Chapter 48

"Avarice abound"

The temple proper was at the top of a tower so tall that when they reached it they were closer to the city-shield above than the ground below. The platform was built in the shape of a hexagon carved from grey stone. A huge curling tree was situated atop the temple, its roots sprawling around it, and topped with a canopy of green-blue leaves and pinkish-orange blossoming flowers.

It also had a mouth full of jagged teeth.

The tree bowed down, reached out with jaws not dissimilar to those of a Venus flytrap and sniffed the air at their approach, breaking in through a collection of pores dotting the ends of its green neck-branch-trunk.

"Hold still," Elulim advised her.

Hawkmoon did just that, resisting the urge to fly away as the massive mouth drifted closer and closer. It looked large enough to gobble her up in two bites.

"Here." Elulim took Hawkmoon's servo and held it out, placing veir own hand over it. The mouth stopped inches away, blindly inhaling their scent, and after a moment rumbled and pulled away. The mouth-branch retracted, disappearing back into the cover of the canopy. The tree shivered in its entirety before releasing a low, reverberating howl that echoed across the roof and the city beyond..

"Well," Hawkmoon said, "that's cool."

"Stay here," Elulim told her. Ve walked ahead, entered the temple and left her waiting for a couple of breems. Hawkmoon wandered over to the pond built into the nearest balcony and briefly scanned it before sitting by its edge, her pedes sinking in below the surface. A nearby Eimin-Tin guard saw it and narrowed their reptilian eyes but otherwise said nothing. It wasn't long before Elulim returned and with a couple of funny looking doohickeys to boot.

"Here," ve said, passing over what looked like a long datastick. It was of Cybertronian make, that was exceedingly clear, but it came with little glass bubbles along its side with some sort of red substance swishing within. It looked, to a degree, like an Omolon rifle with their liquid-ammo canisters - but then realization kicked in and it couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"Gotta ask," Hawkmoon began to say, "how does an organic like yourself find in their possession a red energon tracer?"

Elulim sat down beside her, veir own feet and tail dipping into the cool water. "Curiosity," ve admitted. "It tastes strange. It settles stranger."

Hawkmoon gave ver an incredulous look. "You do realize energon is toxic to biological systems, right?"

"I found that out a little later," Elulim snorted. "Wouldn't have swayed my decision anyways."

"Was it bad?"

"It could have been." Elulim paused. "My, ah... my people are diligent in their duties. I yet live, don't I? So what's the harm?"

Hawkmoon winced. She turned back to the pond. "Not a great outlook to keep."

"What do you mean?"

"Could just be me, but I prefer having a handle on everything in my life. It's nice and all to have people willing to help, and I'm... missing that in my life right now, but for security's- for survival's sake, I gotta make sure I'm the only person I need."

"You wound me," Augur drily murmured. He settled by her other side, absentmindedly gazing down into the water. There were more fish-crustaceans below, idly swimming around Hawkmoon's pede and likely waiting to be fed. They were going to be sorely disappointed in that case.

"There is sense in that," Elulim replied. "But I think the path of my life has taken a more drastic turn than yours."

"Oh?"

"You know what I am, Seeker?"

"Akildn," Hawkmoon answered. "Genetically-enhanced. You're bigger than the run-of-the-mill Eimin-Tin."

"And faster. And stronger. And quicker to react. And much longer-lived. And-"

"Better, I get it."

Elulim shrugged, taking the interruption in stride. "It's... coddling. It's suffocating. I imagine you don't know how that feels, but to be constricted so... It makes one desperate to escape."

"I think I know how it feels plenty," Hawkmoon muttered. She regarded the tracer a moment longer before taking a drag. The device dispensed a light steam of red energon, just for her system to all but "inhale" it. It manifested as a tingle in her sensors, a feeling of being overcharged-but-not. City lights glittered brighter, the ripples in the pond travelled slower, and the other servo she had braced against the edge - it dug into the marble, her talons cutting deep striations in the stone. Hawkmooon pulled her arm back, confused and concerned.

And then the moment passed - and the world returned back to normal.

"Well that's fragging disorientating," Hawkmoon mused.

"Hm?" Elulim glanced at her.

"This." She held the tracer at length. "Weird."

"Do you not like it?"

"Didn't say that. Disorientating ain't bad necessarily." Hawkmoon smiled to herself. "Not the kinda thing I make a habit of - but sometimes it's fun to break yourself in the good ways. If that makes any sense."

"It makes plenty," Elulim amusedly replied. "Danger makes half the fun."

"Not gonna say no to that." Hawkmoon looked away. "So what's the occasion?"

"Rampage said you slew the dragon," Elulim explained.

Ah, Hawkmoon thought. Okay then. No beating around that bush.

"Well, yeah. I suppose I did," she muttered.

Elulim cocked veir head to the side. "You don't consider it worthy of celebration?"

"A dragon's dead. Yay," Hawkmoon deadpanned. "But that's all I gotta say."

"That's it?"

"It's not... some great glorious feat. Well, I mean... it's hard, sure, but it's not something to be proud of. It simply needs doing. Overall it's just... unpleasant all around, for everyone involved."

"But they are still formidable opponents, are they not? Such a hurdle-"

"Most of the time fighting a dragon means fighting with yourself," Hawkmoon interrupted. "With your truest inner self. This wasn't any different. There's no glory in that. No honour or whatever have you. It deserved to die, I killed it, end of story."

There was a stretch of silence after that.

"Sorry," Hawkmoon muttered. "I'm not..."

"You're not...?" Elulim warily questioned.

"It doesn't matter. Just forget it."

"If you wish." Elulim pulled up another pipe. It wasn't a tracer, nor anything else of Cybertronian design, and it smoked at one end. Elulim inhaled at the other end, breathing in deeply and then letting it out in cozy relief. "Are you ready for tomorrow?"

"Hm?" Hawkmoon looked at ver. "I... think so? We're... where are we headed in a broad sense? Just some wilderness?"

"The Undergrowth," Elulim replied. "It encompasses all of Penchant to be found below the plateaus and above the sea. It is where my people first propagated, before the Rise."

"Not familiar with your history," Hawkmoon admitted. "Any reason in particular for climbing up?"

"Food. Stability. Progression. Civilization. Radio freedom. To escape the zealotry of those who followed the old gods," Elulim explained. Ve paused. "This was long before the concept of Akildn was kindled in languishing minds, though, so my word on the matter may well be flawed."

"At least you're humble."

"I do try."

"So - the Undergrowth," Hawkmoon said. She jutted her head back. "Should we be expecting anything like your darling oak back there?"

Elulim's tri-pronged tongue briefly flitted out to taste the air. "Venator trees are rare. There is a chance, however slim, that we may encounter a wild one - but I wouldn't bet on it. Though there is plenty of fauna and flora nearly as ferocious to keep us busy."

"That's..." Hawkmoon hesitated. "I was going to say comforting, but I think I'm going to rescind that. No, it's not comforting."

"If you have the skill to kill a dragon," Elulim started to say, "then you might survive in the Undergrowth."

"How the frag can you bear to live on such a dangerous world?"

"Stubbornness, I imagine."

Hawkmoon chuckled. "Fair."

Elulim leaned closer. "Are you prepared?"

"For the Undergrowth? I guess." Hawkmoon shrugged.

"The Undergrowth leaves no room for doubt, Seeker."

"I mean, I'm decently armed."

"But what of you at your core? What of your spirit?" Elulim pressed. "Can you bear to race into danger again so soon?"

Hawkmoon spared ver a thin, strained smile. "Sweetheart, that's just how I live on a day-to-day basis."

Elulim cracked a grin - and however alien the expression was on so inhuman a face, Hawkmoon found it too infectious to resist.

"I mean it," Elulim said. "Are you fit to fight again?"

"You keep pressing me like that and I'll start believing you don't think much of me."

"There's no need to join us if you don't want to."

"Is this your way of warning me to get away?"

"It could be." Elulim lost veir smile.

"... No, no I think I should go," Hawkmoon said at length. "Getting better with tolerating all this... civilization malarky, but I should get out more often. The wilds are where I belong; it could be good to get out, get back into the swing of things."

"It may prove dangerous."

"So you've said - which is, like I said, just par for the course."

"I wonder if that is mere bravado speaking," Elulim murmured, "or a confidence based in truth."

"Well, y'know," she paused and hesitated. Thought okay, just this once, because why the hell not? "I did kill a dragon, so..." Hawkmoon tilted her head and flashed ver a fleeting grin. Elulim raised veir chin; the gesture looked like a positive one.

"Would it be disrespectful if I asked how?"

"Sword," Hawkmoon replied, feeling queasy. "Ran her through."

"The dragon?"

"Yeah. I mean, after I'd broken her hold on me, so it wasn't some huge physical effort, but... it really wasn't easy getting her in that position."

"What kind of blade?" Elulim inquired. "I was under the impression that conventional arms were nigh-on useless against dragon hide."

Hawkmoon raised an optical ridge. A better question. Not entirely one she was raring to answer, but hey, it was natural to ask - and deserved at something in regards to an answer. "Eh, not quite? Depends on the dragon. Obviously bigger, stronger dragons need a whole lot more... oomph, like what I had, but your common drakes can be put down with bullets enough."

"Then this dragon was powerful?"

"Of size to kill eight or nine trained mecha."

Elulim slowly nodded. "But your blade broke this dragon's skin. Broke the dragon's magic."

Hawkmoon shrugged. "Yeah, but it's not... It was luck and willpower and maybe an ounce of self-disregard that got me close enough." Back in my day we just used Awoken-crafted weapons full of Light and killing power. "If you're looking for a grand tale, I can't give you one. If you're looking for pointers, all I can tell you is to keep your mind blank and pack some heavy weaponry."

"What if you review my craft?"

"Say again?" Hawkmoon looked at ver.

Elulim took another drag from veir pipe and stood up. "I have an armoury below," ve continued. "along with a firing range and sparring ring, with simulation-spores. Come. You can show me how you slew your dragon and teach me the same."

"Elulim-" Hawkmoon started to say.

"Come!" Elulim's long fingers closed around her arm and lightly tugged. Hawkmoon reluctantly went with it, allowing the Akildn to pull her up to her pedes.

The wide room that dominated the floor below looked like nothing remarkable at a glance, just another empty chamber, but at a wave of Elulim's hand and a click of veir teeth the walls and floors unfolded, reformatting the entire place into something a little more impressive. The far end was visibly dedicated towards the testing of equipment, given how it was lightly cordoned off via energy barriers and furnished with targets and dummies and flickering holographic displays. The space to their left was set aside for the storage of said equipment, with racks on racks of weaponry on display, and there were a couple of armour stands to boot. The right side was a little different - with a few sparse terminals and a single rounded holographic table.

Elulim first led her to the armoury proper, confidently wading through the shelves and stands with the knowledge that veir's collection was one to be envied, and stopped by a particular rack. Ve plucked a rifle of long, slender make, seemingly crafted from bone and crystal, and handed it over. Hawkmoon looked it over, from stock to barrel, and braced it against her shoulder to peer down its glassy sights. It felt a little strange, obviously built for someone with more of a hunched stature, but it was a nice piece all the same - and she made that clear.

"Clean," Hawkmoon said. "Lightweight. Good balance. A little unwieldy to carry, but it looks good."

"It's a Wightbore Stinger," Elulim explained. Ve took it back, leaned it against veir shoulder and ejected the rifle's loaded clip into ver other hand. "Each shell is hollowed and filled with venom. The front of the round is degradable, meant to drill through armour and peel away in a process, all to make way for the needle beneath."

"What kinds of venom?" Hawkmoon asked. "Void-based, I'm assuming? Like your wrist-blades?"

Elulim nodded and twisted veir arm, allowing the armour to transmat back over veir shoulder and down the limb. It flowed over veir flesh like water, eventually blanketing it from view, and ve pulled veir arm back as if to punch an imaginary opponent. The needle-blade shot out a full forearm's length over Elulim's knuckles. Ve retracted it a moment later and shrugged away the armour back into transmat. "You would be correct. It's efficient."

"And expensive."

"I am Akildn. There are no expenses spared for us."

"Yeah," Hawkmoon said drily. "I'm starting to pick up on that."

"Do you not like venom?"

Hawkmoon shrugged. "Look, if it gets the job done then cool - but I've seen how you work with it. A lot of the time it's just easier to put a hole in someone and call it a day."

"That lacks... certainty," Elulim retorted. "That lacks finesse."

"Eh, I beg to differ."

"You do, do you?"

"'Course I do. Gunslinging ain't a brute's business; here, show me a..." Hawkmoon trailed off and started browsing the collection. She found a couple of single-handed firearms but nothing truly impressive, so she moved around to the next shelf, and so on and so forth until she found hardware worth investigating. She held up something that at least looked like a handcannon and aimed it up. "What's this?"

Elulim ambled over. "A stun-gun."

"Ew, okay, nevermind." Hawkmoon put it back, faceplates twisted with disgust. "Anything proper?"

Elulim hummed, strolled out behind another series of weapon racks and returned with something vaguely reminiscent of the same weapon. It looked like a Cabal officer's personal service cannon, formed at its core from repurposed Cybertronian tech and plated in Eimin-Tini silver and ivory, with all the sleek organic curves that came from the serpents' handiwork.

"Fire-Spitter," Elulim explained, handing it over.

"High-recoil?"

"I believe so."

"So long as it has kick. Always love that kick..." Hawkmoon scrutinized the weapon. It was definitely a handcannon. Again, like a Cabal officer's personal firearm but... just as close to a D.F.A handcannon too. Or an Prized Ivory model of the Austringer. Slimmer, though. It had the heft to rival something like Cayde's own beloved Ace (rest in peace), which ruled out anything but an external holster. It had iron sights, which was a travesty, but as a compromise it had two barrels - one over the other and both apparently linked up to the same battery-mag, which she found locked within a side-loading magazine well. Some Veist-esque influence - or maybe the foudnry's very own long lost inspiration. The grip was comfortable and fit well into her servo. Aiming it felt natural.

"I like this," Hawkmoon said. "Could use some work, and I'll need to try it out, but I really like this."

"I have yet to witness finesse," Elulim drily commented.

Hawkmoon rolled her optics - then spun the cannon and mimed holstering it. "You give me some to tinker and I'll hand you finesse."

"Tinker?" Elulim made a curious sound. "Are you a weaponsmith as well, Seeker?"

"Meh, I dabble," Hawkmoon flippantly replied. "Got a workbench?"

"No, but I can call for one."

"Nevermind, it's fine. Nothing like a little ramshackle fieldwork." Hawkmoon looked around. "Are you partial to anything here?"

"What do you mean?" Elulim cocked ver head to the side.

"As in: do you mind if I cannibalize the parts of other weapons?"

"Ah." Elulim made a shrugging motion. "That depends."

"On?"

"What do I get in return?"

Hawkmoon raised an optical ridge. "Where I come from a good handcannon is always worth its weight in gold."

Elulim's features shifted. "Why gold?"

"Why gol- It's an idiom."

"I've never heard it before."

"Not Cybertronian. Pretend it's like... I don't know, rhenium or something. Anything valuable people like to hoard."

"I... see. But I don't care for it. I prefer efficiency."

"Nothing more efficient than a proper handcannon."

Elulim shook veir head and picked out a weapon in line with a City Age sidearm. "This is efficient. It leaves little room for retaliation."

"You only need to worry about that so long as you can land your shots," Hawkmoon said with a feigned scowl. It was an old argument she knew well. Plenty of late nights spent listening to Ikharos and Jaxson argue the pros and cons of a handcannon versus a sidearm, with a solid campfire crackling between them. Fun times, those good old days. Overall she was content with both, but just for dignity's sake... "That peashooter a burst-type?"

Elulim snorted. "It fires in bursts, yes. Four bolts per pull."

"Exactly my point," Hawkmoon exclaimed. "At that point it's just an unnecessary safety net. All you need is one or two good rounds from a solid 'cannon and most targets are down. Anything that doesn't means you're gonna need a bigger gun anyways."

"Fine," Elulim groaned, though ve was smiling. "Tinker away. But ask first before you dismantle; not everything here is valuable to me, but that does not mean you may pick and choose at your leisure."

"Got it, cool." Hawkmoon's optics roved over the selection. "So... okay, what do you have in regards to fusion weaponry?"

The Fire-Spitter had a single-fire and dual-fire settings and both modes packed a punch - the latter, obviously, more so than the former. Each battery-mag, looped up to accelerated fusion coils, allowed for the maltech-esque systems to fire on what was essentially the pull of the trigger, delayed by what was perhaps mere nanoseconds. The result was a quick-firing fusion rifle in the shape of a handcannon with all the projected range of a scout rifle and the searing fury of a Fallen Scorch Cannon. Hawkmoon had modified the 'cannon within a span of half an hour - or around six breems - and came away with heavier battery-mags for a total of twenty-four energy rounds and a well-vented barrel, just to release all the excess heat after firing.

Just for comfort she injected a measly code into the weapon's rather simple inbuilt AI, linking it up with her optical systems (which was far from easy to work out) to give it a set of hallucinatory holographic sights only she could make out. Not dissimilar to old SOLSECCENT systems, what with their sensorium-linked equipment. Besides - Elulim had been there to call in a couple of Eimin-Tin technicians to help with that, work out the kinks with her, apparently as part of veir local staff. Another serpent had accompanied them, some higher-up called Thema who appeared to hold some loose authority over the temple and even Elulim verself. Ve had given him a curt nod as he trailed in after the techies, but he hadn't said a word - just watched as Hawkmoon handed out requests, sat cross-legged and surrounded by the gruesomely disassembled frames of a half-dozen weapons as she was. She made an effort to ignore him in kind, to concentrate on her work. Not difficult, that. Tinkering was fun, fueled by the incessant Guardian-need to get her hands on the next weapons upgrade by whatever means possible.

She finished off by covering over the handcannon's new innards with Eimin-Tini plate and moved onto a couple of side projects - a holster with a mechanized quickdraw-sling to attach beneath the wielder's wrist. The latter piece looked more like a squat centipede when all was said and done, with steel legs designed to grasp around the bearer's forearm. The holster was much the same, to catch on the outside of the bearer's thigh or hip. Not something that was easy to hide, sure, but the threat of seeing a gun was half the battle where reasonable folk were concerned. The holster came with a handy magnetic lock, which linked up with the same channel that allowed the gun's holographic display to show up in Hawkmoon's processor - all so it could read her intent and unlock its hold when she wanted to draw it.

With all that done, Hawkmoon straightened her back, lifted it up barrel first and softly pronounced, "Tada."

Elulim took it and tested its weight. Ve didn't spin it as Hawkmoon had, being a boring sidearm enthusiast, but the look ve gave the gun was far from disapproving. "What are the odds it will overload and blow up?"

"Eh, I give it a fifty-fifty on the first pull," Hawkmoon reasoned.

Elulim slowly looked back at her.

"Or..." Hawkmoon hesitated. "Seventy-thirty?"

"In our favour?"

Hawkmoon hesitated again.

"You fire it," Elulim grumbled.

Hawkmoon took it, trudged over the firing range and aimed it at the farthest target. "Goodbye servos," she whispered, then pulled the trigger.

The steel cutout, which looked conspicuously like an Eimin-Tin, was split down the centre with disintegrative heat. The edges of the broken target bubbled and spilled over, dribbling down to the floor. The range was instantly doused in a reflexive shower of cold water, which kicked up a cloud of steam. Hawkmoon emerged soaked to the protoform and beaming like a Kinderguardian after their first rocket. She held out her arms as if to say yup, still intact, how's them apples?

Admittedly the Fire-Spitter's barrels were glowing with heat, and she could feel how hot it was beneath the grip, but that was neither here nor there. Just meant she needed to fine tune a couple of things.

"Here ya go." Hawkmoon tried to pass it over to Elulim, but the serpent pushed it back.

"No," Elulim told her. Veir eyes were bright. "It does not suit me."

"You do know I went to a lot of trouble to make this for you. I can give you the permission-codes to access the lock and the sights, just need to hook it up to your sensorium, and then you're good to g-"

"No." Elulim shook veir head. "Keep it for yourself if you so desire."

"After all that work?" Hawkmoon raised an optical ridge. "That's nice of you. What's the catch?"

Elulim studied her for a moment. "If I recall correctly, Rampage said you were seeking out new avenues of employment. I could hire you - to tend to my armoury and modify my equipment as per my requests."

"Uh..."

"'Lulim," Thema softly interrupted. Elulim begrudgingly glanced down at him. "Could we speak for a moment? Alone?"

Elulim narrowed veir eyes. "We have a guest. That would be rude, wouldn't it? That's what you always tell me."

"This is important. We need to talk. With the Cybertronian's blessing, of course." Thema pointedly looked at Hawkmoon. She glanced between them, torn.

"Uh," she said again, "sure? It's none of my business."

"That's right," Thema quietly replied, "it's not." He turned on his heel and left for the elevator. Elulim paused for a moment, veir hands curling into fists, and ve irritably followed after him - leaving Hawkmoon alone but for Augur and the otherwise dead silent Eimin-Tin technicians.

"Cool," Hawkmoon said, still a bit... confused. She briefly looked the way of the techies. "I'm, uh, headed back up top. Tell ver where I've gone when ve comes back, will you?"

The pair just wordlessly looked at her.

"I don't think they speak," Augur observed.

Hawkmoon vented and left. "Yeah, well, nothing else I can do there."

She crouched over the ledge, hunkered down like some oversized harpy-shaped gargoyle, and took another pull of the tracer. The world slowed down, inexplicably, while she stayed remained the same - no, not even, it left her stronger, sharper, with a processor filled to the brim with frazzling static. Everything was so much brighter, so much louder, so much... more. It was like the universe had finally come into focus, for however brief the moment would last.

Which wasn't long.

Hawkmoon tried it a couple more times before putting it away, all too wary of making it a habit. She could see why the Vosian Exploratory Institute were so vehemently against the stuff; it was fantastic for boosting her reaction speeds and overcharging her entire system, but it left her woefully unprepared to make any decision requiring higher-thought. The stuff left her in an electrified fugue, left her a creature of pure instinct and perfect form but lacking all the fundamentals necessary to make the right tactical choices. Something for the common soldier, maybe, but an officer's bane. No wonder they'd kicked Slipstream out.

But a part of her wondered if it was the right choice. If Slipstream had stayed, compromised as she was, would she have dragged Cyberwarp and Nacelle into hell like Hawkmoon had? Or-

No. It wasn't worth thinking about. All it served to do was cut her up on the inside - and she was done with that. Done. Hawkmoon couldn't bear it any longer; she wouldn't. She had no more room in her spark for grief. It was getting old and it was getting dangerous. She ached for it, she suffered for it, but she couldn't stand it any longer.

But it wasn't easy letting go.

"A pretty city," Augur said. He peered over the edge. "But it lacks certain freedoms. The Taishibethi were kindly patrons of self-determined fates; these serpents are far more rigid in their social hierarchy. It stifles. It strangles innovation. It drowns benign ambitions. It makes Elulim's dissatisfaction all the more fitting, yes."

"Easy to relate to."

"It is, isn't it? We are the products of less-than-desirable circumstances, you and I. The sums of egregious crimes perpetrated by cruel puppeteers. Might we champion this mundane cause? Should we shatter this theologically-founded construct and free those held captive?"

"Funny that. I have this, I dunno, aversion to fermenting rebellion in a foreign interstellar body. Probably because of what little sense of self-preservation I have left. You understand, right?"

Augur chuckled. "I understand."

"Good."

"Though I wouldn't presume to know where this fear stems from. You are armed, now; you are unstoppable."

"I've always been armed," Hawkmoon deadpanned.

Augur snorted. "Not from the way you spoke about... what was it?"

"Gunslinging. It's an art."

"Is it, now?"

"Oh, ye of little faith," Hawkmoon leaned back. "Don't you worry, Augur, you'll see it for yourself soon enough."

"I look forward to it."

They fell silent, falling into a quiet, companionable reverie. Hawkmoon's servo fell over the holster at her side, digits sliding over the handcannon's casing. The weight of it felt... right. It felt natural. It felt good - like a return to the familiar. To those old, quiet days where the only real worldly problems she'd faced was a Devil in the night and a Prince on the Moon. Before Mars erupted into a war with the Cabal. Before the Vex started to really infringe on Vanguard operations off-world. Before the Black Garden was a feasible threat and after the dragons had all been hunted down to Venus, slaughtered in their entirety.

All but one.

Her reverie briefly turned to red-hot rage - but it cooled off before long, remedied by the memory of retribution. Perhaps not on the same beast, but enacted upon a dragon nonetheless. She remembered the feel of her sword running through Aiakos, the sound of Void-wreathed steel parting through flesh and bone and magic, the fading fire in the dragon's many eyes and-

And the dying whispers, growing in numbers but falling in strength.

She remembered her words.

Remembered her promises.

Remembered wishes granted and wishes taunted.

"Augur," Hawkmoon croaked at long last.

Augur looked up at her. There was no sneer to be seen, no thin smile, no scowl, nothing. Just the expectancy of being called upon. "Yes?"

"What..." Hawkmoon trailed off. She hesitated, recognized the question for what it was - a knifepoint sinking deep, dragging far, tracing over skin and ripping a person up on the inside. A barb, planted and groomed. "Maybe not. Ignore that."

Augur looked away. "You have something to say. Say it."

"I don't think I should."

"And why is that?"

"In an ideal world you treat people how you want them to treat you. I don't want you to say the same things to me."

"Is it hurtful?"

"It could be. It would be for me."

Augur snorted. "I have no flesh, Seeker," he whispered faintly. "What pains can you possibly inflict upon me?"

"Personal ones."

"Ah. I see." Augur paused. "Say it, Seeker. All I have left is my own curiosity; to say nothing now would be to deny me one of my few remaining freedoms."

"I still don't want to-"

"Just say it, damn you."

Hawkmoon blinked. Her optical ridges furrowed. "Never heard you cuss before."

Augur spared her an exasperated look. "Hawkmoon."

"Okay, fine..." Hawkmoon pressed her lips tightly together. "Aiakos... said some things to you. I'd like to... to know a little more. About your life. From before all this."

"When I walked the material world as a beast of meat and bone?" Augur asked rhetorically. "What is there to say? I once lived as all things did - until I did not."

"Aiakos called you a king."

"She is not wrong. I was one, once," Augur's voice fell to the barest of whispers. "But that time has long since passed. Now I am no less a wayfarer than you are - equally lost, equally damned."

"King over all Verunlix? Or-"

"This language does not allow for a sufficiently succinct translation. Nor do most, I have found. King to my people is neither a position of royalty nor even merit; it is a position chosen for those who see most clearly. It would be kinder to refer to it as an oracle-chief. I did not rule - for there was nothing to rule. We did not grasp at our world with controlling hands - for our paws do not allow for extensive tool-use. We did not divide ourselves into hierarchies of class and places of birth; we all came into this universe blind and helpless, reared for our first few days in the darkness of our burrows. I have never held any more rank than another of my kind. I only see farther. I only bear authority on the interpretation of visions and the actions we take to meet or avoid these glimpsed futures - and even that was usurped, at my own invitation, by our old friends the Taishibethi."

"But what about those others who came before?" Hawkmoon inquired. "Your Verunlix even preceded the Tai by some... what... millennia?"

"Longer. We were Fifth. Fifth to grace the stars. Or Seventh. Or Eighth or Ninth." Augur looked off into the distance. "I'm not sure; I don't think I care."

"But what makes you think you were so quick to evolve that way?"

"Because the First told us so," Augur bitterly muttered, "and before the smog of Crux rose up, they could see all across of creation - using the very skills I taught you. It is one of the only explanations they gave me that I have not been given cause to doubt."

"Wayfinding," Hawkmoon murmured.

"Just so. Their dreams and ideals filled in the void of the otherworld. Some of them were of the belief that it was their seeded thoughts that prompted the universe to give rise to other forms of intelligent life. Of the many peoples to come."

"But how did they begin? The Progenitors?"

Augur snorted. "Oh, they told many versions of that story and I am all but certain they were all wrong - save that their existence has something to do, in one manner or another, with of the very force that runs through your veins, that shrouds the very prize the Arch-Fiends seek: your Wayfarer Moon. Your Light. The Gardener's fieldhands, they called themselves. Her advocates. Her preachers. Her servants in all things bright."

"You said they had a Speaker," Hawkmoon said quietly. "We had Speakers too. In my time. Among my people."

"And I'm sure they had strange dreams," Augur replied, "hexed interpreters that they were. Perhaps they even made similar mistakes."

"What was she like? Their Speaker?"

Augur didn't say anything for a while. When he did, his voice was low and hollow and every word scraped like sandpaper. "She was hopeful. She was enthusiastically driven in all the right ways. She was charming. She… she sold me a dream. I was in such need of better dreams back then... We weren't alone, you must understand. My people. On my world - my Esheec Kiars. They were not... The First named them Jackals, Bloodhounds, Mongrels, all manners of unsavoury things. We knew them only as Predators. They were not people, not as you and I are, but they could have been. We... denied them that, under my term as vision-king. Not blatantly. Not maliciously. We just... changed. And they couldn't, so stopped being. A crime for which there was no culprit and thus no punishment. It weighed on me, back then; it was the first time I yearned for a future we had already averted." Augur paused. "I wonder if that is why they smuggled us into the other plane..."

Hawkmoon watched him carefully. He looked dangerously close to tipping over the edge - but she wasn't sure if it actually posed any danger to him. Or if she could even stop him. "What did she promise you?" she warily asked.

"... The same thing every great altruist wants: a peaceful universe full of cooperation and wonder, with shared ideals and flooded with compassionate understanding. A reality where everyone benefits until they realise that paradise is just a slow drowning."

"Ah. Grim."

"Crux understood the flaws in her plan before all of us - but they took it worst of all. Kharad-Tan broke her heart the day He first struck. And the day her daughter became a warrior - that shattered all that remained. She was already dead before the voiceless muse silenced her. All the hope had gone out in her eyes. It was almost a mercy..."

"... Huh," Hawkmoon said for want of a better world. Not a moment later she settled on, "Well that got depressing fast."

Augur shifted. "History may well be upsetting for a reason. Some would say that is the point of it. They would call it a lesson for those of the present to learn from."

"What about you?"

"History is all that has been said and done. There is no changing that. Only madness lies down that path. We should keep our eyes ahead of us, Hawkmoon. We should plan for what is to come, not for what has already happened. In short: they are right. To an extent."

"But that's so easy for you to say when you've never been kicked across time," Hawkmoon grumbled. "Everything's history to me, in this, what, temporal instance? New history, sure, but history all the same. Just leaves me wondering how everything wound up the way it did back in my own time."

"Through a myriad mesh of cruel cataclysms and vile mistakes, I imagine."

"Thanks, Augur," Hawkmoon groaned. "That's exactly the reassurance I needed to hear."

Augur snickered. "If you want comfort, then I suggest you fall into our host's welcoming arms. Ve is more forthcoming with it than I will ever be."

Hawkmoon lost her smile. "You know that's not on."

"Oh? And here I assumed the two of you were leading a pretty waltz - in your own unique way."

"Augur, don't."

Augur looked up at her. "You would do well with someone who gives comfort freely."

Hawkmoon broke her gaze and offlined her optics. "Augur."

"What?"

"Don't..." Hawkmoon scowled. "It's only been a couple of decaorns for me. I'm not... I liked her. I... adored her. She's gone, now. She's gone. I can't replace that. You should have caught on by now."

"... I understand. I do. But you would do well to leave your sorrow behind. It only hinders you - and I by extension. Move past it, Hawkmoon. For your own sake."

Hawkmoon onlined her optics and turned to him, a retort forming on her lips, but Augur had slipped away. "Bastard," she muttered half-heartedly. He'd left her to wait alone.

At least she wasn't waiting long.

Elulim returned a couple of breems later. Ve greeted the tree first, caressing it beneath its jaws and whispering something to it. Before long ve left it be and turned to Hawkmoon, stiffly walking over to sit beside her, not saying a single word.

"Have I gotten you in trouble?" Hawkmoon inquired.

Elulim snorted, veir facade cracking all too easily. "Some."

"Who's your man?"

"Hm?"

"Thema. Who's he to you?"

Elulim looked ahead, veir gaze scoring across the skyline. "The latest in a long line of nuisances."

"A bossy little nuisance at that."

Elulim laughed. "Bossy! Yes. And always so stern, so condescending. Ugh, I hate it." Ve sobered quickly. "I hate this place, I hate these people. I hate this life."

"Sounds rough."

"It is. Have you ever hated something so-"

"Yes."

"You didn't let me finish."

"Didn't need to. The answer's yes. But then," Hawkmoon said, "hating is so, so easy. It's a pitfall you can't help but fall into."

"Are you saying it's wrong?" Elulim asked in a neutral tone.

Hawkmoon shrugged. "That's a philosophical question for someone with more self-control than me. But really? Nah. You go on hating, buddy. You go on hating. Sometimes, but only sometimes mind you, the anger can feel good - if you catch my drift."

Elulim hummed. "That doesn't sound healthy."

"Says the organic who admits to ingesting energon," Hawkmoon drily remarked. "You haven't got much leg to stand on there."

Elulim glanced at her, smiling softly. It wasn't so easy to tell the rest of the time, alien faces and all that, but sometimes the universe surprised her. "I've got plenty of leg," ve retorted, tracing a claw over veir knee.

"Hm," Hawkmoon grunted. She looked away. "You're smooth, I'll give you that much. Even if you are a little forward."

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

Elulim slowly nodded. "And is it working?"

Hawkmoon shrugged. "I can tell you it might work, depending on your target audience. Someone with time to burn and a less stringent disposition towards something light and fleeting."

"You presume too much."

"Sweetheart, I'm just beating around that bush because we both know the moment we nip it in the bud things are gonna get awkward."

Elulim defiantly raised her chin. "Speak your mind."

"Fine. I'm saying no. I'm not going to say anything 'cept that I'd be a lot fragging happier if you'd leave it be. I'm in mourning; how about some respectable distance, yeah?"

"... Mourning?" Elulim lowered veir head, suddenly shamefaced. "I... see."

"Oh, now you do," Hawkmoon bitterly muttered.

Elulim briefly glanced at her before quickly looking away. Some time passed before ve stood up again. "I can show you where you may stay for the night."

Hawkmoon smothered a sigh and dragged herself back to her pedes. "That might be best," she said coolly.

Ve brought her down another three floors, leading her to what was a suite to rival her former quarters on Tai Prime in terms of space but was otherwise quite spartan. Which... was just as well, really. Luxuries were just that. At the very least the bed was an actual bed, not a cold-slate berth, and it was a little kinder on her wings.

"Thanks," Hawkmoon said.

Elulim just nodded and quietly left. Hawkmoon waited a little longer before scanning the room for bugs and cameras and, finding nothing, sprawled across the bed and all but willed herself to grab some shut eye. Her spark was almost too heavy for it, too swollen, but in the end it found her regardless.

She almost wished it hadn't.

Adria/Lennox-2/Hawkmoon looked up at the Martian/Europan/Cybertronian sky and wondered/raged/despaired. The clouds/Jupiter/the smoke were white and puffy/stared down with its baleful red eye/drowned out the sun.

"I can't wait to get out of here/I swear, I'm going to kill him/I thought we had more time," she murmured/she hissed/she gasped.

Vaudren snorted and rolled over, her face right over Adria's own/Octavius-8 slowly, carefully looked around before sitting down beside her/the slender mech at her side bowed his helm in rueful accord. "You be careful now; a girl could get the wrong idea/That's conspiracy to murder/Outcome: unanticipated."

Adria laughed and pulled her down for a kiss/Lennox shrugged, long past caring/Hawkmoon hobbled along, trying to keep all her weight from falling upon his shoulders. It was exhilarating/inconsequential in the long run/a genuine struggle. "I love you so, so much/We're just corpses, Ock, and he's only going to keep us rotting/What the frag was it all for, then, huh? I'll just have to take you with me/Unless we make him change, one way or another/All those people, Soundwave... all those... and we killed them, we killed them all. How's that sound/So are you in or are you gonna tattle/Why?"

Vaudren all but swooned/Octavius-8 groaned softly/Soundwave stopped. "With you/If only to make sure you don't lose your head/Conclusion: a graver crisis, averted. Of course I will/Like, hell, Lennox, you keep this sort of talk up and someone else is gonna notice/Observation: the Hellsong, the Drezhar Acquiestical, their great angel, terminated."

Adria sighed/Lennox-2 scowled/Hawkmoon winced. "What would I do without you/So what/And look where that's landed us."

Vaudren smiled radiantly/Octavius-8 gave her a tired look/Soundwave turned to her, his facescreen going dark. "Get bored, probably/They'll reset you/Observation: he will have nowhere left to run. Can't imagine there's anyone else with the patience to keep up with you/Doesn't that scare you/Outcome: all but assured."

Adria took in the sight of her and felt her heart flutter/Lennox-2 shuffled uncomfortably/Hawkmoon vented a deep, deep sigh. "You're beautiful/What's the point/I... I should have taken their offer. Now you say it back/What do I have left that they haven't taken from me/I should have humoured it to a point; I should have tried something!"

Vaudren dramatically rolled her eyes/Octavius grimaced/Soundwave gripped her tightly, fearfully. "Fine, you're beautiful/You still have your soul/NEGATIVE."

"Aw, love you too/Like fuck I do/Soundwave-

"And I love you/Sometimes you don't realize what you've lost until it's gone/Negative. Even with all your... quirks/Keep it secret, Len; keep it safe/Hawkmoon: will not compromise."

Adria shivered/Lennox-2 huffed/Hawkmoon looked away, shamefaced and burning with pride and incapable of reconciling with either feeling. "I'll never get tired of hearing that/I'm running on empty, Ock/And when they come for us all? Never/Maybe I'm lost cause as is/Should we refrain from compromising even then?"

"And I'll never get tired of saying it to you/No one's a lost cause, Lennox/Verdict: if we must. Never in a million years, across a thousand lifetimes/No one/Reason: you have chosen well thus far. Never EVER/Keep that in mind, yeah/Soundwave: trusts."

"Well, you've left me in a bind, now, haven't you/Maybe except for HIM/No pressure, eh?" Adria chuckled/Lennox-2 grumbled/Hawkmoon weakly laughed. "How the hell am I supposed to top that/Bastard deserves everything coming his way/No compromise, then. You and your devilish words/Fucking Bray/We need... we need something to match, something to keep them from tiding us over, to give us some fragging TIME."

Adria pondered Vaudren for a moment, then smiled and tugged her closer/Lennox kicked some snow away and balled her hands into fists by her sides/Hawkmoon looked up again pretending she could peer past all the smoke and up at the stars above. "C'mere, you.../Maybe when he's gone I'll remember how to breathe again.../We need to find them - and... we need to find HER."

It was in the early hours of the morning that Augur roused her, breaking her from the hold of thought-splitting dreams. Hawkmoon came to with a ragged vent, her vision swimming and her energon lines afire. Her processor reeled with the profoundness of it all - three lives, three versions of the same person, three memories and not one of them was familiar. Only two were of the past.

A mech, faceless, dark, tall, thin, with a screen built into his helm. Angled features. A purple insignia stamped onto his sternum and upon his cranial crest. Supporting her weight; one of her legs had been damaged. Shot up, looked like. A fight. In the ruins of... somewhere on Cybertron. Cybertron. The smoke - the smoke! So much smoke. Too much. And her fear, and her panic, and her guilt.

Something had happened.

Something was going to happen.

"Augur," Hawkmoon croaked.

He looked at her, sat by the edge of the bed in silent watch over her. He tilted his head, fielding an unspoken question, and her silence - it was answer enough.

"You saw something," he surmised. "Again."

"Again," Hawkmoon admitted in a small voice. It was larger than she was, this problem - not the one to afflict Cybertron, though it wasn't exempt from it either, but the curse of a mind too open to inconceivable influences as hers. Exo dreams. Light-visions. Paracausal hallucinations. Dark nightmares. Damning premonitions. It left her buried in her own body, with no control over her own actions, her own thoughts. What was worse was that it was seemingly intent on splitting her in three parts, chancing an unconscious episode of DER. Waking up wasn't the end-all cure it should have been, either. Just left her with the clarity she needed to truly grasp the dire implications of her own worsening state.

"Tell me," Augur bade her.

So she told him. Told him all she saw, all she heard, all she felt. Each life, from Adria to Lennox-2 to herself, Hawkmoon the human-in-alien-plating - her future, dark and demoralising as it was.

Augur absorbed it all, listening with rapt attention. He asked few questions, mostly after what she thought of as mostly inane details - "What of this colour? How did that sound? How did the snow feel below your feet? And the sand, it was red? Iron deposits, perhaps?" - but he eventually settled on the same mysteries she was grappling with.

"Cybertron will burn," he said.

Hawkmoon flinched. "Hive, maybe."

"What of this 'Hellsong'? This... 'great angel'?"

"Hive god, I'm thinking."

"Did it look like Hive warfare to you?"

"... No. That's the thing. It didn't. Maybe... maybe it was proxy-work. Hive do that sometimes. Or... certain Hive do. And I don't know if it was Cybertron at large. Could have just been a city-state."

"But you spoke of the smoke."

"How can I not? There was so much. Black and oily. Enough to choke a world. And the ruins... everywhere, in all directions. Everything had been pulled down - clawed apart by ballistics and demolitions, then left to suffer the ensuing flames."

"What do you propose we do?"

Hawkmoon hesitated. She hesitated hard.

"You believe we should check up on it," Augur said softly. Kindly. Sympathetically. He understood her dilemma, at least. Understood it and empathized with it. After all, why hadn't they set out to find the rest of the Verunlix? Guilt, probably. On his part.

And some on hers. After all, more than a couple of foxes had died breaking her free from the dark stranger's clutches.

"It's a lead," Hawkmoon said at length. "We know the Dark's going to try something. It's inevitable. What we don't know is when. Or how."

"But we may now know where."

"If the dream can be trusted."

"If the dream can be trusted, yes. But prophecies are irksome like that. They are not wholly reliable - and yet, any action taken to avoid them could incidentally put us on the path to meet that very same future."

Hawkmoon nodded glumly. "So... what now?"

Augur shrugged. Or tried to, in any case. It looked wrong on him. The tail flicking was a little more natural. "Return to Cybertron or continue as we have. We do not have the luxury of many options to choose from."

"Well, we could-"

"Feasible options."

"... Fair," Hawkmoon grunted. "So..."

"It may be best to remain out of the public eye, if Rampage's warnings are to be considered. The Krenshans are scared - and rightfully so - but I would rather we steer clear of making ourselves the subject of this fear. We find alternate passage offworld or we set out with the Akildn and Rampage."

Hawkmoon grimaced. "I don't want to just up and abandon the Krenshans. Not without a word. That seems... wrong."

"But we cannot remain with them."

"No. We'll just... stick with this and get back when all this dragon scare cools off."

Augur inclined his head. "Then so we shall. But afterwards?"

"I don't know, Augur. I don't. I can't... I don't want to go back to Cybertron." Hawkmoon looked away. "Can't say I found it a wholly comfortable stay while I was there. Not sure if I want to go back to that."

"That is not what concerns you."

"No, but I'm trying to keep from thinking about it."

Augur mercifully did not add to it. He just looked up and down and then to the door. "The household rouses. Get up."

Hawkmoon did so without a word of complaint. She didn't have it in her. She double-checked her gear, her weapons, and finding it all where she left it Hawkmoon dusted off her plating and waited for someone to fetch her.

A servant soon came by and led her down to the ground floor reception. Elulim was already there, in the midst of hissing something to Thema. Angrily too. Thema looked as if he were about to retort, but a glance Hawkmoon's way shut him up. He backed away, regarding first Elulim with disapproval and then Hawkmoon with cold contempt, and retreated back to an elevator.

"Did I interrupt something?" Hawkmoon inquired.

Elulim just glared after the Eimin-Tin, even after the elevator doors smoothly slid shut and rose with a soft hum. "Nothing of substance," ve growled. Ve calmed quickly after that, though, shooting Hawkmoon a look that may have been apologetic. "Are you ready?"

"As much as I can be," Hawkmoon replied. She absentmindedly tapped the holster on her leg, taking confidence from the weight of it. "Where are we meeting Rampage?"

"South Far-Anchor installation," Elulim told her. Ve motioned to the front door and it folded open on automatic. Security guards outside, garbed in plated armour and bearing energized halberds, turned and bowed. Elulim took no notice of them and marched out, Hawkmoon after ver. The streets outside were busier in the blue light of early morning, though the press of Eimin-Tin parted before Elulim with awed reverence - which, again, ve ignored. At the very least it gave Hawkmoon the room she needed to think; crowds were anathema to her very existence. Her wings twinged and her plating crawled, just imagining the close proximity of so many living bodies - like a swarm of Thrall bearing down on her with claws and teeth and feral cri-

No, no no, stop it.

Hawkmoon forced a vent and trained her optics forward; her resolve had been shaken, but she knew she had it in her to do better. It was going to take more than a few dreams to knock her off-balance. Augur padded beside her, and Elulim ahead - veir approach slicing through the foot traffic like a plasma-cutter through rusted steel. Easier to focus on. Easier to contemplate.

Those thoughts carried her all the way to the station, where the crowds eased away and the civilian presence dried up. Only soldiers prowled about on predictable patrol paths, eying her from a distance but not daring to break protocol with Akildn present. The other super-serpents from the day prior were there, loitering around the entrance to a squat, rectangular building attached via bunker and colossal cables to the city wall behind it. Not just them, either, but a couple of other aliens too - more mechanoforms. Three of them were squid-like, with boxy bodies floating on anti-grav thrusters and numerous tentacles hanging limp below. Each construct was armed to the teeth, with missile-pods and photon cannons and even hooked blades on the ends of each limb. They were led by what looked like the mechanized version of a mauled human, something with only a head, a spine and a ribcage. A tattered black cloak had been swathed over the ghastly thing's shoulders, pinned with a dark silver medallion.

"Coppermen," Elulim lowly growled to Hawkmoon. "Ignore them."

Hawkmoon, though, studied them for a moment longer. The squids had no faces to speak of, but plenty of optics, yet they didn't seem to notice she was there. Only their corpse-like leader did, turning its sleek gaunt helm her way and glaring with fierce vehemence. Plating along its thin, skeletal neck flared up like the hood of a cobra. An eerie black-violet light pulsed out of sunken eye sockets, shining from small, sharp optics. The creature had no mouth to speak of, nor a nose, ears or anything else to otherwise decorate its metal skull.

"Is something the matter?" one of the Akildn - Aspheri, if Hawkmoon recalled correctly - challenged. The corpse-creature's head snapped back to ver and its neck-plating folded back.

"Cybertronians," it said in a gravelly voice, hissing in the Eimin-Tin's own tongue - Irinum.

"I said," Aspheri snarled again, "is something the matter?"

The mechanized corpse looked like it wanted to say yes. Really wanted to. "No," it spat through a fizzle of audible static. Then it turned around and floated away, the squids filing behind it.

When they were gone, Hawkmoon whispered to Elulim, "What's their problem?"

Aspheri barely glanced at her. "Just scavengers, come to beg for scraps of fortune. They must think there's some leftover Cybertronian reservoirs where we're going."

"Is there?"

"Maybe," Elulim told her with a shrug.

"Is that part of why we're headed out?"

"Not quite, but it isn't impossible. All the same, it isn't for the Coppermen to take."

"And here I thought your government couldn't care less about what happens out in the wild," Hawkmoon muttered.

Elulim looked at her again. "The Stratocracy does care. Which is why we have been given directive over the task."

Hawkmoon nodded after a short pause. "Ah. So you have the rights to this job."

"We do."

"And Rampage bought them from you?"

A strange expression crossed Elulim's face. "In a manner of speaking."

Hawkmoon briefly looked around. The other Akildn were talking amongst themselves. At some point Yrsfa disappeared inside the building, leaving the other two to keep a look out. They snuck their own looks Hawkmoon's way, but otherwise kept a respectful distance.

"How," Hawkmoon began in a quiet voice, "did you meet him?"

"Yrsfa," Elulim grunted. Ve craned veir neck around, as if to check that the others weren't listening in. "Ve introduced him, some seasons ago. Ve was all over him even then. Frantic. Needy."

"It's not love," Hawkmoon pointed out. She didn't know why she did, just that she felt compelled to. A part of it was probably wanting to see Elulim's reaction. "Whatever they have between them."

"No. Not love."

"Pleasure."

"In their own ways," Elulim replied in a neutral tone. Then ve added, "Best we can get."

Hawkmoon frowned. "You're... really not happy here."

"Leave it be, Seeker," Elulim warned her.

"Alright." Hawkmoon crossed her arms and resumed looking around. "Can I ask you something else?"

"What?"

"Would it be a little on the nose to ask if you think Rampage is using you for something?"

Elulim clacked veir teeth. It took a moment for Hawkmoon to realize it was a noise of amusement. "Yes, he is. We all are. This job is about profit in one form or another, for all of us. We all seek to gain from this."

"Do you trust him?"

"No, but there are more of us than there are him." Elulim searched Hawkmoon's faceplates. "It might be different if problems arise and you choose to stand with him, but my answer remains the same."

Hawkmoon tapped her holster a little more steadily. "Not sure if I would."

"Oh yes, that's been made exceedingly clear," Elulim softly chuckled. "Then he stands alone."

"Yrsfa likes him."

"And?"

"Would ve value him-"

"What do you mean to say?"

"I..." Hawkmoon trailed off, realizing where she was going. "I just... I'm not sure if I like this job."

"You can leave."

"Not so sure about that," Hawkmoon muttered.

Elulim tapped the back of her servo. Hawkmoon's digits stopped tapping. "Leave it," ve warned again.

"Leave it," Augur echoed.

Hawkmoon sighed. "Fine."

She was left waiting for a while after that, right alongside the Akildn, but Rampage arrived still some joors before the second sun could rise over the city skyline. He sauntered into view, saw her and beamed in that sickly sweet way of his, approaching with a cocksure sway and a cold glint in his optics. "Still here," he purred, "and still interested."

Hawkmoon didn't reply.

"Bad off-cycle?" Rampage questioned, putting on an act of concern. He dropped it not a moment later, reaching into internal storage to hand her a couple of stamped slates of runed metal. "Here's your pre-pay as agreed, Winglet."

Hawkmoon counted - five slates, as had been promised - and scanned them to ensure it was rhenium. No tracking nanites or surveillance buds either, as far as she could tell. She pocketed them and afforded Rampage the barest inclination of her helm.

"Gracious, aren't you," he said. His ever-present smile lessened. "Maybe when I pay you in full you'll bless me with a grin."

"You won't want to see me grin," Hawkmoon shot back.

His smile returned. "I guess we'll see about that." Rampage looked past her. "Are we all here? Where's dear Yrsfa?"

Aspheri flicked veir tail in the direction of the entrance.

"Good, good," Rampage said, nodding. He moved to follow after ver, but Elulim raised veir head.

"Coppermen," ve warned. "They came by."

"And I trust you refused them?"

"I did," Aspheri cut in. "They were not pleased."

"That I understand," Rampage said. "No one likes to miss out on business."

"I don't like that they were here," Aspheri growled. "This is the fourth time they've approached us since the last lunar convergence. They're getting bolder with every year that passes."

"Did their offer insult you so much?"

"Their very presence insults me. I do not need to hear their dead voices to despise them so."

Rampage made a show of nodding, of hearing out Aspheri's frustrations. It was all too hollow. "I suppose it is concerning. They don't have what we do."

"What does it matter if-"

"Nothing. Unless we hurry." Rampage leered - mandibles splaying open, fangs bared, green optics shining bright. "Can't be having them asking you for a fifth time, can we, Aspheri? No, we can't have that." He looked around. "Are we all ready? Seeker?"

Hawkmoon tilted her helm. "Yeah. I'm ready."

"Great. Fantastic! Let's get on with this, then."

The Eimin-Tin Far-Anchors, it turned out, were a system of glorified catapults.

The Undergrowth that had most of Penchant in its grasp was wild, unruly territory and generally off-bounds for commercial and most official excursions - often with the native flora to blame, though the geology pitched in here and there. The forests disrupted EM fields and messed with radio something fierce, thanks to some strange evolutionary properties. The worst offender, though, was how unpredictable the landscape was. Many biomes of the forest involved fields of floating rocks - thanks to a blend of energon and other exotic crystalline growths - and the life there had evolved accordingly. Like the tree over Elulim's personal quarters, some of the wild flora were capable of extreme locomotion and even tool-handling. They commonly wielded the floating rocks and boulders and islands to further their own ends, often towards expanding territory and catching more sunlight. Clearing them out was too difficult and they were too aggressive, which meant the Eimin-Tin Stratocracy had few friendly outposts below their plateau-cities, and those that were there were generally thinly-spread and ill-equipped. Safe havens for research and exploratory teams, mostly. Places to wait for a scheduled shuttle to come by and pick them up. Pilots wouldn't brave anywhere else in the Undergrowth, for fear of native trees grabbing a hold of them.

But surely there were other methods of traversing the Undergrowth, Hawkmoon decided. She asked after those, fielding those questions to Elulim via subdued whispers. "Why not groundbridges?"

"Too expensive," Elulim replied, "and I wouldn't trust that a portal wouldn't just phase us in the middle of a tree-system. We have no way of tracking the forests' movements. Some plants remain stationary and some migrate; it shifts with every season, every convergence, every flood and drought. Our scanners can't pierce through the canopies - and they're of grade with your own, Seeker."

"Fine, fine. What about an air drop, at the very least?"

"That's what we're doing. Only, we're risking less. Come on." Elulim grabbed one of the nearby technicians on standby, while Rampage and the station's overseer were working out the kinks in their anchor's trajectory, and showed her a hologram of what appeared to be a simulated anchor firing. The needle arced up into the sky, breaking out of the lower atmosphere, and then plummeted down to a wholly different part of the planet - with surgical precision too. Anti-grav dampeners softened the fall just before the forest ate the anchor up, with a brief energy shield flashing to ward away the streams of floating debris. "See? Like a rocket."

Hawkmoon took one look at it and winced. "Or a missile. I could fly almost as fast as that. One micro-jump, I'm there."

"But you would have no way to track us precisely. We wouldn't be able to contact you," Elulim reminded her. "No radio. Even if you're right above us we would not be able to hail you. Not even to shout."

"Why's that?"

"It, ah... it irritates the trees. It irritates them very much." Elulim stared at her. "Do not attempt it. For everyone's sake."

Hawkmoon held up her servos. "I won't. But you should warn me now about the whole do-and-do-nots."

"Don't doubt the anchor."

"That's... Okay, but can you really blame me for not liking the look of it?"

"It's the least dangerous method with which we can break through the Undergrowth. The most reliable as well. What ships foolish enough to come down that close either fall to the trees or the rocks - or the beasts clinging to the bark."

"And, what, Rampage wants me to fly?"

"Where possible, yes."

Hawkmoon scowled. "Should have pressed for better pay."

"Maybe."

"Any wildlife I should worry about?"

"Lung serpents, trezycans, fold crabs, mud rays, lockjaws and, ah,... feral Eimin-Tin." Elulim's tongue briefly flashed out, tasted the air and disappeared all over again.

Hawkmoon raised an optical ridge. "'Feral' Eimin-Tin?"

"Those who did not climb during the Rise. Those who remained below, in their tribes and mobile villages. They do not care much for us."

"I... see. Hostile?"

Elulim shrugged. "Short-tempered and prone to bouts of unpredictable violence. They follow separate customs to ourselves."

"Your city-folk only or... people like, uh," Hawkmoon frowned, "us, a me-and-you in general kinda thing."

"Yes. Us," Elulim clarified. "They worship strange idols and stand by stranger traditions. If we can keep from coming into contact with them, all the better. Though if we do cross them, allow us to speak first. Theirs is a lower dialect of Irinum; I doubt you will understand it."

"I'll try not to feel offended," Hawkmoon snarked. She clasped her servos behind her back. "Anything else?"

"Avoid red shadows at all costs."

"Red shadows?"

"Anomalous phenomena," Elulim explained. "Possibly caused by the hallucinatory emissions of certain fungal growths, though do not presume that makes you immune. How it works, I do not know, but it somehow affects mechanoforms nearly as strongly as organic beings."

"What does it do?"

"Physically? Nothing. But within your own psyche? It induces inexplicable episodes of rage, sorrow, paranoia - extreme emotions, honed towards unbalancing otherwise steady minds. It has caused many a misstep in past exploratory outings. Few survive after falling under the red shadow's influence. Our world is too hungry for clumsy strangers."

"How will I know to avoid them?"

"Follow our lead," Elulim told her. "And be careful. Very, very careful."

Hawkmoon smiled tightly. "You know what? I might even try to be. The novelty of it should keep me occupied for a day or two."

"Funny." Elulim glanced over at Aspheri. "They are ready for us."

"Joy," Hawkmoon muttered. Her smile quickly disappeared.

They marched over to the others, where they were then led to an adjoining facility by an Eimin-Tin in a white biosuit. The serpent guided them to a loading bay feeding into a dark pod-chamber filled with orange light. There were seats within, but of Eimin-Tin make, designed to allow for a serpent to coil up as another strapped them in.

It did not look comfortable. Not for someone with wings.

"Oh scrap," Hawkmoon groaned. She forced herself to clamber inside after Aspheri. The Akildn turned about, ushered her to the far end and helped her with her safety belts as best ve could. Hawkmoon was only satisfied she was secured when she crushed her back against the wall of the pod, which caused no end of discomfort for her wings. Aspheri took the seat opposite and Elulim the one to her side. Rampage, Yrsfa and the last Akildn, Phorus, climbed inside and strapped themselves in. The Eimin-Tin in white looked everyone over, pulling at their safety belts, then hissed softly and left them where they were. The pod's door slid shut and locked with a clank.

The orange light turned red.

"You doing fine, Winglet?" Rampage whispered.

"Get fragged," Hawkmoon automatically retorted.

Aspheri snickered but tried to hide it. Yrsfa shot her a look of displeasure and Elulim did nothing. Only Phorus openly laughed. Then the pod tilted - the overhyped cannon aiming, Hawkmoon supposed. She reckonedthis was what Cabal Legionaries felt, just before their drop-pods were launched. Her energon tanks curled and roiled with anxiousness; her wings twinged unhappily. They wanted space. They wanted to fly - just not like this.

Then gravity crushed them all back into their seats and the pod filled with the whistling noise of the world shrinking below them. Hawkmoon clung to the edge of her seat, her talons digging in deep, and a quick glance informed her that she was not alone in that. Only Rampage seemed unbothered, turning something over in his servo. Something small. Something artificial - but old and far from Cybertronian in design. It looked like a locket in the dim red light. Hawkmoon would have asked, but at that moment their anchor reached its zenith and gravity all but reversed.

They hit the ground not moments later, hard enough to give them all a jolt even past the energy shield, anti-grav dampeners and three metres of solid steel. The pod split apart around them, shedding its skin like a snake and leaving them nestled amidst its skeletal remains - and revealed to them the purples, blues and green of a vibrantly dark jungle, with only the barest trickle of sunlight to light up the forest floor around them. Leaves floated down from where the anchor had ripped through the canopy, showering over them, and the nearest trees groaned with displeasure. Hawkmoon tore her safety belts off and had her shoulder cannon activated, Nullblade sliding out of storage and unfolding before her. The Akildn were nearly as fast, their suits of armour flowing over their smooth bodies until they were totally covered. Needle-blades extended, rifles were drawn, reports were barked out. As one they turned around and cleared the area, scanning for hostiles and coming up with nothing but trees, trees, trees. Which could've been a problem - but it seemed that day the trees were in a merciful mood, because they returned to their prior resting states.

Hawkmoon felt the forest's effects immediately. Her comms system buzzed with confused warnings, how she couldn't even send a ping out, and her EM field… It buzzed. It buzzed in the strangest, strangest way. Hawkmoon tugged at it, forcibly, and pulled it in but it was a struggle. It felt like dragging something heavy through a pit of brackish mud. Eventually she had it closed tightly around her - and the forest enveloped her like that, clutching her up within this feeling of nauseating pressure.

Someone's hand closed on her pauldron. Elulim. Hawkmoon forced a ragged vent and nodded to ver. "I'm alright," she said. "I'm... I'm alright."

"'Course you are, Winglet," Rampage said. He stood up and walked off the edge of the pod, dropping to the forest floor below. He paused there and looked back up at her. "Wouldn't have picked you for this otherwise."

Hawkmoon wanted to say something, wanted to say it bad, but she held her tongue.

"Suit yourself, Winglet." Rampage walked on. Walked ahead. Elulim tapped Hawkmoon's elbow, another silent question: can you go on?

"Yeah yeah," Hawkmoon muttered. She stretched out her wing - free at last - and fired her thrusters briefly, rocketing off the pod and hovering in the air. Not so high up as to disturb the canopy, but high enough from the ground to give her some security. She landed before long, falling in with the Akildn as they slipped away from the pod and filed after Rampage. As they began their trek away, though, she heard a crackling sound from behind them. Hawkmoon looked back.

The trees were moving. Their roots were crawling over the ground, grasping at metal shell and steel struts, tearing the pod apart with great screams of steel - and they began dragging the pieces back to themselves. Hawkmoon shuddered with the thought that the same would probably have befallen any Cybertronian unlucky enough to get grabbed. She quickly followed after Elulim and the other Akildn.

They spent the rest of the morning walking in total silence, each of them in a pair. Elulim fell in step with Hawkmoon, Phorus with Aspheri, and Rampage cut through the brush ahead with Yrsfa at his side.

It was clear for all to see that ve was smitten with him. Utterly entranced. Not love, Hawkmoon repeated in her own mind. Not on both sides, anyways. Not with how he's leading ver on. Ve was close at hand, followed his every move and every word, and from the way ve held veirself up? Glanced back the rest of them with condescension? It was almost like ve envisioned veirself regal courtesan to Rampage's king. Maybe it was seniority. Maybe it was just personality. Hawkmoon wasn't entirely fond of it either way - but she refrained from calling it out. Wasn't her place. She didn't know these people well. Didn't know how proper Eimin-Tin social conduct went, apart from what she'd gleaned from her discussions with Elulim. They were serpents, after all. Therapods too. Therapod-serpents. With thumbs. And the heads of beaked moray eels. Plenty of reptilian and piscine influences there.

Like - was touch a natural thing for them? From Elulim she was predisposed to saying maybe, but that was quite possibly a fluke. What if they were cold-blooded? Did that mean body contact was a necessity, to preserve heat? The Eimin-Tin masses, back in their city, hadn't left her with that impression. Then again, they weren't warm creatures in terms of personality either, once more Elulim notwithstanding - but then ve was something else, something more.

Actually, in the same vein, why were all the Akildn-

Later, Hawkmoon told herself. A question for later.

Later came by rather quickly though, because when midday rolled around Rampage stopped them in the middle of a small clearing by the edge of a bubbling little brook. "Here," he announced in a hushed voice. "We'll make camp here."

"Can't walk any further?" Hawkmoon questioned.

Rampage barely looked at her. "You want to keep walking, Winglet? Be my guest."

"Something out there? Something you're afraid of?"

Finally he turned to face her, sneering. "I'm not afraid of anything, Winglet."

"Then why are we stopping?"

"Because the suns are directly overhead," Yrsfa growled, "and the trees are at their most active. So be silent, Seeker, lest you bring the entire forest down upon us."

Elulim suddenly snapped veir jaws at ver. Yrsfa snarled back - but Phorus made a chuffing sound and the two broke their argument off. Hawkmoon stepped aside as Akildn set to work, laying out low-powered heaters and proximity motion-detectors at the edge of the clearing. She watched how they weaved around the thick black-brown roots of the trees, how they made care not to brush against the many colourful flowers and fungal growths creeping along the lower bark of the great plants, but they didn't care whatsoever whether they touched the fronds of the much thicker bushes and ferns filling up the forest floor. Aspheri even dove into the brush to come back with a limp centipede-like animal in veir hands. "Aphid," ve said, catching Hawkmoon's stare, though it looked like nothing of the sort.

The routine of it all, at least, was uniform enough. Not so far a cry from what she would have expected to see from a Fireteam beyond the wall - setting up security devices, assigning guard shifts, then laying out every other spare essential. No cooker, not even a smokeless one - but then no one needed it. Herself and Rampage were strictly on energon diets and the Akildn, well... Aspheri removed veir helmet and bit into the 'aphid' raw. Ve even shared the leftovers with Elulim when ve'd finished up. They had other pre-packed ations to go around, but the fresh meat - if it could even have been called that - apparently took priority. Elulim even offered Hawkmoon a bite.

"Um, no thank you," Hawkmoon said quickly. She tried not to let her disgust show. Elulim shrugged and continued gnawing at the length of brittle exoskeleton.

"Missing out, Seeker," Elulim mumbled. The shell cracked beneath veir teeth, giving ver access to the... marrow? What did bugs have? Were these bugs just that different? Whatever it was, Elulim chewed it out, visibly savouring it.

"Sure I am." Hawkmoon averted her gaze, for the sake of her own mental wellbeing. Instead she took in the sights all around them. The trees were... well their bark was oily black, but their leaves were all the shades of the rainbow. While the sunlight struggled to truly break through the canopy above, it did cast the forest floor below in a soft miasma of misted colour. It was almost beautiful. Not, not almost - it was. Just that the concept of trees being conscious, carnivorous beings...

It didn't sit right with her.

"Why haven't they tried to eat us yet?" Hawkmoon murmured.

"Effort," Elulim said. "Too much effort. They have no way of knowing whether we're worth the energy they'd use up to catch us."

"Are we?"

"That depends," Elulim told her, "on how hard you fight them."

Hawkmoon slowly nodded. "Do these critters have mouths like your guy?"

"My Venator?"

"Yeah."

"Some. Most. But as large as they are, they cannot compare. Venators are active hunters. These are opportunistic scavengers."

"So what species are these?"

Elulim pointed at the trees with the thickest, darkest trunks. "Caementarii." Then to a clade of thinner, lighter growths. "Piscator." And finally to a tree at the other end of the clearing, with dropping branches. "Inlaqueator. Keep out from under it or it will grab you. The Piscator are shy and the Caementarii are lazy; neither will attack unless you actively aggravate them."

"I see," Hawkmoon hummed. "Not hearing a lot of animal life."

"The trees despise loud noises. It would be wise if you speak only in this language; our hissing is less likely to provoke a tree than your own sharp speech."

"Noted." Hawkmoon paused. "But if they don't like loud noises, how come they didn't tear us apart on landing?"

"Noise dampeners," Elulim explained. "Without it, we would have been seized and slaughtered on the spot."

"That's... grim."

"It is what it is."

"How far to the reliquary?"

Elulim shrugged and passed the question onto Phorus. Who asked Yrsfa. Who asked Rampage. Who had been in the midst of playing with his locket and looked at Hawkmoon. "What's the problem, Winglet?"

"... Nothing," she said, scowling. "Forget I asked."

"You sure?"

"How long?" Elulim told him. "How long until we reach the reliquary?"

"Oh. That." Rampage jutted his helm behind him. "Three local days, give or take. And it's in that direction, if our info is correct. We'll pick up the pace once the suns have passed. You get that, Winglet?"

Hawkmoon ignored him.

"Winglet? You're going to have to answer me. We can't be playing this lack-of-communication game all the way out here."

"I get it," Hawkmoon said coolly.

Rampage smiled darkly. "I knew you would. Say, now that we're all listening, why don't we lay things out - clear and the like?"

Hawkmoon gave him a dirty look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing. Just thought you'd like to know the plan. Or a part of it, at least."

"Give me the part I'm supposed to play."

"Not even the littlest bit curious, Winglet?"

"Not to your faceplates, bug."

Rampage threw his head back and roared with laughter, shattering the calm of the clearing. The surrounding trees rumbled and shook, setting what sounded like the entire forest off, but Rampage cut it off before long. Not that he looked even the slightest bit sorry.

"Mean little thing, aren't you?" he grinned. "Wonder where that vindictive streak comes from? You weren't like this when we were putting down that dragon."

The heads of all four Akildn swerved to watch her.

"What's to say I wasn't before?" Hawkmoon challenged

"No, you were playing nice before. Bold, but nice."

"Guess it's the local climate then," Hawkmoon said with a shrug. "Just doesn't agree with me."

Rampage snorted. "Suit yourself, Winglet." He rolled his shoulders, swept out a place for him to sit by the largest heater (not that he needed it) and sighed theatrically. "Business, then. You - I want you to scout things out ahead, when we reach the reliquary site. You've got the wings and, I hear, you've the means to stay out of sight. That right?"

Hawkmoon shrugged again. "Could be."

"Let's hope you do, for your sake."

"Expecting a fight?"

"I'm expecting something. Formations like these, they don't stay unattended for long. If it's not a lung serpent then it's savages. If not them... well, then we best be ready to burn a path inside, one way or another. And I know you're good for that, Winglet."

"Any reason why?"

"Your old pal Thunderhowl told me," Rampage said. There was a cold, cruel glint in his optics.

Hawkmoon shifted uncomfortably. "Prattler," she muttered.

"Pardon?"

"That's fine, bug. That's fine. We're clear."

"Good." Rampage's smile faded. "That's good, Winglet. A mech can get worried, you know."

"Oh yes," Hawkmoon deadpanned, "I'm sure a mech can."

They packed up and set off again when eve set. The jungle took on a darker note during that time, a dangerous luster of alien life. Centipede-rodents scurried in the underbrush, slithered over the knotted roots paving the winding forest trails, and iridescent snakes with wide feathered quills soared overhead. The trees, meanwhile, had begun to grow quieter and quieter - which was natural, according to Elulim.

"The suns call them from the world of dreams," ve explained to Hawkmoon, "and the moons usher them back to that misted plane."

Hawkmoon's first thought was Ley Line, but she soon realized Elulim was speaking metaphorically. "Dreams," Hawkmoon mused. "You think the trees dream?"

"I know they do," Elulim confidently replied. "On stormy nights I join my Venator tree. It speaks to me, in its own way, and I to it - when I can. I hear it hum in the dark. I see its branches twitch, as if grasping great prey. I see its jaws flex and teeth grind. I hear it howl for its own kind - and I know how it feels when no howl answers it."

Hawkmoon digested the information slowly. "You're fond of it."

Elulim glanced at her. "More than fond."

"You adore it, then."

"How can I not? It is mine. Protector of my nest, guardian of my temple. Even Thema would not dare to cross my Venator - for he knows that, even with all his authority, it will never heed anyone but I."

"Loyal, for a tree."

"Yes." Elulim looked away. A sudden gulf of silence stretched between them.

Hawkmoon just had to break it. "Elulim," she said softly, "are you alright?"

Elulim looked back at her, veir eyes narrowed. "Yes. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Forgive me if I've gotten this all wrong, but it seems to me like you're depressed."

Elulim hissed gutturally and moved to walk ahead. Hawkmoon reached out, though, and said, "Wait."

Ve slowed to a stop. "What?" Elulim snapped.

"...Nothing." Hawkmoon shook her helm. "Nevermind. Just forget it."

Eventually the daylight petered out, forcing them to a halt. Though Hawkmoon could see clear enough, and she didn't doubt the Akildn had the means to do the same, Rampage's barked order was apparently non-negotiable. They practised the same cautions as earlier, planting motion detectors and heaters, but just for that added layer of safety Yrsfa announced that they were going to need to take shifts for lookout. Hawkmoon quickly volunteered.

"I'll take the whole off-cycle," she said.

"Are you certain?" Phorus asked her.

"I mean, I can probably skip a couple of recharge cycles without issue, right? It's fine; I can do it."

"Can you?" Elulim dubiously questioned.

"Probably." Hawkmoon shrugged.

Rampage harrumphed. "It's your choice, Winglet. There'll be no respite tomorrow."

"I'm good for that, bug."

"Right. Suit yourself." Rampage kicked away organic detritus until he had a rocky slab to lie down on. His optics faded almost immediately. Yrsfa looked at the other Akildn before nestling by his side. Elulim snorted and Aspheri gnashed veir teeth. Phorus hissed back, then took up position with Hawkmoon.

"I'll join you," ve said.

"Cool," Hawkmoon replied with a nod. "Thanks."

She found a perch by the edge of camp, on the lip of a boulder half-buried in the forest floor. Phorus slowly paced a little farther out, almost entirely silent but for the meagre crackling of dead leaves underfoot. Hawkmoon heard the sound of lapping water nearby, like a river or pond, but she couldn't see anything through the press of dark trees. The fluttering snakes from earlier had begun to rise up from the underbrush in numbers, filling the canopy above with flickering flashes of bioluminescence. At times Hawkmoon spotted the silhouettes of mantoid-like critters in the branches above, stalking the serpents, but whether they caught any she didn't know. Only that the night was dead silent, what with the trees slumbering and the rest of the forest trying desperately not to wake them up.

It was in the quiet hours of that gloomy night that Augur came to her, prowling out of the jungle's gloom without a word. He leapt up onto the rock beside her and sat there, brooding. Hawkmoon wanted to ask what was wrong, but the world was so quiet that she feared even a single whispered word would have shattered the calm.

"Something is wrong," he said at last. Augur whined, much like the way a nervous dog would. "Something is wrong here. Something is wrong with the air. Something is wrong with the plants. Something is wrong with the water, the soil, the light. Something is wrong here, Hawkmoon, but I don't know what. My eyes... they are shadowed over. I cannot see. I cannot-"

Hawkmoon leaned forward suddenly. Phorus glanced over at her, briefly, before resuming veir patrol.

"This jungle is thick with it," Augur whispered. "I cannot tell you what it is, but it is poisonous and it is old. Older, perhaps, than even the Eimin-Tin. Something was here before."

Hawkmoon looked at him out of the corner of her optic. Kharad-Tan? she wanted to ask. Oryx? Helix-spear?

"Something was here before," Augur repeated, "but I cannot catch the scent - not as I have yours and every other practitioner of the impossible. Whatever came by this world, it left long ago. Only toxins and scars remain to tell of its existence. Only-"

"Winglet."

Hawkmoon's wings stood on end. She sat up straight, talons curling into her palms. "Bug."

Rampage vented heavily and dropped down cross-legged beside her rock. "Pretty night."

"If you say so."

A tense silence stretched between them. It was interrupted only by Phorus perking up veir head and looking out into the jungle. "Rays," ve quietly announced. "Or crablets. Beaching for the night. Could be fair game."

Rampage raised his helm. "It's your prerogative, scythe-tail."

Phorus turned and scowled. "Mech. Don't-"

"I'll go." Elulim slipped past Hawkmoon's other side. Veir needle-blades were already drawn. "Don't wait on me." Ve set out into the dark and disappeared - gone, gone, gone. Hawkmoon couldn't even detect ver on her alternative sensors, be it thermal or electrical. Not even as a blip on her radar. The Undergrowth had seemingly devoured ver, armour and all.

Phorus spared Rampage an irritated look before padding over to the other side of the camp.

"It's like you're a professional aftpipe," Hawkmoon muttered.

Rampage didn't even look at her. "So... Winglet. What brings a Seeker all the way out to the frontier?"

"None of your business, bug."

"You're right, you're right, it's not. Just curious is all. We really don't get many of your kind this far out. Vos is such a lovely roost, I hear. Seems strange that a bird would trade that all away for the cold comforts of lodge-space."

Hawkmoon shot him a warning look. Rampage just smiled, fangs glinting in the purple light thrown by her optics. "Must have gotten lost, I guess," she flippantly told him. "There's no story to it, if that's what you're looking for."

"Isn't there?"

"No."

"Strange, that. 'Cause I've heard some things..." Rampage said knowingly. Hawkmoon didn't like his tone. Not one bit. He waited, though. Waited for her to respond. When she didn't Rampage just shrugged and continued. "Haven't been back to Krenshan territory in a while, mind you. Closest I got in the last decavorn was Freeport Azal. Freeport's a great place, Winglet. A mech can find anything there. Anything he could ever want, ever need. I love it."

"Where are you getting with this, Rampage?" Hawkmoon sighed. She tried playing it off as exasperation - even if her spark was thrumming far too fast.

"You know, when Cybertron had its... well, its little fuel scare, they all but threw Vos at the problem, didn't they? Heard there were plenty of mecha shot out into the black in a search for places to dig." Rampage chuckled. "Three whole formations passed through the Freeport alone. I have friends there, you see, and they like to talk. Thought it was very strange. 'Cause, you see, the first two were thrown in different directions - one to the Andegeans and one towards lodge-space. Well, the Andegeans send theirs right back. No luck. My spark went out to them, though. All that effort, all for naught..." Rampage dramatically hung his head over. "Now that hits too close to home. But the other group, they never passed back through Freeport Azal a second time. Which was fine, odds were they found other routes back home, other stations to refuel at, but then the third formation came through looking for them. Strange, eh? And that was a whole three quartexes after the fact. Seems a long time for a Seeker formation to be away from home.

"So now, they hadn't run home and it looked like homeworld was getting nervous. A whole formation, right? That's like... three trines. Three trines. Plus whatever else support they dragged out with them. No little loss. Now my friends were curious at the time too, sent their own inquiries up and down the line. Well, the things coming outta Vos were wild - pretty sure the place was going through restructuring at the time. Fuel-shortages will do that to you. But on the other end? Krenshans. And they were just as confused as everyone else was. Apparently those Seekers set out into the deep, deep black - that Brachian Divide, you know? That great empty barrier that was not to be crossed. And it looked a whole lot like they'd crossed it. You'd almost say they got what was coming for them, risking it all like that." Rampage leaned back, looked at Hawkmoon. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't willing to pay a pretty price to hear about what they'd seen out there."

Hawkmoon stiffened. "It sounds like," she started to say in a small, cold voice, "they all died out there."

"You think so?"

"I'm pretty certain of it."

"What makes you think that?"

"Let's call it a hunch."

"... A hunch," Rampage echoed. "Okay. I get it. A hunch. I can respect that."

There was another long pause.

"I could raise you to twenty slates."

"You'd be wasting it," Hawkmoon sharply replied. "Because I don't know anything about it."

"Not even a little?"

"I've been out of the loop for a long time, bug. I keep my helm down where I can."

"I see, I see..." Rampage thoughtfully nodded to himself. "A pity, that."

"A pity," Hawkmoon echoed.

"Strange, then, that the Krenshans never talked about it with you."

"They aren't the talkative sort."

Rampage chuckled. "Too right there, Winglet. Too damn right."

Elulim chose that moment to return with a brace of blue ridge-scaled stingrays in hand. Ve gave the two of them a strange look before passing veir bounty over to Phorus. "Adolescents," ve explained. "I spied fatter adults further ashore, laying themselves out to dry."

"Setting out again?" Rampage called out.

Elulim barely so much as glanced at him. "Yes."

"Don't take long."

Elulim didn't reply, just slipped back through the trees and disappeared from sight.

"A flighty one, ver," Rampage murmured only loud enough for Hawkmoon to hear. "But what do you think?"

"About Elulim?"

"About these serpents in general."

Hawkmoon shrugged stiffly. "What's there to say?"

"Not impressed?"

"Didn't say that."

"What will you say?"

"How about 'leave me alone?'"

Rampage tutted. "Too little imagination."

"Get fragged."

"Are you volunteering? My my, Winglet, I didn't think you'd be so forward."

Hawkmoon shot to her pedes, her mouth a thin line, and took a moment - just to remind herself that maybe, maybe, strangling him on the spot wasn't the most tactically sound decision - and then, finally, declared, "I'm going after Elulim. You can keep watch in my stead, since you're already up and about."

Rampage smiled faintly. "Do as you will, Winglet. Just don't stray too far. That would worry me - but you won't do that, will you?"

Hawkmoon scowled and stormed off, headed in the direction Elulim had gone. Augur raced to keep up with her, his head darting all around. "You let him wound you too easily," he yipped. "Nothing he said was-"

"I'd dealt with enough of that scrap in one life," Hawkmoon growled under her breath - a breath that simply wasn't there. "I didn't die to live through it a second time."

"All the same-"

"All the same, I'm going to need you to shut the fuck up, Augur. Now."

Augur sulked. "If that's what you really want."

Hawkmoon flinched, then continued on. She would have felt guilty if she hadn't been so Traveler-damned furious.

What a bastard.

The lake wasn't far. It wasn't close by either, so Hawkmoon didn't know how to feel on that count. There was too much tip-toeing past interwoven tree roots for her liking. Passing so close to some of the larger growths, she swore she could almost hear them breathing. It was... disconcerting. And not in a good way - not even close.

They're more alive than I am, Hawkmoon somberly mused. Oh, to breathe again; she would have given a limb to feel it again, feel her lungs expand and contract, feel the cold fresh air fill them up. Oh, to be alive again. To be human again. To be-

Cold. By her pedes. Hawkmoon looked down. The water lapped at her legs, softly swelling up and falling away. She glanced across the lake's surface, taking note of the moss-like growths spreading out from the shore. There was a lot of moonlight to grab out there, where the everpresent canopy finally broke away and let the sky in. Probably plenty of sun too. It was a bright world, Penchant. The Undergrowth only suffered darkness for the tyranny of the trees.

There was movement a little ways down the beach. Large disc-shaped creatures had dragged themselves out of the water and were in the midst of crawling towards the forest. They looked like oversized horseshoe crabs, in truth, only with the underbodies and countless legs of millipedes and the claws of lobsters. Five eyestalks rose above each animal's head. Even at a distance they looked large, maybe even larger than her. Slow, though. Elulim was standing near the crabs, watching them while filleting what looked to be a mega-sized version of the stingrays ve'd brought back to camp earlier. The beasts ignored her, frantically making their way inland in their own clumsy, lumbering way.

With a quick check around to make sure she was in the clear, Hawkmoon began walking down the beach to ver. She kept an optic on the forest to her right; she didn't trust the shadows she saw there, not by a long shot. All the same, with the distance she was keeping from the treeline and the open sky above, Hawkmoon was more than confident she had room to move. Elulim saw her coming, inclined veir head, and wrapped up what chunks of meat ve'd already harvested before packing it away under a sling.

"I'm almost finished," ve said.

"Take your time," Hawkmoon told ver. "I'm good to stay out as long as you are."

"That's a risk, Seeker."

"I'll take that risk."

Elulim tilted veir head. "Is something the matter?"

Hawkmoon shrugged. "Just... Rampage," she muttered.

Elulim nodded sympathetically. "He is abnormally interested in you," ve said softly. "Though is it any surprise? Dragonslayers are-"

"Yeah yeah, I know." Hawkmoon walked to the water's edge. She gestured over to the horseshoe crabs. "So what's with those critters?"

"Hm?" Elulim glanced at the animals. "Oh. Trilobites. I don't know. They lay their eggs on land, but they're out of season for that. They should otherwise be spending their lives completely submerged. They're bottom-feeders. Scavengers."

"Could it be that?" Hawkmoon nodded to the dead ray.

Elulim shook veir head. "Perhaps the scent drew them here, but if they were hungry then they would have waited. No, something's... I don't know. I don't know what's drawn them out. Everything's strange right now."

Hawkmoon turned her helm. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the forest feels different. Has been since we landed. The trees are... tense. The waters carry foreign scents. And can you feel that pressure?"

Now that ve'd mentioned it, Hawkmoon could. It filled the air around her, not as any physical weight but all the same it was in the process of exacting some toll from her. Patience, maybe. Kindness. It prodded at her temper experimentally in its own subtle way, as if it were trying to provoke her.

"That's not right," Hawkmoon said with a frown.

"I know. Something's changed. It was never like this before." Elulim looked all around. "The local ecosystems are suffering for it. Everything has been kicked out of routine. The skies should be full of dartwings returning from their northerly migrations, but they aren't here. I cannot see them; I cannot hear them; I cannot smell them. It's their time to feed and forage and roost."

"Have you been having unusual weather?" Hawkmoon asked.

Elulim shook veir head. "No."

"Has your government been-"

"No. The Stratocracy steers clear of the Undergrowth where it can. We know our limits - and the wilds are far beyond our ability to manage. This isn't us."

"Then I don't know," Hawkmoon said. "Could be indicative of new geological activity, but that's just a guess. Animals are attuned to things like that. Maybe your trees are, too."

"We aren't anywhere close to a fault line."

"Can't say I have an answer, then."

Elulim looked down at veir carving knife. "It's strange," ve said at last. Ve looked back at Hawkmoon. "There could be some other phenomena at work. I can't profess to being an expert on the workings of the Undergrowth. In many ways its existence defies explanation; there's nothing to say thi-..."

Hawkmoon looked back over her shoulder. "Elulim? Something the matter?"

Elulim was staring past her, at the lake. "Hawkmoon," ve said in a quiet, subdued voice, "get out of the water."

A shadow flickered beside her. "Move!" Augur yelled.

There was a massive splash, the shrill noise of something sharp moving through the air, and Hawkmoon was already rising up on roaring thrusters - but something snagged around her leg, something sharp and with an iron grip. It wasn't strong enough to drag her down, but it was strong enough to pull itself up. Whatever it was, it grabbed hold of her with pincers and claws and scrabbled its way over her chassis. Hawkmoon punched it, grabbed it, tried to shove it off but it held tight. It was massive if lanky, the creature, and shelled like a crustacean. Its face was mostly made up of the vice-like mandibles affixed to the front of its skull, and it thrust those towards her helm. Hawkmoon leaned back, dove back, fell back - and the water took her.

She sank fast, what with the whole lacking buoyancy and being made of metal, and she inadvertently pulled the creature down after her. Or it hung on voluntarily. Whichever - it wasn't dislodging. It wasn't getting off. And still hadn't stopped trying to bite her faceplates off. Hawkmoon grabbed its thin neck, tried to crush it between her fingers but its chitinous covering held. She then settled instead for simply holding it at bay while her other servo snaked down her side, tugged her Fire-Spitter free. It locked onto the quick-sling over her wrist and held tight enough to weather the current and the beast's frenzied kicking - long enough for her to level the barrel with the arthropod's sternum and pull the trigger. The fusion round sizzled a neat hole through the creature. The whole thing flinched and shuddered and its struggles all but instantly abated. Hawkmoon kicked it off, levered herself away and tried to stand up - but everything was so dark and the struggling had kicked up a storm of dust and sediment from the lakebed, all but blinding her

Hawkmoon made to ping Elulim for help, but her communication's system just spat static right back at her. It was then that panic really started to set in; she was under water and she couldn't even tell which way was up, let alone where the shore was. Her flight-sensor were assailed by stimuli they'd never grown accustomed to and she was barely clinging on.

She was under water. Under water.

She couldn't breathe.

Hawkmoon's servos bunched up by her neck, over her mouth; she couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't brea-

A hand, talons, closed around her arm and pulled her up - or tried to, at the very least. She was too heavy to lift. Hawkmoon kicked up after it, but she may as well have been sitting still for all the good it did. At last she turned to her thrusters, not quite certain that they were designed to work underwater-

And they flung her out. The hand holding her snapped back. Hawkmoon spluttered as she breached the surface, almost fell back in, but the moment her wings felt the open air they spread out and anchored her in the sky.

"Hawkmoon!" Elulim frantically snapped from down below. It was then that she noticed the sound of groaning, of rumbling, of trees rousing. Hawkmoon's spark stalled in its chamber and she offlined her thrusters - falling back down with a splash and a crash in shallower water. Elulim darted for her, grabbed her shoulder and tugged her away from the lake's edge. They fell and sprawled over the sand, weapons drawn and eyes, or optics, wide.

The trees groaned for some minutes longer. The ground reverberated with the din of their shared irritation; they were not happy to be woken, particularly not in the early hours of the morning. Eventually the noise petered off, but for the while it lasted - it was terrifying.

The silence afterwards was worse.

"What the frag," Hawkmoon gasped.

"Shhh," Elulim told her, "shhh."

Something nearby crackled and shuffled.

"Shhh," Elulim said again. Veir head shifted closer to Hawkmoon's right audioreceptor. "Turn off your engine. Close your optics. Don't move."

Something nearby shuffled.

Something nearby sniffed the air.

Something nearby hissed - deeper than an Akildn could ever manage.

Hawkmoon heard a rough noise, like sandpaper scratching over rock and the heavy thumps of a spear - no, two spears - striking solid ground. They continued, growing louder, growing closer - until Hawkmoon swore that whatever it was was slithering right beside them. She could hear it breathing, deep and heavy. She could hear... something else. Something like whispers. Something like a choir of dead voices.

She could hear people she'd long since left behind.

Hawkmoon stiffened. Beside her, Elulim shook and shuddered, coiling tight about veirself. The pressure in the air had increased tenfold, almost threatening to suffocate them where they lay, and the essence of it licked about Hawkmoon's plating like tendrils of condensed smoke.

Open your eyes, the whispers seemed to say. Open them.

She didn't.

Whatever it was, it slithered onwards. To the water; she could hear the splash of it sinking down, cutting through. Then... nothing.

"Wait," Elulim hissed.

It took all Hawkmoon's willpower not to takeoff then and there. "I can fly us out," she started to say, but Elulim's hand tightened on her shoulder.

"No," ve said, "Don't."

"'Lulim, what-"

"Lung serpent."

Another splash. Close. The slithering sound was back. And heavier. It closed in and... then there was the sudden crash of something being dropped onto the sand and stones. Something hard and brittle. What followed was the exhalation of a big, big animal and the crack of it biting something else. Chewing something. Eating something. And it didn't stop - for a long, long while. It took its time. The worst part was that Hawkmoon couldn't look at it. She couldn't even peek to see where it was in relation to herself. She could only listen.

After what felt like literal hours the disgusting tirade of noise came to a stop, cut off with one last great hiss. There was a pause, one that struck Hawkmoon to her core - so sure was she that it had finally spotted them, out in the open as they were - that then gave way to the unexpectedly loud sound of the beast slithering. Away.

Neither of them dared to speak. Not until they couldn't hear the slithering anymore - and then for some time longer.

"It's gone," Elulim said at long last.

Hawkmoon onlined her optics to the suns already having begun to rise and shot to her pedes. She raised her Fire-Spitter and swiveled about, scanning for anything out of place. Elulim rose up after her and pointed to the ground. Nearby the sand and rocks had been visibly disturbed by something big and wide, but most worrying of all was the layer of glistening mucus left in its wake.

"Lung serpent adhesive," Elulim hollowly pointed out. "Don't touch it, or you'll be stuck there until it comes back."

Hawkmoon didn't give ver any indication of having heard. Her attention was solely reserved for the new carcass only a couple of metres - and that was taking their own phenomenal size into account - away from where they'd been lying down. It was the animal that had jumped her from the water, just... broken up into whatever leftovers the lung serpent had seen fit to leave behind. The rest of it had been devoured, shell and all. Most of what remained were of the creature's head or limbs, where the shell outweighed the meat. Nothing else had been spared.

Hawkmoon vented deeply. "What the frag is this?"

"Nymphite," Elulim said. "That's a Nymphite. They're... they're not supposed to be here either. It must have driven the trilobites out, but it shouldn't... It's not supposed to be here."

It was an ugly thing, mauled state notwithstanding. It looked like a stick-insect crossed with a tiger and then with a stag beetle. Its head was in the shape of a shovel, with a fin-like crest on top and two pink tufty gill-like growths on each cheek just behind the broken mandibles. It had four black eyes, each within the recesses of four sunken sockets, and-

"'Lulim," Hawkmoon whispered. "It's got something on its fin-horn."

Elulim hobbled over, took one look at it and exhaled deeply. "A chip," ve said dumbly. Ve picked its head up and turned it around. The other side was the exact same - with the glint of a metal node lodged midway up its crest. "That's a... a chip."

Hawkmoon looked around again. "We need to move, now."

"... Yes. The lung serpent will be..." Elulim shook veir head. "I... I'm sorry, I can't..."

"You alright?" Hawkmoon turned to ver - and found that no, ve was definitely not alright. Veir arm was cradled against veir chest, not broken but definitely sprained somewhere, and ve looked almost drunk ve was so off-balance. "Frag." Hawkmoon stepped over to ver, held out her arm and, when Elulim didn't resist, slid it under Elulim's own and around veir back. "C'mon. Quick."

"Look!" Elulim hissed. Ve sounded concerningly weak, but all the same Hawkmoon followed the direction in which ve was jutting their snout. The lung serpent's trail was drawn right across the beach, and it disappeared into the forest in the direction Hawkmoon had emerged from earlier that night.

"... Scrap," Hawkmoon swore. She tried her comms again - no luck of course. "The others-"

"If Rampage lives, then we must assume the others have followed him."

"What, to the reliquary?"

Elulim dipped veir head.

"Fraggin' Pit..." Hawkmoon grimaced. "What about those outposts you told me about? Do you reckon we could cut this trip short, call for a ride home there?"

"Our extraction is scheduled for five days from now."

"But the outpost has cover, right? If we get there-"

"We're alive, aren't we?" Elulim snapped. "We continue onwards."

"Are you fragging serious?"

"I intend to see this through, Seeker."

"Elulim, look at yourself."

"I'm fine." Elulim tried pushing away, but the effort was so pitiful that Hawkmoon found no difficulty in hanging tight. "These effects will pass."

"That arm won't. How'd you even-"

"You did," Elulim growled.

Hawkmoon made to retort, but it died on her lips. Thrusters, she remembered. Talons on my arm, snapping back. "Scrap."

"The least you can do is-"

"Fine, yeah, just... shut up and move." Hawkmoon started walking in the opposite direction of the lung serpent, pulling Elulim after her. "Okay. The reliquary. You know the way?"

Elulim nodded exhaustedly, the fight draining out of ver. "I know."

"Good." Hawkmoon took them as far from the water as she could. "We need cover. Reckon there could be more of those... what, Nymphites?"

Elulim hesitated. "They aren't supposed to be here."

"They migrate too?"

"It's impossible."

"Why's that? This not their locale?"

"No."

"Maybe they just swam up-"

"There's no swimming involved, Seeker, because the Nymphites are from our seventh moon."

"... Ah," Hawkmoon muttered. "Yeah okay, starting to see what the fuss is about. Keep a hold of that skull."

"I will," Elulim muttered. "This is... this is wrong."

"You're telling me." Hawkmoon glanced behind them and was relieved to find the beach clear. "The frag was with that serpent?"

"Wasn't real."

"'Lulim?"

"Wasn't real," Elulim whispered a second time. "Red shadow. But they shouldn't be so powerful..."

"'Lulim."

"What?!"

Hawkmoon paused. "Nothing," she said. She glanced around for the umpteenth time. "Can you just keep it down for now? For the trees?"

Elulim's glare faded away. Ve sobered up in an instant. "Of course," ve said, "of course. I'm sorry."

"It's all good. And..." Augur, Hawkmoon almost said. She turned her helm, expecting to find him beside her, or trailing behind, or maybe racing ahead of them - but she couldn't find him doing any of those things. Augur?

No shadow. No eyes like dead stars. No tails flicking, no paws padding through the world without a sound, nothing.

Augur was gone.

AN: Huge, massive, all the thanks for Nomad Blue for helping me with this monster of a chapter!

I've gotten to the part where I'm squeezing two chapters' worth into one. Next one is probably going to be the same, but the one after that, glorious five oh, will be a little more reserved wordcount-wise. But hey-hey, finally coming to the peak where this little interval period/arc is concerned. I'm excited to finally put some of these things to page.
Thank you everyone for reading! :)