The Savage Brawl [Round 5: Battletopia]

"An escapee? On top of the rebellion?"

"Sort of," Arkal said. "His body's still there, but Triumphian tells me his spirit's fled it. He's working on calling it back, but that's going to take at least an hour. Emily says she can detect it if it possesses anyone or anything in the building, and the wards should keep it from leaving. But more eyes on the problem wouldn't hurt."

High Admiral Itzel turned to her other monitor.

"This is High Admiral Itzel. Full surveillance on the outerworld prison. Report any unusual activity, particularly if it involves something moving that shouldn't be able to."

"Admiral, we've already got our hands full searching for rebels," Captain Quirrinal's voice called back. "I'd have to drag people in from other posts."

"Drag whoever you need to, Quirrinal. I don't care where you grab them from at this point."

"Even security?"

Itzel paused.

"Keep security levels as high as you can on all critical functions, but aside from that, take who you need. There's too much going on tonight to take any risk."

"Understood, Admiral."

Itzel turned back to Arkal.

"You'd better not get any other problems out there. We're doing a lot for you in here, you know. And we're stretched to the breaking point."

"I appreciate it, Admiral," Arkal said, saluting. "You've all done good work."

"I mean it. We've had to deal with three rebellions here, and that's just this timeline. Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken Kracht this long to have trouble, but I guess you have a smaller population to keep an eye on."

"He says there's usually some kind of trouble when the round begins. This is just bigger trouble than usual."

"Well, you'd better keep your trouble out of here..."

Before Itzel could finish, the screen went dark. Then the lights did as well.

"Equipment malfunction," she groaned. "Of course this happens now. Where the hell is Heng?"

She turned around to see the Chief Engineer standing behind her, holding a blaster.

"Right here, Admiral."

"I knew we were overdue," she grumbled. "So let's see. Either Quirrinal's in on it, or Szindle's been eavesdropping. Probably Szindle, he could fake some orders to let you convince security to let you in..."

"Does it really matter at this point, Admiral? Do you know how many of your top officers are sick and tired of taking marching orders from Kracht, of turning Lucky into one big labor camp?"

"Let me guess. Half. Enough to send one to kill or persuade the other half."

"Two-thirds. More or less; I had to come up here alone."

"You're not willing to shoot me, Heng. If you were, you would have already."

"Can't deny that; I'm not really a killer. But I don't need to. Power's out in this room, which means no calling for help and the door's shut tight. And you don't have the expertise to fix that. You're not leaving this room until I say so, so if you were thinking of killing me, well, hope you enjoy rotting away here."

"Why the hell are you doing this, Heng? Hoss wants to eradicate everything that isn't human, which is to say, well over ninety percent of our population. And Kracht's the only one who knows how to stop him."

"Well, Admiral, Hoss is locked up tight, and yet from what I can see nothing's changed here."

"You've seen those archives from the other Lucky VIIs. You confirmed their authenticity yourself. You know what Hoss can do."

"Yes, Admiral, I do. And I also know what you can do. What you did."

Itzel was taken aback.

"You went poking into the files marked 'for my eyes only', didn't you."

"Mass executions, Admiral. Explain that to me!"

"I was shocked by what that Itzel did, too. But she's not me."

"See, there's a problem with that argument, Admiral," Heng said. "The whole reason why Kracht does what he does - why we're supposed to follow him - is that Hoss is one of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse. But if you're not the same Itzel, who's to say this is the same Hoss? If we're punishing him for the crimes of his other selves, then the same logic applies to you."

"Well, then. I guess that means you're locked in a room with a mass murderer, you've got a gun, and you're afraid to pull the trigger. Care to explain why?"

"I... You... You're stalling!"

"Maybe, but what does it matter? You're not shooting me, so stalling would just be a gamble on which side wins out there."

Heng didn't say anything.

"So let me make a quick guess. You're conflicted. You really are afraid I might go as far as ordering the death of every human on Lucky. At the same time, you don't want to believe I'd actually do it. You can't decide which of those feelings to act on, so you're putting off the decision as long as you can."

Itzel hovered a little closer.

"Maybe an order will help. Chief Engineer Heng, I order you to either surrender and let me out of here, or shoot me and end the menace I represent to our people. In the next five seconds."

Heng took a deep breath before lowering the gun.

"I guess I don't really believe it, Admiral."

"Good. Then let's get out of here and see if we can convince anyone else, before we've got a disaster on our hands."

Heng nodded awkwardly, and opened up a circuit panel on the wall. After some fiddling the lights went back on and the door opened up, revealing Security Chief Malfallow.

Without a word, he pointed a pistol at Heng and shot him.

"That was unnecessary. He'd already surrendered," Itzel said. "I grant it would be a risk to keep him around, but he could have helped us negotiate a settlement with the other rebels...

She fell to the ground as Malfallow's second shot struck her.

"Perhaps he could have," he said. "But that would not have served my needs."