Solara and Fortuna

"Well, shit. The man is actually gone. Damn girl actually managed to do it. Cost her her own life, though. Cost them all their lives. The only one left I still see is Kam, bruised and bloodied on the ground. That Solara girl will probably take him in. She doesn't seem like the type to just leave someone in need to die outside like that."

Owl, the right-hand man of Chronos, was an Owl and Luminarian Hybrid who had stood by Chronos for his entire life. The owl was as ancient as Chronos was, and now Chronos was gone. Tobi, his daughter, and the rest of the bounty hunter group had finally taken their chance and killed him. But it cost them all their lives. None of them still drew breath. Owl thought to himself while standing on the rubble of the city that had collapsed during Indo and Chronos's fight.

Poor boy is gonna have one rude awakening when he wakes up. I'd say sentients come and go, but… I never thought I'd see the day where that old man died. Don't worry, partner. I'll find ya a spot to be buried. Just give me a moment. Too much chaos is about to happen here. I can tell by looking at that Fortuna girl. It's been a really long time since I've seen such strong pain on one person's face. Guess that's what happens when you kill a girl's father in front of her face. You never really did take into account the consequences for your actions, idiot. This whole damn fiasco may not have happened if ya did. The smell of blood fills the air. I can't take it anymore.

Owl grabbed his dimensional glove and escaped into a different dimension. The dust on the base of the battlefield started to settle, and Solara looked around at the bloodbath around her. She thought to herself.

Shit. Shit, shit. SHIT. SHIT. Oh my god. I can barely feel anything, but we have to grab the bodies and bring them back to their families. It's only fair. I couldn't protect them. I have to find a way to make it up somehow. But… how do you make up for an individual life? Indo, for such a smart man, you're such an idiot. You couldn't have at least asked for help? If we had all gotten here just a bit earlier, maybe we could have saved you… Sigh. Thank you, Indo. I promise you. Sagacity won't win, and your daughters will be safe.

Solara looked to the side and saw Fortuna, battered and bloodied, waking up from the fight that had just happened. She had tried her damndest to save her father. Her, Lilith, and Phobos—the three of them were there, and the three of them had to watch their adoptive father be killed. Lilith and Phobos also woke up and saw their father's body first and started to break down uncontrollably into tears. The noise triggered Fortuna. Even through the pain, she ran towards them and held them as the two of them cried in her arms. No matter how badly her eyes stung, she didn't cry as she held her younger twin siblings.

Solara, trying to move herself through the pain, saw them and couldn't help but feel blame for what had happened. It was her speech to him that caused him to have a change of heart and betray Sagacity, which caused him to send Chronos after him. Wayne ran through the smoke and smog towards Solara to make sure she was safe.

In a rushed and worried voice, he said when he got to her, "SOLARA. Oh god. Okay, okay. You've lost a lot of blood, and you have quite a few broken bones and some deep lacerations, but it seems like you'll be okay. Hey, are you hearing me? Your eyes—they look so heavy. Are you about to collapse?! Let me just go ask Grace or Cressida if they have an—"

Solara lifted her bloodied hand towards Fortuna and her siblings and said, "I failed. Indo is dead, and it's all my fault. Look at them. Me and Fortuna are the same age. I don't know what I would do if Dad died, let alone in front of me and so brutally. This is my fault." Her eyes started to water, and tears flowed down her face. "And I don't know what to do to fix it."

With immense sorrow in her eyes, she looked over at Wayne, barely able to talk but managing to get out this: "I-I have to d-do something. But what? I'll go apologize first. I'll see what I'll do after. Whatever they need, I'm sure I can provide it."

Wayne looked at Solara with the same pained look now in his own eyes and responded, "Yeah, you're right. Guess we have to do someth—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Cressida walked up behind him and struck him in the back of the head. She yelled at him, "Get your damn hands off of her. Are you STUPID? Are you both damn idiots??? We don't owe them shit. Neither them nor Indo. One good action doesn't make someone good. One good action doesn't free you of all that you've done. MASS MURDERERS. You're crying over MASS MURDERERS. Solara, I love you, but oh my god, sometimes you sound so fucking stupid."

Solara quickly calmed herself down and looked over at Cressida with a quiet look. They looked at each other for a minute in silence, with the tears of Lilith and Phobos in the background and Fortuna's body shaking as she held them.

Solara said, "Cressida, they're kids. We're kids. Nineteen isn't that old, and Lilith and Phobos are two years younger. Yes, what they've done is horrible, and I cry for everyone who's died by their hand. But also, when looking at their bloodtraits… did they really have a choice? I looked at their file in the castle. They're orphans. Indo stumbled upon the three of them in a war when Fortuna was only seven and the other two were only five. They had just watched their parents die. When Indo walked up to them that day, Fortuna put her body between him and the twins and pointed a gun at Indo. She was seven, Cressida. Seven."

Cressida, with tears building in her eyes, responded shakily, "OH boo fucking hoo. Do you know the amount of sentients that we know who have been through hell and haven't done what the three of them have? Those twins are literally sadists. I don't care if it's their bloodtraits' fault. I can't sit here and make excuses for sentients who have done so many evil things. I don't care if they're kids. Being a monster does not have a minimum age."

Solara let the silence build for a minute or two again before she responded. "Is that how you feel about Natic? Soul?"

Cressida, frustrated, blurted out before she walked away, "God, you're impossible. You're going to get us killed. The protection of strangers is not my responsibility. Let alone strangers like them. I'm gonna go heal the others. Your friends. Your family. They're hurt. Because of you. Oh Queen of the Lacrimosa."

Wayne and Jiragen looked over at Cressida as she walked around with a pissed-off look and ran after her screaming profanities. Solara sat there, thinking to herself.

What the hell am I doing? She… not fully, but she also doesn't understand. Maybe I should do these missions by myself from now on. She's right. If any of them died because of me… I-I don't know what I would do. I wan—I have to protect everyone. But if the people who love me get hurt because of it… what's really more important? What would you do, Mom and Dad? If only it was you two here, none of this would have even happened.

Solara stood up and looked behind her. Natic, Grace, Wendy, Roxxane, Andrew, Lizzy, Wayne, Katty, Luner, and a couple of others—all in some state of injury or even knocked out. They didn't need to come here. They could have just left Indo and their family to their own devices. No one would have blamed them. Indo's death, and most likely the death of the twins and Fortuna, would have been seen as something they had coming towards them. You make wrong choices and you get the consequences. But if this was the only life they ever knew, did they really have a choice?

Solara thought to herself. If life is not fair, how can we expect anyone to make the right choice every time—or even ever? If in their eyes that's exactly what they already did, it's easy to say what they did was wrong looking at it from the outside. Sigh. Maybe I am crazy.

Solara walked over to the siblings. As Fortuna saw this happen, she held her siblings tighter, and the anger in her eyes grew stronger and stronger. Which caused the sorrow in Solara's eyes to grow exponentially as well. As she got closer, before she could say anything, she heard Fortuna scream in unbridled fury, fighting through tears as her voice kept cracking.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL HERE? TO PITY ME? TO PITY US? You've accomplished your mission. My dad is dead. Chronos is also dead, so I guess your bitch ass got two birds with one stone, huh? Are you HAPPY? I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY. He was all we had left. I don't know what you thought of him. I don't know how you looked at him. But he was our Papa. He loved us. He took care of us. He watched over us. It was the only love we'd ever experienced. And now he's dead because of you AND THE BULLSHIT YOU TOLD HIM. I tried to tell him he was crazy. That betraying that fucking man was a death wish. But he wouldn't listen because of you. Hope? HOPE???? DON'T MAKE ME FUCKING LAUGH. I never liked working under him, but we weren't idiots like you dumbasses. But it doesn't matter now. Guess we're just gonna die. You HAPPY, SOLARA?!?!?! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED, SOLARA? OUR DADDY IS DEAD, AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT."

Phobos and Lilith's eyes went from pain to fear as they looked at their older sister's body start to shake—not from pain anymore, but from power. They left her arms and moved away from her, looking at the terrain around them. The rocks around them started to lift off the floor, and Fortuna's bloodtrait started to shine brightly. Fortuna's bloodtrait was Lucky 777. Fate twisted around her luck to make sure she could never truly be hurt too badly. Although, for some reason, even without any imminent danger, it was activating. And the world around them started shaking.

Cressida looked over at what Solara was doing. She grabbed her guitar, strung up a song, and shot a beam of energy at Fortuna as she screamed at Solara. "YOU GODDAMN IDIOT, GET OUT OF THER—"

Before the shot could hit Fortuna and kill her, the land around them erupted, and energy from Fortuna's body started to flow into the planet they were on. A giant explosion blasted everyone away hundreds of feet.

Roxxane looked at Cressida and screamed at her, "You fucking idiot, what did you do?"

Wendy pushed the rubble off herself and spoke, trying to defend Cressida. "Hey, she obviously didn't know that was gonna happen, and screaming at her is not going to help anything, dear. Where is Solara?!"

Grace looked over the rubble that had piled in front of them, pointed, and screamed, "Look! Solara is still at the blast site!"

Solara had not been blasted away from the explosions Fortuna's bloodtrait caused. As Solara looked over at the middle of the explosion, her skin burning from the blast, she saw Fortuna, whose eyes had gone white as more and more power expelled from her body uncontrollably.

Natic looked over at Fortuna and screamed out to Solara. "Hey, kid, this is not looking good. My senses are getting overwhelmed. I have no idea why so much power is expelling from her body, but if she keeps it up at this pace, anyone here who can't regenerate from just a drop of blood is going to die. And so will everyone on this goddamn planet. We have to do something. We're going to have to kill her before she kills this entire damn world."

Lilith and Phobos, struggling to stand up after being blown away, screamed, "NO. PLEASE."

Cressida, with fury in her eyes, yelled at them. "You bastards are lucky we don't kill you where you stand. Shut up. You don't get to make choices here."

Wendy looked at Cressida and softly said, "Cressida, calm it. Please. Like I said earlier, the yelling is not gonna help anything."

Then everyone heard Solara scream from the spot she was standing. "I'm not going to kill her, Cressida! There has to be another way to stop this before the planet gets destroyed, and I'll find that way even if it's the last thing I do."

Cressida screamed back, "DUMBASS, I'M TRYING TO MAKE SURE THIS ISN'T THE LAST THING YOU DO!"

Everyone started to move from their positions and rushed Fortuna. Some with intent to kill, some just with intent to subdue. Both Lilith and Phobos looked over at their sister with fear in their eyes. And when they ended up getting closer, another blast didn't happen. Instead, a beast made out of gemstones and malice came out of the ground, destroying the terrain as the ground terraformed itself, lifting Fortuna into the air. Her screams got louder and louder as the very ground started to rush after everyone in the form of snakes.

Andrew said to everyone as they dodged the terraformed earth snakes and tried to kill the beast around them, "How the hell do we even fight this girl? I thought her power was purely defensive. How the hell is the world around her changing to protect her? How the hell do we fight luck?"

Solara rushed at Fortuna, also doing her best to dodge the snakes and monsters. But the more everyone else attacked, the louder Fortuna screamed. The stronger the energy around her releasing became, and the bigger, faster, and stronger the monsters releasing from the ground became—to the point where it was starting to get overwhelming. And it kept getting harder as everyone else was attacking Fortuna.

Roxanne's eyes kept darting around the battlefield, doing her best to keep up with where Andrew was in relation to all the beasts and monsters around them. But she kept getting tossed and thrown around since she wasn't paying attention to her own surroundings. So she just placed him on her back for the rest of the fight as he tried to play defense for everyone with his bloodtrait.

Natic thought to himself while Grace was also on his back. Shit. We're on the defensive. The closer we get, the stronger her luck gets, and some random bullshit keeps stopping us. It seems her power can read our intentions, since the harder we try, the harder it hits right back at us. How the hell do you fight that?

Katty threw Luner into the sky and threw her sword through his bloodtrait in his arm, activating his Titan powers as Malice energy encapsulated his body. In a monstrous voice, he said, "Okay, everyone behind the Titans I'm about to summon. I'll have them suicide rush her, and when they die through all the blindspots it's going to create, get her then."

Katty climbed onto Luner's shoulder and told him, "That's a terrible idea, dear."

Luner responded, "You got a better idea?"

Katty responded, "I never said I was a strategist either."

Luner stabbed his Titan hands into the sky as he tore a hole through space and time. Malice Titans he had control over started to spill through and charge Fortuna. As predicted, they died trying to get to her. And as everyone tried to rush Fortuna through the blindspots, the plan failed, and the blast shot everyone back even more violently than before.

Roxxane, pissed and trying to get all the rubble off her body since she had broken Andrew's fall, said to Luner, "You got any more ideas, smart guy?"

Cressida's body started to shake with worry as she looked at Solara, who had just endured another blast without moving. She screamed at her, "Get out of there! You're gonna kill yourself, you damn idiot!"

Dynobe looked at Cressida and said, "Even through all the pain, Cressida, she looks focused on something. She hasn't taken her eyes off Fortuna, and I don't know why."

Cressida responded, "Because she's an idiot, that's why."

Dynobe responded, "Cressida, please get a grip. You've been yelling at us all day. We're all worried about Solara. We all think she's making dumb choices. But fighting each other is not gonna help anything, love."

Cressida rolled her eyes and said, annoyed, "Fine."

Cressida flew up as high in the air as she could and started to play her guitar. Instead of a destructive blast, her fingers made a melody that healed everyone—but it couldn't go far enough to reach Solara.

Wendy looked up at the girl and screamed out, "THANKS, CRESSIDA! YOU'RE DOING WELL! KEEP IT UP, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!"

Solara stood on a piece of terraformed earth only a few hundred feet away from Fortuna. She just looked at her for a second as she screamed and cried and the world fell apart around both of them. Solara blinked, and it was as if Fortuna turned into a child seven years old again, crying alone in the middle of the terraformed earth.

Solara thought to herself. After everything, she's still just a scared little girl.

Solara dropped her sword and let it hit the floor. Instead of rushing Fortuna with intent to fight, she rushed her with an intent to talk. With no mal intent in her heart, Fortuna's bloodtrait did not react to Solara's approach. Solara looked at her and still just saw a small child. With all the injuries Solara had sustained, she still ran towards her with such form and power behind every strut that it was like not a single injury was actually there. She dodged and jumped around the rampaging monsters that were already there.

Solara blinked again, and it was as if she turned into a small little girl herself, running towards a friend in a small empty room as she cried in the corner.

In the real world, Fortuna screamed at Solara for her to stop getting closer as she grabbed her smartgun and shot Solara multiple times. The bullets adapted to her body and tore through her flesh in non-vital areas—but if she didn't get healed, she'd bleed out. But Solara just kept running. She didn't even dodge.

Solara reached Fortuna and held her. Fortuna finally stopped screaming.

Solara said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. This is all my fault. I should have known something like this was gonna happen. Indo was a bad man, but that doesn't mean he was a bad man. Even with death staring him down, he still fought to the end for what he thought was right. He no longer believed the world Sagacity wants was going to protect you three. It was all for you three. And I should have done something to help earlier. I'm sorry. This is my fault."

Fortuna started screaming at Solara. "Get off me! GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME! You don't know anything. Your sorry means nothing. You don't understand how I feel. You're royalty. The three of us were born with nothing, and the war took our parents. And he was the only one there who showed us love after the hell that we saw."

Cressida both saw and heard Solara get shot. She started screaming, her body trembling and her voice shaking. "YOU BITCH! STOP! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER! WAYNE, DO SOMETHING!"

Wayne looked at Cressida, and then he looked at Solara. He saw the look in her eyes and her body's lack of reaction to her injuries. He bit through his lower lip before he spoke and said to Cressida, "N-no. She knows what she's doing."

Cressida's eyes widened as she screamed out to Wayne. "WHAT? YOU USELESS BITCH! SAVE MY COUSIN, YOU FAULTY KNIGHT, OR I'LL MAKE SURE YOU DON'T WAKE UP TOMORROW!"

Wayne sternly looked Cressida in the eye, his pain unable to hide, his eyelids drooping as he said, "Trust her. I don't want to right now, but trust her. If any of us rush towards Fortuna, it's just gonna make this disaster worse. We have to trust her."

Cressida, with tears in her eyes, screamed at Wayne, "I HATE YOU!"

Solara's mind suddenly got transported back to the past—but not her own past. Fortuna's past. The environment was grey, drab. The air smelled of dried flesh and blood. As well as metal and gunpowder. It was nauseating with how thick it was. Solara almost collapsed as her mind traveled there. As she walked around this abandoned battlefield, she heard screaming from the background that sounded… like a younger Fortuna.

"S-STOP! GET BACK! I-I KNOW HOW TO USE THIS THING! I-I'll shoot! I'll kill YOU! STAY AWAY FROM LILITH AND PHOBOS!"

Solara ran towards the sound, her body seemingly getting younger and younger the closer she got. And there she saw it. A young Indo stood in front of a shaking Fortuna, who was using her body to stand between Indo and her little siblings.

Solara thought to herself. It's the memory from the file.

Indo looked at the three of them in his bloodied armor. He turned it off and let it fall to the ground. Then, in a softer and kinder tone than Solara had ever heard him talk, he said as he walked towards the three of them and hugged them, "Hey, kid. Shoot me if you want. But what would be better? Some food? A house, maybe a bath? Or my dead body on the floor?"

The gun dropped from Fortuna's hand as she collapsed and cried into Indo's chest, finally being able to put her guard down after this whole war. Solara ran at her until their bodies resembled in age and hugged her also.

As her consciousness returned to the present, Solara found Fortuna pushing her off and pointing the gun at her.

Solara said as she stood there bleeding out, "Kill me. If that will make it all better, kill me. I never wanted so much blood to have spilled today, and I failed. But if you let me live, I promise you I'll ensure you and your siblings are safe. As long as you commit no more crimes, I promise you, you'll be safe and we'll protect you. I'll protect you. With my very life."

Suddenly, Indo's face flickered onto Solara's from Fortuna's view. Her grasp on the gun weakened, and it fell to the ground. Solara got closer and knelt in front of Fortuna as her head fell into Solara's chest, tears falling uncontrollably from her face. Solara grabbed the back of her head and caressed it as she smiled and wrapped her wings around Fortuna.

The terraformed land around them finally fell, and all the monsters that appeared from her bloodtrait collapsed as well.

Cressida, Phobos, and Lilith were the first to reach Solara and Fortuna. Phobos and Lilith got Solara off Fortuna and held her tightly. Cressida ran towards Solara and held her tightly while activating her healing ability at the same time.

Cressida opened her mouth and said, "I hate you. I hate you so damn much. Don't you ever, ever scare me like that again, you stupid idiot."

Solara softly responded, "I'm sorry, Cressida. I'll try my best not to. I promise."

Fortuna looked over at Cressida and said, "I'm sorry."

Cressida gave her an angered look and didn't acknowledge her any further as she continued healing Solara's body.

Everyone else finally reached them. Solara, while still on the ground being healed by Cressida, told them, "Fortuna and her siblings are coming with us. But not as prisoners. And that order is final."

The knights of the group placed their hands on their hearts and, in sync, accepted her command.

Cressida sighed and said, "You'll do anything to piss me off, I swear."

Solara responded with a smile as she shifted her head to look over at Fortuna and the twins. "Hehe. Yup. Hey, you three. Are you okay with that? Coming with us, I mean. I promise everything will be okay."

Fortuna just gave a soft, "Thank you, Princess."

Katty cut the tension, saying, "LET'S GO HOME! I'M TIRED AND I STINK. Beast blood is so damn hard to get out of clothes, you know. You owe me some quarters for the laundromat, Princess."

Solara looked at Katty, confused. "Wha? We don't have laundromats. The servants clean the clothi—OOOH, that's the point. Hahaha. Don't make dumb jokes like that to someone who has lost so much damn blood. Hahaha."

Everyone else also laughed—or at least got a chuckle out of Katty's tomfoolery—as they all did, in fact, finally go home.