We Stand Between the Shackle and the Noose

Rhea poured two fingers of botanical gin and brought it over to the table in the mess hall and placed it before Glare, who had one pair of arms crossed against their chest while the other was propping up their head, their gaze stunned and far away, their tail twitching in agitation behind them.

They unfolded themself enough to pick up the glass and raise it in salute to the human before knocking it back in one long pull, the heavy clunk of it being set back down on the table ringing out before they croaked, "That's… not at all what I expected you to show me."

"Which part," Malakh scoffed from where she was leaning against the counter, Rhea posting up beside her, "The sentient mechs, our ship's Hyttan upgrades, our AI becoming more powerful than any before her, the vision of the thing that destroyed the Hyttan coming back at some point and very probably to destroy all life in the galaxy when it does?"

"All of the above?" Glare answered with a humourless laugh, "Kith crews are known to get into some wild circumstances, but this is certainly something I haven't encountered before!"

"Given that said circumstances of ours have inadvertently caused us to tamper with the broadcasting equipment provided to us, against contract, I was hoping that you would at least be able to offer us some guidance in regards to that." Pryseia said, hands clasped in front of her as she sat there across the table from Glare.

That got a brittle laugh out of them, and with a sigh they said, "Usually the punishment for that sort of thing is the bomb going off before you can tamper with company property. It's an open secret that our broadcasting gear is of Hyttan make - we were able to crack how to replicate it only because the machined parts of it don't need to be made from that self healing material in order for it to work, and the programming that runs it was easy enough to copy and paste from the master we based all our replicas off of. Believe it or not, you aren't the first crew who has gotten their hands on a Hyttan ship, either by finding one or stumbling across a conversion module. The latter are usually a one and done thing, exceedingly rare, but they can convert anything they come in contact with into that self healing Hyttan material. The research institutes try to keep that knowledge away from the general public, but in our line of work, the Kith are prone to encountering oddities like that. Easy enough to pass your case off as something of the sort. Invariably, the broadcasting equipment gets absorbed into that newly upgraded material - I guess it can sense that it was supposed to be Hyttan, after all - but this is the first case of it I've heard where it ejected the explosives from it!"

"Will that be an issue going forward?" Nevara asked, leaning against the wall next to Viatrix's console, Elytra on the other side of it.

"I don't see why it would be," Glare told her, shaking their head when Rhea hoisted the bottle to silently ask if they wanted a top up, "The broadcasting equipment is fully integrated into your ship now, and as far as anyone knows, based on previous evidence, that means the bomb is still in there too. I mean, you technically do have the bomb, but from what your Storlayacas showed me, you've also got a much more fitting target for it."

Standing next to Pryseia's seat, arms crossed and stone still, V'tala asked, "What about the fuel and repairs we no longer need for our ship? Do we keep that secret or let people know?"

"I can get it registered within Kith systems that you're good on that front - like I said, there are other crews with Hyttan ships out there," Glare replied, "That'll just be for administrative purposes, and not something that will be public knowledge. And I suggest you keep it that way, because Hyttan tech is always a hot commodity, especially with something as relatively easy to use as a spaceship. Thankfully most people tend to think the Kith are bluffing when it comes to the capabilities of their gear, so we'll just have to hope the thought that all of the Pelekys' capabilities are fiction will be enough to keep most tech hunters away."

Frowning at that, Elytra asked, "What if it doesn't?"

Glare let out a single, bellowing laugh at that, telling her, "Then you blow them out of the stars before they get a chance to do the same to you. There are some out there who don't take the Kith seriously, think we're just playing pretend instead of the real deal. But we're pirates at the heart of it all, and we don't take kindly to those trying to get in between us and freedom."

"A sentiment I can wholeheartedly agree with." Was Pryseia's grim response.

Her avatar popping up on the console between Nevara and Elytra, Viatrix quietly asked, "You aren't going to do anything about me, are you?"

"And why would I, dearheart?" Glare said kindly, turning to face her, "You're crew of the Pelekys, after all. Digital though you may be, you're as Kith as the rest of'em. We don't turn away people just because of the race they come from."

"That's good to hear," Viatrix replied, sounding far more at ease after that assurance, "Some people aren't so welcoming to digital life forms."

"The same sort who would enslave other living beings?" Glare scoffed, "In general, I don't pay attention to the views of bigots. They aren't worth their weight in organs on the black market."

That got a chuckle out of everyone, bleeding away some of the tension that had gripped them all since they returned with the intent to share their secrets.

Shaking her head ruefully at herself, Pryseia said, "I must admit, I had been expecting the worst when it came to how you and the rest of the Kith would react to our inadvertent breach of contract. A force of habit, long drilled into me by crueler employers than you have proven to be."

Barking out a warbling laugh, Glare said, "I can't say as I blame you. I myself faced much the same when I first joined up. But you lot have proven to be exemplars of what it means to be a part of the Kith of the Void. We'd be fools to chastise you for seeking to increase your rates of survivability. Hypocrites too, as all Kith crews do the same! Rest assured, while I cannot promise that you will be free of covetous pursuit during the course of your career, I can promise you that it will not come from within Kith ranks."

"That's good to hear," Rhea said with a quiet laugh, "We've got enemies enough as is."

"And a more monstrous one than the rest of us can possibly imagine," Glare gave her a piercing look, folding all four of their hands over on one another, "A word of advice - you aren't in this fight alone. Not against the Thalatte, and not against the mother of all Leviathan and its ilk. With your permission, I would like to bring this information to the Governors. A threat of this magnitude will affect us all when it arrives."

"Of course," Pryseia said with a nod, "We would be happy to share whatever information we learn of it in the coming months. Our first priority is seeking out a Hyttan device used to detect the presence of this entity. Now that we know we aren't to be court-martialed from your ranks, we will place a requisition order for the parts needed to upgrade our scanners to search this device out."

Pushing themself out of their seat, Glare said, "Then I shall leave you to it. Dark days ahead, I fear, but that's why we have to make our own light."

The presence behind her shifted, and her heart stumbled in its frantic race. She didn't dare turn around to see what had moved at her back. Death was far too close, and every primitive instinct within her warned her that if she turned around, there would be no coming back from this. The last thing she'd glimpsed before she was dragged here was Rhea desperately working to save her life, V'tala's arm looped over her waist to hold her steady. For something so petty as an assassin, Pryseia couldn't allow herself to succumb to Death.

There had to be something she could do to help Rhea from this end. She had to get out of here now.

"That's exactly what I would expect of you, my impatient girl."

Pryseia's heart stopped at that voice, tears immediately springing to her eyes and a sob catching in her throat. Her vision blurred, and then was filled with copper, familiar arms enveloping her in a crushing hug.

She returned the embrace instinctively, gripping at the back of someone she didn't believe she'd ever see again.

"Mother?"

Killzar Lioht pulled away enough to hold her at arm's length, one hand coming up to swipe away the tears now streaming down her daughter's face.

"I'm so sorry we missed you," Lioht said, her own eyes overflowing with tears, her smile overjoyed and grieving as she looked over her only child, "We tried to hold on as long as we could, but time would not be swayed for us."

"We never lost hope that you were alive," Killzar Mirari said as she came around Pryseia's other side, looping an arm around her daughter's waist, "We knew that no force could quell your light, not so long as you were sat at the controls of your mech. Though they certainly tried."

She gently ran a thumb down the scar that had cost Pryseia her left eye, her own filling with tears at the sight of it.

Drawing in a rattling breath, Pryseia pulled the two of them close, holding them tight, trying convey all the love she had for them in whatever time she had left here in this place. Reunited, briefly but at last, it was all they could do but cling to one another and cry.

Lioht was the first to pull away, just far enough so she could take in both of her girls as she said, "I love you so much, and I am so impossibly proud of you. You've had to endure so much, but look at you now! Kith of the Void and a family of your own. Would that I could have spared you the pain it took to get to this point in your life, I'd have done so in a heartbeat. But know this, daughter of mine: it is not the pain that you overcame that shaped you into the woman you are, it is the love you have always carried in your heart."

Mirari leaned back then, her smile so fond that Pryseia's heart broke at the sight of it. "I love you too. Even in this place, in whatever form I become next, my love for you will always echo in your own heart. And I worry for you, my sweet girl. Your future is not a thing I can divine the totality of, too many paths yet lay before you for me to see which ones you shall wend. But they all lead to the same dark destination, one that hungers… one that will never be sated."

Behind her, Pryseia felt something, a tone deep and resonant, so low that rang through her bones. The shiver that skittered up her spine at that was beyond her control.

Pulling closer to her, despite the fact that they were beginning to fade, Lioht and Mirari embraced their daughter one last time, Pryseia clinging to them as she said, "I love you both too. I'm sorry it took as long as it did to get myself free. I- I don't know what I'm doing, how I'm to face what comes."

"You face it side by side with those you hold closest to your heart," Mirari told her, "You survive, as you always have."

Cupping Pryseia's cheek, Lioht said, "Threat though it may be to the rest of the galaxy, its greatest sin in my eyes is that it would dare try to end your life. I know not when it shall come for you, only that it comes, and it will not stop. You must meet it with the same fury, and you must succeed. You've so much of life yet to experience, I will not stand for this monstrosity to take that from you."

"I will not allow it to take me quietly." Pryseia promised.

"You will not allow it to take you at all." Mirari corrected, "Now go, Pryseia. Go with our love, our hope, and our wish for your happiness."

"Your family awaits you," Lioht said, tears in her eyes as the memory of her faded like smoke on the breeze, "You'd best not keep them waiting any longer."

Pryseia jerked in her bed, gasping for breath that came easily. Her blankets pooled around her waist, her pyjamas skewed with how she'd been thrashing in her sleep. She was abed in the Pelekys, still docked within the Quanvengier, their supply run already completed, a play taken in at Viatrix's insistence, the installation of their scanner still yet underway.

Kicking the rest of her blankets off, she closed her eyes, letting her breathing slow and the sweat that prickled uncomfortably against her cool.

Her lungs weren't filled with her own blood. She no longer stood at the precipice of Death.

She was never going to see her mothers again.

The sob that broke out of her was bittersweet, and she pressed her hands into her eyes to stem the tears before they could burn hot against her face. The same dream every night since she'd awoken in the medbay, the memory of what she experienced when her heart had paused in its duty, repeated again and again, some part of her desperate to cling to this last reunion with her kin. She didn't know which hurt her more, the thought of reliving that moment for the rest of her nights, or of never experiencing that dream ever again. A thought too heavy for her frayed nerves to handle in the middle of the night, and so she threw her hands down to her sides, choking back her tears.

She relaxed against her pillow, willing sleep to take her again, to that dream or to something else, she hadn't the energy to hope for either. There was much to do on the morrow, and she'd need her rest to face it.

Her breathing eventually slowed, evened out. Her mind grew fuzzy, pulling away from the waking world. A warm weight was pressed against her back, her cheek against another's, a steadying arm slung over her waist. A familiar scent filled her lungs, something like struck stone and sun warmed wood, and a name rose out of her like a sigh.

Her eyes flew open, the name catching behind her teeth before it could escape into her room, out into the halls of the ship. As consistent as her dreams, that grounding presence, the one that had anchored her to life, lingered like a phantom on the edge of waking and dreaming.

A want coiled in her, so tight around her heart that she found her next breath difficult to draw in. She wanted, more profoundly than she ever had in her entire life. It felt monstrously large within her, an avalanche that had been steadily growing within her without her notice.

On bended knee before her, pulling her helmet free, her hair tumbling down around her shoulders, eyes intent as they stared up at her.

Sat in the medbay, gaunt and beautiful, insisting that she was nothing more than her tool.

Pressed against her, their blood mingling as she shoved against her shoulders and helped to push them both further away from Death.

Hesitant as she stepped into the surf, the laughter of the others ringing out over their private little cove.

Eyes bright, aghast and amused in equal measure over the disaster of a movie they were watching.

Face slack with awe as she landed out of her spin, the chill wind whipping past her nothing compared to the warmth that bloomed within her at the sight.

Her dress flaring out around her as Rhea spun her across the dance floor, her smile a shy, private thing.

Dressed in her Kith armour, nodding to her from across the access walkway as they scrambled into their respective Storlayacas.

The white knuckle grip she had on the weapons cart, furious at herself for her own introversion.

A faint, sea green blush flaring across her face as a brazen mercenary shamelessly flirted with her.

Fists raised as she tore into her room, slamming them down against the skull of the assassin who had very nearly killed her.

The warmth of her against her back, holding her to her so tightly that not even death had been able to separate them.

"Stop." Pryseia admonished herself, speaking the word out loud as if hearing it could quell the yearning of her heart. She wanted, but that wanting was hardly fair.

More than the horrors she herself had endured while under the control of the Thalatte, V'tala had been deprived of so much more. She deserved a chance to experience all that life had to offer beyond the puppetry she'd been born into. All the joy, all the heartbreak, every messy little emotion that Pryseia had stumbled through for granted in her youth. And she wouldn't be able to do that if Pryseia saddled her with her own yearning. V'tala's path was hers to walk, and hers alone, and Pryseia would rather lose her remaining arm than obstruct the woman more than she had been over the course of her life. She deserved the freedom to choose who she loved for herself, because Pryseia knew, with a certainty that terrified her, that if V'tala gave her her heart, she would rather die than let it go. And that wasn't fair. To either of them.

Huffing out a harsh breath, Pryseia pulled her blankets up and curled over on her side. This crush was growing out of hand with every passing day, a living thing that crouched behind her every thought as of late. She needed to find some way to tame it, lest it become too great an obligation for V'tala to ignore. And Pryseia refused to be the one to take V'tala's chances for love elsewhere away from her.

That was the vow she anchored herself to as she fell asleep.

But even still, it was with the memory of a warm weight against her back and an arm held firmly around her waist that she finally returned to slumber.