Rise in Revolution (Chapter Forty-Four)
Jul. 29th, 2016 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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saladloveChapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldri
Chapter Forty-Four
Passing
Southwestern mining rig, Sector A4. April 3, 2272. Time instance 842N.
“Wife?!” Fan practically spat. “You didn’t tell me you were married!”
“It wasn’t ever fucking relevant! I don’t have to lay out my life before you!” Kyir snapped. “I wasn’t even sure if she was still alive so sorry for not wanting to bring it up and re-open painful wounds!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I crush your dreams of fucking my husband?” Jase’s voice was mocking. “So sorry.”
Kyir snorted. “Wasn’t interested.”
Fan looked about ready to murder someone and Cap gently put a hand on her arm. “Fan.”
“How dare he!”
“How dare he what?” Jase challenged. “Marry me probably before you were even born? Get a grip, kid. You’re, what, seventeen?”
“I’m nineteen!”
“Big difference.” Jase rolled her eyes behind her shades, but smiled slightly when Kyir took her hand. “Get lost.”
Fan looked desperately between Kyir and Cap before turning and storming off.
“Fan!” Cap called, taking several steps after her before sighing and shaking her head. Like she’ll listen to me right now.
“Is she always like that?” Jase asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Unfortunately,” Cap mumbled. “She’s had an obsession with Kyir for a long time now.”
“She kept coming into my room,” Kyir snarled, “so I electrocuted her multiple times. You’d think she’d get the fucking hint.”
“You’d think,” Cap echoed. And yet. Atar shuddered and gazed after Fan long after she had vanished into the crowd, clearly longing to call out to her but finding himself incapable, as he always was.
Mentor, meanwhile, was chattering away excitedly with the ghost that was following Jase. The new ghost looked at Cap curiously and she quietly hoped that he wouldn’t decide to follow her as well. Having the three was bad enough, but adding a fourth chatty one would completely keep her from sleeping.
Kyir and Jase eventually moved away from Cap, also talking happily with Cataclysm joining in, and the two ghosts didn’t follow. Instead, they approached Cap, and Mentor, with the most clarity that she had seen from him in months, looked her in the eyes and spoke.
“Thank you. For everything you have done.”
“I haven’t done anything.”
“You’ve been there for him,” the new ghost told her. “You remained near Kyir and took Jase to him so that they, and by extension, we, may reunite.”
“They will be safe now,” Mentor said, a hint of a smile crossing his face. “They can look after each other. They no longer need us.”
The two ghosts nodded to her once more. “Thank you.”
Their forms faded, replaced with brilliant lights of orange and green. They circled each other and flew into the sky, flashing as they vanished into the clouds. A slight wind blew and tugged at Cap’s hair and clothes, a quiet humming filling her ears as joy bubbled within her.
They were free.
Cap smiled and gazed into the sky for about a minute before shaking her head slightly and hurrying to catch up with the group.
Mentor and whoever that other ghost had been had finally passed on into the afterlife, their business in this world finished after twenty long years of Mainframe rule.
~~~
Jase listened intently as Kyir and Cataclysm quickly ran through most of what had transpired in the twenty years since they had last seen her, finishing right after the battle with the nine thousand unit the previous day, when Jase cut them off.
“I know. I saw the whole thing. I didn’t want to interfere as I didn’t know what was going on, but I overheard a couple of the cyborgs talking about Kyir and I just…knew.”
Kyir raised an eyebrow. “How did they not know you were there?”
“Oh, they knew.” Jase looked at him mischievously. “They just didn’t quite realize what I was.”
“You were shapeshifted, weren’t you?”
“You can bet your fine ass I was. People love foxes.”
“I saw you!” Cataclysm protested. “You piece of shit! You didn’t say anything!”
“I didn’t see you!” Jase fired back.
“How did you not see me?! I’m the most obvious guy here!” Cataclysm flared his wings and flexed his claws.
Jase shrugged. “I just didn’t. Sorry my eyes aren’t up to your standards, asshole.”
“The three of us all know that the eye standards in this group are abnormally low,” Kyir put in, tapping his scar and making both of them laugh quietly.
“Of the five of us, you had the second-best eyes,” Cataclysm told her.
“Second best? How dare you.” Jase looked offended. “Who, supposedly, had the best?”
“Dare,” Cataclysm and Kyir said together.
Jase reluctantly conceded the point. “Where is she, anyway? Was she relocated? What about Corvus?”
Cataclysm looked at Kyir uneasily as his friend’s mood immediately dropped. “We…haven’t seen Dare,” he said carefully, “but she wasn’t with us when the invasion came. I would have figured that a troublemaker like her would end up in IAL, but maybe she’s behaving…or in prison somewhere. She’s undoubtedly still alive. She’s Dare.”
“And Corvus?”
Cataclysm was silent and Kyir looked away.
“Kyir, what happened? What…”
“He’s gone,” Kyir whispered. “I thought I lost him when I lost Cataclysm, but when I found Cata, I…I hoped, okay, I hoped that maybe, just maybe, he was still alive. And…he was, but not…not…” He shuddered and allowed both Jase and Cataclysm to hug him.
“He was SOV’s nine thousand unit,” Cataclysm explained quietly. “We had to…destroy him, to take the sector.”
“Kyir, I’m…I’m sorry.” Jase hugged her husband tighter. “Corvus didn’t deserve that.”
“At least we found Xela,” Kyir mumbled. “And Cata.”
“Wait, Jase, what about your brother? You’re both shapeshifters- isn’t there a chance he’s running around in an automated sector too?”
Jase lowered her head. “No. He…died in the invasion. I’ve been alone this whole time.”
“I’m sorry.”
“We’ve lost a lot,” Kyir said softly, crossing his arms and looking up. “Dise is dead. Dare’s missing. Corvus is…dead. We haven’t seen Adria since a year or so before the invasion. It’s just us now.”
“Just us,” Cataclysm echoed.
“Just us,” Jase agreed. “And we’re sure as hell not going down without a fight.”
Kyir grinned wolfishly. “No. We’re not. No one’s going to knock us down. Never again.”
“Never.” Jase kissed his cheek. “We’re invincible.”
“Blech. Are you two going to get all kissy and start planning how to make up for lost time? Because if so I think I’ll avoid third wheeling that and go throw up in a bush instead.”
“Still a child, I see.”
“Shut up, Jase.”
“Don’t you tell me to shut up, feather boy.”
“Is that really the best insult you have? I’m more insulted by your lack of creativity.” Cataclysm crossed his arms, pretending to be annoyed.
“No, you soggy bag of nipples, I’m just more focused on Kyir than being an asshole.”
“As opposed to teaming up with Kyir to be the biggest collective asshole there ever was?”
“Fight nicely, children,” Kyir mumbled, sobering the mood immediately. Corvus’ line.
Cataclysm nodded and cleared his throat. “Right. I’ll leave you two alone to do…whatever it is you two do when you’re not tormenting random passerby and trying to fuck in my goddamn hammock.”
“We are not bringing up the hammock already. At least wait until the Mainframe’s been taken down!” Kyir glared at him.
“I don’t own a hammock anymore, anyway.”
“It’s in my basement.”
“I shudder to think of what you’ve done to it.” Cataclysm left them alone without another word, waving at them over his shoulder.
It’s good to have Jase back. It’s good for Kyir, and, hell, it’s even good for me. Third wheeling right now isn’t really a great idea, though. Cataclysm glanced down at his claws as he moved through the group towards the other edge and more forward, approaching the cyborgs. Can’t really take that right now. The past has really been biting me in the ass lately. Then again, when isn’t it?
His thoughts were interrupted when Emma gently tapped his shoulder and smiled at him. “Hey, Cataclysm. Where’s Kyir?”
“Over there.” Cataclysm motioned vaguely. “He and Jase are catching up.”
“Jase?”
“His wife.”
“Kyir’s married?” Cataclysm raised an eyebrow at her question.
“Why is that more surprising than the fact that we essentially found his wife in the middle of fucking nowhere?”
Emma waved it off. “With Kyir, it makes sense. We trip over people he knows all the time. But he’s married?”
“Yes.” Cataclysm rolled his eye. “He has been for a long time.”
“Oh.” Emma blinked. “He never mentioned it. That must upset Fan.”
“He never had a reason to, and yes, it did. She got angry at him and stormed off.”
“Wow. Drama queen.”
“Tell me about it,” Cataclysm grumbled. “I don’t have patience for people when they’re like that. I dealt with a lifelong drama queen when I was growing up.”
Emma nodded assent. “Sibling?”
“One and a half drama queens, yep.”
“And you’re not dramatic at all.”
“No, of course not.” Cataclysm grinned at her. “I’m the least dramatic person in my family.”
“Remind me never to meet your family.”
“They’re either dead or assholes so you don’t really have to worry about it.”
Silence, for a few moments.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Emma’s question was quiet.
Cataclysm sighed. “Not really. Just know that I’m like this because of my twin brother.” He lifted a hand to gently run his fingers across his eyepatch. “Some of it was indirect. Some wasn’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your pity.”
Emma nodded slightly. “Your brother. Is there a way for me to kick his ass?”
Cataclysm raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Why?”
“He makes me mad.”
“Fair enough. And no, I don’t think so. No mortal has ever been permitted into Heaven itself.”
“Damn.”
“If you do ever find a way in there, though, bring me with you. I’d like to stick Zi’s head on a pike and throw it to the hellhounds.”
“Violent.”
“Better than what he did to me.”
Emma looked at him oddly, considering questioning but not sure if it was a good idea. Curiosity burned in her eyes, though, and Cataclysm found himself saying, “He killed our younger brother then broke my wings and threw me directly into Hell. I was left at the mercy of a demon and, well…” Cataclysm spread his wings slightly and held out his hands, displaying his claws. “These are the only marks I let people see of what she did to me.”
“And your eye?”
“Edme.” Cataclysm snarled out the name with enough hatred to make Emma take a step away from him. “Just like the rest.”
Emma opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it, falling silent and quietly moving to walk right next to him.
He found her presence oddly comforting and he brushed her side gently with one of his wings, smiling slightly when she looked at him curiously. He didn’t speak, just turning to look at the path ahead.
They still had a ways to go before they reached TZI.
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Date: 2016-07-29 11:08 pm (UTC)“It wasn’t ever fucking relevant! I don’t have to lay out my life before you!” Kyir snapped. “I wasn’t even sure if she was still alive so sorry for not wanting to bring it up and re-open painful wounds!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I crush your dreams of fucking my husband?” Jase’s voice was mocking. “So sorry.”
Kyir snorted. “Wasn’t interested.”
Fan looked about ready to murder someone and Cap gently put a hand on her arm. “Fan.”
“How dare he!”
“How dare he what?” Jase challenged. “Marry me probably before you were even born? Get a grip, kid. You’re, what, seventeen?”
“I’m nineteen!”
“Big difference.” Jase rolled her eyes behind her shades, but smiled slightly when Kyir took her hand. “Get lost.”
Ouch, poor Fan; would you like some burn ointment for those burns Jase gave you? XP
“They will be safe now,” Mentor said, a hint of a smile crossing his face. “They can look after each other. They no longer need us.”
The two ghosts nodded to her once more. “Thank you.”
Their forms faded, replaced with brilliant lights of orange and green. They circled each other and flew into the sky, flashing as they vanished into the clouds. A slight wind blew and tugged at Cap’s hair and clothes, a quiet humming filling her ears as joy bubbled within her.
But who was the other ghost? I need to know more o_o
Kyir raised an eyebrow. “How did they not know you were there?”
“Oh, they knew.” Jase looked at him mischievously. “They just didn’t quite realize what I was.”
“You were shapeshifted, weren’t you?”
“You can bet your fine ass I was. People love foxes.”
Jase is one foxy lady lol XD
Also called the shape shifting thing along with everyone else.
Cataclysm nodded and cleared his throat. “Right. I’ll leave you two alone to do…whatever it is you two do when you’re not tormenting random passerby and trying to fuck in my goddamn hammock.”
I'd imagine trying to have sex in a hammock is a complicated affair just like trying to have sex in a canoe.
Emma looked at him oddly, considering questioning but not sure if it was a good idea. Curiosity burned in her eyes, though, and Cataclysm found himself saying, “He killed our younger brother then broke my wings and threw me directly into Hell. I was left at the mercy of a demon and, well…” Cataclysm spread his wings slightly and held out his hands, displaying his claws. “These are the only marks I let people see of what she did to me.”
“And your eye?”
“Edme.” Cataclysm snarled out the name with enough hatred to make Emma take a step away from him. “Just like the rest.”
Can I join the list of people who want to kick Zi's head off? Also Edme, whoever that is, guessing it's name of the demon who captured Cataclysm after Zi tossed him into Hell.
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Date: 2016-07-29 11:19 pm (UTC)THE HAMMOCK THING IS AN INSIDE JOKE I HAVE WITH MY LOVELY BETA ITS SO GREAT OKAY
Edme's a bitch I love her
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Date: 2016-07-29 11:31 pm (UTC)Okies XD
Does Geek know Edme?
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