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HAPPY HOLIDAYS MY QUESTIONABLY QUIET CUCUMBERS!
I hope your days have been the upmost joyful!
Thank you all for taking time to read my blog this year and catch up with ren- I mean Lonely and Eos's story! I really appreciate you all for helping my dream of writing for others come true! I hope I can keep writing for you for a good long while.
Joyous days to you dear readers! See you in the new year!
- Zoë
The electricity crackled from the grate in front of them.
"It's about five minutes till it temporarily shuts off." Vayne turned to Eos, "Then, we have thirty seconds to both get through."
Nodding, Eos rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to fight the cool air in the vent. Her body was not built for a colder habitat; normally, most planets can regulate their temperature now without the need for a close star. Whispwood couldn't have been able to since no one would have been there to run it, which is one of the reasons Eos utilized the space suites.
Shifting his weight, Vayne whispered, "It should be warmer on the other side."
"Thank you for helping us. This can't be easy to go through again." Eos looked up and met his eyes, or at least his normal set; they appeared to be a somewhat neon yellow color in the dim light from the grate.
Sharply inhaling, Vayne spoke quietly, "Your eye."
"What?" startled, Eos tilted her head, "what about it?" She thought whatever was about to come out of his mouth would be rich, considering he had three pairs of eyes.
His hand started moving toward her left eye, but it dropped back to his side as he said, "It's turning red."
Before she could say anything, the electricity shut off. They both grabbed at the gate and violently yanked it open and ran through. It closed with a clang behind them just as it started to hum again.
Vayne fell to his knees, the noise thumping on the hardwood now beneath them. They were in the office now, but instead of being quiet, He was laughing with relief.
"It actually worked! Neither of us got shocked!" he sighed, "We made it! It's so much easier to open it with another person!"
Eos crouched down so she could see his face, "You mean, you didn't know if we'd both make it through?"
Through his tears of relief and laughter, he said, "I'm saying I would have held it open for you so you could get through, so you didn't die like he did. It takes twenty seconds to get it open on my own, and almost not enough time to get through before the gate hits me in the back. I honestly didn't think you'd help me open it; it never occurred to me."
He was pulling on his hair lightly as he spoke. She reached out and grabbed his hands, pulling them down to his lap. They sat like that for a few moments as he slowly started to calm himself down.
"Sorry, sorry," he breathed shakily, "I just-...lost control of myself for a second. We need to keep- we need to keep moving." With those words, Vayne stood up. Pulling his warm hands away from hers, "Thanks for trying to help."
Eos nodded and stood next to him, surveying the room. Thankfully, there was no occupant; Pandora and Lonely must have caused a good distraction. The office had a few gray file cabinets, a dark wood desk, a swivel chair with no back, and a bookshelf, which the two of them were standing on. Vayne pointed at the desk, more specifically, a mug that read "world's worst boss" that was full of writing utensils on the desk.
Grinning slyly, he turned to her, all previous emotions gone from his face, "The pen will be in the mug."
"Pen?" she asked, not quite understanding.
He sighed and carefully said, "The last passkey piece is holding together his best pen, like I said earlier, before we split off into two groups. We'll need to take it and pull it off."
Nodding slowly, Eos wondered how she had forgotten that so easily. She thought maybe she'd been too caught up in the moment to focus on that detail, but it seemed unlikely. What else could she have forgotten?
She opened her mouth and then closed it, her face contorted into confusion. Finally, Eos asked, "Wait-what kind of piece is it? We already have the loopy top part from Carnalavilia, the shafty piece from Whispwood, and the spikey teeth from Ancient Geese. There shouldn't be anything else."
Nodding in hesitation, Vayne answered, "It's a ring shape. To connect the quote on quote 'loopy top part' to the 'shafty piece', are you okay?"
He slid himself over the edge of the roof of the bookshelf and dropped onto the top shelf.
Eos peered over the side and found him staring up at her. "Well, come on then!" He called, waving at her, "I'll make sure you won't fall, promise."
"I feel like I'm putting too much trust in someone I hardly know." She frowned as she started to lower herself down.
"You know you can't just dangle yourself to get down. You actually have to let go."
She could hear the laughter in his voice. Swinging, Eos flung herself down and inward, smacking into the Vayne and the books behind him.
Letting out a yelp as they crashed into the books, Vayne felt Eos's elbow jut into his rib cage.
"Ow!" he winced, as she scrambled to her feet, rambling apologies, "you're a very graceful princess, huh?" he chuckled, wincing again from the sudden pain in his head. Hurriedly, she grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet, and they kept moving down the bookcase. One shelf after the other till they were on the floor.
That's around the time Eos realized how tall the desk truly was; it loomed over them, and while being made of wood, thus making it easier to climb, it would still take time they didn't know they had. It had already taken too long to get down the bookshelf.
Glancing at Vayne, Eos waited to see what he'd do. Wandering off, he gestured for her to stay put. Not wanting to be left alone, she followed anyway, and together they walked to the other side of the desk, where an equally tall swivel stool was placed. It was lowered close to the ground.
"If you can spin this thing, I can go up and get the piece." He muttered, "It looks like a thinner metal", looking towards her. Vayne asked, "Can you spin it?"
Giving him an odd look, Eos shook her head, "You're overestimating my strength. However, if we can get up there on top of the stool, we can use the desk drawers as a kind of step ladder."
He nodded and slipped the kitsune mask over his face once more, quickly turning into the black fox again. They took a few steps backward before sprinting forward and jumping.
*
Lonely and Pandora made it to the top of the rubbish a lot quicker than it seemed. They would jump when it was clear they had a platform to land on, but there were a few close calls when Lonely would almost miss it, or Pandora overestimated and smacked into the trash a good few feet above the designated platform.
After finally making it to the top, Pandora started working on prying the door to the starship open, muttering about how she wouldn't get stuck on another demon planet after escaping the last one. Lonely just stayed out of her way, since she looked like she was about to explode his brain with her mind.
Looking out over the planet, all he could see was a pattern of squares. The whole place was covered in millions of cubicles, not one lake or tree.
"We've got to free them." He sighed.
"You mean start a revolution? Aiming for their walls, not them?"
Pandora was digging her nails at the door. Lonely meandered over to help.
Thinking as he pulled, he told her, "That's exactly what we should do."
"Hey, you're the one that's gonna be aiming the gun, I don't care where you're firing, as long as we can draw as much attention as we're able." She yanked hard on the door, and it popped open with a jarring noise like jack jackhammer. Hands immediately covering his ears, Lonely watched as Pandora opened it the whole way.
The two of them slipped in and split ways. Pandora took to the pilot's seat, and Lonely disappeared down the hall, running to jump into the small compartment to start up the cannons. The starship powered on as Lonely pulled the headset over his ears.
"Ready to start shooting, L?" She spoke in his ears, a spark of energy flooded his system as he answered, "Yes, Ma'am!"
"Alright! Time for take off!"
The ship rose up off the heap of rubble, and as the trash became distant. The feeling in Lonely's chest was not unfamiliar, having experienced the same feeling in Ancient Geese, it spread from his heart to his toes and ears. It was fierce courage and bravery that he had never brought himself to experience on his earth. Lonely felt like the version of himself he kept deep down inside of him, the version he decided from a young age to bottle up to keep it safe from the harmful words of others. It exploded in his mind as he pulled the trigger, taking careful aim, and he laughed. Finally letting out the laughter of pure joy at standing up for others, standing up for himself. In those few moments, Lonely truly felt like who he should have grown up to be: someone willing to go the distance, to keep people safe. Yes, he was a rebel to the greedy and powerful.
Lonely walked behind Pandora, who was holding the map. While she was trying to figure out a distraction plan, he was struggling to stop his hands from shaking violently. He hit the heels of his hands against the sides of his head; it calmed him slightly, but the shaking didn't stop. Lonely guessed that the adrenaline had finally worn off in the few moments of not running for his life, and now his body was responding to everything that had happened. He grabbed the collar of his green hoodie; it was tough to breathe now. Spiraling, he kept moving, but his legs felt as if they were about to give out.
Then, he heard her hum. A tune that sounded ancient, something soothing, something he could focus on to pull him out. Almost immediately, Lonely could breathe again.
"Is your name really Lonely?" Pandora asked, glancing back at him.
Grimacing, he shook his head; the words wouldn't come out of his throat.
She frowned, "Do you know your name?"
Again, he shook his head. Lonely desperately did not want to be reminded of the fact that he almost found out, but shooed foe away before he could hear the full thing. They rounded a right corner and kept walking straight, Pandora keeping a sharp eye out, and Lonely trying not to have another anxiety attack.
After a few minutes, he finally got words out of his throat, "Why did you leave your home?" before he felt his throat tighten again. He glanced into a cubicle as they passed. It was empty, but a photo of a blue-haired humanoid creature with horns was pinned on the wall. On a hanging clipboard on the outside wall, Lonely could read a name, "Chandler Queen.".
Pandora pushed him inside as heavy footsteps shook the floor. They hid in one of the corners, waiting until the giant had passed. When it had passed, Pandora stood up, brushed herself off, and glared at Lonely, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay, you don't have to," he shrugged before she grabbed his hoodie collar and yanked him to his feet. He yelped in surprise and brushed himself off, "Wow, you're strong."
"Are you being serious? You're not going to make me tell you?"
Lonely gave her a puzzled look, "Why would I do that? It's your business, I was just making conversation."
She paused, "Oh," then she slipped out of the empty cubicle, leaving Lonely to chase after her.
They made a few more turns before Pandora stopped them. "The ship graveyard is on this next left, I say we find our ship and cause some chaos."
Lonely grinned; he'd been wanting to cause some chaos. When he had grinned, Pandora saw darkness in his eyes, the same Eos had seen back on ancient geese when Lonely had punched Eros, the emperor's ward. It was the darkness of vengeance, some odd, deformed version of justice that all humans held in their minds, and it was terrifying to those who'd never seen it.
"You fly, I'll shoot," he held out his hand. She shook it and smiled devilishly, "Sounds like a pretty good plan."
The junkyard was piled high with old starships, the Starlin comet placed at the very top. Lonely grimaced as he looked at the mountain. He was never much of a climber; he could barely make it halfway up the rock wall at the zoo last year. Well, it seemed like last year in his mind.
He thought for a second before turning to Pandora, "Do we need to climb, or could we knock one of these things" he pointed towards a crunched ship at the bottom of the pile, "and send the whole thing tumbling?"
"It would risk drawing attention and potentially damage the ship. Plus, I don't know how we'd dislodge it without getting buried," she reasoned. Nodding, he knew there wouldn't be a way to avoid climbing. His frown deepened as he tried to calculate in his mind what the best path would be, but Pandora just took a few steps back before sprinting towards the base. She jumped at the last second and landed on the wing of a gold shuttle about twenty feet up.
"HOW WERE YOU JUST ABLE TO JUMP THE HEIGHT OF A STREETLAMP!?" he called in astonishment, waving his arms.
Pandora peered over the edge and looked at him with a puzzled expression, "You can't?"
"NO!" Lonely was absolutely baffled. The gravity seemed around the same as the other planets, minus Whispwood. How could she have done that?
"Have you tried?" she asked.
He didn't want to try; he knew he couldn't do it, but something in her voice. Sighing, he took a running position before launching himself at the pile of space rubbish. He flew into the air, waving his arms wildly before crashing onto the top of the gold wing. Lonely landed face-first at Pandora's feet. She offered out her hand and pulled him up.
Shaking, he had one hand on her shoulder, trying desperately to hold back puke, "How-What?"
"Gravity is different on each planet. It may feel normal here, but it's much easier to jump high," she shrugged, "Now come on, let's keep going."
The fox Eos had chased earlier now sprinted past her. She stopped and turned to ask Vayne where it had come from, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, Sunshine! This way," he called from far in front of her. She spun around and saw Vayne, twirling his kitsune mask in between his fingers. It finally clicked in Eos's mind that he didn't just have a kitsune mask, he was a kitsune.
"Oh, I didn't realize-" she started walking, then stopped, "Aren't kitsune normally women?"
"Some of us are men," he huffed, "that's a hurtful stereotype. The females have a strong love of travel, so it led more and more planets to believe there were only women; I mean, there are very few males, but still, it's frustrating."
Blushing from embarrassment, Eos muttered an apology and wished she'd done more studying back home instead of flight training. She watched as Vayne pulled the mask over his face, quickly turning back into the fox.
He led her to the vent in the floor, opening slowly as Eos kept an eye out for giants.
"It's open, come on," he gestured for her to drop into the vent.
It was a much farther drop than Eos had expected. When she reached the bottom, she landed on her bad leg. Biting the inside of her mouth to hold back the scream, she dragged herself out of the way. Vayne landed gracefully a few moments later; it was clear he had done this before. He looked down at her, and it didn't take long for him to piece together why she was sitting down inside a gigantic metal vent.
Kneeling down to meet her eyes, his quiet voice echoed off the walls. "You fell on your bad leg, didn't you?"
She scowled, but nodded nevertheless, frustrated that he had figured it out so fast. Eos studied Vayne's movements as he thought, tapping his pointer finger on his thumb and biting the inside of his mouth.
"Do you need a second before we keep moving? We might have a small bit of time to spare as we wait for the other two to create a distraction."
She bent her leg slightly, winced, and sighed as she answered, "Yeah, I might need a minute or two."
Vayne smiled slightly and stood up. He carefully took off his jacket and handed it to her. Puzzled, she gave him a confused look.
"Believe me, you're gonna wish you had it in-" he calculated some equation in his head, "forty-five seconds."
Hesitantly, she took the jacket and put it on, taking notice of "Property of Chandler" sewn into the inside of the jacket. Vayne sat down across from her, his back leaning against the metal wall. His now uncovered arms, Eos could see, were coated in burn and electrical scars.
"Where-" She was cut off by a gust of freezing wind shooting through the vents. She quickly pulled her good leg close to her chest in the hope of holding body heat. But the wind died down almost as soon as it started. Looking up once more, she saw Vayne, his head between his knees and his arms crossed. He slowly raised his head and grinned at her.
"Told you." He stood, shaking his head violently to make his hair fall relatively back in place. Eos did the same after removing her hair tie from the small ponytail she normally wore. The cold air had numbed her bad leg, and she felt like she could move again. Taking off the jacket, she handed it back to him.
Vayne took it gingerly, like it would break at too harsh a touch, and Eos watched as he pulled the sleeves over his scars.
"How did you get those?" She asked hesitantly.
Chuckling bitterly, Vayne started walking, "From here. This planet, I mean." he looked at his left hand as he walked, or more likely, the metal band on his wrist, "Their punishments might not do much to giants, but they sure as hell do damage to a smaller species."
"Were you left here?"
He smiled at her slightly, "When I was five." He held out his arm to stop her from walking right into a spout of fire that shot from somewhere to the right, then they continued walking.
Taking a deep breath and shaking off the surprise from the fire, Eos finally asked, "Who's Chandler?"
This time, Vayne fully stopped and took a small step away from her, "You're not afraid to ask questions, huh?" he glanced down at the floor and leaned against the metal wall behind him. They stood like that for a while, him staring at the floor and her watching for any movement, waiting for words.
Swallowing, Vayne looked Eos in the eye; she could see he was trying not to cry, "He was my friend, and I'm the reason he's dead." He zipped up the leather jacket, like it would protect his vital organs, "Chandler... he- He was left here like I was, but banished by his own people, the Inkda. In the few months I'd known him, I thought of Chandler as a friend, but He had friends that were coming to get him, he had a partner...Chandler wanted my help; they'd gotten stuck. Something very similar to your plan was plotted, and I miscalculated. They all died."
Eos thought back to how Vayne knew the wind was coming, or stopped her right before the fire shot out. He'd been rerunning that plan over and over; maybe he thought eventually it would work the next time someone needed it. Some of those scars on his arm weren't from missing deadlines; they were from trying again and again to eventually make things right.
"It has to work this time." He was looking in the direction of their destination.
An eerie voice crept once more into Eos's mind, "You don't know how to help. You only hurt.".
"We'll make sure it does." She tried to reassure Vayne and herself; they at least had to make sure Lonely and Pandora escaped.
He pushed himself off the wall and started walking again. Eos followed behind.
Clearing his throat, he gestured ahead, "There's an electrical grid that shuts on and off every thirty seconds right before the exit. Stick close, sunshine. It's painful to get caught in."
She nodded and bumped her elbow on his, "We'll get through it."
"I hope so."
