Tasia couldn’t believe her ears.

Her sister had sidelined her for some fucking minerals in the back of the train.

She’d thought that her sister would have been overjoyed to see her for the first time in two years, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Sorrow and rage fought an apocalyptic battle within the forefront of her mind. The pinprick sensation in the corners of her eyes was matched only by the furious energy rushing through her veins. In the end, the anger won out.

She was seeing red. The corners of her vision swam with tears and the images of her sister walking out on her, leaving her to the silence of the train car around them. How could she just walk out like that?

Tasia could feel her breath coming in faster. Rage boiled in her veins like white-hot electricity, making her fists clench on impulse. It was all she could do to clench her jaw to keep from screaming.

“Okay, babe, take a deep breath. Let’s not go off half-cocked, okay?”

Serena was right, but that didn’t change the fact that Tasia wanted to give in to the fury. Her fists clenched so hard that the knuckles on her organic hand began to pop audibly. It was only when her claws dug into her palm deep enough to draw blood that she managed to unclench her fists.

The stabbing pain in her palm was enough to cut through the haze of anger that hung heavily around her. Turning her palm to observe the damage, she was unsurprised to find four small puncture wounds where her claws had torn straight through her skin. Rivulets of blood were already beginning to dribble down her palm, matting her black fur.

Focusing on the pain in her hand, Tasia closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled until her chest hurt, then she let it all escape her mouth at once. The breath was followed by another, and then another.

A full-bodied shiver rushed through Tasia from head to toe as the adrenaline worked its way out of her system. She wasn’t calm by any means, but she wasn’t ready to kill her sister anymore. At least that was a start.

“There we go,” Serena cooed reassuringly.

As she spoke, her hand trailed from Tasia’s shoulder to the center of her back, where she began to rub. The sensation was reassuring, like a beacon of calm in tumultuous seas of roiling emotion. But it didn’t ease the pain, either in Tasia’s palm or in her heart.

“I cannot fucking believe her,” Tasia snapped.

“Yeah, I’ll admit, that was pretty… cold.”

Tasia frowned as she turned to look at Serena.

“Cold? Ser, she was straight up a bitch!”

Serena averted her eyes but nodded in silent agreement. Tasia felt vindicated by the display, but it didn’t do much to alleviate her righteous fury.

Through her anger, she saw a spark of inspiration. The same vindictive creativity that propelled her species into the stars to begin with. Her eyes shot towards Serena as soon as the thought settled into her mind.

“Ser, tap into the train’s manifest. Figure out what Laevinus Geological Holdings is transporting.”

Serena blinked a few times. The surprise was written all over her face as she raised her head to regard Tasia once again. There was silence for a moment before Serena hesitantly began, clearly choosing her words carefully.

“Babe, I don’t think that’s the best idea. We aren’t Legion anymore, we don’t have access.”

“We had our system jailbroken for a reason, Ser,” Tasia countered firmly, “We’ve still got Legion wetware, we might as well use it. Pull up the manifest.”

There was a moment when Tasia wasn’t entirely sure if Serena was going to follow through with it or not. The way Serena chewed on her lip was her biggest tell of anxiety. But then she let out a sigh and brought her hands together into a square, and Tasia grinned.

As Serena pulled her hands apart, a myriad of holographic screens appeared in the air above their table. Many of them were in hard code, which Tasia was hardly about to start translating, but a few were in plain Amaranthian. Rather than try to keep up, Tasia sat back to watch Serena at work.

Lines of dense code and pages of documents streamed by in a flash as Serena consumed the information within. Error codes appeared and disappeared, firewalls and restrictions lifted as she cut her way into the local network. While Tasia didn’t understand a lick of it, she knew that Legion coding was second only to royal coding, and they most certainly weren’t on a royal network.

“Mineral sample,” Serena declared after a moment, “Laevinus Geological Holdings reports one pod in the private cargo compartment; car fifteen, pod five. Transporting one unit of ore to Section 12.”

“Mineral sample?” Tasia snorted, “Fucken Theo’s here for a mineral sample over her little sister?”

With a solemn nod, Serena gestured to the manifest in question on the largest screen she had conjured. It was a simple chart for car fifteen’s multiple cargo chambers. It was written clearly for all to see; her sister registered as a company escort for the package.

“She’s even travelling on company credit,” Serena added.

Tasia could feel the same rage as before, threatening to erupt from just beneath the surface. Her nostrils flared and the primal urge to growl reared its ugly head. But a phantom echo of Serena’s voice cut through the haze, and with a deep breath, Tasia calmed the storm just enough that she wouldn’t explode.

“Okay,” Tasia exhaled, “Find out what that sample is.”

Serena didn’t object this time. Her hands twitched and the screens reacted in kind, immediately switching to various indecipherable pages of corporate jargon. Even the documents written in Amaranthian may as well have been in some nonsensical human language.

The only thing Tasia could tell by herself was the fact that there was very little information to be found. A handful of corporate documents and only one or two encrypted files, which either meant that it was incredibly secret or…

“They found it last night,” Serena spoke Tasia’s thoughts aloud, “At one of your father’s dig sites.”

“And they think it’s worth a lot of money,” Tasia concluded.

The two looked at one another in silence for a moment as the information sank in. The holographic screens disappeared, leaving them to their thoughts.

It was Tasia who broke the still silence of the cabin by lurching out of the seat. Her haptic feedback nerves screamed in response, sending a wave of physical nausea lurching through her as she phased through her companion in the seat next to her. The sensation didn’t stop her though as she immediately flung herself into restlessly pacing from one side of the small room to the other.

She could see Serena’s look of displeasure out of the corner of her eyes, but it was quelled beneath the rising tide of anger she found herself adrift on. Her sister was right; it was nothing but a coincidence. If they hadn’t found that mineral sample, she probably would have been by herself on the train all the way back to her family’s estate.

Serena’s voice echoed somewhere, but Tasia couldn’t hear it. She was swept up in the current of her emotions and carried away to distant thoughts. How could she have been so stupid as to think that anything would actually change with her family?

The passenger cabin felt like it was closing in around her. The once-cozy room was now a prison cell, the train home now a one-way trip to the execution floor. Tasia could feel her chest heaving as she paced, her vision swam and she could taste blood.

Then she was out the door, powering through the hallway towards the back of the passenger car. Tasia wasn’t sure when she left or how, but she was propelled forward with blind fury and single-minded intent.

“Ser, clear me a path and tell me what I’m working with.”

Serena’s blue form flickered to life ahead of her in the hall, a concerned look on her face. She held her hands up to Tasia and stepped in her way.

“Babe, you’re not thinking straight. You’ve gotta go back to the room and relax!”

Tasia snorted dismissively. With a roll of her eyes, she powered straight through Serena’s body once again. The full-bodied physical revulsion that came with the act was easier to ignore the second time around.

“If you’re not going to help me, I’ll do it myself.”

Another flicker down the hallway as Serena appeared again, a distinct frown on her face as her ears pinned back against her skull. Tasia braced herself, ready to shoulder the unpleasant sensation again.

Instead, when Tasia’s shoulders came into contact with the holographic hands of her lover, a spike of ice-cold chill raced through her body and stropped her dead in her tracks.

“Enough!” Serena snapped loudly enough to make Tasia’s own ears fold back in response.

Tasia couldn’t make herself move, not even by gritting her teeth and powering through it. Her body refused to listen to her mind as Serena inserted herself within that connection. For the moment, she was at her lover’s mercy.

“Let me go, Ser! You know that we have to do something!”

“Okay, babe, that’s enough. It’s time-out time.”

Serena’s hands refused to yield, keeping Tasia held firmly in place. Without control over her body, Tasia’s fury first bubbled over, then ran out of fuel. She wasn’t sure how long Serena kept her held there, but without even the ability to resist she had no choice but to stand in place until she was breathing normally again.

When she finally let out a huff that was more frustration than anger, Serena’s face shifted from a stern look of disapproval to one of concern. Shifting her grip, she stepped forward and embraced Tasia in a tight hug. What blind fury was left bled out at the sensation of Serena’s static-like fur pressing against her.

“See? Isn’t that better?” Serena cooed reassuringly.

“I’m still pissed,” Tasia grumbled.

A small chuckle escaped Serena before she pulled away from the embrace. She kept her hands on Tasia’s shoulders but offered a smile as she retreated.

“Okay. I’m going to let you go. Then we’re going to walk calmly to car number fifteen. And along the way, we’ll come up with a plan. Deal?”

Tasia took in a deep breath and held it for a moment. Then she exhaled and nodded.

“Deal.”

Sensation immediately flooded back into Tasia’s mind as the connection between her mind and body was restored. The lingering sensation of numbing pinpricks covered her from head to toe, but it was nice to be able to feel the rest of her body in any capacity again. She couldn’t help but smile, both in relief and in gratitude for her lover.

“I’m gonna go ghost, babe. Remember; go slow, we need a plan. If you just go in there and kick the shit out of your sister, you know you’re going to feel bad about it later.”

Tasia nodded in response, “Okay, I will. Thank you, Ser.”

Serena smiled warmly at her, then leaned forward. Their lips connected, filling Tasia’s body with the loving warmth that only her partner could bring. Her breath escaped her in a relaxed sigh as the tension she had been carrying momentarily dissipated.

“I love you,” Serena whispered as she pulled away.

“I love you too,” Tasia replied honestly with a lingering smile.

“I’ll let you know what I find in a minute.”

With that, Serena’s holographic form disappeared, leaving Tasia alone in the hallway.

Tasia didn’t waste another moment waiting around. She took off and crossed the last few feet to the door. With a single thought sent through the local network, the door opened without resistance.

The next car looked exactly the same as the one she had just left, with one long hallway adjourned with windows on one side and doors to private booths on the other. Tasia wanted to sprint the length of it, but she took a deep breath to steady herself. When she was ready, she set off at a slow pace to give Serena as much time as she needed to think something up.

Serena was right, of course. Rushing in there without any plan would just turn into a brawl, and in a one-on-one, there was no contest between them. Her sister had never been one to fight, save for duelling for sport.

Lost in her thoughts as she was, Tasia found that she had crossed the train car before she had even realized it. The door in front of her marked the end of the passenger section of the express train. A holographic block of red text labelled the door as Authorized Personnel Only.

Tasia tested the door, pinging it with a thought directed through the network. The request to open it failed, accompanied by a small warning in her retinal display that the door was off-limits. She sighed and crossed her arms, leaning against the bulkhead beside the door while she waited for Serena.

“Okay, I’m back!”

Serena’s voice made Tasia recoil against the bulkhead in surprise.

“Ah shit, I was starting to get worried, Ser!”

“Sorry,” Serena’s apology was accompanied by a giggle, “Wanna know what I found?”

“Shoot.”

“Okay, so the next three cars are regular cargo. Minimum security. Two cameras in each car, I can stick them on a loop right before you enter. Looks like one guard making the rounds a few cars down, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Tasia agreed, “Ready to go on your mark.”

Serena hummed a short tune, and as she did, Tasia’s retinal display flickered as modules turned on. A small map of the train appeared in the bottom corner of her vision, as well as an audiometer and photodetectors to track how conspicuous she was being.

As Serena’s humming reached its natural conclusion, the red text hovering in front of the door flickered and disappeared. Then the door clicked and slid open, revealing the cargo compartment beyond.

The sound of another door opening behind her spurned Tasia on. She hastily slipped through the door before the passenger could ask any questions. Serena closed the door behind her as she slipped through, protecting her from sight.

As predicted, the room was dedicated solely to simple cargo. Multiple rows of long shelves were packed full of boxes, crates and packages that were destined for elsewhere on Lapicidina Station. The door on the far side of the car was centred, and tight passages restricted where Tasia could maneuver within the room.

Overhead lighting along the center of the room provided some shade to hide in along the side passages, but nothing in the middle. Falling back on her training, Tasia bent her knees as she walked, dampening the impact of her paws on the metal floor below. The audiometer responded in kind, flickering with each step to represent the noise she was making.

“Alright babe, monitors are looking good! Loop on the cameras, I’d say you’ve got about thirty seconds to cross each room before the system recognizes the error automatically.”

“Better not linger,” Tasia agreed internally, “Keep an eye out for me.”

“I’ll keep both on you,” Serena retorted with a laugh.

With a smirk, Tasia set off. She kept herself low as she strode across the room, ducking into the next row of shelves. As she was bathed in light, the photodetector blinked a warning that she was plainly visible, but she ignored it for the moment.

The next door was similarly closed and locked like the one behind her, but with Serena’s direction, it slid open before she even got to it. It slid closed behind her the moment she was through, missing the tip of her tail by an inch.

“So, I’ve been thinking about what we can do,” Serena began.

“I’m all ears.”

“The mineral sample is fresh - just pulled out of the ground. They figure it might be valuable, but they won’t know until it gets to the lab. But here’s the kicker; they’re on a time limit.”

“Tectonic instability?”

“You betcha!” Serena laughed, “So, they estimate about eight hours before they lose the deposit.”

“Not a lot of time for them to react.”

“Exactly! Oh, hold that thought. Stop here!”

Tasia blinked in surprise and came to a stop next to the door. She glanced up at the camera directly above her, then peered across the length of the car until she spotted its counterpart. Despite her confidence in Serena’s direction, she felt anxious kneeling out in the open.

“Wait,” Serena assured soothingly, “Just wait.”

The map in the corner of her vision updated with a red dot in the next train car, steadily making its way towards the door. A broken line stretched out from the red dot to the far side of the car that she was currently in.

“Okay, that roaming guard is on the way. Duck into the shelves to your left, I’m going to release the camera controls until he gets to the far side.”

Wasting no time, Tasia turned to her left and dropped to her knees. She shuffled into the lowest shelf, tucking herself between the wall and a large metal crate. It was tight and uncomfortable, but her photodetector indicated that she was mostly shaded, and her audiometer flatlined as she fell still.

The door slid open only a few seconds later, revealing a uniformed amaranthian. He didn’t have any armour or firearms visible, but a stun baton hung in plain sight on his belt. A flashbulb memory reminded Tasia of getting hit by one of those batons during training, the memory alone was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

“Just stay still and quiet. He’ll pass eventually,” Serena reassured.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“You were saying about the sample?”

“Oh, right!” Serena exclaimed with a sharp laugh, “Okay, so, they’ve only got about eight hours to start working on the deposit. If they miss that window, who knows when the next time that deposit will pop back up.”

The guard began to stride forward at a slow pace, turning his head this way and that as he walked. He paused a few rows down and pulled at a strap, tightening its hold on a piece of cargo. Then he continued walking to the far side of the train car.

“So, we delay the order?”

“I can do you one better than that! Since I know you’re pissed; how do you feel about destroying the sample?”

Tasia couldn’t stop the smirk from crossing her lips at the suggestion.

“Feel pretty good about it, I admit.”

“Alright then!” Serena exclaimed, “We get to the train car, you open the compartment door and throw it off the side. It’ll land somewhere on the station and smash into a million pieces!”

“By the time they get another sample, it’ll be too late for them to run tests and secure the deposit.”

“Or, even better; if they decide to go ahead and mine without running a sample and it turns out to be worthless, you can cost your father a lot of money.”

Tasia couldn’t help but notice the eager tone in Serena’s voice. Even though she was the rational one out of the two of them, Tasia knew that Serena had a mean streak. Especially when it came to defending her.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

The sound of a door opening on the far side of the room drew Tasia’s attention. The guard was just stepping through into the far car, leaving silence in his wake.

Turning towards the door immediately next to her, Tasia shifted her position until she was ready to rush out.

“Got the cameras wrapped around my little finger, you just say the word!”

“Go.”

With that, the door hissed and slid open. Tasia bolted from her hiding place and ducked through the door, rushing into the car beyond. The door snapped shut immediately behind her, leaving her alone in the next train car.

“All the cars beyond this are restricted. Rental cargo pods for people and businesses. No cameras so the customers can have their privacy, so I can’t tell you what’s beyond that door.”

“That’s fine, I’ll improvise.”

“You’ve only got two cars to go, keep it low and quick babe.”

Tasia’s audiometer jumped briefly as she grunted in agreement. Without a word, she darted across the length of the car, keeping her stride long and low.

Pausing at the door, Tasia stood up and glanced behind herself. The door she had just come through was still closed, and there was no sign of any alarms. The only sound was the steady rumble of the train as it rushed along the edge of the space station.

The hiss of the door behind her drew Tasia’s attention.

She found herself face-to-face with a very surprised guard.

“Oh shit.”

“Oh shit.”

“Hey-”

Tasia’s metal fist impacted the guard’s chin before he could finish whatever he was going to say. The impact was enough to send him recoiling backward into the narrow hallway behind him, and a noticeable gash was left behind where her fist struck.

There was no time to think about what she was doing. Tasia rushed forward and planted one paw beneath the guard’s opposite leg, then opened her metal hand and thrust her open palm into the center of his chest as hard as she could. Ribs broke beneath her hand as he was sent to the ground in a painful heap.

Whatever fight the underpaid guard may have had to begin with was dashed the moment he hit the ground. The air escaped his lungs in a painful groan, and without another word, he went slack on the floor in front of Tasia.

There was a brief moment of silence in the wake of the sudden assault.

Then the overhead lighting dimmed and red emergency lights flashed to life, accompanied by a local network warning in her retinal display.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Tasia muttered aloud.

“Okay, this is bad,” Serena agreed, “You’ve got one guard coming up behind you and the whole network just went to red alert status.”

“Fuck, this was just supposed to be about sticking it to my damn family! What do we do now?”

Tasia could feel her heart racing and her pulse beginning to throb painfully in her skull. She wasn’t sure if it was the red lighting, the panic-induced adrenaline rushing through her system or the realization that she had just assaulted an officer, but the walls around her seemed to contract around her until the previously familiar train had shifted into a living nightmare scape.

“Okay, babe, we can still salvage this. Give up, help that guy, and maybe they’ll let us off easy! Your sister is in the next car over, I’m sure she’ll help bail you out.”

“Give up?” Tasia exclaimed in disbelief, “You want me to just surrender?”

“I don’t see any other way out of this,” Serena warned quietly.

“So that’s it, just beg the family to make this go away? Give them more to hang over my head?”

Tasia could feel her voice shifting into a growl as her rage from earlier bled into the panic coursing through her system. A dishonourable discharge wasn’t bad enough, now she’d have to rely on her family to make an assault charge disappear.

“It’s better than prison.”

“Fuck that,” Tasia spat.

“Babe…”

Sparing one glance at the wounded guard on the ground in front of her, Tasia set off down the hallway at a sprint. The train car was different than the ones she had just come from; a claustrophobic hallway in the middle flanked by several double-wide doors on either side. Any caution was thrown to the wind in favour of speed.

“Lock that door behind me, run digital interference. Block all standard channels and keep me updated on intrusion attempts.”

“Babe, you can’t be serious,” Serena sounded desperate, “It was fine when all we were going to do was break some rocks, but you just assaulted an officer!”

“The mission hasn’t changed, it’s just gotten harder,” Tasia dismissed.

“Hasn’t changed? Look around you, they’re going to burst in here and arrest you! We’ve officially gone too far, we need to call it quits before it gets any worse!”

Tasia skidded to a halt in front of the door at the end of the hall. It didn’t immediately open, but a glance behind her confirmed that the door she had come through closed despite Serena’s resistance. She breathed out a sigh of relief before replying.

“Look, we get to Theophila, we can get her to diffuse the whole situation. We’ll bust into her pod, destroy the sample, and get her to call off the guards. She’s still family, there’s no way she’s going to let this get any worse. Okay?”

There was a tense pause as Serena considered Tasia’s argument. Then Serena sighed within her mind. She didn’t speak another word, but the door in front of her clicked as it was unlocked through the network.

When it didn’t immediately open, Tasia frowned and reached forward. She curled the metal fingers of one hand between the door and the doorway, then braced her other hand against the wall. Pulling her arms apart as hard as she could, the door flew open.

Tasia instantly cried out in pain as twin metal prongs jabbed into the center of her chest, piercing her shirt and the flesh beneath. The pain that began radiating through her body was accompanied by the unpleasant sensation of her muscles overtaxing themselves. Her nerves felt like they were being set alight as high-voltage electricity rushed through her system.

She didn’t notice when she fell to her knees. One moment she was standing, the next she was keeled over as a second prod slammed into her stomach.

Sight, sound and sensation blended into one incomprehensible mess. Somewhere in the back of her mind Tasia could hear screaming, but she wasn’t sure whose voice it was.

Tasia’s jaw rapidly clenched and unclenched in response to the waves of electricity, sending jolting pains through her maw as her teeth clicked repeatedly against one another. She could taste blood somewhere, and a steady ringing began to overtake her ears.

Immediately in front of her, she could see two pairs of paws similar to her own. Two guards loomed over her, keeping her incapacitated. One of the guards shifted and slammed a stun baton into the back of her head, the resulting convulsion sent her forehead into the metal floor beneath her.

Pain, fear and desperation raced through her mind.

She needed to get out of there.

A plea escaped her bloody mouth into the metal floor beneath her.

And then there was silence.

The pain immediately stopped, but every inch of her body ached as though she had just run a triathlon. Her breath was short and quick, filled with the vile coppery scent of blood.

Through the ringing in her ears, Tasia could hear muffled screaming. It wasn’t hers, and it wasn’t Serena’s. She was almost scared to look.

Almost.

What greeted her was the sight of two young guards rolling on the floor, screaming into the narrow hallway. Blood gushed freely from their freshly dismembered paws, which sat in rapidly growing pools of scarlet.

Tasia’s mechanical arm was visible directly in front of her.

Its blade extended, smeared with blood.

“Ser?”

Tasia’s voice was hoarse and dry. Her throat was raw from her own screaming, and she had to force herself to swallow before she could try again.

“Ser?”

Still no answer.

Placing her organic hand on the floor beneath her, Tasia carefully hoisted herself up to her knees. The two guards were steadily crawling away from her, making their way further down the hall to either escape or find help. The trail of blood they left behind them stood out like a landing strip on the bare metal floor, and Tasia couldn’t contain the wave of nausea she felt at the sight.

Forcing herself to look away, Tasia’s eyes scanned the doors on either side of her. Through blurry eyes, she squinted to find the numbers. When she didn’t see anything she gave an annoyed groan and rubbed at her eyes with her forearm.

Nothing.

In fact, none of the modules of her retinal display were on.

“Ser, did I get disconnected from the network?”

Silence.

“Fuck.”

If the electricity had done sufficient damage, it would make sense that she’d be cut off from the network. Something like that would easily have incapacitated Serena, even though her mind was housed solidly within the wetware of Tasia’s brain.

The thought of her lover being knocked unconscious by the guards sent a wave of panicked fury rushing through her system that she had to fight not to act on.

Instead, she forced herself to stand up on unsteady legs. The only way to get out of this mess was by going forward.

The guards had almost crawled all the way to the other side of the train car. It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the guards cut through whatever defences Serena managed to erect before being incapacitated.

Counting the doors by eye, Tasia focused on the one she figured must be pod five. She rushed forward without hesitation, stepping through the puddle of blood to get to her destination.

Without a connection to the network, she didn’t have any way into the room. She thought briefly about trying to break it open, but the rational part of her mind thought up a better way.

Her knuckles rapped against the metal three times.

“Theo! It’s me!”

There was a brief pause before the response sounded.

“Tasia? Sister, is that you? What in the Laws is going on out there?”

“Let me in, quick!”

There was another pause, and for a brief moment, Tasia wondered if her sister would even let her in. Then there was a distinct click and relief flooded into her system.

The door opened to reveal a small, featureless room with a shutter door instead of an opposite wall. In the very center of the room was an antigravity palette upon which a solid metal box sat.

Theophila was standing between her and the sample, wide-eyed and clutching her sword in both hands.

“Tasia? Why are you covered in blood? What happened? Where are the guards?”

Tasia stepped through the doorway, leaving bloody paw prints in her wake.

“Those are all pretty good questions,” Tasia agreed, “But I have an even better one.”

Theophila took a step back in time with Tasia’s, her eyes widening until they practically bulged out of her head. Tasia couldn’t miss the distinct shake in her sister’s sword grip even if she wanted to.

“Why did you choose them?”

“T-them?” Theophila stuttered.

Tasia’s lips twitched up in frustration. Rather than respond, she glanced at the wall behind her and searched until she found the analogue control panel next to the door.

Without a word she reached over and pressed one of the buttons.

The door behind her slid shut and locked with a deafening click.

“Our parents,” Tasia growled, “Why did you choose them over me?”

Theophila took another step back. She gasped in surprise when she backed into the sample, her ears flattening against her head in visible fear.

“What kind of a question is that?” Theophila asked in disbelief.

“The most important kind.”

Tasia shifted her grip and clicked another button. The shutter door on the other side of the room cracked open and began to retract into the ceiling.

The room was instantly filled with the deafening sound of air rushing by as the train sped across the station at over eight hundred kilometres per hour. A packet of loose papers and discarded food wrappers were blown first into the air before being whipped out of the room and into the near-vacuum of the station’s edge.

Theophila raised her arms to cover her head as the debris rushed by, and in that moment of vulnerability, Tasia rushed forward.

Gripping her sister by the throat, Tasia immediately threw her to the side. It was almost effortless with how little her sister weighed, and she could barely hear Theophila’s scream of terror over the sound of the rushing air.

Theophila hit the side wall and gripped it for support as she gathered her bearings. She faced into the room, squinting against the wind as she watched on in horror.

Tasia made eye contact with her sister for one brief moment.

Then without a word, she planted one of her bloody paws on the sample and pushed.

Theophila cried out, stepped away from the wall and reached out with her free hand. But it was too late. The antigravity pallet was already tipping out of the train as the mineral sample fell free and tumbled off the edge of the space station.

Tasia watched with no small degree of growing satisfaction as the mineral sample tumbled into the void. But still, it wasn’t quite right.

It wasn’t enough.

Turning her head to regard her elder sister at the side of the room, the glinting crystal of the amarkai in Theophila’s hands drew her gaze. The family blade, their pride and joy. The source of all this pain and envy.

A low growl escaped Tasia’s throat.

Theophila’s own gaze shifted from the gaping hole in the side of the train to Tasia. She caught Tasia’s expression, glanced down at the sword in her hands, then tensed up. Her sword raised once again into her typical duelling stance.

“You’ve lost your mind!” Theophila screamed to be heard against the roar of the wind.

“Took me longer than you,” Tasia countered as she turned to face her sister.

“You need help, Tasia! Put the blade away before you cause any more damage!”

“No,” Tasia snapped, “I did need help! Two years ago, when our parents all but disowned me when I said I didn’t want anything to do with the business!”

“That’s what all this is about?” Theophila’s eyes widened in disbelief, “You did all this because I didn’t go with you on some absurd escapade into the stars?”

Tasia glowered as she took a step forward, closing the distance between her and her sister. Theophila tried to back up in response, but she found herself with her back flush against the wall behind her.

“I’m doing this because none of you ever loved me,” Tasia snapped, taking another step forward, “I loved you so fucking much, from the bottom of my heart, and all you wanted to do was be the good little heiress. You abandoned me when I needed you, all because you couldn’t do without a life of luxury!”

Theophila didn’t respond. She looked torn, and the tears in her eyes could have just as easily been due to the rushing wind or genuine remorse at the situation. Her grip on the blade wavered, the tip shaking in the air.

Tasia risked another step, and she was suddenly stopped as the tip of the crystal blade pressed against the center of her chest.

“That’s enough, sister!” Theophila exclaimed hoarsely, “I am sorry! I wanted to go with you, but the business was more important! Our parents-”

“Our parents only loved us when we succeed!” Tasia couldn’t contain her voice as it escaped her in a painful, full-bodied scream, “I loved you no matter what!”

Theophila recoiled far enough that the back of her head thumped against the metal wall behind her. Her eyes shot wide, but she kept the tip of the sword pointed at Tasia’s chest.

“Big sisters are supposed to protect their little sisters,” Tasia spat, “But you didn’t. So now I’ve gotta protect myself.”

Raising her metal arm, Tasia pressed her blade against Theophila’s and took a half-step back. Her brows furrowed as she put a little pressure into the connected blades, which her sister hastily returned in kind.

“I’ll be taking that sword from you now, Theo.”

Tasia’s voice came out low and emphatically. She would have questioned whether or not Theophila could hear her over the roar of the wind, but the tightening of her sister’s grip on the family blade told her everything she needed to know.

The room was deafening as the wind rushed by, the pressure rapidly changing as air flowed in and out of the room in awkward intervals. Every few moments Tasia’s ears would pop, leaving a steadily growing pain of pressure in the back of her head. Neither sister moved as they stared each other down, one gaze mired in fury, the other saturated in terror.

Then Tasia lunged.

Their swords connected, a glancing strike that redirected both blades away from one another. Tasia rebounded and slashed sideways at her sister’s shoulder, which Theophila had to hastily scramble away from the wall to avoid. Sparks flew as Tasia’s sword dug into the metal wall where her sister had been and left a thin gash behind.

Turning on the pads of her paws to follow Theophila’s movement, Tasia took another stab at her retreating sister which barely missed.

Theophila turned and backpedalled a few steps before bringing her sword to bear once again. To Tasia’s surprise, she immediately took a step forward and struck with a wide, overhead swing.

Predicting the exaggerated swing, Tasia sidestepped the blow. She took advantage of the opportunity to bolt forward, thrusting her own sword straight out at her sister.

Then Theophila shifted her grip and swung up.

The crystalline blade sliced through Tasia’s metal wrist like it was made of plastic.

Tasia’s synthetic nerves immediately flooded her mind with a sensation of wrongness. Time seemed to slow down as her cybernetic hand and blade disconnected from her body and tumbled to the ground between them.

To her surprise, it was Theophila who screamed first.

Wide-eyed and full of horror, Theophila dropped her guard and covered her mouth with both hands. She recoiled, taking a step back as she glanced between the mangled stump of Tasia’s wrist and the rest of her cybernetic limb on the floor.

“Oh Laws! Sister, I’m so-”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off as Tasia punched her in the stomach as hard as she could with her organic hand.

Theophila doubled over, dry heaving as her breath was forcibly driven out of her lungs. As soon as her concentration was broken, Tasia closed the distance between them and drove her hand between her sister’s.

Separating Theophila’s hands, she curled her fingers around the handle of her family’s blade and held on for dear life.

Theophila stumbled back, taking Tasia with her until they both slammed into the wall. Incomprehensible grunts, exclamations and growls escaped both of them as they struggled for control of the sword. Using the rest of her metal arm as a battering ram, Tasia repeatedly slammed her stump into her sister’s body wherever she could make contact.

Blow after blow landed, bludgeoning anything from Theophila’s stomach to her outer arms, hips and everything in between. One particularly firm strike hit directly under Theophila’s bottom rib, tormenting the organs underneath.

With a pained cry, Theophila’s grip on the sword loosened.

Tasia immediately wrenched the sword away from her sister, holding it in a death grip.

Both of Theophila’s hands pressed on the center of Tasia’s chest, and with an almighty effort, she managed to push her sister away.

Tasia gasped as she stumbled away from her sister, their tangled paws tripping her up. A weightless feeling rushed up through her as she lost her footing. Despite her best efforts to stay upright, she felt the floor fall away from her as she tripped and fell backward.

A cold spike of terror raced to the front of Tasia’s mind as she passed the train’s threshold and the wind took her.

Something caught her metal arm and immediately her body was wrenched to the side as it got caught in the air rushing past the train. Her body slammed against the outside of the train and was held there painfully by the wind and the speed of the train.

Wide-eyed and terrified, Tasia got a perfect view of the station a kilometre below as she dangled precariously from the side of the train. Her entire body was over the edge of the express track, leaving nothing between her and the main station floor below.

“Tasia!”

The voice could barely be heard over the deafening sound of air ripping past her ears. She craned her neck to look up and found Theophila holding onto the stump of her metal arm with one hand and one of the safety rails in the room with the other.

“Drop the sword!”

Tasia was confused for a moment, then she looked down at herself. Her bruised and bloodied body stretched out below her, dangling over the edge and ready to drop to her death. But in her hand, she still held the object responsible for all this chaos.

The Laevinus family amarkai.

It felt surprisingly heavy in her hand, as though the sword itself were trying to drag her down into the abyss. But that was all it had ever done. The symbol of office was more of a curse to her family than anything else.

She turned her head back up to regard her sister, the only person keeping her alive at that moment.

Theophila was struggling to hold on, her grip slipping. She glanced at the guard rail she was holding on to, then down to her sister. Without an ounce of fear, she let go of the guard rail and dropped to her stomach, flattening herself against the floor as much as she could before gripping Tasia’s arm with both hands.

“Drop the sword, take my hand!”

Even through the synthetic nerves in her metal arm, Tasia could feel just how tightly her sister was holding on to her. She wasn’t about to let go.

And she could feel Theophila slowly slipping.

Tasia knew her own weight would drag her sister out of the train if she didn’t do anything. She wanted to think that was a good thing, but she couldn’t find any more fury in her body. All that was left was regret.

Behind Theophila, the door opened to reveal several uniformed officers who poured into the room. Tasia knew that it was over, one way or another. Either she’d fall to her death or the officers would take her off to let the Imperial courts deal with her.

And she knew which path she’d rather.

Her eyes locked onto her sister’s. The wind quieted into the background as silence reigned in Tasia’s mind.

Then she let go.

She couldn’t bear to watch the sword fall. It would have been too painful. But the look in her sister’s eyes was enough of a balm to ease the ache.

Relief.

Tasia reached up and gripped Theophila’s hand. Her sister’s face shifted into an expression of overwhelming determination as she began to pull as hard as she could against the forces of nature trying to drag them both down.

Behind her, several of the officers rushed forward. Two stood at the ready with their stun batons pointed at the sisters, but three of them hurried to help pull Tasia back inside the train. Muted commands were shouted between one another as they coordinated the rescue efforts, and slowly but surely Tasia began to inch towards the train.

As soon as Tasia’s arms were past the threshold, officers gripped what they could and heaved her the rest of the way with herculean effort. On the far side of the room, one of the officers keyed the shutter door closed immediately.

Tasia couldn’t hold herself up in the state she was in. Her head felt like it was splitting open, her ears had long since given up in response to the deafening roar of the wind, and every single muscle in her body felt horribly cramped. She collapsed to her knees the moment the floor was beneath her.

To her surprise, she was suddenly embraced from the side as Theophila wrapped her arms around her and squeezed. It was more painful than anything, causing Tasia to gasp as her tender muscles were compressed. Despite that, Theophila didn’t let up, burying her face into the bloodstained fur of Tasia’s neck.

“I’m sorry!”

“I’m sorry…”

Tasia wasn’t sure who said it first.

It didn’t really matter.

“Get away from her, ma’am,” a muffled voice above them ordered, “This citizen is under arrest, in the name of Empress Tiberius.”

Tasia sluggishly looked up at the officer. Everything felt slow and distorted, as though she were in a tunnel underwater. Pain and numbness bled together, and none of it felt real.

“No! This is my little sister, and I will not be parted from her again!”

The sharpness of Theophila’s voice made Tasia flinch, but she couldn’t pull away.

“Ma’am, back off or we’ll have to use force!”

A whine escaped Tasia’s throat as Theophila squeezed tighter. It felt like everything beneath her sister’s grip would shatter, but nothing came of it. The pain brought tears to her eyes, but she found herself leaning into her sister’s grip anyway.

“You are welcome to use as much force as you deem necessary, officer. But I am not going anywhere! I am just as guilty as my sister, and I will go wherever she goes!”

Tasia wanted to protest. Her sister was innocent in all of this. It could have been avoided if she had just reigned in her envy, taken the loss and accepted her role in her family’s company. But her voice refused to work, and her body betrayed her every time she tried.

There was silence for a moment before Tasia’s deafened ears picked up the sound of people approaching them. She braced for another set of hands on her, but none came.

“As you wish, ma’am,” a pause, “Arrest them both.”

Darkness was beginning to invade Tasia’s vision. She could feel the murky grip of unconsciousness pulling at her mind, dragging her down into the darkness. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t fight it.

Her head fell onto Theophila’s shoulder, and the last thing she felt before she blacked out was the comforting embrace of her elder sister as darkness claimed her.