Davon sat at the desk of Emperor Magnus Ohavim as Gerry walked in. “Gelmidas Atheneum, please take a seat.” The Emperor proclaimed, motioning toward the chair beside Davon. Gerry sat, nervously readjusting his glasses.
“Davon speaks highly of you, but considering you two grew up together, I expected that.” The Emperor stroked his beard, leaning back, relaxed. Davon eyed Gerry, smiling at him. Gerry noted the smile and the Emperor’s relaxed form. This was not a formal meeting.
“Why did you call our dreadnought back here?” Gerry asked, now free of his nerves. Magnus gave a humble smile. “You added a rather infamous individual to your ranks ten years ago. It was you who recruited her, and I know you two have grown rather close, to put it lightly.” Davon crossed his legs, chiming in, “Yes, that is putting it lightly.” Magnus laughed as Davon nudged Gerry’s arm. Gerry warily grinned before speaking to Magnus. “So this is about Nadeden?”
“Yes,” Magnus answered. “She has become quite the tool for the Division. In fact, I’m tempted to call the Scorched Archer my finest arrow. And I know I owe most of that to how you have expertly directed her over these past ten years.” Gerry’s nerves returned as Magnus continued, “I want you to keep doing that, Gelmidas. Directing her, I mean. Especially if she ever threatens to leave us. She trusts you. Gods, I’ve been told she loves you, and I’ve been told you love her, but here’s the thing I need to know,” Gerry shifted in the chair, feeling the room turn on him. “If push comes to shove, Gerry, I can call you Gerry, right?” He nodded. “Well, Gerry, I need to know that the Division comes first. That you're loyal to the cause. So the question I really need to ask is the question Davon came to me with.”
Davon turned to Gerry. He had relaxed his fist into a splayed hand, which he rested against his cheek while his ponytail dripped down. His demeanor said to Gerry, This is a friend. His words said the opposite: “Could you kill Nadeden? That is, if you needed to.”
Gerry thought for a moment, attempting to choose between his oldest friend and the Woman he loves. He could have cared less for the Division, but what would happen if he were to sacrifice his bond with Davon and the rest of the Warbound? Could he shatter this comfort he had built? He couldn’t imagine a life without Nadeden, but he most certainly couldn’t imagine a life other than the one he had lived so far.
“Yes.”
Gerry answered, “Yes, I could kill her.”
Once all the farewells were exchanged, Davon stayed behind with Magnus, who handed him a folder. “Now, about what we spoke of earlier.” Davon placed the folder in his bag, hiding it beneath several others. “It will be done, my lord.” He stated, “I’ll claim them for us.” Magnus placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, my boy.”
Davon exited the room, stepping onto the balcony of the Plaza. He lit a cigarette with the city of Rome roaring below.
His hands trembled as he opened the folder.
Gripping the daggers in both his hands, Davon floats toward Nadeden in the zero gravity.
The coldness of space is likely to kill her before the blades or lack of oxygen do. She tries to remain calm, but she’s panicking now. She’s overwhelmed by the pressure of her situation. By the weight of it.
“Is that Davon?” Her ghost speaks, stepping in front of her, “Well, I guess that means the real me knows you’re on his trail.” Gerry grins, his face vanishes from her mind’s eye as Davon lunges at her. Nadeden takes the blades to the gut, powerless to dodge or react in time. Davon twists the sharp stone into her, then spreads his arms wide open, ripping her stomach apart. What little wind was left in her is knocked out by the hideous wound. Nadeden grits her teeth in pain. How am I going to get out of this!
Davon crouches, placing his boots atop Nadeden’s wide-open, freezing chest.
Her single eye looks into the visor of Davon’s spacesuit.
Gerry looks back at her.
Her mind is taunting her.
No.
He’s taunting her.
“Are you really gonna die without killing me?” Just as the ghost speaks, Davon launches himself off of Nadeden. Letting his daggers float, he snaps his fingers, summoning a portal behind Nadeden. Davon kicks her through it and reclaims his daggers. She tumbles through the other side. Her blood stains the surface of an asteroid ten thousand kiloclicks from where she once was. Davon appears behind her. Sheathing one dagger, he snatches her by her dirtied hair so she can take in her surroundings.
“He said you deserved sympathy! After everything you’ve done and everything he’s done, he said you deserve sympathy! How does it feel, Nadeden? How does it feel to know that a man like that still loves you!” Nadeden begins to choke from a lack of oxygen, unable to hear Davon’s shouts. He sighs and tosses her limp body through space before snapping his fingers.
“I’m sorry, but we couldn’t help but notice you two from across the train. Can my son get an autograph?”
Davon’s eyes remained on the folder as Shanna answered with a kind smile, “Of course, big fans of the warbound are you?”
The boy nodded as Shanna took the poster and pen from his hands and signed the printed replication of herself. “You got a favorite?” She asked the child holding out the paper for Davon.
He only snatched it after it was directly tossed onto the folder.
“I uh… I like Orson.” The boy replied with an embarrassed expression that also crossed his Mother’s face.
“Of course.” Shanna sighed. Davon handed the poster back to her before returning to the folder.
“What’s that?” Shanna asked Davon as she gave the child back his poster. It was only when the child swiftly returned to his seat with his Mother that Shanna got a response.
“Top secret,” Davon muttered, exhaling smoke as he closed the folder. “Is it the tell us you have to kill us kind or the tell us and you die kind?” She joked, stretching across the leather-bound chair. “Let’s go with both,” Davon stated unenthusiastically, placing the folder in his bag and removing the cigarette from his mouth. “Oh, how ominous.” Shanna laughed before switching to a more professional tone. “So I take it the meeting went well?” Davon rested his jaw on his palm and stared out the window. “In a sense.” Just when Shanna was about to exclaim her annoyance with Davon’s vague answers, the train entered a tunnel. Davon pulled away from the window with a huff, “Gerry isn’t happy about the whole thing. It’s obvious.” Shanna straightened herself out, leaning forward. “Every weapon needs something to counter it. Gerry should understand that.”
“He does,” Davon whispered under the breath of his hands. They were now clasped in front of his mouth, positioned as if he were in some sort of prayer. “Believe me, Shanna, I know Gerry better than any-” He caught himself. “Well, even if I may not know him the way our walking time bomb does, I still know him pretty fucking well. He loves her, but he also knows she’s dangerous.”
Shanna took her time to consider what Davon had just said and felt the need to ask, “Why do you still treat Nadeden like she’s one of us, then? Why did you help Gerry welcome her in way back when?”
Davon moved his hands away from his mouth, resting them on his lap. He leaned his back against the leather seat as the train exited the darkness of the tunnel. “Like I said, Nadeden is a weapon, and she’s one I intend to wield.”
Davon catches Nadeden again as she falls through the portal. He stabs her leg as more blood bursts from her cut stomach. Davon lets go, sending Nadeden through another portal. He catches her again, slicing at her icy skin with his daggers in a rapid fury. He repeats this process over and over again. Injuring Nadeden, snapping his fingers, opening another portal, sending her through it, and catching her to restart the painful process.
Injure, snap, portal, toss, catch.
Injure, snap, portal, toss, catch.
Injure, snap portal, toss, catch.
Davon has dreamed of this moment for years. He has pondered revenge almost as much as Nadeden has.
On the verge of death, though, Nadeden does not dream of vengeance. Don’t die here. Is the only thought that flashes through her mind.
No matter what happens, I can’t die here!
Davon snaps his fingers.
Gerry’s ghost floats over her.
I need to live.
Another portal is summoned.
The ghost is laughing at her.
I need to get out of here.
Davon lunges with his dagger toward Nadeden.
I need to save Smith.
Nadeden catches the blade in her cold palms. Before Davon can react, her hands grip his forearm, and the pair tumble through the portal together.
“What did the Emperor want?” Nadeden asked, overlooking the spaceport from her quarters on the dreadnought as Gerry entered the room.
“Well, hello to you, too, darling.” Gerry hung up the blue coat of his uniform, walking over to lay a kiss on Nadeden’s cheek. She couldn’t help but blush at his touch and smile at his grin. “Sorry, I meant to say Hi, Gerry, how was your boring day of military politics?”
Gerry laughed both at her sarcasm and in an effort to mask his nerves. “Boring.” He stated, readjusting the metal frames of his glasses. “Like you said, Nadeden, very, very boring.” She wasn’t pleased with his statement: “Then what did the Emperor want that was so boring?”
Gerry sat beside Nadeden on the bed. “I don’t want to lie to you.”
“Then don’t.” Gerry held up his palms, surrendering to Nadeden’s biting remark. “I wasn’t going to. I never will.” He gazed out the window to the spaceport and beyond it to the Division Plaza on the horizon. “They tried to test my loyalty.” He looked into Nadeden’s eyes. Knowing that he could never be without them made saying what he needed to all the more easier.
“They wanted to know if I was willing to kill you.” Nadeden wished she felt shocked, but she knew that something like this was inevitable. Her first instinct was to simply shrug off the thought of those in power fearing her as they always had, but seeing how upset this made Gerry made her reach for his hand. “So what did you tell them?” She asked. “I told them I could.” He answered.
Nadeden clasped Gerry’s hand, moving it to stroke his cheek. “Can you?”
“What do you mean?” Gerry was caught so off guard he almost laughed.
“Can you kill me?” She asked, clarifying the question that Gerry wanted more than anything to avoid.
“No.” Tears began to form in his eyes. “No, Nadeden. You know I can’t.”
He’ll forever be the emotional one, Nadeden thought as she wiped away his tears. “When we met, I was covered in blood, and my first instinct was to hurt you. I’ve been fighting since I could walk. I know you can’t kill me, Gerry, but you need to be ready to. You need to look out for yourself.” Gerry moved Nadeden’s hand away from his sobbing face. “What are you trying to say?”
She took him by the shoulders, driving him against the bedrest. “I’m saying that I care about you, you idiot, but I know that you belong to these people on this ship and this planet and have for your whole life. I’m just a lost soul along for the ride.”
Gerry ceased his tears. “Is that what all this is to you? Another stop along the way?”
Nadeden didn’t respond. She considered the question as Gerry slipped away again.
Davon’s back breaks against an asteroid. Nadeden has stayed attached to him throughout their journey through several portals.
No matter how many times he snaps his fingers, he can’t get rid of her.
I’m taking you with me. She thinks, running off of pure adrenaline now.
She buries her fingers into Davon’s spacesuit.
If I can’t save him, then I need to at least see you die! Do you understand, Davon? I came into this world fighting, and I’m going down fighting! So what if another child dies under my watch? Under yours? You think I care anymore!
She buries her fingers in harder, piercing the suit's airtight fabric. She sees Gerry’s face begging her to stop.
“Nadeden!”
You did this!
All of you!
You and Orson and Shanna and Gerry and the whole Division!
I had nothing! I was nothing! I was happy being nothing!
“Nadeden!”
She slams her head down on the ghost. She slams her freezing head into the spacesuit visor again and again and again.
You ruined me! You betrayed me! You took away who I was! You took away the one person I cared about!
Davon stops breathing as his face fills with glass, and all oxygen escapes the suit.
“Nadeden!”
She continues to ram her bleeding head into Davon’s. The blood drifts out into the black.
Shut up!
Shut up!
You killed him!
You burnt it all down and killed him!
You killed our son!
“YOU KILLED ADAMUS!”
Davon sees Nadeden scream the words that he is unable to hear through the vacuum of space.
Before he slips into unconsciousness, he curses Gelmidas.
“This all could have been solved if you had just talked to her.” Shanna looked back at Davon as she spoke to him. He wasn’t listening. He was looking through the folder again.
“You’re gonna walk right into a wall.” She scoffed, stepping toward the ship. Davon grabbed her. “You’re not going.” His firm grip on her told Shanna that whatever Davon was about to say next was going to be an order, one that couldn’t be officially related to military business.
“What do you need?” She asked. Davon handed her the folder. “Officially, our next operation is to aid in the fighting on Frax.” Shanna took the folder and opened it. “And unofficially?”
Davon sighed, “The Emperor found something. Something he wasn’t supposed to. Now to get what I want-” He corrected himself, “What we want. I need to accelerate our timetable.” Shanna flipped through the folder, seeing Davon’s additions and understanding the weight of the situation.
She nodded, “I’ll get it done, boss.” She joked, stepping away from the ship, “Don’t worry about me, Davon, you just keep worrying about the Scorched Archer!” She cackled with her hand on the hilt of her sword.
Davon smiled.
Finally.
Everything is coming together.
Soon now.
Soon, Emperor Magnus Ohavim will be dead.