An Old Writing Exercise

Years back, I have myself a writing exercise. The goal of it was to write out the same scene twice; the same setup, the same extra and the same goal, but with two separate lead characters.

The purpose was to practice and see how well I could write the two characters differently, and how they progressed and how their own experiences changed things.

This came about when I was concerned that I was writing all characters samey.

I bring this up because I was going through my old files, which is like an archaeology exercise I find all much forgotten crap... And this was one of the things I unearthed, along with some practice at writing fight scenes. Figured I would share this, let you all have a gander, laugh at the me from seven years ago...

Now, thing to keep in mind, this is literally a first draft that wasn't edited. There are mistakes that would be ironed out if this was anything more than an excercise; it was never intended for publishing in a public forum, at most it was originally supposed to be shared with friends who could tell me how well I did on my imposed goal. It is very much a rough work. It's also written as if narratively it's a later chapter, so the narrative isn't explaining everything and going under the assumption that you know what certain terms mean or who mentioned characters are.

But otherwise...

******

It's amazing, how much a difference

It makes to an event, to change not the context, but the person.

The same result might come about,

But how it came can vary.
​

- Unknown​

The Chateau​

Jaxx Variant​

Jaxx patted Dack's shoulder in silent thanks whilst she picked herself from the becoming-too-familiar seat. A constant flight around Tull, to one side of the globe, and then the other, it was a constant never ceasing movement. It wasn't as if she were foreign to the concept of long periods of travel. It was the repetitive nature of these numerous shorter flights that were grating on her.

It was one thing to spend upwards of days in transit and then not have to worry about leaving the destination for at least a day. A half hour flight, a two hour visit and then yet another flight of less than an hour was strange and disorientating. She wondered, idly, what her internal clock must read like, the number of times they'd gone past and lapped Tull's time zones. Dack looked exhausted—still willing, but this new lifestyle wasn't agreeing with him. It wasn't agreeing with Jaxx either, but she had at least had the benefit of a decade of experience, living a lifestyle where such moments were a common hazard. She had mental and physical resistance born of readiness. He didn't.

After this, we'll rest. It was a hollow promise, one she wasn't certain she'd be able to keep, even to herself. We're no good if we're dead on our feet. Unbidden, her eyes trailed down, took in the cybernetic prosthetic Dack now sported. The young man noticed, felt her attention and shot a half-hearted scowl at her before he returned his attention to the controls, to landing the craft.

'This should be a painless one,' Jaxx said, patting his shoulder again. 'Try and catch some sleep while waiting.'

Dack's tired glare was ineffective against her, doubly so when he yawned. 'Got to keep the engines hot. With our luck, you'll leave in a trail of gunfire.'

But Jaxx was already shaking her head. 'There's a town, not far.' They'd flown over it—she'd seen it with her own eyes. 'I'll walk there—go rent a room at the inn, hotel, whatever they have. We're both tired, don't argue.'

Dack grudgingly agreed, though he didn't speak another word to her for the remainder of the landing. Silently waited for Jaxx and their passenger to disembark and then flew the aircraft off into the dusk sky.

Jocelin Magne stared after the shuttlecraft, eyes clouded with dejected acceptance. In the twilight lighting, the human looked striking, like a portrait of a moment captured by old greatness come to life. The air of sadness, of mourning, did little to diminish her presence, if anything it added to her allure. Officially the daughter of Yvonne Magne, and unofficially, she was the daughter of Echidna.

Jaxx still wasn't quite certain of what to make of that last detail.

'Home,' Magne spoke softly, turned away from the departing shuttle and instead focused her eyes upon the building.

Jaxx turned her ruby gaze away from the demi-Terran, cast her attention upon the structure. It was both grander, and yet humbler than the lagardios had expected of it. She couldn't explain it, but she'd expected the building to be four storeys, as opposed to the two plus any attic which might exist. Granted, it was large from the width and length dimensions, perhaps to compensate for the lack of height. Tall, slender gilded windows dotted the walls at ground level, while above sat shorter windows, covered on the inside by curtains.

'I had hoped to never lay my eyes upon this place again,' Magne said, to herself more-so than to the lagardios.

The pair approached the door. Magne stared, eyes fogged with remembrance.

'Not a stone out of place, frozen in time from the moment we left,' she continued. 'It almost feels like fifty years ago, like time hasn't moved on.'

'You expected otherwise?' Jaxx felt one of her eyebrow ridges rise up in confusion.

'No. Not really. It is as a character in a work of fiction once so aptly said—"only in books do buildings turn to dust when their spirit is no more".'

It was a poetic sentiment, buildings crumbling to dust like living beings unwilling to continue. Jaxx rolled the words around in her mind, frowned thoughtfully.

Your mother is gone, missing and presumed dead for her betrayal of her colleagues. You left, but could have returned at any time.

'You never thought of returning? If you lived here for so long, surely it means something to you?'

'No.' The Terran shook her head. 'I would have much preferred that this place remain in my memories, remain untarnished as a font of fonder times.'

'It's a nice place,' Jaxx mused. 'It must have cost a fortune.'

'A fortune? Oh, no no no.' Magne shook her head, allowed a soft laugh to escape her lips. 'We built this home, with our own hands.'

The door was locked, rattled at Jaxx's gentle push. Magne sighed, admitted that the key was long lost.

With an appraising eye, Jaxx examined the lock, took in the age and style. Her hand dug into a pocket, returned with a cylinder, which a flick of the wrist had prongs protrude from one end with a schnik. While she worked with the lock pick, slender prongs inserted into the lock, she spoke to her companion, an effort to dispel the quiet only broken otherwise by the clicking of her pick.

'Surely even the land must have cost a lot?'

Magne's voice held a whimsical smile to it. 'Not at all, Κυρία Kyolin. My mother and I, we were amongst the first to come to Tull, so long ago. Back then, everything was cheap. Not to say we couldn't have afforded it if we truly set our minds to it.'

The lock gave a final click, the door swung open with a creak, hinges scraped at themselves with the movement. Neither Jaxx nor Magne reacted to the noise, simply stepped through the open portal into the foyer.

The carpet was faded, no longer the rich blue it had once borne. Paintings on the wall were likewise drained of their colour—enough colour remained to see what once had been shown, but bleached with whites, greys and browns.

Wind from outside blew with gentle brushes and the building groaned in reaction. Jaxx felt her fingers clench into fists, eyes shifted from the décor, scanned the ceiling in reaction to the wind's call, the chateau's complaints. A part of her mind expected the roof to cave in, for the building to express anger at the intrusion.

The ceiling didn't come crashing down, but that tension never left Jaxx.

'Tull was a chance to start anew, an entire planet free of the games of my mother's contemporaries,' Magne spoke again. 'For centuries, we lived in peace. Even after the continent was gifted to the Cyntefig, we remained. Helped them, gave them enough that they truly earned their self-sustainability. And as successive generations reverted to tribalism, we became their patron deities. Always looking out for them, protecting them—in turn, they helped us.'

'That sounds selfish of you.' Jaxx, thankful for the distraction, turned to face Magne. 'You made them dependant on you, put yourself in a position of power over them, whether they realised it or not.'

'If you had said that a century ago, I would have disagreed.' Her voice was sad as she answered. 'Now, after seeing what happened when we left them? I can't not agree.' She exhaled and motioned for Jaxx to lead the way. 'I cannot help you. Not really. My mother tried not to let me know much about her association with those others. To protect me, ostensibly.'

Jaxx shrugged, deigned not to comment. She wasn't interested in debating the family relationship troubles between Echidna and her daughter. And it didn't sound as if Magne was interested in listening to amateur family counselling from a lagardios. Certainly not a lagardios whose biggest family issue was that her brother enjoyed singing randy songs in public just to embarrass her.

The upstairs corridor was much the same as below. As they advanced, Magne would occasionally whisper out reminiscing words about her years spent living in the chateau. Despite her earlier words, Jaxx got the sense that towards the end, she hadn't been happy in her own home.

They might have left Terra to leave behind the machinations of the demi-Terrans, but eventually they'd caught up, and once again Echidna was a cog in the middle of a viper's den, plots within schemes wrapped in conspiracy, all working for whatever cause they'd believed in. And the more she worked and connected with the others, the colder Echidna seemed to become, the more monstrous and indifferent, even to her own daughter.

Jaxx carefully picked the lock to the door to Echidna's bedroom and slid the door open. The room was just as richly decorated as the rest of the chateau. The queen-sized bed looked freshly made, as though the owner had only just awakened and tidied up before stepping out.

Magne rested her hand upon a painting, one depicting herself and the human form of the creature Jaxx had come to know as Echidna. Both looked happy, a portrait of pleasant times.

'Did you hate her?' Magne, still resting her hand on the painting, turned to face Jaxx. 'My mother?'

Jaxx shook her head slowly, ignored the pain in her chest, where Echidna's phantom grasp had gripped at one of her hearts, been prepared to crush it to mulch. 'I try not to. To hate. Not in my profession.'

'I would have assumed hatred would make it easy to kill.'

'Too easy.' Jaxx turned away from her. 'And killing should never be easy. Cross that line and the difference between me and a mass murderer is blurred.' She turned back to Magne, hand pressing at the still throbbing pain of her right heart. 'But Echidna, she made it hard not to hate her. She had one of my hearts in her grip, was prepared to crush it.'

'What happened?' Magne pulled her hand away from the portrait, stared at Jaxx with baffled amazement. 'You are still alive, she clearly didn't go through.'

'A friend intervened.' Jaxx stepped up to the painting and ran a hand along the frame. 'Gave her more pressing things to worry about.'

Magne didn't speak, sensed that it was a topic Jaxx would prefer to avoid and simply watched curiously. Jaxx felt an irregularity in the frame and grinned in self satisfaction. She pressed down on the button and took a step back as the painting shifted to the side, revealed a hidden alcove.

'Endiaféron,' Magne whispered. 'I had no idea that existed.'

'Looks like she trusted you to hide her secrets,' Jaxx quipped lightly, peering at the contents of the alcove.

A datapad rested upon a small pile of paper, curved words dotted across the yellowed pages. A cursory glance at the handwritten notes had the lagardios gently lift the parchment and the photos beneath, and held them out for the Terran.

'This is for you.'

Magne stilled, eyed the paper with naked suspicion before a hand slowly rose up and accepted the offering. Her eyes took in the page and widened. Her mouth silently spoke out each word her eyes trailed over. Jaxx turned back to the alcove and scaled fingers pulled the datapad before her eyes, pressed at the power button.

By some miracle, despite not having been touched for fifty-plus years, the screen lit up, battery gifting it with energy. Did I just find her diary? Jaxx felt an eyebrow ridge perk up in bemusement, felt as her tail twitched in equal measures irritation and reluctant curiosity. Her finger lightly tapped at the interface. The contents shifted to reveal a list of the various data folders displayed before her. Jaxx's eyes narrowed, attention drawn to one particular file.

Words sprawled across the display, almost too quickly for her to read, before everything faded, the display replaced with mugshots of a number of people—human, transgenic, xenos, there seemed to be no pattern. The only words were names beneath each image. It was interesting, Jaxx supposed, eyes drawn to a picture of a Terran male, brown haired, with an easygoing smirk captured in the image forevermore.

She shook away the feeling of familiarity, shifted back to the file library. The question in the back of her mind was whether she should give hand the datapad to the Sentinels, to let them paw over whatever intel may lay within. Or maybe just read through it herself.

The display flickered, the images that came up had Jaxx pause, eyes peering at the moment of frozen time on display. At Jaxx's behest, the aged device powered down and was pocketed. It didn't appear that there was anything truly worthwhile, but she'd keep a hold of it regardless.

A blue glimmer caught her attention. Nestled in the far corner of the alcove sat a blue cylindrical device, small neat letters stencilled upon its surface. A Terran key, a mix of identifying soft-code and a physical object that needed to be manually inserted. It was similar in principle to a keycard, though the code aspect meant that a keyring-device could store an indefinite amount of keys on it while still only taking up the space of one and a half actual keys.

Frowning thoughtfully, Jaxx picked up the cylinder and eyed the stencilled wording. Nothing, just a marking stating that the lock was "level-5", the kind of lock corporations would use to secure their vaults. Hmm, I'd have difficulty picking the lock that this key goes into. It wouldn't have been impossible, but difficult and time consuming.

'Was it a lie…?' Magne whispered.

Jaxx's tail twitched again in reaction to the sound breaking the silence. The lagardios turned to gaze at the human. Ruby eyes widened in surprise, the sight before her unexpected. Magne wiped at her eyes, but they continued to look watery, trails forming lines along her cheeks.

'Are you alright?' It was asked uncertainly, more a token effort than a real desire.

Magne gazed at Jaxx, eyes still watering. 'I find myself wondering whether it was all a lie, that she came here not to escape, but as a vanguard.'

Jaxx looked away, refocused her attention to the painting which had hidden the alcove. Her eyes met the painted Echidna's, examined her.

'So what if she was?' Jaxx found herself asking. She quickly realised how the question sounded and hissed in self-directed irritation. 'Even if she was the vanguard for the others, she still cared enough about you to bring you to Tull, to enjoy centuries of peace away from their machinations.' Her finger pointed at the painting. 'I'm probably the worst person to sing praises about Echidna… but if that picture is even halfway accurate, she clearly loved you. Look at her.'

Magne made a dismissive sound, left the room with a stomping gait. Jaxx watched her go, arms crossed. 'I am so not the right person for personal comfort and reassurance,' she muttered to herself, before she huffed in a self-deprecating humour. 'I can only think of one person less suited.' With a sigh, she grabbed the remaining stack of papers and then followed the after human.

She found the Terran downstairs, in what she could only assume to be the living room, curled up on a sofa, rocking lightly back and forth. The wind caused the building to creak and groan anew, which in turn had Jaxx still, staring up at the ceiling in paranoid fear of a collapse.

Magne looked up at Jaxx's entry, eyes still wet, though in the minutes it took to find her, the Terran had clearly calmed herself.

'I remember when mother bought this sofa,' she said, eyes lowered to the lush furniture. 'Expensive piece purchased and imported from Terra itself. Could have bought one just like it at a far more reasonable price'—she snorted, lip twisting in guilty glee—'but this sofa was graced with once upon a time having the bottom of a queen rested upon it.'

Jaxx chuckled at the words. 'Sounds like most people with more money than they know what to do with. Looking for any excuse to spend those credits. "Royal arses touched it? I must have it".'

'But she and I built this house ourselves.' Magne looked down at the ground. 'We didn't hire builders, didn't hire professionals. Just us and our hands and our minds.'

Jaxx crouched in front of Magne, stared her in the eyes. The human returned the gaze, honey eyes old and worn and tired, and a betrayal of her true age, ancient and full of knowledge, but also an inability to properly process her own feelings.

'I think she wanted it to mean something. The decoration? Trivialities. But this building, she wanted it to be a home, wanted it to be a place to mean something to you, in a way that just throwing wealth at would have made meaningless.'

It felt wrong to be saying something like that to an individual old enough that she could have met Jaxx's great-grandparents. For all Jaxx knew, Jocelin Magne was old enough to predate the Lagardios Colonial Alliance as a nation, it felt unnatural for the lagardios to be of any use intellectually to the ancient.

But Magne appeared younger than Jaxx, had stopped aging and become a moment of stilled time before she even hit her twenties. Maybe she'd been burdened with the consequences of inability to age—maybe whatever that quirk had granted her the timelessness of her mother, of her uncles, had been more a burden for her than it had been for her relations.

It was like she was intellectually wise, but emotionally stunted. Maybe there was more to it, but Jaxx wasn't willing to think any deeper into the matter. Whether Magne was on the spectrum, had suffered mental damage at some point in her existence, it would only be speculation on her end.

'You are probably right.' Magne heaved a heavy sigh. 'Mother always said I was special, that I was the only one that was a labour of love. What do you know of Echidna?'

'Not a lot,' Jaxx admitted freely. 'I know she can assume the form of a serpent and that she is an Arcanite, but otherwise? Nothing.'

Magne said something in the foreign language she favoured, head shaking. 'Ah, it is nothing important. Just know that I have… had… a lot of siblings. They were… Mother never speaks of them. That was a pain I feared to broach. All gone now.'

'I'm sorry,' Jaxx said.

Magne pulled herself from the sofa, lightly brushed at her clothing, removed the thin layer of dust from sitting on the long untouched furniture. 'Don't be. I never knew any but one, and I don't regret his end. Some aren't meant to be, and he was one such beast. I just regret what he brought about with his short existence.'

She sighed once more and held up the letter. 'I know where we need to go. She explained it in this letter. There is a secret vault that was hidden from me all this time.' She managed to hide most of the bitterness, but her eyes gave her away. 'It's in the basement.'


#


The basement was a large squared chamber, with each corner cut away to form another four rooms. A large power generator dominated the main chamber, while the room that Magne guided her to looked as though it had originally intended use as an office but had never finished being furnished as such, leaving it as an impromptu storage space that held paintings and furniture that weren't getting any use in the chateau.

Except there was something off about the room, Jaxx's instincts shouted out that there was something artificial about the chaos. For a chaotic mess of things discarded for storage, it came across as being ordered. And that was before Magne having mentioned that there was a hidden vault came to mind.

Magne examined the desk tucked against one wall, checking the letter and the writing upon it. She absently opened a drawer and felt around inside, before checking the letter again. A curse in her strange, alien tongue escaped her lips.

'There is no key…' she muttered.

Jaxx fished the blue cylinder from her pocket and whistled to get the Terran's attention. When the younger yet older woman looked up, Jaxx casually tossed the key to her, watched as the human caught it with the grace that came so naturally to the immortals.

'It was with the letter,' she said by way of explanation.

Magne hummed in acknowledgement, reached the key into the drawer's bowels and pressed it into whatever lock was hidden away. There was a loud clicking sound and a rectangle of the far wall swung open with the grating sound of stone on stone—a sound that had Jaxx's nerves shiver in agitation. Beyond the opening lay a tunnel, lit by regular LED panels on the ceiling.

The other end of the passage unveiled a large circular room bathed in a blue glow. The circumference of the room was lined with monitors, codes scrolling, and gauges displayed. In the centre of the room lay a reclining seat with a device at the head.

'A virtual reality system?' Jaxx asked aloud.

'My mother always liked the notion of VR,' Magne said. 'As an operating system, it used to be one of the most secure you could ask for. Still not as perfect as pen and paper, but remotely hacking into a vault comprised of a VR operating system was impossible, back in the day. If it exists, then that system is what you've been looking for.'

Jaxx crossed her arms and examined the recliner and headwear that would allow her conscious mind to leave her body for another realm of existence.

'I'll admit I'm not fond of leaving myself defenceless,' she admitted. 'You can't protect your body when your mind isn't in your body.'

'There is nobody here to attack you,' Magne commented with a lip twitching. 'Paranoia isn't good for stress, you know.'

'I'm a trained assassin, paranoia is a vital survival mechanism,' Jaxx remarked, even as she reclined in the seat. 'That letter doesn't say whether there are any passwords, does it?'

Magne took one last look at the letter before she shook her head. 'It is a hidden system in a chateau in the middle of nowhere. No, no passwords.'

Jaxx hummed in acknowledgement and lowered the headwear. Her fingers pressed on the activation stud and reality stretched itself before her. Warped and twisted and she found herself freefalling and yet still sitting on a chair that wouldn't be out of place in a dentist's surgery.

Then her vision was white. Colour slowly bled into the scene, and she found herself in a museum, statues and paintings and signs marking where each wing was.

She looked about herself, took in the scene. A museum? I see… each wing would represent a different root folder, each exhibit the file. And only Echidna would know how her data was sorted.

That was one of the strengths of virtual reality as a server system. The reality was shaped to the user, shaped to their logic. But there were ways around that, ways to rearrange the reality.

But Jaxx wasn't interested in looking for every little detail hidden away. That was a job for the Sentinel analysts. She had one thing she wanted found.

The reality of a museum came complete with a receptionist's desk. The lagardios sat herself at the desk, stretched her arms back before she looked about. Common sense said that the desk would house the master control, the means to reshape, or re-sort, or transfer mass amounts of data at once.

Her fingers rested where a keyboard would have sat and a holographic display appeared before her. Her mouth widened into a grin.

Every system has a back door.


#


Magne was leaning again the doorframe, watching, when Jaxx re-emerged from the depths of cyberspace. She nodded her head at Jaxx when she registered that the lagardios was back in her body, blinking as her eyes adjusted to real light, rather than simulated sensation.

'Got everything you need?'

Jaxx patted at her pocket, felt the comlink beneath the stiff leather of her vest. 'Yeah. Looks like.'

There had been a lot of data. Most of it was useless to her, but she'd found two vital details that she had needed, including the location of the facility referred to as Tolemac. Home of the Tull central communications network hub, and in turn where the comms jamming was coming from.

Let the desk jockeys at the Sentinel base paw over the rest, she had what she needed, and could act on it.

Magne sniffed. 'Good, then in that case, might we be leaving? I would prefer to close this chapter on my life.'

Jaxx nodded. 'Back to a life of partying at nightclubs?' It was a sarcastic retort, disapproval laced the voice.

Magne scoffed. 'What would you have me do? I told you before, I refuse to get involved. Unlike my mother, unlike my uncles, I was never meant for violence. I am interested in history, not death. Would have been an archaeologist, but mother didn't approve.'

Jaxx let a smirk grace her snout. 'Why not become one now? She isn't around to disapprove.'

Magne opened her mouth to retort, but the words failed to emerge, a wicked gleam sparked in her eye. Jaxx's smirk widened, and she quickly hid it behind her comlink as she examined the display, examined the map for the road to the nearest town as the pair passed the front gate of the property.

Eagle Variant​

Eagle slowly followed her from the craft, eyes automatically drifted to the chateau, then the surroundings. Assessing, judging.

'Nice place,' he muttered dryly.

She turned to cast a look at him, eyes narrowed in consideration. Trying to determine just what he'd meant by the two words. Were they sarcastic? Honest? Or just trying to fill the silence? Eagle didn't pay her any mind, continued to walk.

'I had hoped to never see this place again,' she commented as they neared the entrance.

Eagle didn't say anything. He cast an aside glance in her direction and then returned to assessing the door. She continued unbidden, speaking her mind, heedless of whether she had an audience or not.

'Not a stone out of place, but then I suppose that it's only in stories that a building crumbles into dust because the spirit no longer resides within.'

Wouldn't be so sure of that, Eagle kept the thought to himself as his eyes drifted to one of the walls, took in the rot that was slowly eating away at the structure. Given another year, I'd wager that this place would be uninhabitable without work. His eye swivelled to take in the tall tree nearby, swaying gently in the breeze. Less time if something unfortunate happens.

The commando shrugged mentally and reached for the main door, twisted the handle and pushed gently. The door didn't as much as rattle, it was so solidly built into the frame.

The wood is a disguise, this door is as modern as any found in Asgard.

He turned, looked at the daughter of Echidna. She shook her head, slowly. 'I lost my key a long time ago, I cannot help you.'

Not exactly making yourself useful at the moment. 'Was this door wired to any alarms?'

She shook her head. 'We were far enough from civilisation that my mother, despite liking our privacy and security, felt that there was little need. If any did come, she felt that having a security-grade door would buy time enough for her to remove the trespassers herself.'

I'd rather not test whether time has eroded the door enough to stop it from breaking my foot. Eagle crossed his arms, glared at the door. Never was much good with lockpicking either. 'Was there another way in?'

'There was another door,' she said. 'It led to the kitchen area.'

Eagle had begun moving even before she'd finished speaking, brisk stride such that she had to jog to keep up with him. The pair circled the chateau, her brushing her hand against the wall, eyes fogged over with nostalgic memory.

They found the back door. Eagle was silently amused at the sight, exposure to the elements and time had been far less kind on this door than those of the main entrance. The metal had warped, the wood panel disguising it rotted and mostly gone. Animals had scratched, marked territory, the absence of any light marking an easier and friendlier space for the wildlife to nose around.

Magne gave a light sound of what might have been indignation, or it might have been simple bemusement. He didn't know, didn't care.

His boot slammed into the distorted door, force enough that it flew open, rotted doorframe splintered as the three bolts were forced through at the might of the blow. The commando stepped in through the open portal, waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Magne followed.

Kitchen was large, but not impractically so. Eagle recalled that Magne and Echidna had lived alone together, despite the size of the building itself, they hadn't hired servants, hadn't indulged in that kind of lifestyle. The kitchen was large, but not the kind of size that spoke of a team of professional chefs dancing to the whims of their employers.

There was a humming sound, at the edge of perceptibility. Eagle twisted his head, identified it as the large refrigerator tucked into the distant corner. Out of the slightest sense of curiosity, he marched over, opened the unit, blinking as light washed over him.

'This place still has power,' he mused aloud.

'Of course,' Magne said with a snort. 'Do you believe my mother would be content with being held at the whims of a power company, a corporation? Remember that my mother lived through the Great War and both Genetics Wars. She hated corporations and profit-mongers with a passion. Said that they were representative of the worst traits of civilisation, where greed is rewarded.'

'So, she had a power generator installed in the basement?'

Her lips twitched downward. 'Cutting edge of the time—advertised as good for five centuries.'

Eagle shut the fridge and crossed his arms. 'Quite the claim.'

'Yet apparently true.' She was laughing, silently, eyes lit up with a humour that was at odds with the dour, almost mournful look she'd had until that moment. 'Never let it be said we didn't get our money's worth.'

'Refrigerated or not, I wouldn't recommend actually eating anything in there though,' Eagle grunted at last. 'It's quite the petri-dish.'

He ignored the wide-eyed look and retching sound she emitted and stalked out of the kitchen. He found himself in a corridor, a glass wall to his side revealed a dining room, large table at odds with the secluded lifestyle of the owners. The seats were strewn, as though the last ones to seat themselves had gotten up in a hurry and nobody had ever gotten round to tidying up after them.

Walls were faded browns, some patches sun bleached into beige-whites. A large and doubtless expensive painting had long since been ruined—the colouring faded through the amount of time the sunlight had managed to rest upon it through the moth-eaten curtains. Rich red carpet now a light pink.

Magne, following him from the kitchen, followed his gaze and snorted, expression twisted in annoyance.

'After mother began conferring and plotting with my uncles once more, that room was a favourite place to meet. This place was secluded enough that it was ideal. That room… sometimes I wonder whether mother had always intended to return to consorting with them. That she insisted on this room being so big in anticipation of that moment.'

Possibly. But more likely she knew that it was inevitable that she'd be dragged back into their schemes. Eagle recalled the desperation as Echidna had asked him to help her escape the life, escape her brothers. She was torn between family loyalties and the desire to choose her own path. And for all I know, she died trying to escape.

He didn't vocalise his thoughts, kept them to himself. It wasn't his job to reassure the immortal's daughter.

Magne huffed, clearly deep in thought herself. 'Come, the nearest stairs are this way. Sooner you find what you want, the sooner you can go about your way.'

I wonder whether you suspected all along what would happen. A chateau this size, even if you both built it together, is overkill for only two people. Surely you had the idea that something was planned in the future?

'Only the most expensive of purchases for my mother,' Magne ranted, more to herself than to him. She waved an arm angrily at one of the paintings hanging lopsided upon the wall. 'Paintings from the most decorated of artists. Furniture from only the best brands, which was always hypocritical of her—what with her hatred for the nature of corporate greed.'

It was probably because she recognised that the expensive brands had a certain level of quality. A small but necessary evil if you wanted to abstain long-term. That, and Echidna was probably pragmatic enough to recognise that even if she didn't spend her credits, she was only one person, no corporation would notice or care. Not even a blip on their sensors.

The nearest stairs led up to the second storey. Lights flickered on automatically at their approach, not too bright. Were they dim through design, or was the generator running out of juice after however long it had been installed. A wet patch on the carpet, rotted and mould-ridden, marked where a leak had come through the ceiling, discoloured and lightly warped through the weight of the moisture. The slightest provocation and the old-styled plaster would doubtless collapse, come crashing down in a noisy ruckus and make a mess of everything.

His eyes affixed themselves to the walls, took in the dampness that took up the entirety of the structure. This place is a biological hazard. Gaze lifted to the lights. And a fire hazard just waiting to happen. I'm amazed this building has lasted so long.

'Five decades you said?'

'Five long decades since I left this shell of what was once a home behind me.' She nodded, lifted a hand towards a painting, though she dropped it before actually making contact.

She came to a still before a white door, one which was both strangely dry and structurally sound despite the moistness of the rest of the upper level of the building. Eagle twisted the knob, pushed. The door rattled in its frame, but refused to open.

'Mother's bedroom. It's the most likely place that she'd keep any notes and files. I believe she kept a spare ke—' Magne was cut of as the door splintered under the force of Eagle's boot's impact.

'No need.' Eagle felt his lips twitch as he slid through the now open doorway.

'Yes, please, continue to demolish my memories,' she said in disgruntlement, nose wrinkled in distaste.

He twisted his head around to stare at her, eyebrow raised. She stared back, and then shook her head.

'At least try to avoid it,' she muttered.

The bedroom was spacious, richly decorated. Eagle felt his eyes narrow, his focus shifted around the chamber intently. It's like time stilled within this room. No dampness, no mould, not even any dust. The hairs on his arms tickled at his nerves, felt the creature in his mind stirring. Something in the air, he realised. Shouldn't surprise me, all five of the immortals held arcane powers. Why wouldn't Echidna set up a way of preserving her room, especially if she does keep documents in here?

His eyes were drawn to a large portrait, Echidna herself—in her human appearance—with Magne held in a motherly embrace, both smiling a smile that the painter had managed to capture the raw feelings behind.

She really did care for her daughter.

Magne stepped in front of the painting, stared up at the image of herself and her mother, facial features muted, hidden behind a poker face which would have had professionals guessing.

After a period of time, she turned to look at Eagle, noted that he was simply staring at the picture with cold indifference. She coughed into her hand, an attempt to attract his attention.

'Did you hate my mother?' She was cautiously curious, ready to close herself off if she heard any insults slung at her regarding her mother.

'No,' Eagle answered honestly. 'She never crossed that line with me. Came close as any, but never crossed. Your uncle is the one I hate.'

Her tone turned nervous, eyes skittered left to right, unconsciously checking for exits and escape routes. 'Yes, I watched the news. I can't say I'm sorry to hear of his demise, but the… chaos… you wrought in bringing him down… I suppose that's why you've earned the reputation of being a predator.'

'Suppose so.'

'I can see it. You hunted him down—you made an immortal, one older than some species have existed… into your prey. What drives a man to such extremes?'

Eagle gave her a smile that wasn't. 'He crossed a line that he shouldn't have. He's the one who escalated it—I just made a point about showing why that was a bad idea. Your mother, for all her faults, she didn't cross that line.'

Came close, nearly killed the one most precious to me. She was lucky that she never took that final step.

Magne turned to look at Eagle, head tilted. 'What do you know of my mother?'

'Echidna,' Eagle began to recite, drawing on his knowledge of Terran mythology, 'known in Greek mythology as the mother of monsters. A half-human, half-snake—she's the original lamia. If you'd asked me a year or two ago, I would have dismissed it as just that—a myth. Now, after what I've seen? I'm not jumping to any conclusions.'

Magne stared at Eagle, eyes wide, before she tilted her head back and let out a small laugh. 'You know your mythology, Predator?'

'A hobby,' Eagle admitted.

'Well, in mother's case, most of it is indeed true.' Magne turned back to the painting. 'Nearly every child she conceived became a monster, a hate filled abomination who embraced the darker sides of life. Until me.'

'What was different about you?'

'At first, mother believed it because I was conceived out of love.' Magne's voice held her wistful smile, but she then shook her head. 'Except when she tried to give me the brother I always wanted, he too followed the example set by my older siblings. He was the last.'

'The last?' Something in her tone had him uneasy—his nerves reacted to a hidden cue, one buried so deeply that he couldn't consciously discern what it was.

'The last child. After I embraced my humanity, mother couldn't cope when her next child did the opposite. She swore no more—she would never again conceive. Made it impossible.'

'But she would heal any damage done to her… removing the ability to conceive would require some form of damage, even if intentional.'

'Ah, I keep forgetting that you are probably the most knowledgeable of any outsider as to how our divinity works.' Magne gave Eagle a bitter smile. 'Tell me, Predator, do you know of the three ways that an immortal can die?'

Eagle shrugged. 'Willingly surrender your right to your Domain, which makes you mortal. In the case of you demi-deities there's a loophole to your immortality, a weakness, be it a material or a substance that bypasses your vitality—or a physical, biological weak point that your body either doesn't or cannot heal.'

'And…?' she pushed, eyes narrowed.

'Jormungand,' Eagle whispered. 'The poison even gods must fear.'

'And in the case of surviving the Bane of Divinity, what is the damage? You should know—I can sense that you have experience with it. Though whether it was you personally, or just somebody near to you, I cannot tell.' Her smile turned sharper, almost cruel as she admitted the last, but at the same time, simply tired.

He swallowed, stared at Magne with a hollow gaze. 'Sterility. She didn't…?'

'She willingly ingested a diluted form of Jormungand,' Magne explained. 'She wanted to make certain that never again could she suffer the heartbreak my brother dealt her. Even diluted as it was, it nearly destroyed her entirely.'

'It does that.'

'That was the time I learnt to fear my grandmother,' Magne recalled. 'I had never seen her angry before.'

'Mara…' Eagle breathed, recalled the woman in question, who had played at being mortal until the self-imposed rules of her game had disqualified her from involvement.

'Is that what you know her as? Well, she was angry, furious at my mother for making such a stupid risk for such "shallow reasons". After saving my mother, she damn near killed her herself. That was the last time I ever saw her.'

Eagle hummed thoughtfully. 'I doubt any mother appreciates seeing their child willingly damage themselves irreparably. If you had a son, would you care to see him mutilate himself, no matter the reason?'

'Maybe not. But I still believe that grandmother went about it the wrong way, she drove a wedge between herself and mother, one that they never cared to repair. Both my mother and grandmother are stubborn. Must come with being immortal, you get so used to being older, naturally wiser that you can't help but resist the few times your will is opposed. Besides, as immortal as we are, we have all the time in the world to eventually make amends. Until we don't.'

She sighed, moved away from the painting. 'But enough reminiscing about the past, you want to find her files.'

Eagle nodded, though it was more to himself than to Magne, and he looked again at the painting, eyes narrowed. Something about it rubbed him the wrong way, a small detail that he was recognising as important.

Why is the painting completely level with the wall? He moved forward, staring at the frame. As he'd thought, the painting wasn't hanging on a hook, wasn't stuck on the wall with adhesive… it was set into the wall.

'What is it?' Magne asked, impatience colouring her tone.

Eagle didn't answer, continued to stare and took note of the slightest of distortions on the frame.

Without a second thought, he stalked forward and pressed down on the bulge, felt slight resistance and then the hidden button clicked. A loud popping sound was heard, which prompted the watching Magne to start swearing in Greek, but the painting itself was unharmed. The painting swivelled outward as though on a hinge, revealed the previously hidden alcove.

Stack of papers, a key and a datapad. He flicked through the papers, noted that the majority of them were captured images of Magne through all stages of her life. Photo album… Mostly. He paused, staring bemused at one image, which had Echidna in her snake-like form, loosely coiled around a toddler-aged Magne, who judging from the wide grin was having the time of her life. He tossed the stack back into the alcove. None of my business. If Magne wants to read the letter, then she can do it on her own time.

He picked up the blue cylinder, a key for an unknown door. It was quickly pocketed, and the contents of the datapad were perused. Nothing that hinted at what he needed to find. Mostly came across as a diary of personal interests, nothing revelation-shattering. He paused briefly on one of the images stored within the device, felt his eyebrow raise up as he took in the familiar looking man giving the camera which had captured his likewise a devil-may-care smirk, before dismissing the feeling and putting the device back down. He craned his neck back, brow furrowed.

'Were there any rooms you never went in when you lived here?'

'I never went into the basement,' Magne replied. 'All it has is the power generator, the boiler and other unsightly but essential things.'

'So, if your mother hid away a private office, it would be down there?'

She paused, lips parsed. 'Yes.'


#


The stairs into the basement creaked, loudly. Eagle's gaze kept drifting down to his feet, a small part of his mind wondering if the next step would be the one to collapse under him.

Wooden stairs into a basement. If it collapsed, nobody would be able to get out. Great design choice there. He cast an irritable glare back at Magne, who was ignorant of his ire, simply moved to follow him with light footsteps that somehow avoided the groaning of wood that felt abused.

The generator had a loud humming that intensified the closer he got to the thing. Magne's face scrunched up into a scowl as her ears were assaulted by the spine shivering sound.

'Now I remember why I didn't like the basement,' she muttered, more to herself than to Eagle.

The basement was a large square, with each corner home to a smaller room, which housed a particular heart of the building's circulatory system. But there was no sign of an office or storage room. One of the four corner rooms was empty, large enough that it could have functioned as an office, but it looked like Echidna had never gotten around to converting it to such, simply used it to store a few paintings which weren't being used to decorate the main levels, an empty desk propped against one wall, and a few boxes of miscellaneous assortments.

Despite the care, this looks like a mess. Echidna never struck me as the type to just throw her junk into a room without a care. Especially if some of these objects have value. His gaze lingered on the paintings leaning against one wall. Everything in this building is worth a king's ransom, she wouldn't chuck it carelessly. His gaze lingered on the desk, taking in the shape and position.

'I am sorry. It looks like this was all a wasted effort.' Magne hugged her arms around her torso.

Eagle grunted. 'Not quite.'

'Excuse me?' Her voice took on a quiet tone of annoyed disbelief. 'Anywhere else I would know about an office or private computer terminal.'

'Look at this room again,' Eagle instructed her.

Magne rolled her eyes, gaze lingering on a thick cobweb which caused her forehead to crease in mild concern—Eagle wouldn't blame her for that one, spiders weren't native to Tull, the closest analogue species were dangerous to humans, complete with a paralysing sting and then laying eggs in the still alive, still aware host.

Eventually, she gazed around the room with mockingly exaggerated care. 'It is a room used for storing odds and ends. It looks like she wanted to create an office here,'—she jerked her head at the desk—'but she never got around to actually doing so. Why? What do you see, Predator?'

Eagle's thumb jabbed at the desk. 'The desk is bolted to the ground. I can see a wire carefully concealed behind one leg, going into the floor.'

He ignored the surprised gasp as Magne followed his thumb and realised he was speaking truth. He lifted his other hand and pointed at the other wall which wasn't connecting to the rest of the basement, an outside wall.

'And if Echidna was just storing odds in here, why did she deliberately leave that wall unblocked? There's even a small path in all the junk leading from the door to the desk, to that wall. And it's well hidden, but I can make out seams in the wall. There's a door there.'

Again, Magne gave a sound of startled surprise. Eagle slid the key he'd taken from the alcove from his pocket and tossed it gracefully through the air. Magne caught the blue cylinder and looked at it inquisitively. The commando nodded his head to the desk.

Echidna's daughter searched the desk, opened the two drawers and found a small hole, easily mistaken as damage which would justify shoving the office furniture into a store room, but closer examination revealed the keyhole within. She pressed the cylinder into the gap and twisted.

Locks clicked and something groaned loudly. A small rectangular portion of the wall slid open, revealing a dark tunnel within.

'You found this with a single look?'

Eagle shrugged. He didn't have answer for her, didn't care to speak up. He just followed the passageway until he reached the end. Maybe it was because he hadn't come expecting a dead end, had expected the need to seek hidden secrets. Or maybe Magne had been so certain that she'd unintentionally blinded herself to what seemed to obvious to him.

It was a circular chamber, machinery lining the walls. In the centre was a reclining seat, red cushions doubtless once very comfortable but now worn and faded. The room had been sealed away, but time had still managed to rear up and show itself. here was a blue light colouring the chamber, giving everything an aetherial look, as though from some other realm.

I see—that's why everything in this room is clear of dust and dirt. She set up a clean-light, any bacterium is dead, no moisture in the air. He could feel his flesh reacting to the chill that managed to invade his jacket. Cool enough in here that I can't see anything going wrong with the machinery. Echidna took the preservation of this place seriously.

His eyes took in and assessed the seat, brow creasing. He felt his lip twitching into a grimace, despite his best efforts. The device on the head of the seat mocked him, shining and looking new as the day it had been manufactured. With Echidna's wealth, it had likely been privately commissioned for her.

'Oh, oh my…' Magne put a hand to her mouth. 'I'd never guessed. I figured that the generator was because she planned to remain for a few centuries, but it also made for a perfect way to hide all this. I see…'

Eagle glared at the reclining seat before turning to examine the rest of the chamber, took in the displays and devices with a critical eye. Mostly they were all pertaining to how well the main system was working, if there were any issues which could be detected. An understandable paranoia that not enough people partook in, he felt.

'I wouldn't look around—what you need is in the system.'

He whirled around, eyes flashing gold, body posture straight. Magne back-pedalled, her bronzed flesh turning pallid as blood rushed from her.

'I am not sticking that thing on my head,' Eagle ground out, teeth barred.

She blinked, fought to regain her mental equilibrium. 'What?'

He jerked his head at the device attached to the seat. 'I don't do NeuralVR. I am not having my consciousness leave my body.' Despite his best effort, his voice wobbled slightly.

Her mouth flapped, she struggled to understand. 'What?'

'I… am… not… going into a virtual reality.'

She shook her head, blood returning to her cheeks, her face regained some colour. 'You're… scared?' There was disbelief, with an undercoat of mockery.

'More people should be,' Eagle snapped. 'Who in their right mind willingly has their mind vacate their body? And yet people willingly do so for videogames and entertainment.'

'NeuralVR has been safe for centuries,' Magne argued, though it was obviously less out of a desire to convert him, more out a need to understand.

'Except for the few hundred a year that suffer freak accidents,' Eagle cited. 'Or those who willingly sabotage their system so they can remain within their escapist fantasies. No, I refuse.

'Virtual reality is a gimmick that needs to die. Somehow it doesn't surprise me that an immortal would ignore the risks. Anything that can be done in VR, augmented reality can do just as well.'

He uncrossed his arms and stalked toward a monitor which looked somewhat promising and examined it, gingerly tapped at a small interface. The green text crawl faded as a basic operating system revealed itself. Simple icons and code input awaited his interaction.

Magne bit back the giggle that wanted to emerge at the petulant rant. She likely sensed that Eagle wouldn't take well to what could be seen as her mocking a phobia.

'I never would have expected a man like you to have Oneirophobia,' she said in what Eagle recognised instantly as a carefully controlled tone, any mockery or snide attitude veiled away.

He cast a dour look at her, eyes narrowed. 'It's not a phobia. Phobias are irrational. Fears with no sense to them.'

'And you feel yours isn't irrational?' Her lips twitched, barely perceptible to human vision, but Eagle still caught it.

His lips twisted into a dangerous, shark-like grin that held no amusement whatsoever. 'I've seen what happens when somebody spirals into depression. They will willingly throw their mind into an escapist fantasy, an effort to escape harsh truth for a beautiful lie, until they eventually come to believe the new existence is the real, leaving a family with nothing but a husk on life support in the faint hope that one day they'll remember reality and return.'

Magne swallowed back her reply, all humour faded from her expression, along with blood from her face. Eagle pulled himself back to the terminal, tapped at the interface for a method of converting the virtual reality interface to instead display as augmented reality.

Really wish Vincent was here. He bit down on the fury as he recalled the fate of the spy. Basil would probably have found a way to make the conversion in seconds, likely spouting nonsense about how VR is the work of some shadow council looking to see into our minds. That was a more pleasant thought—the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist—conspiracy obsessedlunatic—was still alright and was still a source of hidden amusement.

Eventually, he managed to find the system root and began to tap in a long line of coding, slowly, careful to make certain that there wasn't a symbol out of place. He managed to link the system to the nanomachines in his body, input one final line of complex coding he didn't have the faintest understanding of beyond knowing that it worked, and waited.

He blinked and let the miniscule machines in his body work around his eyes, restarting his HUD. Around him, the lighting seemed to shift to an obnoxious gold, but it was visible only to his eyes, seconds later, images sprung up and hovered, waiting for him to interact.

A breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding was released. His hand came up, pressed against an icon and allowed it to alter the virtual constructs to show the contents of the data-file he'd selected. Files arranged themselves into a wheel, fingers lightly brushing air occupied by the phantasm images caused the wheel to slowly spin, let him cycle through the contents easily.

'Got it.' He kept his grin hidden as he made the motions to have all the data compressed and transferred to his comlink, which would then send all the data to the Sentinels for their analysts to sort through with the proverbial fine-toothed comb.

A copy was transmitted to Jaxx, his whole reason for seeking the data in the first place. Hopefully it would prove useful to her search. If anybody could accomplish what she had set out to do, he had little doubt it was her.

'You actually managed to convert it to AR?' Magne sounded reluctantly impressed.

Wouldn't be the first time,' he admitted to himself. I actually knew how to make the conversion this time. Last time it was a chore that required tech support from an impatient self-titled genius. Made sure to remember the coding in case it came up again.

To Magne, he simply nodded. 'Nothing left here, let's leave this place. And you can go back to wasting your life at raves and nightclubs.'

'Eftychós, den boreíte na spatalísete otidípote eínai aperióristo.' He didn't know what she said, but the tone was low, he imagined that there was a measure of sarcasm, but without knowledge of the language—probably Greek—he had no real way of knowing for certain. 'Can't waste what is limitless.'

He considered making a retort against her lifestyle, but opted against. It didn't matter. As she said, her life was virtually limitless—she had all the time in the world. Until the day would come that she didn't. Maybe she would clean up her life before time ran dry for her, make something of herself. Use that time and wisdom she'd build over the millennium.

He had what he needed, he was eager to leave behind this husk of a building. No need to stay, no need to discuss philosophy with a snide immortal trapped in a body far too young.

He wouldn't look back, he doubted she would either.


-FIN


AN::

So, this one was born more out of me trying to see how well I could depict the same scene, but changing the context of which character is there to accomplish the task. Different personalities mean that Magne will treat them differently, and they have different ways of accomplishing the same task. They have different skill sets and both treat a stranger who is related to an enemy in different ways. I wanted to try and see how well I managed to convey that.

So, this one was less about world-building and more about experimenting.