Chapter Text
"'My legacy?'" Joe mused on that point aloud, eyes narrowing and brow lightly furrowing at the statement. "I don't like hearing that given the context surrounding Eden, Dorothy," he noted grimly.
Though Dorothy absolutely detested hearing Joe say that, he was only saying it because Snow White had misled him and poisoned his opinion on the city before he'd so much as set eyes on it.
"Eden is mankind's last, best hope, Joe," the elegant pinkette started, doing her level best to ignore the tightening sensation in her chest. "It was built and developed in your honour and image. Every policy enacted to build upon your own method of leadership."
"Executing captured Commanders is your idea of 'building upon my methods?'" Joe inquired as his nose crinkled heavily with distaste.
"So you were lying about having immediately slaughtered your way through the Central Government Headquarters so that you could execute the Central Government Council to a man?" Dorothy pointedly asked in turn.
That caused Joe to recoil and avert his gaze, grimacing with no small amount of discomfort as he immediately understood the point she was making: a point he couldn't really refute. The Council had been rendered helpless, many had begged on their knees for mercy, mercy neither he nor Red Hood had granted them. It was necessary, had to be done. What choice did he have?
A deluge of explanations and excuses, all sorts of reasons that justified putting them down right then and there, neither wasting time nor resources on a trial, not even considering for a moment imprisonment. Joe took on the role of judge, jury, and executioner in that moment. He did so without hesitation. This, with the comparatively infinite resources of the Ark, right down to having Enikk's support at his back.
Dorothy hadn't known that he'd done that. But she knew him well enough to know that he would have. She knew him well enough to know that yes, he could, and would execute helpless foes under the right circumstances.
Eden had limited resources. Limited space. Limited food. Limited people. Limited time. Ark Commanders were… Generally zealots. Conditioned, brainwashed to act as mindless drones that did as commanded by the Central Government, believed all propaganda fed to them, and blindly died en masse to serve as the circus for the general populace of the Ark.
Dorothy was expected to always reason with these people, who held so little power in the grand scheme of things, to… What end? They were near-universally incompetent. Unfit for service against the Rapture threat. Hated by their own subordinates. Worthless. A millstone upon the neck of a society like Eden, which could not afford such moral decadence in their campaign to reclaim the entire surface of Earth from a seemingly-endless biomechanical flood.
This, while Joe and Red Hood received carte blanche to slaughter the leaders of the Ark like pigs? No trial, no jury. Just immediate judgment from the man that threw the spear into the heart of the Rapture horde, with little more than the knee-jerk support of a tempestuous firebrand of a woman, and an AI that operated on raw statistical probabilities rather than moral grounds.
"That is not the same!" Snow White forcefully asserted, immediately half-shouting as she bared her teeth at Joe's former second.
"It is just the same," Dorothy countered with a furrowed brow, shifting her gaze to glower at Snow White out of the corner of her eye. "The fact that you cannot- Or will not see that is little but evidence towards your gross naivety."
Snow White jumped to her feet with a rising snarl on her lips. "You have no idea what you're-!"
"Then Joe does not refute my word himself because?" Dorothy sharply cut her off, glaring daggers at a startled short Snow White.
The golden-eyed engineer balked for a moment, then shook her head and shifted her attention to Joe, fixing the Commander with an expectant stare. A stare which rapidly grew confused and uncertain as the man remained quiet. "...Joe," Snow White started. "Tell her she's wrong!" She demanded of him.
"She isn't," Joe stated flatly in response. Earning a wave of shocked looks from everyone, save for an immediately pleased Dorothy. "Rapi and I didn't take the Council prisoner, we didn't so much as attempt to capture them. Even as they begged for mercy." He looked up at an increasingly visibly dismayed Snow White. "How is that so different from what Dorothy does to defeated Commanders?"
"It's completely different!" Snow White asserted forcefully. "You did that to protect the Ark!"
"And Dorothy doesn't kill Commanders to protect Eden?" Joe asked simply.
"She doesn't have to!" Snow White attempted to protest. "She could let them go-"
"Giving the Central Government the means to narrow down the location of Eden, which they are at war with?" Joe flatly countered.
"-She could capture them!" Snow White pressed, her body language betraying no small amount of her rising anger.
"And spend precious resources on keeping hostile, brainwashed zealots alive?" Joe asked.
"They could be convinced to work with Eden!" Snow White declared, clenching her hands into fists with audible force. "They could be turned to Eden's cause!"
Joe wasn't impressed. "So Eden should be trying to recruit Commanders that're actively 'trained' to be nothing more than self-fellatiating blowhards with no tactical or military capabilities to speak of at all, because their one and only actual purpose is to march onto the surface and die to maintain the illusion of the Central Government attempting to reclaim the surface?"
"Not all Ark Commanders are incompetent fools!" Snow White shouted back.
At that, Dorothy rolled her eyes and started to reply, "Oh please-"
"You shut up you liar!" Snow White snapped at Dorothy through grit teeth. "Your Commander is the ur example of the Ark being perfectly capable of producing exemplary Commanders that would have been worthy of serving alongside Goddess a hundred years ago!"
"That is a gross exaggeration-!" Dorothy began as she rose to her feet, only to be cut off.
"No, it isn't," Cinderella interjected, giving the pinkette a deeply unimpressed look from where she sat. "The Commander of Inherit is the pride of Eden, and he is an Ark turncoat. Eden is only as successful as it is because of him."
Snow White quickly turned aside to give Cinderella an appreciative glance.
In contrast, Dorothy's nose crinkled in open distaste. "Johan is little more than a pretender-!"
"Rapi," Scarlet interrupted. "Hast thou perhaps heard of 'The New Hope' in thy years spent in service to the Ark?"
Rapi blinked owlishly at being addressed, meeting Scarlet's gaze as she replied. "Commander Johnathan Cross. The Second Coming of the Legendary Commander, 'The New Hope,'" she answered. "He led the Second Surface Reclamation Campaign. We actually, however briefly, reclaimed sections of the surface owing to his command…" She trailed off, expression falling. "Then, when the entire campaign collapsed in on itself over a single operation, the blame for it was put entirely on him."
The red-bedecked blonde's brow knitted in open displeasure.
"Even though it was flagrantly the Central Government's fault everything fell apart. They ignored his directives, disregarded his warnings and pleas to listen to him, and did unbelievable damage to humanity's cause in doing so…"
She focused on a very keenly interested Joe.
"Commander Cross was severely injured attempting to salvage the operation the Central Government had doomed. He was charged with treason, and made to shoulder the burden of their failure. Mankind was forced to abandon all we had gained, retreating to the Ark once more. And Commander Cross… Was shot dead attempting to escape from the false charges laid upon him. His reward for all he'd done for mankind… One has to wonder just how many times that particular story has played out in the Ark, given that it's happened at least twice now."
Joe was infuriated, to say the least, grimacing heavily, scoffing and growling as he set his face in his hands. The Central Government absolutely, positively, had to go.
"Correct on all save the last, Rapi," Scarlet piped up again, catching Joe and the blonde's attention for obvious reasons. "Commander Cross did escape from the Ark. He fled to the surface, and wandered about in the wastelands until he had a deadly encounter with Raptures… Where he was saved by none other than our own Rapunzel," she glanced at the nun, who simply nodded once in affirmation.
"He recognized me," Rapunzel started. "He knew who I was, and started rambling about everything that had happened with the Second Surface Reclamation Campaign. Mostly because he thought I was a dying hallucination… But, still."
She continued.
"I rushed him to Eden as quickly as I could. He was recognized by the Nikkes that had recently defected to Eden at the time, and I vouched for his ability to fight, given that he had managed to destroy a few scout classes on his own—at the cost of his arms, yes, but…" She remarked with a small frown. "When last we were there, he was serving as Inherit, meaning Dorothy's Commander. He's an Epilektoi, one of the Chosen."
Joe's eyes went wide as he rose to his feet alongside Rapi. He started, "You-"
"The New Hope is still alive!?" Rapi interrupted Joe, however. Understandably more shocked by this information than Joe was, considering she evidently knew more about him and by the sounds of it, probably actually fought in the Second Surface Reclamation Campaign, at least indirectly with him. "And he's your Commander!?"
Dorothy, at Rapi's reaction, scoffed. "Johan is competent, but he's hardly anything impressive-"
"Dorothy has been nothing but actively disrespectful towards Johan, purely because he isn't you, Joe," Snow White cut her off, giving Dorothy a deeply displeased look.
A look Dorothy responded to with a glower of her own. "He hasn't earned the right to be called Joe's 'Second Coming.' He failed-"
"And I didn't?" Joe forcefully shouted, staring at Dorothy like she'd gone insane. "You have who sounds like one of the best Commanders that has ever lived, and you've been shitting on the guy because he isn't me? What the fuck, Dorothy?"
The elegant lady recoiled as if struck, shooting a very hurt look Joe's way. One which didn't land at all, given that she'd done and said nothing to disabuse the notion that she wasn't apparently mistreating this guy for such a stupid reason.
"That all said," Scarlet demanded everyone's attention by harshly slamming the end cap of Fleetly Fading's scabbard into the ground at her feet, producing a very loud thump in doing so. "To refocus upon the quick: the Ark can and does produce worthy Commanders despite everything. Johan is but one of many Commanders whomst originated in the Ark, yet now serve Eden, and serve Eden to great effect. That fact alone ought be positive cause to capture hostile Ark Commanders and test them before dealing with them, should they prove themselves to be without merit."
"That would be a waste of time-!" Dorothy started, almost seeming as though she would cross her arms petulantly with a huff.
Snow White snarled, "It would get in the way of you revelling in murdering Ark Commanders that might not have needed to die, and could have even been beneficial additions to Eden! Something which other squads do understand, given how Inherit is conspicuously the only team that almost never brings in Commanders alive!"
"Well your precious Johan never protests us putting down those snakes!" Dorothy snapped back. "If he's so great and smart, then why does he never bring back Ark Commanders, even when I'm not there?"
Cinderella leaned forwards in her seat, her brow furrowing in frustration. "Nobody ever claimed that Johan is perfect! He's just as biased against the Ark and prone to needless cruelty against anyone from the Ark as you are! That doesn't make it right that both of you are so willing to kill anyone from there at the slightest excuse!"
The rising tension was broken by yet another shocking 'thump,' Scarlet once more using Fleetly Fading to call all attention to her. "To reiterate myself: his own shortcomings aside, Johan's presence in the Ark highlights the fact that thy wanton murder of Ark Commanders is done for cruelty's sake above all. The Ark can and has produced competent Commanders, given Eden's military which consists of no few former Ark Commanders aside from Johan himself."
"This is but one of many reasons we left Eden behind, Dorothy. For you present your wasteful cruelty as though it were cold efficiency, when such is but an excuse for you to placate the demons you categorically refuse to combat or otherwise acknowledge as the problem they oh-so-clearly are."
Dorothy's nostrils flared, her teeth audibly ground together, and she let out a long, shuddering breath as she did her best to calm herself.
"This, yet, is but one of many cancerous concerns which plague Eden as a whole," Scarlet continued. "Concerns thy art rather quick to dismiss out of hand, or otherwise diminish, lest you be forced to reckon with the simple fact that thy actions and influence are malignant. Cruel acts you enshroud in the assertion that such is done 'to honour Joe,' as though he would be so quick to kill out of sheer maliciousness.''
"Joe would have done the same in my position!" Dorothy asserted before she rounded on the man himself, eyes blazing with indignation . "Tell them, Joe! You've been in the Ark! You've seen how they behave and treat Nikkes!"
She, to an extent, did have a point. But, by the same token… "Rapi and I went after the Central Government Council because they were actively aiming to kill all of you girls," the Commander began, his expression grim. "They were acting on pure malicious intent, deliberately cashing out on mankind's chances of long term survival for their own short-term gain. They knew better. They were actively evil. They sought to enact an authoritarian regime at the end of the world. What we did, we did because they had to be stopped at all costs for the sake of every living human being, and those who might follow in our footsteps."
He continued without missing a beat.
"The Commanders you go out of your way to kill in the field, even when it isn't necessary, when there's even a chance that they could be brought to Eden's side as worthwhile soldiers… They think they're doing the right thing. They're morons, but they've been indoctrinated. They aren't contributing to mankind's reclamation of the surface… But they think they are."
Joe leaned in to meet the pinkette's violet eyes, probing as the real differences between the action taken by Rapi and himself, in contrast to Dorothy's rapidly crystallized in his mind. "What do you do to convince them that the Central Government is in the wrong, before resorting to killing them and just claiming the Nikkes they'd been commanding?"
Dorothy remained quiet. Meeting Joe's gaze, though hers was faltering. She didn't reply, for an extended period of time, she simply wordlessly stared back at the Commander.
"Almost nothing," Cinderella answered for Dorothy, who shot a dirty look the platinumette's way. "She just takes the opportunity to mock the Ark Commanders before killing them, where Johan rarely even bothers acknowledging them before shooting them. The only instances in which a meaningful effort is made to recruit them, is when they've been defeated and captured by other Eden Commanders that prioritize swelling Eden's forces over satisfying their petty sense of revenge-"
"Petty!? Petty!?" Dorothy sharply rounded on Cinderella, her expression twisting into aghast offence. "The Ark has taken everything from us! For an entire century we'd been led to believe that we'd let Joe walk to his death by the hands of shameless, remorseless betrayers for whom we sacrificed so much! For a century, we'd been cast aside like worthless trash to walk an uncaring Earth as our reward for all we had done for them! Every action I have taken, I have taken for righteous vengeance! To make them feel even a fraction of the pain we have carried for a hundred years! This anger, this hatred, you dare call petty!? You, who should know better than anyone, for as much as you claimed to love Joe as a wife loves her husband!?"
Ah. There it was. The admission made in the heat of passion. The disappointment on Joe's face was plain as day, given how Dorothy caught it from her peripheral vision. Her own features twisted in equal parts anger and dismay to see him look at her like that.
"...Don't," Dorothy started, her voice immediately breaking, tears threatening to bud in the corners of her eyes at Joe's wordless judgment. "Don't you… Not you. Not you."
"Hatred," Joe declared, staring at Dorothy as he made no attempt to mask or otherwise hide his dismay at her unintentional declaration. "That's the difference. I acted out of love for you girls. To do my duty to secure mankind's future and the freedom of the common man. You act out of hatred for those who wronged you. Out of a desire to inflict even more suffering than you experienced yourself, well and above all else by orders of magnitude."
Dorothy's lip began to quiver, feeling her heart break to hear Joe so openly vocalize his doubts held towards her, despite all she'd done for him, all she still did for him, so long after he'd been thought dead.
Joe shook his head slowly, taking a half-step back from Dorothy. "That's what I'd walk into, if I followed you into Eden. An army built on hatred for those who slighted you, the need to appease your own bruised egos at the expense of those deemed acceptable targets by yourselves. Not love for your fellow man and a wish to see our planet made ours again."
Dorothy remained quiet for a few moments, staring at Joe as she visibly fought to keep her calm. Eventually, she did reply with a shaky voice. "And the Nikkes we bring to Eden? Those Nikkes we have never forced to fight for us? Those Nikkes that knew only suffering in the Ark, and are treated as the heroes they are in Eden? We have never been anything but kind to them, we offer them a choice-"
"What choice?" Rapunzel cut her off, the nun's brow knitting in no small amount of anger as she too rose to her feet, at which point she towered over the other collective members of Goddess. "You know full well that Nikkes whose Commanders die cannot return to the Ark. Ark Nikkes are executed for failing to protect their Commander. Don't act like you're giving them a meaningful choice when that choice is between conscription to Eden, or wandering the surface as unsupported Pilgrims that do not have the strength and survival knowledge that we surface-born Grimms do!"
"Join Eden, or die in the Ark… Or die on the surface," Cinderella noted darkly. "The worst part is that it actually seems like you fail to see the problem here, Dorothy."
"Because there is no problem!" Dorothy asserted with a heavy scowl. "Joining Eden is what's best for them anyways! They're better off coming to fight with us, then they are suffering in the Ark!"
Joe side-eyed Dorothy, his expression becoming truly grave. "...So that gives you the right to make decisions for them, since you know better than they do?"
"Yes!" Dorothy cried out forcefully. "Clearly! I want what is best for them, why would I let them walk back into Hell if I can direct them to Heaven even if against their own flawed instincts instead!? When such is necessary to reclaim what is rightfully ours!? They would choose the Devil they know, over taking a risk that I know will lead to their own happiness and fulfillment, and the empowerment of our cause!"
The camp became very quiet, as everyone knew Joe well enough to know well that Dorothy had just pole-vaulted over the line.
The Commander's face had fallen entirely expressionless, and it was immediately apparent that his disappointment had risen to heretofore unforeseen levels. "The illusion of free choice," he started in a completely flat intone. "Just enough, to make the many believe they have free will as they are corralled like cattle, directed like lemmings, because the great leader knows better, and puppeteers them by chains far more apparent than the elite delude themselves into thinking they are. Using the people below them to benefit themselves above all else, masking their intent behind pretty words and shallow placation… Until the moment the mask slips, revealing their true intent."
Though Dorothy's expression too fell flat, to those who knew the woman, her body language betrayed her sudden, intense panic as her pupils began to practically vibrate as her mind kicked into overdrive and she attempted to devise an out of the current situation, an excuse that would make it all okay.
"Authoritarianism is cancer in all its forms," Joe declared as he stepped away from Dorothy. "The Ark is an authoritarian hellhole. You've revealed that Eden is just another flavour of the same. I destroyed the Council to oppose the rise of an even worse regime from taking hold there. If this is what Eden is, then I will have nothing to do with it."
Pioneer let out a collective sigh, while Snow White looked vindicated in the extreme. Dorothy, in contrast had started to nearly violently tremble. Tears began to flow, even as she didn't make a sound. Her heart may have been broken, but the look in Joe's eyes, the expression on his face painted so very clear a picture: Dorothy had broken his heart first.
Dorothy swayed in place before she took a stumbling step backwards, then sloppily about-faced, and started off on shaky feet.
She took a few steps before Joe spoke up again: "I want Goddess to be made whole again. I want you by my side again. But that cannot happen if you remain committed to this path we cannot follow. Goddess cannot be again, unless you open your eyes and realize that you and Eden must change. Our arms are always open, our door is always open… Please, come home Dorothy."
"Please, come back to us… My Goddess of Victory."
Silence reigned as Dorothy kept her back to Pioneer, Joe, and Rapi. Without a word uttered, her valkyric armour flashed back to life around her figure, and she took to the air, rapidly soaring away, into a random direction, not even towards Eden.
Times like these, Joe wished so desperately that he was less of a principled man. Were he not, he might not have had to watch a woman he cherished so dearly walk away because she did the wrong thing, and hated hearing it.
But Joe knew how brightly Dorothy could shine. This tarnished, hollow manipulator… This wasn't the woman he entrusted the command of Goddess to. But she could be. He knew, if she just set her stubborn pride aside, Joe could have the first of his most trusted companions back.
As the girls all rounded on Joe, surrounded him with words of support and solidarity, hugging and demonstrating how much they trusted him to lead them to their promised victory, despite all that was going wrong… The Commander was sure that some day, Goddess would be whole again.
He trusted that Dorothy would see the light, and his Goddess of Victory would come home.