Aetheral Space-Chapter 524 0.15: From Heaven To The Earth (Part 1)

It was a rare day when it would rain on Mar -- actual rain, water, not a toxic deluge or flesh-eating storm.
Azez and Tazir trudged through the mud as an ocean's worth of water crashed against them drop by drop, the hoods of their raincoats pulled up high over their heads. It was not quiet. 'Quiet' was not a state that existed on the war-world of Mar -- in the distance, the roar of a horror echoed -- but this was just about as close to quiet as it got. It was just Azez, Tazir, and the trudging. Peace like this was measured in seconds on Mar, but those few seconds were treasured all the same.
It had not been quiet the night before, either, though -- far from it. A ship had come down, not far from their camp. That in itself wasn't particularly unusual. It was fairly common for ships to be shot down and annihilate encampments entirely when they crashed.
What was unusual was for a ship to come down intact.
As they crested the hill, Tazir spotted what they'd come for. The vessel looked almost comical -- rocket-shaped with a bubble-like window protruding from the top. It had left a deep trail in the landscape behind it where it had come down. Swallowing, Tazir tightened his grip on his rifle and nodded to his younger subordinate before heading down towards the crash-site. Azez followed after, the two of them skidding through the mud.
This area had become an impromptu corpse-field after a battle several weeks ago, the bodies preserved relatively well by an experimental cryoweapon -- as such, the frozen corpses provided a relatively stable footing as they made their final approach.
With the damage the ship had already sustained, getting the cockpit open was actually fairly easy. Tazir had experience with working on starships, so a few 'surgical' slams of his rifle into the proper areas manually activated the release function. Azez trained his rifle on the cockpit as it slowly opened, tongue gliding over his lips in tense anticipation. The roar echoed from the distance once again, slightly closer this time.
Azez's eyes reflexively flicked over to the source of the noise for a second -- and by the time he looked back, the cockpit had already finished opening.
A young woman was sprawled in the ruined starship, clearly unconscious. Dark hair hung low over her face, and one of her arms was clearly twisted the wrong way. Slowly, Tazir reached down and pulled one of her eyelids open. Black sclera.
An Umbrant.
Tazir and Azez exchanged a glance. They'd heard about what had happened, of course -- everyone had. The Umbrants had conspired with the creature called the Blindman to assassinate a Gene Noble, to fly her ship directly into a star and roast her into nothingness. In retaliation, a recall had been declared against the whole subspecies. As servants of the Gene Nobles themselves, it was Tazir and Azez's duty to put this girl down before she could ever open her eyes again.
However, Tazir looked at Azez.
However, Azez looked at Tazir.
And Tazir spoke.
"Get her back to camp."
-
Five Years After The Fall Of Azum…
On that day, the flag of the Tazir Supremacy flew over every building on the newly christened Azum-Ha. Few knew the significance of that name -- most believed it to simply be the Supreme's surname -- but those who had known Tazir felt some comfort at hearing his name resound through the galaxy like that. At this point, though, those who still remembered that man's name were very few indeed.
Azez Tazir and Bieshu del Mar. One had adopted his name as their own, and the other had taken that of the planet they had met on.
It had taken five years for the Tazir Supremacy to finish rebuilding after the battle of Azum -- now Azum-Ha, the name of the planet amended by the flagship that had landed and become its dawnhouse. They had expected it to take much longer, truth be told, but a victory that had once been thought impossible did wonders for the morale of a workforce. The temples and buildings had been repurposed, a new society carved into the skeleton of the old one. Even new skyscrapers now rose above the stone sea of the past, glittering in the sunlight as traffic flowed overhead.
Today, though, all of that traffic was flowing in one direction -- towards what they were calling the Arena of the Absolute.
The five-year anniversary, and the completion of the rebuilding that came with it, was no small occasion. Citizens were coming from all over the Tazir Supremacy to celebrate, and those members of the Zeilan Morhan that still remained had spared no effort in the celebrations. A re-niain of the Gene Tyrants had been going on for a week in the city, a grand festival of stalls and shows and burnings, and to conclude the festivities a great event was to be held in the newly finished Arena.
The Supreme himself, Azez the Absolute, would stand on high and be honoured for his valor and strength. There would be speeches and retellings and a radiant display of his Lantern of Truth -- so as to assure the people that the strength that protected them would continue to do so. Once that was done, Azez would sit his throne and observe a grand melee between the most promising new fighters of the Supremacy, those that had the potential to one day replace him.
It was sure to be a day to remember.
The cheering of the waiting crowds could already be heard from far above as Bieshu del Mar walked through the bowels of the Arena of the Absolute, loud enough to pour through layers upon layers of sturdy ceilings and supports. She smirked ruefully to herself as she walked across the catwalk, heading through the automated generator chambers that kept the Arena running. Nothing had even happened yet, and they were already losing their minds.
Still, though, she wasn't in a celebrating mood.
For the last few weeks, she'd been busy. Herself and a few other members of the Zeilan Morhan had been investigating rumours of a plot -- a plan to assassinate Azez during the event. It wouldn't be the first time someone had put such a dark scheme together. After the victory over the Gene Tyrants, the opportunists that had previously followed Azez for safety's sake had now gone from seeing him as a protector to an obstacle in their pursuit of greater power and influence. Bieshu had taken the heads of a few such traitors already…
…and this time, she wasn't alone in her hunt.
Reaching the end of the walkway, Bieshu stepped into an elevator and began descending deeper into the Arena's depths. The sound of the crowd above grew fainter and fainter, before suddenly cutting out entirely. It seemed the bottommost level of the Arena was beyond their voices' reach.
Good. This was a time for miserable business. It wouldn't do for happiness to be present.
The doors to the elevator slid open, and Bieshu stepped out into her final destination. This part of the Arena was dark and mostly empty, holding the skeleton of future construction -- girders and frameworks and stray lights -- rather than anything right now. The plan was to fit the Arena with a massive repulsor, so it could fly and relocate itself, but for the moment that was just a pipe dream. It made it a convenient location to hold such a meeting, at any rate.
Her fellow hunters were already present. Edgar and Ruri.
To be honest, they weren't the ones that Bieshu would have picked, but there weren't so many Aether-users of their caliber that she could be picky. Edgar smiled at her in that eerily serene way of his, while Ruri paced anxiously, her arms crossed. Bieshu had never truly understood what was going on in Edgar's head, and Ruri's devotion to Azez was uncomfortably close to zealotry. At the very least, though, Bieshu was sure they wouldn't be involved in any plot to take him down.
"Well?" Bieshu asked, black-and-yellow eyes flicking between the two of them. "Driver. Was he here?"
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Ruri answered the question simply enough. Without saying a word, she swung her arm and tossed a severed head at Bieshu's feet. The dead eyes of Essa Driver stared up at the ceiling, his lips parted in a final expression of shock. Judging from the relatively intact state of his head -- save for the fact it wasn't attached to his body -- it didn't look like there had been much of a fight.
"You were right," Ruri said haltingly. "When we got here, he'd -- he'd been setting up some sort of device against the reactors. We think he was trying to turn the whole Arena into a bomb."
Well, if you were looking to kill the galaxy's strongest man, you'd want to be sure.
"Anyone else with him?" Bieshu asked curtly.
"Some coconspirators," Edgar replied, cool blue eyes fixed on the severed head. "They're no longer a concern. What is a concern… is what their plan was."
Bieshu frowned. "The bomb? Weren't you able to deactivate it?"
"Not the bomb," Edgar continued, his voice as calm as could be. "Our concern is what Driver intended to do after his assassination plot succeeded."
Slowly, Bieshu nodded. "I see. That makes sense. I'd be surprised if they put all this work into getting rid of the current leadership, and didn't have a way of getting themselves in power afterwards."
"That's the thing, though," Ruri muttered -- unlike Edgar, her eyes were fixed on the ground. "They weren't looking to seize power for themselves. They were planning to put you on the throne."
Silence drifted into the space between them. A cold silence that permitted no movement. Edgar didn't blink, and Ruri's pink eyes flicked up to meet Bieshu's gaze.
This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened. Ever since the victory over the Gene Tyrants, Azez had been forced to harden his heart in order to hold the nascent Tazir Supremacy together. Pirates and bandits, rebels and dissidents… the fist he'd brought down upon them hadn't quite been iron, but it had been close. He'd only done what he'd had to do, but people didn't see it that way.
In comparison, Bieshu was thought of as someone closer to the civilians, silk rather than steel. Azez broke the chains of slaves, but Bieshu led them into freedom. So went the thinking. It was no surprise that some people thought the time had come for the Supreme to be the latter, rather than the former.
Bieshu sighed, running an awkward hand over her face. Something had to be done about this. Something definitely had to be done about this, to make it clear to such scum that Bieshu wouldn't go along with their plans… but for the time being, at least this plot had been foiled. She crossed her arms, looking to Ruri.
"We'll need to take precautions against future plots like this," she said. "Ruri, I heard you'll be joining Granba's Maker-Guild once he's got the place up and running. Is there anything he could come up with for us?"
Ruri said nothing. She just continued to stare at Bieshu.
"Ruri?" Bieshu frowned.
Again, Ruri said nothing. She didn't even blink.
"We have a solution," Edgar said, shifting slightly. "Only it doesn't involve Granba."
Bieshu looked to Edgar, and then back to Ruri. There was a certain coldness in their eyes, both of them -- a veritable blizzard from Edgar, but a sliver of ice even in Ruri's pink gaze. The slight smile died from Bieshu's lips… and the final pieces of the jigsaw clicked into place.
The fact that this meeting was secret.
The fact that Edgar and Ruri had come here together.
And above all else… the fact that this floor was clearly soundproofed.
Bieshu looked over to Edgar. There was no mercy in his eyes, but she hadn't expected to find any anyway. His hand twitched. So did hers.
"Your idea?" she asked.
"You'd be surprised," he replied.
-
Several Weeks Earlier…
Deep in a forgotten temple on Azum-Ha, a single table and two chairs had been set out. When they were done here, that table and those chairs would be aged into nothingness. Even if this entire conversation took place only in the forgotten shadows, not a single trace of it could be allowed to remain.
Ruri looked over the table at Edgar.
"We need to get rid of Bieshu," she said, her voice strained.
Her pink eyes wavered, but she didn't look away. Edgar narrowed his own eyes in inspection of her resolve. This was something she truly believed, it seemed, even as she hated herself for doing so.
Edgar simply cocked his head in response. "You think so?"
"I-I do."
"Why?"
Ruri clenched her fists on the tabletop. "Azez is the Supreme. Azez is the Supremacy. He's the one who broke our chains and led us all to freedom -- and… and people don't understand that, just because he has to do some things that don't always look that good. I heard someone talking the other day, you know?"
"I hear people talking most days," Edgar smiled placidly.
Ruri slammed her fist against the table. "No! I heard someone saying…" she squeezed her eyes shut, her face slick with sweat, as if voicing these concerns was physically painful for her. "...I heard someone saying that -- that Azez was a leader for war, but Bieshu was the one for peacetime. Peacetime. Like such a thing exists. They don't even get it."
"I find few people do," Edgar replied. "To be honest, I've found that a status quo tends to settle quickly. It's easy for the unwise to forget just how fragile this supposed 'peace' of ours is. Bieshu has always been the closest one of us to the civilian populace. I'm not surprised the cowards are drifting to her banner. It's the same with Driver."
Ruri ran a hand through her hair.
"Even if…" she began, before needing to take a breath. "Even if, right now, she's not going along with it… that doesn't mean the day won't come when she does go along with it. We need to take that possibility off the table… entirely."
Edgar blinked.
"I agree," he lied. "Better it's dealt with now than later… and I doubt we'll get a better opportunity. Still… don't you feel like this is betraying Azez?"
Ruri took a deep breath.
"We'd be betraying him more by doing nothing," she said firmly.
It was no surprise that Ruri had come to Edgar with this, he reflected. His disposition made him the most likely to go along with such a ruthless and pragmatic plan -- but more than that, he and Ruri had something in common.
Both of them would go untouched by the hands of time.
Edgar's condition wasn't nearly as terminal as Ruri's Aether tic, but Trilogy Blue had been designed with aesthetics in mind. Any aging would only affect the inside of Edgar's body -- from the outside, he'd remain in this pristine and beautiful state until the day he died. One day he would simply stop working, like a discarded doll. It was the same for Zarakhel. Perhaps this superficial similarity had created some notion of camaraderie in Ruri's mind.
Even if that was the case, it was surely mistaken. Edgar thought of Ruri as he would think of any other person. As for her scheme…
To tell the truth, Edgar felt that he'd reached the end of the value the Tazir Supremacy as an institution could offer him right now. He'd like to get the best results from his exit too, if possible. If he were to cast these ties aside, this was probably the best way to do it.
After all… this would serve as a useful example.
-
Pink Aether surged.
Blue Aether crackled.
White Aether shone.
"Chronodissonance!"
As Ruri whipped her plasma pistol from its holster, the weapon was already infused with her ability. Aether had long since taken the Zeilan Morhan past the point of fearing plasma shots -- but a plasma shot accelerated and strengthened by Chronodissonance? That was another story. She grit her teeth as she raised the pistol, caught between necessity and regret.
"Beast Crown!"
As Edgar waved a hand over his face, a transparent crown-shaped construct manifested over his eyes like a visor. The current of the Aether around him intensified, just a little, sparks running over his entire body. His expression didn't shift at all, though. Those cold blue eyes didn't blink, and that serene smile didn't so much as flicker.
"True Flow!"
Bieshu's pupils brightened from yellow to a pure white, and she pulled twin scimitars from their sheaths in a single smooth -- no, perfect -- movement. She said nothing. Despite the newfound brightness of her eyes, they had somehow also taken on a dull and dark aspect.
It was the same for all of them. They had realized, after all. The time for talk had long since passed.
This was the time for killing.