~ six

Strophius walks through the bent and scorched woods, trailed by brotherhood, filling in and closing gaps behind him as he approaches the circle.  Charon, seated alone, fits the completed armrest to the chair.

They toss Strophius' gunblade to him, large with broad blade.  He examines it, the weight and heft, down the barrel to the moon.  Smiles with a nod and sticks it in the ground next to his chair.

Strophius - "A gift, if you favor it.  I've come to bargain of your daughter's life.  And that of my pupil, her love."

Charon - Leans back and taps the new rest before using it with the other.  Smiles, "Hello ... 'old Strope'.  We tell tales of you here.  My own father wrestled you in the field.  His and your own last barrels emptied, blades shattered against the other.  Found wrestling in the mud until pulled apart by diplomatic guard, and only then told of the First Truce between us."

Strophius - "Which had come weeks prior."

Charon - A smile, "And lasted little longer."

Strophius - A laugh, "I've known no greater opponent, nor longer the battle.  Does he well ?"

Charon - "Passed.  Peacefully among beloved, from one place to the next.  Wisdom shared with great and greater still grand-children until the very end, from the bed of furs.  Including, to (mimicking the voice playfully) 'watch that one, old ... Strope'."  A laugh.

Strophius - Remembrance ... "A wish for better worlds between us."

Charon - "He says they are."

...

Charon - A laugh as he rises, clothes beginning to burn away, "Our Lady Styx deals with our daughter the betrayer now, her heart never ours this era.  And your lad will turn up here.  Or there.  No doubt.  Old ... Strope."

Barely seen in speed, Strophius taps Charon's forehead.

('Ready for War' Kosmik Force)

(through beat opening)

Charon falls hard stumbling to grab the chair, pulled down with him.  The sounds of weapons preparing behind Strophius into slowing time, he stands over Charon, eyes watching but paralyzed.

Charon - Stuttered to speak, flames sputtered, "Stropheu.  They did it Strope ...  You did it.  It was you.  Kronu.  He did it."

...

Strophius - A small nod.  "I believe you.  It was in his eyes.  You live, old god of purpose.  But for me to survive, they ... shall have to Learn."

Smoke from his mouth he spins over Charon, three small spheres similar to meditation balls turning, they leave his hand.  He ends with a sit on Charon's chest, cross legged pulling the gunblade to his lap. 

Strophius - Returning to time, smoke pouring to fill the view, "Hello children.  At the temple there is no name for me, but 'Teacher'.  War class begins, now."

(main music starts)

Explosions across the front wave, then silence in the smoke.  Flashes and deep gun sounds.  Cutting.  Reloading a heavy clip.  Blades cross and cut.  Reload finishes with a hard clamp.  A single heavy shot.

Strophius - "The first rule is, 'When filled of the enemy, the one who stands alone may become the destroyer'."

Other shots as he spins away backward.

Strophius - "It means I can shoot anywhere I want.  Aim high, your lord still lives."

A cut.  A face barely seen, pulled close to his.  

Strophius - "Sworn on my honor."  A single shot, the twitch.  Tosses a grenade randomly.

Pulls him close and lifts an arm, both his and his hand's gripping the brotherhood gunblade, new.  

Strophius - "How's this one ?  Looking for an auto."

Soldier - Grinning through the blood, he releases the rifle and grabs the back of Strophius' head, "It is cursed for you."

Strophius - As the face fades from view in the smoke, more seriously, he drops it.

Charon - "You scare our children to sleep, Stropheu.  Did you know that ?  'Old Strope will come for the wicked and the weak first, and then he'll come for you'."

Stepping out of time a view he sees, the people sensed ...

Charon - "And then my father would tickle me."

Strophius turns to Charon speaking.  He approaches him, time slowing still more behind him among the attacking soldiers.

Charon - Stuttered and pained, "My father told me.  He told me about you.  The monster ... I thought he must have exaggerated ... but no.  He made you so much kinder."

Strophius stands now over him.

Charon - Quickly, "Spare my people ... and take my own life if you must.  A sacrifice ... to the temple god.  And I will spare that of your pupil, great one.  But the one thing in all my sight not mine to command, is my wife."

...

Charon - Laughter with recovering difficulty, "Whatever you may tell You, old Strope ... it was so I'd live to tell your tale.  You've always left just one."  

Watches his reaction.  Smiles.  

Charon - "You don't know you."  ...  "Never you forget that you are not the ... 'good guys'.  And now you know you never were."

...

Charon - "Thank you for your mercy upon my people, o lord of destruction.  The tales will tell that even the great beheader may also be wise."  He lays his head back.  "As you will."

...

Strophius throws down his gunblade and pulls Charon's similarly sized from behind the fallen chair, looped over it's back.  Looks at Charon.  "That blade was reforged, of course."

He turns and sees the path to leave amid the soldiers.  Parting, some bowing and thumping chests to what they saw, many sizing him for challenge.

Strophius - "If my tale be useful to your people then you may keep it ... but that name will be mine no more.  Keep it too."

Among them whispers of 'the blood letter' and 'the beheader'.

('Carmina Burana' by Carl Orff)

(during the power opening)

Styx - "! Temple whore !"

 

Selene - "Backstabbing Bitch !"  Headed off at a nook in the road and spinning off from a strike, lightning crackling across her torso and dripping from her hands, through her eyes.

She stumbles.

(the quieter)

Styx - Noting the stumble, she looks her over, "Oh and a fucking healer now too.  I definitely have to kill you.  "A cold wind rises, gusts picking up all around and through the trees in dervishes.
 

Selene - "Why didn't you before ?"

...

Styx - Dervishes idling ... "Oh so we're talking now ?  That's new.  I'm reloading (she does).  Your father, that's why.  Remember ?  He asked me not to kill you before ... and now he says I should !"

...

Selene - "So ... that's it."

Styx - "Yes.  He was specific.  Just as I've told you since you were a baby !"  Smiles and looks to the side, "He knows me ... and then I tucked you in and said 'goodnight'.  The end."

...

Selene - "So there's no ..."

Styx - "Nope !"

Selene - "But ..."

Styx - "You're adopted."

Selene - "Wow."

Styx - "Yep !  Found you in the trash."

Selene - "I don't believe you."

Styx - "Temple rubble."

...

Selene - "Thank you so much.  Because I really wanna fucking kill you too and I thought that was a lot more unhealthy than it actually is."

Styx - "No complex here little bitch.  Let's roll."

(the cannon)

Styx draws the lightning in and around her arms, using the cold to pull and weaken it (effect, but the physics is sound).  Selene tears it off her and moves in.  The Hecate advance, she tears the ghost from them and throws them to the ground.

Styx - Cracks off her ice arms and pulls her pistols firing while Selene spins from path and whips at the pistol hands, pulling the draw.  "Didn't !  See you !  At the !  Forging !  Ceremony !  You fucking ! ... ! HARLOT !"

I !  Was ! ... ! FUCKING !

...

Styx - Disgusted, "Oh ... gah ... was he even Awake !?"

Selene - "Um."

The Hecate step out from the rattling trees, the whirlwinds pulling in the cold hardening leaves.  Selene shrieks lightning from the sky between the Hecate, one burning through to the ground, smoking between the cracks of it's helm the other two kneeled but all three rising again with a rattle.

Seven loud gunshots echo from all around at once, striking the Hecate.  Again, then again until they fall masks cracked, death beneath.

Then a single loud shot echoes, shooter unseen.

Styx with the spot on her forehead.  She falls.

Strophius - Stops seeing this, rushing to from a distance.  "No ..."

His comm.

Arsinoe - (on comm) "You've gotten weak, 'Old Strope'.  Decibel autopilot, Authority 'Templeton Strope, zero one, zero zero, zero X'.  Will you please airstrike the enemy camp now ?  Be decisive."

Auto - (comm) "I like you."

Strophius turns to see the explosion in the distance in horror.
__

Selene walks over to Styx on the ground.  Leans down and looks into the dead eyes.  She places a coin over each, then pries the guns from her hands.  The Decibel begins it's landing, Orestes slumped inside, Selene's bot at the descending ramp.

Selene - Looks turned to it with furrowed brow, then back down.  "Thanks, mom.  I always liked the guns you made."
____

Strophius (no more), gear stripped with only the rifle on his back, approaches the edge of the fire from the bombing.  No motion, an occasional form statuesque in the flicker.  Staring ... "It was the only way."

Fade with the crackling, wood falling, Charon's outline in the fire.

('Land of Sunshine' by Faith No More)

The Decibel exits jump over Nibiru at the gate a kiss as it uses it into an unknown universe.  View up over the horizon, across a note stuck to the dash.

'I still have our ship.'

❤ 

'Arsinoe'

Up through the window, a new world.
 

Over it's horizon, open space.


! The End !

 (black-screen, music through the credits)

(mid credit)

View from behind the pilot chair, Arsinoe pilots the Junker, checking switch functions, banging one til lit.  Her mask wrap, goggles and breather sit in the passenger seat atop the ledger, (her adult face hasn't been seen, here the back of a head, long hair).

The engines fire hard, jerking it from the vines, she veers skyward.  Eases into a high thrust to check it along the way until flashes of fire and spark burn away the outer debris, and into space.  She eyes the switch.

Plots coordinates, triangulating between six points which don't move with the rest of the objects known on the cheap digital screen.  Approach vector selected, she eyes the switch ... concern ... hits the switch.

The back starts rattling hard as the jump core warms up, welds popping she grips the seat, the vibration reaches crescendo of twisting steel ... 

 

A giggle into laughter from Mishil's face like a carnival ride before gone.

~ last credits ~

('Overwhelming' by Blackfire)

____________

____