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Earth Republic shows up to threaten Yewll immediately, so she lets us in on what happened in the tail-end last week: Both Knots are inside Irisa's body now, and therefore "active." What do they do? Activate a 3000 year old Votan vessel -- yes, the Kaziri -- with an onboard weapon capable of eliminating all human or all Votan life on the planet. (Which is why Nicky, seemingly human, ended up talking about preserving "our" life with the weapon, which was confusing the entire time.) So the cult that put the silver one in Irisa wasn't kidding around about the "Devouring Mother," angel of death stuff: She literally is a messiah who destroys. Nolan brings her this info at the Spirit Rider camp, where Rynn has dressed her wounds but is still not buying the actual truth, which is that Sukar's coma is no fault of Nolan's. (No sign of Ziggy, sadly.)
Stahma forgets herself in a stress-relieving moment, treating nervous Datak to a special trick she learned from Kenya Rosewater. He doesn't figure it out at the time, but once he does he pronounces a death sentence on them both, and Stahma rushes to her lover so they can run away together. But it's Stahma, so like... She's not lying, exactly, but she does seemingly kill Kenya for Datak's forgiveness. Sad and creepy and oh so Stahma.
For fear of serious torture, Yewll offers to help the E-Rep mercs, led by the intriguingly awful (and fanfic-ready) young torturer Black Jonah, find the ship -- but first, they need to shake down the Spirit Riders. So it is that while Datak is winning the election (and thus ceding the mines to the E-Rep), a last-minute threat to Tommy puts Irisa in their custody nearby. After no small amount of military-type shenanigans, Nolan and Tommy are able to rejoin Doc Yewll, who has managed to activate the Thingies just enough to knock everybody else out. Irisa and Nolan make a last stand, but thanks to a well-timed volley from Black Jonah, Jeb Nolan dies coughing up blood.
Datak figures out the E-Rep doesn't care about gulanite about five minutes after everybody else on the show, and embarrassedly goads mean Colonel Marsh into unleashing a ton of racist invective on him with the general tenor of, Datak is stupid for thinking that he could possibly benefit or look like a hero for selling out Defiance this way. Snapping once again, Datak murders the Colonel, which means that as E-Rep descends to fully take over, the Tarrs are looking pretty double-suicidey up in the Mayor's office.
Irisa, mourning Nolan's death, is joined by first Sukar and then the little girl phantasm who, on closer inspection, isn't actually Irisa right now but in fact Irzu. A bunch of CGI later, Irzu has walked her through the startup procedures of the Kaziri/becoming God, and Irisa tosses herself into the volcano of Votan technology with one final wish: To raise Nolan from the dead, and apparently trading her life for his.
The creator/destroyer Alekta/Devouring Mother stuff kind of devolved into a free-for-all there at the end, but then I imagine that's probably what it would be like if you suddenly turned into Spaceship God: A little confusing, with a lot of visuals. All in all, I'm seein' a lot of "seemingly" and "apparently" in this recaplet, and I guess that's a little less than totally satisfying. But after a hell of a season -- in which, often, some fairly well-worn plots were just an excuse to tell the real story underneath -- I don't know what really would have satisfied me. I love the show and I'm happy with what I got, I'm a simple guy.
What do you think? What are your theories? I think Irisa is capable of maybe fine-tuning the weapon to just take out the shitty E-Rep mercs and not all human life, maybe, which would solve the E-Rep occupation; either way, she is obviously not dead and won't be that different season. I don't really think Kenya is dead either, although that was some rough stuff watching Stahma hold her while she "died." I predict that Black Jonah will be the Boba Fett of the hiatus, and I personally hope he's okay. And actually I take it back: Watching Amanda lead a New Caprica-style revolt year could be a pretty bracing way to go. Especially for a show actually called Defiance.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!PREVIOUSLY
While his wife and her lover Kenya struggled in the grip of deadly miscommunications, Datak formed a conspiracy to wrest control of Defiance and hand it over to the Earth Republic. This included a media campaign against Nolan that left one Casti child dead, and the town without a Lawkeeper. But before they could leave, Doc Yewll's experiments on the Golden Knot dropped Irisa cold, revealing a second Kelevar inside her body. Wandering the forest outside town, bleeding out, Irisa was discovered by Rynn, who came back from the video game after Sukar's death, resurrection, death and subsequent coma. Today, Election Day, puts Defiance at greater risk than anyone realizes -- and with its two most ardent protectors taken off the board entirely.
THE WOODS
Nolan tracks Irisa through the woods, Irzu's foggy path growing grim as the blood flowed more quickly. Eventually she laid down, he says, and the blood began to pool... When somebody else showed up, coming from the direction of the San Francisco Bay, and they dragged her away. Tommy can barely focus.
Tommy: "That's two fucked-up things. Firstly, where the hell is she, and second of all I can't believe you quit. I can't believe I'm the ranking policeman now."
Nolan: "Son, I didn't quit. I got fired. Remember that. Amanda made that call for the whole town."
Tommy: "I hate propaganda. Are you guys really just going to leave?"
Nolan: "Help me find her, first."
Tommy starts crying, and Nolan puts his arm around him. They head out.
THE ARCH
Alak Tarr reminds everybody -- over some rap-rock/Casti fusion that Datak would hate -- to vote for his dad. The camera hovers over a wanted poster on the wall: Zachary Prast, wanted for hilarious video game activities, was a player who won a contest. That's fun, I like that. While I was digging around for info on Jonah Keller, I also learned a little backstory: Nicky Riordan was originally a sleeper clerk in the E-Rep who believed the Kaziri was buried under St. Louis based on the survival of the Arch, which led to an expedition, which found not the ship but the gulanite mines, which is how we all ended up here.
But she was working under Colonel Marsh at the time, so there's a further irony about all this: She was trying to find it as an Indogene terrorist, but alerted the people she was planning to massacre so she could get the resources to track it down. Nearly a decade of trying to find it before they did, can you imagine? The Volge attack, all the horrors of the Riordan conspiracy, will never be okay, but her desperation makes more and more sense when you look at the timeline, and how they were closing in the whole time.
HOLLOWS
Down at the HQ, Datak finds this excessive, but Stahma, wearing a great tailored coat with a cowl, tells him to chill out. There's a poster of Amanda that's been vandalized, on the wall, because the Tarrs keep it classy at all times.
Datak: "Tell him to shut the hell up! That's an order! Tell me all the districts and if we have astroturfed or stolen their votes yet! Report!"
Functionary: "[Does so, with lots of officious, bitchy Datak interruptions.]"
Stahma: "First of all, fuck everybody for stressing my husband out! Second of all, you need to calm your ass down. Let's go have some weird alien standing-up sex."
They have more of their confusing sex they have, and at some point apparently Stahma does a new trick that gets the job done, and to their mutual relief/enjoyment, inscrutably enough. Not that I was really planning on thinking about the logistics -- anything that shuts his dumb ass up, I approve -- but I would say whatever the opposite of the Irathient Swirl is, that's what she just did. It's all they ever do.
POLLS
The Rosewaters grin for the cameras, casting their votes. They both look astonishing, but there's nothing new about that. When the Tarrs arrive, both their faces fall, for different reasons.
Datak: "My beautiful wife is here to cast her vote. Isn't she the pride of her caste?"
Kenya: "Apparently I can't help myself -- or I have an actual death wish -- so here goes. She looks great! I'd keep an eye on her if I were you."
He's not a smart man, but he's not a dumb one either. The hardness behind Kenya's eyes, her broken heart, is all it takes for him to put it together, and at the curtain to the booth he grabs Stahma roughly: "There's only one other person who did what you just did to me, and I pay her by the hour. I know you betrayed me, and I'm going to kill you. After I get your vote."
Inside, she weeps in fear and shame, and breathes. He's not kidding, she knows that. But I would imagine there's also embarrassment there, that after all her tricks and treats she would be brought down by her attempts to help him. For somebody like Stahma I would imagine -- if she weren't, you know, about to die -- that would be up there among the things: "Fuck me. After all that, I fuckin' turned myself in."
But she's lucky he figured it out here, now: A dead wife could have really beefed up his numbers. Not just among the Casti, but across the board -- which isn't even that cold, because there are ways in which she's already dead. The Castithan men put their women in cages, and fuck them to impress each other. Stepping out on him, with anyone, goes beyond adultery: It means she exists -- her body exists -- even when he's not looking at her. A worse thing even than when he found her bathing alone.
She stays in there maybe a little bit longer than normal, but the Tarrs are known for their theatricality, and this is -- all the reporters, all the well-wishers -- one of the more dramatic moments of the day. I'd imagine by the time she comes out, she already knows what she's going to have to do. She already knows the rest of the story.
DOC
Yewll's still looking at Irisa's curious x-rays when Black Jonah Keller arrives, at the head of a whole E-Rep SWAT team. There is so little ado about Black Jonah appearing in the story, like a dreamboat Boba Fett, that I presume he's from the video game. It's a little niggling because the story leans on him so much this week, but I don't mind: He's magnetic, at least to me, in a way that renders the distinction basically academic.
But since it's there -- since we have a whole universe to explore, if we want -- I did some digging. Vegas Prison is a for-profit thing run by a former EMC squad called the Black Watch, and Black Jonah was the head of the snake until he was headhunted away to a ranking position by a private military coalition called Echelon, which is who the Republic is using for this Defiance operation, now that Datak's invited them in.
In our regular real world, private military is the saddest thing to me. I have a great respect for war and soldiers and I understand the desire to join up, to help, to be a hero. But if that doesn't work out, and you still love guns, and running around in your gear, discipline and pledging allegiance, you join a private firm: That's like if you wanted to be GI Joe and then ended up COBRA. The scariest thing in the world. If one merc is an animal, what's a whole cadre of them?
But here, in 2046, you can see how they're all that's left. E-Rep is pushing papers, propaganda, "Ambassadors" and corporate negotiations instead of legislation. There hasn't been time to really recreate the EMC -- a well-regulated militia, built on rational protection of borders and freedoms -- which is why every soldier we've met has followed a different path: Nolan became a scavenger, Eddie became a merc, the Black Watch built their own Gitmo, Black Jonah's Echelon. Now, everything is COBRA. Everything is broken. Because if there's no army, what would all the soldiers do?
"It makes no difference what men think of war. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be."
What comes after war? Nothing. More. "War never changes." It's the redness in the west:
"This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.
"War is god."
SUCH A NICE CLEAN CORPSE DID YE EVER SEE?
"Hear me, Gyaamaashaa of the Waves. The water in my brother does not flow. Raze the dams and summon the wind. Lively up the blood again."
Desperately, even with Rynn watching, Irisa leans in to breathe his breath: "Sukar, wake up. I need you." Rynn knows what a coma is, she's unimpressed when his hand grips Irisa's. The Path has a way of getting dim at the strangest moments; it led her here, and then left her where nothing has changed. Rynn still blames Nolan, but it would be too hard and too sad to clarify, for Sukar's abandoned, better daughter: How God lured them both down a path that saved Defiance, long after he was already gone.
Rynn: "Dead inside, thanks to Nolan. And that's not all I heard in that video game."
Nolan: "...You really believe everything you hear, Rynn?"
Irisa smiles, pretty largely, when he appears. It's kind, for us all.
Nolan: "Thanks for patching her up. Looks good."
Rynn: "I did it for him, not you. You don't deserve my mercy."
Nolan: "Agreed. Irisa, why did you run after you rang Yewll's bell?"
Irisa: "No idea. I just... I dreamed I was following somebody."
She runs her hand down Sukar's beautiful face, and wonders what she'll become.
DOC
Doc Yewll: "Wasn't the whole point of Datak to get you the gulanite mines?"
Marsh: "That's the part you know about, yeah. But I'm here for the Kaziri."
Doc Yewll: "The what now?"
(Black Jonah throws a beaker to the floor, off behind Marsh, and she jumps.)
Marsh: "You know damn well what I'm talking about. You and Nicky and Solomon Birch were there from day one. The Kaziri, a three-thousand year old Votan vessel with an extremely powerful weapons system, buried under the city under the city."
Doc Yewll: "Fine. But that math is iffy."
Marsh: "Cut to, where is the girl? I already know everything and you're just looking like a jerk."
Black Jonah, smashing: "An expendable jerk, if my guys find the girl..."
Doc Yewll: "What you don't know is, both of them are in her now. I put the Golden Knot in there before she whammied me."
Marsh: "Your weakness of character is, as always, impressive. Where is she?"
Doc Yewll: "Uh, what's your plan with her?"
Black Jonah: "It's really more about my plan for you. I get off on torture, and we're in a medical lab, so."
Doc Yewll: "...Right, Black Jonah. Got it. Any way I can help you with her, you just let me know."
NOW DANCE TO YOUR PARTNER
Nolan and Irisa sit in the hills, high above the city, as Nolan explains about the ship and what it does: Kill every human, or every Votan, depending. The end of the war that never ends.
Irisa: "That's so weird because the one cult we knew was bullshit, Thesho Zajino's snakehandlers said just that. They were looking for the 'angel of death,' who could 'carry the keys.' How horribly mundane."
Nolan: "Yeah, I guess it triggers like EMC nukes used to. Both keys at once."
Irisa: "And now that's me."
Nolan: "I'm sorry I didn't take your visions seriously. If I'd known they were from science and not just craziness, maybe I wouldn't have made you feel so bad about your entire ancestry. Or shit on your religion."
Irisa: "I mean, who wants to think about it, though? Devouring Mother, Destroyer. Angel of Death..."
Nolan: "Who you are now, what you become, is up to you. It's just robots inside you, same as before. But when that stuff was going down you were none of those things. A little girl in a bad situation. My little girl."
She leans into him, heavily. She does not say, "You idiot." But she thinks it, gratefully. She feels it.
WASN'T IT THE TRUTH I TOLD YE
"Believe what you want," Stahma breathes. "He threatened to kill me, I can only imagine what he has planned for you..."
Kenya: "Didn't you say he already knew? He didn't care?"
Stahma: "You should have known I was lying. That's not our way. But I'm not lying now."
Kenya: "This seems like a job for Amanda, or Nolan."
Stahma: "You'll start a war that won't stop. People will die, is that what you want?"
Kenya: "Depends on the people."
Stahma: "Well, I'm leaving town."
Kenya: "Is that right?"
Stahma: "You could come with."
Kenya: "Why would I believe you? Why trust you, now?"
Stahma: "Look. You don't get Castithans. We both thought you did, we thought that song could get written if nobody heard it but you... Don't. You're not subject to our laws any more than you could have understood them. You don't deserve to get hurt by them."
Kenya: "Too late. If you gave a shtako about me you would've stopped your husband from hurting my sister. Kupack Kurr would still be alive."
Stahma: "I never said I was as brave as you. I'll be at Edmond Field at 1800 hours."
She lingers at the door. Her gloves go down to the knuckle; her fingers are bare. You could still feel her touch.
A IS FOR ANTARCTICA
He saved the postcard, after all this time: "We run. Find a real doctor, get that crap out of you, and then we put Defiance in the rearview. Plan A. Just like you wanted." Just like she wanted. Before Tommy, before Sukar, before the Spirit Riders gave her a second home. But it's too hot, and he's worn off their chances, and there's an ugly storm coming.
It arrives.
Echelon vehicles storm the Irath lands, up above the gulanite mines. He recognizes Black Jonah, where they hide in the brush; they start roughing up the natives. Yewll is locked up in the back of one of the rollers, like a slave. They force Rynn to her knees with the rest. Nobody speaks.
Nolan: "This is odd. He's way too expensive just to take over a simple mining camp..."
Black Jonah: "I am looking for Irisa Nolan, a daughter of Irzu. She is wanted for crimes against my people..."
Nolan: "Don't move. Let this play out."
That's when Tommy arrives, the ranking Lawkeeper, and he's beaten into line with the rest. Jonah calls her out, sing-song, from the middle of the camp. He doesn't know where he's standing. Only the butterflies remember.
Sukar jumps when they kill the first one, and Jonah puts the gun to Tommy's head.
Nolan: "Don't..."
Irisa: "Nope. It's Tommy -- I'm coming out! -- so while he's distracted, you clear the ridge."
Nolan: "Wrong. We live or die together."
Irisa: "You're an idiot."
Nolan: "You are your father's daughter."
COUNCIL
Bailey Riggs sits in the Arch, ready with the final tallies, hating the results and how they happened: 2436 to 2110 (87 undecided, but I don't even know what that means or who that would be).
"The election of Datak Tarr comes after a long and acrimonious campaign, rife with allegations of corruption and mismanagement..."
While the respective headquarters deal with the news, Marsh doesn't waste any time celebrating. At least when you bet on horses, he says, the animals had dignity. Now it's just a case of cleaning up the mess, taking the mines and the ship, and dealing with the refuse. Including Datak Tarr, who thinks he just won something.
Jonah's men have just knocked Nolan senseless when the news comes in, and the whole Echelon group heads to the L7 mine to get everything underway. Nolan plays possum until they're gone, snaps the lone guard's neck between his thighs, and heads out. It's beautiful, and grim, but necessary either way. He stands, walks, runs differently with an assault rifle in his hands than he ever did with that pistol.
LOTS OF FUN AT FINNEGAN'S WAKE
Once everyone disperses and it's just the Rosewater girls, Kenya's not quite sure how to begin. "I'm sorry," she says, but that barely covers it.
Amanda: "Who wants to be Mayor anyway? All day, everyone I meet is either angry at me or wants something from me... either way, they're never satisfied. At least in your line of work, people like you. And they're always satisfied..."
Kenya: "Almost always. But you know, you were a great Mayor."
Amanda: "Not great. Pretty damn good."
Kenya stares at her face, her terrified face. All those angry, demanding, unsatisfied people. Those lost children, set on a stone and offered up to greed. It's a veonuvanawo, and they don't even know what they've done. She tries again, to begin.
Kenya: "...And a really good sister. You've sacrificed a lot for me..."
Amanda hears it that time, but Kenya keeps it off her face. She knows needs and wants. She knows the shape to take. This is a goodbye that can't look like one; that can look like anything else.
Amanda: "Are you okay?"
Kenya: "Yeah! I just wanted to say that if I didn't say thank you enough, it was because I was so jealous of you..."
Amanda: "Oh, Kenya! I lost an election, you don't have to talk me off a ledge!"
Kenya barrels into her arms, holds her so tight, listens to her laugh and smells her hair. It's a song that was never written down. A long time ago, Amanda was so much bigger than she was. Now they're just the same. Amanda keeps swearing she's going to be okay, which suits Kenya just fine. Just keep saying that, keep laughing. Keep telling me you'll be fine. You'll be fine.
EDMOND FIELD
Stahma's waiting when she comes to the field, at the edge of the forest. Her gloves go down past her fingers, now. Bulky, untouchable. Like a thing caught in a web.
Stahma: "You came?"
Kenya: "I'm surprised too."
Stahma: "The roller will take us to a land coach, and then to Chicago. I'm sorry I made you walk here, so far, in the cold... Here, drink something."
Kenya takes the flask, but doesn't drink. They stop walking.
Kenya: "Stahma? What's in the flask? Is it drugs, or poison, or..."
She tosses it into Stahma's gloved hand without warning, and pulls out a gun. Stahma doesn't drink, just holds it in her gloved hands and comes close to weeping. Kenya's disappointed, and in herself for being disappointed. They walk toward the roller that will never come.
Stahma: "It was penance, I had to show my husband I was serious about atonement..."
Kenya: "I know a place, a stratocarrier they used to make Blue Devil. Middle of nowhere. Scariest place in the world. And your husband doesn't know where it is."
Stahma: "What would you even demand?"
Need: "Get the hell out of Defiance. For good."
Stahma: "He'd never do that."
Want: "Then you're dead."
Stahma: "Did you ever care for me? At all?"
Kenya, exasperated: "Oh my God, Stahma. How does it matter?"
Because you still can't hear her. You think that just because one of you is about to kill the other one that it wipes out everything that happened before. That's so human, it's so weak. Just like you thought because you loved her, and Datak reminded you of Hunter Bell, then she must be in danger. Just like you thought because they destroyed your sister, it said anything about how much she cared for you. It matters because Stahma doesn't know if you ever loved her. She can't read it in you, with that gun pointed at her. She's not begging for her life, or yours: She's begging because she knows the end of the story isn't the story.
"It was a new experience, Kenya. Opening myself up to a relationship outside my liro, outside my family... Exhilarating."
She never lies, even when she's lying. This was only penance. This was only ever waiting out the time, because circumstances demand -- marusha demands -- her penance. She was never a client, and Kenya was never a whore. They were a song, written only to be burned. It could have ended a million different ways. If Kenya had understood Stahma's heart better, beyond her needs and wants. If Stahma had known what humans do, when their hearts are breaking. It could have ended a million different ways, but this is the way it ends.
Kenya drops to the forest floor. The poison wasn't in the flask, but on the outside. The danger isn't the spider, but the web.
"I've got you," she whispers. "It's all right. Just go to sleep, I'll take care of you."
Stahma sings, then. Maybe it's a song no one's ever heard before. Maybe they never will again.
"Pretty little human."
& THEN THE WAR DID THEN ENGAGE
Yewll and the lead scientist at the L-7 somehow can't find the Keys, anymore: "Completely absorbed into her cells" is how Doc puts it, but whatever. Irzu's got plans for us all.
Black Jonah: "If you're playing us, I will scalp that golf ball head of yours and wear it for a hat."
Doc Yewll: "What's a golf ball?"
Science: "No, she's telling the truth. We need to try a high-voltage charge, see if they'll draw up back together. It's survivable..."
Doc Yewll: "So's castration."
Marsh: "And yet we both know you're going to end up doing it."
Doc Yewll: "I guess I'll keep quiet about her ability to whammy everybody, for now."
MAYOR'S OFC
That night, Datak gets a few minutes alone to be proud before the Colonel shows up. He strides to the desk -- a bowl of purple geodes, matryoshka dolls lined up, a leather desklamp with a racing horse and jockey on the base; normal stuff like that -- and sits, barely smiling.
He's got a lot on his plate, even now. The future, past the veonuvanawo averted, still holds his marriage in its hands. The actual burden of governance, too. E-Rep could give them the maglev train now for free, right? Get the smuggling started in earnest, if that's who he wants to be. And then too, the L-7 garrison. The mines taking precedence over the E-Rep's new favored son, that had to be an oversight. Right?
Marsh: "Congratulations, you've earned this!"
Datak, whining: "You blockaded the mines during my victory party? And I had to find out from a newspaper reporter?"
Marsh: "Sure, yeah, sorry. The Earth Republic will find a way to make it up to you. PS, I am not even hiding that you are being managed. That's your favorite thing, right?"
Datak: "Seems to me the question is, what's the rush? It's just gulanite, it's not going anywhere. That's how mines work."
Marsh: "You got me, smartypants. It's about secret things."
Datak: "I don't do well with clearance levels. Are you ready for me to throw a huge fucking fit? Because I have worked as hard as I know how, to take control of this town, to win respect, and now that's all shot to shit. You guys are the power players, not me."
Marsh: "Bitch, you knew I was a snake when you brought me home. Are you kidding me with this shit? You'll get your money."
Datak: "Don't start with that Castithans Love Money shit, that is offensive. I gave you what you wanted, and I deserve respect!"
Marsh: "You're an uppity little haint, huh? Do you honestly thing you got anything like power out of this deal? Are you really that stupid?"
"After all of this is over, you're going right back to being a nobody," Marsh says, and the words cut deep. They're also the last words he says, which is satisfying for everybody. Not that it helps Datak's position at all, but you knew he was a rabid animal when you brought him home, sir. That's why he sold them out to you in the first place. If you thought there wasn't a ticking clock over this little partnership, if you honestly didn't understand that violence was the endpoint, I don't know what to tell you. You wrote the math out on the blackboard, every step of the way, and never solved the equation: A rabid animal is not a beast of burden.
Because he wasn't a traitor until you taught him what he was. Until you said he was just a dog, he wasn't one. Until you told him he was nothing, he was everything.
Shiro ksa yu re ya.
L-7 GARRISON
Irisa's tied up in white bandages, strapped face down on a gurney with her mouth gagged. Awful. "Whatever you did to me in my office, do it again," Yewll whispers, and Jonah gets in their faces.
Doc Yewll: "She needs water."
Jonah: "Did you not, like, vivisect humans back in the day?"
Doc Yewll, verbatim: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was a monster. I regret my past and I'm trying to do better. You should be taking notes."
She wheels her slowly toward the electromagnet setup and they get ready to start cutting.
HIS HEAD FELT HEAVY, WHICH MADE HIM SHAKE
Stahma: "Okay, I did what you wanted."
Datak: "You killed her?"
Stahma: "I said I took care of it."
Datak: "Oh because while you were doing that I totally killed a person."
Stahma: "Well, that explains why you're covered in blood and looking insane."
Datak: "Yeah, we've got about five minutes I'd say."
Stahma: "Did you ever hear of a human named Eva Braun?"
Datak: "You're a very good wife."
Stahma: "That means a lot to me."
She holds him in her arms because he's afraid and he's still coming down off the violence. He's like a little boy, sometimes. She says she likes the violence in him. Maybe that's not a contradiction. Maybe the little boy is the selfish one, the beast. Right now he's just terrified.
Datak: "I miss home."
Stahma: "I know, honey. Me too."
That's when they come looking.
SHILLELAGH LAW WAS ALL THE RAGE
While they hook a sobbing Irisa up to the machines, Rynn drops to the ground soundlessly outside, joined by Tommy and Nolan; they come up alongside a lurking Rafe McCawley and he fairly spits.
Rafe: "Our new Mayor didn't waste any time. He seized the mines and turned them over to the Earth Republic. The bastards rolled in here waving guns and paperwork. But my boys will take care of it. Defiance will be free..."
Nolan: "Great, but Irisa's in there."
Rafe: "Ah. So this is you getting me shot at again. Fine. I'm in, obviously."
Irisa screams, and they fall out: The gunfire starts. Black Jonah leads a cadre out while they're still powering up the machine, and Yewll can see the Keys flowing around the room, and she knows what happens , so she hits the deck. By the time Nolan gets to her, everybody's unconscious. She's naked, she's ashamed: "It ... came out and attacked everyone. It's back inside me." He hustles, covering for her embarrassment, shushing and talking to her in soft tones, like when she thrashes in her sleep, until she's on her feet.
"Just look at me, okay? Keep your eyes on me. I'll get you home."
Rafe takes a bullet in the arm, Tommy kills a man. Irisa's wobbly on her pins, but strong enough to sling a gun over her shoulder and take point. They walk out together, aiming into the dark, to find a roller for Rafe. Watching the corners, so when Black Jonah's men appear they drop them. But before they reach the roller, Black Jonah comes out of the dark; Nolan shoves his daughter behind him and takes Jonah down, but he's coughing up blood by the time he hits the ground.
And no matter how many times he tells her to run, she won't do it. We live or die, together. "Stupid rule," he smiles, and begs her to leave. But then he's gone, and it doesn't matter anymore. She punches his chest, and weeps, and closes his eyes.
"Nolan! Get up, Nolan! Come on. We have a rule, Nolan. Nolan."
"I love you," she says, for the first and only time. A song no one's ever heard before. No one's there to hear now.
IRZU'S PATH
She feels him, before she sees him: Sukar, standing at the entry of L-7. "Little Wolf," he says, but there's little affection in it. It's time to begin.
Sukar: "Of course Nolan's dead. Nobody can escape destiny. You're the Devouring Mother, Irzu couldn't let him take you out of here."
Irisa: "It wasn't Irzu that killed him, it was humans."
Sukar: "That sentence is meaningless. That distinction is meaningless. What do I look like to you? The point is, your path takes you down there now."
Irisa: "Is this about Irzu, or is this about the Keys? Were the snakehandlers just a cargo cult or was Thesho Zajino doing Irzu's will all along?"
Sukar: "You guys really like to stub your toes on that one. It does not matter. Especially right now, because there is some evil shit down there."
Irisa: "What if my destiny is to set it free?"
Sukar: "This is all about your choice. Devouring Mother isn't one thing, it's two."
The little girl leads her down. The first thing she does is drop her gun, before she gives chase. At the bottom, where it opens up, the little kick sits, watching and waiting.
Irisa: "Who are you?"
Irzu: "Come on."
Irisa: "I don't even believe in you."
Irzu: "Be glad I don't feel the same."
Irisa: "Whatever you're selling..."
Irzu: "I'm God, babe. I know what you need. I know what you want."
Irisa: "Fine. I can't lose him."
Irzu: "I know. And I can work with that."
Irisa: "What'll it cost me?"
Irzu: "Everything. Just like always."
Irzu: "Devouring Mother, Destroyer... You must become."
Irisa: "Meaning what?"
Irzu: "You must become my weapon. Each stone is a step..."
Irisa: "-- To Irzu's Path. I know."
Irzu: "So I put you on the first stone, here. Ready?"
Irisa: "Born that way."
"Then, Little Wolf. Become."
Silver, and gold, stretch out in filaments. Reaching into the mines, toward and down, and then resolve into the Key. Stone opens for her, and she comes into the chamber of the ship. It's still way down there. She holds her arms wide, and thinks of him, and says his name. And then she's gone.
HE REVIVES! SEE HOW HE RISES!
Nolan wakes, blood still on his lips; he can feel she's done something. We die together. He leaves his gun behind, too; across the hills and back to Defiance, where the trucks are rolling in. Where the Republic is taking control.
During the Pale Wars, when the machines were going berserk and forming the Earth into crazy, nonsense shapes, St. Louis Missouri sank beneath the Earth, so quickly it was preserved intact. The mountains sprung up, covered in deadly and beautiful hybrids. It wasn't life, but it wasn't death either. It was something newer and better and stranger and sadder than that.
Irathients settled in the area in 2030, with their farms and their butterflies; by 2037 the gulanite mines had made a new city around themselves. Mayor Nicky Riordan, and some other power players, gave the city self-sufficiency, and named it Defiance.
The name came from a group of warriors, Human and Votan alike, who were so tired of war they changed into something new. They defied every ugly instinct, quelled every fear inside themselves; the worry that there wouldn't be enough for everyone, so strong we destroy what there is, just in case. Their peace, in the middle of wartime, was so odd it set the tone for the nine years. Everywhere; nowhere stronger than here. With empires rising up, to the south in Brazil and to the west, Defiance smiled to itself. It knew the secret because the secret was born there. A mistake and a miracle.
And too, Nolan was born there. Once in St. Louis, and again under the Arch, where he died. And now he's born again. Whatever shape he takes, whatever Defiance's third life becomes, he can't seem to escape it. Can't ever seem to want to, for very long. Maybe his body knows what his brain can't figure out, but it doesn't matter what shape it takes, because that's his destiny too: It lies down there, in that defiant city, that plucky, angry little place, doused in mud and soaked in bleach. Where Amanda Rosewater still doesn't know everything she's lost; or what St. Finnegan can do, when she has to. When she wakes.
Everything is broken, eventually. Everything has to be, to find the newer better shape. It's where this world came from, this world with no natives. This world to which we all are born; to which we all are native. It was Amanda's whole platform, before today: Our responsibility to our screw-ups means our power to change things, to break them back into the better shape. There's no reason for that to change now. All we have is the E-Rep's word that they're in charge, and you can't trust those fuckers for shtako. They have no idea what they've done. But they will.
Ever since the fire went out we've all been looking for home. Sometimes you get there by boat, sometimes you have to build it with your hands.
And sometimes you have to fight.
JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps The Killing, Pretty Little Liars, Ray Donovan, Mistresses, True Blood, and Defiance for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as a regular column for Tor.com, Geek Love.