Let This Go Epilogue: The Mission



Back in Nashville, a small television played te national news as the Uptown District became home to a media circus with news reporters in every nook and cranny, crime scene investigators inspecting every shred of evidence, policemen interviewing the scared citizens of New Orleans' most notorious projects, scared tenaments giving their horrifying reenditions of the events that took place, and Purple Eyes simply sat back and watched as the detectives were stumped as to who could've been the culprit. None of the citizens were confessing to what organization was responsible for mass muredering dozens of corrupt police officers, and in truth the residents really had no idea what organization was responsible. They knew what the couple looked like, how they sounded, they even knew their names, only hearing it in passing from bullets to bodies, but they were not going to give the information to the police, not when it seemed like they were the only people who were willing to stand up for them. They simply shook their heads when the frustrated officers asked them who was responsible. The answer they got out of most of the residents were, "I don't know," and "I have no idea," but one answer sent the media into a wild frenzy. It seemed like everything microphone in the world was shoved in this young man's face as he answered the question the reporter presented. "Do you know the organization who was responsible for this sheer onslaught of police officers?"
The boy couldn't have been no older than fifteen, but his expression was true as were his words as he replied with a voice filled with conviction, "No. I don't know who was responsible for saving us from those bad men y'all call police officers, but don't get it twisted, they did save us. When no one else but more corrupt police officers would come when we needed help those people came and helped. Those officers destroyed my apartment, my projects. They killed my little brother," Tears were running down his face as he gave his testimony of the events that took place to what seemed like the whole world. "They raped my sister and my mother, and they made me watch. Told me, 'This is what happens when you go against the law and harbor the identity of fugitives.' I never my ma cry. My ma and my sister was in so much pain and I couldn't do nothing about it, and if it wasn't for those people who came and rescued us, all us would be dead, so I don't know they name, but I wish I did so I could thank 'em personally."
One reporter shouted over the rest, catching the young boy's attention, "So do you have anything to say to the rest of the world about surviving this amazing ordeal?"
"As a matter of fact I do. Y'all wanna look at us like we all bad cause of where we from and the people who live here, but we deserve peace just like everyone else. We don't deserve this. Not even animals deserve to be treated this way. We didn't ask for this. This is what you made us. So what kind of message do you send to us, America, when you send people to rape and kill us because we're different."
That statement resonated in Purple Eyes as he sat on an old recliner in some dark room watching the story. He smoked a cigar and drunk an old liquor from a blood stained crystal glass as the stench of the dead family filled the room. He cut the television to fully savor the smell and sweet sound of silence. He smiled, "Well played, Brody, well played. But you must know that the road to hell is paved on good intentions." Then he laughed a loud, sinister laugh, the sounds of laughter filling the dead man's ear as the petrified man was stiff in rigor mortis, reaching for his deceased family.


The next day, Kylie walked in the room where Kayla was sleeping in to find her packing up her belongings. In another room, Brody found Chevy doing the same thing. Both Kylie and Brody looked at Chevy and Kayla like they had questions to ask them. Kylie leaned on the white wall watching her older sister pack her things. Kayla wore an agitated look on her face, and Kylie failed to understand the reason for her frustration so she just sat back and watched until Kayla broke the silence. She turned her head slightly and with a hint of frustration in her voice, she asked, "Aren't you going to ask me what I'm doing?"
Kylie crossed her arms and shook her head nonchalantly. "Why you ask you when I already know what you're doing?"
Kayla stood up with a scowl on her face. "See that's what I'm talking about."
"What?" Kylie asked confused.
"You act like you.....like you just don't care about anything anymore. What's going on with you?"
Back in Chevy's room, Brody presented Chevy with a question of his own. "You out, love?"
"Yee." Chevy's answers never went into more depth than needed to. Simple and short. Short and sweet. Just the way he liked to keep it.
"Things getting a little too hot for ya ha son?"
Brody smiled, leaving Chevy no choice but to smile with him, even though he really didn't want to. "Yee. Y'all on some other stuff, you and Kylie. I liked it better when we was all just chilling."
Brody smiled, closed his eyes, and shook his head. "Yeah, me too, but I couldn't sit back and watch blue eyes and curly head do my people wrong like that man. They had guns to my peoples, put bullets in my peoples. Did 'em dirty dog."
"Yeah, I know it must have been hard to see yo' folk get gunned down."
Brody's once wondrous smile disappeared into a pain filled frown. "Pain. Nah, pain didn't come to me when I saw people who were from the same city as my cousin get gunned down by the police. I knew then I had to fight against those who would seek to destroy a people simply because we're different. But even then, I felt no pain. I saw the police raping women, killing children, but still I felt no pain. I felt nothing, but I knew I was put on this earth to destroy evil at that moment. You want to know when I truly felt pain? When I was faced to face with the men who killed my father. Filled his veins with the E-v that ultimately took my sister. Your love. Your baby mama. That's when the pain set in, but at that time I couldn't feel it. The only thing on my mind was to do what was necessary to protect the people of Uptown District. They didn't deserve the treatment they was getting so like a real dude, I stepped in, and I killed every single one of them, homie. Fuck 'em. They killed my pa. Killed my sister, and for what? Because my pa wasn't going to just go along with poisoning the hood? Because my father didn't want to go down in history as the person who helped spread the E-v, rather his name is associated with greatness and hatred by the same police who are supposed to be sworn to serve and protect us. My dad took a stand as the last honest policeman in the whole damn brotherhood and now he's gone, leaving me with a choice. Do I honor his memory by defending the people who he refused," Tears were pouring down Brody's face as he gestured wildly, pointing to the floor below him, raising his voice just a little more with each word he spoke, "He refused to simply write off as evil and watch them infect and kill each other, or do I do nothing? See I was unsure about my decision to fight the good fight, afraidf becoming a monster, but I know now that society's filled with monsters, it's all on you which kind of monster you decide to be. I can't be the monster who cages the righteous beast inside of my soul." Brody smiled, the epiphany coming over him feeling as though he were being washed by the rays of the sun. "I'm the monster who lets him out." His laugh was hungry for company, but received none as Chevy just stared at him with his usual still expression.
Chevy just shook his head and continued to pack. "I guess. It ain't me though. That sounds like something you and only you would do, so I'm uh let you do you, folk, but I'm going home."
Brody shook his head, and when he saw Chevy pack up his last pair of shoes in his suitcase, he replies solemnly, "You won't know what it's like to wanna do right by yo' people until it hits closer to home, and because you're my brother, I pray you never find out."
Chevy thought about Bailey, about her smile, her touch, her skin against his skin, and he looked at Brody with hurt eyes and he answered, tears plotting their escape from his eyes, "Brody, it already has hit close to home. If you remember you killed my son, killed the only woman I loved, and showed up to my doorstep with their blood all over, so yeah, I do have an idea of the pain you went through. I was there."
Brody looked down and then looked back up with dark apologetic eyes. With a low voice, he asked, "Do you forgive me man?"
Chevy sighed and shook his head, "You my brother, dog. You one of the few people I could trust with anything. Of course I forgive you, but I can't do what you thinking about doing. This hero stuff just ain't for me, dog. Some people have a knack for it like you, but not me. I already lost my family, I can't stand there and drive y'all to danger without being able to do anything about it."
"It's cool man." Brody quickly interjected.
Chevy looked at Brody and shook his head. "I hope you know I ain't scared."
Brody smiled, "Yeah I know," and he patted his older brother on the shoulder as Chevy grabbed his bags and prepared to take his leave. "You know you my brother."
Chevy turned his head slightly and extended his hand toward Brody. "Always. Once you through cleaning up New Orleans one dirty cop at a time, you come on back to the City. Come on back home."
Brody smiled, "Oh you know home is always where the heart is for me."



Later on that night, Brody and Kylie cuddled up in Brody's bed accompanied only by the news and the silence of the mansion. They enjoyed a rare moment inside of the mansion, a moment of silence and tranquility.
Watching the news, they saw Toon's childhome in a blaze like no other, consuming everything in its path. The images resonated within Brody's pupils. He knew this was a test, something to make him question whether he should still be the one to save the people who were in dire need. He looked down at Kylie and stared at her for what seemed like minutes slipping into eternity. He thought about what life would be like without her in his arms, without her fighting by his side. His little monster. He knew from their childhood that she looked up to his sister, and it was in her that he saw a little piece of his lost twin. Maybe that was the reason he was so protective over her. Maybe those same low eyes held that gleam that his sister's beautiful brown pupils had.
He smiled knowing that the flower he had in his arms was worth protecting with his life. Feeling his eyes piercing her skin, she looked up with those loving brown eyes and she asked him softly, "It's us against the world huh?" He nodded his head. "Baby....."
"Yes."
"I don't want to fight off the world by myself."
"I don't either."
She turned her head, their lips within inches of one another's and she whispered. "You want to go back home."
He nodded his head and whispered back, "Yeah. I think we've done enough in this city without us having to be here to add to the trouble. We just two babies, how we gonna save the world when the world don't wanna be saved?"
She turned her head back to the news where she saw the victims of the burning of the projects. She saw the sadness on the victims' faces and she realized that she had felt that pain breeding inside of their hearts, feeling as though they had been uprooted from everything. She knew that couldn't abandon her post. She was a soldier of justice, no matter how much she missed the little makeshift family she had made for herself. She knew she couldn't just let anybody feel that feeling. She turned back toward Brody and spoke softly, "So how long we gonna stay here?"
Brody laughed, knowing she was affected by the news coverage. They truly were two peas in a pod. "As long as it takes."
"Takes what?" She asked, knowing full well what he meant.
"As long as it takes for the people who need it most to see help in their own communities. I won't be scared off."
"So what's the next step, baby?"
He looked down her at her with eyes filled with caring. "You know I know you miss Kayla. You ain't gotta stay down here wit' me if you don't want to."
"No, no Brody, you know like I told you before, I'm gonna be with you 'til' the end."
"Well you know the road we walking on is uncertain, sweetie. I don't know if tomorrow's promised walking on the road I'm walking on and I want you to know that. I can't stand the thought of possibly losing you and it would break my heart if you were to be taking from something I dragged you into."
She kissed him on his honey brown cheek and smiled, still inhaling the cologne imprint off of his skin. "You don't have to worry about me," She said with a voice filled with passion. "Just remember what we face, we face together and nothing will ever stop us."
"Even if we went up against the world?"
She kissed him on his neck. "Especially if we went against the world."
He turned towards her and leaned over her, his lips completely paralelled with hers and he smiled confidently. "I love my lil' bad ass."
His lips found a place on hers and when they finally parted, she said, "And I love my little bad boy, just me and my boyfriend. That's all I need to save the world." She smiled and placed her lips right back on their proper place, on his lips, diving into the deep waters of his mind, sinking into his lustful passion and the pool of warm, pink love in his heart .