Chapter 5: Conflicting Loyalties

Well, at least this only took slightly less time than the 2 weeks I had planned originally. I wonder if I can keep that up. I guess I'm challenging myself.

I straight up can't put smash down right now. But damn I feel bad since I've played Shulk for like 2 years and played evenly with the level 9 AI, then I play Pyra/Mythra for 2 weeks and now I'm 3 stocking the AIs.

…

"Should we wait for backup?" Brandon asked, nervously fidgeting with his pistol since he was still slightly rattled from the encounter with the previous sea creature.

"Against this?" Nia paused for a second, "no. We shouldn't need backup since this one doesn't have an armored exoskeleton for you two to struggle against. Besides, Malos, Sever, and Jin will sense me and Dromarch going into battle." She gestured to the line of Ether connecting her to Dromarch.

Well that confirmed that the other guy was a Driver or Blade. Though he still didn't know which one he was, Jin or Sever.

Rex nodded and hesitantly hit the button again.

The door let out a hiss and started to grind open. This time though, Brandon could see the creature's snout and snarling mouth sticking through the gap, snapping at thin air, desperate for another meal.

"Wait, can't we try closing the door on it's head?" Brandon asked, his pistol at the ready.

"I can try," Rex shouldered his sword and put his free hand on the panel, "but these things usually have safety features that would prevent that."

"It's worth a shot."

Rex nodded and as more of the Aligo's head emerged from the doors, he hit the button. The doors stopped and started to close again but whined in complaint as they sensed the beast's head and continued opening.

"So much for that idea," Brandon muttered as he opened fire at the monster. This time though, without what was essentially sloped armor, the gauss spikes pierced right through the creature's skin, causing it to scream in pain.

Though inflicting pain didn't mean it was dead. Nothing critical was being damaged as it was still thrashing around.

Brandon cursed as his gun overheated and he had to quickly holster it or risk letting his hand burn. Nia gave him a glance before rolling her eyes and stepping forward to make use of the opening, slashing at the animal's face and forcing it to retreat as the doors continued to open at a snail's pace.

Nia jumped back as the monster was able to make it past the small gap and Brandon fired a few potshots as his gun cooled off.

Nia shared a look with Rex and the two nodded, going to either side of the Aligo as it was rushing forward at Brandon who rolled out of the way. The two melee fighters rushed in on both sides behind the Aligo and stabbed their weapons into its flank.

Nia then ran her dual rings across the animal's flank before bringing them down onto the creature's neck and decapitating it.

Brandon snorted, "I'm supposed to be security, huh. What a joke."

"I did say we could handle security," Nia said.

"You did. But I'd rather be useless than piss off insurance companies."

"What about the other teams?" Rex asked, "if they're all fighting monsters as strong as these…"

"They'll be fine. Each team has four people with them. Two ranged, two melee. If they're half as competent as you, and they should be, they'll be fine."

Rex still looked worried but nodded, trusting Brandon's reasoning. He swung his sword around a few times and collapsed it before clicking it onto the mount on his back.

Nia did the same, though she had to power her weapons down first before going onto her belt.

"Well," Brandon gestured with his pistol, keeping it in his hand for now as he scanned the hallway for threats, "salvagers first."

Rex smirked and gave Brandon a sarcastic two fingered salute, a parody of Brandon's usual greeting. Brandon swung lazily at Rex's head with his free hand, of which Rex easily ducked under with a laugh.

Rex then led the way into the hallway and was followed closely behind by Brandon who was essentially aiming his gun right over Rex's shoulder.

"Well this is a new low, being relegated to a living shield." Rex joked.

"It's a good thing that you've got a thick skull to use as one."

Brandon noticed Nia roll her eyes and shake her head next to him.

Brandon let a cheeky grin out, "man, Dromarch. How do you put up with Nia all day? It must be exhausting."

"What? Why you-"

The tiger-like blade cleared his throat meaningfully, "while I will not say ill of my lady, I will say that life is certainly not boring."

"Dromarch?" Nia groaned, "not you too."

Brandon struggled holding in his laughter, "and what's up with the whole 'my lady' thing? It's an interesting nickname."

Nia opened her mouth but paused as understanding dawned on her face, "oh no, you'd better not start calling me that."

"Of course not," Brandon said, barely holding his composure, "milady."

"You are single handedly the worst person I have ever met."

That proved to be the last straw and Brandon let out a roaring laugh that filled the hallway.

"You love me and you know it."

He clapped a hand to her shoulder as she tried to pick up the pace, "I'm joking, I'm joking. Don't take me too seriously. A lot of salvager humor is like this so keep that in mind next job you hire a bunch."

Nia seemed to visibly green, nauseated by the thought, "I think I'll pass on more salvaging work."

"You know though," Brandon said, sobering up a little, "shouldn't your team be with us for this?"

She waved a hand, "we'll be fine. Probably better we find what we're looking for faster instead of waiting for us to all group up together again. Jin and Malos will catch up."

"And who was the third one? Sever?"

"Yeah. Don't like him much either. Guess it makes sense since he is Malos' Blade."

Well that clarified who's who, "alright," he said as their party approached the end of the hallway, "uh, we didn't pass any doors, did we?"

"No," Rex said as he inspected the wall at the end of the hall, "I think we just reached one." He waved a hand over a symbol on the wall and pressed a hand to it. The circle around it glowed a faint blue before it rumbled and the 'wall' slid down into the floor, revealing more hallway behind it and a similar looking wall only a few meters in.

Rex took a step forward before Brandon put an arm in front of him. "Wait, shouldn't we be wary of traps? This was clearly built to keep people out."

Nia's feline ears twitched, "now that you mention it, I feel like I can hear something buzzin'."

"Agreed," Dromarch said.

"Where?"

"Sounds like the floor, but I can't tell."

"Electrified floor?" Brandon speculated, "if that's the case, Rex will be fine since he's got rubber boots."

"Well now that you've basically confirmed that there is a trap, I don't want to go further," Rex said, frowning at the area he wanted to access but couldn't.

Brandon shrugged off his backpack and flipped open the top case and rummaged around the inside, searching for a disposable object. After a moment though, he decided he didn't really have anything that he could just throw away, he closed it and slipped a water bottle out of the side pockets and chucked it through the hallway.

Nothing activated and the water bottle hit the floor with a solid thud.

"Well, there you go," Brandon gestured, "no other traps."

Rex bit his lip and stepped forward hesitantly. He put his foot down slowly and when there was no reaction he put his full weight down onto the metal floor. He cringed for a moment, expecting the worst but nothing came to pass. He breathed a sigh of relief before heading to the other door.

Brandon's eyebrows knit together, "what's that?"

"What's what?" Nia asked.

"Every time he takes a step, blue energy clings to his boots. That's not how electricity works."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know but I think we just got lucky that whatever the hell this is isn't hurting Rex."

"Hey guys," Rex waved, "I got the door!"

"The buzzin's stopped," Nia commented.

"Shall we then, milady?"

Nia hissed, "I swear I'm going to stab you."

Brandon chuckled, "sorry, couldn't help myself."

Dromarch stepped forward first, and when there was no negative reaction, nodded for Nia and Brandon to follow. Rex went into the room at the end of the hall first with Brandon and Nia trailing behind.

Brandon gave the room a cursory glance before finally holstering his weapon, then his eyes were immediately drawn to the center of the room. There stood a pedestal with a massive red sword placed in it with a girl in what looked like a cryostasis pod behind it.

So that was the Aegis, a Blade, what else could she be after all, dressed in red and black with brilliant red hair, an emerald green core crystal sat on her chest that was identical to the crystal embedded in it.

"Uh Rex," Brandon said in warning as he noticed Rex reaching out to touch the sword, mesmerized by the glowing crystal.

"Huh?" He turned around and in that moment, accidentally grazed the crystal with his fingers and the sword let out a flash of blinding light, causing everyone to recoil.

Brandon sucked in a breath, "what just happened?"

"I- I don't know… I…" Rex looked down at his hands in confusion.

"Did you just resonate with it?" Brandon stared.

Rex turned around with a look of shock on his face, "did I just…"

Suddenly, a white blur sped past Brandon and a blade erupted out of Rex's back. Brandon stumbled back in shock, unable to process the scene in front of him.

Jin was standing there, having almost materialized out of nowhere, with his sword stabbed through Rex's sternum and blood dripping down the blade.

Brandon screamed in rage and fired his gun at Jin as fast as he could unload the pistol. Jin then moved faster than the eye could see and deflected the magnetically accelerated projectiles with his sword. Brandon preemptively guarded his chest area and true to his instincts, Jin's sword scraped off of his metal wristbands. Jin narrowed his eyes and simply pushed down, the sword following through and stabbing Brandon's stomach.

He gasped in pain, a pain that he knew was signaling his death. The kind of pain he had never felt before, the worst having been taking a bullet to the arm.

Brandon collapsed, joining Rex's lifeless body on the ground.

"Jin! Why!" He heard Nia yell as he felt blood flowing out of the wound, "they didn't do anything wrong!"

Through the haze of pain he could make out Jin flicking their blood off his sword before stepping up to the red sword and then shattered it with a single swing of his own weapon.

"Jin!" Nia demanded.

Jin ignored her and walked to the pod. He hit a switch and caught the pod as it disconnected from the mount and fell out.

"Call the Monoceros," Jin finally said as he hefted the pod over his shoulder, "we're done here."

"I…" she clenched her jaw, "understood."

She pulled out a communicator and said something Brandon couldn't make out. His consciousness was fading rapidly at this point. Nia hung up and waited another moment before rushing to Brandon's side. She unslung her twin rings and lifted them up. Brandon closed his eyes, bracing for the end.

But nothing came. A cooling sensation swept across his body as he felt the wound seal itself up.

Brandon coughed, "you… why…?"

"Shut up," Nia said, a scowl on her face, "Dromarch, help me out here."

"Understood my lady."

"Rex… what about Rex?" Brandon asked desperately, "can you-"

She closed her eyes with a grimace, "no. He was stabbed through the heart. I'm sorry but he died instantly. I can't reverse death."

Brandon started crying, wracking uncontrollable sobbing that shook his entire body.

"Look… I… I have to go," Nia said, "if I don't head up, they'll come back down. You should lie low for a little while before going back to your ship."

"You would still go with them? After that?"

Nia narrowed her eyes, "you think that's the first time they've killed? Do you think that I've never killed someone before?"

Brandon fell into a stunned silence.

"I don't want to kill you because you're a friend. So as a friend, please listen to me. Forget that this ever happened. I'm sorry about Rex, I really am, but nothing is going to get in the way of our goals."

"And what goal is so important that people have to die for it?" Brandon spat spitefully as he weakly forced himself into a sitting position, "what could possibly hold more value than human lives?"

"The destruction of Indol," Nia said, "that's the change we're making."

Brandon blinked before he started laughing hysterically, "destroying the Praetorium? That's what you wanted the Aegis for? So that was the grand change you wanted? Destroying Indol won't change anything, it won't stop the increase in criminal activity, the war, or the constant losses of Titans. I'm no fan of the Praetorium myself but destroying it will only make things worse in the world for nothing more than selfish desire. I can't believe I considered you a friend."

A hurt expression flickered over Nia's face but it was gone as soon as it appeared. "Then I hope you'll never have to see me again." She made to leave but Brandon grunted as he forced himself to stand.

"What are you doing?" She hissed, "you shouldn't move around that suddenly after a wound like that."

"Maybe not," he shrugged, indifferent to his own health, "but I have a job to do."

"A job?"

He raised his gun and pointed it at her, "you're under arrest."

"You can't be serious."

Brandon shrugged again, "what are you going to do about it? Kill me? You said it yourself that you don't want to kill me. You also admitted to murder in front of a law enforcement officer."

Nia turned around with a pinched expression on her face, "don't make me do this."

"So you are going to kill me. Go ahead then."

"I'm not g-"

"And besides, even if you do, you'll have the rest of security up top to deal with. No matter if you and your team are Drivers, there's enough of us to stop you."

"Please," Nia begged, "you don't have to be involved in this."

"No, I don't have to be," he agreed, "but Jin killed my brother and tried to kill me. That's more than enough reason for me to get involved." He hit a button on his left wristband and a gauntlet unfurled from the metal. The dull metal was thin, but strong. It wrapped around his fist and encapsulated his forearm, stopping right before his elbow. He could feel it start to vibrate as the tasers on the knuckles activated.

Nia raised her dual rings which started glowing with Ether energy. Brandon swallowed nervously. For his big talk, this was still a Driver and Blade. Those weapons would cut through his gauntlet like a hot knife through butter. He didn't want to imagine what they would do to his flesh.

"My lady, master Brandon. Surely there must be a peaceful solution to this," Dromarch tried to interject.

"Yeah, if you surrender," Brandon didn't waver, "you must realize that you'll all be wanted criminals by the end of the week."

"We won't need a week," Nia said.

"All the more reason to stop you now then."

Nia stamped a foot down in frustration, "why won't you just listen to me! You don't need to die here on a hill you didn't need to stand on."

"I've seen enough war and bloodshed for several lifetimes. I'm not going to stand around idly when I can stop more."

"You said you had no memories," Nia accused.

"I did. I lied. It's easier than telling people what my life really was. The horrors of what a war between civilizations thousands of years more advanced than even Mor Ardain," he spat, "I had to watch as entire cities' worth of civilians were vaporized by neutron bombs to clear out hidden enemy forces. Watch as orbital weapons annihilated entire companies of soldiers marching across the land. I saw an entire Island of peaceful settlers get obliterated by several tungsten rods dropped from the upper atmosphere because it was suspected of being the location of an enemy base. You think the non lethal self defense weapons I sold here are bad? The weapons I made back then were a million times worse. Would you rather I have said that on the crow's nest?"

"I-"

"And yet you still think you're on a high horse when you're about to do much the same." Brandon interrupted.

"We're not!" Nia shouted.

"Really?" Brandon tilted his head, "in the stories you hear, the Aegis isn't a subtle weapon. It's a weapon of mass destruction, capable of taking out entire Titans. What do you think will happen when you destroy the Praetorium? There are thousands of refugees on the Indoline titan that have fled from dying titans and have lost their homes. There are others that have been displaced by the brewing conflict between Mor Ardain and Uraya. People that are innocent of anything the Praetorium might have done to your little crew, and yet you'd massacre all of them along with the titan."

Brandon looked at her expression and snorted, "oh don't tell me you didn't know that."

"I didn't… we're not-" she was interrupted by a brilliant flash of light that came from behind Brandon, forcing her to cover her eyes.

Brandon turned around to see Rex cough and groan as he slowly got to his feet.

"What the fuck?" Brandon looked on with wide eyes, "Rex?"

"That was my name, last I checked," he joked weakly.

Brandon walked over and put his hand on Rex's shoulder hesitantly, still unsure if he was real. "Holy shit," he breathed. "How?" Brandon looked Rex up and down. His gaze finally settled on an emerald crystal sitting on Rex's chest. He tapped it, "is that…?"

"Pyra… she gave up half her life force to save me."

"Pyra?"

"The girl I was just talking to…" Rex glanced around, wondering where the Aegis was.

"The Aegis," Brandon realized, "so you two are in resonance. Huh," he exhaled as he ran a hand back through his hair.

"I guess we are," Rex said. He held out a hand and closed his eyes. Brandon stepped back as a crystal slowly materialized in front of Rex and formed into the red sword that Jin had so easily shattered a few minutes ago. The sword seemed to part in the middle as a brilliant flame burst forward, forming a larger blade made of fire. Rex nodded at Brandon, "we have to move quickly."

"Agreed."

Rex turned toward the exit to see Nia gaping at him.

"Nia?"

"She's with them," Brandon snarled, "we subdue her before getting to the surface."

"She's with them?" Rex said, "but-"

"But nothing. We take her down then move on."

Brandon faced Nia, "well? Second chance just showed up. Surrender."

Nia's eyes flickered between the two. She reluctantly slung her twin rings onto her belt and held her hands in the air. Brandon walked up to her and brought her hands together behind her back and put them in cuffs.

Rex sucked in a breath as the faint sounds of gunfire made its way down to them. Rex gave Brandon a look.

Brandon cursed. He tilted his head as he contemplated what to do.

"Go," he finally said, "I'd only slow you down at this point."

Rex nodded before raising his sword and a focused blast of fire erupted out of it, burning a hole through the ship up to the top. Rex jumped, clearing the entire structure and sailed out to the surface.

"Shit," Brandon breathed. He glanced down at Nia, "I know you're going to break free the moment I leave. So I'll give you the same offer you gave me: don't get involved."

He then sprinted down the hallway and through the ship. It took him a few minutes to clear the ship and by the time he made it to the top doors, he was gasping for breath. He took cover behind the doorway to catch his breath. He could hear blades clashing and bullets still being fired. He peeked out quickly, only to draw himself back and gag.

Several members of security already lay dead in a pool of their own blood. Brandon took in a deep breath before coming out of cover and opening fire at Malos and his blade. For some reason, Jin was standing idly to the side.

"Everyone, get to the Maelstrom and prep for takeoff," Brandon yelled, barely registering that the rain had stopped, "we'll hold them off."

"Roger!" They yelled and followed orders, a few stopping on their way to collect the dead to give them proper burials later.

"Bold claim!" Malos laughed, "Sever, take care of him. I'll deal with the boy."

"Got it!"

Brandon was immediately pressed onto the defensive as the massive Blade attacked. He ducked the first swing and tried to block the next, only for the Blade's overwhelming strength to completely break his guard, sending Brandon's gun flying and spun him onto the floor. He rolled backwards and barely managed to avoid the foot that stamped down onto the area he was at just before.

Brandon scrambled to his feet and raised his arms again. While he couldn't actually deal real damage to a Blade without hitting their Core Crystals, he could at least distract the Blade and weaken the Driver to help out Rex.

He used both arms to block a punch from the Blade then spun, landing an elbow on the Blade's face. He then swung around with his momentum and delivered a hard back kick. Continuing around, he slammed an electrically charged fist onto the same place he landed a kick.

It was a good thing that he decided to put tasers into the knuckles. Blades may regenerate from wounds quickly but their 'biology' was much the same as humans, using a sort of nervous system despite their artificial nature. That meant that electric shocks were still effective at locking up muscles, or the Blade equivalent of muscles.

In the background, he could see Rex and… Pyra fighting together against Malos. Brandon winced as he only managed to bring a single arm around to block the next attack. He counterattacked, his roundhouse kick connecting with the Blade's head and a follow up uppercut to the chin, causing Sever to stumble back.

Brandon pressed his advantage and moved forward with his fists raised, only for him to hear a roar and something slammed into his back and knock him forward into the grip of the Blade who grabbed his throat and lifted him off the ground. Brandon tried to pry the Blade's fingers off his neck but couldn't fight against its brute strength. He tried shocking its arm and hand but causing muscles to lock up didn't help when they were already in a vice grip.

"I wish you had just stayed down," Nia said. Brandon could hear her slide off of Dromarch and landed softly on the ground. She slowly padded up behind him, "this didn't have to happen."

"Fuck… you…" Brandon choked out as his vision slowly went black.

"Pyra!"

"On it!"

Brandon was knocked out of Blade's grip as the Aegis rushed in to his rescue. Brandon gasped for breath as he rubbed at his throat.

"This didn't have to happen?" Brandon rasped out as Pyra engaged Sever. "Your crew killed my people. They haven't done anything wrong and yet they were still murdered." He slowly push himself to his feet.

"W-well, you should have stayed down until we left on our ship. Then you could have gone back to yours and left."

"Your ship?" Brandon said in confusion.

"That one," she pointed.

Brandon turned his head and he snarled in frustration. It was that very same ship that he had seen following them a few days ago. The ship that he had ignored before. He turned back and had to react quickly, catching Pyra as she was sent hurling in his direction.

"Thanks," she nodded as Brandon helped steady her.

"Nia, what are you waiting for?" Sever walked up to stand beside Nia and Dromarch, "kill him already."

"We don't have to kill him," Nia said.

"We can't have any witnesses," Sever hissed.

"Agh!" Rex cried out in pain as he was flung across the ship. He landed close to Brandon who ran to him and helped him up.

"Give it up!" Malos yelled, stalking slowly across the deck of the ship, "you're outmatched and outnumbered. You have no hope."

"We can beat you psychopaths," Rex said, holding his sword forward, "we're not going to lose to the likes of you."

"Are you so sure about that?" Malos smirked, "open fire!"

"What?" Nia turned her head in shock.

A cannon emerged from the top of the battleship and started raining missiles down onto the Maelstrom.

"What are you doin'!" Nia yelled, "those people haven't done anything wrong!"

Brandon yanked the communicator off of his belt, "get out of here!" He yelled into the receiver.

"But sir-"

"The Maelstrom isn't built for combat. Either you get out of here or we all die."

"Roger."

The massive boat slowly started moving, still taking massive damage from the cannons of the enemy warship.

"You bastard," Brandon snarled.

Malos spread his arms, almost as if he was saying 'what can you do?'

He then shared a look with Sever before charging at the trio. Brandon readied himself but his attention was drawn away by the small movement of Nia clenching her fists.

"Dromarch!" She commanded as she hopped onto her Blade.

"Understood!"

Dromarch leaped forward as he let out his sonic roar, blasting Malos who raised an arm instinctively to cover his face, though Sever managed to put up an Ether shield in time to protect the pair.

"What are you doing Nia? Have you gone mad?" Malos yelled in rage.

"You're the one who's off your nut," Nia responded as Dromarch took position between Malos and Brandon's small trio, "I didn't sign up to massacre civilians."

"Then what did you sign up for? If I remember correctly, you didn't sign up at all," Malos taunted.

Nia only growled in response.

"What do we do now?" Rex whispered.

"I don't know," Brandon bit his upper lip nervously. He tilted his head slightly, neither side wanting to risk a move.

Malos then lifted a hand, a clear signal that Nia seemed to recognize. She spurred Dromarch into action, leaping over Brandon's group and putting up an Ether shield to block the incoming missile fire.

"Well? Don't just stand there gawkin'," Nia yelled over the deafening sound of explosions, "do something!"

"Right," Brandon turned, "Rex, you've got tall dark and ugly over there, I'll deal with the cannons."

"Got it."

Brandon sprinted to the side as Rex engaged Malos once again. The cannon turned to fire onto him but Nia followed, acting as a shield to his free movement.

"Now!" Brandon signaled.

Nia had Dromarch turn diagonally, angling his shield to deflect the force of the cannons away from him but allowing him to jump across and fire his anchor up and around the stem of the weapon. The salvager anchor pulled him up quickly and he was at the cannon within moments. It turned to try to dislodge him but Brandon moved with it as he unhooked his anchor and punched a side panel, denting it inwards and allowing him to grab the metal that came outwards from the dent.

He tore it off, the rusty bolts holding it in place barely providing any resistance, and started pulling out random chunks of the weapon until it stopped firing. He then leaped off of the ship and fired his anchor off again, angling it so he swung back up onto the ancient vessel.

Rex and Pyra started falling back to where Brandon and Nia were, clearly losing the fight. Brandon was about to rush in to help only for an ear splitting whistle to pierce the air around them.

"What the- Gramps?" Rex looked up.

The dragon-like Titan soared overhead, confirming what Rex was thinking. Gramps looped around and passed overhead, spraying a line of fire across the ship, creating an artificial barrier that split the ship in half between the two groups. He then landed with a thud.

"Get on!" He yelled.

Rex, Pyra, and Brandon all made a beeline for Gramps but Nia didn't move. Brandon skidded to a halt before turning around and running up to her. "What are you waiting for? Come on," he urged.

"I… I can't."

"If you stay here, they'll kill you."

"They wouldn't."

Brandon ticked his head in frustration, "look me in the eye. Can you tell me with one hundred percent certainty that they wouldn't?"

She looked away. She couldn't.

"Well then, come on. I don't care what you've done, we just need to survive first."

She still wouldn't move.

Brandon cursed, "Dromarch."

The tiger-like blade nodded and shifted his body so Nia slid off of him. Nia opened her mouth to say something but Brandon whacked a fist on top of her head, knocking her out.

"That was a tad excessive," Dromarch growled.

"No time," Brandon said as Nia collapsed into his arms. He picked her up and unceremoniously threw her small frame over his shoulder. They sprinted up to Gramps as the flames from earlier started to die out. Dromarch simply jumped up while Brandon handed Nia up to Pyra and took an offered hand from Rex as he clambered on.

"Hold on to something," Gramps said as he leaped up and took off into flight, the sudden acceleration knocking Brandon off his feet and he scrambled for purchase for a moment before Rex managed to grab a hold of him. He noticed that he was the only one who had been knocked off balance, not including Nia but she was currently in the small housing Rex had built and was being attended on by Dromarch. Normally he would have been embarrassed but the sheer relief and loss of adrenaline just left him feeling exhausted and drained.

He was helped to his feet as Gramps slowed his acceleration and flew at a steady pace. Brandon almost immediately fell over again, almost all the feeling in his legs was gone. Rex helped him into the small housing and got him to his bed within it, Nia having taken Rex's bed. Brandon barely managed to shrug his backpack off his shoulder before he collapsed onto the bed.

He passed out the moment his head touched his pillow.

…

So similar result, different path to get there.

I don't know if I did Nia justice in this chapter. I wanted to make her less innocent than in the game but still have her original personality mostly intact. Nia also seems to be someone who forms attachments relatively quickly to those who she connects with. I also want her to have some semblance of a moral compass so she only kills who she has an agenda against, e.g. Indoline warrior monks and Ardanian soldiers.

I also don't know if I'm making Brandon a good character or not. Sometimes I feel like he's a sociopath, other times he feels like Kirito. He's supposed to have ptsd and guilt over the war but he doesn't show that much and the little he does display feels really forced when I reread for editing.

Not to mention I can't tell if I'm making Brandon overpowered or underpowered. Like I make his tech a hundred years more advanced than what we have in real life, and yet he's not managed to really do anything other than look flashy. So if you're wondering why Brandon seemingly doesn't run out of bullets, it's because I've decided to go for the mass effect route where the gun shaves off pieces from a larger chunk of metal. Obviously though without mass effect technology, the shavings are bigger than a grain of sand but it would last much longer than a regular magazine.