Rise in Revolution (Chapter Fifty-Seven)
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Chapter Fifty-Seven
Accepted
Control Center TZI, Sector TZI. April 11, 2272. Time instance 842N.
The sun bled the sky for all of the red it had when the revolutionaries finally gathered.
The dead had been counted, the missing noted, and the injured treated as best they could and left in the medical wing, spilling into the next building over and working the medical team beyond their limit. The revolution was tired, their spirits low, and their hearts cold.
And so Nine spoke.
“Steelwings! Revolutionaries! Today, we have won. Today, we have endured. But today, we have lost many of our friends, our allies. The Mainframe has lost many cyborgs, but it will just keep producing more until we bring it down. And we will bring it down. We will repair the cannons, we will ready ourselves for battle, and we will march on the Mainframe and destroy it. What we have accomplished so far is only half the battle. We’ve taken IAL. We’ve taken SOV. We’ve taken ASQ. We’ve taken TZI. Together, we must stand, and stand we will, for we will never fall.
“We have endured this attack and will be ready if they try it again. Never again will we lose so many. Never again will we let them sneak up on us. We learn from our mistakes and we carry on, for if we give up, all we have fought for, all we have bled for, all we have died for has been in vain! We fight for freedom! We fight so that others do not have to!”
His voice lowered slightly. “Steelwings. You were created- we were created- to be peacekeepers, to be killing machines to destroy those who would oppose us. In an ironic twist of fate, that’s exactly what we have become. But we fight against the Mainframe. We don’t have to be controlled by a computer that took our old lives from us, that destroyed the lives and dreams of everyone who wasn’t captured and changed. We will make the Mainframe pay, and we will deliver justice with its own weapons.”
“And all of the others!” Tanadin’s voice rang out, barely shaking as her fiery fists clenched at her sides. “Your homes were taken from you! Those of us who do not live on this plane have been trapped in a place that we do not belong. Those of you who do live here have a monster on your home turf. You have a machine, deadly efficient and uncaring, that would destroy you without a second thought. We are a plague on its perfect world. But we don’t want its version of perfect. We want to be free, and if we give up now, we never will be.
“So when you feel your blood slowing, your heart chilling, your limbs heaving, you have to ask yourself:
“Where does freedom live?”
Voices, less than two dozen, answered her call. Voices, together, bound by a passphrase to a black market that had become so much more.
“In our hopes, our hearts, and our dreams!”
“The Mainframe has none of those!” Nine’s voice rang across the control center, the voice of a man with nothing to lose and everything to gain. “That is their downfall! Those have no motivation but to follow the programming of a machine built by those who would enslave us! We are greater than they are! We will prevail where they cannot! We have risen, and we are the revolution!”
As the revolutionaries cheered, Seven put a hand on Tanadin’s shoulder.
“This,” he said quietly, “is why you and Nine are the leaders of this revolution.”
~~~
Emma felt someone’s hand wrap around her wrist. She turned to punch them with her other hand but Kyir shook his head.
“Punch later. Follow now.” He tugged on her arm before letting go, shooting out of the control center faster than Emma could follow.
What the hell?
He waited at the edge of the city for her to catch up and led her back to his temporary workshop, opening the door and walking through the workroom to a door on the other side.
He glanced at Emma with a clear expression of worry on his face- something that Emma wasn’t used to seeing- before he opened the door and stepped inside.
The room was dark, but movement drew Emma’s attention to the center of the room.
Cataclysm shrank back from them, pulling his wings around him so that they didn’t have to see him. He sat on a bed and shifted further away when Kyir sat beside him.
“Cataclysm?”
Cataclysm ignored her, only lowering his wings at Kyir’s prompting but refusing to meet her gaze.
“I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“Doing that. I didn’t want…” Cataclysm took a shaky breath. “I didn’t want you to see that. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. That wasn’t me. That was Edme’s monster, her plaything, and I hate that it was the only way I could defend you.”
“Defend me?”
“Do you have the inhibitor?” Change in subject.
“Yeah.” Emma stepped forward and handed him the necklace. He put it on and relaxed somewhat immediately, some tension in his wings and shoulders dissolving.
“Thank you.”
Kyir put an arm around Cataclysm’s shoulders and pulled him closer to hug him for a moment before pulling away. “I’ll leave you guys alone.” He got up and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Emma watched him go, troubled. “I’ve never seen him like this before.”
“He’s never let you. He’s never had a reason to before.”
“What reason does he have now?” Emma cautiously sat down beside Cataclysm.
“You’re my friend. He thinks you can help me.”
“Do you?”
“I don’t know.”
Emma elbowed him. “At least pretend I can help here. I’m useless otherwise.”
He laughed quietly. “Maybe you can help me. But you’re not useless.”
“Oh, yeah? What useful thing did I do during that fight?”
“So that’s not your forte!”
“Yeah, well, if you can’t fight, what use are you to the revolution? I can’t do shit, Cata!”
“You’ll figure something out. I know you can.”
Emma shrugged. “I’ll just have to put up with you protecting me. Just...try not to do that again, alright?”
Cataclysm nodded. “I only do that if I have to. I’m sorry.”
“You’re okay.” Emma blinked in surprise when he leaned against her, shutting his eye.
“I don’t believe that.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“You’re strong, and I’m not scared of you or anything.”
“I can’t imagine why.”
“I do happen to like you, you know.” A very long pause. “You’re my friend,” Emma added weakly. Shit.
“That was either the worst cover for something I’ve ever heard or you’re just good at accidental awkward situations and insinuating things you don’t mean, and I’m thinking it’s the second.” SHIT.
“What if it’s the first?”
“What if it was?”
“How would you feel about it?”
“I don’t know. It would actually have to be the first for me to know.” Cataclysm opened his eye and looked at her oddly. “Why?
“Just wondering.” STUPID STUPID STUPID.
“Hmm.” Cataclysm shut his eye again. After a short period of silence, “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For giving me a chance and being my friend.”
“I didn’t have a reason not to.”
Cataclysm didn’t answer but he shifted, his wings moving. Emma didn’t turn to look and almost jumped when the dark feathers of Cataclysm’s right wing closed in around her, pulling her closer. The feathers were soft but rough around the edges, betraying their ability to become solid and sharp in an instant. The wing created a warmth shield and, despite the fact that it wasn’t cold, Emma hummed in quiet appreciation.
“Do you actually like my wings?”
“Of course I do. They’re awesome. Who wouldn’t like them?”
“Angels. Demons. Whoever.”
“You’re talking to someone who didn’t know anyone with wings until she walked into the Black Market and met a couple of demons and some aven.”
“That’s true.” He paused. “You know, it’s funny.”
“What? That I didn’t know anyone with wings?”
“No.” Cataclysm lifted his head to look at her. “I’m not so afraid of myself when I’m with you.”
“Obviously because you’re too busy being terrified of me.”
“Mm. Terrified of your temper, more like. I’ve heard stories about you.”
Emma groaned. “Who was telling them?”
“Kyir and Tanadin, mostly.”
“Trust Tanadin. Not Kyir.”
“Kyir’s my best friend. I’d believe anything he says.” Cataclysm grinned at her. “Including events at the Valentine’s party.”
Emma groaned. “It’s Mars that should be embarrassed, not me.”
“From what I heard, the vast majority of you made mistakes.”
“I only did the one thing! The only one who noticed or remembered was Kyir! What an asshole!”
Cataclysm barked with laughter. “Are you sure you weren’t on the table with Mars?”
“I’m quite sure.” Emma crossed her arms and glared at him. “Don’t make me steal your wings.”
“Nooooo I need those to flyyyyy!” Cataclysm put a hand on his chest and pretended to be offended.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re worse.” Cataclysm raised an eyebrow. “How, exactly, would you steal my wings?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’d take your eyepatch.”
“Okay, wow, that’s just rude.”
“It’s very fashionable to wear an eyepatch.”
“I am literally missing an eye.”
“You look very fierce,” Emma teased.
“Well you look...look…” Cataclysm floundered for the word.
“Ridiculous?” Emma suggested.
“Pretty,” Cataclysm decided, “but that doesn’t help me insult you.”
Emma frowned. “I am insulted. You’re lying to me.”
“Why would I lie to you?”
“To make me feel better about myself?”
“You’re as bad as Corvus. You’re great, you fool.”
“No I’m not!”
“Yes, you are.”
“Why are you so insistent on this?”
“Because it’s true and you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong.”
“Yes, you are.” Cataclysm reached up with a hand and booped her right on the nose. “So there.”
“Fight me.”
“I’d win. You know I’d win.”
“Oh, yeah?” Emma elbowed him in the side and he gapsed in pain, pulling his wing away from her. “I could shove my elbow somewhere a lot more painful, believe me.”
Cataclysm frowned. “Please don’t. Kyir hit me there once with a renegade metal ball that fell off of something he was working on and I think that I still haven’t recovered.”
“How long ago was this?”
“About twenty years.” Cataclysm shrugged. “Hadn’t had ‘em long.”
Emma blinked. “What?”
“Oh, um. Angels...they don’t…” He made a vague hand motion.
“They don’t have anything down there?”
“Nope. So I was a bit, um. Startled. At first.” Cataclysm refused to meet her gaze. “Can we change the subject?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” Emma’s face felt hot and she was grateful for the darkness hiding the redness that was likely there. Neither of them offered another conversation topic, however, and Cataclysm finally sighed.
“You are the most awkward person I have ever met.” His voice dropped to a mumble but Emma couldn’t make out what he said.
“What?”
“You constantly say shit that makes the conversation awkward.”
“No, what did you say after that?”
“Nothing.”
“Cataclysm.”
He sighed. “If I tell you, do you promise not to make fun of me?”
“Sure.”
“It’s cute.”
Emma didn’t really have a response for that other than general protesting noises and indignant huffs as Cataclysm laughed at her. Eventually, he stopped laughing and she stopped protesting, leaving Cataclysm smiling and Emma with her arms crossed and looking offended.
A knock on the door drew their attention. Cataclysm asked who it was and Kyir slowly opened the door, peeking in.
“Oh, good, you guys aren’t up to anything that would make me bleach my eyes.” He ignored their protests and continued. “Emma, can you come out here for a second?”
“Sure?” Emma hesitantly got to her feet and trudged out through the door, wondering what the hell Kyir wanted and if she was about to die.
Kyir shut the door and led her down the hall for a few fet before turning around and lowering his voice to a whisper.
“You’re the best damn thing to come out of this revolution.”
“What?”
“For Cataclysm. He’s laughing and having a good time hours after a transformation. You’ve healed him faster than we could ever hope to.” Kyir hesitated. “Thank you. Really, thank you. He’s my best friend and he...he deserves the best, and we can’t always provide that.”
Who are you and what have you done with Kyir Lu’ann? “Thank you,” Emma managed.
Kyir grinned mischievously. “He also has a massive crush on you so if you reciprocate that at all you should probably say something tomorrow. It is his birthday.”
Emma blinked, confusion coloring all other thoughts. “What? No, he doesn’t, there’s no way-”
Kyir shrugged. “Don’t believe me if you want, but he does.”
Emma pushed the matter back. Later. Not now. “It’s his birthday tomorrow?”
“Oh, yeah. He turns...ninety-something. I need to do the math. Jase knows. Dare might. Cataclysm sure doesn’t. I doubt he remembers his birthday is coming up at all. Kiss him or something.”
“I’m not going to kiss him.”
“Okay.” Kyir shrugged and walked out of the room without another word.
Jase stepped around the corner and put a hand on Emma’s shoulder. “You’re one of us, now. Just make sure you don’t abuse that.” Then, she was gone.
Emma blinked a few times in confusion.
What the hell.
