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Futuristic The Darkness of Space (Supernatural Scifi)

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Kas wasn't sure if knowing why Serlain had tentacles would help.

But Fenrick was awake and Kas was nervous and relieved at the same time. He hadn't lunged at Vanya, yet, so that was a good sign. But he was also holding himself the way Vanya had when she had pulled him back into time. Like he was curbing his desire to bite someone.

Vanya raised her eyebrows when Fenrick pushed her hand back, tilting her head to the side. Now that she could see his eyes, she knew he needed it. She didn't want to force feed him. Were it just them, it would be okay, but there were three humans on the ship.

She was about to gently admonish him when he said something in his own language that sounded like a blessing or a prayer. She sat in respectful silence until he was finished and reached for the thermos. Nodding, Vanya smiled when he tentatively tried it and then gulped it down.

"Kas," she said stretching out her hand.

Kas grabbed a second thermos from the warmer and handed it up to her.

Vanya took it and held it out to Fenrick. "After using a lot of energy, it's entirely normal to need a lot of blood to drink. I have a third thermos, if you need it. But anymore than that and you could see it again."

"She means you could vomit," Kas said.
 
Fenrick finished the second thermos and eyed the third, clearly trying to decide whether he really needed it or not. He wasn't quite as ravenous anymore, but he took it anyways, forcing himself to sip rather than gulp.

"I will go slow," he said, because he didn't really want to throw up. That would be both gross and a waste.

Renza felt the tension that he had been holding in his shoulders slowly relax. So he was ok. That was good. He didn't particularly care all that much, but it was still good. He would have been annoyed if the idiot had died.

"Hey Fenny, tell us why your octo-pussy has tentacles," he called back, and Fenrick furrowed his brow in consternation.

"Do not call me that, and she is a Kaltsrit. Not a... that. Her tentacles are for digging. Get into cracks in rocks, pull rocks up to eat," he explained. Renza was a little annoyed he hadn't gone on his usual overexcited tangent, but at least it was something.

"Thank you, Vanya, for drink," Fenrick said after a moment, his cheeks colouring slightly. "I forgot to say it. You are taking good care of us, when this is a problem of us. It is... appreciated. I do not want to make problems for you, but I did. I am sorry."

He hadn't even stopped to consider the effects of outing Pyotr, or how Vanya's assistance would have been seen by her country. He had been asking a lot of her. It was probably too much, and he felt bad, though she'd said before that it was fine. He didn't want to dwell on it, or make her uncomfortable, but it was important to make feelings clear. If he didn't tell her he appreciated her help, she would have no way of knowing.

"About that," Renza interjected as he finished the last of his omelette in between texting Hanabelle. "This is just my impression, but Daddy Asshole seemed pretty intent on doing whatever it took to get whatever leverage he needed to reach the rip first, regardless of how many people died in the process. Once he lands on Yasen, he's gonna be pissed at all of us, so what are the chances he'll make all our lives worse by sending the military after us? I want to fix the rip and get on with my life, if possible. That'll be hard to do if we're fending off angry vampires."

Leese considered telling him that 'no strategy talk at the table' was still in effect, but she was more bothered by something else he said.

"You didn't call him that to his face, did you?" she asked, though she didn't know why. She already knew the answer.

"Man, he hated it. Dude is a hyperanal control freak with some serious baggage. I called him daddy once in front of his crew, and I'm pretty sure he was ready to kill me. It was great."
 
Renza's transition from tense ass to relaxed ass was not lost on Kas, but he just chuckled into his coffee.

Vanya was pleased Fenrick had recognized his body's need and was drinking blood. She had been worried he might go on a hunger strike or something.

She smiled in response to his thanks, but the smile wavered. Sylvestr had wasted no time once he was released from Captain Inna's forced radio silence. She had been expecting to see her face appear with the words "traitor" in red. But that wasn't what he'd done. He'd declared her kidnapped. He claimed Kas and Leese had taken her and her ship. Her family was frantic.

Because of course a traitor would no longer be useful to Pyotr Sylvestr, but a poor abused prisoner of war survivor? Especially when that survivor didn't want anyone to know she had attacked a representative?

She had thought she couldn't be any more under his power but she was.

And she had no idea how to tell Kas.

"You're welcome. And problems sort of follow me around," Vanya said with an easy smile and a casual attitude that didn't relax the strain in her eyes.

Kas wondered how many missed messages Vanya had on her com device. He let out a long sigh at Renza's question. That was a good point. And Vanya had seemed pretty freaked out about Sylvestr earlier. "Well, Vanya's sort of the expert on that. What do you think Va--"

He broke off. Vanya, still perched on the top bunk with Fenrick, was staring at Renza, her face ashen. And she wasn't breathing.

"What's happened?" Kas demanded, thinking Sylvestr had gone after her family. "What did he do?"

Vanya turned wide eyes on Kas. She leaned away from him like she thought he was about to slap her.

"Vanya, no--"

He reached for her, but she fizzled and disappeared before he could get all the way out of his chair. "Shit."

Kas stared at the spot she had been, but when she didn't reappear, he swore again. Groaning, he pushed himself out of his chair and climbed up the ladder to the bridge, calling her name. She wasn't there. He climbed down the other way to engineering. She wasn't there. Swearing under his breath, he climbed back up. He was going to have to walk all over the ship until his weird brain waves pulled her out of the time-free zone.

But suddenly, there she was, warming some blood.

Kas bit back another curse. He wanted to demand how long she had been in there. She had once told him she'd managed to stay there for an entire Yasen day one time. Considering she started to get a migraine after just a few minutes, he somehow doubted that. But there were dark circles under her eyes that hadn't been there before.

But fussing at her wasn't constructive right now.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm hungry so I'm heating some blood."

It wasn't that Vanya was usually a happy person. But she put a lot of effort in to seem that way. Only after getting to know her did Kas realize that she was more direct and sarcastic than she pretended. But she wasn't pretending to be easy-going anymore. That was what worried him more than anything else.

She stared resolutely at at the warmer until the blood was heated. Then she dumped it in a thermos and returned to her seat at the table. Kas reached for her, but she flinched and he quickly dropped his hand.

"Long story short," she said brusquely, staring at her thermos. "Pyotr Sylvestr has been blackmailing my entire family since I was... six? It's not any thing that anyone did wrong or anything, it's just that vampires have very weird laws about certain things and if some things were to come to light, it would tank my father's political career, upend my mother's credibility, hinder my siblings in social circles in the future, and destroy my life. When I graduated university, he took the opportunity to rope me into his plans by threatening to accuse my father of infidelity, block my mother's funding, keep Edwin out of a job, and block Iona and Leksi from getting into good universities. And those aren't empty threats. I explain this because I think it's only fair for you to know the history of what I'm about to tell you."

Vanya took a deep breath, still staring at her thermos. "He's told everyone that Leese and Kas have kidnapped Renza and I. See, we're no good to him if we're traitors, but this also puts the pressure on Albaques to declare Kas anathema. And Leese, but she's a mercenary so it's a little different."

She drummed her fingernails on her thermos. "So the likelihood of a bunch of angry vampires coming after us is high. We may have Albaques to contend with depending on if Admiral Jaager can keep them from throwing Kas under the bus or not."

Kas reached back and opened a drawer. He pulled out a straw and dropped it into Vanya's thermos. "Drink your blood."
 
That hadn't really been the reaction Renza had been expecting. He looked to Leese, as if asking for help, but she didn't have an answer. Fenrick's concern was written all over his face, but he didn't think he was close enough to Vanya to go after her the way Kas did.

He hadn't meant to make things worse. It seemed he had been doing that a lot lately, and he felt a little terrible.

When Vanya returned and explained what was going on, he felt the blood drain from his face.

That was terrible. Anger bubbled up in his chest, because Vanya was a good person. She had done nothing to deserve that. Whatever circumstances had happened - and he could sort of infer based on what she said and his own knowledge of lineage as it related to Ferendin warriors - were not her fault. Judging by the way she spoke, they weren't her parents' fault either.

He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something very rude, but his grip on the rail of the bunk grew tighter and tighter.

Renza looked back at him, a small frown on his face. He had seemed a little sympathetic when Vanya explained her circumstances, but he offered no comfort. Family shit was out of his wheelhouse, and comfort wouldn't really do much here. But Fenrick, he was furious.

That was a laugh. Fenrick didn't even get angry at his brother for publicly disfiguring him in front of hundreds of people, but when he heard about the poor sweet vampire who had helped them being blackmailed, he was ready to fight someone. Stupid. He was so stupid, and his inability to learn that the world just sucked sometimes and there was nothing to be done about it annoyed Renza beyond belief.

"You look about to blow there, Fenny," he said, because he needed to poke him, or pester him, or get some kind of reaction. Fenrick's eyes shifted to him, and he forced his grip on the railing to relax.

"I hate that man," he said, the frustration and anger thick in his voice. "What right does he have to be so cruel? How dare he? He hurt people who have not done wrong just because he can. What gave him that right?"

Leese's brow creased, and she looked up at him in concern.

"Are you ok?" she asked quietly, and Fenrick shook his head.

"I am angry. People like that make me angry. What good is power if you are not using it to help people? What good is a high position if you are just hurting the people you represent? I hate it."

Renza chewed his lower lip, because he shouldn't say anything. He really shouldn't.

He did anyways.

"Assholes exist everywhere, Fenrick. Pyotr Sylvestr isn't special. Everyone knows a dick or two who's hurt them. The fact that this surprises you is what gets me. Like, really? Your brother ripped your eyeball out in front of his whole court, and you're shocked that a politician on this side is a bad person? I don't know if you're stupid, or just naiive."

Leese glared at him, reaching over and pinching his ear, hard.

"Enough," she hissed, because she could see that Fenrick had gone rigid. He was still for a long moment, and Leese was afraid he might bolt too, the way Vanya had earlier.

He didn't. Slowly, he relaxed, but he didn't look Renza in the eye.

"Is there any way to clear Kas' name?" he asked, and Renza snorted, but he didn't say anything. He had a feeling Leese would boot him to another room on the ship if he kept pushing, and he knew that Kas and Vanya already probably didn't like him very much.

He just didn't understand how somebody who had been beaten down by the world could continue to be so good. Believing the best of everyone, thinking that the world was a decent place. He should know better. He shouldn't be surprised that the people in charge were terrible, doing terrible things.
 
Kas was personally a little impressed at how well he was taking being a scapegoat. It was probably because that was future Kas' problem. Present Kas' problem was figuring out why Vanya had bolted into the time-free zone. She had only done that once before, and he was fairly certain she had gone there to sit on the floor and have an anxiety attack alone. He supposed she could have been worried about what he would think about being the pivot that caused the war to heat back up and that was fair. Maybe she was worried what they would think of her knowing he was blackmailing her. But she shouldn't have panicked. And why had she stared at Renza like that? He had said something that upset her, and Kas didn't like it.

At least she was drinking her blood. But she kept darting glances at him out of the corner of her eye.

Kas sighed. She should really know by now that he didn't blame her for stuff like that. "Can I put my arm around you?"

Vanya nodded and then sank against him, sucking the blood through the straw and feeling like a little kid. Kas rubbed his hand up and down her shoulder, and she sort of just wanted to close her eyes.

When Fenrick asked his series of questions, Vanya opened her mouth to answer, almost feeling like she needed to justify Sylvestr, which was stupid. She closed it again, sipping her blood.

"There's a reason he's 'Dickhead' in my contacts," Vanya said around the straw.

"Hey," Kas said when Renza went on his little mean rant. If doing so wouldn't have disturbed Vanya, he would have reached over and flicked Renza. Still, who let this kid become a priest?

"Be nice to Fenrick or I'm not cooking for your kids," Vanya threatened.

She nodded to Fenrick's question. The blood finished, Vanya set aside her thermos. "I tried to figure that out. The problem with being a prisoner of war is that anything I say is going to be assumed to be said under duress. Even if I explained I took action after Sylvestr refused to be reasonable, it wouldn't do anything. I told my family I'm ok, but there's not much they can do. Even if my dad was like, 'I talked to my daughter and she's fine', Sylvestr would just call him stupid for believing me when I'm clearly under the power of some mean human. I hate it, but it was a smart play."

"I could surrender myself to the YF," Kas suggested.

"I would rather drink my own blood," Vanya said, her tone suggesting she would actually start doing so if Kas mentioned it again.

Kas was a little shocked by the vampire curse. "Ok, wow, no need to be so graphic. I just thought it needed to be--"

"No. It's about as much as an option of us giving Fenrick to Morei, and we would never do that." Vanya sighed. "I think maybe contacting Epsilon Fleet might be worth a consideration."

Kas raised his eyebrows. "My mom?"

"She has a fleet and disruptors, and she's less likely to shoot me on sight, so there's that. I've been trying to figure a way out of this, but beyond changing our names and becoming asteroid prospectors, that's the best I've got. If anyone else has a better idea, I am all ears."
 
That was... incredibly frustrating. Fenrick frowned, trying to think of any way they could get around this. Leese and Kas were being made out to be the bad guys, so any attempts to justify themselves would fall flat. Renza was seen as a victim, and couldn't arguably clarify his position.

He leaned forward, groaning as he rested his head against the bunk rail.

He had never been good at politics. Renza was right when he called him naiive.

The priest frowned at Vanya's casual dismissal, but he decided not to pursue the argument any further.

"Yeah, yeah. So we've established dickhead's a dick, now what? Calling in military favours sounds like it could take time, and any wrong step could result in igniting a full out war. I don't like our chances here."

Leese gave him an unamused look, and she pinched his ear again.

"Stop being a pessimist," she scolded, though she doubted that advice would ever stick.

Vanya's insistence that they wouldn't ever give up on a member of their little team was reassuring. They hadn't known each other long, so it would be pretty easy to throw Fenrick under the bus, if the other two really needed to. The fact that they were looking out for him made her feel better about her decision to go along with them, even if she felt bad for dragging them into this.

It didn't do much to help their current situation. She looked over to Fenrick to see if he had any ideas, but he was sitting straight up in his bunk, his eye wide open.

"Uh," he said slowly, incredulity on his face. "About Morei. He is here. He wants to talk."

Leese and Renza both stared at him for a moment, before Leese immediately shook her head.

"No, bad idea. Tell him to get out of your head and go away. Why does he want to talk?" She felt a little panicked. Renza reached over to squeeze her forearm, but it didn't do much to quell her nervousness.

Morei wanting to talk was weird. He was usually the type to skip straight to action. In retrospect, Leese supposed that he was a decent strategist. This could be a ploy to get them to reveal their location, or it could be part of some other plan to do... something.

She had no idea what he was thinking. She hated having no idea what he was thinking.
 
Vanya made a face at Renza. "I said it wasn't a good idea, but you're telling me how my plan won't work instead of how a plan you have will work better."

Kas was starting to think that changing their names and becoming asteroid prospectors might be their best bet.

Vanya was about to lecture Renza on not being a prat when Fenrick announced Morei had arrived and was feeling chatty. Well. Breakfast was officially over. She stood and began collecting plates. Anything not bolted down could become a projectile.

"Hear me out," Kas began slowly. "What if we talked to him?"

Vanya added coffee mixed with blood to her thermos. "I'll go get the reactor fired up. We can float off this rock and strap in, ready to rocket out of here at ten Gs if it turns out just being some un-inventive trap."

"That's a yay vote from Vanya," Kas said, looking at the others with raised eyebrows.

She shrugged and stuck the plates in the sanitizer. "Might as well. Not like him trying to attack us will change much. We can always threaten to throw Kas at him if he's rude."

It was delivered with a deadpan that would have fooled Kas if he hadn't known her for so long. "Oh, so you won't give me to Sylvester or Fenrick to Morei, but you will give me to Morei."

"You can beat him," Vanya said, closing the sanitizer door. "I'm prepping the ship."
 
Renza hadn't really expected Vanya to stand up to him. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He couldn't really argue with her when she had the power to shoot him out the airlock.

Talking to Morei seemed to be the next part of the plan, and Leese couldn't say she liked it very much.

"If he tries anything, we should leave right away," she urged, and Fenrick nodded. It was weird that the closest thing his brother had to a best friend wanted to talk to him, and he wasn't sure he liked the chances. But it was better than continuing to fight, at least.

'What do you want?' he though, figuring that Morei was probably monitoring his thoughts anyways. It made him feel gross, but there wasn't much he could do about it without his Ferens to kick the man out of his head. He could feel Morei's amusement at that, and he made that same rude gesture as earlier. The man couldn't see it, but it was the thought that counted.

Finally, the amusement settled into something more serious.

'I want to call a truce. I've thought things over, and I don't particularly want our species to die for Montrose' stupid power trip.'

Well. That wasn't really what Fenrick expected. Morei wasn't like Anika, going along with everything Montrose said because it was an order from a superior, but he was generally on his brother's side. If even he was questioning Montrose' reasoning, it did not bode well.

"He wants a truce," Fenrick announced to the others. "It is... confusing. I do not think he is lying. But--"

He looked up to the viewscreen when he got to the bridge, his eyes widening.

Morei was just... out there.

He was a fair bit taller than Fenrick had been, easily pushing seven and a half feet. His chitin looked mostly the same, with a few big differences. The first was his wings - four of them, long and iridescent, like a dragonfly's. The second was the exteension from the back of his chitin 'helmet', a long appendage that looked almost like a scorpion's tail. The stinger on the end was thick and bulbous, and Fenrick knew from experience that getting stung hurt like a bitch.

'Are you going to let me on your weird little island? Or do we have to find somewhere neutral?' Morei asked in a sneer. Fenrick glowered at him, placing his hands on his hips.

'It's Vanya's ship. You can't come on, you'll contaminate it. She likes the ship,' he shot back, and he could see Morei shift his floating posture to show his exasperation.
 
Vanya took a seat in the pilot's chair, deciding to ignore the rather powerful looking man hanging out in space in front of her ship. She woke up the reactor and warmed up the drive and thrusters. As an afterthought, she warmed the defense system.

"What is his definition of truce?" Kas asked, following Fenrick up to the bridge. He stared at the viewscreen. Great. Morei was huge. And had wings. And a tail on his head. Nope, that was a stinger of some kind. That was great.

He was trying so very hard not to think "bug-person" in his head because he very much liked Leese and Fenrick and they were all from the same place, and it wasn't fair or kind to think of them in those terms. But Morei was making it really hard.

Instead of focusing on that, he stood behind Vanya and rested his hands on her shoulders. He wanted to ask if she was ok, but he knew she was running on little sleep and was stressed about what Sylvestr had done. Instead of asking, he gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze.

"Alright," Kas said after a minute. "Is he wanting keep talking to us through you or is he wanting to come aboard?"

"He's going to have to change first," Vanya said. "He's not contaminating my ship."

Kas thought that was fair. "Ok, but doesn't he need DNA? And that's a vacuum."

Vanya pulled up a map of the nearby asteroids on her display and tapped one not far off. "HS261 was mined a while ago, but I bet the sleeping environment is still active. It was mined by Luther Corp, and they usually had good CO2 scrubbers. We can get him a vac suit."

Vanya made a face. Five people on her ship was pushing it for space, but six was more than she had emergency equipment for. And depending on if Morei became a vampire or a human, she was going to need to restock some supplies. There was probably enough for a month with the five of them, but another cut that down by just under a week.

"This could be a trap," Kas mused, noticing Vanya was checking her supply list.

"Yes, which is why making him turn into a brand-new vampire or human is our best plan," Vanya said. "Kinda hard to attack us when you don't have your usual arsenal."
 
"I told him he can't contaminate your ship," Fenrick piped up. It would be pretty crowded with six of them, but he doubted that Morei would stay long. He was more of a loner type, and he tended to get antsy when he was around too many people.

'We are going to meet you somewhere, and you need to shift if we are to talk,' Fenrick relayed, and he could see Morei's stance switching to something annoyed.

'Why would I shift? Those people are weird and squishy. I don't want to,' he protested. 'Besides, they speak a weird language.'

For a second, Fenrick worried that he would continue to be obstinate, and he was fully prepared to tell Vanya to just leave him there. Renza was still in the sleeping area, stable but still a little sick, and Leese was glaring at the viewscreen like she was ready to put a knife through it. Even though Morei was only speaking to Fenrick she knew him well enough to guess his reaction.

But then the man outside cocked his head, as if he were contemplating something.

'I'll shift if you give me the DNA of the weird halfling you've got,' he said finally. Fenrick scrunched up his nose like he'd just eaten a lemon.

'You are not touching Renta,' he said with a confidence and sternness that didn't really match what he felt. He hoped it would make Morei back down, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

'Have him spit in a cup or something then, I don't care. I'm not shifting if I can only communicate with you. Otherwise we might as well keep doing this.'

Fenrick pursed his lips, because it was a good argument. That didn't mean he liked it.

"He said he'd meet us and shift if we give him Renta's DNA," he explained. Leese's eyebrows shot up.

"Why does he want that?" She asked curiously, and Fenrick shrugged.

"I do not know. He is weird."
 
"Thank you," Vanya said, because at least someone cared that her ship not get messed up.

She watched as the man on her viewscreen shifted as he talked--argued, probably--with Fenrick. She wondered idly what other Ferendin looked like. Thus far she had only seen two, but Morei was a little different from Fenrick.

"We're not giving him Renza's DNA," Kas said. Objectively, Kas knew it was like copying Renza's homework more than taking possession of it, but it still felt weird. DNA was deeply personal by definition.

"We could give him Kas' DNA," Vanya mused.

"Why the hell would we do that?" Kas demanded.

"Because I want to see what happens when he tries to shift back. Do his own brainwaves stop him? Is he stuck as a human forever? I want to know."

Kas shook his head. At least he knew Vanya was feeling a bit better. "You're horrible, and we don't know if my EM field messes with their transformation."

"We will if we give him your DNA," Vanya said.

Rolling his eyes, Kas turned to Fenrick. "I guess that's completely up to Renza. If he says 'no', that's it. Morei either shifts with someone else's DNA or he can piss off."

"I could also put a railgun round through him," Vanya added.

Kas gave the back of her head a look. "Not parked here, you can't. You'll blow us off the asteroid. Physics, Vanya."

Kas ignored Vanya muttering, "I know how physics works, Kas," under her breath and turned back to the others. "Well, let's go ask Renza."
 
Fenrick pursed his lips, clearly knowing the answer but not really wanting to say it.

"Renta's DNA is part Ferendin, and it's stable. He is in pain because he does not know how to use it, but he could use ferens, maybe. Very small amount of ferens. Morei does not speak English. He wants to use a bit of his power to translate."

Leese's eyes narrowed, and she placed her hands on her hips.

"He wants to do mind stuff," she clarified, and Fenrick shrugged.

"It would make talking easy," he said, though he didn't really like the idea of it either. "It was how I spoke to the vampires on the ship. I don't know vampire language. It is very hard, but Morei is good at reading. He could probably read with only small amount of ferens."

That didn't really make the whole mind-reading thing any less invasive or uncomfortable. Leese trusted Fenrick not to look at her thoughts without permission, but she certainly didn't trust Morei the same.

"It's kind of like... using a translator I guess," Leese said, and she sounded exhausted. "It's just a little mental nudge to the subconscious with the meaning of a sentence, and the subconscious mind provides the words. It's weird, and I don't really like it because it's kind of creepy. But..."

Renza, who had come up to the bridge to see what was going on, came out from where he was lingering behind the doorway.

"Yeah, ok, fine," he said with a shrug. Leese jumped and turned to look at him, her face switching to exasperation.

"Don't sneak around the ship," she scolded, but Renza just shrugged again. He was a little tense, but trying very hard not to seem tense. "Give the asshole bugman my weird hybrid DNA, I don't care. Do I have to lick a petri dish or something? Give him an old hairbrush, or whatever?"

Fenrick's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized him, then finally he gave in with a sigh.

"He said spit in a cup."

"Great. Cool. I'll do that, then. We might as well get this over with, because with him hanging out like there, my stomach is cramping something crazy. I feel like this is what it's like to be on my period," Renza grumbled. He was playing it cool, but the whole thing did unnerve him. He kind of wanted to just... go to bed. Call this whole mission off, return to Albaques and hang out with his kids. They were weird and annoying and normal, and he needed that.

'Renta said he will give you his DNA, but you're not allowed to poke around anybody's brain. If you try, I'll get Leese to shoot you. Do you know what a gun is? You won't like it, I promise,' Fenrick conveyed with his most threatening tone of voice. Judging by Morei's body language, he was laughing at him.

"We will go to the mining place. I will tell him where it is."
 
"Mind stuff," Kas repeated. Great. That was great. The guy from the other side of the rip-thing wanted Renza's DNA so he could do mind stuff. If Kas ever actually sat down and thought about this stuff, he was going to need a lot of gin.

At least Vanya looked about as thrilled about mind stuff as he was. Her expression soured further when Fenrick mentioned "reading". Nope. She did not like that.

"We don't have to do this," Kas said quietly.

Vanya sighed. "If this guy can help us stop Montrose, it's worth the sacrifice."

She slid her eyes back to Renza and shook her head at him. She doubted he was as calm as he pretended. If Morei had asked for her DNA, she probably would have turned the railgun on him right then and there.

There was something bugging her, though, and she opened her mouth.

"Menstruation."

Vanya turned a concerned frown on Kas. "What."

"Period is human menstruation." Kas paused. "Is that not what you were going to ask?"

Vanya scoffed. "I know what a period is, Kasper Jaager. I was going to say that you don't lick petri dishes."

Kas' face heated up a little bit at her expression.

Still huffing air through her nose in amusement, Vanya turned back around in her chair and woke up the console. "Alright. Heading there, now."

Kas was glad when the view screen shifted off of Morei and on the darkness of space. When they landed on the asteroid, Kas signaled the small mining habitat.

The reactor woke up with little trouble, the solar panels on the roof providing enough juice to get it going. After a few minutes, it signaled atmosphere levels were within normal ranges for humans.

Vanya set them down close enough to use the ship's docking tubes to connect to the supply-receiving area of the habitat. She connected the docking tube and made sure it was sealed before giving Kas a nod.

Kas gestured and then slid down the ladder to the living area and then to the airlock.

"Got that spit in a cup?" Kas asked. "Also, I hope he realizes if he wants ferens, that means we get to bring guns. Vanya, get your gun."

Vanya groaned but pulled her gun from the locker. "Ok, but what if he accidentally uses bacteria DNA from Renza's mouth and he turns into a bacterium?"

Kas rolled his eyes. Now was so not that time for this. "Alright, who's running the spit-in-a-cup to Morei and giving us the all clear?"
 
"Yes, bring guns," Fenrick said, clearly delighted by the idea.

Renza shrugged his shoulders. He could have just gone over and shook his hand or something. It probably wasn't that much more dangerous than what they were already doing. Judging by the way Leese was hovering behind him, she knew what he was thinking and strongly disagreed. Or maybe she was just worrying. She did that a lot.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get him my spit," he said. The water cups were disposable, so at least he wasn't sacrificing anything she'd want back.

"Changing into a single-celled organism would be pretty hard," Leese said dryly as Renza gathered up his spit cup and handed it to Fenrick, who stared at it in disgust. But they were already there, and Morei was also already there, so there was nothing to lose.

"I will do it," Fenrick said. "He cannot contaminate me. I will go make sure he is safe."

He got ready and left the ship, heading over to the bug man in the corner. In their normal forms, Morei was just a bit taller than Fenrick. Right now, he towered over him by more than two feet. If Fenrick was intimidated, he didn't show it as he shocked the cup into the warrior's hand.

Morei, whose face shield had slid back, glowered at him with all four eyes.

"This is stupid," he protested, but Fenrick just shrugged.

"If you don't change, they have guns," he said, his voice casual, and Morei screwed up his face.

"What's a gun?"

"A secret weapon of mass destruction. So drink the spit and shift, or I'll let Kas shoot you."

Morei's scowl got worse, but he snatched the paper cup away and tipped it back. It was kind of gross, but ingesting DNA was the easiest way for this to go, and Fenrick wouldn't let him eat the halfling kid. The actual shift was... kind of gross. Shifts usually were. It was a matter of rearranging DNA, organs, and everything in the body, so there was no way it would be easy. Once it was done, Morei stood there was a very human man.

His hair was long, falling past his waist, and his skin was only a few shades lighter than Renza's. His features were basically the same - prominent cheekbones, a handsome facial structure and deep eyes. It made Fenrick scowl, because it wasn't fair that Morei was attractive as both Ferendin and human. He chanced a glance down curiously, and then scowled even further.

"Your penis is big," he grumbled. Kas had implied that having a big penis was good, and a small one was bad, so it was one more way that Morei was a perfect physical specimen. Annoying.

"What the hell is a penis?" Morei asked gruffly, and Fenrick just waved him off.

"Come on, then. I said I'd say when you're safe. If you try and look at anyone's brain without permission, I'll break your neck."

"As if you could reach my neck," was Morei's reply, and oh, Fenrick wished that he could kill him.

"He is safe. He is also naked," Fenrick said with a shrug. "Should we give him the big clothes?"

Renza gave Morei an appreciative look, then frowned and winced when he felt a weird stabbing pain in the back of his skull.

"I don't need clothes," Morei interjected, his English perfect and unaccented. "I won't be staying. I simply came to a conclusion about this invasion and decided to see what you plan to do about it."
 
Fenrick had said bring guns so Kas did. He brought his rifle slung over his back and kept his hand close to his handgun.

"Yes, but can you tell. How do you know if that's the DNA you want to use or not?" Vanya asked. "Do you have to conserve mass?"

Kas groaned. This was not the sort of conversation he wanted to be having while they strode out of the ship and over to a enemy that might end up being an ally.

But when they came to where Kas could see Morei, he said, "Aw, hell, I forgot about the naked thing."

He shielded Vanya's eyes with his hand and then did everything in his power to look anywhere but Morei. How old was this ceiling, even? It was peeling.

"I know what naked human males look like, Kasper," Vanya said, her tone amused.

Kas tried to imagine what would have happened had the vampires greeted them stark-naked. He doubted it would have gone well.

Vanya pushed Kas' hand away and eyed Morei with disinterest.

"You may not need clothes, but it is a little hard to take you seriously when we can see all you have to offer," Vanya said, more to hear Kas splutter than anything else. Kas did splutter, and Vanya patted his arm. "Don't worry. You have more to offer than he does."

This only made the spluttering worse because that was making some implications that were false and Kas wasn't sure he wanted those present to assume they were true--but also announcing that Vanya could not objectively know that would be weird. And he didn't want anyone thinking this guy from another dimension did have more to offer than him.

Vanya wondered whose brain Morei was using and if she would know it if it were hers. She didn't want him there, but for some reason the thought of him poking around in Kas' was even worse. She knew she was going to have to sit down with Kas and make him process all the things that had happened as his current coping method was locking it away and pretending like it hadn't happened. But she worried that someone from another dimension poking around in his brain would trigger something.

Without thinking, she stepped closer to him, as if her close proximity could protect him, and rested her hand on his arm.

Kas gave her a small smile and turned back to Morei. "We plan to stop it, obviously. We don't want our home invaded and contaminated anymore than you do."

"But, you've also given us no reason to trust you with details," Vanya added. "We came to hear what you had to say, not vice-versa. So what is it, exactly, that you are hoping to gain by this meeting?"

Kas nodded. Getting straight to the point while hiding their own plans. Not bad. Vanya's method actually might work well with their very naked new friend.
 
Morei scrunched up his nose, and even that looked handsome. Fenrick kind of wanted to kill him.

"I have plenty to offer," Morei said, sounding a little confused. "Information, mostly--"

"She's talking about your dick," Renza said casually. The twinging headache got a bit worse, and he pressed his hand to his temple to try and stem it.

Morei scowled once more, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's not my fault if you're distracted by my reproductive organs," he said bluntly. Fenrick wanted to groan, but luckily, Leese came out at that moment bearing pants. She had taken them from the same locker as before, and hoped Vanya wouldn't mind.

"Put these on now," she said, ignoring the surprised and wide-eyed look he was giving her.

"Keleesa. You're not dead," he said, and she shrugged her shoulders. She had expected this kind of reaction, but it didn't mean it was fun.

"Nope. Not dead," she confirmed. He stared at her for a moment, then made a curious noise in his throat that sounded like 'huh'.

"That explains some things. I was wondering why you had friends with the locals," Morei mused. He knew Fenrick was too kind-hearted to have taken anyone hostage, which is what most Ferendin would have done. The knowledge that his aide had apparently been here for probably twenty years now threw some light on the situation.

It also made things more complicated. Keleesa was not a skilled ferensnik, but she was an excellent melee fighter. More importantly, if she had knowledge of the culture, that meant that she could help with any possible negotiations.

Fascinating. The situation kept getting more and more interesting. When Keleesa cleared her throat and shoved the pants at him, he finally relented. Another quick look at Renza's brain showed him how to put them on--

"Ok, that really fucking hurts," the priest complained. "Is this that brain peeking thing? Look at somebody else's brain."

Morei rolled his eyes, as if Renza had said something childish.

"Our minds are most compatible at the moment. If it hurts, it's only because you're stubborn."

That gave Renza pause, and Fenrick elbowed Morei hard in the gut.

"Do not hurt my friends," he snapped, and got pushed back for his trouble. A second later, Morei's hand was in his hair, messing it up and tugging it out of place, and Fenrick squawked in indignation.

"You can't stop me even if I did. You're so small, I could toss you across the room even shaped like this," the older warrior said with a smug grin, and Leese cleared her throat again. Right. Vanya wanted to know his plans. That was fair enough.

He eyed Fenrick, who was trying to get his hair back into place. He really did look small and weak, even if Morei knew that he was stronger than he appeared. It was giving him second thoughts, and for a long moment he wasn't sure if he wanted to go with this plan or not. Eventually, he decided that it was worth giving it a shot, if nothing else.

"I want you to kill your brother," he said, his eyes still on Fenrick. Leese sputtered, while Fenrick looked around, as if hoping to see another brother of Montrose's that he wasn't aware of.

"Uh," was his intelligent response. He chanced a glance over at Leese, who was absolutely fuming, and hoped that Renza would hold her back if she decided to start a brawl over this.

He knew he should respond to the statement. The problem was that he had no idea how to respond. He had already tried killing his brother, and that hadn't gone well at all. Right now he was half-blind and grounded. His chances of winning were even lower than they were when he was a teenager, and Morei had to know that. He had to.

"Not that I'm against the idea of the asshole king dying, but isn't that a really bad idea?" Renza said finally, because it didn't look like Fenrick was able to formulate a response.

"The worst idea," Leese said, her voice furious, but Morei looked completely unaffected.

"You have that weird weapon with you, the one that disrupts Ferens. If you use that, it could work."
 
Vanya's lips curled in amusement even as Kas gave her a look. He was probably the most distracted by Morei's reproductive organs, which was hilarious.

She was quickly distracted by the fact that Morei apparently knew Leese and hadn't known she was living. That was interesting.

Kas felt decidedly less awkward talking to a half-naked Ferendin than talking to a wholly-naked Ferendin. He gave Leese a grateful nod.

Kas stiffened, and Vanya pulled the conversation back through her head to figure out why. Ah, Renza appeared to be the brain Morei was using and it was painful. She tightened her grip on Kas just in case he thought he might go over there and get the Ferendin to stop. She supported that, but not when they were trying to play nice.

Kas' hand went for his gun when Morei pushed Fenrick but then relaxed when the bigger Ferendin just ruffled his hair. Vanya had let go of him, apparently sanctioning his impulse to shoot Morei, and slid her hands into her pockets.

"Do what?" Kas said, joining his own disbelief and horror with the others. Hadn't Fenrick gotten his ass handed to him last time? Anyway, he was a sweet kid. Making him kill his brother was not a good plan. "That's a bad idea. A terrible idea."

Vanya cocked her head, arched eyebrow settling into a thoughtful frown. She presumed the weird weapon was Kas, and there were several problems with that plan. However.

"Why?"

Kas looked at her in shock. He opened his mouth but closed it when he saw her expression. It was a real expression, completely unguarded. It was moments like these that he remembered she was actually a vampire. Her gaze was fixed unblinking on Morei, her head still cocked.

"Vanya?" Kas thought about reaching for her, but she held herself like she was prepared to use her sight.

"Why Fenrick?" Vanya clarified, her tone cool. "And why change sides? How do we know this isn't some overly-dramatic scheme to kill Fenrick? Seems like he's still a pretty big threat to your king."
 
Hm. The othersiders were protesting. Morei didn't really know why. They couldn't have known Fenrick for more than a single day - it was odd that they would care about his well being. Keleesa he suspected, but the others? It made little sense. Othersiders must have strange priorities.

"Fenrick is the strongest ferensnik currently alive," Morei said, as though it were obvious. "He stands the highest chance of defeating the king in battle."

Leese pursed her lips, but she couldn't deny it. If Fenrick had full mobility and perfect eyesight, he would probably have a decent chance of winning. The thing was, he didn't. He had tried to take Montrose on too soon, and now that ship was sailed. Even taking out of account the fact that Kas was not a weapon who could just be pointed at the enemy, all Montrose had to do was fly out of Fenrick's reach.

"You're an asshole, Morei, but you're not disloyal," she said finally, deciding that all other issues could be saved for later. "Why would you turn against the king now?"

Morei turned his eyes on her, displeasure clear on his face. He didn't really want to discuss these issues with the outsiders present. Fenrick seemed to notice his hesitation, because he moved to stand beside Kas.

"They are not leaving. Answer her question," he said. Morei looked ready to argue, but eventually he gave in with a sigh.

"The king is... not in his right mind," he said slowly, choosing his words carefully.

Leese grit her teeth, because there were a couple of things that could mean, but one of them in particular was worrying.

"He's been drinking blood?" she asked, and Morei glared at her before finally nodding. Fenrick looked absolutely shell-shocked, and Leese headed over to squeeze his shoulder.

"At this point, as his friend, the only thing I can do is kill him before he ruins our civilization. But I can't do it myself, and the little prince is broken. We need a weapon that could disrupt the king's abilities."
 
Kas blinked. "Wait, seriously?"

He glanced at Fenrick, his eyebrows raised. He wasn't... imposing. He seemed sort of like someone's excited kid brother. After a second, Kas gave a little nod. Alright. He could see it. Vanya was a nerd and the best time philos he knew. Fenrick was a nerd and the best ferensnik he knew. It tracked.

Vanya nodded. She had thought Fenrick was more powerful than he seemed, but she honestly hadn't expected him to be the best. That was interesting. She had thought maybe Fenrick had to kill Montrose because he was the next in line or something, so it was good that that was not the case. It gave them options.

It seemed like they would have to deal with Montrose in the vacuum of space or somewhere abandoned so he wouldn't contaminate the area. In the vacuum of space, she and Kas wouldn't be much help, and she was starting to think maybe Fenrick should not try this on his own. That and the thought of him having to kill his brother on his own while they watched made her want to pull her own lungs out of her chest. But contamination was a huge problem.

Kas nodded, agreeing that they were not leaving. It may have originated as a that-side problem, but it was a this-side problem, now, too. But Morei gave in easier than Kas expected, and Leese cut through the crap and said what Morei wasn't saying.

Vanya still had her creepy thinking face on, so Kas decided to think about the whole king not being in his right mind because of blood drinking thing for her. At first he was thinking, Oh, great, interdimensional vampires, but that didn't feel right. He pondered this, nodding wisely to himself when he remembered how nervous Fenrick had been about drinking blood. And he had wanted to be certain it was blood from an animal. So then it couldn't be blood from animals. That meant it was either another sentient species or it was cannibalism. And there were stories about what had happened to the minds of humans who had eaten other humans. And drinking the blood of another vampire was punishable by death in vampire culture for the same reason.

"Yeah, about that weapon," Kas said, rubbing the back of his neck. He was about to say maybe not to hope on that too much when out of the corner of his eye, he saw Vanya's lip twitch into a smile. If she were an old-timey oven, she would have dinged. "Yes? Vanya? You have something to add?"

Vanya's smile spread slightly and she gestured with her palms up as if she had weights in them. "We have the problem of contamination and the problem of Fenrick not being allowed to fight alone."

"Yes, good," Kas said, nodding and folding this arms across his chest..

"And we need to maximize our use of our advantages--primarily what we know that he doesn't--"

"Vanya, I swear to all that is holy that if you walk us through your thought-process," Kas interrupted, rubbing his forehead, "I will stake you myself. Summarize."

Vanya nodded. "We need to force Montrose to shift."

Kas eyed her for a long moment. "If you mean into a bacterium, I swear--"

"No, into a human." Vanya gave him an affronted look. "You said summarize."

"Back up, explain." Kas held up a finger when she opened her mouth. "Give us the highlights."

Vanya saluted and then held up two fingers. "Problems. Contamination. Fenrick isn't allowed to fight alone." She held up three fingers on her other hand. "Advantages. We know more about this side than he does. Our secret weapon. There's more of us than him. How do we solve our problems and maximize our advantages? We force him to shift. Now we had the home meadow advantage."

"Field. Home field advantage." Kas rubbed his head. "Ok, but how exactly does that solve our problems and maximize our advantages?"

Vanya sighed. She had been hoping to dance around that fact that the last fight hadn't worked out well for Fenrick and he was now injured as well as hide that she and Kas were not the same species from Morei just in case. "I'm sorry Fenrick. But he lost the last time, yes? And now he's injured. Trying the same thing again and hoping for different results is madness. But now we have more people. You and I are little good in vacuum, but out of vacuum, contamination is a worry. We also have the problem that Montrose--I assume--is physically stronger and better at fighting in general, so evening the field won't help. Fenrcik is still disadvantaged. We have to give Fenrick an advantage. That advantage is that he knows more about our side than Montrose, and he took to sight like a fish to water. You carry your general physique and abilities, I presume, when you shift." She glanced around at the Ferendin for confirmation. "So it may level it a bit as the baselines are different."

Kas nodded. Vampires were naturally stronger and faster than humans, so Vanya--the weakest vampire he knew--was still stronger than an average human. So it might be a bit more like a very strong human fighting an average vampire, which would not give Fenrick an advantage, but it would even things a bit.

Bolstered by Kas' nodd, Vanya continued, "Our other advantage is that we know about our secret weapon and he doesn't."

Kas raised his hand.

"Just a second, I'm getting there. Our last advantage is that there are five of us--six if Morei is helping--and one of him. I assume I don't need to explain that advantage? And, anyway, shifting takes energy, and I assume the blood-drinking affords some extra energy boost, so depleting that is a must."

That actually made sense. "Ok, but what about how our secret weapon can also hurt a few of us here and would have no effect on human Montrose?"

"Right, but we would use the disruptor in the initial force-him-to-shift fight and to keep him from shifting back, maybe? Still unclear if that's a ferens thing or a biology thing. Possibly use it as an energy-vacuum."

"That's a terrible idea," Kas said, hoping she meant the disruptor devices and not him. "How would we force him to shift, anyway?"

Vanya smiled sheepishly. "Haven't got that far, yet. Open to ideas."

"Alright, I hate it," Kas said, glancing at the others. "Any other grand schemes we want to get out in the open?"
 
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Oh, great. There were two of them. The little one was basically a copy of the little prince.

"I may not be strongest alive," Fenrick said, because it was a bit embarrassing. "Just. Strongest one we know."

"Why can't he fight alone?" Morei asked curiously. He knew that it would not be smart, and he had been planning to remedy that part, but it wasn't like it was disallowed. Again, these two seemed to be very attached to somebody they just met. It was very unusual.

Keleesa was glaring at him like he was being an asshole, though, so clearly he'd said something wrong.

"There's no way we're making this an official duel," she said. Morei scrunched up his nose, because that had been his plan. He was just going to cheat. Renza was giving him a very cautious look, though, and he found himself wondering if the little hybrid was stronger than he thought. Almost immediately, Renza turned his eyes over to Vanya for her explanation.

Curious. Was he getting bleed through? That was quite some talent, if he was. A shame he seemed determined not to use it.

"We do," Leese said, though she hadn't thought of how it would translate to a vampire's sight. "The blood drinking is... a problem."

"Blood drinking is... old medicine," Fenrick explained, though he still seemed a bit disturbed and upset. Leese didn't blame him. This threw everything into a whole new light. "It can help injuries and... Leese, what is the word? For the body not having something."

"Severe vitamin deficiency, essentially," she said, though it wasn't quite that simple.

"Yes, that. Blood has power. It can give energy boost, and fix problems. If somebody is dying, giving them blood from somebody strong can help heal them."

Renza couldn't help but think of the fact that Fenrick's blood was currently in his veins, and wondered if that was why he didn't feel like dying just from being in the same room as the untransformed Morei.

Morei, of course, caught on that little tidbit of information. He kept his face carefully neutral, but it was good info to have.

"It's dangerous," Leese said, pressing emphasis into her voice. "There's a reason it's folk medicine. Almost nobody does it anymore, because the chance of messing it up is too high."

Fenrick shrunk back a bit, but she didn't bother to scold him. She understood why he had done what he'd done, and she had approved of it at the time. She couldn't fault him.

"Blood drinking has made him stronger," Morei said, even though he didn't want to explain the finer points of his race's weaknesses to outsiders. "But it's.... Urgh. Taking blood means taking part of a person. Taking too much can create bleed, and a disconnect from the original personality."

"How many people?" Fenrick asked, because it was important to know just how bad Montrose's condition was. Morei didn't answer right away, and Fenrick felt his stomach drop when he eventually answered.

"Around twelve. All of the royal guard."

Leese drew in breath through her teeth. That was a lot of people. If it had been going on long term, Montrose would be in a very, very bad state. No wonder he was making stupid decisions to invade other dimensions.

"He wouldn't shift," Fenrick said immediately. He couldn't imagine any situation where his brother would put himself at a disadvantage.

"You are too squishy. You can't even survive out there," Morei agreed. Though, if he was being honest, the vacuum was not fun. He certainly wasn't looking forward to leaving again.

It was a good idea, if not for the flaw that Morei would never go for it.

Leese considered ways that they could trick him into shifting. If he was currently a mixture of thirteen different personalities jumbled into one, he wouldn't be thinking in a particularly logical way.

"We could trick him, maybe?" She suggested, and Morei snorted.

"He is not stupid, even indisposed. You would need to give him a good reason to change. The little prince challenging him could be that reason. He's still angry about the duel from twenty years ago. Being challenged twice by the same person is an insult, it would make him sloppy. Besides, injured as he is, the little prince is an adult now. Before he was practically a baby. Not even a decade out of his larval stage, and not fully grown. He would have been... Hm. A teenager? Your ages are very different to ours. The equivalent of fourteen or fifteen, I think?"

Fenrick flushed, because he hadn't really wanted to explain that far. Not to mention that Leese still looked very guilty.

"I am older now, but still cannot see or fly. It would be... not smart to fight again."
 
Vanya arched an eyebrow at Morei's question of why Fenrick couldn't fight alone.

"Because that wouldn't be prudent," she said, figuring explaining that it was because she cared about Fredrick and didn't want him to get hurt wouldn't make sense to this oversized chitinous ignoramus.

Kas folded his arms across his chest again as they explained the whole blood-drinking thing. He couldn't help his eyes sliding to Vanya. She just had her head tilted like a curious puppy. Then she nodded as if they were not talking about someone taking the blood of his followers to make himself more powerful.

"Makes sense. The blood is the life."

Kas frowned at her. "Vampires don't do that, though."

She raised her eyebrows. "Hm? No. Well, there was a cult a century or so ago... But. There are also those who say drinking human blood makes them more powerful."

Actually, the sect that claimed human blood made them more powerful really claimed human blood was their natural diet. Vanya wasn't sure what part of the old stories were true and what was myth, but she couldn't really see herself taking up human-blood-drinking regardless. Even if some of them claimed they could do truly amazing things with their sight while on human blood. And anyway, there was no need to introduce that into this particular conversation.

"Sounds like the sort of person we could lean on his pride," Kas said with a shrug. "Simply saying he's too scared to fight Fenrick in human form could do it."

"Unless one of those thirteen personalities can smell a trap," Vanya said. "Would be sort of weird for Fenrick not to play to his own strengths--the ones Montrose knows about anyway."

"This is your idea," Kas said. "Why are you arguing against it?"

"I'm not. I'm strengthening it." She shrugged and, as if suggesting a clothing color change, said, "What if Kas challenged him?"

"What?!" Kas shrieked, his voice sounding nearly an octave higher than normal.

"You're 'squishy and can't survive out there'. Would be rude not to fight you on your level if you challenged him."

Vanya was making a lot of assumptions about Ferendin warrior rules of chivalry and completely ignoring that Montrose sounded like an absolute monster with no sense of decency, but all Kas could think to say was, "This is worse than the last idea!"

Vanya rolled her eyes as if Kas were being childish and refusing to eat his vegetables. "You wouldn't actually fight him alone, Kasper. We're talking about how to get him to transform into a human."

Kas was pretty sure he could feel his hair turning the same color as Vanya's. "Yes, but if he can just beat up a fourteen-year-old kid--no offense, Fenrick--what makes you think me challenging him will get him to transform? Don't you dare shrug!"

Vanya froze mid-shrug, her shoulders up near her ears. Avoiding Kas' dark glare, she slowly lowered her shoulders.

"It's a terrible idea, just admit it."

But Vanya wasn't listening to him. Apparently hearing something he didn't, she pulled her handheld out and looked at it. "Silver."

Kas sighed. "What?"

"Proximity alarm from the Nocturne. We have some incoming friends." Vanya tucked her handheld back into her pocket.

Kas eyed her suddenly very still posture. "And by 'friends', you mean people come to arrest me and Leese."

Vanya smiled guiltily. "Yeah. And it's several military ships."

Kas rubbed his forehead. "How likely is it that the military pressured your mom into giving them the specs for your ship?"

Vanya winced. It would have been very easy for Sylvestr to claim her mother clearly cared more about her ship design than her firstborn in order to put societal pressure on her to comply. "Pretty likely."

"How long do we have?"

"About ten minutes until they're in range to spot us." Vanya pulled her handheld out again and went through several passcode steps several times. She nodded to herself and returned the device to her pocket. "The smartest thing for you to do is leave Renza and I here."

"What? No!"

"We can catch up to you later," Vanya said, glancing at the priest. "You, Fenrick, and Leese have complete access to the Nocturne."

"Vanya--"

"I can send up a distress beacon once you three are away." Her tone was brisk, almost like she was giving orders. "That will give you time to escape and will stop the manhunt."

"This is a terrible plan!" Kas said, his voice rising in volume. "Even worse than all the others before it!"

"What would you have me do, Kasper?" Vanya snapped. "They aren't going to stop hunting us, and we don't know when Montrose is going to make his merry way here. If we all just got in my ship and flew off, they'd track us down again, and we'd have to flee again. Renza's and my continued presence with you is just going to use up precious time we don't have. This is the best plan given the circumstances--"

"No! It isn't!" Kas was trying not to yell. He knew Vanya didn't like yelling. He was keeping his voice just below yelling, but it was quaking. He was having a little trouble breathing. "I'm not leaving you so that man can do who-knows-what to you!"

Vanya frowned, her tone turning impatient. "He's not going to hurt us."

"Then why are you so afraid of him?!"

Kas saw a flash of her teeth when she answered, "Moot point. The fate of our entire dimension is a little more important than the fate of one person, Kas!"

"Not to me it isn't!"

They stared at each other, both deflating when they realized what Kas had said. Kas knew he should probably say something flippant so they would all think he didn't actually care, but he didn't want Vanya thinking that. He was getting tired of pretending he felt otherwise.

Instead, he quietly repeated, "Not to me, it isn't."

Vanya wasn't exactly sure what to do with the intensity in his gaze. After looking everywhere but him for a few seconds, she said, "You're not leaving us to die, Kas."

"But what am I leaving you to?" he asked, his tone frustrated and defeated.

Stepping to him, Vanya took his hands in hers. "Renza and I will be fine. Trust me."

Kas gripped her hands and let out a long sigh. There was no winning this argument. "Someone else please tell me you have a better idea than giving our pilot and our priest up to Dickhead's minions."
 
Morei got the feeling the little one was mocking him. He wasn't quite prideful enough to bring her up on it, but it still irked him.

"He would fight alone, we would just cheat," Morei clarified, as if that should be obvious.

Fenrick groaned, because Morei could put together excellent plans when he wanted to, but he got the feeling that this was not one of them.

"I could... 'goad' him," Fenrick said after a moment, but Renza was the one who shook his head.

"He kicked your ass the last time. Making him angry enough to kill you is stupid. Like, insanely stupid, and-- Ow! Get out of there!"

"Stop guarding so much and it won't hurt," Morei said casually. Renza wanted to tell him that he was guarding precisely because he didn't want strange men looking around in his head, but he got the feeling it would fall on mute ears. Morei didn't really seem like the kind of guy who listened to anyone but himself.

If he focused, Renza could feel the intrusion in his psyche, and see what thoughts and memories he was looking at. It was all recent, mostly, and when he tried to look any farther back, Renza immediately shut him out.

"Stop brain peeking! Is rude!" Fenrick said in shock and horror, slapping Morei on the arm. Morei just flicked his forehead. Leese watched quietly, her arms crossed over her chest, but she didn't interfere.

In a way, they acted more like brothers than Fenrick and Montrose ever had. It made sense - Morei had always been Montrose's closest friend, so he had spent a lot of time around Fenrick growing up. She couldn't say that they were friends, per-say, and Morei had done nothing to help Fenrick when Montrose had disfigured him, but they had some affection for one another.

She just never knew whether Morei was going to act on that affection, or toss Fenrick aside for Montrose's orders. It was why she was so wary of him.

"He is the weapon you have?" Morei asked in surprise, turning to Kas with wide eyes. "He's squishy. He would die if you hit him too hard."

"Nobody is hitting him," Fenrick grumbled.

"Montrose could crack him like an egg."

"We are not making him fight Montrose," Leese agreed, although there was some merit to that plan. "But... If we could get him as Fenrick's second, we might be able to manipulate him a bit. He's always been... Impulsive."

"He's prideful," Morei agreed, though he hated to admit it. "And lately, his reasoning is not the best. It could work."

They could have gone on, but then Vanya announced that there were ships on their tail. That was bad. Fenrick began to look around as though he could see them, but Leese quickly placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

It was a crazy idea. She couldn't say she liked it, and she politely looked away during Kas' confession. But really, Vanya was right. She couldn't see any other recourse to this.

"I will stay," Morei announced, rolling his shoulders. Fenrick and Renza both turned wide and surprised eyes on him, and he raised his eyebrows in challenge.

"Why?" Leese asked, and Morei simply shrugged.

"That man annoys me. He is a... hm," he said, and Renza winced with a grunt of 'stop doing that!' "He is a slimy maggot. If I take you hostage, it will throw off his plans. Your friend-weapon was trying to protect you, but you told him to leave, and I was unable to stop them in time."

Fenrick could feel his frown growing deeper and deeper. He grabbed Morei by the shoulders, pulling him down so he could look into his face. It was inscrutable as always, but from what Fenrick could see, it didn't look like he was lying.

"Why do you want to help?" He asked point black. Morei avoided his gaze for a split second, and it was all Fenrick needed to know something else was going on.

"I have reasons. I will explain them when we have time. But mostly? I don't want to go back into the vacuum, and I can't communicate without your hybrid pet."

"Hey!" Renza snapped, but there wasn't much bite to it. He was already trying to figure out how they could spin this. Sylvestr and his crew had heard from Fenrick that Morei was hunting them. If the hunter showed himself now, it would lead credibility to that, and put Fenrick in a better light. It would make the situation far more complicated politically, and blow the whole story about Ferensen wide open, but...

There didn't seem to be any way to avoid that at this point. It was better to control the narrative.

"He's annoying, but he has a point. He's a convenient villain, and takes the heat off of you guys. Get out of here. Get in touch with Hanabelle from the ship, and see what help she can give you. She's been looking into Sylvestr for blackmail material, and anything that would throw credibility on his plans. Do your ships have cameras in the bridge? If your hacker could get footage of what happened, it would make Fenrick out to be a good guy and cast doubt on Sylvestr. That would work out best in the long run, if we can leak it to the extranet."

That would also reveal that Sylvestr was time-sighted, and on a much larger scale. It would likely be a scandal of some kind, but it could also hurt Vanya's family. Renza cast her a look, trying to judge if the damage to her name would be worth it for her. Eventually, he decided they could worry about that later.

"Anyways, you need to go. We'll be fine. Morei, how far can you communicate when you're like that?"

"Do not call me by name, pet," Morei grumbled, a little insulted. "Not far enough to reach the little prince. But enough that I could probably break out if I needed to."

Hm. Promising, he supposed. If they were going to use Morei as a villain and a scapegoat, him being dangerous and able to cause havoc even as a human was a good idea. At least the Ferendin didn't seem to care much about being that scapegoat.

This could work. This... was a mess, and risky as hell, but it was the best they had. They would have to make it work.

"I trust you to handle this," Leese said after a moment of obvious worry. I don't trust him, but I trust you. Kas, we need to go. Renza will keep an eye on her, ok? He's a strong kid, and he knows what he's doing. Right now, you're our biggest shot of getting this wrapped up, and we can't afford for you to be locked away. Ok?"

She placed a reassuring hand on his bicep and squeezed.

Fenrick did not look so confident, worry spelled out over his face, but Leese grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the nocturne. They couldn't afford to be indecisive.

"I'll have Hanabelle ring Renza's private channel in twelve hours. Set your communicator to something else, and then you can switch it back if you're capable of talking. I don't have any contacts in Yasen, but I'll see what Belle can do. We're not leaving you alone-- we will come back for you, we just need time to plan. Ok? We're going to come back, Kas. This is a temporary tactical retreat, but we're not abandoning anyone."

She hoped he understood that. Fenrick seemed to have doubts, but he quickly threw them away. He needed to trust Leese and Renza, now more than ever. He... He could do that, he hoped.

"We will come up with plan, and come back," he repeated, part to show Leese he understood and part to convince himself.

Leese smiled at him and patted his head, running her fingers through his hair in a sisterly way. She used to do it all the time when she was a teenager, back when Fenrick was just a little kid.

"Right. Now, let's go. I can fly. Kas, you're on guns and radar. We shouldn't need to use them, but I need somebody watching for tails so I can focus on evasion."
 
Kas did not have the brain space to be annoyed that Morei apparently thought he would be easily broken and worry about Vanya. His annoyance got shoved into the same mental "for later" closet that the extra-dimensional chitinous beings and tentacats had been stuffed in. It was taking all his self-control not to say "nope" and pick both Vanya and Renza up and carry them to the ship.

"He is a slimy maggot," Vanya agreed wisely, as if allying herself to an annoying priest and a possible-double-agent extra-dimensional chitinous being against the most powerful vampire on her planet who happened to have it out for her for whatever reason was normal. "There are cameras, yes, but keep in mind that was Sylvestr's ship and he wasn't born yesterday. I guarantee he wiped all the data."

Vanya sighed. The problem at looking for blackmail was that he used other people to do his dirty work and made sure it couldn't be traced back to him. Even the scandal that he held over her head would only incriminate her mother and father, not Sylvestr himself. If anything, he would look like the victim of that scandal.

Kas flexed and relaxed his hands as if he could crush his worry with just his fingers. He looked at Leese, listening to her promises that Renza would keep an eye on Vanya. Thus far, Renza had been a priestly figure, then passed out, then acted like an absolute punk, and now Leese thought he could protect Vanya. Kas wasn't sure of what he thought about that. He had seen the raw fear in Vanya's eyes just before she had darted into the time-less zone. Maybe Renza could keep her safe, maybe he couldn't. Kas just didn't know, and the uncertainly roiled in his gut like magma.

He gave Leese a weak smile when she squeezed his arm.

Vanya stepped away from Kas, her form shifting, then solidifying in a slightly different stance. She looked different--so much so that Kas questioned the use of the pronoun--and now carried a small messenger bag and wore a beanie.

"We switching pronouns?" Kas asked because that was the only thing he could think about at the moment.

"Not yet," Vanya said, and that worried Kas more than anything. She had once explained she chose androgynous styles to give herself options when she wasn't sure how long she would be away from her ship.

"We're coming back for you," Kas echoed Leese, more as a promise to himself than Vanya. "So don't do anything stupid."

Vanya grinned. "No promises."

Kas hesitated, wanting to say so much more, but no knowing what to say.

Vanya solved the problem by stepping forward and wrapping her arms around his chest. Kas was torn between acknowledging the cultural significance of Vanya's public display of affection and wondering at the personal significance. In the end, he just hugged her back.

"Kas," Vanya said gently after a few seconds, and he reluctantly released her.

"We're coming back for you," Kas repeated.

She snorted. "Or maybe we'll come for you. We'll make it a race, loser buys drinks or whatever."

He could see the stress in her eyes, and for once her attempt at lightheartedness frustrated him. He wished he knew what he was leaving her to deal with, wished she had told him.

Kas turned his frustration on Morei. "You watch out for them or you and I are going to find out who cracks like an egg more easily."

Vanya chortled, and Kas figured that didn't sound as threatening as he had intended. She grinned at Leese as they retreated. "Yeah, don't let the 'friend-weapon' fly my ship."

Kas backed towards the ship, wishing he was better with words, but knowing Leese was right. They needed to go. He had already cost them precious time arguing with Vanya. Just before he turned to the ship, Vanya winked at him.

Kas hurried onto the bridge and threw himself into the weapons station chair. He wanted to curse and swear and punch things.

He groaned. A vampire farewell. That's what he should have said. He should have used a vampire farewell. Something more meaningful than just repeating what Leese had said.

No, focus. He checked to make sure the ship was in English so Leese wasn't trying to make out the weird vampire symbols the whole time she was flying. Then he pulled up the sensor readouts.

"I don't think they know we're here specifically," he said, eyeing the spread out search formation the vampire ships were taking. "But we should keep as quiet as possible anyway."

Kas let out a percussive sigh, trying to not feel like he was abandoning a friend to a nightmare. "I'm watching our six. Let's get out of here."



Vanya's slight smile dropped the second the Nocturne began undocking from the habitat. She flicked her eyes Morei and then settled them on Renza. "Alright political mastermind. How are we going to spin this?"
 
Morei's lips quirked up as Kas actually had the gall to threaten him.

"Your threats are cute, othersider. If you want, we can tussle when we meet again," he said with a grin. Fenrick smacked him again, because Kas and Vanya had just had a moment. They needed to be respectful.

He looked back at the three of them, a little nervous.

"Be safe," he said before they left, not clarifying who he was talking to. In a way, it was all three of them.



Renza gave Vanya an innocent look.

"Well, yes, he wiped the data," he agreed with a serene smile. "But you have a talented hacker who can remotely trigger a radiation alarm from halfway across the galaxy, don't you?"

After a moment his expression sobered, because as much as he wanted to lighten the mood, this was serious.

"Hacking in and getting that footage would be dangerous, though, and no doubt difficult. If you don't want to risk it, we can find another way," he clarified, because despite how he acted, he wasn't actually an asshole. He knew that Sylvestr had something on Vanya's family, and he was pretty sure the hacker was family. But at the same time, he couldn't afford not to mention it when it was a valuable asset they could use.

When Vanya asked him what his plan was, his face twisted into a grim grin as he turned to Morei.

"That depends, if I'm right on the money about what Scorpion Bro over here is thinking," he said. He had a feeling he knew, and it made the most sense. It was probably the most logical way to handle this situation, and would result in the fewest casualties.

That didn't mean he liked it.

Morei wrinkled his nose in distaste at the nickname, but he let the insult go easily enough. He was a little impressed that the little hybrid had figured out his plan. Maybe the 'master of politics' title wasn't just a jab.

"We need to set the little prince up as a hero," Morei explained. "If he defeats the king, it will instill confidence in our people, but more importantly, in yours. Once Montrose is disposed of, somebody will need to take his place. More importantly, we need somebody who can act as an ambassador for political exchange between our peoples."

So Renza was right. He really hated that he was right.

"You really want to try peaceful contact right after an attempt at a hostile takeover? With the contamination effect and everything?" he asked, not quite disbelieving but disapproving.

Morei could only shrug. He didn't really want to, but the truth was, they didn't have a choice. Montrose had been foolish in his attempts at gaining resources, but they were things that they needed. Without some kind of change, Ferensen would die. Morei was not about to let that happen.

"Right now, I am going to attack you. The little prince made contact with that ship, and there are witnesses. So, as the saying goes... clench your asshole real tight."

Renza opened his mouth to say that that wasn't the saying, but was cut off when Morei's fist connected with his gut.

"Oh fuck," he groaned, doubling over. Morei didn't look too impressed, gesturing to his torso with displeasure.

"Attack back, stupid. We're fighting, and I've taken you hostage. The weapon friend who left was framed. That's the story. But if you don't try and fight back, it won't look real."

Renza glowered at him, then stumbled forward and punched Morei in the face. Morei grinned as though he had barely felt it, so Renza grabbed him by the hair and punched him again./

God, he felt ridiculous.

"You can't punch Vanya, or Kas will kill you," Renza pointed out. "So will Fenrick and Leese. They like her."

Morei rolled his eyes, because she was tiny. If he punched her, she would vaporize or something.

"Fine, fine. Roll on the ground, then. Look like you've been fighting me."



Leese nodded. She knew that Kas was tense, and she wished she could say something that would ease his nerves. Unfortunately, she knew that sort of thing was basically impossible.

"Right. I'm gonna slip past them, and then once we're free, we can figure out what to do next," she said, easing the nocturne away from the asteroid. The cloaking device sure was handy, even if she was sure the enemy had a way to get past it. She eyed the hostiles before planning a route that would take them through a blindspot so they could get away. It was stressful, and Fenrick was sitting in his seat with a frustrated expression. He wasn't any good here, and he knew it. It was frustrating.
 
Vanya frowned at Renza. Asking Edwin to set off some alarms to protect an entire ship was one thing, but asking him to hack for political subterfuge was another. It wasn't that she didn't think he would do it. Edwin had told her on no uncertain terms that she was he older sibling and he didn't care about firstborn rights, and that he wanted to screw with Sylvestr as much as he could. But he would have a lot to deal with if the truth got out, and Vanya didn't want to put that on him. Sylvestr could very easily make Edwin look like a victim as well, and that could tear their family apart.

But he was right. She supposed she should think it over, at least.

Vanya glanced between Renza and Morei, frowning. Despite her parentage, she wasn't great at politics. She was getting better, but considering she had largely ignored it for the vast majority of her life, that wasn't saying much.

Setting Fenrick up as a hero made sense, as did needing an ambassador. But she had several questions. First, what did he mean he was going to attack them? And was that really a human saying?

But then he punched Renza, and it surprised Vanya so much that she reflexively popped out of time. It was so much easier to use her sight when Kas wasn't there. But that was the only improvement his absence caused.

Realizing this was a pretend fight, she returned to time. "The weapon-friend's name is Kas, and he was framed. So was Leese."

She scowled at Morei. He apparently was adverse to names. And he was sort of beating up Renza more than she thought was necessary.

But then he insulted her. She bristled. She was not someone who needed taking care of. And she could take a few punches.

"Vanya, no, stop. You're scrawny, you need to play to your strengths," Kas had said. He had been horrified by her fighting abilities, and so had grumbled that he was going to teach her how to fight before they went on a joint mission in which he was going to have to rely on her to watch his back. When she had insisted that she had had two weeks of basic training, Kas scoffed, telling her exactly what he thought of her training. It had been frustrating and embarrassing, but it had ended up being very useful. "No, don't try to punch. You're going to break your wrist. You have better lower-body strength. You need to fight dirty. Here, like this."

And since Kas wasn't present, she could really play to her strengths.

She shifted out of time, ran up to Morei, dropped back into time, and brought her knee up into his crotch. Then she darted back, dropping into the ready stance Kas had drilled into her. Knees flexed, on her toes, center of gravity low.

"Come on," she said with a wicked smirk. "If you don't fight back, it won't look real."

Kas would probably strangle her for taunting the bigger guy, but he wasn't here, now was he?

Hoping the others were well on their way, Vanya reached into her pocket and tapped her handheld, activating a distress signal.





Kas glanced at the alert that popped up on his screen. "Vanya's activated her distress signal." Shifting his eyes to the tactical readout, he added, "The vampire ships are picking it up. Careful, that one ship's sensor range is shifting."

Kas ran a hand through his hair as he watched the ships start to converge on the asteroid they had just vacated. He wished there was a way to monitor Vanya and Renza and make sure they were OK.

He knew that Leese was focused on getting them to safety, so he bit down on the urge to start trying to make plans. The sooner they planned, the sooner they could get back to the friends they had left behind.

He flexed and relaxed his fingers. He hadn't been this stressed out since he and Vanya had dropped back into time and he had thought for sure this stupid enemy agent was going to die because she had saved him instead of abandoning him in the time-free zone. Vanya wouldn't have left him on an asteroid to face monsters alone. He couldn't help feeling like a horrible person.

Kas glanced again at the tactical display. "Looks like we're about out of range of their sensors. Where to?"
 
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