Rust, Cables, and Courage
MAINTENANCE COMPLETE.
The words appeared across Cipheron's internal display in pale green lettering as the final layer of the underground resonance network restarted. One system after another returned to life around him with soft mechanical hums, status lights shifting from amber to green while countless streams of information resumed flowing through channels buried beneath the desert. Location reports. Command relays. Corruption signals. Surveillance feeds. Energy transfers. From his chamber deep within the network, Cipheron watched them all settle back into their proper places with the quiet satisfaction of a craftsman inspecting a machine that had finally stopped making an irritating noise. The network was whole again. More importantly, it was once more completely under his control.
He opened a communications window.
A brief message was sufficient.
SYSTEM RESTORED — ALL FUNCTIONS OPERATIONAL
Recipient:
EIDON
Cipheron sent it.
A tiny gleam passed through his single mechanical eye.
Eidon would undoubtedly interpret the message as proof that his precious network had merely suffered an unfortunate malfunction. He would never imagine that the individual responsible for maintaining much of it had deliberately removed his access while an intruder wandered through the system.
Cipheron had noticed Shun Nakamura almost immediately.
The boy had been careful.
Quite impressively careful, actually.
He had imitated legitimate traffic, hidden his route behind existing relay points and even attempted to erase his own access records afterward. For a child unfamiliar with the network's architecture, the work had been intelligent, methodical and remarkably bold.
It had also been nowhere near good enough to fool Cipheron.
The security system had detected him within seconds.
Cipheron could have expelled him.
He could have traced the connection.
He could have alerted Eidon.
Instead, Cipheron had done something rather different.
He had suspended the automatic security protocols.
Then he had severed Eidon's administrative connection.
Shun had never realized it.
That was probably for the best.
The boy had moved through the network believing himself to be a thief sneaking through an unguarded fortress, never knowing that the person who owned the fortress was quietly opening doors ahead of him.
And then something unexpected had happened.
Elder Kairo.
His signal had broken through.
Only briefly, but long enough.
Cipheron replayed the recorded transmission.
There are many possible paths of evolution.
He paused it.
Your partner's evolution reflects more than accumulated strength.
Another pause.
Your bond matters. Circumstances matter. Emotion matters. Intent matters.
Cipheron's processors worked silently.
Evolution was development.
Development followed conditions.
Energy accumulated. Bodies changed. Structures became more complex.
That was logical.
Predictable.
Measurable.
Emotion should not have belonged in the equation.
Choice certainly should not.
And yet every record he possessed suggested otherwise.
The Resonance Linkers reacted differently depending upon the humans carrying them. Virtue Sigils responded to particular individuals. Partners who should have possessed nearly identical evolutionary possibilities developed in radically different directions after prolonged interaction with different people.
It irritated him.
Which meant it interested him.
Cipheron opened the hidden mailbox Shun had created within one of the older relay systems.
He could have deleted it.
Instead, he encrypted it behind several additional layers and removed it from Eidon's search permissions.
The children might use it again.
And if they did...
Cipheron intended to watch.
Perhaps even help.
Not because he cared about Eidon.
He certainly did not.
Eidon was loud, arrogant and suffered from the unfortunate delusion that possessing power automatically made him interesting.
Cipheron cared about answers.
And something about these children—and the strange blond Aetherkin travelling alongside them—was producing questions at an increasingly satisfying rate.
He disappeared deeper into the network.
Watching.
Waiting.
By late afternoon, the desert had once again reminded everyone why they disliked it.
The watermill was far behind them now, and the group had spent most of the day travelling beneath a sun which seemed personally offended by clouds. The dunes continued endlessly in every direction, broken occasionally by stone formations, dried vegetation or the remains of structures whose builders had apparently possessed enough intelligence to construct them but not enough to build them anywhere pleasant.
It was therefore with considerable relief that Airi pointed toward the horizon.
"Something!"
Renji shaded his eyes.
"That's usually how trouble starts."
"No, really!"
Everyone looked.
At first the distant shape appeared to be another irregular ridge of stone.
Then they drew closer.
Metal gleamed beneath the sunlight.
More metal appeared behind it.
And more.
Soon an enormous wall of rusted machinery rose from the desert ahead.
The place was vast.
Thousands of abandoned vehicles lay piled across one another in enormous heaps: cars, trucks, transport vans, machines with shapes the children recognized and others that seemed to have come from completely different civilizations. Bent frames protruded from the sand. Broken windows glittered beneath the sunlight. Tyres sat in towers taller than houses. Some vehicles had engines beneath their bonnets; others possessed crystal cores, formation plates or unfamiliar mechanisms that Shun immediately wanted to inspect.
Caelan studied them as they approached.
"A scrapyard."
Misaki glanced over.
"You know what cars are?"
"Yes."
"You've used one?"
"No."
That earned several looks.
Caelan shrugged.
"I know what they are. My world has contact with other universes. I've seen records of things much stranger than these."
He passed a badly rusted automobile whose entire front half had disappeared.
"Never seen this many broken ones in one place, though."
"Welcome to the exciting world of junkyards," Renji said.
Caelan looked around at towers of twisted metal.
"Your world has places specifically for this?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Where else would you put broken cars?"
Caelan considered that.
"Fair."
They entered beneath the shadow of the first great pile.
The temperature immediately dropped.
Airi let out a delighted sigh.
"Oh, thank everything."
Daichi leaned against the side of an overturned vehicle.
"Nobody move me."
"You can't stay there forever," Misaki said.
"I can try."
The others began settling wherever they found space. Yuto sat beside one of the enormous tyres. Flora crawled beneath a partially intact bonnet for shade. Sakura perched on the roof of a car and immediately began grooming sand from her feathers.
Caelan did not sit.
Something about the place bothered him.
The silence, perhaps.
There was plenty of metal.
Plenty of places to hide.
Very little movement.
He climbed.
A current of wind helped him lightly across an unstable stack of vehicles, boots touching roofs and twisted frames without placing enough weight on any one of them to bring the entire heap down.
Sparky watched from below.
"See anything?"
"Cars."
"Useful."
Caelan smiled faintly.
Then his expression changed.
Between two overturned transport trucks, something moved.
One red eye opened.
Caelan stopped.
The creature was large and hunched, its body covered in thick grey scales interrupted by patches of dark metallic armour. One arm was disproportionately enormous, ending in heavy claws capable of tearing through steel. Its head was vaguely draconic, though one side of its face appeared malformed, leaving only a single glaring eye. Thick black conduits ran across its back and disappeared beneath several armoured plates.
Caelan saw them immediately.
The same kind Shun had found beneath the arena.
"Enemy!"
Everyone moved.
Caelan snapped one hand forward.
The air cracked.
Several razor-thin currents struck the creature before it could leave cover.
They hit its hide.
And dispersed.
The creature barely moved.
Caelan's eyes narrowed.
"That's tougher than it looks."
Shun's Resonance Linker was already glowing.
Information appeared.
CYCLODRAKE
Stage: Adult
Type: Draconic
Status: External resonance control detected
Affiliation signature: Eidon network
"The black conduits are controlling it!" Shun shouted.
Cyclodrake roared.
The sound rattled glass from several broken windows.
Then it looked directly at Caelan.
Caelan felt it.
The path existed.
This creature was strong enough to attack him.
His body strengthened instantly.
Ki flooded his muscles, bones and nerves before Cyclodrake had taken its first step.
"Everyone move!"
The beast inhaled.
Its chest glowed orange.
Caelan pushed himself sideways with wind.
A beam of molten heat tore through the place where he had been standing.
Metal vanished.
Not bent.
Not melted slowly.
Vanished beneath a torrent hot enough to reduce the nearest vehicle frames to glowing liquid.
Caelan landed on another pile.
"Oh."
Cyclodrake turned its head toward him.
Caelan stared at the river of molten steel below.
"That would have hurt."
Light flashed throughout the junkyard.
The partners evolved.
Sakura became Emberwing, great fiery wings spreading between the mountains of metal. Flora transformed into Cactara and slammed her enormous boxing gloves together. Renji's partner became Frostfang, landing on the side of an overturned truck before springing immediately to higher ground. Daichi's partner expanded into Tidemaw, while Shun's rose into a heavily armoured beetle-like Adult form whose wings buzzed hard enough to rattle nearby scrap.
Only Haruto's partner remained unchanged.
Haruto stood perfectly still.
His Resonance Linker was in his hand.
He did not raise it.
"Haruto?"
His partner looked up.
Haruto's fingers tightened.
Nothing happened.
Cyclodrake attacked.
Heat exploded across the battlefield.
Shun's partner took the edge of the blast while trying to intercept it.
"Look out!"
The great insect creature spiralled sideways, smoke rising from one wing before crashing into a heap of metal with an enormous clang.
"Shun!" Misaki shouted.
"I'm fine!"
His partner was less fine.
Cyclodrake charged through the junkyard with shocking speed.
Daichi pointed.
"Now!"
Tidemaw fired.
A heavy projectile struck Cyclodrake directly in the side.
The creature stumbled.
Emberwing came from above.
Fire poured downward in a broad wave, swallowing Cyclodrake and several vehicles around it.
For several seconds nothing could be seen but orange flame and black smoke.
Then Cyclodrake stepped through it.
Still moving.
Airi stared.
"Oh, come on."
Frostfang raced across the roofs of several wrecked cars, moving almost silently despite his size. He leapt, pale-blue flame gathering between his jaws.
The blast struck Cyclodrake directly across the face.
Its head snapped sideways.
For the first time, the creature lost its footing.
Frostfang attacked again.
Cyclodrake's enormous arm moved.
Too fast.
The blow caught Frostfang across the stomach.
He flew through the side of a van.
Renji's face went white.
"Frostfang!"
Caelan dropped from above.
Wind gathered around his leg.
His kick struck Cyclodrake across the side of the head hard enough to produce a sharp crack.
The monster staggered.
Caelan landed.
Cyclodrake swung.
Caelan ducked beneath the enormous arm.
The claws passed over his hair.
A blast of wind struck the creature's knee from the side.
Cyclodrake shifted.
Barely.
Caelan retreated several metres.
Close combat was possible.
It was also stupid.
The creature was stronger physically than its shape suggested, and one clean hit from that oversized arm would do considerably more than bruise him.
"Distract it," Caelan said.
Misaki looked toward him.
"What?"
"Keep it looking everywhere except at me."
Nobody asked for further explanation.
Cactara charged first.
Her boxing glove slammed into Cyclodrake's ribs.
It blocked the second punch with its massive arm, but Emberwing immediately attacked from behind. Flame burst across its shoulders.
Frostfang emerged from the wreckage and hit its injured leg with another blast.
Tidemaw fired again.
Cyclodrake roared and twisted between them, too powerful for any one attack to bring it down but forced to keep defending from every direction.
Caelan stepped back.
Blue light rose around him.
Silver armour formed over his legs.
Then his torso.
Blue plates locked across his shoulders and chest. Gauntlets enclosed his hands. His cape appeared behind him, immediately catching the hot wind sweeping through the junkyard.
A helmet closed around his head.
The Azure Knight stood amid the wreckage.
White light gathered in his right hand.
His lance appeared.
Long.
Heavy.
White and silver.
Sparky stared from beside Haruto.
Even after seeing the armour before, something about watching Caelan summon it in the middle of battle still made him forget to blink.
Cyclodrake saw him.
It understood the threat immediately.
The creature turned.
Cactara punched it in the jaw.
Its head snapped sideways.
"Eyes here!"
Cyclodrake roared.
Emberwing struck from above.
Frostfang hit the weakened leg again.
The joint finally buckled.
Cyclodrake dropped onto one knee.
Caelan moved.
Wind exploded behind him.
The lance struck Cyclodrake's enormous guarding arm.
The beast managed to block.
Metallic scales cracked.
The impact drove it backward through two abandoned vehicles, crushing both beneath its weight.
But it did not fall.
Caelan slid to a stop.
"Still up."
Cyclodrake emerged from the wreckage.
Its right arm hung lower now.
Cracks ran through the armour.
One leg dragged slightly.
But its red eye still burned.
The beast inhaled.
Caelan saw the glow.
"Move!"
Everyone scattered.
Heat erupted.
The molten beam carved across the junkyard, following Caelan as he moved between piles. Wind drove him sideways. The beam passed behind him, cutting through metal walls and leaving streams of glowing orange steel in its wake.
Then Cyclodrake stumbled.
Its damaged leg finally gave way.
Caelan saw it.
So did everyone else.
"Now!"
Emberwing climbed.
Tidemaw fired.
Frostfang attacked the leg.
Cactara struck from the opposite side.
Cyclodrake raised its huge right arm to defend.
Too many directions.
Too much damage.
Its guard opened.
Caelan accelerated.
Wind spiralled around his lance.
Not the overwhelming, fate-guided finishing strike he had used against Gorgonbeak.
He didn't need that.
The opening was already there.
He drove the lance into the damaged armour beneath Cyclodrake's raised arm.
Wind detonated at the point of impact.
BOOM.
Cyclodrake flew backward.
It smashed through one rusted vehicle.
Then another.
Then disappeared beneath an avalanche of metal.
Silence fell.
Smoke drifted upward.
Everyone waited.
Something moved.
Cyclodrake dragged itself from beneath the wreckage.
Barely.
Its enormous arm was useless now. Cracks covered its hide. One leg no longer supported its weight.
Still it tried to rise.
Caelan dismissed the lance.
He appeared beside it in a rush of wind.
Cyclodrake looked up.
Caelan's ki surged through his body.
He pivoted.
His heel struck the side of the creature's neck.
A heavy crack echoed through the junkyard.
Cyclodrake collapsed.
This time it did not rise.
For several seconds nothing happened.
Then the body began dissolving.
Grey scales became light.
Armour broke apart into streams of luminous particles.
The black conduits across its back fell lifelessly into the sand before crumbling themselves.
The essence flowed toward the creatures who had fought.
A large portion entered Caelan.
Warmth spread through him.
His breathing steadied.
Some of the fatigue from maintaining his body enhancement faded as the absorbed energy settled naturally into him.
Other fragments drifted toward Emberwing, Cactara, Frostfang, Tidemaw and Shun's partner.
Nobody reacted with surprise.
That was simply how Aetherkin grew.
Caelan's armour dissolved.
"Good job."
Relief moved through the group.
Airi dropped onto a car bonnet.
"I hated that thing."
Cactara gave the remains a final suspicious look before reverting.
Misaki checked Sakura.
Renji hurried to his partner.
Shun was already examining the broken black conduit.
Then the others noticed Haruto.
He stood exactly where he had been at the beginning.
His partner remained beside him in Juvenile form.
Haruto had never raised the Linker.
Never called for evolution.
Never joined the fight.
His shoulders lowered.
Nobody seemed to know what to say.
Renji looked away first.
Airi suddenly became very interested in helping Flora remove dust from her leaves.
Shun said nothing.
Yuto watched Haruto with open concern.
Daichi eventually cleared his throat.
"It's okay."
Haruto did not move.
"You've saved us before," Daichi continued awkwardly. "A lot. So... we go on. That's all."
Haruto nodded.
Barely.
The group began settling again as evening crept across the junkyard.
But everyone understood.
Cyclodrake had been defeated.
The problem they were carrying had not.
Later, Haruto sat alone near the edge of the scrapyard.
The sun had sunk close to the horizon, painting the desert in dark gold and red. Long shadows stretched from the mountains of abandoned vehicles behind him. His partner sat some distance away, close enough to remain present but far enough not to force conversation.
Haruto stared at the sand.
Caelan watched him for a while.
Then walked over.
Misaki noticed.
She had already taken a step toward Haruto herself.
Caelan raised one hand slightly.
She stopped.
He didn't say anything.
Neither did she.
After a moment Misaki nodded and remained where she was.
Caelan sat beside Haruto.
For several seconds neither spoke.
The wind moved through the junkyard behind them, producing faint metallic groans as loose pieces shifted against one another.
"Haruto."
Haruto didn't look up.
Caelan rested his arms across his knees.
"I heard what happened."
That got a reaction.
A small one.
Haruto's eyes shifted toward him.
"Everyone has."
"Probably."
Haruto gave a humourless laugh.
"Then you know."
Caelan looked out at the desert.
"Enough."
Silence returned.
Haruto eventually spoke.
"I did it."
Caelan glanced sideways.
"Gravefang."
Haruto swallowed.
"I wanted more power. Everyone needed me. I thought if I just pushed harder, if I forced the evolution..." His hands tightened in the sand. "And then I saw what he became."
His voice grew quieter.
"He could've hurt everyone."
Caelan listened.
"I did that."
Haruto finally looked at him.
"How am I supposed to tell him to evolve again after that?"
Caelan was silent for a moment.
Then he spoke.
"I've made choices I regretted."
Haruto's expression changed faintly.
Caelan rarely sounded uncertain.
Now he simply sounded serious.
"There were times when I got angry and let it go too far. Times when I enjoyed frightening people more than I should have. Times when I almost hurt people I didn't actually want to hurt."
Haruto stared.
Caelan looked down at one hand.
"For a long time, I had something else to blame."
He did not say Zarathiel's name.
There was no reason to explain all of that.
"Something inside me. Something everyone was afraid of. It would've been easy to decide every ugly thing I did happened because of that."
His fingers closed.
"But that doesn't fix anything."
Haruto said nothing.
"If I made the choice, then it was mine."
Caelan looked at him.
"That also means the next one is mine."
Haruto's eyes shifted.
Caelan continued.
"You made a bad decision."
Haruto flinched.
Caelan did not soften the words.
"You pushed too hard. Something went wrong. You can't change that."
The wind moved between them.
"But being afraid forever doesn't undo it either."
Haruto looked back at the sand.
"I could make it happen again."
"Yes."
Haruto stared at him sharply.
That had clearly not been the answer he expected.
Caelan shrugged.
"You could."
"That's supposed to help?"
"No."
"Then why would you say that?"
"Because pretending nothing bad can happen would be stupid."
Haruto looked genuinely irritated now.
Caelan smiled faintly.
Good.
Anger was at least movement.
"You could fail again," Caelan continued. "You could make another mistake. So could I. So could everyone."
He nodded toward Haruto's partner.
"But you're acting like the only choices you have are 'never evolve again' or 'become Gravefang again.'"
Haruto's expression slowly changed.
"Those aren't the only paths."
The words hung there.
Haruto remembered Kairo.
There are many possible paths of evolution.
Caelan did not know exactly what Kairo had meant.
But he understood paths.
Probably better than anyone here.
"Making one wrong choice doesn't mean every future choice ends the same way," Caelan said. "If it did, nobody would ever improve at anything."
Haruto looked toward his partner.
The little creature was pretending not to listen.
Badly.
Caelan followed his gaze.
"Courage isn't never being afraid."
Haruto remained quiet.
"It's doing something while understanding there might be consequences."
Caelan smiled slightly.
"And sometimes courage is admitting the last thing you did was incredibly stupid."
Haruto almost laughed.
Almost.
"I really messed up."
"Sounds like it."
Haruto gave him an annoyed look.
"You aren't very good at comforting people."
"I wasn't trying to tell you it wasn't your fault."
That silenced him.
Caelan looked back toward the desert.
"You made the mistake. Learn from it."
Simple words.
Not easy ones.
Haruto sat with them.
The sun continued sinking.
Finally he stood.
The heaviness had not disappeared from his posture.
But something had loosened.
He looked at Caelan.
"Thanks."
Caelan nodded.
"I'll think about it."
"Good."
Haruto took several steps toward camp.
Then stopped.
He looked back.
"Caelan?"
"Hm?"
"Did you really almost hurt your friends?"
Caelan stared at him.
Then smiled.
"Go think about your own problems."
Haruto laughed.
It was the first genuine laugh Caelan had heard from him in a while.
He walked back toward his partner.
Misaki remained near the edge of the junkyard.
When Haruto passed her, she gave him space.
Then she walked toward Caelan.
"You did well."
Caelan glanced up.
"He still has to solve it himself."
"I know."
She looked toward Haruto and his partner.
"But maybe now he believes he can."
Caelan stood.
Behind them, the others had begun gathering their things. The desert was cooling rapidly, and nobody particularly wanted to spend the night in a junkyard belonging to Eidon.
Caelan looked once more toward Haruto.
The problem wasn't gone.
Fear rarely disappeared because of one conversation.
But Haruto had finally looked at his partner without immediately looking away.
For now, that was enough.