(425 words.)
Daud had once considered Billie Lurk to be one of his greatest accomplishments, had taken great pride in her abilities, in every clean cut of her blade as though he held the weapon himself. Even after she had betrayed him, he couldn't help but admire the attempt. It was something he might have done, in another time and place, and he had taught her well.
He looks at her now, scarred and weary and older than he was when they first met, still just as deadly with a sword in her hand, and he is no longer sure he should be proud of what he's done.
She was young when he brought her into the Whalers. Not the youngest he'd ever trained and certainly no longer a child, in either age or attitude, but still quite young, with talents that she could have put to many other uses in her life. She could have done anything; instead, she is here now, in a rundown shack in a dusty Karnaca slum, helping an old man pull off one last job, an almost certain suicide mission, just so he could die feeling like he did one damn thing in his life that was worthwhile.
"Have you ever hated me for turning you into a killer?"
Billie looks up at him, eyebrow raised, half a smile on her face like she thinks he might be making a joke. "I was already a killer. You just made me a better one."
"That doesn't answer my question."
She lets out a sigh as the smile fades, and she tips her head back, staring up at the ceiling. "No," she says eventually. "I'd have been dead without you, starved or hunted down in the streets. Maybe some would say that's better, if I'd died then instead of living to do what I did, but I don't agree with that. I regret a lot from that time, but I never hated you for any of it. I've done good work since then. I'm grateful that I was alive for it."
Daud looks at her for a moment, then nods slowly. "I see," he says.
She shakes her head and kicks him lightly under the table. "Come on, old man," she says, pulling her maps and reconnaissance notes closer, "we've got work to do."
He nods again, sitting up straighter and tucking his leg under his chair and out of her reach. He could do nothing about the past, but they were both still here, and right now they had something worth doing.