《Ceraborous, declaration of vengeance.》 Chapter Prologue Author note: Just testing the waters with this chapter :/ Chapter prologue ¡°Gotcha!¡± A burst of beams rained from above and destroyed the aircraft fighter duo. The area has been secured, now I can loot the ship wreckage. ¡°Now where o where is it?¡± I am looking for a thermal fusion battery, the thing¡¯s an ancient relic but if properly restored then it can generate energy indefinitely as long its somewhere in a planet with a warm temperature. I¡¯ve heard rumors it is one of the best energy generators 500 years ago and it had the ability to absorb thermal energy and transformed the used energy into cool air. ¡°Aw, shit. How am I going to bring this back to my client!¡± Spanning over 1 mile the large machine, untouched, was tightly surrounded by bent plates of metals of the wreckage. Only a few glowing capsules remain attached to the machine in perfect condition. ¡°And to think Francis said I wouldn¡¯t have any problem with this job. Fuck him!¡± I quickly contacted him explaining the situation. ¡°Hey! How the fuck am I suppose to bring this to my client! The thing¡¯s not going to fit in my ship¡¯s ass!¡± ¡°C-calm down Kai. Can you send me a video feed? Ah. That thing¡¯s huge! I thought it would be like the generators nowadays. Let me get in contact with your client and update him on your situation.¡± ¡°Hell no. I don¡¯t want to do anything that would increase my load of work.¡± I drive my ship, Ceraborous, steadily through the debris and released its wings to move its arms. There are only five containers left attached, three of them looked useless but could maybe be fixed. Slowly using robotic arms, I unscrewed them and stored the batteries in my ship¡¯s storage compartment. ¡°Then should I have them arrange a transportation company?¡± ¡°Francis, you¡¯re just making suggestion to have them lower our payload. -We¡¯ll talk later, I have some guests.¡± The signal on my radar rapidly pulses. Using the many features of my ship, Ceraborous, I send my tiny drone out to get a visual look of whatever energy signatures my radar had picked up. There are four fighters circling around the perimeters, they don¡¯t seem to be interested in generator. I think they¡¯re after me. ¡°Hello! I heard there is a rodent scurrying around this area!¡± ¡°God dammit, why are Farlyn¡¯s guys here? What do you guys want?¡± ¡°So you¡¯re actually here. Ya know, boss has been looking for you. We heard you were in the area so we decided to come play with you.¡± I can hear their annoying laughs through my speakers, I closed the channel and ready myself for the fight. Four ships¡­ two in front and two on my left and right. Energy shields, on. Begin charging weapons. Thrusters online¡­ Oh, I just though of something, changing energy shield to impact shields. ¡°Hey, you better run if you don¡¯t want to get smashed. I¡¯ll be charging at you head on.¡± ¡°Huh? Is he crazy?¡± ¡°Give us your best shot.¡± ¡°Try me.¡± The two ships are being recalled to the front. I gently move my ship behind a piece of wreckage soft contact against it with arms of Ceraborous, pushed my thrusters at max speed and charged at them with the piece of wreckage as my shield. ¡°Oh shit-¡° I felt a small vibration with flames passing my view as I successfully smashed one of them. ¡°One, down. Come at me! Activate energy shields, enable combat functionality.¡± Energy shields online, impact shields offline. Plasma lance charged. Some of their projectiles hit my shield as I dodge to the left, circling around their barrage. Though I am at a ranged disadvantage, my ship has enough speed to dodge their attacks. Let¡¯s see, a scrappy version of M1 230 laser blaster, lotus bombs, no cryogenic heat sinks. Their weapons should over heat in 3, 2, 1. Now! The fighters release their lotus bombs after they¡¯re weapons overheat as I charge at them. Lotus bombs are a ball of plasma that are able to home in nearby targets. They are similar to EMPs so when their victims are hit by them will have their systems shut down for two minutes. They are only effective against small ships such as mine. Luckily these are second rated artilleries and move much slower. ¡°Move, move! He¡¯s- past us?¡± ¡°Get away from there!¡± The lotus bombs hit the target behind me as fly past them. I quickly flipped Ceraborous around and melted his ship as soon as my plasma lance overcharges. The plasma lance releases a short burst of pure energy about three meters long, however it takes a while to charge. If I overcharge it, then I am able to shoot a three shot projectile at slow speed. The projectiles are enough to disable a fully charged energy shield or melt through their plating. ¡°Hell yeah, two down. -Gah, shit!¡± One of the fighters hid behind me the whole time, his weapons are different. This guy is much stronger than those three. Shields at 43%. ¡°Wait!? Seriously!? Those blasters are as strong as a torpedo!¡± ¡°Run asshole run! Hahahahaha!¡± ¡°Tsk, I can¡¯t shake him off.¡± The pilot¡¯s good at tailing, it looks like I can¡¯t shake him off that easily. Shields at 9%. He¡¯s able to keep hitting me, even though I am flying out of his blaster¡¯s aim. What a noob, using an assisted aiming AI. I better find some cover in that wreckage and turns things around. ¡°Turn off energy shields, activating impact shield. Set wings to forward position, reducing thruster output and activate landing thruster one.¡± The thruster underneath the nose of Ceraborous rotated itself one-eighty vertically. While doing so the arms connecting to it bent backwards and connected themselves by my sides creating a sword like appearance that is able to fit in tighter areas. My ship glides into the wreckage smashing into some debris. My pursuer follows and once I lost sight of him I hid into a tight space releasing the lock on Ceraborous¡¯ robotic arms. Doing so reduces its travelling speed drastically as the wings are attached to its arms. I set all functions to standby and kept a close look at my radar to continue monitoring him readying my ambush. ¡°Tsk¡­ Come out coward!¡± Another feature of Ceraborous is its strength for close combat and a strong defensive impact shielding with upgraded thin layer of magnesium plating on the wings. I can smash into another ship without worrying about damage and tear apart any ship who gets close to me. ¡°C¡¯mon¡­ you¡¯re getting warmer¡­ Just a wee bit closer¡­ Got you!¡± ¡°What!?¡± When I detected his ship on the other side of some debris, Ceraborous sprang at him with it¡¯s robotic arms, piercing through sheets of metals. He struggles trying to free his ship from my grasp but the thrusters at the palm of Ceraborous¡¯ claws were able to burn some of his circuitry in the engine, disabling his attempt to escape from my jaws. Like a wolf sinking its fangs onto its prey. ¡°Shit, those claws are in my ship. Let go you bitch!¡± ¡°I could say the same to you, staring at my ship¡¯s ass. You¡¯ve interrupted with my job and tried to kill me. Consider this self-defence.¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The plasma lance on Ceraborous¡¯ nose begins charging. 45%, 87%, 100%. ¡°GaaaaAAAAHHHHHH!¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± I mercilessly murdered my pursuer with a cold blooded expression. My radio comp receives statics when his ship was melted by the three beams of pure energy. The fourth ship disappeared so I resumed my job. ¡°Francis, I only grabbed the batteries. Tell my client to meet me in Temlin village¡¯s gate in this sector, if he isn¡¯t please I¡¯ll send him the coordinates of the generator.¡± ¡°Roger, but be careful down there. There have been a group of bandits near that settlement, the council also sent troops to fight them.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. I won¡¯t have anything to do with it anyways.¡± My ship flies towards Blore, a lavishing mineral rich planet with lots of vegetation. It houses around four million people as it was recently discovered about sixty years ago. Only some specific areas were allowed residence as the planet is being mined and cleared for its resources. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s that? Smoke?¡± As I flew closer my destination, a stream of smoke came from what seemed to be from a crashed ship. I decided to investigate and landed in an open area and geared myself with a tesla shocker connected to an energy pack strapped behind my waist, readied my binoculars and holstered my sidearm. I better not forget my radial jammer in case I¡¯m surrounded. There seems to be some chattering when I arrived to the area. Hiding within the brushes I scouted the area and counted a team of armed soldiers patrolling the crashed ship with a group of civilians, even children, being executed one by one. That¡¯s messed up! ¡°Aw man, I¡¯m glad we caught these guys before they got their permits to live here. To think these peaceful looking people are rebels.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s wrong. Sending women and children to spy on this planet. Who knows what trouble they¡¯ll do if we they¡¯re left alone?¡± I look towards the execution grounds and see twenty corpses, a quarter of them were children having their bodies burned by lasers. ¡°Please we¡¯re not rebels, we¡¯re from the capital! Take a closer look at our certificates!¡± One more was shot. ¡°Shut up, you may be from the capital but it doesn¡¯t mean any of you aren¡¯t a spy. We¡¯ve already discovered documents ordering them to infiltrate our research teams.¡± ¡°Is there anyone that would like to confess something? You have three minutes.¡± ¡°Nooo! Please, not my son! NoooooOOO!¡± Another was shot. There are four hostages left, two are children. Before I could move they shot four more. I cannot take them on head on so I will need to reduce their numbers in the most efficient way. I circled around behind the crashed site, set my energy pack and stabbed the tip of my tesla shocker into the ship. There should be seven of them still searching the ship. Here goes. I turned the dial on my tesla shocker and the ship begins to cover itself with a blanket of electricity. The area around my tesla shocker melts an opening. Waiting a few seconds after the electricity vaporized the remaining troops on board I charged through. The three outside the ship begin shooting once I¡¯m in their view. ¡°There was one more on the ship!?¡± ¡°Who cares, capture him. He¡¯s the spy!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not! I just couldn¡¯t stand you guys killing innocent people!¡± ¡°Silence, trash should remain trash!¡± I killed two soldiers before I threw my Radial Jammer, the leader shot two more hostages. The Radial Jammer activates a second too late and two more died. Only the children remain. ¡°Daddy!¡± ¡°Mommy!¡± ¡°A Radial Jammer!? Shit, I can¡¯t use guns now.¡± ¡°Dammit! I¡¯m too late.¡± The last soldier draws his baton and prepares to beat the children to death. I ran with all my strength with my tesla shocker. I felt the adrenaline coursing through my veins, my head pulsing with determination, my roar raging. I still couldn¡¯t make it, the soldier swung his baton down but thankfully the brother sacrificed his left arm to protect his sister. The courageous by bought me enough time to tackle the soldier. ¡°Good job kid!¡± ¡°You fucker!¡± He caught my arms right when I was about to electrocute him with my tesla shocker. ¡°Grrr¡­.¡± ¡°GaaaAAAAA!¡± My strength barely rivals his, finally he pushes me away and drops my tesla shocker. The soldier takes an offensive role as he smacks my ribs with his baton and continues to beat me as I fell. ¡°Shit. GAAAHHHHH!¡± ¡°Hehehe. How does it feel to be worthless? HAHAHAHA!-¡° ¡°Mister, what do I do now!¡± I see the boy stabbing the soldier with the tesla shocker. Without hesitation I immediately gave him instructions. ¡°Turn the dial to the right and run away!¡± The boy turns the dial and dashes off as a blaze of dazzling lights spark from the soldier¡¯s armor. ¡°Shi- GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± I think I did well considering I saved more than one life. ¡°Hey, kid. Can you stand?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Thank you mister for saving us.¡± He turns to his sister as they look at their deceased parents that protected the shots meant towards the siblings. The boy¡¯s got some combat talents as well, but the correct choice is to find them an orphanage. I performed first aid on the boy¡¯s arm and gave them a few hours to grief for their parents before helping them burry the corpses. ¡°Why did mommy and daddy have to die? Why did those mean people do that? Why?¡± The brother and I can only give them words of silence as we watched the rocks piled on top of their parent¡¯s grave. ¡°Mister, my name is Zack. I am eleven. This is my sister Selena, she is nine.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Kai, twenty-six. I¡¯m a mercenary- oh shit! I forgot about my job! Francis! Francis! Pick up dammit!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Huh? What¡¯s that attitude? Is my client still there?¡± ¡°No. You wasted his time and he left. He also said he won¡¯t hire you ever again.¡± ¡°SHHHIIIIIITTTT! GOD DAAAMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT!¡± I turn my head towards the sibling standing beside me. The brother stepped forward and said something I did not expect but irritated me. ¡°Please adopt us! I want to be as strong as you and kill the people who killed our parents.¡± ¡°You¡­ did you know if you killed the entire empire I WOULD FUCKING LOSE MY JOB!? It¡¯s because of them I am only able to do missions they wouldn¡¯t let their own men do or can¡¯t do! I¡¯ll lose my income if you killed off the entire empire, who cares of our stupid revenge! I just lost twenty thousand Hous because of this!¡± ¡°Please, I beg you! I¡¯ll do anything!¡± His eyes teared up but do not show any signs of weakness. The boy will not back down, his resolve seems strong. ¡°Sigh¡­ look I¡¯m weak as fuck compare to a whole bunch of people. You sure you want to follow my footsteps?¡± A large smile forms on the boy¡¯s face. ¡°Yes! Please train me! Don¡¯t worry Selena, I¡¯ll definitely avenge mom and dad!¡± Chapter prologue 2 Author notes: Sooo... the last prologue for this story... any thoughts? Chapter Prologue 2 It¡¯s been five years since I adopted the siblings. When they first started living in my home my savings dropped drastically, but eventually I had (forced) Francis to help with the funds. I altered the ship to allow an extra passenger to sit at the back and would sometimes accept easy going jobs to train the brother how to pilot Ceraborous. The worst part is I had to grit my teeth and quit my drinking habit or my debt will go higher. I had to prioritized money over entertainment. ¡°Alright kid, good job on the mission. Next time let¡¯s try something more practical. We should go home and see how Selena¡¯s doing right now.¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call me that. I don¡¯t want to feel old yet.¡± I had the boy pilot the ship back home. He¡¯s still not comfortable landing my ship and I had to verbally instruct him every time. ¡°Releasing struts, decreasing altitude, decreasing landing thruster output. Approaching landing point in 3, 2- oops.¡± I felt a strong bump as the ship landed. ¡°That landing was too rough, next time wait a bit longer and slowly decrease the landing thruster¡¯s power.¡± ¡°G-got it. I¡¯ll be careful next time.¡± ¡°Good job though. All that¡¯s left is to file the information to the client, I¡¯ll handle it. Take a break.¡± He jumps off the ship and rushes to see his sister immediately. I understand his protection for his sister being his last family since his parents were killed. Aw man, the bolt on the strut is damaged again. I hope he gets better at landing so I don¡¯t have to replace it all the time. ¡°Where¡¯s the wrench?¡± I quickly replace the bolt before heading into my home and worked on the report. There were some loud noises coming from my home as I was fixing my ship. The mission I chose for Zack was a scouting mission, to remain undetected while we observe the actions of the Memento Mori. A giant battle ship my acquaintance, Lars Forinyard, control and stole from the empire. Before I accepted the mission I had a conversation with him, I told him of the description of the job. He understood my judgment as it was to train Zack and declared he would not attack us on one condition. If his own eyes stopped us he would fire towards our location. ¡°I¡¯m back Selena.¡± ¡°Kai, welcome home. I made some soup over there. My brother already helped himself though.¡± ¡°Oh, it smells good! I¡¯ll have to eat it later, I have to go out for a moment.¡± ¡°No, you are going to stay and eat it. If you eat it cold again, you¡¯ll hurt your stomach!¡± Selena changed too, before she was a timid little girl. After these five years she became more dependant and maybe a bit more assertive. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll eat now so don¡¯t get angry okay?- Oh! This is deliecious! It has a strong¡­ I-is this SHRIMP!? This thing is expensive!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it was on sale and I bargained. I bought a large pack for four hundred Hous.¡± Selena had a bright smile on her face that hid a dark aura behind her. She used to spend most of her time by the market and now she¡¯s become a bargaining monster¡­ a pack of shrimps like that costs one thousand Hous. ¡°Zack, remind me not to get on your sister¡¯s bad side.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, I never get angry. Right Zack?¡± ¡°Y-yeah¡­ She can never get angry.¡± Zack said that with his eyes to the right and had a drop of sweat down his cheek. I think he got scold when he entered the house. After I finished the soup I left the house towards the market. I need to restock the bolts for the strut and head towards a nearby town. The town I lived near in is a somewhat lively place, Coralline waves, as it was next to the ocean on planet Aquarius. The planet is called Aquarius because of the amount of fresh water covering 80% of the world. I entered the bar as soon as I could and found my debt collector. ¡°Hey, Farlyn. Here¡¯s the ten thousand Hous I promised.¡± ¡°Huh? Wasn¡¯t it twenty thousand?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t play with me. You said ten thousand by today and I brought it. I¡¯ll bring the rest of my debt next time.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not playing, It¡¯s thirty thousand and will be.¡± ¡°You bitch. Take it or I¡¯ll leave.¡± ¡°Not so fast. I still remember the day you killed three of my men. Shouldn¡¯t that raise the value of what you owe me? They were great people with families.¡± ¡°Those guys were trying to kill me. Great people my ass they were trying to be murderers. All I did was self-defence.¡± ¡°Now that I think about it, I remember seeing two children walking freely into your house. Are they anyone you know-¡° My vein almost burst when she mentioned them. My glare pushes a few of her men back. ¡°Leave them out of this if you want to keep this civilised.¡± She snaps her finger as two more strong men blocked my exit. ¡°Thirty thousand.¡± ¡°Ten thousand.¡± She lets out a deep sigh as her men all cracked their knuckles. Farlyn walks towards the back, before she exits she mumbles something. ¡°Break him, just enough so he can still stand and bring me the money.¡± I swung my bag of bolts into a guy¡¯s head and knocked him out. I was grabbed from behind and begin to suffer repeated attacks at my stomach. Shit, I feel like vomiting the soup I just ate. ¡°Let go of him!¡± Two shadow figures smacked my attackers at the back of their heads, it was Selena and Zack. ¡°Y-you two.¡± ¡°We thought you acted suspicious so we followed you. You sometimes get bruises when you come home now I know why.¡± ¡°Ouch¡­ They¡¯re kids?¡± ¡°Get away from here!¡± ¡°WWRRRAAAHHHH!¡± Selena kicked one of their groans immediately and one of the attackers fell on his sides. ¡°I haven¡¯t been lifting all those groceries for something. I¡¯m not that weak.¡± Zack covers his sister and sends one of them into a coma with a steel pipe. ¡°We eavesdropped and heard everything. We¡¯re sorry to make you worry.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be, I¡¯m happy you two came to rescue me. Let¡¯s hurry and get away from here.¡± ¡°Wait, that bag of bolts you bought.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, it can be replaced.¡± The three of us ran back home as fast as possible. We laughed out loud knowing the three of us escaped the clutches of my debt collector, it was a joyful moment. ¡°Kai, what was the bag of bolts for. Was it for the ship?¡± ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s nothing big.¡± ¡°Zack, haven¡¯t you noticed every time you come home Kai comes in minutes after you? You must¡¯ve done something wrong when you were piloting the ship and broke something.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry! Please tell me and I¡¯ll fix it!¡± I felt sorrier to Zack then my ship when Selena yelled at her brother. I let out a loud laugh. ¡°It¡¯s just the bolts on the landing struts break every time. Good thing those parts are cheap. If you¡¯re sorry how about you help me with maintenance tomorrow?¡± ¡°Is there something wrong with it?¡± ¡°Just a check up. I¡¯ll teach you the parts of the ship while I¡¯m at it. It¡¯s late, I¡¯ll call you up early so get some sleep.¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± ¡°I told you to stop addressing me as ¡®sir¡¯.¡± ¡°Goodnight Kai.¡± ¡°Goodnight to you too Selena.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. It¡¯s gotten a lot lively over these five years. I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life until I met them. ¡°Heh.¡± I laid down on Ceraborous and stared at the stars. If I were compare and choose my past life or my current one, I would choose the current life. It feels more lively than what I originally lived and I didn¡¯t have to follow anyone to their death. I feel fulfilled and wish I can live like this forever, except the part of me being beaten up all the time. - - The next day I woken Zack up before dawn and began to do maintenance on Ceraborous. I explained every piece of machinery as well as their functions, taught him how to refuel the ship and had him do basic adjustments. We took it slow but managed to finish before noon. ¡°My brain¡­ it hurts¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have to learn it eventually, almost every model is similar to my ship but a lot simpler too. I don¡¯t have the money to send it to a garage, they charge a lot.¡± ¡°You taught yourself this?¡± ¡°I had a trainer, back when I was in a pilot training.¡± ¡°You were a part of the empire?¡± ¡°I guess you can say that, I went AWOL and stole this after I completed my training because I hated all the superiors ordering me around. By the way, have you given up of revenge?¡± ¡°Of course not! And I won¡¯t until I killed every one of them.¡± ¡°I see, we¡¯ll have to get you a new ship once you decide to suicide.¡± ¡°EH!? But I like using Ceraborous!¡± ¡°It¡¯s my ship, I potty trained you in it but it doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s yours. You better be saving money because I¡¯m not using my funds.¡± ¡°Cheapskate.¡± ¡°You two finished?¡± ¡°Ah. Morning Selena.¡± ¡°It¡¯s afternoon now, I prepared lunch. Are you two going to take a job today?¡± ¡°Nah. I¡¯m taking a break. I think I saved enough money for a day off.¡± ¡°Great, there¡¯s a place where I would like to revisit.¡± ¡°You mean¡­¡± ¡°Yes, to our parent¡¯s grave. We haven¡¯t visited them in a while.¡± ¡°I see, I¡¯ll make preparations then.¡± An hour later we met up. Selena bought a few items from the market and climbed into the back seat with Zack. I set the coordinates to our destination and began the warp drive sequence. ¡°Ready?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Thrusters online, energy shields activated, online. Warp drive enabled awaiting command. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Ceraborous warped through space at my command. It took less than five minutes to arrive to Blore. ¡°Were here. Zack, watch closely how I land the ship alright?¡± ¡°I got it so stop making fun of me!¡± I ¡®perfectly¡¯ landed the ship and handled all the equipment Selena bought for her parents. We travelled through the woods until we stumbled by the crashed site where I had first met the two siblings. ¡°Selena, I¡¯ll leave you guys for a moment. I¡¯m going to check out the ship.¡± She replied in silence as the siblings brought the things for their parents and started praying. I went near the crash site and began exploring the wreckage. The machines are all inactive and I checked the luggage hoping maybe I can find some cash. And I did, about twenty-three thousand Hous in total. It is a ship that carried immigrants moving to this planet so they should carry a great amount of money right? I then found what I remember the soldier held, the documents from the rebels. To summarize the orders, infiltrate the research team at a mining operation, all the documents for clearance have been included in the envelope and¡­ there¡¯s an unfamiliar seal covering the empire¡¯s seal. Could the seal be on top be the rebel seal? Agh¡­ my head hurts thinking about this¡­ I kept the document and decide to investigate it later for my own interest. ¡°Oh my radial jammer is still here. I totally forgot to bring it back with me.¡± It¡¯s rusted by now. The circuitry is still intact so I can fix it later, the battery has just been drained. Time to head back and see how they¡¯re doing. I can see their parent¡¯s grave neatly decorated with flowers and a picture of the siblings and I smiling. ¡°Do you think it was alright for me to not send you two to an orphanage?¡± ¡°Yeah, both of us are grateful for what did you for us these five years. We couldn¡¯t ask for anything more. It feels like you are actually our father.¡± ¡°Is that so.¡± ¡°Are you finally admitting you¡¯re old?¡± ¡°Dammit Zack! I was trying to flow with the mood!¡± I chased Zack around, as Selena laughed at our comedic act. After we spent the day cleaning the graves of other people I could not save, a tiresome day but it felt refreshing. ¡°Phew, finally finished.¡± ¡°I¡¯m beat. Selena just how strong are you, you¡¯ve been working non-stop. Take a break.¡± ¡°I¡¯m almost done.¡± She pulls the last bit of weeds from the area before taking a rest. The sun sets and colors everything in bright orange. A gentle breeze touches our faces as admire the weather mother nature gave us. I felt some weight onto my left shoulder, it was Selena. The back of her head fell onto my shoulder as I begin to notice Zack slowly drops his head, try as hard as he could to stay awake. I still have to finish my conversation with him. ¡°Zack.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Serious talk. I know this won¡¯t change your mind but I think you should give up on revenge, isn¡¯t fine living like this?¡± Zack¡¯s face turns sour from my words. He looks towards the horizon trying to process his thoughts into words. ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°Then are you planning to join the rebel faction?¡± ¡°Rebel faction?¡± ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s a group that already disapproves of the empire¡¯s laws. Since the empire forced many lands to be given to them, they want to fight back for it.- huh? What¡¯s wrong? Hello?¡± Zack¡¯s face become blank, he falls into a deep thought as I waved my hand trying to get his attention. ¡°I-its because of them¡­¡± ¡°Wait¡­ who?¡± ¡°It¡¯s because of the rebels my parents are dead.¡± ¡°Aw wait no! God dammit.¡± I think I refuelled his hatred. He¡¯s going to say¡­ ¡°I¡¯m going to crush them and the empire.¡± Yeah. That. ¡°I can¡¯t stop you but I have many things to point out. If, however you decide to attack the them you would need power, followers, and money. Where would you get those? You would need connections throughout the world and appeal to the masses. One ship wouldn¡¯t do shit and they can label you as terrorist without having you do anything. You¡¯ll just endanger your own sister.¡± ¡°B-but!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not saying I don¡¯t believe in you. I¡¯m stating the facts. You¡¯ll end up hurting yourself than both the rebel and the empire. You¡¯ll even hurt me.¡± Zack pounds his fist into the earth and stares at his parent¡¯s graves. His eyes tear up and his face looks a bit lost. ¡°E-even so. I just can¡¯t forgive them.¡± ¡°I know, life isn¡¯t fair. Some things you have to let go to move on. By the way, can you help me move Selena off my arm, it¡¯s a bit numb haha.¡± Maybe when he¡¯s older he can do whatever he wants, but for now I¡¯m just his teacher. He¡¯ll stress himself if he always thinks about revenge, kinda reminds me of a dear friend of mine that followed the path Zack tried to take.