Archive of Our Own ^beta

When SPECTRA worms its way into his mind, Chai feels it. Much like he feels the pain of being blasted directly in the chest, and landing on the floor hard.

It hurts. Like something is picking at his brain; a parasite carving a space for itself in its host. He’s pretty sure that’s not how it actually works. But that’s what it is. A technological parasite.

It’s like a movie or a video game or a comic. He wishes he were in the hideout, just watching or playing or reading one of those. It’d be better than this. Anything would be better than—

Everything starts to blur together. Chai can barely even feel the pain anymore.

Come here.
What? Where?

There’s no music. No beat. In fact, he can’t really hear anything. It's like being underwater.

I’m proud to be a member of the Vandelay Family.
No I’m not. Well, not if Kale’s involved, anyway.

He’s pretty sure he just said that out loud, actually. But he didn't feel his mouth move, and the words sounded like garbled nonsense. His body feels numb. He’s aware of the fact that he’s walking forward, but only because of how his vision is bobbing around from the movement.

Focus.

His gaze zeroes in on Kale, who he’s slowly coming toward. Kale is talking, his mouth is moving, but Chai can’t make out the words.

That’s not normal. But none of this is.

He should probably be panicking. He should probably stop walking towards Kale. He should probably do a lot of things.

But Chai can’t.

So he does the only thing he can.

He lets go.

Even if it’s really, really fucking scary. Even if he doesn’t want Kale to win. Even if he wants to take back control and beat this guy to a bloody pulp with his friends.

Chai doesn’t know how to fight this. He doesn’t think he can. Because how is he supposed to fight against his own body, his own brain? He’s spent a good chunk of his life trying to do that. It never works.

And it’s been a long day. A long week, actually. He’s tired. He’s so, so tired. Beyond tired, really.

It’s no use. There’s nothing he can do.

So when 808 leaps into his view and starts attacking Kale, Chai lets go.

I trust you.
Save me.

— — —

Kale is sick and fucking tired of these dipshits ruining everything.

First, they mess with production. Then, they kill his primary programmer on SPECTRA. Next, they recruit his head of security, kill his head of marketing live, and by sheer fucking luck managed to get past Roquefort.

It’s been a long day. A long week, actually. He’s done with this shit. Beyond done, really.

But now everything is falling into place. Finally.

And yet, here they are, still managing to find a way to ruin what should be a victorious moment.

Stupid fucking cat. I don’t have time for this bullshit!

When Chai finally ambles up to him, Kale gets an idea.

“I won’t let you build an army of mindless Vandelay soldiers!”

Chai is quite the fighter. Very strong, able to take a beating, quick on his feet…Kale will give him that. He’s still a defect. He could never be on-par with Kale’s skills. But he’s capable.

“Handle this, would you?” he says as he places a hand on Chai’s shoulder. He turns the other man, so that he’s facing away from Kale.

“Of course,” Chai replies.

Perfect.

While he deals with them, Kale will sit back and relax. SPECTRA will do all the heavy lifting for him.

— — —

808 stares up at Chai, uncertain.

His eyes are grey and cold. Lifeless. His expression is just as lacking. His whole body is, in fact. He’s not moving. Just…standing there, staring ahead blankly.

It makes her fur stand on end.

There’s no beat. No melody. It’s quiet, save for the sounds of the others whispering and trying to find a way to get out, alongside the clicking of Kale typing on a keyboard on the other side of the room.

And then, suddenly, there it is again. Thrumming through the air, through her body—through Chai. A song accompanies it. One she doesn’t recognize. She can’t quite make out the first few lyrics; she’s focused on him.

For a moment, 808 thinks that his eyes are brown again. But when his gaze moves to focus on her, it’s still that same icy silver.

His trash collector pops out of his arm. It shakes, and bits of scrap fly towards it, connecting with it on the beat. They form that familiar guitar-esque shape.

Slowly, Chai starts walking towards 808.

Somehow I felt the pang of your hunger
My will to resist was pulled out from under

Each step sounds so loud. Perfectly synced up with the beat, each one adds an extra thud to the song.

Hairs stood tall and I began to shake
My blood coursed strong as you readied your tank

808 doesn’t feel it quite like he does. She knows this. The source isn’t part of her like it is him, after all.
But she does know how powerful it is. How all-consuming it is.

I nodded once and that was all it took

Chai’s almost to her now. He starts to raise his scrap guitar into the air.
Everyone stops talking.

In a blink you were over me and my world shook

She knows to dodge before he even strikes. It was obvious.
That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make her ears flatten against her head.

And when I said it was understood
You had control once you lowered your hood

The ground shakes with the impact. When Chai lifts the scrap guitar back up, there’s a dent in the floor where she was standing.

My pulse quickened to impossible speed
Your fangs sunk deep and you began to feed

Peppermint cries something out. But 808 is too focused on dodging to listen, because now that he’s started attacking, Chai isn’t stopping.

And now I just can’t hide

He’s lightning quick. She barely manages to get away from each brutal swing.

Spellbound and mesmerized

Watching him fight is exhilarating. 808 had always thought that it’d be fun to join him, to really fight with him.
Being up against him is a living nightmare.

She needs to change course, because there’s no way she can fight him. If she could get close enough to Kale, maybe—

You’ve got me hypnotized

Chai immediately gets in her way. Every attempt at getting past him is quickly hindered. He’s too fast for her.

Spellbound and mesmerized!

But she has to keep trying. For his sake. There’s no other way.

I’ll feed you what you want
What I need is never what I want

808 waits for him to strike again. This time, when she dodges, she leaps up onto his scrap guitar. She scampers up it, onto his shoulder, then leaps down. She races towards Kale, pushing herself to go as fast as she can.

In a blink, I am yours

Almost there—!

Give it to me, and I’ll give it to you

The scraping of metal on metal echoes out, accompanied by a resounding bang, crunching, and a yowl of pain.

“808!” Peppermint screams.

She struggles, trying to pry her hind legs out from under the scrap guitar. Doing so just makes it hurt more, though, so she stops, collapsing to the ground.

With a flash and a squeeze it’s my turn to be
Unspoken promises with mutual need

When the pressure relents, 808 tries to get away. She doesn’t get very far before collapsing again. She looks up at Chai, her frightened gaze meeting his.

She whispered to me as our blood mixed,
“You’re the seventh son of the seventh son”

Cold, unrelenting silver eyes bore into her warm gold ones.

“Your fate is fixed”

There’s a comfort in it: knowing that this isn’t Chai. He wouldn’t hurt her.

Now I’m a phantom, a ghost unabsolved
I’m bound to move shadows when the day dissolves

So when he lifts the guitar up again, ready to swing down…

Surely no bullet, no wooden stake
Could ever end this bond that refuses to break

…808 closes her eyes and lays her head down.

— — —

All Peppermint can feel right now is rage. It’s like a fire in her veins.

She knows this feeling well. It’s something that the world can’t seem to stop making her feel. Whether it be people, circumstances, whatever. They irritate her, and they pretend to understand when they don’t, they never could, just stop—

That doesn’t matter right now. Because right now, Peppermint needs to focus.

It’s hard, though, when Chai isn’t himself and 808 is hurt.

He has his guitar up above his head, ready to bring it down. Ready to—to—

“Good work,” Kale praises before he can.

God, she wants to rip him limb from fucking limb.
He’s gone too far this time. And that’s saying something, considering all of the awful shit he’s pulled.

Chai brings his arms down to his sides. 808 mewls weakly.

Peppermint breathes out shakily. She’s sort of thankful that Kale interjected. If 808 were destroyed—she’d do what she could. But would it be enough? Would things be the same?

“Now,” he says as he snaps his fingers, “get rid of them.”

The barrier around her, Macaron, and Korsica vanishes in a blink.

Chai turns towards them. His expressionless face would be almost peaceful if it didn’t look unnatural on him.

She pulls out her blasters, then looks at Macaron and Korsica.

“You two distract him so I can get to Kale.”
“We’ve got your back,” Macaron assures her.
Korsica nods in agreement.

Macaron moves ahead first, calling out to Chai. “Hey, little guy! No need to get violent…”

Before following him, Korsica grabs Peppermint’s shoulder. She gives it a squeeze. Their eyes meet.
Peppermint feels heat rush to her face.

“Be careful,” Korsica whispers.

Then, she hurries after Macaron, readying her batons.

I will.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Peppermint carefully starts making her way towards Kale.

It doesn’t take long for the fighting to start.

Chai is throwing everything he has at them. It looks amazing. He’s lightning quick. Korsica stuns him with a blast of wind, but he pops right back up in no time. Macaron tosses him away from them, and he’s in their faces again in moments. It’s kind of scary, actually.

They’ve all seen him fight plenty of times. Hell, they’ve fought with him a decent amount. But going up against him is something else entirely.

Trying to avoid Chai seeing her and the ongoing battle is tricky. Luckily, Macaron and Korsica are very good at being distracting. Every time Chai starts to look in her direction, one of them gets in the way.

For the most part, they seem to be avoiding blows. They dodge out of his way, then get some distance in the little time they have.

The only reason Peppermint’s watching so closely is to get away from any incoming attacks. Having to divide her focus like this is hard, but it has to be done. She can’t risk it.

Halfway there…just a bit further.

She stops mid-step. Her breath is caught in her throat. Her gaze is zeroed in on 808, lying on the ground.

808’s hind legs are completely crushed. Bits of wire and metal bones stick out from the crumpled pieces of skin and fur. Her ears twitch, but she doesn’t lift her head up.

Peppermint feels tears forming. She hastily wipes them away, shaking her head as she continues walking. I’ll come back for you.

“Peppermint, look out!”

She ducks just in time, narrowly avoiding Chai’s thrown scrap guitar. It lodges itself into the wall next to her. Right where her head was only moments prior.

She slipped up, and she almost paid the price.

The next thing Peppermint knows, Chai’s in her face. She hears Korsica swear as he lunges for her. She rolls to the side, only to realize he was actually going for the handle of the scrap guitar. He yanks it out from the wall, turning to her in the same movement.

Shit.

They’re out of options. If they keep going like this, they’ll just exhaust themselves. Sure, Chai will get tuckered out, too, but that doesn’t count for much if they’re too tired to use that to their advantage. They’ll have to knock him out. If they even can.

But when she lifts her blasters up to start firing, Peppermint finds she can’t pull the trigger. Even though she knows he could easily dodge the shots. Even though she knows he’s survived worse.

He swings at her. She leaps out of the way.

Korsica runs up when he tries again, hitting Chai in the side with her batons, knocking him off balance. It gives Peppermint enough space to get away, which she does. From there, the fight’s between the two of them. They trade blows, dodging and weaving around one another. It’s like a dance. Graceful, almost beautiful in a way; yet chaotic, wild, violent.

Peppermint only lets herself watch for a few more moments. Then, she bolts at Kale, opening fire. Each shot hits her target: the SPECTRA machine in front of him.

Almost—almost—!

A sharp scream echoes through the air.
“Oh God—Korsica!”

Her feet skid along the ground as she comes to a sudden stop. She whirls around to see what happened. Before she can even begin to process any of it, something rams into her flesh leg. She falls down into a kneel with a cry, letting go of her blasters. They fall down with a clatter. Something presses up against her back, shoving her the rest of the way down to the floor.

Kale tsks. “You think you would’ve learned something from when your cat tried this earlier.”

Tears fill her eyes. The rage, the hatred in her reaches its boiling point.

“ Fuck you! ” she shrieks as she uses all of the strength in her body to push up against him.

The pressure recedes. Not long after, there’s a loud, metallic bang from behind her. It’s accompanied by cursing.

When Peppermint gets to her feet, she can only stare at the scene before her. Tears slip down her face.

Blood is on the floor. Macaron has Korsica in his arms. Chai is running towards her, blood on his scrap guitar.

— — —

Macaron doesn’t want to hurt Chai. He really, truly doesn’t. The little guy would never do this in his right mind. But they need to get out of here before he hurts anyone else.

So he shoves Chai with all of his force when he makes a break for Peppermint. Chai goes flying like a ragdoll, slamming into the wall. Macaron winces. Sorry, little guy.

“Come on, Peppermint, we need to get out of here!” he calls to her.
She stares at him for a few moments, before nodding.

He leads the way to where they originally came in, shoving the doors open. He waits for her there, in the doorway.

Macaron really wishes CNMN were here right now. He feels like he’s about to have a breakdown. But he can’t. When all of this is over, and they’re back at the hideout, he’ll let himself freak out. Right now, Peppermint and Korsica need him.

Peppermint races past him, 808 in her arms. He’s quick to follow. They make their way through the building, dodging and outrunning security as best as they can.

The only footsteps they hear, aside from their own, are metal. Which means Chai isn’t following them. There’s that, at least.

Korsica groans as she’s jostled around in his hold.

“Hold on. We gotta get outta here,” he explains. “Then we’ll get you all fixed up.”

She murmurs something, before going quiet again.

Please let us make it in time. Please, please, please. I can’t lose anyone else. Not today.

For a bit now, Peppermint’s been ahead of him. Now, she’s starting to fall behind. Tears stream down her face. She’s gasping for air.

Macaron maneuvers Korisca so that he has her in one arm. Then, he reaches for Peppermint, pulling her into his other. She clutches onto him as she tries to catch her breath.

“Don’t worry! I’ll get us out of here!” he shouts above the noise.

Don’t panic. I can do this. I just—I gotta be confident. I can do this. I can do this!

Robots keep jumping in to block the way. Macaron forcefully makes a path through them. Every hit and swipe stings, but he pushes on. Metal crumples under him. He does his best to not jostle Korsica and Peppermint too much as he goes.

Deep breaths. I can do this.

He said he’d get them out of here, and he doesn’t intend on being a liar today.

— — —

Korsica’s not really sure what’s happening anymore.

One moment, she was fighting Chai. The next, everything went red and all she felt was searing pain.

Her mouth tastes like iron. Her head pounds. There’s so many noises; footsteps, panting, talking, shouting.

As the world fades in and out, she finds that Macaron is carrying her. Across from her, she catches glimpses of Peppermint and 808 in his other arm. They must be retreating, because everything around them is moving in a blur.

Which means they’ve lost.

She clenches her fists weakly. Fuck.

Korsica’s head hurts so bad. She can barely think.

This is my fault…if I had just…if I…

Tears fill her eyes. She squeezes them shut.

I’m sorry. I'm so sorry. I’m sorry…I’m sorry…

“Korsica…”

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

“Korsica.”

I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry

“Kors—”
“ Shit! ”

Loud noises. She hits something—hard. Her vision fills with red. Everything aches. And then it all goes black and the pain fades away, along with the rest of the world.

— — —

It’s been 1800 seconds since they went into the SPECTRA building, leaving CNMN with the promise to come get him once it’s all over. They know this because they’ve been counting since the group left.

This could mean a couple of things.

They are still in the process of defeating Kale and shutting SPECTRA down.
Or they succeeded, and are currently celebrating or on their way out.
Or they failed, and are in grave danger.

CNMN isn’t certain which is more likely.

They are content to wait for their friends. They have faith in them. Kale is a formidable foe, but they’ve faced plenty of those as of late. Even though Mr. Chai is the one that does most of the facing. But Mr. Chai is very capable. If there’s anyone that can take Kale down, it would be him! With the others there as well, they are sure to be victorious!

Of course, that’s assuming that Kale has not taken control of Mr. Chai via SPECTRA. Which he most likely has. After all, it would be foolish to not do so when the option is available to him.

CNMN wishes he could have come with, but he is ultimately satisfied with what he managed to do. They would not have been much help in the fight, anyway. They were not built for fighting. Perhaps he should ask Sir Macaron for some battle upgrades.

The doors to the SPECTRA building burst open.

Ah, there they are!

A pack of robots chases Sir Macaron out of the building. He has Lady Korsica in one arm, and Ms. Peppermint and 808 over one shoulder. There are no signs of Mr. Chai.

Oh dear. It does not seem to have gone well.

When Sir Macaron reaches them, he hauls them up into his other arm. Then, he returns to running.

“I see that our plan failed.”
“Sure did, buddy. I’ll explain later!”
“As expected, sir. There isn’t much time for it now.”

CNMN hopes that they are all—relatively—alright, despite the circumstances.

Especially Mr. Chai. If he is still with Kale…well, they can only hope.