ARC 8 - FREEFALL
Chapter 64: King in Shackles
Perspective: Tyron
The guard's jaw halfway fell off when he saw them, and Tyron immediately felt a wave of dread. He cast a glance back at the glowing cage, and Kay crumpled up inside like used paper. It wasn't a good look, especially not with Shadow obviously maintaining the prison. He prayed that the sight of Astro and Warnado following at a distance would offer some reassurance this wasn't just a power grab.
Honestly, it was a miracle the guard was the first person they'd run into. Most people would be in the dining hall, but there would still be patrols and internal material shipments.
"Remember cover story. Book bad. Kay sick," cooed Kir.
Tyron felt nervous enough that he visibly nodded in response to Kir, a habit he thought he'd grown out of years ago. He brushed the fur on his face into as neat a pattern as he could and braced for the worst.
"Soldier," Tyron said in his best commanding-officer voice. "The General's been compromised. The Book overpowered him and we're keeping him under observation until we can be sure the danger has passed. Open the door."
With eyes wide as chasms, the guard became deadly still, then shot back to life and ran to let them into the jail. His mouth kept opening and closing, almost working up the nerve to ask a question then losing it altogether.
Tyron walked up beside him and waited for the others to filter in. Shadow was the one maintaining the cage, and Astro and Warnado were… distracted, so he was the most logical choice for watchdog. Steve and Jennifer had gone off to gather the other leaders in the command room - brief the officer's class before telling everyone else. They were hoping for minimal resistance, but still…
They were at a bit of a crossroads. Prison to the South. Path in general direction of training room to the North. Supply room to the East. Grinder West. Kir sharpened his senses, and he scanned the four directions. A clattering of footsteps and metal bunched close together some ways off - a patrol in full armour. And, he could have sworn, a ruffling of fabric Tyron knew could only be a heavy red scarf.
He patted Shadow on the shoulder as a subtle hint to hurry up, though hoping not to alarm the guard. Astro didn't take the hint. Astro glowered at the floor, his hands buried in his pockets, shuffling glacially forward. If the floor has turned to quicksand, he might actually have gotten through the door quicker.
Warnado couldn't have been different, leaning left and right to try and look past the wizard. He had his left hand in his pocket, the gauntleted one hanging loosely and flailing as he moved. The metal fingers had clasped tightly around something tightly enough that Tyron could make out nothing other than a small knot of brown leather. Tyron felt a pang of emotion as he remembered a certain conversation that had interrupted a certain nap.
Finally, Astro got through the doorway, and Warnado bounded down past him. Tyron instructed the guard to let no one in without his express orders and went down the staircase.
The prison was dark, and stone, and cold. Unadorned stone bricks stacked forward infinitely, interrupted only by the occasional flash of redstone light. It hadn't always been that way. Used to have full underfloor heating, proper torches, even woolen carpeting. Kay changed all that after Claw showed up. They had been such small changes, but he'd been so insistent. Kept referencing how he'd done things in the "Great Onslaught" when asked why. He'd spoken almost nostalgically.
Tyron passed a rare, carpeted cell. It didn't have bars, it had reinforced glass, like a fish tank. A sign to the left read "Marinus Bul". He'd forgotten about these. Every time Kay learned the name of a Tower officer, he'd have a cell converted and reserved for them. Glibby, Ender, Freak, the Dog, etc. Sometimes he'd personalise them, sometimes not. Some were intended as gestures of goodwill, like a Chorus plant for the Ender. Others were intended as snubs, like the bare jungle-wood table he insisted on putting in Glibby's room. Tyron wondered when he gave up on the idea of ever using them.
After what felt like ages of walking, Shadow stopped in front of these 'bespoke' cells. Or, rather, there was a bespoke cell to the left, with ripped black carpeting and scratches on the glass, and a bare, empty stone space to the right. It had no bed, and the walls weren't even paved with bricks.
Something stirred in the tarnished cell. Grey-scaled and grinning in disbelief, Silver pressed his hands against the glass.
"You must be joking," gasped the Enderman.
Astro opened the cell, and Shadow levitated the cage in.
"Should we?" Kir asked.
They drew Tyron's attention to a pair of shackles hanging from the wall. The Dragoknight averted his eyes.
"I don't know," he thought. "I'll let the others decide that one."
Warnado kept skipping from foot to foot, in a ludicrous dance of impatience. His red eyes shifted with his feet, sliding toward the cage, then back towards literally anything else.
Astro closed the cell door, and Shadow let the cage dissolve. The former commander dropped out and slammed into the floor. Silver howled with laughter, and slammed a taloned fist into the glass, the ward upon it briefly flashing into view.
Tyron glared back at the Enderman in an effort to discourage him, but his heart wasn't in it. Silver just laughed louder still. Tyron turned back to the object of the Grey One's amusement.
Kay stirred with a groan and heaved himself into a sitting position. He didn't look up, and he didn't say anything. His eyes seemed half-closed and sweat clung to his brow. He clasped his hands over his face.
"What's the meaning of this?" he grumbled with all the urgency of a man waking up with a mild hangover.
Astro scoffed, but otherwise no one responded.
"I asked you a question, did I not?" he said, casting his eyes directly at Shadow. "Why am I in a cell?"
Shadow answered his gaze, then replied flatly: "Short version: You screwed up royally. Long version: You willingly cooperated with the Book despite what happened with Fristad, but we both know the Book was only your enabler in all of this. You burned down a warehouse of civilians, which was both morally and strategically a bad decision. When confronted about the Book, you attacked Warnado, who you might as well have adopted had that conversation not taken place. And to top it all off, you let the damn thing take your body for a joyride, the aftermath of which you are feeling now. That's just the parts I personally saw, I bet the rest of us have plenty more to add if you were to ask them."
Then, with a slight grin the mage added: "But it is 'Just a nice, friendly little coup until Kay gets his head straight.' Am I right?"
Tyron felt a momentary impulse to glare at her, but the moment passed, and he slumped into apathy. Kay barely seemed to notice it, casting a look of horrible recollection at Warnado.
"Helix…" he began. "I don't - I was - I can't - I…"
He got to his feet and turned away, digging his fingernails into his forehead. He hissed in discomfort and turned around with something like clarity in his eyes.
"My apologies, I've let you all down greatly. My partnership with the Book began in good faith, in the spirit of mutual survivalism, but I allowed it too much leeway. I became so enamoured with the power it - I became so reliant on the strength it gave me, I didn't realise how weak I was becoming. Fearful, jealous, dependent upon it. I was not in my right mind, and I am sorry-"
Astro scoffed. Loudly. Pointedly. Kay turned even paler than usual and continued, speaking directly to Warnado.
"I would never hurt you, Helix. You must know that. That wasn't me."
The demon-child's glowing red eyes didn't rise to make contact.
"Who was it, then?" snapped Astro.
Kay swallowed.
"Not… not my normal self."
"Oh, so it was you, just not 'you'. Come on Kay, I was expecting more than that. Haven't you got any big, vulnerable rant about how this was all some elaborate attempt to get back at Hamish, and that makes this okay? Or about how Worth eventually blew up your house, so all those crimes you committed were really just an act of rebellion? How your family cast you out, and you've just been a victim from the start? About how you feel a little aimless in life, and that makes you uniquely special and tortured and wise? Yeah, Lucy told me about that little outburst. Why don't you just-"
"ENOUGH!" roared Kay.
Astro fell silent despite himself. He rolled his shoulders and stormed off.
"Fuck off," Astro muttered as he left.
Perhaps he said this to conclude his earlier thought, perhaps not.
Kay took a moment to recollect himself.
"Helix, the Book is yours. Take it, I don't want it. I can't handle it. You can, you fended me off back there - your shield-work was perfect - and you outsmarted it again. You could control it, instead of just… wanting the same things. Please, just-" he rubbed his left eye and only succeeded in making it water. "- I am so proud of you, Helix."
He looked at Warnado, but the child's head was still bowed and unreadable. He cast a look at Tyron, and the Dragoknight realised his mouth had dropped open piteously at this counteroffer.
"Where's the Book?" Kay asked, his breath quivering.
He began to feel around beneath his chestplate and found nothing. He undid the straps and it clattered to the floor. He groped around despite it being clear that he'd find nothing.
"What have you done with it? Without the Book, we're... Without… Where is it?"
He sat down as though he'd been punched in the face and tried to meet Tyron's eye. The Dragoknight instead turned his attention to Astro, who had reached the top of the stairs and tapped his foot impatiently. Tyron only barely held off from joining him. He didn't answer. Finally, Shadow did:
"The Book is gone, I killed it as I told it I would, should something like this happen. Warnado burned the inert tome."
"You killed it?" he murmured. Then, with a surge of fury that lifted him to his feet and carried him all the way to the bars of his cell: "You stupid cow, you've murdered us all! How could you be so bloody-"
A sound of cracking glass interrupted him. Shadow remained unfazed, but Tyron and Kay both immediately shot urgent looks at Silver. The Enderman shrugged and grinned hungrily, and after a brief inspection, Tyron was satisfied there was nothing wrong with the cell. When he turned back, he saw the real source of the crack.
Kay's old goggles lay on the floor, already collecting dust, cracking in one lens. The General looked down at them with hollow eyes and open mouth, stripped of all thought and emotion.
Warnado still had his gauntleted arm outstretched and his fingers open, as though posting for a portrait or a statue that would immortalise this horrid tableau forever. His red eyes seemed dimmer than the torches. Then, he said to Shadow:
"I'll be with Amanda if you need me."
He left.
Kay backed up until he was leaning against the wall, scanning the dark ceiling above. Tyron couldn't move.
"I'm not a bad man," Kay insisted to no one in particular. "I'll make this right. I swear to you, I will."
He collapsed.
"Then maybe think about the potential consequences of your actions in the future before acting." Shadow said, the emphasis on future was lost on Kay but not on Tyron.
And she walked off.
Seeing no reason to stay, Tyron followed her.
