The Fractured - Farcture-verse

Flying.

The ultimate goal.

That was what Cloud Streak tried to instil in me from day one. Cloud was another recipient of my prosthetics. She was also the first Pegasus to enter the Gear Guard, the voluntary group of injured soldiers whose lives I had helped transform. It was difficult to say no to the soldiers, so I had accepted their offer on one condition. Pyrus would be my main protector. This was changed to state when on the ground once Cloud Streak arrived.

Neither of us could fly at first and Cloud was far worse off than me. Both of her wings had been amputated, the result of an horrific crash which had left gash-like scars across much of her body. The pattern it formed brought her the call sign, Flying Zebra. Initially, my part in learning to fly was to be secret. As such, my call sign became Gearheart.

Eventually, I discovered that squads often gave call signs to those they regularly protected, including royalty. Celestia’s was Daystar, while Luna’s, unsurprisingly, was Eclipse. Princess Cadance, my adopted cousin, was Heartbreaker, and Twilight Sparkle had the unenviable name, Booknut. I still don’t think I want to know why.

As we both had issues and ground to cover, Cloud and I trained together, even before officially having our wings attached. We also collaborated on the designs with one of Luna’s bat pony guards. Together, we came to craft two kinds of wings in two basic sizes based on gender and pony type. It was a tough process, but it paled in comparison to what came with actually using them.

Practice with Cloud was one of the only times Luna relented in her desire to keep me at the castle. She agreed that we needed a place to work in secret. This came in the form of the little known Shadowbolt Testing Grounds. This was the specialist base of the Wonderbolts where night flyers trained day and night without the hindrance of the sun to blind them. It meant the building was huge in both length and height, yet it was tucked away in the Badlands where few ponies dared to go.

It was also home to the construction of a special project I wanted to personally oversee. It had taken some effort to get it here from the far south, especially as it lacked any form of propulsion, but a bulbous island now floated alongside the testing grounds. I had taken my time in selecting it, it needed to be perfect after all. Completely barren and uninhabited, the island was now being reshaped and fitted with the facilities needed for my future plans.

I smiled as I gazed upon it. This would become my mobile hospital. Able to travel to wherever needed, it could come to the patients in greatest need instead of forcing them to travel to Canterlot. I even envisioned it visiting other lands on missions of mercy. Staffed by medical teams who volunteered their time, I could foresee this flying ship, the Wings of Artemis as I called it, becoming a beacon of hope within the borders of Equestria and beyond.

The speciality, of course, bring mobility back to those crippled and maimed.

Luna was happy. After all, she was patron of the Shadowbolts, much like Celestia was patron to the Wonderbolts themselves. To start with, Cloud struggled with the constant low-light and darkness of the training area. This improved when she was granted special goggles which allowed her to see through darkness, even fog.

We trained hard. Well, actually, Cloud refused to ever take an easy route. It hurt. Every single time we finished training, I swear I discovered muscles I didn’t know I had and all of them were complaining bitterly about being used in such ways. It was worth it though. With Cloud pushing me and herself to our very limits so frequently, we not only clawed ourselves back into the skies, but also developed what would become the training techniques for ponies who literally needed to earn their wings in order to fly again.

Cloud’s work, ethics and dedication impressed me so much that I had no problem handing the leadership of the Gear Guard aerial unit to her; affectionately known as the Steel Wings. Lucky Buck having earned the leadership of the ground force shortly after the guard’s formation. The Gear Guard itself became a common sight around the castle in Canterlot, much like their considerably larger sister forces, the Night Guard and Day Guard.

Oh, the freedom I felt with flying. It was so much greater than the short hops I had taken after arriving in Equestria, only to be cruelly grounded later the following day. My injuries could no longer deny me, but one pony did her best to try. It was why I found my way to her door one cool morning. I know she had been up all night, but so had I and I had a bit of a point to prove.

I knocked on the door with my replaced right leg. Oh, the usefulness of it. I often caught myself fantasising about replacing my other legs to match. I doubt Luna would have been thrilled with the idea so I left it as just a thought. Speaking of Luna, I entered her bedroom to find her standing on her balcony. Her horn was alight with magical essence as she eased her moon towards the horizon and the end of her work for the night.

I watched and waited patiently. Luna always seemed the more melancholy of the two elder princesses. It was something I understood intimately. After all, it was her blood which pumped through my veins. I had asked her once about my sire. I learned that, unsurprisingly, he had been a bat pony in the Night Guard. A great soldier whose life was lost before my birth. One of many losses Luna and I had suffered, often mutually, throughout our years.

When I had watched her hang her head in thought with her back to me for long enough, I extended one of my gripper rods from the end of my right hoof and tapped the ground. The click of my gripper on the floor caught Luna’s ear. She was smiling even as she turned her head to me. She gestured with a wing for me to join her and I did so. We sat side by side, only a sliver of a gap between us, watching as the muted colours of yet another of Luna’s perfect nights slowly faded with the encroaching light of Celestia’s dawn.

Luna sighed. I glimpsed her head as it drooped in sadness. Wanting to head it off, I leaned close and nudged her side with my shoulder. She eyed me without turning her head. I grinned at her, gave a flutter of my wings then nodded my head at the sky above and beyond the balcony. Luna lowered her eyebrows as if to say no. I nudged her again, this time with my replaced wing. It was even stronger than my normal wing; harder too.

I caught her attention fully this time and nodded more insistently to the sky. I wasn’t ready to accept a no for an answer. Keeping my gaze fixed on her, I rose to my hooves. Remaining low to the ground, I partially spread my wings and ruffled them before nodding to the sky again.

Luna’s response? She closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. Just when I thought she might reject my unspoken invitation, she leapt to her hooves and spread her wings. With a competitive grin now cracking her snooter, Luna threw herself skyward. I had to roll my eyes, she was easy to bait. A heartbeat later, I hurled myself after her.

I could feel the many ever-watchful eyes on us as I caught up to Luna and moved into formation two body-lengths apart, our stomachs and hooves facing each other. We rose higher and higher, spinning in the twin coiling shafts of a double helix, our tails acting as our contrails. The morning sun burst into view over Canterlot as we reached our peak. We tucked our wings and peeled backwards, falling away from each other before lazily freefalling back towards the ground, gaining speed at a tremendous pace.

With the castle gardens growing in clarity at our rapid descent, we snapped open and flared our wings. We swooped over the tops of the hedges and topiaries before arcing upwards again. I stole a peek at Luna as she flew beside me. Her smile was so free now, there was a glint of excitement in her eyes. When she noticed my gaze, I gave her a wink and pushed on ahead of her, giggling to myself as I went.

I banked hard as we rose, pulling in close to one of the castle towers. I looped around it then shot across the rooftops to the next, only rising in height to clear the next level of castle roof as I aimed for the next tower. I glanced back. Luna was right on my tail, grinning all the while. Coming to the final tower, I wrapped in close to the stonework, spiralling around it, rising higher and higher, leading Luna on a merry chase until we reached the top and burst for the sky.

I flared my wings and flopped backwards, turning down and away with Luna moving to my side. It was such a wondrous feeling, flying through the crisp morning air together. It was amazing being able to share the sky with each other and put on an impromptu display for the early risers in the city. The joy was clearly evident on both our snooters as we aimed back towards the same castle balcony.

Our flight ended where it began. Only now we sat leaning against each other, laughing as we both tried to refill our burning lungs with bursts of air. It was a moment in which we didn’t need to speak to understand each other. We both knew this was a ritual we were building, one where, even though we were caged as royalty, we could still feel free and bond on the winds above the city we were both coming to see as home.

* * *

I drew in a deep breath as we came in to land. There was no sky chariot in the Gear Guard, I respected my volunteers too much for that and they respected my desire to fly amongst them in return. It was only members of the Steel Wings with me for this journey. The ground members were busy elsewhere, working alongside Luna and her Night Guard.

The journey to the icy reaches of the farthest south was too difficult to traverse on hoof at great speed. I had learned that well when I arrived in Equestria. We had skirted the region of the floating islands and now found ourselves at the treeless edge of the great ice fields. Cloud Streak landed with me. She was still concerned with what I wanted to do. She even tried to dissuade me as I squinted and scanned the surrounding area.

I was having none of it. Maybe if she had been with me the first time, instead of Aria, she would understand. She was worried, I knew that. This mission was dangerous, I couldn’t disagree. It was her job to raise concerns with me, even when I was the cause of them. The thing is, no matter the danger or how foolish it was, I needed to do this. I wanted to know something and, after just under two years of living in Equestria, I felt I deserved my answer.

It didn’t take long for our presence to be noticed. Sickle snapped to attention on my back. Unlike Pyrus, she was the one bodyguard I would never be able to lose while in the air or on land. She was also just a whistle away when needed.

My ears swivelled forward as they caught a sound I had almost forgotten. It was the heavy, repeated whomp of huge leathery wings thumping the air into submission with each pounding stroke. I looked up and suddenly, there it was, breaking through the darkest clouds, leaving trails of cloud vapour in its wake.

Its giant form appeared to lumber towards us through the sky, growing larger and larger with every wing beat propelling it forward. When it neared us, the dragon banked hard, performing a low and slow circle around us, its eye always on us, before flapping its wings in several quick beats to slow itself. It raised its body, flaring its wings and projecting its feet forward as if to strike us, but didn’t.

Instead, the massive beast, clad in glistening white scales, landed heavily right in front of me. The ground shuddered and groaned beneath its huge feet. Even a stubby small toe of this dragon was bigger than any pony I had ever seen; yes, including Celestia.

I swallowed hard and heard the clink of metal wings and armour next to me as the dragon’s thick neck coiled down, bringing its enormous head to where we might have a chance of being heard or snap its jaws around a pony appetiser. The dragon let out a throaty rumble and fixed a single eye on me in particular.

It was here. As was I. We were finally face to face. A chance to speak and gain an answer. All I had to do was open my mouth. I drew in a bitterly cold breath, suppressed a cough and faced one of the literal monsters of my past.

* * *

I had flown with the Steel Wings back to Equestria under the shadow of night. After all, it was our favourite cover. From there, we met with the relay members of the Night Guard. They had found what I was looking for and were awaiting our arrival. The sister guards of metal and darkness would work as one this mission.

I stood on the edge of the cliff. The dense confines of the Everfree rustling below. I frowned as I thought back to my meeting with the dragon. He had given my answer. It… wasn’t as I expected, though explained a lot. It didn’t bring back my losses, though, these days I would argue that every one of them had been worth the pain. We struck a bargain and parted without conflict. We had something to do, honesty to prove.

Luna greeted me. She was dressed for battle. Myself, not so much. I had another question to ask and the best way to draw out the one with the answer was to appear vulnerable. I wouldn’t be alone; Luna and the heads of the Gear Guard would never have allowed it. At least they agreed to wait out of sight until the right moment. So here I stood. Pyrus and Aria behind me, Sickle on my back. We were together. Considering what we were about to face, it was very fitting.

We waited for several minutes on those barren, wind-swept clifftops before we spotted something hugging the edge of the cliffs and the Everfree. Once the speck was spotted, it didn’t take long for it to come into view.

I heard Pyrus crack his hoof against the ground. Glancing back at him, I could see the rage welling within as he bristled at what he saw. There was all the confirmation I needed. After all, I had never seen much of the ship apart from my cage and its surrounds. I had been unconscious when taken aboard after all.

Turning to watch as the ship approached, it reminded me of a mix between an early dirigible and a wooden galleon from the golden age of piracy in the human world. The fact I had lived through both eras was still incredibly strange to me. The huge balloon, probably made of canvas, was tethered to the ship by many thick rope lines. The only real alteration, from what I saw as a genuine mishmash of technologies, were the two strangely shaped metal shafts which stuck out from either side of the ship and ended in what could be considered huge paddles of some kind.

With the ship in sight, Pyrus ignited his element, engulfing much of his form in vicious flames of blue and green. He could be a flashy flaming Nightterror when he wanted to be. Sure as the night, I wasn’t going to stop him. Not to be outdone, Aria called upon the magic drawn in by her blue crystal. The essence wrapped around her, enveloping her pony form before growing far greater in size.

When she next emerged, Aria was enormous. It was the first time I had seen her true form and I had to say it was stunning. As purple as her pony coat and radiating with her essence, she towered over us, a mix of pony and aquatic beast. This was no pithy mermaid of human legend. Aria was a Siren of Equestria through and through. The form she took, that of the legendary hippocampus; her new crystal embedded within her chest.

I was suddenly really glad Aria had given Sonata a little time for Aunt and Niece bonding with Crescendo. The foal may not be ready to witness the true wrath her mother could bring just yet.

So there we stood. A delectable platter of rare creatures, with Pyrus acting as a beacon, just waiting for these trappers to come for us.

The ship turned to come alongside the cliff. We were just too rare an offer to ignore. As it slowed, the crew of gryphons we could see keeping check of the deck and rigging, ran out the gangplank. Its end landed just this side of the cliff edge, leaving a gap between the rocks and the side of the ship.

None of us moved. We were a form of bait after all, even if it was just to lure out the minotaur in order to speak with him. We didn’t have to wait long.

The bipedal bull emerged from his cabin, a fine cape draped from his shoulders, masking much of his body from sight. We had seen it before. We knew how strongly built he was. After all, he often wrestled his prey into submission, only using his gauntlet when absolutely necessary.

His expression appeared neutral as he stepped from the gangplank. He stopped in front of us in order to examine the prizes he was no doubt preparing to claim. A smile cracked his lips and he gave a chuckle. “What a surprise. Three pets who escaped their cages come willingly back to me.”

Aria snarled wordlessly.

“Oh, quiet yourself,” the minotaur said, an air of control to his voice and posture. “I knew what you were even if you only now show it.”

He held out his hand, the one covered in the gauntlet that neither of us could forget. “Now, are you going to step aboard willingly, or do I have to tame you all once more?”

Pyrus stamped a hoof and Sickle screeched.

I, on the other hoof, remained calm. I lifted my gaze to look the minotaur up and down. Somehow, in the gloomy, close confines of the ship well over a year ago, he had appeared threatening. Maybe it was just how out of it I was during that time which twisted my memory. Or was it that I had stood in the presence of far more immense creatures more recently. Just, out here, on this open clifftop, and even though he was still taller than me, he didn’t appear as intimidating.

The minotaur’s smile faded when neither of us moved. “Come now. We all know how this will end. You know what I will do if you don’t comply.”

“We know,” I said, finally answering his challenge.

“Then get aboard already,” the minotaur said, his voice hardening at our lack of movement.

“Thing is, we know what you have done,” I continued. “Most would demand you be punished for your crimes. My family definitely would, also my friends. I, on the other hoof, have a simple question. Why?”

The minotaur blinked several times, somewhat surprised by the question. His face shifted into a scowl and he raised his voice to the level we remembered he used just before lashing out. “You ask me why? Why I use unicorns for the easily tapped magical essence? Why I imprisoned you? Why I keep all I conquer in cages? Seeing what you have done to yourself, I thought you would be smart enough to figure it out.”

I shook my head. “I know your reasoning for those crimes. There is one, however, which I could never bring myself to understand.”

A large shadow quickly passed overhead. The minotaur squinted as he tried to figure out what I alluded to.

“You see,” I said calmly. “You have taken many from their homelands and forced them into servitude. Yaks, gryphons, sea ponies and many others. Even me. An Alicorn.”

I shook my head. “Perhaps you don’t seem to understand how badly you erred in capturing me and syphoning my magic. I stand as one with Siren and Nightterror. The lost races of Equestria past. I the lost Alicorn.”

I squared my shoulders and declared, “My name is Princess Selene Chromia, leader of the Gear Guard. Daughter of Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, leader of the Night Guard and Goddess of the Moon. Niece of Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, leader of the Day Guard and Goddess of the Sun. And here I stand, simply to repeat my question. Why?”

The shadow fell on us again, except this time it remained in place, only to grow rapidly in size.

“A smart minotaur like you,” I said. “Why, in the names of my Mother and Aunty, would you ever kidnap the granddaughter of an elder ice dragon?”

At the end of my question, I braced myself, letting the gripper rods of my metal hoof grasp the ground firmly. A second later, the owner of the shadow slammed down onto the ground with me still standing beneath its broad chest, between its thick legs.

I smiled at the minotaur who now stared up at the massive dragon. His pupils had shrunk to pinpricks and his mouth hung open in wordless terror. He glanced at me. I was still smiling while the dragon drew his huge head back. “Just asking for a friend.”

The dragon thrust his head forward, opened his enormous maw, of which even his teeth were bigger than the minotaur, and let out a thunderous roar right in the face of the minotaur. To his credit, the minotaur stood tall as the blast of air ripped at every inch of his muscular form. When the roar abated, I could hear the gasps trying to escape the minotaur’s throat.

“His name is Bleak, Elder Dragon of the Southern Ice and King of all within his domain,” I stated, taking the lull in noise as a chance to speak. “He’s also rather angry with you right now.”

As if to prove my point, Bleak bared his viciously serrated teeth while his throat emitted a low, menacing rumble.

“Can’t say many others aren’t, either.” I turned my head and gave a nod. Where once only Luna had stood on the peak of the mountain, a swarm of her Night Guard bat ponies took to the sky accompanied by the Steel Wings. The ground forces, Gear and Night Guard alike, rose from their divots in the earth, tossing aside their camouflage and illusions, standing ready to swarm in from the sides when ordered. “I suggest you stop your poaching of other species, step aside, free every one of your captives and we can all leave peacefully.”

This was a show of sheer numbers. Something we all doubted the minotaur could counteract. For our forces, that may have been foolish. For the minotaur waved his gauntleted hand and his flying ship turned to face us. I blinked. Those two massive, oddly shaped poles attached to the sides of the ship… They were huge crystal syphons! Ones which could dwarf a house each in size and they were aimed directly at us.

The unicorns of both groups were the first struck. The moment they brought their magic to bear, it was latched onto by the ship’s syphons which drank in everything it could pull. The bat ponies and pegasi did their best to board the ship, but the crew of loyal griffons engaged them in the skies. The Earth Ponies found themselves ineffective until the Steel Wings flew in to hoist them skyward, held between their legs, before depositing them on the deck. This led Lucky Buck to command the efforts of the boarding party.

Bleak had a difficult time. I could see it in his eyes. He just wanted to lay waste to the ship itself from the outset, but couldn’t. Sure, there was no one to truly oppose his might other than the ship itself. What stayed his claws and fury was not knowing where on the ship his granddaughter could be. If he acted too rashly, she could be injured. So, our greatest, most formidable weapon was reduced to latching onto the stern of the ship to keep it from escaping. Which brought the griffons against him and he was soon a large part of the fight for the ship with Luna actually moving to assist him against what Bleak consider feathered mosquitos.

For us on the rocky cliff, facing the minotaur was no simple thing. He still wore his gauntlet and could suppress any magic which came his way. Even, as Pyrus knew well, through direct touch. This kept both of us and Sickle at a good distance. Aria, on the other hoof, wasn’t so willing to concede ground. She was revelling in her return to her true form and took the fight directly to the minotaur.

It was an awesome sight to watch. Aria was far greater in size than the minotaur but he still held his own. Fists and hooves clashed again and again. Both combatants roared in frustration and exhilaration, even when they came together in fierce grappling. That was probably Aria’s greatest mistake. Every time he managed to grasp Aria with his gauntlet, we glimpsed a moment where the minotaur’s strength managed to surpass her own.

Only swift strikes with her tail were able to free Aria long enough to regain her composure. Feeling she was losing control of the fight when she should have already won, the next time they clashed, Aria sunk her teeth into the shoulder of the minotaur. This only led to the minotaur wrapping her in a headlock and dragging her to the ground.

The magic restraining ability of his gauntlet was just too much for Aria to counteract. Her tail thrashed ineffectually as she continued to try and strike at him with her hooves. I clenched my jaw as I watched my friend be brought down by that infernal gauntlet, knowing I couldn’t strike him with just magic.

A thought flashed through my head. While we watched Aria struggle to bite at the minotaur, I latched onto my errant thought even as I watched her strength failing her. I could see it in the slits of her eyes as she fought on. We had to do something. It was in that moment that my thought became a plan.

“Aria! Hold him!” I don’t doubt Aria hissed back something snide. I simply didn’t catch it as I turned to Pyrus. “With me, big guy?”

Pyrus scraped a flaming hoof at the rock, leaving a fire-filled gouge in its wake. I lit my horn with essence. And we began our charge.

“Just like with the forge!” I yelled.

Of course, Pyrus didn’t respond. He couldn’t talk. He didn’t have to. His mere presence spoke volumes.

It took a lot of restraint on my part, no doubt Pyrus felt the same. We both wanted to help Aria, but this would take some finesse. We definitely had the skills, we just needed time and focus.

While I let my magical essence build, Pyrus was becoming one with his element, oozing fire from every pore. The flames he began to emit in that moment licked higher than the castle gates back in Canterlot but that didn’t stop him. He pressed on, feeding his flames more and more.

Soon, the raging inferno Pyrus had unleashed dwarfed any I had witnessed him conjure to date. It took me a moment to gather myself and shake off a twinge of fear I felt. Projecting my magic out towards my friend, I slipped it amongst the flames, taking great care to not engulf and snuff it from existence. Instead, I infused it, melded it with my magic, letting both coil and burn as one, growing in intensity until we both felt the time was right.

Pyrus shot me a hard gaze. I returned it with my own. We nodded at each other and focused together. The magically impregnated fire we had formed flickered as it tried to escape our control. We didn’t let it. Nor did we stop it. Instead, we channelled it, conjuring a single path for it to take. The magic and flames were all too eager, they wanted to consume.

Instead of unleashing the entire ball in a column of utter destruction to scorch the minotaur from the world and Aria along with him, we allowed it to take a more… fitting form. The fire lashed out, sizzling the air as it raced at the minotaur in the form of a burning whip. It would have been easy and rather poetic to return the favour he had granted my eye, but that wasn’t our target. He also had a natural shield against magic.

The minotaur wrenched his syphon gauntlet from where it had been trying to rip Aria’s crystal out of her chest and thrust it out to ward off our attack. The funny thing is, a device well-made will only ever do its job, and his gauntlet did just that. It latched on to my magic and began to draw it in. He laughed at our attempt. He had direct access to my magic now. I snickered in response.

It was only as the mix of magic and flames wrapped around his gem and gauntlet that the minotaur started to realise his mistake. The fire, once out of contact with Pyrus’ body, no longer contained the magical essence of a Nightterror. Pyrus had superheated his flames so much before releasing them into my magic that, by the time they wrapped around the minotaur’s gauntlet, it had barely begun to cool.

That was when we learned that the minotaur could fear something. Our infused fire overwhelmed the gold of the gauntlet, stripping it of its pathways and magical channels, and freeing my magic from being syphoned to play its part. I didn’t so much take the gauntlet from the minotaur, I twisted it instead, binding it to his flesh. He screamed at that. A single terrible scream to repay all the cries he had wrenched from the captives he considered his.

I wasn’t done. Neither was Pyrus. We had done this so very many times by now, we could do it in our sleep. I set the template amongst the metals, tracking magical pathways this way and that. The crystal would remain. It was too important to cast aside. Pyrus began the cooling process. His flames may have raged but there was no heat for them to cast. Then came the finale, the one step nopony outside our forge had witnessed until today.

In flew Sickle, a trail of frost chilling the air in her wake. With one arm still competing with Aria and the other in utter agony from our attack, the minotaur could do nothing to even swat Sickle away as she wrapped his hand and forearm in layer after layer of frost. The gold hardened, locking the minotaur’s hand in place. As Pyrus and I released our hold on his arm, Sickle flew back and perched amongst Pyrus’ fiery mane. She even gave the minotaur a side-eyed glare as if to prove a point.

Aria, fury in her eyes, jabbed a hoof into the minotaur’s chest then slammed him to the ground, sending out a shockwave to rival the one Bleak had made upon landing. The minotaur was down, pinned beneath Aria’s hoof. She leaned her head in so close to his head, her breath ruffled his fur. She exposed her teeth to him and growled, “Puny bull.”

With the minotaur out of commission and the wing of the Night Guard keeping the gryphons occupied, Bleak took hold of one of the ship’s huge syphon’s in one hand, dug the claws of his other hand into the stern, and made wish. He ripped the magic syphon from its housing, crushed the shaft of it with his claws and tossed the wreckage aside. He shifted his hold on the ship, forcing it onto the clifftop to try and tear at the second syphon.

The Steel Wing moved in at this point and, with Cloud Streak taking the lead, used their wings to slice through the ropes holding the gasbag to the ship. With its ability to take to the skies crippled, all that remained to do was round up the gryphons and any other ally of the minotaur.

For his part, the minotaur just sat staring at his hand, his face twisted in agony and horror. His most beloved creation worked against him now and could never be removed, save for slicing off most of his arm. We had tried to do things diplomatically. He had been warned against continuing his vile poaching. Instead, he decided to attack.

In return, we took everything but his life, that was his to deal with. His captives were being assisted from their living nightmare, his glorious ship, smashed beyond repair. What remained was now being sifted through by the Night Guard. Nothing was to be left behind but the minotaur. For me and my companions, what we had done, that which we were forced to do, in order to save and protect countless others, was not to be revelled in. This was his repayment. He could only blame himself.

If only he had taken the bargain…