#especially given all the lotr references that happened in that fight lmao

[tac0tesseract]

Aftermath

Daniel spilled out of his chassis onto all fours, flinging his helmet to the scorched earth as he gasped for air. It was stupid – he knew it was stupid. The moment Eris' mood changed again he could be turned inside-out, or stripped of all oxygen, or whatever the fuck else – but neither could he breathe inside the Goblin right now. It felt like a coffin.

He'd never flirted so close with death before, at least not without Tansy there to undo it. His mech was barely standing. He was barely standing. Dan felt sick; how did this job go so wildly fucking sideways?

Fucking Tansy.

At least for now the eidolon was apparently feeling whimsical, because the air was full of tiny iridescent pink bubbles that smelled of artificial strawberries and screamed like a mountain lion when you popped them. A lovely little chorus followed Sai as he plodded over, and Daniel had to watch him through lidded eyes. He wasn't stupid. He knew Sai had been assigned as his babysitter in part. And what chafed the most was that Daniel had needed it.

What an absolute shitshow. He’d nearly been totaled, and more puppets than he could count had been vaporized. Daniel's eyes swept the smoldering remains of Eris' cute little supernova, lingering on the biomechanical survivors still milling around. Even if the metavault hadn't spontaneously spawned a miniature sun, they absolutely would have lost this fight had it not been for the sheer numbers of their reinforcements. Zerging didn't take any skill. It all felt so cheap.

Sai stopped a good ways back and climbed out of his chassis. It always freaked Daniel out how the mech mirrored its pilot's silence – save for the metallic sigh of its greywash mane. That lucky bastard had made himself enough breathing room that the Balor was already piecing itself back together. Dan would have no such fortune.

“I'm fine. I just need a minute,” he said defensively as Sai approached.

Sai pulled off his helmet. His expression was skeptical – doubly so as he sized up the damage to Daniel's mech.

“...Leave it,” Sai finally said, with surprisingly little difficulty.

“Hell no. We've got a job to do, and Maggi doesn't have time to print me a new one.” Daniel punched the ground. “Fuck. I had her. I had her, she'd just teleported! And yet when we stood there staring at each other I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger! What did she do?”

What did Tansy do? Or had guilt somehow stayed Daniel's hand instead? No, he wasn't that cucked. The metavault was probably in part to blame, sure, but – it was more than that. He could...feel Tansy somehow in that paracausal pulse, could feel her pain and her conflict and her desperation to spare them, and Sam's eyes, so many eyes, watching him expectantly. In that moment Daniel could see fragments of a future that hadn't come to pass, where he was sitting on what looked like a fancy ship's bridge? Talking to some old fart with a nice watch, and an SSC robot, and...he didn't know. But he was laughing. He looked happy.

If you surrender, we'll take you on. You don't have to die for this bullshit, Tansy pleaded.

We don't want to hurt you! cried her princess friend.

What horseshit. That kind of weakness would get you snuffed out quick back home.

Daniel finally stood, only to find Sai staring at the metavault where the “Vacationers”, as they apparently called themselves, had vanished. It was hard to read that man's face on a good day; today it was almost impossible, but there was something around his eyes: fatigue, probably.

Or sadness.

“...Did you shoot that fire fuck in there on purpose?” Daniel finally asked.

Sai turned to blink at him.

“The Toku with the cringe paint job. The one protecting Tansy.” Why did the idea of the Toku pilot make Daniel so irritated? Who was in there, anyway? Why wouldn't he leave her side?

Sai just shook his head. After wrestling with his words, he managed: “Not our problem.”

Daniel scowled. “Yeah? So we just let them all go on a goddamn field trip? What about vengeance for Knight?”

Now Sai definitely looked tired. He didn't say anything, his gaze instead straying back to linger where that princess and her flying chassis had been.

“Oni, Stunta. You two smoothbrains alive over there?” came a sudden voice over coms, punctuated by chaos in the background.

“Legion's putting itself back together; Trololo's hosed,” Daniel drawled. “Awful noisy. Gettin' freaky over there, Naga? Should let us watch.”

“Cute.” Static. “Head on back, we're regrouping.”

“Why? Where's the chiefs?”

“Trying to run off this asshole with a huge bow. He almost noscoped Neko. We've gotta get her to safety or we'll lose the Minotaur.”

“Shit,” Sai hissed, already turning for the Balor.

“Wait, are these still the same guys who intercepted you?” Daniel asked. “The fucking Karrakins? You haven't killed them?”

“Yes, the fucking Karrakins.” He could hear the eye roll in her voice. “These aren't the usual dregs they send to the Shore, and they've got some unhinged merc with them too. Banshee's orders, get back here. Now.”

The hand of panic squeezed around Daniel's ribcage again. What the fuck. What the actual fuck was going on? Who were all of these pilots? Why did they have such insane abilities? Did Uncle know about any of this? Why did it feel like the Cousins were on the back foot? Why was Knight fucking dead? Why was Knight fucking dead?

He turned for his chassis in a daze, staring at Trololo's shredded, sparking frame in dismay. A coffin. Was this where he died, too? Rotting, forgotten, in a jungle?

I am prepared to die for RA, he thought.

But somehow it didn't feel like RA was on their side.