It was as if a glass barrier shattered, lifting a veil from Kane and Luna's perception.

"Have we been talking like this the whole time?" Kane wondered in shock, still not opening his mouth. His voice was simply resonating in both of their heads instead.

"I… I think so?" Luna responded, a little unsure, also without opening her mouth. "I— I feel like I've forgotten how to talk out loud!" she suddenly panicked a little while covering her mouth with her hands.

"Calm down, Luna," Kane frowned thoughtfully for a moment, before continuing, "Why don't you try talking to the wall over there? Or yourself, or anything else, so long as it's not me."

In unknown situations like this one, Luna happily looked towards Kane for guidance, so, despite some confusion, she didn't hesitate to follow his orders. Turning around, she focused her attention on the wall, and pretended to talk to it, "I hope this works, mister wall."

Remarkably, she actually did open her mouth to talk this time. Smiling brightly, she turned back to Kane, exclaiming happily, "It worked! It felt awkward as hell, but it worked!"

Only, she quickly noticed she was once again talking without opening her mouth and cursed under her breath, for which she actually opened her mouth, causing her to curse a second time.

Kane grinned at her behaviour and explained his suspicion, "I think this strange connection between us allows us to talk like this, and it's somehow making it seem more normal than talking with our mouths. We can still talk out loud to each other, but it’s no longer our first instinct. We’ll need to practice speaking normally again…"

Luna's eyebrows twitched. "You know… at least being with you is never going to be boring," she groaned and muttered something about the absurdity of learning to talk at their age.

* * *

So, they got to work. It took them a full half an hour to actually utter their first words to each other again, but as soon as they got the hang of things it went a lot easier. An hour later, they were able to easily switch between talking out loud and talking telepathically.

"So who are we even going to ask about all this?" Luna growled while slumped over the dinner table with her arms outstretched, splayed across the surface.

"I mean, where do you go for information about crazy pink sex runes you received in a dream?" she continued with exasperation. "Neither of us is a netrunner, so searching the internet is gonna be unsafe."

She was talking out loud to make sure this method of communication remained their instinctual first choice, lest they mess up in front of other people. She had changed her crop top for a jacket that covered her stomach. She couldn't just appear with a tattoo out of nowhere, after all.

Kane had to laugh at her explanation of the facts, and then shrugged, "We'll ask old man Cedric tomorrow. His knowledge is strangely extensive for someone in the Core Formation stage."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He was currently in the kitchen, making them some breakfast. Luna may technically be the servant between them, but she was a terrible cook, and far better at eating. Fortunately, Kane didn't mind. He enjoyed the peace of cooking.

"Alright, but we're never going to tell Cedric and Nina about having to relearn talking, you hear?" Luna threatened, with narrowed eyes, lazily following her master's movements in the kitchen.

"You giving orders to your master again?" Kane taunted, grinning. "Is that what a good Valkyrie does?"

"Yes!" Luna nodded, unashamed. "And I'm serious! We'll never live it down!"

"Look on the bright side," Kane chuckled as he walked up to the table with two plates and put one of them in front of Luna, forcing her to sit up.

"Now we can always talk without anyone overhearing, even without the helmets," he continued while taking his own seat and starting to eat.

Luna blinked as realization set in before an excited grin appeared. "You're right! That's awesome!" Her body visually perked up from it's previously slumped state. If the food in front of her wasn't so delicious, she might have even jumped up.

"And it won't even be obvious we're doing it now!" she continued while ravenously munching down on the food in front of her. "You know what, we still don't know what's going on here, which is worrying and all, but so far, it's been pretty good, right?"

"I suppose so," Kane frowned, still unable to let his worries go. "But that's not too surprising. That voice from my dream said it was a gift and it wouldn't be much of a gift it wasn't helpful. But we still don't know who this person is, or what price they want in return."

"Well, we'll figure it out together, Master…!" Luna comforted without stopping the stuffing of her face. "No matter what happens, it's you and me, right?"

"Right," Kane grinned and nodded as he looked at her with something nearing love. 'I really don't know what I'd do without her. Going through the last few years on my own would have made me a far different man…'

Not long after they were done eating, they left the apartment.

They had a busy day ahead.

* * *

For the next few hours, Kane and Luna travelled through the city, completing various odd jobs. They checked in with some of their contacts, intimidated troublemakers, and bought items they couldn't or didn't want to get from the Cyberkins.

Taking the opportunity, they also paid a visit to a tattoo parlour, where they paid the artist to just let them sit in the room for a little while. After they left, Luna was once again walking around with an exposed navel. This way, they had an excuse for her new tattoo, and Luna kind of liked the new look.

It made her feel closer to Kane.

They considered themselves lucky to have avoided an encounter with Father this morning. In fact, the usually bustling Cyberkins building was eerily quiet, with only a few members scattered around who where, as usual, avoiding eye contact with Kane and Luna.

They didn't know why, but that wasn't too surprising. With Father keeping them in the dark about most things, and the other Cyberkins avoiding them like the plague, they never really knew much about the goings on in their own organization.

Unfortunately, they noticed they had a tail. Worse, there was nothing they could do about it—at least for now.”

Father could track their movements, and their tail clearly received the tracking codes from him, which were tiny digital markers embedded in their bikes’ systems. It was fine for now, though. They weren't doing anything that couldn't get back to Father. Not yet.

Soon, they would head for their rendezvous with Nova, the second stage beastling they met yesterday, and before that, they would disable their trackers and lose their tail.

Obviously, that would severely piss off Father, but it was better than the alternative. They needed to delay Father finding out about their new techniques as long as possible.

After completing their smaller errands, Kane spent half an hour finding and disabling the trackers on their bikes.

Next, they started racing through the streets in an attempt to lose their tail. They even decided to use the opportunity to test the range of their telepathy by splitting up and making it even harder on their pursuers.

Finally, after they were sure they lost Father’s goons, they reunited in the Outer Ring. Outside a towering communal building, Nova waited, arms crossed, her foot tapping impatiently against the pavement.