Originally Posted by
grampagen
A terse grunt left him as Ochazuke stepped within the Golem's stony frame.
"The fight ahead may serve well to meet it," he said, "but be mindful. Appearances and deep-rooted impressions can be quite deceiving, especially for the desperate."
Folding his arms, he leaned back.
"We are moving in on the resistance against That Man. They will not go quietly, but perhaps, as you had proposed, they may be reasoned with."
The episodes of the alternate timelines was still fresh in their minds. Entire worlds had been changed, the Earth in particular cast from its familiar course from circumstance. Whether the decisive attention of a repentant Goddess to the minutae of everyday lives, the tides of karma cast their flow in great, sweeping ways. A moment's negligence there, a twist to obsession here, how much would even the most insignificant difference alter the tangle of thousands of intertwined lives that were shaped by circumstance?
"His skills were honed keen as his edged weaponry, good enough for Rautt's confidence to whet his mercenary appetites," Ochazuke chuckled bitterly. "Had he something greater to fight for than himself, Chris the Knife, perhaps he would be more than a stain upon the winds right now?"
He'd heard some tell about The Doctor's schemes, a grand design rendered to reshape the universe, the countless lives discarded to serve as the mortar to the one, ideal form. To attain perfection in so fleeting a thing. Who ought to decide what it is that endures forever?
The ion storm bristling within the black clouds above served as a grim reminder of those harrowing forces that stood beyond common reckoning, descending from the stars or twisting between the planes seeking to prey on a moment's weakness. The price of knowing is perpetual vigilance.
"Always prepared," Ochazuke mused as Held indicated his payload of capsules.
Jack, who had quietly settled near Damask, blinked hard, then set his narrowed eyes sharply on Held. He'd seen this once before as the nicotine withdrawal had set in, thanks to the resort security at Space Vegas. And when the chips were down, the moment he found out the dealers had been cheating them under the table...
"If it comes down to it, then what you have to do," he muttered darkly. "If she won't go peaceably, if she's still spoiling for a fight...all I'm saying is, she ain't exactly family to me, understand."
"I'd rather not engage until we know what we're dealing with," Ochazuke said, "I know Kenshiko may stay her hand, given sufficient impetus. There is still something I may yet use to bargain with her. But the Colonel might not be swayed. For years now, she's fought to take down the World Government. Whatever they've found here, there's a chance she'd rather attempt on our lives than part with it."
Jack grumbled under his breath, and stepped inside the Golem. Even as he tried to put it behind him, right now his thoughts were thick in his past thievery.
"I know that I would."
Damask pondered Blizzar's question. and placed his hand on the stone below them. The ground split and raised, and from crumbling earth was raised a crude facsimile of the hollow hill before them.
"We are not a conventional standing army. They who would shed his blood for their comrades would be a brother in arms. Our intelligence is one in our common cause." Damask struggled with his words, until Jack pressed him.
"There are two locations:"
"The King's Grove in the Inner Sanctum. It was once my Creator's sanctuary, and the Leylines are most concentrated in this area."
"The other is the Excavation Archive. The remains of Old Vermilion were forcibly pressed into the bedrock below this place, sunken into the black sea. For the sake of preserving what remains of my liege's memory, I cannot enter it directly. But if Colonel Rautt has found anything, the extracted artifacts may be there."