Child of Hades

27. More consequences

I pushed Arto away, shattering a dream. 

I rose and stepped to KM-13. "How long have you been standing there?", I asked, a bitter feeling in my heart. "And where the hell have you been?"

"I got the bomb. I told you I would.", he turned around to teleport a pile of highly effective explosives down to earth. 

Arto got up next. "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?", he shouted. He angrily marched towards the pile of black bars, determined to spoil our plans.

"You want me to kill him?", KM-13 lifted up his arm, evidently annoyed.

Arto grabbed my hips in an entirely different mood than before to push me aside. I could see KM-13 raising his arm in the corner of my eye. "NO!", I screamed. He shot anyway. Arto fell down, still on the dock. I caught his limp body before it could fall into the water.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?", I screamed at KM-13, burdened by the weight of Arto's body.

"It was just a shock. He would wake up completely fine if we were not just about to blow up Earth. So relax.", KM-13 smiled sadistically. What exactly was he?

I could not speak. Tears were building in my eyes, but I fought hard to keep them in.

"We are taking him with us.", I said decisively.

"Sure, sure.", KM-13 said in a passive-aggressive tone and teleported us to the Hubris. At first, I felt relieved to be back on my ship. The Hubris was my favorite place in the Universe.

"Don't you think he might get angry at you when you blow up his home planet?", KM-13 asked, sincerely confused. "I am not that good at empathy yet.", he added.

"Just let me think for a moment.", I said.

"Well, I definitely alarmed some flagships when I brought the explosives here. They were not as easy to hide as other materials. So maybe think fast if you want to bring him or not.", KM-13 said nonchalantly and with a human level of a lack of empathy.

"OK, fine. Blow it up. Let's get out of here.", my hand gestured to KM-13 to leave me alone. 

KM-13 was excited like a little child, not caring for my utter distress. "Countdown's on.", he said. I took some Hibiscus from my storage. Could there ever be a better time to get mindbogglingly high? Probably not.

We had been flying for less than half a minute when Arto started moving. I noticed it immediately and started sprinting towards him but he had already grabbed my techdevice and started tapping on it. "Stop it.", I spoke calmly and negotiatively. He was gone before I could reach him. "Where did he just teleport?", I asked KM-13, the calmness falling off my face like a masc.

My mind was already sinking into a different state of consciousness due to the drug.

"Yes, he teleported. Right back to earth, actually.", KM-13 stated, ending his sentence in sing-song.

"WE ARE GOING BACK FOR HIM!", I yelled. KM-13 shook his head. "Honestly I never liked that guy. It's not just jealousy. But I really don't like him. He seems like a buzzkill."

I wanted to argue harder, but I also did not want to die trying to rescue Arto. A pointless death is a shameful death. 

KM-13 had connected with the ship to help evade the fighter jets, that were searching for us. The flight was shaky and even rickety at times, but he had managed to evade all plasma rays until now.

One of the big warships close to earth exploded behind us.  "Will you look at that? Even in death, that guy was no fun.", KM-13 stated grudgingly. "This is so disappointing. What did you see in that guy? Such a downer. Oh well. An explosion is still an explosion." "He's dead and earth is still there?", I was talking to myself out loud.

"That is quite likely.", KM-13 said. "But don't worry. I will keep you warm.", he winked at me.