Rise in Revolution (Chapter Sixty)

[tanadin]

 This chapter's a bit short due to all the Static I've been writing lately, but it is here despite my doubts.

Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldriel-RiR-map-594639189

Chapter Sixty

Negative

Outer battlefield, Sector TZI. April 12, 2272. Time instance 842N.

“Nothing in this one either,” Xela announced, unplugging her laptop from the deceased cyborg. “I don’t know if we’ll get anything, Shawn.”

“Keep trying. There’s gotta be something.”

“Not necessarily. There could be failsafes in place, it might be impossible to access anything when they’re deactivated, they could be too damaged. I might not have any way to access their video logs, if they’re not already deleted. It would be strange, though, for them to delete them. I’d assume a cyborg could access them through the charging port, but apparently not.”

Gelu frowned. “What makes you say that?”

“You...have tried getting a cyborg to get the video logs, right?”

Shawn and Geluu exchanged glances.

“Are you kidding me. When something is going on with cyborgs, the first person you should get is a cyborg! I thought that was fairly obvious! I’m brilliant, yes, but I don’t have a charging port on my hand or an innate knowledge of the Mainframe! Why was I your first choice?”

“Because you’re brilliant and Tanadin likes you?” Shawn guessed.

“Good reasons but I’m still not the best choice. Let’s go find a cyborg. I want to figure out what happened as much as you do.” Xela packed up her laptop and motioned for them to follow, intending to bother the first cyborg she came across.

“Excuse me!” The three thousand unit turned around, mechanical eyes bright in the darkness. “Can you help us access the video logs on a destroyed cyborg or two? We want to see what happened to them and I think that it takes a charging port to connect.”

He shrugged. “I can do that.”

Xela grinned. “Thank you.” She turned and led the way back, nudging Geluu and Shawn as she went. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Geluu grinned sheepishly and Shawn crossed his arms.

“Here.” Xela motioned to the destroyed cyborgs. “With your permission, could I connect my laptop to you and transfer the files to it so we can view them on-screen? You don’t exactly have a built in home viewer.”

The three thousand unit- 3674-α, Xela noted- nodded and allowed her to plug her laptop in before connecting to the first cyborg, his eyes glowing slightly brighter and the destroyed cyborg’s body humming softly. The hum faded and 3674 pulled his hand away. He waited for Xela to retrieve the file before moving onto the next cyborg, and the next, until he had gathered logs from five of them in all. Xela thanked him and told him that should be enough. He nodded and left them alone, heavy footsteps audible for almost a minute after he left.

Xela packed up her laptop, waving off Geluu and Shawn’s questions. “Let’s get inside before we look at this. I don’t want to sit out here any longer.” They followed her reluctantly as she led the way through town, moving down streets and into the building where she had set up. Scott and Clash were, predictably, nowhere to be found, so she hoped for some peace and quiet after these two weirdos left.

She sat down and opened the first file, letting Shawn and Geluu crowd around her before pushing play.

The amount of input on the screen was fascinating and Xela almost missed what was actually happening. Attacks lit up sections of the cyborg’s vision in red and warnings appeared here and there at the edges of the screen. She resolved to discuss this with a cyborg when she had the chance and focused on watching events.

The cyborg, who seemed to be a three thousand unit based on what weaponry she could see, seemed to be chasing a dark, screaming shape that flew through the air. Xela was pretty sure that this was Cataclysm, and seeing the other two demons trailing behind him confirmed it. The cyborg shot at him occasionally as it tried to keep up, taking a moment to fire at anyone who got too close. One of its bullets struck Cataclysm in the wing and bounced off, causing the cyborg to pause and re-evaluate. It changed targets and approached Shawn, ducking to reduce the damage from an attack from Cataclysm as he circled back around.

Cataclysm dove down towards it and ignored the storm of bullets bouncing off of his scales, eye glowing brightly and wings lighting up with dark fire.

The cyborg’s vision went black.

The next file showed a similar thing, but when the three thousand unit went down, the cyborg that they were watching got a fuckton of warnings and an entire area to the right lit up red. It jumped back in time to see an explosion- the source of which wasn’t clear- and when the flames faded a very terrifying Shawn raised his hands and speared it on a wall of ice spikes despite its attempts at avoiding that as well. It shakily tried to shoot him but his glowing red eyes turned to it, an inhuman cunning and fury that were eerily and clearly not Shawn burning into the cyborg’s gaze.

Shawn raised a hand.

The video log cut out.

The other three logs were very similar, only one of the cyborgs surviving long enough to see the dead stand back up and begin attacking, defending the creature that had raised them. Xela glanced up at Shawn as the final log ended, frowning as he shivered with his arms crossed and shoulders slumped.

Geluu put a hand on Shawn’s shoulder but he jumped away, stumbling back. “No. Get away from me.”

“Calm down, asshole, you’re not going to murder us. That was a huge spike of negative energy you picked up from Cataclysm and it’s unlikely to happen again.” Geluu crossed his arms. “It’s scary seeing yourself lose control, I know, but that-”

“Don’t tell me that wasn’t me. It was.”

“It wasn’t. That was the basic undead ‘kill or fall’ drive with some extra magic spurred on my negative energy. Cataclysm probably won’t transform like that again, so you should be safe,” Xela assured.

“I’m not worried about whether or not I’m safe! Fuck it, I don’t care if I run out of magical energy if I do that again! Maybe I deserve it! But I’m worried about hurting you guys! What about Tac? What if I kill her?”

“You’re not going to kill Tac.”

“You don’t know that!” Shawn’s voice was an agonized scream as his back hit the wall, trying to get away from them. “That thing doesn’t care who she is! That would kill her! I would...kill her…” He fell to his knees, holding his head in his hands.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Geluu sat down next to him. “Shawn, that’s not some creature you have inside of you. That’s external negative energy that you will likely never encounter again taking over. And usually, when that happens, you only attack the things that threaten you. I feel like it’s pretty unlikely that Tac would try to kill you. You don’t-”

“Stop it, stop it!” Shawn’s head snapped up. “Dammit, Geluu, look at me!” He tore the bracelet off his arm and threw it across the room. “What do you see? What am I?!”

“I see a man who’s been thrust into too many things too quickly. I see confusion, and I see pain. You and I are very similar, you know.” Geluu held up his left forearm for Shawn to see, the one with scars running between the fingers down the arm to the elbow. “You don’t understand how magic works and you can barely understand yourself. You are, as far as I’m aware, one of a kind, Shawn. An undead with the soul and mind of one still alive. You’re not a monster. Not even close.”

Xela sat by, somewhat awkwardly, as Geluu tried to calm his friend down. She wasn’t too good with the emotional aspect of things, and she’d never participated in helping Cataclysm calm down from his episodes, nevermind someone she barely knew.

She set down her laptop and got up to retrieve the bracelet. In any case, it was best not to leave random magical items lying around on the floor. She didn’t want to know what kind of mischief Scott could cause if he got his hands on it.

...Whatever it did, exactly. She looked it over and considered its possible effects. It could transform the wearer to look like Shawn, or roll back their appearance to before they became undead. There were a few other options that occurred to her, but they seemed intricate and unlikely.

Experimentally, she put it on.

The first thing she noticed was that she was suddenly a lot taller.

The second thing she noticed was that she was definitely not herself.

“Well, that’s interesting,” she mumbled, making Shawn and Geluu both look up. Shawn yelled in surprise and Geluu just looked confused. His eyes darted to the bracelet and understanding dawned in his eyes. Xela grinned and took the bracelet off, going back to her normal self.

She tossed it back and Shawn caught it, stunned.

“For science,” she explained. “It’s an illusion to make the wearer look like you, no matter who it is. That’s very interesting. It’s the simplest method of doing it, but I wasn’t sure if Geek would go that route or not. Someone could get you in a lot of trouble with that, so be careful with it.”

Shawn nodded and reluctantly put it back on.

“So! Do you need anything else from me?”

“No. Thank you, Xela.” Geluu got to his feet and helped Shawn up. “We appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. Now go get some rest, even if you don’t sleep. It’ll do you good.”

Shawn nodded numbly and followed Geluu out. Xela sat back down and sighed heavily.

This revolution was growing more emotionally unstable by the minute.

~~~

“Fan!” Emma grabbed Fan’s arm as she darted past. “Have you seen Tanadin?”

A strange light entered Fan’s eyes and she grinned. “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen her.”

“Where? When?”

“Just a few minutes ago. She was sleeping with Seven.”

“She was what?!”

“They were snuggled in a corner and sleeping. They’re in the control center, on the western side.”

Emma groaned. “You phrased it that way intentionally.”

“Yep. Need anything else? I need to tell everyone I know about this to embarrass Tanadin when she gets up.”

“Part of me wants to stop you but the rest thinks that would be hilarious.”

“Go with hilarious.” Fan grinned and strolled off, letting Emma shake her head and continue on to the control center.

She searched the rooms for several minutes before opening a door and finding what she was looking for. The room was dark but Seven’s robotic eye gave their location away. He stirred immediately and blinked open his human eye, awakening fully.

Neither of them moved, just staring at each other. Emma couldn’t see the expression on Seven’s face very well, but she was fairly certain that it was neutral and unreadable.

“Hi.” Her voice was quiet, in an attempt to not wake Tanadin.

“What do you need?”

“I was looking for Tanadin. Just making sure she was alright.”

“She is physically fine but emotionally drained.”

“I can tell. Are you-”

“You fuckers are loud,” Tanadin complained, shifting to hug Seven tighter. “Shut up.”

Emma looked helplessly between them before shrugging. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

Tanadin didn’t give her a response so she left, carefully shutting the door behind her and leaning on a wall, breathing steadily to avoid laughing.

Maybe Seven wasn’t as cold as people thought. She had always thought so, but now she had proof.

She smiled.

And maybe Tanadin could help him show it, somehow.