Choosing Sides
"Pyxis, what are you doing?" Derrick would ask, as his eyes couldn't believe it. Pyxis had sided with the knights as he stood with them, with the cocky knight slinging his arm around him like they were old friends. "Well, looky here. I didn't expect you to make the call, but I guess that means you're going to keep your word," the knight would say as he looked down on Derrick. "Pyxis! You can't let them do this!" Derrick would plead. Right after his epiphany, it was all to cruel for fate to play him like this. "Derrick!" Cherry would come in after recovering from the fall but gets stopped by a knight who keeps her from getting in between them. "Cherry! Are you okay?" he asks her, to which she nods to say yes. She then looks over to Pyxis, who was refusing to make eye contact with any of them as he kept his head low, remorse filling his body.
"You! I knew you were up to something!" Cherry would say angrily as she blamed him for this. and she was right. "Are you going to intervene, boy, or are you going to survive like a good dog?" the knight would say with a sinister smile on his face as Derrick stood still, afraid that he might provoke the guards to attack. They eventually took this as a sign that he wasn't going to do anything, which propelled him to snap his fingers. "Alright, take him away," the knight would say to the bigger of the two who was holding Tetsuga down. "I suppose you're not the type of guy to hide a downed man, right?" he would say before the knight raised his free hand into a fist and knocked his lights out. knocking him out cold with a swift punch that almost engulfed his whole head with how wide it was. They then sling him over their shoulder and walk away to transport them back to their base to be jailed.
"Looks like our job is done here, boys. Pack it up," the knight would cockily say as he and the other knights began to walk away from the scene. leaving Derrick and Cherry in their spots as they watch as Tetsuga gets carried away. Pyxis would also turn to leave with them so that he could collect his money, but Derrick didn't want it to end there. There were some words he wanted to say to him. and he was serious about letting him know as he called out. "Pyxis! wait!"
Pyxis stopped but refused to turn around to see him face-to-face as his back was turned to him. He didn't want to see their betrayed faces; it was already much to bear with the actual betrayal alone. "Why are you doing this?" he would ask. Derrick wanted to know why he would do such a thing. He knew there had to be a good reason. Even though he had negative feelings towards him, he chose to give him the benefit of the doubt while he waited for him to respond. Pyxis mulled it over before deciding to reply, but unfortunately, the cocky knight answered for him as he confronted Derrick again. "Well, the reason is quite simple; this man just owes me something—something he promised me many moons ago," the knight would say as he recounts for Pyxis his days in the mine. slaving away to the kingdom with no knowledge of the outside. He was shielded and prevented from even thinking about the outside without being reprimanded by the knights, as they kept them working. He didn't have a name back then. All they knew to heed were the orders given out by the knights. by him, Lucious Avigard. the one that all the knights would receive orders from and who was the sole manager of the operation.
"He promised me that he could get enough money so that he could buy the freedom of his friends. I guess this bounty is going to pay for that, isn't that right, 0070? Oh, sorry, Pyxis now, right?" the knight would tease as he flashed him a cheeky smirk, which he could feel on his back as he kept his face away from them. his back facing their direction like a protective shield. 0070, his designated number. something etched deep into his skin and his soul. a reminder that kept haunting his back every time he thought about it. How could he not? It used to be what he only knew about the world. so young... too young.
"Derrick, this is something that I have—no, that I need to do—so from the bottom of my heart..." Pyxis would finally speak up as he lifted his head up, but not turn it around as he said. "I'm sorry," he would say, gritting his teeth. It was already an insult to be working with the man who had caused this much suffering, but to buy back the freedom of his friends. He wasn't going to leave them there. not by a long shot. He steels himself as he begins to move forward again. leaving the conversation there, but Derrick still had more to say as he called out to him again. "Pyxis, you can't expect to live life problem-free. That's foolish to even abide by it," he tells him, which makes him stop again. All he wanted to do was have them live life without any hardship. He saved him after all. and all he was left with to remember his days with him was a simple compass, which was slung around his neck in a necklace.
"But I have to. its the only way I can save everyone," he would respond as Derrick finally got him to respond back. With this much headway, he needed to convince him quickly to think about it and side with them. Then it hit him. the words Tetsuga had bestowed on him when he was at his lowest. It was his only shot, and he was going to say it with his heart as he earnestly looked at Pyxis' back. "Pyxis, if my words matter to you, then you'll take this," Derrick would say as he gripped his chest before continuing. "Life... life is nothing without problems, so do you honestly expect to live it if everything is all smooth sailing for you?" Derrick would tell him. Despite the problems he had to deal with, it also gave him an opportunity to see what he hadn't seen and experience what he hadn't experienced. learned the lessons that he couldn't have learned if he stayed in that little laboratory of his on the outskirts of the Viridian kingdom.
It was the same for Pyxis. He grips his compass tightly with gritted teeth. This compass was also prefaced with a promise that he made with his best friend. They promised him that he would go and live his life and see all there is to see. collect all there is to collect without having to give it to knights, which kept them working day and night. He knew Derrick was right; he couldn't expect that there would be no problems down the line. With how sleazy the knight was with the whole running the slavery gig the kingdom had going on behind the scenes, how could he? It was foolish. In the end, his quest to free them all the fair way kept him from doing the one thing they saved him for. His heart stung as he gripped his compass tighter. He wanted to make it right. He wanted to live life the right way. and he knew how.
"Alright, that's enough, kid! Quiet down or else we'll arrest you too!" The knight was already done with Derrick's shenanigans and was choosing to end it as he commands the other knights to pint their spears at him as a warning. "No!" Cherry tried to butt in to stop them, but she was being held away from the fray by a knight. "Pyxis, please! Help us!" she would now go to beg as she pleadingly called out to him. Pyxis would glance at her and see her desperate expression. It was at that moment that he'd steel himself. "Hey you..." he would say, which got the attention of the knight. "Keep them," he continues as he tightly holds the compass in his hands, and in one swift motion, he pulls it off of his neck as the chain that was keeping it on there breaks off and flew into the air. He then spun around on his heel and proceeded to slam the compass right into the unprotected head of the knight with all of his might, knocking them down in an instant. "Out your fucking mouth, you bastard!" he shouts at the downed knight as he finally changes sides.
"Pyxis!" Derrick was glad that he had come around for them, but this left him and them in a precarious situation as he looked at his surroundings and saw the knights about to attack him for knocking down the cocky knight. Thinking quickly, he dodges a slash from a knight before kicking them away as soon as their backs are turned towards him. He then rummages around his satchel and procures himself a green rock. "Derrick!" He then tosses the green rock over to Derrick, who immediately realizes what the rock is as he catches it in his hands. It was a Cabryogen stone, known for its crumbly attributes and its tendency to make a plume of powder when impacted or disturbed. The boy looks around and sees some more knights trying to rush towards him. Thinking fast, he would toss the stone up and throw a straight punch at it, causing it to explode and cover the area full of green powder. disrupting everyone's voice, which gave them enough time to escape and gain distance.
"Derrick!" Pyxis would shout within the smoke as he called for the boy before making it out himself. The boy tuns through the smoke, following his voice before also making it out. Cherry knew what the assignment was and decided to join them too as she heel-kicks the knight in the groin, sending them crumpling down and releasing her, which she takes as an opportunity to escape as she joins back with the two. "Wait, we need to go get Tetsuga!" Derrick would tell them as he went to find where they had taken him. but Pyxis stopped him in his pursuit as he held him by his arm. "Not now. We need to retreat!" he would tell him. There were too many knights in the vicinity, which would definitely pose a problem if they chose to get Tetsuga while the heat was on. Derrick didn't want to, but with Pyxis changing his mind about who he was siding with, he chose to trust him. "Right." He would then turn and join Pyxis as they retreated.
The green powdered smoke would eventually disperse, coating some knights and bystanders in green powder. "Shoot! They got away!" one of the knights exclaimed as they saw that the three were already gone. "After them!" one knight would choose to give chase, but they then get stopped by the cocky knight from before as blood trickled down his head from the hit Pyxis did on him. "Save it. We got what we came for," he would tell them as they obeyed him. There was no point in giving chase to someone they weren't tasked with capturing. "Besides, we still have something that'll bring him back to us... he he he," he would say as he looked to where he thought the three had fled to, and a sinister smile began to form again.