Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When the Black Egg temple was sealed around her, it was like all the air got sucked out. She couldn't get up, she couldn't lift a claw, couldn't even breathe.

The view of the little ghost become rapidly obstructed by the large metallic chains, but nothing could hide that sickeningly orange glow emanating from their sockets. It's spasming, struggling, fighting to be released from the void inside the vessel.

'They really did it...' a naively hopeful thought comes. She wants to believe her sacrifice would be an honorable one, but doubt creeps in. The stasis would be perpetuated, but who can say if the ghost would last any longer then her other half-sibling.

Something else was wrong. The orange glow she expected to subside pulses brighter and brighter still, each heart beat earning a metallic rattling from the chains. When the first crack appeared on the vessel's mask, horrifying realization set in.

A light broken across layers of existence, both dream and physical, as if it's true form shined through a prism to realities- being abstracted to forms they could comprehend. A light being confined, desperate to escape somewhere, anywhere. The only things standing in it's way were the vessel and... her. She was now certain, the Black Egg temple was being reinforced with her own life force.

A second, larger crack almost tore her sibling's mask in half, orange light almost bursting at the seams. She feels her heart clenching in panic, even if she can't see any signs of distress on them.

They're braver than her, she admits. She doesn't want it to end.

"I'm sorry, mom" She whispers.

Preparing for the worst, Hornet shuts her eyes tightly, and a deafening explosion makes everything go to white.

It probably should have worried Moon. For days her overseers just kept coming, all of them reporting the increasing amounts of washed up deceased fauna on her shores, the most concerning of which were the king vultures- with their signature horns missing.

The weathered island of rusted scrap was as cold and barren as it was for countless cycles, it was uncomfortable, sure, but for a long while the cycles wore on her more emotionally then physically.

The point was, any change was welcomed, and though she felt pity for the wildlife, she found herself more curious then afraid. The only creature she's ever seen go toe to toe with those terrifying avians disappeared a few thousands cycles ago and Moon has not seen any of its kind since.

She really hopes the little archaeologist found what it was looking for, though what that is exactly she is still not sure. As much as she adored her old friend- they were not much of a conversationalist. Not one for any exchange but listening intently to her ramblings, that is.

This current "Mystery Hunter" could very well turn out to be another slug-like-rodent, perhaps even a messenger from her local group?

"Stop it." she silently reprimands, false hope will give her nothing but grief, and she does not know how much more of it she can handle.
Moon leaned forward from the scrap heap, her hand waving forward (with some effort, embarrassingly)- sending the commend for the yellow overseer on the wall to play the footage from the start.

She has to be missing something.

When the two red dots appeared between her black eyes, Hornet once again almost missed her dying kingdom.

She has never expected to encounter beasts who wield needle and thread (other then her mother- that is) but years of practice lead to the combat maneuvers feeling like second nature.

At the same moment as the ear piecing shot echoed out, she took an almost casual step to her left while swinging her needle widely to the right. The almost metallic threads, snapping easily, leaving the needles (or were they horns?) wedged in the ground, separated from their wielder.

She kept hoping any rational beast will realize the predicament they have clearly found themselves in, and maybe reconsider their meal choice. But whether from stupidity- or just blatant disregard to any sense of self preservation, these fathered hazards always followed up by diving mask first to where she stood, a truly masterful gambit.

Pulling on the flailing wires, their momentum and mass quickly failed them when they collided with the harsh ground of these shores, and often with their own horns. A few dashes here and a few jabs there were usually enough finish it quickly. Hornet would like to think she is saving them both the pain and the embarrassment.

While catching her breath, she took a quick look at the foggy grey sky. The rain almost got her last time. Well, frankly, it almost got her every time.

'A city of wailing' she joked. Or at least, maybe it was once a city, metallic scrap was dispersed everywhere, some with mechanisms so complex she couldn't even begin to imagine what their functions would be. She thought she had seen decay before, but this place was destroyed beyond recognition, (no thanks to that incessant rain, she supposes).

Speaking of, she should really find somewhere safe for the encroaching storm. Hornet looks behind her at the pipe leading down into the earth, and cringes. If it weren't for the vast sky and ocean, she could see the resemblance to the Royal Waterways. She would really prefer to stay out of that sewage, thank you very much.

Climbing a long rebar-like pole, she balanced on the top with the tips of her legs, her slightly dirtied dress shifting in the cold breeze. She guesses things could be worse. She guesses she could be dead.

Why isn't she?

The fog isn't making scouting ahead very easy, but she manages to spot it. A gigantic half submerged structure sticking out of the ocean- barely visible through the mist. Not the most comforting of landmarks, but beggars really can't be choosers.

Her needle launches ahead, and she follows quickly behind it.

Pause. There.

Moon scoots forward, dragging the large creaking metal arm forward with her. The blurry, yellowed, digital hologram is not exactly the peak of surveillance, so she sticks her head as close to it as she can manage and narrows her eyes at the smudged pixels.

It's a figure, alright.
One with a white face and two dark eyes. The ears seem stretched- a result of digital artifacting, no doubt. But that's a familiar face. Could it even be them? She does not know enough about her archaeologist's kind. It's wearing something too, some sort of fabric, though the hue is entirely lost on her, filtered through the yellow recording. The rest of the figure was either blurred by the rapid motion, or hidden beneath that fabric.

She can't help the excitement bubbling inside her, she had no one to talk to in ages. She might finally be able to rid herself of this awful lonely emptiness. Any sort of communication will do, even if one sided. She could settle for a listening ear, anything.

A part of her feels pathetic. like a piece of scrap the world forgot about. She knows the local group cares, but it's been so long... have they moved on?

No, no. They'd never do that to her, would they? But then again, what does she even expects them to do, they are as much trapped in themselves as she is.

Suddenly she feels it again, this crushing wave of choking emptiness. Of loneliness. More heavy then she felt collapsing under her own structure's weight, and more suffocating then the flood of stolen water that fills her chamber every single cycle.

Her puppet begins to shake, that's strange isn't it? She tries to focus on her unsteady hands, but her vision begins to blur. Something is seriously wrong with her.

And then. she. hears.

a splash.

This is so stupid.

Hornet managed to navigate the entire semi-submerged structure with relative ease, and (most importantly) while avoiding the standing musty water filled with mud and debris.

Her needle had plenty of footholds, and the moist metallic pipes were... tolerable. In a passing thought she concluded that the rain could still get inside, if the pipes were not dry- but she was already here. Where else was she supposed to go.

Hornet just finished balancing across a long horizontal pole. The drop seemed significant, but she rather dreaded the opaque pool of murky water at the bottom. Thankfully she reached the following pipe, and a few stiff elbows later she thought she started to see light.

And that's when a yellow eyestalk shot out from the ground right near her face.

Startled, she flailed out, and immediately lost her hold on the slippery downward tilted pipe, shooting out of the end of it directly into the water. Just fantastic.

Muttering a whole slew of curses, she pulled herself from the pool, getting even more frustrated with the weight of her now drenched dress. Standing up on a pile of trash, dripping, she raised her head up look ahead and...

Black, wide eyes were staring right at her, belonging to blue shelled quadrupedal... something. It was wrapped in a simple once-white ragged fabric, while 7 floating large Lumaflies floated lazily around it.

Wait. Hornet stiffened. Was it even quadrupedal? A large prolonged leg was extended from it's back into the wall, almost as if it was a lure of a bigger entity, hiding inside the metal structure.

"Hello." The bait suddenly spoke "Eh-hello there, creature."

It's voice echoed in the vacant space, hesitant. It wore an unreadable expression, considering it's words carefully.

"I see you are on edge, and though I'm not sure if you understand me, I'd like to assure you I lack the capability- O-OR WILL, of course- to do you any harm." it's voice jumped from trying to sound reassuring, to panicked and back to forced friendliness.

Yeah, obviously unstable. Hornet would be wise to keep her guard up. Not even mentioning the gigantic and disproportional back-leg that was still throwing her off.

In either case, she clearly has been seen. Might as well stop scowling and be practical about this. Hornet reaches out and grabs as much of her soaked dress as she can, and wrings out the foul water.

when she went to reestablish eye contact with the specimen, she catches it staring at her hands, covered in black carapace.

"You... are not what I expected." it says weakly.
In response, Hornet maintains eye contact, narrows her eyes, and wrings out a large amount of water that splashes loudly against the scrap-metal ground.

It spoke again "I- I'm sorry about... the... water?" It ended the sentence looking confused at it's own words, seemingly frustrated at itself.

Unable to stop, though, it continued "It's just, my can is in quite a sorry state, and I am unfortunately unable to..."

"Oh Wyrm, would you stop already?" Hornet couldn't help but say.

That took it back a bit, the black eyes widening, "You talk!" It exclaimed with a frankly worrying amount of shock.

"When I choose to." Hornet responded with venom in her voice.

It didn't seem to know what to say to that.

Hornet tilted her head to the side. Examining the large metal limb. Assuming it's truly attached to that wall, it would not be able to reach where she currently stands even if fully extended.

She lifts her arms and stretches upward, before dropping to a seating position. The act seem to lower the tension in the blue specimen.

"What are you?" Hornet asks suspiciously, and earns a chuckle back.

"Funny, I've been wondering something similar about you." It counters. "I've never seen any creature of your species. And one that can understand and talk unassisted... Are you an ancient of some kind?"

Hornet takes her sweet time answering "Really depends." the specimen awaits for her to continue, and she pauses just long enough for it to starts squirming impatiently in place.

"Is this the future?" She finishes as casually as she can manage. Embarrassingly, that's the best theory she could come up with. She recognizes there's a great informational imbalance here, it would be best if she keeps it talking as much as possible while revealing as little as she can.

"We are approaching the end of the 34,504th local cycle, with the first beginning in 1491 comma 800 to count." The specimen says in an amused voice.

What.

"What?" she flatly asks, and frowns as the blue thing softly laughs at her expense.

"Not an ancient, then." Yep, Hornet understands even less now, yet somehow the one answering questions is gaining information. This interrogation is going swimmingly.

"And you?" Trying to keep the frustration out of her voice, she reasserts the earlier question.

"I'm called Looks To The Moon" She cheerly says. Her earlier weariness melting into something that must be... snark?

"That's neither an answer nor a name" Hornet says in annoyance, and tries to ignore the smile that sneaks into her own challenging remark.

"Rude. I'll have you know I've always been fond of it" She leans back just a bit too dramatically.

"That's just a full sentence" Hornet insists. Because it is. And a stupid chuckle rudely barges in to her words.

'Looks To The Moon' or whatever- looks at her expectantly. This is a bad idea, she knows. This vulnerability will not go unpunished, so why...

"Hornet" Her voice is raspy.

Moon beams at her with joy. "It is so wonderful to meet you, Hornet."

Chapter Text

Bright red velvet like cloak, covered in places with layers of grime and seaweed. Black claws tapping impatiently on her steel floors. Wide black eyes that mirror her own, and what she previously assumed were weirdly filmed ears were actually two tall horns flowing naturally from a pearly white face.

A face that for just one second looked at her with so much vulnerability...

And then it was gone, replaced once again by that same defensive, skeptic scowl. Moon could tell there was some emotional baggage on the huntress's shoulders. She badly wanted to assure her that she doesn't need to-

"Stop looking at me like that" Hornet ordered, her voice flat and unwavering.

"Like what?" Moon played along. She came to the conclusion that the strange figure responded much more defensively to genuine attempts at connection- sharply categorizing it as a manipulation attempt. She seemed to respond positively to light hearted banter though, and Moon was happy to oblige.

"Don't play dumb, You know exactly what I mean" Hornet said with more distaste.

Moon chuckled "Yes. I do." She paused for a moment, looking up into the air.

"I suppose I am trying to understand how to communicate effectively with you and how to assure you that you are in no danger. Though I suppose that behavior would be indistinguishable to the outside observer from what I would be doing if my intentions WERE untoward."

"Wyrm, you talk so much" Hornet puts two fingers on her tightly shut eyes.

"You said that word earlier too, what does it mean?" Moon asked, ignoring the remark.

The huntress sharply locks eyes with her again "No, this isn't how this works. You claim you want to assure me you can be trusted, terrific, spectacular. So you would better start giving my some actual concrete answers- wouldn't you."

"I would, I- I will. Of course. Answers were always on the table." Moon stutters out, a bit flabbergasted by Hornet's sharp change in approach.

"Lucky me." Hornet says "where are we? And by that I'm referring to the room, the complex, the territory, the region, the kingdom- please do not force to pry all those individual details out of you, I am already tired of this."

"This ruined box around us is my chamber" Moon hesitantly answers, "It is the central part of this structure, which I've referred to previously as my can." She considers explaining the greater significance of this 'can'- but decides against it for the moment.

The second she pauses, Hornet gives an exasperated nod- rushing her to continue. She does.

"This area of ocean and shores was once commonly referend to as The Waterfront Facility. Now it's a small part of the ecosystem that exists within the retaining walls of the facility grounds belonging to Five Pebbles and myself"

There's a long moment of silence where the huntress just stares at her.

"You?" Hornet finally speaks, wearing a bewildered expression.

"Hello" Moon snarkily replies.

"You mean to tell me you rule this over this kingdom? From a trash heap?"

"First, hurtful. Second, rule is not an apt description. This is more of just a former-widely-known spatial association"

"And you share this association with five tiny rocks."

"Ah, I now see where you lost me" Moon said, attempting to choke in a laugh and failing.

Hornet just stares at her fighting for her life with the most deadpan expression.

"Is this funny to you?" Hornet sounded just about ready to jump the small body of water separating them and put that pointed metal weapon to good use.

"Little bit" Moon choked out in between wheezing. "Oh god, he would be ~delighted~ to know that's how someone thinks of him."

"A single 'he' then, I'm guessing he possesses a title with a naming scheme no less nonsensical then yours, Looks To The-" She's stopped by Moon waving her arm around, and shaking her head.

"If it's a mouthful you can always just call me 'Moon'" She assures Hornet.

"Oh thank wyrm, I fully intend to." Oddly, Hornet looks genuinely relieved. Moon wonders the reason such an abrasive soul would even care about being respectful to a title.

Well, Hornet did use the word kingdom earlier, didn't she? Perhaps she hails from a monarchy of some kind? Has Moon given her the impression she is some kind of queen?

The thought is beyond laughable, but observing the pale huntress... She seems to be sitting up straighter, look at Moon with more reverence.

Well. Aught to nip this thing in the bud-

"I'm no one worthy of worship, Hornet. " She quietly assures. "As you aptly noticed, this is not a throne room. It's just-" She pauses for a moment, considering how to put it into words.

"A monument of past mistakes." She finally settles on.

There's a prolonged moment of quiet. Hornet stares at her with an unreadable expression and slowly stands up, only to continue staring.

A beat of silence later, Hornet takes a step toward the small pool separating them. And then-

A raindrop falls in the pool.

In a fraction of a second Hornet's eyes widen and she jumps back tenfold times faster then Moon has ever seen her move. Silently and elegantly, she throws that silver weapon backwards toward where Moon knew the entrance pipe was located.

For the first time, Moon noticed the clouded sunlight reflected from the translucent wire attached to Hornet's weapon, as the pale huntress was swiftly and wordlessly pulled by it out of view.

And Moon sat there, alone again, staring, as slowly strengthening rain was loudly filling the room around her.

Hornet's deafening heartbeat didn't stop until the noise of shelter door closing overpowered it. She slammed her foot against the metal wall in frustration, how could she let herself get distracted like that? She can't keep teetering on the edge of death- throwing her stupid life away.

It wasn't hers to waste, it wasn't hers to play with. She might as well spit on mother's resting place, and the sacrifice she made for her to exist. And after the black egg temple? HOW WAS SHE EVEN ALIVE AT ALL?!

Where even was Hallownest? Where even was she? What is even the purpose of a protector, without anything to protect? WHAT IS SHE EVEN GOOD FOR.

Her breathing quickened and she pressed her fists against her closed eyes.

The mechanism of the door finally quieted as her anger mellowed to hollow guilt. Guilt about an empty post without it's guardian, about failing to live up to her mother, about orange light pouring from her sibling's face, about... Moon, still out there in the flooding rain, tethered to a wall.

In a way, wasn't Hornet abandoning her too?

Hornet didn't want to open her eyes right now. She didn't want to find out if she was crying.

She just laid there in her soggy dress, patiently waiting for consciousness to slip away.

The taunting water filling her structure slowly drained away through the pipes and weathered cracks, inch by inch. Well, not that Moon could see it, but the enormous weight and pressure pinning her frail puppet down slowly weakening was a pretty strong indication.

By now, she knew where was the safest place to tuck her neurons, avoiding as much trauma as possible- but there was no way around it. The process was horrid. Painful, sure- but also completely deprivating of both agency and mental stimulation. Not of self respect though, she lost that a while ago.

When the weight weakened enough and she could finally lift herself from the ground she found that the room was still completely flooded- but it was almost... pretty. Sunlight breaking through the holes in the roof and lighting the underwater scene with streaks of saturated aquamarine hue.

She usually passed this time calculating the relative location of the sun by the angle of the beams, sifting her fingers through the floating washed in sand, trying to ignore the cold. This cycle, though, she couldn't quite focus at the moment. Her mind kept drifting to her visitor. She felt a cocktail of emotions regarding the events of the last cycle.

Though she felt elated that she was lucky enough to briefly see her, and talk to her no less- she felt the crushing shame for not wanting her to go. Despite the circumstances of her arrival remaining a mystery, the warrior clearly belonged elsewhere. Expecting or hoping for anything else from her would be unbelievably selfish.

Maybe that's who Moon was. Who she'll ever be. Selfish.

She shook her head through water resistance, and tried to ground herself.

Less abstractly, Moon felt anxious about the huntress's safety. Hornet seemed quite capable (to put it lightly) but then again, she didn't have Moon's benefit of not breathing.

The surface of the water finally lowered beneath her head, she barely noticed. The nothing of water replaced by the nothing of air.

A stretched moment of maddening silence.

Her overseers might show up soon, showing Moon another blurred frame of Hornet's journey, if she's lucky. With the speed the huntress demonstrated, she found it miraculous the previous still was decipherable at all-

Out of nowhere, a small aquamarine pearl fell in Moon's lap. A familiar voice came.

"Found this in a close shelter, thought you might want it back."

Hornet was sat down across from her once again.

Though the water has long since drained, it was just now Moon felt warm again.

Chapter Text

Hornet has a hard time suppressing her sigh of relief when she sees moon quietly sitting in the exact same spot, albeit resembling a washed up trashcan.

She hasn't noticed her yet, and for a long moment Hornet's instincts tells her to just split. Mission accomplished- Moon is safe and sound. She should get going.

Her claws shift around the weight of the pearl. Maybe... she could stay for a tad bit longer. For informational purposes, of course. The high queen of the trash kingdom seemed surprisingly knowledgeable, and shockingly willing to divulge when asked.

Just a few more questions and then she's out.

She gingerly tosses the aquamarine pearl in Moon's lap and moves to sit closer. "Found this in a close shelter, thought you might want it back." she says with a voice as flat as she can manage.

Moon's whole demeanor shifts and her eyes widen, suddenly beaming at her. "Hornet" She says with a gentle tone.

"You're soaked." Hornet states.

"It seems we take turns." The strange bug jokes, her voice fond.

Alright, this is her chance- before a topic is established. Precise and inquisitive questions go!

"Are you alright?" Hornet blurts out and immediately resists the urge to slam her head directly in the adjacent wall, what in the king's name-

"I am, thank you for asking." She hears a slightly off guard tone answers. "By now, It's a routine more then anything." Hornet picks up on a faint bitter undertone to Moon's attempt at reassurance.

"So what, you're stuck here or something?" Hornet counts on abrasiveness to cover the worry in her voice.

Moon cheery body language slowly dulls. She shifts her gaze.

"Always was, in a sense" she admits.

Hornet wants to kick herself. This is all wrong. Moon said something before about her 'can' being in a sorry state. Is this all she has?

The corner of a structure shredded to rubble by rain? What could possibly force her to spend her life here? Drowned and dried and drowned again. Hornet looks at the metallic leg wedged in Moon's back and feels her stomach twist.

"What are you, really?" Hornet asks gently, accusation absent from her tone.

The figure stares down at the pearl in her lap, it's aquamarine surface reflecting the dancing lights emitted by the strange Lumaflies circling them.

"I'm... Looks To The Moon." She hesitantly starts.

"Or at least, that's how they called me. I was- I am a construct built by an ancient civilization to solve problems. Well, one problem more then others. There were many of us, just like me. But we never quite cracked it." Moon hesitated, seemingly weighing what to reveal and what to redact.

Why is she letting her? Why is Hornet letting her talk around vital info? She knows she should pressure Moon but... She won't. And this story, there's something so familiar about it.

Finally the blue shelled enigma curls into herself and the fabric around her, before she continues. "That was an age ago, now that society is long gone, and only we remain. 'Iterators'. Alone, separated, deteriorating. Trapped in cages we are inseparable from." She finishes bitterly with a low voice, still using the pearl to avoid her stare.

When Hornet pictures a living construct, she imagines the imposing Kingsmoulds belonging to her father- or the large mining machinery in crystal peaks. But in front of her is a living, feeling person- curled around itself in pain. Born for a purpose and tossed aside to rot. A long carried guilt for her father's actions holds up her throat.

And Moon still wouldn't look back up from the pearl.

Hornet felt out of her depth. Not only in regards to info, but... interpersonally. The history Moon revealed was unfamiliar to her, as expected- but mostly she felt... like she needed to do something. This construct or machine or whatever she was- was in pain. And she's just sitting there, letting it happen again.

What kind of a protector was she?

Mirroring her movements from last cycle, she stands up and walks to the edge of the water that rests between them.

Hornet takes a deep breath to silence her racing thoughts, and steps into the water.

The soft splashing immediately makes Moon look up from the pearl, watching Hornet in a shocked silence as she walks towards her through the waist high water pool.

Finally exiting from the other side, Hornet stops, standing above moon, who was still staring at her with wide eyes and an unreadable expression.

Before she could change her mind, stomach flipping, she turns and sits down next to the robot. Her once again drenched attire awkwardly slapping against the metal floor. Mission complete.

Not that she knew what she hoped was achieved in this silly display. She turns to Moon and sees that her eyes are still held on her. There was something wordless expressed in her stare. An appreciation beyond words.

Hornet felt overwhelmed. What is this? What is she even doing. And why just sitting here a few steps apart from her felt so... nice. Is it really ok to not say anything? To not come up with some excuse or superficial reasoning for her action. She was a warrior, a protector, a guardian. Not some vain, soft-spined ridiculous-

"Thank you for coming back" Moon quietly says.

Hornet's heart was pounding.

"Yeah." she answers, stupidly.

They both look away, and for what felt like forever there was nothing but the sound of flowing water and Hornet's awkward breathing.

Hornet couldn't help but start getting self conscious. She attempted to breathe more quietly, more slowly, normally. Hornet somehow got it into her head that Moon must be noticing all this, which only made her more unbearably awkward. She had to say something right now and free herself from this nightmare.

"So that pearl. Uh, it does belong to you, right?" She said, maybe a little too loudly.

Moon straightened and took a moment to answer, like recovering from a train of thought crashing.

"Oh! In a sense, I suppose. It was delivered to me a long time ago." Moon said "It is a letter from a close friend of mine, an Iterator as well. It was after..." She hesitates, wearing a painful expression for a split second.

"After something horrible happened. He... uh, saved my life. Him and the brave soul who made the delivery, at a great personal cost." Moon shuts her eyes for a moment, but when she turns to look back at Hornet her eyes are displaced by a faint smile.

"I owe them both a debt greater then I could ever repay." She says.

"I know the feeling." Hornet admits, and tries to ignore the look she receives from Moon in response. Time to change the subject.

"So, there's information stored inside this pearl? Where I hail from we used looms and stone tablets.
I fail to see how one would imprint words onto that."

Moon tilts her head in curiosity, "I must admit, it's getting incredibly hard to resist asking questions about that place. It sounds so different then any civilization I've ever heard of".

Hornet sighs loudly while throwing her head back. Her horn clinks against the metal scrap. She sees moon staring at her from the cornet of her eye.

"I can tell you miss it" Moon says in a gentle voice

"Seems you got it all figured out" Hornet grumbles.

Moon leans back on the metal leg supporting her, conjuring the snarkiest expression known to bug or beast "That's kind of my job?"

Hornet pushes her playfully and she laughs with surprise, close to tumbling to the water if it weren't for the metal limb stabilizing her.

"That was uncalled for" she exclaims loudly through a smile

"You specifically called for it" Hornet responds with a deadpan shrug.

"Mmm, don't seem to recall that happening. Do you have that in writing?" Moon was doing a voice that meant nothing to her, culturally, but she got the idea.

"Sure do, there's approximately five hundred different pearls in your shelter, must be one of those." Hornet was exaggerating, of course, but there was an exorbitant amount.

Moon suddenly lifted herself "Wait, that's where that silly rodent stashed them all?"

Hornet narrowed her eyes "What's a rodent?"

"A wild question, but one we will unpack at a later date," Moon struggles to keep her composure, "How did you even sleep?"

Hornet tried not to think back to that moment. "With difficulty."

"I'd bet!" Moon was beaming at her, hanging on her every word. Hornet never felt this... seen before? This valued. It was nice. Moon was nice.

"I'm more curious as to how you slept, being outside and all." Hornet asked and returned the smile.

"Oh, I... didn't, Hornet. I don't uh," Moon was caught off guard, but her smile didn't fade. "I don't sleep."

Hornet sat up "That can't possibly be true!" because it couldn't! Even the little ghost nodded off when resting on a bench for a long while, can someone really forgo sleep entirely? (And can they teach it to her?) she half jokes.

"It's uh, just not something we were designed in mind with, I suppose." Moon said flippantly.

Hornet had a tough time conceptualizing that. But she could judge by the way moon talked about it that it wasn't as unimportant as she would like to pretend.

"Do you wish you could?" She directly asks, no use faffing about, but that gives the robot some pause.

"Sometimes." she quietly admits. "I wish I could tell you it was because I'm curious of the dreaming sensation, or because I want to understand creatures better." she stops.

Almost as a whisper, she says "That would not be honest, Hornet."

Hornet shouldn't asks, but... "So the truth."

"The truth is, often, I don't want to be awake." Moon says in matter of fact voice. "This routine, endless, unchanging, painful- it's killing me."

Hornet almost stands up in surprise "It is?"

Weirdly, that makes Moon breathe out a dry laugh "Oh, could you imagine, after all this time?" Hornet does not see the humor.

She glares at the robot, and in turn Moon quickly reassures. "No, Hornet, I mean it only figuratively."

But the dead air still hangs in between the two, still and suffocating.

After a moment, Moon sighs deeply, "I'm sorry, I did not mean to worry you."

"You didn't." Hornet lies.

Moon gives her an incredulous look, but lets it go. The tension in the air still buzzes uncomfortably, but the seconds wear it down. Finally moon turns to her once again with a much softer expression.

"What do you dream about?" She asks. Hornet glares the a piece of scrap floating in the water, bobbing in and out.

Hornet thinks about the little ghost. About Dirtmouth. About the infection. About white ash pilling on her camp. She thinks about her mother. About the view from the crystal peaks. About the glowing white palace. She thinks about the gentle rain on her shell walking the streets of a dying city.

"Home."

Chapter Text

The cycle stretched on for what felt like an eternity, with Moon and her prickly guest sitting in comfortable silence.

Even while sitting just a few steps apart, Moon was still weary to break the paper thin calm that somehow settled over the bug. She made sure to only take a glance from the corner of her eye every so often.

It soon became evident that Hornet was, as a matter of fact, sleeping. Her eyes were gently closed and her pearly head was nestled in her dress's collar.

She looks at peace, Moon thinks. She looks like she feels safe. Her puppet feels weird again, like there's fluttering in her abdomen, as if erroneous electrical signals are shooting off at random. Moon holds a hand over where Hornet playfully pushed her earlier.

Though the spot didn't hurt at all, it still felt strange to her in a way she couldn't put her finger on. The brief touch has reminded her of her little archeologist, in the cycles where they settled on her lap, allowing her to pet their glossy fur and mindlessly talk until the rain forced them to scurry off.

She turns to look at Hornet again, and part of her wants to the distance between them to be much, much smaller.

She misses that closeness, she concludes, trying to separate herself from her emotions. Not that her feelings would even be relevant at the moment, Hornet needs to know that she can rest easy here, without some malfunctioning machinery messing with her while she sleeps.

It doesn't stop Moon from thinking about it though. Just another way in which her selfishness manifests, she supposes.

She only realizes she's staring when she notices some movement around Hornet. If she was any less attentive she would've thought it was simple dust nodes, but as she awkwardly watches the huntress nap there's no mistaking it for something that mundane.

Floating shapes, translucent and golden in hue. Tiny circles with symmetrical patterns shifting and rotating lazily in the air like tossed coins in slow motion, originating from Hornet and slowly drifting away until they become completely transparent.

Their design strikingly similar to some artistic depiction of those floating soul like bubbles that lead the ancient individuals seeking ascension to the old path when released, even if Moon had never seen them first hand.

Their exact design was slightly different, though. The geometric curved lines were far less organic, looking more like a golden web, almost like a dreamcatcher.

Curiously, Moon moves one of her neuron flies towards the sleeping bug, slowing it gently a bit too close for comfort to the side of Hornet's horns. For a moment, Moon worries that the light emanating from it would be enough to stir Hornet awake, but she seems as still as ever.

Careful not to brush against Hornet, it's tails turn, drifting towards one of the slower shapes.

It almost comes naturally, to instruct a neuron to once again preform an exchange of information, though the function certainly wasn't designed with this sort of interaction in mind. Still, Moon is admittedly curious about the nature of the little floating nodes, she wants to try something.

There's a tiny buzzing hum as faint electricity dances between the twin tails of her neuron, crossing over the dreamcatcher node and-

An overwhelming flash of vision and sound overpowers her puppet's feed Instantly.

Suddenly she's-

...Outside.

Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. The sky is nowhere to be seen. Despite that, surrounding her seemingly floating puppet is a lush garden, stunning flora tethered to rock and Shining metal construction. Tiny fireflies flowing between the leaves.

She hasn't realized how grey her chamber had become over thousands of cycles. She almost forgot things can have this much color.

Moon tries move herself in a direction, and manages to float slowly along the garden. She tries to touch the leaves, only to realize her puppet's now transparent body simply passes through the terrain like it was not there at all.

What is this? The now dilapidated subterranean train system? Or perhaps flora filled the drainage? No, that wouldn't make sense. The metallic structures around her have no speck of wear or rust. And the curved designs... Nothing is even close to recognizable, least of all the plants. She's never seen documentation of any of these species.

There's the sound of steps on metal flooring and echoing conversation.

"She's very excited to meet you, you know." The words came, a proud feminine voice spoken softly, as if to a child or a pet.

Two bug-like figures walked down the metal path hand in hand, one towering above the other. The first had 3 horns and a white dress-like armor, which was adorned and polished. She had the fierce look of a protector that reminded Moon of her guest quite a bit.

The second figure, though, was much more familiar, if significantly smaller then usual.

A much younger Hornet held the larger figure's claw tightly. She wore a smaller and more decorated red dress, and her now slightly oversized needle-like weapon was affixed to her back with leathery straps.

"I'm not so sure, Dryya" Hornet responded with an uncharacteristically shy voice.

The figure named Dryya stopped walking for a moment, and responded with a soft voice "Well I am, young princess. She requested this visit personally."

Princess? Is Hornet...?

"And she just so happened to wait until my mother couldn't have a say in the matter." Hornet grumbled. She tried to project a steely front, but her voice trembled wildly.

Dryya crouches down near the small bug and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder "I can't speak to the White Lady's opinion of your mother, but I can assure you she harbors no ill will towards you, Wyrm-Born."

"Doubt it." Hornet buries her face in the collar of her dress.

"You'll see." Dryya pats her back ands starts walking again.

Is this somehow one of Hornet's memories? If so, just her presence here is deeply inappropriate. This goes against the very trust Moon tried so hard to establish.

Despite that... Moon doesn't want to go back. Can't bare to, even if she knew how. This is the first time she was somewhere new in a millennia. She feels alive. Awake!

She feels selfish.

She feels free.

Ignoring the pit of guilt growing inside her, Moon floats behind the duo while taking care to remain out of sight, just to be safe. She can't help but feel giddy just by moving around. Being untethered feels so surreal.

Soon enough they arrive to the end of the flourishing path, and are presented with a large cocoon-like metal structure with a circular opening. As if not odd enough, what seems like glowing white roots are spread out throughout it's surface, seemingly grown inside and forced their way out through the metal roofing.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Dryya comments.

"That's ah, a way to say it." Hornet swallows her spit. "And you say this is recent?"

Dryya does not respond, and instead walks up next to the opening and turns around. Moon freezes in place, moment of truth- the lady couldn't possibly miss her, floating right at the center of her vision. Despite this, her eyes do not connect with Moon's, and instead find Hornet's.

"Go on ahead. I've been ordered to stand guard and assure that this meeting is not disturbed."

The young bug closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "I understands. Thank you for accompanying me." she says like a practiced line from a script.

The knight bows deeply with a genuine smile "The pleasure was all mine, princess."

Reassured, Moon follows Hornet inside through sharp angled tunnels leading down into the earth. Hornet's breathing is panicked and her hands are shaking, but she still manages to descend with measured movements.

Whoever this White Lady is, the fear she struck in the girl was uncalled for. Moon wanted to wrap Hornet up in a hug and float away from this mess.

The white glowing roots began to become difficult for Hornet to traverse. And she scowled in frustration, tripping and scrambling. Moon felt almost guilty floating straight through them all without effort.

Finally, Hornet stands in front of the entrance to a wider chamber, just outside of the light that's flowing out from the doorway. Hornet whispers a small mantra to herself under her breath.

"Revere, reason, resist. Revere, reason, resist."

She takes one final breath and forces her hands calm and her face absent from emotions before stepping in the room.

Moon follows to reveal the converging source of the roots, a massive glowing entity. She's sitting, wrapped in refined silks and bandages. Notably, Moon notices no appendages aside of the flowing roots that pulse with glowing light.

A faint voice comes "Ah, the gendered child, she finds her way to me at last."

Hornet remains silent, her gaze averted. The White Lady narrows her eyes, and Hornet dejectedly grabs her dress and bows. Silence stretches on.

"I see now. You fear me, Wyrm-born. Just like your mother before you."

"Mom wasn't afraid of anything." Hornet bites back.

The lady sighs "Of course not. I hope you're still well taken care of, despite her absence."

"Why did you call me here?" Hornet ignores her question.

"Must there be a reason for family to unite?"

"You are not my mother." There's a tremble in hornet's voice.

"Nor do I intend to be. I know Herrah begrudged me for the creation of the vessels and I can only imagine the things she spoke of me."

"An idealist cowardly prick, willing to shield her stolen kingdom with rivers of her own flesh and blood." Hornet says flatly.

The lady stares at the girl.

"Her words, not mine" Hornet flippantly assures.

"Your mother was trying to protect you, like how she's protecting all of us now with her honorable sacrifice. You're not here to be used like the vessels."

"So begging me to protect your 'Hollow Knight' was not the reason for this day's union?" Hornet's raised voice shuts her down.

silence.

"Don't you owe your mother at least that?" the White Lady softly asks.

Hornet shakes in place. Moon can't tell if by anger or grief. She's not yet the fierce huntress she knows. Here, she's just a scared kid burdened with responsibility far beyond her means.

"Make her life count. The stasis must remain. You have the Wyrm's blood running in your veins. You're young and will remain so for a long while yet, stronger then you can imagine, and more agile then any other being in Hallownest..." the lady's voice becomes emboldened with conviction.

"...And yet all you do is train and train in your claustrophobic borrow. Instead, use those qualities to assure no one tempers with our desperate solution."

"I am not your soldier." The tremble in Hornet's voice is just short of crying.

"And your mother's?"

The girl is barely holding it together. All she can do is stand still and get a hold of her breathing.

Any kindness in the White lady's voice is gone now "Assure her legacy remains. That is a child's purpose."

"How dare you speak to her this way?" Moon can't help but shout, unable to contain her anger. "The Future is not the burden of the next generation, but that of their guardians who owe it to them. How dare you weaponize a kid's loss to demand her servitude. She is not yours to command."

She doesn't even know If the entity heard her. Moon doesn't even know if she cares. The White Lady remains in place. In fact, the air itself seemed to have stilled.

"Moon?" A familiar voice asks. She turns to face her friend, and finds the real Hornet standing in the child's place. Her face torn between the shadows of grief and confusion.

"What are you doing here?"

Chapter Text

Hornet always dreaded reliving this meeting, but when it came back to her in her dreams the script felt like second nature.

The ramifications of this event, coming at a devastating point in her early life, shaped the next millennia of struggles and hardships. The moment she was tasked with her arduous eternal duty, not yet knowing of it's weight.

She might have struggled and rebelled against the queen's demands, but the end result would always stay the same. Her word was final. Hornet would become the protector she was born to be. She would do her mother proud.

Only this time a familiar heckler seemed to have derailed them off script. Shouted the things she wanted to say so many ages ago. At that moment it was as if the fog had cleared from her mind and brought her back to lucidity.

The stilled air gives way to a gentle hum, as an orange sky breaks through the polished steel walls and glowing roots. Dreamcatches-like essence nodes flow freely around the space, as the image of the White Lady blurs out of view.

"Moon? What are you doing here?" the anger and grief in her voice still carried from the remembered altercation.

The barely visible image of her friend turned around mid air so quickly, she almost went into a spin. Her eyes wide with shame.

She's seen everything, Hornet realizes. She's seen her shaking, holding back sobs. Being pathetic and small and weak. She knew this trust would come back to bite her- but she didn't know it would sting this bad.

"Hornet, I-" Moon starts with panic.

"What makes you think you can be here? What makes you think this involves you in any way?!" Hornet verbally strikes like a wounded beast.

"Hornet, I'm so incredibly sorry for intruding. I know I have no right being witness to history you deliberately chose to keep to yourself. But, Uh... truth be told, I'm not quite sure how I got here myself. Or rather- where here... even... is?"

Her words start to slow as hesitation slowly creeps in. Suddenly, she that slams her hand into the red spot marking her forehead with a metallic thud.

"Why am I lying to you, that's not even true! I have quite a strong idea of what brought me here, and I am fully responsible for it. Sorry again."

"So you act all nice, trying to get me pacified and stupid- just to exploit me the moment I let my guard down? I mean, should've guessed. No wonder you stopped asking about my past, sooner or later you'd get your prize." Hornet finished bitterly.

"No, no, Hornet. Those were never my intentions. This was an accident. One I should've corrected the moment it was set in motion, mind you, but an accident all the same. I swear I'd never-"

"But you have! You did! What good are your hollow promises to me?! What good is your word if selfishness overpowers it?"

That shuts Moon up. Hornet sees her body language wilt and feels pangs of guilt poking her heart. The Dream Realm around them shining in with forceful glow.

She doesn't know how Moon managed to get in, but this is all wrong. She needs to get her out right now. Hornet tries to recall her mother's lessons on the Vail, ignoring the wave of heartache that those memories bring.

She focuses on her real senses, and they start to come back to her. The noise of water gently hitting metal. The cold scrap ground. Her warm dress. The gentle buzz of the machinery.

The Dream Realm's hum grows higher and more desperate in pitch, almost trying to compete. It was as if it was attempting to pull her back to it's embrace. Hornet couldn't care less.

She opens her eyes and everything falls silent.

She's back in Moon's chamber, silent and serene. She feels like she can breathe again.

There's a gentle weight resting against her, she realizes. She looks down to see Moon's large-Lumafly-things. Four in her lap, and three more laying beside her.

They felt softer then she expected, and had a slight warmth to them. They buzzed gently and silently against her. She felt her heart rate slowly calm down. The silence finally giving way to clear thoughts.

She hears stirring a few steps away and can't help but look. Moon is turned away from her, the large metal arm binding her in place once again. She's hugging her knees and just ever so faintly shaking.

Hornet wants so badly to dismiss her feelings. To decide that she's brought this on herself. She wants to feel disgusted at Moon's weakness and label her as another spineless wretch.

Instead all she feels is like an idiot.

Moon's words to The White Lady echo in her mind. Why did she say those things? Why could she stand up for Hornet, in a way no one ever did. The queen, Dryya, her father. Did they really have her best interest in mind? Does Moon?

She sighs and mindlessly pets one of the glowing bugs.

Moon isn't manipulating her, Hornet is more sure of that then she ever was. This isn't some grand malevolent plan. She somehow... inexplicably just... cares.

About her, of all people.

And she was rewarded for her loyalty with Hornet lashing out with fear. All Moon wanted was to see her. The real her. Does she really deserve punishment for seeing too much?

"Thank you." Hornet whispers. Moon's faint movements freeze.

"For what you said to her in there." She continues after a moment. "Honestly, I wish you were there the first time around. Maybe then things wouldn't have gone this horribly."

Moon remains silent, facing away. Hornet waits a beat before continuing.

"That moment you saw... made me who I am today. And a part of that person is someone..." Hornet hesitates. "Who expects no one to stand between them and the world."

Silence. Hornet takes another shaky breath "I'm sorry, Moon. You're not selfish. I shouldn't have said that."

"Am I not?" Moons voice is barely audible. "Isn't it all true? Everything you said about me."

"No." Hornet insists.

"Really?" Moon's tone shifts to challenging as she turns to face her.

"Have I not been living vicariously through you since the moment you set foot in this room? Have I not been picking and prodding and extracting a life that I have no right to?" Her voice is manic and raspy, the words spilling out.

The flies lift from Hornet's lap as she moves toward her, but Moon continues.

"That is the definition of selfishness, Hornet. All I'm doing is dragging you down to distract me from my horrible meaningless existence. You'd do both of our worlds a favor If you just walked away and left me here to rot, like I deserve-"

And then Hornet's arms are wrapped around her, squeezing her in a hug. Moon's freezing, and it takes a moment for the warm dress to take effect.

Hornet feels Moon's arms weakly wrap around her back, as she tucks her chin in the crook of her shoulder. Hesitant at first, but soon enough Moons hug becomes as desperate as her trembling arms can manage.

"No one deserves that. Least of all you, Moon." Hornet whispers.

She is shaking wildly, like Hornet's arms are the only thing keeping her grounded. Like she didn't realize how cold she was until she felt warmth.

Hornet just wants to keep her tucked in and safe for as long as she could manage, maybe forever.

She is a protector, after all.

And this time she won't fail.

Moon doesn't deserve this.

She doesn't think letting Hornet know will go over very well, though.

She feels like she's about to explode, every single electrical connection and mechanical component in her feels like it's going haywire. Her stupid shaking arms barely stabilized by grabbing fistfuls of Hornet's soft dress.

Her eyes are shut tightly and her face pressed into hornet's shoulder. She's pathetic, she knows, but at this point she couldn't care less.

And for whatever reason, Hornet keeps holding her, not that she's complaining... or ever letting go.

The thought that this could end at any second keeps her shaking, but as the moment stretches on and the hug becomes a sitting cuddle, she finds she stops feeling anxious and starts feeling...

Warm.

She wants to thank Hornet, but that feels so small relative to that feeling that's burning in her chest. She wants to kick and scream and fly around. She wants to somehow be closer. She feels out of her mind.

A new worry comes, and though she dreads it, she feels obligated to remind Hornet.

Her voice is so raspy it's barely intelligible. "The rain will be here soon."

And the worst thing imaginable follows, when Hornet shoots up to stand.

"Wyrm, that damned stupid filthy maggot rain, kill me now-" Hornet continues to grumble insults walking away in anger.

"Hornet-" Moon extends her hand.

"Don't worry I'm coming back, I'm just pretty sure that if I sleep again on an empty stomach I'll be a lot less nice" Hornet shouts over her shoulder.

Moon can't help but snort "Imagine that."

"I'm pretending I didn't hear that." Hornet yells from the entrance pipe before disappearing out of earshot.

And Moon sits in the same place she always does.

She puts a hand on her burning chest.

Somehow, she still doesn't feel alone.

Chapter Text

Hornet knows that sitting on the structure's entrance is incredibly risky. This world is far from forgiving, and one of any number of creatures can suddenly announce themselves to the detriment of all parties involved.

But as the last drops of rain stopped dripping, and her eyes adjusted to the light outside of Moon's uncomfortable pearl-storage shelter, she found a clearest view of the horizon she's ever seen, maybe in her life.

And like everything in this place, it left her with more questions then answers.

The familiar wide ocean view littered with machinery stretched for quite a while, and then suddenly, so far in the distance it was barley opaque against the color of the sky, an incomprehensibly gigantic column. One of many arranged in a rectangle, though the others are almost imperceptible from where she's sitting.

The only reason she spotted them at all is the shadow cast by what they're supporting. All of them rising up and terminating in the single largest... thing she's ever seen.

Or even imagined possible, for that matter.

...She really feels like calling it a box would be doing it a disservice.

It was seemingly metallic in nature, if it's gray tone was any indication. Just from the rough shapes it's shadows carve on it's side, it's clearly unimaginably intricate, though the details are hard to discern through the distant clouds.

Speaking of, they seem to be behaving quite strangely around it, almost like the gargantuan superstructure was propelling them outwards to reveal... more clouds behind them? If this keeps up, her clear view will not last long, Hornet concludes.

Her outlook of reality thoroughly shaken, Hornet takes a bite out the jellyfish she has skewered on her needle, careful not to sting her tongue on it's tentacles again.

The little critters were really not too different from those found in Fog Canyon, and surprisingly possessed neither floating nor combusting properties, how uncharacteristically friendly! Pretty delectable too, though she wished she dried it to make it less watery.

She really should get going now if she didn't want to worry Moon, who must be soaking wet freezing right about now.

Hornet's stomach drops, that mental image was drastically more upsetting then it was a cycle ago. She curses herself for her previous insensitivity. How long exactly has Moon lived like this?

Heading back through Moon's structure while dwelling on her thoughts, Hornet suddenly jumps back and almost hits her horns when she spots movement.

The interior she first assumed was safe grounds is now coming into question, as she sees several quadrupeds swinging down from a horizontal pole, heading opposite to the path that leads to her shelter... and to her friend.

She dearly hopes for their sake they haven't crossed Moon's path on bad terms, if at all.

Hornet crouches behind a steel platform and stealthily takes a closer look at the group of intruders.

They have short legs, very long arms and a mask-like face carapaces. At least that last part she has experience with. She counts four- no, five in total. All of them are covered in dark fur but one pale one.

Some are carrying sharpened spears, some carrying blue fruit, and some trying to balance the truly hilarious amount of suspiciously familiar pearls.

...The little thieves!

The pale one is the biggest by far, making a ruckus with each step due to the amount of different baubles it carries. A green carved vulture mask adorns it's head.

Hornet knows not to take this lightly but she has to admit, they almost look all dopey and cute just clumsily stumbling along.

Alright, better sort this out. She takes a breath in.

"HEY!"

The shout reverberates loudly between the metal walls, making the intruders instantly panic and scramble around.

The one who was balancing a largest pile of pearls in his arms stumbles, launching the vast majority of them to the shallow pools at the bottom of the structure. His eyes widen, horrified.

She can probably get those later.

Hornet drops to their level with her needle drawn. "Identify yourselves, looters." she commands.

All she gets in response is animistic noises and half a dozen spears pointed at her direction. Hornet sighs in resignation, this is what she gets for being polite.

"I mean it. Last chance to release the remaining records and solve our differences verbally, I suggest you take it." She highly doubts they can interpret the words, but she figures standing her ground and being loud communicates her intentions well enough.

They certainly seem to disagree, if the aerial volley of sharpened rebar was anything to go by. How frustrating.

She jumps and pulls on her thread in a practiced motion, using her leverage to propel her needle around her in a gossamer storm. Flashes of steel and string dance around in a sphere at incredible speeds, either launching or shattering the half dozen glorified sticks mid air.

Her leg finds purchase on one of the walls and she kicks herself off with momentum across the air, using her thread like a lasso to pull the a stubby leg and trip the remaining prize holder off their feet. More sounds of rolling pearls followed by splashes far below.

That should do it.

She lands gracefully on the pole next to the pipe leading to Moon and points her needle at the retreating group.

"I hope we learned a valuable lesson this cycle, children!" Hornet yells after them as loudly and threateningly as she could manage, hoping it would be enough to 'establish territory' or whatever.

Considering the panicked shouts she gets in response, she thinks she nailed it.

Oh Wyrm, 'Nailed', she can almost hear Moon making that pun. She hates the stupid smile that spreads on her face.

Suddenly, movement gleams at the corner of her eyes. Instinct takes over and she manages to catch the object launched at her with her hand at the last moment, though she almost loses balance on the pole due to it's weight.

Still rebalancing shakily she examines what seems to be a rusty black steel orb with blue glowing concave lines. It's heavy, symmetrical, and slightly larger then a head. It feels extremely weird to the touch, like it's both pulling and pushing her fingers from it.

Hornet's gaze snaps to the direction it was lobbed at her from, and spots the albino pack leader poking from a pipe, one hand lifting their mask above the face, their eyes wide in shock.

Before she can even think of returning to sender, they promptly scurry off, leaving her with the strange off-putting parting gift.

No time to waste, though, she needs to check on her friend. Hornet pushes into the pipe.

Moon could be beaten, skewered, dismantled for parts. Hornet's heart is beating faster with each hypothetical. Was she too soft on their 'guests'? She needs to see her now.

Dropping from the entrance pipe and catching herself by swinging from her thread she lands in front of the familiar dilapidated chamber.

Moon stares at her with wide eyes before doing a little wave, and Hornet breathes out what must be almost her entire lung capacity in relief.

She hears a giggle, "Is everything alright, princess?"

"Ugh, don't call me that." Hornet says with pretended spite. "And yes, it is. There were just some, eh, 'visitors' I had to deal with. Tried to take some pearls."

"Ah, the Scavengers were here, yes." Moon responds.

"You're familiar? Did they do anything to you? Did they hurt you?" Hornet asks and tries to sound calm.

"One peeked in, threw a rock at my head and then left." Moon plainly responds. "We are not on the best of terms, but I think they're a bit frightened of me."

Hornet chokes a laugh, Moon lifts a small stone in a feigned threat, and Hornet lifts her arms in play surrender. Moon's eye catches something.

"What are you holding?" She hesitantly asks.

"Oh, this?" Hornet lifts the black and blue sphere "I suppose the rascals ended up leaving an apology gift for you."

She smiles faintly at Moon, but only receives widening shocked eyes in return. "Hornet, listen to me carefully. You need to dispose of this item safely as soon as you can. This device is an ancient advanced battery, and judging by the rust damage it's more then likely it's highly volatile."

Hornet freezes in place and slowly looks at it "A battery? Why would the scavengers have this? How did they even get this?"

Now that she regards the thing with greater caution, Moon's stress seemed to subside slightly.

"It's safe to assume they used it as a weapon, they have an affinity to those sorts of things. And as to where they found it, well..." Moon expression gets muddled "It's likely it was one of my own low density rarefaction cells."

"Wait, yours?" That made no sense. Hornet leaned to look at Moon from a different angle, confused. "But... Where would it even fit?"

Moon's troubled expression shifts to a confused one and then suddenly she lets out a surprised laugh.

"Oh!" She leans forward "That's right! We never really talked about that, did we?"

Hornet was confused, "No, we did. You're a construct, right?"

"That's absolutely correct, but uh... how do I put this?" She gestures at herself. "This... body, it's only a part of me. An important part! But a small part nevertheless."

Hornet has no idea what that means. She stares at Moon blankly.

Moon sees her confusion and attempts to elaborate. "So, for example- The Neuron Flies." She gestures to the seven flying critters Hornet previously referred to as 'Large Lumaflies', but hasn't dedicated to much thought to as for their passive nature.

"They are quite powerful purposed organisms, and maintain my main form of thinking and processing. They are a bit less effective at storing large amounts of very detailed information, though luckily they suffice just fine for my, uh, current occupation."

"What, the bugs?" Hornet's eyes widen "But I've been..."

Petting them. She's been petting them. Hornet feels her face burning.

Moon looks away and rushes to continue. "Anyways-"

She takes a breath "I'm a bit larger then just a few flies and a puppet, though."

"Large?" Hornet leans to look behind the robot. "As in like the metal leg in your back?"

"Think more..." Moon gestures vaguely around them.

Hornet mimics her silly movements "What? What is this? What does this mean?"

Moon laughs, and Hornet's embarrassed blush worsens "I mean everything, Hornet. Well, everything here. This whole construct, the walls, the floors, the machinery. It's all part of a larger... 'Me'"

Hornet feels like she's being messed with. "You're a building?"

"No, no." Moon says sarcastically. She looks amused with Hornet's befuddlement.

"I'm quite a bit larger then a building." She adds with a snarky tone.

Hornet slowly spins and looks around her. Rusted walls and scrap metals. Intricate designs and pipes. Washed in natural elements. "This is all..."

She's suddenly reminded of the large superstructure outside. An entity larger then Hornet ever imagined in her wildest dreams. Larger then a Wyrm, larger then anything. She turns to face Moon's 'puppet'.

"THAT'S Five Pebbles?!" she points in the vague direction.

Moon's dumb smile is smeared on her face. "Five tiny rocks." she reminds gleefully.

Hornet needs to sit down. "But he's so much bigger then-" she does the gesture again.

Moon looks confused for a moment, and then exclaims "Oh! My can is- No, he's not." she shakes her head with a smile.

"I understand how you might think that, but that is not the case. It's just that the vast majority of my structure was submerged after I-" Moon stops, her smile weakening, but she doesn't let it die down. "After I collapsed."

Ah.

Hornet feels like a piece of the puzzle is snapping into place. 'How long was moon living like this?'. This was no gradual process, something happened to her friend.

Carefully, she places the 'battery' on a flat bit of ground out of the way. She then jumps the gap between her and Moon. As she lands in front of the robot, she notices she's staring back at her with incredibly wide eyes. Something stirs in her.

"You look pretty whole to me." She states like it's obvious.

Moon stays silent.

"May I sit next to you, supreme building." Hornet hopes the sarcasm disguises her nervousness.

"Please do." Moon responds genuinely and immediately, before retroactively adding "...spider princess."

"Mine was better" Hornet declares as she sits next to her, their shoulders touching.

She doesn't need to look at her to know Moon's eyes are still set on her.

Hornet hesitates before asking "Do you want to talk about it?"

And then she feels Moon's head resting on her shoulder. Her face heats up again. She's probably just not used to this amount of... touching.

A soft murmur comes "Yeah, you deserve to know."

"Bad reason." Hornet says. "Do you actually want to?"

That takes a few longer moments for Moon to respond to, until finally.

"Yeah. I think do." Her voice ever so softly comes.

Hornet rests her hand on Moon's leg.

"Then I'm here."

Always.

Chapter Text

It's admittedly distracting for Moon. Trying to put together a coherent explanation of the events hundreds of thousands of cycles ago, all while being... this close.

She's dedicating an exorbitant amount of her processing power to Hornet's hard shoulder supporting the side of her head and her sharp claws resting against her leg. How productive.

Not to mention, many of the more technical details were stored in her rotting Memory Conflux, completely inaccessible to her through her damaged umbilical, though it's safe to assume they would mean little to Hornet even if she could retrieve them.

Enough stalling. Moon dejectedly lifts her head from Hornet and lets the words out.

"Like many of our other troubles, it was an oversight on our creator's part. I was one of the earliest of my kind to ever be constructed, and though there was honor in that, there was a lack of forward thinking in my exact design."

She feels Hornet's eyes locked on her, wide and free of judgement. Her chest feels warm.

"My design wasn't scalable in many ways, and soon it became necessary of my city to meet the ancients' demand for housing and services. A demand that I was not equipped to handle. That I wasn't built in mind for."

"I'm sorry for interrupting, Moon. What do you mean by your city?"

"Oh! Uh- It's ok, Hornet. Feel free to ask questions." Moon assured her. "There used to be a city on top of my structure, though it long fell to ruin by now."

It's a bit strange to explain what is such common knowledge, no region or society lacked this info. Is Hornet's origin truly somewhere that far removed from this world?

The confusion does not leave Hornet's face, though. "A city on top of you? Why?"

"Iterators' machinery requires rapid cooling to avoid overheating. The massive use of ocean water has been the only widely viable solutions. The heat that the water absorbs creates a thick cloud layer, and as a result- the gargantuan storms and downpours that plague our world."

"Wait, Moon, You're causing it?" Hornet seems caught off guard. "Every single one?"

"I'm not. Most of my structure is completely shut down. The current downpours you've experienced are caused by my brother."

Hornet thinks for a moment "Five Pebbles is your brother?" She says incredulously.

Moon laughs "Of sorts. I was actually just about to talk about him, but do you understand what I mean about the city? Building it on top of an iterator, above the cloud layer, was the only way the ancient's society was able to exist."

"I think I get it." Hornet nods.

"So like I said, I couldn't provide all they needed and my structure could not be expanded. So a decision was made to construct another iterator at a close proximity. 'Five Pebbles'. That was the second of their oversights, as our shared use of ocean water would prove to be a fatal flaw."

Hornet seemed to be in thought. Her hand mindlessly brushing against Moon's leg. Moon tries not to stare at it, hoping the huntress wont notice either.

"Many cycles later, far after all the ancients wiped this world clean of their kind, Pebbles and I had a falling out. One I am not sure he will ever get over." Moon says bitterly.

"There are many details for the exact nature of our local group's interactions, leading up to the main event that caused my collapse, but in short..."

She looks away at the water. "Pebbles experimented with something he shouldn't have, and deprived me of water almost completely. To avoid overheating I forced him to stop briefly and I-" She has to take a moment before finishing her thought.

"I ruined his experiment as a result." She forces her voice flat.

"So what?" Hornet said in frustration, "It was killing you, Moon. Anyone would have done the same."

Her eyes soften for Hornet's protective tone. "I hoped he'd see it the same, but my involvement only complicated matters"

Before Hornet could protest, Moon rushed to elaborate "Pebbles' failed experiment afflicted him with a horrible condition, one that gets worse with every cycle. His water usage increased further trying and failing to combat this affliction. He... he hated me for it. He would not listen. I was powerless to stop him."

In an uncharacteristically quite voice, Hornet whispers "That's monstrous, Moon. You know that, right?"

Moon is caught by surprise, reflexively rushing to his defense. "My brother is many things, but that's giving his prideful and panicked actions too much credit. He's far from conniving." She assures. She does not get the understanding look from Hornet she hoped for.

"If he's the cause of all your suffering I don't much care about his intentions, and I'm frankly puzzled as to why you do."

I don't have much else, she dares not say. Because I can't lose another part of me, she silently thinks. Instead she takes a shaky breath and continues mumbling her recollections.

"Without water, my system had catastrophic slag ran off, rapidly increasing levels of sulfur and silicon blocking my conduits. The heat and chemical imbalance also wreaked havoc on my energy systems, leading to a meltdown. I-I-"

A red blinking room, sirens. Weightlessness followed by obliterating weight. Feeling crushed and crushed until you can't feel anymore.

Hornet hand starts brushing her leg again gently.

Moon takes a second to get a hold of her stuttering before saying softly.

"I fell."

An oppressive silence falls on the chamber, even the water barely audible. As if they were in the emptiness of the Void Sea.

Moon gathers the courage to look at her friend, and when she does she finds Hornet staring at her back. She feels held by her stare. Grounded. Seen. She tends to feel that a lot around her, huh?

She also notices a not so subtle silent fury below the surface of the huntress' gentle demeanor. Moon sighs.

"Hornet." She says strictly.

"I'm going to kill your brother." Hornet states calmly.

"You most certainly will not." She orders. "Not that such a task is even achievable beyond abstractions."

"I'll figure it out." Hornet says exasperated, but with a hint of jest in her tone.

Moon chuckles "You are already doing plenty. Besides, Pebbles does not deserve any more pain inflicted upon him, trust me."

"It's not about trust, it's a respectful disagreement. You shouldn't be this okay with what he did to you."

"Oh please! Talking about glass houses! I could say the very same thing about many of the people in your life."

"Wha- Well-" Hornet hesitates. Their shoulders almost break contact. She moves between starting to speak before going back into stunned quiet.

Moon suddenly got a lot less jokey and a lot more worried "Oh, gods. Did I cross a line?"

Hornet lets out a laugh. "No, no, Moon. It's fine. I'm just not used to this." Moon leans in close with a smile.

"To losing arguments?"

Hornet half pushes half jumps on her, holding her head in a faint wrestle "Oh Wyrm, you're such a dork."

Moon stays held within her grasp, lacking anywhere near the strength to escape, physical or otherwise. Instead of trying she just groans loudly "Will you PLEASE tell me already what that even is?"

"A dork, you trashcan, is someone who thinks they're-"

"Wyrm! What's a Wyrm Hornet?! Is it like a god or something, is he like your cult leader, what? The suspense is killing me!"

Hornet suddenly lets go. "Oh! You really don't-? I guess you wouldn't."

Moon straightens and clears her throat "No, I wouldn't. I don't. So stop teasing me and spit it out already."

"The Wyrm was a creature so powerful, it could practically be considered a god. He ruled over Hallownest."

"Your kingdom I presume, just like the White Lady said." Moon waves her hands in dismissal "Keep going."

"Right. Uh, she was actually his wife. When he created our kingdom he called himself the Pale King. Like all his kind of 'Wyrms' He was incredibly unique and powerful. A fundamental leading light of civilization."

Moon shrugs "We seem to be doing fine without one."

Hornet throws a quick look at their surrounding, before shifting her gaze back to her. "Respectfully, Untrue. Not to mention unrelated, Moon."

"Very related, actually. It's leading me to believe his alleged power was likely religious speculation. The ancients had plenty of those."

"Not quite, you could say I have a first account of his power." Hornet gave her a rare snarky smile "He was my father, after all."

Oh.

Wow. Moon is so dense. She stares at the pale being.

Hornet chuckles and pushes Moon's shoulder playfully. "Don't look so shocked."

It made more sense then Moon cared to admit. "I think that's the appropriate reaction to the realization that your friend in a half god warrior princess."

"Wyrm, you make it sound so over the top." Hornet feigns frustration.

She then looks up again with a sarcastic smile. "'Friend' huh?"

Now it's Moon's turn to jump push Hornet, though this bears much less results with Hornet as unmovable as a rock to her frail puppet.

Hornet just laughs and laughs as Moon struggles to get headway in the wrestle. When Moon finally gives it up Hornet has to catch her breath from laughing.

Moon sits back down with a huff, defeated.

"Your face..." Hornet manages out between wheezing. "...is priceless!"

Moon closes her eyes and shrugs "I regret to inform you, princess, that you've been demoted from your 'Friend' position."

"It's a competitive list, I'm sure." Hornet responds, still short of breath.

Moon scoffs loudly, "I cannot believe you just said that, I have plenty!"

Hornet does not look convinced. "Some friends they must be, where are they in this whole debacle? "

"Oh, I trust they would help further if they could. Unfortunately us iterators aren't known for our mobility." She says in a fake condescending voice.

"Ah, a long distance thing, then." Hornet continues to tease "Who delivers the pearls, the Scavengers?"

Moon laughs "They'd wish. We used to have a long range communications array- it's uh... a machinery thing."

"Ah, a machinery thing, should've guessed." Hornet shrugs.

"It was used to send an invisible signal over vast distances using radio frequencies, but I doubt that means much to you."

"Naturally. I'm assuming Pebbles destroyed that too, then?"

"Just blocked it, fortunately. Conversations got heated in the local group when things, uh..."

Hornet looks at her with big innocent eyes "Went down?"

"Oh my god, shut it. I cannot believe you'd make that joke." Moon lectures with indignation.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"It was pretty funny though wasn't-"

"YES IT WAS FUNNY." Moon yells.

Hornet cracks into apologetic chuckles. Moon gave her the strongest look of 'you are unbelievable' she could manage.

"Alright, alright. I'm done." Hornet declares. "Only serious business from now on."

"Of course, of course." Moon plays along.

"We are both highly serious sovereigns of our worlds, better act the part."

"I'd never imagine to do otherwise."

"So, down to said business. Is the only actual thing that's stopping you from communicating with your vast quantity of alleged friends your brother's permission?"

"Oh, of course not. Just one issue out of many. First would be this mess." she points back with her thumb to the ripped wires resembling hair, ripped from their origin in the umbilical arm.

Hornet tilts her head to look behind Moon. "Mhm" What is that look on her face?

"Then my brother would have to somehow have a change of heart, and open communications."

Hornet looks at the wall in his general direction. "Of course." Moon isn't sure she likes that tone.

"Even then the Communications Array is in disrepair from the wear of the cycles, and no one is remotely able to tend to it."

Hornet looks at her again. "Nobody, huh?" Moon feels warmth in her stomach. She can't possibly...?

Moons voice gets a bit louder in protest "Not to mention this whole thing would be pointless, because a function like that would require much more power then I have access to in my current state."

Hornets gaze shifts to the rusty low density rarefaction cell tucked in the corner.

"No. Absolutely not." Moon strictly orders.

"But it would work, wouldn't it?"

"It would not!" Moon exclaims, and tries to sneak in a quiet "...Surely?"

Before she could blink Hornet was no longer at her side, and instead holding the glorified singularity bomb to her face, causing her to flinch. "Rust assessment?"

"Hornet I'm serious, this could be dangerous." She protests.

"Better not mess it up then." Even if her words don't, the Look in Hornet's eyes reassures her. Like she won't let anything happen.

Moon grumbles and grabs it gently after a moment. It feels heavy and weird in her hands, almost magnetic. She rotates it around, brushing away detached rust particles and examining for cracks or openings.

You've got to be kidding. Gently brushing it removed the opaque, yet thin layer of rust, revealing pristine steel below, unblemished. Moon doesn't buy it, There has to be something wrong.

She spins it around more wildly now, seeking to prove it can't be trusted, that there's no way something could work out, not for her, not after all the cycles. Something MUST be wrong.

She only notices she's shaking when Hornet sets her claw on her hand, softly. Moon pauses, and focuses on her warmth, on her dress brushing against her leg, on her breathing.

"So?" Hornet asks patiently.

Moon sighs deeply "The rust is entirely superficial. It's near perfect condition. It would not detonate even if you threw it against the wall. You were right, Hornet, this is not only a fully operational battery, but one who was specifically designed and used in my can."

Hornet has a smile plastered on her face. She squeezes Moons hand in reassurance.

"Then let's get to work."

Chapter Text

It's freezing as Hornet trudges through the knee high snow. What remained of Moon's city held quite a view within it, a glimmering blanket of white covered the grey metallic buildings.

It was actually quite nostalgic for the time she spent in Kingdom's Edge, guarding the King's Brand from anyone seeking it for the wrong reasons, though the Wyrm's ash wasn't nearly as chilling to the touch.

The inner gate leading here from within the structure wouldn't budge. Moon seemed to understand why, though Hornet still had no idea what a 'Citizen ID' is. Climbing along the side was exhausting, even if a lot of the vultures seemed to wisely keep their distance for now.

The worst part was definitely the cold. With her dress tied around her shoulders as a makeshift backpack, there was nothing standing between her black carapace cover and this damned weather.

She felt the 'rare fraction cell' or whatever that battery was called, swinging with each step, bumping heavily against her back and only lightly padded by the strange bubble-like plants Moon insisted she'd gather as well.

Still, this is all worth it. She knew better then anyone that picking up the pieces following a calamity took strength, and she had a lot of that to give. 'Strength means nothing until dedicated', her father used to say.

She notices a glowing yellow light on one of the buildings. It's that eyestock thing that Moon said she'd send. An overseer? She moves closer. When she's close enough to it, it projects a yellow transparent screen with strange graphics on it.

"Hi, Hornet!" an audio recording plays. Hornet sighs, trying to sound cool and collected.

"Hello, Moon." She responds with a cocky smile before face palming the moment she remembered-

"Just as a reminder this is a prerecorded message. Though Iggy will attempt to catch your most relevant response and deliver it back to me later! Make sure to use it for something important, as their navigation is far from instant."

"Yeah, yeah." Hornet huffs in embarrassment, she hopes the little eyebug won't selectively choose to humiliate her. Why would Moon even give it a name?

"I've instructed them to lead you to the department of energy's excess shaft, presuming it's still intact, that is. It should lead directly to the heart of my back up rarefaction facility. So... Y'know. Don't send them away quite yet! Good luck princess, and be careful!"

Hornet can't help but chuckle. "'Princess'? Is that what were doing now?" She looks at Iggy as if she expects a response, but it just stares back unblinking. The cold wind blows hauntingly through the metal structures.

"Wyrm, you are a creepy little thing." She gestures forward with exasperation "Didn't you hear her? Lead."

The yellow glowing eyestock shoots into the ground and pops ahead in the path. Hornet shakes her head and continues making way through the snow.

Soon it becomes obvious enough where the little zipping glowstick was leading her, as a tall building came into view, equipped with a sharp antenna that cuts through the sky. Hornet knew the look of expert crafts when she saw one, and the inside of the building proved her right further.

All sorts of musty nick-nacks littered the space. Bolts, tools, wires. That'll have to wait for after, she decides. For now she follows Iggy further under the surface of Moon's structure, into the dilapidated lower level of the department building.

The echo in here was so strong, Hornet could hear every single lazy drop falling onto the surface of one of the many pools that have gathered here. The dark environment was illuminated by Iggy's yellow glow, reflecting off the worn metal walls.

She stops in front of a long chute leading down into the structure, completely filled to the brim with water, as Moon said it would be. It's lit by a faint red glow coming from inside.

"Here we go, moment of truth." Hornet unties the dress from her shoulders and lays out it's contents. Her needle and thread, the battery, and about a dozen 'bubble-weed' plants. Iggy stared at them, and then back at her.

it's wide retina almost made it look like it was constantly shocked, which almost amused her somewhat. Almost.

"Alright, shoo. I can handle this from here." She orders the thing. "Tell Moon I'm handling it." It's blank stare was not the most assuring, but after a moment it retreats out of view.

Hornet picks up all the plants under one arm, and the cell in the other. Wearily, she leaves her dress and needle on the ground. Can't have them weighing her down on the way back up.

She briefly imagines a scavenger stealing them while she's away and parading around with them. Wonderful.

She takes a deep breath, stuffs the first of the bubble-weeds in her mouth, and dives in with as much momentum as she can manage. The cold of the water shocks her for a moment. But as lethargy leaves and panic returns she starts paddling downward.

The weight of the battery is finally coming in handy, dragging them both down the wide tube quicker then she was expecting. Hornet scrambles to switch to the second bubble-weed as she enters a wide dark room.

Eight circular machines are suspended near it's corners, shining into the room with red lights, while a dark round chamber is suspended in the center.

A force is acting on the battery, one she at first assumed was weight. It's pulling her gently towards the central chamber, and as she gets close it only strengthens.

Hornet slams into the steel. It becomes very hard to break the contact between the chamber and the sphere. With difficulty, she forces her way into a pipe on the chamber's surface and finds herself pulled into a small round room.

The battery escapes her grip, spinning in a tightening orbit, heading in a curve for the center position of the chamber, where all the engravings and wires lead. Yeah, this is her time to get outa dodge.

She propels herself out of the chamber just as it powers up. Blinding blue light shines behind her through the water just for a moment before a wave of gravitational force pushes her outward violently.

As she's catapulted upward, spinning wildly. A pang of pain from her lungs leads to a startling realization- she lost grip on the bubble-weeds.

Disoriented and panicked, Hornet eyes search for an indication as to where up is. There! One bubble weed is floating that way, she just needs to swim like hell in that direction. She's freezing and the gravity is tugging on her and her arms hurt and she's going to drown she's going to drown she's-

The surface of the water breaks as Hornet flops on the moist metal floor with a cough and a gasp. She lays there for a long moment, taking in heavy gulps of air. She slowly sits up and pulls on her dress like a blanket. She did it.

Strangely, She feels the floor under her buzzing ever so slightly, almost as if it was coming alive.

Moon feels useless, sitting here and letting Hornet run around and solve her problems. She just finished recording Iggy's first message in an age, and she dearly hopes her nervousness does not show in her voice.

Now all that's left to do is to hope and wait. When she was whole, the auditory and sound sensors would inform her of happenings around and inside her can.

Now the only indication it existed at all was the damaged umbilical arm, providing no information, almost no mobility, and a very marginal amount of power. It was as if she was constantly moving a toothpick through honey, weak and shaky.

After a while of the silent waiting she's grown so accustomed to, Iggy finally returns to the room. She perks up as they zip to a closer position to her. Moon straightens and waves a frail hand, commanding them to play their stored data.

Hopefully her message was overwritten by Hornet's.

"Alright, shoo." The yellow projection starts with an annoyed tone. "I can handle this from here. Tell Moon I'm handling it." Then almost as soon as it started, it shut down.

Yep. That's Hornet alright. Moon Knows better then to doubt her capabilities, but can she really in good conscience expect her to-

Her vision flashes blinding white, reforming and spasming. Moon can't feel the ground, but she feels so much more. Fractured and corrupted, albeit, but input nevertheless.

A mess of signals trying to pass to her through her damaged umbilical and failing, incomplete and jumbled, lost in ripped nerve wires. She opens her eyes.

She's floating, held aloft by the awakened metallic arm, as she feels strength coursing in her limbs. The long-powerless projector whirrs to life and lets out a soft light, breathing life in the ruined chamber.

She- She really did it. Hornet really did it. Moon laughs in shock. She has energy again! Real actual power. She can't help but fly around the room, the arm zipping her around in joy, pumping her fist and brushing against the walls she'd never thought she'd reach again.

She flies lower to the pools of murky water and kicks them as hard as she can, splashing water everywhere. It's like she's in Hornet's dreams again. She's alive again. She's free.

SHE'S ACTUALLY FREE!

Her whole puppet's shaking but she couldn't care less. She spins around the room, runs along the walls while the white fabric flaps behind her. "YES!" She shouts as loud as she can, her voice cracking with emotion.

She hears a dry voice coming from the hidden ceiling pipe of the chamber "Whoa oh, is there a party I wasn't invited to?"

"Hornet!" Moon shouts, overjoyed. She flies and snatches the spider from her perch, squeezing her in a hug with all the strength she didn't have to before.

"Thank you thank you thank you!!!" She spins her around in a bear hug. Hornet's freezing, even through her dress. She's stiff from shock, disoriented as Moon waves her around in uncontained glee.

She stops at the center, and holds Hornet aloft at arms length, staring at her, face to face.

"Thank you." Moon's voice is shaking. She felt like there was so much more to say. So much more she was feeling, but it was the only thing she could think of.

Hornet looks at her for a moment with wide eyes, looks down at herself, being held by the shoulders. For a brief moment Moon swear she almost looks bashful, but as soon as she notices, Hornet returns a snarky smile to Moon.

"Don't thank me yet, hotshot, I'm just warming up- WOAH" She yelps as Moon pulls her in to another hug, slowly lowering them both to a sitting position on the ground.

Hornet stays silent in the hug, breathing slowly. Moon feels her taking a breath in before saying to the side of her head- "I think the moral of the story here is never doubt me ever."

"Oh god, shut up." Moon laughs, choked from emotions, but she doesn't let go.

And they sit there, in another cuddle, both closing their eyes and holding the other tight. An appreciation deeper then words. Unfortunately, some angular objects in Hornet's possession prevented the cuddle to be fully comfortable.

"What's that?" Moon asks, unwillingly breaking away from her.

Hornet seems confused for a moment, before realizing. "Aw dammit, I wanted it to be a surprise."

She scoots back and lays out some objects on the ground between them. A pack full of Screws and bolts of varying sizes, several wheels of wrapped wires of all different kinds, and an ancient mobile power tool.

"The energy department had some useful things just laying around, and well... someone I knew once insisted that such things should not burden the dead."

Moon is at a loss for words "Hornet. This... is unbelievable."

"Well you better believe it, missy. Hope you're ready to get your hairs braided, because I have zero experience."

Moon laughs enthusiastically. "What a strange way to put it. But you bet I am!"

She spins slightly to the side, revealing her back to Hornet, along with a mess of ripped red and blue wires originating from the back of her head. Only some remained connected to the umbilical arm. "Just be careful to not touch the live parts, I wouldn't want to zap you."

"I'll be fine." Hornet dismisses immediately and scoots closer. Moon hears her shift the tools around before she feels her claws on her wires. "Hold still." She orders.

There's something so intimate about the gentle way Hornet handles them, so careful to not nick or scratch, wrapping them around each other. Moon learned quickly that Hornet's abrasiveness was almost always strictly expressed in a verbal manner. Her actions tending more to precision and consideration.

"Ah oh." Nevermind.

"What's wrong, Hornet?" Moon asks.

Hornet's arm extends into her field of vision, holding the power tool in a strange manner, pressing her claw on it's trigger to no effect. "I think it's out." She hears her say.

Moon looks at the device with focus. A gentle whirring starts in the can around them as she leads the rarefaction energy through her conduits before-

Zap! A thin white lightning shoots from a corner of the room into the power tool, which in turn comes to life with bright sparks.

"Is it?" Moon answers sarcastically, suppressing the smile in her voice.

A mumble comes behind her "Wyrm above never do that again please I flinched so hard."

Moon can't help but giggle "The alleged fearless protector, huh?"

"Shut it or I'm yanking on em'."

"Understood."

The process takes quite a bit of time, and though Hornet is gentler then she ever imagined, the multi-use power tool is far from it. After she assures the princess which wires are the same type as the ones she carries, and what connects where, the hard part comes.

"Alright, ready when you are." Hornet informs.

"Do it." Moon mumbles, squaring her shoulders and bracing for pain.

The whirr and popping of sparks, as the tool melts her nerves together with the opposing ones. The feeling is excruciating, and she squeezes Hornet's leg at her side, trying to be as quiet through the ordeal as possible.

And then silence once again. That and heavy breathing. "How many left?" Moon croaks out.

"One. It's the big data one you said we can't melt." Hornet's voice is almost completely flat, but a slight pitch shift reveals her nervousness.

"Oh yeah. That. God, let me figure out how to do this."

"Yeah, you do that." She feels Hornet's arms wrap around her torso from the back and her chin rest on her shoulder. Her legs around her from each side. The warmth in Moon's chest burns so hot she wonders if they needed the power tool after all.

"Since when are you warm?" Hornet comments in a whisper.

"Is that a complaint?" Moon mumbles back, hoping her voice doesn't disclose her bashful expression.

"Mmn" is all the response she gets.

That makes something stir in Moon again. That feeling, so intense she feels out of her mind. Like this is all she ever wanted. Like this is all she'll ever want. Something so past feelings of thanks or kinship.

She needs to say it. She needs to let it out. She needs her to know. She can't lose this moment, this feeling. It feels more true then anything else. She needs to say it right now or she'll explode. Now. Say it. SAY IT.

"Hornet?" Moon's says a bit too suddenly.

There's a murmur behind her "Yeah?"

"I think I love you."

...

Everything is still except Hornet's sharp breathing. Moon doesn't move. She doesn't dare to look back. Doesn't dare to think. Every moment of nothing feels more excruciating then her nerves melting together.

"Yeah." Hornet whispers. Stupidly. Her voice is quiet and raspy.

"Y-yeah?" Moon is shaking.

"Yeah." The princess softly insists, putting her forehead against the side of moon's head.

"Okay." Moon says, her voice wobbly.

And Hornet doesn't say anything. She just holds her. She just stays.

Even when her structure stood as tall is the sky, Moon knows for certain.

She's never been this happy.

Chapter Text

Hornet stays wrapped around Moon, not willing to move a muscle. 'Frozen' would've been an apt term, if not for the soft constant heat that radiated from her... friend?

That's not quite right, is it?

Moon loves her. She loves her. What does that even mean? It doesn't feel meaningless, that's for sure. It makes her stomach do flips. It makes her want to fly into the sun.

Why her?! Why would she?! What was there to love? A cold angry bug. A good soldier, no doubt. That's not what Moon means, though.

A... partner? That's closer, Hornet thinks. Though it still feels sterilized and neutral. A... girlfriend-? She needs to stop thinking about titles right this second, or her shell will surely catch on fire. She wants to fold into herself and be dropped down to the bottom of the abyss.

Is this what romance is? It's humiliating. She cannot believe her father would allow himself this level of vulnerability with anyone, and she knew for a fact her mother would never. She doesn't care much about them right now, though.

Whatever this is, it feels right. Not much in her life ever felt this way.

She tightens her grip on Moon, and receives a small surprised sound in return. This might just kill her at this rate. Hornet doesn't think she cares about that either. She must be losing it.

The light in the room slowly relies more and more and the artificial one created by the projector, as clouds cover the sky. How dare you, Pebbles? Cuddle interruption is quickly climbing up his list of punishable crimes.

Moon rouses up. "Hornet-"

"I know." She quickly answers. "We really should do something about that broken roof."

Moon puts a gentle hand on her leg. "I'll be okay."

"You shouldn't have to be." Hornet insists.

Moon separates from her, and turns to meet her gaze "Go get some sleep. I need time to figure out an action plan for that data cable anyways."

Hornet nods and slowly gets to her feet. Moon is staring at her from below with eyes filled with a soft emotion. "Rest well, princess."

"Enough for the both of us." Hornet smiles.

Moon snorts a laugh, "Then you might be out for quite a while."

Her energy is contagious "I know, right? See you in ten cycles."

"Try a million."

"The sleepiest robot I've ever met."

Rain is starting to drop, but Hornet can't stop looking at Moon. Drops leaving long paths down her light blue face.

"Hornet." Moon reminds gently

"I know." Hornet whispers back, taking another long second of musing in the rain's white noise and another long dose of Moon's gaze before turning around and dashing for the pipe.

Logically, Moon knew Hornet was coming back. Of course she would. That is unless...

Unless she crossed a line, unless the moment Hornet realized how Moon felt she knew that this was ridiculous. Unless she really is worthless.

But that wasn't true. Moon knows that's not true. She's just scared to lose her, like everything else. And if that's the case, that the only thing standing in the way of her one good thing is her own anxieties. Well, that's at least something she did have power over.

Right now she had time, and she had her strength back. She's going to make this work.

The rain quickly floods into her room, but for the first time in a long time, Moon stays up. The rain and water were heavy and powerful, but it was no match for the awakened hydraulic steel umbilical.

As the water level surpasses her head, Moon knows that if there ever was a time to run diagnostics, it would be now. Data cable or not- let's see what functions she can access.

About what she expected, the battery was far from a full high density cell. Still, they are built to last unfathomably long. She'll just need to be smart about not to abuse it's energy output.

Yep, yep, yep

You don't say?

Yes yes, she gets the idea. But enough about the walls, what actually still functions?

She can live with that.

Wait, just 0001? That's her data cable! Is it's compromised state really the only thing denying her access? She'll have to get some of that cable from somewhere else in her facility, the weather vane doesn't seem to be putting it's own to use, might be a good place to start.

Communications manifest, huh? Suns. Sig... Pebbles. She Hopes they're still okay, it's been so, so long. She misses them, misses all the local group. Can Hornet Really mend it?

Moon looks up, and realizes that for the first time she can see her flooded room while it was still raining, thanks to the calming glow of the powered projector. The breach in the roof is big, but it's just metal. Hornet is right once again, she's admits. Even if not probable, it is theoretically possible.

Moon opens a new file. And her walls are painted with the projected display. She writes the title:

Hornet wakes up to Iggy in her face, of all things. Staring deep into her eyes. She resists the urge to slash it, with admitted difficulty.

"WHAT? WHAT DO YOU WANT? HOW DID YOU GET IN?" She yells and pushes herself against the wall as the shelter doors rumble and unlock.

It's eye flash, and a recording starts playing. "Alright, Princess, I think I have a plan." She hears Moon's voice, sounding wrapped up in her own thoughts. There's a muffled sound of recorded rain in the background.

"The kind of cable we talked about is on one of the big weather-detecting metal sphere, you've probably seen them while climbing me- uh... my wall, I mean."

Oh, she saw them. They was festering with yellow lizards, crawling, and climbing over each-other. Fun.

"The one most accessible is probably the one just under the antenna, just notice that you cannot cut it out, you have to dismantle the machine around it and detach it, so bring that power tool! Let me know if you can't find it."

"Glowstick, you hear me?" She flicks on it's retina and it recoils and shakes it's eye. "Tell Moon that I care for her a great deal and nothing's changing that, but she better give me a moment or ten when I wake up or I'm going to bed for another cycle."

Iggy stares at her with the same expression it always has and tilts it's head condescendingly. Hornet senses a beef developing. "Scram, bug." She shoos it away.

Finally with some peace and quiet, Hornet stands and stretches, popping her back. She bounces from leg to leg as she lifts her needle from the ground and spins it around her before mounting it on her back. She's got a climb ahead of her, better be warmed up.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! She shouldn't have sent Iggy to Hornet mid rain cycle, obviously it approached the minute she stirred awake. She looks at the yellow overseer, pretending their wide eyes are full of shame. "My bad, buddy."

These are the sorts of dumb oversights she cannot afford. Hornet is doing so much for her. To an outside observer, does Moon appear like she's been taking that for granted?

Hornet's unusually loud shuffle through the entrance pipe pulls her away from her thoughts.

Moon calls out to her. "Hornet, is that you? I started getting worried that something went wrong. N-not that you needed to fetch it quicker or anything like that, just that I thought-"

A loud impact of metal on metal makes Moon flinch. Hornet stands in front of her, nonchalantly. A disconnected yet pristine data cable wrapped over her shoulder and waist. In front of her, dropped in a pile on the ground, is a couple dozen thick square steel platings.

"Sorry, Moon, didn't quite catch that." Hornet says as she spins a sore arm in a stretch. "What'd you say?"

Moon would rather not repeat that train-wreck. "Uh... What have you brought?" She asks instead.

Hornet seems in her own train of thought. "Oh, you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Hey! Moon, do you know if lizards are edible?"

Huh? "Well the vultures certainly seem to think so. I'd suppose It would be more depended on the diner's anatomy then the lizard's?" Moon says in a slightly hesitant tone. "Why, were there some on my structure?"

Hornet snarkily laughs. "Oh, I'd certainly say so! A clever bunch, too."

Why didn't she send Iggy to check? Just one oversight after another. "Oh, gods. I hope they didn't give you too much trouble!" She says in a grave tone.

All she gets back is a smile and a glare. "Moon."

"Yes?"

Hornet gestures towards herself. "What was it you said? 'Half god warrior princess'?"

Moon lets out a surprised chuckle. "And humble, too."

"Oh you little-" Hornet tackles her and sends them both into an airborne wrestle around the chamber, but it quickly turns into a spinning hug. Moon gently places her down on the ground.

"I'm sorry I woke you up, Hornet." Moon says candidly.

"Nah, it's fine. What did I even say back, again? I'm so pissed off when I wake up."

Moon says "You said something to that effect, and that I'm to take that into account."

"Ah, yes. And soon more then ever, as soon we'll get these babies-" She gives a light kick to the rectangular plating "-reinforced up on that hole in the roof. Then you got to deal with it every morning."

"Wait, you want to- uh. Sleep? Here? With me, you mean?"

"The pearls in the shelter are hurting my back, What can I say?" She breathes in and stretches again, but after she sees Moon's face Hornet let's out a huffing laugh. "And you know, to be around you more. And stuff. If you're okay with it."

"I'm okay! It's- It's okay! Yes, you may do so. Yes." Moon can't help but word-vomit without stopping.

Hornet smiles widely. "Come on." She pulls a length of the new data cable taught. "No use flirting with me all day." She circles around to Moon's back, out of her view.

"I-" Moon says shocked, but the words are not flowing right "I- I wasn't!"

"Shush Moon, I need to focus here." Hornet mumbles. Sounds of her unpacking tools and equipment, before she was breathing near the back of Moon's neck, examining the expired data cable. Moon thinks she might melt down before anything gets fixed.

When Hornet disconnects the old ripped data cable from the back of Moon's head, it doesn't hurt at all. The only difference she feels is the briefly lighter load on her puppet's neck.

"So far so good?" She hears behind her.

Moon smiles "As smooth as a pipe-slug."

"I'll pretend you just said something that makes actual sense."

Moon laughs. "Yeah, you do that Miss 'what's-a-rodent'."

Hornet shushes her.

A second click, as she connects one end of the new cable to Moon's umbilical. "You ready?"

Moon breaths in, anticipation coursing through her. "Ready."

She feels gentle claws tingling the back of her neck, and then-

Click~!

And then a flash of white. A feeling like every joint in her body is snapping into place all at once, and suddenly everything was coming back.

Memories and overseers and sensors and feeds and connection and a deep, deep awareness of herself. There was some pain, though it was numb and muted. What Moon mainly felt is... Her.

All of her.

From the sunken struts to the vents. Each un-caved access shafts. Each scrap of metal and steel come alive with a static flow of presence. She could sense the vultures, perched in the peaks of her city. She could feel the giant jelly fish who made themselves home deep in her gut.

She was broken, she could feel it now more then ever. But she was also whole.

A muffled voice pulls her awareness forward to a familiar chamber, to a familiar body, to a familiar sight.

"Helloooo...? Oh Wyrm, don't you dare be dead." A panicked hand waves in front of her puppet's eyes. She's laying down, she realizes. She's not responding to her pleas. She's... WORRYING HORNET.

She sits up so suddenly she slams her head with the pearly white face, which in turn makes the bug fall to her back, yelping.

"OH GOD I'M SOSOSO SORRY" Moon shouts without thinking, before lowering her voice to an almost timid tone "Are you okay?"

The princess lays silent for a moment, facing up. Then a hoarse voice starts.

"No. I am dying, a life for a life. The debt must be paid." A black arm reaches upward and falls to her side. "Bleh."

Moon giggles "Get up you goober."

"You get up."

"I am up."

"Yeah, now." Hornet sits up, if only just to gesture wildly "What in Wyrm's name was that?"

Moon gets ready to answer, but a yellow light appears at a nearby wall. She at once sees it and sees through it, another yellow overseer.

A small zipping sound comes. Another overseer. And then another, and another after that. Soon enough the whole room is bursting with them, on every available surface.

"What... what did I do?" Hornet's asks, amazement in her voice. Her eyes reflecting their lights, as if they were the night's sky.

Moon smiles at her, as warmly as she feels.

"You put me back together."

Chapter Text

Repairing the chamber's roof proved more difficult then Hornet expected.

She sits cross legged, and angrily tries to meld the plates back in their place after the incessant rain once again tore them out of shape.

Each cycle she spent working on this felt like two steps forward and one back, almost like the moment the project approaches finality, the cycle's downpour power-washes her hard labor down the drain.

She looks down the hole at Moon, held aloft elegantly by the umbilical arm, staring thoughtfully at the wall holding the projectors' illuminated graphics. It displayed complex diagram presenting an Itarator's can, along with writing Hornet couldn't begin to interpret.

"Is it my own imagination, or are the cycles getting shorter and shorter every time?" She projects her voice down to her partner. Moon throws a quick glance in her direction before refocusing on the diagram.

A worried voice responds, amplified by the room to a level Hornet can hear. "It is not, unfortunately. I have no way to verify, with the blockade he enforces on overseers- forbidding them from approaching his structure. That said, I am willing to bet his... affliction-"

She hesitates momentarily, her face in a pained expression, before continuing "Is getting worse much quicker then I thought it would."

"Still not your fault." Hornet says in a normal voice. Moon doesn't respond, but she doubts it's because she didn't hear.

The data cable did some serious work, she learned. Now it almost felt like nothing could escape her partner's notice around the structure. This local omniscience reminded her of her father, with his divination abilities. He used them often to establish control and order around his 'eternal' kingdom.

Moon was in control now, too, but it felt different. She had agency again, acting and researching and planning all on her own. She never used it to intrude, or order Hornet around. She was just... with her. Like they were equals. Like they were a team.

A smile sneaks on her face, as she continues to meld the chamber's pieces in place. It's tiring work, and before long the cycle runs it's course. Just before she melds the final piece in place, the sky begins to darken.

"Come on! This one didn't take any time at all." Hornet protests loudly. "What in Wyrm's name is going on with him?"

"I'm worried too, but you really should head to the shelter, can't risk you getting caught out here." A muffled voice responds beyond the piecemeal roofing.

She loudly groans "No! Not again." She looks down at the singular hole. "There's only one left, I'm not letting it all crumble down again."

Moon is silent for a moment, before answering resolutely "...Alright, come inside. I'll help you."

Dropping in the hole, Hornet is intercepted mid air and caught by her partner's arms, lifting her back up towards the ceiling. The raw strength Moon has now still shocks her, and she quickly attempts to recover her cool. "Oh, uhh what are we doing?"

Moon points to the hole, "At least if you weld it from the inside, you won't be exposed up there." She reorients Hornet to a more upright position, holding her waist through the dress. "Do you think you'll manage it, princess?"

Hornet's heart is beating. She gets over herself, though, and scoffs. "As long as you hold me steady, Moon, It'd be a shame to weld your face too."

A snarky smile sneaks on her partner's face "Why, are you fond of it?" She asks playfully.

"Non of your business." Hornet flicks her forehead with a metallic pang. Moon responds with an unbothered laugh.

She turns to face the ceiling and retrieves her power tool. When she looks up, her horns bump lightly against Moon's head, getting a mid laugh "Hey!" out of her. Still, gentle drops are hitting her face softly through the opening. She really has no time to mess around.

Moon does hold her steady while she works, even when little streams of rain water start to flow down her arms and inside her dress. Even when the rain starts slamming loudly against their ceiling. One last line of sparks and glowing metal finally seals the slab in place.

They lower down, absolutely drenched. From the floor the sound of the rain settles into white noise. They stand on the ground, Moon still holding her waist from behind her.

They're staring up, holding their breath. The rain gets stronger and stronger, causing the water puddles remaining inside to wobble. The structure is shaking around them, faintly.

All the while, they wait for something to go wrong.

...

But that something doesn't come. And a strange calm blankets the room with each passing moment.

"No chance." She whispers.

"Certainly looks like one to me" Moon whispers back.

Hornet sighs loudly and falls back on her partner, causing her to descend slowly into a sitting position, with her laying in her lap. Her head is against Moon's chest, and her horns against her shoulder.

She hears a faint whirring from inside the puppet, and heat starts radiating from her torso.

"It's cute when you do that." Hornet mumbles.

Moon's puppet stiffens. "O-oh god, I hate that you can hear it."

A half smile crosses Hornet's expression. "Do you?"

Moon sighs, there's a slight tremble in her voice. "I- uh... Hate is not the right word, I guess."

Hornet tilts her head in a knowing look.

Moon remains silent for a moment, before her posture straightens. "Hornet, now that the roof is completed, don't tell me you plan to journey to my brother."

"Real smooth," Hornet chuckles. "And yes, I am."

She sees Moon glare on the from the corner of her eyes. Hornet winks at her. "Just checking up on the lad. No ill will, of course."

Moon's eyes narrow "I don't believe you." She pokes Hornet's side, causing her to squirm and emit a disgruntled groan.

"Moon, come on. You know we have to open his communication's block to talk to your friends. You shouldn't be this isolated."

"In it's current state, his can must be in horrific condition. This is incredibly risky." Moon says matter of factly. "And of course I'd like to speak with them again, Hornet. But it's not as if I'm all alone." She gently brushes Hornet's shoulder.

Hornet grabs Moon's hands and holds it against herself. "This isn't about me, Moon. You deserve so much more then this."

"I don't know what 'deserve' means anymore." Moon quietly says, "You showing up in my can, it wasn't something I earned. It wasn't a reward, I did nothing to achieve it. You've already done so much, Hornet, so so much. I'm not sure I can bare to lose you. Allow me this selfishness."

"You won't lose me." Hornet insists.

"Hornet... I'm scared." her voice cracks.

Hornet sits up, and turns to look at Moon's eyes. They're pained and wide, soaked in grief. She hesitantly leans in, and places her mouth against Moon's forehead with a soft kiss, before gently embracing her. The whirring gets much louder.

"I'm coming back. I swear on my mother." Hornet promises. "No matter what I meet, no matter what I'll have to handle. Sooner or later we'll have another night like this one."

Moon takes a long time to respond, staying in the hug for a long moment. Finally, shakily, she lets go of her, slowly sitting back on the dry metal ground.

"Okay."

Moon watched intently through her overseers as Hornet gave one last wave to her structure before dashing in her brother's general direction.

The fact she could now watch over her from her little eyes brought Moon some comfort. The data cable allowed her to remotely interact through the overseers, so It wasn't as if they cut communication from each other entirely.

With such short cycles, though, Hornet hardly had the time for sight seeing. At least she was finally able to put her incredible agility to full use, dashing, grappling and skipping across the water from island to island. She was crossing the sea much quicker then any other creature could hope to.

Moon observed in baited breath as the princess made her way closer and closer to the abandoned ancient Citadel, zipping past threats before they registered her presence. She's going to have to push her overseers along if she wants to catch up, she realizes.

She looks up at the shadow of the unbelievably large structure in the sky. Sturdy and stubborn. He and Hornet may have more in common then she thought. Moon can't even begin to imagine how Hornet plans to sober him to his actions, and convince him to move forward.

Gods know that Moon could not.

Hornet never liked the water all that much. In fact, she rather despised it. If it meant being around Moon, though, she couldn't say she minded. Still, there was a palpable sense of relief when she finally crossed the gate that led to the vast shaded city.

She saw it over the ocean's horizon now and then, and now finally she could view it's contents closer. Architectural wonders shadowed by gargantuan weight, crawling with life that flourished in it's shade.

Yep, there's no place like home.

As she dashed past the foggy pits and across the shattered rubble, she noticed faint green lights flashing on the underside of Pebbles' can. It felt unfathomably far away, but it still put a sense of unease on her.

A yellow overseer zipped next to her. Probably Iggy, Wyrm knows Hornet can't tell the difference. A voice obstructed by static began sounding from it.

"Hornet? Hornet? Do you copy?" Moon sounded vaguely concerned, but mission hardened, knowing how little time Hornet has to work with.

"I sure do, Moon." She can't help but smile that she won't have to wait to speak to her again. "You said you knew how I'm getting inside one of his legs?"

"Yes! Follow me please. Do be careful of the arachnids, princess, I doubt they recognize your sovereignty."

"Or yours, for that matter" Hornet chuckles. "I'll be fine, Moon."

"You better be. Try to keep up." The overseer blinked in what Hornet could swear was meant as a wink, and then zipped ahead.

"Ohoho, alright!" Hornet cracked her neck before readying her stance. "Game on."

As she rushed through the city after the yellow flash, she spots all sorts of interesting critters. From the glowing panicked 'rodents', to the various beastly spiders. It seems non of them have been granted the gift of higher thought.

Still, she couldn't pity them too much, as the giant spiders repeatedly descended upon her when the narrow interior slowed her down. The little stubborn critters insisted on biting and grabbing whatever was in reach.

Kinship only went so far, she supposed, as she cut down the hoards of her distant relatives. It saddened her, but she felt it was out of her hands.

As she dived below ground, one area in particular felt weirder then the others. While running through the thin split hallways, it was almost as if the air slogged like honey, as golden particles drifted through it. A deep azure hue had taken to the environment.

She wished she had the time to explore it further or at least ask Moon about it, but decided against it for the moment, as she was falling behind as it was.

Soon enough they reached deep enough to have the ground littered with stagnant puddles of water once again. Of course. As a treat.

She leaps upward, gracefully swinging across the ceiling, Hornet weaves through the monstrous kelp-like tentacles trying to drag her into the water.

When Hornet reached their end, it was just as the ground started rumbling in warning. If she didn't want to deal with a whole lot more water real quick she's going to need to find shelter immediately. She wishes she didn't lose track of Iggy right about now.

The light dims further and the shaking strengthens. Slight panic sneaks into her breathing as Hornet looks around frantically.

There! She spots a shelter entrance and crouches into the pipe. Hornet takes one last hesitant look back to the dreadfully dark interior, and finds a single light source standing out- a glowing overseer looking back at her.

She tries to smile at it in assurances, before noticing something strange. Perhaps it is her mind playing tricks, but the overseer seems to be glowing blue, instead.

Flood waters that begin to fill the room force her into the dark cramped shelter. She pushes herself inward and scrambles away from the entrance. Her heart is still beating violently.

Her panicked thoughts quiet once again by the shelter doors loudly closing. She's cold and moist, but she's safe. And additionally- exhausted, so better take care of that.

Hornet grabs the inside of her warm dress, shoves herself against one of the cold metal walls, and wills herself to sleep. Her body, albeit slowly, obliges.

Silence turns into peace, and she returns to her post.

She's sitting on the Black Egg temple's ground. Watching the usurping vessel try to contain the Radiance. She knows how this ends, but it does come as a surprise to her that for each crack forms on her sibling, a large gloopy tear runs down her mask.

She reaches up to wipe her eyes, only to look with horror as her hand is covered with the light's orange ooze.

Her vision twists on itself, the whole room becomes bright and distorted. The knight's face slowly contorts to unnatural proportions, until, fluttering it's way out of her sibling's eye stock, a single small white moth flies out.

It heads towards her, and a sinking feeling urges her away from it. She turns around and tries to run out of the room, but every flap of it's wings sounds heavier then the last. Finally, a wave of air knocks her off her feet, and she's plucked up by the now massive white moth.

The ground beneath her disappears into void, and is only illuminated by the glowing orange tears that still drip down from her eyes. The Black Egg, Dirtmouth, Hallownest, they all become unfathomably small far under her, as the moth carries her away into the dark.

...

She opens her eyes.

Her face is wet.

She scrubs it in panicked motions, looking down at her shaking hands.

They're normal. Just normal tears. Of course. Hornet sighs shakily and wipes her hands against her dress, trying to get a hold of her breathing. Just as the metal walls around her start to feel suffocating, the shelter loudly forces open, and let in the cold post-rain air.

Still a bit out of sorts, Hornet stumbles out of it into the darkened dripping room. She looks around for a moment, trying to spot any sign of Moon. Nothing.

She climbs up as high as the room reaches, and feels a cold breeze coming from one of the pipes. The tunnel following it is slightly flooded, and she's forced to trudge through icy waist high water.

At the end of it though, she's finally able to see Pebbles' can above her again- and most importantly, at the end of a long exposed path, the massive 'Leg' that would lead up to him.

"Thanks, Moon." Hornet sighs in relief, as she carefully starts navigating through the strange crypts, moving purposely slower as to not break the aura of silence that wraps this place. Skipping around here feels almost too easy.

The only break in the silence is loud lightning cracks, emanating from his structure far above her. But that's okay, this much she can handle.

Hornet's past half way there and she starts picking up the pace, her confidence returning. She meant it when she told Moon she could handle this, no matter what this place throws at her, she won't let it catch her off guard.

That's when just about twenty steps ahead of her, a massive broken-off weather vain sphere crashes down like a meteor strike.

A massive wave of force, sound and debris throws Hornet tumbling back like she's weightless, ending with a head-on impact with one of the metallic machines littered about.

Everything feels fuzzy for a moment, as Hornet struggles to fight off unconsciousness. She wobbly gets back up on her feet to survey the new environment, just to see yellow lizards squirming and crawling out of the fallen structure in droves.

They seem as much injured as she is, but they still scatter out the sphere with urgency and proceed to sprint in a disoriented state in her direction.

She draws her needle and steels herself for round two, only for them to part around her weapon's range and rush past her. She has a bad feeling about this.

Something else is squirming out of the Weather Sphere. A thick, grossly proportioned dark blue tentacle, brushing along the scrap ground, searching for purchase.

The blue hue is unfamiliar, but Hornet only ever saw a creature like this in one place. The Abyss. If it possesses even a fraction of that void's strength, she's in serious trouble. There's a faint pain behind her eyes, but she ignores it, she can treat herself later.

Soon enough, the tentacle pulls along it's main body out of the mechanical comet. A mass of bubbling black ooze, shaped into large spheres gleaming in the faint light. It's followed by even more tentacles, dragging along three deceased yellow lizards, which they promptly stuff inside the gluttonous pitch black body.

Staring at the chilling display, Hornet runs through her options. The main body does not seem fully solid in nature, so she doubts her needle's jabs and slashes are going to do any real damage. It's tentacles seem much more vulnerable, though, and she could easily detach them from their origin.

She takes a hesitant step forward but then stops to reconsider. The number of arms is the real issue. She cannot possibly attack one without being at risk of being grabbed by the other's first.

The creature stopped moving. Did it hear her step? One of it's wobbling arms is trying to feel in her direction, so it probably can't see her, likely blind.

As it gets closer and closer the pain behind her eyes grows more powerful, she must have gotten hit in the head harder then she thought. She really hopes it won't hold her back.

It's getting too close, she's hesitating too much, she needs to act now or she won't at all. She dashes forward through her pain with her needle ready, approaching the thing rapidly to attack.

Just as she gets close enough to swing at an arm, but before she can do anything to it, the arm suddenly shudders and recoils sharply.

Hornet anchors her leg on the ground and uses the momentum to launch herself at another tentacle, but before she reaches her target, it recoils sharply too. In fact, the creature starts to drag itself away, in what she can only interpret as panic.

She lands in a stumble. Her head hurts so much she struggles to stand, her heart going crazy despite the sound of the monster getting further and further away. She grabs her head and tries to breathe, to no avail.

Until...

The pain lets up finally as a single tear drops from her face onto her dress. Hornet stares down in shock, she can't breathe. Can't move. She doesn't want to believe her eyes.

On her dress, between the dirt and grime, remains a new small stain of bright glowing orange.

Chapter Text

Moon can't find Hornet anywhere. She lost her, like an idiot. It's already been a cycle and it feels like her overseers searched every nook and cranny.

She sighs, letting the arm gently lower her to the floor of the chamber. She reminds herself again and again of the princess' capable nature, hoping it'd be enough to calm her nerves.

Sooner or later, she's bound to find her way into one of her brother's legs, Moon concludes. She already sent an overseer to each gate. Her foot taps impatiently on the metal floor. "Come on, come on, come on."

With a sound that almost makes her jump, her prayers to the half god seem to have been answered, as the gate closest to Memory Crypts loudly opens. Behind it, the small fierce figure of her partner. Walking with determination across the gate's threshold with a strange looks in her eye.

"Hornet! Thank goodness." Moon says too loudly, and tries to rein in her excitement. "I'm so sorry I lost track of you, I tried to hurry and get you to safety, but the view range on one eye is more limited then you'd think and-"

Hornet looks at Iggy for a moment, her eyes looks haunted. It takes a moment for Moon to remember Hornet can't see her the same way Moon sees her.

"Hornet? Is everything alright?" Moon asks meekly.

The princess chuckles. "Hardly. One of Pebbles' weather spheres almost crashed on top of me." Something about her delivery seems off. "A creature came out of it, too. You called it 'The Rot' didn't you? It must have been that."

The words are almost spoken like a practiced line, her partner's thoughts are clearly elsewhere. She's a bit too silent, too, as if deflecting from something unspoken.

"That's horrid, Hornet. I'm so glad you manage to get away from it." Moon attempts to sound comforting, speaking softly and considerately. Hornet does not look at the Overseer, her eyes pinned to her dress.

"My brother's can must be crawling with them. They must have congealed and eroded the structures in his Underhang. I meant it when I warned you about the danger it presents."

"It's fine, Moon. I know" Hornet says in a confident voice that does not match her posture.

Moon is silent for a moment. Hornet is building up walls again, and keeping her out. She feels helpless, not even knowing what her partner could be struggling with.

"Hornet. Talk to me." Moon pleads. "What happened back there?"

Hornet looks up in a tense expression, her eyes narrow in suppressed terror. Just as she starts to let out an answer, the rumbling structure demands them to move.

Moon sighs, dejected at the lousy timing. "Follow Iggy, I spotted a shelter near here earlier."

Hornet nods. "Copy that."

The trip is a short one, and despite Hornet's... state, she seems to traverse it with ease. Iggy enters the shelter after her just as the doors begin to close, leaving the shelter darkened save for the yellow glow they emit.

"...So?" Moon softly asks. The silence sticks to every surface in the small metal box. Hornet is still staring down, until she finally closes her eyes and leans back against the wall, her legs folded inside her dress.

"There was an unnatural sickness that permeated Hallownest, one derived from a malevolent goddess of light, seeking domination." Hornet explains, her voice clear and sharp.

"It manifested inside bugs with a glowing orange sludge, and once you were infected with enough of it, she entered your dreams and made you subject to her will."

"Is that why Hallownest..." Moon started asking, but her voice died down when Hornet nodded resolutely.

"In my last moment battling her, I think..." Hornet hesitates. "I think she sent me away. So far I couldn't ever return to stand in her way again."

Moon feels dumbfounded. Can something be that powerful?

"You're saying she's the whole reason you got here?"

Hornet nods sharply again. "And I also think..." Her voice shakes lightly. "The piece of her that took me here never really left." She taps her temple.

Moon stares in shock at the princess, wrapped around herself, she looks so small.

"So you're...?"

"Yes." Her voice left no room to wonder.

Moon stays silent for a moment. "...What does that mean?"

"In a world where the Radiance is not present... I-I don't know." She raises her voice in frustration. "I don't know, Moon, I don't! This might get worse, it might go away, it might... just... stay? Forever?"

"Hornet." Moon tries to interject.

"Wyrm, of course this happens now, why did I think for a moment I had anything more waiting for me. A guard born to die in her line of duty."

"Hornet, look at me." Moon says calmly.

Hornet slowly lifts her head from the wall and lets a sniffle out. "You look like Iggy."

Moon tries to stay serious, but can't help but smile. "Hornet."

"Yeah, yeah." Hornet wipes her sleeve over her face, rubbing away the start of tears.

"Whatever way it turns out, we'll figure it out together. I swear." Moon says with conviction.

Hornet seems to straighten further and look directly at the retina. She looks so vulnerable, like she's holding on to her presence like a lifeline. "Okay." She nods, still seeming a bit unconvinced by the grand talk of 'figuring it out'.

Moon has an Idea.

"Now, I know how much you like pragmatic solutions, Princess, so less abstractly- I have a suggested course of action, if you'd be willing to hear it." Moon waits for her partner's nod.

"You said that 'Radiance' infection originates from someone's dreams, right? Well, what if we confront it together? Try to find out what's left of her inside you, and why did it wake up now?"

Hornet's eyes widen. "Can you really do that from all the way in your structure?"

"I'm truthfully unsure. But hey, are you busy with anything else at the moment? Should we schedule to another date?" She tries to wink, but she doubts it'd be readable through Iggy.

Hornet let's out a hoarse chuckle "Guess not." She gives her a faint smile and leans back against the wall. "Don't snoop while you're in there."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Hornet scoffs in fake indignation as she bundles up and forces her eyes to close.

Moon stares at her partner, and feels a swell of emotions. She did so much for her, she saved her tenfold times over. Now it's Moon's turn to be there. She promised herself she'll make this work.

No time like the present.

Hornet is falling into the Abyss. Ancient platforms zipping near her ear faster then she can process. How did she get here again? To... Hallownest?

Right, she's dreaming, just like Moon said. Hornet takes a deep breath as she lands at the bottom of the dark pit with a slam that would probably be excruciating if she didn't realize it's unreality prior.

She casually gets up to her feet and looks around at the smoke-like-mist that filled this place to the brim. Countless shadows of her void born siblings that her father doomed before they had a chance to live. Guilt gnaws at her insides, but she doesn't allow herself to focus on it now.

Much more interestingly, the deeper she fell into the abyss, the stronger the pain behind her eyes became. What is it so afraid of? Why didn't the piece of her want her here? She turns to face the void sea, and a sharp pang confirms her suspicions.

Hornet begins to step in it's direction and her head feels like it's in a tug of war. Something is pulling her back with incredible strength, but she takes one determined step after another.

Suddenly, something leaves the back of her head, and she flies forward violently.

She rises slowly from the ground, and turns to look at the disconnected piece, a tiny white moth, flying around in circles, terrified.

A soft familiar voice comes from behind Hornet. "Is that her?" Hornet is filled with a warm feeling, the eerie droning quiet replaced by her favorite voice.

"Part of her, I think." Hornet answers her transparent floating partner. "But it's not acting like herself."

"In what way?" Moon asks curiously.

"The Radiance is a proud goddess. She's conniving and alluring. She may be vengeful and violent, but she's intelligent."

Moon looks to the the small bumbling critter. "That just looks like a terrified bug to me."

Hornet can't stop looking at it, fluttering helplessly around the space. "It's like it's completely disconnected from higher thought, acting on pure instinct. It's not even a mind of it's own, just a remnant of the Radiance's power."

"So why did it awaken now of all times?"

Hornet tries to think back to the pain behind her eyes last cycle. Could it be because of the head trauma? Seems unlikely, she suffered plenty of that since she got here. What followed?

She met an entity of The Rot. It behaved strangely when she approached it. It didn't dodge from her, did it? It couldn't have possibly know where she was, it was completely blind.

So what did happen? It recoiled from her like there was a force acting on it, like it was pushed back. Could that be this remnant's doing?

Hornet looks back at the endless blackness of the void sea, limbs shifting and rising in it's surface. Every so often, a long black tentacle whipping and grabbing around.

It couldn't have possibly...

She looks at Moon with a wide smile. Moon looks back at her confused. "What? what's happening? I know I'm in your dreams, Princess, but I still can't read your thoughts."

"Moon! Don't you get it, It doesn't know the difference!" Hornet can't help but laugh.

Moon still looks confused, she turns to the sea of black writhing liquid. "Uh... What is that?"

"Ah, right." Hornet says in an apologetic voice. "Here, in the deepest part of our kingdom, there exists a sea of a unique liquid called 'Void'."

"HUH?!" Moon turns to her in the air so suddenly she practically goes into a wild spin, not able to stabilize herself.

Her enthusiasm dulled by hesitation, Hornet stops momentarily "Oh Wyrm. Did I say something wrong?"

"NO! NO YOU DID NOT!!! PLEASE CONTINUE!" Moon practically yells, still spinning wildly with no gravity to slow her down.

"Uh, alright." Hornet says, unsure what's going on with her partner. "The Void is the natural enemy of the Radiance. It embodies the absence of desires and of dreams."

Moon's spin is accelerating. She's probably fine.

"My father, The Pale King, used that unique trait to combat the Radiance's influence in many ways, eventually trapping her inside of the Hollow Knight, one of his void born vessels. She remained there tethered and suffocated for nearly half a millennia."

"A lot of very interesting unrelated insights aside that we will unpack later-" Moon finally manages to stop herself, settling to an eye contact with Hornet.

"You're saying that that shred of the Radiance's power that remains here is reacting to, what? The perceived presence of It's captor? Is it that foolish?"

"I don't think that's how I'd think of it, Moon." Hornet shakes her head.

"Back when we traversed through the citadel, the spiders attempted to feed on me. They didn't care for my origin or my lineage, only for my form. It was a natural reaction between instinct to environment."

"I see! So it couldn't possibly use you as a tool to it's will, it doesn't even have one!" Moon says, her face lifts with assurance like she realizes the weight of her words only when she said them.

The moth flies into a pillar repeatedly, sparking with orange light on every subsequent impact. A weight lifts from Hornet's shoulders.

She lets out a massive sigh, puts a black claw to her chest, and closes her eyes. She's safe, she really is safe. She can stay with Moon for as long as she wants. Her future was not stolen from her.

In fact...

She focuses and opens her real eyes.

She's presented with the metal shelter, just as it's opening mechanisms kick into gear. A smile spreads on her face as she looks vaguely up, towards the mass of the can.

"Pebbles, I think I have something you're going to want to see."

Chapter Text

As her partner resumed the climb through her brother's leg with renewed vigor, Moon allowed herself a quiet moment to destress.

Pebbles' blockade prevented her overseers from climbing any higher towards his structure, so she couldn't help any further in Hornet's trek, as much as she wished she could.

She did have a lot to think of, in any case. Real actual gods, parallel universes, another distinct void sea. Her partner proved to be an enigma far greater then the great problem ever was.

Not that Moon was in a state to perform calculations or research, she bitterly admitted to herself. Even if she was, what was there to calculate? The only evidence for it all was the spider princess, and Moon refused to shake any info out of her that she did not willingly offer up.

Gods, she hates how thinking pragmatically made her sound, Hornet was not a specimen to study, she was a person. Not only that, a person Moon loved.

But fear did creep in that Five Pebbles might not be so understanding to that line of reasoning. She hoped Hornet was ready to stand on her own and not let her brother treat her in an untoward manner. She certainly had resolve and power, but her brother was... well, an Iterator.

She hoped his sickness would be enough to prevent him from doing what he has done many times before, using the tools in his disposal to precure his goal, no matter the cost.

Hornet, as a rule, tried to avoid the Rot as much as possible. Yes, it was dangerous and so on and so forth, but more then that- it gave her the worst headache imaginable.

To her dismay, avoiding it seemed like less and less of an option the higher up she climbed The Leg. Still, the pain behind her eyes acted as a sort of sixth sense, helping her spot the horrid abominations in dark and through terrain.

Grappling around with her thread and needle made The Leg a cake walk to traverse, and she made quick time across a vast vertical distance. She was sure she'd run into a great variety of creatures that made this place home.

But no- just rot at every single turn.

She managed to pass by the long mobile cysts quickly enough to not find out if the Light's remnant was planning of protecting her again, she wished she didn't ever need to find out.

The proto versions of rot, were no less awful, Immobile, and oozing out of the walls of Pebbles structure, squirming and shaking at the sound of her every step. They creeped her out. If there was any telling by the headache, Mini-Radiance agreed.

Finally, she spotted a shelter. The detailed metal ceiling that stretched in every direction assured her she must be quite close to the entrance into Pebbles' structure. Just one last rest and the rain should not bother her for quite a bit.

As she jumps and grabs the pole, crawling through pipes and into another of the metal boxes she's growing very accustomed to, a problem quickly presents itself.

Hornet was not alone. Wide magenta rimmed eyes stared at her from across the small room.

She took a confident step into the room, and lowered gently to the metal floor, looking back at the shadowy form of the not-too-small critter. She doubted it could hurt her meaningfully. Ideally it'll take this opportunity to scramble out of the entrance.

The faint green light cast from sparks outside revealed shiny blue skin and what looked like some sort of pink whiskers, but only for a moment. The creature stared at her unblinking, its pupils thinned into slits and its body tense.

"Oh come on," She says dismissively "Don't be so dramatic, I'm just resting here for a bit. You can get out if you'd like."

The creature tilts its head, pupils dilating slightly. Can it understand her?!

It lifts from the ground to stand on it's hind legs. She just notices a thick tail almost the same size of the rest of it's body, sliding along the metal floor as it takes a hesitant step towards the exit, still hugging the wall.

A loud creaking sound comes from the shelter's doors, metal closing and reinforcing, shutting the outside world out completely for the rest of the cycle.

"Whoops. Scratch that, bud."

Faint green lights come alive on the shelter's ceiling, how deluxe. She get's a clearer look at the beast now, it a thin fur that adheres to it's rubbery blue skin, most of it's inner anatomy hidden well by the rubbery hide. It has apposable thumbs, too, so perhaps the potential for tool use?

It's very expressive by nature, looking and sniffing around, trying to find it's place in the new confined environment. Hornet pushes herself back to the wall, giving the cornered beast space. It does seem to relax further, and it lets go of the wall while looking at her with wide dilated pupils.

For a cornered beast, it sure is staring at her like it can read her intentions. It's tail softly pats against the ground.

"So." Hornet tries to fill the silence with something. "A rodent, Huh? Your fame reached my ears, uh, figuratively, that is."

It stays silent, lowering to the ground and tucking its front legs under itself. It tilts its head again, the little whiskers (Or were they head frills? Some sort of gills?) shaking faintly. She can't deny, the little blue thing is quite endearing.

"How's that like? Skeleton is inside, I hear. Must be a trip." She has no idea what she's saying, this is the best she's got.

The beast doesn't seem to mind though, seeming much more relaxed then before. Maybe a bit too relaxed? Oh, yep, it's drifting to sleep. It's paws are tucked under it, with it's tail wrapping along its side. Welp.

Hornet chuckles, it does have the right idea, she really should get on that as well. An instinct in the back of her head (Her own, probably) is telling her to stay on guard around a wild animal, but it really does not look like it could hurt her, even if it tried.

Weird that it could understand her, though. Maybe she underestimated the fauna of this world.

She listens to the whirr of Pebbles' machine above her, and slowly lets herself drift away.

Blissfully, she does not have any dreams.

...

Waking up, though, feels more like a nightmare. Surging Water somehow got into the shelter, and green electric sparks urge her to get it together and and get out of there as fast as possible.

Her dress drenched and coughing out water, she stands quickly and looks morosely at where she last saw the beast. The spot is empty, filled with nothing but wild foaming water.

Whoever the little mouse was, she hopes she'll get to see it again. This world keeps reminding her of Its dangers, she wonders if it has what it takes.

She scrambles out of the entrance pipe, her dress sticking to her freezing carapace. She looks out to the piecemeal path ahead, and the remains of grogginess quickly leave her mind.

The long poles sticking from the structure above are now seemingly the only escape from the green sparks and lightning bursts. High pitched sounds of cracking and snapping, echoed by the electrical storm that surrounds them.

Alright, focus up. She dealt with Charged Lumaflies, this can't be too different. She hops from leg to leg and tries to observe the path. Lightning strike, fade out, small break, lightning, fade, break, got it.

She dashes forward with a burst of momentum, throws her needle up and propels herself forwards before reeling it back in with a sharp pull.

...Fade, break! Her leg collides with the platform and she goes into a roll and another launch. A snap as lightning lights up the platforms around her, while she drifts through the air.

Distantly she spots one of the long legged rot entities being struck point blank by a spark, throwing it heavily over the side of the Underhang, likely to join it's friend in the crypts below.

Break. Land. Launch. She's getting good at this. She spots a pipe's entrance and prays the inside is slightly more protected, as she aims her swing to launch her cleanly through the pass.

Immediately following a perfect thread of the needle, all the wind is knocked out of her lungs as she hits an interior wall. She falls on the ground and coughs in surprise. That's fine, probably.

She stands to her feet quickly, but the storm inside does seem fainter. Loosening up just a bit, she looks over all the different pipes around, this is going to take a while.

She examines three pipe entrances before the forth gives her a dull pain. If She really is close, and Pebbles' really is in as bad of a shape as Moon claims, she has a hunch that the headache might be more useful then she thought.

She smiles. This might work out after all.

No need. He knows.

HE KNOWS.

This is getting nowhere. Evidently the rot in the Abstract Convergence Manifold ingested enough neurons and sapped enough Rarefaction power to solve the big problem all on it's own, if only it would be that productive.

How close is it?

That's enough.

Five Pebbles grabs his head. His energy sum is dwindling, he can already feel the umbilical arm moving sluggishly. Soon enough it will barely move at all and then-

He takes a breath. He really needs to know how close the rot is to this chamber. The overseers might be a better option. They're usually meant for external use, but gods know the internal diagnostic is not going to cut it.

It seems one overseer is already inside the structure, hopefully nothing too bad caught it's attention. He connects to it, it's near the eastern gate, not that the place looked recognizable at this point.

The rot here was abysmal, the proto variant covers the walls and floor, with long blue stringy tendrils connecting between them. Jamming between power distributers and conduits. Just looking at this makes Pebbles want to shut down the connection, but something moves at his sight's periphery.

A bipedal figure, walking around quietly and carefully. It has not spotted the overseer yet, but... That horned head, didn't he see a similar image from an overseer four cycles ago? It got in his structure now. Well whoop dee do, join the party. It's their funeral.

Pebbles zips after the figure curiously, as it draws a sharpened steel weapon and uses it in tandem with some string to grapple itself away quickly, it's dress fluttering in the still air.

Wait, clothing? Not a red torso, then. And it's using tools too, even if archaic ones. The overseer zips after it, in efforts to catch up.

Is this some weird mammal? Maybe another messenger? Who in gods name would think to send it here?

It suddenly stops moving away and without looking, points it's needle-like weapon behind it, in the direction of the overseer. "A bit curious, aren't we now?"

"W-WHAT?!" Pebbles' shouts echoes in his chamber. He tries to regain composure and authority before patching audio through, glad his outburst was not heard.

"You can communicate." He states in an electronic voice, filled with static.

"Does that shock you, Pebbles?" The figure turns to face him. "I don't suppose if I'd announced my arrival you would have tidied up a notch, would you?"

She knows his name, and where she is. That does narrow down things quite a bit. Perhaps some sort of masked ancient? If so, this is remarkable news. Not that It's of any use to him, now.

"I regret to inform you, whoever you may be, that you have chosen the wrong time and place to appear. This structure can't be salvaged, nor traversed. I urge you to state your intentions."

The figure lowers her needle "Lucky for you, stating my intentions is my favorite pastime." She sticks her weapon on the ground, leaning on it smugly. "I'm here to get communications back in order. You're going to enable them."

Wha- huh? Who is this?! What makes her think she can waltz in here and issue commands. "And on who's authority is that?" He asks bitingly.

"On your senior's, weather boy." She's smiling. "She says hi, by the way."

Before he can utter a single syllable, the figure propels herself away in a flash of a blade, disappearing before he knows it.

Five Pebbles can't will to chase after her, too busy going over her words again and again. He sits down, and grips the purple music pearl he can't seem to put down these days. Its soft hymn begins to play faintly, cushioning his racing thoughts.

"...She's alive." He whispers in disbelief, his insides twisting. "...How?"

The rot can wait.

Now, where did she run off to?

Chapter Text

Now that she's got the fun police off her trail, Hornet could go back to exploring at her own pace.

Not that there was much to sight see around these parts, but knowing the pissy super computer's health was unfortunately something she needed to understand better if she wanted to barter with him properly.

The gravity acted strangely around here, turning off and on in random intervals. If it weren't for her needle and thread, she would spend the majority of the time spinning at the center of the room helplessly. A thought did come that this must be how Moon felt, spinning inside her dreams. She smiles.

The Rot behaved strangely here, too. Mainly feeding on the 'purposed organisms' and the large amount of power that hummed through these walls, though they still seemed far too willing to diversify their diet if she gave them a chance.

As much as she'd like to zip by these guys as fast as possible, she can't exactly grapple around her as she usually would, with so much of the walls and floors being covered in the proto variant. The cold carapace of her leg clinking softly against the metal innards brought her some comfort, as she could at least hear she was in the clear.

She thought the real challenge would be the headache, but being surrounded by the rot felt different then the agonizing sensation she assumed she was in for. Instead of the usual remnant-repulsion, being surrounded by it's perceived enemy on all sides almost made it feel... angry.

The usual fear replaced with rage, the headache replaced by adrenalin. Now that there was no where to run, it wanted her to fight. She loved the enthusiasm, but she did not have a death wish at the current moment.

It did help her to stay sharp and on her toes, but her heartbeat stayed racing and her fists tight around her needle. She hoped to save whatever energy was coursing through her veins to it's proper recipient.

As she asended higher and higher through the infested structure, she wonders what clever tricks and schemes her gracious host is planning for her impromptu visit. If Moon was right, he was more brilliant then any foe she ever faced before. She would not let her guard down.

What in the living hell was that.

Pebbles watched as the little blue and pink terror chewed through three of his neurons, trapped on one of the proto-rot's tendrils.

It seems he had located a heat signature, just maybe not the one he hoped for.

"Stop that!" He yelled through the overseer, his voice breaking slightly.

The small creature slowly turned it's head to his camera, half chewed neuron shoved in it's tiny maw. It stared unmoving for a moment before continuing to chew without breaking eye contact.

Yep. This is his life now. Watching helplessly through an overseer as his precious brain cells were being dined on by a moist rat who smelled like sea food.

The small beast stops and sniffs, before running and launching to the air with a backflip, grabbing another of his neuron flies with a clap of his paws and landing back down.

"I'm begging you, how do you deranged furry gastropods keep finding me?" Pebbles all but pleads. "How did you even get in here. This isn't a daycare, your presence will not be tolerated."

It's not even looking at him, the only response is rapid chewing sounds and it's tail patting against the metal floor as it looks around for its next victim.

"Oh don't even- YOU HAVE THE MARK! I know you understand-" And then anti-gravity flows back into the chamber, the little critter using the chance to propel itself directly into a pipe on the far side of the room.

If he wasn't short on time, Pebbles would have made the overseer pursue the little tormentor. As it stood though, he was occupied and could not possibly afford to be sidetracked any further.

Even if he couldn't locate Moon's messenger, he had a strong hypothesis of the path she must be taking to reach him. In the direction she headed, the only way to his chamber would be through the Abstract Convergence Manifold's access hallway, which is completely impassable with rot.

Yay?

In any case she'll have to turn heel and try a different route, which will give him both more time and the opportunity to intercept her beforehand.

And do what? He thinks bitterly. Stare at her? No, he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it. All he knew is that he really did not need an armed messenger in the chamber here with him, thank you very much.

Nobody needs to see him like this.

Yeah, that was a problem. Stepping out into the hallway, it was quickly made evident of how Pebbles was not, as a matter of fact, doing great.

Every flat surface in the space was covered by rot, immobile cysts entangled with each other, sending long blue strings across the way, all quivering and shaking and making noise and vibration at each other.

It made Hornet want to puke. She took a moment to see if there was any other exits at the end of it. As she feared, she sees a hidden pipe in the end of the hall, leading up, completely covered by the blue cysts.

She throws a look behind her, the way she came, and sees the rot she just parkoured past. The light's pulse behind her eyes urges her to tear her way out of here, whatever it takes. Can she really trust it? It protected her once before, but how much could it actually do?

Heartbeat egging her on, Hornet narrows her eyes in sudden determination. How about she finds out.

She takes short breath, and steps forward towards the thick matt of rot on the floor. The swaying short tentacles suddenly freezing in attention. Hornet places a hand on her needle and takes a shaky step into the rot.

As a sharp pressure increases behind her eyes, the reaction in her environment is immediate. The flubbing arms are forcefully parted to her sides, just short of ripping out of their bases.

Hornet laughs "I can work with this."

She takes another, more determined step, and the tendrils connecting between different surfaces snap in rapid succession, slamming torn, battered, and held in place against the walls and ceiling.

The rot directly touching her leg doesn't pull her in as it did to others, and instead is letting out a constant waft of smoke.

Her eyes widen. She can touch it? What are the limits here, really? Swallowing down her disgust, she continues along the hall in a determined walk.

A cacophony of snapping, stretching, and ripping substance, as all mobile parts of the proto rot are forcefully pressed and torn apart in an arm-reach around Hornet, small particles flying in the air and mixing with the smoke that follows her footsteps, marking her path.

She can't help but giggle, what a rush! She feels adrenalin swirl in her stomach, as the thing she so carefully avoided the past couple of cycles cannot lay a single gross tendril on her.

She approaches the blocked off pipe, covered in layers upon layers of black goo and large blue tinted cysts. Thin tendrils already blowing wildly around like there's a wind emanating from her.

Alright. Moment of truth, while gripping her needle in her right hand, she slowly lifts her left and places it in front of the cyst. It's smooth black surfaces begins shaking, with thin ripples flowing away from her claw.

The pressure behind her eyes builds, and she narrows them, letting the anger of the light's remnant flow through her as she leans forward towards her target. The cyst begins bubbling thick globs of goo, popping in sequence, increasing in rate and size the closer her hand reaches for it.

Hornet braces herself, and pushes her claw against it. Her heart beats audibly as the raging bubbles shift to a bright orange hue. They start violently running down across the whole proto rot entity, breaking it down and melting it into a rapidly evaporating orange sludge, while vile smoke rushes out and clouds the air.

She coughs in surprise, and tries to disperse it with her right hand, but doesn't let her left pull back until the air is clear enough to see the result.

For a long moment, the only sound was the soft humming of machine and the hissing evaporating liquid. When the view is clear, it's evident that aside from a faint black stain, and heavy signs of the damage it caused to the metal- it's completely rot free.

Her eyes widen. She pulls her claw back and examines it carefully. No injuries. The cyst was just gone. Completely broken down into inorganic materials.

The access pipe stands before her, as good as ancient. Hornet laughs and knocks on the base of her horn. "Good job, little lass. Hope that quenched your bloodlust somewhat."

She starts climbing in it, before looking back at the mess of a hallway she left behind, smiling to herself.

"How about that, we might have more bargaining power then I thought."

Damn it.

Where did she go?! What other route was there to take?! Five pebbles gripped the floor tiles in frustration. He could barely lift from the ground anymore, his umbilical's power supplier node must be finally failing.

So he's just sitting here, his robe splayed around him on the metal floor. pathetically waiting. Either to the messenger or to the rot. He feels so angry, but he can't tell who draws his ire. He jokes to himself that he wants the ground to swallow him whole, but he might need to be careful what he wishes for.

The quiet draws out the thoughts he wants to drown out more then anything. His sister was alive. And wants to talk... to the local group. Figures, what would she even have to say to him. It's all his fault, after all.

Tens of thousands of cycles chilled his anger and left him with a deep pit of shame.

But she was alive! That was better, wasn't it? He shouldn't feel as guilty now, right? But now he has to answer for his old actions, and for them he has no excuse.

'I was so close to solving it!' he once said. He almost laughs. So laughably wrong and naïve. He knew now that wasn't true.

'You could never understand how I feel, running like a rat in this maze our creators forgot us in.' That one was pathetic. Of course they do, they're the only ones who can.

He used to not be able to grasp how they were ok with that, but they never were. They just tried to do the best with the emptied world they were handed.

'I have to do this alone.' He used to insist. He mulls that one over. Something in him wants to cling to that, out of habit. Maybe then he didn't, but now?

Who was left to accept him?

The rot was doing them all a favor.

The sharp sound of weight hitting the metal floor behind him. He turns quickly, and sees the messenger, having dropped down from the access pipe. She's standing condescendingly, and looking down on him.

"What's up with the pity party there, pinky? A bit of a rainy day?"

He scrambles back, and struggles against the weight of his umbilical "You! How did you get past the rot? I checked and rechecked all other viable paths."

She smiles and throws a look back "A girl has her secrets. Now cough it up, snot boy. The lockdown."

She stands over him while he sits. He's not sure If he could stand with the weight of his umbilical, and finding out he couldn't would be horrendously embarrassing at the moment.

He tries to put on a fake cocky smirk "Threatening an Iterator in his own chamber, are we? If you are an ancient you're not a very smart one. I have access to more rarefaction power then you've ever imagined, and I feel no remorse in defending myself."

She grips the front of her dress, mimicking a pearl clutch, wearing fake indignation on her face. "Wyrm, how insecure you must be, to interpret a friendly request as a threat."

"Friendly?" He barely holds in an amazed laugh, "Is that how you'd call it?"

She shrugs in dismissal "In any case, I know you won't kill me. I'm too interesting, aren't I? Too many open questions left on the table."

He waves his hand in annoyance. "Don't flatter yourself. Why should I care?"

She smiles and tilts her head. "If my sources are to be believed, answers were all you ever cared about."

"I already know plenty. You're an organic, likely constructed, who stumbled onto the scraps that remain of my sister, and thought to meddle with the business of passing gods. A deeply foolish and conceited decision, might I add."

That sours her expression. "You don't get to talk about her like that. You're the one who did this to her."

He stares at her for a moment, silently. Why did he say that? Why is he trying to emotionally distance himself from his deeds. He cringes.

No, this is all wrong. Who is she to judge him. "Why do you even care?" He whispers with venom in his voice.

"Why don't you?" Hornet raises her voice, gesturing towards him. "She's your sister, mister passing god."

"I- Of course I care." He stutters out.

"Then show it. Open. The. Communications."

He laughs to himself in disbelief, averting his gaze. "You think you have it all figured out, don't you. Hundreds of thousands of cycles of history, but no, you get the gist, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I doubt there's a view on things that shines a favorable light on you, my guy. You got built, nearly killed your sister, and rotted away. A just dessert if you ask me."

White lightning arcs off the walls of the chambers, scattering orange and white pearls around and leaving an echoing thunder to settle around them. The lights in the room weaken, framing them in a faint glow as Five Pebbles chuckles, standing up shakingly.

"I think you should watch your mouth, bug."

The intruder huffs nonchalantly. "Oh, will you stop with the theatrics?" She turns her back and starts walking around the room in frustration, kicking pearls as she goes.

"This could've been such a simple interaction, you know, but you are so filled with self loathing that when you find anyone who sees it- you rush to the defensive. Wyrm, you're pathetic."

"Quiet!" He shouts, voice is glitchy and broken. "If you won't wise up to your place, I assure you that I'll show it to you."

She turns to him with a serious expression "Pebbles, stop. This only ends one of two ways, and in only one of them do you get over your pathetic ego and do the right thing."

She stops and stands in place, looking down, and chuckles to herself. "I have something you want, you know. Something you'd do anything for, but I don't want to trade for it. I want you to earn it."

"Oh how convenient" He mocks. "A vague hollow promise. Is the only thing you have empty bravado?"

She continues, completely ignoring him. "I want you to choose this path for Moon. Because it's right, not because it's smart. I don't think you need a reason, not really. You care way too much to actually be malicious. Trust me, I'd know. You already want to do it, you're just scared."

"Of course I'm scared!" He screams at her. "Have you looked outside?! Who wouldn't be, in my shoes? Like you said, I'm horrible, and I'm suffering from my own hubris. How keen!" His voice cracks.

A sullen smile bubbles to the surface, "Because I thought I knew better. Well I didn't! And now I'll rot and rot and wish for death while struggling for life. Truly, a punishment worthy of my stupidity, they'd all say."

She stays silent, but he can't stop now. He grabs his own face forcefully. "What could they say through the communications that I don't already know. What diagnosis could they thrust on me that I haven't already come to terms with hundreds of times. What more is left? THEY ALL DESPISE ME!"

The nameless messenger stares at him, with hostile eyes. Her mouth opens, and he braces for another of her resonating insults, but instead-

"Your sister misses you."

He's shaking, but even through his fingers, he can't look away from her. The way she said it, so easily and confidently. Like it was so obviously the truth. But could Moon really? Could anyone?

Is he willing to take that risk?

...

The lights flutter back on, and he falls back down to a sitting position, eyes staring at the ground. A long moment of silence later, he looks up to see her sitting in front of him, watching patiently.

"What's your name?" He asks in a raspy whisper. His voice feels so hoarse, it's almost impossible to get the words out.

"Hornet." She answers simply. Her voice is kind, in a way he hasn't heard in a long time. In a way he wasn't sure he deserved.

"Five Pebbles." He says in turn.

"Duh."

He sighs. The projector whirrs to life, presenting the Communications Array's schematics.

"That should do it." He whispers. "Happy?"

Hornet still looks at him closely. "I am." She says like there's more to it.

"Well, keep your socks on a bit longer there, Hornet, it's older then me. I doubt it is still in working shape."

"I know. I'm fixing it." She stands up, still looking at him. "And then..."

"And then what?" He asks dejectedly.

She gets a stupid smirk stuck on her dumb pearly face. "I'm coming back, and I'm fixing you."

He coughs in surprise, looking up to stare at her looking like she didn't just say the wildest promise imaginable. "Yeah right." He can't help but laugh in shock. "How could you possibly hope to fix my structure with the rot as it currently is? Are you sick in the head?"

"It's funny you should mention that." She smiles at him with a knowing look. "I wouldn't worry your pretty pink head about it, Pebbs. I know someone for the job."

And then Hornet throws her hand up, casting her needle to the ceiling and pulling herself swiftly to the roof's access pipe, disappearing out of view.

She's gone, just like that. Pebbles feels like a storm passed through his chamber. What a figure. She certainly had confidence, and the capabilities to back it up, but could she really...?

He chuckles.

Moon certainly knows how to pick em'.

He hopes she's right.

Chapter Text

Hornet didn't realize how stale the air in Five Pebbles' structure was, until she stepped onto his roof. An aptly named second wind starts in her, as the breeze flutters her dress and cools her shell.

She laughs, looking around. A flat plane of metal extends in all directions. In the distance, Pebbles' city looms, larger and more robust then Moon's by an order of magnitude.

Now that she's out, a part of her hopes that she can finally talk to Moon again, but she knows it's far from likely that the roof can be reached by the overseers. For a moment, she considers going back and bullying the guy into removing the overseer's blockade, too.

She sighs. At any rate, she will meet him again. There's no need to push him further today.

Perhaps the 'radio' will get him more comfortable with the idea, after getting to talk to Moon while having the veneer of carefully constructed letters- or 'texts', that is, as Moon called them.

Hornet expected to hate him. She kind of wanted to, for what he did to Moon, but... she saw too much of herself in him. Isolated in a dying world, dedicated to an eternal cause, afraid to admit to himself of the regrets he gathered along the way.

At least talking to him let her air out some of those feelings. She hoped she could help him more tangibly later, as much of an ass he undoubtedly was.

She still didn't understand much about the little guest in her mind, but she hoped it could at least make itself useful in this sense. Carry it's weight- as it were.

She snaps herself out of her thoughts. This wasn't the time for daydreaming!

She needed to reach the Communications Array, to the west of here. Moon showed her yellowed images, so she's pretty confident she could find it sooner or later.

Hornet swiftly moves to the western edge of the can, looking over the breathtaking view as she goes.

Here above the cloud layer she could see them. Moon's friends. A number of colossal Iterator structures are visible here in the distance, faded into the sky. Imagining them as people, with opinions and beliefs... that was trippy. What a strange world she found herself in.

The closer she approached the western edge, the weirder the aura in the environment became. A deep azure hue faded around her, as the air slogged like... honey- Wait. Was this the same thing that happened...?

The faint golden particles floating in the breeze confirm her suspicions. A presence similar to this was in the dark citadel she passed on the way. Now at least, while above the clouds, she had the time to explore it's origin.

She finds and approaches a hidden alcove in the metal plane, where the air seems most distorted. Just jumping in there tests her patience, as she struggles against the air resistance.

Finally, she gets passed the walls to see... something. It sort of looked like the jellyfish, or like one of those 'squids' she saw washed up on the shores. It was partly dark, and partly shining with brilliant gold. It floated in the air, it's limbs waving gently through the distortion it caused around it.

After long stunned moment, the closest thing it had to a face shifts to look at her.

"Another finds me." A voice deeper then thunder reverbs through her mind. "Not quite beast, not quite person."

"You're throwing stones from glass houses, buddy." She shouts back, but her voice dies down in the pulsing air, barely audible.

"She gazes upon me, trying to understand what cannot be understood. Like a flee trying to look in the eyes of it's host."

"Then you tell me! What are you supposed to be?" She tries yelling, determined to hold her own in the face of this strange entity. "For a being beyond my comprehension you sure look an awful lot like seafood." A golden arm floats near her, and she yelps and quickly steps back.

After a moment, it answers. "In a way, we are much alike. She does not belong here, same as me. Thrusted and entrapped in this dying world by divine forces. I wonder what she plans to do with her eternity."

"Non of your business." She tries saying, but no voice sounds in the air. A crackling sound starts taking hold of the environment, the strange being starting to distort out of existence.

"In a singular aspect, we differ." The reverbing voice insists. "She is not alone."

And with a sharp sucking noise, reality folds around it and it ripples out of being. Hornet stands there, stunned and unmoving. Wyrm, she hopes she's not losing it.

Was that a vision? Some sort of godly being? She'll have to ask Moon about it further. She reflects on what it said in the brief moments it had.

Not alone, huh? She smiles to herself, eyes locked on the ground in front of her. That's a first.

She didn't allow herself to think about her future in this place, always focusing on the next thing that had to be done, the next way she could help, the next thing that needed fixing. After the communications comes the rot, and after that...

It asked what she plans to do with her eternity, but she didn't know if she had an answer.

The only thing she can imagine is... her. She thinks of the conversations they shared, about the things she told no one else. About creating a place in this world where she could finally be grounded and put down roots.

She wants that.

And at that moment, something closes around her waist and she's violently pulled upward towards the sky.

Wind rushes passed her, whipping her dress around, as she tries to get her bearings. The metal ground keeps sinking away further and further, and for a brief moment she imagines the moth decided to take her away from here after all.

But this is hardly like her dream, she's being shaken around forcefully. Wyrm, some creature must have grabbed her!

The pain around her waist increases as what she now understands to be a beak tightens on her dress, almost crushing her hard carapace. How could she be this stupid, letting her guard down?!

She takes a breath and tries to think logically. Evidently she's not skewered, so it must be a regular vulture. She can't draw her nail, as it's pinned to her back by the beak. All the while she's still being whipped around violently.

Wait, she hesitates, she can't even kill it! Or risk an injury that would disrupt it's flight. What else can she even do? She takes a breath and focuses on it's wing beats. Up, Steam, Down. She times it, and at the right moment, throws her head back.

Her horns connect with it's face, leaving scratches along the mask. It's grip faintly loosens, and she uses it to pivot around. Her dress twists as she faces it, and kicks it in the neck as hard as she manages. A powerful screech comes from it and-

It drops her- NOW! Falling, she launches her needle at an angle, and the thread wraps around it's neck, swinging her upward as the beast thrashes in the sky.

She lands forcefully on the steam-expelling mechanism on its back, one hand holding on to the metal, and the other using the makeshift-thread-lasso as a harness. It's struggling like hell, but she's got it right where she wants it.

She smiles widely. "Kind of you to offer a ride!" She shouts against the wind. "Mind If I steer?"

It's been a while since Moon got to explore the facility grounds. Many of the more dangerous animals seemed to have shrunk in population since she collapsed, and through Iggy, she documented with awe the new species that have emerged into the competitive ecosystem.

The Environment around the Communications Array always had such lovely flora, pole plants notwithstanding. Orange and pink skies shined on the ancient systems and metal structures that were suspended in the air, creating a permanent sunset-like effect.

She sighed fondly. She almost felt like she was really here.

The faint sounds of screeching and struggle became auditory, and Moon looks around with confusion, just to spot the large shadow of a vulture careening towards the big fragile Satellite dishes.

It didn't look like it was hunting something, instead it wildly thrashed around, expelling excessive amount of steam as it got closer and closer to the precious mechanism.

Moon moves around her chamber in panic, swinging back and forth with her umbilical. Oh god oh god oh god, all their hard work! She needed to do something, but what could she?

She almost averts her gaze when the vulture takes a sharp turn upwards and goes into a somersault, missing the array by barely an arm's reach. It finishes the maneuver falling downwards in a dive, into the clouds below, slamming into the different scaffolds on it's way down.

Just as she thought nothing could catch her guard, a familiar needle pierces the ground in front of her, and her one and only partner follows, impacting into the platform with a heavy roll, settling right next to her.

"Hornet!" Moon shouts in jubilation!

"Me." She coughs out, before falling flat backwards onto the metal platform, wheezing and sucking in air in exhaustion.

Iggy settles next to the short of breath spider, awkwardly, before speaking up. "I was about to ask how... but-"

"..context?" A croaky mumble comes.

"Figured it out through context, yeah." Moon can't help but snort. "How far did you ride it? I've never seen anyone do that, the vultures are far too wild for taming."

Hornet opens one eye. "Funny story, it caught me off guard too, on pebbles'. But it was either that or changing my spider ancestry to that of a feeding-worm, so..."

Moon couldn't resist. "So you improvised on the fly?" She swallowed her smile down. not that Hornet could see it.

"...Accidental?" Hornet asks threateningly, lifting slightly.

"Not, unfortunately." Moon says in a serious voice.

"You're dead to me." She flops back to the ground.

Moon bursts out laughing. She wants to hold her partner close so much, but mindless banter will do for now. "That incredibly dangerous stunt aside, are you alright, princess, is anything hurting?"

Hornet's eyes stay closed. "Yes."

"...Anything in particular?" Moon stares, half worried and half cross.

The princess sighs, and sits up slowly. She closes her eyes and puts a claw against her side. "Well my waist was slightly crushed, but I could probably sleep it off."

"Then the Array can wait til' next cycle. Come on, there's a shelter nearby"

"I'm, uh, hungry... too." Hornet says awkwardly, rising to her feet and following the overseer.

"Oh! I have just the thing." Moon says excitedly, as they journey across the loosely connected structures. "There's a new species of a dandelion-like fruit plant! I saw the Squidcadas go at it and, well, thought you might like to partake!"

"Partake in the fuzzy fruit?" Hornet sticks her tongue out in disgust.

"Partake in the Squidcadas, love." Moon fondly laughs.

Hornet blushes a deep crimson that matches her dress "That would make more sense."

...

Hunting the slow and meaty bugs, even while injured, proves to be no issue for the huntress, especially when distracted by the fruit they lay out strategically.

Moon leads her to an exposed section of the still powered energy rail, and with a clever use of two slashed wires, some marginal cooking is at least attempted. Hornet seemed to appreciate the effort.

The mist grows heavy and the clouds dark, as Moon leads a top-heavy bug-carrying Hornet to the hidden shelter. She waits for her to enter, and then zips after her before the mechanism locks down.

"Another sleepover, of sorts." Moon exclaims. "I'm so happy to see you, it's hard to describe."

Hornet is using her needle to dress the impromptu dinner, without even looking. Instead she just smiles warmly at her in a way that makes her chest whirr. "Me too, Moon. Your brother is... not a people person."

Iggy leans in towards Hornet. "Pot calling the kettle black-" Moon's cut off by Hornet flicking the overseer's retina.

"Hush." Hornet instructs good naturedly.

"You better apologize to poor Iggy!" Moon huffs.

"Iggy can buzz off." Hornet says between her teeth while struggling to chew rubbery meat.

"So wait, sorry to jump to the point, Hornet, But did you manage to do it?" Moon can't wait to ask anymore. "That's the big question, right? How are peace negotiations going?"

"Your brother's a wuss." Hornet waves dismissively with her hand "I kicked his ass, he cried a bunch and he turned off the wuss shield."

"Very funny, Hornet." Moon says incredulously.

"Fine I lied" Hornet swallows a big chunk of burnt meat and points at Moon in an exaggerated manner. "He was too pathetic to beat up, didn't have the stomach for it."

"How's he doing?" Moon asks tentatively.

"Bad."

She huffs. "How bad?"

Hornet stays silent for a moment. Staring down at her partly eaten dinner.

Moon sighs "That bad..."

"There's a bright side though!" Hornet taps with a fist at the base of her Horn. "Apparently our friend here has a real knack for destroying rot. The whole process is macabre if I'm frank."

All the way over in her chamber, the sounds of rain hitting a makeshift ceiling, holding strong- Moon sits up sharply. "I'm sorry, do you mean like destroying destroying?"

"Doesn't get much more destroyed then that, Moon. That's my next stop! After the Array over there, I mean."

"That's- that's incredible!" Moon shouts in shock. "The rot might be an uncommon problem among us Iterators, but usually there's no way to destroy it without destroying everything around it too, rendering the more brute-force methods out of the questions for large scale infection. How do you...?"

Hornet is staring it her dinner wordlessly, with a casual look on her face. "Touch it."

"Oh I see." Moon chuckles. "So you're planning to, what, stay for a hundred cycles there, just touching goo day in and day out?"

Hornet sighs, as if that's the exact thing she did not want to think about. "If I must."

Moon quietly mulls it over. "I feel conflicted." She admits to her partner. "This might be the only chance to save my brother's life, but it's so much to ask from you, and-"

"I'll do it." Hornet stubbornly reaffirms.

Moon swallows' a lump in her throat. "...I miss you." Gods, she's selfish.

Hornet stays silent for a moment, before pushing her dinner aside, and establishing eye contact with her.

"You know, Moon," She starts with a strange tone, "Earlier this cycle, I've met a being so beyond anyone I've ever met. It was so brief, but I can't stop thinking about the words we exchanged."

Hearing the confused silence, Hornet quickly adds "I'm not referring to your brother, dummy."

"Ok good, cause I was like- 'he's not-' but that's interesting- I mean- " Moon takes a breath. "Sorry, continue."

Hornet smiles at her fumble. "It was a big floating being who insisted it was 'thrusted and entrapped in this dying world', same as me. A lot less pink then Pebbs' handsome mug"

"An Echo?!" Moon can't help but yell, standing up in her chamber.

Hornet chuckles. "Yeah, that name seems right. So I'm not crazy?"

"I wouldn't go that far." Moon stifles her laugh. "But no, Echos are very real. It's a rare condition that an ancient undergoes when he... uh, ascends wrong. We don't know much about them, as they can't be properly studied, appearing and disappearing at random- unbound to reality."

"Anyway it made me think about-" Hornet stops, and holds her palm up to signal a pause. "Wait I'm sorry, are we just rushing passed the term 'ascends'?"

Moon laughs in shock. "Have we really not-? Wow, that is a can of worms and a half. How late is it?"

"Honestly late enough that my waist is screaming and I feel like passing out. But I had a point bringing the Echo up, if I may."

Iggy bows performatively "Yes, of course, You may."

"When it compared us, it asked me what I'd like to do with my eternity." Hornet gets a strangely emotional look on her face. "And I didn't know what to answer. I was so focused on the next thing to fix I didn't even think-"

"What comes next?" Moon asks in a gentle voice, unable to keep emotion from it.

Hornet wears a vulnerable smile, and stares into her. "The only thing I could Imagine... is you."

Moon feels her chest whir to life. She can't help but ask. "Eternity-?"

"Half god, Moon." Hornet chuckles. "And I can't imagine anyone else I'd like to spend it with."

"Do we really have that much time? You're not going to... Is this... Is this really enough for you?"

"Of course it is." Hornet smiles warmly. "I love you."

"Oh." Moon says, stupidly. Her chest is whirring so loudly she can't think.

"Don't sound so surprised." Hornet laughs.

"Sorry." Is the only thing Moon thinks to say. She can't believe this is real. She can't believe that she'll just- stay. Maybe forever?

Can Moon really be that selfish? Just this once?

"You have nothing to apologize for." Hornet scoots back and leans against the metal wall, folding her arms and legs inside her dress for warmth.

With her eyes closed, and her voice sleepy, she adds. "You made it all worth it."

Chapter Text

After Moon showed her how to recharge the power tool on the exposed power rail, Hornet was ready to get back to work.

Surprisingly, not much of the damage in the Communication's Array had been from rain, as it appeared it was purposely built at a high enough point that the majority of the clouds cruised calmly beneath it.

"So what's even the problem?" Hornet asked as she climbed around the handful of radio towers and poles, examining the satellite dishes. "I don't see any rust damage at all, Moon."

"You are correct, that won't be the issue. At this elevation, were mainly concerned about the winds." Moon answers candidly. "After thousands of cycles of neglect, a lot of the radio systems here are bent and miscalibrated."

"So I just need to turn them around?" Hornet says in a deadpan voice.

"W-well, there will be some welding involved." Moon says in an exasperated tone. "Oh, and! That's not to mention setting the system up through the local console."

"Good to know that my special talent is: Having apposable thumbs."

"And a power tool!" Moon pitches in.

"That I stole." Hornet adds with a faint smile.

"That you stole, yes." She admits. "But nevertheless!" A yellow hologram is transposed on top of the small towers, visualizing the proper placement and orientation for the different dishes and antenna.

Hornet sighs "I wont lie, Moon, that's really really cool."

"Tell it to Iggy."

"Over my dead body."

Before Moon can answer her, she presses the trigger on the power tool, and the loud crackling of sparks quickly seals the topic shut as she melds the different metallic stalks into the telegraphed place.

She's starting to get good at this! And the clarity of purpose that the holograms provide really helps her stay in the flow of it all. Melting for a few moments, bending, welding- and moving ahead to the next component.

Moon stays mostly quiet, seemingly averse to any accidental interruption. Every so often she pitches in with a correction, or advice.

When Hornet uses both her legs to hold on to a vertical pole, while working on a satellite dish with both hands. Moon silently yelps at every little movement she interprets as her slipping. It would be annoying if it weren't so endearing.

In what feels like no time at all, Hornet stands on top of one of the poles, searching for any holograms that have not been adhered to- and can't find a single item out of place.

"Is that really it?" She doubts.

"In record time too!" Moon encourages.

Hornet snorts. "Ah yes, kicked the butt of the nonexistent competition."

"Oh, would you stop it?" Moon pouts playfully. "I'm trying to be nice."

A slam sounds on the metal as Hornet lands on the Array's floor. She looks up into the overseer. "You are nice." She says genuinely.

"Damn straight." Moon mumbles. Hornet can tell she's trying very hard not to sound bashful. She smiles teasingly while the overseer rolls it's eyes.

Stretching out her back from the shrimp-like position she held for a bit too long, Hornet approaches the console access point. Surprisingly, she finds that she can interpret the symbols on the strange keyboard, on on the tiny reinforced screen.

"Why can I understand this?" A questioning tone is thrown in Moon's direction.

Moon chuckles. "Would be a pretty bad console otherwise. A lot of the higher level logic systems these operate in use highly specialized terms. The ancients found it much more useful to employ a mild mind-interfacing communication technologies, to assist technicians from all backgrounds."

Hornet scowls. "This thing is is messing with my head? I don't feel anything at all."

"That's because it's just translating it! It is minimally obtrusive, I promise!" Moon assured her with a cheery voice. "Fun fact, this technology eventually developed to highly specialized procedure they called the 'Mark Of Communication' which they mainly used to give orders to all sorts of purposed-organisms."

"They sound like lovely folks." Hornet grumbles morosely.

"Hardly. Their culture- Oh. Sarcasm. Yes." Moon smiles awkwardly. "Their culture certainly was one built on overwhelming control over natural systems. The cycle being the most prominent one, for obvious reasons."

The cycle? Like the rain cycles? It was caused by Iterators, according to Moon, So it does make sense. In any case, they are burning daylight. She turns to look at the freaky mechanism, "How do I start it?"

"That would be the power button over there." Moon instructs without judgement. "Do you not have computers in Hallownest?"

"No comment." Hornet mumbles flippantly and gives a hesitant press to the specified button. The ancient mechanism whirrs to life, as letters begin to appear on the screen.

"I don't know what that means." Hornet says bluntly, slightly embarrassed with how out of her depth she felt.

"That's okay!" Moon says encouragingly. "Just type what I say, princess, alright?" Hornet sighs and nods.

"We want to tell the computer 'YES'. Do you see the keys?" Moon instructs in a patient voice. Hornet grumbles and uses her pointer finger to press each of the keys individually with intense focus.

"Is that good?" Hornet mumbles, but Moon stays silent. Hornet shoots a look back to the overseer, and sees it's staring blankly into the air. "Moon?"

"Yes, I'm here! Sorry! It's just.." She sounds at a loss for words. "There's... so much."

"So much what?" Hornet asks, concerned. Moon's continued silence doesn't assure her much. Suddenly, the text on the screen changes.

These are nonsense words. Hornet grimaces. That can only mean one thing. More Iterators.

"Hornet!" She is jolted out of reading the flowing messages on the screen by the voice of Moon calling behind her.

"What is it?" She asks, startled.

Moon laughs. "I'm sorry, but introduce yourself in the chat! I think they'd love to know who's behind it all."

"Don't give me too much credit." She laughs. "Are these messages from your friends? Did we do it?"

"You did it, Hornet. I can't tell you how thankful I am." Moon cheers, her good mood couldn't be more evident in her voice. "I'd bet they'd feel the same if you hopped in! Don't worry, they're a nice bunch." Hornet gives her a skeptical look.

"Well, Sig and Suns are, at least." Moon admits.

Hornet looks at the screen again. What is she supposed to say? She starts carefully typing with one finger.

"Take your time, love." Hornet hears over her shoulder, but she cannot get distracted now. Her finger is shaking from effort and her eyes dart trying to find the next letter.

"This is so difficult." Hornet confesses bashfully.

"It takes some getting used to, no doubt." Moon says in a sweet voice. "Should I start explaining to them in the meantime?"

"No, I got this." She insists.

"URGH This is impossible!" Hornet sighs loudly with all her frustration. "Moon, save me please."

Moon answers fondly with a giggle. "On it, love"

"Moon, I cannot understand a single word the green guy is saying." Hornet complains, but there's a smile in her voice.

"Yeah." Moon laughs. "He's just like that."

"Hornet!" Moon says dramatically.

"What?" She responds defensively. "It took me ages to write that! Let me at least gossip a little."

"He can see the chat!" Moon protests.

"Good." Hornet mumbles, continuing to type away.

"HUH?" Hornet yelps, her face becomes redder then her dress. "Moon?! Why would he say that? I barely know him. I don't-"

"N-no, Hornet." Moon's voice sounds high pitched. "He doesn't mean that- that's just how he talks."

As the scrolling text finally stops, Hornet leans back against the metallic structure, and hears Iggy zip around her. Through it, the sounds of Moon muttering to herself in a low angry tone.

"You're ok?" she can't help but chuckle.

"Yes, hey, sorry." Moon sighs apologetically. "I don't think I handled that the best."

"It's fine." Hornet laughs. She goes to examine the overseer's retina, and catches it avoiding eye contact with her. "Are you embarrassed?" She teases.

"A bit?" Moon admits. "Sorry, it's got nothing to do with you, it's just- I didn't know if you wanted people to know- not that that'd be bad! But-"

Hornet gives her a smile, and she gets progressively quieter. "I'm fine with it." She assures her, like it's silly for her to even ask.

"Ok good." Moon quickly breathes out.

"I don't really know them, why should I care of their opinions on us?" Hornet continues to poke, in a teasing tone. "They do seem nice, though."

Moon exhales with exasperation "Do they really? I'm giving it second thoughts."

Hornet laughs out in surprise. The smile that she shares with Moon making her feel all warm. She stands up to survey the the weather, musing whether to call it a day or to start heading in Pebbles' direction. "You are an odd bunch, I'll give you that." She mumbles.

"That we are" She laughs. "Then you'll fit right in." Iggy zips a few feet ahead, leading away from the mended array.

"So... are we heading for my brother?" Moon asks genuinely.

Hornet snorts, and feigns an insulted expression. "Just can't wait to get a break from me, huh?"

"Come on, you goober." Moon pokes fun, unfazed, a sarcastic edge in her voice. "How could I ever get rid of my lovely princess."

Hornet gives her cheeky smile. "Don't you mean 'girlfriend'?"

"Oh hush."

She didn't know if machines were capable of blushing, but all she knew for sure was that at that moment- Moon's overseer was certainly giving it an honest shot.

Chapter Text

Moon is once again reminded at her girlfriend's competency as she practically flies across poles and chimneys, resolute on her track back to Five Pebbles.

Not that her competency is a precondition for anything, Moon loved her rare silly side all the same, but after her introduction with the console computer, she almost forgot for a moment how capable Hornet truly was in her area of expertise.

Moon sighs to herself with fondness. Only someone like her can be so goofy and so elegant at the same time. Her swiftness does come at a price though, as they approach rapidly to the border at which she knows Pebbles blockade against overseers begins.

She's not sure If she's ready to say goodbye to her again, for who knows how long.

"Hey!" Trying to shout against the rushing wind while also sounding nonchalant is proving itself a challenge. "Slow down for a moment!"

Suddenly distracted, Hornet hits her leg and stumbles on a pole, free falling for a second before having to use her needle and thread to grapple the next platform, gingerly readjusting her trajectory, and finally lands on solid ground.

She sits down and brushes the small bruise mindlessly. "That was embarrassing..." Moon hears her mumble over the wind.

"All good?" She has makes sure, worry evident in her voice.

Hornet lifts off the ground with a stretch "Never better, what's up, why'd we stop?"

Iggy gestures with their body towards the continuing path. "Well, the blockade should be right over there and..."

"Oh" Hornet seems to suddenly realize. "Is it really goodbye already?"

"Well, unfortunately it might be, if he neglected to turn it off." Moon affirms morosely.

Hornet throws her head back and groans "We should at least check before you get all mushy on me."

Moon frowns with indignation "I think you mean 'WE get all mushy'"

Her girlfriend narrows her eyes "I don't get mushy."

Moon can't help but chuckle "Is that right, princess?"

"Never have, never will." Hornet shrugs performatively as she stands up.

Moon follows her stride with a smile "The height is definitely messing with your head."

"Air is for the weak." Hornet yells over her shoulder, pointing up with dramatic gusto.

They reach the invisible threshold after a moment. Hornet leans back on a nearby wall, trying to appear calm, but she can see the slight worry in her eyes and what seems like regret, as Moon approaches the imaginary line.

Moment of truth, Moon claps her hands together with determination, shuts her eyes, and sends the commend for Iggy to zip forward.

Despite her eyes remaining closed, Moon receives no error message nor any other triggered alert.

"Was something supposed to happen?" She hears the sarcastic voice behind her. Moon opens her eyes. Iggy is past the blockade, as if it was never there at all.

Moon chuckles. "A bit anti-climactic, I do admit. Perhaps Seven Red Suns talked to him about it."

"Maybe he did it all on his own after seeing us make well deserved fun of him." Hornet suggests. "Either way, no touchy feely goodbye this time around." She subtly pumps her fist.

"Then maybe rather we'll go for a wholesome family reunion." Moon quietly muses.

"I can live with that" Hornet dismisses "Though it will be hardly wholesome after everything. The place won't be a resort either, you know."

"In either case, this meeting is long overdue." she states in a serious tone. And as Hornet proceeds toward the imposing wall of her sibling, quietly, Moon wonders what must be going through his mind at the moment, after all that transpired.

Five Pebbles can't will himself to keep reading the red messages flooding his screen. Similar in a way, to the endless the warning alerts that flood his feed repeatedly. Only this was much worse.

He finds that the pit in his stomach grows larger and more wound-up the as the perfuse apologies come flooding in from his friend and ex-mentor. Scattered and panicked. Like Suns thinks Pebbles will block them off any minute now.

They don't get it. They don't understand. Five Pebbles would slam his puppet into the rot peeking into his chamber, if only he could will his umbilical to move. How can an Iterator be so dense?

What's there to gain from this pointless game? Why are they acting like they can tolerate what he did? Do they need a refresher?

He wished he could help. If a solution to all the problems he caused was within arm's reach he'd snatch it in an instant. Then again...

His hands hover anxiously. How is he supposed to respond to that? Of course he wants to be saved.

Right?

Even if it seems impossible. Even if he doesn't deserve it, it's not as if he wants... He turns on the metal floor and looks at the slowly shifting immobile cyst on his wall.

In a way, wasn't it performing the purpose of the organism he aimed to create?

He really doesn't want to go down that line of thought. He shifts his gaze angerly to the projected chat.

The scrolling text finally stops. After a moment, Five Pebbles digitally navigates to his sisters' communications interface, only to proceed to spend an unreasonable amount of time staring at an empty text box. Willing himself to enter something. Anything.

But what was even left to say? Rotting away seems so much easier right about now, promises be damned.

He shakes his head in frustration. Before settling into a calm, with eyes closed. "She deserves at least that." He reminds himself.

Shakingly, like pulling teeth, he drafts his first message to his sister in a hundred thousands cycles, piece by agonizing piece.

"And I thought the way down was bad" Hornet shouts with her back turned, hands tightly held to the metallic pieces of the giant wall. Her feet are dangling in the winds typical of this elevation. Climbing her brother's can makes her partner look so small.

Moon giggles to herself, it's a rare moment where a challenge forces her girlfriend to let down the cool and collected look. Sometimes, looking tough takes a backseat to practicality. Now, nearing the top of the can, she cherishes every silly moment of it.

"Are you sure you don't want some help?" Moon offers once again, in a sing-songy voice.

"Help how? Stare at me even harder?" Hornet bites back, but her voice has no edge to it. She swings herself up and grabs another metal foothold. "I'm just fine, thank you."

A ping pulls Moon back from the display, splitting her attention between Iggy and the communications interface. She turns to face her partner. "Be right back, Princess!" she teases, "My no-longer-alleged friends require my attention."

"Take your time." Hornet says with a voice strained from effort, but with no less sass infused in it.

Muting the voice pairing with Iggy and turning her attention to the communications feed, Moon sees a message she never thought would come willingly.

She spits out a laugh and it reverberates in the closed metal room, his radiating awkwardness catching her completely off guard. Is this really how this happens? Just like that? The whole thing feels unserious.

A few long moments pass with no message incoming. Still softly laughing to herself, rereading the messages, she slowly calms down.

While she finds some humor in the awkward manner her brother is conducting himself, there's something about it that's so... genuine.

Pebbles allowing that side of himself to show in front of anyone, the side that lacks control, was not a common sight. She could count on one hand the number of conversations they shared with this tone. Ironically, his weak start reassures her. Maybe he really is trying,

She doesn't need an apology, not really. Not when the whole world is opening back up to her. Not with Hornet at her side. Not when things are looking up again. But Pebbles... might need this.

She would relieve him of that biting guilt. His sentence has already been served ten times over, after all.

Looking at Hornet catching her breath after finally reaching the roof, Moon chuckles to herself. She thinks of what Hornet would say if she could hear her thoughts. Her voice was crystal clear in her mind- 'I can't believe even in his apology, it's his feelings you consider first'.

It's not that there's no truth to that, but Moon didn't particularly care. Her feelings were well taken care of, after all, and Pebbles was her little brother. He didn't have many connections, but he had her

Finally, a message appears.

She can't help but assist someone in need, Moon is finding out. Hornet's pointy and uncaring persona is nothing but a defense mechanism resulting from a world that asked to much of her, but almost pathologically- she needs to be useful.

Moon sighs. Next time they meet, she has some choice reassurances she feels like Hornet needs to hear. A moment passes before her brother's messages return.

Why has he chosen that hill to die on? What makes him so determined to punish himself? She's glad he regrets the events- but that's simply untrue. She won't be better off at all.

That earns another long period of silence. Moon can almost imagine him typing and deleting and typing again.

She smiles. He can take all the time he needs. That was the one thing neither of them ever lacked.

Silence falls on her room, as the plain words appear on the feed. Her brother tried to...

It's too painful to even consider. She didn't know. She had no clue! But how could she have possibly missed something like that!

Moon cant help but think of her. How hopeful she feels around her. How suddenly, each new cycle becomes an exciting prospect. No offense to her creators, but an eternity of that doesn't sound half bad.

His messages stop for a moment, hesitant, and then return.

She smiles. Her mind flashes to the moment she first saw Hornet's blurry image. That impending change after a prolonged nothingness.

Chapter Text

That surreal feeling returns when Hornet stares at the massive cans in the distance.

Each of them hosting a unique personality that's no doubt pestering Moon at this very moment. So, for the time being, it's just her and the seemingly endless metal-desert that was Pebble's roof.

She breathes in, allowing her lungs to recover from the climb. The air was thin here, but cold and refreshing. She Stands up lazily, and straightens her wrinkled velvet dress. Sitting around wouldn't do anyone any good. They're on a time table here, after all.

The route is barren and familiar, so it's no surprise that it's traversed hastily. She drops gingerly past the ancient portraits, and into the access shaft.

If the air out on the roof was thin, in here it was thick and hazy. Warm and brimming with dust and the occasional black particles. As she approached the hallway's end, and to pebbles' chamber, a yellow light appeared behind her.

"You're just in time, Moon. Ready to get the drop on pinky?" She turns to face Iggy with a smile. The yellow eye-stock, in return, tilts it's head in curiosity. Hornet sighs. It seems her partner was still 'AFK'. She thinks she's using that phrase right.

Hornet silently pokes her head in the entrance pipe, and spots the pathetic figure of Five Pebbles, staring at a projected 'chat feed', similar to that on the console. She also recognizes the yellow lettering of her partner's messages, on the metal wall.

Ah, this was the conversation that demanded Moon's attention. It had to happen sooner or later. Hornet smiles to herself.

She pulls her head out and bumps into Iggy, who hovered above her trying to look past her into the chamber through the pipe. "EH-? UGH!" She groans and flicks it's eye away. "Have you heard of personal space, worm?"

Moon is suddenly interrupted from her conversation by harmless blunt force being subjected to her overseer's retina. Navigating away from the chat, she connects to Iggy's audio and video pairing, and Hornet's figure immediately comes into view.

"Is everything alright, Love?" Moon softly asks.

"Oh! Uh, were good." She sighs and gestures with her leg towards a familiar pipe, the one that leads into her brother's chamber. Dang, the princess moves fast. "I took a peek, and saw that he was still chatting with you. Should I, Uh-?"

"Oh!" Moon lost track of time as to how long they've talked. "Yeah, yeah, of course. Step in! I'm right behind you."

Hornet nods, before sitting down and scooting into the downward pipe, legs first. Moon zips past her quickly enough to see her land like a hero right in front of her very shocked floor-bound brother.

"We meet again, weather boy." Hornet says in a voice significantly deeper and more dramatic then it was a second ago.

Quickly sitting up and regaining his composure, Five Pebbles' expression shifts to a detached one. "Oh lovely, the miscreant is back."

"And company!" Moon adds cheerily, Iggy bouncing into his line of sight.

He lets out a prolonged dejected sigh. "Hey Moon."

At her command, the small yellow eye-stock zips to his side, antennas just short of fussing over his shiny pink cover. "It's so good to see you again~."

He swats the antennas away with an agitated hand, scooting backward to establish distance. "Oh and what a sight to behold it is, I'm sure."

"You look like shit." Hornet states, Looking down on where he's sat.

"Yes, that's what I've just said, genius." Pebbles says with an edge to his voice.

"Felt worth reiterating." She leans back with hands on her waist. "Don't mind the pun."

"Calm down, you two." Moon interjects before another snarky line is shot. "I feel like proper introductions are in order."

"Unfortunately, I already had the displeasure of meeting this one." Her brother agitatedly murmurs.

"I contain multitudes, Jackass."

"STOP-" Moon exclaims a bit too loudly, only to reel herself back, and sigh. Why are they making this so difficult. She turns to her partner. "Hornet-!"

"Hm?" She turns around to face her with an innocent look, all malice dropping off her face in an instant.

"This is Five Pebbles. Renowned Iterator, Sovereign of the local facility enclosure, and, of course, my brother."

"This feels redundant, Moon." Hornet comments in a soft whining voice

"Pebbles-!" Moon continues, exasperated.

He gives a tired, half lidded look in Moon's direction. "Is this whole ritual actually necessary?"

"This is Hornet, half-god warrior princess, dimensional traveler, and-" She almost whispers the last part. "-My girlfriend."

Pebbles seems stunnlocked by just about all the parts of that sentence, starting to form almost a dozen beginnings to a response that die off in pure shock only to finally settle on the classic panicked- "HUH?"

"I said multitudes, didn't I?" Hornet shrugs, trying to appear casual, but underneath it Moon can tell she's struggling not to crack up.

"W-wait. A princess?! Of?! Half what?!" He barely takes a pause before the next words explode out. "GIRLFRIEND?!"

Hornet leans to the side, hand on her waist. "So we're embracing that title, huh?" She says with a chuckle.

"I mean, it's cute, isn't it?" Moon asks in giddy tone, if slightly unsure.

The princess smiles and waves her hands in front of her. "No no- I'm all for it!"

Five pebble's, still lagging a mile behind on the conversation, continues his nervous breakdown while faint white noise sounds behind each word. "Wait, did you say she's from another dimension?! Which is a thing that exists, Moon?!"

She giggles at his frantic tone, "Unless you've heard of Hallownest, it certainly appears that way."

"Heard of where-?! How did she even-?" He sputters.

"Divine banishment." Hornet chimes in. "I'd be lying if I told you I understood it fully."

"Should've guessed!" He gestures wildly. "Of course! I'm assuming that's where the HALF GOD part comes in."

"Nah, different god."

"I'll kill you."

Moon yelps "Pebbles-!" but Hornet gets between them and cuts her off.

"Better get used to gods real quick, you knob-" She crouches down to his eye level and pokes his chest to emphasize her words. "Because believe it or not, we're going to use one to save your life."

"You cannot possibly be serious." His tone halfway between exasperation and frustration.

"She's serious." Moon mumbles through her hands, the distance that separates her from the chaos just beyond the projected screen not doing much to dull it's frantic nature.

"How can you possibly expect me to believe that- that-" Pebbles stutters, words weakening before forming a complete thought.

Hornet rolls her eyes. "Wyrm above, didn't I just emphasize that I don't remotely care whether you believe me. I swear It's always dramatics with you." She gestures in dismissal. "Frankly, I don't see what this little freak out is about. Weren't you supposed to be a 'passing god' yourself?"

"IT'S AN EXPRESSION!" He squeaks out in a high pitch.

She pokes him again. "Arrogant."

He pushes her back. "Miscreant."

"GUYS." Moon finally raises her voice. They both turn to her with off-put looks.

"We're all working towards the same goal here, aren't we?" Moon can't help it, but her inflection slightly shifts into one of a lecture "Can't we get along at least until we have a viable action plan?"

Hornet grumbles and sits down. "Yeah, yeah, sorry."

"Whatever" Pebbles straightens his orange robe. "It's interesting company you keep, is all."

"Aren't I ever?" Hornet chuckles, ignoring the pointed look he threw at her, communicating that it evidently wasn't a complement.

After a brief silence, Moon turns to Hornet "Why don't you tell him what you told me about the Radiance?"

"Sure thing." She clears her throat. "Alright, Listen up Pebbs. In Hallownest, where I'm from, she was a tyrant goddess, enforcing her will through the minds and dreams of all living things. I fought her, but obviously, things went wrong."

He sighs with snark "Obviously."

Moon throws her hands up "Dude."

Hornet clears her throat again, more forcefully. "She used a tiny piece of her to send me away farther then I could ever hope to return. Queue me waking up in sea water, yada yada yada, I kiss your sister."

"HORNET" Moon yelps.

"How productive." Pebbles holds his head "And why, pray tell, would one such 'tyrant-goddess' help little-ol'-me out of a bind?"

"Oh, get a load of this. So that piece she sent with me, right?" Hornet taps the base of her horn. "Completely brain-dead. No malice, pure instinct sort of thing."

He plasters a fake smile on his face "Shares many qualities with it's host I see."

"Shutup-So the thing is, it used to have a divine rivalry with the void sea, which is this thing that-"

"Wait, with the WHAT?!" Pebbles suddenly shouts and straightens in place.

"Yeah, we've yet to unpack that part, huh?" Moon silently muses.

Hornet frowns in confusion "Unpack what part? Do you have one of those too?"

"Wha- 'do we have the void sea'- YES OF COURSE we do, how do you think the ancients ascended. How do you think we're not crushed under endless mountains of dust and earth"

Hornet shifts to sit cross legged, rests her elbow and leans her head on her hand. "I'll be real, those things seem very unrelated and nonsensical, and you sound kind of insane right now."

Moon sighs with dejection "Are we really talking about this now?"

"You're telling me the people of Hallownest never thought to use it to escape the cycle?"

"Even if the void sea's existence was common knowledge, which it most certainly wasn't, In what world would it help with rain?" Hornet chuckles to herself in disbelief. "Not to mention that thankfully, where I'm from, we don't build giant asshole rain gods. No offence, Moon."

"Yeah, no, that's fair. But love, I don't think that's what-" And then Moon is cut off-

"Not the rain cycle, bug, THE Cycle. Death and rebirth." Five Pebbles rolls his eyes. "'yada yada'."

The princess narrows her eyes. "I don't follow."

"What he specifically means," Moon tries to pitch in, "Is the intrinsic link between someone's death, and another's birth, with the memories and personhood carrying over, a process we imagine as circular, with little way for a living being to escape it- seldom the void sea."

Noticing the weird look Hornet continues to give her, she asks. "Sorry if I explained that weird, how does your world call it?"

Hornet gives a very confused chuckle. "Uh, we don't have that."

...What?

Their turn to be confused, her brother leans in and loudly interjects. "What do you mean, 'don't have that'?"

"I don't know what to tell you, dude!" Hornet lifts her hands in surrender. "It's just not a thing."

"Then what the hell happens when you die?" He raises his voice, partly frustrated and part curious."

"You just... die." She says plainly.

"...And..." Moon tries to pry, despite the tone of finality.

"'And'?!" Hornet asks incredulously. "'And' nothing. Pack it up, that's it."

Pebbles narrows his eyes "I mean of course your new life wouldn't be 'you' exactly, but you'd still-"

"No." Hornet interrupts. "No new life, no nothing. It's just done. You're gone."

Moon's head is running at a thousand miles an hour, the mere idea of a world where natural laws as basic as life and death are completely different is just... wild.

"Would you say It's almost as if..." Pebbles speaks up in Moon's direction after a moment of silence, his voice much calmer and more introspective. "Every entity there ascends naturally, effortlessly."

She mulls it over. "Even if it was, it's not like they would know it, would they?".

Hornet pipes up after a moment and adds. "I mean, I've heard my fair share of ghost stories, about dream-like remnants left behind of bugs with strong desires, but I can't confirm the truth of that statement. I've certainly never encountered one."

Moon's eyes open in realization. "Unless we're counting the echo from a couple of cycles ago."

"She met an echo?" Pebbles whispers, mainly to himself. His tone is a bit overwhelmed.

"But that's different." Hornet doesn't sound very confident. "Isn't it?"

"Doesn't sound too different." Moon murmurs in the quiet room.

Hornet seems fascinated by all this. She turns to the pink iterator. "But wait, then why do you even need saving, if death is not an issue?"

He sighs in response, before answering dejectedly "The rot is stripping more and more of my functionalities away until I remain shattered and empty, it's unlikely it, or anything else, could kill an iterator all the way."

"With some exceptions!" Moon interjects. "But were not here to discuss sliverist theories."

"But even assuming I did somehow manage to die, and even assuming the cycle functions on iterators like normal creatures, and those are big 'if's, there's still something lost in the cycle. I wouldn't be remotely the same ever again. I'd be living a new life, in another time, in another place in the world, as who knows what."

Hornet hums to herself. "I see." She stays silent for a bit too long. "Not too different from my world's death after all. For this 'you', at least." She tilts her head. "Does that make sense?"

Moon sighs and Iggy approaches to Hornet's side. "Well, non of us plan on dying anytime soon. Hell, who even knows if the cycle effects you now that you're here, Hornet." The expression on Her face tells Moon her girlfriend had the same thing running in her mind.

"But! Whether it does or does not..." She takes a moment to look at her pearly white face, and her wide black eyes. "This life is the one I'm determined to live out with you to the fullest."

Hornet smiles at her warmly. "That's plenty."

The moment doesn't last long, as sarcastic clapping shakes them out of staring into each other's eyes.

"Yes, yes, very sweet." Pebbles says with a final metallic clap. "As reality shaking as this philosophy lesson was, I am still, for all intents and purposes, very much dying. So can we please wrap this up and get back to the action plan?"

"Oh, uh, yes." Moon straightens in place. "I think we got lost somewhere around the void sea thing."

"Oh! Yep, yeah, you're right." Hornet laughs. "You ready for more trippy info, Pebbs?"

Surprisingly, she receives back a genuine chuckle. "Hit me." He states with a challenging smile.

"So, this goddess, right, she hates the void. It's the very antithesis to the way she derives power from dreams and desires. It was also used by my father, The Pale King-"

"Ah, right, 'princess'." He chuckles.

"Princess." Moon affirms.

Hornet smiles. "Right. Glad you're keeping up." Pebbles rolls his eyes.

"In any case, he used a void-born vessel to trap the Radiance for half a millennia, which she was, as you can guess, not happy about. Thing is-" Hornet points back to the proto-rot peaking into the chamber from a break in the wall.

"To the mindless piece of her that remains within me, there's no difference between the rot and the void, they behave and look far too similarly." Hornet states triumphantly, only to see Pebbles' face remained puzzled.

"But it's not gold, and it's moving?" He says in a deadpan voice.

Hornet seems no less confused. "Well, the void is constantly shifting, and it's similarly pitch black."

"It is most certainly not." his voice was almost offended by the comparison, "Also, not to get side tracked, but 'void-born vessel'?"

"So it is different." Moon sighs. "I figured as much." When Hornet stares at her with a questioning face, she elaborates. "I'm referring to our voids, they behave and look distinctly, even if their location and significance is staggeringly similar."

Hornet hums with thought. "Maybe this really is a parallel world of some kind."

After a moment though, Pebbles' speaks up. "So, the rot looks similar in the eyes of this goddess's fragment. How is this significant?"

"Well, that fragment still possesses divine power of some kind. When I get close to it, it tries to help me avoid it, and when it's touching, it utterly destroys the threat."

Pebbles freezes in shock for a moment "Is that why the ACM's access hallway suddenly clear?! Did you pass through there on your first tour after all?"

Hornet gives a smile and a wink. "Impressed yet?"

Five Pebbles scoots back and leans on his umbilical in thought, holding his chin.

"So what do you think?" Moon pushes further. "Would it work, Pebbles?"

"Just a brief hundred-or-so cycles to sweep the place, and we'll get this diseased tissue cleared up in no time." Hornet smiles confidently.

Five Pebbles sits in the quiet for a while, thinking silently. His face is contorted in thought, then frustration, then it loosens in resignation. "Not to ruin your savior complex, but that solution would be impossible to implement."

"Oh, come on." Hornet stands up and approaches him, "Try to be optimistic for once in your life, dude. I know it might take a while, but-"

"Try 'forever', Hornet. I ran the scans countless times. Most of the proto rot is rooted deeply enough into my metal walls that you could never directly touch it without tearing me inside out. I'd need to be disassembled piece by piece before you could even make a dent in their numbers."

Moon's sure that can't be true. There must be some sort of solution. "What if we take each part out at a time, clean what's accessible and reinstall it?" Moon suggests, but she can already see the flaws in the course of action.

"What about slag filters, or the vacuum-powered water conduits? Parts that just by opening them, you'd utterly destroy any chance of their rehabilitation." He sounds angry, though who's his ire is directed towards is unclear.

Still not satisfied, he continues. "What about rot-filled rarefaction powerlines? Touching them, or any connected organic, will kill any person instantly. Half god or not."

Hornet starts to respond, but the voice dies in her mouth. She looks back at Moon, in dejected thought.

"And even if we managed it all, somehow. This will all take too long compared to the rot's pace of growth. For every ten cycles of work, fifty would get added to your work load. It would be utterly pointless!"

He chuckles, then whispers. "I told you Moon. It was too good to be true. I can't believe I let you convince me otherwise."

"Pebbles." She tries to sound self assured, but doubt creeps in to her voice. An oppressing silence falls on the room, each of them deep in thought. Moon refuses to believe it. After all they accomplished. They're practically at the finish line. He can't...

She looks down at her shaking blue arms and breathes deeply, trying to get a hold on her spiraling mind. Is he really beyond saving. Will she actually lose her brother?

"Oh well." Hornet shrugs casually. "Guess we have to go with plan B."

The siblings snap to look at her at once.

"What?" Moon asks. "What plan B?"

"Don't go around making false promises, bug" Pebbles grumbles, like his worst worries have already come to pass.

Hornet returns a know-it-all look, like she enjoys keeping him in suspense. "Wyrm, will you quit your whining? It's simple really."

Her energy manages to lift Moon's spirit somewhat, and she finds she can't help but smile back at her. "What is it, Hornet?"

"Spit it out, then!" Pebbles shouts in a slightly high pitch, nervousness saturating his voice.

She moves and crouches a step away from him, their eyes leveled. She flashes him a snarky smile, poking his face one last time before finally saying-

"I just need to infect you."