Before Rift Apart (Complete)

Reflection

Zordoom Prison, Planet Viceron, Rivet's POV

Being let out of my cell for "cooperating" was a nice change of scenery. I stood out on a balcony, the reason why no one ever successfully escaped from this place was all too clear. From a distance this prison would be described as buildings on long sticks, rising from an ocean of red. It rained all day and night, lightning strikes were constant. There was only one legal landing pad, and the wind is so strong 90% of the day that they have to time prisoner transfers accordingly so a valuable ship isn't lost to the storm, or even the rising waves.

As for the thought of escaping, even I consider the idea to be just plain pure death. Only one legal landing pad, so as many guards as possible would be there I imagine. Probably some cannons there too, to take down unauthorized ships. I sat on the edge of the balcony, looking down. "Yep... looks like red water to me." I sighed, trying my best now to not look at the sea of literal red depression. I wondered how long it would be before I was told to go back to my cell. Normally I was allowed only 30 minutes, today however I was out for 2 hours so far.

I looked out towards the sea, the sun was setting and against the red colored sea it was beautiful beyond comprehension. The moment of appreciating beauty was over once the dark cloud known as Angela walked in on the balcony. I sighed and looked over at her. "back to my cell?" I asked in a somewhat aggressive tone. Angela smiled, it creeped me out. Her smile has this sense of her having a knife behind her back. Which honestly, was probably true since she aligned herself with Emperor Nefarious.

As if she had read my mind, right on cue practically she mentions Nefarious. "He's out doing something for about 2 or 3 days. If you're wondering why you have extra free time." I looked at her and glared. "why bother telling me that?" I asked rudely. She barely smiled. The same kind of smile I felt I was doing when I finally had come to my senses about dealing with Layden's absence. "Because... I have these." I look over and see her holding up keys... the prison keys. It felt like I was being seriously toyed with. "I refuse to fall for that..."

She sighed a little in understanding, that I would never believe her betrayal against the Emperor. "This is the real deal... He's gone. Are you so complacent with your new master that you want to actually stay here?" I glared at her, fairly angry with those choice of words. "He's YOUR master, not mine. Stop getting us confused." I said with a hint of malice. She shook her head. "Not anymore. I want out as much as you do. I'm willing to risk my life to help you escape." I still couldn't believe her words. Something about this just did not feel right...

What I saw in her was something I'd only seen once before, in the mirror. Regret, and sadness. She's finally gotten passed her apathy for what she's doing and has done. Angela was finally thinking for herself and as hard as it was for me to believe, she was sorry. She didn't outright say it, but the look she was giving me reminded me of the moment I had looked in the mirror and finally forgave Layden. Suddenly knowing her profound sadness as well as her realization gave me a good feeling. Though I wasn't sure the galaxy was ready to have two of us.

Angela had the same thought, and she smiled. It wasn't a cold smile, it was my smile. "I understand now. I also think we should get out of here." She said. I gave a slight nod. It wasn't long until we found ourselves running down a hall, dodging weapons fire as well as finding a moment to fire back at the Nefarious Prison Bots.  All through-out, my mind wandered. Despite how well everything was going, something was just gnawing at me. In some instances, Angela was holding back. I wasn't sure why though, and there was no time to ask.

Anytime we hit a dead-end, Angela would have me hack the door system and she would provide cover fire. It felt easy, well as easy as it can feel considering we were being fired at. Part of me wanted to giggle at this scenario we were in. Seemed almost redundant to keep fighting at every little stop. Angela practically carved us a path to the armory and we took whatever weapon and piece of tech we figured would help us out of this. I kept in mind that everything was going well. Too well.

We ran, and kept running until we seemed to catch a break. Angela and I had scrapped enough of those robots for them to start backing off. I practically flopped down onto the floor and sighed. "Finally, a decent moment of rest..." Angela smiled while waving her weapon. "We're still in a prison. The silence won't last too long. The landing pad isn't far away now either." She was stern about it. Normally I wouldn't trust her, but in my mind she was now familiar to me and I managed to smile back at her.

She looked around, both of us breathing heavily. "whew.. I have to work out more." I said, a slight giggle. She looked over. "We both do apparently." I nodded briefly and got back up on my feet and took a weapon and grabbed my gear pack. "Break time over?" Angela nods, we look down the hall with it's blaring red lights as I open the door for us. We begin to quickly move on to the landing pad. As we rushed, I looked behind me and saw the group of machines chasing us. My heart was visibly racing.

As we got to the landing pad and the doors opened I could feel the wind rushing against my body, my ears visibly moving in a fast way. I ran up the ramp of the ship as best and fast as I could. It wasn't until I got into the pilot's seat that I realized Angela wasn't with me. I looked up and watched as she was in the doorway, firing at the Emperor's prison bots. Angela looked over just long enough to wave me off. I understood the message all too well. I sat down and started the ship up.

Once it started up, I moved the ship recklessly and quickly. I kept the ramp down as I backed the ship closer and set the ship to hover mode. Getting up quickly I ran down to the ramp and looked on at Angela. "Angela! Get in!" She waved me off again so I used a console to get the ship to move off a little. I assumed she was going to make a run for the ship, like in the holo-films. Instead, the moment I looked at her from the console the landing pad area exploded. "No no no!" I yelled and stared but the smoke cleared and I saw nothing. Glaring at the scene for a moment I ran back up, retracting the ramp and getting back in the pilot's seat to make a quick getaway.