KISMET ─ vento aureo.

▹ TWENTY-SEVEN ;

☆ ⁺ « A DEATH SENTENCE

★˚⋆ FUGO REALIZED HE HAD NEVER known what a nightmare was before this. Nightmares weren't being chased or injured or horrified. They were to be completely unmoored, utterly helpless in the face of what the stars had dealt you.

He watched Mista stumble back onto the bridge, breathing heavily. Each breath was a gasp. Painful.

"We have to go after them," he managed to say. "We can still catch up. We just have to get to them."

"We can't," Fugo had to say. "The thrusters came on already. We're not in the Black Zone anymore."

"Then we flacking go back!" Mista roared. "We just lost our Captain, you asshole! What else are we supposed to do?"

"Don't you dare yell at me," Fugo said. "You went out with the Captain, not me. You were the one who was supposed to catch them."

"You came up with this flacking plan!"

"I never told the Captain to go! It was just a plan!"

"Guys, what's going on?" Narancia stumbled onto the bridge. Fugo swore under his breath. He had told everyone to wait in their rooms until he called them. Did no one flacking listen to him anymore?

"Where's the Captain?"

"We have to keep going," Fugo said, ignoring Narancia. "We'll go through the Bend Gate. Get to Minos. That's what the Captain told you, isn't it?"

"You can go wherever the flack you want. I'm taking a pod back to find the Captain."

Narancia sounded like a lost child. "You lost the Captain?"

"Like hell you will." Fugo went to grab Mista's arm when he started off. He wrenched out of Fugo's grasp like it burned. "That's a death sentence, Mista. The Captain is gone. We have to move on."

"We can't just leave without trying!"
"Haven't you been stupid enough? Can't you at least listen to me just this once?"

Mista bared his teeth. "I knew you never cared about us, Fugo, but you can't just blatantly disrespect the Captain like this. You've spent the past few years under their command for what?"

Fugo wanted to punch Mista so bad it felt like his arm was electrified. He stormed back to his seat. Forced himself to take deep breaths.

Mista was wrong to accuse Fugo of not caring. He didn't bust his ass for this crew everyday for the money. He did it because the Captain had been willing to give him a chance. They had been willing every time Fugo screwed up. In a way that few people could, the Captain seemed to empathize with Fugo. Seemed to care about him and actually look out for his well being.

Losing that?

Losing the Captain?

Stars, Fugo could hardly think about it. If he did, he would end up like Mista, irrational, reckless and stupid.

The crew couldn't afford that right now.

"What's going on?" Trish was here now. She looked between everyone. Her voice quavered. "Where's the Captain?"

Fugo closed his eyes. If there was ever a time to give up, it was now. They had lost their general, their voice of reason. The army couldn't fight without its general.

But Fugo's plan with Prince Rikkiel was still in place. He had sent the prince the coordinates to Minos as soon as he'd gotten them. He would be waiting there, along with a legion of Imperial guards to arrest Zero once he arrived.