Slime and tore fabric from my shirt spackle the air. I reacted right away as I hardened one of my hands and pushed him across the room, slamming him into a wall. He swings at my extended arm, but I retract it before he can get a cut on me.  

“With this, I will be free to do what I want. If you were truly my friend, you would let me leave. If you are truly a god, you would answer this prayer.” Ethan shouts with bloodlust, soaking his words.

I stood my ground and hardened my fist. His movements were precise yet wild. We were familiar with each other’s fighting style. We were each other's first choice in sparing partners and fought many bandits trying to steal our cargo together.

We both avoided taking each other’s lives during this fight, but now I wonder if I was blind to his true actions instead. Every swipe with the claw, every slash to my slime, would have been a lethal blow to anyone else. Did he do that knowing I could take it? The claws didn’t emit heat, so reforming my slime was easy as any knocked off me would slither back to me.

He went for a stand to my chest, but instead, he ripped apart my shirt as I was no longer inside my clothes. I slithered out and went in between the gaps of the floorboards. I wormed around under the floor as he tried to follow my movements. He dug into the wood with his claws like an animal digging for a rodent to eat.

His eyes weren’t anything I saw before. I’ve seen them enraged by battle and adrenaline. This was different. It came from somewhere deeper but less primal. I snuck behind him and fired six fists from under the floor. He turned in time and blacked most of them, but two hit him in the stomach.

He dug the gauntlet's nails under the wood and fired a blast of magical energy. No spell or incantation, just raw energy. I flew out the floorboards and splatted on the wall. He wasted no time and went to stab me with his nails.

I formed a gap where he aimed and hit the pure metal of the wall. I lept off the wall and wrapped around him. I formed my legs and stretched them to the floor. My feet seeped in between the floorboard and hardened, anchoring me down. I used the full force of my body to fling him in the air and slam his body down. I couldn’t give him time to feed. I trained him; I knew what he was capable of and how fast his mind worked.

I formed multiple fists, and while he was down, I pumped him. He was using the gauntlets' energy to create a thin shield over his body, but with how fast and strong my fist was hurtling down, he couldn’t react, so I thought.

The energy shield glowed brighter until a pulse of energy sent me flying back. Unfortunately for him, my hand was on his gauntlet and solidified. I swing him across the room. When his body slams into the wooden boxes, splintered wood and cans of Lirian Fruit plates are in the air.

It didn’t take Ethan long to notice that this was a losing battle. Whenever he knocked me down, I would get right back up with my hands ready. So, in a desperate plea, he overloaded the gauntlets with the Source.

“If I can’t win, I will take this ship with us, including the cargo. The blast is concussive, not fire. Nothing will burn. The bioweapon will spread through the docks and onto every ship.

“All will die,” I say, begging him to reconsider. “Your blast will send this virus flying all over the port. To every person, every spoon of food, every wood plank on any ship.  We know ships leave the dock at all hours. I guarantee there is a vessel with its engines revving as we speak. If you blow this up, that ship will be caked with this vile stuff. What will happen to the crew? They won’t know what is killing them. What if some survive and make it home? Infect their family, their community, and their planet! All life in the Conscious Sea will die, and it won’t stop in this system. No, it will spread to others. The Taloned Sea, The Ethereal Spire Sea, The Rainbowed Ocean, and even the depths of the unknown systems in the Lost Trench. All life can end here. Please stop.” 

His eyes were panicked, and his words trembled. “Turn back, Cid!” Ethan yells. Turn away and let me leave with this. I will never set foot on this ship if you do.” It was clear he hated making this choice, but that wouldn’t stop him. “If you don’t, all that you said will come true.”

I debated it for a moment. The virus wouldn’t spread, and Ethan would live. I could get a second chance and find him in space. Time heals all wounds, and with enough of it, maybe all three of us can come together and have him change his ways. That would be a miracle.

I looked down at all the blood spilled that night, and another thought crept into my head. He would take the bioweapon. He will sell it to someone eager to get their hands on it, just like the person paying us to deliver it. If they want it, the chances of them being the kind of person who would dispose of it would be near zero. He would get his crew at the cost of a planet's worth of lives at a minimum.

“I can’t let you go,” I said, stepping forward.

“Then we all go.” His gauntlets glow brighter.

I jumped forward, stretching my arms. The first was to hit a button on the wall behind him. Once pressed, the doors to an emergency escape pod opened. The other hand pushed him in. His body slammed into the pod console. A wave of cursive magic came out, damaging the pod's electronics. I slammed the door shut, and I locked him in.

The door shakes as he punches it, trying to knock it off its hinges. Each hit unleashes another wave of energy that breaks more of the inside and dents the door. The room grows brighter and brighter as he shouts.

“Let me out!” His eyes burned with anger.

“I can’t,” I whimper out. “It didn’t need to be this way.”

“You made it this way. Don’t you ever forget that Cid? All this pain, all this blood, it is on your hands. You who proclaim the crown are never free from the action’s others take because of you. You can’t take a step without the bugs under you. You can't drink water without thinking of the wilted flowers. You can’t enter one's life without accepting the outcome of their actions because of your words.”

The room is silent as I let his words hand in the air. I look him in the eye. “I know that now.”

 He continued to pound on the door, with the spell getting stronger with every hit. He wasn’t bluffing; he fully intended to blow up the ship. The console on the wall beside me flashed, “Ignition ready.”

I look at him as my hand hovered over the button. After everything was said and done, I still hesitated. This time, out of my own fear. I can’t predict the ripple effects of this. How will Lien react to the news? Will she believe me? What about the rest of the crew? However, that was for later down the road.

I pressed the button, and the pod began to shake. It was then that I heard her voice.

“Ethan!” Lein shouts out. She stood in the entryway in view of everything. Her eyes turn to the bodies on the floor, then to her son begging to be free, and then to me, the one sending him off into space. Her eyes filled with sorrow and pain. She ran past me and to the console. It was too late; the pod detached, and the engines fired. She slammed the door, crying out to her baby boy. She didn’t notice the blood on his gauntlets, but what parent would when their child was about to die?

The pod fires into space.

“Help me, mother!” He screams as the pod moves away,

“I will find you, my son!” She shouts, banging on the closed door to prevent her from falling into space.

I could still see the glow as the pod went deeper and deeper into space. I waited for the explosion as I could see the light grow brighter, but it never came. He chose to stop it. I reached out to Lien to comfort and explain. Instead, she pulled her pistol, blasted my head off, and then fired two shots into my chest before running off to start the ship to catch him.

She was unsuccessful. A ship this size needed a crew to start up quickly, and the single-person start-up process took too long. Once everyone returned, the captain ordered them to throw me in the brig. No force was necessary, as I went willingly, but that didn’t mean none was used. Everyone blamed me for the deaths of Ethan, Oton, and Plud.

One of those deaths was on me. After reviewing the ship's footage, it was revealed that the escape pod’s steering, guidance, and many life support features were damaged from the inside due to Ethan's concussive blasts. Most important was the pod’s tracking system. That meant we couldn’t find him. He was left alone to starve to death, floating in space. I did that. I set him down a hellish path to death.