Dark streets of Neo-ilka snaked around a beating heart, surcharged with the energy of the city, pulsing alive with shadows and secrets. Tonight, though, the streets were quiet-even quieter than they had any right to be. Save for the low hum of power grids, nothing other disturbed the silence as Zypher and his team descended into one less-often frequented district of the city, one Orion knew too well.
Orion began walking forward. His steps seemed almost automatic; his posture tense, though practiced. They'd been on edge since they encountered Orpheon, and Zypher saw something in Orion's gaze tonight that he hadn't before. Something flickered there, something haunted that whispered of painful memories clawing their way to the surface.
They approached an old edifice whose outer walls were chipped and rusting, covered in graffiti and faded memories. Orion was the first one to pause, his composure often masking moments of vulnerability. Kiera, sharp-eyed as always, was the first to speak up.
"Are you sure this is a good place to be, Orion?" she asked, her voice tinged with curiosity and a finish of concern.
Orion nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the cracked doorway as if he saw it for the first time and the hundredth. "This is where it all started," he whispered. His voice had softened, and that raw edge in it told them this was no ordinary place.
Zypher stepped up beside him, sensing the importance of the place. "What happened here?"
Orion's eyes cast in shadow, his face set hard, he started talking, his voice brittle and sharp. "I was bred here on the edge, eh? This is where I learned there's always someone waiting to use you, make you over into a weapon, a tool. Even the gods.
He trailed off, a bitter smile twisting his lips. "Or at least, the so-called gods in this city.".
He kept in his mind vivid images of his childhood: a young boy running through these same streets, starving and begging, learning how to survive in a world that seemed to thrive on the consumption of the weak. Life was a battle every day for survival, until he was discovered by a gang of corporate mercenaries on one of those days.
Back then," Orion continued, his voice hardening, "there was one corporation that ruled these parts—Aether Dynamics. They took kids like me, from the slums, taught us how to fight, how to kill. Said they were giving us purpose, a way out of the gutters."
Kiera's expression softened. "They used you.".
Orion nodded, a face with memories darker than his mood clouded.
"They trained us to be ruthless, to be soldiers of fortune without the fortune.We were not people to them. We were assets.".
As he spoke, the floodgate of old faces opened in his mind. Friends and foes alike, swallowed up by the same system that nearly engulfed him whole. For years, he ran to support Aether Dynamics; done missions too dark to forget, but never feeling hollow. He didn't know it then, but they took something he'd never get back: his innocence, his ability to trust.
"There was one mission," Orion continued, his voice barely audible. "They sent me after a scientist, a man named Elias—a man who had information on something powerful, something that could shift the balance in Neo-ilka." His fists clenched. "I didn't know what it was back then. Just followed orders."
Zypher's frown tightened. "What happened to him?"
Orion's jaw set, his eyes hard and unfocused. "I killed him. Did it without hesitation, like they taught me. But… I didn't know. I didn't know he was a man trying to protect his family, to keep his research away from people who'd twist it.".
A heavy silence fell over the group. Kiera placed a hand on his shoulder, such an unusual gesture of comfort coming from the reserved mercenary. "And that's when you turned on them?
Orion nodded curtly. "Aether betrayed us all. Used our skills, then discarded us once we had served our purpose. All that was left to me was blood on my hands. It was then that I made myself a mercenary as I am today, living on my own terms, with a select choice of which battles to fight in.".
He almost felt like he knew them. Drowning in the excesses of choices, the maps of marking their pasts. Not Orion, though. His was one written into each thread of his face, every scar on his body.
"Why did you have to tell us this now?" Zypher whispered, his voice almost inaudible.
Orion's eyes didn't blink but something flimsy was just beneath. "Because…for the first time in my life, I'm fighting for something real, for people who believe in something that counts—it's new to me. You all deserve to know who is standing next to you." He took a deep breath and in the usual careful tone, shook. "I wanted you to know… the price I have had to pay to be here.".
Kiera squeezed his shoulder, nodding. "The past doesn't define you, Orion. We're all here because of what's been taken from us. But it's what we do now that matters."
Orion nodded, swallowing hard, grateful for the understanding even if he couldn't bring himself to say it. The team stood in silence, letting the moment pass, each one feeling a sense of shared resolve growing stronger.
And then, breaking his silence, turned Zypher, whose eyes started shining with great determination. "We'll ensure that the corporations know they cannot lord over us anymore. No more children to be converted into weapons. No more families broken by their greed."
They nodded together, a new unity settling over them, as they left the shadows of Orion's past behind to carry forward the fire of his memories, tempered now into a weapon against the very forces that once had forged him into a weapon of their own.
Orion turned again, and a final goodbye to the ghosts that crowded the abandoned town. Indeed, he would bear them, but they would not imprison him once more. Not now, when there still was a fight to be fought in.