Split In Two. Chapter 16, Part 1.

 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."

Vayne Of Newslater, Pt 2, Chapter 15

 Lonely had felt Vayne flinch when he had put an arm around the boy's shoulder. Lonely stepped back to give him space, and before he could apologize, Eos spoke up.

"The ship is gone.", she was staring off at something in the distance. 

"What." Pandora and Lonely spoke in unison. 

Vayne's eyes grew wide. "They already know you're here."

The three looked at the fox, waiting for his instructions. Face turning pink, Vayne looked down at the floor, opening and closing his hands as he thought. He was fighting something inside of him, Lonely could tell, and people staring at him probably didn't help. 

Without meeting their eyes, he spoke quietly as if whispering a secret that hurt someone he had trusted, "The handle of the key is in the Boss's office, on the tip of his pen. There's a vent down the hall that leads there, but it'll be hard to get in without a distraction out here." 

Eos started to pace, her fingers pulling on her sleeve, her limp now more apparent to Lonely. They waited for her to say something since she was clearly forming a plan. She accidentally kept bumping into stacks of paper, too focused on her thoughts to notice her surroundings. She stopped and looked directly at Lonely. 

"We need to split up." 

He frowned at her. They'd already split up once before and were only alive because of Pandora.

"Explain, please, what your plan is," Pandora asked, sitting crisscross on the floor, eager to hear the plan.

Eos took a deep breath, "They took the ship, we need it back to escape. It would help create a distraction for two of us to slip into the office and grab the key handle." She glanced at Vayne, "Would that work?"

"In theory," he hesitated. 

Smiling Pandora stood up, "That's good enough for me. I can fly almost anything, so I should be on the team to get the ship back." 

"I can give you a map to the office; it should help you find your ship quicker." Vayne offered.

Lonely looked at Eos. She had the gun and felt more comfortable using it. Even was quick to point it at Vayne. She needed to go to the office; she'd be a much better help than he would.

"I'll go with Pandora then, I can use the ship's blasters to create some chaos." He nodded confidently. 

Vayne stood up straight. "This won't be easy," he said, talking directly to Eos. 

She smiled, an insane kind of smile, "Believe me, I'm well aware." 

He went off to retrieve a map for Pandora, and Lonely pulled Eos to the side.

"Can we trust-"

She cut him off, "No, we can't trust anyone. Not yet anyway. Pandora might have saved our lives from the jester, but she was also saving herself. Keep an eye on her, I'll keep an eye on Vayne."

He nodded, the corners of his mouth tightening. Eos put a hand on his shoulder, "Try not to die, okay." 

"If I die, it doesn't matter. If you die, I'm left alone in a large universe beyond my knowledge. How about you try not to die?" he studied her face as he said this. It wasn't pity or annoyance; she looked sorrowful. 

It startled Lonely when Eos suddenly gave him a hug, "It does matter if you die, you're my friend."

Stunned, he couldn't get words out of his throat or move his arms to return the hug; all he could do was nod as she let go.

They watched Vayne dig through papers, trying to find the map. Pandora was reading a piece of paper in her hands. 

"Thank you." Were the only words Lonely was able to say.

"Anytime." Eos gave a small smile as Vayne held up the map in a triumphant manner. 

The two came running over, "Alright, we found the map, we're good to go!" Pandora cheered, maybe a bit too excited for the situation they were in. 

Then the four walked to the entrance to the cubicle, waving goodbyes as Lonely and Pandora went left, and Eos and Vayne went right. 

As they walked, Lonely glanced behind him. He watched Vayne put the kitsune mask over his face and slowly transform into a black fox.