Better Things to Do

Fate shrugged and poured his Divine Energy into the locks. "Left or right?"

"They turn inwards."

Squinting, he started turning the mechanisms inside the locks, Shyv Palar staring at him all the while. He looked much more vibrant now, appearing several years younger than a few minutes ago.

Fate assumed his previous dour disposition was an act to lure his captors into a false sense of security. He wouldn't be surprised if the Shyv had had to use that same tactic before.

With a grunt, he finished turning the locks, the entire building quaking with energy as the chains crackled with fire. They exploded into a rain of cinders and ash, the locks sliding to the side without a sound as the glass fell into the floor.

Shyv Jeffrey Palar stepped out, a bright grin on his face as he shook Fate's scaly hand. His aura was strange and paradoxical, somehow reading as both Prodigy and Avatar. "Null from Styx? Is that you?"

"It is, Shyv. What are you doing here?"

"These Advanced fuckers broke into the palace and snatched me in my sleep," Shyv Palar said with a hint of bitterness. "Killed all my guards and anyone else that saw the whole ordeal. I've been sitting in this gloomy dump for about five months now."

'That Dracok went above and beyond with this story-telling,' Fate thought sarcastically.

The fact that none of this was real was the reason he accepted Sema's surrender so readily. Fate wasn't the best at spotting lies, but the Advanced made him a jack-of-all-trades of sorts, so he had a working knowledge of many things.

Spotting lies meant better interrogations, after all. And everyone knew how much these scientists loved 'interrogating' people.

The point being, since this whole scenario was pulled from Fate's memories, it was unlikely that Sema would be able to lie in a way he couldn't spot. And the fact she showed the same sincerity as Cait all those years ago – if watered down – filled him with confidence in her words.

Being nice rarely got him anything, in this life or the other, but he wasn't a complete dick. Or at least, that's what he told himself. His family would probably say something different.

Anyway, he was willing to give Sema a chance. Her divine powers weren't a threat to him, and he was confident he could handle whatever wacky sci-fi tech the Advanced had on this planet.

The Advanced had a habit of equipping their cells with only what they thought was required. If the work here was so important, they wouldn't have eight whole Personifications stationed here. Likewise, if it was less important, they would've had more tech and fewer Embodiments.

They were always preaching the superiority of technology, but they weren't dumb enough to believe blindly in it.

"I heard they stuffed some kinda Manifestation prototype in you or something?" Fate asked.

"Yeah, that's how I brought you here." Palar's expression grew pained. "I brought a lot of people here in hopes they'd help, but you're the only one that survived. That's how the Advanced knew you were here for me.

"I can take people's dream forms and summon them nearby for support. Unfortunately, most people's dreams run on different laws of physics than reality, so I ended up killing hundreds before I realized what I was doing.

"I don't know why you're all scaly, or how your dream self is strong enough to exist in the waking world, but I'm just glad I'm not stuck here anymore."

'Is this real?' Fate wondered.

Not that it would matter either way. Failure in the trials the Dracok was putting him through would kill him anyway, so nothing changed except he was genuinely in the home of his most hated foe.

Just another day for him, really.

Even with this new knowledge, though, Fate was still willing to help Sema. He knew well the horrid things she'd have undergone, and just the fact she wasn't holding her nose high and preaching about her superior mind was enough to tell Fate she didn't truly care for the Advanced's cause.

He'd never met an Advanced scientist that wasn't prideful to their very bones, even when faced with death. So he'd gladly risk his own skin for the chance that she genuinely wanted his help.

"…Null?"

Fate shook his head, snapping out of his reverie.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Sema, where's the closest ship off this rock?"

"This way."

Sema led the two men to an unassuming section of wall within the cavernous room, pressing a palm to it and sending a bit of Divine Energy in. A click resounded as a wooden door appeared where her hand was, and the trio went in without a second glance at the havoc Fate had wrought.

They entered a space not unlike Fate's old home, with a communal living room and twelve doors, eight leading to bedrooms and the other four to various other rooms. Sema ushered them into one of these doors, into a hangar, and onto a small, streamlined ship.

It had exactly three seats, one behind and above the other, accessible by a hinged, transparent metal canopy. It was painted in the typical white of the Advanced with their symbol printed in black on each side, and was shaped rather like an escape shuttle.

The engines were housed in a rectangular section about twenty feet long and six feet wide, the six thrusters protruding from the back and the cockpit from the front. The cockpit was ten feet long and just as wide, extending from the rectangular part in a blocky cone-like shape that tapered off at the front.

The hangar had seven other ships just like this one, one for each Personification. Fate couldn't spot any weapons on it.

Sema flipped the canopy open by the handle attached to the side, the metal gliding along its hinges without a sound and staying there as she hopped in and buckled herself into the driver's seat.

"Well?" she asked. "Are you coming or not?"

Fate helped Shyv Palar in and took the rearmost seat for himself, strapping himself in as the canopy lowered around them. Sema flicked a switch, and the wall in front of them vanished.

Switching the engine on and pushing forward on the yoke, she flew them out of the hangar and off of the planet.