More blood and gore this chapter, and also one that's very book compliant, albeit modified significantly to account for removing references to things that haven't happened yet in this fic.

Chapter 15: The Red

Lion of Mars Officers' Suites

Martian Orbit

March 16th, 2841

This wasn't how this was supposed to go, Mustang thought to herself as she fought to keep her face neutral while she watched everything unfolding in front of her. Cassius had stuffed her and Darrow, along with Sevro's corpse into the container that had been meant for Cassius. After he freed the other prisoners, the Loyalist Golds escaped the ship without interference. Once they were clear of the ship, Cassius contacted Aja to notify her that he had the leaders of the Rising in custody, and after securing Aja's promise that Mustang would not be harmed, he'd been instructed to dock with the Lion of Mars.

Her brother had personally escorted Cassius and the three of them from the Lion of Mars' main hangar up to the Sovereign in the Augustan flaghship's officers' suites. But not without cutting off Darrow's right hand as a trophy of revenge. The Loyalists had been broadcasting her and Darrow's capture to the fleet nonstop to demoralize the Red Armada and quell the uprising on Mars. They would do the same with Darrow's execution and Sevro's body. Mustang wondered if they would do the same with her despite the deal Cassius thought he had struck. Look what befalls those who rise against, they'll say, Mustang thought to herself. Look how even these mighty beasts fall before Gold. Who else can stand against them? No one. Their grip would tighten. Their reign would strengthen.

If they lost today, a new generation of Gold would rise with vigor unseen since the fall of Earth. They would see the threat to their people and they would breed creatures like Aja and her brother by the thousands. They would build new institutes, expand their military, and throttle Darrow's people. That was the future that could be, the one that Sevro's father feared the most. The one Mustang and Darrow were afraid was coming as her brother moved past them into the main room of the stateroom. After listening to the Sovereign discuss battle strategy with her advisers and Cassius telling her what he knew of their plans, it was Darrow's turn to be executed.

Mustang watched as Aja dragged Darrow to the Sovereign's feet at the center of the holopad off the main bedroom of the suite that her father had commissioned when the ship was first built. The cold sneer of command was etched deeply into the tyrant's marble face. Her shoulders were clearly weary, though, pressed down by the weight of an empire and the shadowy mass of a hundred years of sleepless nights.

"Remove his muzzle," Octavia commanded Aja, who stood behind Darrow, preparing to administer the Sovereign's justice. The Truth Knight and the Joy Knight flanked Octavia, while Cassius stood over Mustang to the side of the holopad, his prisoner greens clearly standing out among the Praetorians while Adrius watched from a chair against the wall, sipping a coffee brought by the valet. Mustang watched Darrow stretch his jaw as the buzzle came off.

"Imagine a world without the arrogance of the young," Octavia said to her fury.

"Imagine a world without the greed of the old," Darrow retorted hoarsely. Aja slammed the side of her head with her fist. Mustang winced.

"Why'd you take his muzzle off if you want him to be silent?" she asked.

"Because we want everyone to know this is really him," Octavia answered. "We don't want everyone to think we're merely executing a puppet. This is flesh and blood. The Red who rose. I want them to know it is he who falls. I want them to know that even their best is insignificant." She turned to the Joy Knight who was at the controls of the holodeck, preparing her broadcast. "Is it ready?"

"Yes, my liege," the Joy Knight replied. "Greens have restored the links. It'll go out live to the Core."

"Say your goodbyes to the Red… Mustang," Aja sneered, patting the Augustus heiress' head.

"May I do it, my Sovereign?" Her brother asked, rising from his seat and walking to the holodeck. "I know that Olympic Knights carry out executive executions, but it was my efforts that unmasked the abomination. Since it was my plans that lead to him being here this day, I believe I should be the one to strike the final blow." Aja bared her teeth, but the Sovereign's hand on her shoulder restrained her tongue.

"Let him do it," the Sovereign said. Reluctantly, Aja moved away from Darrow. The Joy Knight offered Adrius a scorcher, but he refused. Instead, he picked Sevro's gun from her holster and twirled it around her index finger.

"He's no Gold," Adrius explained. "He doesn't deserve a razor or a state death. Plus, offing Darrow with Sevro's gun is more poetic, don't you think?" He took Aja's place beside Darrow as the Sovereign transformed before the eyes of those present. Mustang watched as the exhaustion burned from Octavia's face as she adopted the serene, matronly visage she remembered seeing in official broadcasts. The Joy Knight nodded to the Sovereign. A light glowed softly above her, empowering the woman with the fury and warmth of the sun. It was just a spotlight, but the lamp deepened its glow. The broadcast began.

"Men and women of the Society," Ocatavia said. "This is your Sovereign. Since the dawn of man, our saga as a species has been one of tribal warfare. It has been one of trial, one of sacrifice, one of darying to defy nature's natural limits. Then, after years of toiling in the dirt, we rose to the stars. We bound ourselves in duty. We sed aside our own wants, our own hungers to embrace the Hierarchy of Color, not to oppress the many for the glory of the few as Ares and this… terrorist would have you believe, but to secure the immortality of the human race on principles of order and prosperity. It was an immortality that was assured before this man tried to steal it from us." She paused to point a long, elegant finger at Darrow.

"This man, once a noble servant of you, of your families, should have been the brightest son of his Color. He was lifted up as a youth. Awarded merits of honor. But he chose vanity. To extend his own ego across the stars. He forgot his duty. He forgot the reason for order and has fallen into darkness, dragging the worlds with him. But we will not fall into that darkness. No. We will not bend to the force of evil." She touched her heart.

"We… We are the Society. We are Gold, Silver, Copper, Blue, White, Orange, Green, Violet, Yellow, Gray, Brown, Pink, Obsidian, and Red. The bonds that bind us together are stronger than the forces that pull us apart. For seven hundred years, Gold has shepherded humanity, brought light where there was dark, plenty where there was famine. Today, we bring peace where there is war. But to have peace, we must destroy outright this murderer who has brought war to each and every one of our homes." She turned to Darrow with a callousness that reminded Mustang of how she watched his duel with Cassius. How she would have let him die then sipped her wine and went about her dinner. He was a speck to her, even now. She was thinking past this moment. Past the time where his blood cooled on the floor and they dragged him off to be dissected.

"Darrow of Lykos," she said imperiously. "But the power entrusted in me by the Compact, I hereby find you guilty of conspiracy to incite acts of terror." Mustang watched her fiancé stare directly into the holoCam's optic lens, knowing how many countless souls watched him now. How many countless eyes would watch him long after he was gone. "I find you guilty of mass murder upon the citizens of Mars," the Sovereign continued. "I find you guilty of murder. And I find you guilty of treason against your Society…" As Octavia recited her sentence, as Mustang kneeled on the ground, as Cassius and Thistle watched him from among the Praetorians and Knights, and as Aja saw him look to the tall blond Olympic, stepping forward in trepidation because she knew something was wrong, Darrow threw back his head and howled.

Mustang smiled, knowing that Darrow howled for his late wife, and for his father. For all the people he had lost, and all that Octavia would take. The man she loved howled because he was a Helldiver of Lykos. He was the Reaper of Mars. He had paid for access to this room with his flesh, all so he could come before Octavia, that he might either die with his friends or see their enemies brought to justice. The Sovereign nodded to Adrius to execute the sentence. He pressed the barrel to the back of Darrow's head and squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked in her hands. Fire spat, scorching Darrow's scalp. But he did not fall. No bullet carved through his head. Smoke swirled out of the barrel. And as her brother looked down at the gun, Mustang knew that he knew.

"No…" he whispered in shock as he stepped away from Darrow, dropping the gun and trying to pull out his razor.

"Octavia…" Aja shouted, lunging forward. But just then, in that beat of the heart, the Sovereign heard something behind the camera and turned to see a Praetorian guard with his head tilted, his pulseRifle thumping to the floor as a grisly red tong protruded from his mouth. Only it wasn't a tongue. It was Cassius' bloody razor that entered through the back of the Praetorian's skull and out between his teeth. It disappeared back into the mouth. The Truth and Joy Knight collapsed lifelessly on the ground, their heads rolling forward. The three guards and two Olympic Knights fell before the Sovereign could say a bloodydamn word. Cassius stood behind the slaughtered men, his head lowered, and his razor red. Cassius' left hand held the remote control to Darrow and Mustang's restraints.

"Bellona?" was all the Sovereign could say before he pressed the button. Mustang's steel vest unbuckled and fell to the ground while Darrow's followed suit. Without hesitation, Mustang dove for a dead Praetorian's pulseRifle, while Darrow rose, unshackled, jerking his arms free and pulling the knife hidden inside the metal vest. He lunged towards the Sovereign. Faster than she could blink, he jammed the blade through her black jacket into the softness of her lower belly. She gasped, her eyes huge, inches from Darrow's as he stabbed her six more times in the gut and on the last, ripped the metal up toward her sternum. Hot blood poured over Darrow's knuckles and chest as the Sovereign spilled open.

"Octavia!" Aja screamed as she charged at the Reaper. She only made it halfway before Mustang, firing from her knees, shot the Protean Knight in the armored side with her pulseRifle. The blast lifted Aja of her feet, slapping her across the room into the wooden conference table beside Sevro and Antonia's bodies, nearly crushing Lysander. Adrius tried to slash at Darrow, but he took his own razor and staked the Jackal's left arm to the floor so that he had no free hand. He screamed and thrashed at Darrow with his legs before he dropped a knee into the other man's forehead and left him stunned and pinned to the floor.

"Darrow!" Cassius called out as he and Mustang ran towards the Reaper. "Behind!" Behind Darrow, Aja rose from the shattered remains of the table, her eyes widened with rage. Darrow ran back towards Cassius and Mustang, aware that she would kill him in seconds with his right hand gone. Blood splatters coated Cassius's green jumpsuit. Mustang grabbed two razors from the dead Praetorians and tossed one to Darrow. She sighed in relief when he caught it on the run with his left hand and toggled the hilt. The razor leaped to killing length as Mustang rushed to his side. She swept her golden mess of hair back, a fevered grin splitting her face as Cassius and Thistle caught up.

"How was my acting?" he asked.

"Not quite as good as your sword work," Darrow said as he took in the bodies around them. Cassius grinned, clearly more alive in battle than anywhere else. Mustang knew that Darrow missed fighting alongside the Bellona heir, missed the days where they rode together in the highlands of the Institute pretending they were lords of the Earth. Mustang saw Darrow grin back and knew that for the first time in a while, her fiancé felt whole.

"Will you two save the flirting for later?" she asked teasingly before, side by side, they turned together to face the deadliest human being in the Solar System. Aja was crouched over a terribly wounded Octavia, who had crawled to the edge of the holodeck and panted on her back, holding her stomach together with both hands. Octavia was pale and shivering. Tears streamed down Aja's face, and Lysander's, who had rushed into the pit to help his grandmother. Lilath screamed from the floor for Aja to open the door as she thrashed around, trying to reach the whip toggle on the razor with her stump. But it was three and a half feet above her and she just couldn't quite reach.

But to open the door, she had to reach it, and to reach it, she had to go through Mustang, Darrow, and Cassius, then present her back to them while she entered the code. She was trapped in there until either they were dead, or she was.

"Aja," give us the Sovereign," Darrow said. "Her justice is due." They all knew what Aja's reply to that would be, but Mustang knew that the holodeck was still active, and Darrow was aware that it was still broadcasting as Gold blood wetted the floor. Aja didn't turn to look at them yet. Her huge hand caressed Ocatvia's face, cradling the older woman like a mother holding her own child.

"Stay alive," they heard her say to her Sovereign. "I will get you out of here. I promise. Just stay alive, Octavia."

"Wear her down," Mustang whispered as Lysander touched Aja's arm. "She's the one with the ticking clock."

"Don't let her pin you in a corner," Darrow said. "Move laterally like we planned. Cassius, can you still take point?"

"Just try to keep up," he said with a smile.

"Keep her busy," Darrow instructed, and Mustang glanced at him, silently making sure that he still had what he needed for what he was about to do. Darrow glanced back and inclined his head in a nod of confirmation. Across from them, Aja rose from her crouch to her full height, a brooding mass of muscle and armor, the greatest student of the greatest razormaster the Society had ever known. The woman's face was dark and unreadable, the deep blue Protean armor moved subtly with sea dragons, her shoulders nearly as broad as Ragnar. A meter and a half of killing silver slithered out before Aja as she took the winter stance of the Willow Way, sword raised like a torch off to the side, her left foot forward, hips sunken, and knees slightly bent. Mustang and Darrow slid apart as he wheeled around and took off toward the other side of the room. Mustang took the right, and Cassius, the best swordsman out of the four of them, took the middle after pulling a syringe from the holster on his leg and tossing it to Darrow.

"You cannot run!" Aja shouted to Darrow. "I will carve your eyes out. There's nowhere to run, you rusty coward!" But Darrow was not running. As Darrow crouched beside Sevro's motionless form, Aja attacked. She had two options when fighting against multiple opponents. The first was to use them against one another, but Cassius and Darrow had always been of one mind in battle, and Mustang was adaptable. So, the Protean Knight chose the second option, an all-out attack on Darrow before Cassius or Mustang could come to his aid. Darrow was the weakest opponent with his missing hand, but the others barred her path.

"How could you choose him over us?" Aja shouted in rage to Mustang and Cassius The three of them clashed in a two-on-one frenzy of razors and whips. She activated her gravBoots in a quick burst and launched at Cassius, two kilograms of armor and Peerless Scarred crashing into flesh and bones. Mustang winced as she heard his skeleton creak. Cassius' body wrapped around Aja's forehead and smashed against her armored shoulder. He dripped off her and she spiked him to the ground like a volleyball.

"Easily," Mustang replied as she rushed Aja's flank to stop her from finishing Cassius off. But the Fury was expecting the rush and used Cassius to bait her. Aja slashed mustang shallowly across the stomach, nearly opening her lower intestine. The Sovereign's face was distant and fading as she watched the battle, propped up against the lip of the holodeck as it rose to the rest of the room, her grandson's hands holding her together. Aja looked at her in fear, knowing her liege didn't have long to live. Then her leg shot out at Mustang, impacting her kneecap and jamming it backwards. Mustang bit back a scream of pain as her knee dislocated and she stumbled back, razor outstretched as Aja turned back to Cassius. Suddenly, the keening of razors on the holodeck was interrupted when a high-pitched scream filled the air.

"Fuuuuuuuuck!" cursed the familiar voice of the original Howler.

Oh, good, Mustang thought to herself with a smirk. Sevro's finished playing dead.

And with that, we're one step closer to getting past the book events I'm keeping for this fic. As fellow Red Rising fans will notice, I'm significantly moved up the final battle of the original trilogy, and we haven't even had an appearance from the Moon Lords yet. This is intentional. Iron Gold gave me a tone of ideas for where to take this fic, and I wanted to get Octavia and Aja out of the way sooner so that I could have more room to explore them.