A/N: Enjoy Chapter! Was gonna publish yesterday....But Silksong got released... ANYWAY, leave a damn review!
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Kaviss set the goblet down and laced his augmented hands together, the splicer grafts flexing with insect precision. "Once it was all done," he said, translator humming, "the Kings would raise their banner and then...." his mandibles clicked, voice dropping to a rasp "All Fallen Houses would march on the City."
Void's eyes narrowed. "All of them?"
"That is what was promised," Kaviss replied. "The Devils would reclaim the Cosmodrome. Winter would gain technology. And the Kings." he paused, mandibles tensing, "the Kings would sit above them all."
Void leaned back his thoughts raced. The fact that the Fallen Houses had coordinated like this again was definitely odd. it's not that he never expected it, but the fact that it had happened this quickly was concerning.
"What brought them together so fast?" he asked. "Last time the Fallen tried at the Twilight Gap, the City broke your spine. It splintered every House for years."
Kaviss looked down. "I do not know. We were soldiers, not Kells. We are told to move, we move. To die, we die. The plan's bones were Kings' work. Their blades cut old grudges in half."
"Or someone offered them something bigger than pride," Void murmured.
Kaviss tilted his head. "Possibly. The whispers said the Kings had… assurances. Proof the City would break this time. The Great Machine is weaker now after fighting against the moon they claimed. Fractured. Distracted. They preach patience. And then they promise victory."
A muscle jumped along Void's jaw. "Proof from who?"
"I do not know," Kaviss replied, his face stiffened as his jaw clicked. "I ask you the same. Who could tell the Kings of your failure versus the Hive? Who could preach such words with certainty?"
Silence stretched. Ether-scent, metal, and dust filled the gaps between words.
Kaviss finally lifted his gaze. "Nothing is certain. But, there is one possibility. One name, that binds everything together. One name, that hasn't been considered within the Fallen for a long time."
"House of Exile." Void replied, his hands cupped together as he rested his chin, pondering the thought.
Kaviss fell silent. Grunting as he heard the response. " A forgotten group of survivors from the Twilight Gap. A group that lost everything because of the City. And a group that would give anything, to get it back."
Void's eyes narrowed as he murmured to himself. "So the House of Exile witnessed the battle on the moon, and told the Kings."
A strange certainty flashed in his eyes. Something told Void that this was the right track. No, perhaps, it was the only track.
Void stood tapping his wrist as he setup a Jumpship transmat as he simply turned toward the door. "Thanks for the answers."
"Wait," Kaviss said, voice catching on the translator's mesh. He cleared his throat. "What should I do now?"
Void looked back slightly confused.
Kaviss flexed his lower arms, one organic, one anchored by gleaming splicer joints. "The Devils will not have me. They will say I am dead. And even if they did not…" A faint bitterness crept into the machine-flat tone. "Aksis tears those that he considers imperfect. And for him I have failed."
Void studied him. "Why not stay at Spider's House? You could easily work for him."
Kaviss shook his head. "Spider's Nest is not a House. It is… a web. You do not live in a web. You hang in it and wait to be eaten."
"True," Void said dryly.
Kaviss lifted his splicer hands a little, palms up, the motion oddly human. "I have skills and knowledge. I led, I fought, I learned. I know splicer craft. I know where wires breathe. I am… handy." He wiggled the augmented fingers. "These help."
Void stared at his hands and paused.
Kaviss straightened. "I simply wish be of help. Like you were, to me."
"I didn't help you for without cause." Void shook his head, "If its to repay me. You don't have to."
"Cause or not. My life, is no longer my own. I must work to repay what I owe."
Void exhaled and rubbed his chin, "There is one place I can put you. Work's tedious. Plenty of metal. Plenty of heat. Not much glory."
"I don't need glory."
"Good," Void said, turning toward the corridor. "You'll fit in."
-
The Reef's edge glittered in cold starlight. Void tapped his wrist as the workshops doors hissed open. As he led Kaviss down the workshop, his instincts flared.
"Wait." He raised a hand as they paused mid-step.
An instant later, a blast rocked the floors, tremors shook the air and Inches away, a spray of dust shot out out from a high gantry.
Void's eyes darted from right to left, he waved his hand, waiting for the dust to settle.
As he looked up, he saw a droid had pinned itself to the ceiling like a drunk moth, jetpack roaring at full burn.
A few steps ahead, Pahanin stood on a catwalk with a tablet in hand, eyes flat, face flecked with soot.
The jetpack sputtered, coughed, and burst into flames. Pahanin sighed and simply slid one boot a half-inch to the left. The droid cratered the grate where he'd been standing.
"Test 34, failed," Pahanin announced to no one, monotone. He tapped the tablet once.
Void cleared his throat.
Pahanin didn't look up immediately. He wiped grit off his cheek with the back of his wrist, then turned. Pahanin's gaze drifted to Kaviss.
As he saw a Fallen Captain with a splicer arm, and translator chip standing politely behind Void. One of Pahanin's eyebrows furled.
"I brought help," Void said, brightly unhelpful. "He knows splicer tech. Probably more than you or I."
Pahanin opened his mouth. Void kept talking.
"His name's Kaviss, formerly from House of Devils, now…well us I guess? You can put him on wherever. Probably on the splicer reverse-engineer line. He's… handy."
Pahanin blinked, glanced at the still-smoking impact where his droid had tried to headbutt the roof, then back at Void. His expression didn't change.
"Right," Void said briskly. "Great talk. Gotta go."
He pivoted.
"Don't you f*cking dar-" Pahanin started.
Void vanished into shadow, already halfway to the far stair by the time Pahanin's second word left his mouth.
Pahanin closed his eyes, counted to three, and muttered something inventive under his breath in a language that hadn't been spoken aloud in years. He exhaled. Then he looked at Kaviss again.
The Eliksni raised his splicer hands with a small, uncertain flourish. An awkward hello gesture that needed no translation.
Pahanin's gaze ticked to the implants, to the seams where the splicer metal met chitin. "So...I hear you're handy?"
Kaviss nodded slightly, raising his arm as he flexed is splicer hand, the mechanical joints fluidly moving about.
"Interesting," Pahanin nodded.
-
"Obsidian," Void spoke up, transmatting into the pilot's chair.
Obsidian materialized beside him in a shimmer of pale blue. "Here."
"I need you to send word to the Vanguard," Void said, flicking a series of switches along the console. "Tell them I want a meeting."
Obsidian tilted slightly, his tone curious. "Where?"
Void's hands paused on the controls. The engines rumbled beneath them, the vibrations threading through the deck plates. Outside, the hangar doors began to part, revealing the black of open space.
He thought for a long moment, eyes fixed on the scattering of stars beyond. A dozen possibilities came and went, some too public, others too exposed. But one place lingered in his mind, one place where he was sure no one would notice.
Finally, he spoke. "Skywatch."
Obsidian hummed as his eye flared faintly. "Quite the nostalgic meeting point. I'll send out the message right away. Looping in Tevis as well, let's not make it a surprise."
"I was hoping you wouldn't but there's no helping it." Void shrugged.
"What time?" Obsidian continued.
"Hmm. As soon as possible. Say its urgent. About what we found on the moon. It's not something to be discussed over a call." Void nodded.
The Jumpship lifted, thrusters whining as it cleared the Thieves' Landing docks, the tangled web of the Reef shrinking into a cluster of lights in the dark. Then, with a final burst of acceleration, the ship slipped into the endless black, bound for Earth.
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