Chapter 37

"Hell is other people"

Crux was a dark moon veined with flashes of red lightning. It orbited a gas giant alone, nothing to keep it company, and there was only one other pair of worlds within the system - dead rocky planetoids scorched to black. Even the sun was near the end of its tether, small and pale, giving off nowhere near as much heat as most stars were wont to and quite visibly dying. Hawkmoon wouldn't have been surprised to learn that the Tai's Sun had no link to the place.

What's more, it felt Dark.

"This system's soaked in the Deep," Hawkmoon muttered. They were still within the confines of the End of Reservation, staring at the Tenerjiin stronghold through the holographic viewport. Ikitri had left them to hover by the ensign at the communications console, perhaps expecting the demons to call them. She didn't hear anything, though. The Khargrive's people kept silent.

"The Deep?" Nacelle asked. His optical ridges then raised up. "Oh, that Dark thing. Hive magic."

"You can feel it?" Cyberwarp asked with a frown.

Hawkmoon slowly nodded, her optics fixed on the still image of Crux. "Can't you?"

"I don't know. What does it feel like?"

"Tension. Fear. That shiver running down your spine. Or spinal strut, what have you. A prickle on your skin, plating. The taste of cold ash in the air... and that roiling feeling in your stomach. That pressure closing around your mind, your heart, your wrists and ankles and throat. The Dark is a serpent, biting down, coiling about you. It's empty on the inside - both in terms of affections and... and hunger. It's... red in tooth and claw, through and through - like nature but multiplied many times over. You get to feel that, feel it in how it looks at you. Feel like prey."

"It sounds like... you've had a lot of experience with it," Nacelle said carefully.

Hawkmoon grimaced. "Too much. Walking into a Darkness Zone is never pretty. Back home, it'd chewed up huge tracts of land across our system - and then spat them out... wrong. Saturated in its venom. Like a cold nip in the air, but filled with choking smoke. Left our worlds pock-marked with 'em. You could be chasing a Fallen killer, no Dark in him, and then suddenly you're tripping into a place where you're just as mortal as the bastard you're chasing. They can tell, too. Fallen were always too smart for their own good..."

"Fallen?"

"Four-armed pirates. Techies with a taste for killing."

"Yikes." Nacelle's servo dropped on her servo. "But... they're, uh... not here, you know. We are."

Hawkmoon was sorely tempted to snap at him. Sorely. The Dark had her strung up, gearing her up for a fight-or-flight reaction, but... the gesture was... yeah, welcome. Meant kindly. Deserved to be met with kindness.

"Thank you," she whispered. "But it's fine. Fallen haven't been an issue in a while - 'sides Taniks, but he's his own category of trouble, so-"

"I have no idea who you're talking about."

"Some halfway immortal fragger. It doesn't matter; he probably hasn't been born yet what with when we are. Or hatched - I think Fallen lay eggs..." Hawkmoon frowned. "Maybe. Pit, I should have listened more."

"That does seem to be an issue," Cyberwarp softly agreed. She raised a digit and traced it around the holographic moon. "Are we waiting for them to hail us, or...?"

"Frag that," Hawkmoon replied. "Let's just get this over with. Augur-"

"No pilot will take us," Augur remarked. He floated just behind them - almost shaking with excitement. Or fear. Or maybe a mix of the two. "No pilot can take us."

"That's fine," Hawkmoon evenly replied. "We can fly ourselves, you know. But, oh... what about you?" She raised an optical ridge and gave him a sardonic smile. "I'm afraid our alt-modes aren't large enough to take you."

The fox within seemed to smirk at her, utterly delighted with itself. "I will make my own way. Make haste, Seekers! The Protectorate waits on us."

Hawkmoon's smile died. She walked past the Verunlix without another word, indicated to Ikitri that they were leaving, and when the Marooner-Captain gave them a nod, the three of them marched down towards the hangar. They stepped out into open vacuum, thrusters activating, and as one looked down.

Crux awaited.

The death-mists rose right up only so far as the troposphere. Hawkmoon hesitated for the briefest second as they dove down, fearing that... maybe Augur was wrong. Or worse yet: maybe he was misleading them. A gift for the Khargrive. Three dead Seekers - here you are, hope you like them, we cool yet? And what a way to end, too. Shoved into a metal effigy forged into the likeness of her own body, resurrected to fight a xenocidal war on the basis of opposing religious and cultural philosophies, kicked across time by a dragon serving the wish of a Worm-become-sniper-rifle, rendered into soul-fodder for an ancient war criminal.

Would've made for an awesome tombstone. Here lies a time-traveler. She flew into a toxic cloud. That's it.

But... it wasn't like they had a choice, was it? There were Dark gods howling behind them, charging forth on a genuine warpath, killing everything they came across. Hawkmoon owed it to Úthaessel at least; a life saved for an empire preserved.

Hawkmoon vented a weighted sigh. Cyberwarp and Nacelle slowed down with her, noses by her wings.

And when she sped up, they were with her. They trusted her.

It made her feel all kinds of strange.

Into the mists they delved.

Hawkmoon waited for the bite. For the smothering touch of Dark, but... it never came. Their alt-modes cut through the dark clouds and that was it - that was the utter extent of it. No ill-effects. Nothing whatsoever - nothing save the cool feel of air whipping over her wings, down her plating, heating up behind her as plasma-burn trails sliced into the sky. Not even the flash of lightning bothered them; the static energy of each bolt harmlessly washing over them whenever they struck too close for comfort.

The ground reared up out of nowhere almost too quickly, gravity flinging them down towards it. Hawkmoon transformed, re-aligned her thrusters and forced a sudden stop, Nacelle and Cyberwarp rapidly following suit. They hit the rocky moon surface at a stumble all the same, knees straining to dampen the force of impact. The noise of it echoed off into the dark all around. But that was it. There were no other sounds - no animals, no people, not even any wind. Nothing.

Nothing...

"Desolation is the Khargrive's only domain," Augur whispered, prompting a yelp from Cyberwarp and the bark of a curse from Nacelle.

Hawkmoon, for her part, gave a start - combat protocols whining to life. The Verunlix was just... there. Beside them, the shadows within his orb whipping about, gnashing, slithering along the walls of his cell. The fox had its head down and shoulders up, paws spaced apart. His tails - tails, three of them, how hadn't she noticed that before? - slowly swept to and fro behind him. Anxious. The Augur was... anxious.

"Son of a b-..." Hawkmoon quickly looked around, just to double-check that nothing else had snuck up on them. "Where'd you come from?"

Augur said nothing. Just gave her an expectant look.

"I really think I hate you," she groaned. Hawkmoon kept turning her helm, expecting something at least resembling Triipotes to appear out of the mists. "Hello?!"

No reply. There wasn't a single other soul to be seen.

::This really is a dead place,:: Cyberwarp muttered. ::Where is everyone?::

::There's only a couple of hundred, right?:: Nacelle asked. ::If so, I'm not surprised. Moon's still big.::

::I'm what now?::

::Don't start; you know what I meant::

Hawkmoon rolled her optics. ::Right.::

Nacelle flashed her an unrepentant grin.

"What now?" Cyberwarp questioned aloud.

Augur started floating forward.

"Guess we follow," Hawkmoon grunted. She looked the ground over - it wasn't muddy, per se, but there was a texture of ash and ground sawdust to it blanketing over the rock below. Her pedes were already stained reddish-brown with it. "Ugh. C'mon - the quicker we're done here, the sooner we can get back to the fight."

"If that's supposed to be an incentive," Cyberwarp muttered, "then it's really bad. Really, really bad."

They walked.

And walked.

And walked.

And walked.

"Do you know where you're going?" Nacelle asked, exasperated.

Augur said nothing. It was bliss.

"Can't we just fly there?"

Not even a word.

::Typical Seeker,:: Hawkmoon whispered. ::You've legs for a reason - use them.::

::I thought you wanted to get this done quickly?:: Nacelle retorted.

::I do, but there's probably a reason for this.::

::Like?::

::It could be a custom. Or maybe we're sneaking by automated anti-air cannons.::

She felt a flicker of unease from Cyberwarp's direction. ::You think so?::

Hawkmoon hesitated. ::It was just a guess. I don't know. We got down here fine, so maybe not?::

::Primus...::

"Stop," Augur Seven-One murmured.

As one they stopped, freezing perfectly still. EM fields expanded; sensors flashed and scrutinized their surroundings. Even the Augur's fox-form refrained from moving a single inch.

A roar split the air. Distant, seemingly from all directions and none of them - and then it cut off.

::I'm seeing birds,:: Nacelle blurted.

Hawkmoon twisted her helm around, and lo and behold, there they were. A small flock of razor-winged animals, each around Rook's own size but organic, cast in dark shells and working together to carry what looked like...

... a Tenerjiin's head, freshly decapitated. She could see the jagged end of shattered vertebrae peeking past the strips of torn flesh; the cut was far from clean. It almost looked like something had pulled the alien's skull right off its shoulders.

"They have begun!" Augur hissed furiously. He sped on. Hawkmoon exchanged a silent look with the others and ran to catch up. The birds gnashed their toothed beaks, cackled like mad hyenas and flew off into the dark with their morbid prize.

"Begun what?" Nacelle demanded. The Verunlix was hurtling forward so fast they had to sprint to keep up, propelling themselves forth with quick bursts of their thrusters. Oh, Hawkmoon never wanted to lose her wings ever again; they were wonderful, and in so many ways. "Hey!" the mech called out.

A shadow loomed out of the mists ahead. It stumbled towards them, Tenerjiin-shaped but for the ragged hole in its chest where its heart should have been, and fell flat on its face. Hawkmoon skidded to a stop, swapped her servos out for carbines, and cautiously trudged towards the fallen figure. She nudged it with the tip of her pede. It didn't move. Didn't even groan.

::Dead,:: she grimly reported. ::This could be Hive. Be on your guard. Cyberwarp, watch our backs. I'll take point. Where's- fragging fox!::

Augur was still flying ahead. Hawkmoon bit out a curse and raced to catch up, with the others flying after her, but the Verunlix disappeared into the mists. Hawkmoon raised herself into the air and shot after where she'd last seen him - as far as she could manage, looking all around.

He was gone.

::Frag,:: Cyberwarp whispered. She and Nacelle dipped close to Hawkmoon, almost back to back. ::Should we rise back into orbit, see if we can spot him from there?::

Hawkmoon scowled. ::I doubt we'd be able to.::

::This smog is impossible,:: Nacelle snapped. ::I can't see a fragging thing!::

::He was going straight forward, wasn't he?::

::I don't know, I was just... Sure, yeah. I think so.::

Hawkmoon huffed. ::We'll chance it for a breem or two. If that doesn't work, or if we come across something extra Hive-y, we're quitting this place. Got it?::

::Agreed.::

::Understood.::

::Move carefully, now. Keep an eye out for snipers; Hive might not need their eyes to pick us out through all this.::

They dropped back to the ground below and, slowly, began trudging on in the direction Augur had flown. The mist crowded them, thickening and filling up Hawkmoon's view. She kept her EM field out, if only to keep in semi-physical contact with Nacelle and Cyberwarp, and kept her helm low lest a Hive Adherent try to take a potshot at the shine of her optics.

::This is impossible,:: Nacelle complained. ::Can't even see anything on infrared.::

Hawkmoon paused. ::You have infrared?::

::Yeah? Don't you?::

::I... hadn't checked...:: Hawkmoon frowned. Did some digging around in her internal files - the ones she'd labeled alien. Which was most everything in there. It was chock-full of stuff she just simply didn't have the capacity to decipher. ::Do you have it, 'Warp?::

::Um, I think so?:: Cyberwarp perked up. ::Oh, right, forgot. Organic lifeforms are heat-based or something, right?::

::And we aren't?::

::Well, I mean, it's easy for mecha to mask heat-signatures.::

::Same for organics.::

::Really?::

::This discussion is fascinating,:: Nacelle drily remarked, ::but I think we have bigger worries at the moment.::

::Definitely,:: Hawkmoon agreed. ::Just... show me how to see like you do?::

Nacelle pinged her a datapacket. Hawkmoon navigated through, did a function-search and found receiver-settings for her optical sensors. Infrared was one option - ultraviolet and a very limited form of x-ray being others. Nifty. Hawkmoon activated infrared and - yes, nothing.

::You're right,:: Hawkmoon acknowledged.

::Told you.::

::Utter frag-all. Like-:: Hawkmoon glanced down, looked up, then looked right back down. ::Or... maybe not.::

::What... oh.::

Hawkmoon knelt down. There was a tiny splotch of fading heat on the ground. She switched to ultraviolet - and it lit up. ::Blood,:: she grimly reported. ::Most likely, anyways.::

::What from?:: Cyberwarp inquired. ::Hive? That Tenerjiin?::

Hawkmoon looked about. ::It carries on ahead. If we follow the trail, we'll probably find out.::

::Same way Augur went,:: Nacelle muttered. ::The exact same direction.::

::I really do think I hate that fox.::

::'Moon.::

::Yeah?::

::What's a fox?::

The blood belonged to another Tenerjiin. They found it slumped over with an axe in its head, skull cleaved open. The weapon wasn't of Hive make, though. At least the dead alien didn't look like Triipotes; she wasn't keen on bringing that sort of news back to Úthaessel. It bore other wounds too, mostly superficial.

::This is recent,:: Hawkmoon remarked. She studied the area around the corpse. Rocks shattered, displaced dirt. ::There was a struggle. Far from a quick kill.::

::Where'd the killer go?:: Nacelle inquired.

Hawkmoon pointed. ::That way, me thinks. More blood. They were hit, too.::

::Something about this feels wrong,:: Cyberwarp said queasily. She kept her distance from the body. ::Beyond the, uh... the obvious.::

::A Hive would've savaged their prey,:: Hawkmoon said, puzzled. ::They're far from clean. This is... it wasn't easy, for either party, but it was direct. No nonsense - just intent to kill and leave it at that. Pragmatic. Just like my own people's handiwork.:: She straightened up. ::This should be reason enough to hightail it.::

::If the Tenerjiin are in trouble, we can't leave them,:: Cyberwarp argued.

Hawkmoon sighed. ::You're too soft. Fine.::

They carried on, if hesitantly. Not like there was much they could do for the dead Tenerjiin; it was larger than they were, and the rocky ground wasn't exactly made for burying. A pyre would have drawn too much attention. They left it as it was, in the end. Better for its own people to deal with it.

They walked and walked. The breems passed by - and Hawkmoon let them. She could have called a halt, harried the others until they agreed to leave and retreat to the End of Reservation, but Cyberwarp had the right of it. It would have been wrong to just up and abandon the moon - abandon Augur and whatever Tenerjiin were left to the Hive or whatever was doing the killing.

Their perseverance bore fruit, though, before the joor was out. Huge, imposing shadows loomed up in the mists ahead, and the smog began to clear. Hawkmoon shuffled along, ushering the others back while she investigated, and approached until the shadows sharpened into more recognizable forms: buildings. They were on the edge of a town of some sort.

::It's a local settlement,:: Hawkmoon explained. ::Looks clear, come-::

A roar split the air. Something crashed out the side of one of the nearer buildings, hit the ground and rolled. No, not just something, two somethings. A pair of Tenerjiin, tussling.

More than that.

Killing each other.

One of them slammed the other's head into the ground, ripped up the spear they were struggling over and planted it down in the second Tenerjiin's chest. It gurgled and died on the spot. The victor glanced up, saw Hawkmoon, and winked - with all three left eyes. Then, abruptly, it straightened up and ran back for the town.

"What the fu-... Hey, wait!" Hawkmoon tore after it, activating her boosters. "Stop!"

The Tenerjiin, predictably, did not stop. It ran on - until something tackled it to the ground, having sprung out of nowhere, and buried a pair of gleaming daggers into its victim's head, then pulled them back and drove them back in, over and over until the first killer finally stilled. Its own murderer howled, yet another Tenerjiin, and was subsequently beheaded by another demon dropping from the building above, bigger and wielding a scimitar.

Hawkmoon skidded to a stop, optics wide and uncomprehending. Cyberwarp shouted from somewhere behind, and she and Nacelle caught up only a few moments later - falling silent as they beheld the bodies, and the latest in a string of murderers.

::Now's a good time to leave,:: Cyberwarp whispered.

The Tenerjiin stepped towards them, dragging their bloodied scimitar after them.

::Yup yup,:: Hawkmoon retreated.

"You are too late-" the devil-thing started to say, but then it came apart. Literally - into pieces. The Tenerjiin that had snuck up behind it stepped back as the scimitar-bearer crumbled to the ground, minced through and through. The living one held what looked like a whip with many, many thin steel threads coming out of the handle.

Hawkmoon stared. "Triipotes?"

"Hm?" The Tenerjiin looked them over. "Oh. The Seekers."

"What... what the frag have you done?!"

"What did I do?" Triipotes glanced down. "I believe I killed her."

Hawkmoon exchanged a bewildered, horrified look with Nacelle and Cyberwarp. "Why?"

Triipotes shrugged. "Because I chose to end her life." He paused. "You should follow me. You came with the Augur, yes?"

"Y-yes?" Cyberwarp hesitantly replied.

"Then - yes, you should follow me. Come along." Triipotes turned around and started walking.

Hawkmoon just stood there helplessly.

::Definitely leave,:: Cyberwarp all but begged. ::I don't like this, 'Moon. We need to go.::

::You've changed your tune,:: Hawkmoon quipped, mostly on automatic. Her thoughts were still awhirl, still caught on the killing parts - like... what the hell was that? What the hell?!

::This place is like Kaon,:: Nacelle muttered. ::Every mech for himself. Worse, even. None of this makes any fragging sense.::

::You think?:: Hawkmoon deadpanned.

::I'm so glad you're in a mood to pull jokes, but can we...:: There was another series of roars from behind. And shrieks from above - more of those razor-winged birds. A whole bunch of them, sounded like. ::Leave right this moment or-::

Hawkmoon started trailing after Triipotes.

::Or that,:: Nacelle lamely finished. ::Scrap.::

::Oh, c'mon,:: Cyberwarp whinged. ::Please no.::

::We have to get Augur,:: Hawkmoon grunted. Reluctantly, but that was neither here nor there. ::Úthaessel won't be happy if we leave him. We need to at least get some answers out of the Khargrive, too.::

::I'll pass on that last part,:: Nacelle grumbled as they tenderly stepped over the steaming remains of the dead devils. ::Don't much like these Tenerjiin anymore.::

::Noted.::

Some exasperation flared up in the EM fields at her back. Hawkmoon ignored it and carried on.

What they'd seen wasn't an isolated incident. Hawkmoon understood that because, when they took to the town's main street, it became readily apparent that every single Tenerjiin was caught up in the need to kill, kill, kill. Blood was spilled in the streets, down the adjoining alleys, within the doorways of ancient stone buildings and even above, on the roofs, where graceful demons danced and duelled and massacred one another with ecstatic delight.

"'The hell is happening?" Hawkmoon hissed.

Triipotes barely deigned to look at her. The other Tenerjiin ignored him, but only after seeing he had company. A few came close to striking him, only faltering when they caught sight of her or Cyberwarp or Nacelle. They were literally the only thing between him and a bad end. Not that he much cared, if his unfazed visage was to be believed. "We are leaving," Triipotes explained.

"What, life?"

"In a way. We are leaving this war, this existence, this very moon behind. We will leaving nothing for the Foe to find."

"Why?"

"Because my father has spoken. Only fools fail to listen."

"Your father told you all to kill each other?"

"No."

"Then... why?" Cyberwarp demanded. "Why kill your own people?"

"Because we enjoy it." Triipotes stopped, turned around and tilted his head. "You understand, don't you? The pleasure of combat - the burn of straining muscles, the fire in your blood, the sugar-sweet flush of victory in your heart."

"I'm not organic, I don't-"

"I was not asking you."

Cyberwarp startled. Retreated a step. Looked at Hawkmoon, was trying to-

Oh.

Wait.

"You know?!" she said incredulously.

Triipotes dipped his head so minutely she almost didn't spot it. "It was apparent to me the moment I met you," he replied. "You wore it in your eyes, on your wings, in your electromagnetic presence - a weight no machine could bear.

"Who did you tell?" Hawkmoon demanded.

"My father. He knew you would come here, sooner or later, if you possessed any wisdom of your own." Triipotes paused. "Úthaessel put her trust in you. My dirva is not one to make the acquaintance of... those less than special. Less than clever."

"That's the most barbed compliment I've ever heard," Hawkmoon muttered darkly.

One Tenerjiin tackled another to the ground beside them and tugged its compatriot's head off. Cyberwarp shied away and Nacelle activated his blasters. Hawmoon put a servo on his arm, to keep him from doing something rash.

::Not our business,:: she said, neutrally.

Nacelle reluctantly deactivated his cannons. ::This is WRONG, 'Moon.::

::I know, by the Pit do I know. It's insane. Just... leave it. They're bigger than us, stronger. If we cross a line...::

The rest went unsaid. Nacelle shrugged her servo off and stiffly marched after Triipotes. Cyberwarp hesitantly trailed after him, making a point of looking down at the ground instead of the bloodbath unfolding around them. It was the wrong moon for idealists. Wrong place for a pair of optimists. She shouldn't have brought them along in the first place.

Hawkmoon spared their surroundings a guarded look before following suit.

Place of death indeed.

The town was situated against the side of what was maybe a hill or maybe a mountain considering both how most of it was concealed by the mists and that, even if it was a hill to her, still probably not to a normal-sized human. What differentiated a hill from a mountain anyways? Just size? Hawkmoon decided on size. Not like someone was going to tell her off for it. No affectionately exasperated Warlocks for as far as the eye could see.

Hawkmoon felt she would have killed to have brought Ikharos along. He would've done better in her place. Or... at least where the Tai were concerned, and the Hive. He wouldn't have played nice with the Cybertronians, though. His pride had been even pricklier than her own. She missed poking it...

There was a crevice at the foot of the ashen-stoned mountain. A single Tenerjiin with a broken horn stood guard, a scimitar in each of its four hands. Augur floated before it, waiting for them with a strained sort of smugness.

"You aftpipe," Hawkmoon viciously hissed. "You just... left us!"

"We must hurry," Augur Seven-One urged. "Your accusations waste time, Seeker!"

"We could've gotten here earlier if you-"

"I was not aware!" Augur protested. He almost sounded... upset. There was a waver in his voice - past all the gnashing irritation. "I was not aware of our dwindling time-frame."

"Where's the Khargrive?" Nacelle demanded - of Triipotes, Augur and the guard all at once - and then gestured behind them, to the town. "He has to put a stop to this!"

"Leave them to their slaughter," Augur started to say.

"Shut up," Hawkmoon snapped, and swatted him away. Or tried to, anyways; the moment her servo touched the glassy orb, all her pressure sensors and touch-receptors lit up with a sensation akin to static electricity. She yelped and drew the limb back, cradling it.

"'Moon!" Cyberwarp was there in an instant. "What-"

"Pins and needles," Hawkmoon said softly, optics wide. The feeling of it was... fantastic. Because it was alive. She looked back at Augur. "What was that?"

"We must hurry," he repeated, ignoring her. "We must. Death-child - open the gates."

Triipotes dipped his head. "Narkasa," he said to the guard - Narkasa, the very same killer Ikitri had spoken of. "May we pass?"

"You may not," Narkasa growled back.

"Hey now-" Nacelle started to say.

"What of the Seekers?" Triipotes continued. "They have come a long way to meet with my father."

"Who speaks for them?"

Hawkmoon shared a look first with Cyberwarp, then with Nacelle - the latter of which reluctantly nodded to her. "I do," she announced. "I'm the trine-leader."

"You may pass," Narkasa declared.

"What about-"

"They may not."

"Why?"

"The Khargrive has no wish to waste time on the trivialities of mortals. They will remain here."

Hawkmoon hesitated.

"I will protect them," Triipotes vowed to her, softly. "I promise, no harm will come to them."

That didn't help much, in all honesty.

::We'll keep your exit clear,:: Cyberwarp said, but with a note of uncertainty. She looked the Tenerjiin over - and Hawkmoon doubted she liked what she saw.

::I'll call the End of Reservation,:: Nacelle grumbled. ::This isn't right.::

::So do you want to stick around, or-:: Hawkmoon started to say.

::Just go. Get the Khargrive to stop this madness.::

Hawkmoon vented a sigh. ::You'd be better at convincing him than I would, but... fine. Fragging fine. Look, first sign of trouble and I want you two out of here. Got it?::

::Not unless we have you with us,:: Cyberwarp stubbornly argued.

::Just do it, 'Warp. Me having to worry about you two on the side doesn't help us one bit.::

::We'll do it,:: Nacelle agreed. He gave Cyberwarp a stern look.

She reluctantly added, ::Alright, we'll fly. But don't take any-::

::Yeah yeah, I know.:: Hawkmoon straightened. Gave Triipotes a reluctant nod of thanks. Then, to Narkasa, "Can I see the Khargrive, now?"

Narkasa led them inside - Hawkmoon and Augur Seven-One. The crevice became a tunnel. The tunnel became a cavern. The cavern became a bunker - with metal flooring and wall-panelling, with terminals and screens and equipment of advanced make. None of it looked like Tai or Myod handiwork. Closer to Cybertronian, maybe, but... still no. It was elaborate, though. Clean accentuated lines, perfect geometry, little in the way of colour and ornamentation and all the better for it. Most everything was a dull silver, save for where expertly carved granite and marble shone through - meshing two styles together in a pleasingly lacking-yet-not fashion.

Overall, the entire place screamed solemn. It was a place of beauty, but without voice, without memory or words. The stone additions, dragged into the bunker through the mountain beyond, looked like an attempt to break that theme, to give it personality - but all it managed was to turn solemn into forlorn. Despondent; morose; broken-hearted. There was a story in the walls, just waiting to be told.

Hawkmoon didn't have the patience to hear it.

The corridor they entered carried on for a while. They rushed through it all the same. Stopped at a massive set of doors - which slid open on automatic at their approach, revealing the temple beyond. A single Tenerjiin knelt at the foot of a brazier within, larger than all the rest.

"Old Fiend," Augur cackled. "Thief of misgiven mercies."

The Tenerjiin straightened up and turned around, staff in hand. He wore a tattered cap and ragged vambraces on each forearm, with gilded chains spiderwebbing between his long, dark horns.

"Pest," the Khargrive rumbled, hellish eyes flashing.

"The Seeing-Thing's wyrm-daughter bemoans your absence."

"She fears the prey-things - and their Arch-Fiend actor."

"Woe, I say, woe unto those who permit cruelty to continue unmolested."

Hawkmoon spared the Augur an annoyed look, before telling the Khargrive, "You promised her help."

"I promised her warriors," the Khargrive growled. His very voice shook the entire mountain around them. "I have given them to her."

Hawkmoon frowned. "No, you didn't."

"Not to your eyes."

"What does that mean?"

The Khargrive gestured behind her, beyond her, with a hand wreathed in sparkling smoke. "Look now."

She turned, expecting to see Narkasa a few paces away and then the way they'd come - more of the subterranean facility. Instead she saw open space, cast over in shadows and the searing light of dying suns. The mountain wasn't there anymore, replaced with the great sweeping infinities of an ocean. Her audials filled with the cacophonous howls of whiplash gales, the crash of massive rocky islands being hurled together. She felt the bite of the wind on her wings, on her palms, carrying the particulates of sand and dust and other detritus, flinging it up against her frame.

She could taste it, too. Taste the seasalt. Taste the blood. Taste the sweet-pus rot.

If this was how Ascendant space used to look like, millennia before she'd stormed High War to bring down the King, then it really hadn't changed much.

"What is thi-" she started to ask - then happened to glance on Narkasa. The Tenerjiin blankly stared back, a living pyre of rage-red flames. No flesh, no shell, no bone - just fire. Hawkmoon staggered back, almost losing her balance entirely on the precarious slab of adrift debris they stood upon, almost fell into the waters at their sides. "What the frag?!"

She heard a hiss. Looked to the side. Saw Augur Seven-One, for true this time, no glass cage in sight. He was a dark-furred fox at knee-height, with three bushy tails waving in the air behind him and a lower jaw that neatly separated into two - like the outer mandibles of an Eliksni. Or an Ahamkara, when they took to their more monstrous forms. His hackles were raised, his death-empty eye-sockets fixed on something else, jaw flared open to growl at something, to whimper.

Hawkmoon slowly turned around.

The Khargrive was a mountain of black mist, arcs of red lightning crackling within his murky form. Six fiery orbs floated above, full of hate and dark cruelty and inhuman cunning. He was giant, larger even than Taken King had been in her previous timeline. Larger than Xivu Arath had been on Estrum.

The Tenerjiin were Ascendants.

"Watch," the Khargrive urged her, and though he whispered his deafening voice still resonated through her frame - even making her very struts shake with the force of it.

Hawkmoon gradually turned around and watched.

There were Tenerjiin out there. A clean hundred, by her count, ranked ten-by-ten. Wielding spears and scimitars and mighty flame-cannons. Most were humanoid in their core-soul forms. Some were other. No two looked the same; Ascendants rarely did. Just look at Crota and Oryx, Father and Son - one an emerald swordsman, the other a dark-winged demon.

"I bade them to die," the Khargrive murmured. Every word he spoke rattled around the inside of her helm, drowning out every thought. "I bade them to die for the Emperor's demesne. They will fight for her, fight to protect the under-realms running parallel to her empire. They will fall."

The Hive came for them. It began as a green flicker on the horizon, sprouting up as a glowing rune etched into the very sky. Wounds festered in the fabric of anti-reality, in the will-space of the Ascendant plane. The Hive forced themselves through, a twofold army - some the carrion red and bruise purple of the Blood of Oryx, the others the jungle green and swamp-brown of Xivu's Horde. They came for the Tenerjiin, having caught the scent of smoke and battle-to-be. They came in their hundreds. Their thousands. Their tens of thousands. Their millions.

The Hive and Tenerjiin clashed together with a boom that shook the very foundations of the otherworld around them. The Crux-born demons raked through the ranks of chitin-clad, scimitars flashing, spears thrusting, fire spraying. They slaughtered their way forward. They were tall, imposing creatures of effortless grace and terrible power, slaying with savage elegance. It was easy to understand why they were winning so easily; most of the Hive set before them were mere guests of the soul realm, mortal to their core.

It was an offering on the Hive gods' behalf. A gift of mutual respect. Not to sway, no, but to extend a brief spell of earnest hospitality towards an admired foe - fatten them up for the trials to come.

"They know what you are," Hawkmoon surmised. "They're coming for you."

"Their sacrifice will mask our departure," Khargrive emotionlessly explained. It didn't sound like he cared very much. "The prey-things had risen high. They thirst for luxuries beyond their station. But they are short-sighted. They know not the battle they wage, the truth they pursue. Not in its entirety. Perhaps save one of their number."

Someone was missing. In the battle. There was a set of standards not there.

"Where is She?" Hawkmoon whispered.

"I do not know," the Khargrive admitted. "Not here, in any case, though I have no doubt She would like to be. She seeks to parse the truth from lies. She may well believe I can help Her with that."

"Will you?"

The Khargrive fell silent for a time. They continued to watch the massacre unfold - first on one side, and then on the other. The Hive wielded weapons Hawkmoon had never seen before. Archaic things, more primitive than what she'd faced in the future. Technology and biological adaptations they hadn't yet scoured in their eon-long dance of misery and murder across the galaxy. Some, she saw, were doomed to fail. Something like a Wizard but distinctly not speared at a Tenerjiin with a barbed tongue, like some chameleon jabbing at a tasty bug. The growth pierced the Tenerjiin's armour, but the demon merely glanced at it before pulling on the tongue, dragging the Hive morph close enough to run through with a blade. A winged, armour-less Acolyte fluttered above the chaos below and took potshots. A spray of molten thought-matter tore it out of the sky. A tall, thin creature with spiked leashes connected to a pack of Thrall grafted onto its wrists tried to herd a Tenerjiin away from its compatriots. The Crux-born cut both it and its children/pets down in two lazy swipes of a scimitar.

But not all of the Hive's tacts were so unsuccessful.

An engorged Ogre staggered out from Oryx's side, its eye glittering with lost stars and hands wreathed in black fire. It looked like a Taken prototype, and it staggered into the melee with a clumsy, pained gait - and then set into the fight with relish. It tore apart three Tenerjiin barehanded before their brethren put it down.

Another Hive construct, a thing of shadow and green fire, fought the Tenerjiin in the form of Xivu Arath. It had the War God's silhouette. An Echo, perhaps - an early version of it.

"They're growing stronger, fighting you," Hawkmoon realized. "They're adapting. They're learning. Figuring out what works."

"War tests all," the Khargrive said, every word an earthquake. "I have upheld my oath. A test of my own. My people will not save hers."

"We don't need your people. Just you."

"Alone."

"Not-"

"Yes. Alone. And when I fall... where will my power go next? Hm? Who reaps the reward of my death? Tell me, metal-wrought, where does this power you see around you go?"

Hawkmoon said nothing. They both knew who. Their proxies were ahead of them, laying waste to a token force of Tenerjiin already doomed.

The Khargrive coughed, over and over. It took her a moment to realize he was laughing. Mirthlessly, but it was still laughter. Something like rage blossomed in her spark. Something like affront - to her pride, mostly, because that was what she was, wasn't it?

Pride incarnate.

Vaudren had said it herself.

Hawkmoon had dreamed as much.

"Upstarts," the Khargrive chuckled. "They kill because they can. And they will. There is no stopping them. Not anymore."

"We stopped them!" Hawkmoon shouted. "In the future! We killed Oryx!"

"I know."

"What?" Hawkmoon twirled around. Shuttered her optics; the world had reverted back to the way it was. Back to realspace. It almost unbalanced her. Left her with a sense of déjà vu.

"I deciphered your trajectory." The Khargrive loomed closer, over her, falling to a knee. He was still colossal. "You crashed into us like a meteor - bright and wonderful, awe-inspiring. Your impact shook the very foundations of our ailing universe. You've changed things. The aftershocks are still being felt. But... who cares for the meteor past its fall? It has done its job, has it not? It lies there now, at the bottom of the crater of its own making, and it will fly no more."

Hawkmoon's lips twisted and curled into a sneer, the mask over her simmering anger. "Then why am I even here, if I'm so 'inconsequential'? Why bother offering me an audience?"

The Khargrive paused. Stared at her for a few long moments. "The Augur knows. He understands now."

"Why would he-..." Hawkmoon looked at the Augur.

He was cowering. In his glass orb. Cowering. Shaking with animal panic. With sheer terror.

"Augur?" Hawkmoon asked carefully - because she had missed something, she was sure of it, but had no idea what. Something important. Something she couldn't recognize.

"The Khargrive was plane-locked," Augur Seven-One said, whispering. There was a tremor in his voice. It did not belong there. "He was never permitted to..."

Never permitted to what?

Hawkmoon frowned. She didn't understand.

Until she did - when the contents of his words finally hit her processor, when she had a brief moment to digest them, to comprehend them.

Plane-locked. The Khargrive hadn't been Ascendant, he was saying. Past-tense. And yet, now, there was no mistaking what he was.

And all that sheer power...

It had to come from somewhere.

So Hawkmoon asked, with a mouth that would have felt dry had she still been human, "What did you kill?"

"Many things. Many worlds," the Khargrive huffed. He was watching her. Waiting for her to figure it out. Hawkmoon had a feeling she didn't want to - that whatever it was would be to her detriment.

She asked her questions anyways.

"Did... did you kill your master? The first Arch-Fiend?"

"No."

The answer was shot out gunfire-quick, immediately, on automatic. Hawkmoon somehow knew it wasn't a lie.

She wished she had the capacity to gulp. To wet her lips. To... to do something natural.

"What's your real name?" Hawkmoon asked, quietly. Fearing the answer.

The Tenerjiin before her smiled. His mouth opened, ivory teeth flashing. His eyes narrowed, almost half-lidded with pleasure. "You," he breathed, "are amusing."

He knew what she'd really asked.

He hadn't said no.

There was no reason not to say no.

No reason. At all.

"I hate you."

It took her a moment to realize it was coming from Augur. He wasn't cowering anymore. He was still. Standing tall. Vulpine head raised.

"I hate you," he said. Gone was his eloquent prose. Gone was his smirk, his knowing looks, his irritating little tilts of the head. "I hate you."

"I know," the Tenerjiin replied.

"I will tell her. I will tell them all. They will kill you."

"That is what you came to do, is it not?"

Augur snarled. "I hate you."

"So I realize. But you have not the strength to act on it."

The Tenerjiin motioned to the Augur. Narkasa flashed forward - scimitars already swinging. Hawkmoon recoiled, taken aback by the suddenness of it, then burst forward on a burst of her thrusters, but...

It was too late. The black glassy blades found the edges of Augur's orb. Bit in. Cracked through. A single furious, tortured wail emanated from it - and then it burst apart, like a fragmentation grenade. Shards of glass went everywhere. Hawkmoon raised her arms. The shards still nicked at her plating, some pieces digging in deep and drawing beads of heated energon. Narkasa, having taken the brunt of the blast, staggered back with her front streaming dark blood.

It all blurred together after that.

Hawkmoon remembered jumping into the fray. Tackling Narkasa to the ground. Breaking one of the Tenerjiin's arms to kick away the swimitar. Swatting aside the other. Raining punches upon punches. Realizing she wasn't doing enough, that the Tenerjiin was staring up at her expectantly, still alive.

Drew the Nullblade.

Drove it down into the demon's face.

And stayed there for a few minutes, trying to remember that she didn't need to breathe. Didn't need to hyperventilate. Didn't need to try.

The foldblade had crunched right through. The Void lining it helped. Narkasa was killed on the spot. Done. Over with.

Except that she was Ascendant.

Hawkmoon stood back up, tugging the foldblade free, and turned around to face the remaining Tenerjiin.

No.

It was no use calling him 'the Tenerjiin'.

They were both well aware of what he really was.

"Why?" she demanded. "Why?"

"He was an irritant," Kharad-Tan, the First Arch-Fiend responded - completely unfazed. Unbothered. He made no move to attack her. He'd made no move to defend Narkasa.

He'd sent some of his own people to die.

Told the rest to kill each other.

"You're a monster," Hawkmoon accused, putting force behind the accusation. She meant it.

Kharad-Tan eyed her. Scrutinized her. Examined her. "To some," he admitted at length.

There was a long, tense pause.

"Why?" Hawkmoon asked again, but meaning another question entirely.

"His use ran out."

"But not my own?"

Kharad-Tan made a humming sound in the back of his throat. "Yours was over the moment you arrived."

"On Crux?"

"On Cybertron."

"... So I die too?"

A second pause.

"No," Kharad-Tan decided.

"Why?"

"Most mortals would jump with joy to be spared. They would not press for a reason."

Hawkmoon tightened her hold on the Nullblade. Took to considering whether she'd be able to even wound him if it came to a fight. "I'm not most mortals."

"No. Her touch is upon you."

"I don't need Úthaessel's protection from-"

"Not her," Kharad-Tan interrupted, growling.

It took her a moment to figure out what he was talking about.

"The Traveler?" Hawkmoon narrowed her optics. "You know about the Traveler?"

"The Gardener, yes? The Tai's mythic Wayfarer Moon."

"The Traveler is Light."

"The other way, so I realize. The prey-things hunt it. They hunt its practitioners. Like yourself."

"You know nothing about me."

"I read your trajectory," Kharad-Tan said softly - or as softly as something like him ever could. "I divined your origin point."

"Then you know we can kill them! We can kill the Hive and their gods!"

"Not as you are. Not as you ever will be." Kharad-Tan paused. "I know this. I know, for it was not your trajectory alone I watched."

Her optics widened. "What... what do you mean?"

"You know what I say."

Not my trajectory alone, she translated. Not alone.

Once that might've given her hope. Joy. Not alone meant a shy little leaf-green Ghost, kind and curious and close to the heart.

Not alone meant something else entirely in the present.

The Augur was dead. Murdered. She'd killed a Tenerjiin for it. The rest were slaughtering each other - save those sent against the Hive. The Hive, who stood to storm the Taishibethi's Protectorate and commit genocide on a scale she could scarcely imagine.

And it all ceased to matter.

Because she was a creature of pride. And someone had wronged her.

"Where is He?"

AN: Huge thanks to Nomad Blue for editing!