The first attack was launched by Sammie, who was still holding Mino’s wounded hand; a valuable hostage, vital for the coming battle. “You sold out? And to the Explorers? Do you know how much they exploit Lowtowners for their own gain?”
Ark took a metaphorical step back and riposted with a face set in calm, “Says the Finger goon. You don’t get to lecture me on morals when you consort with known criminals.”
“Criminals?” She accepted the blow with scorn on her face and returned fire, “Fighting against a corrupt system doesn’t make us criminals; it makes us freedom fighters. You, on the other hand, would sell your soul to a parasitic corporation?”
Calling for reinforcements, Ark looked to Mino. “Back me up here, Bud.”
Mino did not even get to open his mouth before Sammie exploited her hostage by pulling his arm closer and hissing, “Don’t you dare drag Mino into this, Ark. I don’t know how you roped him into all of this, but I won’t allow it.”
Ark sent her a grim smile and said, “He can talk for himself, you know,” activating the hidden explosives underneath her position.
“Sammie,” Mino said, a sad look on his face, “We always said we’d do this.”
“But that was just talk! Surely you didn’t mean it!”
Mino gently pulled his hand back from her tight grip, picking up a handkerchief on his own and held it to his wounds. “It is what we were born to do,” he said with such finality that Sammie fell defeated back into her seat, a shocked expression on her face.
That was, of course, when the superior foe pounced.
“I’m sure the two of you have thought this out brilliantly,” Hera said, flanking Ark’s position at the speed of sarcasm, “Becoming guild fodder is, after all, a much better solution to your problems than living honestly.”
“If we keep doing what we’re doing, we will continue going nowhere,” Ark said, having prepared argumentative trenches for this assault, “We can survive, but so what? What’s the point of living like this, just to survive? We have the ability to become riftwalkers, I know it—so does Mino.”
“And so you’re going to become a pawn in the game of others, risking your life for the chance of wealth and power?” Hera sneered, her eyes flashing with cold frost that enveloped the battlefield.
“If life is a game—we want to play the game with the cards we’ve been dealt. You want us to ignore the game,” Ark said, launching his first return volley, before he sent a finishing blow at Sammie with a pointed finger, “And you want to fight it. In the end, you’re both just standing outside, bickering about what the game is about.” He put a thumb to his chest and leaned forward, looking straight into Hera’s eyes, though it gave him chills. “We’re going to play this game and get that power. With that, we’re going to change how things are done.”
“Or, you’ll die,” Hera said, deflecting his missile strike with a distant sigh, “Or worse—become part of the system that exploits everyone else.” She turned to Mino, and with a gentleness that wholly unsuited her, pursued an avenue of attack that Ark had not expected. “Do you see, Mino, how he uses words like weapons to be used against others. If you go down this path with him, I promise you that he will not keep being the friend that you believe in.”
Shocked by her daring, Ark could only watch, as the gentle giant beside him chewed on her words for a few breaths. Shaking his head, Mino said, “I don’t know what will happen, Hera, neither do you. If Ark does something wrong; I will stop him. It’s as simple as that.”
The Governess of Respite, the Iron Ogre herself, stared into Mino’s eyes, as if digging out his very soul. At the very end, she sighed and said, “It seems your path is set. Fine, you have my blessing.”
“Mom!” Sammie protested, albeit weakly.
“Neither you nor I can decide matters for these two boys, Samile,” Hera said, looking from Ark to Mino, “The moment they left this place, they were their own men, just as you are your own woman. I can’t force any of you to stop being idiots, but I can ask you to be careful.” She waited for a beat, and her face slightly twitched, as if it was performing an action that it was unused to. “I also want you to promise that you’ll return here, all of you, in one piece. I’m old enough to have seen most of my friends die; I don’t want to see more foolish youth torn to shreds than I have to.”
“We will,” Mino said without missing a beat.
Ark was more careful, knowing it was a promise that would be hard to keep, but he agreed anyway.
Finally, Sammie crossed her arms and kicked the table. “Fine. Do whatever you want.”
In response, an iron claw emerged from under the table, delivering a sharp slap to the back of her head. “Do that again, Young Lady, and I will cut off those feet and put pins in them, am I clear?” Hera's voice was as cold as steel.
The battlefield was momentarily cleared, but the tension lingered. Ark could not shake the feeling that this victory was pyrrhic at best, a stalemate at worst. Hera's words to Mino echoed in his mind, a relentless whisper as he helped with the dishes.
Am I wrong? He could not pinpoint it. What had he said that was so dangerous in Hera’s eyes? Despite his doubts, he found solace in Mino's unwavering support. Mino had defended him and promised to keep him on the right path. The certainty in Mino's words filled Ark with pride and a sense of responsibility.
Hera’s voice cut through his thoughts, “Ark, a word?”
He looked up and saw her nodding toward a room to the side. Mino and Sammie was busy doing the dishes in the kitchen, so Ark squared his jaw, pushing down the growing uncertainty and followed Hera.
“Are you going to tell me I’m still wrong?” He said, preparing himself for another battle. Instead, Hera just moved her chair closer to a broadside window that overlooked the scrapyard, staring down at it in silence. Disconcerted, Ark moved closer, stepping out beside her too look out over the landscape outside.
From here he could see all the way to the outer fence, even though the dusk shrouded the details. If he did not look too closely, the piles of junk and scrap might have been hills and valleys, like pictures he had seen of Terra. A land covered in soil and greenery, rather than metal, soot and grime.
“Did you know that I served on this ship, when it was still whole?” Hera said, breaking the silence.
Surprised, Ark shook his head. “No, I did not.” He had never heard her talk of her past-
“I wasn’t anything noteworthy, back then,” she said, her eyes distant, “I was just a crewman, conscripted into military service and thrust into action. I worked hard, though, and got noticed by my superiors. I was offered a position in an officer training program, and I accepted. From there, I worked my way up the chain of command, right up until the assault on the Red Moon.”
Chills ran down Ark’s spine, as he considered her words. He had read descriptions of the assault, but hearing it from someone who had actually been there? His heart pounded in his chest.
She caught his eyes, and it felt like she was forcing him through sheer force of will to understand the full weight of her words. “I was second in command when the battle began.”
Like another punch to the gut, Ark lost the breath in his lungs. Breathing in quickly, he keened his ears to listen.
“It was a bloody massacre at first. We took a beachhead on the moon in the initial push, but after three runs, we we’re just sending people out to die. On the fourth run, our Captain decided to reinforce the position, and leave a skeleton crew on the ship for a final trip.” She sighed, and Ark could see her hands tightening on the armrest of her wheelchair.
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“I captained the final run from Vanguard to the Red Moon. When I returned, my Captain’s decision had turned the battle. There were other factors, but the reinforcements from Spite are always mentioned as pivotal by the communication records that survived. We were on the cusp of victory, when it happened.”
“How… what was it like?” Ark could not help himself. He wanted to know.
“Have you ever seen videos of a volcanic eruption?” Her eyes were closed, as if the images were burned into the back of her eyelids.
Ark thought of the Ashlands, where the landscape was marred by geological activity. “Not an eruption, but I know volcanoes.”
“It’s not alway violent or sudden,” she said, “But when it is; it is a thunderclap that can shatter eardrums. The ground twists, shaking like a leaf, before suddenly coming apart, split by the explosive force beneath that has nowhere else to go. Imagine an entire realm, slowly growing spiderwebs of ruptures across all of its surface, all the while rumbling and creaking loud enough to deafen all other sounds.”
She opened her eyes and looked into his once more. “That is what it was like.”
Swallowing, Ark said, “Why are you telling me this, Hera?”
“Because of the decision I made, when I was put in that situation,” she said, eyes hard like stone, “We could either wait for those still fighting to return, or we could get out of there as fast as possible, leaving them behind. I was the acting captain, and communications were down across all channels—it was my decision to make.”
“What did you do?”
“I chose the worst possible option,” Hera said, her voice calm as she returned to staring out the window, even as Ark could see warring emotions in her face, “I hesitated.”
“So, you waited?”
“No, Ark,” her voice was harder than he had ever heard it before, “I hesitated. I knew what had to be done, and I did not want to do it. I didn’t want the be the one who had to make that choice.” She looked back up at him, the scars of that day visible in every inch of her face, “I wanted so badly to be captain. I wanted all of that power and authority, but when push came to shove, I did not have what it takes to bear that responsibility. So, I hesitated.”
“What happened?”
“We waited for too long,” she said, shrugging, “No one came back—they didn’t make it. Only when the ground underneath us became too unstable, did I make the decision I should have made from the start. I abandoned the survivors and got out of there as fast as possible, but it was too late. The first burst tore open a third of the ship, leaving us on only one engine to barely make it out of the moon’s gravity well. Once the implosion happened, we were torn to shreds from reflected rocks and then flung into Vanguard, like a piece of debris on the wind.”
She deflated in her seat, like a balloon, and for the first time ever, Ark thought he saw Hera with a chink in her armor; a small vulnerable area she showed no one. This was not the Iron Ogre he knew, but a woman who had lived for a long time.
“You still don’t know why I’m telling you this, do you?” She said, straightening her spine and smoothing over that vulnerable spot.
“No,” Ark said, honestly.
“I’ve never really liked you, Ark.”
The admission his him like a rock. She had always been harsh with him, but Hera was harsh with everyone. What she said next surprised him even more.
“We are too much alike, you and I,” she eyed him, gaging his response, “Look at you now, mind racing to figure out my intentions, or if there’s some hidden meaning in my words. That’s what I learned to do as well; look for the edge, find it and exploit it.”
He tried opening his mouth, but she cut him off.
“No, don’t try to deny it, I know that play as well. Like me, you will do anything to succeed, Ark, because you want power.”
Wetting his lips, Ark could not find it in himself to gainsay it. For as long as he could remember, he had always wanted to be stronger and faster, so that he could keep up with the others. He envied Mino for his physical strength, and if someone offered him that power, he would probably accept it. In fact, just today, he had accepted the kind of deal that should have made him think twice. That had not been the first time either.
Swallowing, Ark decided there was no hiding from it. He nodded and said, “Yeah, I want power.”
“Have you considered what it will cost you?” Hera said, her tone now as soft as when she had talked to Mino. “I lost my ship and got my crew killed. I lost my legs,” she waved down at her body, where her thin legs lay useless, “And I still abandoned my best friend in the end: my captain. All because I wanted power, but did not know how to use it.”
“You were in a bad position,” Ark said, trying to console her.
In response, she almost cut his head off. “Don’t you dare patronize me, Ark. I’m not looking for pity, I’m giving you a damned lesson in what will happen once you go down the road you’re on. If you survive, I know you will find a way to gain power. I know it, because I would find a way. Once you have that power, you will have forgotten why you set out to gain power in the first place, and then whatever twisted fate has gotten us all in this situation will put you in a bad position. You will have to make a choice with consequences for those around you sooner or later, and you will. fuck. up. Only question is—how bad?”
Ark did not know what to say to that. He had no response.
She recognized his inability to speak and nodded. “Think on that, as you drag your friend along in your ambition.” Then she left him to stare out over the scrapyard on own.
----------------------------------------
In the end, Ark retreated to a spot on the roof he had first found back when he and Mino still lived in the orphanage. His mouth was dry and the air was getting colder, as the cycle turned to night, shutting down some of the station-wide heating.
Am I wrong? He kept asking himself, as if the answer would appear through repetition. He kept mentally pushing it off with the thought that Hera could not possibly foresee the future, although he knew it was an excuse. In a way, her confidence that he would grow powerful was heartening, despite the implications.
Looking down on his hands, he saw the scarred crystals upon his left, and his unmarred right, and could not help but wonder if he had already encountered the choice, and already fucked up.
A scramble to his right distracted Ark from the destructive contemplation. Looking to the side, he saw Mino heaving himself up through a hatch, just managing to squeeze his wide shoulders through the opening. With a cry of triumph, he pushed through the last of the way, and crawled up beside Ark.
For a moment, neither said anything, just looked out over the scrapyard in unison. Finally, Mino broke the silence. “You alright?”
“Yeah, I will be,” Ark said, taking a deep breath, “Hera was just…”
“I heard,” Mino admitted and raised a hand to Ark’s shoulder, “She’s just worried.”
“She’s not wrong though. Did I even tell you about what happened down there? How I got the rift eggs, I mean?”
“Nope,” Mino said, curtly, eyes roaming the horizon.
So Ark told him, from the very beginning, starting with what happened during his summons. He told him of how END had controlled him with pain, and the battle that had ensued. Then he told him of the deal, and what END had said about Vanguard.
“Hmm…” Mino stroked his chin, eyes distant.
“So? What do you think?”
Keeping his eyes forward, Mino contemplated a moment longer, before he said, “It seems you did the best you could.”
“That’s it?”
“Does it need to be more than that?” Mino said with a shrug.
Ark looked at his friend with near apprehension and said, “We’re talking about something that was capable of hijacking my netlink, and said everyone would die if Vanguard ever learned of it. That’s not a situation where saying ‘I did my best’ is going to cut it if we all end up a list to be purged.”
“It does to me, Ark,” Mino said, his voice as calm and steady as a rock, “You’re here in this place because of me; because I didn’t do my best.”
“—No, Mino, that isn’t—“
“It’s the damned truth, Ark, and you know it,” Mino said, turning to Ark with fire in his eyes, “You didn’t have to follow me, when I got thrown out of the Maze. You chose to come here, so I owe you. If you do your best, I’ll be right there with you, backing you up. If you fail, I will help you stand up. If you do wrong, Ark, in any shape or form, I will correct that wrong, even it takes my life to do so. Do you understand?”
“I do, but Mino—” Ark said, at a loss, “—we both got thrown out. You owe me nothing.”
Mino shook his large head, his voice a deep and low baritone in the evening wind, “I know what you did, Ark. Miss Leen told me.”
Those words made Ark’s stomach twist around itself with fear and guilt. He opened his mouth once, then closed it and tried again. “Mino, I… Actually—“ Ark paused, mid sentence. Could he tell his friend? As the moment dragged on, Ark thought he heard the sound of footsteps coming from below.
“Hey, you two! Are you gossiping on your own up there?” Sammie’s voice cut through the tension, like a scissor snipping a rubber band.
Both Ark and Mino looked over to the hatch and saw her head peeking out over the edge, her green eyes reflecting what little light the dusk-district held.
“Well?” She jumped up the last steps, holding out some bottles that looked suspiciously like beer-bottles, “Room for one more? I have drinks.”
Ark’s parched throat wanted to thank her, but he was not sure he could talk at the moment. His stomach had no settled yet. It was probably best he waited—he could always tell Mino later.
“Sure.” Mino reached out and took a bottle, handing it to Ark, and then another for himself, “Just like old times, huh?”
“Just like old times,” Sammie agreed, clinking her glass with theirs.