Chapter Text
The castle of Dryl loomed in the distance, perched on the side of a mountain, it bore witness to the new settlement that had sprouted at its base seemingly overnight. The once lonely monolith was now surrounded by scaffolds and life. Where once it had stood alone, isolated and self-sufficient, both a technical marvel and a monument to eras passed, it now had a following of dwellings in various states of construction growing all around it. It would never be alone again.
Following the war, Entrapta had invited Prime’s clones to Dryl. The offer had been made to them in the hopes that they might find a new home and a new purpose and Princess Entrapta herself was, for whatever reason, quite fond of them. Some of them had instantly accepted the offer. They had an instinctive reaction to comply with most requests. Others had accepted because Entrapta already had two of their brothers at her side, it felt natural for more to follow. Some accepted because this new direction was better than the nothing and silence that followed them every day after Prime’s demise and the abolition of the hive mind. A few reluctantly accepted because they had no other real choice. Not many other kingdoms were as willing and the ships in orbit were not pilotable without input from the hive mind. For better or worse, they were stuck on this world for the foreseeable future.
It had been a few months since the war and in the time passed, some of the clones had started manifesting unique personalities. Preferences and choices were still difficult, but individuality was budding all the same, sometimes, even despite the wishes of the clones themselves. Some had been named by the locals, others have given themselves names and some still refused to be called anything other than Brother.
Yudi was one of the former. A local cat person had called him terrible and an utter disaster and despite his best efforts to make them stop, the moniker of Utter Disaster, shortened to UD had stuck to him like thistle to clothing and just like thistle it was infuriating at the best of times. Despite his “prickly” personality, Yudi, was one of his more functional brothers. Some were still shy or lost, some were confused and some were paralyzed by all this new “choice” that had been forced upon them.
There was no time to panic, no time to wallow and no time to lick wounds. His brothers needed accommodations, supplies, they needed safety and Yudi had chosen to tackle the problem head on instead of wallowing at its magnitude.
Without the hive mind, information was not as readily accessible and the better solutions to his problems were hard to find. Where once there had been thousands of voices, all working together to achieve the same goal, all in harmony, now he was left with either numbing silence or the dissonance of his own lonely thoughts. Doing things by himself was hard, but he would get better at it, he had to get better at it. His more vulnerable brothers relied on him getting better at it. Not to say that he was the only brother tackling the construction project or the long term agricultural goals or even establishing some form of production and economy for the kingdom of Dryl.
There were others here too and amongst them was his least favorite brother, the runt that had stranded them here in the first place. It didn’t help that the defect had apparently learned a thing or two in its exile and had started to put the knowledge to use leading to a sort of grudging admiration from some of his other brothers. He handled the planning of the new settlement, the logistics and even the construction itself through the use of the robotic drones. He had found a way to coordinate them through the use of some sort of neural interface but remained tight lipped on how exactly it functioned when asked about it directly. He would deny the existence of a neural link and maintain that the implant device he was utilizing was merely a long distance communicator with which he coordinated the drones. He insisted that should Yudi himself need the drones to assist with any task, he had to verbally communicate the task in explicit detail to the drones. Verbal communications was still hard. Yudi hated it and resented its necessity.
The things were clumsy and rather stupid and Yudi himself thought that he would do a far better job than the runt ever could with coordinating them. But no, Hordak had to be difficult about it.
A bubbly voice broke him out of his thoughts.
“Greetings brother!” came from behind him, “I hope the day finds you in good spirit!” It was Kadroh, one of the more outgoing and functional of his brothers. He had been a calming, guiding influence throughout the ordeal on all of them. It was hard to be anything but calm in his presence.
“Day, is a measurement of time, it can’t find me. It’s an abstract notion” Yudi said without turning towards his fellow clone. “and you know I think spirits are nonsense made up by primitive minds”. He put down the electrical power panel he was working on and then turned to face his sibling. “Greetings brother!”
Kadroh let out a laugh “It’s a figure of speech brother” then smiled at him, “ What I meant was that I hope your day is going well”
“Things could be going better. Can’t concentrate on the electrical grid of this dwelling without these moronic drones interrupting me when they get stuck in loops. How am I supposed to get anything done like this?”
“Peace brother, it will be done when it’s done, we are not on a schedule.” Kadroh put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with a disarming smile. “We are comfortable at the moment in the camp and Entrapta is almost done deactivating all of the traps in the castle.” He added enthusiastically. “Everything will be fine, no need to push yourself so hard”. He let go of Yudi's shoulder and bent down to the basket at his feet to take a package out of it. “Have you had anything to eat today, or drink?”
“I knew I kept forgetting something” he reached out for the package and took it gingerly from Kadroh’s outstretched hand.
“The locals call these sandwiches,” Kadroh bent down and pulled a bottle of colored water out of the basket next. “what a silly name for a food, they have absolutely nothing to do with sand or magic, the Etherians are usually literal in their naming conventions but apparently, sandwich is one of those exceptions that proves the rule.” He chuckled and smiled broadly at Yudi and then handed him the beverage.
“How would an exception prove a rule?” Yudi said through bites. He had been hungry. His brother seemed to have a knack for providing sustenance whenever he forgot about that bothersome need himself. Kadroh acted like a caretaker for most of them, always there to help and to listen to guide and to comfort, sometimes even to nudge in what he considered the 'right' direction.
“The argument states that if an exception exists or has to be stated, then this exception proves that there must be some rule to which the case is an exception to.” came from behind him in a haughty voice. How could they all have the same voice and yet sound so different? By the Light! Yudi hated that particular voice.
“Greetings brother!” Kadroh piped in. “You look glum, are you feeling all right?”
“Hey defect” Yudi added with a sneering tone.
The runt regarded Yudi with a blank expression at first then raised a brow ridge while tilting his head slightly to the side. One of his ears twitched as he coughed in his hand. “Why would I not be feeling all right?” He then stared with his uncanny red eyes at Kadroh.
After the abolition of the hivemind and being weaned off the amniotic fluid, the eye color of most of his brothers started changing from green to yellow. Apparently, sans' Prime’s influence, their natural eye color had actually been a golden yellow glow. Some had different shades, of yellow like lime or saffron, but the defect had uncanny glowing red eyes. Even the defect’s defective creation had the right colored eyes but not the runt. That walking fetus of his may have been stunted and released from gestation before maturation but at least when it looked at you; it didn’t instill the same uncanny eeriness that the defect himself exuded. What’s worse was that the runt insisted on highlighting the difference by painting the area around his eyes black. He was proud of being broken and that provoked Yudi even further.
“Oh, you know...” Kadroh said absently “ You’ve been working yourself awfully hard brother.” he shrugged "You could use a break and a sandwich.” he walked between Yudi and the defect, blocking them off from each other and extending his hand towards Hordak, holding the packaged food out. “Something tells me you too forgot to eat today.”
Hordak frowned at the offering. “I can’t be bothered with that now, I’m leaving to start on the reparations project for Salineas in a few days and there are still drones that I haven’t had a chance to update to the new firmware.”
“Brother!” Kadroh said reproachfully “Eating, hydrating and resting aren’t things you should be putting off!” he looked at him pleadingly. “Please eat this” he jerked the food towards him once more “For me?”
Hordak huffed and took the food bundle then started unpacking it. He took small bites out of it while standing and surveying the area. He eyed the electric panel that Yudi had been working on. One eye squinting critically.
“Something to say?” Yudi pierced him with his golden glare.
“You are using uninsulated cables.” The runt said between bites. “The whole panel will be unstable,” he took another small bite then swallowed “prone to overheating and shorting out” he took another bite “Perhaps I could assist you in making it more stable, it won’t take long.”
“I don’t need your help with this.”Yudi stated flatly. Oh but the defect sure had gumption!
Hordak simply blinked slowly and added. “But you do require assistance, this task is evidently too complex foe you to handle by yourself. A second pair of eyes might highlight minor issues to you, issues that might have gone unnoticed. The uninsulated cables are a simple mistake, it could have happened to anyone, no need to be defensive about it.” He dismissed, as if he had the right!
Yudi straightened to his full height, walked around Kadroh and faced Hordak completely. “Perhaps I do need assistance, just not YOUR assistance. I don’t trust your ability to aid me in this task.” He snapped.
“Brothers!” Kadroh tried to interject in a calming tone but was interrupted.
“I’ve been stranded on this planet for decades, in the interim; I’ve handled far more complex operations than this.” Hordak said while gesturing with his hand at the buildings around them, his tone flat and gravely. He regarded his bother with half closed eyes, mimicking indifference but the slight wilting of his ears gave him away.
“Please!” Kadroh tried to squeeze in, his tone now urgent.
“As if anything you’ve done here hasn’t been failure after failure!” Yudi pressed on with gleeful mockery.
“THIS! He started in a harsh tone, then stopped and continued in a forced calm “is something that I have already successfully accomplished before, I built a whole city with nothing but my broken ship. If you, and and the rest of the likeminded fools weren’t so obstinate to fight me at every turn, this job could be done so much sooner.”
Yudi puffed up and, without really thinking, immediately bit back with “Prime gave you one job, defect! to die! And you couldn’t even get that right!!! Why should I trust you with anything else?” It came out sounding more like a bark than a shout.
The sound of shattered glass broke them both out of it. Kadroh was panting besides them having dropped the glasses and the drinks. He was looking at Yudi with pleading, warm golden eyes. He tried to say something but all that came out was gasps. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish on dry land.
Hordak let out a feral growl, bearing his crimson teeth at them and clenched his fists, the rest of the sandwich lay dropped on the ground, forgotten. He too took in a sharp breath, preparing to shout but then, all of a sudden, he stopped himself. His grimace flattened to a neutral expression and he unclenched his fists. The only thing that came out of his mouth was a tired sigh. He looked away from them “I don’t have time for this,” then turned around completely and walked away leaving Yudi alone with Kadroh in the deafening silence that hung around his departure for a few minutes.
“Brother! That was completely uncalled for!” Kadroh said with a reproachful tone after having calmed down. Great, now his brother was angry with him because of the defect. And Yudi thought this day was already terrible enough. Apparently there’s always room for more terrible.
“Was it?” he said to Kadroh’s face, eyeing him with squinting eyes. ”Was it really? It’s his fault we’re all in this mess, his fault Prime found this planet and didn’t glass the damn thing form orbit” he started adding faster “it’s his fault we’re stuck here, stranded and at the mercy of these asinine creatures on this ridiculous planet, it’s his fault Prime got distracted at the end, and it’s his fault Prime’s DEAD! his fault we’re all alone now!”
“YES! Prime’s dead! And the universe is better for it!” Kadroh shouted at him snapping Yudi out of his rant. In a meeker voice he added “We’re better for it.” He looked away “If Hordak hadn’t done what he’d done, you wouldn’t be here to resent him for it, none of us would.”
“Brother I,” Yudi tried to deflect but Kadroh interrupted him.
“That was cruel, brother! That was cruel and it was wrong!” he crossed his arms over his chest. “And I’m crossed with you.”
“I don’t want to fight with you brother” Yudi said, deflating. “Please, forgive my outburst.”
“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.” Kadroh added then turned around and left in a brusque pace.