Chapter 8: Beneath the surface
Nadre nearly began to open the vent when all four admirals ran in. Lime ran over, and knelt down next to Nadre.
"Snow, what happened?" he asked, gripping her shoulders. Nadre's body shuddered with dry sobbing.
"She—She took him. Coal is gone." She stuttered out.
The four admirals fell silent, realizing the depth of what was going on. Admiral Red left the room quietly, after a few moments, and he was soon followed by Admirals Green and Violet. Lime remained behind.
Though her outer appearance would suggest extreme grief, that was not the case as to what she was feeling on the inside. Rage. An intense, burning rage of violent emotions.
Something inside her snapped.
She stood abruptly, handing the small yellow child in her arms to Admiral Lime. She looked straight into his eyes.
"Please protect her." She said, before lifting the vent and jumping in. Immediately, she began crawling through the system of vents. She had a target, and she was going to save him.
Her imposter-vision revealed that the floor of the vent was stained with drops of blood, both quite new and wet, and very old and dry.
'Aelorvan's mission.' Nadre realized as she crawled along. 'They must have been doing almost exactly what Avulgar has now done.'
The sight of the wet blood, though, brought a thought into her mind. She let her abdominal tongue slither out and dab itself in the blood. Her senses confirmed it.
Coal's blood.
She immediately resumed her mission, crawling through the vents as she followed the trail of blood.
It was strangely quiet in the vents. Nadre hoped… she hoped against hope that Avulgar had not yet tried to consume Coal.
If she had…
Nadre would not hesitate to reveal her. No matter what she could say or do, Nadre would drag Avulgar off the Launchpad herself, if she had to.
Again, the silence struck Nadre as quiet.
Much too quiet.
Some Imposter instinct took over, and she pressed herself against the roof of the vent as a sharp tongue came zipping out of nowhere, passing right underneath her. Her abdominal mouth opened and the razor-sharp teeth clamped down on the tongue, eliciting a scream of pain. She grinned, watching the tongue slither off into the darkness of the vents.
'There you are, witch.' Nadre thought, turning around in the direction of Avulgar's scream.
Nadre never saw Avulgar, but always heard the rumbling just ahead of her. Soon, she could barely keep track of where she was anymore. If she poked her head out of a vent to see where she was, she might lose Avulgar's trail.
That was unthinkable.
Nadre kept barreling full speed through the vents, listening as closely as she could to where Avulgar was headed. Right, left, left, right again, and…
… gone.
Nadre stopped and closed her eyes. All her senses shut down, one at a time, as she focused all her concentration on her hearing.
She could hear the Crewmates above, Cobalt and Cherry, talking.
She could hear the humming of the Reactor's mechanisms.
She could hear…
… heavy breathing.
She opened her eyes and charged forward. As she turned the corner in the vent, she only had an instant to process the glint of metal hurtling toward her. She slammed her head backwards, smashing it into the roof of the vent. It would leave a bruise, but at least a knife wasn't embedded in her face. She picked up the knife and continued moving.
But a thought suddenly occurred to her.
'How is Avulgar moving this quickly and still toting Coal?'
It hit her.
Coal had been left behind, somehow restrained from rejoining the world above the vents. He had been reduced to a snack for later.
The thought burned her on the inside, and she began crawling back the way she had come, as fast as she could. As soon as Avulgar realized that Nadre had gone back, it would be a race to Coal.
Being able to guess where she was, Nadre knew exactly how to get back to Admin. He couldn't have been taken far, before Nadre had entered the vents.
Sure enough, as Nadre got closer, she began hearing slight sounds of grunting, as though someone was straining against something. She turned the corner.
Coal sat in the junction of three vents, bound hand and foot and gagged. In the darkness, there was no way he could have seen Nadre crawling about, but Nadre could see him. The multiple nicks and scratches that covered a good portion of his face. What, was Avulgar planning on bleeding him out down here?
Nadre crept closer, trying to be as silent as possible.
A stray creaking of the metal floor later, Coal was very alert. He made a very quiet, muffled moan, as Nadre neared with the knife. Slowly and silently, she reached over to his feet, and grabbed the rope.
Instantly, Coal began thrashing as hard as he could against his hidden adversary, while Nadre began slicing the cords holding his legs together with her knife. They snapped easily, ad she went next for the hands.
Coal kept thrashing, but the look in his eyes definitely showed confusion. Why was this Imposter… freeing him?
Nadre swiped the knife across the rope binding his hands with expertise, and they fell limp at Coal's sides. Coal reached up and snatched off the gag, peering into the dark.
"Who's there?" he asked, tensing.
Nadre opened her mouth to speak, before she stopped herself. Should she tell him that she was in the vents to rescue him? That would immediately raise questions as to how she got in the vents. Imposters vented. Not Crewmates. Maybe the logic could be bent in this situation, but…
She couldn't take the risk.
Instead, she let her tongue slither out of her mouth and begin wrapping itself around Coal's leg. Coal shrieked and kicked the tongue off, crawling as fast as he could through the vents. A distant rumbling was heard.
The race was on.
Nadre stayed close behind Coal, every now and then extending her tongue just enough to flick the back of Coal's head. Just enough to keep him moving.
It pained her to frighten him so much, but she was glad that he couldn't see in this dark.
She guided Coal towards a lit vent. The grate showed it to be the vent in the Locker Room. Perfect.
Rumbling behind her quickly got her attention. She looked behind her as she crawled to see Avulgar coming at them full tilt, her tongue extended to pierce Coal through, maybe taking Nadre with him.
Nadre was not about to let that happen.
She shot her tongue past Coal, flipping open the vent. Using what strength she could muster, she wrapped her long tongue around Coal and threw him up through the vent, before snapping it shut. Avulgar's tongue swiped at the empty air as Coal landed on his feet outside the vent. He did not waste any time in making himself scarce, and Avulgar turned to Nadre.
"That. Was. It." Was all she said. Avulgar leapt towards Nadre, but Nadre ducked under her and crawled past her, going full tilt towards the vent in Reactor.
They made it in no time, and Nadre leapt out of the vent. Fortunately nobody had been there at the time to see her jump out. She had seconds before Avulgar would arrive.
Avulgar leaped out of the vent as well, and scanned the room. Her tongue probed the surroundings around her, as she searched for Nadre, or stray Crewmates. Her tongue didn't care. As long as a victim fell prey to it.
Nadre cautiously moved into position from the rafters to pounce on Avulgar below.
A drop of grease fell, and Avulgar looked up.
"Traitor!" she snarled.
"Murderer!" Nadre snarled back. She leapt through the beams as Avulgar began to quickly make her way up.
Avulgar jumped up, landing on the rafters with the dexterity of a cat.
The knife impaled itself in her side, causing her to hiss in pain. Nadre pulled out a second knife, preparing to melee with it. Avulgar removed the knife from her side and took a stance.
The two Imposters eyed each other in the rafters, waiting for the other to strike first.
Nadre wrapped her tongue around the rafter she stood on, as Avulgar leapt towards her, snarling. The forward momentum Avulgar had knocked Nadre off the rafter, but Nadre only swung around in a circle, landing once again back on top of the rafter. Avulgar lost balance for only a moment, before composing herself once again. An experimental swipe of her knife, followed by a blocking of Nadre's knife.
Nadre leapt down, landing on her feet with only a pop of her ankles. Avulgar began to jump down as well, when the Reactor door slid open. She only just managed to stop herself in time, but the look she gave Nadre told a clear message.
We're not done yet.
Nadre shot her a quick look as Admiral Lime walked in, still toting Alyra. Nadre ran up and took Alyra back. Lime began talking as Nadre began walking.
"I heard you come in here. What's going—"
"I'll tell you in a minute, but for now we have to go." Nadre whispered quickly. Decontamination door slid shut, and Nadre saw Avulgar frown, and slip out of sight. She sighed. "The other Imposter… she was in there just a second ago. She and I were… in its basic sense, I don't think I have any more ties with Imposter-kind anymore. All those bridges I've burned by helping you Crewmates."
Lime fell silent. It took long enough for the other decontamination door to open before he resumed.
"Did you enjoy it?" he whispered.
"What do you mean?" Nadre asked.
"Did you like being an Imposter? Would you make the same choices you have if you were given the option of going back?" Lime asked.
He gripped her shoulders and turned to her.
"Would you regret your decision to save us?" he asked, dead serious.
Nadre looked back at the reactor door, and she saw the last tip of a tongue slither out of sight, into the vent. She looked back at Lime.
"No. I don't regret the choices I made." She said, confidently.
Lime broke into a grin. "Then it's time to go see someone who misses you."
Nadre was brought into Medbay, and beheld a gruesome sight.
Coal laid on one of the beds, and his face… oh crap, his face was swollen so much, in so many places, he looked like a blackberry.
"Coal! What happened?" Nadre said, gripping his hand. Truthfully, she already knew, but he didn't have to know that. "I thought you were dead!"
Coal groaned, and his dry lips parted.
"The Imposter…" he wheezed. He began coughing, and Nadre got him a small cup of water. She carefully administered the water to him, making sure not to pour it into his mouth too fast. He sighed and flopped back against the pillow. "The Imposter grabbed me and pulled me into the vent. I didn't see who it was, or anything like that, but that tongue…" he shivered. "… that tongue was flicking across my face, cutting gashes into it. Admiral… Admiral Violet says that the wound is venomous, but that I will survive. She's… she's getting the antidote now." Coal wheezed.
Nadre gripped his hand firmly, holding Alyra in her other arm. Admiral Violet did indeed come in with a needle and a bottle with a yellow label. Black saw the needle.
"Does it have to be a needle? Can't I just ingest it?" he asked, though the look in his eyes told Nadre he already knew the answer.
"It has to be in your bloodstream for this to work. It will be quick and relatively painless, so long as you keep your muscles relaxed." Violet said, gently. The needle drew close, and Nadre smiled.
"I'm here Coal." She said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. The needle was inserted into his arm, and Coal's face looked pained. The needle retracted, and Coal sighed, flopping against the pillow. He was out like a light. Violet turned to Nadre.
"He'll be out for a little bit, and when he wakes up he will be a little delirious for a short while. He might like to see you when he wakes up." Violet said.
"I'll stay too, in case the Imposter decides to try and strike again." Lime said, standing from his seat. "We'll wait."
Violet nodded, and left the room. Nadre kept her grip on Coal's hand with one hand, while the other secured Alyra in her grip. As she stared at Coal's sleeping face, her anger began fueling.
Whatever Avulgar tried next, she would personally ensure…
No Imposter would harm either Coal or Alyra ever again.