Chapter XVIII: A New Hope

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

So, I forgot to give any identity to Victoria and Taylor's sprog and I'm going with it now. Mostly because I can't be bothered re-editing yet and I haven't decided whether I want it to be male or female or non-binary. So, the baby has no gender and it's very modern. If you want to put in a vote for what the baby should be (Gender and/or Name, because why not?) when I go back and edit this thing, please feel free. I'll take it into account.

Also apologies for the immensely slow updates. I'm writing big chapters now (just under ten thousand words here, people) and all the various voluntary things I do have moved online due to the Coronavirus (Hope you're all doing okay with that, by the way - I'm perfectly fine) and apparently one in-person meeting needs to be replaced by four online meetings to get the same amount of work done. We're building a website and an app for our charity and working with the developer to get the basics ready for our content to be formatted into and uploaded. It's kinda fun, if very technical. In short, I'm very busy right now. Life, amirite?

Anyways, enjoy. The ending is a bit shit and kinda abrupt, but I had to rush a little to get this out in time.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

We stared at her.

The silence stretched on.

Dog. This was really awkward.

Rachel raised an eyebrow and quirked a slightly bemused half-smile. After a moment, when we stayed silent, she raised her hand and cleared her throat. "Ahem. I realise it's always a delight to look upon my glorious countenance," A quick hair flip and catwalk-perfect sweetly self-deprecating smile, "but I did ask you a question. How did you two get down here?"

She looked between us, one by one, and from her expression apparently got absolutely nothing. Either that or she got everything. Or she had gas. It was fifty-fifty, really. Or thirty-thirty-thirty, I don't know. Math was never really my strong suit.

Both of our helmets slid open and I opened my mouth to answer without really thinking about it - it was Rachel and she'd been in a cell for six months! Of course I was going to tell her what was going on. It'd just be weird not to, right? - But before I could actually speak, Chloe... interjected.

Emphatically.

"N-no. No, no, no, nonononononono." Chloe shook her head back and forth in tiny, rapid little movements that only her darting eyes outpaced. She suddenly stopped, then jabbed at Rachel, her finger providing some physical punctuation at the curseword of her question. "What the fuck, Rach?!" She threw out her hands and let her gun fall down to her side - I hadn't noticed it was on a strap before, maybe I should get mine on a tether or something - and she glared at Rachel, her nostrils flaring.

Rachel just smiled. The slight tilt to it and the look in her eye made her look like a kid caught stealing cookies from the jar: impish, humbly embarrassed, and charmingly mischievous. Her eyes practically twinkled with it. "I know, right? We always thought you were the one that was going to do time, huh?"

After a pause where we all got quiet, Rachel's head bowed slightly and a little spot of red appeared on her cheeks. She looked up at us through her lashes. "I guess neither of us saw this one coming, did we?"

Chloe scowled. She leant back, her arms crossing. "Fuck you. You're right where you deserve, fucking off like that. Without a fucking word, Rachel!"

The twinkling vanished and Rachel simply blinked at Chloe, before breaking out into a glorious grin. "You haven't changed a bit, have you Chloe?" A pause, a mildly... distant look. Thousand yard stare. "I was, um, worried. About that." She visibly pulled herself back from whatever mental precipice she'd been peering off of and softened. Her eyes did that thing that made you feel like the centre of the universe and she smiled so warmly I almost forgot we were in a Unitologist Prison.

It felt like lazy Sunday afternoons and unromantic breakfast conversations.

Chloe must've caught me smiling back out the corner of her eye, because she turned to me and jabbed a finger in my direction, all fire and fury. "Don't fucking grin at her, Max! She left, remember? She joined them willingly and they put her in a fucking cell where she belongs! We can fucking leave her there, we-"

"Well, I'm certainly glad you know what you want out of this situation." Rachel was utterly unbothered by Chloe's... expression of emotion. In fact, I think she was... amused. Her eyes were still warm. "But it's probably in all our interests to discuss it, no?" She opened out her arms as though to gesture to the both of us. "Equal voice in marriage being the key to success, as they say." Her lips curled in a quick smirk that vanished as quickly as it came.

"Why would we want to discuss it?" Chloe threw back. "Why would we even need to? You went and joined these dickfuck monsters and it bit you in the ass, just like you deserve. What's to fucking discuss?"

I stuck up a hand. "Leaving her on a station that's going to explode. I'd like to discuss that."

Chloe glared hotly at me.

I raised an eyebrow in her direction - I know, I was getting so emotional. "What? I'd at least like to talk about-"

Something off in the distance exploded and the room shook. I rolled my eyes as Rachel took the opportunity to ask, "So, have you checked the panel over there yet?" She gestured vaguely toward the middle of the room. A standard access console sat there like a happy little metal dog, back on its haunches. The blue glow of the main panel screen on it reflected mildly. I blinked at it in surprise. How had I not noticed that? "I saw them walk over to it whenever they let me out to, uh, go next door."

Chloe's anger vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by an almost teary look as she took a half step forward. She stopped, shook her head, and the anger resumed. But not at Rachel this time. The other room... "Those... dickfaced bastard motherfuckers. They tortured you?!"

Rachel gave a little one-shouldered shrug. "It wasn't too bad. Hella annoying sometimes, but c'est la vie."

I very emphatically do not facepalm. Only Rachel, I swear... "No," I poked Chloe over towards it, "we haven't. Thanks, Rachel."

"No problem, Max." Another glorious smile. Chloe just grumbled, skittishly retracted her teary anger on Rachel's behalf as she tried to hide it behind anger again. I poked her closer to the panel and had an angry gesture fight as we each demanded the other acquiesce to our requests of fucking off and leaving Rachel and-slash-or sticking around and rescuing her. She was right up against the glass now, peering out towards us.

I made an emphatic gesture with my eyebrows and Chloe sagged. "Fine."

She slouched over to the panel and opened up a side-access-thing. I could hear her grumbling to herself the entire time. It was hella fucking cute. She was like that dog in... what was it called..? That old show with the racing... strange contests or something like that? I forget. Still - cute!

While Chloe tinkered, I walked back to the glass wall and smiled at Rachel. "I'm sorry about her. It's been... hard for her, with you gone."

Rachel shrugged. She wafted it off with ease, like it was nothing. "No need to apologise. It's quite understandable that you'd be sad without moi around."

I gave her a look. "You know that's not what I mean."

She sighed. Her shoulders dropped, ever so slightly, and her face took on an almost pensive expression. "I know." A pause. "I did try to escape, you know. A few times. But each time, they caught me, and took me back to that room, then plugged the gap I exploited. This," She reached up and mimed tapping on the glass - odd, it seemed almost instinctive to her that she not actually touch it. "baby is near impregnable."

"I'm sure it's not your fault, Rachel." I shrugged. "The Unitologists have turned out to be utter dickfaces."

She gave another little chuckle. "Dickfaces, huh? I like it. They certainly have turned out like that. Thanks, Max. It means a lot that you'd say that."

We laughed together for a few moments. It was a nice, a light little moment that made something in my chest that I hadn't even realised had tightened uncoil.

"What are you doing in there, anyway?" I tilted my head curiously. "They can't have thought they'd get anything useful from a yoga teacher, right?"

"That's..." She paused, her lips pursing pleasantly. "That's quite a long story. I imagine you've probably got a distraction going on, since nobody is about and you're not-" A quick glance over us, and a relieved smile, "-overly injured, meaning you haven't really run into anyone on your way in, either. We can have story time now if you really want, but I suspect we're working on a time limit here, no?"

Chloe bristled again from over by the console, but before she could start to yell, I butted in. "Yes. Very much so. Victoria and Taylor are-"

Rachel's eyebrows raised. "Victoria is the one providing your distraction? Wow. That explains the-" She wobbled her hand about. "-Ah.., shaking from before. That girl really knows her way around an explosion."

I blinked. "Okay... I'm going to leave that one alone for now. Chloe, are you close to getting her-"

The console fizzed and exploded.

Chloe went flying back, rolling with the fall and slamming sideways-on into the wall with a loud, pained oof. I could almost hear the wrenching crack of her ribs breaking.

I cursed, ran over. "Chloe!"

She was groaning on the ground, her hands pressed to her sides as she rolled slightly and randomly with the pain. My brain was just shrieking internally - mostly variations of "Oh Dog, I hope she's okay".

My hands automatically flew to the small pouch at my side and she drew out one of my medpacks. One quick application later and Chloe's pained breathing eased into a calm, quiet rise and fall. I leant back, breathing out deeply.

She's okay. She's really okay.

It was a relief, but I could still feel my damn heart racing. Dog, that never stopped being terrifying.

"Fuck, that hurts. Oh fuck that really fucking hurts." Chloe groaned, one hand going to rub at her head. The movement seemed to twinge something, as she flinched about halfway through and gave another guttural little growl. Her hand did make it to her head though.

I grinned fondly. Chlo' always was stubborn as hell.

Suddenly, that raised hand flashed out and grasped onto my forearm, pulling me closer to her. "Chlo', what-"

It snaked down my torso - copping a feel on the way, incidentally - and into that pouch again. She pulled another medpack and injected herself. I blinked down at her for a few seconds as her body went loose and sagged down to the ground. Then, my eyes met Rachel's and we both grinned.

I say again - stubborn as hell.

The glass abruptly began to whirr and buzz and creak and I felt horribly worried that we'd tripped some sort of trap or safety or something to stop prisoners escaping and then... the door in the rear of the cell slid open.

I sighed. Thank dog for that. If we'd done something and gotten her... If something had gone wrong. I know Chloe was angry, but she'd not get over that.

Not to mention that I'd miss Rachel too. That kind of went without saying.

Speaking of, the tall blonde quickly stepped back from where she'd been pressed up against the glass, took a split second to calm herself, then glanced serenely back at the cell door, then between me and Chloe and just grinned. "Excellent. Nice work, Chloe. As good with your hands as ever, hmm?" She gave me a wink. Another pause, then a slightly muted, "Thanks."

Chloe just nodded from where she was lying, lightly scuffing her heels across the ground. She didn't make eye contact with either of us.

I sighed. I made the eye contact with Rachel as she smirked. Just the tiniest quirk of her lip before she stepped back and vanished through the door, calling out "I'll be 'round in just a minute; don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Chloe slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position, and grumbled under her breath as she did. "So, do fuckin' anything if it's a total dick move, then."

I elbowed her. "Chloe!"

"What?" The girl's mouth dropped open and her eyebrows bunched together. I think that was... affront? Maybe? Or is gas contagious? "She's big on that, Max. Even before she just left without a fucking word and was-"

I sighed, again. That was... surprising. Before Rachel had left, Chloe had always been... not worshipful, but very... aware of Rachel's good points. I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a couple of deep, deep breaths. Patience, Max. Be patient. She's angry right now. "Chloe, we found her in a cell, right?"

"Right. So what?" Combative. Ready to fight at a moment's notice. Still curious and inquisitive. That's my girl.

"So, the Unitologists put her in there. Doesn't that imply she's not on their side?"

"Now, sure. But she coulda joined and then just done something that got them pissed off enough to jail her. Fits, really. She was a dick to us, so she could totally be a dick to them. And they'd hella do that if she was-"

"Chloe!" I yelled. I really couldn't... Damnit to fuck. "Would you just... stop? Please?"

She blinked at me. Her eyes quickly focused and her brows bunched together. "Max? Are you... alright, dude?"

"No, Chloe. I'm not fucking alright! You're being totally fucking unreasonable and you're not listening again and I've got a fucking gun now and it's really taking a lot out of me not to waste a tonne of ammo because you're really making me angry and-"

I barely caught it out the corner of my eye, but one side of Chloe's mouth quirked up as her eyes rapidly darkened the longer and longer I was talking. I whirled on her immediately. "Maybe I should get the gun out!"

"What?" Chloe blinked, and I could tell she was definitely wondering what the hell I was talking about. "Why would you-"

"Because you just fucking played her, Chloe. Really, really fucking well, too. Even I believed you were serious for a few moments there." Rachel swooped in from the side, wrapping her arms around our necks and pulling us in together. "Now, now, children. Let's not fight." Another sparkling grin. "Though if you have to fight, I'm glad you're fighting over me. I'm certainly pretty enough to be worth it, right?"

"No." Chloe added, crossing her arms petulantly.

I grinned at her. Rachel just sparkled more, gave a little shimmy of her hips as she let her arms drop down from our shoulders until they were wrapped around our middles. Slightly uncomfortable, but she was charming enough I let it slide.

"So," She asked. "What's the next stage of the plan? Is Victoria around here somewhere? I'm quite sure Victoria is running out of shit to blow up by now." She looked around like she was hoping the woman was actually in the room - or maybe that saying her name would summon her which, come to think of it, was probably appropriate for Victoria.

"Ah, no." I said, suddenly remembering a reason why I absolutely didn't want to tell Rachel what we were really doing here. She'd be quite disappointed. "We've got another stage of the plan, now that we've rescued you." Was my voice going higher pitched at the end there? No, couldn't be. I'm fine. Cool as a cucumber in a space station full of death monsters.

"Oh?" She immediately sounds salaciously intrigued. "Do tell."

"The Unitologists have some parts we need for the ship we're using to get out of here. The plan is to get them, and you, back to the Haven." A flash of recognition in her eyes and I knew Chloe had told her about the place. Or she'd dated an engineer. "We're not sure where they might keep them, though. We tried to find a map, but..." I shrugged. There was a lot contained that shrug. "No luck yet."

Rachel beamed, stuck her hands behind her back. "Well, your luck has turned, Maxie."

"How convenient," Chloe muttered under her breath.

I elbowed her and just mouthed. "Rude."

Rachel continued like she'd never lost our attention. "-because I know exactly where to find your errant parts." Salacious wink number three, flirty version. I blushed. "They'll be in the third adjunct."

"The what?" Chloe asked, despite herself.

"The third adjunct. It's a tiny chapel thing up near the top. They keep things there to check it isn't heretical." She spread her hand as if to say 'aren't they funny little sorts?' and twisted her smile into a smirk. Her eyes sparked with daring. "You've got guns, so we can definitely make our way up there."

The goading "Can't you? Or are you chicken?" was left implicit.

Chloe glared at her. "Fine. Fuck it, let's go." She stormed for the door, pulling her gun up before we could stop her.

We followed almost immediately, Rachel on her right and me on her left. She certainly seemed to know what she was doing - despite neither of us having seen a map before. I mean a map of this place specifically, not like the general concept of maps. That would be weird and-

Wait. "Where's Copse? He was right behind us, how is he-"

"I'm over here, Max." He poked his head in the door we'd first entered the torture room through. His gun was raised - he kept it pointing out into the corridor and it never wavered. "I was keeping watch while you got the Chiquita out of there."

The chiquita in question stopped and looked at him, tilted her head like a curious puppy, then smiled broadly. "You must be Copse, then."

It wasn't a question. Copse nodded anyway. "Yeah. That's me."

She continued walking, then shook his hand in a complicated little series of gestures that was nigh-baffling to the two of us. Copse grinned. "You know the three-four!"

Rachel shrugged, gave a self-depricating little chuckle as she waved off his delight. "I dated a spacehopper grunt once. And boy did he ever grunt, let me tell you-"

"Rachel!" I yelled, sticking my hands over my ears. She always did this and it was always gross. She didn't stop, though. I could see her lips moving in obscene description and her hands moving in obscene gestures. I turned to look at Chloe.

Chloe had rolled her eyes, tuning out the ensuing flirtation and mentions of Rachel's past conquests as she always did. If it hadn't've been ten years, I would've been jealous. I think I always was, back then. Now though, I just found it cute - and quite amusing. Chloe always did hate to share, and talking about Rachel's exes was a surefire way to get her back up. I couldn't remember the name of the last one - Derek or Devina or something - but it'd been harder on Chloe as Rachel had gotten close to this new person and more and more of her time had gone to them than her.

So, yes.

Chloe didn't like to talk about Rachel's exes either - though for very different reasons.

Copse seemed utterly enamoured of our friend, chatting gaily about life in the EarthGov corps. Man, Rachel had learnt a lot from whoever the grunt was. She could probably get into the field herself, if she ever got over that anti-gun thing she had going on. Speaking of, Copse had tried to hand her one. She flinched back, ever so slightly, then held up a hand and pushed it back to him, closing his fist around it. "Very kind, but no thank you. I don't do guns."

"Well, you need to start - these monsters are not the sort you want to run into without a weapon." He tried to push the gun into her arms again, but she held firm.

"No, Copse. It's not going to happen. I'd be useless with it, anyway."

He scowled. "That's what she-" He pointed roughly in my direction. I thought about being irritated, but... honestly, I can't really argue. I was really bad when I started a few hours ago. "-said, but look at her now!"

"I don't mean I'm bad with a weapon, Copse. I'd just be useless with it. When Chloe was... shot. I... I didn't handle it well. I haven't picked up a gun since." Her eyes flicked down to the ground, and her shoulders drooped despondently. "I know it'd be useful if I could use one, but I can't, so you might as well keep it. It'd get more use that way, okay?"

He stared at her in what was blatant disbelief. But Rachel breezed past him before he could gear himself up to argue again and stood outside the torture room. She looked back at us and quirked another smirk. All signs of her despondence were gone. "What are you waiting for? Let's go already!"

Copse looked at her, then at us, then her again. He shook his head. "That's gonna come back to bite us in the ass. Let's go." He walked after Rachel and we all followed where she lead.

As we ended up back in those opulent corridors, I took a moment to watch Rachel move. She seemed... lighter than before. I know it'd been six months, but Rachel's walk had always been memorable - she strode everywhere like it was a freaking catwalk. Slight swing to the hips, feet one in front of the other, shoulders back and hips forward, etc. There was something different about it now. Something lower.

Not like that! Ew!

No, I mean lower like centre-of-gravity. She seemed to almost be... prowling? Kinda like a cat? I think she seemed more alert, too, scanning the corridors ahead with an almost eerie intensity.

As we turned from yet another opulent corridor, walking around the back of one of those giant Altman statues, she held out a hand to stop us. "Stop." She said, just in case the hand gesture wasn't clear enough. "Can you hear that?"

I frowned. Hear what? I couldn't hear anything. I strained and strained to listen, actually creeping a little further forward in my efforts to- yes! I can hear that! "What is it?"

"Chanting." Rachel answered gravely.

And it was. A low, sonorous thing that seemed to almost graze past the deep parts of my mind, and everything in my brain stood up and suddenly paid attention for the first time in my life. There was no distraction, there was no chaos, no reality, no self, nothing but the chant. It was too deep to make out the words, but it didn't really need them. The notes it hit were enough.

Someone was coming closer.

Rachel suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me into the lee of one of the statues. She tapped a random spot on the wall and suddenly something slid open to reveal a maintenance passage. Copse and Chloe dart in after us and the door closes, leaving us in darkness.

And I can still hear the chanting.

As I clutched my hands to my ears, trying to block it out. It didn't work. It wasn't working. It wasn't fucking working! It felt like a hive of wasps was buzzing under my skin, through my veins back towards my heart. The chant buzzed and whined and rumbled and I couldn't make it stop! I couldn't. I- I couldn't...

A short, sharp thwack to the face was what finally pulled me out. I blinked to find reality staring me in the face. And Rachel eyeing me with concern from behind it. Another blink and reality melted back into the fabric where it belong and all that stood in front of me was Rachel and Chloe.

I smiled at them, eyes all... watery. "Thanks. I'm fine, now."

Chloe nodded and took a step back. "Cool, Maxie. I know that chanting was some hella freaky shit, but I didn't expect you to panic about it that much."

I shook my head. "Me either. But something about it-" A shadow of a memory floated by, a rumbling thunder and a rising hum of approaching wasps followed by sharp pain everywhere. "I panicked. I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, Maxie." Chloe smiled at me, one hand flashing out and settling on my shoulder. She patted it twice. "All better now, right?"

"Right." I nodded. I took a breath, then straightened up a bit. In my panic, I seemed to have knocked some of the pouches and stuff attached to me around. I took a moment to settle them all back where they should be, then looked up again. I made a second of eye contact with Rachel.

She gave a short, sharp smirk and nodded. "Right then. Shall we continue?"

We all scurried off after her. She lead us through the mostly dark maintenance passage - the lights hadn't automatically switched on like they had in the other, so all that lit our path were our RIG lights. We could see maybe three feet forward, if that.

Rachel just kept on walking, like she had full visibility. Maybe they fed her a lot of carrots in containment? I don't know, but she took two turns without really looking and lead us up to a set of stairs. "We need to go up four floors here. There should be a Statue marking the right floor, in case we get separated."

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Separated?" Her voice was a dry drawl. "On a single flight of stairs?"

Rachel shrugged. "Stranger things have happened, Chloe. I still remember that time you got lost by backtracking a path you'd been walking down five minutes before." [AN1]

Chloe glared at her, but it was weak and had little heart in it.

Rachel went first, then me, then Chloe, and Copse took up the rear. We cleared two floors in a few minutes, despite taking it slow and careful. Rachel would quickly peek up, then Chloe and I would enter to check the two exits, while Copse kept an eye on our six. (That's military talk for watching our backs, you know).

The third floor, though, had three maintenance passages jutting off of its landing. Rachel called a stop and explained this to us, and she, the one without a gun, stayed behind while we went forward to investigate. I took the left and closest, Chloe took the right, and Copse took the middle. With baited breath, we crept forward into position. A few moments from it, I noticed something on the barest edge of my hearing and froze. At first, I thought it was a whisper, but... "Shit." I darted over to grab Chloe and pulled her out of the way of the stairwell.

Copse would have to fend for himself.

Chloe bristled beneath my hands and I could feel her ribs expand as she drew breath to you yell at me, so I just stuck my hand over her mouth and hissed into her ear "Something's-coming-stay-quiet."

Her eyes were wide and outraged, but after a moment of hesitation she let out that breath and we stood there together, my hand on her mouth and her hip, hers on my back, and both our eyes locked on each other.

The minutes passed and that tiny sound grew and grew into a thunderous, rampaging adorably tiny stream of trains that rocketed through the space between the two far entryways.

Our eye-lock broke and we stared at the metal boxes that were going past us. Copse was somewhere on the other side of those things and Rachel was... I looked back at the stairs. I don't know where Rachel was.

I think they might've been storage carts - like compact versions of the auto-trucks we'd used to smash in the wall of the Manufacturies Complex.

Whatever they were, they were freaking adorable.

We watched quietly as they went by - not that we could hear each other even if we were being loud, for tiny boxes they made a heck of a racket. It took a couple of minutes for the convoy to finally vanish and a couple of minutes after that for Chloe and I to realise we were still clutching tightly onto each other. I leaned in and planted a kiss on her nose, then smirked as I let my hand drop from her mouth and spun out from her as I removed my hand from her hip.

I didn't see her blink and shake herself afterward, but I knew she had.

I just strode back over to my door and poked my head and gun down it. "Clear." I called back. A moment later, Copse's voice echoed mine. "Clear."

A moment passed.

Another moment.

"Chloe?"

Abrupt coughing. "Uh, yeah. Clear! Sorry."

I turned back and raised an eyebrow at my wife - she'd put her helmet back up. Somehow, I still knew she'd blushed though - hah!

We pulled ourselves together and took a moment to regroup before continuing up to the fourth floor. Same routine as before, sans the tiny, adorable container-truck things. I wondered what those things were transporting, inside the compound. Weird iconography? Weapons? Paperwork? Holy secrets? Really, really bad coffee? Man, I bet they drank Ranka. How long had that company even been in existence? I saw them in some of the older records - pre-Sovereign Colonies, so mid-2100s at the latest. I forget when that whole Bering conflict thing went down, it's been years since I needed that era of history.

Anyway. We hit the fourth floor pretty quickly, it being only one floor up, and got to checking the single exit. I couldn't help glancing back to the stairs that continued up behind us though. How big was this fucking place?

Another thing exploded off in the distance and Rachel chuckled. "About time. I was getting concerned that poor Vicky might've found herself in over her head. But if she's still blowing stuff up, she'll be fine."

"I hope so - Joyce and David are with them too."

Rachel turned, grinning broadly. "Joyce is here too? That's great, it's been so long since I got to catch up with your mom. I bet she's getting really antsy since that server of hers ran off with half the cutlery."

Rachel continued to chatter amiably about this larcenous server that, judging from the look on Chloe's face, neither of us had heard of. the single exit, luckily, was clear - if there had been guards, Rachel's chatter would probably have tipped them off. We immediately followed the corridor along - something about interrupting her felt wrong - and took a few turns before that low chant began again.

It... it didn't seem to be affecting me like before. I could see their concern though, their side-eyeing me. Was that concern, or accusation, I wondered, and suddenly amidst my wonder the corridor became a cavernous hall - the Unitologist Nave, the centre of their Church on the Station. And one of the few rooms I'd seen before, though last time I was here I was... ulp.

Down there.

[AN2 - Imagine the full Halo-esque Gregorian Chant starting here :D]

Statues bigger than any we'd seen downstairs grew out of the walls to either side of us and loomed above us and the floor stretched beneath us like a vast plain. Vast swathes of dark bronze and grey metal arched overhead, oddly natural in formation for all that we were in space. We were up near the top, maybe twenty meters between us and the ceiling. Marker symbols were engraved and emblazoned on every surface possible and at one end was a giant stain glass of it that seemed almost as big as the real thing (it wasn't, but the illusion stuck despite me knowing that). Each side of the stain glass was home to another Altman statue, arms raised in supplication to the Marker. Two wings extended inwards from the other end, leading down into stairs that stopped just behind the congregation. And yes, there was a congregation. That vast plain below us was filled with people.

There must've been hundreds of them, and every one of them was singing.

It was still low, still sonorous, and, now we were closer, I found it was surprisingly melodic. Heh. Apparently the Unitologists had taken some classes.

We were on some kind of support beam. Several of them crossed up between the statues and spanned the entire hall. Rachel gestured simply - 'we need to go across'.

Fuck.

Well. Here goes.

I take a step forward and everything goes wibbly. I don't really remember much of the walk. All that I could think was that song. And that I should join in. Another voice to fill out the melody. To make it whole.

Make it whole.

Make it whole.

Make us whole.

Make.

Us.

WHOLE!

It was barely a blink and we were already halfway across - and there was a gap between us and the support beam on the opposite side, a gap that had stopped Copse and Chloe ahead as they looked it over. I shook my head roughly and I noticed that the song had stopped. The room was pitch quiet now, to the point that I could hear blood pumping in my ears. Even the familiar thrum of the station plating was somehow suppressed. After a moment of quiet, a man stepped from the crowd and stood before the congregation.

I recognised him immediately. Prescott. Specifically, Prescott the Elder. I recalled vaguely that his first name might've been Sean? He held up his hands in exultation and the room cheered. He laughed joyously, and it was a very pleasant sound. "My friends, my flock!" More cheers. "Our time is at hand!"

He lowered his hands in what was apparently a signal for quiet as the room went silent again. "All that we have worked for is coming to fruition this day. The Marker enslaved by the evil Earth Government is freed, and our Angels walk amongst us. The Heathens outside those doors-" Heathens inside too, you fuck. "-won't be able to stop us. No longer will they be deaf to the screams they cause with their heresy! They will listen! The ceremony today will save one of their foulest sinners - will show them the light of the Markers, and the righteousness of our divine message."

Another cheer went up from the crowd, and Prescott held up his hands for quiet again.

"The others out there will be shown soon. After the ceremony, we will have quite the occasion to show them. The machine! The machine that we have created together, that we have made as one, will be activated." Copse and Chloe both perked up. Nerds. "And all on Arcadia will be joined and the evils of modern life, the greed, the overconsumption, will be gone. We will become the Utopia this station was named for, the Arcadia we were always meant to be. As was planned for us. Praise Altman. Praise the Markers."

The crowd repeated his last two phrases, over and over, building up into an almost rabid chant.

Rachel nudged me from behind and spoke through the noise. "I hope you aren't listening to him, Max. I know he says pretty things, but the man has quite the body count. Pretty words don't make up for foul acts."

'Body count'? What a weird phrase. "That sounds like a quote."

Rachel chuckled lightly. "A mentor I met while you and Chloe were gone. Quite lovely.."

What? Seriously? "That's, uh..." I rubbed the back of my neck, groping about vaguely for an appropriately euphemistic phrase. Not that I was worried about offending her, but... okay, yeah. I was worried about offending her. I could just see her expression in my head - that slight head-tilt, the slightly watery eyes. Eugh. No. "a bit heavy for a modelling coach."

Her chuckle turned into a fond smile. "He was a heavy sort of man."

Chloe leaned back, an almost wild swing from one of the support beam... supports? as she turned to us to interrupt. Thank Dog for that. Wowzers, I was going to end up saying something dumb if that kept going. "Copse says the gap's like ten feet."

I blinked, looked over to the gap then back to her. "We can't jump that far!"

Visions of falling filled my mind. Air wooshing past my ears as my heart seized the opportunity to try escape from the jail of ribs I'd kept it trapped inside. Visions of legs flailing and arms windmilling as I desperately tried to move myself, to grab onto anything I coul reach.

Then visions of strawberry jam, scattered over all the people down there.

Ulp.

Gross.

"Sure we can." Rachel slapped my shoulder and smiled beatifically. Somehow, it actually helped. Only a little bit. "Just bend your legs and push. And try to stay quiet. We probably don't want them," One dainty finger pointed downward "below figuring out we're here."

I glared at her. She just kept smiling.

I looked away from her just in time to catch Copse watching us. He looked away almost immediately. I left it alone. Later. Chloe and Rachel seemed to be discussing the jump, judging from the gesturing and excited yammering.

We finally got through whatever prep we needed and lined up to go. Rachel went first, taking a deep breath, flashing us a confident grin, then running full pelt at the gap before hurling herself over it. Her arms windmilled and her legs kicked and for a moment her fingers barely scraped the metal and I could see her start to fall.

She began to drop and my heart dropped into the bottom of my stomach with her. Chloe lurched forward, hand out and flopped down onto the beam and slightly off the side of it in order to grab and-

Rachel sort of... twisted(?!) in the air and grabbed onto the other beam with her feet. With her fucking feet. What the actual fuck. Dangling upside down over a sixty-foot drop, she grinned at us, no trace of the situation on her face at all. After another beat where we all simply stared at her, she twisted again and folded herself in half until she could wrap her arms around the beam and pulled herself up onto it.

When she stood and straightened, she spread her arms in an utterly incongruous 'ta-da!' move that wouldn't have been out of place in a gymnastics competition.

And that's when I remembered - Rachel had taken up gymnastics and yoga while we'd been gone. She probably jumped over gaps like this for fun. Lunatic.

Copse placed his hand on my back and gave me a little nudge forward. I guess he wanted me to go next? After seeing that? Fuck no. I swiped his hand off my back and stepped away from the gap. He could go first, and I gestured to tell him so. He rolled his eyes, then holstered the gun I hadn't noticed he'd kept out. After a moment to warm up - just bending his knees and doing some weird twist-thing with his arms, he launched himself out into the gap, too.

He made it first try. He was hanging, yes, but his arms had wrapped around the beam. He hoisted himself up onto it, then gestured back expectantly. I gulped. Shit.

A hand rested gently on my shoulder and I only jumped slightly. Chloe's voice whispered into my ear. "It's okay if you don't wanna do this, Maxie. Fuck what Rach says, we'll find another way around. This place is a fucking rats nest, it's gonna be hella full of side passages and shit."

I shook my head, a little more harshly than I intended. Something in my brain felt squeezed by the turbulence. "No. It's fine. I can do this."

"Yeah you can." Chloe said, almost immediately. "Never doubted it for a second. But it's okay if you did and wanted to go around."

I smiled at her - another tick in the pro column for our marriage, right there. When Chloe paid attention, she just... got it. She understood.

Damn, I did good.

I took a deep breath, then looked at the gap. Ten feet, huh? That's, what, three meters? I can jump three meters. Easy. It's nothing. Athletes do this sort of thing all the time. If they can do it, I can probably at least fail with grace. No, I can do this! I very carefully ignored the little voice in my head that tried frantically to remember the last time I'd exercised - Leotown wasn't free for non-Company Employees, remember.

Sod it.

I ran forward and jumped.

For a moment, I actually thought I was going to make it.

And then I began to fall. I tried one last desperate, frantic reach for the other side and I had to bite down on a scream when I missed. Oh dog oh dog oh dog, I'm going to be raspberry jam and everyone of the fuckers down there is gonna be scarred for life.

For a moment, I thought I was going to die.

And then a hand grasped onto mine and I felt as much as I heard the body slam into the support beam above me. I looked up and saw Copse, teeth gritted and eyes near-watering as he tried to hold onto me. Rachel, leaning over him, mouthed "Grab onto his arm with your other hand!"

So, I did. Well, I tried to. Apparently I'd been neglecting arm day, as Victoria would say. It took me more than a few tries to swing myself up to the point I could grab onto Copse's bicep. He winced as I grabbed on - might've squeezed a little too hard there, but I'm terrified and dangling over a massive gap, give me a break.

He took a few deep breaths as Rachel peered down to the ground. "Nobody seems to have noticed. I think we're good. Pull her up, Copse."

He rolled his eyes and muttered a dark little "Yes ma'am." that Rachel smirked at. His eyes locked on mine and he took another deep breath before gritting his teeth. "Do not pull on me."

And then he pulled. I tried to stay loose and thought lightweight thoughts. I could imagine the tendons in his arms straining - and they definitely were, judging from his expression. I ended up keeping my eyes on his face for most of the initial pulling - I watched the red start in his cheeks, bloom outwards, then spread down to his neck and up to his ears. When he got up to his knees, I watched as the sweat started to bead on his forehead. I watched as Rachel prompted me to grab onto the beam, and I watched when- wait, shit! I grabbed onto the beam with the hand that wasn't on his bicep and started pulling on the beam.

It was a fucking strain. I tried thinking lightweight thoughts again - it didn't help. Sorry Copse.

My muscles burned as I pulled as hard as I could. Together, Copse and I managed to get me up onto the beam as he yanked my arm out of my socket and the world around me blurred with pain. When everything straightened out, I found myself looking into the eyes of Copse as I... um... straddled his midriff. I blinked at him in confusion. How the dog did I get here? Oh, he must've rolled me-

I scrambled off of him and up to my feet and very much ignored the red blooming over my cheeks. Accidental awkwardness is the worst. Instead, I looked back over the gap and resisted the urge to whistle. Man, I'm kind of impressed with myself.

"I just jumped ten feet? That's fuckin' awesome." I specifically did not think about the fact that I missed and could've travelled a lot further if it weren't for Copse. Dog, I owe that man a beer.

"Ten feet?" Copse looked at me, eyebrows bunching together. "That was barely eight. I told Chloe to tell you that, what did she-"

I turned and looked at a now sheepish Chloe - rubbing her boot along the ground and very emphatically avoiding eye-contact - and I didn't have to ask. "I thought you might be more encouraged if it was a round number?"

"Chloe."

"It's because you're ten out of ten in my book?"

"Chloe."

"'cause we're in Tennessee and you're the only ten I see?"

Even across the gap, she still looked nervous. I glared at her. "Get over here already."

She (and Rachel) both chuckled. Chloe's was a little wavering though. I grinned internally at the sound. After a moment, Chloe looked down, then at our beam, face clearly calculating.

And then, she jumped.

It was an utterly graceless motion, arms windmilling like those crazy-arm-tube-men that Retro Restaurant had outside. And then she missed like I did. For a moment, my brain just grinned and went "Yeah. Marriage in sync, people." and then my sanity kicked back in and I screamed.

The world almost seemed to go in slow motion. I remembered a bathroom, a bullet, a junkyard, a bottle, a railyard, an autocar, a grave, a headshot. Perfect images, one by one. No matter the scene, the shot got took. Always. And then, the fall. And the landing. Still, the shot got took.

I was still screaming.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from hers, and I saw as they widened as she realised what was happening, what was going to happen. The freedom, the terror, the resignation, the happiness, the doubt, I watched it all wash across her face like torrential rain.

And then, lightning struck. I watched her reach down, and for a moment I thought she was giving up, and then she tapped a small button on the middle of her suit and with a roar that sent shivers through my body, her booster activated.

Oh.

She flew up in a little arc before landing neatly on the beam next to me. She beamed at me (heh) and then we heard the voice. "Well, that certainly was exciting to watch! Congratulations on making it, whoever you are. It appears we have some very ingenious, *uninvited* guests to our Church today, my Flock!"

A ripple of laughter as we stumble slightly and look down to see every single person in the room staring up at us. Every face is indistinct, blurred, but I can feel their anger like heat burning up at us.

Rachel swore and Chloe growled and I just paled. Copse didn't react at all.

"What brings you here, skulking about in the rafters? Do you wish to join the righteous? To join the ranks of the blessed believers, we who will be saved, will join together as one? To discard the all-consuming hunger of your material lives and embrace our peace, our harmony?"

Rachel scoffed. "Asshole. We need to go. Now."

As we bolt for the opposite exit, Prescott sighs. Man, either he's got one heck of a microphone or his ability to project is borderline legendary. "How... regretful. You have chosen poorly, whoever you are." He gestured, and parts of the congregation pull weapons, other parts break off and move for the doors. "You won't be making it out again. We will find you, together, and we will find out exactly what you're doing here. Exactly how you're trying to stop our glorious ascension. How you're holding our species back!"

Another cheer, followed by a thunder of gunfire and pings as they take their shots at us. "Shit!" Rachel gives up all pretence and hardens her voice. "Run! It's right over here, we can grab the boxes and-"

The front of the cathedral hall exploded, and a hail of gunfire rained inward. Two loud whoops called and two more answered. Five forms melted out of the shards and smoke and began to fire into the armed congregation. "Die you Unitologist bastards!"

It takes a long moment for the congregation to fire back and by the time they do, more than a third are lying on the ground. Bodies ripped and torn, their lives just... done with.

"Well." Rachel blinked. "Victoria has certainly gotten into this. We should probably get down and join them, hmm?"

We made for the stairs.

[Scene III]

"Go, go, go!"

I took another shot back at the rapidly-encroaching Monsters. If they were angels, they were avenging ones. The kind that threw fire and brimstone and yelled and screamed hungrily as they tried to eat us whole. More and more of them joined the horde as we ran, bursting from vents and tearing open doors and just stepped out of the darkness beyond that which the crappy little emergency lighting could manage to illuminate.

I could feel their hunger and the blood in my eyes as I ran and shot and ran and shot. The numbers of the horde never seemed to change, no matter how many we shot, it was just a writhing, devouring, hungry mass of death, right on our heels.

Joyce suddenly screamed as one got close - though not terribly close. She just wasn't used to it, the poor thing. Not like me. I'd been through the whole thing. Everything. As a whole. I've made it through this whole thing. Damn. I'm good. Photog makes good.

Am I sweating? Man, I feel like I'm sweating. Wait.

A shot rang out and took out Joyce's encroaching creep and speared it in the fucking wall. The force of it shook the boxes Chloe and David had been carrying - she spared a glance back to nod thankfully to Ishi and the Asshole.

Victoria cooed gently to the heavily ear-muffed baby strapped to her front. As she did, she tossed the small pile of metal and wires behind us. A moment passed, she continued to coo to it.

For a moment, nothing happened. It seemed to stretch out infinitely - did... did it not wor- I felt warmth on my back and red at the edges of my vision as whatever the hell that thing had been - a flash of legs, insectoid and dark, wriggling and writhing, and a giant eye staring - exploded into tiny bits.

For another moment, nothing happened. Then the baby laughed.

Rachel stepped left, narrowly avoiding the blade-arm that came down where her head had just been. She stepped into the thing's reach and, for the first time, I saw one look confused. In one smooth movement so quick I almost didn't catch it, she reached up, grabbed the thing's head and twisted, then pulled, and flipped the entire monster over her fucking shoulder.

What.

As it landed, she changed tactics and grabbed the arm, planting her boot against it's shoulder and just pulling and pulling until tendons tore and flesh warped and she'd ripped the thing's arm clean off.

Then, she stabbed it in the head. With it's own arm.

What the fuck. What the actual fuck.

When the body lay still, she gave it one last kick for good measure, then hopped away, the blade-arm (now bloody) over her shoulder like some kind of bony claymore. She grinned at us. "That was fun."

What the fuck.

The atrium outside this tether looked almost identical to the last, only it was filled with random crates of various sizes. Why were we even here, all the Tethers were snapped. "Why are we here, Rachel?" Victoria demanded.

"We're taking the Tether back to the outskirts, so we can head to the Haven."

"But the Tethers are snapped!"

"Not this one. It's- wait, no. Actually it's snapped too. Shit. Well, I guess we're jumping. Fuck. This isn't going to be fun." Rachel immediately stormed over to the door and tore it open. All fighting froze for a moment as she stood there, glaring out into the atrium outside where the dozen or so Unitologists still standing, um, stood.

She took advantage of the opportunity. Three went down almost immediately, a blade from out of fucking nowhere into the face for each, another two went down invisibly, as her blade pierced the boxes they were hiding behind. Another one turned to run from her thrown knife, straight into the line of fire of another.

Half a dozen dead in half a dozen seconds. What the fuck.

And then Rachel vanished. Took a step to the right and out of view and the last six Unitologists freaked out. One of them screamed in terror, and it cut-off midway through. Another stood up, shooting frantically (and taking out another in the process when he stood up too). He and the last remaining two turned and ran - wait, weren't there four left? Where's the other- Oh. An arm came sailing out of the dark and landed in front of the frantically shooting man, who was taking up the rear of their retreat.

He tripped on the arm and his hands tucked inwards. Unfortunately, he hadn't let go of his gun. Two bullets rang out and hit the two ahead of him - one in the leg (and he went down hard) and the other in the shoulder, spinning him about (he just tripped over his own legs).

A dark form strode out of the darkness, almost melting from it. A familiar long, bony arm was slung lazily over its shoulder as it stalked over to the first fallen. The arm whipped down suddenly and the figure buried the point into the man's back. The other two were dispatched similarly, before either of them really knew what was happening.

The figure looked up at us and tilted its head. For a moment we all wanted to step back, to run back into the tether room and barricade ourselves in. Space would be safer than this right now. Then it cleared and Rachel stuck up her hand (the one that wasn't still gripping the weapon) and waved. "Hey guys! All clear now!".

She walked back over, through the lighter, less blood-strewn patches of the room, and stood next to us. She glanced back at the carnage with a smile - one that I knew was "Wow. Look at that. Aren't I great at this?". She turned to Copse, one hand on her hip, the other on the bicep-hilt of her still-bloody blade-arm she'd propped up over her shoulder. "Told you I didn't need a gun. Now, come on. The tether is down, so we've got a long, cold jump ahead of us."

Copse just swore. Loudly.

I couldn't hold in the laugh.

We strode into the Haven, full of piss and vinegar, heading into Temba's office. She was standing over one of the many consoles there and it was surprisingly good to see her.

She didn't look up as we entered, focused on the screen of the console she was looking at. We paused a little ways away from her and the silence... lingered. Eventually, I felt enough pressure to lightly cough.

Temba looked up. "You're back. Did you get the parts?"

Chloe raised an eyebrow, looked at her, then the large stack of boxes hovering behind us, then back to her. Temba stared back, expression unchanging.

"Yes." Chloe said.

Temba nodded. "Good. We'll get the parts to the engineers at the docks, they're still holding position there and ready to go. We've done some projections and we should have repairs done by the end of the day."

I... Huh. "How... how long is that? I don't even know what time it is."

She just looks at me for a moment, then said simply, "It's just over two hours from now. It's currently a little after nine." A pause, then she moved past us to check the boxes. "Good condition. The Bridges clan would've enjoyed having you."

"The Bridges?"

She wafted a hand. "Interstellar delivery company I used to work for. Subsidiary of a subsidiary of Mantano, I think." Another pause, this one thoughtful, before- "It's not important." She pushed open her door and called down the hall. "Gabbie! You and Etty get these boxes out to the loading docks, they should be-"

Suddenly the entire room lit up in red as alarms wailed and flashed. Temba cursed and abandoned the boxes, letting the door slide closed as she dashed over to the consoles again. She tapped a few keys and cursed again. "How did they get in?" She tapped another run of buttons on the console, revealing innumerable alerts all over the door-side perimeter of our little sanctuary. "They've broken the wall-"

Something exploded outside and the room quaked - a dozen little doodads and whatchamacallits fell to the ground and a lot of them just smashed. Temba ignored it, eyes locked on the screen, so everyone else seemed to feel the need to fill the silence.

"The Unitologists are-"

"They brought the monsters-"

"Bastards and-"

"It's all her-

"No, you're a wan-"

"We brought them-"

Rachel stepped forward, holding out her hands to prevent any further bickering. Surprisingly, it worked. Victoria even stopped squaring off with the Beefcake. Though considering how green he was looking, it was more 'BeefKale'. Heh. "Look, whatever happened doesn't matter now. We have to defend the Haven! We can decide who's fault it is later, though my vote is to blame terrifying space monkeys that ran away."

Temba nodded. Took command. "You heard the lady! Get to your stations and shoot anyone you don't know!"

Well shit. That's pretty clear. I took up my gun and prepared for conflict. This is going to suck.

AN1 - I actually did this once. I was walking with my sibling through a park to go to a shop when we were called back home for whatever reason. We had the phone conversation about the reasons, asked questions and such, then hung up and turned around and walked back down the same path we'd literally just walked down and for some reason I felt completely lost. Had no idea what the route back was.