A Dark Sage's work is never done.

Chapter 31: A Mess and an Idea

As hopeless as the current situation appeared, Gol was trying his best to pry loose the wrench that had most recently been thrown into his plans, so to speak. Or to be more exact, working to resolve the problem that had resulted from something, wrench or otherwise, being thrown into the machines responsible for creating their servants.

And so the Sage was currently busy directing whatever servants he could gather into cleaning up the massive room that housed their factory, ordering them to first bring in candles and torches to light the place after the explosion had put out nearly every torch in the room, like a naughty child trying to hide a mess they had made. And then he tasked them with clearing up the rubble and mopping up the spilled Eco and shutting off the pipes that had, until just recently, been creating a pool of Dark Eco on one end of the room.

As for whom to blame for this catastrophe, last Maia had checked, the boy was still locked up. It must have indeed been the rat, just as she said, as unlikely as it seemed that a flea-bitten weasel could have caused all of this. They should have killed that obnoxious rodent long ago. Underestimating those two was always a grave mistake. It seemed that those who appeared to be complete and utter morons were actually the biggest threats of all. Actually blowing up their factory? Now he never in a million years would have expected that!

Even after nearly an hour had gone by, the room's appearance hardly seemed to be improving. While it was difficult to survey the room's condition and that of the machines in this dim lighting, as even dozens of candles scattered about were not quite enough to light such a large space, it was still clear how abysmal the state of the room was and how ineffective the current cleanup efforts were. Moving rubble from the citadel itself to one side and scraps from their machines to the other, while Eco of multiple colors remained dripping from the ceiling and walls, it only went from a complete disaster to a slightly more organized tragedy. The room itself was even in such poor condition, he worried it would cave in on them. Several support pillars were toppled, with gouges taken out of the walls like a massive, rock-eating beast had been here, while a large hole had been blown clear through the ceiling, with a crater in the floor below it, attempting to mirror the damage above.

The Sage grabbed his chest and tried with an exceeding amount of effort to force air into his lungs. All this dust was positively choking him. And the stress wasn't helping. The creation of more servants for their army was effectively stopped until this could be resolved. At least there was the robot. He would grind Haven City to dust and then disintegrate even that. There would be no sign a city had ever even stood there. No words had yet been invented to describe what he'd do to the rat.

Gol left the room, and with one hand on the wall for balance, he hacked and coughed to rid his lungs of that awful dust. What did he ever do to deserve such bad luck? And when would he ever have time to heal his always aching and sometimes absolutely infuriating body? He couldn't stand being sick anymore! He couldn't take it a minute longer! At least, that's how it felt sometimes, but no matter how much his woefully inadequate health plagued him, there were always so many other things occupying his time to do much about it.

As he wheezed and glared at any servant that so much as thought about looking his way, he heard a noise from down the hallway. He looked up, a hand still to his chest, and listened. It almost sounded like Maia's heels. She had been gone longer than he had expected, now that he thought of it. She had gone off to make sure that the boy was still in his cell and to see about locating the rat to prevent him from causing anymore trouble and so he could get what was coming to him. But, either the boy was there or he wasn't, and finding a scurrying, little weasel in this labyrinth of a place was a largely pointless effort anyway. Oh, the rat would be destroyed once he was spotted, that was certain, but the Sage wasn't about to waste hours of his time looking for the thing while the rodent no doubt watched him from some small, dark corner he had bypassed.

He heard a few more taps and then a muffled sound. Still breathless, he staggered away from the wall and headed towards the source of the noise. It couldn't have been far. If it was the rodent, he'd have it reduced to a smoking pile of orange ash before it could so much as think of fleeing again.

But, when he turned the corner, a much different sight greeted him. His eyes widened, and he rushed forward to kneel beside his dear sister, on the floor and slumped against the wall, her upper body nearly covered in the dark maroon of Dark Eco-infused blood. Her pale arms were covered in it; it dotted her torso and face and ivory hair, a spray of it, gloves sliced to ribbons like they had been ripped with knives. He grabbed her, pulling her in close, and held her tight.

"Dear sister," he said to the top of her head, and she sniffled.

"I-I couldn't stop them, dear brother." Her voice was muffled, her face pressed to his chest.

"That doesn't matter now. Just let me take care of you. You are in a most distressing state." He leaned away from her to see tears running down her face, yet her eyes were not filled with sorrow.

"They got away. They damaged the robot, and then they got away."

He used his sleeve to wipe blood from her face, revealing a fresh cut on her right cheek, running diagonal to end just under the corner of her lower lip. Upon closer inspection, more gashes could be seen on her arms and chest, hidden by the sheer amount of blood. He tried to dab at her injuries, but the flow of maroon continued.

"Didn't you hear me? The robot—"

"I heard you, dear sister. Let me stop the bleeding first." He tried again to apply pressure to one of her arms, but she grabbed his wrist, not a forceful gesture, but it stilled his hand.

"They're gone. Both of them. Another man came and helped them escape. Our citadel is no longer secret. And—"

"Yes, and the robot and our factory are damaged. I know."

"He destroyed the Dark Eco cannon. He-he just drained all the Dark Eco from the crystal. How could he do that? How is that even—"

He put a finger to her mouth. "Be still, dear sister. There are more pressing matters on my mind right now."

She jerked her head to the side. "What's important is killing them! They must pay for what they did!"

He grabbed onto her again and pulled her to her feet, one action she didn't resist. "Oh, they will, dear sister. They will." She leaned on him, and he kept an arm around her as they made their way down the passageway, the chill causing her to shiver. Why did all his decisions cause her pain, it seemed? Of course, their current plans were equally her idea as they were his, but nevertheless, it was troubling. All he wanted, well, what he wanted the very most, was her happiness, and it seemed he couldn't help but sabotage his own efforts.

And to add to it all was the fact that, not only was the factory destroyed, but the robot, as well. Everything they had worked so hard for, gone yet again. How could that be? How could they be stopped by a boy and a rat, not once, but twice? And by two that had no business being in this time period, even. If his dear sister hadn't also suffered from his own inability to prevent their repeated misfortunes, he would be furious, but seeing her in this condition had a numbing effect. It felt like fate itself was against them.

No, they hadn't failed! It wasn't over! This wasn't like last time. They weren't trapped, helpless, inside the silo. They would rebuild, and they would make sure those two never meddled in their plans again. He would not show them mercy next time. Especially after what they had done to his dear sister. It was unacceptable.

Finally, they reached their quarters. As much as Maia protested, Gol picked her up and carried her the remaining distance to her room when her efforts to walk grew weaker. He placed her on her bed and went about creating makeshift bandages with spare sheets and towels. The majority of the bleeding had finally stopped from the pressure applied to her wounds from the simple act of supporting her as they made their way through the winding hallways of the citadel, and he cleaned her up and wrapped her injuries as best as he could. To his surprise, the struggling he expected only lasted through the first half of his endeavors, after which she remained silent and still, eyes half-closed, head turned towards the doorway. As he neared the completion of his task, she said, "I'm sorry, dear brother."

He stopped and blinked at her. When did she ever apologize, and now she was doing so when she hadn't even done anything wrong? "It wasn't your fault, dear sister."

Her head rolled to face him better, a weak grin on her face. "Not about that. But, I do regret my failure tonight."

"Then, about what?"

She returned to facing the doorway, eyes closed. "Oh, just things. Must you know the answer to everything?"

Gol stared at her longer, but decided against questioning her further. When she wanted to keep secrets, nothing could pry them from her. Nothing at all. He finished bandaging her wounds and pulled the sheets over her.

Eyes still closed, she said, "So what now?"

He kissed her on the forehead and stood. "Don't you worry about that, dear sister. Go to sleep."

Her eyes opened, and she attempted to sit up. Prepared to push her back down, he didn't need to, as she was too weak to complete the act. "Do you have something in mind? If you do, you must tell me."

"If you can keep secrets, then so can I." Before she could respond, he blew out the candle. "Sleep," he told the darkness and left.

As Gol walked down the hallway, heading back down to the freezing depths of their citadel, he thought back to the room housing the remains of their machines and how the explosion had sent rocks and metal and Eco in all directions. It was a real mess, but it could be reversed. It would have to be. He wouldn't give up so easily, not as long as he still lived. He didn't wait three hundred years inside a Precursors robot head just to get free and have their hopes dashed all over again. No, he had an idea, and it was all thanks to those fools. They thought they could take his dreams and his dear sister from him, but he was just as capable of taking something important away from them. He was certain of it this time.

How someone could grin so widely while wearing clothes stained with the blood of their own, dear sibling may have baffled or even sickened many, worse still was the plan that had arisen in Gol's mind. Just as the dead phoenix is resurrected again in a plume of flames, so was the Sage's victory born from his most recent failure. But, this time, the same could not be said of Haven City. As sure as he was of his love for his dear sister, he was sure of the end of that city. He just had a little more work to do, but that was what he always did.

What could Gol be planning? It must be something very naughty. Sorry for the short chapter. Please review.