"Blessed be." Aranea bowed briefly to the shamans before entering a dark den.
With the fall of the city, the rest of the Wolf Tribe forces poured into the city. And with the coming of the tribe, the shamans took for themselves one of the destroyed basements in the middle of the city, with the permission of captain Ivar. Stones were thrown away, the basement itself was crudely secured, and images of the Spirits were carved out of stone and put on pedestals around the room.
This was where Aranea found Sonya, deep in the night. Kate and Leila were both busy helping with restoration efforts. Kaleb and most of her pack were busy licking their wounds and sleeping. Aranea briefly checked upon the wounded members of her pack, sent a report about today’s activities to the command, signed permission for the engineers to refill and fix the broken power armors, and put Tiny, Ultis, and Sly in charge of refilling supplies for all three packs. Frankly, she could not have bothered, field commander Frederick had already sent people to resupply the packs, leaving Aranea and her pack members relieved of all duties, save for resting. This was a pure surreal situation, Janine drilled her pack about how to operate in an occupied city before, but right now at every turn and corner stood soldiers of the regular army, while the working teams and locals were busy rebuilding. If not for a report, Aranea herself would have gone to sleep.
The wolf hag was nearly falling from exhaustion, but allowed the shamans to briefly bless her before stepping into the utter darkness of the den. Sonya was standing on one knee before the image dedicated to the Spirit of Loss. Both of her elbows rested on her right knee, while her left leg was pressed against the floor.
"Wolf hag." Sonya greeted Aranea without turning to her.
"Svetlana sent a report," Aranea said, sitting next to Sonya. They were all alone in the den at that time. All the other wolfkins were either lining up to greet the arrival of warlord Zero or were long asleep by now, "You threatened to rough up your soldier."
"She wanted to refuse the augments," Sonya kept praying, "I simply persuaded her to choose otherwise. With words and some implied threat."
"Heh," Aranea chuckled, "I can’t let that slide. Once my head is clear, I will assign some punishment to you," She fell silent for a moment, "Praying about something specific?"
"In a way," Sonya responded, "I nearly died today. When the King’s beam missed us, I promised myself that if I survived, I will try to make up for my mistake."
"A mistake?" Aranea tilted her head.
"Yes. You know that I have a brother?" Aranea shook her head, and Sonya sat cross-legged, rocking her neck, "Figures, I rarely speak about him, since he is one of the Crippled and his family and I… My brother’s name is Roggo, he is younger than me by three years. His wife was a good woman. Bit older than me, she gave birth to cubs eight times in her lifetime. Roggo and she were… very passionate," A smile touched Sonya’s lips at the memory of something, "Out of their thirty cubs, seven were healthy enough to survive. She was not a wolf hag, nor even a scout you see, the rate of survival of her offspring and their quality was always going to be low. Such is life… Out of seven, five are still alive. And with my stupid mouth and wicked words, I scared one and put the second one against me. We barely spoke for years after this."
"I don’t think that you can seriously hurt someone with words. Sure, they might be angry at you for a while, but no one would fret over some words…" Aranea tried to cheer up Sonya.
"Really now?" The scout turned to look at her. She briefly looked around before continuing, "What if I find Sly now and lie to his face, claiming that Yuki never once cared for him? That he will never become a "true man", whatever this is, and that he was always a burden to Yuki, and it is because of him that she is dead? Words can hurt, Aranea. Words can ruin lives."
"Then my advice to you is this. If you have done something that you regret or something grievously bad. Own it at least. Try to apologize, show that it eats you up inside. Show that you care enough to try and make amends. I have no idea if this work, Spirits know no one is obligated to forgive anyone, but at least try to mend the damage that you’ve done."
"Now you sound like my mother. Don’t forget who is the older one here, wolf hag. But you are right," Sonya became serious, "She was a good person. My mother and father were good people. My brother is a good person. I wonder, can I become a good person, too?"
"Never too late to try," Aranea told her, standing up. She came out of the den, saying farewells to the shamans.
The street outside was crowded. Black-, brown-, and rust-colored forms stood by the side of the road, loudly shouting greetings to the coming troops. Other soldiers from the Reclamation Army were also present, but unlike the wolfkins, the regular army stood with dignity, saluting the approaching warlords.
The Alpha team were coming, wolfkins clad in the newest black power armors, with a long red slash that reached all the way from their shoulder to the waist, indicating the fact that they serve warlord Alpha. The Omega team walked side by side with them, thirty wolfkins walking among the waves of wolfkins clad in black power armors. The Omega team's power armors were designed with elegance in mind, with gleaming silvery forms that could easily blend in with the environment once the camouflage device was activated. Aranea focused her crimson eye on the Omega team, curious to see if their armor was truly made of nanomachines. This was a fool's errand, but one of the omegas turned to her, waving his hand in greeting and making the embarrassed wolf hag take a step back into darkness.
A massive armored vehicle carried two armored forms, towering even among fellow warlords. Alpha, the leader of the biggest pack. Her already massive body was encased in heavy armor plates that looked like they could endure a nuclear explosion. The claws on her three-fingered paws were coming free, massive blades made of bone capable of ripping and tearing even through the chitin plates of a sand reaper. Alpha could not retract them even if she tried, the length of her claws was simply too big. Her helmet allowed a crimson topknot to stand up freely, Alpha’s legs looked like columns of steel. Just like on her arms, the claws on her legs were coming free, scratching through the metal of the vehicle. Energy cannons were installed on the outer and inner sides of her power armor's vambraces, energy cables that powered them ran to a small generator on the warlord’s back.
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Next to her stood the tall and lean form of warlord Zero. If Alpha’s power armor plates looked like they could easily belong to a heavy tank, the power armor of Zero looked deceptively thin, her entire armor lacked any sharp curves, encompassing her body like a second skin. On her waist were several shock batons and a couple of pistols, behind her back was strapped an anti-matter sniper rifle, the famous "Tank Taker". Zero’s helmet was made in a round form that utterly covered her entire head, leaving no hole for her supposedly mighty chompers. Zero was an odd person, every image of her face was scrubbed away from the records at her request.
Zero commanded no warriors, but Aranea met her once, when she was a cub. Zero brought tons of sweets into the village, allowing all the cubs to feast at will. During this feast, she carefully asked Aranea questions, trying to determine whether Aranea was fitting into the Tribe.
Alpha saw Janine among the welcome party and gestured to her. The warlord leaped from a place, landing on the vehicle with the grace of a falling bomb. Alpha allowed Janine to grip her wrist in greeting, while Zero simply hugged the warlord. Valerye was nowhere to be seen, but this sign of unity inspired Aranea nonetheless. The armored fist was ready. Once the city is secured, they will hunt down both Yasen and Blaguna. Nothing could save the regulators now.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted Tiny and Gin standing in the crowd. Tiny sat on Gin’s shoulders, waving her paw to get Alpha’s attention in vain, the warlord was all too busy looking forward. It was Zero who instead greeted Tiny and the other wolfkins who came to meet the warlords.
"Wolf hag," A voice near Aranea said, and she saw Velka nearby. The scout quickly stood at attention and reported, "Wolf hag Olesya requested you to meet her."
****
Aranea knocked on the door leading to Olesya’s room. When someone unlocked several locks on the metal door, her ears picked up on movement. Aranea heard heavy footsteps walking away from the door and the cracking of a bed.
"Open!" Olesya shouted, and Aranea stepped inside. Normally, all soldiers were supposed to live in a military camp or temporary barracks, but Olesya and her pack were assigned to this run-down motel. Till Ingo was the one paying for their stay. Despite the old look of the building outside, the room itself was pristine and clear, not a trace of dust was in the air. A backpack with items lay carelessly on the table, and the massive power armor stood to the left of the entrance, nearly holding the ceiling with the metal head. All thoughts about why the Shell was here left Aranea’s head the moment she saw her friend.
The upper left part of Olesya’s head was replaced with gleaming metal augmetics, and a red lens replaced her left eye. Her right hand was fully made of metal, a shining parody of a wolfkin arm that was now connected to the iron circle around Olesya’s right shoulder. A line ran across Olesya’s body, all the way from her right shoulder to the left side of her waist. Above this line was flesh and fur. Below this line was metal. Her right side was replaced with the same gleaming metal, her metal legs were elegantly made copies of wolfkin legs. The metal legs and paw even had retractive claws on them. Near the bed stood a table with several books about military tactics on it.
"Hi, Ari," Olesya smiled at her, and Aranea heard a new noise. Click, clack, click, clack. The sound was coming from Olesya’s body, giving her an uncanny resemblance to a working clock. The entire left side of Olesya’s head was replaced with weird metal skin that mimicked the facial expression with perfect accuracy, "Sorry for keeping you in the dark for so long. This is a new me."
"Who cares," Aranea hugged Olesya, and the wolf hag wrapped her arms around her. Even sitting, Olesya was bigger than her now. The body of the wolf hag was hot, like a steaming engine. Her muscles, in the natural part of her body, felt like tight knots of entangled ropes. The clicking and clanking never stopped, not even when Olesya was still. At least one of her shoulder blades was replaced by something metallic, and Aranea had no idea what else was different in the body of her friend. But she could feel a beating heart in Olesya’s chest, "I should have been there for you."
"But you were," Olesya chuckled, releasing Aranea and pointing to a nearby chair, "and I'm still freaking out about..." She pointed at herself. Aranea noticed something in Olesya’s mouth, the left side of her mouth was made of metal, the metal was intertwined with the soft meat of a still living tongue, "This."
"Can it be fixed?" Aranea asked immediately, "Maybe we can save for vat-grown parts and…"
"Ari, the common vat-grown parts are infertile. And the superior ones are... They cost an arm and a leg," Olesya said with sadness, "There is… there is only one way for me for now," She sighed, forcing a smile on her face, looking like the old Olesya for a moment, "Besides, this body has its advantages. I no longer have any need for sleep," Her voice cracked, but Olesya quickly corrected herself and pointed at the books, "Tons of new stuff to learn. Never again will I let my pack down. That’s part of the reason why I called you."
"Martyshkina." Aranea guessed and Olesya nodded.
"Yes. Come daylight, the warlord will be taken away for treatment in Iterna. The pack is leaderless right now, and Ivar already told me he expected me to step in," Olesya reached for a large plushy toy on her bed and hugged it, "It’s not that I am incapable… But if any of the wolf hags refuse to accept me as temporal leader, I will have to fight. And I can’t show this…" She pointed at her body anew, "…To the people I don’t trust."
"Maybe they will bow simply because you are bigger than them," Aranea pressed a finger to the lower lip, trying to think of something, "Or how about I step in as your champion?"
Olesya let go of the toy and grabbed her sides, laughing out loud. Aranea gave her a brief glance before joining her in ringing laughter.
"Listen, no offence, oh mighty champion," Olesya wiped out a tear of laughter from the corner of her natural eye, "But you ain’t that strong, Ari."
They both jumped when someone loudly and impatiently knocked on the door. Olesya leaped to her power armor, stopping only at the last second. She half groaned in anger, putting on a black shirt and pants and demanding to know who this was.
"Annie," The person behind the door replied, "Are you going to open the door or should I wait until tomorrow morning? It hurts to stand, by the way."
Olesya looked at Aranea pleadingly, and the wolf hag nodded, walking toward the door, while Olesya retreated deeper into the room, showing that it was fine to let Annie in. Annie walked inside, carrying a package with food and drinks. She nodded to Aranea.
"Nice metal," Annie commented about Olesya’s look. No shock was in her voice. The wolf hag limped to the table and put the package on, "So… We kind of got off on the wrong foot. You looked after my sister well enough, and I acted as a total asshole toward you."
"I kind of deserved it for letting her…" Olesya started saying.
"No, you’re not." Aranea cut her off.
"Yeah, I agree. Anyway, care to let bygones be bygones and let me make amends?" Annie asked, showing the bottles.
"Sure thing!" Aranea said, before Olesya could stop Annie. Despite her tarnished reputation, Annie was the undeniable leader of the Dragena's pack, and her words carried weight with the other wolfkins, "As for amends, how about you vouch for Olesya in…"