Chapter 8-11 Limbo

Chapter 8-11 Limbo

Shard-3: Greatling is going to make his move next week.

Mirror-Convex: Received. Does he have any information regarding the incident in the gutters?

Shard-3: Negatory. Hes clueless as the rest. Ive tapped them Well, maybe not all of them. Chambers is still missing. Two techs with him. Dead or captured. Scalpers have them.

Mirror-Convex: Dead, then.

Shard-3: Most likely outcome. They took the ghoul with them. Memory leaks came back with it smeared though. Looked like the damn thing put up a hell of a fight. Rotlick had some pretty weird wards on it. Looked almost professional. Only got a glimpse while it was making a victim out of Rantula though.

Mirror-Convex: Yes, the Moonblood?

Shard-3: Another one of Greatlings hair-brained ideas. I swear to Jaus, its like babysitting a bomb waiting to go off. The half-strand wont stop giving me conflicting orders. I think hes having a mental breakdown.

Mirror-Convex: Received. Continue monitoring the situation. We move to intercept if nothing else changes.

-Conversation between Incubi and Handler, Ori-Thaum

8-11

Limbo

Time passed. Draus blinked. What?

He didnt answer her immediately, choosing instead to revel in the sensation of the falling spray washing the wounds from his body. Real. Do you feel like you exist?

The fuck kind of question is that?

Honest one.

Avo what the hells are you talkin about? Are we still fighting?" She sighed. "Are are you havin another moment? Is that what this is? Because if this is, I wanna talk about that

Her words drifted past him while he cupped raindrops with his winds, shifting them aimlessly from one to another. Before the Soul. Before all this. It was like a dream to me. Limbo. An unlife. Wasnt miserable. Wasnt happy. Just was. Tried being what my father wanted. He twitched his claws and curled them, feeling his joints move anew. I think thats what happened. When the node forced me to kill him. Ended the dream. Ended my limbo. Set me free.

Draus stared, blankly. Thats uh real poetic and stuff.

Avo frowned. Real poetic and stuff.

Cmon, Draus said, shrugging, What do you want from me? A hug? I shoot shit and kill half-strands, Avo, Im not a fuckin philosopher.

The honesty was appreciated, but the alienation remained.

Souhyou havin a moment there or we still fightin?

In a moment, Avo said.

She shook her head in disbelief. Youre unbelievable, you know that.

No, Avo said. Its just this isnt supposed to happen.

What?

Me. You. The fight. Youre supposed to kill something like me. What I used to be. Kill me easy and move on. He looked up at the highest ring again, where his brothers lay dead and pasted. Where he butchered them with contempt and ease. Not what I was before. Was this what he wanted?

Rolling her shoulder, Draus wiped the blood streaming out from her reforming eyes. Your pa?

He used me. Hm. Not him. Another offshoot. Still dont fully know what he is. But he used me to kill him. Made me feel it for a reason. Broke me. Broke me from my parameters. Draus was walking over to him, tension bleeding off her posture as she shook off the post-fight adrenaline. Now, I

Not you anymore? Draus offered. Her rig was gone. A few pieces that remained of the wings drifted upon the shaking waters. Now, she was clad in but the thermalskin undersuit, its hexagonally laminated scales plastered to her musculature. Reaching down, he noticed her clicking something, a hidden pocket patched along the side of her hip. She pulled out a thin sticka line of hiflass.

Didnt take you for a smoker, he said.

Its hiflass. It steadies the nerves after gettin bloody, she held one out to him. He considered rejecting her as he had with Chambers; he never much liked smoke. Not with how they reminded him of the aftermath wrought by fusion burners. Hows your booster?

He flexed his Celerostylus. Pain stung his senses. He held back a wince. Healing. He reached out and accepted her offering. Lasts longer in this body. Dont feel the strain as much. Dont know how long I can keep it active.

The refugees. When I gave them the chance to kill the jocks. They were unchained. It was wonderful. With a mental command, he caressed Reqs deep memories using his Metamind. Through countless walls and hundreds of miles, a single gleam flashed down through walls and layers, all the way up in the Tiers.

Mem-locking someone was a beautiful thing.

Thats why you did it? She snorted. Youre lookin for a new hit.

It wasnt a hit, he hissed. I wanted I wanted to know To feel what it was choice. Choice in totality. He paused, his black eyes intent on hers. Draus. If I can. If the Frame fixes the other Soul. Do you want it?

For the first time, he watched her gaze quiver, breaking away from him. She spat her near-finished hiflass into the water. Drop it.

He cocked his head and chittered softly. Whats stopping you? Avo asked. He leaned down, closer, speaking directly to her. You can choose to. Take back your mantle. Show Highflame

Her elbow smacked him across the chest. He stumbled back. I said fuckin drop it.

She fears what it means, the Woundshaper laughed. Poor, poor girl. She fears the power that it will grant her to exceed her station so much. Pure thing, she was made to be a soldiera lion of a sacrifice, but a sacrifice still. Should she ascend to master, what mockery would that make of all her kindred that fell? How you shake her reality.

It needs to just be me? Avo said. My Frame It can change things. Free us. Free everyone.

And what the hells would that do? Draus asked, more frustrated than enraged. What what kinda world you think you make if everyone's free? To be as they want? Probably just this one." She stepped up to him and jabbed a finger into his fungus-plated chest. "Because Ill tell you what freedom is Avo, freedom is maximizing your own choices, and a hell of a lot of time, that means takin someone elses options so they dont do you first. Well just end up like the Guilds again. You aint thought this through.

And you are running from it, he replied claws clenching. He turned his head. You were happy when we fought. When you kill. Happy to battle. Why wont you let yourself be happy now?

Because it aint gonna change nothin Draus snarled. The people I wanted to save? That life I wanted to live. Thats all done and gone now. I just missed my chance to die then.

With a Heaven you can die all you want

Avo! Rotlick, thats not the point

A ringing spectral wail washed through the circuit chamber, the rising pitch a warning klaxon broadcast through chains of ghosts. Avo shifted his attention from Draus to the descending messengers, the noise delivered on wavelengths of thought instead of vibration.

A request flashed across Avos cog-feed. Green River wanted to link him.

GHOST-LINK ACCEPTED

+River, what+

+Yosanna Kivranpuvak. She messaged me earlier. Told me that her husbands Auto-Seance came online, that he used it to call her.+

A knot formed at the base of Avos guts. Mightve been the sudden clench of worry brought by the news. Might just be some lingering damage yet to heal.

What? Draus asked. He ignored her.

+When?+

+Now,+ Green River replied. +Just now. Avo, the Strix said+

+I remember what the node said.+ He hissed, mind racing. The node all but stated that Yosannas husband was dead. Now he was using a session to contact her?

A packet of mem-data danced along their interlaced ghosts. A new marker manifested in his DeepNav: the location of the turncoat. She was two traffic stops away from the docks, on the thirtieth floor of a hab-block. The details marked it as one in a series: building Ox-Three. +Seal her. Cut off all loci. No ghosts. Place your best wards around her.+

A spike of annoyance greeted him. +I dont need you to tell me rote procedure, ghoul. I have accomplished my end, but the Nether must be left to you.+ A lull followed. +Please. I do not possess the skill nor means to contend with whatever this is.+

LINK LOST

Avo growled. Draus. Turncoat. Her husband called her. Auto-Seance. Shes at the docks.

Immediately, all hint of animosity was lost. Got it. Do you

He didnt hear the rest as he parted into a rush of wind, diving up vents and gaps, washing through halls at speeds that sent drones careening against walls.

Someone was entering the turncoats mind. Someone that probably wasnt her husband.

A churn of apprehension spiked inside Avo. He had a strong suspicion as to who he soon might have to face.

And despite all his newly amassed power, he didnt know if he was ready.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.