Chapter Text
Everything was a dull red haze of bright, fluorescent light shining through heavy eyelids that refused to open despite her best efforts. Elendira could just barely identify the distant but ever present low hum of a ship’s engine, and the occasional muted mutter of voices around her, though she couldn’t make out any words. Her body felt impossibly heavy. There was an oppressive, burning ache in her chest that seemed to radiate out across her entire nervous system.
What happened…?
All of her memories were muddled snapshots. Blood curdling on hot sand, something crushed in her fingers unbidden, bright flashes of light, the shallow rise and fall of labored breathing and strongest of all, a terrible sense of urgency. Not yet, not yet…
Littered across these memories were those traitors: Livio and Razlo. Smiling as they fought, being torn nearly in half, him near unconscious as her vision faded, and… him looking down at her, covered in blood, with an expression somewhere between terror and awe.
It didn’t make any sense. He’d successfully stopped her. She remembered being skewered on her own nail. Why was she still alive? Did he really not finish the job? But this place...it sounded like a ship. Was she back on the Ark?
No, it was too quiet. The cacophony of the Plants on the Ark was unmistakable and came with a prickling sensation like the air before a thunderstorm. But still, that uneasy feeling that sat like radio static in the back of her mind was present here.
Finally, she managed to open her eyes. The room around her spun as she tried to focus her vision. The blinding lights above her were familiar- the adjustable kind they used surgeries, and she was surrounded by shining medical equipment. There was still an IV in her arm.
She bit back a flash of panic. Memories of tests and procedures rushed through her mind, surgical tables and the sharp smell of medical grade alcohol. She took a deep breath. They were just tending to her injuries. That was all.
She managed to turn her head, and found Livio across from her, sitting in a chair to the side that was too small for him. He was dozing with his arms crossed against his chest and hat shading his face from the sterile white lights.
So he really did decide to have mercy on her.
Idiot. Vash’s beliefs were infectious, it seemed.
Slowly, carefully, she reached for the IV in her arm, pulled the adhesive, and extracted the needle. She tried to sit up and failed on her first try, having to bite her tongue to keep quiet. Her chest ached terribly and her muscles screamed at her when she tried to move. It felt like wading through sludge. A deep breath, and another attempt. Slower this time, she managed to sit up. The room around her only spun a little bit.
She draped her legs off of the side of the bed, bracing herself as she put her weight on her feet. She felt unsteady, and there was a twinge in her chest, but otherwise… she was okay. This was manageable. Slow, dizzy- but manageable.
Elendira watched Livio for a long moment as she gained her bearings. He was definitely fast asleep- who knew how long it’d been since they fought. It was probably exhaustion from the injuries he’d sustained. If she was lucky, he’d stay asleep.
The door had a small window, and she could see people passing by hurriedly on the other side. She crept closer and peered out.
It all looked...Uncannily familiar. The hallway looked like one of the countless crumbling hallways she’d seen recycled from old ships, but pristine and refined. There was no doubt about it- this was an Earth Federation ship.
Livio didn’t take her here to save her. He took her here to detain her.
She should have known.
She reached for the door, pressed a button, and the handle clicked out- and Livio’s head shot up..
“Hey- woah there- what are you--”
He was cut short by Elendira plunging the IV needle into his throat. It was too small and flimsy to do any real damage, but it would buy her some time.
He sputtered and pawed at his neck, fishing for the needle. She took the opportunity to bolt for the door, just barely wrapping her fingers around it when she was yanked back. A horrible pain shot through her body like electricity. She yelped and reeled back, and Livio standing over her.
Goddammit.
“Hey now- ya really shouldn’t be runnin’ around like this, in your state-” He rasped, airway still knitting itself back together.
He pulled her away from the door.
“Let go of me, you brute,” She seethed, and clawed at his hand. No luck. She couldn’t muster the strength to pry his fingers off of her arm.
He grabbed her other wrist, and pulled her slowly away from the door.
“Come on now-” Livio said, grimacing. “Just… sit back down, at least…”
Elendira scanned the floor for anything she could use to trip him up, but no luck again- this place was pristine.
“Since when have you been concerned about my wellbeing? Last I remember, you were out for blood,” Elendira said with a sharp glare.
“Yeah, well, er-” Livio moved to put himself between her and the door, like a brick wall.
“Things got… complicated.” He frowned as he looked down at her.
“And how is that?” Elendira asked.
“You… didn’t die.”
“Oh, what- the little prodigy faced failure for the first time and went soft? Is that what this is?” Elendira laughed.
“No, that’s not it- y’see… ya should have died. Stopped breathin’ and everything. But… ya got back up again.”
Elendira watched him carefully. He spoke uncertainly, seeming to choose his words carefully. There was something he wasn’t telling her. But why…?
And more importantly, how did she manage to survive?
“And you brought me here instead of finishing the job?” Elendira asked.
“Uh-- Yeah,” He said, looking almost guilty.
He cautiously let go of her wrists while keeping a close eye on her. She crossed her arms, subconsciously protecting her injured chest. Better to play nice. She wouldn’t be able to overpower him right now.
“And why is that?”
“Couldn’t just leave ya there. Had places to be,” Livio said, frowning and glancing away. “ ...Y’know, a thank you wouldn’t be amiss, I think…”
“Oh- goodness, where are my manners?” Elendira said, words dripping with sarcasm. “Thank you so very much for taking me up to be imprisoned on this Earth Federation ship, I really do appreciate it…!”
“It’s not like that—” Livio was interrupted by the sound of the door handle turning
Elendira quickly hopped back into the bed. Best not to be seen up and about. The last thing she wanted was to raise any suspicion any more than surviving that kind of injury on its own would.
The door opened to reveal two men in armored spacesuits, armed, and with visors covering most of their face.
“You. Come with us for questioning,” One of the armored men said, looking to Livio.
“Questioning?” He echoed.
“Yes. Come with us.”
“Wait-” Livio glanced at Elendira apprehensively. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Your friend will be fine,” He said, sounding impatient.
Friend? So he hadn’t told them anything about her? Why not?
“Hold on- Can ya at least watch her?”
The man grabbed Livio’s arm. Livio dwarfed them both, but still he raised up his hands and complied.
“She looks like she’s doing just fine,” The other guard said, giving Elendira a sideways glance.
“I’ll be fine on my own a little while. Promise,” Elendira said sweetly, playing up her weariness.
The guards pulled Livio out of the door, much to his dismay and continued protest, and the door shut behind them.
And, for the first time since waking up, she was alone, and could finally think.
She looked down at herself, taking inventory of her current state. Her first discovery was that her suit was completely stripped away. She held out her hand, tracing the shadows of the jagged white structure on her arm, visible only because of the bright hospital lights. She sighed. They probably tore the damn thing apart.
Idiots.
She started searching the room. She tugged at locked cabinets and looked under the chairs and behind the privacy curtain. No suit, no crossbow, nothing- the room was pristine and empty except for her. Of course. Livio may have been dumb enough to help her, but not dumb enough to leave her armed.
She looked down at herself, frustrated with the lack of mirrors in here. She was in a hospital gown, with bandages wrapped around her chest. Despite the thin fabric, she felt hot- uncomfortably so.
Elendira brought a hand to her chest, and slowly, carefully, pressed it against the bandages. Even through the layers she could feel the heat emanating from inside, like holding her hand over a running engine.
She sighed, then winced at the pain that followed. How long now had she been without restraints? A Day? Longer?
Well… there was nothing to be done about it now. She was fine, for now. She had to get the hell out of here before anything got worse, before they figured anything out about her. Who knew what Livio was telling them right now.
She had to find Knives and figure out what was going on out there.
Elendira made for the door, stopping to watch for a moment before stepping outside. The hallways were abuzz with frantic energy, people scurrying off with purpose in every direction. She watched for a moment, the currents simply moving past her. She’d have to find something else fast- she couldn’t imagine she’d get far wearing a hospital gown.
She slipped into the chaotic stream of people, dodging bodies and trying to get an idea of where this hallway might lead. She imagined the layout would be similar to the hollowed out shells of SEEDs ships she was used to, or maybe even the Ark. If it was, maybe she could find a shuttle or escape pod she could take.
As she turned a corner, she found herself face to face with another one of the guards. An unlucky turn, though the hallway itself was quieter than the main one it branched off from.
“Where are you going?” The guard asked gruffly, glowering down at her.
“Ah- I was just heading for the crew quarters.” She said, trying to glance past him.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“Mmm. Right- must have gotten mixed up in the confusion…”
“Just go back to your room,” The guard said, grabbing her arm with a gloved hand. “Last thing anyone needs right now is a missing patient.”
Elendira fought back the urge to twist his arm around then and there. It was bad enough she was stuck in this Earth ship’s medical facility in god only knows where, but now she was being manhandled by the guards? Unforgivable.
She would have to play her cards more carefully, though. There were too many bystanders.
She carefully placed her hand over his, and took a deep breath as she glared into his visor. She focused on him, and for just a moment, the room seemed to condense around them, like a black hole forming in his throat. There was an electric feeling in the air that sent a shiver down her spine, and made the guard tense and shake as though he were being electrocuted.
In that quiet space, like a pinprick of light, she could hear his breathing grow ragged and his heart pound his chest. He tried in vain to pull himself free of her.
“I have somewhere to be,” She said, voice low and commanding. “Don’t you?”
The guard pulled at his arm again, terrified, and a horrible, burning pain erupted from her chest that made her vision go dark for a moment. She let him go, and as he started to run, noticed a keycard dangling from his belt. She just barely managed to swipe it as he ran, snapping the cord it was attached by.
Excellent.
She took a closer look at the hallway as she caught her breath, alone again. By the looks of it, the room ahead was some kind of armory, accessible only to soldiers with the proper clearance.
She tapped the keycard on the sensor and the door opened with a quiet hum. Good.
Elendira slipped inside. Thankfully, it seemed there wasn’t anyone else here. They must have all been busy with whatever the situation planetside was. The more time that passed, the more she felt a knot of worry in her stomach.
The armory had various guns in cages and lockers of uniforms. She pawed through one of them, landing upon an armored space suit like she’d seen the others wearing. It wasn’t ideal, but it would let her fly under the radar-- and at this point, anything was better than this damn hospital gown.
She let out a sigh and put it on, uncomfortable and stiff. She’d be sure to make Livio pay for giving her no choice but to sneak around like this. She took a gun from one of the cages and strapped it to her belt, stood a little straighter, and left the way she came.
Now she could look for a way out in earnest. Nobody spared her a glance as she wandered the decks and it was only a matter of time before she managed to find what she was looking for. Navigating the ship was uncanny. Like something she’d done before, but everything was wrong- bright, sterile, and lively, with turns that went in opposite directions. Nothing like the worn dusty patchwork pathways of the ARK with the writhing mass of Plants roaring at its core.
It was only a matter of time before she found herself looking over the control panel for the shuttles. They were substantially more complicated than what she was used to, with red tape to try and work her way around. Everything she’d worked with had been hacked thoroughly decades and decades before she ever even got to touch them. She stared at the glowing blue screens in frustration, her stolen guard’s clearance only getting her so far.
In her search for access, she did find valuable information- first, a map of the ship, and second, that the ship was hovering just above Octovern rather than in orbit. Promising for her escape, perhaps- she wouldn’t get herself dumped in the middle of the desert or have to worry about re-entering the atmosphere. Perfect.
That said, there was no way she was accessing the shuttles. The escape pods seemed like a no-go as well- they required a level of emergency that needed to be validated by others, likely in much higher standing than whoever it was she’d stolen the card from.
But there was something that caught her eye. It wasn’t just a soldier she was posing as, but someone with some actual authority over piloting and landing the vessel. If she wanted, she could drop the ship’s anchor and have some kind of tether to the ground.
Good enough.
She smiled and deployed the ship’s anchor, and almost immediately an alarm started blaring. She heard the massive clunk! of the anchor getting shot out of the ship, and moments later, the entire ship lurched violently, nearly knocking her over. Time to get moving.
She ran back toward the deck where the anchor originated from, dodging confused and frantic crew along the way. The alarms were piercingly loud as she ran, echoing in her skull, and the oscillating red lights only served to confuse the silhouettes of passerbys.
She had to retrace her steps across the ship, through the soldier’s quarters then through to the medical bay, through one of the engine rooms, then she was just an airlock away from the aft deck where the anchor was.
Of course it had to be half the ship’s length away from her…
Elendira managed most of the trip unimpeded, too much frantic confusion happening around her for anyone to question where she was going. She stopped to catch her breath near the engine room, her chest screaming at her for respite. As much as she was better off than she would have expected, she was still badly injured. She should be more careful, or better yet, rest-- but that wasn’t an option now.
She stood braced against a corner, and glanced back behind her, and saw a familiar shock of white hair towering above the confusion, quickly approaching her.
Goddammit.
Elendira ducked into the engine room and stuck close to the walls, keeping an eye on him over her shoulder as she wandered in ever deeper. Hopefully she could just lose him in the maze of pipes and machinery.
She heard footsteps and froze, ducking behind a large pillar.
“Listen- I know you’re in here…” Livio called, words echoing off of metal.
Elendira glanced around the engine room, trying to find the exit. It was on the other side of the room, past a clearing that Livio was fast approaching, creeping forward into the engine room on high alert.
“Listen- I’m just as antsy to get outta here as you are, but trying to crash the ship-”
“I’m not trying to crash it- what do you take me for?”
Elendira leapt out from behind the pillar as he started to pass, bringing the butt of the gun down hard on his face as he turned on his heels to face her. He staggered for a moment, and she took the opportunity to dart past him.
It didn’t take him long to recover, though. He was running at her heels as she ducked under pipes and hopped catwalks, effortlessly keeping pace with her.
“Why are you doing this?” She huffed as she slid down the rail of a stairway.
“I can’t just let you go,” He said, exasperated.
“Gun me down then,” Elendira said, glancing over her shoulder. “They didn’t take your fangs, you’re more then capable-”
“Things changed—“ He grabbed her wrist, stopping her dead in her tracks.
“You couldn’t kill me and now you’re determined to follow me around like a lost puppy, is that it?” She laughed, and wrenched her hand free.
“No- that’s not- no!” Livio sputtered.
“That’s exactly it,” She said, smile turning to a scowl. “Well—”
“I don’t need a chaperone,” Elendira said, and unloaded three bullets into his chest.
It would only be a minor roadblock for him, but it would buy her some time. He reeled back, sputtering, swore under his breath, and scrambled after her.
Finally, she reached the airlock and slammed the button, looking over her shoulder. A new siren blared, mixing discordantly with the emergency siren that had been blaring this whole time. A loud rush of air swelled into the room being slowly revealed to her
She stepped inside, air throwing her hair around. She was close.
Now, she’d just have to find Knives. She didn’t know how long it had been since her fight with Livio and Razlo, but the fact that the fleet was here at all had to be a bad sign, didn’t it?
The door clicked behind her, and another rush of wind, substantially stronger this time, rushed in from in front of her. She watched as the bright blue sky unfolded beyond, other massive ships lining the sky. As soon as the door was open enough for her to fit through, she ran outside.
She braced herself against the railing, scanning the sky. The vast openness around her nearly made her dizzy. As she scanned the horizon, she couldn’t find Knives or the Ark. She could barely see Octovern for the ships swarming over it like wasps.
She could hear a distant but overwhelming static, though, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The static, garbled as it might be, held messages. But there were so many, all at once-- grief and joy and fear and heartbreak, all overwhelming her senses. It was like a wall of sheer sound, and it left her disoriented. She held on tight to the railing.
The Plants. It must be them.
She heard another rush of air, and turned to see the door cracking open behind her.
Livio. Of course.
She wouldn’t give him the luxury of time to stop her.
Elendira held out a hand, and a large red nail began to materialize there. She’d done this hundreds of times before, but it felt… different now. It made her chest ache, but it felt easier, almost, to call the nail in. Even in her inhibited state, being without her restraints made a notable difference.
She held the nail in her hand, backing up toward the ledge as Livio approached.
“Elendira… Come on...” He said, by way of warning.
The sound of her name on his tongue made her skin crawl. She took another step, this time with one foot on the railing.
“Ya still need help,” He said, alarmed, picking up the pace.
She smiled, and leapt off the edge.
She caught the anchor’s cable with the head of the nail and swung around to have a hand on either side of it, effectively using it to zipline down. The wind rushing past her was near-deafeningly loud, but even over it she could hear Livio’s frantic swearing from above.
The cable was thicker than her arm. The metal from the cable’s outermost sheath sparked against the nail occasionally, dancing dangerously across her fingertips as she zipped down. She was moving fast- almost too fast.
She turned to look over her shoulder just in time to see Livio sailing through the air, and land hard on the cable, using one of his guns to hook onto it, catching in the crook of the cross.
Damn. Just when she thought he wasn’t dumb enough to follow her.
Elendira whirled around, catching the cable on the head of the nail and swinging her body around to face him, nearly slipping in the process. A fall from this height had to kill even him, right?
He was quickly gaining on her, reaching out to grab at her with one hand.
Elendira kicked at his hand, nearly throwing him off of his precarious balance. He staggered, withdrawing his hand to hold on to the other side of his gun.
“I’m tryin’ to help ya, goddammit,” He yelled, just barely audible over the rushing wind around them.
The horizon was fast approaching, faster than she expected. At the rate they were going, they were both going to be crushed to death. They had to slow down, and quickly.
He held out a hand again, and Elendira stared at it.
She couldn’t take his help. She didn’t need it. She’d figure this out without him- hell, she could use him to break her fall, if she really needed to, all she needed to do was--
Livio lunged forward, using the momentum to grab her, yanking her arm. She yelped as pain shot through her chest, and her grip on the nail slipped. Livio pulled her up and she clung to his side, with no other option except falling.
She grabbed his shoulders and clambered up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled.
Elendira didn’t want his help. She didn’t want him following her, didn’t want him to save her again.
Livio struggled to wriggle free of her choking grasp.
“You’re gonna kill us both!” He hissed.
“Good,” Elendira seethed, tightening her grip.
If she could survive their fight she could survive this, too.
Livio sucked in a deep breath as best he could, and used his weight to swing back and forth. Was he trying to knock her off?
He braced his feet up on the cable, trying to use the soles of his boots as friction to slow them down.
The horizon line had passed them by now, and the ground was fast approaching.
Livio, despite being choked, held fast, though Elendira could feel his muscles start to relax, and see his fingers start to slip ever so slightly,
It wasn’t working. They weren’t slowing down enough. The ground was still approaching dizzyingly fast, horizon blurring past them.
Then, they both slammed into the ground, Livio first, crunching grotesquely beneath her. She bounced off of him, and landed hard on the sun baked earth, skidding against the rough sand. It knocked the wind out of her and rattled her skull.
As she lay, limbs outstretched and battered on the sand, her vision started to go black again.