Hardstone's main base, Old Texas.
Present time.
Daniel returned with Richard to the hardstone site with one goal in mind; find Bella and get her away from there. Getting there, he noticed everyone was giving him the eye, like he was late to a meeting or something. No one said a word to nim until he met Ezekiel who was also waiting for him.
"You sure took sure sweet time Daniel…" Ezekiel smirked.
"Awwn... someone was waiting for me?" Daniel replied, returning the gesture.
Ezekiel laughed. Maybe he just appreciated Daniel's sense of humor at that moment. But after he laughter, he entered a serious mode.
"Where's the girl?" he asked.
"Same question racing my mind tonight. Found this guy on holy men's turf; so, I think… you know." pointing to Richard's sleeping body he was carrying.
Ezekiel wasn't pleased with that statement. So, like a detective, he queried further.
"So, you never saw her. But you saw Richard. How covinent."
"What can I say… she's not exactly easy to catch, after all." Daniel replied while walking away.
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Ezekiel sat in his private room smoking a cigarette. While doing that, He was also wondering how Juliet could have gotten away from all his troops. Even if Daniel helped her… it wouldn't have been enough to get past all my people…. Or is someone else helping her? As he was figuring out his next move, some hardstone troops burst into the room.
"Sir, I suggest we go in and capture Daniel, RIGHT NOW!!" One of them screamed.
Ezekiel didn't answer, rather, he spun his chair and faced the opposite direction in annoyance. Not annoyed at the situation at hand- he had faced countless betrayals before, but rather at the stupidity and barbaric nature of his crew. No wonder Daniel was able to slip past them. As he was wandering in his thoughts, one of the crew members brought him back.
"Sir, i suggest we get dan, hold him down, and keep him where the other girl is, till he spills his other secrets."
Not a bad suggestion, except it wouldn't work on daniel. BUT! The other girl, he had forgotten they were two, and they sucessfully caught one. That strategy would definitely work on the girl.
Putting out his cigar, he turned and faced them again. "The other girl… you say she's here?"
"Yes. I'm saying we should get daniel and put him there-"
"No, no, no. let Daniel be. I have nice plans for the girl." Ezekiel smiled as he let out a menacing grin. "The girl will come for her friend. If we start publicizing her parts, she'll come rolling back. Now get me Rollout and get the hell out of here. All of you." Ezekiel growled as he turned around again. Some crew members at the door, all puzzled, asked "what about Daniel?" but got the silent treatment. With long faces, they all left the room.
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What happened? Where am I?? Where's Juliet? Why does me hand feel tied up???
Those were the questions racing through his mind as he came back to reality. His eyes cleared up to see he was in hardstone base, in his room, tied up in his own chair, with a ductape over his mouth, ensuring silence. Maintaining his cool, he scanned his room to see his 'kidnappers' were. To his suprise, they were no other than his division leader, who was discussing with another woman who ws also part of the hardstone crew. None of them seemed to notice he was already awake. Knowing That, he tried to slip out of his bounds. But his squad leader must have predicted that move, because the bounds didn't budge. Annoyed at the whole situation, he started protesting- to gain their attention.
"Hmph! Hmmmmphhhh!!!!!"
Expectedly, it worked. They stopped talking and faced him. The division leader walked towards him and removed the tape... but not in a friendly manner.
"Daniel, what the hell is this?" he asked, his tone laced with annoyance
"Shut up Richard. You messed with the wrong person. The one person I explicitly told you fools not to mess with. You should thank your stars I shot you to sleep- not to your grave." Daniel said angrily.
"So it was you who tranq'ed me… By the way Daniel, I was just doing my job. Ezekiel asked me to bring her in."
Richard's choice of words- 'I was just doing my job' set off a bomb in Daniel's head. He was already angry, but this made him explode.
"Your job?!!! You fucking shot her you asshole-"
"Which i dressed-"
Daniel didn't know when he pulled out his dagger. Richard was showing a new side to him which was clearly driving him bonkers. To be frank, it wasn't a 'new' side, it was just 'new' because that side was directed at his own team. He was about to explode when the lady with him tapped him, as if saying, 'don't attract attention.' Still, that didn't shut him down.
"Shut the fuck up. What if the holy men was on patrol huh?! Or if something else-"
"Hey." Richard cut in angrily. "I had a reason for approaching her when I did. I knew the holy men weren't going to be active that night. I knew-"
"Yeah, yeah, Jarvis. Always accessing everything. Let me guess. You 'anticipated' where your brillant richochet was gonna hit huh?"
Daniel stopped and let out an unusual laughter. To him, that laughter was like removing the lid off a steaming pot. As he got that off his chest, he didn't say anything else, just started pacing around the room.
The silence- disturbed by Daniel's footsteps made Richard shift his attention to another variable in the room- the woman. He had seen her before- so she wasn't new. He also knew she was a member of hardstone, given her nickname in the crew.. But who she was?,…he didn't know trying to dig that information out of his brain, he looked long and hard at her to the extent she felt uncomfortable.
"You have something to say to me?" she queried.
Richard looked at Daniel, who by the way, was still pacing around. "I have something to say to him. Not you."
Daniel stopped. "Problem?"
"What's the …umm, ...woman doing here?" Richard asked while sneaking a glare at the woman.
"I have a NAME you know." she hissed.
"I don't know it. I do know the other one though."
She laughed. She was trying to see if he was just dissing her or he was actually being real. "Why didn't you just say it? I don't really mind."
"You don't mind being called 'witch'? 'Cause I find it disrespectful. And I do not disrespect people. Especially ones I don't know."
She laughed again. Even Daniel gave Richard the 'side eye.' He didn't mean to sound toasty, but he did.
"EZRA. The name's Ezra."
"Thank you Ezra. It's REAL nice to meet you." Richard said sarcastically, referring to him still being bound. "So what's your role here?" he asked.
"Nothing much...Just helping the big guy over here." Ezra replied, pointing at Daniel who was sitting, watching them.
Richard nodded. Helping him huh,.... He suspected she must also have aided Juliet's escape alongside Daniel. But, why tell him all this?
"So what's my role? Why am I tied up here?"
"To prevent you from getting crazy ideas." Ezra chipped.
"Crazy ideas. You must think of me as some sort of barbarian. But that doesn't answer my question. What am I doing here?"
Daniel stood up again. It was his turn to talk. His anger had disappeared and he was quite ready to handle whatever Richard threw his way again.
"I'm setting up something. And I need you to help me. Starting from when Ezekiel calls you to ask his dumbass questions. Now it's nothing much, just tell him the truth, minus the last part- you know, the part where you fell asleep."
For the first time in a long while, Richard giggled.
Fucking dramatic… he thought. So, this is why you've been giving me the stick, the root of all the theatrics- it was just a goddamn lie. Unfortunately, he wasn't planning to suck Daniel's dick.
"NO." Richard said firmly.
That deep 'no' startled Ezra. She thought she was hearing things, so she had to confirm. But before she could say anything, Richard cleared her doubts.
"I said no. I have a standing to keep. I'm not going to fall myself for… your selfish gains.
"Da' FUCK???!!"
Ezra gritted her teeth in anger. But this time Daniel stopped her from unleashing her
wrath this time by sending her outside to cool off. Meanwhile, Daniel was expecting that answer from Richard. Tired from all the bickering, he decided to actually 'communicate' with Richard. No one could cause that man to change his mind, but he was gonna try his luck.
The first thing he did was to set Richard loose. He then pulled the extra chair closer to Richard and sat.
"Did you know why I sent her out?"
Richard didn't answer. Rather he glanced at Daniel like he was trying to say "are you serious right now?" Daniel got the message and continued.
"Fine. That was a dumb question. Now, why am I doing this? helping the girls? Your comrades? Those bastards, they tried to kill them. For what? Walking in on them doing something they aren't supposed to. Now the funny thing is, even the ringleader- that son of a bitch Ezekiel, doesn't even know what they were really doing there. They didn't even stop to consider what the girls might do with the information- if they really got it - or not."
Richard glanced at Daniel again. Daniel got the message and smiled. "Who am I kidding? That's how shit works."
"Hold on. Why tell me this story?" Richard asked, looking at Daniel this time.
"To let you know what I'm about to do is none but their fault. They wanna lock me up alongside Bella, to hold me down… hahaha. Let 'em come"
"So you do know where Miss Juliet is."
"Of course. I kept her where she is now."
"Why do all this? Why all the trouble?" Richard asked as he stood up.
"They messed with mine. So I mess with theirs. I've never been a hardstone fan anyway, might as well break out now. Point is, help us or not, your choice. But I wish you stay by my side when shit goes down." Daniel concluded as he stood and left the room.
Watching Daniel leave made Richard question a lot of things. He wasn't the outgoing type, so all that 'extra' information never seemed to reach him. His whole deal was- just to what you're told, ask questions later. So, this story he heard from Daniel made him ask the question- 'what's the damn' point??' battling these thoughts, he sighed, "oh God.".