Tearha: Titan War

Chapter Thirty-One: To Kill Innocence

Luce, Adelle, Shou, Arnold, and Miu were sitting around a single table, discussing their predicament. The little gnome golem, Marble, was rolling around their legs in figures of eights. Luce was only half listening to Arnold's recount of the situation, but she got the gist of it. She had yet to take out Josh's letter yet, instead inspecting the seal with her own stamp. The pins on the seal were for more than just confirmation of legitimacy. It could be used to hide short 6 letters coded messages. With their stamp acting as a cypher and a little brain power, one could easily decode the information.

"Anything?" Adelle asked.

"Almost done," Luce replied.

She wrote down the last letter of the message and the full code was clear.

AD4EXO

Arnold asked, "What does that even mean?"

After double-checking the code to make sure it was correct, Luce let out a long sigh. "Adelle for Exodus. Along with what you told us, it means they need Adelle to activate Exodus." She tore opened the envelope and devoured the letter with her eyes, reading aloud the message relayed from Josh. No longer able to keep her mind occupied, Luce only began to worry. "It's a trap. If Adelle goes to save Josh, Lachesis will use her to activate Exodus."

Shou said, "But we can't stop the E.M.P without Adelle either."

Miu asked the fatal question, "So what are we going to do?"

Everyone quietly sat, mulling the problem over. Adelle needed to be in two places at once, to either help Shou with his break-in to retrieve Reggie's bio-cell and destroy the G.A.S.P, or to rescue Josh and disable to E.M.P. For a long, time Luce tried to figure out a plan to execute both, but nothing came to mind. It seemed she had to choose, and only one path would lead to the rescue of her father, but at the risk of capture or even death to Adelle. In the end, she weighed everything and the choice became obvious.

She stood up. "Come on, Adelle. We're going."

The elf did not stand. Instead, she gave her a questioning glance.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Shou waved manically. "And where are you going?"

"We're going to save Josh."

Of course she was. For her, who had lost enough of her family, the few left was everything to her. She could not see anything short of a bullet through her head that was going to stop her.

Miu added quickly, "I get that that's the most optimal choice, saving Josh and disabling the E.M.P. But we need to consider about the G.A.S.P as well."

"You need to consider it," Luce noted. "Not me. I'm just saving Josh. The E.M.P, the G.A.S.P, none of that is my problem. I came here to save my sister, and now my father. Nothing more, nothing less. Adelle and I are going to rescue Josh and get Miura across the Helm, end of story."

Arnold shot to his feet. "Hang on! That's not part of our deal! And if you haven't noticed, Shou's a cyborg. If that E.M.P goes off, he might die!"

"Well, the situation has obviously changed then! But my goal hasn't!" Luce snapped back, unsure where her sudden burst of anger came from. "I told you the first time we met. We're not here to play heroes. So unless your threat comes with killing us, we are leaving. Come on, Adelle!"

She turned and walked away from the table towards their bunk to retrieve their belongings. Maybe she would steal the elecycle if they were not going to go after them. Even otherwise, Luce was more than willing to walk to Citi or Citidale if it came to it. But just then though, something wasn't right. She expected more noise, more reactions from the people behind her. She turned around and found Adelle still sat at her seat, her stare still quizzical, and everyone else looking at the elf.