I should have waited, I know I should have waited. I should have paused and assessed the situation but I saw her turning and I saw her hand coming up. There was something in it. I thought it was a gun.

It should have been a gun, why wasn’t it a gun?

She should have seen me coming, she should have been prepared. Why wasn’t she? I expected a firefight, maybe even to die. I expected something. Why was she in her office, watching what was happening in the garage on her screen, and just holding a telecomms device?

She didn’t even have her wrist monitor on.

Did I kill an innocent person?

She wasn’t doing anything wrong, she was just standing there. Her office was empty, she could have been preparing to run. Maybe she had a family at home, a kid somewhere.

Or, she could have been preparing to join the Council. I mean, they put her in charge of the base and they trusted that she and the people she had hired would have been able to catch us, should we return. There must have been something, right?

I’ll never know.

Her eyes widened in shock as they found me but she stumbled backwards, blood already darkening her silvers. She wasn’t even wearing her proper uniform. Maybe she was about to get changed into her suit, it was thrown over the back of her chair.

Aries, what’s happening? Cas thought, a frantic edge to his words.

I stared at Plend as she fell back, her hand scrabbling at the steadily growing red stain on her chest. She hit the floor with a thud and it’s not often that I wish I didn’t have mods but, as I listened to her rasping dying gasps, I really regretted them.

I stumbled forwards into the room, my hands shaking.

I’d killed people before, of course I had, but this was the first time I killed someone and could look into their face as they died.

I… This was the first time I killed someone who might have been innocent.

Too slowly, I fell to the floor next to her. I couldn’t rip my eyes away from her face. She looked tired, exhausted. Lines creased her skin and her hair was unbrushed. Nausea threatened to overwhelm me but still, I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t form thoughts as my eyes found the comms device that had fallen out of her hand.

She was unarmed.

Aries? Cas’ voice was sharper.

She’s still alive, Peggy told him. Her vitals are fine!

I’m… I’m here, I thought shakily, tears threatening my eyes.

Oh, thank the Gods! Are you okay? What’s going on?

Um… she’s dead. I… shot her.

I didn’t need to touch her to know that, her heart had already stopped and the blood was already spreading towards me.

Yes! Well done! Peggy cried, a strangely harsh edge to her voice.

Any other time, that would have worried me but I barely even noticed it.

My vision was fuzzy and tears were still dripping freely down my cheeks. She was dead. I’d killed her.

I’d murdered her.

How’s it going there? I made myself ask, watching the bloodstain creep towards me.

Good! The other tutor is going to fall soon, Cory sent back.

I wanted to tell them to try and aim for limbs, to disarm rather than kill, but the words refused to form in my head. I knew that they wouldn’t be doing the same to us and when it came down to it, it was our lives against theirs.

Does that make it better? It makes it less terrible but not okay, I know that.

I finally was able to look away from her and my eyes started to take in the office. It was strangely bare but also cluttered. The shelves were empty, the walls untouched and yet the desk was covered in stuff. A pile of dirty uniforms had been thrown into one corner. It almost looked like she’d been living in her office but I just don’t know why.

Was it that she was scared to leave her office in case someone attacked her, from our side or the Council’s?

I don’t know. I never will and I know that.

A red light started flashing in the corner of my eyes, stealing my attention.

What’s going on? I asked, immediately snapping out of my sorrow.

Shit, they’re down but you need to call Trolis! Cas thought desperately.

I threw myself to my feet, hearing the sickening splat of my foot landing in her blood.

What’s going on?

“Trolis, I need you to come down, now!”

Cory’s been hit. He’s down, Peggy’s voice said.

I was running before she finished thinking.

Status report. Are you still with us, Cory? I demanded, slamming my hand against the sensor on the hatch, already at the end of the corridor.

It took too long to open.

I’m fine, he thought softly, his words taking on that faraway quality that always happened when someone was on the brink of passing out.

You better be, I thought back, trying not to let it show how worried I was.

He couldn’t die. We couldn’t lose another crew member

“Trolis, where are you?” I growled, slamming into the wall, going too fast to be able to turn properly.

“We’ll be there in fifteen seconds, what’s happening?” his voice asked.

“Cory’s down, I don’t know the situation.”

Even I could hear the breathless fear in my voice.

“I don’t know what the tutor hit him with but they were using armour piercing. Cory… Fuck! Cory ran out to get a better shot at the tutor and he got them but… they got him,” Cas said, sounding scared. “Shit, you have to stay with me, Cory!”

“How bad is it?” I demanded.

“I don’t know. Peggy?”

There was a pause and I threw myself into the next corridor, hearing voices start up beneath me but I ignored them. I needed to get to Cory, I couldn’t let him die too.

“It’s… bad but I think he’ll be okay. Like, there’s a lot of blood but the suit will help, right? There are blood replacers in it, aren’t there?” Peggy said.

I could see the hatch in the distance as I slammed into another wall, too focused on my goal to even notice the pain.

They’re here now. Trolis is coming out with Ochil, Peggy told me.

He’s the doctor, right?

I pushed every scrap of energy that I had into my legs, forcing myself to go even faster and slapping my hand on the sensor, growling with frustration when it didn’t immediately open.

“Come on!” I snarled, hitting it again.

There were footsteps behind me but I didn’t look back. If it were the kids, fine, if it were Guardians… well it didn’t matter. I’d throw myself in front of them if it meant that my crew survived.

Finally, the door opened and I flung myself into the garage, my eyes immediately finding Cory lying on the floor.

He wasn’t behind a shield. He must have ran so far from it when he’d taken down the tutor. He’d… he knew the risk, I know he did. He was ready to die so that we could survive.

“Cory, are you still there?” I said, throwing my helmet away from me so that I could see him and he could see me.

Someone had already taken off his helmet and his eyes were softly closed. Blood flowed steadily from the rip in his suit that hadn’t sealed behind the bullet hole.

His eyes opened slightly, not quite focusing on my face, and his lips rose gently.

“Did I do it?” he croaked.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Trolis and Ochil rush towards us but I didn’t look away from Cory.

“You did it.”

I wanted to tell him off for being so reckless, for risking his life. To tell him it was stupid and unnecessary but… the shields were riddled with bullets. It was a matter of time before they would have been rendered useless. He did what had to be done.

He saved the others.

Cory let out a choked laugh.

“Then, let me die. Please.”