Descent of Nightmare (Chapter Thirty-Eight)

[tanadin]

 This is a bit of an odd chapter- it's all one long scene, entirely from Sylondra's point of view. It can potentially upset or disturb readers, so please check the tags and stop if you need to. 

Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
Map of Kaldriel: https://i.gyazo.com/332b0c0172dcc60acb46a6ed078f4219.png
Rough map of Hatu: https://i.gyazo.com/ea4f9f51b9dc7b9d8b86d846f5331138.png

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Molten Sunlight

Akrar, Kaldriel. November 17, 2277. Time instance 842N.

At dawn, Sylondra jerked awake from terrors in her mind that she forgot even before her eyes focused. She sighed, shutting her eyes again and rolling onto her other side. Being awake wasn’t exactly her favorite activity, but her mind was already active, the gears spinning and thoughts whirring to life. She reluctantly sat up, shrugging the blanket off and stretching before getting to her feet. It was barely bright outside, the first rays of day only just starting to peek between the mountains to illuminate the valley.

She opened the door and stepped outside, barely remembering to shut it behind her. The cold air of Akrar bit at her skin but she ignored it, not intending to stay outside for long. The breeze was gentle, unfamiliar, nothing like the harsh winds back in the desert that carried sand and debris, sometimes blotting out the sun at noon with its raging storms. Shawn had insisted that the dead brown plants on the ground would grow green in a few months, although he did admit that Akrar had very little vegetation in comparison to most of Kaldriel due to its rocky soil and colder climate.

The tugging wind drew her attention to another form out in the early morning. Lucy was perched on the mailbox, a curled and smaller-than-usual form holding her scythe and peering out towards the eastern mountains like an ancient sentinel awaiting the dawn. Her red hair was bright, more vibrant than anything else around, framing her face and calculating blue eyes that held so much and betrayed so little.

So eerily like herself. Sylondra remembered vividly perching that way during the mornings after the worst nights, watching the sun rise and wishing the darkness that had consumed the group would pass with the dawn. It had never happened, ending the last time she’d awaited the sun with a bullet to their leader’s head and the outbreak of pure and total chaos.

She pushed it aside. Thinking about it wouldn’t do her any good, not now, and she’d told herself she wouldn’t hurt herself for some damn status anymore. Physically or emotionally. Her arms itched and she suddenly wished for longer sleeves, but she pushed all thoughts of marks and scars away in favor of focusing on now, now, now, and not then.

She tried to speak Lucy’s name but it caught in her throat, thick and rough and creating only a quiet croaking sound. Lucy took no notice, the slight rise and fall of her chest the only indication that she was anything more than a statue. Sylondra cleared her throat and turned away, walking down the sidewalk and jamming her hands into her pockets. Her fingers brushed something unexpected and she paused, feeling it and identifying it as a tightly folded piece of paper. She pulled it out and look at its creased and bent surface, showing signs of being folded and unfolded dozens of times before. It was dimly yellow- unlike Kaldriel paper, which was white- and made of a thicker, slightly rougher substance, harder to tear and less likely to let the ink that raptors usually wrote with bleed through.

She ran her thumb over its surface. She hadn’t thought about this piece of paper since the day of the fall, and had forgotten it in the trek through the desert with Shatter. She considered opening it but decided against it, shoving it back in her pocket and continuing to walk forward.

It was quiet, for once. What she’d already noticed about Kaldriel- or Akrar, at least- was that it was noisy noisy noisy, in more ways than one. There were too many people, only the isolated inside of Shawn’s house offering her refuge from their voices, their thoughts, their damning emotions and the pulsing of their souls. They weighed upon her like her team had weighed upon her, and she wasn’t willing to shoulder their burden. With the city asleep, the deafening din had quieted to almost nothing, a soft hum the vibrated against her consciousness from all angles. They would awake soon, she knew, and the thought drove her off the street and between the buildings towards the city’s edge.

The wind bit at her, dragging its dull claws along her skin. It didn’t bother her, not as much as it tended to bother the others. Perhaps that was her affinity for ice and fire alike, making her resistant the temperatures of the night and day alike, but she dropped that thought entirely when a shadow passed over her and her eyes snapped up the the figure that had chosen to land in front of her.

Her breath stopped, and it came quickly. Her heart dropped through her chest and into the earth, burrowing through the ground and into the core while pounding in her throat like a thousand drums rattling the ground. Her lungs burned in sudden terror and her veins pulsed, anger and fear and a hundred similar synonyms and emotions raced through her as icy claws formed on her fingers and flames lit up her eyes.

“Get away from me!” she howled, raising her hands in a defensive stance and suddenly feeling very vulnerable without Shatter at her back. Tera smiled, almost sweetly, sharp teeth bright against her gray skin and burning green eyes unnatural, framed by matted black hair. Her tail coiled tightly behind her, unmoving, and her wings remained half-extended. One was lifted slightly higher than the other and her tilted head moved her further askew, the unfamiliar and red jagged scars crisscrossing what remained of Tera’s left hand and forearm only shattering the remnants of symmetry. Her hand hung at an unnatural angle, the last two fingers mangled and half-healed incorrectly, while her wrist and forearm were missing chunks of flesh that had just healed over with skin, leaving conspicuous dents where there had been none before.

Kaldra. It must have been Kaldra. No one else could get close, no one-

“Hello, Syl.”

“Why are you here? What do you want?!”

“It was clever, running across the dunes like that. If you hadn’t left tracks I wouldn’t have guessed it,” Tera said conversationally, looking at the claws on her right hand and watching as light played across them. “I painted you a picture. You and Shatter. You never went back to see it.” She pouted. “You never go to see it.”

“You killed people. You tried to kill me.”

“We all tried to kill a lot of people.” She grinned. “It was such fun! I should have killed Eldran earlier.”

Sylondra’s vision flickered red and her blood blazed within her. “You bitch!” The temperature dropped five, ten, fifteen degrees, as she charged forward, a primal scream of fury and of fear ripping from her throat. Tera took off, avoiding her jagged swipe, and landed behind her, still smiling crookedly.

“You never-”

Sylondra swiped at her again and she caught her wrist, claws digging deep into the skin. Molten drops of a dying sun’s light ran down Sylondra’s arm, staining her crimson and dripping down to the ground below. She shook, hissing and screaming on the inside, fragments of thoughts surfacing and tearing her apart with conflicting shouts and screams and-

She killed Eldran. She killed Eldran. She tore us apart and she tried to kill me and she tore us apart and she tried to kill me and she tore us apart and she-

A roar cut through the sound in Sylondra’s head, the mechanical sound unfamiliar but enough to make Tera tense and let her go. Her wings spread and she stepped back, eyes wide. Sylondra whirled around, eyes catching sight of a furious and wondrous form charging towards them.

Kaldra, Kaldra, Kaldra.

Tera took off, the flap of her wings releasing darkness that blinded Sylondra’s eyes and silenced the screaming in her mind. The mechanical roar of Kaldra continued, but as the darkness faded, it slowed to a stop only to be replaced by a frustrated growl.

Kaldra stepped forward, eyebrows creased in anger, and she was changed.

Her right eye was gone, gray replaced with metal and jade light. It spun and clicked, whirring to get a decent look at Sylondra in turn while the familiar gray of her left eye watched her with a calculating light. Her right forearm had been replaced by a chainsaw, rough and sharp and gleaming, thirsting for blood and its cries only silenced when Kaldra realized that her target had escaped without a trace. Her light brown hair was paler, almost devoid of color, and her outfit was dim with messier stitches than were characteristic of her.

“She killed Eldran.” The words sprang from her without any command to do so, and yet she made no effort to reclaim them.

Kaldra nodded sharply. “I know. It’s why I’m hunting her down.”

Sylondra’s eyes narrowed. She let the claws on her fingers melt away and she balled her hands into fists. She growled and swung, punching Kaldra in the jaw and making her stumble.

Kaldra rubbed her face and regained her balance. “I deserved that.”

“You left us.”

“I had to kill Tera.”

“You could have told us. You left and it was your fault we fell apart.”

Kaldra gritted her teeth. “Do not blame this on me. I didn’t see you being a bastion of sanity out there.”

“Girls, girls, you’re both shitty.” Sylondra’s head snapped around and she wasn’t sure if she was furious or relieved to lock her eyes on the triangular sunglasses of Avery. His hair was longer than it had been, falling and tangled, and his face was gaunt, but he didn’t seem bothered. His left forearm- which, last time Sylondra had seen him, had been several feet away from him and on the ground- had been replaced with a cyborg arm, one containing enough hinges and compartments to work both as a toolbox and an armory. “Looks like Tera got away.”

“You think?” Kaldra glared at him, eye clicking.

“Mhm. Probably.”

“Who else is alive?” Sylondra asked, narrowing her eyes and reverting her attention back to Kaldra. “Shatter and I got out. Tera, obviously. You two. Anyone else?”

“No. It’s just us.”

“What about Kris? He seemed-”

“Kris is dead.” Kaldra shifted her chainsaw arm, calling attention to it. “Trust me.”

“He did some damage, though.” Avery stretched and yawned. “Kaldra’s eye was fucked.”

Sylondra shivered. “So they’re all-”

“Every last one,” Kaldra confirmed. “I didn’t take an exact count but I’d be very surprised if there were any left.”

“How did you get here? Did you follow us across the desert?”

“Got the teleporter working. Saw that another teleporter had gone to certain coordinates three times. Off we went.” Avery shrugged. “Simple.”

Kaldra narrowed her eyes. “What was that second teleporter doing out there in the desert?”

“Avery was right. There was a second team.”

Avery nodded. “Figured. They here?”

“Yes. They got here before we did- we came across their base in an oasis, just like ours, and took the teleporter.” Sylondra growled under her breath. “Tera must have followed us through. Damn her!”

“Damn her,” Kaldra echoed, looking down at her chainsaw arm. “Do you have somewhere safe we can stay?”

Sylondra snorted. “Hard not to find a safe spot in a place like this. I guess I’ll take you home. My dad’ll know what to do with you.”

“Your dad?”

“Yeah. He lives with Avery’s mom. If you can count him as living.”

Avery raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

Sylondra shrugged. “It’s weird. C’mon. It’ll make more sense when you meet the B-team.”

She led the way back, allowing silence to take the place of their conversation. She had never been the biggest fan of Kaldra or Avery, but they were familiar, their footsteps companionable in comparison to Shatter’s or the strangers’, and they almost put her at ease after seeing Tera.

But she had killed Eldran…

The wounds on her heart cried out for vengeance, but she silenced them with a clenched fist.

It wasn’t like they weren’t falling apart before. They’d been waiting for someone to make a move for years, and Tera finally had.

She just wasn’t sure if there was a better move that could have been made.

Comments

[scara]

She ran her thumb over its surface. She hadn’t thought about this piece of paper since the day of the fall, and had forgotten it in the trek through the desert with Shatter. She considered opening it but decided against it, shoving it back in her pocket and continuing to walk forward.

*makes mental note about this piece of paper*

Tera smiled, almost sweetly, sharp teeth bright against her gray skin and burning green eyes unnatural, framed by matted black hair. Her tail coiled tightly behind her, unmoving, and her wings remained half-extended. One was lifted slightly higher than the other and her tilted head moved her further askew, the unfamiliar and red jagged scars crisscrossing what remained of Tera’s left hand and forearm only shattering the remnants of symmetry. Her hand hung at an unnatural angle, the last two fingers mangled and half-healed incorrectly, while her wrist and forearm were missing chunks of flesh that had just healed over with skin, leaving conspicuous dents where there had been none before.

Well shit.
I knew Tera wouldn't stay hidden for much longer, but tracking Syl down when she's alone? Oh boy...

“It was clever, running across the dunes like that. If you hadn’t left tracks I wouldn’t have guessed it,” Tera said conversationally, looking at the claws on her right hand and watching as light played across them. “I painted you a picture. You and Shatter. You never went back to see it.” She pouted. “You never go to see it.”

*shudders* Creepy psycho bitch...

“Who else is alive?” Sylondra asked, narrowing her eyes and reverting her attention back to Kaldra. “Shatter and I got out. Tera, obviously. You two. Anyone else?”
“No. It’s just us.”
“What about Kris? He seemed-”
“Kris is dead.” Kaldra shifted her chainsaw arm, calling attention to it. “Trust me.”
“He did some damage, though.” Avery stretched and yawned. “Kaldra’s eye was fucked.”
Sylondra shivered. “So they’re all-”
“Every last one,” Kaldra confirmed. “I didn’t take an exact count but I’d be very surprised if there were any left.”

Welp there goes any last hope I had that my A-team daughter was still alive somehow. I just really hope she didn't end up being used as part of that 'picture' that Tera made *shudders*