Sigma/Star

Chapter 133: Maria

"That's a bold statement you know." Sigma reached across and grabbed his brother's right wrist, pulling the hand over so he could inspect the tattoo. "You show up like a hero and proclaim you're going back to fight the Jahari. Very bold."

"Who are you to judge?" Porter laughed, pulling back his hand. The pair were sitting on a log nestled amongst the trees, watching the waves crash into the beach. They had slunk off after the meeting, finding their own time to reconnect, something they just never really got, ever. "I got filled in on you chasing after Syn all on your own before. As if you're all reserved and calculated."

Sigma frowned at the mention of Syn, the mood evaporating around him. "That thing has to be stopped somehow."

"And that's what I say every day, about every evil I'm facing. War and extinction. Those are the two options I'm faced with, and I have to go at them every day."

"I'm faced only with madness."

"Maybe it's the madness you know might be inside yourself too. If you ever felt like it, you could do everything Syn does."

Sigma's eyes rotated in their sockets, adjusting as he refocused on his brother, analyzing him intently. Vital signs and biometric readings flashed by his vision, registering as tiny lines in his irises that Porter could stare at. "You've changed quite a bit, you know. You're growing up."

"And you're regressing," Porter giggled, poking at his brother and trying to shove him away. The android, unsurprisingly, did not budge, which meant Porter ended up pushing himself away instead, nearly falling off the end of the log.

"If I recall, I lost most of my adolescence because I was being built."

"Well I lost mine being alone without a family." The two stopped their bickering as their stories crossed, the depressing aspect of what they were saying coming forwards. "How stupid of us, having a pity argument."

"Better to stumble forwards, than to stare at your feet."

"Isn't that a passage from the Book of Enia?" Porter scratched his head, realizing he had been completely neglecting any religious studies since leaving the academy. "It's in there somewhere, right?"

"Doesn't matter anymore." Sigma raised a hand up to the sky, his fingers partially blocking his vision of the sun. "You know I can stare at that thing and it won't hurt. I can quote any passage from the Book of Enia, and sometimes its a default behaviour." Sigma fell quiet, his hand dropping down to his lap. "And I've killed people like they were nothing. And yet you people all wander around me every day, like there's nothing to me, like I can't become a second Syn in an instant."

Porter leaned back on the log and hummed his way through his thoughts. "If I had paid more attention in class, I could quote some lines from the Book of Enia. When I'm in my Goliath, I can stare straight at the sun. And I've killed people like they were nothing, only to realize later that they weren't nothing, and they held more value than that, but it was all too late." Porter patted Sigma on the shoulder. "We can do everything you can do, and can struggle with all of it just as much. End of the day, you're just my brother."

Sigma grabbed Porter's arm and, in the blink of an eye, hurled the young man straight out from the tree and out into the water, where he crashed into the ocean with a splash. The android stood up and strode away from the spot, leaving his soggy brother to drag himself out of the water. "It's not the job of the little brother to have all the mushy guidance.

* * * * *

Porter bent down in front of Maria, the Rose Thorn General, staring into her eyes. His hair was still slightly wet from Sigma's antics, but the nice thing about the island was the constant sunlight and warmth that served as a perpetual dryer. He still had sand in places he didn't want to discuss, but he otherwise couldn't stop smiling. Everything was better than Reaver's training. "So this is the one giving everyone a hard time?"