of his sight. That, or he knew she was itching for a decently connected bar to drink half her weight in liquor within.

Sonya was knocked out of her thoughts when he wrapped both arms around her right leg, hugging it to his chest and batting big purple eyes up at her. "Sonyyaaa... please? For me? I won't bug you for anything else, I promise."

"I call bullshit." No, not even his wet-kitty pout was getting her to budge on this. "You will bug me exactly fifteen minutes later, about whatever shiny thing happened to cross your path."

"Totally true, yeah. Although in this case the shiny thing would probably be sun glinting off the water and you could just push me in." Her fellow Cloud agreed with a sage nod, then shook his head quickly and yanked up on her leg. "Not the point, stop distracting me. Please learn to surf with meeee...?"

Getting fed up with the touching, the thief tugged her leg out of his hold. "Will I get the rest of the week to do what I want then?"

"...that's not fair." He pointed out after a beat, obviously trying to think of something to stall her on. "One day for six? And this day's half over."

"Take it or leave it."

Cherep scrambled upright, because he was taller than her and used that to imply he was being the bigger person. "Three and three?"

"Two." Sonya countered tiredly, for some reason being reminded of her haggling with Renato about how much she'd owe him for a favor outside of his specialty.

Not surprising that her brother was turning out to be the cheaper option.

"Today and tomorrow?"

The thief sighed heavily, because that would mean the rest of her time-off was going to be spent on a boat. "Fine."

"...what are you going to do, anyways?" He questioned after half-pulling her down to the end of the Juhu Beach where some enterprising local was set up to teach tourists how to surf. "There isn't really a whole lot of time you've got, so..."

"Checking up on Tatiana. And probably Lisa."

Her brother came to a sudden stop and peered over his rapidly tanning shoulder at her. "Oh... well, in that case, you can have tomorrow."

"My thanks." Sonya quipped at his back dryly. "That would mean I could possibly rustle up another day free."

"So I get three?" The insufferably cheerful ass commented, as if he won something. "Awesome."

She sighed and punched his back lightly, then swept around him and headed for the little shack he wanted them to take lessons at while he choked on his little chortle.

CLXV (Thursday the 22nd of June, 1967. Zolotov Condo, Mafia Land.)

A slightly wind- and sun-burned thief departed the dockyard of Mafia Land in the late afternoon the day after, heading straight for the condo the Zolotov Thieves Clan maintained.

Tatiana probably had class or lessons right now in all things nurse or doctor like, so the younger would catch up with the elder sister later.

Lisa was very happy to see her, especially since a result of her Sun Flame therapy had just been discovered and she had yet to share it with anyone other than her nurses.

"What are you hoping for, a boy or girl?" Sonya asked as she sank into the couch next to the older woman.

She gave the younger thief a sly smile as she lowered the book she had been reading, and a few bats of her eyelashes as she set it aside. "I, my dear, am just too happy this can happen at all. I won't care, so long as he or she is healthy and has all the correct toes, fingers, and appendages."

Arseniy wasn't in. Apparently, he had been recalled a bit earlier in the week for something the clan needed from him, so it was just her and Tatiana living in this wing for right now. There were a couple vory hanging around, but they were either on vacation or working on something and had very little to do with another vor's woman or foster daughter.

Especially since they valued their lives. One didn't have to be an active Cloud Flame user to be territorial or possessive, and Arseniy was both in spades.

"Is Arseniy hoping for something specific then?"

Lisa shook her head. "Sweetie, we came to terms with my inability to bear children long before we took on foster children for the clan. The fact you found us a way is just..."

"It wasn't me." Protested the blonde hesitantly, wary about hormonal mood-swings and the like which she would probably be woefully ill-equipped to deal with. "I only thought about it because of Tatiana, and it was Bjorn that allowed me to find a fully-trained Sun user. He, badly, needed a checkup anyways."

"But," the older Russian tacked on the end with a smirk, "you did the leg-work. Tatiana probably could've found it had she gone through with becoming a nurse anyways, but only long after the risks would outweigh the reward. Little hint for you, Sonya. You are a smart girl and when you produce results like this? We will appreciate it and show that."

Huffing a little, the thief sulked in her spot.

She felt kind of strange accepting praise for things she really had little to nothing to do with, especially this Sun Flame thing. She couldn't even use her own Sun Flames, in her head Tatiana deserved more credit since the older girl was likely learning how to do it for anyone else back in Soviet Russia who wanted the same thing but suffered from a similar problem.

However, she knew she wasn't going to win that argument. She didn't know anyone that won arguments with Lisa.

"How is Tatiana doing in her... is she becoming a nurse or a doctor?"

"You can ask her when she gets home," her foster mother suggested, taking a backwards glance at the clock mounted on the wall behind her, "sometime soon. So far, as much as I know, she's decided to start as a nurse and expand from there."

"So far as you know?" Sonya repeated dubiously. "Why don't you know? You always know."

"While I am flattered in your faith of my all-knowing mother abilities," she teased gently with a grin, "you girls don't tell me, or even Arseniy, everything anymore. Like say... Cherep's rather unique little Flame type that just so happens to not be that unique to us, apparently."

"...to be frank, that was because I was..."

"A suspicious little girl?" She finished when the thief trailed off, sporting what had to be a magnificent blush on her face from the feel of it. The older woman's grin turned into a wry smirk, and she patted the younger one on the knee. "I understand why you did it, you were protecting him the best you could from something that had once already hurt him. But you could've told us, Sonya. We wouldn't have let him be taken advantage of again if we had known."

"...more selfishly, I also didn't want to tear you two between what you should do and what the clan would've wanted. I didn't need to know that much about Flames back then, and what they could do, to understand how badly Cherep could've ended up if that got out."

The other Mafiya woman shook her head at her. "Not even then, sweetie. Arseniy would've murdered anyone that would have tried it. Even if they were our own, because then we wouldn't have wanted to be associated with them. Had that gotten out, it would've been sanctioned as well."

"Yes, well... I was a very messed up and confused little kid."

"More than that," she agreed with a sage nod, "you were so icy and quiet, at first we thought something really damaging happened to you before you found a way to us. You worried Arseniy quite a bit, you know."

That was so out of the blue of what Sonya had thought of her childhood, and out of character for the man she had thought her foster father as back then, that she stared at the brunette blankly for a long moment. "I did?"