While Nex was holed up in the navigation chamber, Rake took it upon himself to learn exactly how Dawnblade was alive. At this point, there was no doubt in his mind that she was somehow a sentient creature, yet the nature and limits of her existence continued to puzzle him. The biggest roadblock was there was no obvious way to communicate with her, so solving that that particular puzzle was where he began.
Pacing around the cabin was the clear first step, at least in Rake's mind. Minutes passed and nothing came to him. Agitation was beginning to crawl its way up his spine. Heaving a deep sigh in an attempt to control a near-outburst, Rake simply walked to the opposing wall of the cabin and leaned there on his arms, head tilted to the ground to calm his nerves.
"How am I supposed to talk to a sword," Rake muttered, now hunched over in one of the beds, resting his head over clenched fists. The more time that passed by the stupider he felt trying to talk to a sword.
"You could try, I don't know, asking?" a voice giggled beside him. The collision that followed resulted in an immediate blackout due to the poor unfortunate soul that was Rake, leaping up in shock, and hitting his head on the bottom of the bunk above.
"Your friend came in to check on you," the same voice laughed at a just-awakening Rake Astrohitcher.
"Of course he did," Rake groaned, suddenly aware that he was now gently tucked in bed.
"All his doing," the voice assured. A few moments passed, then, the voice resounded once more, "Why won't you look at me?"
As he turned his head his eyes widened at the sight of a ghastly, naked body. Her wispy, overly long hair being the sole thing that covered her translucent, spiritual frame.
"Dawnblade?" Rake was still attempting to wrap his head around the situation.
"In the flesh, err, spirit." Dawnblade placed her hands on her hips and gave a forced, hearty laugh. "You can call me Dawn, though," she informed him, followed by a quick wink.
"This is a bit much," Rake admitted, though he had his fair share of otherworldly voices this past year. This was especially true when Rakaro was simply replaced by another voice in his head, Dreamsight. Even then, Rake wasn't really sure that Rakaro was gone for good.
"Don't worry, I'm not a voice in your head. I am 100%, completely real," Dawn spoke as if she had just peeked inside her keeper's struggling headspace. "Though, Nex did seem oblivious to my presence when he came to tuck you in," Dawn pursed her lips. "Yep, you're insane," she cooed at him.
Rake responded with a scoff, accompanied by rolling eyes. "If you've been with me any amount of time, that much should be obvious." Acceptance of his new spiritual friend eased onto him like a weight lifting off his chest.
Nex passed through the now disabled barrier from the navigation chamber to the cabin area. Dawn was nowhere to be seen.
"Watch this," she suddenly reappeared, whispering into her wielder's ear. Whispers soon turned into a cackling laugh as Dawn moved in and out of Nex's body, making faces at the both of them.
I'm going absolutely mental.
"What are you staring at?" Nex inquired, causing Rake's attention to shift.
"Nothing," Rake lied, only half paying attention. Part of him was unable to cease staring at Dawn's antics.
Nex looked at him with a skeptical yet worrisome gaze. "Another vision?"
"You'll think I'm crazy." Rake became distraught, dragging himself up into a seated position.
"I already think you're crazy," Nex encouraged him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Well," Rake relented, "Dawnblade is alive. She's in here in her spirit form, right there beside you." Dawnblade waved at the gesture as Rake nudged in her general direction.
Nex turned around, unable to see anything in the whole 360 degrees that he turned. Returning to his initial position, he looked at his dear companion for a long moment; his face was passive, yet not in the slightest bit aggressive. Finally, he spoke, "We're gonna figure this out, Rake. I'm in this for the long run."
"Yeah," Rake spoke with a disheartened tone. "I'm sorry," escaped his lips, for no reason in particular. Though, for some reason, Rake was truly sorry, even if he didn't understand exactly what he was sorry for.
Dawn waved goodbye with a mocking grin on her face, finally ending her ghostly presence by blowing a kiss.
Meanwhile, Nex took a bed on the opposite side of the cabin. Sleep welcomed him with open arms, or at least it appeared so.
For Rake, the opposite was true. After staring at the ceiling for a solid hour, he concluded that he may as well get up and do something. He found himself in the navigation chamber, staring off into space in both the figurative and the literal sense.
Should only be a couple more days now. Rake took a look at the estimated time of arrival. "Three more days," his voice trailed off as a devious idea sprouted. I can make it in less than one. He had a feeling that his reckless attitude was a mask, though he didn't dwell on it.
The true form of a Valdorian was useless to try and control. Nevertheless, Rake's skin turned chalk white, teeth became like knives, and his fingers themselves became like talons. A low growl escaped his mouth. So. much. better.
Having previously stabilized the cabin in hopes his sleeping comrade wouldn't notice, Rake pushed Valton's to its limits. Objects became meaningless under the precision of Valdorian instincts. Never had Rake moved his hands so quickly, thoughtlessly, so effortlessly. One mistake could end it all. His own voice itched at the back of his skull.
It only encouraged him to go faster. Anything to block out all the misery that was previously swelling inside his head. What was meant to take days would now take mere minutes. I hope Nex doesn't kill me for this. Valdorian instincts cut off, the feelings of remorse flooded Rake as his true form escaped him.
...
So far Jacob hadn't encountered any difficulties in his time leading Rake's crew. In all honesty, he hadn't done much 'leading' at all as he sticked with the encouraged laissez-faire policy.
Moxin had gone into hiding the second his brother departed, locking himself inside of Astrohitcher where virtually no one could find him. The majority of the crew was likely still unaware that he had stayed. Sydni's whereabouts were entirely unknown, and Maddie was down on the spacedock partying with the rest of the crew. Syfer, on the other hand, was most likely still searching for Moxin.
Meanwhile, Jacob was still on top of Astrocruiser. It had been days since Nex and Rake left them, and Jacob had hardly moved a muscle. It was fortunate that they were nowhere near a star, otherwise he'd have been baking by now. I should be preparing for an invasion, or at least doing something. His thoughts dwindled to the notion of heading down to the spacedock. Fine.
'Glimmer' was an odd talent of Maddie's that only proved useful in the most unusual circumstances. She could revert reality to its previous state, yet the fabric of the world would stay in the same. In other words, remove her glimmer, and things were back the way they were. As long as she breathed, everything affected by her talents would remain affected unless manually removed. Some forty-fifty years from now when everyone forgot she was even there, a living nightmare would occur. Until then, Spacedock X looked absolutely astounding in its current glimmering state. The walls were shining as if they had just been installed, and the neon-lighting found nearly everywhere on the spacedock made it seem like they were in a constant state of rave. Many of Astrocruiser's inhabitants participated in said rave in the main lounge-bar area, which they concluded would double as a meeting room. For the moment, though, they partied their asses off. Maddie was swaying around drunk on the dance floor, fellow pirates were either passing out or flirting with one another. Their only concerns were how fast the booze would run out, and where the back rooms were. The layout of the place was maddening at times.
This is a new. Jacob cut his way through the crowd, headed in no foreseen direction. The music was blasted so loud that he could hardly process his thoughts. All of the touching made him sick to his stomach. 'We have, after all, just secured out largest bounty yet!' Rake's words echoed inside his mind as they had been these past couple of days. We should be preparing for an ambush, not partying. Jacob concluded.
Jacob burst through the exit, where the music started fading the further he walked across the dimly-lit halls. "Easy to get lost in here, eh?" Royal bumped into him.
Running his hands through his neatly-trimmed dark brown hair, he nodded. "Yeah."
"I'm not much of a partier either, makes me anxious," Royal explained. "Where ya headed?" they asked as they continued walking with him.
Just realizing that he had been pacing in no particular direction, he halted. "I don't know, honestly. Rake put me in charge and everything is just out of control." Jacob took a deep breath. "We've literally just secured our largest bounty yet, and they act like no one is going to try to come get it. The people who ran away from it almost definitely plan on coming back with an army, and who knows how soon that'll happen." Jacob paused, realizing he was ranting.
"I agree," Royal snickered. "While everyone else has been partying, I've been installing better defense patterns, and repairing a couple of the cannons." Royal stood proud.
Jacob kind of just stared at them. "You're amazing," he found himself dumbfounded. While I was wasting away doing absolutely nothing, Royal was single-handedly becoming our guardian angel.
Royal just grinned at the notion, and kept walking through the hall with him. "You know," they spoke after a while, "We should probably get them to sober up at some point."
"My thoughts exactly," Jacob echoed, though his mind was elsewhere.
"I've got an idea, follow me," Royal started jogging through the hallway to one of the elevators.
The door opened automatically, sensing their presence. Inside was one of the bartenders that had sworn themself to Rake's crew earlier. "What're you doing here?" Royal chimed as the door closed with the three of them closed in it together.
"I was going to see how everyone was doing," they responded a bit too quickly. They had purple, practically angelic, silk-like skin.
"Then why stay on the elevator with us?" Both Jacob and Royal seemed confused as the elevator ascended.
"To pry," they sneered. "Name is Karthi Vondoo. How do you do?" they practically cackled.
"I think it's best you rejoin the others," Jacob stated firmly, taking his first real action as commander. There is absolutely zero indication that we can trust this person.
"Don't trust me?" They saw right through him and seemed genuinely offended by the statement.
"Not quite, love," Royal patted their shoulder. "We might be able to find something for you to do if you're going to stick by us, though."
Jacob raised a brow. Co-commanders, then. They grinned at the thought, getting odd glances from both Karthi and Royal. Sternness quickly returned to his face, forced as it was.
The spacedock shuddered and the elevator stopped. Panic overtook Jacob and Royal. Neither of them realized that Karthi had disappeared.
Incoming blasts sent them spiraling around much like the rest of the crew was already. Royal had quickly gotten the elevator to fall just far enough to let them out of the floor beneath them as all hell broke loose. Still stuck inside of the spacedock, neither of them had any clue what awaited them outside.
Cosmic missiles spewed out of Maddie's staff in all directions. She was hardly dressed for the occasion, as she was hardly wearing anything due to the party these attackers so rudely interrupted. It didn't seem like the chumps they stole the spacedock from, though. Every ship they had was red, and the soldiers that landed were all in heavy, scarlet armor. This was a contrast to the black suits they stole it from.
They were closing in on her. Get your head together. The shield Maddie cast over herself was starting to wean under the pressure. If only my powers worked like Sydni's, I'm bloody pissed right now. She launched another missile at an oncoming fighter.
Eventually, she was surrounded. Her shield was about to give. She sent a wave of cosmic blasts out of Galaxy Staff, ducking to avoid impact. Curses poured out of her as her shield broke during the process. She placed another, thinner one around her body as she flew up in the air, only to be knocked out by an oncoming blast.
Astrocruiser launched a barrage of torpedoes at the attacking fleet, suffering total engine failure moments afterward. Moments before the blast, Moxin leapt into the air and caught Maddie in both arms. He was already in his true form, his blazing purple hair putting on quite the contrast to his ghastly scarred skin.
Setting Maddie down in a crevice behind one of the computer terminals, Moxin went rampant. No weapon in hand, his talons shredded through the soldiers. Blast upon blast hit his body, but his Valdorian instincts instructed his body to ignore the pain. Little brother doesn't like to admit that I'm stronger than him.
The pile of bodies exceeded Rake's tenfold, stacking so high it was only a matter of time before Moxin could no longer be seen.
...
Finally bursting out of the exit, what lay before Jacob's eyes he could not perceive at first. Royal crept behind him, tears following closely. "What happened?" they covered their mouth as more tears fell.
Jacob, on the other hand, simply took a knee down on the ground, unable to stand. "I'm gonna kill every one of them." He finished his sentence with a clenched fist.
Red soldiers marched towards the two of them.