Beyond Space & Time

It took them both several days to completely liberate the planet, where they checked in on one another every evening before they continued on. Towards the end, it became more violent as the islands began to finally communicate the situation with one another. Atlas was unable to save some of the slaves, but she made sure they were laid to rest respectfully before carrying on. The finally island was a tiny one, but it seemed the most grand. The ships docked at it were the biggest and flashiest of all of them, and the guards were not easy to take out. Atlas figured the stock here was the best of the best, because the guards were not being swayed by any of her techniques and fought back ferociously. Eventually, all the guards had taken a swim and the buyers were all tied up just above the water line. Atlas found the main 'arena' room, and inside was just one alien, with beautifully glossy black skin and deep green eyes. Those eyes were bottomless pits of agony and its wondrous body bore the physical scars of its labours.

[They're still solo.]

[Try to be a bit more passive aggressive yeah?] Atlas didn't take another step after she realised how threatened this alien was feeling. She got a sense that this one was strong, really strong, but had been weakened by its captors. Perhaps after all the islands had been attacked, the captors had abandoned this one to fight or flee, which gave this one time to recover. "Hello," Atlas greeted the alien quietly. "I'm Atlas. I'm not going to hurt you." Would this one believe her?

Atlas smiled sadly. "I understand," she told it. "It's okay. I won't ask you to trust me, I'll just... Leave the door open." She turned towards the door but then looked back at the alien. "If you need any help, we'll be on this planet for a little while." She smiled at the alien before walking out the door.

Atlas used her cosmic sense to find which island Wolfie was on, and she flew there to join him. It was a thing of beauty. She wasn't condoning violence, but the captors were getting what they deserved. But most of those they had freed were simply finding others of their kind and fleeing to the stars in stolen ships. This included the people on the water world they'd just saved, who were going back to their world. "Is it over?" Atlas asked Wolfie as she landed beside him.

"I doubt the people here would want the police's help," said Atlas honestly, looking at all the girls (and boys) who were still struggling to come to terms with their reality. "They haven't helped them before, after all. And who's to say they won't be the same as these guys?" She gestured to the captors. It seemed being in this place had stripped Atlas of some of her naivety.

Atlas looked at Wolfie with a dry expression. "I'm just expressing my thoughts, you were going to do it anyway," she said. A group nearby were having trouble getting some rations on board, so Atlas went over to help them out.

Wolfie's police contact was very begrudging of having to answer to Wolfie, but she listened to what he had to say. She reiterated to him that that region was dead space, so why had he known to go there? Atlas had finished helping the others, and was watching them all fly away. It was quite cathartic. She hoped the final islander was okay.

"Alright," replied Atlas, smoothing her wild hair back and looking up at the sky. The sun was setting on another day, a successful day of saving a planet full of slaves, and tomorrow the sun would rise on an empty world. "The last island I went to just had one slave on it," she told Wolfie, still staring up at the sky. "It was beautiful. Couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl, but it was definitely beautiful. And terrified. I hope it was able to trust me enough to leave that place."

"I know," Atlas replied to the last part, tilting her head right back to look directly above her her at a pink cloud. "It's a great feeling, knowing I bettered the universe... I'll be here for a long time," she added, referring to the universe. "May as well make a mark... Have you ever been outside of the Milky Way?" They'd travelled far from Earth but not outside of the galaxy, or even their arm of it.

"Oh?" Atlas looked curiously at Wolfie. "You mean the emptiness between galaxies? Haven't you at least been to An... Andromeda?" The name of the nearest neighbouring galaxy to their own - of course it shared a name with her sister. "Surely it'd be just like here?"