Note: Originally this was going to be a multi-part fic on my Snapshots story. But it got pretty long – eight chapters, I'm predicting – so it got its own story. Lucky thing.
"I can't let you leave this ship, Alek," Deryn said. Her voice sounded a lot more confident than the rest of her. The rest of her was screaming 'This is Alek! He's not your enemy! But according to Captain Hobbes, he was.
"I have to," he said desperately. "I need to get back to my people. The Emperor is dead. I can do something. Don't you understand?"
"The Captain doesn't, and I'm under his orders. I can't let a valuable hostage leave the ship." She choked on the words a little as they came out, but didn't back down. She couldn't mutiny, no matter how much looking into the desperate eyes of the boy she loved was breaking her heart. She'd worked too barking hard to throw it all away now.
"Fine." He drew his fencing saber, held it out warningly. They locked eyes, Deryn daring him to blink first. He did. "I don't want this," he whispered.
"I don't want it either, but it's what we've got," Deryn answered. "It's what happens when you're on opposite sides of a war."
She watched indecision play across his face. Do it, she dared him silently. Attack your best friend. Prove the Captain right.
Finally Alek let the saber clatter to the ground. He sank down after it, head in hands.
Enemy or not, she didn't like him hurting. She walked over and put an arm around his shoulders. "It's all right," she told him. "You'll find another way."
"I already have."
Before she could ask him what he meant, he pressed a cloth that reeked of chemicals to her face.
"You bumrag," she tried to say, the words coming out slurred as the world dissolved into a swirl of color. But inside she was smiling.
He'd found a way.