“I thought she was going to kill me,” a young woman gasped as she staggered down a corridor supported by Monarch.

“That is because she was,” Monarch smirked. “Had I not gotten involved, they would be mopping you off the deck.”

“Thank you,” the woman said quietly.

“Whatever,” Monarch shrugged.

“...Why?”

“Because she has gone bugshit crazy this time,” Monarch replied, “and we are short-handed enough as it is thanks to Herself’s ‘boyfriend’ and his goddamn nuke for hire.

Monarch grimaced.

“He fucking gutted us… and she let him,” Monarch scowled, “She insisted on handling the Federation side personally… insisted…”

Monarch looked at the communicator she held in her other hand, checking to ensure that “Her Ladyship” was still heading the other way.

“And now look at us,” she continued. “I worked on this plan for years… years!… All of it… all of it… down the fucking drain. Do you have any idea what I had to do to pull all of this off?”

“N-no, Bloodlord,” the young woman stammered, causing Monarch to laugh. People answering rhetorical questions always tickled her for some reason.

It was quite welcome. She desperately needed that.

“How are you holding up?” Monarch asked with surprising gentleness.

“I’m… I’m fine...”

“Bullshit,” Monarch replied as she half dragged the woman, barely in her twenties, into a vacant office and gently lowered her into the office chair.

“Looks like your ankle is at least sprained,” Monarch said as she looked at the rapidly swelling joint, “At least you know how to fall properly. It should have been worse.”

She looked to her side and smiled.

“Oh, hello, Andrees,” she said in Mandarin to the young-looking man cowering under his desk. “How’s the day treating you?”

“I have had better ones,” the man replied. “Bloodlord...”

“Yes?”

“Considering today’s events,” he said thoughtfully, “could we revisit our previous discussion?”

“Absolutely, Andrees,” Monarch smiled. “In fact, a small favor could go a long way towards cementing your position.”

“And what would that be?” he replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Could you make your way to the med bay and fetch us a hover-chair?”

“Um...” Andrees said as he slid further back behind his desk.

Monarch laughed again.

“No guts, no glory,” she laughed. “Where is the man I once knew?”

“Hiding under his desk,” Andrees replied. “It’s nice down here.”

“Give me your phone,” Monarch said.

She took the phone and tapped it to hers.

“There,” she said, “that is an active map of Herself’s location. As you can see, Typhoon Hu is a safe distance away.”

Andrees wiggled out from under his desk and brushed himself off.

“I will return shortly, Bloodlord,” he said calmly.

“I think that title has little relevance now, don’t you?” Monarch replied, “Moving forward, just use my name.”

“Yes, Monarch,” he replied.

“Oh God, that sounds even worse!” Monarch laughed.

She paused for a moment.

“You know what,” she said with a wistful smile…

“In private, call me Sarnai.”

Andrees raised his eyebrow.

“Certainly, Ms. Sarnai,” he replied with a smile and respectful nod.

He looked at the communicator once more before darting out into the hallway.

***

“Was she always like this?” the young woman asked.

“Patricia?” Sarnai asked, “Oh no, young one.”

She looked nowhere for a moment and smiled.

“She was...”

She sighed.

“She was magnificent,” Sarnai said sadly. “She was everything they said she was… and more. She was… Goddamn, child… She was a force of nature, a being of true power and grace, a leader, a warlord, an avenging angel sent from heaven itself.”

Sarnai’s mask slipped a little revealing sadness and regret.

“Back then, I would follow her into the fires of hell and consider it an honor to do so. Fuck, I did follow her into the fires of hell and thanked God himself for the privilege. But...”

She sighed again.

“Things change. They always do.”

“What happened?” the young woman asked.

“To this day, I’m not entirely sure,” Sarnai shrugged. “At first, she led us into every battle and laid waste to the foe, sometimes killing more than the rest combined. It was almost as if we were there simply to help carry the loot.”

She smiled sadly at the recollection.

“Then, as we expanded,” Sarnai continued, “things started to change. She led us into battle less and less and stared into that goddamned locket more and more. It was if… I don’t know… she lost… something, and that glorious fire within her started to gutter out. It was about then that she started becoming less of a warlord and more of a cult leader. She spent more and more of her days preaching to the ever-growing crowd and riding around on that stupid horse looking pretty and less time planning and leading raids.”

Sarnai scowled.

“That’s what us ‘Bloodlords’ were for. She said that her time was much better spent training the new soldiers. She just hung out in her fancy new martial arts ‘temple’ and beat the shit out of people calling it ‘training’. For a while, that’s exactly what she did, but eventually, she left that to her best students, and the quality of the troops suffered for it.”

“By the end of the Sol Wars,” Sarnai said, “all she did was ride around on that goddamned horse surrounded by her elite bodyguard, which we could have used in the field, testing people’s ‘resolve’. By that, I mean torturing and killing people who didn’t have a single hope in hell of fighting back in the name of ‘finding the worthy’. She started believing the hype and started viewing herself as this weird anti-messiah.”

Sarnai smiled ruefully.

“We were never ‘good’. I mean, we were fucking raiders. All of us made the resolution to do whatever we had to do in order to survive, no matter what that may be. It was fucked up, sure, but so was everything else. There was a simple honesty in that.”

She sighed.

“Funny thing is when we were just fighting for survival, things were good. She was ‘good’. Only later, when we had the guns, when we had the ships, and when we built settlements that could feed an army, things started to rot. We could have just protected our settlements and rode out the whole goddamn thing as heroes but no… The blood drinker needed meat for her table and blood for her sick little tea parties. Those same rituals started attracting the worst of people to join us, people who were all too happy to worship her. For me, it was what it always was, a business, but for far too many others...”

She shrugged.

“What’s done is done, right?”

Sarnai smiled at the young woman as she looked at her, wide-eyed.

“Not quite the history lesson you were taught, huh?” Sarnai chuckled. “I didn’t mind, though. For me, it was always a business. First it was the ‘business’ of survival, and then it was just… business. For all her batshit pseudo-mysticism Patricia Hu was a motherfucking genius when it came to people. The personality cult she created kept the whole machine running smoothly, and she was the perfect figurehead for our little band of monsters. After the wars, her political and business expertise… with a little help from the rest of us… Set us up quite nicely.”

Sarnai smiled ruefully.

“Now, all of that is gone. Everything we built is coming down around us… What is your name anyway?”

“Petal, Blood… I mean Ms. Sarnai.”

“Everything is coming down around us, Petal,” Sarnai said in a matter-of-fact tone. “The plan that I spent so many years crafting has failed. The conspirators have been compromised. The prime minister wouldn’t have said what she said if they weren’t. We are under constant surveillance thanks to the drones placed to ‘protect’ us and can no longer move what little is left. Perhaps worst of all, Her Ladyship has gone completely mad. I can’t keep that secret for much longer, and when the news breaks, so does what’s left of our organization. She is our ‘will to fight,’ and it is gone. I needn’t tell you what that means.”

She looked at Petal.

“You’re one of Hassan’s, aren’t you?”

“He was my great great grandfather, ma’am.”

“He was a good man,” Sarnai replied. “Because of that, I will give you the same offer a once great woman gave me so very long ago. Come with me. I cannot promise victory or even survival. I can only promise that we have the resolve to survive. If you have the same, you are welcome.”

“Ms. Sarnai?!?”

“Based on intel that I haven’t shared,” Sarnai said, “It’s time to go. It’s past time to go. Patricia Hu and the Red Phoenix organization are done. When we depart, it will likely not escape the prime minister’s notice. You aren’t familiar with the real prime minister, but I can assure you that you do not want to be here if that happens.”

Sarnai smiled wickedly.

“You also don’t want to be here once Her Ladyship gets even more bad news. She has another especially nasty surprise on the way that makes Jon’s honey bunny pale in comparison. She is going to freak… So, are you in?”

“But what about the treatments?” Petal asked. “Aren’t you condemning yourself to death if you leave?”

“Got that covered,” Sarnai replied, “You’ve just seen how Herself responds to bad news. Life for the researchers hasn’t been all that great here lately. I only had to offer them a way for them and their families to escape. I’m taking the treatment with me, and I will be the one to continue research on the issue, not her. You probably don’t want to be around when she finds that one out, either.”

Sarnai chuckled as her butterflies seemed to flutter happily.

“It probably doesn’t matter. From what I understand, the damage is in every single cell and quite simply cannot be repaired. All of us who drank from that cup are doomed. That is why it is essential that we bring along people untouched by our foolishness, people like you. I’ve accepted my death, but I simply cannot accept the death of the organization that I helped create and for which so many friends of mine have died. Red Phoenix is in flames, and from its ashes, a new one will rise. You can be a part of that. You can ride free as we once did, as your ancestor once did. It won’t be without risk, and I can guarantee nothing other than a good time because it will be. If there is one drop of Hassan’s blood in you, it will be.”

Sarnai extended her hand.

“So,” she smiled, “are you in?”

Petal took her hand, nodded, and shook it.

Andrees entered the room, pushing a floating chair.

“Perfect timing,” Sarnai said cheerfully. “Andrees, this is Petal. She is working with us now.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Petal.”