Ragnar grabbed onto a pair of enemy Golems by the head and tossed them throughout the ship while a group of Shadow Cannon reinforcements opened fired at Ragnar; the rogue Golem’s new armor stood against the bullets treating them like pestering gnats that buzzed around people on a hot summer day. Another soldier fired a grenade launcher toward Ragnar, who was already fighting another Golem, striking its back. The damage was minuscule with Ragnar retaliating by throwing the Golem toward the soldiers, instantly wiping them out.

Ragnar clearly became more powerful and was above being equal with its Shadow Cannon counterparts. It quickly cleared its path by swinging the soldiers like rag dolls that lost the stuffing that weighed them down.

“We need to retreat!” One of the surviving soldiers yelled out before Ragnar dragged him from the legs then brutally slamming his body to the floor.

Another Shadow Cannon Golem managed to throw Ragnar toward a wall, but it wasn’t enough to stop it. Ragnar answered back by unleashing a flurry of punches to the attacker before laying a haymaker to knock it down.

“I’m so sorry!” The remaining soldier stumbled in fear as Ragnar prepared to finish him off.

#

Reves lunged at Ashe with speed so quick that if she were to blink— it would be fatal for her.

“What’s wrong, Ashe? Too fast?” Reves whipped his blade through his hand. “Tell you what. I’ll slow myself down even more for you.”

Ashe had trouble getting closing to Reves. Each time she even tried to fire her gun, Reves would slip through the air to get at her. He already managed to slice her a few times; once on her abdomen while most of the other cuts were on her arm from her blocking.

Deacon looked at the battle as it dragged from the engine room to the corridor. He crawled to follow them, slowly pulling himself to stand.

“Damn it!” Deacon winced standing up while using a wall to prop himself up; his leg continued to be a problem and he faced the fact he wasn’t going to be any help to Ashe in his condition. He sighed and looked over at the two siblings fighting until a quick thought entered his head.

“The fuel cell!” Deacon quickly limped his way to find Elvander’s hope of defense. He couldn’t fight, but he can at least locate a glowing canister.

#

Reves grabbed onto Ashe’s arm and delivered a powerful knee to her stomach, letting her drop down to her knees. He used that moment to throw a roundhouse kick to her head, her gun escaped her hands and slid away from her. His attacks were ruthless and precise, just like his personality.

Ashe coughed violently from the attack making her struggle to stay standing. Her mouth oozed saliva and blood as she tried to catch her breath. She hunched over trying to gather herself.

“You should have just taken the damn deal!” Reves kicked her over and crouched by her.

“Then what?” Ashe picked herself up, “You stab me in the back?”

“No,” Reves swiftly— and literally, stabbed Ashe in her back through her shoulder, “this is me stabbing you in the back.”

Ashe yelled in pain as Reves pulled the blade out from her new bleeding wound. She kept trying to breathe and take the pain as she could, but it was unbearable and she grew weaker each second she bled out. Her vision became blurry and her movement became slower. Ashe was starting to become a piece of flesh ready to be slaughtered— by her brother.

“Get up.” Reves stood in front of her with his knife still dripping her blood. “You killed Toomes with no problem, but I guess that was just a fluke… or he was just a lot weaker than I thought.”

Ashe smiled a little, “He said you trained him.”

Reves sucked the air through his teeth. “Funny.”

The Shadow Cannon leader charged at her again, but Ashe rolled toward his legs to trip him, dropping his knife toward her. The two looked at each other for that split second and quickly dived for the weapon. Reves tried to swat his sister away, but Ashe was relentless. She grabbed onto Reves’s neck with her left arm while using her right to push his head to knock him out to get the upper hand in the fight.

Reves refused to make it easy and threw her over his shoulder. The loud impact of her body hitting the floor echoed through the corridors of the ship.

“When I kill you, I’m going to dismantle that damn robot for a blender and then skin your friend as I hang him off a meat hook!” Reves began to grow frustrated with his sister, who kept evading death like an unpaid bill.

She quickly thought about what Deacon was doing and hoped he was able to figure out something that would aid them.

“Then you’re going to have to do a better job of killing me then.” Ashe winced as she got up bruised and bloody.

Reves scoffed and walked toward her once again, squeezing his hands tightly together to show her that he was serious about finishing this fight. Ashe limped over to him, ready to go.

The siblings traded punches, one after another, just hitting whatever they could reach. Reves grabbed on Ashe’s neck to shove her toward a wall, limiting her movement then punched her a few times in the ribs.

Ashe managed to shove her arms down to prevent the last group of punches from cracking her bones. Reves threw her back on the ground, but his sister rolled away to make a quick recovery. She looked around at her surroundings to find something that she can use to her advantage.

There you are! She thought as she looked at the handle of Reves’s knife. Her eyes then shifted to her brother, who didn’t seem to know what she was looking at, but he didn’t care— he already won the fight.

#

Deacon found the entrance to Reves’s quarters; he had a possible chance of finding the fuel cell. He limped his way to the bed that was fixed on the opposite side of the room. The vision of the terrorist leader was not what he had in mind.

“This is just disgusting.” Deacon looked at the piles of junk that littered throughout the room, “ How can someone dressed so well be this… disgusting.”

Deacon sifted through the empty food containers and laundry along the path toward the bed. Every inch he crept a dim glow was glowing brighter along with Deacon’s smile as he crawled on the floor to get under the bed.

#

Reves held up his sister by the collar of her shirt, ready to take her life in one more swift, powerful strike. Ashe quickly reached for the tanto knife and shoved it deep into Reves, who let out a gasp, loosening his grip on her. She held onto the blade handle as tightly as she could to keep him at bay.

“You stabbed me!” Reves’s mouth began to trickle blood.

Ashe pushed him against the wall to deliver a few more punishing blows to his ribs then pushed the knife deeper into his abdomen.

“I did, didn’t I?” Ashe allowed Reves to slide down to the floor while he struggled to breathe. The sound of his breathing was getting weaker and slower.

“You’d think that it’d be you in my position.” Reves chuckled weakly then coughed in pain. “Thankfully, I made preparations.”

“What would that be?” Ashe knelt down to hear her dying brother better.

“I hope you like fireworks.” Reves let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t know what you’re saying, but I’m going to get that fuel cell and your little terrorist cell will have to go back to square one,” Ashe stood back up. “if they’re lucky.”

“I found it!” Deacon raised the fuel cell over his head with excitement.

“Where’s Ragnar?” Ashe asked, looking at Deacon.

“Do you hear beeping?” Deacon put the fuel cell back down to his waist while he looked over to Ashe with his eyes widened.

Reves sat on the floor, no longer breathing with his hand clutching a red-light blinking explosive.

“Bomb, run!” Ashe sprinted out of the corridor with Deacon following close behind.

The pair ran through the ship trying to find Ragnar who was still possibly busy fighting off the other Golems.

“Ragnar! Ragnar!” Deacon yelled out, but no answer. The duo kept running as fast as they could; taking a sharp turn around turning the breached section of the ship.

“Over there!” Ashe pointed out to the main area where Ragnar was still punching away at the remaining enemy Golems.

“Ragnar!” Deacon yelled again successfully getting the Golem’s attention, “There’s a—”

An explosion rang out causing the ship to tip the rear over.

“Not again!” Ashe looked over her shoulder to see the bodies of Golems and soldiers rolling down to the back of the ship. She used the rails of the corridors to prevent herself from falling while Ragnar got on the floor and prepared to slide down to retrieve Deacon and Ashe.

Ragnar began its descent to find land on an anchor point to exit the ship before it crash lands.

Ashe jumped toward Ragnar who clutched onto her and waited on a rail until Deacon found a good spot to jump off.

“Can you make it?!” Ashe yelled out to Deacon.

“No!” Deacon answered back, but stepped back to set himself up, clutched onto the fuel cell tightly, and then dived off the ledge toward the hole of the ship passing Ragnar and Ashe. He overshot his leap.

“Deacon!” Ashe looked down at the open sky where Deacon’s figure grew smaller as he continued falling.

Ragnar and Ashe looked at each other then nodded.

The Golem clutched onto Ashe and dived after Deacon, hitting a speed that was far too fast for Ashe to handle causing Ragnar to put her inside his shell. Ragnar’s afterburners activated to speed down faster toward Deacon.

Deacon turned around mid-air to smile at Ragnar who continued speeding down toward the atmosphere. Quickly getting closer to its friend.

Ragnar reached its hand to grab Deacon’s hand then used their momentum to glide safely at a comfortable speed in order for Deacon to get onto Ragnar’s back.

“It’s hard to believe I’m afraid of heights!” Deacon yelled out to Ragnar. “Where’s Ashe?!”

“In here!” Ashe’s voice was muffled from the inside of Ragnar’s shell.

Deacon chuckled a little before handing the fuel cell over to Ragnar to finish up the rest of its mission.

#

“I wonder what’s going to happen now that we have the fuel cell?” Deacon asked. The trio had landed in a small town called Ursan to cool their heels from the action they had just experienced.

“Can we stop by somewhere to eat after?” Ashe yelled through the interior of Ragnar’s shell as she climbed out. “I was held hostage, killed my brother, and possibly saved the world. I want some damn bacon!”

“You’re handling Reves’s death better than I thought you would.”

“I’m actually a mess, but my adrenaline isn’t done pumping. So my emotions are a mess of depression and excitement.” Ashe’s face was a mix of relief and disgust for herself; the tone of her voice sounded she was going to be fighting with herself in the days to come.

“Look,” Deacon tried to break through the grief as best as he could, “I know we only just met, but if you need a place to stay—”

“Thank you for the offer, but I don’t know.” Ashe sighed. “I really don’t want to be a bother.”

“No, it’s cool,” Deacon said, “You can get back on your feet and from there the choice is yours with what you want to do for yourself afterward.”

“I’ll think about it, but first.” Ashe made an eating motion with her hands.

“Yeah, I agree.” Deacon looked to Ragnar, “Elvander is just a short flight away and from there—”

“Bacon!”

“Yeah… bacon.” Deacon smiled.