[Masks Vignette] Harrier

[Dr Archeville]

Last Year

Murdock sat alone beneath the Silver Tree, closing his eyes as he felt its radiance soak into his pores. The instrument of great power that had kept away the agents of Omega for so long was now a source of strength and comfort for him, its glowing radiance a sign of his freedom and independence. I am a man. He reminded himself, his voice sounding sure and strong in his head. I am a man, and no longer a slave. If his sleep was disturbed by nightmarish visions of his past, at least his mind and body were free. "I am a free man. A free man."

"What are you doing here, drone?" He turned his head at the venomous voice behind him, and gazed up at the face of Blade-Master, the weapon-wielding Furion whose swords had cut his way through a legion of drones. "This is my place. You won't take it from me." Blade-Master was a fearsome warrior who'd killed many drones, it was difficult not to be afraid of him. Murdock had tried so hard not to hurt anyone here, for all the horrible memories he had of violence at this place. A mighty starship fell, burning into space, its crew falling out its every crevice, captain and first officer reaching for each other...

"I'm sorry," said the drone apologetically, rising to his feet and raising his hands in surrender. Blade-Master had made no secret of his dislike for allowing the freed drone to move freely on the home world of the Furions, and Murdock had done his best to stay out of his way. "If this is your spot, I'll move on-" A space-going star ranger sacrificed himself to save a family of cowherds, giving them only more time to make peace with their gods before their world burned.

"Where? Back to Omega, so you can tell your dark lord all about us?" On closer inspection, Blade-Master had been drinking the spirit-ale of the Furions. He gave the drone a challenging look, towering over him as he poked him in the chest. "You may have fooled the others, but you don't fool me. You have no place among the heroes of the Terminus, and you never will!"

Smash his jaw. Drive your blade into his brain. The voice in Murdock's head wasn't Omega's. It was his own, and his own memories of violence that he tried to push past. "Please. I want only to live among you in peace and forget the past. I will let you have this place and-"

"FORGET THE PAST!?!" It had been the wrong thing to say; Murdock wasn't sure there had been a right thing. "You think I can forget you filthy scum murdering my friends and family! Children burning to ash because they-" A volley of Omega-fire ended the screaming of the younglings in the nursery; the thing in Murdock was pleased that their shrill cries would no longer interrupt

"Leave me alone," he begged, hand falling to his side as he took a step back from the angry giant. "Please, I don't want any trouble, I just want..." Spitting foul oaths, Blade-Master was reaching for his weapon. A pacifist would have stood there and taken the beating he no doubt richly deserved; perhaps a true hero would have. But as the gleaming star-silver sword came hurling towards Murdock's chest, he acted. Armor erupted from his body as he brought up the pike to parry the swordman's blow, deflecting a lethal strike from his midsection.

A witch threw herself before her child's cradle, dying with him in the same rush of cosmic fire. A robotic champion as big as ten drones together died a centimeter from regaining the spark that would have saved his reality. A black knight's head exploded. "Stop it." He brought the blade up and stopped another strike. "Stop it. Please. STOP IT!" He screamed, and suddenly drove the crackling power pike upwards, scoring it along the Furion's face, then smashed it into his ribs. The Blade-Master dropped, exposing the back of his head, and Murdock hefted the pike, lethal energy crackling along its tip. A black-clad cyborg's smouldering remains fell into the same pit that had taken his daughter and son a moment earlier. A metal-handed man wielding a garden tool died spitted on a pike.

"STOP IT!" A moment later, the blasts from the other Furions took him, hurling Murdock away and into unconsciousness. It was Freedom Bird who met him in his cell, full of apologies. Sober, Blade-Master had confessed his guilt where Murdock himself had stood mute, and the Furions understood that the drone had been provoked. Behind plaststeel energy bars, Murdock looked away from the man who'd saved his life.

"It's my fault. I can't stay here. I am a monster."