261 Breaking Free, Pt A pair of polished white armored boots clacked as they tromped down the hallway. They stopped right in front of Eva’s cell, and turned towards it. Their owner stood and watched as Eva performed sit up after sit up fluidly and constantly.

Her legs were draped up on the bed, while her upper body laid on the floor. Well, almost. She never actually laid back down, and instead kept her upper body up off it. She made multiple small crunches as she brought her chest to her knees, over and over.

The observer winced at the sight – he felt his own abdominal muscles twitching out of pain. He counted more than 20 of them, all without pause or error, before he knocked on the transparent metal doors themselves.

Eva stopped halfway up, then turned her head to the side so she could see who had interrupted her workout.

“Nightmare,” she said. “What the hell do you want?”

“Oh, I’m not Nightmare any more,” he replied. “The Federation made me... retire the name. They said I needed a friendlier callsign, now that I’m an honest-to-god Peacekeeper. They gave me the callsign of Seraph. You like it? I think it shows off my angelic nature. Isn’t that great?!”

“Hmph,” she said as she eyed him up and down.

He was in a white and blue armored suit, but with his helmet off. There was a rather large rifle on his back, as well as a chunky pistol on his thigh.

It truly seemed as though he was compensating for something.

.....

She turned away, then rolled on her back as she swung her legs over her body. One of her feet planted on the ground, which allowed her upper body to roll up and off the ground. And once she was fully upright, turned around to face ‘Seraph’.

“So what if you’re a Peacekeeper,” she continued. “Once a PK, always a PK. Doesn’t matter what titles or merits or names you’ve got.”

As she spoke, she walked right up towards the door. It was as though she was challenging him to open it. Despite the fact that she had been torn up a great deal the past few cycles, she felt her inner self come back into focus again.

Seeing Nightmare-turned-Seraph in the flesh certainly helped jumpstart her eventual recovery. The very sight of him simply caused her body to enter fight-or-flight mode.

Emphasis fight.

“All that’s in the past,” he told her. “I’d never do such things these days. I’m a changed man, believe you me!”

Eva merely narrowed her eyes with suspicion. She truly believed that there was no changing him. She didn’t need a trait to understand that he was the type of demon that wasn’t just set in his ways – he reveled in them.

“Vulpes pilum mutat, non mentem,” she muttered.

“What?” he said. “Quit talking gibberish.”

“What the hell do you want anyway? Why’re you bothering me?”

Seraph grinned at the question. It was as though he had been waiting for ages to answer it.

historical

“Oh, that’s easy,” he replied. “I had to see for myself – Freya the murderer. Just like me! I had to come by and say hello.”

“Seriously?” she said. “Commander Chase was hardly the only person who I’ve taken out. My lethality is literally all over my ‘Cast. I’ve been a killer for some time now.”

“Sure, but this time, you’re reviled. People are finally seeing the real you. As a lawless degenerate.”

“Reviled by who, exactly? And why should I care what people think? I am who I am, and that’s all that matters.”

Seraph exhaled with mock exasperation. It frustrated him a little just how impervious Eva always seemed to be. As though she was incapable of getting hurt.

“You’re infuriatingly unflappable, you know that?” he groaned.

“You mean enduring bullshit?” she replied. “Yeah, I’m great at that. It’s my superpower.”

He tsk’d in response. Seraph had come to poke her with a stick.

He knew that she was confined, her assets all locked up and frozen, and was literally isolated from her friends and family. Everything, really. And that undoubtedly hurt.

Yet she still stood up to him as though she had never been pushed down.

Seraph wanted nothing more than to slap the cold expression right off her face. He wanted to see her shivering in a corner and pleading for her life, just like he was when she captured him.

Little did he know that she was a raging storm deep down. The trials and tribulations she had endured recently had literally shaken her foundations. It took everything she had to keep it all together.

Worst of all, he didn’t realize that his own appearance helped her pull herself together.

He couldn’t help but keep poking with a sharp stick, regardless.

“Your name’s all over SolNet, you know,” he continued. “There’s talk about taking your Mechageddon trophy away. So many people are saying you don’t deserve it – that chaotic murderers don’t deserve anything but an execution.”

He grinned maliciously as he spoke. In his mind, he had just driven a knife into her. But he wasn’t done twisting it around.

“And did you see,” he continued, “oh, wait, you didn’t. How could you? You’re in here, so you wouldn’t possibly know... But your ‘Cast lost a whole lot of viewers. Just plummeted the moment your arrest went public. Fell even further once word of your murder conviction went out. Such a shame...”

He glanced at Eva from the corner of his eye, and watched her facade falter. Even if it was only for a brief moment, he was still filled with delight.

Seraph had found a chink in her armor, and gleefully kept note of it.

Eva on the other hand wanted nothing more than to punch through the reinforced transparent metal doors in front of her. And break her fist on Seraph’s face.

Her instincts told her it was absolutely doable if she went all out, if she poured everything she had into it. It would have seriously hurt her. But it would also completely wreck him.

But she instead clasped her hands behind her back and hid her tightening fist.

In truth, the part about the trophy didn’t really bother her at all. Even if people believed she didn’t deserve it, she didn’t care all that much. She knew what she was capable of, and didn’t find a need to prove it to anyone.

What did grind her down was hearing about the ‘Cast, and how people abandoned it. Not so much because it affected her, but because it caused harm to the Ravens as a whole. The ‘Cast was their bread and butter, and losing a ton of viewers meant virtually having to start over.

It dawned on her that he was possibly making it up, simply to get a rise out of her. Perhaps he actually wanted her to strike at him or lash out, so that she’d get punished even further.

She definitely didn’t put it past him. He seemed like the kind of psychopath who harmed animals just to watch them suffer. The kind who put rocks under overturned turtles, and made their lives impossible.

Enjoying suffering was practically his MO.

“Did you honestly come all the way out here just to taunt me?” she said. “I’m not impressed.”

Seraph smirked with glee at her perceptiveness. He most definitely enjoyed seeing her trapped in a cage. More specifically, he enjoyed seeing their positions shifted.

She was merely one of the people who had taken him in. One of the few who had stripped away his old life, and taken everything away. His men, his ships, his guns, his wealth, his freedom... All taken from him.

Although he couldn’t take away her freedom the way she took his, he still enjoyed it when it happened to her. There was a deep joy in it for him, to the point where he felt it was all divine providence.

“I’d never be that petty,” he replied. “I just wanted to update you on the current state of affairs out there. You seem like the curious type, figured you’d want to know.

“More importantly though, I’m here because you’re about to be taken to Devolatus Prime. You know, the prison planet. And when I saw that the transport crew needed a Peacekeeper security detail... Well, here we are.”

He tapped on the touchpad next to the doors while wearing an incredibly smug grin. There was power in the act. He felt as though his single touch controlled Eva’s fate.

The feeling swept over him even while the cell’s doors slid open.

“Lemme guess,” she said, “you jumped at the chance.”

“How could I possibly pass up such an opportunity,” he replied.

He extended an arm and pointed Eva down the hallway. It was accompanied by a predatory smile.

Eva exhaled slowly, then stepped out. Further down the hallway were even more Peacekeepers, all of whom were in their heavy armor. Since she felt no hostility from them, she happily walked in their direction.

The Peacekeepers straightened up as she approached, then escorted her as they all traveled towards the hangar.

“So many tough boys just for one little girl,” sighed Eva.

“All due respect Miss Freya,” said one of the Peacekeepers, “you’re not a little girl, and you’re incredibly dangerous.”

“Also, we’re sorry you’ve gotta go through this,” said another. “You’ve got a few fans among the Peacekeepers, and we’re not too keen on your conviction either.”

“But the law is the law, right?” said Eva.

“The law is everything. But thankfully, you’ve got a shortened punishment. You’ll be out sooner than you realize, and your life will be back in your hands.”

She grimaced as the Peacekeeper spoke. Though he was trying to comfort her, she found none.

Instead, she found herself questioning the law, and what it meant. What it should have actually meant. Why it was so harsh on Helios, but practically nonexistent elsewhere.

On Helios, the reason was made that too much lawlessness meant a collapse of the social contract. As her own public defender had told her – people would have eaten themselves.

But she had seen what lawlessness was out in the colonies. There, people were free to partake in their own brand of justice. They certainly weren’t eating each other. Sure, there were bandits and marauders, but they only stole goods rather than destroy towns.

Some even traded with the colonists, instead of simply attacking them.

The only truly dog-eat-dog mentality she saw was between the two Navies as they warred with each other for territory.

The reasons didn’t hold up. But then again, the settlements were small, and Helios was large beyond her imagination. Maybe that many people packed that closely really did bring out the worst in everyone, as a whole.

She felt, however, that it didn’t.

Eva suddenly found herself wanting to see proof of that. The galaxy was huge – surely there was a society out there that proved Helios’ extreme law & order ideology false.

Then the thought of spending the next five years in prison truly dampened her spirit. Even though her practically unlimited lifespan could shrug it off easily, she hated the idea of being restricted.

Being confined in a tiny 2×2 for even half a week seriously did a number on her. Losing her freedom to an unjust law and the totalitarian enforcement of it was, in effect, soul-crushing.

When Eva was growing up, she was exposed to the symbol of Lady Justice. She had a scale in one hand, but wielded a sword in the other. Just as importantly, she was blindfolded.

This was supposed to be symbolic of Justice’s inability to distinguish between the poor or wealthy, disenfranchised or influential, and powerless or powerful. She was the ideal with which people were supposed to judge the crimes of others.

But it seemed she wasn’t just blind – she was also tone-deaf.

This version of Justice only seemed to care about the written law itself, rather than the people they were designed to protect. As though the words were sacrosanct.

The truth was that the words were all meaningless without the people. If it couldn’t protect them, then what use were they?

.....

Eva came to realize that the Peacekeepers were the personification of the Federation’s tone-deafness. They were blind to everything but the letter of the law, which only served those who were wealthy, influential, and powerful enough to manipulate it.

Well, she believed most were blind anyway. She imagined that the remaining few were psychopaths like Seraph, and they were there simply to fulfill their need for violence. Legally, and behind a badge.

Once she surfaced from her thoughts, Eva realized that she had been ushered into a huge hangar bay. Dozens of meters above were huge hangar bay doors that were completely open to space.

The entrance itself glowed blue from the atmospheric shielding on Helios itself.

The Peacekeepers gave possession of her to the transport guards, then headed to their own escort fighters. Eva was then prodded into an armored transport corvette, along with a number of other prisoners.

Inside, each of the prisoners’ wrists and ankles were cuffed magnetically, then clamped tightly into secure seats. Eva found her restraints obscenely stifling, and vowed to never be in that position ever again.