#srmt fic

2

Training is over. Tomorrow will be Bow’s first official day with the hunters, and he can’t keep the grin on his face. He’s left his class with the highest marks, and though he’s still several points shy of Arrow’s final score, he did well. He beat both of his parents, from their training days—his father has retired for the herb trade, and his mother mainly plays lookout these days.

Dinner that night tastes extra good, though his father’s cooking is always the best. Arrow grins at him across the table.

“You get to find out your team assignment tomorrow,” she says, like he doesn’t already know that. “Are you excited?”

“Um, duh?” Bow sticks his tongue out, and she rolls her eyes at him. There was a time when she probably would have thrown her vegetables at him, but her time with the hunters has made her more responsible. He kind of misses it—even if their mother always yelled at them and made them clean up their mess, the food fights were kind of fun. So was jumping in the lake to clean the food from their fur.

Arrow is a bit of a stick in the mud now. Bow’s heard her teammates complain about it. No one ever gets to slack off. She certainly doesn’t sneak out to hang out with her friends anymore. She still sneaks Bow extra helpings of dessert, though, even though their mother tells her not to. So she’s not so bad. But she could be better. More like her old self, anyway.

Arrow laughs at him. “Maybe we’ll be on a team together,” she says, and her eyes light up.

Bow squirms in his seat. His stomach twists at the thought. “Maybe,” he says. And either he’s a better liar than he used to be, or Arrow’s so excited she doesn’t notice, because she doesn’t say anything about it. His parents don’t either, so it must be the first thing. “Wouldn’t it be awkward, though, to have your baby brother hangin’ out with you all the time?”

Arrow snorts. “You know I love having you around,” she says, and the honesty in her words makes him feel guilty. “C’mon, don’t tell me you’re too embarrassed to have your big sister working with you, yeah?”

Bow makes a face at her. “Of course I am,” he says, and his tone is just teasing enough that Arrow laughs. “You nag me enough at home! I don’t need it at work too!” Arrow only laughs more, and doesn’t hear just how much he actually means that, deep down inside.

#

#

Bow gets Arrow’s team. He kind of saw it coming. Why wouldn’t they pair them together, when Arrow is such a good influence?

Bow’s kind of glad, because he knows his sister’s team is the best entry level team. He knows that. But it still feels bittersweet. Because yeah, they’ve acknowledged his ability, but… Arrow is Arrow. She’s a great shot. She’s got a “good head on her shoulders” as all the adults like to say, and her future is bright, and even though her teammates complain about her they still respect her a lot.

How’s Bow supposed to make a name for himself surrounded by that?

Bow shakes his head.

He’s going to find a way. Either Arrow will get reassigned, or he will. This isn’t forever. It’s just… for now. A bit of a setback.

3

They have a pest problem.

To tell the truth, they’ve kind of always had one. The forest is full of predators that would love to sink their teeth in soft monkey flesh, and while the hunters do a really good job of keeping them out, sometimes things get through the cracks.

The Rangers say that they were probably part of a pack, but that their pack got attacked. These aren’t their normal stomping grounds, but they’re here now—and they’re making nuisances of themselves. From getting into people’s gardens at night to picking off unfortunate monkeys who wander too far into their new territory. It’s getting bad.

The hunters are doing everything they can to stop them—but it’s not easy. At all. And the lower ranked teams, like Bow and Arrow’s, aren’t allowed to help. Because they’re too young, probably, though they say that they’re leaving them there to secure the home front.

Arrow goes with it, because of course she does. Arrow always goes with it, because she’s the boss, and she has to be responsible. But Bow knows that she’s a better shot than most of their leaders and could absolutely go take down one of these things on her own.

When he points that out, though, Arrow doesn’t agree with him.

“Accuracy isn’t everything, Bow,” Arrow says. She crosses her arms and tries to look stern. It only makes Bow madder, and he scowls at her to illustrate that. “They have plenty of things that I don’t. Experience, for instance.”

Bow rolls his eyes, which he knows irritates her. She always says it makes him look like a bratty teenager, and that he’s supposed to be better than that, now that he’s so close to adulthood. Arrow holds everybody to a higher standard, though, and Bow is sick of it. Especially when she does things like this.

“Because their experience is coming in so handy right now,” he says flatly. “I mean, come on, Arrow. Maybe you haven’t been around since the trees were seeds, but you’re really, really good at your job! Everyone says so. They say you’re gonna be the next Head Ranger.” Bow always feels the stupid urge to punch people that say that, or lock himself in his room until the end of forever. He doesn’t, because despite what Arrow thinks sometimes, he does have some self-control. “Nobody shoots like you do, and nobody tracks like you do, and you could totally take these things out! You wouldn’t even have to leave the tree.”

Arrow shakes her head. “No,” she says. “We were asked to stay back and make sure those things don’t enter the village, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Bow grits his teeth. His jaw grinds. “Come on, Arrow.”

“No!”

Bow’s eyes widen, because Arrow shouted, and Arrow never shouts.

She pinches her nose. “Look,” she says, calmer now. “I know that this whole… situation… is frustrating. I know that you have a high opinion of my abilities—and I appreciate that. I do. It’s sweet.” She gives him a smile he thinks is supposed to be reassuring. It comes off as condescending instead. “But if the Rangers wanted my help, if they thought my skills would be useful out there, they would have said something. They didn’t. They told me to watch the homefront, to lead you guys and make sure our people stay safe and keep out of those things reach. And that’s what I’m going to do, okay? Because that’s the right thing to do.”

Bow scowls. “No, that’s the easy thing to do,” he snaps. “You always do what you’re told, even when what you’re told is stupid. The right thing to do would be to go out there and do something about it instead of staying here like a coward.”

Arrow narrows her eyes. Bow knows he should walk away, because whatever comes out of her mouth next is going to be something she’ll regret—but he can’t. He can’t walk away, because Arrow needs to see sense.

“Grow up, Bow. We’re not kids anymore, and you have to stop acting like it.” Her voice is hard. “Maybe in the stories, people disobeying orders works out great—but this isn’t a story. This is real life, and sometimes real life means accepting responsibility. And sometimes responsibility isn’t fun. It’s not about glory. It’s not about showing off. It’s about doing what your told, even if you don’t like it, and if you can’t accept that, maybe you’re not ready to be a hunter.”

Bow snarls. “You don’t get to decide if I’m ready or not!”

Arrow draws herself up. “I’m the captain of this team,” she says. “And if you don’t shape up, I’m going to tell the commander that you’re unfit for duty.”

His snarl is louder, this time, and it sounds like it’s been ripped from his chest. He almost lunges at her—almost tears at her the way he used to tear at the boys in his class when they insulted him one too many times. Arrow had been so mad at him for it, but not nearly as mad as his parents. He knows how to control it now, how to bite down that anger—but it nearly consumes him, this time.

Instead he turns tail and walks away. There’s red at the corner of his vision, and he knows, he knows that if Arrow isn’t going to do something—he will.

#

#

It goes badly. It goes really, really badly.

Not at first.

At first it’s easy. Bow’s a good tracker. It’s the one area he beats Arrow at. Maybe he can’t match her for marksmanship, or for stealth, or even for treeclimbing… but he can track better than anyone else he knows. So finding the beast isn’t hard. It’s a walk in the park, actually.

It’s once he enters the cave that everything blows up in his face.

The beast is strong. It catches his back. The marks are deep. He can feel the blood coating his fur, making him even redder than he already was. It stands over him, and he knows, he knows that this is it. This is how he goes out. Trying to protect his people—doing the thing his sister could not.

Just before its jaws clamp down on his neck, though, an arrow pierces its skull. It convulses, shuddering and swaying on its feet, before collapsing. A pool of red coats the stone, mingling with Bow’s own blood, and he lifts his head to see Arrow standing there.

He can’t see her—the sunset is at her back, and leaves her front a black silhouette. But he knows it’s her.

His vision fades out. The last thing he hears is soft footfalls racing towards him; his name on his sister’s lips.

#

#

When he wakes up, he’s at Orchid’s house. He’s in the extra room, the one reserved for the injured and sick. There are bandages wrapped around his middle, and he can feel the poultice wet on his back. His parents are there, curled together on the bed next to his. Arrow is awake, though, and she’s pacing, her tail lashing in a way that tells him the second she notices him, he’s in for it.

He isn’t wrong.

Her eyes catch on his, and a flurry of emotion crosses her face—shock, worry, relief, anger. She stalks over to his bed like a proper huntress. Her eyes flick towards their parents, before she whispers, “What the hell were you thinking?” Her voice is sharp, and he winces to hear it.

“I wanted to help,” he says, and he hates how petulant he sounds.

“You—you almost got yourself killed,” she snaps. “If you weren’t injured right now, I’d smack you.” She pauses. “No, I’d string you up and use you for target practice, you stubborn, reckless, dolt of a monkey!” Her hands are curled into fists. “Do you know what it would do to us if we lost you?” She’s still whispering, but somehow, she makes it sound like she’s yelling.

Bow winces, and sinks further back into the pillows. “I just… No one was doing anything.”

“The Rangers were! They tracked down the bulk of the pack and took them out—like I told you they would. The stragglers could be picked off after. Everything was fine. But no, you had to go play big damn hero, didn’t you?”

“It wasn’t like anyone told us anything! They just said—stay at home, like good little children, and let us handle the grown-up jobs.”

“That is not what they said.”

“That’s what they meant!” Bow crosses his arms, ignoring the way it strains his wounds. “You know that’s what they meant.”

“Is it really so bad that they wanted to keep us safe, Bow?”

“When they’re ignoring potential resources? Yes!” Bow shakes his head. “We could have been out there, helping them, so we’d know what to do if something like this happened again—but instead, we were stuck at home, twiddling our thumbs. Mom and all the other older rangers had it covered. They didn’t need us to watch the homefront—they just didn’t think we could handle it!”

“Well they were right,” Arrow snaps, and Bow reels back like she slapped him. “The thing you found was old. Injured. Sick. It was dying, and it still got the drop on you, because we’re not ready for that yet!”

“Says the monkey who killed it!”

Neither of them realize they’re no longer whispering, until their mother says, “Bow?”

Both of them fall silent.

“Honey, are you awake?” He can hear the shifting of the blankets as their mother sits up. “Oh, Bow, we were so worried about you!” She sweeps out of bed to wrap him in a hug, and their father isn’t far behind.

“Never do that again,” his father says, into the fur on the top of his head. “Please. I don’t think my heart could take it. Let alone my tail. I think I about pulled the thing off.” He laughs, but it’s strained, and Bow’s heart squeezes.

Arrow studies them, standing a distance away. Bow half expects her to join in the group hug, despite their argument.

Instead, she turns around and walks away.

Their mother watches her with soft eyes, before turning back to Bow. “She was very worried for you, you know,” she said softly. “Hasn’t eaten since you disappeared.”

Bow looks away.

He refuses to feel bad for trying to do the right thing.

#

#

When Bow is healed, a ceremony is held. Arrow is promoted—accepted into the entry level of the Rangers.

Bow, though. Bow is told that he’s being temporarily suspended from the hunters program. He can rejoin next year, with a new set of recruits.

Bow seethes. He doesn’t talk to Arrow for a week—not that she seems to notice, so caught up in her new duties.

4

The village is attacked.

It’s been nearly a year since Bow tried tracking down that beast. He’s an adult, now, and once again a member of the hunters. Arrow’s moving through the ranks of the Rangers, the youngest Commander that the village has ever seen. Everyone respects her, looks up to her. Bow can hardly look at her, some days.

Today isn’t one of those days.

“I’m not staying here,” he says, sharp.

“Yes. You are.” Arrow’s tone brooks no argument—the tone of a proper commander. Bow scowls. “It’s too dangerous out there. We don’t even know what these… creatures are. Or what they want.”

Only that they’re monkeynapping villagers, left and right. Orchid disappeared a week ago, when the flying-thing first appeared over their village. Since then, so many of them have gone to ground—but in the scramble, several were lost. Teams have been sent to retrieve them, and Arrow’s been working hard to do so. Her team is one of the most successful, actually—not a day goes by that she doesn’t bring someone home. Usually children.

Bow is tired of sitting around and doing nothing. All he does is watch to make sure none of the little ones get out. The ones who are too young to understand, who miss the sunshine and the fresh air.

“I can help!” he insists.

Arrow shakes her head. “You are helping,” she tells him.

“No, I’m doing children’s work. Again.”

Arrow frowns. He can tell she’s biting back what she really wants to say—probably to call him a child, again. Like she’s so superior to him. “You’re keeping more monkeys from being lost,” she says. “That’s important, Bow.”

Bow scoffs. “If it’s so important, then why aren’t you doing it?”

“Because that’s not what I was asked to do,” Arrow says. “If it was, I’d be doing it—and you know that.”

“Do I?” Bow crosses his arms. “’Cause as much as you call me a gloryhound, our people sure do sing your praises. Everywhere I go, it’s all, Arrow-this. Arrow-that. You’d think you were a local superhero, the way they go on about you. Sure you’re not just soaking up more of that praise?”

Arrow frowns. “I’m not doing this for the praise.”

The worst part is, Bow knows that’s true. He’s seen people yell at her, accuse her of not doing her best. Arrow never seems to let it bother her. She keeps doing her thing anyway, keeps helping people. But those people are such a small group. Everyone else waxes poetic about how amazing she is, about what she’s going to be in a few years, about how responsible and good she is.

He wishes she would make a mistake. He wants Arrow to fail. Just once. Just one time, he wants her to misstep. Like he does. Like her teammates do. Like every other monkey in the world does, because the way you hear the village tell it, Arrow is perfect. She can do no wrong, and he hates it.

“Whatever,” Bow dismisses. “You’re still getting it.”

Arrow frowns. “It doesn’t matter,” she says. “I’m doing what needs to be done. You should be too. Even if you don’t like it.”

Bow snarls. “There are plenty of people to watch the doors! But the more monkeys we have combing the surface, the better. Otherwise, who knows how many monkeys are going to slip through the cracks! There are kids up there, Arrow. Kids. Little ones who have no idea what’s going on. You know that. Why won’t you let me help?”

“Because I don’t want you to be one of them!” Arrow snaps. “Sometimes it seems like we lose people every time we go up top. We bring home kids, and elders, and teens, and adults, and so many others, but we also lose people, and I will not lose you!”

“So you’re being selfish! Like always. I’m so surprised.” He sneers. “Arrow, the great and good and wonderful, who never ever risks anything to do the right thing.”

Arrow’s face does something interesting—twisting and pulling. In the end she stomps her foot, and he feels triumph in his blood because now who’s acting like a child?

“You’re not going,” she says. “End of discussion.” And then she turns away, and leaves him standing there, feeling like he wants to punch something.

#

#

Bow goes to the surface anyway. Maybe this will end as badly as before, when he got the scars on his back, but maybe it won’t. Maybe he’ll finally prove to Arrow that he’s not something she needs to lock away and protect. Maybe he’ll prove to his people that Arrow isn’t the only one of his parent’s children who’s worth anything. Maybe he’ll finally be someone.

He finds a midnight blue monkey struggling with one of the creatures. He leaps into the fray without a second thought, lending the midnight monkey a spear, and using his hunting knife to slash and the alien’s legs.

They’re doing well for themselves—until the alien’s friends join them.

The spear breaks. Bow loses his hunting knife. It’s too close for him to get out his bow, so instead he brandishes an arrow like a spear, because he’s not going down without a fight.

One of the aliens drops. There’s an arrow through it’s chest, and Bow glances up to see his sister in the trees. She looks furious, but her hands don’t waver as she takes the other two down just as cleanly. She drops to the ground, and approaches Bow with all the grace of a predator. His heart leaps into his throat without permission, and he finds his palms clammy. He holds his tail perfectly still, unwilling to let it give him away.

“I told you to stay behind,” she says, and her voice is dangerous.

Bow draws up his chin. “And I told you I was going to help.” He will not let his sister cow him. Not today, not ever.

Arrow opens her mouth to respond. She’s cut off by a loud humming noise, as a shadow darkens them. It’s one of their flying machines.

“Run.”

Bow’s never heard his sister sound so afraid.

#

#

Running doesn’t do them any good. They’re caught in a beam of light, hovering off the ground as they’re sucked into the bowels of the thing. Inside, they put up a fight—but darts pierce their skin, and their vision goes dark.

When they wake up, everything has changed.

5

Bow moves through the training simulator. It took a long time to get used to his new body. His vision is different, for one thing. Information is displayed across his eyes—the time and the temperature, most prominently. He can run all sorts of scans. His hearing, too, is different—more enhanced. He can pick up radio frequencies, adjust to different languages, and even control how far his hearing stretches. He can fly now, too, though he has to watch the fuel in his jetpack. His is a bit faulty—it runs through fuel quicker than anyone else’s. The scientists say it has to do with the scars on his back. They couldn’t integrate it properly, because of the nerve damage.

That wasn’t the weirdest part, though. Sure, it was weird, but it was harder getting adjusted to the fact that every time he looked down, he was met with the shine of metal. His feet, his arms, his hands. The top of his skull had been replaced with a helmet. His eyes were protected by large orbs. He was part circuitry, part skin now.

So was Arrow.

So were a lot of the monkeys that got abducted.

(But not all of them, because not all of them made it through the surgery.)

Bow’s been here for almost four months now.

In that time, he’s gotten to know a lot of the other monkeys. Orchid, for instance, is stuck in a cell with him and Arrow. So’s Midnight, the midnight-blue monkey they tried to rescue. Then, there’s a cream-colored monkey named Thalia, who lived in the desert.

Every day, they’re taken out for training. The cybernetics came with other upgrades too—weapons. Arrow got arrows, a twist of irony that almost made Bow laugh. He got guns, himself. Midnight shot darts from his fingers. Thalia had a sword and shield, while Orchid got an energy whip.

Today, though, the training course is different. It’s all been combined. The scientists have been whispering about a test. All the other teams to go through it have been moved around, resorted. Some of them have been shuttled off to new facilities.

Bow does his best. Maybe if he’s shipped off, he can make his great escape—and rescue all the other monkeys held in captivity, forced to endure the scientist’s poking and prodding and near-torturous training sessions. Orchid had been forced to run through an obstacle course on a broken leg, just a few months ago. Midnight had one of his arms ripped off, and they still made him complete the course. It sucked.

They were always put back together—but only after they performed.

Bow completes the course. He glances at his results. Better than usual—he’s definitely improving. He hasn’t beaten the record, though.

He has a sneaking suspicion he knows who holds the record.

#

#

He isn’t wrong. As usual, Arrow outperforms everyone.

They could hear the scientists talking about moving her. “She needs to be transferred to Base Alpha,” the boss said, low enough that Bow couldn’t have heard him without the enhancements they gave him. “She’ll do well, there, I think. Pretty sure they’ve got a good team lined up she could lead.”

Bow scowls.

Arrow does too, but hers is worried—Bow’s is angry.

“You just can’t resist, can you?” he mutters. “You always have to show off!”

Arrow frowns. “I wasn’t trying to show off,” she says. He knows she wasn’t. It doesn’t really matter.

“I had a plan!” Bow snaps. “I was gonna get us out of here, and now they’re going to take you away—and there’s nothing either of us can do about it.” Because he knows Arrow won’t try to escape in transit. None of them have been taught how to fly the ships yet. She won’t risk getting stuck.

Bow thinks it’s worth learning on the go—but Arrow always wants to play it safe.

“Let me guess,” Arrow says. “This plan was something reckless, wasn’t it?”

“Hey.” Midnight interrupts. “Lay off of him, okay? At least he has a plan. That’s better than you can say for the rest of us.”

Bow gives her a triumphant look, but Midnight continues.

“Bow, chill for a minute. Your sister just wants to look out for you.”

Bow rolls his eyes.

Thalia kicks him. “Stop acting like a brat,” she says, sharply. Not that she says anything any other way. She’s prickly. “Your plan was probably something dumb anyway.”

Midnight frowns. “Thalia…”

“Don’t ‘Thalia’ me,” she snaps. “You know it’s true.” She looks at Bow. “I don’t know what you spend all your time thinkin’ with, but it sure as hell isn’t your head.”

Bow scowls, but before he can say anything, Arrow is the one snapping, “Leave him alone, Thalia.”

Thalia sneers. “Don’t start with me. You’re always putting him down, so don’t get pissy when I do it.”

“Guys, stop.” It’s Orchid this time, trying to be the voice of reason. “If we want to get out of here, we have to work together,” she says.

Thalia snorts. “You really think these two can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to do that?” She points at Arrow and Bow. “Arrow’s gonna try to boss us around, Bow will argue with her, and nothing will get done. ‘Cause these two can’t be in the same room without bein’ at each other’s throats, which I think the last four months have proved.” She narrows her eyes at him. “Honestly, we’ll have a better chance of escaping if she’s gone.”

“Thalia!” Midnight and Orchid snap at the same time.

“It’s true, and I’m not going to apologize for saying it.” Thalia stands her ground, lifting her chin and daring them to try and make her.

Arrow watches her, eyes narrowed.

The two of them haven’t gotten along from day one—and to be honest, despite her rough edges, Bow kind of likes her. If only because she wasn’t sucked into Arrow’s orbit like everyone else who ever met her.

Thalia holds her stare.

Midnight and Orchid shuffle uncomfortably, but Bow scoots closer to Thalia.

Arrow’s eyes tighten—and she looks away. Thalia smirks.

#

#

They take Arrow the next day.

Midnight goes next. He gets moved to another team on the same station. It’s not long before Orchid follows him—and Thalia is left alone with Bow.

He doesn’t mind all that much, and he doesn’t think that she does either. Maybe she rushes in a little too quickly, and maybe his plans aren’t always well thought out, but they work well together. Better than he and Arrow ever did.

+1

It’s been almost a year since they were taken.

Bow and Thalia aren’t alone anymore. They were joined by a fully robotic monkey—Arcturus. He’s quiet, usually, but he kicks tail and has insightful opinions. He argues with Thalia a lot, but everyone argues with Thalia, so he can’t really fault Arc for that.

Then there’s Melody. She’s tiny—a kind of monkey from a different continent. Her tail is about twice as long as her body. She’s a cute little cream colored thing, and she makes up for her small stature with her loud and aggressive personality. And her penchant for making things go boom. She likes Arc a lot, always sitting on his shoulders. She never shuts up, but surprisingly, Thalia doesn’t seem to mind much.

They’re playing a game on the floor, using a marker Mel swiped from one of the guards. She’s winning, and gloating about it in a way that makes Arc smile fondly and Thalia complain about her. It’s kind of nice. Bow looks at them and he feels like he belongs.

He’s just about to say that, too, even though he knows Thalia and Mel will rib him for it, when the ship is rocked by a loud—BOOM.

Melody’s ears perk up, and she scampers up on top of Arc’s head. “That didn’t sound good,” she says, but instead of sounding upset about it, she just sounds excited.

Thalia climbs to her feet, and Bow does too. Arc stands as well.

“You guys thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Thalia says.

Bow smirks. “It’s time to get outta here.”

#

#

Arc uses his superior strength to bend the bars of their cell. Mel gets her hands on a stray tablet, and uses it to hack into the servers. Thalia takes the lead, brandishing her sword and shield. Bow brings up the rear, guns at the ready.

Between the attackers and the monkeys they manage to free, it doesn’t take much to escape. They sit in a pod together, the wreckage of the station floating behind them, unnoticed by whatever enemy the scientists had made.

Thalia plucks the tablet from Mel’s hands.

“Hey! I was using that!”

Thalia ignores her. Instead, she offers it to Bow.

“You wanna find your sister?” she asks, and there’s nothing judging in her gaze.

Bow takes the tablet. He looks at the information Mel downloaded, the lines of text blurring together as his eyes unfocus. Did he want to find Arrow?

He looks up. Thalia holds his eyes, and he knows that whatever he decides, she’s not going to care. She may not like Arrow, but she won’t stop him from going after her. She’ll do all she can to help him, actually.

He looks at Arc and Mel.

He’s struck, suddenly, by the fact that these are his people. These people like him. They don’t care that he’s reckless. They don’t care that sometimes his desire to do impress sometimes outweighs everything else—that it makes him make mistakes, mistakes he can’t always walk away from. They don’t care that he’s impulsive, and rash. They don’t hold his loss of temper against him, because they’d all be hypocrites.

He looks at them, and he knows that Arc would adore Arrow. He’d love how responsible she was. He’d consider her someone to admire, someone worth following. He’d abandon Bow for her—like everyone else. Everyone but Thalia.

Mel would like her too. She’d be a big sister figure who didn’t argue with her, or put her down, and Bow…

Bow can’t lose them.

Arrow, he decides, can rescue herself.

He gives the tablet back to Mel.

“Arrow will be fine,” he says.

Thalia smiles. “Damn right. She’s probably out there already, lecturing people about responsibility and thinking things through.”

Bow snorts—and it doesn’t hurt, to think that Arrow escaped before him. She probably did. But it doesn’t matter.

He has his people now, and he doesn’t need her anymore. He’s going to go somewhere new, somewhere untouched by Arrow’s presence, and he’s going to make something of himself.

###

His family fallsapart. They go boating. Chiro was excited to see the fish—so excited. He had abook and everything. And then something happened. It got dark and stormy reallysuddenly, and the waves grew taller and taller until the ship sank beneath it’sweight. The lifevest around Chiro’s neck saved him from drowning, but it didn’tsave his parents.

Chiro was takenfar away from Shuggazoom, to a cold and empty house. His aunt and uncle werenot kind and gentle and loving, and their house was not warm and welcoming and home.

But there wasnowhere else to go.

It felt like thedreams got worse, after that.

This time hecould see more than the skeleton man. They were in a really big cave—except thecave had windows, that looked out into stars. The skeleton man was sitting on athrone this time, instead of standing. He was playing with toys, pushing themaround like a game of chess.

Red eyes caughton Chiro again, and they narrowed.

“You.”

Chiro didn’t knowwhat possessed him to speak, except maybe that the anger he bit back during theday time was too much to contain in a dream. “Yeah. Me. Who are you?” he snapped.

The skeleton manstood. Swished his cape. Brandished a skull-topped staff. “I am the Skeleton King,insolent fool. And I will not tolerate you trespassing in my domain.”

Chiro scowled. “I’mnot trespassing,” he said. “This is my dream!”

The skeleton man,who didn’t deserve a title as grand as king, looked at him like you looked atgum on your shoe. “Dream? This is nodream, boy.” He brandished his staff, and Chiro’s vision was filled withgreen light.

He sat up, sweatingin his bed. His skin burned. He pulled his pajama top off, throwing it acrossthe room as if it had scalded him. The shadows in the corner of his room moved—itwas all he could do not to scream. He flipped his lamp on instead.

 ###

He started sleepingwith a nightlight. First a little blue thing that only made the shadows seemdarker. Then a Sun Riders lamp that glowed like a miniature sun.

The dreamscontinued well into his teens. He went back to Shuggazoom, to some eliteboarding school his uncle thought would be ‘good for him.’ Chiro liked theclasses well enough. Especially his science and mechanics class. Mostly he justliked being back at Shuggazoom. Visiting the arcade. Getting burgers from Mr.Gakslapper’s. Holographic ice cream. He even visited his old apartment building.

He avoided thelake, though.

The dreams didn’tcome every night, like they had after his parents died. But if he went to bedangry, or upset, or scared, or any kind of negative emotion at all—he foundhimself back in that throne room, staring down the skeleton man who wanted tobe king. Chiro took to avoiding people when he could. That didn’t keep him frombeing upset—but it helped a little.

The skeleton mannever stopped being scary, but Chiro was grateful to him in a way. He had neverdreamed of his parents deaths. Only happy memories of them. He never forgot—buthe never dreamed of it. He was never trapped there in his sleeping mind. Soeven though he still dreaded the skeleton man’s appearance, he couldn’t helpbut be perversely thankful that it was him,and not the dark waters of Shuggazoom’s lake.

The dreams had arhythm to them now. He would mouth off, to prove that he wasn’t afraid (even thoughhe was). The skeleton man would attack him.

Sometimes it wentdifferently. Once, they had played chess. Chiro had lost—badly. The skeletonman had been so insufferably smug Chiro had thrown the board in his face. Chirogot zapped with the staff again. This time when he woke up his skin was red.

Chiro didn’t knowwhat the dreams meant, or what his subconscious was trying to tell him… but hereally wished they would go away.

 ###

When he wasfourteen, he met the team. He was exploring, ended up playing a game of kickthe can, and found a really cool robot. He thought it was a statue at first…but he was wrong. He woke them up and joined their ranks and thought: maybe I can have a home again.

It was a goodfeeling. A good hope. That didn’t mean he was opening up and spilling all ofhis secrets, or welcoming them into his heart. But he was… open to it.Receptive. They seemed like good people. And it meant he could escape his normal,boring life whenever he needed to. (Or could jump right back into it, when heneeded a break from his exciting, super powered life. It was like a dream cometrue, honestly. Sometimes he wished that he would have kept a secret identity.That would have been really great. Thoughhard to explain to the school.)

But then thingschanged.

Again.

There was anattack on Shuggazoom. Bone men held together by tendrils of black ooze. Peoplewere screaming, but Chiro was standing with his team—ready to face off againsthis adversary, whoever that might be.

They foughtthrough wave after wave of the bone men, the Formless as Otto named them. Theyweren’t hard to dispatch—but some of them would reform. It was exhausting.Finally, the wave began to subside.

And then Chiro lookedup.

Hovering over thebattle was a metal robot. Black and red, with a large view screen on its front.

And on that viewscreen…

Chiro dropped tohis knees. His stomach bottomed out.

“Hey, isn’t that Chiro’s girl?”

Jinmay couldn’t help but smile, just a little as she overheard the phrase. Chiro’s girl. What a lovely phrase. They hadn’t been dating long—actually, you could barely call it dating, really. But she was fond of him. And she really, really liked the idea that people had begun to associate them together. Like they were a matched set.

She found herself humming, a light skip to her step.

She stopped outside of the holographic ice cream shop, and swung the door open. There was a soft chime as the bell swung—a small, old-fashioned touch, that only made Jinmay feel lighter.

Chiro waited at their usual table, already holding two ice cream cones.

Jinmay beamed as she approached.

“You’re in an awfully good mood,” Chiro said. His tone was teasing, but his eyes were questioning.

Jinmay took her cone. “Just happy to here.”

“Hey! You, uh—Chiro’s girl!”

Jinmay almost rolled her eyes. Almost. She’d been protecting Shuggazoom City, by herself, for how long now? And people still didn’t know her name?

It was irritating.

She responded to it all the same, descending from the sky and landing on the ground with a light thump. “What is it?” she asked, making sure to keep her irritation to herself. The woman had sounded frantic when she called—it was hardly her fault if she couldn’t remember Jinmay’s name.

(Of course, that was assuming she knew it in the first place…)

“It’s Nicole!” The woman gestured at her companion. “There was a mugger—he took her purse!”

“It has my communicator in it,” the other woman—Nicole—said. “And my credit chit, and—“

“It’s important,” Jinmay finished, not unkindly. “Did you see what he looked like?”

“Tall, skinny, blue hair,” the friend filled in.

“He was really stereotypical. Wore all black. Even had on a hat,” Nicole said.

Jinmay nodded. “Alright. I’ll get it back.” She launched off again, soaring higher, until she had a good view of the streets without being too high. It wasn’t hard to spot the mugger, darting through alleyways with the purse clutched in his hand.

Her jets made him no match for her. She whizzed by, snatching the purse from his hands. She stopped to hover over him.

“Don’t you know crime doesn’t pay?”

“Hey!” The guy stopped, dead in his tracks, looking down at his empty hands and then back at her with an affronted expression. “That was mine!”

Jinmay snorted. “No, it wasn’t.”

“You can’t prove that!”

“So the ID in here, it’ll match you, and not the girl you stole it from?”

The mugger opened and closed his mouth like a fish. “Well—I—“ He looked around nervously, then pointed behind her. “Look over there!”

Jinmay didn’t even turn her head. The guy didn’t stick around to see, though, instead darting off so fast he was tripping over himself to keep moving.

For a moment, she thought about pursuing him, dropping him off at the local police station.

But, she had a purse to return… and had hopefully scared him enough he wouldn’t try again. She sighed and shook her head, instead returning to the girls.

Nicole took her purse back with a hundred thank you’s on her tongue.

Jinmay smiled, genuinely this time. “It wasn’t any problem,” she said.

“Seriously, though—thanks.”

“It’s what I do,” Jinmay said. She activated her boots again. “And by the way?” She glanced down at them. “It’s Jinmay.” She winked, and shot off, ready to resume patrol.

Hero work felt good. No wonder Chiro loved it so much.

She glanced at the sky, turning orange in the fading light. Come home soon.

“Is it just me, or does Chiro’s girl look… different?”

Jinmay scowled. She stood from the table, setting her drink down with a thud. She stalked over to the two young men. “What did you just call me?”

Behind her, she could hear the rest of the gang hollering, cheering her on. It turned her scowl into a sharp grin.

“Uh—I—We—“ One of the boys began to stutter.

She braced her hands on the table. “Let me make one thing clear. I ain’t nobody’s ‘girl.’ My name is Jinmay. I suggest you use it.”

“Um—um—“

Stuttering boy’s friend cut in. “We will! We will, we promise,” he said, tripping over the words in his haste to speak them.

She almost walked away, but the booting behind her urged her on. She leaned forward some more. “Lemme hear you say it, then,” she said. “Just to make sure you got it.”

“Jinmay! Jinmay,” the boys said together.

She grinned. “Well done.” She leaned back. “Tell ya what,” she said. “Why don’t’cha lemme Pat for your meal, huh?” She waved the waitress over, told them to add it to her bill—then sauntered back over to the gang, slipping under the leader’s arm.

“What’d ya pay for their meal for, doll?” he asked.

She grinned, wickedly, and held up her credit chit. “I ain’t payin’. This is on the Hyper Force’s tab. What’d ya say I pay for ours too?”

More hooting and hollering from the others. “Why, I’d say that’s a mighty fine idea!” He raised his glass. “To Jinmay!”

She grinned, clinking her glass with the others before downing it in one go.

Tonight, they were gonna be living large.

###

“Chiro’s girl is back!”

Jinmay smiled wobbly at the words. Chiro glanced at her. His hand tightened around hers.

“You okay?”

Jinmay’s smile widened, even though she felt like she might cry. “Yeah,” she said, a little choked. “Just… really happy.”

After everything with the Hills Have Five, the person she had become, she just… it felt good, to be seen as ‘Chiro’s Girl’ again.

Maybe sometimes she wanted to be recognized as her own self, her own person… but right then? It was good to be seen alongside a hero. Someone who made Shuggazoom better. Someone who made her better. Who believed in her, even when she was her worst self.

It was another reminder that she wasn’t who they had made her. Not now, not ever.

###

Training left Chiro more and more frustrated with eachpassing day. He no longer felt as if he was showing any improvement.Which... wasn’t good. He had an entire host of people depending on him. Themonkeys. Their allies. All of Shuggazoom City.

Skeleton King was less human now than he had ever been--andhe had already been pretty inhuman. There was no more playing around, no moregames. His monsters were sent to hurt, to destroy, to kill. Therewas more on the line now than there had ever been before.

(Except there wasn’t, really, it just felt likemore because the stakes were personal this time.) 

But Chiro...

He felt like he was falling behind. 

Frustration climbed up his throat and he had to smother theurge to scream. Or maybe hit something. 

He just didn’t understand what was going on. It was like...it was like there was something holding him back. He didn’t know what it was,but he could feel it. Like a harness around his chest, a tether that kept himfrom cresting and unleashing the powers of a real Chosen One.

That was the crux of it all, really--he felt like afake. 

There was a piece of him that wanted to go look up otherChosen Ones. People who wielded such a significant portion of the PowerPrimate, and used it to crush the threat of the Dark Ones. There was anotherpart of him that was terrified to see how he held up against them.

He’d gone to Antauri about... all of it. Antauri told him itwas fine. Normal, even. He said that everyone had their limits, and that wasokay. That was why he had allies, after all. People to watch his back and keephim from falling.

Chiro nodded and smiled and left the monkey alone... but ithadn’t helped the frustration in his chest, or the way it swelled and pushedinto his throat, made him vibrate with energy that kept him from sleeping.

After the third hour of doing nothing but staring at theclock, Chiro kicked the blankets off and got out of bed.

He just needed a quick walk through the robot, was all.Something to do other than toss and turn in bed. Maybe he’d grab a bite to eat,too. He hadn’t eaten much earlier. That was probably a bad thing.

(Gibson would normally get after him for it, but Gibson wasa little preoccupied. They all were, really.) 

###

A walk and a bite to eat had turned into a visit to thetraining room. He’d kept the settings on low, even though he was just itchingto turn it higher, higher until the tether around his chest was forced to snap.

He was just sinking into the rhythm of things, that terribletightness in his chest easing up, letting him breathe againwhen the training room... deactivated. Chiro came out of a roll and looked up,confused. He half expected to see Antauri’s disapproving frown behind theglass--but instead, he caught Nova’s worried gaze.

Chiro sighed. He sent her a smile and a wave, not reallyprepared to give any explanations but still trying to form them anyway.

Nightmares. I couldn’t get back to sleep again, so Ithought I’d get some training in. No, then she’d want to talk aboutit, or she’d send him to Antauri. Maybe not entirely a bad idea on eitheraccounts, but then he’d end up having to explain that he lied. 

Sorry, Nova, just couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d burn theenergy off. That was pretty close to the truth, at least. There’d still bequestions, though, but he could probably handle them.

Of course, he could also just go straight for the truth, theway he had with Antauri, and see if Nova had any different advice for him. Herway of doing things was generally different from Antauri’s anyway. (And,sometimes her way was closer to Chiro’s way than Antauri’s was.) 

He entered the training room and faced Nova. She looked himup and down. “Are you alright, Chiro?” Her voice was soft, the maternaledge to it making something in his chest warm. He thought of Nova as more of abig sister than a mother, but big sisters often did their fair share ofmothering. Or so Chiro had heard, somewhere. Something about gender roles andexpectations, but also occasionally just a facet of personality.

For Nova, he was pretty sure that was just part of herpersonality. Though, honestly, of all the monkeys, Gibson was the one with thebiggest maternal instinct. Chiro would never say it to him, especially since hewasn’t sure he wanted to divide the team into traditional family roles anyway,but it was kind of true.

And made him all the fonder of the blue monkey, that was forsure.

Chiro gave Nova a shrug. “I’m not... not alright,”he said, truthfully. “I’ve just been feeling a bit strange lately. It’shitting me kind of hard tonight, I guess, so I thought I’d work off somesteam.” He gestured at the training room.

Nova nodded, because of all the monkeys, that would makeperfect sense to her. He had lost count of the times he had woken up to findher out here. His mouth quirked a bit as he remembered how often he had beenthe one turning the training room off on her. 

“Do you need to see Gibson about it?” Nova asked.

Chiro shook his head. “I don’t think it’s medical,exactly,” he said. “It’s just... Have you ever thought you were capableof more, but you just. Couldn’t make yourself do it?”

Nova leaned against the control panel, careful not to hitany buttons. “Maybe,” she said. “Do you mean... that you feel as ifthere’s a barrier, keeping you from accessing the things you’re truly capableof?”

Chiro nodded. “Yes! That’s it exactly.”

Nova smiled, a little. “It’s irritating,” shesaid. “I found one of mine while I was training with Offay. It kept mefrom reaching my Inner Primate.” 

Now that she mentioned it... this did kind of feel like whenhe had struggled with that. Only he was a lot more uncomfortably aware ofit now. Probably because he had developed an understanding of himself, duringall the meditation and training that Antauri and Nova plied him with. (Not tomention more confidence in his abilities.) 

“I conquered it, like you did. But I found another when Iwas working with Mandarin.” Her face darkened a bit, like it always did whentheir ex-leader was mentioned. “Mandarin could see it too. He had a waywith those things. I don’t know how he did it. But he could see something thatwe couldn’t, and he knew that I wasn’t at my full potential yet. He tried toforce it out of me, and, well...” She shrugged. “You know the story fromthere.”

He did. It wasn’t a pleasant story.

Nova waved a hand. “I know it’s stressful. Andfrustrating. But this isn’t something you can force. It happens when you’reready.”

“But I am ready,” Chiro said. He hated howmuch of a teenager he sounded in that moment.

Nova shook her head. “If you were ready, you wouldn’thave the barrier,” she said, but her voice was gentle. “I know it isn’teasy, but you have to wait. There’s something holding you back. Maybe it’s afear you don’t know you have, or maybe your body just knows it isn’t ready forthe stress. Whatever it is, you have to stop pushing. Trying to force it. Itisn’t going to do you any good, and you need to be at your best right now.” Herface clouded again. “We all do.”

Well, she’s not wrong about that. 

Chiro sighed. It still wasn’t the answer he wanted, but...He’ll take it. If he has to. (And it’s looking more and more like hedoes.) “Yeah,” he said. 

###

(In the end, Chiro does conquer that damn barrier. It happensduring the final battle—though it isn’t actually planned to be such at thetime. Someone is captured, or hurt—it all ends up being a little fuzzy for himin the end—and Chiro… well. Chiro kind of goes a little nuts. Shuggazoom gets alight show like never before seen, and Chiro finds out that breaking past yourlimits in such an… explosive way really takes a toll out of you.

And, well. It also ends up meaning that, despite SkeletonKing’s lack of existence, their adventure isn’t quite over yet. ApparentlyChosen Ones have abilities the Verans had never even dreamed of, when they taughtAntauri.

They enjoy Shuggazoom at peace for a bit, before taking offinto the stars again. This time, for answers about the Chosen One. And becausenothing in life is ever simple, well, they find out that just because Skeleton Kingis gone, that doesn’t mean the Dark Ones have lost their grip on the universe.

That’s a story for another day, though.) 

###

###

Chiro sat on the shoulder of the Robot, legs swinging over the side. It was night, the stars shining above Shuggazoom City, almost blotted out completely by the city’s lights. In the distance, he could see ships flying, and vehicles roaming the nightly patrol. Sprx was out there somewhere; flying alongside Flint to make sure they weren’t ambushed.

So far, the night had been quiet.

Chiro hoped it would stay that way.

He knew he should be asleep, but sleep had eluded him. He’d tossed and turned for nearly an hour before giving up. He was plagued with questions. Old questions. Questions that had burdened him since the monkeys had first told him of his “destiny.”

He leaned back against his palms, and looked up at the sky.

“Why me?” He asked. “Who chose me?”

 Chiro jolted, on his feet in an instant. “Who’s there? Who are you?” The voice was familiar–but it wasn’t one he’d heard before. Or at least, not one he could place to anyone he knew.

 “Show yourself.” Chiro raised his fists, hyper mode enveloping him with a flash of green light in the darkness.

Just as easily as the power had come, it slipped from his grip–the way it hadn’t since he first started his training.  

“How did you do that?” His heart was racing in his chest. He clenched his jaw. He still had his training. He hadn’t spent hours in the ring against Nova, against Offay, to be stopped by the loss of his power.

Laughter rang through his mind.  

Chiro shook his head. “I was born with this power.” That was what Antauri had said. Waking the monkeys had, somehow, awakened it in him–but he had always had it.

 There was a sense of power, and of pride, ringing through his mind. For a moment, he could feel his Inner Primate swell with the answer, as if in echo. His fingers crackled with the energy.

Chiro shook his head. “That’s not…” Possible. It wasn’t possible. 

There was something scathing in the voice’s tone now.

Chiro shook his head again. “I don’t understand.”

Chiro furrowed his brow. “Lost?”

 “What happens now?” Chiro still wasn’t sure if he believed this… voice in his head. But if there was even a chance it was true…

Well. It would be a major step forward in the fight against Skeleton King. The Archives might be inaccessible–though Otto might have something to say about that–but the thought of there being a treasure trove of knowledge somewhere else… somewhere more easily reached… 

That was intriguing.

But first, he would need more information. Information he could verify with Antauri. 

Something like… humor seemed to enter the voice’s words. Chiro wasn’t sure it was a good thing.  

Sprx frowns as he watches Charlie disappear into the Robot. “I’m not sure I like the sound of this ‘resistance’,” he says. “Not sure I really want to take her back, to be honest.”

Gibson throws him a scathing look. “We can’t keep her away from her family, Sprx.”

Sprx rolls his eyes and waves a hand dismissively. “I know, I know. But… she claims she’s got all these people who care about her but…” He rubs the side of his face, and turns to face the team more fully. “Koraladol ain’t exactly a hop, skip, and a jump from Shuggazoom, ya know? You’d think they have regular check-ins. To make sure she’s okay. But… she seems to think she can get there without anyone noticing she’s gone.”

“I believe you’re jumping to conclusions, Sprx. Not only has she not said anything about getting there unnoticed, but there are many ways that she could get around that issue!” Gibson has adopted the know-it-all tone he often uses around Sprx—that “I’m so much smarter than you” way of speaking that never fails to raise Sprx’s hackles. “They could check in on her through text comm instead of video, after all. However, I think it more likely that she believes that no one will notice her absence until it is too late to stop her. She does have schoolteachers to report her absence, after all. Which brings us to my concerns—her education.”

“If that chip is as vital as she thinks it is, that’s a bit more important than attending class, don’t’cha thing, Brainstrain?” Sprx says dryly.

“Well, of course,” Gibson says. “But I find it hard to believe that she doesn’t have someone she can trust to take it along instead of missing out.”

“She’s seventeen, right?” Otto says thoughtfully. “She’d be on her last year of school, then. It’s right around—what’d Chiro call it? Finals?”

“Yes,” Gibson says. “We had them at university too.” He taps his chin in thought. “They could probably let her get away with just taking her final courses, though I still don’t approve of her skipping them.”

“She seemed a bit desperate to get off planet, if you ask me,” Nova says, arms crossed. “Relaxed the second we exited atmo. I don’t think she needed a big excuse to jump ship.”

“You sayin’ you don’t think those files are as big a deal as she’s actin’?” Sprx asks.

Nova shrugs. “I’m sure they’re important… but they might not be the life-or-death situation we think they are. Can’t know for sure unless we get a look at them, though… and I don’t think she’s going to let us.”

Sprx scowls. “Not like we’re working for this ‘big bad’. We’ve been asleep for over twenty years!”

“Not that much over,” Otto says.

“Not the point.” Sprx swipes his hand dismissively. “We haven’t been involved in any of it. What’s the deal?”

“She did say it wasn’t her decision that counted,” Otto says reasonably. “She said that if it were up to her, she’d trust us. But it’s not. It’s up to the resistance’s leaders.”

“Which she hasn’t named! The only one we know of is Chiro. She mentioned some of our old allies were involved too, though we have no way of knowing how high up the food chain they are. We. Know. Nothing. And even Charlie, born and raised resistance, doesn’t seem to trust ‘em!” Sprx huffs. “All I’m sayin’ is… We don’t know anything about what we’re walkin’ into, and I don’t like being in the dark. I want more answers from Charlie, and I’d like ‘em as soon as possible.”

Nova places her hand on his shoulder. He leans into it. “We’ve known her less than six hours,” she says gently. “We’ll get our answers. But we need to wait. She barely knows us! She’s got no reason to trust us other than some old stories. And we don’t know anything about her. Just that the Power Primate chose her to join us. We’re blind on a lot of fronts here.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sprx scowls. “And I hate walkin’ blind.” Just the word reminded him of that night of fear that Mandarin had brought them under Chiro’s command. Being blind—

Even metaphorically, he hated it.

Nova slides her hand from his shoulder to grab his hand. She squeezes. “We’ve got time,” she says. “Let Gibson build his medical file first. Tomorrow, we’ll start asking questions. We’ll start easy—get a layout of the enemy first. It’ll be easier to get her to talk about that than her allies. Start there, build up.”

Sprx takes a breath, lets it out slow, and rubs the bridge of his muzzle with his free hand. “Yeah. Alright.”

It’s not just the mystery of this ‘resistance’ that has him on edge, though. But he can’t talk to the team about the rest of it. He can’t tell them that he’s not ready to see Chiro yet—because how could he not be? How could he not be ready to see what became of their boy-hero?

He wants to. Hell yes he wants to.

But…

They just abandoned him. Four years down the drain, all because Antauri got some sort of ‘feeling’ from the mystical force none of them really understand. It was a shitty thing to do, and Sprx is more than a little pissed at Antauri over it.

“It’s for the best,” he said. “There will always be evil in the world,” he said. “Chiro deserves a chance to be normal,” he said.

Like the Kid could ever be normal after all the shit the universe threw at him. Like, after becoming a war hero, the world would ever see him as a boy again. Like he could ever forget about the monkey team. Like he could ever let go of the way the team just up and left him.

They didn’t even give him a proper send off. Four and half years of growing together; of learning to care about each other; and they just… boxed his stuff up and left it on the landing strip. No easing him into it, no goodbyes. Just there and gone.

“A clean break,” Antauri had said.

Well, “Bullshit,” Sprx says.

The kid ain’t gonna be happy to see them, and it’s gonna break every one of their hearts. Otto might never recover from it.

He’s gonna be even less happy when he finds out that they replaced him with a seventeen year old girl.

Hell, Sprx isn’t happy about it. They’re all going to get attached to this one too. Except maybe Antauri; the emotionless bastard. But when this new enemy is dead, they’re just gonna cut her out too. Go back to sleep and wait for the next one.

Sprx is so tempted to cut-and-run. If this is how it’s gonna be, he’s not sure he wants anything to do with the Hyper Force anymore, no matter what grand delusions Antauri has. If staying with the Hyper Force means he’s going to spend his considerable lifespan fighting one war after another, replacing leader after leader with new teens, watching them grow and learn and become, only to leave them in the end…

Well. Count him out.

That ain’t what he signed up for.

(Not that he signed up at all.)

He glances at Nova.

She ain’t gonna see it that way, though. She’s not like Antauri. Doesn’t see the beauty in serving some higher purpose; fighting battle after battle because some mystical force demands it. But she’s a soldier. A hero. She’s got inherent nobility that’ll make her want to stay, and fight. Bear the burdens because the universe demands it. She won’t abandon the team unless it falls apart around her ears.

Of course, if they abandon another one, just to wake up to someone else to get attached to… Especially if it’s another young one, like Chiro.

It might not take much for them to fall apart at all.

Still, Sprx isn’t sure he wants to stick around for a third. But he’s also not ready to drop Nova, either. He loves her. Has loved her for a damn long time, even if he hasn’t said the words yet. Their relationship is still new, tentative. He doesn’t want to let it go if he doesn’t have to.

He rubs his forehead with his free hand. Monkey doodle. When did his life get so damn complicated?

Charlie returns to retrieve Gibson, who tells them to let him know whether they need help loading the supplies, and then disappears with her, ready to build up her medical file. Sprx watches them go. Charlie smiles easily, body language open and friendly. Gibson is more reticent, but he always is. Never quite the social butterfly, that one.

The supplies come about twenty minutes after—ahead of schedule. None of the workers recognize them. It’s odd, but Sprx is grateful. He, like Charlie, would prefer their return stay quiet, at least for a while.

It’s not the norm for him—he’s not shy to admit he enjoys the attention. But he needs time to get his head on straight.

Once the supplies have been loaded into the Robot, Sprx splits away from the others. He goes to prepare the Robot for take off. Antauri follows him, for whatever reason, leaving Nova and Otto behind to care for the supplies.

Antauri hasn’t spoken much since they woke. He was never a talkative monkey to begin with, but even he isn’t usually this quiet.

Not that Sprx is complainng. He’s not sure how much of that sanctimonious bullshit he can take. Hell, Antauri probably knows that. He’s probably a real chatty Cathy when Sprx isn’t around.

Sprx scowls.

He taps the keys with more force than necessary, yanking levers with just enough force that it’s satisfying but not harmful. The Robot climbs into spaceflight with his usual grace; only a few percentiles off from perfect. Once he’s used to flying again, he’ll be back to normal.

(Sprx still isn’t used to referring to a ship as a ‘he’.)

He sets the autopilot coordinates for Koralodal, and then pops into the medbay to get the coordinates for the next rest stop.

Of course… first, he takes the chance to get a good look at their new leader.

Charlie looks so much like Chiro—enough that it’s near painful. Raven hair. Round, youthful face. Upturned nose. Pointed ears. Small mouth. Blue eyes. At a glance, it’s jarring.

But when Sprx takes a closer look, he sees the difference.

Her eyes are a paler shade of blue than Chiro’s, and a different shape—smaller, more slanted. Her skin is tanned; unlike Chiro, who never seemed to get enough sunlight. Her hair is long, and kept in a high ponytail; only a few wisps falling into her face. She’s got a bigger, more rounded nose. A sharper chin. A smattering of freckles, most prominently across her nose. Different—but seeing her out of the corner of his eye…

Sprx shakes his head.

He clears his throat.

She jerks, banging her leg against the table. She turns to him with a smile, regardless; somehow passing it off as something happy instead of a pained grimace. He’s almost impressed. “Yes?” she asks.

“Got the coordinates for the next rest stop? I’d like to set the coordinates.”

“Oh.” She thinks for a moment, cocking her head to the side. Her eyes light when she finds the answer, and she rattles them off proudly.

Sprx gives her a short nod. “Thanks.” He spins on his heel and walks out the door, letting it swish closed behind him before she can even finish her reply. He walks over to the keypad and re-inputs the coordinates.

He turns to Antauri. “I’m going to help Otto and Nova.” His tone is sharper than he meant it to be.

“Wait.”

Sprx pauses. He’s already stepped past he silver monkey. He’s hovering lower than usual; his knee level with Sprx’s ear. Just above his shoulder. “Yeah?” He doesn’t turn around, doesn’t even look over his shoulder. Just stands there, still.

“I know you’re angry with me,” Antauri says. “And you have every right to be. But in time—”

“Yeah,” Sprx says, curling his hands into fists. “Don’t feed me that bullshit. You’re family, so I’ll let it go eventually. But what we did… It was shitty, and you damn well know it. It was shitty of us to dump his stuff on the sidewall and pretend like four years of our lives meant nothing. Pretend that we didn’t watch him grow up, didn’t change his life. And it was shitty of you to ask us to abandon family. I ain’t gonna forgive you. I ain’t gonna let it go—not really. But I’ll put it aside. But you gotta let me be angry, first.”

Antauri chews on his words and Sprx waits. He doesn’t want to have this conversation now—doesn’t want to have it ever, really. But it’s gotta happen, one way or another, and better now than later.

“Don’t let it affect the team,” Antaury says, finally. “We can’t—”

“I know.” The words come, knife sharp. His temper is building with every word Antauri says, and he’s only said a handful. “I know. I’m not petty enough to let it affect the battlefield, okay, Antauri? Learned that lesson already. But I ain’t gonna listen to whatever bullshit you’re gonna spew about it being ‘what’s best,’ either. So shove it.”

Sprx starts walking off again, but even Antauri has moments where he can’t leave well enough alone. “It was for the best, Sprx. The universe—Shuggazoom­­—must come first. We have a duty—”

“I don’t give a shit about some ‘galactic duty.’ Thought I made that clear from day one. I only stuck around, the first run through, because I had nowhere else to go. And when I did…” He shrugs. “You guys were family. That means something to me.” The words are pointed, meant to jab. But he doesn’t turn to check if they hit their mark. Not that he could tell if they did. He steps into his tube.

“Glad we had that talk.” He punches the cargo bay key with more force than necessary.

Once the bridge is out of sight, Sprx closes his eyes and takes a breath as he flies down to the cargo bay. On a normal day, Sprx would say he gets along with Gibson the least. The monkey is like a brother to him, but boy does he rub him the wrong way.

But he had forgotten, somewhere along the way, how much Antauri irritated him when they disagreed about something. Especially when Antauri was doing it for some higher power.

Antauri watches Sprx go, and sighs as the elevator whisks him out of sight. Why are his teammates so stubborn?

Do they not understand that leaving Chiro was hard on him as well? The evil had been settled, and while there would always be more out there to fight… Chiro deserved better than that. He deserved to live. To get married and have kids, if he wanted. To grow beyond the hyper force; beyond their small, tightly-knit family.

The monkey team was holding him back from doing so.

And the Power Primate had seemed—still seemed—to agree with him. A new threat had risen and with that threat came a new hero.

Antauri regrets the pain he’s caused his teammates; the pain he’s sure his apprentice had to live through. But he cannot bring himself to regret the decision itself.

Chiro deserved more than this.

And truly? So does Charlene. But she has a destiny to play out, and though it pains him that the universe is, once again, resting on the shoulders of a teenager… Antauri will follow the will of the Power Primate.

“You’re tense,” Nova says, when they’re out of earshot from Otto. Sprx isn’t the best at ‘feelings talk’—to be honest, neither is she—but he’s even worse about it when there are others in earshot. “What’s got you wound up? Is this still about the resistance thing?”

Sprx shrugs. He places another box of cookware into the kitchen pile. “A little.”

“You wanna… talk about it?” Nova opens a box. A bunch of pill bottles. She puts it in the medbay pile.

Sprx grunts. He opens a box with more force than necessary. “I just… All of this is bullshit, isn’t it?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific,” Nova says dryly, dragging another box into the kitchen pile.

“I dunno. Everything. Leaving Chiro. Waking up to a new leader—again. Getting stuck in another war.” He sits on one of the boxes, and rubs at his cheek. “I mean, is this really all that’s out there for us?”

Nova grimaces. She sits down too. “I don’t know, Sprx. It’s not— This isn’t what I had in mind, when we started protecting Shuggazoom.”

Sprx sighs. “It’s ridiculous. I just… we just tossed four and a half years down the drain like it was nothin’. Left without even a goodbye, and now… we show up again, and… I’m glad we’ll get to see him again, it’s not like I wish we had shown up after he was dead… except…”

Nova waits.

“Except I kinda do. Because I don’t see how this is gonna end well. He’s not going to be happy with us, Nova, and frankly—we deserve it. We don’t deserve his forgiveness because it was a shitty move, and—” He cuts himself off by slamming his fist on a box, rattling the contents. “I don’t want to see it.”

Nova pauses. She’s not used to having to consider what she says before she says it, but this— It’s important. “It might be good to get closure, though,” she says. “Finally say goodbye. Even if he is angry at us… at least… I mean, we’ll know where he ended up. Get to hear, from him, how things turned out. It could have easily been two hundred and ten years, instead of twenty-one. Who knows how much would have been lost.”

Sprx sighs again. “Yeah. I know. I just— Why did we have to leave in the first place?”

“Antauri said—”

“I know what Antauri said!”

Nova jumps. Sprx isn’t usually so aggressive—not towards her. There’s vehemence in his tone, and it doesn’t sound right there. Not at all.

He takes a breath. “I know what Antauri says.” He makes an effort to soften his tone. “He said there would always be evil. That it was time to take a break. Let Chiro go, be normal. We’ll wait until we’re needed. I remember. But you know what else I know? It’s only been twenty-one years. If we had stayed… could we have prevented things from getting this bad?”

“I think…” Nova pauses. “I think… that the Power Primate had already chosen someone else to fight this one. If we had stuck around… we might have been able to fight it off… keep things down, but…” She wets her lips. “Charlie was picked to defeat this one, and with Chiro still acting as leader… we might not have met her. She might— Who knows where she might have ended up? And then where would we be?”

“If destiny is real, though, she would have found a way there, right?”

Sprx. Always has to be contrary.

“Unless destiny is just something you forge yourself.”

“Then being the ‘Chosen One’ is a crock of shit.”

Nova shrugs. “I’m not a spiritual person, Sprx. The closest I get is centering my mind before a fight. You wanna talk about fate, destiny? You’ve gotta go to Antauri.”

Sprx huffs. “Yeah. Not gonna happen.”

“It’s not Antauri’s fault—”

Sprx shoots her a wide-eyed look. “Really? If he hadn’t been the one to give the order—which, by the way, was Chiro’s place—then we would be in a very different place right now!”

“He was just—”

Sprx shakes his head. “Don’t. Please. I—” He sighs, again, shoulders hunching in on themselves. “I’ll get over it. Put it aside. But not yet.”

Nova lets the words go, and wraps an arm around him instead. She presses her muzzle against his cheek, and her forehead against his temple, and they just sit there. Quiet.