Chapter 23: Declassified

Sky peeked out the window of Bugu's shop when she heard the sound of stomping footsteps coming from the junkyard. Elation filled her when she saw the others had returned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed they had been through the wringer. Kirrik carried Imi in his arms, and the whole group was covered in bruises, scrapes and cuts. They had even managed to bring someone new with them, a towering Kunar whose footsteps were what called her attention to begin with. She turned back toward a napping Nox and Bugu.

"They're here!" She shouted.

Nox's eyes fluttered open and she rubbed them vigorously. Bugu, on the other hand, jumped from the sudden noise and rolled off of his chair and onto the floor. Nox helped him back up and made her way to the window. 

"They're looking a little rough," She commented. "I see they managed to convince Balakus to join them, though."

"Is he your contact? The one you mentioned earlier?" Sky inquired. She hadn't realized how close behind her Nox had gotten. She could smell the faint tinge of spice and oil. 

"Yeah," Nox confirmed. "I didn't want to tell you all he was a Kunar before you had a chance to meet him. He's a great person, just caught up in the wrong side of things."

The group made their way up the stairs and to the door. Kirrik entered first and rushed to the couch to lay Imi down. Diah and Zaius shuffled to the side out of the way, and Balakus struggled to get in.

"What happened?" Sky asked as she dropped down next to Imi. She pooled her energy forward into her hands and crafted the azure waves of her Kanushin. Kirrik put his hand up.

"That's not going to work," He told her bluntly. "We got ambushed by some members of the Regime. I think one of them may have fried her systems."

"Ambushed?" She repeated and looked toward Nox. The latter shrugged her arms in confusion.

Kirrik looked at Sky with pain and guilt in his eyes. "If you can do anything to help, I'd do anything I could to repay you. Please."

"Let me look," She said. Her irises spun and turned red as she switched her vision over to her electronic sensors. She gazed over Imi's body and kept track of the bursts of energy that fired throughout her. From where she stood, nothing seemed out of place. She moved up and turned Imi's head.

"I need you to do me a favor and hold her eyes open," She instructed Kirrik.

He did as she said. "What is this going to do?"

"I can trace the flow of energy through her body, but there's no obstruction or destroyed areas. Whatever is causing her trouble is inside her processing unit itself," Sky answered. "I'm going to have to force my way into her system and unlock things, piece by piece."

"Will that hurt her at all?" Zaius asked from behind them. The others all stood closely by. 

"No," Sky responded. "She's just not going to like the invasion of privacy."

Sky's eyes locked onto Imi's and mirrored the neon green color. Both sets of irises spun as Sky forced a connection between her MenXhip and Imi's central processor.

The room went black and Sky fell through a portal of darkness into a frozen scene. Imi sat on her knees in the middle of a destroyed lab, head turned toward a man coming through the doorway. The lab seemed blasted apart by some sort of explosion. She moved closer and realized the man was a younger Kirrik.

"Imi!" She called out to the frozen android. There was no response. Sky slid past Kirrik and reached a jagged ledge behind him. She looked down and saw the edge of another platform. Her mind ran through the schematics and specs that Imi's chip had divulged to her back on the Nova. She had a simple, but dangerous, idea and needed to make sure she had preserved all of Imi's data that she could. Sky took a deep breath and leapt down.

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Zaius tapped the side of his arm nervously. Sky had talked often about doing a deep dive on a processor, but never had the opportunity. He questioned if he should have stopped her, or made note of the fact aloud so the others could weigh in.

'What if she gets stuck? Or does something to her own systems?' He thought.

Kirrik held Imi's eyes open like his own life depended on it. Zaius figured that, in a sense, it did. He couldn't imagine what he would do if something happened to Diah or Sky. Diah fidgeted with the wristband beside him. Pieces of his shirt were wrapped around her arm in an attempt to tourniquet the gash that Areshia had given her. His thoughts ran through what she had told him about their fight.

"Do you really think Areshia is dead?" Zaius whispered to Diah. She scooted closer.

"I don't see how anyone survives a fall into a bunch of gnashing machines and survives," Diah replied. "I don't think you have to worry. You or Kirrik."

Zaius grimaced at the image Diah had placed in his mind. Areshia was a horrible person, yet no one deserved to meet the end that she did. He didn't know if he could feel any relief from her death either. There was always someone ready and waiting to fill the power vacuum. He pointed at Kirrik.

"Do you think he's handling it alright? I'm sure they at least had some good memories together, right?"

"Zaius," Diah said firmly. She interlaced her fingers with his and gave his hand a squeeze. "She's gone, okay? She's gone."

Zaius could tell from the stress in her voice to drop the subject. He was sure she had mixed emotions about taking her out, just as he did. He squeezed her hand back to let her know he was there for her. She rested her head on his shoulder.

Sky fell back with a heavy gasp, as if she had been holding her breath the entire time. Nox moved quickly to check on her. Kirrik let go of Imi's eyelids and stretched his fingers.

"What did you find?" He questioned.

Sky breathed in heavily before she responded. "There's a web of weird Kanutic energy somehow shrouding her. It's keeping her from processing anything and she's essentially frozen in there. I dove as far down and through as many layers of her mind as I could, but it's all the same. Everything in there is already encoded to her MenXhip except for something I found at the very bottom."

"What's that?" Kirrik asked in response.

"Something about an 'Aether Jump' project. Do you know anything?"

"Never heard of it, honestly."

Sky looked at the others. "Well whatever it was, that energy in her mind copied it and relayed it out. To where, I don't know."

Zaius felt relieved that Sky seemed to be doing well. He would have to ask Sky what the experience was like when they had more time. Diah released his hand and stepped forward.

"Could it have been sent to this?" Diah inquired and lifted the wristband. "If Rhessian was the one that put her under, it makes sense for the information to come back to his wristband, right?"

Sky stood and Diah tossed her the band. 

"I told the others that this is the way the Regime communicates," Balakus added in. "That right there holds a ton of information just waiting to be cracked open."

Sky gave a sly smile. "Then I know what I need to do."

"Everybody, just hold the hell up," Kirrik bristled. "How does any of this help Imi? How do we get her back?"

Ziaus watched as Sky knelt down to meet Kirrik and put her hand on his shoulder. He could tell Kirrik was frustrated. Sky, however, was an expert in getting people to mellow out. 

"I know what we need to do to get her back, but I need your approval first," Sky informed Kirrik. He affirmed and she continued. "We need to purge Imi's systems. I mean a genuine, full-force purge. If we do that, it should overheat her entire frame and burn out whatever is left of that Kanushin inside of her. After that, we'll need to reinstall her MenXhip and reset everything. The whole process could take anywhere from an hour to a week. There's no way of knowing. Honestly, it's up to her."

"Sky, are you able to trigger a purge?" Zaius piped in. He noticed the look of hesitation on her face, as did Kirrik. 

"Imi would need to be the one to trigger it. Think of it like a voice lock on a security system. Imi can't do it and I'm not able to do much past breaking down code and opening doors. So…"

She looked up towards Nox.

"I need someone that can speak to the systems as they were Imi herself."

Nox held up her hands in panic. "You want me to do what?"

Kirrik popped up and stared them both down. "Now hold on a second. You want this sniveling little scrap rat to play around in my best friend's head?"

Nox's face turned scarlet and she moved forward, ready to respond, when Sky stepped between them. She pressed her finger deep into Kirrik's chest. Zaius prepped himself to step in as well in case things went sideways.

"Kirrik Ishlan, you listen and you listen well," Sky stated in a surprisingly stern tone. Her intense gaze threatened to burn through Kirrik. "I know what I'm talking about, and I'm already asking for a lot. You gave your approval, so sit down, shut up and let your sister help!"

Zaius felt the tension in the air elevate rapidly. He expected Kirrik to lash out, yell, or maybe even throw things around in frustration. Kirrik relaxed his shoulders and ground his teeth instead. "Do what you have to."

Bugu chuckled from the couch against the other end of the wall. Zaius had forgotten the old Terric was even there. "Ah, to be young and all that comes with it."

Sky swiveled around to Nox and held both of her hands up. The mechanic turned a different shade of red. 

"I know you can do it," Sky reassured her. "Take your time and know that I'm here too."

Nox closed her eyes and pursed her lips. When she opened them, her expression shifted from unsure to serious. She knelt next to Imi and placed her hands on Imi's stomach. Yellow particles coursed out of her palms and trickled over the unconscious android. Kirrik sat down quietly next to both of them and watched.

"While she does that, let's see what we can do about this," Sky said and held out the wristband. Her eyes changed into a familiar orange. "Just give me a moment to unlock all of these firewalls."

Zaius gave Diah a soft smile that she returned and then looked around for Balakus. The Kunar had moved to sit silently by the window. Zaius wasn't sure how someone so big was able to mask their movement so well. 

"I don't know if we ever really said thanks for helping us out," Zaius noted to Balakus. 

The Kunar rolled his shoulders and gestured over to Diah. "You should be thanking her," He said. "She was right. I can't let the Regime take control of Atania. There's too much at stake. Too many lives involved. It all made sense, even if I didn't want to acknowledge it at the time. How are you holding up over there, Queenslayer?"

Diah stepped in to join the two. "Queenslayer? Where'd you get that from?"

"Back in my unit, we used to always give each other nicknames based on the biggest, most brutal thing we've taken down. You took out the Queen of the Underside, didn't you?"

Diah paused and looked at her arm. "Yeah, but she banged me up a little."

Balakus let out a low, slow rumble of a laugh. "You make sure you stay on her good side," He advised Zaius. "She's a talker and a fighter. That's the most deadly combo of them all."

Zaius looked at Diah and soaked the moment in. A familiar warmth filled his stomach. Diah met his eyes and Zaius found himself lost inside her captivating gaze once again. 

"She is pretty awesome, isn't she?" 

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Kirrik tried to quell the anger burning within him. He didn't understand why he still felt it, if he had to be honest with himself. None of the others had done anything but try to help out, and the one responsible for putting Imi in her current state was wasting away back at the factory. He desperately wanted to put his hand on Imi's head as a gesture of comfort, but the fear of interfering with Nox's Kanushin kept him from doing so. 

"I'm guessing Bugu took you in too," Nox said suddenly. Her eyes were still focused on Imi's body.

"Shouldn't you be quiet and focused on helping her out?" Kirrik growled.

"Whatever," Nox snapped back. "I'm perfectly capable of multitasking. Excuse me for trying to make conversation instead of letting you sit there and stare like a creep."

Kirrik opened his mouth to retort, then realized that it wouldn't get them anywhere. He needed Nox's help, even if he didn't care for the loudmouthed brat at the moment. Imi was more important than his own pride. She always was.

"Bugu took me in when I was around ten," Kirrik divulged softly. "I lost most of my family in a fire and ended up here in Elontra. The Nova is my father's old ship."

"I don't care," Nox seethed. 

Nox's response stung, but Kirrik knew he was in the wrong. "Hey, I'm sorry, alright? I'm just worried about Imi."

"You can be worried. That's understandable," Nox replied. "It still doesn't give you the excuse to be an ass. That said, I accept your apology."

'This kid is really trying to drive me insane, isn't she?' Kirrik questioned internally. 'What did I ever do to deserve this?'

The image of Areshia quickly overlaid Imi's body and a different type of pain began to fill Kirrik's heart. He held back tears. There would be a time to deal with the emotions that she had left him with and a time to mourn. The Ixr had done a lot to him over their time together, but she had done a lot for him as well. Neither one of them were the same people they had been when they first met. He remembered her beautiful smile and the way her bangs would fall in front of her face when they were together. A part of him longed for another moment when he could sweep them away from her face, caress her untattooed red skin and press his lips against hers. Maybe he hadn't done enough to stop her from falling down the wrong path. Maybe there was never much he could do to begin with. 

He studied Imi's face. Over their time together, she had managed to fill most of the void that Areshia had left on his heart. Whether it was a romantic type of love or a friendly one, he was still unsure. He had his soul crushed once before. He didn't know if he could open himself up to that possibility again.

"You would think after a lifetime full of fighting for our lives, I would have learned to stop worrying," Kirrik told Nox. He didn't expect her to listen or to care. He just needed a moment to vent. "I know she's an android. I know that she can be fixed. Her injuries still get to me. Every time. If she was Human, I would've lost her a long time ago. Something about that is comforting, in a sense. But I never expected to see her like this. To feel like she might not make it back from this one. I'm the one that's supposed to be constantly reminded of my own mortality. Not her."

"That just means you care," Nox responded, much to Kirrik's surprise. She removed her hands and stood up. "Stop looking so sullen. I've finished talking to her systems, so her purge should start any moment now. She's going to get really hot, really fast. After that, if what Sky said is right, we should be able to reboot her and bring her back to her normal self."

Kirrik looked down at his hands and placed one on Imi's head. He felt the bristles of her hair rub against the bottom of his arm. It felt right. Being with Imi was the only thing that made sense in his rollercoaster of a life. It was what kept him sane. The heat in her forehead began to increase. Kirrik started to thank Nox, but she had already made her way back to Sky's side.

The Uvari blinked and looked around at everyone. The wristband beeped twice and projected a holographic screen above itself.

"There's so much on here," Sky said hurriedly as she swiped through countless files. "Ship schematics, base locations, operation reports. It's a whole library full of Kunar secrets!"

The wristband beeped again. Sky looked down at it in confusion. It started to smoke in her hand.

"You made sure to remove the emergency retrieval protocol before you opened any files right?" Balakus inquired. 

"Wait, what? No. No!" Sky cried out as the wristband melted down into a tar-like ooze across her fingers. She flicked it to the ground and cursed. 

"The melt can only be triggered manually," Balakus informed the group. "That means that as soon as you got into that thing, it sent a signal back to the Regime. Everything Rhessian had is theirs now."

"Does that signal mark locations?" Diah asked in return. "Can they find us here?"

"Most likely not," Balakus offered. "They wouldn't care to retrieve a dead body and a melted band. That would mean facing their failures. As long as they have the information, that's all they need."

"Everyone, I have to tell you what else I found," Sky interrupted. She seemed agitated. "The Regime and their Reclaiments are planning on attacking the High Prime!"

Diah stuck her hands out and gestured for Sky to calm down. "We know, Sky. Balakus told us about that before we went to the factory. They were shipping out mass units of Zanathum."

"Right, they need the Zanathum to create two fleets worth of ships," Sky added. "That ensures they don't have to divert what resources they currently have across two locations."

"Hang on, two locations?" Kirrik asked. "We only know about the High Prime."

Sky looked at Kirrik, then panned over to Diah. "So you don't know about the attack on Vensha?"

Diah's face paled. "What do you mean an attack on Vensha?"