“Ouch! The fuck you’re doing over there?!” Ni hissed, shifting her hips on instinct.
A movement that disturbed the squad of tiny people tending to her injuries.
“W-we’re just trying to sterilize the wound again, miss…”
“Don’t fucking call me miss, or…” she hesitated, suddenly feeling bad about threatening them. “Just don’t. I don’t like it.”
“As you… wish…” the trembling voice replied.
With a tremendous sigh, Ni’s head smashed into the pillow again, before her pesky thoughts overwhelmed her again. Swirling and pushing against the inner walls of her skull as if trying to punch through and spill out. But… what then? Would it mean everyone knowing her turmoil, or her forgetting it? She couldn’t tell.
Ni clenched her fists, stopping her arms from shaking. They kept doing that and it annoyed her to no end. Why was she so… shaken? It wasn’t her first time fighting, nor getting wounded… nor even losing and running away.
And yet, this time it was… different. Even with the bite wound already regrowing, the stab wound sealing together her sliced guts… The kaiju’s visage haunted her whenever she closed her eyes, making her feel scared and weak. She sighed, moving her right fist in front of her, before closing her eyes when she saw it trembling. Lack of the metal arm Peter made for her was distressing – without its obnoxious weight and stiffness, she felt exposed and helpless. Even if unable to pinpoint exactly why… She didn’t like it one bit. It was just wrong.
Pull yourself together. You’ve been through worse. Except not really.
“Could you spare me a moment, miss Ni?”
“For fuck’s sake, I’ve told you to not call me ‘miss’!” she scoffed, opening her eyes again and finding not exactly who she expected.
Instead of someone from the medical team, one of the three apparently important midgets stood before her – more precisely, the one whose body shape begged to be used as a toothpick.
“My apologies,” the man mumbled, somewhat startled by her outburst. “How should I address you then?”
“Ni,” she replied bluntly. “And no ‘Mistressing’ or ‘Goddessing’ either, unless you wanna get eaten.”
The tiny man tightly pressed his lips together and nodded, which gave her the usual spike of amusement… but also made her feel bad. The regret and guilt she always felt when teasing and threatening for whatever reason got amplified to the point that her dopamine was no longer outweighing the bad feelings. She let out a huff. “Okay relax, am not going to eat you.” Ni rolled her eyes. “But you call me those things, and I will kick your ass.”
“I understand.” The man cleared his throat. “Yet you haven’t denied my request, correct?”
“Sure. Not like I have much to do anyways.”
“Splendid.” He rubbed his hands. “Can you tell me about yourself?”
Ni blinked, trying not to give away her surprise. Herself? What was there to say about her, really? “I’m a big fucking dragon.” She paused for a split second. “And I’m gold. That’s a thing.”
She locked eyes with him for a few moments, before their intensity proved too much, and he awkwardly looked away.
“I meant… other things. I’ve heard you’re pretty old.”
“Ah, you’re into mature women?” She gave him a shit-eating grin. “Sorry, not interested.”
The man facepalmed and began massaging his temples, causing her to finally lose control and laugh.
“I forgot how easy midgets are to fluster.” She shook her head. “Yes, I am. I don’t feel old if that’s what you’re asking.”
He glanced at her again, taking out a tiny piece of paper.
“And more specifically?”
“I assume you got that info from the midget… I mean, from Peter. Means that he told you the right number.”
“Roughly sixty-five million years?”
She nodded. “Roughly, yes. More precisely, it’s at least…” She hesitated, recalling the immense number from memory. “…sixty-five million three-hundred and forty-two thousand ninety-one years.”
“… At least?”
“Well, yeah, I only began counting after some time.” She rolled her eyes. “Couldn’t be more than a few thousand years, so who cares.”
The man loudly exhaled and with wide eyes wrote something down, before wiping his forehead and continuing. “And you just remember that? With nothing to write and…”
“I had a wall for counting in our main home,” she interrupted. “Don’t need it no more though, I can remember everything just fine.”
“Mhmmm…” He tapped his papers a few times. “Your main home… So, this isn’t the place you’d normally live?”
“Now it is.” She shrugged, instantly regretting it when the pain from her bite wound exploded. “This is basically… the last home we have now.”
That last sentence filled her heart with a surprising amount of nostalgia and… pain. It was then when the realisation that this might be the end of the line for them hit. Her mind suddenly got pulled in on itself, exploring the endless abyss of her memories and just how… many of them there were. She really was old.
“Alright… Can I ask, where was your main home located? Around the place you were born, or…”
“What?” she asked, shaking off the feeling of eternity. “Home? Nah, the place where we hatched was ass. Nothing but bare rocks, small mountains around, and water outside of them. Our home was on a steppe far east of that. Lots of big animal, lots of space, nice warmth, rarely rained… Now even less so. Place was really good, even you midgets made a city not that far from us. It was like a…” She hesitated before scratching a crude drawing on the wall. “It was a lake with an island they’ve surrounded with two more rings of land. Was kinda neat but got fucked when half the continent got flooded. That’s when we moved.”
The man stood frozen in place, his eyes jumping between her and the drawing. Suddenly, he laughed, shook his head, and made a few motions that made her convinced he replicated the drawing.
“Some more world-breaking revelations I guess,” he mumbled with a slight hint of insanity creeping into his voice. “Anyways… Could you maybe describe your birthplace a little more?”
“There’s literally nothing more to say. Circle of mountains around a small cave we all hatched in.”
“So, you hatched in a cave?” He frantically scribbled something down. “In the center? Tell me, where there any animals around?”
“You’re really making me reach for it, huh?” she scoffed, but decided to humour him. “I’ve heard some rattling nearby, behind a wall or something… But I’m pretty sure there were none in the cave, but… I THINK there were some big ones outside? Like, not many… Yeah, there was a carcass near our cave. Just lying there on a pile of rocks. It was the first thing we ever ate.”
“And plants?” he prodded.
“Just rocks.”
“Alright…” He huffed, as if he had difficulty containing excitement. “Last thing… Could you tell me where that place was?”
“Not really.”
“What? Why?”
“Because the world doesn’t look the same it did back then,” she scoffed, explaining the most basic thing imaginable. “It was more disjointed than it is now.”
The tiny man suddenly turned around and yelled some command. A few seconds later, one of the trucks that normally busied themselves outside their cave came along and parked next to her left forearm, before another man engaged a projector. An image appeared on the wall, somewhat distorted by its unevenness.
“This is a map of the world around the time you’re referring to,” the man announced, patting the wall with his pen. “Can you how me at least roughly?”
Ni loudly exhaled, staring at the map in front of her. He was asking for a lot and probably knew it too, yet definitely hoped for an actual answer. She supported herself on her elbows, ignoring both the spiking pain and the terrified protests of the medics tending to her.
“I don’t know how did you even get this, but could you at least rotate it upside down? I’m not used to this view.”
Michael waved at the technician impatiently, to which he responded with lifting the projector and slamming it upside down on the truck’s roof.
“Okay, that’s better…” she mumbled, playing with her own lip. “So, we’re… here…” She pointed at the empty part of the ocean. “Since this island appeared later… This is were lived, this is how we went around…” Ni traced her finger along the path. “Around… here.” She circled the area around the incredibly thin tail extending from the landmass to the right.
“Are you sure?” the man asked with immense gravity.
“Yes, though this map is a bit wrong. This thing was longer and a bit swirlier.” She demonstrated by tracing a spiral around the place.
Michael didn’t care anymore though, completely lost in verting through his papers. He suddenly sprinted back to the truck and ordered it to drive, not bothering to say even a single word of goodbyes.
“Okay, rude,” she huffed, shaking her head, before going back to resting.
They could have at least brought her her boytoy… Or left the projector for the trouble…
***
“Well, what do you think?” Leopold asked, smirking.
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Peter inspected the white, ceramic plates attached to the half-melted fingers of the mech’s hand. They looked weird, deviating from the militaristic, somewhat retro-futuristic style into something mundane and straight up industrial instead. Cold and sleek, without a single hint of roughness, it was something he had only seen… Honestly, he didn’t even know where. Fusion reactor maybe?
“You think they won’t shatter on impact?” Peter asked skeptically.
“Of course they will.” Leopold shrugged. “But that’s not really the point, now, is it?”
“How much did you say they can take?”
“Six thousand Kelvin. Roughly. Like I’ve said, it’s just to take one, maybe two loads before vapourising – it won’t really have the time to shatter.”
Peter nodded, inspecting the bolts securing the plates and checking how robust they were by pulling by one Didn’t budge. If Leopold was correct, then it might prevent this combat gear from falling apart for at least a bit longer… And maybe indefinitely, if he could find a way to supply them. That could potentially work… If his patent revenue could cover it. Despite leeching money from basically all missile factories country-wide, his account was empty after buying wind turbines and everything required to make them work.
Then again, the military itself had a pretty big incentive to keep them supplied right now, with literally nothing but his girls standing between them and death if… or rather, when kaijus would decide to come back, since they sure as hell weren’t sending them a Jaeger for protection.
Long term survival suddenly didn’t seem so far-fetched.
“Sick. Thanks man, appreciate it.” Peter turned around, extending his hand.
They exchanged a brotherly handshake only two engineers trying to look way cooler than either would ever be could before patting each other on the shoulders and letting go.
“I just hope you didn’t touch the countercurrent?” he asked cautiously, glancing at the exposed wiring.
“Nah, that part’s still trash.”
“Good.”
With that said, they split… or rather, they would, were they going in opposite directions. Instead, they found themselves awkwardly trodding along next to each other in silence for quite some time, before finally saying each other farewell outside.
While Leopold made for the base neatly fitted between rocks to the right, Peter made for the landmark that by all accounts, should not have been there… yet.
“Hey, love.”
Ichi glanced down at him and smiled.
“I don’t think you should be walking yet,” he commented, glancing at the spear shaft she fashioned into a walking stick.
“Then you think too much,” she retorted, placing him on her lap. “Relax, I know how much I can push myself.”
“We both know that’s a lie,” he remarked, for which he received a less than gentle boop on his face.
“Good to see you’re still a mouthful.”
“Good to see you’re relaxing again.”
Ichi chuckled and loudly exhaled, tapping her fingers behind him. “I’m as surprised as you are,” she admitted, her tired eyes signifying the recently discarded burden. “And yet, everything worked out… almost okay. Far better than I expected.”
“Yeah…” he quietly laughed. “I guess so.”
They’ve spent a quarter of an hour there, enjoying the breeze and warmth of their closeness. And yet, he couldn’t really relax. Not fully at least. They didn’t really win; their situation just wasn’t hopeless anymore. Now, it was merely catastrophic.
There was much to do. He had much to do. For starters, some automated defense against the regular kaijus the expedition would surely want to implement… Yes, he could have a hand in those. Maybe set up a drone swarm as an early warning system and… as an insurance against their new guests if things ever turned south.
Of course. Have a plan to kill them all. Just like him.
It’s not like that…
Oh really?
He closed his eyes and sighed as the man’s visage manifested in his mind again. How his face first went from anger, to disbelief, and ended up displaying the purest horror Peter had ever witnessed… For a whole split second, before disappearing into the darkness.
He knew it would haunt him for the rest of his days. He was a murderer now, self defense or not, and the fact he did it with bare hands…
Hiding his head between his knees, Peter forced himself to think. To analyse everything again and again and again… He couldn’t say if there had been a good way out. At the very least, he couldn’t think of any that would have ended better. Every possibility led to bad outcomes either for him or the family. He was certain of one thing though – the route he chose was bad.
Maybe he really should have just learned Mandarin to…
He was suddenly enveloped from all sides and shifted up into the air, before his back got assaulted by enormous lips.
“Don’t worry…” she whispered. “Everything is fine. And everything will be. I promise.”
He leaned into delicate licks and kisses, letting them nearly consume him. Maybe that was a way out… Getting eaten by a dragon… He wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore…
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, love,” he sighed both at her and his idiotic thoughts.
“Alright… How about a different one – I promise we will have a fun night tonight,” Ichi purred with subtlety of a falling brick.
He couldn’t help but laugh, pressing his head against her snout, which resulted in his head getting a less than accidental tongue bath.
“Bleh… Dragon spit,” he scoffed without meaning it and wiped his face into sleeve.
“Better get used to it. Soon, you’re gonna be coated in it,” she winked, blowing hot air with a slight tinge of smoke at him.
“Quieter, or they’ll hear you.” He waved roughly in the direction of the expedition’s base.
“So what? Let them get jealous. I like it.” She pressed him against her chest.
“I love you…” he mumbled quietly, inspiring an enormous purr within her. “I just wish everything was easier… That anything was easier.”
“I love you too… And I have a piece of wisdom for you.”
“Don’t rub your feet when you sleep?” he snickered. “I’ve learned from last time.”
“No, you idiot,” she scoffed, before placing him on top of her snout. “A bit more… philosophical one.”
“From you? Uh-huh, already scared.”
Her index finger tapped his belly forcefully enough to silence his sly remarks for at least a few seconds.
“What I meant to say is… Life is like a cave.” She cross-eyed at him, aware of the exact remark he would want to make right now. “You might not see the path clearly, or… maybe not see it at all. When that happens… Follow the light. I’ve found out following what is good is the best choice.”
“Am I really that easy to read?”
“Yes,” she replied instantly. “Also, your smell changes a little when you worry too much. You beat yourself over it, but it wasn’t your fault… and even if it was… just be better next time. That is all.”
“Of course, why haven’t I thought about that before,” Peter snarled. “Just be better… What else, are you gonna tell depressed people to ‘just smile’? Life isn’t that simple.”
“It’s only complicated if you choose to make it so.” She nudged him playfully. “Enjoy it while you can…”
Peter sighed, feeling that she was right, but being unable to accept it. He turned around to reciprocate her advances… and saw darkness. Reality behind him was missing – consumed by the all-encompassing void he floated in.
Peter felt himself getting brutally dragged inwards, his own mind collapsing in on itself.
***
The vision faded and he was left in the monstrous, horrifying darkness. The fatigue returned. Fear returned. Despair returned. Whatever rest the vision had brought him dissolved in an instant under the crushing weight of terror. How long has he been here? There was no way to tell. The deprivation was getting to him far more than he would like to admit. Why was it happening to him? What was the reason? He couldn’t remember. He had spent far too long in the stream of consciousness – all his memories getting mangled… intertwined… slowly fusing into one, incoherent mess of thoughts and sensations…
And yet, something pushed itself up from the mutilated pile. Shreds so deformed and forgotten he couldn’t place them anywhere… But they all shared one thing in common.
Here, he looked into the darkness of the cosmos. Here, he was trapped in a glass tube, watching the dragons outside in fear. Here, he stood at the edge of… something… Here, he was reading from a weird computer screen… And later, from a book… Staring at the swarming kaijus. Aiming a rocket… Talking with someone he could no longer remember… Jumping…
All memories connected by a single unifying thought that brought nothing but fear and despair. One name he so desperately tried to forget.
***
“Thanks for coming. Honestly didn’t think you would,” Friederick said, unable to hide his sourness.
Peter blinked, momentarily confused, before his sudden brain fog lifted and he remembered everything. He took a seat at the elongated table clearly meant for a lot more people.
“Since we’re all finally here…” Frederick cleared his throat and adjusted his shirt, before turning on the projector. “As you all probably know, the closest identified rift is located approximately one hundred and twenty-one kilometers north-west of this island.”
Everyone briefly glanced at the familiar form of an eldritch looking sphere, before focusing on the Lieutenant again.
“We were supposed to study it again in whatever capacity we could… But I have a few bad and a few good news.”
“Bad news,” Leopold scoffed, slamming his fists into the table. “Two thirds of us being dead is a bit more than BAD news.”
“As regrettable as it was, it’s not included in the news I’m about to share,” Frederick replied dryly. “FEU has agreed to lend us one of their orbitals. We will have full operational control of it within a week.”
“For real?” Peter asked, before biting his tongue and swapping to a more official vocabulary. “I mean… How did you convince them? They were always stingy with sharing that.”
“All you need to know is that they also wish to see this project succeed,” Frederick responded.
“That, and they were planning to deorbit it soon anyways,” Michael interrupted, much to Friederick’s dismay. “We’re just finishing-off hand me downs.”
“Yes, that sounds more like it,” Leopold commented sarcastically.
“Are you finished gossiping?” Friederick scoffed, returning at least a semblance of order into the room. “Thank you. The other good news is that we will get reinforced a day early. Choppers are getting ready as we speak.”
“Alright. How many reinforcements are you getting? Back to a hundred?” Peter asked, trying to imagine how much their base would have to expand to fit them.
“Well, we were supposed to get just twenty more researchers, but…” He hesitated. “Well, it’s kind of tied with bad news, so…”
“I need more men to build stuff, Lieutenant,” Leopold drawled. “More eggheads will be as useful now as a stick shoved up my ass.”
Michael shot him a half-annoyed, half-disdainful glance.
“We were supposed to,” Frederick put emphasis on the last two words. “Instead, we are getting a full infantry squad and four worker teams. thirty men in total.”
“Alright, that’s more like it.” Leopold nodded. “Krasny will be working alone then?”
“No, I won’t,” Michael interrupted. “I’m leaving.”
“Could you at least try to follow the protocol?” Frederick whimpered, clearly approaching his limit. “Yes, Doctor Krasny is temporarily leaving our expedition to pursue a… different objective.”
“Classified I presume?” Peter asked, observing the researcher.
“Yes. Even I don’t know what he’ll be doing,” Frederick admitted.
“That means there won’t be any scientists on site.”
“Irrelevant.” Michael shrugged. “With limited personnel, it will take a few weeks at least to erect the facilities. It’s better if I do something productive in the meantime... And the Council agreed with me.”
Peter slowly nodded. It was hard to argue with that logic, and even if, going against it would be stepping up against the Council of Generals – meaning, any arguing was beyond pointless.
“That’s all the news I got,” Frederick announced, sitting down.
“Wait, that’s it?” Leopold asked incredulously. “Why the fuck did we need a projector then, if you had just one slide we’ve already seen?”
Frederick tightened his lips and glanced at him, almost offended, yet chose not to answer. Peter nearly laughed but instead chose to ask his own question. “If that’s all you have, then… Why did you want me to come? What my presence accomplishes?”
“Yes, that…” Leopold nodded. “And why did we need an official meeting here, instead of just… talking like normal people?
“Because, my dear subordinates,” Frederick put a lot of emphasis on that last word. “Despite everything being as it is, we should still make an effort to conceal classified information. We should make an effort to follow the damned protocol like good servicemen. Why is it so hard to grasp?” He spread out his arms in a show of anger.
“We also prefer to talk with you, instead of the titans,” Michael added. “You seem more… reasonable.”
“You weren’t supposed to tell him that!” Frederick raged.
“I thought we were supposed to be quiet? So no one hears?” Michael crossed his arms.
“I’ve heard everything,” the booming voice from the outside chimed in, startling everyone but Peter.
As announced, Ichi laid outside with her head pressed against the base’s wall. A less than hidden backup he was unable to stop from following him.
“W-w…what?” Frederick mumbled with a pale face. “H-how?”
“I’m stealthy,” Ichi replied.
“She’s stealthy,” Peter confirmed.
“She’s a TITAN!” Frederick yelled.
“A stealthy one,” Ichi responded.
After that exchange, a few immensely tense seconds followed, before Frederick stood up, his face bearing an expression of a hanged man. “I quit. Ask someone else to be your commander, I’m done dealing with this…” He waved at the room, turned to hide his reddened face, and marched out.
“Fred! Fred, come on!” Leopold ran after him. “They’re just joking, come on…”
Once they left, the room was silent for around five seconds, before Michael started laughing. “Oh God…” He shook his head while cleaning his glasses. “I love messing with nepo babies.” He loudly exhaled, trying to calm himself. “But as for your question…”
“Which one?” Peter asked, technically adding another one to the mix.
“Why you’re here of course. See, I have a request.”
“Sure? What is it?” Peter leaned forward in his chair.
“I wish for you and at least one of the titans to accompany me on my mission as… guides and consultants, so to speak.”
“Okay, first of all…” Peter raised his finger. “At least one in their case means all three. Splitting them up is a bad idea. Right, love?”
“Yes,” Ichi responded sourly.
Michael cleared his throat, visibly forcing himself to ignore that last sentence to remain at least somewhat professional. “Sure, all three is good.”
“And where would your road trip take us exactly?” Peter pushed.
The researcher eyed him curiously, as if trying to assess something.
“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet. To Yucatan of course.”
***