There was nothing Tony could do. One moment, he was standing up, the next, Rio played it suicidally, and sent the two of them toppling over the edge. Despite it looking as if the branch would be large enough to support an adult, the branches here weren't particularly strong, growing on the side of the cliff as they were. They held the mountain together, but their roots were stronger than their branches. Tony could only cry out in pain as the branch struck his side, and then... began to snap. It seemed as if Rio had miscalculated rather badly...
The ferret's arms flailed out, but they couldn't grab hold of anything but the branch as before Rio's eyes, it broke, and with an incomprehensible shriek, the ferret plummeted into the jungle below.
Vergil didn't have time to react. His eyes widened as he charged forward, sliding over the roof of the Rover but it was too late. He couldn't see Tony... and with no visual, it was impossible to catch him. "NO!" Vergil cried, shoving Rio out of the way as he bent down on his knees, but could see nothing but jungle... green as far as the eye could see, and no ferret.
"No!" Vergil slammed his fist into the ground, tears starting to stream down his cheeks as he searched desperately for Tony's life force. But there was so much down there... it was confusing him with his anger and anguish. He couldn't get a lock on anything solid... plenty of animals... but where was Tony? It was too dark to see anything... far too dark, even with his vision.
Getting shakily to his feet, his mind clouded over. He drew his blade and ignited it, then walked over to Emilena. Without warning, he brutally sliced into her hamstring, bringing her down on her knees. He then gripped her chin with one hand, and looked straight into her eyes. "If I ever see your face again... I'll cut it off and feed it to the catfish, you got that?" he asked, then beaned her with his own head. "She's all yours." he said to Soren.
Deactivating his blade, he gazed darkly at Axel. "Well... you insisted on saving the brat before... now Don Stracci will flay him alive... speaking of flaying. We're leaving him to his fate. We're not sheltering him, end of discussion. I don't need Kalis AND the mob down on me for this. You can be the one to make the call and explain why his son is dead. Let's get out of here..." Vergil stated, heading for the Rover now. "You better find a place to hide kid, and fast... but it won't do you any good, now that I think about it. His father will find you no matter where you go. You can stick with miss hamstring over there, except I don't think she's done much for you to start off with."
He slid into the seat where Tony had been only moments before, tears welling up in his eyes. "Marita! Start driving! We'll proceed down the road and get to Coroico, then turn around and pick up the highway to La Paz!" he ordered, gripping the steering wheel tightly, his hands shaking violently as he struggled to control his emotions. Flashes of red... the desire to kill Rio on the spot were murderingly strong. Something was in him... a part of him he didn't know existed... it was fighting for control, urging him to kill everyone and face Kalis himself. He could do it... he was strong enough... he could kill Kalis...
But he knew leaving them out here with no transportation and with Emilena having a sliced hamstring meant they were as good as dead anyway. If the mining conglomerates didn't get them, the rebels would. Throwing the Rover into gear, he gave one final look at Rio, being within inches of mentally crushing his skull. Perhaps the kid would feel a headache, or perhaps not, it was hard to say. Vergil didn't care. It was time to get out of this hellhole.
Down the road, Varanus watched the whole thing. He could see perfectly in the dark thanks to his eyes, and smiled wickedly to himself. He could sense Vergil's anguish and frustration... but something else as well. Something he hadn't felt in a long time. He could see what Vergil couldn't, and it was delicious. Positively delicious. It also made Vergil vulnerable, and could perhaps be something they could exploit later on.
"Kalis..." He opened up a direct channel to his lord now via an implanted comms link in his throat, speaking softly. "You need to hear this... you'll never guess what I just saw..."
