Inside the Shadow Cannon ship was eerie, dark, and almost empty. A few footsteps echoed around the sleeping chambers. The remaining soldiers slept inside their quarters, hoping to land in their base by the time they woke up.

Reves didn’t want to sleep; he sat in the brig with his sister, Ashe, who was locked up. Her face was mostly covered in dirt and sweat as well as the blood from her previous ship ride, which dried into a dark red, almost black color. Reves looked at her trying to figure out an approach to talk to her.

“I never thought it’d be you who would do something so stupid.” Ashe broke the silence instead.

“Nothing stupid about it, Ashe.” Reves cleared his throat, ready to preach, “We spent our lives being little guinea pigs to uphold the standards of law and order while they screwed us over behind our backs.”

“Doesn’t explain the killing! Still doesn’t explain Hazlan!” Ashe’s voice grew angrier.

“Times are changing, Ashe.” Reves stood up from his chair and walked to the cell where Ashe was locked in, “Hazlan was just a place that couldn’t get with the times.”

“That was our home, Reves!” Ashe’s eyes began to tear up with rage.

“It still is.” Reves said, “I’m just making it better than it was and you can be a part of it.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?!” Ashe scoffed.

“You can become a ruler of the new Hazlan. No elders, no ancient laws that do nothing, but hold their people back. Now it’s time for someone better.”

“And you think that this world would prefer a madman?” Ashe scoffed.

“Why not? Other countries have been fine with a madman in charge.” Reves smiled.

“You better hope that killing dad was worth it because when I get out of these damn chains, you’re dead!” Ashe tried to lunge at her brother, but the chains held onto her tightly, restricting her movement to just aggressive jerking.

“Dad was dead the moment he let those old shits banish me!” Reves protested, “I’ll give you some time alone to think about it. I expect a yes by the time I return.”

“If I say ‘no’?”

“Then I’ll finish the job I started at Hazlan.” Reves left the brig with the threat freshly lingering in the air.

#

Deacon stood by the entrance of one of the capital’s main buildings. The sun was beginning to sink into the horizon while Deacon continued to wait outside.

“How long is this meeting supposed to take?” Deacon said to himself, growing impatient by the second.

Another moment passed before Roy exited the building with a walk of pride.

“Good news?” Deacon turned to face the man.

“I hope you know your way around power tools.” Roy smiled.

“What did you tell them?” Deacon followed Roy down the stairs to a car that was waiting for Roy.

“The truth.” Roy paused down the steps to face Deacon, “You saw Shadow Cannon and now we need to get a prototype battleship in play before they have a chance to strike.”

“But we don’t have a ship, Mr. Freeman.” Deacon’s voice of concern made Roy want to wince.

“Yes we do, Deacon,” Roy nodded slowly to make sure he understood the subtlety. “You are the engineer we contracted to have the workspace to yourself in order to construct us a state-of-the-art weapon, right?”

“Right?” Deacon wasn’t sure what he was agreeing to, but he could trust the head of defense for one of the largest superpowers in the world. If not him, then who?

“Attaboy, now ride with me,” Roy opened the back door of his car to allow Deacon inside first while Roy’s driver stood at the ready, prepared to take them wherever they needed to go.

“Where are we going?” Deacon asked. “Is it where Ragnar is?”

“William, take us to the Factory.” Roy nodded at his driver.

“My pleasure, sir.” William allowed the two men inside the car before closing it and walking to the driver side. The driver sat in the car and began to pull away from the building to get to the location that his boss said.

“So what exactly are we going to be doing at this ‘Factory’?” Deacon kept trying to get his answers, but the fact that he was in a covert mission meant that most of the information he was asking for was on a need-to-know basis. Basic protocol.

Deacon wasn’t used to that. He didn’t even think he was part of some top-secret mission like in the spy movies. This was all on his day off from work. He wasn’t even sure he was going to make it back to his shift in the next two days.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, kid.” Roy looked at the worrying Deacon, who was doing a poor attempt at playing it cool, “This was not what I had in mind either, if I may be honest. I was hoping for a trained soldier, but instead, I get you, no offense.”

“None taken… I think?” Deacon sighed. He couldn’t agree with him more.

“I already took the liberty of getting the area prepped for our arrival. Ragnar is getting set-up and will be ready for our first attempt at reviving him.”

“What about my friend who Shadow Cannon has?”

“Don’t worry about her.” Roy patted Deacon on his shoulder, “Let’s get your other friend up and running and then we’ll work on getting your other buddy out of their clutches.”

“I hope this works, Mr. Freeman.” Deacon leaned his head on the window of his door, “I’m getting just about tired of all this near-death crap.”

“Sounds like you wouldn’t make it in politics.” Roy looked over at his driver as they shared a quiet laugh while Deacon spaced out at the view of Elvander’s road.

“Yeah.” Deacon continued looking outside of the window, “Politics.”

#

Ragnar laid on a work bay, all lights on its exterior were off. Not a single dim light shined, no sign of life showed on the Golem.

“Is this stuff going to help?” Deacon had his hands inside Ragnar’s interior trying to fit some cables into its power source to give it a jump. “That armor feels too light.”

“Trust me, my guys did a great job making sure the Golems’ movements were not restricted while they were protected. That’s just fine Elvander craftsmanship.”

“Alright, I think the clamps are on secure enough.” Deacon let out a few grunts to make sure none of the cables slipped out when it came time.

“Okay, I have another meeting in about an hour, but I’ll leave you to it. I got some engineers on hand in case you need help.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Deacon grunted as he picked up another piece of armor for Ragnar. The impact wrench he used whirred loudly when he tightened the bolts to secure the armor in place. The sound of the bolts getting locked up bounced through the almost empty workstation. Elvander engineers stood by waiting to be called into aid Deacon, but he never did. Maybe he just wanted a more personal touch to repair Ragnar.

After a few hours of scraped knuckles and sweat-inducing labor, he managed to complete Ragnar’s new armor set. Deacon looked closely over the Golem to make sure he didn’t miss any sections or bolts. Satisfied, he took a few steps back and looked over to the engineers with a sigh of relief for completing the job. He was close to getting Ragnar back and close to getting Ashe out of the Shadow Cannon’s ship.

“Alright, guys!” Deacon put on his supplied safety goggles, “Let’s get him juiced up!”

The engineers flipped a switch located on the back of the bay. A red energy surged through the cables starting from the source and finding its way into Ragnar. The lights in Ragnar’s system stuttered between on and off.

“Okay, cut it!” Deacon waved his hands at the engineers and ran up to Ragnar to see the results of their work. He looked for any sign of life like lights or sounds of its motor running, but to his disappointment, nothing was activated.

“Looks like we need to do some more troubleshooting.” One of the engineers sighed.

“Yeah, let’s go back to square one and see what we missed. Maybe if I can look—” Deacon’s words were cut off by the familiar sound of screeching metal. His head turned to the engineers who stared at the source of the sound with gaping jaws.

A loud thud made Deacon take a full turn to view the spectacle.

Ragnar stood in front of Deacon and the engineers in its full glory. Its new light armor covered its old wounds and gave it extra reinforcements against any form of assault.

Ragnar whirred and looked at itself to admire the new, updated look.

“You’re welcome, buddy.” Deacon smiled.

#

Ashe waited until she faced her brother again, but being locked inside the brig made it feel like days when only minutes passed by. She had no choice but to bide her time until she got her next opportunity. Just one perfect moment was all she needed.

“Meal time!” One of the soldiers announced his presence with a plate of military rations and a cup of water that looked like it had a little touch of iced tea powder, giving it a light brown hue. Very delicious.

The soldier placed the tray of food just outside of her reach; she would need to stretch herself out a few inches to reach it. She stared at the tray and then to the soldier.

“Aren’t you going to feed me?” Ashe asked the leaving soldier.

“Sorry, no can do. I’m sure you can figure it out.” The soldier scoffed then chuckled.

“So you’re just going to let your leader’s sister starve. How would you think he would feel about that?” Ashe shook her head to express her disappointment.

“I don’t think he’d care.”

“Is that right? Are you sure about that?” Ashe clicked her tongue, “I’m pretty sure he told you to feed me, not torture me. So I’m pretty sure he still cares enough to want to keep me alive.”

The soldier sighed. She made a good point and the last thing he needed was to hear Reves call him a moron or worse— make him an example for the others. He turned back to the brig holding cell and pulled his key card to unlock the door. He kept his gaze on Ashe to make sure she didn’t try any funny business then knelt over the tray to get a ration for her to bite.

“Make sure you don’t bite me or I’ll make you regret it.” The soldier said before he fed her the ration.

“Cross my heart.” Ashe’s made sure her sarcasm was obvious to the man.

He brought the ration close to her mouth to make sure she could get a good bite but was greeted with a kick to the knee to bring him down to her abdomen and then wrapped her legs around his neck to make sure he was under her control.

“Now what you will need to do is let me out or I’ll slowly pop your neck until its completely dislodged from your spine. Make your decision quick.” Ashe whispered to the man’s ear.

He quickly thought about it and decided to let her go.

Or so she thought.

Her chains were off, but the soldier quickly slammed her to the ground and placed his gun to her head.

“Did you really think I was just going to let you skip out of here?” The soldier slowly squeezed the barrel of his gun to her head.

Before she could have a chance to retaliate, a loud explosion emerged from the center of the hull.

“What the hell was that?!” Ashe and the soldier turned to each other in confusion.