Chapter 10: Fear
A/N: The consideration of a sheer scarcity of small-sized sustenance burns.
The harsh cold of the hard, unforgiving metal floor seeped into Nia.
All around her, the opulent, gilded decorations of the room of her cell tried its best to hide the fact that she was a prisoner. Who wasted this much on a jail cell, and on a ship of all things? She pointedly ignored the comfortable looking cot in the corner of the room since it didn't match her mood.
Arms wrapped around her knees, drawn up to her chest, she tried to make herself as small as possible. The hum of the Indoline ship and the gentle sway of the Titan that powered it drilled her thoughts in a terrible circle. She'd already tried calling on the ether here - hers not through Dromarch's affinity link - but something was stopping it.
Time passed slowly.
What had she been thinking? Had she really thought that she could be on the run forever?
Really?
No. She'd known it was always been a possibility, no matter how careful she was. She'd even succeeded for a little bit, and gained a sense of normality acting like a freelance Driver taking on mercenary jobs. But eventually all it took was the wrong person recognizing Dromarch, and in came the Indoline monks ambushing them in the dead of night. At least he was somewhere on this ship too.
She remembered hearing stories while she'd been on the run of how the Praetorium disposed of flesh eaters.
Sighing, she hugged her knees closer to her chest, burying her face and cutting off sight of the stupid room. What was the point of it all? Even if she had gained that power, in the end, she still couldn't save her 'sister,' and her 'father'...
She shuddered.
Her ears perked up at the sudden sound of a warning siren and she looked warily up at the door. Leaning forward, she could hear the sounds of the Indoline monks who'd captured her fighting - or maybe by the sound of it, failing to fight - something. Her hidden core pounded.
She winced as the alarm cut off and soon there weren't any sounds. Then, a single set of footsteps getting closer. Was this it? Not even a death at the hands of those who'd hunted her, but by some raider? Pirates? Pathetic.
The sounds came closer, and the screams of someone close pierced the solid door. Was that close? She was almost glad when the solid metal of the cell door swung open. Better to get it over with quick than all this suspense.
A man with silvery white hair stared at her, ice blue eyes boring into hers behind a horned white mask that left the lower part of his face uncovered. A long thin sword sheathed on his back, a pure red crystal on its hilt. The eyes of the stranger glanced over to something fixed in the wall behind her, then back. There was a long moment of silence.
"Well," she snapped, "are you going to kill me or what?"
The stranger said nothing, but walked forward and, to her surprise, extended one of his hands down to her. She looked up at it, confused.
"Will you come with me?" It wasn't an order or a command. An invitation.
"Huh?" Her ears twitched hesitantly, not sure if she'd heard right. "You aren't going to demand I come with you, or drag me along?"
"I will not make you, but do you really want to stay here, of all places?"
Averting her eyes, she scoffed. "Of course not." Her eyes caught the sight of two guards outside the door, slumped and bleeding. The healer in her itched go and fix it, but she tore her eyes away. "What are you doing on an Indoline ship anyways? You know they won't forgive someone killing their own like that."
"They won't know."
"What, because you'll run away really fast? I'm proof enough that won't work."
"We're not running." A part of her didn't like the implications of that, and the other part wanted to make the bastards suffer. "Will you come with me?"
She was still hesitant. How could she not be, after those years of running and fighting? "Why?"
"Because." There was something sad in his eyes, and at the same time she knew that pain. Her hidden core thrummed and her eyes widened at the chilly feeling of ether brushing up against her, there one moment and gone the next.
"You're just like me."
Extending her hand upward, she grasped her hand in his, and he lifted her up.
"Look out!"
Lora ducked underneath the swing of the arachno queen's barbed leg, and retaliated, slashing Pyra's red flaming sword - still unfamiliar in her hand - and it cut straight through the armoured chitin.
The massive arachno screeched in protest, and a moment later hissed out saliva in retaliation that was far too yellow not to be poisonous. Pyra stepped in front of her, raising her ether barrier to block the substance. It splattered off the shield onto the metal floor, sizzling as it landed, the substance steaming as it bubbled, melting the floor slightly. A coppery tang went up her nose, almost like blood.
The queen spat out a little more and it splashed on the ground behind the shield, splattering up and hitting Pyra on the leg. She winced, and a moment later, Lora hissed through her teeth as she felt an echo of that pain.
"It seems your fate is now inexplicably tied to hers, even more so than that of any normal Driver and Blade. When one of you becomes injured, the other will experience a mirror image of that pain."
Ahkos' words ringing in her ears, she passed the sword back to Pyra, both of them backing off and allowing Mikhail to step in to take the heat.
"You know," Nia shouted over the skittering of what had to be hundreds of little antols, desperately slashing at them with Dromarch's twin ring weapons, "when you said we were going through an abandoned industrial district, I thought it would be more, I dunno, abandoned!"
Mikhail danced around a ferocious bite from the queen, and put up Cressidus' massive metal gauntlets to block it stamping down with its uninjured front leg, putting them in a strength standoff. "So it's got a few bugs that moved in since I was last here."
"A few?!"
"Well, like it or not, It's blocking both ways out of here," he grunted, and shoved forward with Cressidus' huge metal gauntlets, pushing back the arachno, which staggered back from the blow. "A little help here?"
Knocking a few antols that attempted to jump her away with a quick jab and a kick, Lora freed up the moment for Pyra to stab her sword into the ground, a wave of fire spreading forward to burn a small path through the antols to the queen arachno.
Nearby her, Dromarch's twin rings - guided by tiny waves of water - surged around him and Nia, cutting through the antols, sending their guts around them. Where the water ether from Dromarch met Pyra's flames, it sent up billowing steam, knocking away more antols. The smell that followed made her stomach turn.
Catching the twin rings, Nia dashed through the new path and dug it into the recovering queen's other intact front leg, water lancing about it, making it waver. Mikhail bashed its head in with a punch and it careened into the wall, toppling over as it collapsed.
Seizing the moment, Lora and Pyra's link surged. In a feat of adrenaline, ignoring the growing mirrored pain in her leg from the bile, Lora skidded forward underneath the monstrosity. Just as she reached the middle of its belly she shouted, uppercutting into its belly with her fist, launching it into the air.
"Swap with me, Pyra!"
"On it!"
Back hand-springing away, Lora felt the affinity link between them surge. Heat rushed into the enclosed room, and fire swirled in an instant underneath the giant arachno. An instant later, it leapt into a towering pillar of flame that kept it suspended in the air. It screeched in painful protest.
"Cressidus!"
Mikhail tossed his massive gauntlets to Cressidus, who scrambled up the pipes on the wall, launching himself into the queen arachno as the pillar of flame dispersed. The arachno flailed, screeching again as he grappled it mid-air and used his momentum to slam it into the ground with an earthy rumble that made Lora's teeth rattle.
In a spectacular moment, the gathered ether from their attacks exploded outward in a steam explosion, blowing a huge chunk of the arachno with it. Thankfully, the guts sprayed away from them, splattering instead on the far wall.
All the tiny antols left alive in the room froze as the queen twitched a couple more times before curling inward on itself as it finally died, slowly dissipating into earthy motes of ether. The antols scattered, skittering away into holes and out of the room, as if sensing they were outmatched.
The room grew eerily silent, filled with only the sound of all of them breathing. She was the one breathing the hardest.
Breathing out a shaky sigh of relief, Lora came out of her combat stance, wincing as she put weight on her leg. It was going to hurt once the adrenaline faded, but she ignored it for the moment. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah," Nia lowered her weapons, "just peachy."
"Well, it's not exactly the open air adventure I had in mind, but it could be worse, right?"
"It's true, Lady Lora." Dromarch shook himself, splattering Nia with antol guts, with a shout of protest from her. "At least we had only started making camp. I fear what it would have been like if we were fully asleep."
"Please don't say that, Dromarch," Nia whined. "That's the last thing I want to think about." She watched as Nia tried wiping off the splattered guts on her on to the wall with little success, eventually giving up to instead glare at Mikhail. "So. Abandoned?"
He shrugged. "It was, but I haven't been here in decades."
"And you couldn't have mentioned it'd been so long before?"
"We handled ourselves, didn't we?"
"And what if Ardainian soldiers come around to check and see what the noise was?"
"They won't." His answer was confident. "The Ardainian Titan's ether line here went dead and the empire found another better geothermal vent closer to the capital. That was almost fifty years ago. Recently, I was considering using the space for a temporary staging area before I found something better, but that's beside it all. Point is, we're all fine."
Nia snorted, giving up. "I'm going to be cleaning antol bits out of Dromarch's fur for weeks." She started carefully picking up her belongings which had been scattered about in the skirmish. "I don't know about all of you, but I'm not tired anymore. We should get out of here before something else crawls out of the metalworks."
Lora nodded. "Agreed." She and Pyra started carefully gathering their meagre belongings which had been set down for the evening camp. "It might be rough, but we ought to press on, at least until we're out of the nest."
Pyra turned to Cressidus, a smile on her face. "Well, at least we know we can all work well together. That slam was awesome, Cressidus!"
Cressidus puffed out his chest, pride seeping into his voice. "I call it the leonine pile driver. Mik and I have been in the Marsanes updating its systems for a while so we haven't had a chance to put it to good use. It's great to know that I haven't lost my style!"
Mikhail sighed. "Don't encourage the big guy. He's got a big enough head already. You get him going about style, he won't stop. For days. Trust me."
Pyra smiled. "I thought it was wonderful."
She could almost imagine Cressidus cracking a grin as he put out his fist. The golden mask hid anything that could be a mouth. "Couldn't have done it without your set up." He and Pyra bumped knuckles, the comparison in size of their hands almost comically different.
"At least she didn't burn the whole place down this time," Mikhail muttered just loud enough for them to hear. She saw Pyra's smile drop as he went off and grabbed his stuff, bundling it and viciously slung it over his shoulder. "C'mon, Cressidus; let's keep going."
As he stormed away up the metal stairs the arachno had been blocking, Cressidus hesitated, before following at a slower pace. She heard Pyra let out a soft sigh.
Ignoring the building pain in her leg, Lora quickly slung her own pack over her back and wrapped an arm around a distraught looking Pyra's shoulder. "It's alright. A hurt like the one he's carrying will take time to heal."
They paused as Nia and Dromarch passed by, the Gormotti's ears flat in annoyance against her head as she muttered irritably under her breath.
Pyra sighed. "I don't blame him. Because I hid myself away, that wound has only had time to fester. Me bringing you back only ripped it wide open. Me being here just made it worse, didn't it?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Just give it time. Besides that, remember that I'm glad that you're here, that I got to see Jin again."
"Even if he's not here right now?"
"I won't deny that I'm worried about him."
"What about what Malos said?"
"I'm... not sure," she trailed off.
"You think a man wouldn't change in five-hundred years? You should be ashamed, especially since you're the one who broke him."
Had it really been that selfish, wanting to be remembered by those she loved?
She shook Malos' voice out of her head. "Even so, we're in this together, Pyra. I'm not sure how or what yet, but I know there's something we can do." There had to be, for both Mikhail and Jin too, if Malos was right. "Even if, in the end, it'll be up to them to forgive you." Or not. Though she left that part out.
Pyra looked thoughtful, before turning to look her dead in the eyes. "So tell me. Do you really forgive me for what I did to your home?"
"I…" She sighed. "I don't know. I don't think that's who you are."
A sad, almost knowing smile formed on her face. "But you're still scared of what I can do."
The hesitation in her answer must have given her away. Lora averted her eyes. "I am," she admitted.
"That's okay. I'm sure it'll just take time, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Oi!" They both looked up the metal staircase towards what would hopefully lead out of this place. Nia was waving at them a metal catwalk above, having already ascended up one flight of the stairs. "Are you two coming, or do you want to be eaten by antols?"
Pyra waved back and cheerfully called out, "coming!" and started picking her way around the dead antols toward the stairs. With what had just happened now and the other day, Lora couldn't help but feel that cheerfulness was just a mask.
She was right though. Lora still needed time to sort out her feelings on everything. Knowing that she was the Driver of the Aegis...scared her. Even though she was telling the truth when she said she was grateful to be able to see Jin again after it all, the kind of power Pyra had…
The memory of Addam collapsing, Mythra screaming, Hugo dying, Torna burning. It all came unbidden to her mind. Did she really want to be responsible for that kind of power?
She took a step up the stairs. Or, tried to.
The wound flared, and she and Pyra cried out as her leg gave out underneath her.
The darkness of the empty decrepit hall echoed in Mikhail's footsteps, tracing into his thoughts which rolled in a frustrating cycle.
He'd claimed he went off to scout the area; a lame excuse, even if it made sense. But they all had to know. While Nia tended to Lora, he went to cool his head, alone, uncaring of direction as he continued picking his way around the rusting industry.
It just pissed him off.
On one hand, the Aegis was Lora's Blade, and because of the situation, she'd tied her life to hers. Lora had gotten hurt because of her.
On the other hand, Lora was here. Really here. She wasn't just some vain memory entombed in ice anymore; an unsettling reminder of the past that Jin refused to fully let go. She was alive.
But, it had been easier to cope, to live as normal a life as he could when she had just been a pleasant memory, when he could put her out of his mind easily enough. He didn't have to face the music when the music was on ice.
Now he had to sift through the memories, the guilt and anger of all the things he'd long since thought he'd buried. All the things he'd experienced and done over nearly five centuries - the good, the bad, the horrible.
And the Aegis. He grimaced as the hate festered. Now that Lora was awake, the Aegis almost never left her sight. While he was helping Lora finish her elemental braided rope using the tools in his workshop, the Aegis hovered by her, almost incessantly, and he'd never once had a chance to talk to Lora on her own.
Slamming his fist against the wall in frustration, he continued to storm down the hallway. Why did this have to be so complicated? Patroka wasn't complicated.
A distant voice broke him out of his thoughts and he stopped to listen more carefully. He'd been picking his way through the area carelessly, and wasn't sure exactly how he'd gotten here. The voice sounded again, and this time he was sure that it didn't sound like someone from his group.
Looks like someone else moved in too, not just the antols and arachno.
Slowing his walk to be purposefully stealthy for another minute, he headed towards the sound, and started picking up other voices mixed in it, arguing. He eventually tracked it down to the end of the hall, the voices coming from to the path to the right of a t-shaped intersection ahead of him. Reaching the end, he pressed his body against the wall and carefully peered around the corner.
"- and my men are getting restless. All the pieces are in place. We are ready to strike on all fronts. The Inquisitor is absent. So I will ask it again: why do you wait?"
He immediately spotted two men - mercenaries, thugs or some such - standing guard in front of a metal door, near a large broken glass window, clouded by age and dust. His eyes narrowed in confusion at the sight as he looked through to a remnant of a room that had long ago lost its purpose. Who would go through the trouble of dragging a pristine, ornate throne like that out here? Unless…
"The timing must be perfect. There are no exceptions."
Oh. This guy.
The voice was regal sounding, almost like a character out of one of Ahkos' plays, overdramatically royal to the point of being obnoxious. "Otherwise the replacement for the Ardainian throne won't be able to handle the switch."
Mikhail's eyebrows rose at the interesting tidbit. Well, that escalated quickly.
The first voice, a deep baritone, scoffed. "Your insistence on timing has already forced us to move our operations once already. Any more of this waiting is going to get us caught by the Empire before anything happens. If it happens again, the Bloody Lobsters will withdraw their support from your coup."
Another familiar name. He hadn't heard that gang's name in a while, at least a decade or two. The fact that they'd somehow gotten roped into a coup was more surprising. And obnoxious. Those guys were the worst.
"Worry not, loyal subjects. The time will present itself soon."
"Don't mock me," the other voice growled. "We refuse to bow to your timing, Blade. We won't just sit here idly twiddling our thumbs waiting for a perfect moment that will never make itself known. You have a week, or we will withdraw our support."
"Then you are a fool, for being unable to be patient. You will get what you desire."
The attitude of the Bloody Lobster representative was about on par for what he expected, but the fact that a Blade, specifically this one, was leading this? That was unusual, especially in this day and age. He must have gotten a new Driver too, one involved in stuff like this.
"Intruder!"
Mikhail whipped around behind him to see a guard, likely from a patrol, pointing a gun his way. Quickly reacting to his alert, the other guards came around the corner into the intersection. Certainly wasn't the first time he'd had guns pointed at him.
He smiled a fake disarming smoulder and opened his mouth to fake an explanation. "Hello there-"
Without asking, the guard pulled the trigger and shot. Using the instinct that had eventually became his own, power flared in him and dark ether curved the bullets just out of his way to instead hit the wall behind him. In that same motion, he called from the ether his two war fans. With a mental command, dark element ether coalesced into feathery shapes at the tips of the weapons.
And the dance of death began.
One of the guards cursed. "He's a Blade!"
Not quite, but close enough.
Raising his ether barrier behind him to block the bullets from the two guards there, he weaved around the frontal assault. With a flick of his fans, the dark ether shot out like feathers, homing in on the targets behind him. Their screams cutting off confirmed their death as the dark ether tore them apart.
Closing in on the one in front, he traded a few blows with the patrol guard, who desperately blocked his fans with their gun, until the ether tore through the metal and stabbed into the person. He kicked him off his weapons and they fell, dead, a moment later.
"You know, it's rude to shoot first and ask questions later," he muttered, annoyed. His frustration from earlier bled out somewhat from the short skirmish. Amusing as it could be, there wasn't time to get swept up in some conspiracy. He started running away from the scene, back towards the others.
Glass shattered behind him and a heated shout echoed through the hall. "Crow!"
He stopped short as flames leapt up in front of him. He whipped around behind him and found a familiar Blade turning the corner with a flaming greataxe. Kingly, was the best way to describe him, red cloak flapping behind him over gilded armour as he stalked forward.
That was familiar enough, but the most notable feature to Mikhail was his core crystal. Shaped like a gaudy crown, the crystal was no longer a pure blue, but was tinged in with red. A flesh eater. That explained how he'd remembered the alias he'd given in his last encounter with him.
Death was promised in that glare from his piercing blue eye as he continued advancing.
Oh yeah, he definitely remembers.
Mikhail returned the death glare with a cocky grin, baiting him. The flesh eater roared at the challenge, fire flaring up around him as he charged forward. For a moment, Mikhail's confidence wavered at the unexpected move. Last time he'd been all boasting and hardly any action, but now…
Mikhail braced, and ducked under the first swing of the greataxe, the heat following the attack nearly choking him. He twisted inside the guard of the axe, swinging one war fan up to slice at his face. To his surprise, the flesh eater leaned back to avoid the strike and brought his knee up to hit Mikhail's gut.
Mikhail brought up his ether barrier to block it, but realized the knee was a feint. A flaming fist slammed into it where his face was. The barrier blocked what would have been pain, and the flesh eater released his fist, revealing a miniature sun in his palm, which exploded. The force of it cracked the barrier, sending him flying back, rolling end over end before he was able to right himself.
Looking up, Mikhail cricked his neck. That wasn't something he'd been able to do before. "Seems like you've gotten an upgrade."
"I've been waiting for an opportunity like this to repay you." The flesh eater's visible eye flashed dangerously, and he roared again. The flames blazed alight around him and the metal started melting where he stepped, another miniature sun forming in the palm not holding his greataxe. He really wanted to kill him, did he?
Though considering what Mikhail had done to him, maybe it wasn't that surprising.
A pit of anxiety started forming, and though he wouldn't admit it, something akin to fear slunk to the surface. He might be able to win this still, but the Bloody Lobsters were still around, and he had no clue of their capability. If he'd had Cressidus with him, he might have stuck around to see, but right now…
He let go of his war fans, absorbing the ether back into himself, and backing away. "No more time to play, Dagas, I've got more important things right now."
In response, Dagas slammed the greataxe into the metal. Knowing what was coming, Mikhail's legs bunched and he jumped, doing a flashy spin mid-air, diving over and through the flames that leapt up to try and stop him. He twisted dark ether around him, the tiny gravity wells warping the flames to push the worst of them away from him.
Landing, he rolled to his feet, turned and winked before he dashed around the corner, out of sight.
Nia glared at Lora. "Honestly, Lora. Tell me about these things before they get out of hand."
"Sorry." Lora laughed uncomfortably as she averted her eyes. "I didn't think it was this bad."
Making a little 'tch,' she watched carefully as Dromarch continued manipulating the water ether to rebuild the flesh in her leg that had been melted through. Hopefully, the hallway they'd had to drag Lora and Pyra into was far enough away from the arachno nest that they wouldn't be ambushed again.
Nearby, Pyra sat watching the three of them. Down the hall, Cressidus stood guard, looking in the direction Mik had gone off to 'scout the surrounding area.'
As if she couldn't tell he'd gone to blow off steam.
She continued to feed Dromarch a gentle amount of ether through their link to amplify his healing. She would be able to do it far quicker on her own, but there was no point for something like this.
Besides that, she couldn't bring herself to do that anyways.
Lora's black armoured boot lay leaning beside Pyra against the metal wall. Looking at the piece of armour, she noticed there wasn't any sign of it melting through at all. That was strange, considering the wound. Oddly, Pyra had the same wound, and it showed through the hole in her boot, but insisted she take care of Lora first. Nia obliged, since Pyra would be able to heal quicker, being a Blade.
Her full attention was brought back when Lora hissed in pain, wincing. "Careful there. So how did you get this anyways? I didn't see you get hit at all."
Pyra spoke up. "Sorry, it's my fault."
"Don't go on about 'not doing your duty as Blade' or all that nonsense. If I had a gold piece every time Dromarch's slipped up with his ether barrier to protect me, I'd be rich as a greedy Nopon guildsman."
Pyra shook her head. "It wasn't that. I was the one who got hit, but because of the connection Lora and I share," she tapped the missing x-shaped part of her emerald core, "any pain I feel, she feels. Any wound I get, she gets."
Nia's eyebrows raised. "Wait, so when the arachno queen spat that toxin or whatever that hit you, it injured Lora too?"
Pyra nodded. "But we heal together too."
"Weird. Overall, that seems like it would be a pain. I wasn't going to worry about you being hit as much since you're a Blade, but if that's the case, you two ought to be more careful." She turned to Lora. "So does it have something to do with you being the Driver of the Aegis?"
"Well, more of how I became her Driver."
"What do you mean?"
"Lora doesn't have her heart," Pyra answered.
"What?!" Nia's eyes practically bugged out, and she bumped into Dromarch, and nearly broke her affinity link with him. Thankfully, he kept a steady hold manipulating the ether while her fingers went to feel for the pulse at Lora's neck.
After a moment Lora asked, "Is there something there?"
"The fact that you sound genuinely curious worries me." Eventually she found the steady thump of a heartbeat and calmed down. Glaring at Pyra, Nia removed her fingers from Lora's neck. "'Course there's something there. Humans don't just walk around with no heartbeat; you don't need to know anything big about anatomy to know that. You really shouldn't joke about something like that, Pyra."
There was an awkward silence as what felt like a whole silent conversation passed by her as Pyra and Lora glanced at each other.
They aren't joking, are they?
"It's true. Look." Lora pulled down her thick padded tunic revealing, to her surprise, an x-shaped emerald core crystal. It was right on her sternum where a Blade's core would be.
It pulsed rhythmically, the same rhythm she'd felt in the pulse of Lora's heartbeat. Curiosity got the better of her and she leaned forward to get a better look. It looked all emerald and stuff like Pyra's and all, blending in with the flesh just like a regular Blade's would.
"How?"
"I don't really understand it to be honest, but it's because of this, because of Pyra, that I can be here, that I can do anything. I owe her my life."
Out of the corner of her eye, different coloured skin tissue caught her eye. Her eyes narrowed and she leaned forward a little more, spotting what looked like the tip of an ugly scar leading down to where Lora's heart was. As if noticing Nia looking, she pulled her tunic back up.
Clearing her throat, Nia leaned back. "Well, at least we only have to heal one of you if you get yourselves into trouble." Dromarch stepped back, dissipating the ether, revealing smooth skin, no longer marred or exposing muscle and sinew. "There, that should do it."
"Thank you, Nia, Dromarch." Lora ran a hand over the fresh skin. "No matter how many times I see it, I'm always amazed at how wholly skilled Blades can heal wounds. You're both amazing at it."
Her ears flattened, and she tried to hide her pleased grin at the praise. "Nah, it's nothing. Dromarch did all the work." And really, compared to what she could do if she really tried, it was hardly anything.
Dromarch chuckled. "It is our pleasure, Lady Lora. With luck, we won't have to do this again soon."
Lora smiled at Dromarch as she accepted her armoured boot from Pyra. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Nia watched wryly as Lora gave Dromarch a pat on the head, which he leaned into.
Cheeky little sod. At least he seemed to like Lora. That was normally a good sign with people. Just like he'd liked Jin.
As Lora was nearly finished refitting her armoured boot around her red stocking, the echoing sound of quick footsteps came rushing down the corridor. Everyone quickly got to their feet, hands on their weapons or ready to establish affinity links.
They relaxed when they saw it was just Mik. "That didn't take long," Nia quipped. "You weren't even gone twenty minutes."
"It was a productive twenty minutes." His face was serious. "We should get out of here."
Nia winced. "Did the antols find us again?"
Mik shook his head. "Worse. I nearly walked into a powwow practically straight out of one of Ahkos' plays. One of the groups I didn't recognize, but the others have been a thorn in my side for years. The Bloody Lobsters."
"Bloody Lobsters?" Nia snorted. "Sounds intimidating."
Rolling his eyes, Mik waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, you can tell they tried real hard with that name. Name aside, they're a cross Titan gang that's been around as long as I can remember. They're worse than they sound, but nothing we couldn't handle if we needed to. "
"Wait a second." Lora perked up from where she'd been finishing adjusting her straps on her boot. "I remember them too." She turned to Pyra. "Didn't we help squash an illegal drug trade run by them in Auresco before Torna sank?"
Pyra nodded. "Yeah. I guess they stuck around for a long time."
It still felt odd to Nia for them to refer to ancient history like it was yesterday. But then, for Lora and Pyra, it must have felt like it was.
"Big whoop. So how are we going to get out of here?" Nia asked. "This place just keeps getting less and less abandoned the longer we're here."
"Hold on," Lora interrupted. "If they're already here, we should see if there's something we could do to stop whatever they're planning. Knowing them, it can't be anything good."
Nia raised an eyebrow. Was Lora seriously thinking of trying that? They were on some sort of schedule. And there were probably still antols waiting to come out of the metalworks to avenge their dead queen. Probably. Even if she hoped there weren't.
Everyone looked at Mik.
He sighed, agitation showing on his face. "Look, Lora, I know you mean well, but we aren't here to attract attention. We just need to grab a couple parts, pick up a couple other things, then go."
"Much as I am curious as well," Dromarch rumbled, "Lady Lora, Master Mikhail is right. It would be in our best interest to not draw any more undue attention to ourselves."
"Besides," Mik continued, "I attracted the attention of something worse; a royal vendetta, and it's only a matter of time before 'his highness' catches up with us."
"Royal vendetta?" Nia asked.
"CROW!"
The hair on the back of her neck practically stood straight up at the bellow that echoed through the metal halls. The room - already warm - turned to sweltering as flames leapt up towards them from the hall Mik had come in through, lighting up the relatively dim area. Ether barriers were quickly raised to block the flames.
But the flames seemed to have a mind of their own, and they quickly leapt back together into what seemed like a little sun, before exploding outwards again. Dromarch's ether barrier cracked under the pressure of the elemental difference.
"Speaking of," Mikhail shouted, "that's our cue to leave!"
Nia was already moving, and shouted behind her, "Don't have to tell me twice!"
The rest of them followed quickly and Mik dashed to the front, leading them through the abandoned - but not definitely not empty - industrial district. She was thankful that Mik seemed to know where he was going since the flames didn't stop coming.
She chanced a glance behind her, finally spotting their pursuer. Wreathed in fire, royal red cloak flapping behind him, the image screamed 'dangerous mad man.' Through it all, she spotted the crown-shaped core on his greataxe mottled with red.
No wonder he could bring this much power in with no Driver. The flesh eater Blade seemed to pay no attention to how much damage he caused as he continued to stalk forward, eye focused on Mik. At this rate, he was going to melt the whole area around him to slag, not just the floor.
"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE, CROW!"
The shout sent shivers down her spine. "What did you do to this guy, Mik?"
"Not important! Talk less, run more!"
"YOUR HEAD ON A PLATTER, CROW!"
Unfortunately, they eventually ran out of room to run. Ahead of them a thick metal bulkhead blocked their progress forward. "Dead end ahead, Mik!" she yelled.
"Yes, I can see that, thank you. Cressidus!"
"Already on it!" Cressidus ran forward, shoulder used in an attempt at a battering ram. He clanged off it uselessly with only a small dent to show for it. He started hammering away at it, while Mik joined in with his gauntlets but they barely seemed to be doing anything.
"Out of my way, peasants. My quarrel isn't with you."
Glancing behind again she saw that Pyra had broken off from the group to engage the flesh eater Blade, with Lora providing careful rear-guard support. Better Pyra than her any day. Fire Blade against fire Blade was a way better matchup than her with how dry it was on Mor Ardain. With this heat, it'd be hard for Dromarch to face off against that.
"Now what?" Nia yelled at Mik.
"There should be a terminal connected to this bulkhead nearby."
"Do I look like an electric Blade to y-?"
"Shut up for a second and just do it!" Mik yelled back. "Cressidus and I will keep trying to make headway."
"Milady, here!"
She bit back a reply and got onto Dromarch - ignoring the bits of leftover antol guts on him - who put up his ether barrier as he jumped, crashing through a nearby half-broken window. The room they landed in was small, with a few console stations scattered around with broken chairs.
Thankfully, she quickly spotted a big red button labelled 'PANIC,'- which is what she was trying not to do right now - and she dived off Dromarch to slam both her hands onto it. She looked up, expecting to see the bulkhead opening or something happening. Nothing happened and it still hadn't budged.
She hit it a couple more times in frustration for good measure. "Seriously?!"
"Milady, behind you." She whipped back around and saw a busted pipe leading from the control panel over in the general direction of the bulkhead. Part of it was exposed with some loose wiring. "It started sparking when you pushed the button. Do you think you could...?"
"There's not enough water ether in the air with this maniac burning the place to the ground for you to form a solid connection!"
"I might not be able to, my lady, but…" Dromarch trailed off, looking pointedly at her.
"What?" She snapped, when she realized what he was suggesting. "No! Absolutely not."
Because she was pathetic. Even when she was needed, she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"My lady, crouch down to hide yourself behind me if you must, but we haven't time for anything else!"
She knew there wasn't. She could see the smoke building in the other room where everything not metal had caught on fire. She knew that no one else would see, knew at least Mik probably wouldn't care even if he did. She wasn't sure about Lora and Pyra yet. Eventually she gritted her teeth, ears flattened.
"Fine." She was also too desperate to care right now. She didn't want to die. Didn't want anyone else in their little group to die either.
She sucked in a breath, drawing on it.
Breathed out.
Her core seemed to purr in triumph as she released the hold on herself. Yellow cloth disappeared into flowing white sleeves trimmed with red and gold. Longer hair fell down, ears definitely more Blade than Gormotti. She ignored it in favour of finally being able to grasp the ether in the air.
It was so ridiculously easy, despite the raging firestorm outside the room, and moments later she manipulated it into a small horizontal column of water connecting the wires. She hit the 'PANIC' button again, and the light beside the button flashed red. With a protesting groan the bulkhead started separating in the middle, opening up to the blessedly cool night air outside.
It was two thick layers, which explained why Mik had been having trouble with it, especially while dealing with anything that got through Pyra and Lora. He let out a whooping cheer.
She closed back in on herself, the white returned to yellow, covering the red-mottled core crystal once again. Her hold on the water broke and it splashed pathetically to the floor, evaporating almost instantly. She stood and saw Mik and Cressidus pushing the partially opened bulkhead, a double metal door to the side.
Dromarch nuzzled her and she could sense how proud he was of her, even for that. She quickly got his other message and complied, getting on him. He jumped back through the window, darting past Mik and Cressidus through the tight opening they'd made.
"Lora!" Mik called, worriedly.
Nia glanced back through, and holy armu everything metal in the vicinity around the flesh eater Blade was melting, dripping almost like lava. Everything not metal was on fire. Pyra had engaged in a blade lock with him, holding him off, but she glanced back, and saw the opening. Knocking his weapon away she kicked the other Blade back, backing away herself.
Lora cast her newly made braided rope around a pipe far enough out of the melting zone and pulled. The little elemental gem - threaded by Lora into the end around a cutesy bow - sparked and ice sprung up around the pipe. She tugged again and the pipe shattered, spilling out liquid, which with another flick of the whip flash froze as it spilled down, creating a thick icy wall separating them from the pyromaniac.
The flesh eater's hands was stuck in the icy wall, his greataxe sticking out. Nia knew there was no way it would last.
"C'mon, you two!" Nia called. They started closing the distance, but the ice had started melting, then cracking. She could hear the Blade's enraged cries on the other side.
"Run some avalanche control, big guy!" Mik called.
"Never thought you'd ask!" Grabbing his gauntlets from Mik, Cressidus launched himself up at the nearest cliffside and before she could ask what he was doing, cleaved the gauntlet into the rock, like he was digging or something.
With finality of glass shattering, the ice holding him back was obliterated, and Lora and Pyra slipped through the opening in the bulkhead in time for her to see the Blade bellow again.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR-!"
"Sorry, not interested," Mik yelled over what he was saying. He snapped his finger into a point and winked at him. "Catch."
With a roar, Cressidus struck the cliff above, which rumbled. A rockslide started as the hulking Blade chucked a huge boulder towards the makeshift entrance. The boulder crashed with a tremendous clang, blocking the view of the bulkhead completely. Smaller, but still sizable rocks finished tumbling, filling in the gaps and sealed the mad flesh eater behind them.
Nia could still hear the groaning of melting metal collapsing and the raging roars of the flesh eater ringing in her ears. Cressidus landed beside Mik, and they fist bumped.
She dismounted Dromarch as a dry, almost chilly breeze picked up, filling in the sounds of panicked panting breaths. She stood there, tensed, not quite trusting that it was over. Eventually when nothing happened for a couple moments, she let out a sigh of relief. Out of all of them, Lora seemed the worst for wear, coughing from smoke inhalation.
Mik flicked a stray strand of blond hair back. "That went-"
Fury building, she rounded on Mik, and socked him in the face, wishing his armour had some sort of purchase to grab him and shake him. "What the bloody hell was that?!" she screamed.
"My lady!"
Mik backed out of her reach and moved his jaw, working out the kink she'd just put in it. "Like I said. Royal vendetta." He smoothed over his hair, stained slightly black with soot. "Long story, which we can talk about later."
"Later? Are you kidding me right now? You can't just expect us to brush something like that off!"
A hand landed on her shoulder, and she whipped around to see Lora, face pained. "Calm down, Nia."
She threw Lora's hand off her shoulder, turning on her. "No, don't tell me to calm down!" Lora backed off, an annoyed expression working its way on to her face. Nia ignored it and rounded on Mik again. "We were almost killed! You're telling us what that was about. Now."
"No, he's right," Pyra pointed out, coming up calmly beside her. "There's more than one exit to this place, and that rockslide won't hold him off forever. If he wants to pursue, it wouldn't take long to blast through."
"I can't believe I'm saying this to you," Mik muttered loud enough for them to hear, "but thank you."
Pyra didn't respond, and Nia bit her tongue, settling on glaring a hole through at Mik. "There better be a bloody good reason for this."
He held his hands up in mock surrender as he started jogging away. "Fine, fine. But it's probably not as good a story as you think it is. Let's go."
She grumbled as Dromarch started following him, Lora and Pyra right behind, moving quickly through the blessedly cool yet dry night air of the Mor Ardain wastes. She glanced back, but the rockslide blocking the entrance stood still.