Ravens of Eternity

280 The Seventh Raven

Freya came in fast and strong, with far more exuberance than before. She threw a strong right hook to open things up, but was immediately parried and grabbed by Lucifer. Ze quickly twisted hir body and threw Freya over hir shoulder, but quickly let go in order not to be counter-thrown.

In response, Freya flipped over with grace, landed on her feet squarely, and immediately responded with a spinning hook kick.

Lucifer ducked down just barely, and rushed forward to close the gap between them. Ze immediately threw an overhand right at Freya’s head, but stopped short and let her parry meet air. Using that distraction, ze followed up with a hidden left uppercut.

It slammed into Freya’s side, and although it dug painfully into her rib, she lunged forward with a knee and struck her opponent’s chest squarely.

Lucifer staggered backwards from the blow, shook the haziness from hir mind, then blocked two more of Freya’s strikes before launching a counter.

Ze reached out and grabbed the back of Freya’s neck once again, and pulled her down. Which was exactly what Freya needed.

It’s now or never, she yelled at herself. You’ve got this!

Freya preemptively pushed Lucifer’s rising knee away, then lunged upwards while Lucifer pulled her in. She got right in hir face, and planted a swift peck on hir lips. The move was so far out of left field that Lucifer was completely stunned by it.

A fire swept through hir suddenly, and it consumed Lucifer from the inside out. It was brief, it came out of nowhere, and it was devastating.

.....

Hir eyes went wide as hir body processed exactly what had happened. Hir mind whirled with all manner of questions and reasons and reactions to the kiss – what that was, why she did it, why it was having this effect, why couldn’t ze move. In fact, ze even began to argue with hirself about the entire thing.

“Why he hell did she do that?”

“To trick you, you idiot!”

“I dunno, seemed sincere to me...”

“Then she could’ve done it any other time!”

“But what if she means it?”

“OH GOD. Put up your arms! We’re in a fight!”

“You think she’ll do it again?”

“Are you even list-”

Lucifer’s internal fight was immediately interrupted by Freya’s devastating left hook. Her powered-up fist met hir temple in the blink of an eye, which caused everything to go completely dark, if only for a moment.

The power of it sent hir face-first into the titacrete, which splintered and cracked and cratered heavily under the padding.

And caused the entire ship to tremble.

Lucifer groaned in pain from the hit. It was the hardest one ze had ever experienced in hir whole life. Literally shook the ground beneath hir.

Ze pushed hirself up a moment later with shaky arms, and eventually got up on hir knees. With all sorts of wobbles along the way.

Then, a trickle of blood dripped out of Lucifer’s nose.

“Hah!” Eva yelled as she pointed straight at it. “First blood! I win!”

She immediately raised her arms and made victory symbols with her fingers, and turned towards the Discordians all around. She smiled widely, utterly happy with her victory.

But instead of hearty cheering, everyone around her was completely stunned by what they had seen. And it took them multiple seconds to recover. They could barely process the fight, much less that it was over.

A few truly jealous onlookers were utterly dismayed – someone else had kissed Lucifer before they could, and were on the verge of tears. A few others felt the same way, except about Eva.

Definitely more than a couple broken hearts, that’s for sure.

“Looks like you’re not getting into the Ravens after all,” Eva declared proudly. “I win, you’re out.”

“That is still to be determined,” Miko suddenly retorted. “You had simply given a Nay vote to Lucifer joining.”

This time, it was Eva’s turn to be stunned. The last thing she expected was a vote. She looked over at Miko, whose face was completely serious. Then she glanced at Lucifer, who was wearing a devilish grin.

“The rest of the Ravens still have a vote to make,” the girl continued. “Personally, I believe that Lucifer joining the Ravens would be a major boon for us. We still have much to do – we must take back our ship and our lives and our dignity from the Federation.

“None of us carry the skills or knowledge necessary to do so. Lucifer has demonstrated this ability already, by freeing you from their grasp. Now it is a matter of retrieving the rest. It is clear that their expertise significantly increases our chances of success.

“More critically, Lucifer has a mindset that heavily complements the Raven’s. If we are to continue operating in this galaxy, their speciality will be critical. My vote is undoubtedly Yea.”

Eva could only blink in response as Miko’s words sunk deep into her. But before she could retort, Amal spoke next.

“Lucifer’s right about me, you know,” she said. “I’m way too merciful against everyone we come up against. And that kinda makes things tougher on all of us sometimes. Like, especially with That Idiot. If we had killed him... if I had killed him way long ago, we wouldn’t have to deal with him now. But here we are.

“I love that you all believe in me, and in my... quirks, but it shouldn’t override everyone else’s. And I’m not in any way saying we oughta be more lethal and kill everyone we come across. That sounds way too demonic, and there’s no place for that with the Ravens, too.

“I guess, what I’m saying is that Lucifer’s a great counterbalance to me. To all of us, really. Her voice is gonna be necessary if we’re gonna make it. I’m with Raijin. My vote is Yea.”

After Amal was done, it was Xylo’s turn to speak. She cleared her throat and took on a rather officious tone. It was something she began to develop the more they voted on things.

“I’m gonna be plain,” she said. “We need a strategist. I get that we won Mechageddon without one, but that was a series of fair engagements in controlled environments. What’s more important are our other engagements. The real ones. I mean, like that bunker assault on Veltus Nine – we almost died there. Like, five times.

“Sure, we got through it all ‘coz we’re badasses, but if one thing went wrong... I don’t think we’d all be here if it did. If we had someone like Lucifer, all our crazy jobs’ll go that much smoother. We’d have a lot less close calls, and hopefully continue the whole ‘not dying’ trend.

“So yeah, it sucks that she took a bunch of our creds, but like Raijin said – we’ll make it back in no time. Plus, I like the idea of having another lethal vote on the team. My vote’s also Yea.”

It was Claire’s turn to go after Xylo. Her face looked a bit conflicted, but she ultimately smiled.

“I’m definitely not a fan of having half our money taken,” she said. “But I suppose it was all worth it, right? Freya’s back, and we’re about to get our ship back. Hopefully, fingers crossed. It’s money well spent, is what I’m saying.

“And when she joins us, that money comes right back anyway. We’ve always bought stuff together anway, with our money pooled into one. More importantly, the Feds won’t be able to freeze it since it isn’t in our individual ledgers. That’s sort of a plus.

“Even better is that Lucifer being around means she can protect us from people who would extort from us for real. I mean, since she’s really familiar. And since she’s crazy aggressive with profits, that’ll only help when we negotiate our contracts. Basically, we’ll earn even more with her around. But yeah, anyway. I vote Yea. More funds means more fun.”

Eva, still stunned, turned towards Kali, the last to vote. She knew she had already lost the vote and it didn’t matter which way Kali went. But she still wanted to hear what she had to say. A part of her hoped it would be in her favor, but the look of awe on her face told her that wasn’t going to be the case.

“Okay, look,” Kali began. “Everyone saw those moves, right? I mean, that’s, holy hell, that was incredible. This is to everyone in the room – fighting Freya is no goddamn joke. Anyone who can go toe-to-toe against her without blinking... they absolutely need to be on the team.

“I mean, you saw them take each other’s hits full on, and just kept on going. That’s... look, we can’t pass that up. Lucifer needs to join. Full stop. No questions asked. Having her on the team would only make us even more invincible. So... 100% Yea.”

Eva sighed in defeat. She might’ve won the battle, but most certainly lost the war. The rest of the Ravens threw down the gauntlet and dismantled her case with ease, vote after vote after vote.

And it resulted in a Five to One majority approval.

Still, she soaked up their words and their reasons, and knew they were all in the right. Lucifer was necessary to the Ravens’ survival, and there wasn’t any denying it. In fact, she had experienced Lucifer’s prowess firsthand.

Hir ability to plan with precision, execute it flawlessly, and get through unscathed out the other end was truly invaluable. Hir decisive thinking and ruthlessness might not have matched their own, but it wasn’t about matching.

It was about filling gaps, rounding edges, and just plain growing.

What clinched it was the fact that she herself had to adopt hir methods in order to win. It literally proved hir point long before the match was actually over. It occurred to her that Lucifer had very likely predicted an outcome similar to this.

Thus the grin ze wore.

Lucifer was truly a force of nature, like each and every one of them. Of course ze belonged.

Eva shook her head at her own foolishness, then relaxed her shoulders. She then extended a hand to Lucifer, and helped lift hir up off her knees.

“Sorry I hit you so hard,” said Eva. “I mean, you kinda deserved it though.”

“Maybe a little,” Lucifer replied as ze wiped the blood from hir nose.

“Welcome to the team. But don’t get too happy about that. Just because you’re in doesn’t mean you get to be the boss or anything. There’s no boss here. You might hate the committee thing, but that’s just how we fly, and there’s no changing that.

“We move under the rule of majority, and we abide by the decision, no matter the outcome. Even if you or I don’t like it. I mean, you just saw proof of that.”

Lucifer nodded in understanding.

“I-I get it,” ze said. “It’ll be kind of an adjustment for me, and I might slip sometimes. Or a lot. I don’t know. Never done the company thing. Much less the whole votey yea nay thing. But I’ll try.”

Lucifer took a deep breath as ze began to heal the bruises on hir body.

“And also,” ze continued, “I want you to know that your sneak attack... thing was a really dirty move. Really, really dirty. I’m gonna have to pay you back in kind for that. Someday, I promise.”

Eva couldn’t help but grin widely at the remark.

“Bring it,” she said.