Purpose. Wrung out and tested. Sanitized and put to task of more ‘pressing’ concerns. A new trophy for people to gawk and revere. To see and know that their heroes really were worthy. But Ceremonies only last so long, reverence holding out with attention. More will come eventually and draw it away. Will test it and prod it like a tiger in a cage. But Aegis refused to be that sideshow no matter how much they yell and scream. She still had a final duty to uphold. A truth to pass along.

The medical wing was filled once more, less entitled throngs but more injured and critical. Mediknight at least had the time to rest between patients, but some were proving beyond such saving. The room, her destination, was already filled to its brim. A grieving father tended to do this, but Zeus’ Strike could hold back little. Regaling his son with the tale of justice served, even as tears streamed from his eyes with every disparate beep of the monitor hanging over Ohm’s head. The damage kept out of sight by as much gauze and grafts as it could be, but Aegis knew too much to the contrary.

She walked in silent as her part came to the forefront, exaggerated bravado twisting a chuckle out of her. And drawing the other eyes present to this retelling. The brother rarely seen but known as yet another black sheep in this family rather tumultuous. Aegis knew him as Richter, but only just. Unpowered by simple chance of the genetic draw, yet working hard at compensating. A biomedical prodigy or something to that effect. Getting any info out of this family was an act of-

“*GHUU*”

“Aegis you came!! We-e were just getting to the be-est part!!”

Smothering muscle wasn’t exactly foreign, but it never came quite so tearful and happy at the same time. A life time of dealing with her dad’s overbalance left he already on the ball and tapping out before her spine snapped. That same hand staying its place to let him see that she was just as sad. And to let him grieve more truthfully.

“That story’s not going to outlive you if you keep that up. Just let it out… its okay.”

A smile, failing too hard at keeping back what was already over the dam, slowly fell over her shoulder. A LOT of weight suddenly pressing down with all the fury of a father unable to fully avenge his son. Yet more than enough for her to bear in kindness. Free hand kept to a firm hold of reassurance even in the face of this. A sympathetic glance meeting Richter leaned against the inside wall. More than a little disregard meeting her in turn. And a little feeling of ‘glad she never ended up like these two’ adding itself to the mix. But she still had something left to do. That final promise that needed to be kept. He said he’d fix him, so now was the time.

That free hand peeled off Zeus before he could spiral into full on depressive, a weeping sniffle greeting her again with more personal space reserved.

“Don’t let yourself fall too far, there’s still a chance here. Whether you believe it or not, Seth left something behind for Ohm.”

That weep stopped on a dime and that disregard became more regarding. As if he’d come back already and stepped right in from the window. Dead set on putting everything right despite everything he stood for. Aegis raised her burdened hand and opened her palm for the square of metal it had harbored all the way here. Drawing all this conflicted emotion to such a mundane expression of atonement. She could feel Zeus’ apprehension, the downright disdain glaring down at that matte square. But also the want for this to be true, that this was really a chance to be taken.

“He said it would heal him, that his power had a tendency to stick around like this. So… if you trust me… we can see if he was right.”

That conflict rose, fell over, and dried those eyes in its fire. His golden gaze meeting her slight somber smile carrying more hope than it could bear. Dropping back down to that offending square, that piece of what had caused this pain in the first place. He closed his eyes in tightening grip, but knew that this was a righteous gift. A relented reopening and a silent nod said everything he couldn’t. And gave Aegis the go ahead to fulfil that promise.

She stepped up to Ohm’s bed a slow as she could stand, still a doubt held but not enough to dissuade. All the while those other eyes watched on, Richter not convinced but unwilling to object. Unable to say anything in contest as she looked out over her former student’s broken form.

Barely anything uncovered of his right side, wrapped deep and still by only so much that could be done. His eyes half open and lost in stupor, medication the only other means of keeping him from going into shock. The pain immeasurable even from this bedside, wholly felt as her free hand remembered its heat. But her burdened hand offered its own memories to counter, and hummed with the hope that this really was the righteous.

Aegis held it up, passed her own hope along, silently mouthing her doubts away, before placing it down onto Ohm’s shallow chest. And waited for what this promise was worth.

Beats and breaths filled the silence.

Shallow wheezes too medicated to draw deeper.

Those doubts rising back in spite.

That sadness falling and skepticism-

“*GGUUHHUuuuhhhh*”

A revolting lurch and horrifying intake, bedridden torpor just suddenly broken like a grave stone over a zombie. Yet no glazed over glare or slack jawed moan, only a hand pressing metal to chest like Ohm had never taken a full breath in his life. And needed every bit of it. Eyes wide enough to add real worry to the mix, backfire or halfassed possibilities drawing all hell of concern. But also wonder as the beeping monitor only rose to prominence and not over the top. That wide eyed expression more shock at the feeling rather than the pain. Bandaged arm rising despite its near total loss and… bulging greater than its tight form could take.

That held to hand and real pained expression said more than worry could hold, tearing at the only thing keeping the skin grafts to his bones. Worry shared and trying to rush to stop what couldn’t be understood in this flashing moment until… until it was too late to stop. And the truth was right there in pale.

Wrappings draped away loose and unneeded. A hand now twice over restored right there in full view. Flexing like it was a madhouse of untapped power, pulling that shock to a smile unseen in anything but malice. Arm hugged for all it had back, the rest barely needing to be seen to know what had been undone. A hug gleefully matched in massed smothering love, tears already returning as his son was back to him. Aegis almost too stunned to say anything more, just smile at the scene of a promise truly kept.

As her cargo clattered to the ground without care, shaken loose as even Ohm’s own joy was smothered to death. That passed along scrap of metal sliding to feet still in shock, barely able to understand what had just transpired. Richter’s eyes locked tight on that simple matte square, stooping down and scooping it up without a beat spared to familial revival. Possibilities tossing his look to distances too great, and renewing worry in Aegis’ gaze. A hand stretching out to take back the burden before it broke him down. Snapping him out of whatever he had seen. Snapping him back to the reality being shaken back in. A power too dangerous to be passed around so easily. A sentiment understood as he returned it to her hand. Its thrum still waiting and accepting of her touch. And a hope held tightly to as her smile returned with true backing defined.

This was the truth she would hold to always.

Seth would be a hero no matter what would be said.

More dim lights, once repaired now diverted of power. That dark room of technological congress and confinement returned to. Technomancer’s dark corner of the Hill, meant to sequester away advancements that needed to be understood. And centralize some amount of control of the systems at play. But now… now all that control was lax. All that understanding in flux and demanded. All that technology put to task. A simple one, aided and already mass produced. But one that needed secrecy. Yet frightened his wits to no end. A fear well founded but without a direct source he could see. One that filled his room to its brim with sadness and grief as the chosen reception for an already over funeral. Most stuck watching from cameras and screens and every outlet to the air. The lucky filtering in last to see firsthand the proceedings set to mark this day brighter.

Threat squeezed in from the overcrowded outlet, a ghost of pure electrons invisible in the open air. Catching glances somber and empathetic as he filled in the only standing room left. Wires creeped from every angle, data lines screeching their codes if he looked too hard at them, power flowing like water in others. A single corporeal and frantic form stage left, scrambling to tie these lines together in harmony. A pedestal opposite and the focal point. A fine granulation, iron particulates masked as sand, dished below. A whirring eye above set to project and build and create imagination. And between these two apparatuses stood the only one who would ever take this risk first. The only one who could accept this burden. Speaker caught Threat’s sullen gaze in sympathy, but understood that this was what Seth had fought for. This one chance.

Techno’s machinations led him back up, sufficient power set to the machine, and every means necessary set to keep this experiment away from the eyes of the ignorant or rash. Yet his slapdash methods sure made this quite ironic. As did the fright across his face as it was illuminated by his centralizing screen. Code running through and setting parameters passed along, the final shape only guessed yet dreaded in turn. He was recreating life from the inanimate, turning hardlight into functional body. Even trapped within the bounds of this summoning ritual, he still feared what daemons he was about to loose upon the world. Yet continue he had to… for answers to everything.

That frantic look wheeled about to the subjective emptiness he was to fill in. At Speaker prepared to insure his people’s safety. A carried undercurrent of apprehension flowed amid the onlookers. But all knew this was no time for doubts. This was the start of their future. That look turned back to insure, and hit the key to begin this ritual. The room flashing for an instant of sped through calibration, before that whirring eye traced its path in the sand. Outlining everything there was to Speaker’s form. His prints upon its medium, his talons dug in focus and preparedness. Legs rising from the light printed into place. Hip and claw in perfect placement, his outlining simulate used for all it had. Every organ remade, every muscle matched, every beat of his unstill heart. All the way up to shadow his conspirator, his sympathizer in this subjective crime. The dim of the room made darker still as everything was drawn to put forms to the formless. To return what had been only just snuffed out.

A realization dawning hard in that towered shadow. A visage burned in and all too familiar, all too known, all too reviled and hated and seeped in so much real dread. Techno couldn’t help but reel back in regret, hands grasping for anything to stop a fall already in motion. His ritual too effective in bringing forth what he feared, but some amount of him still knew this would happen. That he would be reviving the laceroids all over again. Even if they went by a different name.

But this dread was stalemated as his machine thrummed to silence, as the build completed its unholy work. As the daemon he’d summoned took his place in reality more physical. The darkness hard pressed and unwilling to show, but cut in fine dim by twin golden eyes. Inner power still too tuned to keep simple… or that vanity still too strong. Yet a breath like the first one in a life time held a reverence more becoming of the first of many. A taking in of what had been missed for so long, feeling shared as duality of bring persisted. Nostalgia and hope reverberating through the collective. The summoning a success, yet their summoner lost to his own haunted nature.

That glowing shadow tower meeting his fear with sympathy unheard, but continued down all the way to the bounds of his circle. Knees buckled and pressing down upon hard metal sand, body arched forward as if stooped to a low rung, tail straight and narrow without a hint of coil, and hands out stretched and open to bear nothing ill of their subjugator. Old means but a serious show, a penance extreme for one risen above everyone else. And a display met with overload and shock needing alleviation to match.

“Thank you for this gift that we have been striving so long to earn.”

His voice was clear as if truly remade in body, intent still rippling through with truth. And stumbling that shock to not know what to do. The rumble of stature and yet regal demeanor putting all dread to heel.

“We have lived lives too long for ourselves, too long in the shadow of those we have made suffer.”

Those claws reeled back in more terrestrial supplication, pressing down to return his bowed form to more pride. His eyes reopening to the floor not truly seen.

“We have wronged you too much to ask forgiveness, too much to beg for mercy. Our entrance an affront out of proportion with our means. Too great to atone in a simple lifetime.”

His words had some effect, Techno eking out of the dread he’d sunken in to. Fighting for an inch of ground at a time. Kindred heart beating loud enough to be felt by all.

“There may be nothing we can do to return what has been broken. Who has been lost or what has been taken. But…”

Inches became feet stolen by the syllable, fear mixing hate in condemning down. Straightening arrhythmia and tightening back what was spilling out to the world. And taking its place to shadow over his unworthy penitent. And staring that golden gaze right in the slit sharp eyes as they rose to fully regard.

“But we wish to serve yet still. We wish to try and atone for our mistaken pride. Our accursed fate. We wish to make right what we have broken. Just as he did… in showing us that better path.”

A claw rose to the edge of its possibility, up to the bounds of its sacred salted barrier. But not in reaching out to take or to show. But to offer in gesture passed and known. Open and pointed in full, shaped to take in a matched form. A hand to take and be taken. To show accent or be ignored as is due. To prove the worth of mere words… to the one already breaking the bounds of his creation.

Corporeal permanence meeting temporary habitation, a warmth of the real meeting the doubled simulation it had concocted with aid. His trepidation coming too clear through, and meeting its kin in beating blood bond. His stare still hateful but knowing of this truth. And accepting of this plea for mercy deserved for its wanted service.

“Y-you want to make this right…”

Techno still unable to wrangle with himself, but fighting to match that regal prostration.

“Then let’s do it together… And right all of our wrongs.”

A breath like shock reverberating aloud, through every being present and accounted for. A feeling so strong that the dim could not hold, sequester could not bear, and bounds could not be held for long enough to care. The world alit and lit to its full contents. From the full known shadow turned grey scaled Garkah sharing this shock with him. To the full audience now known for all the sanding room filled in. All the present spirits here in somber attendance feeling a new individual come into the fold. Threads shared in shock yet shared with joy as he saw for himself the extent of this collective. Felt for himself what they wanted all along. Felt in turn this nagging hope…

That this was the start of their brighter future.

End