The Tale of Tara and Emiko

XXXIV

Today was the day Tara Moonslight labeled herself a murderer.

She couldn't even remember exactly what happened. One moment Reed was falling to the ground in almost slow motion, a hole blown through his brain. The next, Tara stood over Emrys's corpse, barely distinguishable from the destroyed walls due to the huge scorch marks riddling her figure. The three guards who once held her back suffered the same fate, Tara's whip still activated and sizzling in her hand. The smell of burning metal and flesh wafted up into her nose. She gagged, falling to her knees on the floor.

The radio clipped to Emrys's belt buzzed, somehow spared from Tara's attack. "Hello?" The voice is metallic and sounds almost robotic. Tara froze, scared to even breathe.

After a beat of silence, the radio crackled again. "This is Eon speaking. Emrys? Are you there?"

Tara crept over to the radio, picking it up in a shaking hand. Her electric whip bumped against the side of the small black box by accident, nearly frying the connection. The radio went silent.

After a bit of fiddling and a totally not dangerous rewiring of the radio to connect it to Tara's hacking device disguised as a lip gloss container, the screen lit up with a blinding flash of what reminded Tara of the "snow" on her television screen that was probably older than her grandparents, then dimmed to a gray background with a blinking white dot. Probably the location of the radio that belonged to her sister's murderer. She walked out of the room and down the metallic hallway, making her way to the dot on the screen.

One more person, she thought. One more kill, and then they'll put you behind bars. One last death to avenge your sister, and then you can finally rest.

A haze still in her mind, Tara found herself turning down a corridor she'd never seen before, walking without thought into unfamiliar territory. The pulsing light on the screen was near enough to be around the corner.

Closer...

Closer...

Tara felt for the power button on her whip. One more strike, one more surge of lethal energy, and then she'd throw this thing into the stratosphere and accept execution with open arms.

Three incredibly large doors slid closed, one for each hallway leading out of the room Tara had stepped into, hissing and sealing themselves with a thunk.

A trap.

Tara cursed under her breath, seething. The only way to get out now was to have someone else open the doors from the outside, warned a sign on the wall that Tara had neglected to read.

"Hey there, little butterfly," called a singsong, robotic voice. "Little Monarchy girl...little spy, little traitor, little murderer...where are you?"

Tara's spine prickled, sensing the unfamiliar presence walking towards her. Eon. She gripped her whip. One chance was all she'd get.

Tara darted out, only glimpsing her target for a second before she flicked her wrist, aiming her whip at where Eon's neck should be in a move she'd used hundreds of times on the training dummies in the past. It was so much nicer in the past. Eon was wearing a ragged brown travelers' cloak, the hood flipped up to obscure her face. The whip burnt through the fabric, but the cloak mended itself instantly. Tara only had a second to process what this could mean before the whip wrapped itself around Eon's throat.

She stiffened.

"Cute," she said, stretching out the word. Her voice was interrupted by glitchy blips and crackles, making it sound even more menacing. A single metal finger slipped between the sputtering strand of energy and her throat, unraveling it and grasping the whip, using a single arm to swing it around and throw Tara against the wall. She landed hard, gasping for breath, the handle of her lifeless whip still clenched in her hand.

"You know, if you weren't trying to kill me I would've thought that was funny," Eon said, her hood falling away. Her face was still hidden by a strange choker wrapped around her neck, turning any recognizable features into vague shapes and splotches of color. At first glance, her hair looked somewhat normal, but another glance told Tara it was made of hundreds of millions of razor-thin wires, so silvery and reflective they almost hurt to look at with the red lights blaring from the corners of the room.

The entirety of her neck was made of pure metal.

That explains the voice and the immunity, Tara thought. Turning towards Eon, she said, "you killed my sister" in what she hoped would be a threatening voice.

The words that stumbled out were little more than a whisper.

"What was that?" Eon said, holding back laughter. "You'll have to repeat it before I kill you!" Her metal hand whirred, fingers fusing together to form a blade, gleaming in the scarlet light. She stabbed at Tara, who ducked and scrambled away, head still throbbing.

The chaos that followed was more of a cat-and-mouse chase than a battle, Tara ducking under and leaping over Eon's attacks, sidestepping and parrying and dodging, shaking her whip, which remained cold and still, powerless.

"Stay...still!" Eon muttered. "Stop acting like a coward and fight me normally!"

"Not...a... CHANCE!" Tara replied, somehow managing a playful tone as she barely dodged a metallic ninja star, hearing the whoosh as it passed by her ear.

"Aah! What is wrong with you?!?" Eon yelled as Tara, on the ground, grabbed a corner of her cloak, yanking her to the side and throwing her off balance.

"You killed my sister!" Tara shouted, finally getting her whip to power up and wrapping it around Eon's arm, frying the circuits mid-transformation and stopping it between hand and something that looked like a grenade launcher. Eon staggered, her only weapon suddenly rendered useless. She opened her mouth to say something. The fog in Tara's mind roared, Emrys's last attack.

She deserved it.

"SHE DIDN'T!" Tara screamed, livid. She dashed at Eon, swinging the dagger she'd nearly forgotten she had in a frenzy, slowly backing the girl into a corner. Eon fought back, but she wasn't as strong as before. She looked...shocked?

"Emiko. Never. Deserved. To. Die!" Tara shouted, still trading blows with Eon. "She cared for me when no one else would. When I was sick, she stole twice as much to provide for me and never asked of anything in return! Sure, she was the younger one, but I always thought she was the stronger one! And now, I'm sure she was!"

"Wait, what?" Eon said, confused. Her defense slowed.

Tara continued, ignoring Eon. "She was kind, and smart, and you don't know how many things I've sacrificed to keep her safe. I let myself get captured by Selene because if I fought, they'd find her. They'd hurt her to hurt me." The words were tumbling out in an intense torrent of emotion, the tears shining in Tara's eyes growing brighter with every second of her monologue. She raised her dagger, preparing to strike, but Eon knocked it away, kicking Tara back a few feet.

"Hey, look, will you just listen to me for once-"

"NO!" Tara screamed, cutting Eon off. "Don't try to respond to me, you sick murderer, because any chance of forgiveness for you died with my sister. Don't go around saying she deserved to die to me when YOU WERE THE ONE TO KILL HER!" Tara's whip crackled as she swung her arm in a graceful arc, aiming for Eon's heart. A direct, deadly hit.

"STOP!"