Foreword:
*staggers in, panting* Sweet banana cream pie with whipped topping, this chapter is SOOOO LAAAAAATE! DX So sorry, everyone. :( I've been busier in the past few months than I've ever been before in my entire life!
Anyways, I'm finally back, and if anyone is actually still reading, please accept my deepest apologies and sincerest thanks. 3
*heaves loooooong sigh* So, I've been playing ACiT with my baby sister and brother again lately, and we managed to trigger a couple random lines from Alister that I'd never heard before. To my sheer horror, they totally conflicted with my plot for this story! o_0 I mean completely. Like, from beginning to end. WHYYYYYYYY?! DX
Obviously it's waaaay too late for me to fix this, but I can certainly say that if I'd known about those little snippets back when I first started writing, I would've gone a completely different direction with the early development. This saddens me deeply. T-T But, since there's nothing I can do about it now, I'm just gonna have to ignore it and move on. My apologies to any among my readers who ever stumble upon the same snippets in the game I did and then think, "Wait a minute..." _
"Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow."
—2 Corinthians 2:7
« ... »
Kaden's communicator clanked loudly as the baby banged it against the floor, muttering a string of unintelligible gibberish. He looked like he was trying to get it open.
"Whoa there," Kaden exclaimed, turning aside from Aphelion's controls. "That thing's not a toy."
He had to wrestle the small machine from his son's prying grip, and, and of course the child burst into tears. With a sigh and a roll of his eyes Kaden looked around for a substitute. Unfortunately the only thing available was his blaster. He hesitated for a long moment before the baby's screams got to him and he grabbed the weapon, groaning in defeat.
After removing the power source and triple checking that the safety was on, he handed his gun to his son. The baby's eyes lit up at the sight of it, and he immediately set to sucking on the grip and playing with all the buttons.
In spite of the guilty feeling gnawing at his parental instincts, he couldn't help but smile. Then he looked down at the communicator in his hands, and his expression darkened.
What was he going to do with this thing?
Truth be told, he was surprised he even had it still, but when he was honest with himself, he knew exactly why. The reason didn't matter anymore, though. He couldn't risk keeping it any longer.
He set the machine on the ground at his feet and raised up his right leg. He sat there for a long moment, ready to stomp to pieces the last connection he had to another Lombax... and for some reason he just couldn't put his foot down.
His heart started pounding in his chest as he stared down at that cold, lifeless little device, and suddenly he felt like breaking it would be as heartless as kicking his infant son.
Kaden heaved a deep, frustrated sigh and set his foot down gently, leaning down to pick up the communicator. He held it in his hands, letting his bitterness melt away. He thought of the person suffering at the other end... and then he thought of his son, who had taught him how to love again when he was sure that all warm feelings were dead to him forever.
Kaden bit his lip and closed his eyes, swallowing butterflies as he lifted the communicator to his lips.
"Alister," he practiced awkwardly without turning the communicator on. "It's me again. I doubt you're happy to hear from me... you know, since I said you were dead to me and all..."
He stopped and rolled his eyes, then took a breath and started over. "Hey, Alister, it's Kaden. How're you doing?"
He grimaced at the stupidity of the question, his ears flopping back.
He glanced over at his son, who had stopped playing with the blaster and was staring at him with muted fascination.
"What? You think you could do better?"
The baby giggled, then lost his balance and fell over on his side.
Kaden sighed once more before flipping the power switch on his communicator. There was no turning back now.
"Al," he muttered into the receiver, "you there?"
Alister's voice responded in an instant. "Kaden? Kaden, is that you?!"
"Yeah, it's me," Kaden replied listlessly.
"Oh, thank God!" Alister exclaimed. He trailed off for a moment before he found the strength to continue. "Kaden... About—Nayeli, I... I'm so sorry."
"Alister," Kaden cut in; he couldn't let that topic start up. Not if he wanted his communicator to survive their conversation. "Listen. I know you're using the tracking system in our communicators to find me... I'm sorry, but I'm going to destroy mine."
He heard a faint gasp on the other line, and when Alister started talking again, his voice was quivering in panic.
"Kaden... you can't..."
"I have to," Kaden explained. "I can't take the risk if yours falls into the wrong hands."
"I promise I won't let that happen!"
"Alister, listen to me!" He sighed hard and plugged the communicator into a port on the ship's control board and then began typing as he went on. "I'm sending you an encrypted file. Be at these coordinates by this time tomorrow, and I'll let you join me."
Kaden could almost feel the tension leave the atmosphere as these words passed his lips, and the joy in Alister's tone was enough to cut through his melancholy and make him smile.
"Thank you, Kaden... Thank you so much! This means more to me than I could ever say."
"Hey, don't mush out on me now, soldier," Kaden retorted, the spirit of his youth returning in spite of everything. "Just get there! I'm not gonna sit around waiting for you, so don't be late."
"I'll be there," Alister said with rekindled hope. "I promise!"
"Great," Kaden muttered under his breath.
Suddenly the familiar sound of metal banging on metal killed the mood, punctuated by the loud babbling of an infant Lombax.
"Oh, no way..." Alister muttered in disbelief. "Is that—?"
"My son," Kaden inserted with a roll of his eyes. He pinned the blaster to the floor with his foot, to the vehement protest of the child.
A delighted laugh of Alister's managed to rise over the baby's noise. "Well I'll be... what's he look like?"
"You'll find out when you meet him," Kaden muttered coyly.
"So that's how it's gonna be, huh? Do you think I don't have enough incentive already?"
"Oh, shut up and set your course, would you?" Kaden snapped playfully.
"Already done. I'll see you there."
"See you..." Kaden unconsciously released the blaster from under his foot, and the whining infant quieted down. There was a long silence as he tried to think of what—if anything—he should say next.
"R-Right, so... I guess we'd better say goodbye."
Alister's voice betrayed his reluctance to agree, but nonetheless he muttered, "Yeah... I guess—guess so... Goodbye, Kaden."
"Bye, Al."
Despite the promise of a not-so-distant reunion, Kaden couldn't shake the feeling of somber finality plaguing this farewell. Seconds away from ending the call he jumped to add, "Oh, and Alister?"
"Yes?" his friend asked eagerly.
Kaden had to breathe a few times before he could finish. "Whatever happens, Al... I want you to know that... I forgive you."
With a trembling hand he cut the signal, and let out a long, loud sigh.
He looked down at the baby, who was contentedly playing at his feet with the stripped blaster. Another deep breath passed through his lungs as he pulled the communicator out of the synch port and set it back on the floor at his feet. He lifted up his leg and turned to his son, who was now eying him with rapt attention.
"Is this what you were trying to do?" he asked, and the sound of buckling metal filled the cabin.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Kaden marveled at the one place on Fastoon that remained untouched by Tachyon's onslaught. There was nothing but cavernous mountains and jutting crags as far as the eye could see. Miles and miles of rocky terrain had made this no-man's-land too troublesome and dangerous to develop, which meant that there were no Lombaxes here, and thus no reason for the Cragmite to spread his forces this far.
Turning his attention to the ship's sensors, Kaden pinpointed the spot he was looking for. A tiny cave hidden behind several forbidding outcroppings of solid limestone. He couldn't even see it from this high up, but Aphelion's readouts of the underground confirmed that they were in the right place.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" the ship asked with concern.
"I have to, Feel," Kaden replied. "Or die trying."
"I hope you realize how real of a possibility that is."
Kaden thought to himself for a quiet minute, then sighed and said, "If I don't come back... you know what to do, right?"
"Yes," Aphelion said almost regretfully.
"Good."
Kaden looked down at his baby, who had somehow managed to fall asleep on the hard cockpit floor. He knew Alister would take care of him as though he were his own... but hoped with all his heart it wouldn't come to that.
He closed his eyes and focused on his breath, drawing in a deep stream of air. His brain would need all the oxygen it could get if he was to survive this undertaking. Alertness was absolutely critical.
"Okay," he announced, opening his brazen green eyes. "I'm ready."
A loud hiss filled the air as the seal of Aphelion's cockpit came undone and the domed roof lifted from overhead. Kaden stood up and stretched his legs for the first time in hours. He stepped up onto the side rail and took in the dismal view below. A gust of wind swept past and he had to steady himself to keep from being blown down. The breeze felt soft and cool against his skin, and he allowed himself to relish in a brief moment of calm before the storm.
He turned, his ears whipping around his head, and looked down into the cockpit. His son was sleeping peacefully, his chest rising and falling with his soft, rhythmic breathing.
Kaden smiled, then turned back to face the task ahead. Stretching out his arms, he let himself fall forward.
He had been doing halo jumps since he had his own ship as a daredevil teenager. Nothing compared to the feeling of the ground rushing at you while the air tried to pick you up. It was pure adrenaline, and even in these desperate circumstances he still enjoyed it. This might be the last time he could ever do it, he remembered sorrowfully. A tear was swept from his face by the momentum of his free-fall.
The mouth of the cave swallowed him up in an instant, and Kaden gathered his wits as he prepared to land. Coiling his feet underneath his body and activating his hoverboots, he listened for the echo of the jets that would signal he was almost on the ground. His ears perked at the nigh imperceptible noise, and he righted himself mid-air just in time to break his fall and slip into a hover.
He pulled a compact light from his utility belt and shone it around for a quick scan of the cavern. When he was confident that the coast was clear he sighed in relief and reluctantly began the easy, boring part of his quest—the three-mile walk through these endless caverns to the secret East entrance of the Court of Azimuth.
« ... »
By the time the giant raritanium door came into view, Kaden was practically longing to run into some Drophyd sentries.
"Finally," he muttered under his breath, rushing over to the keypad on the door's right. He typed in his security clearance and a disc-shaped tray popped out, the computer screen prompting him for a DNA sample. He rolled his eyes and unceremoniously spit on the tray. The computer withdrew the tray while the screen showed the progress of the sample analysis. After about a minute of foot-tapping the authorization cleared, and the doors slid open.
Now came the hard part.
Kaden took a moment to mentally prepare before venturing into the dark, empty halls of the Court. As he looked around at the high ceilings and long hallways, he felt a faint chill run down his spine. It was unnerving to see such a big place this empty. Or even this dark. It was like Tachyon's very presence had choked all the light out.
Kaden walked up to a computer terminal and activated it.
"What's the status of the perimeter defenses?" he asked.
A choppy synthetic voice warbled in response.
"Qua—um shield energy lev—s at one percent. Outer def—ses structural in—grity at zero point three per—nt."
Kaden swallowed hard. That was not what he wanted to hear. "How long before the perimeter is breached?"
"Approx—ately eleven min—s."
Kaden's ears flopped. It looked like he would have to change tactics.
The spitfire of hoverboot jets running at maximum output echoed loudly through the deserted hallways, leaving a charred trail behind them. Subtlety abandoned, Kaden valued only speed in his desperate flight to the Court's central chamber, where his final responsibility was waiting for him.
He blasted through the false wall leading in through the back of an expansive room whose ceiling towered so high above that it was completely hidden in shadow. The Dimensionator was sitting right in the center of the vast round floor, the faint hum of its energy converters testifying that it had just been used.
A loud clatter of metal against metal reverberated through the cavernous dome, and Kaden gasped as he looked past the Dimensionator at the main entry corridor. Foreign shadows danced across the dimly lit wall. They had made it in five minutes early.
Kaden dashed forward, grabbing the Dimensionator just before Tachyon's forces came into view, led by the Cragmite himself. Percival Tachyon took one glance into the chamber, and his face twisted in rage as he locked eyes with Kaden. The Lombax was already blazing back the way he'd come when Drophyd soldiers began pouring into the room.
"Kill him!" Tachyon's shrill voice shrieked fiercely in the growing distance. "KILL HIM!"
Tachyon's voice was quickly swallowed up in a deafening blast of gunfire. Bolts of energy lit up the corridor from just behind Kaden as he rocketed on. Soon the frightening noises of the advancing troops grew softer as he gained momentum, and he allowed himself a brief smirk of relief at the fact that those foot soldiers couldn't possibly keep up with him while he was in hoverboots. Now he just had to backtrack as fast as he possibly could and hope they didn't have any Enforcers at the ready.
When Kaden reached the gate to the secret entrance, he zoomed through without bothering to seal the door. The sound of the chase changed entirely once they were in the underground caverns. The shouts of angry Drophyds turned into eerie wails echoing all around him. Here in the dark clutches of the cave's winding tunnels he wouldn't be able to tell from which direction his enemies approached. It really brought back memories...
The distance that had taken him an hour to cross on foot was left in his dust after two minutes, and Aphelion was already powering up her engines and opening her hatch when she came into view.
That's my girl!
"Hurry, Kaden!" the ship shouted, "Tachyon's forces are closing in from all angles!"
Kaden catapulted himself into the cockpit, startling his son awake.
"Don't have to tell me twice," he muttered, already busy at the controls. "If there was ever a time for you to show off your speed, Feel, it's now!"
"Yes, sir! Engaging hyperdrive."
The roar of engines and subsequent liftoff filled Kaden with a new charge of adrenaline.
"Hang in there, little guy," he shouted to his crying son, "This'll all be over soon."
He turned out to be right, for twenty minutes later Fastoon was a shrinking dot in Aphelion's stern window.
« « « « « ж » » » » »
Kaden's heart felt heavier with every minute that ticked slowly by. He had hoped he would arrive at the rendezvous point to find Alister already waiting for him. He had envisioned the moment many, many times and wondered with anticipation and fear exactly what it would be like.
But the longer he waited here... the more time slipped by with no sign of his friend's approach... the more Kaden felt like his hope was slipping away.
He pulled out his watch, opened it, and stared for a time at the photo inside. How he longed for the time when that picture was taken! A more innocent time, when the worst of his worries were hardly even matters of life, let alone death. The soft, rhythmic ticking drifted through his ears, carrying him back to that time, and the tide of memory washed him up on the rocky shore of the moment that had changed everything...
A purple vase shattered against the wall into a thousand sharp fragments. Kaden's frustrated scream was swallowed up by the clatter of dishes on the floor after he'd turned the kitchen table over.
Nayeli came rushing into the room with a worried look on her face. "Kaden, what are you doing?" she exclaimed, running over to him.
A wrench on the floor found its way into Kaden's furious grip, and with it he mercilessly broke both of the kitchen windows. Glass shards rained down onto the floor while the rampaging Lombax was already ravaging his next victim.
"Stop, Kaden!" Nayeli screamed.
She grabbed his arm and attempted to pull him away from a freshly beaten hole in the wall, but Kaden yanked his arm from her grip as though on reflex and glared at her with blazing eyes.
Nayeli shied back with a frightened gasp, and Kaden's rage instantly subsided. The wrench fell from his hand and struck the glass-covered floor—the only sound in the whole house for the next few seconds. Kaden held his wife's worried gaze only a moment before he turned away in shame, biting his lip as tears began rolling down his cheeks.
"Kaden..." Nayeli murmured, stepping forward. She reached up to touch his face, gazing deeply into his stormy eyes. "What happened?
Even after he'd calmed down, it took a while to explain everything. Nayeli had coaxed him into the living room without saying a word about how he'd just destroyed her beautiful kitchen, which made him feel even more guilty about it. They sat down together on the sofa, Nayeli took Kaden's hands in her own, and she waited patiently for him to be ready to talk. There was silence for several minutes, and then the whole story came pouring out like a breached dam.
"How could he be so stupid?!" Kaden shouted, having finished telling all about his spat with Alister. "How can he think that a Cragmite can be trusted with the fate of our whole galaxy?!"
"I'm sure he has a good reason," Nayeli said.
"Here's the reason: he's stupid!"
"Kaden, I know you're mad... but you shouldn't talk about your best friend that way."
"He's not my best friend anymore."
Nayeli gasped under her breath. "Kaden, you don't mean that."
Kaden seethed in silence a moment, refusing to meet Nayeli's eyes. "How could he? He should know better..."
Nayeli heaved a knowing sigh and asked, "Are you talking about what he did, or what he said?"
Kaden's eyes began to water once more. "Both."
Silence for a moment... And then, "He's always been like this. He doesn't know how to stop and weigh things out in his head. He thinks it's impossible to do any good if you're not constantly moving."
"In a way he's right," Nayeli interjected, and Kaden gave her a questioning look. But she just smiled and calmly went on. "You do always have to be moving... but sometimes you move the most when you're standing still. Alister needs to realize that..." Nayeli reached her hand forward, turned Kaden's face toward hers and lovingly added, "But then again, so do you."
Kaden remembered her gentle words with tears in his eyes. He felt the choking in his throat too late to stop it, and seconds later he was sobbing all over Aphelion's control board. He never had understood what Nayeli meant by that cryptic statement... until now. Here he was waiting for someone who just days ago he'd never wanted to see again. He had been sitting absolutely still—one of his least favorite things to do—for the past seven hours... and yet never before had he felt so moved.
Not even a few moments' peace was allowed him before another crying voice interrupted his own. He turned, wiping his eyes, and looked down into the next seat at his bawling baby boy. Why did that little fuzzball have to be such a light sleeper?
Kaden sighed in resignation and reached over to pick the child up. He held him to his chest and patted him on the back, still fighting off his own tears even as he tried to console his son.
"Come on, kid... don't cry! We're two of the last Lombaxes in the galaxy; we can't afford to cry. We have to be strong."
His efforts were fruitless as the baby continued to scream hysterically. It appeared he could sense the lack of conviction in his father's tone.
"All right, then," Kaden muttered, wiping his eyes and squeezing his child a little tighter. "Guess I'll have to be strong for both of us."
With the baby still fussing against his chest, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his only remaining keepsake of Alister. The watch still ticked faithfully, still functioned perfectly. If only life and relationships could be so simple, and so reliable.
He ran his fingers over the picture inside, meticulously studying every detail. You would never know from looking at it how much history was bound up in that tiny little space. In that so faithfully captured moment he and his best friend were both together and smiling after three years of being apart. Kaden remembered how happy those days had been, and remembering made him wonder how he had ever let it slip away. Even in spite of everything that had happened and all the horrors that had torn his whole world apart, one comfort yet remained: there was still something in his life worth fighting for. Still someone worth dying for. Still someone worth waiting for.
But he couldn't wait forever. Already ships belonging to Tachyon were beginning to show up on his long-range sensors. If he didn't leave soon, there was no guarantee he'd be able to evade them long enough to accomplish his mission. He couldn't risk his only child for the sake of his only friend. Not even if that friend was Alister.
The baby hadn't stirred in a while, so Kaden supposed it was safe to put him down. With utmost care he laid him down on the seat beside his, praying under his breath that the little minx wouldn't wake up. He didn't. He stirred a bit and rolled over on his side, but after that remained peacefully asleep.
Kaden smiled for a brief moment before the gloom returned, and he looked once more at his watch. Alister's eyes in that cherished photo stared right at him, almost pleadingly. He bit his lip, choking back tears as he made his decision.
The watch snapped closed and disappeared into his pocket.
"Aphelion," he muttered sadly, "We'd better go."
"Understood," Aphelion replied.
Kaden leaned back in his seat, listening to the sound of the engines powering up and the course being set.
Why, Alister? I told you when to be here. I waited so long... Why didn't you come?
Kaden would never know the answer to his question, and lest his heart break yet again, he refused to let himself wonder.
Author's Notes:
- Ratchet's First Firearm— Yeah I know, Kaden gets the 'irresponsible father of the year' award... but the subtle foreshadowing of the games was just too hilarious for me to resist! XD
- Kaden's Flashback— This was a scene I came up with way back when I was plotting out Kaden and Alister's fight, but for some sad reason, I was never able to figure out a way to squeeze it in. :( but then as I was brainstorming for this chapter, suddenly it dawned on me... I can do it as a flashback! XD I found it a perfect way to have my cake and eat it too. Besides, I think it may even carry a little more weight this way than it would have if it happened in real time.
- So why the heck didn't Alister show up?— That's for me to figure out, and for you to hope you'll never know. :P
- Theme Song: "The Symphony of Blase" by Anberlin— Mmmm... I can't really decide whether this song works or not. Parts fit like a glove, and other parts sound almost like the opposite of what I think should be said. But for some reason I can't help but associate it with Kaden as though it was written for him. Some lines are obviously about his feelings for Nayeli, and others seem more like his feelings toward Alister. Most of them I can't even figure out what they're about, But I still feel like they fit somehow—almost like Kaden has grown to the point where he's deciding things about himself independent of my will. Ultimately, I think of it as describing his resolution to let go of everything at the end of this chapter... and the peace he has about it in spite of how heartbroken he is.