Lure the wolf *Flashback*

Posted on Fri May 26th, 2017 @ 4:28am by Warrant Officer Cato West & John Aspid
Edited on on Fri May 26th, 2017 @ 4:43am

Mission: Death is in the Details
Location: Seabase Triton
Timeline: Flashback to Kzinti War, Rebel Klingon Invasion of Triton, 2386

It had been seventy-two hours since Cato had slept… The mark of the Klingons still lingered in the air from all the damage sustained, not only to Triton, but himself as well. His body still clad in MACO HECA armor, TR-116-C2 (MACO Variant) in his hands, Type 2 Phase Pistol on his right thigh… Covered in filth, dirt, blood and sweat. His hair had grown out a lot over this past week, beard in all of it's glory, his cropped hair wasn't so short anymore. He was a mess, field dressed wounds through scorched armor all over his body, lacerations on his face as well.

Stepping through the doors into Sickbay, Cato's eyes darted around the room for Hunter. "Hunter, you in here?" he called out.

Hunter knew that voice. Her heart skipped a beat when she turned around to see he had survived the attack. Though he looked like he had made a trip back from hell, she was thankful he was standing there. She rushed over to him, giving him support as she walked him to a freshly available bio bed. "I told them where to find you, and here you are, walking yourself to Sickbay. I should have been the one to go back out there!”

She helped him take a seat, wanting so bad to give him a hug but didn’t want to kill him. She turned on her tricorder and began her scan. “You are so lucky… just a few broken ribs and a fractured arm.” She looked up at his bruised and bloody face. “Fate must have been on your side that day.”

Cato smirked and pushed her away, he was walking fine. Hopping a seat on the bio bed he set his rifle down next to him. His hands moved to start removing the upper part of his HECA suit. A tattered under suit revealed the tattoos on his back now visible… "You should know by now I'm very hard to kill…" He laughed but then soon realized the pain of his broken ribs. "Yeah, Klingons didn't know who they were f*ckin' with." he grinned "So, you and Danny made it, obviously…"

“Thanks to you!” Hunter grinned. “Lay back on the bed so I can heal you up in a more comfortable position.” She walked over to grab her medkit and pulled out a few tools. “I was able to find my cousin who had been separated from Danny right as she got here. I’ll have her bring the kid over in a couple of hours so he can talk to you.” The regenerator hummed in her hand as she got to work.

“But don’t worry, I’ll let you rest up before you get bombarded.”

Cato laid back and pushed his gear between his legs... Closing his eyes, the humm of the dermal regenerator put him right out... Hours became seconds while he was fast asleep on the biobed. His dreams were still haunted by those he killed in battle... Now well numbering in the high hundreds. Though he was dreaming, his heart rate spiked and his fist clenched tightly... No matter where or what, Cato was at war in one form or another.

The Sickbay doors swooshed open as the excitable Danny spotted Cato as fast as he could and ran over to his bed even faster.

“Walk, Danny!” Lizzie tried hard to rope him in but knew it was an impossible task.

Danny placed his hands on the bed but understood not to touch patients when they were resting on the beds. “Cato! Cato! It’s me! I knew they couldn’t beat you!”

Lizzie stopped in her tracks. That summer night years before popped back in her mind. The feelings of sadness and regret flowed through her. It was impossible. It was either fate or the universe playing some nasty trick on her. But she couldn’t help it; her eyes started watering as she slowly made her to over to Cato’s side. Her hand was covering her mouth as she fought back the tears. “Oh my God… I can’t believe it’s you…” Her voice was soft, almost inaudible. She gently grabbed his hand so as to not startle him. “You were right…”

Cato didn't crack an eye open at the sound of the Sickbay doors opening, he just stayed still until he felt the biobed suddenly shift from little hands on it. "I guess they didn't get the memo... We don't believe in no win scenarios, right kid?" He smiled cracking a dirt covered eye open looking at Danny. Suddenly, he heard a voice that hadn't changed in almost a decade... Both of his electric blue eyes slowly cracked open and he took Lizzie's hand in his own and gave her a squeeze. "When was I ever wrong?" He suddenly let go and sat up quickly, throwing his legs over the side of the bio bed that Danny and Lizzie weren't on. Cracking his neck he ran his left hand over his face to dust off some of the filth. Standing to his feet, Cato wasn't exactly Cato anymore...

He was his old self inside, but his body was a refined weapon. Picking up the upper part of his HECA, he slid it over his bare skin and began buckling and connecting it to the lower part. "I knew they couldn't beat you kid." Cato gave Danny a playful nudge on the shoulder before looking back up to Lizzie. "You have something of mine, I believe?" he smiled, the more famous Cato smile was showing now.

Danny’s face distorted into a look of confusion. He looked up at his mom, who had the same exact look on her face. He then looked back at Cato and Lizzie and decided to speak up. It seemed his mom was in a strange state of shock. “Aunt Lizzie, how do you know Cato?”

Lizzie couldn’t hear what the kid was saying; she was in her own little world, taking the beaten and folded up picture of Cato out of her pocket. She looked at it every single night before she fell asleep, hoping and praying he was still alive and doing well. Knowing she had no use for it now, Lizzie handed the photo over to its rightful owner. There was so much she wanted to say but couldn’t get herself to say them. All she could do was look into those eyes and be thankful she would never be without him.

Cato didn't touch that photo in her hand, though his right hand moved to the inside of his helmet for that picture of her with her longboard on the beach, all those years ago. The picture of her was too crumpled, folded and beaten to tatters ends. Holding it up to show her that he still had it. "I've known your Aunt since she was fourteen Danny... We went to High School together." he couldn't break away from the eye lock that he had with Lizzie right now. Suddenly, the comm system sounded =/\= "Lieutenant West, report to the CIC, Lieutenant West to the CIC." =/\= He looked at Hunter "I've been ordered to rest for the next forty-eight hours, right Hunter?"

Hunter crossed her arms. “You’re damn right! You’re not going anywhere!” She decided not to bombard her cousin with questions about how the hell they knew each other and, more importantly, why she didn’t know about him. Man, it was a small world…

The doctor leaned towards Danny’s ear, whispering, “Why don’t you head over to my office. I’ll tell you what happens later.” Danny turned his head, shaking it up and down vigorously, and disappeared into the office.

Hunter looked back at Cato, knowing full well she wasn’t going to have his attention from now on. “Cato, lay down on the bed. I’m gonna keep you overnight so you can rest.” She raised her eyebrow at Lizzie. “You can stay with him as long as you want. You look like you guys have a lot to catch up on. I’ll be in my office.” And there she made her awkward move to where Danny was waiting curiously for any updates she may have gotten.

Cato looked over at Hunter and laughed "Staying in sickbay... I'll confine myself to quarters... Thanks." He shook his head and pulled his commbadge out of a pocket =/\= "West to CIC, Doctor Hunter has decided to lock my ass up for the the next forty-eight hours. Whatever it is, figure it out with Captain Ta'Nok. West out." =/\= "Let's go, I owe you dinner." he said to Lizzie as he put her picture back into the top of his helmet.

"Not every hour!" making a sour face as he looked back to Lizzie "See what I deal with?..." Grabbing his TR-116C2 rifle and walking out of Sickbay heading for his new quarters. "So... I ran into Bella a couple of years ago..." He smirked "I had to salute the bitch, too." He grinned as they walked down the corridor together, various NCO's and Enlisted personnel saluting and saying 'Chief' as they passed. "So... After all this time..." His hand moved to take hers within it and grip it tightly "You know, you've still got a piece of my heart... That hasn't changed..."

Lizzie stared straight into Cato’s eyes. It was as if nothing had changed and they had never been separated by the aftermath of that night’s events. “I realize I never told you how I really felt. You poured your heart out to me and I was so selfish, holding my feelings inside. I love you!” Letting go of his hand, Lizzie wrapped her arms around his neck, returning the kiss from seven years before. “Don’t you dare leave me again.” She said with a smirk.

Though they were in a fairly busy corridor, Cato shouldered his rifle quickly and moved to press her up against the wall of the corridor. His gloved hands moving to rest on her hips, pulling her body against his armor as he gave her something new to think about. A lot had changed in seven years, same with his kiss... The kiss of that sweet boy was gone, this was a deeply passionate kiss, his hands caressing her body slowly as his right hand slid down to grip and squeeze. He knew what he wanted now and just went for it without fear. "Only place I'm going is bed..." He brushed some of her golden strands out of her face and behind her ear with his right hand. "Maybe a shower before... Only this time you're coming with me." He smirked and moved to lead her down the breezeway in a beautiful garden, one of many that that Triton had.

Suddenly, some kind of explosion detonated near where he and Lizzie had been walking. The orange and blue flames, black smoke bellowing... The sound of klaxons echoed the compound. Cato was blurry, fading in and out of consciousness. Finally, he blacked out, into nothingness... The black void that hit him, nightmares of being alone in a black room with nothing but a chair haunted his dreams.

Cato's eyes slowly cracked open to take in the sight around him, bodies scattered the breezeway and garden. The carnage was disgusting, body parts strung about. Lizzie lay, eyes wide open, blood dripping down her cheeks like tears. Debris had torn through the flesh in her face from the blast, the once pretty woman was now torn up and barely recognizable.

Crawling along the ground, Cato grabbed his TR-116C2; Then sat (more like fell over), his ears still ringing. Fresh blood all over his face from the blast, some of it his own, most of it not. His eyes searched and found what was left of Lizzie on the ground... Standing, he struggled to find his balance. Eyes darted to where sickbay was, or used to be. It was blown to bits, nothing but rubble surrounded him now.

Cato began to gimp towards sickbay, Hunters' body lay half buried under some rubble next to a young Danny. He dropped to his knees and began to sob, hard... Everyone in his life had just been taken from him in one blast...

...Six weeks later...

Opening to a dark, dreary room Cato's limp body was being dragged in by a group of four, six foot plus tall mercenaries clad in dark digital camouflage uniforms. Aspid Corporation patches on their uniforms and weaponry unlike anything that the Federation had. They restrained the body to the fixed metal chair in the center of the room which had a single light illuminating it. Suddenly, one of the uniformed men removed the black canvas bag from Cato's head. Suddenly finding himself sitting in the dark room, his eyes fought to adjust to the contrast between light and dark. His eyes quickly shot around the room, glancing here and there. Noticing the room was filled with shadows; Some 'brass' from Starfleet and MACO, not to mention people from divisions that didn't have names.John Aspid and his raspy voice spoke, echoing off the room "Welcome back…"

John dragged a chair across the room from the darkness, the screeching metal on metal sound made one cringe. "What's your name?", he questioned as he took the seat across from the batter, bruised, bloodied Cato.

Cato had been severely beaten, his left eye bloody and his entire face bruised he sat straight. He replied shakily "Cato West."

John canted his head to the side "Where ya from?" Aspid sadistically smiled as he asked his first question.

"Earth." Cato again spoke with a tremble in his voice, clenching the arms of the chairs.

John continued to grin, suddenly his wicked expression was replaced with his face of stone "Do you understand what we're trying to accomplish here?"

Cato attempted to nod and mumbled "Yes sir."

John leaned forward, eye-locking with Cato as he snarled "Will you give yourself to this program?..."

Cato replied with a prompt "Yes sir!"

"Will you do whatever it takes to defend the federation, Mister West?" John questioned.

"I will protect the Federation and it's values with my life. I will kill anyone who stands in my way to ensure our way of life is never impinged upon" Cato stated, snarling as he spoke. Like a rabid wild animal chained to a post, Cato was ready to be let off his leash and to hurt those who hurt him.

John stood and nodded "Good, good." he grinned "Get Caleb Danvers file, download the template for Project Outcome and begin the outline for the Cerberus Project." he turned back to the battered and bloodied Cato "Welcome Aboard, Cato. You and I are going to do many great things together."