'Finished,' said Tobias Moon from the doorway. 'There are no more bodies, though many remain gravely ill. I think you two should rest for a while now. I can continue with your work. I'm not tired at all.'
'Then you're the only one in this Mission who isn't,' said the Colonel. He looked at his clipboard, then opened his hand and let it drop to the floor. 'Take ten, Otto. I think we've earned it.'
The two of them sat down on the floor, as far away from the bodies and the smell as they could get, and wearily set their backs against the hut wall. Otto produced a battered gunmetal flask from somewhere about his person, winked at the Colonel, and they both drank deeply from it. Moon hovered uncertainly in the doorway. Hand beckoned for him to come over.
'Join us, sir Moon. You've earned a break too, even if you don't need it. Pull up a floor and sit down. Fancy a drop of something bad for you?'
'Thank you,' said Moon. Alcohol did nothing for him, but he took the proffered flask anyway. He understood that was part of being sociable. He sat down beside the Colonel, took a modest drink, and then passed the flask back. 'It has an… unusual flavor.'
Otto laughed. 'The flavor isn't why you drink it, friend. You've been out in the main compound. What's the latest news?'
Moon hesitated, running the information available through a filter of what most people found interesting. 'The holes in the wall have been dealt with. The few fires did remarkably little damage.'
'The people, Moon,' said Hand impatiently. 'What about your friends, the living legends?'
'The Deathstalker was badly injured but has recovered. Hazel d'Ark and Midnight Blue are helping Mother Beatrice in the infirmary. Bonnie Bedlam suffered extensive damage, but is healing at an accelerated rate, and expects to be fully functional within an hour or two. Those of us who have been through the Madness Maze are very hard to kill.'
'Yeah,' said the Colonel. 'We noticed. You're probably even immune to what we've got.' Hand looked at Moon for a long moment. 'What would you have done if the Hadenmen had broken through our defenses and got in here? Would you have fought your own kind?'
'Yes,' said Moon immediately. 'Because they are not my people anymore. I am neither man nor Hadenman. I owe allegiance to no race now, only my friends.'
'In the end, that's all any of us have,' said Hand, lifting the flask to his gray lips again. 'Friendship and honor. Nothing else matters.'
'But what if honor requires that you turn against your friends?' said Moon.
'Tricky one,' said Hand. 'I guess you have to ask yourself: would they still be your friends if they knew you'd betrayed your honor?'
'It is very hard to be human,' said Moon, sighing.
'Got that right,' said Otto.
By the time things had started to settle down, it was night. The dark fell early on Lachrymae Christi. Saint Bea and Sister Marion were still working in the infirmary, struggling to save lives with insufficient medicines and instruments. It was starting to look less like a hospital, and more like a slaughterhouse. Hazel d' Ark and Midnight Blue helped as much as they could, taking breaks outside when they couldn't stand the screams or the suffering or the stench of exposed guts anymore. They sat together on the steps outside, breathing in the fresh air, gathering up the courage to go back in again. It was hard to be so powerful and so helpless at the same time. After a while Bonnie Bedlam came striding out of the shadows to join them. She wore the standard gray clothing, and was perfectly healed, so much so they barely recognized her. All her piercings and tattoos and body modifications were gone, blasted away by the energy beam, and not re-created when she healed. She was scowling fiercely as she sat down beside Hazel, just a little unsteadily.
'I hate looking like this. Like everyone else. Years of hard work gone in an instant! Even my old leathers were destroyed, that I was wearing under my cloak. I've had them for years. Made them out of the skin of an old enemy. And I'm still weak from the regeneration. Never had to do that much work before. If the Hadenmen attacked now, I couldn't beat them off with a paper towel.'
'Nice to see you too,' said Midnight. 'We're fine, thanks.'
'You look a lot more like me now,' said Hazel.
'Oh, God,' said Bonnie. 'It's not that bad, is it?'
'Any disturbances out in the jungle?' said Midnight.
'Just the plants, eating and humping each other. How's it going in the infirmary?'
'Depends on how you look at it,' said Hazel. 'We're losing more than we're saving, but given the appalling conditions, it's a miracle we're saving so many. She really is a Saint, you know. Been working all day, and she's still going when we're out on our feet. I've never seen so much blood in one place. The floor's awash with it, no matter how much disinfectant we sling about. Shock kills a lot of them, either from their wounds or from the surgery. I guess leprosy weakens all the body's defenses.'
'It's not fair,' said Midnight. 'They fought so bravely. They won the battle. They deserved better than the little we're able to do for them.'
'Yeah,' said Bonnie. 'It's one thing for us to go out and fight; we're practically unkillable. We can get hurt, but nothing really threatens us anymore.'
'And in the end Sister Kathleen won the battle,' said Midnight. 'Not one of us. And gave her life to do it. Didn't even hesitate.'
'Lord, what marvels these mortals be,' said Bonnie.
'We're like the monsters in the old stories,' said Hazel. 'Cut us, shoot us, burn us; we just keep coming back for more. Unless they stick a stake through our heart, cut off our head, burn it, and scatter the ashes. I don't think even you could come back from that, Bonnie.'
'I'd give it a bloody good try,' she said.
'The Hadenmen,' said Midnight. 'They're the real monsters. Giving up their humanity for their love of tech. Perfectability isn't achieved through the body but through the spirit. What honor is there in attacking a Mission full of sick people?'
'They want something,' said Bonnie. 'And they never let anything get in the way of what they want. Least of all morality. I can respect that. Sometimes, in order to achieve anything of value, you have to be prepared to sacrifice something else of value. Friends, honor, morality… love. I love my Owen with all my rotten heart, but I'd sacrifice him to save the Empire, and he knows it. Can you say you wouldn't do the same?'
'I lost my Owen,' said Midnight. 'I would sacrifice the Empire and everything in it to have him in my arms again.'
'But how would he feel about that?' said Hazel.
'Oh, he'd be appalled,' said Midnight. 'But then, Owen always was much more honorable than me.'
'Where's your Owen?' said Bonnie to Hazel.
'Around,' she said. 'He was overseeing the repairs to the wall, but I haven't seen him for ages. Been too busy. I thought he was going to die today, but once again he pulled himself back from the brink. Man's got more lives than a basket full of cats. But…just for a moment, while he was lying there in his own blood, I thought.
'Why don't you tell him that?' said Midnight softly. 'If the Hadenmen come again, you might not get another chance.'
'Later maybe,' said Hazel. 'We're still needed here.'
'I can help out for a while,' said Bonnie. 'Go find your Owen.'
Hazel looked down at the ground before her. 'I never wanted commitment. To be bound to any one person. I've spent my whole life fighting to be free, defying any kind of authority, just to be sure that no one ran my life but me. And then I met Owen, and fate bound us together no matter how much we struggled. I… admire him greatly. He's brave and kind and honorable, and he loves me. I've always known that. But… I never loved anyone in my whole life. I don't know if I have it in me to love anyone, even a man as fine as Owen. I'm not the loving kind.'
'I thought that for a long time,' said Midnight. 'I didn't realize the truth till my Owen was dead and lost to me forever. Don't make the mistake I did, and wait too long. We heroes tend to live tragically short lives.'
'Go talk to the man,' said Bonnie. 'I'll cover for you with Saint Bea. Come on, Midnight; you hold them down
