Pyralis jerked awake in an all too familiar bed, finding herself in the medical wing again. Preon was at her bedside, sleeping while slumped over a countertop. Pyr looked down at her wrists, finding that unlike last time, she wasn’t strapped down to the table. Anna wasn’t here by her side. She wasn’t sure if she preferred it that way.
Yet, just like the morning after the Moonrise’s first defeat, there was only one thing on Pyralis’ mind. One person.
Elara Callisto.
She swung her legs off the table, quickly getting to her feet. Pyr grabbed Doctor Preon by the shoulders, shaking the artificial body until the doctor woke from her slumber.
“Huh..? Mm- Oh hi P-” Preon began.
Pyralis slapped the doctor, not wanting to waste a second. “Where’s Elara?”
Preon blinked slowly a few times, staring blankly at Pyr before finally registering her question. She didn’t think before spitting out the answer. “Holding cell.” Preon knew that it was probably an awful idea to let Pyralis see Elara so soon, but wasn’t sure whether to attribute her decision to tell her to sleep deprivation, or a sense of sympathy.
She didn’t have the right to hide anything from Pyralis anymore anyways, did she? The wide-eyed pup that had followed her owner into the rebel base all those years ago had grown up.
Pyr was gone before Preon could say another word, leaving her sitting groggily next to the now empty patient bed. She bolted out of the medical suite in nothing but a hospital gown. Preon had said she was in the holding cells. That meant she was alive- Pyralis began to shed tears as she continued sprinting.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Pyralis wasn’t sure if she was hearing her bare feet slamming against the ground or her heartbeat pounding out of her chest. It didn’t matter in the slightest, as long as she could see Elara.
She slid on the tiled floor as she stopped to turn into the holding cells. Pyralis punched in her code as fast as possible, and looked down the hall.
Layris and Anna were standing in front of one of the cells. It had to be Elara’s. She ran towards the two, but Anna grabbed her by the shoulder before she could approach the door.
Pyr had almost knocked Anna to the ground out of instinct, but relented to her better judgement. “I need to see her.” The desperation oozed from her voice like mucus.
Layris sighed, sharing a look with Anna before turning to Pyralis. Layris spoke first, “I need to talk to her first. Please. It-”
“No!” Pyralis half-lunged at the door, but was once again held back by Pyr. “I’m- she needs to see me. I need to see her.” She realized that she was panting now, saliva almost dripping from her mouth. Pyr gulped down the liquid, not bothering to wipe away any dribbles that had reached the edges of her lips.
Anna cut in, “Pyr, we don’t know what kind of state she’s in. Seeing you might be too much and…”
“She killed him. I need to ask her why,” Layris stated coldly. “I need to know why he’s dead.” The words should have taken a weight off her chest, but Layris felt it press harder on her than ever before.
Pyralis finally paused her struggling, finally looking at Layris. She looked awful. The bags under her eyes were dark and sagging, and her sclera was dyed dull pink. She had been crying, and looked like she hadn’t slept for days.
A twinge of guilt worked its way through Pyr, and she looked at the door. She was so close. Pyralis had to see her.
“Please,” Layris said weakly, the desperation in her plea plain to hear. It gnawed at Pyr, and she felt herself give in to the distraught woman- friend.
She closed her eyes, and nodded. “Can I at least see her? When you open the door. Just. I need to.”
Pyralis couldn’t tell behind her eyelids, but Layris gave her a weak smile. “Of course. Thank you.” She almost fell forward, giving both Anna and Pyralis a hug. “Thank you.”
Pyr returned the embrace, but the only thing in her mind were wishes that it was Elara in her arms instead. She stepped back as soon as Layris had released them, and nodded at the door.
Layris pulled the heavy handle of the door, hearing the click as it unlocked. She slid it open, revealing Elara chained to the far wall of the room, kneeling. She looked slightly malnourished, thinner than Pyralis remembered. More worryingly, her eyes looked dead, as if somebody had switched off the light behind them. She didn’t even turn to look at the door open, her pupils just darting to focus on the movement of the door. It was as if she was tracking it, watching like a wolf hunting prey.
As if to hammer in the analogy, Pyralis swore she could hear Elara growl as she made eye contact with her visitors. Elara didn’t strain against her restraints at all, but that empty look in her eyes had shifted to something… angrier.
Was that really Elara there? Her arms were still there, but they looked somehow… different. Her hair had grown unkempt and longer than Pyralis knew she preferred. She couldn’t help but run her eyes across her lover’s body, trying to see any hint of the woman that had left her behind on the battlefield all those months ago.
Then the door closed behind Layris, and Pyralis was left to soak in what she had just seen.
Layris stared at the woman she would have once called her best friend, not quite accepting that it was the same person in front of her. She had pulled the woman out of her cockpit, sure, but seeing her like… this? It wasn’t the same.
She vividly remembered tearing the muzzle she had found on Elara off as soon as she was physically able to, but still couldn’t see the woman the same after. It was cemented in her mind, and she couldn’t look at her old Commander without seeing the silhouette of that metal cage around her maw.
It was like a symbol of everything that she hated about the Imperials. How they saw Rebels as animals. Below human. How they wanted to fucking tame them. It made her want to vomit.
“Why did you do it?” She couldn’t keep herself back, letting out the only question on her mind ever since learning of Wrought’s death. “Why did you kill him?”
Elara just stared blankly at her, seemingly not even paying attention to Layris’ question. It infuriated Layris. She had killed the love of her life, and she wouldn’t even say why.
Barely thinking, she swung her leg out until it connected with Elara’s head. She could feel her jaw knock out of place for a moment, and Elara’s was sent careening to the ground. She didn’t even try to dodge. The girl’s head made a thunk against the stone floor. “Fucking answer me!”
Thank god this room was soundproof. Layris didn’t want Anna to hear this, let alone Pyralis.
Elara just continued looking at her with that mix of anger and confusion. She didn’t have any right to look like that. Layris thought she would have pitied her old friend more, but all she could feel was rage spinning around her mind. All she wanted was an answer, but she couldn’t even give her that.
Elara was now splayed out on the floor, not trying to get back up. She made a noise that was between a gurgle and a whimper, and her expression turned scared.
What had they done to her? To make her like this? To make her turn on everybody she had ever cared for?
For some reason, Layris couldn’t find herself caring. All she wanted was an answer. She needed to know why Wrought was dead. Why she was alone. Why her child wouldn’t have a father.
She slammed her boot down into Elara’s open stomach, feeling it sink in almost an inch. Elara threw up a little in response, a puddle of cloudy bile now forming by her head. She was crying now, but Layris wasn’t sure if it was out of guilt, or because she had just hurled. “Tell me why you killed Wrought!”
“Hhh…” Elara finally began to use her vocal cords. It would be the first time that Layris had heard her speak since she was thought dead.
“Her.”
It wasn’t good enough of an answer. Her? What was she supposed to do with that? She pressed down further, watching as more bile was forced up Elara’s gullet and onto the floor. More tears mixed into the puddle of her stomach fluids.
Layris knew what she was doing was wrong, but it didn’t matter. As long as she got her answer. “Explain.” She swore if she pressed any harder she’d hit Elara’s spine.
“She. Haaa–*gghk–*andler. Orr.. der.”
With those words, that dead look in Elara’s eyes returned, and her focus turned away from Layris. She looked to stare off into infinity, her pupils dilating and constricting as if trying to focus on something moving forward and back in her vision.
Layris took a moment to evaluate. She certainly wasn’t satisfied with her answer, but was this… her? She looked at the now sizable puddle of slurry under Elara’s head, now soaking into her ragged hair. The girl had been with the Imperials for months now. It wasn’t fair of her to blame her.
She had just kicked and beaten the woman she had called a comrade in arms for years. A woman already broken down by the people she was fighting to protect her from. From the looks of it, she had done the same thing that the Imperials had done.
What would happen when Pyralis walked in here? Saw the bile and Elara half-alive on the ground?
Layris stepped back, realizing her foot had still been jammed into Elara’s stomach. She shivered, seeing what she had done to her.
Yet- she had an answer. Somebody to blame this on. Handler. Whoever that was. Her husband’s killer.
Pyralis and Anna stood outside the metal door to Elara’s cell, the silence hanging over the two like swords.
Damocles. Elara would have liked the reference, Pyralis thought. Somewhat akin to her, with Pyralis taking over Elara’s old role. She hated the responsibility, always afraid of being scolded and despising being in charge. Would that make Elara Dionysus?
Before Pyr could continue her train of thought about Elara as a King from old mythology, Anna broke the silence.
“Do you want to talk about um- err… nevermind.” Anna verbally stumbled over herself at the end, a light flush coming over her face. She was avoiding making eye contact with Pyralis, and scratched the back of her neck.
Pyralis gave Anna a stare, confused. “What were you going to say?”
Anna shook her head, but felt herself cracking under the weight of Pyralis continuing to stare at her. She immediately regretted even starting to talk.
“Um- I helped pull you out of your cockpit.”
Oh. Pyralis knew immediately what she was referring to. She choked on her own saliva for a moment, swallowing too fast in response. “Gh- Is that so?”
Anna did her best not to look down at Pyr’s crotch, despite her unconscious urge to. It was like trying not to think about her mech while she was sitting in its cockpit. “Yeah. That was it.”
Pyralis wasn’t content letting Anna get away with that, not after she had brought it up out of the blue like that. “Was it? Did you… see anything while pulling me out?”
Anna felt like she was a child being asked by their parents whether she had broken their prized vase. Of course she had. She just didn’t want to admit it.
She should be good at choking down her pride now, right? That was half of what her conversation with Layris had been about. She needed to open up. Be honest.
But… honest? About this? She’d rather tear her arms off. Anna realized that analogy was probably in poor taste. She decided to push forward, at least get a laugh out of this conversation at a later date.
“Your um. You had a stain on your…” she gestured down, vaguely pointing at the region between Pyr’s legs. “I was curious and-” TOO FAR. TOO MUCH INFORMATION. Anna cut herself off before incriminating herself further.
Pyralis had to stop herself from bursting out into laughter. “Curious? About what? What did you do?”
This was stupid. Elara was sitting in there with Layris and doing god knows what and they were out here talking about Anna being a perv. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
“I touched it! I wanted to know what it was and wasn’t thinking!” Anna blurted out, and turned to hide her face from a grinning Pyr. To think they had been fighting just a few months ago.
Pyr grabbed Anna by the shoulder, turning her around. “And what was it that you learned?” She of course already knew, but wanted to hear it from Anna. Last time Anna had seen her like that, she hadn’t been so… embarrassed about the topic. Pyralis was going to savor this moment.
Anna parted her fingers to peer at Pyr with one eye. She mumbled into her palm. Itwascum.
“What was that? Can you say that a bit louder?” Pyralis asked. This was probably one of the best moments of her life. Anna. The pilot who had seemingly hated her guts for over a year. In her hands like this.
“It was cum! It was sticky and slimy and tasted li-” Anna slapped a hand over her mouth, knowing she had already incriminated herself to a point beyond return.
This was precious.
Pyr grabbed Anna’s other shoulder, and it felt like she was looking down at her, despite being shorter. She wasn’t going to let her go this easy. “Tasted?”
Anna started to mumble into her hands again. Shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup-
“You put it in your mouth! You felt that sticky liquid between my legs and needed to taste it to confirm? Or did you just like being a little pervert?” She moved to speak into Anna’s ear, lowering her volume to a whisper. “Did you like it? Did it taste good?”
Anna let out a squeak. She stepped back, pushing Pyr’s arms off of her shoulders, before giving a curt nod.
Just as Pyralis was about to give chase, the door to Elara’s cell slid open. Layris walked out, speed walking down the hall. She grabbed Anna by the wrist, pulling her along before Pyr could react.
Pyralis turned to the left, seeing Elara still kneeling there, that empty look in her eyes. A puddle of fluid pooled at her side, and she seemed… mangier than before. What had Layris done?
She didn’t have the chance to ask, looking back down the hall, the two were already gone. Just her and Elara then.