Always a dawn after the dusk

[empress_without_a_throne]

[So Mizuki's on the phone, talking with someone at home.  And things are pretty standard until-]

... You're kidding.  They actually pulled it off?!  That's- right.  I understand but that's one more hurdle cleared.

I have some things to tie up here, but I'll be heading back to HQ shortly.



And thanks Mom.  This was... the kind of news I'd never think I'd hear.

[1]



[Later...]

So Solaris contacted me a bit ago.  The DawnBird's nearing completion and we've managed to contact an old pilot interested in coming back for "one last ride" as it were.  It won't be long until SolSavior'll be back in action, and living up to its name finally too.

I'll be heading back to accompany them with the finishing touches, and also to "donate" the combination servos on the DuskBird.  And after that... well, we'll have to wait and see.

[2] (locked to people Mizuki has good CR with)



Hey...

[Before it was a big group-wide broadcast.  Now though, it's just the Abyss Empress finding you at some quiet point.]

How're you holding up?

Comments

[63rd_shockwave]

...Unless it's about my relationship with my parents, no. Go ahead.

[empress_without_a_throne]

It's not your parents but...

... Your old partner. I don't think I ever got the full story from you.

[63rd_shockwave]

Ah.

Well, it's pretty long. Sure you've got the time for it?

[empress_without_a_throne]

I should, barring anything crazy happening.

[63rd_shockwave]

Hm, well, how to start...Lien's where the important stuff really gets underway, I suppose, though she wasn't around for the earliest bit...

...I suppose, the most important thing starting out was, we were secret. Standard superhero stuff-no telling your friends and family unless they've got superpowers of their own. Which is all well and good if you're fighting Queen Beryl or something, but a couple of times we didn't get there fast enough or we messed up and people died. Painfully, while we watched.

There was this one mom and her daughter who...
[Sarah trails off, not saying anything for a while.]

[empress_without_a_throne]

I know how ugly that line of work can be. I barely lucked out of being the type of person who would order things like that.

But go on, if it's not too hard.

[63rd_shockwave]

-huh? What?
[Sarah looks up and around suddenly.]

Ah, sorry, I kind of spaced out for a bit there...Um, well.

So when Lien showed up, she and I didn't have much of anyone to confide but each other...The mascots weren't super-helpful. So, we got to be really close friends...

...But we didn't always get along, either. Where I would push for vengeance, she would push for mercy; where I wanted to keep our hands out of something she'd want to get right into it.

[empress_without_a_throne]

[Nod. Mizuki's no stranger to groups not always agreeing on things.]

Was that what lead to you two fighting then? Or was that just the foundation for it?

[63rd_shockwave]

Gunpowder for the spark.

Basically, we found out that the...corrupted humans, I guess, had a lot of stuff that could be put to good use for mankind. Tools for healing, new energy sources, better vehicles...Lien wanted to keep some of the stuff, I was opposed. Around that time she started saying we should take more of an active role in the world-killing some criminals, maybe leading revolutionary movements, that sort of thing.

Basically, she thought we could do a better job running the world than most everyone else, and I...well, I didn't want to do that.

[empress_without_a_throne]

... So taking law and order into her own hand then.

I think I see where this is going to end up.

[63rd_shockwave]

More or less the gist of it. Probably could have succeed..it...wouldn't have been the worst world, the one she was going to make.

But I couldn't let it happen.

[empress_without_a_throne]

You two were just kids then though...

[To be fair older than her but shaddup.]

A lot goes into leading the world, but might doesn't make right. But... I'm sorry. I know what it can be like to see a friend just go off in some twisted direction.