Chapter Text
James had been drifting in the infinite space for… he wouldn’t know how long. The small escape pod had converted every ounce of energy it had to keep the oxygen support running. The clock being the first to lose power. When it reached critical after what James assumed had been days, he heard the pod tell him hibernation was the only course of action they had left.
He couldn’t stop the pod. He thought he already accepted the fact that he might die out here, but being put to sleep brought that inevitable horizon to him. He closed his eyes, or rather, he might not have. He wasn’t sure anymore. All he could see were stars.
He was aware, but he wasn’t awake. The lucid dream he had entered had no intentions of letting him go.
He heard a voice, not one he recognised. It sounded like words. He couldn’t comprehend them. But the tone itself he could, soft, almost encouraging, and it confused him.
It felt like an eternity. It felt like minutes.
Voices,
Stars.
Black, white.
Black White.
How did it come to this? He remembered the hundreds of ships, the Grimm Empire in the sky, the massive black whale steered by the Empress herself. Her pale, haunting face with eyes as red as blood bulging out of her skull, like she had been exposed to the unforgiving vacuum of space.
It’s hard to estimate time in space. The battle felt like days. It could have been hours. He felt the earthquakes of his battleship get blasted, each missile tearing through the hull like paper.
He watched the Grimm worked their way into the massive battleships; he watched the darkness spread. He watched men and women get torn from the breaches in the walls, from the tar-like substance injected into the hull like a virus, devouring anything in its path.
The life pods were the only chance of survival. He launched as the engines were going critical, impending destruction of all systems would have been the least of his concerns. He knows he should have been picked up in a day, maybe two.
He didn’t know how many days had passed. Someone should have retrieved him by now if he didn’t land on a safe planet. He had watched the Grimm shoot pods as they escaped. He knew his own pod had been shot- if it had disabled the tracking and he was long off course from safety, the chances of him being found were slim to none.
There was a hiss of an airlock releasing.
And then he plunged forward. His stomach surged like he was dropping into space itself.
He felt hands, a rib cage, arms, someone keep him from sinking into space.
James felt as if he had not breathed in millennia. His chest heaved, his body working on instinct.
His next sense to return to him was his smell. He smells sweat and oil from the person holding him up. There is a sharpness that is metallic, like metal shavings.
His ears tried to adjust. He couldn’t. It’s that calming voice again.
“Can you walk?”
He knew his eyes were wide open, but he couldn’t see a thing. He reached out to feel something.
“Shit, you must have been in there longer than I thought.” The familiar voice said, and he had fingers coil around his own. His entire body reacted. The fear that coursed through his blood melted away. He should have felt scared. He did not know where he was, blind, near deaf. He should run, he should be fighting.
In the smallest of moments, he felt safe. People still talked about angels, how they would lead you to the afterlife.
And James didn’t feel scared. Dying was calm.
“I’m getting you out of here, the both of you.”
James tried to speak, but he hadn’t used his vocal cords in so long as he blinked rapidly to bring his own sight back. Extended Pod Stasis, EPS, was when senses deteriorated due to of a lack of use. The longer in stasis, the worse the symptoms became. He had never had to feel the effects before. He had no timeframe on when his senses would return.
James could only trust the hand that was guiding him.
The hand, one he hadn’t realised was pulling him forward, let go. The absence felt like he had been marooned in the middle of the ocean. Nothing was around him, maybe nothing ever was.
“Sorry, sir. Don’t move, I need to…”
He could at least hear where the man was moving around in the room. It was the only comfort he had that he hadn’t been left.
His senses began to return to him. The room was dim, and with what he could see the cramp nature of the room. Storage? Why the hell would he be in a storage room?
The blur moving was wearing a dull grey.
He might have called the man dead weight, if not for how easy it looked for Clover to lift him over his shoulder into a firefighter carry. He could see better now. He realised it was a cleaner’s uniform, and now that uniform had been dressed on the unconscious man.
They walked down a hallway, pristine, clean. Their boots did not clang on the floor below, something that would have been typical of most ships. His eyes focused completely.
His chest dropped.
It was a luxury empire ship- not a fighter ship. He would have recognised the black halls immediately. No. This was a large, personal ship, the empire insignia of an open mouth of animal teeth carved on every wall, banners hanging from the tall ceilings.
He had been on a similar ship when Atlesia and Manite met to treaty with the empire. Both kings had refused the terms and neither side would budge.
He wished he could go back in time and shake the kings, beg them to reconsider escalating the war. The results would have been the same, but thousands of people would still be alive.
He was on an empire ship, and he was at war with the Empire. This was a different dangerous, one that a single step could completely fuck them over.
“Please, please please don’t panic, we’re in the home stretch.” the voice soothed. He could feel a thumb trace circles into his palm. He let himself get lost in the feeling. When was the last time someone touched him that wasn’t with violence? The war with the empire had not given him a lot of time for anything but battles, healing and fighting, and healing again.
James fully regained his senses when they were on another ship. The familiar launching of a ship breaking the pull from gravity finally waking him up.
He had been sitting down, strapped into a seat in the holding bay. He could see a man next to him, also strapped into a turbulence chair. His head slumped- he wasn’t wearing much, he wasn’t sure what the man wore could qualify as clothing, a light and see through vapour like material that James felt the need to avert his eyes to afford the man some dignity.
James could see now the man’s face. A healing black eye, a split lip contrasted with the gold pierced ears, the gold collar around his neck. The man wasn’t even wearing shoes. It was not difficult to conclude that this man had been a slave, and that his master was the kind of person to beat one bloody.
That was in line with what he knew about the Grimm Empire, dominating any planet that would not bow to them, making an example out of solar systems. The people that lead the monstrosities were a different breed of evil.
And what kind of man had the balls to walk onto an empire ship that belonged to someone so high ranking and walk out with a prisoner and a slave? James unclipped himself, his hand shaking, and his right was stiff. He had to be due for maintenance on his parts. He pulled his coat off. It was slightly singed from his escape to the life pod, but it was still big and warm, and by the looks of it, the other man needed more warmth as James draped it on his lap.
The ship they were on was simple, a smaller than average cargo hauler, looking like it was a planet based one refitted for space travel. He climbed the stairs. His weight made them cry out. He followed what he thought would take him to the cockpit. All ships followed some structure to them. Medic bay near the cargo haul, officer’s quarters on the upper deck. Not this one. The more he looked at it, the more he was convinced that it was several ships mashed together in a Frankenstein’s creation.
He got distracted crossing a polished surface and nearly jumped out of his skin. He thought it was another man. He didn’t recognise himself and the black beard he now spotted on his face. He had never had it this long before. He always kept it clean cut, military standards and his own preference. It was raggedy and unkempt. It begged the question of how long was he in the pod for.
“I’m sorry about having to run off on you, Miss Malachite, but you know me! I’m never late for a payment. I just had a family emergency to deal with.” A voice echoed down the hallway. He followed it and found himself outside what he assumed was the cockpit. He kept around the corner, not to be spotted.
“And because you’re never late on a payment is the only reason I didn’t have you gunned out of the stratosphere.” A woman spoke. The telltale sign of a bad satellite signal distorted the voice. “Get your little ass back here, Clover, or I’ll drag you back myself.”
“I really am sorry, Miss. I can make it up to you- I pay you double what I usually pay for the month when I get back.” Clover said. “And you can always tan my hide when I touch down, but you’ll get the money.”
There was a pause before a light-hearted chuckle broke through the speakers.
“Double or nothing, fine.” Miss Malachite said. “You got 10 cycles, Clover.”
“Thank you, Miss, you won’t regret it.”
“Let’s hope you don’t.”
The buzz of the call ended. There was a deep sigh, and the creak of a chair.
James didn’t know exactly what to do. Did he knock? Did he announce himself as he turned the corner? He didn’t know. He felt like everything was moving so fast now that when it’s slowed down, he just didn’t know how to act.
“Uh- Hi.”
James blinked. He had been so preoccupied with figuring out what to do that he had missed Clover walk out of the cockpit. James looked past him, and could see that they were in the middle of a warp.
He had not had a good look at the man who had led him out of the empire ship. Clover was tall, but not as tall as James. There is a brush of brown hair, his skin is tan, or maybe it wasn’t from the sun but ancestry- and his eyes, his eyes reminded James of pictures of Remnant’s ocean on a stormy day. A soft green that was too natural for all the surrounding technology. James could have soured all of Atlesia for that colour and would never find it.
James nearly missed what Clover said. “How are you feeling?”
He was misplaced. His uniform felt like a stark contrast to everything around him, the dull greys. He was a General of one of the biggest militaries in the galaxy, and here he was on a small ship, not knowing anything of how he came to be here.
“Confused-” He settled on, as his throat made itself known to be dry and seized up. Clover nodded and disappeared for a moment to grab a large metal water bottle from a small rectangular fridge under the dashboard, unhooking it from the water purifier inside.
He moved out of the way to let James into the cockpit, letting him sit and drink. There was a single chair in the room that wasn’t turbulence chairs bolted to the walls. The entire room was sparse and fitting into James’s theory that this had been repurposed.
“Where should I start?” Clover asked as James sat down in a turbulence chair.
“How am I here?” James had so many questions, but this one he felt was the most necessary.
“I was the one to find you in space. I found your pod in a ring. I brought you to here- but since your pod was flagged for being Atlesian you were confiscated and your pod was bought by some empire guy.”
“Confiscated?” He repeated. His solar systems pods didn’t get confiscated, the person inside would be rescued and sent to the closest Atlesia/Manite base. All costs compensated for the return of the individual inside. The Empire wouldn’t care, but neutral solar systems would.
Clover shifted uncomfortably, scratching the back of his own neck.
“The… well. The war ended 4 months ago.”
James felt his lungs freeze. No. That couldn’t be. There was no way that 4 months had passed. He knew no one could survive EPS for so long, not in a pod the size he had used. But 4 months floating in space? 4 months since the battle? His hand absently came up to his face, to the beard he had grown. Was this 4 months’ worth of growth?
No. No. Clover said the war ended 4 months ago. He’s said nothing about how long that fated battle had been. It could have been longer.
The building dread in his stomach made him want to throw up, but he would have had nothing in his body to heave. He’d had nightmares before, and when something impossible, something he knew to be impossible, came up, it would shatter the dream and wake him up.
He wasn’t waking up. Reality being harsh as always, stopping at nothing to destroy any hope he had.
Clover sat in the low chair, a hand rubbing against his mouth as he refused to make eye contact.
“You would find out, eventually. I won’t sweet coat it. They forced Atlesia and Manite to surrender. The treaty favours the Grimm Empire, as it always does- and the planetary military had been disbanded.”
It was making sense. It wasn’t just that the military had been disbanded; it was that James was a high ranked officer that was a key figure in the battle. He would have been taken in as a prisoner. He would have been executed.
The man before him had saved his life twice over, and he had no way of paying him back.
“I… couldn’t on good conscious allow you to be taken to the empire.” He brought those brilliant oceans up to meet James’s eyes. “You and the other guy. I couldn’t leave him either.”
A red light flashed above them, an alarm blazed.
------------
Clover seemed to know exactly where to go, and ran down to the cargo bay, James a few moments behind, his limbs having a hard time listening to him.
He heard Clover halt at the bottom of the stairs, he exited the hall to the top of the balcony looking down to the cargo bay.
“Sir, don’t-” Clover said, and it occurred to James it wasn’t the first time that Clover had called him sir. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, as the sound of air evaporating- of something fast came his way and he ducked- a blast flying over his shoulder.
“Another step, and I won’t miss.”
James had seen people become feral. The man before them looked like he had never seen the gaze of a sun for how pale he was. His teeth gnashed, the split lip had broken and a drop of blood streaked down his chin.
“Back up.” He snarled, his arm steady as he pointed the gun at James. James recognised the gun- it was a heater used for thawing out frozen goods. Crank it to maximum power and set the frequency low would leave to a nasty blast that was definitely against safety protocols. Even with the heat gun, James did not want to underestimate his shot. There was a faint look of confusion that passed over his face when he looked at James, but kept his eyes trained on Clover.
“Easy. Hey.” Clover spoke softly. Trying to be nonthreatening, the gun was pointed back to him in an instant. James took the moment of the man having his eyes off him to feel down his leg to his left hoister. “I know you’re confused right now, but you’re no longer on the empire ship. You’re safe.”
“Where are we?”
“We’re a few dozen tics from Arachne, exiting the system heading towards Athens.” Clover said, if James didn’t see the scene before him, he wouldn’t have guessed Clover had a gun trained on him for how calm he spoke “You were out cold in the ships storage room.”
“Second question, are you suicidal or just stupid?”
James could not stay silent. “Put the damn gun down. This man just saved the both of us from the Empire.”
The dark haired man looked to him, not bewildered, but almost amused.
“What’s the good of being saved, when that Jackhole is going to skin him alive when he finds us.” The man snapped, his arm steadying as he turned to James. “And you’re not going to fare any better Atlesian- he won’t kill you, not quickly. He’s got a special room where he-”
“I wasn’t followed. We would have known by now.” Clover cut him off. James wanted to believe him, but couldn’t help but dwell on the dark-haired man’s words. If Clover was right, and James had little reason to think he was lying- then many officers he knew were dead- if they survived the battle, he wished they didn’t. The Grimm Empire showed no mercy once they were victorious.
It hadn’t been difficult to guess what had happened to the man before them, one too many debts he couldn’t pay off, or the way he looked had him snatched. His hair was black but not dark, it swept out of his face like the man pushed it out of his eyes -pale red, not nearly pink, but not the vibrant hue known of the Grimm.
“Or he’s following you, and wants to see if you’re going to lead him to a hunter’s base. Are you?”
“I acted on my own.” Clover said firmly. “I got lucky. I know when luxury ships dock they resupply and lower-level access is given to labourers, and when Grimm ships are around no one wants to be, so the hanger was empty. No one saw us.”
“Lucky, huh?” He huffed. “A little luck would be nice.”
He could have been born into it. There were families in Grimm territory that had not known freedom in generations. The gold bracing his ankles and wrists looked to have been welded on. The gold was strange- once upon a time it might have been valuable on remnant, centuries ago, but it was no longer such a status indicator.
“I think he’s answered enough of your questions at gun point.” James said. He noticed his coat laying at the ground near the turbulence chairs he had woken up on. “Neither of us are going to hurt you.”
The man considered it and considered it. He lowered the gun and winced like his shoulder was injured. It probably was.
“So what’s your plan, daredevil, General?” The dark haired man asked. James didn’t question how the slave knew his rank. It was sewn into his shoulder.
“I was going to take you both to neutral territory, and figure something out from there.” He shrugged. “I, uh. Didn’t think it through.”
The dark haired man looked at him curiously, sizing him up. “I know a place.” The man said. “Off grid. I’ll give you the coordinates, and you get us there.”
“I’ve only got 20 cycles worth of fuel- less, I didn’t fill up.” He said sheepishly.
The slave still didn’t trust them, which was apparent as the broken moon of remnant. After punching in the coordinates, he squirreled himself away somewhere on the ship, out of sight, but not out of mind.
“He may be sending you somewhere hostile.” James said once it was only himself and Clover in the cockpit. He stood behind the Captain’s chair as Clover sat at the console. The star map before them traced their destination to a dwarf planet. It could even be classified as just space junk gravitating the Arachne system’s sun.
“He could be.” Clover agreed. “Or it’s an empty rock and he’s making sure we’re not followed. But he might think we’re agents. His master has someone free him, then he would give up a location he thinks would be safe, then I would give the location to the Grimm and they would take out everyone there.”
“I admit, I wouldn’t expect that from him.”
“Is it because he’s a slave?”
“I-” James blinked, and Clover’s face became surprisingly neutral, waiting for a response. Oh. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just smart.” Clover cranked an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s tactical, and regular people don’t think that far ahead.”
“He mentioned a hunter’s base. He could be a part of a resistance.” Clover supplied. James was glad for the change in conversation trajectory. “There are a lot of AWOL soldiers out there, wouldn’t be a stretch to say there’s another resistance.”
James remembered the recall of almost all the military to defend their solar system, abandoning so many parts of the galaxy to hold the line. It had been a trap to get as many of them in one place as possible.
The whale had stretched its jaw wide, and bit a battleship in two. He watched it happen slowly, the sheer size of the whale a glacier. A swing of its tail took out fighter ships by the dozens.
If there was a resistance out there, it was a foolish one.
“Sir?”
That was the third time Clover had called him sir.
“James. James is fine.” He mumbled, not asking. “Can’t be a General in an army that doesn’t exist anymore.”
“I’m sorry, it is a lot to take in.” He did that thing again, when he was uncomfortable about something he would rub the back of his neck. “But I was going to ask, when we touch down, maybe you can find something there to help you get in contact with your family?”
“I don’t have a family.”
“Oh.”
What was he going to do? The war was over. It had been for 4 months. He was a remnant of a military that didn’t exist anymore. He knew that there would be a resistance. There was no way that out of the thousands of military personnel, that none of them would continue to fight.
But what good would it do? He returns and on the off chance they would follow him, it would only be back to their deaths once more. The battle had meant to turn the tides against the empire. Truly, the Empire was endless. They never stood a chance.
“I don’t have money to pay you for your kindness.”
“Payment isn’t necessary.”
James bit his lip. Payment was absolutely necessary. If not monetary, then labour, then something. He didn’t want to inconvenience the stranger further, not when he was putting his own neck on the chopping block. It sounded like Clover had debt when he was speaking to the Malachite woman, a possible loan shark too small time to attract the attention of anyone, but big enough that when she made a threat, she meant it.
He couldn’t stand the idea of Clover being pulled further down into debt because of him, because he took a bold, stupid chance on them. Clover could have been caught, he could have been devoured alive. His stomach hurt.
Clover was pretty. The pretty ones don’t get thrown onto mining planets. They end up like the man currently hiding away from them.
He would do what it takes to make sure that Clover could pay the double Malachite wanted in 10 cycles. James owed him that much.