Chapter Fifty: Irreparable Harm

Two days later, with twelve days left until the Cathols made their move, Ronin sat on a desk in Delta's lab, fighting desperation.

On the largest screen, a young woman, Moira, she'd said her name was, sat on a chair waiting to discuss whatever it was that Ronin's team had wanted to talk about.

It'd been two days since his friend had begged him to kill him, tears streaming down his face.

Two days since he'd violently slaughtered an entire neighborhood's worth of Cathols.

In two days, Ronin had been able to do little more than find more questions than answers.

Moira's appearance had given him some semblance of hope, but it seemed she only had limited information and didn't even seem to know where she had come from or what she was supposed to do.

The one thing that was clear about her was that she thought he was her master, to whatever end he might take that.

Scalpel snapped her fingers to get Ronin's attention and said, "Well whatever her origin, she's in your body, that much is clear."

Silas nodded and said, "We ran all the tests we could and looking for something unusual with your already unusual body was surprisingly easy."

Moira bowed gently and said, "I've been trying to communicate with you, Master, but the only times you responded in any way was via tones and sounds. It wasn't until the exact moment you heard my voice for the first time that any of my words reached your ears."

"I wonder what triggered the change," Scalpel said curiously.

"It is my belief that the drink that the young woman, Rav, gave him at the establishment the other night may have been what spurred on such a change in his ability to hear me," Moira said politely.

"The drink Rav gave me? Ronin asked incredulously.

"Yes, upon analyzing its contents, I found that it was composed of blood, a strangely potent liquor that doesn't exist in any other records I've checked, and highly concentrated liquid Aether," Moira said informatively. 

Ronin said aloud, "Highly concentrated Aether?"

Silas looked at him in disgust and said, "Ronin, blood?!"

Before Ronin could respond, all of the screens flickered off and back on, bearing a symbol that Ronin couldn't identify.

"Angel here," a voice spoke from the main monitor.

"Looks like one of your boys is having a pretty good time out there," she said, her voice filled with venom.

Sellius stood and said, "Trigger is…"

Finding no excuse or explanation, he sat back down and Angel continued, "Luckily, I'm not here to talk about that. I'm curious what you plan to do about this war your little club here started."

Ronin fought back the anger at her reference to Trigger as he remembered him begging to be killed and said, "We were trying to get information at the Full Moon, but we…"

"You got distracted. Very professional, Ronin, very unprofessional," she said, her voice mocking him.

Moira walked onto one of the screens bearing Angel's symbol and sat on a chair that appeared as Angel continued, "More specifically, you got pissy drunk and started a fight with the most powerful person in the city."

Knowing she was right, Ronin asked, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

 Angel's voice came back like thunder, "FIND OUT WHAT THE CATHOLS ARE DOING!!"

Scalpel spoke quietly, "They're dancing circles around us, Angel."

 Ronin thought for a moment and said, "Do you think Hidden Moon.."

Angel cut him off and said, "Hidden Moon is an idiot. A well meaning idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. You need to figure out what the Cathols are doing on your own!"

Ronin, angry now, said, "You made a treaty with them, threatened everyone, why don't YOU figure it out!"

 Angel sighed, annoyed, and said, "I can't. The Cathols outmaneuvered me. My treaty says no unwarranted fighting, no wanton expansion. Since the Cathols WERE attacked first, they have every right to do about anything they want right now, according to my treaty. My hands are tied, Ronin the UNCLAIMED."

 Ronin spoke quietly, "I tried to avoid any politics here."

"You can't. Here, in Neyk, choosing no affiliation is choosing a side," Angel said, her voice more understanding now.

The weight of his choices bearing down on him, Ronin said, "What's going to happen in twelve days?"

On her smaller screen, Moira raised her hand and said "Based on my research, in twelve days the High Cathols most recently developed weapon comes online."

"What?" Ronin asked, looking at her in surprise.

Moira nodded and motioned with her hands, bringing up a series of schematics on the various smaller screens around the office as she said, "According to data from the Black Gears, they were commissioned by the Cathols to create a weapon that could float in space and destroy almost anything with pinpoint accuracy."

The schematics flickered on and off the screens, hundreds and hundreds of pages of notes and technical concepts flashing by until it landed on a note sent exactly three days prior that asked when the weapon would be finished charging.

The note continued on, mentioning that the first charge would be the longest, taking two weeks to gather the necessary solar and Aetheric energy to fire successfully.

The note ended by saying that the Apocalypse would be coming, that the Cathols would stand atop the ashes of the old world and raise up a new reality that would shatter the beliefs and concepts of the days prior.

Signed High Priest Cornelius Pharo, the note ended with the lead researcher for the Black Gears seeming uninterested in the portents so long as the guild received their payment and immunity.

Angel read the notes, Moira apparently having sent them to her as well, and said, "Well that's not good."

Ronin stood and said, "We need to stop this!"

"With all due respect, master, this device is in space and we have no means to reach it on our own," Moira said, her voice quiet and calm despite the sheer gravity of the news she'd shared.

Scalpel nodded and said, "Where do Jet and Mira factor into any of this?"

 Looking at Mira, Ronin made a questioning look at her and she shrugged and said, "I've never heard anything about the apocalypse."

Silas continued questioning, "Why was the warrior gathering crystals? This all makes it seem like the weapon was already built by that point, so it couldn't have been for this."

 Trigger, the steam-bound warrior, Jet, Mira, more and more questions kept adding up and Ronin found himself reaching the edges of his logic trying to put it all together.

Moira spoke, "Please calm down master, it is very difficult to express myself this way when you strain so hard."

 Azue walked over to Ronin and put her arms around him, saying, "We have time, Ronin, there may still be something we can do."

 Angel spoke, "Maybe nothing for this whole situation, but it looks like your friend Trigger and that warrior are fighting it out in the middle of the city."

Her symbol shrank to half the screen and the other half filled with a live feed of Trigger, still cloaked in red, shooting thousands of guns at the steam-bound warrior, who dodged all of them effortlessly.

Trigger's eyes glowed bright burgundy and he opened both hands at his sides, leaning forward and a massive barrel to some weapon Ronin had never seen before began being pulled into existence behind him.

The barrel was easily the size of several floors worth of the building behind him, a massive tool of death that would wipe out anything it aimed at.

"It would seem that Trigger is getting stronger," Moira said quietly.

"Stronger," Ronin said quietly.

The space in the barrel began to glow as a figure walked from within the shadow beneath the massive weapon.

Jet, as malicious on a screen as he was in person, walked forward and drove his hand squarely into Trigger's chest from behind, a smile on his face as the weapon dissolved back into the tear in space it had come from and his body went limp for a moment.

The space Trigger took up on the video began to go static and for over a minute Trigger was barely visible.

When it stopped, Trigger was alone, both the steam-bound warrior and Jet missing from the scene as Ronin's friend turned and aimed his revolver at a Guildless who was running from the area.

With no sign of even the slightest remorse, Trigger shot the person in the back and began killing wantonly until his weapon morphed in his hand into the machine gun from when Ronin had fought.

He disappeared from the screen as though he hadn't been there and Ronin asked aloud, "What just happened?"

 Silence sat on the room like a weight until Moira said, "It would appear that Trigger is fairly resistant to death."