Ship in a Bottle
Terminus
So this is sort of a continuation of the last chapter, but you don't necessarily have to read them that way. I don't know what had me feeling so dark, but this is the end result. I was listening to Outlaws by Green Day while writing this. I hope you like it.
Forced to her knees while Ryo Tetsuda looked down on her from his throne Two refused to give the man who had ruined her life and the lives of everyone she cared about the satisfaction of looking him in the eyes. It was a final, childish, grasp at power that she knew she didn't have in this situation but she couldn't help it nonetheless.
"Portia," he said as if she would answer to that name. "It's been awhile."
"Oh that's right, you're still going by Two in most circles," he amended. "A pointless designation if you ask me."
She still refused to look at him.
"What I mean is that you've made the name Two a part of yourself as if that name was ever anything more than a marker of how fast we all woke up," he continued. "It's pathetic really that you put such meaning into something that doesn't actually mean anything simply as an act of cowardice from your real name."
He didn't understand. Maybe at one time Four did, but the person before her now could never understand just how much the name Two was her entire being.
"If you brought me in here just to mock me you might as well just get it over with," she spoke for the first time. "I've already heard enough of your bullshit to last a lifetime."
Ryo took in her appearance for the first time since she had been brought into his throne room. Her appearance was disheveled, hair a scattered mess. She had bags under her eyes and lines on her face that hadn't been there the last time he'd seen her. She still wore much the same clothing that she had during their last encounter but it was now marked by an abundance of rips and tears.
"Just trying to set the record straight," he said.
"Those men you killed out there were good men," he continued after a pause. "Most people would already be dead, but someone like you deserved a certain courtesy, for old times' sake."
"There are no old times," she said despondently. "Not anymore, thanks to you."
"Come on, of course there are," he said. "Just because we're the only one's left around to enjoy them doesn't mean that they don't exist."
"Remember that time we stopped off on that station and Nyx was using her abilities to guess what color credit chip was under the bowl," he continued.
"Nyx, the woman you supposedly loved, the woman you left to die to fulfill your own selfish goals," she said angrily. "I can't tell if your fucking with me or if you're just that crazy."
"Nyx was an unfortunate incident, collateral damage," he said in a measured tone. "Rest assured that Misaki was punished appropriately for her actions that day."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better," she asked defiantly.
"No," he said. "Just setting the record straight."
"Well as long as we're "Setting the record straight" as you call it we might as well talk about how you hunted down and murdered my crew," she said scoffing at him.
"An unfortunate necessity," he said betraying no emotion. "It was the only way to assure your presence here today."
"What do you want from me," she asked.
"Nothing," he said. "Just setting the record straight, as I've said, three times now as a matter of fact."
"The girl screamed you know," he said. "It was almost deafening."
"You're a sick man," she said trying to reign in the tears threating to fall from her eyes, she would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
"Thank you," he said. "It's important to be feared as a leader."
"I just want you know it wasn't personal," he said. "They were in the way and had to be dealt with."
"They were your friends," she yelled out. "Family even."
"Some friends of mine not doing everything they could when they could to help my people," he said.
"Some friends of mine who worked to intentionally sabotage my reign as emperor, hurt my people," he continued.
"And family," he said with a scoff. "Don't kid yourself."
"We were nothing more than a bunch of lowlifes thrown into shared circumstances," he continued. "Nothing more and nothing less."
"Now that we've got that settled, what to do with you," he said. "You're too much of a risk to keep alive."
"Just kill me then you bastard," she said. "You've already killed or destroyed everything I care about."
"You're a monster," she said after a moment.
"Monster, an interesting title," he said as he stepped down from the throne, his sword now unsheathed. "Many similar things were said about Napoleon Bonaparte once upon a time, but he put his people first and did what was necessary."
"If doing what's necessary to protect my people is what makes me a monster then I take the title in stride," he finished.
He continued walking forward until he was standing just in front of her crouched form. She briefly looked up to meet his eyes, now, and saw nothing of the man he used to be.
"What happened to you," she asked.
"Nothing that wasn't inevitable," was his only response.
He moved another step closer and she could now feel the cold steel of his blade on her neck.
"Let's see how well those nanites do against decapitation," he said. "My guess is not that good."
She felt her pulse quicken in fear and anticipation as the blade left her neck and moved into the air. As she sat through what were looking more and more like her final moments a series of images flashed through her mind. Finding out about their true identities and the kind of people that their previous selves really were. One kissing her while they sat on the floor of the training room. That still indescribable sense of protectiveness that she felt for Five in the casino when she killed all of those men. Waking up in prison betrayed by one of her own. Finally giving into the anger she felt and killing Jace Corso in that tunnel. They weren't things that she could share with the man standing over her anymore but they still mattered. After several more moments she felt a sudden flash of pain and then nothing at all.
So I think I'm going to do a chapter about each member of the crew, barring Four of course, and what I think their situations are following the finale. I guess we'll see how that turns out.