“If you don’t go now, they’re going to kill you.” Mihan says, her voice straining, her body so cold to the touch. I keep my hands pressed against the torn strips of my shirt pushed against her abdomen to try to stop the bleeding; it’s already soaked crimson.

“I’m not leaving you.” I say, trying to sound far braver than I really am. I’m terrified. We’ve come so far together in this life, and we were so close to escaping. I wasn’t going to abandon her now. To do so would be to abandon my own heart.

“Roc…” she says, smiling faintly, her hand slowly rising to touch my cheek gently. She is shaking with the effort. I raise one of my own blood soaked hands to hold hers, to steady her, holding her hand in place to not feel the tears welling up behind my sunglasses.

“Roc, you know I’m right. I’m dead, yes, I am.” Mihan pleads with me despite the shaking of my head. I refuse to let her go. I will not. She cannot die. She can’t.

“Listen to me Roc Wieler!” she says, her voice slightly rising, and she begins a coughing fit with the exertion. I let her hand drop and hold her head close to my chest, so she can feel the beat of my heart. It beats only for her.

She pushes away, her bright beautiful eyes looking directly at my soul.

“You’ve always treated me like a princess, you’re delicate little girl. Listen to me now as an adult, I implore you. I’m going to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it now, no matter how much you want to. So at least let me make a difference. Let me buy you some time to get to the shuttle.”

I shake my head no, my lip trembling, tears starting to roll down my face.

Mihan nods her head, smiling her perfect smile. “You know I’m right. It’s the only way. If you stay here, we’ll both die, and that cannot be allowed to happen. You have too much to live for, my love. You are too important, and not just to me. You’re a great man. You’re going to change the universe. I know it.”

She takes a moment to catch her breath, and I notice the bleeding is getting worse. She’s starting to look ghostly pale.

It was my fault.

We had been planning our escape for months, and I had gone over everything in my mind thousands of times. I knew the patrol rotations, I knew the access codes; I even knew who to bribe and who would have to be killed to ensure our freedom.

But the day I had chosen turned out to be the same ill fated day a visiting nobleman and his family came to call, and everything I had planned for was undone.

Of course, I didn’t know that until we were already under way. The shocked look of horror on that noblewoman’s face as we turned the corner, thinking the passageway clear. It probably rivaled my own.

Her escorts were quick to raise their weapons, and by the time I could grab Mihan and run, it was too late. We sprinted through the compound’s labyrinth, finding a safe place to hide, bypassing the security code on the door, but the alarm had been sounded, the entire household staff on alert.

And Mihan had been shot.

“I won’t leave without you.” I say, biting down on my lip to halt its trembling. “There is no life for me without you. If you are to die, I would rather our souls live together in eternity than to live in this empty shell without you.”

She begins to cry, the love in her eyes for me never having shined brighter.

“I love you.” she whispers, and I ache more deeply than I ever knew I could. I have to be strong. I have to figure out a way for us to escape, for us to live. It can’t end here.

Mihan’s eyes look around, and I follow, slowly realizing where he have hidden. It’s a munitions storage room, raw materials. There are no weapons, but there is enough raw resources here to make one helluva bomb.

Our eyes lock again, and she nods. “Let me do this for you.” she says with finality, and it settles in through my thick skull that there is no other choice.

The best way for me to love her now is to live on. I will make a difference. I will change the universe. And nothing will stop me. Ever.

I place her hands on the makeshift bandages and begin assessing the contents of the room. I had learned the basics of explosives as part of my duties in the mines.

My hands become a flurry of activity, setting up wires, detonators, placing powder and plastic in buckets, rigging the room to blow.

When I finish, I am winded, and take a moment to rest. Mihan is resting too, her eyes closed. I can still see her chest rise and fall with shallow breaths, and gently wake her. I am too selfish to let her pass peacefully. I don’t want her to go.

“I’m ready.” I say with that same boyish charm she had fallen in love with so many years before.

Her eyes sparkle one more time for me, and she leans her head forward.

We kiss passionately, and I never want the moment to end. Our mouths devour one another repeatedly, our tongues frolicking playfully, not understanding this will be the last time they will ever meet.

I pull away and walk towards the door. She nods.

I open the doorway and start yelling “They’re over here, in the munitions room!” then pull the door closed, locking it behind me.

Quickly, I hurry across the room, climbing the boxes I had gathered to the opened ceiling duct above my head. I cast one more look down at the love of my life, seeing just how much blood has pooled around her, and nod her way.

She holds the detonator in her hand, smiles at me, and nods.

Is the last time I will ever see her, but I cannot think about that now, or I will fail, and her sacrifice will be in vain.

“I love you.” I say, pushing myself forward into the ventilation shaft.

“I love you.” I hear her reply.

—

Another Amarr ship disintegrated before me, my Vigil class frigate soaring forward onto the next target. A single Republic Fleet Warrior drone flew by my side, but it was more than my enemies were expecting.

My wingmates remain engaged with the heavier battleships protecting the Amarr military complex, but it was a futile effort. We were flying effectively and destroying them all, one at a time, and they were too stupid to know when to run.

As I brought my ship around once more, targetting a nearby Amarr cruiser, I thought of Mihan, which I had been doing a lot of at that time.

I silently thanked her for all she was, and all she still meant to me.

I vowed anew that I would indeed make a difference in this universe. And I would do it not just because the Republic needed it, not just because the universe craved it, but because of the love of a woman so pure, so bright, that none would ever be her equal.

A woman that believed in me more than I had ever believed in myself. It was my duty, my destiny; and I would not fail.