Chapter 23: To Do Or Not To Do?
"Did you have a fun evening?"
Orion’s tone would set anyone on edge, but Niko brushes off any sense of unease with a small laugh. He knows fully well what Orion’s capable of, and he knows just how much he can get away with.
He wonders if Orion is already aware of his ’relationship’ with his darling cousin— and what he thinks of it too.
"Something like that," he hums playfully. "Though, I’ll take it over being bitten by a puppy any day."
"My puppy, you mean," he responds smiling, though his grin is anything but friendly. "I believe I deserve compensation for that."
"I thought you didn’t care much?" Niko leans against the door, candidly watching Orion work on his new ’masterpiece’.
A masterpiece that can only be imagined and brought to life by a lunatic.
"I don’t," a lie, and they both know it. Or Niko knows it, and Orion might not. "But my belief still stands."
Niko calmly pushes himself off the doorframe and walks closer to Orion. "So, what’s your idea of compensation? Since you’re asking for it, I’m guessing there’s something you have your eye on?"
He shouldn’t be as surprised as he is, but somehow, after all these years, Orion still manages to catch him off guard.
"Bring me the head of Leon Vassilis."
For one split second, Niko’s easy smile wavers— it flickers like a candle dying in the wind. Luckily for him, Orion’s attention is still focused on his masterpiece, so he doesn’t catch his momentary slip.
Though, judging by the sly tilt of his lips...he expected it all the same.
"You want me to kill your cousin? Leon? That wimp?" Niko lets out a bark of mocking laughter, trying to cover the creeping unease he’s feeling.
He shouldn’t be feeling uneasy about this. Leon is a good fuck, but that’s all he is. The little shit is always scheming about something, Niko knew that he was always going to take his head one way or another.
Though, only at Orion’s command.
"Yes, that is exactly what I want you to do, and you’re overestimating him by calling him weak. Leon is merely an ant in the grand scheme of things, so bring me his head, Niko."
Something’s wrong with Orion.
Orion doesn’t waste words like this. It doesn’t sound like he’s talking to Niko, it sounds like his words are directed at himself. Like he’s convincing himself that killing Leon at this moment won’t matter in the long run.
But it will, if not to Orion, then to Dimitra Vassilis.
"Orion, this— "
"Is there an issue with my command, Wildcat?" He drops the pincers on the bloodstained table gently. "Or is there an issue with you?"
The threat lands in the room with the pressure of a thunderclap. Niko inhales deeply, clearing his mind and strengthening his will for what he’s about to do.
Instead of blindly following Orion’s frankly absurd command, he’s going to pry into the mind of the lunatic and see what led him to make this decision.
This is one of those times he wishes he had never met this fucker.
"I don’t have an issue with it. A command is a command."
"Oh...that’s unexpected." Niko can almost hear the sarcasm dripping off his words.
He still doesn’t know if Orion knows about his ’relationship’ with Leon. Or maybe he does, and this is his attempt at poking fun at him.
"As I said, I don’t mind hacking his head off and dropping it at your feet," he says calmly, even though the thought makes him feel vaguely uneasy, "but you haven’t even given me the details of your meeting with the assassin."
"So, you want us to gossip first?" He picks up a pair of tweezers and a scalpel then lifts the instrument to the exposed jawbone of the bound man.
"I for one wouldn’t call it gossip...I was thinking more of a debrief?"
"It’s all gossip anyway." Niko watches with morbid fascination as Orion proceeds to begin his own version of surgery on the writhing, bound man.
He knows Orion studied law, not medicine, but the sheer concentration behind his efforts is nothing short of terrifying.
The madman plays doctor to his enemies, rather than torturing them. It’s the most fucked up, yet hilarious thing Niko has ever seen in his life.
"You didn’t put him under anesthesia?"
"Would you waste resources on a donkey?" Orion side-eyes him. "Don’t be wasteful, Niko. There are millions of people on this planet who can’t afford healthcare, and even when they do, they can’t get anesthesia."
At moments like this, Niko wonders what his life has become that he is receiving genuine advice from a lunatic.
"I see." He responds flatly.
"Though, to answer your question," he stops sawing away at the man’s nose and straightens up, "I guess I should take Duckling’s head instead of Leon’s."
"I...never asked anything like that."
"I don’t care for any of Leon’s tricks, but I dislike the thought of Duckling thinking he can pull tricks over my head." True to form, Orion continues speaking over him.
"I should just kill him and be done with it, no?" For the first time since Niko entered the ’operation room’, Orion turns to face him. "Do it. Go ahead and kill him, then bring me his head."
There are many things Niko can say, but none of them will work against Orion’s madness— some might even aggravate it. So, he chooses the best thing to do.
He chooses to provoke the snake.
"Fine then," he yawns lazily, "he’s here, isn’t he? I’ll bring his head in...let’s say...eight minutes."
Orion’s reaction is immediate. His face goes blank, and his grip on his ’surgical instruments’ tightens. The room floods with a chill that seeps into Niko’s bones.
"If you touch my duckling, you won’t die."
You won’t die, not you will die. That means he’s promising something worse than death with no promise of death to relieve him.
His threats are as creative as his masterpieces.
"So, I kill Leon then?" Niko hates the uncomfortable feeling he gets when he talks about killing Leon.
Though, that’s what he gets for fucking someone who provokes Orion like he was born seeking death. But, there’s just something about stripping Leon down and fucking him open while he cries on his dick, that Niko can’t get enough of.
It’s the pretty boy tears. It’s like a drug.
"No," Orion’s bloodlust dissipates as if he never released it. "Don’t kill him either...I think I might have been a bit too rash."
He laughs as he prods his ’patient’s’ exposed jawbone with the scalpel. "Leon’s death will definitely serve me, but just not now."
Niko physically has to stop himself from letting his shoulders sag in relief. Realistically, he should not be relieved, because Orion will still kill Leon, and he will be the one to do it.
Either due to it being his duty as Orion’s right-hand man, or due to Orion’s twisted sense of humor. The lunatic might just want to watch him kill a man he’s fucked.
Or it could just be because of Orion’s grudge.
"So, about that debrief...?"
"Ah, yes," he places his instruments on the desk, then turns back to face Niko with a smile. "This young man right here is Fred— "
"Is his name really Fred?"
"No, but does it matter?" It doesn’t, so Niko chooses not to push. "Anyways, Fred here is a watchman for the gang pushing euphoria on my doorstep."
"I thought Intel stated that the dealer was Thousand Faces?" Niko’s amber eyes flicker to the bound man impassively.
"Yes, but he was the one assigned to watch Pietro," he pulls off his surgical gloves with practiced ease. "Pietro is now one of my men, so I can’t have fun with him like this, but Fred here is fair game."
Niko honestly admires Pietro’s survival instincts. He took a clearly hopeless situation and somehow made it work in his favor— That poor man should be humanity’s idol for survival.
"Did Fred tell you anything before you repurposed his jaw?"
"He didn’t really have anything to say, hence the de-jawing, but Pietro did." Orion’s voice takes on a low, dangerous tone that has Niko straightening up out of instinct.
"Have I told you about my history with Masamune, Wildcat?"
