27. Confessions

"Easy, bruv."

Auren was helping Fengári slide into the ship's med pod. The pod scanned him as he settled within, a bright light raking across his body before a series of arms and needles began to prick and poke at him.

"Ouch!" Fengári yelped as one of them drove a fluids tube into him. "How come you get to be a robot and I don't?"

"Don't worry, there's still time for you to be assimilated, meatboy," Auren teased. "Hold tight; I'll check on you in a bit. I'm gonna help Lupo with the weapons while we get out of here. Hey, I'm sorry everything blew up like this."

"Don't be. This is the most exciting my life has been in years. I've wanted to leave Tartarus ever since they shipped you off. Home is where you are, bruv. It doesn't matter if it's Obila or the middle of fucking nowhere with a Keth for a crewmate. Now fuck off, I'm trying to sleep," he finished with a wink.

"I'm glad you're here," Auren said, leaving his brother to enjoy whatever drug cocktail the bed had just pumped him full of.

Auren could feel the ship rumble beneath him as its thrusters pushed them off of Obila and hurtled them skyward. He made his way to the bridge.

"Incoming fighter craft launching from a bay on the surface," Ophion stated bluntly as Auren sat beside Lupo and pulled up the weapons holo.

"Any local authority we can call for help?" Auren suggested.

"I already tried. They said all assets have been confiscated for the war effort and to stand by," Lupo said.

Auren noted the swarm of faster, smaller craft quickly closing in on them on his display.

"I don't think we have time to stand by," he began.

"No, I don't believe we do," Lupo agreed. "Look, don't fire until you have a clear shot, but if you get one, take it. Ophion, can you squeeze any more power out of the engines?"

"Negative," Ophion hissed.

Auren couldn't believe the lengths these mercs were going to as he tried to shore up the targeting calculations for the ship's cannons. But if he fired and missed, the shots would continue on and strike the surface, undoubtedly wounding or killing innocent people…

And wouldn't that be delicious?the shadow whispered. Do it. Do it. DO IT!

Auren was firing before he realized he'd done so.

"Auren, what are you doing! There are people down there!" Lupo gasped.

But to Auren's relief, the shots hadn't missed—and a pair of explosions scattered their remaining pursuers as they crossed out of the atmosphere.

"Your aim is formidable," Ophion commented, seeming to approve of the bold tactic.

"And downright negligent. It's one thing to kill pirates and mercenaries—it's another to put innocent lives at stake," Lupo lectured.

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me," Auren mumbled. He felt numb.

Now that they were out of the planet's atmosphere, Lupo was busy prepping them for hyperspace and seemed to direct his attention pointedly elsewhere.

"I'm sorry," Auren repeated, knowing that the words didn't carry the weight he wanted them to.

To his relief, the whispers had fallen silent once again. Auren wondered anxiously if his brain had been scrambled somehow when they'd revived him. But he'd seen it. The being. He knew it was real because it had been real, even when he hadn't been.

"Five… four… three… two… one…"

And then, all at once, the stars were sailing by, and the sensor contacts that had regrouped and given chase blipped away.

Lupo leaned back in the captain's chair and let out a groan that sounded exactly the way Auren felt.

"Well met, abominations. That was spectacular," Ophion clucked as he strolled out of the bridge, leaving the two men to their tense silence.

Auren watched as the stars blurred by, not bothering to ask where they were going.

"Message incoming," the ship announced, startling Auren from his thoughts.

"Play," Lupo commanded.

There was a crackle of static, followed by a strange, high-pitched whistle that made Auren flinch. And then a computerized voice began to speak in a monotone:

"Lupo. Despite the shifting of the tides, we still swim onward. The currents have brought wisdom: the prey you seek is now on Hestia…"

Echo's transmission cut out abruptly. Auren looked uneasily at Lupo, who was still ignoring him. He was typing away at the holo and likely redirecting the ship to Hestia, wherever that was.

"So I take it that's where we're going?" Auren asked after a time.

"Is that alright?" Lupo replied, still not willing to look at him. "It looks like it's clear on the other side of the galactic rim. It's going to take a few days to get there."

"Of course. Hey, look, I'm sorry about the shooting, and the killing… and, well… all of it, really, but there's something I really need to tell you—" Auren attempted.

But Lupo cut him off before he could tell him about the shadow.

"No, you're not the one who needs to apologize. I am. I let my fear get the better of me. And the danger we're in is hardly your fault. Is it selfish of me to ask if you are still with me?" Lupo asked, his voice softening as he knelt before Auren and looked up at him.

Auren opened and closed his mouth a few times, desperately wanting to tell him about the whispers but finding himself unable to do so.

"I'm with you," Auren assented.

"Good," the man said, rising to his feet and giving Auren a brief but tender kiss on the forehead. "Want to go check on your brother?"

Auren did, and followed Lupo out of the bridge and back down to the Fortunato's little medbay. Within, Fengári was out like a light—the drugs and the day seemed to have taken their toll on him. He drooled contentedly as he snored inside the med pod.

"Poor guy," Lupo whispered.

Auren's eyes went to his brother's prosthetic foot.

"I guess he'll have to be roommates with Ophion from now on. That should be interesting," Auren replied, half smiling at the thought despite all his worries.

"Does that mean I'm still welcome in the stateroom?" Lupo asked hesitantly.

Auren shifted uneasily. The thought of the shadows compelling him to fire on a nameless, faceless enemy had been one thing—should they force him to perpetrate violence against Lupo, Fengári, or even Ophion, it would be another kind of nightmare altogether.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pressed—" Lupo began, but Auren interrupted him.

"I want you to. It's… Look, can we talk?" Auren suddenly began to cry, unsure where the tears were coming from or when they might end.

Lupo brought him in and wrapped his arms around him.

"You can tell me anything," he murmured into Auren's ear. "I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you."

The words only made Auren cry harder. He was sobbing openly now as he pressed his face into the synthetic fabric of Lupo's flight suit. Lupo let him cry. On and on, the tears fell until he felt like he'd expelled what he needed to. Lupo gently led him out of the medbay and down the hall to the stateroom. There, they sat side by side on the bed, watching the exotic fish swim about their tank. For a moment, Auren was tempted to curl up and go to sleep, imagining that on the other end, he might wake and find his problems had all disappeared. But he knew how foolish that was.

And so, after a long, quiet while, Auren finally began to tell Lupo about the shadow.