Ren wasn’t even sure what direction she’d taken-off in. She knew the four SkyFortresses were behind her, but whether she’d gone north or south, or any other way, was lost on her. The further she got, though, the more she started to notice the absurdly intense duality of conflicting emotions fighting for dominance inside her.

I have to get back to Gabriel…

What was I thinking!? Why did I do that in front of an Eidolon!?

I need…I need to be by Gabe’s side…I have…to…

I’m losing my mind… Furion must be so disappointed in me…

Gabe…

Her frantic flight slowed to a stop and she found herself clutching at her head, and cried out, “What the Hell is happening to me!?”

She thought her heart would explode in her chest. It raced so fast, it felt more like a vibration in her head than a drumbeat. The ringing in her ears grew louder; the intensity of the urgency to go back overwhelmed the panic of her need to escape.

She couldn’t know that the scleras of her eyes had gone nearly black. Shadows in her periphery grew darker; the distant whispers louder and closer. Her whole body started to tingle and felt hollow, then hot, pouring out from her core until her fingertips and toes felt like they were burning.

And she started to fall.

It was her good fortune that Furion and Seth had been on their way down when Rylen sent her fleeing, and went after her out of concern. Furion cut the auto-follow tether to the skiff his brother was on and it slowed as he sped up, catching her well-before she could hit the ground; if he was calling out to her, she couldn’t hear it – the whispers overwhelmed her senses. Her helmet plummeted, dropped from her hand as she slipped in and out of consciousness. She eventually lost the battle though, and her eyes stayed closed; the whole of her went limp in the Captain’s arms.

She wasn’t sure how long had passed when she came-to. She knew she was inside somewhere – she could see the walls and ceiling of some small, enclosed space – and the lights were quite a bit dimmer than the full brightness of the noontime sun. She still felt like she was burning-up; sweat beaded on her skin, but at least the dark aura in her eyes had gone away.

With the mechanical limbs on the backs of her shoulders, lying flat on her back was impossible. She was propped-up at an angle, and her head was set atop the skullcap of her retrieved helmet. She thought she could hear something finally, other than the hurricane-force shrieking hisses that had taken her out before. Then, a familiar face came into her sights, and for a brief moment, she felt relief for it…then dread.

“Ren…?” Furion asked quietly. He’d gotten out of his armor at some point, and did a quick scan of her temperature with his overlay, “You’re burning up. What the Hell?”

“It’s…not right…” She managed, trying to move her hand.

“Is she awake?” Seth asked.

“Keep your eyes on the horizon.” Furion snapped back at him, and the teen quickly whipped-around in the pilot’s seat, anxiously flying that ship himself. The Captain looked back down at his partner, “Ren, you’re not making any sense. What’s not right?”

“…M-me… It’s…in me…” She answered, heart still racing, making her dizzy.

“You need to breathe. Your pulse is going too fast.” He told her, and reached to take her hand; he pulled it to his chest, and held it there carefully, “Ignore everything else, just listen to my voice. In…and out… In… …And out.”

Ren did her best. It felt like forever before anything started to change, and her chest started to hurt as her heart slowed to a quick-normal pace. She could feel her eyes watering as the swimming-sensation in her head normalized, and a raging sense of despair filled the void of her panic. She clamped-down on the hand her partner held, and turned her eyes to look at him finally, “It’s…inside… The… Scy…”

“Take it easy. You’re safe here. Close your eyes and keep breathing.”

It was impossible to stay relaxed with those thoughts clouding her mind though, and she swallowed a painful lump in her throat, “I…I understand now… I…couldn’t tell…before…but it’s…so obvious now…”

“What is it?”

She took a deep breath, “The…need…” She started again, and struggled to sit up. Furion helped her get there, and she slapped her other hand down between her knees to keep steady so she wouldn’t just topple forward instead. She choked a few more breaths, coughed to clear her throat, and blinked hard as she shook her head. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to get the words out, so she did the one thing she didn’t want to do, and cut-off the color-augment on her hair. To say that Furion’s alert-level was through the roof at the sight of it would be an understatement, and with that, she put the color back again before Seth could see. Ren looked around and realized she was on a small ship; it must’ve been the one she saw the brothers packing-up earlier in the hangar, and she felt horrendous all over again, “It’s burrowed…so deep…I couldn’t tell where I ended and it began…” She started again, quieter than before, barely audible by her partner even though he was right beside her, “I didn’t even realize…what it was doing, until Lord Rylen sent me away… The further away I got, the more insistent my urge to go back became… No, not just back, but back to Gabe…even though, in my head, I wanted nothing more than to get as far away from him as I could go, so I wouldn’t get into more trouble…”

Furion could hear his own heart in his ears then; it was all a bit much to take in, but he listened anyway.

“I was so stupid… It told me that it…was just going to get what it wanted the hard way, if I didn’t cooperate… I thought it was just being cryptic as it died…but it actually…” She started again, a few tears falling from her eyes, “It must’ve gotten inside me somehow…and it’s…been influencing me; bending me to do what it wanted… Making me think that how I felt for Gabe was more than what it was…twisted my relationship with him into something I wouldn’t normally go through with; not like this, not knowing how you’d feel… I was…so sure…it was what I wanted…that I convinced myself you were the problem… I…understand now…”

“What are you talking about…?”

“Scyrexian…”

Furion’s eyes narrowed as his own worst fears were confirmed, “I didn’t want to think it…”

“It…it wants Gabriel… It’s obsessed with him…” She continued, glancing up at her partner with a look of fear in her eyes, “I don’t…know that I would’ve slept with him if not for this thing wanting to get to him… The…frustration I had for being questioned about why I wanted to be with him… The feeling like I hadn’t gotten what I wanted from him… Gods, and the nightmares…that must be what it saw as it was killing everyone… I’ve made a mess of everything…and I…can only see it now, after I can’t take it back…” She said, even as she tried to keep herself together. She pulled her hand up from the floor and rubbed her eyes on her armored wrist, “And it’s still making me want for him, even now… But I know…it’s not me… It’s not me… I’m so sorry…”

The anger and frustration inside the Captain faded to relief, only to be replaced by dread and anxiety, “But you’re still in control…right?”

“I can feel it, clawing behind my eyes… It wants out, but it’s like there’s something blocking it…I don’t know what… It’s just bleeding into me, now…” Ren answered, and looked the man straight in the eyes, “I don’t know if it’s safe for me to be around him…to be around anyone… If I get close to Gabe again, I might…get overwhelmed…”

Furion gave the hand he held a reassuring squeeze, but he still reached up with the other to pinch between his eyes, “I knew you were acting weird. I just didn’t expect it to be this extreme…”

“I’m so sorry…”

He just shook his head and gave a sigh, “Well, you know now. Maybe that’s enough. Eight years of us and, before now, you never looked at another man, even though you said you might. I had…started to believe you never would. Maybe I was right after all.”

Ren just looked away, “The level of shame I have in me right now…growing, swelling, overwhelming… Thinking about what we did, I can’t help but feel like I’ve done something horribly wrong… And Gabe, poor Gabe… Before the fight, I figured he might refuse me if he knew you and I were already together, and this…thing kept me from saying anything, so adamant was its need to get to him… I can’t even imagine how hurt he’s going to be when he…finds out it wasn’t entirely me…”

“…So, you don’t want him. For certain.”

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She shook her head, “Not like…that… Not, knowing it would hurt you.”

“See?” Seth’s voice suddenly sounded, “I told you.”

Furion snapped his head up, “How long have you been listening?”

“I have access to my own apps on the World Cloud now. I…might’ve downloaded one that amplifies and focuses sound to help me hear better. I was using it with the P.O.V. footage, thinking I could hear something that wasn’t obvious at surface-level. Mr. Gabriel once commented that the void rift was whispering, and I couldn’t hear it then.” The teen answered, “…Sorry.”

The Captain could only shake his head, and he looked back to Ren, “…So, now what? How do we get it out of you?”

“I…don’t know… The way that it’s fighting to make me go back, but can’t…it’s like it’s stuck. Trapped. Roaring and thrashing from inside a cage, unable to act on its own will.”

“It must be like I theorized.” Seth chimed-in again, “When it got to the Magi with Mr. Ianori, it didn’t pour itself into them. The Magi pulled it out of him. It must need an afflicted person to draw it out. That would explain it saying Miss Ren didn’t have to be willing. If Mr. Gabriel finds out it’s got her, he might just volunteer himself just to save her.”

“Then, no matter what happens, we can’t completely get rid of it.” Furion supposed grimly, “To get it out of Ren would mean someone else has to take it, and then they’re trapped. Seeing how quickly it got rid of Ianori as a host, and how powerful it was with the Magi…we absolutely cannot let an afflicted get-hold of it.”

“What are we going to do then…?”

“We’ll think of something. I’m sure of it.” Furion answered, trying to sound reassuring. He pulled her hand up from his chest and kissed her gloved knuckles, “Right now, you’re probably the safest place to keep it stuck. If the worst it can do is make you think you need to be with Lugios – only to be unable to act on what it wants to make him do, even after having nearly a full 24 hours to try – then I think we can manage. And…going back to earlier; now that you know what it’s trying to make you do, you can probably tell it to go fuck itself.”

Ren wanted to laugh, but her chest still hurt too much, so her eyes just watered instead, “…So…you’re not mad at me…? I said such cruel things to you…”

“I think, if you hadn’t trained me over the last several years to look the other way while you had your occasional fun with Ravan, it would be a different situation.” He answered, only to see Seth whip his head around again with a look of shock on his face. Furion held his free hand up and gestured for his brother to keep his eyes forward again, and Seth grudgingly turned. The Captain put his attention back to Ren, “The words you said didn’t sound like your own. Maybe the sentiment was there, and Scyrexian amplified them in an effort to put distance between us so it could make you could focus on Lugios…but it wasn’t something you would’ve said if it was up to you. …I can forget it.”

“I’ll…break things off with Ravan, too.” Ren offered, finally feeling a little bit of true relief, “I don’t want to hurt you with it… I should’ve considered how you felt more, instead of thinking I was entitled to act that way because I told you about it before we got together…”

“…You would do that?”

She nodded easily, and inhaled a quick, but throat-ragged breath, “If you can suffer through the agony of four broken ribs without collapsing, as you try and knock some sense into me…then I can do at least this much.”

That just made him huff a quiet laugh, and he bent his head down to touch his brow to hers, “Adrenaline is a Hell of a drug. Welcome back.”

.

[Thank you, everyone, for your attention.] Far’nah’s voice spoke on that televised announcement, [It grieves me to report, at this critical hour, that the Luminary Council has made a clear attempt on my life.] Footage replayed from the ground, inside the town and at a slight distance, as her flagship crashed without cause. The camera then turned abruptly to catch sight of the two SkyFortresses and the smaller diplomatic vessel as they passed overhead, [After failed negotiations and threats from the Fourth Wing at Oceanside, it appears that they would rather try to kill me than follow their own creed. They’ll try to claim this as an accident, and that they couldn’t have done anything to make the ship crash…but we all know that the Eidolon are capable of more than they let on. The Fourth himself, Xanarken Tellan, clearly sabotaged the ship as the mission passed by Stoneface Bluffs. We knew to suspect that he might because we sent the ship off while we weren’t aboard.] Regulus stood by her side resolutely, [And, true to our concerns, it went down soon after take-off. I call for the Fourth Wing’s Eidolon to be cast-down! He’s already tried to establish a scapegoat in Gabriel Lugios, sending him into Kitez like a lamb to the slaughter, knowing nothing and less about us and our history. He fears strong leadership and resents that Kitez won’t bow to the Council. Down with the Fourth! Down with Xanarken Tellan!]

Gabriel stared at the main-screen, slack-jawed and horrified, “…Holy fucking Hell…”

Xanarken stood nearby, leaning against his usual perch on the head-rest of a different chair, “At this point, I could write a book on why you need to get installed into the Eidolon System. If you hadn’t been physically stuck aboard the Aegis, you would’ve known about the announcement as soon as it happened.”

“Why didn’t you come tell me?”

“Did you already forget how you had to bring me aboard manually in the first place?” The Fourth countered, “Rylen never made exceptions for the Eidolon. It’s his dog-and-pony-show and he runs it how he wants.”

Gabriel just looked devastated and pained, “…This is all so messed up… And the way those three Captains acted like they already knew this happened, when Rylen released the lockdown and all the alerts started pouring onto my feed…”

“Well, Rylen would’ve known, since the lockdown doesn’t impact him. He probably told them right before you found out.”

“…He was literally counting down to it, too…” The blonde sighed, and gripped the drive-stick a bit tighter by his knee, “Like he was hoping to humiliate me in front of them.”

“Honestly, he probably was. He’s mostly indifferent to you as a person, but he hates it when people stick their noses in his business.”

“I wasn’t there for his business.” Gabriel argued, “I was there for Ren.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been?”

The Vice threw his hands up, and Maeve shuddered from the turbulence. Gabriel quickly grabbed the stick again to level it out, and heaved a panicked breath. After being sure his soul hadn’t left his body, he glared back at the Fourth, “You were all-too eager to get aboard the Aegis when I got there. If you didn’t think I could or should go, you wouldn’t have helped me get landing permission.”

“I didn’t, though.”

“You told me how to get their attention!”

“You already knew to do that. I was just stating the obvious.” Xanarken shrugged, “It’s the exact same thing you did with the Bulwark weeks back.”

“Man, you really must be hurting to get me to use a mantle if you’re making me this miserable for not using one.”

“Mhm.”

“Why is that, exactly?” Gabriel dared to wonder, “Sargon’s already on the edge of joining the Hadiran Accord, so Kitez is really the only problem…and they don’t even let the World Cloud into the country. A mantle is pointless out there.”

“It’s not though. You brought tech-cannisters straight to the Duchess’ front door. Maybe it would still be mildly inconvenient to have to wait for a ship to take some there again in the future, but you could still get other things done while they travel on your behalf. Then, you can also leave immediately, since you can just remanifest in an area where the World Cloud exists.”

“What the Hell are we going to do about this…?” Gabriel diverted, “I was sure we thought of every possible way that she might twist this… Putting a hit out on you in favor of me was not in my cards.”

“She views you as green and naïve, and easy to manipulate.” Xxanarken pointed out, “And, at least in this case, you weren’t using a mantle, so she had no way to pin the crash on you, too. She absolutely would have if you were.”

“And thus, I could write a book explaining why I don’t want one…”

“You’re just being obstinate about it then.”

“I still have a life I want to live, Xanarken!” The blonde argued, “If I agree to get put into the System, I might as well kiss all that potential goodbye.”

“And what life is that, exactly?” The Fourth asked pointedly, like a knife in the heart, “You’ve never been particularly social. You’ve pushed people away most of your life. You’re clever and quick, and can at least pretend to be personable, and you’ve proven your loyalty to the Council and its mission a thousand times over. You’re an even better candidate to be an Eidolon than any of the rest of us were when we became such.”

Gabriel grit his teeth, “…I…have something with Ren.”

“Ah. Mh.” Xanarken responded rather indifferently, “And how’s that working out, given she’s been involved with Captain Rydell for damn-near the entire time she’s been a Fafnir Knight?”

The Vice felt his heart drop-out the bottom of his body, and his brain felt fuzzy, “…She’s…what…? No…”

“You don’t have time for distractions, Gabe. Now’s the time to buckle-up and prepare for your future. You’re one of the most important people on Hadira now, and Eidolon don’t have the luxury of peasant-level relationships.” Xanarken noted, though the vacant look on his heir’s face made it clear the man couldn’t hear him. He hummed a breath to himself discontentedly, “Sorry to bust your bubble. I figured she would’ve told you, if it wasn’t super-obvious to you already.”

“…Then why bring it up like you figured I didn’t know? You just used it like a cudgel.”

“Because you just said you had a thing with her, and that’s not likely to be true…because she’s already involved with someone.” The Fourth retorted, “Whatever bond you think you have with her is superfluous. I don’t want you to linger on it like you think it’s going to go somewhere when it can’t and won’t.”

Then what the Hell were we doing for the last whole day, if she’s already with him? Gabriel thought painfully, Did I just help her cheat on him? What was she thinking…? …What if he finds out…? I never…would’ve let it go that far if I knew…

“The member-states of the Accord are preparing to gather. You probably won’t make it back to Agartha before the convention starts, so I’d recommend landing somewhere and preparing.” Xanarken added, his tone indifferent, “I’ll do the best I can to set things up, but it’ll ultimately be up to you to answer for what happened.”

“…Is Far’nah right…?”

“What do you mean?”

“That you’re just setting me up as a fall-guy…?”

“Of course not. What would’ve been the point of these last 22 years if I was just going to cast you aside on the eve of lifting you up?”

“…I’m…just making sure.”

“I’ve always wanted big things for you, Gabe. Don’t let her make you doubt yourself, or me. We’ll get through it.”

“…Okay…”

“Good lad.” The Fourth said, and ruffled the man’s hair fondly before finally dissolving again.

Gabriel could only stare ahead, numb from top to toes. His heart twisted in his chest, but before he could let his anxious mind get away from him, he shook his head, “…There’s just no way. She wouldn’t have…led me on like that. I’ve never even seen them act like anything more than colleagues. Xanarken must be reading too much into the fact that they got caught…having flings…or whatever…” He said, hoping he could convince himself of his truth. He sucked in a pained breath and grabbed the steer-stick firmly, “…Yeah…she was way too willing to be public with me in that hangar to be involved with the Captain, not when he was standing right there in full sight of us… There has to be some misunderstanding somewhere…” He smacked his left cheek to get himself to refocus, “Okay…okay, landing spot…landing spot…”