It's chapter 8 HALFWAY BABY! Honestly, i'm disappointed because I probably won't be able to finish this before summer break which I may not be able to work on this during. I will do my best to finish this but I make no promise towards when it will be finished. Without further ado please enjoy chapter 8 and feel free to leave a comment when you've finished reading!
review response
temporial king: like I said you have given me an idea.
bloodyvalentinejoke: thanks I'll fix that typo when I get the chance!
Mikhail's pov
He had lost all 6 blade bots in the battle. It was a good thing he had put 6 on standby in case of an attack, because otherwise they would have lost the entire last shipment. They had docked with the Monoceros
"um... excuse Tora? You Mikhail, yes?" it was the nopon.
"Yeah that's my name, don't wear it out. What do you want?" he didn't really have anything better to do right now. He could entertain the kid for now.
"You see… Tora was wondering… Tora see artificial blades earlier. Tora curious about them." ah yeah that's right they had been at the factory, Mikhail remembered.
"So what do you want to know then, kid?"
"You see Tora's father forced to make artificial blades for Bana."
Ah that would explain a few things.
"Ah yeah that guy. He was a real pain in the ass to deal with but we needed the artificial blades."
"Tora want know why!"
"Why did we need them? indol has an army. We don't. We needed something to combat them with." Mik said.
The nopon frowned. "Artificial blades for companionship not war!" he shouted.
"You take what you can get, kid. Besides these artificial blades aren't like yours. They only follow orders. They don't have much comprehension of the world."
The noppon flapped his wings. "You not getting it."
Mikhail sighed. "And I probably won't kid, just. Stay away from them ok?"
"Fine. but tora not like you."
How horrible. A nopon didn't like him. Whatever would he do? Mik rolled his eyes.
Malos's pov
He had just left
Then he felt metal tap his shoulder and turned around. It was poppi.
"Oh hey kid what's up?"
"Poppi wonder if friend need help?" friend hu? That was… nice to hear.
"Not at the moment kid. Shouldn't you be with your driver?" he asked
"He busy obsessing over ship." she replied.
"Tora's checking out the ship? That sounds like him." he heard Pyra in his head.
Malos clicked his tongue. Ah engineers. Mik wouldn't like him poking around.
Malos had a question though.
"Hey um, bra- kid." he had almost called her a brat. He didn't want to make the kid upset. "aw that's cute, big mighty Malos is friends with Poppi." Mythra made fun of him. he just ignored her. "Why did The nopon build you anyway?"
Poppi tilted her head. "Poppi made because masterpon cannot resonate with core crystals. Also for services."
Services hu? He was going to have to have a talk with that noppon.
"Yeah Tora's pretty disgusting sometimes." and there was Mythra with her 2 bronze. (cents arn't a thing in alrest so I made due.) "I heard that!"
"Yeah and I can hear your thoughts on rex."
After that she got quiet.
"We should probably go get your driver before he drives someone insane.
"Sound like something masterpon do." they started walking towards the cockpit.
"What do you mean?"
"Masterpon… not the greatest at socializing. He smart, but also big dum dum."
Made sense. The brat was still just a kid after all.
They walked into the cockpit, and saw mik and the noppon arguing.
"Tora tell you that ship is amazing, but you no let Tora peek at wiring." the Nopon said.
Mik sighed. " Like I told you, I don't want you poking around."
"IT ONLY PEEK!" the kid shouted.
"Ugh brats. He's being a little shit." Malos said.
Poppi walked up to tora and picked him up.
"Ah what is poppi doing put tora down!" the brat said.
"Masterpon is being rude." Poppi walked out of the room carrying a struggling Tora.
"Thanks." Mik said as she walked out.
"That brat had it coming." Malos said. "Sneaking suspicion he's a perv."
"He does seem to be about that age." Mik said.
"Still. It's no excuse for something so… wrong"
"Have you seen Mythra?" Mikhail said jokingly. "WHAT!" Malos winced. Yeah Mik was going to
have some regrets later.
"Hey Mik?"
"Yeah?"
"Mythra can hear me and I can hear her. So maybe don't."
Mik sighed and lowered his head.
"Get some rest Malos. You're going to need it."
Jin's pov
The pod door opened.
Architect above, he had overdone it. Again.
He looked up and saw Nia looking at Lora and Haze. Dromarch was laying next to her.
"I don't know how I didn't notice the resemblance." she said.
Jin walked up next to her and looked at them. It was kind of eerie looking at them even after all this time. Lora had definitely been Haze's first driver. There was no real explanation for just how much she had imprinted on her though.
Jin decided to think about something else, before his thoughts could get dark.
He turned to face her. "You chose to save the kid." he said.
She turned her head towards him. "Yeh I did. What's it tah you."
He chuckled. "Nothing. It's just good to see you overcome your fears."
"Oi if you breath one word of this to anyone-!"
Dromarch stood then. "My lady, please don't yell."
"Put a cork in it, Dromarch."
Dromarch did the closest thing he could to a frown. (cats can't frown.)
Jin sighed. Some things never changed. Most things for that matter.
Nia looked down, then looked back at him. "If she could see you now I wonder what she would think. Your driver I mean."
Jin often wondered that himself. It had been his greatest doubt for 500 years. Would she have wanted the world destroyed? Probably not. But he hadn't stopped. Not until he had gotten a wakeup call from haze.
He had the same goal as Amalthus. And that would never do.
"Maybe I don't like this world. But I remember old torna and I start to wonder. Could the world ever be like that again. Then I doubt myself. Now though. Now my goal is different. So I think maybe she's glad I'm finally trying to fix the world instead of ending it."
Nia nodded. "I see."
The door to the room opened.
It was Niall. Morag and Brighid were with him.
"Ah there you two are. I must thank you both… without either of you I would be dead." the kid
said.
"Like I said, don't mention it." Nia said.
Jin just nodded. He didn't have much in the way of a response.
Morag spoke "So Nia… you're a flesh eater then?"
Nia became noticeably uncomfortable.
Dromarch began to speak. "My lady doesn't like to talk about it… she had some very…
unpleasant experiences with her last driver."
Nia crossed her arms.
"I see." Morag said.
"How...unfortunate." Brighid said sadly.
Niall noticed the ice. "Wait isn't that… Fan La Norne?"
Jin clenched his fist."Her name was Haze. But yes."
"Oh right. Sorry I didn't mean to-" Niall apologized.
"It's fine. Just try not to make that mistake again." Jin said.
The boy continued to speak. "Thank you for your graciousness. This reminds me. You remember when I was near death of course."
Jin nodded. Nia tilted her head.
"Yeah what's it to ya?" Nia asked.
"Apparently he had some sort of near-death encounter with Fa- I mean… Haze." Morag said.
Near-death encounter? This sounded interesting. It would make sense since the boy was essentially dead already.
"Well? don't keep us in suspense!" Nia said
"What exactly did she say?"
"I know where we need to go. There's something Rex will need to reach the world tree in Tantal. She said Amalthus's endgame is to reach the tree so we need to get there first." Niall said.
Morag spoke. "That we doesn't include you Niall. You're staying in Tantal."
Jin looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"But… I have to do something!" Niall said.
"Niall I can't risk you getting hurt. Tantal is the safest place for you right now." Morag responded.
He sighed defeated. Niall clearly knew better than to argue with his sister.
Niall looked at Jin.
"She also told me to tell you, and Mythra that nobody blames you for what happened in Torna."
Nobody blamed him? Why? He had failed them all.
"I… I don't…" he didn't understand. Was Haze just lying to make him feel better?… No that couldn't be. "thank you. Thank you for telling me this. I'll tell Mikhail to set a course for Tantal.
We're taking the Monoceros."
Niall nodded.
"I'll go tell tha others to be prepared to leave tomorrow." Nia said.
It was getting late.
"Tell them we'll launch in the morning. You all need to be well-rested." Jin said
"Got it. Come on then Dromarch." Nia and Dromarch then ran out of the room.
"Go get some rest kid. I'm sure you're gonna need it. Politics aren't fun." he said to Niall.
Niall nodded and walked out. Morag followed him.
Brighid stayed behind.
"It's been a while." she said.
"Indeed it has. Haven't seen you in 70 years." he responded
"My driver passed on shortly after we battled last."
"Journal huh. I suppose you want to know something."
"I do. Can I trust my journals?"
"Would you believe me if I told you no?"
"Probably not. But it would still be nice to know."
To tell or not to tell. well he hadn't tracked down her and Aegaeon's journals for nothing.
"The last time I read them was 25 years ago. To date they've never been edited… though a few pages are missing it's generally nothing major."
She opened her eyes. She looked furious.
"YOU READ THEM?!"
"At least you can trust them. Unless Niall's father was a dick. Somehow I don't see that being a reality. Then again he did concur Gormot. You're the same as you were then"
She glared at him for a few seconds closed her eyes and with her fists clenched walked out of the room.
Jin sighed and looked at Lora. "Well she may not appreciate it. But at least she knows her word hasn't been compromised."
Not like so many blades Amalthus has compromised.
Time to get to the cockpit. Mik was going to yell at him.
Elysium dream.
Mythra's pov
It was night, and Nia had ordered them all to get some rest before the trip that they had to take. though she hadn't told them where.
Pyra was sitting next to her tree, as usual.
"I wonder what we'll find when we get there." Pyra said. "Elysium I mean." she clarified.
Mythra thought for a moment. "I'm sure it will make rex happy… I wonder if father will listen to our request."
"Hopefully Rex will be able to live with it." Pyra said. "Are you going to let Malos in?"
"I… you let him in. I… can't."
"You're sure?"
Mythra nodded.
A cloud of dark either appeared not far from where rex had met them. Malos stepped out of it.
"Ah Elysium. Or at least your memory of it. I lost access to mine when you almost killed me back in the day."
Mythra sighed. "This better not go like the last time you were here. Choose your words wisely Malos. I could hurt you so badly you'd feel it in real life here."
Malos looked at Pyra "Is she always like this, or is this just how she greets me?"
Pyra shrugged. Mythra glared at her.
"Anyway. We need to talk." Pyra said. She sounded annoyed.
Mythra walked towards him.
"Malos. You know I still hate you."
"Glad to know you care about your brother so much partner."
Mythra had enough.
CRACK!
She punched him in the face.
"Yeah I probably deserved that."
Crack!
The gut this time.
"And that."
CRACK!
And the crotch.
"AHHHHG. Dammit Mythra."
"You deserve it. You said it yourself."
Pyra put her hand on her shoulder. "Mythra. Hitting him won't change things. You told me you wouldn't stop me."
"And what if I changed my mind?"
Malos interrupted "Hang on you're saying you're going to… let her fix my core... why?"
Mythra clenched her fist. "We need as much help as we can get, and without a blade you're pretty useless. Don't get an ego about it. Or I'll put you in your place again."
"Noted."
Pyra walked up to him. "This is likely going to hurt." she said.
"Bring it on sister."
Mythra noticed Pyra smile slightly.
Whatever. She could care less. She turned her back away.
There was a bright light behind her. Nope not turning around.
Brighid's pov.
The girls had been given a room and the guys had been given a room. Morag was consoling her
brother somewhere. Nia was sleeping in her old room, with Dromarch, which meant they had Mythra, and Pandoria in the room right now. Apparently they were going somewhere in the morning. Pandoria had gotten excited when Nia told her.
She noted that down in her jurnal. She was trying to read through them to make sure there were no tears she had missed anywhere. She needed to make sure Jin hadn't changed anything.
She had also added that she had given Niall Aegaeon's core. He had been very relieved to know it hadn't been left behind in the heat of the moment.
She noticed a light on the other side of the room. Mythra changed into Pyra and her core began to glow. She was still asleep though.
Strange, she thought. She noted it down.
Prya's POV
Mythra would never forgive Malos. But at least she was letting her heal him.
"You're sure about this?" Malos asked. She nodded, and either began flowing into his core from
her hand.
Suddenly they were surrounded by darkness.
"This is your mind isn't it?" She asked.
He nodded.
She saw a flash of his memories go by.
Malos being awakened.
Him leaving Amalthus.
The destruction of Torna.
Him waking up afterwards.
Him finding Jin in an alleyway.
Him and Jin finding Mikhail in a cell.
Jin introducing him to Akhos and Patroka.
The awakening of Sever.
Her being awakened by Rex.
Nia's betrayal. (of course that would appear but not meeting Nia.)
Sever's death from his perspective. (he had had a decent relationship with the blade which was an achievement with Malos.)
And through it all a consistent flow of self-loathing, and hatred for the world.
She opened her eyes. She hadn't realized she had closed them.
Malos's core was repaired.
She frowned. "What was that?"
He smirked. "Well now you know my life story. When I was planning to drain you… sorry about that by the way… I had a feeling I would see your memories. I didn't expect you to see mine."
"Probably because i'm interfacing with your core rather than you interfacing with mine. Apology accepted."
The darkness faded and they were back in elysium.
"OH HOLLY ARCHITECT THERE YOU TWO ARE. I SWEAR I TURN MY BACK FOR ONE SECOND AND YOU BOTH DISAPPEAR!"
Pyra sighed. Mythra was shouting as usual. She and Malos had that much in common.
Malos just started laughing hysterically.
"What are you laughing about?!" Mythra demand.
"You just… heh… can't make up your mind can you? One second you hate me and then the
next…" malos was interrupted by a punch to the gut. Pyra winced.
"Get out." Mythra said.
"Yeah yeah i'm going, i'm going.
Malos walked a few feet away from Mythra and then vanished in a cloud of either.
"He's such an asshole. I don't know why I even let you help him." Mythra said.
Pyra sighed. Getting Mythra and Malos to talk to each other was going to be a long term project, that was for sure. Mythra understood the importance of him being around but it was going to be a whole different story in getting her and him on speaking terms. And Malos didn't like Mythra all that much either.
Malos's pov.
He woke up.
The very first thing he did was remove his chest plate.
And there it was. His core crystal. In one piece.
He felt… better. It was as if a weight that he had been carrying for years was gone.
Amalthus's influence was still there, but now he didn't have to be in constant physical pain in addition to emotional pain.
It was nice…
He looked out the window. Sure enough it was day already. The data transfer must have taken a while.
"Ugh. morning already? Fine, I'll get up."
He got off his bed, and walked out the door.
As an afterthought he sent out a message.
Pyra's pov.
"MORNING PARTNER!"
She shot up off the bed.
Brighid raised an eyebrow at her and returned to the task of waking up Morag.
"Architect damnit Malos" Pyra whispered.
"Five more minutes." and there was Mythra. Wait.
Why was she out and not Mythra?
Mythra chimed in. "hmm...Probably something to do with you fixing His core. Don't mind me, I'll just go into a rest cycle." it was fairly noticeable that she had left out Malos's name.
"-yra? PYRA!" Brighid yelled her name. She had zoned out.
"Hm? Oh sorry I um… what is it? That you need?" she asked awkwardly.
"Pandoria told me to tell you that you need to go to the boarding area. I'll be there shortly. I have… other duties here."
"Thanks. And Brighid?"
"Yes?"
"I'm… so sorry. I… don't really know what to say, but if you need someone to talk to..." she didn't want what had happened to her to happen to Brighid. Though technically it had already. So she didn't want it to happen twice.
"Thank you for your concern Pyra." Brighid sounded… hollow. Pyra knew exactly why. She felt like she could have stopped it. It was better not to say anything unless asked though.
Jin's pov.
He had flown the Marsanes near Tantal in the middle of the night. He knew Mik had wanted them to take the Monoceros, and they would dock with Tantal in it, but they needed to get going.
The longer they waited the longer there was for Amalthus to catch up to them. So he had stayed up all night, so the others got rested without knowing the ship was moving.
This had lead to Mikhail yelling at him as soon as he had woken up. But the work was done. Now they just needed everyone in the Monoceros for surfacing.
"You're overdoing it Jin. you're going to make your condition that much worse if you keep it up!" Mik was shouting.
Jin clenched his fist "What am I supposed to do? Sit down and let Him catch up to us? You and I both know what happens then. It would be over. All of it for nothing just like everything that happened in Torna."
Mik frowned but managed to keep eye contact.
"I can't let it happen again Mikhail."
"I know you blame yourself for what happened. I blamed myself for Milton and Mythra blamed herself. It's not healthy. Morytha, you saw what happened to Mythra. You founded a terror organization to cope. I followed you because you were all I had left. I don't regret what we've done. But you can't put all the blame on yourself. We all had some fault in what happened. Everyone in Alrest did."
Jin couldn't bear to keep his gaze on Mikhail. He took his mask off. "Best to leave it here. Just in case..."
Mikhail nodded.
Zeke's pov
He was in the boarding room with the rest of the group.
He had conflicting thoughts on returning to Genbu. Nia had told him where they were going but not Rex or Tora. Pandoria had told him they were going to surface, and then she would call Genbu up.
"To Tantal we go!" he said.
Morag just gave him a sad look. Brighid clenched her fist. Niall turned away quickly. Pyra visibly cringed. Nia slapped her forehead. "You've dun' it now shellhead." at least rex and dromarch
hadn't reacted. That counted for something. right?
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Yeah, that was probably insensitive of him. At least he had a home to go back to. Although he wasn't supposed to go back to it. Eh, rules were made to be broken.
Pandoria walked past him shaking her head.
Mikhail shouted. "Alright where's Akhos? He's holding us up."
Malos responded "He decided to stay behind, and hold the fort. Someone had to do it. Don't worry though Mik, Patroka's coming."
Mikhail jumped back and Malos started laughing. Speaking of Malos…
"So that's your core then? Very… purple." Zeke realized that may have sounded weird...er than normal.
"Uhhh… okay." Malos said. He clearly had no idea how to respond to that.
"Alright last call. Everyone ready?" Mikhail said.
"I am." Rex said. Pyra smiled.
"You betcha." Zeke said and he and Pandy posed for dramatic effect.
Morag gave a slight nod.
"Tora is ready to roll." Poppi was standing behind him.
"Just start tha damn ship already!" Nia said impatiently. Dromarch shook his head.
Jin sighed. "Just board the ship." then Jin turned around and walked up the ramp. Mik followed him up, and then Patroka. Malos waited for everyone else to board. When Pyra passed him he nodded to her, and she nodded back. He wondered what that was about.
Ah well.
Rex's pov.
The ship was rising. Apparently someone had driven the bigger ship to the area nearby Tantal in the middle of the night. Though he wasn't sure why. No time like the present to ask he guessed.
"So uh… why exactly are we going to Tantal anyway? I mean… It just kinda came out of nowhere..."
"There's something you're gonna need there, in order to get to Elysium. I'm gonna take a guess and say it's the omega fetter." Jin said.
Zeke seemed to pop up at the statement, and his eye widened "The omega fetter, how in the blazes do you know about that?"
Rex was confused.
Pyra switched to Mythra. "Wait, the Omega fetter? Why is it in Tantal?"
"The omega… feather?" Rex asked.
Malos rolled his eyes "Fetter. F-E-T-T-E-R. Feh-ter. Geze it's not that hard Brat."
Pandoria responded to Mythra's question "the omega fetter is used to control Genbu. Genbu is the Titan that Tantal is on. Only I can communicate with it though."
"I see. I don't know how Tantal ended up with the control processor for Ophion though." Mythra said.
"Um sorry to interrupt… but Tora wondering, what exactly is Ophion?" Tora asked, confused. Rex understood his confusion.
Mythra switched back to Pyra. "You remember that thing that attacked us at the world tree?" He, Tora, Nia, Poppi, Dromarch, and Gramps nodded. "Well Ophion is what you call an Artifice. Siren is also an Artifice."
Malos spoke "I used to have My own siren, and a lot of Artifices called gargoyles. However, they were destroyed in the aegis war. Mythra commanded Ophion during the aegis war, but during the war it was destroyed."
"Though apparently not beyond repair." Gramps said and flew out of rex's helmet.
"The thing's been circling the world tree for a while." Patroka said. "It's been keeping us, and a bunch of other people out. Real annoying, that thing. Not unlike Mikhail."
"I see." Pyra said.
Mik walked into the room. "We've surfaced. Now what?"
Malos looked at Pandoria. "Now we let her do her thing.
Pandoria nodded. "Got it."
Morag's pov
They were standing on top of the Monoceros. Not the greatest idea but Zeke insisted that they needed to do it, and Pandoria backed him up on it.
It was sunrise.
"Feast your eyes on this! Take it away Pandy!" Zeke shouted.
Light came out of Pandoria's core and shot into the cloud sea.
As the titan rose she heard several people gasp. She frowned. It was a bit… disheartening, to see Zeke and Pandoria going home while her home was occupied and in tatters. But it wasn't their fault that it had happened. She had no one to blame for it but herself. If she had been more thorough… best not to think about it now though.
"Quite majestic wouldn't you say?" Azurda said.
She saw Jin nod. That blade was a strange one. Flesh eaters were just like that she guessed.
I am SO SO SORRY This took so long. I meant to have this done sooner but I got sick, and strangely I've started to procrastinate on this as if it were a school assignment. We're halfway done people. Sorry, this chapter was shorter than the last. I decided to just try to finish it, since it's been taking so long. There may be one more chapter coming out before summer starts, but
once it does you probably won't see another chapter until august. Sorry about that.
Oh right random facts.
Uhhhh
The Chinese space station's first module goes up this week? No that will be dated soon…
hmmm…
OH I'VE GOT IT! The confederate flag, Isn't the confederate flag. It's the confederate battle flag. The actual confederate flag is similar to the Union flag. (USA not UK, or soviets, or UAE.)