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Chapter Text

Subject #1: Jonny D’ville

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Johannes Anderson

Interview as follows:

C. Anderson: Are you sitting comfortably?

J. D’ville: (Sound of shifting in seat) No.

C. Anderson: I’m sorry to hear that, is there anything that we can do to make you more comfortable?

J. D’ville: (Snort) Getting this damn interview done for one thing.

C. Anderson: Alright then, we’ll begin. What do you remember leading up to the troops finding you?

J. D’ville: (Sigh) I’ll tell you, like I already told those troops of yours. Nothing.

C. Anderson: Well, what is the last thing you remember?

J. D’ville: Nothing.

C. Anderson: I’m sorry? Can you elaborate on that?

J. D’ville: How much more fucking clear can I get?! Nothing. I. Don’t. Know. Anything. Woke up in the middle of the woods with the rest of the crew. No clue how I got there, no memories of the before at all, just my name and my crew.

C. Anderson: Yes… You’ve been referring to your… compatriots as your “crew” a lot, Mr. D’ville. Do you believe that you were part of a starship?

J. D’ville: Do you honestly think I know? I didn’t see a starship. Can’t tell you shit more than that.

C. Anderson: There is significant evidence to it, considering your dress and weaponry.

J. D’ville: (Through gritted teeth) Yeah, the weaponry that you took away. I’m not sure why you won’t let me keep it.

C. Anderson: Mr. D’ville, you are an unknown individual who showed unstable behavior leading up to coming here. We took your weaponry for your safety, and for the rest of the base’s safety.

J. D’ville: If I wanted you dead, you already would be. You soldiers can’t even sleep without a gun, and with one leaning against every corner, I think you’ll find it difficult to keep one out of my hands!

C. Anderson: And you think you would be able to survive a confrontation with a fully armed battalion?

(Silence)

C. Anderson: That’s what I thought. I am sorry if you feel you are being oppressed in some way, but you and your crew are an unknown variable. My goal is to keep my soldiers’ lives intact, something that has already been put at risk due to your group.

J. D’ville: That's a goal we have in common, then, Colonel. If you or your soldiers keep going about pointing guns at us, we are going to have a problem.

C. Anderson: Soon your guns may be joining our ranks, actually. We’ve sent a request for General White to pay a visit to this outpost and consult on what to do with you and your crew.

J. D’ville: I’m sorry, you're enlisting us? (Scoff) I’m not fighting in some- some war just because you're telling me too.

C. Anderson: If General White chooses to send you and your crew to war, it very well may not be your choice. You have expressed a great joy in violence, and I am confident you will be able to adapt well to the battlefield.

J. D’ville: It’s not about the fucking fighting! You don’t know what to do with us, so you just ship us off to battle? You all must really be desperate for soldiers if you're gonna put us out there. How do you know we won’t just sabotage whatever plans you have?

C. Anderson: Mr. D’ville, please keep in mind that our army is currently in charge of your life at the moment. As far as we know, you all just simply spawned into existence. Like it or not, your lives currently rest in our hands. Please send in the next of your crew.

Notes:

Mr. D’ville was somewhat compliant, though threatened violence and behaved unacceptably several times. I wished to get a longer interview after the fact, but he was unwilling to do so for reasons that would be unprofessional to list. This initial interview, however, did serve my main purpose of getting an idea of the character of each crew member.

Mr. D’ville, as stated in the interview, was found unconscious in the woods outside our base along with his crew. After a brief confrontation that ended in less injuries than expected, they were taken into custody. They all claim amnesia and no knowledge of how they ended up in the situation, and seem remarkably unconcerned about the events.

We, as of yet, have not decided on what to do with the crew. They are cooperating, if with much complaining, and their violent outburst was to be expected upon being confronted by several fully armed soldiers. Hopefully General White will allow them to join the ranks of our soldiers, as it seems the best way to keep them out of trouble.

- Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #2: Nastya Rasputina

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Anderson

Interview as follows:

C. Anderson: Are you recovering well?

N. Rasputina: I am fine.

C. Anderson: Anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable?

N. Rasputina: (Sniff) It is cold here. Can you turn up the heat?

C. Anderson: We already have it as hot as is comfortable for our troops, Ms. Rasputina. If you wish, we could supply another coat.

N. Rasputina: No, no, it is fine. I take it you have already spoken with Jonny?

C. Anderson: Yes, we have already conducted his interview.

N. Rasputina: Mmm, surprised he complied with your procedures. I believe the last officer who tried to get him in a cell was shot.

C. Anderson: I thought you had claimed to have amnesia like the rest of your crew?

N. Rasputina: Eh, memory is tricky. Maybe I know it happened, maybe I can guess from what I know of him. 

C. Anderson: Bold to claim that he very well could have killed a man.

N. Rasputina: Oh, you really don’t know what you are dealing with, do you?

C. Anderson: What do you mean?

N. Rasputina: Colonel Anderson, I am one of the few people the crew is going to willingly listen to. Let us get this over with as quickly as possible.

C. Anderson: I assure you that our troops can handle your crew perfectly well.

N. Rasputina: Do you wish to bet on that?

(Silence)

N. Rasputina: That is what I thought. Now, let us get the basics out of the way. I do not remember anything leading up to before our waking up in the woods outside your base, I have no plans to harm you or any of your fellow soldiers, and I simply wish to find out what caused our memory loss. Is that clear?

C. Anderson: I- (clears throat) Crystal. That does indeed encompass a great deal of the questions we wished to ask.

N. Rasputina: Yes, well, the procedures for this are quite predictable.

C. Anderson: If I may, what is your plan for discovering the context of your situation?

N. Rasputina: To retrace our steps, scan for any memories we may have remaining, and attempt to find a cure for our collective amnesia. Many things, of which I am sure your group will be of no help in.

C. Anderson: That is unfair for you to assume, Ms. Rasputina. We do hope to help in whatever way we can.

N. Rasputina: You are seeking more soldiers for whatever war you are fighting. If you have to help us to do it, then so be it, no? I am well aware of what you are trying to do, and I do not care. I merely wish to inform you that I am not playing your game, and that you can stop any time you would like. 

C. Anderson: Our war is for quite the good cause, Ms. Rasputina.

N. Rasputina: All war is pointless slaughter. You may feel free to pretend it is not. It does not affect me.

C. Anderson: People’s rights and freedoms don’t affect you?

N. Rasputina: Your people.

C. Anderson: I would say you fall under that umbrella.

N. Rasputina: Interesting. In all forms I do, but yet I still do not care. Good day, Colonel Anderson. And good luck.

(Sounds of chair scraping)

Notes:

Ms. Rasputina seemed to be the most level-headed of the group, though this did not make her more compliant. If anything, she seemed less willing to speak with us. She also remained silent a great deal during all initial interactions, seeming to prefer to observe than interfere. Interesting behavior among her more chaotic crew, and something to be noted for General White’s consideration.

Though it was not mentioned, we believe she may have a health condition of some sort, most likely anemia, due to the fact of her constantly insisting it was much colder than it was. During the medical procedures following the confrontation, Doctor Ginny Cricket confirmed as much. 

We supplied Ms. Rasputina with medicine and care both to aid in this, as well as help with the gunshot wound she sustained when her crew was first found. A startled private let loose a bullet when the group became aggravated, and it hit Ms. Rasputina in the shoulder. Even with all the medical care she denied, she has been healing remarkably well, and a swift recovery is expected.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #3: Raphaella La Cognizi

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Johannes Anderson

Interview as follows:

R.L. Cognizi: I think that your method of interviewing us one at a time, Colonel Anderson, is very ineffective. I would think it better to assign multiple soldiers to the task. You can cover more ground that way.

C. Anderson: Thank you for the input Miss Cognizi, but that is not the point of this interview. Besides, with your crew members in frazzled states, I think it is better to talk one-on-one.

R.L. Cognizi: Yes, yes, amnesia and such.

C. Anderson: As well as concerns over what to do with your crew.

R.L. Cognizi: Really, we are quite safe to be around! Poor Gerda just caught me off guard. I do hope her arm heals well. (Muttered to herself) Though, I am unfamiliar with the type of gun that I used to cause the injury. (Directed back to Anderson) It did seem to be made for killing quickly and effectively, and due to the fact she is not dead yet, I believe it will be fine in no time! 

C. Anderson: That, once again, is not the point of this interview.

R.L. Cognizi: Alright, fine. What is it you would like to know?

C. Anderson: Do you have amnesia as well?

R.L. Cognizi: Yes, I have a lack of recollection regarding the time before we were found by your troops. Amnesia is a bit of a broad term however, as it regards any form of memory loss. My crew and I have not experienced any lapses in memory since we were woken up, besides the aforementioned lack of knowledge regarding our past. I believe a more suitable term would be Retrograde Amnesia, as we are all able to form new memories uninhibited, but lack any memory of before. There are many things of interest with that however, as out of what I can tell none of us have any recent injuries that would lead to amnesia of the sort.

C. Anderson: That is… a lot of information. If you are experiencing amnesia, how are you able to remember all of that?

R.L. Cognizi: There is a difference between episodic and semantic amnesia, Colonel. I may be unable to recall events, but my factual memory has remained remarkably untouched. 

C. Anderson: I see.

R.L. Cognizi: That was a lie, but that is not relevant to this interview. 

C. Anderson: You are correct. Continuing with the questioning, some of your other crew members have stated they are able to vaguely recall emotions and small snippets of fact. Do you have any of those to share?

R.L. Cognizi: Hmm… a few small ones. I know I definitely love my crew, and I know Ivy and I are dating, but the love I have for everyone else is more familial in a sense. I know that we are a crew, not a squad, or a group, or a class, or a murder.

C. Anderson: A murder?

R.L. Cognizi: Like a murder of crows. It’s the term used to refer to a group of them.

C. Anderson: I- A crow?

R.L. Cognizi: Not relevant, though crows are fascinating animals; well on their way to evolving into an intelligent species, but that’ll take a few millennia or so. Anyways, other than that I have very little knowledge. 

C. Anderson: If that is all, we wish to interview the rest of your crew. Could you please send the next one in?

R.L. Cognizi: Of course.

Notes:

Ms. Cognizi seems a curious soul, unable to stop asking questions about seemingly innocuous things. She did provide information regarding amnesia and other subjects, some of which will be useful for our doctor’s knowledge, some of which will not.

Her assessment seems correct on Private Gerda Flores’ recovery, who has recently been released from the hospital. I am not planning on informing Private Flores of Ms. Cognizi’s well wishes. I do not believe they will be received well.

Ms. Cognizi made several references to creatures and scientists that, best we can tell, do not exist. This, I feel, is more evidence to the argument of this whole thing being a practical joke, though I am beginning to believe their side of the story. If they are indeed telling the truth, based on several casual remarks I believe Ms. Cognizi would greatly benefit from publishing a textbook -- or several -- on the research she has done on the subjects she referenced.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #4: Ashes O’Reilly

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Johannes Anderson

Interview as follows:

C. Anderson: Mx. O’Reilly?

A. O’Reilly: That’s me. 

C. Anderson: We wished to ask you a few questions regarding you and your crew's amnesia.

A. O’Reilly: Alright. 

C. Anderson: (Clears throat) Well-

A. O’Reilly: You got a smoke?

C. Anderson: …No, Mx. O’Reilly. If I may go on?

A. O’Reilly: Sure.

C. Anderson: You and the rest of your crew were found passed out outside of our base, wielding alien weaponry and dressed in alien fashion, with no recollection of who you are or how you got there. Since we have taken you in, you all have exhibited aggressive behavior towards our soldiers, and in your initial interaction you injured several of them.

A. O’Reilly: (Chuckles) Yup.

C. Anderson: Do you find this funny, Mx. O’Reilly?

A. O’Reilly: Maybe.

C. Anderson: I do not.

A. O’Reilly: Heh, well, nothing I can really do about that.

C. Anderson: …Please just tell us what you know.

A. O’Reilly: Well, I don't have much in the way of memories. Think you might’ve predicted that already, however. Kind of hard not to notice the pattern, don’t you think?

C. Anderson: Yes, we have indeed observed that whatever your crew went through ended up with similar results. All of you have claimed memory loss.

A. O’Reilly: Claimed?

C. Anderson: We would like to believe you and your crew are telling the truth. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet found any evidence of head injuries or devices that would cause memory loss.

A. O’Reilly: Are you saying we’re lying?

C. Anderson: No, it’s simply a matter of how much evidence there is to back your claims. I can’t exactly bring this up to General White without having some evidence. I’d prefer something concrete before I discuss it with her.

A. O’Reilly: You could if you weren’t a coward.

C. Anderson: Mx. O’Reilly, this is a professional interview. Please behave as such.

A. O’Reilly: Ah, right. Professional. You should’ve thrown that right out of the gate when you met us.

C. Anderson: I will admit that the situation is a bit complicated, but I am not one too-

(Lighter flicking absently)

C. Anderson: (Sigh) Where did you get that lighter, Mx. O’Reilly?

A. O’Reilly: Oh, this old thing? Hmm, if I’m being completely honest, I can't really remember.

C. Anderson: I thought you willingly gave up all weaponry and dangerous objects to our troops.

A. O’Reilly: Oh, sorry, this one must’ve slipped my mind. My apologies.

C. Anderson: Please put the lighter away.

A. O’Reilly: Well, because you asked so nicely.

C. Anderson: Now, we were wondering if you had any bright contributions to our investigation you wished to share?

A. O’Reilly: Eh, well, I would tell you, but I would rather talk to a higher ranking officer in that regard.

C. Anderson: General White has been contacted and will be on Ariel shortly. I am the highest ranking official as of now, and I can assure you I am well suited to record your answers.

A. O’Reilly: Oh, you're the highest ranking official? Tell me, how long have you been in command?

C. Anderson: That is not relevant to this interview.

A. O’Reilly: Oh Colonel, I do believe it is. I mean, how can I trust you without knowing how much experience you have?

C. Anderson: … Four months.

A. O’Reilly: Interesting. And would you say your soldiers are loyal to you?

C. Anderson: If you cannot stay on topic, this interview will be ended.

A. O’Reilly: You haven’t even gotten any information from me.

C. Anderson: And I do not believe I will get any. Good day, Mx. O’Reilly.

A. O’Reilly: What, upset by a little poking at your authority? Sounds like you might not be the most qualified for your position, Colonel.

C. Anderson: This interview is over. Good day.

Notes:

Mx. O’Reilly was very unhelpful. They seemed adamant to do nothing except make vaguely threatening remarks, poke fun at me us, and produce a rapidly increasing number of lighters from unknown places. 

Similarly to Ms. Rasputina, we think they may have a medical condition in the form of asthma. We will not be performing mental evaluations of this crew quite yet, though I feel confident in the fact that they may have some form of pyromania, as well as generally violent tendencies. Considering the rest of the crew's behavior, violence seems the only consistency between them.

We have had to relocate all sources of gasoline in the encampment to a secure area. I was not present at the time, but Private Bill Bridges reported that they found the nearest supply and continued on to attempt to set a building alight. They were stopped before they dropped their lighter into the pile of gasoline. After this interview, I requested they be restrained to prevent further incident, as I believe a repeat of that behavior to be soon occuring.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #5: Brian

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Anderson

Interview as follows:

C. Anderson: It’s just Brian? The rest of your crew seemed to have a last name… or two…

B: I mean… I think one may have been there? Whatever it was, it’s… fuzzy. 

C. Anderson: That's perfectly fine. If you’re able to remember, please alert us so we can add it to your record. How are the mobility aids suiting you?

B: Hard to get used to, but I think I'm getting the hang of them.

C. Anderson: I realize this may be a moot question, but do you have any idea what condition you have that could be causing your stiffness?

B: Doctor Cricket already asked, and the answer is no. 

C. Anderson: That’s unfortunate to hear. We will be working with the doctors to try and get a diagnosis.

B: Sure.

C. Anderson: I do have to say, you seem far more… Civilized than most of your crew. I mean, you submitted your weapons easily, you haven’t argued with our troops, and you’ve cooperated with our doctors well enough.

B: Sometimes it’s easier to just go along with things. I knew that it would be better to let you all do your thing.

C. Anderson: Well, thank you. After the day we’ve had, someone trusting us is very refreshing.

B: Yup. Trust.

C. Anderson: You seem distracted. Is there anything you would like us to be aware of?

B: Nope. Absolutely nothing, Colonel. Totally fine. Say, do you have any… close relatives?

C. Anderson: Yes? However, I don’t see how that’s relevant.

B: Oh, uh, just… My crew is like a family to me! Raphaella, she’s pretty much my sister, you know? I mean, I would hate it if anything bad would happen to her at all! That’s why I always make sure to check in with her regularly.

C. Anderson: Yes, you all did seem remarkably close.

B: I mean, I've never had a sister. At least from what I can remember. Which isn’t much, so take that with a grain of salt I guess? But, sisters. Yes. You hate for anything to happen to them!

C. Anderson: Mr. Brian, are you threatening me?

B: Oh, no, of course not! Just…You know. Good message all around, don’t you think? I mean, tell your family you love them and everything!

C. Anderson: Sure, Mr. Brian. Since you seem one of the most level-headed of the crew, I wish to ask what you and the rest of your little group are planning to do. You all have been obvious about your hostile feelings towards us, and we wish to know how much caution we need to take.

B: I mean, I don’t think anyone’s particularly happy about the situation, but all in all you guys are helping us out. I can't speak for most of us, but I’d like to think we can work together on this.

C. Anderson: Well, the final decision on what to be done with your crew is to be decided by General White. A message has been sent out, but if you continue to comply, I believe you may be given work and housing until otherwise needed.

B: You're putting us to work? In the army?

C. Anderson: It is the most likely outcome.

B: …Colonel, I hate to break it to you, but that might be difficult for me.

C. Anderson: You don’t have to work as a soldier, there are many different jobs that could be done that would require less physical work.

B: I don’t think the rest of the crew would be particularly happy about that either.

C. Anderson: They either comply, or be punished for their crimes. They all seem to have a violent mind for war, so I think they will prefer the battlefield. If you could send in the next of your crew, please.

Notes:

Mr. Brian, after a medical examination performed by Doctor Ginny Cricket, was reported to have several medical problems we will have to investigate at a later date. He reported stiffness in his joints, headaches, symptoms of anemia (similar to Ms. Rasputina), as well as a variety of other problems. He has been supplied with forearm crutches to aid in mobility for the time being.

He seemed the most polite and level-headed of the crew, almost passing as a civilian. If not for the multiple weapons found on his person, his bond with the crew, and his complete neutrality towards gore, I would believe him a kidnapped person. His lack of violent tendencies was acknowledged by the crew, but did not seem inordinate to them; just as Mr. D’ville put it, “Boring”.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #6: Jessica Law

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Anderson

Interview as follows:

J. Law: Wow! This Encampment Truly Is Quite The Place! Truly Top Tier Functioning, Old Bean!

C. Anderson: Yes… Ms. Law, was it?

J. Law: Ooh, Yes, That Is My Name! Jessica Law, A Completely Normal Mortal Woman! Not A Soldier, Nor A Toy!

C. Anderson: That is… an oddly specific thing to mention, Ms. Law. Care to share your reasons for that?

J. Law: No Thank You!

C. Anderson: Okay… Ms. Law, we won’t be able to supply help for you and your companions unless you are honest with us.

J. Law: I Am Very Sorry To Hear That! I Will Be Completely And Totally Honest In All Regards Then.

C. Anderson: Alright, I’m glad you are willing to comply. Ms. Law, have you experienced any amnesia at all?

J. Law: Is That A Normal Experience?

C. Anderson: Considering your companions state, yes, it is what we expect.

J. Law: Then Yes!

C. Anderson: (Sigh) Ms. Law, whatever game you have decided to play with us, it is not amusing.

J. Law: Oh It's Not Meant To Be Amusing! Though If You Think It Is, I Am Sorry I Am Not Doing A Good Job! I Will Try To Do Better. Oh, How About This: Knock Knock!

C. Anderson: This is not the time for knock-knock jokes.

J. Law: It Isn’t? Oh, That’s Dreadful. I Simply Love Knock-Knock Jokes! Knocks Like A Knock On Wood, Which I Would Know Nothing About! Say, Good Chap, Would You Like To Hear One?

C. Anderson: No, thank you.

J. Law: Oh, Pity. That Simply Makes Me So Sad. I Might Cry, Old Bean! Which Is Something I Can Do!

C. Anderson: (Sigh) Fine. Tell your knock-knock joke.

J. Law: Knock-Knock!

C. Anderson: …Who's there?

J. Law: Wooden Shoe!

C. Anderson: … Wooden shoe who.

J. Law: Wooden Shoe Like To Know! I Say, Isn’t That Funny, Good Chap?

C. Anderson: … Yes, Ms. Law.

J. Law: Simply Spiffing! You Know, This Encampment Truly Is Quite The Place!

C. Anderson: Yes, Ms. Law, you already said that.

J. Law: Oh, Did I? Well It Is True.

C. Anderson: Ms. Law, do you or any of your companions seek to harm our troops?

J. Law: Seek It? Oh No I Believe Not! In Fact, Quite The Contrary!

C. Anderson: Wait, really? How do you know? Why?

J. Law: Oh! I Could Not Tell You That, As I Am Simply A Mortal Woman! I Have No Knowledge Of Space Or Songs Or Wars!

C. Anderson: Ms. Law- (Sigh) Ms. Law, would you please inform us of how you know you do not seek to harm our troops.

J. Law: Oh, I Would Old Chap, But I Can’t! It’s Quite Dreadful.

C. Anderson: And why can’t you?

J. Law: Oh, Apologies, I Can’t Say That Either!

C. Anderson: Ms. Law, if you are not going to comply with this interview, I will have to end it early.

J. Law: Alrighty Then!

Notes:

I don’t think I have the words to describe Ms. Law. She seemed to be a normal woman at first glance, but her eyes were strangely glazed over and never really focused on anything. She moved stiffly as well, though did not mention experiencing any movement troubles like Mr. Brian.

Her manner of speaking, I will admit, was quite strange. She spoke with constant emphasis and used terms and slang that I did not recognize. I believe these mannerisms should be discussed with an expert on such matters.

She was very unhelpful in the investigation, preferring to mention strangely specific details on various topics. Despite insisting she was “Not A Toy, Nor A Soldier,” she had lots of knowledge on military goings on. She made many comments on weaponry, uniform, and ranking.

I am uncertain if the specific details she noted are clues that need to be investigated, or things that can be written off as a strange psyche. She may know more, but with her behavior, we will not be interviewing her further.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #7: “Gunpowder” Tim

The subject declined to participate in the interviews. The subject has been detained in a high security cell and is to remain there until we consult with General White.

Notes:

“Gunpowder” Tim is the main source of my concern regarding this crew. He was by far the most violent, and had to be restrained and placed in a cell. He injured many of our soldiers, and was completely unwilling to comply. Attempts at interviews were met with more violence, so for my own safety, we will hold out on interviews until he has calmed down.

My hope is that by the time General White arrives, he will be able to be interviewed outside of the cell. Even if he is non-compliant, I do hope his behavior does not reflect negatively on his companions. Our encampment is in desperate need of more fighters. Anything, even a deal with the Devil, would help in our fight against King Cole.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #8: Ivy Alexandria

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Anderson

Interview as follows:

C. Anderson: Ms. Alexandria, I will request you put the book away so we may conduct this interview.

I. Alexandria: I would rather not.

C. Anderson: Ms. Alexandria.

I. Alexandria: Fine. Let’s just get this over with.

C. Anderson: Where did you even get the book?

I. Alexandria: Second Lieutenant Horner has very good taste in reading. In fact, I do not believe I’ve read this one before. I predict a 78.7683% chance that if I knew it, I would be able to recall such a fact.

C. Anderson: And was Second Lieutenant Horner made aware of the fact that you have his book? 

I. Alexandria: there is a 84.6235% chance that he will not notice it is gone before I am finished.

C. Anderson: That isn’t an answer, Ms. Alexandria.

I. Alexandria: I’d say it's enough of an answer for your purposes. I also wish to ask, why are you even continuing with these interviews? You’ve gathered what little information you can from us, and you’ve informed us of our position. There is not much reason for you to continue with interviews.

C. Anderson: It is standard procedure for these situations. We want there to be a record for each of your crew, because there is no other documentation of your existence.

I. Alexandria: Documentation is very important… 

C. Anderson: I’m glad you agree. As you pointed out, while a bit moot, do you have any memories you wish to share with us?

I. Alexandria: Hmm, I do not believe so. Would you happen to be related to Kirsten Anderson?

C. Anderson: Excuse me?

I. Alexandria: The scientist.

C. Anderson: I know who you are talking about, but how do you know who she is?

I. Alexandria: She is who the S.S. Anderson was named after.

C. Anderson: That is not an answer.

I. Alexandria: I suppose that is correct. Well, the S.S. Anderson is common knowledge, is it not?

C. Anderson: No it isn’t! The only reason I know about it is because of my mother’s pride- (A deep breath) The ship went missing 30 years ago. It was barely recorded to have existed! It was just a transport ship that was lost in the war.

I. Alexandria: So you are related to Kirsten Anderson?

C. Anderson: Well, yes, but that still begs the question of why you know about her. 

I. Alexandria: I make it my job to know things. Knowledge is very powerful, and fun! Did you know your eyes have their own immune system? If the rest of your body found out about your eyes they would try and eliminate them. Hence, why most eye medicine is in drop form instead of being ingested.

C. Anderson: I can see that you and Ms. Cognizi share a similarly tracked mind.

I. Alexandria: Knowledge is something meant to be shared! It’s good to have people to share things with. We can talk about the biological make-up of caterpillars, or what chemicals are the best for preserving ink, and with Marius I can talk about social effects on the government and how political climates affect writing. The rest of the crew aren’t much for facts, but a good story can bring anyone together.

C. Anderson: Is that what brought you all together? Stories?

I. Alexandria: Oh, stories are wonderful things, Colonel. Stories bring everyone together, every step you take in the world leading up to one moment. Change a word, and who knows? You might end up somewhere else. They're almost as good as facts.

C. Anderson: That doesn’t make much sense.

I. Alexandria: Hmm. I predicted a 62% chance you would say as much. Disappointing. Here you go.

(Sounds of paper clattering)

C. Anderson: I'm sorry?

I. Alexandria: It's the book. I finished it.

C. Anderson: We've been talking this whole time?

I. Alexandria: I can multitask. You may return it to Second Lieutenant Horner if you wish. I’ll have to see if he owns the sequel to it. There's only a 18.436% chance it hasn’t been released yet, though considering how restricted trade to this planet is, there's a 77.53̅% chance the author lives on this planet. I'll have to see about paying her a visit if that's the case.

C. Anderson: You will be doing nothing of the sort. I will make sure you and your crew are not authorized to interact with civilians.

I. Alexandria: Hm. There is a 67.23% chance you will succeed in that regard.

C. Anderson: That does mean the odds are in my favor, you know.

I. Alexandria: I was not saying if they were in your favor or not. I was simply stating a fact. Goodbye, Colonel Anderson.

C. Anderson: Ms. Alexandria, you cannot just end an interview-

Notes:

Ms. Alexandria seems to be a very intelligent individual, but remarkably blunt. Since she has entered the encampment, about a half dozen books have been reported missing. When they were first found on her person, we confiscated them quickly.

After the 5th book we attempted to wrestle away from her, and after the 5th time we were met with an alarming resistance, I ordered my men to let her keep them.

In order to get her to comply, we put her in a room with a pile of books we got from the local library. This seems to have left her happy enough, and she has given us no further issues.

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Subject #9: Marius Von Raum

Interview performed and recorded by Colonel Anderson

Interview as follows:

C. Anderson: Mr. Von Raum, I would prefer it if you sat down for this interview.

M.V. Raum: And why should I do that, dear Colonel?

C. Anderson: Why should you take a seat? This is a professional interview. We would like to conduct it in a professional manner.

M.V. Raum: Hmm, but why is it considered more professional to be sitting down? Standing is far more interesting. Some would say sitting is lazy. I prefer to stand.

C. Anderson: Please, just sit down, Mr. Von Raum.

M.V. Raum: Well, if you insist.

(Pause)

C. Anderson: …Please sit in the chair properly.

M.V. Raum: Ah yes, like a “proper gentleman”.

C. Anderson: Thank you, now may we begin?

M.V. Raum: Hmph. You don’t even bite back.

C. Anderson: I’m sorry?

M.V. Raum: You sit there, all high and mighty, but look at you! You're treating this like it's some disaster, but you won’t even strongarm us! It's like every single thing we say, you’re just trying to figure out what the best thing to say to avoid any and all conflict is. You don’t banter, you don’t yell, you're like… an emotionless puppet. No, no, not emotionless. You're just too scared to do anything.

C. Anderson: I am fighting for a cause I believe in. I don’t know what you think you know, but I am not scared.

M.V. Raum: (Clicks tongue) Yet every time our interviews get vaguely confrontational, you shut them down. You’ve done it with every single one of us. I see plenty of soldiers on this planet, sure, but not a single battle. The crew and I are probably the most interesting thing to pass by this base in years. Why is that, Colonel?

C. Anderson: If you are just going to criticize my command, then you- 

M.V. Raum: Oh yes, feel free to cut this interview short anytime you’d like. We are under your command after all.

(Silence)

C. Anderson: Marius Von Raum, do you or your crew wish harm upon me and my troops?

M.V. Raum: Oh, no, of course not! I want to help you of course! Really, we are thankful you picked us up.

C. Anderson: Really? Your crew didn’t seem to share the same sentiment.

M.V. Raum: They had no idea what was happening! All scared and confused, like wild animals. You are all fighting for such a noble cause against… uh…

C. Anderson: … King Cole.

M.V. Raum: Yes! King Cole! Him! I would gladly fight against him and his evil… evilness anyday! If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know, and I’ll do it!

C. Anderson: And what skills could you supply to the war?

M.V. Raum: Medicine, fighting, robotics, and engineering. It's not much, but I’d be happy to learn more!

C. Anderson: That is a varied skill set, Mr. Von Raum.

M.V. Raum: I have a variety of interests. I can’t remember many of them, but doing a few good ol’ tests might help me recall.

C. Anderson: Well, General White will be here tomorrow morning to consult on the matter of your crew’s placement. Your willingness to help us will be noted.

M.V. Raum: Why, thank you Colonel!

C. Anderson: Due to your skill set, you will be tested on a handful of matters to see how well you can handle them. Depending on how well you do, we’ll give you an assignment of some sort. Does that work well for you?

M.V. Raum: Quite well, thank you very much Colonel!

Notes:

Mr. Von Raum was surprisingly compliant in regards to working. I predicted him to be as rebellious as the rest of his crew, but besides a bit of critical commentary he has adapted well. He has a variety of skills and an open mind, so I believe he will be a valued asset to our cause. 

He did seem to calm down his crew somewhat. The ones that showed distaste at the idea of working for us have begrudgingly agreed to help, and Mr. Tim has been convinced to behave. He has still declined to give an interview, but I feel no need to as the documents of his property damage are enough of a paper trail to add to a file.

Something to note as well: we have given temporary aliases to the members of the crew who lacked full names for legal reasons. The crew members we’ve been referring to as simply “Brian” and “Tim” have been given paperwork verifying them as “Brian Below” and “Tim Ledsam”. 

-Colonel Johannes Anderson

Document: Charge release form and temporary sanctum approval

Only for the eyes of General Cordelia White

This document requests the pardoning of all charges of crime pressed against the individuals known as Jonny D’Ville, Nastya Rasputina, Raphaella La Cognizi, Ashes O’Reilly, Brian Below, Jessica Law, Tim Ledsam, Ivy Alexandria, and Marius Von Raum. This document formally declares the rebellion will take charge of their needs and responsibility for their actions. This includes, but is not limited to: creating identification and paperwork testifying to their existence, providing housing and food, and punishing them for any further crimes committed. If this document is signed, the charge is legally required to be placed under the work of Colonel Johannes Anderson, and must comply unless given leave by Colonel Johannes Anderson or an individual of greater rank. Colonel Johannes Anderson will be henceforth responsible for any of the charges’ actions, and may be punished for improper handling of the charge. If the charge’s behavior is found unacceptable, the signatory is permitted to terminate the agreed upon terms of this document.

Signature: General Cordelia White

Chapter Text

A little less than thirty years earlier

It was silent in the cabin, nestled as deep in the woods as it was. The closest humans lived miles away, in a quiet town on the shore far below, far away from a war that raged on its surface and the stars above. No human knew of the cabin’s existence, and no living thing had set foot inside it for centuries. At least, nobody was supposed to.

Harsh, sudden knocking broke the quiet inside the wooden refuge, and Lyf, sitting on the couch,  jumped slightly, dropping the book they had been reading. They scrambled, heart skipping a beat as they quickly picked it up again and set it on their table. 

Another series of harsh knocks rang out, and they pushed themself off the floor. Lyf scanned the room, looking for anything that might help them against the intrusion. Their eyes fell on the black box on the table beside them, and they sighed and picked it up carefully. It thrummed with energy in their grasp, somehow making the air around them feel thicker, like a shield.

The artifact was barely the size of a flash drive, and at some point had functioned much the same. It had stopped being of use except as a conduit of Yog’Sothoth long ago. Lyf had threaded it onto a small piece of twine a few centuries ago, the ease of transportation winning over the fear of what would happen if they put a hole through the thing. The surface of it had healed with the string still through it, bonding them together. 

Lyf slipped it over their head, and the artifact made an almost smug humming noise. Most other times they would have grumbled at the near indiscernible emotion coming off the thing, but their heart was racing far too much to pay attention at that point.

When they cracked open the door, they were greeted with a sight that had long since become a familiar headache. Soldiers. Their uniforms had once been a starched white, but after what they assumed to be hours trudging through the muddy woods, they were muddy brown and piss yellow.

Lyf couldn’t tell you what war they were fighting, but by the glares and guns they were sporting, they could guess that they weren’t friendly. They rarely had experience with friendly soldiers.

“Can I help you?” Lyf asked through the crack of the door, scanning the faces before them. The soldiers stared at them, wide-eyed. Lyf stepped back into the shadows a bit, quickly brushing their rainbow-stained hair out of their face. It seemed to work in the opposite direction though, making the few soldiers that hadn’t been gaping follow the example of their companions.

The soldier closest to the front -their leader, Lyf assumed- cleared his throat. “We have come to inquire about a handful of odd occurrences.” He said, “We were pointed here, to your cabin. You are to be escorted to General White’s base for an interview. You will either come peacefully, or we will use force. Is that understood?”

Lyf stared at the soldier, who, to his credit, stared them down right back. Well, he didn’t really stare them down, as they were a good two feet taller than the man. They still weren't used to the itty-bitty size of most of the species on this planet.

Lyf forced themself into a poker face, mind racing at a rate slightly faster than usual. Tightening their grip around the black box around their neck, they bit back from saying anything that could incriminate them. “Is that so?”

The soldier huffed. “Yes.”

“May I inquire about the ‘odd occurrences’ in question?”

The muscles on the leader of the merry troupe’s neck tightened. “We have several accounts,” he stated, “Of an individual matching your description causing unexplainable disturbances in the nearby town. We had questions about the events.”

“And how did you find me?”

“That is none of your concern. Now, come peacefully, or we will use force to apprehend you.”

“I think it is my concern actually.” Lyf tensed as the soldiers behind the leader shifted their hands to rest on their weapons. They sighed. They had always looked down on the younger soldiers on Yggdrasil, who itched for a fight rather than trying to do their jobs. It always led to innocents getting hurt, and when the newbies stopped being newbies, they had long since passed the period to learn their lesson.

“Look, you can’t just say you're here to investigate the mysterious rainbow ghost, or witch, or what have you. This isn’t the first time it's happened, and I can assure you that all I want is to be left alone. Hel, I haven’t been to the town in 2 years. Whatever incident you're talking about, it won’t happen again, okay? Just leave me alone.”

Directly telling people to leave them alone didn’t work that often, but they lacked the energy to think of something better. Why, oh why did it have to be today I got into trouble? Lyf thought, trying to think of some way they could get out of this without bloodshed. For good measure, they tacked on an “Or else.”

“Is that a threat?” the soldier asked. 

Oops. Was it? 

“I’ll have you know that we are perfectly equipped to bring you in. You just get to choose if you’ll be conscious of it or not.”

Lyf sighed, and ran a hand down their face like they could wipe their eyes and they would be back on Midgard, not on a planet light years and probably dimensions away. Maybe in another world they were far away from soldiers and eldritch curses and the like.

Lyf gave the soldier a glance over, evaluating him silently. After a moment, they slammed the door in the soldier's face. 

For a second, the soldiers were left in stunned silence. Lyf took the opportunity, and turned back to the rest of the cabin.

The soldier’s shock passed quickly, and before they even got to the center of the room, pounding started to come from the other side, and cursing themself, Lyf dug through the couch cushions until they pulled out a dusty and fraying burlap sack. They shoved their book into the bag before racing to gather the rest of their belongings.

Books, weapons, keepsakes, they picked through it all hastily. Most, easily replaceable. The rest, they’d rather die again than part with. Anything from Yggdrassil was to never be let go of.

Swearing under their breath, they stuffed a dagger and a few tunics into their bag. Splinters flew as the door crumbled against the soldier's force before it fell off the hinges. The group of soldiers rushed in, guns out and pointed directly at them.

Dropping the bag, Lyf sighed and slowly turned around. They raised a hand in feigned surrender, the other clutching the black box.

“Stop! Put your hands in the air!” the presumed head of the soldiers demanded, eyes narrowed and gun loaded. Soldiers behind him mirrored his action, tense and ready.

Lyf raised their hand in the air slightly higher. 

“Both of them.” the soldier growled. After a moment's hesitation, Lyf dropped their hand from the necklace and raised them both in the air. That seemed to help the soldier relax slightly, but he still refused to lower the gun. The rest of the soldiers began to edge forward, and Lyf took a step back.

“Look, this is really unnecessary.” they tried, edging further away, “I’m not even armed. Isn’t there a law about these things? Innocent until proven guilty and whatnot? I haven’t made any hostile moves, even in self defense. Your supervisors really wouldn’t like it if they knew you were attacking a civilian.”

Silence. One of the soldiers blinked. “Innocent until what?”

Oh. Oops. Apparently this planet didn’t have that rule. Damn the existence of political differences between planets.

“Look, not the point. You can’t just come in here, guns out-” Lyf gestured to the weaponry “-say I’m under arrest, then not even tell me what crimes I’m being investigated for.”

Actually, they probably could. They knew that on New Midgard the police were well within their power to keep their mouths shut about any arrests. Lyf prayed that this planet wasn’t keeping up that morally questionable law.  They really didn’t want this to end badly.

“Private, handcuffs.” the leader snapped at another soldier behind him, who pulled out a set of shackles. “Please remain where you are so we can restrain you properly.”

Lyf didn’t bother to acknowledge the statement. They grabbed the necklace with one hand just as the soldier began to step forward, and let the power of the Bifrost swell through their fingers. Cracks in reality began to form, and their braids floated like the strands of a jellyfish behind them.

Harsh shrieking rang out as the young soldier dropped the set of handcuffs. It dropped to the floor, wriggling and beginning to grow limbs and teeth. Lyf could see specks of blood where it had bit him, and soon more blood joined as the thing lunged at the private’s ankles. 

More screaming rang out, and Lyf released another bout of power from the black box. The soldier’s guns began to writhe and hiss, crawling their way out of the soldiers’ hands. Lyf could feel the invisible bursts of rainbows squeezing their way into reality around them, like oil pooling and shimmering in the sun.

They glanced around for an escape from the chaos, now accompanied by the faint singing of the void. The matter of getting out of the cabin with all of their belongings was simple enough. All it required was one hand on the black box at all times, and a good minute of concentration. Unfortunately, even though Lyf now had the first, they were missing the latter. They had lots of practice ignoring people (thank you, Marius von Raum), but even they had trouble with the soldiers screaming bloody murder around them.

The rabid beasts, though lacking in power, seemed effective at causing chaos. Some had grown feet and looked like tiny mechanical dogs, scrambling around on paws or spider legs. Others dragged themselves across the floor or slithered like snakes. Unfortunately for Lyf’s attackers, all of them had grown jaws (some had more than one), and were making quick work of the battalion’s ankles.

Lyf spotted the back door of the cabin, and stumbling a bit, began to try to maneuver around the chaos. Their escape was partially blocked by the yapping, squamous things, who seemed focused solely on attacking the soldiers. Hesitantly, they began to step past the creatures, which offered no resistance. They were paid no mind by the gun-creatures as they began to retreat.

One of the nightmarish creatures dodged past their ankle as they stepped past, before diving for an older soldier’s neck. She screamed as the teeth bit into her flesh, then yanked it off and threw it to the floor. Lyf paused to watch as it began to leak black, iridescent blood, before its flesh dissolved and it disappeared.

The soldier slowly pushed herself up from the floor, clutching her neck. She gave Lyf a glare, and they stepped back, just in time for a bullet to pierce the wall in front of them.

It seemed some of the soldiers had thought ahead and brought two guns, much to Lyf’s chagrin. The shot had been a misfire, nearly hitting them in the collateral, but it didn’t stay that way for long. As they were spotted trying to make their escape, someone cried out. Soon all eyes were on them. A shot was fired from the pistol, and Lyf’s shoulder erupted in pain.

The force from the bullet sent them careening into the floor, and getting them squawked at by a gun-beast they nearly pinned. The young soldier let out a noise of triumph. Curling up, Lyf held their shoulder with their free hand. They swore under their breath when the throbbing wound left their hand stained with a slippery black substance. Blood. 

One of the pistol-nosed creatures let out a cry of pain, as a scarred soldier stabbed it through where its heart should've been. It continued to shriek and wriggle, iron teeth gnashing at empty air, stuck to the wooden floor by the blade. The soldier stood up slowly, and all around him the rest of the group put down their tormentors. 

“What the fuck even are these things?” Lyf heard a soldier exclaim, and they slowly pushed themself up, stumbling a few steps and gasping. Leaned against the wall, they tried to breathe, a steady drip-drip of shimmering blood falling onto the floor. The pools of the stuff shifted slightly, almost like it was alive as well.

“I’m not sure, but they die quickly.” another soldier responded, before he turned to Lyf with a snarl, drawing a knife.

He rushed forwards, aiming the blade straight at their heart. Gritting their teeth, Lyf pushed the blade to the side quickly. The blade grazed their ribs, but the soldier's momentum slammed the blade directly into the wall. He tried to yank it out of the wood, and Lyf took the opportunity to knock him to the ground with a swift crack! He let out a cry of pain and fell to the floor.

Lyf kicked him to the side, out of the way, before turning back to the rest of the gathered and ready soldiers. They could feel the wound in their shoulder was healing, though the bullet was still inside. It left their arm stiff, but they knew their blood would dissolve the metal soon enough. Reaching for their belt, Lyf fumbled for a dagger, before cursing in Yggdrassilian when they remembered it had been left in their bag.

Some more orders were barked out, and two more soldiers stepped forwards, fists raised. Lyf began to square up in return, but their defenses quickly fell when Lyf felt a piercing pain in their back. They bit back a scream, stumbling, as the soldier who had stabbed them let out a shocked laugh.

Her moment of triumph was quickly killed however, as the blood on the dagger crawled and reached her fingers. She felt the piercing pain before she even saw the black-rainbow liquid digging through her flesh like tiny, vicious paper cuts. Tearing her hand back, she screamed, leaving the dagger embedded in Lyf’s back.

They stumbled a few steps forwards, away from the soldier who was now screaming and frantically shaking the blood off. They reached to their back, grabbing the hilt of the dagger and pulled it out with a gasp. Hissing, they tossed the half-melted blade onto the floor. It clattered against the wood, skittering to a stop against the wall, before it quite literally grew a set of spider legs and skittered away.

“What,” the soldier who had stabbed them gasped, “are you?”

Lyf looked down on the soldier. They were vaguely aware of the fact that their eyes and hair had started glowing, and traces of bifrost had begun to escape into the reality behind them. Shards of what looked like wisps of glass, but what they knew was just pure chaos, floated through the air. The soldier’s eyes glittered in the rainbow light, wide and looking back and forth, trying to rationalize the breaking reality around them.

They had no reason to answer the soldier. They could have very easily walked out of the cabin and into the woods, where they would’ve been free to summon the power of the bifrost and portal to the hideout they had set up for a situation exactly like this. They didn’t even have much of an answer to give, as they barely knew at this point.

Yet they stopped. Lyf held eye contact with the shaking soldier, clutching onto the arm of one of her companions, before looking away with a sigh.

“Nothing but a survivor.” 

And then there was a sudden, agonizing pain as another bullet pierced through their back. All the power of the bifrost was sucked back into the black box and their color-shattered soul, creating a vacuum that sucked in nothing and everything. The bullet went straight through their collarbone, cutting the string binding the black box. They collapsed, and the small artifact clattered onto the floor beside them. Around them, they heard the soldiers make noises of triumph and shock, but no words processed through the pain.

Their eyelids fluttered as their blood pooled and rippled around them. They reached for the black box beside them, trying to feel for the now familiar presence of Yog’Sothoth. Whether to leave, or kill the soldiers, they weren’t sure. Their hand brushed against the side of it, but a heavy boot quickly kicked it out of their grasp.

“What’s this funny thing then?” the soldier who had led the charge asked. Lyf could see that one of the squamous creatures had ripped off a chunk of his ear, and blood was now trickling down his neck. They couldn’t help but smile slightly at the battered state of the man. The smile quickly left though, when he leaned down and picked up the rainbow stained black box, examining it. 

“Don’t…” Lyf wheezed, and the soldier looked down on them with a smug grin.

“What, is this precious to you or something?” the soldier turned the black box upside down, inspecting the rainbow cracks running up the sides. Lyf glared at him, and he laughed.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is a USB stick,” he continued, “except most USBs I’ve seen aren’t covered in rainbows. Interesting. I wonder…”

The soldier kicked Lyf over onto their back and they coughed up more of their bifrost-stained blood. He bared his teeth, finally able to look down on them. The rest of the soldiers inched farther from the two, silently watching as their leader did his work.

“Nothing about you is natural, I bet. You're not any species we have on record; you bleed weird-ass living rainbow ooze, you can turn any inanimate object into a monster, we even have reports of you opening portals. The locals call you a witch. Me? I don’t believe in that stuff.”

The soldier chuckled, and Lyf tried to keep their face from betraying the hot spikes of pain racing throughout their body. If they were anyone else, they would have passed out by now. As it stood, they were barely conscious. All of their energy was going into trying to hear what the soldier was saying.

“But,” He continued, “what I do know is we’ve got you down for a lot of crime. Crime that dates back about seventy or so years. I’ve gotta say, you don’t look a day over thirty to me.”

Lyf narrowed their eyes. He was exaggerating. Really, most of what happened couldn’t really be considered a crime. It wasn’t like they knew crystals summoned from the bifrost had psychedelic properties. And there technically weren’t any laws against accidentally throwing people into portals or turning trees rainbow. They’d admit the several bank robberies they had done in order to purchase food were illegal, but it wasn’t like they could’ve gotten a job.

Lyf coughed. “Why… soldiers?” the words barely got out between them hacking up blood. “How-how did you find me?”

“Oh, curious, are we?” the soldier crouched down to be closer to Lyf on the floor. They continued to glare back at him, too busy trying to stop the bleeding to respond or attack. Their healing seemed just functional enough to keep them alive at that point, but didn't have the decency to just let them die.

The soldier examined their bleeding form. “You seem the well-read sort. Tell me, have you ever heard of Old King Cole?” After a second of trying to remember, Lyf nodded slowly. They had heard the name repeated a few times, and seen the identical red-haired soldiers on patrol in the towns. They felt like they knew the name from something else, though. Frustratingly, the memory seemed to escape them. Something about pigs, maybe?

“Well,” the soldier prompted, “Old King Cole, what is he most well known for?”

Lyf stayed silent, having no answer to the question. The soldier raised an eyebrow. “Come on, you must know the answer.”

Lyf let out another cough of rainbow blood and the soldier cocked his head to the side.

“Well, Old King Cole, he’s been ruling over this area of the galaxy for hundreds of years. Throughout that entire time, he has not aged at all.” he explained, like a teacher giving a lesson to a schoolchild. “Maybe you can connect the dots: an immortal king who needs to be taken down, and a mysterious urban legend about someone who has been living in these woods for almost a full century.”

“I don’t-I don’t know anything about him,” Lyf hissed out between labored breaths. “I’m… no use to you. Just- just leave.”

“Well, unfortunately for you, you’re our best lead. The General wants you, and well, judging by your remarkable hardiness-” the soldier placed a boot on the bullet wound, making them wince and cry out in pain. “-Maybe soon Old King Cole won’t be the only one with genetically modified soldiers. Whatever the fuck you’ve got going on? We could weaponize it. If you comply, that is.”

“And if I don’t?”

“We’ll kill you.”

Lyf laughed out loud despite the pain, snorting a bit before they dissolved back into coughs. “Good luck with that.”

The soldier smiled. “Oh, we know it’ll be difficult. But we are a very determined group.” he took his boot off of Lyf’s shoulder and pulled a dagger from his belt.

“Now, from our records, there are accounts of you being able to survive 12 bullets to the chest, an explosion, and a fall of about 60 feet. Now, let's see if you're able to survive this.”

He stabbed the dagger into Lyf’s throat, and for a second they felt the pain erupt through their neck, and the hot blood spilling down and joining its kin on the floor. It wriggled and reached towards them, but fell to the floor like liquid once again as they weakened. Their heart ceased to pump its iridescent blood, and their eyes closed, finally at rest.

And so, Lyfrassir Edda died.

Lyf regained consciousness slowly at first. The world around them felt thick from exhaustion. Sluggishly, they tried to raise a hand to rub their eyes, but when they tried to move their arm cold metal dug into their wrists. Handcuffs. Opening their eyes, they winced and wrinkled their nose as artificial light broke through.

“Could you possibly give a worse introduction?” they muttered, eyes still squinting against the harsh light. Their voice was clear, unaffected by the recently healed knife wound. Just to double check, they rolled their shoulder, glad to find the stiffness gone.

Someone cleared their throat, and Lyf finally noticed the woman sitting at the metal table across from them. Her hands rested delicately on the table in front of her, but she stared at Lyf with calculating, cold eyes.

It was hard to see with the bright light, but she looked about thirty, with long, straight black hair and a face covered in old bandages. They trailed down her whole body, though most of them were hidden by a crisp white uniform. She didn’t look like a soldier, far too skinny and delicate, holding herself with too much poise, though her uniform was decorated with medals. A general, by the looks of it.

“So the rumors are true then,” she observed, giving them a glance-over. “I was worried my men had brought in a corpse to interrogate.”

Lyf grunted in acknowledgement. They certainly still felt like a corpse, even if they hadn’t stayed one.

“I have to admit, the idea of an ‘immortal rainbow witch’ living on Ariel was not one I was prone to believe,” she continued, interlacing her bandaged fingers. She rested her chin on them, rehearsed movements giving the illusion of ease. 

“Is that what they’ve been calling me?” Lyf asked, staring at her wearily. 

“I'd say it's an accurate description,” the woman said. 

“On two fronts, maybe,” Lyf said. “I’m not a witch. Out of my knowledge, witches aren’t real, though I can’t say I’d be surprised if they were. Also, that’s probably the blandest descriptor I've ever heard. They can’t be saying that, right? People have to be more creative than that.”

“I’ve heard a few names that roll off the tongue better.” She commented. Lyf couldn’t see her face well, but her tone was filled with nothing but bored disdain. “‘The Rainbow Ghost,’ ‘The Flesh Carver,’ ‘The Man With Crystal Blood.’ Quite a few urban legends have spawned from your existence.”

“Ugh, those are even worse.” they wrinkled their nose. “Not a man, or a ghost, either. Never carved flesh in my life.”

“Really. Several video feeds showing you murdering people in cold blood beg to differ.” the general stated.

Lyf tried to spread their hands, forgetting they were still tied to the chair behind them. It ended up as more of an awkward shrug, and they sighed. “Accidentally throwing someone into a portal because they tried to shoot you isn’t carving flesh. Also, it was in self defense.”

The woman crossed her arms and glared at them. “As proven, you can survive being shot. They couldn’t survive you doing… whatever the hell it was you did.”

Lyf clicked their tongue, though their stomach turned. “Touche. But as I said, it was an accident.”

“You're horrible.” she spat out at them. They shrugged.

“There are much more horrible people than me out there. Some courts of law would even let me go free.”

“This isn’t a court of law.”

“No, I noticed that.” Lyf glanced notably at the room around them. “You still haven’t told me who you people are.”

She sighed, started to speak, then paused. Reconsidering her options, she spoke with a false bravado. “General White. Leader of the rebellion against King Cole.”

Lyf noted the hesitation, but didn’t comment on it. “Lyfrassir Edda.”

“And what, Lyfrassir Edda, are you?”

“And why should I tell you?”

The woman’s- General White, apparently- eyes narrowed. Lyf almost laughed at the reaction. Had she honestly expected to get an answer that easily? Her troops had come to their home- which they still weren’t sure how they had found- killed them, dragged their bleeding corpse all the way to wherever-they-were, and waited until they woke up again just to interrogate them. Just telling her their name didn’t mean they were going to comply, they just didn’t want another horrid nickname.

“There are many reasons: We currently hold your freedom in our hands, we can torture you-”

“And I can torture you back. People more powerful than you have tried to kill me.”

She crossed her arms. “We have the artifact that gives you your powers.”

“Yes, and if you could give that back and let me leave, that would be great.” Lyf grumbled.

“You aren’t in any position to be making demands right now.”

Eyebrows raised, Lyf tilted their head slightly at her. “I think I am in the perfect position to be making demands right now. You want answers from me. I’m not going to give them to you. You can’t kill me, so all of your threats are useless.”

Lyf’s bravado, though a slight stretching of the truth, seemed to be effective in making her all the more pissed. Sticky situations were abundant when your existence was in defiance of natural laws. Yet, Lyf had yet to be in one similar to this: Disarmed, helpless, caught in a trap that could easily lead to a lot of pain.

Even if they didn’t need to fear for their life, they weren't fond of torture. Working as a transport officer had been torture enough for several lifetimes. They had a few ideas in mind to get back at any soldiers that tried to hurt them, but they were still getting hurt. 

Lyf smiled, putting on another layer of thick confidence. “You might be trapping me, but you're also trapping yourself. And only one of us will outlive the other.”

It had been a saying one of the prisoners-who-shall-not-be-named had. Almost every time a new soldier came to the cell in the hazing ritual with too much confidence, he had said it to them. Lyf had been one of the few who hadn’t heard it for whatever reason, but it always managed to throw the new recruits off their rhythm. 

It felt strange quoting him (after what he and the other two had done, they didn’t even feel like calling him by his last name), but it worked. General White gave them another scalding look, before pressing a button on the table. For a second, nothing happened, until a young soldier stepped into the room. He stood at attention, posture stiff and filled with nervous energy. 

“Private Anderson, escort our guest to their cell.” she instructed the soldier. “If they make any aggressive moves, call for backup immediately. Do not take any risks with them.” 

The soldier silently undid the handcuffs from the back of the chair, before grabbing Lyf’s elbow and attempting to lift them up. Apparently, the Private hadn’t been made aware of their height, and almost fell over when they rose suddenly. 

Shifting uncomfortably, the soldier readjusted himself, then roughly guided Lyf to the door. General White stared at him with a look Lyf could feel the headache behind. Giving a final salute, the soldier led Lyf out of the room. They gave the general a final look, before allowing themselves to be pushed into the hallway outside.

The walls were blank, made out of the same stark white tiling the interrogation room had been. Dozens of soldiers passed through, all wide-eyed and staring at Lyf. None of them bothered to hide their confusion at seeing them, and Lyf shrunk slightly under their gazes. They looked away from the crowds and allowed themself to be escorted faster.

Surprisingly, Lyf saw a handful of different species among the soldiers. They had spent time on several refugee planets, filled with survivors of all species from all disasters, so they had grown used to a multi-species crowd. The soldiers they had seen beforehand had all been the same species that General White had been, and the soldier leading them down the hall was.

They looked somewhat like Yggdrassilians, just shorter and pinker, as well as having small, rounded ears and coming in duller colors. Hi-mans, they were pretty sure they were called. Or hummus. Something with an H. 

Hummus’s- Hummusi?- seemed to generally be the most common species in heavy space-travel zones. They seemed to be pretty much everywhere, spreading like squirrels until they filled every nook and cranny of the known universe. It was surprising to Lyf, that one species could be in so many places. There had even been a few in Yggdrasil, which had cut itself off from other solar systems completely. They may have been only one of few people who knew about those Hoo-nans, but it was still impressive they had spread so far.

The private escorting Lyf unlocked a door in front of them, leading to a new hallway. this one had windows on one side, looking over the large military base they were in. It sprawled a good distance, and seemed to be the only settlement for quite a long way. Trees and planes stretched out to a beach in the distance, and Lyf could see small squadrons of more soldiers patrolling the woods.

Right through the window, they could see a handful of buildings, presumably barracks, surrounded by a concrete yard bustling with soldiers. A few small military vehicles were parked to the side. Pathways creeped out from the building they were in, leading out to further buildings and training grounds. They even saw a small ship hangar on the edge of the facility, where a handful of small transport ships were being stored or docked.

From what Lyf could tell, they were either on a completely different island or the complete opposite side of it. Unfamiliar trees stretched as far as they could see, and with how small the island they had chosen to hide out on was, it stood to reason they had traveled quite far. How they had transported Lyf, they weren’t quite sure. The amount of time they’d stay dead tended to fluctuate from anywhere from a few seconds to days, and they were yet to figure out what the pattern was. Unless a soldier told them -which was unlikely, given the general mood of the base- they had no way of knowing how much time had passed.

When the people who were to be in charge of Lyf’s imprisonment got their hands on them, they were reminded of their long days of working as a transport officer. They had to say though, that there was much they would’ve given to be back on the side of the police instead of the prisoner.

They were thrown into a room with a white jumpsuit, changing quickly before the tunic and skirt they’d been wearing were confiscated. An officer spent a mortifying amount of time taking out all the hair bands and pins they’d been using to keep their scattered braids in. He hadn’t even had the gall to seem disturbed by it as Lyf had buried their head in their hands, waiting for it to be over with.

The soldiers moved through the protocol slowly, constantly fumbling through the motions. Lyf tried to correct them a few times, but the soldiers only took that as an excuse to shove them around more. Eventually they stopped trying to have any sort of agency, and just let themself be pushed through the process.

At one point they passed by a table where all of the belongings they had tried to take with them were sitting. While they passed, another soldier took up the bag and shuffled it into a room in the back that was covered in sturdy locks. As they grabbed the black box, Lyf stared at it, trying to reach for some of the power to be able to break out. Unfortunately, it was too far away, and they were powerless as it was locked away.

Glumly, they let themself go from interview to mugshot to debriefing, making no protest but staring tiredly at the soldiers. At last, they were shoved into a bunker badly masquerading as a prison cell, and left to rot.

First thing they did was collapse onto the cot. It was horrid and stiff and made a squeaking noise when they fell onto it, but it was better than being around the soldiers. They laid face-first in the pillow for a second, letting themself relax, before flopping over and onto their back. Their feet hung over the edge of the cot, but they just curled up to compensate.

Lyf ran a hand over the prison cell wall. The room had been divided in half with bars, making an area where people could observe them without being within reach. It made the already tiny room even smaller, barely leaving space for them to pace. There was still a window on their side of the room, reinforced with bars, but it would still be easy to break and get glass to use as a weapon. The lock on the door was weak, the walls thin, pieces of the cot easily torn off and turned into a bat. 

All in all, it was the shittiest, most slap-dash cell Lyf had ever seen. Fortunately, that worked in their favor instead of against them for once. They had half a mind to break out just to teach this place to do research on how cells were made, instead of just winging it and failing spectacularly.

Well, they could do that later. For now, they closed their eyes, and let themself fall asleep, awaiting the dreams of a rainbow hell that would follow.

Chapter Text

“Private von Raum, how long have you been working in this army?”

“Eh, 6 months, give or take.”

“And you have been attending every single training session and drill exercise you’ve been required to go to?

“Most of them.”

From across her desk where she was sitting, General White sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Well then, Private von Raum, could you please inform me of the reason why, despite this, you are still unable to sit in your chair properly?”

Marius shrugged from his position lounging sideways in his chair. Legs propped over one arm rest, he lounged across it like the subject of a homoerotic classical painting you might see in a museum. “I don’t see what the problem is, General.” Marius said with a grin, and she took a deep breath in.

“I once again request that you behave, Private. If you keep choosing to disobey orders, there will be consequences.”

Marius gave a shrug, then sadly readjusted himself so he sat in a position slightly less akin to a cat draped over a couch. The way he was expected to sit was far less comfortable, and he could feel his legs twitching from having to sit properly. He tapped his fingers on the metal to compensate, the noise causing the General’s icy eyes to twitch. Marius pretended not to notice her reaction to the tapping, continuing to do so as he spoke.

“Well then, you said you had an assignment for me?”

“Yes,” General White said, sliding open a drawer on her sparse desk. She quickly picked out a file, opening it to confirm it was the one she needed before setting it on the desk. “We had another soldier assigned to the task, but she resigned from the assignment. Normally, it would be assigned to an officer of higher ranking, but…”

She hesitated, flipping through options of what to say in her mind. She decided quickly, and continued.

“...But we decided to see if your unique circumstances might help with the situation.” she finished. 

Oh, that told Marius all he needed to know about that. You could call not being able to quit because you legally didn’t exist a ‘unique circumstance’. Whatever this was, they wanted to give it to someone who couldn’t complain. 

Marius opened his mouth to tell her off, but then a label on the file caught his eye. General White slid the paper across to him, and he picked it up, rereading the file name.

“‘Prisoner file, classified’?” Marius asked, raising his eyebrows. “We aren’t a jail, my dear General.”

“Yes, well, as I said it is special circumstances.” she said briskly. “They had certain connections we thought would be useful in the war effort.”

“Had, past-tense?” he pointed out, and the General grimaced as much as she could with her lower face covered by a mask.

“The troops I’ve assigned have been going through some… difficulties.” she growled the last word like she wanted to add something much stronger to the sentence, though Marius couldn’t tell if the anger was directed at the prisoner, or the troops. “Hence why we want you to talk with them.”

Marius chuckled. “Me specifically? I’m truly flattered.”

“We’ve found you have the unique ability to find exactly how to best piss someone off in any given situation. We’ve tried charisma, we’ve tried torture, we’ve tried bribery.”  she deadpanned, not bothering to honey her words. “I'm beginning to think the only way we can get them to give up is to annoy them into talking.”

“Glad to hear I fit the bill,” Marius said with a grin. He picked up the file and upon opening it, was greeted with the sight of papers filled with details on the mystery prisoner. Well, detailing was a bit of an exaggeration, as for everything but a few specific fields, everything was filled in with the same word; “unknown.”

Their name was there (Lyfrassir Edda, a bit of a mouthful, but a pretty name), as well as pronouns (diversity wins, the high security prisoner wanted for countless misdemeanors uses they/them pronouns!) The only information that seemed to have been filled in was the extensive list of said crimes, with citations leading back to the cases, and a physical description of them. 

To the side, a mugshot featured a weary looking person glaring into the camera. They looked human for the most part, besides a set of long, sloped-back pointed ears. If Marius had had to guess, he would’ve assumed they were a Fae, though the lack of brightly colored skin quickly disproved that. Soft, light colored hair fell loosely over their face, intermixed with a handful of small braids.

They were beautiful, for someone who was supposedly so dangerous. Making no mistake, Marius could see the rage and exhaustion painting their face. For some reason though, he just couldn’t imagine them hurting people. Maybe it was something in their eyes, maybe it was something else, but the idea of them being a prisoner- it just felt wrong somehow. Maybe he was missing a detail, something, but thinking about it was like grabbing hot metal.

“All we’ll have you do for today is bring them some food, and ask them a handful of questions,” General White commented, interrupting Marius’s train of thought. “If the results prove satisfactory, you may be assigned to work with them further. Do you have any questions?”

Marius raised his hand in the air. She sighed. “Private, we are the only two people in the room. You do not need to raise your hand.”

“Oh, right,” He lowered his hand. “Well then, how am I going to be compensated for the extra assignment?”

General White stared at him for a moment, before dropping her face into her hands with a groan. Deciding to take that as a cue to continue, Marius went on. “On top of everything I’ve been doing, I think I deserve something in exchange, don’t you? I think that access to the transport system, and, oh, being able to leave would be good, but I’d also accept food other than hardtack or a set of cards that won’t get taken up immediately.”

“Private Von Raum, must I remind you that you work here. Your job is to take care of assignments.”

“Yes, an arrangement neither of us seem to be happy with,” he observed. “Something that I could easily fix if you let us out of the base to investigate how we got here in the first place.”

“We have already told you, we have people-”

“People working on it, fine, but they’re people who don’t know how to do their jobs.” he finished for her. “You seem convinced that the best way to solve this case is to keep the people involved as far away from it as possible.”

“You have not earned our trust yet. You and your crew seem adamant to misbehave.”

Marius shrugged. “Not our fault you're determined to make this place as boring as possible.”

“This is military encampment. It's not meant to be fun.”

“That's what you think.”

“What does that even mean-” she exclaimed before cutting herself off with a deep breath. She rubbed her temple with one hand, the other placed on the desk like an anchor. Marius grinned as she reeled herself back in. It was a finely honed skill to be able to get the ice-cold General to lose her shit around him.

“Here are the interrogation questions,” she said at last, ignoring the previous conversation. She took out and handed him another sheet of paper with a short list of questions to ask the prisoner on it. Marius quickly tucked it into his pocket, as well as folding up Lyfrassir Edda’s file and putting it with the questions.“Try and get at least one answer out of them, then we’ll see about any rewards.” she added.

“Aye-aye, Cap’n.” he gave a salute to General White, who he could practically see biting back on correcting him on the title. Her eyes just narrowed instead, and she straightened out some more of the paperwork on her desk. 

“I’m going to be off-planet by tomorrow. Turn in the record to Colonel Anderson by tomorrow evening. You are dismissed, Private” she finished, waving him away with a hand before turning to study her documents. Marius rose from the chair, gave his standard bow, and sauntered out of the room. He smiled as he caught one final exasperated sigh from the General right before the door closed.

In the hall, Marius leaned against the wall and took the prisoner file back out of his pocket. Leaning against the wall, he looked them over again. Lyfrassir Edda, species unknown, origins unknown, age unknown, and imprisoned for an impressive list of strange crimes. Marius wasn’t sure what “indefinite dislocation of human life” or “animation of private property” meant, but it sounded exciting. “Distribution of experimental hallucinogens” certainly sounded like Marius’s idea of a good time, as well as “justifiable homicide,” and “armed robbery”. 

A prisoner who knew something so important that the military decided to interfere. It was intriguing, especially considering nowhere on the list of crimes was anything that a standard prison couldn’t take care of. Nowhere on the first page did it mention anything General White might care about, like espionage or smuggling. There was more paperwork, filled with cramped legal jargon, but Marius ignored it in favor of tucking the documents back into his pocket.

He tucked the documents back in his pocket, and pulled out the questions. Apparently, he was expected to record the conversation on a computer, which was a relief. Marius’s handwriting was the worst of the crew, a high achievement considering every single member of the crew had been asked if they had been writing in a different language at some point. A handful of times Marius was pretty sure that they had been writing in a different language, but had somehow forgotten how to read it as soon as they wrote it down.

The questions were weird. It ranged from asking about Lyfrassir’s origins, to what they knew about King Cole (how was a random prisoner supposed to know anything about King Cole’s immortality?), to some stuff about rainbows and USB’s and sentient guns?

Marius’s brain tried to think of who this person might’ve been. A hardened killer, with a dramatic backstory who loyally refused to give up information. Involved with a conspiracy so great, the file Marius had been given was actually a cover file, and the one that listed their actual crimes was hidden in the center of the base. Maybe guarded by several dozen turrets. Or a dragon! Marius liked dragons.

It might have been wishful thinking, but Marius couldn’t stop himself from fantasizing. Every single day in the military base had been long and boring, filled with meager tasks and being forced to train. Over the course of six months, no battles had taken place, no troops had been sent off-planet, and he hadn’t gotten any assignments besides unpleasant chores. A handful of the rest of the crew had been given tasks, but that just meant they were busy hacking into things or blowing up Rose Behemoth wrecks and Marius was left with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

Overall, it sucked. It sucked being left to manual labor or being an “assistant” to any of the more skilled crew members. It sucked having nothing to occupy his mind except coming up with fake stories of how everyone had lost their memories, that typically devolved into bad movie plots.

But there was a story here, not one Marius or someone else had made up. And one that Lyfrassir Edda was involved in. Even without the possibility of something to do besides his job, he would’ve volunteered just to meet them.

For very, very normal, and definitely not gay reasons. Marius would never do anything for gay reasons.

He tucked the question list into the pocket of his uniform, and prepared to meet the mysterious, dangerous, (and possibly sexy) prisoner.

Marius walked into the jail cell to the delightful sensation of being nailed square in the face by a block of soap.

It wasn’t even good soap. It smelled strongly of undisguised chemicals, smacking against his cheek and spraying suds everywhere. He blinked and watched mournfully as it slid off his face and plopped into the soup he’d brought. The soup splashed out of the bowl, and he frowned, staring as it bobbed up to the surface and floated sadly. There was the soup gone, as well as Marius’s only bargaining chip.

“I already told you all,” Marius looked back up when he heard the muffled voice coming from the cell. “I am not answering any of your damn questions. Now. Fuck. Off.” The cell the prisoner was supposed to be in was small, taking up about half of the room. The half Marius was in had no furniture, and the cell itself was bare besides a cot, stacked high with blankets, and some basic living essentials. Completely bare, even in the case of the prisoner who was supposed to be in there. 

Marius almost started panicking- he got the opportunity for something to do, and he had already lost the prisoner?- before he noticed the pile of blankets on the cot shifted slightly. A very serious, high security prisoner indeed.

It looked like Lyfrassir hadn’t even bothered to peek their head out to throw the soap, just grabbed it from the counter next to the cot and hurled it blindly. Marius was impressed by their aim, actually, as not an eye peeked out from the bundle.

Marius sighed overdramatically, making sure Lyfrassir could hear it from their nest. “Well, that certainly is a shame. Except for the fact that you don’t really have a choice. I mean, you kind of are in a cell right now?” After a second of deliberation, Marius added “And I do have a taser. So, take that as you will.”

That last part was a lie, Marius had gotten his taser privileges taken away after he tried to test his out on Jonny. Jonny had then immediately gotten his taken away when he used it on Marius to get revenge. Actually, the majority of the crew had gotten their taser privileges revoked.

A hand poked out of the blanket pile and flipped Marius the bird, and Marius pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. “I brought soup?” he added, raising the tray with the now very sudsy food on it. The hand tucked back into the blanket pile, before their voice came again.

“I don’t want your damn soup.” Lyfrassir stated. They had a strange accent, melodic with rolled r’s. Not one he recognized, but considering so much around them was a mystery, it wasn’t surprising. Maybe English wasn’t their first language?

“Hmm, that's a pity.” Marius said, and set the soup down on the floor, before plopping down beside it. Clicking on the recorder he had brought with him, He flipped open the questions, glancing over what was written.

“Well, Lyfrassir Edda, I’ve been told that I have to at least try to get some answers out of you. Feel free to ignore me while I read these out.” he said casually, before grinning and adding “Though I've been told I am very hard to ignore.”

“I’ve ignored people far more annoying than you for hours on end.” Lyfrassir shot back. They still hadn’t poked their head out of the pile, remaining adamantly buried and out of Marius’s sight. How had they even gotten all of those blankets, anyways? It seemed a bit excessive, considering the situation.

Marius tutted, doing his best impression of a disappointed teacher. “Well, you’ve already failed to ignore me so far, so I doubt you’ll last that long.” 

The blanket pile remained silent and still. 

“Well then, here we go.” he cleared his throat loudly into the tape recorder, adding on a cough in the hopes of pissing off whoever listened to this recording later. “Questioning session number… 278? Impressive. No wonder they’re running out of soldiers to interrogate you if they all pass it on so fast.”

Marius waited for another reaction, but was met with nothing from Lyfrassir. He grumbled a bit under his breath before continuing on.

“‘Questioning session number 278 of prisoner Lyfrassir Edda. Questioning performed by insert name here, on Spoctober 19th, year 30 of the war.’”

Marius once again cleared his throat loudly, probably giving any future archivers a headache.

“Question number 1: What do you know about King Cole’s immortality?”

“You're supposed to say your name on the ‘insert name here’ part.” Lyfrassir responded.

Raising his eyebrows, Marius scooted closer to the edge of the cell at what he decided was the start of a conversation. “Really?”

A sigh came from the blanket pile. “Yes.”

“And here I thought you said you were ignoring me.” he replied, propping his head on his fist with an uncontrollable grin. 

For a long second, Lyfrassir was silent. “I’m taking pity on anyone who has to go through this recording later.” they grumbled at last.

“I mean, pissing people off was kind of my goal.” Marius remarked. 

“If you want to piss people off, piss off people who piss you off, not random workers.” Lyfrassir grumbled. 

“You're in a jail cell right now, and you're teaching me morals?”

Lyfrassir refused to answer once again, and Marius let out a chuckle. “Whatever. Fine then. mQuestioning session number 278 of prisoner Lyfrassir Edda. Questioning performed by Private Marius von Raum, on Spoctober 19th, year 30 of the war.”

Well, that was what Marius would have said, if he wasn’t interrupted by Lyfrassir suddenly throwing the blanket off halfway through the statement. He stopped, caught off guard at the sight of their wild eyes staring directly at him. They looked the same as the photograph, though the photo had failed to catch the shifting rainbow colors caught in their eyes and hair. It looked like strands of shifting opal, braided and pulled back into a ponytail. 

After a solid five seconds of eye contact, Marius coughed, and slowly raised a hand in a small wave. “Uh, hi? Lyfrassir Edda, right?”

That seemed to break the silence, as Lyfrassir’s eyes narrowed. “You.” they spat out, the single word with more spite and hatred than Marius had ever heard. Actually, it was kind of-

Nope. Marius was not thinking about that. Someone being angry at him was bad. Especially Lyfrassir Edda. 

“Me?” Marius squeaked. 

“What. The fuck. Are you. Doing here.” they growled. 

“I work here?” Marius waved the sheet of questions he had brought with him like a flag of surrender. Emotions raced across Lyfrassir’s face as they stopped glaring to watch the piece of paper being waved; Rage, then shock, then confusion, before it became a mix of the three.

“You- what?” they sputtered. Marius shrugged, gathering himself after their weird, violent reaction. 

“I mean. I did say I was sent here to question you? Kind of hard to do that if I don’t work here.” Marius said. Remembering himself, he added “Though, I wouldn’t let that stop me from seeing you.” He shot them with finger guns, which they stared at in bafflement. 

“Wait, wait,” Lyfrassir held up a hand. “How did you- you don’t remember me?”

Remember? There was a lot Marius didn’t remember. He didn’t remember where he came from, if he had lived a life before waking up to a dozen soldiers dragging him back to the military base. He didn’t remember if there was anyone in his life besides the eight others he’d woken up beside, or how he met them, or even if he had met them before that day.

But Lyfrassir recognized him. Lyfrassir knew something about him, even if they seemed to hate him for it.

Marius hummed, rubbing his chin in mock confusion, while thoughts swirled through his brain. How did they know him? Had they been friends? Enemies, more likely, considering the fact they had been seething from just hearing his name seconds ago. But why would Lyfrassir hate him? He certainly didn’t want them to hate him. He would be quite glad if they liked him, actually, even if-

Stopping that train of thought again. This was a person who seemed to hate him, he was not thinking about that.

So, for whatever reason, Lyfrassir knew him, and very much was not happy to see him again. They also didn’t know Marius’s memory was gone. And from Marius’s perspective, they didn’t need to know that. If they hated him so much, they wouldn’t tell him anything if they knew that he knew that they knew about his past. 

What was that phrase Tim was so fond of? Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss? Marius was pretty sure Tim had meant gaslight in terms of setting things on fire, rather than the actual social term, but Marius was inclined to engage in the latter.

“I think I’d remember meeting someone like you.” he decided to say, and Lyfrassir’s face fell, before quickly setting in determination again.

“Let me see your arm.” they commanded. Marius held it back defensively.

“What?”

“Your arm. The right one.” they demanded. Marius complied, holding up his right arm to the bars. In the blink of an eye, Lyfrassir was off the cot and at the bars in front of him. Marius definitely didn’t squeak in surprise as they grabbed Marius’s right arm and held it up, inspecting it roughly. They poked at the flesh of his hand, and Marius’s face flushed. Their hands were warmer than he expected, and their skin was dry. 

After an uncomfortable second of them staring intensely at his arm, they dropped it with a soft, wide-eyed laugh, and took a step back. They muttered something under their breath,  running a hand over their face and through their hair. The rage had left them, replaced with a strange, twitchy breathlessness. 

“I- I thought you were someone else. Thank the Norns you're not, he-” Lyfrassir stopped themself. “Just… Thank the Norns you're not.” they continued to mutter to themselves, pacing around the cell and staring at Marius, who was left rubbing where they had grabbed the flesh. He could feel his face was still warm, and he took a breath, trying to calm his heart which had very stupidly decided to start a marathon.

“You can’t be him. I mean- you're not. He wouldn’t be here.” they breathed. “I-sorry.”

“Uh.” Marius said, stupidly, his brain still trying to process their reaction. What had been on his arm that made them react like that? He glanced down at it, half expecting a tattoo that said “NOT THE ASSHOLE YOUR’E MAD AT, ACTUALLY A COOL DUDE WHO YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY HANG OUT WITH AND MAYBE TAKE ON A DATE IF YOU WEREN’T IN PRISON” in ink. When he checked though, nothing had changed since the last time he’d looked at it, just flesh and the sleeve of his uniform.

So he wasn’t who they thought he was. But he shared whoever-it-was’s face and name? And there was something on his arm that made them think he wasn’t whoever it was they hated? It was his name that had gotten them to react like that. The one thing Marius knew was the same as whoever he had been before. Had they actually just mistaken him for someone else? Had they just changed their mind on telling him when they learned he didn’t remember anything?

What had he or whoever it was they’d mistaken him for done to get Lyfrassir so mad?

Sometimes, Lyf thought the world just might hate them.

They would be the first to admit they hadn’t had the best life on Yggdrasil. The transport officer salary was something they could barely live off of, and they had left the station with a headache nearly every day. They’d probably cut their liver’s lifespan in half with the amount of spibuprofen they’d been taking, not that it mattered anymore. They’d never been the most open of people, they hadn’t really had that many friends besides workplace acquaintances they had barely talked to outside of a professional setting. They’d had their family, sure, but the last few years on Yggdrasil they had been so busy with work they’d barely remembered to chat with them. 

And then, all of a sudden, Yggdrasil was gone. Their mothers: gone. Their older sister: gone. Hundreds of families and people in love they didn’t know, billions of lives and stories: gone. Millions of years of architecture and history and culture and creativity, swallowed by the rainbow chaos and voidsong. 

And they’d been left. Left as the only person to remember the stories, their mama’s smile, their sister’s favorite recipes. They were just one person, the one remnant of a dead solar system, refused the privilege of death by the same thing that had mercilessly killed their entire life. Left with the crushing responsibility of having to know all of the love that had been extinguished. Carrying thousands of stories that they only knew the ending of with them, from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, universe to universe.

They had become nothing but a walking relic of a world no one knew the name of. A wanderer of the cosmos, their only purpose being to wait for Yog-Sothoth to let go of them, or the end of time itself. 

And now Marius von FUCKING Raum was there.

Sure, it wasn’t like Lyf had thought he was dead. Him and his companions had broken out hours before Lyf had even known what the black box held, and they knew he was immortal. They just… hadn’t thought about it, really. They’d spent hours cursing his name, yes, but the idea that Marius von Raum would just pop back into their life?

If he was von Raum.

He looked like von Raum. He had the same short hair and beard, same face and short height. This von Raum was looking at them with wide eyes, but Lyf knew that it would twist to that all too familiar mischievous grin soon enough. Now that Lyf had the face to connect it to, his voice was the same.

But yet, somehow, it was wrong. Obviously, he didn’t recognize Lyf, but that didn’t mean much. He was an immortal murderer, a random cop and a destroyed world wouldn’t stick in his mind for long. Even if it stung to think about, they would be the first to admit that the worst thing to happen in Lyf’s life had probably just been a typical Tuesday for him. It wasn’t like Lyf remembered the planets they stayed on for long.

No, what made Lyf confused was why he would be here in the first place. The military in general, Lyf could see him joining, but here? In a tiny base kept far from the fighting? Doing menial tasks? Listening to authority? Lyf thought they would sooner die than see von Raum listen to someone. Lyf had been the only person capable of getting him to somewhat cooperate with the transport police, and even Lyf wasn’t sure why.

And of course, there was also Von Raum’s arm. Lyf didn’t think he could just regrow a missing limb- though it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing they’d seen- but there it was, in plain flesh. No evidence of it ever having been missing.

So it couldn’t be him. It wasn’t him. Von Raum wouldn’t be here, doing a normal job, acting like a citizen, and chatting with them so casually in a military base. 

But who else could he be?

“Who did you think I was?” 

The Not-von Raum’s question broke them out of their thoughts. They rubbed a hand over their face, almost thinking they could blink and the private’s face would change into one that didn’t conjure up so many memories. “Nobody, I just-” they began.

“Didn’t seem like nobody,” von Raum leaned in, and- yup, it was the same shit-eating grin Lyf hated. They wrinkled their nose and took another step back.

“Well, even if it wasn’t nobody, it’s not the business of a whining private like you.” they snapped back. the racing of their heart at the realization it wasn’t the same space pirate they hated was gone, replaced by a bitterness in the back of their throat.

“Whining? I’ve never whined in my life. Notorious not-whiner, I am.”

Lyf was about to comment on his constant complaints and demands to speak with them over the littlest things in the prison, but bit it back. “They sent you to me. You have to have done something wrong then.” they told him bitterly instead.

Von Raum tapped his fingers on his chin. “I wouldn’t call getting to see you a punishment, Lyfrassir.” That goddamn grin- they had nearly forgotten how much they had hated it. The way it spread across his whole face in delight, the way his eyes sparkled. Horrid.

They snorted. “About a hundred other soldiers would beg to differ.”

Von Raum leaned in even closer. “Ah, well, Lyf- can I call you Lyf? Lyfrassir Edda is such a mouthful. No offense, of course, it's a lovely name, Lyf just rolls off the tongue better”

“No.” they hissed. Von Raum raised his eyebrows, chuckling a bit.

“Well, Lyf, that's a hundred officers and me. And I bet you’ve never met anyone like me before”

“Yes, you happen to be as annoying as all a hundred of them combined.”

“You truly flatter me.”

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Lyf hissed. “I don’t think there is a world where that's a compliment.” They sat back down on the cot and wrapped the blanket back around themself, wishing the conversation was over already. They had things to do, dammit (those things may have been sulking, but that was hardly anyone's business. Definitely not von Raum’s).

He shot Lyf the same weird hand gesture he had done earlier, a fist with the pointer finger and thumb out. “Well, you happen to be out of this world, so it might just be one.”

Lyf scowled and pulled the blankets around them tighter. What was that even supposed to mean? They were obviously a different species from him, he didn’t need to point it out. Also, calling someone annoying wasn’t a compliment anywhere. It was very much the opposite actually.

“You are the worst person I’ve ever met.” They proclaimed.

“You’ve only just met me. Or have you?” Von Raum said eagerly. He leaned in more, head peeking through the bars. “Who was it you said you thought I was again?”

“Go away, von Raum.” They grabbed a pillow and threw it at his head, and it smacked his face before landing on the floor. He gave a pout, and Lyf scoffed at the pathetic expression.

“I can’t go away until you answer one of these questions, unfortunately.” Von Raum tutted and held up the piece of paper he’d been holding. “So, until then, you’re stuck with me.”

Back on Yggdrasil, Lyf could have very easily just walked out of the room if they wanted to get von Raum to shut up. Even if they were required to be there, they could’ve just left and decided to face their supervisor’s wrath instead. The conversation was over when they chose it to be over. Now, as the prisoner, they were stuck listening to him until he gave up and left. 

Lyf had to hand it to General White, she’d finally found the perfect way to make them break. Sticking them with von Raum? They’d either give up or finally keel over before they could outlast the war. Even knowing they had less than a year of waiting until things would go to chaos, they doubted they’d survive a week being around von Raum again. Then again, they had survived eight years with him the first time around. 

“Oh yes, General White. Have fun with her.” they flopped back on the cot, putting their hands over their eyes. The war was only 30 years, and they were so close to the end.

“What?” von Raum asked, and Lyf almost laughed. Oh, the irony of the storyteller not knowing the story. It had taken them about a year to recall why the names “General White,” “Old King Cole,” and “Rose Red” had sounded so familiar. The three prisoners had attempted a cover of what was apparently an entire album outlining the story of the war. On the bright side, it meant Lyf had a timeline for what was happening. On the down side, they couldn’t stop humming “pump shanty” whenever somebody brought up the General. 

They’d almost started crying hysterically when they’d remembered the story the first time. Of course they couldn’t escape that god-awful music. Somehow, through wormholes or eldritch fuckery, they didn’t know, they’d ended up right in the middle of Snow White’s revolution. Or maybe The Mechanisms had been the time travelers, and had made the album before they traveled backwards in time a few hundred years. Neither would surprise them.

“Nothing,” Lyf responded. If this weird alternate/past von Raum was stuck following a false leader who would be dead by the end of the year, that wasn’t any of their concern. He had left their world to die, he could deal with a military collapse. Even if he was just a version of one of the people who had ruined Lyf’s life. 

“At least nothing you need to worry about.” They added after a second. 

“That… just makes me more worried.” von Raum said slowly, “You do realize that ominously stating something and then saying not to worry about it does the very opposite of making someone less worried.” 

“I know.”

“Well, good on you for that. You still have to answer a question.”

“No.”

“Well, you could’ve just said you enjoyed my company then, because I’m not leaving until you do.” von Raum said in a sing-song voice, and Lyf groaned loudly.

“Let’s see-” Von Raum began counting on his fingers. “Well, I could just stand here and continue to talk to you, as that seems to annoy you enough already. Or I could do my amazing performance of ‘Our Boy Jack’. That one always gets the party started! Even if Tim insists Jonny’s is better.”

“I swear to fuck if you start singing-” they growled, before Marius cut off the threat.

“Don’t want me to start, you gotta answer a question.”

“Fine.” they snapped, then sighed. “What is your question?” If it was something too bad, they could always just not answer the question. Even if it did mean they’d have to listen to that goddamned violin again.

“Hmmmm.” Marius hummed loudly. He seemed to consider for a moment, before snapping his fingers in triumph. “Aha! What's your favorite food?”

Lyf stared at him a moment. “What.” von Raum just shrugged in response.

“She said I had to get the answer to a question. Didn’t say anything about it being a good question.”

“I thought you were supposed to get one from the sheet.” They responded. von Raum threw the piece of paper behind him. 

“What sheet?” 

Lyf facepalmed. “You are by far the worst soldier I’ve ever met.”

“Why thank you! Since you haven’t answered the question I’m assuming you would like to hear my-” he did jazz hands “-spectacular performance?”

Lyf sighed loudly and rubbed their face. Well, if it wasn’t anything important…

. “...Coffee cake. Now get. Out.” they threw the blanket back over their head and turned over, shoving their face back into their pillow. Maybe if they couldn’t see him he’d disappear.

“As you wish,” von Raum said, voice muffled by the blankets Lyf had buried themself under. Even unable to see him, Lyf could imagine the dramatic bow as he left. They definitely could hear his giggling as the door closed and Lyf was left alone once again.

They rolled back over and stared at the ceiling. 

Marius von Raum. 

Or at least a version of him. Either before he went through whatever happened that made him immortal, or some alternate dimension where he was just a normal soldier instead of a pirate. Either way, he wasn’t the same as the pirate who’d left them on Yggdrasil. He was Von Raum, but not their Von Raum. 

Why did the one government that decided to keep Lyf under lock and key happen to be the same he was a part of? Not even mentioning the irony of him being the officer and them being the prisoner. Oh, how the tables have turned.

Just what were the chances? That's what Lyf wanted to know. How in the world had they ended up having to deal with him again? In a galaxy filled with billions of planets, in a reality filled with billions of universes, they happened to stumble onto him.

They groaned. No matter the centuries passed, Lyf was never going to be able to escape Von Raum.

Chapter Text

Being a General required a surprising amount of paperwork Snow had noticed. Even after thirty years, she still found it funny that so much of war was the same as peace: mindless busywork and praying things didn’t go wrong. The only difference was that in war, everything had already gone wrong, and you were just picking up the pieces.

Not that anybody liked to make that easy for her. Oh no, it was always “approve these job applications”, and “check-in with your battalions”, and “schedule these supply shipments”. Years ago, if someone had told her being a diplomat was an easy job, she would’ve scoffed and listed all the burdensome duties she had to bear. Now, she would give anything to go back to the easy life of showing up to a party and looking pretty. 

Not that she’d have much of a chance with that nowadays. Taking on Cordelia White’s name hadn’t been what ended her diplomatic career, and she knew that. Even if she could get through a conversation without the phantom pain of the cuts, just the scars would be enough to turn away any potential deals. No, she’d rather step into her sister’s shoes and lead the battle instead. She was more suited to it, anyway. Or at least “Cordelia White” was.

But Snow was dead, and Cordelia White had duties. And those duties just happened to be paperwork. Very, very tedious paperwork. Fantastic. And she had just gotten rid of a headache. 

She sighed and straightened the paper on her desk. Signing documents never felt like doing anything to help, just something mindless to keep her occupied. She itched to be on the battlefield, but she knew the role of a general was to lead, not fight. Even if she hated it.

She looked up when there was a knocking sound from the door. “Come in.” She called, and a younger soldier entered with a salute. She motioned him at ease.

“A private has requested an audience with you, General,” he said. “Shall I send him in?”

Snow tucked the document back into her drawer and straightened her uniform. “Yes, thank you, soldier.” The soldier gave a nod and shut the door. A few seconds of silence passed, before the door opened back up. Immediately, she felt her headache returning.

“Private von Raum,” she said stiffly. The man himself gave an over-dramatic bow, and she rubbed her eyebrows. “I thought I told you to file your report with Colonel Anderson tomorrow morning.”

“You did indeed, my dear General,” Marius said with a clap of the hands. “Buuuuut, I have something very urgent to talk with you about.”

“And what is that?”, she asked shortly.

“Well, the prisoner you sent me too?”, he started, “I couldn’t help but notice you said you were short on volunteers to attend to them. And I, being  charitable as I am, thought that perhaps, I could maybe-”

“You want to be assigned to work with them?” She finished for him. His mouth hung open for a second, before he snapped it close.

“Uh, yes. If you would be so inclined.”

She raised her eyebrows, flipping her paper over and resting her hand on her chin to study him. “And why should I do that, Private von Raum?”

A grin broke across his face. “I got them to answer a question.” He declared triumphantly. Snow blinked.

 “You what?”

“I got them to answer a question. You can listen back to the recording if you don’t believe me, but I got them to answer my question.”,he shrugged. “Wasn’t that hard really.”

“You-” General White took a breath in, flexing her fingers. After a second, she clicked her tongue. “You’ll be their official supervisor, starting tomorrow.”

“Wait, what?”

Snow threaded her fingers together. “Honestly, I’m glad we finally have someone willing to work with them, considering the difficulties we’ve had. Seems my assessment was correct, since you are the first person to get them to answer anything. With how uncooperative they’ve been, I will let you do whatever you’d like, as long as you can produce results.”

Marius grinned like a maniac, and Snow silently apologized to Lyfrassir Edda for inflicting this tragedy on them. She might not have liked them, but nobody deserved to deal with Marius von Raum.

“I don’t know what everyone is going on about, insisting they’re so terrible,” Marius stated, sitting down in the chair across from Snow and propping his legs up on the table. She glared at his boots, getting mud all over her desk, as he continued. “Honestly, They’re very pleasant to be around! Quite charming. Threw a bar of soap at me.”

“Charming.” Snow raised her eyebrows. She wouldn’t use that word to describe them, personally. She didn’t think anybody would describe them as such, really. They’d been a thorn in Snow’s side since they’d been captured. They were an opportunity, a chance to change the tide of the war, yet they decided to stay silent and let millions die in battle. 

Marius nodded, still grinning. Snow took a breath in and opened one of the drawers in her desk, pulling out a folder. He watched in confusion as she slapped the thick stack of paper onto the desk in front of him.

“This,” she gestured to the folder, “is every single file we have on Lyfrassir Edda. It includes interview transcripts, medical records, and more. And this-” she took a stack of paper from the folder a solid half an inch tall, and slid it across the desk, “Is every single incident report filed with their name mentioned in it.”

“That’s a lot.” Marius observed. 

“Very astute observation, private,” Snow said, not bothering to cover up the ice in her tone. “And maybe you can guess as to why there might be so many incident reports filed that concern them?”

Marius tapped his chin, taking a piece of paper from the pile and glancing it over. After a moment, he spoke. “Well, it seems to me that whoever has been filing these reports likes to make their paperwork near unintelligible.” He pushed the paper across the desk, back to Snow. She sighed and picked the paper back up.

“‘Incident Report 0231, filed year 3 of the war on Speptember the 8th,’” Snow recited, barely needing to glance at the paper to remember what it said. “‘Prisoner refused questioning once again. Prisoner requested custody of specific possessions left in storage. Request for custody of specified possessions approved by Colonel Anderson. Prisoner used one of said possessions (re: Corrupted Black USB drive) to then make an escape attempt. Resulted in two missing persons, eight hospitalizations, and $3,200 in property damage. Prisoner was recaptured before they left the base, and brought back to the cell. All of the possessions that were returned were once again confiscated.”

She put the paper back on the table. Marius shrugged. “Sounds like to me you need better security. Just because somebody can break out of a prison doesn’t mean they’re not charming. I’d say quite the opposite, personally.”

Snow scoffed, setting the paper back down and threading her fingers together. “Yes, but what is failed to be mentioned in the summary is that those $3,200 of property damage involved replacing parts of the wall that had come to life,” she growled. “Those two ‘missing persons’ were thrown into a rainbow portal and never seen again. Multiple of the hospitalizations ended in amputations because their limbs were bitten off by these- these things that they summoned.”

She let out a disbelieving laugh and ran a hand through her hair. “In thirty years they’ve managed to run off dozens of soldiers with their sheer stubbornness, and if that doesn’t work, they find a way to drive them to near insanity with whatever the hell their deal is. I have no clue how you managed to get them to answer anything. I’d consider you a miracle-worker if you hadn’t caused more problems than you’ve solved.”

Marius von Raum blinked at her. “Wait. thirty years?” he asked. Snow sighed. Of course he cared about that and not the bringing objects to life part.

“Yes, Private von Raum, I am that old.” she stated, but he held up his hand.

“No, I already knew you were that old. Your skincare routine isn't doing you any favors. But them? There's no way they're older than, like, 35.”

“Did you not read any of the questions on the list? You said you got them to answer them.” Snow demanded, and he waved her off.

“Of course I did!”, he answered. “At least… the first few? Or so?” She fixed an exasperated stare at him. “I skimmed them?” he added. She sighed and put her face in her hands.

“Private von Raum, did you actually get them to answer a question, or did you decide to take up pathological lying as a hobby?”

He scoffed. “I never lie, my dear General.”

“But you didn’t look at the questions.”

“I-” he began, trailing off with a click of the tongue before starting again. “I decided to ask my own question. That I deemed important.”

Snow took a deep breath in, trying desperately to not scream. “Private, what question did you ask them?”

“I asked what their favorite food was.” He said matter-of-factly, “It's coffee cake by the way, not that you care.”

“Does nobody in this goddamned base know how to do their job?” Snow muttered, leaning back and closing her eyes. Of course it was foolish to hope that she’d actually get something important out of this.

“Hey! That’s rude. I know how to do my job, I just don’t care.” Marius corrected with a frown, “It's everybody else in the base that's incompetent.” 

Snow rubbed her eyebrows again, avoiding the damaged flesh under the mask on the lower half of her face. Not only was her head beginning to pound with a headache, she could feel her stinging pain tracing up her scars. She’d need to dig out her bottle of painkillers, or maybe ask the Doc for a different prescription. It seemed over the past few months she’d had a spike in headaches. Not that that was related to any specific group of soldiers.

“Well, if you had read the questions,” she growled, “you might have noticed that we were interrogating them about immortality. I’m sure you can put the pieces together yourself, Private.”

For a second, Marius’ eyebrows furrowed as he considered what she said, then his eyes widened as it struck him. He held up his hand. “Wait- Immortal? Is that even possible?” 

“von Raum, We are quite literally fighting a war against an immortal king,”

“Yeah, but King Cole has access to an entire kingdom’s worth of expenses and every single scientist known to man, and he still looks like a meth-addicted shambling corpse. And Lyf looks-” his face turned a slight shade of pink as he cleared his throat, “Lyf very much doesn’t look like that. Very much the opposite of that.”

Snow raised an eyebrow. Strange. She’d be more hesitant to assign him to work with Lyfrassir after that comment, but it certainly would be motivation on his part to stick with the assignment. Clearly he thought he was taking advantage of her to fuel his own affections, maybe his desire to be around them would actually get them somewhere. Even if the question he’d gotten an answer to was useless, he still got an answer. It was wishful thinking, but it could mean more answers in the future. 

“Well, we’ve had them imprisoned here almost since we first took over this base, and records of their residence on-planet for an additional 70 years or so. They’ve also shown an incredible healing factor that isn’t present in King Cole’s augmentations,” she informed him. “We suspect that whatever has extended their lifespan and aided in their healing has something to do with an artifact they acquired, which we attempted to research.”

“The weird corrupted USB stick or whatever you mentioned?” Marius asked.

“Yes, they referred to it as ‘The Black Box’. Unfortunately for our researchers, they didn’t find much on it. All we can tell is that it can’t be destroyed, and it is very unstable.” Snow continued,“After a handful of incidents, we put the project to rest until we get more information. Information that can only really be provided by our prisoner.”

“So you’ve just been sending people in to try and get the information. And you haven’t got anything after nearly 300 interviews,” he whistled. “I’m almost impressed with how ineffective this assignment has been.”

“Yes, well, they are very stubborn. But you-” she gestured at him, “Somehow managed to get an answer out of them. If you can get something else -anything else- you could help us more than you know.”

“Well, I very much do enjoy the idea of getting to spend more time with them.” He propped his chin on his hands, a sappy smile and sparkling eyes all too clear. Snow pursed her scarred lips.

“Yes, I figured that one out,” she deadpanned, Marius too busy obviously fantasizing to note the sarcasm in her tone. She sighed.

“Look, you’ll be assigned as their official supervisor. You’ll be able to talk to them whenever you’d like, just get us answers.” She threaded her fingers together and rested her chin on them. “Knowing what caused their immortality could be the key to figuring out how to kill King Cole once and for all. It could end the war.”

“Right. So I just have to talk to Lyf a bunch until they tell me stuff, and we’re set, right?” Marius asked. 

“Please try and maintain professionalism for this. But yes, just get some answers from them. I don’t particularly care how. Torture them, annoy them, bribe them, just do something.” 

It didn’t fail to catch Snow’s ears, the name Marius used for Lyfrassir. “Lyf”. Either it was a nickname of his own devising, or Lyfrassir had shared it with him. Most likely the first, as the only people known to actually like Marius was the rest of his little crew. It seemed by design, though, as that savage group obviously took joy in annoying the rest of the base.

“Great! I’ll use my charming personality, get them to tell you what you want to know, and I get to hang out with them and have a great time!” He proclaimed. 

“If that's what you want to call it, then yes,” Snow muttered. “Feel free to look over the files we have on them in your free time. Actually, I suggest you do.” It might give him another activity besides trying his best to psychoanalyze Colonel Anderson. 

“I will,” Marius assured Snow. She let out a breath and pulled out a sheet of paper, leftover paperwork from the last several people assigned to Lyfrassir. She signed it and slid it over to Marius, and he wordlessly added his signature to the bottom. Snow took the paper back and put it with the rest of her files.

“And Colonel?” Marius added, and Snow glanced back at him. The newly minted-supervisor gave a smile. “Thank you.”

Midnight

It was quiet at night. Surprising, considering the barracks were where the crew slept. Yet, somehow in the lull of darkness, the never-ending screams, complaints, and laughter managed to die down. The exhaustion from a day following and disobeying orders (mostly disobeying) would finally hit the group, and allowed the base a brief respite before the chaos started again.

Ivy didn’t sleep much. Her nightmares were far worse than any of the other strange dreams the rest of the crew had. She’d gained an appreciation for the night, as it was when she was normally active. She’d found a few ways to work around the night terrors, but by far the best one was to just avoid sleeping altogether. She spent most nights reading. If she had nothing new to read, in the shooting range, or searching through restricted files on the small computer they had in the crew’s barracks.

But tonight, for once, she had slept. She had found a 67% chance that if she spent her time sleeping rather than worrying, the mission would increase in efficiency by at least 3.4%, if not much more. She didn’t know where she had gotten the number. She’d stopped questioning where the statistics, numbers, and calculations came from long ago. It had taken a while for her to realize most people didn’t know them instinctually, and had to calculate the numbers by hand. 

Ivy still had nightmares, of course. They weren’t going to stop for her convenience’s sake. But she’d implemented the second best way to help with the nightmares, and by far her favorite.

When Ivy jolted out of her strange nightmares of swirling colors and faces, covered in a cold sweat, it was in Raphaella’s arms that she awoke. Her panicked breathing quickly subsided. She blinked hard, shifting to wipe away tears. Raphaella hummed in her sleep and tightened her warm embrace, and Ivy let out a breath and snuggled deeper into Raph’s chest. Her chest was pounding, but she exhaled, trying to slow down her racing heart.

She was safe. No flashes of blazing heat, mutilated bodies, or blinding colors would get her here. But she had things she needed to do.

She considered briefly just staying in bed for the rest of the night. Who needed to commit B&E when you could cuddle with your girlfriend on a shitty military cot? But unfortunately, Ivy had a job to do. A job that, sadly, could not be done while asleep in her girlfriend’s arms. 

Carefully, Ivy lifted Raphaella’s arm from its position wrapped around her, and placed it gently beside her. Even though it was dark, Ivy could see her face scrunch up, pouting in her sleep as she readjusted, curling her arm into herself. She chuckled and pushed herself into a sitting position on the cot, detangling herself from the blankets. Raphaella muttered something before snuggling deeper into the blankets, and Ivy pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before quietly slipping out of bed. 

Ivy pulled on her shirt, buttoning it up quickly before pulling on her slacks. The all-black outfit made her feel like a child pretending to be a ninja, but the camouflage was necessary. In the bunks beside her, she could hear the sounds of the rest of the crew stirring in their sleep. Jonny’s face was wrinkled in a scowl as he snored, shifting eyes showing he was deep in dreams. It seemed at some point during the night, Brian and Tim had ended up snuggled next to each other. Despite the comfortable positions, both of their muscles were tense, and Tim’s fingers twitched.

At least there’s no screaming, Ivy thought, pulling on her gloves. She glanced at Marius’s bed, and saw no sign of the man. None of Nastya either strangely enough, but she tended to follow the same sleep schedule that Ivy did. She’d most likely snuck out for some alone time. If Marius was already up that meant Ivy wouldn’t have to wake him. He wasn’t the heaviest sleeper, but he had a tendency to smack anyone who tried to wake him up with the nearest bludgeoning weapon, and it wasn’t good to commit a crime with a concussion. He was probably waiting for her at the meeting point already. Ivy pulled on her coat and hurried out of the room. 

Ivy had tried to break into the base’s document storage before. Of course she had, it contained millions of important military files, both physical and digital, filled to the brim with information. The gnawing need to know every single detail about the goings-on of the base had led her wandering there on many occasions. She could do so much if she just had every single detail, all filed away in her memory to pluck out and use at any time.

Unfortunately for her, those files were “confidential” and “not for the eyes of a lowly private like you, Alexandria” and “why do you even want access to them, it's just a bunch of shipment files anyways, go back to trying to hack into the defense grid”. It was tragic how the officers hoarded knowledge they didn’t even care for. She could do so much if she knew everything. 

Ivy had gotten away with stealing files a few times, but of course just before she found evidence of something she actually needed was when she got caught. Now far too many guards wandered around for her to easily break into the storage. She could still do it, but if she had a distraction the likelihood of her getting away with it increased by 43.82%, and she wasn’t missing out on an opportunity like that. So that's where the most distracting man she knew came in.

Marius had agreed to the idea almost immediately. A way to get answers, and break into a military building? It was perfect. Ivy knew Marius loved a performance, and he’d been so mopey lately about the fact he had nothing to do. He was in-between being compliant enough with the soldiers to not be getting in trouble every five seconds like Tim, Jonny, and Ashes, but not as specialized in one skill like Ivy, Nastya, or Raphaella. Well, he certainly specialized in some things, but the military had no need for violin players, and Marius had leaned more on the psycho-analyzing side of things when they had him work as a therapist. Apparently the patients had not been happy about that.

Marius had gotten somewhere by working as a field medic for a while, but he had informed Ivy he didn’t believe in constructs like “schedules” and “rules”, which was fair enough in her opinion. So, he’d mostly been drifting from hobby to hobby, restless and grouchy. Despondent was the word that came to mind when Ivy saw him wandering around, or occupying himself with mindless activities. Everyone else just called him mopey.  

I mean, it is accurate, Ivy thought as she crept through the shadows. She couldn’t reasonably call him curling up on his bunk and sighing loudly for all to hear anything other than “mopey”. She chuckled a bit to herself, the night swallowing the noise. She walked down the alleyway beside the building, finally approaching the back of the Document Storage building. She squinted into the darkness. Of course, despite Marius’s ability to be distracting, he was also remarkably hard to spot when the sky was at about 96% full-darkness, despite his bright outfits. Actually, he was less likely to be wearing a bright outfit, as Ivy calculated about a 36.45% chance he had actually listened to her advice to wear something low-key.

“Marius?” she called quietly into the dark, stepping forwards. Looking around, all she could see was a dumpster and an empty bottle rolling down the street. Furrowing her brow, she peeked around the dumpster, just in case he had decided to take a quick nap behind it. Nope, no Marius. She swore under her breath.

“Where the fuck-” she started, before cutting herself off with a growl. Considering she had between a minute and two minutes (depending on the soldier’s walking speed, taking into account cutting corners and shortcuts, noting any possible distractions) until the next set of guards would reach her. Talking out loud to herself would increase her chances of getting caught. Instead, she rubbed her forehead and let out a deep breath.

Marius was smart enough to not get caught. Even if he acted like an idiot, he knew how to evade guards. Unless he got distracted, of course, which… wasn’t out of the question. But he would be taking this seriously, he was just as invested in getting answers as her. And he hadn’t been in his cot, so he hadn’t just slept in. 

So had he gotten caught? Had he gone to the wrong location, despite the fact she had shown it to him 10 times? Had the idiot forgotten and just happened to not be in bed when she checked?

The glass bottle rolled up and touched her foot, and she picked it up with a scowl. The amount of clutter people left around the base was ridiculous. She could condone murder, but she drew the line at littering. And misogyny as well, but that wasn’t much of a problem in an army led by a woman. Well, Ivy personally didn’t experience much. Something about having assaulted several officers on her first day had discouraged people from any crass comments.

About to throw it in the trash can, Ivy noticed a piece of paper shoved in the nozzle. Frowning, she took it out and unrolled it. She pulled out a small flashlight, flicked it on, and held it up to the paper to read.

Hi Ivy!

Found a new lead. More promising than this. Following up on it right now. Good luck with the heist! :P

-M

Ivy stared at the words. She reread them. She turned the paper over, half expecting an extra note declaring that no, Marius had not ditched her on the heist, he was just around the corner actually, waiting to go commit breaking and entering with her. Then she pulled out a lighter she reserved for special occasions, and flicked it on. She watched for a second as the flame danced, before she held the paper up to it and let it burn. She let go of it, and it drifted to the ground, turning to cinders in the heat.

She took a breath in, and a breath out. She could deal with this. Sure, not having Marius there as a distraction increased her chance of being caught by 43.82%. Sure, she was 12.3% slower at picking locks. But she could do it without him.

God, she was going to murder him. That absolute bastard.

Muttering under her breath, she tucked the lighter away. She rolled up her sleeves, and started to climb the dumpster. The window above it was small, but she figured she could squeeze in relatively easily- one of the only bonuses of being short. She rattled the window sill. It was locked, of course, but even if she wasn’t as proficient as Marius, she still had experience with lock-picking. 

She pushed it open only after a few seconds, clambering inside. She kicked around for a foothold a second, before her foot hit something. She scrambled a second, sliding down the wall until she safely, if somewhat clumsily, landed on the ground. A potted plant lay on the floor, apparently what she had managed to kick. She set it back upright, and turned around to face the room.

She took her flashlight back out and flicked it on, searching through the dark room. Towering shelves stretched on for as far as Ivy could see, covered in mites of dust. Neat boxes of files filled every cubby, packed close together. Ivy ignored them, trodding deeper into the darkness for what she was really looking for. Occasionally, she heard the sound of a guard passing by, and ducked behind one of the shelves quickly until they passed. 

There were less than she had planned for, which unfortunately threw her plan off. She had accounted for a rotation of groups of three guards passing in one minute intervals, but it seemed the Colonel had skimped out and gone for two guard groups passing in roughly two minute intervals. Better than what it had been before, Ivy supposed. Still, horrid upkeep.

God, this would’ve been much easier if Marius had been there to help. She couldn’t believe he’d chickened out. A new lead? Something better? They had direct confirmation that there was something vital in the drive she was looking for, something the soldiers had hidden from them. She could get every answer they needed from this, and he said he had found something more promising. Unbelievable.

She tilted her head at the sound of another group of guards passing nearby. She quickly flicked off her light and crouched behind one of the shelves as they walked by. The two whispered quietly to each other, flashlights pointed forwards, beams passing Ivy by completely. They didn’t bother to scan the shelves, and left without spying her crouched among the file boxes. When they disappeared completely, she moved away and emerged into the center of the room.

The desk sitting there looked like anything you’d see in a standard public library. Well, layout wise. It was large and fit for multiple people to sit behind, with multiple sides so many people could be handled at once. It lacked the standard decorations you might find in a library, no little books or bobbles or pride magnets that probably shouldn’t have been put on computers. 

The desktop at the desk was boxy, and looked several years out of date. Ivy hurried over to it, pushing the chair to the side and leaning over it while she worked. She tapped the keyboard, and it booted up. She logged in quickly, and within seconds, she was in. 

She glanced down the hallway. Since the routes passed by every two minutes, and it’d be about twenty seconds, accounting for distance… ninety-seven seconds. She could do this. The file wouldn’t take long to put onto her drive, and finding it should be a breeze. Should be. 

Ivy took a moment to realize she had not accounted for the fact that nobody in this base seemed to know anything about file management. She pursed her lips. Well, it was far too late to back out now. She’d better pray they knew how to use folders.

She opened up the computer’s file explorer, wrinkling her nose at the amount of files downloaded. General White had sent out an order encouraging bases to store their information both digitally and physically years ago, hence the large file space, but many things couldn’t be stored physically. Fortunately, it seemed whoever was handling this computer actually did know how to organize their files. She sighed, rubbing her face a bit in recovery from the momentary panic, and began her search.

Ivy clicked through the folders, narrowing down the results until it just showed the security camera footage from the month she needed. She scrolled through the catalog. Each was labelled by date, cut into eight-hour segments. There was just one night she needed, and- 

Aha.

She found the file, clicked on it, and barely a second later it was downloaded to her drive. She yanked The USB from the computer quickly, wiped the history, and shut down the computer. She debated destroying it for good measure, but figured leaving no trace was her best bet. Besides, she didn’t have the time.

She turned around quickly as the sounds of footsteps approaching came from far down the rows of shelves, and she ran as quietly as she could back into the darkness. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she pressed herself against the shelf wall as the beams of light passed by. 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Just as it hit zero, the soldiers passed by the desk, not noticing the slight shift in the chair’s position. Ivy held her breath as they walked by, the passing guards still oblivious to her presence. As soon as their footsteps faded, she let it out. Cautiously, she began to creep back through the shelves.

It was easier going back, as the guards wouldn’t see her if she stayed behind them. Their patrol really didn’t have much variation, just the same cycle over and over again, simple to evade as long as she was quiet. Getting back to the window was a breeze, and she let out a small laugh. Climbing up the wall, she pushed open the window, crawling through and back into the outside world. Who needed Marius? She had managed to get through the entire heist without him, and escaped-

-just in time to get blinded by lights as she was immediately caught as she left. 

She blinked against the harsh light, grumbling as the world came back into focus. There, holding the flashlights, she could see six soldiers. They stood there, staring at the window, each sporting set lips and sneers.

“Ivy Alexandria, I presume?” one of them asked, glancing at her position half-shoved out of the window. She scowled at the soldier, who smirked and tapped the ground with her gun. “Maybe get out of the window and we can have a chat?”

Ivy sighed, glaring at the soldiers. As stealthily as possible, she fished the USB drive out of her pocket, dropping it onto the potted plant below. She pushed herself fully out of the window frame, back on top of the dumpster. She jumped down onto the ground in front of the soldiers. Crossing her arms, she fixed her best glare upon the soldier in front.

“What tipped you off?” she asked. The soldier gave a shrug.

“Not my duty to say. Though, I would guess it was the cameras.” she paused, “You do know there are cameras in the barracks, right? ”

Ivy scowled. “Yes, and I removed them.”

The soldier shrugged. “Maybe they got put back. Who knows. What I do know is that you're not supposed to be here. So, you're going to the Colonel.”

“Who says I’m not supposed to be here?” Ivy argued.

“It is midnight, you were climbing out of a window like five seconds ago, you are dressed in all black, and you are visibly carrying three knives. Put your hands up.”

“That’s stereotyping. Not all emo people who carry knives and are crawling out windows at night are committing crimes.” she grumbled, but put her hands up anyways. No use resisting, she could go back for what she came for later. The soldier came forward, and shackled Ivy’s hands behind her back.

“Great.” she pushed Ivy forward, and Ivy growled at the soldier, who sighed. “You're going to Anderson in the morning. I’m sure he’ll be pleased to add another mark to your record. Now get moving.”

Ivy sighed, but complied, as she was dragged back towards the base. She glanced back at the window, which was shut by one of the other soldiers. Nobody asked what she had taken. Nobody inspected the potted plant under the window. She looked forward again, and started making plans for how to get her drive back.

Chapter Text

There was someone poking Marius. Someone was poking Marius and he was asleep. 

It wasn’t gentle poking, either. It felt like someone jabbing him with a wooden rod directly in the arm. He squished his face deeper into his elbow, cheek against the cool wood, and batted at what was poking him. It continued to poke at him, and he wrinkled his nose. Fumbling about, his fingers closed around a stapler sat next to his head. Lazily, he tossed it in the direction of his assailant.

“Oh, Blimey!” came the voice of his vicious attacker. He looked up, blinking lazily, to see Jessica leaning over him. Her brow was furrowed slightly, but still had her normal grin and wide eyes. She was inspecting her arm, presumably where the stapler had hit it. “That Will Take Time To Buff Out!”

“Jess, why are you waking me up?” he asked, burying his face back into his elbow. God, his back was killing him. Surprise, surprise, falling asleep while sitting at a desk wasn’t great for the spine.

“You Were Not In Your Bed, And Brian Was Worried!” It said, “Also, You Were Crying, Which Is Not Good!”

“I was?” Marius looked back up and touched his cheek, finding tears staining them. He frowned. Why had he been crying? It looked like it had stained his paperwork as well, and he sighed. Not too much damage, but crying on important paperwork wasn’t great.

“Were You Having A Nightmare Again?” Jessica asked, leaning towards him. His frown deepened considerably.. 

“I think so? Can’t remember, honestly,” Marius said. He let out a small chuckle. “Not that that’s any surprise.” 

Jessica scrunched up her face. “Oh, Bother. Those Things Are Tricky! I Am Quite Lucky I Do Not Dream!” 

“Yeah…” Marius stretched a bit, rubbing his eyes and wrinkling his nose at the sight of the disorganized paperwork. He sighed and began gathering the papers, tapping them on the table to straighten the pile. The crisp pieces were now wrinkled and stained, all semblance of organization gone.

“Wish I didn’t dream either,” Marius supplied, “but I guess not all of us can be lucky like you, huh?” He stuck the papers back in the folder, gathering them and pushing his chair in.

“You Are Correct!” Jessica chattered, following Marius as he left the small study and entered the foyer of the barracks, “Dreaming Is Not Pleasant Out Of What I Have Heard. Ivy Has Complained Much Of It In The Past!”

“Hmm… Yeah, hers are bad.” Marius set the paperwork next to the table beside his bunk. After a second, he looked back up with a frown. “Actually, have you seen her at all today?”

Jessica tilted her head, seemingly in contemplation. Like all her movements, it was exaggerated, like it had been given a list of mannerisms to portray. “I Do Not Believe So! I Recall Her Leaving Late Last Night. She Did Not Return.”

“Hmm.” Marius pursed his lips.”That is… not good.”

“I Am Sure She Is Fine, Old Bean!” Jessica gave Marius a stiff pat on the back. He breathed in heavily, rubbing his chin.

“Right…” He didn’t mention the heist plan Ivy had proposed to him. He’d assumed she’d decide doing the heist without Marius would throw things off too much, and had gone to bed like a reasonable person. Statistics were her whole thing! She wouldn’t go on a heist if a variable was changed!

Sure, it had been an asshole move to just leave a note with no explanation, but he was doing something important. Lyf knew him, and had answers that were far more promising than a single record that only said there was a file that mentioned their names. Him staying up to look over Lyf’s records was better than finding some musty old security camera footage, or whatever she’d been looking for.

Well, he hadn’t gotten much useful from Lyf’s records. Really, they were impressive in their ability to ignore people, as well as get away without answering anything. From the transcripts he’d read, they’d managed to turn away hundreds of soldiers without a single mystery solved.

It was strange how they’d answered his question, considering how tight-lipped they’d been. He thought he might’ve caught them off guard, either with his question or presence.

Did it make him feel special that they’d talked with him as opposed to anyone else? Maybe. But nobody besides him needed to know that.

“Would You Like To Accompany Me To Marching Practice Today?” Jessica asked, standing at attention. Marius turned back to her, away from his thoughts.

“Not today. I’ve got some… things I need to take care of.” He answered.

“Oh, Things!” It said, tilting her head rigidly. “Things Are Quite Exciting, Old Chap! What Sort Of Things?”

“New assignment from the General,” He responded. That was what it was, after all, just an assignment. Even if he didn’t really care about the assignment part. He’d almost forgotten he was supposed to be reporting back on his findings, actually. Not that he was planning on telling White anything, Lyf deserved their privacy. If they wanted to tell him anything about their immortality or whatever, they would do it when they were ready.

“Ooh, An Assignment.” Jessica clapped its hands together. Marius nodded absently, opening his trunk to dig around for a clean uniform. Preferably one that was more on the comfortable side. “And What Does This Assignment Entail, Old Gent?” 

Oh, there was the one Jonny had modified. He forgot he had that one, honestly. For a brief second, he considered wearing it, but pushed it aside and grabbed a normal one instead. Fishnets might be a bit much for a second meeting.

“Uhh, talking to a prisoner, being my normal charming self, getting some answers, y’know… the usual.” He flashed her a grin. She stared at him curiously.

“Oh, Did You Become Charming Since We Last Spoke?” Jessica asked. Marius gave it an indignant look.

“How about you go to marching practice, Jess,”

“Right On! Tally Ho, Old Bean!” She announced, before marching her way out of the room with diligence. Marius watched her go idly. His brain had finally cleared a bit, and was sorting through the haze of dreams from the night before. 

Colors again, and faces, he thought, of the crew and people he can’t remember. Of course, a feeling of dread as well, but that was just how Marius felt constantly. All in all, not one of the worst dreams he’d had, or anyone on the crew had had either. Not waking up with his fingers digging into the flesh of his arm like he was trying to take the skin off or screaming bloody murder was a win in his book. 

At least he didn’t sleepwalk and ram into walls like Ivy did. Or nearly tear out his eyes like Tim had before. The scratching at his arm he could survive.  Everyone on the crew did something of the sort. The doctor had said it may have been a trauma response of some kind, but Marius just thought it was frustrating. 

He sighed and ran a hand through his knotted hair. Falling asleep at his desk was really not good for his overall mood, or hygiene. He should probably take a shower if he was going to talk to Lyf again. And he needed to talk to Ashes, and make sure Ivy was okay. Also probably turn his recorder in to Anderson. 

Okay, first thing on the list: find Ashes. Fortunately, it didn’t take long, as he heard the sound of them cackling come from the ground below the window. Tucking his uniform under his arm, he walked over to the window, cracking it open to breathe in what should have been fresh morning air.

He instead was immediately hit with a wave of thick black smoke. He gagged and immediately slammed it shut, holding a hand up to his nose to try and block the scent. Wheezing and coughing, his lungs tried to forcefully rid themselves of the rancid smell. Once his hacking slowed down, he pulled his shirt over his mouth and cautiously opened the window back up.

“Ashes-” He managed to get out, before the smoke caused him to devolve into coughs once again. “-you decided to start a dumpster fire? And you didn’t invite me? I’m wounded.”

On the ground, about twelve feet below, Ashes looked up and squinted at him. “Oh, so you are still here. I thought you might’ve disappeared like Ivy.” Next to them was the cause of the smoke, a flaming garbage can filled with clothes. Beside it, Jonny, Tim and Brian were sitting in metal lawn chairs, poking at the pile with sticks. For some reason, Jonny was missing his shirt, and by his glare, was feeling very bitter about it.

“Nope, haven’t disappeared under mysterious circumstances quite yet.” Marius said, attempting to fan the noxious fumes out of his face. Besides the smoke, a cloying perfume filled the air, probably an ill-fated attempt to cover up the smell. He leaned out the window to inspect the garbage can with a frown. “Are those Jonny’s clothes?”

“If I ever see a skunk again in my life, I am killing it on sight.” Jonny hissed from his chair, eyes filled with a murderous glint. Marius raised an eyebrow, and Tim looked up and gave him a lazy grin.

“Jonny got put on early morning patrol by Anderson for trying to light someone's hair on fire, and, well-” he gestured to the currently very angry, very shirtless man. “Skunk.” 

“We sprayed him with Space Febreeze,” Brian added, “So he mostly just smells like flowers now. We’re burning his clothes because it would stink up the barracks.”

“I volunteered to burn them,” Ashes said, baring their teeth in a smile.

“Right, makes sense,” Marius said. “Ashes, did you get the thing I asked for?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” They pulled out a cigarette and absently lit it, breathing in the smoke. Why they needed the light when there was already a giant pile of smoke right in front of them, he didn’t know. “It’s in the fridge.” 

“You-” he fell into another coughing fit as a wave of skunk-sprayed Jonny scented smoke hit him. “-are an absolute lifesaver, Ashes.” They shrugged.

“Wasn’t that big of a deal, I wanted to pick up a new set of boots for Jess anyways. It wore holes through hers again.”

“What’s this thing you're talking about?” Tim asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Marius waved the question away.

“Nothing you need to worry abo-”

“He wanted me to use my special status as being the only person allowed to leave the base to pick up some cake from town for him.” Ashes interrupted, taking another drag of their cigarette and narrowing their eyes at Marius. “Was very demanding about it too.” 

He felt his face heat up slightly. Well, it wasn’t a cake for him precisely, but they didn’t need to know that. Brian frowned. “You went into town and got cake? And you didn’t tell me?” Ashes shrugged.

“You weren’t there when I left for town. Tim said you were still working in comms, so I figured you wouldn’t want me barging in.”

Brian sighed. “Fair, but still…” They patted him on the shoulder.

“I’ll get you some of those caramel things you like so much next time. The good ones that don’t hurt your jaw, too.” Brian let out a hum of appreciation, and they smiled at him. Turning back to look at Marius, they put their hands on their hips. “Actually Marius, babe, when did you start liking coffee?”

He scowled. “I like coffee just fine.”

“Not to the point where you’d ask specifically for coffee flavored cake,” 

“Maybe I’m in the mood for it.” he said defensively. It wasn’t like he didn’t like coffee. It was perfectly fine, he even drank it to help him sleep sometimes. The taste left something to be desired, but it wasn’t that weird for him to want some. 

“Sure,” Ashes arched an eyebrow. “Fine. Like I said, it's in the fridge for you. You're lucky Jonny had the encounter with the skunk, otherwise I can't guarantee it would’ve lasted this long.”

“‘S not my fault nobody labels anything,” Jonny grumbled, propping his cheek onto his fist.

“We do label it,” Tim pointed out, taking Jonny’s hat off of his head and throwing it into the flames. Jonny tried to grab it, but it slipped just past his fingers. It fell into the flames, blazing brighter for a second and sending up another wave of smoke. “You just decide to eat our food anyway.”

“Well-” Jonny wrinkled his nose, trying to think of a retort. “Well, fuck you.”

“Mm, very creative Jonny, very creative.” Tim responded.

Jonny stuck his middle finger up at Tim, who casually pulled out a can of Space Febreeze and sprayed Jonny in the face with it. He hissed and dived at Tim, hands outstretched like claws. They collided, knocking Tim’s chair over, and sending them both careening into the ground. They clawed and punched each other, seeming to be attempting to tear each other apart. Brian grabbed his crutches and scooted his chair away from them slightly with a sigh.

“By the way, have you seen Ivy at all?” Marius called down. Brian furrowed his brow, completely ignoring the two howling like hyenas on the ground next to him. 

“Not since last night. I was wondering about that, actually,” he said. “Did something happen?”

“Not that I know of,” Marius answered, folding his arms and resting them on the window sill, “She said she was going to break into the document storage, though. I’m worried she might’ve gotten caught or something.”

Ashes snorted. “I wish luck to anyone who tries to pin her down. She’s got the entire base layout and security camera ranges memorized. And she bites.”

Marius bit his tongue, not mentioning the fact he had been supposed to be there to help her break-in. Maybe deciding to stay up and read the documents on Lyf had been a bad idea after all.

“Yup. I’m sure she’s fine, probably just got distracted reading or something.” Marius let out a breath and rocked back and forth on his heels. “I’m going to go take a shower. I am not wandering around smelling like skunk smoke.”

Brian glanced at him dubiously. “Since when do you care about how you smell?”

“I have important things to do today, my dear Brian.” Marius said, clapping his hands together. “Very, very important things. So, if you’ll excuse me-” Marius cut himself off by slamming the window closed. Below, Brian turned away and went back to talking with Ashes. Marius clapped his hands together once more, and went to go prepare for his date.

As soon as Marius closed the window, Ashes frowned. “Something was off about him.”

“Oh, most definitely.” Brian responded, staring after Marius.

“Think he’s hiding something?” they asked, inhaling from their cigarette, before letting out a cough. Brian’s face twisted at the sound, but he held back from telling them off for making their lungs worse. “My bet is he either stole something or has a surprise of some sort planned.”

Brian gave a small shrug. “The cake thing was weird. I think the only time I’ve ever seen him drink coffee is when you make it.”

“That’s just because I make good coffee,” Ashes stated matter of factly.

“I know. Also, he’s taking a shower. This is the second one he's taken this week. Definitely off.” Tim let out a scream as Jonny bit him on the arm, causing Brian to wince. 

“Can you two take that somewhere else?” he asked with a sigh. A couple of soldiers passing by gave them odd looks as they walked past, and Brian gave a small wave. They quickly looked away, having figured out long ago that the best thing to do in regards to the strange group was to just ignore them.

“Fuck you.” Jonny said. Or tried to, as it was muffled by him being actively chomped onto Tim’s arm, so it came out more as a “fuff foof”. Ashes and Brian exchanged a look. With a sigh, he pushed himself out of his chair, propping himself up on his crutches. 

He opened his mouth to ask Ashes for help bringing his chair inside, but something tickled in the back of his brain. He turned around on instinct, not sure why. He frowned in confusion. He was about to turn back around, before he spotted the group coming down the street.

The guards marching down the street looked as tired as their ward, though their expressions couldn’t match the snarl on Ivy’s face. Her hands were bound behind her, and she wore an uncharacteristically monochrome outfit. Her hair was mussed and falling out of her ponytail, eyebags dark, and body tense. She was accompanied by six soldiers, prodding her along as they marched over the sidewalk in the direction of Anderson’s office. 

Brian cleared his throat. “Uh, guys?” Ashes glanced up, and upon spotting Ivy, let out a growl.

“Tim, Jonny, stop flirting.” They stubbed their cigarette on the wall. Jonny mournfully unlatched his teeth from Tim’s arm, and Tim kicked him off of his chest with a sneer. Jonny pushed himself off the ground, grumbling all the while. When he saw Ivy, he wrinkled his nose.

“Oi, Ivy!” he called, and she turned around at the sound, the soldier pushing her along trying to guide her dragging feet through the door. “What’s the deal?”

She turned around at the call, eyes wild. “If you see Marius,” she snarled. “tell him there is a 100% chance he is going to be dead by tomorrow.” She bared her teeth. Another soldier attempted to push her through the door frame, but she latched onto it, blocking the way. She looked Jonny directly in the eyes. “Dead.”

One of the soldiers grabbed her by the collar, and she yelped as they yanked her through the door. It slammed shut behind her. He could still hear the sounds of her protests as she was presumably dragged to the Colonel’s office. The group stayed silent for a second and they watched the door, before Brian sighed.

“Marius, what the fuck did you do?”

Lyf took a step away from the wall, chalk in hand, and tapped it against their chin. They’d never considered themselves an artist particularly, but with nothing to do in the cell it had become a way to cope. They couldn’t accurately draw their dreams with white chalk alone, but trying to unravel the undulating lines and masses of flesh was… therapeutic, in a way, maybe. The squiggles and geometric lines didn’t make much sense, they would admit, but just getting it out of their brain was better than letting it rot in there. They had the chalk anyway, they figured they might as well use it.

Lyf scratched another line onto the concrete, studying the way it changed the flow of the drawing. It almost matched the dream, even without the color. It almost reminded them of the footage from the black box, the way Lyf could almost see the shifting tones in the black and white. At the thought, they shuddered and wiped their hand over the chalk, ruining the drawing. Maybe they didn’t need to draw their dreams after all. Even if it was a good distraction.

They definitely had things they didn’t want to think about. Certain things that as far as they were concerned, did not happen and were not to be pondered. Ever. The thought of him could sit rotting in the back of Lyf’s mind for an eternity as far as Lyf was concerned. They’d honestly prefer it if the real him would rot as well.

They sighed at the sounds of footsteps coming down the hallway. Lyf tucked the chalk back into the pocket of their jumpsuit, and continued to wipe away the chalk drawing. The door hinges creaked as whoever had been coming down the hallway swung open the door and walked into the room.

“If you're checking to see if I’ve gotten breakfast yet, there are much more efficient ways than bugging me about it. Maybe try asking the people who are supposed to bring me my food,” They called to the person who’d just walked in, not bothering to turn away from their task, “and maybe propose the idea that cold soup is not something to be eaten three times a day.”

“You're only getting fed soup?”

Lyf instantly tensed at the sound of his voice. They whipped around, and there he was. Staring at them curiously. The collar of his uniform was up, and his soggy hair looked like it had just been washed. For some reason, he cradled a white box in his arms. Lyf chose to ignore it, instead narrowing their eyes at von Raum.

“Why.” they demanded as he wandered into the room, his standard grin plastered on his face. He raised an eyebrow.

“You're asking me why you only get soup?”

Lyf blinked. “No,” they corrected with a hiss, “Why are you here?” They’d thought this was over. He had popped up once, there was no reason he needed to bug them again. Maybe they’d see him wandering the base or training outside, but that was it. They didn’t need to think about him. “Why did you come back?”

He frowned. “Of course I came back, I wouldn’t just leave you alone.” Something curdled in Lyf’s heart, and they felt themself tense and flinch at the wording. They tried to take in a breath as von Raum continued. “I mean, you made such a nice impression the first time, and…” he trailed off, studying their face, “Wait, are you okay?” 

Lyf would have almost called his expression concerned if they didn’t know better. “You didn’t answer my question,” They snapped. “Why are you here?” He blinked at them -it was almost frog-like, the way he blinked, strangely- and cleared his throat.

“I brought cheesecake?” he said weakly, holding up the box. Lyf blinked at it. “It’s coffee-caramel flavored, and you said you like coffee, and I figured you probably don’t get much good food in prison, so…” he shrugged. “Cheesecake.”

“What.” Lyf demanded. Von Raum opened the box to reveal a slightly-squashed slice of cheesecake. It was brown, topped with laces of caramel and shards of sea salt. Besides its somewhat crushed state, it looked delicious. If Lyf had to guess, it looked like it was most likely from a professional bakery.

Von Raum held it out to them awkwardly. They didn’t take it, just staring at the dessert.

He’d brought them cake. They hadn’t gotten anything besides watery soup and stale bread for the last… Oh Norns, it had been thirty years. It had been longer since they’d had any sort of pastry, since they’d gone without them for the most part living in their cabin. And he had just brought it to them. 

Hesitantly, they took the box from him, taking a step back and looking at it in their hands. Lyf opened their mouth to speak, but nothing came out. They looked back up at him, clearing their throat as they tried to put themself back together.

Godsdamnit, Lyf, It’s a piece of cake. If he really cared about you, he would just leave you alone.

“You didn’t poison this, did you?” They asked, before clamping their jaw shut, mentally slapping themselves. Von Raum frowned, and they bit back a curse. It wasn't like it mattered anyway, not even mentioning the whole immortality, most human poisons were harmless to them anyway.

“No- what? Why would I poison you?” His eyebrows had knitted together, and he was studying them with an expression they didn’t like. 

“I mean, a lot of the soldiers here aren’t particularly happy about having an inhuman monster in their base.” Lyf suggested. “And someone just randomly deciding to give me cake is very suspicious.”

“You are very suspicious. Of other people, that is. Maybe I just got you cake because you're nice and I wanted to get off on the right foot.” he propped his chin on his hand, leaning on the bars, facing Lyf, “and you are nice. And not an inhuman monster. You are very not-monstery.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” Lyf scoffed, “Or anything I’ve done.”

“Yes! And we can change that!” he clapped his hands together and pointed them at Lyf. “as your new supervisor, I-”

“I’m sorry?” Lyf interrupted, closing the box of cheesecake with much more calmness than they felt. 

“Oh, I forgot to mention that, didn’t I?” Marius said, rubbing his chin. Lyf massaged their brow. Of course. At this point, they figured this may as well happen. Guess they wouldn’t be ridding themselves of Marius von Raum anytime soon.

“Great… that is.” Lyf took a breath in, trying to repress the desire to scream. Of course he was in charge of them. Of course he figured out that bribing them with cheesecake was the only way to get them to answer questions. Idiot. “Fantastic. Fine. Great, even.” they clenched their fists. “I’m assuming you didn’t have the foresight to bring a fork?”

Von Raum grimaced, and Lyf sighed. “Of course. Guess I’ll just eat this later, when I actually have utensils.”

They set the box on their bedside table, before sitting down on the cot. They propped their chin on their hands, staring at von Raum. “Ask your question, then.”

Von Raum frowned. “Huh?”

“You're here for an answer. I haven’t had cake in over thirty years, so you get one.” they spread their hands. “Ask away.” It was a good tactic to use, bribing them instead of the normal interrogation. Giving Lyf a “gift” as a way to get on their good side. 

It wasn’t the first time they’d received one of von Raum’s bribes in an attempt to get something from them. They still had the pair of earrings he’d given them- one of their last possessions from Yggdrasil. As much as they hated the source, they weren’t going to get rid of genuine Midgardian jewelry out of spite. The attempt to kiss up to Lyf was pitiful in their opinion. However, even if the cake was just a manipulation tactic, they were grateful for it. Lyf figured they may as well humor him.

“Oh…” von Raum looked confused for some reason. Like he hadn’t expected the cake to actually work. Lyf raised an eyebrow, waiting for the question.

“Did you not think of a question before coming in to interrogate me?”

He hesitated a second. “I mean, if you want me to ask a question, I could? I would love to learn more about you.”

“You’re the officer in this situation. What I want doesn’t matter.”

“You seem to try and invalidate your existence very quickly.” von Raum said, leaning on the bars expectantly. They snorted, crossing their legs.

“I am not here to talk about my emotions, von Raum.” Lyf growled. “You're here to ask a question, I’m saying you get one, simply because I haven’t gotten anything good to eat in thirty years. Don’t make me change my mind.”

It wasn’t like their existence was worth validating, anyway. They were just something that used to be a person and that was now forced to exist in a world that wanted them dead. Not much worth in that.

“Okay… hmm,” von Raum scratched his chin, considering, and Lyf waited expectantly. “Aha!” he clapped his hands together again. “I’ve got one.”

Lyf raised an eyebrow. “Do I have to remind you to turn on your recorder as well? Or are you actually going to be able to do it yourself?”

“Oh, right. I could, I guess.” He dug through his pockets and produced his recorder, clicking it on as Lyf stared. They couldn’t help the amused expression on their face as he fumbled.

“Alright, question!” he announced.

“Not going to do the whole introduction thing this time?”

Von Raum shrugged. “My purpose on this planet is solely to inconvenience others. If I have to work, I will do the worst job possible.”

Lyf sighed, remembering the many headaches von Raum had caused them in the past. “Trust me, I know.” they rubbed their forehead just thinking about it, “If you hate working so much, why join the army?”

“Didn’t have a choice.” Marius shrugged. Lyf raised their eyebrows. That would make sense, actually. A draft probably, though they hadn’t heard any news of one. Though to be fair, they didn’t really try to keep up with news from the war. Von Raum clapped his hands together, pointing at Lyf.

“Getting back on track; What,” He leaned in. “Is it like being immortal?”

Lyf raised their eyebrows. They’d expected something about the war, or their powers, something that would actually help him. Not something about them. “Really?” They scoffed. “I gave you the opportunity to ask anything, and that's what you chose?”

Von Raum shrugged. “Call it curiosity. I mean, how long have you been alive?” he gestured to them.

“Are you calling me old?” von Raum’s face turned a shade of pink.

“I-what? No. It’s a fact. I mean, you’re immortal apparently, not that it ages you physically or anything, just that you’re like a god-”

“Relax, von Raum,” They scoffed. “It’s a joke. Yes, I’ve been alive far longer than most people, and to answer your question, It’s been about 300 years since…” they hesitated, trying to find a way to phrase Ragnarok in a way that wouldn’t reveal too much. “Since I stopped aging.”

“Only 300 years?” von Raum asked, blinking. 

“Only?” Lyf responded incredulously. He held his hands up in defense.

“Look, when someone says they’re immortal, you expect like, a few thousand years at least. 300? That's only, like, three or four lifetimes. Rookie numbers, honestly.” 

Lyf facepalmed. “And how old are you? I don’t think you have the experience to be able to say that.” von Raum shrugged.

“Don’t remember. Also, I do have experience,” he snapped his fingers. “King Cole’s been alive for 2,000 slutty, slutty years, and trust me: the  army does like to tell us about him.”

Lyf shuddered. “Do not call the zombie king a slut.”

“Whatever you say, darling,” 

Lyf crossed their arms, trying to hide the blush spreading across their cheeks with a sigh. “Do you want me to answer your question or not?”

“Oh, right.” von Raum threaded his fingers together and looked up at them. They gave him a look before they continued.

“Being immortal…” they breathed in, thinking before they spoke. “I used to hear about people who strived to find the answer to immortality. They’d use science and technology to extend their lifespans, or they would try and make their names live forever, doing terrible things just to be remembered.”

They couldn’t stop themselves from thinking about Odin. How she’d spent years trying to engineer a way to live forever. When that didn’t work? She tried to make her name live forever by being the one to “ascend” Yggdrasil. 

Maybe she was still floating around in that rainbow hell. Lyf hadn’t thought about what may have happened to her much. Most of the thoughts they had about her just involved making up creative insults to call her if they ever saw her again. Maybe she had gotten what she’d wanted, living forever with the same curse that weighed Lyf down.

They realized they had stopped speaking, and von Raum was still staring at them expectantly. Lyf cleared their throat. “But it's not anything someone should want. I didn’t want to be immortal. I lost… I lost a lot in the process of becoming… this.” they gestured generally to their rainbow-stained hair and eyes.

“You don’t really realize how little one life can mean until you’ve lived multiple of them. It’s…” they rubbed their arm, taking a breath in. Lyf looked away from von Raum, “It’s just a passive existence. No reason to care for what’s happening around you, no reason to care for yourself… anybody who wants to live forever has never actually thought about the reality of not being able to die, no matter how miserable you are.”

Lyf glanced back up at von Raum. His expression was odd, staring at them through the bars silently, his brows knit. Lyf rubbed the skin on their arms more, suddenly feeling self-conscious. They hadn’t meant to say that much. Lyf cleared their throat awkwardly. 

“Looks like I’ve been doing a bad job keeping up my streak, then,” They chuckled. “Broke it twice in two days. Not that it’ll actually help your army at all, but I guess my resolve is finally breaking.” Their voice broke at the end. Why was this what got them so emotional? And why did it have to be in front of von Raum of all people?

“I- I don’t think I could imagine that.” He echoed, still staring at Lyf. They looked away from him, the floor suddenly seeming very interesting. “It sounds…”

“Not pleasant?”

“Yeah.”

“Mhm.” Lyf agreed.

Lyf didn’t know how von Raum had ended up immortal in their universe, but this version of him being so despondent at the thought… they wondered if he had chosen it. If he had foolishly thought living forever would be pleasant, and had chosen to rid himself of death. Maybe it had been thrust upon him, the same way it had been for Lyf. They doubted it, he was idiotic enough to choose it himself.

But there was a von Raum who’d stayed mortal right in front of them, or hadn’t been given the choice yet.

He was still holding the recorder in one hand, which whirred quietly. Wordlessly, von Raum held it in front of him and broke it in half. It crunched into pieces, a few shards of plastic falling to the floor, and he dropped it. He smashed it one more time with his foot for good measure. Lyf looked at him in shock, as he dusted off his hands. 

“The Hel?” they gestured to the broken recorder. “You just broke- what- why?”

Von Raum shrugged. “Why did it need to be on the record in the first place?”

“It’s an interrogation.” They snapped. “You're supposed to record it.”

“Who said this was an interrogation?” von Raum said, grinning like the smug bastard he was.

“You did.” Lyf exclaimed, trying to repress the urge to reach through the bars and strangle him- he was just sabotaging himself at this point.

“Nuh-uh.” Marius replied.

“What the fuck do you mean, ‘nuh uh’?” Lyf answered, incredulous.

“Maybe I just wanted to see you,” He proclaimed. “And bring you cake.” 

“Your job is to interrogate me,” They sneered. 

“And as I said, I happen to be very bad at my job. Well, this job anyway. There are some jobs I’m actually quite good at-”

“Yes, like being a nuisance.” Lyf interrupted. “And not much else, it seems.”

“Hey!” he frowned, “I can play violin! I am very good at playing the violin!”

Lyf froze. “Do not,” they hissed. von Raum’s eyebrows raised at their sudden change in demeanor, “play the violin. If you pull out a fucking violin, I will show you why I am in a prison cell.” 

von Raum propped his arm up on the wall on the other side of the cell, leaning against it. He raised an eyebrow with a grin. “Is that an open offer?”

Blood rushed into Lyf’s cheeks. They grabbed their food tray from breakfast that morning and hurled it at von Raum’s face. It smacked onto the bars next to him. “Out.” they pointed to the door. “I don’t care if you are in charge of me, or my supervisor, or whatever, I do not want to see you again.”

von Raum pouted and crossed his arms. “But I want to see you.”

“You are an absolute moron.” Lyf hissed. They’d given him every reason to not want to see them, any reasonable person would hate them by now. They’d made their distaste clear, and yet he’d become their supervisor. And brought them cake. And just kept complimenting them. Idiot. “Take your flattery to someone who cares. I do not have time for this.”

“You are sitting in a prison cell right now,” von Raum noted. “I doubt you have many important things to do.” he wiggled his eyebrows. “So maybe you could do-”

“If you finish that sentence, I am going to do another crime. One that will result in your death.” They hissed. “Out.”

“Aww, I’ll grow on you yet,” von Raum squished his face up against the bars, still smiling that stupid grin. “I mean, we’ll be seeing each other a lot, considering you're my ward-” Lyf put their face in their hands and let out a muffled scream.

“Please.” they said through the palms of their hands. 

“Hmmm… well, because you asked so nicely.” von Raum said with a pout. He tilted his head and glanced over at them, slouched on the cot as they were. “Enjoy the cake, please! You look like you haven't eaten properly in a while.” Lyf scoffed. They didn’t need him critiquing their eating habits.

“It’s the only good thing I've gotten out of this conversation.”

“Is that your way of saying thank you?” Marius responded. Lyf just glared at him. He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Right! Going, going. Don’t need to tell me again.” he walked across the room and to the door. Pausing before leaving, he turned back to Lyf. “See you tomorrow?”

“I will throw this piece of cake at you.”

“Right. Farewell!” He gave a small salute, shut the door, and he was gone. 

Lyf stared at the door for a second. It was marvelous how much quieter the room was without him in it, almost lifeless. Which was good. They didn’t want him in here, causing noise, and-

-and flirting with them. Gods.

Burying their face in their hands, Lyf let out another muffled scream. Why was he choosing to annoy them like this? Just- seeking attention? Testing out his lines? Trying to fluster them? And why did Lyf have to get emotional like that in front of him?

Idiot.

They rubbed their face and looked back up wearily. The box of cheesecake was still next to them. Hesitantly, they picked it up and set it in their lap. When Lyf took the lid off, the slice of cake was still sitting inside. Their shoulders slumped and they sighed.

Why was he pretending like he cared?

Marius didn’t know much about a lot of things. Well, he did know a lot about some things, just not things most people would consider practical. For example, he knew a surprising amount about sea slugs. Ivy had a lot of opinions on sea slugs. Probably too many opinions.

But one thing Marius knew a lot about that was actually useful- well, knowledge of sea slugs could be useful, in certain circumstances. Who knew when you’d have to use one as an improvised weapon?- was the brain. 

Brains were fun organs. You could spend hours tracing every single little behavioral pattern back to one conversation, one specific mindset, one trauma that changed everything. Marius knew the brain well. Instinctually, even. Ivy had theorized that the facts the crew had learned before the amnesia stuck with them, in the backs of their minds, ready to pull out when needed. Marius figured he had read a lot of psychology books if that was true, then. 

All of this to say, Marius knew a shit mental state when he saw it. 

Immortality was a fun concept, in theory, but the second you thought about it too hard, it was easy to see how fast it could go from “fun living forever times,” to “quite literal hell,”. Old King Cole might’ve been having a fun time: ruling over galaxies, living his slutty, slutty life, generally being an ass, sure.

But as for Lyf?

It was hard for Marius to hold back the urge to wrap them in blankets and hold them tight. If it was up to him, they’d be out of their cell already. He wanted to tell them they weren’t less of a person for living forever, or whatever other things their immortality had brought with it.

But they’d hate that. They hated him. Whatever past-Marius had done, it left them barely able to make eye contact with him. Every word they spoke was to him coated with bitterness and hatred.

God, Past-Marius must’ve been a real ass. Present-Marius very much wished to have words with Past-Marius. Maybe punch him in the face as well. Actually, maybe that was what caused his amnesia! Maybe he had travelled back in time and hit himself over the head so hard he forgot everything. But then that left the rest of the crew’s amnesia unaccounted for. Maybe it was just  a big game of punching their past selves for being idiots?

Unlikely, but more plausible than other theories he’d had. His past self was an idiot after all, for making Lyf upset. 

But he could make up for that now! They’d taken the cake, even if they did think it was bribery. They’d even opened up emotionally kind of! He didn’t think the opening-up emotionally was on purpose, considering they’d immediately yelled at him for breaking the recorder.

Breaking the recorder had maybe not been the brightest idea on Marius’s part, considering he was supposed to turn that into Anderson after this. Hmm… That was a problem for Future-Marius to deal with.

Or maybe they’d gotten upset over the pick-up lines. Maybe he should find better ones, ones with some real pizzazz. Ones they might even laugh at, instead of just telling him to go away. 

Baby steps, Marius. Get them to be able to at least tolerate your presence, and then you can maybe see about making them laugh. He sighed aloud. The halls were empty, most of the soldiers at drills or patrol, and it echoed down the white corridors. 

Whatever the Marius from the past had done to make Lyf hate him, he was going to make up for it.

Chapter Text

“Private Alexandria.” 

“Hm?” Ivy responded to Anderson absently. His office was decorated only with scattered papers and office supplies, walls empty. She sat slumped in a chair, absently fidgeting with her fingers, in front of his desk. It lacked any memento except for a plate loudly declaring “COLONEL J. ANDERSON” in bold letters. 

The man himself sat on the other side of the desk, rubbing his forehead with a pissed expression not dissimilar to Ivy’s. “Are you going to tell me why you decided to break into classified document storage, or am I just supposed to guess?”

“You could guess, though I’d estimate only a 7.56% chance you’ll do so correctly. You’ve never been the fastest at figuring things out.” She responded. Anderson pressed his lips together in a tight line. Heavy eye bags decorated his face, though Ivy wasn’t particularly inclined to care if she’d interrupted his beauty rest. She figured her face looked much the same at this point, though that wasn’t anything remarkable. 

78.63% of the time she looked in the mirror, she had noticeable shadows under her eyes. She had the record amongst the crew, challenged closely by Nastya, who had them 72.21% of the time. Actually, by her current rate of increase, Nastya had a chance of overtaking Ivy in it in the next month or so. Brian also followed close behind, as did Tim, though she hadn’t checked this morning when she had seen them.

“Well, if you would like this to go quicker, it would be far easier for you to inform me as to your reasoning for doing so.” He pointed out grimly. Ivy tilted her head at him, studying him intently.

“Do you really care why I did it? Or are you just asking it rhetorically? Because I don’t think knowing why I chose to break in will influence the punishment you decide on in the slightest.”

“I am of the belief that the best way to prevent incidents like this from happening is to make sure every one of our soldiers’ needs are being met. If someone is choosing to misbehave, it is for a reason. And we can fix that reason through proper communication.” Anderson stated simply.

Ivy sighed. “‘A Proper Employers Guide to a Healthy Work Environment’, Page 143, paragraph 2. ‘If an employee is misbehaving, their needs may not be being met. Encourage healthy communication to find the reason for the misconduct’” She recited, raising an eyebrow. “Almost word for word, Anderson. I’m almost impressed. Did the General pick it up for you?”

Anderson took a deep breath in, rubbing his forehead. “As a matter of fact, I picked it up myself, because certain individuals have been making my job a lot harder recently,” He responded. “And I would like to be able to handle the situation accordingly.”

“Admirable. Really.” Ivy responded.

“Please hold back on the sarcasm, Private Alexandria,”

“That wasn’t sarcasm, I said ‘Really’. Honestly, if you were a slightly shittier leader one of us would’ve probably killed you already.” she commented absently, tapping her fingers on the desk.

The strained face Colonel Anderson made Ivy think her advice may have been less than reassuring. What was with people and not being able to take a compliment? Not dying brutally was considered pretty good to 95.73% of the population.

That number couldn’t be right, could it? She’d have to recalculate. There was no way 95% of the population didn’t want to die. 

“Well then, I hope that I am able to meet your needs.” Anderson responded. “And in order to do so, I will have to request that you tell me why you broke into document storage.”

It wasn’t really a choice of whether Ivy was going to tell the truth or not. Admit she’d been trying to find answers on the crew’s past and get another lecture about how the base already had people investigating, or make something up and get off without a hitch. It wasn’t like he’d bother to call her out for it, anyways. As long as it kept the peace, he’d turn a blind eye to just about anything.

“Boredom.” She folded her arms and slouched down in the desk chair. “You terminated my last assignment. Figured I might as well poke around, find a new mystery to unravel.” Anderson leaned back in his chair, pinching his brow.

“Boredom. You refused to work drills, you’ve been offered multiple other assignments, all of which you either rejected or solved in seconds.” He thread his fingers together as he continued. “We’ve shipped in thousands of books for you to peruse at your leisure, and there are plenty of chores you could’ve engaged in, not to mention the rest of your crew would've helped you. There are quantities of activities you can engage in. There was no need to resort to petty crime for entertainment.”

Ivy shrugged. “Wasn’t enough,”

Anderson pressed his lips together in a thin line. “So something to do is what you need? If I gave you an assignment, this whole fiasco could’ve been avoided?” Ivy nodded, trying to repress a grin as her lie worked its magic, and he let out a deep sigh.

“Great. Well, we can fix that.” he reached into his desk and pulled out a new folder, sliding it across the desk to Ivy. Without hesitation, she picked it up and began hungrily scanning the text as the Colonel continued.

“We gave you the assignment to hack into the defense grid and disable it a while ago-”

“And then reassigned it to Red Hood,” Ivy commented absently, reading through the file. “Despite the fact that I’ve proved that I’m a better hacker than them.”

“General White wanted someone she could trust.” Anderson pointed out. “If you wanted to keep the assignment, you should not have stabbed Lieutenant Belle.”

Ivy sniffed. “He had it coming.”

“Yes, you said as much. Gave an exact list of everything he did to wrong you, actually.” Ivy opened her mouth, and Anderson stopped her by holding up his hand. “-DON’T- There is no need to repeat it, Private Alexandria.” she clamped her jaw shut indignantly.

“As I was saying, you were given an assignment to disable the defense grid a while ago, before it was reassigned. Though Red Hood has not been able to solve the problem-” 

Ivy rolled her eyes at that. Of course Red Hood hadn’t been able to solve it, xe barely understood how to force override a Rose Red Behemoth. Ivy had figured out a much more effective way to take control of them barely a week into her time at the base. Had she shared it with General White? Nope. But if any of the crew needed to take over a giant mech and ride it into battle, they had been well educated on how.

“-she did discover something.” Ivy actually looked up from the file at that. It had just been the same papers from the assignment before, one she already had memorized, but she had been looking them over for any changes anyways.

Anderson held out his hand for the folder back. She stared at him, clutching the paperwork, and he sighed. “The map, please, Private.” she begrudgingly pulled out the folded map and handed it over.

He unfolded it and smoothed it out on the desk in front of her. The black ink showed the sprawling hallways and rooms that made up the defense grid surrounding New Constantinople. It wasn’t entirely accurate, of course. It was based mostly off of the few failed assaults that had left enough surviving soldiers to give an idea of the layout. Ivy had tried her best to clean it up while she’d worked on the project, but there were still some areas that had been covered in question marks.

Anderson pointed a finger at a large room deep inside the grid. There were no details of technology or soldiers, just completely blank space. The hallways around it were much the same, lacking in the descriptions that dotted the outer rooms. “This room here,” Anderson said. “Has wires connected to it that lead to every single Thorn-class turret in the grid. It’s the center of everything.”

Ivy inspected the room. She could indeed see detailed diagrams of the flow of power, a new addition since she’d worked on it, drawn in red. Every single line was connected to the room somehow, leading back there in intricate lines. 

“That is horrid electrical design. One power source? For the entire grid?” Ivy snorted. “Might as well be asking for someone to send a bomb in there and disable the entire thing.”

“They do have a backup power source, over here,” Anderson tapped another room on the map, a bit further off. “It isn’t the most effective, but it is there. So if the main power source were to be disabled, someone would still have to manually shut off the backup generator as well. But that's not the point.”

The backup power source was significantly better labelled, though still had a handful of question marks surrounding it. Deactivating it seemed to require a code, though that had already been jotted down next to it in parentheses. 

Well, the defense grid was swarming with Rose Reds and covered in shields, so maybe the electrical system didn’t need to be that complicated. The errors still seemed like a joke to Ivy, though.

“So what do you want me to find out, then?” Ivy asked. She doubted he needed her for any sort of combat- he had plenty of soldiers to do that. The only reason he was asking her to do this was because he needed information.

“We don’t know what the power source is.” Anderson said, gesturing back to the blank space. “We haven’t found evidence of any types of power we know, and all records of its construction are completely out of reach. If we can figure out what's powering it, we may be able to take advantage of that.”

Out of reach to you, Ivy commented in her head as she rested her chin on her fist and gazed at the map. “So find out what the power source is, or get stuck with some other punishment.” she glanced back at Anderson, giving him a look. “You were going to assign me this anyway. I’m the only person that could actually find out anything on this.” She said it as a statement, not a question.

“I’m sure you prefer that we say this is your punishment, rather than assigning it to you along with a punishment.” Anderson commented. Ivy sighed and set the file on the table.

“I’ll do it.”

Anderson relaxed at that. Ivy doubted she’d had a choice in the first place, but knowing she wasn’t going to fight him on it was most likely a relief to him. She didn’t care for helping the base much, but a mysterious core of one of the most powerful weapons in the sector? It deserved a close look from Ivy’s professional eye.

“Good,” Anderson said. “I expect a check-in with any results in a week. Until then, those files are yours to peruse, as well as the files you’ve received from past investigations. If you require more materials, you can request them, not break into document storage-” he gave her a hard look, and Ivy smiled back at him innocently. “-and the document storage staff will handle it.”

“Great. Now, if you’ll excuse me-” Ivy clambered out of the chair, document in hand,  and pushed it in. she bared her teeth in a vicious grin at the Colonel. “I have someone I need to murder.”

Marius technically could’ve come back to the base earlier. However, a day was never complete without a good amount of shenanigans. Hanging out with Lyf wasn’t considered a shenanigan in his mind, as that was what he was supposed to be doing, according to General White. Amazing how he was getting paid (read: not put in prison or killed) to do something he would’ve done anyways!

So he’d spiced up the day by stealing one of the space jeeps and riding around in the woods whilst playing violin for a bit. A very relaxing activity. He’d overheard rumors of a loud, music playing beast hiding in the trees, so he’d started spending his time looking for it. Strangely enough, he always seemed to be just nearby wherever and whenever it had been spotted last, but for some reason he never found it. Odd. 

It gave him time to think about Lyf, as well, without anyone showing up to tell him to do something. He’d found thinking about them was his new favorite activity. Doing that while playing violin? Double whammy.

He decided after about an hour of practice and gay thoughts to come back and eat lunch. Unfortunately, he had lost his way, so it was closer to about four hours later when he stumbled in. His uniform was smeared with mud and leaves, and whenever he shook his head leaves fell off.

God, he was going to have to take another shower. Two in one day. Disgusting. It went against his entire brand.

He trudged through the door back into the crew’s barracks. Well, technically, it wasn’t their barracks, there were other soldiers living on the other floors. However, Marius couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen anyone in the building besides the crew. He figured they’d all either died, quit, or moved. He didn’t really care enough to find out which.

Idly, Marius thought that Ashes wasn’t going to be happy about the mud in the foyer. They didn’t like people thinking they were willing to get their hands dirty, so no one would expect the bullet to come from them when the time came. Having mud in their room was a bit against that.

He could clean it up later. Or make someone else clean it. He had bigger things to worry about. Like, maybe, the fact that he’d just been slammed against the wall with the nozzle of a gun slammed into his head.

“Hi, Ivy.” Marius tried to say, though his remarkably squished face made it a bit difficult. The pistol Ivy had pointed at him jabbed into his cranium.

“Don’t ‘hi, Ivy’ me.” she snarled. “Where were you last night, hmm? I thought we had a plan.”

“I left a note,” Marius muttered.

“Yes, at the place we were supposed to meet up.” She pointed out. “Didn't it occur to you to tell me during the day? Or leave a note on my bed? Instead of having me go all the way to the meeting place to find out you chickened out?” She released Marius from his position on the wall, taking a step back and gesturing with her gun. “And at that point it was too late for me to turn back, so I went along with the heist, and got caught.”

Marius rubbed his jaw where it’d been hit. “Uh, it didn’t occur to me, actually,” that… probably would’ve been smarter. And probably would’ve prevented him getting a gun put against his head. Ivy sighed, crossing her arms.

“Why did you even decide to ditch me in the first place? We’d been planning it for weeks.” she threw her hands in the air. “We had confirmation that those video files had what we needed. Unless some magic, all-knowing wizard suddenly dropped out of the sky and told you that you needed to skip out on the heist in order to learn the answers of the universe, I don’t want to hear it.” she shook a finger at him. “And there's only a 0.0000023% chance of that happening.”

Marius coughed. “Well, actually, kind of?” He tried, and she stared at him flatly.

“Th’ fuck‘s happening out there?” a slurring voice called out. The door next to Ivy opened, and a very droopy looking Jonny poked his head out. Upon spotting Marius, he wrinkled his nose and glared at Ivy. “I thought y’said you were going to kill him?”

“It was a threat, Jonny, I’m not actually going to kill him.” she responded, folding her arms, though Marius noted that she did not put the gun away. “Though I am tempted.” she added on, eyeing him. Jonny squinted, looking Marius's bedraggled form up and down.

“Shame. He's stinking up the place.” he sighed.

“Bold statement for you to make, Mr. I-got-sprayed-by-a-skunk-this-morning-and-had-to-get-Ashes-to-burn-my-clothes.” Marius retorted, shaking a finger at him. Jonny stuck out his tongue as Tim's head joined him in peeking out of the doorway.

“Why’re we yelling? Can I join?” Tim asked with a yawn, squinting at the group.

Ivy pointed her gun back at Marius, who took a step back in alarm. “We’re yelling because he chickened out on a heist with me.”

“I did not ‘chicken out’!” Marius held up his hands in defense and surrender. Tim furrowed his brow.

“Why did you chicken out on a heist?” he asked.

“I didn’t!”

“Well, you definitely didn’t show up like you were supposed to.” Ivy growled. “And then I got caught, and now we don’t have the footage we need.”

“You got Ivy caught?”

“It would have been very easy for her to not do the heist as soon as she figured out I had something else to do.”

Down the hall where Marius had come, Ashes, Brian, and Jessica appeared from the doorway. Ashes’s lips were quirked in a smile, and they had an eyebrow raised. Brian and Jessica seemed less amused by the exchange, Jess barely paying attention to what was happening, and Brain staring at Marius with an odd expression.

“Is this why you threatened to kill Marius this morning, Ivy?” Ashes asked, leaning against the wall. They’d produced a cup of coffee from somewhere, and took a sip of it without breaking eye contact with her.

“Yes.”

“Ah, makes sense,” they tilted their head at Marius.

“Are We Killing People?” Jessica asked, tilting her head and giving Marius a glassy eyed look. He took a step back from her.

“I am not very comfortable with the amount of people suggesting Ivy kill me right now.”

“Jess,” Brian put a hand on her shoulder. “No killing. You can kill later.” it visibly drooped at the command.

“Aw, Blimey.”

“I’m assuming you actually do have a reason for chickening out, then? Or did you just get distracted by a butterfly or something?” Ivy took a step towards Marius, who was feeling very small in the crowded hall. Also, she still had a gun, and Marius very much didn’t want her accidentally pulling the trigger and shooting someone in the leg. Or purposefully shoot them.

Marius was like, 90% sure she wouldn’t actually shoot him. At least, if she did, she wouldn’t do it lethally. Probably.

“First of all, Like I said, I did not chicken out,” he pointed out. “That implies I didn’t show for cowardly reasons, and I actually had a very good reason for not helping.”

“And do you care to share that very good reason?” Tim asked, fully stepping into the hallway with Jonny behind him. He looked like he’d just been sleeping, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and shirt unbuttoned. By the circles under his eyes and his slightly wavering form, Marius guessed he had drunk too much in the morning and passed out. Jonny seemed to have done the same.

“Yes, actually, I would, if people let me talk for more than five seconds!” Marius waved his hands in the air, trying to focus the group.

“Ivy, honey, where’s my gun?” Raphaella, of course, chose that exact moment to appear, swinging around the hall. When she saw the group gathered, she frowned. “Oh. Hmm. Ivy, why are you pointing my gun at Marius?”

“Anderson found mine last week.” Ivy responded.

“Yes, but why are you pointing it at Marius, specifically?” 

“He chickened out on our heist.” 

Raphaella crossed her arms and turned to Marius. “Marius, why did you chicken out on the heist with Ivy?”

“I didn’t,” He spluttered. “Will you please let me explain what happened.”

The group grumbled a bit, but fell silent. Marius took a deep breath in. “Okay, good. Now, as I said in my note, I found a more promising lead, and decided to investigate. I did not ‘chicken out’, it was a calculated move!”

The group was silent for a moment, before Ivy piped up. “Bullshit.” She took a step towards Marius again. “This is the most promising lead we’ve had since we woke up here. There is barely a 0.0000000000081% chance a new lead just fell into your lap.”

“Well one did.” Marius said defiantly.

“Sounds like an excuse to me.” Tim muttured. “Especially since you haven’t told us what that lead is.” Marius turned to him stiffly, clenched his jaw, and flipped him the bird. Tim stuck out his tongue in return.

“Are we having an intervention right now?” a sleepy, accented voice asked from outside of the group. Everyone turned at once, to see a very disheveled looking Nastya standing there. Jonny pointed at her.

“And where the hell have you been?” he demanded.

“I was getting more bitches than you.” she said, squeezing into the circle around Marius. “Not that it is hard. I reiterate my question; are we having an intervention? And if so, do I need to get my taser?”

“We do not need anyone else waving a weapon around right now.” Brain held a hand up. “Can we please actually let Marius talk instead of interrupting him constantly?”

“Thank you,” Marius gestured to Brian. “See, this is why you're my favorite.”

“If I’m your favorite, why did you-”

“We don’t talk about the macaroni thing.” Marius interrupted. 

“I wasn’t talking about the macaroni thing, I was talking about-” Brian stopped himself with a huff. “You know what, nevermind. Just explain what this ‘lead’ was.”

“A lead?” Nastya asked, before she was shushed by Ivy.

“I’ll tell you later.” she hissed.

“Oh, so you demand to know where I have been, and then when I get back, I am not allowed to talk. Delightful.” Nastya sighed, putting a hand on her hip.

“To be fair, I don’t know what’s happening either.” Raphaella whispered.

“I’m Just Happy To Be Involved!” Jessica piped up.

“We know, Jess,” Tim reassured. It gave a little clap and a hop.

“Delightful! I Do Love Bonding Time With My Mates!”

“Babe, we are pretty much interrogating Marius right now.” Ashes called to her.

“Like I Said!” Jessica stated enthusiastically. “Bonding Time!”

Marius sighed. “Like I was about to say-” he held up his hand, silencing the conversation. He took a breath in. “I met someone.”

Tim blinked. “You got hitched?” 

“NO-” Marius screeched. He could feel the blood rushing to his face. “I mean- well-”

“Aha. so you did get hitched.” Tim said, shooting Marius a finger gun. “Lucky.”

“Getting hitched is not a lead.” Ivy scoffed. “You better have something better than that as an excuse, because-”

“I did not get hitched.” Marius interrupted, shoving his face in his hands. Why were they even talking about this? Of course, it wasn’t like the idea of dating Lyf had left his mind since he had met them. Or the idea of holding their hand, or how soft their hair looked, or how kissable their lips were, or…

But they hated him right now. He needed to figure out a solution to that first. Then maybe think about kissing them silly.  Well, just thinking about it wouldn’t hurt anyone. He was allowed to think things. People told him he didn’t think a lot, actually, so maybe he should think about kissing Lyf more. That was logic right there.

“The shade of red your face just turned is not helping your argument.” Ashes noted. Marius let out a groan.

“Okay, all mentions of getting hitched aside, I met someone- not like that you freaks- and I think they know something about us. Before the base.”

The rest of the crew stared at him in silence, all chattering gone. Marius rocked back and forth nervously, as the crew tried to process what he said. Nastya took a sharp breath in and sighed.

“Well, I certainly missed something.”

Jonny raised his eyebrows. “You found someone who knew us before.”

“Mmhmm.” Marius hummed in response.

“I-” Ivy stopped for a moment and rested her hand on her forehead. “Marius. Are you absolutely certain?”

He frowned. “Well, it's not like they told me so directly.”

“So, then, why do you think they’re someone we knew?” Brian asked.

“Because they recognized me?” Marius gestured vaguely. “And almost tried to kill me when they heard my name? And made a lot of ominous comments?”

Raphaella made a pained face. “I’m sorry, they tried to kill you?”

“I mean, kill is an exaggeration,” Marius corrected with a shrug. “More like started yelling at me and grabbed my arm and looked like they were having an existential crisis? And then they started interrogating me a bit, and then I interrogated them back, though I was a lot nicer about it, and then I tried to flirt with them and they yelled at me. So.”

“Marius.” Ashes looked like they were holding in a laugh. “I think we need a bit more context than that.”

“They started interrogating you, so your first response was to flirt with them?” Brian asked. Marius shrugged.

“In my defense, they were very hot and also yelling at me. Which made them even hotter. So.”

“Fair.” Nastya, Jonny, Ashes, and Tim said at the same time. They gave each other a series of fist bumps. Brian sighed and facepalmed.

“Okay,” Raphaella pinched her forehead. “Trying to understand what the fuck is happening right now; you somehow found someone who recognized you, and was evidently very not happy with you. This is connected to Ivy trying to shoot you in what way?”

“I was going to help Ivy with her heist but instead I got the Colonel to assign me as their official supervisor- did I mention they’re a prisoner?” Marius rubbed his chin. “Well, they're a prisoner of war, kind of, had some info or something the general wanted, not important. I got assigned as their supervisor, and I spent all night reading their files instead of going on the heist.”

“They’re a prisoner?” Ashes asked.

“You decided to do that instead of getting security footage?” Ivy growled.

“You know how to read?” Jonny wondered.

“Yes I know how to fucking read,” Marius grumbled. “And yes to the other two as well.”

Raphaella held up her hand. “Wait, why would the army keep…”

“Lyf.” 

“Why would the army keep Lyf prisoner?”

At the sound of Lyf’s name, Brian made a very odd expression and coughed. Glancing at him, Marius noted the change and raised his eyebrows. “Something you’d like to shared with the class, Brian?”

“No, uh, nothing…” he said. “Just heard the name before. Not anything about them, just the name.”

“Right,” Marius noted that as something to interrogate him about later, once Marius was done being interrogated himself. “Well, Raph, apparently they have some form of ‘cannot-die syndrome’ that General White was very interested in.”

Tim frowned. “You're saying they’re immortal? They just can’t die at all?”

“Yes. well, I don’t know the specifics on it, but at the very least they don’t age, or do so very slowly. And I think it might’ve been mentioned that they can’t be killed either? According to White, they’ve been in a cell for the past 30 years.”

Barking out a laugh, Jonny leaned into Tim’s side, still wobbly on his feet from the alcohol. “Shounds like a fat load of bull t’me. Immortal? Really? Not possible.”

“Jonny. We are fighting a war against an immortal king.” Ivy said with a sigh.

“Yeah, a ver’rich king who can afford t’keep replacing his rotting body partsh and esh’pensive medication to keep him from keeling over while he shleeps. I doubt some random prisoner jush’ found the secret to immortality.”

Marius shrugged. “Well, according to White they are. And they did talk about it a bit, when I went in today.”

Brian furrowed his brow. “So that’s why you were acting weird. Was the cake for them then?”

Marius crossed his arms defensively, sniffing. “Maybe.”

“You tried to bribe them with cheesecake?” Ashes asked.

“I wasn’t trying to bribe them,” Marius grumbled. “They said they liked coffee cake, and the prison food is shit, and I thought they would like it. As a gift. Because they’re nice. Why do people always assume I give gifts to bribe them?”

“Who is assuming you’re bribing them?”

“Lyf did!” Marius threw his hands in the air. “Because they don’t understand the fact they’re wonderful, apparently!”

Ivy sighed and handed her gun to Raphaella, who took and holstered it on her belt. “Great. So this entire thing was caused by you getting a crush on a war criminal?”

“They’re not a war criminal. Just a normal criminal. Well, not normal. They're very extraordinary. An extraordinary criminal.”

“Right. You decided to throw away a proven lead, just because you got a crush on an extraordinary criminal.”

“They recognized me!” 

“And you know this how?”

“Because of the fact they started screaming at me as soon as they heard my name?” Marius suggested with a shrug.

“Have you considered the fact they started screaming because you were being annoying?” Tim commented. He’d started running a hand through Jonny’s hair, watching the argument with an expression of contentment. Most of the others seemed to be doing the same, though they ranged in mood from amusement, to concern, to utter and complete confusion. Most of the confusion seemed to belong to Nastya at the moment.

“Fuck off.” Marius snarled at him. Tim shrugged and leaned back onto the wall.

“That is kind of fair though?” Raphaella popped in. her eyes were darting between people, trying to keep up with what was happening to the best of her ability. “You do purposely try to piss people off most of the time, Marius.” 

“Okay- it wasn’t just the fact they started screaming and stuff. I also…” Marius trailed off, scrunching his eyebrows as he tried to find the right word. “It just felt like I knew them? I didn’t realize it until later, but there was definitely something familiar about them. I’ve only talked to them a bit… but it just feels natural? Like they’ve always been there?”

He hadn’t actually admitted that to himself, but the feeling had solidified after his second talk with them. Their smile, their anger… getting yelled at by them just felt like an old routine. He wanted to bathe in that feeling of familiarity. He could read their body language like it was his first tongue, the way he could always tell the crew’s mood based on how they slumped their shoulders or how much they fidgeted.

Jonny took a swig out of a bottle of wine he’d somehow produced when Marius wasn’t looking. “Spooky.” he burped. Marius glared at him, but didn’t respond.

“So you just had a feeling that you knew them.” Raphaella asked.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

She rubbed her chin, looking off into space. “Strange. I wonder…” she trailed off, muttering to herself about something or other. Ivy stepped in front of her, addressing Marius once again.

“Look, even if you had a decent reason for following up on them, you still should have at least communicated better that you weren’t going to help, instead of leaving the note at the rendezvous point.” She huffed. “At that point I couldn't even turn back, and then I ended up getting caught without you distracting the guards.”

“Yeah, about the whole getting caught thing,” Marius piped back in. “You got caught? How?”

“Yes, I did, but Anderson was his usual pushover self and just gave me a new assignment to work on.” she remarked. “Not much to worry about there.” 

“Okay…” Marius wasn’t sure that was a good sign, that she’d gotten off scot free. Anderson was a pushover, but the crew wasn’t completely exempt from punishment, especially not for commiting a B&E. he sighed. “Look, Ivy, I'm sorry for abandoning you on the job. I definitely should have communicated that I wasn't helping better.”

“Probably would’ve been better if you didn’t chicken out in the first place.” Jonny grumbled. Marius rubbed his brow.

“...That’s true, actually.” he begrudgingly admitted. “I should have helped you with the heist anyways, even if I wanted to look over Lyf’s files.”

“Hmmph.” Ivy squinted at him, considering him for a moment, before she sighed. “Ass.” Marius scoffed, and her face softened as she continued with a chuckle. “Apology accepted. You're still an idiot, but at least you're a sincere one.” she leaned on the wall, looking far more relaxed than she had been 5 minutes ago. “Now, tell us about this Lyf of yours? I’m curious.”

“Yeah, me too, actually.” Brian jumped in. “When did you meet them?”

“I am missing so much context for this.” Nastya muttered. Jessica gave her a mechanical pat on the back. A wide grin began to spread across Marius’s face, and he clapped his hands together.

“Well, if you want me to talk about Lyf, I will gladly do so.” he cackled maniacally. Ivy’s face instantly turned into one of regret as he began. “First of all, did I mention their eyes? They’re beautiful, change colors depending on the angle. I could stare into them forever. And they look so cute when their eyebrows do their little thing-”

“Oh god.” Ashes laughed, taking another sip of their coffee.

Tim cackled. “I’m going to get popcorn. This is going to be hilarious” 

It was only when the group was beginning to settle in for the night that Raphaella got to see Ivy again. It was a crime, really, to be denied the right to see her girlfriend for an entire day.

Ivy was sitting on her bunk reading a book, and Rapaellah came up behind her and rested her chin on her head. Ivy wrinkled her nose and looked up, and upon seeing Raph pecked a kiss onto her cheek.

“Hi, Angel,” she greeted her, and Raphaella smiled and sat beside her, looking over her shoulder at the book.

“Anything good?” she asked. Ivy considered for a moment, a small grin on her face.

“It’s a nice love story. Lots of drama, miscommunication, tension. The characters have fun dialogue. Not the best I’ve read, but it's nice.” Raphaella hummed and leaned her head on Ivy’s shoulder.

“What did you do today? Didn’t see you much, with the whole…” Ivy waved her hand vaguely, like she was gesturing to all the events throughout the day. Raphaella smiled.

“One of the colonels managed to pick up a thing of Rosebud bombs during a raid,” She answered. “Wanted me to take a look at them, figure out the chemicals involved. Didn’t take that long to get what they wanted, but I spent a little bit longer running my own experiments. I've got some notes we can look over together later, if you’d like.”

Ivy smiled. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Raphaella gasped, putting a hand to her forehead in mock drama. “You’d be willing to put your book down? For me? Love, you're growing unpredictable.”

“Well, if I don’t keep you on your toes, there’s a 73.46% chance you’ll do some wild experiment to throw me off.” Ivy responded, leaning towards her. “And we can’t have that, can we?”

“No, I guess I’ll have to save my experiments for the lab then.” Raphaella said, sighing and resting her face in her hands.

Putting her book down, Ivy snuggled into Raphaella’s side. Raph noted with a frown how heavily she held herself, stress and exhaustion weighing her down like a weighted blanket. She’d gone to bed the night before, Raphaella remembered, but didn’t stay long. She’d went on her mission around midnight, she knew, and hadn’t been in bed the morning after. They’d both went to bed around ten or so, and if Raph was doing her math correctly, that meant Ivy had only gotten two hours of sleep. Probably her record for the week, but…

“Ivy, maybe actually try and get some sleep tonight? I know the nightmares aren’t pleasant, but at the rate you're going, you’ll pass out from exhaustion before you solve your new case.” Raphaella told her with a sigh, running a hand over the shaved part of Ivy’s head. Ivy wrinkled her nose, but rubbed her face and sighed in defeat.

“I’ll try. Can’t guarantee it’ll work, but I’ll try.”

Raph pressed another kiss to her forehead. “Good. That's all I ask.”

“Raphaella?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you think about this ‘Lyf’ figure?”

Considering her words, Raphaella clicked her tongue. “Marius certainly did seem rather infatuated with them.” She would have to redo her test on the crew’s lung capacity, as it seemed Marius had very much improved since last time. She didn’t know somebody could ramble on for that long. He’d only stopped because Tim had run out of popcorn, Marius’s voice was starting to die, and Brian had started protesting loudly.

“Really?” Ivy deadpanned. “I didn’t notice.”

“Oh, the hour-long monologue didn’t clue you in?”

“It was 73 minutes and 12 seconds long, actually.” Ivy corrected. Raphaella shoved her shoulder.

“Smartass,” she chided. “But I do have to say, if they're even half as wonderful as Marius said, I’d like to get to know them.”

“Same.” Ivy glanced at Raphaella, raising an eyebrow. “You have a plan, don’t you?”

Raphaella smiled. “I wouldn’t be a good friend if I didn’t give a shovel talk.”

“Doesn’t Lyf hate him right now?”

“Well, that’s something for me to find out for myself.” she grinned, and Ivy laughed. “Now, love, go to bed.”

“fine.”

Chapter Text

When Lyf heard footsteps, they instantly recognized the sound of Marius’ boots trudging down the hall. They sighed, putting the box of cookies they’d been staring at aside, and sat up on the cot to watch as the door opened. It swung open, revealing the grinning face of the bastard himself.

“von Raum.” They greeted him, tapping their fingers on the side of their bed. He clapped his hands together.

“Good morning Lyf, and how are you-” he frowned suddenly, glancing to their side. “Wait, why do you have a box of cookies?”

Lyf glanced back at the box, pursing their lips, before looking back at him. “Why do you care?” They deflected, trying to hide their concern.

“First of all, I’m curious as to how you got them. Second of all, I would like to know who gave them to you.” he frowned. “Is this one of your… spooky rainbow power things?”

Lyf decided to ignore the ‘spooky rainbow power things’. “Maybe they’ve always been there.” They stated, crossing their legs and leaning back. So he hadn’t been the one to leave them then, they guessed. The confusion on his face seemed genuine enough.

Marius squinted at them. “Have they always been there, actually? I would think I’d have noticed, but…”

They sighed. Was he really paying that little attention to things? “No, von Raum. They were not there yesterday.”  I'm not sure where they came from myself. Just… appeared there.” They nodded to the small, barred window on the side of the cell, “I thought they may have been from you, even if it didn't seem quite flashy and intrusive enough to be."

“Well, I didn’t leave them there. Any clues as to who did?”

Lyf shrugged,  “You’re far more likely to know than I am,”

Marius frowned. He looked like he had cut his hair since his last visit; the curls were just a tad shorter than they had been before. It didn’t look bad, but Lyf couldn’t understand why anyone would cut their hair so short. Lyf had always assumed he was in mourning, despite the fact he never acted like it.

They hadn’t cut their hair after Yggdrasil. It had felt too real at the time, like it would make them realize what had actually happened. And after that, they’d just needed to be able to braid it again. To hold onto the tradition. They’d always found it strange that people like von Raum, and so many others, would choose to cut it so short. It made it almost impossible to braid.

Not that anyone would be doing that. Lyf wouldn’t touch his hair, and Yggdrassilian hair braiding customs didn’t exist to anyone besides them. Gods, they couldn’t even imagine anyone wanting to braid Marius’s hair, annoying as he was. Him keeping his hair short didn’t change anything.

“...Are you really not questioning where the cookies came from?” Marius asked, raising an eyebrow at Lyf. He was leaning on the bars in his usual fashion now, like he was trying to get as close to Lyf as possible. “I’d consider magic cookies a bit… concerning?” he waved one of his hands in the air.

“I know. That’s why I didn’t eat any.” They responded. “Not going to risk poisoning. Not that it would do that much, of course.” 

Would poison kill Lyf? Maybe? They were more resilient than humans, on top of the chaos in their blood messing with things, but they certainly weren’t immune to everything.

“Right, the whole immortality-” Marius waved his hand around vaguely, seeming to search for the words, “-thing.” he decided after a second.

Lyf picked up one of the cookies from the box and inspected it. “It’s not just the immortality. Most of the things humans consider poisonous were relatively harmless to me. Even-” they cut themself off, the topic of Ragnarok causing them to stop. “Even before I became immortal.”

“...Huh. Interesting. So you could just eat straight poison and be fine?” Lyf wrinkled their nose at the suggestion.

“I don’t think poison can fully kill me anymore, either. I’ve never actually tested that,” Lyf responded. It would also probably taste very, very bad. “Unless you count venom-coated arrows. That certainly wasn’t a nice experience.” Marius grimaced at the sound of the gruesome death, and Lyf raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Sorry, I just don’t like the idea of you dying, personally,”

“Well, get used to it. It happens a lot.” they grumbled, setting the cookie back down with a sigh. “I might just eat the cookies anyway, even if they are poisoned. Dying and coming back does get rid of headaches.” They narrowed their eyes at the specific ‘headache’ lounging on the bars in front of them.

Marius made an “X” with his arms and shook his head. “Nope. No, nuh-uh, no killing yourself to relieve basic ailments. That is a bad idea. Do not touch the poisoned cookies.”

“Well, we don’t know they’re poisoned.” They raised an eyebrow again, “Unless you want to test that?”

“Not particularly, no, I prefer not to eat food that could kill me most of the time.” Marius replied.

Lyf raised an eyebrow at that response, going through the mental list of the several deadly substances they had had to report their Marius for consuming. They didn’t know why anyone would try to eat a tire iron. Or an entire stuffed animal. He paused for a second, rubbing his chin in consideration. “Though sometimes I am tempted.” He broke out into a grin and winked at Lyf. “There’s something alluring about dangerous things, huh darling?”

Lyf tensed, letting out a growl and clenching their fists. “Call me ‘darling’ again, and I am going to reach through those bars and strangle you.” they snapped at him. 

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Marius propped his arm up on the cell wall and shot them with a wink - a weird gesture - again. Lyf spluttered a bit trying to find words, but just ended up shoving their face in their hands.

It was at times like this where Lyf remembered they really, really hated Marius von Raum. And where they really, really hated the fact their cheeks were most definitely darkening in embarrassment. “Shut. Up.”

He gave them a smug grin. “Well, maybe because you asked so nicely.” they glared at him.

“Why are you incapable of being anything but a nuisance?

"I'm not just a nuisance, I'm also a field medic! And the field medic says you're not eating those cookies.” he held up a finger, “I decree it as such! From this day forward, Lyfrassir Edda is not permitted to die. Especially not via a malevolent magic cookie."

“Well, you don’t particularly have to worry about that,” they muttered. Dying via malevolent cookie would probably be better than staying in the prison cell, honestly.

“No dying temporarily, either,” Marius added. “Just no getting hurt in general. Death is not an acceptable headache reliever.” 

“It's an effective one, though. And I seem to have had a persistent headache for the past week or so.” Lyf narrowed their eyes at Marius. His expression changed to one of alarm.

"Oh, wait, are you okay?” he instantly started looking them over, tilting his head and scanning their face. “D’you need an ice pack, or I could probably sneak in some SpIbuprofen-"

“That's-” Lyf took a breath in. SpIbuprofen wouldn’t do anything anyways.“Nevermind. Well, why are you here today? Come to bribe me for the third time this week? Or do you want to threaten to serenade me again?” 

Marius rubbed the back of his neck, seeming to consider that. “I mean, I could play the violin-”

“If you pull that thing out, I will throw the box of cookies at you.” They interrupted with a hiss.

He shrugged. “I mean, that’s not much of a deterrent, considering-”

“And I will find a way to lock you out of this room.”

He pouted. “But then I wouldn’t get to see you.”

“That’s the point.” Lyf growled. “So don’t pull out that violin. Ever.”

Marius rubbed his chin. It seemed to be what he did every time he was thinking. “Hmm, annoy you with music but get kicked out again, or annoy you normally and get to stay. Tough decision. Why do you even hate music so much?”

Lyf took a breath in. “I don’t hate music. I quite like it, as a matter of fact. Violins?” they shuddered. “No. Just- Just no.”

Marius looked at them strangely. “Alright, then. No violins allowed! Not that I could really bring it in here, anyways.” he looked around, as though searching for somewhere to hide a violin. Lyf relaxed slightly at the statement. It seemed that this Marius von Raum was lacking in the weird abilities that made him able to summon those blasted instruments.

“But, I was able to sneak something else in!” Marius proclaimed, reaching into his pocket.

“More food? Really?”

“Nope!” Marius said with a grin, pulling out a small box about the size of his palm. “Something better,” He displayed the small box to Lyf, doing jazz hands. “Playing cards!”

Lyf raised their eyebrows. “Playing cards.” Marius seemed ridiculously proud of himself for producing the box.

“Well, I was going to bring some hot cocoa in, but Colonel Anderson started standing outside the barracks and taking away any ‘contraband’. And we’re not allowed to have food. Also, I may have spilled it…” he trailed off, before blinking and waving the cards in the air. “But, we make do with what we have! So, playing cards.”

“Right,” Lyf sighed. “And I’m assuming you want to take a gamble? If you win a game, you get a question, or something like that? Because I’m not answering anything else. As much as you try to bribe me, it’s not happening.” They folded their arms and leaned back on the cot. Answering two questions was already embarrassing enough, really. 30 years of silence and they broke their streak to von Raum? Twice?

“I don’t need a bet. There’s no chance I’d lose, so it wouldn’t be fair.” Marius proclaimed smugly. Lyf snorted.

“Oh really? And how much cheating is involved in your ‘winning’?”

“Only enough to get me there.” He responded.

“Right.” Couldn’t expect an alternate-space-pirate to play fairly. Couldn’t expect anything from a version of Marius von Raum. Lyf rose from the cot with a sigh, coming up to the bars and holding their hand out for the deck of cards. Marius stared at their hand, confused for a second, before hesitantly placing his hand in theirs.

“The cards, von Raum.” they said, pulling back their hand with a growl. 

“Oh,” he blinked, taking his hand back quickly. “Wait- sorry, didn’t want to-”

“Just give me the cards.” they grumbled. He handed over the deck of cards, and they sat down on the floor of the cell. After a second, they gestured for Marius to do the same. He plopped down in front of them, and Lyf took the cards out and began to shuffle them.

“You’ll actually play with me?” Marius asked. Lyf glanced up at him through their eyelashes.

“Yes, but we’re playing a game you don’t know, so I’ll know you're not cheating.” they commented, laying out the cards in front of them.

“Seems I’m growing on you then?” he leaned forwards, resting his cheeks on his hands like a child. Lyf gave him a look. 

“I am in a jail cell. I am taking any distraction I can get. Don’t take it to heart, you’re still the most annoying person I’ve ever met. You just happen to be the only person I can talk to.”

“Glad I can help in keeping you sane then!”

“Bold of you to assume I am sane.” They commented idly, setting down the deck of cards as they finished setting up the game.

Marius furrowed his brow. “You seem pretty sane to me.” Lyf chuckled as they picked up their deck, looking back up at him.

“I gave up on keeping my mind intact a long time ago. The only thing I can really hope for is to stay functional, and I haven't been doing the best job with that, either.”

“Sanity is overrated. So is functionality. I’ve never been sane or functional once in my life, and I’m doing perfectly fine!” Marius spread his hands. Lyf raised an eyebrow.

“Right. Maybe don’t use yourself as an example for what a ‘fine’ person is supposed to be?”

“Are you saying I’m not fine?” he wiggled his eyebrows in a strange manner. Lyf frowned.

“If you were fine mentally, you wouldn’t be willing to have a conversation with me.” Marius’ face fell slightly. Was he expecting something? Looking for reassurance he wasn’t going insane or something? He would have to look elsewhere then. Lyf had stopped keeping track of what was real and what wasn’t long ago. They were only mostly sure they didn’t die in the Bifrost.

Honestly, knowing their luck, they’d crashed and died in a ditch somewhere on some alien planet and this was Hel. It would explain why Marius was here. As punishment for leaving their world to die, they got to spend another 8 years stuck with him. And this time, they couldn’t just quit their job to get away. Great.

“If I have to be insane for us to talk, so be it.” Marius recovered, picking up his own deck with a small smile. “They can start calling me Mad Marius and stick me in the loony bin if that’s what it takes to see you.”

Lyf scoffed at him. “If you got put in an asylum, you wouldn’t be anywhere near me. Actually, maybe you should go insane, just so I won’t have to deal with you.”

“I’d fight my way out of there. Nowhere in the universe can keep me long.”

“Yes, I’m well aware. Trust me,” Lyf propped their head up on their chin. Marius raised an eyebrow, warm amber sunlight lighting up his face. It shone off the soft curls in his hair, partially covered by his hat. They cleared their throat. “Now, are we going to play cards or not?”

“You haven’t told me what game we’re playing.”

“Right.”

The rules of the game were relatively simple. Lyf hadn’t played it much, though their coworkers back on Midgard had been fond of setting up games during their break. They had always preferred going on a walk or getting coffee to the social chatter of the breakroom, but they had joined in a few games on occasion. 

They weren’t the best at it, nor the best teacher, but they managed to explain the basics to Marius. They had to pause a few times, remembering the rules or translating the instructions into English as best they could. They weren’t as familiar with human card decks or terms for things, but Marius managed to fill in every time they blanked on the name of a card.

By some miracle, he managed to actually be quiet while they explained, besides the occasional polite question. Even once they started the game, his focus was evident in the furrow of his brows as he stared at the cards. 

Lyf studied him as he did so. They’d never seen him so quiet in their life, this version of him or the one back on Midgard. It seemed without the ability to cheat, he had to actually use his singular brain cell to win. He was doing an alright job at playing the game, unfortunately for Lyf. He’d won two out of the four games they’d played, and was on his way to winning this one as well. 

Marius squished his face into his palm as he plotted his next move. Pursing his lips, he glanced up from his deck at Lyf, noting their staring and giving them a small grin. “Like what you see?”

“If by ‘what I see’ you mean someone who doesn’t have any good cards to play, then yes.” they responded, looking away and back to their own deck.

“Number one trick in playing cards; never reveal you have a good hand.” he proclaimed, laying a queen face up on the pile. Lyf muttered an insult in Yggdrassilian, laying down their own, much worse card.

“Did you just call me a moldy, flea-ridden hamster?” Marius snorted, raising his eyebrow and throwing another card onto the pile. “Don’t think I’ve heard that one before.” Lyf blinked.

“...Yes, actually. How did you know that?” they asked slowly, lowering their deck of cards. Marius frowned.

“You just said it.”

“Yes, in a different language.” 

“Oh, huh.” Marius frowned, rubbing his chin. “Lucky guess, maybe? Cognates? I am very good at guessing.”

Lyf pursed their lips, setting another card down. “Right…”

That was a reasonable explanation. Nobody besides them spoke Yggdrassilian anymore, so there was no reason why he’d be able to understand it. And it did sound fairly close to the English translation. It didn’t take a genius to connect the words together, really. 

“Where did you learn this game, anyways?” Marius asked, glancing between the set cards and his own hand. 

“And why do you want to know?”

Marius shrugged. “I mean, you’ve got to have a lot of fun stories of alien worlds if you’ve been travelling so long. I just wanted to know what sector of the galaxy this one was from.”

Lyf inhaled. “My mother taught me how to play.” they spoke carefully, staring intently at the next card Marius put down. 

“Oh.”

“It was popular on the planet I grew up on. My mother and step-mother used to like to do family game nights with my sister and I when we were young, and it was one my sister liked for a while.” They wrinkled their nose slightly, trying to remember. “I think she mostly liked it because she could convince our mothers to use the traditional gambling rules for it. Not with actual money, of course, but we’d use candy and the like. I think so, at least. It’s been quite a while.”

Had they been allowed to play the gambling version as children? Or had Elvi just taught them how when they got old enough? What candies had she even liked, anyways? They hadn’t thought about their sister in forever, too caught up in the chaos of everything to try and remember. They couldn’t even honor her memory right…

“Wait,” Marius held up his hand, breaking Lyf out of their thoughts. “There are gambling rules?”

“Yes?”

“And you didn’t mention that?”

“We don’t have anything to gamble with,” They pointed out. Marius pointed to the box on their bed.

“We have your mysteriously appearing cookies. We could use those?”

“I thought you were worried those were poisoned?” Lyf asked, tapping a finger on their chin.

Marius seemed to consider for a moment, pursing his lips. “Hmm, maybe not the best idea then? If I’m going out, it’s going to be something much cooler than poison.”

“Yes, and I would prefer you not die at the moment.”

Marius grinned cheekily and rested the side of his head on the bars, eyes shining up at them. “You don’t want me to die? I’m flattered.” Lyf rested their chin on their hand, looking back at him with their best unamused stare.

“Yes, I'd rather not clean up the body.” That would be a hassle, really. They couldn’t even get past the bars to reach him. Something they were thankful for, they’d rather not be any closer than necessary to him. If Marius died in the cell, he’d probably sit in there, stubbornly rotting and stinking up the place until Colonel Anderson came in to investigate the smell. And then Lyf would get another murder added to their record.

And then they would be stuck with no one to talk to for another year, or until The Mechanisms got off their asses and woke up Briar Rose, however they did that. The song had been interrupted by three of the prisoners bickering so much, they hardly could tell what actually happened and what was something Marius had made up for dramatic flair. Apparently, there had been a whole section in one of the songs they had decided to just skip over, for whatever reason. Something about an engineer?

Marius let out a small laugh. “I can promise to you, Schatz, I have no plans of dying anytime soon if I can help it.” he responded, and Lyf felt themself freeze.

“...What did you just call me?” 

“...Your name?” Marius tilted his head. “Lyf?”

“No, you just said-” Lyf fumbled for words, before cutting themselves off by stuffing their face in their hands.

“Are you okay?” Mariu- von Raum. When had Lyf started thinking of him as Marius? He was just an annoyance. He could stay in the last-name-only zone. von Raum leaned closer, hesitantly reaching a hand out towards Lyf. They batted it away.

“Just- do you not realize what you said?” they asked, running a hand through their hair. Some of it came loose from their ponytail, but they weren’t inclined to care at that point. “Did- Did you not hear yourself?!”

They stopped themself, taking a breath in. That-that fucking name. They knew it was some insult, something to mock them. They didn’t know what it meant, but Ma-von Raum had called them it constantly on Midgard. It felt like something was yanking their chest when they heard him say it so softly like that. 

“Lyf?”

von Raum was staring at them, inches in front of their face, the only thing between them the bars of the cell. His hand was still held forward hesitantly, hovering inches above their arm, like he was debating whether to soothe them or not. They pushed themself back, curling in on themself. Tears threatened to overflow, and they blinked hard. 

They hadn’t just imagined it, had they? They couldn’t have. They hadn’t had any hallucinations that they knew of, besides the normal flashes of rainbows in the corners of their eyes, or the sounds of the void singing, or the faces of the people dead in the bifrost burned into the back of their brain- but they hadn’t even had any of those in the last 30 years. Not since they’d gotten put in the cell. 

So it couldn’t have been their imagination. They knew what they heard.

But M-Von Raum hadn’t heard himself say it.

“I-just-just please leave. I-I can’t-” Lyf’s voice was softer when they spoke, and they took a shuddering breath in, trying to calm themself, but their breathing refused to slow. It was just a name, it didn’t matter, they must’ve imagined it anyway, why are they shaking so much-

“-Just go. It’s- I just need- shit-”  The bile rising in their throat made it feel impossible to get the words out, their throat closing.

“Lyf?”

Lyf could barely hear him over the sound of their own breathing and racing thoughts.

“Lyf.” Marius’s face looked almost distorted as Lyf tried to rub their eyes, but their hands were shaking too hard. They took a step back - They were standing now, not sitting, trying to go somewhere - but there was nowhere to go. They were stuck, they couldn’t leave, the thumping of their bifrost-cursed heart in their chest was too loud, and they needed it to shut. Up. The sound was grating against their nerves, and the world was swimming around them, like they were back where reality was tearing and the world was falling apart.

“Lyf, please,” They looked up at Marius, his hand still outstretched towards them. “Hey, you're okay. You're okay. Are you fine if I touch you?” It took a second for their brain to realize he was asking a question, but when they did, they allowed themself to nod slowly. Their throat felt like a hand was closing around it, silencing their words.

They felt Marius gently, hesitantly rest his hands on Lyf’s forearms. They leaned forward, resting their forehead on the bars in front of them. After a second, they registered the feeling of his fingers tapping steadily on their skin. His voice accompanied it, softly counting to the same rhythm. Lyf squeezed their eyes shut, trying to focus on the steady tap, tap, tap and the quietly spoken numbers, trying to ignore their rushing thoughts and tightening chest.

“-22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27- Lyf, can you try and breathe to the counting?” They gave another small nod, and he continued counting. Their breath caught, but they tried to inhale steadily as they focused on Marius’ faint voice. “-28, 29, 30, 31-”

He’d called them Schatz. Schatz. The same stupid name that von Raum had called them on Midgard. They’d nearly forgotten about it, such a small thing as it was.

It was just a name. A name that for some reason made them start shaking and crying like a child. They didn’t even know what it meant, but just hearing it brought them back, back to when they’d had the stupid idea they could help people, back when they’d had a life and there were people they cared about, and the places they knew, the world they’d been raised on-

“Stay in the present.”

Had they just hallucinated him saying it? Their grip on reality was loose most days, and why would Marius know that nickname? It’d just been a second. Had they misheard? Were they finally losing it, the Bifrost dragging them into insanity as well? There were so many normal reasons why he’d know it, a thousand possible reasonable explanations, but the only thing they could think was that it was the same. Nothing had changed, they were in the prison cell, but they were outside of it and back on Midgard, and the world was going to end all over again and leave them alone-

“Tell me something you see?”

Lyf’s breathing had been accelerating again, gaining speed with their heart rate, and they swallowed down the bile in their throat. They pried their eyes open, forehead still resting on the bars, only to see the concrete of the cell ground. “The floor.” Their voice was hoarse and weak.

“Something else?”

Lyf’s hair was falling down around their face, coming loose from them clutching their head. It had been black once upon a time, they remembered. Or brown. Dark brown? Stress from school and work had piled up and given them a bright white streak through it, despite their young age. They’d tried dyeing it back to its natural color, but they’d given up after a while.

It looks like streaks of starlight, Schatz. Gives it character.

“My hair,” their voice cracked, and they shut their eyes. They could feel the tears streaming down their cheeks now.

After Ragnarok, the white streak had turned holographic, dyed with faint, shifting rainbows. The white had spread across the rest of their hair, until there was no black (brown? Dark brown?) left. Every night they spent on that refugee planet, they’d stare at the colored strands, trying to convince themself that they weren’t changing, the dreams weren’t real. They’d refused to touch the black box then. Only a little bit after their hair had fully changed was when they finally took it out again.

And then they didn’t have the option of staying on that planet.

“Stay in the present. Something else you can see?”

Lyf opened their eyes again, searching for something else they could see. The world was still blurry, distorted, like a fish-eye lens.

“The bars.” They managed to get out.

“Okay, you're doing great, darling. You can get through this. You’re okay, you’re okay. Take in another deep breath for me?” Lyf obliged with Marius’s instructions, inhaling deeply. He was still tapping on their arm in a steady rhythm, and they tried to sync their breaths to it again.

“Alright. Can you tell me something you hear?”

“You.” They responded immediately.

“Okay, two more things?”

They shut their eyes again, straining their ears to try and pick up on more sounds. The cell was mostly quiet, but faintly outside they could hear the sounds of drills being run and commands shouted. “The soldiers.” The words were slightly steadier now, but Lyf still had to choke them out, past the tightness in their chest and neck.

“One more?”

Marius kept on tapping their arm steadily. It was quiet, but… “Tapping.”

“Fantastic, love. Can you tell me something you feel now?”

Their hands were wrapped around their chest, fingernails digging into the skin of their arms. Lyf loosened their grasp, but they could already feel the crescent marks left. “My skin.”

“Two more?”

Their forehead was still pressed against the cold metal of the bars of the cell. “The bars, and…” Marius was still holding them as best he could while they were in the cell. His hands were warm and gentle. “... And you.”

“Okay, good. Breathe?”

Tilting their head back up, Lyf saw Marius’s face, still mere inches in front of them. His eyebrows were knit together, but he took in a deep breath, motioning with his hand the in-and-out motion. Lyf followed his example, inhaling deeply before letting it out slowly. He motioned for them to do it again, and they mirrored him.

For a minute, the only sounds were the two of them breathing deeply together. Slowly, Lyf’s heart rate and shaking began to become steady. Marius continued to guide them through breathing deeply, and the rushing in their brain began to fade away.

…That name. Lyf didn’t know what it meant, or where their Marius had heard it first, but this Marius knew it as well.

It was just a name. Just a name that von Raum had called them. Just a name that this weird alternate-Marius had called them, too.

They didn’t need to think about what it meant. Or why they both knew it. This wasn’t the same Marius who’d left them to die. They knew that. This Marius had never set foot on Yggdrasil, he wasn’t an immortal, murderous bastard, he was just a person. A person who shared the same name, and face, and same annoying personality-

Another deep breath in. This was their situation, they could deal with it. Panicking wasn’t useful to anyone, especially panicking in front of von Raum. They could have their moment later, if they needed it.

Marius was still murmuring reassurances to them, small mutterings they could barely hear. It was like he could tell their awareness was returning. He put a hand on their cheek and gave Lyf a weak smile. “Feel better?”

Lyf nodded wordlessly. Their throat felt dry, like they hadn’t drank water in days. They barely processed the touch from him, the warmth of it overriding their hatred of the man. It felt like an anchor almost, keeping them from spiralling again as they leaned into his hand. Oddly, they noted von Raum’s cheeks flush.

“Yes, actually. I- thank you.” they croaked out. “Sorry,”

“I- Nope. No apologies for that.” He gently brushed some of the loose hair from their face. “Saying sorry is not allowed. What you are going to do is drink some water and eat something. Doctor’s orders.”

Lyf sniffed, though they couldn’t help but give a small smile. “You are not a doctor.”

“And how would you know that, Mx. Edda?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s your whole thing,” they mumbled, wiping their eyes. “‘Marius von Raum, neither a Baron nor a doctor.’ you’re not allowed to be a doctor. Can’t happen.”

“Right, so you're just saying nonsense.” he sighed. “For your information, I do have a bit of medical training. So, though technically not a doctor, I’m enough of one to know what I’m doing. And enough of one to be able to tell you that you need to get something in your stomach.”

“Fine.”

“Good.” Marius’ hand was still on their cheek, thumb resting on their cheekbone. “Maybe eat some of those mysteriously-appearing cookies? Sugar is good for after a panic attack like that, even if they are suspicious. You have a cup and a sink, so get some water, and make sure to drink it. Hydration is important, and-” 

He continued to ramble out medical jargon, taking his hand off their cheek to run it through his hair as he chattered. Lyf blinked, taking a small step back away from the bars. They put a hand on their cheek where he’d held it, making a strange noise as the thought it was von Raum there processed in their mind.

Lyf cleared their throat, and Marius trailed off, looking at them expectantly. “Yes, I’ll do that,” they said, and he relaxed slightly. 

“You better,” he poked them in the chest and they scoffed in response. “No letting yourself feel bad on my watch. Anything else you need? I could probably sneak in a few blankets, get some food that's actually got nutrition…?”

“I’m fine, von Raum.” Lyf said with a sniff, remembering themself. “I’ll be fine in a bit, at least. You can stop your fussing.”

“I will fuss all I like, thank you very much.” he responded, crossing his arms. “Are you sure you don’t need anything?”

They sighed. Their body still felt shaky. If Lyf was being honest, a part of them just wanted someone to sit with them while they calmed themself down. But another part of them knew they couldn’t deal with being around him right now. “Just- space. I just need a bit of space.”

Marius nodded hesitantly. “If you're sure.”

“I am.”

“Alright. But if you don’t eat, I’m bringing my violin next time.” he poked them in the chest again. They sighed.

“If you do, I’m throwing it out the window.” Marius gave them a look. They rubbed their face. “Yes, I’ll eat some of the cookies.”

“Good. Sugar is good. Gets your energy up.” he gave them one last glance over, rubbing his arm slightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Is there a universe where you would ever leave me alone?” Lyf asked in response.

“Nope!”

“I figured. Then yes, you will.”

“Good.”

When Ashes came back to the barracks after a long day of causing mistrust and unrest among the military personnel, it was to the sight of Marius lying flat on the floor, screaming into a pillow.

Of course, they did the reasonable thing and kicked him.

“Ow!” he loudly declared, voice muffled by the pillow. “Who the fuck was that?”

“If you don’t want to get kicked, get out of the walkway,” Ashes said, ignoring the question. Marius looked up at them, squinting.

“Hi, Ashes.”

“Hello, Dumbass-Who-Decided-To-Lay-Down-In-The-Hall,” They put their hands on their hips and stared down at him. “Why are you screaming into a pillow?

Marius rolled onto his back and clutched his face in his hands, letting out a loud groan as he did so. “I am. So fucking gay.”

“Yes, we knew that. The hour-long rant you gave last week about your ‘Lyf’ was a pretty good clue. And the fact you haven’t stopped talking about them and pacing constantly.” Ashes tilted their head at him. “Why specifically are you screaming into a pillow?”

“They have freckles, Ashes,” He mumbled. “Little silver freckles that look like stars on their cheeks.” he reached up his hands, staring past Ashes’ face and at the ceiling. “And they let me touch them. They let me touch their cheek.”

“I still question the fact you have a crush on a convicted murderer who has made it very clear they dislike you.” they commented.

“You cannot be judging me right now.”

“Not judging. Just questioning.”

Marius sighed, letting his hands drop onto his chest. “They actually tolerated my presence today. And they played cards with me.” he frowned. “And then they had a panic attack, which was deeply stressful, and I’m trying to keep myself from running back there, but they said they didn’t want people around and I’m trying to respect that even if I want to give them a hug because boundaries are important but I think I should maybe bring them food or something because eating is important after a panic attack, and the prison food is shit but they had cookies for some reason, and they were very clear they didn’t want me there, and I’m pretty sure if I overwhelmed them they would punch or slash or stab me.”

He took in a deep breath before continuing to ramble, gesturing about. “Which also would be really hot, but that would mean they were mad and I don’t want them to be mad even if it is hot because that would mean they’d feel bad, and I don't want them to feel bad. I want them to feel good and also like me, but also when they yell at me it's really hot and I like it but if they’re mad at me that means they don’t like me. And I want them to like me. Because then I could maybe kiss them, but also I want them to, like, angry-kiss me or something because the little furrowing their eyebrow does is SO CUTE, and when they yell I wish there wasn’t a cell between us so they could slam me against the wall and-”

Ashes sighed and kicked Marius in the ribs, cutting him off from his addled rambling.

“Ow.”

“If I knew you were just going to ramble on about your little crush, I would’ve let you continue screaming into the pillow.” they flipped him over with their foot so he lay face-down on the pillow once again.

“Everyone is so mean to me,” Marius declared dramatically through the pillow. “It’s homophobia. This is a hate crime. I’m being hate-crimed on right now.”

“If I was going to commit a crime, it’d be a lot more exciting than just kicking someone. Something with flair. Like grand arson.”

“Even a serial killer jaywalks,” Marius pointed out smugly.

“Oh yes, such wise words from a man who's having a mental breakdown over freckles.” Ashes wrinkled their nose at him. “Why can’t you just ask them on, like, a coffee date or something?”

“Because they hate me,” Marius responded. “And also are in a jail cell. Also you're the only one of us who's allowed to leave the base.”

“You're right, I am the only one who can leave the base. Because technically, I outrank you.” They mused. “So I can command you to stop having a gay panic in the middle of the hallway.”

“No military official can overpower my ability to be a massive homosexual.”

“You’re right, only a homosexual of greater power could do such a thing.” Ashes said. “Which I happen to also be. So move your ass, gayboy.” They kicked him again. “Go sob in the shower like a normal person.”

“Y’know, maybe I will do that.” Marius raised his head, chin resting on the pillow. Ashes raised their eyebrows.

“I swear, you’ve showered more in the past week than you have in the six months we’ve been here.” They remarked. “Maybe this whole ‘having a big fat crush on a prisoner’ thing isn’t that bad if you're actually taking care of basic personal hygiene now.”

“Glad to know my suffering is benefitting your smell buds.”

“Please just say nose.”

“No. Fuck you.”

Ashes sighed. “Look, hon, are you going to move off of the floor or not?”

“Because you keep asking? No, no I will not. And I will keep talking about Lyf, thank you very much.” he sighed dreamily. “They let me touch them, Ashes. They let me touch their arm. And I got to hold their hand. For like a second, but still. Their hand. And when I touched their cheek, I think they might’ve even leaned into it.”

He kicked his legs like a schoolgirl, shoving his face into the pillow and letting out a delighted, if muffled, scream. Ashes pursed their lips, rubbing their temples. God, he really was pathetic.

“Right. Have fun with that, then. Can you at least scooch so people can walk past?”

Marius sighed, before rolling sideways, out of the walkway, and onto his back once more. He closed his eyes and hummed dreamily. “Their freckles look like tiny crystals on their cheeks. And their hair looks like threads of opal. I bet it's soft, too…” he trailed off, continuing to mutter fantasies to himself.

Ashes gave a half-grunt and continued down the hall, past Marius’ limp form. He continued babbling on, even after they had passed him. Ashes pressed their lips together again and sighed, ignoring his chattering.

At least he’s happy, I guess, they decided as he let out another loud groan and buried his face in his hands. They smiled fondly, letting out a soft laugh before they closed the door and left him to have his crisis in peace.

Chapter Text

Frankly, Brian was having a horrible week.

Of course, that wasn’t particularly surprising. It was very rare that Brian had a good week. But this week seemed out to get him somehow. And it was only going to get worse.

He wasn’t even thinking about Marius’s and Ivy’s whole… situation with the heist. Ivy had begrudgingly forgiven Marius, and out of Brian’s knowledge, had only made one attempt on his life since. Which was honestly an improvement compared to her standard. That may have just been because she was distracted by her weird defense grid assignment, but it was still an improvement.

No, what Brian was thinking about was several other factors. Several, several other factors. Like the weird transmission he’d received a few days ago, or the fact that his dumbass prophetic powers had cheerily informed him someone he knew was dying soon.

It wasn’t like Brian was hiding his ability to see into the future. It just hadn’t ever come up in conversation. That may have been partially helped by him diverting the conversation whenever it veered in that direction, but he couldn’t really be blamed for that. Nobody had ever actually gone up to him and asked “Brian, do you have the ability to see into the future?” so, technically, he wasn’t lying, just… not telling people about it.

It wasn’t like if he told anyone they’d even believe him, or that said prophetic visions were useful in the first place. The thing was, Brian didn’t know what was going to happen. The details were always stupidly blurry. He’d get vague bits of knowledge, maybe an instinct to change something for no discernable reason, some cryptic whispers, but never instructions. It took weeks for him to ever actually interpret anything, and by the time he’d figure it out, it’d be too late.

It had taken him forever to realize that he had them, too. Months of patterns had been ignored, until he’d finally started listening to what his thoughts were whispering. Now he just had the equivalent of a fire alarm that only started beeping once every room inside your home was already filled with smoke, and all that was left was to burn your hand on the doorknob.

But yes, Brian knew someone was going to die soon. And when he said soon, he meant within the week. Which really was not improving his mood. Hell, it might’ve been several people, actually, considering the headaches he’d been getting. Between him and Ivy, the base was going to run out of SpIbuprofen by the end of the week. Marius had even begun sneaking some as well, though Brian was pretty sure those were for his “Lyf”.

Brian had no clue how to feel about this “Lyf” figure honestly. He’d probably be less concerned about it if he hadn’t gotten that weird-ass radio signal the same day Marius had told the crew about them. He’d barely heard half of it, but what he had heard had been… disconcerting, to say the least.

It had sounded like Marius, whoever was on the other end had said they were Marius, and they’d rambled on about Lyf the exact way Marius had. Brian had assumed it was a prank at first, just him deciding to make Brian’s day a little bit more confusing. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had hacked into the comms to mess with him, after all.

What had made him realize it wasn’t a prank was apparently Marius had either been talking with that prisoner, or riding around in the woods all day, neither of which gave him access to a radio. Also, the signal had come from space, according to the read-out. If that had been from Marius, Brian had no clue how he’d managed to get the transmission to read from there.

His current theory was that it was just some random with a radio who somehow knew who Marius and Lyf were, and decided to fuck with him. Or it was Marius, after all, and he’d just somehow gotten his hands on a portable radio that Nastya or Ivy had messed with, or something.

Whatever had happened, it was weird. Brian had meant to ask Marius about it, after his whole monologue about how wonderful and hot this Lyfrassir Edda was, or at any time afterwards. Unfortunately, buckets of water happened.

He had no clue who had decided to leave a metal bucket of water on a window sill or on top of a roof or whatever, but he was going to have words with them. Maybe even smack them with his crutches. Just enough to get it through their head that leaving buckets of water where they could easily fall and give people concussions was horrible.

Apparently, on top of that, his joints decided they hated him as well. More so than usual, at least. So not only did he get a concussion, he was stuck in physical therapy until he could move his knees again. Hooray for his miraculous, never-before-seen, untreatable joint disability.

Omens of doom, mysterious radio signals, a concussion, and his weird joint bullshit acting up again. All in all, not a great week for Brian. But after he finally, finally managed to get out of the base’s hospital, he decided to actually ask Marius about the transmission. Couldn’t hurt to try, at least?

Marius seemed to be in either two locations at any given time; “chatting with” (probably more accurately described as harassing, honestly) Lyf, or moping/fantasizing about Lyf. To Brian’s complete and utter surprise, he was doing the ladder. At least, by the despondent look on his face, he was. Though, that may have been caused by the fact he was dripping water onto the floor, vigorously drying himself off with a towel.

“Did you get hit by a bucket of water, too?” Brian asked when he saw Marius’s sopping wet form. He paused from scrubbing his hair with a towel when he heard Brian’s voice, eyes widening slightly. His uniform and hair were half-drenched in water, staining the fabric and making his hair limp.

“Oh, Brian, you're out of the hospital. Sorry, I was going to visit, but I…” He hesitated as he tried to come up with an excuse. Brian raised an eyebrow at him.

“You were distracted by failing at seducing a criminal?” He asked, plopping down on the bed across from where Marius was sitting. He set his forearm crutches down on the mattress beside him. Marius sighed, dropping the towel into his lap.

“Maybe,”

“I’d ask why you're so obsessed with them, but you’ve already made your reasons very clear.” Brian said. If he had to listen to another one of Marius’s rambles-

“I’d be happy to repeat them. I actually have many things to add on as well-” Marius began in a sing-song tone, but Brian immediately cut him off.

“No offense, Marius, but I absolutely do not want to hear about Lyf.” He said drily, and Marius pouted. He looked remarkably like a wet cat, with his hair mussed up from the towel. “I have heard enough about your Lyf for several lifetimes, thank you very much.” Brian didn’t know how one man could be this obnoxiously in love with someone.

“My Lyf…” Marius mumbled to himself. He had to be playing this up for comedy, right? There was no way he was acting this pathetic naturally.

“Look, I had a question.” Brian redirected, giving Marius a hard look.

“About Lyf?”

Brian rubbed his face with his hands. “No.”

“Aw.” Marius visibly deflated at that. Did he think about anything other than Lyf at this point? Brian had never seen him obsess over anything like this. Well, gay people were just kind of like that sometimes. Brian couldn’t really be judging.

“No, I was wondering if you’ve messed with any radios at all recently?” he asked, changing the topic. Marius squinted, trying to remember.

“I don’t think so…? Why?” Brian felt his shoulders sag in slight relief. So it hadn’t been Marius, then. That still meant there was a mystery there, but he could worry about that later. At the very least, he wasn’t going crazy.

“No reason, just a weird transmission I got a few days ago. Nothing…” he took a deep breath in. “Nothing to worry about.” he tried to give a reassuring smile, but judging by Marius’s expression, it wasn’t very effective.

“Okay?” Marius questioned. Brian shot him two thumbs up to try and console him further, which just made him look more concerned. He tousled his hair with the towel a bit more, trying to squeeze out the water, wrinkling his nose. “You don’t seem the most relaxed about it yourself, honestly.”

“Has anyone been relaxed lately?” Brian deflected, folding his arms. Relaxed was certainly a feeling Brian had little experience with. “I mean, you with your whole thing, and Ivy-”

“Excuse you, I am very relaxed.” Scoffed Marius, like a liar. “I am the most relaxed I’ve ever been.”

Brian stared at Marius, who was sopping wet, back slouched, typical dark circles under his eyes. His hands were gripping the towel tightly, evidently trying to keep from shaking, and his eyes looked hazy. “Sure. Relaxed.”

“Well-” Marius cut himself off with a sigh, pursing his lips, before folding the towel up on his lap. He gestured vaguely at the floor. “Well, I’ve been thinking about some things-”

“Shockingly.” Brian muttered. Marius scowled at him, and Brian raised his eyebrows innocently in return. 

“Yes, shockingly, just like you will be shocked when I steal my taser back from Anderson.” Marius said, waggling his finger at Brian. 

“Oh, no, the horrors.” He deadpanned, doing the most unenthusiastic jazz hands he could muster. “Guess I’ll have to go back to the hospital. And I just got out of there, woe is me. Cursed to be bedridden because my asshole crewmates keep tasing me.”

Marius squinted. “Okay, maybe no tasing then. I prefer you actually be able to move. At least, most of the time.”

“I doubt you’ll keep that promise. Anyway, as you were saying?”

“Right,” Marius took another breath in. “I’ve been thinking, and I really don’t like the fact that Lyf is in that prison cell.”

Brian groaned. Really? “And, here we go again…” Marius held up his hands in defense.

“Look, I know I’ve been talking about this a lot, but I do actually have a reason why everyone should care.”

“Marius…” Brian cut himself off with a sigh. “Look, as much as I don’t like it, we’re not just going to break someone out of prison because you think they’re pretty or something. I already don’t like the fact that you’ve been talking with them so much. They obviously don’t like you, and you said they’re in a jail cell for a reason. I don’t trust them.”

Marius let out a snort. “Oh no, they’re a criminal. What a tragedy.” He shot Brian a glare. “If not for whatever batshit logic is going through White’s brain, we’d be in the exact same position as them right now. Even you, Mister ‘let’s try diplomacy instead of violence’, would be locked up.”

Brian let his shoulders sag slightly, pressing his lips together in a thin line. Marius had a point, there. Brian didn’t like the violent tendencies of the crew, but he knew it was just a fact of them. Even in the hours after he had woken up for what felt like the first time, he hadn’t had any anger or horror during the confrontation that followed, or the threats traded between the crew and the soldiers. A small amount of annoyance at them for being so impulsive, maybe, but he’d stood and watched Raphaella fire her gun into the soldier’s leg without as much as a flinch.

“I know.” Brian responded, and Marius’s eyes softened. “And I don’t care… if they’re a murderer, or a criminal, or an enemy,” He gave him a hard look. “That much.” at the jab, Marius frowned. “But what I am worried about is you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Marius insisted. “Even if they were dangerous, I can handle myself.”

“No offense, Marius, you have a tendency to act like an idiot,” Brian said flatly, and Marius’s face turned back into an exasperated glare. “Especially when you’re being controlled by your emotions.”

“I feel so loved.” He muttered.

“I said you act like an idiot, not that you are one,” Brian corrected. “And deciding to free someone who very much doesn’t like you, and is known to be violent, is definitely an idiotic move.”

If Marius got injured, or worse, killed, because he decided to fuck around and find out with this Lyf person- Brian wasn’t going to let himself think about that. If anyone in the crew got hurt…

“Okay, that is fair,” Marius conceded. “But… I don’t think they want to hurt anyone. They don’t seem to like the idea of violence, they just seem… detached from it, the way we are.”

“That doesn’t erase the fact that they are capable of violence and hate you.” Brian pointed out. “For all you know, as soon as you let them out of that cell, they’ll strangle you.”

“They’ve only threatened to do that maybe five times. Wait, actually, six. Or was it seven?”

“Marius.” Brian said, giving him a hard look. 

“Alright, I see your point.” Marius said with a sigh. “But… I don’t know. Even if they say they hate me, or yell at me, they seem to… trust me? At least subconsciously.”

“Trust you.” Brian echoed. 

“It sounds stupid, I know,” Marius admitted. “But they actually answered some of my questions, they played cards with me, and I could swear I’ve seen them smile a few times.”

“Have you considered the fact that you are biased both due to your gayness, and also they are probably suffering from extreme social isolation?” Brian asked, exasperated. “I doubt them playing cards with you was caused by anything other than boredom. It isn’t like there’s anyone else they can talk to.”

Marius sniffed. “My gayness is unrelated to this.”

“Buddy, we are having a conversation about your hopeless gay crush. It has everything to do with this.”

“Hmm.”

“Also, another thing,” Brian continued. “Let’s say you do free this Lyf, and they don’t immediately attack you and hightail it out of here. What would we do then?” he tilted his head at Marius, who frowned, considering the question. “I know you wouldn’t let them leave by themself, and you aren’t fucking off without the rest of us coming with you. So, what, do we just ride off into the sunset? Leave the base behind?”

“I mean, yeah?” Marius responded, scratching the back of his head with his hand. “It’s not like any of us actually care about this place. White and Anderson keep saying they’re trying to investigate the whole ‘spooky amnesia’ thing, but literally all they’ve done is make it so we can’t. None of us are happy, and honestly, we don’t have any reason to stick around at this point.”

He had a point, Brian would admit. The base wasn’t doing anything except being an inconvenience. “Okay, fair. But there are several things you also need to think about.”

“Oh yeah? Please, do tell.”

“First of all, we legally don’t exist. Second of all, we have nowhere to go.” He counted out the reasons on his fingers.

“Nastya and Ivy could easily make fake identities, and who says we have to go anywhere? We could just wander, living as pirates in open space.” Marius leaned back as he spoke. “Steal a spaceship, have some fun, adventure, violence, and maybe some more violence. Lyf said they don’t have anywhere to go, so we could bring them with us. Maybe I could make up for whatever I did before the amnesia.”

“And abandon the hope that we could find answers?”

“Lyf could just tell us who we were!” He threw his hands in the air. “We don’t need to find a cure or anything!”

“Once again, they have no reason to help us. And we have no clue how much they know, anyway. For all you know, you could’ve just cut them in line at a restaurant or something, and that’s why they hate you.”

Marius grumbled a bit, but let his shoulders droop in defeat. “I wouldn’t do that,” he sighed. “Okay, maybe so, but I still am not leaving them in that prison cell. They’ve been in there for thirty years, Brian. They shouldn’t have had to be in there at all.”

“Well, I’m saying it’s a stupid idea to free a prisoner, and one you have barely thought out at that. If you can come up with something other than just ‘free them then fuck off into space or something’, then maybe we’ll talk.”

Marius scowled. “Fine. But I'm holding you to that. If I find a way we can grab Lyf and get off-planet, you're going to listen.”

“Do I ever have the option to not listen to you?” Brian grumbled. Marius gave him a look, and he sighed. “Alright, fine. If you can come up with some reasonable plan that isn’t going to put everyone in danger, I’ll listen and support you on it. Okay?”

Relaxing a bit, Marius gave a sigh. “I guess that’s good enough.” 

“I am still going to say that you are being absolutely insane over this random prisoner, though.”

“And I’ll continue to be insane over them for as long as I live.” Marius proclaimed promptly, folding his arms. “And just so you know, this is a matter of if, not when. I’m going to free them. I just… need a plan first.” He stared Brian down, daring him to argue anymore, and the ladder simply sighed in response.

“Didn’t doubt that for a second.”

Ivy was still slumped over her desk, scanning the files, when Raphaella left that night. Ivy barely noticed her, too absorbed in the paperwork and the files open on the small desk. Raphaella paused for a second before she gave her a kiss on the cheek, deciding to leave her to her work. If she was still up when she got back, she’d tell her to go to bed. For now though, she’d let her stay awake a bit longer.

As she kissed her cheek, Ivy looked up at Raphaella with a warm smile. “Going somewhere?”

“I have a bit of an… errand I’d like to take care of.” Raphaella answered hesitantly. She didn’t need to worry her with the specifics right now, but she’d tell her how it went later. “It won’t be that long, most likely. Just a small thing.”

“Hmm. Ominous.” Ivy pressed a light kiss to Raphaella’s lips, and she could feel the smile beneath it. Raphaella was surprised she didn’t question it more, but she seemed preoccupied with the paperwork and files before her. “Stay safe,”

“Don’t worry, love. I have no plans of getting hurt.” Raphaella responded, glancing over her shoulder at the task before her. “Having fun with the research?”

As soon as she asked the question, fire flashed in Ivy’s eyes as she turned back to the papers with a wrinkled nose. “This goddamned defense grid-” she hissed, before cutting herself off with a small growl. “Whatever is powering this, it has basically no paper trail. It’s not any signature I’ve seen before either. It’s unpredictable, it’s insanely powerful, almost 346.93% more so than the energy of any standard power core. Not only that, but my head keeps killing me. It’s almost-” Ivy struggled to find the word.

“Alive?” Raphaella supplied. Ivy tilted her head in consideration.

 “I guess. It certainly does feel that way.” She grumbled, pursing her lips. “At the very least, it’s not anything I’ve seen before.”

“Something new?”

“Yes,” Ivy picked up another piece of paper and glanced over it absently. “It’s challenging, but… interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes, even if… nevermind. It’s a fun thing to consider, while we wait for the document storage to get out of lockdown.”

“Oh, right. Picking that up tomorrow, yeah?”

“Should be. As soon as they reopen it, we’ll swipe it from where I stashed it. There’s a 82.6% chance they won’t find or move it, so we should be good. Until then, research.” Ivy let out a sigh. “Remarkably painful research.”

“I’m sure you’ve got it.” Raphaella gave Ivy a warm smile, and Ivy’s cheeks turned slightly pink as she ran a hand through her hair. Raphaella pressed another kiss to Ivy’s forehead. “No information can escape your watchful eye.”

“I-uh- thank you, love.” Ivy responded. “Good luck with your errand.” Raphaella simply acknowledged her with another smile, before she slipped from the room and out into the hall.

Raphaella’s breath formed small clouds in the night air, the lack of sun making it so the air stung against her skin. She breathed it in deeply, appreciating the feeling of coolness in her lungs with a smile. It helped calm the jitters that were beginning to creep up her hands and into her heart.

It had been easy to find where Lyfrassir Edda was being kept, especially with some help from Nastya. She’d managed to hack into the system and find it for Raphaella easily enough while Ivy was busy, despite her hurriedness. She’d left almost immediately after Raphaella had gotten the information, not giving a reason as to why. She’d been doing that a lot lately; rushing to leave the barracks, never seeming to be there, too exhausted and sore to talk when she was there. It was suspicious, to say the least, but Raphaella had bigger things to worry about.

Marius’s descriptions of Lyf had been… conflicted. He’d monologue on and on about the way their voice sounded, the scrunch in their eyebrows when they were mad, their hair, their face, the slight smiles they gave, their dry sense of humor, all standard crush things. He somehow managed to focus on that instead of the fact they’d apparently done practically nothing but yell at him. 

When Raphaella had tried to ask about what they were doing, why they were yelling at him, if they were threatening him, he’d just stared off dreamily and started mumbling about how he wanted to kiss Lyf. So, she decided to take things into her own hands, both for her own curiosity’s sake, and for Marius’s safety.

Raphaella walked through the building that Lyfrassir Edda was supposedly being kept in, a dusty and disorganized place. Her footsteps were near-deafening compared to the silence. It left her with nothing to quell the racing of her heart in her chest as she approached the door to the cell.

The hinges were quiet as she opened the door and stepped into the room. It was pitch black, and Raphaella frowned, running her hand over the wall for a light switch. After a second, she found one, flipped it on, flooding the room with light.

She heard the yelp of surprise before she actually saw the person in the cell. Standing in the corner, looking like their pacing had just been interrupted, was who Raphaella guessed to be Lyfrassir Edda. They were scowling at her, squinting in the sudden light. They looked roughly how Marius had described them: tall, with brown skin and light, braided hair, shifting with a slight rainbow sheen. Their back was hunched and they held themself coiled tightly like a cat

“Lyfrassir Edda, I presume?” Raphaella asked, crossing her arms and tilting her head to inspect them. They narrowed their eyes and let out a growl.

“Well, fuck me.”

“No, thank you.”  She responded casually, dusting her hands off a bit. “If anyone’s doing that, it’ll be Marius, given how he’s been acting.” Lyf immediately let out a scoff, spluttering a bit at the comment. Raphaella raised an eyebrow at the reaction

“That's not what I- you know what, whatever.” they sighed, plopping themself down on a cot in the corner. They let out a near-manic, tired laugh, running a hand through their hair. “At this point, this might as well happen. Should’ve predicted it, honestly.”

Raphaella raised an eyebrow. Well, their reaction was certainly something to note down. She understood what Marius meant now, of their obvious recognition of him. They didn’t even seem to be trying to hide it. “So you are the infamous Lyfrassir Edda?” 

“I’m infamous now?” Lyf responded, voice hoarse. “I figured I was mostly forgotten about, considering I haven’t been a problem for thirty or so years. Though, considering both you and von Raum have suddenly decided you need to bug me at all given times, I guess I am becoming rather popular.”

“Hey, this is the first time I’m bugging you.” Raphaella waggled her finger at them, giving a grin. “And I have a reason for doing so. Marius has been doing most of the bugging.”

“Yes, it seems the only thing he’s good at is being an annoying little hobgoblin.” They hissed, narrowing their eyes in disdain. “He hasn’t left me alone since he first wandered in here, the rat bastard, because Gods forbid I have a moment of peace.”

“Mhm,” She responded absently, trying to keep an amused grin from spreading across her face. Those were certainly some insults. Lyf refocused themself with a sigh, tilting their head at Raphaella.

“So why are you here then, especially at…” They glanced outside and at the starry sky. “...Whatever time it is. Did you mean to wake me up out of spite or do you just not sleep?”

“You weren’t asleep,” Raphaella pointed out.

“I don’t need to sleep,” Lyf huffed, like a liar. The bags under their eyes were almost cartoonishly deep, honestly. That, combined with their sunken cheekbones and pallid cheeks, did not lend to a very healthy lifestyle. Fair, she supposed, considering they were in a prison cell, though she didn’t get the vibe they had maintained the healthiest habits outside of it, either.

“Really?” Raphaella took a step closer to the bars, leaning forwards to get a better look at Lyfrassir. “Fascinating. Mind telling me more?” Even if they were lying about the sleep thing, their biology interested her. They obviously weren’t human, considering their pointed ears and height. There were a few more subtle differences Raphaella noticed as well, such as the way their body moved, seeming to indicate an extra pair of ribs, the small silver freckles on their cheeks, and what looked to be a few extra teeth in their mouth. Their spine may have been different as well: it looked like it might’ve been built to accommodate a tail.

And that was just the surface-level alien features. Whatever was happening with the rainbows truly was a phenomenon. It hadn’t only affected their hair, by the looks of it, the shading of their skin had been affected as well, probably a signature of unnaturally colored blood. It shifted slightly, just subtle enough to go unnoticed to the untrained eye. Speaking of eyes, theirs were quite colorful too, though she couldn’t quite tell what color they were. If she could see how their insides worked, then maybe…

Raphaella let out a sigh. No, this was Marius’s crush, she wasn’t going to cut them open. Not without explicit, verbal consent first, of course. Actually, they were immortal, and didn’t seem to care for their own well-being! They might actually say yes! She could feel herself wiggling in excitement.

“As interesting as I may seem, I do request you stop staring at me like a cut of fresh meat.” Lyf commented, narrowing their eyes at her in disgust and offense. Blinking, Raphaella snapped back out of her thoughts, frowning in defense

“I wasn’t-”

“Yes, you were.” Lyf cut her off. “Trust me, I know the look.” They pursed their lips as they ended the sentence. Curious. It was a coin flip honestly, of whether that added onto the ‘knew the crew before the amnesia’ theory, or if that just meant they had dealt with a lot of scientists in the past. Anybody with an interest in biology would be ecstatic to get their hands on someone like Lyf, so it wouldn’t be surprising either way. 

Ah, that was shitty then. She’d wanted to make at least a somewhat good first(?) impression, not immediately set off their alarm bells. As curious as she was, this was a person who Marius very adamantly cared for. If they had bad medical experiences, her curiosity towards their uniqueness would probably bring up bad memories.

“Well then, I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.” Raphaella said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. “I am very curious, but trust me, I do not cut people up without consent. Especially not friends of friends.” after a second of consideration, she added: “Unless they’re really terrible.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” Lyfrassir said with a sigh, but they evidently relaxed somewhat. “Well, if you aren’t going to say why you came here-”

“Oh! Right!” She clapped her hands together and pointed them at Lyf, and they blinked. “You’re Lyfrassir Edda.”

“Unfortunately.” they deadpanned, voice filled with enough exhaustion to kill a horse.

“Marius has been talking about you a lot.” She continued, and they blinked slightly, furrowing their brow. 

“Is harassing me really so delightful to him that he wanted more people to join in the game?” They muttered, shifting slightly.

“Oh, he doesn’t know I'm here.” Raphaella supplied matter-of-factly. “I wanted to talk to you myself, see if you actually lived up to his…” ranting, constant stream of consciousness, mind-addled blabbering, gay rambling… “...description.”

“Well, apologies,” Lyf commented, rubbing their face. “I think you’ll find I’m far less entertaining than he seems to believe.”

“Right… entertaining is certainly the word he used.” If Raphaella wasn’t talking to Lyf right now and be feeling nothing, she’d be convinced Lyf had some magic-gayness-aura that had made Marius magically fall head over heels for them. Entertainment had nothing to do with it, this man was full on obsessed. “But that’s not the reason why I’m here.”

“Oh?” Lyf raised an eyebrow.

“You are a prisoner.” She pointed out.

“I wonder what tipped you off?” they muttered, glancing around at the very-obviously-a-prison-cell room.

“Well, you're in that cell for a reason, I presume?” she continued, ignoring the comment.

Lyfrassir sniffed. “I thought you would’ve done your research before you came in here.”

“I did. It was a rhetorical question.” she crossed her arms. “Several counts of justifiable homicide, robbery, and whatever ‘animation of private property’ is, distribution of… hallucinogens?” She counted out the crimes on her fingers, giving them a questioning look on the last one.

“Didn’t know they were hallucinogenic” they replied with a sigh, waving vaguely to their hair and eyes. “I was trying to buy groceries. I can’t really get a job, you know, or at least not easily. Most people question the rainbows.”

“Yes, I’m questioning the rainbows as well.” She rubbed her chin, studying them. “What is with them?” She figured they weren’t a pride celebration, even if that’s what Marius might like to think. Actually, she was wondering about that as well, but she figured that may be a question for a later time. Considering their reaction to Marius, she was guessing yes, but she wasn’t one to assume someone’s sexuality. 

“That is absolutely none of your business, Cognizi.” Lyf snarled, becoming more tense. “I’m not something to be prodded and poked and experimented on.” Raphaella tilted her head at them.

“Not trying to experiment! Like I said, non-consensual experimentation is a no-go in my book. I just have personal reasons for asking.”

“Such as?”

“Marius has been rather interested in you.” Understatement of the year, honestly. “But I don’t trust you.”

“The feeling is mutual.” they muttered. Raphaella blinked. 

“Wait, you're interested in him too?”

“What- no.” They spluttered. Raphaella gave an innocent smile as their brain processed the implication, stuttering like a blue-screened computer. “I’d rather gargle acid than have him come anywhere near me again-”

“I can help with that.” She responded on instinct. It would be interesting to see if they could, at least. It would probably be painful, she couldn’t see why they would actually want to do that, but being able to see how acid would react with the human body- oh wait, they weren’t human. It would be interesting to see how that would react as well, but she’d need a control group. Maybe she could find some soldiers to volunteer…

“That is called a hyperbole.” Lyf said drily, glaring at Raphaella. “What I meant is that I don’t trust you either. No acid.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “That makes more sense, honestly. Very few people actually enjoy gargling acid.”

“Does anybody?” they asked. 

Raphaella lit up. “If you mess with someone’s brain functions enough, they might!” It would take either surgery or a lot of brainwashing to get that right. Like, a lifetime’s worth of brainwashing. Also, you would have to restart the experiment every time you actually got them to drink acid, because for some reason acid killed people. Bad design, in Raphaella’s book. It would’ve been far more effective if you could use it for torture without risk of murder.

“I do hope you haven’t made a hobby of doing that.” Lyf said. She considered it for a moment. It would be fun, but she certainly didn’t have the facilities to do it in the base.

“Not yet…” She muttered, trailing off as considering statistics and supplies.

They sighed. “See, and this is why I don’t trust you. Once again, keep any and all science away from me.”

She smiled cheerily in response. “And I don’t trust you either!”

“Great! Glad we can agree on that!” They threw their hands in the air. “Then we can go our separate ways, and I can be left alone-”

“But Marius does trust you.” she added, and Lyf paused at that, blinking a bit. “And he’s not getting hurt on my watch.”

“He trusts me?” they raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re very mistaken in that regard.”

“I am fairly certain you could tell him to jump off a bridge and he would do a backflip off of it while playing the violin and singing just to see if he could impress you.” She deadpanned. They snorted, bringing a hand over their mouth.

“Gods- that mental image sure is something.” They sighed, though a small smile was playing on their lips. Another point to add to her mental list of notes. They quickly straightened their face out. “He wouldn't do that, of course. Except maybe the violin.” They wrinkled their nose, letting out a growl. “He hasn’t brought that thing out, but I swear, when he does-”

“Right, so, as I was saying, Marius trusts you, but I don’t. “ Raphaella interrupted. “You don’t deny the fact that you're dangerous, and you’ve made it very clear you don’t like Marius. Can you see where I’m going with this?”

Lyfrassir blinked, processing her words with a frown. Their eyes widened as they realized what she was implying, and they let out a disbelieving scoff. “Are you implying I would hurt von Raum?” they seemed genuinely caught off guard by that. “Why would you-”

“Over the course of our little chat, you’ve done nothing but complain about him, you seem convinced he’s only visiting you to annoy you, and you said you’d rather gargle acid than talk with him.” She listed the reasons out on her fingers, shooting Lyf a glare, though it didn’t have much of a burn behind it. “He has also mentioned that you’ve threatened to strangle him on multiple occasions, and I have no doubt you are capable of hurting him. So, forgive me for being a bit protective of him, but I don’t feel it would be out of the question that you’d decide to take him out of the picture so he would get out of your hair.” 

Raphaella felt a bit bad throwing the accusation around, but it had been the main reason she’d come. Lyf didn’t seem aggressive in the slightest, besides a standard fair bit of annoyance and snark. First impressions could be deceiving, though, and she wasn’t going to be lax about this. 

However, she was starting to have a handful of suspicions. Nothing concrete. Just a bit of a theory on why Lyf hated Marius so much, was all. It was evident he was right about them knowing him before the amnesia, and probably her as well. They hadn’t seemed surprised to see her, and they’d obviously been lying about getting her name from Marius (she doubted he’d had time to mention the crew in between his bad flirting attempts). It was like how Marius had said: talking to them felt like an old routine.

“So, what, you think I would- I don’t know, hurt him?” They let out a disbelieving laugh. “I’m not- I’m stuck in a prison cell anyway. You don’t need to worry about that.”

“I’m just saying you haven’t been making the greatest impression so far, Lyfrassir.” Raphaella said, taking a step towards the bars. “So I’m here with a general warning.” She casually slipped a knife from her belt and held it up, inspecting it. They blinked at it, taken aback.

“If you hurt Marius in any shape or form, whether that be physically or emotionally-” she gave them a hard look at the last word, and they responded with a flat look.

“I don’t think anything I could say would get through his thick skull enough to hurt him,” Lyf muttered, though Raphaella ignored the comment.

“-If you hurt him at all, I will make your life a living hell.” She hissed. “I don’t care if you're immortal or whatever, I will test out every poison ever conceived on you and record the results, then run the experiment until I’ve figured out all the ways to make you pay if you hurt him. Got it?”

“I wasn’t going to hurt him.” Lyf responded. “I mean, I’d prefer to not have to deal with him on top of being stuck in a prison cell, but I don’t just kill people. He’s an asshole who acts like an overeager puppy, but all I want is this war to end and to get out of here. Alright?”

“Great!” Raphaella said cheerily, slipping her knife away, and clapping her hands together. “If we don’t have to worry about that, that’s wonderful! Now, we can move onto the other thing I wanted to talk about.”

“Okay?” Lyfrassir tried. “What-”

“Marius likes you. A lot. Like, a lot a lot” Raphaella stated. Lyf raised an eyebrow. “As I’ve said, I don’t particularly trust you yet, but you do seem relatively nice. In a fun way!”

“Is there a point to this?”

“I’m getting there.” Raphaella responded. “Now, as Marius’s friend, I have to give you a warning, as well as some tips.”

“You already gave me a warning.” Lyf pointed out.

“That was a warning for what would happen if you hurt him. This is a warning about him.” She stated.

“Trust me, I am well aware of what he is like.” They said dryly, glaring at nothing in particular. Just at the mere thought of him.

“Oh, I bet.” Raphaella said, looking them up and down. “Okay, so, first of all: he will try some big romantic gesture on you. I’m surprised he hasn’t already honestly, but I bet he’s planning something. I mean, he’s probably having a few issues because you're in a prison cell and all, but I can guarantee he’s going to try and bring in a whole picnic dinner or something.” She counted off the reasons on her fingers.

Lyf blinked at her. “I’m sorry?” Their voice came out strangled, but Raphaella continued on without acknowledging it.

“He comes across as pushy, but if you set a boundary, he’ll listen. He-”

“What. The. Hel.” Their face was flushing, showing off the interesting color of their blood. “Are-Are you giving me dating advice?! Why would you ever-” They shoved their face in their hands and let out a muffled scream.

Raphaella gave an innocent hum, smiling idly. It seemed her theory may have been at least partially correct then, judging by their reaction. She still didn’t know Marius’ history with them, but a reaction like that? She’d seen Tim and Jonny act in remarkably similar ways during whatever little spats they had. It was incredibly difficult to find a heterosexual explanation for that.

“He also likes when you play with his hair, he’s allergic to apples, but they’re also his favorite fruit so he tries to eat them constantly-” she added on idly, pretending to ignore Lyfrassir’s crisis. “-He isn’t the biggest on gifts unless they have a lot of emotional value, so typically flowers, chocolates, and the like are a no-go, but if you get him something that’ll last a while he’ll use it constantly. He loves words of affirmation, and he’s fine with being manhandled- loves it, actually-”

“I do not need to know this.” Lyf cried. “Why? Why do you think I need to know this?!” Their tone was bordering on hysterical. Raphaella gave them an innocent smile, hands behind her back, tilting her head at them.

“Do you really need me to explain that to you?”

“Are you suggesting-” They shoved their face into their hands again, words coming out muffled. “No. Nope. You’re just messing with me, aren’t you? There’s absolutely no way. He’s just- just acting like that to piss me off, the asshole. Nothing else.”

“Are you sure?” Raphaella asked innocently.

“Yes. He could drop dead for all I care, the little bastard. Somehow, no matter where I go, he finds some way to annoy me.” they let out a frustrated growl. “Idiot. You can keep your advice to yourself, thank you very much.”

“Alrighty then!” she chirped. “I’m always here if you need it, though.” She gave them a wink, and they let out a loud sigh and rubbed their temples.

“I can guarantee I will not. Why would you even-” they cut themselves off, pursing their lips and taking a breath in. “You know what, I am not going to feed your delusions. There’s nothing I can say that’ll stop you, is there?”

“Nope!”

“Great. Fantastic, even. Three hundred fucking years and I still can’t escape this.”

Raphaella definitely noted that down in the list of mental notes she was keeping about Lyfrassir. She’d take physical notes, but apparently taking notes during a casual conversation made people “uncomfortable” and “feel like they were being judged”. That did somewhat confirm the immortality thing (there was still a chance they were lying about it, but considering it had apparently been put on their official file, she doubted it). 

Lyf let out a deep sigh, and Raphaella tilted her head at them. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you and Marius will figure things out eventually!”

“I don’t need to figure anything out!” They gestured angrily. “He’s just a bastard who keeps bugging me! There is nothing else to it!”

“Really.” Raphaella raised an eyebrow “Well, I’ve gotten all that I need from this conversation, personally. Not sure about you.”

“I didn’t want to be having this conversation in the first place.” Lyf responded drily.

“Then we’ve both gotten everything we need! Well, Lyfrassir Edda, it was fantastic meeting you,” Raphaella continued. “You certainly passed my examination with flying colors.”

“I really hope that pun was not intentional.”

“It was!”

“I hate you.” 

“I’m sure you do.” Raphaella declared, giving them a sly look. “Just like you hate Marius.”

“Why are you saying that like it isn’t true?” They narrowed her eyes at her.

“I’m sure you can figure it out yourself!”

“Great.” They grumbled, rubbing a hand down their face. “Is this the part where you actually leave me alone and let me have some peace and quiet?”

“Hmmm.” Raphaella squinted at Lyf suspiciously. They stared back at her, eyes tired. “Do you promise not to hurt Marius?”

“Like I already told you, I have absolutely no intentions of harming him.” They growled, then paused for a second. “Well, if the opportunity did arise, maybe a single punch wouldn’t hurt…”

“...I may be able to accept that.” Raphaella responded slowly.

“You’d let me punch him in the face?” Lyf scoffed. “Really?”

“My girlfriend threatened him with a gun like a week ago.” She stated. “What I’m worried about is you putting him in actual, life-threatening danger. A knock on the head isn’t going to affect him much.” After a second, she added, “Though don’t hit him too hard.”

“You really don’t care? You came in here specifically to tell me not to hurt him, and then you say I can?”

“I meant mostly emotional damage, and also, you're in a cell. It’s not like you’ll be able to hit him anyways.” she pointed out. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’d thank you for it, anyway.”

“What, would it knock his one brain cell back into place?” They muttered with a soft laugh. Raphaella pursed her lips.

“Not exactly…”

“Great.” They sighed. “Not going to think about what you mean by that, because I’m sure I won’t like it.”

“You won’t!” She responded, glancing over them. “Well, if you’re really not going to cause any problems…”

“Please leave.” They glared at her.

“Hmmm. Fine.” Raphaella gave them one last inspection before turning on her heels and towards the door. Before she left, she turned back to them and gave them a look. “Just be good to Marius, alright?”

“You’ve told me that five times, and I have told you that I do not care about him.” Lyf hissed. Raphaella gave a shrug and a wave, before shutting the door behind her, leaving Lyf alone in the room. She paused as the door closed, closing her eyes and letting out a breath as she considered the conversation.

Lyfrassir Edda. They weren’t how Raphaella had expected in the slightest. She’d accounted for Marius’ description to be inaccurate -and it was, in some ways- but he still had been correct about a handful of things.

They were… well they weren’t nice, certainly, but despite their bluffing, they didn’t seem aggressive. More exhausted than anything. And their reaction to Marius had been… notable, too. Definitely something to talk with Ivy about.

They’d felt familiar to talk to, like Marius had mentioned, as well. “Like it was an old routine.” Even if, as far as she remembered, this was her first time talking to them, they just… there weren’t really words to describe it. It was like she knew nothing about them, but knew everything about them at the same time.

She needed to talk to Ivy about this. There was something going on with Lyfrassir Edda, something important. They were definitely a piece in the weird puzzle of their lives before, and she was going to find exactly where they fit in.

Of course fucking Cognizi was here. 

Honestly, how had Lyf not considered it in the first place? The prisoners had always travelled as a group before, tied at the hip. Of course von Raum wouldn’t be by himself. Alexandria was probably at the base as well, then. Cognizi had mentioned her girlfriend. They’d bet money Alexandria was somewhere in the base, stealing all the books and stabbing anyone who tried to take them back. Maybe the rest of the greater crew they had claimed they were a part of were somewhere as well.

They needed to be careful around her, if she showed up again. She had said she didn’t do non-consensual experimentation, but Lyf had been stuck in enough science labs over the last 300 years to know that barely meant anything. They knew the look of someone dying to figure out what was wrong with them when they saw it. If she tried anything-

They were never escaping this, were they? An alternate von Raum, an alternate Cognizi- probably an alternate Alexandria and alternate versions of all the rest of their band of space pirates too. Their stupid luck landed them right in the middle of this.

They weren’t even going to think about what Cognizi had meant with all that bullshit she’d said. Them? Go on a date with von Raum? That was stupid. They didn’t need all that advice about gifts and love languages and whatnot- Why would they ever need something like that.

von Raum had left them on Yggdrasil to die. That was that. He’d annoyed them for a few years, pretended to care, then left them behind. If he had actually cared, he would have warned them, or tried to help them, or said anything when they got the black box fixed. Instead, he chose to play that blasted violin at them and sing that Gods-damned song. No, if he’d cared, he had had plenty of ways of showing it other than bad pick-up lines and bribery.

They hated him. Even if the Marius they’d been talking to for the last week or so wasn’t him. He was still the same person: same personality, same annoying ass, even if he wasn’t the one who left them. Even if he was just a mortal soldier instead of a murderous bandit who’d made it his life’s goal to piss them off.

He wasn’t who had left Lyf behind, but he was. He was a different person, but he was the same person with the same personality and it was agonizing. Looking at him, talking to him, while he still put on that charade of caring just to bug them was almost painful. 

He kept trying to flatter them, get what he wanted from them, in that same stupid way he’d tried to suck up to them in prison. It was back to bribery, and compliments, and flirting-

It almost worked sometimes, too. His weird… behavior. They’d almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the man too many times. The gifts, too. They hadn’t gotten anything even remotely close to actual food in so many years, and here he was, knowing exactly what to bring them. Extra blankets, food, painkillers for their headaches. Always ready to give  something up for them. 

It was strange, and they had no clue why he was doing it, if not to get information from them. He was strange. Talking to people again, after lifetimes of isolating themself, was strange. He kept insisting on bugging them. They didn’t know why he wanted to talk to them of all people, they were just… them. Why was annoying Lyf so fun for him that he was talking to them so much, talking about them enough that Cognizi had decided to talk to them as well?

Did logic not exist to him? He wasn’t getting anything from talking to Lyf. Did he have some other motivation or something? Was he just bored?

Was the rest of that crew the same way? They barely remembered any of the few details von Raum and the others had shared before- but knowing them, the rest of that group would be the same way. Annoying, violent, and hell-bent on being a problem. Lyf hoped they’d never have to meet the Mechanisms. Not this reality’s, or the ones who had been the crew of the prisoners.

That might be unavoidable at this point, though. If the others followed in Cognizi’s steps, they’d probably have more visits soon. Great. They still didn’t know when the war was ending, when the crew would be freeing the Briar Rose-

Ah. Well there was another problem.

This universe’s Mechanisms were mortal. They didn’t have any sort of ship, they couldn’t go to the base-

Shit. 

They had far more to worry about than Cognizi’s inane ramblings now. If the Mechanisms couldn’t free the Briar Rose, there was no guarantee the war was ending ever, much less before they went insane. They were stuck. Far more stuck than they had been before. Not only could they not leave, they had no clue when they’d get out now.

Worrying about von Raum could wait. They needed to find a way out of the prison cell.

Chapter Text

Ivy was done with this fucking assignment.

It should have been easy. Search through things, ask some questions, calculate a few statistics, find what was powering the damn defense grid. She knew how to do this. Research was easy. Looking through files and books, recording and calculating data, comparing the statistics with known power cores, and figure out what was powering the defense grid. Calculating statistics and reading was her entire thing.

So why wasn’t it working?

She had the skills. She had the resources. She had the numbers, the papers, she had everything she needed. Except none of the links matched up. It wasn’t anything she’d ever seen before. That, and her head, for some reason decided it hated this assignment in particular.

To put it simply: headaches. Mind-splitting, burning, hellish headaches.

Ivy got headaches a lot. Headaches, dizziness, bouts of memory loss, sleepwalking, processing issues, a variety of ways her stupid brain fucked her over. She was just grateful she didn’t seem to be hallucinating yet, because her mind was formally, and royally, fucked up . 

She didn’t tell people about the headaches, of course. There was a 67% chance that would only worry the others unnecessarily. Headaches were normal. Expected, even. She would just grab some painkillers and lie down for a bit, no worries. It still sucked , but it was predictable.

But getting hit with a wave of pain and disorientation every time she even tried to look deeper than surface level into the defense grid? Any time she found some connection, or had a realization, she’d get hit with a wave of pain, and the next second, she’d forgotten it. There was something going on with that, and she didn’t like it. 78.637% of the time while she was trying to get answers, her head would feel like someone had hit it with a sledgehammer. She could barely think at this point. It was driving her mad.

She’d made progress, though. Slow, tedious, and molecular progress, but progress regardless. She wasn’t letting pain keep her from words . Enough progress to find that whatever was powering the core was most definitely not any power core she’d seen before.

346.93% more powerful than the baseline reactor needed to power the defense grid, she’d told Raphaella. As much as Ivy hated spreading misinformation, that hadn’t strictly been the truth. 346.93% was the average amount of energy compared to the baseline. The actual amount of energy it seemed to be distributing was fluctuating at such an inconsistent rate that Ivy was beginning to think Raphaella’s theory that it was alive may have been somewhat true.

It was a mystery. It was a mystery Ivy could’ve figured out easily , but she couldn’t. Because her brain wouldn’t let her, and there were no records of anything like it. She wanted to tear apart the defense grid with her bare hands and find what was powering it herself, since her books weren’t giving her anything.

She clicked open another file on her computer, and another spike of pain shot through her head. She growled and let her head thunk onto the desk. “Raphaella.” She mumbled, voice muffled by the paperwork. “Angel, honey, dearest, love, baby, my darling little pumpkin, my amazing ray of sunshine.”

“Hmm?” Raphaella hummed absently, lying on the ground at the feet of Ivy’s chair. She flipped a page in her own book, leaning on a pillow.

“there is a 73.41% chance someone will be dead by the end of the day.” Ivy stated, clenching her fists.

“Billions of people die every day love, that’s not a statistical anomaly.” She flipped through another page, tilting her head. “Do you mean you’re going to kill someone yourself? Or do you mean someone we know is going to die?”

“By my hand. Only a 21.65% chance it’s someone we know. 78.12% of that chance is that it’s Anderson.”

“Is that more of a chance of him dying than usual?”

“By 38.71%, yes.”

Raphaella lowered her book slowly, resting her head on the leg of Ivy’s desk and looking up at Ivy. “Love.”

“Hmm?” Ivy looked up, folding her arms and resting her head in them. 

“ Please take some SpIbuprofen .” Raphaella begged.

“Already did. Three, actually, so far today.” she held up three fingers and buried her face in her arms again. “This project is either going to kill me or someone else. I do not care which.”

“No dying,” Raphaella chided. “If you die, I won’t have anybody to discuss science with. And then I would be sad.”

“Yes, but this stupid thing won’t stop trying to murder my head.” She rubbed her forehead, strands of hair coming loose from her ponytail. “The chances that this case is cursed rise by .14% every time I open it up. It’s reached 12.18% now. I hate this. I hate it so much.”

“Do Not Worry!” Jessica piped up from the other side of the room, startling Ivy and Raphaella slightly. “I Am Sure Someone Will Be Able To Repair Your Headache!” She had taken to standing and staring at the door into the section of the barracks they were in, seemingly standing guard. Against what, Ivy wasn’t sure, but it was performing its duty diligently nonetheless.

“Not really how that works Jess, but thank you.” Raphaella told her with a chuckle. “Wish we could just repair headaches like that, but unfortunately, we haven’t found a way quite yet.” She wrinkled her nose. “Would unbalance the chemicals a bit too much.”

“I Do Not Know Much About Chemicals!” Jessica agreed. She still hadn’t turned around to face the two. “But That Does Sound Like It Would Cause Some Difficulties!”

“I mean, if I had an actual lab that wasn’t being monitored, I could probably figure it out.” Raphaella muttered to herself. “Would need some test subjects too… and those soldiers at the bar were being pretty annoying…”

“This doesn’t really answer the question of why my brain seems to have rejected the concept of researching anything to do with this assignment.” Ivy said, gesturing to the paperwork, “Because this isn’t anything I have research on. It’s so-”

She ended the sentence by shaking her hands with a sigh, and Raphaella rested a calming hand on her leg. “Maybe take a small break? I know headaches suck, but-”

“It’s not just the headaches.” Ivy corrected, sighing and setting her own hand on Raphaella’s. “I can’t figure anything out. Every time I get something, I just immediately get hit with pain, and then I forget it. It’s just… there’s no reason it should be doing this, but it is. I don’t know.”

Raphaella paused for a second, considering Ivy’s complaints. “...Maybe it’s like a phantom pain of some sort?” She suggested hesitantly. Ivy propped her head up on her fist, giving Raphaella a motion to continue. “Like when you lose a limb. Maybe before we lost our memories you were involved with it in some way, and the fact that you don’t have that knowledge is… hurting, somehow.”

“...Interesting thought.” Ivy considered. “We’ve had experiences with deja vu and such before.”

“Mysterious headaches aren’t a particularly new thing, either.” Raphaella pointed out. “Remember that barfight Jonny got into? Over Jack the Giant Killer? And Marius has started complaining about headaches as well.”

“That’s… that would make a lot of things make more sense, actually.” Ivy leaned back in the chair, running a hand through her hair. “So that means there’s probably something important with this. Which would be really, really good, if not for the pain.”

“Once again, take a break.” Raphaella commanded, pushing herself off of the ground. “We’ll see if we can find some way to get around it later. Tim and Jonny are at the shooting range, maybe you could join them?”

“But my research…” Ivy muttered, trailing off.

“Is trying to drill a hole in your skull.” Raphaella said simply, putting her hands on her hips. “Shooting things will make you feel better. If you don’t take at least five minutes to rest your eyes, I will steal your books.”

Ivy squinted at her. “You wouldn’t dare. ” She hissed, and Raphaella gave her a challenging glare.

“Try me.” she stuck her tongue out at Ivy, who protectively pushed the books away from Raphaella. Nobody, not even Raphaella, was allowed to steal her books.

“Am I interrupting something?” A voice interjected from the hall, and Ivy and Raphaella whipped around. Marius was leaning in the doorway, rattling a bottle of SpIbuprofen , trying to get one of the few remaining pills out. He raised an eyebrow at the two. “Because I can’t tell if this is supposed to be threatening or flirting.”

“Flirting.” Raphaella responded.

“Threatening.” Ivy said at the same time. She turned to Raphaella and glared at her. “Saying you're going to steal my books is not flirting.” Raphaella shrugged and pressed a kiss to Ivy’s forehead. She let out a grumble, but accepted the kiss.

“Well, I say it is. Now, you’re going to get off of this desk and go do something relaxing.” She rested her hands on Ivy’s shoulders, giving her a stern look. “Go shoot something. Or steal some more books from the Colonel!”

Ivy sighed, but got up from the desk and pushed her chair in. She gestured to Marius. “Pass the bottle?” He tossed the container of SpIbuprofen to her, and she caught it with one hand. She rattled the now-empty bottle, raising an eyebrow at Marius. “Really?” 

He shrugged silently, and she threw the bottle at his head. It bounced off of his forehead, and he frowned at her. Ivy let out a deep sigh.“Great. Guess my break will be going ahead and getting some more painkillers, then.” she muttered. “Who the hell has been using all of them up anyways?”

“Uhh, well I’ve started having frequent headaches recently for some reason. Brian’s been complaining about a lot of headaches as well.” he wrinkled his nose, counting people out on his fingers. “I think Nastya’s also been taking a lot? She’s more secretive about it, though, and she’s barely in most of the time. And of course, you’ve been going through a bottle a week as per usual.”

“Hooray for liver disease,” Raphaella said, tone flat and tired, tucking herself under Ivy’s neck and into a hug.

“I thought you were taking the SpIbuprofen to give to your ‘Lyf’?” Ivy commented, wrapping her arms around Raphaella in turn. “That’s what Brian said, at least.”

“I offered, but they said it didn’t help. Something about their biology? Or the immortality thing.” His posture completely changed when Lyf was brought up, straightening out a bit as he ran a hand through his hair. “And then they told me to stop hovering over them, because they were fine. And then they did that adorable little huffing thing they do when they're annoyed, and told me to go away. And then I said that if they were having headaches, I could try and bring them some stronger painkillers if SpIbuprofen doesn't work, and then they said that the only headache they were getting was me, and then I said if it took being a headache for them to have me, so be it, and they threw a piece of soap at me. Again.”

“They’re right, you are a headache.” Ivy responded, giving him a tired look. She felt Raphaella tense up a little bit, but fortunately she didn’t say anything. She’d told Ivy about her conversation with the prisoner and her impression of them. 

Ivy still wasn’t planning on trusting them anytime soon, but Raphaella had expressed doubt of them posing a danger to Marius or anyone else. Specifically, she’d described them as “Ratty, tired, and generally pissy, but probably harmless, and very intriguing,”. She’d also told her theories about what Lyf’s… past relationship … with Marius was. Ivy couldn’t calculate an accurate probability without meeting them herself (primary sources were important!), but she guessed Raphaella’s theory was somewhere in the 8-20% range, depending on several factors.

“Your Lyf seems remarkably fond of throwing things at people.” Raphaella observed idly. Marius’s eyes lit up immediately. Ivy pursed her lips, preparing for the word vomit that was too follow.

“Well, I think that they mostly just throw things at me, but they haven’t been talking to anyone else, so I’m not sure about that. They have a really good throwing arm, though. They nailed me right in the face without even looking the first time we met. It was really- ”

“Yes, Marius, we know, they’re hot when they’re angry.” Ivy cut him off before frowning. “Wait, you mentioned you’ve been getting headaches too? Has it been while you're talking to Lyf?”

Marius wrinkled his nose, thinking. “Not while I’m talking to them. Actually, pretty much every time except then. But I've just kind of been having a minor one constantly. Sometimes it's manageable, sometimes it hurts like hell , but it’s just been in the background for the past week or so.”

“Maybe Lyf is giving you radiation poisoning.” Raphaella suggested quietly.

Marius frowned. “Does radiation poisoning cause headaches?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Huh. Small price to pay, I guess.”

Ivy gave him a pained expression. “Marius, please .”

He held up his hands in defense. “What? It’s not like a little bit of poisoning will kill me .”

“ Yes it will.” Ivy responded, gesturing at him. “ It distinctly will. ” he shrugged.

“Maybe I’m just built different.”

“Being gay does not give you poison or radiation immunity.” Raphaella stressed. “Trust me. I’ve tested it.” 

“Maybe being pan does, then.” 

“0% chance.” Ivy commented.

“Oh, fuck you and your numbers.”

“I’d rather not. Numbers are hard to fuck.”

“Yeah, you’d know that, wouldn’t you?”

“Are you implying I’ve attempted to have sex with math?”

“With the amount of numbers you spew, I think the only person we can say has done that is Raphaella.” Ivy flipped Marius off, while Raphaella cackled, shoving her face into Ivy’s shoulder. Ivy frowned at her, and she tried to stifle her laughter, but a few snorts continued to escape as Ivy sighed.

“Okay, well, number-fucking aside,” Ivy pressed her lips together. “Headaches. You’ve been getting them as well?”

“Yeah?” Marius tried, raising his eyebrows “And to be clear, I have not been experiencing any radiation poisoning symptoms. And even if I was, I’m not going to stop visiting with Lyf.”

“I don’t think I could pry you away from them if I tried,” Ivy responded. “But the fact you’re getting headaches as well is… interesting.”

“Ominous.” Marius stated. “I’d ask, but you’re just going to spew a bunch of numbers and words I won’t understand, so I'm not going to bother.”

“It may be another sign you’re right about Lyf knowing us before the amnesia.” Raphaella muttered, and Marius sighed.

“Are we still gathering evidence for that? It seems pretty obvious that they do to me.” He frowned. “They forget and make a comment on it like three times a conversation. And then get defensive when I point it out and tell me to shut up. And then I say make me, and they-”

“Don’t need to hear about your bad flirting, thanks.” Ivy interrupted. She wasn’t really gathering evidence, either. She trusted Raphaella’s account on it, though she wasn’t telling Marius anything about it yet. “And yes, we can’t really be sure about it without something more solid than your word about them.”

“I mean, I probably could just ask them.” Marius mused, though his tone made it clear it wasn’t really an option. “It’s not like they’d tell me though.” he sighed, running a hand through his hair. 

“I haven’t even told them about the memory loss. I’m not sure why they assumed I was someone else, or haven't commented on the fact we used to know each other, or anything. I think whatever past-me did that rattled them that badly made it so they’re just… trying to ignore it. Or don’t want to tell me out of spite. They did say they had mistaken me for someone else, so maybe they don’t think I’m the same person or something?”

“So you’re just locked in a stalemate of you not telling them you’re an amnesiac, and them not telling you that they know you?” Raphaella asked. “Maybe that’s the reason they don’t like you, you’re choosing to lie to them about this instead of actually telling the truth.

“I’m going to tell them eventually, Raphaella. But…” he gestured vaguely. “if they don't think I’m the same person, or whatever, I can figure out what I did wrong and apologize!”

“Marius. If you told them you were the same person, they could tell you what you did wrong. Your logic on this is stupid.”

“But then they'd hate me again! They wouldn’t let me apologize!”

“Are you implying they don’t hate you right now?”

He pressed his lips together in a thin line. “Well, I’m working on that. ”

“Really.” Ivy asked incredulously. “And how’s tha t working for you?”

“It’s… well-” he struggled for words, pressing his lips together in a thin line. “They still don’t like me, but they seem more… comfortable, in a way? It’s rocky. I don’t want to scare them, or make them uncomfortable, I couldn’t live with myself if I did that-”

“If you don’t want to make them uncomfortable, have you tried to stop flirting with them?” Raphaella muttered, and he scowled at her.

“I- well, I’m careful with the flirting.” Marius declared. “I’m subtle with it.”

“Didn’t you just say you told them ‘if that’s what it takes to be yours’? Because I have to question your definition of subtle .”

“That’s-” His face flushed and he let out a huff. “They’re cute when they’re flustered, alright?”

“Mhm.” Raphaella raised an eyebrow. “Gayass.”

“We’re getting off track.” Ivy jumped in before Marius could respond. “Marius, stop being gay for a minute and focus. So you’ve been getting headaches since you met them, right?”

Marius tilted his head. “I mean, I don’t think the headaches are related, but yes.”

“Great. I’ve been getting headaches since I started on this stupid assignment.” Ivy let out a sigh. Realizing she wasn’t going anywhere for a second, she leaned against the desk, folding her arms.

“You normally get headaches though?” Marius said with a frown.

“ Bad ones.” Ivy stated, wrinkling her nose as she tried to find a word for it. “It feels like… like camera bulbs, flashing in my brain. I can barely think.”

“Yeah… same for me.” Marius said hesitantly.

“But I haven’t been getting them.” Raphaella stated. “You said Lyf knew you? I think that you’re getting phantom pains, of a sort, from the memories. Weird you’re not getting them while you talk to Lyf, and that they aren’t as bad as Ivy’s, though.”

“I Have Not Been Experiencing Headaches Either!” Jessica piped up, and Ivy jumped a little. She’d almost forgotten it had been there, it’d been so silent. The door it was staring at was just around the corner, out of sight, so it was hard to remember she was listening. “Though I Do Not Have A Brain, So That Would Make Sense.” 

Raphaella let out a breath, seemingly rattled by Jessica’s comment as well. “...Right, so there’s probably something connecting Lyf and the defense grid.” She paused a second, before directing a comment to Jessica. “Also, Jess, you’re plenty smart. Don’t listen to whatever bullshit Jonny’s been grumbling.”

“I Only Listen To Jonny If It Is A Command!” Jessica told her back. “I Simply Do Not Have A Brain!” 

“Wish I could say the same thing.” Ivy muttered to herself. “My head hurts enough for the both of us.” Raphaella pushed some hair out of her face, turning to look at Marius.

“The headaches are certainly suspicious, is all I’ll say.”

“...Right,” he responded, frowning at her. “Raph, are you suggesting Lyf knows something about Ivy’s defense grid assignment?”

“Maybe.” She shrugged “I don’t know- they’re connected with the war in some way, right? We know that , that’s why they got captured.”

“Well, they got captured because they’re the only known-of immortal, apparently, besides King Corpse himself.” Marius corrected. “Not that they were involved with the war. Them fighting, though…” His eyes went slightly glazed, a smile playing on his lips.

“Yes, but that does make it very likely they have some connection to Cole.” Ivy said, ignoring his gay fantasizing.

“Does it really? Maybe they were just so wonderful that the universe decided they couldn’t die.” Marius declared. Ivy sighed.

“Not listening to another one of your rambles, Marius.” 

“Aw.” He wilted slightly, and Ivy raised an eyebrow at him. Like that was going to stop him.

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask them about the defense grid, at the very least.” Raphaella suggested. “See if you can get anything.”

“...I could do that. Yeah. I’ll go do that right now!” He lit back up. “Maybe they won’t try and kick me out if I have a reason to be there!”

“And you could get us important information for figuring out about our lives.” Ivy muttered.

“That too.” Marius added quickly.

Raphaella shooed him away. “Go schmooze with your crush, Marius.” His face split into a wide grin, and he shot her a finger gun.

“I will do that!” He proclaimed. “I will definitely do that. No need to tell me twice. Definitely was not waiting for an opportunity the entire conversation to do that.” he slipped back out the doorway, shooting her finger guns all the while, and Raphaella snorted.

“He’s very subtle, isn’t he?” Ivy commented, leaning on Raphaella and resting her head on her shoulder.

“I think that him being overly-direct is better than him being subtle, considering.” Raphaella responded, resting her hand on Ivy’s back.  “I really do pity Lyf for having to deal with him.”

“We have to deal with him too, love.” Ivy mused.

“Yes, but fortunately, the pick-up lines aren’t directed at us.” She frowned. “Usually.”

The pain behind her skull was slightly less strong now, but still present. She’d take a break from her research for now. Maybe Marius would actually find something, after all.

Lyf wasn’t panicking. 

They weren’t panicking in the slightest. They were experiencing perfectly normal emotions that were in no way similar or relating to panic. Minor anxiety was all it was. Nothing else. Just normal, standard, rational nervousness. With a normal, standard, rational amount of pacing and hand wringing.

Raphaella la Cognizi. Not only was Marius von Raum there, so was Cognizi, and probably the rest of their crew as well. The crew that needed to be at the defense grid within the year in order for the war to end. The crew that wasn’t immortal, weren’t pirates, and wouldn’t be able to storm the defense grid.

So there was a chance the war wasn’t ending like Lyf thought. That was fine. That was perfectly fine, they could definitely deal with that. It wasn’t like they didn’t have their powers, or were vulnerable, or were completely stuck where they were.

They were fine. They could find some way out, some way to get away from the war, away from Ariel, and out of the system. They just… needed an opportunity. They could find something, right? They’d been an Inspector, it’d been their whole job. They could find a way out. It wasn’t even a proper prison, the security wasn’t that good. There was no reason for them to be panicking. They weren’t panicking.

Pacing was normal. Anxiety was normal. They were having a rational response. Not panicking. Just taking a moment to consider their options. Options that were looking very, very scarce at the moment. They just had to find something. Some way to get out of the cell, some way off the planet, some way out.

Of course, that was when Marius von fucking Raum himself chose to appear.

“Good morning, Lyf!” He called in a sing-song tone as he entered, and Lyf instantly tensed. They whipped around, stumbling a bit as they were suddenly taken out of their thoughts. Upon seeing it was just Marius, they let out a sigh and ran a hand through their hair.

“von Raum,” They said icily in their standard greeting. They were suddenly aware of how much of a mess they looked. Their hair had started coming out of the lazy ponytail they’d thrown it into from them pacing and running their hands through it so much, and they could feel their hands shaking from exhaustion. Embarrassing, but not the end of the world. If he was the one bugging them, he could deal with their appearance. “Still trying to get more answers?”

“If by ‘getting answers’, you mean spending time with my favorite prisoner, then yes!” He proclaimed. His expression looked strange upon seeing them, tilting his head slightly and inspecting them. They raised their eyebrows at him, and his face quickly melted back into his standard dazzling grin. 

“I’m the only prisoner in the base.” Lyf told him, folding their arms and glaring at him. 

“Well, my favorite person, then!” He corrected himself casually. 

Lyf scoffed. “Stop trying to flatter me, von Raum. It’s not going to work.” Marius’s smile wavered in the slightest, they noted. Was he expecting them to actually enjoy his constant harassment? Really? “Why are you actually here?”

“I just want to talk with you?” He tried. Lyf let out a soft, dry laugh, staring him down.

“I find that highly unlikely. You’re here for something.” They said, pulling their hair out of its ponytail and running a hand through the tangles and frizz. “I don’t know what you’re trying to get from me, but whatever it is, I’m not telling you it. I don’t even know anything about the war, anyway. You soldiers can stop badgering me for information.”

Marius opened his mouth to respond to Lyf, but strangely, didn’t say anything as he stared at them. His face seemed to be turning a remarkable shade of red as well, and they frowned. “What?” he let out a small cough.

“I-uh. Nothing.” He squeaked. “I just… haven’t seen you with your hair down?” Lyf raised an eyebrow. They had to remind themself that the people here didn’t have the same views on hair, so Marius commenting on it wasn’t a weird thing. Still, they couldn’t help the fact it made a blush creep across their cheeks. “Has anyone told you it looks like starlight?” he added, and Oh, that was making the blushing worse. “Because it does. It’s all sparkly and stuff. And looks really soft. And nice, and pretty, and-” 

Lyf made a remarkably undignified noise, which stopped his rambling. They quickly transitioned it into a cough. “I thought that I just told you that flattery wasn’t going to work?” They gave him a harsher glare, and he smiled sweetly. 

“Well, it might not do anything, but you're certainly deserving of all the flattery in the world, darling.” He did that stupid lean against the bars, elbow propped up and looking up at them with a giant grin. “Actually, I was wondering why you were in this cell in the first place…”

They sighed. They let their hands drop from their hair, leaving it loose and falling down their back instead of putting it up. Not for any reason, of course. They hadn’t had their hair down for quite a while, simply for convenience's sake. They preferred it down anyway. “You quite literally have a list of the crimes I’ve committed. You don’t need to ask, you should already know.”

“I’ve figured it must be pick-pocketing,” he continued smugly. They raised an eyebrow. What the Hel was he even talking about? “Because I’m pretty sure you just stole my heart.” 

Lyf gave him an unamused look. Of course. It was this again. They’d spent years dodging every single one of his horrible pick up lines. Now they just had to hear them all over again. “No, it was bank robbery and manslaughter.” They responded drily. “Did you even read the file?”

“I did, and I have to say your picture was very flattering.” He said back smoothly, and Lyf rolled their eyes. This was going to go on for a while, wasn’t it? “Though, I don't think it could ever compare to the real thing.”

“Yes, the cameras don’t tend to capture the strange, shifting, reality-breaking rainbows that well.” They muttered. One of the few things they were thankful for; they’d always hated having their picture taken.

“I think the rainbows are fitting. I mean, you do shine with all the light of the world in my eyes.” Marius replied, still leaning on the bars in that strange position.

“That’s not how colors work.” Lyf said plainly. “I think that just means you have astigmatism.”

“I know I don’t have astigmatism,” Marius declared, seemingly very proud of the fact.”I’m a doctor.”

“You distinctly are not.” They snorted. “And why would being a doctor make it so you can’t get astigmatism?”

He grinned at them. “Well, even if I’m not a doctor, can I take your temperature? Because you are looking hot today.”

“Remarkably hard to take my temperature while I’m in a prison cell.” they shot back.

“Only prison cell here is you, because I’d want to be trapped in your heart forever.”

“Distinctly not true.”

“Well, are you a life sentence, then? Because being with you is worth doing time.”

“Remarkably insensitive of you, considering the present situation.”

“Darling, are you a bank loan? Because you’ve got my interest.”

“I refuse to believe you are allowed inside of a bank.”

“I’d still fall for you in zero gravity.”

“Not how physics works.”

“If you were a drink, you’d be a smoothie, because-”

“I’m colorful and look like I’ve been through a blender?”

“Well, did you just fall out of a vending machine? Because you're a snack!”

“Sorry to say, but your dollar got eaten on that one.”

“Hmmm.” He considered his words briefly, tapping his fingers on his chin. “Are you German? Because I want to be yer-man!”

“I don't know what a German is, von Raum. Is that some kind of mental illness?”

Marius squinted at them playfully, and they raised their eyebrows back. “You're having fun with this, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you're talking about,” They responded, giving him an innocent look. “And your pick-up lines are absolutely horrid, by the way.” What even was his tactic here? Annoy them to death? Because they could deal with a lot worse than this.

He was right, though, the lines were kind of fun to shoot down. Kind of. They were still annoying, but Lyf would’ve been a liar if they said they weren’t trying to hide a smile at his disgruntlement. Stumping him was fun. 

“Thank you!” Marius responded to Lyf cheerily. “I do try.” They rolled their eyes.

“That wasn’t a compliment.” Lyf huffed. “Are you even trying at this point?”

Marius blinked at them, confused. “Trying what?”

“To do your job, maybe?” They gestured at him angrily. Why did they even have to explain this? “How is annoying me with bad pick-up lines doing anything for you?”

“You’re not panicking anymore,” Marius observed with a shrug. Lyf stopped, clamping their jaw shut. What. “About whatever it was you were panicking over. Which means it worked!”

“I- I was not panicking.” They replied. “Why would I be panicking?” The nerve of him. They- well maybe they had been panicking a bit. But really? Distracting them from it? That was…

“Why, indeed?” Marius plopped himself down on the floor of the cell, leaning against the bars. He stared up at Lyf curiously, the picture of an attentive listener. They narrowed their eyes at him, and he simply tilted his head in response.

“Like I just said, I wasn’t.” they snapped, wrapping their arms around themself. “I don’t have any reason to be panicking, I’m fine. As fine as I can be, anyway.” They were trapped in a jail cell, currently, no thanks to Marius von Raum. If he really cared about their panicking, and was so insistent on flattering them, he could free them himself. That would solve their problem.

The defense grid was still most definitely present in their mind, as drowned out as it was by their annoyance at Marius. The war still wasn’t ending anytime soon as far as they knew, with Marius and his crew here. They were still stuck, and the war still was raging on. They needed to find a way to solve both of those problems.

“Lyf… are you actually alright?” he asked in response. Lyf let out a grumble and looked away. “You have been stuck here for a while.”

“No need to remind me, thank you.” They said, “I know that already. And if you’re about to pull some ‘they’ll let you out if you comply,’ I don’t want to hear it.” They weren’t helping any of their captors. They didn’t even have any real information, just the tidbits they remembered from the album, nothing they could use anyway. Their stubbornness may have been keeping them in there, yes, but it meant they weren’t drawing any attention to themself. They could live with that.

“Do you want out?” Marius asked.

Lyf let out a snort. “Obviously,” What kind of a question was that? They hadn’t escaped just because they knew they didn’t have the capabilities to take on an entire base’s worth of soldiers if they failed. Getting forgotten about, waiting it out, it was just easier. They’d been perfectly content to sit by and wait before Marius had shown up. His existence had thrown everything off.

It would’ve been easier if he’d never shown up. He was mucking up their waiting game, interfering with things. His presence made them jittery and nervous, they could barely focus around him. It was unbearable.

“Do you really think I like being here?” Lyf continued. “If I could leave, I would. But instead, I’m stuck with you bugging me.”

“... Huh.” Marius said, sounding strangely contemplative. “What would you do if you did escape?”

“Enact my wicked, evil, and, at this point, justified revenge upon the soldiers who imprisoned me.” Lyf responded, glaring at Marius. “Starting with the ones who’ve annoyed me the most.”

“Oooh, sounds fun.” Marius gave them a grin. “I’d definitely help with that.”

“Yes, you would definitely be a part of my revenge.” they said. “You wouldn’t be helping in it, though.”

He shrugged in response. “As long as you’re happy, darling.”

“Stop calling me that.” they grumbled. 

“Would you prefer something else?” He said slyly, leaning his back onto the bars and looking up at them.

“I’d prefer you didn’t talk to me at all.” they frowned. “Don’t you have, I don’t know, soldier things to be doing?”

“You’re fun to talk to,” He responded, tilting his head at them curiously. They tried to pretend their heart didn’t speed up at that.  “And coming up with cute names to call you is better than listening to Ivy complain about headaches, anyways.” 

At the sound of Alexandria’s name, they tensed slightly. That was that theory confirmed, then. They pursed their lips, trying to ignore the old feelings about the prisoners rising up in their throat. It would probably only be a matter of time before they ran into her as well. She was worse than Cognizi about keeping her nose out of things.

“I could complain about my head hurting, too.” they suggested, narrowing their eyes at him. “Considering the headaches you’ve been giving me.”

“Yeah, but nothing you talk about is boring.” Marius responded simply. “It’s you.”

Did he really want to test that? “I could list every single safety regulation a class-9 battle cruiser has to follow in order to be granted landing permissions by most governments.” They suggested dryly.

“Anything from you is interesting.” he stated, and Lyf rolled their eyes. “Also, intriguing that you know that. And by-far better than listening to Ivy complain about her weird-ass defense grid assignment.”

He wrinkled his nose at the mention of the task, and Lyf felt themself perk up immediately, eyes widening as they turned back to him. “Defense grid?” 

They couldn’t be… no, the base didn’t know anything about the Briar Rose. Not as far as Lyf knew, anyhow. She was still trapped in there, powering the thing. So, what, were they researching it? That would make sense, with Alexandria’s skills, but they couldn’t free the Briar Rose by themselves.

“Uh, yeah?” Marius looked caught off guard by the sudden mood change, frowning slightly. “She actually wanted me to ask you about it. Something about whatever’s powering the thing.” He said, before tilting his head at them. “...Do you know anything about it?”

Lyf hesitated slightly. Marius had no business interrogating them on this, especially not since he’d just subjected them to so many horrid pick up lines. The defense grid was a problem, though, and if he had any knowledge on the situation- maybe some way to know if the war would be ending- they were taking it.

“I know a lot of things.” They stated stiffly in response, folding their arms. “Nothing you need to know, though.”

His eyes instantly lit up. “Aha!” he snapped his fingers, leaning towards them. “So you do know something.” They almost snorted at the exaggerated gesture, but replaced it with a scowl instead.

“So what if I do?” They declared, leaning towards him in retaliation. “Not telling you, anyways.”

He rubbed his chin, looking up at them with a grin. He seemed to take their body language as a challenge, rather than a warning. He considered their words briefly, before humming. “Hmmmm. Well, I could pull out the violin-”

“Absolutely not.” They snapped, clenching their fists and cutting him off immediately. If they ever had to hear the screech of a violin again, they were breaking out of this cell themself just so they could strangle him. They let out a small huff, trying to calm themself down a bit. “Alright, I may know what’s powering the thing.” They admitted reluctantly. “But, like I said, there’s no reason for me to tell you.” 

Yes there is, a small, traitorous voice in the back of their mind whispered. Do you want the war to end so you can leave? You could even offer up the information in exchange for him freeing you. He’d probably do it, too. Just ask, and if there’s even a chance- They quickly pushed the thought down, giving Marius a glare instead.

“Hmm.” Marius considered, giving them a sly look. He was still leaning on the bars, looking up at them with starry eyes as they glared down at him. “Well, I’m certainly open to negotiations. Anything you could want, darling, and I’ll get it for you.” 

“Nothing.” Lyf growled in response. “Except maybe you leaving me alone, but we both know you’re never going to do that.” Lyf would never be safe from Marius von Raum pestering them for as long as they lived. Which, from current information, was going to be a very, very long time.

“You’re right, not happening.” He responded immediately, and Lyf rolled their eyes. “Miss out on a chance to talk to you? Never.” He paused for a moment, considering them briefly, before a sly look spread across his face. “I mean, it would be easier to talk to you if you weren’t in this cell…”

Lyf blinked, staring at him. 

Was he…

No, he couldn’t have really been suggesting- 

Was he really that much of an idiot? To even think about letting them out, just for a small bit of information? He didn’t have any guarantee they weren’t just baiting him along, either, he had no indication whether they were telling the truth or not. He was supposed to be trying to get information from them, not offering to free them. That couldn’t have been what he was doing.

Unfortunately, they could already feel the hope rising in their stomach, warm and choking at the same time. They tried to swallow it back, but thoughts of being out and far away from the war were filling their mind like sewage water. “What are you- are you really suggesting…”

“I mean, technically my job description was just to get answers from you,” Marius continued, like he wasn’t suggesting something as insane as freeing them. “Never said anything about keeping you in the cell.” He gave them a wink, and Lyf let out a dry, disbelieving laugh.

“No, you aren’t actually… no. You can’t actually think-” They ran a hand through their hair, taking a step back. Half of their brain screamed that it was a trap, that he was trying to get them in trouble or something. The other half, meanwhile, was leaping with joy and screaming that they could just leave, go with Marius and out of the cell.

“How do you even know my information is accurate?” They tried, gesturing at him. “That I won’t just lie to get my way? Are you even considering your own safety on this, freeing me- it’s just- why would you do that?”

“Love, do you know how much loyalty I have to this army?” Marius responded, tone suddenly remarkably serious.

“I assume at least some, because you’re here in the first place.” They replied, gesturing to him and his mussed up military uniform. He was a soldier, at the very least. That must’ve meant something. 

“Nope! Nada. Absolutely none.” He proclaimed casually. “Very much stuck here, actually.”

“You think you’re the one stuck here?” Lyf raised an eyebrow at him.

“...Alright, not literally stuck here,” Marius corrected himself. “But not really here willingly? If you get the gist.”

“So, why get the information?” They asked icily. “You don’t need it in the first place, if you don’t care about the war.” The pieces weren’t adding up. He was offering to free them, for what? Help for a cause he couldn’t care less about? Putting himself in danger for no reason?

“I want to free you, because I don’t think you should be in this cell,” Marius declared with all the conviction in the world, and Lyf had to keep themself from laughing.

“Really.” They narrowed their eyes at him. “That, and absolutely nothing else? I doubt that.” their voice lowered to a hiss, taking a step closer to the bars of the cell. Marius made an odd expression at that, cheeks flushing red. “You have no guarantee I won’t kill you as soon as I step out of this cell.”

“I mean… Well…” Marius seemed at a loss for words, and Lyf let out a huff.

“Do you expect me to believe you have no other motivation for getting that information, if you’re stuck here? Spit it out.”

“I mean, maybe selling the information to White so me and the rest of my friends can leave would be good?” he responded awkwardly, still staring at them. “But-”

“Of course.” they cut him off with a sigh. “Your plan is to get the information, bribe the general for the information you need, and what? Just let me walk free? The General would have your head by the end of the week, information or no.”

“It isn’t about the information, love.” Marius proclaimed stubbornly, holding his hands out to them. “I just-”

“You do realize you aren’t tricking me in the slightest.” They responded, tone cold. “You want something from me, and you’re lying about what it is.” Couldn’t expect a version of Marius von Raum to be honest. Expecting anything? From him? Only an idiot would believe his stupid honeyed words and smiles and compliments and-

Right. Not thinking about that, not when they were interrogating him on this.

Marius sighed, rubbing his face with a hand. “Love, I don’t-” he let out a breath. “Alright. Okay. Let’s say I am freeing you for some other super-secret-and-evil reason and not just because I like you. What then?”

"Then you’d be a fucking idiot for letting me out of here.”

"Well, we already knew that, so that doesn’t change much." Marius said with a shrug. "Making dumb and impulsive decisions is kind of my whole thing, honestly."

“So, your current claim is that you’re letting me out in exchange for information you don’t need because you… ‘like me’.” Distaste coated their tongue on the last word. “And you’re not telling me what you actually want from this.”

“I am telling you what I actually want!”

“Nope. No you aren’t. Try again, and actually say something plausible this time.”

“I want…” He thought for a second, considering his words carefully. “I want out of this base, I want the people I care about to be safe, I want to maybe get some coffee with you sometime, and I want the information that the Colonel is keeping away from us. I can get all four of those things by freeing you.”

The flattery never stopped, did it? He was still trying to suck up to them, even now. Getting coffee with Marius- that was a thought, wasn’t it? He’d probably be too restless to sit down and drink it in a cafe, so they probably would have to go on a walk or something… Maybe to a park, or to an open market. They could see it now, him walking down the street, pointing out interesting buildings, dragging them into shops. Using those horrid pick-up lines on them, trying to get them to laugh. 

He likes when you play with his hair, he’s allergic to apples but they’re also his favorite fruit, so he tries to eat them constantly- He isn’t the biggest on gifts unless they have a lot of emotional value, so typically flowers, chocolates and the like are a no-go, but if you get him something that’ll last a while he’ll use it constantly. He loves words of affirmation, and he’s fine with being manhandled- loves it, actually-

Lyf stiffened, Cognizi’s words from the other night coming back to them. No, that didn’t make sense. It was Marius von Raum, the space pirate who’d left them for dead standing in front of them. Why the fuck were they thinking about coffee shops and Cognizi’s inane babbling right now?

Even if this Marius hadn’t been in the prison, even if he did nothing but compliment them, hadn’t pulled out his violin because they asked, and was offering to free them for basically nothing. Why were they even thinking about this? Their brain should not have been considering this. They were having a conversation about Marius possibly freeing them, and they kept thinking about coffee shops and dates, and the way he was grinning at them, and…

Their brain was very dumb, and needed to shut up, because they had much bigger problems to deal with at the moment. Besides, they couldn’t go on a coffee date with him even if they wanted to (which they didn’t), because of the fact they were a prisoner of war, in a war that probably wasn’t ending anytime soon. 

Because Marius von Raum and the rest of his crew were there. And the war wasn’t ending. And they were the only person who knew about the Briar Rose. Except, Marius was asking about it, wasn’t he?

Lyf narrowed their eyes at him. “Are you actually serious about this? I give you the information, you let me go?”

“I swear it on my screechiest violin.” He held up his hand solemnly. “I’ll free you. Get the key, let you out, I’ll even grab your black box thing. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

They narrowed their eyes at him. They didn’t trust a single thing he was saying, currently, but… “...Fine. how about we make a deal, then?”

Marius blinked. “A deal?”

“There was… supposed to be someone who would break into the defense grid and shut it off. A group of people, really.” They let out a shaky breath. “They were supposed to show up after the war had gone on for about thirty years, but… something happened. And it’s very likely they won’t be showing up after all.”

Marius stared at them, wide-eyed and intently, as they continued. “I was relying on them taking out the defense grid to be what ended the war, and in the chaos, I’d be able to escape, but…”

“Since there's no guarantee they’ll do it anymore, there’s a chance the war could go on for a lot longer.” He finished for them, and they nodded hesitantly. “Is that what you were panicking about earlier?”

“I wasn’t panicking,” Lyf scoffed. Marius gave them a flat look, and they grumbled a bit. “Maybe you need to reconsider what panicking is, because that was not it.”

“Pacing around, looking like you just learned the world was going to end, and squeezing your arms so tight it was cutting off the blood flow isn’t panicking?” 

“Trust me, post-learning-about-the-apocalypse panic looks very different.” Lyf responded dryly. “In my experience, it involves a lot more alcohol.” they gave a sniff. “Not that I could get that in here. Or that humans can make any alcohol that actually gets me drunk.”

Marius’s expression did something very interesting there, eyes widening and looking at them with extreme concern. They frowned at him. “What?”

“Lore drop? That is… That is incredibly concerning. Both the fact you apparently have experienced an apocalypse panic, and your coping methods for it.”

“I’m allowed to make jokes about it, it’s my trauma.” they pointed out. “Which is also absolutely none of your business. Besides, it was over three hundred years ago.”

“Not saying you're not allowed to make jokes about it, I’d be a massive hypocrite if I said that. I mean, humor really isn’t a good coping mechanism, but-”

“I don’t need your psychoanalysis, von Raum.” Lyf cut him off. Why did he care about how they coped with the destruction of their system anyways? He hadn’t had everyone he knew and loved die, he didn’t have to be the one person to remember an entire world’s worth of culture and love. 

Well, maybe von Raum still remembered it, the one from the prison. As well as the Cognizi and Alexandria who’d been with him. They doubted they’d remember anyways, they’d been careless enough to let the entire system die, they wouldn’t care about preserving culture. As far as Lyf was concerned, that von Raum was dead, because they were never seeing him again. Which was what they wanted. They just had to deal with this… somewhat more manageable version for now.

They ran a hand through their hair again. The strands were sticking up a little bit everywhere, which was fine, because they didn’t need to look nice for Marius. “I was having a bit of a… moment to process it, sure. Not panicking.”

“If you insist.” The expression on Marius’s face very much told Lyf that he would be interrogating them about it later, but was letting it go for now. “So what’s your deal, then?”

“You let me out, and you take out the defense grid, ending the war.” Lyf responded. “I don’t trust whatever plan or scheme or whatever that freeing me will help, but if I’m getting out of here, I’m at least ending this war in the process.”

That caught Marius off guard. His eyes instantly widened, and he rested his finger against his mouth, considering their words. “Okay,” He said, sounding remarkably calm, though some confusion crept into his voice. “Taking out the defense grid. That’s…”

“There’s no way the General would hide the information you need if you’re known as the person who ended the war.” Lyf added, trying to sweeten the deal, as insane as the proposition was. “And considering what I know, it wouldn’t be that difficult, especially if you bring me with you. The core is easy to remove, you just need a gun.”

“And to get past a swarm of thousands of the strongest Rose Reds, and past several thousand Thorn-class gun turrets.”

“I can teleport, to an extent, when I have the black box with me. I trust you're at least competent with a gun, and it’s easy for me to take out large groups. You also have people who could accompany us, correct? Alexandria, you mentioned. And I’m sure there’s more.”

“That’s still…” Marius furrowed his brow and rubbed his forehead with his hand. “It’s just… you don’t even care about the war, right? Why do you want the defense grid gone? I’ll do it in a heartbeat, but…”

Lyf ran a hand over their face, considering the situation . “I don’t care for the rebellion. I stopped trying to help anyone who called themself a leader long ago. For the war in general, I might not care for a side, but I still don’t want the war to continue. If it ends, it’s just easier for everyone at this point.”

If they could avoid getting hunted down by the army and dragged back to the cell as soon as they left, they were going to. Briar Rose as well… Lyf didn’t want to leave her in the defense grid, either. She deserved a chance of freedom, at least. There were billions of innocent lives being put at risk because of this idiotic war.

“...I have friends.” Marius stated after thinking for a second. “People who have no loyalty to the war, either. I trust them all with my life. They might need a bit of convincing, but they’re the closest thing to a family I’ve got. They’ll help.” he gave Lyf a shining grin. “Besides, we’ve been looking for an opportunity to have a bit of violence for a while now. A jailbreak is exactly up their alley.”

Lyf didn’t particularly want to meet a group of people who probably were alternate versions of the rest of The Mechanisms. Especially since they were looking for opportunities to kill. Lyf didn’t really have a choice, though, did they? “They can come too. As long as they’re more manageable than you, I can deal with them.”

Marius nodded gravely, though his face was still broken into a deep smile. Somehow, he was the most serious they’d ever seen him, but was still positively shaking with energy. He reached through the bars of the cell and grabbed Lyf’s hands suddenly. “I’m getting you out of this cell, darling, even if it’s the last thing I do. I’ll talk to the rest… we’ve got plenty of brains among us, we can hijack a ship, be there in a snap.” He squeezed their hands tightly, and their heart skipped a beat as they stared at him. “I’m getting you out of here, m’kay love?”

Lyf opened their mouth to respond, but he was already letting go of their hands and rushing out of the room. They stared after him for a second. The brief touch… their hands felt too cold now, without him holding them. They traced their thumb along the palm of their other hand, blinking a second.

Freedom. It wasn’t processing in their brain, the promise he’d just made. Freedom. Thirty years of imprisonment, and there was a chance they’d be out by tomorrow morning. They could see the sky from anywhere that wasn’t the barred window of their cell, walk around, feel the sun on their skin, breathe fresh air. Get the black box back as well, so they wouldn’t be helpless anymore. 

If he kept his word, and didn’t just turn them into the General. Or whatever his strange motivations for letting them out were. Lyf didn’t trust him, but… well, he was their best bet now, wasn’t he? Strange and annoying as he was, the thought of him letting them out…

Lyf could go free. Even if it was just a chance of walking out of here. Even if it was because of Marius von Raum that they were going to be able to leave. A stupid, foolish hope was rising in their chest, but try as they might, they couldn’t find it in themself to quell it

Chapter Text

Marius was positively vibrating with excitement as he rushed out of the cell. He felt bad leaving so quickly, and they looked so confused, but there was a chance he could free them and he was doing it as quickly as possible and letting them out so he could hold their hand and kiss them and touch their hair-

He was letting them out. He was letting them out, they were going to the defense grid, and they were going on a heist together. God, Lyf, fighting people. They’d be good at it. Give them a knife, or a gun, or the eldritch stuff they could apparently do- god that would be sexy.

But Marius couldn’t think about that now, because he had to convince everyone else to help him free Lyf. 

They’d help him, right? Brian had said he’d back him up, and Ivy would definitely support him on it, it had been her assignment, anyways. Raphaella would be fascinated to meet Lyf. Jonny, Ashes and Tim would love some good violence, Jessica would just want to be included, and Nastya would never let the crew do anything without being there to make sure they didn’t get themselves killed. 

So they’d back him up on this. Right? He’d be able to free them, be with them. Just. Them.

If anyone dared to suggest leaving them, he’d kick, scream, threaten or bribe until they shut up. As long as he had a say in anything, Lyfrassir Edda was going to be free.

He burst through the door out of the building, the groups of idle soldiers staring at him as he rushed past. Normally, he’d have given them a jaunty wave as he passed, but he barely paid them any mind. Getting to the barracks was his priority right now, getting to them, freeing them, and-

This was exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for. Brian may have talked him down from immediately freeing them, but he had a reason, now (well, a reason that other people would consider “actually logical.” Homophobes. Weren’t they reason enough?). They could get the General to cough up who they were before the amnesia, they could end the war and sail off, either to their past lives or a new future. He could apologize to Lyf for whatever he’d done to make them hate him, and if they forgave him, he could maybe even ask them out on a date. 

And maybe there was even a possibility they would say yes. Maybe. Just a chance. Well, not much of a chance, because they still… they still hated him. Still hated whoever he had used to be, before this. 

But maybe they’d hate him less for freeing them! That was a possibility, right? If they still hated him, he’d make up for it a thousand times over. A million times over. A billion if needed. If it meant he’d get to see them smile, he’d do it.

He burst through the door and into the barracks, clomping up the stairs and up into the crew’s barracks. He slid dramatically into the room, where Ivy and Raphaella stopped what they were doing and blinked at him. He didn’t care what they were doing, but it looked remarkably like arming themselves. Hm. 

“Marius,” Raphaella said, recovering from his bursting into the room. “What are you-”

“Raph, could you and Ivy get the rest of the crew in here?” He interrupted. He could feel the grin stretching across his face, because he was getting them out he could free them- “I need to talk with everyone.”

She frowned. “I mean, sure, we could go find them, but why are you so-”

Ivy’s eyes brightened, and she pushed in front of her, cutting Raphaella off  “Did you get an answer about the defense grid?”

“Even better.” Marius wheezed, out of breath from running across the base. “Just- get everyone in here. As fast as possible. Do you know where they are?”

“I- yeah? Most of them, at least?” Raphaela piped back in. “Marius, what is this about?”

“I’ll tell you once everyone gets here.” He said. “Meet up in an hour?” Raphaella and Ivy exchanged glances, before they both hesitantly nodded. “Good. grab whoever you can find, just get everyone in here.” he ran out of the room to grab whoever he could find before they could respond.

Finding the rest of the crew took a bit longer than Marius would’ve liked. Most of them had their own spots they’d hang out in throughout the day, but there was never a guarantee they hadn’t gotten in trouble or fucked off to some random place.

Ivy found Tim and Jonny in the shooting range, the two obliterating all the practice dummies and trying to start fights with the rest of the soldiers. They complained about getting dragged away from their date, but eventually gave in and headed back to the barracks.

Brian and Jessica had both been where they were technically supposed to be, Brian working in the communications building and Jess out on patrol. They both agreed to Marius’s meeting readily enough, though Jessica did seem a bit sad to be neglecting its duties. Ashes had been sticking with Brian for the day, so it ended up rounding the group together quite nicely.

The real problem had been Nastya, the homophobe she was. The crew had combed the base up and down for almost an hour, trying to find her, before determining she must have ran off into the woods for whatever reason. They continued to search there for another hour, looking in every part of the forest several times over, before looping back to the base, and scanning each building again. 

They didn’t even end up ever finding her out there: Jonny had walked in on her lying on a couch in the barracks, exhausted and stiff, right as everyone had given up on finding her.

Jonny bitching at her took far too long, and after that, Marius’s meeting was already an hour over the plan and he was getting very, very tired. A sentiment that seemed to be shared by everyone in the room, as well, judging by the glares he was getting. Nastya was rubbing her back, leaning against the wall, and for some reason, was absolutely covered in… oil? Everybody else had collapsed onto various chairs, or in Jonny's case, laying on the floor. They all stared expectantly at Marius, waiting.

He clapped his hands together, signalling the start of the meeting. “So, I bet you’re all wondering why I gathered you all here today.”

“Are you about to ramble on about your little criminal crush for an hour again?” Nastya asked. “Because I do not want to listen to that right now.” Marius opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and completely re-evaluated the script for the meeting he had written in his mind. Well, if that’s what it took to free them, he could maybe repress his gay rambling for a few minutes. maybe.

“...no. At least not now that you’ve mentioned it.” He said slowly, before clapping his hands again. “But this is about them! In some capacity.”

“Oh, joys.” she muttered, leaning back in her chair. Marius ignored her, instead turning around to point an accusatory finger at Brian.

“You.”

“Me?” Brian questioned, raising an eyebrow and pointing a finger at himself in turn. 

“Do you remember the thing we talked about yesterday?”

“I think so…?” He frowned, before his eyes widened in realization, and he gave a disbelieving laugh. “You actually took that seriously? Marius-”

“You bet I took it seriously, because I am not leaving them in that jail cell.” Marius proclaimed, cutting him off. “And because you so kindly informed me of the ‘dangers’ of letting a prisoner go loose, and that we’d have nowhere to go, I have found a way to let them out where it is guaranteed they will be on our side, and that will help us get our info from General White.”

Brian sighed. “Marius, I already told you, letting them go is a horrible idea, there’s no reason-”

“And you also told me that if I found a way to let them go with the guarantees I just said, you’d back me up on this.” Marius stated in response. “Sorry buddy, you promised you’d work with me here.”

Brian furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to say something, before Tim spoke up. “Are either of you going to tell the rest of the group what the hell you’re talking about, or are we just supposed to figure it out for ourselves?”

“Marius wants to free his crush from prison.” Brian responded tiredly.

“Yeah, I gathered that much.” Tim snorted. “Care to share with us anything else, since you gathered us all here?”

Marius sighed. “Alright, you know Ivy’s dumb defense grid task?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, she asked me to talk with Lyf about it because she wasn’t finding anything, so when I went in earlier it happened to come up in conversation, and I asked!” He said, gesturing vaguely as he talked. “And then they said that they did actually know what was powering the thing, so I offered to free them in exchange for the information, because I wanted to free them anyways because it’s a crime to keep someone as pretty as them lock up-” 

“Stop being gay, Marius.” Ashes commented idly. Marius pinwheeled and pointed his finger at them instead.

“Fuck you, I’ll be as gay as I like.” he hissed, and they raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know how much rambling and giggling I’m holding back right now for the sake of getting through this conversation.” 

“Oh, you’re barely holding it back, buddy.” They responded, folding their arms. 

“Can you please let me at least explain what my proposal is?” Marius threw his hands in the air, and Ashes gave a small shrug. Silently, they took out a cigarette and lit it, taking a drag of it and exhaling the smoke.

“Fine, go on.” They said, and Marius let his hands fall.

“Thank you.” He breathed. “Now, as I was saying, I asked Lyf about the defense grid, and they said that they knew what was powering the thing. I offered to let them go in exchange for the information, because that’s what I wanted to do anyway, and would have done it if it wasn’t for the fact that Brian told me it was a shit idea.”

“It is a shit idea,” Brian muttured, and Ivy bonked him on the head, shooting him a glare. He let out a disgruntled yelp, but fell silent. Marius ignored the both of them.

“But, they gave me a different offer. If we free them, they want to go to the defense grid and disable it, because apparently they know how.” He finished. The rest of the crew stared at him for a second, silently. Marius shifted on his feet slightly as everyone processed the statement. It was interrupted by the sound of Jonny letting out a dry laugh, pushing himself into a sitting position from the floor.

“Wow. Well, Marius, you sure know how to pick em’. You managed to find someone just as insane as you are.” He propped his head up on his hand and raised an eyebrow. “Now what is your actual reason for this?”

Marius frowned as a few of the crew let out awkward chuckles, obviously trying to take Jonny’s word that the statement was a joke. The rest, Brian especially, stared at Marius with knit brows. He shot a glare to all of the crew who were breaking away from the conversation.

“I’m freeing Lyf, and they want to go to the defense grid and end the war, so I’m coming with them.” He stated, folding his arms. “And I would like it if I had help on this, because I don’t think we can do it alone.”

“Welp, you’re crazy.” Tim declared, crossing his legs with a chuckle. “Go there and instantly get mowed down by hundreds of turrets and then shot by millions of Rose Reds? No, thank you, personally. As much fun as blowing it up sounds, I’d rather not get myself killed.”

“Marius…” Raphaella tried, searching his face for a hint of doubt. “This… isn’t a plan?”

“So we make one!” He held out his arms, gesturing to everyone. “Ivy can calculate impossible statistics in seconds, Raphaella can recite the DNA sequences  from memory, Nastya uses security powerful enough for nuclear launch codes for her lesbian computer porn stash-”

“Why the fuck do you have computer porn saved?” Jonny gagged.

“Why do you think, Jonny?” Nastya responded plainly.

“Ew,” his face scrunched up and she shrugged, barely visible smile on her face.

“Brian is probably the most level-headed person I’ve ever met, Tim is the best shot in the entire base, Jonny can and will tear someone apart with his bare hands, Jessica is terrifying in battle, Ashes could burn down this entire place in five minutes flat with the right materials and has everyone in power wrapped around their finger. We can come up with something!”

“Yes, but why?” Tim exclaimed.”You just want to do this so you can free Lyf. You’re asking us to get ourselves killed. Do you honestly think-”

“It would be possible,” Ivy interrupted idly, the first thing she’d said since the conversation began. Everyone turned to look at her, and she glanced up at them. “What? Marius said Lyf knows how to disable the core, I know the code to take out the defense grid, and have the map memorized.”

“Exactly!” Marius gestured to her. “It’ll be easy! Especially considering Lyf has, like, eldritch powers and stuff!”

“Eldritch powers?” Brian asked, rubbing his forehead. “You didn’t think to mention that when you were blabbering on about their hair?” Marius gave a shrug.

“Didn’t seem important.”

“It didn’t seem important. Marius-”

“Look, it really isn’t important. Eldritch bullshit, who cares. Honestly, I think it’s fantastic.” Marius waved him off, and Jonny squinted at him.

“Yeah, you would, you-” He began, before Ivy cut him off again.

“It’s nothing like what you’re thinking of, to my knowledge, Jonny.” She said, “Things related to rainbows and flesh, mostly. They’ve been recorded to be able to summon small portals, bring inanimate objects to life, some form of flesh manipulation, and apparently drove a few people insane?”

“Oh, they definitely drive me insane,” Marius chuckled, before frowning. “Wait, why do you know this?”

“You told us you were in contact with a dangerous prisoner. Did you really expect me to not do my research?” She replied. “Also, you left their files on your desk.”

“You left paperwork out and didn’t expect Ivy to read it?” Brian asked.

“I was distracted. And I would appreciate you giving Lyf some privacy.”

“If you wanted Lyf to have their privacy, maybe don’t describe their arms in vivid detail constantly.” Ivy muttered.

“They have nice arms.”

“You’ve mentioned.”

Ashes gave a sigh, taking a drag of their cigarette. “Ivy, hon, we have a lot more problems than just getting to the core and deactivating it.” They pointed out, and Brian nodded with them. “Even if we manage to steal a ship and fly there before we get shot down or recaptured and end up in the cell right alongside Marius’s little crush, there’s still the problem of the Thorn Turrets.”

Oh, there was a backup plan, there. Get arrested, into the cell with Lyf, then break out. Good to know he had another option if the plan failed. Which it wasn’t going to, because he could do this.

“That is true,” Ivy said with a frown. “The Thorn turrets have anti-cloaking tracking. Any ship we brought in would get shot down almost immediately.”

“I’m sure we could rig something up. Improve the shields, or something? Or get better cloaking.”

“That would take days, if not weeks, to figure out.” Raphaella piped in. “I mean, Nastya, Ivy, and I could do it, but with everything, I doubt you’ll want to wait that long. Besides, we don’t have the resources.”

Ah. waiting for things to align, that- Marius didn’t want to wait. He wanted them out now, if not weeks or months or years ago. They shouldn’t have been in there in the first place. Waiting for better cloaking technology wouldn’t do anything.

“It wouldn’t be worth it.” Marius insisted. “Waiting that long, just for a chance? We’ll find something else."

Raphaella pushed herself up from lying on Ivy’s lap. “Well, to add to this, Ivy and I are getting the drive from document storage tonight. The security just got reinstated, so the guards aren’t going to be watching as closely. We’re breaking in before they can get back on their feet. If we wait any longer, there’ll be too many guards to be able to guarantee we’ll get in and out safely. If we can leave right after we get the drive, that would be best. Ivy was lucky she managed to hide the drive before she got caught, but if the Colonel figures out we’re investigating our pasts-”

“There’s no knowing what he’ll do.” Brian finished for her grimly. “He has pretty much complete power over us. If he wanted to, he could kill us all, and there would be no record of our existence to prosecute him with. Not that the General would even bother.”

“He wouldn’t do that, he’s too much of a baby.” Tim scoffed.

“He still could. And if the General told him to do it, he’d listen, no matter what his morals say.”

“Well, we’ll just kill him first.”

“Once again, General would get us. I don’t doubt she’d make it hurt, too.”

Tim pressed his lips into a thin line, before sighing. “How did we get into a situation where we can’t do anything without the threat of death?”

“We got put into a vulnerable position where the only people who can supply what we need don’t care if we live or die and just want us here for their own gain?” Marius muttured, and Tim wrinkled his nose.

“Fuck, are we living in a metaphor for capitalism?”

“Everything is a metaphor for capitalism.” Ivy replied, voice flat.

“And sex.” Marius pointed out. “Everything is a metaphor for capitalism and sex. Though not capitalist sex.”

“Capitalists don’t get sex.”

“Exactly!” 

“Why are we talking about capitalist sex?” Raphaella asked.

“Because everything is a metaphor for it!” Tim responded.

“I thought everything was a metaphor for capitalism and sex, specifically not capitalist sex?”

“Not sure what to tell you, metaphors are bloody weird.”

“And about capitalist sex.” Ashes added.

“Or the lack thereof.” Marius continued off of them, and Raphaella sighed. 

“Look, like I was saying, we could improve the cloaking on a ship, but it would take time we don’t have. The sooner we can leave after we get the drive, the better. I wanted to just get the drive and then make a plan, depending on what was on it, but if we’re leaving anyways, we may as well do it tonight.”

“We could get on the ship, go into space and chill for a bit while you improve the cloaking, and then take out the defense grid?” Marius tried. 

“And get instantly shot down by the General?”

“We could avoid the army.”

“Marius, if we’re working on the cloaking, we’re not going to be able to cloak. We’ll get found nearly immediately.”

“I… may have a solution to that.” Nastya piped up, raising her hand slightly. Instantly the group turned to look at her. She flinched, obviously cursing herself for speaking up, before hesitantly continuing.

“I know a ship we could use to get there. She is big enough to fit all nine of us, plus Marius’s little infatuation, and her cloaking technology is far superior to any I have ever seen.” Nastya let out a sigh, resigning to the fate that she was agreeing to help. “She is partially damaged, but she is fast and strong. She may be able to get us there.”

Marius clapped. “Perfect! We have a ship, we have a way to cloak, we know the way in and a way to take out the power-”

“We also have the guarantee we’ll get mowed down by thousands of Rose Reds.” Brian interrupted. He ran a hand through his hair, pursing his lips. “Look, no matter what plans we make, we still have two very essential problems: we will die, and we have no reason to be doing this in the first place.”

“I’m not leaving Lyf in that cell.” Marius declared, folding his arms. He glared at Brian, daring him to argue. “I don’t care what any of you say, they’re not staying trapped in there.”

“We can free them without the suicide mission, Marius, if they matter that goddamn much to you.”

“They do matter that much.” He fumed. “Why would you-”

“Like I said, then we can free them without trying to blow the defense grid up.”

Marius let out a huff. “They want the war to end, Brian, and I honestly do too. I don’t care about the rebellion or King Cole or what have you, but the rebellion won’t have power over us if there’s no reason for it to exist.”

“If we end the war, General White is just going to become the next King Cole. you know that, right?”

“And we’ll be crowned as heroes for ending the war. She’d have to listen to us.”

“It would be easy for her to deface our identities.” Ivy commented, And Marius turned to her, about to refute. She held up a hand in surrender. “Not saying that as an argument, just a fact. She could spread lies- or truths, honestly- to make us lose credibility, or just take credit for the defense grid in the first place.”

“See?” Brian gestured to her. “It’s an insane plan with a high chance of us dying, and even if we survive, there’s no guarantee we’ll get anything in return.”

“I’m not saying that,” Ivy corrected him, crossing her arms. “Actually, I’m in support of this plan.”

“It’s not a plan, at this point, it’s an idea. And a fucking stupid one as well.”

“At least someone is listening to me.” Marius muttured. “Even if the person who said he would back me up on releasing Lyf won’t.”

“Oh for the love of-”

“I have another reason why we should break into the defense grid.” Ivy interrupted Brian, silencing him with a look. 

“Please tell me, I’m barely keeping track of Marius’s logic at this point.” Tim said bitterly, and Jonny nodded with him. “This is a lot of arguing that just boils down to ‘Marius wants to free his crush and his crush wants to break into the defense grid, so Marius wants to break into the defense grid.’”

Ivy pushed herself off of the couch, moving to stand beside Marius in the front of the room. The two of them were now the complete center of attention. She crossed her arms and addressed the group.

“When I started on the defense grid task, I noticed pretty quickly that for some reason, my mind didn’t seem to want to investigate it. Headaches were the main thing, as well as just the fact I couldn’t find anything. Like my brain was working against me. Raphaella-” Ivy nodded to her. “-suggested it may be a phantom pain of some sort, from the amnesia. Which means there’s a good chance the defense grid also has a connection to our pasts.”

“Another factor to this,” Ashes muttered. “Lovely. So this place could have answers of some kind?”

“It’s a possibility. And that possibility is another good reason to break into the defense grid.”

They let out a grumble, stubbing their cigarette on the chair. “Great. Well, at this point, there isn’t much point in arguing about this.” They squinted at Marius. “There’ll be violence involved?”

“So much violence.” He replied.

“Can I burn things?”

“You can burn down as much as you want.”

“Good.” They rose from their chair, stretching as they did so. “Well, I’m in.”

Brian spluttered a bit. “That easily?”

Ashes shrugged. “I’ve been wanting to burn down this whole place since we got here. There’s barely anything happening here, too. No fun things to poke at, barely any drama to play around with, people are pitifully easy to manipulate. It’s boring.” They gave a toothy smile. “I’m looking forward to seeing it go up in flames.”

“Great!” Marius clapped his hands together. “That’s two people on the ‘free-Lyf-so-I-can-smooch-them’ train!”

“Three,” Nastya said, raising a finger.

“Three people on the ‘free-Lyf-so-I-can-smooch-them train!”

“Why?” Brian asked, turning to Nastya. She gave a small shrug.

“I have my own reasons, as well.”

“Can you stop being ominous and weird for 5 minutes?” Jonny grumbled.

“I could be. But why would I ever do that?”

“Because it’s annoying.”

“That’s just more of a reason to do it.”

“Oh, fuck off.” He scoffed. He waved his hand dismissively at Marius. “You know what, fine. Haven’t been getting any good violence either. Add me to the ‘let-Marius-fuck-the-eldritch-horror train’ as well, then, if that’s what it takes to get some bloody entertainment. But if anybody gets hurt- whether your crush goes crazy, or something happens at the defense grid, or White gets our asses- you’re dead. Got that?”

Marius nodded enthusiasticaly, and Tim tilted his head, seemingly considering his options. “Well, it’s not like Marius will let us take no as an option.” he sighed. “I’m in.”

“I want to know what the deal with the defense grid is.” Raphaella added. “Count me on the list, too.”

Marius was starting to feel a maniacal grin spread across his face as Brian spluttured, opinion getting overruled by the rest of the crew. “You all- we’re all going to die, I hope you know that.”

“I Beg To Differ In That Department!” Jessica piped up. It’d been relatively quiet throughout the entire conversation, but at Brian’s words tilted her head at him. “We May Die, But It Won’t Be For Long, Old Chap! No Need To Worry.”

“Jess…” Brian sighed. “I wish that were true, but if one of us gets hurt from this, there’s no redos. We’re just… gone.”

“Really?” It’s eyes widened comically. “I Was Not Aware Of This! Thank You For Informing Me, My Good Man! What A Strange Thing.”

“Yeah.” Brian turned back to the group. “Whatever reasoning you all have for breaking Lyf out, we still have the problem of the fact we’re overpowered. Do you all really think we’d be able to overpower the defense grid?”

“Brian.” Tim said patiently. “Look, I will say this may seem a bit impulsive-”

“A bit?”

“But what the fuck else are we supposed to do?” Tim exclaimed, and Brian’s shoulders dropped. “We all hate it here. You hate it here. You can keep saying it’s insane, or that we’ll be overpowered, but we’ve got the basics of a plan, and the power to do this. We barely know the surface of Marius’s little crush’s powers, but just by what we do know they sound pretty fucking powerful. If they help us, we could do this. It’s either this or keep sitting on our asses, waiting.” He let out a huff. “I don’t know about you, but at this point all I want is to get the hell out of this place. So can you stop beating around the fucking bush and just say yes?”

Brian was silent at that. He fidgeted slightly with his sleeve, looking at the ground as the rest of the crew stared at him expectantly. Finally, he let out a sigh. “I don’t really have a choice on this, do I?”

“Nope!” Marius proclaimed with a shrug. “I was honestly just going to drag anyone who didn’t say yes with me, anyways. But I’m glad all of you can see reason!”

Brian pursed his lips. “Fine. Once again, this is a stupid plan, but fine. Let’s go blow up the fucking defense grid.” 

“I knew I could count on you.” He said with a grin. This was going exactly the way he needed. He could get Lyf out. He was practically vibrating in excitement at this point. He turned to Jessica, who was watching the conversation, a practiced expression of fascination on its face. “Jessica? Want to blow up the defense grid?”

Its eyebrows raised. “Old Chap, That Sounds Delightful! Why, We Haven’t Had Such Fun In-” it paused, smiling blankly and tilting its head as its eyebrows furrowed. “Hm. Well, I Can’t Quite Remember How Long, But It Sure Has Been A While!”

“Great!” Marius clapped his hands together. “So: plan of action, then. Nastya has her mysterious spaceship we can use that she has not explained the origins of, why she knows about it, or what the fuck its deal is. I can probably swipe the keys from Anderson pretty easily, though Jess-” He nodded to it. “-if you could distract him for me, that would probably be best.”

“Oh!” It did a little hop at the sound of it’s name. “I Do Love Chatting With Our Dear Colonel Anderson. Say, Do You Think He’d be Up To A Tea Party?”

“I think he would absolutely be up to a tea party.” Marius told her. “Though, it may be cut a bit short.”

“That Is Alright!” She declared. “Why, I Haven’t Had A Tea Party In Ages! I’ll Have To Get My Tea Set.” It continued to mutter tea party plans under its breath, and Marius turned to the rest of the crew.

“We’re really fucking doing this, aren’t we?” Jonny muttured, before sighing. “Ashes?”

“Hm?” They responded.

“Wanna break into the stash of gasoline the Colonel’s been hiding since we got here?”

They shot Jonny a wolflike grin, baring their teeth. “I though you’d never ask, Babe.” a manic smile creeped up on Jonny’s face as well.

“Wonderful.” He cackled.

“So, Ivy and I grab the USB from document storage,” Raphaella began summarizing, counting things out on her fingers. “Marius gets the key and frees Lyf-”

“And get back the artifact that has Lyf’s powers, correct? Its the black box, I think.” Ivy interjected, looking to Marius, who nodded.

“And get the black box.” Raphaella amended. “Jessica distracts the Colonel, Ashes and Jonny burn the place to the ground, Nastya-”

“I will get the ship ready.” Nastya declared. “I will be where the cliff overlooks the forest, about thirty minutes north of the launching pad. We will leave once everyone gets there.”

“Alright.” Raphaella nodded, before glancing at Tim. “Tim…?” He gave her a wicked grin.

“Why, there’s a lovely stash of dynamite somewhere on this base that’s been singing my name since we got here. Thought I’d pay it a visit, blow up a handful of buildings here and there. Similar to Jonny and Ashes.” 

“Fantastic. And Brian?” she turned to him. He rubbed a hand down his face.

“If we are really doing this, we’re going to need supplies.” He decided. “Weapons, mostly. I can grab some while all the guards are distracted. I won’t be the best in any sort of combat, but I could probably take out any remaining soldiers if the rest are distracted.”

Raphaella nodded solemnly. “So we have a plan, then? When do we start?”

Marius turned to her, rubbing his hands together. “Why, we can start right now. It’s time to have a bit of fun.”