Twists of Fate [Part 8]
Nov. 8th, 2014 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: Nakida’s a hacker in the middle of a job to find some information. Except they’re not the only one breaking into the building that night - there’s a silver-haired guy walking around like cameras don’t exist. If he wants to get caught, it’s not their problem.
Huian’s on guard duty to protect the information they’re after. Usually it’s quiet - all she has to do is enter the system, keep an eye on the camera feeds and patrol around the clusters of data to make sure no-one gets to them.
Their pasts connect them, even if they don’t remember. And the past does tend to come back.
Rating: PG-13
Contains: Animal cruelty. Body horror
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Lots of short scenes here, hah.
Genre: General.
Word count: 2,288
Total word count: 18,074
Status: Work in progress
The front door was opened and – dammit. What used to be a view that made it easy to see who they wanted was now a view that was too easy to hide in.
There was still a bubble there that people avoided and Nakida tracked that as the bubble moved.
Even then, it wasn't easy and Nakida wanted to do what they normally did and fast forward, letting their console do all the work and take them straight to the answer they were trying to get. The console wouldn't be able to track the 'heat haze' though with accuracy, since it kept changing and it would probably lock onto other heat sources, and the console would lose the two when they reached an open area. Nakida would have to do this manually.
So if the two were there… Nakida tracked where they thought the two were with the curser, playing the feeds at half-speed to make sure they didn't lose them.
Except someone just stepped right where the curser was. There hadn't been anyone there. Shit.
Nakida skipped the feed back, trying to find a spot they were certain Huian and Jocelyne were in. Except they thought they had the two the first time. This was wasting too much time, but they had to be methodological or they would lose them completely.
They found a spot where someone dodged out the way of empty air and marked that in case they had to back track again. They had the feeling they would in a few minutes.
Where could they have moved next? There was a margin of space away from the road. Had the two crossed it?
Dammit, trying to follow a heat haze was almost impossible with a low definition image and people disrupting it, making it harder to see.
Which was the point but it didn't stop Nakida's frustration at what was happening. Or their determination at keeping track.
If the two had crossed the road… Nakida widened the field of cameras in their view, slowing the feeds even further. It wasn't likely they'd be able to see when the two crossed the road (if they were even crossing the road) but they could try to catch them again afterwards.
The two probably wouldn't backtrack, but if they were heading for public transport or a car-
Fuck.
Nakida hadn't been thinking, too focused on what was happening in front of them. If either Huian or Jocelyne had a car, they could track its position and that would be a lot faster than trying to keep an eye out for empty space.
They paused the feeds and opened up Huian's and Jocelyne's profiles.
Huian didn't have a car, but Jocelyne did.
…That was an old model. Wasn't that one manually driven? Were those still being made now? …Or Jocelyne had bought one as they were first being made, if her age was close to being true.
And Nakida had a feeling they knew why Jocelyne hadn't upgraded her car as they entered the licence plate to the search.
Nakida waited, drumming their fingers on their thigh, watching the loading bar fill up.
[
It hadn't driven through that area recently. Apparently.
Nakida doubted that was true. Not when those cars didn't have inbuilt trackers in them like the more recent models. If Jocelyne could hide herself from cameras, hiding her car from being tracked was probably done in the same way.
…If they had to try and keep track of an invisible car-!
But… Nakida sighed and took another swing from their bottle, gulping it down. With an invisible car, it would be easier to see since cars had a set route to follow, especially in congested areas.
Tiny break done, they set down the bottle and started the feeds again, making the windows larger so they had more chance of seeing what was going on.
They lost the pair three more times and the time covered in the feeds had been about five minutes, but it had taken Nakida far longer than that to finally see the car that turned on by itself in a near empty street, the doors opening without help.
The car's licence plate was blank. But at least the car was visible, so they should be able to follow that with a lot more ease than invisible people.
The car pulled out, looking like it didn't have any passengers and Nakida made their console track it as it moved. While the car weaved in between traffic they ate some…it was lunch now, not breakfast.
They made sure to check the licence plate every so often in case their console switched cars, but it was the same unreadable one.
Once they were sure their console could keep track of it, they opened up a map and starting marking the path the car was taking.
Away from Huian's house (obviously), not going in the direction of Jocelyne's house either…
The path she was taking was fairly direct and Nakida set a line, trying to guess the places where Jocelyne could be going.
…Wait. There was one building there that was already pretty familiar to them.
The security building was close to the line, only a short distance away from it.
Was that where Jocelyne was taking Huian? There shouldn't be anywhere to keep her, unless…
Nakida pursed their lips but stopped that thought short. It wouldn’t be good to make assumptions.
They kept following the car, and it did end up turning away at the last couple of turns, moving towards the security building's car park.
Damn. Nakida leaned back in their bed and exhaled. They had something to work with now.
But how were they going to find out how to get to wherever Jocelyne was keeping Huian…?
* * *
The stabbing sensations in Huian's skin had faded, leaving only a tingling in its wake. Joyce had gone too, and she must have lost consciousness because she was hooked up to a drip.
Her stomach was still saying she was hungry, and her body was exhausted, wanting to do nothing but lie there. Rest.
She couldn't do that. She had to find out how to get out.
And now that she was alone, she could try to talk to the presence in her head without being interrupted.
Try to, anyway. It was volatile, only wanting to lash out, but it was Huian's only chance of getting out. That she could think of at the moment. The prospective of pain wasn't one that Huian wanted – she didn't have a choice though. It was the ripping pain or staying trapped here until she was killed one way or another.
But how…? She closed her eyes, evening out her breathing. What had Joyce called it? Dark Spear?
Yes?
Her breath caught in her throat as the presence focused on her and she felt like she was inside a system again, except the system had a consciousness of its own and could easily swallow her into it.
So Joyce had been right. This was Dark Spear. Whatever that was.
A series of flashes and Huian caught a couple of images - she couldn't make sense of them before they disappeared again.
There was also a roll of anger, but it was muted, like being at the end of a ripple rather than at the centre.
Can you cut through the restraints?
Huian caught absolute certainty from Dark Spear. As well as frustration.
Could, was the mutter. Not enough power.
How could what Huian was feeling be not enough? If felt like it could tear through a wall.
Dark Spear gathered itself, like it was going to attack her. It collapsed instead, huffing. We need more, Takeo.
Who-? I'm not Takeo. She'd have thought it would have picked that up at least; it had been inside her head all this time.
A snort that echoed. Your soul's Takeo.
Fuck. This wasn't working. How could she talk to it when it seemed like a bundle of barely kept together instincts? A group that was just a cohesive whole. She couldn't understand how it thought.
How is my soul Takeo's? Her soul was hers.
Dark Spear stayed quiet, like it was pondering her question, which gave Huian some hope. Was she getting through to it?
It was also doing something that Huian couldn't make out. Oh, it was gathering itself again. Was it going to try to slice through the restraints?
No.
No? Then what was it doing?
This is Takeo-
That didn't sound like something she'd actually wanted to find out and from the little she'd seen, she was also sure she didn't want to do it the way Dark Spear was about to. Wait-!
-and this is why your soul is Takeo's.
She was all too aware of a wave of something coming her way and it crashed into her, enveloping her.
Huian wasn't strapped to a table anymore; she was surrounded by memories upon memories that were filling her brain. The Union. M-21. Tao. Names that had places attached and they wouldn't stop coming. She was being smothered by all the information, yet she knew each one when she saw it.
The annoyances of having long hair. Working at Ye Ran. Nobles. Having a male body.
The memories stopped, Dark Spear packing them away again.
She was reeling from what Dark Spear had shown her, trying to make sense of it all. That didn't explain-
A door opened and Huian snapped her eyes open at the sound. Her vision swam and she blinked, trying to see clearly again.
It was Joyce walking in, holding a small cage in her hand.
Aris, Dark Spear hissed, and this time, Huian knew who it was talking about, who the overlaid image was and why she felt the anger at it.
"Still trying to use it, I see."
Was she getting slowly covered in purple and black like she'd been shown in those memories?
…The connection to Frankenstein made sense now, but not how she'd gotten Dark Spear.
Huian's skin was throbbing worse than it had been though, so Joyce was probably seeing something she couldn't.
"Though I've done a bit of reading on the notes we had," Joyce said, setting the cage down next to Huian's shoulder. Inside was a small rat sniffing at the bars.
Dark Spear took notice, all of its attention zeroed in on it. If it couldn't reach Joyce, then the rat would do-
"Wait, wait, wait!" Dark Spear couldn't be thinking of what she could hear and feel it thinking about, but Dark Spear snapped out at her arm, lunging for the rat.
She could feel it wrap itself around it, feel the fur, feel its heartbeat thundering against the tentacle. She could feel as the tendrils pierced skin, muscle and bone. It was drawing something out that wasn't physically there, greedily collecting into itself.
The rat was shrieking non-stop, its cry ringing in Huian's ears.
And then it was gone, Joyce lifting the cage out of the tendrils' reach until it couldn't keep its shape, snapping off. "It apparently has the habit of trying to eat its host."
Huian was trembling. She couldn't argue against Joyce's words. Not when she'd heard and felt the want Dark Spear had.
We would have gotten power from that! It was hissed, Dark Spear retreating, wanting to save as much of itself as possible.
"But I got what I came for."
As Huian watched, Joyce walked away again. She couldn't stop staring at the black and purple mass that was curled up inside the cage.
* * *
The sky was clear, only a few clouds obscuring the sun at intervals.
Which was good weather for Nakida to be comfortable as they made their way around the security building. There were some nice empty spots where they could sit and observe, and Nakida picked a place that had a wall they could lean against. No-one would be looking over their shoulder either.
Their spot had a clear view of the front of building, and they could see the people walking by with ease.
Trying to watch the building from their room was safer, but being there in person meant they had more chance of seeing Jocelyne. It would be far easier that way. It might not give them much if they followed her, but it could give them an indication of how to get where Huian was.
They settled down on their spot and opened up their console, putting the back up so people couldn't read their windows. They kept their hacked feeds of the surrounding buildings at a relatively small size, since they weren't sure where exactly the feeds for the security company were.
Once that was done, they started searching through the crowd, trying to match the face they'd seen in Jocelyne's profile.
* * *
M-21 crouched on top of the rooftop, watching the people move around from under him.
This was useless. He was useless. He'd been able to find out where Huian had last been seen (and he had the feeling the 'other caller' Abi had talked about had been Tao) and who she'd left with, but that didn't mean Joyce was the one who'd taken her.
He hadn't called her to check, just in case it was her and he tipped his hand.
…And M-21 had been watching the crowd for so long that he realised there was one person who hadn't moved from their spot for a couple of hours now.
Could that be…?
He was too high to see any distinguishing details, so he moved back to jump down to street level to get a proper look.
Summary: Nakida’s a hacker in the middle of a job to find some information. Except they’re not the only one breaking into the building that night - there’s a silver-haired guy walking around like cameras don’t exist. If he wants to get caught, it’s not their problem.
Huian’s on guard duty to protect the information they’re after. Usually it’s quiet - all she has to do is enter the system, keep an eye on the camera feeds and patrol around the clusters of data to make sure no-one gets to them.
Their pasts connect them, even if they don’t remember. And the past does tend to come back.
Rating: PG-13
Contains: Animal cruelty. Body horror
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Lots of short scenes here, hah.
Genre: General.
Word count: 2,288
Total word count: 18,074
Status: Work in progress
The front door was opened and – dammit. What used to be a view that made it easy to see who they wanted was now a view that was too easy to hide in.
There was still a bubble there that people avoided and Nakida tracked that as the bubble moved.
Even then, it wasn't easy and Nakida wanted to do what they normally did and fast forward, letting their console do all the work and take them straight to the answer they were trying to get. The console wouldn't be able to track the 'heat haze' though with accuracy, since it kept changing and it would probably lock onto other heat sources, and the console would lose the two when they reached an open area. Nakida would have to do this manually.
So if the two were there… Nakida tracked where they thought the two were with the curser, playing the feeds at half-speed to make sure they didn't lose them.
Except someone just stepped right where the curser was. There hadn't been anyone there. Shit.
Nakida skipped the feed back, trying to find a spot they were certain Huian and Jocelyne were in. Except they thought they had the two the first time. This was wasting too much time, but they had to be methodological or they would lose them completely.
They found a spot where someone dodged out the way of empty air and marked that in case they had to back track again. They had the feeling they would in a few minutes.
Where could they have moved next? There was a margin of space away from the road. Had the two crossed it?
Dammit, trying to follow a heat haze was almost impossible with a low definition image and people disrupting it, making it harder to see.
Which was the point but it didn't stop Nakida's frustration at what was happening. Or their determination at keeping track.
If the two had crossed the road… Nakida widened the field of cameras in their view, slowing the feeds even further. It wasn't likely they'd be able to see when the two crossed the road (if they were even crossing the road) but they could try to catch them again afterwards.
The two probably wouldn't backtrack, but if they were heading for public transport or a car-
Fuck.
Nakida hadn't been thinking, too focused on what was happening in front of them. If either Huian or Jocelyne had a car, they could track its position and that would be a lot faster than trying to keep an eye out for empty space.
They paused the feeds and opened up Huian's and Jocelyne's profiles.
Huian didn't have a car, but Jocelyne did.
…That was an old model. Wasn't that one manually driven? Were those still being made now? …Or Jocelyne had bought one as they were first being made, if her age was close to being true.
And Nakida had a feeling they knew why Jocelyne hadn't upgraded her car as they entered the licence plate to the search.
Nakida waited, drumming their fingers on their thigh, watching the loading bar fill up.
[
NOT FOUND]It hadn't driven through that area recently. Apparently.
Nakida doubted that was true. Not when those cars didn't have inbuilt trackers in them like the more recent models. If Jocelyne could hide herself from cameras, hiding her car from being tracked was probably done in the same way.
…If they had to try and keep track of an invisible car-!
But… Nakida sighed and took another swing from their bottle, gulping it down. With an invisible car, it would be easier to see since cars had a set route to follow, especially in congested areas.
Tiny break done, they set down the bottle and started the feeds again, making the windows larger so they had more chance of seeing what was going on.
They lost the pair three more times and the time covered in the feeds had been about five minutes, but it had taken Nakida far longer than that to finally see the car that turned on by itself in a near empty street, the doors opening without help.
The car's licence plate was blank. But at least the car was visible, so they should be able to follow that with a lot more ease than invisible people.
The car pulled out, looking like it didn't have any passengers and Nakida made their console track it as it moved. While the car weaved in between traffic they ate some…it was lunch now, not breakfast.
They made sure to check the licence plate every so often in case their console switched cars, but it was the same unreadable one.
Once they were sure their console could keep track of it, they opened up a map and starting marking the path the car was taking.
Away from Huian's house (obviously), not going in the direction of Jocelyne's house either…
The path she was taking was fairly direct and Nakida set a line, trying to guess the places where Jocelyne could be going.
…Wait. There was one building there that was already pretty familiar to them.
The security building was close to the line, only a short distance away from it.
Was that where Jocelyne was taking Huian? There shouldn't be anywhere to keep her, unless…
Nakida pursed their lips but stopped that thought short. It wouldn’t be good to make assumptions.
They kept following the car, and it did end up turning away at the last couple of turns, moving towards the security building's car park.
Damn. Nakida leaned back in their bed and exhaled. They had something to work with now.
But how were they going to find out how to get to wherever Jocelyne was keeping Huian…?
The stabbing sensations in Huian's skin had faded, leaving only a tingling in its wake. Joyce had gone too, and she must have lost consciousness because she was hooked up to a drip.
Her stomach was still saying she was hungry, and her body was exhausted, wanting to do nothing but lie there. Rest.
She couldn't do that. She had to find out how to get out.
And now that she was alone, she could try to talk to the presence in her head without being interrupted.
Try to, anyway. It was volatile, only wanting to lash out, but it was Huian's only chance of getting out. That she could think of at the moment. The prospective of pain wasn't one that Huian wanted – she didn't have a choice though. It was the ripping pain or staying trapped here until she was killed one way or another.
But how…? She closed her eyes, evening out her breathing. What had Joyce called it? Dark Spear?
Yes?
Her breath caught in her throat as the presence focused on her and she felt like she was inside a system again, except the system had a consciousness of its own and could easily swallow her into it.
So Joyce had been right. This was Dark Spear. Whatever that was.
A series of flashes and Huian caught a couple of images - she couldn't make sense of them before they disappeared again.
There was also a roll of anger, but it was muted, like being at the end of a ripple rather than at the centre.
Can you cut through the restraints?
Huian caught absolute certainty from Dark Spear. As well as frustration.
Could, was the mutter. Not enough power.
How could what Huian was feeling be not enough? If felt like it could tear through a wall.
Dark Spear gathered itself, like it was going to attack her. It collapsed instead, huffing. We need more, Takeo.
Who-? I'm not Takeo. She'd have thought it would have picked that up at least; it had been inside her head all this time.
A snort that echoed. Your soul's Takeo.
Fuck. This wasn't working. How could she talk to it when it seemed like a bundle of barely kept together instincts? A group that was just a cohesive whole. She couldn't understand how it thought.
How is my soul Takeo's? Her soul was hers.
Dark Spear stayed quiet, like it was pondering her question, which gave Huian some hope. Was she getting through to it?
It was also doing something that Huian couldn't make out. Oh, it was gathering itself again. Was it going to try to slice through the restraints?
No.
No? Then what was it doing?
This is Takeo-
That didn't sound like something she'd actually wanted to find out and from the little she'd seen, she was also sure she didn't want to do it the way Dark Spear was about to. Wait-!
-and this is why your soul is Takeo's.
She was all too aware of a wave of something coming her way and it crashed into her, enveloping her.
Huian wasn't strapped to a table anymore; she was surrounded by memories upon memories that were filling her brain. The Union. M-21. Tao. Names that had places attached and they wouldn't stop coming. She was being smothered by all the information, yet she knew each one when she saw it.
The annoyances of having long hair. Working at Ye Ran. Nobles. Having a male body.
The memories stopped, Dark Spear packing them away again.
She was reeling from what Dark Spear had shown her, trying to make sense of it all. That didn't explain-
A door opened and Huian snapped her eyes open at the sound. Her vision swam and she blinked, trying to see clearly again.
It was Joyce walking in, holding a small cage in her hand.
Aris, Dark Spear hissed, and this time, Huian knew who it was talking about, who the overlaid image was and why she felt the anger at it.
"Still trying to use it, I see."
Was she getting slowly covered in purple and black like she'd been shown in those memories?
…The connection to Frankenstein made sense now, but not how she'd gotten Dark Spear.
Huian's skin was throbbing worse than it had been though, so Joyce was probably seeing something she couldn't.
"Though I've done a bit of reading on the notes we had," Joyce said, setting the cage down next to Huian's shoulder. Inside was a small rat sniffing at the bars.
Dark Spear took notice, all of its attention zeroed in on it. If it couldn't reach Joyce, then the rat would do-
"Wait, wait, wait!" Dark Spear couldn't be thinking of what she could hear and feel it thinking about, but Dark Spear snapped out at her arm, lunging for the rat.
She could feel it wrap itself around it, feel the fur, feel its heartbeat thundering against the tentacle. She could feel as the tendrils pierced skin, muscle and bone. It was drawing something out that wasn't physically there, greedily collecting into itself.
The rat was shrieking non-stop, its cry ringing in Huian's ears.
And then it was gone, Joyce lifting the cage out of the tendrils' reach until it couldn't keep its shape, snapping off. "It apparently has the habit of trying to eat its host."
Huian was trembling. She couldn't argue against Joyce's words. Not when she'd heard and felt the want Dark Spear had.
We would have gotten power from that! It was hissed, Dark Spear retreating, wanting to save as much of itself as possible.
"But I got what I came for."
As Huian watched, Joyce walked away again. She couldn't stop staring at the black and purple mass that was curled up inside the cage.
The sky was clear, only a few clouds obscuring the sun at intervals.
Which was good weather for Nakida to be comfortable as they made their way around the security building. There were some nice empty spots where they could sit and observe, and Nakida picked a place that had a wall they could lean against. No-one would be looking over their shoulder either.
Their spot had a clear view of the front of building, and they could see the people walking by with ease.
Trying to watch the building from their room was safer, but being there in person meant they had more chance of seeing Jocelyne. It would be far easier that way. It might not give them much if they followed her, but it could give them an indication of how to get where Huian was.
They settled down on their spot and opened up their console, putting the back up so people couldn't read their windows. They kept their hacked feeds of the surrounding buildings at a relatively small size, since they weren't sure where exactly the feeds for the security company were.
Once that was done, they started searching through the crowd, trying to match the face they'd seen in Jocelyne's profile.
M-21 crouched on top of the rooftop, watching the people move around from under him.
This was useless. He was useless. He'd been able to find out where Huian had last been seen (and he had the feeling the 'other caller' Abi had talked about had been Tao) and who she'd left with, but that didn't mean Joyce was the one who'd taken her.
He hadn't called her to check, just in case it was her and he tipped his hand.
…And M-21 had been watching the crowd for so long that he realised there was one person who hadn't moved from their spot for a couple of hours now.
Could that be…?
He was too high to see any distinguishing details, so he moved back to jump down to street level to get a proper look.