A Town Called Defiance
The Things We Leave Behind
So I haven't updated this in a while but I'm back. This first chapter is essentially the same though I changed some of the dialogue because I didn't like it. I was listening to Our Last Days by The Fray while writing this.
Nothing lasts forever, he had learned that lesson very well at ten years old when the Votans arrived and pulled the rug out from under his life for the first time. Back then it had been relatively easy to get through the changes. He was a kid and while there were certainly things he missed about the world that was he was spared most of the real struggles that came with your home planet becoming the host to alien refugees. A small stature and an adorable smile could get you pretty far even in a world gone mad.
A world gone mad was exactly what the war with Votans had been. He had lost his parents not long after the Votans arrived and he could have broken down right there if he hadn't had his sister to get him through it. Losing her had been the blow that really made it sink in for him that his life was never going to be easy again. He enlisted shortly thereafter and the army continued to introduce him to one Hell after another until that day they found Irisa.
Irisa, he had thought that what they had would be the thing that lasted. It did, far longer than his biological family had, but as with before the world kept pulverizing that one lesson into his skull with relentless force. Defiance had been nice, a life better than any he had had before. He had a purpose, a place to lay his head at night that wasn't the hard ground, and a woman that showed him more love than he probably deserved. It had been hard to leave it all behind, but even now, walking through streets that seemed familiar and foreign to him at the same time, he was sure that it had been the right decision.
"Is that Lawkeeper Nolan," he heard a hushed voice say.
"I thought he was dead," another replied.
He sighed to himself, this was going to be a lot harder than he had pictured it in his head, and it had been pretty hard in his head. He decided to go to the NeedWant first, that would be the least likely place to have too personal of an encounter with anyone. Even if Amanda happened to be there he could find a dark corner to hide in while he gathered his thoughts. What thoughts he was trying to gather and what he would say to anyone from the old days he happened to run into, particularly Irisa or Amanda were still as much a mystery to him as anyone else. As he entered the establishment his eyes flicked around looking for Amanda. He couldn't decide if he was relieved or disappointed that he couldn't spot her. He moved to sit down at one of bar stools.
"What'll it be honey," a bartender he didn't recognize asked him almost immediately.
"Whiskey," he said.
"Wait you're Joshua Nolan," the young woman said as she sat a shot glass down in front of him and began pouring. "The man from the wall; I always thought you died ten years ago during the whole mess with the Omec."
He followed where her finger was pointing to find a picture of himself in full Lawkeeper garb hung prominently on one of the far walls.
"I've been getting that a lot," he said. "Guess that's what I get for disappearing for ten years."
"I've never met someone who has a monument named after him before," she said.
"What," he questioned.
"They named the Arch after you," she said. "Everyone hears the story about what a big hero Joshua Nolan was whenever they come into town."
"Amanda," he guessed with the hint of a smile.
"Rosewater," she said with only a hint of recognition. "Not for some time, she's been dead since before I arrived here."
Before he even realized what was happening the small glass was shattering in his hand and he was headed out the door and towards the Lawkeeper's office. Amanda was dead. How could that have happened? He had only been gone for ten years. A decade wasn't that long was it? Of course a decade of his life was all it had taken for the Votans to arrive and another decade of his life was all it had taken for all out war to be declared between humans and Votans. Who was he to scoff at what destruction the world could wreak on his life in yet another decade?
He entered the Lawkeeper's office without thinking and before he could even get his general bearings of how much the place had changed since his stint the unmistakable sounds of sex filled his ears. His eyes coming somewhat begrudgingly into focus he reluctantly took in the scene in front of him. That was definitely a completely naked Berlin pressed up against the wall by an Irathient who from the breathless phrases coming out of said woman's mouth he could reasonably surmise was his daughter.
"Ten years away and you still find a way to scar me for life Irisa," he said bitterly as he made his way swiftly out the door and back into the busy streets. He leaned himself against a nearby wall and tried, unsuccessfully, to shake the images of what he had just seen out of his head. It only took a few minutes before said daughter came walking, unsurely out of the building and towards where he now leaned.
"What exactly were you two thinking in there," he couldn't help but say. "Half the town could have walked in."
"Really," his daughter fixed him with an unsure look. "You're gone for ten years and that's all you have to say to me."
"No it's not," he said. "Sorry."
He took in the appearance of his daughter. Her hair now had several braids in it that hadn't been there before and was considerably longer overall. She wore a pair of black, leather boots that went up slightly higher than her old ones had. Tucked into these boots was a pair of grey leggings that stretched up before they were covered by a medium length, black skirt. She wore a black leather jacket over top of a simple grey shirt with a small necklace with a key hanging off it and her Lawkeeper's badge completing the ensemble.
"I like the new look," he said. "It suits you."
"I think it does too," she said eyes darting back in time to see Berlin make her own way out of the office.
"So you and Berlin then," he said uncomfortably.
"Yeah," she said with equal hints of being uncomfortable. "Going on three years now."
"Good," he said. "You deserve someone who cares about you."
"What are you doing here," she asked. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but the way you left didn't leave a lot of room for coming back."
"The trip didn't turn out quite as one way as it looked," he said.
"What happened to you up there," she continued pressing.
"A long story," was all he offered. "It wasn't exactly an easy journey up there, but we made it through."
"Doc Yewll," she questioned.
"She wasn't as adamant as me about coming back here," he said.
"It's good to see you again," she said moving to wrap him in a hug. "I missed you."
"I missed you too baby girl," he said.
"Is Defiance everything you expected it to be," she said after they broke apart.
"Almost," he said forlornly.
"It was a trade deal gone wrong," Irisa said seemingly reading his mind. "Some guys who were looking to collect a bounty under the guise of establishing trade, I was the only one that made it out alive."
"I'm sure you did all you could," he said patting her on the shoulder.
"She never gave up hope you know," she said.
"No," he said smiling. "That wouldn't have been like her at all."
"We gave those bastards what they had coming to them a few days later," she said.
"I never doubted that baby girl," he said.
Nothing lasts forever, it was a lesson Nolan knew now better than ever, but right now in this moment with his daughter in arms reach again he was glad that some things didn't. Amanda wasn't his, hadn't been for a long time and would never be again. He had left the Earth behind knowing full well that he might never see anything or anyone he loved ever again. But he was back and his daughter was still his daughter and he decided that he would focus more on that than another person he loved leaving him too soon. Mourning would come with time, but for now he was happy to just hug his daughter again and leave all of that other stuff to figure out another day.
