11/16/17: New chapter for all of you, and guess what? Tactus lives!
Chapter 19: Old Man's Wrath:
Arcos Estate
Europa
February 1st, 2841
"And then the traitors were three," the woman called out. "House Arcos has embraced treason as well. Lorn. You stand with the lions?"
"The House Arcos stands apart," the razormaster called back.
"Apart?" The Portean Knight frowned and titled her head so that Shiro and Darrow could both see the dueling scars on the right side of her neck. Her eyes scanned the woods for signs of a trap like a cat. "There is no such thing."
"I was as deceived as you, Aja!" Arcos replied. "Darrow knew you were here. I don't know how. But I am not your enemy. I want only to be left alone."
"That was never a choice!" Aja fired back. "You know this better than anyone. You are with us or against us, Lorn."
"Aja, no," the old man yelled. "I have no part in this! None!"
"The strong always have a part," Darrow muttered.
"I will not have my hand forced!" the Rage Knight snapped as he stared wrathfully at the Reaper. "I have no quarrel with either of you. I am a man of peace now."
"Then why is your blade out?" Aja retorted with a smile. "Do what you know. Come down and speak teacher. We should not shout! Isn't that what you said when I used to raise my voice in anger?" She eyed the griffin that now growled beside the three men. It was larger than four horses, and Shiro was wondering what its talons could do against their foes' armor. Darrow whispered as he rhetorically asked his mentor what the Sovereign would have Aja do now that her ships were lost. Though they all knew the answer, Shiro's heart sank a tiny bit when Arcos replied that his former pupil would kill them out of spite.
Beside them, Darrow knelt to the ground and gathered dirt in his hand. Aja watched them, wondering what the Reaper had planned. She had clearly studied the young warlord, and knew that if he had really set an ambush in the sky, there was no reason he wouldn't set one on the ground as well. A shiver rolled down Shiro's spine as the Fury directed her hateful glare at him, clearly still remembering the burn his right hand had left on her arm even though the injury was no doubt already healed and the broken armor replaced. He was about to say something when a familiar dark-skinned figure stepped through the gate to join her. Tactus slunk forward in purple and black Praetorian armor, eyeing the sky apprehensively before beaming a lopsided smile at his old associated.
"Speaking of traitors," Darrow shouted. "Hellow, Tactus. Pretty armor."
"Reaper, Shiro, my goodmen!" Tactus bellowed as he threw them the crux. "Where's Sevro?" Aja straightened and looked around again at the trees as the former Augustan lancer leaned in to tell her something and her men condensed into defensive formation. Tactus had warned them of Darrow's tricks, and they knew that something was awry. The Praetorians' arms glittered as their aegis shields activated. Arcos closed his eyes and lifted his hand into the air, feeling the whipping wind of the brewing storm as he told the Reaper to leave Aja to him.
"No," Darrow replied. "They're all mine. Sevro, Rise." On command, the Howlers emerged from the sea beyond the castle. Water dripped from them as they flew silently over the hundred-meter-high walls, armor glistening like black beetle shells. Freshly painted golden lions winked from each breastplate as lightning flashed and the commandos landed silently around the three men. Twenty new recruits had come from the families of the original Howlers and the ranks of the Telemanus fleet. All Shiro had heard about the tryouts Sevro had held was that it involved snakes, alcohol, and mushrooms. Tactus' voice was all jokes as he mocked Sevro's penchant for ambushes, but the Black Paladin noticed the other lancer look back at the sky anxiously.
As expected, the appearance of the Howlers clearly reassured Aja and Tactus. This made sense to them. Darrow had soldiers hidden, and now he didn't. A battle to the death. Honor. Pride. One force against another. The Obsidians began to keen their bone-chilling war chant. Shiro felt a surge of pity for those people now. All they could hope for in life was a glorious death. To join their relatives in the afterlife with weapons in hand. On Aja's command, the deadliest men and women in the Solar System stepped forward. As soon as Aja stepped clear, Darrow nodded, and Shiro pressed the detonator in his pocket.
Tactus grabbed Aja from behind and jerked her so hard that the lowGrav sent them both tumbling through the door as the first explosion ripped the salt air. The explosions of the landmine spikes Shiro and the Reaper had dropped on the ground as they strolled into the forest were tiered. First came a concussion that disabled pulseShields and scattered the Praetorians into the air. Then came a gravPit, which pulled them back towards the source of the explosion like a vacuum collecting lies. And finally came a burst of pure kinetic energy that destroyed armor, bone, and flesh, blwoing the warriors outward into the air, scattering their pieces in the low gravity like breath scattering dandelion seeds.
Shiro felt sick to his stomach as severed limbs floated gently down and blood beaded and spattered on the forest floor. The explosion broke the roof of the bubble overhead and rain drifted down on the garden to extinguish the fires and thin the blood that was leaking into the two dozen bomb craters. Only three Praetorians survived, but they were in extremely poor shape. Arcos was furious, saying something to Darrow about honor while Sevro hissed for the warlord to give the order to attack. Finally, Darrow snapped his fingers.
"Hunt," the man ordered. The Howlers surged forward into the castle like wolves let off their leashes to finish what the bombs started. They quickly dispatched the surviving Praetorians, and Sevro shouted Tactus' name amid the howling as they tore into the fortress searching for him and Aja. Harpy called on the coms to report that the Protean Knight had escaped like they planned, but that there was no sign of Tactus. But a few minutes later, Sevro reported that Tactus was nowhere to be found. Comprehension dawned on Shiro as the hidden Red asked the Rage Knight what Lune would have Tactus do if she thought he was expendable. He was already running towards the exit when the old man figured it out a second later.
"The children…" Arcos shouted as he pushed passed the Reaper and the Paladin, sprinting through the bombs' carnage to the shattered glass door. "They're going to kill my grandchildren!" The Black Paladin heard Darrow curse as he followed behind. The three men sprinted down the castle's hall. Arcos and Andromedus were slowed down by the low gravity, but Shiro had already taken the lead, using his hands on the walls and ceiling to propel him through turns and gravBoots as they sprinted through the long hallways. When he pressed the stone griffin head to reveal the hidden passage as the Sword of Mars instructed, the smell of blood burned in his nostrils. He pulled himself down a series of stairs with handholds in the ceiling as Darrow pushed past Arcos to catch up. They reached two doors. Each man took one, and Shiro's razor slithered into his hand as he opened the door
"Tactus," Shiro said slowly as he stepped into the room. Darrow quickly followed behind. The man had his back to them, the blood of three dead Obsidians pooling around his shoes as he stood amid the corpses. His razor was coiled in his hand, hardening as he stood with his head lowered in a room full of unarmed women and children. Blood slithered down his blade as the two false Golds took stock of the situation. Arcos had hidden the children here when they arrived – some Gold, some Silver, some Pink and Brown. Tactus could kill half of them with one swing of his razor before the two could even reach him.
"Tactus," Darrow said to the man, looking at the children. "Remember your brothers."
"My brothers are shits," Tactus laughed coarsely, his voice sounding strange. "Said I should get out of your shadow. Mother calls me the Mighty Servant. Did you know that?"
"Lune' orders are wrong," Darrow said to Tactus.
"She asked me if I could fill your place, Reaper," the youngest Rath replied quietly. "Said she didn't think I could. Said I was so long in your shadow that she didn't know if I would ever be more than an echo of you. I told her I could do anything you could do."
"Tactus, she is evil," Shiro interjected, trying to calm the man down.
"Is she?" Tactus retorted as he spat blood on the ground, still with his back to them. "They say the same thing about Darrow here. They wonder who he thinks he is to do what he does. To challenge the people he challenges. They wonder what right he has."
"We all have a right to challenge," Darrow answered. "That's the point."
"The point. Was there a point?" Tactus asked morosely. "I was never told. You took me for granted. Never telling me anything. Always whispering with others. Dismissing me like I'm a fool. You're just like her…"
"Your mother?" Shiro asked, but the Rath brother said nothing. Arcos edged in beside Darrow, who put a hand out to stop him.
"Would you kill them, if Augustus told you to?" Tactus finally asked, turning slightly.
"No," Darrow answered firmly. "I'd rather die."
"So would I," Shiro added.
"I didn't think so," Tactus replied. "Sshe was right. I am the Mighty Servant."
"I don't know what I'm to do now, Tactus," Darrow admitted after a brief moment of hesitation, opening his hands to his old friend.
"That's a first," Tactus laughed bitterly, his voice slurred slightly. He's coming down from his high, Shiro realized.
"Hardly," Darrow commented. "I didn't know what to do when I whipped you at the Institute. I didn't want to lose you from my army because of your talents. But I couldn't not punish you."
"Talents, talents, talents…" Tactus commented, his voice thickening further. "Then that's the difference between us. Because if it had been my army, I would have killed your arrogant ass." The man finally turned, and all three men could see hints of the ruin the bomb had made of his face.
"Tactus," Shiro began gently, trying to help talking the lancer down. "You know what happens if you kill any of them." Tactus nodded to him, then to Darrow, then to Arcos, wordless indicating that he knew one of the three would be the one to do him in.
"I'm not sorry I took Lysander, you know," he admitted sadly.
"I don't think you're ever sorry for much," Darrow replied gently.
"Not sorry," Tactus chuckled and dipped a toe in the pool of blood surrounding him. "But I think I shouldn't have done it. I was testing you at the Institute. But… I wanted to see what you'd do. If you were worth following."
"Was I?" Darrow asked.
"You know that answer," Tactus responded.
"Is he still?" Shiro asked, hoping Tactus hadn't been too drunk not to remember their conversation back on Luna the day they first met. Tactus looked at him for a moment to indicate that he did remember before he nodded to Darrow.
"Always, he said, saying the word so pathetically that Shiro had to resist the urge to walk up and hug the man right then and there. Tactus was a traitor, a liar, a cheat. But in that moment, Shiro only saw a man broken by the expectations of his upbringing, and felt the sudden desire to fix him and make him whole. A quick glance confirmed that Darrow was thinking the same thing. But there was also the complication of their circumstances. Tactus had to be put down, but Shiro had seen from the footage of the Institute how that went with Titus, a student of House Mars who regularly raped his classmates and abused others. That cycle of punishment eroded the unity of their House. Death begets death begets death begets death, Darrow had said when they discussed those days on the voyage to Europa.
"What if I let you live?" Darrow asked suddenly. Tactus glanced at the Reaper in frantic confusion. How fucked up was his childhood that he can't understand the concept of forgiveness, Shiro thought sadly, and in that moment, he was suddenly struck by how similar Tactus was to Keith. The Red Paladin had a habit of pushing people away out of fear of being rejected. Tactus' issues may have been different, but at the core, both Keith and Tactus wanted to belong. Tactus was incredulous as Darrow repeated his offer of forgiveness.
"You're lying," Tactus snapped, turning some more, and giving Shiro a good look at what the bomb did to him. His nose was crooked and broken, and the rest of him looked like a cherry with its skin stripped off. Darrow reassured Tactus that he wasn't lying as he took a step toward his friend.
"I know there's good in you," Darrow reassured him. "I saw your face when those children were killed at the gala. You're not a monster. Come back to me. You would be one of my lieutenants again, Tactus. I would give you a legion to lead when we take Mars. You'll carry one of my standards. But you can't wear that ugly armor."
"It is uncomfortable," Tactus wheezed with a slight smile. "But Sevro, Roque, Victra…"
"They miss you," Darrow replied, although Shiro knew that wasn't necessarily true. The others did miss the days when Tactus had been their friend, but those memories were tinged with the bitterness of betrayal. Their forgiveness would not be given as easily as Darrow's. Shiro didn't know if Tactus would ultimately be able to change for the better, but hearing the earnestness in Darrow's voice as he continued to talk his old friend down, Shiro felt he owed it to the Reaper to try and give Tactus a chance. If Tactus could change for the better, than so could Gold. Finally, Tactus razor clattered to the floor and he fell to a knee in front of Darrow, rasping from pain. Relief flooded the room and children started crying again from the torturous shift form death to life. Caretakers hugged their charges and cried as well.
Darrow went forward to Tactus and motioned him upward to clasp his arm. Tactus wrapped the other man in a frantic hug and sobbed as he wept into the Reaper's shoulder, apologizing a dozen times as Darrow hugged him. When the sobbing stopped, and the two men parted, Tactus stood at Darrow's side, loyal as a puppy as he looked at his friend subtly for signs of affection. Shiro walked over and gave Tactus a cautious but welcoming smile as he offered the man his hand. Tactus shook it for a moment before giving the Black Paladin a hug as well. Children of all Colors filed upward out of the hidden bunker with their caretakers behind the four men. Pebble came down to tell them that Roque was wrapping up the battle in space and paled when she saw Tactus's wounds before Darrow sent her to fetch a Yellow. When she was gone, Shiro, Tactus, Darrow, and Arcos were alone in the basement.
"Now that the children are gone," Arcos said as he looked over to the three younger men. "Consequences." The old man's hands flashed so fast that Shiro almost didn't see the movement in time. But months piloting the Black Lion had honed his reflexes enough to lash out and catch the Rage Knight's arm before his ion dagger could bury itself in the weak armor of Tactus' armpit.
"Darrow let him live," Shiro warned coldly. "If you're with us, then respect his decision." Arcos looked furious as Shiro's mechanical arm held the man's unarmored limb in a vice-like grip. The Black Paladin didn't activate his energy weapon, but he let the circuits near his wrist power up as a warning to the old man not to try anything.
"Men do not change," Arcos replied. "He will betray you again and we will all suffer the consequences for it."
"You taught me once, Lorn," Darrow commented. "I'm a better man for it. But now it's my turn to teach you. Men can change. Sometimes they have to fall, and sometimes they have to leap. No one has ever given Tactus the chance to believe he was a good man. I'm giving him that chance, and I accept the consequences if I am wrong. But until that time, he is under my protection and I expect you to respect that. Do you understand?"
"I understand," The Rage Knight answered, and glared angrily at Shiro as the Black Paladin released his arm. His glare softened in confusion as he looked closely at the arm for the first time. Shiro didn't know what about his arm confused the old man, but he put himself between Arcos and Tactus just in case. With no further reason to stay, the Arcos led the Reaper out of the room, Tactus and Shiro flanking Darrow like an honor guard.