Eclipse (posted 2017/12/06)

Cypher felt the tension leave his body as he ended his meditation. He had spent a week, deep in focus, trying to find that singular point of balance between mind, body, and spirit. Seraphina had helped him get started, having performed this particular kind of meditation before, but once he had gotten going on the first day had left him to his own devices. But that was not all there was to it, for in his meditations he had to learn the feel of mana, its flow, and how it interacted with him whenever he put himself against it, shaping it to what he wanted. Now he felt that he could better handle that energy in the technique magicians called "centering."

It had turned out to be quite a surprise to Seraphina, how closely his magic aligned with hers. Once they had relocated and she had remade her lodge, her place of practice and learning the arcane, she had agreed to try and teach him a spell she knew. She knew full well that the wrong kind of lodge would make it impossible for him to learn any spells, but somehow, something had seemed to click in Cypher's mind. In her lodge, in a day, after having watched her levitating herself and studying the spell through his astral sight, Cypher had accomplished the very same spell upon himself. Upon this revelation that their magic was the same she had insisted upon taking down her lodge and having him help in its immediate reconstruction.

"Think you've got it?" Seraphina asked. She sat down behind him, draping her arms over his shoulders and lightly toying with his chest.

"I think so." he replied, taking her hands in his.

"Good. Now you can go take a shower. I got something I wanna talk about when you're done."

With a grunt Cypher pushed himself up off the floor. Sitting in the lotus position for long periods had become a little excruciating. Slowly he worked out the stiffness in his joints and the tightness in his muscles. Physically he may have looked like he was a twelve year old boy, and maybe he even might have had the same kind of bounce-back energy a real kid that age might have, but even a kid would feel sore after having sat still for hours on end for a week. Carefully he walked into the bathroom to take a hot shower.

They had not left Guy's garage that morning like they had planned. Hank said he knew someone that he thought might be able to help out considering their close encounter with bounty hunters. Turned out that someone could not help but instead arranged introductions with a Seattle fixer by the name of Joss Tomes. Monday morning was a meeting with the fixer at his employment agency up in Bellevue, which initially did not go too smoothly. After things managed to get smoothed out he made an appointment for them the next day.

So Tuesday was an introduction to Steven and Tanya Thornburg, legal UCAS citizens and a married couple. Tomes had arranged for them to pose as foster guardians for "Benjamin" and "Camren," unrelated kids rescued from a child smuggling ring. The short of it was that Joss knew someone in Knight Errant and a data broker. Recently a bunch of kids had been rescued from some Vory smugglers, and Joss had arranged for two more names to be added to the list, and some high quality fake SINs for Cypher and Seraphina (not for free, of course).

But that was about it so far when it came to their shiny new fake identities. No licenses or record of magical potential were included. Still, it was better than nothing, and they had hoped it would throw any Neo-Anarchist bounty hunters off their trail, if for at least a while.

However, fake identities were not all they had asked of the fixer. In addition to the new SINs were some new handguns, armor, and a few other articles. Cypher was surprised when Seraphina had opted to replace her wrecked Sakura Fubuki with an Ares Predator IV. She did opt in to get another, lighter pistol as a backup, especially since she still had over four hundred armor piercing rounds left for her Sakura Fubuki.

Their new home was the basement of a house east of Kent in the Renton district. The neighborhood was one of those idyllic suburbia dreams of families and middle wage incomes, where the kids could play in the streets till sundown and no one was worried about gangs. Even Seraphina wondered how tarnished the sterling silver surface really was. Most of the immediate neighbors were human, with two elfin families close by and one ork family down the street.

They had the entire basement to themselves, one of the agreements with the Thornburgs. The two would be left relatively to their own devices as long as they could avoid drawing attention to the fact that they really were not an ordinary family. Of course no one could avoid the irony in being an "ordinary" family. Mixed marriages were not all that common in the sixth world, even in the 2070's, and while Cypher and Seraphina were really elves that looked like human children, Steven was an elf and Tanya a human. They also knew that Cypher and Seraphina were much older than their appearances belied.

The Thornburgs were also sleepers, mundane people with no magical ability. Their first night at their new home Seraphina had gone out in the astral for some peeping around the immediate neighborhood. No homes were warded and no one she saw was awakened.

Technically most of the basement was theirs. It was mostly open for the entirety of the main house (it did not extend to beneath the garage), save for a few load bearing posts. A hot water heater and a natural gas furnace had their assigned spots along the back wall, and it looked like the previous owners had thought of turning it into a man cave or a rental home by adding plumbing for a toilet, shower, and sink as well as having a refrigerator. It was incomplete, and Tanya still had some reservations about letting the two live together in the basement, but she had ultimately given in. She seemed to have issues believing that Cypher was twenty-five and Seraphina was eighteen, and seemed to forget this from time to time.

After his shower Cypher walked back over to their bed where Seraphina lounged, completely unconcerned that all he had to cover himself was a towel over his shoulders as he dried himself off. She had three AROs open, and she looked up from the central one as he got closer.

"So, I thought I'd try to learn some more about the matrix and all while you meditated, so I started looking at the code you wrote." she said. "This is… wow."

"That what you wanted to talk about?" He tossed the towel at the foot of the bed and walked over to the dresser.

"Yeah, way more complicated than I thought it was when I tried helping you make some of this." She paused while he dressed, adding, "Though I don't know, I think I found something wrong with one of your programs."

"Oh?" he asked, just getting his pants on. He walked around to her side of the bed, seeing her indicating to one ARO and a section of highlighted code. He grabbed the ARO with his bare hand, their connected commlinks making a duplicate for him to pull away and turn around to read. "This my disarming program?"

Seraphina nodded. "Might be why it crashed on us. Doesn't look like you missed anything, I think, but I think you doubled up a variable or something."

Waving his hand through the ARO prompted the text to scroll. He waved it down to another part of the program, looked at it, and then with a seemingly arcane gesture jumped into another portion of the program. He did this two more times. "Shit." he cussed. "I didn't just double use a code fragment. This's gonna take some time to fix."

"Do we just not use it then?"

"I'm sure we'll have to risk it if it comes up. We'll save it for something more critical, and hope my cloaks hold out." He took a deep breath, and smelled something good.

"Smell's like lunch's ready." Seraphina said, closing out the AROs with a swipe of her hand before bounding off the bed, which was really a box spring and mattress on the floor with the rest of the bedding. Only half dressed and barefoot, Cypher followed her.

The stairs up were a bit more in the middle of the basement than along a wall, close to where the water heater and furnace were (they shared a gas line for fuel), and went up to the kitchen. As you entered the kitchen from these stairs, just to the right was another flight of stairs to go to the house's second story, where there were three more bedrooms, two bathrooms (one dedicated to the master bedroom), and a laundry room. The other two bedrooms were made up for Cypher and Seraphina, with the idea that if any of the other neighborhood kids about their "age" were over for a sleepover (for any reason) that those rooms would be used. Neither Cypher nor Seraphina had any problems with this, and between times in setting up their lodge had helped picking out some things to help personalize the rooms more.

Seraphina's stop was at the kitchen, a relatively nice and open room with an island counter in the center, a higher ceiling with a skylight, and a sliding glass door that went into a small greenhouse rather than to the backyard. Next to the fridge (yes, a real refrigerator to store and chill real food) was an unobtrusive charging station for the S-K Heimdrone named Alfred that was actually doing the cooking on a gas stove. With the practiced smoothness of a skilled cook it scooped up hamburger patties (yes, real beef), with a blanket of melted cheese (yes, real cheese), off the stove and deposited them on open buns (and yes, real bread).

Tanya was also there, sitting at one end of the island counter on a barstool. She was a rather attractive woman, with more curves than the current crop of biosculpted supermodels knew what to do with. Her long black hair was normally braided for work, but on a Saturday she left it relatively loose with a single band near her skull to tie it back in a simple ponytail. Her choice of clothing was also relatively relaxed, with long shorts and a high cut t-shirt to show off her calves and midriff. Along with some minor biosculpting of her own she only had a few bioware implants, mostly to enhance her work efficiency as an accountant. Her only obvious implant was a simple chrome datajack behind her right ear.

"Think we're gonna get spoiled with this kind of food all the time?" Cypher asked as he climbed up onto a stool on the other side of the island counter. Even growing up the two never had more than one meal a day of non-soy based (or krill, mycoprotine, etc.) flavored food product.

"Only if we run out of money to keep buying it." Seraphina answered, bumping the fridge door closed with her hips. In her hands were two bottles of Hugo Natural, both cherry.

"And hopefully you'll be willing to poke your heads up for work soon." Tanya added. "Doesn't matter how much cred you've got now, if you don't get jobs it will run out." She pulled her plate closer just after the drone placed it in front of her.

"Just as long as we don't end up having to fight off some bounty hunters again." Seraphina said. Tanya and Steven were already aware of the latest kidnapping attempt on Cypher and Seraphina. The other one months ago, when the two had just flown into Seattle, was still unknown to their hosts, partly because they did not want Tanya to worry any more than she already was.

"But when we don't have our own truck here, how're we supposed to get anywhere?" Cypher asked. "Not like we can just borrow your car anytime we need it, always calling a GridCab will be suspicious, and 'calling mommy' for a ride is seriously embarrassing no matter what we look like."

"And I don't think you'll want to be taking us down to… Sumner all the time so we can get our truck, too." Seraphina added. Since their original residence did not seem to be compromised they had opted to keep up paying the rent for it as well, using it as a safe house and to store Ironhide and the pack of security drones Cypher had. Things were set too so that any intruders would have a really bad day.

"I might have an answer for that." Steven announced as he walked in from the garage. Like Tanya he had dark hair and dark eyes, though his hair was more naturally curly and cut short. He was also big for an elf, standing a good two meters-ten, his own Seattle Screamers t-shirt bulging under muscle and augmentations. Where many elves tended to look slender and willowy at times, Steven looked more like the professional bodybuilder. He actually worked partly as an engineer at the Federated-Boeing plant north of where they lived, but was able and willing to do some of the heavier lifting work when the design work called for it.

"I just cleared out some space in front of our vehicles that should be enough for a few motorcycles." he continued, "You've got easy access from the stairs to the garage, so it should be easy for you to sneak out of the house." From the front door was a straight shot to the back, and the back yard if the greenhouse was not in the way. Turning right would show the kitchen to you, while turning left would give you the inside door to the garage.

"Oh God, you're still thinking about that?" Tanya asked. Apparently they had already spoken on the matter of motorcycles for the two, which would be much easier to hide compared to a large racing truck like a GMC Timberwolf.

"Well, it does make the most sense if we could stash a couple of motorcycles for them to use." Steven told her.

"Two?" Tanya cried. She made a noise that sounded like a half sigh and half groan. Cypher figured he had guessed right.

"Well, when we worked in Denver I mostly got around on a Katana-11. Knew a guy that fixed me up with a driver's license so the LEO drones didn't hassle me." Cypher told them.

"So you already know a bit about bikes, then." Steven said.

"But what happened to it?" Tanya asked, "Didn't seem like you had it when we met."

"Yeah…" Cypher went, running a hand through his hair. "It got wrecked on a job."

"What'd you do?"

"Failed to dodge a railgun shot."

Tanya's eyes went wide.

"Rigger with a gun drone, armed with a Thunderstruck." Cypher explained, "One shot and the whole rear wheel assembly was gone."

"That… will do it." Steven said. He sounded a bit impressed.

"But another motorcycle?" Tanya asked. "I don't like it."

"Well, they would be easier to store than a Timberwolf." Cypher said, "And I already know how to handle one."

"But she doesn't." Tanya countered, pointing at Seraphina.

"Gotta learn sometime." Seraphina replied. She actually seemed excited about the idea of riding her own motorcycle.

The look on Tanya's face told Cypher she had simply taken a wild guess, and guessed right. "Look, you want us working so we don't run out of cash to help pay the rent 'round here. But then you're balking at the idea of how we'll be able to get to those jobs. Unless you're fine with us borrowing your car whenever we get a call? Honestly we've gotten calls at all hours, and I've yet to meet a Johnson that's accommodating to our schedule to get a ride."

Tanya looked like she was seriously weighing the decision. "Fine." she said, finally relenting. Not like they could just take off and fly to every scene like Superman did.

"Right, so after lunch you two get dressed." Steven said, "I'm taking you to meet Eddie so we can set you two up with something."


"You still got your old ID chips?" Cypher asked as he led the way into their bedroom.

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

Cypher did not answer right away, and instead went to digging around in a storage box that had much of their other gear, pulling out an older Meta Link commlink and a chip case. He then popped the back off the simple commlink and slotted an identity chip into it.

"Just thinking it's best we don't use our new IDs for the buy." he told her. "But we'll want to stop somewhere on the way to get you a cheap Meta first."

"In case we gotta pitch 'em?"

"Yup."


It actually had not been difficult at all to get Steven to stop off at a cheap electronics store. He did not even ask why when Seraphina bought herself the cheapest model possible before getting a disposable commlink. After that it was off to see Eddie.

Eddie worked at a dealership called Maxine's Machinery, and if the size of the two story office building was any indication it was a big business.

There was a chill wind coming in strong from the south west, and among the clothes that Cypher and Seraphina wore over their formfitting body armor were the cold weather jackets they had gotten over a year and a half ago at the Winterland ski resort. He was glad they still had those jackets when a cold gust of wind hit them as they walked to the showroom doors.

Inside was your atypical dealership. The front room was spacious with a very high ceiling, and numerous vehicles of various types were parked around on display. Each vehicle had an ARO tag that gave all sorts of details, like fuel efficiency, horsepower, and of course price (both nuyen and UCAS dollars).

"Steven!" a man called out.

"Hey Eddie." Steven responded, raising his hand towards the other man.

Eddie was relatively sharply dressed in a dark gray suit, his black hair in a classic short cut. He had the more classic slim build of an office worker, but moved with a smoothness of someone used to being constantly in motion.

"C'mon, we'll talk in my office." Eddie told them, heading towards the back offices. As warm as it was inside the three had already taken their jackets off by the time they got there and Eddie closed the door behind them.

"So, these are the two you told me about?" Eddie asked as he walked around to sit at his desk, gesturing to the others to also take a seat. There were already three chairs waiting for them.

"That they are." Steven said, sitting down first.

"Just how much did he tell you?" Cypher asked, eyeing the door as he and Seraphina also sat.

"To not put a too fine a word on it, shadowrunners that don't look their age." Eddie answered. "And that you'll need some kind of more discrete transportation of your own since the Thornburgs won't be able to drive you around to all your soccer matches."

"That about sums it up." Seraphina said.

"So, with that in mind I've got something perfect…"

"Just as long as it ain't a pair of Papooses." Cypher interrupted.

"Well, actually…"

"What's a Papoose?" Seraphina asked.

"A moped." Cypher answered.

"Fuck that! I don't care…"

"How legal it'll look?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah!"

"Two years ago I drove around Denver on a Katana-11." Cypher said, "Cops were apathetic enough most of the time, and don't forget there's five different security services there, including the Knight."

"Aren't there only four sectors?"

"There's also the ZDF. They handle the borders."

Eddie took a deep breath. "Well, there's another option that may or may not escape notice." he said, "But it's also quite a bit more expensive."

"How much more?" Cypher asked.

"We do have a variety of motorcycles. Some models by Suzuki and Yamaha."

"Sounds like featherweights." commented Seraphina.

"Yeah, was hoping for something a bit heavier, like this year's Katana-11 or something." Cypher added.

"Well, I do have some really heavy duty motorcycles in the back, but you're looking at at least fifteen thousand nuyen a piece." Eddie told them.

"That's all? Just fifteen thousand?" Cypher asked.

Eddie actually blinked, his eyes wide. Looked like he had monetarily forgotten they were not kids.

"Never mind that. Just what are they?" Steven asked.

"What I've got in mind is an older model, made back in sixty-two. Harley-Davidson Diablos." Eddie told them.

"Wow, back when I really looked my age." Seraphina commented.

"It does mean that parts would be harder to come by, as would making any upgrades." Eddie added.

"And I know my way around a garage." Cypher countered.

"Well, if you've got the cred there's a place across the street that'll rent you what you need to do your own work." Eddie told them.

"And a kickback for a referral?" Seraphina asked.

Eddie simply grinned.

"Take it that's a yes?" Cypher silently asked Seraphina.

"Well, let's at least look at them first." she replied.

"No deals just yet." Cypher said, "First let's see the goods."


It was late and Cypher found Seraphina in the garage, looking at their newest acquisitions: a pair of Harley-Davidson Diablos, heavy duty combat motorcycles that were last produced a year before she had been born. She had fallen in love with them the moment Eddie started one up, the deep throaty rumble of the idling engine telling everyone that they still had their horsepower.

But Cypher had ideas on modifying the motorcycles. The motorcycles had already been upgraded with more modern electronics by the previous owner, but had not done anything beyond that. It was going to take him some time to upgrade the dog brain so it could handle a set of smart tires, but then he was also going to retool the engine and add a powerful turbocharger to help handle the added weight of those tires. It was something he was already familiar with, having done it to his Katana-11 nearly two years ago.

"Still can't quite believe it?" he asked her.

"Yeah." she softly said. She walked over to one of the motorcycles and mounted it. What adjustments that could be made for their smaller physiques had already been done, and she was able to comfortably grip the handlebars of the heavy motorcycle. If she were too much shorter she would have needed an adaption kit like what dwarves used so their squat bodies could be accommodated. She was still in complete awe that she had her own vehicle, her first ever. Though she was unlikely to admit it, Cypher had seen the same thrill in her eyes when the engine had first been started up for them.

"You really think I can help fixing them up?" she asked, looking away from the motorcycle's console to Cypher. "I mean, I don't know shit about this stuff."

"Not like it'll be that hard." he told her, "You already know the difference between a socket wrench and a crescent wrench. It's not like this's rocket science."

Seraphina looked back down at the console. "Why're you so different?" she asked. "If I… If I was still at home, my mom'd be going off about me doing stuff like coding matrix programs or fixing up a bike, saying I should be more interested in dresses and… But… you're more like…"

Cypher shrugged. "Honestly I don't care." he told her, drawing a shocked look from her. "Hey, didn't mean it like that!" he added, putting up his hands, "It's just that… well…" He let his hands slip back down, relaxing. "If you weren't interested I wouldn't be making a big deal about that either. I don't believe in those archaic gender roles." After a pause he said, "C'mon. It's late. We should get some sleep. Don't forget, you wanted to watch the eclipse coming up."


The rest of the weekend passed without incident, though they did end up having to spend time with some of the neighbor kids at a park just south of the street they lived on. It was not too bad overall, and reminded both of them of their last summer over in New York. Cypher hoped that none of them were racially bigoted like one woman and her daughter back in Queens, though Seraphina more than easily noticed that one of the neighbor boys seemed to have a crush on her.

Monday afternoon they received their replacement pistols and other gear from Joss, which included a pair of jackets from Shiawase's Aces High line (Ace Of Diamonds base design). While the clothing they had gotten could easily be bought at any mass retail outlet store, finding anything that had a ruthenium polymer coating and layer of nonconductive insulation would have been next to impossible, especially in something that would fit either of them properly. The silvery-gray jackets also had some custom patches detailing them, with a large sword and shield on the back overlaid with a stylized set of bird wings and body (something called a "Triforce Eagle" they were told) dominating the back. To Cypher it looked similar to his online icon, except the wings were swept up higher and blade rose higher up to allow space for the a of triangles between the cross guard and the bird-like body. On the left breast of Seraphina's jacket was a phoenix with upswept wings rising from a pyre, done in a tribal style, white on a round and bright red field. On Cypher's was his online icon with a slight change, the same winged sword of silver on black, but the pommel was redone to look like a regal lion's head. The rest of their clothing was simplistic, but also in line with Seattle's fashion trend and less outlandish than the dressCODE CYBERPIRATE ensemble they had gotten.

Most of Tuesday was spent in preparation for the lunar eclipse that night. An eclipse of any kind is often rare, and for some seeing one is more luck at being at the right place at the right time, and the week after Valentine's Day there was to be a total lunar eclipse visible to all of North America down to as far south as the southern tip of Chile. Seraphina was particularly excited, especially since the last two last year had their best view over most of Asia and Australia. The last lunar eclipse she could have seen was a penumbral in April of 2070 and she had not been allowed to stay up through the school night to see it.

The garage roof was not all that bad a place to watch the night sky. The house was a gable and valley design, with the valley over the garage itself rather than the house proper. It was here where they could lie relatively comfortably and have a nice view of the southern sky. The weather was cooperating, with only a few wispy clouds far from threatening to block any Seattle view of the lunar eclipse.

It was close to the time the eclipse was supposed to start when they got settled up on the garage roof, and knowing that neither of them would be able to just lie around to watch the moon for several hours straight Cypher brought out his guitar to practice some music, linked to their commlinks so only they would actually hear the notes that he plucked.

At about 21.00 they noticed the edge of Earth's shadow, the penumbra, starting to creep up from the bottom of the moon.

"Wow. It's starting." Seraphina softly said.

"Still be a while yet. Whole show's over four hours long. Gonna be almost an hour before it really gets dark."

There was a short stretch of silence before Seraphina mused, "I wonder what it's like up there. On one of the lunar bases, watching the Earth right now. I know there's no magic up there, but still…"

"Probably like if we were under a total solar eclipse, but a lot longer than a few minutes."

Cypher slowly worked on, and repeated, his practice lessons, half watching the moon as it progressively grew darker and darker as it crept higher into the sky. It was well past 22.00 when the darkening shadow started to turn red, and Seraphina broke the silence.

"Strange that it's turning red now."

"Hmm?" Cypher went, mentally pushing his ARO sheet music and fingering guides aside to better see the moon. Slightly offset to the left, the bottom part of the moon was now a red tinged dark gray, the umbra, following the same path the penumbra had started over an hour ago.

"Why does it do that? Turn red like blood?" Seraphina asked.

Cypher brought up a new ARO window to do a search online. It was not long before he had a few answers, some of them seemingly quite crazy, but he chose one that was the right answer to him.

"It's sunlight filtered around the Earth by the atmosphere. Blue light's scattered away but red can get through."

Then he brought up one of the more prevalent answers, most of them dated within the last few days, and in reading one he could not help but chuckle.

"What's funny?"

"There's someone claiming that the eclipse isn't what the media's saying, that it's turning red because it's really sucking up all the smog to filter it out of the atmosphere."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, apparently this person's someone called a 'Flat Earther.'" Cypher continued. "Says the moon's really a self-illuminated disk only five thousand kilometers above us, and that the Corporate Court's using it to clean the atmosphere tonight, so that's why it's getting dirty."

"That… That doesn't even make sense!" After what felt like a painful pause to Cypher she asked, "And he thinks the Earth's flat?"

"Yeah." he answered, "Says it's a C.C. conspiracy to keep everyone ignorant of the truth."

"Well… That's kinda true." she replied offhandedly. "But… Earth being flat?"

Cypher chuckled. Neither of them were fools when it came to what the Corporate Court said or did, and that they kept the truth from much of the world. But the idea that the Earth was flat was something they both found to be ludicrous. It was on a sub-orbital flight from Seattle to Hamburg, Germany they were on last year, and though the illumination had been rather poor they both had gotten a look at Hudson Bay and the curvature of the Earth with their own eyes.

Little more was said while the red moon climbed higher in the southern sky, Cypher lazily plucking the strings of his guitar.

"What if this isn't really real?" Seraphina suddenly asked.

"Really real?"

"Yeah, like we're still in VR, but what we call VR's really some other kind of VR?"

"So, um, like that old flatvid where people are in a virtual world but batteries in reality?"

"Yeah."

Cypher thought about it for a bit. The main character in that old flatvid would have been brushed off as any number of otaku from the fifties and the early part of the sixties, a person who could navigate the virtual worlds of the matrix with nothing more than a datajack with an ASIST converter (older version of the modern sim module), and even expertly manipulate the very code itself with nothing more than sheer willpower. At the very basics it was the same for technomancers now, though the datajack was not necessary.

But like with the shape of the Earth itself, experience told Cypher something else. He sighed, remembering the digital worlds of the resonance, places like the Endless Archive and the World Tree. Even the ultraviolet VR prison they experienced in Tokyo, as debilitating as that environment had been to him, told him otherwise. There was a wholly different feel to the resonance realms than the hottest VR network or reality.

"No, I don't think we're in some kind of super UV VR world." he said. "We've seen too much. We can't be just some random characters in a box on someone's desk." He sighed again, setting his guitar aside so he could pull Seraphina in close to him. "Wish I could've brought you along to see the Endless Archive or the World Tree. I think you'd've loved 'em."

"It's okay." she told him, snuggling in just a little closer again. Maybe it was indeed okay, but that did not quite change how he felt. With his lost technomancer abilities he would never again visit those worlds beyond the matrix, and despite being awakened now he had no way of being able to travel on his own, beyond to the metaplanes to witness their wonder.

It was about midnight when the moon started to grow darker again, losing its blood red coloring.

"Huh, that's weird." Seraphina commented.

"What is?"

"The shadow came up from the bottom of the moon, but it's going back out at the left side."

Cypher took a closer look at the shadowy moon. The path of the eclipse certainly was not straight, appearing as though it had taken a right turn instead of moving straight on up. He opened up a new ARO to search the matrix. After a minute or two he found one with an off scale 3D map of the solar system. "It's 'cause of where we're at and all the planetary movement stuff." he said, switching the ARO to their private mesh to show her. "If we were actually down south in Tenochtitlán the shadow'd come up from the bottom and drop back down again."

"So if the Earth really were flat…" Seraphina mused.

"Then shouldn't it look the same everywhere?" Cypher finished. They both laughed.

"Well, I don't know about you," Seraphina said as she sat up, "but I've seen enough for tonight. And I'm getting cold."

Cypher closed out the AROs from his vision and carefully they both made their way back to their home's second story and the window that gave them access to the roof. They were quiet so they did not disturb Steven and Tanya, partly as practice for whenever they might have to sneak out for a job. Carefully they crept down the stairs, both flights, to the basement. It did not take long for either of them to fall asleep once they had gotten stripped and in bed.

Cypher awoke to a pain in his head, a reverse pressure between his eyes and at his ears that could not seem to find a way out. It was also harder to breathe. As he pushed himself upright he realized moving had been a mistake as his sense of balance had gone crazy, and the part of his body now no longer covered by a nice warm blanket felt chilled to the marrow of his bones.

Seraphina groaned as she woke up. Slowly and unsteadily she pushed herself upright, and she shivered.

"Not feeling alright?" he asked. His own voice sounded different, a bit deeper than normal.

"No." she croaked.

He pulled a blanket back up over the both of them, finding that the less he moved the less he ached. Then his stomach gurgled to remind him that it was past time for breakfast.

"Guess we should get upstairs." Seraphina softly said.

They dressed, at least a little for decency, before they each took a blanket to drape over their shoulders and headed up to the kitchen.

Tanya was already in the kitchen, light from the rising sun filtering in from the family room and back in from the back yard. Her hair was up and she was fully dressed for work as she sat at the island nursing a cup of coffee (yes, real coffee).

"Well now, aren't you two a pair." she said as Cypher climbed up first onto a stool, eyes half opened as he groaned softly from the effort. "Enjoy the eclipse last night?"

"Was a lot slower a show than I expected." Seraphina said as she wiggled her way up onto her own stool. She barely got her blanket covered hand over her mouth to block a sneeze.

"Uh oh." Tanya said, setting down her coffee mug. She smoothly slid off her stool and walked around the island to the two. "You two feeling as miserable as you look?" she asked.

"Prob'ly." Cypher answered.

"Now don't complain about this." Tanya told them. Starting with Cypher she put her hand to his forehead, and had he been feeling better he certainly would have said something about being treated like the child he looked like. Apparently Seraphina was also feeling too miserable to say anything when Tanya did the same to her as well.

"Yup, looks like you two caught a cold." Tanya announced. "Probably from staying out too long to watch the eclipse."

"Worth it." Seraphina muttered.

Tanya shook her head. "We'll see if you're feeling that way tonight. Alfred, two bowls of chicken soup, and go for the canned stuff."

The heimdrone perked its head up and stepped from its charging station, turned and walked to the pantry. Cypher was somewhat lost in thought, between conscious and oblivion, when the drone placed a bowl of hot soup before him. It was just a little too hot to start, and after letting it cool for a minute or two he then started eating.

After they had eaten Seraphina slid off her stool. She got two steps towards the stairs, just as Cypher was turning on his stool to follow, when Tanya spoke up.

"Why don't you two crash on the couch instead, it'll be warmer than the basement." she said, "I'll get you some more blankets.

Seraphina grumbled incoherently as she turned around to walk into the living room. Cypher was right behind her. When they got to the couch he dropped down first, opening his blanket as she went to lie down next to him like they were a pair of spoons, pulling her own blanket over the both of them. The next thing he knew Tanya was pulling a heavy quilt over them.

"What about your job?" Cypher asked.

"I'll call in a sick day and work from home. Besides, we gotta keep up appearances, right? No good parent or guardian's gonna leave a couple of sick kids home alone."

"Thanks." Cypher said softly. Seraphina grunted something, rolling over a little to try and get comfortable again.

It was a little after noon when Tanya roused them from a deep, hot sleep. She had a tray with two more hot bowls of chicken noodle soup for them. She made them eat, and after the first few spoonfuls they realized just how hungry they really were. After a glass of juice and a trip to the toilet they crashed right back on the couch again.

They had visitors later that evening, Hitomi and Honami, twin girls from across the street that were about as old as Seraphina looked. They were disappointed when Tanya told them she could not come out to play with them. Saddened, the two left their well wishes behind. Neither of them had moved from the couch where they lay, and Cypher wondered of Seraphina had even heard the doorbell ring. He said nothing, letting sleep overtake him again.

Dinner may have been repetitive with more chicken noodle soup for the two, but it was about all the two really felt like having to eat. After a hot shower it was off to bed, their regular bed down in the basement. It would not be quite as cold as Steven had stopped by a store to pick up a space heater, and gently blew hot air towards their bed.

It was late when Cypher's commlink went off, buzzing like a deranged toy rodent at his side of their bed. The call was almost rerouted to voice mail by the time Cypher managed to grab hold of it and hit the answer icon.

"Yeah?" Cypher asked, tired, his throat dry and voice rather gravelly.

"Hey, sorry for the late call." apologized Joss Tomes, "Got someone needing some talent for a job that might be right up your alley."

Cypher turned his head away, holding his commlink at arm's length just before he sneezed. Twice more he sneezed, just as violently as the first.

"Whoa, hey, you okay?" Joss asked. "You sound terrible."

"No, not okay." Cypher's head was starting to pound, like two trolls with twenty-five kilo sledges were hammering away at his temples.

Seraphina groaned, rolling over at his side.

"Drek, no offense kid, but you do really sound horrible. Alright. I know someone else I can call. I'll put you both out of rotation for a week. Get well soon."

"Thanks." Cypher croaked towards his commlink. He could tell from the glow of his commlink's screen, the change of its ambient colors, that Joss had ended the call. He let it slip from his fingers, and it clattered on the floor.

Turning back to Seraphina, Cypher grabbed a handful of their blankets and pulled it over them as he put his arm back around her. It was not long until he was back in the warm, blissful oblivion of sleep.


Steven sighed when Tanya came back into their bedroom. "Are you done peeping in on them?" he asked as she sat down on her side of their king sized bed. He pulled her in close for a hug, though she seemed a little distant.

"Hey, they're not really kids, you know." he told her.

Tanya sighed. "Sorry, I can't help it." she confessed, "I know it. The way they talk. The way they act. They… Drek, he still gives me the creeps."

Steven gave her an extra squeeze. It was something that they could not quite explain about Cypher, no matter how calm and casual and pleasant he was it felt like he had a part of the Devil himself inside. "And despite all that you are acting like their mother anyway." he said.

She took a deep breath and sighed.

"Still worried about that other thing?" he asked.

Closing her eyes, Tanya groaned. Steven cursed his luck in bringing up something that had not just been on her mind.

"Sorry. I guess I shouldn't've mentioned that." After it looked like Tanya was not going to say anything he added, "Hey, I'm concerned about it too. But if we start acting like they're gonna be coming anytime now we'll start making everyone nervous."

Still saying nothing, Tanya tipped her head to rest it against his shoulder.

"Besides, short of making themselves look like dwarves they've don't a lot to cover their tracks." Steven added, "Tomes practically guaranteed their SINs are clean."

"And those bikes they bought?" Tanya asked.

"Under different SINs. Saw it myself. Ben told me they've got several different fake IDs, he wouldn't say how many, but they're pretty sure they've got only one that the Neo-Anarchists know about."

"But it won't be if, but when those two get found out."

"And they know it." Steven reassured her. "Look, I don't know any more about shadowrunning than you do, but we both know they're not just some kids playing at it. They've got their eyes wide open."

"I just hope they see the Anarchists coming."