Chelen City: Interlude 3: Kieron

 Notes: Time for a Kieron POV! Because he's got a lot to think about, and he's tired of being told to sit in the bleachers and watch the game.

Title: Chelen City: Interlude: Kieron

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Interlude 3: Kieron

 

It was just as well that Kieron had done plenty of research into the most common manifestations of Elfshot Disease, given the ridiculous goddamn person he was living with. Once the acute damage was taken care of, once the girls were soothed and Kieron knew for sure that the house and all its systems were secure again, that knowledge was what allowed him to keep from having a minor breakdown by Elanus’s side in their bedroom.

One would think, for instance, that a stroke brought on by severe overexertion—a bleed in the brain, for fuck’s sake—would be a really, really bad thing. It turned out that it could actually be a lot worse, though. Brains, for all their complications, were actually pretty simple things for Regen to fix. There was no guarantee as to the continuity of memory, but maintaining basic functions while supporting structures to allow it to fix itself were completely common. A brain was way easier to fix than, say, a spleen. Some organs, it was just best to regrow.

So, a stroke followed by seizures—Kieron responded like any trained medic would, got Elanus immediate treatment, then put him in a tank to ensure he was completely fixed up before finally believing the scans and taking him out again. The treatment recommended a little more enforced sleep, so he was kept in an induced coma for another five hours, while Kieron just…

Didn’t freak out, no. Didn’t do anything to worry the girls. Just sat, and stared, and held Elanus’s hand, and wondered how often he would have to do this.

You can’t back out now. And he didn’t want to, but the way he felt watching blood pour out of Elanus’s nose, the blown capillaries in his sclera that made him look demented, the despair he felt during his collapse…that wasn’t something he wanted to experience again. Ever. This was three times now, which was three too many.

They needed to take Deysan’s information on Elfshot and turn it into a real cure. As far as Kieron was concerned, that was the top priority from here on out, next to protecting the girls.

“You okay?”

He didn’t whirl around to confront the man who’d invaded their privacy—it wasn’t like he hadn’t heard him coming down the hall. “Fine,” he said tersely to Ryu.

“You don’t look fine.”

“Neither do you.”

Ryu laughed. “That’s because I’m not. A day ago I was chilling with Catie when all of a sudden the house went dark and she started to scream. Scream. Have you ever heard her scream before?”

“Yes.” That was the first thing he ever heard from her—a scream as she was forced into the asteroid field by Deysan.

“It sucks.”

Kieron sighed. “It does.”

“And then you all came back, and the next thing I know Elanus is hit with a flareup. It’s just a…bad reminder, you know? That we haven’t figured any of this out yet, not my problem or his.”

Right, because what Ryu needed more than anything was to get a real cure so that the inorganic compounds supporting his new, Elfshot-resistant additions weren’t breaking down in his body any longer, while Elanus had the standard version that could be treated with Regen, but not cured. It just… “Why hasn’t this been cured before now?”

Ryu shrugged. “Too hard. They’ve tried everything, from intervention in the womb to genetic resequencing to total organ replacement without support from inorganics. It always fails.”

“No.” Kieron shook his head. “No, that’s not reasonable. That’s not…that’s not how the universe works these days.”

“It is, though.” Ryu’s voice was cautiously kind, like he was trying to talk Kieron down from some sort of ledge. Why does everyone think I’m about to jump? “Think about it—naturals just happen too.”

“Naturalism is a completely unpredictable flaw in the genome that occurs to one in ten million people spread across the entire Federation,” Kieron snapped. “Elfshot Disease is something that only happens to Ganians, and to a huge percentile of them, comparatively speaking. There are minds out there that are equal to the task—there have to be. I refuse to believe it can’t be cured.”

“Then why don’t you convince your boyfriend to take it on?” Ryu snapped right back. “He’s supposed to be a fucking genius—he is a fucking genius, I get that now, it’s no wonder he rose up out of the ranks of the regulars and into the oligarchs—so why doesn’t he work on Elfshot instead of making more super-sentient beings?”

That…was actually a good point, especially since Elanus had the disease himself. “Fixation?” he muttered. “Having to best his mentor at something? Your guess is as good as mine at this point.” Kieron pressed his palms against his eye sockets. It didn’t make sense, it didn’t make sense… “This whole fucking planet shouldn’t work. Everyone is always trying to take advantage of everyone else, there’s no clear sense of hierarchy…”

“That’s only in the upper classes,” Ryu said with a laugh. “Below a certain threshold, there are actual consequences for murderous behavior simply because society wouldn’t be able to function otherwise. That’s part of the grift, isn’t it? The elite get to act however they want, while the rest of us have to obey the rules. Although.” Now it was his turn to sigh. “Having tried both sides of things, I actually think it might be better in this case to be on the low end of things. I liked training as an assassin, but actually having to murder people, even when they’re expecting the attempt, is…not very fun.”

God, he wouldn’t have lasted a week in Hadrian’s Colony. He and Kieron shared a similar, debilitating internal softness that left them vulnerable to all the wrong things. Although…perhaps there was a way forward here. A shared goal that could give them purpose while making use of everyone’s time in the best way possible.

“I think we should find the assassin ourselves,” Kieron said. “You and me. Elanus is too close, he’s going to make himself vulnerable and end up paying for it. We need to go on the offense. You know how to get around here, and I’ve got the means to get us where we need to be.” Or he should, if his access to Elanus’s accounts actually meant anything.

“And what’s Elanus going to be doing?” Ryu huffed.

“Curing Elfshot Disease.”

Ryu blinked. “You make that sound so likely.”

“Oh, I’m sure he can do it if he puts his mind to it.” Or at the very least, he could come up with a way to save Ryu and improve the situation for the afflicted.

“And how are you going to get him to back off finding the assassin? Because he’s going to be even more focused on that than he was before now that someone went after Catie.”

Kieron smiled. “Leave that part to me. In fact, leave the next few days to me—I need you to do something else.”

“I don’t work for you,” Ryu muttered, tugging his sleeves down over his hands.

“True.”

There was a long pause, then Ryu said, “Fine, fucking fine, what is it?”

“I need you to help me play host, and possibly be ready to step in if a fight breaks out.”

Ryu frowned. “Host to who?”

“Some friends of mine.” It was time to start bringing Xilinn and Pol into the fold, before whoever the assassin was got it into their heads to go after them too. Kieron had brought them here to save them, not sacrifice them on the altar of someone’s argument with Elanus. They needed to move in, the sooner the better. “I’ll tell you more after I talk to Elanus.”

Which he would be. Thoroughly.

As soon as he was out of the coma. For now, Kieron just stroked the hair back from his lover’s forehead and sent a soothing feeling out to the girls. He felt better, having made a plan.

Now he just had to get Elanus to agree with it.