I13DT: An Undisclosed Location

[Miranda Weaver]

"Quentin said that was an emergency ladder to the bridge," she said, pointing. "He wanted me to come up to the bridge. I told him to piss off. Well, in not so many words."

[Narrator]

The timer was down to 10 minutes.

[Aria Nyx]

"I'll go pay him a visit then. You stay here where it's safe. Unless Will comes in, then you run like hell."

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda looked as if she was about to ask if Aria needed a hand, but thought better of it. "Be careful," she said.

[Aria Nyx]

Aria looks at her as if she knows exactly what's going through Miranda's head. "Good. You shouldn't put yourself at risk for me. I owe you that much."

[Miranda Weaver]

"We're family," she said, "It's what we do. The bridge is psi-shielded. If you can get me a hole in that, I can at least help you that way."

[Aria Nyx]

Aria looks like she'd like nothing better than to rush up the ladder but for some reason she doesn't just yet.

"You weren't supposed to be this old yet. I didn't know they would do that. You should have been a baby and not remembered any of this Black Air rubbish..."

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda tilted her head as she looked at Aria. "What are you saying?"

[Aria Nyx]

"When I came here I got stuck... Cause for some reason things didn't go the way they were supposed to and... you didn't exist and it didn't seem like you ever would. And, well, that scared me. A lot." she says, reaching for her belt and pushing a couple buttons on the image inducer disguised as the buckle. Her appearance flickers and changes, her cheeks a little fuller, her face a bit rounder, the horns disappearing and the color draining from her hair, turning it black. Most prominently though her eyes fade away and only leave skin and faint scar tissue behind.

"Being scared can make you do stupid things... I thought, hey, if things go wrong I can always swoop in and rescue you from Black Air. But they worked way faster than I thought and they made you much too old. They lied to me and like an idiot I listened..."

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda stared for a long pair of heartbeats before taking her own binding off. She gave the extent of the damage to her own eyes a couple of seconds to sink in before she lashed out to slap Aria across the face hard. "You... I... whatever... deserve so much worse than that, but now is neither the time nor the place."

[Aria Nyx]

"Yeah, you're probably right..." she says, wincing less at the slap and more at how much worse Miranda's scars look compared to her own. Turning around she walks towards the ladder, only stopping briefly before climbing up. "For what it's worth, they didn't take your eyes out of malice. Something in our genes made them come out wrong."

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda's wings were shaking and every muscle was tight. "You better come back," she said. "Because nobody gets to kick your ass but me."

[Aria Nyx]

"Here." she says, undoing the bracer on her arm and slipping it off. "Now I'll have to come back for it." she adds, holding it out to Miranda.

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda took the bracer and slipped it around her own arm. "Wouldn't want to lose it."

[Aria Nyx]

Aria looks like she's about to say something else but then just climbs the ladder.

[Miranda Weaver]

As soon as she's out of sight, Miranda collapses against the door. She continues to shake gently though from anger or sadness it's hard to tell.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie cautiously entered the room after breaking off from the fight with Will, finally catching a strong enough whiff of Miranda's scent to be fairly certain it was her. And then she saw her.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay," said the enormous werewolf as she shifted back to human form. "Where did Aria go?"

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda pointed to the emergency ladder without looking at it. "Heading for the bridge."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

She looked towards the ladder and noticed the sleeping, tied up guard. "You did that yourself?"

[Miranda Weaver]

Miranda nodded, "He want to inject 'telepathic blockers', whatever those are. I couldn't let him do that."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph nodded. "Good. I'm glad you were able to think quickly on your feet."

She looked back and forth between the ladder and Miranda momentarily.

I should probably help Aria...but I don't want to leave her here alone again...

[Miranda Weaver]

"Go, she needs you more than I do right now."

[Narrator]

At that point, the clock on Miranda's timer hit 7:24.


And THAT'S when the bulkheads along the hallway started to burst, and water began to pour into the deck!


Evil Overlord Tip: Never have a countdown end at 0:00.

[Miranda Weaver]

Time to go. Her avatar shot up towards the bridge through the gap in the shielding the hatch provided even as she blasted the thought down the hallway, Bridge access at my location.