Darlins, my brain...

 Is just not working right at the moment. I woke up with vertigo a week ago* and it's been intense in an on-off way ever since. I'm working on four books for other people and can't skip a day, but it's taking twice as long to do everything :( I'm so sorry, but I need a little extra recovering time before I can kick more ass at Chelen City. I'll do my best to get a chapter to you next week!

*After being kneed in the head in BJJ the day before, which--I'm pretty sure I'm not concussed, I get vertigo a few times a year just for living life, but it probably didn't help :(

Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

 Notes: Sorry there's nothing quirky or funny today, I have huge vertigo and need to be lying down, lol. 

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

***

Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

 

The problem, Elanus reflected two days later on his way to see ex-President Moreno, was that he really shouldn’t be given time to think about things. The more time he took to think about things, the more emphatically he tended to respond. The old Kieron would have said he was “dramatic,” but the new Kieron didn’t because he didn’t remember enough to know that.

That was the memory that pushed Elanus over the edge when it came to the meeting. Kieron is fucked up because of this man. Because Moreno took it upon himself to assassinate his Vice President, who took it upon xirself to find the most foolproof protection out there. And it worked, for xir.

And it almost ruined things forever.

Elanus had taken his revenge on Restaria for that. It was over and done with—too late for regrets, and who would listen anyhow if he wanted to bitch about it? Saying more to Kieron would only burden him, and the girls were too sensitive about it to handle a discussion without getting distracted. Maybe he should design a new ship that had more adult sensibilities, who he could talk these things through with…

Or maybe that would lead to the dissolution of all law and order in this part of the galaxy. It was fifty-fifty as far as Elanus was concerned.

No, he should make do with what he had. But that meant he needed to keep himself in check. He had to rely on his own better instincts to keep from torturing Moreno just because he could, because it was what he deserved after everything that happened with Kieron. So, fine. No torture, but that didn’t mean Elanus wasn’t going to make things hard on him.

He was just going to do that by giving Moreno everything he wanted.

The protests concerning the fallen idol were approaching a fever pitch, with counter-protestors making their presence known at the rallies that were still going on around the capitol building. Caria was calling for peace, promising that while Moreno was in a cell, he was being treated humanely and was attended to by his lawyers. His lawyers, meanwhile, did their best to fan the flames by decrying the lengths that Caria and the rest of the government had gone to to isolate Moreno, calling his treatment “inhumane” while defending his continuation of the centuries-old Elfshot program as “a regrettable oversight.”

As if he hadn’t benefitted directly from seeing the best and brightest taken down in their prime. As if he hadn’t had lengthy discussions with politicians, business leaders, Deysan, about how he could “guarantee” the status quo remained intact as long as he was president. How he would protect them from the innovator, the creative, from anyone who might topple them from their pedestals.

Catie had even found record of a conversation that Elanus himself had been the subject of—“an outlier, the sort of person we need to look at as an opportunity instead of a threat. After all, how could they ever say we weren’t doing everything we could for them when he’s right there, reaching the pinnacle of society despite his…disadvantages?” Restaria was looked at the same way; useful as long as xe was being obedient, a perfect shill for the message that Moreno cared, he really cared.

He didn’t care, not about anyone but himself. He’d had two of his ex-wives assassinated—successfully, not even just threats of death, he’d flat-out tried to kill them until it worked because he was afraid of what they’d say. Two of his three children were also dead, and the third one had left Gania several decades ago. His third wife was fifty years younger than he was, uninterested in children, politics, or any work beyond what it took to keep up appearances, and currently on a luxury cruise around the Central System—paid for by Ganians—that was ostensibly for diplomatic reasons but was mostly a chance for her to have fun with her lovers without flaunting them. She’d been on Moreno’s list as well, once she returned.

The point was, the protests were getting violent, misinformation was everywhere, and without a statement directly from Moreno, nothing was going to get better. Moreno himself refused to give any such thing, content to fan the flames.

Well, fuck that.

“You understand what you’ve got to do?” Elanus asked as he checked in with Fritz an hour before they were due to begin.

“Of course I do,” Fritz said, rolling his brilliant eyes—he’d redone them in gold, they were shockingly visible even across a crowded room now. “You’re talking to someone who got his first degree in theater; I know how to do this. I’m just surprised you got Caria to agree; she’s far more straightlaced than I ever thought before I really got to know her.”

“She’s doing what she needs to do,” Elanus said. “She’s got to present a contrast to Moreno, and the best way to do that is to be a little bit serious.”

“It’s not inspiring, though.”

“No, it isn’t,” Elanus agreed. “Which is why we’re going to perform our little play.”

Fritz arched an eyebrow. “And what does your man think of that?”

“He’s fine with it.”

Kieron, in fact, was not fine with it. He was pretty upset about it, actually, and more upset at the fact that Elanus was keeping him completely away from the entire operation rather than letting him take a role. It wasn’t, Elanus had told him, that he didn’t want Kieron there. It was that “I need you to be safe for this.”

“How would I not be safe?” Kieron demanded. “The only person putting himself in an unsafe position is you, I’d be perfectly safe.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t need to! I—”

“I need you to be safe!” Elanus had shouted. “That means you here, with the girls, in a place where no one can reach you!”

Kieron had stared at him for a long moment before saying, “I’ll stay. This time. But you can’t keep me locked up forever.”

And Elanus wouldn’t, he wouldn’t. But that was an issue for another day.

Today, the issue was getting Moreno to incriminate himself in a way even a fucking idiot could understand. And that, Elanus could see to himself…with a little bit of help from his friends.

Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

Notes: Yay, more Elanus today! He's about to go get him some answers...maybe. I might throw a wrench into the works... ;) 

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One 

***

Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

 

“Catie, show me the feed again.”

Catie complied, piping in the completely unsecure secured feed that connected to President Marco Moreno’s cell. As a man whose empire had just collapsed, whose house of cards had tumbled down in a pile at his feet, Elanus expected to see him mourn. He expected to see him rage. He wanted for him to scream and cry out and suffer, and his expectations were more than met.

Moreno had been elected for a few reasons: first off, he was likable. He projected an air of enticement and affability that could turn the most hardened hearts a bit softer in his presence, like the incredible con man he was. Second, he had the amazing ability to convince people he was doing work for them even when it was clear, undoubtedly and crystalline clear, that he was only working for himself and his cronies.

Even now, after Caria had ousted him and was working with the interim government with complete transparency, there were still protestors who showed up outside the prison chanting his name. Most of them were poor; many of them were xenophobic. Moreno’s wealthy backers had fled, but the embattled lower classes he’d convinced he could elevate (as soon as he got rid of the sick, and the alien, and the over-educated) stood by him to the end.

It was a good thing Elanus had no interest in being a fascist tyrant. Otherwise, it would be so easy to step into this man’s shoes. He knew the right things to say and how to say them; he knew how to appeal to the broad masses, how to give just enough to make himself look like a rich prospect, how to assuage the glitterati and appeal to the poor at the same time. He was afflicted with Elfshot, which made him less of a catch, and was marrying an alien, another tick against him, but enough money could smooth those bumps over. He could do it. He could rule this whole fucking planet, and he could rub his rule in Moreno’s face.

He wasn’t going to, but goddammit he could.

“How badly do you want to punch him right now?” a warm, familiar voice murmured in his ear. Elanus turned to look at Kieron, leaning up close against his chair with mischief on his face.

“So bad,” Elanus confessed. “I can’t even tell you.”

Kieron nodded. “As autocrats go, he’s not the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said, shrugging as he wrapped his arms around Elanus’s shoulders. Elanus welcomed the touch, but there was something about it that sat badly with him too. Kieron before had never initiated contact like this—or he had, but rarely. Not unless he thought there was a good reason it was needed. Kieron now, though, was far more tactile than Elanus had expected.

Had he been this way on Trakta? When had he lost it? Or was he just making an extra effort to get Elanus and the girls on his side again?

Fuck off, you’re already on his side. It was true, Elanus was, but…he couldn’t say he didn’t miss the prickly version of Kieron, either. The one who growled like an angry catterpet whenever you tried to touch him, but eased into your embrace and eventually went pliant under your caresses.

They hadn’t slept together yet. It had been a fucking month, and they hadn’t slept together. Or rather, they slept together but they weren’t having sex. That was longer without than they’d gone even in the very beginning of their relationship, when they didn’t really like each other but were terribly attracted to each other all the same.

Elanus missed it terribly, but there was some part of it that felt like taking advantage. He couldn’t bring himself to initiate it, and Kieron hadn’t either yet, so maybe that was the best way to go for now.

“He’s not as bad as my grandfather,” Kieron went on. “Or maybe my grandfather wasn’t as good as him.”

“Just a different type of violent,” Elanus said. “And they both got overthrown in the end, didn’t they.”

“I suppose so.” Kieron stared at the screen a moment longer, watching Moreno walk across his cell floor with his hands clenching in his hair, then patting it flat again, over and over. “What’s next for him?”

“Caria wants a public trial.”

“That sounds reasonable.” Kieron glanced at his face. “What don’t you like about it?”

“I should like everything about it. Public trials are a cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law.” Neither of which was really in effect here on Gania, but at least with Moreno they could genuflect in the right direction. “But I don’t want to give him all those chances to grandstand, either. Moreno is a shithead, but he’s an eloquent shithead. Caria’s strong and does her best, but she doesn’t have the same level of charisma.”

“True,” Kieron said. “Hmm. Would any assassin take the contract?”

A contract on the embattled president of Gania? Elanus laughed. “Ryu might.” Ryu was mobile again after intense physical therapy, and feeling much sturdier with his new skeleton. He’d been practicing his skills non-stop, to the point that Pol was starting to try and copy some of them. They’d turned it into a game of hide and seek (and kill, without the actual killing) in the girls’ hangars, which was a terrible amount of fun for everyone involved. “He’s pretty upset about everything he had to go through on behalf of the man.”

“So he should be.” Kieron paused. “I don’t suppose he can testify against him.”

“Unfortunately, no. We don’t have that kind of chain of evidence.”

“Is it possible he could walk?”

Elanus considered it. “With a jury trial? It’s not impossible, I suppose. He’s well-liked, and he’s been quick to heap blame on [name] now that they’re presumed dead. Unless we bring xir back, we can’t guarantee anything.” Even with xir here, they couldn’t guarantee Moreno would go down for his awful, inhumane crimes. “And I’m so biased, since so much of the evidence revolves around Elfshot propagation, that I’d never be invited to testify.”

“Mm.” Kieron looked at him again. “What do you want to do, then?”

“I want…” I want to go back in time and shoot this motherfucker through the head before he gets it in his brain to run for office. I want to eject him out of an airlock, cause a fatal flaw in one of his routine vaccinations, take him out of the picture before he becomes an issue. I want to wipe him and his influence off the face of the city, the continent, the world.

I want him dead. “I want to talk to him, I think.”

Kieron nodded. “Lucky for you, you know the interim president. I bet she can get you a meeting.”

“I’m sure she can.” Assuming Elanus wanted one that was above board. He wasn’t convinced of that yet.

After all, if he decided Moreno had to die, it would be easier to see it done unofficially.

 

Skip Day Because...

Hey darlins, It was an "oof" weekend followed by an "oof" start to the week, and I don't have the togetherness to muster up a blog story today. I'm sorry! I know I left it on a cliffhanger (not really, lol, but it would be nice to know what happens next) and I will be back at it next week. One note--I'm going to do my best NOT to rush this. A kind reader pointed out that I've gotten a little hectic with this story, and while I'm excited to finish it, the story itself will be best-served by me going slow and not skipping over the resolutions (or the revolution). So while it'll be fun to start the next one, that's not going to happen for some time. You're stuck with Elanus and Kieron and the girls a while longer! And we'll definitely be reading about them again in the future :)

Pick the next story!

 And now, while I have everybody's attention...

I'm going to do a non-sci fi story for the next one, since I need to collect all the Bonded books in one place, edit them, and get a series bible together. So I need something to do here in the meantime. I was looking through some of my folders a few days ago and found numerous covers that I bought that still haven't found a story home. So let's pick one and go from there!

Chelen City: Interlude: Lizzie

 Notes: A little Lizzie interlude to tide us over before the finale. I couldn't leave her to suffer!

Title: Chelen City: Interlude: Lizzie

***

Interlude: Lizzie

 

He was here again.

It was the seventh time in the past two weeks he’d come to her. The first few times he spoke for a while before finally leaving, and she thought he’d given up after the third one, when he left with [[tears you made him cry you’re a terrible person]] a sad expression. But then he came back.

It would be easier if he gave up.

[[you miss him you’d miss him even worse you liar, you’re even lying to yourself that’s so stupid]]

He’d stopped talking so much. That was fine; she didn’t want to listen to him [[she has every audio file he’s ever spoken in a special place right next to her central cortex where she can listen to the whisper of him]] but even though he didn’t say as much, he still sat down beside her. Sometimes he accessed things on his tab or his implant, but more often he just leaned his head against her hull and kept her company. Not even Pol wanted to keep her company much these days [[you say you’re too busy for him too but you’re not, you’re just boring and angry and sad and no one wants to be around you not even Catie]]

Catie still talked to her every day; in some ways Lizzie and Catie were never separate. Their cortexes were combined so often right now, working for Elanus, that she could practically do her sister’s calculations for her. But she couldn’t, actually, because Catie didn’t do things the same way Lizzie did. She was much better with people, which was why she was helping Elanus handle the media while Lizzie focused on accessing Moreno.

[[make you pay for taking away Kee, I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU]]

She’d already made it so that he couldn’t leave Gania. Apart from the fact that doing so right now would trigger a clause in the constitution that made him ineligible for office and obliged to step down for dereliction of duty, she didn’t want him to escape justice. Elanus would get justice. Elanus was the only one who loved Kee as much as Lizzie di- [[no I don’t love him I don’t love him, I don’t, I can’t, he doesn’t remember me I’m nothing to him so he has to be nothing to me now but I miss him, I miss him, I MISS HIM]]

Thanks to massive infiltration of the identity matrixes at the ports and a black-market bounty on the head of any third party who attempted to exfiltrate the president, Moreno’s efforts to leave had been blocked. And today…today was the day he would fall. Today the presidential mansion was finally going to lose its last layer of digital protection. Some of the pieces had been there for centuries, intertwined with traps and triggers that would do everything from causing a citywide blackout to starting a negative cascade in the stock market. Anything to create confusion, to make it easier for the president to sneak out.

But no. Lizzie had found them all, every connection, every thread, and cut them ruthlessly. Caria Jayde was marching toward the mansion right now, a groundswell of followers with her, the media treating her like the darling Elanus had persuaded them she was. Elanus wasn’t present there, of course; he wasn’t going to be a part of the overthrow and arrest. He couldn’t be.

There were so many crimes to be laid at Moreno’s feet, but the greatest of them were the perpetuation of Elfshot Disease, and the murder of his vice-president. There was plenty of video to back that up, and it had been playing non-stop for the past news cycle. Few people thought to ask about the other person who’d been there with xir, defending xir [[forgetting everything important, all the people who love him, all for that AWFUL FU*(IE*UE(#WE*H)@E>>>>……--------reboot]]

“It’s going to be okay.”

Lizzie’s code blipped. She pulled back from her observation of the march to register the feeling of Kieron’s hand on her hull, stroking gently. Why? Why was he bothering? She was fine, she—

Was trembling. Ripples resounded up and down her hull, little tremors that made her joints flex just enough to buzz in places. She was shivering. Quivering. With…what did she feel?

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Kieron said, rubbing soft circles into her colorful synthskin. It took a moment for Lizzie to realize that her skin had turned gray. She’d been shiny white ever since the accident, reflective and cold and not colorful and bright the way she liked to be—had liked to be [[green is your favorite because its his favorite, you love it because he told you about grass and trees and the color of Zak’s eyes, the same as Pol’s eyes, green green green]] but serious. Firm. Unwelcoming. And now she was gray and trembling, and Kieron was with her.

He didn’t remember her, but he was comforting her. He didn’t know her, he couldn’t love her, but he was still with her. Over and over again, he’d been with her. Come to her. And all she’d done was push him away.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking in there, baby, but whatever it is, please, talk to me about it,” Kieron said, and there was pleading in his voice. “I’m here for you. I know I don’t remember everything about you and about the things we did together, but the love is still there. Every time I think your name, I know I love you. Every time I see you, I feel like my heart’s opening for you. All the things I’ve watched and heard, they all tell me what a wonderful person you are. You’re the best, honey; you’re my girl, and I’m your Kee. You saved my life.”

He leaned his forehead against her skin. “You saved me. You’re amazing, do you know that? I would be lost without you. Elanus would be lost. We’d all be messes if we didn’t have our Lizzie.”

It takes a moment for her vocals to come online. “K…kee?”

He smiled and patted her hull. “Hey baby.”

“Why are you crying?”

“Because I don’t want you to be scared,” he said. “I feel so bad about that, I can’t even tell you. I don’t want you to be afraid or lonely or feel like you aren’t loved, because you are. I love you so much, I swear. We all love you.”

“But you don’t—you—humans love as a result of shared experiences or certain archaic types of kinship, not…not…”

“Baby.” His voice cut through her babbling. “Are we sharing an experience right now?”

She could feel the heat of his forehead against her synthskin. It made her feel cozy. “Yes.”

“Then we have one. And we have way more, too, and just because I don’t remember them right now doesn’t mean they don’t count. They do. They do, so much. I love you, Lizzie.”

“I…”

“You don’t have to say it back,” he told her, then smiled. “But I think you might feel it too.” Where they were touching, her skin had turned grass green. “It’s going to be okay, Lizzie,” he said again, and this time. This time [[maybe he does love us maybe he loves us after all, maybe he…Kee Kee Keekeekeekeekeeeeeeeee]]

Lizzie wasn’t sure what kind of sound she made, but she felt color burst across her skin, and she felt the pressure sensors register Kieron’s grasp tightening for a moment, and she knew.

She knew he loved her. Even though things weren’t the same anymore, he loved her.

And she loved him back.