Chapters Vinyl Scratch woke to sirens.
Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest at the sound while her brain tried to understand what was happening. Was this it? Did Bass Leader activate the explosives he had put in her brain? He wouldn’t traumatize his daughter by making Vinyl’s head pop off, right?
“What’s that?” Octavia mumbled into the pillow.
“It’s nothing, Tav. Go back to sleep.” Vinyl tried to stay calm as she spoke, keeping her voice low and skipping some details. She had to get away from Octavia before the explosives detonated, just to keep Octavia safe.
Unfortunately, Vinyl’s dismissive tone worked too well. Octavia shifted so that her head rested on Vinyl’s chest. Now her heart took some time off of its frantic pace to beat for a different reason. The DJ resisted the urge to run her hands through that beautiful cascade of black hair, the mere thought making her face heat up. The persistent sirens made her realize that she might never get the chance to do anything again if her head was about to blow up.
Vinyl ran a hand through Octavia’s hair. She wanted to savor this potentially last moment with the woman she had done so much for, essentially giving her body and a large chunk of her mind to. But the sirens would not stop, and each second that passed could be the last. Vinyl kissed the top of Octavia’s head and inhaled deeply. Octavia tightened her grip around Vinyl at the sign of affection. If there was an afterlife, Vinyl was going to miss her, but if there wasn’t, well, she might find the answer to that soon enough. It was time to go. “Tavi, I gotta use the toilet,” Vinyl mumbled to conceal the urgency in her voice.
Octavia made a pouting sound but mercifully slid off. “Don’t be too long,” she muttered as Vinyl slid off of the bed. The words, spoken innocently, sent shivers through Vinyl’s spine.
The restroom was small and bland. The tiles under her feet were cool to the touch. Vinyl stood in the center of the room, facing the mirror. She looked scared, but she knew that death was coming at her like a freight train. The whole affair wasn’t what she had in mind for dying. The early days of her youth had been a blur of fun and excitement, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have plans.
She was a young, talented DJ. She was going to ride that train for as long as she could, having the time of her life until the last stop. What would happen after that, well, who could say? When she had entertained such fantasies, she had been sitting on the roof of her old house, wearing an old pair of headphones and drinking cheap beer, watching the few stars that managed to shine through the light pollution. It would be a long time before she had to worry about anything after her time as a DJ had come and gone.
Vinyl had moved out as soon as she had been able, taking jobs at any club that she could. She spent years honing her craft. Places were filling with people who were drawn to her. Word had spread fast that Vinyl Scratch knew how to throw a party. Life hadn’t thrown her for a loop until she was offered a job at the CyberLink.
Vinyl closed her magenta eyes and waited for the end. Her mind was thinking about whatever it wanted, but she didn’t want to think about Bass Leader and what he did to her. What was something better? Vinyl smirked, her mind instantly providing a picture of the woman still sleeping on the bed. The woman who expected her to come back at any moment. The woman who was about to be alone.
Tears started to fall down Vinyl’s cheeks. “Oh, Empress, Tavi,” she said into her hands. “I am so sorry.” She was wracked with sobs and fell to her knees. Vinyl didn’t care that she looked pathetic. She was going to die. For her, it would be easy. She wouldn’t even know she was dead. Octavia, on the other hand, was going to hear something, walk in, and see whatever was left. Vinyl thought about locking the door in hopes of sparing Octavia from stumbling into something terrible, but the sirens suddenly seemed louder. Too loud.
Oh, fuck, it’s happening. I know it’s happening. Vinyl wept, navigating through tear-filled eyes to sit in front of the door. At least now, with her back against the door, she had a clear view of the window. It was going to be a sunny day.
Octavia, I’m so sorry. Vinyl closed her eyes for what she was sure to be the last time.
There was no pain, no bright light at the end of a long tunnel. For Vinyl Scratch, life continued on. She opened one eye hesitantly, as if any quick movements would cause her head to pop off. The sirens persisted, but the longer Vinyl sat in the cramped restroom, she realized that they were coming from outside.
Vinyl let out an explosive breath until there was no air left in her lungs. Then she took a large gulp of air and relished every moment of it. A chuckle found its way through her lips, and before she knew it, she was rolling on the floor with laughter. She didn’t care about how loud she was laughing because she was alive. All of the fear was gone, melted away. Vinyl Scratch was not going to be dying that day! Vinyl almost let out a cheer of victory before she realized a tiny notification on her heads up display.
The message caused her to sober up instantly. Her hand shook slightly as she rose her fingers, each pulsing with a bright blue light, a sign of her augments being activated, to open the message.
YOU ABDUCTED MY DAUGHTER.
Vinyl’s heart missed a beat. After the ominous message, the sender had attached pictures. The pictures depicted Vinyl on her hands and knees in a very boring bathroom. Vinyl scrolled further.
YOU WILL DIE.
Vinyl looked past the message and at the window. A sharp crack filled the air and a large hole suddenly appeared in the door next to Vinyl’s head. She swore and scrambled to her feet, unable to believe the sniper had missed.
“Tavi, we gotta go right now!” Vinyl flew to the chair where her jacket was and threw it on.
“What?” Octavia sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“What do you mean, ‘what?’ Did you not hear that loud noise? We gotta get out of here!”
“You should be. We could’ve left at any time, or so the doctor said earlier.”
“That’s good. What’s going on?” Octavia was fumbling with her pants.
“Your dad sent his goons. They’re not too happy that you’re here, and I doubt they know about your augmentation.” Vinyl checked her pistol, the only weapon she had managed to hold onto.
“What’s the plan?”
“So take the stairs to run like hell and try to get a car while under fire?”
“Pretty much,” Vinyl shrugged.
“And I’ll need something stronger,” Vinyl said. “Just follow me and we’ll get through this. Ready?”
Octavia nodded. Vinyl turned to the door, threw it open, and ran out with Octavia right behind her.
Bass Leader hated to admit it, but he had underestimated Vinyl Scratch. He had delved into her past before offering her a job at the CyberLink. Her life had been dissected before him, and what he saw was just another tool to add to his extensive arsenal. An unremarkable high school career, a few accounts of vandalism, and a brief stay in jail due to public drunkenness were just a few points that barely stood out to him as he read the reports. People like Vinyl Scratch, loud, reckless, and dumb, were a dime a dozen. He thought that the DJ was broken through his routine of beatings and forced executions. It had worked plenty of times before. So where did this sudden spike of daring come from?
“Why are you doing this to yourself, Ms. Scratch? I had offered you stability in this new world, and this is how you repay me?” Bass Leader wrapped his lips around the cigarette. He let it stay for a moment before taking another deep breath. He tilted his shaved head back and whispered through smoke, “You might just be the dumbest person I’ve encountered in a very long career.”
Vinyl’s picture stared back at him. The awkward smile almost seemed like it was mocking him.
A flash from another icon caught his attention and he banished Vinyl’s file. He looked at the other icon and blinked twice. The floor plan for the hospital appeared, and he grinned. Vinyl Scratch might have shown courage or immense idiocy, but whichever it was wouldn’t get her out of the city alive. Bass Leader had made sure of that.
Vinyl kept her pistol on the door as the pair ran down the stairs. She had seen enough movies where people burst through doors with a shotgun to be more than a little paranoid. Of course, one of Bass Leader’s men could be drawn by the amount of noise the two were making. When they were close enough, Vinyl threw the door open. She was almost disappointed when nothing but a sterile hallway greeted them.
“Are you alright?” Octavia asked.
“Yeah. Guess I just have an active imagination.” Vinyl gave a quick grin and sprinted down the hall before Octavia could ask another question. The sound of someone talking forced Vinyl to slow down. She dared a glance around the corner.
They had reached the lobby. A man stood in front of the door. The way he was dressed, black clothes with a Kevlar vest, could have meant anything in another time. He could have thought he was a badass, for all Vinyl cared. All she knew was that he was standing in between her and the front door. Vinyl looked at the pistol in her hand. She had two clips in her pocket and no armor. She did have the element of surprise, though.
“There’s a guy over there.”
Octavia bit her lip. Vinyl was about to take her first shot when Octavia said, “I have an idea.”
“You do?”
Instead of answering, Octavia let out a blood-curdling scream and ran across the hospital’s lobby, well in view of the man by the door. Vinyl could hear his footsteps getting closer. Her heart was still pounding from the fright Octavia just gave her.
Octavia was standing on the other side of the lobby, chest heaving and eyes full of expectations. Vinyl frowned. Octavia was supposed to be the rational one. What did it say about their situation if running in front of armed men was the smartest thing to do?
The man stepped into Vinyl’s sight. He was taking his time, his rifle still pointed to the ground. When he saw Octavia standing at the corner, he turned around just when Vinyl pulled the trigger. Two bullets slammed into his head. He fell with a loud thump.
Vinyl expected Octavia to scream or pass out. Instead, the cellist calmly walked over to the corpse and picked up the discarded rifle. She opened the man’s vest and pilfered his spare magazines. Vinyl couldn’t stop staring if she wanted to. Seeing Octavia pick the weapon and ammo from a dead man without batting an eye made Vinyl’s head spin. This was the same woman who panicked at the mere sight of the Solar Empire’s military, right?
Octavia finished her task and stood up. She gave Vinyl a small smile and handed her the rifle. “I think you’re a better shot than I am.”
“You’re, uh, taking this very well,” Vinyl said.
Octavia chuckled. “Yes, well, I can’t always play the damsel. I’ll have a mental breakdown later.”
Vinyl forced a smile, which Octavia returned. Despite the grisly scene, Vinyl felt her heart skip a beat. She shook her head; sexy thoughts could wait for later. She motioned to the front doors. “C’mon, there is no way that guy was alone.”
The two ran through the hospital doors and into a firing squad. Twenty men and women, all dressed in the same black attire as the man before, stood across the road. A pair of Bruisers rose in the back, the sun shining on their armor plating. Vinyl’s mind stopped, trying to comprehend the amount of firepower pointed at them, and found that she could not. Just how many resources did Bass Leader have?
The man himself emerged from the back of a black van. He ran a hand over his expensive suit and surveyed the scene before him. Vinyl felt her blood chill at the sight of Bass Leader, thoughts of his hospitality still fresh in her thoughts. When Bass Leader’s eyes rested on the pair, he smiled. “I see you got my message,” he said, jumping down to the pavement.
Vinyl wanted to say something, if only to try and get under Bass Leader’s skin one last time, but her throat refused to cooperate. If Bass Leader noticed Vinyl’s struggle, he did not show it.
“I will applaud your ambition, Ms. Scratch. Not many people would have done what you have, especially after what I did to you.” His deep voice carried across the street, deserted of everyone but them. The sirens played on, oblivious. “This either means that you are very stupid or you intended to blackmail me. The difference is slight, but I am curious, and I would like to know before you die.” Bass Leader paused before them and spread his arms. “So, which is it?”
Vinyl opened her mouth again, but Octavia said, “She did it for me.”
Bass Leader’s eyes were hidden behind the lenses that had been grafted over them, but Vinyl thought that he blinked in surprise. “Is that so, Octavia?” he asked.
Octavia shuddered at Vinyl’s side and moved closer to the DJ. Vinyl offered her hand and felt her heart flutter when Octavia grasped it. “Yes, it is,” the cellist said to her father.
“What, exactly, is your relationship with my daughter, Ms. Scratch?” Bass Leader asked. His tone was too civil for a man who intended to kill Vinyl in a few moments.
Vinyl felt a cold sweat forming. What was their relationship, anyway? They had had sex that neither of them regretted, sure, but that didn’t mean they were in love. Vinyl could feel Octavia’s eyes on her as well and felt pressured to say something. Where elegance failed, Vinyl’s wit was there to save the day. She held up her hand, which was still holding on to Octavia’s, and said, “Are you blind? What do you think this means?”
Of course, Vinyl hadn’t answered anything, but the look on Bass Leader’s face told her that he had already connected the dots. He pulled out a revolver before Vinyl could react and fired. The bullet flew between Vinyl’s legs and struck the hospital door behind them. “Octavia, get over here,” Bass Leader demanded. “You and I are going to have a talk.”
Octavia tensed and squeezed Vinyl’s hand. Then, to the DJ’s surprise, Octavia let go and took a step forward. Bass Leader smirked, undoubtedly at Vinyl’s shocked reaction. The smirk faded when Octavia stopped directly in front of Vinyl and spread her arms out. “I’m not going to let you hurt her!” she yelled. The cellist lowered her voice and asked, “How are we getting out of here?”
Vinyl checked the rifle in her hands and looked around. The street was full of cars that had been abandoned for some reason. Part of her wondered what could have caused people to leave in such hurry, but the cars would act as ideal cover when the shooting started. Many doors were left open, which provided plenty of possibilities for escape, if they could get to them. The Bruisers could easily be shut down, and the majority of Bass Leader’s troops were young, so maybe they wouldn’t be able to react quickly if their augments temporarily crashed. Vinyl swallowed and whispered, “On the count of five, we break right for the bar five doors down.”
“Alright.”
“You ready?”
Octavia’s reply was cut off by a shot from Bass Leader’s line. The shot went high, but Vinyl yelled at Octavia to run. Vinyl activated her augments, which had been forced upon her by Bass Leader, and pointed a hand at the Bruisers. Vinyl never understood the way in which her augments could shut down others’, but watching the two Bruisers fall unceremoniously to the pavement was enough for her.
Bass Leader was yelling at his troops to fire and Vinyl ran, hot on Octavia’s heels. The pair ducked behind the first car they could and Vinyl shoved her pistol into Octavia’s hands. The DJ waited for the firing to stop before standing up and taking a few shots. Someone fell down, yelling about his knee. “Vinyl, we have to go!” Octavia yelled,
“You don’t have to tell me! Move it!” Vinyl leapt to her feet and took a few more shots while walking backwards. She saw Bass Leader glaring at her but making no attempt to stop her. That was fine; the swarm of goons was enough. Bullets hit the car next to her and shattered the windshield. Were all of Bass Leader’s men unable to shoot? Vinyl fired again and watched a woman fall, clawing at the new hole in her throat.
“Vinyl, hurry up!” Octavia yelled. The pistol barked from behind and Vinyl assumed that Octavia had made it to the bar. She turned on her heel and ran as fast as she could. The cellist had dropped to one knee and was taking slow, measured shots. Octavia fired again and Vinyl heard a scream.
Vinyl pushed into the deserted bar. Octavia fired two more shots before joining Vinyl inside. The DJ quickly scanned the building. They couldn’t stay there for too long. Bass Leader had more guns, more troops, more everything. He could afford a few losses. Vinyl grabbed a table and moved it against the door. Hopefully it would slow them down. “We gotta go,” she said. Octavia nodded and followed, making sure to keep an eye on the door.
“I’m guessing there isn’t a plan now.” Octavia said.
“I’m still surprised that we’re alive.”
“Have a little more faith, dear.”
Vinyl tried to grin, but thoughts of Octavia rummaging through a dead man’s possessions came to mind. Where had that come from? She sighed. Would it be a bad idea to ask Octavia about her behavior? Would she want to get into an argument when they should be focusing on staying alive? Vinyl frowned. She would ask about it later.
Shining Armor was facing the window of his office, staring at the Earth. An empty bottle of whisky lay on his desk. It had been half-full the day before. That was before Camelot station had blown up and the channels were clogged with reports of insurrection and mass evacuations. That was before his sister had vanished.
He closed his eyes and fell onto his seat. He activated his augments once again, muscle memory allowing him to find his messages without a thought. There was nothing from Twilight. Again. He felt himself choke and tried to pour another drink. When Shining remembered that the bottle was empty, it took all of his willpower to not throw the bottle against the wall. He ran his fingers through his hair, harshly massaging his scalp.
“Where are you, Twily?” he whispered. Tears trickled down his face and he made no effort to brush them away. Messages continued to stream past him. He tried to pay attention, tried to feel something for the people that were dying. He reminded himself that he needed to take control. Twilight would be furious if she knew that he was shirking his duties.
None of that helped.
Shining sniffled once, loudly, and put his head down. The desk felt comfortable and stopped his head from spinning. The messages kept coming and going in a blue, digital stream.
“Twily,” he mumbled. He resisted the urge to call up a picture of his sister.
A knock on the door stopped him. Shining reluctantly sat up and said, “Who is it?”
“Sir, there’s a situation developing in the mess hall.”
The voice sounded familiar. Shining shook his head. “What is it?”
“A fight, sir.”
Shining let out a loud sigh. He wished the problems had stayed digital. Now he had to move. “Alright, I’ll be right there,” he said. Shining forced himself to stand and ran a hand over his uniform.
Maybe this was going to be a wake-up call. He had spent too much time away from his troops, anyway. If current events had left him a wreck, how would the others have reacted? Shining took a deep breath. He guessed that he was about to find out.
Vinyl had no idea why she jumped when the Bruiser smashed through the pathetic barricade. She also had no idea why she thought a wooden table would be enough to stop Bass Leader’s troops. Maybe she thought the troops would get lazy and find another way in to the bar? The DJ’s thought process was a mystery, even to herself, but one thought currently occupied every inch of her mind: There is a giant metal man behind us, we are fucked.
Despite the DJ’s pessimism, the Bruiser stood in the demolished doorway. The driver’s features were hidden behind the thick metal that the suit was made of, but Vinyl imagined that they were grinning.
“I found them!” the driver yelled, voice distorted by the suit’s speakers. The gesture was unnecessary, Vinyl knew that the suit could have sent the driver’s message without her ever hearing it. The driver was going for some sort of scare tactic. What could be scarier than knowing that a walking tank had their sights set on you? It might have worked if the DJ wasn’t already at her limits.
“Vinyl, move!” Octavia yelled. The Bruiser started their loud, and surprisingly fast, walk towards them.
Vinyl shook her head and ran. They got to the back door, which Vinyl smashed into with her shoulder, and they found themselves in an alley. Octavia slammed the door behind them, though they both knew it was pointless. If a solid table couldn’t stop the Bruiser, a thin door stood no chance. But the act carried a sort of reassurance. The Bruiser was in there and they were out there, away from the Bruiser.
The two women ran down the alley. Octavia managed to pull ahead, her breathing loud and ragged. Vinyl felt fine, surprisingly. Maybe Bass Leader had given her a set of iron lungs while he had her cut open on the operating table.
Octavia reached the end of the alley and stopped. She poked her head around the corner and turned to Vinyl. “I think I have a plan,” she said between large gulps of breath.
“Goody. All this thinking is making my brain hurt,” Vinyl said, unable to stop herself from making a bad joke.
Octavia glared and said, “There’s a Solar Empire convoy going down the road. If we go to them, maybe we can get away from my father.”
“He seemed pretty hell-bent on getting you back, Tav. I don’t think a couple of soldiers are going to stop him.”
“No, probably not. But they have tanks.” Octavia wiped sweat from her brow. “I wish I did more cardio.”
A dirty remark about Octavia’s exercising, and the tight clothing that went with it, died on Vinyl’s tongue. “Did you say tanks?”
“Yes. Look for yourself if you don’t believe me.” As Vinyl leaned around the corner and let out a low whistle at the sight of the armor, Octavia continued speaking. “If we go up to them, say we are being chased by some rebels or something, maybe they’ll take us somewhere.”
“Rebels? Who is going to believe that?”
“What, you haven’t been paying attention to the news?” Octavia asked, confused.
“No, Tav, I’ve been a little busy getting shot at.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you could turn off the newsfeed to your display,” Octavia said, blushing. “These augments will take some getting used to.”
In another time, Vinyl would have laughed at the thought of Octavia watching the news through an impromptu warzone. Now, she just wanted to take a nap. “I get the feeling that there’s something you’re not telling me,” Vinyl said.
“We’re going to have to get rid of the guns.”
Vinyl looked at the rifle in her hands. Despite what others might think, the DJ was not unreasonable. The sight of two armed women would probably give the Solar Empire the wrong idea about them. It would be safer if they were unarmed. That didn’t mean Vinyl liked the idea.
She threw the rifle into a dumpster before she changed her mind. A loud crash told her that the Bruiser was finally making his appearance.
“He’s slow,” Octavia said.
“He’s toying with us,” Vinyl said.
The Bruiser spotted them. He stepped into the middle of the alley and said, “I see you,” in a sing-song voice. Octavia was already running again, but Vinyl stopped to flip off the Bruiser. “Baby,” the driver said, “the things I’m going to make you do to yourself with that finger.”
Vinyl opened her mouth to reply but decided to let the driver have his strange taunt. She stepped out of the alley and ran after Octavia, who was already yelling to the soldiers. It felt strange running towards the soldiers without a weapon. No less than 24 hours ago, the same soldiers might have been trying to shoot her.
“What are you still doing here? All of the civilians were supposed to be evacuated,” the Hunter said.
“We’re being chased! Bruiser, just down the alley, tried to kill us!” Octavia said, stopping in front of the Hunter to catch her breath.
“I can’t believe this,” the Hunter mumbled. She turned and pointed to one of the soldiers. “You. Take these two to the evac site.” The soldier nodded and motioned for Octavia and Vinyl to follow him.
“Little girls, where are you?” the Bruiser said, walking out into the street. When he turned and saw the convoy, he said, “Aw, fuck.”
Vinyl watched him raise his arms, preparing to fire. Before he could get a single shot off, the lead tank roared, scoring a direct hit and almost causing the DJ to go deaf. The remains of the Bruiser forward with a dull thud. Vinyl shivered and looked at Octavia instead.
The sight instantly calmed her, allowing her to think. Sure, they were getting out of the city, and away from Bass Leader, but they had just allowed a tank to fire in a city. Why did anyone need a tank in the city? Why was the city being evacuated? How had the world gone to hell overnight?
Vinyl was taken out of her self-questionnaire by the feeling of Octavia’s hand gripping hers. The DJ blinked and looked up, into Octavia’s lavender eyes. The shell that the cellist had constructed was starting to shatter. Vinyl could see all of the fear and confusion that swam just beneath Octavia’s surface, and the DJ wondered how the other woman kept herself together. Vinyl didn’t want to seem egotistic, but the warm hand in hers, which she clung to, might have provided a clue.
Author's Note
I feel bad for not updating this sooner and for making this part so short. I'm not completely losing inspiration for this fic, I just don't know where I want to go with it. That said, I wanted to get something out for the holidays because I'm cheesy like that.
Bass Leader had no need to kill the messenger, as the messenger was already dead. His face twitched as he watched the Bruiser’s camera feed over and over, but otherwise displayed no emotion. He paused, just before the tank shell ended the driver’s miserable life, and focused on his target.
Vinyl Scratch, the ever resourceful, annoyingly lucky DJ looked at the Bruiser with an entire column of tanks behind her back. Her hair was slick with sweat, her artificial eyes broadcasting a look of bewilderment and fright. Despite that, Bass Leader could see the faint beginnings of a grin. The DJ was enjoying herself.
Bass Leader closed his eyes; a gesture that went unseen due to the mirrored plates grafted over them, and rubbed his temples. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Once the DJ’s infuriating smile was banished, he opened his eyes to look at the picture, this time to look at Octavia.
His daughter looked terrible. She was close to breaking under all of the pressure that she had suddenly found on her shoulders. Forces that should never have drawn her attention were springing up around her, demons that Bass Leader had fought hard to keep their prying claws away. Bass Leader knew his daughter, despite the fact that they had never been particularly close. Her pain, her suffering, he felt all of it. For the first time since he had his tear ducts sealed, Bass Leader wanted to cry.
He put a large hand over his eyes, his fingers leaving prints across his vision. The large man did not care for anything at that moment; he simply wished that he could have protected his daughter better. His shoulders heaved once, twice, as the man indulged in emotion.
When Bass Leader was done, when he was sure his voice would not crack, he raised a hand. Each fingertip glowed blue and, in the dark van, moved with dizzying speed. If someone had opened the door, which no one would under strict penalty of death, they would have seen Bass Leader wagging his fingers back and forth. They would never have been able to tell that the man was writing, that each stroke of the digital keyboard carried the full weight of his anguish, and that each word promised to pay the recipient back a tenfold.
Vinyl’s heart had never withstood such punishment.
After the two gave themselves to the Solar Empire, Vinyl wasn’t able to turn her head without seeing white and gold armor. Thankfully, the soldiers didn’t seem to take any interest in the people who were leaving the city, although sometimes they pointed at someone and laughed. Vinyl was fine to leave them to their people-watching if it meant she got out of the city scot-free. If she had to make a complaint, it would have been about the walking. Just because the Empire had been kind enough to scare Bass Leader’s men didn’t mean that they could offer a car.
Vinyl thought back to the bus garage that she and Octavia had just left. Giant crowds of people had been corralled there for the evacuation. The elderly and the children, as always, got first dibs on the available vehicles. Anyone left behind would either get a ride in an APC or would walk. Vinyl had wondered why the soldiers didn’t call in any of those fancy transports that had been flying over the city for weeks. Hell, while they were at it, they could get the giant ship that general Rainbow Dash had shown up in. She refrained from asking the faceless soldiers. They were still dangerous and she didn’t like their reflective visors.
“Hey Vinyl,” Octavia said, tearing the DJ from her thoughts, “can we talk?”
Vinyl felt a tingle up her spine. Octavia’s innocent question sounded like a verbal minefield. A minefield that, until then, had been left untouched due to life-threatening scenarios. Even if she just wanted to talk, there was no way she would ask for permission, especially on the middle of a highway crowded with refugees.
Steeling herself, Vinyl said, “Yeah, sure. What’s on your mind?”
Octavia shifted, uncomfortable now that she had an opportunity. She looked at the throng of refugees and cleared her throat. “What happened to you after I was taken?”
Vinyl’s weak smile disappeared. How could she possibly respond to that? Did she dare subject Octavia to all of the details, including the forced augmentations, the beatings, and the executions? The DJ’s hands started to shake. She clenched them into fists. Breathing became difficult. Octavia was looking at her. Lilac eyes searching, waiting for an answer. All of the noise on the highway died. There should be no way that many people could suddenly fall silent. Was she still breathing?
Vinyl raised a hand to her mouth and coughed. “Y’know, stuff,” she mumbled.
“What kind of stuff?” Octavia raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t going to stop.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Tav,” Vinyl said, hoping to stop the questions.
“Vinyl, it obviously bothers you.”
The DJ ground her teeth and kept her eyes forward. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, making sure to regulate her breathing, and tried her best to ignore the information that her ill-begotten augments were telling her. Two unread messages begged for her attention, but those could have only come from one person and she had no interest in reading them. A hand rested on Vinyl’s shoulder. Surprised, she shook the hand off.
The action caused Octavia to stop. Vinyl blinked before realizing what she had done. She looked down. The asphalt was suddenly the most interesting thing around. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been on edge lately.”
“Because of my father?”
Vinyl nodded. Octavia stepped closer, put a hand on Vinyl’s shoulder, and steered her off of the highway. The two sat at the edge of the road and watched the people walk past. Vinyl ran a hand through her hair, refusing to look Octavia in the eye. Why did she have to ask that question now? Vinyl took a ragged breath. Maybe talking about it would make her feel better.
“A-after I came back and saw you gone, well, I got a message. Turns out your dad’s super secret plan was done and, and he was coming to get you. Sent a couple of guys, just idiots like the ones from earlier. They came around, saw me on the couch and asked where you were. Wanna know what I said to them?” Vinyl flashed a grin and hoped it looked genuine. Octavia put her hand on top of Vinyl’s and squeezed.
“I said to them, I said, well, I don’t actually remember. I thought I could say something cool, but damn, I don’t know what happened. I think I cried myself to sleep.” Vinyl paused to wipe at the tears that were forming. “I just missed you so goddamn much.”
Octavia rested her head on Vinyl’s shoulder. “I missed you too,” she said softly. “I kept worrying about you. I know what type of man my father is, and I’ve seen some of the things he’s done. I didn’t want any of that to happen to you.” Octavia raised her head and Vinyl assumed she was looking at her.
She felt a pair of warm lips press against her cheek. “I can’t tell you how happy I was to see you come for me. I was glad knowing that you were alive, but I also know that my father left you that way. Please, Vinyl, tell me what happened. I don’t like seeing you suffer.”
Vinyl sniffed and put her arm around the cellist. “Fine, if you really want to know.” The DJ shook her head and took a deep breath. She was going to force it all out.
“I woke up in your father’s evil dungeon. He was mad, so he beat me until he didn’t want to. Busted me up pretty good. But you’re right, I’m only alive because he saw me as a tool. So, after the beatings, he made me execute captured soldiers. Apparently the Empire was getting a little too close to him and he wanted to send a message. After that, he augged me. I don’t know the whole of it, but that’s why I have these new eyes. Now you can stop giving me those worried little looks I catch you doing.”
Vinyl kicked herself for the last part, but Octavia didn’t seem to notice. The cellist was too stunned to speak. Vinyl could feel Octavia’s body shaking against hers. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so blunt, but Octavia had asked.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Vinyl said, “there was nothing you could have done.”
“I want him dead.”
Vinyl froze. She wasn’t crying? “You want who dead?”
“My father,” Octavia hissed. “He doesn’t deserve to live.”
“You don’t mean that,” Vinyl said. What was she saying?
“And you don’t know what you’re talking about. I am his daughter, Vinyl, and his work sometimes followed him home. It’s part of the reason why he kept me a secret. He wanted to hide his weaknesses.”
“Alright, then what are you going to do? Go back the way we came and put a bullet in between his eyes? I don’t think he deserves to live either, Tav, but I’m not going to go on a pointless quest for revenge. If you go after him, you’re no better than he is.”
Octavia blinked and looked as if Vinyl had just slapped her. The DJ winced and said, “This morning, you kept asking me what the plan was. Well, this time, the plan is that we’re going to keep walking down this highway, and we’re not going to look back.” Vinyl stood up, brushed the dirt off of her pants, and held a hand down to Octavia. “I think that’s enough of a rest for now, don’t you think?”
The cellist still looked hurt, but a smile crept across her lips. “Oh, Vinyl, where would I be without you?” She wondered out loud and took the DJ’s hand.
“Probably in a bunker somewhere,” Vinyl said.
Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Where did you get such an idea?”
Vinyl shrugged. “I watch a lot of movies. Besides, I think it’s a good possibility, considering what we’ve been going through today.”
Octavia shook her head. “So, the plan is to keep walking. How far are we going?”
“As far as we can. Something tells me that the shit is about to hit the fan.”
“What makes you say that?”
Vinyl looked up, as if the sky could provide an answer for a gut feeling. Unfortunately, it did, and the evacuation suddenly made sense.
The remains of Camelot station was heading straight for them.
Author's Note
A good chunk of this chapter is rough and will probably be edited later.
Vinyl Scratch shut down.
She did not feel the jolt that traveled up her spine when she fell to the ground. The cries that sprung up around her from the crowd were blocked out by her augmentations. She picked up her right hand, her finger tips glowing blue, and brought them up before her. Her vision was cluttered with an onslaught of messages and calculations and notifications. She didn’t remember activating any sort of program to see if a massive space station would smash her, but she did know that there was nothing in the digital miasma that she cared to see. She waved them aside and cleared her vision. The action drained her, and she didn’t feel like keeping her eyes open.
To her side, someone was shaking her. They were persistent. Vinyl opened her eyes, just enough to find out who it was. Octavia. Her eyes were wide, and she was screaming something. Her movements were erratic. She was terrified. Vinyl felt compelled to help her.
“What is it, Tavi?” Vinyl asked, lowering her deafness to the cacophony surrounding them.”
“We have to get moving!”
Of course that was what the cellist would say. Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Sit down, Tavi.”
Octavia blinked, probably hoping that she had misheard the DJ. “Sit down? Vinyl, we are going to die if we don’t move right now!”
Vinyl shook her head. “No we won’t.” She pointed a finger at her eye. “Just did all sorts of calculations with these bad boys. We’ll be fine.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you!”
“Didn’t you just say that you trusted me?”
“No. No, I didn’t,” Octavia said, crossing her arms and pouting.
Vinyl shrugged. “I’m pretty sure you did. Now come on, sit down. Or better yet, sit across from me.”
Octavia let out a loud sigh, but Vinyl’s heart skipped a beat when she sat down. “Alright. I’m sitting,” she said sarcastically. “Why aren’t we moving?”
Vinyl shifted to sit up straighter. “Well, there’s a couple of reasons. One, I don’t want to be running with that giant stampede over there. Two, if I’m going to die, I wanna know what an angel looks like before I go.” She couldn’t stop herself from grinning at her joke, and neither could Octavia.
“You’ve been waiting to say that, haven’t you?” Octavia asked, her smile growing wider.
“That would be telling,” Vinyl said. The third reason Vinyl wanted Octavia to sit across from her, which she wouldn’t say, was because Octavia now had her back to the falling space station. Vinyl cast a lazy glance over Octavia’s shoulder and added, “Hey babe, did I ever say how much you mean to me?”
Octavia shuddered at the words. She might be happy or she might know that something bad could be happening. Nothing got past her. Instead of panicking, she played along. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and said, “No, you never did.”
Vinyl looked over Octavia’s body, her eyes staying on certain parts for an obviously long amount of time. “That’s a shame,” she drawled, meeting Octavia’s eyes and licking her lips. “Maybe I should just show you instead.”
The two women leaned forward at the same time, Vinyl quickly and Octavia slowly. When their lips collided and their arms wrapped around each other, the two were lost to the world. Vinyl’s augments told her that the impact was imminent. She pulled away from the kiss, just enough so that the tips of their noses were touching. She wasn’t kidding when she said Octavia was an angel, and she didn’t want to die in any way that didn’t involve staring into those beautiful, lavender eyes.
Shining Armor’s headache was becoming a fast friend. There had been two brawls, both of them involving loyalty to Celestia. If he wasn’t careful, the base would split into two camps. One group wanted to go to Earth and help with the relief efforts. The others wanted to stand by their orders of occupying the lunar base. If the Mars expedition somehow needed help, Shining’s troops would be able to react the fastest. Shining found the bottle in his desk, quickly becoming empty, and poured a shot. When he tipped it back and the whiskey began its slow, burning descent. He shook his head, blue hair covering his eyes, and groaned.
His heart still went out to the troops under his command. The reports from the ground kept talking about the Loyalists and the Separatists. The troops were going crazy, being set aside from the conflict, not knowing whether their friends were alive or dead, or if they were on the same side anymore. Add onto that the collapse of Camelot and the disappearance of his sister. Shining groaned and put his head on his desk. He was tempted to yell his troops into some sort of action, to go to Earth or stay, but he also knew that would be the turning point. There would be yelling, then people that he had laughed with, drank with, fought side-by-side with, would be baying for his blood.
Shining couldn’t do that. Not yet. Not ever. He turned the lights off in his office and relied on muscle memory to pour another shot.
The calculations hadn’t lied. Thank the Empress that the calculations had been right, Vinyl thought as the world turned to bedlam around her. She had activated her sound dampeners again, as the space station passed unnervingly close above them. Bits of the station had fallen off from its entry into the atmosphere and began peppering the area.
The DJ was forced onto her back by the pressure. Somewhere, she knew Octavia was screaming her head off. Her augments were still new and she had no idea how to use them. Vinyl felt a touch of guilt as she kept her dampener on. She thought of listening to the song she and Octavia had made together, but for once in her life, Vinyl had found a moment that didn’t need a soundtrack. Besides, watching a space station crash in silence was oddly appealing. It put her life in perspective. She could think that she was every bit the badass DJ that she was, a gigantic chunk of debris would kill her just as quickly as the next person. If a gigantic piece of space debris did land on her, and if she died on the side of the highway, Vinyl found that she couldn’t care. It had been a good life, she decided, putting her hands behind her head and reclining.
When she was sure that the station was done being loud and crashing, Vinyl turned off her dampener and sat up. She coughed and wished she still had her trademark goggles. A light coat of dust had been kicked up in the air, but her augments allowed her to penetrate it.
She looked around the scene, surprised to see so many pieces of the station in the ground around them. People were screaming in the distance. Vinyl swallowed when she saw the outlines of someone on the highway with their head split open. She patted herself down and was relieved to see that she was whole. “Tavi?” she asked.
There was no response. Vinyl stood up, her body sore and aching. “Come on, girl, you were right next to me!”
A dust cloud had settled across the highway. Vinyl ran through different filters in her augments. The world snapped to present thermal images, but the amount of debris and bodies made it difficult to see. With a loud swear, Vinyl went back to normal vision and started her search.
“Tavi, you better be alive so I can yell at you!” Vinyl shouted, walking around the tree that they had been hiding by. She almost ran into the Bruiser on the other side.
“Whose side are you on?” The Bruiser raised his gigantic, arm-mounted machine guns. The Solar Empire’s insignia still shone in the dust, but the rest of the armor looked like it had gone through re-entry itself. Maybe it had, but something about staring down multiple barrels made Vinyl want to get on her knees and plead for mercy.
Instead, she jerked her hands, fingers burning a brilliant purple, and the power in the Bruiser’s suit shutdown. Vinyl realized she didn’t have a gun and felt like apologizing. She would promise to be a good girl and be executed.
“Oh, now you fucked up,” the Bruiser said as the power returned to his armor. Before he could fire, a Hunter flew past Vinyl and tackled him. Without knowing what her body was doing, Vinyl had recognized that someone had just saved her impulsive ass from being blown off and she wasn’t going to squander the second chance they had given her. She also noticed that the Hunter’s Solar Empire insignia had a black mark through it, but all of that could be thought about later. The only thing that mattered to the DJ was getting away from the two armored monsters. And finding Tavi. That would be nice as well.
Author's Note
Fun fact: I thought I had uploaded this part already. Turns out it was sitting on the Word doc being all fragmented and shit. Funny how that works.
I won't say this is a glorious comeback, but the story ekes on and I feel a little better knowing that the reader won't be stuck alongside Vinyl and Octavia as a space station falls towards them, unsure of whether they will live or not.
