Part 1.

Thera leapt into the air, stabbing her dagger through the deserter's helmet, its tough metal parting like butter under her enhanced strength. She hit the ground and rolled, checking her surroundings. The nights gloom initially made it harder to see things, but her enhancements let her eyes adjust faster.

There were a few soldiers around the camp, most of them engaged in combat with the rest of her bandits, no immediate threats. She took another second to look for her father, and saw him fighting a giant brute of a man, and winning. Altan's war hammer slammed into the brute's chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Everyone seemed to be handling themselves, Thera sauntered into one of the tents to look for extra loot for herself. There was nothing but a bedroll and some food in the first tent, a cowering man hiding behind a desk that once looted was full of nothing but useless documents, she'd felt even less guilt about killing the man after learning that.

The final tent was special though. It had weapons. Thera surveyed the weapons, taking her time with occasional checks to see how the raid of the camp was going, to decide what she wanted. Her heart sank as most of the weapons either weren't her style, swords, daggers(already got one), boring old spears, or seemed ornamental.

Her eyes caught on a pair of axes. She removed them from the rack and took a few experimental swings in the air. Good weight, nice swing speed. She hooked them round her belt. Easy to carry.

Thera took them out again and left the tent, eager to get back into the heart of battle. She looked around for an opponent, then stepped back, avoided getting her head skewered by a lance, as a mounted knight went past her. Odd, she hadn't seen any horses this side of the camp. More riders were appearing, they seemed to be trying to break up the fighting between the bandits and the deserters. The knight that had passed Thera lowered his lance, running one of the deserters through. He turned, charging to deal with some other enemy, and Thera caught a glimpse of the insignia on their shield.

Knights of Rathcore, shit! Why they here, weren't they meant to be at the border fighting off the Vazers.

Thera ducked back into the tent, lifting up the back part of it and running through that, she was going to find her father. Fighting intensified the deeper she got, the deserters were being massacred by the knights. Thera was beginning to wonder if they truly were deserters now.

She found Altan finishing off another soldier, crushing their head beneath his strength enhanced boot. Thera saw the moment he looked up, the bewilderment and confusion. She suppressed a grin, though not well enough. Altan locked eyes with her, he scowled, eyes burning dark with rage.

A large armored knight rode up to him, Altan dropped into a battle stance but the knight stopped a few feet away. They lifted their visor and gazed at Altan.

"Identify yourself." They yelled.

"Piss off!" Altan yelled back.

The knight shook his head. "Won't be doing that. Do yourself favor, wait here until this is over, then you'll be dealt with."

Altan didn't answer, he brandished his war hammer, holding it out in front of him, and displaying the bloody studs on the one end. "You'll stay back if you know what's good for you." He jerked his head hard to the left, a signal to Thera.

The knight started to lift a whistle to his lips. Thera sprinted forward, keeping one axe to her chest and holding the other out. She activated her implants, channeling her magic enhanced strength for her prepared blow. The knight tilted his head, seeing her coming.

Thera leapt into the air, bringing her axe forward in a wicked swing.

The pushed themselves gracelessly off the horse, falling to the ground in a heap as a perplexed Thera soared over head.

The shrill scream of the whistle rang through the air.

Thera landed, hearing the last half of Altan's shout. "-less bitch!"

Thera turned, hoping to get in a swing before whatever happened. The flap of one of the tents beside her flew open, a knight tackled her to the ground, pushing her face into the dirt as she cursed at him.

Her father shouted promises of violence at the four knights surrounded him. One got behind him and slammed him to the ground.

Thera was pulled to her feet, her hands strapped behind her back as she was hauled off to the middle of the camp, where he rest of the bandits waited. The bodies of the deserting soldiers lay all around them. This was supposed to be an easy score, now Thera feared things were going to get complicated.

Part 2.

Thera and her father had been taken to a nearby castle, after being identified as the bandit leaders. Thera sat outside the office, trying to win an unannounced staring contest with the guard watching her as she waited for her father. The door flew open next to her, the guard looked at it and tensed. Thera smiled at her victory, then quickly dropped it from her face when she saw the state her father was in.

His eyes were blood shot, the usual confident gait he had was gone. His shoulders slumped and his head was lowered. He had a red mark on his cheek, and had a hand on his stomach. He looked traumatized.

"How did it go?" she asked. Altan snapped his head round to look at her, eyes burrowed into her. She scooted back and Altan sat in the free space, groaning as he lowered himself, and clasping his hands on his lap.

Thera didn't know what to say. To provide whatever comfort she could, and risk backlash, or stay silent and let him fester. The latter was what she defaulted to in the camp. Showing weakness lowered your standing, get it low enough and knives would follow. If she asked if he was okay among the bandits, he would have yelled at her, lowering her own standing, because of the reprimand and because she showed weakness by caring for the leader. Her father.

But then again, it was just the two of them, not counting the loser guard, and he didn't seem like the type to care what was said as long as it didn't impact his job. And Thera was nervous...

A sudden low rumbling started her, then she realized her father was whispering to her. "When you get in there, keep your stupid mouth shut. Things are fucked enough without you making things worse Understand?"

"Yes." She whispered back. "What happened in there?"

"Never you fucking mind! Just do as your told." The guard shifted their spear, lowering it in Altan's direction.

"Fuck it. Do as you like, it won't matter." Altan said, pushing his back against the wall. The natural confidence he had as a bandit leader was gone. He was smaller than Thera had ever seen him.

A voice from the other side of the door said, "Send the next one in."

The guard shifted the spear, pointing it at Thera, then at the door. Like Thera needed a guide. This whole thing was stupid. Thera didn't know what the people behind the door had turn to her father to make him this way, but she wasn't going to let it stand.

She entered, the room was bare, no where for her to sit, except for two fine wood desks that pointed towards her. Behind them were two heavily armored people. The ones whose face was visible had an athletic build, wearing dark green armor. He had disinterested blue eyes and streaks of grey in his dark hair.

The other had black armor that covered their entire body, angular and sharp looking, Thera felt intimidated just looking at them, more so when she realized who they and the man next to them was.

Thera recognized them from war stories told by the deserter bandits in her camp. Two generals in the war against the Vazers, known for their brutal tactics and intense personalities. Generals Suya and Kali.

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A faintly feminine voice rang from the black armor, "You are the daughter of the Salt Bandit's leader, correct?"

Altan had told her to stay silent, but she couldn't see how that helped her, she said "That's right. Impressed?" Neither said anything, displeasure clear in their stances.

"Do you know why you are here, instead of being executed like any other common bandit?" General Suya asked, his voice smooth and precise.

"Because you want something from me. And I'm not a common bandit, I'm the second in command of the largest bandit group in Rathcore."

"That's nothing to be impressed about." Kali said. "Would you explain how you got that rank? It might affect your case."

"So I have a case now?"

"Yes." Good to know. If this was a case, this meant she was being prosecuted, which meant they were trying to determine something from her. If she found out what that was, she would have something to hold against them.

"Alright. I'm second in command, because I'm the second best fighter in the camp. On a good day, I could take on everyone in the camp without a sweat. My father could do that in a half-day." She smirked.

"With a feat like that, I assume you and your father are altered in someway? Are you blessed, do you have implants, or is everyone in your camp as weak as they seem?" Suya asked. Was he trying to get a rise out of her? Cause she could give him a rise.

She lifted up her shirt, exposing her breasts and two long scars going down her chest. "Implants." Thera said smugly.

Both of them were silent, Suya's gaze was passive and disinterested. Kali's voice rang from the black armor, "Small."

"Excuse me?!"

"Those type of implants don't come cheap." Suya interjected, "Did all that pillaging you and your father did help you to afford them? Who sold them to you?"

Thera put her shirt down, not embarrassed just annoyed her plan hadn't worked. "We got them off a black market. My father insisted we get them, he said it would help us put down any dissenters."

"Yes, but who sold them to you?" Suya insisted.

"I don't know their name. I don't see how it matters. In fact, I don't see how any of this matters. I don't know exactly what the fuck happened back in that fight, but from what I gather, what we did helped you. OS why are you riding my ass, when you could be riding your horses back to the front lines, so our country isn't invaded?"

Kali spoke up, "If the country needed us at the front line in order to survive, then it deserves to have lost a long time ago. Secondly, we are defending our country right now. That group that you attacked last night, a Vazer raiding party that snuck by our defenses. We had been tracking them from a distance, and were planning to engage them. Your bandits attacked them first however, distracting them and taking out enough of their members which gave us the chance to charge without risk of losing any soldiers, which we didn't."

So they hadn't been deserters, Thera thought."

"What you did was a help to us. From what we gathered from the Vazers we captured, you were the one that killed their commander."

"The guy with the documents?" Thera shook her head, clearing her thoughts.

"It sounds like what your telling me, is that we saved your asses, and yet you think its appropriate to take us prisoner, and keep us here. And now that I think about it, you still haven't fucking told me what the point of this is."

Thera's fists were clenched, she was breathing hard. She could sense a fight coming, and General Suya looked agitated. His eyes had turned cold and hard.

"The point of this is to figure out what to do with you bandits. Your a threat to the common people, we won't let that go. I asked your father what punishment he should get for the two decades he's spent robbing and killing the people of his own country."

Thera felt a hot tingling at the back of her neck. "Then why am I-"

"He refused to cooperate. Tried to start a fight, took a swing at me. He was all cocksure and confident. Then Kali slapped him face." Thera frowned.

"And I gave him a hard kick in the stomach. He curled up and the ground, mewling cures at us in between breaths. He looked like he was going to cry."

Thera recalled how her father had looked, beaten. "So what. You're gloating because you beat up a tired man. Don't you have anything better do that than acts as judges."

"Ha" Suya laughed sharped. "Oh believe me, I will never have enough time that I can't squeeze in beating up a few bandits. You and your father are being judged by us because we're here, and we'd be shitty soldiers if we didn't take care of threats in our country. You are here because we're trying to see if you deserve any leniency, since you did kill the commander. To see if there's a chance you'll just fuck off and die quietly somewhere without terrorizing the common people."

That's what they had dragged her here for? She was here so these two assholes could feel big for taking down the Slat bandits.

"You're pathetic. Everything you've done here is just you two throwing around your authority cause you can."

"That's true." Kali said. "But we feel no guilt for doing it. Your father is a bloodthirsty killer, and you're a petulant bitch who thinks that people are being mean to you because we can. We're being mean to you, because you're a stupid little bandit with no sense of shame, or remorse for what they've done."

You're damn right!" Thera took a step forward. Both of them were on their feet before her foot even hit the floor. She smirked at them. "You're scared of me. Just like you're scared of my father. I might be half as dangerous as him, but I'm vicious."

Suya's gaze was fixed on her. She felt like he was studying her, peering into her soul.

His face quirked up in a small smile, "You do know its because of aggression like this that your father is going to be executed tomorrow?"

Thera's eyes went wide. She felt like a hole had opened up beneath her, and was swallowing up her stomach. She felt like she was going to be sick. "What?"

"We're talking about giving you leniency, something that was never going to be given to him. We brought him in here to give him a chance to confess his crimes, a formality, but he wouldn't even do that. Altan is a sick, diseased dog that destroys everything he comes into contact with. He needs to be killed. We told him as much when he left."

Thera shook her head, disbelieving what she'd been been told, what she'd seen. Her father had been told that he was going to die. And he'd done nothing about it? No. He fought, and he got beaten down. His luster beaten out of him. They had done this to her father, and they expected her to just accept that?

Her breath felt ragged, she said, "Why the fuck would I accept whatever leniency you gave me, when you want to kill my father?"

Kali spoke up, "Its more of a chance at leniency. There was a chance you could have been redeemed, unlike the other bandits, and there was a better benefit to having an implanted or blessed soldier not terrorizing the countryside and taking resources away from lawmen. Now, we're not sure if you'll even accept it or deserve it."

"You're goddamn-" Right. The word didn't feel right. She didn't want the leniency. She didn't want to accept their version of leniency, fucking off to some quiet place. She was a warrior. She needed the fight, any fight to survive.

Life had taught her violence was the easiest answer to most problems. But if she tried to fight either of the two generals, she knew they would beat her.

"I can't just not fight. Its who I am." She told them.

"That's your problem. If you can't live your life without fighting them maybe you should just die." Suya said.

"How can you say that, you're a soldier, you kill as many people as I have I my life in a day."

"Maybe so, but you miss the nuance. I kill people, Vazers, because if I don't they're going to invade Rathcore. You kill people because you don't care about them, despite the fact its your own countrymen you're killing."

His eyes flashed for a moment, concerned. Like he had made a mistake of some kind. What he talked about, useful violence, could she become that?

"You say you're killing is needed. If they're are people that need killing, and I-"

"Stop right fucking there. If you think I'm letting you become a soldier after all you've done, you're wrong, and an idiot. Being a soldier would be a goddamn reward for you."

"And an asset to you. My implants make me stronger than any soldier. If I wanted I could kill an entire camp of bandits."

"You are one person, not worth it."

"My father makes two."

"Absolutely not." Kali said firmly.

"Alright, just me then."

"No, not even you. You are not getting what you want from this."

"The alternative is you kill me right here.

"Suya said nothing. "You think I have any problems with that?" The echoed softly around the room.

"No." Thera admitted. "Look, I don't want me or my father to die. If you let me, just me, be a soldier and fight for you, what else would you need to let me do that?"

"You have nothing to offer us that we couldn't get for ourselves within time."

"You'll have my life. You said earlier you didn't attack the raiding party to avoid casualties. You can send me on missions you wouldn't trust an ordinary soldier to deal with. I'll do them without complaint." She fell to her knees, clasped her hands together and raised them above her head. "Please, let me be useful. Don't kill my dad."

She lowered her head. She didn't want to feel their stares. There was silence, stretched out.

"There is a castle, twelve miles north east of here." Suya said. Thera lifted her head. "Its one of three strongholds we need to capture to have control of a region. From our reports, its undermanned, but well protected. The soldiers manning it are veterans."

"And you want me to attack it?"

"Yes. By yourself."

"What?"

"You said you can take on your entire bandit group. That's about fifty people right. There's more or less that many guarding the castle. If you can take control of the castle before Kali and I reach you after we take control of the other two castles, than you get to live."

"What about my father?" Another thought struck her. "What about the other bandits in my group?"

"Negotiation on your father's position can come after you take control of the castle."

"And as for the other bandits. We didn't see any reason to let them live when they had nothing to offer us, and after all they've done." Kali said. The words washed over Thera like a chill. Dozens of people, who she had grown up around and fought beside on raid.

They were all dead...Well, that did mean she wouldn't have to worry about one of them coming up to her and accusing her of selling out. And there had been a lot who had been stupidly aggressive pr standoffish to her. The more Thera thought about it, she had lived adjacent to the bandits not with. It was surprisingly hard to make friends with people who would gut you at the slightest hint of weakness. Harder still when you would do the same to them.

So in the end, it was her and her father against the world. In a way, Thera preferred that.

"Alright. I accept these terms."

"Good." Kali said. "Stay in this room, we'll have a guard escort you to the armory and you can take whatever you need from there."

"Do you still have my axes that I was wearing from the raid?"

"Probably."

"Then that's all I need."