Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The titans were dying. Their numbers had been dwindling for a while now. And it wasn't just the titans.

"There's something wrong with Alrest.", Natalya commented to her family in the training room one day.

"Gee, Talya, how long did it take you to figure that out.", Patroka replied sarcastically, blocking the shield weapon Natalya had thrown at her with her spear.

"What did you expect, Patroka? She is Mik's sister after all.", Akhos grinned, from the safety of his ether shield.

Mikhail and Natalya exchanged a look.

Well, they asked for it .

Natalya aimed her next attack, purposefully narrowly missing their opponents. The air glistened with frost. She then passed her shield to her brother, who used it to knock an attacking Patroka back into the frosted area, before giving his sister a boost to jump high up into the air above them. He tossed her his fans in flight and watched her twirl in the air as she combined the ether flowing from his weapon with her own element, enveloping both Akhos and Patroka in a dark frozen blizzard. Natalya landed gracefully on her feet, and didn't waste a moment to swap back weapons with her brother, before they both raced off into the blizzard, not giving Akhos and Patroka a moment to orientate themselves.

"Three steps to your right, five ahead.", she told Mikhail. "I'll deal with Akhos."

By the time the storm cleared, both Flesh-Eaters had a Blade-Eater on top of them, and a weapon at their throat.

"You know, for two smart-asses, you sure go down easily.", Mikhail grinned.

"You ganged up on us. If you were fighting us normally, we'd kick your asses.", Patroka spat at them.

"This was a two against two fight. It's not our fault that you two suck at co-op.", Natalya told her. "I was being serious though. Something's wrong."

She got up and held her hand out to Akhos to pull him to his feet.

"This is Alrest we're talking about here.", Mikhail said, reaching out to Patroka who slapped his hand away and scrambled to her feet on her own. "What isn't wrong with it?"

"You know what I mean. It's more wrong than usual."

She earned herself three confused looks.

"Haven't you noticed, the titans are dying and now there are Blades going missing."

"Titans have always been dying.", a voice cut in from the doorway.

The four of them turned.

"Jin! I didn't know you'd be joining us today!", Mikhail exclaimed.

The memory of the last time he had wiped the floor with them was still fresh on his mind. It had been a lot of fun, even though his muscles still hurt at the thought of it.

"I won't. But you four were about to miss lunch again."

"Sorry, we're on our way."

"No, you're not. All four of you need a shower and a change of clothes. You've been fighting for hours. You're all covered in Patroka's dirt and with Talya's ice melting, you're going to drag mud through the entire ship. I'll see you all in 30 minutes."

And with that Jin left and the rest were left to drag themselves off to the training room showers.

+++

"What did you mean earlier, about the titans dying?", Natalya asked later between mouths full of stew.

"Just what I said. Titans dying isn't anything new.", Jin replied matter-of-factly. 

"But there used to be no problem with living space before, and now, Mor Ardain and Uraya are about to go to war over territory. So something must have changed more recently."

Jin muttered something that sounded like "history lessons" and "Minoth's business", but when Natalya continued to look at him expectantly, he sighed.

"What do any of you know about the life cycle of Blades?"

"We awaken from the Core Crystals and when our Driver's die, we return to them. Rinse and repeat until the Core Crystal gets destroyed.", Patroka volunteered.

"Not quite.", Jin told her. "Mikhail?"

He sounded like a teacher calling on his top student - who looked more like the next class drop out, the way he was lounging in his chair.

"Well, unless some misfortune happens, like when the Core Crystal is destroyed or gets fused with human cells, Blades will eventually reach a point when they have to return to the Titan that bore them. Then, in the womb of that Titan, the Blades that return are reborn as Titans.", Mikhail explained to everyone but Jin's surprise.

"Since when are you the knowledgeable one?", Patroka snarked at him.

"I've seen it myself."

"When the hell -", Patroka exclaimed.

"Never mind that.", Natalya interrupted. Something about her brother's tone and the way he looked at Jin told her that this was a memory he shouldn't be pressed on right now. "If Titans evolve from Blades, then does that mean the living space crisis is our fault?"

"How would that be our fault?", Akhos asked.

"Well, we did steal a lot of Core Crystals, and we're basically keeping them from being awakened, which means they can't complete the cycle, so they won't return to the womb and evolve, which means the lack of Titans is our fault, right?"

"That doesn't matter anymore now.", Jin consoled her. When Natalya looked at him quizzically, he explained: "There are no more female Titans old enough."

"What?"

"There are three life stages for Titans. A larval state, a fertile state and an adult state. A Titan takes on average 2000 years to reach its adult state. Titans younger than that can produce Core Crystals, but only an adult female Titan has the womb necessary for Blade evolution. And the last Titan fitting that description died about 500 years ago.", Jin explained sourly.

"Which means any Blades born from Core Crystals older than that can never become Titans. And since the younger Titan generations are only just spitting out Core Crystals that are nowhere near old enough to evolve into Titans, there is no way to replace the dying Titan population of Alrest.", Mikhail supplied. "And to add to that, the Judician experiments massively decreased the number of Blades that would have been able to evolve."

"You mean creating people like us?"

"That too, but you must have noticed that there has been a massive increase of weakened Blades appearing over the last years. I mean, remember when we were kids, Talya? Powerful Blades were a pretty common sight. I mean, not as powerful as Jin, but still, there used to be a lot of Blades on Obrona, Perdido and Cressidus' level. Now though, with every shipment of "cleansed" Core Crystals headed out of Indol, they become weaker. It's almost like Indol is draining them of their power and personality."

"And here I thought Amal-", a single silencing look from her brother had Natalya swallow the rest of that name. "... that bastard was bad. But his replacement isn't much better is he?"

"The new Praetor? Well, what did you expect? The Praetorium is Indoline. So is the Praetor. What amount of respect for Blades and Titans can you expect from a civilisation that calls itself the successors of Judicium?", Mikhail laughed coldly.

"But he was so extreme, can you blame me for thinking it couldn't get any worse than him ?"

"No.", Akhos cut in. "Certainly where that man is concerned, things are personal. No one could fault you for not assessing the situation objectively."

"Objectively, Akhos, he was a piece of shit.", Natalya countered.

"A piece of shit without whom both you and Mik would be long dead by now, though.", Patroka pointed out.

"Are you implying we should thank him?!", both Natalya and Mikhail growled in unison.

"No, I just - well, it's another reason to be mad at him for - thanks to him there are now two more people bugging me all the time!"

"Aw, Patroka, don't be like that. You can tell us you think our presence is a gift. We won't mind.", Mikhail teased.

"What? I - you are so gross, Mik!"

As the two continued bickering, Akhos caught Natalya's gaze across the table and rolled his eyes. This type of exchange was nothing new. It wasn't like Mikhail had ever tried to hide that he had more than a platonic interest in Patroka, even though he mostly tried to play it off as a joke. And Patroka, well, Natalya assumed she was just not ready to work through her emotions. Not that anyone in this room was in any position to judge her. They all had their own shit to work through. Among all of them, Natalya had probably been the luckiest. At least Mikhail had turned up alive after all. So she didn't blame Patroka for reacting the way she did. Not just with Mikhail's flirtations, but also any time Akhos tried to show brotherly affection, and if Natalya had a gold piece for every time Patroka had told her they were "not friends", she would probably be able to buy out every Nopon in Argentum. Yet friends they were, and right now, her friend needed saving from her brother.

"Please stop, Misha.", she pulled a face, as if she had a headache.

"Stop what?", Mikhail asked innocently, before adding: "I think we agreed I'm too old for that nickname."

Natalya ignored him. "I signed up for a lot of things when I joined you. Watching my baby brother flirt was not one of them."

"I'm 508!!!", he protested.

Natalya raised an eyebrow at him.

"Your point being?"

Her brother glared at her. Natalya smirked at him. But before she could turn the conversation back to the topic, she was distracted by something none of them had ever experienced before.

Next to her, at the head of the table, Jin clutched his Core Crystal and groaned in agony.

Chapter Text

The second Akhos left Jin’s room, he was swarmed by three panicked people.

“What’s happening to him?” “Can you heal him?” “Is he going to be okay?” His sister, his girlfriend and his best friend bombarded him with questions so quickly, he couldn’t even tell who had asked him what.

“Give the man some time to breathe, guys!”, Obrona lisped from somewhere behind them.

She was standing next to Cressidus and Perdido, all of whom looked slightly freaked out, but not nearly as much as the first three. Akhos threw her a grateful look. He instantly regretted it, when she swooped over and right up to his face and chirped: “Tell us everything!”

Akhos sighed. “He’s sleeping, but there isn’t much I can do. His core is damaged.”

“What? But, how does that even happen?”, Natalya gasped.

“I don’t know. It appears there are small hair fractures forming from the inside, but I can’t tell what’s causing them. All I can do is restore some of his energy and dull the pain. If we really want to help him, we’re going to need a far better healer than me.”

“Well, where are we going to find someone like that?”, Patroka exclaimed. “Jin would kill all of us, if we started awakening Blades until we got a good healer.”

“There has to be something we can do though.”, Mikhail almost begged.

“As much as I would like to turn over all of Alrest for a way to help Jin, I think the smart thing would be to wait until he wakes up and talk to him about it first.”, Natalya looked at Akhos, frantic.

He decided he did not like what the look on her face did to his stomach.

“He is going to wake up, isn’t he?”, she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Akhos closed the distance between them and put his arms around her. She buried her face in his neck and made a strangled noise.

“I think so. I hope so.”, Akhos told her, as he carded his fingers through her hair and massaged circles on her back.

He looked over his girlfriend’s head at her brother. Mikhail looked only slightly more put together than Natalya. It didn’t take much more than a look or two to get him to join in on the hug.

“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.”, he managed to tell his sister, before Natalya started quietly crying.

Akhos only noticed Obrona shoving Cressidus and Perdido out of the corridor, before Patroka took a step closer.

“You’re all being disgustingly gross.”, she observed, sounding more upset than usual, before she surprised everyone by continuing: “Move your arm, Mik, I’m feeling left out.”

As soon as Mikhail had lifted his left arm, she snuggled into their hug, and the four of them just stood there, holding eachother, until long after Natalya had stopped crying. It was quite inappropriate, given the gravity of the situation, but when Patroka had stepped towards them, Akhos stomach had fluttered. He had been prepared for disappointment. He had not expected her to join them. His sister did not like dealing with emotions - or people. Both at once were a little too difficult for her to handle. Now, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so whole. If it wasn’t for Jin still being unconscious in the next room, Akhos would have said the moment was perfect.

“What’s wrong with all of you?”, rasped a voice from behind him. “You’d think someone died.”

They all jumped apart and Natalya and Mikhail all but hurled themselves towards the sound of that voice.

“Jin!”

+++

Jin wasn’t getting better. Akhos had theorised that it was a symptom of Jin’s Flesh-Eater transformation having gone wrong, but he wasn’t quite sure what might have caused them to surface either. It had all happened so sudden.

The atmosphere on the Monoceros was tense. It was almost like back when Malos was still with them. Jin pretended like there was nothing wrong with him. Akhos spent most of his time locked up in the library, trying to do more research on Judicium and Flesh-Eaters. Mikhail was somewhere in the belly of the ship, tinkering. Patroka tried to punch her way through her feelings. Quite literally. By the time anyone could coax her out of the training room, both Perdido and Cressidus looked unnaturally exhausted - and Patroka looked no more calm than before. And Natalya was trying her hardest to not go insane from how useless she felt.

Not for the first time in the last week, she found herself standing in front of the same door. It wasn’t on purpose. Natalya had been aimlessly wandering, trying to busy her thoughts, but it was as if something behind that door tugged at her, called her, beckoned. But Natalya didn’t want to know. Every time she ended up in front of that door, she was more tempted to open it, but a feeling she couldn’t describe as anything other than apprehension, got the better of her every time. But not this time.

Natalya took a deep breath and reached for the door. But before her hand touched the metal, it slid open.

The first thing Natalya saw was a large room, its walls lined with polycarbonate containers, emitting a softly pulsing blue light. Core Crystals. So that’s where they were stored. Natalya’s gaze slid across the walls. There had to be thousands, easily. Her eyes narrowed in on a small casing close to the left side of the room. There was a faint purple glow coming from it. Pulsing like the beat of a living heart. Natalya took a step closer. All the other crystals were so bright. Why was this one so faint? It was only when she got closer, that she saw the cracks in the crystal’s surface, and its shape. It was a violet cross. Malos!

She needed to get out of here. Natalya whirled around. That's when she saw it. It was strange that she hadn't noticed it immediately, when she had entered. The structure was at the center of the large circular room, and kind of hard to miss. And it wasn't just its size that made Natalya question why she hadn't noticed it immediately. It couldn't be more obviously the reason she'd kept finding her way to this room. She took a hesitant step towards the iceberg. The air around it glistened with cold, but that was the only indication that it was actually ice rather than glass or diamond. It was cold to the touch, but didn't melt under the warmth of her hand. And when Natalya looked up, she noticed there was someone inside. It made her take a conscious step back.

The girl in the ice didn't look any older than Natalya herself. But then again, looks didn't say much about age on this ship. She was wearing a Tornan style tunic and armour. Her hair was reddish brown and the short strands were framing her pretty face beautifully. She looked like she was peacefully sleeping. Natalya stared up at her, entranced.

Who is she?

Hesitantly, she lifted her hand again, running her fingers over the ice. Back when Estham was still a winter wonderland and not a broken ruin at the bottom of the cloud sea, her mother had once told her that ice remembered. She had meant naturally formed ice, but Natalya's curiosity lead her to try anyway. She closed her eyes. Morena's powers were always stronger when Natalya couldn't see.

The ice was old. Almost 500 years old. There were remnants of some type of grass pollen enclosed that Natalya had never sensed in ice before. So wherever this ice was formed, it probably wasn't anywhere Natalya had been before. But there was something even stranger. Pain. Not just pain. There was sheer agony and desperation frozen in every particle, as if the ice itself was made from it. So it wasn't naturally formed. The only way that emotions could get trapped in ice was if it was created by a Blade art. And since Natalya had nothing to do with the girl in the ice, there was only one other possible explanation for what the frozen person was doing on the Monocerous: Jin.

But why would he-? Natalya turned her attention to the girl. She was cryonically frozen, moments from death, and her heart was gone. Natalya blinked. There was only one reason Jin would do something like this. Why he would preserve someone like this: This had to be her. The girl in the ice was Lora.

Natalya stared up at her. So this was the woman who had rescued her brother and taken him under her wing after he and Natalya had gotten separated. The first person who had shown him any kindness since their parents had died. Natalya had never met her, but she had loved her all the same. That stranger who had kept her family safe when Natalya couldn't.

"Thank you for everything.", she whispered.

Then, because she didn't know what else to do, and she had to get it off her chest, she sat down on the ground next to Lora facing away from the door and told her the situation.

+++

"I don't know what to do. I want to help, but I haven't the faintest idea how.", she sighed, when she was done.

Somewhere on her right, a faint purple glow pulsed persistently. Natalya pointedly ignored it and turned her attention back to the girl in the ice.

"You'd know how to help him. I wish you were -", the words died in her throat.

Still here.

She jumped to her feet and ran out of the room, barely stopping long enough to close the door behind her.

+++

Mikhail was fiddling around with the wiring of the Marsanes' life support. Again. The air circulation had not been up to his standards. It was nothing to do with recent developments, and the fact that he had rewired the entire water filtration system to increase the water pressure by 22 micropascal. No, he was not trying to come up with reasons to be busy. These were all very urgent adjustments.

He sighed, closed the panel hiding the wiring and went to the control room to check his progress. On his way there, he almost collided with his sister, who was dashing into the direction of the library.

"Woha! Talya! Slow down!"

"No time! I think I figured out what's happening to Jin!", she caught his hand and dragged him with her as she continued running to the direction of the library. "Come on, I need to tell Akhos!"

Mikhail didn't mind, this was the best news he heard all week, but something about this still didn't sit right with him.

"I'll go get Patroka, she's just as worried as the rest of us. We'll meet you at the library."

His sister nodded. "Absolutely! Great idea, I'll see you in a minute."

She let go of his hand and they dashed into different directions.

+++

"It's a heart attack!", Natalya gasped out when she burst into the library, out of breath from sprinting across the ship.

Akhos stared at her, confused. "What is?"

"Did something happen to Jin?", Patroka asked, bursting in with Mikhail in toe.

"Yes, well no, I think I know what's wrong with him. He's got a human heart, and it's dying.", Natalya explained, catching her breath.

Next to her, Mikhail gasped loudly. His eyes were wide, his jaw loosely open.

"That's impossible!", Akhos refuted. "Flesh-Eaters have human cells fused with their Core Crystals, not whole human organs. That's not how that works!"

"Yeah, it doesn't make sense! Why would anyone risk that? It's already a procedure that goes horribly wrong 80% of the time. Why add additional risk by using a whole organ.", Patroka agreed.

"It makes perfect sense to me.", Mikhail said slowly.

"It's irrational!", Akhos argued.

"Well, this is Jin we're talking about. He might be an Ice Blade, but cold and rational isn't exactly a trait I'd use to describe him.", Mikhail argued right back. "And there's no way he'd have been rational about this. If there was ever anything he wanted from her it's to keep her heart beating."

"Now you're the one who's not making sense.", Patroka interjected. "Who are you talking about? Who is this her ?"

"Wait, are you trying to tell me Jin ate his driver's heart ?!", Akhos gaped.

Mikhail and Natalya nodded in unison.

"I've never heard something so foolishly emotional."

"Right. Because treating a few of your dead driver's dead sister's cells as your actual sibling somehow isn't foolishly emotional bullshit, huh?", Patroka bit into his direction.

Akhos shrank back.

"That's not. This isn't. It's not the same thing. You're -", he stuttered.

"For fucks' sake!", Natalya cursed under her breath at the same time as Mikhail muttered: "Was that necessary?"

He lifted his hands and stepped between them. "I know we're all on edge, Patroka, but you're not helping. And yes, Akhos, maybe it was a stupid thing to do, but it's not like we don't all know exactly what grief can do to people."

"But -", Akhos cleared his throat. "What Jin did, there was never any guarantee it would work. It's never been done before. It could have killed them both instantly. And now it is pretty much killing him. A whole heart! That's around 2.5 billion cells! How is a Core Crystal supposed to contain that?!"

"Well, quite obviously, it can't. So what do we do? How can we help him?", Natalya prompted.

"Well, for one thing, we're going to need a way better healer than me.", Akhos pointed out. "Natural causes aren't exactly my specialty."

"I think I might have an idea. If healing does the trick, we might be able to combine some Tornan and Ardainian engineering. I might be able to build something to at least ease the symptoms. It might buy us some time to get Jin to a healer.", Mikhail offered.

"Worth a shot.", Patroka agreed.

"I'll keep doing research, I found this huge scientific tome from Judicium this morning, maybe there's something useful in there.", Akhos told them.

"In that case, can I borrow Obrona?", Natalya asked him.

The other three turned to her surprised.

"You finally ready to go out and play Driver?", Patroka asked slowly.

Mikhail sniffed theatrically. "My big sister, all grown up and ready to fly the nest!"

Patroka rolled her eyes at him.

"No. No way! I was just -"

"I can come with you and do some Blade-sitting.", Patroka offered passively. "It's been ages since I last got some good action."

"Aww, Patroka, sweetheart, if you wanted some action, all you had to do was ask. How about the two of us go off on an adventure?", Mikhail all but purred.

Patroka narrowed her eyes at him. "How about you die in a rock slide, Mik?"

"I don't need a babysitter!", Natalya interrupted their - questionable - attempt at flirting. "I wasn't even going to leave the ship. I meant if I could borrow her for a project - as a partner."

Akhos immediately nodded. "Fine by me. I'd say you'd need to ask her first, but she's getting along with you better than with me anyway - and I'm supposed to be her Driver."

"Jealousy does not become you, Akhos.", a voice mused from above.

Natalya looked up to see Obrona draped upside down over a bookshelf.

"How long have you been up there?", she mused.

"Since before you came in. This one -", Obrona gestured at Akhos, "- can get so lost in his books, he doesn't even notice what's happening around him."

Natalya laughed.

Chapter Text

And so they each went back to their own things again. Akhos stayed in the library and only came out for food. Patroka was back in the training room attempting to punch her feelings into oblivion. His sister was off somewhere on the ship apparently trying to develop an ether monitoring system, if he'd understood her correctly. And he was back to tinkering. Granted, tinkering with a very different project this time, but tinkering nonetheless.

Currently he was digging through his workshop for materials. There was enough to get started, but he would need to go out and get a Gold Condenser, some Helix Tubes, and Locust Springs, at least 5 Zigzag Shafts and 3 more Crimson Gears. Possibly other things as well, but that would depend on how well the prototype developed, and what adjustments he'd have to make. He could probably convince Patroka to go looking for them. There was a good reason she volunteered to pretend to be his sister's Driver. Patroka could use some time outside of the confines of that ship, and it probably wouldn't hurt if she could chew up one or the other monster or Driver.

He grabbed another Whirlpool Plate, tucked it under his arm, picked up the box of screws, springs, gears and other trinkets he'd assembled, and left the room, heading for the Marsanes. The sooner he got started, the sooner they could help Jin.

When he entered the control room, he nodded a quiet greeting. The irony of the whole situation was palpable. Her beating heart keeping Jin alive, even in a world without her. Mikhail marched over to the nearest Core Crystal lined wall. They glowed from within their casings. Technically, he’d hooked them up to the Marsanes controls to power up the ship in an emergency. But this was definitely a more immediate emergency, and besides, he probably wouldn’t even have to divert all the energy.

He put down his box next to the small podium on the right side of the room. A uniquely shaped Core Crystal sat there. Malos was the same he’d ever been. Cold, dark and in no mood to resonate with anyone or anything. Hence why he was on the podium, and not stuck in the wall with Sever and the others.

“Look at you, being as helpful as ever.”, Mikhail told the black Core Crystal. “You know, since you are partially responsible for this mess, you could at least try and help one of these days.”

Malos - very uncharacteristically - didn’t respond. Not that Mikhail had expected the Crystal to talk back. He didn’t really know what he expected. Help would have been nice, sure, but first of all, this was Malos, and it really was up for debate, if he could even be helpful if he tried. And secondly, this was Malos, and Mikhail wasn’t even entirely sure he would want his help, even if it was offered. He busied himself with the cables, running through the floor and decided to ignore the Core Crystal next to him. There was really no point in dealing with a dormant Core Crystal.

+++

“Oh, there you are.”, Talya’s voice called out to him. She stood at the door, looking at the room, as if the floor was covered in live wires, which was odd. Mikhail could have sworn he hadn't made that much of a mess of the cables and he had only taken out two floor panels.

“Come in, I promise you won’t get electrocuted this time. Although, as far as I know, you seem to like that sort of thing.”, he winked at her.

His sister ignored his jab at her relationship with his best friend and looked away from him.

“N-no thanks. I’m good right here.”, she said, sounding like she was about to be sick. “I just wanted to tell you dinner was ready, I tried out a new recipe I found on our last outing .”

“Weren’t you banned from the kitchen?”, Mikhail asked, walking over to the door. “I hear Jin isn’t very fond of his kitchen being covered in snow.”

“Well, first of all, that was one time , and secondly, he can’t really complain, when he’s hiding in the back of the ship pretending like he isn’t having another episode.”, Talya bit out.

“It happened again?!”, Mikhail gasped.

“Yeah, they’re getting more frequent, and apparently, his solution to the whole thing isn’t anything like talking to us and try, and solve the problem. It’s pretending he’s fine and just disappearing when he isn’t.”

Mikhail sighed. “Well, hopefully I’ll have this working by the end of the week, then at least his symptoms should get better.”

Talya nodded. She was looking somewhere past his shoulder, lost in thought, but when Mikhail moved his head to look if she was in fact looking at something specifc, the movement seemed to shake her out of her trance. She took a step back.

“Anyway. See you in the foodhall.”, she called out, already halfway around the corner.

Mikhail shrugged. Then moved to tidy up his workspace. His eyes fell on Malos’ dormant crystal. 

Oh. Well, she never could stand him , he thought.

+++

When he got to the dining hall, he was hit with a smell from his childhood. For a brief moment his mind left the ship and he was back in Aletta. He’d never thought he’d smell it again.

“What did you cook?”, he asked, just to be sure.

“No idea. Found this recipe lying around an Ardainian garrison a couple months ago and it took me a while to get all the ingredients. It sounded good, so I wanted to try it, but the parchment got a little burnt, so I never managed to decipher the name.”, Talya shrugged.

Mikhail didn’t really like the implications of that. “What were you doing at an Ardainian garrison?”

“Calm down, we weren’t there to cause trouble - although Patroka nearly did. We were merely doing some reconnaissance.”

“And you are sure you stayed away from the Emperor?”

“Oh come on, Mik, the current Emperor is a child . Even we aren’t that cruel.”, Patroka scolded him. “Besides, he’s got the Flamebringer as his guard-dog, he doesn’t really have to go hang out at garrisons, when he can just send her.”

“Why are you being so weird about this, anyway?”, Akhos asked. “This smells delicious, so what is your problem with where the recipe came from.”

Before Mikhail could retort something, Jin walked into the room. Oh no. This was not good.

“Who’s been in my kitchen.”

Talya looked at the floor.

“I was just trying to help.”, she muttered.

Help. Right. With the state Jin was in, reminding him of their time together in Torna 500 years ago, when everything was still fine - well, apart from Malos and Indol - was probably the worst idea. Not that he could fault his sister. Talya didn't know, but he should probably shut this down.

Jin's lips quirked upward.

"Can't leave you alone for a moment, can I?", he said, reaching out to pat Talya's head.

Behind Mikhail, Partoka made a noise that sounded suspiciously like "preferential treatment".

When they sat down to eat, Jin looked at Mikhail and told him: "I didn't think we'd ever be eating this again."

There was a small gasp coming from the other side of the table. Mikhail looked over.

"You know this recipe?", his sister asked.

He threw her a grin. "Yes, it used to be Jin's favourite, back in the day."

"It was?!", his sister gaped.

"Hm.", Jin agreed, before carefully trying a bite of the dish Talya had placed in front of him. He paused and looked up at her in surprise. "This is very good."

"Very good .", Mikhail saw fit to mock him. "It tastes almost exactly like what Aegeon used to make."

He should not have said that. He had told himself to shut this topic down, and here he was, enabling it. There was no way no one at the table was going to latch onto this statement, and if Jin had another episode, this was going to be all his fault!

"Aegeon.", his sister drew out the name, slowly, pensively, as if she was tasting it on her tongue. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"

Their gaze met across the table and Mikhail was about to send her a silent plea, when Talya's eyes widened. "You don't mean! You've met the Aegeon? As in Jewel of the Empire of Mor Ardain? That Aegeon?!"

Jin apparently decided not to help, as if he'd completely forgotten that it was his heart they had to watch out for.

"Yes. He was quite a decent cook.", he deadpanned.

"Does that mean you know Brigid as well?", Talya asked incredulously.

Mikhail nodded. It was too late now anyway. This conversation was not going to turn his way any time soon.

His sister pouted. "Why do you always get to meet all the cool people first?"

"Hey!", Akhos protested. "I'll have you know that I am in fact very cool."

He adjusted his glasses and proceeded to glare at Patroka and Obrona who had both launched into a coughing fit.

Talya reached over to ruffle his head. "I know. And let me ask you: Who got to meet all of you decades before I did?"

"Ah, right."

Talya kissed his cheek lightly. "I am quite aware you like me more though."

Mikhail winked at her. "You don't know that."

Talya shot him a sharp look. "You are my baby brother, but as much as I love you, and as good as I am at sharing, if you were sleeping with my boyfriend, I would know, and we would have a problem."

Patroka scoffed.

Talya looked at her fondly. "Yes, right, we wouldn't have a problem. Patroka would kill you."

Patroka stuck her tongue out.

"Kids, we agreed, no murder talk over dinner.", Jin cut in. "You should all eat, your food is getting cold."

They were all miraculously quiet for the rest of the meal.

+++

After dinner Mikhail went back to the control room to check the trip switches. None of the fuses had blown and there seemed to be no danger of an overload. He continued his work, whistling softly to himself. Malos’ dull black Core Crystal lay forgotten on its pedestal next to him.

“Right. That’s about as far as I can get.”, he muttered to himself a few hours later. The rest of this would have to wait until Patroka came back from Mor Ardain. Although he was tempted to ask his sister to try and get him some of the supplies from Gormott.

“Do you ever sleep?”, a voice called out to him from the door.

His sister shuffled into the room. She looked tired and exhausted. Her gaze was unfocused, drifting between himself and something behind him. He turned, but saw nothing out of the ordinary and assumed it was just sleep deprivation.

“I’m not the one who looks like they’re about to keel over.”, Mikhail told her. “Besides, it’s not that late for me.”

“The rest of us went to bed yesterday .”, his sister pointed out.

“And yet, here you are, very much not in bed.”

“Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to wake Akhos.”

“So you went looking for me, knowing I would still be awake?”

His sister shrugged, her eyes unfocused again.

“Don’t know. Was just wandering around.”, she muttered, before underlining her words with a yawn.

“Alright, that’s it. Off to bed with you. I’m done here for now anyway. Come on.”

He walked over and lifted her up. Lifting up and carrying his big sister was something he had recently found out he enjoyed quite a lot. Especially when, just like right now, she was so out of it, she barely managed a few incoherent sounds of protest, before snuggling into his shoulder. By the time he made it out the door, her breathing had slowed and she was already fast asleep. Mikhail grinned. So much for being unable to sleep.

Not wanting to wake up Akhos either by dumping a sleeping Talya in his bed at quarter to three in the morning, he went to his own room instead.

+++

When Natalya woke up the next morning, she was still holding her brother. Listening to his slow and steady breathing, he was miraculously still asleep. Taking care not to wake him, Natalya snuggled a little closer. They hadn’t done this in a while, and comfort-cuddling was so nice, she wasn’t about to let this opportunity go by.

It was another hour until Mikhail started moving. He made a few grumbling waking up noises before sitting up with a start causing Natalya to fall out of bed.

“Architect, fuck, I overslept!”

Natalya pulled herself up on the edge of the bed. “No. You slept. There’s a difference.”

She stood up and straightened her pyjamas. “And besides, Patroka only left for Mor Ardain this morning. She’s not back yet, so you can’t keep working on whatever it is you are working on anyway. So what is there even that you can oversleep for?”

Her brother was trying to protest, but Natalya fixed him with a glare. “I don’t care what you’re going to say. We already have one person with health problems on this ship. I am not letting you ruin your body as well. I’m going to go, and you are going back to sleep. And in case you are thinking of not doing that, I am not above freezing the door to your room over, until you’ve gotten at least a week of sleep, understood?”

“Yes.”, Mikhail grumbled, lying back down. “You are a real bully, you know that?”

Natalya stuck her tongue out at him and closed the door.

+++

The threat of having his door frozen shut worked. Mikhail did indeed not come out of his room until lunch, and when he did, he looked a lot more rested than he had in the morning. 

In the meantime, Natalya and Obrona had tried - and again failed - to enhance the detection capabilities of Obrona’s ether net. They had gotten as far as to reliably pin point known ether signatures, but searching for the locations of new ones in the vast amounts of ether on Alrest was like trying to find a snowflake on Tantal. They needed a better way of filtering the information.

Stumped once again, a very frustrated Natalya had taken to wandering the ship again. Before long, she found herself in front of the door to the Marsanes control room again. Mikhail wasn’t inside this time though. The room was empty, though it definitely didn’t feel like it. Lora was still a prominent presence at the centre of the room. The walls lined with core crystals dipping the room in a blue light. And on the left side of the room a purple glow pulsed menacingly.

Natalya took a step closer.

“Oh, there you are!”, Mikhail’s voice drew her attention back to the door. “What are you doing here of all places?”

“Just thinking.”, Natalya didn’t really know what she was doing here, but it was one of the more quiet places on the ship, so it seemed like a likely reason why she kept coming here.

“Well, you better come quick. Akhos made your favourite, and if you don’t hurry, Obrona is going to eat all of it.”

“No, she won’t!”, Natalya told him, already half-way out the door. “She already had most of my Whitebait-Samod Hotpot last time Akhos made some and that was ages ago! Who knows when he’ll make it again!”

“Well I guess that means I need to walk faster, if I don’t want to starve today.”, Mikhail mused, catching up with her.

Natalya didn’t need to look at him to know he was grinning. She could hear the smirk in his voice. Changing the subject, she turned to him anyway.

“Do you think Malos is going to wake up?”

“Not unless someone is dumb enough to wake him, and I pity the guy who does that and gets to deal with him for the rest of his life.”, Mikhail weighed his head. “But what makes you ask that all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know. It’s just, he’s glowing, so I was just thinking.”

Mikhail stopped dead in his tracks. “Malos isn’t glowing. I should know, I’ve been in the same room, working right next to him.”

Natalya shrugged. “I could have sworn - oh, well, never mind. I was probably imagining it. He’s never not freaked me out. Seeing his Core Crystal probably just brings up all those memories and that’s why I’m seeing things that aren’t there.”

Mikhail tilted his head, before nodding pensively. “Maybe. Yeah, that sounds reasonable.”

They kept walking until they reached the food hall.

Chapter Text

The next few days passed pretty much the same way. By the time Patroka returned from Mor Ardain, Natalya was ready to punch a hole in the Monocerous - ship going down be damned.

“I leave you idiots alone for a few days, and I come back to this?!”, Patroka told her when they were alone in the training room together. They had left Mikhail at the Marsanes and Akhos had barely left the library to eat or get a few hours of sleep - not that Natalya was in any position to judge him. Things with Obrona had been frustrating, they were hitting wall after wall, trying to figure out how they could filter for unknown ether signatures. They had managed to turn different elemental signatures into different colours, but that just resulted in a mess of colour that was even more confusing, as fire stacked on water very much looked like dark ether energy, light and lightning were barely distinguishable and light and ice looked like wind energy, to only name a few of the issues.

“The three of you look like hell! What titan swallowed you and spit you out again while I was gone?”

“It’s been a long year.”

“Architect damn it, it has been three days. And Jin has been having problems for barely a few weeks. It has not been a year!” Patroka summoned a rock to angrily stab her spear into it. “That’s it. You need a hot bath, with half a ton of calming herbs, and food. I brought some Sky-Jewel Tarts and Ruby Steamed Buns with me from Alba Cavanich. And since I had to threaten the shopkeeper to make them, you better eat all of them and appreciate them.”

Natalya perked up at the promise of dessert. Now that was the best news she had heard all week.

+++

Fortunately for Patroka, she had brought enough dessert for everyone. Unfortunately for Natalya, everyone else was excited to eat dessert too. Well, everyone except Jin, who threatened to make nothing but salads for the next three weeks, if they ate themselves sick with sugar.

Not that Jin’s salads were that horrible a threat, they were delicious like everything else he made, but no meat, no fish, no staples and especially no dessert for a whole 21 days was just mean.

After dinner, Natalya decided to see if she could help her brother. Not that she understood as much about machines and technology as he did, but if you spend a few hundred years around someone whose favourite way of coping with bad news is tinkering, you eventually pick up how to use a wrench, or what screwdriver to use for a hex screw. Plus, Mikhail occasionally found it extremely useful if he could just stay in whatever upside-down, underground or up-in-the-air position he was, while someone handed him whatever tools he needed.

And so Natalya found herself sitting next to an open floor board, talking to her brother who was hidden from her view be a number of cables running through the floor of the entire control room. She was pointedly facing away from the pulsing glow emanating from Malos' Core Crystal. She was imagining it. He wasn't even there. She instead focused her entire attention on the mess of cables in front of her.

"What are you doing down there anyway? Your machine is up here."

"Power overload. Blown fushe.", the answer came through clenched teeth.

"How many times have I told you not to use your mouth as a toolbox?"

"I need my handsh free.", her brother protested.

A hand reached out of the floor. "Bigger shcrewdriver?"

Natalya sighed. He was incorrigible. She smiled despite herself, and reached over to place a 2.5 into the stretched out hand.

"Ffank you!"

Natalya laughed. A few minutes later, the hand was back, returning the tools, before her brother pulled himself back up in a single smooth motion.

"There, now I can try running the test again."

"No more overloads?"

Mikhail glared at her.

"Don't jinx it!", he told her, while pointing a wrench at her threateningly.

"I was just a question!", she tried to defend herself.

"An evil question! You're just asking for more trouble!"

"All right. I've cursed us. What do you want me to do? Go outside, spin three times and say 'Malos' three times?"

"This isn't one of Akhos' plays.", Mikhail said dramatically. "No, I'm afraid you have already doomed us."

"You don't have to be so dark about it. Ever heard of this thing called optimism?"

"In case it has escaped your notice, darkness is kind of my element."

"Right, because the personality of your Blade Core is the only trait you have.", Natalya rolled her eyes.

Mikhail grinned.

For a moment it was almost easy to pretend that the world was fine.

But moments like that never lasted long these days.

Mikhail got back to tinkering with the growing structure. He was lying on the floor underneath it, rerouting some of the wires.

"Hey, can you hand me the Snow Transistors? They're over there in the corner."

"Sure."

Natalya turned and stopped dead in her tracks. This was going to be a problem. The box with the Snow Transistors was lying next to the podium with Malos' Core Crystal. Natalya took a deep breath.

He can't hurt me. He's not here.

Glaring at the glowing Core Crystal, she mentally told him.

You are not the boss of me.

She took a few hesitant steps towards the box. Nothing happened. Of course it didn't. There wasn't anything to worry about. This was ridiculous! Natalya walked over the rest of the way and picked up the box.

Up this close, he didn't seem that threatening anymore. The cracks in the crystal’s surface were more obvious than from a distance. Mikhail was right. There was no way Malos was going to come back. Blades couldn’t recover from this amount of damage to the crystal. There was nothing to worry about. Even if, looking at the Core Crystal, Natalya was still imagining a sinister pulsing glow emanating from underneath the cracked surface.

Natalya was about to turn and walk away, when a thought crossed her mind. Malos managed to exist with those cracks to his Core Crystal, did that mean Jin could too? Probably not. Jin, while being the Paragon of Torna and one of the most powerful Blades ever in existence, was still just a Blade -or technically now a Flesh-Eater. He was not an Aegis. Still, it would have been interesting to at least know how Malos did it. Not that she wanted to ask. The world was definitely a better place without him in it. Alrest was shit enough already.

"Hey, what is taking you so long?"

Her brother's voice made her freeze. Mikhail rolled out from underneath his contraption to check on her.

Natalya blinked slowly. She had forgotten he was still there. She had also forgotten that she was still holding his box of Snow Transistors. It took her a while to find her voice again.

"I was just - never mind. I don't even know what I was thinking."

"Okay?", her brother studied her, a curious look on his face.

"Anyway, here's your parts. Do you need anything else?", she all but shoved the box into his arms.

"Not right now…", Mikhail said slowly.

"Okay. Then I'll see what Patroka is doing." She suddenly felt the urge to punch a wall, so finding the one person on this ship who was better at creating them than her sounded like a good idea.

"Are you all right, Talya? You're being skittish."

"Me? Skittish? Have you met me?"

"Yes, and you're acting weird."

"No, I'm not. I just really want to hang out with Patroka right now."

Her brother raised an eyebrow. 

"You're just jealous because she likes me more.", she jabbed, hoping to change the topic.

It worked. Mikhail's jaw clenched slightly. He broke eye contact and Natalya took the opportunity to flee from the room.

Just as she passed the threshold, she heard him mutter: "Just because you're right about her , doesn't mean you're not behaving strange as fuck."

Natalya was glad she didn't have to respond to that.

+++

"Care to explain why you are such a mess again?", Patroka asked, when Natalya marched into the training room.

You try spending a day locked in a room with your overly perceptive brother and the nightmare from your childhood. 

"Alright, I get it. It's been a shit few weeks.", Patroka gave in. "Now, I really hope you are here to get your ass kicked."

She twirled her spear and threw Natalya a predatory grin.

"In your dreams."

"If my dreams were about kicking your ass, I would have questions.", Patroka told her and pounced.

"Why? Is that honour only reserved for my brother?"

"What? No! I - ", Patroka stumbled, her attack missing. "I do not dream about your brother."

"Right.", Natalya smirked. "And I'm not sleeping with yours. Anything else you want us both to lie about, or can we get to some fighting?"

"You two are both the same!"

Natalya's grin grew. "Smart, talented, breathtakingly beautiful?"

"Insufferable!"

"Oh right, yeah, that too."

+++

By the time they went off to the showers, Natalya had managed to calm down somewhat. Or at least she had stopped feeling like her skin was on fire.

When they got out of the showers though, Mikhail and Akhos were waiting for them. Well, that was the opposite of good. And as soon as he spotted her, Mikhail leaned over.

"So, are you gonna tell us what's been going on with you?"

"I -"

Before Natalya could fumble for a reply, Patroka stepped up beside her and firmly positioned herself between her and her brother before getting right up in his face.

"Maybe, what's been going on is that she has a busibody of a brother who keeps sticking his nose in everyone's business, so he can ignore his own problems!", she all but hissed at him.

"It's not my fault I'm apparently the only person around here grown up enough to know how to deal with their own emotions.", Mikhail returned in a low voice. 

His usual jovial tone was gone, replaced by a barely veiled edge. As if to emphasise that this time he wasn't going to just back down from the conversation, or let it go, he straightened his back and took a step closer. Patroka craned her neck to glare up at him.

"What makes you think the rest of us are any less capable? Anything you can do, can't be that hard."

"Says the person whose only way to deal with her feelings is to punch her way through things?"

Neither of them looked like they'd noticed how close they had gotten. Natalya caught Akhos' gaze. He looked just as uncomfortable as she was feeling, but they were both holding their breath, as if the wrong movement could cause the tension in the room to explode.

"Don't think I won't punch my way through you , if you keep acting like this.", Patroka hissed.

Mikhail's voice dropped another octave. His response sounded almost breathless. "Oh please, do."

Oh for the love of the Architect, could you, please, get a room?!

Trying to get somewhere less uncomfortable, Natalya took a hesitant step backwards, trying to sidestep Patroka. Unfortunately, even this small movement did not go unnoticed. Mikhail’s head jerked up and his eyes zeroed in on Natalya. His face flashed with first surprise, then shock, as he stumbled back from Patroka.

“Anyway, it’s about time for dinner, I’m sure Jin is looking for us.”, he got out, before turning on his heel and walking off as briskly as possible without anyone being able to accuse him of running away.

Patroka was left behind looking stunned. “What? What just -”

Her eyes widened and she took off after him. “You are so not running away from me! Get back here Mik, so I can punch you in the face!”

Natalya was left staring at Akhos, thunderstruck.

“What just happened?”, Akhos asked after he caught his breath from holding it earlier.

“I think I interrupted a moment.”

Akhos raised his eyebrows. “You call that a moment ?”

“It’s your sister and my brother, who knows. Personally, I’d rather think they were having a moment than seconds away from ripping each other’s heads off.”

Akhos nodded pensively. “Equally plausible.”

“Well, just in case it was the latter, we should probably go and check on them.”

“I think for Mik’s sake, we better hurry.”, Akhos told her, half-jokingly, as he made to go after the others. 

“Shouldn’t you be more worried about Patroka? She’s your sister, after all.”, Natalya laughed, catching up to him.

“Yes, and that means I have first hand knowledge of what she’s capable of. Trust me, your brother is going to need all the help he can get.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my brother is notoriously difficult to kill.”

“Do you want to bet that against Patroka?”

“Architect no, definitely not!”

Chapter Text

Patroka and Mikhail didn’t end up killing each other. Much to nobody’s surprise and everyone’s relief. 

By the end of the week, Mikhail had managed to complete his prototype and run it without overloading the system or short-circuiting anything. The initial excitement died down rather quickly however, when Mikhail told them that they would need to test this thing on a living subject to test if it actually worked as it was supposed to.

"Where are we going to find someone to test that on though?", Akhos asked.

"Who cares, I can just pick up a Driver on my next trip, that should do, right?", Patroka told them.

"No it won't, darling. Drivers don't have Core Crystals.", Mikhail explained. "But in any case, I can do it. I'm relatively certain the thing is safe anyway. I built it after all."

"Absolutely not!", Natalya exclaimed. When everyone threw her confused looks, she continued: "Even if you think it's safe, there's still too much risk involved. We are not using you as a guinea pig."

"I'll have you remember that I already am a guinea pig.", Mikhail told her drily.

"We are still not going to stick our only engineer into a machine that none of the rest of us even know how it works. If something goes wrong we need you on the outside fixing the problem, not trapped inside. I'll do it."

"No you won't.", Mikhail protested.

"Yes I will. I have just as much experience being used as a guinea pig as you do!"

"Neither one of you is getting into that thing!", Patroka interrupted their fight, earning her confused looks. "Neither one of you is qualified for this. You two may have Core Crystals, but you're both still humans. Neither of you matches Jin's physiology. If what you say is right and a Driver won't do, then what we need is a Blade, or even better a Flesh-Eater."

She paused for a moment, staring the rest of them down. "I'll be the one who does this. End of discussion."

Akhos opened his mouth to protest. Patroka glared at him. "I said end of discussion !"

She turned away from her brother to face Natalya. "I want Talya to supervise though."

"I'm not qualified for that. Engineering isn't my strongsuit."

"I know that. Mikhail can supervise the machine. I need you to supervise him ."

"Afraid I'll do something you'll like?", Mikhail winked at her.

Natalya gave him a light shove. "Don't worry, Patroka, he will be supervised."

"Thanks."

+++

"You alright in there Patroka?", Mik asked, for what felt like the 50th time in the last 10 minutes.

Patroka wished the pod she was in would allow her enough space for a rude gesture. It didn't though, so she just rolled her eyes and snapped at him.

"Will you fucking get on with it?!"

"Okay, okay! Just let me know if something - anything - feels off, okay?"

"Yes, now start the damn thing already, I want this done before I die of old age!"

"Alright, starting sequence now."

The pod started glowing around her, but other than that, nothing much happened. The light did feel soothing, but that was all. It was actually quite relaxing. The last thing she remembered thinking was how calm everything was around her. Then everything faded to black.

+++

When she came back to, the pod was opening up again. Patroka yawned.

“So, how are you feeling?”, Mikhail asked, as soon as he noticed her moving.

Architect, he’s annoying! Can’t I just go back to sleep?

“Like I just woke up. I know you need to monitor the experiment, but can you quit with the hovering?!”

She attempted to climb out of the pod, but failed, as she was still feeling groggy from the sleep, so she was quite grateful when Talya reached out to pull her to her feet.

“I’m guessing being annoyed at my brother is not a curable condition.”

Patroka looked over at Mikhail, who had not moved from his position, his left hand resting on his hip, exuding smooth confidence. Architect, she hated him.

Stupid idiot. Is there anything he can’t do?

“Seems like it.”, she grit out.

“So, what’s your verdict? Anything hurt? Any part of you that feels weird?”, Talya asked.

“Apart from your desire of me, that bit is completely normal.”, Mikhail supplied from behind her.

Patroka nearly jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t noticed his approach. Talya shot her brother a cautionary look. Meanwhile Patroka caught herself and managed a retching noise. “As if! You are so disgusting Mik! I swear, this is the last time I’ll help you with anything ever again!”

“Fine, I’m sorry, okay? Just tell me what you experienced, so I can start convincing Jin to give this thing a try, before he actually keels over for good.”

“I think it works fine. I didn’t notice anything bad. It just put me to sleep.”

“To be fair, I have to agree with the machine on that account.”, Talya mused. “You do not get enough sleep. The nap probably did you good.”

“Sure, if that’s what makes you feel better.”

+++

Convincing Jin to give the machine a try proved a whole different problem. Apparently, he was convinced he deserved to suffer. Mikhail thanked the stars that his sister had perfected her puppy eyes over the past centuries, to a point where even Jin found it hard to refuse.

He knew it wasn’t a long term solution. There wasn’t any previous research on fixing Core Crystals. Judicium didn’t have any respect for the Blades of Titans they experimented with, so when their experiments failed, they just disposed of the subjects. Finding a way to patch them back up or fix what they broke wasn’t ever part of a consideration. But between the four of them, Mikhail knew they would come up with something. Jin was not a failed experiment, and none of them were ever going to give up on him.

“I think I found something.”, Akhos told them later that afternoon. “It’s a book called ‘A Message from the Architect’. I didn’t check it out earlier, because it was with the things we raided from that Indoline Transport Ship 80 years ago, and I thought it was some kind of religious text, but it turns out it is Core Crystal research. Apparently, the Cores gather information and then transmit it to an unknown power source.”

“An unknown power source? Really?”, Patroka huffed. “How is that helpful.”

“Well, the author claims they can’t confirm anything about the power source, but they hypothesise that it might be the Aegis.”

“The Aegis? As in Malos?”, Mikhail asked. “You think Malos would be able to fix Jin?”

“Well, if the information in the book is correct, he might have enough information on Core Crystals to be able to fix Jin’s.”

“Absolutely not!”, Talya protested. “Do you even hear yourselves? Are you seriously thinking of waking up the Aegis? Have you gone entirely mad? Do none of you remember what happened the last time someone let him lose on the world?!”

The last time someone let Malos lose on the world, you ended up spending nearly two centuries thinking he killed me. And I thought the blast that killed my only friend got my sister as well. Let’s never do that again.

“Well, two of us only have memories that go back 400 years and Mik was 10. And he wasn’t exactly that bad.”, Patroka told her flatly.

Talya huffed. “He sank three continents in a matter of weeks! The only reason he calmed down after that was because the fight with the other Aegis injured him so badly that he didn’t have his full powers anymore.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?”, Akhos asked. “We can’t do nothing.”

“We…”, Talya started, a frown forming on her face, then suddenly, her eyes widened. “Wait, there were two Aegises. What about the other one? We could wake them up and ask them to help Jin.”

Before Mikhail could stop himself, he’d snorted. “You want to wake up Mythra?! Good luck with that!”

“Mythra? Is that the other Aegis’ name?”, Akhos asked.

“Yes, and she’s a brat and a loose cannon.”

“Better than a loose cannon who enjoys unreasonable amounts of cruelty.”, Talya told him.

“Not to take sides or anything, but trying to wake up that Mythra girl might be the safer option. I mean, we all know Malos’ Core got damaged in the fight. He won’t be at full strength even if he does wake up now. And that’s if we can even wake him up, with his Core Crystal this cracked, it is quite possible that we won’t be able to.”, Patroka said.

Akhos nodded. “His Core Crystal is also still not glowing again, which means, even if we wanted to, he’s not ready to resonate again.”

“Yes, and since time is of the essence, we need to find Mythra.”, Talya agreed.

I have been overruled.

“Fine, I’ll start plotting a course for Leftheria then.”, he told his friends.

“Why Leftheria?”

“Because the last time I saw Addam, he said he was going to hide the Aegis, and that he was going to Leftheria.”

“You met Addam?”, Patroka asked. “Addam as in Addam Origo? The Addam?”

His sister rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. Apparently, there are no legends from our history books that my brother is not on a first name basis with. Why is anyone still surprised.”

“You certainly don’t sound surprised.”, Akhos told her. “You sound jealous.”

“That’s because I am.”, Talya grumbled, but there was a small smile on her face.

Chapter Text

Leftheria wasn't exactly the most populated of places. Two harbours and one village.

"This feels like a bad idea.", Akhos muttered. "Are you sure we shouldn't tell Jin about this?"

"He'd just try and stop us. Besides, I am not waking him up from his healing coma.", Natalya told him.

"Agreed. It would take time, and time is the one thing we do not have.", her brother added.

"Speaking of not having a lot of time, Mik,  do you have any idea where we're going?", Patroka asked.

"Not really, but let's face it, this isn't the largest place. It shouldn't take long."

"Wait, seriously? What was your plan? Walk up to the villagers and go 'excuse me, but do you happen to have seen an all powerful Blade hanging out around here?", Natalya asked, incredulously. 

"Technically, I was hoping there'd be a big sign post saying something like 'This way to the Aegis', but your idea sounds good too, actually. Let's do that.", Mikhail winked at them.

Natalya wanted to whack him.

"Let's just go to the village.", she sighed. "We are running out of time and it's as good a place to start as any."

+++

The village was underwhelming. There wasn't even a proper inn. But the people were helpful enough. They had spent barely a few minutes walking around, before someone could be overheard muttering something along the lines of: "Such a shame, all these drivers come here looking for the treasure buried under the village guardian, but they never return. You'd think they'd learn not to come. I feel bad for their families, never knowing what happened, such a terrible fate…"

Akhos stepped inbetween Natalya and her brother to nudge both of them in the side.

"Looks like we found our place to start.", he said, grinning.

A short hike later they found themselves in front of a large stone structure that looked suspiciously like an altar.

"Well, Mik, there's your sign post.", Patroka muttered. "Not quite labelled 'This way to the Aegis', but I guess it's close enough."

"After all this, you lot are still doubting me. I am wounded.", Mikhail sighed, while tousling his hair in mock exasperation. 

Patroka groaned. "If you are wounded, you should go back to the ship, stick yourself into that box and not come out for a week. You'd be doing us all a favour."

Mikhail wagged a finger at her. "Nu-uh, No can do. Made that thing for Jin, and unfortunately for you, he is using it right now, so like it or love it, my darling Patroka, you are stuck with me."

"Stuck being the word here.", she grumbled.

Natalya cleared her throat. "I would like to remind you that Jin is - thankfully - not going to be asleep forever, and I would like to get back before he figures out where we've gone."

"I thought that's what we left Cressidus behind for?", Obrona piped up. "Isn't he supposed to distract Jin in case we don't get back in time."

Mikhail laughed. "No idea how long that's going to work though. Possibly less than five seconds."

Akhos shrugged. "Still looks like getting to the Aegis is going to be a little more difficult, though." He pointed at the stone altar in front of them. "This thing is kind of in the way."

"Not for long it isn't.", Patroka said, sounding just a little too gleeful, as she put away Perdido's greataxe to pull her own polearm from the ether.

Mikhail stopped her.

"You can't do that.", he warned.

"I am an Earth Blade, if there is one thing I can do, it's smash rocks. Watch me."

He held her back anyway. "This thing has been here for close to five centuries. Do you think you're the first Earth Blade to come here?"

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

Natalya didn't need to look at them to know where this was going. By now she had realised that the constant background noise that was her brother and Patroka locked in their century-long totally not flirtatious war , was easier to tune out if you focussed on something else. It didn't take her long to find something to divert her attention. 

"Hey, I think I found something.", she told everyone.

"What is it?", Akhos asked, probably equally grateful for any distraction from whatever her brother and his sister were doing.

"It's some sort of sigil, I think." Natalya reached out to trace the carvings, then jerked back her hand gasping. "Ouch!"

"What happened?", Mikhail demanded immediately, rushing to his sister's side.

Natalya rubbed her wrist.

"It zapped me!", she pouted, glaring angrily at the stone.

"Must be a protective mechanism. I'm just going to assume he didn't want just anyone walking in there." Akhos said, then frowned. "More to the point, Mikhail, what are you doing?"

Mikhail paused, looking up from Natalya's wrist. "She said it hurt. I was blowing on it, to make it better."

Akhos rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like " Humans ."

"Seriously, how old are you? You should know that doesn't work."

"Well, I don't care. I feel better.", Natalya pouted, slowly withdrawing her wrist from her brother's grasp.

"Anyway,", Patroka interjected impatiently, "defence mechanism. We need to get past it."

"Well, I think we've established that whacking it won't help, so I'm afraid there's nothing you can do, dear sister.", Akhos teased.

Patroka just huffed. She strode past the others to examine the sigil. "Well, would you look at that. It's the Leftherian emblem. Has it occurred to any of you that we might need a Leftherian to open it, then?"

"Patroka, no, the solution to everything can't always be hit it, kill it, kidnap someone.", Akhos sighed.

"I was going to suggest we pay one of the locals, but sure, go off I guess.", Patroka hissed at him. "Come on, you lot, Talya's right, we're wasting daylight."

+++

It was surprisingly easy to find a young local willing to open the seal for them. Apparently they frequently dared each other to go down into the titan below. Strange enough, Natalya thought, but it made things easier for them, so she didn't exactly care.

The young man leading them down into the depths of the titan didn't matter. How they got to the Aegis didn't matter. It didn't matter if the air got thinner the deeper they went into the belly of the Titan. All that mattered was saving Jin.

They reached a plank bridge across a chasm. Their guide shivered.

"This is as far as I go. You're on your own from here on out. Be careful.", he said, then, looking at Mikhail while pointing at Natalya, he added: "Especially with them. These tunnels sap the strength from Blades."

He threw Natalya, Perdido and Obrona pitying looks. "Really, there is a high chance you will not make it back up there. No one else has."

"Well, no one else is us.", Obrona told him.

"It's your decision, I just wanted to warn you."

"Thank you. We'll be fine.", Natalya tried her best to make her voice sound certain. 

The young man turned back, and the six of them went on. Natalya took a deep breath, trying to ignore the mounting discomfort in her chest. They were going to be fine. They had to be fine. Jin needed them to be fine.

+++

They were not fine.

Halfway across the bridge, Obrona landed on her feet and continued on walking. But she didn’t look too certain on her feet.

When they crossed the bridge, Akhos started coughing.

“Are you okay?”, Patroka asked. She looked paler than usual, but there was a determination burning in her eyes.

Akhos nodded. “Just feeling a bit strange.”

Mikhail looked at his friends, concerned. His eyes went from Akhos to Patroka to Perdido and to Obrona before finally settling on Natalya. He shook his head and sighed.

“Okay, show of hands who is not feeling 100%.”, he lifted his own hand. No one else moved.

“That’s a stupid question. This place is getting to all of us.”, Patroka asserted. “We’ve all got Core Crystals. None of us are feeling 100%.”

“Yes, but some of us are more human than the rest of us. And I don’t think this is the time for overestimating ourselves.”

“I’m not overestimating myself. I can still wipe the floor with you at 86%.”, Patroka insisted.

Mikhail sighed.

“If Patroka is going to continue, I will follow. I certainly have enough strength left in me to continue.”, Perdido stated.

Everyone else turned to stare at him. The number of times anyone had heard him speak could be counted on one hand.

“Well, I guess it’s decided then.”, Mikhail sighed. “If you’re all feeling ‘fine’, then we’ll continue, but if I get so much as an impression one of you is trying to fake it, we’re turning back, mission complete or not. And I will drag all of you back myself if I have to!”

+++

Walking on felt like wading through water, but Natalya wasn’t going to be the reason this mission failed, so she was certainly not going to tell her brother about it. After what felt like hours of walking, they reached a dead end.

In front of them, from the ground to the ceiling, stretched a stone wall that definitely wasn’t part of the titan. It was made from several perfectly smooth blocks of black stone. Someone had to have built this.

Patroka put her hand against the wall.

“It’s hollow.”, she claimed, her voice sounding suspiciously strained. “There’s a path on the other side. We just have to break through.”

She didn’t let Mikhail stop her this time. Before any of them could even so much as react, she had bundled her strength and blasted a hole into the wall. Then looked at Mikhail like she expected him to admonish her.

“This place is fucked up. I don’t want to spend any longer than I have to here. And no, the rest of the wall won’t collapse in on itself, I checked for weak points.”

“Fine. I’m done arguing. Let’s just go on.”, Mikhail told her, before ducking through the hole with Natalya following closely behind him.

They made it barely five steps into the tunnel behind the hole before Natalya stumbled. Mikhail turned to catch her.

“That’s it! I’m pulling the plug, we are turning back.”, he commanded.

“Don’t be such a coward, Mik!”, Patroka hissed.

“It is not going to help Jin one bit if we all snuff it in here.”

“No one is going to snuff it. I’m fine. I just missed a rock on the ground.”, Natalya argued.

“There are no rocks on the ground. And in case you aren’t paying attention, we have an ether link at the moment. You’ve been pretending to be my Blade all day, and I can feel your ether thread fading. Stop acting like you’re fine. You are not, and I do not want to tell Jin why I’m bringing back your corpse.”

“We can’t stop now, we’ve gotten so far!”

“You have no idea how far we still have to go. None of us do. And it is only going to get worse. Whatever it is that is hidden down there, it certainly wasn’t meant to be retrieved by Blades. We need to go back now.”

Akhos put an arm around Natalya’s shoulder. “Mikhail is right. We’ll find another way to help Jin, I promise.”

“But…”, Natalya’s voice failed her.

“You two are being too nice to her.”, Patroka announced, before swooping in to pick up Natalya and toss her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and marching back through the hole.

Natalya wanted to protest, but that just wasn’t happening. She barely had the strength left to keep breathing.

Chapter Text

Natalya was sulking, and there was nothing any of the rest of them could do. Mikhail hadn't seen her since she'd left breakfast in a huff this morning. He didn't blame her for being mad at him, after he had terminated their last mission against her expressed wishes. He didn't regret his decision either. Better to have her alive and mad at him, than dead and pleased with herself. He wasn't going to lose her again. He wasn't going to lose Jin again either.

They would get through this, and if he had to climb up the World Tree himself and punch the Architect into helping him. He was not going to get separated from his family. Never again.

Swallowing a curse, Mikhail got to his feet. Unless he was going to come up with a better idea, he'd better go and find a way up the damn World Tree then.

+++

Natalya was sitting on the cool metal floor playing with snowflakes. It did very little to make her feel better though. She had failed. They’d had a chance to help Jin, and she'd completely ruined everything. Now what were they going to do? She sighed deeply. One of her snowflakes landed on the tip of her nose. Natalya wiped it away and slammed her hand on the floor. The snowflakes around her stopped dancing immediately and fell to the ground, covering the area around Natalya in a cold and wet but fluffy-looking blanket. Natalya shook the snow out of her hair and got up. This wasn’t making her feel any better. She wasn't going to get anywhere like this. Perhaps she should go find her brother. Granted, he had been the reason Patroka had dragged her out of the Titan in Leftheria, and granted, she'd been avoiding him since they got back, but moping wasn't going to magically make Jin better.

Natalya made to turn to the door and paused. Something flashed in the corner of her eye. She turned to see what it was and the world stopped.

There was a soft hum ringing in her ears as her eyes narrowed on the steady pulse of purple light.

+++

Talya hadn’t been at lunch. It was now dinner time. Still no sign of his sister anywhere. Mikhail would have put that down as her still sulking and he would have been fully prepared to let her keep sulking, but Jin was feeling a little better today, and he'd made dinner for all of them. Mikhail was sure that no amount of moping was going to make his sister want to miss that. So he went to look for her.

Talya wasn't in her and Akhos' room. She wasn't in the library or the training room either. None of the others had seen her. Mikhail was about to go looking for Obrona so she could locate Talya's ether signature, when he saw the door the Marsanes' control room was open and a purple light was emanating from the opening.

Curious, he stepped closer, only to see his sister standing in front of Malos' glowing Core Crystal.

He called out her name, but it seemed like she couldn't hear him. Like she was too far away. She was moving as if in a trance, and before Mikhail had any time to realise what was happening, Talya's fingers connected with the violet Core Crystal and a violent shake went through the entire ship.

Mikhail stumbled and fell. He blindly managed to grab onto something and pull himself back up. Just in time to see his sister who'd been knocked to the floor as well, scramble to her feet and let out a vicious curse. Mikhail couldn't fault her.

What in the name of the fucking Architect was that?

+++

Her head hitting the cold floor of the ship knocked Natalya back to her senses. "Fucking armu shit! What the fucking hell just happened?!"

Malos' Core Crystal was hovering in front of her, glowing brighter than ever. Another pulse of light shot out from it, as a dark shadow formed around it.

"Oh no!", Natalya gasped, scrambling to her feet. "Fuck, no! Don't! Architect tell me I did not just do that!"

The Architect, however, was an arsehole and did no such thing. Instead, the shadows took further form and after another pulse of purple light, Malos stepped towards her, a swaggering picture of self confidence, his sword poised on his shoulder, and a vicious grin on his face.

"I see you're my new driver. I'm Malos.", he introduced himself, holding out a hand.

"Oh fuck off!", Natalya barked at him, before turning to storm from the room and colliding with her brother. "Mikhail?! What are you doing here?!"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You just woke up Malos!"

"Not on purpose, I didn't!"

" Not on purpose?! How do you awaked a Blade 'not on purpose'?"

"Are you saying I wanted this to happen? You think I want him here?!"

"Well, how else…?"

"I didn't even consider this could happen! It's not like I have any affinity with him. I'm not an Aegis Driver! I -", Natalya felt her voice die in her throat. "I'm nothing like him !"

She shook off her brother's hold and stormed from the room.

+++

Mikhail was left in a room with a possibly justifyably confused newly awakeded Blade.

There was no need to ask his sister who she had meant. And she was right. She was nothing like Amalthus. Except…

"What's her fucking problem?", Malos ground out, darkly. His confusion seemed to have settled.

You are. You, and your previous driver, and the fact that she now has to deal with the idea that she and that bastard could have something in common.

He didn't say any of that. Better not to. They were about twenty thousand leagues under the Cloud Sea and if Malos had an outburst here, now, the entire ship would go down.

"She's shocked, I'd probably be too.", he hoped Malos wouldn't blow up. "Come on, there's warm food in the food hall."

+++

To say people were shocked to see Malos was an understatement. Jin's mouth dropped open when Mikhail entered. Akhos dropped the ladle he was holding back into the soup pot and splashed Obrona with a hefty amount of hot chunky liquid. Patroka actually screamed.

"Mik, what the fuck did you do?!", Patroka asked, in a hushed voice, as soon as she had come back from her initial shock.

" I didn't do anything.", Mikhail defended himself. "Talya's the one who touched his Core Crystal."

"Talya?! There's no way! She hates even the idea of being a Driver.", Akhos raised his eyebrows.

"Which is probably why she freaked out completely and then ran off to leave me to deal with him."

"Where is she now?", Jin asked slowly.

"No idea."

"All right. I'll go look for her." Jin picked up a bowl of soup and fixed Malos with a calculating stare. "You stay here. Eat something."

Then he left.

"Does he think he's the boss or something?", Malos asked.

"Or something.", Akhos confirmed, before handing him another bowl of that soup.

Even without the presence of a single Ice Blade, they ate in frosty silence.

+++

Natalya buried her face in her pillow and screamed. 

That BASTARD! Why me?! I knew it, we should have sunk his Core Crystal to the bottom of the Cloud Sea when we had the chance!

She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. 

I am such an idiot. I told everyone waking him up was a bad idea. That it would only make everything worse. Why did I have to go touch his damned crystal?!

A cruel voice piped up in the back of her head.

Well, you didn't know this was going to happen, did you?

That doesn't make it any better. He's here now. Which means that if he destroys any more of Alrest, that's on me. It'll be my fault.

Natalya felt like it was getting hard to breathe. Like the air wasn't quite reaching her lungs. She tried to breathe deeper.

You could stop him.

How? I mean, sure, I'm a Blade Eater, but he's the fucking Aegis! I'm not powerful enough to stand in his way.

The breathing didn't help. She wasn't getting any air. Natalya felt her breathing quicken. She was getting dizzy.

You know that's not what I meant.

The cold voice was so much calmer than her.

Then what do you want me to do? What can I do?

You're his Driver are you not? 

Yes, I am. Thanks for the reminder. As if I wasn't feeling horrible enough already. So what?

Her breathing was accelerating, but there was still no air reaching her lungs. Natalya felt like she was suffocating.

You really need me to spell it out for you?

"I thought I'd find you here. I brought you something to eat."

Torn from her thoughts, Natalya looked over to see Jin placing a bowl of soup on her nightstand. It smelled delicious. The panic ebbed away from her immediately. Then her stomach turned. She rolled over and buried her head in her pillow again. She didn't deserve to eat Jin's food. She didn't deserve anything. She was an awful horrible person, and all she ever did was bring people bad luck. Perhaps it really was her fault that everyone around her kept ending up hurt, or dead. Perhaps the voice was right. Perhaps the world really was better off without her. Afterall, it would at least take care of the Malos situation.

"I can see you don't want to talk about what happened, but you need to eat. We haven't seen you in the foodhall since breakfast. You need food to keep up your strength."

Jin's voice was so kind that it startled Natalya. She lifted her head a little to look up at him.

"Why are you being nice to me? After everything I just did? You should hate me. You have every right."

She couldn't bear to look at him anymore, so she buried her head in her pillow again.

Jin muttered something that sounded like "accused of favouritism".

Out loud he told her. "You are not a bad person, Talya."

"You don't know that! I woke up the Aegis ! I am evil! I doomed us all! I am just like him !"

There it was. The thought she had feared the most. That because Malos had chosen her as his next Driver that meant she was possibly anything like his old one.

Jin sighed loudly. "That is not how Aptitude works, Talya. Any person with a high enough Aptitude could have awoken Malos."

"Then why was it me? I was the only one who saw his Core Crystal glowing. I was the one he called out to. Why didn't he do that for the rest of you?!"

"I said 'anyone with a high enough Aptitude'. Has it never crossed your mind why you can so easily form an ether link to anyone in our team? It's not exactly normal for Blades to bond with multiple Drivers, much less Blade-Eaters or Flesh-Eaters. That does not make you anything like that monster. If it makes you feel better, it is difficult to gauge, but Lora could have had enough Aptitude to awaken an Aegis as well."

Natalya sat up to look at him. "Because she managed to awaken you?"

Jin laughed. "That's not what I meant. I was talking about Haze, Lora's second Blade. She was a newborn Blade that had the ability to stop an Aegis in their tracks. I always assumed it would take quite a powerful Driver to awaken someone like her."

"But that still doesn't change what I've done. Malos is out there, because of me. If he goes on another Alrest-wide rampage, this time it'll be all my fault."

"You are blowing this out of proportion. Malos is not at his full strength right now. His Core Crystal is still damaged. He's not capable of going on an 'Alrest-wide rampage', as you put it. We'll talk about it all more later. For now just remember: You are nothing like his old Driver. And eat your food."

He placed the bowl of soup in her hands with a commanding look, patted her head and left the room.

Natalya exhaled deeply. She hadn't felt this relieved in centuries.

He doesn't hate me!

Things weren't as bad as they seemed after all. Even the cold little voice had gone quiet. For now.

Chapter Text

Mikhail almost regretted saying Talya had been in a bad mood before this. The past week her entire behaviour had shifted. She was keeping her distance. When they did see her, she mostly looked like she hadn't slept in weeks, and there was a near constant scowl painted on her face.

Malos was - unsurprisingly -  even worse to deal with.

"So where is that charming Driver of mine again?", he asked, sauntering into the room.

Hiding from all of us. Pretending she doesn’t exist.

“No answer for me again, huh?”, Malos demanded. “What the fuck is wrong with her? She’s my Driver! The Aegis’ Driver! All that power and this is how she fucking acts? Ungrateful little shit! Seriously, the way you’re all acting it’s like I’m the worlds’ worst person! The fuck did I do that she hates me so much?!”

Mikhail took a deep breath.

“Malos…”, he began, trying to calm him.

“Don’t fucking ‘Malos’ me! Stop fucking acting like I need to be handled with damn kid gloves! I’m the fucking Aegis! I am not fragile!”

Except emotionally, when your Driver is refusing to talk to you.

“If I’m not wanted, I can fucking leave.”

“We’re hundreds of miles under water, Malos. You can’t leave.”

Malos groaned.

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you. Most of it isn’t my story to tell either. But every single soul on this ship has at some point had a more than unpleasant run in with your previous Driver or one of his goons, so you can’t exactly fault my sister for not wanting to step in that monster’s footsteps.”

“Ah, so it’s because I’m nothing more than some arsehole’s weapon? I’m a fucking person, not just some tool!”, he exclaimed, almost visibly fuming.

Mikhail was about to open his mouth to answer, when Malos suddenly froze, before slowly turning towards the door.

“You didn’t exactly give the impression of an unwilling participant when you sank the Titan I was born on.”, his sister’s voice sounded from the door. “You didn’t exactly seem to have a problem with burning the entire world to the ground, so excuse me if I’m not throwing you a welcome back party.”

“What do you want?” Malos asked.

“Nothing from you.”, she turned from him and walked over to Mikhail, handing him an old tome. “Akhos said you were looking for this. I’ll be going now.”

“Talya -”

Too late. His sister was already gone again.

After a moment of staring after her, Malos turned back to Mikhail.

 “So you’re telling me I blew up a Titan the last time?”, he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Well, now that the cat was mostly out of the bag, no real reason in hiding the rest of the truth.

“More like three Titans.”

“Three?!”, Malos gaped briefly, before settling back to scowling. “I mean, not that I don’t think I could do that, honestly seems like child’s play, but why would I do that.”

“Like we’ve established: Your previous Driver was an arsehole.”

“So’s my current one.”, Malos observed coldly.

“I would beg to draw a distinction. They are not the same.”

“Oh really? Did my previous Driver treat me less like shit?”

“Honestly, no idea, but he certainly treated everyone else like shit, and I would like to think that no matter how many bad experiences my sister has had to go through, she does not want to burn down all of Alrest to pay for that.I don’t think she’s nearly half as hateful as that bastard.”

“You say that because you’re not on the receiving end of that hatred.”

“No, trust me, it can get so much worse.”

“Are you sure? Because you don’t have to constantly feel what she’s feeling, and I am getting sick of feeling nothing but anger and dread whenever she gets close.”

“Are you sure the anger isn’t something you’re feeling regardless of whether she’s there or not? You used to be like that long before you met her.”

“Great, that’s making me feel so much better.”, Malos growled. “You know what, fuck this. I’m going somewhere else.”

“Like where?”

“Like anywhere on this ship where none of you fucking brats can ask me annoying questions.”

Mikhail just shrugged. He wouldn’t be able to stop Malos even if he tried, and at least with him gone he could focus on his work again.

+++

He didn’t need his Driver. He certainly didn’t need her to like him either. He was the motherfucking Aegis. The Master-Blade. Why the absolut fucking hell would he need the approval of a mere weak human? Alright, maybe not a mere weak human - a Blade-Eater, but she was still a bitch. And he didn’t need her or her approval. He didn’t need anyone’s approval.

Maybe the blond Blade-Eater was right. He was feeling angry. Not just angry. He was fucking pissed. 

So, dear-old dad, when are you going to tell me what I have done that you apparently keep saddling me with assholes for Drivers? Do you really think I deserve to be treated like I’m dirt underneath someone’s shoe or looked at like it would be best if I didn’t exist at all for the rest of this miserable existence?

There was no answer. Of course not. Why would the Architect deign to speak to him? He was, apparently, nothing more than the unwanted problem-child.

+++

They ran into each other again in the afternoon. This time though, Malos didn’t freeze. He grabbed onto his Driver’s arm and pulled her back, before she could run away again.

“What do you want from me?”, he asked.

“I’ve told you. Nothing.”, she shot back. “You’re the one who keeps acting like you’re entitled to my affection or something! Take a hint, will you?!”

“What do you want me to do? Stop existing?”

“That would be better for everyone, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re the one who woke me up in the first place!”

“That was an accident! Do you really think I want to be responsible for unleashing someone like you on the world?!”

“Someone like me? There is no one like me!”

“Like that makes it any better!”

“What do you want me to  do? Pick up painting? Crochet baby-blankets? What can I do?”

This was pathetic. He was being pathetic.

“I don’t care what you do! Just stay the fuck away from me!”

“You’re my Driver, I can’t stay away from you! Just tell me what I can do so I don’t have to feel your revulsion all the fucking time!”

“Why the hell do you need me to like you so bad?”

“You’re my Driver! You’re supposed to be my partner!”

“Get that into your head, because I don’t want to have to repeat myself: I will never like you. You and I are never going to be partners. Or friends. Or anything.”, his Driver snarled. “Are we understood?!”

Malos let go of her like she burned him. The emotions radiating through their link were torture. Part of him wanted nothing more but to turn and throw up. But he couldn’t let her see that.

“You know what? Fuck you. Fuck that shitty moral high ground you think you have over me. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, fuck you!”

His Driver laughed.

“From the bottom of your heart?”, she repeated coldly. “Like you have one?”

He knew she was just saying this to rile him up. To hurt him. To make him blow up in her face. To justify every opinion she held of him. But he was starting to see no benefit in not blowing up at her.

If he killed her, he could at least end his miserable existence. It was starting to sound appealing.

He was stopped from further considering any of this by a sudden hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see the silver-haired swordsman stand behind him.

“Malos, calm down.”, he told him.

Malos did not like being told what to do right now, but there was no arguing with that voice.

“Natalya, a word?”, he ‘asked’ fixing her with his sharp blue eyes.

She nodded.

The man turned back to him. “You stay here. Don’t touch anything. Don’t move.” 

+++

“Natalya,”, Jin began, and it didn’t take more than that for her to realise that he wasn’t pleased. Jin never used her full name. “I understand you are angry. I understand you are frustrated. I even understand feeling backed into a corner and lashing out, but this has to stop.”

“But I didn’t want this.”

“That may be so, but even so, regardless of what you wanted, Malos is here now. Take responsibility for your actions.”

“It was an accident, Jin, I swear.”

“You’re still his Driver. Act like it.”

“I don’t want to be his Driver. I don’t want -”

“Natalya.” Jin fixed her with a strict stare. “Malos is not the problem. He is one of us.”

“He sank Torna! And Estham! And Coeia!”

“You were born human, so perhaps you have a harder time understanding this, but the bond between Drivers and Blades isn’t as perfect as it might seem to you. It’s an extremely unbalanced affair. Did you ever wonder why the people of Judicium managed to experiment on their Blades without any resistance? Why most Drivers can treat their Blades worse than cattle and get away with it? Why, despite our difference in power, humans are the masters and we are the slaves?”

Natalya shook her head and remained silent.

Jin sighed. “Perhaps that is my fault. I was lucky. Many of the Blades I met were lucky. Perhaps I romanticised the link too much. After all, who could have even dreamed of a better Driver than her ?”

He had a distant look in his eyes, but he regained himself and continued: “Malos got as unlucky as it was possible to get. To have a Driver like that is the worst outcome for any Blade.”

“He could have left, though.”

“He did. He came to me. But there is no leaving behind that link. Even with all of Alreast between them, the link between a Driver and Blade remains intact. It’ll remain intact until the Blade returns to their Core Crystal or until said crystal is destroyed. Even an Aegis can’t escape that.”

“So, you’re saying he’s not to blame at all? Like all those people he killed mean nothing? Just because he did it in some twisted attempt to please him ?”

“What I am trying to say is that he can feel every ounce of your disgust for what he has done through the link between the two of you.”

“So I’m supposed to just forget about how he almost killed Mikhail in front of me, or how the only reason Mikhail and I got separated in the first place, was because he sank Coeia, which caused Coeian soldiers to come to Estham to raid and plunder? They killed our parents, burnt down our village and sold us as property, and I’m supposed to forget that because what? Because poor little Malos is sensitive ?”

“No one says you can’t be angry about the past, but if you keep treating him as terribly as you are, you are no different from his last Driver.”, Jin told her sharply.

Natalya gulped. “That’s not - I’m not - that’s not fair!”

An involuntary shake went through her body. Jin thought she was like him . Jin thought she was a monster. Jin hated her. Before she knew it, a violent sob escaped from her lips.

Jin took a deep breath and stepped towards her.

“I didn’t want this. Why does it have to be me? Why can’t I just live my life without being constantly reminded of everything that man has taken from me?”

Jin was holding her and stroking her back as she cried.

“Please don’t hate me.”

“Nobody hates you. The situation is difficult, but it is not impossible. But you need to find a way to work with Malos, okay?”

Natalya nodded, burying her head in his chest.

“After all,”, Jin added and she could hear a grin in his voice, “there is no better way to stop him from going on an Alrest-wide rampage than showing him that there are kind Drivers out there too.”

Chapter Text

This was nerve wracking. His Driver and the swordsman had left hours ago and Malos was pacing in the corridor. Yes, he was aware that he had been told not to move, but that was most likely to mean something along the lines of 'don't get out of this corridor', 'don't move away from here' or 'stay where we know you are'. They didn't honestly expect him not to move at all, did they? Pacing was allowed, right? No doubt he’d find out when his Driver got back - no doubt to yell at him again.

He stopped pacing and glanced down at the Core Crystal on his chest. There was only a dim light shining through the cracked gem. This was strange. A broken crystal normally spelled the end of a Blade. Granted, he wasn’t just any Blade, so it wasn’t a surprise that the normal rules didn’t apply to him, but he knew he was missing something. And not just his memories - not that he missed those. In all honesty, it was fucked up that everyone else knew more about his past than he did,  and it would be helpful, if he at least remembered half the shit they accused him of, but given what he had learned so far, Malos really didn’t think he wanted to remember anything about his last Driver. The other things that were missing bothered him much more. There was a black hole of knowledge, probably accumulated over centuries, that he could only make out by the edges. Where the data had been, there was now nothing but a gaping pitch black abyss. Same with his strength. Trying to access his powers was like trying to fetch water from a frozen well, with a thick barrier between him and most of his strength. 

He was the fucking Aegis, but what good was he? No memories, no superior knowledge, probably barely more powerful than the average Flesh-Eater, apparently still a lose cannon, and absolutely useless. No wonder his Driver was so disappointed and repulsed.

Malos sighed. Would she be less mad at him if he wasn’t broken? Would she hate him less, if he were more useful to her? 

Malos was annoyed. Why, out of all his abilities was this one of the ones that didn’t get lost with his broken Core Crystal? This wasn’t exactly a normal Blade power either, as far as he was aware, so why the fuck did he have to be stuck like this? He didn’t ask for this. He didn’t ask to feel every strong emotion his Driver felt when she was anywhere in the vicinity. Maybe, he should find away to fix his Core Crystal. Maybe then he wouldn’t constantly have to feel her hatred through their link.

He didn’t have a chance to continue that train of thought however, when a wave of emotions hit him. But it wasn’t what he expected. He couldn’t even make out exactly what those emotions were. They were all over the place, messy and angry and confused and another emotion he didn’t know. Something he’d honestly never felt before. The feeling was overwhelming. She was practically yelling at him again, but at least it wasn’t nausea-inducing revulsion this time. Malos almost breathed a sigh of relief at the change.

Then his Driver rounded the corner.

The swordsman was not with her. Malos tensed. He didn’t want to be alone with her while she was confused and angry. She wasn’t nice to him when she was calm - or rather, upset with just him - he didn’t want to find out what she’d be like if she was this angry and upset.

His Driver stopped in front of him. Something in Malos screamed at him to leave, but his legs were frozen in place.

His Driver took a deep breath and looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry, what the fuck did you just say?!

Malos just stared at her.

His confusion must have shown on her face, because his Driver faltered a little.

“I’m sorry.”, she repeated. “I know you don’t remember what happened before, and maybe it’s unfair of me to be angry at you for something you don’t even remember doing. I mean, I thought about it, and I’m pretty sure, if you’d just been a normal Blade, I wouldn’t have reacted like this. So you didn’t deserve that. I mean, no matter what happened, I’m your Driver now, and I shouldn’t have treated you like that. So I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I said I hated you. I’m sorry that I said I’d never be your friend, because that wasn’t fair. I’m sorry that I said we’d never be partners, because as your Driver, I should never have said that to you.”

She took a breath and Malos tried to process.

“You’re sorry?”, he repeated slowly.

His Driver nodded quickly.

That guy really is the boss around here, isn’t he? Just what the hell did he say to her?

“I know it’s not a valid excuse, but I was scared.”, his Driver continued. “I know you don’t remember, but I do, and when you woke up, I was scared that you would just continue where you left off, and -”

Her voice dropped off. Malos nodded slowly. This was still so strange to him. Never in a thousand life-times would he have expected her to apologise to him.

“You thought I’d blow up the world.”, he stated.

She nodded again. Malos nodded too, more slowly.

“Wait, are you only being nice to me, because he told you I won’t blow up the world then?”, he asked, suddenly worried.

“Jin didn’t say that, but I’d be really glad if you didn’t. It really wasn’t fun the first time around.”, she sounded genuine. Perhaps a bit desperate, but genuine nonetheless.

“So what now?” Malos asked, still not sure how to feel about this.

“Well, now that I’ve admitted I’ve been a shitty Driver, I thought I’d ask if you wanted to work with me. Like I was supposed to, before I behaved like an ass.”

“So you want me to be your Blade now?”, Malos asked, carefully, suddenly suspicious.

Don’t trust this. Don’t trust her. She’s already shown you what she’s like. Do not fall for this! Whatever this is.

“Why now? Do you think it’ll be easier to keep me on a leash, if I’m next to you? Is that why you’re trying to be nice?”

“I’m trying to be nice, because your last Driver was the worst person I can think of. And I don’t want to be anything like him. He was an arrogant, power-hungry maniac with a superiority complex to rival the Architect himself. And he probably wasn’t nice to you either.”

“Right. So you’re still scared.”

“I’m not scared, Malos. I’m terrified.” He could feel desperation rolling off her in waves. “I’ve never been a Driver before, and I’ve already failed miserably at the very start. And I’m probably not going to be the best Driver. I have no idea what I’m even supposed to be doing. I’m most likely never going to be the Driver you deserved either, but I want to try to be better. Are you going to help me?”

“Help? You?” Malos still wasn’t sure what to do here. Amongst all the things he thought could happen throughout this day, this was not on the list. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to do ?

“Yes, Malos. I want you to help me become a Driver.”, she took a deep breath. “I want you to be my partner.”

Partner.

Partner .

Malos wanted to scream. Part of him wanted to cry. He shoved that part down very quickly. This felt like a trap. This had to be a trap. There was no way this wasn’t a fucking trap.

“Okay.”

The part of him that was still busy yelling at him about how this was a trap that he should not be falling for wanted to rip his own tongue out.

Are you that desperate?! Why the fuck would you agree to this, you fucking idiot?! Just because she currently doesn’t feel repulsed by you doesn’t mean you have to agree to everything she asks!

But she’s my Driver!

She could be the Architect’s bloody descendant and you still shouldn’t be on your knees at a single word from her! You’re an Aegis, not a lap dog! Where the fuck is your dignity?”

“Uhm, Malos?”, a hesitant voice called him back to reality. “Are you all right?”

He nodded. “Of course I am. I’m the Aegis, why the fuck wouldn’t I be fine?”

“Because you spaced out there for a bit. Listen, we don’t have to be partners, if you don’t want to. I know I was asking a lot there. I only just apologised. You can take time to think about it, if you want to.”

He didn’t want to think about it. If he continued to think about it, he’d drive himself insane.

"I said yes, what more do you want from me?"

"I didn't want to force you!"

How very funny. Not.

“Will you just leave it? I’ll work with you. You don’t have to pretend to be nice. I’m not so fragile that I’ll blow up the ship if you keep being yourself. You don’t have to worry about me hurting your friends.”

His Driver looked defeated. “Fine. I guess I can’t ask for anything more than that. It’s a start at least.”

She sighed. “Meet me in the training room tomorrow morning?”

Malos nodded. “It’s not like I’ve got anything else to do here.”

+++

The next morning it was Natalya’s turn to pace in the training room. Malos wasn’t late yet, she was just fashionably early. And nervous.

Malos was not going to like her idea. Given how proud he was of being the Aegis, ‘the Master Blade’ as she’d heard him call himself, there was no telling how he would react to her proposition. Was he going to be offended? Get angry with her? She hoped for the best, but there was never any guarantee. She didn’t know him after all, so it was difficult to gauge his reactions.

Malos arrived right on time.

“So, you want to practise being an Aegis-Driver, do you?”

“Well, yes, but I was also thinking, we could take a different approach.”

Malos laughed coldly. Natalya almost shrank back, but backing out now would be detrimental. So she took a deep breath and continued: “The Praetorium has a monopoly on the distribution of Core Crystals. If they find out you’ve resurfaced, and they didn’t get to be the ones to control your awakening, there will be hell to pay. You have no reason to believe me on this, but trust me, they’d be even worse Drivers than me. For all our sakes, I’d rather avoid you falling into their hands again.”

“Again?”, Malos interrupted her, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. Your previous Driver, the bastard who will not be named - and thank the Architect he’s dead now - used to be the Praetor.”

"Ah.", was all Malos said.

"I really am sorry, Malos. All I thought about was how I felt about having something in common with the man who all but single-handedly ruined my life, I never stopped to consider that he could have used you too. I know it's not an excuse, but it's the best I've got."

"Right, so what exactly is your plan here? Use me, but for the greater good this time?"

"No, actually, I was thinking we could swap roles, and you could be my Driver."

Something flickered in Malos' eyes.

"Right, so your solution to 'oh no, I might have been used for evil against my will in the past' is to never let me use my powers again?", he spat. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, now I feel so much more appreciated."

"That's not what I meant! I want to learn how to be your Driver. But I've been hunted by the Praetorium before. I don't fancy going through that again. And I would rather hide than risk the entire team, because Indol has been gagging to get their hands on you for centuries."

"Let's say I understand that reasoning. This still won't work. You're human. You can't form an Affinity link."

"I'm not. I'm a Blade-Eater."

"Same rules apply. You're not a Blade. Blade-Eater or not, a human can't just form an ether link."

"Look, I'm not going to argue biology here, but I've been forming Affinity links with all three Flesh-Eaters and my brother for well over two centuries now. And besides, you don't exactly get to complain about anything I do concerning ether links. My brother said you can feel my emotions through the link, is that true? 'Cause that isn't exactly normal either."

Malos laughed haughtily. " I am the Aegis. Of course I'm not like any other Blade. But you, you'd need an insane amount of Aptitude for the shit you're pulling."

“All I know is that I can bond with all of them. I never really questioned why.”

“Why am I not surprised.”, Malos muttered. “All right, fine. You want to be a Blade? Show me what you’ve got.”

+++

To say Mikhail was surprised at the sight that greeted him was an understatement.

He didn't know what he should have expected, when Jin told him to fetch Malos and his sister from the training room. Whatever he had expected, it had certainly not been Malos standing in the middle of a field of ice and snow with his sister dancing in circles around him on her skates. That alone was surprising enough. When he had heard the words 'training room' and 'Malos' and 'Talya', he had certainly not expected his sister to be in her Blade-form. But that wasn't close to the most surprising thing in front of him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!", Malos bellowed at Talya. "You think I can't handle this?! How dare you hold back on me, you little brat!"

"Like hell I'm holding back! Learn to work with what you can get, you greedy bastard! We can't all be an Aegis!", Talya shot back, though she didn't sound the least bit hostile.

"Liar. I can feel you've got so much more than this in you. Come on, let it all out. Show me that power!"

Malos' goading did not remain without success. Next thing Mikhail knew, his sister had exploded and both she and Malos had vanished in a violent snowstorm. He could no longer see what was going on, but he could hear Malos' maniacal laughter.

"That's it, Natya! That's my Driver!"

The snow cleared almost instantly at that.

"You can't call me your Driver when we're fighting like this. People will ask questions, and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid." That's when she seemed to notice Mikhail. "Anyway, I'm exhausted. I wonder what's for lunch."

"What's this?", he couldn't help asking. "I thought you were going to train to be his Driver, not the other way round?"

The glowing Ether skates disappeared from his sister's feet as she brushed the snow from the fur on her pauldrons and shook some flakes out of her hair, as it turned back from silvery snow white to her usual reddish brown.

"We're working on it. But me handling his power is a little harder than him handling mine. Besides, this is a good cover.", she told him.

"Yes, no one's ever going to suspect that the Aegis' Driver would be stupid enough to run around being a mediocre Blade.", Malos supplied haughtily.

"Hey! No reason to be mean! It's not my fault I'm not meeting your insane standards! I was doing the best I could."

"No you weren’t.”, Malos insisted, starting to sound pissed off, “And given your insistence that this little flurry is all you can do, I’m starting to wonder whether you’re even aware how deep that well of power is going. And that’s if we’re ignoring the fact that you’re channelling part of your energy into this frivolous and pathetic excuse of a Blade-form.”

“Well, shoot me, I like the skates! So what if they’re frivolous, they are fun, and I am keeping them.”

“And yet you could be so much more if you stopped putting all that energy into pretending to be something you’re not.”, Malos told her.

He has a point .

Mikhail was not stupid enough to get in the middle of this. It wasn’t like none of them had tried previously to get Talya to stop running around pretending she was anyone’s Blade. The reasoning she had given them was that she couldn’t very well admit to the world that she was a survivor of Indol’s Blade-Eater experiments, and when Akhos - sick and tired of having to worry about her every time an attack so much as grazed her - had suggested becoming a Driver to her, so she could at least be human, they had gotten into a massive fight and hadn’t talked to each other for almost a week and a half. Apparently, Talya saw becoming a Driver as having to give up Morena, the Blade she was fused with, and after that reaction 150 years ago, none of them were going to bring it up again. At least Mikhail certainly wasn’t. Malos - who in his defence didn’t have any of this information - did not seem to have any such qualms.

Mikhail wisely decided to get out of dodge before Talya blew up in her Blade’s face about disrespecting Morena.

+++

Natalya took a deep breath.

“You’re probably right.”, she told Malos. “But pretending I’m something I’m not is what’s keeping me and my family safe. It’s been keeping me safe for centuries. And then there’s the whole can of worms that’s becoming a Blade-Eater. A lot of these skills I have aren’t even mine to begin with, and that alone is super confusing and honestly intimidating, since I have to worry about all these abilities I never learned how to control now, and I know I could probably do better, if I stopped pretending, but it’s been so long and there’s been so many changes, I don’t even know where to start being me anymore.”

Malos blinked. “Fucking hell, you need to chill. Scratch pretending, you have an overthinking-problem.”

“Thanks, genius, I know. It’s not like that’s an easy habit to get rid of either though.”

“A distraction might help.” Malos smirked. “You’ve shown me yours - partially. Let me return the favour. This is gonna be good.”

His sword appeared in his hand, and he swung up his arm to rest the blade on his shoulder. Natalya swallowed and gave him a doubtful look.

“You know, that’s not going to work.”, she told him. “There is no way I can lift that thing.”

Malos laughed. “Well, good thing you don’t have to.”

“Kinda do a bit. At least, if you expect me to fight with that thing, that is.”

Malos shook his head, laughing now. Natalya did her best not to shrink back or show her discomfort at his mirth. Architect, she’d forgotten he could be so terrifying.

“This is a Blade weapon.”, he emphasised, swinging the sword off his shoulder in a smooth motion. “It’s nothing like those primitive physical weapons humans make.”

He smirked at her, conspiratorially, and lowered his voice. “Let me show you what this thing can do. Here, catch.”

That was all the warning Natalya got, before Malos simply tossed his sword at her.

The angle was off. Natalya dodged and rolled backwards, to catch the sword kneeling, fully expecting to break her wrist in the attempt.

To her surprise, none of that happened. The second her fingers even so much as grazed the hilt, Malos’ massive bludgeon of a sword folded in on itself until it looked much more like a falchion - and certainly much more like something Natalya could wield in one hand herself.

She got back up, carefully testing the blade to find it was still slightly heavier than Jin’s sword, but perfectly balanced to the point where, with a little practice, she could see herself being quite proficient.

She beamed up at Malos to find him smugly grinning back at her, obviously proud of himself.

“This is awesome! I didn’t know you could do that!”

“Let’s face it, there’s a lot you don’t know, but no need to worry, I’m here now. I can teach you the ropes.”

Natalya found herself laughing. “All right, but baby steps. This training room is designed to take a lot, but even I don’t know how much we can actually throw at it, and I would rather not find out.”

“No sinking the ship. Got it.”