Defiance Birth of the Renegades
Chpater 25
Defiance: Empty sky
"Idealism dies when forced against the hard stones of reality. Reality is the true death of innocence, not the so called demons and sins that the church of Martel preaches against."
Lloyd Aurion
AN: These commanders are fun to write... so much variety with new personalities... don't worry, this will be the one day I go all nuts describing, after this things will pick up again.
"Well... that was... an interesting confession." Clavk murmured, his dark eyes wide and just a touch wild.
Rene coughed into her now refilled cup of coffee to keep from laughing.
"Ever a man of understatement, Mer. Clavk." Yashin's eyes were wide as he stared at his leader's unfurled wings. The smoke hued eyes seemed to swirl, like trapped mist, and there was fast forming a hungry light in their depths.
"Don't ask." Rene ordered him. "He wouldn't give you wings even if you begged, the price is higher than you can ever comprehend."
"Never knew yer last name was Lavin." Z'eh grunted to Rene as he helped himself to the food that had been forgotten.
But than one's leader explaining that he was the vessel of heavenly might did that sometimes...
"It's Vor'esse,-" Rene growled at the Armsmaster, "-Rene Vor'esse. Rene Lavin died a long time ago."
Yuan folded his wings to his side so not to buffet any of his unsuspecting commanders with the feathery limbs. He took his seat and tried best to ignore the strange stare that Feruon was gifting him with. The woman's hand were twitching... and his wings tried to meld with the skin of his back when he realized that she was probably thinking of petting the feathers.
"Well..." Yuan took an empty chair as his own, shifted so that he was as far from Feruon as half elvenly possible. "I have to say, your response is much better then the last time I did this."
Seeing the looks of confusion Rene enlightened them.
"Z'eh pissed his pants and fainted at Yuan's feet."
"I did not!" Z'eh roared.
Rene smirked. "Are you questioning the words of a superior officer, Mer. Z'eh?"
"You, fight dirty, girl."
Clavk chuckled, his tone obviously strained. "Well, I think we all did better than mister Z'eh."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Yuan murmured.
Yashin, unnoticed by all slipped up to the still Vryce and with a ghostly hued long fingered hand poked the fake Desian commander. There was a thump, the surprised Yashin blinked, and looked at the other commanders. Vryce was sprawled out on the floor, his limps askew, the blonde haired half elf's glasses skittered across the floor and stopped at Rene's feet.
Yashin hastily put his hands behind his back and attempted to look innocent of the tapping.
Z'eh of course had to laugh at them all... Rene muttered a curse, scooped up the glasses before anyone else could step on them, finished her coffee in one toss, and set the empty cup on her seat.
"We have tasks to do, plans to make, and that to read." Rene pointed to the pamphlet Yuan had tossed on the Vryce's desk. "Yashin, take it first, go over it, leave it with Clavk when you're done..."
"I'll pass it to Z'eh when I've finished." Clavk promised.
"I'll give it to Vryce when I'm done." Z'eh sniggered. "When he wakes up o' course."
Feruon sighed and took that as a cue to try to revive the comatose half elf.
"Vryce will give it to Feruon. Feruon will turn it in to me, we'll all meet again after we've all gone over it to pool our ideas."
Yuan turned to his second, his icy eyes brimming with curiosity.
"Is this normally how you decide things, pass the papers around and get together and talk it over?"
"It saves time, and considering our different schedules it's harder to get together and go over it all at the same time page by page..."
"Have Vryce makes copies." Yuan ordered.
The other sub-commanders shifted in discomfort, and Rene sighed.
"He doesn't have time. None of us have much time to do anything outside of our schedules. And since everyone is one hand... does anyone have an problems to report in their sectors?"
"Some of the younger ones are complete incompetents with the swords, we started cullin' in the adolescences, giving' 'em training on the basics." Z'eh made a throwing away gesture. "Two of 'em got some promise, one's a killer aim with the bow, but the other three aren't worth nothing."
"Behavioral or physical?"
"Both, one's got a greenie's stomach, the others..." Z'eh made a face and Rene's eyebrow rose, the gesture was a silent challenge.
"I'll be the judge of that, give the names to the other sub-commanders. Yashin, Feruon, Clavk, you know what to do."
The two men nodded, then looked to the comatose Vryce and the nurse who was trying to rouse him.
"Without our schedules Ma'am?" Clavk protested meekly, as it appeared Feruon's efforts were going to be for nothing.
"Feruon," Rene snapped, "why isn't he up yet?"
"You have a man you take verbal swipes at proclaim himself a demipower on you, you try waking up prompt after it happens..."
"Z'eh, if you'd please."
Sniggering the ex-bandit summoned a chunk of ice the size of a fist.
"You accuse me of not growing up..." Rene grumbled, knowing bloody well what Z'eh was going to do.
"Ten gald on he wakes up screaming." Clavk proclaimed.
"Twenty on him being a runner."
Clavk turned to Yashin. "You bet?"
"A vice."
"And he wins most of the time too." Rene grumbled.
"You bet?" Clavk turned to his superior in no little surprise.
"A vice." Rene smirked.
"Plagiarist."
"Yashin, I outrank you. So in my case it's called constructive borrowing."
"Sophistry."
"Bite your tongue, it's not sophistry you ego-maniac, aero fanatic-"
"Thirty on the idea that the ice doesn't wake him and I have to zap him so he becomes coherent."
"He bets!" Clavk sputtered, pointing at Yuan. The Seraph looked up from smoothing the wings of his right primary wing to blink at the shrill panicked tone of the commander.
"And he hasn't lost once, so no one ever knows if he pays out or not." Z'eh grunted, he simultaneously shooed Feruon off -by waving the ice chunk in her face- and lifting the unsuspecting secretary's collar enough to permit the ice proper passage.
X
"Never thought he'd roll on the floor and shriek like that." Yashin murmured, turning to watch as a very disgruntled Vryce raised his first up so it was right under the Armmaster's long nose.
"You ever do that again you sick bastard and I swear I'll ki-"
"You, need to lighten up you pompous jack-"
"Gentlemen." Yuan's cool voice snapped through the air with the force of a thrown lightning bolt. "Both of you, come with me."
"To be the immature brat I was at twelve... their in trouble..."
"I noticed, and Z'eh's had it coming." Clavk agreed. "Now than, before we get in trouble right along with them..." Snatching a shoulder apiece the bulky half elf firmly dragged his superior officer and head of the magi technology department with him into the nearest room. It was a hall of course, most of the rooms that were open were halls, all unoccupied potential bedrooms were closed off, and all the closets with anything had signs over them to prevent the series of mishaps that had occurred the first few days.
Making those signs had been Vryce's idea, first assignment, and probably a pain in the ass...
But at least the reports of people being attacked by falling brooms, boxes, and the like had stopped.
"Ms. Rene, I'll need to see you in my office two hours after the Solar Zenith Mark." Yashin said, and with that the half elf went up the halls, read the sign in Angelic, and took a left peeling away from the heart of the base. In the coldest, most distant, reaches of the Triet Ranch the research and development area was currently housed, and there in the mess of wires and blue prints was an office, somewhere - in all probability buried- under more steel and mana devices then Rene cared to think about.
"Well, Second. I've no problems on my end, just paperwork and plans to make and shifts to schedule."
"That's a change for once." Rene teased.
"You however, might have problems. We've got a schedule mess up, one of my hunters is supposed to be watchin' the little ones but I don't have the men to spare, not after that youngster got himself and his whole group poisoned. It looks like someone put his Lordship in the empty slot to make up for that shift."
Rene shrugged. "What's the problem?"
"You're daft girl."
"Think of it as an experience meant to... broaden his Lordship's horizons."
"He'll kill you."
"He can try. I run fast so that might be hard for him to do."
Clavk chuckled. "I always wondered where he got those grey hairs from." He patted her shoulder. "Good luck with that running, but if he can fly he's got one up on you. Good day to you, Second Vor'esse."
X
Running from sector to sector Rene first checked on the medics. The group of ill hunters that had gotten the worse end in a tangle with a juvenile sand worm were all recovering well enough, there was -as always with a mess of children underfoot- the assorted case of sniffle victims, scraps, and in one spectacular case, an accident prone youngster had given himself a number of bruises after tripping down a few stairs.
Nurses and the lone doctor hovered amongst all the patients, treating adult and children with a cool yet personal efficiency that did Feruon's teachings proud.
"Ah, Ms Rene-" Feruon smiled on seeing her, pushed the prim little spectacles that she wore more for show than need up to the bridge of her nose. "-making rounds?"
"Don't I always?"
"Touche."
As always the papers with notes on all the cases were handed to her, Rene went over them, nothing to out of the ordinary. She turned a few pages and handed the plastic clip board to the older woman with a smile.
"Slow today?"
"I prefer it, closest thing to a crisis I ever want to see is this sand worm incident. The youngsters are itching for a chance to prove themselves, I'm luckely not young enough to have that complex on top of everything else... By the way, I sent a note to Supply, we're low on anti-venom serum."
"I'll hear about it the second Clavk gets back to his office I imag-"
There was a hum, and Rene rolled her eyes, and Feruon laughed. Ignoring the mouthed "Guess you were right" Rene pulled the aero voice transmitter from her belt.
"Rene speaking."
"Second, this is Cl-"
"This involves the Anti-serum request, correct?"
"Y... yes..."
"Work out some way to get some. We have enough stores to allow us to have a few days off from hunting and you can put the farming projects on hold for an afternoon or two to send someone down to Triet to buy some."
"That's going to leave a gap in guard duty." Clavk protested. "Z'eh will be livid."
"I'll cover." Rene sighed. "Or Z'eh will, he needs to stop preening and do his job anyways. I'm running late sub-commander, if there's any other problems hold them til I get to your office."
"Of course, kitchens called up, their complaining that you didn't come down for breakfast yet."
"I ate at..."
"No you didn't." Feruon cut in.
"We weren't struck stupid by his Lordship's speech, girl. Get down there before Cook comes up and drags you down." Clavk growled.
"Ah..." There was a hum, indicating that after returning to his office Yashin had seen his transmitter and had turned it on. "Is the Second giving you Hell over why she shouldn't be eating a decent meal this morning?"
"When doesn't she?" Feruon growled.
"Damn it, I don't need babysitters!" Rene flared.
"Yes you do." The sub-commanders growled.
Rene sulked, being Second or not having them all gang up on her deserve a sulk!
"Drag her Feruon, if she protests drag her."
That of course was Clavk.
"Alright, I'm leaving already, happy!" Rene snarled, then she turned off the communicator and stormed to the mess hall.
X
"You understand my policies about in-fighting." Yuan murmured, his leaned forward ever so slightly, his finger tips pressed together to make a false chapel. He loomed over his cringing sub-ordinate, his azure eyes flashing with malice.
Z'eh gritted his teeth, and glared at the Seraph, not shaken, not scared. Fear could only go so far, and he'd had enough of it.
"We know your damned, rules, but the fact I don't like Vryce and him not likin' me ain't none of your..."
"It is, wholly my business." Yuan spat, and Z'eh growled, didn't flinch into his chair like Vryce did. "Had it only been your lives on the line I'd let things stand. It's not about you anymore, not me, not even Rene. I think the influx of our numbers has yet to sink in, the consequences, the responsibilities, have yet to register with you. Let me spell it out in plain language. Simple, stupid, for the man who acts the fool."
It had been ages since Yuan had said that to him, Z'eh's face went crimson and his hand snapped over the hilt of a blade that wasn't there.
"You don't live for yourself Mer. Z'eh, that selfish life is for those with nothing to lose, no one to disappoint. You had that life, once, and you have to let it go. You have much to lose, not only your life, but the lives of everyone here." Yuan leaned back into his chair, let his eyes close to slits. "Will you kill the children, the women, the elderly who seek refuge here? Must they all go to Hell because you responded to the threats of a man who was on the bad end of a prank? Either learn to control that temper or be prepared to lose that rank you so cherish. I can easily train any of those children to take your place, any of them can be taught to teach others. As a matter of fact I find that course preferable, you are a rash man Mer. Z'eh, and gentleness and caution will be needed for this protracted war. So either shape up, or screw up and be shipped out. Is that clear?"
"Yes... Sir." Z'eh growled.
"Get out, then, you have things to do. Vryce, stay a moment."
"Yes... my lord..." The blond half elf whimpered, cringing into himself.
Z"eh stomped to the door, kicked it when it didn't open fast enough, then was gone and his curses slowly faded down the hall. Shaking his head Yuan ran a hand through his blue locks, shifted his wings around so he wasn't crushing them.
"Do you see your mistake?"
"My... mistake... my Lord?"
"You provoked him." Yuan nodded to the door, to indicate the absent Armsmaster. "Don't do it again, if he snaps no one will be safe."
"Why... if he's that mentally unstable." Vryce whispered.
"Responsibility. I pushed him, too hard, too fast, I broke him. Now, he is my responsibility. I hate him, as he hates me, but I have enough sight not to act upon my hate. He doesn't. So even as I wait for someone to rise, someone strong enough in arm to replace him, I watch my back."
"And Rene's?" Vryce dared.
"And Rene's." Yuan agreed. "And everyone else's. His personality has shifted, become darker, his temper is more extreme as he teeters over the edge. He isn't mad, not quite yet, but I have to wonder what will be the final catalyst to his insanity? I have to wonder and watch for it, and hope that it isn't what I think it might be. Because if it is I can't do anything, save watch and guard and possibly kill him when madness comes in full."
Vryce lifted a shaking hand to his face, to push his glasses in place, but seeing the trembling of his fingers stopped himself.
"Both eyes open, Sub-commander Vryce, a blade in your hand at all times, and don't always trust the rock to your back. Don't disappoint me and make this conversation a necessity on a later occasion. Now, get out."
"Yes, my Lord." Slipping from the chair Vryce paused, and turned. Yuan had already opened the overflowing folder on his desk, Vryce was all but forgotten.
"My... Lord?"
Yuan paused, didn't lift his head, but his hands ceased in the flipping of the pages before them.
"He's approached Second Rene, on many occasions. Rene seems to not understand what Z'eh wants, but we aren't fools, we aren't that young..."
"Both eyes open Vryce. Very good. You are learning. Remember to carry a sword at all times and I might even become proud of you."
"I'm a civilian..."
"I was, once, then a war came to me. I tried to run, sent most of my life running, and now I'm paying the price. And all of you are paying with me. Don't make my mistake Vryce and close off the world with such a petty excuse as I am not. You are, you change, and you be, and can become."
Vryce nodded, saluted, and the Seraph cracked a smile.
"What are you, Vryce?"
"A man, a man who looked into heaven and didn't like what he saw. A man who remembers being told that if he didn't shape up his children were going to be fried by the actions of a fool."
"Keep at it, and maybe when your children look into heaven... they will only see what should be there."
"What should be there?" Vryce asked, looking at his superior with only confusion.
No fear, or rather very little fear, it was a start.
"An empty sky, filled only with the light of the stars."