1:3:9 Ascension (Part 1)

Damp. She had no idea what was going on or where she was but she was most certainly damp. Her ears were ringing, her vision blurred beyond comprehension and there was this uncomfortably warm and sticky liquid running down her face; there was also this pleasant feeling of freedom to whatever was going on, the breeze on her scalp penetrated down into her skull, cooling her overheating mind. Then she woke up. Death’s door had never looked so tempting. It pushed itself ajar, a silver glow poured forth from it; she had no idea whether she was walking towards it or if it was coming to her but it got closer nevertheless. On the other side, familiar, overlapping whispers diffused but remained nearly impossible to hear, a white noise to cushion the ringing in her ears. She was maybe a metre away when the door opened wider and as she placed her hand out to finish opening it, a scream rang out through the nothingness. It echoed through her mind then down to her core; fear, pain and guilt reverberated within her. She turned back to see where it had come from and saw only herself, lying near dead, on the floor. Frozen in an instant that would soon thaw, Lore knelt by her side and held her. The door called once again. The almost metre had become two without her realising. She took one last look at the silver, before turning her back. She no longer saw herself, only Lore. They sat alone on a chair in the dark, her essence coated their hands. With every centimetre she came closer to them, the fear, the pain, the guilt, started to evolve. They intensified with every step and with every step, she reconsidered her decision until she was the same meter or so away from Lore and they suddenly changed. Fear and guilt became anger, irrational and inexplicable and the pain, the pain remained but in a new form. As Hydroxine in an drive core, the pain propelled her forward, giving her something to focus her anger around, something to ground her as she awoke from The Swyddlen. Every pain receptor in her body was screaming at her and yet she didn’t know why. She tried to move her hands; she could barely feel them but they felt as though they were weighed down with concrete. She remembered they were bound but still she tried. She managed to contort her wrist to allow her to extend her middle finger to engage the emergency override on her arm cannon. The tubing connecting her cannon to her side ejected limply. She weakly extended her finger once again to depress the button. The cannon trilled twice before discharging two of its capacitors; the energy travelled through the cannon’s teeth and into her bloodstream, like watching a vampire feed in reverse. It wasn’t much but it was enough to start the healing process. The shot was a lucky one for her, missing almost everything of importance but it had left her without the memory of her name and a few other things she had forgotten. Her sense of urgency had also been wounded as she crawled up the rubbish heap to better sit and heal. She dragged herself up and took a deep breath of the Rexian air. Golden threads spanned the gaps in her skull and brain like spiders spinning webs. Those threads became brain matter and bone as she healed; and as she did, everything started coming back to her. Char leapt to her feet, brandishing her cannon.
“LORE!” She cried. Her legs gave way.
Crumbling to the floor, she checked her wrist. She had been in the limbo between life and death for nearly two hours. One more press of the override button and one more capacitor discharged should give her the energy to break free from her bindings and finish closing the unnecessary hole in her head. Her healing continued, but the strength never came. Everything hurt. Regardless, Char continued. She stumbled down the hill, still regaining full control of her faculties. She wanted to disconnect the cannon but in her current state, to do so would cause more inconvenience than the itching was currently causing her; she tried to satisfy it by scratching the hull and it somewhat helped but she soon accepted that it would subside. The cannon’s capacitors were two thirds full, giving her enough energy to do what she needed but she soon realised that she was thinking further ahead than she was. Regardless, two thirds would leave no evidence, two thirds would certainly wipe that smug look off of their face. She reached the bottom of the mountain of refuse and looked around. At her feet, the track to the mine, to her left, the main facility.

She gave herself a moment before pressing on into the depths. Lore was long gone but she had hope that there would be someone in the mines that could tell her where they had gone whether they wanted to or not. She wasn’t taking no for an answer. The hole nearly closed, her body focussed on repairing the other damage caused during her incarceration. She marched on, determined, as the bruises and scuff marks that covered her began to glow with the same golden light. It appeared to leak out of her making her a prime target, however, there was strangely no one around to see it but her. She paid close attention to her surroundings, waiting for the glowing to subside as once it had, she could finally be free her bonds. It felt as though she had just spent a day in the spa; her muscles felt tender yet relaxed; her legs felt rigid yet gelatinous and her wrists felt strong enough to withstand the force of breaking her handcuffs. She pulled them apart, deforming the chains; she counted herself lucky that the only restraints Reid had at her disposal were from the early twenty first century though she felt ashamed that they had held on to her for so long. She knew that Reid probably could have properly restrained her but chose not to as a final humiliation. Every step was accompanied by the clink of the chain against her cannon. The flame within her burnt a little hotter. The mouth of the mine stood agog, still whining after Lore and the clone’s visit. Still, there was no-one. Char stopped at the threshold and checked her pistol. Between it and the cannon, she had four shots. There was a moment of hesitation. She had never shot her pistol one handed but that didn’t matter to her as she drew it and began into the mine. Empty. The belongings strewn across the hillside in conjunction with the ongoing siren painted a picture, explaining the barren hall. She poked through one of the bags that had been abandoned haphazardly on the track; while she found nothing of immediate use, she did recover one of the drill operators identification cards. Stowing it away for later, she pressed on. With every step, she grew stronger and her outer body began to closer match her inner flame until she exuded the rage and anger that overfilled her. Somewhere near the mine’s intestines, she came to a sudden stop; falling rocks in a stable mineshaft were more than a cause for concern, someone else had found themselves inside the whale. Char closed her eyes. The same sound played over and over again in her head until she knew exactly where it had come from. Not even a second after the pressure waves had first vibrated her eardrums, she had her pistol pointed at their origin.
“Woah! Woah! Don’t shoot. Please, we’re not actually with them… Unless you’re Protectorate in which case, we’re on your side.” A surprisingly clean figure came out from behind a cart with their hands above their head.
“We?” Char didn’t relent, her pistol’s focus remained true.
“Come on out.” A second rock fell as an older gentleman cracked and grumbled his way from the crumpled position he had been hiding in to a standing form. “I’m Sky and this is Mauve.” They span on the spot, gesturing for Mauve to follow suit. “We’re unarmed.”
Char’s pistol dropped to her side. “You must be Blue’s relatives.” Char finally holstered her pistol and moved towards the pair.
“That’s us. Lore asked us to wait in the mines till they gave the all clear but they never got back to us.” Sky began.
“Typical.” Mauve spat on the ground.
“We waited until all of The Protectorate miners and guards withdrew then we got showered and changed. Next thing we know we’re hiding from you.” Sky looked Char up and down. “Are you ok?”
She responded without thinking “I’d like to see you look better after being shot in the head.” Sky visibly withdrew from Char’s pointed comment. Char shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m better now knowing that I’ve got some allies.”
“Hey, you’re alright. Looks like you’ve had a hel of a day.” Mauve slapped Char’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you back to base.” He rested his hand on her back and gently pushed her up the hill. Sky looked at him confused.

He kept his hand there, reassuringly, until Char moved it. He was incredibly understanding which only served to confuse Sky even more.
“What’s going on with you?” They couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Did some of that debris catch your head or something?”
Mauve looked at Sky, offended then moved in closer, waiting for Char to be out of immediate earshot. “She’s Quatarrian. For all we know she could kill us with a blink plus I don’t like the look of her arm. Always show your best manners to someone who’s arm is a gun.” Mauve shouted in a whisper.
Sky gave themselves a moment to think before nodding. “You’re probably right but she also probably won’t kill us. I mean she’s Lore’s friend.”
The compound gates seemed much closer than any of them thought but perhaps that was down to the non-existent resistance they faced on their way. They had been expecting an army to be waiting just beyond the gates but still, nothing. It was as if the entirety of The Protectorate’s personnel had been withdrawn in the time since Char’s incapacitation. An ambush did eventually arrive as they crossed the threshold out of the compound but not one they had been expecting; the native Rexian air filled their lungs as they exited the ionic barrier that had been protecting them from it. Despite none of them being affected by it too much, the smell made them all grimace.
“Get to The Destiny. Message repeats. This is an automated message. Sky or Mauve, if you’re hearing this, Lore is onboard a Protectorate ship with Reid and Crait. I managed to escape, ish, but I had to leave my body back up there. With Char gone, we’re down a heavy hitter so I suggest you and Mauve come to me so we can start planning our next steps. Without my body, I’m having some difficulties overwriting some of my failsafe protocols so I can’t move from the docks and you’re going to have to come to me. I also can’t send you mapping data or open two way communications but I can ping you. Change your communicator to frequency one five two alpha band and listen to the pulses. The more rapid they are, the closer you are. I’ll fill you in when you get to The Destiny. Message repeats.”
“Why does she think you’re dead?” Sky looked ready to pull her gun.
“She watched me get executed.” Char sounded justifiably mad. “And Reid probably told her that I wasn’t fit enough to heal myself. To be honest, I’d have believed her too; but then I felt something. Lore appeared over me and them just being so close to me gave me this rush. I don’t know how but I think it saved me.”
“The power of love?” Mauve scoffed.
“Curious thing.” Sky shook her head. “Perhaps it was the rush of endorphins and adrenaline?”
“Probably. I remember getting shot, then there was nothing for a bit and then I woke up in a slag heap.” She tried to itch her arm again. “Don’t bother with the radio. I remember where we parked.” Char went to take the lead, faltering slightly as she moved to the front. “I’m fine. Come on.”
They walked a little further until they found an abandoned taxi on the side of the road. It had Protectorate insignia sprayed in a handful of places but it looked slightly off.  Mauve cupped his hands around his eyes and searched its interior. “Looks like there’s a key in here.” He called over to the others. “You alright to navigate from the passenger seat?”
Char and Sky doubled back on themselves and joined Mauve who looked ready to smash the window in. Char stopped his elbow and tried to open the door first. Unsurprisingly, it opened without issue. Char got herself comfortable in the passenger seat while Sky got in the back.