Building Better Worlds III

Angel of the Dark (inspired by Aviators)

---

Snow capped skies;

Standing by while cities /

Perish in the reaches of the deep.

Bloodlines fall;

Lost it all, the pain of /

Severing the bond we had as three.

---

King Tesem's Study, The Grand Palace, Luxor

Neo Egypt, Planet Vasily (YG-4), Yangu-Grurra System

06:06, 22/3/2, 25 XP

---

"Wench!" Dani flailed a knife-wielding paw as she snapped awake, confused by her angered state as she realized she was leaning against the study door. "Ah, shite. That tart again? Was I fuckin' sleepin' on the job...?"

"Um... Miss Karr...?"

Dani groaned at her state further when she realized she woke due to Elise's query. "Sorry, love. I didn't mean you. What's the deal, now?"

"I didn't realize you were... sleeping..." Elise clutched a stack of data chits and her Slate, obviously ready for her morning routine. "Is the King in there? I've checked all over but he seems to be hiding from me."

"You didn't check here earlier? It's Sem's office, yes?"

"This is the one place he doesn't want me intruding. He calls it his 'ott-cave'." Elise tried the lock but shook her head as it rejected her key card. "He's definitely in there? I can come back later, but... he's been slacking these last days..."

"Ah, that. I think he's got a lot on his mind, a lot that makes his schedule different. I'll be sure to inform you when he's on the move." Dani turned an ear at the sounds of machinery outside and ducked into her own shoulders. "Is his family still here?"

"For the most part, yeah. I believe Queen Excelle retired to her ship. The rest requested rooms for the night." Elise backed away from the door slowly and politely bowed for Dani. "Keep up the good work. I appreciate--"

The door shifted, then unlatched to let Erin out of the study. "Oh, um... S-Sorry..."

"Miss Karidan!" Both Erin and Dani flinched at the name, though it was Erin that took the brunt of a quick hug. "It's been far too long! Where have you been? And... why...?"

"Sem needed a friend, nothing more. We just... stayed warm on the couch..." Another mechanical hiss and clang perked Erin into full alertness. "Sorry, I have to prevent my grandpa from destroying a palace now. We can chat later."

"I'd like that. Take care, Miss--"

"I keep telling you, call me Erin!" The ottkat jogged down the hallway, then picked up into a sprint at the sound of a cannon. "Maybe find cover?"

"Crap. You got this, lass? I have to keep close to Sem--"

"I'll take over. Go." Flux walked up to the door, though it would be harder than normal to spot her if not for the spear floating along the hallway. She came to a stop by the door and tapped her weapon against the ground, but the distraction didn't work well to mask the imagery of makeshift schoolgirl outfit haunting the area. "I'll watch Sem. Go figure out the commotion out there. I bet my father has a lot to do with it."

"I'm sorry--fuckin' what, mate?"

"Huh?"

Elise grabbed the door before it shut and locked again, holding it open politely. "Your armor, my queen. Miss Karr hasn't seen you without it."

"Oh, r-right. I'm... opacity impared, as Sem likes to say." Flux entered the study but pointed her spear at a window. "I'd be happy to explain later. Please, go stop my father from firing whatever that was. He likes his guns a lot but lacks the common sense to use them sometimes."

"But it's my duty--"

"It's my duty and right to keep Sem intact. It's yours to keep his public image intact, right?"

Dani chewed on that a moment, holding back a string of profanity. "Aye, Queen Flux." She turned around and chewed her lip to keep her composure while heading outside. "This family is bloody mad..."

"No, I think that wasn't locked down." Iolvin waved a paw at a large artillery cannon on the back of the new golem Carbon was piloting. "I think it drops over the shoulder and locks down, little guy."

"Just stop! Not all of the weapons are safe, guys!" Erin slid beside one of the golem's legs and rubbed it gently. "Calm down, pal. You don't need to do anything you don't want to do."

"I lost controls. Everyone watch--"

"I took away the controls, grandpa. Don't go playing around with things you don't understand, please." The ottkat calmed down and the golem followed suit, going into a default stance. "Kelly doesn't want to hurt anyone and you were about to load the live ammunition."

"Oh, is that what was happening? I felt a way to lock something to the autocannon but it must have been the ammunition swap mechanism." Carbon hopped out of the golem with the aid of his tendrils, giving his granddaughter a hug once he set down. "Eve was showing me the ropes. Did I hear this beauty has a name?"

"Damn right, she's beautiful. She's a piece of art." Erin shook off her perturbance and walked her grandpa out from beneath the mech. "She's using the same core systems as your old Exoskeleton golem, courtesy of Evelyn. I just didn't think your nickname fit well with her gender."

Eve leaned out from the cockpit with a grin. "See? I told you Ex was a lady."

"Well you're the machine whisperer, Erin. I'll take your word for it." Carbon stuck out his tongue for his mate, then gave the walker a good slap to appreciate the solid sound of the armor. "What did you call her? Kelly?"

"Yeah, like Exos-Kelly-ton. Aura, schematics, please." A custom hologram projector inside a bracelet lit up and a series of flat blueprints stacked into view. "It felt appropriate. We did our best to clone the neural network from your old golem. I don't know any of that, but Eve had a few backup copies from the times she Linked to it, so the name..."

"I love it. Kelly she is." Carbon gave his granddaughter a smooch on the cheek, then inspected the bracelet more than the plans it projected. "Aura, though?"

"Oh, yeah. She's my assistant. I cobbled together a virtual intelligence, with this whole project sort of spurring that idea forward. She's a bit more helpful when you have your paws full and covered in grease--you know?" Erin grabbed a panel and showed how the cannon was designed to mount, indeed clamping over Kelly's shoulder. "See? No mess if it's just hardlight."

"That's hardlight and not just projections? Damn, I need to get some of this Egyptian tech for home."

"Well you're taking some home. Kelly has hardlight emitters all over her outer hull. I figured it might be a cheap way to test out some new shielding tech I've been designing." Erin gave Carbon a good slap on the back. "Thanks for being my test subject, grandpa."

"So I take it we're not blowing things to smithers out here?" Dani finished covering her face with her shemagh and joined the group. "I need to hear it. Is it safe now?"

"I wouldn't say it's safe, exactly. Controlled, perhaps." Erin pointed to an artillery magazine marked with a rainbow sticker. "There's fireworks loaded in one of these, which could be bad in the wrong paws."

"Yeah, we sort of fired one of those. Sorry." Eve pointed at a shell casing the size of her forearm cradled against Yoyo's chest. "The cannon was pointed up, so nothing worse than a bang. We nearly toppled Kelly though."

"Yeah, well don't go toppling that thing on my kid." Artemis took a deep breath of cold air as he walked past the hulking mech. "Nice seeing you again, dad. Tell mom I love her, will you?"

"Wait, are you leaving?" Yoyo dropped the shell casing with a clang and rushed to grab his son's shoulder. "You're not going to catch up?"

"That would only put everyone in danger. I need to find a... dark hole on some barren rock." Arty squeezed his father's paw for a moment before lifting it off of him. "This is how I keep Cassie safe. I'm not changing my mind, dad."

"...Alright. I can respect that. I don't have to like it, but I can accept my son making hard choices for his family. You've become a good man." Yoyo turned his son around and held his paw outstretched, the two sharing a nod and a hard pawshake. "Don't break your mother's heart. We love you, son."

"I love you too, dad."

Dani let out a sigh of relief as Artemis walked off, only drawing the eyes of his father closer to her core. "I, uh... I should go back to Sem. Do keep the fuss down, mates."

"What? Nah, join us!" Yoyo loosened his limbs with a full-body shake and quickly closed the gap to the meerkat. "You seem like a fun one. That's a bit rare for Sem, you know."

"We, ah... I met him just the other day..." Dani averted her gaze and tried to turn for the front doors, but recoiled when she suddenly met Yoyo's gaze mere inches away from each other. "Wh-What?"

"I could swear I've met you before. Not too many meerkats out this far from Earth, in any case." The otter rolled his mechanical arm until the artificial muscles settled more favorably. "In fact, you've got to be freezing your tail off on this rock. Is that what the scarf and leather are all for, eh?"

"Well... yeah, partly. I get cold easily." Dani caught herself subconsciously gripping the tang of a knife and forced herself to relax. "It's also to keep me safe so I can keep Sem safe, I suppose."

"Ah, I got'cha. So he wanted someone fun watching over him. I'd be wary if my wife had to take up that task constantly, too."

"Says the guy that had a literal bodyguard for a wife." Carbon pulled himself back into Kelly's cockpit and licked Eve's cheek in passing. "Zoë still doing well? I hear rumors of a kid?"

"Ah, I don't know about that. Adri's been wanting to give things a shot, but I don't think Zoë has it in her." Yoyo eased away from Dani and sank into himself just enough to be noticed. "She's never really recovered from her injuries. Her lung took a good hit when that assassin cut her and our doc says she's not strong enough to have a child yet. Maybe with more rehab, but then she's got that shrapnel to worry about, and her back probably couldn't take the weight..."

Carbon gave Dani a bit more scrutiny as he noticed her squirm and tense, her heart beating far more rapidly at the direction the conversation took. "I'm... sorry, Iolvin. I didn't mean to... well..."

"It's fine, Carbon. At least she smiles through it all. If I can make my wife happy, that's all I need out of her to be happy myself." Yoyo found himself clutching his artificial paw so tightly his claws ripped through the false skin, then sighed as he more purposefully calmed his nerves. "I could use a drink. Dani, want to keep me company?"

"I don't... think that's appropriate. Sorry, mate." The meerkat shivered and forced herself to move, first heading to the palace, then turning for the garage. "Maybe another time, yeah?"

"I'll hold you to that. You owe me a round."

"...I owe you more than that." Dani kept her voice and profile below the radar until she was out of sight, her tail flailing wildly as her heart threatened to explode from her chest. "I have to end this. End this, then get the bloody hell away. They can't hurt you if they're dead, Wraith."

---

---

Here in a sanctum long abandoned /

Unto the tinder falls a spark.

I have a holy call to answer /

To be an angel of the dark.

So I will pray for death to take you /

With my own cold and weary hands.

And you'll arise reborn of ashes /

Before the fire fades again.

---

Ganzfeld Estate, Unmarked, Central District

08:20, 22/3/2, 25 XP

---

"So this is their new hideout?" Dani wheeled her motorbike behind the perimeter wall then hopped herself over to the other side, carefully stepping over a thin metal wire. "And he still hasn't learned how to disguise a trap. Just ridiculous with family around, that."

The meerkat stalked low to the ground, practically crawling her way through the heavily mined yard. She took a deep breath once she reached the house walls, found herself a pathway, and kicked off a window ledge to grab moulding lining the second floor. A swing and a flip later and Dani bridged her legs between window frames. She grabbed the hinge of an open shutter and looped herself around, then pried a knife into the gap between glass panes to force the lock open.

"Must be a recent place; he usually installs good deadbolts. Is this guy so paranoid he moved when I never found the last safehouse?" Dani lifted the window carefully, then slid herself through the gap without touching the floor inside. She checked the baseboards for alarms or triggers, then stood tall with a quirk to her neck. "Properly recently. No shotgun. You're making this too easy, mate."

The assassin danced her way across the study she'd discovered and slowly pressed her eye to the gap in the cracked door. Again she was taken back, but this time by an obvious decoy laying in the middle of the hallway. "There's the shotgun... and the sightlines are...?"

"Daddy?" Cassie slowly crept around the corner and stared at the disassembled scattergun trap, slowly moving the weapon aside with her heel. "Dad, what are you doing? Do you want to die?"

"What is this?" Dani waited for Cass to move ahead, then poked her head out for a better view. Immediately the girl's concern became justified, half a dozen weapons littering the wooden floor with their wire triggers still tied to the triggers. The meerkat checked one of the guns and shook her head, the cylinder of a revolver laying open and emptied. "He took down the traps? Why?"

"Daddy? Please be here." Cassie opened a door with a wince of pain in her paw. "Not even my room? Are you just... gone?"

"Bloody cold, mate." Dani slowly stood and followed the concerned girl, noting a hint of weeping under her breath. "Smart, though. Better haul off fast than slow."

"Dad..." Cassie slumped beside her bed, reaching for a glinting chain left atop a note. She read the paper with tears rolling down her cheeks, then grabbed a red trinket on the chain so it began to glow in the low light. "Mom... I don't think I can do that. He won't want me to find him."

"The hell...?"

"What? By the door?" Cassie yipped in pain as she grabbed a pistol by her window, then she tossed the chain onto the bed and readied for a fight. "I know how to use this! Our family doesn't take kindly to looters!"

"Shite." Dani checked around the hallway, then looked up at the lofted rafters holding up the vaulted ceiling. She acted on instinct, quickly and silently vaulting off a decorative chest to hang from a support beam. The door slammed open with a kick just as the meerkat lifted herself atop her hiding spot.

"Hello? I have a gun, idiot! Last warning!" Cassandra stepped forward with a limp, her kick taking more of a toll than Dani would have expected. The firefox quietly moved down the hall and rounded the corner, her stance indeed proving she had at least some training from her father. "That's it. I'm--" The weapon lowered and Cassie froze stiff. "Wh-Who are... y-you...?"

Dani nearly moved to disarm the red panda, but she reached forward and took a step around the corner. The assassin shook her head and walked along the rafters, keeping her advantaged position while gaining a clear view of... nothing. "Where did she... go?" The doors were all closed, and that path led into a definite dead end. "A room?" Dani eased herself down from the rafters and checked the first door. "Cassie?" She peeked inside and found only dust and echoes.

When the second room resulted in the same, Dani groaned and shook her head. "Secret rooms now, Artemis? At least you're making the hunt entertaining." She tapped the walls and scrunched her face at the very solid sounds. "Very good secrets. Huh. Well the little miss doesn't have to watch now." She retraced the girl's steps, hovering over the bed and picking up the paper note. "Maybe a clue? 'Keep this part of her safe until we bring her back together. I love you, Cassandra.' Damn, lass. You're not making this easy on me. And what is this?"

"...Oh, you."

A searing bolt of emotions ripped right through Dani's core, dropping her to her knees as those words echoed in her mind. She gawked almost to the point of drooling, at least until her grip loosened and the trinket, a red ring on a silver chain, slithered out of her paw and onto the floor. "...That woman. That's...?"

"My mom." Cassie returned in Dani's moment of weakness, her pistol lowering in favor of picking up the trinket. "You weren't supposed to do that."

"Cassie... Why didn't I know? I should have bloody remembered." Dani slumped on her knees, her will to continue broken in one mystical act. "That vixen... Is she alive?"

"That's... not the best way of framing it. It's complicated." Cassie eased herself beside the intruder, peculiarly calm in her presence. "You decided to go through with it?"

"Cassie, love... I never promised you anything."

"No, but you said you'd actually think about it." The firefox gripped the ring and it gained a glow again. "I said the choice was yours. Maybe it's fine. He's... given up on this kind of life now."

"It's a mercy killing, is it?" Dani watched as the ring's light subsided and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, love. I brought this to a head when I crossed out that backstabbing jackal." She pressed herself off the ground and steeled her nerves. "He lost his wife, and now he doesn't have you. That's no life, lass. Maybe I'm on the proper path after all."

"Just... don't make him suffer."

"No. He's a formidable opponent. He deserves a chance to fight." Dani pulled out a very worn blade with a chip in the edge and felt the weight for a moment. "We have to end this with honour. But that means I first ought to do him right an' get you safely back home, love."

"I am home." Cassie ignored an offered paw and wheezed her way onto her hindpaws. "Well, I was."

---

---

One chosen path;

A silent, tranquil /

End without the purging fire.

Fade to black like our desire.

You've come too far;

Unkindled like /

I was before I saw the answer /

To our rotting, hollow cancer.

---

Royal Delegation Hall, The Grand Palace

09:49, 22/3/1, 25 XP

---

"There has to be something I can give you." Cassandra stepped in front of Dani, holding her arms out in protest. "Please, let me make it right!"

"Will you hush your bloody trap? I wouldn't want to hurt you, but--" Dani reached forward to move the girl aside and froze before actually touching her. "...Cass, love... We both knew this was coming. I have to do this. If I leave your father to his own ways, he'll eventually rally his folks. If I don't do this, I'm as good as dead trying to hide here."

"What happened to you? You used to be such a kind person." Cassie drooped her arms and shoulders in defeat. "I don't know the person standing in front of me. I just know she's not my friend."

"That's just it, lass. I remembered who I really am--what I really am." Dani gave a glance to Tesem across the room and let out a sigh. "Cass, I'd say I'm sorry--"

"But you're not. I know." Cassie noticed the odd looks from family and eased herself back from the meerkat. "I won't give you away yet. You let dad live this long for me. I... owe you that much. Just... go before I change my mind."

"Cassie..." The meerkat took a deep breath to collect herself, then briskly walked over to the small group surrounding the planning table. "Sem. Apologies on the tardiness."

"My wife's here, so it's alright I suppose. Carbon mentioned you were in a hurry wherever you went when he saw your bike. Something important, was it?" Tesem stood from his seat and slapped the table a few times. "Keep going, Yoyo. Excuse us for a moment?"

"Sure, we've got this."

"Thanks, uncle." Sem tilted his head as he noticed Cassie staring at the end of an empty hallway. "Cassie? You alright?"

"Um... Yeah." The red panda turned her head to the others yet her eyes stayed put on the nothingness that captivated her. "I'm just... having a strange day. Nothing I can't handle, you worry-wort."

"Alright, then. Well I'm here if you need me." Sem nudged his snout to the waiting room behind a thick curtain, using the gesture to draw Dani's eyes that direction for him. "You sound like you need to talk. Something bothering you, too?"

"What? No, that's not necessary, Sem. Your meeting is more important--"

Sem fell backward onto a large cushion on the ground and slapped another beside him. "I can't have you distracted around me, Dani. How can I help?"

"Blast. You're really doing this?" Dani groaned as she joined the king. "It's nothing. Though..." She rolled her eyes and laid back further in thought. "What level of surveillance is available to you, Sem? Say you... needed to find someone?"

"I'm sure that's not your true problem. You're more concerned with what happens when you find him." Sem linked his mind to the lights and remotely dimmed them down as he clasped his paws behind his head. "He's in anguish, you know. I'd already think you'd gotten revenge, but I don't know the details." Sem connected to a cleverly masked robotic arm as it grasped a knife, locking the soft joints in place enough to stun the already panicked meerkat. "Relax. What we say here is between us."

"How...?"

"I have my secrets, just like that patchwork body of yours."

Dani relaxed her arm's nerves and Sem slowly released his control over it. "Why didn't ya' pipe up sooner, Sem?"

"I didn't want to work on suspicion alone. I've got a bit more clarity now." Sem rolled to his side and looped his tail around to comb his claws through it. "You think you're going to kill him, don't you? Hah."

"Fuckin' excuse me, mate? This a bloody joke to you?"

"Not at all. I just don't see it in you."

"Oi. You don't know shite about me, bloody toss'ah."

Sem took a deliberate breath and propped himself up by an elbow. "You've killed a... a lot of people. Bad people, thank the Spirits. Don't mistake me here; I definitely don't want to get on your bad side." The king fell onto his back again and stared blankly upward. "You're conflicted, I mean. Sure as the Abyss is deep, people with questions don't kill the ones holding the answers."

"How the fuck do you know--"

I have my ways. Sem grumbled after a moment of shock from his mental intrusion. "As I said, we both have our secrets. Keep mine, and..."

"Aye. You're full of surprises, eh? Fuck me..." Dani joined Sem in staring at the ceiling, the dark allowing her to calm down a bit even if her racing heart didn't play ball. "So what, you're gonna convince me to keep the wanker breathing?"

"No, I'm just here to make sure you don't hurt Cassie. She can take a lot, but this? This would break her, even if she doesn't show it." Sem reached over and rasped his knuckles over a particular knife. "You have purpose, I'll give you that. So does Arty. You know he's only trying to be a good father. How many dads out there actually put themselves in an early grave for their kids? How many give their literal all?"

"He hasn't given up. Hell, I'm giving the guy a fight. If I wanted to end it, I could have already."

"But you haven't." Sem stretched out, then propped himself up again. "You want it to be honorable when you kill him. That's not a luxury you've given to the others."

"Don't make it sound like Arty's the good guy 'ere. He wronged me first."

"That's not true."

"What? How can you--"

Tesem tapped Dani's temple rather firmly. "Because all of this is coming from you, right now. You know he's a respectable guy. You also know you started things."

"I was on a mission!"

"You've only ever had one mission," Sem punctuated with s flick, "and it wasn't given to you by some corrupt bitch."

The imagery of a certain black jackal cursed Dani's mind as she cursed beneath her breath. "She pulled the wool over my eyes, aye. That's all in the past though."

"Is it? It sounds like her ghost has been following you ever since."

"...Damn. The bollocks on you, mate."

Sem tapped Dani's Slate through her pocket and it chirped with a new message. "I do what I need to do. Now you go and do your thing."

"Easier said than... done..." Dani pulled out her Slate and frowned at the message. "These are directions, to him I assume. You sure that's smart?"

"It's worse to let you brood and act against yourself." Sem sat himself upright and slowly pressed to his hindpaws. "I'm sure you'll choose wisely."

"And if the result isn't what you're wanting, Sem?"

"It's not about me. This is all on you." The king stepped out of the dark behind the curtain. "Aim true, Dani."

"...Cheers, Sem."

---

Close your eyes;

Fire must die, and I will /

Reap your embered spirit to survive.

Let us rest;

Never test the darkness /

Keeping our own winter dream alive.

---

Abstergo Interplanetary Starport

Geothermal Plateau, Vaiinu'au

17:09, 22/3/1, 25 XP

---

---

"Every gods damned one. Of course, it's just my luck this bloke isn't here." Dani slipped out of the emergency hatch of a large freighter and surveyed the two remaining starships from atop the towering vessel. "Well that's curious. Two more?"

Dani checked around the dark ship hull and carefully stood tall, a tap to one of her eyes triggering the false sensor to zoom several stages of magnification. "Hm. Both of those ships aren't on the roster. Suspicious. Flip of a coin, is it?" She glanced at the larger ship and noted the engines were cooled down via a thermal overlay. With a dozen people moving about in addition, she put that vessel at lower priority. "He'd never hide around others. The Starbreeze is out. I guess the... the Hermes is it, then."

The meerkat slid off the freighter's hull and onto a nearby cargo pod, tumbling into a somersault to reduce noise. A quick check later and she hopped to the ground, sticking to the shadows and out of the large field lights flooding the open areas. A hint of snow began to drift idly to the ground, granting not only a slight boon to Dani's stealthiness but also the ability to rely upon her thermal filtering for threat detection. She slinked between containers with one paw on a hilt at her side, ready to draw a combat knife just in case.

"Why, hello there. Can I--?"

"Oi!" Dani tumbled into a slide and faced the source of the surprise voice, finding a mechanical ferret without a trace of color to her white form resting against a random crate. "You never saw me. Understood, android?"

"Hm? But why would I want that? I'd much rather help you out, miss."

"You have free thought? In a small frame like that?" Dani raised her blade and made her point clear. "If you report this, I'm afraid I'll have to use this on you, dear. Are we clear now?"

"Oh, you're one of those sorts. I suppose I can't help my friends if I'm damaged..." The android stood tall and took a bow, her reason for being there showing as her tail tugged on a charging outlet in the floor paneling. "I'm Kino and my owner is Vydr. If you're not here to harm us or our ships, I will agree to your proposal."

"On my word, I'm not here for either of you. Not a mention of me or I'll add you to my list. Deal?"

"Agreed. Deal, miss." Kino tilted her head as she examined the meerkat's path. "You're heading for my ship. Does that mean you're here to meet my guest before departure?"

"A guest, eh? That's enough confirmation for me, aye." Dani checked the various entrances, finding no external access on the cargo ramp but a lock on the port side hatch. "Care to do me a favor, lass?"

"My guest requested the doors remain shut. I'm afraid--"

"You're plugged into the local grid to steal power, girly. Don't act prim and proper with me. Open the doors or I'll report you." To her surprise, Dani heard a very physical and overkill locking mechanism clack open on the hatch. "Cheers. Much obliged, lass."

"...Just go before I call my owner." Kino grumpily sat down by her charging port. "...tosser..."

"My knife isn't the only thing that's sharp, lass." Dani flicked her ears and worked her way through the hatch without triggering the power assist. The hatch slowly closed on its own behind her, leaving the area bathed in dark. She quickly pranced her way to the main hallway and rested with her back flat on the corner, closing her eyes to listen for signs of life. Dead silence worked against her, the engine not even running and causing every little noise--including a sniffle from the nearest room--to stand at the forefront. Time to end this. It's me or him now.

"Mn... Vix..."

The bloody hell was that? No... Is he getting randy? Dani slipped beside the door and pressed a bare knife around the gap, finding in the reflection that Artemis was draped over the bed, alone. No? Well time to die, old foe. She slowly walked into the room with her chipped knife drawn, but stalled at the sight of a mostly empty bottle of gin. Well that certainly makes it easy. Not exactly honourable either, but we're beyond that now... Right?"

"Your turn to... protect her... Vix..."

That strange woman... The voice? Dani covered her face with a deep hood and mask, then slumped into a nearby seat. "Ah, shite."

"What!?" Arty flopped in place, then scrambled to reach for the cabin's desk and the pistol resting on it. Dani stopped his paw with a dextrous stab of the knife into the trigger guard that served to pin the weapon down, block the trigger, and slice clean through the panthott's webbing near his thumb. "Fuck!"

"We finally get a moment alone and this is how you treat me? Manners, boy."

"You fucking--"

Dani twisted the knife and bit into the panthott's thumb a little. "Stop that and I'll stop with the blade."

"I... F-Fuck..." Artemis growled through the pain and forced himself to calm down. "You could have killed me. Just... stop toying with me and get it over with."

"Artemis, we need to talk." Dani let go of her knife, relinquishing it to her opponent. "I always held to my word that this blade was for you alone. Before I died, I would make certain it tasted your blood."

Arty grasped the blade's handle but gave up on removing it once he noticed the tip was puncturing an inch through the composite top of the desk. "So that's it. You gave up on my family and you just want me now?" He fell limp upon realizing there were a dozen more knives on Dani's person. "I'm ready. Just promise me you'll leave the rest alone. Leave my daughter out of this."

Dani leaned forward slowly, staring into Arty's eyes for a moment before flicking his snout. "You're serious. Not many people can make that commitment... but a father might. I have some questions." She sat back and very consciously adjusted her facial coverings. "Who is this Vix person? Why was she in my head?"

"Vix..." That hit the panthott in his core, sending a shiver through his back and tail. "You remember her? This whole time, you actually--"

"I found a necklace earlier. I touched it and... I can't stop trying to remember something. If there's holes in my mind, I'm as bloody good as dead."

"The ring... No, wait! You didn't touch my--"

"Your daughter is safe. Answer."

"Vix is... She's my wife. You nearly killed her way back." Arty shook his head as he put the pieces together. "Everyone forgot about her after she fixed things... after she undid her actions and made Gaia go away. Touching one of her rings can make people remember for a while."

"Gaia? She's the one that stopped her? Bollocks." Dani looked over to a ring on Arty's paw, his webbing growing scars around a painfully secured, ruby ring. "Why haven't I noticed that before? When did you get that ring?"

"I told you. Vix was forgotten, and this is a part of her. You'd never notice if you didn't remember her."

Dani groaned faintly as she considered the very old scars that predated her last encounter with her target. "You've had that this whole time. That explains where the kid came from, too. Damn."

"Just leave her alone. You can do what you want to me. Just... have mercy on my little girl, Wraith."

"Don't call me that."

"But--"

"That's not who I wanted to become! It was a necessity!" Dani yanked the knife out of the table with augmented strength and held the point to Artemis' throat. "You think I want to kill you?"

"I know it. I... won't fight it anymore. I now realize that this is my purpose..."

Dani grabbed her long time opponent by the scruff of his neck and pressed the blade forward... but never gained the will to break his skin. "Damnit!" She hurled him against the back wall, picked up his pistol, and hurled it into the hallway in anger. "This has to end. We can't keep going at each other's throats, especially not after finding out your bloody wife did me the ultimate favor."

"Wait, you... Are you saying you owe me?"

"I'm saying we're even. I wanted your blood on this blade for your humiliation, and I've met my goal. With Gaia dead and buried... now we're even." Dani stomped over to the door, pausing as she felt she wasn't putting forth her proper intent. She grabbed at her hood and mask, tugged them down, and gave Artemis a clear view. "No, you owe one more thing for sparing your life."

"You..." The panthott bit his lip to hold back his rage upon remembering her face from earlier. "Be very careful what you demand of me. I don't take lightly to toying with my family like that."

"I'll let you live, and you'll keep your trap shut. That's just a start." Dani slowly stepped backward into the hallway and out of sight. "What you owe isn't to me. You owe your daughter a father."

"Don't you dare speak for her! What gives you the right?"

Dani let out a deep sigh as she walked to the outer hatch, ignoring the panthott scrambling in his bunk. "Those are not my words. That order is payment for Cassie's contract with me."

"Cassandra... talked to you...?" The bunk room fell silent, causing the meerkat to hold still in the open hatch. "You aren't the Wraith I know. What happened to you?"

"Oi. I thought I told you, mate I'm not Wraith." The meerkat left the ship and released the hatch, letting it slowly close like the cover of a long book. "You can call me Dani."

---

Now you have seen the father's anguish /

Atop a painted glacier's peak.

You've heard the tales of ash before you /

From timeless legends that they speak.

If you can listen now to reason /

Then take the whispers to the heart.

Forget this cold and black consumption.

Forget this angel of the dark.