If Vertan and Lym were to have witnessed these protests when they first began in the Coalition months ago, they would have found themselves significantly underwhelmed. There was yet to be a single unifying cause, and the Coalitionites by far lacked the coordination, organization, and discipline as the protests in Ulminh, Qiaou, and elsewhere. Before, performative virtue signaling was the norm, and it was more expected that the populace would chase after irrelevant details over their ideals of perfection over any meaningful change. Such is born out of a culture that had grown used to the convenience and comfort of complacency.

  But in the months that passed during their transit, things have changed for the first time amongst the Coalitionites. The Qiaouian broadcast of the truth of the Expeditions earlier that year served to significantly amplify all aspects of the Coalitionites’ daily struggles and grievances by several orders of magnitude. Suddenly, the already declining gang of empires became ever more thrusted into the cosmic spotlight and public scrutiny, their grip on their truth and narrative ever slipping.

  The Coalitionite populace soon took and followed the examples of others outside, and how their foreign peers rebelled. A clear and strong movement behind a singular uniting cause was eventually established.

  By the time Vertan and Lym are able to witness what stood before them, it had already calcified into the largest, strongest, and most widespread series of rebellions in Coalition history, newly undeterred towards the corrupt law hammering down on them.

  When they landed in the heavily populated metropolis of World Ilunia, nonexistent was any demonstration. But today on a far smaller planet, the roads ahead of them downtown have grown into complete chaos. A crowd of people would be an understatement. The sea of individuals, punctuated by flags and banners, is more akin to several legions’ worth.

  For a moment, it stopped registering as a crowd of individuals to them, and it felt more like witnessing a massive, complex blob of an organism, seeking only a singular goal.

  “Is that,” Vertan started. “Is that you?”

  Looking towards the heart of the mob, Vertan and Lym could make out several distinct banners, some bigger than the rest.

  On them, with a slogan written either on the top or the bottom, is an image of Lym.

  Judging by the look of her face on the banner, the two could almost pinpoint where the image was derived from. Most likely, it had to have been taken from one of the Qiaouian revolutionary broadcasts. Vertan at least had been able to see some of it for himself. That day, Lym had been brought out before the partisans as part of their demands, and she had come face to face with their leader, Giaya.

  However, that context seemed to be missing here. The only thing that one could tell was the inspiring image of a strong and defiant woman, the same one seen defying the odds in all those newsreels. Her likeness had become iconic symbolism of the wider movement, representing the identity of a people never shown to the light before.

  An insignia of rebellion.

  “Do not give in to their lies!” a ringing voice calls out on one of the loudspeakers. “The second coming of our Saint Lim is upon us! She will return to bring the light and righteous hellfire, and purge the evil of these empires that have for so long poisoned the stars!”

  Hurrahs and chants followed, the masses completely oblivious that their messiah stood just down the street from them.

  “That is me,” uttered Lym, after a moment of speechlessness. “That’s me!”

  Coming down different ends of the streets, armed troops and vehicles attempted to surround and cut off the mob, but already, there had been violence. Armed clashes occurred between the protesters and the mix between law enforcement, riot control, and stationed troops. Several parts of the streets are up in flames, littered with the wrecks of armored vehicles, abandoned equipment, debris, and the sting of smoke and gases. Any properties unfortunate enough to be in the way either had to board up or risk being broken into and looted by opportunists. Bystanders of various walks of life either found themselves stuck in traffic or abandoned their personal vehicles altogether.

  “By the cosmos that’s a lot of trouble down there,” says Vertan. “Is there a safe way back? Maybe we shouldn’t have come here at all.”

  “If it helps anything,” says Lym. “I do feel my strength recovering—”

  “Don’t be silly,” interjects Vertan. “I can’t lose you again.”

  Running through the maze of the city, they could only find that there were nonstop conflicts everywhere, the different crowds of people now surrounding them. Even in the wasteland left behind, some people trying to make their way through stood out as easy pickings, with law enforcement too overwhelmed elsewhere.

  Some shots ring out, and the crowds grow more chaotic. Some fled or retreated, while many others continued to hold their ground, and began fighting back.

  A few stray bullets streak by, and instinctively, Lym moves to cover Vertan, and is struck in the back when doing so.

  Typically, she might have shrugged off the bullet as nothing more than a nuisance. This time however, it felt as though the small bit of metal knocked the wind out of her with staggering and painful force, and Lym fell straight into Vertan. Caught by surprise, for a short moment, Vertan struggled to barely hold up Lym’s unusually heavy weight, before she was able to get back to her feet.

  “Oh God, Lym!” he exclaimed. “Are you alright? What happened?”

  “I’m fine, are you alright?” she gasped, almost choking and coughing. “I just took a bullet.”

  “You can’t keep putting your body through that,” said Vertan. “You need more time to—”

  “They just shot that woman! Hey!”

  Some people out of the crowd had come to surround and provide protection for Lym and Vertan. The rest surrounding them continued to fight back relentlessly against the oppressors, armed with weapons of either their own or stolen off of downed officers.

  “Come on, you two!” one of them says. “Let’s get you to safety!”

  Just down the road, an armored vehicle tramples and runs over a demonstrator.

  *****

  “That must have been a rubber one,” says the lady. “You got off pretty lucky, then.”

  The small group out of the larger mass of protesters had taken Vertan, Lym, and a few others inside into one of the shops on a different street. From the inside, the windows have been boarded up, the doors locked, and additional bars placed to keep everyone, and everything, out.

  The lady continues to press a cold pack against Lym’s wound, which had mostly healed into a massive bruise by the time the shirt was lifted to inspect the injury. From anyone else’s first glance, nobody would have realized that Lym had taken an actual, real bullet.

  “You two don’t seem like you’re from around here,” says one of the men amongst the group. “What’s your name?”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Hm?” started Vertan. “Oh, ah, I’m Hilgo. My friend here is named Rose. We’ve been here a few weeks.”

  “Ah, Hilgo!” says the man stretching out to shake Vertan’s hand. “Good to meet ya, I’m Arvin. Good to meet you as well, Rose. Sorry for the trouble, I promise you there’s more to Pliuan hospitality than this!

  “Good to meet you, too,” winces Lym painfully.

  “Poor girl, you must be in so much pain,” says the lady. “Arvin, you got any painkillers on you?”

  “Indeed I do, ma’am,” Arvin replies as he reaches into his jacket pocket. “Mila, catch!”

  Tossing a small bottle of pills over, the lady named Mila catches it, and twists the cap open. Vertan continues to hold the cold compress down on Lym’s back.

  “Been keeping these handy on me lately,” says Arvin. “Take a capsule with a glass of water, it should ease your pain up right away, almost immediately.”

  Reaching for a bottle of water, Vertan opens it for Lym, and she downs one of the small capsules.

  “Well?” Mila asks. “How is it?”

  “Yeah,” winces Lym. “I don’t know if I really feel it.”

  “Might want to take another one, then,” says Arvin. “The way these pills are, sometimes, some folks gotta take two or even three.”

  “I think I’ll be fine, thank you,” says Lym, still wincing slightly. “I’m starting to feel better.”

  Lifting the cold compress, Vertan sees that the pill might have at least allowed her body to more rapidly repair any damaged tissue, and the bruise on Lym’s back was visibly fading away. Wanting to lower suspicion, he removed the compress and lowered her shirt back down, once again hiding her accelerated healing abilities.

  “Well, no worries then!” chuckled Arvin. “Always got more if you need any, I was just worried for you for a second there.”

  “You guys carry those around a lot?” asks Vertan. “What’s been going on around here lately?”

  “Haven’t you heard?” says Mila. “Nonstop protests for months across the stars. We’re already all starving and dying to begin with, and then they went ahead and passed some disastrous tax reforms to suck all of us dry!”

  “Started shooting at us for being upset, too,” added Arvin. “I’ll say, I understand what those Qiaouians are going through now. And I used to think they were a bit extreme!”

  “I see, I take it your painkillers really help you keep up, huh?” says Vertan. “I haven’t seen those before.”

  “Oh, this is just some of the simpler and lighter stuff,” grins Arvin. “They’re already trying to crack down on its legality and distribution. You used to be able to get these over the counter for decades, now all of a sudden a new ‘breakthrough’ is telling us they’re being pulled from shelves for public health. You know how they are.”

  “Yeah, after spending the same time poisoning our air and water!” laughs Mila. “I’m done with their shit, good riddance. I never thought I’d be on the same side as a drug dealer.”

  “That’s one way to put it when we’ve known each other for years, Mila,” chortles Arvin.

  “I want to ask,” says Lym. “I saw a picture of this person on their banners out there, is she the same one I see on those wanted posters?”

  “Oh yeah, yup, definitely,” nods Arvin. A few shots ring outside, causing him to glance over, but one of the men holding guard by the door returns fire, and soon, it is safe again.

  “Hoo!” Mila exclaimed. “People got mad when that came out!”

  “I tell you, that broadcast spread like a virus,” continued Arvin. “Went around like wildfire. Put Qiaou on the map for a lot of people here, too. It was also my first time learning more about them.”

  “Could you believe that?” says Mila. “Surely if you guys have heard of it, don’t look at us crazy, but the Coalition was making such a big show out of containing these ‘demons’ in their Expeditions for decades, and guess what? It got exposed to everyone that there were no demons. Just people from a place called Happia! Could you believe that?”

  “Wow, huh, that does all sound like a lot,” nodded Vertan as he and Lym quickly glanced at each other. “Sorry, we’re not from around here, but I’m sure that must be a really big deal to you guys.”

  “Oh, it was very personal,” said Arvin. “We’ve been struggling for a long time. There’s no viable future for us in sight. For a lot of us, that lay in the Expeditions. Many of us know those who took on the honor to risk their lives and a chance to create livelihoods after it. You can see how we feel about it. Finding out about this, it was very humiliating.”

  “So, is she famous now or something?” Lym asks.

  “Well, I guess you can say that,” replies Arvin. He leans in closer, making an expression as if to quiet his voice. “Some of those guys out there are crazy! They’re trying to make a cult religion out of her or whatever. Can’t say it isn’t effective. But yes, she’s been a great inspiration to many. Myself included! Oh man, the way she’s been sending the Coalition on a run for their money is so badass.”

  “A couple months ago, she and Zviedal actually destroyed Ritus,” grins Mila.

  “Ritus?” Vertan asks, even as he clearly remembers what happened there. “What’s that?”

  “One of, if not the most secret and well-guarded military world,” replies Mila. “Lots of secrets and experiments going on in there that nobody knows about.”

  “Wow, they really did all of that, huh?” Vertan continued. “I can see how that must be a sign of hope, then?”

  “What an icon, honestly,” says Arvin. “And they still haven’t caught either of them! The two have disappeared and are still out there somewhere for months now, the mad lads. We’ve been hoping they’d come back, I wonder what they’d think about what’s been going on.”

  “Can’t keep waiting on them, you know,” quips Mila. “But who knows, you might get lucky and witness them for yourselves. I look at those news reels sometimes and it’s such a spectacle for me.”

  “I’ll say!”

  “Yeah, I wonder where they might be now,” said Vertan.

  Looking at Lym, she showed an expression of shock he had never seen before.

  *****

  “I feel weird about it.”

  Even with nightfall, the chaos of the protests continued in the city, but the two have since been able to safely come back towards the area of the shipyard. Four small moons shone in the Pliuan night sky, each sparkling with infrastructure. The two once again found themselves sitting on the same bench by the lake.

  “We’re really changing things,” Lym continued. “Maybe this could actually end the war for good.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” replied Vertan.

  “But, what now?”

  “Hm.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Well, if we’re still trying to get you home,” says Vertan. “Shouldn’t we let your people know about this?”

  “Elaborate,” says Lym.

  “The Coalition is very big. Maybe too big. Sure, they’re inspired by your image for now, but to them, you haven’t shown up in months, and the movement could die out. Even Arvin called them crazy earlier.”

  “So, we should tell my people to take advantage of that? To keep the movement going?”

  “Yes, exactly. We would bring the war to their doorstep so it’s impossible for them to ignore.”

  “That sounds…dangerous.”

  “I won’t deny that it is, but if we want to end the war for good, then that’s what it takes.”

  “I don’t deny that, either.”

  A moment of quietness sits between the two.

  “Also,” says Lym. “Rose?”

  “Ah, well,” chuckles Vertan. “I had to come up with something in the moment.”

  “No, it’s alright,” Lym smiles lightly. “I like it.”

  “Really? It’s so basic.”

  “Better than seeing ‘Lim’ from all those strangers who don’t know me. It came from you, and I think it’s meaningful.”

  “That’s quite fair, I suppose.”

  Though she sat with her arms still crossed, Lym found herself leaning slightly over to Vertan, until her head rested on his left shoulder.

  Even with his hands in his pockets, Vertan couldn’t help but slowly return the gesture and lean back, feeling her hair under his cheek as the two pondered these thoughts.

  In the faint and distant background, the popping of gunfire continued to ring through the night, only one of many across Pliua, let alone the rest of Alpharion.