53 was difficult to write, had to take a break after writing the first scene, but it's done now, so here's 48, hope you all enjoy!


Chapter 48

Triage Earth, the Greater Republic of Canada

Ivan hid his frown behind overlapped hands, watching as the butler poured him and his traveling partner a cup of hot coffee each.

Moira, having already had her cup poured, picked up the cup and dropped two sugar cubes in, stirred, and took a sip. "Ah… that's grand." She glanced up at their host, who was sitting opposite, and flinched back with an awkward chuckle. "Um… again, my deepest thanks for allowing us into this most humble of abodes… and not shooting me point blank the moment you saw me." The lithe woman gave an awkward chuckle, tapping her long nails against the side of the cup while her other hand held it's handle.

The woman who sat opposite just scowled at Moira for a moment. "I assure you. The temptation is still very much there." She growled, her hands clenched together in a white knuckle grip so fierce one might worry for the bones within.

Ivan glanced between the two and wished the sofa would swallow him alive.

When they arrived at the safe house, he'd honestly not been expecting his boss to be waiting for him.

But there she was, and Ivan swore he'd never felt more of an imposing aura of 'I'm going to commit war crimes upon you two' from the woman.

It had certainly killed Moira's unnervingly vibrant enthusiasm for finally being at their destination.

He was snapped back to the present when her gaze suddenly snapped from Moira to himself, and once again he was reminded that the woman before him could very well be a psychic somewhere in that horrifyingly long list of things she could do.

Stella De La Estrada narrowed her gaze at him further at his flinch. "Where. Is. Derrick. Your mission was to bring him to me safely, and yet to go on a wild goose chase around the United Kingdom for months."

Oh. Oh he was fucked.

Moira, as white as a sheet as she was from spending decades in a bunker under Siberia, somehow managed to turn even whiter as what blood had been in her face drained.

Ivan glanced to Moira, but she wasn't looking at either of them, instead she'd locked gazes with Stella's precious pet, Precious.

A massive Philipean Eagle, who was staring them all down in a way eerily similar to her owner.

Ivan internally quailed in fear for a moment, before mentally slapping himself and deciding that if this was the day he was going to die, he might as well not beat around the bush, might get him a quicker and less painless death.

"He's… He's dead… the captain of the ship we had boarded shot him off the edge of the ship… I'd been locked in the lowest deck of the hull and cuffed to a pipe too high to reach, by the time I got wind of what happened and got loose… two days had already passed."

The armrest of the sofa gained five claw marks as Stella's fist clenched. "Dead…" She ground out.

Moira nodded. "The captains daughter tried to… have her way with Derrick… she was dead with a number of bullets to the head for it… so the captain hunted him down and killed him before I could even locate what had transpired… if… I'm going to shut up now."

Stella kept scowling at the taller woman, and then turned back to Ivan. "So… the Orichiono line has been wiped out… four hundred years of being the most powerful family in the world… and they're all gone in the span of two decades…"

Ivan slowly nodded, glancing to Moira. "So… what do we do now?"

Stella's shoulders slumped, her whole demeanor shifting as she fell back into the sofa she was sitting on, Precious warbled in alarm at her, bowing her head to run her hooked beak through Stella's hair, ever the well trained, hand reared bird. "Now? Derrick was our one hope of being able to rebuild the Orichiono's network… but with him gone, any hope of re-establishing the world at large is out of the question… I am doing what I can to keep the criminal underground under my thumb, but attempts on my life have drastically increased in the last two years, none successful of course, but without the rest of the Triage, I am on borrowed time until the Estrada part of this empire collapses… Ira's Cyber network is already lost to us… the Orichiono wing effectively cannibalised them a year and a half ago."

Moira glanced to Ivan then to Stella. "And who has risen to take over the Orichiono's empire? Surely someone has tried to fill the void?"

Stella sighed, rubbing her temples. "47, there's been 47 in 2 and a half years, the 47th claimed power three days ago after stabbing the 46th in the head six times with a steak knife, the 46th was making a live public announcement, never even got to say what it was about… I'm going to be generous and give 47 three more days, he's already had half of the 46th's cabinet gunned down… it's a shit show… plain and simple."

Ivan sighed. "It wouldn't have been right to shove Derrick into that… it's probably for the best he's already gone…"

Moira glanced around the room. "Perhaps… we should discuss something else? That anomaly I was able to identify perhaps?"

Ivan perked up. "That thing you found that had you rambling science jargon long enough for me to recite Star Wars 1 and 2 in my head before you finished?"

Moira scowled at him. "Yes. That anomaly."

Stella looked to Moira in concerned intrigue. "Anomaly?"

Moira pulled her little note book out. "I noticed it a few hours before we reached land… at first I believed they were just the sensors I was using going on the fritz, but no, there's a pattern, somewhat irregular, but a pattern in the broader scale… there are these… flares. I traced them back to see how long they've been occuring, I have two and a half years worth of data, and well, after comparing them to the atmospheric data that is generally available to one of my clearance… three of those flares happened at the exact same time and place, as the Harpies vanished… there was another three flares in the same triangle position only a half hour after we believe Derrick was… murdered… directly where the ship was believed to have been at the time of the incident, I checked the telemetry data to be certain… These 'flares' are incredibly violent bursts of energy that, after looking at the pictures from where the Harpies vanished, occur with a concusive, explosive force that decimates a small area, just big enough to erase a human or two."

Stella glanced to Ivan, who just shrugged. "Lot more science waffle and techno babble last time."

"I dumbed it down for you, you neanderthal." Moira snapped, before sighing. "I haven't had time to try and see if it's following a pattern I can trace yet, I'll need more data than just the last two years, they only seem to happen once every few months…"

Stella frowned. "Whatever you need, that is within my ability to get for you, just say what… I want to know exactly what happened to my daughters."

Moira perked up a bit and looked at Stella in perplexion. "Daughters? I thought you only had the one daughter in Kia?"

Stella's expression narrowed.

Moira's eyebrows raised. "Oh… Oh I see, nevermind… I'll need a lab that is able to measure atmospheric pressure waves, and access to all records on the subject that you can get."

Stella nodded, gestured over to one of the silent body guards that surrounded the outside of the room, who approached without hesitation. "You get all of that?" The guard nodded. "Then get to it."

The guard was gone a moment later, Precious the only one watching him go, her striking blue eyes only snapping back to Ivan and Moira once the door to the mostly cream and mahogany coloured room was closed.

"And now… we wait." Stella mumbled to herself and waved them off, the meeting adjourned, they already knew where their temporary rooms were in the safe house.

Both bowed their heads to the Estrada Matriarch and beat a hasty retreat out of the room.

The guards equally departed at a dismissive hand gesture, just leaving her and Precious in the room.

The Philipean eagle trilled at Stella, bowing her head down and flaring her crown to receive an affectionate petting, which Stella was happy to provide.

"We'll find them…" She mumbled, glancing to and opening the locket that hung from her neck, a rather cramped image of all of her children stared back at her.

Ira had been the one holding the phone, she'd pulled Kia in, then Fernando had pulled the twins and Derrick in behind, an arm around each of their necks.

Taken four years ago… all those big bright smiles… and now… they were all gone…

She refused to believe they were all dead… just… misplaced somewhere… they had to be…


Orichiono Manor, Monaco

A tap on Wren's shoulder surprised her, she turned to see Prowl, standing somewhat bashfully with Annie holding one of his hands. "Oh? Um, yes Prowl?"

Prowl glanced to Annie who sighed, rolled her eyes, and spoke. "Hey so, we were hoping to ask Ira if she'd mind watching Raf while we go to this restaurant Prowl's put in a reservation at… but we can't find her? Could you do it in her stead?"

Wren paused for a minute, tried to hide a wince, and then replied. "Oh, Ira went to visit somewhere important to her, she'll be back in a day or so, and sure, I'll keep an eye on Rafael for you."

Both new parents smiled, and Wren noticed Prowl giving Annie's no longer gauze covered hand a little squeeze.

It was certainly a miracle she was healing so fast…

The miracles of medicine of a world that was able to focus on how to treat heat burns, and not ones from radiation or warped genetics.

Before Wren realised she'd distracted herself, Annie had flung her arms around the slightly shorter monochrome woman and pulled her into a hug. "You're the best!"

Annie was running off with Prowl a moment later, heading for the lift that led to the bunker, leaving Wren standing there frozen with her eyes wide and jaw dropped for a moment.

Then she shook her holoforms head, huffed out a small laugh to herself, and went for the main fridge. After a few minutes, she was heading upstairs with two bowls of vanilla ice cream with cubes of mango and a mint leaf topping each.

She came to Rafael's door soon enough, it had become apparent over the last week or so that Prowl would be staying in Monaco with Annie for at least another month or so, a place for them still hadn't been secured in Jasper, and it was better for Rafael especially to have a stable place to stay instead of potentially having to sleep in his new fathers alt-mode as they waited for a home to open up in Jasper.

Not really wanting to risk dropping the bowl of ice cream in her left hand by trying to free up her right, she knocked twice with her right elbow. "Raf? It's Wren, can I come in?" She called in.

The nine year old piped up an answer almost immediately. "Sure! Come on in Miss Orchiono!"

Using her elbow she pushed down on the handle, and put her shoulder to the door to open it.

Now to be fair, she hadn't been in the room since it was repurposed, so it took a moment for her to spot him sitting in his bed with a book in his lap.

Rafael's attention was on the bowls of ice cream, not that she blamed him, she had stacked each poorly scooped out pile rather high.

She gave an awkward chuckle. "You're parents asked me to keep you company while they go out on their night out." She explained, walking over and setting his bowl down on his bedside table, next to the little lamp and… oh Ira had gotten him a little Bumblebee Camaro hot wheels toy… probably repainted. Rather cheeky of Ira really.

She moved to sit in the too small for her desk chair that belonged to the desk that looked out the window, the curtains had been closed, the pattern was stars and rockets on it, quaint.

It was already eight, the nights were getting long now, the last vestiges of the sun clinging to the hills on the western horizon.

She glanced to her bowl and picked up the long handled spoon she'd stuck in it, then paused. "Sorry… do you need help? With the cast and… oh… no cast?" She remarked when Rafael lifted his healing arm to reveal it was now wrapped in a much less restrictive brace.

"No, I'm good, thank you for being considerate… umm… what are the yellow things?" He enquired as he picked up the bowl in his good hand, and picked up the spoon with his healing one, so as to poke at the mango.

Wren's eyebrows raised. "It's Mango, a bit underripe, but I prefer it holding its shape, and the slight bitter tang of it."

"Oh… huh…" He used his spoon to pick up one of the pieces and popped it in, his eyes widening as he chewed, swallowing before he exclaimed. "It's yummy!"

A smile cracked across her face. "I should hope so, it's my favourite fruit, it's only failing is the massive seeds they make." She chuckled, then her expression became neutral again. "Is this really your first time tasting mango?"

Rafael ducked his head, but she saw his eyes dart around the room and his shoulders haunch a bit.

She set the bowl down on the desk and moved to kneel down next to the bed, she reached out, hand hovering over his shoulder. "Hey, hey, there's no reason to be ashamed…"

"There was never enough money for nice fresh food… we only ever really ate out of cans or take-away boxes… but that was only for birthdays or Christmas… they forgot my birthday the last two years..." He explained, ducking his head away.

He glanced to where her hand was hovering over his shoulder, and nodded.

She clasped his shoulder as carefully as she could, and gave it a little shake. "Hey, that's in the past, whatever you want now, we'll do it, if you want to make up for those two missed birthdays, we'll do it, all at your pace of course."

He gave her a shocked look, then cracked a wobbly smile. "Thank you…"

She nodded. "Let's focus on the now, and have the ice cream, yeah?"

He nodded, smile becoming more set in place on his face. "Yeah."

She returned the smile, well, she tried to, sometimes it was hard getting the holoform's expressions right, muscle memory wasn't exactly a thing with them.

They fell into a simple quiet, she shifted to sit next to the bed on the floor, enjoying the flavours as Rafael did.

She finished first and set the bowl down next to her, the silver spoon clattering a bit from being jostled.

She glanced out at the darkness outside, it was a nice night, the thick clouds from that morning that Ira had used to take wing were gone, replaced by open air and the moon.

She hummed low in her throat, getting to the moon was going to be a challenge, but what Megatronus had told them about Sentinel… they were inclined to deal with him as swiftly as…

"Miss? I'm done?" Rafael's voice knocked her off her thought process.

She glanced at the bowl, some was still left, but she took the offered bowl regardless. "Okay… so… is there something you need? Bedtime story? Tucking in? … Um… drawing a blank here…" She admitted.

Megatronus had always been so careful with them, he'd never actually tucked them in, fearing accidentally hurting them with those claws of his.

Raf chuckled. "I'm good, thank you Miss."

The little chuckle was infectious, she was chuckling before she even really processed it. "There's no need for formality dear, just call me Wren, okay?"

He pouted as he seemed to mull that over, then looked back to her. "Why are you named after a bird, Wren? Don't you think it's a bit ironic?"

"Heh… you're not wrong, it is rather ironic… I picked the name, for myself, from this little book on birds when… I think we were three? Four? We opened it to a random page, and there was this really pretty picture of a little fairy wren, I… I fell in love… with the blue plumage the males had, and I told Aria, I told her to call me Wren…"

Raf was staring at her in surprise. "You… chose your own name? Didn't you have one before?"

Wren shrugged. "We were born in one body… but the name Aria had always fitted, well, Aria better… and well, I took a while finding one for myself, Megatronus was kinda annoyed when we asked him to try and read the finer print in that book, he didn't actually know how to read English I remember… I think he found some children's learning the language books some time later, because he started to read books… to us…"

Raf glanced to some of the books on the shelf over his bed. "Could you read one of them to me?"

She nodded. "Sure I can, pick whichever you like."

He clambered out from under the covers to look through the small collection, picking one out he handed it to her then got back under the covers, head on the pillow this time.

She moved to put her back to his bedside table/cupboard, and looked over the book. "'Computers for dummies' hmmm… Ira got you this one?"

He nodded and giggled.

She glanced to the shelf, all of them were books on technology and coding languages…

Shaking her head she opened the book to where a page marker had been placed. "From here?"

He nodded.

"Alright… oh ancestors I'm going to butcher some of these names."

He giggled again, Wren rolled her eyes in good nature and started to read, keeping her voice as even and soft as she could.

Three pages later and Rafael was asleep.

Carefully closing the book she quietly got up, leaned over to put the book back on the shelf, current page marked.

She bent down, picked up the bowls, and stepped out of the room, turning off the desk lamp in the process, blanketing the previously lit room into darkness.

The door handle clicked once she finished pulling it closed and she sighed.

Looking to her left she very nearly jumped out of her skin.

Ironhide was standing there, eyebrow raised.

Freedom, in all his mechanical glory, stood next to the mechs holoform, helm tucked under the holoforms left arm, like a giant dog trying to steal food from a kitchen counter.

Clutching her chest with her free hand she sighed. "Goodness you startled me! … Sorry I wasn't expecting someone to just be standing there."

Ironhide glanced to Freedom, who warbled. "Yeah, I hear you buddy."

Freedom chirped.

Wren raised an eyebrow. "You two figured out how to communicate?" The same thing had happened with their companions, but she was surprised Ironhide had meshed with Freedom that well.

Ironhide shrugged. "He's a smart bird, hey, is Aria already in the sparring ring? She commed me saying to meet her there a minute ago."

She reached across the bond, poked her twin with the question, and got a positive. "Yes, she's already there, and I quote 'He'd better get here now, else I'll go easy on him.'"

A look of horror danced over the grizzled holoforms features, before they hardened into a scowl and he broke out into a headlong sprint down the corridor, leaving Freedom to warble in surprise and amble after him.

Wren watched and waited until the Bald Eagle had turned the corner before shaking her head, turning, and heading in the opposite direction back to the kitchen, it was late and given she was now aware that Aria was going to be up for at least the next hour trying to beat the non-existent stuffing out of Ironhide, and visa versa, she likely wasn't going to get to sleep for at least another said hour.

She envied Kia and Ira sometimes, they could just, go to sleep, whenever they really wanted to, and not have to wait until their non-existent other half was ready to sleep too.

By the time that thought process was up, she was in the kitchen, Derrick's holoform was on the sofa, being smothered by Epsilon who had decided to come up to the main manor so as to be close to his father? Mother?

Derrick had hand reared Epsilon, so either or really.

Being careful she set the bowls down, she'd wash them in the morning, she hardly wanted to wake the two on the sofa.

A shift on their newest bond had her attention shift to the dining hall.

Walking over, she found Megatronus standing there, he turned to regard her as she stepped in, and with a gesture of the optics, asked her to close the doors between the kitchen/living area, and the dining area.

She did so, pulling the two doors closed as quietly as she could.

The moment the doors clicked together, he was on her, arms wrapped around her middle and pulling her down as she moved to sit cross legged, his jaw resting on top of her head as his chassis vibrated against her back.

She huffed. "You just wanted to hold me?"

He huffed right back. "You fault me for wanting to do something I denied myself for so long? Forgive me for enjoying physical contact."

She squirmed her arms free and started to trace invisible patterns on the armour of his arms. "I fault you for nothing, but by hiding away while doing so suggests you do not want anyone else to see? Not even Derrick? You know, despite everything he sleeps like a log."

He rumbled something in-coherently and squeezed her holoform a bit more.

She rolled her head back to rest it against his shoulder span. "We're not going anywhere, if you want to be more physically affectionate, you can, just, let us know."

He nodded into her shoulder.

"Did you try and get Aria?"

He nodded.

"Well she's just kicked Ironhide in the side of the head."

He snorted, lifting his head to properly speak. "They spar regularly?"

She shrugged. "Aria has a lot more energy to burn on the average day than I do, it's good for her and Ironhide sees it as a highlight of his day nowadays."

"Hmm, perhaps I should get back to training you in conflict, I wasn't able to teach you all I knew from the Pits…"

She patted his arm. "In time, raise the idea with Aria directly, she'll listen if you speak to her directly… We're still getting used to having you and Derrick at the edges of our shared headspace."

He huffed. "It makes me wish you'd have been sparked a Cybertronian, and I'd taken you under my wing, you'd be more comfortable with spark bonds then."

Wren hummed and mulled that over for a few long moments before speaking. "We would not be the same if we were raised Cybertronian, base traits maybe, the finery that decorates us would be completely different, I doubt you'd recognise us if we'd been raised on Cybertron, if we'd been forged by events different than the ones that we experienced. With you and without you."

He paused as she spoke, in the silence that followed, she continued.

"You'd see us as no one of interest, you raised us because you realised that our demise would be your own, right?"

He scowled and pressed his face into her shoulder for a moment as he pulled her even tighter, shaking his helm as he lifted it back up to speak. "No… I took on the job of raising you when I realised you'd wormed your way into my spark… and I could not bear to watch you become nothing but an empty shell. I loathe myself already for not… for not just listening to Nebular… had I listened… had I not tried to remove her from danger… Cybertron would still be able to support life… I do not believe I could live myself if I failed you too..."

She patted his arm. "You're not the only one here living with regrets… we all have our demons… so to speak."

He nodded into her shoulder, and allowed a silence to fall over them, not comfortable, but not tense or awkward, just, each others presence, and for now, that was enough.

He shot down the nagging voice in his helm telling him that, had he of listened to Nebular… he'd of never ended up caring for Wren and Aria, and well, he did not want to humor the images of them without him to protect them in those early years.


Sayan Mountain range, Siberia, the next day

It was here.

She knew it was here.

She'd come to this spot so many times… even on an alternate Earth, she knew it was here.

And yet… there was nothing here.

No single black marble stone… no similar stones surrounding it.

No cemetery walls just a way away in each direction.

This was the spot.

And a god damn fucking tree was growing there.

She was shaking, from the frigid cold and fury alike.

With a scream she smashed her shoulder into the tree, it was still young, it bowed under the force for a time, resisting.

It shattered just above where her abdomen was, splinters flying everywhere, some lodging in her wings and platting.

But she wasn't done, acting on the same fury she bent down, and snapped her jaws shut around the broken area, and tore the tree free with a savage thrashing jerk backwards.

She tasted energon, damn fucking thing had cut her mouth open!

With a sharp and brutal twist, she hurled the upper part of the young tree away, it crashed down to the cold ground a little distance away, the green pine needles rustling as the branches snapped and cracked.

She panted for a few moments, glossa running around the inside of her mouth, locating the jagged wood that had gotten her in the soft spots.

She was able to spit them out after a bit of persistence, more lilac energon pooling from her maw, dropping to the snow and pine under her talons, the cold making it slow to crystalise.

And then, just as quickly as it came, the rush of anger and indignant fury vanished, and she became burdened by her exhaustion and regret once more.

Her legs gave out from under her and she stumbled forwards to the ground, helm crashing down after the rest of her frame to the pine needle spotted snow.

Why… why did she do that?

The tree had done nothing wrong… and now… now it was dead…

For what?

For what.

Before she could stop herself, the tears were falling and her entire frame was being rocked by sobs.

She did again…

Stupid.. Stupid…

She was such a stupid worthless fool…

Destroyer of defenseless innocents…

Why did she even bother to come?

There was nothing here.

No little tombstone.

No cemetery.

No town she'd wanted to live peacefully in…

With him…

She knew there wouldn't be a tombstone…

She knew there wouldn't be a cemetery up in these woods…

She knew the town was never founded when the population centres shifted after the bombs…

There were no population shifts.

No bombs.

No rot…

No sickness that was slowly draining the life from everything.

She wasn't born here.

He wasn't born here.

The world was so unlike the one she'd known.

It mocked her with how… how much better it was.

If they'd been born here… if they'd still found each other in that online anonymous hacker chat room…

Would they have still fallen in love?

Would she have had him torn away from her?

Would she have gotten that call from the Twins…?

No… none of that would have happened.

She wouldn't be the same.

He would have found someone else… someone so much better than what she could be…

She wanted to scream, to cry out, to curse everything and anything.

But she hadn't the strength, the energy was gone.

She slumped further into the snow.

Why had she come here?

There was nothing.

Absolutely nothing…

"О, бедняжка"

Her optics snapped open behind her visor.

A woman, elderly, wrapped up snug in layers of clothing with a scarf around her neck, a wicker basket hanging off her arm.

There was a woman, standing there… calling her a poor thing.

Her lower jaw opened and the attempt to get words out failed the moment she tried.

After a few moments of silence between them, the wicker basket shifted, and the tufted head of a ginger cat poked out from the blanket with an inquisitive mewl.

That seemed to snap her to a bit more attention, and she was able to shift her vocabulary to Russian, no point trying to deny her own existence to this woman.

"Who are you?"

The old woman chuckled, constantly scratching the ginger cat under the chin, earning a pur from it. "I, am Sophia Kuznetsov, Ira I presume?"

Her helm reflexively jerked back in shock, how in the hell did this old crone know her name?!

She tried to get her feet under herself, but the snow just gave way under the applied force, leaving her kicking wildly at the ground fruitlessly.

The old lady chuckled. "At ease child. You're hardly my first giant robot." She remarked jovily.

She raised her visor just so the woman could see her blinking dumbfoundedly at her. "How… in the name of mah ass, am ah not yah firs' gian' robot?"

The woman, Sophia grinned as she had a hearty chuckle. "Dear, when I was a spy during the cold war, I walked in on a police car learning how to french kiss a sheriff's deputy. That memory is still seared into my brain and will haunt me till I leap from this mortal plane."

It took a few moments before it clicked in her head. "Oh… Annie and Prowl."

Sophia chuckled and nodded, the cat, who had been content to purr away happily, mewled as well. "Yes those two, it was what convinced me to turn myself in as a spy to the Americans, I hardly wanted to miss out on that story."

She raised an optic ridge. "Then what are you doing in Siberia?"

Sophia chuckled further, filled with a mirth well aged. "Once a trained KJB operative, always a trained KJB operative. People don't suspect the old crone to be the one slipping intel back to the Americans… I was given a slap on the wrist for all the information I provided." She sent a knowing look to her. "I've known about you in particular for quite a while, miss, 'I'm going to hack every monitoring device the Americans have so they can't track aliens arriving', rather impressive I must say."

Okay that knocked a few alarm bells. "How do you-?"

"Know that? Dear, unlike many, I'm not dense, I can put things together from the messages my friends have sent me. Now enough about me, what in the world has you tearing up that poor tree in the middle of nowhere?"

She glanced to the decimated tree trunk, then back to her. "It… My… I…" Words were failing, she took a long sigh and tried again. "Where I'm from… this is… this is where I... buried my fiance…"

Sophia looked to the trunk, her expression morphing from the almost jovial look she'd had before, to one of a deep sorrow, her features suddenly showing her age as she too sighed. "My sincerest condolences… I've… never taken a lover myself… but I know the agony of losing those you hold dear too soon…" She shuffled closer to Ira, and slowly reached out her gloved hand to the Harpy.

After a few moments of hesitation, she nodded, and let the former KJB agent rub the metal that made up the right side of her helm smearing the tear tracks.

After a few more moments, Sophia moved, setting down the wicker basket, much to the complaint of the cat, and put her hands on her hips. "Ira dear. You do yourself no good coming here. I can see this pains you. But you won't find any closure coming to a random patch of Siberian forest, no matter what the location may be on another Earth. This place does not hold the same meaning as that one does. All you are doing is giving your subconscious an excuse to hurt yourself, you're even consciously hurting yourself, aren't you?"

She tried to look away, but Sophia just shuffled back into view. "Go back to your friends. The dead cannot help you feel better, to make peace with this, but they can. Seek them out while you all still have a pulse. Those you care for most, seem to have the shortest of lives."

A silence fell between them for a few long moments, the only sounds being the rustling of trees, the whir of her internal systems and her vents as small clouds of condensed air flowed out from the gaps in the faceplates and mouth.

Ira let out a groan as she accepted her fate.

No point trying to even rebuke this woman.

With a bit of effort she was able to rise, her wings still hurt like a son of a bitch, but she decided she'd just sleep for a week once she got back to Rome.

Hopefully Rafael wouldn't mind.

Once she was upright, she looked back down at Sophia, who gave her a small encouraging smile and a nod.

The systems in her wings groaned as she stretched them out, already dull pain throbbed through them.

Sophia regarded her with a look of sympathy. "A few miles south there is a small lake, the cliffs there will shelter you from the cold if you require more rest." As she said that she took a moment to pick up the cat carrying basket.

Ira shook her helm. "No, I'm not going to stop until I hit the Alps, there's a spot there that's better." And with that, she took two half running steps and pushed off the side of the steep hill, talons catching a few branches and wings forcing the trunks to sway out of the way of the downforce.

Sophia reached up to make sure her cloth didn't come loose from her head, and the ginger cat hissed in complaint as the wicker basket shook.

Only when Ira vanished from view, did Sophia glance back at the cat. "What do you think Saurouvo?" She asked this while rubbing the ginger cat behind the ears.

Sarouvo mewled, leaning into the affectionate petting with a deep purr, Sophia's fingers soon being swallowed by the cats dense and fluffy fur.

Sophia chuckled. "You're right, still very rough and tender, but with time, she will heal, most non-fatal wounds do."

The woman looked back to where the Harpy had flown off, turned then to face where the tree had been uprooted, leaving only the stump behind. "Hmm, best get Victor up here next week, in case she comes back, she might appreciate a little memorial stone…"

Sarouvo mewled again from the basket, purring even louder now, a paw reaching out to bat with the end of her sleeve.

Sophia chuckled. "Alright, alright, lets go home and get you something to play with." With that, she turned, and began her descent back down into the valley and towards town, it would be late by the time she reached her home, but she held no fear in her heart for the dark.

The dark had nothing she could not handle.


A quick thing of note, the reason Ira suddenly speaks much clearer once she switches over to Russian is quite simple.

She's polylingual, her native tongue is Gaelic, followed by Russian, then Italian, then English, she is of course a much stronger speaker in her first and second languages than she is in her third and fourth, seeing as she's only in the last few years really had to learn and use the later two. She speaks English primarily in Birds because that's the language that the majority of the cast speak most frequently, and Ira is not one to be left out of a conversation if she can help it.

Hopefully that helped clear things up there, welp, until next time!

Moon.