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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 Thirty-Five
Ties
Akrar, Kaldriel. November 15, 2277. Time instance 842N.
Twelve was awoken by an unsettling feeling in her stomach, sitting up and leaning against the wall. She knew that she wouldn’t get any more sleep than she already had, but she wasn't really in the mood for getting up just yet. She shut her eyes and leaned back, sighing. Whenever she got a bad feeling, it wasn’t messing around.
She heard movement and opened her eyes, watching Everex sit up. “You, too?”
He nodded absently and started pulling his shoes on. “Whatever it is, I don’t like it.”
“I haven’t had a bad feeling like this since the morning before we lost Meria.”
Everex shuddered. “Me neither. Not one this strong, anyway.”
Twelve’s fingers twitched and she subconsciously unsheathed her metal claws. “I think I’ll forego shoes today,” she mumbled. “I need to be able to get around.” She jumped out of bed and changed into someone more battle-appropriate than the pajamas that Tanadin had supplied her with. She made sure the charging ports on her legs were accessible and she pulled on the belt with the two energy pistols that she’d received yesterday, plugging them in and grinning slightly when the overlay on her eye informed her that new ‘shootware’ had been detected. (She may have changed that herself.) She hadn’t had a whole lot of time to practice with them, but her new eye and prediction software let her hit the target almost every time.
Everex pulled his trenchcoat on and flexed his metal fingers, sighing quietly. “I don’t want this to end, Twelve.”
“What?” She looked up at him, tilting her head.
“This.” He motioned around. “I like it here. I like these people. I like not fearing that we’re going to be devoured by a sandwyrm or a storm or a bunch of mantids.”
“Just the angels to worry about.”
“We’re only fighting them because we volunteered.”
Twelve nodded and motioned for him to continue.
“I really like not having to worry about where everyone is or being cooped up in a cave with them all the time. Going to the Mainframe was so relieving, just a few days away from the team.”
“I… have to admit I share the sentiment, although it was nerve-wracking to leave them to their own devices.” Twelve grinned a bit. “I half-expected the city to be in ruins, leaving only Jack and Exadae behind in the rubble arguing whose fireball was more spectacular.”
Everex snorted in laughter. “Yeah, that seems pretty reasonable.” He hesitated, looking at Twelve cautiously.
This was a familiar expression, showing that he was worrying about something and wanted to ask Twelve her opinion on it, but asking her was worrying him more than not asking her.
It was ridiculous, if understandable.
“Everex.”
“Yes?”
“What is it you want to ask me?”
Usually, he hesitated, but not today. “What do you think of our mom?”
“What?”
“Tanadin. What do you think of her?”
“Oh.” Twelve blinked a few times, suddenly grateful for the shutter on her mechanical eye that she’d had to argue with Seven about. “I like her. I think she’s respectable and fun to be around. Why?”
“Good.” Everex shivered. “So you’ll help me look after her?”
“What?”
“It’s this bad feeling, Twelve. It’s an awful feeling and I’m worried it might be about her. I…” Another shiver ran down Everex’s spine, this one feeling almost like it traveled into Twelve as a chill crawled up her back, digging itself in vertebrae by vertebrae. “I can’t lose her, Twelve. I can’t. I couldn’t take it, just like I couldn’t take losing Solace. I almost panicked when I heard that she’d been almost killed when she snuck into battle last time, and that was from her after she was better! I can’t take losing them, or you.”
Everex stood and stepped over to her, grabbing her hands. “I can’t lose my sister. Okay? You or Solace or Tanadin. I can’t...”
Twelve nodded and pulled him closer, hugging him tightly. “You won’t. You won’t lose any of us.” She smiled slightly. “I’m too tough for that.”
“I know but still.”
“Hmm.” Twelve stepped back, leaving a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Nothing’s going to get us.”
“I hate to interrupt you,” Korrah’s voice said from outside the door, “but we’ve got problems.”
“Of course,” Everex groaned. “What qualifies as problems?”
“Surprise angel attack.”
“Well, shit.”
“Wake up the others,” Twelve ordered immediately, mental state switching instantly into battle mode. “Where? Here?”
“Just outside town, where the first one was.”
“Okay. Get the others. Meet in the lobby in three minutes and I mean that.” Korrah left and Twelve nodded sharply at Everex. “It’s go time.”
Three minutes later, the entire B-team (admittedly minus Tavren) was charging outside and down the streets, headed towards the raging battle they could already see taking place. There were more angels closer to the ground than there should be, and far fewer combatants, although they could see more spellcasters coming through the nearby Hellgate and streaming towards the battle.
The angels were supposed to attack elsewhere, later today. Not here, not now. Their spellcasters were off at another gate and had only now been clued in to the fact that they were wrong and had to come back to Akrar. Twelve narrowed her eyes and felt a sinking feeling deep in her stomach.
The cyborgs were very few in number here.
The vast majority of their cyborgs couldn’t pass through the hellgates without risking their systems being badly damaged, so the idea of reinforcements seemed far away and very, very unlikely.
“We’re a lot more outnumbered than usual!” Twelve barked. “Stick together in small groups and be careful!” She pulled her pistols out of her belt, took aim, and fired at an angel.
The B-team spread out, but the familiar presences of Everex, Lucy, and Solace stayed nearby, with Jack and Exadae a little ways off but still in visual range.
The angels seemed more determined this time. Their tactics and small group makeup had changed, allowing them to hold their own against the smaller defending force far better than they had. Twelve growled and switched her feet into their clawed mode, jamming the pistols back into her belt. She extended the claws on her fingers and raced at an angel, leaping onto its back and digging metal claws into its flesh around its neck and spine. It screamed, trying desperately to get her off and only managing to fall to the earth below. She tore out its throat before moving on to the next angel, yanking her pistols back out to get some shots in.
Her prediction software set off a warning and she leapt aside, barely avoiding a beam of concentrated magical energy. She whipped around to find the source and located an angel hovering high overhead, a mage of some kind with cobalt wings and a visible thrum of magic around him.
Twelve decided not to tangle with that and jumped closer to her allies, shouting a warning about the angel and continuing to fight.
Her peripheral vision caught sight of a huge angel with emerald wings wielding a two-handed axe going after Jack and Exadae. A smaller angel, this one pure white all over except for her crimson eyes, followed with a sword in each hand. The smaller angel forced Jack into melee as the larger slammed her axe down into Exadae’s chest cavity, making blood pour from his wounds and wrenching a scream from his throat.
Twelve growled. “Everex! Go help them!”
Everex nodded sharply and set off, Solace not far behind. As he approached, both angels retreated into the fight. Jack roared, screaming curses and promises of vengeance, as he followed. Everex landed next to Exadae and knelt down to get a look at him, immediately relieved when he saw that he was alive.
“Don’t die on me, asshole.”
Exadae groaned. “I think I might like to. This hurts.”
“Your brother and I will both be pissed.”
“You? I thought you were… mad at me?”
“I am mad at you.” Everex picked him up and stood, catching Solace’s eye and jerking his head towards the edge of the battle. “But that doesn't mean I want you to die.” He took off, avoiding battling angels and screeching demons, searching for someone, anyone, who could heal Exadae’s wounds. He felt Solace’s familiar warmth flying around them, blasting at any hostiles that dared to get too close and providing another target to shoot at.
Everex’s robotic eye caught sight of and identified someone he remembered as being a healer and he changed course, landing right in front of her and earning some pretty startled and vicious swears. “Why are you-”
“He’s hurt,” Everex insisted, setting Exadae down on the ground. “Please heal him.”
“That’s my job,” she mumbled. “I get enough scares without you landing right in front of me.”
He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Do you need a guard?”
She shook her head, kneeling down and running a hand over Exadae’s wounds. “No. I’ve got her.” She jerked her head, making Everex glance over and catch sight of Tanadin. He grinned and waved, and he was pretty sure she smiled back but it was hard to tell while she was in her kirinax form. Facial expressions weren’t something particularly valuable to their race, probably because they hardly had faces to begin with.
Another voice caught his attention, though, making him turn as it shouted, “Tanadin, behind you! Look out! There’s a-”
Everex snapped around, raising his hands and charging the energy blasts in time to see the angel materialize behind Tanadin and drive its sword through her chest. Light energy lit up the blade and poured into Tanadin’s body, making her flames flicker uncertainly and a scream pull itself from her throat in notes that Everex had only heard when Twelve lost her legs.
“MOM!”
Rage bubbled under his skin and poured through his veins, replacing blood and sense with flames and anger. The energy blasts fired, one of them striking the angel right in the face and burning a swath across her left eye and cheek. She screeched in pain, flapping her wings to pull herself away. Tanadin fell to her knees, shaking and pouring liquid flame from her wounds. The angel seized a couple of throwing knives from her belt, throwing one at Everex that he knocked aside with a wave of his hand and the other at Tanadin, sticking her in the back just below the neck for good measure. The angel turned invisible and vanished from sight, making Everex roar in rage.
Tac skidded to a half beside him, eyes wide in fear and shock. Everex growled and his limbs shook, eyes burning with furious red flames. He snarled and bared his teeth, barely restraining himself from shifting entirely into his kirinax form and setting fire to the surrounding area. He ignored the now mostly-healed Exadae slowly getting to his feet and instead stumbled forward, kneeling by Tanadin’s side as she shook in a rapidly-growing pool of elemental blood.
“Scara…” Tac whispered, each syllable a shaking mess that brought Everex down from his anger and into a pit of fear and despair. He grabbed Tanadin’s shoulder and shook her gently, shaking violently when her flames dulled to a flicker, barely more than a smolder.
“Scara, do something!”
“I can’t!” The words were sharp, glass against Everex’s ears. He shook Tanadin harder, words tumbling out of his mouth and burning up in the puddle below him that seared and bit at his shoes but he didn’t feel it, didn’t care, he couldn’t-
“Tanadin, Tanadin, Tana, mom, mom, Tana, mom, please, no, we just found you, we just knew you you can’t- you can’t, no, please-”
“We need to get her to the Plane of Fire! That’s where Clash took me when I was injured.” Solace hovered over them, blazing wings a familiar and calming sight that let a shroud of reason fall over Everex’s mind. He ignored Korrah’s voice, shouting the activation words for her cards, and he ignored Annihilation and Deathclaw whirling behind Solace, caught in a deadly dance with the surrounding angels, avoiding slain demons and humans alike. He focused, devoting his mind entirely, momentarily, to Solace, trying to purge himself of the burning distractions but Tac’s panicked breathing and Scara’s terrified tumble of words weren’t helping.
“I’m going to get Nine!” Tac’s voice, he thought, but he wasn’t sure. Solace landed beside him and shifted into her human form, putting an arm around his shoulder and looking down at Tanadin’s smoldering and bleeding body sadly.
“I don’t think we’ll get her there,” she said softly. “The trains aren’t fast enough.”
Everex’s gaze darkened and flames spread across his body. He changed forms, white flames flickering to life as he got to his feet and tapped into the deepest, purest part of his core. He didn’t know what he was doing, not really, but his instincts urged him onwards and his mind screamed for him to do something.
He breathed in, and out, channeling his pure elemental energy from his core into Tanadin’s. Her flames rose, slightly, and relief poured through him.
He couldn’t keep this up forever, but perhaps long enough to make a difference…
~~~
Seven was getting really tired of being called.
Every time someone wanted his attention, it was to tell him that there were more labkids or there were aliens or some other horrible awful thing was happening. When he got the call about the surprise attack on Akrar, he was pissed, but it was the second call that rattled him.
Just as it had been last time, this call came over the cyborg network and he immediately identified the caller as Nine. As much as he didn’t want more bad news, he knew it could be important, and reluctantly picked up, taking his hands off the keyboard of the console in front of him in order to focus.
“I’m here.”
“Seven.” Nine’s voice was quieter than usual, shaking, and he sounded uncharacteristically panicked underneath the words. “Seven, I need you to do something. Anything. There’s not much I can do to get there in time, the trains-”
“Nine. What is it? I can’t help if you don’t-”
“It’s Tanadin. She’s been badly injured, I’ve never seen a kirinax’s flame this dim unless they were about to die. The trains are too slow, and she’s not stable enough to take safely through the hellgates, they could destabilize her core and right now it’s only Everex keeping her alive.”
A pang of something hit him, but he quickly pushed it away. “I’m sending the nearest eight thousand unit.” He leaned forward and typed into the console, the furious clacking of keys nothing new in the Mainframe but the urgency was enough to make one of the nine thousand units look at him in curiosity and worry. “It’ll be there soon. Keep enough fire elementals onboard to keep her alive without risking anyone else.”
“Will do.” He hesitated. “Thank you, Seven.”
Seven just disconnected the call. Dozens of thoughts and scenarios flashed through his mind but he pushed them away, knowing that it was worthless to worry. He couldn’t do anything more than he already had.
He leaned back in his seat and shut his eyes, temporarily cutting power to his robotic left eye.
~~~
Myrzen was feeling better than he’d felt since this war began. Finally, they were making ground, taking out more opposition than before with fewer losses. He wasn’t sure why they were doing so well this time when they’d been so decimated during the previous attempts, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. He shot a grin at Lyara behind him, holding his shield steady and allowing the rank one Balancer hovering with them to shoot the opposition down below.
And yet…
He’d seen a lot today that made him wonder if the demons were really as bad as the archangels said.
For one, there was Cataclysm, who he was now seeing everywhere. He was vicious, practically a killing machine, but he didn’t tend to go after the younger or lower-ranked angels. He seemed intent upon remaining near a human who wielded a sword glowing with more light magic than Myrzen had ever seen in a single weapon that had the capacity to cut through angels- and seemingly anything- as if it wasn’t even there.
For another, there had been a cyborg screaming as a rank five Punisher- which one, Myrzen didn’t know- wounded or killed an elemental, the screaming of the cyborg identifying her as his mother. His anguished scream had sent shivers running down Myrzen’s spine, and he could tell that Lyara was just as troubled. He couldn’t imagine how he would feel if someone killed his mother, although it was unlikely, as she was a seer and therefore free of combat.
He blinked in surprise as a demon blasted his shield unexpectedly. He flapped backwards, careful to guard Lyara and the Balancer. The demon advanced, but screamed in pain as a rank five Avenger with a two-handed axe slammed into it and destroyed its chest with a single blow. It screamed and fell from the sky, and the Avenger didn’t even bother to follow, adjusting her horned helmet and shooting Myrzen a grin.
“Good job guarding them even when caught by surprise!”
“Zekara, you ass!” A much smaller Avenger, this one albino, flew through the crowd to hover by her. “Don’t leave me like that!”
“I was needed!”
“You’re needed in the middle of things! With me!”
Zekara rolled her eyes, saluted Myrzen, and descended back towards the melee.
“Damned crazy,” the Balancer mumbled. “Those two will get themselves killed one day.”
Lyara raised an eyebrow. “And you won’t?”
He snorted. “Of course not.” He shot another blast, taking out an aven. “I’ve got a great big shield to hide behind and someone to keep me alive even if I get hit. I’m in the safe zone with my allies, not in the middle of battle.”
“Zekara is a rank five Avenger,” Myrzen reminded him. “She must be doing something right.”
“She could crush me and I’d thank her,” Lyara said flatly. Myrzen snorted and the Balancer rolled his eyes, trying to suppress a laugh.
“Less talking, more fighting,” the Guardian beside them growled, and they quickly sobered and re-focused on the battle.
Eventually, they retreated back through the gate, but this time it was with fewer dead angels and a far more demonic pile of corpses.
They’d done what they’d come to do, but Myrzen wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that was.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-10 11:44 pm (UTC)New shootware detected. 12 updates needed before use. Download time 1 minute - 24 hours.
XD
“I… have to admit I share the sentiment, although it was nerve-wracking to leave them to their own devices.” Twelve grinned a bit. “I half-expected the city to be in ruins, leaving only Jack and Exadae behind in the rubble arguing whose fireball was more spectacular.”
That does seem like a highly likely scenario...
Everex’s robotic eye caught sight of and identified someone he remembered as being a healer and he changed course, landing right in front of her and earning some pretty startled and vicious swears. “Why are you-”
“He’s hurt,” Everex insisted, setting Exadae down on the ground. “Please heal him.”
“That’s my job,” she mumbled. “I get enough scares without you landing right in front of me.”
He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Do you need a guard?”
She shook her head, kneeling down and running a hand over Exadae’s wounds. “No. I’ve got her.” She jerked her head, making Everex glance over and catch sight of Tanadin. He grinned and waved, and he was pretty sure she smiled back but it was hard to tell while she was in her kirinax form. Facial expressions weren’t something particularly valuable to their race, probably because they hardly had faces to begin with.
RUDE SIR! Scaring someone like that...XD
Thanks for having my back Tana XP
Everex snapped around, raising his hands and charging the energy blasts in time to see the angel materialize behind Tanadin and drive its sword through her chest. Light energy lit up the blade and poured into Tanadin’s body, making her flames flicker uncertainly and a scream pull itself from her throat in notes that Everex had only heard when Twelve lost her legs.
WELL SHIT!!! o_o
“Scara…” Tac whispered, each syllable a shaking mess that brought Everex down from his anger and into a pit of fear and despair. He grabbed Tanadin’s shoulder and shook her gently, shaking violently when her flames dulled to a flicker, barely more than a smolder.
“Scara, do something!”
“I can’t!” The words were sharp, glass against Everex’s ears.
Goddamn it! It's too much damage....FUCK! This is Fred all over again...
“We need to get her to the Plane of Fire! That’s where Clash took me when I was injured.” Solace hovered over them, blazing wings a familiar and calming sight that let a shroud of reason fall over Everex’s mind. He ignored Korrah’s voice, shouting the activation words for her cards, and he ignored Annihilation and Deathclaw whirling behind Solace, caught in a deadly dance with the surrounding angels, avoiding slain demons and humans alike. He focused, devoting his mind entirely, momentarily, to Solace, trying to purge himself of the burning distractions but Tac’s panicked breathing and Scara’s terrified tumble of words weren’t helping.
People I care about keep dying in front of me....T_T
Everex’s gaze darkened and flames spread across his body. He changed forms, white flames flickering to life as he got to his feet and tapped into the deepest, purest part of his core. He didn’t know what he was doing, not really, but his instincts urged him onwards and his mind screamed for him to do something.
He breathed in, and out, channeling his pure elemental energy from his core into Tanadin’s. Her flames rose, slightly, and relief poured through him.
He couldn’t keep this up forever, but perhaps long enough to make a difference…
Dear lord I hope it helps...
The demon advanced, but screamed in pain as a rank five Avenger with a two-handed axe slammed into it and destroyed its chest with a single blow. It screamed and fell from the sky, and the Avenger didn’t even bother to follow, adjusting her horned helmet and shooting Myrzen a grin.
“Good job guarding them even when caught by surprise!”
“Zekara, you ass!” A much smaller Avenger, this one albino, flew through the crowd to hover by her. “Don’t leave me like that!”
“I was needed!”
“You’re needed in the middle of things! With me!”
Zekara rolled her eyes, saluted Myrzen, and descended back towards the melee.
OMG AU version of Zekara and Claire XD
no subject
Date: 2017-03-11 12:45 am (UTC)there is a very low chance i would kill off my own self-insert although I may very well stoop to Hussie levels
ZEKARA IS IN EVERYTHING I WRITE CONFIRMED
no subject
Date: 2017-03-11 01:37 am (UTC)Fire Elemental in play (6 damage, 5 HP)
Rogue...I mean Angel...uses Backstab, Shiv and then Fan of Knives doing 4 HP worth of damage.
Fire Elemental is left with 1 HP.
Mhm, I think it's highly unlikely that you would kill off your fictional self, but you never know...
Indeed and she's awesome XD