Anubis | Cyberpunk | Arranged Marriage

“Where the fuck are those cufflinks?” Anubis growled as he tried not to tear the study apart.

Adora and her people had finally arrived. Seraphim were traipsing through these rooms like cockroaches, and it made his skin crawl. Enemies who would soon be his allies. Luckily, they were on neutral ground, and not back at the Jackals’ Den or his home. But somewhere amongst these angels was his Intended. His fiancé. And in less than a half hour, his spouse. A stranger who would bear his name and share his life. That knowledge did nothing to soothe the agitation lashing inside of his chest, although he kept his face calm and blank as he searched. There. On the mantle above the fireplace.

Rabbit watched with amusement as he sprawled back in the armchair, one leg dangling over the arm. His brother’s tuxedo was pristine in his usual black and red. He wore his mask already, rabbit ears standing tall with an occasional swivel as his audio channels fed him distant sounds of approaching feet. Rabbit's fingers were curled loosely around the neck of a half-empty wine bottle. He pushed his mask up slightly so he could take a swig.

Hawk was giving a running update as Anubis distracted himself with cufflinks, a flash of silver against his black tuxedo. “Spider’s tapped into the security feeds. No one can sneak by his cameras, you know that. Moth’s patrolling the perimeter. Don’t worry– Wolfe’s out there with him, keeping an eye on things. Got him stationed on the rooftop with a full tranq gun, just in case.”

Anubis relaxed. He couldn't afford one of Moth’s episodes, not tonight. Tonight, everything had to go perfectly.

Hawk paused in his update, regarding Anubis seriously. “It’s not too late to change your mind,” his second-in-command said.

“Who else can seal the alliance?” Anubis asked with a snort. “Rabbit? We’d find him in the marriage bed with two of his Bunny girls only an hour after the wedding.”

Rabbit threw back his head with a loud bark of laughter. His loud “Hah!” echoed through the room, earning Anubis’s stern glare. Hawk snorted. But they both knew he was right.

“It can only be me,” Anubis said quietly. He lifted his head to stare at his own reflection in the small mirror against the wall. “Scorpion will be making his move soon. I can feel it in my bones.”

Hawk stiffened. His hand fell to his side, no doubt tracing the scars and machinery beneath the fabric of his tuxedo. Even Rabbit’s fingers tightened around his wine bottle until his knuckles went white, his characteristic smirk curdling into a lip-peeled sneer. Anubis knew what they were remembering. That night of fire and blood still stained his nightmares, even three years later. Rabbit’s body riddled with bullets. The heart-monitors attached to Hawk flatlining again and again, a symphony of horror and betrayal.

Anubis had come close to losing them both.

His fault. It was his fault for showing mercy when he’d had the perfect opportunity to crush Scorpion into dust. His fault for letting thirty-years of friendship interfere with business. Hawk and Rabbit (and countless other men) had paid the price for his weakness. Their blood was on his hands.

Never again, Anubis vowed, fingers clenching slightly into fists as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. This marriage would be protection and atonement both.

Hawk tilted his head slightly, the slight tell that he was listening to a message through the secure channels of his avian mask. An update from Spider probably, keeping an eye on everyone through his cameras. “Adora’s requesting a private word before the ceremony.”

Anubis couldn’t delay it any longer. He grabbed his mask, the dark metal jackal head with its pointed ears and carved snout. He pulled it over his head. Keyed to his brain waves and DNA, it took three seconds for his senses to adjust to the new flood of information. His vision sharpened. There was a faint mechanical hum against his ears before suddenly he could hear the brush of Rabbit’s fingers against the glass of the wine bottle. He opened the secure audio channels. There was a faint crackle before he heard Spider’s low murmur, requesting updates from the troops outside.

Anubis was masked and shielded. He was ready to confront his future. He was ready to pay the price it would take to protect his legacy and the people he loved.

With Hawk and Rabbit on his heels, he left the study.

The hall was filled with Lowside's underworld elite, with masked persons almost out-numbering those who bared their faces. Spider had a running list of weapons confiscated from Jackals and Seraphim alike: countless handguns and switchblades and plasma pistols. plus five titanium carbon knuckles, two shock batons and even a nasty neurospike hidden in someone's gloves. Anubis had made it clear: anyone who disturbed today's festivities would face his wraith. So far, he was pleased to see, it seemed to be working. Sure, both Jackals and Seraphim were giving each other wary, suspicious glances, but decades of hostility were tempered by respect (and fear) of their leaders.

Today would go perfectly. Today must go perfectly.

There were no humanoid robots weaving through the gathered guests. This wasn’t Highside after all. All of the maskless servants carrying trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres were flesh and blood, thoroughly checked and vetted. Anubis was a Lowsider, through and through. He saw no qualms about trading one’s organic body for upgrades, but the idea of being served by soulless, metal things wearing human faces gave him the chills.

Anubis wove through the crowd with ease, aiming towards the two towering giants wearing Seraphim masks. They stepped aside as Anubis approached, revealing one of the most dangerous people in all of Lowside.

Adora. Her long hair was swept up into a regal updo, white as bleached bone, yet Anubis knew that she was no older than he was. She had clawed her way up through blood and death, same as he had. She had earned her crown.

“Anubis,” she greeted him. Her mask was silver with wings on the edges, deceptively angelic.

“Adora,” Anubis said firmly, inviting her to walk ahead with him, a few steps away from the twin guards who shadowed her every footstep.

Anubis could hear the smile in Adora’s voice. Her words became edged with a dangerous purr. “I’m entrusting the safety and happiness of my only surviving family to you, Anubis,” she said. “My only sibling. My only family. My greatest treasure.” She leaned forward. There was nothing warm or amusing about her voice anymore. “So let’s get one thing straight, right now. Mistreat them in any way, and you’re fucked. If I hear of a single tear shed because of you, if I hear of a single bruise, they’re coming home to me. And then I’ll gladly help Scorpion peel the flesh from your bones. Got it?”

Adora's voice brightened as she reached up, tapping her palm lightly against the cheek of his mask. The optics of her own mask glowed a pale, amethyst purple. “An unhappy marriage is an unhappy alliance after all. So make sure this marriage is a very happy one, brother.”

Anubis’s jaw clenched. If anyone else had dared to speak to him like that, he would’ve put a blade between their ribs before their last word had fallen. But this was Adora. Queen of the Seraphim, ruler of the Eastside quadrant. His new soon-to-be sister-in-law. Together, they held half of Soltaria’s Lowside beneath their control. Even Scorpion and his growing army couldn't face them both together. Their enemy would have to slither back into the shadows and work his mischief from there.

As long as the alliance holds.

“I’m honored by your trust in me, Adora,” he said aloud, his voice a low rumble behind his Anubis mask. As if he wanted nothing more than this marriage to a complete stranger. As if he’d ever wanted this cage of familial bliss.

But Anubis had done far worse things in the name of strengthening the Jackals. This was the only way to protect his own family, his gang, his power. “Your sibling will be my family now. Which mean’s their joy is now my joy– and my top priority. They’ll have no reason to be unhappy, I promise.”

As if he knew the first thing about a happy marriage. He could barely remember his own mother’s face - just a blur of brown eyes and dark hair. His father Leo had had plenty of women since her death - but their company was purchased with credits or they were simply attracted to his growing wealth and power. Much like Anubis’s own experiences with lovers.

His words were pretty. But empty. They tasted like a lie. Yet Anubis would have to find a way to make them true.

Well, it couldn't be any harder than taking care of Rabbit and making sure he didn't wind up buried under the trash-heaps in Southside. It couldn’t be any harder than hunting down each of the cretins responsible for his father’s murder. It couldn't be harder than growing the Jackals from a minor threat to the strongest in all of Northside.

He must have sounded sincere enough, because Adora gave a sharp nod and then slapped him on the shoulder. “Then come on. It’s time to make this alliance official.”

Anubis nodded, shoulders stiffening with resignation. His wedding awaited.