"You took your sweet time," panted Bruno, slumping against the wall and sliding into a seated position as Dragan approached.

Dragan rolled his eyes. "Do you know how many stairs I had to climb to get here? A lot. A whole lot. You should be thanking me for putting the effort in."

It was true - after climbing so many stairs, Dragan had needed to take a few minutes to catch his breath. He decided not to mention that, though; Bruno didn't look to be in the indulgent mood.

As he approached, he glanced down at Bruno's unconscious opponent. The one Noel had called Reyansh, if he remembered correctly. Well, he always remembered correctly, but whatever.

"Should we kill him?" Dragan said, biting his lip as he looked down at the unconscious body.

Bruno looked up from his sitting position, brow furrowed. "Weren't we meant to be taking these guys into custody? We can just tie them up and carry them out, if your little stick arms can take the strain."

Dragan frowned. "My arms aren't … nevermind. Anyway, uh, there's been a few changes in the situation. You've missed a lot this last week." As he spoke, he kept one stun-pistol trained on Reyansh's back, ready to zap him if he showed any signs of consciousness.

Groaning, Bruno pushed himself back up the wall, still holding a hand against it for support. "What do you mean," he growled. "There's been a change in the situation?"

Before he replied, Dragan put his free hand to his head, ran it over his temple. Putting the whole thing into words made him truly realize just how complicated things had gotten, just how out of his depth he was.

Well, he'd never really been in his depth, but now it had just become obvious.

"We're supposed to kill the Citizen," he finally forced out as his opener.

Bruno blinked. "What?"

"The Citizen - we're meant to kill him."

"That wasn't the deal," Bruno took a step forward. "I remember - I was there when that Dir asshole got us into this mess. We were grabbing the Umbrant, and that was it."

Dragan shrugged weakly, an awkward lopsided smile on his lips. "Apparently, Dir's boss has dirt on Skipper, so … the situation's changed."

"What kind of dirt?!" Bruno waved his arms as he spoke, clearly getting frustrated.

"I don't know," Dragan lied.

He thought about telling Bruno about everything the Sponsor of War had told them - about the previous president, about Skipper's past with this Vantablack Squad - but in the end he decided that they just didn't have the time for an explanation like that.

If all was going well, Ruth was above them, and Skipper was below them. A decision had to be made.

"Well," Bruno spluttered, thumping his fist against the wall. "Shit. What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"We kill the Citizen, I guess."

Bruno shook his head. "No. Even if we do that, they'll find something else to get us with. It's how these kinds of things work, every time. Trust me - I've been on the giving end, too."

"I agree," Dragan nodded. "But we still don't have a choice. We can either make a run for it and ensure retaliation, or get this thing done and come up with a plan for afterwards. Anyway, that's not even important right now."

"Well, what is important, then?"

"First, this guy," Dragan nodded down at Reyansh. "He's not the Citizen, so we can let him live, but we can't risk him waking up and coming after us. I passed a supply closet on my way here - we can get him restrained with some of the stuff from there."

"Rope won't do much against Aether," Bruno said doubtfully.

Dragan waved a dismissive hand. "There are ways you can tie people up so they just can't move their body at all. On Crestpoole, they used to do that and drop … well, nevermind. I'm pretty sure it would work." His mind had started drifting there. It was this whole situation - stress pushing out memories he didn't much care to revisit.

"Okay," Bruno slowly nodded. "Okay, sure. You said that's the first thing, though - so what's next?"

As Dragan put his back against the wall and crossed his arms, he wondered how much detail he should go into. They didn't have time for the full story, so it would be best to get the pertinent facts across first.

"Basically what's happened," he said, eyes still squeezed shut as he dug through his memories. "Is that the owner of this place has information the Citizen wants, so that's why he's sent his guys here. We've come here to take them out before they can get to the owner. Skipper's gone down to the security room to make sure they can't hack the security systems here, and Ruth's gone up to the director's office to grab him before the Citizen can. I came here to make sure you were safe."

Bruno raised an eyebrow. "Like I said, you took your sweet time."

"It was a lot of stairs," Dragan snapped. "Anyway - now that that's settled - I think the best thing for us to do is split up again. One of us goes to back up Skipper, the other backs up Ruth. What do you think?"

Bruno bit his lip. "I don't like the idea of us moving through this place alone, but you're the boss."

He was? Really? When had that happened? Dragan was surprised Bruno would say that, but he wasn't going to say otherwise. He'd honestly expected more pushback.

He nodded, smiling slightly. "Okay. Okay! Well, then - I'll go down to back up that idiot, and you'll go up to back up that idiot. Sound good?"

Bruno cracked his knuckles, purple Aether playing across his fingers as he moved them. "Not really. But nothing much has sounded good since we touched down on this planet."

Despite everything, Dragan found himself chuckling. Bruno had a way of voicing the thoughts that Dragan left to stew. "You're not wrong," he said, picking up Reyansh by the legs and getting ready to drag. "But we've still got to get on with it."

-

"A Special Officer, huh?" said Skipper, standing back up from his crouching position. "Wowie. You wouldn't happen to know Atoy Muzazi, would ya?"

The Special Officer didn't mirror him - she stayed half-crouched, fingers bared as if they were claws. A mirthless smile crossed her lips. "Sure do. And you know Dragan Hadrien, right?" She elongated the word to within an inch of its life.

"Ditto," Skipper grinned uneasily. "Don't suppose I can convince you to stand down and let me be on my merry way?"

Marie glanced back towards Noel, who was still pouring her Aether into the central console. "Sorry," she began. "But I-"

"Heartbeat Shotgun," said Skipper emotionlessly, pointing a finger-gun at Marie as she turned back around.

It struck her a second later.

The sound of the gunshot was even more deafening than usual in this cavern of a room - and as Marie went flying backwards, the clangs of her rolling to a stop on the metal walkway echoed just as much. Noel glanced back towards the fight behind her, but quickly turned once again to the console in front of her.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Marie stood back up, casually dusting herself off as if she hadn't just been struck with the force of a gunshot. "That wasn't very nice," she said, wiping a line of blood from her nose. "I was talking, you know?"

Skipper shrugged even as he kept his finger pointed towards Marie. "There's your first mistake, kid. You can't get distracted when folks are tussling, yeah? And it's pretty cocky for you not to use Aether."

He was sure of it - whoever this woman was, she wasn't using Aether at all. If she had been, even cloaked, that first attack wouldn't have done enough damage to draw blood. There was something bizarre going on here.

Marie laughed heartily, strolling back towards Skipper with one hand in her jacket pocket. "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about, old-timer. Maybe you're going senile?"

Her hand inched out of the jacket, just slightly - enough to show she wanted to hide it. Skipper was a nice guy, but he wasn't going to let something like that slide.

Heartbeat Bayonet. Heartbeat Bayonet. Heartbeat Bayonet. Heartbeat Bayonet.

The first attack sliced through her throat, opening her jugular in a crimson shower.

The second attack ran up her chest and face, forming a grim cross.

The third attack cut through her heels, sending her down onto the floor.

The fourth attack carved into her back, reaching so deep that white bone was visible.

"Sorry," said Skipper grimly, looking down at Marie's eviscerated form. "But I didn't like the way you were looking at me."

Noel had turned away from the console - face white as a ghost - as she'd heard Marie be cut apart, but her hands were still pressed against the console. The cyan Aether was now visibly running through the entire pillar, making its way up and down like massive static electricity.

Skipper moved his finger slightly, pointing it at Noel rather than Marie. "Alright, little miss," he said, jabbing it in her direction. "How about you step away from those controls, yeah?"

Noel glanced from the controls to Skipper, opened her mouth as if to say something - but no noise came out. He couldn't blame her: that had been a hell of a thing for a kid to witness.

Still, he couldn't afford to hesitate here.

"Last chance, kid," he said, finger pointing directly at her head. If nothing else, he'd make it quick. "Step. Away."

There was a sound like snapping branches.

"You think we're done here?" rasped Marie from the floor.

Skipper glanced down - and when he saw what was happening, he took a hurried step back.

With the way he'd brutalized this Marie woman, her lifespan should have been measured in seconds - but she was getting up, rising from the blood-drowned floor to her full height like some kind of broken marionette. The cracking he'd heard was the sound of her joints and bones snapping into place as the wounds he'd inflicted on her slowly, but steadily closed back up. Even as Skipper watched, the shower of blood spitting from her torn jugular was reduced to a trickle, and then nothing.

By the time she was fully standing, it was as if he'd never touched her at all.

"Nice trick," mumbled Skipper, looking her up and down - looking for the secret behind what he'd just seen. Some kind of ability, maybe? Hell, maybe this Marie person wasn't even here, and she was just messing with his mind?

Marie grunted as she cracked her neck. "Isn't it?" she said, the raspiness of her voice clearing away as the words left her mouth. "Don't much like showing it off - but I guess we don't always get what we want, huh?"

"Guess not."

She'd recovered from his attacks, but they'd still hurt her. If he could damage her enough to keep her down for a while, he could take out Noel while she was still … healing? Regenerating? What the hell was the terminology here?

Marie took a step forward - out of the puddle of blood she'd produced over the last minute or so. "Don't think you'll get another free shot like that, old-timer."

Skipper grinned. "Oh, I'd never dream of it."

Marie lunged forward at blinding speeds, lifting up her arm like a hammer - and as Skipper dived out of the way, she brought it down on the railing behind where he'd just been standing. There was a sickening crunch as her arm was broken from the impact, paired with the screech of metal as the railing snapped in much the same way.

Regaining his balance on the narrow railing, Skipper jabbed a finger towards Marie's face.

Heartbeat Bayonet!

The range was much closer this time - hell, they were practically in melee distance - so his Bayonet could be much more precise. A thin red line drew itself over Marie's eyes, so small it could have been made with a scalpel, and a second later her face exploded into blood.

Even if she could regenerate, being blinded definitely hurt. Marie screamed in pain and rage as she swung around again, broken arm flopping as she let loose a devastating roundhouse kick.

Skipper ducked under the kick - it was strong and fast, but the lack of precision made it easy to avoid. He dodged a series of follow up kicks, each one missing by a matter of inches as he worked his way around her back.

Her eyes were already healing, the line smoothly sliding shut. He didn't have much time - he didn't like using this, but she wasn't giving him a choice.

Skipper planted his hand on her back, fingers splayed out to cover the widest surface area. He could feel her heartbeat through his palm - even in this situation, it was calm, steady, a drumbeat of inevitability.

Heartbeat Silencer.

There were abilities that implied ill intent through their very existence. The ability to inflict pain with no other purpose, the ability to splinter minds with a baleful glance, the ability to turn skin to glass and yet retain all feeling. There was no good use for such abilities, no world in which they were put to work for the benefit of others. It wasn't much better than those, this power that Skipper had.

The ability to stop a person's heart.

It was frighteningly easy - to sample a person's heartbeat and counteract it with its exact opposite, to cancel it out. The negating sound wouldn't penetrate through any kind of Aether defense - it was far too weak - but Skipper knew now that this girl wasn't using Aether at all. Whoever she was, she wasn't normal.

Unfortunately for her, neither was he.

A death-rattle escaped Marie's throat as her heartbeat came to a sudden and forceful halt, and she toppled forward onto the ground. Without missing a beat, Skipper whirled around, firing a Heartbeat Shotgun off at Noel with his prosthetic - but it missed by inches, smashing a spare monitor rather than the girl's skull. Noel screamed as the glass from the screen barely missed her.

Skipper looked down at his mechanical arm - Marie was grabbing it as she rose from the floor again, the slightest irritation now visible on her face. Her eyes were fully healed, and the blood-drained white of her face was gradually returning to colour as well.

"You really are something special, huh?" Skipper grunted, struggling to pull his arm out of Marie's grip. Even without Aether, her strength was monstrous - he could hear the metal creaking as her fingers left deep indents in it.

Marie grinned, her teeth stained with leftover blood. "Oh," she said, tugging at his arm. "You haven't seen anything yet."

Skipper matched her grin with his own. "I could say the same thing, kid."

He thrust his free arm out - out to the side, away from both of them, and fired off his Heartbeat Shotgun.

Marie's eyes widened, as did Skipper's grin - and a second later, the two of them went flying over the edge of the abyss, plummeting into the darkness below.

If Marie was thrown off by this sudden fall, she didn't show it - within the first few seconds of their descent, she pulled Skipper's prosthetic arm free with a roar, leaving only a shard of jagged, sparking metal protruding from his stump. Then, she lunged forward with her other hand, fingers poised to dig right through Skipper's stomach.

It was a nice try, to be sure. But Skipper wasn't so easy to kill.

Heartbeat Landmine.

In the second before Marie would have run Skipper through, she instead went flying backwards, crashing into the far wall of the chamber with such force that she was embedded there, halting her fall.

Skipper thrust his shattered metal arm, glimmering with green Aether, into the pillar beside him - stopping his own fall. Then, he looked up at his opponent.

Marie was already working her way out of the wall, scraps of debris crumbling away from between her arms and legs. She growled, the cuts and bruises the impact had caused already disappearing from her body. She glanced up at the central console, now far above both of them, then back down at Skipper.

"You think that's enough to get me?" she laughed. "It's nothing for me to finish you off and climb back up."

Skipper wiped the sweat from his brow with his free arm, then pointed his index finger towards Marie. "Last chance, kid. Stay put or I'll give you something that'll actually hurt, yeah?"

Marie's eyes narrowed. "I've never surrendered once in my life. Don't expect me to start now-"

"'Kay. Heartbeat Shotgun."

He said it only once, but fired them off many times - each blast of sound embedding Marie further and further into the wall, her chest caving in from the sheer repeated force. She gasped - not a result of shock, but just the fact that the air was being squeezed out of her lungs.

She'd heal from that. What she'd already shown him had demonstrated that clearly. He'd have to go a little further.

Stopping her heart hadn't even slowed her down. Skipper wondered how she'd fare without a brain.

Heartbeat Bayonet.

Again, the words only ran through his mind once, but numerous whistling blades cut through Marie's neck, one after another - faster and faster, to counteract the healing that was already taking place as they sliced. She glared down at him with bloodshot eyes - the anger in them eerily tranquil.

Finally, the last blade cut the last strand of flesh, and Marie's head seceded from her body. It toppled from her shoulders and began falling down into the abyss, Skipper's finger tracking it as it went.

Heartbeat Shotgun.

The head exploded into a shower of blood, brain and skull that plummeted into the darkness below. After peering down for a few more seconds just to make absolutely sure it was gone, Skipper breathed a sigh of relief.

If that wasn't going to do it, nothing would.

Still - he wasn't exactly out of the woods. His shoulder aching from the strain of supporting his entire body, Skipper turned his head to look at the platform far above.

This was gonna be a hell of a climb.