The gauntlets' onyx shine was covered by blood. Ethan was unaware of my presence. I spent a few seconds staring at the room. The best course of action was to jump in and confront him immediately, but I couldn't. My eyes were jumping from the floor, back to his hands, to the ceiling, back to his hands, to the bodies, and back to the blood dripping off the tips of his fingers. Each time, hoping to find a clue, or better, a justification for Ethan’s violence.

I couldn’t find one, but I still refused to believe he would do this in cold blood. I let my presence be known by shouting at him.

“What is going on here?”

Ethan jumps back as his mind is still focused on taking the cargo on an escape pod and rendezvousing with the buyer.

“Cid, this isn’t what it looks like.” He says panicked. He waved his hands around, trying to remove the bloodstains. He doesn’t rub the blood on his clothes but shakes it in the air, afraid it might ruin his image. He looked up at me with a changed expression. He was no longer smiling, filled with the adrenaline of a battle won. Instead, his face was flooded with guilt, as if he was trying to run away and pretend I never saw him.

The gauntlet rattled with every shake as the metal scarps against itself. Any blood on the gem burns off as it absorbs more of the Source into it. Only later did I notice that meant he never turned them off. All the while he spoke, Ethan made sure to stay on the offensive. Even when talking to me, of all people.

“This can’t be what it looks like,” I said, trying to hide the whimper in my voice.

“Cid, hear me out.” He pleaded.

“I keep looking around for something to show me I am looking at this wrong, that my eyes are lying to my mind.”

“Listen, we've known each other for years. Since I was young.”

“But my eyes see everything too clear.”

“You were my mentor.”

“The blood on your hands.”

“We played games and went on adventures.”

“Yet none of it is yours. You don’t have a single wound, yet they have many.”

“When my mother wasn’t there, and that was plenty of times I saw you as a guardian.”

“They were our friends.”

“You were like a father.”

“Why choose this path? Why sell us out? Why kill our friends?” I shouted, holding back my pain.

“You don’t know? That can’t be,” he says, shocked. He waits for my response, but I don’t have any. I have no clue what he is talking about. That fact somehow hurt him more, as if my not knowing was almost as big a betrayal as what I was looking at.

“You who hold all her secrets,” Ethan started to say. “You know my mother better than anyone. That includes me. You, of all people, ask me why. That means he hasn’t told you yet. She was probably waiting until this job was done.”

I took a step forward as I spoke. “Let's calm down. I have to report this to the Captain.”

“Oh, it's just the two of us here. You can call her by her name, not that title.”

“Let’s head to the brig. I think we should wait for her there.” I stopped talking as he raised his gauntlet.

“We know how she is as a person,” Ethan says. “A brave captain of the ship who would put her life on the line for her crew because deep down she truly loves everyone on this ship. The crew knows we are all equal in her eyes except for two people, you and I. That is how it should be, right? We should be the exceptions. The one who she chooses to marry and make her equal, and me, her son. The one she raised since she birthed me. The one who carries her name, her blood, her sins. We are above the crew. We are the exception.”

He steps forward but I don’t move. I felt the room spin as he spoke, uncertain of where this will go as he continued to speak.

“Though it doesn’t feel that way. You hold secrets of her past, I don’t know, don’t you? Secrets she finds unsuitable for her little baby boy. Either she is afraid I would worry, or more likely, secrets that would taint the perfect image I am supposed to have of her in my mind. Though, I am certain she still hid secrets from you. One I am certain of you now know since you are here. What is the true nature of this ship? What have we been truly carrying?”

I stare him in the eye, afraid he would strike if I avoided his gaze.

“Though that’s not what matters. I won’t lie to you, Cid. One of the reasons I was okay with you marrying my mom was that I never thought that would affect our three standings. You were already a parent to me in my mind, and I feel deep down you might have seen me as a son.”

I stay quiet, letting him let it out.

“When it comes to Mom, I always knew I was above you. A partner she choose has to be weaker than the blood she had. You weren’t even her first love, so I must be at a higher standing than you. The one who carries her name, her blood, her sins!”

His shout echoes in the room, and I still don’t move. The rage in him pushes forward until it circles back to grief. His words tremble, and his eyes water as the betrayal pierces his heart.

“Then why did she pick you? Why are you to inherit all this hers but not me.” The room settles for me as his words ground me.

“That can’t be true,” I whisper out.

“All this will be yours, from the deck floorboards to the crew's shoelaces. My mother plans on giving everything to you.”

“Thats impossible. You're her son.”

“She told me herself. She said everything would transfer to me when you passed away. She made sure of it. But she doesn’t know if she is Cid.”

I knew what he meant, and I grew to regret either sharing or not sharing. I guess it is better to say that secret.

 “You only told me, didn’t you? Its not right to keep screts in a marriage but I hguess you can’t be blame. Mother hid a big one from you so we can’t expect better from her. She doesn’t know that , at least to your knowledge, you can never die and you will outlive all of us by centuries!”

His shout echoed in the empty ship as the blood stretched across the room.

“I would never have the ship, " he continued. “ All my work building this empire would fall to the hands of another. Someone who does not deserve the wealth built by my family’s blood and sweat. So, with it no longer in my grasp, I needed to start my own crew and get my own ship. That isn’t easy, and I can never afford it doing the jobs we get. My dreams can come true by selling this cargo combined with the money I have made.”

“I would have given you the ship,” I say back.

“You wouldn’t.” He barks back. “You proclaim yourself a god. I never heard of a god giving up his goods to us mere mortals. Your ego would never allow it. Once your slime touches power, you will never relinquish it. That is the one area you gods are no better than us.”

I stepped forward as I continued to beg him to stand down. “I know you know what we are carrying. In the wrong hands, that can murder an entire colony, world, or system. I can even comprehend the damage it can cause. Together, we can burn the contents and save millions, if not billions, of lives.”

For a moment, I saw it. His finger twitched, an interruption in his breathing. He contemplated it. The weight of life momentarily lay on his shoulders. I pushed past what my eyes told me and tried to see the real situation. In front of me wasn’t a vicious killer who would drown a planet in blood, but a hurt child. A kid who was hurt by his mother. This situation can be fixed if we all lie bare our secrets and talk. I needed to be the god he spoke of and lead us to peace. I needed to be the partner to his mom he spoke of and lead with truth. I needed to be the friend he needed and let him cry and let out the pain he was hiding.

TI steps forward, and I hear the gushing sound of my boot stepping into the pile of blood. I see it stretch from the dead body riddled with claw marks.

I reached out my hand. Ethan raised his. Dark black energy is emitted from the gauntlet, forming dark claws that harden light. He slashed my chest.