Chapter 14: +1 Ally
By the time K was done serving corporal punishment. Finch handed him a digital letter from Bak putting him out of commission temporarily due to multiple breaches of contract.
If anything else it was issued at a perfect time.
Hopefully enough time to help Shira find her body.
"Khae’el"
Thira helped him out of his sweat-soaked clothes, slapping on spider-nerve bots to help fix strained muscles...he didn’t need those but he let the doctor do his thing.
"It’s best you go to our shared house in Wave, you can watch over the reconstruction of the damaged zones."
"You call it a shared house even though you’ve never been there."
"I have...sure it was not physically but I did help stay with you there when you were given ’holidays’ or when I had to work and couldn’t have you in the lab and loitering Command...sometimes I miss when you barely reached up to my waist."
K shrugged and stepped into the large steaming bathtub that had been prepared for him.
"Thira?"
"Yes?"
"You worships deities or have a religion, right?"
"Yes but not all Vashki worship the same deity"
"I see"
He sloshed the water in his palms, gathering them and pouring them back in.
"This is new, you haven’t showed interest in things like this before"
"Really?"
Thira ran a porcelain hand through his wet hair, patting him like one would pet a child.
"I used to worship and pray to a deity"
"Used to?"
"Haha, yes, you see...back in Qashka, I was the most devoted worshipper of a god. Other Miwa saw me as a role model, they believed I was blessed because of how beautifully and devotedly worshipped," The Vashki rubbed at his ears,
"All those years of devotion were laid to waste...for when I desperately needed help, the god I spent my whole life serving did not hear cries for salvation from the clutches of a cruel beast."
"That must have been a lot"
"It was but I’ve learnt one thing," Thira planted his forehead against K’s, "no one can save you...except you."
"No one can save you except you."
The ring around his ankle hummed as if pleasant with K’s response.
"I’ll leave you to bath, you can go home this night. The sooner you’re out of Bak’s radar, the better."
He made to stand up only to get pulled back by K.
"Speaking of the Admiral, why did he assume you made a clone of me?"
Thira flinched slightly, "what?"
"When I was in detainment, he pointed fingers at you, that you were the mastermind behind the whole thing."
"K... You should know why"
K frowned, clenching harder at where he held the doctor,
"I’m a Vashki, K, and Bak doesn’t like a Vashki. He surely wouldn’t let go of an opportunity to get rid of me"
"Then why hasn’t he?"
"What?"
"You’ve built us a system we can run on our own, weaponized us, given us the Matyr Program, we have everything we need to fight your kind...so why hasn’t Bak killed you yet?"
"...because there is something Bak wants from me, something that is worth me being alive"
"I see"
Thira patted his head a few times before getting up and leaving.
"He lies"
K held unto the tub, visibly startled by Shira’s voice. He still wasn’t used to her random popping in and out.
"Stop doing that"
"Hm?"
She slid into the tub with him, her body warbling with the water movement, "shall I announce my presence before I speak to you?"
Shira chuckled as she began peeling off her clothings,
"What do you think you’re doing?"
"The Kept One lies"
"What?"
"Khae’el the Kept One...lies"
"About what?"
"I can’t tell you yet...you have to find my body first"
She smirked leaning opposite him, her feet resting on his shoulder. K didn’t like the awkward position she had put him in so he tried pushing her feet off but that made her only raise her legs higher.
In the end he gave up and chose to enjoy his bath.
———•————•————•————
The shared house was just as he had left it years ago. The only difference was that it was neat and the kitchen had been upgraded.
"Nice place although it pales in comparison"
"Hm"
He hummed, his left eye twitching uncontrollably at where she chose to sit.
Her thighs nudging his face, Shira sat in his shoulders, sandwiching hin inbetween.
He was starting to notice it little by little, when they had first met in the void he couldn’t feel her physically but now it was there...subtly. He could feel her skin against his.
It was warm.
"Now that you’ve been chased from your line of duty, how do you intend to find my body?"
"It’s temporary and I wasn’t chased"
"What’s the difference, are you useless to the people you spent your youth serving?"
Talking to her was like talking to a wall so he didn’t bother responding and instead started searching the house,
"Now what may your useless self be looking for?"
"Thira would want to keep an eye on me...I’m looking for an outlet, somewhere he can deploy Kagu"
"The other one that speaks in your head"
"She’s data assembling Ai augmentation"
"So she’s meant to all knowing?"
"Depends on the database you give her"
"Sounds useless"
"She’s not entirely useless"
"I’m not useless at all!"
Kagu sprouted atop the TV console, her face scrunched up angrily. If K looked close enough he could swear he saw clouds of smoke exit her nostrils.
"You were here all along?"
"And I heard everything!"
"Uh..."
"You selfish mean brute!"
"Huh? Me?"
The Ai glitched as she stomped her feet, the small outlet where she stood turning red.
"She was the one who called you useless not me"
"Who were you even talking to?"
"You don’t see her?"
K pointed at his shoulders where Shira sat,
"Save your breathe only you can see me, until you find my body, she’s only going to think you’re going mad...quite an entertaining sight it is," she chuckled and continued stroking his hair.
"No, I don’t!"
K ran a palm through his hair, sighing heavily before squatting next to the outlet,
"Do you want me to trust you?"
"What? Yes"
"I’m giving you a chance to do so now"
"..."
"After I say the word "Go", every conversation we hold to the end of this phase you can’t report back to Thira"
Kagu stepped back, her nervousness painted her face,
"What would you have me do?"
"Go"
"..."
She nodded and pressed her palms together, "I’ve cut vision and auditory feedback from the doctor"
"Good girl"
The Ai gasped and held her rapidly reddening cheeks, "Only the doctor calls me that!"
"I need you you to help me find a planet"
"A planet? Why? You don’t plan on running away, do you?"
"I’m a soldier who has sworn his life to protect Meredith, I would never abandon my duty."
Kagu nodded hesitantly, "what planet would you have me find?"
"A planet where it rains diamonds and its oceans as clear as the sky"
"I’m sorry, what?"
<__________________>
Meanwhile...
"Huh? Did Kagu encounter a bug?"
Thira poked at his holoscreen, he was busy working on a new armor plating design when he noticed he couldn’t retrieve feedback footage or audio from Kagu’s outlet in their shared home, even the one timestampped over an hour ago.
"Oh well, she’s a big girl, she’ll find her way back"
