"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" Stephan screams, covering his guilt with concern.
"I-I thought she was c-c-closer to you than to a-any of us," inquires Scoot to Stephan.
"He wouldn't have noticed," Viktoria responds, "He was too tired and too scared kissing his bottom to the ground."
Stephan is planning to react violently, but he cannot out of fear of Viktoria. Subduing it, however, is popping his veins full turning his face into a similar color to his scarlet hair.
He gives Lincoln a look and he screams his lungs out blowing his frustration's steam.
"W-what do we do n-no-now?" Scoot asks.
No one has the answer. Instinctively, Lincoln feels that they are going to turn to him, and they do as he looks up at them, clueless on how to mitigate the situation.
"I guess, HE is our only answer," Scoot suggests.
"It would have been easier if we went with my idea," Viktoria repeats.
"Let's hope he can reach out to his brother and not the machine that fought us today," hopes Scoot, but even Lincoln believes it to be bleak.
—————
A cell stands in the middle of an empty room, levels below the ground. A dungeon, so to speak. A torch at the corner is its only source of light casting shadows from the two other entities inside the room.
Birch looks at his brother with unwavering intensity, while his eyes reflect the weight of the day that he carries on his shoulder. Dirkan sits crouching at the end of the cell opposite Dirkan, watching him intently. His eyes are full of wariness.
"Don't you recognize me?" Birch asks, hoping for any reaction, but none comes across.
"Not at all?"
Dirkan stays silent.
Birch gives out a heavy sigh of frustration.
"Brother," Birch's voice pleading, his head against the bars on the cell, "Please, tell me what happened to you."
"I am sorry," he adds, in a soft whisper when still, all he can get from him is silence. His sobs echo in this room where both are in isolation from everyone else along with the pitter-patter of the drops of water that are coming from the ceiling.
Birch does not change his position. He let every tear drain from his eyes, water the cobblestones' that lay as the room's foundation before he decides to look up and what greets him is the towering body of Dirkan, looking down at him.
Birch startles, but his face becomes hopeful.
"I. Am. Trying. To remember," says Dirkan, his speech in fragments. The crack in his mask reveals the pain behind it; the struggle that he is referring to.
"Do you remember me, at least?" Birch asks, again, hopeful that he will.
Dirkan's face is of confusion as he looks at him deeply, and full of intention, but it only brings about more pain. The wrinkle in between his eyebrows grimacing in agony.
"Aaaaaargh!" Dirkan moans that echo to what Birch feels like the entire temple.
Birch's face is clueless and helpless. The concern etches itself into every crevice in his face. His beard is whiter than usual.
"Lincoln!" Dirkan calls out just as he is about to breakdown.
"Who?"
"Lincoln," Dirkan repeating himself, the agony that his body shows is getting worse the longer he spends gawking at him out of pure surprise.
"GET. ME. LINCOLN!" he repeats when he notices Birch just gawking out of frustration, and out of concern.
"Do you remember him?" sobs still calming out of Birch, snot more subtly.
"JUST. GET. HIM!!!!"
————
"ARE YOU INSANE?" Viktoria argues, "You trust him?"
"He is adamant," Birch counters, weak, but, it is all he has.
"It is only to him he will talk to," he adds.
"PLEEEEEEASE," begs Viktoria, "Let me, I will MAKE him talk."
"Torture is still out of the question!"
She groans out of frustration, pacing up and down the room of High Chairs, giving Birch a bad look.
"Torture aside," Scoot, starting a sensible conversation, breaking away from the forceful, and harsh way that Viktoria is suggesting, "What if it's a trap. You see how big the guy is? He can break Lincoln like he was a matchstick. He is even stronger now with those enhancements."
"You are correct," Dirkan explains, "But, I can feel that this is not one of those."
"How sure are you?" Scoot inquires, Viktoria is too much in a rage to talk sensibly. Stephan, on the other hand, sits beside himself, giving no one else access to his thoughts. But the concern is building, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide it.
"Brother's instinct."
"Brother's instinct?" Stephan strongly argues, "That is all? If that is what we are basing everything on, then, my brotherly instinct is telling me that my sister is in grave danger and we don't have any time to dilly dally. Let us torture this piece of cybernetic dog and be on our way."
Viktoria's eyes light up from the background as she hears the support that she has been looking for. Her eyes glare at Birch trying to intimidate the giant, but to no effect.
"Why hasn't anyone asked me?" interrupts Lincoln. Him cutting into the conversation of adults brings the entire room to a standstill; a silence where anyone can hear even the smallest of hushes.
Viktoria approaches Lincoln aggressively, "You dare interrupt a discussion among adults?"
"Well," Lincoln responds, with as much composure as he can muster, "It is I he is asking for. It will be my neck on the line. Shouldn't I have the final say?"
Everyone proceeds to just staring at each other. Eyes shifting from one person to another, afraid to say anything.
"It is true," Scoot considers, staying true to his nature "The boy has a point. Ultimately, it is his decision."
���And lose our one possible hope of turning this entire situation around?"
"There are other ways that we can turn this entire situation around."
Everybody falls silent. You can hear time go by with every passing second. You can hear each one's gears turning in their head, coming up with different scenarios, options, and contingencies. However, Lincoln notices their eyes shifting back and forth from their own space in their head to him.
"For goodness sake," Stephan stands up, his scythe on his shoulders, "If no one wants to say it, I will."
Stephan turns to Lincoln and says tells him, "Talk to him. We have other means of turning this war that we have let ourselves into."
"Stephan don't ---," Birch warns him, but he cuts him off.
"We can't just stand around long. Every second that we waste increases the possibility of my sister dying. If no one is going to be blunt, then I will."
Silence falls in the room.
"What do you say?" Scoot asks.
It is Lincoln's first time to be in the spotlight. All eyes are on him, and he feels the pressure that this is dumping on him.
He takes a deep breath in his mind, and he nods feeling his face contorting into an awkward mask.
Everybody nods back.