The crashed remains of the Xylem lay strewn across the beach like the mechanical carcass of a great ocean beast: its spine was snapped, the outer hull broken off in jagged chunks to reveal the splintered ribs underneath, and the sluggish tide slowly washed over the debris half-buried beneath rusty-red sand, leaving streaks of pinkish red over the rusting metal.

It was only part of the Xylem too. As it had entered into the atmosphere, breaking up beneath speeds it was never supposed to reach, under tremendous stress it was never supposed to endure, its keel had ruptured from the obscene forces it had been under, snapping the thing in two and casting its forepart into the Alean ocean for the rest of eternity, while the after party managed to just about reach a shallow shore.

It made a pretty big mess, Rusty had to admit, surveying the crashed colony ship from the outcrop of rocks that overlooked the beach. With STEEL HAZE ORTUS still undergoing repairs from his own emergency landing from the thermosphere, and him technically not even supposed to be out and about on account of his many various injuries, he had to pilot a standard BAWS MT, an experience that was incredibly nostalgic to him.

Every Rubiconian AC pilot started their career as an MT pilot, and Rusty was no exception to that. The controls were simplistic compared to the works of art that were STEEL HAZE and ORTUS (dare he say it, almost primitive?), but for what he was here to do today, the MT was good enough.

However, thankfully, not too long ago, STEEL HAZE ORTUS was finally all patched up. He didn't even have any weapons installed however.

He wasn't expecting a fight today.

A quiet rumble of thunder drew his attention, and Rusty cast his gaze across the ocean's horizon where dark clouds were gathering. It was that time of year where supercells were common along the southern Belius shore, where all you could do was hunker down under some cover and wait out the deluge of freezing rain, hailstones big enough to dent an MT's hull, and violent lightning strikes that left craters from the sheer power and force.

Uncle said once that the ambient Coral in the atmosphere fuelled those powerful storms, but Rusty wasn't sure how true that was. The sky above certainly was brimming with Coral at least, and even with the dense cloud cover, it made Rusty feel like he was standing on the seafloor, looking up at the scarlet surface to witness glints of light dancing along the red-tinged clouds.

In the aftermath of the Xylem Crisis (as everyone called it now), they had managed to deactivate the Vascular Plant, and the Coral was very slowly returning to its natural rhythm. Its instinct was to school, but that didn't mean it enjoyed being squashed up into a densely packed shell like the plant. Slowly, gradually, the Coral seeped out from the vascular plant, returning to the currents it once had along the atmosphere, drifting down into the seas and rivers and granting the water its ancient crimson hue.

It made the Xylem crash site look even more ominous, in a way.

Another rumble of thunder echoed, signaling the supercell's fast approach, and Rusty piloted STEEL HAZE ORTUS off the outcrops of rocks. He gently pumped the mech's boosters, wincing when he still landed heavily and jarred his aching ribs. A twinge even shot up his leg, his broken ankle protesting its heavy use even while encased in a thick plastic orthopedic boot.

Uncle was going to be pissed at him when he found out about this, but Rusty didn't really care. This was important.

He walked across the rusty-red beach, STEEL HAZE ORTUS struggling a little across the uneven ground. Its wide, clumsy feet sank deep into loose sand, and its balancing protocols were basic enough that clambering over debris or hidden rocks was enough to make it pitch awkwardly to the side if he weren't careful. By the time he managed to reach the Xylem's aft, the purpose of his visit was already making itself known.

OBSIDIAN WING stood on top of the ruined engine block that towered high above the beach, silhouetted against the eerie sky. Rusty stared back, and a long, charged moment stretched between them before he opened short-range comms.

"Hey, buddy," Rusty said. "It's me."

«Why are you here?»

The voice that crackled over comms was flat and robotic. Raven's text-to-speech programme, or, so Rusty assumed, anyways. He didn't really know what fancy bells and whistles were installed in that mysterious AC of his. Even with the voice being emotionless, though, Rusty didn't have to use his imagination to know that the mercenary wasn't happy with him right now.

Then again, Raven hadn't been happy with him ever since the Depths.

"I came to get you," Rusty said. "A supercell's coming, you know."

Raven didn't answer. Her AC remained perfectly still atop of the ruined engine block, a black figure of sharp angles and sleek lines amongst a rippling scarlet backdrop. Another rumble of thunder sounded, and Raven finally stirred.

He turned away and vanished over the engine block.

"...right," Rusty sighed as their comms connection dropped. "Okay."

He gunned STEEL HAZE ORTUS thrusters weakly, trying not to push the new girl too hard, slowly ascending the Xylem's splintered hull until he could land on top the broken aft. The deck didn't look much better than the snapped keel, with the floor jutting up like small mountains and hills from where the hull had crumpled or outright shattered from the impact force. Collapsed tower blocks, that likely served as a residential area once upon a time, were strewn across the uneven deck in an obstacle course that would test an AC to navigate, let alone a cheap BAWS MT, which thank goodness he didn't use for this situation.

Rusty turned on open comms, broadcasting his voice as he began to navigate the mess: "Raven, c'mon. You've been out here for two solid days. Haven't you slept at all?"

The first few drops of rain splattered across STEEL HAZE ORTUS' visual sensors, and he activated the wipers. Wipers, like he was driving a gosh dang car...

STEEL HAZE ORTUS continued to slowly plod along as the stormfront started creeping in, the drumming of rain echoing throughout the mech's hull and amplified in the cramped cockpit. It made him feel strangely isolated, navigating amongst the wreckage of a long abandoned, yet recently crashed colony ship, the visibility lowering as the gray rain transitioned from a thin veil to a thick curtain.

His ankle throbbed agonizingly, at least the pedals weren't like an MT's; Stiff and clearly in need of a good oiling. With STEEL HAZE ORTUS' advanced mechanics, Rusty shortcuted a lot of inputs by using his augmentations to synchronize with the AC's operations. MT mechs were hysterically analogue in comparison. Then again, those mechs were built in the days when AIs were more commonly used on the battlefield, and after several disastrous events were hacked MTs went on rampages, their digital components were scaled back to the bare minimum, with majority of their operations being purely off hydraulics and mechanical inputs. Can't hack a lever, after all.

But it meant that Rusty, who was battered, bruised and had definitely left the infirmary a week earlier than he should've, had to grit his teeth and push down on a too-stiff pedal with a broken ankle, endure the heavy jostling of STEEL HAZE ORTUS' boosting over an obstacle and landing like a rock on the other side, sending spikes of pain through his broken ribcage, and feel his left fingers grow numb pulling on a cumbersome joystick, his broken hand protesting the abuse.

Pain was temporary, though. Rusty had pulled a miracle out of his ass and survived a sixty mile drop to Earth in a near-bisected STEEL HAZE ORTUS. If he had lived through that, his body can live through an ill-advised jaunt across a haunted colony ship in an outdated MT for a few hours. But again, thank goodness he didn't take one.

Uncle was still going to kill him afterwards, though.

"You must be hungry by now," Rusty said as he took a break on top of a toppled tower block, staring out towards the choppy sea where a great gray wall of cloud was ominously approaching.

"I know you don't have any supplies with you," he continued, hearing nothing but the heavy drone of rain against STEEL HAZE ORTUS' hull and the rumble of its engine. "And it wasn't that long ago you broke out of Arquebus's re-education camp, right? Listen, Uncle's willing to let you crash at our nearby base for as long as you want, free of charge. After saving Rubicon, you'd definitely be given the celebrity treatment."

No response.

Rusty leaned back in his seat and released the control stick to tuck his left arm against his stomach, massaging the taut muscles along his forearm. His hand felt like hot knives were being driven between the metacarpals...

But he let the silence sit for a bit, watching the stormy horizon grow ever more unsettled.

It'd been six days since the Xylem had crashed, narrowly averting a Second Fires by the skin of their teeth. Rusty had been awake for just a little over four of them, and he couldn't help but think back to that day: Where for a moment, his heart had been full with relief and hope, watching the last ship of Arquebus's stolen suppression fleet plummet towards Rubicon as Snail's gurgling death screams warbled pathetically over the comms. He had thought; Finally, finally, Rubicon is-!

His memories were fuzzy after that. His HUD had chirped an incoming warning, but Rusty never saw what hit him, only that whatever had struck STEEL HAZE ORTUS did it with enough force to rip it practically in two and detonate the primary generator in a Coral-red haze. The heat of the explosion had been so intense, it had welded the emergency ejection hatch permanently shut, and that super advanced, incredibly valuable AC Rusty had sacrificed so much to get developed was written off on its maiden voyage.

But he had survived, somehow. In those terrifying few moments where STEEL HAZE ORTUS fell from the heavens, at a height and speed that made it look like a shooting star from the ground, Rusty remembered having a hysterically calm thought; Looks like I'm about to die of a bad fall too, Michigan.

He didn't remember the impact. Uncle said his AC's emergency generator kicked in just in time to trigger his Terminal Armour, and that had softened his landing just enough for him to survive with several broken bones, a ruptured spleen and getting knocked into a two-day coma.

When he had come to, he'd been partly out of it from incredibly high amounts of morphine. Rusty didn't really recall waking up, to be honest, but Uncle had been wryly amused that the first words out of his mouth (heavily slurred, and incredibly muffled on account of the oxygen mask) had been: "Where's Raven?"

But he had been worried. Even delirious with pain and morphine, he had known that his waking up was nothing short of a miracle. If he had fallen, if his wax wings had melted and cast him back down to earth, then Raven... where was Raven...? Was he-?

The sound of crashing waves drew him from his reverie, and he refocused on the outside world to see that the waves were arching high enough to send foamy spray across the lip of the Xylem's broken deck. The growling thunder grew louder and the dark wall of clouds flashing with crimson lightning grew closer. The wind was starting to gust too.

Rusty shifted his weight in his cockpit seat, but didn't start moving STEEL HAZE ORTUS again. He just started talking.

"...I'm not really sure how I survived all this," he murmured. "Uncle said I dropped sixty miles. Sixty miles. That's high enough to enter re-entry speeds. Well, probably a bit slower, since I didn't have a running start towards the planet when I got blasted out of the sky."

He paused, but he didn't get a response. It was likely Raven had blocked any incoming transmissions even from open channels, leaving Rusty to just ramble to himself. That was fine. He could still see Raven on his short-range scanners, a tiny little dot just aimlessly wandering along the Xylem's broken length.

"Think on average atmospheric entry speeds are about 17,000 mph or something," Rusty said. "So for a few seconds, I was the fastest pilot on Rubicon. Even faster than you, I'd wager. I bet you controlled your landing a lot better than mine. STEEL HAZE ORTUS was completely destroyed, you know? Nothing but the Core survived intact, and even then, I had to be cut out of the cockpit because all the hatches had welded shut. Elcano really knows how to make 'em."

No response.

"I'm glad you survived, buddy," he continued in a softer tone. "I know it wasn't easy, what went down. I don't just mean taking down the Xylem, either."

Slowly, he piloted STEEL HAZE ORTUS off the toppled tower block it had been standing on to follow after Raven's signature. It was now stationary and somewhere near the edge of the Xylem's deck, oceanside.

"You spent a long few weeks in Snail's re-education camp, didn't you? You and Walter."

Rusty detested those camps, and as V.IV caught a glimpse of what went down in there. Raven would've been subjected to the most humiliating and horrifying acts to break down his young spirit and willpower, to force him into compliance, and for a mercenary of him skill? Arquebus would've been eager to have him as a loyal hound snarling at the end of their leash.

He'd known people who broke after just a week, and he held no judgment for them. Raven had held out for weeks. Not only that, he had somehow escaped and returned to carve his pound of flesh from Snail's hide in retaliation. Honestly, Rusty couldn't think of a more deserving person to die as Snail had. His only regret was that his death hadn't been drawn out enough.

But hey, you took what you got.

"I know you're probably sick and tired of people trying to drag you along by your leash, but the Liberation Front is different," Rusty said. "We won't make you do anything you don't want to, and you won't have to repay any debts... if anything we kind of owe you now. If it weren't for you we'd all be piles of ash by now."

He rounded a collapsed pile of masonry and shattered glass, some sort of towering roof structure that had caved in on the deck below. OBSIDIAN WING was standing in the near distance on the very edge of the deck, staring at the slowly approaching supercell.

Carefully, Rusty piloted STEEL HAZE ORTUS to stand beside OBSIDIAN WING, and directed his visual sensors towards the incoming storm. His wipers were going a little crazy now, frantically whipping back and forth to try and outpace the heavy downpour. Beside him, OBSIDIAN WING moved fractionally, its shiny black metal reflecting.

"...hey," Rusty murmured. "Aren't you tired, Raven?"

OBSIDIAN WING's head angled towards him.

«Aren't you tired, Rusty?»

Rusty felt his mouth quirk into a smile. A response, even if it was a mocking (he assumed). He'd take it. "Yeah. I'm pretty exhausted, to be honest."

«...then why are you here?»

"Like I said, I came to get you. You've been out here for two days. Uncle was getting worried."

Raven took his time in replying and Rusty patiently waited, ignoring the various aches and pains lancing through his body like razor sharp glass. It was fine. So long as he didn't bust the stitches from his spleen repair surgery, he should be okay.

«I'm fine.»

"Sure," Rusty said. "Just like I'm fine."

«I wasn't in a coma for two days after breaking half my bones.»

No, you were just tortured for weeks on end instead, Rusty did not say with some effort. "You still need to eat, right? You're augmented, but you're still human."

Raven didn't seem to have a ready response for that, so he just didn't say anything.

"...what're you even out here for anyways?" Rusty asked, genuinely curious. The Xylem was a marvel of Institute tech, yeah, but most of it was completely ruined from its violent re-entry. Aside from getting blown up and ransacked by invading corporate and Liberation Front forces alike, the seawater filling up half the ship would've eaten away at most of the technology by now.

«...I'm looking for something.»

"Well... if you're looking so hard for it, I guess it must be important..." Rusty said slowly. "Maybe I can help?"

«You're injured and should be resting.»

"You're injured too." Rusty's tone grew solemn. "I know what they do in those re-education camps, Raven."

«...»

"You've been flat-out since you escaped," Rusty said softly. "Uncle said you only swung by for a day at our base before running off again. If you don't stop to rest, your body's just going to give out on you. It's a pointless way to go."

«...»

"Unless that's what you want?" Rusty asked, and made sure his voice was dispassionately blunt when he added: "Are you just waiting to die?"

The question lingered between them like an ominous shroud. The supercell moved close enough that its thick cloud wall blocked out the sun, dousing them in deep, dark shadow.

«...no.»

Raven paused, and OBSIDIAN WING kept shifting its weight back and forth, rusted joints screeching and groaning, the AC not built to spend so much time along the seashore, getting sprayed with saltwater and blasted with coastal gusts. It looked like a corpse just barely moving, skeletal, where chunks of its ablative armor had been stripped off from its own re-entry, and the inner hull torn from the tremendous forces it had been under (had never been designed to endure, but had endured anyways).

There was even a gaping crack in the Core, a sliver where Rusty could peer past the protective armor and see a bit of the Core block that contained the pilot's cockpit. Red-tinged rainwater was collecting in that crack, pouring out of it like a miniature stream.

«I don't know what to do.»

It was unexpectedly honest. Vulnerable. Completely out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?"

«Before everything went wrong in Institute City, Handler Walter told me what to do. I knew what to expect with each day. I knew what my objectives were. Now, I know nothing. I'm a mercenary with no money or clients, and I have no idea how to get those things myself. I got my life back, like Walter wanted, but there's nothing in it.»

OBSIDIAN WING's head bowed.

«...I have nothing.»

"That's not true, Raven," Rusty said gently, taken aback by Raven's raw honesty, and cursing the awkwardness of having this talk while they were in two separate mechs. Raven was as expressionless as they came, but he could still gauge his human face better than just staring at the side of OBSIDIAN WING's cracked Core.

"After saving Rubicon, you've definitely got the Liberation Front on your side," he continued. "And, for what it's worth, I've got your back too. I know you won't trust that, considering what happened before Institute City but, I mean it. I was-"

He drew in a slow breath, before admitting quietly: "I was wrong about you. You weren't a threat to be eliminated, and I acted too hastily in my judgment of you. I'm sorry."

«It's fine. You weren't exactly wrong. I was a threat.»

"...? What do you-?"

A flash of scarlet lightning lit up the horizon, followed by a booming thunder that rattled Rusty's very bones and briefly deafened him. He couldn't help but wince.

«I'm looking for Walter.» Raven said in an unexpected non-sequitur, forcibly dropping the last topic. «His corpse is on this ship somewhere.»

"His... corpse?" Rusty blinked rapidly, wondering how Raven knew that and, more importantly, how to gently suggest that it was unlikely any corpses survived the crash. If it wasn't dragged out into the ocean by now, it had definitely burnt up on re-entry.

"...I don't think you're going to find much, buddy," Rusty said carefully.

«I know. But maybe a piece of his AC survived. I want to... give it a funeral.»

Raven fumbled over the last part, like he wasn't quite sure if "funeral" was the right word.

Rusty wasn't either. The Rubiconians didn't really practice funerary rites like the solar colonies did (and that had been a massive shock to Rusty, learning that they wastefully burnt their dead to ashes or locked them up in boxes rather than composting the corpses into fertilizer or other useful substances), and tended to practice remembrance using stories or items that meant a lot to them.

But Raven wasn't a Rubiconian, and Rusty wasn't going to tell him how to handle Walter's death. If she wanted a funeral, then he can have a funeral.

"Okay, that's fair," he said softly. "But, you know, there's a chance whatever's left has been crushed under all this debris, or swept out into the ocean. You might have to brace yourself for an empty casket."

«I know, but I still want to look. Just in case.»

Rusty watched the stormfront, judging its distance. They didn't have a lot of time if they wanted to get back to base before it hit, but he supposed that they could take shelter in the Xylem wreck if it came to it. These storms blew themselves out within hours.

"...alright, let's look for a little bit, until the storm hits," he said. "And if we don't find it, we'll come back tomorrow. I'm sure Walter wouldn't want you sacrificing your health just to find his AC wreck."

«...yes. You're right.»

Rusty turned away from the storm, but Raven lingered for a few heartbeats. When Rusty paused to look back, he couldn't help but think that Raven cut a lonely, isolated figure. He wasn't a Rubiconian, but after the bloody nose he'd given the corps and the PCA, it'd be difficult for him to freely move around outside of Rubiconian space. He was an independent merc, not a freedom fighter, yet had fought to save Rubicon all the same.

For nothing.

No, Rusty amended, Not for nothing. Even if Raven couldn't see it now, saving Rubicon and chasing off the last of the Corps from the planet earned him the goodwill of the Liberation Front. He may not be Rubiconian, but he was as good as, in his and Uncle's eyes.

Now, how to get him to see that...

...

"Did you ever think about what you were going to do afterwards?"

«What do you mean?»

STEEL HAZE ORTUS carefully boosted over a gaping crack in one of the middle decks of the Xylem, the metal floor groaning in protest when he landed heavily on the other side. OBSIDIAN WING crossed the gap in a single yet comically wide stride.

"You said Walter wanted you to get your life back," Rusty said. "So, did you think about what you were going to do once you did?"

Raven mulled over his answer as they moved deeper into the Xylem. The middle decks were a mess, where parts of the topmost deck had caved inwards, creating a maze that was near impossible to navigate in mechs. Water streamed downwards from the torrential rain above, forming fast-flowing rivers that swirled around their mech's legs, and some of the cracks that split through the decks showed the frothy seawater down below.

«No, not really. I've always been a mercenary so I thought I'd keep doing that.»

"Really? Huh." Rusty wasn't actually surprised. Raven was incredibly tunnel-visioned and he'd always been very focused on fulfilling Walter's agenda... whatever that had been. He'd likely never know.

"So, you never thought about trying something different?" Rusty paused when the ship shuddered slightly, the wreck groaning underneath its collapsing weight. Once it settled, he continued: "Retiring from piloting? Or, I don't know, settling down and having a family? Raise a kid or two?"

«Unless Walter didn't want me... distracted... he explained that I'm sterile.»

Well. Then again, Rusty remembered those like Raven being lied to. Maybe the kid's got a chance.

"Uh, adoption's a thing?" Rusty coughed out, only just fighting down a laugh. His ribs wouldn't be able to endure that. "It's not like one would have to, um, donate the batter yourself, y'know."

«What does baking have to do with reproduction?»

"No, not that kind of batter. It's a... you know, a, ah, a turn of phrase."

«What does that mean?»

Rusty briefly contemplated his life's choices that brought him to this moment, having to explain those euphemisms to Raven in the bowels of a crashed starship.

"...You know what I mean."

«I see now. That's a strange euphemism. Batter is thicker than-»

Rusty gestured to the young man to shut up for a moment. He could tell the boy had gotten it so he skipped it.

«A closer comparison would be something like liquid rations.»

Rusty briefly closed his eyes. He chose this.

"... anyway," he said loudly. "You've got all the time you need now to think about it. I know Uncle would be happy to work out a contract with you, if you want to stay as a mercenary, but maybe you can try other things out. There's no rush, right?"

Raven was quiet, and Rusty let him be.

They carefully picked their way through the debris, sorting through promising piles of twisted metal and piled cabling or destroyed mechs, trying to find anything resembling an AC. While Rusty didn't know what Walter's AC supposedly looked like, Raven assured him that it was unique enough to stand out, and also ran off a Coral generator. At the very least, they'd be able to see Coral-bleed from the wreck.

But they didn't find anything like it. When they descended to the next floor, which was even worse off than the last, getting closer to where the ship had struck the ground going at insane speeds, Raven finally spoke up again.

«I don't really know how to live.»

"Huh?" Rusty paused where he'd been gingerly lifting a sheet of thick metal. "You're living right now, aren't you?"

«I guess.»

Rusty waited, but Raven didn't add anymore. OBSIDIAN WING was just mindlessly digging through a pile of metallic trash. It was clear there weren't any AC parts in there, but OBSIDIAN WING kept digging through it anyway.

Rusty lowered the metal sheet.

Raven always confounded him. He was seemingly enigmatic sometimes and mostly strange of course, and ran off a logic that was difficult to predict. He matched Walter perfectly, who was just as inscrutable and with an even murkier past that O'Keeffe had never been able to dig into beyond the superficial. They were a suspicious pair, absolute nobodies that came out of nowhere and violently flipped the chessboard that the Corps, the PCA and the Liberation Front had been struggling over for the past few decades.

But in this, Rusty felt like he was beginning to understand.

The aimlessness, the strange feeling of grief at a loss of something you couldn't quite put into words. Rusty had shaped ten years of his life into being V.IV Rusty, and that identity was long-buried now. He'd never be V.IV Rusty again. His objective was completed, and Rusty hadn't really planned for what came after. That unmoored feeling was... unsettling.

Raven had never gone anywhere without Walter's hand on his leash, even if he held it loosely. Walter wasn't just his master, he was his guide, and he was gone forever now, before Raven could even learn how to stand on his own two feet. No wonder he was haunting this ship, latching onto the one remaining piece of familiarity before it vanished forever, before he was forced to continue on with a life that had nothing in it and with no idea of who he was supposed to be.

It must be terrifying.

However, it's no secret among quite a few that Raven seemingly had someone as far as everyone knew. Whoever they were, hopefully they'd help the kid out.

«What are you planning to do?»

Rusty turned STEEL HAZE ORTUS to face OBSIDIAN WING, who had given up pretending to search and was now just squatting low to the ground, staring vacantly at the far wall.

"After today?" Rusty made a show of thinking about it. "Think I'll go back to my coma."

«...»

"I'm joking," Rusty sighed. Well, that fell flat. "Uh, I haven't thought about it either. I didn't really think I'd live this long, to be honest..."

«I see.»

"But..." Rusty settled back in his cockpit seat, taking this moment to give his poor broken body a rest. "I think... I'd like to take a road trip."

«What's that?»

"A road trip? Uh, it's like, you go in a vehicle and travel cross country, visit places, things like that."

Rusty had fantasized about it a few times, whenever he allowed himself a few delusional moments imagining freeing Rubicon from the corporations and nabbing them embezzled funds and technology to begin rebuilding their world. He'd think about traveling across Rubicon, visiting places he heard the older people talk about wistfully and see what they were like now, if enough people remembered it to rebuild it, actually see the landmarks that he only ever saw in faded and creased photographs or salvaged magazines...

It was just a fantasy, though.

"I haven't actually seen much of Rubicon," he continued in a sheepish tone. "Aside from the areas Arquebus sent me for ops, I grew up in my village and then in the RLF base. There wasn't really much opportunity to explore..."

«Your village?»

"I probably sound really rustic calling it that, huh?" Rusty scoffed at himself. In the solar colonies you didn't have "villages." That term was reserved for very poor frontier colonies, and normally in a derisive tone. "But yeah. It was a small settlement that was built around a Coral terraformer. It provided potable water and fertile soil, as well as emitting enough heat to keep us warm in the winters. The climate was a lot worse back when I was a kid. The winters were lethal, most of the time."

«Is that where you'd visit for your road trip? Your village?»

It was an innocent question, but it still felt like a ruthless gutpunch anyways. Rusty was glad that they were having this conversation in two different mechs now. He felt his expression tighten before he instinctively swallowed down the solid, lumpy emotion that lodged at the base of his throat, and forced a very practiced laugh.

"Nah, there'd be nothing there," he said lightly. "The PCA came through and... and 'encouraged' us to move on when I was just a kid. 'Illegal squatting,' they called it."

«They destroyed your home.»

It wasn't a question.

"...yeah," Rusty said quietly. "They did."

He didn't really want to think about it. He'd perfected the art of never thinking about that night. It visited him enough in his nightmares, his augments sharpening the edges and brightening the colors of those memories until it was in high-definition, searing behind his eyelids and assaulting his senses with stench of burnt flesh and ozone of laser fire and the creaking thunders of mechanical joints, oppressive weight crushing down on him as he tried to claw himself free from the collapsed ceiling of his own home while screaming for help that'd never come-

He squeezed his broken hand into a fist. The pain was sharp enough to cut.

"There's nothing left to visit," he muttered quietly. Then, louder: "But it doesn't matter. I'm more interested in exploring places I haven't been to before. There's a lot about Rubicon I was only ever told about, but never saw or experienced for myself."

Overhead, thunder growled out so loudly it riverbed throughout the entire wreck, staccato flashes of light blinking through the gaping cracks overhead. The supercell had finally made landfall, and with it brought heavier rainfall.

The small rivers trickling down through the broken deck turned into waterfalls. Rusty's wipers weren't keeping up anymore: STEEL HAZE ORTUS was reduced to a blurry dark smear on his HUD.

«Rusty.» Raven finally broke the strange silence that shrouded them: «I'd like to visit it.»

"...what?"

«Where your village used to be. I want to visit it with you.»

Rusty was... baffled, to say the least. "Why? I just told you there's nothing there anymore. It's just a bunch of ruins now."

«But it's where you came from. Doesn't that make it important?»

"I..."

The truth was: He was too weak to go back.

He'd tried once, not long after he hit adulthood and passed his MT pilot test (a very informal test that was more like a rite of passage for any RLF member). Rusty had taken a detour during a basic supply run, stopped near the forest that his village had resided in, and...

He remembered how sick he'd felt, how cold yet flushed he'd been, and how much his hands had shook. He'd only just managed to glimpse the charred out husk of the Coral terraformer before his nerve splintered into pieces, and he had fled like the coward he was, too weak to face the demons of that night even under the light of day. Even just thinking about it made him lightheaded.

It was ridiculous, he knew. It had been over two decades, yet still he was that little boy, screaming for help beneath the wreckage of his home while everything burned and no one came to save him. Two decades, and Rusty hadn't yet managed to suffocate that grief in its crib, choking it down until it extinguished itself entirely. No, it had sunk its claws in and clung to him like a fish hook, cutting deeper and deeper every time he foolishly prodded it.

He couldn't go back. He'd never go back.

"I can't..." he said softly, barely audible.

«Is it too scary?»

From anyone else, he'd think them mocking. But this was Raven, who was a little too blunt and detached at times, but not entirely lacking in empathy. Still, Rusty couldn't muster a response to him. His pride held him back.

«I see. I understand.»

"Do you really?" Rusty snapped without thinking, his tone defensive and sharp.

«Yes. I'm scared right now.»

Rusty faltered, unsure on how to respond to that. A thousand and one mean comments lingered on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them down, feeling ashamed that he had been so quick to bare his fangs at what was just an innocent platitude. But Rusty didn't really know how to handle grief gracefully, was terrified of it actually. It was a pain you could never really outrun or beat into submission, was like being forced to shove your hand into a bucket of razors and clenching your fingers around them. Inescapable and so, so, so cutting.

"...scared of what?" he rasped.

«I want to find Walter, but I'm scared of it too. If I find his body, then it means he's really dead. If I don't find it, then there's a chance he's alive and has chosen to abandon me because I'm no longer useful to him. I lose, no matter which scenario happens.»

"But... you've clearly chosen one."

«...in the end, it's better to know, I think. I can close the door then. I hear it makes it easier to process, even if it's not the answer you want.»

How was it that an independent mercenary with the social skills of a rock was more emotionally intelligent than him? Rusty sighed heavily, long and deep, and stared up at the ceiling of his cramped cockpit.

"I don't think visiting my home will help much now," he murmured. "It's been too long, and there's nothing to find. You know?"

«I won't force you, but I'd like to visit it. If you send me the coordinates, I'll scout it and give you a reconnaissance report. Maybe seeing it second hand will help.»

Rusty felt his mouth twitch into a smile, though he wasn't sure what he found so funny. That Raven was phrasing it like a self-given recce patrol? Was this his idea of being comforting? He was such a weird kid...

...

...but Rusty had come here to comfort Raven. His grief was an old, worn thing that could be shelved. It was likely Raven was just trying to turn the tables, to distract him, and damn him it worked for a hot minute there. Rusty was slipping.

"I'll think about it, buddy. But for now... let's continue looking for Walter," he said, not bothering to be subtle at brushing off the topic. Raven didn't do well with subtlety, anyway. "The lower levels will probably flood soon with how hard this rain's coming down."

«Okay.»

Unexpected heart-to-heart resolved for now, they resumed their search, though Rusty could admit he wasn't looking very hard for anything AC-shaped by that point. It wasn't just physical exhaustion, it was the emotional and mental kind too. Despite accusing Raven of neglecting himself and running flat-out since busting out of re-education prison, Rusty was much the same. They were both kinda stupidly stubborn in similar self-destructive ways.

They moved down another floor where the seawater was slowly rising with the incoming tide and the rainwater pouring down from overhead. Water sloshed around STEEL HAZE ORTUS' knees, and he had to be careful of trip hazards or gaping cracks hidden underneath the crimson surface. If he fell down to the floor below, he likely wouldn't be coming back up. MTs were notoriously bad at underwater navigation. Thankfully, STEEL HAZE ORTUS' repatching process was as fast as its speed.

Not that they went very far. If the floor above had been a maze of collapsed debris, then this floor was even worse: For one, they discovered where the blown out engine block had collapsed into.

«It's still burning,» Raven observed.

She wasn't wrong. Steam wreathed from the slagged engine, reduced to nothing more than half-melted scrap and the hull it had dragged down with itself when crashing through the Xylem's decks to finally settle here. The metal glowed a faint red, and every time the seawater sloshed against it, a loud hssss would echo through the broken bowels of the ship. Even his HUD was warning him of high heat and... Coral contamination?

The Xylem's engines must've been installed with a Coral generator to give it a bit more power. Coral was considered an excellent fuel source for space travel because it was usually incredibly stable and very efficient, but when it did go off, it was known to burn for days... It was why the Fires had been so devastating. Rubicon had burned for weeks.

"...we should probably keep our distance," Rusty said. "Besides, this is as deep as we can go for now. We should probably try to get back to base once the storm passes."

Raven didn't respond. Instead, OBSIDIAN WING prowled forwards, picking over the fallen debris and wading through the seawater towards the slagged engine. Rusty frowned but cautiously followed, hearing the telltale "tck, tck, tck" of his HUD's Coral contamination sensor creeping upwards.

"Raven-"

«He's here.»

Raven stopped abruptly, the cracked metal of OBSIDIAN WING's hull gaining an orange tint from standing so close to the smoldering engine. Slowly, OBSIDIAN WING bent down, reaching towards something half-buried beneath a pile of scorched metal, wisps of dying Coral drifting upwards like a swirl of ash as that pile was disturbed.

Slowly, Raven extracted an alien-looking AC head, robotic fingers incredibly gentle as she brushed away dried sea salt and lingering soot from the cracked glass of its large ocular sensors. Rusty could see the exposed circuitry of its severed neck flicker a dim crimson when Raven cradled the head close to OBSIDIAN WINGS's broken Core.

Beneath the thin ray of weak sunlight that stubbornly filtered down from above, OBSIDIAN WING stood perfectly still, so wraith-like it looked like a specter, exposed circuits and bare metal flaked with rusted-brown, and rainwater glistening as it dripped from the sharp, angular edges of its head. For a long time, the only noise to fill the somber silence was the drumming of rain and the creaking death knells of the Xylem wreck.

Rusty didn't know what to say. He knew without asking that this was what Raven had been searching for, one little piece of Walter that remained on this planet. He looked past the grieving merc, to where the slagged engine was still glowing red-hot, smoldering with a fire that only needed to be stoked to re-ignite.

The rest of Walter's body was likely buried underneath that, but there was no way they'd be able to reclaim it. Whatever was there had long been cremated by now.

The weak ray of sunlight faded, and above the very sky snarled: A crash of lightning and a rumble of thunder so loud it made the ship rattle. The ceiling overhead groaned warningly, and metal shifted.

"Raven," Rusty said quietly.

Slowly, OBSIDIAN WING's head lifted.

"We should go." Rusty pointed upwards, where the broken ceiling was bulging even more. "Before the ship decides to collapse on us."

Raven didn't immediately respond, OBSIDIAN WING's head turning towards the still-burning engine. Rusty didn't need to see him face to know what he was thinking, the realization that the rest of Walter's 'body' was buried underneath there, well out of reach, so close yet so impossibly far and how gutting that probably felt.

But, eventually, Raven turned her back on the engine, on Walter's cremated remains, and adjusted his grip on his severed head instead.

«...okay.»

The journey to the Xylem's upper levels was silent, broken only by the metallic groaning of the ship, the crashing lightning and roaring thunder, and the relentless rain hammering the Xylem's broken hull. It was hard work, the debris having shifted somewhat since they'd last come through the area, and by the time they reached the second floor and found some shelter from the elements, Rusty was close to his limit.

His broken hand was practically numb, fingers stiff and difficult to bend, his ankle was just a constant throb of agony, and he was pretty certain he might've torn some of his stitches by accident, but didn't want to check to confirm it. As he and Raven nestled their mechs underneath a stable outcrop of hull and decking, watching the rain pour like a waterfall off the edge, Rusty powered down most of his STEEL HAZE ORTUS' functions and slouched in his cockpit seat, closing his eyes.

The two ended up literally climbing out of their mechs, embracing the chilly air. Rusty's hair was dyed gray for so long, mainly because it kind of went with his name, or as some people claimed it did anyway. He ended up dying it back to brown. His small and short ponytail was tucked in by his blue jacket's collar. He had a bit of a scar going downwards on his cheek bone due to the blast that shot him out of the sky.

When he saw Raven, he was... honestly surprised at his appearance. For a while, he expected him to look... inhuman almost. However, as time went by, he shut that nightmare out of his mind.

Raven had black hair that stopped nearly at his shoulders, it also had a single white streak with a few red streaks all around. Would make sense, being so emotionally withdrawn to the point you're declared "brain fried," one ought to forget about their appearance. His eyes also shined a bit, looking red, almost like Coral-red.

He apparently had a scar on his right cheek. Looked a little fresh, dried blood stained his cheek. He definitely hadn't taken good care of it. Well, thankfully augmentation somewhat stops infections. But still, he's got to take care of herself at least to the point of wrapping bandages around himself.

And as for Rusty himself, well, he could really sleep for another two days right now...

"Thank you," came a voice.

Rusty startled out of the semi-doze he had nearly slipped into, taking a moment to process the words. He spoke. Raven actually spoke outside of his mech this time. The voice was rough of course, he probably hasn't used his vocal chords in years or something like that. And yet, there was something in there that seemed unsettling.

"For what...? I ended up not doing anything. You're the one who found him," he replied, his voice groggy even to his ears.

"Your company was nice." Raven answered slowly.

Rusty let out a half-laugh that was more like a heavy exhale, opening his eyes into thin slivers. Through the curtain of his eyelashes, he could see OBSDIAN WING on its ocular feeds, still cradling Walter's head against its broken Core. So remarkably tender, for a machine created for violence.

It was a side to Raven that felt strangely intimate to witness. Rusty had seen his capacity for kindness before, as blunt and clumsy as it could be, but this was the first time he'd ever seen his be so gentle. It seemed like it was something only reserved for a precious few...

...or just one person in particular.

"Did you... love him?"

"..."

It took Rusty a moment to realize he'd actually asked that, rather than keeping that question safely within his mind. He froze comically, Raven's silence feeling like a physical weight as that forbidden question lingered between them as suffocating as any funeral shroud. Not even the sound of thundering rain softened it.

But that silence let him think too much about why he'd asked something so impulsive and tactless. He admitted it, his feelings were very mixed when it came to Walter. The man had been harsh and uncompromising, demanding so much from Raven while giving his very little praise or gratitude. The few times they had shared missions, Rusty had to bite his tongue at Walter's curt reprimands towards Raven, unfair reprimands, because Raven had always tried his best to fulfill Walter's outrageous expectations to perfection, even if he got no praise or thanks for it.

Rusty understood he was an outsider looking in, that people were very different from the public persona they projected to how they were in private. Yet, something stuck in his throat, to think that this devotion Raven showed was painted in the soft streaks of love, of affection, towards a man who didn't deserve it, who would never deserve it, who didn't even bother to spare Raven with scant praise or affection, who probably would've scorned Raven for wasting his time digging through the Xylem's guts for his ungrateful corpse-

"Yes," answered Raven's voice

"...oh," Rusty muttered. A rock sat in his gut for reasons he couldn't quite explain, and after a few abortive tries to speak, let the subject fester there.

"Not romantically of course," Raven clarified after another long, stilted silence between them. "I don't know. I don't know how love is supposed to feel. But I'm grateful to him. He gave me a reason to live... despite all I did."

"Oh," Rusty repeated, that rock feeling considerably lighter and far more complicated.

"He was kind to me, in his own way of course." Raven paused, as if fishing for words. "He was different in private. I know he comes across as harsh and unapproachable in public."

"That's putting it lightly," Rusty muttered.

"He's an acquired taste, I'll admit."

A taste Rusty would never acquire, now that Walter was firmly six feet under. Rusty wasn't too torn up about it though. He doubted he and Walter would've ever seen eye to eye on things, because even if he had been "kind" in private, that didn't eliminate the fact that Walter had been Raven's handler in the worst kind of way. Raven had been an indentured servant, a slave, who was brought to Rubicon without any kind of consent or input. That alone was enough to sour any kind of positive opinion Rusty would've had on the guy.

But he knew better than to say anything like that to Raven. Even if he couldn't fully conceal his distaste, he wasn't going to badmouth him and expect Raven to just take it. It'd be pointless... and Rusty was too tired to get into an argument over something like that.

"What're you thinking? For the funeral, I mean," Rusty said.

If Raven thought the topic changed awkwardly, he didn't comment on it. "I'm not sure. I've never been to a funeral before."

"Well, there's burial, cremation..." Rusty paused. "Probably some others, but I don't know them."

"What do Rubiconians do?" asked Raven.

"Remembrance," Rusty said. "It's been a while since I've attended one, but... the body's just a vessel, and we recycle it into fertilizer or whatever we need at the time when the person dies. Afterwards we just... have a gathering and talk about them. Remember all their good parts and bad parts. That sort of thing."

"I see."

"There's a belief that everyone who dies on Rubicon becomes one with the Coral, anyways." Rusty let out a short, breathy laugh. "Not that I really believe that but... it helps some people."

"I see..."

Rusty then could've sword her and heard a very shaky breath. He turned to see Raven's face. He could see a tear or two beginning to roll down his cheeks. He wondered if he could even feel tears. The mercenary wiping his cheeks and eyes answered him, however, he saw his look at them, as if they were foreign to his.

Raven then began to sniffle. Rusty had been wondering how he went from a cold-blooded killer, to a blunt mercenary who's beginning to grow back their empathy. Who was the one who helped set her on this path?

He watched as he scooted over to him, wrapping his arms around him, embracing him. He stared in confusion before he spoke. "It's okay. Let it out, buddy."

At first, he didn't know what that meant. Then he remembered: Crying. No. He didn't want to cry. He didn't want to feel so weak. But his emotions were becoming too strong, too painful to resist, just like when Ayre hugged him. Just like before, he had forgotten to handle emotions properly. He then felt Rusty put a hand on the back of his back, rubbing circles, where he began to feel his lip beginning to quiver.

He felt his own arms hug him back. He began to sob out loud, resulting in Rusty hugging him tighter.

"Walter... Walter!" Raven cried, "I don't want freedom. I need you! Help me... Please!"

Rusty felt his own tears stinging his eyes. He had never seen, felt, or heard of someone being so lost. Someone who was willing to sacrifice his freedom if it meant bringing his own captor back. He cried for a few more minutes before he eventually calmed down. Temperature dropped even further, forcing the two back into their ACs.

"You knew him best," Rusty said. "What do you think he'd want?"

«...he wouldn't want me wasting my time on this.»

OBSIDIAN WING's weight shifted, the AC lifting Walter's severed head as if to scrutinize its cracked, ashy surface.

«But this isn't for him, it's for me. If I'm to start a new life, then I need to say a proper goodbye to the old. For me... so I can move on with... no lingering regrets or feelings that... will inconvenience me...»

"To close the door, right?" Rusty asked softly.

«Yes. To close the door...»

Raven hesitated, tucking Walter's head back against his cracked Core, the joints of his AC creaking slightly from the strain. There was a leak in their shelter, water dripping down onto OBSIDIAN WING's head, forming little rivulets along its ocular feeds. Rusty didn't comment on it.

«...I've been thinking about your question.»

Rusty frowned. He had asked a lot of questions. "Which one?"

«What I was planning to do with myself, after this.»

"You've thought of something?" Rusty didn't keep the surprise out of his voice. "That was quick. You seemed pretty conflicted over it before..."

«I am. Conflicted.» Raven paused long enough that it was almost awkward. «But I think... I will try... I will try to... I will stay with the Liberation Front for a bit. As a mercenary, I'll need to secure a stable income, and this won't be the end of things on Rubicon. The corporations will come back.»

As much as it pained Rusty to admit it: "Yeah... they will."

«I'm done with the corporations, so I'll help the Liberation Front instead.» STALKER's head bowed fractionally, angled so its ocular feed was directed right at STEEL HAZE ORTUS. «I'll help you.»

There was something pointed about that. "You. I'll help you." It mystified him. Rusty hadn't really done anything to deserve that, considering that before all that craziness with the Xylem, he'd done the equivalent of shooting him in the back. Was she just deciding this because she didn't know what else to do? Just attaching herself to anyone he deemed worthy of holding his leash, to return to something familiar even if it was stagnating as an attack dog? He deserved more than that. He deserved actually living up to his namesake and spreading his wings wide, taking flight and tasting freedom, discovering what he actually wanted for himself.

Yet, at the same time, pragmatism prodded at him, and something far more selfish. The Liberation Front would benefit so much from Raven joining them, and... and Rusty didn't want him to leave either. He should be encouraging him to stay, yet the right thing to do would be reminding him that he was free to choose something bigger for himself. Rusty hesitated, torn between these two desires, hating how the selfish side of him almost won. He'd caused Raven enough trouble and pain as it was... and he wasn't a Rubiconian.

"...you sure?" he asked quietly. "Flatwell will run you ragged, if you let him. The pay won't be very good either, and-"

«It's fine. I like being kept busy,» Raven interrupted. «And also...»

Raven pivoted OBSIDIAN WING at the waist, and the AC reached out with its free hand... to bop STEEL HAZE ORTUS atop of its head, the concussive force echoing as an ear-ringing BANG through the cockpit.

"Hey?!"

«If I don't help, then how will you rest?» Raven swatted STEEL HAZE ORTUS again, making it rock slightly. «If the corporations return within the month, you'll be in no shape to fight them off.»

Rusty hurriedly piloted STEEL HAZE ORTUS out of her bopping range. "I'll be fine-!"

«You broke half your bones.»

"A third, actually."

«You were in a two-day coma.»

"Exactly: Two days."

«And needed emergency surgery on your spleen.»

"It's all stitched up and fine now. Nothing to worry about."

«I don't want to bury you too.»

Rusty froze.

OBSIDIAN WING leveled him with a solemn stare, its arm lowering to hang down its side. The drumming of rain against the Xylem's hull quietened, the storm passing over and letting streams of pale sunlight peek between the overhead cracks. It felt as if the world had held its breath for a sharp few seconds, Rusty unsure on how to respond to that unexpected admission.

«I doubt Flatwell will either,» Raven finally added. «You should take care of yourself better.»

"Says the girl who haunted a shipwreck for two solid days without any supplies," Rusty snapped defensively, and instantly regretted his tone. "I mean... I wasn't going to sit back and let you wander around here without checking up on you..."

Raven considered that for a moment.

«That's fair. Then...» OBSIDIAN WING tipped its head slightly. «How about this? Since me, you, and my... 'friend'... both lack basic self-preservation skills, we can look out for each other instead.»

"Look out for...?"

«Yes. That'll work, won't it? And we don't know what we want for our future either, so we can discover that together. Our wants and needs are pretty similar, right?»

"I... I guess so?" Rusty said. "We think alike on some things."

«We care about each other's well being more than our own too... and so does my 'friend.' So, we can all live for each other... on Rubicon. Together.»

"...Guess that makes sense?" Rusty replied.

He was just taken off guard by the thought that Raven would want to share any of his time with him, considering what had gone down. It implied that Raven genuinely liked him as a person, rather than the persona of V.IV Rusty, which most people were enamored with. Or Raven was just lonely and Rusty was the rebound from Walter... or Raven was just an incredibly poor judge of character, considering he thought Walter was "kind in his own way," whatever that meant.

And as for this "friend" of Raven's, Rusty kind of remembered hearing their voice when they called for help to fight on the Xylem. It sounded feminine. And didn't Uncle Flatwell that say her name was "Ayre" or something?

As beautiful as that name sounds, Rusty greatly hopes that this girl will help Raven find his place in this crazy universe. And furthermore, maybe Raven and Ayre could-

No. He's getting a bit too hopeful for this girl. But he'll still keep it if this girl can give the kid the life he deserves.

«...the storm's letting up,» Raven said, and OBSIDIAN WING turned away from him to take a few strides out from underneath their makeshift shelter. «We should head back now.»

"Wait, hold on-"

OBSIDIAN WING paused and pivoted towards him, Rusty's sensors telling him that his boosters were being slowly warmed up. It'd only take a single bound for OBSIDIAN WING to escape to Xylem's surface.

OBSIDIAN WING leapt upwards onto the Xylem's topmost deck. Rusty grumbled "I'm not stupid" as he started to take the painfully slow journey back onto the Xylem's topmost deck alone. At least Raven was waiting for him, if the stationary dot on his HUD was anything to go by, but you'd think he'd take the time to accompany him instead of going off in a big sulking huff.

https://youtu.be/WEsibVKPNA0

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