The Deathsuit

Hurry.

Adorn returned to the open red door, looked inside one last time at the huddle of mourning Ebons, crying a rainbow of tears over their Deathsuits.

So many.

The Ebon Operative pulled the last rib and the covetousness away, prepared to close and seal the door so tight, an old woman would never remember how to open it again. Before she could, Aegis looked up with luminous eyes like mother-of-pearl and a smile of gratitude. His Deathsuit had once been Dove.

"I never loved her," he said. "And then I met Dove. That's why she started."

Adorn screamed, teared up. She slammed the door.

No questions.

She had to leave now or be trapped here forever.

****

This shell does not understand.

Do you not remember, Aegis?

This shell loves you. Only you. You give this shell long and wonderful life.

Adorn sat at her terminal in the career archives, unable to stop swiping tears from delicately flushed cheeks. Her heart pounded within her Deathsuit as she considered opening the file.

Looking deeper.

Could it be only coincidence? Aegis was not unique as a name.

No. Adorn could not believe it. At the very least, it was a trick of the mind. A mad woman who killed Ebons and had gleaned something personal from the Ebon who finally stopped her.

Because we had to get so close, that monster and me. Without my Aegis between us.

Or...

It is fate. It is meant to be. That I would cage my Deathsuit's killer someday...

The Ebon drew in a deep breath, released it, and decided. She turned on the terminal and typed her search.

Ebon -- Murder -- Aegis -- Dove

There. A report confirming it. Everything there which was supposed to be. Date and place of birth and death, funeral ceremony granted and mention of family. Career path, far too brief. Adorn narrowed her eyes at the text.

Cause of death, car accident.

She only noticed then that the program had excluded "Murder" from its search. Ridiculous. It would take hours to find the pathway outside that filter. She took the shortcut, typed in her access code, struck several combinations that would bring up any files hidden from lower SCLs.

There.

Click.

Adorn stared at the screen again. Stricken.

D-NOTICE.

"Shit," she whispered aloud.

She closed her mouth, looked over her shoulder. No one stood there yet.

Log off. Walk away.

Doing so, gathering up her bag, her coat, her coffee, Adorn left. Exiting the building, she poured the coffee down the sewer drain before tossing the cup in a covered bin. She wasn't sure where she was headed.

Someone was watching.

She stopped. Turned. Turned again. All the way around. Dark-dressed Humans flowed around her on the concrete, glancing at her in confusion or irritation or pity. Only one wasn't Human.

There!

Adorn followed him into the high-class bar, was blocked until she displayed her SCL badge. She was allowed in. Then followed the tang of Flux toward the bathroom, went in. By sheer chance came face-to-face with another woman.

"Excuse me," the corporate dress said with pursed, painted lips, brushing shoulders in annoyance despite the rain on Adorn's coat.

"Apologies," she whispered too late, searching about the otherwise empty, spotless lavatory.

Brow creased, she left again without ordering anything. I need more sleep.

"Operative. Hey? Operative Adorn?"

Finally, the Ebon did meet a man on the street who had been looking at her.

She turned one last time. "Agent Thom?"

"Yeah."

He wore an old hat to keep the rain from flowing down his neck, had the collar of his tan trench coat up beneath, cradling the base of his bare skin head. Adorn got the feeling he would have taken hold of her arm as he seemed to slow momentum like an old-fashioned train.

"Walk with me?" he asked instead.

"Official, Agent?" she asked.

Thom nodded. She felt her insides quiver.

"They reported me already?"

His dark eyes glimmered. "Reported what?"

Confess.

"The D-Notice," she said.

The Agent shrugged, hands deep in his pockets. "You're not under my authority. I was nearby, collared to escort you to the nearest Ebon Council. I don't know why. Figured you might appreciate a face you know over one you don't."

Adorn watched that haggard face, ultimately nodded her agreement. Thom saw it and removed a hand once hidden, gestured with a key bob rather than a FEN pistol.

"I have a car. We can drive."

"I cannot," she remarked. "I never learned."

He raised his imperfect smile. The engine started up with a press of a fingerprinted button. "I'll drive."

Thom's car didn't belong to him; Adorn could tell the moment she sat in the velveteen cushion of the seat and closed the door. A black sedan belonging to Cloak, checked out from Inventory. It smelled recently cleaned. Sterile.

Too many users of the same tool.

But Adorn was coming along willingly, so there had been no need for anything larger to contain more Agents. This one man she knew, who had helped corral a disturbed killer, was better than many options she could think of. Adorn reached up and stroked her own cheek, thinking about Aegis.

Aegis, the Ebon. With pearl eyes.

Without speaking, Thom had buckled up and pulled out into the city traffic. Adorn looked out the window at Mort Central, sometimes watching the water bead up close and drain down in infinite squiggles, sometimes looking out at the umbrellas and the faces on the street.

Then they passed him on the street again. Her back now ramrod straight, her neck twisted, trying to follow him. She finally glimpsed a more precise shade.

Strobe blue. Electric.

Getting close.

"Operative?" Thom asked.

She looked over at him. "Hm?"

The man turned his bald head. "What are you loo—fuck!!"

Adorn blurted a scream as the car jerked and veered. A horn blared past. Agent Thom pulled fast toward a gate into a private alley, which opened as the nose of the vehicle got too close. A pair of pale, masculine hands with long fingers draped over the backs of their seats, nearly touching each of their shoulders.

"Try not to wreck, Agent. It might hurt."

Adorn stiffened, breath stopped. Aegis clung to her, trembling as a familiar Flux oozed into her again, hearing that voice again. Agent Thom stopped the car at last, shoved it into park, and twisted his broad shoulders around, big fingers pressing to the upholstery. He stared straight at the Brain Waster leaning casually now in his backseat.

"How in Slayer did you get here? Wait, wait, you 'folded,' right? What's your SCL?"

"Thom," Adorn whispered softly, a warning. She stared behind her and could not blink lest he disappear yet again.

The Brain Waster was tall for their race, his body and legs filling up the rear like he was warm taffy being stretched. His blank gaze was void black, and the expected char marks around his eyes had reached far beyond what was typical for her aggressive cousins.

Adorn's gaze traced the permanent scars, carbon-seared flesh all the way down his jaw and neck like he had been weeping liquid fire for eternity. The marks extended up his brow as well, defying gravity, charring his forehead with two black lines which disappeared into his hairline like twin explorers diving in to burn a jungle. His wild hair was that glimpse of strobe blue she'd seen, marked just with those two dark lines leading from his abyssal eyes.

He wore a black trench coat, and a charcoal Deathsuit underneath.

But the telltale sign for even the dullest Ebb sense was the lump crawling slowly underneath along his upper arm, then his shoulder. His upper back. Chirring and whining. Winding up.

Gore Cannon.

This one weapon could level the city block around them. They were only grown within the bodies of one type of being.

"You're not a 'Waster," she whispered.

He smiled. "You know what I am, Adorn. I know you. And Aegis."

She swallowed.

This shell cannot protect you from a Union, beloved...

Agent Thom was still turned in his seat, his other large hand gripping the steering wheel. He frowned at the Necanthrope. "If you could just do this, why did I get that fetch message?"

Teserak smiled and did not answer. Very much like a Brain Waster.

But more.

"Forward five blocks," he instructed. "Left for two, right again for six. I won't repeat it, monkey."

Muttering, the Human Agent turned back around and started driving again. Thom was right, of course. The car ride wasn't needed; Adorn could be standing at those coordinates a mere blink from now.

Jade's Master was making her wait. He settled back in the seat, watching the rain outside. Listening to the hiss of tires and the moan of street bikes. Thom found the way without error, parking outside an ornate and familiar wrought iron gate. He looked over at her, as if asking if she'd be alright.

He was wise enough not to ask aloud. She had no idea how to answer.

The Agent glanced at his backseat, snorting softly. He was unsurprised to see Teserak was gone. "Bastard."

"Have you seen him before?" she dared ask.

Thom shrugged, dark eyes peering out the windshield. "Not him. Just the type. Plenty of 'em among us 'monkeys,' too. All are bastards, I don't care that they try to come off as a god." He paused, shrugged again, stiffer. "The noories guarding the cages in the craters thought they were gods, too."

"I-I'm sorry, Thom."

"Don't be." The Agent shifted dark eyes toward Macabre without turning from her. "Better not keep him waiting."

Adorn tried to smile a little and breathed out nervously. She coaxed Aegis out where the Veteran could see the shield she would carry with her. Thom watched as she held out a trembling, lavender hand, the back decorated with fine, pearlesque swirls. With neither hesitation nor want, Agent Thom reached out and took it in his naked grip, giving it an all-too-Human shake. Adorn sucked in a breath of surprise at the sensation.

In the contact, the Human gave her and Aegis a tangible gift without even being aware of it. Selfless. Not all of them were stunted, then.

This shell likes him.

Me, too. This must be why we keep trying.

A pity she didn't have more time.

"Thank you," Adorn said, opening the door and getting out of the car.

"Sure." The bald man leaned over on the steering wheel, peering up at her on the sidewalk. "Thanks for helping me with that case."

"You're welcome, Thom. Be well."

"You, too."

Adorn spotted something out her periphery, stealing along the grounds of Macabre. A warning.

Don't try to escape.

"I must go."

The bending figures were closing around her even as she hurried toward one of the back doors to the tall, private center. A Vassal with its leather bonds permanently embedded allowed her in without challenge.

Adorn wandered dark corridors far from the stage she had seen in Evalyn's mind, far from the cathedral in which she had been taken and enjoyed by so many. The walls were black and bone white, at times blending together in a morass of greys.

It took time to find the Right One, several hours perhaps, or several minutes, but as long as she did not stop upon the path, the dream demons stayed at the corner of her eye.

A pair of feather wings, innocent and white, upon one.

Hungry, metallic teeth within the open palms of another.

A stretching, reaching pseudopod consuming a painting upon the wall.

And a titan filling the doorway with many voices.

Silhouettes watching her from the end of every hallway.

We're coming, she thought. Both of us. We promise.

No, one whispered. Not him. Just you.

Abruptly, Aegis' courage started to dissolve. Adorn choked on her heart and stumbled. Quickly, she shed her clothes as if they rotted like Evalyn's Deathsuits. Aegis crawled, tickled in its panic, and Adorn slapped at herself as if to catch roaches upon her.

They would tear this shell off, beloved!

"Shh," she whispered, wearing nothing but Aegis as she rubbed herself. "Calm. Just the two of us."

This shell will die to let the beloved go! This shell will die ...again!

No. This shell cannot go into the White again. Only once, this shell went. Alone!

This shell failed.

This shell...

The dream demons got closer in response to the Ebon stopping, flashing near enough to touch her, taunting, claws swiping to miss with intention. Adorn screamed alone inside the dark pathways, threw herself with a thud against the bone-laced wall. Clutching her chest, she struggled to breathe. She could not stop shaking.

Aegis—

Failed! Failed to protect Dove. Failed to protect Self!

Now this shell fails the beloved, too!

"You...remember...?" she gasped out, vertigo taking her, sending her sprawling as Teserak spoke from the tainted Flux left inside them.

Aegis speaks only Truths to you, Adorn. He always has. The Ebon who once was died of loss, you discovered this. That is why you are here. You came too close, too quickly. It's pleasing and displeasing at once.

Adorn folded her arms protectively around herself. That Truth sinking in through their bond. Aegis would never have become her Deathsuit if he had succeeded in the White. She and him never would have found each other.

If he had returned from the White, he would be like them. In Macabre.

Instead, he was this.

"He was too young to succeed," she wept. "It was an unfair test."

Torment builds Will, Teserak counted. Madness raises insight, intuition. Given the perfect test, he was too meek, too weak to succeed! What of you, Adorn? Do you have the strength leave his carcass behind now that you are finished with it?

"We are not like the Wraiths," she argued, "killing and consuming our weakest young!"

What makes you think that? Only a matter of time scale, isn't it, Ebon? You've met the Stormers. All recycled in their vats, eventually. You've met the Frothers, poisoning themselves to rush the Truth and be ground up and strained. No need to let all those compounds go to waste. You've met far too many Humans, pretending to be something they're not. Perhaps only the Shaktar make it off-world to a real funeral, but only because they alone cannot change. They are a doomed race.

In such ways, every breath has meaning for the meaningless.

Adorn wept, her face in her hands. The Necanthrope cooed in mock pity. The Union chuckled in disharmonic splendor.

This is Mort, children, Teserak said, splaying his arms, palms up. A dead world where you were born, and only the dead can feed the living. Why are you surprised? Even the nursery blossoms on the tables of restaurant know this. All light which brings life is artificial.

All, except for the White. Which brings Eternity.

The door in front of Adorn split open, blinding her as pure white shot through to spear her eyes. Aegis wailed, helpless to wait his inevitable fate as Teserak stepped out of the light, no longer a voice in themselves but a tall immortal looming over them. He held a Blitzer pistol in one hand and an ornate sword in the other.

They were real. That gun. That blade.

"Let her go, Aegis." The Necanthrope pressed out his will. "You remember, yet you cannot. Your purpose is over. Do well by her. Say farewell."

Aegis resisted at first, bands of muscle tensing, straining to hold on, the lavender flushing with blood. Adorn mewed. Teserak lifted one nostril.

The Voice of the Ebb grew louder between her ears.

"Release her!"

Aegis tore on a microscopic level and screamed inside Adorn's head, and she filled her lungs to do the same.

"No! My shield comes into the White with me!"

"No one enters the White twice, Ebon, and certainly not Deathsuits that remember what they once were."

Bonds shred painfully, setting her skin on fire. High song buzzed in her ears. The walls grew sick with voyeuristic glee as she screamed. Ultimately, because Aegis could not bear the taste blood upon her pale skin, blood which he caused, he peeled back to expose Adorn's head and heart for the very first time since they truly met, with a crazed Frother ranting atop them both.

"No, no..."

Adorn shook, cold, tender, and lost. She gathered her exhausted Deathsuit now loosening about her waist and hips, cuddling the soft folds to her naked breasts. Tried to coax him to cling. He went slack.

"I'm sorry, Aegis," she whispered brokenly.

"We all die alone, Adorn," the Necanthrope said, closing his empty fist and pulling, tugging still more on her shield as Aegis started to give up.

Turning black in spots, like Teserak's suit. Then grey.

Grey and dull, like the headless Deathsuits in the hallways of her dreams.

"Stop!" she cried, tears flowing off her jaw and chin.

The Necanthrope took no heed, exposed her further, down to the nude mound of her own sex which she hadn't see in decades.

"Only those who understand the Ebb get to choose when and how we die, Adorn. We are the Chosen, and we are rewarded in returning from the White. By finding the Truth of the Eight As One."

When and how.

The higher purpose, to find that Union and never be alone again.

Aegis was stretched taut, still holding on to her hands, and she gripped him tightly where Agent Thom had instilled the dauntless nature of one who returned from the War Worlds in her palm. In Aegis' palm.

Something neither of them had ever known upon Mort.

The bastards guarding the cages thought they were gods, too.

When and how.

"Never," she croaked, coaxing Flux back into her Deathsuit as near-grey Aegis clutched at her in desperation, desperate as she was to rebuild the attachment. "Never!"

Protect me, Aegis! Love me! Stay!

Beloved, I do... Flux began to flow back on in a deeper purple. I will...

"Not steel nor lead, Teserak!" she wept. "You cannot force me. We know the law. Aegis tells me."

Teserak frowned, tilting his head to watch as, slowly, Aegis covered her sex and hips. Climbed up her ribs. Her arms, and shoulders.

Aegis covered her heart.

"Never?" the Necanthrope asked. "You'll never leave Macabre, Adorn." He lifted his weapons. "These are the only two ways out for you. Never again, for him."

Snug around her neck, her Deathsuit crept up the back of her head like fingers running through her hair.

"So be it, Union," she said. "We will serve here, together as one. Two-As-One bow before the Eight-As-One."

Teserak shook his head, smiling but half way. "It will only be worse until the time comes to shed the mortal revenant. You deny the Preceptor, not reaching for this power. What was the point of your entire career in SLA Industries, Adorn, so many BPNs completed? Only to give up now?"

Aegis covered her face, helped her to breathe. Her head grew quiet. Her heart was warm.

I love you. Together, we give wonderful and long life.

Adorn showed her pained smile as Aegis interdermalized for the last time, to be forever unseen, and forever felt. She lay upon the bare, polished stone at her Master's feet, utterly naked.

Everything within Macabre hurt if there was a drop of fear.

And, now, there was no shield anymore.

"We will serve here, Master. Together. As One."