Chapter 512 - 512: The Traitor (ii)
The woman lay motionless where she had fallen, smoke drifting above her body.
"Traitors deserve death!" Jareth shouted, voice cracking across the basin.
Xavier didn't even look at the corpse again.
"I don't care," he said flatly. "About what you did. About who you killed. About how many. That's your mess. Yours and his and everyone who followed you. I'm not here to clean it. I'm not here to make it look better."
He gestured vaguely toward the ruins around them. "You all built this. You can deal with it."
Jareth stared at him, breathing hard.
Xavier continued. "It has nothing to do with me. You want to shoot each other? Go ahead. You want to burn what's left? Do it."
He tilted his head slightly.
"There's just one thing I want to understand."
His eyes locked onto Jareth.
"Why?"
Jareth's jaw flexed, but he didn't answer.
Xavier went on before he could.
"I have a guess," he said. "Bull didn't chase fame. He didn't chase glory. He didn't even try to become what people called him. But he still did. He still became one of the most feared names out there."
He glanced briefly toward Lyra, then back.
"And he didn't act like a pirate. He didn't take contracts that crushed cities. He didn't finish jobs that crossed a line. Sometimes he took big contracts just to flip them. Like AIL and many others."
A flicker passed through Jareth's eyes.
"People followed him because he had power," Xavier continued, "but he never used it the way they wanted. He never let it turn into something easy. Something profitable."
The silence stretched.
Then Jareth laughed again, but this time there was no hollow sound behind it. It came out sharp, almost relieved.
"That's right," he snapped. "You want the truth? Fine. You're right."
Reva stiffened. Rin went still. Even Kylus watched now without speaking.
"It wasn't just that he didn't chase glory," Jareth continued. "It was that he rejected it. Every opportunity to expand. Every chance to dominate sectors. He'd take a contract worth billions and then sabotage it because he decided it crossed some moral line."
He stepped forward, voice rising.
"We weren't saints. We were pirates. We bled for those jobs. We risked everything. And he'd walk away because it didn't fit whatever code he had in his head."
Jareth's hands shook slightly as he spoke.
"He kept everything to himself. The connections he built. The secrets he gathered. The maps. The safe routes. The blackmail files. The people who owed him favors. He knew things that could have turned us into a real empire, and he rationed it like we were children."
Lyra's expression tightened.
"And the treasure," Jareth spat. "All those relics. All that wealth. Collected over a lifetime. Hidden away. Locked up. For what?"
He pointed at the ground.
"For someone he had never even met."
Reva's eyes widened slightly.
"He wouldn't spend it. Wouldn't sell it. Wouldn't divide it among the crew who actually earned it. Said it had a purpose. Said it was meant for someone special."
His voice dipped, thick with resentment.
"We risked our lives while he hoarded everything for a fantasy. A promise. Some future heir who might not even exist."
Kylus' breathing grew heavier, but he didn't interrupt.
"He talked about ethics," Jareth went on. "About lines we shouldn't cross. About how power changes people. Meanwhile we were starving for expansion. Watching other crews grow. Watching opportunities pass because Bull decided he didn't like the smell of them."
He shook his head.
"He held us back. Every time."
Jareth's gaze hardened.
"He had the strength to take over sectors. The leverage to crush rivals. The resources to dominate. And he chose restraint. Chose principles."
He let out a bitter laugh.
"You call that leadership. I call it waste."
The fires around them crackled low, the basin reduced to embers and broken ambition.
"And yes," Jareth said finally. "I betrayed him."
He didn't look away.
"Because I was done being second to a man who refused to use what he had."
Jareth didn't stop once he started.
"You want more?" he said, voice raw and loud enough to carry across the dead basin. "Fine. I'll give you more."
He paced a few steps, gesturing sharply at the wreckage as if the ruin itself proved his point.
"We built networks. We made alliances. We took hits so his name would grow. Every time someone whispered 'Bull,' they meant power. Influence. Fear. That wasn't just him. That was us. And when it came time to reap it, he pulled back."
He looked at Xavier, then at Kylus, then at Lyra.
"He preached restraint. Said empires rot from inside. Said the bigger you grow, the faster you fall. That's easy to say when you're the one holding the keys to everything."
His lip curled.
"He kept the real information to himself. The vault routes. The hidden caches. The contacts who owed him favors that could turn governments inside out. He would brief us just enough to function, never enough to compete."
Rin let out a short, humorless laugh. "So you were jealous. Bull was the employer and you all were his employees. Of course, the employer would make all decisions and do whatever he wants, as long as you all got your checks on time."
Jareth snapped toward him. "I was practical."
He jabbed a finger toward the sky.
"He had the leverage to turn us into the strongest pirate fleet in the galaxy. We could have controlled entire trade corridors. We could have dictated contracts instead of accepting them. Minimal losses with maximum gain."
His mouth twisted as he continued.
"But no. He refused jobs that would have secured long-term dominance because civilians might get caught in the crossfire. He sabotaged high-value contracts because he decided the client was corrupt. We lost fortunes because he wanted to prove a point."
Reva's expression hardened.
"And the treasure," Jareth said again, voice tightening. "Decades of relics. Tech beyond anything legal. Assets stacked so high they could have bought us fleets outright. And he locked it away. And for who?"
'You already said this before.' Xavier said to himself.