I try and help you with the things that can't be justified... [CLOSED]

[halfspooky]

QUI: Danny and Six
QUE: Training again for the first time after Rex's death.
QUAND: Monday morning
OÙ: Southern district, training dojo
AVERTISSMENT: Discussion of Rex's death, other feelings, Danny makes an offer that Six can very much refuse

---

Danny canceled training with Six for two days in a row following Rex's death.

For what it's worth, Danny canceled almost everything those two days. He just couldn't handle life at that point and just... needed some time to settle down and figure out how the heck he even felt about it. Though on a conscious level he knew Rex would come back, there was always the nagging fear that he wouldn't. That he'd lost his brother now along with his sister, too.

One thing was for sure: Danny was not okay. Saturday's chaos had dragged old wounds to the surface, and guilt ate at him constantly for not doing what had to be done and causing more suffering by letting it drag on for longer than it needed to. Danny could have ended it quickly and cleanly and he didn't, and everyone suffered for it, even Rex. Even Six. Danny wasn't blind; He knew how much they cared for each other, and he couldn't imagine how it felt to deal that killing blow.

...Well, he could, actually. He had some experience in that kind of trauma. It was gut-wrenching. Six may have been a hardened assassin with God knows how many kills under his belt, but family was family, and Danny needed to make sure he was okay.

On the third day -- the second night, really -- Danny sent a quick text to Six letting him know he was feeling better and ready to start training the next morning.

Danny hoped that what happened to Rex never, ever happened again. To anyone. But if it did, Danny wanted to make sure he wouldn't wuss out on what had to be done again. As he jogged toward the forest dojo -- though he could fly again, he still ran to training to warm up -- he mulled it all over in his head, trying to figure out what exactly he wanted to say to the man when he got there.

Comments

[sixthdeadliest]

Six merely sent back a location in the Southern District along with "usual time" when Danny sent his request for training to resume.

When Danny arrived, he'd see that Six was already hard at work training. He grew a small tree out of the ground before snapping his fingers and reducing the entire thing to ash. It wasn't set aflame. It was simply one moment a tree, the next nothing more than ash blowing on the wind.

He was sweating and trembling from all the training he'd been doing since Rex's death. The man was focused solely on his goal: achieve power and then go somewhere he could be left alone for the rest of his life.

He turned his head in Danny's direction.

[halfspooky]

Danny watched the tree disintegrate before his eyes and blow away in the wind. That wasn't Six's usual... finesse, but he supposed it got the job done quickly, right?

"Hey."

He gave a small, friendly smile as he approached, and a small wave in greeting, but the smile faded as he got closer and saw the condition Six was in. The man was always one for physical fitness, but he'd never seen Six so overworked at the start of a training session. The the nervousness in Danny's eyes gave way to concern as he glanced Six up and down.

"Are you okay?"

He hadn't been expecting to ask that this early, but Danny wasn't exactly one for tact.

[sixthdeadliest]

"Just doing some extra training," he said bluntly. "Go run and get warmed up. I'll need a few minutes to cool down."

He Bent up a glowing butterfly and had it fly ahead of Danny.

"Follow that for your course."

Blunt and to the point. Focus on the job. He was here to train Danny, after all.

[halfspooky]

"Well, that wasn't the only... I mean..."

Wow, there was really no way to subtly bring up Rex, was there. Danny watched as the butterfly materialized, then nodded and quietly followed to start his second warm-up. He could talk to Six further when he cooled down. Hopefully it'd be a mental cooldown as well as physical.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six closed his eyes and stood dead still, focusing on his breathing and bringing down his heart rate. Even before all this Bending nonsense, he had an increased level of control in such areas. His training at work.

[halfspooky]

Danny finished his run at the pace the butterfly set, keeping steadily behind it the whole time even as it sped up or slowed down. Over the last year, the control Danny had learned to exert over his body still amazed him. The last time he'd gone home, it felt so strange to be back in a weak, unfit, fourteen-year-old body, he'd wanted to jump right out and strangle himself for being such a slacker.

When Danny returned, he caught sight of Six meditating, and approached quietly. He knew Six could probably already tell where he was, so no point annoying him with little formalities like I'm back, let's get started!

Danny wrung his hands and stepped closer, but still a respectable distance away from Six so as not to invade his personal space. He pressed his lips into a thin line and knitted his brow as he spoke. "I wasn't just talking about the training, you know. I... I wanna know if you're okay after... everything that happened." He glanced aside, finding it easier to talk when looking at a tree. "I thought maybe we could... talk about it."

Talk about it. That's what Jazz always wanted to do when she had been around. The thought hurt as it reminded him she was gone, but she was still with him in spirit as far as he was concerned. He needed her and her psychobabble know-how now.

[sixthdeadliest]

"I'm fine," Six said, re-opening his eyes.

He'd done the job, done what Rex had wanted. Nothing more needed to be said.

"What's bothering you about it?" Besides the obvious, of course.

[halfspooky]

Danny wasn't so sure he believed Six, but the man was hard to read. Should he press the issue further? Maybe he could... go around it and come back. Yeah. Good plan.

"I... tried to overshadow him when it was happening. I mean, I did it. I pulled it off." He winced, remembering it even now. "For a few moments, I could see and hear what he was thinking. I could hear him -- I could feel him begging to be k-killed."

God, he was stuttering on the idea even now? Pathetic. Danny steadied himself with a breath and looked up, staring Six right in the lenses of his shades.

"I knew what had to be done. I knew how it had to end. But I... I hesitated. All I could do was float there like an idiot until someone with a little more backbone could do the job." He closed his eyes as he remembered, seeming to deflate a bit. "And... I'm sorry. It's my fault you had to do that. And it's my fault Rex suffered longer than he had to."

[sixthdeadliest]

Six's frown turn to one of disapproval. "What gave you the idea that you were the one responsible? If I remember correctly, there were other Wakened on the battlefield. I counted at least one Ashura, too, who could've done the job more efficiently than I had if they hadn't just sat back and watched."

There was the slightest hint of bitterness in his statement.

"There were a lot of people out there, but everyone wanted to talk instead of acting. I hardly think of the outcome as your fault."

Partially so, maybe, but not completely.

[halfspooky]

"I... I guess." Danny shuffled uncomfortably. "But that doesn't change the fact that I could have something. I don't want to be the guy that stands by and does nothing ever again. So..."

And here came the harder part, but Danny was confident it'd turn out all right -- why wouldn't Six want someone to help him out with this kind of stuff?

"I - I just need to get over my issues, that's all. So maybe with more training... I mean, more intense training for more stuff. Which is to say..." Okay, no, Fenton. Focus. Danny took a breath and tried again.

"I want to... upgrade my training, if you're willing. Not just martial arts or self defense but, you know... full-on assassin training." He gave a hopeful smile. "Then maybe if something like that happens again, I won't be too much of a wimp to get the job done, right?"

[sixthdeadliest]

Six was silent, practically a statue at that request.

Then he moved swiftly forward with his own impressive natural speed, getting right in the boy's face.

"Don't you ever ask for that again, do you understand me?"

[halfspooky]

"Wh-- why?" Danny stumbled back, eyes wide. "I - but I want to help! Every time I've tried to do something useful when it counted, it did nothing! At best!" He clenched his hands into fists as he spoke, his voice pleading. "I don't want to be a dead weight anymore. I don't want to cry and be coddled every time something rips me out of my comfort zone!" He sighed, letting his hands drop to his sides.

"All I ever do is mess up. I'm almost sixteen. I need to man up and start doing things right. I thought... maybe if I was more like you..."

[sixthdeadliest]

"You honestly think being an assassin is manning up?" Six barked a laugh. "You think it's just learning a few new combat techniques? Newsflash, kid: You've been learning the same techniques assassins use all along, even learning how to counter a few of them.

"The kind of training you're asking for is much, much different than everything else so far."

[halfspooky]

Danny watched him for a moment, trying to process it all. Didn't Six understand? Danny wanted this for him, too. "How different? What kind of training is it?" He looked Six right in the lens, trying not to let himself waver again.

[sixthdeadliest]

"It's a mindset where you turn living breathing humans into moving target dummies," Six said coldly. "You have to learn to make your morals take a backseat while you're in the middle of the mission and focus only on making the target dummy stop moving.

"Your first few kills, you still justify it to yourself: 'He deserved to die', 'she left me no choice', and so on. But after a while, a list of targets is the same as a To Do list. You stop feeling sick after a kill. The real sickos even get a high off of it. But it's the same in the end: 'Target is dead. Next.'

"Once you reach that point, you can't take it back. Not any of it. You never switch off the mindset. I found the loveliest little phrase to sum it up with while here:

"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."

[halfspooky]

Danny shrank away as he listened, eyes wide, taking it all in. Six had explained this all to him before, Danny remembered now, but it wasn't any easier to swallow this time around. He couldn't imagine being someone like that -- someone who took killing so lightly -- or worse, a sicko who got highs from it. He didn't want to become that... but...

"Everything's permitted," he echoed quietly. "Even Rex, right?"

[sixthdeadliest]

"Rex was a threat to everyone. Anybody could justify that kill easily," Six said flatly. "Regardless, I refuse to teach another person to follow it."

[halfspooky]

Danny chewed on his lip, trying to process what Six was saying. "So... that's it, then? Dealing with a kill like that, no matter who it is... it's all on you?"

That wasn't fair. Not to Six, anyway. Danny tried to process that, tried to make sense of it all.

"I mean, I know there are some other people willing to do that -- and you've got your sister, too, but... I don't know. I want to help."

[sixthdeadliest]

"You want to help?" Six asked. "You can help by not putting me in that position to do the same to you.

"There are reasons that top field operatives even in the armed forces have to take psychiatric tests, Danny: the lifestyle can drive you mad. And those people are allowed to hang on to what makes them human. They still view their targets as human."

[halfspooky]

So basically, 'don't help at all', Danny thought bitterly, but he nodded obediently and hated himself for it. He wanted to argue and fight, wanted to stand up for himself and convince Six to take him on as an apprentice instead of just a student. But he had too much respect for Six to disobey him and risk losing him all together, so like the meek little nerd he was he just agreed.

"At least... talk to me about it or something?" Danny offered. "About your kills, I mean. Or anything bothering you."

[sixthdeadliest]

Six was quiet for a moment before admitting, "Most kills don't bother me. It's the kids that do."

[halfspooky]

Kids like Rex, Danny thought, his heart sinking.

"We can talk about that," he offered quietly. "If you want."

[sixthdeadliest]

"I don't want to talk about it," Six said sharply. "If I talk about it, I dwell on it which makes it worse. Better to work off the memory and whatever I'm feeling. Actually do something useful."

[halfspooky]

"...All right. Guess we should, uh, get back to training then, huh?" Danny said with a nervous shrug. Man, now he felt like an idiot for bringing it up at all. Six probably thought he was stupid, at least -- trying to talk about feelings. He'd hoped it would work, but...

Danny straightened up, trying to forget about how he felt. If Six could do it, then... well, there were a lot of things Six could do that he couldn't. That was the problem... one talking about feelings wouldn't fix.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look. I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't want to talk right now. In any case, I was taught that no matter how bad things got, I had to keep moving forward. Stop and you're dead."