Prologue 1.2

The Second Morning

When my eyes open for a second time.

My name was not Tori.

My Mama was not Varima.

My Zaza was not Selca.

I was not of the Fae. My skin bore none of the grey ash but a pale white, my hair none of the ocean blue but a bright blonde.

Helm Smasher did not rest in my right hand.

Thunderclaw did not sit upon my left.

I was no longer parted in half by the Heroes Sword…

Which was good I think. That really hurt.

But nothing of my life before remains

I try to avoid thinking about my life before. If I do my heart hurts a lot. It becomes hard to speak words. My eyes begin to water.

I do not know what to do then.

My new name is Amanda. Amanda Zaruman. A human girl.

I am the third daughter and fifth child of Daryl and Viola Zaruman.

My older sisters are Dirga and Xena.

My older brothers are Elmar and Steve.

My new family does not forge weapons, neither do they fight for kings or kingdoms... and even if such proclivities were agreeable to my new family they would not be able to do so.

My new family is not wealthy... or at the very least are not as fortunate as my Mama and Zaza were.

New Mama is a waitress on a starliner that carried tourists across our star system.

Papa is an Ice Cream Machine Repairman.

Dirga works at a customer service hotline facility.

The rest of the family is to young to work so we are sent to school.

On my first day I spent exactly one hour within the facility before I decided school was stupid my classmates were stupid and that math was stupid.

I would make my first attempt to escape after a week.

My first succesful escape would take place before spring break. There was little reason to do so being so close to a break but I decided to do it because school is stupid.

It was unfortunately soured by being caught an hour later by truancy officers less than half an hour later.

New Mama and Papa were very angry with me and said I couldn't have dessert for a whole month.

Dirga slipped me cookies, Xena shared her candy stash with me, Elmar and Steve let me have some of their Ice Cream.

New Mama and Papa pretended not to notice.

It was decidely easier to break out of school than it was to escape truancy officers.

I would not figure out their patterns till the end of my first school year. I would not be able to fully abuse this information until my third year at school.

Mostly because a human body was... for lack of a better word... very weak...

Adjusting to the difference in performance was a harrowing task, up until I began Middle School I would attempt to lift heavy objects that my former form could so with ease, run for longer than I should... and summon lightning to electrocute my teachers who tried to make me apologize for beating Steven from Class A for calling Dirga a very bad word (the magic of this world very different from my own far to esoteric for my taste)

His stupid face was improved by my admittedly lack luster right hook, and I will not apologize for services rendered... and his parents could afford the Enamel Regeneration Infusions. Mine less so.

He should thank me really.

Unfortunately the institutions of Human Education were to primitive to understand this wisdom and Papa and New Mama were contacted.

I apologized to him through gritted teeth and multiple threats of no tv time from New Mom.

Dirga got me a donut though!

All that aside though once I could consistently slip school security and truancy officers as well as the odd good samaritan asking where New Mom was.

Papa took me on a trip to his favorite place to work at.

Big Fat Bob's Biggest Baddest Loudest Hangriest Burger Joint!

I got to meet Big Fat Bob and can confirm that he was indeed Big and Fat. He was also very loud like he couldn't speak in anything but capital letters even if he was whispering.

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I liked him.

Upon seeing me and Papa approaching his door he laughed and rushed over to give us a bear hug.

When Papa could finally convince Big Fat Bob to put us down so we could breathe he ruffled my hair and gave me a cookie.

Big Fat Bob and Papa left me on the counter of his restraunt with a waitress and went to go talk somewhere else.

When they came back they took me to a big room with a really big table on it decorated with all kinds of balloons and holographic pictures of all my favorite animals!

Badgers, Orcas, Raccoons, Terrorfexes, Goremongers and Laser Birds!

A multitude of the deadliest creatures (and the Raccoon) in the galaxy displayed in sharp detail prowling in the distance before suddenly bursting into motion and going for the kill.

And sitting on that table at the very center of attention was a burger.

Big Fat Bob's Alpha and Omega Ultimate Biggerest Baddest Loudest Humongous Ultra Hangriest Burger Combo #3.

It stood four inches tall with a perfect six and three quarter inch diameter. It boasted three quarter pound Oklahoma style cooked burgers sitting between two deep fried Krispy Kreme donuts, sitting between two potato buns. It featured freshly made ketchup, yellow mustard, barbecue sauce and a double helping of Big Bob's Secret Recipe Hangry Sauce. It was dressed in fresh Therian Lettuce, and Opula Tomatoes and sprinklings of diced Ethereal Death Bell Peppers, all topped with two deep fried chicken wings, nine strips of bacon and a fried egg.

Complete with a side order of special spicy curly fries and a large orange juice.

It caused no less than a dozen fatal heart attacks a year and is the leading cause of obesity and poverty in at least three sectors.

It was beautiful and terrible in ways words could not describe.

It was love at first sight.

Papa said it was mine under certain terms and conditions.

I knew what they were. I hated them immediately but my love called to me and could not be denied.

I wouldn't stop escaping school grounds from now on, but I would at least limit them within acceptable school attendance to stop the calls from the DOE Chairman. I would at least finish the homework they would give me and maybe even try and study for tests.

But I retain the right to assault anyone who looks at me the wrong way.

Papa wasn't happy about that last part but realized it was the best deal he was gonna get.

Thus on my birthday I would get to return here to enjoy Big Fat Bob's Burger Joint.

It was perfect.

I treasured every moment spent within the establishment. I counted every second till the day I would be allowed to return. I'd buy the merchandise and promotional material religiously. I learned every horribly off key theme song Big Fat Bob made up till I could hum them in my sleep.

Eventually when I learned how to hack the metro system I made it a habit to occasionally visit without Papas permission.

That was how I met Alexi.

She was a full year older than me, but was unexpectedly smaller than me by a whole inch.

I laughed at her for this.

She punched me in the face.

I kicked her in the shins.

We got arrested for public disturbance and for playing hooky.

We were best friends from then on.

I told her everything I knew about burgers and she tells me how to tell the difference between state police from corpo police.

I taught her how to throw a punch and where to punch a person depending on what kind of pain she wanted to cause them. She taught how to tell a good grill from a bad grill when I went looking to try and cook my own.

I showed her how to navigate school security systems and the usual patterns for truancy police officers and drones. She shared Big Bobs Secret Recipe Hangry Sauce.

She wouldn't tell me how she knew that till I promised that I wouldn't freak out and attempt to kidnap her, which I found incredibly silly. She was shorter than me but she was also rather well built for her age and if I am being honest while I was rather physically fit for my age Alexi took it a step further. Also she had a gun and she wouldn't let me play with it for perfectly logical but frustrating reasons. So kidnapping was off the table.

She was Big Fat Bob's Granddaughter and was set up to inherit the business after either Old Age or his burgers offed him so she knew almost every recipe in the restaurant.

I automatically regretted every promise I have ever made. In this life or before and I made very very very few. I begged her to teach me everything she knew.

She said only if I let her meet my family.

A strange request in my opinion but one easily fulfilled with the application of standard child mind games applied against New Mama and Papa.

Of course the single request fulfilled would not be enough to earn all her secrets.

She wanted other rather queer things as well.

Sometimes, it would be simple practical things like teaching her how to properly use a knife to gut someone or just to injured them.

Other times it was just to ask me to accept a gift or something. A necklace here. A bracelet here, and occasionally a shirt.

I would wear them on occasion and she would be happy for it for the rest of the day.

I did not quite understand why.

As we grew older together she would foolishly disseminate secrets about her families recipes and the like for free or for things that I would consider ridiculously under pricing the value of the information she is granting me, the price for my most beloved Big Fat Bob's Alpha and Omega Ultimate Biggerest Baddest Loudest Humongous Ultra Hangriest Burger recipe... she wanted me to hold her hand from now on whenever we were alone.

If she had asked I would have done so for free... probably.

I would have at least asked her about getting Big Bob to fix the Slurpee Machines.

Regardless when we were both reaching college age and I was preparing to join the work force after acquiring a license from a mid level corpo that dealt in cyber security and was impressed by resume and she was getting ready to head for a culinary school on another world to prepare for taking over her grandfathers business. We would not be able to see each other in person beyond holo-table meetings every few months, so she asked to meet me at my birthday table the day before she was slotted to take off.

I would arrive an hour early to our agreed upon time to wait for her. If I made certain her chair was next to mine... If I made certain their was enough food to share... If I made certain I was wearing a specific shirt or something... If I was nervous at all, that is my business and no one else's. Shove off.

I would wait patiently and wait and wait and wait and wait.

She never arrived.

I would lose her to the First Great Extra Solar War or that is what they would call it when it eventually ended.

My world would be the first casualty of the war as it held great economic and political importance to at least a half dozen corpos that had a stake in the greater systems government. It's glassing to hell and back would mean collapse or a great amount of punishment for a large amount of those corpos bottom line and crippling the economy of the greater system government they were aligned to.

I would lose Alexi to one of the many munitions dumped on my world to make it stop resisting. I would lose New Mama, Elmar, Steve and Dirga the same way. I would lose Xena to the simple fact that the toxic fumes produced by so many lethal munitions dumped haphazardly on a world are more than enough to turn a human into little more than a corpse.

Papa is the only person whose death I bore witness to instead of after the fact.

He had been at home during the time. Most of his body with only the exclusion of his chest and a single arm was crushed by debris. His continued survival was a miracle in and of itself. He found the strength to ask me if I was okay and tell me that I should seek shelter, look for one of the others.

He was going to just take a nap here for a little while and join us later.

A foolish sentiment.

I think he knew I could see that.

I carefully lifted his head and placed it upon my lap. I provided him with as much comfort as I could. I held his hand. I told him about how my day went, I told him how sad I was in not seeing Alexi... Until finally the light left his eyes and his heart stopped and I was alone again.

I set fire to his remains and as he was reduced to ashes I kneeled before his makeshift funeral pyre.

I was not a religious person.

I knew God's existed. I knew their blessings and curses walked the world despite they themselves having left the mortal realms.

I did not pray to the God's of this world. I did not know them and I think they would be oblivious to my plight. So I prayed to the God's of my true World... Or God specifically.

The God of War.

They blessed me before... I hoped they would be amenable to hearing me.

In my prayers I asked them how they were doing, were they doing well? Did they eat well? Did... Did they remember me? Did they hear me? Did they still favor me after all this time?

Would they bless me one more time?

If you would I would appreciate it a lot.

If you could please if New Mama and Papa and all my brothers and sisters were going to be sent to a new world like I was, could you maybe send them to a kinder world? A world without war? A world where New Mama didn't sometimes come home so exhausted that she almost lost her legs and Papa wouldn't have to replace parts of his body with prosthetics? Where Dirga didn't have to come home so... so sad.

A world where Xena could eat as much candy as she could want, and Steve and Elmar didn't have to constantly hide from bullies.

And Alexi... somewhere she could feel as special as she was.

I was going to kill people again.

Likely I was going to kill a lot of people again, more than I did before? I could not know.

In the world before you liked this enough to bless me.

I think I am going to do it all over again in this world.

I think you will like that.

So if you want to see more of it you are going to see lots.

My story from there is not much different from my story before. Though it was much shorter than my original if it can truly be called that in hindsight and I guess I was expected to order others around more than I did before.

An Empire needs soldiers.

I am a soldier.

A particularly good soldier.

I kill many and they name me more than that. They give me command of a squad.

That eventually becomes a squadron that becomes a platoon that becomes a company that becomes a battalion, that becomes an army that becomes a flotilla that eventually becomes an Armada.

I rush across battlefields, I execute missions, I order men and women into battle.

I siege worlds, break armies, turn cities to dust.

These words are old friends of mine. They are familiar to me.

They meet a familiar ending as well.

A desperate battle.

A single squadron of fighters.

They dance across my mass of starship anti-fighter screening.

My aces meet their match.

My Star Titan is crippled.

All of it doesn't come free.

The squadron reduced to half for the effort. It sounds like a poor trade but only if you weren't there to see them fly to witness their skill and sacrifice.

I board my own fighter.

I meet my death on my own terms.

I see the last of the squadron burn in the atmosphere of a nearby planet as my eyes close again.