Work Text:
Breaking away from the hurricane the group formed together, one particularly unshakable flurry of energy had passed through the run down building several times already. Carting various pieces of machinery, some from before the Golden Age even, until the right pieces were finally fitting together. There was a boost from a small airborne assistant & wires sparked, lighting up several ill-fitting screens currently clustered together, none of them fully functional alone. It was the most monstrous lump of incoherency to haunt the nightmares of any professional, but it worked.
Much as the same could be said of the man hopping onto the mechanical lump by any who didn't know him well. The ones who stared at him as if waiting for him to explode with the worst idea they ever heard & fear they would get dragged into if they weren't careful. Which was absurd. The few others he'd bring were elbow-deep in their own pursuits & everyone else would slow him down.
Besides that, the systems he was as much duct taping together today weren't what anyone would be looking for, but it's what he had been looking for. It wasn't complete but it had more than enough bulk as reading material. The journal of Clovis Bray.
Fingers curled around the edges like a vice, thumb braced above the "next" page button in the lower corner like a hawk staring down the next meal. He was intent to sit & read until either his Ghost had to rez him a new ass, or his magnificent Dark Horse of Iron came for it himself. Even then, Timur didn't plan on coming easily. Something Felwinter was well used to.
If he could fathom anything beyond the intolerable impatience waiting for the files to boot up his mouth would be watering. Even just a fraction of the workings of the Bray mind could be enough to save tens of thousands of lives - maybe even end the war! The thought brought a burst of laughter from him. There was very little "maybe" about that one. Regardless, even merely seeing how such a genius mind viewed the world could be inspiring enough for he & his friends to raise the bar several lengths on their own. Never underestimate the effect a man like Clovis Bray could have. Never.
Despite it's easygoing pace the sun was unable to stop its light from beginning to peel away from the land.
In the slowly creeping shadows the last file page stuck flickering in a repetitive pulse on the screen, the "next" button tapping on & on as if it was an old gun running on blanks. No part of his body ached. Everything was as numb as his face was blank. His eyes were stiff, dry, & foggy, but did not blink. His entire body forgot how. His Ghost spoke to him but he couldn't hear anything for thirty nine minutes & by then the tiny tech assistant had gone as quiet as Timur himself.
-
The mountain that had become a natural monument to all his heart's more fervent desires now competed against his bloodflow for chill factor. The mountain lost.
He navigated the halls on pure muscle memory, no thought to exactly where to go, his body carried him to the one place that he had gone more than any other.
The door was always unlocked with Felwinter having little worry for being bothered as no one dare interrupt him except the few with a standing invitation. He stood at one of his many work desks, glancing up only to look over at the other desks, five of which had their lights on as he quickly scanned them for parts that might fit the project immediately in front of him.
He didn't need to look to know who entered. It was the same man who had left earlier. "Did you find what you wanted?" The same question he always asked, in the same teasing tone, expecting the same negative answer delivered in ridiculous optimism. When it didn't come, nor did the usual two hour rant afterwards, Felwinter paused only briefly before he continued tinkering. "Tell me you at least crafted something from spare parts a safe blast radius away from priority consoles." He always did, Felwinter knew, but that was why he asked. When silence was yet again his answer he finally looked towards the doorway.
Timur stared at his face as if there was nothing else in the world, but not in the way he normally did. Everything he processed happening in front of him went into the dark bottomless pit that everything inside him had fallen into. It registered. He knows what was said. There was so much to say, all lost to the pit. He couldn't even cry.
While his eyes were steadfast Felwinter could feel the lights across his body slightly dim with dread. Slowly he turned partly away from his table, offering an open arm quietly, afraid to move too fast. Something was far too terribly wrong.
Reflexively searching for a way to respond, Timur was sure some part of him was screaming but it was the part of him that held a sense of justice & it had been locked in a box, buried alive someplace within the pit.
Timur gives a small jolt forward with half a step, but can't lift his legs enough. The spiritual corpse of the man he was only this morning held on to his ankles. Standing there, looking at the only place he wants to be, but it's across a room he can't fully step into.
Felwinter's outstretched hand closed, taking one more concerned look over the man before he calmly unhooked his project from the test generator & turns it off. Taking soft steps to Timur's invisible chains Felwinter pauses in not fully knowing what would be the best course of action. Timur's face was unchanging, telling Felwinter that questions were still off the table. He gently folds his arms around Timur, careful to respect damage that he could not see. Timur could have held together through anything but not being held like glass. The wails would have been embarrassing if he could find a sense of self respect in the dark pit.
-
Timur didn't know how long ago they had moved to the couch or when he stopped sobbing, only that the ache that came out of the pit never left his chest. To say nothing of his soul.
Pulling away from the embrace only a bit he slowly managed to drag his swollen eyes up to the metal face that hadn't once stopped staring at him in more deep seated concern than he's ever seen it.
The darkness of the pit in Timur blasted into glaring light. Everything ran through his head in rapid fire; traps & sabotage, resetting people like training animals - the iron fist meticulously planning on wringing free will from all of humanity… every thought applying to the metal man in front of him being in line for all that torture, if he hadn't endured it already in the first life with no existing memory to it. Torture that would continue if Clovis could ever crawl back into power. Tears began again, silent this time.
As Felwinter tried to find words, Timur brought both his hands to the sleek black face. A face as much on the cutting board as any Exo's was. But not every metal man was built the same, Timur had learned.
"Clovis Bray is an Exo." A hoarse whisper. "We need to find him." Lips tightening in slowly boiling rage. "So I can kill him." Choking out one final sob, then never another. Not for that monster.
Felwinter, still not knowing what brought this on, held his face in kind, quietly saying "we're going to be okay."
"Yes," Timur agreed hastily, deep in anger, "we will, because-" cut off by a metal forehead pressing into his own, never breaking the tranquil eye contact. There was no more sobbing. Only inexplicable release and a softness that he recognized but was experiencing unlike ever before. Where everything else had numbed to the upheaval and that softness was the only thing remaining.
It was okay to just lie for a bit.
They were going to be okay.