OKAY. Following this note is four parts of a really long Metroid based RP between me any my friend, PhazonFlood. He created Kayleer, a space pirate raised by Luminoth, and I created Tejed, a space pirate hybrid. While normally there would be dashes and stars to differentiate between mine and his writings, FF seems to have violently eaten them, so the entire story is uncut and you can't tell where our writings end or begin.
I would fix that but I'm not quite willing to go through 104 pages just for dashes and stars.
Either way, the full version, unparted and with our sections spaced off, can be found at my deviantart page, which is linked on my profile.
I hope whoever reads this enjoys it as much as me and Phaze enjoyed writing it. 3
Kayleer flinched as he struck a wirey nerve on his left arm. This is Slix's job, not mine, he thought to himself. He was a bit rusty at repair work, but his usual maintenance crew was otherwise occupied at the moment. He growled and set down his tools, bent his arm and tested the fingers. Good enough for now.
Satisfied that the damage from his last sparring match was repaired, Kayleer began assembling his armorsuit. It was nighttime, and he had a job to do; surveillance and protection of the city. Every so often, a fight would break out, an intruder would break in, etc. Whatever happened tonight, though, he felt he was ready for it.
He called for Slix once more, hoping that his helper had finished his work in the overhang. The tiny mechanoid came running to his master, ready to help with the night's defensive duties. The pair walked out and began their tedious patrol of the city.
Tejed was not in a happy mood. Granted, happiness was a fleeting thing for her, but as far as her moods went, her thoughts were decidedly more toxic than usual. She didn't know what to blame her mood swing for this time. Maybe she had drank just a bit too much earlier. Maybe her previous bounty was more stressful than she had initially thought. Or maybe she was just tired. Always tired.
"You just miss my beautiful voice..."
The hybrid stopped walking and gave her head a violent shake.
"I'll NEVER miss you," she growled, trying to keep her voice from escalating into a yell. Night time or not, there were still civilians around, and she learned long ago that it was never a good idea to let her temper get the better of her. The voice inside her head, always so quiet, always so beguiling, snickered.
"Keep lying to yourself, Miss Jenal. Let's see how far that takes you..."
"Oh go fuck yourself..." Tejed muttered in response. She had a job to do, a bounty to hunt. All she wanted to do at this point was get to her ship, set the coordinates, and have a good deep nap before she got to the other side of the galaxy. Maybe if she slept, she decided, then she'd feel better, and the toxic cancer of her insanity wouldn't hurt as much as it usually did.
So, ignoring the voice prattling relentlessly in the back of her head as best as she could, she angled towards the ship yard.
Kayleer started his patrol through the city streets, half-heartedly keeping a vigilant eye. It was not that he didn't take his job seriously, it was simply that he never expected anything to happen, so it was hard to get excited about it anymore.
Slix trotted beside him, quirkily poking at the sheathed metal walkways. Before long the pair reached the shipyard. If any place was to house ruffians, it would be construction sites like these. Roomy and cluttered with huge metal vessels, it was an ideal place of refuge. Kayleer made his way stealthily through the shipyard, looking for any signs of trouble, though he doubted he'd find any. His prying gaze was all too trusting, and he was completely at ease, subconsciously sure that no one would do the young rogue Pirate any harm.
"I swear to god voice, if you existed I'd rip your head off."
"Don't swear to god that's not nice..."
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU BITCH!"
It was a moment of weakness. She succumbed to its taunts and couldn't keep her anger in check any longer. Angrily she lashed out, subconsciously glad that she had since left the civilized center of the city and entered the far deader outskirts. There was no one around to hurt. So when her claws collided with the dead husk of a long abandoned ship instead of the soft flesh of a civilian, it gave her mind a bit of respite.
Almost instantly she calmed. The haze of anger lifted and she stepped back, momentarily confused. Three deep gouges ran down the abandoned ship's hull and she flexed her hand while staring at it, feeling the tendons and muscles go taut.
"Tsk tsk. You should really work on that anger problem."
Tejed was through talking to it. There wasn't really any point when the voice was so bitingly sarcastic. Sometimes it fed her good information. Sometimes it helped her. And sometimes it drove her to ecstatic anger. This was one of the latter times, and she didn't want to get any angrier. Bad things always happened when she was angry.
But she closed her eyes for a moment, felt the cool air on her face, and turned to face the ship yard. Her ship was only a few minutes walk away, something alive and mechanical in a place of dead and dying husks. The voice often questioned why she would use such a place when there was a much bigger, and much safer Federation ship yard closer to the city.
Tejed's answer was always the same: "I don't like being so close to people..."
And she really didn't. She always felt claustrophobic and confined in the city. Out here she felt much more at ease. But now was not the time for reminiscing. The stars, however beautiful, only served to remind her of her work.
Without hesitation she set foot in the ship yard. Tejed Jenal had secured herself a rather vicious reputation and it kept people at bay. No one would mess with her, and she knew it. Therefore she had no fear. And if she had no fear, she had no reason to keep an eye on her surroundings.
Eyes locked straight ahead, concentration used wholly on keeping the voice inside her head quiet, she failed to realize that she was not alone tonight.
A loud metal CLANG resounded through the shipyard. Kayleer rushed quickly to the source of the noise. A vandal, perhaps? He did not know. As he wove his way through the shipyard, his mind came up with a hundred different possibilities as to who or what the noise was caused by, and by the time he came face to face with it, he had been almost sure it was merely some verminous animal.
Clearly he had been wrong. As he turned a bend around a final ship, he found himself looking at some sort of alien creature. What disturbed him most was that it looked so vaguely like him- like a Pirate. In fact, it looked like one of the despicable biology experiments his people had conducted and were no doubt still doing.
He was instantly suspicious, and raised his weapon in readiness. Thinking of the things origins, Kayleer opted to disregard his english translator, and instead called out in his native tongue. "Hold it," he roared, weapon primed and pointed right at the thing.
Tejed stopped dead in her tracks, the opened door to her ship sitting complacent, inviting, and turned a hair's breadth.
Zebesian.
That rough native tongue that she hated with every fibre of her being.
The clicking, growling sound of spoken Zebesian left her mouth dry and her spine tingling, and the voice inside her head even had enough wherewithal to stop talking. Silence now, pure and simple. She turned from her ship and stared unblinking.
He stood ready with a weapon trained diligently at her face, and Tejed wasn't quite sure what to feel. Anger? She was the embodiment of anger as far as she was concerned. Confusion? She had more than enough confusion riddling her mind ever since she had escaped Pirate confinement scant months prior. How about...
"Kill him,"the voice prompted, without warning. Tejed did the worst thing she could do: she listened. Her face deepened into a scowl, her pupils contracted into slits, and she could feel her heart start to beat faster.
"You monster," she seethed, also using native Pirate. She clenched her fist, activating the twin laser scythes in her suit. "I'll KILL YOU!"
And without waiting for a response she attacked.
Kayleer fired his powerful legs and lunged forward, dodging the blades of his attacker by mere centimeters. He tucked into a roll and came up to his knees against a ship. Through the rush of adrenaline, he couldn't help but be taken aback by the creature's words. He, a monster?He was not so much insulted as he was curious. Merely speaking had prompted some sort of vendetta from the thing, and judging by its appearance, he could guess why. Perhaps it was a foolish idea to speak in Zebesian-in this darkness and behind his armor he might have passed for some other alien race. His identity as a space pirate had gotten him into a misunderstanding more than once.
Slix fled from the ensuing fight- he had no combat ability after all. Kayleer realized the creature would probably not go peacefully, and whatever its tortured past, he felt no pity in the face of its hostility. "Who are you to call someone a monster?" He replied cockily, as he raised his weapon and fired upon it.
Tejed swore vilely under her breath. She had missed. It was still alive. And it was fighting back with all that it had. She hadn't been expecting a fight to break out so suddenly, but it had spoken Zebesian and she hated that language with a burning vile passion.It brought back unwanted memories of torture and testing and let loose a sour, metallic taste in the back of her mouth.
The Pirate monster ducked and rolled up against a ship and spoke to her again before firing just once. She made no move to dodge and felt the sickening impact of energy blast upon her chest. She stumbled but kept her ground, and laughed. Loud and raucous.
"Monster," she snorted, speaking this time in universal common, the language she felt second most at ease in, old world German being the first. Her amusement faded. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
Quick as a flash she sheathed her scythes, grabbed for her pistol, and fired quick. She wasn't the best with a laser pistol but she hoped to land at least one shot.
Kayleer raised his three-pronged gun to take the pistol shot head on. It merely absorbed the shot, sending him sliding backwards a bit with the impact.
"In fact I have," Kayleer replied, activating his translator so that his pirate growls sounded like coherent English. He placed a foot against the hull of a ship, preparing for a lunge. "In that reflection I see a soldier who fights for the Federation cause." He finished, rounding up a kick at the creature. He emphasized his service to the Federation, in hopes that the creature's hostility might lessen if it knew he no longer served the space pirates.
He's with the Federation?
The realization brought her anger to a sudden halt and it fizzled and died almost as quickly as it had come on. Now very exhausted she didn't acknowledge that fact that he had kicked her until she found herself sprawled out on the ground, hand to her very aching chest. Maybe taking that laser shot wasn't such a good idea, she thought with a mental groan.
"You're with the Federation," she gasped, hoping he'd stop his assault. "I am too."
The voice, ever whispering, had grown in tempo to a full on yell but, aside from a spasmodic facial tic she managed, however barely, to ignore its pleading.
Kayleer flinched at the creature's words. It was working for the Federation too? How strange that an experimental monstrosity would find the resolve to continue fighting- and for the right side, Kayleer thought. He removed his bearing-down foot from the chest of the creature and offered it a hand.
"I see," he replied, speaking in English. "Forgive me if your...appearance suggested otherwise." His helmet withdrew from his face, exposing his vulnerable flesh as if in a peace offering. Wary, however, he kept his arm canon at his side and ready, in case the beast turned hostile again. Its ability to speak in human language was something no pirate was capable of, at least not without a man-made translator. Kayleer decided for the moment to trust the thing. However fragile that trust was, he was curious about her origins, and he guessed that the the two beings had a similar past.
Though the voice said otherwise, Tejed accepted the outstretched hand and allowed what had moments earlier been her attacker to pull her up. Though the sight of his face filled her with disgust, she realized that he must have defected from the Pirate's if he was here working for the Federation. Tejed was smart in her own regard, just a wee bit insane.
She offered an apologetic smile, her face twitching.
"I'm s-sorry for attacking you," she stuttered, feeling the old weight of her insanity take place in her mind once again. She was tired, so tired. "But well... How do I put this lightly..." She paused and thought for a moment, before continuing, "I absolutely hate your race."
She shrugged, as though the events of moments past suddenly didn't matter to her anymore, and turned to board her ship. The door had been open the entire time, waiting ever so patiently.
Kayleer laughed- a cold, muted growling sound that caused his translator to screech in confusion. "Yeah, who doesn't?" he said, with an undertone of shame that acknowledged his physical identity as one of them.
Kayleer met the thing at eye level and peered towards the ship. "My name is Kayleer, soldier of the Galactic Federation." He raised his mechanical arm in a human salute. "And I don't believe I've heard of a former pirate test subject running around the ranks of the Federation before."
Tejed leaned in conspiratorially and whispered in a hushed voice, "That's because I haven't told anyone."
Where Kayleer's laugh was cold and mechanical, Tejed's was loud, raucous, and very much insane, as though she had just told a horrible secret and the only thing to do was laugh at it.
"I wear my helmet everywhere why I decided to take it off now of all times is BEYOND ME!"
More laughter.
"But seriously," she said suddenly, interrupting her own spiel. "Name's Tejed. Bounty hunter."
She held her hand out in a friendly gesture and glanced up at the stars. She'd have to get going soon, she realized. The stars had moved so much since she had gotten here, and if she didn't get on her way soon she'd lose the bounty she had gone through such lengths to track.
"I have to get going quick, though," she muttered, voice suddenly very quiet. "Or I'll miss my chance..."
"A hunter, huh," Kayleer replied. Hunters were a bit iffy, in his mind. They claimed loyalty to the Federation that employed them, but as to whether their loyalty was based on money or integrity was debatable. Perhaps he was simply biased because he was a soldier.
"Good hunting, then, Tejed," he replied, sounding out the strange name delicately. He shook her scaly hand with his own metal arm and saluted once more, preparing to take his leave.
Before she set foot on her ship she stopped and eyed the curious Pirate sideways, unsure for a moment if he really was the friend he claimed he was or not. For all she knew he was a lying asshole ready to bury a dagger in her back, but Tejed was confident enough in her own abilities that if he tried she'd be able to kill him first.
"So like," she started, not knowing exactly why she was about to ask this. "You wanna come?"
Kayleer gave Tejed an uncertain look. He turned his gaze back to the city and thought for a moment about the job he was supposed to do.
"I shouldn't, really..." he thought for a moment, a strange mischief rose in the soldier's mind and for the moment he seriously considered the possibility of abandoning his duty.
"Where are we going?" He asked finally, his mandibles brimming with the hint of a human smile.
"Some planet orbiting Antares over... That way!" she announced, pointing to the constellation Scorpius up high in the sky. "And come on," she added with a devilish sort of grin. "Going there is a lot more interesting than doing... Whatever the fuck it was you're doing here."
She waved her hand dismissively in the air before leaning heavily against the door frame and crossing her arms, awaiting Kayleer's answer.
The pirate laughed in response to her condescension. "I suppose that's true. But I don't follow orders because they're interesting," Kayleer responded, but there was hardly any sincerity in his voice. He had made his decision. His armor retracted fully and compacted into an armored mass on his back. Now starkly exposed, he had acknowledged how unnecessary it was to stay battle-ready.
"If anyone asks, you forced me along," Kayleer said. He gave her a playful look and made his way past her slouched form and into the ship.
Tejed followed her new pirate companion, letting the door slam shut behind her. She had never been the cleanest of people hybrid monster things, and she hadn't tidied up her ship in a long while. There were scratches on the walls and almost illegible words in what was most likely blood scrawled haphazardly everywhere.
"That's when I almost killed myself," she said matter of factly, pointing to a string of vile curses carved jaggedly into the wall. The morbid nature of the sight didn't seem to faze her. "Voice in my head tried to take over. You know how it is."
She didn't know if Kayleer knew how it was but she didn't really care. She led him to the main command room and settled into the chair, already punching in some coordinates to the computer.
"We should be there in a day or so," she explained. "Kitchen's that way, some rooms with beds are back that way, and like... There's some stuff over there." She trailed off for a moment, thinking. "And like, don't do anything stupid," she added as an afterthought, turning to glare at him. "Or I'll kill you."
Without another word she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes as the ship slowly rose, before the sight of the city made way for an expanse of stars.
"I'm going to sleep, do whatever you want."
She waved her hand in the air and got comfortable, leaving Kayleer alone.
Kayleer wondered for a moment at the competence of this hunter. He was perturbed by the state of the ship, and the nature of the messes, but he decided to pay it no mind. If his companion turned her insanity loose on him, he was confident he could deal with it.
He left Tejed to her nap and began to explore the ship. Kayleer was relieved to see that the rest of the vessel was in slightly better care than the pilot deck.
He came to a rest near a window and looked out into the stars. His view was obscured by a glossy coat of dust, but it was visible nonetheless. He considered for a moment following Tejed's example and taking a rest, when something caught his eye. He wiped away the coat of dust with his right arm and found himself looking straight into the grey-tinted visage of a pirate boarding vessel.
"Great, what has she done to piss themoff?" Kayleer wondered to himself. He watched with dismay as the organic, living ship made contact and latched on. He called out his armor and prepared for the worst.
Her dream was interrupted not by the nagging pleading of the voice but by something completely different and very disheartening: the tell tale shudder and groan of her ship being compromised. She swore loudly once before leaping from her chair and rushing to the source of the noise.
And there he stood, armoured and ready.
"KAYLEER!" she yelled, running up to him. " What the fuck did you do?!"
"Me?!" Kayleer was irritated now. He had been stupid to let himself be dragged along by this sanity-void freak. She was clearly a target for many, and he would be seen as an accomplice. "I've done nothing, and I suggest you wise up to the real threat before the pirates aboard this ship murder us both," he growled.
He walked away from her, calming down a bit. "By the sound of it, they must have boarded the lower deck."
Tejed let her lip peel back in a snarl but heeded his advice. It would be far too foolish to get into a scuffle with him at this point in time, and although her mind worked in wonky ways she still had sense about her.
"Fine," she said once, trying to calm down her racing thoughts. "Follow me, the lower deck is this way."
She set off down a hallway, glancing back once to see if Kayleer was following. He's not the problem, she reminded herself. He's not the problem the pirates are. Just keep calm and keep your mind on a real threat.
Easier said than done, but she walked in silence, and kept her mind focused on the task at hand.
Kayleer followed dutifully, gun at the ready. He knew pirate tactics well, and he stood wary for a surprise attack that could come his way from any direction.
He heard the creaking and clawing of pirate feet on the deck floors below. They were there, they were planning something. Planting an explosive, perhaps, or something much worse. He was grateful for his armor.
"Do you have a plan? They more than likely have a few dozen troopers on us. We'll get ourselves killed if we don't think this through," Kayleer stopped, hesitant. He placed a hand on her shoulder roughly, trying to hold her back. He didn't trust that Tejed had any plan whatsoever, and assumed she was trudging blindly into battle.
She shrugged his hand off her shoulder and sort of half turned, unsheathing her laser scythes as she did so.
"They built me to kill," she hissed. "So kill I will. Just like they wanted."
The best plan, as far as she was concerned. She may have been going in blind, but she didn't care. Her armour would protect her and the phazon in her system would heal her while it fueled her bloodlust. She didn't care if she got hurt, so long as those inhuman monstersall died in the most painful way possible.
"Besides," she added, pausing and shooting him a devilish grin. "What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger."
"Your cockiness will get you killed," Kayleer snapped. She may be stronger for what was done to her, but he had no doubts it had shortened her lifespan significantly. "It's probably what got you captured in the first place," he continued, perhaps overstepping himself. "I suggest you listen, if you don't want to end up in a test tube again."
He let Tejed trudge forward. If she was so sure of herself, she could risk her own hide. Kayleer opted for a more tactical approach. He called to Slix, who came running to his side moments later. "Get down there and figure out our situation." he ordered. The little mechanoid gave no response, he merely obeyed. He slithed his way to a vent and tore it off, crawling in and making his way to the lower deck. Kayleer was confident he would return with useful intel that could turn the outcome of their eminent encounter with the pirates.
"Fuck you," she spat, letting him fall behind. He didn't understand, he wasn't her. Tejed Jenal had come closer to death that she ever wanted more than enough times to realize there was no point in taking the sidelines to life. She much preferred up close and personal, where she could get the full experience. For what was the point of life, if she wasn't living?
"Don't even get me started on those pirates," wheedled the voice. "Soon enough you'll get blessed release, my dear. Soon enough."
"Stop TALKING all the time!" Tejed yelled, suddenly furious with everything. Without thinking she brought her scythes down in the wall in an impressive display of sparks and broke into a full on run, letting them slice through the steel as though through butter. Whatever Kayleer was up to was none of her concern. All that filled her mind was the black hatred, the rage. The anger.
"Get OFF MY SHIP!" she screamed, before descending into the bowels of the spacecraft.
"Insane," Kayleer said, dumbfounded. "She's insane!" What had he gotten himself into, following her, coming aboard her ship? Maybe he, too, was insane.
Slix sent him visual data on his HUD. He was directly above a party of pirates. Five of them were circled around a brown, bulbous object of biotechnological nature. It had long, seething tendrils that dug their way into the ship. Kayleer did not know quite what the device was, but it clearly had some purpose of sabotage. "Shit!" he swore under his breath. It bothered him not only that some strange weapon had been tasseled to the ship, but also that he hadn't a clue what it would do.
"OUT OF MY SHIP!" she screamed, bursting through the doors without warning or hesitation and catching the gang of pirates completely off guard. This was what she was unwillingly created for: the thrill of the hunt, of the fight. Of the bloodshed. She quickly brought her scythes down on the nearest living body she could reach, relishing in the spray of blood on her hot skin.
"I'll teach you to board my ship," she seethed, leaping at the next closest pirate, seemingly oblivious to the pulsating thingthey had brought with them. Mind set on ridding her ship of the vermin that had infested it she continued to attack and cleave, the vigour of battle bringing a white froth to her mouth.
Kayleer watched through Slix's optics as the pirate crew was literally hacked to pieces. For all the contempt he felt for his own species, even he could not help but feel a bit of pity for them. These were merely minors, lightly armored and virtually defenseless against the cruel, blazing slash of their foe.
Tejed appeared to have lost herself in the thrill of battle. She looked ecstatic, mad with violent pleasure. It was a chilling scene; a mix of gore and pure sadism. Kayleer was disgusted.
The device the pirates had placed in the ship was busy unraveling long tendrils into the inner circuitry of the ship, moving seemingly with a will of its own. It dug its way deeper and deeper into the ship, integrating itself, threatening to take over. The entire vessel lurched as though in reaction to the thing's efforts.
Kayleer snapped his focus back to the situation at hand, and rushed to meet Tejed at the battle scene.
Without warning her eyes erupted into blazing yellow fire and she felt her scythes cut efficiently through the last scrawny pirate, his body and his head falling in separate pieces to the gore covered floor. Quick as a flash she turned her attention to the thingeven as he ship pitched to the side, almost throwing her off balance.
"What the fuck IS THIS?!" she screeched, digging her claws into its surface, seeing nothing but rage induced red.
"Not important," snickered the voice inside her head, even at this time prodding her into more violence. "Attack him, not this."
"For the last time," Tejed seethed, clenching her eyes shut. "Don't tell me WHAT. TO. DO."
"You're talking to yourself again. Why do you do that...?"
The voice inside her head wasn't helping, but then it never really did. And while she could easily ignore it on any other occasion, now was a whole different can of worms.
"They're stealing my ship!" she yelled, fighting with herself. "I want this thing GONE!"
"Steel things don't bleed."
And at that unfortunate moment Kayleer appeared, his weapons poised, his stance ready. As the last pirate on board, Tejed forgot for a crucial moment that he was a friend, and with her red tainted vision she brought her weapons to him, instead.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Kayleer yelled. His translator failed to capture the exact nature of his horrified reaction. How foolish he had been, to approach his insane companion while her mind was still reeling with violent thrills.
The pirate minors were dead, their entrails littered the steely floor of the ship. Kayleer nearly felt the urge to vomit, his own self image making the sight of the gored bodies nearly unbearable. Though it was true he had killed many pirates in his own lifetime, his weapons were far different from Tejed's. His plasma canon burned, vaporized; sometimes an entire specimen when hit in the right places. It was the sort of weapon that was standard for a Federation trooper; benign, as far as weaponry went, in its ability to destroy a lifeform as swiftly and neatly as possible.
This sort of gore was not something Kayleer was used to seeing. Organs, exoskeleton fragments; the same vital parts that he relied upon to sustain him; were desecrated. Some still twitched with ebbing life. Enemies or not, no creature deserved this. Kayleer surprised even himself with the bubbling anger he felt at seeing his pirate brethren treated in such a way. Perhaps after all his time spent among humans, Kayleer had gained a sensitivity that, had he otherwise remained with the pirates, would have been quickly conditioned out of him.
He forgot himself for a moment, giving in to the horror, the anger, the vengeance. He was sick of his situation, sick of the gore, sick of Tejed. He rose his pronged-tipped weapon and caught her scythe-bearing arm as she prepared to drive it into his chest. He clamped down with that claw, biting into her unarmored flesh, charging a shot which, in such close proximity, he hoped to sear her with. He edged his visored face close to hers, and let loose a primal roar that he had never heard himself utter before.
Her arm halted in mid air, the glowing yellow edge of her laser scythe hissing in what could best be described as annoyance. For it was so close to tasting death, and it had been denied. In turn, Tejed hissed as well, trying but failing to suppress her anger. She didn't want to kill Kayleer. But she had so much anger to vent, so much hatred to let loose.
She hadn't been expecting him to roar at her, and if he hadn't been wearing a helmet Tejed was certain she would have seen the same anger and hatred that she felt on a daily basis. So what did she do? She opened her mouth, allowed her bottom jaw to split open, and roared right back, loud and vicious. It filled her with a sick sense of pride to hear her roar was louder than his, and, still struggling to impale him on her scythes, she smiled.
"Feels good, doesn't it," she hissed. "To feel so much bitter hatred?"
Once again she tried but failed. He was just as strong as her, just as determined, and she admired that.
"How does it make you feel, looking at your dead brethren?"
She snickered, and her hot breath fogged the glass of his visor, for a moment obscuring her reflection.
"When's the last time you felt emotion?"
The sharp crack of her broken voice echoed around the room, punctuated only by the animalistic sound of her ragged breathing. She laughed low and awaited his response, trapped in what could only be described as a death grip, for although her voice was calm and ordered, her mind was still a violent frenzy she couldn't yet control.
Kayleer did his best to ignore her prying. She was trying to rile him up, make him even angrier than he already was. What was her purpose in that? Did she truly have a death wish?
He could feel himself slipping, slowly giving way to that trademark pirate aggression he had spent so many years trying to suppress. It was inborn in him; to feel anger, pride, greed, and bloodlust. But Kayleer had always relied on his intellect to push that nature away, to consider the feelings irrational and with that very insight, suppress them.
But that sense of mind over instinct was beginning to falter. Whether it was the gore-covered room or the vile, taunting voice of his oppressor, Kayleer felt the ecstatic grip of anger on his mind. And as much as it made his stomach twist to admit it, Tejed was right. It felt good. The temptation to abandon his mind to the pleasure of pirate bloodlust, was truly unbearable.
Were these two truly nothing but violent, mindless beasts?
At that point, Kayleer would have believed so. What else could explain two allies acting like this? Infighting was so common among pirates, and now Kayleer was acting completely according to stereotype. Had he had his wits about him, he would have been repulsed.
Blocking yet another attempt on his life with a tightly-hooked clamp, he let his visor recede. He held Tejed there, drawing blood as he squeezed ever tighter with the cleaving edges of his claw. He locked his eyes onto hers, letting his mandibles twist in their sockets and let loose a rapturous roar. Black, adrenaline-seeped saliva flung from his mandibles and into the face of his opponent. He couldn't articulate a proper response; he merely reacted with the aggressive, domineering behavior so typical for a pirate. Still holding tight to Tejed's scythe-bearing arm, he reared up a kick and rammed in straight into her ribs, biting into the flesh with his metal-sheathed talons as he did so.
She hadn't expecting the sudden sharp stab of pain in her ribs, but she didn't complain. Quite the opposite. She did what she did best: she laughed, even as the force of his kick sent her to the ground, out of his tight grasp. Corrosive blood spilt from the corners of her mouth and something wet trailed from her left nostril.
"I knew there was still a pirate deep down in there," she hissed, bringing a claw up to wipe her face. When she brought her hand back it surprised her to find phazon on her fingers, glowing blue against the red of her blood. She smirked, tried to get to her feet, but the pain in her ribs caught up with her. Something deep down snapped, the sound of bone breaking. She winced, but said no more, and looked up at Kayleer.
He had her pinned; she was helpless. Tejed's fingers came away from her maw bloodied; clearly he had damaged something vital within. His instincts screamed at him, pressing him to finish what he had started. Kayleer had never seen a creature's throat look so inviting...
His body seemed to move of its own accord. He reached out with his mechanical arm and grabbed Tejed by the throat, feeling a rush of pleasure as the three clever digits pricked and drew blood.
What am I doing?Suddenly something besides instinct was welling up in his thoughts. For the first time, his foe's words became more than garbled banter to him.
I knew there was still a pirate deep down in there.
Her words drove through him like a blade. He was no war monger, no mindless aggressor. The former slave had always thought himself different; a glimmer of hope for his species, that someday this war might end peacefully. Where would that hope be if he traded his composure for violent release?
As difficult as it was to muster the mental strength to do so, he let her go. His eyes widened in realization and he backed away, clutching his head with blood and phazon-tainted digits. He became aware of his accelerated heartbeat, an accommodation his body had made to fuel his violence. He focused, struggling to think clearly; to push away the anger and compose a sentient thought. He let out a muted groan and collapsed in a heap on the floor, resting on his hocked knees and staring at the ground, shaking his head.
"You're an idiot, you know that?"
Tejed snorted in abject amusement, feeling the own weight of her fury subside and pass, her mind calm down by slow, orderly degrees.
"I know," she wheezed, as she clambered pained to her feet. She took a deep breath, steadied her nerves, ignored the voice inside her head. She had come pretty close, she realized, to killing or getting killed by her new friend. Friend? Yeah, she supposed he was a friend, in a strange sort of way. The thought struck her as funny and she smiled, shaking her head.
"Let's get this thing off my ship, eh?" she stated, standing near Kayleer. She had a pounding headache and the backs of her eyes hurt. Tejed Jenal felt exhausted, plain and simple, and in the wake of her anger she was starting to feel the cold weight of sorrow. For a moment she felt like a little girl again, lost and alone.
She quickly shook her head in an effort to forget the thoughts, at least for now. There was time for that later. Right now the ship was flying of its own accord, in a direction she hadn't set, to a place she probably wasn't too keen on returning to. With a sigh she laid a hand on the thing and cast a critical glance at Kayleer.
"Right," Kayleer nodded. He was calm; in control once more to his great relief. His heart pounded painfully against his chest, as if his body was reeling from his rejection of its anger, and complaining at the fact that it had to slow down and calm itself in accord with his thoughts.
"Humans have programs for beings like us," Kayleer scoffed. "I believe they were called 'anger management' courses." He laughed. It was merely a pathetic attempt to ease the tension and mask the internal turmoil he had gained from the fight.
He took in the scene, once again being forced to observe the bodies in the room. He sighed, looking at them with a twisted face of disdain. He charged up a beam of plasma fire, and swiftly vaporized the entire lot.
He clicked a few times, calling to his mechanoid partner. He had almost forgotten he was there. Slix dropped from the vents above and quickly made his way to that familiar resting spot on Kayleer's shoulder, seemingly unfazed by his master's previous breakdown.
Kayleer made his way to the pirate device and gave it a lookover, turning his gaze back to Tejed. "It's completely taken over," he said. "I haven't the slightest idea how deep it's already gotten into your ship. Maybe if we hadn't wasted so much time with...-" he cut himself off, knowing better than to bring it up again. He growled, exasperated. "Well, it's your ship. What do we do?"
"Gin made me go to anger management courses once," Tejed muttered, giving Slix a once over. The tiny mechanical creature was amazing to her; she had never seen something so intricate and small. "Lot's of good they did for me..."
She trailed off, turning her attention back to the device and the parasitic roots it had sunk into the steel floor, no doubt tampering with the ship's computer. She sighed.
"Of course, I was also in an asylum for a year or so... And look where I am now."
Kayleer gave the device a once over himself, before stating: "Well, it's your ship. What do we do?"
"Myship?" Tejed responded, incredulous, not caring to mask the exasperated fatigue in her voice. "It's your people's device, Iunno what to do about it."
She crossed her arms and gave the thing a good kick, hoping her mechanical talons would at least harm it. Nothing, of course. It remained stationary, silent, feeding its roots into her ship's circuitry. Frustrated she let herself break down for a moment and sobbed, covering her face with her hands. This wasn't going according to plan, none of it was. She was supposed to be on the other side of the galaxy by now, hunting her bounty. She had planned to be back on Earth in a few days, back with her few select friends.
Back with her family.
And now this. It was one thing losing her anger like that, it was another to face the species that had mutated her in the first place all over again. The whole ordeal was bringing back bad memories that she had no intention of remembering ever again and it left a bad taste in the back of her mouth.
"Don't associate me with them," Kayleer snapped. He didn't like to be reminded of his roots, especially not after he had very nearly lost his mind. What further annoyed him was the hateful, condescending tone she spoke in when she mentioned them, as if she was completely insensitive to her present company.
Tejed began to sob, the sounds twisted and low-sounding, but unmistakably human in nature. Kayleer flinched slightly in surprise. He was more exasperated than ever, not sure whether to offer comfort or just stay the hell away. His companion had gone from brash, to violent, to depressed, all within such a short time.
He shook his head, feeling the best option was to remain neutral. Emotionally she was unstable, volatile, even, and he could well relate. But as long as she wasn't being violent, he supposed he didn't have to worry.
He crouched down, inspecting the machine carefully. Slix climbed off his shoulder and stood atop it, seemingly intrigued.
"Destroying the injector won't do any good," he began. "It's already inside." He aimed his right arm at the floor, atop a twitching tendril of the device. Three smaller prongs extended from his weapon, exuding a fine, welding flame. With it he tore a small hole around the tendril, forming a crawl space. A network of intricate circuits was revealed, one that would make little sense to the untrained eye.
Kayleer turned to Slix, and gave a quick order in his native language. Slix nodded obediently, leaping into the hole and into the inner workings of the ship.
"Now I guess we wait," Kayleer shrugged. "Unless we get wherever this thing is taking us first." He shivered. If the pirates truly were after Tejed, he could only imagine where they would intend to take her. The thought of returning to his homeworld filled him with fear.
Tejed ignored Kayleer and backed up until she felt her back against the wall, letting herself slide down until she was sitting on the floor. Despondently she watched. She watched Kayleer burn a hole in the floor, she watched Slix disappear into the inner workings of her ship, and she watched Kayleer's expressions. He looked annoyed, frustrated. Even though he was a pirate she could still read his emotions, and he looked very sorry that had come with her in the first place.
Disgusted with herself she laid her head on her knees and closed her eyes, exhaling a puff of blue phazon, the last of it having been expended from her system. It was always the same routine, the same gamut of emotions. First the anger, always the anger. Low and brooding, waiting to be felt. Then the frenzy, the raw visceral urge to killas the phazon in her system rose, demanded to be burned off. Then after that came the tired and the depression, the headaches and the nausea and the suicidal thoughts. Finally, for what she always wished would last forever, the normalcy. The period of time when she was sane, for a few days. Before the anger started bubbling up and the cycle began anew.
"Phazon madness," she muttered, tired. "One never ending phazon madness..."
Now would be a good time, she thought. Kayleer was strong, dangerous. He had already come close once, almost ended her life. Despite the exhaustion she smiled, chuckled quietly. Oh how the sweet release of death seemed so wonderful, right now.
"End the never-ending torment... Would you do that, Kayleer?" she whispered, hoping he wouldn't hear. "No... Of course not. I'm doomed to live."
She sighed heavily once more and watched him work, her head empty and hollow, seeming so cold after the violent grip of her anger mere moments before. At this point in time she simply didn't care anymore.
"I'm doomed to live..."
Phazon?
Kayleer turned to look at his companion, flinching in disgust as a cloud of blue vapor escaped her lungs.
Oh, he knew the substance well. He thought back to the days he had spent slaving in the mines, doing everything in his power to avoid corruption and death from that blue demon.
He had seen what it could do. Many of his fellow slaves made the mistake of touching or inadvertently ingesting the stuff. It spread like a disease, seeping into your brain and driving you to violence, to addiction, to madness, and death.
A breach in his protective suit, a wound on his left palm. Back in the mines such things were often fatal. A small amount of the blue stuff had dripped from the cavern walls and permeated his skin. Kayleer had always been so careful...
The living phazon had edged into the cut, seemingly with a will of its own, and the pain was instant. The burning, that volatile burning that meant you would soon be poisoned and lose your mind. Kayleer had done the only thing he could think of to spare himself the fatal madness; and drove a mining spade through his left shoulder.
He snapped out of his memories and glanced at Tejed. If she was once human...He shivered to imagine the life he might've lived if he'd allowed himself to be corrupted. Termination by his superiors? That was a likely outcome. But many of those poisoned by phazon were taken for further testing.
Kayleer twitched his left arm, feeling those familiar clicking wires and metal sheaths that felt as natural now as any biological part of him. How lucky he was...
"End the never-ending torment... Would you do that, Kayleer?"He heard her mumbling; the phazon-mad mutation that had the misfortune of being sentient. He found himself with a shameful amount of pity for the creature, but he decided not to show it. It might dent her pride and only drive her to more anger.
"I guess you can't be blamed for your instability," Kayleer replied. He knew well what she was asking. Her suicidal thoughts... he could never live with himself if he indulged them. Calmly he walked over to her and offered that familiar mechanical hand to assist her, to pull her up once more. Perhaps an offer of help would do better than simply pull her from the floor.
"I guess you can't be blamed for your instability," Kayleer called, and Tejed closed her eyes. He had heard her muttering to herself, she supposed. It was very quiet, after all. Talking to herself was a bad habit that she was finding hard to break out of. When she opened her eyes again he was standing over her with an outstretched hand, and tentatively she took it, allowing him to pull her up.
"...sorry," she said quietly, averting her eyes. She couldn't stand looking at him right now, not because of his species, but because of the kindness he was offering her after what she had done. It seemed far too loathsome, that she, a violent mutation driven mad by the phazon, was offered so kind a gesture. She didn't deserve it, she knew.
"But I..." she trailed off, trying to find the right words. "...I should be fine for a few days, after..."
She let her words fall silent, unsure if Kayleer even really cared, and instead opted to watch the hole that Slix had disappeared so easily into. At that moment in time, Tejed Jenal felt very ashamed, indeed.
Kayleer pulled his comrade to her feet, smiling with intentions of offering the beast comfort. But she had averted her gaze, and stared at the floor instead. He had lived among humans long enough to recognize the body language.
"What do you have to be ashamed of," he asked her. "You can't help what you are anymore than I can." He laughed, a short and cut-off growl. Kayleer retracted his armor, finding relief in the fresh air on his body and the symbolic release in abandoning the need for weapons. "Although, I would never dream of comparing our lives," he continued, respectfully, releasing his grip on her claw. Although he wasn't particularly fond of his general treatment, being a pirate living among humans, he knew he should count his blessings. He was, after all, healthy, mentally stable; unlike his companion.
The ship lurched, as though someone had enacted a very sudden course correction. How far they had been on the previous course, however, was yet to be seen. Slix popped out of the hole and padded over to Kayleer, his tiny, porcelain-colored digits plinking delicately on the floor. He rushed to his master and clambered atop him. Kayleer didn't seem to mind. Slix slinked his way around his left arm, dropping something into his palm before returning to his shoulder, wrapping his lengthy serpentine tail around his neck for balance.
Kayleer looked his gift over and laughed. The tiny, glinting bit of metal, circuitry and biological nerves- it had been the AI within the pirate device. Now void of its most vital component, its purpose had been nullified. He turned to look out a porthole, wondering where they were. With all that had transpired, he could only guess where the ship had taken them in that time.
"Pfft, nothing to be ashamed of," she muttered bitterly, the rank taste of steel creeping up in the back of her throat. The sudden lurch of the ship momentarily threw her off balance, and confused she glanced around wildly, catching sight of Slix appear like a ghost from the hole.
He curled up around Kayleer before depositing something in his palm, and though Tejed couldn't tell right away what it was she had some ideas: it was probably the pirate device's main AI system. Her ship had stopped moving, she could feel it. They were still. The device had been disarmed.
The realization of what had just happened seemed to help her mood, and feeling a little better that they were no longer headed for pirate space, she allowed herself a smile. Glancing out a nearby window assured her: the stars were still once more.
"Computer, where are we?" she asked suddenly, speaking to the ceiling. There was silence and for a few moments she was scared the ship's computer had been somehow damaged, before a camera in a far corner glinted and turned to watch them.
"I have a name, you know," it replied quietly, almost condescending in tone.
"Fine," Tejed replied tiredly, in no mood to argue with her ship's AI. "Where are we... Jarvis?"
More of that almost tangible silence as the camera surveyed them both, mechanical iris contracting in the dark.
"...Somewhere near the star Betelguese, in the constellation Orion," was the enigmatic response. "We're no longer in Federation space. This area is uncharted... Ma'am."
Despite herself Tejed groaned and ignored the computer's snide remark, put her face in her hands as the happiness she had felt so fleetingly moments earlier faded away. Everything was going so wrongthat it was almost too much to bear.
"We're way off course..." she groaned, doing quick calculations in her head. Insanity or not she knew how to navigate quite well, and math held no barriers for her. "It'll take a while to plot a new course back to Antares."
Tejed was starting to have second thoughts regarding the bounty they had originally set off for. It was all too easy to tell the Federation suits that had employed her that her bounty had escaped. It happened all the time, and they wouldn't argue. No one in their fancy Federation headquarters argued with Tejed Jenal, they all knew better.
She turned towards the door and made to leave, motioning once at Kayleer to follow. Their time would be much better spent at the control deck, trying to figure out just where they were, and if there was any danger here.
Way off course? Great...
Kayleer sighed. He knew he shouldn't be here, shouldn't be wasting even further time away from home, from his duties. But something about his companion was keeping him intrigued, from demanding to be returned. Perhaps he was simply interested in seeing the result of so many pirate experiments in action. Those he had seen before were merely mindless, disgustingly augmented creatures whose lifespans were cut so short as to be virtually nonexistent.
He watched as Tejed left the lower deck; the place where five lives had been taken, almost six. He brushed off her request for him to follow, opting to gaze out a porthole for a moment instead. The ship's computer had told them they were near some human-named constellation, and nothing more. He did not know the human names for them as well as he did his own species'.
As he looked out onto the stars, he noticed the silvery, glinting silhouette of a planet. It seemed familiar. He realized it was one he had seen in pirate records a long time ago, one that was briefly studied and then quarantined and abandoned due to the deadly viral lifeforms that lived there; Twin Tabula. He smirked. Was that where the pirate device had been sending them? If they had crash landed on its surface, they would have been dead within hours of the event. How twisted, he thought, that the pirates would choose to send Tejed to a place where she would succumb to painful disease, instead of just killing her in battle. Or maybe he was merely mistaken. It was in the same system, he realized, as one of the former pirate colony worlds as well as another former Phazon-mining planet- though not the one he had been stationed on.
"The sooner we get out of here the better," Kayleer said to himself. Slix trilled, whether in comfort or random glitch, Kayleer didn't care, he smiled. He took his leave of the lower deck and followed Tejed.
Tejed stared listlessly out the main window, watching the stars unmoving on their background of blackest black and listening to the sounds of Jarvis working away diligently. Kayleer was still down there somewhere, she surmised, doing that emotionalthing he was so damn good at.
She wasn't quite sure what it was but something about that pirate rubbed her the rightway, as opposed to the wrong way that she got from everyone else. Sure he pissed her off, but he was so cute with his mandibles and his guttural laugh and his-
"NO," she yelled, sitting up straight. The computer stopped for a moment and a camera swiveled to watch her, confused. Bitter, she sunk back into the seat and simmered in her emotions.
"I can't be falling for him already, he's a fucking pansy," she muttered dejectedly. "Fucking... Pansy ass. Fucking... Pirate..."
The stars held little reprieve for her and she lazily spun in circles in the command chair, before something caught her eye, and she found herself jumping to her feet. Staring. Cocking her head ever so slightly to the side like a confused dog.
"Computer-" The clicking stopped and she caught herself. "...Jarvis.What's the right there? That planet?"
Silence for a moment.
"Twin Tabula, ma'am."
"Don't call me that," she snapped without thinking.
"Would you rather I call you something more fitting... Sir?
"Are there any other planets in its system?"
"Tallon IV, Lady."
Quietly she sat down and thought for a moment. The planets held nothing particularly special to her. She knew there had been some pirate activity on Tallon but she wasn't too keen on checking it out, not right now, anyway. Still, there had to be a reason they had been guided her.
"Jarvis, call Kayleer up here," she instructed.
Kayleer looked up as he heard the metallic voice of the ship's computer call to him.
"Kayleer, your presence is requested on the pilot deck," it rang.
"I know, I know, I'm already on my way there," he mumbled. How impatient was she? He'd only lingered for a few minutes before she went to the trouble of having her artificial lackey demand him to come. Once again he suppressed his annoyed feelings. He didn't like having to give her so much leeway with her emotions, but he knew her mood swings and volatile behavior undoubtedly stemmed with the insanity-driving parasite within her. Then again, he wondered which emotions were caused by phazon, and which were simply due to her natural, less-than-stellar personality. He supposed he would never know.
He arrived on the pilot deck to see his monstrous companion spinning around in the pilot chair. How mature...he thought sarcastically to himself. He shook his head and gave her a serious look. "What is it?"
Kayleer looked pissed to see her and she laughed.
"Why do you always look so pissy?" she asked, feeling mischievous and spiteful. He shot her a dirty look and she shrugged. "Hey don't blame me you're the one who always looks like there's a geemer up your butt."
She calmed down and stood, pointing out the window.
"Are you familiar with this area? Why would they bring us here?"
A frustrated huff of air escaped the pirate's nostrils as he stood and endured Tejed's prattle. Choosing to pay more mind to her last question, he answered.
"I am," he said. He pointed out a porthole to the distant, silver planet. "My best guess is they were sending us there to die." He growled, "Since that is the direction we appear to have been headed." He was annoyed that the pirates had very nearly succeeded, and that his choice to follow the bounty hunter had almost earned him death by twin fever. "I don't know if humans have any record of it, they probably only know about the two more... famous planets in this system," he continued. "Surely your AI has information about Zebes and Tallon IV?"
He folded his arms, shooting that trademark serious gaze in her direction. He didn't appreciate her joking, even less so because of where they were and what had nearly happened to them.
Tejed burst into raucous laughter.
"They finally decided to kill me, eh?" she said, stricken by mirth. "Took them long enough. They've been trying to get me backfor long enough, I suppose."
She wiped a tear from her eye and shook her head, still smiling, ignoring the serious look the pirate was giving her.
"Nah, I know enough about Zebes and Tallon as is, I don't need cranky up there schooling me." She motioned towards the ship's computer and was sure she heard it sigh in annoyance. Shaking her head, she stood and made to walk past Kayleer, stopping by him and putting a hand gently on his shoulder.
"Stop being so serious all the time, lighten up," she said with a smile. "There's still lots to be happy about, eh?"
She patted him and headed towards the small kitchen connected to the pilot deck.
"It'll probably take Jarvis a little while longer to plot a new course. If you'd like I can make us some tea in the meantime."
The spite had gone and Tejed felt normal again, almost happy. She made a conscious effort to latch onto the new turn of emotion for a while, instead of falling back into depression and hate. She knew it bothered Kayleer and the pirate looked plenty annoyed already. Maybe a change in attitude would do him some good, both hers and his.
And as far as she was concerned, warm tea was the best thing ever.
Kayleer sighed. He realized how often he was using that very human response as of late. Was he gaining an affinity for the reaction because it was so amusingly unlike what came naturally in pirate reflex? Or was his companion merely so mind-numbingly headache-inducing that he was forced to do it so often? He decided it was best to ignore how much she annoyed him. He became complacent; any state of mind she was in right now was better than what he had previously witnessed.
"Human pabulum leaves a vile taste in my mouth," he responded coldly. He didn't mind if he was devoid of nourishment for the duration of the flight. He had enough stocked energy in his suit to keep him going for months. Such was what emergency situations in which he became stranded called for. He smiled, I suppose this counts as being stranded,he thought to himself. Despite his apparent objection he followed her anyways.
"Suit yourself..." Tejed said quietly, taking a seat at such an angle that she still had a view, however obscured, of the pilot bay. Kayleer walked in but didn't take a seat, and she looked at him quizzically. Feeling decidedly not suicidal and very not angry, a first as far as she was concerned, she decided this was as good a time as any to engage in some small talk. Maybe it would help whittle away the time a bit, as Jarvis calculated a new route.
"So..." she started, trying not to piss him off even more than he already was. She thought for a moment but she couldn't think of a question that wasn't inherently personal. She was curious as to his arm, and his origins, and what made him leave the pirates in the first place. But those questions were probably best left for another, less hostile time.
Letting the tea steep she studied his face for a moment. The way he sighed all the time reminded her of Gin. He sighed all the time, too. Usually in response to her antics. Tejed was very annoying at times, she admitted.
"...what do you eat?" was all she could think of asking. It wasn't like she didn't know: she was half space pirate, as well, after all. Her humanity outshone the pirate genes, but she had been with them long enough to know how their culture worked.
"I don't suppose you have anything that originated from the planet Aether," Kayleer asked rhetorically. Once he escaped his confinement in Aether's Phazon mines, it became his home, the sentient race there his liberators and guardians. He had adapted to survive on the rich assortment of plant life it had to offer. He smiled as he remembered the pleasant, spiking taste of the blueroot tree, and how the Luminoth had avoided it like the plague.
Choosing to indulge the positive change in her demeanour, Kayleer pulled up a chair next to her. He sat with his claws between his knees, his back arched forward. Humans often sat like this when they wanted to appear casual, and though he found it slightly more difficult with his long, extra-jointed legs, he managed. Slix bounded off his shoulder and onto the table, eyeing the tiny, porcelain cups and tapping on them with his delicate digits. He was naturally curious, and despite his prying gentleness he managed to crack one of the things, a large shard of the material breaking off and letting the cup's contents spill on the table.
Kayleer laughed. At least I don't have to drink it now.Thoroughly frightened by the small shattering, Slix bounded back up his master's arm and onto his shoulder, dripping tiny flecks of tea from his toes as he did so.
Tejed flinched visibly at the cracking of her good china and suppressed a hiss, quickly fighting down the sudden surge of anger that had flooded her mind. Surprised the little robot bounded away to Kayleer, leaving spots of tea on the counter top, and tentatively Tejed reached forward, taking a broken shard of cup between her claws.
"These were my grandmother's cups," she said quietly. "She gave them to my mother, and then my mother gave them to me when... When granny died."
She sighed heavily and let the shard drop into the puddle of fresh tea. No. She was too tired for anger right now. Too exhausted from earlier. Now was not the time, anyhow. So she forced a smile and took a sip from her cup.
"Nah, nothing from Aether," she said quietly.
"Sorry," he said, glancing at Slix. The little thing showed no remorse for his action, but then again he really couldn't. He bowed his head and hesitated, before slipping down again to the table, picking up the shard and putting it back in place. He examined the cup for a moment, scanning it with his clever, information-gathering eyes. After that he ran a tiny finger across the broken seam, letting lose a tiny, modified welding flame. When he was satisfied with his work, he clambered back on to Kayleer and looked at Tejed expectantly.
Kayleer smiled. Repair work; that's what he had built him for. To rebuild and repair his damaged prosthetic and armor when he returned from battle. He never really expected it to be put to use fixing a mutated human's teacups. How amusingly mundane.
Tejed couldn't help but smile at the small machine's quirky personality. Or lack thereof. There was something about the little thing that was just intrinsically humorous that even Tejed found her spirits lifted just by watching him.
"How did you two meet?" she asked after a moment, inspecting the now unbroken tea cup with a less than critical eye. Though the repair job was less than stellar, the cup had the ability to hold liquid again, and that was good enough as far as she was concerned.
"Oh, and thank you, Slix."
She wasn't sure if Slix cared, but a thank you seemed to be in order.
Kayleer shrugged. He stroked the underside of Slix' metal helm with a steel digit, neither expecting nor receiving any expressive reaction from him.
"I built him," he replied. "I was always a pet person, I suppose. I've learned to crave the unconditional companionship," he smiled. It amused him to note that pets were a common practice for all the species he had lived among in his lifetime. But Slix was more than a mere pet, he was his maintenence crew. He flexed his metal fingers, thinking of how dismantled his arm might be without him.
"Sorry if I don't have any questions for you," he continued. "I'm not sure if there's anything I could ask without triggering something negative."
Tejed snorted in laughter, almost choking on her tea in the process.
"What, are you scared I'll flip my shit?"
That said she envied Kayleer and his mechanical companion. Far too often she felt the pang of loneliness on her long voyages out in space. She had friends, yes. A family. But considering what she was and who was still after her, it was dangerous to stay on Earth for too long at a time. And it pained her to admit it, but she felt her family was better off without her at this point.
And Kayleer was probably right. Depending on what he asked, there was that chance, however small, that she would indeed flip her shit. The pirate knew her mood swings well already and wasn't ready to take chances. She admired that. He had intelligence about him, something that her race seemed to be severely lacking in even in this prosperous age of technology.
"Can't say I blame you," she said after a moment, craning her neck back to glance into the pilot bay for a quick moment. Her computer was still diligently ticking away and she wondered what was taking it so long.
"As a matter of fact I am," he replied. And it was true; he didn't want to risk triggering another episode like the one he had seen before. Noting her response, he was relieved that she agre
d with him.
"Maybe you should look into getting a cat," he scoffed, though he feared for the safety of anything living she took in her care. "Or at least a cybernetic one."
Slix was twitching, looking this way and that. He took in the conversation with a blank stare, trilling quietly on Kayleer's shoulder. He then leapt from his perch and padded over to Tejed, taking care to step over her tea cups as he did so. He looked up at her, not daring to touch, just merely observe.
Startled Tejed quickly leaned back, away from the curiously prying gaze of the small machine. She would have jumped clear from the seat, but like Kayleer, her long double jointed legs posed too difficult to get free of the human made seat in such a short time.
"Why's he looking at me like that," she whispered. In the pilot bay, Jarvis' insistent clickety clacking finally ceased, signalling the completion of his work. He would have alerted Tejed right away, but sadly he had been programmed with a hint of curiosity, and instead of speaking he remained quiet and watched.
"He's probably noticing that you're an ally and that your suit is in need of repairs," Kayleer told her. He growled in bemused laughter. "Don't tell me you of all people are afraid of him."
Only half joking, he rose from his seat and trudged to her side of the table, just in case she tried to bring a blade to his precious pet. "Go on, give him the okay, he's done well in keeping me up and running for years now," he said, flexing his left arm. Her suit was in bad need of maintenance, and he marveled at how it was still even functioning.
Instantly suspicious Tejed put up her guard, falling back into the mindset of a bounty hunter for a moment. She saw what he could do. The small the machine was very dexterous, could worm his way into the smallest of spaces, and had a keen mind about him. She wasn't too keen on him running all over her like a little parasite, getting those welding flame fingers into the nooks and crannies of the suit she had stolen herself months back.
Without realizing it her upper lip curled into the thinnest of sneers and one of her hands curled into a fist; not to attack, but out of a shy sort of distrust, a feeling somewhere in the back of her sick head that Slix and Kayleer might backstab her if she let her guard down for too long.
"...I don't know," she confessed, never once taking her eyes off Slix. He still stared expectantly at her and at that point she realized just how bad her suit was. It clicked and it clanked and it was all around loud, large, and in dire need of some upkeep. It didn't help that neither Jarvis nor her knew much about suit repair, and every time Gin tried to help she brushed him off.
Maybe it was time to just accept the damn help already, instead of acting all high and mighty all the time.
So she allowed herself to relax and muttered a quiet, half-hearted 'sure', decidedly unsure if she had just allowed a whole host of trouble to happen.
Slix trilled quietly and tentatively climbed his way up her armored shoulder. Hers was unfamiliar to his tiny pedes, but he managed to do it with a slithery sense of grace. Almost immediately he set to work patching up the cracked and tarnished seams of her armor, just as he was so used to doing with Kayleer. Tejed's bitter expression didn't seem to faze him.
Kayleer watched, intrigued. The sight was amusing and he didn't even attempt to mask the sly smile that creased across his mandibles.
Feeling bold, he approached the two, giving Tejed's suit a cursory glance. "Pirate tech?" he asked. How familiar the design was, and now that he had a closer look he was very certain he had seen something similar before.