Defiance flew at me immediately when it saw I was distracted. The two of us were rocketed into the dark. The light slowly filled my eyes as I felt my senses sharpen. I could feel Coda's words on my skin, crawling through me. "We might be in trouble."
The blades clashed again. This time I could clearly see it in front of me. Near the sparks of the blade was a pair of golden eyes, familiar, yet almost alien with their beauty. Who was that? No, it couldn't be. Coda? But his eyes are blue! As I closed my eyes, as if denying what I was seeing, I noticed the amber glow of my own instead of the darkness that should have been there. I looked down toward little Defiance, now tinted in an apricot color. Everything seemed to be bathed in gold.
Soon my eyes adjusted to their light, bringing clarity to the situation. Coda was locked in battle with a pair of floating obsidian-colored blades that danced like feathers. No man or beast in sight to wield them, they scattered and attacked from any angle. It was as though they were free as the wind. They whipped and lashed around the room until there were no angles they hadn't crossed, all going for Coda's vitals and each being deflected by silver flashes of light. One of the weapons on the wall was missing, clearly the small blade Coda was wielding now had been taken from its resting place, and it wasn't faring well. The nicks and bends in the blade said everything, it was of far inferior quality compared to the ones flying about. And if that weren't enough of an indicator, the steel was bleeding too. No, not bleeding. Melting?
With a howl the blades sped up, each making its move in unison. The whir about us was trying to catch a blind spot. Little did they know they would never catch my Coda. He would surely be the end of anything that sought him out. Defiance had joined in with sweeping attacks as I made my way to his side. We slipped by time to make time. Always one step ahead, and only one step. A dance that only we could do began to overtake the tempo of the blades. I had the feeling he was enjoying this. Literally, it was crawling all over me. It invaded me in ways I didn't know possible, and soon I was just as excited as he was at this challenge. Naive to how much trouble this might cause us in the future, I relished his love for a thrill.
The demon-like assault from the blur of blades became a hurricane of slashes, speeding up in desperation with every dip and dive. The speed would have stopped anyone but us. They even tried going after me a few times trying to catch Coda in the middle. I could feel his warnings crawling on me, even when he was at my back we could move together. Seeing that their strategy wasn't working, the knives started using the walls themselves as cover for their attacks. It almost felt like there were more of them now, but I could only ever see two. Diving into the concrete walls with ease, the blades burst forth and retreated just as quickly as before, trying to find any blind spot they could. How sharp must they be to cut through concrete like a hot knife through butter? To anyone else they'd look like a metallic beam cutting the air.
As minutes passed our breath became heavy, with no means of fighting back we had to keep our senses keen. With time moving for us at less than one hundredth it's normal speed it felt like we had been at this for hours, the cost of moving this quickly wasn't light. I could feel my lungs burning as I jumped away from another plasma bolt and ducked under a blade coming at my back. I could feel the air vibrating and the heat radiating from the blade as it narrowly missed. The debris in the air from all the impacts the weapons were causing was floating in mid air, almost like Coda and I and these weapons were the only things moving. The truth was, we were at our limit. After pushing for so long I could almost feel Coda's grip slipping on the dagger he had. At this point it looked more like a melted Popsicle, burning his hand as it melted with each encounter. Once that was gone we'd be in real trouble.
I reached for a weapon on the wall, but a plasma bolt from Defiance destroyed it before I could get there. I need to move faster. I looked at Coda and saw him trying the same thing in a different area and one of the blades had nearly sliced his hand open. He didn't seem discouraged though. I could feel the tug on my being. Time started to slip for us in reverse just like before with the door. I could see the plasma bolt reforming and the debris going back to it's original place, but I remained moving forward in my time through these events. At just the moment before Defiance and these blades tried to block us from reaching the weapons on the wall we broke through and snatched the weapons, but now time was moving forward in full force.
As the blades were already difficult to evade before, we weren't going to hold out for long. We wasted no time to sacrifice the pristine weapons in our hands to the jaws trying to clamp down on us. As they burned away from each attempted parry and our energy was burned just as quickly, this became a war of attrition rather than a dance.
The blades abruptly started to slow down as well as the weapons we had started to wear out. Without missing a beat Coda kicked one out of the air and sent it off course the second it was moving slow enough for him to retaliate. The blade was sent barreling into a wall, it crossed Defiance on the way and sent it hurtling into the floor with a scar across its length. The AI screeched out in pain as it fell. Defiance tried to stabilize itself with bursts of energy, but soon went quiet as it lay on the ground.
With the blade's alignment off it couldn't cut through the wall and got stuck. The loss of momentum was devastating to the autonomous weapon. The second blade fell to the floor, leaving a deep gash along the already broken tiles. The room was a total mess of holes and debris. Some walls were even on the verge of crumbling as dust and gravel fell at a steady pace. A smile gleamed across Coda's face like the edge of a sword, cutting its way into my heartstrings. His eyes never left the weapon on the ground before him. Even this fierce and unyielding part of him found a spot in my heart.
The night-colored blades fell silent as we caught our breath. "That was lucky." Coda said as he reached out to pick one of them up, but instead froze after seeing the golden light from his eyes reflecting off of the blade. Looking over at me he was even more shocked. "What exactly is going on here?" his startled voice cracked a little as our eyes met. It was cute.
"I was about to ask you. Shouldn't it be ladies first?" A half smile escaped me; I couldn't hold back. "Well..." It seems I put him in an awkward spot. Neither of us had any answers. Before we could question it more, we shifted back to our usual colors and the darkness became thicker again. Our senses dulled and the world felt dangerous again. I looked down and realized I had grabbed onto Coda's shirt without thinking about it. It made me feel a little safer.
Lily stumbled into the room, one arm on the wall and one in front trying to feel her way around. "Guys, are you ok?" she whispered, inching forward. "It got quiet and... Please don't do this right now. Where are you?"
"Here. Lily, over here!" I said as I reached out to her. She shivered when I touched her shoulder. "It's just me." I turned to Coda to see him picking up the blades on the ground.
They fit him like shining armor to a knight, or like an ocean to a sunset. The royal hue and gleam of the hilt contrasted heavily with the silver suits we were wearing, it almost looked silly. Despite my concerns about taking these murder-blades with us that just tried to kill us, it was now hard for me to imagine Coda without a blade by his side. It was as much a part of the image I had of him in my head as were his electric eyes. Sharp and cold, witty and willful. The true edge of a blade matched him well.
Everything about him was drawing my heart toward him, and it made no sense. His form of passion was so different from mine, as I felt my cheeks running hot at the thought of us as a pair. I could tell in my bones. The way he felt for me was gentle, like a breeze, and steady as his hand. All I could feel for him was this bubbling inside tearing me up and it almost didn't seem fair. I wasn't even sure if these feelings were my own, or how I would feel about him if this wasn't our intended fate. Even if they were manufactured feelings, they felt like they could still be genuine. Something about knowing you were made in a jar makes believing in your own free will difficult.
"I don't know if it's a good idea to take those attack dogs with us." I said, a little worried he would put them down and more worried he wouldn't. Lily froze in place. "Attack dogs? There are dogs in here?" Coda looked at her confused. Our eyes had long adjusted to the dim light of the room, but Lily had already spent quite some time catching up with us and didn't even seem to be adjusting. "She's talking about these." he said, holding up the blades and fiddling with them.
"I'm sorry, I don't have night vision. I know you do, but… It's pitch black! Well, as long as it's not an attack dog let's just get back to the other room." She said as she feigned bravery and started hurriedly feeling her way to the room lit with monitors.