The shadow of Kriger loomed on the horizon, a heavy, ominous harbinger of destruction and, more importantly, Coop’s eye wouldn’t stop itching. It would be another week before the damned eye patch could come off and they’d have any idea if Regis’s doctor pal fixed the problem, or just prolonged the inevitable. Holding out for hope was akin to a fool’s errand most of the time, Coop knew that. Still, Sam was doing her best to remain optimistic and if she was holding on, that made it easier for him to.

Walking around with one side of his face covered up was helping him adjust to a life without his full visual spectrum. The adjustment was anything but easy, his hips baring the brunt of his transgressions and were covered in bruises. Moving around like this was hardly graceful enough to cope with fighting the toughest bastard in the galaxy, that’s for sure.

“Just cut it out,” Sam said. “You know the more you poke it and prod at it, you’ll just make it worse.”

“Easy enough for you to say,” Coop said. “This itches so bad, I just want to tear this damned patch off already.”

“We both know it’s a miracle you’ve even still got an eye, let’s at least wait and see if Dr. Liu’s treatment worked.”

“It’s not that I don’t, it’s fucking annoying.”

There were multiple frustrations in his life, including being stuck on Luna until things were sorted with his eye. The doctor worked out of Regis’s facility, meaning he was tethered to them until things were better. Sam had to talk him into staying every day, the pull to at least return home to his flat and be comfortable too overwhelming.

If there was one thing working in the injury’s favor, it was temporarily severing his tie from the stimnet until he was healed. His senses weren’t ready for an experience like that just yet, nor was it healthy for him mentally to dive back into something that’d consumed him for so long.

What he wanted was to get back into training, something with substance, and could actually help him. Anything was better than stumbling around the sterile, sad compound full of high hopes and future broken dreams.

“Maybe it’s time to get back into training?” Sam asked.

“What? You mean here, on Luna? With this thing on my face?” He didn’t mean to sound that incredulous, but he was worn down. “Sorry, I’m just tired is all.”

“Look, I know nothing about here is ideal. This is the hand we’ve been dealt, so we’ve gotta deal with it. Letting yourself sit here, rot and stew over things isn’t gonna help either of us. You remember how you get...”

She didn’t need to say anything else. It stung because it was true. The stimnet wasn’t the problem, it was a vehicle to bring out the worst in him. Those tendencies and problems were ones that existed in the real world and the stimnet was merely the easiest place to facilitate that behavior. Of course she was right. He should make an attempt to train again. He’d trained on Luna before and it didn’t go well for him, albeit his attitude at the time was utter garbage. Training in his current condition, the once-great Coop Sabre, stumbling around in front of people he’d considered amateurs, was not ideal. Was that what he was reduced to? Some sad sack worried about looking bad in front of people he didn’t respect?

“C’mon, what do you have to lose?” she asked.

“My pride,” he admitted.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Cooper,” she said. “Is that what you’re afraid of? Making a fool of yourself in front of these kids? They look up to you. You already made a fool of yourself to them the last time you were here by being such a prick. What else could you do? They still look up to you.”

“I wasn’t that bad.” The words came, but they felt empty. He had been a miserable prick. But it couldn’t be that bad. “Right?”

“You insulted them, hurt a few of them, couldn’t get beyond your loss and that stupid bat—“

“The bat was shit, Sam. C’mon.”

“So what? They were trying to make you feel at home, and instead you shit all over them. You know, I think Regis is an asshole, but he came to your aid without me calling him. That regen tank? You ever wonder why it was just slapped into that ship? He bought it off of Tuup on the spot.”

“From fucking Tuup?” That floored him. “Tuup wouldn’t do that for cheap.”

“He didn’t. Your uncle didn’t flinch at the price, he just wanted to get you back here and stitched up.”

“Oh fuck me.” This was hitting him hard. “I’ve been an asshole.”

“You can be,” she said.

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“That’s what love is, right? I’m not here to make you feel better. I’m here to help you be the best person you can be, even if it’s kicking and screaming.”

“How am I ever gonna pay him back for that tank?” he asked.

“Go out there and be Coop Sabre. What do you have to be afraid of? To them, you’re a living legend. Seeing you still going, regardless of your injury or pride, would be more inspiring than seeing you stumble around and grunt about hating it here.”

“Yeah...”

“Just a thought.”

She followed it up with a peck on the cheek and strolled out of the room, leaving Coop to contemplate how far he’d come from the miserable bastard he was and how far he still had to go. His uncle buying one of Tuup’s regen tanks on the spot to rush him back to Luna and attempt to fix his eye was above and beyond what he’d ever expected of him, especially after the stunt with the last tank and leaving it on Ushinatta out of spite. In retrospect, it was a nice move for those guys and helped push Ramirez into a career in the league, but done out of spite, not any sense of nobility.

He still had a lot to learn.

With a deep sigh of resignation, Coop rifled through his things and pulled out some workout gear, knowing she was right and he needed to get back into the gym no matter what. It would probably also help to be more public and help some of these hopeless losers find themselves. If all it took with Ramirez was bashing his skull in and leaving a regen tank for him, these guys could be whipped into some sort of shape as well.