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Kafka watched Stelle dash forward towards yet another pile of discarded junk along the side of the road and smiled to herself. Edo Star had long been the target of the Antimatter Legion, and certain services, such as garbage collection, had fallen by the wayside as their IPC “protectors” directed all available resources towards fighting them off (as well as securing themselves a generous profit, of course). Kafka wasn’t entirely sure where Stelle had picked up that fascination with trash, but she was practically in her own personal paradise. March 7th quickly ran after her, trying to stop Stelle from throwing herself headfirst into another brush with tetanus, but Dan Heng followed at a slower pace, shaking his head with a small smile. This was the perfect opportunity for Kafka, and as he passed by the alley she was hidden in, she reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “This way, please. I really think you should listen to me and come have a little talk.” As she steered him down the alley she gave Bladie a little mental tug as well, to ensure the other trailblazers wouldn’t be able to come looking for him right away.
Dan Heng struggled at first, but Kafka tightened the mental threads of Spirit Whisper and soon the tension dropped out of his shoulders and he followed after her obediently. They navigated the derelict city’s alleys and side streets quickly, retracing Kafka’s route back to the hideaway she and Silver Wolf had picked earlier. The gamer was not here in person, of course, but she had set up a hologram of herself in a beanbag chair playing some kind of handheld game. Silver Wolf didn’t bother looking up when they entered, but it wasn’t like the holographic avatar needed to move for her to see them clearly anyway. Kafka shot a wink that went similarly unacknowledged at the camera on the ceiling she assumed she was watching through as she guided Dan Heng to another beanbag.
“There we go,” she said, taking a seat on the only real chair in the room, “Now, you’re going to listen to all my questions, and answer them for me, right?” Dan Heng nodded, and her smile widened slightly. “Perfect. Now, how did your little trip to Amphoreus go? Obviously Irontomb was defeated and no one important died, but what else happened? We couldn’t get a good look at anything happening inside the scepter at all! Did Stelle enjoy herself there? What kind of fun adventures did she have?”
Dan Heng tilted his head, considering the question, before describing a gorgeous-sounding bathhouse and a delightful little tournament they both participated in. He was clearly leaving a lot out, skimming over who several of the other participants were and how they knew each other, though. Not to mention that there was no way the Nameless visited a simulated world most of the galaxy had never heard of and then the most interesting thing they did there was slam seals. He may not have been trying to subvert Spirit Whisper on purpose, he may simply have a definition of ‘fun’ that excluded whatever battles or high-stakes drama she was sure they must have been drawn into. However, Kafka wanted to know everything the girl who would teach her fear had done.
Before she could clarify her demand, however, Silver Wolf cursed loudly (Kafka assumed so, anyway. She didn’t actually know any Punklordian), her avatar tossing aside whatever device she’d been fiddling with. “Ugh, can you use your brainwashing thing to make Blade try to avoid trashing my drones next time!? I wanted to watch the fight!”
At the mention of Blade, Dan Heng jolted, straining against Spirit Whisper so hard Kafka had to ignore Silver Wolf’s little tantrum to try and soothe him. “Calm down, Bladie’s not coming here, he’s just keeping your companions occupied while we talk. I promise, you won’t see hide nor hair of each other this time.” Oddly, he seemed to react even worse to that, wresting back enough free will to jump out of the bean bag and bolt for the door, even managing to get a fair distance through the alleyway outside before Kafka caught up, grabbing his wrist and pulling him off balance enough to shove him to the ground. “Ugh…Listen and stop moving!” Dan Heng kept struggling against her, kicking, twisting against her grip, even snapping his teeth at her neck at one point. Kafka pushed through Spirit Whisper as hard as she dared, and it was definitely slowing his reflexes enough that he hadn’t thrown her off yet, but that was about it. She couldn’t push any harder without risking breaking him a little, and then he might not be able to tell her everything she wanted to know. Also, Stelle would probably be upset if she brought back her (much taller and broader than Kafka remembered, keeping him down was such a workout) guard-dragon with brain damage. It was no surprise that when Firefly cleared her throat over the comms, Kafka snapped, “What is it, I’m busy!”
“Sorry, but try telling him that Stelle and March 7th are going to be okay fighting Blade on their own.” Kafka didn’t know how helpful that would be, but she tried Firefly’s suggestion anyway, repeating reassurances about what capable fighters his friends were, and how they would have no trouble holding out until she was done speaking with him. It actually worked, he went limp under her and didn’t resist as she pulled him to his feet and steered him back towards the hideout, though some tension still lingered on his face. It was only now that she no longer had to fight to keep Dan Heng from escaping that she noticed that he had been trying to run towards his unkillable stalker, despite the fear she had sensed coursing through him.
“Apologies for snapping, Firefly, your suggestion worked wonderfully. Although I have to wonder how you knew what was going on, since you’re not in this mission’s script?”
Firefly’s voice in Kafka’s earpiece sounded bashful, “Well, I happened to overhear your conversation over Silver Wolf’s comms since she’s sitting on my cold cabin…”
“‘Happened to overhear?’ Really?” Kafka chuckled, “You can just admit you wanted to listen in on what Stelle’s been up to as well, I know you’ve missed our erstwhile companion.” She ignored Firefly’s response to instead focus on Dan Heng settling back into his seat, “Now, what was that reaction about?”
Perhaps it was because of how shaken he was, or perhaps because of how thoroughly she had wrapped Spirit Whisper’s threads around his mind, but this time Dan Heng held nothing back as he described their chaotic arrival on Amphoreus, dragging Stelle’s lifeless form out of the cabin, waking up to her miraculous recovery, all the way to finding out the truth behind it. Even under the trance, it was clearly difficult for him, voice shaking as he spoke of scouring the largest available library, looking for something, anything that could help, even knowing that he could only really wait to find out if his friend’s journey was successful or not. It was all fascinating, and exactly the sort of adventure she’d been hoping to hear about when she decided to grab Dan Heng, but she still was left with a new question she hadn’t had when she arrived at Edo Star. Why would he try to run towards Blade?
It was easy enough to make Dan Heng say that what he was afraid of was Stelle or March 7th being killed, but when she pressed for clarification, he didn’t seem to know what he needed to clarify. Kafka could understand, on an intellectual level, that Dan Heng could know that the other Nameless were capable of holding their own and still be afraid they might lose. Most people tended to exaggerate Bladie in their minds, seeing him less like the strong but reckless swordsman he was, and more like some Emanator of Finality, here to personally bring their ending. The fact that he could revive no matter how he was struck down probably helped. That said, it usually took an hour or so, which made it possible to escape unless he was backed up by another Stellaron Hunter. Or unless you were Dan Heng, relentlessly stalked across the galaxy, always running into him again no matter how he killed him or how far he fled.
“Fled” was the operative word, though. When faced with his nightmare-made-regenerating-flesh, Dan Heng had always fled. He fought when backed into a corner, sure, but only until Bladie was down for the count, and then he ran for the nearest escape pod, or outbound shuttle, or whatever he could find to put as much distance between them as possible until he inevitably caught up. When it came to Blade, Dan Heng’s fight-or-flight instinct always veered toward flight unless somehow prevented. Nothing prevented him from fleeing here, however. If he was consumed by his fear of Blade as an unstoppable force, then it made sense to think he could strike down Stelle and March 7th as easily as he had done everyone else who had ever stood between him and Dan Heng. In that case, he should have taken whatever time they could buy him to get away. Instead, he ran to try and fight Bladie himself. If Dan Heng believed that he could reach the fight before his friends were incapacitated, and then hold Blade off long enough for them to escape, then he had to be capable of rationally analyzing their respective battle prowess to know that his companions didn’t need him to save them. In that case, there was no need to panic at all.
Dan Heng couldn’t answer to her satisfaction, so there was no point in keeping him. Silver Wolf said that either comms disconnected, Bladie was ignoring them, or he had gotten killed again, so she didn’t bother trying to tell Bladie to return to their hideout, instead just leading Dan Heng back to where they first nabbed him, pulling Bladie out of a pile of little frozen animals, and carrying him over her shoulders while the Astral Express’s away team all hugged and fussed over each other. There was a dent in his skull she hoped would heal up before it leaked blood all over her coat. If it had to be replaced, it was going to come out of his pay. It’s not like Bladie ever bought himself anything anyway, she might as well make him get her a couple other coats she’d been considering as well.
Later on, she tried asking Firefly, since she had known how to calm Dan Heng down, but she seemed to find the answer too self-evident to be able to articulate. Silver Wolf barely acknowledged the question, too absorbed in some game she had been waiting to play until Stelle escaped Amphoreus and could join. Kafka didn’t even bother asking Bladie, since he tended to lose all coherency where Dan Heng was involved. Maybe it was simply that Kafka had never felt fear that she couldn’t understand this response to it. Her curiosity still burned, however.
What was it that made Dan Heng more afraid of his companions’ deaths than his own? How could he believe something to be unbeatable and then run towards it? What had tipped the scales in his consideration to change how he responded to such situations?
Years later, Kafka understood.