Ex Lacrima Remnant

Track #68 – Locus

Lacrima gritted her teeth, raised her plasma blade, curled to protect her vital organs. The spears pierced her body, grazed her skin, ripped her dress, slashed her over and over. All while the tentacles pierced the shields, the uniforms, the flesh of the soldiers. Screams. Cries. Gunfire. Stronger. Stronger. Strong. Weak. Weaker.

None.

A primal yell escaped her lips, right as she unleashed one last wide strike, cutting down all the appendages at once. The charred remains of the harpoons fell on the ground, around her, around her wounded body. She glanced around. The Pangean soldiers. Were all sprayed on the floor. Still breathing. Still alive. But for how long? Lymph flowed through her vessels, covering her gashes, sealing them. Instantly, her back tendrils emerged again, sunk into the corpses of the Niteowls one more time. Water. She needed to resupply her water. If her body kept producing lymph without enough water, she would have triggered phytomorphosis. That wasn’t a chance she wanted to take. She had to remain herself. She had to remain Lacrima. For her future. For Mimi. She couldn’t stop being Lacrima, no matter the cost.

The self-described crew member in front of her was four meters tall at least, surrounded by smaller crew members, similar to the shape it had before. They swarmed around it, coming out of every door. Seven, no eight of them crawling around the room, all with those white masks. All with those red eyes.

Humans.

How?

How were they human?

They didn’t look human.

They didn’t look even remotely human.

Rhizomes were more human than them.

What lay before her eyes was a strange combination of limbs and wires that looked mechanic, an abomination whose vessels were filled by something similar to blood. Yet, calling those figures ‘human’ was a stretch above everything. Breathe. Breathe. She glanced at them, at that swarm of deformed figures slithering around her. Breathe. Breathe. She raised her weapon once again, ignited the blade. The burning edge of her knife once again turned into a beacon in the dark.

Outnumbered. Alone. With no means to contact Mimi.

She glanced back at the entrance door, considered making a run for it.

Too far. The moment she averted her eyes from those writhing masses of wires and masks, she would have been ripped apart and killed on the spot. So, all what she could do was creating a diversion. Giving enough time to the hacking team to do their job.

Water.

Water leaked on her cheek.

She shivered.

Those thoughts.

She had already resigned herself to die.

She had already accepted her departure. But that hurt. The feeling of not being able to see Mimi again. That hurt. The pain festered inside them, circulated through her limbs, moved around like a serpent. Somehow, it gave her strength.

No, she wasn’t going to die.

No matter what lay ahead.

Her lymph production kicked in again, refilled her reserves, her voice turned into a low growl. The plasma knife was her last line of defense. She didn’t need to die. She needed to hold the fort long enough for Mimi and Robin to work their magic. And that was doable. She knew she could do that, ‘humans’ or not.

That’s what she thought, before the tentacles impacted with her chest, sending her flying against the wall, crashing into a display.

She coughed, gasped.

She didn’t even see them. They were too fast. Too many. The strands of what once was a tail coiled around her ankles, her wrists, her hips, her neck. Lacrima bellowed. The prospect of being trapped, of being snapped like a doll. Not this time.

Not this time.

She managed to trigger her plasma knife again, to slash through the tentacle that grabbed her arm, to free her neck too. A wide vertical strike burned through the coils, letting her fall to the floor, badly landing on the metal tiles. She rolled immediately on her side, while five dark shapes jumped on her. Her heart pounded, every step more. She slid under them, ran to the door without averting her gaze from the creatures surrounding her. A semi-circle of spiders, conveniently leaving the way out open. That had to be a trap. She gritted her teeth, measured her breaths. Too simple. Too clean. She could smell it. She could smell the stench of false hope. Still, there were too many of them in front of her. Eight plus their leader. She gazed at them slowly, one by one. Flashing red eyes. Featureless faces.

No, there was nothing of ‘human’ in them.

Nothing left.

Even if at one point they might have been ‘human’, there was no trace of that in those contorted, spiky bodies.

Now, those ‘humans’ were gazing at her, studying her movements, following her without doing the first move.

She raised her guard, the blade protected her face. Her mind went shortly back to Caro and Vettor, her two hummingbirds left in the care of the Assistant. She was going to get back to them. She wasn’t going to leave her babies in the hands of someone who took after her Father. No, she had to remain alive. For herself. For Mimi. For her birds.

She retreated carefully, catching a breath at every step. Her eye was fixated on the crew members, on the mass of wires that made their bodies. They weren’t even attacking her anymore, just watching. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

A metallic noise from behind.

Lacrima turned around almost immediately, gasped.

Red eyes above her.

Red eyes coming from the corridor.

Red eyes flying past her, thrown at impossible speed.

Landing badly on the ground, rolling on the tiles, losing pieces. The body of the crew member slid on the floor, leaving scratch marks behind, in a futile attempt to stop its momentum.

Silence.

Lacrima held her breath.

Nobody talked.

No voices.

Only a sound of steps. Slowly approaching. Slowly coming through the dark.

Walking under the flickering lights.

A tall silhouette, dozens of centimeters taller than Lacrima, towered in the hallway, followed by soldiers in full tactical gear.

A massive black blade, shining in the shadows.

Vines all over her left arm.

Metallic wires gnashed by her teeth, the poor remains of a crew member’s claw.

Long white hair, almost down to her hips.

And a white rose where her left eye should have been.

Paired with a red iris, one burning with determination.

One that made everyone in that room shiver.

Machine, man, plant.

Each of them felt a chill down their spine.

As soon as Captain Commander Lily crossed the threshold.

And stepped through the door, weapon in hand.

Ready to tear everything to shreds.

**

“You’re going alone? Are you stupid?!”

That wasn’t the question Lily wanted to be asked. Yet, it was the question she needed to answer. Back at the base camp, at the temporary Eastcol base. As soon as rumor had it that Captain Hasegawa’s team had been annihilated, as soon as the first rod fell from the sky, it was clear what the next move had to be. That move, of course, included her. Choice. Fate. The price to pay. Many ways to say that, to rationalize it. Yet, the conclusion was one and the same.

Lily was going to Lagash.

Leaving all of her sisters behind.

Leaving all of them in the safety of an Eastcol carrier.

She had made her mind clear, found her resolution.

Caressed Oleander’s cheek one more time, pressing her forehead against hers, stealing a kiss from her lips.

“I need to go.”

“But…”

She took her hand among her fingers, kissed it too, before sitting in front of her, sitting in front of them. In Oleander arms, stood a little capsule, one connected with a portable generator. Cattleya was sleeping inside it, breathing softly in her pod through the external ventilator. Connecting the Eastcol systems to the capsules from the Womb had been easier than expected. Their children, the first generation of rhizomes newborns, was in good hands. Now, the first of them, her own daughter, was resting in the warmth of the other mother’s lap, still developing, still growing. Lily cracked a smile, caressed the glass, kissed that too.

“I’m going to the seedship. I’ll lead their troops. It’s my currency. The price we pay for freedom.”

“Then I’ll come too!”

“Like hell you will!”

Oleander jolted. Lily’s voice had become louder, broke into a scream all of a sudden. Oleander felt her heart pounding, her arms closing tight around the capsule. Lily. Her eye. Furor. Rage. Her fist was shaking. Every single muscle. Every single limb. Every single tendril. Was shaking.

“Lea, think about it! Think! Your specialty is melting organic matter, right? And you’ve already partly phytomorphed! What if you triggered it while you’re together with those meatsacks? What if you melted them by chance?”

“I can control myself, Li!”

“Yes, but I told that idiot of their commander that you aren’t able to, that you would be a liability and that you can’t board that ship with me – with us!”

“What…?”

“I also said that Dandelion and Calendula are unfit, because they are completely out of lymph!”

Oleander’s mouth fell agape. That was a lie, the blackest lie. If anything, they had just rebuilt parts of their reserves together, bar an accidental lymph release or two. Those two were exchanging fluids in a dark spot of the engine room not even an hour before, when they were tangling their tongues and their tendrils far from peeping eyes. Only to be spotted by their commander in chief. The over-the-top flabbergasted reaction of the two had been priceless. Lily’s reaction had been, if possible, even more priceless – a mischievous grin of approval, almost as if she wanted to tell them ‘less talk, more action’ – with ‘action’ being a shorthand for ‘get a bedroom, you two, and start fucking’. What Lily said about them being dry wasn’t a complete lie – those two were probably wasting more lymph than they were building up – but certainly it wasn’t the truth. Oleander bit her lip, while Lily continued to talk.

“And all the others. I said they are wounded. That they are sleep deprived. That they have no energies left.”

“Li, what have you…”

“I did it so that only I… would be selected for the attack. Simple… as that.”

Oleander looked down, gritted her teeth.

“…but why?”

Suddenly, she felt a hand caressing her skin once again.

“Because someone has to do it, or we – our species – won’t have a future.”

“Then, why aren’t you taking me with you? We’d have so many more chances together, whatever is lurking there!”

“Yes, but then…”

Silence. Silence fell among them, a heavy cape covering the room, taking it hostage. Oleander heaved a sigh, inhaled, exhaled, took a deep breath. Her voice turned to a whisper. A cold, toneless whisper.

“Let me guess. If you die, you want rhizomes to have a leader. One that hasn’t caused a genocide. One that can bargain with humans. In other words, me. For the good of our species. Right?”

“No, Lea…”

Lily’s teeth closed around the petals of Oleander’s eye flower, her tongue savored their delicateness one more time.

“…it’s… it’s because I can’t stand losing you.”

Water. Lily was leaking water. Water flowing down her cheeks. Water from her eye. From her rose. Sobs. Whimpers. She wiped her tears, but that was useless. More and more sprouted from her ducts, in a never-ending rain that fell on the floor, one drop at a time, a rain that graced Cattleya’s pod too, bouncing on the window that separated her from the world.

“Lea…”

Lily fell on her knees, her head leaning on Oleander’s lap, still crying, still letting all out.

“…I can’t take it anymore! I can’t play hero anymore! I’m tired, Lea! I’m… so fed up with this! I want to take you somewhere nice! I want to watch the sea with you, Lea! And… and bring our kid there! Watch… watch her play in the sand, learn to swim! I want to lay down with you on the beach, kiss you in the sun while… while you wear that stupid catgirl costume! I’m tired of being Captain Commander. I… I just want to be Lily. Only Lily! Your Lily, the Lily that… the Lily that I was never allowed to be! But… but… if I don’t… if I don’t play my role… you… and Cattleya… the only reason I endured all of this…”

Inhale. Exhale. Lily stood up again. Wiped the water away from her cheeks.

“That was… pretty pathetic, isn’t it?”

“…you lied me at the Grove.”

“Huh?”

“You… wanting me to be a spare leader was just a lie. You just… simply…”

Lily bit her lip, turned around to avoid facing her.

“Yeah.”

“And the reason you kept your distance…”

“Yeah.”

Laughter. Genuine laughter. Oleander. Was laughing. Patting Lily’s hair, caressing them, under the latter’s puzzled stare.

“Lea…?”

“See, I always thought I was an impulsive idiot… but now I get it! We are both gigantic, colossal, impulsive idiots.”

“…we might be, yes.”

Oleander brought Lily’s head to her chest, close to Cattleya’s pod.

“But, tell me, Li. Have you considered…”

“…what?”

“Meeeeow?”

Lily shivered, felt her heart pounding in her chest. A perfect reproduction of a cat’s meowing. All while Lea, her Lea was cracking a smile, arching her hand like an impromptu paw, while her fingers danced on Lily’s back. Lily felt the urge to kiss her, to undress her, to start licking and touching her everywhere, till that meow became a choir of moans, while her lymph production skyrocketed to Atropos and beyond. But it wasn’t the time. It wasn’t the moment. Still, her answer was yes. Have you considered? Yes, she considered it. It was her reason to come back to the greenhouse after a hard day at the precinct. The reason she fought for. The reason she endured her shackles that long. Her reason was meowing in front of her, keeping the capsule where their daughter was resting in her arms. Lily closed her eyes, let herself be rocked by that hug. It was almost over. Almost. Whatever happened on Lagash, she had to go there. She had to write the last page. Only then, they could have been happy. Only then, they could have been safe. All for her reason to live. All for her reason to go forward. To write the future of her species. The only one that could do that was she.

She basked in Oleander’s warmth for one minute longer, before finally letting her Captain Commander persona take over.

She had one more duty to fulfill, before she could write the word end. The duty of the leader of all rhizomes. The duty she inherited from Lacrima, after their Father discarded her. The duty to save her species.

The duty to save her Lea.

The duty to save their daughter.

The duty to save their future.