Rising Shards

09 tried to calculate a strategy. Ovie and Narkissa had gotten out of Laenie’s range, but they weren’t her focus. Aira was. As a clybrid Cani, 09 was strong, but she wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to fight a raging Exa Cani on her own.

Bloodsabers were generally useless against an Exa Cani; their reflexes were too quick and even if you managed a hit, it’d pretty much just bounce off.

I could use my powers, maybe some kind of energy binding? But I need to get Aira free…

Ovie had acid powers, so it was probably for the best she didn’t seem too interested in helping out. Narkissa was cheering at the drama unfolding in front of her. 09 had to act fast as Laenie dangled Aira over the fire. But despite having capabilities to calculate quickly and mentally search through an extraordinary amount of databases…09 had no idea what to do.

Something swooshed past her. Then four more swooshes. Even with her clybrid implants, she couldn’t sense anyone nearby, or register that some kind of attack had been fired. Laenie groaned, throwing Aira to the side of the fire. Three more swooshes, and 09 spotted darts hitting Laenie. Laenie growled, then fell face first to the ground, her torso putting out the fire instantly. 09 froze in the sudden darkness as the sparks from the flames floated towards the sky. Heavy boots stomped nearby, with quicker footsteps skipping beside them.

“That’s…” 09 said, barely able to activate her scanner implants from her panic.

“Told you.” Kitty Kilander said, holding up a dart shooter that looked like a pink toy crossbow. “You put their names in the bing blonger, and it bing blongs them.” She honked.

Next to her stomped Caya Kilander, her bloodsaber lighting up the area. “I never said that we wouldn’t be able to locate them by their wristbands. Just that it’d be unlikely that they were in range. But it seems we’ve lucked out.”

09 winced as Caya stared daggers at her. “H-hi, auntie.”

“Are you alone?” Caya asked.

“Yes. They…they left.” 09 said.

“Did they give any indication when they’d be back?” Caya asked.

“No.” 09 said.

Caya nodded to Kitty, who turned around. “Guard duty is so boring though.”

Caya cautiously approached Laenie as she transformed back to her base form, still knocked out. Once she determined Laenie was fine and they were all safe from another Exa Cani incident, she looked Aira over, who was too stunned by Laenie’s attack to acknowledge Caya’s presence.

“I’ll have you checked you over more thoroughly when we’re home, but know that you’re safe now,” Caya said. “You’re all coming home.”

“But—” Ovie started.

Caya stomped over, towering over her. “You are all coming home. If you try to resist, you will regret it. If you object any more verbally, you’ll regret it far more.”

As Caya prepared a pedestal to bring them home, Kitty whistled and made strange noises. “We could wait for them here.” Kitty said. “The Kathrons, I mean. Get the ol’ drop on ‘em and bag us some criminals. Nyah.”

“We don’t have enough information about what they’re up to,” Caya said. “And the students’ safety comes first.”

“Does it, though?” Kitty asked.

09 felt oddly at peace with the idea of returning home, even if she was absolutely about to be chewed out by Caya and probably receive some significant punishment. It had been weeks of waiting around, hearing brief words from the Kathrons, waiting around some more. Plus, she could see her dad again, which would be nice.

Ovie scowled the entire trip back. Aira could barely make a sound, and even less able to give more than a passing glance to the sedated Laenie. Narkissa would not shut up and somehow talked for what felt like hours despite the trip only being a few minutes long. They returned to the Wildfire Hearts side of things and were brought to the infirmary there to make sure they weren’t greatly injured. Being a clybrid Cani, 09 needed the least time to be looked over, so she sat awkwardly with her aunts waiting for the others after leaving her checkup. There was a brief moment as she walked away where she met Ovie’s eyes. 09 wondered if she should’ve said something there. The squirming feeling in her tummy said yes.

“Alright, I see that look on your face,” Kitty said. “You’re gonna say mean things to them. But I want my students so I can punish them in my own way, kay? You take yours.”

“Only 09 is technically my student,” Caya said. “And since when do you care enough about this job to actively enforce things here instead of letting me handle everything?”

“You know me, you know the punishing’s my favorite part!” Kitty said. “Plus, I need to figure out which of them will be good fits for the Recreant Protocol silliness.” She turned to 09. “Maybe you need to bring our little niece-y here back to Penty. I’m sure he’ll get a case of the happies to see her.”

“Fine,” Caya said. “But do not let those four leave your sight or sight of any of the staffers here. If the Kathrons attempt to bring them back—”

“Blah, blah, I know. You explained this like thirteen whole times already, guh.” Kitty said. “Byyyyeeee. That means it’s time to go. I need some pudding before I get my punishment in.”

09 felt less at peace when she got into Caya’s car for the long drive back to Rising Shards.

“Um, thanks for picking me up?” 09 said.

“Don’t make jokes right now.” Caya said.

“I wasn’t trying to, sorry,” 09 said. “That was pretty dicey back there.”

“I shouldn’t have put so much pressure on you, I know,” Caya said. “But I feel so let down right now.”

09 frowned. “I tried to keep them all out of trouble.”

“Don’t lie to me either,” Caya said. “I know the Kathrons were manipulative, but you aided them. You came back here to lure one of our students, one of your friends, into the void to be experimented on. And that’s me watering that story down a bit because you’re family.”

“I’m sorry.” 09 said. While Caya saying she was family meant a lot, 09’s attention was on the why of any of this. Aira was right, this wasn’t like them. But they all went so far for this. Why did she go along with all of it? She knew the answer. It wasn’t the Kathrons manipulations. It wasn’t a noble reason like Aira and Laenie wanting to save someone. She just wanted to be near Ovie, and somehow that meant following whatever the Kathrons wanted. Even if that meant trying to help Ovie back to her abusive girlfriend that may not even take her back. “I wanted to help them. And it got out of hand. That’s me watering things down, but…”

“This can’t happen again.” Caya said.

“It won’t, I promise.” 09 said.

“No, I mean I can’t put so much faith in a student accomplishing something like this, even if they are family.” Caya said. “I can’t go through anything like this again.”

09 couldn’t think of anything to say, so she spent the rest of the car ride silent, her heart filling up with both guilt and further confusing feelings about how far she’d go for Ovie Chirhart.