Binary Blast

apocalypticmadman‌:

It took longer than anybody would have liked given the situation, a weighty silence that loomed as he just stared down at him. There wasn’t any immediate indication that she was getting through to him other than the fact that he may have paused in his struggles.

He felt the strength of her hands, holding him in place. He had felt that before hadn’t he? No, not his wrists though. His hands. She had held his hands before. She had once told him it was going to be alright before. He remembered that.

Slowly the clamor in his ears dimmed, enough that he could hear, really hear, her.

We need to go. Hojo will trap you again.

Yes, he mustn’t let that happen. He could destroy this hell later. Hojo had built him, had built his brothers. Sephiroth owed no loyalty to him. Slowly, very slowly, he nodded. His voice still sounded odd but his words were compliant enough.

“I..understand. I’ll come.”

For just a minute, his gaze seemed to focus on her. He wasn’t snapping out of it, not really, but he was listening. That was good enough.

Carol let go of his wrists, instead reaching up to hold his shoulders in a gentle grip. “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to get through this, like you always do. I’m here to help.”

Then with a pat on his arm, she moved his arm back around her shoulder to help steady him.

Trying to keep him with her, Carol wracked her brain to engage him in conversation. “When we get back, we’ll get a dozen cookies to celebrate. Or find one of those mall stores that sell giant cookies. For parties and stuff. We’ll have them write ‘congratulations on not dying’.”

Her feigned optimism was interrupted by a drone flying out, a laser focusing on them, before Carol shot it out of the air with a blast of light.

#apocalypticmadman

apocalypticmadman

End Game

apocalypticmadman‌:

There wasn’t much left of the man she knew in that gaze, as he stared down at her. He had always seemed relatively close to being human, had done his best to remain that way. Celestial blood was no blessing when you were hunted for it. But his stay here had erased much of that, his inhuman bloodline almost aggressively pushing to the front.

They were dead? No, they couldn’t be. He had heard their voices, heard them pleading for him to help. He had heard their instructions on how he would become a god. He still heard their screams, as loud as if they were in the same room. They echoed in his skull, those cries for vengeance. But he couldn’t strike out at the woman holding him. Something inside of him still recognized her as a friend, as someone he cared for.

“…I heard them.” He answered, his voice soft. “I can still hear them, crying.” His eyes had momentarily fixed on the wall opposite, his gaze distant and unfocused as if listening to something. Then his eyes snapped back to her.

“You’re lying. You planned to eliminate them and me all along.”

The words cut deep into her. It took a long moment for her to force the pain down enough to think of a response.

“You know that’s not true,” Carol said, trying hard to remain calm. It was a hard feat, with the alarms going off and knowing that if she said the wrong thing, she might have to fight him AND get him out in time.

“I picked you up in my ship when you were attacked. If I wanted you hurt, I wouldn’t have showed up, and I wouldn’t be here now. I’m trying to get you out of here, out of Hojo’s hands. I care about you, Seph. I want to keep you safe.”

Carol’s grip tightened around his wrists, wishing she could give him a hug instead.

“That isn’t crying, those are alarms. I’m sorry but there’s nothing we can do for your brothers. We need to get out of here. You’re in danger. If we stay here, Hojo’s going to trap you again. We need to go, okay? Do you understand?”

#apocalypticmadman

apocalypticmadman

End Game

apocalypticmadman‌:

@binaryblast

Few people could compete with Sephiroth’s strength, at least when they were smaller than himself. Even as weakened as he was now, he could still hold his own. He fought against Carol’s grip on him, dragging him step by reluctant step.

He couldn’t just leave things as is. Vengeance called to him, the shrieks of his dying brothers still echoing in his ears. They had to be still alive. They couldn’t have all perished yet. He might just have a chance to pull one out, maybe two. Yes, he’d rescue the ones he could then destroy the destroyer.

“They need me.” He snarled at the woman tugging him backwards. “They needed you. What kind of hero are you?”

Despite his incarceration, Sephiroth’s sheer will made him a handful, especially being shorter than him. Still Carol wrestled him back, pulling him step by step, trying to get him to safety.

His words stung. Not the words themselves -- she knew she was doing the right thing -- but the sentiment behind them. Sephiroth, in his delirium, thought she was betraying him, and leaving his family to die.

Once they got down a hall, Carol pushed him against a wall, pinning his arms to keep him still, to get his attention.

Her expression was disturbed, and pleading.

“They weren’t speaking, Seph. You’re hallucinating. I checked the system...there was no signs of life. They were all dead. ”

“I’m sorry.”

#apocalypticmadman

The Science of Gods

#apocalypticmadman #onto new thread?#gravityeternity

apocalypticmadman‌:

In Sephiroth’s twisted mind the words “I need to handle this” said more about helping. Crow had to help. These were his people too. He had to help and Sephiroth had already declared himself not strong enough, not yet. He would get there, growing stronger and stronger as time went on, but he had not completed his transformation to full god yet.

So he went with Carol without too much protest. Yet. It was the shrieks he heard in his head, louder than any physical sounds of destruction that pulled him up short. What? His eyes widened, pupils so narrow they were almost unseen in the gleaming green.

“No!” He snarled and whirled, his hand instinctively groping for a weapon he didn’t have. Only his weakness prevented him from entirely rushing back to that terrible lab, his first few steps steady but the last causing him to stumble.

He’d kill him. Kill Crow for killing his brothers when he had all but begged to save them. They were prisoners too. How dare he destroy all that Sephiroth had left.

Carol didn’t know exactly what Crow was going to do, but she could tell from the haunted darkness of his gaze that it was going to be both destructive and necessary. Something that Sephiroth, in his delusional state, should not at all witness.

So she nodded, exchanging one deeply sad, sympathetic look before she guided Sephiroth out of the door.

Carol was trying to hurry him away, but they were only half down the hall when the cacophany of shrieking metal and shattering glass made the very floor shake. She flinched, knowing what was going to come next.

Sephiroth pushed off her shoulder, rushing back towards the lab several steps before stumbling. Carol took advantage of the stumble to grab a hold of his arm, dragging him back.

The alarm had already started sounding.

“Seph, no, we have to go. They’re going to destroy our ship if we don’t get to the bay first.”

Logic seemed lost on him, prompting Carol to more or less have to try dragging him, silently praying she wouldn’t have to knock him out. “Seph...Seph! Sephiroth, come on!”

The Science of Gods

gravity-eternity‌:

apocalypticmadman‌:

He initially slumped against Carol as he was abruptly released. Somewhere deep inside he knew he wasn’t making sense. The rational part of him that held a rigid control over himself had been reduced to a mere whisper in his mind. Finally he pushed himself up, steadying himself against the wall.

“My brothers.” He whispered, his eyes unfocusing as if he were listening to something else.

We’re here, brother, as we always have been.

Come to us.

Release us.

“They’re…on a lower level.” Sephiroth slowly blinked before his gaze returned to first Carol and then Crow. “They’re locked up where they can’t get out. They need my help. They need yours.

It took him longer to register Crow’s question, focused more on the plight of those he called family. He stepped forward and staggered before managing to catch himself and straightened. It was only then did he remember Crow’s inquiry.

“Hojo, he’s building…has built a god.”

For all that Carol had seen him very emotionally shaken not very long before, Crow was doing a remarkable job of holding steady now. He certainly looked disturbed, his breath shaking in his thin chest and his hands balled into fists. But all Crow did was glance between them at the mention, and then take a careful step back.

Building a god.

It was like that sentence was built to shake him. The last thing Crow ever wanted the Celestials to be was gods; or at least the second-to-last thing he wanted them to be. The first was still an indistinct terror in his mind, but his premonition-like instincts were telling him it would clear up soon enough.

Crow stood back, glancing to Carol. “If you can hold him, I can lead our way down. We have to address this immediately.”

This time Crow’s pace was a bit faster as he headed over to the elevator once more, this time destined for the lowest level. He could swear he heard that screaming again, only in the back of his mind.

Carol hovered near his side, reaching out each time he stumbled. It seemed like they’d been keeping him sedated. That, or he hadn’t been allowed to move since he’d been taken. Possibly both.

Brothers? So Crow’s premonition had been right. There were others.

“We’re going to go get them, Seph,” she assured him, before glancing at Crow. She hadn’t ever seen him so serious about something. He knew the gravity of the matter. It hit home for him in a way she’d never be able to know.

She kept near Sephiroth’s side, catching him his next stumble, and wrapping his arm around her shoulders to steady him. They followed Crow to the elevator, then down. Carol noticed there were more drones.

“Let’s make this quick. I think they’re on to us,” she murmured. “Prioritize survivors. The Cosmic Chain can round up the scientists.”

They approached the next door, and, after breathless silence while Crow worked, it opened.

Inside was the largest laboratory they’d yet seen, and it sent a cold chill shooting up Carol’s spine. It was too white, too clean, too clinical. There weren’t any cells she could see, nor were there any people.

“Are you sure this is it?” she asked them, moving cautiously into the lab. Then her eyes were drawn to a console near the wall. Carefully, she went over to it. One of the options on the touchscreen was ‘display full contents’. She pressed it.

A harsh rumble filled the room as the walls and floors began to unfurl themselves. Tanks rose from the floor, containing specimens preserved in liquid. Most were small, still curled into a fetal position, looking as though they had perished in development. Some had eyes too big for their skulls. Some legs were too long, or missing. One had a malformed arm that wrapped twice around its body, ending in a claw that had punctured its head. All had small wings sticking out of them, and not all in their backs.

The largest were the cryogentically preserved ones that slid out of the wall, displaying the most tortured-looking of the dead. They were adult in size, but their horrifying bodies looked as though they’d never been able to leave wherever they’d been grown.

The first looked like a young man from the waist up, silver hair much like Sephiroth’s, but his body dissolved into a mass of black wings and a giant, fang-filled mouth the size of the rest of his body. The second had a network of tentacles where he should have had arms, interconnecting with each other, bony wings poking out from them like thorns on a stem. The third had no neck, his spine jutting out of the back of his head to link up with a body mid-back, three sets of black wings along his sides. He had no lower jaw -- just a mass of tentacles.

Not a single one was alive, and Carol found herself desperately grateful for that.

The Science of Gods

gravity-eternity‌:

apocalypticmadman‌:

“I am…everywhere.” Sephiroth’s voice was soft, a whisper in the dark. He raised his head as Carol came to stop beside him, sea green eyes hardly human anymore. Yes, he knew her, this perpetual child. Power radiated inside of her, power too strong for her to have died.

Or had she? He had believed her dead, believed that he would need to reverse that state once he had obtained godhood. She was accompanied by another of his kind and yet not. Perhaps he had done it instead.

“Death’s silence was never supposed to be long for you.”

It was easy to see he hadn’t had an easy time of it. Puncture marks and small incisions covered his bare arms and shoulders, the scars of previous fights stark against too pale skin.

His eyes turned to Crow. “You brought her. …I know you.”

It wasn’t necessarily those first words that made Crow feel discomfort enough to have his skin crawl. It was the fact that he could more or less back it up. That infection he could feel chewing at his fingers was radiating off of Sephiroth like an icy chill, that wrongness both familiar and entirely foreign oozing out of him if only to Crow’s eyes only.

When Sephiroth fixed his eyes, he would find Crow’s a bit lighter, his skin fluctuating in pallor to something a bit paler. Light crackled in his gaze. “You do know me. You… saved my life, sort of, that one time.”

The Celestial glanced to Carol, a hand lifting like he was about to tell her to not let Sephiroth go. But he knew it was going to be futile. “What’s happening here, Sephiroth? W-what is Hojo doing? You have to feel it too.”

Shit.

Carol wasn’t a Celestial, but she didn’t need to be. Sephiroth didn’t sound like even the same person. He wasn’t making sense. Everywhere? What the hell did that mean?

Carol shared a nervous look with Crow. The way he was raising his hand, a silent motion to stop what she was doing, was nothing if not telling. Something was wrong, and he could sense it. He’d told her on the ship he was...’different’.

“Come back here,” Carol directed Sephiroth, knowing there was a good chance the words were futile. “Come on, Seph, whatever Hojo’s been doing, try to snap out of it. We’re not gonna let him win, right?”

Her eyes roved the fresh incisions and needle pricks.

“They’ve got him on something. We’re going to have to figure out what they’ve been pumping into him.” Or out of him.

Carol hesitated only a half second before her fists glowed. She snapped the restraints off his neck first, followed by his ankles and torso.

The wrists she did last, directing him immediately into her arms in case he couldn’t hold himself up.

“Can you walk?” When he didn’t respond right away, Carol snapped a few times in front of his face, trying to get his eyes to focus on her. “Seph, Crow felt more Celestials here. Do you know where they’re being held?”

The Science of Gods

gravity-eternity‌:

apocalypticmadman‌:

The light inside the room beyond was dim, pale emergency lighting providing the only illumination; a marked contrast from every other hall they had passed through.

The floor was bare and cold, the walls equally faceless. A long flat shelf had been installed in one corner, designed clearly to be used as a bed given the blankets that had been folded neatly there. It also looked untouched.

And against the very back wall slumped the tall muscular figure of Sephiroth, held up only by the restraints that secured him there. Short silver hair tumbled into his face, masking the gleaming eyes that somehow seemed to be watching.

Of course he recognized the minds that were here. He knew Carol. He knew Crow. One Celestial, one worthy enough to call herself one. He cared about her, didn’t he? The swordsman thought he remembered that.

Perhaps he would let them rule alongside him after he destroyed those that needed to be.

Crow had to stall once they made it inside; first checking for security, but finding his mind torn on trying to concentrate on any drones or sentry units. He was fairly sure there was nothing in there, but it was like there was light bleeding off of Sephiroth lying there in the corner, transfixing and throbbing and calling to him in the most terrible way.

Crow’s eyes shut tightly, the brightness inside of him trying to call back for only a moment before he could try and see it clearly.

It looked like a fungus in his mind, a disease, an infection in place of the psychic network that should’ve been binding them. It was something sinister and unnatural that permeated from this place on, and the feeling of sheer wrongness of this place drowned out the other thoughts occurring to him:

Somebody knew him here. He wasn’t safe.

Crow finally stepped further inside, carefully scanning the room with his teleporter before he turned to look at Carol. “Be careful.”

It took a second for Carol to recognize the man hanging there as Sephiroth. His long hair had been cut to his shoulders, his usually proud demeanor slumped. If there was recognition in his eyes, she couldn’t see it beyond the unsettling gleam.

She took a step quickly forwards, only to be stopped by Crow’s warning. She looked back at him, clearly unsure of what he meant, but trying hard to take his advice all the same.

But it wasn’t going to stop her from striding to his side, quickly checking the restraints that held him.

“Sephiroth? Seph? Hey, are you there? It’s alright, we’re getting you out of here. Hold on, I’m going to get these off you...”

The Science of Gods

gravity-eternity‌:

Crow couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness that crept through his bones once they got there; it was a chill down his spine, an antsiness, a brightness within him threatening to take over and make him run the other way.

Or run further inside, an instinct telling him to confront. But he didn’t want to blow their cover. Both he and Carol were powerful enough to blow this station out of the sky, but the ramifications of that would be hard to sift through. Instead he crept along with her, his hood up and his cowl pulled up over his nose, feet silent. Crow had done his share of sneaking around, and he was certainly good at it.

Once they were still, his eyes closed for another moment. He was searching the air around them, despite the way it made that brightness magnify in his chest. A hand pressed into his forehead, and Crow pointed a finger down. “Under us. That’s all I can find.”

“Then let’s find an elevator, or we’ll make one ourselves.”

As it happened, they didn’t need to resort to that. There was a set of stairs -- faculty only, but it wasn’t like they were listening to signs -- that took them down to a floor, and at Crow’s inclinations, down another one.

Slowly, carefully, they weaved their way through the halls, past security drones and cameras. Crow’s technological prowess got them through several doors, only to find empty, clean labs.

Carol was starting to get antsy. What if they’d moved him? What if they’d figured out they were there and had already locked all the victims away?

But she forced the thoughts down as Crow opened the next door, and they both looked in.

The Science of Gods

@gravity-eternity, @apocalypticmadman

They’d managed to dock without notice, due to Carol flying in and putting a fist through the security system. Thankfully for them, it seemed security was more or less completely automated.

Carol peeked around a corner, waiting as a security drone finished its sweep and moved to the next hall. But she had to spin around and duck back behind the corner as several scientists emerged from a door further down, carrying a glass case that held what looked like a mummified hand.

Her eyes narrowed.

Once they also left, she slipped around the corner, one fist glowing at the ready, the other hand gesturing for Crow to follow. Lowly, she asked, “Can you tell where he is?”

Dark Space

gravity-eternity‌:

“It doesn’t matter what you invite them to do,” Crow corrected softly, “it’s a risk for me. Once they see I’m still alive, that’s it.”

Everything he sacrificed, gone. The entire point of leaving Earth months ago, abandoning his friends and loved ones, kaput. But he knew what he felt in his meditation, and understood the sheer gravity of it.

The alternative might’ve been worse. “…I- I don’t want to think about it right now, okay? If we have to stop whatever that doctor is doing by any means necessary, it’s by any means necessary, Cosmic Chain included. I’ll… I’ll figure out what I’m going to do as we go along.”

“Just call them and get it over with, because the longer you don’t the longer I’m going to have to second guess you.”

Carol closed her eyes. She understood what she was asking Crow to do, and she wouldn’t be suggesting it if he hadn’t just said there were more people trapped there than just Sephiroth. If he hadn’t ended up shaking and crying just from feeling what was going on.

She reached out to hold his shoulder, her gaze filled with sympathy and regret, before she nodded.

Opening up the communication relay, she opened the call. Once someone answered, her voice had turned authoritative.

“This is Binary. I need to speak to the Cosmic Chain commander, it’s urgent.”

Dark Space

gravity-eternity‌:

Crow returned to the pilot seat and took a few more moments to finish collecting himself before he helped turn the systems back on. He was already getting the engines on when she made her suggestion.

And as expected, he looked over with wide eyes, immediately horrified at the implication. The very mercenaries that had ruined his life.

But there was a long silence as he stared at her, then looked back to the console and took the ship out. He took a deep breath.

“…Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.”

Carol didn’t like making the suggestion. She’d heard what Crow went through -- she’d seen how he’d been forced to flee before. Hell, Sephiroth is the one who had captured him and then let him go.

“I’m not going to invite them to do whatever they want,” Carol said carefully, “But if this is a big operation, we’re going to need the manpower to get everyone involved.”

“...and hopefully, if we offer them maniacs on a silver platter, we can sweet talk them into a deal.”

Dark Space

gravity-eternity‌:

“Yeah.” Crow nodded his head. It felt like something had been perverted, but there was also something familiar to that perversion. It was like he’d seen it before but didn’t know any better to comprehend it for what it was. He still didn’t comprehend it, all he understood was that something was wrong, something was artificial when it should’ve been real.

“He’s alive, but we’ve got to move. I– I have to see the rest. They’re on a ship…” Crow carefully pulled himself to his feet, taking her help graciously to get to his feet and rub his head. “…I can fly us there. Let’s get this ship moving…”

Carol helped him to his feet, her stomach twisting. He was alive. She’d focus on that.

Nodding, she took her seat, strapping in and turning the systems back on. The rest, he’d said. So there were more? How many? And in what state?

Carol’s jaw tightened. After a moment of silence, she spoke up.

“If we need to rescue more than one person, this ship isn’t big enough. You’re...really not going to like what I’m about to suggest, but keep an open mind.”

“Last I checked, the Cosmic Chain is pretty against kidnapping and illegal experimentation.”

Dark Space

Crow was at least slowly calming down, made evident by the way he gathered his breath and finally looked up to her. There as a distinct reason that he never liked doing this, and this had certainly be made worse by the visions he saw.

Another deep breath, and Crow carefully nodded his head.

“Y-yeah. Yeah, I got it. Carol, I…”

He blew his breath out through his teeth, gathering himself more. “…I felt him, but… but Carol, he doesn’t feel like he did before…”

Carol’s brow furrowed. Despite her attempt to conceal her distress, she couldn’t hide the hard swallow that followed that statement. She had to take a moment so her voice came out steady.

“What do you mean? What does he feel like?”

Not dead. He couldn’t be dead. He wasn’t dead, or he couldn’t have picked up on him, right?

“Could you tell it was him?”

Dark Space

gravity-eternity‌:

Crow was panting for breath, a thin sheen of sweat already dotting him as his heart hammered in his chest. He was lucky he had no furniture in here, otherwise it probably would’ve gone flying. As it was, Carol certainly felt a surge of weightlessness. At least she didn’t get lifted up.

He squeezed his eyes shut and compulsively shook his head. He swallowed, trying to gather himself. “I-it-it’s not just him. There’s… t-there’s more of them, o-of the Celestials, they’re…”

“They’re not.. I-I…” His face pressed into his hands, trying to push the tears back down. “Fuck, I hate this.”

He was shaking, panting, sweating. Crying. It sent Carol’s heart crashing into her stomach. She wanted to pull away and take a moment for herself, but she had to fall back on her training. She was here for him. And something was very, very wrong.

“Give yourself a second,” Carol said, with a calm she wasn’t feeling. “Come on, Crow. Stay with me. In and out.”

Her hands left his shoulders to try and gently pry his hands away from his face, cradling his face with her own instead. She brushed some tears away.

Crow was upset almost beyond words, so she needed to try and get a response with as few of them needed as possible.

“Do you know where they are?”

Dark Space

gravity-eternity‌:

The hand on his shoulder had him looking up into her eyes for a moment, the look of grateful empathy clear to see. He at least appreciated the concern, for all that she probably didn’t understand the scope of it.

He didn’t either. But Crow gave a little smile as he rose to his feet. “…Thank you. …You’re very, very strong, by the way.”

A last joke as he rubbed his shoulder, turned the lights off, and walked over to the open floor of the ship’s cabin. Crow sat down, folded his legs, and let his eyes close.

And he went silent, doing his best to enter the meditation that he’d so feared for most of his life.

And it took hours. It was dark in the ship floating through the recesses of nothingness, darker still behind his eyes where he scanned through the sounds of the cosmos around him.

The universe echoed around him, loudly and terribly while somehow being just as terribly silent. It was that silence he feared more than anything, as his consciousness moved into the void and was rewarded with emptiness. It was loneliness, the assurance that he was truly and deeply alone.

So it was startling when he suddenly heard screaming. It echoed in his skull, resonated through his bones, a shock of pain and agony and dread gripping his body for a long moment.

He saw torture. He saw twisted, unnatural visions.

And he felt his people– a dark and twisted image of his people reaching back out to him. They were there in the blackness, crying out for release.

Crow came aware with a sharp gasp and cry. He’d been floating a few inches but suddenly dropped onto his back and scrambled back into the wall. His skin had gone ghostly white.

There wasn’t much to do, other than checking for interference, occasional glances to make sure the ship’s drift was controlled. Which left Carol to just sit in her chair, alone with her thoughts.

Thoughts she didn’t want to be alone with.

She could still remember the fear in Sephiroth’s eyes when he’d first woken up on her ship, his pupils narrowed, trying to wrench his wounded body off the bed. As if someone was coming to kill him. Or, now, she had to wonder if he’d been expecting something worse.

Sephiroth had always been largely unflappable, even in the face of things that would have had lesser men fleeing for their lives. But Hojo...Hojo had terrified him.

What had he done to him? What was being done to Sephiroth right now?

Her thoughts were broken with a cry.

Carol shot out of her seat, whirling towards Crow. He’d gone from floating to scrambling backwards, his back against the wall. Quickly, she took a knee next to him, searching his wide blue eyes.

“Crow? I need you to breathe. Just breathe,” she ordered, putting her hands on his shoulders. “What is it? What did you see?”