Afterlife (Edgerunners)

Reborn: Meetup.

David strut through the badlands, the dark of night overhead.

He was covered by a dust storm, which luckily for him, would subside by the time he arrived at the meeting spot Falco pinged for the two.

He was alone, save for the occasional coyote and very rare bird overhead, circling carrion.

And his optics couldn't have made it any clearer, no matter where he scanned, he saw nothing.

Truly in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

David just continued to walk, slapping a bird out of the air that tried to swoop him, not hard enough to severely hurt it though.

The bird flew off, making a weird call, not one that was associated with its species.

And just like that, came a group of wraiths, up the hill from him.

"Look at this! Got a loner! And look at his chrome too!" One called out to his friend, racking the slide of his copperhead.

"You there! Don't move! And maybe you'll just get out of this alive." The other taunted, aiming his Achilles at him.

David wasted no time. He grabbed the sling of his tactician and slung it over to his right hand, holding it out and blowing out the side of the first wraiths torso.

Like most firefights with regular people, it was entirely fruitless in their end, David was practically unstoppable.

Although, the charged shots from the Achilles made him stumble a bit.

He activated his sandevistan, and simply just walked over to the wannabe sniper, who was barely moving.

He ripped the gun from his hands and swung it at the man's face like a bat, sending him out of commish for the time being.

There were only two wraiths left, and he dealt with one of them quickly, and the other... Not so much.

He used his mantis blade to simply just cut off the first man's head. Then, he approached the second, who fell to his back in shock, desperately clicking his weapon.

David lifted him by the throat, and choke-slammed him over onto his knee, before using both hands.

He grasped his lower and upper jaw, before splitting the man's head in two. Causing blood to spray all over the merc and the surrounding orange sands.

He turned around, and was met with a rifle round to the face, tearing his left optic from his head, revealing the metallic pit that once housed his eye in life.

And much like the scenario he was just in, the man's gun ran out of ammo, and now he was left just pulling the trigger.

After racking the pump, David pushed the barrel of his new shotgun against the man's knee, blowing it apart instantly.

The man shrieked in agony, just to have it happen a second time.

One leg was barely held on by the tendon, whilst the other was a couple feet away, as he desperately tried to crawl away from the reaper who stood over him.

David kneeled in front of the man, grasping his temples and looking him in the eyes.

It was a common sight for David, seeing the sheer fear of death in someone's eyes, and not that of being killed, but that of being brutalized beforehand.

David pushed the man's head back toward the desert floor, before beginning to beat his face in for what he had done to his eye, screaming out a horrible robotic battlecry as he slammed his fist into the man's face. Over and over.

There wasn't much left, barely a lower jaw.

David stood, and kept on trekking to where he needed to go, wiping the blood off of his hand against the sands as he stood.

He didn't make it far before hearing a footstep behind him though.

Instinctively, David slung the shotgun into his hands and pointed it at the lurker behind him, who held an overture to David's face, just about 4 metres away from the young merc.

"Were they your friends?" David asked the man.

"Nope. Quite the opposite." The man said, holding his gun at David.

David lowered his shotgun, and slung it back over his shoulder.

"It's good to see you again Choom."

The man simply frowned, before letting his gun down, and gave him a softer look. "Heh... It is you. Mostly... Yeah, good to see you too David." Falco said, before gesturing his thumb over his shoulder. "C'mon, got the car parked over this way, can take you back near the camp, will be safer that way."

David simply nodded, and began to follow his old nomad friend.

Not too long afterward, and a small, reminiscing chat, and catchup of events in the car, they came to the aldecaldos camp.

David stepped out, but was met with several barrels pointed at him.

"Falco!? You're really gonna bring the fucker that murdered rogue into here!?" A lady yelled out. Panam.

"Ok! Ok! Look, he can explain! He wasn't in control! It's a situation similar to your old input Pan!" The lady stared intensely at the nomad. "And... Sorry about bringing that up..."

David stared intensely at the nomad clan, before raising his hands up and behind his head.

"I've got nothing against any of you." He said, although that was fruitless, the guns were still trained on the man, but just no longer on the nomad to his left.

Falco walked over to Panam, and began to talk with her. "Look Pan, he's old family... And I've gotta help him, whatever arasaka has done to him, he's escaped from it, made it clear in his eyes when he didn't blow my brains out."

"Ok fine Falc, but you do realise... One move toward the clan-"

"Yeah, and he dies, and so do me and my Choom. I know the consequences."

Author Note.

Sorry bout the rushed end there, kinda have no clue how to make that logical, especially considering how Panam knows about rogue considering she actively goes to the Afterlife.

Anyway, hope you're doin well, and are somehow still enjoying this.

Thanks for all the support, and keep on coping my Chooms.

Also here's some book recommendations, all on AO3, or 'archive of our own' to be specific.

Built Different, Archangel, Never Fade Away, The Rebel Path, and Kids in America.

There's others I've read that I can recommend but I cannot remember the titles sadly, will probably update on that with the next chap.

Anyway, once again, thanks for reading.
Be good people Chooms.
-Sacred