Descent of Nightmare (Chapter Fourteen)
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saladloveChapter 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 Fourteen
Tension
Akrar, Kaldriel. November 8, 2277. Time instance 842N.
Tanadin opened the door to Xela’s house and strolled right inside, shutting the door behind her and making her way through the main hallway and into the living room where, unsurprisingly, Xela was still awake. Tanadin crossed her arms, taking in the scene.
The coffee table had been pushed aside to allow M to stand in the middle of the room. His teeth were bared and he looked extremely uncomfortable as Xela looked at them critically, occasionally opening or shutting his jaw and observing how the muscles moved. Tavren was crouched down with a tape measure, recording the length of M’s hooked claws on his feet and occasionally poking at his toes.
M looked relieved when Tanadin cleared her throat and both Xela and Tavren stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her curiously.
“What, exactly, are you doing?”
“Recording data,” Xela said cheerfully. “M’s very interesting.”
“He is,” Tavren agreed, grinning. Tanadin silently noted that it was unnerving having someone that looked so similar to Kyir grinning happily, and she resolved to tease him about it later.
“Unfortunately, I need to take Mr. Interesting with me to the Mainframe because I need to see Seven and he’ll throw a fit if I leave him unsupervised.”
“He’s with me!” Xela protested.
“Unsupervised,” Tanadin repeated. “Come on, M.”
“Thank the Traveler,” he mumbled, stepping around them and moving over to Tanadin. “I suppose we have to take the train again, don’t we
“Yes. We do.”
He sighed. “I don’t like trains.”
“Would you rather walk?”
“Yes.”
Tanadin raised an eyebrow and he continued, “I can run very fast for a long period of time. It would be easier if there was enough oxygen in the air, but…”
“There’s not enough oxygen?” Xela asked, tilting her head.
“There is enough to live, but I’m used to Hatu, which has a much higher oxygen content than Kaldriel. We have many more rainforests as the average temperature around the globe is higher and the air is more humid.”
“Sounds miserable,” Xela muttered.
“Sounds great,” Tanadin corrected, and Tavren nodded in agreement. “In any case, we need to get going. Now.”
“What’s the hurry?”
“Heaven and Hell are going to war.”
“That’s something to hurry about,” M decided. “Lead the way. Can we pick up some food on the way, though? I’m quite hungry.”
M followed Tanadin outside even as she raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you even eat?”
“If my entire body structure didn’t give it away, I’m carnivorous. I can eat either raw or cooked, although fresh out of the refrigerator isn’t ideal.”
“When did you eat meat fresh out of th- were you the one stealing the occasional small animal from Hawk’s kills?”
M looked a bit sheepish. “Perhaps. It’s difficult to hunt properly without making people suspect that you’re doing it for food, so I just took some from Hawk’s. It was going to the Black Market as a whole anyway, so I just…” M made a vague hand motion.
Tanadin rolled her eyes. “You’re a strange creature, you know that?”
“As are you,” M retorted, and they fell into silence as they climbed the stairs up to the train station.
~~~
“There’s something different,” Fall insisted, tugging at Neves’ arm to convince him to walk faster. It was midafternoon and they were heading deeper into the center of what was once Sector IAL, down the streets and around the buildings into less familiar territory that members of the old Black Market would know like the back of their hands.
“So you say,” Neves mumbled, grabbing Fall’s hand and carefully unlatching it from his arm. “But you won’t explain what’s different or how.”
“I would if I knew,” Fall protested, crossing her arms and glaring at him. “But there’s something different here. A person or an item, maybe. It’s a thing.”
“A thing.”
“Yes! A thing.”
“That’s the vaguest, most nonspecific shitty answer to a question I have ever heard.”
“Well!” Fall pretended to look offended. “Then you tell me what it is, smart guy!”
“I don’t even feel it!” Neves protested. “As far as I’m concerned, whatever sensor is beeping telling you that there’s ‘something different’ is faulty and needs replacing.”
“It’s not a sensor. It’s magical in nature.”
“What, you think it’s a ghost?”
“No. Ghosts don’t set me off like this.” Fall shivered, an uncommon thing for a cyborg. “But it’s similar.”
“Shawn does live here, you know. And Nathan visits sometimes.”
“I know damn well what kind of pull Shawn and Nathan have on me, so-”
“Hey!”
Fall stopped talking as someone shouted, glancing behind her. Neves followed her gaze to a group of six people- three humans, a demon, and two beings that looked like humans but were likely just transformed. Considering the magical energy radiating off of them that even his faulty sensors were picking up, Neves figured he was right.
“You! Tin cans!”
Neves groaned and stopped walking, slowly turning to face them with Fall not far behind. “It’s not tin.”
“Whatever! Who cares! What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” Neves said irritably. “What are you doing here?”
“You don’t live!” the demon snapped. “You exist. You put a blight on Kaldriel. We fought for our freedom from the cyborgs! You should be gone!”
“You fought for freedom from the Mainframe,” Fall corrected. “As did we. We were right there alongside you. We’re still on your side.”
“No damned cyborg is on my side,” another one of the humans muttered.
“How do we know that Seven and Nine won’t turn the Mainframe back on, huh? What’s stopping you cyborgs from taking over again?”
“The fact that we don’t want to and it’s morally wrong, maybe,” Fall snapped. “What’s stopping you from being a decent person instead of shouting rude comments on the street?”
“Shut your mouth, you metal bitch!”
“Shut your mouth before I tear your jaw off!” Neves snarled, taking a step forward and feeling a twinge of satisfaction when the human stepped back.
One of the nonhumans- an elemental, most likely- bared her teeth. “Is that what happened to you? You got your jaw torn off?”
“I-”
“Typical from a cyborg,” the other elemental sighed. “Threatening with violence the moment things don’t go their way. You could just anti-magic pulse us and be done with it, huh? That gives you confidence.” He shook his head. “Your kind should be dismantled. You served your purpose but now you’re too dangerous to live.”
“Who’s going to defend you when those aliens come knocking on Kaldriel’s door again if we’re gone, asshole?” Neves barked, human eye beginning to flicker with purple energy. “The first time didn’t work out too well.”
“We drove them off last time!”
“With the combination of elementals, demons, and cyborgs, yes.” Fall glared at them. “You can’t have safe Kaldriel without cyborgs. Isn’t it good enough for you people that we’ve been banned from increasing our numbers, even with volunteers?”
“Remove the anti-magic pulses and the prediction software!” the demon snapped. “Make it fair!”
“This isn’t a competition! We aren’t trying to be fair!” Neves roared, taking another step forward. “We’re here to protect you. We’re here to live. Our lives were taken from us by force and we can’t remember who we were. Let us be who we are now and STOP BEING A BUNCH OF FUCKING ASSHOLES!”
The demon raised his claws. “Your time is over! It was over five years ago!”
Neves extended the blade on his arm. “Our time? What about your time? You proved that you couldn’t defend yourselves against an alien force! Generally that constitutes as your time being over. It was only because of us that you got a second chance.”
“Tanadin-”
“Tanadin believes in the cyborgs, and you should too,” another voice interrupted, and all eyes swung around to Emma. She had a hand on Nightbane but hadn’t drawn or activated it and her eyes blazed with suppressed fury. “Without Seven, we would never have taken IAL, nevermind the Mainframe. So cut the remarks and learn some fucking decency. Now get going.” When no one spoke or acted, she readied Nightbane and activated it, making the demon and one of the elementals hiss. “Now.”
The group bolted, leaving only Emma, Fall, and Neves on the street. Emma sighed and deactivated Nightbane, placing it back at her hip before stepping forward.
“I could have handled it,” Neves muttered, retracting the blade on his arm.
“You were about to kill someone.”
“That’s what I meant by handling it.”
Emma sighed and shot a look at the way the group had gone. “What do they hope to accomplish by harassing cyborgs on the street? If they did that to the wrong cyborg- or, hell, even to you for long enough- one of them could be killed. People have already been hurt.”
“That’s the point, I fear,” Fall muttered. “They want the cyborgs to respond violently, to ‘prove’ their point that they’re too dangerous to leave alive.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “But most of the time that cyborgs respond it’s in self-defense! What else are you supposed to do when someone tries to kill you?”
“Not how anyone’s painting it, I’m afraid,” Fall sighed. “Thanks for the save, Emma. No one’s going to protest when you show up.”
Emma nodded. “It’s not a problem. What are you doing on this side of town, anyway?”
“Fall said she felt something.”
“I do,” Fall insisted. “There’s something here.”
“Could it possibly be the lab-grown genetic offspring of members of the Black Market and the revolution?”
Fall and Neves stared. “What?”
“Okay, that’s a possible yes. Let’s just say that some aliens got kinda weird.”
“Aliens? How do you know-”
“They told us,” Emma said cheerfully, “and M showed up again. Come on, Fall. Let’s see where your feeling leads us.”
Neves and Fall exchanged glances before Fall started leading the way down the street, occasionally glancing back at Emma as if to confirm to herself that yes, she was real, and no, she wasn’t crazy.
Neves wasn’t convinced. She was probably crazy.
They finally found what they were looking for walking down the street. Fall sprinted forward and almost ran into her, a girl in a black trenchcoat with a scythe attached to her back. She swore and reached for her weapon before her eyes paused on Emma and she hesitated, looking between the three of them in confusion as Fall looked her over critically.
“You’re the one I’m getting a weird feeling from,” Fall decided. “But I don’t know why. Oh, hi Sheva.”
Neves blinked but shrugged it off, figuring that it was a ghost or something. Fall was known for seeing spirits of the dead despite few cyborgs having any kind of magical ability at all, even passive ones such as hers.
“Who… are you?” the girl asked, frowning.
“Hello, Lucy.” Emma waved. “This is Fall and Neves is the asshole.”
“Hey! I’m an angry asshole, get it right.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Okay. He’s an angry asshole.”
“Fascinating.” Lucy looked them all over carefully. “I’d stick around but Twelve wants me back with the group. Something about a meeting. I should really get going.”
Fall looked disappointed but nodded, watching her go and waiting until she was out of earshot to speak.
“There’s something different about her. It’s… familiar, somehow. I should know what it is but I don’t.” She crossed her arms. “But I will. I’ll find out. Somehow.”
~~~
It was just before dawn when Tanadin and M arrived at the Mainframe. They passed into the Mainframe without incident and made their way to the first ring. A nine thousand unit informed M that he had to wait outside and he accepting this with a silent nod, letting Tanadin go in without him.
Curiously, Seven was nowhere to be seen within the first ring. There were still a few tiny pumpkins sitting around on terminals from the nine thousands’ yearly stack-tiny-pumpkins-on-everything-until-Seven-notices event (he never noticed. They were still trying) but Seven himself was nowhere to be seen. Tanadin found Hazon sitting at Seven’s usual terminal and tapped his shoulder. He jumped and raised an eyebrow, tilting his head slightly as she began to speak.
“Hazon. Where’s Seven?”
Hazon looked suddenly guilty, blinking and swallowing before answering. “Seven?”
“Yes. Seven. Tall. Seven thousand unit. One of your best friends. You might know him.”
“He’s...occupied.”
“Occupied?”
“Yes.”
Nine looked up from what he was doing- Nine was here, that was not a good sign- and nodded. “He’s busy.”
“He needs to know about the impending demon-angel war.”
“He’s busy.”
“Where.”
“Tanadin, I’ll tell him as soon as I can,” Nine assured. “Geluu and I have this handled until then. He’ll be done soon or, at least, he should be.”
“Are you in contact with the Archdemons?”
“Yes.” Nine spun around in his seat. “I have helped lead a war effort before, Tanadin. Twice, in fact. I know what to do.”
“I know,” Tanadin sighed, “but I still worry.” She turned back to Hazon. “Where is Seven?”
“I’m not going to tell you,” Hazon said stubbornly, crossing his arms and trying to look intimidating and only managing to look like he’d bitten a lemon. “He’s occupied.”
“With what?”
“Kyir.”
“Wow. That doesn't sound sketchy and like Jase and I need to have a talk with them at all.”
“What? I don’t- Tanadin!” Hazon groaned and slammed his head on metal side of the terminal. “Just...get going. He’s perfectly fine and will be able to help once he’s done. Now shoo. We’re trying to do important war things.”
“You look like you’re playing solitaire.”
“I’m waiting for this to load! Seven’s got this so junked up with all his random tabs that opening a new one is its own special kind of hell!”
Tanadin laughed at him before going down the stairs, waving to Grothek, and leaving the first ring.
She found M and the nine thousand unit outside staring at each other intently, eyes locked in a staring contest that M was destined to lose as he was the only one with eyelids. She waved to get his attention and walked over to him. “He’s not in there and Hazon won’t tell me where he is. I’ve got another idea, though. Come on.”
“How dangerous is this idea on a scale of ‘change the color of the curtains’ to ‘playing Monopoly while Scott’s in prison’?”
“I’m just going to ask a different cyborg where he is, calm down.” Tanadin pushed open the door into the second ring and M followed. It didn’t take long for them to find a one thousand unit looking critically at a damaged pipe, frowning and mumbling something about desert pests.
Tanadin cleared her throat to get his attention and politely asked where Seven was. He paused and gave her the coordinates, giving her instructions on how to get there. She thanked him and led the way down the hall, ignoring his realization and shouting that she shouldn’t bother him, especially not with M in tow, maybe she should wait-
She led the way outside and up to where M had landed his ship a few days previous, suspicions growing more and more and finally confirming when they reached the platform. She crossed her arms and waited for Kyir to notice them as he investigated what was behind a removed metal panel on the side of the ship. He occasionally called to someone who sounded suspiciously like Seven inside but didn’t turn around.
M looked annoyed at their treatment of his ship but didn’t say anything until Seven stepped out and noticed them immediately.
“Oh. Hi, Tana. I’m a bit-”
“What, exactly, are you doing?”
“Rifling through M’s ship. Isn’t it obvious?” Kyir raised an eyebrow. “We want to know what it’s made of and how it’s put together.”
“You could have asked first,” M muttered. “I also could have provided the blueprints and the data needed for cyborgs to read raptor script.”
“That would be helpful, as I can’t read any of the labels on things and haven’t gotten around to breaking through the password on your files yet,” Seven said as if this was a totally normal thing and that breaking into people’s files was something he did every day.
Well, Tanadin reflected, he might very well with his attitude towards people’s personal belongings.
“Don’t. Half of those are personal.”
“Unfortunate,” Seven decided. “We need what’s in there.”
“I’d be happy to give you the data you need if you ask me and stop tearing my ship apart.”
Seven and Kyir exchanged looks. “Maybe,” Kyir announced, crossing his arms. “What did you want, anyway?”
M opened his mouth to respond but Tanadin stepped forward, looking first Kyir and then Seven dead in the eyes.
“The angels have declared war between Heaven and Hell, and they will use Kaldriel as a battleground. If we don’t side with the demons and defend ourselves, both Hell and Kaldriel will be destroyed. So maybe turn your fucking phone on so you don’t miss the next apocalypse.”
