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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 Twenty-Four
Storms Meet
Akrar, Kaldriel. November 11, 2277. Time instance 842N.
Annihilation awoke to voices, some familiar but another entirely new. Her eyes reluctantly slid open and she sat up, blinking several times and looking around.
To her left sat Emma, right where she had been when Annihilation had fallen asleep. In a chair on the other side of the table sat Cataclysm, leaning against its arm and talking to someone to his left. She turned and looked in the final chair, finding a short man with black hair, green eyes, and ashen-feathered wings. She immediately got the vibe that he was friendly, but she didn’t know him and couldn’t recall ever seeing him before. She lifted her wings slightly in a subconscious defensive gesture and he looked up, smiling.
“Hey, you’re awake!” He jumped to his feet and stepped over, holding out his hand. “I’m Terok. I’m your cousin.”
“Cousin?” Annihilation questioned, cautiously shaking his hand.
“I’m the son of your father’s brother. Who is dead. Which is probably a good thing. But hey, whatever, right?”
“Um.”
Terok grinned awkwardly. “Sorry. I’m...a little messed up right now. I just fell from Heaven, like, three days ago. I’d been an angel my entire life until then so I’m still getting used to being essentially human with really terrible wings that can’t even fly or anything.” His wings tightened against his back. “It takes a lot of getting used to and I cover up insecurity with humor.”
Annihilation raised an eyebrow, a small smile pulling at her face. “It’s better than moping.”
“Yeah, I thought so too! It makes you all depressed and sad and then nobody likes you because you’re sad-”
“Don’t drag me this way,” Cataclysm protested. “Let me mope in peace.”
Emma snorted in laughter and Cataclysm rolled his eye, leaning back in his seat. “Just be glad you didn’t get the black wings, Terok.”
“If I could get them without the overnight stay at Edme’s I definitely would! I miss the sky.”
Annihilation frowned. “How did you fall?”
“I was speaking out against the war and my mother turned the Council against me, so they kicked me out of Heaven.” Terok’s wings drooped. “It sucks. I knew she was pretty bad, but…”
“You’ve got us now,” Cataclysm assured, moving forward in his seat to put a hand on Terok’s shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re alive and not at all like your father.”
“What a dick he was,” Terok mumbled. “I’d like to punch him.”
“I want to do much more than that,” Emma said darkly, one of her hands drifting to the sword hilt at her hip automatically. Annihilation tensed as Emma’s fingers brushed its surface, remembering its bite well.
Emma noticed and flinched. “Sorry about that, by the way. I think we’re just lucky that Nightbane didn’t kill you.”
“Is that what it’s called? Nightbane?”
“That’s Nightbane?” Terok gasped, sitting up and leaning forward to peer at it closely. “Maker’s tears! It is Nightbane!”
“What the hell is Nightbane?” Annihilation demanded. All she knew was that it was a sword made of energy that hurt like a bitch when it sliced you, but based on Terok’s reaction, it was far more than that.
“Nightbane is a krivexel,” Emma explained, pulling it out of her belt and holding it out so that they could see it. “It’s essentially a semi-sentient artifact from the dawn of time, or so Geek’s told me. What that means is it has an attitude and doesn’t like anyone that has anything to do with darkness, you and Cata included. Krivexels only let certain people wield them, but they can change their minds at any time. There’s a reason that no one’s tried to take the Nethernomicon from Geek twice.”
“Most don’t live to tell the tale.” Cataclysm crossed his arms.
“Well, yes, okay, that too, but I mean that as soon as they touch it, it shocks them. Nightbane does the same thing to anyone that’s not me, we’ve found. Its blade is made of energy and it can cut through metal in a certain mode it has- it seems that different colors of frequencies of energy make it better at doing different things.”
Annihilation’s eyes widened, images and imaginations flying through her mind. “That thing can cut metal?”
“Like butter. Since it’s just energy, if it doesn’t cut through something, it’ll just keep going. You can’t parry Nightbane unless you hit my arm or something.” Emma grinned. “If I can get close, people don’t stand a chance.”
“If you can get close,” Cataclysm repeated. “And you’re remarkably bad at that.”
“No, I’m not. People just fly.”
“Get some wings.”
“Bite me.”
“Right here? In front of the kids?”
“I’m over thirty!” Terok protested.
Emma’s face lit up. “That’s not what I meant, Cata!”
Annihilation groaned. “I just can’t escape.”
“Welcome to the family,” Terok said cheerfully. “Oh man, it’s so great to have a cousin! My mom doesn’t have any siblings and, well, my dad killed his, so I didn’t think I ever would have anyone else related to me that’s- well, not my age, you’re like ten, but-”
“I’m sixteen, nearly seventeen!”
“Ten,” Terok repeated, “and it’s great to know you!”
Cataclysm snorted. “Terok, you’ve had a cousin all along. For about a year before Zi had his….let’s go with ‘episode’ and not ‘murder spree.’”
Terok’s eyebrows shot up. “I have?”
Cataclysm nodded, sighing. “Zi suspected, but he never knew. When Srvliux went through severance, the offspring created wasn’t a pure angel. If you recall, Srvliux was a Watcher, so he spent a lot of time observing Kaldriel. He ended up going down early on and making a friend, a human, and they bonded. When his severance hit, it created a nephilim, one that he was forced to abandon at birth to die.” Annihilation’s eyes widened. What the hell is wrong with angels?
“I couldn’t let that happen,” Cataclysm continued, “so I followed him. When he left, I picked up his daughter and took her to her human parent, Kyir Lu’ann, who would later become my best friend.”
“I still haven’t met Kyir,” Terok said irritably. “I’m not sure he exists.”
“He exists! He’s just been at the Mainframe, working on things with Seven!”
“Seven. Everex and Twelve’s other parent?” Annihilation asked. Cataclysm nodded and she thanked him before he carried on.
“Anyway, after I escaped from Edme and I made my way to the Lu’ann household, I met her. Her name is Adria and she’s quite the girl. She disappeared a year or so before the invasion, so she’s been missing in action for twenty-six years.” Cataclysm sighed, letting his wings droop. “I don’t know what to think about her. I don’t know where she is, or what she’s up to, if she’s even alive.”
“She’s alive.” The conviction in Emma’s voice startled him, even making Annihilation turn around.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I don’t know.” Emma crossed her arms. “But she’s not dead. Just missing.”
“Just missing,” Cataclysm echoed, leaning back in his chair. “Missing, but for how much longer?”
~~~
Twelve opened her eyes when she heard the train’s brakes kick in and felt it begin to slow. She sat up, blinking a few times, before glancing around. Everex, next to her, groaned at the disturbance and sank further into his seat, deliberately not opening his eyes. Twelve leaned forward and flicked his nose, earning a groan and a swat. She jabbed him in the side, making him yelp and sit up, his eyes finally open in an accusatory stare.
Twelve grinned innocently and Everex grumbled, crossing his arms moodily as she shifted her attention away from him. Across from her was Tanadin, who looked awake and ready to be off the train, with the face of one who has been on too many long train rides recently. On Twelve’s other side was Starren, who had opted to come along as she was also a cyborg and could use a once-over by the cyborgs (Seven) and mechanics (Kyir) at the Mainframe. Sitting to Tanadin’s right was Tavren, who looked positively excited to almost be to the Mainframe. He was looking forward to meeting Kyir and getting feedback on the cybernetics that he’d half-designed and installed into Twelve, Everex, and Starren. To Tanadin’s left was Kaldric, his metal face impassive as always and his glowing red eyes twinkling merrily. He had been loathe to leave the other labkids alone, just as Twelve had been, but Tanadin had relayed Kyir’s insistence to meet him.
Outside of the seats and along the aisle were Q and M, uncomfortable and incapable of fitting themselves into seats designed for more humanoid races. Q stood with a groan, shaking like a dog and stretching her legs to get the soreness out. M stood silently, yellow eyes staring numbly from the inside of his hood. He hadn’t spoken a word since they’d gotten on the train, and Twelve wasn’t about to pester him about it. She was curious, yes, but her curiosity was not worth offending him. Based on Q and Tanadin’s moods, something had happened before they’d all met at the station, and Twelve wasn’t going to pry.
Eventually, the train slowed to a stop and the doors opened. They all filed out and Twelve was immediately hit with the dry, familiar air of the desert, warm but not blistering hot as it was early evening. She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh of relief, glad to be out of the cold. She exchanged smiles with the other labkids, knowing they felt the same way. Any sense of familiarity was welcome in an otherwise foreign land.
Tanadin smiled knowingly at them and led the way out of the station and down the path towards the entrance to the Mainframe. Twelve felt every muscle in her body tense at the sight of the cyborg that stood at the door, tall and imposing with mostly metal features and armed to the teeth. He seemed wary of them as well, turning to look directly at Tanadin and her odd entourage.
The cyborg soon shouted for them to stop, asking for identification. Tanadin named all of them and the nine thousand unit suspiciously told them to approach. Once they were within speaking range, they stopped again. Tanadin smiled and stepped forward, patting his arm. “I’m not used to seeing you outside, Rustymight. What’s with that?”
“Seven caught me stealing from the cookie jar,” Rustymight mumbled, “and made me stand out in the sand. Malia is overjoyed.”
“I bet she is.” Tanadin rolled her eyes. “Can we get some badges and go in?”
“What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, hang on.” Rustymight produced the visitor badges and let Tanadin take them. “I’ve been told to expect you all so just don’t cause trouble and keep your pointy bits to yourself. Everyone got that?”
“Got it,” Twelve confirmed. “Walk in and immediately claw someone’s face off and have my brother shoot Tanadin.”
Rustymight grinned. “That’s the spirit. Go on in. You remember where Kyir’s workshop is, don’t you?”
Tanadin snorted. “Of course I do.”
“Well, they’re probably not there yet, but they should be wrapping up the installation of the- um, the thing they’re working on, you know the one- and will be there soon.”
Tanadin nodded, handing out the badges. “Yep. Thanks, Rusty.”
“You’re welcome.” He waved cheerfully and let them inside, leaving Twelve a little bewildered and completely understanding why he wasn’t usually left to be the outside guard. From what she’d heard about nine thousand units, she’d assumed they’d all be stoic and serious, but apparently that wasn’t the case. She exchanged a glance with Everex before following Tanadin out of the hot desert air and into the fourth ring of the Mainframe.
Tanadin led the way from the fourth ring to the third and then to the second, pushing through a door and into a large room that definitely fit the description of ‘workshop.’ Tanadin sat down in a chair and informed them that they could sit wherever, even on tables as long as they didn’t touch anything that Kyir had been working on or he’d throw a fit. Twelve immediately scampered up to the top of a bookshelf containing quite a few binders and notebooks filled with messy papers that stuck out at the edges. Everex took the chair next to Tanadin and Starren hauled herself up to sit on a table. Tavren didn’t sit, instead moving around the room and admiring all of Kyir’s projects and looking closely at the blueprints and sketches that were laid out around on various tables.
Kaldric stood by Everex and Tanadin, feeling no need to sit, and both of the raptors made their way to the back where they flopped on beanbag chairs. Q flipped through a book that had been left on the ground and M shut his eyes, resting his head and sighing heavily.
Twelve wasn’t sure exactly how long they were there- ten, fifteen minutes, maybe- when they could hear footsteps approaching and someone grabbed the door handle. All heads snapped up and turned as the door was opened, revealing three humanoid figures that Twelve immediately scrutinized.
The first, the one who had opened the door, was a tall man with pointy black hair and sunglasses with triangular lenses. He was pale and had a scar stretching across his left eye, white from age but still prominent. He was dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans, with a few scorchmarks and oil stains marking them as work clothes. Twelve assumed he was Kyir, based on Tanadin’s descriptions and her own guesswork.
The second person was a woman, short in stature but holding herself with the confidence of someone taller than the room. Her hair was bright blonde and her eyes were hidden behind orange sunglasses, reminiscent of Kyir’s in an odd ‘we’re-better-than-you’ kind of way. She had her arms crossed and her face neutral, but an eyebrow went up at the sight of them. Twelve had no idea who this woman was but, based on the energy pistols at her hips, she wasn’t one to be trifled with.
They stepped into the room, greeting Tanadin and looking around, allowing the third form come into sight. He was instantly recognizable, despite the fact that Twelve had never seen him before.
Seven was tall, and the eeriness of the his cybernetics’ parallel to Everex’s didn’t escape her. He was far more metal than either of them, with the entire left side of his body replaced and at least part of his right leg as well, based on his heavy footsteps. He wore a trenchcoat similar to Everex’s and had slightly lighter hair, covered with a hat that Twelve could only describe with a word she wouldn’t repeat out loud. His left eye, the robotic one, burned red like most cyborgs’ eyes, but his right was a steely gray color that reminded Twelve of her own. He surveyed them all with an analytical look, focusing on Twelve when she slid off the bookshelf to the floor with a quiet double click of her metal feet against the floor.
It occurred to her that she forgot to put her shoes back on after the battle yesterday.
She pushed that aside, however, lightly stepping forward and holding out a hand to shake. "My name is Twelve Dramonallvaer. I'm your daughter."
