Gonna leave the good news/bad news author's not for the end. Nothing else to say until then.
"Are you sure you'll be okay in here?" Aaron asked his wife.
"It's engineering. Of course, I will." Ruby smiled at Aaron before returning her attention to the plans in front of her. Aaron stared at the blueprints as well. His wife was working on designs for a new kind of armored suit. Most of the numbers went over his head, but the design didn't. This suit had the Viper King's head acting as a hood. From a glance, it looked like it would have a grappling hook and a frost cannon. Normally, Ruby would have continued her work on the plasma weapons. It wasn't that she designed bad armor. She forged the scale shaped plates Aaron currently wore and they saved his life more than once. Still, she loved making all kinds of weapons and preferred that to anything else. The frost cannon was new, but it wasn't exactly what Ruby fawned over.
Then there was the bionic arm she wore. The one with the gun hand sat on Shen's desk with the lead engineer poking through it. Ruby rarely let people work on her gear, not even Aaron, though that was probably for the best. Instead of that one, Ruby had what looked like a hastily made, brown model that looked like it could have been used on a factory floor or the first generation Atlesian Knights. Aaron didn't think that arm was that much stronger than a normal human's or it could do anything more than biology would allow.
For the first time in years, maybe since Beacon, Ruby Rose was unarmed.
Aaron sighed and looked over his shoulder. Nalia stood by the door to engineering, the sides of her head drooping. Have you seen her like this?
No, Nalia mentally hummed. I think she's scared of herself.
Has she gone to the firing range?
While she's under the Shaken protocols, she's not allowed.
That doesn't mean she wouldn't try. Aaron returned his attention to Ruby. "If you need anything, I'll be in the Shadow Chamber."
"Okay. I'll page you." Ruby nodded at her desk and kept on working.
Aaron shook his head and walked out of engineering. Orchid's treatment isn't working.
We'll have to ask her to increase the dosage. Nalia crossed her arm. But it's probably a good thing she doesn't have a weapon.
What are you talking about? Aaron looked at his disguised dragon out of the corner of his eye. She loves weapons about half as much as our kids. I don't think I've ever seen her more than a few feet away from some sort of weapon. She's not well.
That's my point. Nalia gave Aaron sad eyes. There's more than one reason we typically disarm those with peaked triple S.
Aaron stopped with his jaw hanging open. You… can't be… Nalia slowly nodded. No… Ruby would never…
Yang would never. Nalia shuddered. So many would never. But losing your soulmate… I never want to know.
I know… Aaron scowled as he continued walking. We need to light a fire under Tygan.
The Commander too, if just because Ruby is so much stronger with that thing out of her head. Nalia hissed. Summer needs to show off what she can do. Two Winter Maidens with us. Nothing we've seen so far can stop them.
Something like that. Aaron paused. How do you feel about the suit Ruby's making?
Nalia cocked her head. How should I feel? I'm not actually a Viper. Humans wear the pelts of animals they kill all the time. It's no different than that. Can't say the same about any Vipers in the Liberated though. They may very well have a different opinion. The two proceeded up a level and across the ship to the newly christened Shadow Chamber. It was supposedly one of the most advanced computers on the planet and could access some parts of ADVENT's network. Its information had already given one of the other squads enough intel to go through a mission without getting hit. But with its connection to a previously exposed power conduit, this was one of the few places on the ship that had the power necessary to communicate between worlds.
Dahlia and Scientist Romero, a massive green blob of sentient fungus who was almost as friendly as Orchid, stood on the other side of the room. Dahlia looked up while the alien worked on one of the consoles. "How's Ruby?" she asked.
"She's…" Aaron shifted on his feet. "…unarmed."
"What?" Dahlia's jaw dropped. She blinked several times. "I'll… tell Orchid to increase the dosage when I get back to the infirmary."
"There! All set!" An almost chirping voice came from a small metal circle on Romero's… upper body. "We are ready to begin!"
"Could one of you fill me in?" Aaron asked.
"We are about to test an interdimensional communications device," the Blorg said. "This machine should be able to open a small portal to another planet. For our purposes, it will be enough to send wireless communications through to speak with friends on the other side. Of those on this ship, Dahlia Bloodmoon is the easiest for this version to connect to."
Dahlia shrugged. "Probably because I've been to a bunch of different worlds already. Different dimensions too." She cocked her head. "Definitely dimensions more than planets. I think Rex has me beat there."
"Precisely." The fungoid mass fell, then rose. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough power onboard to make a portal big enough for people to come through. The energy conduits on this ship are inferior to almost anything I have seen before."
"And we're here because…" Aaron trailed off expecting an answer.
"Because, well…" Dahlia rubbed the back of her head. "You're kind of…"
Aaron sighed. "How many of these universes… alright. If you need something from me, I'll be here."
"Glad to hear it!" Mercedes Romero hit more things on the computer in front of her. "Just a few more adjustments and… done! DOOR is opening!" Machinery started to whirr. A silver pole glowed blue and a bit of lightning shot out the top a foot. A black and purple circle maybe an inch in diameter hung where the lightning stopped.
"That'll work," Nalia said. Her eyes lost focus. "I can feel plants and animals on the other side… and Grimm. That's definitely Remnant, or a version of it."
"Beginning transmission." Mercedes Romero hit one more thing and gestured at Dahlia with one of her tentacly appendages.
Dahlia stepped forward and crossed her arms. "Medibear calling Mor'ranar Vera, come in Rider Command." She stood there silent for a minute before grimacing. "This is Dahlia Bloodmoon hailing Rider Command please respond." Again, no response. "Doctor Dahlia Bloodmoon to any Remmartian or treaty world forces. I do not have this connection for long. Please respond." No response came from the machine.
"The portal could be open out of CCT range," Nalia said. "Or we could be using the wrong frequency."
"I don't think so." Dahlia shook her head. "I gave the right coordinates for Mor'ranar Vera, unless there's some weird conversion we don't know about. How long do we-"
The speakers on the machine clicked and a familiar voice came through. "This is Rider Command to Dahlia Bloodmoon, what is your location? We are having trouble triangulating your signal."
All who knew the voice straightened at the sound. Dahlia broke into a smile. "Yaela! It's good to hear your voice." Her face leveled out. "I don't have much time. We're sending you a compressed intel package." She nodded at Mercedes Romero. "Here's the crash course. I'm not on any of the treaty worlds. I'm on a completely different Earth that's been invaded by aliens. And no, not the Precursors. I was kidnapped by said aliens and brought here. I'm not the only one. They've taken many people from many different worlds. Why, we don't know for sure, but we know they want the Maidens for something. They want the dragons for something. Ariana's here too, but her mind's been put in a giant snake's body. We need manpower and armament support. We have a whole planet we need to take back."
Yaela didn't say anything for a long time. "If this is a prank call…"
Aaron stepped forward. "This is no prank, Yaela," he swore. "Things are bad on this side. We need all the support we can get. Take the information we sent you to Arya and Fírnen. I'm sure they will send help as soon as they can."
"Aaron… but…" Yaela paused. "Of course. I will deliver this immediately."
"Thank you, Yaela." Dahlia glanced at a panel Aaron couldn't see. "We're out of time. I wish we could say more. We'll contact you when we can. Tell my team that I'm okay and inform them about everything." The portal winked out of existence a second later.
"Success!" The sentient fungus threw her tentacles up in the air. "Oh, I'll have to remember this one. So many new friends! I must record this." Mercedes Romero squelched out of the Shadow Chamber, leaving some sort of liquid on the floor behind her.
Aaron stared after her. "She is… strange."
"But she is fairly easy to talk to," Dahlia offered. Aaron faced the doctor. "I've just gone on and on about Remnant before and she soaked it all up. She asks questions, offers her own experiences… if anything, she might be a bit too eager for conversation."
"Well," Aaron gestured at the machine, "if she can get everyone home, I'll take overly friendly."
"I'm also working on a way of enhancing our Aura and your magical abilities." Dahlia winced. "But… have there been Aura enhancement experiments on your Remnant?"
"I've heard of a few," Nalia said. "I think Velvet led one a few years ago. But like the others, hers didn't end well."
"At least hers didn't result in exploding hearts." Aaron shivered. "I don't know how she got volunteers."
"Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh." Dahlia shook her head. "But we have contact with my Remnant! Arya or Winter will come through. It might take another call for them to get the right coordinates, but we'll have reinforcements sooner rather than later."
"What did you send them?" Nalia asked.
"All the data we have so far. Autopsies, battle tactics, XCOM's status…" Dahlia slowly blinked. "The thing in Ruby's head. My Ruby and Velvet will be all over it. It might be the Riders' main research focus until it's out of this Ruby's."
Aaron raised an eyebrow. "What about our current weapons tech?"
"Ruby might work on plasmas later. Besides, one of the worlds my Remnant is allied with has some pretty advanced ballistics. Don't know if these plasmas could be more effective."
"Just having more Huntsmen would help us out a lot."
"Just a bit, yeah." Dahlia sighed. "Ah well. Can't do much now. I've got a patient to take care of. See you later, little brother." She gave Aaron a small wave and walked out of the Shadow Chamber.
Aaron stared after her for a second. "Not even Yang calls me 'little brother' that much."
There could definitely be a worse person, Nalia offered. Like Cardin.
"Really?" Aaron cast a glare at Nalia. "I haven't thought about that guy in years. He's better off dead and buried."
Agreed. Nalia gestured with her head to the exit. Come on. I'm tired. Let's hit the rack. She blinked as she slithered toward the door. Did I really just say that?
"I guess you've spent too much time around the people here." Aaron followed her out of the Shadow Chamber. "I don't think I've asked. How is it being… a Viper instead of yourself? Besides the obvious."
Nalia looked over her shoulder. I'm short. I can rest my head on yours standing up straight. She looked down at herself. I'm not even sure I can count this as standing. I don't have any legs. Aaron felt his dragon's frustration over their link. He couldn't help a smile coming to his face. Nalia glared at him. Really?
"Now you know how dwarves feel, to an extent anyway. They're shorter still."
Maybe. Nalia snorted. The acid blood is a strange difference. I don't know whether to call it an advantage or not. I don't want to cut myself to kill my enemies. Her pupils shrank to slits for a second. Most of them.
Aaron nodded and clenched his fists. "I'm more interested in what Dahlia had in mind. Doctors know the best ways to do those things."
There is that. A small group of soldiers left the staircase in front of the bonded pair and walked past them. Once they were out of sight, Nalia hissed. Lecherous humans…
Aaron looked over his shoulder as he climbed the stairs. "Do I want to know?" He faced his soulmate again.
It's these. Nalia gestured at the two bulges beneath her shirt. They're venom sacks. Sometimes I wish I could give those lechers a breath of what's inside.
"I won't say anything if you don't."
Thank you. Nalia left the stairwell on the barracks floor. I don't know who's worse, the ones who want to mate with me or the ones who want to turn me into one of those suits Ruby's working on.
"How bad is that?"
I'm a non-human on a world invaded by aliens who look like me. What do you think?
"I thought so." Aaron sighed. "Humans. We'll find any reason to hate others."
And if you don't have one, you'll make one up. Nalia shook her head as she slithered into the crew quarters. I can't wait to get my body back. Her face contorted in rage. Seeing myself working with ADVENT… I'm going to enjoy killing whatever's controlling my body.
"I can't blame you. It sounds like-" Nalia snapped an arm out in front of Aaron. "What?"
"I smell blood," Nalia said out loud, drawing the attention of everyone in the common area.
Aaron stiffened and looked around. The few other people in the area stared at Nalia. None looked injured enough to draw Nalia's attention. She'd said her current sense of smell wasn't as strong as when she was a dragon so there had to be a lot of blood. Aaron started searching the floor. He didn't see anything on his first pass. The infirmary wasn't anywhere close to the crew quarters. It couldn't…
An orange pool spread from inside his squad's barrack. He stepped over to the door and hit the open button. The door slid up. Verge lay sprawled on the floor with a knife in his chest.
Aaron jumped to the Sectoid's side. "Nalia! Call for help!" He stared at the wound. As bad as it was, it was an injury he'd healed too many times before on Remnant and Alagaësia. For a Sectoid, he wasn't sure. To start with, he cast a simple spell to stop the bleeding and some of the pain.
A groan escaped Verge's lips and his bulbous eyes fluttered open. His head lolled in Aaron's direction. He mumbled something in his own language. Aaron grabbed one of the Sectoid's hands and gripped it hard. "Verge! Who did this to you?"
"Hu… human…" Verge groaned out. "Male… don't know… who…" He coughed and more of the orange blood came out.
People swore out in the common room. "What's going… oh. That." Aaron looked over his shoulder. Summer now stood in the doorway staring down at the wounded Sectoid. She took a few steps back and disappeared in a flash of white rose petals. A few seconds later, an alarm sounded on the ship and red lights flashed.
About a minute after that, Orchid and Dahlia slithered into the crew quarters. Dahlia held a medikit while Orchid's tongue lolled out of her mouth. Aaron stood up and stepped back further into the barrack. The two doctors knelt by their patient's side. "Dead center of chest, likely spinal separation." Dahlia raised her medikit. "On three?"
Orchid grabbed the hilt of the knife. "One. Two. Three." She yanked the knife out of Verge's chest. Dahlia emptied her medikit into the wound. Once that was done and the wound mostly healed, Orchid began kissing the remaining cut and cleaning the blood.
As the former dragon continued her treatment, Summer returned to the crew quarters, this time with the Commander and Central in tow. She now wore Sun's Light at her hip and the two in charge of XCOM had holstered pistols. The Commander stared at Verge and grimaced. "What the hell happened here?"
"We found him like this," Nalia reported. "We just got back from the Shadow Chamber. I smelled blood and that was that. He said a human male did this to him."
"Great," Summer scoffed. "That narrowed it down to nearly seventy percent of the people onboard." Central narrowed his eyes at Aaron.
"It wasn't him," Dahlia said, apparently catching Central's gaze. "The timing doesn't match up. This couldn't have happened more than ten minutes ago. Aaron and Nalia were in the Shadow Chamber with me and Doctor Romero testing out the DOOR."
"Will he live?" Central asked, turning his attention to Dahlia.
"It could take a while, but yes." Dahlia lowered her gaze to Orchid. "Well?"
"I'm done here." Orchid pulled her tongue back into her mouth. She faced away from everyone and spat out Verge's blood at the base of Ruby's bed. "Worse than a human's… Anyway, we'll run some tests to make sure we got everything. We'll get him out of here." She hooked her arms through the Sectoid's while Dahlia grabbed his legs. They picked him up and carried him out of the crew quarters.
"So…" The Commander stared after the departing trio for a second before facing those around him. "What are we going to do here?"
"We do have detectives onboard," Central offered. "They can figure this out."
"You've got a bunch right here." Summer gestured at Aaron and Nalia. "They might not be the kind you're used to, but they get the job done. They can find the attempted murderer in a few minutes with their minds."
The Commander stared at Summer then faced the ceiling. "Halcyon, do you have anything?"
"I'm a flight AI, not a security one," Halcyon's voice came over the nearest speakers. "I'm working on it. There are surprisingly few cameras in this section of the ship."
"Alright." The Commander sighed, then faced Central. "Did you deal with anything like this when I was gone?"
"No, sir." Central shook his head. "There were fights, of course, just like there were back at the old base, but nothing as severe as this."
The Commander nodded and looked between Aaron and Nalia again. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath and sighed. "XCOM has never been truly beholden to any one country's laws. It needed to be like that to do our jobs. Considering none of the countries we protected exist anymore and ADVENT rules, we have to follow them even less." He locked eyes with Aaron. "I'm assuming your methods are telepathic. Use whatever you have to in order to find the one who did this."
Aaron nodded and glanced at Summer. "Could you explain how we do things in Alagaësia?"
Summer raised an eyebrow. "With or without knocking people unconscious?"
"Preferably without. We'll see how the attempted murderer cooperates." Aaron faced Nalia and they nodded at each other. "Normal search?" He stepped over to his dragon's right side
"Don't see why not." Nalia closed her eyes and Aaron followed suit soon after.
The Rider stretched his mind out from himself. He passed the feeling of his dragon and XCOM's command staff to the crew quarters. Nalia's and his normal search pattern went with them taking the side of the search area relative to how they stood to each other. Since Aaron was on the right, he searched the right side of the crew quarters and would take the entire right side of the ship. It was a simple idea, but an effective one.
Most of the minds Aaron initially felt were confused or angry, and most of those felt like they were ready for a fight. None of that was out of the ordinary. Two minds stuck out in the crew quarters. One was angry but for a different reason. She didn't get to kill Verge first. That wasn't too far out of the ordinary. Aaron had felt the minds of many people with that attitude. Same with the mind that was satisfied. After a quick deeper glance, the engineer was glad that someone took out one of the 'damn Xenos.' Still, neither of those two did it.
The local area covered, Aaron expanded his mind to cover his entire side of the ship. There was more confusion and anger, and a few more of the people who were glad the job was done or angry that they didn't do it themselves. Aaron scowled as he searched his side of the ship again. Whatever was keeping his magic from acting at full strength kept his mental abilities at bay as well. The feeling he got now was the same as if he spread his mind across half of Vale. It would take a little bit longer to sort through this. Maybe if they could get Orchid…
There! Aaron felt the specific combination of anger and satisfaction that he associated with a large group of murderers. He focused in on that mind a little more… "Got him," Aaron announced as he opened his eyes. "Engineer Ellis Smith. He's working on a power coil on the lowest level. He's rather satisfied with himself."
"On it." Summer marched out of the crew quarters with a hand on Sun's Light's hilt.
The Commander took out a Scroll like device and pressed a button. "Commander to Shen, I have an update on the alert. Are you alone?"
"No, sir," Shen's voice came out of it. "It's me and Ruby and engineering."
"Good enough. Lock it down. One of your people just tried to kill one of my soldiers."
"What… damn it, I think I know who. I'll check his stuff. I'll let you know if I find anything."
"I want you to get Central a list of every project Engineer Smith has worked on for at least the past month, more if you can."
"On it, sir. Shen out."
"I'll get a detail together," Central said. "We can't trust anything he's done if he's willing to kill one of our own."
"That is…" the Commander turned to face Aaron, "if you're telling the truth."
"I assure you, I am, Commander. You can ask Invidia to confirm. I know you have-"
"We may have a problem," Nalia said. Aaron and the Commander faced her. "Someone's going to get there before Summer."
The Commander grimaced. "Who, and are we going to have another crime scene onboard?"
Nalia scrunched her face. "Elana Dragunova. The only thing I'm getting is that she wants justice. What kind, I don't know." Her eyes grew distant then took in the room around her again. "Summer's moving faster. She'll hopefully get there first." Something in her tone said she didn't think that would be the case.
Aaron returned his attention to the attempted murderer. He felt Elana now, prowling toward Ellis. Summer was still in the stairway. She took a pretty big risk teleporting into and out of the crew quarters. Going into the mess of the lower levels wasn't an option without line of sight. Aaron didn't like casting magic he didn't have line of sight on under the best of circumstances. Now wasn't anywhere near the best time.
As he watched from afar, Aaron felt Elana approach Ellis from behind, the attempted murderer felt a flash of pain… then fell unconscious. Aaron and Nalia sighed at the same time. "Looks like she's just apprehending Engineer Smith," Nalia said.
"Captain Rose is down there, correct?" the Commander asked.
"She is," Aaron nodded.
"Have her and Outrider take the suspect to the brig. We'll meet them there. He looked between Aaron and Nalia. "On the way, you two will explain to me just how you know this is the guy." The Commander turned around and walked out of the barrack.
"It's quite simple, really," Nalia said. "We're telepaths. We looked into his memories, we saw that he tried to kill Verge."
"How reliable is this method?"
"Very," Aaron started, "especially with a memory so fresh and visceral." He grimaced. "If I go deeper, I imagine we'd find he was planning the attack for a while… maybe on any of us in that room."
"Maybe. I'd rather get the information the old fashion way." They reached the stairway and the Commander scowled. With his cane, he took a long time walking down the stairs. Still, he didn't complain.
Once on the lowest level, they heard some colorful language coming in the direction of the brig, followed by a yelp. "Use your nice words," Summer said, "or else I'll let her hit you again."
The Commander, Aaron, and Nalia stepped into the brig. The suspect was tied to a chair with a thin line of blood trailing from the side of his mouth. He glared up at Dragunova, then the Commander. "Why'd you sic these two bitches on me?"
"Language," Summer sang. "Keep your tongue in check and you might get to enjoy your cell with all your teeth." Aaron tried not to react to Summer's statement. While he never met the Summer of his Remnant, he didn't expect her to say something like that.
"Outrider," the Commander faced the Reaper, "I know how this squad came to their conclusion. How about you."
"The old fashioned way," Dragunova said. "I saw him enter the squad's barrack with Verge and he left happy, something he's not known to do around any of our alien allies." The suspect returned his glare to the Reaper. "I followed him out, and I caught him stashing this away." Dragunova raised her left arm. She held up a cloth that was dripping orange blood off it. "My educated guess says this is from Verge."
"Whose side are you on?" the suspect demanded. "Don't you eat the things?"
Dragunova punched the suspect with her free hand. "Never an ally." Aaron gave the Reaper a look that time. She did what?
"I can confirm." Halcyon's voice came from a single speaker on the ceiling. "This engineer, or should I say former engineer stole the murder weapon from the armory. He entered the crew quarters with Verge and left alone a few minutes later. The footage will be available for you to view when you get back to the bridge."
"It sounds like all we need is DNA from the knife," the Commander said. "In the meantime, throw him in one of these cells."
"With pleasure." Summer hauled the suspect to his feet and forced him into one of the cells.
One of the easier investigations we've done, Aaron thought to Nalia.
Maybe… Nalia turned her head to Aaron. The question is will the others who want to hurt us be discouraged, or emboldened?
Ariana lifted a piece of fire-black-fake rock to see if there was anything left of the number-smart-computer she saw from afar. Unfortunately, the thing looked flatter than a too-thin-Scroll. Even big-brain-Yaela wouldn't be able to get anything out of it. She shook not-her-head and let the fake-rock fall.
She straightened and looked around herself. She and her body-stolen-allies stood at the remains of an ADVENT-evil-nest. Something burned it, and something blew it apart from the inside. Ariana's team had been notified of the evil-nest's destruction only a few days before. Their contacts didn't know what happened or what the evil-nest did, they just thought whoever did this did it from the inside.
The weirdest part of the area though were the plants. Water-drink-roots and time-old-flowers covered much of the debris. They were all healthy and too old to not be fire-black. Something grew them after the fire. She thought she knew what.
"Did you find anything?" spooky-Ormr called from elsewhere on the fake-rock pile.
"Nothing useful." Ariana faced the dragon. "Just a lot of smashed computers and bodies. You?"
"I found what used to be a white tile floor, with more shattered tiles surrounding it." Ormr crossed her arms. "A lot of white tiles. Sound familiar?"
Ariana hissed and narrowed her eyes. "Like the place that brought us here."
"My thoughts exactly." Ormr looked around the dead-nest-pile. "But I don't believe this one was meant to take dragons. It's too small."
"It's too neat too." Ariana nodded. "One of us would have scattered this thing everywhere, and not all out from the center." She gestured at one of the too-young-flowers. "We can't do this either. That's elf work."
"Maybe, but elves are smart. They wouldn't try to beautify a place that kidnapped them, and that they just destroyed. Maybe to cover their tracks, but this isn't covering anything." Ormr paused as she faced Ariana through the corner of an eye. How much do you know about Code M?
Ariana cocked her head. For that kind of discussion, it made sense to switch to mental conversation. Sunny wasn't close, but she for sure didn't know about the season-power-Maidens. My Rider learned not long after Kialandí gave Vale his ultimatum, before Code M was even thought of. Naturally, I know too.
Do you know the Summer Maiden's abilities?
I've seen it first hand, many times. Ariana momentarily glanced at the silver-grip-claymore on her back before focusing on a cluster of magic-bred-roots. This is too organized to be the Maiden I know.
The Summer Maiden I know is an elf, but she is normally too timid for an attack like this.
"I think I found something!" a high pitched voice came from the unburnt-trees.
Ariana looked over her shoulder at Sunny then back at Ormr. Compare notes later?
Aye. We have much to discuss. Ormr turned toward not-sweet-sweet-Sunny. Ariana followed behind her. When they were close, Ormr asked aloud, "What did you find?"
"I believe it's Firefang." Sunny gestured to a burnt patch of grass. "I also found one of these… magazines?" She held up a curved piece of metal that Ariana recognized as a KA type rifle magazine. "It matches the other sites we've seen."
Ariana brought a hand to her chin. Firefang, the name they'd given to a suspected flame-full-Viper that fought against ADVENT. Ormr was able to find footage of the Viper at an attacked evil-search-station. Firefang hid in the back of a big-stuff-mover, and when ADVENT opened the back, she gunned them down, then the driver. She then took the big-stuff-mover herself and disappeared with it. They'd found other evidence along the way, but they'd always been several moons behind.
"She's moving east," Ormr said, "but from the map the Liberated gave us, there is not much further east. Just Vladivostok and the sea beyond."
"Do we know anything about Vladi… that place?" Sunny asked.
"Just that it's the capital of New Arctic. Other than that, I don't know." Ormr closed her eyes. "I believe we should get there before them, cut them off."
"We know she's against ADVENT," Ariana offered, "how do we know she'd be on our side."
Ormr hummed. "We'd have to hope, as the humans say, that the enemy of the enemy is my friend."
"I'll report this to the Liberated," Sunny grabbed the no-mouth-no-ear-radio the squad used to stay in contact with the base in the middle east. It took her a while to understand the machine, but she was now a master of it. "Should we tell them to let XCOM know too?"
Ormr cocked her head. "Yes. Let them know a transition facility has been destroyed… and Code M may be in effect. They will know what it means."
"I'll get the truck ready." Ariana started slithering toward it. Hopefully Firefang still didn't have her truck and her squad would actually make the city before their target. Then they'd finally get their first recruit instead of all this intelligence gathering.
Who knows? This Firefang might be another dragon in a Viper's body. It certainly would explain the hostility.
Nalia sniffed the air of the squad's barrack and nodded. "I'm not smelling any more blood. I'd say we're good."
"Define good," Yang said. She shifted on her feet as she stared into the room. "Someone was almost murdered in there and we're expected to sleep in there?"
"There aren't enough open bunks for all of us," Summer said. "We're more than welcome to sleep out here." She gestured to the common room of the crew quarters. "The Commander doesn't want to institute hot-bunking if he doesn't have to."
Aaron sniffed the room as well. His sense of smell wasn't as good as the dragons, or Vipers in this case, but he didn't smell anything. There wasn't any hint that the act had taken place. "I don't think it's going to get much better than this." He glanced at Yang. "We've slept in worse places before."
Yang winced. "Yeah, but those had their stuff happen years ago."
"Bed is bed," a tired voice said. Ruby walked through the small crowd, the squad parting before her. She was unsteady on her feet as if she'd been awake for a long time. Aaron felt a pang in his chest. He'd seen her this tired before, but only after all night sieges or if Angel or Crey were being especially vocal in their cribs. Working on armor for less than a day… Without another word or even taking off her clothes, she collapsed into her bed.
"Orchid," Dahlia started. "More kisses."
"In the future and now," Orchid said. She slithered into the barrack, leaned forward, and flicked her glowing tongue across Ruby's face. Aaron approached as well and watched Ruby's expression change from one of exhaustion, to contentment, to happiness. Orchid straightened and faced Aaron. "Hold her extra close tonight… and for the foreseeable future."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Aaron just took off his jacket, hung it on the one rack, and slid in beside his wife. As she had before, Ruby snuggled in closer as her husband wrapped an arm around her.
Nalia laid beside Aaron and leaned over him. She hummed sadly and kissed Ruby herself. I hate not being able to do anything.
We can keep her company, Aaron thought back. That's not nothing.
But we're not Cerise.
No, we're not. Aaron leaned back on his pillow and closed his eyes. We'll find her. We have to. He sighed. Goodnight, Nalia.
…
…Help me dad!
"Angel?" Aaron sat up in bed so fast his head hit the bunk above him. "Arg… Barzûl…" He rubbed his head but he didn't lose his focus. He stared at the bunk above him without seeing it. That was… Angel. The call wasn't as strong as he normally heard it, but he'd know it anywhere. He tried to quiet all his senses to feel what direction his daughter was in, but he only felt Nalia waiting with him.
"Honey?" Ruby groaned as she moved next to him. She stared at her husband with bleary eyes. "Are you okay?"
"I heard Angel," Aaron whispered. "Her necklace… she was calling for help…"
Ruby blinked herself awake. "What? Where?"
We're not getting a direction, Nalia whimpered. We just heard her call.
Aaron stared at the metal above him. He felt his eyes start to leak. "My baby girl's in trouble… and I can't do anything about it. I'm a world away."
Ruby rubbed Aaron's chest. "Your Yang's there. You had her as part of the enchantment, right?"
"Yes, but she called me, not her." Aaron shook his head. He rolled over Nalia, ignoring her protests, and stood up. "I… need to go for a walk." His legs felt like jelly as he walked toward the door. He opened it and stepped through. Just before it closed, he thought he heard Yang groan in her sleep. He hesitated and shook his head. Wishful thinking. That wasn't his Yang. The woman he was just sleeping with wasn't his Ruby. His Angel back home was in trouble. Who would know? Hopefully Angel had time to call for Yang. He wasn't going to be there any time soon.
Now, the news. First off, the next thing I upload will be a completely new story in, a first for me, a fandom completely different from RWBY... and no, it's not Pokémon like my username suggests. It will still be uploaded on a Monday night so no change there. Those of you who have been around a while know I once tried writing another fic alongside the main series. But that was back when I was uploading once a week. At this point, I feel accomplished if I get out one a month. So, while I'm working on that, I won't be working on this. The other fic is really being uploaded as an experiment. If people like it, the two fics could be switching off uploads or on a 'whatever I feel like writing' schedule. My 'schedule' itself is a bit wonky right now as depression is kicking my butt... and I've recently found Mass Effect on PC Gamepass. If you want to know when the first chapter is uploaded, like my Facebook page or follow me on this site.