Chapter Text
Times like these are when he is actually grateful for being more lean than being bulky. Not that this happens a lot. This as in running from his former crew that literally wants to kill him. It doesn't happen very often but honestly it’s not like he didn’t see it coming.
The streets are crowded tonight, it is Friday after all. But he uses the mass amount of people to his advantage even if it’s a little hard to maneuver through them all. He always appreciates a challenge. He picks streets with the most people and starts walking -quickly-, keeping his head down and slipping through them as fast as he could. He isn’t sure exactly where he’s going, he wasn’t prepared for this. He should have been, definitely. But he wasn’t. And now he has to deal with that.
He’s only been in Los Santos for a month and these fucks already found him again. So he doesn’t know the roads or the street names like he did in the previous location.
Maybe he could’ve learned them quicker if he actually tried, he thinks before he throws himself into a dark, empty alley. One lined with dumpsters and garbage and probably every disease known to man.
He stands, thinking, not even for a second before pushing himself behind a dumpster and disappearing into the shadows. He can’t help but gag at the smell and the thought of all the possible things that could be stepping in.
He remains tense but curses quietly as the pain starts to edge in. He counts his injuries. He didn't have time to before, once the chance came he booked it.
His torso caught a few good kicks, his head, few good hits. He can feel the right side of his face starting to swell from the knife cut. The chilly air is making his lungs burn, still short of breath. And he might be concussed.
God his head hurts. The people are so loud.
He shakes himself, he needs to focus. To think about how he can fight his way out of this one. The gun weighs his pants down but he wants to ignore it. The past month hasn’t been his...proudest. He did buy a gun, but only because he lost his knives-
Particular voices that his mind discerned from the rest of the crowd makes his shoulder tense even more, they are almost coiled up to his ears.
“Aleks,” his name is sung into the air, seeming to echo off of the alley’s brick walls and radiates into his brain.
He just doesn’t want to deal with this anymore. Is that so much to fucking ask for?
“We can talk this out right? Like old times?” It’s sarcastic and Aleks feels it in his gut that this is gonna be rough. He squeezes his eyes shut and god, this guys voice is so annoying.
“I don’t think he’s in this one Vinnie.” Another voice admits and Aleks realizes with a stuttering heart that-that voice is Charlie. Charlie doesn’t deserve any of what is happening or had happened, whether with the crew or in his life. Charlie is even younger than Aleks and his body is already being eaten up by anxiety at the measly age of 18 years old.
“Then how about you go and look in any one of the other fifty fucking hundred LS alleyways, kid.” Vinnie all but shouts back to Charlie. Aleks grimaces and acts before thinking.
He doesn’t speak. He just steps into the moonlight to try and make himself look bigger then he actually is. It doesn’t fail, per se, but it’s not very convincing.
“What, nothing?" Vinnie tries.
When Aleks doesn’t say any of the things on the tip of his tongue, he thinks that maybe later he’ll regret his lack of retorts, but right now? Aleks doesn’t know what to do.
Vinnie scoffs. Like it’s Aleks who’s in the wrong here. And in all honestly, Aleks thinks he might agree.
"Hm. Wow. The fucking chatter box doesn't have anything to say, my fuckin’ prayers have come true." He says in sarcastic disgust.
A moment passes.
“I guess you can guess what happens next.” Vinnie chuckles darkly, looking down and going for something in his jacket. A gun. Aleks knows this. When Vinnie looks back up, Aleks is gripping his own gun and aiming it at the man’s chest.
He’s not going to use it, maybe wack someone with it but it’s more for insurance, intimidation, if nothing else.
The problem is, Vinnie knows this.
Vinnie, the gun in his right hand, pointed toward the ground, and his left arm held out to his side, stops one of the men who took a step forward after Aleks' reaction. It was Scoot who Vinnie stopped and Aleks feels his body go cold. Scoot has always intimidated Aleks -not that he'd ever admit it- mostly because the guy’s about two heads taller than Aleks and built like a motherfucker.
"Ah, what a turn of events." Vinnie drawls, almost bored, "I’m sure you know exactly what you’re doing with that." The man scoffs the shakes his head, like he’s trying to look disappointed. Aleks narrows his eyes in annoyance.
“You were a good asset, I won’t lie. But I fucking hate you.” Vinnie pulls his mouth into a straight line and shakes his head once more. He lowers his hand and then Scoot charges forward, Charlie hesitates but Aleks saw Vinnie push him foreword before returning his attention to Scoot.
For such a large guy, Scoot somehow catches Aleks off guard and managed to throw the first punch. The fist hits the same side that’s already cut and aggravated and Aleks ends up on the ground without him even knowing about it. He drops his gun in the process and curses himself at how quickly he got put down.
His eyes are screwed shut because his head feels like it’s vibrating but then he feels something push his face into the concrete. Aleks vaguely realizes it’s Scoot’s boot that is indeed on top his head before trying to wrangle himself out from under it. But now Aleks is seeing colors that he knows are not supposed to be there right now. He now is very sure that he is concussed.
Someone shouts something and there’s a couple gunshots that ring out. They’re loud and right next to him but he doesn’t feel any holes in him yet. Maybe they missed, he thinks. Or maybe he already got shot and he's just in shock. Maybe one of the civilians got caught in the crossfire. Mayb-
If anyone got shot or heard those shot go off, they would’ve called the cops by now. LSPD is not known for being speedy but they’ll get here eventually and none of them could afford getting busted now. So like Aleks expects, the foot quickly disappears. Slowly, he lifts his head, and even slower, he opens his eyes. He can see that Scoot and Charlie are down and out on the ground and Vinnie is, he’s fighting with someone?
Casting a look to the mouth of the alley he saw that most civilians have scattered and left the scene, surprisingly no stragglers taking pictures or videos.
Dragging his eyes back to the fight, Aleks sits and just watches for a couple seconds. The unknown person is obviously winning. They fight hand-to-hand and the guy’s landing punches on Vinnie’s body in such an organized fashion, Aleks has to guess he’s been properly trained. To add to that Vinnie has never been good at hand-to-hand, Aleks can almost laugh at how badly he’s doing.
Once the guy sends Vinnie to the floor too, Aleks forces himself to stand up. Quickly, he makes sure to grab his gun on the way up. The dude turns to Aleks and stares as Aleks sways in his place. He’s starting to get double vision, Aleks is, because now, he sees two newcomers which just can’t be right; there had only been just the one not two seconds ago.
The newcomer takes a step forward and Aleks -even in this state- is quick to draw the weapon. He can only hope he’s aiming it at the right man. The weapon successfully stops the man from coming closer, for only a second though, because the guy starts for Aleks again. He walks closer and ignores the weapon that’s now basically in his face completely. But he makes no move to start a fight, a part of Aleks is grateful. The other part is suspicious.
Aleks’ face is hard but the other man’s just looks bored. Aleks considers that maybe he shouldn't throw such a look to this guy because really, he did kick the asses of the people kicking his ass. But the easy look on his face made Aleks feel unsure of the man's intentions. He looks...content with the fact there’s a gun pointed to him.
"You know, you could just tell me your name and this could go a helluva lot easier than where it’s going right now." He speaks, voice smooth and almost calming. Under different circumstances of course. Aleks shifts on his feet.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Aleks asks, trying to even out his voice and push the pain out.
The man sighs dramatically, "Uh, yes I would, actually. I’m supposed to be saving someone’s ass here so, depending if you are that person or I just knocked them out,” he points to the bodies on the floor, “this could go a couple different ways."
Aleks looks the other over. The man just made a clear threat but, he doesn’t come off as threatening. Then again, he did just successfully take out three guys in less than five minutes, so maybe Aleks should rethink his stance on this guy.
The other man has been edging forward slowly and Aleks' rattled mind doesn't even notice until he is able to see that his eyes are a dark color, probably brown. To say the least, Aleks now he felt threatened. Aleks also suddenly remembers he has a gun in his hand and he thinks, now would be a great time to use that.
He sends his free hand flying toward the guys face as a punch but get blocked. Aleks expected that. He kicked a foot into the guys shin next, getting a grunt in pain in return. Aleks pushes the guy away and takes a step back, watching the other catch himself. His hand twitches around the weapon, still unused.
"Jesus, seriously?" The stranger seems more annoyed than angry, which confuses Aleks to no end. He’s acting like this is just a minor inconvenience, which in this business, could very well be.
He brings his hand up to his ear and starts talking. Aleks hazily realizes that he’s talking into a comm. Who’s this guy with? He claims he was supposed to “save” him but, Aleks can’t exactly trust that, can he?
"-a little bit physical here, you might wanna step in." Aleks reigns in his focus long enough to hear that.
"Fucking - get in here." The man hisses after listening for a moment, he stays away from Aleks, keeping distance but still blocking the exit. He crosses his arms and stares hard at Aleks.
Aleks sucks in a breath, winces a little then opens his mouth, "Listen. I really don't want to do this right now so, move maybe?" Aleks tries, knowing that it’s not going to work but maybe if he tried anyway...
"Just tell me your name and then we can discuss leaving." The man doesn’t take his eyes off of Aleks even when Aleks averts his, uncomfortable with the eye contact.
Aleks bring his eyes back up to meet the other guys’ and the two stares at each other for a long minute. As of now, there are no people on the street, and besides the cars that are quickly speeding by, there is no noise.
Through the darkness, Aleks eyes’ notices that the other has facial hair -a goatee, he thinks is what it’s called- and beanie on. A zip up jacket hangs over his shoulders, unzipped, and his jeans were dirty but not dirty like Aleks'.
The stranger waves his hand in front of his face to get Aleks’ attention back, "Hey, you still in there?" He asks loudly.
Aleks inhales and then exhales, "Aleks." he admits. Deciding that if this guy was gonna kill him he should do it sooner rather than later.
The other person frozen at this, then after another moment, unfroze, nodding, "Well, you are not who I came to get."
He pulls out a gun of his own so Aleks raises his back up, suddenly alert. Adrenaline starts to fill his veins again-
"James!" There’s a shout from the mouth of the alley. Both Aleks and the guy whip their head toward the sound, to another person running at them. Aleks slides his gun to the newer newcomer, in turn, making the first stranger man step closer, cocking his gun.
"What?" The first man, James, shouts, keeping his eyes on Aleks but tilting his head back to the newer man, "This isn’t the guy you're looking for."
Aleks squints at said newer man. For some odd reason, the guys body shape looks familiar. As he gets closer and closer Aleks starts identifying the body. Aleks' arm goes down only an inch. Now he’s hallucinating. He has to be.
Aleks opens his mouth to make words but his attempts fall short. He can only stutter the first letter before closing his eyes and taking a long breath. He opens them again, he’s still there. Going to stand next to the other guy -James, he reminds himself- so, not hallucinating then, if James can also see and talk to him.
"Brett?" Aleks finally gets out, he knows his voice cracked and he sounds like he's about to cry but, he's confused. And dumbstruck. And now his head hurts even more. What's happening, what's happening? This literally can’t happening. Physically impossible.
The man, Brett, nods, Aleks can’t make out his expression because of the dark but Aleks almost doesn’t want to know.
"Immortal! Yeah, buddy. Thought it was you." Brett sounds relieved as he takes a second to take in the sight that is Aleks and then turns to the other man, James.
"James, put your gun down." Brett says like James is being unreasonable. Aleks readjusts his aim to James. But weirdly enough, James listens to Brett and lowers his gun.
Aleks takes this time to look at Brett. Or to squint at him, at least. He is wearing a baseball cap, hiding his hair but from the looks of his bushy beard Aleks can only assume his hair would be in the same state. Brett looks,,,good, for a deadman, Aleks decides. He looks a bit bigger than how he did in the crew, more muscle and the way he stood and held himself only helped.
James turns himself towards Brett, “He said his name was Aleks, not Immortal." He explains himself and Aleks considers dropping his own weapon down and just running. He is still very confused. Mostly about how in the hell Brett is here. He’s supposed to be..dead.
Aleks shakes his head, feeling frazzled, and that he should also try to explain himself, "I don't go by that anymore."
It's been a couple months since he's gone by Immortal and has started trying to disconnect with that name. Before, he'd never let anyone call him Aleks. Nobody even knew his real name. Well. Sly knew, but that's a different story.
Brett pauses, uncertain, "Aleks." He tries the name. Once Aleks nods, Brett nods too. There might've been a small smile on his face too when he turns to James and introduces the two.
"James, this is Aleks. An old crew member. Aleks, this is James. A new crew member."
James nods at Aleks, an eyebrow cocked in an interested way like he didn't already know who Aleks was before walking into this alley. Aleks blinks and moves his eyes back to Brett because they should be having a very different conversation right now.
"We thought-I thought, you were..." Aleks trails off, he felt tired. This is way too much.
Brett nods, opening his mouth, "I'm sorry," he ends up cutting himself off after taking a closer look at Aleks, "are you - you don't look so good. James, help me right quick." Brett starts forward with James slowly in tow.
Aleks shakes his head. No. He wants a damn explanation, "We looked." Aleks murmurs when Brett lays a hand on his shoulder and holds his forearm. His vision is getting more hazy and his limbs faintly feel like pins and needles. He still doesn’t really know if this is real.
“We can talk about this when you can hold yourself up again." Brett’s voice cuts through
Aleks’ mind fog. He, for a quick second, is distrustful of Brett. Why should Aleks trust him after two years of mourning and loss? But this is Brett, Aleks thinks, everything he does is for a reason, no matter how stupid.
Brett takes one of Aleks’ elbows and starts walking, leading the three out of the alley and into the streets. As they walk, they avoid the bodies. Aleks isn’t sure if they are dead, he doubts it but wouldn’t have any negative feelings if the scales tip that way.
James follows closely as they make their way to a vehicle that’s parked right across the street, in the opposing alleyway. Brett pushes Aleks into the back seat and there he drifts in and out of sleep, eventually though, he is lulled into the darkness by low voices from the front seats and the comforting rumble of the car.