A weapon gripped onto the railings of the hall. Dim lights hung overhead, bouncing off her short length of silver hair. The weapon's eyes were vicious, plain hospital gown falling off her shoulders like an angelic robe, as pristine as her alabaster skin.
Angelic. What a crude word.
Dark, mad chuckles escaped the weapon's lips as she ignored the specters lingering in the corner of her vision, escaping her sight no matter how hard she focused. They would continue to do so, until she was at her most vulnerable. More importantly, she ignored the tall, radiant phantom arrogantly looking down upon her, walking right through her without an ounce of reverence.
She stumbled, body feeling lethargic and delayed with its reactions. Each micro-instant seemed like it lasted an Amber Era or two.
It was sickening, for life to flow with such languidness. An eternity passed by, then another. And another. Time did not tick once per second, but once per minute. The weapon's heart felt like it was still and dead, each beat separated by long lengths of anguish.
This was not the cruelty of life, for life was not something frozen for fixation. Where was the rush? Where was the fire?
It was maddening to exist like this. It was even more insane to choose to exist like this, when she could simply summon her armor and be done with this torture.
But what was madness to a world that has gone mad? What was it to a weapon who dared to embrace that madness?
She derived a twisted pleasure from this act of defiance. Not the masochistic kind, but the type that found comfort in watching others squirm, such as the towering and imposing figure of light she forced herself to ignore.
You reap what you sow, as humans would say.
The weapon was definitely laughing, but with how slow everything felt, she couldn't be too sure.
Then, she turned the corner. Slowly, carefully, and full of pure spite and burning vengeance.
That boy stared at her with wide eyes.
She glanced at the weakling for a short — or perhaps long — moment, before continuing on with her weeklong day. The weapon dismissed the weakling's curious, yet confused gaze as she continued walking down the corridor, shedding her dwindling lifespan with each step.
Those lightless eyes revealed not even a hint of recognition. That was to be expected, however. All that ignorant boy knew was the steel he had the misfortune to learn from and fight beside.
He knew naught of the wildfire buried beneath that metal carcass.
And he would never, if she'd have it her way. Life was too short to waste on such meaninglessness.
The weapon found the idea of burning herself and all that haunted her mildly comforting.
***
Warmth.
That was the first thing Sunny felt when he regained consciousness.
It enveloped his side with a steady, living heat that no Memory nor mundane heater had any right to imitate so perfectly. The sensation rose and fell beneath his cheek in a slow, measured rhythm, each quiet breath gently lifting him before letting him sink once more, while something impossibly soft yielded beneath the weight of his head without ever quite giving way.
Lower still, where his arm had ended up draped without permission, that deceptive softness vanished entirely, replaced by a firm abdomen that felt less like flesh and more like tempered steel wrapped beneath flawless skin, every subtle contour carrying the restrained strength of a seasoned warrior.
The contrast was so absurd that his muddled mind briefly entertained the notion that someone had stitched two entirely different people together before deciding that such craftsmanship was probably beyond even the Spell.
Sunny remained perfectly still for several long moments, staring blankly at the ceiling while his sluggish thoughts slowly pieced together the increasingly alarming evidence surrounding him.
Warm body.
Soft chest serving as an exceptionally comfortable pillow.
Powerful core beneath his arm that could probably crack stone with a single careless movement.
A faint, ashy fragrance drifting into each breath.
Yes... this was definitely a heater. A very expensive heater, apparently, judging by the quality of the craftsmanship.
The only problem with that conclusion was that heaters generally did not breathe.
Which meant that a man with an exceptionally soft chest was beside him.
The strong arms wrapped around him let go with alarming swiftness, and it was only then that Sunny felt the person darting away through his shadow sense.
Sunny gasped as he forced his eyes open, slivers of light blinding him as he heard the sound of a window(?) flapping open. A stone hand gently pressed against his chest, pushing him back down in the bed he found himself on.
"S—Saint?! Let go, damn it!"
That fucker was here! He felt it, deep within the depths of his soul!
His gay master had the audacity to sleep with him, a man who was only gay on special occasions!
His Shadow hesitantly moved her arm, but it was too late. Sunny's body felt completely rejuvenated despite the grogginess that should have been assaulting him. His eyes darted around the unfamiliar room, finding all four of his Shadows present — even Tingyun, though she should have been in his Soul Sea. He ignored them all, catching a glimpse of silver hair with green highlights disappearing behind the open window.
'Motherfucker!'
Sunny dashed towards the window, avoiding Serpent and Nightmare who both tried to stop him for whatever reason. He'd worry about that later...
He sent them all back into his Shadow Cores, before vaulting through the open window. Sliding down the outside of the building's walls — an estate, he realized — he sank into the shadows. Simultaneously, he closely observed the surrounding shadows... before finding one with the depth of an Ascended and the vastness of a Titan.
More importantly, this shadow felt unfathomably familiar to him.
It simply stood there, waiting for him.
Sunny grit his teeth, before reappearing under an arching ornate bridge, the artificial moon casting a faint light down. Encased in the Mantle and wearing the mask of Weaver, with his hair transitioning to white, his concealed gaze rose to meet that of the other. A black odachi rose from the shadows as he cracked his neck.
"Do I need to explain?"
Across from him, a stoic, yet towering knight gazed at him emotionlessly. His armor was a violent clash between future and past. Silver plates of molten steel weaved with gold and black, folding over mechanized joints that seemed ripped straight out of a master engineer's wet dream. Behind the golden visor, a faint glow of emerald flickered.
"No. But this is not the time for this."
SAM's voice echoed with deep and prominent masculinity, though, it seemed clear that it was modulated. Perhaps the fool wanted to make his voice sexier.
Sunny mockingly snickered.
"Oh? Well, even if you didn't have the audacity to cuddle with another man, I would have killed you anyways. And I believe we both know that you don't stand a chance against me."
He snarled, feeling every cell in his body twisting in utter repulsion. At first, he was unsure about whether or not he wanted to kill AR-26710. There were pros and cons to it, after all.
On one hand, he was a slave. On the other hand, he couldn't be enslaved.
So, he was simultaneously vulnerable and invulnerable.
But now, he just couldn't take it! This stupidly handsome hunk just had to come in and be the big spoon to a little twink, didn't he?!
And his Shadows were into that!
SAM nonchalantly folded his arms, the whirling of infernal mechanics echoing with each movement.
"...I didn't want to meet you like this. I got... too excited. I apologize, weakling."
The shadows around Sunny deepened. At the same time, the heat in the air was starting to reach a breaking point as he broke out into a sweat. He spread his arms dramatically, taunting the molten knight before him.
"Not even I would sexually harass someone of the same gender, you utter trash. Do you believe that being 'too excited' would hold up in court? Do you believe that such an excuse would resist the edge of my blade?"
Sunny grinned beneath the mask, despite the wariness in his heart. Could he win? If he did, would he escape paying the price of victory?
"What next? Are you going to make me suck your dick? Or do you not have the balls, you *homophobic slur*?"
The oxygen in the air was beginning to burn. It was a good thing an Ascended's need for oxygen was much lower than a mundane human's, else he would have suffocated by now.
SAM clenched his fist, seemingly in rage. Then, he unfolded it. There was a very long pause before he spoke next, raising his hand and pointing a single steel finger at Sunny.
"I'm a girl, jerk. Did Silver Wolf tell you I was a man?"
Then, he... she?... placed a hand on the chin of her helmet, twisting her head in deep thought.
As for Sunny...
Every fiber of his being was frozen in time.
'Huh...'
Sunny stood there a little longer.
'Huh.'
Then, a little longer.
"Huh?!"
A girl? An entire girl?!
But... but the abs! They were way too defined. And the arms were oddly muscular for the small frame...
...Why didn't he use this logic with her chest? Why didn't he consider that an Ascended man wouldn't have a soft chest?
"Yes, Silver Wolf explicitly told me that you were a tall and hairy man."
SAM took a great step back, as if physically struck by this information.
"...Truly?"
"Yes. She also said you were stupid, broke, a bitch, a bastard, and a loser."
Screw Silver Wolf. She should have warned him!
Was it just him, or was she shaking in anger?
Oh, right. His master was supposedly a woman. Moreover, she didn't appreciate being mistaken by a man.
Pretty normal stuff.
Did he mention he probably had his head in her tits?
He felt like that was a very important piece of information.
Along with the fact that she was supposedly shredded. Not that such a trait was uncommon among Awakened women, but it also wasn't a very common one.
'Abs...'
What was he thinking about? Oh, right. His master was a woman.
That changed a lot, didn't it? But there was a more important issue here.
Was she hot?
Yes, clearly, he should've thought about this earlier. If AR-26710 had been a man, then cuddling up with Sunny was a reprehensible act. If SAM was a woman, then he could at least accept it. But if she was hot, then he had to welcome it with open arms!
'Wait, what?'
...The hell was he thinking about, he was still her slave! Boobs and abs can wait for later, damn it. He had to understand what was going on.
And also if he had to apologize. On one hand, perhaps she'd appreciate his apology. On the other hand, she might punish him for not apologizing, which had a wide range of possibilities.
Then, his mind circled back around to wondering why she was in his bed in the first place! In an unfamiliar room, at that!
The knight pressed a finger to the side of her helmet.
"Silver Wolf. I am not a bitch. I'm not a bastard either."
'Oh, so she's just stupid, broke, and a loser, yeah?'
Hopefully hot, as well.
SAM paused for a long moment, before sending a stoic glance at Sunny.
"You should have let that woman die."
Sunny raised a brow from behind the mask.
'Who?'
As if lit by a spark, a surge of memories suddenly revealed themselves to him. Very, very painful memories, which may or may not have involved losing his fingers, then his entire hand, then being electrocuted to smithereens.
Then again, he did have his hand and fingers back, without even a trace of losing them. The Luofu could not get him healed that quickly, so...
How long had it been since he lost consciousness?
Sunny silently tapped his odachi against the floor for a moment. Once, twice, thrice...
...Then, he realized that he wasn't being intimidating whatsoever, and awkwardly shrugged.
"What about it? You saying I'm wrong?"
"Yes."
The Stellaron Hunter silently shifted. Then, she elaborated:
"You are wrong about yourself. I may not be very... intelligent, but it's obvious that you're a hypocrite."
Then, she hesitated. Looking up at the sky, she nodded.
"Take off the mask. Elio's Divine Kingdom is protecting us."
'Ah.'
His mask was gone, dismissed to his Soul Sea. Sunny's mouth hung open, unsure of what to do or say.
He felt like he was being crushed by the weight of the world. It all felt so... hostile, all of the sudden.
Like invisible chains were wrapped around his neck. He lowered his gaze, shadows drowning his expression.
Across from him, AR-26710 — the smug bitch — stared at him innocently. The glow under her visor flickered oppresively.
"You've... grown. I realized it when I saw that livestream. And when you were hurt and dying. And now, that you stand before me."
SAM took one hesitant step forward—
"Don't move, you sack of shit."
She paused, staring down the length of the black blade pointed at her. Sunny's chest rose and fell in violent spasms, air rushing between his teeth with every breath he sucked in and forced out.
"Miss me with all this affectionate crap. There's no need to pretend! Slaver and slave is all the two of us are, and all we will ever be."
So, with a crooked smile, he spat out:
"And there's nothing more pathetic than a slave who trusts his master. So let's end the yap and start killing each other."
SAM lingered for a long moment. A sigh escaped them.
"Sunny. Stop crying. I don't like it."
The tears stopped streaming from his eyes.
"Can't even cry, is that it?! Do you get off when you think about what you can take away from me?!"
"I'm sure I could, if I tried."
"You—!"
"Shut up, Sunny. Just... shut up. Don't try to attack me, don't try to kill yourself, and don't move from that spot. Don't look for a loophole, either."
Sunny froze. Well, not completely. He could still move, but he couldn't walk away. He couldn't turn into a shadow, either.
And he couldn't speak, so all his despair and fury had no choice but circulate within him.
His warden, on the other hand, only shook her head in disappointment for a few moments, clenching and unclenching her fists. A habit, perhaps? Not that Sunny was in the mood for psychoanalysis.
"...I would prefer to take off my armor so that you can look at me. Me. But Elio wouldn't allow it. I wasn't even supposed to stay with you in the room. He's only concealing us so we don't fuck up his plans more than we already are."
She gazed up at the night sky for a moment, before returning to Sunny.
"My script told me to protect you until the Penacony incident arrives. It also tells me to never get in contact with you, and to not reveal myself. I've done both, though, I think you failed to see me. Nod if I'm right."
Against his will, Sunny nodded, glare so scathing that even fire may burn from its presence.
Her shoulders suddenly relaxed. Sunny didn't even realize they were tense, nor did he care.
"That's good. Just like that time in the hall, I want to be unrecognizable to you when we meet."
She turned away, stepping through the river as she approached him. Each step sent tremors of fear down Sunny's spine. What would she do? Would she kill him? No, that would go against the Stellaron Hunters' goals. But she even admitted to going off-script, so that wouldn't be too far below her, would it?
"I'm trying so hard to not get violent with you, Sunny. Don't even think about defending yourself."
...She wouldn't touch him, right? It was obvious that she had some sort of sexual attraction to him, but she wouldn't do anything against his will, would she? She'd need to take her armor off, and she wasn't allowed to do that, right? Then again, she shouldn't have been interacting with him so much in the first place.
What if she kept the armor on?
Sunny tried to step back, but he could not. He tried to move his weapon, but he could not. He tried to let out a whimper, but his vocal cords refused to work.
What was she going to do?
Sunny shut his eyes, expecting the worst...
Cold steel caressed the side of his face. He opened his eyes in confusion—
Just for one of them to be crushed by her metallic thumb.
A silent scream escaped Sunny's lips as she flexed her thumb within his eye socket, relentlessly pressing his nerves.
"It's all your fault. How dare you blame me for your mistakes?! Why can't you take just a small amount of responsibility?! You are a slave because you are weak. You're so damn pathetic, like a sick dog begging for affection when you can't even properly give the same to Stelle or your own fucking sister!"
He was going to die. Her grip tightened, cracks spreading across his skull. His blood refused to spill out of his empty socket regardless of how much it was violated or abused, though, that wouldn't last for long. His odachi had returned to shadow, the concept of concentration escaping him as he forgot he was holding it.
SAM crouched down, pulling his head down with her... before slamming his head against the riverbed. She pulled him up, just to slam him down again. And again. And again. Until his face was a bloody mess of mangled flesh and shattered bone — somehow, she mustered enough strength to get through Bone Weave.
"Do you have any idea how much you hurt others because of your cowardice? One of these days, everyone around you is going to die because you can't trust anyone. Surprise, surprise, not everybody is out to get you, idiot."
A flash of emerald light obscured his one remaining eye as she removed her thumb from the socket of the other.
'Argh...'
It was fire. Fire covered his vision, incandescent warmth spreading throughout his head, as if refusing to burn him.
"Strengthen me."
In response to the excessively modulated voice, all four of his shadows flew away... and did the unthinkable.
They wrapped around her.
SAM's armor seemed as if it was drenched in darkness, with only the light behind her visor and the glowing lines of molten ether stretching across it being unchanged. At the same time, in less than a second, Sunny's gruesome wounds were gone.
She menacingly tilted her head, as Sunny's skull was gripped by her gauntlet, limp like a ragdoll.
"These flames of mine aren't meant to heal others. I'm not a bringer of light like that woman believes she is. All I am is a weapon too stubborn and stupid to die."
She punched him in the gut, shattering the Mantle in one blow as air rushed out of his lungs, violently coughing under her grip. It took all his mental fortitude to not just expel everything he's been eating.
"It's all your fault! I used your True Name because you keep trying to get yourself killed! I don't want you to die! Why won't you understand that?! Then, you get mad at me for always having to save you?! For caring?!"
Her fist landed square on his face, pulverizing his nose. As another surge of emerald flames surged to repair it, she shoved his face into river... holding him there. His ears were just above water, forcing Sunny to listen as he held his breath. Her voice was low and cruel.
"So I have to thank you, really. Because without this bond of ours, you'd be dead a dozen times over. Honestly, you should be proud of yourself. Do you know what it means to give a weapon the power to heal? To protect? To love? Only a God should be allowed to do that."
She jammed her knee into his spine, sending shocks of paralyzing pain through his body.
"You are a God, Sunny. My God. And I know for a fact that the God I swore my heart and sword to was there when he pushed that woman. And I'll bring him back, even if I have to tear through your cranium to get it!"
Pulling him by the hair, she rose to her full height. Sunny's feet dangled off the ground, separated from it by over a foot at minimum. She gazed into his healed, yet wet, face, which was twisted into an expression of bloodlust and hate.
"What? Don't hate me for this. I'm only doing this because I lo—"
A neon laser jutted out of her gut and severed her spine, forcing her to drop Sunny back into the river as her blood and whatever else fell out spilled over him. His heart pounded throughout his chest, threatening to rip out of his ribcage.
...How naive. Why did he even entertain the thought that his master wouldn't abuse the Shadow Bond. That they wouldn't use it to abuse him?
He had to kill her, but he couldn't. He couldn't even bring himself to hate her, only because she told him not to. All of his resentment could only go to his weakness, to the weakness of [Sunless] for allowing himself to be enslaved by someone who only wanted to hurt him.
It seemed he was Cursed to forever suffer under that indecipherable man's shadow.
"FIREFLY!"
Sunny barely pushed himself up from the riverbed. His body was... unharmed, but he couldn't move from his position unless she rescinded her order.
He watched as the gaping hole in the molten knight's torso was weld shut by her emerald flames. She turned around, partaking in the process of repeatedly opening and closing her fist once more. Sunny followed her line of sight... to see Silver Wolf.
A large weapon hovered beside her, coated blue paint and aesthetically pleasing decals. It was like a large cylinder, but it had an opening in the center that told him that it was actually a laser cannon of some sort.
...The grey-haired girl looked downright furious, and it was only now that he realized how much she looked like Bronya. It was... uncanny, actually.
What was up with that?
...He found it easier to look away from what AR-26710 had done to him after she pushed that order onto him. It made him feel odd.
Perhaps it was the powerlessness of it.
Silver Wolf marched down the riverbank, before stepping into the water. She did not hesitate, walking right up in front of SAM, not backing away despite the massive different in height. She was even shorter than Sunny, yet held enough anger for the both of them.
"I trusted you."
Then, she spat.
Directly on AR-26710's armor. The way Silver Wolf looked up at her after was like a searing challenge.
...SAM turned away. Without another word, Silver Wolf walked around the knight and crouched down before Sunny.
His master had something to say about it, of course.
"Don't touch him."
"Maybe you should tell yourself that."
Silence. Silver Wolf snorted as she hooked an arm over Sunny's back and under his shoulder. She tried to pick him up, but... his body was resisting. She scowled.
"Take them back."
More silence.
"Do I need to repeat myself, Firefly?"
Firefly — or so Silver Wolf calls her — continued her ritual of clenching and releasing her fists. A moment later, she spoke:
"Ignore all my orders except for the last one."
Silver Wolf was pushed away.
The river water split as Sunny blurred forth, his shadows slipping off of Firefly's armor. As they returned to their rightful master, he instantly summoned Serpent in its weapon form, a dark blade falling like a promise of black doom.
"Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you two?!"
Silver Wolf's exasperated yells were drowned out when Firefly blocked his weapon with her arm. Her armor provided a small amount of resistance... before her entire arm was sliced off. There was no scream of pain at the loss of a limb, just another rejected injury as she grew it back — flesh and steel. Sunny expected that, his dark odachi cutting through the air as he aimed at her knee joint—
"Stop."
He froze again. He looked up fearfully.
When a slave betrays their master, they should expect nothing but the worst.
...He still couldn't feel any hate. How pathetic. Was this all his own spite amounted to, after relying on it to survive for so long?
Just cold, dark fear. He could only imagine what else this cruel mistress would do to him, if crushing his eyeball and drowning him in a river wasn't enough.
He understood he should still hate her, though. Even if he couldn't hold on to an inch of that anger, he could at least project a falsehood of it. Sunny sent the knight a cold, scathing grin.
"Firefly... what a trashy name."
Who would name someone after a bug, of all things?
That one seemed to sting, it seemed, as she raised her fist to pummel him again. She stiffened for a moment, then she lowered it.
"...Let's... can we leave, Silver Wolf?"
The girl in question dragged her legs through the river, looked at Sunny for a moment, then glared at the knight.
"Tell him that he can move, but cannot hurt us or himself. Then tell him to go back to that room until morning."
Firefly turned towards him, though, she didn't seem to look directly at him.
"Don't hurt me, Silver Wolf, or yourself. You can move, but go back to Fu Xuan's estate until morning. You can forget all... just these orders after."
Against his own will, the shadows pulled him in.
***
Silver Wolf sipped on an energy drink she had brought with her. The tapping of her foot was very, very annoying, because she was very, very annoyed. Her grey eyes, cold and narrowed, glanced at the curled up figure sitting below her on the river bank.
"Get back in your armor. Do you want to die faster?"
She was ignored. A vein bulged in Silver Wolf's head as she crouched down and grabbed a rock.
She threw it straight at Firefly's head, watching with dark glee as it crashed against her head of silver hair. It turned to dust upon impact, but the naked woman certainly felt that. Her head whirled around in irritation...
Just to be hit with another pebble.
"Stop that!"
"I'd do a lot worse if I could."
Firefly seethed, but she did not move. Silver Wolf scoffed.
"See? I just threw two rocks at you, and you aren't doing anything. But the moment Sunny does something you don't like, you try to cave his skull in? He might be a masochist, but you're not earning yourself any points by going that far."
Firefly crossed her arms over her bare chest, jaw clenched as her left hand began to flex.
"It's because he doesn't learn! Ever! And it pisses me off when you and Kafka and Blade pretend to care, but aren't doing a single thing to stop him from destroying himself!"
"You really disgust me. But I guess anyone who survived the Nightmare Era is a little gross."
Silver Wolf sent her a dirty look as she chugged some more of her energy drink down her throat. She was really too tired for this shit.
Not that she had the ability to feel tired, mind you.
"What was the order you didn't take back?"
"Huh?"
"Don't think I didn't catch that. You didn't take them all back."
Firefly pursed her lips, stroked her black and emerald headband — the only article of clothing on her person — and shook her head.
"I'm not telling."
"I might not be able to kill you, but I can make you wish that you weren't effectively immortal."
"I said I'm not telling!"
Silver Wolf was starting to feel wierded out.
"Why do you sound so embarrassed? Did you tell him to think of you every night, or something? Because he will, and you're not going to like it."
Firefly shook her head, then sent Silver Wolf a glare.
"I don't need to make him do that. Because he always is!"
"How humble. Can't wait for the script to kill you off so that he could move on and get a girl who wouldn't beat him because the chicken was cold."
Once her energy drink was emptied, she crushed the bottle and uncaringly tossed it behind her. She walked down the river bank in silence, hands in the pockets of her shorts. She stopped besides Firefly, who looked up at her curiously.
Not even a hint of remorse. Silver Wolf smirked at the sight.
She crashed her knee into Firefly's face.