BETWEEN THREE ROGUES

By Eric 'Erico' Lawson


Forty-Six: Where Angels Go to Die

Of all the opponents that they had gone up against, a few fixed themselves firmly in Aika's memory. There were the ones who had become friends; Rupee Larso and Lapen. There were those who had been fought and almost forgotten about, like the Ixa'ness Demons and Baltor's crew during her and Fina's stay in Nasrad. Then there were those who she would never forgive, a very short list that very nearly began and ended with Admiral Vigoro. She looked forward to the day when that human garbage no longer breathed.

But of all the enemies that they had made and gone up against, there was one category occupied by a single name, a category characterized by her utter inability to understand the woman properly. That was the Angel of Death. Piastol.

Piastol had killed her. Flat-out, unequivocally, cold-blooded killed her. Her first impression of the woman who went around calling herself the 'Angel of Death' was rightly shaded by that, but it had been a catalyst in her relationship with Fina as well. If Piastol hadn't slit her throat and set Vyse to panicking, then Fina could have never brought her back to life. Without that push, Aika might never have learned to respect the other woman, even like her a little bit. She hadn't fallen in love with Fina overnight, it had been a slow and gradual process, and the wrecking ball of Piastol's presence had been the first step in turning Fina from someone weak and useless to a woman whose strength was of an entirely different category. Dying had not been pleasant.

Coming back to life and looking into Fina's expressive blue eyes as the woman singlehandedly turned the tables on Piastol in their first encounter had been far more enjoyable. After Vyse had forced her to surrender, Aika had figured the pirate hunter would lick her wounds and move on to other, easier targets. She hadn't been expecting Piastol to fixate on the scar along Vyse's cheek and declare a blood vendetta.

After they escaped the Grand Fortress the second time with Enrique's help they'd fought her again, and by then, the four of them had been able to match the woman. In a third fight after their return from Yafutoma, Piastol had finally opened up enough to tell Vyse why she was so obsessed with killing him; she blamed him and Aika and the rest of their former crewmates from the Albatross for the sinking of her ship and the death of her father and her sister. When Vyse had told her she was wrong, she'd lost it as the pain in her eyes had gotten worse.

Aika wanted to dismiss Piastol completely as a woman haunted by her demons and move on. It wasn't like they had bigger skyfish to fry. In a world where all of their successes seemed forever connected with sheer dumb luck and dogged tenacity against an empire who always seemed to be one or two steps ahead of them, the problems of a singular pirate killer didn't measure up. And yet there was something about the woman's pain and anger, misdirected though it was, that refused to let go of Aika.

"She reminds you of yourself, I think." Fina had said one night when the three of them were too tired to make love, and they'd settled for cuddles and pillow talk instead. Aika had flinched a little at the comparison, but Fina had squeezed her arm to settle her down. She had asked, after all. There had been times Vyse asked for their opinions and advice, times that Fina had as well, and Aika had taken the opportunity to ask them to do the same when her thoughts turned, frustratingly, to Piastol. "You lost your parents to Valua when you were young. If we take Piastol's statements at face value...she lost hers when she was a girl as well."

"She was old enough to throw a knife with the intent and the aim to kill." Aika had grumbled, glad for the gentle hug that Vyse gave her after.

"There may be parts of Piastol's life that are similar, but nobody in our crew is unaffected by the cost of Valua's ambitions." Vyse temporized. "At every encounter, she has tried to kill me."

"I'm not excusing her actions, Vyse. I'm not saying she's an innocent, there's too much blood on her hands for that." Fina had sighed. "What I'm saying is, there's a reason Aika feels conflicted. And I'm trying to understand why. I'm trying to help my beloved understand why."

"She blames me, us, for something that we did not do." Vyse had said, working his way up towards indignation. "I'm not going to roll over and let her murder us for something that wasn't our fault."

"Nor would I. Every time we've faced her, we've given our absolutebest effort. And it's gotten easier to overwhelm her." Fina had rolled over onto her side then and propped herself up on an elbow, looking at the two of them in the thin moonlight that shone in through their window. "But we haven't killed her. We haven't killed any of the marks that the Sailor's Guild had bounties on, and given that Rupee Larso and Lapen are now friends and willing associates of ours, that's been to the good. But there's something I want to know from the two of you. Piastol...the first time we defeated her, she was cold, methodical, close to an unfeeling weapon. The two encounters since, she's been wilder, more erratic, running more on her emotions than her tactical mind. And she's gotten more desperate. If it comes down to it, if she keeps at this vendetta, she may decide it's worth her own life to end ours. If that happens, what will you do?"

Aika remembered looking back at Fina, wondering what she meant by that question. The severity of the Silvite's gaze had frozen her. "Do you want to kill her for what she's done to you, Aika? To Vyse? How sorry do you feel for her? If you had no other choice, would you be willing to take her life?"

Aika hadn't said anything then, and Fina had sighed, asked her to forgive the impertinent question, and then settled the side of her head against Aika's bosom to sleep. Vyse had clenched his jaw in silence, kissed Aika's forehead and both of her eyelids, and declared his love before also slipping under.

Aika hadn't had an answer then.

She still didn't have one.


Doc's Houseboat

331 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape

They had the Deep Sky retrofit plans, the Armada was still gathering in force around Dangral Island according to the latest wireless telegraph intercepts, and most of the crew was walking around Enrique like he was made of glass. Maybe it would have been smarter to move straight for Crescent Island, but Vyse had made an executive decision that a quick layover in Mid-Ocean was required, as was a trip to Doc's houseboat for the main four. Aika had quickly rigged up a backup radio to one of the skiffs before they departed the Delphinus, left Don in temporary command of the vessel with Moegi and Lapen splitting the duties of hospitality and engineering under him, and sent everyone else on their way to Sailor's Island after disembarking.

Doc's small little boat was a far cry from the mightier ships that flew solely with engines instead of sails, and it commanded no great power. It was home to a former ship's physician who now plied his trade freely under blue skies to any who needed it, a young girl who was slowly reversing her mutism, and an enormous bird bigger than Vyse that waddled across the decks without a care as it played with its owner. The houseboat was old, bought secondhand and converted from a medium fishing trawler to the vessel it was today, its red and white sails a mark of its purpose. Yet for its age, it was sturdy in a way that went beyond the timbers of its keel or the stitching in its canvas. For a ship belonging to a man of medicine, that hidden strength was perfect.

"I'd say that he liked those Moonfish." Vyse observed, keeping one eye fixed on the giant yellow thing as Maria laughed and chased it around the foredeck of the houseboat. The other, Aika noticed, was kept on Maria, with his gaze sharpening when she got close to one of the ship's railings that (thankfully) were two heads taller than the girl. "The way he's growing, he's going to end up positively enormous. Maybe too big to fit on your ship."

"As things are, Vyse, he's big enough that he can't even get through the doorway to belowdecks." Doc chuckled, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. "But he seems fine enough sleeping on the deck, so long as Maria plays with him." The older man smiled, and his eyes got a distant look to them. "I'm so glad that she's talking again. She didn't talk for years, you know, it's why I gave her that bell. But ever since you three came into our lives and started bringing all those Moonfish you keep finding?" He shook his head again. "Where do you find them all? At most, my other patients manage to locate maybe one a year with the prismatic lenses I make, and they travel all over Mid-Ocean."

"I've traveled all over the world. That might have something to do with it." Vyse offered innocently. "Those two, we picked up from Dangral Island."

Doc tilted his head to the side. "I don't think I've heard of that one."

"It's in the Lower Sky." Aika explained. "In the Silver Sea."

"Valua has an interest in it." Enrique added softly. "They're building some kind of an elevator into the Deep Sky there, and...and a ship sturdy enough with an engine tough enough to fly down into it."

Doc stared. "I feel like I should be worried."

"Yes." Enrique nodded. "You should be. Admiral Gregorio, he - he sacrificed himself so we could get away. Galcian's moving against Valua."

Doc's face fell at the news. "Gregorio is dead?" He questioned. "That is terrible. He was the greatest of the old guard, someone that even Admiral Mendosa never measured up to. Who is under Galcian, then?"

"Alfonso made a run for it. His escape made ours easier." Vyse said. "Assuming everyone else stayed...Then Galcian has Vigoro, Belleza, De Loco, and Ramirez. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Fleets."

The mention of Ramirez's name came as another hammerblow to Doc, who slumped over even more. "So. I guess he's moved up in the world again."

Fina took in a large breath. "Doc? You - the last time we saw you, you said that you and he were friends. That you both served under Admiral Mendosa. How did you end up here, and how did he go from despising Galcian to serving under him?"

"You must be in a mood for stories, Miss Fina." Doc answered her. "Though you might not like this one."

"Ramirez was the closest thing I had to a brother growing up." Fina shook her head. "It broke my heart when I realized he was working for the very people that our Elders warned us about. I know he isn't the same boy I knew when I was a young girl. But I have to know, for my own peace of mind. What happened to him, doctor? What happened to you?"

Doc glanced towards Maria and the towering bulk of her pet bird. "Maria? Honey? I'm taking Mr. Vyse and his friends inside to talk for a while. Can you hook yourself to the wheelhouse for me?"

"Okay!" The little blond-haired girl chirped, pausing in her game long enough to move to the side of the wheelhouse and grab a retractable tether with a carabiner hook. She clipped it to the belt around her waist and smiled up at them. "Done!"

"Have fun, sweetie. We'll be back out in a while." Doc beamed at her. Aika nodded at the safety move and drew close to the man as they walked inside.

"Good childproofing there, Doc." She congratulated him. "I remember that Dyne and Missus D were just as protective of us when we were kids. You look after your daughter pretty well."

"She isn't my daughter." Doc said, guiding them to the small galley. As they all sat around the small dining nook and Doc took a moment to pour them cups of cold tea, Aika felt that little surprising truth percolate. "I suppose you could say I adopted her. There was nobody else left who could, really. She's Admiral Mendosa's daughter, you see."

Enrique drew in a sharp breath at that. "I was much younger then, but I recall that the loss of Admiral Mendosa shook the Admiralty. Not much was said about the circumstances, though, only that his ship had gone down with all hands."

"Very nearly." Doc leaned up against the turned off stove and folded his arms, waiting for them all to take a drink before he started speaking again. "I remember something that Galcian spouted off to Ramirez back when my silver-haired friend was reading the admiral the riot act. The man said, depend on a person too much and they'll betray your trust sooner or later. As you can imagine, Ramirez didn't take too kindly to those words. Neither did I. But as time went on, I could see that he was growing more and more troubled. We kept getting reports that the Ixa'takans were still being abused and mistreated, even after Mendosa said he'd do something about it. Ramirez talked me into a harebrained scheme to intercept written communications above our clearance, and...and then we found out that despite Mendosa's promises to Ramirez, he'd never intended to speak to the Empress about stopping their enslavement. Mendosa was a member of the nobility, old money, and I'd never questioned the wealth he put on display so casually. It was a failure on my part, and one compounded by all the mistakes that followed. I urged Ramirez to bide his time, to not confront him directly, but he did so anyways. He moved without me there to support him, and…"

Aika knew plenty about painful memories. She had more than her fair share of them, and she could see how talking about the past was eating away at the wandering physician. When Doc couldn't speak anymore, he brought a hand up to his face. By the time he'd finished dragging it over his eyes and his mouth, the pain was pushed back down beneath the surface, and his lips weren't quivering. His voice was still thick, though.

"I remember the screams. The first ones had been too quiet, but the later ones...I ran for the admiral's stateroom and found a trail of dead, cut up bodies, and amidships already burning from broken lamps and shorted wiring. Mendosa was dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. Every Valuan trooper who'd been aboard and raced to the admiral's defense was dead as well. And there was Ramirez, wild-eyed and broken, with none of the warmth I had known him to possess, holding a sword stained with blood and gore. I couldn't say a word until something gave me away, and when he turned towards me, there was a moment I could have sworn that he was going to kill me too. But he recognized me, and held his blade. He told me to run. To save myself, because I'd always been good to him, and I wasn't…" Doc paused again, and shook his head. "'Galcian was right,' he told me. 'I can no longer trust in humanity. From now on, I will only believe in strength.' He walked past me and I didn't move, I didn't dare breathe until he was gone, murdering his way through the rest of the ship. But he left me a path to the stern, where the lifeboats were. It was all I could do to grab Maria on my way out, and she was screaming as the ship and her room burned around her. In a single night, she lost her family and her home."

"There was nobody else who could take care of her?" Enrique asked.

"Her mother died in childbirth." Doc shook his head. "She had nobody, and you know as well as I do your highness, that her late father's status would have meant nothing in the halls of the Empire. Orphans to noble houses are forgotten at best, and are more typically used and thrown away. As for me? After everything that happened, I couldn't go back either. I believed in Mendosa and I believed in Ramirez. And Mendosa turned out to be corrupt, and Ramirez was…"

"A monster." Vyse exhaled. "One that Valua made. It doesn't excuse what he's done, or what he's doing now though."

"No. It doesn't." Doc agreed. He sighed, clapped his hands together, and tried to look reassuring. "So there you have it. I left Valua behind, raised Maria the best I could, and I've done my level best to keep off of their radar since the Aquila was lost with all hands. Maybe it's not the life I originally envisioned for myself when I was going through medical school, and it doesn't pay anywhere near what I could have gotten if I'd stayed. But it's a good life, and Maria's worth the sacrifices. Thanks to you all, she's smiling and talking again."

"For all the times we've crossed your path, Doc, I don't think you've ever regretted anything." Vyse pointed out.

"I only have one regret." Doc shrugged. "I had enough time to save Maria, but I couldn't find her sister."

Fina blinked at the news. "Sister? Maria had a sister?"

"An older one, yeah. She would've been...twelve, thirteen at the time?" Doc looked up, thinking about it. "She was a tough little thing, Mendoza taught her how to defend herself, and she was good with knives. Knowing Piastol, she probably ended up confronting Ramirez herself and paid for it with her life."

Aika's ears roared as that name made her heart pump blood faster than ever before. "Piastol?" She uttered, and saw Vyse go pale as Fina put a hand to her mouth and gasped behind it. Enrique clenched his hands into fists and went perfectly still. "Maria's sister is Piastol?"

Doc blinked. "She was, yes. I'm not sure if Maria remembers her. Why? What's got you so spooked?"

"We need to go." Vyse said suddenly, slamming the rest of his cold tea back and standing up quickly. "We need to go now, and you're coming with us Doc. All three of you."

"What? Why?" Doc demanded, taken aback at the forcefulness behind his words. "Vyse? What in the hell's going on?"

"She's not dead." Vyse blurted out, looking over to Aika and Fina and giving them both a nod. Aika sighed and got up as well, she'd need to make sure that their skiff was tied up more securely, and then call the Delphinus so that everyone else knew they were coming. "Piastol." Vyse added, knowing the name would shatter the stupefaction on display. "She isn't dead, Doc. You just told us that Ramirez killed her father and the crew and set the ship on fire. She thinks that we did all that."

"You?" Doc raised an eyebrow.

"Air Pirates." Vyse finished grimly, dashing out of the galley.


Sailor's Island

Evening

They'd flown all day to make it to Sailor's Island, and the Delphinus had been hovering offshore with the harbor full of skiffs. They'd tied Doc's houseboat off of the side of the ship so it wouldn't interfere with the guns or the torpedo launchers if Valua or Galcian got wise and sent the Armada to tussle with them, then made their way to shore.

Aika was still impressed every so often at the level of skill and talent that were present in the crew who had flocked to Vyse's banner. In Don, the former lieutenant of the Valuan Royal Navy, they had found a capable commander able to keep the ship running in their absence. In Lapen and Hans were a pair of step-brothers whose genius in engineering and charisma beyond it made for a perfect continuity of maintenance when Aika was gone. Ilchymis kept the crew healthy, Polly and Urala and the rest of the hospitality crew kept the ship fed and the crew's morale high. And Osman? Osman, who had fallen so low in the wake of Nasrad's sacking, had proven herself over and over as a hardnosed trader and bargainmaster that watched their coffers and their stores with careful accounting. There was a reason that she and Vyse and Fina, and often Enrique, could step away from the Delphinus so often. They had a ready-made crew from all walks of life and all places who could see to the minutiae and let them focus on what was most important.

Skiff after skiff of supplies had been purchased from shore and ferried up to the Delphinus, and a night watch had been posted on board while the bulk of the crew remained behind to spend their money, carouse, and take in some precious shore leave. Polly and her husband Robinson had insisted on looking in on their daughter, and by the time that Aika and the others from the houseboat had arrived for a warm meal, the old tavern was swinging in high spirits. With Maria back on the Delphinus playing with Marco and Pinta and Pow and her enormous pet hamachou, Doc had a rare opportunity to partake of a decent meal cooked by someone else and some quality alcohol. Vyse had sent Aika and Fina inside with him before going across the street to the Sailor's Guild to report on their newest Discoveries and to gather fresh information.

Doc was on his third flagon of hard cider before enough color had sunk back into his face to make him look normal again. He'd spent the entire flight nearly mute and pale as a freshly laundered sheet, and Aika found she couldn't rightly fault him for it. As soon as they'd sat down in a corner booth and asked to be left alone, Fina had explained their complicated history with the Angel of Death to the man. He reeled with every detail of her exploits, of every kill attributed to her title. By the end of it, he pushed what was left of his dinner away from him, raised a hand to get the attention of a serving girl since the rest of the room was focused on the reunited family of Polly, Anne, and Robinson, and made a gesture for another drink. A stiff one.

"So." He finally said, as weak as if someone had clubbed him over the head. "She's still good with knives."

"Yes." Fina confirmed. "She gave Vyse his scar that same night the Aquila burned and sank."

"I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Why?" Aika said cheerfully. "He saved my life and then he bragged about it for days. And it makes him look so daring, so dangerous…"

"So handsome." Fina added with a smirk. The comeback made Doc relax for half a second before he sobered up again.

"So why am I here, you two?" He asked them, and Aika started to answer before stopping as Vyse came trudging into the tavern, his blue coat and his black hat making him stand out in any crowd.

"Ladies. Doc." Vyse greeted them politely. He sized up the physician and then raised an eyebrow at Aika and Fina. "You told him?"

"He's filled in, yes." Aika replied. "He was just asking why he was here."

Vyse pulled over a free chair and spun it around so he could prop his arms and his chin on the back of it. "Well, Doc, I figured you might have an opinion on her to offer." He drawled, looking up when a serving girl brought over a shot glass of potent Valuan rye whiskey. "It's on me." He said, flipping the waitress a gold coin. "I'll settle up with Polly when we leave." Glowing at the tip, the girl nodded quickly and took off after setting Doc's shot down. "You knew her before. Now you know what life's turned her into. So what are you going to do about it, Doc?"

"What can I do about it?" The man shrugged miserably. "I thought she was dead. I thought she was dead and I ran and left her. Because of me, she thinks she's an orphan without any friends or family left in the world."

"No, what happened wasn't your doing." Fina quickly corrected the man. "It was Ramirez who killed her father. It was Ramirez that burned your ship and slaughtered the rest of the crew. You feel guilty and ashamed now, because you know the truth. But nothing you did 7...Sorry, 8 years ago was wrong." The Silvite bowed her head, undoubtedly reflecting on her own twisted feelings towards the Silvite she'd been friends with as a little girl. "His mistakes, his sins are not yours to claim. You could not control what he did, or what happened. You did the best you could."

"The question, Doc, is what are you going to do now?" Vyse pressed him.

"What are you going to do, Vyse?" Doc countered. "She's faced you three times already, and you've spared her life each time."

"I know it can't go on this way." Vyse said flatly. "We have too much to do and too many people counting on us to survive to let her kill us because of a misplaced vendetta."

"You told me she keeps to this span of Mid-Ocean. Maybe you could just avoid her…" The physician reasoned. Vyse cut him off by pulling a sheet of paper from his pocket and slapping it down on the table. There was a black spot, a mark, that filled most of it. The Angel of Death's calling card, Aika recalled and sighed in frustration.

"Not an option." Vyse rumbled. "She's called us out again, and if I don't go to her, she'll track us down and make her move when we can't afford the distraction. Piastol's little feud needs to end. Now."

"Are you asking for my permission to kill her?" Doc asked wearily.

Vyse snorted in disgust. "No, Doc. I'm not. I want to be the kind of man who spends more time saving lives than taking them. I'm asking you, begging you, to give me a better solution." He leaned more of his weight on his forearm, pressing it down against the table. "If she knew you were alive, if she knew she still had her little sister...would she stop?"

Doc breathed in and out, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling. "It's been a long time since I knew Piastol. If she's running around killing air pirates, then she's changed a great deal from the girl I remember. I don't know if she'll stop or not." He sized up the table and then settled his attention on the shot glass. He scooped it up and downed it in one smooth swallow. "But I have to try. For her sake. For Maria's. What do you need me to do?"

Vyse explained, and Doc listened.


Mid-Ocean, West of Sailor's Island

332 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape

Midday

There were more than a few members of the crew who questioned why they were headed west, where there was nothing but the small islands of territory that had fallen within the grip of the Empire over the years. With Enrique keeping quiet and mostly to himself outside of when Moegi forced her company onto him, the task of spreading the gossip fell to Fina. The Silvite did it in the simplest and most direct way possible, by standing up at breakfast after their holds were full of the supplies and ship parts needed for the latest refit and telling everyone exactly why they'd diverted west. There was a family torn apart by the poison of Valua that they were hoping to reunite, and after the death of Admiral Gregorio and Galcian usurping the Armada, they desperately needed one thing to go right for them. Fina had looked over to Aika after a lackluster response of cheers and grumbles, and Aika knew what her lover's blue eyes were expressing. It was a question, a followup to that comment made when sleep was almost on them. Do you want to kill her for what she's done to you? Aika had looked away, still shy of an answer. The plan was to neutralize Piastol as a threat and to give Doc and Maria peace and resolution. Aika was trying to empathize, but it was so hard. Every time she reminded herself of Maria's smiling face, so different from the mute girl who'd held a baby hamachou like a safety line and tried to think of Piastol as a sister, The Angel of Death took her place and her throat burned as she remembered the taste of blood and the terrifying feeling of drowning in it.

With clear skies and no headwinds buffeting them, the Delphinus ate up the lunaleagues in short order. Vyse ordered them to full stop, told Tikatika to keep his eyes open, then sat back in the captain's chair. With one leg bent up and resting on his knee, he brooded with open eyes.

"Captain?" Don said, voicing the concern for everyone on the bridge crew who wasn't numbered among his inner circle. "What are we doing?"

"Waiting." Vyse told him.

"Wouldn't it be better to track the Angel of Death down ourselves?"

"No." Vyse shook his head, majestic with his black captain's hat atop it. "Death will come to us."

And she did. It took all of three hours for the familiar white and silvery blue sail of her small ship to maneuver into Tikatika's field of vision, moving intently towards them. Vyse stood up from his chair, passed command of the bridge to Don, and shared a look with Aika, Fina, and Enrique before they all left to head down to the foredeck.

The time had come to end it. One way or another, the Angel of Death would trouble them no further.


Early Evening

Piastol's small ship hovered slightly over the rail of the stationary Delphinus, and Aika and the rest of their four-member expeditionary force stood waiting as Piastol threw a rope off the side of her vessel and came sliding down onto the metal deck plating.

Her hair was the same as it ever was, silver in front with feathered bangs of blue hanging from beyond her hairband. The scythe was new, though. It looked sharper and more well-balanced than the last one, and in a rare showing of bending to the elements, she had a black hooded wrap pulled around her. Her eyes still burned with unquenched fury, though.

"Vyse." She spat his name out. Vyse sighed and nodded.

"Piastol. Have you given any thought to what I told you last time?"

"Yes. More than enough." The pirate slayer replied. "You came."

"You left your mark at the guild." Vyse said. "You said you'd call me out one last time. Well, this is it, Piastol. After this, I'm done."

"So am I, Vyse." She readied her scythe, but Vyse held up a hand to stop her.

"Can we just...not?" He sighed. Aika looked over to Fina from the side of her eye, making sure that the Silvite was ready to throw out a spell if Piastol went crazy.

The Angel of Death twitched at Vyse's question. "I came here to fight you, Vyse. To decide who would…"

"Yeah, I figured." He cut her off. "But I'm really not in the mood for it. Not yet. There were some things I wanted to show you first. Things you need to know." He reached for his cutlasses, pulled them out of their scabbards…

...And dropped them on the deck. Piastol's eyes darted down to them, then back up to his face.

"Have you gone mad?" She demanded. "What's stopping me from gutting you like a skyfish right now?"

"I don't know. What is stopping you?" Vyse countered dryly. She hesitated again, then jerked a hand to sweep over Aika, Fina, and Enrique. He scoffed at her. "I'll make you a deal, Piastol. I'm hungry. It's coming up on dinnertime and I have people to see and a ship to take care of. You stow the attitude, leave that oversized wheat harvester here, and then once I've finished the day's business and told you what you needed to hear, if you still feel like you need to kill me, we'll come back out here. And then…" He shrugged.

"I don't make deals with pirates." She countered instantly.

"I've never been a pirate. I'm a Blue Rogue, and no innocent has ever been hurt by my sword." He retorted, folding his arms. "Can you say the same? Now. What's it going to be? Parley? Or do I need to pick these back up?" He nudged his weapons with the toe of his boot.

Aika didn't know what Piastol would do. She had one hand up playing lazily with a pigtail, high enough she could grab the grip of her boomerang if she needed to. Fina's hands clenched and unclenched, and Enrique was standing in that dangerous manner of his where he was half a second from drawing his blade and slicing you with it in the opening pull, a trick he'd picked up from Prince Daigo in Yafutoma.

"Do you have honor enough to keep your word?" Piastol demanded.

"Blue Rogues live by a Code, and I dare you to find another Blue Rogue who is more noble, more inspiring than our Vyse." Aika finally snapped, tired of the blue and silver-haired woman's barbed remarks. Piastol blinked at the fire in her tone, sized up Enrique one last time, then drew her scythe. With a flourishing twirl for show, she bent her knees and set it down on the deck.

"You have three hours, then." Piastol said, standing back up..

Vyse smiled. "Have you ever had Yafutoman stir fry?"

Piastol blinked and raised an eyebrow.


Piastol must have felt every eye on her as Vyse, Aika, Fina and Enrique escorted her from the foredeck to the stairwell and then down to the dining hall. Everyone had known who they were stopping and waiting for, though there were many who startled and took a second glance when they realized how young the Angel of Death was. She was Moegi's age or thereabouts.

Aika wondered what the woman was thinking about, as she took in the sight of everything and everyone with hawkish eyes, undoubtedly committing them to memory in case she felt the need to flee. She didn't react when she saw the thuggish-looking sailors formerly of Esperanza or the bare, barrel-chested Khazim. She didn't give a second glance at Ryu-Kan, who forewent the dining tables to sit over by Osman on the more comfortable throw pillows as he sedately enjoyed a steaming mug of tea. They passed by Tikatika's distracted form as he watched Merida dance brandishing Yafutoman fans without a remark.

One thing did break her stubborn mutism, and it was just what they had planned on. It was the sight of Marco and Pinta and little Maria chattering up a storm as they gobbled down seasoned roasted potatoes and string beans, while Pow and the gigantic Hamachou rolled and played close by.

"Children?" Piastol uttered, glancing over to Vyse. "You have children on board?"

"Yes." Vyse nodded, taking Piastol's arm and pulling her into the chow line before shoving a tray into her hands. "My crew comes from all over, Piastol. We have Valuans and Nasrians and Mid-Ocean island hoppers. We have Esperanzans and Ixa'takans and Yafutomans. You know what they all have in common?"

"They all want to see Valua burn?" She shot back crisply, earning a glower from Miss Polly on the other side of the line as she plopped a scoop of fried rice onto Piastol's tray.

"Do you believe I want to see Valua burn?" Enrique demanded, staring at Piastol. "Think for a moment before you throw out those accusations. Would I truly be Vyse's ally if his goal was the total destruction of my homeland?"

Piastol bit her tongue and moved down the line, taking a glass of watered down ale. "Why do you allow children on your crew? Don't you know the risks? Don't they?"

"Those kids as you call them, know a great deal more about risk than you could fathom." Vyse said calmly, guiding them over to their informal 'captain's table' and sitting down, bringing out his spoon. "Their stories are their own, but I'll say this much; Don't ever accuse Marco of being naive. He's here because I taught him to dream again, and because there was nothing waiting for him back where he grew up but starvation and misery. You might look at Marco and round-bellied Pinta and think that they're a couple of starry-eyed kids who think all of this is just fun and games, but they know it isn't. They're here because they chose to be. They took the Oath of the Blue Rogues because they wanted to, and that was after I told them about what it meant. What we're up against. Those two kids have faced the worst that the skies of Arcadia could throw at them and come out smiling on the other side of it, and there isn't anyone on my crew who doesn't look out for them." Vyse took a bite of his fried rice and hummed appreciatively, then went in for the pan-seared vegetables and meat glazed in a rich brown sauce.

"What do you see when you look around this dining hall?" Fina picked up the string of the conversation. "Do you see a room full of air pirates, Piastol? Corrupt and irredeemable? Because that's not what I see."

Piastol rolled her eyes as she took a bite. The irritation dropped for surprise when the flavors hit her, and Aika chuckled in spite of herself. "Not bad, huh?" She asked the blue and silver-haired woman, who went back to a glare but kept eating regardless. "You might know Polly. She ran the best tavern on Sailor's Island. Her daughter runs the place now, since she came with us when we told her we were sailing for the Dark Rift. She lost her husband there."

"We found her husband, too. He'd survived 20 years inside the Dark Rift, and most of his mind was gone. It's been slow going putting the pieces of himself back together, but he's never out of Polly's reach, and he's got his old friend Don Artours to help him with the transition as well." Vyse explained. "Things started tasting really good after we left Yafutoma with Emperor Tokugawa's blessing, and Miss Urala joined the cooking staff. There were the usual kitchen rivalries, but Polly and Urala have taken to sharing ingredients and cooking methods, and some of the things they make use combinations of their two styles. This included. Yafutoman rice. Nasrian spice." He grinned, once he realized that he'd rhymed it.

Piastol swallowed, huffed, and went back for another spoonful. She did sweep the room again with a less hardened eye, though. Aika found herself doing the same, trying to muster the same fresh-eyed perspective around this strange group of sailors. Piastol didn't know the crew like she did, like Vyse and Fina did. A few people still glanced over at their table, sizing up the new girl, but most shrugged and went back to their business. They were so many, numerous and no two alike. Lapen and Lawrence talked about their days and fed scraps to Pow when they thought nobody was looking, trying to hide how they felt about each other in public. Khazim's gunners and Belle's torpedo crew squared off against one another, a mix of jokes and arguing that descended into laughs and grins of real camaraderie, especially when Belle blushed and looked away while Khazim bellowed and flexed his pectorals. Moegi and her ladies-in-waiting resembled a flock of colorful birds at their own table as they nattered away in a mixture of Yafutoman and Mid-Ocean tradespeak with Moegi seemingly holding court. Ilchymis bantered freely with Robinson from their perch up at the bar opposite of the chow line, settled and smiling as he seemed to give the old sailor an on-the-spot examination. And at her own table, alone but never lonely, Mistress Kalifa sat with her eyes hidden behind her thick glasses and smiled as she wrote in another of her books, looking up and around the room every so often. Taking it all in.

Piastol exhaled. Vyse set his fork down, cleared his throat, and looked at her. "What do you see when you look at my crew?"

"I don't know what I see." Piastol admitted, sounding so angry at having to admit that. "You don't look like pirates." Vyse made to speak and she glared at him. "Yes, I know. You prefer to be called Blue Rogues."

"Blue Rogues aren't always sailors." Vyse smiled. "Let me guess, you have this image of us as your stereotypical air pirates, don't you? Hard-drinking, hard-fighting, coarse manners, terrible smelling, a blight on honest working society?" He gestured out around the large room, lit by the hanging electrical chandelier in the ceiling and lined with tall reinforced windows. "But that's not us. We're sailors, yes. But we're also doctors. And fighters. And scouts. And cooks, and carpenters, diplomats and explorers. We're the oppressed and the liberated. We're mechanics and engineers, caretakers and cartographers. We are Blue Rogues, Piastol, and we wear many hats." He smugly concluded, nudging his black tricorn. Aika huffed, reached across the table and grabbed it off the top of his head. "Hey!"

"And you like wearing this one too much for your own good sometimes." She told him, sticking her tongue out as she put it on. He sighed and rolled his shoulders as Fina giggled behind her hand.

"What's the point of this, Vyse?" Piastol demanded. "Why show me all of this? What are you trying to convince me of?"

"Ideally?" Vyse mused, his face turning serious as he turned his face away to look at her. "I'd like you to see that just because someone ends up on Valua's bounty board doesn't mean that they're a heinous criminal to be taken down with extreme prejudice. One-Armed Drachma was on that board, and his only crime was working with the black market so he could rig up his fishing boat to go hunt down an arcwhale. Centime the Tinker is on their wanted list. You want to know what he does? He takes care of orphans, and on the side he's been helping the Ixa'takan people train themselves to have their own military force so that Valua or the next band of thugs won't be able to roll around and kill and enslave them again. And as for me? You want to know what I ended up on their hit list for?"

Piastol stared at him, and didn't give the satisfaction of taking the bait. Fina reached her hand over and laid it on top of his, and Vyse turned his hand over so their fingers could interlace.

"He and Aika were there to save me." Fina said, beaming at him. Vyse smiled back and winked at her.

"Anytime, love."

"We'd always come after you, Fina. You know that." Aika reminded her. The Silvite's grin deepened, and she managed a nod of her head.

"Valua wants to take over the world. We've just been the biggest thorn in their side keeping them from managing it." Vyse concluded. Aika caught movement from the corner of her eye and saw Doc coming towards their table with slow, slightly unsteady steps, angled so that Piastol wouldn't see him coming. Vyse saw him as well, though his goggle and the tilt of his head kept him from betraying where his eye was looking at. "It's been one hell of a journey and it's not done yet. What makes it worth it, to me, isn't just going new places and finding things nobody else has ever seen or dreamed of. It's all the people I get to meet along the way." He gestured to the table where the children were sitting. "Like those boys there."

"Who's the girl then?" Piastol muttered. "I thought she was one of yours too."

"No." Vyse said, tapping the table twice. It was a signal that they'd all agreed on, the moment when Doc could jump into the conversation. "She's not a Blue Rogue."

"She's mine." Doc said from behind Vyse and Piastol. She turned to see who'd spoken up with that grim, dead gaze of hers, and Aika saw the exact moment when she recognized him. Piastol's face didn't change, but Aika knew it anyways. Because she froze.

Doc was smiling, and he rubbed the back of his head like Aika now knew he did whenever he was nervous. "Hey captain."

"Doc." Vyse nodded back. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I just thought you might like to know that I helped your Dr. Ilchymis finish up the last batch of physicals. Your crew's fit and ready to fly."

"Glad to hear it." Vyse said, and paused while Doc turned his gaze to Piastol. "Oh, sorry. I should introduce you. Doc, this is the Angel of Death that you've been hearing so much about."

"Really?" Doc played his part by raising his eyebrows and seeming surprised, but Aika caught how his hand trembled in the pocket of his white coat. "The pirate killer?"

"One and the same." Vyse confirmed.

"It's a good thing you're not a pirate then." Doc smiled. He glanced over to the table where the children were at and exhaled. "Thanks for keeping an eye on Maria while I was busy."

"It's no problem. Honestly, I think it's good for Pinta and Marco to be around someone close to their own age every so often. And she's a sweetheart. Reminds me a little of this girl back in my home village."

"Maria?" Piastol echoed, looking between Doc and the blond-haired girl laughing at the monstrous Hamachou's antics. The quaver in her voice was noticeable. "Is she your…"

"She's not mine by blood, no." Doc cut her off. "I served on a Valuan ship, the Aquila as the ship's physician. Maria was the daughter of the admiral in command. Well...one of his daughters." He looked down and shook his head.

"Wh...what happened?" Piastol got out, and Aika could feel her fighting the urge to tremble. The woman's hand gripped the edge of the table tightly as she anchored herself.

"To the other daughter?" Doc inferred, and shrugged. "There was a young officer by the name of Ramirez who served on board the ship. He found out the admiral was profiting from the slave labor of the Ixa'takan people even after he'd promised to speak to the Empress about ending the practice. Close as I can figure, Ramirez went mad, killed everyone, and set the ship on fire. He spared my life, and it was all I could do to take Maria and run for it. I tried to find Maria's sister, but...I couldn't. And the blaze was too out of control, we had to run while we still could."

Piastol turned her head back towards Vyse with wide eyes and an open mouth. Vyse caught her staring, looked back at her, and gave the slightest nod.

Yes, it was all true. Yes, Vyse hadn't lied when he'd told her that they weren't responsible for the death of her father and the burning of her ship. Then Doc spoke up and broke the quiet of her revelations.

"Well, I suppose we should be taking off here soon. Moons knows you have places to be, right Captain Vyse?"

"We usually do." Vye agreed softly. "But the kids aren't finished with their meal yet. Why don't you go get your ship ready to fly, and then swing back in half an hour? If we're lucky, Marco and Pinta will wear her out so she'll hit the bunk as soon as you get her back aboard."

"That's not a bad idea." Doc chuckled, and turned to look at Piastol again. His smile didn't dissipate. "It was nice meeting you, Miss Angel. If you ever get hurt, you're welcome to come by and see me."

"Is she happy?" Piastol blurted out, and Doc blinked a few times, stunned. Piastol shook her head. "I - she - Maria. Is she happy?"

"...Some days." Doc answered slowly. "She wasn't for a lot of years. She didn't talk for a long time, the shock of losing her entire family was a lot for a girl so young. It's only recently that she's been doing better, after Captain Vyse here kept bringing moonfish to feed that pet bird of hers. It's been a work in progress, but we're getting there."

Piastol bit her lip and nodded, then turned her head down to the table, refusing to meet the eyes of anyone. Doc looked over her head to Aika and Fina, and his eyes glimmered and grew red.

"Go on, Doc. We'll keep an eye on Maria until you get back." Vyse said. The man sucked in a big breath of air as he fought back his tears, but he nodded and walked off.

Aika couldn't quite breathe as she watched and waited for Piastol to react. To say something. To do something. But the woman didn't. She just sat there and stared at the table, trembling.

"Piastol?" Vyse said carefully, as though the mention of her name might break her. It nearly did. The woman jerked her head up, not a shred of her famous composure or murderous presence remaining. She looked utterly defeated, blown down and ruined.

In an eyeblink, it was gone, and she jerked up to her feet.

"No more delays." She got out woodenly. "We have a fight to finish."

"After everything I've showed you?" Vyse demanded. "Piastol, you don't have to…"

"Shut up." She growled, and a table away, one of the crewmembers listening in dropped their fork onto the floor. The nearest conversations stopped entirely. "The Angel of Death has come for you, Vyse. This ends tonight. One way or another."

"I don't want to fight you." Vyse argued.

"You don't have a choice."

"I can't fight you!" Vyse snapped.

"Then you will die!" She hissed, and stormed out of the dining hall. They all watched her go, and then Vyse slumped down in his seat, sighing loudly.

Aika's blood was boiling again. Even after all of that, Piastol was still going to fight them? "Vyse, if you think I'm just going to sit back and let her…"

"I know." He muttered. "Damnit." He rubbed at his hair and looked over to Aika. "I'm going to need that back." Aika took it off and held it across the table, but she didn't let go of it when he grabbed the other end. He looked over at her. "Aika, we knew this might happen. I'm not going to lose. You know that I won't. I can't."

Because the world needs you. Because this crew needs you. Because you're the only person who can stop Valua. The answers all rattled off in her mind, one after the other. Sensible reasons that made perfect sense.

Reasons that all got blown away when Vyse leaned across the table and put his other hand to the side of her face, making her go still by the heat in his brown eyes as he looked at her.

"I'm not leaving you. Ever." He promised, and Aika blushed as she finally let go of his hat. She'd forgotten the most important reason of all why he wouldn't lose, wouldn't die to Piastol.

Because you love me.


Foredeck

The woman out on the foredeck of the Delphinus was not the Angel of Death that Aika was used to seeing. The Angel of Death was composed, settled, always in control. The Angel of Death was without emotion and possessed of cold fury. She was a living and summary execution to those who earned her attention.

The woman out on the deck was not the Angel of Death. She was not composed, she'd ripped the tie out of her hair and it hung around her in a wild halo. The strands of blue spread out in all directions behind her shoulders and in front of them, prickly with static cling. Her blue eyes were wild and feral and rimmed with red, and her steps were so erratic as she swung her scythe out in front of her at unseen enemies.

This was Piastol Mendosa, twisted and reshaped into something that wasn't the girl who'd given Vyse his scar, nor the woman that had slaughtered so many labeled as air pirates. She fell somewhere in between them, and Aika realized she didn't know what Piastol would do. The thought terrified her.

Vyse took a step forward away from Aika and the other two, arms held out to the sides placatingly. "Piastol, please. You don't have to do this."

"You're a pirate." She ground out.

"I'm a Blue Rogue!" He shouted back at her. "And I didn't kill your father! I didn't set your ship on fire! We were there to help!"

"I KNOW!" She screamed, more at the pink skies as the sun started to set than to him. She curled into herself as she did, and when the madness faded from her eyes, only pained confusion was left. "I know." Piastol repeated in a soft, confessing voice.

"Please. Don't do this." Vyse begged her. "Every time you've fought us, you've lost. The last two times you couldn't even hurt us badly."

She turned away and shook her head. "Not this time. Just you and me. No spells."

Aika looked over to Vyse and saw him shake his head. "Why, Piastol? You don't think I can connect the dots? Your sister is alive. She's alive and she needs you."

"No she doesn't." Piastol denied him, turning back with a face full of fury again. Moons, her mood shifts were giving Aika whiplash. "Nobody needs me." She walked over to the pile of Vyse's cutlasses, lying right where he'd put them before, and kicked them over to his feet. "Shut up and fight."

Vyse sighed and tightened his captain's hat down on his head before picking his Gigas alloy-forged swords up. "I won't lose." He promised her, and started to walk towards her.

Piastol just smiled wildly, adopted a modified duelist's stance, and beckoned him forward with a wave of her hand.


True to her word, Piastol conjured up no spells. No blast of lightning left her free hand, no crashing dynamo of wave and water tried to crush him, no heart-stopping needle of dangerous silver magic hedged him in for a possibly lethal blow. It was moonsteel against Gigas-augmented moonsteel, wild and furious blows, spiritual-energy fueled energy slashes, and the occasional flurry of thrown daggers that were both real or duplicates made of pure power.

Aika noticed something else, and she suspected that Vyse did too if the telling grunt from Enrique was an indicator. Piastol's attacks were wild and frenzied, she was throwing everything she had of her speed and strength into them. But they were unfocused, hurried and harried. She wasn't giving an inch but she was still losing, even when the wild kicks of her bladed boots were added in. Vyse was composed and settled, calmer than he had been when they fought and lost to Galcian back at Dangral Island. He ducked some of her wild swings. Deflected others. Blocked the ones that were properly aimed, and when he couldn't manage it when she channeled up enough strength to make her scythe burn and came after him with a flurry of blows and kicks, he used his swords to minimize his exposure and keep his wounds to glancing cuts and scrapes.

She was losing. Vyse was winning the fight, and she got even more desperate, more wild-eyed as the duel dragged on. Three minutes. Four. Five. Vyse conserved his strength, fighting defensively, only occasionally rallying a counterattack against her, relying on the floating specters of skeletal wraiths to keep her on edge as the fight dragged on. The 'pirates of old' as he called them, flung themselves in front of her unpowered attacks, absorbing the thrown daggers and slashes before hurling back windsickle arcs twice as strong. She dodged the first five counterattacks early in the fight when she had the energy, but by the sixth minute her chest was heaving as she gulped down lungfuls of air and her face and arms were slick with sweat. The next strike cut through her armored leggings and scored a line into her calf, earning a scream of pain out of her. Fina flinched a little at the sound, Enrique's face was hard as stone. Aika looked between their conflicting reactions and wondered what hers should be.

Piastol was their enemy. Piastol had killed her. Piastol had kept up a blood feud against Vyse out of misplaced blame for an event that they'd had no part in, solely because of a case of wrong place, wrong time. Piastol had a little sister who didn't know she was alive. Piastol knew the truth now, but she was still fighting. Still giving everything she had to try and take Vyse down. Aika didn't know what to do.

She should be cheering that Vyse was winning.

She should be weeping, that Piastol was bleeding, losing.

Piastol hobbled after, exhaustion and her wound slowing her down. The pressure of the fight shifted as Vyse took the initiative, coming after her with deliberated and rehearsed strikes and combat patterns that he had learned from Enrique and honed to his dual-sword fighting style. It was like watching the fight they'd had against Galcian in reverse. Vyse didn't just win against Piastol, he utterly deconstructed her. A slice along one shoulder that tore away a shock of her dyed blue hair. A gash to her unarmored waist that bled freely and must have stung terribly. For all of that, Aika knew that he was intentionally dragging the fight out. He was biding his time, driving her closer and closer to the ragged and frayed edge of her ability as he coasted on the indomitable strength of all the generations of air pirates between him and Daccat imbued in his tricorn hat, added to his own. He was waiting…

For what?

In the eighth minute of their fight, when she was wheezing and Vyse was finally winded and had a thin sheen of sweat coating his face, he must have decided that it was enough. The end of the final duel between Vyse of the Blue Rogues and the Angel of Death lasted all of five seconds.

She came at him with a wild sideswing as though she were mowing down a field of wheat. He caught the curved blade between his two, weaved around it and redirected it down towards her legs. She saw the danger, gasped, backpedaled in a hop and Vyse's boot snapped up, kicking at her knees while she was still in the air. She landed on her back and managed to snap her scythe up over her body before the wind got knocked out of her, and Vyse cleaved the shaft in two with a slash that glowed a brilliant blue along the edge of his blade. Her arms and the shattered halves of her weapon fell off to the sides and her weakened grip failed completely, sending the scythe and its broken shaft flying away from her.

It ended with Piastol flat on her back, bleeding, struggling to breathe, weapon broken, and Vyse's swords crossed like scissors at her neck.

"We're done." Vyse said, his voice thick with everything he felt and refused to show. He stood over her, still as a statue with his swords held tight to her throat. Waiting as she wheezed and struggled to pull air back into her lungs, sense back into her battered brain. "You've lost, Piastol."

Aika expected defiance. She expected the Angel of Death to rant, to rave, to curse him out. She hadn't expected all the fight to drain out of her, or for Piastol to slump back bonelessly with her eyes so dead and empty.

"End it." She rasped. "Kill me."

Vyse blinked. "What? No."

"Kill me!" Piastol demanded.

"No!" Vyse refused her again, pulling his swords back and stumbling away from her. "Damnit, what the hell's wrong with you?!"

Piastol slowly dragged herself up until she could sit, and she dropped her head in her hands. "You don't understand." She forced out. "I have to die." Vyse stared at her disbelievingly, and Piastol…

Shattered.

"They can't know." Piastol wept. "Please, Vyse. She's happy. She's safe. Let her remember her sister for who I was, not...not this."

"So change." Vyse pressed her. "If you were really a monster, we would have killed you. You're not! You're a big sister to a wonderful little girl, and you're the only family she has left in the world! Please!" He sheathed his blades and held up his hands in front of him. "Maria doesn't know, but Doc does. He knew who you were even before he saw you in the dining hall, and you know what? He blames himself for it all! But it's not his fault anymore than it's yours! For two decades, Valua's trampled over one life after another and ruined them all! The Admiralty and the Empress have poisoned their own homeland and keep reaching out to ruin everything else, and Ramirez is helping Galcian to do it!" There, there at last came the flare of fire that Aika had expected, for nothing quite infuriated Vyse so much as total oppression.

Her Pirate would see all the world free and standing as equals, and he burned the brightest in the face of any injustice that prevented it.

Piastol numbly shook her head, too broken to argue, too broken to care. "Maria Mendosa lost her entire family that night. The Angel of Death has no family."

"The hell she doesn't!" A voice shouted out from the hatch at the back of the foredeck. Aika turned and saw Doc himself walking out onto the deck, his eyes wet and his jaw clenched hard. "You are Piastol Mendosa, and you have a little sister who can barely remember her older sister, but still loves and misses her."

Piastol swallowed back a sob. "Doctor Levinstone."

"And you still have me." The older man pressed her, coming nearer. "Please, Piastol. I haven't told her anything yet. She deserves to hear it from you. She needs her big sister, now more than ever."

"I'm a murderer. I've taken so many lives."

"So have I, and they deserved it." Vyse countered flatly. "People have called me all kinds of names. Vyse the Blue Rogue. Vyse the Daring. Vyse the Charismatic. Vyse the Daring. Vyse the Fearless. But at the end of the day, they're just titles, just like Angel of Death is a title. Who are you, and what do you want?!" He shouted at the end, making her jump.

Piastol slumped to her knees, weeping and shaking her head. "Take care of her, David."

She pulled a small hidden knife out from her sleeveless top and brought it to her throat, and everybody screamed.

Only Aika moved in time, hurling her boomerang on instinct. It screamed through the air and smashed into Piastol's hand hard enough to break bone, and the woman cried out as the knife dropped out of her smashed appendage, falling to the deck beside Aika's boomerang. Aika was on her in a flash, all teeth and fire as her aura burned around her.

"You - you stupid, self-centered, arrogant…" Aika hissed. "You want to make up for all the killing?! You want to make amends for the people you killed who weren't cold-blooded maniacs? Like me?! You think it's fair to Doc or your sister for you to stop breathing, to leave them behind right when they've nearly got you back?! You're not the Angel of Death, you never were! You're just another girl who got her world ripped out from under her and kept swinging back out at everyone to make up for it! Well guess what? Maybe you oughta give living a chance!"

Piastol collapsed in her arms, broken hand and all, and Aika huffed as Fina and Doc raced over. The two gathered the shattered woman in their arms and used magic and medicine and plenty of hugs to piece her back together.

Aika grabbed her boomerang and stepped away, sighing as she took up the space off of Vyse's right shoulder. "Fuck." She whispered. "What a fucking mess."

"Yeah." Vyse agreed hoarsely. "But she's alive."

"She's messed up." Aika argued.

"But she has a sister again, and Doc...Levinstone?" Vyse sounded out the unfamiliar name. "She needs time to heal, and people who care about her. Now she has both."

"I guess." Aika hummed, folding her arms. "You didn't kill her."

"Killing is always the last resort." Vyse pointed out, eyeing her. "What about you? I thought you were still conflicted about whether it was better to have her live or die."

Aika thought about it, realizing that the conflict which had been plaguing her for days was gone, settled and resolved in a way that made her feel balanced. She'd ended up saving Piastol's life, preventing her from slashing her throat open when it was clear Vyse had no intention of slicing it for her.

"Dying's easy." Aika shrugged, surrendering to the one-armed hug Vyse pulled her into as they watched Doc Levinstone put his white coat over the broken woman's shoulders while Fina healed the reset and splinted bones of her broken hand. "Living's hard."


Mid-Ocean

333 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape

Morning

Piastol stayed aboard her own ship that night, but when the morning rolled around, she'd tied it off to Doc's houseboat. With Maria back aboard alongside her towering behemoth of a hamachou, it was left to Doc to say his farewells to the captain and lead crew of the Delphinus.

"So. Doctor David Levinstone." Vyse repeated the man's full name.

"Former Medical Officer of the Valuan Armada." Enrique added helpfully.

"You can see why I prefer people just calling me Doc." The man smiled, rubbing at the back of his head again. "I've never thought of myself as a Dave, after all."

"You're all set?" Vyse asked him, looking at the houseboat. "Got everything you need?"

"Resupplied back at Sailor's Island, thanks to the bartering skills of your requisitions officer Osman." He chuckled. "That woman has one hell of a talent for cutting a deal."

"She does." Vyse agreed with a laugh, and went quiet when his eyes settled on Piastol, standing up on the deck of Doc's ship, watching Maria play with her bird as she managed a weak smile. The blue dye was washed out of her silver hair completely, and it hung behind her head in a single ponytail. "Is Piastol going to be all right?"

"Yesterday was hard for her." Doc admitted. "I get the feeling that she wants to get close to Maria again and be a part of her life, but she's...not sure how to make it work." The man sighed. "We're working her into it. For now, at least, Maria knows her as Miss Angel, the daughter of an old 'friend' of mine who's staying with us for a while."

"You're giving them time to get to know each other again." Fina said knowingly. "Without the pressure of being sisters."

"Until Piastol's ready to tell her sister the truth." Doc nodded. "And then, when she is...maybe they can help each other move on. Maybe they can help each other learn to smile all the time." Doc turned back and looked at the four of them. "Maybe you all can give us a world worth smiling about."

"I'm sure trying." Vyse reassured him. "Are you going to be all right, Doc?"

Doc considered the question, looking back over to his ship with the huge bird and the two estranged sisters who would eventually heal. His shoulders straightened up and he smiled before nodding.

"You know?" He chuckled, turning back to them. "I think I just might be." He stuck his hand out. "Thank you, Vyse. For everything. If you ever need anything…"

Vyse shook his hand. "I know who to look for. Take care of yourself, Doc. And take care of them."

"The Mendosas are safe with me." The man reassured them, and walked over to his ship. He passed by Piastol and put a hand on her shoulder for a second before going over and picking Maria up, taking her back inside the houseboat so they could shove off. Piastol lingered at the ship's railing a little longer, looking down towards them.

Aika stared back, wondering what was going through the woman's mind. The hardness she was so used to was completely gone, and something fragile and nascent had replaced it.

Piastol gave them a nod and mouthed two words. Thank You. Then she turned and headed inside, and the houseboat and the tied-on schooner Piastol used rose up and sailed away from the Delphinus.

"So." Enrique said, as the ships flew into the distance. "That's that, then. Another piece of the puzzle about Galcian and Ramirez revealed and resolved."

"A broken family reunited." Fina hummed in agreement. "That wasn't easy for any of us, but...You did a good thing." She looked first to Vyse, then to Aika and smiled shyly. "You both did. And in the end, Aika, you didn't kill her."

"Well, I don't know about that." Aika mused, having thought it over before she had slept. "Piastol Mendosa may be alive and well - but I think we killed the Angel of Death."

"Semantics." Enrique rolled his eyes. "What now, captain?"

"Now?" Vyse thought it over. "Now we sail for home. We have a ship to refit back in drydock and not a lot of time to do it in. Not if we're going to make it happen before De Loco finishes modifying the Chameleon to beat us to Fina's skyship." He clapped a hand on Enrique's shoulder. "Come on then, let's get up to the bridge and get moving. Aika, Fina, you coming?"

"In a while." Fina said, reaching out and taking Aika's hand. The redhead made a small noise and startled, but didn't pull away. "I thought we might stay out here a while longer."

Vyse smiled. "Far be it from me to keep you two from cuddling. I'll have Lawrence keep it at quarter speed for the first two minutes, that should give you time to get inside before the wind whips up too badly."

"Thank you Vyse." Fina said gratefully, and then the men were gone, leaving Fina to lean into Aika's side. Aika let go of her hand long enough to wrap an arm around the other woman's waist, and the Silvite hummed appreciatively when Aika traced her fingertips over the curve of her hip.

"Hey, you." Aika whispered. "You doing okay, Princess?"

"Right now I am." Fina answered, turning her head slightly so her face was turned in towards Aika's bare collarbone, and she drew in the smell of her. The ease of Fina's action made Aika blush a little. "We righted one wrong that Ramirez and the Armada caused today."

"Yeah. Guess we did." Aika agreed. "That leaves, what, a dozen more to go?"

"Oh, at least." Fina said, and turned her head up so Aika could see her smile. "But it doesn't seem quite so enormous an undertaking when I have you and Vyse here with me."

"That's what we're here for. You help carry the burdens of the people you love, and they do the same for you." Aika told her. "At least, that's what Missus D said back when I was younger."

"Seems like good advice." Fina pointed out. "Undoubtedly, she and Vyse's father had quite a few fences to mend for them to still be together and in love after all these years. We could learn a thing or two from her."

"Except how to cook." Aika grumbled, getting a laugh from the Silvite.

"Aika, Relena's a wonderful cook!" Fina giggled.

"Yeah, and she tried for years to teach me, but I'm shit at it, so she eventually gave up. All my talent went into keeping airships flying."

Fina pulled away from Aika's arm and turned in so that they were leaned into one another with their chests pressing together. There was pure love and laughter and joy in Fina's eyes when she stared at Aika, their faces only inches apart.

"I suppose I'll have to pick up the slack then." Fina teased her. "It wouldn't do for both of us to be terrible in the kitchen."

"Nahhh. We'll make Vyse cook." Aika grinned down at the Silvite. "After all, he's going to have to get good at putting buns in your oven."

Fina's eyes misted up at the thought of becoming pregnant, and she leaned her head against Aika's shoulder again, wrapping her arms around her and stroking Aika's bare back.

"Someday." She whispered, and Aika closed her eyes, hugging her even tighter and thinking of what her Princess would look like with a child in her swollen belly. The thought turned her on more than she cared to admit, but it inspired tenderness as well.

"Someday." Aika promised her, listening to the sound of Fina's breathing against her heartbeat and the low moan of the Mid-Ocean winds.