"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The man with the big red scar under his eye pulled a chair from the wall to in front of him and sat down. "One hell of a badass, I'm told? I'll be the judge of that." He took out his gun, a revolver, and put it on the table.

Creaking could be heard from the movement upstairs. The wooden floors in the metal airship were something of a novelty. 

"You see, mister badass, I'm a badass myself. I've dealt with so many proclaimed badasses over the years, and it shows." He pointed to his scar. "Got this beauty from a man who hid a switchblade up his sleeve. Bastard was no match for me, though. Ended him with one blow to the temple."

"I ain't looking to fight you." The captive man, Julius Vernon, gave an obviously fake smile.

"It talks! My God it really does talk. This, now this, is astonishing." 

The slave ship, run by the man with the big red scar under his eye, was silent. Night had come, and in a few hours, the sun would rise again. Once the sun had conquered the horizon, all captives, including Julius Vernon, were to be sold. However, Julius's presence was something of a miracle, a chance so rare that the captors had other, special plans for who would buy him.

"Yeah I can talk."

The man with the big red scar under his eye grabbed the gun and checked the rounds. "Do you want to play a game, mister Vernon? I love games, and I lo-"

"Depends on the game."

"Oh it's a good one. An oldie called Russian Roulette. Ever played it?"

"Seeing as I'm still breathing, no."

"Wonderful! Just damn wonderful." He took out five of the six bullets and spun the chamber a few times before closing it and pulling back the hammer. "First person to shoot has the best chance of survival, and, seeing as I'm currently holding the gun, I'll decide who's going first." He put the barrel of the gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. The first bullet.

Nothing.

"Your turn, badass."

"My hands are still tied, asshole."

"Right, right." The man with the scar leaned forward, pulled back the hammer, and aimed the gun at Julius's head. "This better?"

"Oh yeah, just great." Julius continued his fake smile as no bullet followed the trigger. The second bullet.

"Riveting." The third bullet, nothing.

Julius gave a forced laugh. "I can tell why you enjoy this game." The fourth bullet, still nothing.

The captor put the gun to his forehead and smirked. "Fifty-fifty chance, my friend. Who will it be?" The fifth bullet.

Nothing.

"Good riddance, I say." He aimed the gun at Julius. "Any last words?" He pulled the hammer back. "Before, you know, I get a new coat of red paint on my wall?"

"Nope."

"Sad... You are truly sad." He pulled the trigger.

The sixth bullet.

A loud bang could be heard throughout the halls of the ship as the bullet exited the revolver and came straight for Julius Vernon's head.

Julius was jerked to the side from the impact of the bullet on his head. Although his vision didn't immediately fade to black, the last thing he could remember was the sound of the gun. 

With a laugh, the man with the big red scar under his eye ordered for the body to be taken to storage, where Julius would be placed inside a wooden casket to help transport the body. 

The man with the scar, as soon as they landed at the port, would hide with the casket until the other passengers had been sold. Then, he would take the casket to the most secured region in the universe, The Great Galactic Palace, where he would display the body and earn that sweet reward.

The man with the scar, simply called Scar, anticipated the morning.

"So, what do you think he'll do with the sum?" The sky, although still black, was starting to be highlighted by lines of yellow and orange.

"I don't know. Probably keep it for himself, abuse the hell out of the power and notoriety, and then abandon us."

"Nah. You're still new, you haven't really met Scar. He's loyal to the bone."

"And? We're just his foot-soldiers, his merchants, hell, you and me are just watchdogs."

"So?"

"So when he gets to that point, when they prove that the body is legit, his mind will become corrupt. You know what they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"Yeah, but-"

"He's no different!"

"You haven't had the chance to truly meet him yet, he ain't that kind of guy."

"When he gets access to that much influence and money, he's just gonna realize that we're just pawns in his game of chess, and now he's the Goddamn queen. He can do any-damn-thing he wants, and all we can do is move forward at his command."

"The most expensive man we ever sold was a politician, and he split the money equally among us all. I had only been with this group a month and he gave me just as much as he took."

"Yeah, well, still. Hearts can change, you know." With a sigh, the young man watched the horizon slowly change its colors. "Hey, remember that one girl we picked up?"

"Which one?"

"The cute one, with the black hair and the big eye-" A noise was heard from behind them. "What the hell?"

"Hold up." The older man, someone in his thirties, swiftly went closer to the sound of the noise. The last thing he saw was a flash of red hurl towards him before him he was blown back and showered in flames.

"Holy shit!" The young man, someone in his twenties, pulled a rope that sounded the alarm. He too was then blown away by a ball of fire.

With a price greater than anything anyone had ever seen on his head, Julius Vernon had more than just one man after his head. Everyone wanted that reward. No matter the means, there were people willing to do anything to get their hands on that price.

"No, no, no!" Scar got out of bed and grabbed his revolver and sword. In the halls, men were running armed to the teeth trying to either abandon or defend the ship. Scar ran with the crowd to the upper deck, where balls of fire were colliding. A turret, a large one, on the ground was firing large flaming cannonballs at the ship which had announced its capture of the one and only Julius Vernon. With the iconic black and yellow jet engines, it was hard to miss the ship. 

The men scrambled all over the ship. Either they were fighting over who got to escape or they were trying to arm the ship's cannons and steer it into a large nearby cloud. 

Grabbing the wheel, Scar steered the ship towards the cloud. However, in the panic, he neglected to pull the chain that steadied the ship. As the ship tilted to the side, a fireball got a direct hit on the wooden interior of the ship. 

"Shit..." Scar looked at the chain and pulled it before any more severe damage could be done.

As the inside of the ship went ablaze, the men inside tried to fight each other and the fire at the same time to no success. As the ship got knocked around, the crew had to face a new problem: Falling off the ship. People held onto things, anything that was stationary would do. 

In the storage room, a wooden casket crashed against the wall, cracking it severely. As his head was hit against the side of the casket, Julius opened his eyes. The blood on the side of his head had dried where the bullet grazed upon his skull. 

Wasting no time, he tried pulling apart the casket from the crack, but he couldn't muster enough strength. He moved with the casket and kept hitting it against the wall, widening the crack until he could break it open. It jerked open, throwing him to the ground.

The turret was hidden against the dark ground, thus the men arming the cannons were under more pressure than they were used to. For some of them, it was too much. They screamed, they fought, they even targeted the ones who were able to keep themselves composed. 

"STOP!" A man in a full black and yellow uniform shouted from the middle of the room. "The only way to save ourselves is to save the ship! Compose yourselves men! The fire is coming from starboard side in the front! Aim for that direction and fire, men, FIRE!" Enough of the men got the message and stopped their antics, readjusting the cannons for where the turret was located. After several shots, there was a large red cloud on the ground.

They had hit their target.

Pulling himself off the floor, Julius managed his way to a wardrobe full of old, bloody and tattered engineer uniforms. He quickly put them on and found his way into the chaotic main hallway. The walls were aflame, the floor was aflame, and even the steel parts of the ship were starting to gain a red tint.

He had never been on this ship prior to being captured, but in his past, he became familiar with these kinds of ships. Most of them seemed to follow the same blueprint, so he headed for the bottom of the ship to find an escape pod. Alas, the path was covered almost entirely in flames.

"Of course." Julius rushed into the nearest empty room and found a vent cover. Prying it open with one of the nearby broken pieces of metal, he crawled inside the boiling ventilation shaft. 

Scar managed to successfully hide the ship in the clouds. Now he could focus on the original problem. The ship was burning. He ran to the deck and ordered one of his most trusted members to keep the ship steady and hidden while he went to check on the engines. 

Clueless of where he was going, Julius followed his gut and the heat of the shaft. Typically the escape pods were kept in the engine room. It's the lowest point in the ship and usually contained the most people, so it was an obvious choice. Once he saw the furnaces, Julius got out of the vent and looked around.

Somehow, this was the only room not on fire yet. This was good news, since the engines would explode if they got caught of fire.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from behind Julius. Scar marched in after kicking down the doors and rushed to the main engine. 

"Get over here, man! What the hell are you doing just standing there?"

"Sorry, sir!" Julius ran to him, pulling his cap down so it covered the dried blood. 

"You think you can handle this on your own?" Scar tried frantically to calm down the engines and try to cool down the ship.

"I'm not sure, sir. I may need some more people." Julius looked kept from making eye contact and pretending to help.

"Go get some help, I got this." 

"No, sir, I'll be eaten alive in that crowd. I almost died just getting here."

Scar looked at Julius with confusion at first, and then he squinted. "Hey, what's that you're covering with the hat?"

Julius's heart skipped a beat. "Huh?" He moved the hat, revealing the blood. "What the hell? I must've gotten this out there and not notice it."

"Damn, sorry. I'll go find help." Scar started to walk away and then stopped. The frantic panic in his mind had cleared away, and he started to see something in that lone engineer. He turned back and looked at the man. "Hey, you look familiar."

"Well, yeah, you hired me, didn't you?" Julius continued keeping away from eye contact but didn't shy away from showing Scar his cheek. 

"Uh huh, well, you keep up the good work. I'll go get help, but then I need to check on something." Scar promptly ran from the room and into the hall.

"Mother of God." Julius instantly started looking for an escape pod. Taken. Taken. Not there. Taken. Broken. Not there. Taken. Open! He climbed inside the minimally-spacial pod and pulled the chain that released it from the bowel of the ship.

Julius looked out the window on the pod and saw the burning ship fade away in the clouds until he saw nothing but a bright red shadow among a dark cloud.

The sun had finally started to sit on the horizon.