Get Me out of Here

[Cat]

Unknown date in the future (as of the time of Kyle's message being received)
A doomed transport ship stranded in Gallic Border Worlds

- I said "No funny business", Cross!
- Kyle, what are you doing?!
- I'm saving you. Don't worry, we'll get through it.

Kyle stood in a small compartment with entrances to a few escape pods, his hands still in the air. The grenade was in his left hand, while the right hand still held his pistol by the barrel. In front of him, a few meters away was Kiara, held by a Brigand who was also aiming a pistol at Kyle. The stun baton that Kyle had given to Kiara a couple dozens of minutes ago was lying on the floor not so far from where Kiara was standing. Apparently, she never had a chance to use it.

Kyle looked at Kiara's captor again. In his early fourties, with a light beard and short dark hair, he probably wouldn't seem that old, if it weren't for a woman whom he was holding hostage. Kiara seemed twice as young as him, and that made Kyle feel... disgust? But then again, only that Brigand stood between him and a happy escape with Kiara, so Kyle continued to play his part, speaking calmly.

"The ship is rigged to explode. Let Kiara go, and you can take another escape pod. We'll part ways, and nobody will have to die." Kyle was reluctant to say that, as he wanted the 'old geezer' dead, but he could make concessions this time. "What's there to stop me from killing your girlfriend now or taking her with me instead?" The Brigand seemed pretty confident, and Kiara's eyes moved to try and take a glance at his face, as if to find out if he was bluffing.

"The fact that I won't let you. I'm here to save Kiara from you, and I'll do it." Kyle continued after a pause. "Even if it means we all die here and now." Until that moment Kiara looked surprised more than frightened. But now her eyes were wide with fear. She had seen—or rather, felt—first-hand what Kyle's grenades could do. And Kyle had never told her that he'd try this sort of gambit.

"Kyle... that's not you!" Kiara was the first to break the silence after a pause that lasted for a dozen of seconds. "Don't do it!" She pleaded, and Kyle could only shake his head. He didn't want to scare her, but he had to, if his bluff were to be successful. "She no longer calls herself 'Aurora Moreau'. Even if you take her with you, you'll probably kill her. And if I disarm the grenade, you'll kill me, only to kill her later. So, we don't have that many options." As Kyle spoke, the visor was calculating the explosion radius. Everything in the room would be hit. Not good, but he had to work with that. At least there was no place for the Brigand to hide quickly enough. That's something.

"Guess it's a stalemate then? We wait for one of the explosions to kill us off." The Brigand tilted his head, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the Sirian who had caused him so much trouble. The Sirian smirked in turn. "I hate waiting. Let's see how much you actually care about 'Aurora'. Catch!" With that he threw the grenade to the far corner of the room. In the end, it was all or nothing. Kyle only had one out of three chances to stay alive anyway.

The Brigand eyed the grenade as it flew away, promising swift and sudden death to everyone in the room. With a curse in French he pushed Kiara towards Kyle as he jumped towards the grenade, falling on the floor and dropping his gun in the process. He did his best to prevent the explosion, but Kyle only smirked sadly: once the grenade was armed, there was no stopping it.

All that Kyle could do was hug Kiara as she ended up in his arms after being pushed away by the Brigand. She hid her face on Kyle's shoulder, and he put his hand on the back of her head as he stared at the grenade. Then it went off.