End of a Chase

Synopsis: Not many people know the tale of how the Alliance convinced the Red Wolf to join their ranks, but even less know of how the Snake got to her first. They don't tell that story. They always seem to skirt around the issue. But the two of them think about it more often than not. At least about some of the vulnerable moments...

“I chased her… not the other way around.”

There’s a story neither of them falls into detail with. One filled with teenage emotion and headstrong behavior that almost felt wistful until the very end. It’s a story that every so often their team pesters one of them about to share with new faces because all of them held a false story that the stoic phantom could never catch that of the mean former mob-boss. It’s a story of true love and loss betwixt that of two teenagers finding themselves lost, but eternally in that one similar situation that kept bringing them back. One that had him hunting her down every moment he was allowed to touch terran soil.

Most of that’s long gone now…

They were young and dumb, and filled with flooded feelings that bubbled away in soft giggling and blush filled smiles watching the sunset off the coast of her homeland. It was a moment Leng had missed where the two of them sat endlessly, fingers intertwined in silence without the stress of life or work saddled on their shoulders. Yet, to this day, Kai still wonders if convincing her to take his side was the wrong option. Perhaps leaving Sirius behind on that tiny island, forgotten by time, would have been the safer way of protecting the heat that thrived within their relationship. Maybe pretending the woman he chased every shore leave was better left there—on the shores of a world blind to that of the Alliance and their finicky space.

He remembered her as the bombshell surrounded by surfboards, reclining back in an old rickety beach chair, selling surfing tours on her downtime to tourists unaware of her extreme prices. He remembered the moment he felt that twist in his stomach, seeing her smile with the sunset sparkling in the water behind her. She was beautiful then… And just as mesmerizing now.

Sirius understood him—the liar of the Alliance—the one who pushed all his forged paperwork forward in hopes that it’d save his life and give him a reason to hunt down the beasts that left him scarred, hurt, and alone. What fear did she hold that had not been forged into fury? Though their trauma sat vastly different, their climb to freedom stood similar.

“You chased an out to fight your demons,” she said, “why can’t I do the same to free us from ours?”

“My reason was selfish, Siri.” Leng shrugged, “Given legal reason to hunt slavers verses having a reason to live safely is different. You have made a name for yourself. You have climbed from the ash and become a menace. The Alliance isn’t worth the toil they’ll do to you mentally.”

“That’s not a good reason for me to not follow through. They owe me answers.” The day he followed her home, a sinking fear sat like a rock in the pit of his gut. That little boat she found herself stocking her boards onto was everything she had to her name. In the far back of the tiny houseboat’s living space sat a wall covered in polished and well-loved awards and statues. She stood there, with her arms crossed and her gaze focused on those statues, each one better than the next, commemorating that of a pilot beloved by all… Including the Alliance.

“Do you understand why we do what we do,” she continued, lifting a smaller medal into her hands only to sigh, “We don’t have many options. Either we fight or we die—and I chose my place. I fight. I fight because someone had to. I fight because no matter how many of us are just automatically dinged as criminals for just trying to feed our family, I’d rather them look at me and know I won’t hold back. I’m not afraid of them.” Slender, brown fingers brush the medal in her hands as she glanced over to him with a frown, “You said the Alliance is looking for me and if they work on my terms, I’m willing to talk. Maybe they have the answers I need to figure out why my mother left but if she ever left anything for us to rebuild. If I die trying while I make sure my home flourishes in sunshine and flowers? So be it.”

“Then don’t die before you get the chance to return home if you take their offer.”

She’s quiet for a moment. The girl he met was no more than a grifter scamming tourists for fun, but the woman that hid behind that façade was more than that. The mainland knew of her title and few knew of her name. She had become a menace elusive to that of the people that sought her out. And yet… it took one mistake for those who only want to create machines and super soldiers to find her and snatch her off the street—if she had not gone down without a fight, that is. “Do they… really hunt biotics?”

He nods, “I never hear positive stories about those who were dragged kicking and screaming into BAaT. Some come out worse than they did prior.”

“What about you?”

“Just angrier.” And hollow… and teeming with a hatred he could never place. “I won’t let them hurt you,” he adds, “If you decide to enlist to avoid BAaT, then I will be there at your side—even when you’re at your worst. You’ll never lose me. You stay here and you’ll be safe from war—but in danger of being pulled in by force. This is your choice entirely… but I won’t let them hurt you.”

It’s an old conversation that replays backwards and forwards in his head. Her hesitance etches an emotion that rarely surfaces. It was quiet, yet scared and determined, washing back and forth in that of blue eyes and shaking hands. A conversation and story he knew the team would never believe that he, a teenager in love, held no story of whimsy and chaos… Only one of harsh truths of a sad duo who craved touch and lusted for freedom.