A Mountain of Information

[Nox]

The Ascenedancy spoke in terms of black and white. He believed the Atharim evil and he had every right to do so. They had hounded him for a while. He was Apollon. The destroyer of worlds, and he was well on his way to dominating it. But that didn't mean he was right. "Not all Atharim are bad. And not all of them are stupid." Nox pulled out his wallet and thumbed to the Atharim database and flipped through the personal files before he flipped into holo mode so the Ascendancy could read the files without having his wallet. He wasn't giving that up. Sage would kill him for losing another one, but it held his life and the only remaining link to the Atharim. His data wasn'ts complete, Sage hadn't finished his scans before he was cut off, but he had enough. "I don't have a problem giving your people what they want, but you will have to sedate me before you try to put a needle in me. Irrational fears and an voilitale darkness aren't going to go well. It's the main reason I left the hospital without being cleared they wanted to stick me again."

Nox pointed at the woman on the screen. "According to her files she studies the monsters." Nox pulled up several scans of Oni and Dreyken and other monsters. "Someone has been studying the monsters. Not all Atharim hunt and kill someone has to tell us how to kill these things. They are few and far between, but her, she knows what the monsters are. She can help. I'm not saying no to you, I will help your scientists. My sister would kill me if I said no to learning the science of why, so yes, whatever you need from me. But I can't be locked up, use me while I am still me. Kill me later if you must but I am me. And I think." Nox pushed up another profile. "He can help me. This is the man who hunted me. If this was his first time channeling in two to three weeks he's going to be sick as fuck. He'll know what he is. But he won't know he can survive, or how he can survive. He only knows that some do. I believe most men who are dogmatic are also selfish. I know I am. I can't say I'd kill a kid cause he could channel, but I've killed men for just as stupid reasons. On my father's orders, but still I did it. Once he learns he can survive. And he learns that his power can help him in his hunt, I believe he'll help. And if he helps me I'll teach him how to survive. - nothing more. I don't want a fucking holding hunting me. Then I'd have to kill him and I really hate killing people." Nox wasn't being aragont, but he knew his capabilities, and against a baby god, the man stood no chance. A simple shield, a weave of razor sharp air around his neck or a fireball could easily end the inquisitors life. Specially one who came at him without the knowledge of his own true power. Nox may fear the Ascendancy, but he didn't fear most others. Most being the key word.

"Your scientists can understand the science, but they won't understand the monsters. They won't know their instincts or their habits. People like Aria and myself who keep notes and records, that's how you figure out behaviors, and part of what's wrong with me is beyond science - at least the kind that is based on fact and outside of the personality. You'll want to throw in a psychologist to understand too. The power is like an addiction. You know this better than anyone. You are the first."

The Ascendnacy revealed his past - though Nox knew some of the tale. And his own tattoo was gone. He no longer was what once had been his only identity, and yet, Nox felt like it still was his only life line. This was all he knew. Nox rubbed at the bandage still on his arm, it was starting to ache again, and he was too far from home and comfort to take another pill. He hadn't even brought any with him. But it was the tattoo that was missing that made the ache worse. "The Atharim are blinded by one man's dream. You say he's dead, but you know he's not. He couldn't have sent the Ijiraq from the grave." Nox smirked. "Not even you are that powerful yet. I won't presume to tell you how to do your job, but the registry wasn't the way to go about making the Atharim feel safe. People who put their name on that registry if no one's like me, they'll be hunted. The shadows are where we live. Bring them home, bring them to you, give me an army of Atharim and I'll clean those tunnels out. But the only way we do that is to make Vaia Plus stop doing what they were doing in the first place. Dorian was investigating. I don't know what he's found, I'm not exactly speaking to him at the moment. But I'll fix that too."

Nox smiled at the offer of a prosthetic. "I could be very terminator like then." Nox laughed. "But normal looking would be good - sans the Atharim tattoo of course. I won't mark myself as them again. Even if you bring them to you. We once used gods as friends, they ended their own lives to save humanity, but we used them one and the same. I don't want to hurt people, but even my father would have put a bullet to my head."

Nox took a deep breath, and that brings me to the last matter. "The Regus was last seen in the Red Light District. I have a friend who has been tracking him since then. He lost in when they went off the grid." Nox pointed to the data stick. "The stick contains the same information." He pulled it up on his wallet to show him. "The Regus is employing masking tech so the cameras can't recognize him, but he didn't count on being seen by the human eye connected to a computer. The still image is exactly what my friend saw. It's grainy and glitchy because I'm told memory doesn't translate well to digital ones and zeros. But the time stamp of the camera footage and the image are the same. Do what you will with the information. And if one of those women surfaces again, my friend will know. And he'll relay the information to me and I can send it to you."

[Ascendancy]

Nox seemed to misunderstand what Nikolai said. The science was only one arm of a war to be waged. Soldiers would also be necessary, but neither could accomplish the objective alone. He wouldn’t expect a soldier to understand the complexities of war. They only cared about the enemy breathing down their neck. Nikolai, though, was a leader, a general, a king, the Ascendancy: one who advanced upon the enemy with every weapon at his disposal, including science. Vaia Plus would be easy enough to handle. The corporations in the Custody operated at the behest of the Ascendancy. A phone call and any number of legal ramifications could cease their operations. It was a little unnerving to think that a private entity may be experimenting on Atharim monsters. If they were, surely others did as well. To what end did they seek? Perhaps Doctor Weston could make a guess. “We’ll confiscate Vaia Plus’ records by the end of the day. Whatever they’re doing, assume they are no longer a major player,” he said. Nik had no idea of the identity of this Dorian person Nox described, but presumably he’d be easy to find.

Nox did bring up a very important aspect of this war, and that was Nikolai was absent the army to fight it. He shook his head in denial. “We cannot infuse an army of Atharim into Moscow. It just can’t happen. There’s no way to know who is and isn’t loyal to the old ways and the old Regus.”

He had the Nine Rods of Dominion at his command: technically eight at the moment. Marcus could replace Jay on the roster while he was being worked abroad. Then there were actual military, trained fighters who would not buckle at the sight of monsters. Vegas could be deployed. Even if they served as a secondary fighting force backing up the channelers.

He looked again at the map. Nikolai’s strengths in strategy served him well till now, but he delegated design of battle to the experts in his command. They would need a grander plan than what they two could devise.

“How many channeling Atharim you trust do you estimate are available immediately?” he asked. The story that Nox’s father would destroy him simply because he was a channeler was not surprising. Nikolai had no greater friend in life than Garret Rahvid, and his flatmate turned his gun on him after he saved both their lives from the dreyken that held them both captive.

As the conversation turned to Armande, Nikolai was unflinchingly stoic. Armande was a survivor, that was true. He was also a master of strategy, and that he walked the streets of Moscow undetected was not particularly surprising, even if it was a little disturbing. He accepted the information Nox offered as readily as he had the maps. They would be analyzed as deeply as any foreign intelligence for insight into the enemy’s plans. Until then, Nikolai had to steel himself against the reminder that an Ijiraq could find them at any time.

[Nox]

Nox nodded at Ascendancy's commands for Vaia Plus. Dorian wasn't going to like most of his work being done for him, but Nox doubted they would keep record of it. Their facility was off site and underground for a reason. They had already fired a man for illegal activities.

But it was the delusion that he thought the Atharim were not an army already in Moscow. "There is already an army of Atharim at your feet, Ascendancy. But they are virtually leaderless. Before I was deemed traitor they were scattered, living in safe houses, before the new Regus was instituted. Even now I don't think they've rallied. You tore their, our, world apart when you revealed our nature. Give them purpose even if you send them away, the registry does nothing but foster fear. I signed only because I was a godling myself. Dorian never signed. He nor his son are on any list. Lists means you get hunted."

And that lead to the trifecta. Trust, channelers and Atharim were not ever going to fit the criteria all at the same time. Nox laughed at the idea. "I can give you two out of the three. I can give you people I trust who can channel, or people I'd trust if they were Atharim, or channel and Atharim, but I can't give you all three. I barely trust anyone to begin with and those who I trusted implicitly I had to kill because she went bad."

Nox used his wallet again and flipped to Li Tan, "This is Li Tan, famous actor turned mystical leader. He runs a dojo here in Moscow from the ads I've seen around. He claims to be ex-Atharim and can teach the fine arts of channeling among the Atharim way. No Atharim will touch him for the same reason regular Atharim don't go after you. Because he's public - people will notice. And if people notice the Atharim are fucked. But he's the only channeling Atharim I know of. Aria had a line on a few others but I never met them. So trust isn't ever going to come into the picture."

Nox sighed. "And there are no channelers I trust - not really. I've only met a handful of them. One, no, both, I'd trust in a fight are already in your employ. Ivan Sarkozy is too goodie goodie cop for me. He'll bitch and complain at every turn about how killing is wrong. But I'm not going to stop and ask the people trying to kill me if they'll come peacefully. And Jay Carpenter I'd trust in a fight, good, bad, or ugly. But he's off in the States doing whatever he's doing." and worrying the fuck out of me but Nox didn't say that out loud. "Most of your so called channelers they don't know how to use their gift as a weapon. It's all tricks and play things. Your nine were trained. Jay was trained, when I met him, he was a soldier first, he didn't even know he could weild the power of the gods. I use my gift as a weapon, it's always been a tool to use against the monsters. You'll need to teach anyone how to fight. Most Atharim aren't going to be using their gift for weapons - that's too visible. I didn't care."

"But there are no Atharim I trust. Not a single one. My sister was the only person I trusted. And I trusted Aria, and now both of them are dead. But any Atharim who understand the true reality of our world will help. They'll work with the devil himself if it means saving the world. I don't have to trust them to know they'll do the job you ask of them. I won't say they won't try to kill you or me in the end, but they'll save the world from the monsters."

Nox sighed. "But immediately? I don't have those connections anymore. I don't even have a headquarters to waltz up into and say hey I'm here come and get me but first hey look monsters."

[Ascendancy]

An army already in Moscow? A twinge of concern rippled his spine, but Nikolai accepted the worry into himself rather than fight it. Faces passed across Nox’s wallet, but if Nikolai recognized any, he did not seem to reveal it. Atharim in Moscow, he knew they scattered like ants when their hill was kicked and leader lost, but he hadn’t known it to be so intense as Nox described. Yet Nikolai was still Ascendancy despite the Ijiraq flung to his form.

“Nox, we are in the same boat. There are no Atharim I trust either, which is why you must understand how I treated you when I first met you,” he said. Aria was witness to their exchange, but she was gone. Only they two knew the history to put memory to tale.

“You came here to tell me about this danger. I thank you for that. Together, we will make sure the people are protected. It will be a coordinated effort. Vegas can guard the largest tunnel exits to avoid spillage into the streets. Homeless live in the undercity. We’ll have to unseat them, which will be ugly. A scene nobody wants to see, especially the aristocratic populace oblivious to what is underfoot. Perhaps some sort of reach out effort,” he waved away the thought. Alexandrova could deal with the public relations aspect of homeless interventions. Maybe they could employ the catholic or eastern orthodox churches to lead the operation and keep Custody name out of the mess.

“As far as killing the beasts themselves, you will need help, especially if you’re overcome in frenzy. Like you said, you don’t seem to trust yourself much these days. Jay is unavailable,” he said, wondering how they knew each other so well. Perhaps some past intertwined?

Nikolai wasn’t one to frequently place himself in the front lines of battle. He wasn’t a soldier, but sometimes even the king took up arms. Nox had the experience, and what little Atharim lore Nikolai possessed he made up for in sheer strength of the power. “So I am going to go myself,” he said, already contemplating the arrangements. Nothing would happen to him, and if the danger grew too real, he’d abandon the pursuit. Perhaps he’d take up a hobby as a hunter after all?

“Before you go, you need a second working arm. Doctor Weston can oversee the prosthesis,” he said.

[Nox]

Nox grinned at the treatment he'd received prior. "And you will have to forgive me for being a little more protective of my self-preservation around you." He chuckled. "I do like my life after all." But the talk turned to strategy which Nox was more than willing to let someone else handle, he was a brute force kinda guy and he worked alone, he'd expected to do this alone but the Ascendancy offered his own services. Nox stared in wide-eyed awe. Almost afraid if he spoke the man would retract his statement. "You'd really trust me enough to wield your power and show me what you know?"

That was trust. As much as there was awe in working with the most powerful man on the planet there was an underlying fear. He'd experimented once with someone else watching, and the fool used the trick on him in the end. Nox would never forget that DuBois had used the shield on him as if he hadn't just saved the Ascendancy. He was doing his job - protecting the innocent. It made his blood boil and Nox realized again his temper was getting away from him. He took a deep breath and nodded. "It would be an honor to fight at your side." He didn't trust himself that much was true. And with the hoard at his heels he was sure to feel it more. And there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the Ascendancy would do as he would - he would kill Nox if he became a danger.

Nox nodded at the second working arm. "At the very least I need to refamiliarize myself with fighting sans arm. But I will see your Doctor,for both. Though, remember if they don't sedate me before drawing blood I'm not going to be responsible for what I do." He grinned as it was mostly a joke, he could keep it together. "There are friends who can help me keep my emotions in check if necessary. I can call him and see if he's free. Whenever the doctor is free. I still want to get in touch with the Atharim. It may not be necessary to fight the creatures, but she can help your scientists. And I feel obligated to help the inquisitor who is hunting me. I should let him die, but Aurora would kick my ass if I did that and all I have left is her memory so I'll honor it. Unless the great and Powerful oz tells me otherwise, I might - might - be inclined to leave it be."

[Ascendancy]

“I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about. The things that can be done under our roof is astonishing compared to the run of the mill hospital, even in Moscow. I doubt a drop of blood will be needed. Readers and scans will likely be the extent of the invasion,” he said.

He nodded in the affirmative to the prior question. What was shared in front of each other would be known from that point on. However, it was likely that they would be too busy to notice much about the nuances of their preferred weaves.

They parted with plans in place to coordinate their infiltration of the tunnels. It would take some time to organize, and each had some tasks to accomplish first.

[Nox]

continued in Getting Attention