Purple Heart

Azi eyed him angrily, shooting him a no more miss nice girl look. She lowered herself closer to the ground, her arms spread wide, her butt shifting left and right like a cat preparing to pounce. She lunged, throwing her whole body into the charge, her legs uncoiling like springs to drive her towards him. There was no time to think, he could only act, his brain sending signals to the prosthetics. He pushed himself out of her path with his robotic leg and caught her wrist in his hand as she passed him, turning with her and swinging her into the wall face-first, aided by her own momentum.

There was a crunch as she hit the hull and her head rebounded as if her skull was made of rubber. She turned to him, dazed, raising a clawed hand into the air intending to strike him. He danced under her raised arm and hit her across the face from below, faster and with more force than any organic human limb could have mustered.

She stumbled backwards, blood seeping from her nose and a cut on her cheek. She shook her head, her red hair flaring wildly, and swiped downwards at him. He caught her forearm in his iron grip, pulling her down and raising his prosthetic knee to meet her face. He split her lip and shattered a tooth as it impacted her mouth. He released her, retreating backwards as she stumbled. She rose to full height, a hand covering her mouth as blood stained her uniform, trying to compose herself as she took up a fighting stance again. Borealans were tough, he would have to pummel her into unconsciousness in order to end the fight, as no injury that he could inflict bare-handed would do enough damage to take her down. He was fast enough, and she was making mistakes, he could win this.

Azi snarled angrily and charged him again, covering the distance faster than he could react, this time making contact with her shoulder and throwing him to ground. He skidded on his back, temporarily winded by the force of the blow, and tried to get back up before she could close on him. He was too slow, and he raised his hands to catch her claws before they plunged into his throat as she pounced on top of him. She was too heavy, too large, he couldn't throw her off him. He squeezed her hand in his grip, applying as much pressure as he could. He heard the bones in her fingers creak, and she gritted her teeth, trying to force her curved claws closer to his unprotected neck.

She wailed as he twisted her fingers, the motors in his wrists turning them unnaturally. Her bones were as hard as concrete, he didn't think that he could break them, but it must hurt like hell. Azi hopped off him, skittering backwards, cradling her hand as Moralez jumped to his feet.

She seemed almost afraid now. She couldn't maneuver properly in the alley, it was too narrow, and she was starting to realize her mistake. He had the advantage, if he could just keep the pressure up...

He charged forward, swinging his fist at her. But this time she dodged out of the way, and the blow impacted the building behind her with enough force to dent the wall. It must have been made from metal or some kind of plastic. There was no pain in his hand, the prosthetic simply wasn't programmed to interpret it, but he felt the material crumple beneath his knuckles. Azi stepped behind him and slashed at his back, penetrating the ballistic vest and digging into his skin. He felt the sting of her claws burning across his ribs, and the sickening click as one of them glanced bone. He swung around, elbowing her in the side of the head and sending her reeling.

The pack was watching in disbelief, yet not one made any move to help her. This was a question of honor. If he could lower her standing in their eyes, disgrace her, then he would have his revenge.

He didn't give her the opportunity to recover, spinning around and hitting her with a powerful uppercut under her jaw. Her head snapped back, and she fell heavily to the floor, smacking the back of her skull on the hull of the station. Moralez stood over her, hitting her twice in the face with his clenched fist as she tried to rise, groggy and disoriented. A third punch discouraged her, and she rolled onto her side, groaning and spitting crimson blood.

His heart was racing, and the fresh scars on his back were on fire. He had won, she was downed. He knelt on her neck with his metal shin and unholstered his handgun, pressing the cold barrel against her temple, his finger hovering over the trigger. Again her pack merely watched, doing nothing. Azi looked up at him with her amber pupil, the socket beginning to blacken.

"You gonna kill me, L.T?" she spat as blood wet her lips.

He pushed the gun against her head, and she closed her mouth, her eyes widening.

"Shut up, just shut up!" His hand shook, the knuckles stained red. He moved his finger away from the trigger, scared of firing it off by accident.

"Y-You win," she conceded, as if she had any choice in the matter when she had a gun to her head. "I submit!" She sounded afraid, but it didn't do anything to lessen his rage.

"I should spill your brains all over the deck," Moralez hissed, glaring down at her. "All you had to do was follow my fucking orders, but you had to play your goddamned dominance games instead." She lowered her eyes to the ground, was she ashamed? He couldn't tell. "You wanted to feel big at my expense, well now who's big?"

"The dropship!" she cried.

"What about the fucking dropship?"

"I carried you up the ramp," Azi coughed, ejecting a loose tooth that clattered across the deck. "You were part of my pack, under my protection. You looked dead, I could have left you on that planet, but I didn't..."

He was taken aback, and his weapon left her temple to hang limply in his hand. He had suspected as much, but to hear it from her own mouth...that he owed his life to her. It fucked with his head, he didn't know what to think, what to do.

"Under your protection? Part of your fucking pack!?" he shouted, his voice echoing through the alley. "Did you even check that I was still alive? Did you even wonder what had happened to me after you handed me off to the medics?" Azi kept quiet, scared to look away from him. "I woke up in that bed with no arms and one leg, a chest full of shrapnel, and you were nowhere to be found. I didn't even know that you were alive until today. What kind of leader doesn't care if their soldiers live or die? What does that make you?"

"I'm...I'm sorry."

She was usually so proud, so aggressive, and now she was submitting entirely. Hearing her say it, if she really meant it or if this was just some kind of submissive display...it was enough. He lifted his leg off her neck, letting her rise to a sitting position. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and eyed him warily, her orange fur stained with blood.

"You're not worth it," he growled. "I'm done with this, it's over."

He didn't feel vindicated, he felt sick, queasy. This wasn't him, this wasn't what Lieutenant Moralez did. He would not let his experiences change his personality the way that they had changed his body. He holstered his sidearm, turning to leave the alley. They did not pursue him, and as he entered the torus, he turned to see them standing over Azi with disgusted looks on their faces. She had lost, and to a human at that. Her life as their leader was over now. Judging by the way that she stared at the floor, blood dripping from her split lip, she knew it as well as he did.

***

"Where were you? What happened!?" Kaisha exclaimed, catching Moralez in her arms as he stumbled through the door to her apartment. A large, red stain had soaked through his ballistic vest from the deep cut on his back.

"Got in a fight," he grumbled. Kaisha helped him onto a stool by her kitchen table and removed his vest, examining the wound.

"What did you fight? A Borealan?"

"Yes..."

"You...won? You wouldn't be sitting here if you hadn't."

He nodded, wincing. Kaisha left for a moment, then returned with a first aid kit.

"Hold still, I can patch you up. What the hell were you thinking, fighting a Borealan? You could have been killed! What happened?"

"It was my fault...I found Azi."

"And you confronted her," Kaisha sighed, shaking her head. She pinched his cut between her fingers, holding the flesh together with adhesive plasters. He stared at the floor, not knowing what to feel. He had put so much that he held dear in jeopardy, it was reckless, stupid. By all rights, he should not have succeeded. But he had, and despite the sinking feeling in his stomach and the searing pain in his back, the closure was worth it.

"Your gun...did you..." Kaisha trailed off, not wanting to ask the question, fearing the answer that he might give.

"No, I didn't fire it. I wanted to...but I didn't."

She seemed relieved and continued her work, cutting silver tape in her teeth and sealing the length of the wound with it. Her furry fingers were stained with his blood, the crimson soaking into her white coat, and she walked over to the kitchen sink to wash it off.

"You're lucky, very lucky. That wound is mostly superficial. You'll have a wicked scar, but you have enough of those already that I doubt you're worried about aesthetics." She hesitated, her hands submerged in the hot water. "Did you hurt her?" she asked, without turning to look at him. Her tone was unusual, almost bloodthirsty. He had never heard Kaisha talk like that before.

"Yes, but she's a Borealan, she'll live. Probably has a concussion though."

"I'm sure Kurtz would be thrilled to hear that his prosthetics took down a Borealan. You're lucky they don't like to report this kind of thing, or you'd be spending the night in the brig."

She returned to the table, placing a glass of pink liquid by his hand, his knuckles still painted red.

"Drink, you're probably in shock." She crossed her arms and shook her head at him as he took a draw of the alcoholic beverage, gritting his teeth as the motion hurt his back. She seemed angry with him, but she was having difficulty hiding how impressed she was. It was amusing to see her struggle, unsure of how to express herself. "You do anything like that again, and I won't fix you up," she continued. "You can go to the hospital and explain to them what happened."

"I won't," he coughed, choking on the sweet drink as he tried to talk. "It's over now, I got what I wanted."

"Do you feel better? Are you satisfied now?"

He raised a hand before his face, examining the robotic fingers as they curled and uncurled.

"I thought I would be. I thought that it would somehow fix what happened. I was so angry, I wasn't thinking straight. It felt good to get revenge...but it didn't reverse time, it didn't change what she did to me." Kaisha watched him, a concerned expression of her face as he picked up the glass and took another draw. "In the end, she submitted. That's what her people do, right? Guess that makes me king of the Borealans or something, I don't fucking know. It doesn't fix things, but...it felt good to hurt her."

"As a trained psychologist, I can't say that what you did was psychologically healthy or a good idea. Maybe it counts as exposure therapy," she said with a shrug of her furry shoulders. "You really beat her though? A full-grown Borealan shock trooper?"

"Seems that way. Her pack weren't too pleased with the outcome. What will happen to her now?"

Kaisha took a seat beside him, stealing a sip from his glass.

"Well, if she was their Alpha and she lost the fight, she loses her status. There will probably be a scuffle over who gets to be the new pack leader, but Azi will be firmly placed at the bottom of the ladder. Especially after losing to a human," she chuckled. She noticed Moralez' expression and waved her hand dismissively. "You know what I mean, you're half our size and a third our weight, she should have wiped the floor with you. Luckily for you, your prosthetics seem to have won out."

"So she's in for a bad time, then? Good..."

"I hope she at least gets checked out," Kaisha added, scratching her chin pensively. "Even among Borealans, brain swelling isn't a good thing. Just how hard did you hit her?"

"Hard enough to put her down and cost her a few teeth."

"Well, if you damaged your prosthetics, Kurtz will be very upset with you."

"They're fine, could do with a clean though."

Kaisha rose to her feet and placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"You need to rest, sleep this off. They won't miss you at work?" Moralez shook his head. "My lunch break is over, I have to get back to the hospital. Call me on the communicator if you need me, there's one in the living area, on the wall by the cabinet. Go to bed, doctor's orders." She left the table, heading towards the exit, then leaned down to pick up her bag by the door. She hesitated, her fingers on the handle. "Oh, and Moralez."

"What is it?" he asked, turning on his stool to look back at her.

"Heal up quickly. I don't want you popping your stitches and ruining my good sheets when I get off work tonight."

She pushed the door open and left, leaving Moralez nursing his drink at the table, his cheeks reddening. He was excited, hurting, confused and triumphant. So many conflicting emotions roiled in his mind, yet his fingers were steady. There was no ripple in the pink liquid, the glass immovable in his polymer hand as if it were a gyroscope. Had he regained his lost confidence? Won back his dignity? Maybe he had just damaged the sensors in his arm, and they couldn't pick up his subtle signals anymore. No matter.

He finished off his drink and got up to place the empty cup by the sink, then ran his hands under the water from the faucet. He washed off the blood and a few strands of orange hair that were stuck to his knuckles. He noticed the pale scar in the black polymer of his forearm that had been left by Azi's claw, reaching down with his thumb and forefinger. He loosened the tip of her black talon and pulled it out, examining it under the light. He'd only had the arm for a week, and he'd already scarred it. Well, at least it matched the rest of him now.

He dropped the claw fragment down the sink, drying his hands with a washcloth. It was over, he had overcome his injuries, his fears. He felt whole again, confident and able-bodied. He would take a break from fighting now, from war, and enjoy Kaisha's company. It was time to take a well-earned vacation.

THE END