#baydell

[spitfirecommittee]

If anyone wants to request a town tune for me to compose, go ahead.

[askrockknight-blog]

16- A choice to make

 Mahir didn't have the supplies to mend the advanced piece of technology. It took a great deal of arm twisting and pleas (though he had the time to spare waiting for his armor, Mahir nearly wanted to strangle the knight by the time the metal had finally set), but the axian was coaxed into following him along to Zabylonia. Sure, they were two steps behind technologically, but that meant they could appreciate his versatile skill-set far better than the Akkadians!

It didn't hurt to promise a bit of bribery on a good wage of the Rahbar Rossherapi. Rock hoped to high heaven he hadn't breached his good faith with the leader, but he seemed agreeable...

That had gone smoothly, but there was still the ever-looming matter of the Diut-Akkadia treaty upcoming. Upon arriving, he had gone into a debriefing session with Jnral Iwa Massoud and the Rahbar himself. The more Rock evaluated the position of the four countries involved, the bleaker the situation appeared, and he lingered just outside of the Takht Marmar palace hall covered in intricate carved marble to meet another.

"I've really screwed up this time, Silver."

The deep blue helm bobbed up to look across the room at his brother, curious. "Well, it's not the end of the world." He probably should have been expecting that kind of quitter mentality from him. Rock rolled his optics and sighed, sagging his shoulders.

"No, I mean it."

"You look like shit, though. Are you alright?" In a half dismissive, aphonic gesture, the knight threw up a hand before sliding down the wall to he was leaning on to sit in a heap.

"I'm fine now, but I got trapped in Aseiria."

"That makes sense. We were wondering why you just seemed to disappear. So what habbened back there?"

"The short story is, I liberated the town and cut off the Caliph's arm." The words earned a startled flinch. 

"You did what?" Silver suddenly began to laugh, flopping down next to him on the ground. "You are such a trouble maker!"

"It was kind of an accident, but what's done is done-" 

"How do you accidentally hack off the arm of your enemy nation's second in command, Rock?" Rock scowled in return, expression leveling out with a stern tone. 

"None of this is a matter that should be so amusing."

"Amusing or not, Akkadia's got to be having a connibtion right about now. So what's bringing you down in the doldrums now?" Rock exhaled slowly and closed his optics, playing his memory core's data once more- as if it might have changed for the better. He'd been analyzing every motion, every word exchanged in his idle time with Mahir, and it allowed him to finally catch his fatal flaw- though, it left him with no solutions to remedy it.

"He already began to question the Magarons cover to me directly. He was claiming it a one-mech organization--"

"Claiming? Isn't it?"

"Besides the point, Silver. Magarons is a cover to hide my association to Lacroa, and now he knows my name and saw me utilize my magic as well. I've already been tried on Diut courts once before, if they catch word that I'm interfering with a war they're about to back-?" Rock opened his troubled optics again, searching his brother's. 

"I can reason they'll claim you're rebresenting Lacroa."

"An international crisis is the last thing anyone wants."

"Not your Diuts, from the sounds of it." Rock balled up his fists and buried his face in them, slowly spreading his digits out. Primus, he was already regretting sparring Suran Far-Sin's life. "In forty years I'd like to think you have learned to relax- so relax. What's done is done. You still made out bretty good from the sounds of it, Rock."

"But I don't know what to do now," The knight blurted. "Mahir is right, even if I take away the immediate usefulness of a Diut-Akkadia pact, the Diuts have the technology to get Akkadia tapped into their energon again in no time. This isn't going to change the inevitable-..." Silver looked down at his hands, rubbing his index and thumb and biting his glossa. Rock knew it without it being said, and he was grateful that he kept the comment to himself. His brother told him it was futile, that it was going to happen, and that his predictions don't change. Course, Rock didn't believe that any, Rele's predictions were not infallible, and there was no reason Silver's unmotivated techniques should have been any different. He set out to prove him wrong, and he still could, but just not like this. So then, how? Rock huffed and leaned back to slump into his chair and stare up at the roof. "I just have to find some other way..."

"Well," Silver drawled. "I know what you should do..." He bought the knight's attention but earned a dirty look with what he said next; evidentially, he thought too soon.  "You should take the first boat out of here and go back to your home."

"Yeah, of course you would say that--"

"Look here," He lowered his voice just above a growl. "I hate to break it to you, but you are not saving us. What you did to help who you've helbed has been nothing short of insbirational, and I'm not trying to steb on that at all--"

"It's always about giving up with you, isn't it," Rock counter-interrupted. "You don't even try. I've never met a mech so absolutely lazy and defeatist as you are, Silver!"

"Don't yell at me, I'm listening because I care enough to try to help you."

"You're trying alright." He retorted and Silver scoot forward to stare back at him face to face, keeping calm despite the bitterness and resent Rock exuded.

"Yes, I am. I'm trying to make you see the situation for what it is. Your job- from what you've told me- is to brotect your beoble and your royalty and your kingdom." Rock huffed hot air from his vents, rubbing the  back of his neck now. "Your spark is in the right blace, but you have a choice to make. Life does not always have a bossible balancing act available, because sometimes if you try, you end up losing both." The knight stared back for a long, silent moment, obviously digesting his words and then like a music box slowing to a stop, Rock began to wind down. A choice? Lacroa and Zabylonia---

"No-- the pact with the Diuts! They're tied together, I have to save both--"

"You can't. You may call me mtsha'em all you will, but it is why you are sitting on your aft here, clueless of what to do. Any more work here is only going to jeabordize Lacroa." His slightly confused, but mostly speechless look was Silver's best indication that Rock was getting it. "...But if you go home, you can still use what you have learned here to brebare your country, you can still make an imbact on Lacroa without giving Zabylonia broblems vice versa." Oh merciful Goddess... Rock slowly shook his head, staring at one spot but at nothing in particular.

"No, that's... we don't stand a chance against Diudesk... What happens here will dictate what Diudesk will do- in Lacroa, all I can do is gave Rele and sit and hope they... they won't exert themselves on us...."

"If that is all you can do, Rock, then that is all you can do. You must accebt your own limits." Rock stared blankly in return and Silver frowned, leaning in to give his shoulder a shake to drag him out of his deep concentration. "Are you going to be okay?"

He didn't have a chance to answer, or even think about it, because the next thing he knew a blur of blue sped at them out of the corner of his eye, and the knight lifted his helm to find a rushing, ghostly femme, pouncing upon the two and phasing through anyway.

"Rock!! I'm so sorry it took so long!" Instinctively he scrambled back from the pounce, sitting there and blinking at her before smiling. Boy, he never thought he'd been happier seeing his little sister.

"Luna! Hey, it's okay. I haven't been back long, either." Silver gave Rock a wary, hard look slowly unfurling away from the knight to get back up on his feet.

"I'll- take that as a 'no'. You should try to get some help." He ignored him, deciding he wouldn't let his brother ruin this moment. 

"So, what all did you find," Rock asked as she tried again to wrap her arms around him in a faux hug he couldn't feel, but seeing the gesture was starting to be enough. She jumped up no sooner having succeeded, balling up both hands.

"Oh!! Right!! I-I heard what you did to the Caliph... they're awfully mad!"

"I'm sure," He replied sourly.

"There's this new weapon they were talking about testing out in Nanna called lemur, I really couldn't get any more information than that. The people developing it had already gotten most of the specifics out to Rahbar Ali Far-Sin, he just recently gave the clearance to take it out for field testing..." 

"A weapon?" He paused, hesitantly. "When are they testing it?"

"I don't know, since the Caliph came back wounded, it's been a flurry trying to keep tabs on their commanding officers..."

"Alright, well I'll give them a warning. Thanks Luna, that really helps." Rock held up a hand to her and she paused in confusion at first before beaming and reaching hers up as well, curling her digits around his.

"Warn them about what?"

"Oh, you're still here? I didn't know you were interested in the ramblings of a crazy mech," Rock chided. Silver didn't really bait, which was fine by him, he wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with sass in return. "Luna says there's a dangerous new weapon Akkadia is going to test out in Nanna. That's south of Sipponraimaai, right? In Ur?"

"Well I'd hope not, Miazm Jnral Mahal should have arrived earlier today with some backup reinforcements to the station in Nanna. There was a small platoon of Akkadians who entered the grounds, so they were hoping to come resupply them."

Going out there to resupply- but in the wake of a recent, small strike from Akkadia? That seemed odd. What kind of test would that be? He didn't like the sounds of it, glancing back to Luna nervously. "Hey, you sure you don't know anymore about what this weapon is for?"

"They said they could crush us with it," She sank down a little. "But, of course they'd want to think that...!"

"...Well, I don't like taking chances on something like that." Rock quickly picked himself up. "At the very least, we should see if Mahal is doing alright out there."

"Okay!"

"Before you get involved again, maybe you should-" He hurried off without giving Silver a second's glance, his brother sighing and crossing his arms. "You really are still a troublemaker, Rock..."