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Chapter 11 - OSMOS V August 04, 22:10 UTC TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN

Lucrecia's body buzzed. Every cell, every nerve ending, every muscle, every tissue – a glimmer of something more raced between them all, exciting each and every sensation she could imagine and others she could not. Never before had she felt so energized as she did in those fleeting moments, so intense that she could forget about the debilitating pain that throbbed in the back of her mind.

She ignored the pain and focused instead on what she needed to do, on what she had the power to do.

This was not the first time that she had interacted with energy beyond her own. This situation brought back painful memories of a shameful time, and she held those moments in her mind long enough to consider how to use the energy she had absorbed. She had a limited window to make something happen.

The Osmosian landed in a tumble beneath the aerial fight. A quick glance upward showed a sweating Gabriel, carried by a flying platform through the air. Minor abrasions and likely bruises were visible on his face, and she hoped he had no serious injuries that she could not see beneath his uniform. There was little she understood about Gabriel – especially now – but if he was fighting to defend her son and find Horatio, that was more than enough for her.

His opponent came into view, spiraling through the sky. Carried aloft through bug-like wings and some kind of tech along his back, he was fast. Deadly fast. Armed with weapons that were more sophisticated than she had ever seen, Xandros renewed his efforts and launched several projectiles toward Gabriel. The investigator twisted up on the platform and rocketed into the sky, gravity a mere suggestion for him, and the attacks missed in a wide arc. Where they struck against the sands below, they exploded into a series of flaming conflagrations that left behind warped fields of glass.

Gabriel evened out in the air and returned fire with a gun in hand, bolts of light flickering across a flashing sky. Xandros seemed prepared for everything, armored plates shifting into a shield that took the attacks head on. Lucrecia was glad to see that they'd damaged the defenses, and he'd had to toss the ruined metal away into the dirt far below him. She'd expected to see that his gauntlets had lost some material to make that, but if it had, she couldn't see it from this distance.

The fight began anew, and Lucrecia redoubled her efforts to find – or make – an opening. Whether either of them had noticed her was unclear, but both of them would know her soon. She was sure of it.

The twisting energetic excess vibrated amid her arms, crackling visibly in green tendrils that wafted from her form like smoke. She'd tried not to think of the vehicle she'd destroyed once, many years ago, with a move like this. Aching for release, she leaped with a building of power in her ruined legs, a wince of pain escaping even as she jumped dozens of feet into the air. Rearing back at the apex of her climb, she shouted, "Xandros!"

An arc of green light cascaded like a cannon through the air. The released energy twisted around itself like a coil, moving too fast to track properly with her eyes. A mere moment later, an emerald explosion erupted mid-air as it found its target. It was a terrifying display and far more powerful than she could really comprehend – what was this technology?

The Scarlet Scarab emerged from the smoke cloud in a downward spiral. End over end, he plummeted into a rocky edifice far below him. Wings failed to unfurl in time to stop his descent, and the dust cloud that formed on impact might have dwarfed the size of their home in Sanitas. Lucrecia grinned as she finished her arc through the air and collided with the ground in a roll. Her legs spiked with renewed pain, the energy suffusing it bleeding away by the second.

The realization that it had taken a significant chunk of whatever power source for the armor she'd absorbed to pull that off further sobered her mood. If this confrontation continued, she would not likely produce something to that effect again.

Gabriel descended to get within earshot. He started to say something upbeat, but his eyes flickered downward to study her lower half. "Nice effort. Is your kid all right?"

"He'll be fine." She started to move toward the downed diplomat, but the flying man held up an arm.

"Lucrecia, take what you have left and go. I got this."

She considered the suggestion and disregarded it. "I jumped in front of a bomb to save my son, and it only saved him from the worst of it. Once this wears off, I might never walk again. You think I'm letting that bastard live?"

That shut the man up quickly.

Lucrecia steadied herself and arced more of the borrowed strength into her extremities. Soothing sparks of power flickered visibly behind her knees, her thighs, her ankles, her shins as she accelerated into a sprint. Adrenaline - and more - pumped into her veins and muffled the ache of each step. A half-second survey of the top of her bare foot revealed visible bone beneath melted tissue, and she decided that this must be a miracle that she could move at all.

Her ally settled into her path, flying just in front and to the right of her. His bodysuit was torn in several places, revealing wounds of his own that seeped into the black material. The technology the man possessed was a confusing mystery to her, and she wondered if they had what it took to finish the threat. Perhaps together, they could-

Xandros snapped into a sitting position and brandished twin cannons, one from each scarlet gauntlet. Power coils pulsated beneath the exposed ends, threatening them both with whatever power he could exploit. Behind him, damaged wings tried and failed to unfurl, to help him to move. "By the authority of the Triarchy and their Reach allies, I demand that you stand down."

Lucrecia merely sneered as she dashed faster. Gabriel hesitated long enough for her to dart past him, but whatever warning he shouted was lost on her determined ears.

The Scarlet Scarab armor bombarded the space between them with plasma, so hot that the very air sizzled with heat everywhere it touched along the way. Instinct forced her to pull up a single arm to defend her face, but she did not stop moving. The blast struck her torso, but she was too angry to care about the overwhelming pain.

Xandros scrambled to his feet and tried to back away, but she closed the distance. A fist shimmering with emerald light slammed into a hastily-formed hexagonal shield of transparent material. Gabriel attempted to add to the onslaught with some kind of tossed binding material, but Xandros showed no signs of fear. As the ruined shield and ruined wings crumbled away, he pivoted to the side to avoid the follow-through of her blow and leaped away from Gabriel's tech.

Lucrecia whirled around, anger filling every pore, and attempted a second strike, but Xandros conjured a blade at the end of his gauntlet. A swing of the sharp insectoid weapon caught her imposing arm, still glittering and crackling with borrowed power. A moment of rational thought broke through her fury, and she barely yanked her arm away in time before she lost her entire hand. Instead, blood dripped onto the sand below her feet from a thick gash on her forearm.

Xandros redoubled his efforts and formed a second blade, charging forward with propulsion from his boots. The movements were nearly too fast to track in these close-quarters, and Lucrecia fell on the back foot. She narrowly dodged to the left of one fatal slash, but that placed her in the path of a second. A crackle of light flashed out from her at her mental urging and struck the Reach warrior in the abdomen, but it was nowhere near as effective or powerful as her initial burst.

It didn't slow him down either.

Fortunately, Gabriel intercepted the blow with a metallic staff that brimmed with power similar to the energy rushing through her body. He maneuvered in such a way that he was now taking the focus of the enemy. The platform beneath his feet was less flying and more skating across the ground as he moved, tightly able to maintain the momentum of the fight.

"Lucrecia, you can't beat him-"

The words only made her angrier.

She reached for the end of the staff and felt the energetic pull of power flowing into her. Gabriel cursed as it vanished from his grip, fully absorbed into her body as the apparent energy construct faded and became one with her energy reserves. She flooded herself with it, pain muting and becoming nothing but background noise. Wounds still flowed freely from several places in her body, but everything was too vibrant, too vivid, too all encompassing to care.

"You have to get out of here!"

Ignoring him, she forced herself forward and traded places with her ally once more. A flicker of power gathered around her fist as she attempted a strike against the armored warrior. The fist itself did not make purchase, but crackling energy surged in its path and managed to hit the scarab's armored arm indirectly. Where it touched became scarred, burned, and cracked, revealing Osmosian forearm beneath.

Before she could celebrate, Gabriel forcibly shoved her away from a cannon that had formed in Xandros's breastplate. An immense blast of power scorched the environment and only scored an indirect hit on the man's outstretched arm, burning away the uniform and singeing the flesh beneath for but a moment.

"You should listen to your friend, woman," Xandros taunted, armor still functional and visibly repairing from the effort of the fight. The chest beam weapon still hummed with power and could release a charge at any moment. Something resembling the wings he'd been using earlier began to reform behind him. "If you insist on this fight, you will lose. Stand down and come willingly into custody."

Lucrecia cursed. "You almost hit my little boy with something that could kill him! Could kill any of us. Now you suddenly care about taking us alive?"

Gabriel agreed with a subtle nod, face alarmed and ready to maneuver at any moment. "If I had to guess, you're far more scared of what we've accomplished together than you let on."

With each passing second, she could feel the energy surging through her diminishing. She held it in her grasp as fervently as she could, for she would need it to continue.

"Ha!" Xandros laughed. "You've no idea what I can do. What the Reach and Osmos V can do together. This is only the beginning of what we will accomplish, and I have more than enough resources to end you both in seconds." Twin cannons formed in his gauntlets, while six more emerged from insectoid appendages jutting from his back. "You can end this farce of a confrontation now and live to see tomorrow." His face turned directly to her. "Live to see your son and husband again."

Lucrecia erupted.

OSMOS V

August 04, 22:24 UTC

TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN

I didn't stay put.

How could I possibly stay put? I was too far away to see the fight and understand its outcome. My mother left to fight the Scarlet Scarab, empowered by technology that dwarfed anything even Jula's company had been doing for decades. My father might be dead, might be kidnapped, might be imprisoned – I wouldn't know for sure until I found him, and I might never find him. I can't add uncertainty about Mother's fate.

I played it smart.

I approached the battle while staying low. I moved as quickly yet quietly as I could. I transformed my arms into stone to add to already boosted durability, in case stray debris struck me. I even managed to cover most of my chest with the material, which was more than I'd previously ever managed, and I had just as good a chance as I ever would finding some level of defense against something like this.

The fight, even viewed from afar, was insane to witness.

Xandros was a perfect weapon. A mixture of close-combat and ranged skills made it difficult for the others to find an opening. He countered their attacks with increasingly varied armor constructs, and counterattacked with surprises of his own. Each new configuration he manifested with his armor was a different challenge for his opponents to resist, and it was only a matter of time.

Gabriel moved like a whirlwind through the air on his hoverboard and pulled a multitude of tools from his belt to use in the confrontation. He'd somehow gained the air superiority, or at the very least, Xandros chose to continue the fight on the ground. The additional range was perhaps the only reason they were still able to fight.

If Gabriel was like a storm in the sky, Mother was like a meteor. She glittered with that borrowed power, an aura of green light surrounding her in pulsing waves. Each attempt to strike Xandros was devastating when it landed, but he was keeping her at a distance. I didn't think they could do enough damage to take him down without a solid amount of luck on their side. Despite the craters sometimes left in her fists' wake where they struck.

I didn't dare get too close. Gabriel and Mother did not need to worry about my safety while they fought. I had no fighting skills whatsoever to make a difference, so I didn't need to get closer and didn't need to intervene. Mother had to have been in a few scrapes before to hold her own, and I suspected there was much about both of my parents that I had not known. Father once worked for a terrorist group, and Mother was brave enough to strike head-on against a superior opponent. What did they do in the past?

I managed to find a crouching spot outside of the effected area of the fight, the terrain shifting with each passing second. I wanted nothing more than to shout advice, to provide pointers, but what did I know that either of them didn't? The Reach provided no knowledge to the public about how the scarab truly worked, so I knew of no weaknesses despite how many hours I'd spent looking into their tech. If Gabriel had been on the planet for longer than I'd initially thought, he may have even more information that I do.

The fight shifted to one of defense for the pair, interrupting my thoughts. Surprise struck me as Xandros darted forward with rocket-propelled movement, a trail of light almost flickering behind him in the coming darkness of the desert night. Mother was unprepared for the movement change and took a direct hit from one of the beetle-like blades, a wide gash opening in the stomach!

I screamed.

The three of them darted their attention to me, even as Gabriel landed several shots from a blaster pistol onto the Reach warrior's front. Mother grimaced in shocked pain. Xandros grinned beneath the armored face-plate.

"Run!"

"Both of you, run!"

I raced to scramble away at the sound of Gabriel's warning, and I almost tripped over my own two feet and uneven ground. Mother turned away from the two men and darted for my side, moving with such speed that she almost seemed to fly across the distance, glittering with light the color of emeralds. I grasped onto her hand with pleading fingers, and she cursed under her breath as she leaped into the sky with me in tow.

Something struck me around the mid-section a moment later, moving at such a velocity that I'm ripped from her grip. A scarlet bar-like device pinned me against the ground around my midsection, like a giant human-sized staple. Stunned partially from the impact against the ground, I pushed against it with stony hands, but it does not budge. With horrified, desperate eyes, I noticed a second staple projectile scored a more direct hit on Mother. One end extended from her bloody hip while the other end fastened her to the ground a few feet away.

Gabriel launched an explosive that created a cloud of dust that surrounded us. I hurriedly tried to pull myself out, tried to reach Mother, tried to do something, but nothing was working. I smashed my fist against the staple so strongly that the stone cracked away, revealing bruised knuckles beneath.

"Leave them both out of this." Gabriel shouted. "Your quarrel is with me, not them."

Scarlet Scarab ignored the human and walked closer to both of us, armored gauntlets transforming into twin cannons once more. Green light flickered faintly from Mother's body as she tried to muster her strength, but the injuries she had suffered were extensive. She was fading fast – too fast for comfort, and anger filled my soul.

"Stand down," Xandros dared Gabriel. The armor whirred to life as he leveled his fist in my direction, at point-blank range. "The boy joins his mother."

"Don't you- da-re!" Mother cried with a gurgle. She managed to force the staple-like device to bend, but a second joined the first with such efficiency of movement that I barely saw it form from the scarlet armored plating. This one did not pierce her body, but the message was clear: he had her restrained.

She struggled further, but I- I don't think she- she can't-

"Let them go. Take me instead."

The human's offer sent me into a further spiral of despair.

My one chance to escape this place. To return home. To find Father. To save Mother. To save myself.

Xandros did not lower the weapon pointed at my face, but it did noticeably reduce in power.

Gabriel and his hoverboard descended to ground level. He kicked the center of it with a heel. The contraption flickered until it became nothing more than a single silver disc, no more than six inches across, that floated of its own accord into the buckle of his belt. Other gear joined it within a few seconds, and the Reach warrior grew more excited the longer it took the man to disarm. Once the last of it was finished, he whirled the weapon in the human's direction.

My last chance, gone in one evening.

Xandros sneered as the man fell to his knees. "I am surprised someone not of this planet would care to throw your freedom and livelihood away for the locals."

The Reach knew about his humanity?

"Says the local," Gabriel prodded. "You'd never understand if you tried."

"You think me incapable of sentiment?"

"Imperialist beetle fucks proved that a long time ago. This is just more of the same. How many more orphans you going to make before you stop?"

Orphans?

The word caught in my throat and in my thoughts.

I wasn't- I wasn't! She was right there, still breathing- still awake.

Covered in scars. Bleeding profusely. The strange energy of Gabriel's technology slipped away more each passing second, and with it, Mother's ability to fight the pain of her wounds. I could see it on her face, marred with six large bruises that were already swelling. She weakly tried to absorb the metal of the Reach's restraining device, but it failed as her concentration failed.

"Why would you do this to us?!" I screamed, too goddamn angry to cry. I gripped the metal of the staple and pulled on its material, shifting away from stone and instead to its cold structure. I struggled anew, making more progress than before, and the staple began to bend. "What did we do to you? You're supposed to be one of us, not one of them!"

The Scarlet Scarab leaned down without taking his sensors off of Gabriel and any surprise tech. "Because you're nothing but meaningless meat."

"You attacked us!"

He ignored my complaint and gestured for the human to stay put as he walked closer. By now, much of the damage the battle had done to his suit was rapidly repairing.

"Unprovoked!"

Again, the Osmosian turncoat ignored me.

Gabriel met my eyes as Xandros gripped the other man's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I should not have involved any of you. I hope, one day, you can find a way to forgive me."

Xandros activated the wings of his power armor and jettisoned himself and the human into the sky, leaving behind a thick dust cloud that enveloped us both.

With a heavy heart and a release of negative emotion in the shape of tears and a forceful tearing of staple pins from above my ribcage, I crawled over to Mother. I was barely able to think clearly enough to do it, too furious and pulled in several goddamn directions to make any rational goddamn decision.

"Ca-cass-Cassian."

I choked, tears free flowing and dropping onto Mother's newfound horns. "Don't- don't do this. Don't die. You can't."

I couldn't deal with this.

Not again.

When I left my old life behind, through whatever means, I also left my mother behind. A remarkable woman who inspired me to teach. Mom was the best and brightest – she had her rough spots, don't get me wrong, but in many ways she had been my best friend.

And then I vanished and appeared a universe away with no reasonable ability to return. As a new infant to a new mom. A mom - no, mother that was similar and yet so different from the first, one who tried hard to be the best she could. But… she would never be the best, because I'd already had the best.

And now, nearly eight years later, I l-lost this one too.

OSMOS V

August 05, 03:52 UTC

TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN

Jula had managed to hide within the Undercity, a mess of seedy taverns, cramped housing, and heavily-guarded and out of the way estates from richer folks who wanted no one in their business. She now regretted the decision she'd made, after her first major bonus at Vir Actus, to not purchase property here. At the time, she'd valued living under the stars as paramount, for she'd always found value in reaching higher and higher. Living in a grungy affair, hidden away from the rest of the rabble down here, wouldn't let her enjoy the view from the skylight in her office.

Now? She couldn't care less about the sky.

Her robotic guards kept her isolated through sheer force of technological will. They were imposing figures to the have-nots that had joined her within the underbelly of an above-ground theater. The other citizens huddled in cramped clusters, while some individuals paced back and forth in pure nervousness. The lights above them provided warm light to such a dreary, fear-filled atmosphere, and the sight of such terrified families brought tears to her eyes.

She refused to cry. She had a better position than most. The immediate danger would soon fall, the government would tighten its grip on the rioting populace, and she could return home to obey whatever curfew. She'd use what resources she had to contact her father, get her family back to the Capital. They could wait out the storm of whatever threat these aliens posed, while the Triarchy squashed it.

A young man without horns stood so abruptly that it drew her attention. One of his arms was longer than the other by nearly a foot: an Exception, perhaps, or someone born with an unfortunate birth defect. "We gotta make a plan. We can't just sit here-"

"Sitting here is working so far!"

"Get down, fool. You're scaring my daughter!"

"My kids too."

Shouting continued for several moments, and Jula wanted nothing more than to drown it all out. This wasn't helping.

The long-armed man drifted that hand into the air, dark skin glowing with a faint yellow light. Jula tightened her grip on one of her bodyguard's metallic limbs. "C'mon, being scared isn't going to get us anywhere. What if we're here for several days? Any of you brought food? Water? Weapons? If one of them aliens comes down here, how you gonna fight for your life?"

Several frightened people nearby, including a boy a little older than Cassian, turned their eyes toward her and the robots that surrounded her. She warded them off with a glare, but refused to meet the child's eyes.

Murmurs swept across the crowd. One couple – young, too innocent – offered some of their provisions in a pile in the center of the theater. Another man started shoving tables and chairs to one side of the room, to block the entrance, which inspired several others to help. The man with the Exception gleamed at the possibility that he might be getting somewhere. "That's it, that's it. We gotta stick together, do what's right. Someone get a headcount, someone start taking down names. We gotta…"

Jula watched with faint hope at the display. Maybe, just maybe, they'd get through this.

"Quite the trinkets you have there."

A man approached her calmly. Dark hair that flowed past his shoulders, horns atop his head, a long billowing cloak wrapped around his torso. He was handsome, with a build that suggested he took care of himself. Jula bristled at the idea of his coming closer, and her bodyguards were programmed to respond to the tension in her body language. The nearest one turned to place its torso between them.

He raised a placating gesture and stopped a few feet from her. "Not to worry. I won't get closer. Just admiring these models, wondering if they might be useful if we get in a pinch."

She considered, briefly, ignoring the man, but he didn't seem to be the type to let things go. "They'll do what's needed."

"I'd hope so," he offered. "With everything that's happening out there, I'm glad to see you have some tools to help you stay safe."

Jula almost rolled her eyes. "Why do you care so much about if I'm safe?"

"Oh? It's not about you, madam. It's about all of us."

She'd already counted. "Big enough group forces its way past that barricade and tries to steal our stuff? I doubt my robots could keep us all safe."

He scanned the room, eyes settling on the women and children. "They probably would have trouble, yes. I don't mean the people in this room, madam. I am speaking for all of us on Osmos V."

The man was deluded, Jula decided. Charisma be damned.

"We rest on the precipice of defeat, of destruction. Barring a miracle, our society will crumble. Every one of us must stand ready to fight, tooth, horn, and nail, for everything we have if we want to survive."

"That's ridiculous. The Triarchs will-"

"Those supplicants?" The man laughed. "They fell when they decided to share."

OSMOS V

August 05, 07:39 UTC

TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN

The Ambassador was pleased with himself. A dangerous dissident element on the planet had been uprooted before it could bear fruit. The minimal threat of this non-Osmosian man had been reduced to nothing, now under their thumb.

One of his assistants within his direct employ as the Ambassador brought with him an update, passing a slim panel covered in insectoid plates into the Enforcer's waiting gauntlet-covered hands. "Sir, pockets of violence have erupted across the Triarchy and its rival city-states across the seas. This event has rippled across the planet beyond our expectations."

The Ambassador could not help but bask in the glory of that information, even as he dismissed the officer after the report. Many events were ongoing simultaneously, though what caught his attention more were the efforts of Xandros against this unknown man.

The Scientist, chief researcher of the entire operation on Osmos V, entered the chamber at the height of their victory, likely to bring a report of another of their various projects. A large carapace-like screen still displayed elements from the surprising combat against a foe with unexpected technology, much of which did not fit within their extensive databases. The Ambassador studied the written hypotheses on the screen, but none of them fit the picture quite perfectly. Perhaps the Scientist had come to place his input into that matter.

A careful finger traced the plating of his arm, and he did not turn away from the screen even as the former Thanagarian Enforcer whispered, "You're spending a lot of thought on something that is no longer a worry, Amby. Why don't we get some rest? The coming days will be long and arduous."

The Scientist settled opposite the Enforcer on the Ambassador's other side. He could tell the Reach man had something to report, but knew better than to interrupt a conversation between the Ambassador and the Enforcer.

"There are too many unknowns," the leader of the Reach on Osmos V reiterated. "Our tactics are sound. This strategy guarantees us control of the population soon. If we stay the course, and there are no other unnecessary and unexpected interruptions, then predictions indicate all resistance will be negligible within six months."

The Scientist cleared his throat. "With all due respect, those were initial estimates. The genetic variability of the denizens of this planet could produce significant challenge to any of our number, especially as outnumbered as we are."

The Enforcer scoffed at the Scientist. "The Triarchy already wrestles with martial law. Our little game will force everything to crumble – they are far too unorganized to mount any significant challenge."

"If we deploy too early," the Scientist warned, "then we'll have no choice but to-"

The Ambassador cut him off and leaned slightly into the buxom Enforcer's loose embrace. "Deploy all but the reserve Assets in strategic locations."

"But, but that will-"

"Total pandemonium." The Enforcer purred. "You're a madman, Amby."

"Ensure our forces are in position to mitigate the chaos. See to it that the citizens of Osmos V know that they owe their survival to us."

The Scientist bristled at the command, and the winged beetle warrior left to engineer their master stroke. The races native to their system and those races that were assimilated from others moved with purpose throughout the complex like an orchestra, and the music of their activity forced the Ambassador into a great sense of satisfaction.

The Scientist was clearly still uncomfortable. "This is ahead of schedule, Ambassador. Did the capture of this prisoner truly engender this response?"

The Ambassador did not affirm or deny the question outright. "There are two major concerns, Scientist, with this individual's identity and the technology he commanded. My suspicions are largely that: suspicions, and until a proper interrogation occurs, I suspect we will not know for certain. Regardless of the truth, I believe his interference warrants an advancement of our timetable, if only because our position needs to be more tenable. If I am right, we cannot afford to leave any stone unturned to force Osmos V's hand."

The Scientist hesitated. "Can you share your suspicions?"

The leader merely pointed at one of the captured clips of the fight, taken through Xandros' scarab. Diagnostic readings suggested two major possibilities, though neither were confirmed. Both indicated a difficult position for their future, though one held far more potential consequences than the latter.

"Mysticism?" the Scientist remarked with clear doubt in his voice. "The chances of this are minimal at best, from initial surveys of the planet. There is very little thaumaturgic activity within the sector."

The Ambassador understood the speculation and the doubt. "It would not be the first time in our empire's history for us to underestimate mysticism and its many wonders."

The other Reach man scoffed. "The technology behaves like technology, not anything I've studied from the other realms. We have little reason to fear that."

"And the other possibility?"

The Scientist read over the panel for several seconds, replaying one clip of an explosive grenade several times. When the man finally realized the possibility, he gripped the panel in his hands tightly. "They wouldn't dare interfere."

OSMOS V

August 09, 19:41 UTC

TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN

Months.

Months of agony.

Months of loss.

Months of uncertainty.

Months of fear.

Horatio could do little but think in the few moments of lucidity he possessed. Unconscious hours slipped into unconscious days, and for all he knew, it had actually been years. The only reason he thought he had a sliver of an idea of how long it had been were the seemingly regular intervals where his captors brought him a meal. Slid the disgusting plate of food right through the energy field that kept him from the outside world.

These meal times were precious, he'd learned early on, because they were the only sustenance he had. He'd tried to refuse to eat, but learned quickly that he'd need his strength to maintain his mind through the torture.

From the moment of his abduction by a green-skinned, four-armed behemoth, he'd sustained himself through countless days of tests, needles, electrical shocks, and too many others to count.

He'd let his mind wander about the possibilities of escape. About the possibilities of returning home to Lucrecia, to Cassian, to Jula, to Father. He missed them all dearly, and he'd thought of what their reunion would be like countless times and in countless variations.

Lucrecia would embrace him and never let go. Jula would berate him for the years they'd spent hating one another. Father would bemoan himself for allowing it to happen, and Horatio would have to console the man so he could keep his pride. Cassian would laugh in tearful joy and then demand to know everything, no matter how much he'd want to shield the boy from the truth.

So repeated these wonderings were, in fact, that he would often lose himself in their dream-like wonder.

These moments were the only moments to allow him any sort of reprieve. He'd tried to learn what they wanted with him and the others, but the insect-like Reach spoke in trills and high-pitched whines. When soldiers of the Senecan Legion spoke to them in Osmotin, the conversations were clipped and difficult to parse. His only thought, truly, was that they'd wanted him for Carnifex, somehow, but the details made no sense.

The satisfaction that he'd been right all along about the Triarchs did not carry him far, but it had vindicated decisions that he'd made for Carnifex in his youth. That vindication came from the uneasy realization that they'd willingly allow these Reach to perform mad science experiments on their own citizens. It was not at all what the group had had in mind, but it was far worse than anything the corrupt government had done in its long history.

A shift outside caught his attention, different mechanisms of the likely spaceship he'd called home lighting up at someone's behest. A moment later, the golden beetle warrior with brilliant wings entered the view of his cell for the smallest of moments, carrying something - no, someone - in her arms. He stood with weak knees and tried to get a good look at them, wondering whom the newest miscreant might be, but he didn't recognize the man. A moment later, and they were out of sight as the Reach soldier vanished around the bend.

It had been only days since the last arrival, and weeks more for the one before that. The sudden frequency confused him, and when several more began trickling into the ship, he realized something was amiss. Something was happening, and he was determined to learn what it was.

That determination would carry him through the rest of this ordeal. It had to, because he had very little left to keep him going.

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