Tales From Sirca Chapter 7: Truth and Reconciliation

Aries stood rigid as the pelican took off, his wounded partner inside, and he was only left with a memento. The black chupa shifted the item in his hand so that he held it with two in front of his face, tracing the edges of the golden-orange visor before lifting it to his head and touching it to his forehead.

Icarus' helmet.

He stared into the 'eyes' of the visor and a stinging sensation pricked at his eyes, Aries did not understand the feeling or why it seemed to eat away at him, but he shook it off. The ninja took a deep breath and put the helmet on, if he couldn't have Icarus with him in person then the helmet would keep him company in spirit. It was a slightly tight fit, but the discomfort was entirely worth it, it even still smelled of him. Aries took a quick glance at his unwrapped right arm, running his eyes along with the scars before finally being able to tear his eyes away. The pelican finally broke the line of sight and a pair of jogging footsteps approached the leader, he turned to see the red face of Dallas. The soldier's armor was scoured with scratches, but he was virtually unharmed, at least as far as Aries could see.

"Status report," Aries commanded getting used to hearing his own voice through the helmet.

Dallas jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, "Helipad and barracks are clear. All targets were accounted for and destroyed. But the remaining pelicans are intact. Might need a medic bag for wounded."

"And the Comms building?"

"Breached and under control. Hoxton's team has the survivors tied up."

"Casualties?"

"Milton, Roach, Krieg, and Jones."

"Damn, Jo-enes."

Dallas fixed his mouth to correct Aries but thought better of it, "What's the plan with our new hostages?"

"Leave that to me, rally up with the others, and prep the bodies. They died in combat and deserved a proper burial. Get that started and see if any of the vehicles, armor or weapons are salvageable."

"Right, on it Big Boss."

They passed each other, Aries to the Comms building and Dallas to rejoin his fellow soldiers. Aries marched, getting angrier with every step.

"This is all your fault," A voice he knew all too well whispered to him.

He willed it silent, but it defied him, just like it always did.

"Poor planning, foresight and you couldn't even help HIM. You were useless. All you had to do was control yourself. Not tear him to ribbons."

Just like always, it wanted a reaction from the black chupa, but he was closer to giving it one than it realized.

"I survived this long without you; I don't need you anymore- you fucking parasite. You talk all this shit, yet I don't hear a better plan. So, what should I have done?" There was a deafening silence from the voice in his head. "That's what I fucking thought."

Aries burst through the ground-level doors, stepping over bullet-riddled bodies and kicking discarded weapons and shell casings out of the way. By the time he walked into the communications room, he was damn near in an angry frenzy. Just like Dallas told him, Hoxton's team stood around the tied-up group of at least fifteen chupas. Upon seeing Aries Hox moved his finger from the trigger of his rifle and gave his head a slight dip in Aries' direction, he returned it with a nod and removed Icarus' helmet from his head before taking a long look around the room. Other than a few windows busted out, bullet holes, a set of severed wires, and a body laid across a nearby terminal, the room was clear of any critical damage. Aries then turned his eyes to the captives and approached, staring them all down until he got to two in particular. Two pilots, still clad in their flight suits and helmets.

"Where'd you get that helmet," one asked, a female wearing a helmet with a triangular eye painted on.

"Why? Whose is it?"

Aries handed it off to the Hox who held it gingerly.

"That fuckin' specialist, I knew he was a goddamn traitor- but never thought he'd associate with you freaks."

Aries hauled off and punched her in the face, one of Hox's men flinched at the sudden violence but Aries was too busy to notice.

"Watch your fucking mouth."

"You can't attack unarmed prisoners- Fuckin' terrorists."

There was a fire in the ninja chupa's eyes, he resolved to take out his pistol and turned away with a deep breath. "You wouldn't happen to know of a pilot named 'Hocus' would you?"

"She's speaking."

"Good, now we're getting somewhere. I need the location of a person named Miranda; I was informed that she would be here and-"

"Miranda? It makes sense now; you need her cause that fuckin' traitor is wounded. Yer' shit outta fucking luck. That bitch was moved weeks ago, right after we thought we zeroed him. I ain't telling you a damn thing. I hope that albino freak bleeds the fuck out."

Aries finally lost his cool and whirled around, pistol-whipping the pilot repeatedly before pressing the barrel to the painted eye and squeezing off a round pushing the corpse to the floor with his foot. Then kicked their helmet off their head in a fit of rage, a few of the other captives began to sob quietly as they began to realize their fate might be exactly the same.

"ANYONE! Does anyone else what to test my patience? That one's for the Stray!" Aries crouched down in front of the other pilot with a psychotic and bloodthirsty grin plastered on his muzzle, it looked unnatural as it didn't match the darkness and flowing hatred in his eyes. He placed the pistol back in the holster and reached out toward Hox, who put a combat knife in his hand. He'd seen Aries in this mood before and it was best to just give him what he wanted. The second pilot turned her head away from him, but he grabbed her lower jaw and forced her to look at him as he jammed the knife in her mouth careful not to cut her. He ran his tongue along his lips. "Now you... Miss. What's your name? Don't be shy."

His golden eyes seemed to glow, his mane shrouding the area around his eyes in shadow. The female wanted to speak but her mouth was dry, she couldn't find the words under his murderous glare.

"You better use your voice, girl, or you'll wish I killed you."

Even though the visor on her helmet was tinted he could see her panic-stricken eyes glance down at his hand holding the knife, not the knife but his lower arm. Aries licked his lips again, there was venom in his eyes.

"You look nervous, is it the scars? Hm? Wanna know how I got 'em?"

Her eyes somehow got wider as she shook her head as much as she could while in his grip and forced herself to speak around the blade in her mouth, "N- No! No!"

"So, you can talk, I thought I would have to cut the tongue out of your pretty 'lil mouth. Do you know of a Miranda?"

"Ye-th! Ye-th!"

"Good, good. Do you know where they moved her to?"

"Ye-th."

Aries turned the blade in her mouth and pushed the tip of it hard enough against the roof of her mouth to draw blood, "You wouldn't lie to me, would you? I have a life depending on this, it would be a shame if I had to gut your whole family in front of you over a silly little mistake. You aren't lying to me, are you?"

"No! I would never!"

Aries removed the blade from her mouth, reaching behind her to cut the zip ties. He tossed it up and caught it by the blade before handing it back to Hoxton.

"Splendid. You got a name, pilot?"

"Foe Hammer."

"Too long. But I don't have time to give you a new one. On your feet. Can you fly?"

She shakily rose to her feet wiping blood from the corner of her mouth, "Y- yes I can fly."

Aries turned taking the helmet back from Hoxton and putting it on leading the way out, "Filter the rest Hox."

"You got it, Boss," The safeties clicked off around the room as the ninja chupa and his new pilot left the room, then the building.

"When you refer to me, you call me Aries or Boss. If I tell you to do something you do it, savvy?"

"Crystal clear, savvy."

"Good, let's go."

---

"What do you know about Miranda?" Aries finally broke the loud silence that permeated the whole flight.

Foe Hammer glanced back for a moment, "She's an actual doctor, unlike most medics. I'd say a diamond in the rough. She's got a bit of attitude though."

"Attitude?"

"She's mean. A bit of a bitch, but she's alright."

"Mm. We'll handle that when we get-"

The pelican's radio went off and both chupas tensed up as a voice came through.

"Echo-419, this is Hotel Site Bravo," The voice chuckled, "I see they let you out the cage, how'ya been?"

Foe Hammer sighed and Aries was on high alert, "Been better. They let Hocus do all the fun shit, I'm the errand girl- but you know my motto-"

"We deliver," both said at the same time with a chuckle.

The male on the other end sighed, "So what's the fetch quest they got you on now?"

"Gotta check up on that Doctor- uh, Miranda."

"Echo you gotta see if you can get me her number."

"I'll see what I can do Bravo, but you owe me one. Out."

"Out."

Aries stood dumbfounded for a moment, not understanding the exchange that just happened. "What did you do?"

"I improvised to get him out of our business."

"Clever."

"We'll be touching down in sixty seconds."

"Pop the hatch, and wait here," Aries took the helmet off and secured it to his hip.

"I could-" She looked back as the hatch opened, catching a glimpse of Aries removing his short sword from his waist and pistol from his chest holster. "Right. Touching down now."

The base was situated in the jungle, certainly further away from their hospital base but it was all the same jungle, nonetheless. He stepped out into the heat, numbed to it. There was only one goal in his mind as he advanced on the base flying Blue Army Banners, a figure ran up to impede his progress.

"Hey, you can't be here F-"

They never got to finish their sentence as Aries had raised his pistol and shot them in the face only to have their blood splatter across their eyes, a deep rage began to wash over him. He snarled, pointing his blade at the building, and blinked, something he hadn't felt in a long time.

"P- Please..." A voice groaned.

When his eyes opened there was a blue armored chupa bleeding out of his blade being held off the ground as he reached helplessly for the wound in his chest, Aries didn't know where he was. Aries huffed heavily; he didn't know why he was out of breath. The ninja chupa let the Blue soldier drop to the floor and glanced over his shoulder, the hall was painted red and littered with bodies. Some were riddled with bullet holes, most sporting slashes and stab wounds, one was headless. The medical wraps on his arm and legs were stained red at this point.

"What a mess..." A voice whispered like a passing gust of wind.

There was one last door in the hall, there was only one thing that could be in there. He made way for the door and kicked it in shattering the opaque glass, a tan chupa in blue armor with a blonde eye-length mane tumbled out of her hiding place scattering a shotgun and shells across the floor. There was a very noticeable cloth band tied around her upper arm, white with a red cross. She crawled forward and grabbed the gun just in time for Aries to pin it to the floor with his foot.

"Miranda, I presume," Aries scanned her face as she glared at him, she was scared certainly. But she didn't look scared of death.

"Who wants to know," she challenged.

Aries grimaced. That was a lot of moxie for someone at his mercy.

"Leader of the Rogues. Aries. Come with me if you want to live."

"It's Icarus, isn't it?"

Her eyes were trained on the helmet on Aries' hip, despite all the bloodshed in the hallways it had not a single drop of blood on it.

Aries tensed, "Y- Yes. He specifically asked for you."

"Injury?"

"Gunshot wound to the lower abdomen."

Miranda seemed to compose herself and pushed herself to a shaky standing position, "Help me collect some supplies, then get me to him."

She ripped off her dog tags and tossed them on the ground.

---

Aries refused to take his eyes off Miranda, she handled her bag with care and laid it gently before taking off the armband. There was a symbol painted on the inside, a crossed-out Omega.

"You tread dangerous waters- Rebel," Aries hissed.

"No point in trying to hide it now I guess," Miranda looked out the back hatch of the pelican watching the trees fly by, "All that work gone now I guess. Wash is gonna love this."

"What is your purpose?"

"Deep cover. Not like you cared anyhow, otherwise you wouldn't have slaughtered an entire base's worth of blue soldiers. I relayed info back to base so they could plan accordingly, all under cover of being a combat medic."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"I don't expect anything from you."

There was a beat of silence.

"Why would Icarus ask for you?"

"That's easy. I was the only person in that base who would constantly fix him up, the boy has a death wish."

"Watch your mouth."

"I didn't mean it like that. I wish I could have introduced him to our guys. I haven't seen a deadeye shooter like him in a long time."

"They're our enemies-"

Miranda shook her head, "Do you truly believe that? That your Rogues and The Resistance are all that different? Have you ever actually spoken to Wash or York? Heard them out?"

Aries looked away from her.

"I didn't think so. Ugh, double fuck- I'm gonna be in deep shit, but I'll give you their radio frequency. It's an emergency line so someone'll pick up. You should at least talk to them. You might have more in common than you realize."

"It's a tight squeeze but I'm touching down at the- man this hospital has seen better days," Foe Hammer commented.

"Land and help Doctor Miranda get her things inside, Samson should meet you at the door."

---

Aries sat in his quarters turning over a slip of paper in his hands, he felt like he should be checking on Icarus or making sure Foe Hammer wasn't gonna try anything funny. Yet the number sequence on the paper had his full attention, his mind was scrambled. His partner trusted someone who he considered an enemy, enough for him to ask for her to be spared. He would have brushed it off if he didn't know that it took a long time before Icarus fully trusted him. He could only speculate now. What if Icarus had been talking to them as well? If he could trust them, then-

Aries placed it down on a table and began to reapply wrappings to his limbs, he didn't have to contact anyone. He wouldn't contact anyone. This was obviously a trick to get him into working with the enemy and he wouldn't have it, there was nothing for him to gain. What would stop them from attempting to turn on him? But his prior thoughts rang back. Icarus was slow to trust, yet he trusted Miranda. When they had fought the two freelancers in the woods, neither wanted to fight. They wanted to talk, York could have just killed Icarus, but he didn't. He inflicted much less harm than he was clearly capable of. This was confusing to the Rogue leader, what did those rebels want? A truce? An alliance?

There was only one way to find out.

Aries picked up his radio receiver and against every fiber of his being, he turned to the frequency on the slip of paper.

A voice came through, but he spoke over it, "I want to talk to Agent Washington."

"Who-"

"Tell him it's Aries. Regarding the Rogues."

Red vs Blue © Rooster Teeth. Halo © 343 Industries. Concept by Myshu, assisted by The Department of Chupapology.