Nya and Terror proceeded down the corridor that led to her suite. As she walked, she tried to rationalize her actions to herself.
'This has nothing to do with me,' she thought
'Then why am I helping him, a complete stranger?' She replied herself
'Because he interests me, she reasoned, maybe if I help him now, he'll help me with my agenda later… when I actually have one?'
'That is a very big if,' she counters, 'what if he decides to turn on me instead?'
'Then I guess I'll just kill him,' she decides,
'Hmm, at least I have a back-up plan,' she concluded, 'also, I should probably stop arguing with myself now.'
She concluded the internal monologue as they reached the room, just as an older couple came around the corner and saw the two of them. The wife eyed them suspiciously, especially when she caught a glimpse of Nya's vampiric eyes. Thinking quickly, Nya grabbed Terror and pulled him into a passionate kiss, running her hands all over his back and making them look like two horny young people who wanted to get somewhere private so that could have sex. Her gambit paid off as, as soon as the PDA started, the couple averted their gazes.
Still entangled in faux passion, Nya fumbled around with her hands for the door controls. Once she found it, she opened her door and pushed the lykan inside forcefully. Once inside, the room and the door slid closed, and Nya smacked her lips, "Sorry about that," she said
"No worries. I'm not," he said, a smirk on his lips as he sat on the bed, "you're actually a pretty good kisser;"
"Thanks, I guess." Nya said, "Now that we're alone, maybe you can explain why you're being chased by Providence agents?" she said as she took a seat on the armchair facing the bed with crossed legs.
Providence was the largest private security contractor in Hyperion, they were the de facto authority that policed a majority of the territories.
"It's a pretty hard to believe story," Terror said
"I can believe a lot," she said, crossing her arms
"Do you believe in fairy tales?" he said then
"Depends on the fairy tale, I guess," she shrugged
Terror took a breath before explaining, "Have you heard the stories of the first ones… or maybe you know them as the originals?"
"You mean the Io?" Nya asked. Almost every civilization in Hyperion and beyond had some sort of myth or legend based about the Io, very little was actually known about these enigmatic beings, except that they were beings of immense power and they created the very origins that empires have risen and fallen over.
"Yeah, sure. Anyway, on the planet where I was raised, there was this particular legend, that when the universal empire of the first ones fell and they were wiped from the cosmos, they had a secret plan to bring themselves back, they left 'heirs' among the lower races, granting them the power to command origins."
"Okay," Nya nodded. so, he was familiar with the concept of the Regis and their proxy war?
"Well, there's strong evidence that these 'heirs' actually exist, and that they possess capabilities beyond adepts and phantasms," Terror explained, "and a whole cabal of them control Hyperion from the shadows,"
"Are you getting to anything resembling a point soon?" Nya asked impatiently
"Suppose you were a handsome, dashing young lykan and you wanted to find these heirs for… 'personal reasons'," Terror hypothesized, "but to do so you supposedly had to steal something from Providence that they aren't too keen on letting out of their control."
Nya caught on and smirked, "Then, supposedly, Providence would be hunting this lykan,"
"Exactly," Terror said
"Sounds like fun." Nya decided, "Alright, I'll help,"
"I wasn't asking for help," Terror said
"Now you don't have to," she replied
"But it's going to be very dangerous, you'll be on Providence's radar, too," Terror said, "I don't really want to bring you—"
"Good god, I didn't know you were such a whiny little bitch," Nya huffed, putting her hands to her hips, "I've decided to help you. I'm involving myself in this whether you like it or not. Deal with it."
"Has anyone ever told you that you can be a little bit intense?" Terror asked
She shrugged, "It's come to my attention once or twice."
This was perfect though, she'd been without any means of finding information about the other Regis, now it practically landed in her lap. She was already starting to like Terror better and better.
Then, there was a knocking at the door. "This is Providence; we're conducting a search of cabins. Would you open the door, please?"
"What do we do?" Terror hissed,
Nya reacted with the same quick thinking as before, ripping off her bathing suit and ruffling her hair.
"Get in the bed," she hissed at him, he complied without much protest.
She first sped up her heartrate and breathing, using her blood control to simulate the symptoms of having been physically active –which included stimulating her sweat glands and flushing her face—, she then put on a loose bathrobe, dimmed the lights and went to answer the door.
In front of her were four Providence agents; two men, two women, they were all dressed in dark suits with white designs, and navy blue shirts.
"C-can I help you?" she said out of breath, she'd opened the door just enough for the agents to see evidence that she'd been having sex.
"Sorry to disturb you, miss," the agent in front of her said, tipping his head to her in apology, "we will proceed elsewhere. Have a nice day."
"Okay, tha-thank you," she said meekly as she shut the door again. "suckers,"
"Whoa, how did you do that?" Terror asked as he came out from under the covers.
"Skill," she said simply, "I'm assuming you had an exit strategy for such situations?"
"Of course; the best thrill-seekers need to know when to bail," he said with a grin, "trouble is; the stuff I took is in my cabin, all the way on the other side of the ship."
"Alright," Nya said, "Let's go—" she was interrupted when the door was kicked in, slamming into her and knocking her to the ground.
"I thought this room smelled odd; the room didn't smell of sex as one would expect," said the agent who kicked the door down as he walked in, "it allowed me to pick up another scent; she's a vamp… and a fresh one at that."
"According to the ship's manifest, she had a valid omen pass." another agent, a young woman, replied as he held up a data pad "but it was one of three that was registered from Nosferatu."
"And there's the one we were sent to apprehend," the agent who kicked down the door pointed to Terror by the bed, "I guess the two of them were in it together,"
Nya threw the door off her and stood up, the wounds she'd suffered were already healing.
"Ow." she growled, as the last of her wounds healed, "You're a lykan too, huh?" she growled at the lead agent.
"Tough li'l minx aren't ya?" the lykan agent grinned, "Good. Here I thought this assignment was gonna be boring."
"Surrender," another agent said, drawing a weapon and aiming it at Nya, "you are aiding and abetting a fugitive."
The other two agents also drew their weapons and aimed them at the pair.
"Get ready," Nya said as she stood beside Terror, raising her hands in surrender,
"What are you planning?" Terror asked doing the same,
Before anyone could do anything else, Nya grabbed Terror by the arm and, using her ability to bend space, pulled him into a spatial distortion.
"What the?" one of the agents gasped, "She already has a phantasm?"
"Oh-ho, looks like the li'l minx has got some tricks," the lykan agent smirked, he then turned to the other three agents, "let's keep searching. Find them, they couldn't have gotten far."
* * *
The lykan agent had been right about them not getting far. Nya only had enough experience with spatial distortions to move her within about twenty meters from her initial position. The two omens ended up in another cabin, one deck above theirs, where the occupants were actually having sex.
The woman screamed when Nya suddenly stumbled onto the bed after letting go of Terror, visibly exhausted.
"Where are we?" Terror asked as he helped his fallen friend up
"I don't know, but we need to move," Nya panted. Jumping space with a passenger took a lot more out of her than she thought.
Nya made her way towards the door, while Terror bowed his head at the two lovers they'd interrupted, "Sorry to interrupt," he said as he left.
After leaving the room, the two of them ran down the corridor until they came across one of the service screens that were mounted on the walls, Nya used it to check their current location.
"We need to get to your cabin, then get out of here," Nya said, "But first we need a change of clothes." Terror was still wearing his swim trunks and Nya only had her bikini bottom and a robe.
"This way," Terror says as he leads her down a corridor.
The two scantily clad omen snuck their way through the ship, doing their best to avoid contact with any other person.
"You know it's just a matter of time before that lykan finds us," Terror said, "we have the best sense of smell of any living being, and he has your scent."
"That's a problem for when we meet him again," Nya said, she is contemplating using her blood reaper on him, she was curious what absorbing the essence of another species of omen would do to her.
"That lykan, do you know him?" Nya asks
"That's incredibly racist; not all lykans know each other. I could ask the same for you and every other vampire out in space." Terror chastises her, quite adamantly.
"Alright, alright, it was just a damn question," Nya scowled, "forget I asked."
"Sorry," he said, "that wasn't fair,"
"Whatever," Nya dismissed, "how close are we to your cabin?"
"We're not that far," Terror said before stopping at a corner, "There's an agent coming that way, back up."
"How do you know? You haven't even looked," Nya hissed
"Because I do," he retorted, "Now back your ass up, we need to take another way,"
Nya did as he instructed, following Terror as he found an alternate route to his cabin. Every so often, he would stop abruptly, instructing them to wait or advise they take a different route.
"Okay, what's your deal?" She demanded after some time,
"Excuse me?" Terror asks
"How do you keep knowing where they are without looking," Nya states, "If I didn't know any better I'd say…" her eyes widen with realization, "You're clairvoyant?"
"What?" Terror says nervously
"That's your phantasm, isn't it?" Nya declares, "you can predict the future,"
"That's not how it works," Terror states, "not exactly, anyway, "
"Well, can you predict how long it's going to take us to get to your cabin?" Nya asks, she's getting impatient.
The intercom chimes again with another announcement;
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING. THE PROVIDENCE PEACEKEEPERS HAVE IDENTIFIED THE FUGITIVE AND HIS ACCOMPLICE. THEY APPEAR TO BE OMEN; A MALE LYKAN DRESSED IN RED SWIM TRUNKS AND A FEMALE VAMPIRE DRESSED IN A BLACK SWIMSUIT BOTTOM WITH A ROBE ON. PLEASE YOU ARE ADVISED TO KEEP YOUR DISTANCE FROM THEM, THEY ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. REPORT ANY SIGHTINGS TO THE STAFF OR TO THE PEACEKEEPERS. THANK YOU."
"Fuck, that's what I was worried about," Nya curses, now that the whole ship knew about what they were and what they looked like, sneaking around just got a whole lot harder to do.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Terror asks, right now his clairvoyance isn't being very helpful about how they can proceed without getting caught.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Nya says pointing. She pointed out a window into the vacuum of space. Terror doesn't even consider it for a second before answering
"Are you fucking insane?" He demanded, "The atmoshell doesn't extend to outside the hull."
"I bet, with our stamina, we have a good chance of lasting a while out there. Plus, we'd be that much closer to your cabin."
"But we'd still be exposing ourselves to the harsh unforgiving cosmos, do you known how many different things out there could kill us depending on which quadrant we're passing through?"
"The body is far more resilient than one might think," Nya stated, "all we really need are rebreathers, and we can make it,"
"This is a very bad idea," Terror muttered
"Well I don't hear a better one," Nya snapped, she went to an emergency panel on the wall, one of several dozen scattered across the ship. Popping it open, she finds inside a shelf of rebreathers, a device that looks like a gas mask with a tinted face shield.
She takes out two masks, handing one to Terror before putting the other one on herself, then she goes back down the way they came to an emergency airlock. Once the hatch was opened, Nya saw in the thick doorway the shimmering energy field of the atmoshell, the only barrier protecting the interior of the ship from the cold vacuum of space.
"This is a terrible idea," Terror states once more as she takes a step through the shield
"Can you quit bitching already?" Nya snapped, "I thought you were supposed to be some sort of wild thrill-seeker?"
"Thrill-seekers know when something is too risky," he growls as he followed her outside.
Anyone looking out the window on that side would see the strangest sight; a man and a woman, barely dressed and standing outside the energy shell that's meant to keep them alive, and they're walking along the hull, the man using his strong claws to anchor him and the woman using some strange power or force to stick to the hull.
Because sound can't carry in the vacuum of space, they communicate with simple hand gestures, Terror leads them around the ship until they are right outside his cabin, but the nearest airlock is quite some distance from their current position. Before he can even wonder how they're going to get through, Nya grabs him and pulls him into another spatial distortion. It is evident that she still needs more control over her creation of spatial distortions because they end up in the hallway, a floor below the cabin.
"God dammit, that was a stupid idea," Terror says as he shivers, frost was just starting to cover his body.
"Alright, let's get out of here," Nya said, she suffered far worse than him, being exposed to full power of a far off sun has left most of her body covered in severe burns, which are only just starting to heal.
"Not just yet, kid," Came a voice. They both turn to see the lykan agent turning the corner. He's removed his jacket and tie and unbuttoned the top of his shirt and rolling up his sleeves. He's getting ready for a fight.
"Terror, go, I'll handle this," Nya growls
"Are you crazy? He's stronger than me, the two of us should team up and—"
"GO!" Nya orders, using her mesmer, "He's my prey, and mine alone."
He reluctantly runs off, leaving the small woman to face the beast of an opponent.
"Are you sure about that, lil' minx?" the lykan asks, "I could kick both your asses together, that is still an option."
"Shut up!" Nya says, "aren't you going to draw your weapon?"
"I don't carry one if I can help it," he boasts, "I'm all the weapon I need."
"Well, aren't you confident," she grins as she pulls a plasma pistol she found with the vampires belongings from her Crimson Void and opens fire on the lykan. Her eyes widen when he turns vaporous and the energy bolts just pass right through him, before he solidifies again, completely unharmed.
"Is that the best you got?" he taunts
"Nifty, is that your phantasm?" she asks curious,
"Yep," he said studying her, "I can see you trying to figure it out, so I'll simply tell you; my phantasm allows me to change my body to mist."
"Are you sure you should be telling me that?" she asks
"I like to hand out a handicap whenever I meet someone worth fighting," he said, "makes things interesting. Plus. I already know that yours has to do with manipulating space, so I thought I'd even things out,"
"What a gentleman," Nya smiled, as she licked her lips, "I can't wait to eat you up."
She let go of her guns and as they fell, they passed through a red spatial rift, entering back into her Crimson Void. She needed to consider her options for this fight. A drop of his blood would possibly be all she'd need to activate her own true phantasm.
"Alright, try dodging this." Nya said as she opened another rift behind the lykan and a dagger shot out at high speed. As he turned his attention to the dagger behind him, she summoned another one in her hand and lunged at him, slashing at his torso but he turned partially to mist, so the blades passed right through him. she catches the flying dagger that passed right through him in her other hand.
"Ha ha, it's useless." He taunts as she continually slashes and stabs at his incorporeal form to no avail. Then, as she misses another thrust, his arm rematerializes and his claws rake across her side.
"Gah!" she cries backing away.
Looking at his hand, she sees metallic claws covered in her blood.
"Those don't look natural," she grunts
"Call it a company upgrade," he snickers, licking the blood from his claw, "you don't taste all that natural yourself."
"How rude." she huffed, "I'm 100% natural, every nook and cranny is all me."
"I guess I'll have to see about that?" he said as he evaporated and lunged at her.
Her robe is tattered by successive attacks, leaving her with claw marks all over her body. Each and every wound started to heal almost as soon as they were made, but the sheer volume of damage she was taking was no joke.
The lykan solidified once more as her latest batch of wounds started to heal.
"You're quite impressive," he says inspecting her recovery, "tell you what; if you surrender now, we could work something out,"
"'Work something out', huh?" Nya huffs, noticing how he was stripping her with his eyes "Is that some sort of code for you fucking me?"
"Please, you're not my type." He scoffed at her remark, "Providence is always looking for talent, and you at least know how to drag out a fight. We'd have to break you in first, properly train you, but I could see you being a somewhat decent peacekeeper in a few years,"
His offer took her by surprise. First he wants to arrest her now he's offering her a job? She's almost tempted to accept but then she sees it in his eyes, the same look of arrogance as the vampires that defiled her body. He pitied her, he looked down on her, he underestimated her. She would teach him what a mistake that was.
She charges him once again, trying to cut at his midsection, but he turned to mist, that was when she creates another spatial distortion, directly in front of her, right in the path of his mist. As he passes over the distortion, she hears his disembodied scream.
His mist condenses away from her, turning back solid, one of his hands is now missing a finger.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" He bellows, glaring at her
"I discovered your phantasms weakness," she said with a confident smirk, "you may disperse your molecules to turn to vapor, but they're still a part of your body. Separate some of that vapor from the larger cloud and you end up with less body than before. I am curious though; if you redistributed the molecules you have left could you get that finger back in place of some other piece?"
"You think you're so smart don't you?" he snarls, as he charges her with his superior physical strength and turns to mist, "let's see how smart you are when you choke to death,"
His mist form completely envelops her before she can concentrate enough to open up a spatial distortion, forcing its way down her throat, and blocking her oxygen intake.
As she chokes, she forces a smug grin as she releases her blood, bursting out of wounds that just opened up across her arms and body, forming into tendrils. The tendrils of blood begin to absorb the mist that covers her and soon she finds her airways unblocked. Once she can breathe normally again, the tendrils of blood recede back into her body, sealing their exit wounds once more. She wobbles a bit but soon finds her footing.
"You don't taste as good as I would've thought," she mutters to herself.
A few moments later, Terror shows up, carrying with him a large briefcase.
"Where's the lykan agent?" he asks
"He's go—" she starts to say, but then she is struck with unimaginable pain as all the blood vessels in her body start to bulge.
"AAARGH!!!" she screams as blood starts to spurt from her mouth, nose, eyes and even ears.
"What's happening?" Terror asks, shocked as she falls to her knees,
"Som…thing's wron- aaaargh!" she screams, "it's not su…posed to… pain-ful."
Lumpy masses start to bulge from beneath her skin, threatening to burst from her inside.
"GET… OUT!" She yelled
Painfully, she vomits, regurgitating more blood than bile, bloody chunks of god-knows-what are also mixed into the blood she just threw up, when she's released a large enough quantity to form as not-very-small puddle on the floor, she collapses, twitching and spasming.
Some of the chunks she regurgitated start to convulse, turning into vapor, they start to amalgamate and condenses into what was left of the lykan agent she was fighting. He was now a horrible mass of deformed flesh and bones, contorted in an excruciating display of agony and suffering. An eye on the mass turned and focused on Terror and a mangled arm reached out as if asking for help. The grotesque thing before him crawled towards Terror for a second, letting out a gargled cry, before keeling over and dropping to the ground with a wet meaty splash. Now unmoving in the puddle of blood.
"What… the actual… fuck?" Terror asked himself as he looks at the bloody thing he hoped had just died in front of him. Not that far from it was the bloody body of Nya Crimson, equally as unmoving, her body was also contorted and she was bleeding from every orifice.
The commotion caused by whatever this was would no doubt have attracted some attention, and he could already hear some people on their way to investigate. He considered just leaving on his own, but then he looks at the woman who was bleeding out on the floor before him, how she had sought to help him… in her own way. He couldn't just leave her to her fate, could he?
"Dammit!" he swears as he makes his way around the mass of flesh and grabs Nya from the ground.
"Your mom was right, Terror. That soft heart of yours will get you killed one day." he chastises himself as he runs down the corridor.
With his speed and clairvoyance, Terror is able to outrun and avoid any would-be pursuers, but they are still in an enclosed space with no hope of escape.
Escape?
His eyes widen as an idea forms in his head, why didn't I think of this sooner?
He looks at one of the service boards and finds what he needs, following the direction until he arrives as corridor with circular hatches along one of the walls.
Using his guest card, he opens one and throws the case and Nya into it the he gets in and the hatch seals itself
"LIFE SIGNS DETECTED. ACTIVATING ON-BOARD SERVICES. WELCOME ABOARD ELEMENTAL QUEEN VOYAGER POD 6."
"Launch." Terror orders as he accesses the controls.
"LAUNCHING IN 3… 2… 1…"
At the side of the ship, a pod the size of a minibus is jettisoned from the hull, the small engines engage and it flies away from the massive ship.