12 Miles Below-Chapter 66Book 8 - - Negotiations with a Weasel

“Winterscar.” To’Avalis started the chat like a perfect gentleman.

Considering we had taken over his body, killed him a few times over now, with Wrath’s kills included, and generally broke down his team into atoms, he could have sounded a lot more pissed than what he sounded like right now.

I answered him back with all the due respect to an adversary that’s been constantly at my throat for the past few months now: “Avalis, old buddy, how’s it hanging?”

On my heads up display, I saw the Icon sending me a text message: Attempt to recover some intelligence on his movements. That he has contacted you now as the machine army is collecting for a push on this citadel means he is here in relation with these movements.

The Icon had been planning the defense all around the world, and that also meant she was preparing the defenses here. It felt nice to have our own golden age AI on our side to fight back with. She was getting better by the minute, actual combat experience from the past nine hours all over the world had seriously sharpened her tactical skills.

I swapped the channel for a moment, “Don’t think he’ll be dumb enough to reveal his plans, but I’ll give it my best shot. But knowing him, I’ve got my bets that he’s after his old body. Maybe he doesn’t think it’ll survive this fight and wants it back before we get a few scratches on it. Could get some good concessions out of him for that.”

He did have some issue with To’Aacar’s programming deep within his currently looted shell, according to what Wrath told me. Trying to inhabit someone else’s hardware was not quite the seamless thing for machines.

“Any additional information can be used, Mister Winterscar. I will be monitoring the line.”

I hummed, and swapped back to Avalis. “So, any exciting plans this weekend?”

“Spare me your jokes.” He answered back, rather rudely I might add. “I’ve been handed supreme authority over the machine empire in crushing the little hovel you call a fortress until you are chased out of it.”

Well, now the Icon and I both know who was in charge of today’s entertainment. “Oh, congratulations on the promotion. Must have had a lot of solid wins under your belt to climb up that high. I thought you were contacting me to try and wiggle your body back with some well worded begging and pleading.”

That definitely got under his skin. I could tell just from the tone in his voice.

“Mother knows I am the only Feather who’s survived repeated encounters against you. I am the best equipped to lead an assault with you stationed at the heart. You shouldn’t be surprised I was given this task, Winterscar. I am more insulted you thought I wouldn’t.”

“Well, last time I saw you, you were labled as unneeded, and scheduled on the chopping block. Which, knowing Relinquished, could be a lot more literal than just the human saying goes. A public execution for fun seems right up her method of operation. So to see you now in charge of just about everything… something change? You fixed up that winning smile on To’Aacar’s face and slipped a nice bit of bribery? I know your face must have been pretty hard to fix, good work. Don’t worry, I can keep a secret.”

“Nothing changed and your insults remain ineffective. I have one more chance to bring you to heel. I will not fail that. That. Is. All. I am here to reduce possible difficulty, despite predicting your cooperation in all this comes at a very low chance.”

Another text arrived from the Icon. Voice modulations are erratic. No filters have been detected. He may be unstable and less shackled than prior encounters. Attempt to convert into a double agent?

That’s going to be a tough one to swing, but my head came up with a possible direction: Survival.

To’Avalis, above all other things, was a survivalist. I just didn’t know if his need to stay alive past all of this was higher than his base programming to remain loyal. Time to find out. “I can applaud the work ethic and blind optimism that you’ll pull a win. Sure worked all the other times you came swinging for me. Sounds more like you’re being thrown to the wolves.”

“Your implications fall on deaf ears.”

“Let me be more direct with you then. Maybe consider doing what To’Sefit did and swap sides? Wrath bakes cookies on friday and we’ve been talking about setting up bingo nights on saturday. Could be fun on team Humanity.”

“No.”

That might be on me, I’m not exactly being very convincing with my words here despite the Icon’s well reasoned request.

That said, I’m not exactly surprised my good intentions have once more failed me, which meant I should just follow my bad intentions more often: “We seem to be at an impasse then here, because I’ve got more than enough firepower to eradicate you if you show your face around this biome. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing you again. That’s a threat by the way.”

Avalis ignored me completely. “Step outside the citadel, and I will redirect the entirety of this army away from your friends and family.”

“That’s what you called me out here for? I thought you were a little smarter with your deals.”

“I wasn’t done. I will lead your entire clan into the location I planned to use myself to survive the pale lady’s notice. I guarantee to directly protect and safeguard all current living members of your clan and leave all required teachings and instructions for their descendants to continue safeguarding themselves under their own skill and ability. Your deathless is an exception as he will never die, I offer fifty years of coverage for him in specific.”

Ah, there’s the good old Avalis I remembered. “Let me guess, in exchange for all this quite generous and purely altruistic change of heart on your end, you want me to just throw my blade and weapon down and die in a ditch somewhere?”

“No. I do not ask that you even surrender. Fight to your last breath, or escape further into the world, do as you will. So long as you leave the citadel behind, I will consider your part of this contract complete and will start the process on my end. You may even leave with as many soldiers as you wish to waste, my offer is strictly for you and Urs to leave your current location. Reducing the difficulty in defeating you even slightly is perfectly worth spending a few decades safeguarding some random humans. Time is nothing to the immortal, and I remain neutral about humanity’s eradication or survival. On the other end, you guarantee the survival of your clan in taking this offer.”

That did tell me the Citadel and the defenses here were going to be a problem for him, if all he wanted was for me to step out. “I’m sensing another catch here.”

“I offer this deal here and now, and once this communication between us ends, there will be no other negotiations allowed. Make your bargains now, Winterscar. I am the only machine your kind will ever be able to negotiate with. Do not waste this chance.”

“I’m much more one of those ‘winner takes all’ type of guy, you know what I’m saying? Wrath would call me greedy. Plus, seems like with the end of the world happening right now, I’d rather just go all-in. But I’m not an unreasonable person, what are you offering in exchange for not completely killing you when I do see your face around these parts?”

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“You will come to regret this.”

“Will I? See, the neat thing about dying in a blaze of glory, is that I can’t really regret anything when I’m dead. Don’t worry, you’ll understand first hand yourself soon enough if you keep going in this direction.”

There was a deep sigh on the other end, of someone who’s plans just refused to work out for him.

“I will make one last attempt. The Pale Lady wants you and Urs. All other humans are side objectives that she does not care for. You could save them here and now. Are you willing to throw away a guaranteed chance of their survival on a theoretically uncertain victory?”

“And here’s the difference between us Avalis. I like to gamble. But are you willing to take the gamble on your end? If I catch you, I’ll kill you just the same as you want to kill me. This is your last chance to make a deal for your own life here. Swap sides or run off to hide from Relinquished, and I’m not going to come chasing after you once this is all said and done. You already have a little sanctuary setup to hide from her, use it.”

“Not possible for my own use. The location remains hidden from her sight, but I do not. I have the unity fractal in my chassis, and I’ve seen what Mother has done to Feathers she preferred over me already. Not a single one of them was left alive. And I would have been equally gutted if not for my tenuous connection with you in the one arena she’s compelled to follow.”

“Right, right. After us fighting a few times, you’re the closest thing to my nemesis that there is. Here’s another way to think about it: Doesn’t that mean that only I can kill you? If Relinquished squashes you, it’s ending your story early without any real resolution. Think of it from her point of view, she’s throwing you at me to either see you killed or get one more shot at me. We could work this angle out together. Maybe you retreat to your sanctuary and start a training montage on your end to get powerful enough to fight me, even if we both know that’s completely doomed from the start. I’m too good looking to be killed.”

Avalis was a smart Feather. I had no doubts he’d already done his due diligence with how Relinquished operated. Wrath had discovered her trove of romance and epics directly in the machine archives for a reason. All of that was what Relinquished was trained on.

So of course he’d probably also found the same archives and read through the entire thing.

And what more narratively interesting twist than the whole ‘two enemies secretly working together to remain alive’? Even if Relinquished knew what we were doing, she’d still need to come up with another twist of her own to bypass her programming and squash Avalis the ‘correct’ way.

“Attempting to circumvent Mother’s base programming is a losing proposition.” Avalis answered instead, which dashed my hopes. “You do not understand Winterscar. She is active. Fully awake and lucid. It is better to consider her having been almost dormant these past few centuries waiting for this moment. She has been hiding her true abilities this entire time. She’s aware of her limitations and has long since learned to work around the confines of her programming. That Tsuya was eliminated without any defenses from that angle is merely an example. She will easily work out a new storyline angle that will have me killed off. No, there will be no truce or alliance between the both of us. I fear her far more than I fear you. She is unstoppable. You are not.”

“Hitting me right in the ego, low blow Avalis. Guess I can’t be too upset we’re getting one last confrontation in the end, you and me.” 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“You think I’ll even fight you in person, Winterscar? After all you’ve been reported to have gained since our last encounter? Don’t make me laugh. I will throw an entire army at you before I even show my face in the field. I know better.”

“But you will show your face eventually. You don’t have a choice. Don’t forget. Narrative weight is the only reason you haven’t been crushed by Relinquished right now. What is she going to do to you if you don’t show your face for one last one on one fight between us? I’ll give you a hint, it involves said crushing.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, likely mulling it over. “I see there is no means of reaching an accord between us. So be it. I will collect your severed head after I have razed this entire citadel to the ground and melted any soul fractal you might attempt to hide within. Your eradication will be total.”

“That’s a shame. But don’t beg for your life later, Avalis. I’m serious that this is your last chance to come up with a better plan than trying to kill me for the third time. Hasn’t worked for you till now, and I’ve only gotten stronger since then. You’re very well aware of that.”

That was true too, look at me now: Now I was the one throwing out death threats like the final boss.

The line went dead. He didn’t bother even saying goodbye or throwing any last ominous wording, which was ominous in its own right.

“An interesting Feather.” Urs said, still hooked up to my back and listening in. “You have history with this one”.

“An extensive amount according to his armor’s logs.” The Icon added.

“Don’t even get me started on that toaster.” Cathida added. “I’m the one who recorded all those logs.”

“Yep, we go way back.” I said. “Plenty of mutual attempts to kill one another, but between the two of us, I was better at that than he was.”

I also had a strong hunch this would be the last time. Either he killed me for good, or I killed him first. And if he tried to run this time, Relinquished would probably both be free to do it for me and more than happy to.

“Was antagonizing the Feather like so necessary?” Urs asked.

“Yes.” Cathida said.

“Yes.” I also said at the same time. We had strong opinions but in pissing off Feathers, both of us were on the same page.

“Interesting. In my time, Feathers would take it as a challenge and their next confrontation would include more tricks and strategy.” Urs said. “Talen and I found it easier to handle them if we treated them with some measure of caution and respect.”

“Well first of all, that’s how I speak to any Feather, so like I said before: Yes, for personal reasons. And second of all, also yes, but for actual planning reasons. Remember what you asked me to get you? Avalis will be the one for that, I don’t think any other random Feather we fight will work for that plan. And lastly, the Feathers of your time were on another league compared to the likes of To’Avalis. Makes sense you couldn’t make fun of them the same way.”

They did end up being called Protofeathers for a reason. Every Feather after was a shadow in comparison.

It really was a ladder of power out here. The machine army itself could be fought with conventional weapons, which would fail against Feathers.

Feathers would then get beat down by the Occult. And now that would hit a wall against Relinquished.

She had to be beaten by abusing her nature against her. Urs had a good plan, but it required one core ingredient: Actually getting Relinquished to show up on the surface. And to do that, we had to force her to move there like a chess piece.

There were a few different options, but the one I was banking on would need Avalis. “I need to get him out on the open field here. If he hides away, it won’t work out and we’ll need to figure out another way to get to her.”

Avalis was correct with one thing: Relinquished was a lot smarter with moving around her constraints. Which means I needed to play this correctly to leave her no other choice than to be up there on the surface. Enemy chess pieces like Avalis were my direct line of attack for this.

“I see. Then, you are creating a verbal trap for him in order to force him onto the battlefield?”

“Yep. If he tries to hide now after everything I’ve said to him, Relinquished will be free to squash him. She’s without a doubt listening in to all this, and I was serious when I said the only reason he’s still alive is because I’ve got the right of way here in killing him first since I’ve fully acknowledged him as my nemesi-”

“The enemy is here.” The Icon said all of a sudden, “Prepare to repel boarders.”

A siren started to blast out in the room, and I saw Titus turn his old eyes to me. “The pillar heart has powered off. The scouts are reporting massive movement on the enemy front. They come.”

The knights around me drew blades out, and so did the crusaders, getting instructions from the Icon.

“He doesn’t keep us waiting at leas-” I half-said and immediately dove out of the way as the ghost outline of a Feather flew right through the ceiling, hand reaching out to grab me. I then had to dive three more times, as another three attempts on my life were made, all by different Feathers flying through the walls like ghosts.

At the same time, sounds of combat started up everywhere in the Citadel. Waves of occult rippled out from the courtyard, rifles and explosions came everywhere, and blade on blade clashes. Shouts and screams started up in the hallways, and right around me the knights instantly started a small war against invaders all around.

My HUD showed me more notifications, including one that made my stomach drop:

Connection to User: Icon; Lost. Communications interference detected.

From my soul sight, I could see the lower level under my feet, and what was going on top.

Feathers. Everywhere. Lessers were equally pouring in right after, trying to choke up the hallways.

The span of land between the Citadel and the machine wave would have greatly slowed down any attack.

So To’Avalis decided he’d skip that entire part entirely: He had opened up portals directly inside the Citadel and launched his army through those.