Sythius laughs haughtily and then punches me in the face.
I grunt from the pounding pulse that thrusts blood to my nose and mouth, but he’s confirmed my suspicions. He never coped well with personal attacks and resorts to violence to get out of a situation he can’t handle.
Blood coats my mouth as my chair topples backward and crashes to the floor, pinching my arms underneath. “Ow, fucker!”
“Of all the people, I thought you would understand,” he hisses as he comes closer.
“I don’t.” I grit my teeth through the pangs in my arms, face, and head from smacking it on the bag still strapped to my back. But my right boot is much looser. It might be enough. “Because despite all of that, you lost yourself. You don’t even know who you are anymore. You are subject to your every whim, and one of these days it’s going to be a fatal impulse.”
“Sounds like a bad holovid title.” He straightens and looks down at me with disappointment.
“Yeah. The documentary of your life. I know who I am and what matters to me. What I fight for is greater than anything I’ll become on my own. And that’s what you lack.”
“An army?” Sythius asks.
“A family.”
He kicks my chair. “You don’t know how much that hurts.”
“A lot less than the pain you’ve caused me and everyone else that’s had to take a knee before you to survive.”
“So all of it was a lie?” he asks. “Every team-up?”
I rest my head back and stare up at the rocky ceiling. “You cannot force people to love or want you. And I can’t believe you think chaining someone up works. I was just doing what you were and still are: pairing up when necessary to get through the night.”
He picks me up by my hair. I wince and tense as he pulls me back upright and sets the chair legs back on the ground.
“You’re making my point,” I rasp.
“What was that?” he jeers.
“I said—” I slip my foot out of my boot and kick him where it counts. “You’re a dick.”
He curls forward into the perfect position for a knee strike. With Menace suffering outside, I’m not going to waste an opportunity to get out of here.
I bring my knee up and smack him in the face. Sythius topples sideways. For a moment, as I watch him writhe on the floor, I feel sad for him.
All he knows is misery. All people, aliens, and Titans do is beat him up. Sure, he asks for it. But I know it’s because he didn’t grow up in a loving home like I did, even if my father was obsessed with work. It’s just instinct to Sythius to antagonize everyone. A decade of chance encounters, team-ups, and betrayals exposes a lot.
I stomp my boot free of the ropes, wiggle my foot back into it, then kick my heel against the chair leg. It opens a knife in my toe, which I use to free my other leg. I slide up the backrest and free my arms, step backward through the loops, and work my wrists out. “I do pity you, you know. But it’s not for the reason you want.”
He wheezes and looks up at me through watering eyes. Blood runs from his nose and split lip. The misery written on his face tells me everything. He really does want me. He wants me to understand, wants someone to. Sythius, deep down, wants to know what it’s like to be cared about, but he’s too scared to let himself be that vulnerable because no one’s ever been that loyal to him. No one wants to be loyal to him because he makes it so difficult with all the lying and manipulation.
“Maybe you never learned what respect is because you never got any. But because I pity you, I won’t kill you even though I know of all the souls you’ve kicked out of airlocks. You claim to want me, but you sold me as a sex toy to someone else. That’s not what a person does when they care.”
Sythius wipes his mouth on a sleeve. “But I knew you’d be a problem for him, and I’d find you again someday. I just needed—”
“An out. An escape from the trouble you were in. A distraction. That proves that you will always sell out the people you’re with to protect yourself. There’s no loyalty to anyone in your cold heart but yourself. That’s why you’re alone. And you’ll be alone until you become trustworthy.” I finally drop the last of the ropes he put around my wrists and ankles.
He grimaces like the idea disgusts him. “And have to care what others think?”
I draw the blade from my chest strap and press the point under his chin. “You remember this day. I could’ve killed you. It’s not that I’m afraid. I pity you because I care and wish you had a better life. But you have to make that for yourself. You have tochoose.”
I turn to leave when he calls to me. I stop in the doorway, irritation gripping my nerves tightly.
“How can you care at all after I abused you? People hate me for being Solcrue or for not being enough. For being augmented, an orphan, a junker, a loner, a narcissistic and self-centered egomaniac.”
I look back at his curled-up body. “What you are doesn’t matter. One of our leaders is half Solcrue. Another works with us. He’s full-blooded but realized the error of their ways when a human saved him. You are lost but not a lost cause, Sythius. You have that in common with a lot of us rebels. The difference is that people like me and Titans like Menace still see the greater purpose we can be a part of even if we don’t have ourselves quite worked out yet.”
Adjusting my pack, I lift my rifle and check the hallways. “Get out of here while you can. If I can’t kill Captian Cerzsl, he’ll likely shred this place looking for others like me. And that means you.”
I sneak out of the room, stick to the shadows, and move as fast as I can to the level Menace is on. If I’m going to take Quris out, I have to have the element of surprise.
Steadying my grip on my gun, I calm myself with a deep breath.Just another lunatic with the strength of a Titan, tough skin like a Solcrue, and many potential doctor’s tools that could be used as weapons in that room. Sure, I’ve totally got this.
When I see him cut into Menace’s chest again, I forget about the risks. I’m not leaving him there to suffer. I’m going to find a way to break him free if it kills me.
