Ice Dust

[letskicksomeice]

[cw: mild gore, death.]

Okay, guys, I think we're almost done here. Everyone's reported in that all the cell blocks are just about cleared. I'm checking one of the last sections.

[He flits towards one of the secure doors, casually tapping his staff against the security panel housing the ID reader and lock, freezing it until it fritzes out. He pushes through the doors and lands, anticipating that he might have to duck low behind something for cover.]

We've already overstayed our welcome and we shouldn't risk them bringing in backup from outside, so start snowglobing to the Po -

[What he sees on the other side of the door makes him freeze and stagger back as if shot to the chest. Most of the science labs had been emptied in the ruckus; the myths within were quickly dragged back to their cells. But with the base overrun, it looks like this lab was one of the ones quickly abandoned, without the scientists cleaning up after themselves.]

[It is a macabre tableau. On one giant examination table there is a vivisected unicorn, clearly dead, rainbow blood flowing over the sides of the table. It is an ugly sight, something so pure and beautiful, its white coat glossy like pearl, paired with such brutality.]

[But that's not what gives Jack pause and makes it look like he's been punched in the heart. What gives him pause is the other myth, strapped to a table, lots of painful-looking devices and tubes attached to her. The nymph is still an otherworldly beauty. Her skin is still a brilliant mix of blue and green and gray like the ocean meeting a stormy sky. Her face is delicate and her hair is a curly tangle of flowing vines. When she opens her eyes they look like blue marble, blended with cloudy white.]

[But she is dried out, skin cracking like tree bark in places, the leaves and flowers in her viney hair wilted and brown.]

[She is not meant to be dried out. Her skin is meant to glisten like it is perpetually sprinkled with drizzle. Every one of her movements is meant to scatter droplets over the woods like morning dew. She was one of the ones to bring gentle storms to the slopes of Mount Nysa, after all.]

[Seeing slight movement, Jack flies forward, placing his staff against the side of the bed. He starts pulling devices and straps off of her, careful to not yank anything that looks like it'll hurt if he pulls suddenly.]

Aesyle, Aesyle, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay.

["Jack Frost," she breathes it out in a relieved sigh. "I should have known the Guardians would come. We - we lost hope, many of us. That we would be found. But...but I am found." The relief and peace she feels at this flows from her expression and water pours from her eyes an unnatural flow, like exuding water is in her very nature.]

[Some of the devices give him trouble and has to dismantle them carefully, freezing components that need to be weakened and broken.]

You are. I found you. Are your sisters here?

["My sisters were here," she says, eyes closed. "But they walk with our brother Hyas now."]

[Agony falls over Jack's face. Devastation. In the space of a sentence, he has lost fifteen friends at once. His eyes temporarily squeeze shut but the tears stream out anyway, freezing on his cheeks in a fine smattering of ice dust.]

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry we didn't get here sooner.

[He manages to fight past it and gets the last device undone. He quickly has a globe out, and whips out a portal to the Pole, all business despite the heartbreak. He hefts her up, staff grasped awkwardly in one hand.]

I've got you, though. [His voice cracks.] I'm taking you to the Pole, we can call Epione and her daughters -

[She suddenly reaches a hand up to his face holding it gently but tightly, commanding his attention. He stops flying, knowing, knowing with a sinking feeling, that it's too late. Knowing that she needs to be seen right now. She wanted to be found and she is; he can give her that at least, more of being found. He kneels with her on the floor as if the weight of her and what's about to happen are suddenly dragging him down.]

["You always made our rain so beautiful, turning it into snow, spreading your frost over the trees of Mt. Nysa." She locks eyes, expression filled with long-held longing, unspoken. "I wish...I wish we could've danced one last time, but my sisters...Hyas..." Her eyes gently drift shut. "Hyas waits for me."]

[He hand drops in a last caress, she breathes out a last breath that sounds like a breeze through the trees and finally fades from the world, her body suddenly melting into a gentle flow of water that passes uselessly through Jack's violently shaking hands. His body is so cold that some of it freezes there in a glaze over his fingers and palms. He holds his hands to his chin, bunched up, as if the touch of her essence there will somehow be taken inside himself, preserved.]

[Where his knees touch the puddle frost spreads out on the floor and there could be uglier things left in her place but at the very least the frost lines are beautiful, spiraling outward in an elegant pattern, vaguely shaped like a humanoid form, with spiraling lines where the vines of her hair had been. This brief memorial is ephemeral. It will be gone soon, melted and evaporated into the air. But for now, the place of her death is marked with something that's at least a fraction of how beautiful she'd been in life.]

[The tears on Jack's face will be there for longer, frozen in streaks. Shaking uncontrollably, his watery expression changes from agony to one of barely contained rage. The wind picks up in the room and ice starts to crystallize on every surface.]

[His voice is as hollow as an empty tomb when he finally speaks to the team.]

Get the last of the myths out and get to the Pole. [The myths, not the staff of the Project, but they've already had plenty of time to run. Anyone left - anyone being sent in to try to retake the facility - has made a very serious mistake in not getting out while they could.] Tell me when you're done.

[The plan had just been to run after everyone was out. Jack could never be described as "prudent" in the past, but that was when he didn't have a whole team he was trying to keep alive while in deeply over his head. Many of them were powerful, but blowing that huge a facility on their own would've been a stretch and while there were some hefty power sources within in it, none of them were fully centralized, and some were on closed circuits. No easy way to just hack a bunch of power cells to overload.]

[But...the plan has now changed. Circumstances have changed. The wind briefly shrieks like its being murdered, and the doors Jack flew in through slam off their hinges so hard they embed themselves into the opposite wall.]

[The steel wall.]

[Around him, the metal hallway walls start to frost over, groan, and then crack. The irises of his eyes seem paler and almost lit from within.]

I'm bringing this entire place down.

Comments

[rheeliable]

[ It's too much to hope that super-tough "Big Red" is gonna turn out to be Abraham, and he missed that when he was trying to do his vent-based recon. Glenn hopes a little anyway, because it's not like it'll kill him to hope as long as he doesn't get his hopes too far up.

Hell, most people getting here from Alexandria would go with the raiders, when it comes down to it. Whatever the catch is down the line, they were still decent enough to pull off this rescue now. And they're probably gonna have plenty of supplies (they're clean, they seem healthy, some of them have weapons).

So. Glenn will take the good word from this random cat alien kid with self-admitted paranoia issues, sure. This is already so weird. ]

Noted. If this goes sideways once we're through, I'm gonna be looking for you to regroup now. [ The narration could make an irreverent "not that he cares or anything" joke but the thing about Glenn is that he does care. He cares a lot actually. ] No takebacks, man.

[ No takebacks is legally binding. ]

[furtitude]

["No takebacks" is legally binding and Little Cato gets the sense the guy isn't just looking for backup, that it's meant to be backup both received and given.]

[It's nice sometimes, running into people in bad situations that want everyone to get to escape the Bad.Little Cato holds up his paw and wiggles a stubby pinky.]

Ghost pinky promise.

[It is a very human gesture just subtly off. All the little fistbumps, and ghost fistbumps, and air fives, and triple fives, and every variation of Fun Human Gesture (tm) he and his Dad have shared and developed means he doesn't actually know what the baseline gestures are.]

Do you know how to use a gun? I've got an extra one. And some clips. Stole it off a guard but I got mine back so I don't need it.

Their guns use projectile ammo so it's like practically an ancient artifact but it works fine.

[rheeliable]

[ Despite everything, he's got a quick smile to spare for that weirdo version of a pinky promise. Kid on deck. Once they're past this, he'll look out for him.

In the meantime, Glenn proves he's part of an honored tier of people by practically lighting up with relief at that offer. He would personally love to have more than a scalpel during this, yes. And he's trying not to think any deeper than that, because if it turns out he has to kill someone that's not a walker, for the first time, for this--

He'll do whatever he has to. He's getting out of all this and back to Maggie one way or another. One of those bridges to cross when he reaches it. ]

I'll take it. If guns are ancient artifacts, I'm the caveman for the job. [ He doesn't need to sound modern, he needs a gun with bullets. ]

[furtitude]

Pfft.

[Very dad joke, the caveman thing. It's the kind of thing Gary would've said.]

[Little Cato reaches into a pocket in his skirt and hands over the sidearm, safety on, pointed away from everyone. And then tosses him a very generous number of clips. Clearly, the kid had anticipated shooting his way out of the place before getting his own gun and prepared accordingly.]

[Clearly, he also downed enough guards to make quite a few acquisitions.]

They all keep the same ammo standard so you can loot more from the bodies to keep up your supply.

[Not knowing where this guy is from or if that gun experience involves shooting lots of people, he adds:]

Don't hold back. They won't.

And they sure didn't from some of the innocent people in this place.

[Little Cato's mental arithmetic doesn't really need that. "They're bad people." All he needs is that they're willing to attack him. But he knows some people prefer not to kill, knows that they sometimes need more.]

[(His friend Fox had taught him a lot about maybe wanting to be better about that kind of thing. Before he died.)]

[He just wants to just-in-case-it for a stressed stranger so he knows it's not a misled group thinking they're guarding the right thing. They're cruel.]

[He turns to the group behind.]

As for all of you, move quick and quietly, and stop when we say stop. Whoever's in the back, try to keep watch back there and call out if you see guards.

If we run into guards, everyone take cover. Get behind the bulkhead things and press against the walls and get down low. We'll clear the way.

[The scared myths nod.]

[He nods at Glenn.]

I'll take point. [He'll need to lead since he knows where the rescue portal-making is.] Let's rock and roooll. And maybe some other human music genres.

[He moves forward, trotting silently through the hall, on the alert.]

[rheeliable]

[ Reunited (with a gun) and it feels so good. Glenn looks the sidearm over with an experienced hand, quick and efficient-- checks the clip that's already in, turns the safety off, pockets the spares that Little Cato tosses him.

There's always something about a kid knowing how to handle themselves and coordinate in situations like this. Not a gift horse Glenn plans to look in the mouth right now, but a gift horse a person makes a note to themselves about keeping an eye on. Fact is, sometimes the world is a place where a kid has no choice but to learn this. God knows he's met enough kids like that back home already.

It's not fair, is all. They deserve as much of a buffer as they can get. ]

You heard the cat. We can circle back on what a non-human music genre sounds like later. [ He bets it could all fit into human music categories. Aliens just don't call it that.

One thing at a time, though. Right now, he'll doublecheck that everyone in this group is getting ushered along before following behind Little Cato. ]

[furtitude]

[Little Cato moves like someone fully trained for something like this, expertly edging around corners to check if the coast is clear and occasionally holding up his hand in a closed fist as a gesture for them to sometimes hold in place while he looks and listens].

[But even someone extremely perceptive can't always avoid enemies. One of the hallways is clear as he leads them around a corner, through a slightly more open area with a high ceiling, support pillars, and a currently-empty guard station.]

[But some guards that are moving very quietly themselves turn around a corner up ahead.]

Guards!

[He shoots the lead guard in the head. The myths all dive behind whatever cover they can find.]

[Little Cato kicks over a table that's part of the guard station, and then kicks said table hard, bracing himself against a pillar, briefly activating the rocket boot on that foot. Since he's braced and stationary, it's the table that moves; the brief rocket blast effectively launches the table down the hall like a projectile at the other guards pouring into the hallway, knocking several of them down.]

[He dives behind the pillar for cover after that, occasionally whipping around to fire.]

[rheeliable]

[ And the monkey's paw of hoping beyond hope to link up with someone who knows what they're doing slowly curls a finger.

Cat kid goes right for the kill, first thing.

How fucked up has it been for him? ]

Damn it-

[ As a person who's been shot in recent history, Glenn has to say he's not a fan of this turn. Surprised that it's happening? Not really. But still disappointed.

When he does his turn popping out of cover, he's trying to walk the razor-thin line between not holding back, for safety purposes, but not really going for the kill. Some of these guys have good form. They're going for accuracy. Some of them clearly aren't. Got used to having all the power and taking it easy, probably.

He's more worried about the damage that the latter are gonna do. ]

Are you clocking any other exits?!

[ Because he's kind of not clocking any. There's a lot of "the only way out is through" in this layout, unless they want to ditch a lot of these myths for the air ducts or something. But he's not gonna put that on the table. ]

[furtitude]

I've been through this area. We'd have to circle back and go around.

[Which just means more opportunity to run into more guards. Besides, they'd have to somehow get the whole group to safety and not be followed.]

They'll follow us anyway and we have a whole group to move.

We need to just take them out.

[The comment is extremely casual and matter-of-fact. This isn't even just because of the guards being assholes. It's just expedient.]

[The way he manages to drop another guard with a head shot is expedient, too.]

[rheeliable]

[ Just need to take them out. Is that all. Jesus, this kid.

It's a rock and a hard place. But apparently only to Glenn. Not to the cat.

He can't pretend he has the cleanest hands. That there haven't been times when he would have killed someone, wanted to, thought it would be the best choice for everyone. At the end of the day, he's just... been lucky enough not to have to.

He doesn't know any of the people taking cover with him right now. They haven't struggled and suffered and lost and had to claw their ways back together to start rebuilding again the way his people have.

He's not obligated to do this for them. He could make a run for it, slip back into some vent, try to crawl towards whatever kind of exit looks doable.

(What would Maggie think if she saw that? His parents? Hershel, Dale, Beth, Tyreese, anyone on the growing list of people he carries with him?

After everything he tried to drive home for her, what would Enid say about that?

Hell, even if he's just crazy, how could he look at himself in the mirror after choosing to bail?)

Glenn reaches for Cato's wrist. A touch, not an attempt to restrain. ]

Then I'll handle it.

[ If he kills these guards, at least let it be good for something. Let it be keeping them off of a kid's shoulders. ]

[furtitude]

[He recoils at even just the touch, with reflexes that are a bit too fast. But he doesn't attack, he just stands there for a second, tilting his head slightly, as if confused.]

[Even his dad, as protective as he is, and as much as he tries to do stuff with him that's normal for a kid, doesn't really bat an eyelash at him joining in fights. In some ways, he sort of can't. Their enemies come for them sometimes, not the other way around.]

[But he knows that kids are sometimes protected and kept away from killing. Not all of them are trained to fight. Not all of them suffered in childhood like himself and Ash. He suddenly understands the intention. Under his helmet, his expression softens, slightly moved that a stranger would care about this.]

Look, if you can help thin them out so there are less of them I have to kill, that'd be great. [He shakes his head.] But there's no point in me holding back.

[His voice is very gentle, almost pitying at how Glenn doesn't realize how completely futile the gesture is.]

This thing you're trying to do? It's waaaay too late for that.

[Little Cato's already got quite the body count.]

[rheeliable]

[ There are, admittedly, some very real and logistical truths to what Little Cato is saying. Especially considering the amount of efficient kills he's already got under his belt in the past few minutes alone. It's not like Glenn can hop back in someone's personal timeline and magically stop things from happening to them. Stop them from having to do something that probably needed to be done.

Things would be a lot different for everyone if that was on the table.

Still. ]

It's not too late. [ He goes ahead and withdraws his hand, though, since it seems like cat kid is the skittish type. (Cat kid? Spacesuit kid? Who knows. What a fucking day.) ] I won't tell you not to make your own calls out here. You probably know more about this place than I do. But it's not too late, alright? We're still alive. We get to keep choosing.

[ Everything everyone does counts for something. For better or worse. That's pretty universal.

If all he can do is try to cut a number in half right now, well. He'll do that. That's something. ]

[furtitude]

[He thinks of Fox and his general attempts to not kill unless he had to. Of how peaceful he really was deep down. Of talking about what he taught him when giving his eulogy.]

[("Most of all, thank you for teaching me you can be a great warrior... without being a killer.")]

[Little Cato's own words.]

Not here. [He wheels around the column to down another guard and flips back around when the gunfire gets a bit too intense. Despite that action, despite the direness of it, the way he does it right after Glenn made his offer, entreated him that it could be different, there's still a brief pause before he speaks again. And it's honest. Sincere.] But maybe in other places.

[Maybe there's a tiny bit of hope at least some of the fighting can be different. Maybe.]

We have to get these people out of here though. That comes first. No matter what.

[And there's hope in that, too. That it's not just a lack of respect for life. It's wanting to protect the people around him.]

[rheeliable]

[ It's not like it's the worst answer to get. Glenn would like to think he knows from "worst possible answer to get to that assertion," and he's gotta give the kid credit for that.

This isn't a call anyone should ever have to make. Any planet or dream or reality or species or age or whatever. Life's not fair, though, he guesses. Not all the time.

(Not here. But maybe in other places. That's always the point, right?) ]

Yeah. No matter what. [ They're all this little group has for a front-line right now. They're their own best chance.

Glenn checks his clip one more time, making sure he's got plenty left to start with. ]

I'll start on the left. You take the right. [ Which is less a concrete totally-set plan than a basic starting point. They'll have to see what happens. ] If you get pinned down, yell. We're not leaving anyone behind.

[ Including, perhaps especially considering what's going on, the two of them. ]

[furtitude]

[They work well together. Sure, you work better in a group or a pair if it's a group or another person you've worked with before. But situations change, conditions in a fight can shift at any second. Adaptation is necessary even when you're familiar with who you're fighting side by side with.]

[You still have to be ready to react to their movements, watch their back, pay attention to the things they're currently not looking at, make sure that all angles are covered.]

[Like how Glenn has a better vantage point when guards swing out from cover higher up, since Little Cato is so short. And how Little Cato thinks to cover Glenn when he's reloading since his own gun doesn't ever require new clips. When he thinks Glenn is getting low, he even skates close to the ground on his rocket boots, a quick zig zag across the hall, low to the ground, as the guards are reloading, artfully grabbing and tossing him more ammo clips off a dead guard on the floor, before taking cover again.]

[And then, just as quickly as it started, it's over. The last body falls. Not all of them are dead from Little Cato's gun. Glenn accomplished that much. It was just a fight, not a teenager having to personally orchestrate a blood bath. The feeling is different. Less visceral and desperate.]

[Little Cato edges up to a corner and peers around.]

We're clear. And the Guardians are right over there.

[He helps usher the scared myths along towards several other myths that run forward and immediately receive them, offering help, supporting the injured, leading the myths towards the safety of several currently-open portals to a place that looks - strange. Sparkly and whimsical.]

[Alien.]

[Still, it can't be worse than here.]

Go! Go! They said they'd get you out.

[The myths helping them are covering some of the surrounding hallways. Little Cato takes a breather for a few seconds. The people they wanted to save are being evacuated. Cared for.]

[He looks up at Glenn.]

I know you don't want to leave anyone behind but I don't want to go yet. [A pause.] This wasn't my first time in a place like this. I want to make sure they get everyone out.

[Whether that means springing cell doors or killing guards, he's not going to say. Probably for the best that Glenn gets to think it's the former.]

But somebody should go with them. [He gestures towards the portals, lowers his voice, looking around at the Guardians to make sure they're not paying attention.] In case it's shady. They'll need to be protected.

[rheeliable]

[ On some level it's a blessing that there's no time to stop, to really think, in the middle of everything. Because the feeling when his first bullet hits home is--

Bad. Exactly as bad as Glenn thought it would be, and the only thing that eases that up some is knowing that if he hesitated, these guards wouldn't hesitate in response. Not much. But some. About as much as remembering why he's doing it helps.

At least it's over pretty fast.

He hangs back a little while the rest of the myths are getting ushered forward, too, partly to keep an extra eye on things and partly just to... take a minute. Take a breath. There's still no time for sitting with it, but right now that's a good thing. When he has to sit with it, there's a solid chance his wife won't be there to sit with him while he sits with it.

Absolutely insane. He's losing his mind. And now the cat kid isn't even gonna stick with the group. Glenn's not in some authority position to order him not to stay; he kind of only barely gets what's going on with this place here and now. Limited options. Life does that sometimes.

He still doesn't like it, and that's written all over his face. ]

If I don't see you over there after all this is settled, I'm gonna come back. You got that?

[ Not a threat so much as a promise. Whatever coming back here even looks like or if there'll be any building left to search through or whatever. They've been through it now.

This is still a kid.

Someone needs to make it clear they'll find him. ]