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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 Thirty-Three
Formation
Akrar, Kaldriel. November 13, 2277. Time instance 842N.
M sighed softly as he stepped off the train, grateful to be out of the Mainframe and not being watched by cameras and cyborgs unseen. He was paranoid in there, and with recent events, he wasn’t too keen to have to deal with too many people. In Akrar, he could get away with being mostly alone- Tanadin had said he didn’t need babysitting anymore, thank the Traveler- and lose himself in his thoughts.
Something square and metal slammed into his shoulder and Q’s giggle told him that it was the toaster. He groaned and turned, picking it up off the ground and throwing it back at her. “Why do you do this to me?”
Q caught it. “You’re moping and it pulled you out of it.”
“I’m not moping.”
“You are.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You’re all quiet and have your hood pulled up half the time.” Q hooked a finger on his hood and pulled it back, exposing his face. “See? Better. Now smile.”
“Funny.”
“Aren’t I?” Q clicked her claws on the toaster’s surface.
“What is so special about that toaster, anyway?”
Q got a look in her eyes that said that she didn’t want to talk about it. “Just something… personal.” She shoved it into her cloak and shook her head as if to clear her mind of the subject. “Should we take a walk? It’s a nice day.”
“It’s freezing.”
“The humans say it’s a nice day.”
“The humans have a colder planet and aren’t reptiles,” M fired back. “I don’t-”
Tanadin tapped his shoulder and he switched languages, turning to look at her. “What?”
“There’s, um. There’s… a second group of kids.”
M stared.
“I knew it!” Q shouted. “I knew there had to be a second group! How many are there? Most of them were tagged as dead-”
“-two,” Tanadin mumbled. “There’s two, possibly anywhere up to five.”
M growled low in his throat. “Of course Zatar couldn’t contain himself to one group. I’d wondered what the letter designation meant... “
Twelve frowned and peered at the phone in Tanadin’s hands. Her eyes widened as she mumbled, “Sylondra Hitedramon and Shatter Igneregnatus. That sounds an awful lot like they’re related to…”
“I have a third kid,” Tanadin mumbled. “What the hell is happening.”
M groaned. “I’ll leave you to deal with it. I don’t know anything about this second group.” With that, he led the way outside, the others following.
“You didn’t meet any of the A-team?”
“As opposed to?”
“The B-team. Twelve’s group.”
“Then, no. I only met the B-team once and never knew about the A-team except for a few pieces of data. They were all marked as dead or MIA, however, so I didn’t look into them too closely.”
Tanadin sighed. “Any idea what any of them are like?”
M stared at her wordlessly and shuffled around in his sleeves, producing an arrow and handing it to her in way of answer.
“Thanks,” Tanadin said dryly. “What I’ve always wanted. An arrow.”
“You’re welcome. They’re use...ful…” M trailed off, eyes locking on a small bird as it landed on the branch of a nearby tree. He flexed his claws and creeped forward, focus entirely diverted to his prey. He bared his teeth and clicked quietly, a sound that Q echoed.
He charged. The bird took off. M jumped, jaws opening and snapping down, crushing the bird’s bones and killing it almost immediately. He swallowed his catch and turned to face the group again, senses slowly returning in time for him to feel suitably embarrassed as everyone except Q stared at him.
He cleared his throat. “Erm. Instincts.”
“Thief,” Q mumbled. “I saw it first.”
“You did not.”
“Did too.”
“Great Flamemother, I’m surrounded by children,” Tanadin mumbled. “I’m going to go meet Sylondra, if she wants to see me. Shawn said she’d crashed on the couch and she looked grumpy enough to not bother. You two have fun and don’t eat any aven.”
“No promises,” Q called cheerfully, and Tanadin rolled her eyes.
~~~
Neves was feeling extremely ditched.
First, Fall had been avoiding him the past couple of days, trying to figure herself out. It had especially worsened when whats-his-butt had showed up and given her memories back, leading her to a crises between her two distinct personalities, between Fall and Akiko.
And then, after he’d managed to convince her to spend some time with him- thinking and moping weren’t going to get her anywhere if they hadn’t already- Lucy had showed up and Fall had decided to start some Deathsworn training with her.
He’d stayed, interested, while they talked about theory and what Lucy could probably do now and should be able to do later. This whole Deathsworn business was weird but interesting, and he was all for listening in until Fall turned to him and told him to leave.
“What! Why?”
“This is Deathsworn stuff,” she insisted, “and you’ll only get in the way. I’m… sorry, Neves. I’ll come find you after, okay?”
Neves crossed his arms moodily. “No.”
“Neves-”
“Absolutely not.”
“What if I promise to make us some tea?”
He perked up at that. “Tea?”
Fall patted his shoulder. “There you go. I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?”
“Fine. Don’t get eaten by dragon reapers.”
Fall winked. “I’ll do my best.”
Neves rolled his eyes and turned, strolling away from the two Deathsworn, more bothered than he looked.
Fall was acting really weird lately, probably because she was slowly settling into a fusion of her old self and who she had become since joining the revolution. Seeing her use magic was weird, too, and he found himself wishing he had the same kind of cybernetics as her, blue and magic-resistant. Whatever that metal was, it sure was useful and it packed quite a punch.
An idea popped into his head and he grinned, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to try and would, at the very least, annoy Seven, which was always fun.
He shot Seven a message over the cyborg messaging system, quietly thankful that it didn’t break as often as a lot of his other systems.
‘Think you could hook me up with that blue magic-resistant metal? Fall’s got some because some weird reaper guy gave it to her.’
There was a pause before he, surprisingly, got a response.
‘Maybe. What gave it to her?’
‘A dragon reaper.’
‘I think your malfunctions are beginning to cause hallucinations.’ Then, ‘I was considering sending for you anyway. I’ll let you know if we figure this out.’
‘Wait, really?’
‘Yes.’
Neves shot him a few more messages, but he didn’t get a response. He shrugged it off, though, grinning in excitement.
If he could get cybernetics that allowed him to use his magic…
Holy shit. His life would change. No more would he be Neves the broken, Neves the defective, Neves the inferior cyborg! He’d be just like any other seven thousand unit, except he’d have fucking awesome powers to go with it.
It was dark enough that Neves walked right into a pole when he didn’t notice it, swearing and making a mental note to get his prediction software fixed again. He rubbed his nose and turned when he heard someone laughing at him. He registered that it was Emma and he rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and letting his anger fade.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t done that when lost in thought at night.”
“I have,” Emma agreed, “but I’m not a cyborg.”
“No, you’re not,” Neves agreed, absentmindedly checking her lifeforce as he usually did when bumping into people he knew. He liked to know how they were doing, overall, and if there was any way he could help.
She seemed fine, though, so he dismissed the slight abnormali-
Wait.
What?
He looked closer, noting the overabundance of lifeforce, specifically just below her inactive core, almost like it was starting to form-
Oh.
Oh, he’d seen this before.
“Emma,” he said slowly, “I don’t mean to alarm you, but your lifeforce-”
Emma’s face dropped into a look of annoyance. “Don’t. Don’t say it.”
“There’s more-”
“No. I don’t want to hear this.”
“This is impor-”
“I’m not listening, Neves.”
“If you don’t stop interrupting me I’m going to shoot you,” he informed her, “and that won’t be good for either of you.”
Emma groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Dare was right, wasn’t she?”
“If she’s been insisting that you’re pregnant, then yes, she was.”
“Fuck,” Emma mumbled. “I should have known. I’d been suspicious, but…” She groaned again. “Dare’s never going to let me live this down.”
“No,” Neves agreed, “she isn’t. So, do you want to tell Cataclysm or should I?”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“I won’t, as long as you do tell him.” Neves looked at her severely. “I mean it.”
“I will.” Emma crossed her arms, but refused to meet his gaze.
“Emma.”
“You sound like Seven.”
“Seven… with a Doravian accent?”
“Yes.”
Neves rolled his eyes. “Go home. Tell Cataclysm. Figure your shit out.”
Emma sighed, and he blinked in surprise as he noticed she was shaking slightly. “I…”
“...Emma?”
“Nothing.” She turned away, shaking her head as if to clear it. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
“You’re freaking out.”
“I’m not freaking out,” Emma said, clearly freaking out and trying to mask it.
Ah, shit. Neves stepped over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, everything’s gonna be okay, alright? Sure, this was probably unplanned and this is pretty much the worst timing you two could possibly have- I mean, seriously, come on- but it’s not the end of the world, right? It’s not like he’ll ditch you and vanish into the abyss.”
“He better not,” Emma grumbled, “or I’ll let Nightbane do what it wants with him.”
“Nightbane is going on a nine-month vacation, it looks like.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, you’re not going into comba-”
Emma glared at him, a snarl pulling at her features. “Oh yes I am.”
Neves groaned. “Cataclysm is going to love that.”
“Cataclysm can fucking deal.”
“He won’t let you.”
“I don’t care. I have the glowy sword in this household.”
Neves snorted. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”
Emma punched him in the shoulder and he flinched, rubbing his shoulder. “Ow. You had to hit the fleshy arm, didn’t you?”
Emma raised an eyebrow. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?” she parroted, earning crossed arms and a glare.
“I was going to offer to escort you home, but since you’re being a dick-”
“Go away, Neves.”
“Geez, that’s all anyone has to say to me today.” He uncrossed his arms and looked offended. “Fall and Lucy tell me to leave and now you want me to go. I’ll just go be alone by the lake.”
“Cry me a river, Neves.”
“I’ve only got the one eye with tear ducts, will a stream work?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “I’m going home. You get to work.”
He saluted. “Aye aye, captain.”
Emma started to walk away, but paused and glanced over her shoulder, a spark of mischief in her eyes. “Or you can go hang out with Chris.”
“Chris? What- why would I-”
“Shawn tells me things,” Emma said cheerfully, “like how you have a huge crush on him.”
“I do not!”
Emma winked and kept walking, laughing at his indignant sputtering.
~~~
Sylondra had settled fairly quickly into her new home of Shawn’s couch and had decided that her first order of business was to go through everything that he and Tac owned. This had not particularly thrilled Shawn and he’d tried to explain to her about ‘personal space’ and ‘privacy’ but Sylondra was pretty sure that she didn’t give a rat’s ass, and the concept was fairly foreign to her and Kallen both. His translation was faulty, as he kept asking Shawn more and more questions that only seemed to frustrate and confuse him. He eventually threw his hands in the air and told them to just stay downstairs and not break anything before leaving, going upstairs to do whatever it is zombies do in their free time.
Sylondra and Kallen had exchanged looks before continuing to rifle through drawers and everything else in sight.
She had to admit, she hadn’t been too sure about these B-team kids- after all, weren't they just the A-team with a less shitty robot guardian?- but she liked Lucy and Kallen seemed pleasant enough without being overwhelmingly obnoxious. He was dramatic, sure, but she was used to that, and watching him struggle with his pincer hand was usually pretty funny. He had a curiosity to match her own and they were having a great time guessing as to the uses of items until Kallen eventually pulled a book off of the shelf and looked it over, opening it to a random page.
“I can’t read any of this,” he announced, tilting his head. “What is this written in?”
Sylondra rolled her eyes. “You’re probably just holding it wrong. Give it here.” She took it from him and peered closely at the page, blinking at the unfamiliar symbols and letters. She slowly turned the book upside down, then upright again, and finally frowned. “Yeah, no, this is garbage. I have no idea what this says.”
Kallen took it and put it back where he’d found it. They exchanged glances and shrugged before continuing to go through everything in sight.
“So,” Kallen said eventually, “was there anyone in your group with the last name Avilena?”
“Mhm. Avery.”
“Avery?”
“He’s either dead or alive.”
Kallen shot her an annoyed look. “Isn’t everyone?”
“Have you met Shawn? I about jumped out of my skin when he took that bracelet off. That was fucked up.”
Kallen shivered. “Right. I’d forgotten that.”
“How?!”
“I think I repressed it.” He shrugged. “What is- or was- Avery like?”
“A piece of shit.”
“Oh.”
“He didn’t give a damn about anything, not even himself.” Sylondra snorted. “He lost his arm in the chaos after Eldran was shot and he just looked at it like he’d dropped something. He shrugged it off and put on his stupid little hat- what an asshole, he called it his party hat- and went back into the workshop. I don’t know what happened to him after that.” She sighed. “Shatter said that he saw Kaldra go in after him, but we both saw a lot of conflicting things. I don’t know if we lost track of what happened when or if we were hallucinating, but we ended up alone on the sands doing anything we could to get away.”
Kallen shivered. “Remind me never to meet the rest of your team. It sounds like it was… brutal.”
“You won’t have to.” Sylondra shrugged. “And… yeah. It was.”
“Well… at least it’s over, now, right?”
Sylondra’s eyebrow show up. “What?”
Kallen frowned. “It’s over. It’s just you and Shatter, and you don’t even have to talk to him anymore if you don’t want to.”
“I…” Sylondra felt an abyss open up inside of her and she sank to the floor, pulling her legs up to her chest. “I…”
“Sylondra? Sylondra, are you okay? I’m sorry, I-”
“No, I’m… I’m okay.” A shiver ran through her, rattling her bones and chilling her marrow. “You’re… you’re right. It’s over. I don’t… I don’t have to worry about people’s hidden agendas anymore, do I?” Her intense green eyes snapped up to meet Kallen’s, locking him in place. “You all mean what you say, don’t you? Like we used to. You don’t have something to gain by lying.”
“No. I don’t.”
“I…” Sylondra shook her head, shook off the sudden emptiness and confusion. “I’m fine.” She surged to her feet, making Kallen yelp and scramble backwards. “Just… weirded out. That it. That’s all it is. This is just so strange to me. I’ll… have to get used to it.”
Kallen smiled sadly at her and patted her shoulder, making her jump back violently and raise her hands in a fighting stance. She growled softly before lowering them, glaring at him. “Don’t do that.”
“Sorry.” Kallen stepped back, away from her. “I’ll ask next time. I forget about ‘personal space’ a lot. That wasn’t ever a thing for us, so it’s just… habit.”
Sylondra slowly nodded. “It wasn’t for us, either, not at first. Once we started to distrust, though, we stopped getting close to each other.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sylondra shrugged it off. “It’s what happened. It sucked, but it’s not the end of the world.” She turned back to the bookshelf and picked up a picture frame, looking closely at it and tilting her head. “What the fuck.”
“What?” Kallen peered over her shoulder.
“She looks like me.” Sylondra tapped the glass over the picture to indicate the woman she meant. She did indeed look like Sylondra, but her eyes were blue and framed by golden glasses. Her hair was slightly lighter and a single scar was visible on her chin. She was standing next to Shawn and another woman that Sylondra recognized as the one who had accompanied Cataclysm and Annihilation earlier that day.
“Oh, that’s Tanadin! She’s Twelve and Everex’s mom, and… I guess yours, too, right? Your last name is Hitedramon, and since Shawn’s the Hite, the Dramon must be Tanadin. She came by earlier, but you were asleep and Shawn said something about if you woke up you’d probably kill us all or something.”
“Huh.” Sylondra looked at the woman more critically, noting similarities and differences. She included Shawn in her scrutiny, finally forced to admit that she did look an awful lot like both of them. Her eyes, however, were green, while both of them had blue, which she was sure was just some bullshit genetics garbage that Vestrok had always been going on about. Damn robot never had anything useful to say, just random things and certain survival essentials.
Damn shame he never tried to keep them safe from each other.
Sylondra put the picture back down and continued snooping, looking up only when Kallen asked her what she thought the function of an item was and finding herself laughing when he tried to put it to use as a hat.
She was having fun, she realized.
An unfamiliar grin broke out on her face and a small flame- this one of joy, not of rage- lit in her heart.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-01 04:21 pm (UTC)“Aren’t I?” Q clicked her claws on the toaster’s surface.
“What is so special about that toaster, anyway?”
Q got a look in her eyes that said that she didn’t want to talk about it. “Just something… personal.” She shoved it into her cloak and shook her head as if to clear her mind of the subject. “Should we take a walk? It’s a nice day.”
One day we will all know the importance of that toaster.....
My guess? It contains the remains of the Traveler, he was a magical all powerful piece of bread and Q toasted him by mistake XP
M trailed off, eyes locking on a small bird as it landed on the branch of a nearby tree. He flexed his claws and creeped forward, focus entirely diverted to his prey. He bared his teeth and clicked quietly, a sound that Q echoed.
He charged. The bird took off. M jumped, jaws opening and snapping down, crushing the bird’s bones and killing it almost immediately. He swallowed his catch and turned to face the group again, senses slowly returning in time for him to feel suitably embarrassed as everyone except Q stared at him.
He cleared his throat. “Erm. Instincts.”
“Thief,” Q mumbled. “I saw it first.”
“You did not.”
“Did too.”
“Great Flamemother, I’m surrounded by children,” Tanadin mumbled. “I’m going to go meet Sylondra, if she wants to see me. Shawn said she’d crashed on the couch and she looked grumpy enough to not bother. You two have fun and don’t eat any aven.”
“No promises,” Q called cheerfully, and Tanadin rolled her eyes.
WARNING: Beware of the raptors, they bite. (Feed regularly to avoid incident)
I love this scene XD
“No, you’re not,” Neves agreed, absentmindedly checking her lifeforce as he usually did when bumping into people he knew. He liked to know how they were doing, overall, and if there was any way he could help.
She seemed fine, though, so he dismissed the slight abnormali-
Wait.
What?
He looked closer, noting the overabundance of lifeforce, specifically just below her inactive core, almost like it was starting to form-
Oh.
Oh, he’d seen this before.
“Emma,” he said slowly, “I don’t mean to alarm you, but your lifeforce-”
Emma’s face dropped into a look of annoyance. “Don’t. Don’t say it.”
“There’s more-”
“No. I don’t want to hear this.”
“This is impor-”
“I’m not listening, Neves.”
“If you don’t stop interrupting me I’m going to shoot you,” he informed her, “and that won’t be good for either of you.”
*flaps hands* OMG OMG OMG!
The children keep on arriving in this story don't they XD
Emma groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Dare was right, wasn’t she?”
“If she’s been insisting that you’re pregnant, then yes, she was.”
“Fuck,” Emma mumbled. “I should have known. I’d been suspicious, but…” She groaned again. “Dare’s never going to let me live this down.”
“No,” Neves agreed, “she isn’t. So, do you want to tell Cataclysm or should I?”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Dare was right and is going to take great joy in reminding Emma about this every chance she gets XD
“You’re freaking out.”
“I’m not freaking out,” Emma said, clearly freaking out and trying to mask it.
Ah, shit. Neves stepped over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, everything’s gonna be okay, alright? Sure, this was probably unplanned and this is pretty much the worst timing you two could possibly have- I mean, seriously, come on- but it’s not the end of the world, right? It’s not like he’ll ditch you and vanish into the abyss.”
“He better not,” Emma grumbled, “or I’ll let Nightbane do what it wants with him.”
“Nightbane is going on a nine-month vacation, it looks like.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, you’re not going into comba-”
Emma glared at him, a snarl pulling at her features. “Oh yes I am.”
Neves groaned. “Cataclysm is going to love that.”
“Cataclysm can fucking deal.”
“He won’t let you.”
“I don’t care. I have the glowy sword in this household.”
Neves snorted. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”
I think Emma has a right to freak out, I know I would.
Yup really bad timing, right in the middle of a war.
Nightbane doesn't do vacations when it has a master.
'Glowy sword' love it XD
“I don’t care. I have the glowy sword in this household.”
Neves snorted. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”
Emma punched him in the shoulder and he flinched, rubbing his shoulder. “Ow. You had to hit the fleshy arm, didn’t you?”
Emma raised an eyebrow. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?” she parroted, earning crossed arms and a glare.
“I was going to offer to escort you home, but since you’re being a dick-”
“Go away, Neves.”
“Geez, that’s all anyone has to say to me today.” He uncrossed his arms and looked offended. “Fall and Lucy tell me to leave and now you want me to go. I’ll just go be alone by the lake.”
“Cry me a river, Neves.”
“I’ve only got the one eye with tear ducts, will a stream work?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “I’m going home. You get to work.”
He saluted. “Aye aye, captain.”
Emma started to walk away, but paused and glanced over her shoulder, a spark of mischief in her eyes. “Or you can go hang out with Chris.”
“Chris? What- why would I-”
“Shawn tells me things,” Emma said cheerfully, “like how you have a huge crush on him.”
“I do not!”
Emma winked and kept walking, laughing at his indignant sputtering.
High levels of lifeforce and sass XD
This is one of my new favourite bits of this series.
“What is- or was- Avery like?”
“A piece of shit.”
“Oh.”
“He didn’t give a damn about anything, not even himself.” Sylondra snorted. “He lost his arm in the chaos after Eldran was shot and he just looked at it like he’d dropped something. He shrugged it off and put on his stupid little hat- what an asshole, he called it his party hat- and went back into the workshop. I don’t know what happened to him after that.”
Avery reminds me of Tranpar.
Sylondra put the picture back down and continued snooping, looking up only when Kallen asked her what she thought the function of an item was and finding herself laughing when he tried to put it to use as a hat.
She was having fun, she realized.
An unfamiliar grin broke out on her face and a small flame- this one of joy, not of rage- lit in her heart.
Yay for Labkid bonding!
no subject
Date: 2017-03-02 01:48 am (UTC)INCREASE CHILDREN
Avery is amazing. ^^
no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 03:13 pm (UTC)I N C R E A S E C H I L D R E N
He sounds eccentric and I love him already even though he may be dead ^^
no subject
Date: 2017-03-01 10:05 pm (UTC)M eats a bird because dinosaur.
Neves is salty
Emma's pregnant now.
Sylondra learns to be less ready do to kill everything. A little.
“I can’t read any of this,” he announced, tilting his head. “What is this written in?”
Sylondra rolled her eyes. “You’re probably just holding it wrong. Give it here.” She took it from him and peered closely at the page, blinking at the unfamiliar symbols and letters. She slowly turned the book upside down, then upright again, and finally frowned. “Yeah, no, this is garbage. I have no idea what this says.”
I get the feeling that's going to be important.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 10:50 pm (UTC)Why did Zatat know their parents last names? M couldn't have told him, because then he would have known what Zatar would be planning. Did he write them on the vials?
no subject
Date: 2017-03-07 04:19 am (UTC)