Edit Note: I changed a tiny detail about Core and Knox's age from EPISODE ONE, where I said the last time Core was injured she and Knox were twelve, and it was also the last time they supposedly saw her brother. I changed it to sixteen instead of twelve. :)
★ ★ ★
{ THE CONFEDERATE | DIVISION ALPHA, THE GRANDE HALL | COORDINATES: X-5182 Y-2348 | 6TH SUN, 10TH MOON | 8:05PM }
ASIDE FROM BEING NIGHTSHADE, Core had another secret:
She couldn't dance to save a damn life.
"If you step on my toes again I will murder you while you sleep," Knox bit out through a wide, pasted smile. He pulled Core closer to keep her from making too much movements, both hands on her waist as they swayed slowly to the stringed instruments guiding them through the dance floor. Core took the opportunity to lean in, winding her arms around Knox's neck and laying her chin on his shoulder.
"I'd like to see you try," Core whispered. Her eyes darted around the hall, observing the people on the dance floor while Knox surveyed those lounging by the tables and bar. "See anything?" she asked, trying not to move her mouth too much lest someone make out what they were trying to prevent.
"I think so, give me a minute." Knox guided her to sway to the right, changing the angle of his vision. He was eyeing a man in a navy blue suit, who was glancing at his wrist watch. The man had a roguish look to him, and his eyes kept darting to a particular table in the room.
"We may not have a minute," Core pointed out. "It's a bomb, Knox. It's not going to wait for us to find it before it explodes." She tried not to snap at him, but her nerves were getting to her. They were racing against time, and the only reason she wasn't going completely ballistic was because Knox had assured her the bomb's countdown hadn't been activated yet. There were too many people in this room, too many possible casualties, and while she had no problem dealing with these things when she was Nightshade, she felt trapped and useless as plain Coraline.
She was going to knee that Eclipse in the groin after all of this was sorted out. What part of "Stay away from Alpha" did the rebel leader not understand? How did he get spies into Alpha, anyway? As far as she was concerned, nobody could cross the border between Beta and Alpha without her knowledge — she had the only available key, after all.
Unless...
"Found our guy," Knox said, giving Core a small twirl so they'd switch positions. "The guy in the ugly navy suit."
"God forbid everyone has your fashion sense," Core breathed out. She saw the man Knox was pertaining to, nursing a flute of champagne and leaning against the wall by the powder rooms. "Are you sure?" He looked like an ordinary man that was extremely bored, after all, possibly waiting for a proper amount of time to pass so that he could leave. "
Don't insult my intelligence," Knox said in an even tone. "Or my fashion sense. I helped Sebastian pick out that dress, you know."
"Shut up, we have work to do." She pulled away, and Knox led her off the dance floor to head towards the bar area. They had to keep up appearances and get the job done, so refreshments after a dance was logical and got them closer to their suspect as well.
"We've got more friends around the area," Knox said lightly, keeping it cryptic now that they were within earshot of other people. Some familiar faces greeted them with a smile, which they returned.
Core picked the message up pretty quickly, born from years of having to spend time with Knox. He was referring to the rebels scattered around the area, hidden amongst other guests, and she wondered what the hell Eclipse was thinking. How was he going to safely heard out all those rebels before the bomb blows? Or was this a suicide mission meant to just wipe out the entire area?
"Lots of friendly faces?" She asked, as she received the flute of champagne Knox handed her.
"Roughly ten or so. There might be one you'd be particularly surprised to see here."
"Surprise me, then."
Knox threw a pointed look at the table the navy suited man kept giving his own share of furtive looks at, and Core discreetly followed Knox's line of sight. She wasn't sure if she was surprised that Dawn was there, or irritated with Eclipse for sending the girl in the first place. Dawn never usually did field work, even if she was Eclipse's assistant of sorts. It was usually intel that Dawn was in-charge of, and Core's gut twisted with what her presence here implied.
Knox pulled his cellphone out, glancing at the transparent glass for any notification of the bomb's activation. There was thankfully none, just the usual time blinking at him as if floating within the glass, but that might change all too soon. The switch to activate the bomb would have to send a signal in order to detonate it, and when that happens his phone would pick up on it. He had asked Sky to modify his phone to serve purposes like this, as Core often got herself into situations that involved remote explosives. His phone was now hard-wired to the same signal patterns explosives carried, and he thanked his lucky stars he had the foresight to ask Sky to engineer the thing ages ago.
And Core had even laughed at his "paranoia." Psh.
He was still watching Dawn from the corner of his eye, and he noticed the beaded purse the girl kept clutched close to her. It wouldn't have seemed so unusual, except she was holding it like...well, like the thing inside it was extremely fragile and about to blow up in her face. She held it by the edges, drawn to her lap but held away from her torso. Knox shot the navy suited man another glance, watching him rest his weight on one leg as a hand rested over a pants pocket.
Then it all clicked, and Knox was on the move. Time was of absolute essence.
"Her purse is quite lovely," Knox told Core, head titling towards Dawn's direction. He downed his own glass of champagne, setting it back down on the bar with a flourish. "I might just ask her where she got it."
Core nodded, acknowledging what he was really trying to say: Dawn had the bomb. Forcing a smile on her lips, Core clenched her champagne tighter. "I'll just go powder my nose, then."
Divide and conquer — Knox will handle the girl with the bomb, and Core will handle the man with the switch.
★ ★ ★
{ THE CONFEDERATE | DIVISION ALPHA, THE GRANDE HALL | COORDINATES: X-5182 Y-2348 | 6TH SUN, 10TH MOON | 8:16PM }
She just had one shot.
Make-or-break situations would have sent a normal person into a nervous wreck, but Core lived for that shot of adrenaline that got her focusing on one goal. Her mind cleared of anything else but her duty, and it got her thinking with startling clarity. She had a plan, and it was time to set it into motion.
Before it was too late.
The tricky part was that she wasn't on the Galactic Army's side, and she wasn't on the rebels' side, either. She was a neutral party that had her own sets of rules and ideas of justice. The rebels just kind of inducted her as an unofficial member out of respect for Nightshade's abilities, while the Galactic Army obviously detested her like a criminal for all her meddling.
While the army had a special troop devoted to hunting down rebels, it's been a while since the group had any breakthroughs or leads; that's why this extreme effort on Eclipse's part was both worrying and frightening.
She was slowly making her way to their suspect, walking purposefully as if she were headed to the door he was standing beside. She had been in this ballroom enough times through the years to know that the door opened to a narrow hallway that eventually led to the powder rooms. Core passed people who smiled and greeted her, to which she did the same to them, even adding a nod of the head or a raised champagne glass to their direction in order to acknowledge their presence. Nobody stopped her (which she was extremely grateful for), and when she was just seven steps away from her target, time seemed to slow down as her mind whirled into overdrive.
The trigger device to the bomb would be small and compact. Something that was normal enough to surpass the security at the front doors. At a formal function like this, the most probable would be a phone. It was likely the bomb was the same. Cellphones were convenient triggers because it could give off signals and could hide explosives, but they didn't cater much damage. So that would mean the rebels didn't want a wipe-out. A small radius blast would injure some people, sure, but not take down the whole building. A distraction then? A distraction from a larger purpose?
One step at a time, Core reminded herself. First, the bomb. Then whatever comes next.
Her target was still leaning against the wall to her northwest direction. She continued striding forward until she an arm's breadth away from him, then on-purposefully tripped herself. One hand shot out so she could steady herself, landing on top of the man's breast pocket. (Nope, nothing there.) The other hand holding the champagne glass lost balance, spilling the liquid down the pants leg the man was favouring. He made an astonished sound, even as both of his hands shot up to steady Core.
"I'm so sorry, that was horribly clumsy of me," Core exclaimed. His suit was already stained, and she moved to tug him towards the powder rooms. "Hurry, before the stain spreads."
The man didn't say anything, but he stared at her intently and clutched at something in the pockets of the stained pants leg. He didn't even seem mad or panicked, just...intense. But still, Core wished he was indeed clutching a (hopefully broken) cellphone-slash-bomb-remote as she pulled the door near them open and led him out into the hallway. Time to find out.
Core walked down the narrow hallway, the man trailing behind her closely. Their footsteps slapped against the granite flooring, Core's heels clacking and the man's leather shoes clicking. Candelabras (that held electric candles just for the sake of keeping to the theme of the place because really, who uses candles anymore) hung on the walls to either side of them, and Core passed a few before she spoke again. "I hope nothing important was damaged from your pocket, I'd gladly replace anything. Cellphone? Wallet?"
It took three steps forward to realise the man had stopped walking, and when Core turned to look back at him, she came face to face with the barrel of a gun.
"Nothing important," the man said, his voice gravely and rough. His lips twisted into a devious smirk. "Now that General Grayson's daughter is in front of me."
Core opened her mouth to speak, but the man cut her off. "If you scream, I shoot, and your blood will be all over these walls."
"I doubt it," she deadpanned, giving him an even look. "You need me alive."
"Oh?" he mocked, flicking the safety of his gun off with a click. It was a stun gun, very much like her own, which implied a number of things: 1) Sky made it, 2) They really do need her alive, and 3) The bomb was a distraction for her kidnapping.
She had to hand it to them, this was the closest a kidnap attempt had ever gotten to succeed. But, she was afraid this would have to be another one that failed.
The man was about to say something, but Core cut him off as pay back for cutting her off when she wanted to speak. Except she did it with a kick, shifting all her weight on her left leg using the momentum to hit him squarely on the stomach. In the same lightning quick motion, she had grabbed the wrist pointing the gun at her head and pushed it away, anticipating that his instinctive reaction would be to press on the trigger.
The shot rang in the hallway, hitting the ceiling somewhere, and Core pried the gun out of the man's grip. He was doubled-over — still processing everything that has happened so far — and Core used that to her advantage.
"Be thankful I'm not a big fan of killing people," she said simply, before aiming his own gun at him and pulling the trigger.
His eyes rolled over before his body slumped to the floor in unconsciousness. She grabbed the hem of the dress, wiping the gun down to erase her prints from them. The Galactic Army was going to find this guy unconscious on the floor, and it wouldn't be good if they find her prints on his stun gun. Girls weren't allowed to hold guns, much less fire them.
She crouched down in order to flip the body over, letting the man lie on his back. Digging in his soaked pocket revealed that there was indeed an old model of a cellphone in it that smelled slightly of champagne. The screen wasn't lighting up, but she didn't dare to fiddle with it anymore. She just stood, threw her shoulder back, and hurled the phone at the wall in front of her. It made a satisfying crack on impact, falling to the floor in a heap of broken parts.
Core chucked the man's gun back to him, letting it fall on his belly. She blew at a stray strand of hair that fell over her eyes and straightened her dress, ready to go back out to the ball like nothing had happened. But before she could move from her spot, the door she had come from swung open.
Sebastian froze, hand still on the knob, staring at her and the body down the hall. There was a beat of silence that passed before Core got impatient and spoke. "You're late."
"Who's he?"
Core stepped over the body and shrugged, making her way towards Seb.
"Who did that?"
I did, Core thought. But as usual, she hid the truth by letting him think what he wanted to think.
"Who do you think?" she returned.
Seb's eyes narrowed, and Core knew he had successfully drawn the correct (though not in the way he thought was correct) assumption. "Nightshade should really start minding his own business."
Core was in front of Sebastian now, and as she moved to brush past him, he stopped her. His hands on her shoulders kept her in place. "And you should let go of that soft spot you have for the vigilante. Just because Nightshade saves you from time to time, doesn't mean you're going to repay him by not turning him in to the army."
She gave him a sharp grin, ducking out of his grip as she stepped back into the party. As she passed, she threw him one last parting shot.
"What can I say, the man's my knight-in-shining-armor, and I'm his damsel-in-distress."
In her thoughts, she added:
I'm my own fucking hero.
★ ★ ★
{ THE CONFEDERATE | DIVISION ALPHA, GENERAL GRAY'S HOME | COORDINATES: X-3678 Y-1275 | 6TH SUN, 11TH MOON | 8:30PM }
The next day, Core managed to get home, go to bed, and attend lessons without biting anyone's head off. She had been in an extremely foul mood since last night's incident, and all throughout the day she had just been imagining the ways in which she would like to grill the hell out of Eclipse.
What the fuck was that dumb-ass doing? Why was he even after her? Did he think holding her hostage would sway her father to do his bidding, or was he actually just stupid enough to risk his people being caught? Did he fucking lie when he told her (Nightshade, that is, not her as in Coraline) all he wanted was reform, and not the destruction of the Confederate? That he didn't want to cause unnecessary death and injury like the Galactic Army seemed to be absolutely fine with? Did they just befriend her to make use of her weapons and her alpha-to-beta access?
Fuck, she was so damn angry. She felt lied to, betrayed, and worst of all, exploited — the three worst things someone could ever do to get on her bad side.
No matter; she would get her damn answers, even if she had to exert whatever physical effort to get them.
The evenings that led to her transformation as Nightshade involved a lot of waiting. She kept to herself, staying within the confines of her bedroom just to wait for time to pass. These hours were spent either resting, doing homework, or keeping herself in top condition. Core was too worked up (more like too angry) to rest, so she brought out the heavy punching bag she kept stashed in her hidden closet filled with all things vigilante related for a night-time work-out. She dragged it across her bedroom floor, bringing it to a modified spot in her room that could levitate the bag with magnetic force. With the push of a button on one of the many remote panels surrounding her bedroom, the sand bag jerked itself upright until it stood hanging in mid-air. Core gave it an experimental punch, watching it recoil slightly before it swung back into place.
Perfect.
It was time to burn up all the negative energy with sweat.
She wrapped cloth around her hands, padding her knuckles to protect them. When they were tight enough, she fisted her hands and positioned them to cover half of her face, widening her stance by bringing her right leg back. A deep breath was the last of her preparations, proceeding to throw a series of punches and kicks that shook the sand bag. She jabbed and hooked, side and roundhouse kicked, varying her combinations as the sweat matted her forehead. The impact of bag on skin and cloth made a satisfying smack, drowned out by the alternative pop-rock music that always blasted in her room.
(Can't let Seb or any of the cleaners know what she's usually up to, as it mostly involved highly inappropriate or illegal things — for girls, anyway.)
Time ticked by as her sweat drenched her, and when her alarm timed an hour she gave one last front jab-right hook-front kick-back kick combo before cooling down with some yoga stretches. Unwinding the tape from her fingers, she rolled her shoulders and felt a lot more alert and relaxed. She downed a water bottle as she fetched a towel, wiping the sweat away from her face before mopping up the drops that splattered on the floor. The sand bag was stashed into her closet again, and she took a quick shower to relieve herself of the heat.
By 9:30 she was drying her hair and drinking a cup of coffee, both hands filled with multi-tasking, now finally able to think rationally and calmly about the everything she had on her plate. The first was the issue with Van, and his increasingly daring advances That boy had a plan, and he needed her to accomplish it -- she just didn't know what. But that wasn't really as worrying as Eclipse wanting to have her kidnapped. The rebels were more on the defensive type rather than the offensive; they were busy with building their own world on Beta that could survive without relying on supplies and energy from Alpha, motivated to start their own self-sustaining government and army separate from the Galactic Army. The last time the rebels went on a mission that resembled the attack and infiltration of Alpha, it was before Nightshade even existed. So why the sudden re-emergence of that?
As soon as the clock struck ten, Core locked her bedroom door, closed the lights, pulled on Nightshade's flightsuit, grabbed her duffel bag (from one of her secret closets), and pushed her balcony doors open. The cold, evening air greeted her, the stars shining down at her from the sky. She took a moment to savour the view, remembering the times she used to stand in the same spot with Pollux, counting the stars with him.
She missed him. If he was still around, she wouldn't have to deal with all this shit people seemed to love dragging her into.
A vibration started tickling her from her pocket, and she knew it was Aurora calling her cellphone before she even fished it out to answer it.
"Don't get your panties in a twist, I'm on my way."
"I was going to say I'm stuck here," Aurora said tersely.
"Oh. Healer Borealis is back?"
Healer Borealis was Aurora's father, and a doctor in the Galactic Army's main clinic. He was usually on-call and thus spent most of his time there, except for the few times he got a day off -- which just happened to be now.
"Yes. Sorry."
"All good," Core reassured. "If I have any burst arteries or broken bones I'll just drop by later on," she joked.
"Don't," Aurora warned. She didn't take too well with jokes about injury.
Core hummed a half-hearted apology, pinning her phone between shoulder and ear so that she could unzip her bag. Her fingers brushed at the flight helmet and the metal of some weapons, but she continued feeling around until she found what she was looking for: The hoverboard.
"Are you alright?" Aurora asked, clipped and precise, but Core knew she was worried deep down. She wouldn't ask, otherwise.
"I will be, after I get my damn answers," Core said. The hoverboard glowed in her hand, floating down near the ground before it unfolded in a whir of machinery. She propped a foot on it to step on the stealth mechanism, then zipped the bag in her hands up so she could sling it over her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow, I've got a long talk ahead of me."
"Bring Knox with you," Aurora simply said, before clicking off.
She might as well have someone stop her from pummelling Eclipse to death.
They can always play good cop, bad cop.
(She'd be bad cop of course, she rocked bad cop.)
★ ★ ★
{ THE CONFEDERATE | DIVISION GAMMA | COORDINATES: X-0821 Y-1823 | 6TH SUN, 11TH MOON | 10:25PM }
"Has it ever occurred to you that the man just doesn't trust you?" Knox suggested loudly over the roaring of the wind. They were en route to Beta, skyriding on the hoverboard with Knox's arms on Core's hips.
"Of course it has, I don't trust him either. You'd be stupid to trust someone whose real face, voice, and name you don't even know," Core replied. She was already wearing the Nightshade helmet, her reply coming out through the distorter.
Knox poked Core on the side, which Core responded to with an elbow to his stomach. "Then why the hell are you surprised with what's happening?"
"I'm not surprised. I'm angry. There's a fucking difference between the two."
"I know that, don't sass me. I'm just saying there's no use getting riled up over it."
"I really fucking hate not knowing what's happening," Core ranted. "It makes me feel incapacitated, like I'm not in control, and things could go wrong, and —"
Knox cut her off by squeezing her hips. "Calm down," he commanded.
And she did. Half because Knox anchored her when she needed it the same way she anchored him, and half because Knox was right: She needed to relax. She was going to Beta as Nightshade, not as Coraline, and as far as the rebels were concerned Nightshade was deliberately left in the dark with this plan. Nightshade only supposedly knew of it because of Knox, the "side-kick" (which Knox completely opposed the title, by the way) who had seen Dawn, informed the girl he knew of their plan, and calmly asked for her purse or else be turned over to the authorities.
So Knox had played the "bad guy" that night, outrightly letting the rebels know he was going to spoil their plan, and when he had successfully done so, Dawn had simply stood up and left like she didn't come waltzing in with a mission to fulfil. They had given up far too easily, and Knox had wondered why, but Core had answered it for him when she told him about their kidnapping attempt. Now Knox had to play his part out to the rebels, and roll out the plan he and Core had devised as they travelled to Beta. Hopefully if it played out well, the rebels will never look for Coraline ever again.
They spent the rest of the ride in silence, preparing themselves for a dangerous mission of sorts. Knox was going to be in danger with the plan that they had, and Nightshade would have to protect the both of them. The two hoped it wouldn't escalate to that, but the rebels had something planned and shifting their focus might just get the two of them killed.
When they neared the electric fence, Knox reflexively stiffened. It had a harsh neon glow that hurt his eyes, and he had to shut them as they passed right through — unharmed — as if they had been protected by an invisible force field. For all he knew, that might exactly be what the badge pinned on Core's chest did.
They were already on Beta, skyriding over rocky, mountainous terrain. Beta didn't have a flat, modern cityscape like Alpha; it was the exact opposite, with wildlife and forests littering mountains that stretched in differing directions. That was strategy on the rebels' part, using nature to keep the Galactic Army from finding them. If Nightshade hadn't been "welcomed" into the rebels' fold roughly a year ago, the vigilante wouldn't know how to reach rebel territory, either. It was extremely well hidden, and only the landmark of a particularly perfectly cone-shaped mountain helped guide the way. That one was actually man-made, designed to look like a mountain but in actuality hid the rebels' headquarters.
Core zoomed towards that immediate direction, certain the rebels already knew she was within the vicinity despite her invisibility. They had sensors that surpassed the Galactic Army's, simply because of Sky — she made Core's hoverboard (and in extension its stealth feature), which would mean having the hoverboard's energy signature.
Rounding the mountain, she slowed down to locate the particular entrance she was looking for. It didn't help that the only light they had was the glow of the moon and stars.
Knox found it first. "There," he pointed.
Core flew towards it, slowly lowering in altitude and ducking trees as they went. She stopped in front of a high, rocky cliff that stood in a forest clearing, the massive rock crawling with thick vines. Knox jumped off first, dusting imaginary lint off his leather bomber jacket. Core followed after, recalling the hoverboard into its sphere before tucking it away.
"Do we have to be polite and knock? Can't we just blast the damn door open?" Core suggested. She was already moving towards the massive chunk of rock and soil, but Knox stopped her with a hand tightly clamped on her wrist.
She turned to tell him to stop delaying because she needed her fucking answers right now damn it, only to stop short at what she saw.
On the branches of the tall trees that surrounded them perched rebels in every shape and size, each brandishing an electric torch with one hand, and their weapon of choice with the other. It ranged from ion guns to static swords to magnetic bows, all threateningly prepared and aimed at Knox, and Core's heart almost stopped in her chest.
She was used to weapons being pointed at her. But her friends stayed in the fucking ship for a reason during her patrols, and this is exactly what she had been trying to avoid.
No, she thought, shaking the panic off. You knew this was going to happen.
But not now, another part of her brain seemed to answer. It wasn't supposed to happen now!
"Nightshade," a rebel called out from one of the trees to her right. He was olive-skinned, with dark dreads hanging down his shoulders. Core recognised him as Neptune, one of the front-liners the rebels had. A static sword pulsed and glowed as he treated it like a cane, both hands wrapped around the hilt as the tip buried itself into the thick branch's wood. "Your companion has been branded a traitor to the rebellion for disrupting a mission."
Core found her confidence then. Neptune had called her Nightshade. She was Nightshade now, and as Nightshade, she was fucking invincible.
"A mission I had no knowledge of," Core replied coldly, letting her bitterness and anger seep through. "My companion did it to protect his loved ones, as any of you would have done to protect each other."
Neptune ignored her, pressing on with his declamation. "He has ruined a rare opportunity, allowing the escape of General Grayson's daughter Coraline and the capture of one of our own."
"That is the damn problem," Core shot back. "You were after Coraline."(Saying her own name will always feel a little foreign on her tongue.)
"What of it?" Neptune brushed off. "She is essential to the rebellion's cause, and Eclipse has ordered for her capture."
Knox surprised Core then by stepping forward, causing a loud echo of weapons to click into place. Core almost yanked him back behind her at the not-so-subtle threat, but she stopped herself when he lifted his chin to face the army of rebels with his most serious expression.
"I have aided the rebellion for a year now," Knox began, his voice straining as he said it as loudly as he can. "I have done what I can to aid Nightshade whenever you needed his help. But I could not let this one pass by." He paused, fingers clenching as he gathered the courage he needed to utter the words that might make him the next target of the rebellion for a different reason altogether. Core was in danger as Core and not as Nightshade, and he needed to protect her the way she protected him. It was time to let the rebels in Beta know what the people in Alpha have known two years ago when they were both sixteen, and it had been the biggest piece of media gossip for the rest of the year.
"Coraline is my fiancé, and you are threatening her safety."
★ ★ ★
Author's Note:
This is 5k worth of words someone be proud of me pls.
Plot twist one right there folks, but it may just not be what it seems ;)
Let me know what you think, as always!