"How can you be surprised about this. You told him this is what you wanted?"
Sunny leaned on the balcony railing looking over Arcadia's capital city, blue light filtered up from the nighttime parkways and lit her face with a dim glow.
"That was months ago, heat of the moment. I.... and I didn't actually think it was going to work."
Dzara stepped up to stand with her, resting a hand over one of hers. Sunny didn't look up as she continued to stare out at the sprawling city of Arcadia, blinking with a thousand glimmering colors, a city brought on by imagination, whimsy and good intentions in a way that few other cities could claim.
"I don't understand how could you think it wasn't going to work? This was shortly after they announced the first hybrid wasn't it?"
Sunny sighed and turned around stepping into the penthouse with a quiet sigh and taking a seat on the couch underneath the silver tree. She turned her head watching ripples spread out over the surface of the water feature surrounding the base of the tree. Behind it a curtain of water trickled quietly down the surface of the back wall, lit by gentle yellow light.
"Because I...." she struggled to find the words, opening and closing her mouth, restarting and returning again and again unable to put into words what ran through her mind, "It's hard to explain."
Dzara sat across from her, "And I'm here to listen. For as long as you need."
Sunny examined her sister where they sat across from each other. Their relationship had not started out on the best of terms. Dzara had been bitter towards Sunny and her human companions and Sunny had thought that her sister was a pompous control freak trying to force her way of life upon everyone else, but a lot fo things had changed since then.
Dzara's mood had markedly improved with the addition of her leg braces, and thus freedom of movement, and though Sunny hadn't changed nearly as much her life certainly had. She had more on her plate now, with more responsibility and worry, but in that time the three of them, her Dzara and Kanan had gotten closer , and now Sunny didn't just consider her once estranged sister, blood, but a friend as well.
Dzara was a good listener, and loyal in the way all friends should be.
Sunny rested her head in her hands, "When I was younger.... Our mother.... Told me in no uncertain terms that no one would ever chose me as battle partner. She made it pretty clear what she thought of me. She thought it would be a waste of genetics to procreate as any offspring I might have should be thrown into the fire." Dzara stared at her quietly and sunny sighed, "She was convinced that whatever "creatures" I birthed would have to be immediately cast into the fire anyway, so it was best just not to try. When.... That wasn't enough for her she told me that it was likely I couldn't have them anyway. I think she told me that because she was self-conscious about her own lack of children and..... well I believed her." Sunny looked up at the blue metallic leaves of the tree and sighed deeply closing her eyes and feeling the soft glow of the lanterns on her face.
"When someone repeats something to you for so long, it is hard not to believe them eventually. For all of my life, even after Adam and everything that has happened to us, there is still Kazna's voice somewhere deep down telling me that everything good I make will eventually crumble, that all I have is dreams and pretenses."
Dzara nodded along quietly, letting her speak.
They did not touch, not like a human might.
"At one point I convinced myself that I didn't want offspring anyway. I was convinced that..... that I was just going to end up like her, bitter and angry and controlling, so it was best if I didn't, and for years that has been battling inside me with the desire to have children and rub it in her face when I'm better than she is, but that's not a good enough reason to want to bring life into this world .In fact it's a horrible reason." She threw up her hands, "And then if that wasn't enough, when Adam came along I was convinced that since our species were different, offspring would never be possible anyway, and I had long ago accepted the reality and convinced myself I didn't want it and couldn't have it."
She rested her head back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling.
Dzara's oice was soft when she said, "And then they announced the hybrids."
Sunny sighed, "I don't know what I was thinking that night. It was a conglomerate of feelings both anger and hope all mixed into one. For a second I believed that it was real, and then I wake up the next day and everything is back to normal. I forget about what I ask and we keep going about as we always did, and of course I never thought about using pills or anything else because I was, and am almost still convinced that what happened is impossible. Even now It doesn't feel real, like a dream where you think something to be true but there is no evidence."
"But you have evidence."
"I have bloodwork and Hijab's old wives tale ."
Dzara blinked at her from the other couch, "You are fucked up, you know that?"
To Sunny's surprise she found herself laughing,, and across from her, her sister was laughing to,. She rubbed at her face when it was over shaking her head, "I know, I know, I'm crazy and insane, and yes it STILL is a surprise to me, even now. I've been surprised since yesterday., and I will continue being surprised until..... well I don't know when. Until the world comes crashing down around me and this all just turns out to be a dream ,and I wake up back on Anin under the spires of the four warriors and realize that Kazna was right." She shrugged
Dzara shook her head again then paused, "So.... Do you want it or not?"
"Well I certainly don't want to get rid of it, so that must mean something." She paused, "No, I DO want it, despite everything, but see that is another problem, this is a horrible time for it, absolutely stupid, if I had been thinking with an unclouded mind I certainly would have taken more thought into account but...."
"But Adam didn't, and he doesn't have the baggage you do."
Sunny snorted, "Please my dear sister. Yu don't understand this but. Adam is a human man, regardless of weather or not he thought it was a bad idea, they aren't exactly known for making decisions in their best interest."
Dzara held up her hands, "Alright, Alright, fair you know humans better than I do." She gave Sunny a knowing look, "Better than most people."
"Stop before I hurt you."
"But you don't want to fight."
"I don't want to fight, but I could still kick your ass six ways from sainthood."
"Maybe you're right."
It was then that the elevator went off with a ding, and the two of them turned to see Conn float into the room. The starborn was wearing a stiff back coat with high collar, and coat ends that flowed just below his knees. The jacket was Vaguely Asian inspired. It was a piece he might usually have flaunted for the sake of his own amusement, but Sunny was surprised when he made no joke at her or Dzara's expense and did not bother to openly flaunt his impeccable sense of dress.
His face was serious as was his tone.
"Reports have detected Behemoth in Earth's solar system heading straight for earth." Sunny stood abruptly as did Dzara, "The Pluto mining stations have already been compromised and it is well on it's way. At the speeds it is traveling it shouldn't take it that long at all, by all means it doesn't make sense how fast it moves, but it does."
"And Adam."
"That is.... The good news. Your husband appeared about fie minutes ago to retrieve the fleet captaining a ship he is calling the Empyrean iris. He's going to be leading the offensive against behemoth in a matter of minutes."
"Order the generals to the war room as fast as they can."
Conn nodded and flowed past her, floating off the balcony and into midair.
Sunny turned to Dzara and her sister raced to help Sunny strap on her armor as they waited for news. Live updates were being provided to the war room holoprojection.
Sunny and Dzara were alone for the time being, and it seemed that things were moving too fast.
The other generals would never make it in time .
Sunny knew what was going to happen, probably before Adam did. She took in every movement, every motion of behemoth, and the slow inevitable way it headed towards the Europa settlements. Adam was doing damage, but he was not going to have time to kill it before it caused untold damage.
Sitting there in the vague blue light of the projection, Sunny knew when the call came in.
She picked up on the second ring keeping her head high as his face appeared on the image before her. He was glowing slightly. All she could see was his face, projected from the inside of his helmet. His expression was, sad, but calm and collected , a strand of white hair was plastered to his forehead like sweat.
On the screen before her Sunny was reading live updates from ship sensors.
Gravity well.
Evacuation
Course correction.
"Adam." She said quietly reading the anguish on his face as the word left her mouth.
"I'm sorry –"
And with those words Sunny's fears were confirmed. She knew what he was going to do because there was no other way he could do anything else. He was just like that and would always be like that. As they spoke she warred with herself. She wanted to tell him. If he died tonight he should know it as the last thing before he left....
But what if he didn't die?
Than he would be worried about her and he might be distracted enough to make a mistake that would get him killed.
Mouth open to tell him, the thought stole words from her throat, and she went quiet, and instead she made up a lie ,"Hijan arrived today." It was not a big lie, a simple lie of two or three days in a timeline that was about to be changed forever. Did it really matter that Hijan had arrived the day he left?
Probably not.
He may never know.
"Sunny, stay with me Until...."
"Until I no longer ca." She promised. Her hands balled into fists as she watched the screen, the body forming on her insides, despite being no more than the size of a few grains of sand at this point, felt like a 100lb weight inside her, dragging her down towards the floor.
His face froze not minutes later, the feed stuck In a minute moment in time, before the signal phased out, and she was left standing alone at the war table, her head down listening to the sound of her own breathing and her own pounding heart.
Somewhere in the distant galaxy, a second star flared to being somewhere between Pluto and Jupiter's orbit.
Sunny did not cry
She did not kneel.
She didn't curse.
She stood silent for many long minutes, her head down, her hands splayed across the war room table, and she was still there when Ramirez's transmission came through, appearing on the monitor before her.
She listened to his words, filled with the fire and fervor Adam brought with him, listened to the proxy words of her husband on the tongue of his best friend, "I will not rest. Have hope, "And long live Impetus.'
Sunny's mind was still trying to grasp the meaning of that phrase from the garbled report she had been sent some time in the past few hours. Information about Adam's trip to the Maker's home system of Revelation.
Gods and Monsters
Dark and light.
Sunny took a deep breath and straightened herself just as the generals began filtering into the room. She greeted them with a nod and a raise of her fist.
"Long live Impetus."