Twists of Fate [Part 17]
Nov. 18th, 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
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Missed a day, whoops.
Genre: General.
Word count: 2,422
Total word count: 37,293
Status: Work in progress
A few minutes later, after Huian had changed into the clothes Nakida had bought for her and had a drink, Huian tilted her head back and peered up at the rooftop far above her head. It was such a long distance away but Takeo's memories didn't think much of it; it was a standard height. And she wasn't Takeo, wasn't enhanced at all.
"How do you want to be carried?" Kang-dae asked, as she watched the cables slide out of Nakida's wrists, pooling around their legs and 'board. Both of them had been influenced by their past memories, huh? She rubbed her thumb over her tattoo, seeing what it had used to look like it Takeo's memories.
"In your arms," she said, her lips at a tilt. It was better than being carried on his back, when his speed could snatch her off.
He nodded and there was a vague unsettled feeling in her stomach at how she had to look up to Kang-dae's face rather than down.
She really hoped she would stop comparing Takeo's memories with what she was seeing or experiencing soon.
Kang-dae nodded and Huian went over, her heart fluttering at the thought of jumping across rooftops. There wasn't anything to worry about; Kang-dae had done it a thousand times before and so had Takeo - this would be the first time she'd done it though, and getting tot he inn while she'd been unconscious didn't count, not when she hadn't been aware at the time.
She got scooped up and Huian put her arm around his shoulders securing herself. She twisted around and saw Nakida, their lower legs attached to their 'board, the other cable snaked into Kang-dae's hand.
"Ready?" Kang-dae asked, looking at both of them.
"Yeah," Huian said, and Nakida nodded.
Huian felt him bend his arms after their responses.
And they were in the air, the window pulling her hair and she felt gravity trying to keep a hold of her stomach. She knew what roofhopping felt like from Takeo's memories, but they weren't as clear as this, something that she could recall, but a step back from an actual experience.
Kang-dae was springboarding off the walls and Huian had enough time to look over his shoulder to see Nakida following the same path, twisting around to land feet first against the wall before being dragged into another direction.
Kang-dae landed on the roof, barely exhaling and Nakida's cables lifted up like a wave without him moving his hand. They appeared a second after, whizzing up past the rooftop and then diving down. They landed still moving in an arc around him.
And then Kang-dae was moving gain, taking a few steps and leaping across a gap as if it didn't exist. The next rooftop was higher than the last but it didn't make a difference to him. Huian watched Nakida over Kang-dae's shoulder and part of her, Takeo's memories, wanted to do the jumps herself, even though she knew she could do a tenth of what Kang-dae was doing.
She still wanted to do it, still felt sure enough she could make it.
That was more breathtaking than the memories that snuck into her own like they had always been there; that she could think there was something she could do but when she did it, found her body didn't match her expectations. And then plummet several stories to her death.
The more they bounced over rooftops, the more aware Huian because of the third Dark Spear, like a beacon she could see in the daylight, or always knowing where north was. It was like an itch at the base of her skull getting stronger with each step. Anger curled around her, Dark Spear's, wanting to fight with her now it wasn't confined anymore, stronger. It wanted revenge.
Could Nakida feel Joyce's Dark Spear as well? They didn't look like it, but they were concentrating on not becoming a bloody smear across a wall.
It was only an awareness Huian had with the connection; it didn't carry thoughts or emotions along with it, so they would find out if Joyce knew they were coming when they got there.
They landed a short distance away from the building and it was almost like a pulse Huian could feel across her skin; Joyce was so close she could taste it. Each leap wasn't as dizzying as the last and Nakida enjoyed the view, the skyline against the bright sky.
"Huian?" Kang-dae said when they were all on their feet and Huian blinked, shaking her head. She'd been staring in the direction of the building, on the verge of taking a step towards it. "Where's the closest entrance?"
The closest entrance? Huian peered out into the street, reorienting herself, matching up what she could see to what Min-chul's memories knew.
"This w..." She glanced back at Nakida, who was still shaking out a leg. "Uh." Maybe they should wait for Nakida…
"Go," Nakida said, flapping a hand at her, minimising their 'board. "I won't be needing to feel my legs for much; if it's someone running, it'll be you two."
That was a good point. And they were really doing this, going back to the Union. It was just starting to be a reality after being distracted by the memories she had to sort through, getting used to
"All right." She nodded and started to lead them away from the building, towards the public toilets. "They don't want this entrance used a lot," she said as she took them into the non-binary toilets, "since it might get a bit obvious if people come in and not out."
"Scans?" Kang-dae asked Huian slid a tile away to reveal a codelock with a miniature keyboard under it.
"Not as far as…they knew," she said, trailing when she realised she was about to say 'I'. "They hadn't needed eye or fingerprint scans when they joined." She put in the code and it beeped.
"They don't seem to be worried about intruders," Nakida said.
"Fucking assholes," Kang-dae muttered with gritted teeth as the wall started to fold back, revealing an elevator door. "Too much hassle to keep the database updated when their modified humans' details had to keep being added or deleted."
Scans hadn't been needed in Takeo's time and it was probably for the same reason. That, and their data would keep changing with the modifications, wasting time when the modified human got caught out.
The wall was going back into place as the three of them got into the elevator. It didn't take long for the elevator to stop and when it opened, a brightly lit long corridor greeted them, branching off in different directions.
Joyce was on this floor, Huian could feel it.
Huian took a step forward but paused when she heard Nakida's hum.
"Do your memories tell you any private areas in here?" They were rubbing at the back of their neck.
"All of it is," Huian said, scrunching her eyes shut at the wave of memories telling her what happened behind some of those closed doors.
"But…this area's less used than the others," she said, starting to lead them down the left path, away from Joyce. "What do you need?"
Nakida didn't answer straight away and when she glanced at her in question, Nakida was studying her. "Any place with access to their system, which is anywhere; I just need a place where someone won't stumble across my body."
Huian let the memories guide her to a set of doors and put in the code to open it.
The doors slid open, the lights flickering on and solidifying after a few seconds. Inside the room were large liquid filled tanks. They were outdated – no-one really used them anymore, aside from a few months ago, and those had been a failure. The tanks weren't as efficient as modern methods.
The room smelled musty; it hadn't been opened for a while, maybe since those last experiments.
"Okay," Nakida murmured, going towards one of the panels in the walls. "Won't be long."
* * *
The Union's system wasn't that different from any of the other systems Nakida had hacked into before. At least glance, at least; there could still be surprises in surprise for them.
Alert caught and given them access to the camera feeds, Nakida floated towards them, stretching their conscious out.
No-one was there watching the feeds. Huh. But the guards were still humans who needed breaks, and if the people working here were used to it being secure, they had probably slacked off.
Now where were Kang-dae and Huian…
They scanned the feeds; there was far more of them than what the security company had above, and squished into smaller screens. How were the guards supposed to see anyone acting suspicious?
Or maybe that was the point, Nakida seeing one experiment in action, sliding their attention away from it. If it was hard to see, the guard could keep on with their job.
Where-? They spotted Kang-dae's silver hair in the feed. Finally. Connecting to his communicator was easy as usual.
[
Huian's eyebrows shot up at the sight of them. [
[
They didn't get an answer, Kang-dae already leaving the room.
[
They watched the two leave, reaching for the appropriate feed. A small skip back and- [
Huian was two steps in front of Kang-dae and Nakida wanted to use the feeds to watch her without being seen, but there wasn't time for that. They hadn't known Huian before the Dark Spear had eaten those other people, only that small clash that had lasted a few seconds, so they couldn't judge if she was acting the same as before, or if the new memories had changed her. Her files had said she was driven, that was part of the reason why she'd been picked for the Joyce's training program but still… Nakida wasn't sure.
They turned their attention away from that, finding the cameras in their area to see if anyone was heading their way.
And there was. A pair in labcoats who could be going towards them.
[
Kang-dae nodded and the two went straight, Huian's step faltering for a second at the junction, her head turning towards it. Checking for the labcoats or did she want to go down that way?
They changed the feeds they were focused on, getting rid of the ones that weren't as relevant and picking new ones.
They paused at a kind of hum in the air. That must be the guards returning. They hadn't felt this kind of electrification around them before and they started to slot the feeds back into their proper places, starting up another message.
No.
Wait, they had felt this before.
They turned their attention to either side of them and saw the feeds lighting up column by column to their right. No-one was there and oh shit.
The Union wasn't using guards to protect their data; they were using an AI.
And AIs tended to 'delete' any intruders it came across.
* * *
[
M-21 frowned at the message, waiting for a follow up with more information.
There wasn't one.
Huian looked up the corridor and then back at Nakida's message. "Should we turn back?"
M-21 couldn't hear anyone coming so that could have been Nakida warning them their help would be limited for the moment.
'Be careful'… It wasn't a call for help, and he or Huian wouldn't be able to help them; moving their body would stop them from getting back to it, trapping their consciousness inside the system.
"No," he said, starting to walk again. He had to trust Nakida would be all right and could look after themself.
* * *
The good thing about AIs was that they were meticulous: so long as they weren't disturbed while executing their program, Nakida could float in plain view and not be noticed.
The problem was AIs picked up on disturbances far faster than humans and didn't need breaks for food or sleep.
And Nakida was glad AIs were banned from being used as guards in most systems because of the habit AIs had of causing essentially brain death when it caught intruders, changing the consciousness until the person was no longer who they used to be.
The AI swept up the feeds and then paused almost in front of Nakida.
Oh, shit, had it seen-?
The feed with Kang-dae and Huian maximised, a window popping up beside the feed, rolling text scrolling up until another image popped up in its place.
Kang-dae's face.
One beat, two beats, Kang-dae's face from the feed being extruded out and compared to the image of the one the AI had brought up.
[
Shit!
It must have contacted the guards. Nakida opened up the connection to Kang-dae's –
The windows dropped out of view and Nakida knew they'd made a mistake, that the AI was more sensitive than the last ones they'd encountered and they were zooming back towards their body, the area around them agitating like it was about it attack them.
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
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Missed a day, whoops.
Genre: General.
Word count: 2,422
Total word count: 37,293
Status: Work in progress
A few minutes later, after Huian had changed into the clothes Nakida had bought for her and had a drink, Huian tilted her head back and peered up at the rooftop far above her head. It was such a long distance away but Takeo's memories didn't think much of it; it was a standard height. And she wasn't Takeo, wasn't enhanced at all.
"How do you want to be carried?" Kang-dae asked, as she watched the cables slide out of Nakida's wrists, pooling around their legs and 'board. Both of them had been influenced by their past memories, huh? She rubbed her thumb over her tattoo, seeing what it had used to look like it Takeo's memories.
"In your arms," she said, her lips at a tilt. It was better than being carried on his back, when his speed could snatch her off.
He nodded and there was a vague unsettled feeling in her stomach at how she had to look up to Kang-dae's face rather than down.
She really hoped she would stop comparing Takeo's memories with what she was seeing or experiencing soon.
Kang-dae nodded and Huian went over, her heart fluttering at the thought of jumping across rooftops. There wasn't anything to worry about; Kang-dae had done it a thousand times before and so had Takeo - this would be the first time she'd done it though, and getting tot he inn while she'd been unconscious didn't count, not when she hadn't been aware at the time.
She got scooped up and Huian put her arm around his shoulders securing herself. She twisted around and saw Nakida, their lower legs attached to their 'board, the other cable snaked into Kang-dae's hand.
"Ready?" Kang-dae asked, looking at both of them.
"Yeah," Huian said, and Nakida nodded.
Huian felt him bend his arms after their responses.
And they were in the air, the window pulling her hair and she felt gravity trying to keep a hold of her stomach. She knew what roofhopping felt like from Takeo's memories, but they weren't as clear as this, something that she could recall, but a step back from an actual experience.
Kang-dae was springboarding off the walls and Huian had enough time to look over his shoulder to see Nakida following the same path, twisting around to land feet first against the wall before being dragged into another direction.
Kang-dae landed on the roof, barely exhaling and Nakida's cables lifted up like a wave without him moving his hand. They appeared a second after, whizzing up past the rooftop and then diving down. They landed still moving in an arc around him.
And then Kang-dae was moving gain, taking a few steps and leaping across a gap as if it didn't exist. The next rooftop was higher than the last but it didn't make a difference to him. Huian watched Nakida over Kang-dae's shoulder and part of her, Takeo's memories, wanted to do the jumps herself, even though she knew she could do a tenth of what Kang-dae was doing.
She still wanted to do it, still felt sure enough she could make it.
That was more breathtaking than the memories that snuck into her own like they had always been there; that she could think there was something she could do but when she did it, found her body didn't match her expectations. And then plummet several stories to her death.
The more they bounced over rooftops, the more aware Huian because of the third Dark Spear, like a beacon she could see in the daylight, or always knowing where north was. It was like an itch at the base of her skull getting stronger with each step. Anger curled around her, Dark Spear's, wanting to fight with her now it wasn't confined anymore, stronger. It wanted revenge.
Could Nakida feel Joyce's Dark Spear as well? They didn't look like it, but they were concentrating on not becoming a bloody smear across a wall.
It was only an awareness Huian had with the connection; it didn't carry thoughts or emotions along with it, so they would find out if Joyce knew they were coming when they got there.
They landed a short distance away from the building and it was almost like a pulse Huian could feel across her skin; Joyce was so close she could taste it. Each leap wasn't as dizzying as the last and Nakida enjoyed the view, the skyline against the bright sky.
"Huian?" Kang-dae said when they were all on their feet and Huian blinked, shaking her head. She'd been staring in the direction of the building, on the verge of taking a step towards it. "Where's the closest entrance?"
The closest entrance? Huian peered out into the street, reorienting herself, matching up what she could see to what Min-chul's memories knew.
"This w..." She glanced back at Nakida, who was still shaking out a leg. "Uh." Maybe they should wait for Nakida…
"Go," Nakida said, flapping a hand at her, minimising their 'board. "I won't be needing to feel my legs for much; if it's someone running, it'll be you two."
That was a good point. And they were really doing this, going back to the Union. It was just starting to be a reality after being distracted by the memories she had to sort through, getting used to
"All right." She nodded and started to lead them away from the building, towards the public toilets. "They don't want this entrance used a lot," she said as she took them into the non-binary toilets, "since it might get a bit obvious if people come in and not out."
"Scans?" Kang-dae asked Huian slid a tile away to reveal a codelock with a miniature keyboard under it.
"Not as far as…they knew," she said, trailing when she realised she was about to say 'I'. "They hadn't needed eye or fingerprint scans when they joined." She put in the code and it beeped.
"They don't seem to be worried about intruders," Nakida said.
"Fucking assholes," Kang-dae muttered with gritted teeth as the wall started to fold back, revealing an elevator door. "Too much hassle to keep the database updated when their modified humans' details had to keep being added or deleted."
Scans hadn't been needed in Takeo's time and it was probably for the same reason. That, and their data would keep changing with the modifications, wasting time when the modified human got caught out.
The wall was going back into place as the three of them got into the elevator. It didn't take long for the elevator to stop and when it opened, a brightly lit long corridor greeted them, branching off in different directions.
Joyce was on this floor, Huian could feel it.
Huian took a step forward but paused when she heard Nakida's hum.
"Do your memories tell you any private areas in here?" They were rubbing at the back of their neck.
"All of it is," Huian said, scrunching her eyes shut at the wave of memories telling her what happened behind some of those closed doors.
"But…this area's less used than the others," she said, starting to lead them down the left path, away from Joyce. "What do you need?"
Nakida didn't answer straight away and when she glanced at her in question, Nakida was studying her. "Any place with access to their system, which is anywhere; I just need a place where someone won't stumble across my body."
Huian let the memories guide her to a set of doors and put in the code to open it.
The doors slid open, the lights flickering on and solidifying after a few seconds. Inside the room were large liquid filled tanks. They were outdated – no-one really used them anymore, aside from a few months ago, and those had been a failure. The tanks weren't as efficient as modern methods.
The room smelled musty; it hadn't been opened for a while, maybe since those last experiments.
"Okay," Nakida murmured, going towards one of the panels in the walls. "Won't be long."
The Union's system wasn't that different from any of the other systems Nakida had hacked into before. At least glance, at least; there could still be surprises in surprise for them.
Alert caught and given them access to the camera feeds, Nakida floated towards them, stretching their conscious out.
No-one was there watching the feeds. Huh. But the guards were still humans who needed breaks, and if the people working here were used to it being secure, they had probably slacked off.
Now where were Kang-dae and Huian…
They scanned the feeds; there was far more of them than what the security company had above, and squished into smaller screens. How were the guards supposed to see anyone acting suspicious?
Or maybe that was the point, Nakida seeing one experiment in action, sliding their attention away from it. If it was hard to see, the guard could keep on with their job.
Where-? They spotted Kang-dae's silver hair in the feed. Finally. Connecting to his communicator was easy as usual.
[
That was easier than I thought; you can move now.] They sent that as a text-based message, to make sure they could hear or feel anyone approaching and the guards wouldn't hear them. Huian's eyebrows shot up at the sight of them. [
Tao?][
Yup. That's the name I use when hacking; it fits better, don't ya think?] That wasn't what Huian meant, and Nakida was fairly sure everyone knew it, but this was their element; they were used to dealing with people behind a screen one way or another and it was habit to slip into that persona here. They didn't get an answer, Kang-dae already leaving the room.
[
Do you know the code to leave the room?] Huian said, following him. They watched the two leave, reaching for the appropriate feed. A small skip back and- [
Yep. Got it.] They copied what the saw, making the code hover in front of them. They wrote over that feed; the problem was writing over their own presence was simple, joining up a blank feed to make the place look empty, but it was harder to do that when what they wanted to hide was moving, when they didn't know where they would go next. Huian was two steps in front of Kang-dae and Nakida wanted to use the feeds to watch her without being seen, but there wasn't time for that. They hadn't known Huian before the Dark Spear had eaten those other people, only that small clash that had lasted a few seconds, so they couldn't judge if she was acting the same as before, or if the new memories had changed her. Her files had said she was driven, that was part of the reason why she'd been picked for the Joyce's training program but still… Nakida wasn't sure.
They turned their attention away from that, finding the cameras in their area to see if anyone was heading their way.
And there was. A pair in labcoats who could be going towards them.
[
There's two people on your left. Don't go-] They checked the position of where the camera was to Kang-dae and Huian. [-left and then the second right.] Kang-dae and Huian might not need to go in that direction and the labcoats could have turned down a different corridor by the time they got there, but Nakida was too aware of the chance of the labcoats heading straight for them. Kang-dae nodded and the two went straight, Huian's step faltering for a second at the junction, her head turning towards it. Checking for the labcoats or did she want to go down that way?
They changed the feeds they were focused on, getting rid of the ones that weren't as relevant and picking new ones.
They paused at a kind of hum in the air. That must be the guards returning. They hadn't felt this kind of electrification around them before and they started to slot the feeds back into their proper places, starting up another message.
No.
Wait, they had felt this before.
They turned their attention to either side of them and saw the feeds lighting up column by column to their right. No-one was there and oh shit.
The Union wasn't using guards to protect their data; they were using an AI.
And AIs tended to 'delete' any intruders it came across.
[
Guards are combe careful!]M-21 frowned at the message, waiting for a follow up with more information.
There wasn't one.
Huian looked up the corridor and then back at Nakida's message. "Should we turn back?"
M-21 couldn't hear anyone coming so that could have been Nakida warning them their help would be limited for the moment.
'Be careful'… It wasn't a call for help, and he or Huian wouldn't be able to help them; moving their body would stop them from getting back to it, trapping their consciousness inside the system.
"No," he said, starting to walk again. He had to trust Nakida would be all right and could look after themself.
The good thing about AIs was that they were meticulous: so long as they weren't disturbed while executing their program, Nakida could float in plain view and not be noticed.
The problem was AIs picked up on disturbances far faster than humans and didn't need breaks for food or sleep.
And Nakida was glad AIs were banned from being used as guards in most systems because of the habit AIs had of causing essentially brain death when it caught intruders, changing the consciousness until the person was no longer who they used to be.
The AI swept up the feeds and then paused almost in front of Nakida.
Oh, shit, had it seen-?
The feed with Kang-dae and Huian maximised, a window popping up beside the feed, rolling text scrolling up until another image popped up in its place.
Kang-dae's face.
One beat, two beats, Kang-dae's face from the feed being extruded out and compared to the image of the one the AI had brought up.
[
ALERT]Shit!
It must have contacted the guards. Nakida opened up the connection to Kang-dae's –
The windows dropped out of view and Nakida knew they'd made a mistake, that the AI was more sensitive than the last ones they'd encountered and they were zooming back towards their body, the area around them agitating like it was about it attack them.