“Come on, Leithan. We have a lot of ground to cover.”
”You are insufferable. Must we?”
Shawn and his former archenemy traveled the alleys of the golden city, Shawn guiding them mostly by instinct. As they rounded the corner, Shawn took a step back, “Yeah… we do. But maybe we want to avoid this one. Bad memories all around.”
Leithan looked and sighed, his heart dropping into his gut. As he gazed into the burning wreckage of his ship from the first time the two had crossed paths, he stated, “No need to be shy… I see it even as I close my eyes.” He walked ahead, his eyes growing cold. “You seemed so proud of your actions before. Why run now?”
Shawn sighed, “I was… never proud. But I’m not a coward either. If I do something and believe it was right, I’m not going to apologize. Full stop.” He walked over it, a look of guilt clear upon his face, no uniform or helmet to hide behind. His former foe looked back with hesitant confusion. He stated sadly, “You were monsters, killing planets on some kind of power trip. Family to each other or not, you knew someone bigger was going to come along one day on the path you were on. I just don’t like the loss of life. Not the people you killed. Not killing you. There was just no winning for me.”
Leithan scoffed, “You seemed to win just fine. I was the only survivor after all.”
“That’s not a win to me.”
Leithan froze, his expression still cold. He eventually said, “You are a weird one. Most people would call stopping a mass murderer a thing to celebrate. Everyone else in the cosmos seemed to find joy in the death of my crew. And you never expressed remorse. Not until now.”
Shawn nodded slowly, “I don’t waste time second guessing my decisions. I had a reason for doing what I did and second guessing everything would stop me from ever taking action.” His eyes grew distant as he clarified, “I will take ownership of my actions and accept their consequences, but I don’t spend a lot of time second guessing them… well, until recently.”
Leithan looked over his shirtless form and nodded, “That would explain a lot. And I agree. Remorse is for the dying.”
The silence between the two was thick, made only worse by the memory they had walked into. As Shawn looked upon the image that Leithan was far too familiar with, he stated, “I am glad I’m as intimidating as I hoped I was. Between the fire and the bodies… I doubt many would continue to hurt people when seeing this.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Leithan paused and raised a brow as he looked at Shawn. Seeing a growing smirk, he looked to the image of his rival in uniform with the fire and the blood and… began to laugh. It was quiet at first but slowly expanded into an uproarious cacophony. After a few moments of maddened laughter passed he stated, “You… are right. Only a mad man would see this and believe that he should make it his life’s mission to punish such a fiend. The odds… really wouldn’t be in such a man’s favor.” He couldn’t believe it. After all this time, with all that effort… looking back on it, he couldn’t provide a good answer other than blind anger that made him believe he could devastate such a figure. But all the same, the challenge had driven him to excel. To overcome and transcend even Equinox, the End of an Era. As a Pirate he ended planets. But after this, he would challenge and even exceed those who would be gods…
Shawn chuckled alongside the laughter, but for his own reason. He was probably the only one who understood the frustration. He was always inside the suit but seeing it from out here made him sympathize with the villain. While the action was deserved, the deaths inevitable on their paths, seeing this imposing figure over the carnage… how could the former villain not see him as the very same kind of monster, simply on the right side of history?
”Do you really believe that we can find the way out?”
”Has either of us ever failed before? We just aren’t the sorts to accept death without question.”
———
Sai looked at his own hand, hesitating to throw any cards out of his hand. He had learned the rules of this particular game and while they were highly complex, it was all symbolic. Countless calculations and yet the two of them were so much alike that it was closer to a conversation than it was a game. Sai eventually discarded Gavin, Katsi, and Pine. Shawn smirked as he put together why. “So… despite being your own person, you still worry about Ani?”
Sai nodded, “Nisa… is carrying the weight of not just her own trauma but the decision you forced on her.”
Shawn nodded slowly, discarding a few more cards, one of which was the Phoenixian Crystal. Sai looked at him with concern and said, “Why? That’s your way home?”
Shawn shrugged, “I just.. my gut says that I don’t need it. Whether Equinox gets me out or I’m already free, I just suspect it isn’t important.” Even so, Sai could see the look in his eye. This was the move that didn’t make sense. But…
Sai stood up, putting his cards down at the table, “There has to be another reason… I’m going to go deeper. I need answers.”
“You walking out on our game?”
“I’m playing one of my cards. This isn’t your mind anymore. It’s mine. I’m going to pick it as much as I please.” He stood up, walking towards the door once more, intent on finding the core of this all.