Ruined Plans
Fate awoke the next day to sunlight streaming into the cave from the hole in the ceiling. He yawned and stretched, hopping off of Cornelius' back and landing smoothly on the ground fifty feet below. When he stood from his crouch, his knees creaked from the effort.
He ignored the sound, along with his rumbling stomach, as they had no food in the cave. Instead, he siphoned off some of his Divine Energy to give himself the boost of energy he needed for the day.
Last night he had emailed Margaret about the Advanced on the planet, warning them to either stay away or bring extra firepower. The message was marked as sent, but when he checked as he woke up, he didn't see a response. He didn't think much of it; Margaret was a busy woman. He checked outside of the cave, finding nothing but the same wooded forest and mossy ground as last night.
Fate woke Cait up with a gentle shake, chuckling as she crawled bleary-eyed out from under the tip of Cornelius' tail. He grabbed his mask off of the floor and put it on, ready to greet the new day. Cait joined him at the mouth of the cave a few minutes later, her hair a bit messy but her eyes wide awake.
"You need to start brushing your hair," she told him. "It's sticking out like you just came out of a hurricane."
Fate felt his head with his hand, finding what she described. With a flex of his Divine Reach, the hair was forced down. As soon as he let go, it sprang back up, so he sighed and tapped it down once more. After another two tries, he finally smoothed his hair out, opening his eyes to find Cait trying and failing to hide a smile.
"It's the scales," he insisted. "My hair got caught on them."
"Sure, sure," she said unconvincedly, avoiding his indignant gaze as the corners of her mouth continued to curl up despite her best efforts. "What are we doing today anyway?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"Well, supposedly the palace will be done today, which hopefully means the Advanced will leave tonight and we won't have to help our special friends deal with them. That taxi we ordered won't get here until tomorrow, the same with our friends, so we have time to kill."
"Oh, we aren't going anywhere," a voice said outside of the cave.
They spun on their heels, readying for combat, as Norman walked out from behind the mound of the cave. He had the same fake smile as before, his brown eyes holding nothing but contempt.
He kept his arms akimbo, no weapon or means of defense visible on his person. Despite this, he seemed completely relaxed, as if the two Embodiments before him posed no more threat than goldfish.
"You must really think we're stupid, huh?" Norman said, gaze roaming between the two with not a care in the world. "'It's safe outside. There's no way they could monitor the entire planet, right?' That's along what you two were thinking when you convinced Ythmun to conspire against us in broad daylight, isn't it?
"And then you had the gall to kill our men that we had painstakingly planted to keep the villagers in check. They were there to prevent riots against Ythmun, not that you'd care. Their usefulness as spies was practically nil."
"What, did you flank the whole planet with satellites or something? We would've seen those when we came here," Fate asked.
Norman maintained his disdainful smile. "Do you think ships are the only things capable of being cloaked? All you need is some Burgint Crystals – or Jenghang Crystals, as you know them – and anything can have light bent around it. You two are quite lucky that you didn't hit any on your way into the atmosphere. But that luck has run out.
"We know all about your pact with the Flaming Crows, as well as your grudge against us, Null and Athena. Your message last night to the Flaming Crows has been intercepted, and they will arrive to find an armada ready to shoot them out of the sky. Garrett will be killed for turning against us, and Ythmun will go back to what he's best at, being a political figurehead to direct the hatred of the people onto."
"Tough talk for someone about to die," Fate retorted, lunging forward as his Miao Dao appeared in his hands. It sliced through Norman, only for the man's image to flicker and distort before returning to focus.
"Why would I risk myself when holograms work just fine?" Norman sneered. "My superiors were angry at the ease with which you influenced me, Athena. The only way for me to save my job is to take you both in for studying."
"And how are you going to do that if you're too cowardly to even show your face?" Cait said angrily.
"With these." The trees rustled and shook as hundreds of drones emerged from their canopies. They were circular, thin discs with no visible way of staying afloat, painted pure white with the symbol of the Advanced stamped on their tops.
Fate suddenly realized that he hadn't heard a bird croon all morning.
"These don't look so tough," he said contemptibly, brandishing his Miao Dao. He was proven wrong soon after as all of the drones let out an ear-piercing sonic screech, bursting his eardrums and setting his vision to spinning.
He reflexively stored his sword back in his ring as he dropped to the ground, the nauseating dizziness causing his world to fold and spin. He could barely make out the drones closing in on him and Cait.
They hovered over them, three to each of them as they picked them off the ground, a strange, frictionless field lifting him to levitate above the ground. He recognized the telltale signs of artificial gravity manipulation instantly, having dealt with it for years on his Shadow Jumper.
As the drones raised them higher and higher into the skies, taking them to the large cube in the sky, he heard the angry roar of Cornelius before he blacked out.