A Trillion Stars

I ignore the creeping metal and echoing of my footsteps as I make my way through the ancient and forgotten hallways as I traveled deeper and deeper down below.

Looking at the makeshift watch that I managed to find a few weeks back, I frown as I realize just how long I had been gone.

Not long enough for it to truly matter, but enough that I might be getting a few glances when I came back. Divers tended to get a lot more attention any time that they were gone for longer than just a day or two.

I was nearing now a week and half, and if I wanted to make it back to the levels with actual life in them, I would have to turn back soon. Rations were slowly but surely becoming scarcer by the day, even if I was pacing myself.

I ignore the low rumble of my stomach, along with the aching of my feet. They weren’t anything that I wasn’t used to by this point.

Going to another city was not something that I was willing to do. Not when there was a chance that I could stumble onto… people that I would rather not see ever again.

I rub my slightly armored arm with my gloved hand, trying to forget the memories that came creeping back, along with what lingered on my skin.

Maybe after this haul I would finally have enough to get myself a home that wouldn’t be a constant drain on my meager salary.

If I managed to find anything.

The last few dives into the depths had been… well, they had been a waste of my time.

The only value I had gleaned from them was marking off those caverns from the roughshod maps that I created.

I stop as I hear the telltale titters and chatters that spelled the death of any poor bastard unlucky to find himself alone and defenseless in these tunnels.

With quick and quiet movements, I scurry into one of the nearby doorways, into a room that might have been an apartment or office at one point, hard to tell when whatever had been the furniture was nothing but dust on the floor.

I pull out the kinetic slugger at my hip, a bulky hand cannon with a stylized human heart on the side. At least, I heard that’s how humans usually drew hearts.

Even if they didn’t look anything like that. I’d seen plenty of real ones in my life.

Focusing on those little details while I controlled my breathing as the chittering and scraping of claws grew closer and closer.

Each step reverberated through the floor and walls, each one a death toll that promised my soul would finally find damnation like I’d heard many times in my early years.

Eventually, the steps stop, and I could hear the sniffing from its nostrils, as the wind was blown through the doorway, right past my crouching form at the side.

All it had to do was poke its head through, and I would be a dead man.

Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump.

I can’t tell how many times my heart pounded in my ears, each one stronger than the last, as I struggled to keep my breaths from becoming panicked huffs.

I bring back the old hammer of my weapon, raising it towards the sky, knowing that it would be mere pinpricks against the thick hide of the beast that thankfully preferred dwellings with low light.

Until, eventually, fate decided to give me another blessing that I didn’t deserve.

The footsteps slowly, far slower than their approach, walked away, back towards the way that I came.

I stay there seated, breathing stilled and hand on the trigger, waiting for the off chance that this was finally the joke disguised as a miracle.

I let out a shaky breath, raised arm flopping onto the floor while I flip the safety back onto the gun, the smack of metal on metal like music to my ears.

Anything would be a god’s song compared to the breathing from one of those creatures.

I’d seen enough people die to those damn things.

Dreamed of being the one trapped underneath it’s foot instead of the one that outran the rest.

I rouse myself back up, and look around at the room.

It… isn’t really much. Most of what might have once been wood or cotton was gone, and power had long since run out from this deep into the planet.

Diving deeper into the apartment, I find what must have once been a lavish bedroom, though, now, it was just another ruin amongst the rest of the wrecks.

Dammit. No weapons, no supplies, NOTHING.

I don't slam my fist into the wall, even if there was nothing more that I wanted to do. No point in attracting some other creature that was skulking around down here.

Dammit, I was really hoping for at least a minor payoff, so I could get something that would actually defend me against one of the smaller ones.

Meaning that the only way that I might not starve by the end of the month was to make a deal with a Stronghold.

Independence was nice, but I couldn’t enjoy it forever if I was dead.

No matter how much my neck chaffed at the idea.

A small twinkling light catches my attention, something that I would have missed had I not been standing lost in contemplation for the future. On the wall at the back of the… bedroom?- was a small light that barely glittered like a priceless jewel, gleaming in the shadowy darkness that surrounded me.

I stepped closer, staring at the twinkling light that seemed like a mirage in the darkness.

One second there, the next gone, my mind wondering if I had even seen the thing in the first place.

Even while standing in front of where I had seen the light, it did not return, as dark as the rest of the ruined once home. I wait there for a few minutes, ear’s peeled in case that detestable thing decided to turn back the way that it came.
The light never returns and I start to lose hope as I touch the spot that held the light.

I feel my fingers brush across the cool dusted metal, the particles of so many years caking onto my digits, and blink.

Then I gape.

In my hands, where once there had been nothing but dust and empty recycled air, a simple band of yellow metal, goldI believe, that seemed to be just the right size to be clamp around my wrists.. Around the golden band, were thirteen small golden loops along the metal, barely big enough something small and thin to slip through.

I turn the bracelet over in my hands, wondering how in the world it had just… appeared from nothingness.

Looking back to the spot in the wall that I’d touched, I now found a… symbol painted onto the metal. A symbol that I know hadn’t been there before.

It looked… strange.

It was… a strange image of a scope, two rings, one white the other black, inside of each other, with two lines intersecting in the middle, one that spread from the top to the bottom, the other from the right to the left.

At the front of the crossed rings, was a letter that I had seen in human writing once or twice.

DR

I look at the strange image, lifting my hands and activating the bulky ring of metal that encased most of my finger.

He spin the ring around his middle finger, ensuring that the camera is facing towards the image as he summons the small holograms with a thought.

About three or four times. Damn thing was on the fritz, and was high time that I invested on a new one. When I wasn’t worried about feeding himself in the next few days.

Eventually, I managed to summon the thin blue screens and snap an image of the symbol for later.

Who knows, someday I might stumble onto another one.

Before I could inspect the band in my hand, I feel the trembling in the room, accompanied by the tell-tale sounds of that roar that brought fear into every diver this far below the surface.

I stuff the thing into my pocket, moving in the opposite direction from the beast, deeper into the tunnels.

---

It took a lot of workarounds, along with little sleep in between, but I managed to find my way back to some tunnels that I actually recognized due to the knife scratches I had left on one of the walls.

I was low on supplies, even lower on sleep, but I managed to make it to one of the safehouse's that I managed to create down here.

Enough supplies that I wouldn’t be starving myself on the trip back up, along with time to finally get more than just a handful of hours of sleep.

It wasn’t much, simply an old apartment whose entrance was… a bit difficult to find. Given that most of the hallway was little more than rubble.

I stare at the metal band that I had found yesterday, turning it over and over in my hand.

What in the world is so special about you? I asked myself. It was something that had just appeared out of thin air. It had to be more than a simple ornament or accessory.

Otherwise, what would be the point of… That?
Yet, no matter how much I turned it over and inspected it, it remained the simple golden bracelet with thirteen golden rings.

Gold was… nothing. The only people that found it valuable were those that dabbled in the creation of technological hardware, something about gold being used in the creation of the minds of computers.

I might be able to get a good price if I sold it to the right people, but that might mean going through some channels that I had no access to. Not without having to go through some contacts that I would prefer to leave cold.

… Well, I was going to be picking up one of them soon anyways, so maybe I could kill two rats with one scrap?

Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to wear it once right? I had seen plenty of the richer… Korinth wear adornments like these back… before.

So without further ado, I slip the band of metal on my wrist.

And see that there was so much more than simply this world that I held freedom on.

How does one explain that rush of information that rushed into my mind? The way that foreign worlds, each one as unique and intricate as the mind of every being on this planet, brushed the barest hints of knowledge and thought in the depths of my mind.

In that moment, I was laid witness to just how small I was in the grand scheme of things. How tiny this one little planet, on this universe older than some, younger than most, matched to the enormity and horrifying size that others touted in merely a fragment of it’s size.

I saw worlds of darkness crumble underneath their own corruption, Light and Dark battle in an endless stalemate that would always be a temporary seat of victory, a galaxy thrust into endless war at the laughter of thirsting gods.

More and more flashed through my mind in my dingy little hideout in the middle of a labyrinth of technological wonder that seemed like child’s play to the stories that I was a mere passing spectator to.

I saw a Man of Steel bring a new Tomorrow, all while another lander of home merely brought about ruin to the world that didn’t even offer him the love a child should have.

And then, I saw myself.

Only… it wasn’t me. Some didn’t even have the same face that I did, others weren’t even human, and yet, I knew in the depths of whatever served as my soul that they were me. And I could see them smile with a cheerfulness that made my heart ache.

Could I ever smile like that?
Feel Joy to the depths that they did, able to stand against the horrors that threatened to kill them and everything that they knew.

I saw someone that I knew was me, garbed in plates of metal and light, as he charged through a horde of darkened corrupted creatures, darkness covering them in an aura of white and black haze , a hammer forged of fire in his hands as he tore through them like a laser through flesh, the flames brighter and hotter with each death.

Another of me wearing yellow and red clothing, my eyes green instead of my normal brown as I dug through ruins that looked young compared to the planet I lived on. Metal and wiring danced through my hands as the small sphere at my side pulsed with magic and light.

The colony briefly brought itself to life, even with the landing being a crash that cost us 30% of the colonists and seeds that we had brought alongside us to the planet, the miasma of green fog thick in the valley beyond.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, basking in the heat of the spring sun, plow in hand, with the smell of upturned soil and forest air, plenty of grass and rock surrounding my little patch of upturned soil. But I didn’t care. Anything was better than that cubicle hell of cold uncaring steel.

I breathe in, gasping for breath just as the little ‘click’ of the metal band closing around my fist finishes, the sound of jingling metal catching my wild attention. Clasped onto one of the little rings… was a tiny key, no bigger than the last bone of my pinky finger.

It looked… old. An old metal key that had gone out of style so many hundred years ago. Yet it gleamed bright gold as if it was brand new.

No one used any of those old metal locks. Not even on this dilapidated planet where you could just imprint your gene or fingerprints onto a scanner.

That type of modification was trivial to any wire head that knew what they were doing. Especially if they wanted to survive on this planet.

I stare blankly as the key that had been miniature on the metal band around my wrist appears in my hand, gleaming brightly in the light, the three-pronged end in particular taking center stage in the spectacle.

I twist the key around in front of me, and…. A door in space opens.

A literal tear in space that shouldn’t have been there appears, the edges neon white and shifting, as if they didn’t quite belong in this world.

I step through the rip of white, into a barren world of blankness that looked no bigger than the most meager of rooms.

Even the ‘walls’ were bare nothingness given form, solid, but… formless. Touchless.

It was more like… pressure that I pressed against instead of stone or metal.

Yet… I felt at peace within this room.

I felt… whole. Like it was something that was always meant to be a part of me.

Wait… part of me?

Where had that thought come from?

Part of me- a big part - felt uneasy about all of these strange thoughts, images, and sensations.

Sensations that all came from this little bracelet that had appeared from nowhere.

After all, what else could bring such things?

Staring at the band around my hand, I knew that I wasn’t going to sell this for anything else in the world.

Because for those few moments… I was so much more than just myself.

More than the single man diving in tunnels older than known history for survival.

I was living. I was more.

I was me.

Spoiler: Authors Note

Decided what the hell and crossposted over here from SV. Hope that you all enjoy. Should let you all know that I'm probably not going to be delving into NSFW that much. At least, that's not my current intention.

Spoiler: Perks

100: Forgefather Charm Bracelet. This golden charm bracelet bears twelve charms of your choosing, each representing a tool for some skill you possess. On command, you can cause one of these charms to manifest as a master-crafted version of the tool in question. Another command will return the tool to its charm form, and to its location on your bracelet. Handy if you want to exercise your crafts anywhere you go without having to heft around a ton of weighty gear.

 

I don’t know how long I had remained in that trance. Watching and brushing up against the many different versions of ‘me’ that were scattered beyond time and space that defied comprehension.

I could have just lost my mind for those few seconds, but… I felt each one, if for a moment.

I felt what they felt, saw what they saw, thought what they thought.

The vast sensations were already fading, like a dream that just barely slipped from the grasp of my mind, but I knew that they were real.

I had never truly felt the warmth of the sun to that extent. Never held a hammer that emitted fire, smiling as bullets pierced through my armor, blood pouring from my wounds onto the ground, uncaring because I knew that I would simply get up again. And I would take as many of them with me before I let my body become a corpse, if momentarily.

Then, even that was nothing more than a memory of a memory. Remembering something that I knew I had forgotten.

I look down, gazing at the simple band of gold that fit my wrist so… right. Like it was made for me. As if it was always meant to reach my wrist.

I should be worried about that.

I should. But I wasn’t.

For once… I was more than just myself, more than a tunnel diver just going through the motions, something that I thought I was content with.

But I wasn’t. I wasn’t.

Oh, I am never going to sell this now. I muse to myself, rising from my position on the floor, stretching as I exit the room of white, the key returning to the band of gold, jingling that echoed like laughter.

The rest of my trip out of the tunnels passed by in the usual monotony that it always was, more and more flickering lights illuminating the way forward as I approached the surface.

The large yawning chasms of steel become smaller hallways once more as the sounds and smells of life start to worm their way into my brain.

I smile as the hints of green become more prominent, wayward roots soil slowly becomes more abundant, the fresh smell of leaves brushing into my nose.

I bask in that emotion, a smile on my face before I press on.

I’d always loved the green, something that only became more prominent in the past few years.

The guards at the entrance look me over, black plated armor with matching bulky rifles making them stand out amidst the encroaching life of nature around us.

I can’t see their eyes underneath their helmets, but they don’t move as I approach and eventually pass them, meaning it was probably the same ones that had seen me leave the other day. Hard to tell them apart when they all wore those helmets.

Except for the ones that… varied from the anthropomorphic form.

The hustle and bustle of the city soon overtake me, crowds of countless forms moving to and fro, some of them moving through the air without the assistance of any limbs.

I ignore the huddled bodies in the alleys of wood and steel, making sure not to look into the begging eyes or worried gazes sent my way.

Every day, those figures changed. Whether that be because some of them just… disappeared, or because another one was added to the pile due to new arrivals.

Though, there hadn’t been as many newcomers as before. Instead of the small fleet of transport ships touching down and discharging their ‘cargo’ like before, it had been reduced to a mere two or three ships a day, sometimes not even that.

Though… the children do make me pause at least a little bit before I keep on walking.

I can barely take care of myself, no point in tying a chain around a drowning human right?

I don’t bother stopping by my meager home in the lower district, instead, I keep on climbing through the elevators that they had managed to bring into working order. There weren’t many, and there was some waiting at the ones that I did take, but there were enough where the wait times weren’t usually longer than ten-fifteen minutes.

The guards in black made sure that there wasn’t any funny business after all.

Arriving at the Strongholds center was the easy part, and the large avian, a Kaaranth I think, stared at me with his four eyed gaze, each pale blue orb squinting at me in thought.

“What do you want, human?” He asked as if that meant anything to me. Not like I had ever actually lived among humans right?

I reach into my pockets, movements slow and careful, raising up a finger in the tell-tale moment for ‘one moment’.

The Kaaranth stares at me unamused while I smoothly pull out the small pale green coin that had been given to me so long ago. I hold it out, careful to make sure that the image of a globe with continents carefully carved out of the jade material.

It was a rare thing, something that was only given to those that proved themselves to be valuable members of the nation that compromised of the race that I was apparently a part of. Something that I didn’t truly understand.

He takes the coin from me, delicate wings careful to grip onto the green coin, inspecting it with a critical eye. He looks back at me, and returns to coin, a look of surprise and respect evident in it.

I don’t think that I really deserved that.

“He should be deeper inside. I’ll let the rest know to let you past.” With that, the steel doors behind him open, allowing further passage into the fortress of wood and steel.

I ignore the stares of people around, the various eyes, and sounds a constant bit of static to my senses as I delve deeper into the slightly familiar Stronghold, memory helping guide me through the barracks and planning centers of the Headquarters of the Libertarium.

“Xaceron! How are you doing kid!” I grimace as I feel an arm wrap around me when I enter the center of the facility, the red bearded human with violet eyes gazing at me.

I shake my hand with my palm out, my face as expressionless as I can make it, minus the frown.

Why is it that humans are so touchy? Or was that merely him?

“Well, least you look like you’re doing alright!” Roland yelled, words not matching his lips as the translator does its work. I don’t even know what language he uses is called, but it’s definitely not Kalithy.

I’m about to sigh and try to wave him away when… something happens.

I’m… not here in the arms of the loud human anymore.

For that one moment, I am in between space, drifting in the sea of stars, above me, constellations beyond my reckoning shine at me, each one holding power that I can’t even hope to truly imagine. Then, among the sea of stars, I feel one connect.

And in that moment, I… felt something more than just a star of power. I felt concepts, the very idea of fire and lightning becoming crystallized materials, that love and loss could become a stone that one would find by going into graveyards or homes of the departed.

It was… such a strange thing to know and realize that this was a reality of my world now. That I would find these Crystallized Concepts if I only knew the right place to look.

There was more than one star though, I could feel smaller ones clumping to it as the connection solidified, the knowledge of ‘magic’ being mine now… while I could feel my ‘heart’ become more. For whatever that meant.

The star finished joining my ‘sky’ and then I was back in the control room, I manage to keep my face straight as Roland stared at me with a worried look on his face. I raise an eyebrow at him.

“You alright? You sorta just… stared at me like I wasn’t even here. Kept calling your name and you weren’t responding.” Ah. So… these visions don’t just happen in my head instantly.

Good to know.

I wave it off while tapping my head with one hand, and making a few hand gestures with the other.

“You got a lot on your mind?” I nod, yeah, that was good enough. He laughs again, that loud one that always made my ears rings. Ugh. Why did he have to be so damn loud? “Well, I think that you’d have to be to finally come round here again! Haven't seen you in what? Three, four years?”

I nod my head after some deliberation. Yeah, that sounded about right.

I spin my ring around my finger, flicking the thing a few times before the holographic screen appears in front of me, and type out a few words.

“I wanna take you up on that job offer.” I type out.

He blinks a few times before I see that little light in his head light up. “Oh! You mean right before you left?” He smiles and I already know what he’s going to ask. “You finally decided that you wanna join up?”
I shake my head. “Just the job. I still don’t want to join.”

He grabs my arm again, eyes going wider while a pathetic frown spreads across his face. “Come ooooon! You’d never have to worry about being alone again! We’re all friendly, I swear!”
I don’t bother hiding my distaste, neither the half-lidded stare that I send his way. I can hear some of the other members around the room laughing at their leader’s antics again.

Ugh, why did I have to be saved by him of all people? Why not some serious spy or something? My ears might have at least been saved from the damage that his voice caused.

The next minute of… plea- oh who am I kidding, he was begging me to stay, were answered with every gesture of no that I could muster, from hand wagging, head shaking, all the way to leaving only my middle finger standing from my hand. I don’t know what the gesture meant, but I’d seen a few humans use it a few times for insults or something. Usually, the other human reacted rather violently.

Instead, Roland merely became more pathetic with his pleading.

Eventually, thankfully, he ceased his prattling, and adopted a far more serious face. One that would have seemed alien on his groveling and begging a moment before, violet eyes steeled and expression like that of cool steel.

“Since you decided to finally come to me instead of just avoiding the building like before, I take it that you haven’t had much luck lately.”

Tch. I click my tongue.

He nods. “Figured that’d be the only reason why you’d finally appear out of the blue. Alright, if we’re going to have business, let’s sit down shall we?” And we did, at a small table down in the common room, the various members in various states of black trying their best to keep their eyes off me, but failing in that regard. Years doing what I did, you learned when to tell you were being watched.

He places down two steaming beverages, a sort of tea that smelled both fragrant and spicy at the same time. One that I didn’t recognize. Probably another new strain that was found.

Spirits knew that there was plenty of this place to still explore, even after so many years of people being stuck here.

“Are you ok with something this hot?” He asked me, eyes going down to my throat and the scar that still remained there after my years of healing.

I nod, expression hardening.

While it couldn’t bring back my voice… medical tech here still managed to make sure that I didn’t feel any pain when eating or drinking anymore.

Or breathing.

Those first few months had been… more than painful.

More than the punishments from disobeying.

I take a tentative sip of the hot beverage, humming in appreciation of the drink, one of the few sounds that my throat could still make.

Even if it sounded scratchy and rusted beyond the wrecked ship at the beach.

“So… what exact work are you looking for?” Roland finally asked after a few moments of silence, the red haired man allowing me those few moments of peace.

I shrug my shoulders and use my hands to gesture outwards, before I quickly shake my head before slicing my finger across my neck.

He looks a bit perturbed by that while I simply chuckle in silence.

He HAD been there after all.

“You’re up for just about everything, as long as it doesn’t require killing?” I nod. He taps a finger to his chin while humming to himself, a few sips done in between. “Well… I do have a lead on something that you would be perfect for. Only problem is… that it happens to be closer to Rokarth territory.”

Dust and ruin.

My displeasure must have shown on my face, because he quickly sighs and splays his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. “Look, I know that it’s bad… but you’re probably the only one better suited to delving into the tunnels, especially compared to us.”

I raise my eyebrow at him. How the hell did he even know about that?

He laughs, this time more of a small roar instead of the booming explosion that it usually was. “Xac, you don’t get to stay independent like you do for so long without getting a reputation for that sorta thing. Especially not if you stay in one place like you do.” I buff out some air through my mouth.

Not like I could go anywhere else on this planet without some Korinth relic thinking that they weren’t on this prison planet with the rest of us. Not with the way that the territories are arranged around here.

“Now, I could offer you some other job, one far with far less danger than this one, but… well, I need the best in this. And you’re the only one that goes as deep as you do into the tunnels. No one else has the balls to try, not even some of my best guys.” He says the last of these words low, violet eyes carefully looking around him, making sure that none of his ‘boys’ heard the disparaging words about them. The truth had a tendency to bruise the egos of the proud after all.

I spin my hand around in the air. ‘Get on with it.’

He inhales, then exhales. “I want you to get in there and help bring some people home.”

I begin to get up when he grabs onto my wrist with an iron like grip.

I glare down at him, surprised to find that steely gaze looking into mine again.

He doesn’t react as my other hand reaches for the hand cannon in my holster, fingers grasping the worn handle, but leaving it sheathed.

I stare down at him, the words ‘Let go.’ written plainly on my face instead of words.

“Listen, I know that you came to me for a job, not the other way around, but if I’m being honest, I was going to start sending out feelers towards you anyway. I NEED for them to come home. Especially with some of the cargo that one of them has.”
I scoff. Any cargo his men were carrying would have been taken by those dusted Rakarth. And I seriously doubt that the new ‘slaves’ weren’t being held somewhere while… ‘training’ was instilled properly.

I shiver at that memory.

This was a suicide mission.

“I wouldn’t be sending you in without anything. You do this, and I can promise you that I’ll outfit you with anything that you would need going in.” He said with an immovable voice. “In exchange… I can promise you that you’ll never have to worry about going hungry. Anything that you want, along with upgrades to any gear that you have. As long as you get him back here, I promise that I will be true to my word.”

And he would. I knew that. There was a reason why anyone that wasn’t a Korinthian, along with the few that managed to retain the weakness of empathy, risked death through the tunnels towards the Northern Hemisphere of the planet.

They knew that it was the only safe haven on this spirits forsaken green ruin.

After all, it was run by a human of all things. The bleeding hearts and weirdos of the galaxy.

There was a reason why a human slave was so… highly sought after.

I rub my face.

I should say no.

I should. It’s the smart thing.

But the deal… anything that I want. Supplies and gear without the need of being tied down to a group.

It was something out of my dreams.

Along with… knowing what was probably happening to those people with the Rokarth’s.

It was a knowledge that held enough shame to tip me over the edge.

Then I remember the little golden band around my wrist.

And I remember the memories and knowledge that came with it. The strange knowledge that concepts were literally on the tip of my fingers.

I relax and Roland lets me go, as I reach down and pluck a little shard off the floor that no one had noticed.

It was a little white thing, no bigger than my finger.

And I could feel the hope emanating from it.

The blasted thing.

I stuff it inside of my pocket, while giving him a huff.

“Fine. Give me all the details that you have.”

I ignore the smile that he sends my way, keeping my expression as imperious as I can keep it.

“But… well, you and I both know that you’re going to have to…” He looks at my throat with a sign of worry.

I wave it away, showing a smile on my face for the first time in this conversation.

It wasn’t a nice one, I knew.

I knew what the Rokarth were. I knew what they did.

It wouldn't make me feel any better… but I prefer to do this evil than nothing at all.

Spoiler: Perks

Crystal Concepts200CPKingdom HeartsMagical Small ScaleYou possess the unusual ability to find tangible concepts, often used in this setting to create items through Synthesis. Nothingness, evil, darkness, light, sadness etc. You can now find distilled physical versions of normally abstract concepts left behind by defeated enemies, or hidden in obscure and hard to reach places. These concepts are typically related to the place or enemies you obtain the from, such as fiery enemies or locales holding Fire Shards, or a lightning dragon dropping a Lightning Crystal. The quality of the item depends on the difficulty of obtaining it, ranging from Shards from weak enemies, up to Stone, Gem, and finally Crystal for the progressively tougher enemies. What you do with them is up to you; they'd make nice jewellery, that's true, but I'm sure you can find a better use for crystallised fire or hope. In jump this means you find significantly more Synthesis ingredients you can either use, or sell.

Magical Potential (Free): In this setting everyone has at least a small pool of magical potential,
measured in Magical Points, or MP, these points power magical spells that can be found and learned in-jump. You are no exception, getting a small pool of MP that adds to whatever other magic you had. Your MP will grow over time, and with use, but non-magicians would need a lot of magic restoring Ethers on hand if they wanted to cast more than a few spells in a row. Magicians have significantly more starting MP and will peak even higher than other backgrounds.

A Heart to Call my Own (Free for everyone, 200CP to keep post jump): In the world of Kingdom Hearts, the Heart takes on a looser conceptual meaning. A Heart is a powerful thing, and enough care and affection, or just general interaction, can lead anything from beings that don’t exist to programs inside a virtual world developing Hearts of their own. You could give emotions to an eldritch monstrosity or an unfeeling robot, a soulless clone or a full blown AI. Post jump this Heart becomes almost synonymous with a ‘soul’, with all the benefits and detriments that implies. The closer the being is to ‘human’ the less time this will take, with someone who is functionally human taking only a few years, while a horror from beyond the stars may take several centuries of close interaction. You can choose to not affect specific beings with this, or to have it only affect certain beings at will, progress however will very slowly reverse if you stop mid-way.

 

I wish that I’d had longer to rest than merely a day or two, but given the severity of where this ‘agent’ had landed… well, time was of the essence. It wasn’t like any of us could choose where we landed on this treasure trove of a ruin after all.

Especially not… most of us that didn’t have much of a choice beforehand.

It was interesting though, that Roland had knowledge of where his agent had landed. Guess there was some credence to him being more just a human that managed to scramble some sort of power in this den of victims, freedom fighters, and criminals.

Not like I really cared about that strange man that insisted on clinging to me like some kind of parasite. I still didn't understand how anyone in their right mind would willingly follow him.

And yet, he managed to build up a Stronghold that wasn’t just a miniature version of the Korinth Empire.

Why was I doing this again? Risking my neck out for some idealist that foolishly thought he could actually do something worthwhile?

Ah right, what was left of my bleeding heart.

Ugh.

At least it came with plenty of gear in exchange.

The shining new Comp-ring was something that I grabbed and swore to never let go. Sorry old friend, but you and I both know that it was only a matter of time until you finally gave out on me.

I still saved the ring back at my place though, in case I should ever need a spare.

That is, if I managed to actually survive this suicide mission.

I let out a huff that echoes oh so loudly in the darkened, cramped former maintenance tunnels that were now forgotten to most; save divers like me.

The darkness that surrounded me was almost… comforting. It reminded me of the quieter moments of my childhood, when I was alone, with no crimson or golden eyes to watch me do their bidding.

No orders or punishments, no having to listen to the screams and pleas of the broken and the enslaved.

Just me and the thoughts that would be mine and mine alone. The one thing that could not be taken from me.

Yet, there were times when I didn’t even want to hear that.

Ugh, I was being noisy in my head again.

Traveling through tunnels that you knew and were safe, was different than traveling through some that were far deeper underground. For one, some of the lights here were still on, though, they lessened with each passing year. Power lines and infrastructure of the former planet sized city finally coming undone after countless years of remaining unmaintained. `

I could only see in front of me thanks to the goggles that Roland had thrown in along with the armor, ring, along with a few extra provisions that were waiting on my back.

On my hip, a new silenced hand canon sat, heavier than my old one, but still packing a better punch.

While most people seemed to gravitate towards the lasers and energy weapons, kinetic damage was something that barriers still couldn’t quite withstand against.

I’d been traveling for a few days already, taking the most well hidden and tarnished tunnels that I could find.

It meant that I had to take the journey far slower than I would if I took some of the more refurbished ones, coupled together with having to hide due to the occasional beast.

But that was far better than getting caught by a Rakarth ‘patrol’. I shivered and rubbed at my neck, the distinct ghost of warm steel pressing against my skin.

No. They would never have me again.

I wouldn’t let them.

I stop as I catch that blank emptiness through the goggles that cut through the darkness.

Walking over to the corner of the vast room, I bend down and pick up a small shard of darkness, the hard crystalline edge cool and inviting in my hands.

It was still… strange to be touching something that was concept given form.

I could… feel it in my hands, thrumming with power that I couldn’t understand quite yet.

Another change since I picked up that golden bracelet in the room.

Another one to add to the pile in my pack. It was good that they didn’t jingle or cause any sound.

If anything, it was like… sound was drowned in their presence. As if the darkness was taking everything into itself.

It would be worrying, if I hadn’t already been used to the darkness of the planet.

If I wasn’t so used to being underneath the very ground, where the light of a star could not reach.

At times, I did find other pieces.

In a room barren of power, but exposed wire and cords, I found small shards of yellow spiking lightning, the power of a small storm contained inside of the tiny shard no bigger than my finger.

Given that it was the third type of stone, I was more than sure there were more of them to find.

Each one felt different to my senses, the very power collected inside seeming to remain dormant just beneath the surface.

It wasn’t quite the same as what I could feel inside myself, but there were similarities.

On my walks, I raised a hand, feeling that power, the magic, that bubbled just below the surface, an impossibility that should have been something from a story that the Korinth told their children while I snooped from the darkened corners that they couldn’t see.

There wasn’t anything that I could really do with it, not when it was so… new.

No matter how much I tried to move it, summon it, or imagined anything happening at the tip of my hands, it simply remained inside me, derelict and asleep. I should find it frustrating, but it wasn’t something that I understood, and as far as I knew, there was no one else on this planet that could, or would, help me.

So, I just found more of the little magical crystals into the bag and continued on my walk, eyes and ears ready for anything out of the ordinary.

Until I recognized the room charred from an explosion, the thin wall that was nothing more than sheets of metal held together by a skeleton of cords and wires.

I grimace.

I was here. Inside their little kingdom that was made as a mockery of ‘honor’ and ‘prestige’. Of course, only for those that had the horns and golden or crimson eyes of the Korinth.

And so, I sat down in one corner of the room, looking at the watch in my hand.

I was going to be here for a few hours before ‘night’ came.

So, I take off the goggles, the dim light above me just enough for me to actually see instead of having to squint, and take out the little stones in my bag.

The bag which would be staying here during my little… escapade.

I spin the little shards in my hand, each one feeling different, the black one cool and hollow, the white seeming to hum against my hand, while the yellow one vibrated against my fingers.

I closed my eyes and slept, the little crystals my companions for the night.

---

I creep quietly through the fire lit halls of the complex, feeling with my fingers along the walls, itching through the gaps and holes inside the sleek metal.

Until I find it.

I do not smile even as triumph fills my heart as I pull ever so slightly, hand on my hand cannon, waiting for the stone to drop.

Thankfully, instead of the creaking metal and whirring of gears, the panel opens with a small click and squeak, reminiscent of those small tailed brown-furred creatures that apparently had come from the human homeworld. The inside of the wall was cramped, but still big enough for me to move through.

Most of the wiring in here was barely more than rusted metal hanging onto each other by barely contained threads, pieces and metal dust littering the floor as I made my way through the interiors of the complex.

It was… going far too easy.

I had no doubt that the entrances and exists were heavily guarded by the best defenses that they could muster. No doubt plenty of guards, with as much firepower that they could muster in their damned hands.

But how often did one consider the insects and vermin that could creep their way through the walls? Through the little gaps that no one knew were even there?

Crawling through the spaces in between the walls was a hassle, a slow one, but one that I did nonetheless.

It was the only way that I knew they wouldn’t be able to see me or find me.

I was good at sneaking, but not good enough to scuttle through the hallways.

No, cramped in a dark place was much more in my capabilities.

I even found a small dark stone paired with a lightning one wedged between a few pipes.

But I was starting to become sidelined.

Eventually, I finally started to hear voices from some of the guards in the hallways.

“You sure about this?” I heard a rough voice say.

“Yeah, damn plant has to be a spy. Sure, the Imperium gets some of them as cargo every now and then, but what are the chances of one getting thrown down here? Especially with the taste.” A reedier one said.

Oh, I was not liking where this was going.

“Sure, but why the hell would those slaves in suits care about this place to even send on their precious plants? It makes more sense that it’s just one that was taken during the raids. It isn’t like one hasn’t been sent here before.”

“Remember that none of them were sent in the middle of our territory? Most of the ones sent here were prisoners of war. The important kind that the slaves in suits would very much care about keeping safe.”
“Hmm, they are almost always sent close to those damn Libertorium slaves.”

“Exactly, now you’re starting to use your head.” The rough voice sounds satisfied at that.

“If that were true though, don’t you think that it would have started spilling its seeds after we took what was owed?”

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“If it was one of those agents? No, even they have wills stronger than that. Still tasty though.”

I press on after that overheard conversation, eager to find this member and get the out of here.
But… if what I heard was right… how was I going to do that through these tunnels?
Something to figure out later. Every second spent here was a second wasted running for my life.

And I would like to keep those seconds as long as possible.

Wandering around the walls was a quiet and tense thing, having to stop every time that I heard the heavy steps of boots, and the shifting of weapons and gear, learning to move with the sound of their footsteps so as to mask my own sound.

It was the longest hour of my life, for each second felt like months while I moved to the beat of these bored guards.

Even hearing the occasional gossip between these monsters didn’t help matters.

“How much ground have we lost so far?”

“Don’t know, but it was more than the last attack from those hornless thin skins.”

“Dust them. If only we had the power of the Imperium behind us to put them in their place.”

“Hard to do that when the Imperium are the ones that stranded us here in the first place.”

“What are the Silver Wings doing?”

“The birds have been taking our convoy’s every chance that they get above ground. And the tunnels beneath the earth haven’t been much help either. Not when our caravans keep getting destroyed with no word reaching back to us.”

On and on it went, more and more words reaching my ears as I used their conversations as cover to make my way through the cramped crevices, using them to help me navigate through this maze of rusted metal and dust.

Until I finally found the door.

It was the only door that was constantly under guard, with neither of the two Korinthians budging an inch, their eyes staring straight ahead, weapons ready to shift and fire at a moment’s notice.

The only problem was… I had run out of wall to use, the room that they were guarding completely cut off from my little passage.

Now how was I going to do this?

I could shoot them.

But that would leave two corpses here for the rest to find eventually. Which as giving me limited time.

Pro. I would get rid of two of the unknown army that were the Korinthians.

Con. Chance of being found on my way back.

When you lost someone in the group, there was a higher chance that you’d look in places that you hadn’t before. And the chances of them finding the tunnels was… unfavorable.

Though, there was always the chance that they would find it eventually regardless.

I needed them gone.

And I didn’t really have any other options.

None that didn’t result in me being found out right here and now.

I slowly pull my weapon out, free hand running along the inner workings of the wall of steel and composite inner lining, finding the release hatch and pull.

The door opens with the same silence as the other one, somehow defiant of its age and disrepair, as I step out into the hallway, inching along it towards the corner where the two guards waited at the end.

I don’t peek over, knowing that if I did, they would see me in the crackling light of flames.

Right, caution to the winds.

I want to say it was graceful, and I managed to get two headshots.

I was most definitely not.

I fumbled my first shot, the bullet hitting the Korinthain’s mouth, shattering his jaw, while the second one missed entirely.

Oh. Shit.

The first one just tumbles backward, slamming into the wall, a wail releasing from his jawless mouth, while the second one raises his boxy laser rifle, red energy pulsing to life on the barrel.

I fire again, and again, one shot managing to punch into his gut, right through one of the gaps in his armor, while the other hits his shoulder, sending him spiraling back.

I wish that I had intended to hit him there.

The one missing his jaw was currently in shock, body shaking as blood leaked in rivers down his body onto the dusted steel floor, while his companion was already unconscious.

I would remember the eyes that they gave me. The way that their crimson gazes looked so… afraid.

They were dying. They knew it. And they were afraid.

A part of me thought “Good.” Another… couldn’t help but hurt at knowing that I was the one that caused those looks.

I don't look at them anymore, stepping past them, taking the remaining rifle from the jawless one, his twitches becoming less with every passing second.

The door was less of a problem, one of them had the key after all.

Then… all guilt that I’d been feeling was gone like dust flowing in the wind.

Inside was a… head and torso made of wood and glowing green light.

The wood was a purple bark, each ‘root’ of its body twisting and curving into itself, as if it was all one constant stream of wood that managed to somehow mold itself into a single shape, with the ends coalescing into long ‘horns’ on it’s head that reached up to the sky.

There were spots on its head that… glowed. The gaps between the roots seeming to be eyes that stared at me with green light.

And where it’s arms and legs should be… were only stumps.

The ends dry with pale green liquid that reminded me of blood.

“You’re human.” The voice of ancient trees spoke to me, quiet, yet loud enough that I knew I could hear it even if I was at the end of the hallway. “Roland sent you.” It wasn’t a question.

I nod my head, looking back behind me, knowing that it would only be moments before this area was swarmed with more of the Rokarthians. I tap my wrist, the way that humans do when they were trying to give some sort of signal for time.

“No, we do not. Not after the horned one screamed as it did.” Its voice was gentle in my ears. Like the rustle of leaves on a quiet day. “The question is, how are you going to get me away from here? I… don’t have the capability to reach our destination as I am now.”

There was… shame in his voice. Deep shame that I could feel in my bones.

How could something be so expressive when it didn’t even have a face.

I move, to pick it… him? I’m going with him - up, blinking at just how… light he was.

I give him an apologetic look as I grab some rope that I had brought along with me, you never went on a trip without it, and began to tie it around the limbless alien, ready to fasten him to my back.

When I heard the sound of a powering whine.

Turning, I find an artilleries worth of barrels… pointed right at me, each one glowing with red light.

I was going to die.

I knew it.

So… I raised my head high, my back straight, and stared at the crimson and golden eyes that stared at me with hatred.

It paled in comparison to what I felt inside my own chest. And I spit at them knowing that my end was coming, wishing, pulling, hoping that the power inside me would finally do something.

I felt the stir inside my body, point a hand outward… and saw a bolt of arcing lightning lance through the air, catching one of them in the chest.

Too bad there was more than just one of them.

The last thing that I heard was the discharge of laser fire, the smell of burnt meat reaching my nose, and the distinct feeling that I was screaming.

Then I felt something else connect.

And I was lost in the sea of stars again, watching as a new star connected to my sky.

Even as the life faded from my body, I felt something… surge. A new power that wasn’t like the magic that flowed through my body.

It was… Light.

I felt as my body stitched itself back together, causality itself rearranging itself as my essence was remade with Light.

I gasped, as I was brought back from death. Not the brink of it. No, I had truly died.

There was no other explanation for that moment when I simply felt… nothing. Just an endless void of darkness that threatened to swallow everything that I was whole.

And I return, body scrambling to my feet, staring at the bewildered expression of the Korinthians in front of me, weapons drooping toward the ground, as if they could barely hang on to their weapons amidst the shock.

My body moves, faster than it had before, extending with the steadiness of stone as I loosened a round into the head of a black horned yellow skinned Korinthain, his body slumping to the floor before I shot the one next to him too in less than a second.

That was all that I did before they lit me up once again.

And I came back. The flashing of light seeming to come from the ceiling as I rose from the grave again and again, their onslaught unable to keep me from taking at least one or two of them with me.

I wasn’t even doing it consciously anymore. No. I just moved, my mind blank, body moving without the barest hint of intelligence. Merely primal instinct that I’d never had before.

Yet, it came so naturally. As if I had been born to do it. Or more accurately, died for it.

Eventually, after uncountable deaths, of feeling the very flesh and bones being turned into bare ash and dust, anguishing in the pain of knowing that I should be dead, I stood there. The last man standing amidst the corpses of the Korinthians.

“Well… that was something.” The rustling of leaves said from behind me, the plant alien seeming to have survived the encounter, though I could see that parts of its torso were burned and smoldering.

How durable was he?

Like I was one to talk.

I still couldn’t properly process what had just happened.

I was supposed to be dead. The life that was mine destined to end here.

Yet I lived.

I lived again and again and again. Death unable to take me.

Oh, the irony. It was enough to make one weep from the laughter.

“Are you alright Guardian?” A chipper optimistic voice said, the edges of the sound seeming… synthetic. As if they were spoken from a speaker instead of a body.

And I was right. Floating down from the ceiling, was a strange orb? Cube? It seemed to imitate an orb, but was made up of various triangles of steel, each one interlocked around a single glowing blue eye that seemed to regard me… familiarity. Like the way that Roland did.

I blink and point a finger at my face with a raised eyebrow. Me?

“Well, of course! You are my Guardian after all! And I am your ghost.” He said them as if they were the simplest things in the world.

Who knew? maybe they were and I was just slow on the uptake. I still hadn’t processed everything that had happened properly.

“Now, I know that what happened just now was fantastical… but don’t you think that it would be preferable if we fled before more of these… scoundrels arrived?” The plant alien said on the floor, head slowly rising up.

I nod. No point in… doing that all over again.

I manage to keep myself from retching. Even though it’s all that I wanted to do right now.

“Oh no!” The… Ghost, said as it floated over to the green glowing wood, light exuding from its eyes as it scanned the wounded person. “You have been severely wounded! Though… interesting. It seems that… you’re already healing from the damage.”

“What can I say? We Nu-Baol are sturdy folks… even if we might be a tad… delicious.” the last word was said with such convicted hatred that I felt the hairs stand at the back of my neck.

“Guardian, we have to get him somewhere safe!” Ugh, I knew that already.

With a huff, knowing that I was going to have to deal with the little robots… cheerfulness, I grab onto the Nu-Baol, and put him on my back, moving down the hallway towards my little tunnel. It would be cramped, but I could do it.

I didn’t want to get caught out in the hallway again… I didn’t want to burn like that again.

“Right, what’s your name?” The little Ghost asked the damaged tree.

“Jackson. Veranda Jackson.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Veranda!” For once, I was in agreement with the floating bot.

Spoiler: Authors Note

Alright, and here we are. Another chapter, and yes, I added some Destiny stuff into the Forge. Sue me. It seems cheap compared to having to get rid of most Xianxia crap along with Monster Girl and Lords of the Night. Hell, Exalted might go on the chopping block next. Anyways, I am quite enjoying this, especially because how different Xac is compared to Mia and Will, even if they happen to share some similarities.

Spoiler: Perks

Shipwright 200CP Destiny My Added Stuff Guardians mostly take their vehicles for granted- their sparrows are a convenience, their ships a dime a dozen, only appreciating them for the flash and flair. You, though, can hear the heartbeat in their engines, and are fully aware of just how much difference the right transportation makes in a Guardian's life. You know the ins and outs of jumpships and hoverbikes like the back of your hand, and may give Amanda Holliday a run for her money. You can certainly rig up a stealth drive onto an old hive-grunge-encrusted ship properly. ...Right?

The Light Free Destiny My Added Stuff Guardians are defined by the powers of the Light. Upon entering this world, you gain the powers of one of the subclasses available to your Class, though you may choose freely between the options from Destiny 2 instead of the original versions. The full powers will take some training to unlock, but the same training can open the other subclasses from both games with time, and by the end of your decade you will easily have mastered your new powers. At the very least, you have significantly enhanced strength, endurance, and agility, with energy shielding to further protect you against harm; most notably, the Light is known for its Paracausal nature, making you an anomaly to analytical simulations or erasure from reality, difficult to fully grasp and encapsulate. This is by no means unbreakable protection, of course, but you are an annoyance to forces who rely on such methods.

We Found A Weapon Free Destiny My Added Stuff Guardians are warriors, first and foremost. As fitting one, you become proficient with all manner of firearms and weaponry that a Guardian will need. You can effectively use the many Auto Rifles, Sidearms, Swords, and other types of weaponry that you may find both within the Destiny world and elsewhere.

Ghost (Free, Mandatory)
This is the first thing you see in this world- your constant companion, opener of doors, and indispensable white mage, the Ghost. While an intelligent being, the Ghost's nature allows them to count as an Item rather than a Companion, but like a Companion you can freely determine their personality and voice, including Nolanbot or Dinklebot if you so wish. They respawn in the same manner as Companions. Your Ghost is a floating supercomputer, capable of interfacing with almost any technology regardless of how outdated or alien, and hacking through formidable
firewalls to grant access. Far more important, however, is their ability to greatly accelerate your healing — even from death. While this is a powerful boon, they are not without limit; both their own Light and your spirit can be strained from too many resurrections in too short of time, and places of intense darkness can stifle your Ghost's power, making it necessary for another Guardian to add their Light. Further, methods exist to snuff out your Light beyond a Ghost's power to aid, and the darkest foes will not hesitate to use them. Lastly, your Ghost is not
invulnerable. While they are armored and resilient, enough directed or exotic energy can destroy them and leave you helpless, and while Companionship gives them hope for revival, you still have to last until they come back.

 

Roland

He always hated the waiting.

Ever since he was a kid so many years ago on Earth.

It was the waiting that made most people go crazy. The waiting to hear news of something that you couldn’t do anything about.

Sure, he could have sent some men with the man, but that would have added to the risk. There was a reason why Divers didn’t work with others when diving in. The more people there were, the higher chance that one of the dinosaur-bird things managed to catch your scent.

He’d heard plenty of good men go out that way. Well, they weren’t really ‘men’, humans were a rarity on this planet, but you get the idea.

If they could think, feel, and love, then they were as good as Human in Roland's eyes. As was the way that he was taught since he was nothing more than a boy.

Xaceron. A former slave that managed to save his life.

He owed him for that. It was something that Roland felt he was going to be repaying for the rest of his life.

Yet he was stuck in the unfortunate position of having to send that same man to his demise. As if he wasn’t already guilty enough for that scar around Xac’s neck.

Still… Roland wished that he would have let him help him in other ways before this.

But no, the brown skinned man insisted on remaining on his own, cut off from any group or organization, preferring to work alone. It was… an impulse that he could understand given the circumstances. Even if they were annoying as fuck.

Regardless… the mission came first.

It was the whole reason why he was sent here in the first place. The Korinthians made sure to keep their borders as closed off as possible, the only things entering their space being raiding parties- ahem, “rebel pirates” that flooded the slave market with abducted colonists.

Just thinking it was enough to make him want to hit something. But he doesn’t. He hadn’t acted out of character since he landed on this ruin.

Would be nice to have an actual scientist here… but the chances of that were slim.

Most people sent here weren’t the type to be able to make sense of the technology at their feet and in the walls.

No, the Korinthians weren’t that foolish. They were dumb enough to turn a ruined Eco-Arcology planet into a penal colony, but weren’t dumb enough to give them anyone that could actually make use of it.

Even now, every person on this planet was little more than a scavenger trying to somehow manage to build something. The fact that the planet has been a penal world for a good 100ish years didn’t help matters.

There were people that had never even known a world that wasn’t this one.

Progress was made yes, but you could only do so much when most of the people here were convicted prisoners, former slaves, and freedom fighters that didn’t manage to get away.

And they were being used as bait and guinea pigs. He knew that the ship waiting out in orbit to bombard the planet should anyone manage to get a working ship doubled as a satellite. Watching them.

Recording their progress, and waiting to deem when would be the perfect time to… ‘recover’ any progress that was made.

A cheap solution that wouldn’t require them losing any of their precious Korinthians.

Damn Necrophage parasites.

He sighs as he tips his bottle back and drowns the entire Yarrowreach brew. One of those dolphin folk had actually been a brewer slave back before he managed to find his way here. A bit… strange, an aftertaste that he could swear was seaweed at the back of his throat, compared to human alcohol.

But it was all that they had.

And he needed the drink as he stared at his other headache. The map of the surface… wasn’t looking good.

The Rokarth had always been strong, but their taking of the other strongholds surrounding them was… a deep blow.

If it wasn’t for the survivors fleeing for survival, and the fact they had nowhere else to really go, they had gotten plenty of warning of the coming storm.

And now… they were surrounded.

To the East was the ocean, the one part of the planet that no one wanted to explore. Not after the… things that they had seen swimming deeper into the sea. To the south had been the Sunriders, a group of Korinthian led renegades that still believed in Korinthian superiority, just… less extreme than the current regime off-planet.

Roland didn’t know how the hell the Rokarthians managed to get a victory over them, especially not so quickly without a single word reaching them, but that meant that the uncaring ally was gone… and the Rokarthians could now focus on them.

And Roland knew that he didn’t have the men to stand against the bulwark.

Nor the resources or weapons.

At this rate, the only way that they might survive would be going deeper into the tunnels, further underground towards the more ancient parts of the planet.

Meaning closer to the beast that their weaponry couldn’t do anything again.

It was like fighting a bulletproof rhino with claws and sharpened teeth. And all the lasers did was burn patches of black on their armor-like skin.

It would be a slower death than fighting to end up here. They might be able to survive a few more days. Perhaps lure some small patrols down with them towards their doom.

None of them would ever see that, though.

Why did there have to be kids here? Maybe then Roland wouldn’t have so much to drink about. Or at least, a lot less.

He takes another swig, grunting at the burn in his throat when the door opens.

And he gets the first bit of good news that he’d received in weeks.

Xac strides through the door, his dark and thin features as stoic as always, his auburn hair seeming to be… singed in a few spots.

Strapped to his back, by a constant knot of rope, was his old friend.

“I owe you sixty credits Roland.” Veranda said, the Nu-Baol’s voice shrouded in amusement, trying to hide the deep pain.

And Roland wanted nothing more than to stare into the terrified crimson eyes of the Rokarthians as he tore them limb from limb with his mind, the purple sparks rolling off of him as he relied on the power of his mind.

He shoved that away with practiced ease.

A psychic that gave into their emotions too easily had a tendency to die young. And Roland was old as fuck.

He puts the smile on his face easily, the stern spymaster once again in the closet as he took Xac into his arms, the 30ish man obviously displeased.

Roland couldn’t help as he whispered into the man's ear. “Thank you for saving him.”

He kept it low enough that only Xac could hear it, Gods know that if Veranda heard him, he would never hear the end of it from his oldest friend.

“Don’t you worry about those credits, Veranda! You’re going to need them if we’re going to have any chance of healing those arms and legs of yours.”

“Just give me some water and sunlight. I’m all-natural after all.” The plantoid rolls the r’s with practiced ease as he is placed on a couch, the head of roots and biolight resting onto the pillow with exhaustion and stress finally catching up.

“Is he going to be alright?” Roland blinks at the unfamiliar, and chipper voice.

Turning around, he finds a… floating ball of metal triangles staring at him with one blue eye.

Roland blinks. Dumfounded.

“Do I have something on my shell?” The orb says as its… limbs?- disconnect from the greater whole, an orb of hazy light seeming to keep it floating aloft as the blue eye inspected itself.

He looks back to Xac and while his face hasn’t changed, Roland can still feel the irritation coming off him in waves.

“Uh…and you are?”

“Oh, sorry, guess you’ve never seen one of me before huh? I’m a Ghost. This Guardian’s ghost to be exact.” The ghost said with cheerful optimism as Xac very much looks like he wants nothing more than to leave this room.

Roland had a feeling that the communicator that Veranda smuggled was going to have to wait for a little while.

Spoiler: Authors Note

So... surprise. Wrote this up this morning when I couldn't fall asleep and knew that it was good where it was. Now, there should be enough clues for what setting this is for those that know it. And for those that don't, I'll give you a hint. Rather, two. It's a game, and it's in the Forge.

 

Waking up in my own bed was… nice.

Safe.

A feeling that was all too fleeting in the world that I lived in.

More so given that I rarely, if ever, had enough food, gear or credits to live in relative safety.

None of who applied to anymore.

I walk over, and rip open the metal blinds that seemed to bend like regular cloth, and look out over the skyline of the city as the star Rakerath rose to meet the new day.

I… don’t remember when was the last time that I watched a sunrise. It was… nice.

“Good morning Guardian!” And there went my good mood.

I somehow manage not to groan as I turn to the floating orb that was far too cheerful for something his size. Seriously, he didn’t even have any limbs either.

Must you be this cheery in the morning?

“Well, no, but what else would I be? Better to just enjoy life, don’t you think?” Ugh, I hated that it made a bit of sense. Still wasn’t going to change my grumpiness, though.

We found that he could understand things if I thought them at him. Which was both a positive and a negative. On the one hand, it was… nice to finally be able to talk with someone after having to learn how to convey things through gestures and the ring.

On the other… it made insulting him in my head harder since he could hear it.

“Now, now, none of that!” Ghost said as he zoomed around my apartment, turning the lights on while he was at it as he flew out of my room towards the kitchen.

I groaned in my bed, an actual one that I managed to find during a dive into the ruins. You would be surprised just how many rooms and buildings worth of places were perfectly pressurized and preserved, even millions of years afterward.

Made the curiosity that I had stuffed into a cage so long ago rampant to know.

A shame that I had as much chance of learning anything here as any other prisoner.

The smell of boiled vegetables and the cooking of eggs reach my nose.

Are you cooking right now? I ask in my head.

“Of course! Even if you’re a Guardian now, you still need to eat. Not much that I can do about that.”

Hmm, good to know, then.

A bit… ironic really. Dying seemed to be no problem, but food and sustenance seems to be the issue.

As if reassembling me molecule by molecule in a flash of glowing white Light was a simple matter. Even as I kept dying.

Over.

And over.

And over.

And over again. Lost in pain as bolts of light tore through my shoulder, neck, lungs, limbs, head.

Feeling as all thought left my brain, the only thing left behind the pain that seemed to blind me to any other form of thought.

A mercy, given that my body going on autopilot seemed to be the thing that finally made everything stop!

I felt something… connect again.

Another star that shined with greater strength than any of the other stars that joined my sky. I watched as the path between constellations solidified, as it travelled through the emptiness between reality itself.

And had to bite my tongue to keep me from screaming as my very nerves seemed to be doused in propulsion flames!

Everything that I could feel, from my toes to my brain, seemed to scream in agony as I managed to keep my voice contained, hands clenching onto the white cloth that made up my bedsheets.

Until eventually… the pain was gone.

The agonizing torture seems to leave my body, the nerves that had felt as if they were being torn apart by lightning dying down to a subtle numbness that felt like heavenly bliss.

“Everything alright Guardian?” Ghost said from the kitchen, the smells absolutely mouthwatering at this point.

I quickly get up, grabbing the book that had… just appeared next to me on my bed, strange symbols written on the front that I… somehow understood.

Sitting down, I shovel the eggs and meat that Ghost served, sending him a quick thanks, while I started flipping through the book.

Compared to the burning I had felt earlier, this was a dreamful escape.

“What do you have there?” Ghost asked.

Some book that appeared out of nowhere.

Blue light scans the book, before Ghost decides to scan him too.

“Hmm, interesting. It seems that you… received yet another change from these… stars that you see.”

Oh really, I don’t think that I noticed. I love that sarcasm was more of truth instead on an insinuation when I communicated like this.

He smacked me upside the head with a spoon and I throw him a glare.

“There is no need to be rude when I am just helping you out.” How could he pout? He didn’t even have a face!

I don’t say anything, just rub the back of my head with a free hand when blue light emanates from Ghost and… the dull ache disappears.

I blink.

What was that?

“You don’t have to die for me to give you a little pick me up. I do need to concentrate to make it happen, but I can heal you.” That… was a lot better than I thought it would be.

Finishing breakfast, I stand up and walk to my gear.

Every single piece that Roland had given me for my expedition into Rokarth territory. Plus all the Energy Credits that I could possibly want.

I finally had that new ring that I wanted. I finally upgraded all of my gear. I… had everything that I needed, and then some.

So that bore the question.

What was I going to do now?

I sat down with a thump, staring out the window as the sun rose.

Apparently, Ghost sense my thoughts, because he floated over to me and hung by my head, eye gazing into the distance alongside me.

As I stared out over into the tree wrapped curved skyscrapers that stretched into the heavens… I started to wonder what it would look like to have ships fly across the sky. How much propulsion would they have to be under in order to escape the earth’s orbit?

How fast would they have to go for them to maybe outrun the fleet that was up above us? Would take some tricky piloting, along with maybe overclocking the engines, something that shouldn’t be too hard. Not like any of them had a slipping drive that they could use like those I could make.

That is, if they could even see me if I managed to make a stealth drive strong enough to fool their sensors. Fat chance of them hitting me at that point. If I even got close enough for them to get a look at me through a window, it would be far too late.

Something that I scrap up.

Not like I didn’t have plenty of scraps that I could use on this planet.

Then I blink.

Wait.

How did I know all of that?

It hits me when I… ‘look’ at my sky inside myself. No, still makes me sound mad.

And I notice the star that came with this… Light.

The star bloomed and pulsed with thoughts and ideas of movement. Of being able to create personal ships and vehicles that could traverse through the tunnels underneath our feet and across the city streets.

I look at the book that read “Jutsu Training Log” and review the ideas and diagrams that were bubbling around in my head.

I grab the book, and head towards my gear.

Guess I’m going spelunking underground for a little bit.

---

The book was… interesting.

A lot of terms like ‘chakra’ and different alignments that I… was still having some issue dealing with.

Different than the magic I could feel inside of myself, along with the… Light that was now part of me. Though… the LIght seemed to come from Ghost instead of myself.

“Think of it this way, I’m your connection to the Traveler, while you are the actual instrument that releases it. The way that a speaker is connected to a power source.” Hmm… a very apt way to describe. Speakers are rare here nowadays. Same for long-distance communication.

…. Why was I getting ideas on how to fix that? What did building jumpships and sparrows have with communication?

Something to think about for later.

“You know, you are certainly taking all of this fairly well so far.” Ghost commented from… inside of me. Which was something that he could apparently do… somehow.

I had more pressing matters to focus on right now.

I would much rather just work through it than lose my mind over the impossibilities that are happening to me. I told him.

“...So you’re repressing them then?” I didn’t like the way that sounded.

What does that mean?

“...It means that you’re trying to ignore the emotions that you’re feeling in an effort to get over them. I have found that, that method rarely ever works. All it does is delay the inevitable breaking of the metaphorical damn.”
Well, it has worked so far for me.

“Doesn’t mean that it always will. It isn’t healthy.”

Neither is diving deep into these tunnels like this, but I do it anyway.

“It isn’t like there are that many things that you have to worry about down here. Not with what the Light can offer you.”

Yes, being reassembled over and over again from death seems to have its uses. Perhaps enough that I won’t have to do it that often. I hold back the shiver that runs down my spine at the memory of burning nerves and the smell of cooked flesh.

“Oh, that is not all that you can do! It is something that takes most Guardians time to learn however. Perhaps one day you will learn how to harness the gifts being a Titan grants you?”

I still don’t understand how this… Traveler chose me from a different universe. Especially not when I’ve never been on a Human Colony, let alone the Homeworld.

“That… is something that I myself don’t understand either. All I know, is that I woke up here and knew deep down that you are my Guardian. That is all that I needed honestly.”

Then perhaps your Traveler made some sort of mistake.

“Never. We Ghosts were made for the sole purpose of finding our Guardian in order to defend humanity.”

Yeah, well I doubt that’s why you decided on me.

“And I hope to see the day that you’re proved wrong.”

Cheeky little bastard.

“And you’re a rude man that needs a little joy in his life.” The Ghost quips back.

Joy is what you make of it, and I made dust. Is my response as we delve deeper into the tunnels.

Finding the most… secure of my hide holes isn’t too hard.
Just a two day trek down the tunnels, along with some salvaging along the way.

Must say, having that key has truly made things… interesting. Even if there was currently limited space in the small void of white space.

Though, there was a new… charm that jingled on the golden bracelet around my wrist.

Something that Ghost called a ‘shipwrights multitool’. Apparently something that the experts of humanity used to fix up their ships when they didn’t have access to a warehouse or proper machinery.

I even knew what everything did, from the welder attached, to the tiny pliers made for delicate adjustments, usually to the onboard navigation system.

Not sure how that system is going to work, given that… the ones I was familiar with were created with the intention of traversing a single solar system, and not the galaxy at large. Especially since I… didn’t know where the planet Refuse was located in the Galaxy. I didn’t even know how big the Korinth Imperium was.

All that I knew, was that the Horde was one neighbor, with the Reviled Raiders on another end, the habitat living pirates somehow managing to repel any attack sent their way, the only other space lane leading to a Black Hole.

I’d heard… him complain about it on some nights when I couldn’t quite force myself to ignore everything around me.

I didn’t exactly have time to go looking through maps before I arrived here.

Arriving at my main hideout was a quiet thing.

Going through a few maintenance passages that were winding roads that circled around, before climbing into the roof of an old… clinic I think. Those were microscopes right?

Most of the equipment was beyond degraded, a wall having been caved inwards by… something.

Looking at the scrap left behind though… I could see certain parts that I might be able to wrangle up into something useful. Pretty sure I saw some hardware and motherboards scattered across the floor.

Huh… i didn’t even know what a motherboard was yesterday. Or what…any of those parts that now stuck out like gold in the sun to my mind's eye.

… Why did I think of gold? Gold had never been valuable to me, or any Korinthian that I interacted with.

In the attic, I set the bolt back of the floors entrance back in place, bringing the small book with… kaji, written neatly at the front.

“So, we’re going to start on this first? Sure that the ship shouldn’t be your first priority?”

Might be, regardless, that is going to take… probably months to build. Especially since I’m going to have to write the software from scratch, along with the jump system. Sure, I’m sitting on a goldmine of technology, with even the walls being useful if I can manage to get some without the room caving in on me, but… most of this is beyond anything that I know.

“And, in the immediate, you’re more worried about having to survive until you can actually make anything.” Ghost finished for me, following my train of thought.

It annoyed me.

Yes. And as far as I can tell… this chakra stuff isn’t native to this universe.

“Same goes to the one where I hail from. It isn’t Light, not really. It feels… different. More.. human than that.”
Hmm, now was that a good thing or a bad thing?
Reading through the journal was… enlightening.

The strange new energy that flowed through me wasn’t magic, like the other sensation that I had used, nor was it this Light. It was something called chakra. Something that was existed both on the physical as well as the spiritual plane.

Were it not for my… subsequent deaths earlier, I might have doubted that any of this was real.

But, I didn’t have the luxury of denial right now. Not when I had a floating robot that could read my thoughts, or apparently being close to unkillable now. Or rather, I would come back from most deaths.

So long as I wished to. That part was important, according to Ghost.

After dying more times than I can count in the span of… I don’t even know how long, I could understand why some would wish to just… remain dead.

What would be the point in coming back if it’s only to more suffering? If you merely died the moment that you regained your faculties?

I shivered at that. Would that be my fate one day?

Perhaps I should just focus on the fact that Death is now… more like a possibility instead of an inevitability.

Aging was also something that would remain… ever gone from my future.

There was a chance that I would be able to actually learn these secretes and arcane abilities that seemed to come from the bracelet.

“You know, I was doing some scans on those bits of crystal that we found on our way here.” I look up from the small booklet, having arrived at the various different hand seals for something called an “Earth Style” Jutsu. Something that involved turning the earth into spears.

I raise an eyebrow at him. Gesturing at him to go on with a hand.

“While they aren’t exactly like the Light, there is some similarities to them.” Ghost flies up a little higher, creating a hologram of the three different shards that I had managed to find so far on my little journeys through the tunnels. “Both seem to be concepts, facts of life that seem to bend the world around them.”

“And yet, that stone is just that at the same time. A sliver of stone that simply… exists. No way of knowing where it came from, or how it was conceived. Merely a universal fact that it had always been here.”

I pull out the shard of black in my hand, the edges of the crystal seeming to darken the world around it, Ghost staring at it with clear disdain and revulsion.

“And while… this isn’t like the Darkness, it does… bring bad memories.” Given what he told me occurred on his ‘Earth’ and the humanity that he fought for I could understand his disdain for anything that reminded him of it.

Even if I couldn’t bring myself to care as much as he seemed to.

Bringing out the shard of yellow, feeling the contained crackle of sparks that lingered inside of it, I reach into the concept, feeling for that same rush that I had felt during the fight in the Rokarth complex..

I open a palm, focusing, feeling the call of lightning that had been given form and concept in the shard in my other hand, and pull.

Instead of firing off a bolt of lightning, rays of pale blue lightning crackled in my hand, a small storm that remained contained.

Ghost quickly scanned the ball of lightning I held in my hand, his cheery voice humming in thought as he scanned the dimmer shard in my other hand.

“Interesting. It seems that you’re… using the shard as a type of battery. Or rather, channeling it’s energy into something else.”

I close my fist, the crackles of electricity dying away as I tumbled the shard through my fingers, examining it with new eyes.

“So I’m using it as a type of catalyst?”

“It would appear so. That brings into question what the other shards would do. Though-” The little sphere-like robot glares at the black shard that I had placed back into my pocket. “-I heavily disagree on even keeping that thing.” For once, his voice was lacking any of his usual cheerfulness and optimism, disgust practically radiating from the little bot.

I shrug, but don’t agree one way or the other.

Since we’re here… might as well get started.

I twist the ring in my hand, and bring out the holographic screen in front of my eyes, fingers twitching as ideas that were at once refreshingly new, and nostalgic old fluttered through my mind.

And with a free hand, I began to design jumpships that the universe has never seen before.

---

I knew that something was… off when I walked through a disturbed corridor that only I knew about.

It wasn’t much of an alarm system, only a few bottles and patches of debris that I knew to avoid when passing through here.

“I’m sensing a few life signatures a few yards down the corridor.” Ghost said to me from within my body.

Anything else that you can sense? I ask.

“A few energy weapons, but not much else other than that. It’s a small group, less than five of them.”

Hmm.

I didn’t like the thought of people going through the passageways that I thought only I knew.

Call it territorial, but I preferred knowing that the paths I walked were free from others trespassing. It helped me sleep at night whenever I had to travel through them. I already had to worry about the off chance of those beasts finding me, having to worry about other people was not something that I enjoyed.

It doesn’t take me long to sneak toward the group of people. I hear them before I see them.

“Are you sure that this is the correct way?” A strained and high-pitched voice said.

“I am not completely certain. What maps we had stored away weren’t as detailed as I would have liked, but this is the only path forward that hasn’t ended in a dead end quiet yet.” Another voice, this one more feminine than the other responded.

“Well… it isn’t as if we can really turn back at this point. Not if you don’t want to join me in those chains.”

“We both know that the chances of them taking us alive are but dust in the wind. Especially me, after what I did.”
There was a harsh high cry, and I realize that it was a laugh coming from one of the three figures. “Yeah, especially given the… lesson that you gave the commander before we left.”

“Didn’t slow them down from coming after us. Even if I think we might have lost them in this damned maze of a planet.” The feminine voice sighs out. “This is all moot if the only thing waiting for us is another death.”

“You know that the Libertorium are headed by a Human. While they are… erratic, they are far more… xenophilic compared to your own culture.”

“Meaning that your race and theirs get along so well.” There was some… bitterness in the voice. Though, exactly why I couldn’t tell.

“You could say that.”

“Does that mean that you’ve been to a human colony?” She asked.

“No, I was taken before I had the chance. Though, my family had been planning on visiting this world they named, “Elysium”... They never had the chance to see it.”

“Maybe you could one day?” The female voice said softly, soft enough that I wouldn’t have heard it if not for the enhanced sense that I had gained within the past few days.

Another high pitched laugh, though, this time it was tinged with ironic derision. “We both know that anyone sent to this planet never get’s off. Never.”

The three figures lapse in silence again, voices echoing as I approached them from the seemingly endless hallway.

Then one began to speak again. It was the female again. “Regardless, we both know that Humans aren’t… fond of my species. Especially not one of those psionics.”

“He won’t kill you. Not if he’s a stronger one. No need to when he can just read your mind.”

That… was not something that I knew about Roland.

Part of my brain wanted to deny it with my entire existence. That pathetic fool? The same one that seemed to whine like a child when he didn’t get his way?

Then again… if he knew that his attitude irritated me…

Oh, I was going to flay that idiot with lightning the next time I see him.

Approaching, I can finally make out the figures huddled together in the dim light.

And I slowly raise the hand cannon at my waist when I see the horns on one of them.

The only reason that I don’t shoot is that it’s not only the Korinthian standing there.

To the side of the blue-skinned horned female, was a… well, only way to say it, a floating rock creature. It didn’t have limbs of any kind, instead, it was three pieces of orange stone that seemed to glisten in the dim light of their lantern, its torso being the largest piece, easily the size of my own body, with misshapen columns of stone that jutted into the air. In the center, towards the top, green crystals glowed in the darkened light, while the two orbs of rock on either side seemed to fidget and twitch in the air.

At least the one next to it was far more… normal. But I had seen plenty of Yarrowreachers before. Like the rest of his race, they had an oceanic preference, the slick gray body covered in ragged robes that looked l like they had been through a battlefield. His rounded head had bruises over his grey skin, his elongated mouth being the only spot that didn’t look injured one bit.

Now that my surprise had been shuffled away, they all look like they had just escaped forms something.

The rock creature had various chipped pieces of stone, black liquid seeming to be imprinted on the stone orbs that floated on either side, while the Korinthian bled a black substance from the various small cuts on her lips and hands. And she was using the wall as support, her right leg bandaged and bleeding.

I have to resist the urge to put a bullet into her head.

The only reason why I didn’t do it right away was due to the big rock turning toward me, the small orbs floating up higher, his green… eyes staring right into my eyes.

“Who goes there!?” A voice that sounds like rumbling gravel echoes through the corridor, both the Korinthian and Yarrowreacher raising energy weapons towards me.

The corridor shines with blue light, Ghost appearing in the air with his cerulean glow, blue eye shining on the three aliens like an otherworldly shine.

“Hello! We mean you no harm! Would you all like some help with those wounds?” I stare at the floating orb, my mouth hanging open and desperately wanting to grab the damn thing and shove it back into my soul, or wherever in the dusted hells he went.

The three aliens were doing the same thing, staring at him with open wide eyes and hanging mouths.

At least, the two bipedal aliens did. The rock creature just… floated there.

The two rocky orbs did droop for an instant before rising back up.

We all stand there in silence for a few moments, cheeriness and compassion from the Ghost practically radiating off of him in waves.

Then the horned one and the fish folk raise their weapons, pointed right at Ghost and me.

I don’t bother trying to tell him I told you so.

---

Spoiler: Authors Note

Sorry for the long departure everyone. Had to give some of my other stories some love, and work has been kicking my butt the last few days. Nothing too bad, just a little more tiresome than usual.

There wasn't that much happening in this chapter, but I wanted to give everyone's favorite Ghost some love in being a hopeful ball of light while trying to cheer up the little grinch that Xac has grown to be.

Spoiler: Perks

39.22 Training Journal 200 Naruto- Long Ass Jump This little book has been in the possession of many shinobi throughout the ages, all of whom decided to write here about their jutsu training in detail. For 50 CP, the journal possesses a handful of techniques from previous owners. For 200 CP, every once in a while, you will find a new section in the journal potentially allowing you to, in time, learn all jutsu in the Naruto series, though this could probably take a few hundred years considering the rate at which new information will reveal itself and that you have to learn all of them yourself

Ninja Tools Free Naruto- Long Ass Jump "All the basic tools a shinobi might need, from shuriken and kunai to explosive tags. You have a
supply of it inside your Warehouse that refills every day, ensuring you’ll never run out."

Elemental Affinity 50CP Naruto- Long Ass Jump All who possess chakra possess an incredibly strong affinity to one of the following chakra natures: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Yin, or Yang. Through training, additional natures can be acquired, with more than one nature being common among Jōnin. This can be purchased multiple times, to a maximum of seven. If taken with the Rinnegan or other bloodlines that bestow the chakra nature, this doubles the power of your affinity. Like with all things, your affinity can be strengthened with time and hard work. Earth/Water

 

“What the hell is that thing?” The high-pitched voice said, the aquatic being training his weapon towards my helmeted head, while the Korinthian focused her gun on Ghost.

Not that it would do much against Ghost, he could take a lot of punishment.

At least, so long as it wasn’t imbued in whatever this ‘darkness’ was at least.

“Hello, I’m Ghost. You can think of me as the Guardians… mouthpiece!” The cheerful voice said eventually, his blue eye momentarily turning back to me before I gave him an affirmative through our connection.

“You really calling… him, a Guardian?” The female Korinthian asked with a disbelieving tone . “With that getup?”
Maybe dressing in a hooded helmet and dark clothing wasn’t going to earn me any friends.

But they helped hide me in the darkness of the tunnels, and maybe stop a bullet or two, so I wasn't going to complain about it.

I slowly my arm up, making sure that the hand cannon was raised to the sky, making sure that the cerulean light glinted off the barrel of the heavy gun.

They noticed, but didn’t seem impressed. After all, I was outnumbered here.

“I don’t think that you’re helping calm them down.” Ghost whispered into my brain.

“It doesn’t matter if I calm them down or not. I’ll just come back over and over again until their all dead.” I respond back.

“Why in the world would you do that!? They haven’t done anything to us!”

“I’m merely making the observation that the option is there for us should the need arise.” I replied back with a clipped tone. At least, it was intended with a clipped tone. Given that I gave it in my own head, it should have come out as intended.

Which, it probably did, since Ghost was glaring at me with his single blue eye.

“Regardless, we mean you no harm.” Ghost said once again after giving me another glare.

“Like we’re going to believe some weirdo that we just happen to find in the tunnels!” The aquatic being says, the barrel of the gun giving an ominous glow.

Ugh, of course they were paranoid. Given the… lighter lines that I could see around their necks it wasn’t all to hard to guess where they came from. Though, the curious thing was the female Korinthian with them.

She didn’t have the ring around her neck. But I noticed the way that her eyes kept glancing toward her companions. The open worry and concern even as she hissed when putting too much pressure on one of her legs.

Might be better for her if she sat down.

“Good idea Guardian!” Wait, what?

“Excuse me, miss?” Ghost says with a polite tone, ignoring the weapons trained on both of us. “But I believe that it would be best if you took a seat. Too much pressure on that leg, and it might never heal right. Along with helping stop the blood flow. Otherwise, that makeshift tourniquet.” Gold and grey eyes blink at him in confusion, the rock creature tilting its-wait, it can move its head!?

How? There aren’t any joints in there!

“... I do not believe that they are a threat.” The rumbling earth said softly, the jagged orbs returning back onto the core body, as if they had never left.

“What? Just like that?” The grey-eyed fish person said, head swiveling like a hunter towards the towering rock creature that barely fit in the tunnels.

“If this… Guardian was really here to kill us, he would have done it already.” The Korinthian said as she took Ghost’s advice and sat down, a content sigh escaping from her lips as she stretched her leg out, the splotches already having become larger from the momentary stance.
“How long were you crouching there in the shadows like a waiting blade?”

“Oh, not very long. Probably less than a minute before this… gentleman noticed us!” Ghost said with a cheer, swaying his body towards the rock creature who still had his head tilted.

I’m wondering if this is going to be my life from now on. Being around so many people and talking to them was… odd.

Uncomfortable.

“So that means he could have taken us by surprise. Probably taken one of us down.” The Korinthian said with a tired tone.

The aquatic creature though tried to stand up a little straighter, eyes focused on where mine would be underneath my black faceless helm. “He still wouldn’t have been able to take down Ruqartz.”

I shrug my shoulders. Why in Dust’s name would I care about that?

Besides… I still hadn’t tested what some of those other crystals in my little dimension could do.

Something that can be tested later, when I wasn’t having to talk with people.

“Still, we don’t know who he is, or who he’s with!” I was already finding my patience for the high-pitched fish wearing thin. Really made me consider just wandering into the darkened halls that surrounded us.

I could feel Ghost want to bop me on the head at that thought. I roll my eyes underneath my helmet, before I unlock the seals, and lift it over my head, blinking as my eyes adjust to the natural light of the tunnels.

Two pairs of eyes widen at seeing my dark short hair, and the hazel eyes underneath. As for my face, it was my face. I don’t know if it was pleasing or not, but I did find it to be… what it was.

Not much more than that. Certainly less… aggressive than the slightly scaled faces of the Korinthains.

“You’re… human.” I don’t miss the way that their eyes go to my neck, staring at the thin burned scars that had been there since my rebellion.

My face remains impassive as I give a nod. “And I think that you all know what that means?” Ghost asked, giving voice to my words.

Relief seems to flood into the aquatic person, while the Korinthian female seems to tense and stare at me as if she couldn’t decide whether to run or die.

Funny.

I ignore her looks, and raise an eyebrow at the group.

“Do you need any help heading towards friendly land?” Ghost asked.

The fish person gives a very enthusiastic nod. While the Korinthian female relaxes at our ignoring her.

Sighing, I place the helmet back on my head and walk past the trio, the fish folk moving out of my way, while the rock person’s head moves to follow my movement.

I point onwards, conveying my thoughts to Ghost. “The path towards the city is this way. We are going to need to take a detour given that our usual passageways are… on the more narrow side.” He doesn’t look at the largest among us.

I do though.

The floating stone actually wiggles in embarrassment.

Unfortunately, I’m the least injured in the group.

Besides the Ruqartz, but he didn’t exactly have any arms to actually hold her.

Meaning that I was stuck carrying the Korinthian in my arms.

Part of me wanted to just drop her and walk away, but Ghost was giving me that little glare that was becoming the norm And I didn’t want to hear about this for the rest of the trip back home.

Even if I knew that it would probably last longer than that.

I could smell the smoke of ash and the iron of blood clinging to her.

“So, what exactly happened? I take it that you came from the Rokarth territory?” Ghost asked on my behalf.

“... It wasn’t always Rokarth territory.” Immediately I feel my stomach drop deeper into the planet.

There had only been one other serious piece of Territory, and that was the Enyorin. While they weren’t the slavers or monsters that the Rokarthi were, they were still Korinthian supremacists.

So… not exactly an area that I wanted to traverse.

Though, looking at the trio, seeing their weathered state, I couldn’t find it in me to care very much about where they came from.

“How long ago was the fall?” Ghost asked.

“Not even a week.” The rumbling earth replied. “Attacked in the night, had the technology and military armaments that have never before traversed the metal earth before.”

I scowl. That wasn’t good. Nope. Not good at all.

“Survivors?” The female grimaced in my arms.

“Not many. Most of our armed forces were… demolished. Taken down before we knew what was going on. They took the leaders not long into the night, made it a spectacle.” Rage enters her face, her golden eyes seeming to brighten in her anger at the thought. “We barely made it out.”

“Was it because you were originally with them perhaps?” I could feel the chill in the hallway, the only sound of the steps of our boots and the groan of moving earth. “Regardless of the truth, I promise that you will come to no harm.”

Yeah, good for you Ghost. I didn’t promise a damn thing.

He smacked me upside the head again at that thought, causing the group that we led through the tunnels to look at us oddly.

“He was being rude.” Ghost says simply.

The two humanoids look confused, and I think that I hear a mumbled, “But I didn’t hear anything?” That I swiftly ignore, pushing on through the tunnels, hoping that we would lapse into silence. All this… talking was uncomfortable.

And I hadn’t even said a word.

“Oh, before I forget, what is your name miss?” I sigh as Ghost asked the female in my arms.

She frowns. Her golden eyes stare at me for a moment before focusing on the robot when I keep my gaze forward, stepping through the expanding caverns and tunnels.

“Yazera.” She said softly.

“That’s a lovely name.” Ghost says with a chipper voice.

I don’t care to look down at Yazera at all.

Blissfully, that is where the conversation ends, the five of us softly making our way through the tunnels at our leisure, our gait slowed due to the injured two. The big one at least helps with some rubble that had been in the way of a few tunnels.

It didn’t hurt to at least get some use out of this trip. Having a few of the tunnels and caverns that had once been noting more than dead ends turned into actual routes would always be a bonus. Would have to go and edit some of those maps later on though.

A good number of them were more than due for renovation.

It was better to focus on something else rather than the Korinthian in my arms.

I don’t remember when was the last time… I touched someone and I didn’t feel pain.

It was… a happening.

Not an event, not a tragedy.

Just something that took place.

I took some comfort in that.

Arriving into the city was done without much hassle, the guards at the gate allowing me through at the sight of my black plated armor. It did not do much to keep the almost poisonous stares that they sent to Yazera in my arms.

“Make sure you keep her collared.” The blue skinned reptilian spit out, glaring with purple eyes at the female in my arms.

For her part, she doesn’t shiver, she doesn’t even blink at the hatred. Her sharp features remain a blank mask. She doesn’t even look back as we make our way through the city, not a single sould daring to approach us.

This was… far tamer than I had been expecting.

Especially given… well, the tension that I could see on the shoulders of each person that I passed.

I grimace.

Word on the Rokarth taking the Enyorin territory had been announced to every communicator connected to the network just a day ago.

A simple message that had sent everyone onto high alert.

I probably would have been stopped and apprehended at the gate if it wasn’t for the armor.

“You are the most frustrating man that I have ever met.” Roland said from his desk, rubbing his temples with both his hands.

I watch him with an unimpressed look from my seat in front of him, Ghost floating above my shoulder, the tree person Veranda sitting down on the coach on the side, newly sprouting limbs wrapped into each other like twisting branches that hadn’t finished growing just yet.

The three refugees that I had found and brought- partially unwillingly- to safety were being attended to in the infirmities downstairs.

It was… a miracle that they hadn’t hanged or shot the Korinthian when we had arrived.

“I thought that you were just going to disappear into those tunnels, now you’re bringing in escaped slaves, and a Korinthian-,” The venom drips in his voice, purple eyes flaring with restrained anger. “-right into our midst.”

Believe me, I would have rather left them behind too. Ghost glares at me at the sent thought.

Instead of relaying my actual words, he says, “We couldn’t just leave them behind!”

Roland's eyes flicker from Ghost to me, then back again, before returning back to me.

“The floating bot made you bring them back didn’t he?” I nod.

“I wasn’t going to just let him leave them behind! Or shoot them!” The little orb floated around erratically, blue light shining bright from every gap in his ‘armor’.

“Yeah, that sounds like something that he would want to do.” Roland said quietly. I glare at him with an unamused expression. He raises both hands in front of him. “What? You and I both know that it’s true!”
I roll my eyes.

“So… what is the plan?” Ghost asked.

“The plan?” Roland asked, which I found myself asking as well.

“These… Rokarthains are going to invade, aren’t they? Since they had already taken over the neighboring power. Which…” He trails off.

“Leaves only us on the board.” Gone was the jovial and clingy man that I had avoided for the years after he saved my life. Instead, was the cold gaze of a man used to working in efforts beyond that of normal ‘civilians’. Even if my own perception on what could be constituted as ‘normal’, even I knew that a psychic like him was more than just a man with charisma.

Not brainwashing, no. He seemed… too proud of his own charisma to depend on that front. He had seen things that would probably make most weep or envious beyond belief.

He knew that things were… bad.

No. Bad was critically understating just how royally fucked we were.

I told Ghost as much.

The only thing that was keeping us from getting invaded, was leaving them open for the Enyorin. With them out of the picture…

“It means that they don’t have to be worried about getting stabbed while they reach to choke us to death.” Roland finished for me, while I gave him another heavy glare. He winces as he realizes that he just admitted to reading my mind.

We can deal with you being a perverted mind peeper later, at the moment, I want to know if I have to lose myself in the tunnels to make sure that i don’t get killed in the next couple of weeks.

He gives an ugly hollow laugh. Like a dying man who knew exactly how much breadth he had left in his life. “Weeks is being quite generous. Especially with everything that we have been hearing.”
And what has that been?

“That we weren’t the only ones that had the Korinthian systems go through a ‘clerical’ error.” Veranda said from his seat, the green light glowing with every word that came from the plantoid creature.

“Veranda.” Roland interrupts with stone in his voice.

“We both know that the cat’s out of the bag. No point in trying to keep anything else to our chests when the bullets are already flying.” The tree wriggles in his seat, the curled tips of his limbs wiggling as if wanting to reach for something. “Or do you really want to keep being a pendejo and try to do this on your own?”

The man and tree stare at each other, ignoring Ghost and me as if they were the only people left in the room. Before Roland eventually sighs, slumping in his chair and… looking far older than he did a few moments ago. Did he always have that many grey hairs in his beard? Was that a thing that that happened to humans?

Like the way that Korinthian scales would eventually lose their inherent shine the older one became? Perhaps one day my own hair would turn that color as well?

It had once been red, if I remembered right, though it had turned dark when I was… young.

Though, those memories were hazy at best. It was better that way. Faded into nothing but a blurry hologram that wouldn’t ever be seen properly. It was better that way.

What happened?

Roland tried his best not to look me in the eye as I felt my anger begin to spike.

“I… might or might not be an agent for the UNE sent here to gather intel on this planet.”

I turn to Veranda as I start to feel the burning in my nervous system. That might just be my chakra reacting to my rage.

I don’t know, this was still a new occurrence to me.

I debated trying out that fascinating ‘jutsu’ that could create a sphere of water in the air.

Roland quickly got out of his chair and backed away, staring at me with wide terrified eyes, purple sparks flickering across his form.

Oh… he could read my mind.

I started thinking about how I could learn to cause the earth to quake and bring this building down on top of all of us.

I would survive. The death would be instant and I would prefer to dig my way out instead of having to be burned alive again.

Roland was shaking against the wall. “Stop it!”

“See? Te dije that one day someone would turn it around on your head!” The mirth in Veranda’s voice practically radiated sunshine and joy.

Ghost, tell me some more stories about this darkness. Wait, no, think it instead!

“No. I’m not going to do that.” Ghost refused my most reasonable request. It could have been an order, but I didn’t want another bruise on my head.

“Please just tell him whatever you were going to say!” Roland begs the tree who… somehow managed to look amused?

He didn’t even have a face though? Was that just a tree thing?

Is that why I sometimes felt like the roots in my apartment were judging me sometimes!? Wonderful, now I was going to be paranoid about having judgemental tree roots in my home!

“He was sent ahead with… technology to communicate back with command. A tool that has been invaluable in our investigations and snooping. After that, I was sent ahead to extract him. Adding a newly ‘imprisoned’ Nu-Baol was a cakewalk from our codebreakers back home.” Veranda leans back in his seat, the green glows of his ‘eyes’ slowing in their pulsing with each word.

“The problem is that we weren’t the only ones that were… ‘adding’ in new inmates.” Roland interrupted. “I think that you know just how easy it is to… add a few extra people into the roster.”
I shiver at the memory. I push down the feelings of chains fastened to my wrist ushered into black formless ships taking me to the one place where I could finally be free.

Who’s here?

“The one thing that the Korinthians would never send. A scientist.” Veranda said simply. “Ironic that they sent the same thing that the UNE sent.”
I tilt my head and raise a single eyebrow. “Engineering. Specifically ships and their creation. Along with a few niche additions here and there. If you want someone to path you up, then you’re gonna have to look somewhere else.”

Hmm… perhaps we might be able to swap notes later.

Roland releases a choking noise. Right. He could probably read my mind right now.

I started making the designs that flashed through my head more robust, and complicated beyond what a mere journeyman or wrench monkey could scrounge up on their own.

… Where in the galaxy did I get the term “wrench monkey” from? I didn’t even know what a monkey even was.

It sounded… odd.

So, what do you need me here for? I think I made it clear that I don’t want to throw myself in the fire for you again.

Ghost tried glaring at me, but for once, I glared right back.

The silence becomes… oppressive. A thing that seems to worm its way into every atom in the room, until there was nothing but the sound of nothing as one blue eye met my hazel ones.

Ghost and I don’t exchange words, not a sound passes my lips or vibrates the air through whatever speakers Ghost used to communicate.

Instead, we used our pure intent. Our convictions.

He felt… strong. Unbreakable in a way. A will to help those that needed it, because that wa what he was made for in the end.

In my own place, I pushed every ounce of pain that I carried. Every single speck of will to get away from acts that had nothing to do with me. With being the coward that I really was, because I was damn good at being a speck of dust in a dead city that could simply disappear with the wind.

It’s what kept me safe. What kept the pain from coming back.

Just look at what happened the last time that I listened to that voice that Ghost called my ‘conscience’.

Eventually, when he realized that no, I was not going to change my mind, he relented.

There wasn’t actually anything that he could do to force my, other than annoy me into doing it. But this was not something that I was willing to budge on.

I made that intent well known as I stared right into Roland's purple eyes, broadcasting my thoughts in the simplest way possible.

Find someone else to be your martyr.

HE sighs. “Look, I knew that the chances of you fighting with us were… low. But that’s not what I’m asking for.”

Oh? Really now?
“I don’t need a fighter, I need someone that isn’t afraid of going into the tunnels below us.” Wait… what? I gesture with my hand, the spinning motion causing him to continue on. “Honestly, with the reports that we’re getting, the chances of us actually managing to defeat them are… less than favorable. Sure we might be able to make them work for it, gods know that we chose this place because it’s basically a fortress, but that isn’t going to mean much if they manage to get any projects off the ground.”
The grimace on his face was marred with frustrated… fear.

It didn’t suit his face at all. I had seen anger, and emptiness before. But fear was… not something that should be on his face at all. He was far too irritating for that.

Regardless, it was none of my concern.

What do you want?

I asked simply.

He reaches underneath the table, brings out a curved bottle filled with amber liquid and pops open the lid, taking a whiff of it right underneath his nose, making sure that it wasn’t touching the skin.

“Well, if you’re bringing out the bottle, then I think that we really are going to fucking die.” Veranda sighs from his seat, practically melting into the couch.

“This is a little something that Veranda managed to sneak in here, something that I asked for. It’s a bottle of an Earth alcohol called tequila. Something that is distilled from a plant native to Earth. A little plant that we managed to cultivate across the stars thankfully. Turns out there’s plenty of untapped volcanic soil in the spaces between worlds.” He brings out two glasses and fills them both to the brim, downing one while passing one to me.

I take the thing and take my own whiff.

It… didn’t smell like the Yarrowreach Brew tended to. No scent of seaweed or fish involved at all.

Copying him, I down the drink in one gulp, surprised at how… smooth the drink was compared to what I was accustomed to.

And what was that for?

“Usually it’s polite to at least share a drink from someone when you ask a favor.” He said simply.

I wouldn’t know. I said simply. For some reason he winces at that. I’m not going to ask again.

“If we can’t fight without each and every person dying in the process, then there’s really only one option left isn’t there?” The question hangs in the air, like a head waiting to be buried and put to rest into the ground.

Do you really think that there's any chance of funneling all of these people through the tunnels? That there’s even someplace down there where they could even survive? It was a fantasy. A dream that I couldn’t see happening no matter what reality you used as a lens.

But he remained steadfast. Those amethyst eyes glittering with determination, not shaking with fear like they had been a moment ago.

“I think that if there’s anyone that can manage to find it, it’s you. You managed to find your way into their base undetected after all.”
Yes, but that was alone and through spaces so tight that it’ll make most of them get stuck like a Yarrowreacher trying to sprint. That isn’t even going into some of the more… problematic routes that are unavoidable.

“And yet, it’s probably the only other option that we have. Even you.” I feel my hand twitch. He was right, and I hated him for it.

I didn’t want to fight or stick my neck out for any of these people. Not really.

Helping Veranda was more of a… financial choice rather than a moral one.

There wasn’t going to be much choice in where we go from here.

Can’t promise that I’ll even manage to find anything. Let alone anywhere big enough to fit everyone. We both know that by the end of this, a lot of people are going to be dead.

“I know.” The simple but heavy words make him look… weaker than he usually is. But that spark was still glinting in his eyes. “But as long as most of them are dead, it might have been worth it.”

Spoiler: Authors Note

Dialouge is hard, but getting easier the more that I write, so apologies if it might be a little stilted here and there. Also, didn't realize that there was no perk rolled this chapter. Got focused on everything going on and it sorta slipped. Which is fine, because honestly, I'm enjoying the pace of power growth far more here than in CE.

 

“Surprised to see you here.” The Korinthian woman said softly, changed out of the ragged torn clothing, fresh white bandages, probably newly weaved to boot, wrapped around various places of her body with her leg elevated and encased in a cast.

A stark contrast to the adrenaline-filled alien that had pointed a gun at my head a few short hours ago.

“We wanted to see what else you could tell us about… any threats that we might have to face soon.” Ghost said quietly, relaying my thoughts in a… more sanitized manner.

“One that should have never been sent to this prison…” She said with a twisted expression, the black scales along the rim of her jaw seeming to crinkle onto her blue skin that peeked out, golden eyes burning with hatred.

“We're surprised to hear that.” Ghost said.

“Why are we surprised by that?” Ghost asked me privately while she opened her mouth.

We can go into more detail on the scaled race of slavers and body snatchers later. I groused to him. It’s going to require more… than just a few minutes.

And I wasn’t nearly drunk enough to go into detail on all of… that.

“Rekinth Xelincos.” I choke at the name. “So… I take it that your master was higher ranked given that reaction?” Her words weren’t kind, and her tone cold, but there was… empathy in the way that she looked at me.

It was… strange to see that in the eyes of a Korinthian. An antithesis to… what I had seen in life.

The memory of finding Veranda in that cell, his limbs taken and eaten, only sustained and alive so that they could harvest more from the ‘delicious’ Nu-Baol before it expired.

If they ever let him actually die.

I knew that any that had been captured… usually weren’t allowed that mercy.

Only then would the Korinthians have anything resembling respect for them.

“Whose Rekinth Xelincos?” Ghost asked, cerulean eye drifting from the wounded Korinthian back to me.

“‘A monster’” Yazera and I say/think at the same time. It’s the only word that could describe that… thing.

I had never seen him before.

But I had seen his work.

“He’s the most brilliant bio-engineer that the Korinthian Empire has ever birthed. Along with the most… curious.” The word is spat out like poison, golden hues burning hotter than rays from her eyes.

I shiver at the memories that brought themselves unbidden to my mind. Front he slaves that… had been found ‘unamusing’ given to the ‘good doctor’ for… upgrades. And they would return as flesh twisted and warped, minds completely gone as they were nothing more than loyal attack dogs.

Oh, the capabilities that they displayed were the things of nightmares and dreams. But they would be nothing more than weapons to be pointed and fired.

“Who did you lose?” Ghost asked softly, in his own words, before I could relay my own. Those were usually the only ones that hated one of the most ‘celebrated’ and revered scientists that the Empire had ever created from the stolen life.

“A slave… my playmate since I was a ‘child’.” She said bitterly. “My ‘father’ decided that I had become far too reliant on her, so she sent her… away. ‘Finally, find some use to that waste of money that only harbored weakness and the flaw of friendship’.” The words were spat out, golden orbs burning with the rage that could blot out the sun.

I couldn’t find myself moved by this. Not when I had seen the same old story happen over and over again throughout my own life.

That’s what tended to happen when your… former owner was the biggest moneylender and broker in the inner empire.

I spat on the ground at thinking of that waste of biomass.

Getting up, I stretch my arms, Ghost floating up to my shoulder giving me a look before dipping a little lower towards the woman.

No point in asking if she already told the Libertorium. It would have been the first thing out of her mouth. Preparations were probably going to be thrust into greater priority.

That did bring the question.

“Why would he willingly come here?” Ghost asked.

She shrugs her shoulder, the scales along her arms glinting in the yellow light of the infirmary. “No idea. But if I had to guess… something is going on in the royal family. Only thing that would cause someone of the ‘majestic’ royal line to come here willingly.”

The only sound I make is the click of the tongue. Of course it would be something that those jackasses would cook up.

The lords and rulers of the ‘glorious’ Korinthian Empire! Kings and rulers over an empire built upon the backs of the lessers that only live for their wondrous immortal lives.

As immortal as anyone could become. Take the head off, and there was nothing that they could do anymore. Just like everyone else.

That brought the question though… I turn to look at her again, I see the clear anguish on her face, the features… similar to the ones that humans tended to make.

A shorter nose, shorter than mine was, higher cheekbones dusted with black scales over blue skin, sharp eyes that only pierced even deeper with the loathing that seemed to drip from her skull.

Ghost stares at me, the question obvious in his single eye as I gestured at him to relay my words.

“Why… didn’t you just… take the biomass that you needed for your leg?” Ghost asks with a halting tone, eye shifting back and forth between the woman and I.

She bares her teeth at me, sharpened fangs pointed at me like glittering knives while her sun-like eyes bored into my soul, like reaching flames.

“I will never do that again. She hissed out, the words sharp as they flittered between her teeth.

Oh, wonderful. A Korinthian with something resembling a consciousness and morality.

Letting out a sigh, I walk out of the room, waving a hand behind my back.

I barely hear Ghost rush out something to her, no doubt an apology on my behalf or something, when I felt… the stars connect again.

It was… bigger than the others that had gathered in my sky. A pulsating mass of knowledge. It felt… like steam? Whirring gears and vacuum tubes cobbled together-no- orchestrated together into a wondrous form of technology that ran on steam.

It was primitive. I should be turning my nose at it. After all, who cared about steam when there were empires and governments that traversed the stars with the energy capacity of entire cities at their beck and call?

And yet, this was the most glorious thing that I had ever seen in my life.

Ideas sprang into my head.

Vacuum tubes capable of storing data, not as much as a proper data processor, not if I didn’t want to expand the tubes into being the size of large crates, but it was still more than I had previously known.

More than that though… I turn my head, gazing at the frayed wiring and worn metal of the wall next to me.

And… I see where I could fix it. A few replacement wires here, maybe going a bit deeper to see if I could replace the main breakers and power source… yes.

Yes, I think that I could get power going back in this building.

I ignore Ghost, walking back out into the street, staring at the buildings that surrounded us with new eyes.

Everything here was connected, in some shape or manner.

Whether it be through power lines, or perhaps connected through a line in the digital network.

And I could already tell exactly what I might need to get it all in working order again.

That… didn’t mean that I would be capable of that.

No, not when I was supposed to be looking for a route out of here. A route that manages to save as many people as possible, Roland's words, not mine.

Even then, it wasn’t like powering the buildings up would be enough to give them a fighting edge.

Not against the tide that was going to be headed our way.

Especially not against that.

There was at least one thing that this could be useful for. And that was tunnel diving.

“Are you even listening to me!” Ghost shouted at me right next to my ear, my little fugue having ended, the knowledge and skill now safely resting inside of my brain.

Not really.

“You could at least act like you were!” Ugh, why was he still yelling?

You’d know I was lying anyways.

He sighs. “You’re right. So… what did you get?”

I raise an eyebrow as I turn to look at him.

“That little bracelet of yours tends to glow any time that you… get another one.” He whispers the last three words into my mind, disappearing into motes of light as he returned to my body.

I received the most valuable thing that one can find in life. In a rare display that I can count on two hands, I let out a smile. A vicious hungry little thing that wouldn’t look too foreign on a Korinthian businessman. Knowledge.

Before all of that though… I think that it was time that I actually started to build something.

---

Finding the parts was… beyond easy.

I was literally surrounded by scrap and electronics that had somehow managed to survive for untold years on this deserted planet.

Fashioning some of them into what I needed… was the bigger issue.

Time, it seemed, was forever to be my enemy. Not enough time in the day, not enough time to keep myself from passing out on my workbench in my little reality of white. Ghost made sure to keep the door locked, warding anyone that came looking for me away with promises that I would get in touch later.

Nothing a few messages to the visitors couldn’t fix.

It was…. Maybe less than a week when I finally stared at the finished product of my work, hands caked in black grease, eyes heavy with dark rings underneath my eyes, and hair growing out of my chin longer than I usually let it.

Eh, I didn’t have time to worry about it.

I spent enough time here.

Too many hours spent salvaging, let alone refining the parts.

I stare at the hunk of junk, welded pieces of metal looking like misshapen jigsaws melted together, the hover system and thrusters sparking to blue life at the touch of my hand.

You said this thing runs on my Light?

“That’s right Guardian. So long as you can keep moving, it can keep running. And no worries about losing it. I have it stored in my data banks, and have plenty of glimmer to go around.”

Knowing that the little bot at my side could just… remake anything that I had made and he scanned afterward… well it changed things.

He couldn’t just make copies, the originals had to be destroyed first, but he could bring them out of thin air. And all he needed was this ‘glimmer’ substance. Which was literally what it was. Glimmers of light created from the breaking down of matter. Even with the newfound intelligence and knowledge, there was still much about this so-called ‘Light’ that left me perplexed.
Even more so than the chakra did.

It was just a hunk of junk, holding together out of sheer will and spite. But it would work for now.

Not like I could fabricate better materials or refine better pieces and parts with only a multitool to my name.

Something that perhaps could change in the coming days.

For now…

It was time to set off.

Leaving the city didn’t have much fanfare, the only sign of my departure the message that I sent directly to Roland's communicator ring. Instead of taking the main gates… I decided to make my exit through the tunnels underneath the city.

The ones that only I knew about.

Hmm, I was going to have to do something about them, wasn’t I? Either clear out the rubble so more than one person could make it through, or finish what time had started.

I highly doubted that the Rokarthians would be able to find these, but it was always the fool that left matters to chance that wound up getting bit in the end.

Ugh, it feels like my to-do list only gets longer and longer. I grouse to myself.

“Yes, I have a feeling that it’s only going to get worse.” Ghost says inside of my head. As I finally push my way through the rubble and ruin into the greater tunnel that is connected to the rest of the network.

I was still roughly underneath the city, but only at the barest edge, the faint traces of light still managing to find their way through the cracks and tears in the ground above my head.

I manifest the golden key in my hand, the tiny replica disappearing with a reverberant high-pitched chime from its ring on my wrist, and I open the box of white, bringing out the makeshift sparrow that was running on scrap I had found in the street and dilapidated buildings.

Getting on the thing was… more trouble than I thought it would be. Getting the right balance while realizing that I was going to need to redo the footrests was annoying, but something that I could do later on.

In the moment, I turn the ignition, smiling as the clunker chugs to life, the whine of the exhaust and hover engine coming to life as I feel the bike lift itself off the ground.

“Alright, so far so good.” Ghost said as he coalesced from motes of light, scanning the bike underneath my feet ‘downloading’ it into his little storage space.

Already the ideas were springing to and fro in my mind. The wonderful projects and little tricks I could get up to with that.

I probably would be chuckling if I could make a sound.

It was… nice. To just enjoy the little things here and now. A foreign feeling that I did not dislike.

A departure from how… monotonous life had been for the past few years.

My life being on the edge of a blade was nothing new, it just happened that the chances of my demise arriving earlier than the natural means was now… higher.

A collar around my life that I could do without.

Well, that just meant that I was going to make it… inconvenient when they came for me.

The glint of red, like magma gathered into a single point and polished to a brilliant shine catches my eye and I pick up the small block that thrummed with flame and life.

I gaze into it for a little while, wondering at the possibilities, before I store it away into my pack.

“So, where are we headed?” Ghost asked as we stared down the tunnel.

North. Towards where this started. The gold around my wrist feels… a bit heavier.


“Ah… didn’t you say that it took you weeks to get there?” Ghost asked as, staring ahead with trepidation.

Yes, but that was on foot. I didn’t have this with me when I went there. Or any of my other abilities for that matter.

“Why so far, though?” Ghost asked as I turned the handle of the sparrow, the engine revving up as speed and motion prepared themselves for my release.

If it took me five years to find that place, I’m willing to bet that it’s going to take those horned dusters even longer than it did me. The hard part was going to be getting all those people there.

Alright, let’s see just how much power this thing ha-

I release the breaks, and nearly lose my grip as the world becomes a blur to my senses, the humming thruster behind me blasting back, sending the rickety creation underneath me rocketing forward, my eyes watering at the speed.

“Hit the brea-!” I manage to hear Ghost before I swerve, trying to regain some control.

Only to have the wall of the tunnel meet me head first.

I think I heard a large ‘CRACK’ followed by the beginning boom of an explosion, before everything goes black, and I have to blink the blue light out of my eyes, Ghost staring at me with a pitiable expression on his eye.

He didn’t even have a face, how in the galaxy could he look disappointed like that?

“I think that you’re going to need some practice.” Ghost said gently.

I don’t bother looking at him as I get back on the bike, knowing that I was probably going to crash and burn again.

But it was probably the best way that I could learn, that turning the controls because you were packing wasn’t the greatest idea in the world.

This was going to be a long trip, I could feel it in my bones.

Spoiler: Author's Note

So, a shorter chapter, but this one felt complete and a good place to stop. Sorry that I've been a bit slow on chapters, have had other stuff occupying my mind. Like trying to finish Xenoblade 3 as fast as I can cause there are too many assholes on Youtube posting spoilers in the thumbnails and titles. I want to feel this game dammit!

Also I had to... give most of the freebies up here with the Steampunk from Smash Up because the rest of teh perks are from a different origin. So, it's either letting them through now, or letting even more through later. BEtter to just rip off the band aid.

Oh, and there's a reason why he didn't get the Workshop just yet...

Spoiler: Perks

9.0210 Mechanic 400CP Smash Up Crafting Technological You can fix anything. Quite literally. Alien technology, magical artifacts. You may not even understand what they do or how they work, but you can see when they're broken and how to fix it.

Brass and Vacuum Tubes (-100 cp, FREE Steampunk) You can make
perfectly functional devices with a steampunk aesthetic. In fact, machines
you build like this tend to work a little better, and stand up to far more
Abuse.

Workshop (-200 cp, FREE Steampunk) A well-appointed workshop,
overflowing with brass, vacuum tubes, and specialized tools. Inspiration
comes more easily within these walls.

⚙ Difference Engine (-100 cp, FREE Steampunk) You can build a computer
with anything, at virtually any tech level. Even water channels or a mob
with two colored flags apiece.

 

I was right.

I could still feel the impact of my skull shattering into a billion pieces before the explosion took what little life I still had.

I’d lost count of how many times that happened to me.

I always manage to survive the initial crash, always managing to retain enough of my consciousness to stare at the flaming wreck of my sparrow. Right before the damn thing blew up in my face, dashing my broken soon to be corpse of life.

This was all undone in the same glimmer of blue light that was becoming more and more the norm.

I honestly preferred this over the wall of lasers that I dealt with in the Rokarthian compound.
It felt quicker.

It wasn’t, if anything, this was infinitely longer than that stream of death and rebirth.

But it felt far faster than that did.

Which… made all the difference.

“I believe that we are approaching our destination.” Ghost said softly in my head, my the hazy green of my sight illuminated thanks to the technology in my helmet.

I slow to a stop, allowing Ghost to dissipate the Sparrow back into his storage, and I stumble just a bit onto the floor, managing to catch myself from falling completely to the floor.

Guess I can’t do that maneuver quite yet.

At least I didn’t crash and blow myself up today.

“Why are we going on foot?” Ghost asked.

Because I don’t want to get eaten by a Stone Skin.

“Oh…. so this is their home?” Ghost asked as he appeared over my shoulder, scanning the surrounding ruined walls of worn wire and weathered steel. Blue lights gathered around crushed debris on the floor, and the incaved wall that looked like a tank had barreled through, an artificial cave in leading deeper inside.

Yes. Damn things have found that they prefer the darkness over the light up above.

“That’s why you keep the entrances lit up like that?” Ghost asked.

I nod. Sometimes they like to come back topside, so leaving the lights on like that tends to keep them away. Doesn’t always work, though.

“Exactly why are they still around then, if they’re so dangerous?” My quiet footsteps avoid the pieces of metal and stone that littered the floor, matching up the hallway in front of me with the map that I had created in my head.

Because they’re damn tough to kill. There’s a reason why we call them Stone Skins, laser fire doesn’t do much besides irritate them, while regular kinetic weaponry isn’t nearly strong enough to punch through. Only clear way is getting them in the eyes, but that’s hard to do when you have that behemoth charging at you faster than you can lift your weapon.

“If they are so hard to kill, then why do you come so far down?” I shrug at the question.

I’m a diver. It’s what I do. Would be a pretty bad one if I didn’t try to explore and discover more of the planet. It’s the entire reason why I have been able to survive up to this point. The fact that it gives me as many escape routes as I can find is just a bonus.

He sighs. “Of course that’s your reasoning.”

My reasons will forever be my own. Are the only words that i leave him with as we continue down the faintly familiar hallways, following the small grove and scratches that I had left behind with a knife.

They weren’t very big, barely deep enough that they would no doubt be weathered away by time. But they were enough for me to follow.

“So, why here? Why this specific place?”

Ugh, he was going to just keep asking me questions, wasn’t he? Was it too much to ask for just some silence?

Because it’s where I found this. I raise the arm with that glittered with gold around its wrist. And I have… this feeling that there is more there. That perhaps there are things left behind that I can use. Or maybe I’m just deluding myself. Besides, it took me literal years to find this place. Years of going through dead ends, figuring out which hallways led to Iron Skin nests, and which ones just lead to waiting death traps that never turned off.

If it took me that long, how long do you think it would take them to find it?

“But it took us days to get here, even on the bike. And you said that it took you almost two weeks to get here on foot. How are we supposed to transport literal thousands of people here safely?”

We aren’t. At least not safely. But this is the only thing that I can think of that can buy the most people the most time. Many might not make it here. Many will probably die on the way. But it’s better to die in an effort to be free than it is in captivity. Than it is as one of their playthings.

“...” Ghost remains silent, his one blue eye staring into my own hazel ones through my helmet, remaining as still as possible while he followed behind me. “You said that you lived your entire life as one of theirs?”

My silence was my answer.

“How did you escape?”
By going to prison. I answered simply. There was disbelief in him, I could feel the silent emotion from our connection. A… formless thought that hovered at the beach of my mind.

What do you think this planet is? I asked him simply. If we are in a space-faring galaxy, why aren’t there any ships flying to and fro from the skies? Even the most backwater of planets would have one or two a month. So I've heard at least.

No, this entire place is a prison. One that almost everyone was sent to due to ‘crimes against the Empire of the most gravest of offense.’

“If so, then why not kill you?” Oh, if only it were that simple.

Because then they would have to respect us as they do all the dead. He stared at me blankly. Urgh. It is the belief of every Korinthian that in Death we are all equal. For no matter how long they have prospered, no matter how many lives they take, or how much science has advanced, they haven’t been able to fully conquer it. Sure, they can live for a lot longer than most other sentient life in the galaxy, but they are by no means completely immortal. So they respect the only thing that they fear. And in that, they refuse to give anyone here that very same respect.

“That seems… very petty.” Ghost said.

Yeah, that’s them. Whatever anger might have once been there is just… gone. Not out of a lack of hate, not that still burned.

It was just… cooled. What was the point in losing myself to emotions when there wasn’t anything that I could do?

“If this is a prison, why would they just…”
Leave us alone to govern ourselves? Easy, they didn't think that we’d survive long enough for it to matter. Better for us to die due to natural causes or things ‘outside’ of their control than to pull the trigger themselves.

“And yet you all survived.”

Not for a lack of them trying to get us killed. When they noticed that the undesirables and aliens weren’t dropping by the hundreds, they started sending some of their more… violent population down here. The ones that they figured were already good as gone.

“Who formed together into the Rokarth.” I snap my fingers.

That’s right. Even if someone managed to make it off the planet, they would just shoot them out of the sky with the small fleet that patrols this area of space. So, while they weren’t happy that we managed to survive this long, they couldn’t kill us themselves because then they would have to give us actual proper burials.

“You still haven’t really answered my question, though. If you were a slave, then why did they send you here?”

I shrug my shoulders as I turn the corner, coming ever closer towards our destination.

My… former master messed with the logbook. Last thing that he managed to do when he was sentenced here. Brought me along because I was his… ‘prized human’. I put as much poison and hate into that thought. So, instead of being sold off to a different master, I was sent here. In the end, his greed is what saved me.

“I suppose that living free on a prison planet is better than a slave, wouldn’t it?”
Oh yes. I doubt that I will ever leave here. Or rather, if I did, I would have nowhere to go. But here… this is a prison for many. Yet for others, this is the only home that they have ever known. It is the same for me. It’s a shithole, one that we have survived by the miracles of fate. But it’s my home.

A home that I will be damned if I leave in the hands of those filthy genocidal slavers.

I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want to kill. I didn’t want to risk my life for the sake of others. But I wasn’t really doing that, was I? No. This was all for me.

For my own twisted sake of seeing what I saw as mine to remain it.

And… perhaps that was enough for me to put my life at risk.

But I owed Roland. The least I could do was try to pay that debt off.

With this… I would.

I think.

It wasn’t that he made me pay him back. He asked, yes.

But the option to say no was always on the table. Roland was that type of person.

It just… didn’t feel like I could say no. Not until I knew that we were even.

Perhaps I would one day reach that point, where I could wash my hands clean of it.

Perhaps.

“Uh, Guardian? What’s that noise?” I blink

And I hear that telltale sound of heavy pounding feet that promised death to any distracted diver.

Which is exactly what I was.

I unholstered the weapon from its holster at my hip, turning and readying the first round to fire-

Only to feel my back and spine shatter as it impacts my chest and I go flying down the hallway.

“ERRRAUGH!”

It cried out into the darkness, its course snout opened wide, sharpened teeth that would glint in the light if it weren’t for the blackness that surrounded us.

Its face was long, its neck thick and muscled as it swung its head back into place, staring at me with tiny black eyes that could see in the dark, stomping four legs that resembled moving stones more than limbs. A long rocky tail thumped the floor, sending stone and metal flying through the air, its bulky blocky body trembling with barely contained rage.

I managed to raise my hand cannon, send four shots barreling forward-

-only for them to ricochet off it, the eyes blinking with each sound, the bullets pinging off uselessly off its eyes lids.

“Oh shit.” Ghost and I think at the same time as it barrels forward again, slamming its snout back into my body, crushing bones into dust, blood traveling up my throat as I felt organs rupture and burst inside of my body.

I don’t have enough time to cough, or to let out the red liquid that filled my throat as I felt consciousness blissfully slip from my grasp.

I came back to the damned thing staring at me again, confusion evident on it’s face as it lifted its legs, readying itself for a stomp.

I backpedal away, managing to move my leg away from the newly formed crater that was left in its wake.

It opens its mouth.

And I shove my hand down its throat.

Through the night vision, I can see its eyes bulge, I feel its tongue move underneath my arm.

I grasp the yellow crystal I kept in my pocket, with my free hand, shoving my hand as deep as I can inside of the creature's maw-

-and gasp with an open mouth as it closes its jaws around my hand, the sharpened fangs burying themselves into my arm with a meaty crack, the bones and muscles tearing on the inside.

I snarl at the hateful creature, stare into its eyes before I drain the crystal fucking dry.

I pull, grasp, and throw every last drop of magic that I can from the crystallized concept of lightning, transmit it through my arm and into its fleshy maw.

I watch in satisfaction as it just… trembles in place.

I lose my arm in the process though, as it finishes its bite, the jaws closing completely with a ‘click’ as the last few tendons and muscles holding the limb to the rest of my body just… separates. It isn’t a clean cut.

And I can feel the blood that should be circulating through my arm splurt onto the floor instead.

Yet, it trembles, even as it falls to the floor with a ‘thump the sound of stone on stone echoing down the hallway of metal.

I want to scream. I want to shout up into the world, let my voice echo louder than the final death throws of the creature that I just killed. To allow some of the pain to exit through my voice instead of feeling it just sit in my body as I can feel myself go into shock, even while the life of magic leaves the shard of power that I kept in my pocket.

Ghost hovers above me, bringing his blue light over me, the pain vanishing, dissipating into nothing as I flex my arms, both of them, in front of me.

The right arm of my armor is gone, the cloth and alloyed metal now residing inside of the Iron Skin’s mouth.

But at least I had my arm.

“Are you alright, Guardian?” Sure you betcha. It wasn’t like I just had my arm eaten off leaving me with nothing by a stump!

I smash down the thought as fast as it had appeared. He didn’t deserve that. He brought me back after all. With all four limbs like I was supposed to be, instead of doomed to being a paraplegic for the rest of my life.

Then again, that was still better than death.

Note to self. The mouths are just another weakness to exploit. Not just the eyes like we all thought previously.

I felt the bracelet come to life again as I slowly push myself to my feet, aware of the smaller star that connected as I walked through the doorway into the room that had housed the golden piece of jewelry that rested on my wrist.

It was even more knowledge… but knowledge that made my hands itch and twitch in place.

I knew just the right amount of heat to make metal malleable. To make it soft enough to shape and bend into the appropriate form that I would want it. I knew just the right angle to chisel away at the wood of a newborn craft. My hands knew the right way to shape the spinning soft wet clay, just the right amount of pressure to shape it into a proper pot for someone that was interested in replacing the one that their children broke. Or the one that they used to make their homemade bomb.

Who knows? I didn’t judge what people got up to in their free time. No, as long as they needed it, I could craft it. This was all a hobby compared to where my true passions lay.

And beyond that cradle of knowledge.

True enlightenment connected as the rest of the cluster found their proper place. I could…feel the magic that course through my body.
Blueprints and diagrams flashed through my mind, the process of shaping the magic flow through devices to properly cast spells through… anything that came to mind. Wands, guns, armor, weapons.

It was such a small thing. Only a small cluster of stars that felt like bare embers compared to some of the other burning stars that orbited my sky.

Yet, it was the most treasured one that had joined me.

I smile as I approach the wall of the former home/office, touching the same spot where I had seen that glint of light barely a month ago.

The wall… slides away. A small staircase leading down, the steps made of chiseled stone instead of grey metal.

I don’t focus on that, though. I had turned on the light on my helmet at this point, I’d already killed one of the creatures, so why not, right? So I could see the… lifeless white arm that had replaced my darker tone of skin.

I tell my hand to fold its fingers in, and I watch the hand that wasn’t mine do the same. I tell it to turn over so I can see the back of my hand. It does it again.

Ghost is staring at my arm at this point too, blue lights buzzing through the air as he scans it.

I take off my helmet, placing it onto the metal bench in the room and activate my ring as I stare into the camera.

A face that wasn’t mine stares back at me.

It was… featureless and lifeless. Gone was the color of life, the dark hair and hazel eyes accompanied by a slightly bent brown nose. Instead, a white face, whiter than the clearest of porcelain stares back at me, eyes deeper and darkest than the lowest of tunnels glittering in fear as my mouth twists into a scared open mouthed frown. White hair, not blond-white-, frames my face.

“What in the world?” Ghost asks as the black starless eyes blink in terror.

I stared at the face that looked more like a ghost than the one that I knew.

And when the fear of surprise and bewilderment faded… I put my helmet back on and headed down the tunnels.

My face could be something that I worried about later.

For now, I had more to do.

Eventually, the steps lead into a room lit by glistening bright yellow electricity, the sound of turning cogs and bustling steam inside of pipes and servos sounding like music to my ears. A simple bronze door, decorated with resplendent images of cogs and gears emblazoned proudly in the metal, makes way as I step forward.

And on the inside I find paradise.

Tools, more so than any I had ever owned, were proudly displayed on a metal wall, rows of tables lay bare, ready for any new projects that might happen to strike my fancy. And along the back walls of the workshop, I could see the cabinets that stored away any materials and building plans that I would ever happen to make.

I felt… a pull from this place. A pull on my bracelet. I look down at my white limb, seeing the tiny key barely hanging onto its lone ring, and I let go. It travels forward into the center of the room, and it shines with a bright light. The entrance that I had entered from disappears, the steps vanishing from my eyes to make way for the tear in reality that appears before me as I see the room that the steps had begun from in front of me.

I could feel the workshop become part of that white room my key led to, and knew that it was now mine.

Turning, I gaze upon my workshop again, black eyes glittering with new life, as if the stars that shined in my sky were reflected in my own eyes.

Well… I think that we should get to work, don’t you? I ask Ghost.

He begins to scan the room around us in answer, ready to download any designs I make into his memory.

Now… to get that road started.

Spoiler: Perks

Craftsman Training: A master has passed his work onto you through an apprenticeship,or else you have simply put the time in to learn how to make things for yourself. You have received intermediate training in every field of crafting, from metalworking to woodcrafting to pottery. This training increases in potency with each Artificer perk taken,
due to the natural synergy involved. [100CP].

Changeling: Changelings are a humanoid race who are distantly descended from
doppelgangers and share their shapeshifting qualities. Their shapeshifting has led to
them being used as spies and assassins which has, in turn, led to them being mistrusted
amongst the people of Khorvaire. As a Changeling, you can lie better than other races
and require less sleep. Further, you can change your cosmetic form to that any other
race around yourself.

Artificer: An inspired craftsman specialising in arcane technology and wonderous
creations, ranging the gamut from robot dogs to fully automatic crossbows. They provide
the backbone of technology which Eberron runs on.