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Descent of Nightmare (Chapter Forty-Two)
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 Forty-Two
Rivet
Akrar, Kaldriel. November 18, 2277. Time instance 842N.
M perched on top of the highest building in Akrar, head tilted back to watch the sky. He’d received word from the Mainframe that the Hatuian fleet had been detected coming in, just minutes ago, and he had raced to a good vantage point.
Dread swirled in his stomach as the cold winter winds pulled at his cloak and whispered around his scales, but he refused to look away or close his eyes.
Whatever happened was his fault, and he was willing to face that. A soft tang of phantom iron reminded him of his choices, reminded him of the place he had cemented himself in history.
The first Mystrex to turn against Hatu, according to the first circle.
The first Mystrex to kill one of their own.
It was a chilling thought, but he knew he had done the right thing, or tried to.
Things would work out. They had to. They always did.
That was a weak excuse and he knew it.
A familiar sound stole the breath from his lungs and he narrowed his eyes, focusing on the distortion beyond the sky. The warp field was weak, barely visible at all, but it was undoubtedly there.
Q, beside him, whistled softly. “Crazy bastard actually did it.”
“He did,” M agreed. Now we just see what the damage is.
M thought he was ready.
He wasn’t.
The Hatuian fleet was prepared to drop out of warp just outside of the planet’s atmosphere, but as their warp fields collided with Kaldriel’s, they destabilized.
The sky was filled with lights and debris, an awful shaking and tearing noise encircling the planet as thousands of raptors were killed in an instant.
The ringing awfulness of the sound hadn’t even faded from his ears when the pain from E’s death returned, ripping through his core and making every remaining Mystrex scream at the loss of one of their own. Rage built in M’s chest as he realized that, now, he was responsible for the deaths of two Mystrex, and if this one…
If this was...
The moment that M had his breath back, he pulled his hood up and leaped from the building to a lower rooftop. He raced through the city and dropped to the ground before speeding across to the old control center, avoiding the cyborgs’ scanners effortlessly and making his way into the room now primarily used for communications.
M pulled down his hood and bared his teeth as he sent a communication request to Seven’s terminal in the Mainframe. It went through immediately, showing Seven in his seat with a raised eyebrow. Several cyborgs celebrated in the background, but he seemed neutral, if relieved.
M leaned towards the camera and snarled, “Hatu has lost another Mystrex. If that was N, I will hunt you down and claim your life in blood price.” Words slipped out that he hadn’t intended to say, words he had tried to carefully train himself to erase ever since he had taken on his identity. “N is my brother, and if you have killed him…”
Seven thought about that for a moment before slowly nodding. “That’s fine. Was there anything else?”
“No.” M disconnected and drummed his claws against the metal, resisting the urge to claw at the controls and break something.
He had no way to know who that had been, although he was certain that their cloak had returned to Hatu. They always did when they were supposedly destroyed.
He clicked his claws against the ground in anxious thought. E’s cloak would eventually return to Hatu without a wearer, although when was a matter of debate between him and Q. It would take the first circle a year or two, if they were fast and lucky, to have Mystrex candidates, so it was silly to worry but it didn’t stop him. If the first circle got desperate, he didn’t want to know what they were willing to do.
He climbed to the top of a building and peered into the sky, where the warp field was long gone and left nothing but lucky fragments of debris to float beyond the sky.
Thousands of raptors are dead. M felt hollow. He’d seen death, every day, for twenty long years on Kaldriel, but it had never really bothered him. They hadn’t been raptors, so he hadn’t cared, he hadn’t seen…
None of them had seen. He sank into a sit and rested his head against the concrete block that acted as a halfhearted attempt at a wall, keeping people from walking right off the roof. He hadn’t- his people hadn’t- seen that the beings on other planets were just as deserving of life as they were.
M shut his eyes, his mind helpfully calling forth the most vivid and gory images he had filed away from his time with the revolution, and even before that, when he was just an observer.
He fought back nausea, but it didn’t help.
~~~
“What the fuck is that?” Lucy demanded as Sylondra came in through the door.
This had quickly become a common question, what with the plethora of unfamiliar items on Kaldriel and Sylondra’s penchant for picking up anything interesting and potentially hurting someone with it, although the following ‘oops’ wasn’t always particularly sincere. This time, however, Lucy’s voice held actual concern, as the item that Sylondra held in her hands looked an awful lot like a gun and Lucy wouldn’t trust Sylondra with a gun as far as she could kick her.
“It’s a gun,” Sylondra said, sitting down on the couch.
“Obviously. Why do you have it?”
“Found it out on the battlefield. Someone just left it there so it’s mine now. A helpful cyborg taught me how to use it.”
“Are you any good?”
“Hell no. But it’s enough to obliterate Tera in close range.” Sylondra patted its side. “This thing shoots damn fast.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow and stepped forward, sitting next to Sylondra to get a better look at it. “How fast?”
“Really fast.”
Footsteps drew their attention and they looked up in time to see Shawn frown and point at the gun. “Sylondra, why did you bring an SMG inside and, more importantly, where did you get it and is the safety on?”
“It’s mine, I found it, and yes, I’m not stupid. A cyborg taught me how to use it.”
“A cyborg,” Shawn said flatly.
“A cyborg,” Sylondra confirmed. “Her name was Caroline and I like her a lot.”
Shawn groaned. “Caroline’s a bitch, usually.”
“Hey, so am I.”
“So you know ‘bitch’ but you don’t know ‘stairs,’” Lucy grumbled. “Your knowledge of this language is spotty at best and gods-awful at worst.”
“You’re the one teaching me, asshole!”
“You did teach her all of the curse words first,” Sheva confirmed.
Lucy shot her a I-don’t-need-your-sass-right-now look and continued. “Still, some basic nouns-”
“Watch me eat your damn stores, Lucy!”
“Stairs,” Shawn corrected. “Stores are different.”
Sylondra blinked. “Shit.”
“Anyway,” Shawn continued, “you be careful with that gun. Don’t take it off of safety mode unless you’re actively in combat, alright? And don’t point it at anything you don’t intend to shoot.”
“Yeah, okay, got that talk already. Thanks, dad.”
“And stop- stop that!” Shawn crossed his arms, unnerved. “That weirds me out.”
Lucy grinned at him. “We’ll get right on that, dad.”
Sylondra grinned as well, catching on. “Can we get some lunch, dad?”
Avery called from the couch, “Do I get a gun too, dad?”
“Stop it!” Shawn pointed at Avery. “I’m not even related to you!”
“Be nice to him, dad.”
“Yeah, dad.”
Shawn covered his ears with his hands. “Taaaaaaaaaaac! They’re bullying meeee!”
Lucy and Sylondra snorted in laughter. Avery grinned innocently and Sheva shook her head, amused.
“So,” Lucy finally said when Shawn had left the room, “you have that gun to… kill Tera?” She reverted to Dranonic for easiness’ sake.
“Yes. She’s too… too good against what else I can do. She’s almost immune to fire and ice barely bothers her, if it even hits her at all. Physical wounds seem to only amuse her, so this will let her laugh while I shoot her full of holes.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow at the viciousness in Sylondra’s voice, at the anger under the surface that threatened to snap. “You sound like you have a vendetta.”
“She killed our leader. She has to die.”
“I know she does. I’m not arguing with that. But don’t you think that it’s...a bit unhealthy to focus on her as much as you do? I mean, look at Kaldra. From what I’ve seen of her, she’s either brooding or sewing and she seems to mix the two.”
“I don’t need to be healthy,” Sylondra muttered. “It’s not important.”
“Syl-”
“Don’t.” Sylondra looked up at her with blazing eyes, the fire she had inherited from Tanadin leaping to the surface. “Don’t try that. I don’t like it when people try to stop me.”
“I’m not trying to stop you. I’m trying to help you.”
“I don’t want your help, okay?” Sylondra glared at her for several seconds before forming an ice crystal in her hands, running her fingers over its cold surface, tracing its lines and edges nearly obsessively, as if pouring every ounce of focus and anxiety she had into it. “I just...want it to be over.”
Lucy nodded, slowly, and exchanged a glance with Sheva.
Sheva just shook her head and said, softly, “There’s nothing you can do for her right now. She doesn’t want to get better. She wants to let this take its course and bring Tera down.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Lucy mumbled in return, but Sylondra took no notice.
~~~
Emma didn’t really expect to be attacked while walking down the street, answering the summons of an excited text from Gali talking about her great friend that she’d reunited with yesterday that everyone just HAD to meet. Akrar was safe enough that Emma figured that someone wouldn’t try to stab her- no one ever had, really, except when she was actively in combat- so her hand was nowhere near Nightbane and her instincts weren’t anywhere close to combat-ready.
The wind stirred slightly, unusually, and she paused, glancing around. She knew it was silly, it wasn’t like something was there, but old habits died-
“Emma, behind you!”
Emma had started to turn when the gunshot rang out.
Her eyes had a brief moment to lock on Chester holding a gun before an angel materialized between them, howling in pain and staggered back, clutching his side. Emma immediately seized Nightbane and activated it, slicing a deep wound in the angel’s torso.
The angel stumbled back and spread his wings, bending his knees to take off. Chester’s gun fired again, slamming into the back of the angel’s head. He fell to his knees and struggled to even stand, angelic resilience saving him from instant death.
Emma sliced off his head, which was more than enough to end his life. Blood spattered her clothes and the street below, the sudden silence almost loud enough to cover her heavy breathing.
She slowly put Nightbane away, raising her eyes to meet Chester’s as he lowered his gun and turned the safety back on.
“Thank you,” she managed, not sure if she was more surprised at the assassination attempt or Chester saving her life. “How...why…”
“Bastards leave a shadow,” Chester spat. “At least the few I’ve seen do. Maybe they should learn to work at night.” He holstered his gun. “And don’t thank me. Don’t think this changes anything between us. I’m still an asshole and I still don’t like you.”
“I...yeah, okay.” Emma nodded, still stunned. “Okay. I can handle that.”
“Good. Have fun cleaning up.” Chester turned his back and gave a brief, sarcastic wave over his shoulder as he strolled off, leaving Emma confused, bloody, and fairly annoyed.
Cataclysm was really not going to like this.
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Q, beside him, whistled softly. “Crazy bastard actually did it.”
“He did,” M agreed. Now we just see what the damage is.
M thought he was ready.
He wasn’t.
The Hatuian fleet was prepared to drop out of warp just outside of the planet’s atmosphere, but as their warp fields collided with Kaldriel’s, they destabilized.
The sky was filled with lights and debris, an awful shaking and tearing noise encircling the planet as thousands of raptors were killed in an instant.
Omg they actually managed to get the warp field up, I hope it holds...
M pulled down his hood and bared his teeth as he sent a communication request to Seven’s terminal in the Mainframe. It went through immediately, showing Seven in his seat with a raised eyebrow. Several cyborgs celebrated in the background, but he seemed neutral, if relieved.
M leaned towards the camera and snarled, “Hatu has lost another Mystrex. If that was N, I will hunt you down and claim your life in blood price.” Words slipped out that he hadn’t intended to say, words he had tried to carefully train himself to erase ever since he had taken on his identity. “N is my brother, and if you have killed him…”
Seven thought about that for a moment before slowly nodding. “That’s fine. Was there anything else?”
“No.” M disconnected and drummed his claws against the metal, resisting the urge to claw at the controls and break something.
He had no way to know who that had been, although he was certain that their cloak had returned to Hatu. They always did when they were supposedly destroyed.
Shit, I forgot that N was on his way to Kalriel, I hope it wasn't him who went kaboom.
He climbed to the top of a building and peered into the sky, where the warp field was long gone and left nothing but lucky fragments of debris to float beyond the sky.
I'm reminded of a scene in Doctor Who were a spaceship gets blownup above the Earth's atmosphere and it starts snowing and everyone's happy but then the Doctor says it's not snow, it's ash from the spaceship's debris burning as it enters the atmosphere. That was a sad scene and I imagine that M feels now as the Doctor did then.
“A cyborg,” Shawn said flatly.
“A cyborg,” Sylondra confirmed. “Her name was Caroline and I like her a lot.”
Shawn groaned. “Caroline’s a bitch, usually.”
“Hey, so am I.”
Perfect friend match then? XD
“Yeah, okay, got that talk already. Thanks, dad.”
“And stop- stop that!” Shawn crossed his arms, unnerved. “That weirds me out.”
Lucy grinned at him. “We’ll get right on that, dad.”
Sylondra grinned as well, catching on. “Can we get some lunch, dad?”
Avery called from the couch, “Do I get a gun too, dad?”
“Stop it!” Shawn pointed at Avery. “I’m not even related to you!”
“Be nice to him, dad.”
“Yeah, dad.”
Shawn covered his ears with his hands. “Taaaaaaaaaaac! They’re bullying meeee!”
Lucy and Sylondra snorted in laughter. Avery grinned innocently and Sheva shook her head, amused.
OMG I love this, poor Shawn XD
Also does Shawn count as like Avery's step-dad?
She slowly put Nightbane away, raising her eyes to meet Chester’s as he lowered his gun and turned the safety back on.
“Thank you,” she managed, not sure if she was more surprised at the assassination attempt or Chester saving her life. “How...why…”
“Bastards leave a shadow,” Chester spat. “At least the few I’ve seen do. Maybe they should learn to work at night.” He holstered his gun. “And don’t thank me. Don’t think this changes anything between us. I’m still an asshole and I still don’t like you.”
“I...yeah, okay.” Emma nodded, still stunned. “Okay. I can handle that.”
Daaaaaamn! Emma having a bad time is right, nearly being assassinated and having her savior be Chester of all people?
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But he didn't.
He let this happen.
And he feels awful.
I don't know what Shawn qualifies as. He's just weird. :P
gg getting rescued by CHESTER of all people
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Shawn is Zombie Dad :P
Yeah, not sure which is worse dying or being saved by Chester XD