Chapter Text
Of course Viper decides to wake up when Tenjian steps out of the room for a few minutes.
He groans. “Can one of you take my collar off? It itches like hell.”
Gibril lightly pulls at a loose hair on her head. “Give me one good reason why I should.”
“Oh no. I am choking and dying,” Viper deadpans. “How will you be able to live with this on your conscience.” He adds fake choking noises to be extra annoying.
“Christ, fine, you big baby. I’ll take it off.”
Gibril unclicks the collar and nonchalantly throws it on the table. She turns to face Viper, and stops. She puts a hand to her chin. “Hmm.”
“What?”
“You look familiar. Have we met?”
Viper purses his lips. Makes a face. Then gasps. “OH! GIBRIL!”
“That’s my name, yeah.”
“You cut your hair! Remember, you used to have a bob?”
Gibril is sporting a pixie cut look. Imagining her with a bob is a bit... unnatural.
“Oh yeah, I did.” Her tone is mildly friendlier. “I swear I recognize your face. Where do I know you from?”
“The correctional facility! In New Mexico, remember?”
“That rings a bell, but I’m not sure I remember you from there.”
Merak is not following.
“You knew a girl named Dahlia. She had anger issues. You bonded over your shared love for loud metal music. She set things on fire a few times.”
Gibril seems to comprehend all of this, but remains unsure. “I remember her. You her brother or something?”
There’s a beat of silence. Gibril’s eyebrows fly up as she realizes.
“OH!! OH SHIT! Holy shit, I haven’t seen you in forever!” Gibril sits down, smiling now. “How the hell have you been doing, Red?”
“It’s Viper now! Especially since we’re both red. You dyed your hair!”
“Viper, Viper.” Gibril repeats to herself a few times. She twirls at a fringe. “And yeah, I did, after I got out. You were right, it does look sick on me.”
Viper preens. “Don’t I know it!”
“I barely recognized you, man. Your voice is so different too. You’re like a whole new person.”
“Hehe. That was the point, yeah.” Viper puffs his chest out. “Thank god for puberty blockers and T-gel.”
“You’re not doing the injections?”
“G, you know how I am with needles.”
“Nothing better to conquer your fears than exposure therapy, y’know?”
“So uh,” Merak interrupts. “Any time you guys wanna fill me in on what the fuck is happening would be great.”
Gibril and Viper look at each other.
Gibril starts. “So Viper is transgender, which means he-”
Merak holds up a hand. “No. No I. I know what a trans person is.”
“Oh. What’s the problem then.”
“Something about a correctional facility in New Mexico???”
Gibril and Viper look at each other again.
“Well. Gibril and I were in a correctional facility. That was in New Mexico.”
“I think it’s pretty straightforward.”
“I didn’t tell you this, Merak?”
“No????”
“Huh. That must’ve been Elise then. Well I was in a correctional facility in New Me-”
“Yeah okay I got that part,” Merak holds up his hand again. “When. Also why.”
“For bein' a delinquent with dangerous powers I guess. I wanna say it was three or four years ago?” Viper looks up at Gibril.
“That sounds right. Similarly I was also a delinquent with dangerous powers. Though I also killed someone, so throwing me in a correctional facility was probably a lot nicer than what I deserved.”
Merak makes a slightly strained, confused noise of “huh??????”
“Abusive father,” Gibril says. “Don’t worry about it.”
Merak did, in fact, worry about it. But he seems to be the only person who reacted to what she just said. Maybe the commander of Sumeragi's private army has no room to talk. Merak doesn't know.
...Former commander? Does he count as the commander if he doesn’t command but Nova hasn’t fired him yet?
“Anywho, me and Gibril were in there for about six months. Eventually we decided we couldn't take it anymore and rallied a bunch of the other kids into a jailbreak operation. G and I snuck onto a flight to Japan after we got out. Then we roamed the streets of Okinawa for a week before getting separated.”
“Is that when you met your boss? That Nova guy or whatever. How’d that go?”
“Right, yeah. So after that I came across Nova. My memory’s fuzzy, but I think he offered me a job and I told him to fuck off. Then he beat me in a fight.”
That was easy , Merak thinks.
“Did you... join Sumeragi because their boss beat you in a fight?” Asroc speaks after what feels like an eternity of silently watching them.
“No, though I do have major respect for people who can kick my ass,” Viper clarifies. “I thought about it some and realized it might be better to have a paying job, if he was offerin', rather than fighting for my life on the streets. There's not a lot of people willing to hire a guy who can blow shit up. But I remember what really won me over was the song.”
Gibril laughs. “What, did he serenade you or something?”
“No, it was a song by this Lumen girl. It was so beautiful, I'd never heard anything like it. Nova had mentioned something about Lumen being involved with Sumeragi, so I thought, hey, why not. Maybe I'll get to meet her, or something.”
“Let me get this straight. You joined Sumeragi. Because you wanted to meet a girl.” Merak finishes slowly.
“Ehhh, it does sound kind of stupid when you put it like that. But I guess so. I don't remember the song though, oddly enough. Like, I know there was a song I heard, but I don't remember the lyrics or the melody or anything. You never heard of Lumen, Merak?”
“I remember Nova mentioning her a couple of times. I tried looking into her in the database, but they have everything about her under lock and key. Said it was only accessible to Diva Project members, whatever that is.”
“You didn't ask Nova about it? He probably would've let you see it,” Viper says, sounding disappointed and a bit jealous.
“Well Viper, the thing is that Nova assigns me work on a need-to-know basis. So when I come across something I can't access, what I usually do is go, "well, that's none of my business" and move on with my life. Nova knows that I work best when I don't have to worry about shit that's not strictly a part of my jurisdiction.”
Teseo jumps down the stairs. “Who's talking about snooping in database files?”
“Did you find anything?” Asroc asks.
“I did a brief scan but didn't see anything sus. I'm running a more thorough scan right now. Just came down here cuz I was bored.”
Asroc shifts in his seat. “Does that mean I can get up?”
“Shore thing. Do you need any help in the kitchen?”
“I should be fine.”
“Asroc, hold up. Teseo, you too.”
They both turn to look at Gibril. Teseo hums and Asroc silently raises his eyebrows.
“Need you two to look at something for me.”
Gibril snatches Viper’s collar off the table and hands it to Asroc, with Teseo’s head resting on his shoulder. They examine it for a bit, but find nothing unusual.
“Looks like a regular spike collar to me,” Asroc says.
“Ooooh wait I think I get it. Azzy, the inside.” Asroc turns the collar to look at the inside. Teseo points. “See, by the spike in the middle?”
“...It looks like a chip.”
“Earlier I took his collar off and felt something metal that wasn’t the spikes.”
“That’s a little strange,” Asroc observes. “We figured if anyone were being tracked, it would be Merak.” Teseo takes the collar out of Asroc’s hands and fiddles with it.
“I’ll take a look at it later. Thanks Gibs~” Viper watches as the collar is digitized and disappears into thin air.
“My collar!!” He whines.
“I’ll give it back. Pinkie prommy”
“And if he doesn’t I’ll just give you one of mine,” Gibril adds.
“The girl might have a chip as well,” Asroc tells Gibril. Teseo unglues himself from his friend and heads to the couch where Merak is.
“I didn’t see her wearing any jewelry. I’ll check though.”
“Thanks,” Asroc says, flashing a thumbs up. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
“And I’ll be here while I wait for my scans.” Teseo moves to sit down, then abruptly stands back up with a yelp.
“Aaaahhh why is the couch freezing!!”
“Tenjian was sitting there earlier,” Merak says, too late to make a difference.
“Warn a guy next time, dude!” Teseo sneers. He grabs a pillow from the floor and puts it on the couch, then sits. “So what’s happening. Are we hiring this one too?”
Merak grimaces. “I hope not. I was here first.”
Teseo snorts. “Oh my god.”
“What?”
“Is widdle Mewak being possessive~?” He pokes Merak’s cheek.
“One.” Merak shoves Teseo’s hand away from his face. “The word is territorial. Two, fuck off. Three, go to hell.”
“You two seem cozy.”
They both freeze and look at Viper.
Viper seems to pick up on their confusion. “I mean, if I poked Merak like that he would slap me.”
“Well, yeah, that’s because...“ Merak begins to explain, then trails off. “You’re. You.”
“The hell does that mean?”
“You’re annoying and get on my nerves,” Merak clarifies.
“Haven’t you told me I'm aaaaalso annoying and get on your nerves?” Teseo lilts.
“I mean yeah, but you’re. You? I don't know.” Merak’s not entirely sure if he can explain this with words.
“Tes just has some weird psychic nerd connection thing going on with Merak I think,” Gibril explains.
“You mean we’re friends??? Can you talk like a normal person.”
“You first.”
Viper’s face visibly contorts into confusion at the bishops bickering. Merak relates.
Gibril clears her throat. “Right, uh. Viper, this is Teseo. Teseo, this is Viper. You missed the debrief earlier, but long story short is Viper’s an old friend of mine.”
“Oooooh, fun.”
Viper blinks at Teseo. “And this is your...“
“He’s like my coworker and shitty little brother.”
“Gib’s my coworker and shitty little sister,” Teseo parrots.
Gibril snaps. “Hey! Just because I said it doesn’t mean you get to!”
“The crazy thing is that I’m literally older than you so like, yeah I can.”
“Nuh-uh,” Gibril says.
“Yeah-huh,” Teseo says.
“You literally don’t remember your birthday,” Gibril reminds him.
“Don’t need to lol”
“YEAH-HUH?”
“NUH-UH.”
“Okay children, let’s settle down,” Merak says, annoyed. During their squabble Gibril had leaned into Teseo’s space, which prompted Teseo to lean back into Merak’s space and burst his bubble.
“We’re both older than you!” Teseo and Gibril say in unison.
“I’m older than all three of you so that means I call the fucking shots around here,” Viper pipes up from across the table.
“Nuh-uh it doesn’t you’re literally a hostage.”
“This is our world and you’re living in it.”
“Damn. Literally 1984,” Viper says.
“Not quite what happens in that book.”
Tenjian had strided in at some point. Zonda, by his side, waves.
“I hate to interrupt,” Tenjian lies. “But I would like to get some information out of our currently conscious guest before the sun comes up.”
“Dude, I’m fucking beat. Can we do this tomorrow.”
Tenjian pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.
They did end up waiting until tomorrow. Viper was content sleeping on the couch. He honestly didn’t try to get them to untie him until Gibril mentioned going to the bathroom, to which he said “good point, I hadn’t thought of that”. Tenjian didn’t trust him to be down here unrestrained, so Gibril was tasked with getting her blanket and pillow and sleeping on the opposite couch. Elise hadn’t woken up.
Viper sleeps with his jacket over him like a blanket. Gibril clings to a stuffed cat. Asroc remains busy in the kitchen for the next hour or two, doing one final check on Elise before quietly slipping up the stairs to his room. Everyone else had retreated to their rooms for the night and hoped the world wouldn’t implode while they rested.
Having no tech to keep him busy, Merak went to bed immediately. Teseo was similarly wiped, so he ended up sleeping too. The lights were off. Teseo’s scanners were still active, bright and almost blinding lights in the dark. Merak could physically feel the melatonin count in his body going down.
He smacks a pillow over his face to try to shut out the light. It’s fucking annoying and he needs to ask Teseo for an eye mask.
He thinks about his Glaive, sitting in Teseo’s closet. He really hadn’t considered what would happen if he just up and left.
What were Viper and Elise going to do when morning came? Would they succeed in dragging him back, or would they stay? If they stayed, would Nova give up, or would he send more reinforcements? It’s hard to imagine Nova losing potentially two (three?) of his hands and deciding to cut his losses and give up. Merak doesn’t want to go back. He really doesn’t. But he’s started to think maybe he should, if his presence here was causing problems.
Merak believes Tenjian when he says he cares for him and wants him to be safe. And reluctantly, he believes the rest of Eden when they imply to share the sentiment. He trusts them. Teseo’s done so much for him, too. It’s easy to forget, when he’s awake and talking Merak’s ear off about shit that doesn’t matter. But when he’s unconscious, when there’s nothing but comfortable silence between them, Merak realizes. He’s a pain in the ass, but he cares. A lot. He wouldn’t be here without him.
If Merak left, Teseo would probably be sad. He thinks it might upset all of them, to an extent, but it would affect Teseo the most. He feels in his gut that, after everything Teseo’s done, up and leaving him wouldn’t be right. It would hurt Teseo’s feelings in a way that Merak isn’t comfortable with. But it might be better.
He wants himself safe, obviously. But he wants Teseo safe too. And his family.
And he might have to choose.
Huh, he cares about them.
Social worker from the nurse’s office who said he “struggled with forming meaningful connections with other people”, eat your fucking heart out.
Merak turns over in bed.
Sometimes he wishes he was never born with this piece of shit power. The scant good it’s served him doesn’t compare to how it’s made his life worse on the whole.
It’s too early to think about this. Or late. Whatever.
He curls in on himself. Thinks about Teseo asleep above him. Thinks about the rest of them, asleep in their rooms, or asleep downstairs. Remembers that he is safe. For the moment, at least.
He falls asleep.