First non-RP format fiction in like 4-5 years. It's probably bad, but maybe not. Enjoy anyway. o/
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“If I die, I’ll forgive you. If I live, I’ll kill you myself.” - ancient Caldari warrior’s saying
She lived many times over, thanks to the wonders of modern cloning technology. It made her vindictive. She hated herself for it. Such rebirth had been self-destructive. She wanted desperately to forgive.
Most of all she wanted to forgive herself.
6NJ8-V IV -- Outskirts of the ‘Parakone’ settlement
December 15th, YC 116
Her slim frame leaned gently against the railing as she gazed at the endless black ocean beyond. Glaciers that burdened the distant mountains on the horizon had gained ground in recent years and she had wondered passingly whether she should notify the colony’s climate controllers.
The angel moon was new. She missed its obvious presence at the twilight hour, even if it was trivial to reach whenever she desired.
A faint glow of light flitted by her peripheral vision as she felt the warm touch of her husband’s hand on one shoulder. It didn’t bring her the comfort she sought tonight - nor did the small amount of Synthetic Blue Pill she ingested - but she appreciated his presence all the same.
There was a pause as the soft-spoken Gallentean giant behind her skimmed over the contents of the datapad he had just picked up beside her.
Espionage scandal causes INNVA ruin… ‘pirates with a grudge’ devastate research station… Ishukone research & development losses estimated in the trillions… NOH heavily fined and sanctioned… Caldari Navy declines to press charges on elusive privateer group...
“What troubles you, kainta?” the notorious Ethan Verone sighed, knowing full well the answer. They found their problems to be so similar.
Kyoko Raina Sakoda never felt comfortable here. She felt loved, respected, desired, even happy. Joyous. But she didn’t feel comfortable. She travelled a lot to scratch that itch but it was only ever of temporary relief to her. She belonged with her people somewhere in the core worlds, said her intuition, not in the relative safety of a pirate haven.
She owed that strange safety to her reputation and also to her husband.
Everything about the way her life had panned out seemed dramatic and backward. In the pursuit of the ideal Caldari way, she had become an outlaw, a pirate, and a traitor to her parent mega. Even so, her loyalty to the corporation she served was absolute - until it wasn’t. A CEO can hide a lot from his own board of directors, it turns out. Kyoko had to risk her immortality in a daring and foolish raid on an Ishukone archive just to discover the truth. She was incensed. Maybe tea should have been involved.
“Zaitsev was a madman,” Kyoko breathed as Ethan’s other hand came peacefully down on her shoulder. “Yet, I’d not have met and married you were it not for him.”
Ethan replied with a full-throated chuckle. “I don’t know about that. I thought you had a thing for raucous Gal-Navy boys on shore leave.”
She grinned like it was true.
After a pause, Ethan eventually frowned. “But I know he saved your life when you were younger and used it as leverage to make you do horrible things. You know no one will ever use you like that again, damned as I’m your husband.”
Kyoko buried her head in her hands as quickly as the conversation had soured. Not in despair or sadness, but simply in capitulation. She cursed her own blind spots.
She looked up out at the ocean. It was unnervingly calm.
“But as much as Zaitsev directly disobeyed Ishukone’s orders - as much as he was an unethical shitbag, used us all, and got us all forcibly removed by the Watch,” Kyoko ranted, “I can’t help but think he had motive to be paranoid. Not as paranoid as he was, but paranoid nonetheless. Something happened between him and Ishukone. I still don’t know what.”
Ethan had gotten used to these ramblings of hers’. To him, so long as they were coherent, they proved his wife had a beautiful mind. She was never satisfied with corporate obfuscation. She had been raised a true Caldari Liberal in the same way the Provists had been true Caldari: they demanded integrity. After all, integrity was good for business. It was the one and only thing Ethan admired about the Provists and just one of a multitude of things he admired about her.
He started to massage her back affectionately. An ocean breeze whispered over them.
“So Mrs. Pirate Queen…” he playfully began, “... what does it matter what Ishukone and Zaitsev thought of each other? This isn’t about the people you’ve killed or the citizenship you’ve lost. This is about you, kainta. You need to forgive yourself above all other people.”
Kyoko wanted the loyal Caldari inside herself to die; to forgive. She lived in Venal. She was guri. If only her hunch was right and Zaitsev had something to fear from Ishukone, she might feel like she could submit that past self of hers' to the winds. She would have to retake to the stars after years aground to find out if that was possible, if only because that's where her demons were.
Just so long as she could return to Ethan’s arms every night, those demons would no longer haunt her, paralyzing her as they once did. And with some investigation perhaps she could slay the remainder, once and for all.
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Topic: Haunt (Read 814 times)