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Descent of Nightmare (Chapter Eight)
Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
Map of Kaldriel: https://i.gyazo.com/332b0c0172dcc60acb46
Rough map of Hatu: https://i.gyazo.com/ea4f9f51b9dc7b9d8b86
Chapter Eight
Devil’s Return
Mainframe, Kaldriel. November 6, 2277. Time instance 842N.
It was just before dawn when Nathan stepped off the train, stretching his limbs and reveling in the ability to move again. It was a long train ride from Akrar to the Mainframe, although at least he hadn’t been going to the western continent. He rolled his shoulders and stepped out of the train station and down the stairs to the pathway leading towards the Mainframe.
The desert was full of sand, he noted with distaste, although he would have been more surprised and concerned if it hadn’t. Sand had an awful habit of getting in places he forgot he had, leading to finding sand in pockets and shoes months after being near the source. He was careful not to walk in the sand even as he approached the door to the outermost ring of the Mainframe. It was the only door in, and a single nine thousand unit stood guard outside.
They had only managed to retain ten nine thousand units- ones that had either been too damaged or too close to vital machinery for the Mainframe to explode in its final shutdown sequence- but they were just as dangerous as ever. The one guarding the door watched Nathan closely, shifting to stand up straighter and readying his weapons.
At a predictable range, the cyborg called for him to stop and identify himself. It was annoying to have to shout, but he supposed it was necessary.
“Nathan Narron. Necromancer. I’m here to see Seven.”
“Approach.” He stepped forward until he stood directly in front of the nine thousand unit. Despite the fact that he had never fought one, his close proximity made his instincts slightly nervous. He remained physically relaxed, however, knowing that it had no reason to attack him and that he could probably escape if it did.
Probably. He didn’t particularly want to find out.
“You may enter.” The nine thousand unit provided him with a visitor’s badge- something that seemed silly at first, but became much more serious once you realized that it kept the turrets from shooting you and identified you to the cyborgs within. Nathan put it on, nodded his thanks, and headed inside.
Man, he hated that.
He waved to a familiar one thousand unit- Hazon- as he passed, pausing to ask where Seven was and not finding himself surprised to learn that he was within the first ring. He made his way through the doorways of the Mainframe, watching the turrets carefully as he went, until he reached the first ring. Another nine thousand unit guarded the doorway and demanded identification as well before allowing him inside.
They wouldn’t let just anybody in, but hey, being Nathan had some perks. He crossed the room, passing a couple of nine thousand units who were playing chess, and climbed up to the second floor.
He wasn’t surprised to see Seven sitting at one of the terminals, but he was surprised to see Geek sitting beside him and discussing whatever the hell logical cyborgs and illogical demons discussed in their free time. Both of them looked up as he entered and Geek got to her feet.
“Nathan! There you are. I need to ask you about what you and Shawn found in the mountains.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Alright, shoot.”
“Did you see two demons?”
“Demons?” Nathan blinked. “No. Just a cyborg and a phoenix.”
“You saw what in the mountains?” Seven demanded. “What mountains? Why am I out of the loop?”
Nathan sighed and sat down in another chair nearby. “Okay. Let’s start at the beginning. Corvus and I felt a magical disturbance in the mountains around Akrar, to the northwest. I took Shawn with me up there to investigate, and we found a cyborg that looked remarkably like you and a phoenix that looked like Clash. The cyborg shouted ‘Solace,’ the phoenix showed up, we were bathed in flames, and then they were gone. We searched around for awhile until we found an old abandoned house that they’d been staying in, but they had left shortly after finding us. We think there were more than two of them, and at least one of them left some very odd tracks. Shawn thought they might belong to a demon, and I didn’t think so, as I’d never seen a demon with feet like that, but they might have belonged to one. We went inside and found this, which is what I wanted to show you, Seven.” Nathan pulled the photograph out of his bag and handed it to Seven.
Seven looked it over and shrugged. “I have no idea what this is.”
“Shawn and I noticed that he-” Nathan pointed, “-looked an awful lot like you and, by extension, the cyborg we saw.”
“It does,” Seven agreed, handing the photograph back. “I don’t know who it’s of or what that house was.”
Nathan nodded slowly. “I didn’t think so, but it was worth asking.”
“You could have just sent me a picture of it. You didn’t have to come all the way here.”
“I didn’t,” Nathan agreed, “but I wanted to see you. You are rather interesting, you know.”
Seven blinked. “Thank you?”
“I had intended to stay for a little while and see if I could help out any before heading back. Or steal Hazon, he’s pretty cool.”
“Hazon’s my friend,” Seven protested. “You can’t steal him.”
“Only for awhile! I feel like he might enjoy driving around with me.”
“I’ve heard about your driving and I don’t think you should take a one thousand unit with you in a car. You might kill him.”
“I won’t kill him.”
Geek cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s urgent that you show me where you saw these two, Nathan, and the house you found.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “How urgent?”
“If we don’t move fast enough, a war may break out between Heaven and Hell.”
Nathan whistled. “Pretty urgent. A nine out of ten.”
“What’s a ten out of ten?” Seven asked, frowning.
“When you really have to pee. Thank the gods I don’t have to deal with that anymore.” Nathan got to his feet. “Do you have faster transportation, Geek, or are we taking the train?”
“Are you safe to go into Hell? You’re human, so-”
Nathan shook his head and tapped his necklace. “I’m undead, remember? A particularly powerful undead. I can stand Hell for awhile.”
“Can you fly?”
Nathan pretended to be offended. “Can I fly? Can I fly? I’m a powerful spellcaster, Geek, on your tier, and you have to ask me if I can fly? Can you fly? ...Without your wings?”
Geek snorted. “Right. Let’s get going, then. Lovely to see you, Seven.” Nathan nodded in agreement. They said their goodbyes and let Seven get back to whatever he was doing- it looked like a lot of math and Nathan did not like math- before they went back down the stairs and out of the first ring.
Destiny awaited.
~~~
“You haven’t left the Mainframe in ages,” Tanadin protested. “Take a break. Come back to Akrar for awhile. Some of our friends are starting to think I killed you and stashed your body in a closet somewhere.”
“No. There’s too much to be done. When the aliens return-”
“-and we don’t know that they will-”
“- we have to be ready. We haven’t been idle these five years. We cannot afford to be idle now.”
Tanadin sighed and leaned against him. “I know you’re worried about them returning, but you can’t keep working like this. You’ve barely taken a break over the course of five years. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but go outside or something. Go help Nathan and Geek look for whatever they’re looking for in the mountains.”
“They left two days ago.”
“And they still haven’t found anything or they would have told you. Seven, I’m just…” Tanadin sighed. “I’m worried about you. You need to trust in the fact that things won’t go horribly wrong if you leave the Mainframe for a week. Hazon and the others are more than capable of handling things here for awhile.” She paused. “And seriously. People think you’re dead. Scott’s been trying to organize a funeral for months.”
“I’m not dead,” Seven protested, “and you don’t need to worry about me. I don’t need-”
He was interrupted by one of the terminals beeping. He quickly got up, disbalancing Tanadin, and raced over, taking a moment to stare at the screen.
Incoming transmission from an orbiting ship.
Tanadin’s eyes widened as she moved to stand next to him, shooting him a look as he took a deep breath and opened the transmission.
“This is the Mystrex M, sixty-second incarnation, requesting…” M took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s M. Can I land? I’m in a bit of hot water right now and I don’t really have anywhere else to go. I know you don’t trust me- I wouldn’t trust me either- and probably think I’m up to something, but...I’m not coming as a representative of Hatu, but as an old ally.” He paused. “I kind of betrayed my entire race and have nowhere else to go.”
Seven opened his mouth to respond but Tanadin beat him to it. “Granted. You can land. Just...don’t try anything.”
“Thank you.” The transmission ended.
Seven shot Tanadin a look and she grinned innocently.
“This,” he said slowly, “is exactly why I work the Mainframe and you deal with people.”
“Nine deals with people,” Tanadin corrected. “I just look intimidating.”
“Hmm.” Seven turned and stepped around her, down towards the stairs. “Grothek, come with me. Tanadin, you stay here.”
“What? No! Why?”
“It’s dangerous. It could be a trap.”
“He seemed sincere and why would it be a trap?”
“I don’t think it is, which is why I’m going at all.”
“I think you’re just worried about me.”
“No.” Seven stopped walking and turned to look at her, crossing his arms. “Maybe.”
“Ha.” She bounded across the room towards him. “And I’m coming with.”
“But-”
“Fight me.”
Seven sighed and shook his head, not having a response to that, and led the way down the stairs. Grothek- one of the nine thousand units- followed behind them, footsteps heavy and rattling. He was the most bizarre of their nine thousand units, and probably the most dangerous, because he had never been human.
Grothek was one of the alien nine thousand units who had been assigned to guard the first ring, and had been the only one that they’d managed to recover. He was incapable of speaking English normally due to his reptilian jaws and thus had a vocal processor that spoke with a near-monotone voice. He didn’t speak often, but when he did he was surprisingly witty and sarcastic despite his lack of inflection. He was friendly, if solitary, and Tanadin usually took a minute to talk to him whenever she saw him.
Now, however, was not a good moment as they followed Seven out through the Mainframe and towards the train station. Nearby was a flattened area that they assumed was used for landing small ships, and the approach of the spacecraft only confirmed it.
They stopped at the edge of the platform as the unfamiliar and alien craft moved closer, small and gray with no identifying marks whatsoever. It landed surprisingly quietly and fell even quieter as engines shut off and mechanical parts stopped whirring, letting only the soft hum of the power fill the air until that, too, faded into almost nothing.
The door on the side slid open and a short ramp extended to the ground, allowing the raptor within to step outside and take a deep breath of air. He shook his head and stepped down the ramp and onto the platform, letting the ramp and door slide shut behind him. He slowly approached, keeping a wary eye on the nine thousand unit, and paused a few yards away.
He was interesting to watch, Tanadin noted. He made small corrective movements with his head as he watched them, similar to an aven, and his appearance was unusual. She’d only seen him once, when he’d removed his hood and beamed back up to his ship, but now she could finally get a good look at him and decided that he wasn’t something she wanted to fight.
“I never thought I’d stand before you again,” M admitted quietly.
“Neither did we.” Seven watched him carefully. “Why are you here? Why can you go nowhere else? What makes you think we will welcome you?”
“I’m here because I know nowhere else that’s habitable and free of my race. I betrayed them by defending Kaldriel- they seek to retake it and I spoke against them.” Tanadin ignored the look at Seven shot at her. “I... may have been a bit more aggressive than I needed to be, but I don’t regret it.” He cringed. “Well, actually, I do. I wish I’d grabbed more food before I’d left. Other than that…” His claws tapped on the ground and his head tilted a few times. “And why I thought you might accept me...I hoped you’d understand my position.” He held out his hands helplessly. “I didn’t have a choice. You’ve already trusted me more than I thought you would.”
“With good reason. You’re our enemy.”
“I am,” M agreed. “But I don’t have to be.”
“How could we ever trust you?”
“I…” M’s claws clicked on the platform. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I technically never betrayed or lied to you. I never said I wasn’t a raptor or that I was on your side. You just kinda assumed when I showed up one day and started making arrows.”
“That was weird!” Tanadin protested. “How would you react if some random person walked in and started spitting arrows out of his sleeves? We were all too intimidated to tell you to leave and by the time any of us were brave enough we’d just accepted you.”
“That was the idea.”
“And...we wouldn’t have beaten the Mainframe without you.”
“You wouldn’t have,” M agreed. “Not at that time. It would have eventually fallen, but I sped it along.” He hesitated. “Partly because I wanted to go home, which was a mistake. And partly because I wanted you to succeed. Until the Black Market, I hadn’t really realized that you are just as intelligent as we are. That we had no real right to enslave you this way. And I...I’m sorry.” He lowered his head and slumped his shoulders, allowing his tail to droop and his claws to fall. His eyes looked at the ground and Tanadin had a funny feeling that there was more to his body language than they could understand.
Seven glanced between M and Tanadin helplessly. “Letting him stay is stupid.”
“I’m known for doing stupid things.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You don’t argue when Nathan does stupid things!”
“Nathan doesn’t risk the whole planet when he drives like a maniac!”
“He and Geek are off on a wild goose chase to find your lookalike to stop a war between Heaven and Hell or something! You think that doesn’t risk the planet?”
“That isn’t blatantly-”
“A Seven lookalike?” Tanadin raised an eyebrow at M’s sudden reaction. He raised his head and stood up straighter, tilting his head in interest. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Shawn and Nathan ran into a cyborg that looked remarkably like Seven and a phoenix similar to Clash in the mountains around Akrar-”
“What did he look like, exactly?” M’s voice fringed on anger and….frustration? Tanadin could remember his voice now, but it was odd and hard to understand, like her ears and her brain weren’t registering the same sounds.
“Nathan didn’t say. Why? Do you know him?”
“I might,” M growled, “and I thought I’d left that particular problem behind back on Hatu.”
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Well observered Nathan *hands ribbon for stating the obvious* XP
Also Nathan sounds like Anakin in Episode 2: Attack of the Clones when he talks about sand....
Geek cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s urgent that you show me where you saw these two, Nathan, and the house you found.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “How urgent?”
“If we don’t move fast enough, a war may break out between Heaven and Hell.”
Nathan whistled. “Pretty urgent. A nine out of ten.”
“What’s a ten out of ten?” Seven asked, frowning.
“When you really have to pee. Thank the gods I don’t have to deal with that anymore.”
Yeah those ten out of ten situations could lead to you killing a queue of people just to get to the toilet....XP
“You haven’t left the Mainframe in ages,” Tanadin protested. “Take a break. Come back to Akrar for awhile. Some of our friends are starting to think I killed you and stashed your body in a closet somewhere.”
The similarity between Seven and Lupus continues Tana, a number of my friends had only met Lupus once or twice in the 6 years we've been together leading many of them to joke that I had done the same to Lupus XD
“This is the Mystrex M, sixty-second incarnation, requesting…” M took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s M. Can I land? I’m in a bit of hot water right now and I don’t really have anywhere else to go. I know you don’t trust me- I wouldn’t trust me either- and probably think I’m up to something, but...I’m not coming as a representative of Hatu, but as an old ally.” He paused. “I kind of betrayed my entire race and have nowhere else to go.”
Seven opened his mouth to respond but Tanadin beat him to it. “Granted. You can land. Just...don’t try anything.”
This should be interesting....*grabs popcorn*
Grothek was one of the alien nine thousand units who had been assigned to guard the first ring, and had been the only one that they’d managed to recover. He was incapable of speaking English normally due to his reptilian jaws and thus had a vocal processor that spoke with a near-monotone voice. He didn’t speak often, but when he did he was surprisingly witty and sarcastic despite his lack of inflection. He was friendly, if solitary, and Tanadin usually took a minute to talk to him whenever she saw him.
Grothek sounds cool.
“I’m here because I know nowhere else that’s habitable and free of my race. I betrayed them by defending Kaldriel- they seek to retake it and I spoke against them.” Tanadin ignored the look at Seven shot at her. “I... may have been a bit more aggressive than I needed to be, but I don’t regret it.” He cringed. “Well, actually, I do. I wish I’d grabbed more food before I’d left. Other than that…” His claws tapped on the ground and his head tilted a few times. “And why I thought you might accept me...I hoped you’d understand my position.” He held out his hands helplessly. “I didn’t have a choice. You’ve already trusted me more than I thought you would.”
That look from Seven to Tana speaks volumes:
Seven: SEE! I KNEW THEY'D BE COMING BACK! YOU ALL THOUGHT I WAS CRAZY AND PARANOID! *coughs* I mean I logically calculated their return and was right.
XD
“A Seven lookalike?” Tanadin raised an eyebrow at M’s sudden reaction. He raised his head and stood up straighter, tilting his head in interest. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Shawn and Nathan ran into a cyborg that looked remarkably like Seven and a phoenix similar to Clash in the mountains around Akrar-”
“What did he look like, exactly?” M’s voice fringed on anger and….frustration? Tanadin could remember his voice now, but it was odd and hard to understand, like her ears and her brain weren’t registering the same sounds.
“Nathan didn’t say. Why? Do you know him?”
“I might,” M growled, “and I thought I’d left that particular problem behind back on Hatu.”
Hooo boy....M's about to let them know that they have Lab Kids. Seven's likely going to want to kick M's butt back into space even more after that.
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(Anonymous) 2016-11-10 03:27 am (UTC)(link)Last time I had an equation like this, half the people died. And this one is accounting for twice as many variables. Oh, right, I'm supposed to be doing algebra homework.
-Observing Anon
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Err. Probably.
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(Anonymous) 2016-11-11 07:45 am (UTC)(link)-Observing Anon
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(Anonymous) 2016-11-11 02:14 am (UTC)(link)-ToC's Anon