Silver Rain – The Cohort

Digital Devil Saga

Digital Devil Saga, the scenario minus any original characters, and any canon characters, are © to Atlus
Yulia/Garuda is © to myself
Kaamos/Pandemonium is © Drcheerio of Deviantart
Shiv/Morrigan is © Dimitrininjasan of Deviantart
Jed/Vakirauta is © to his player
All original characters not of my creation are used with express permission

Chapter Three – Marking

This was worse than waking up the night after Shiv and Jed unveiled their homebrew and erringly declared it 'the best booze this side of Nirvana'. Yulia opened her eyes to slits, and immediately regretted it. Since when had the lights become so damn bright? Were they designed to stab right into folk's eyes or what? Was it some new defence mechanism she hadn't been appraised of?

"Kaamos…If I find you've been tinkerin' with the bloody lights I'll…I'll…be cross. So damned cross…Just…Don't run too fast…My wrath is righteous…"

Ouch. Some mean bugger had replaced the lining of her throat with glass, scorpions, and sandpaper. She wasn't even sure if Kaamos could've heard her…She suddenly sat up, willing the woozy, sick feeling on her stomach to recede, forcing the headache away with pure will alone. Next came opening her eyes, so she could actually see. Though they watered and threatened to reinforce the headache so that it could make a comeback, she managed to get a look. Even though her eyesight was blurry from pain, she could see two forms, stirring weakly, each emitting enough cursing to let her know that each was alive and in the same situation as her. The wave of relief almost swamped the walls of will that held pain in check, but Yulia hadn't held her tribe together this long by being weak-willed. Now that she knew they were alright, now was the time to find out what the bloody hell had happened.

If they knew, which she doubted. Maybe it was time to let Shiv finish his story, Yulia mused, mentally shaking a fist at both the Embryon and the Vanguards. If those bastards had given her this headache, then come hell or high water, she'd take them down.

Though, cruel logic then pointed out to her that it was highly unlikely that neither the Embryon nor the Vanguards could really have managed this. Sometimes, logic made life harder than it had to be.

"Shiv…I think you'd best finish that report…"

Shiv sat up, smoothing one hand through his hair, running his tongue over his teeth.

"Meh… Like that time Jed and I..."

Kaamos sat up, his eyes looking slightly crossed. Nobody felt much like standing, so they all sat where they were. The trapper looked at the sniper wryly.

"…That time you and Jed made that god-awful hooch?"

Shiv winced.

"Yeah, that time."

Yulia frowned, and then revised the expression to be slightly less forceful at the pain in her head.

"I made that association already. Get done with the damn report already."

The sniper flinched, more likely from a new report of pain then anything Yulia said. She never got any respect.

"…Where was I? Oh, yeah…Well, the Oranges and the Greens were fighting it out, over at one o' the borders between their lands." Some Cohort referred to rival tribes simply by their colour, rather then the tribe's name. No-one really knew why. "And then, something just landed between them."

Yulia held up a hand to forestall him. She tried to bully her memory into working, but it seemed to have become resilient to her prodding.

"Who did we have out there?"

Kaamos blinked, his pale eyes looking bloodshot.

"We had someone out there? Why? We weren't planning to raid either of 'em, were we?"

Yulia scrubbed at her blue hair where it had gotten stuck to her face as she'd laid on it.

"We had some new blood to age, and figured it'd be best to send 'em out to keep an eye on our weakest rivals. Just my brain won't cooperate, and I can't remember who."

Shiv made a face.

"Too important to remember the newbies, eh boss? No worries; I can do it for you. And I did. We had Neith and Inhuris out there, with Shiro as their leader."

Yulia closed her eyes for a bit. The light was starting to hurt again; but more from fatigue then the sudden black-out.

"So, they got back alright." If they hadn't, Shiv would've told her right away. "OK. What happened after this thing landed?"

Shiv shivered, and rubbed at the back of his right hand with the left, darting glances about him.

"A light spread over everyone, and they all blacked out. And then…" He shivered again. Something he'd heard, spooking Shiv? This made Yulia open her eyes and pay utmost attention. Shiv was hard to spook, if nigh impossible.

"Yes?" Kaamos leaned forward, his eyes intent as he prodded Shiv to continue.

Shiv shook of his apparent uneasiness and spoke, all in a rush, as if glad to be rid of the words.

"When the scout team woke, they saw the battlefield drenched in blood, pieces of bodies everywhere…Every Green was down…But all the Oranges that entered the fight came back out…"

Yulia sat back, chewing this news over. At the best this could mean that the Embryon had some kind of heavy weapon that induced blackouts…at worst, it wasn't either tribe's doing. But how could this hypothetical weapon knock out the entire Cohort, some distance away from the fight? Any way of looking at this wasn't a pleasant one, and Yulia's mood became darker and darker as the thoughts went round and round.

Shiv's sudden oath brought her attention outwards, and she stared at him. In response to the looks of his boss and the trapper, he raised his right hand so they could see the back of it. Stark against his pale skin, a black mark, shaped like a fanged moon; Shiv rubbed at it, and spoke, his voice oddly subdued.

"This is where it hurt, right before I passed out…"

Kaamos twisted so they could see the back of his neck.

"Do you see anything?" He sounded hopeful; more like he hoped not rather than hoping so.

Yulia, the closest to him, leaned forwards, and lifted back some of his hair. There was another mark, this one like a jagged, snarling cone. Settling back to her previous position, Yulia spoke with a heavy dread.

"Yeah…Yeah, you got one, too…"

Kaamos turned back, his face even paler than usual. He and Shiv both looked at Yulia, who pulled her scarf back and pulled the cloak aside, lifting her head up so they could better see her neck.

They leaned forwards, looked, and then sat back, faces grim. There, on the left side of her neck, was a black mark, shaped like a roaring spiral.

Shiv looked grim, Kaamos looked worried.

It was Shiv who spoke.

"You've got one, too…"

Kaamos blinked, obviously trying not to panic.

"What does this mean?"

Yulia decided it was about time to stand up, and she did, surprised that her legs didn't buckle.

"I don't know…"

Before she got much further, Jed stormed down the stairs, clutching onto the wall to keep upright.

"Boss, guys, we've got problems."