The Great Nate Exchange

I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

Well, there's no point wasting time about it, is there?

Equally, though, Ronin has absolutely no intention of making this trade anywhere near the Tower where all the unpleasantness took place. And so they agree on the Righteous Road - still within Stormbreak, but out of sight and earshot of any innocent civilians still trying to piece their lives back together.

He's not an animal, so he has ensured that Nate's body is wrapped carefully and borne on a stretcher that lays upon the ground some ways behind him (much as he might have wanted to roll it in a carpet and sling it over his shoulder). And with his end of the bargain in tow, there's little else to do but wait.

RONIN

And if the sky grows heavy
Wrap your arms around me tight

Depending on how well you know Remi, it might surprise you to learn that on this, the moment before the Great Nate Exchange, he's quite calm. Though he might have been a manticore, a wraith, a kraken large enough to block the gates or snatch a dragon from the sky, instead he's just himself; his most terrifying shift of all.

Standing at Ronin's side with his chin straight and eyes waiting for movement, the Lullaby rolls his shoulders comfortably and takes a deep breath. Even when the trio arrives to reclaim Wessex's body, it will be as though Remi hardly sees them. For all his familiarity with Isla, he'll hardly look her way. As for Sunjata or Wessex? He'll just be waiting for even the slightest bit of fuckery before unleashing the starbolts that vibrate in his palms.

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

I will stand by you forever; you can take my breath away

Wessex has most carefully wrapped and buried the Knowtbook somewhere in the Grounds before she leaves with Jata and Isla, wanting to leave as little to chance as possible. She suggests they portal to Torchline and then fly the rest of way -  mostly because the Grounds to Stormbreak is just too damn far. Spending most of the shorter flight as a kitsune to minimize the weight Jata has to carry, she only shifts back as the cliffs and stone arches of the city come into view.

Stormclouds darken the Wraith’s pale face as she radiates a reticence and stiffness that she hopes screams I don’t want to be here. She waits for Isla to dismount and then follows at her side, letting the Remedy do her diplomatic thing. When the time for exchanging comes, for the first time before anyone other than her Goddess, Wessex kneels on the cobblestones and bows her head forward. “Go on,” she says aloud to Isla, pointing to a spot on her spine, just where the cervical and thoracic vertebrae meet. Make it messy. And take as long as you need.

WESSEX

leaving well enough alone is no choice of yours to make

guilty says the proof, this town has no room for you

He doesn’t pick the dragon shift – he hopes for obvious reason. The fact that despite their little deal in the works, the last thing he imagines Stormbreak’s people wish to see is yet another dragon looming on the horizon. So the Pegasus it is, with Isla settled atop and Wessex in her Kitsune form to help keep the weight from being unbearable the rest of the trip. It’s a trip that he’s been waiting for and is surprisingly sober enough to take.

Likely because without the threat of the meeting at any time, Sunjata’d be nose deep in a bottle by now.

Regardless, he doesn’t plan on talking much. He’s here to get his husband, that’s it, nothing more. So he lands, tucks his wings in the second that Isla has hopped off his spine and Wessex to follow shortly after, before Sunjata shifts back into himself – brought to his full height with eyes solely on the wrapped body on a stretcher. His jaw tightens, frown lines forming further, hands moving to clasp behind his back to pretend to be ever the image of calm yet hiding his fists to hide the tremble that settles there.

And then he waits.

so look out, i fear they follow near

from the gallows you'll swing for all the kids to see

Four demigods and a field medic. Isla has the feeling that she'll be the one excluded from that particular tale in the history books, should the time come. She dismounts the pegasus with a murmur of thanks to Sunjata, straightening up and smoothing out her clothes. Flanked on all sides by battle hardened warriors, all scar tissue and muscles and mighty cosmic powers, Isla is positively dainty in comparison. Her eyes land only briefly upon Remi before they return to Ronin. She wants to ask what he's doing there, given that he is leader of the Greatwood and not a part of this. But he is a part of this, and the reminder she gives herself is stern, but quick. "A ceasefire," she says, sparing the greetings. "Between Stormbreak and the Hollowed Grounds. We cannot stop our people from fighting outside of our regions, but we do not let the conflict breach our borders." Just to make sure they're all on the same page and all that. "And Wessex's splashback upgrade, in exchange for Nate's return." So saying, she turns to the Wraith as she kneels - and it isn't a position she takes lightly. How lucky that I happen to have a healing upgrade, she quips, reaching out to begin the process. Her fingers become skilled scalpel blades, and though the Remedy certainly is talented at surgery, this particular upgrade does not come easily, even while making a show of it. A spray of fluid speckles her face and the front of her clothing (so much for dainty), and its with a fair amount of adjusting and repositioning that she finally frees it from Wessex's vertebrae. "And you can of course test it, to make sure that it is gone," she finishes, turning to hold it out for either Ronin or Remi to take in all its gruesome glory. ISLA pray for me pray to me

I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

Remi's calm is appreciated more than Ronin expects, especially as their guests arrive. It's the season to blame and he knows it, but it doesn't stop him from wanting to set Isla ablaze as her eyes land on his husband, and a shiver of dragonscale shoots down his spine from the nape of his neck. Swallowing hard, he gives a curt nod as she proceeds with the upgrade extraction. Sunjata barely receives a glance, but the surgery is something he watches with unabashed satisfaction.

"Agreed," he murmurs, reaching out to take the upgrade as it's offered, holding it in one hand, dripping fluid and circuitry and all. And then, a wordless nod at Sunjata, as if to tell him to go ahead and grab up Nate's body. "Whenever you are ready," he says. It's not to Wessex directly, because he's feeling petty, but at the same time, of course it's directed at her.

RONIN

leaving well enough alone is no choice of yours to make

guilty says the proof, this town has no room for you

He didn’t want to speak during all of this, but he can’t keep his eyes away from where Isla starts to work on Wessex – when he finds out he’s in the splash zone of the fluid range that leaves little specks of opalescent sheens on his clothes. He grits his teeth, muscles feathering in his jaw as she pulls the upgrade from the Wraith and watches as it’s offered to Ronin. He catches Ronin’s gaze, the nod that tells him to go and collect Nate’s body and he has to take a calming breath.

So he does, stepping forward toward the body in the cloth, moving first to uncover his husband’s face – partially to ensure that it is Nate and partially to see how bad the damage is. The first thing he notices is the missing eye, yet again, a third time – and he swallows down the pang of anger that he feels curling in his gut. He doesn’t know what happened to it, how it managed to disappear yet again, but he does end up covering his husband’s body again, slipping his arms underneath to draw the Ascended demigod to his chest, stepping out of reach of Ronin and Remi and back toward Isla and Wessex where he leans into Isla’s space. “His eye is gone.” He tells her flatly, because he imagines she can be far more reasonable about it than he can.

And he positions himself in a halfway sort of view, Nate’s head slumped against his chest and shoulder, long legs draped down from his other side. And within the cloth that covers the majority of Nate’s body now, Sunjata’s hands tremble and his heartbeat thunders and he clenches his jaw hard enough that he can feel his teeth protest with the pressure. His gaze is stormy as it looks out toward Wessex, over Isla’s head, and off into the distance.

so look out, i fear they follow near

from the gallows you'll swing for all the kids to see

This could be our moment...

A voice—The Voice—can be heard only in Isla and Wessex's mind. Time won't slow, but their raw computing power will speed up such that it will feel as though there is more time to make the decision she is about to set before them.

I can kill Remi right now. Right this instant. It will take me out for another season or so as it did with Cian...but the consequences will be far, far direr. I will leave it to you, to decide. This ceasefire could give us time to prepare for what is to come, but there is something to be said for seizing the opportunity. If not now I'm not sure we'll have another chance like this one.

The eyes of both ascended will flash an electric blue.

---

Only Isla and Wessex may use this as a diety encounter.

the VOICE

I will stand by you forever; you can take my breath away

It’s… beyond weird to be conscious during surgery. She can feel the intrusions, of course, the finger blades and the spray of fluid, and though there isn’t any pain her sensors register the damage. Still, the Wraith is immovable under the Remedy’s scalpels, as if she’d knelt under the Overseer’s knife many times before. It’s finally wrenched from her body and handed over without any fanfare, which causes the demigod to look up and answer Jata’s statement flatly, “Ronin carved it out. And then it exploded.”

She’d forgotten about that. Flashing Sunjata an apologetic look, the Wraith begins the self-heal while turning to the Huntsman and nods, wordless, because she, too, can be petty and has nothing to say to him.

Her preparation, however, it interrupted - and Gods is the choice of a lifetime laid out before the two women. Wessex tries to imagine what might come in the wake of Remi’s death - Ronin and Noah, charging into the Grounds. Deimos with them, maybe. Hotaru upset. Their neighbor, less of a threat now, and the Old Gods’ powerhouse crippled. They’d both read the book, they know what Remi can do, the Relics he has and - and the war on his heels of his death. But they could scatter to the winds for a season, if need be, couldn’t they?

Wessex had always said she’d make the hard decisions when they came to her, and so she does so now, keeping her eyes on the larger picture instead of this small battle. Only if it's permanent, if Isla agrees, she decides, before turning her supplications to Isla. Isla? He can trap us with a single touch and we’d never even know he’s there. Before we ever get a chance to fight! Nate and I can barely take Ronin, we can't handle both of them, we can't, we can't we CAN'T- please, Isla - Had anyone ever heard the Wraith beg? She does so now, unabashedly, the timbre and tone of her mental voice cracking in earnest. She has to convince the Remedy, she simply has to, there isn't another option. Please. For Azrael. So they get a chance to rebuild the world. And Cameron and Ophelia and Cal and - and all our lives.

WESSEX

Isla only turns her attention to Sunjata and the body he carries when she is sure that the Wraith is able to take care of her incision via her own abilities. And when she does, it's to give Nate a gentle but cursory glance over, wincing at the news about his eye (for diplomacy's sake she resists glaring at Ronin, but the feeling is definitely there). "He can have one of mine," she says to Jata - what's an eye between friends, after all? She's about to turn to face the demigods again when the Voice slithers into her mind, sparking through her bones and spinning her circuitry at speeds that seem unsustainable. Time doesn't slow, but it certainly feels like it does. Nearly, Isla laughs. That isn't Remi, she wants to say. He knows better, he wouldn't bring himself here. He'd never be... But the Voice has tested these waters before and found the duplicate back in the Woodlands. If she's sure now, then... so, so stupid... Wessex joins the mental fray like a battering ram, and Isla reels from it, sick and uncomprehending. It would be permanent. But she doesn't agree. We are here for peace, she protests. We aren't here to start a war, we... no, Wessex, stop! It's like she can already feel the blood on her hands, welling beneath her fingernails. Whose is it though? Remi's? Or the countless Ascended in the war? You have no idea what you're asking me to do, she hisses. Or what it will mean if I do it. You said it yourself that you could barely take Ronin with Nate. If I kill Remi in front of him, what do you think will happen? Do you think he will ever stop hunting us? Would you? She shakes her head firmly, as if to dislodge the Voice and the Wraith both. I don't consent to this. I won't be the monster they say we are. If you want to do this, keep me out of it. Because there's no stopping the Voice and Wessex from taking the shot anyway. Hell, there's no stopping them from commandeering her, consent be damned. ISLA pray for me pray to me

For everyone watching Isla and Wessex's eyes would have only just flashed blue before it is all over. For the Wraith and Remedy however, the weight of each of their responses would have stretched time out far, far longer than that.

A tie does not a decision make. The Voice replies objectively. Not when it came to the LongNight monsters, and not now. Both will feel the presence of their goddess begin to recede, though not all the way. She would remain with them just long enough to make sure everyone got out of this alive (or not, should Isla change her mind).

Let us all hope that this one choice does not cost us everything.

the VOICE

And if the sky grows heavy
Wrap your arms around me tight

It's rare for the alchemist to be scared, which may or may not explain why fear is not the first thing he feels when he sees Isla's eyes light up. Instead it's disbelief that courses through him. Disbelief that he might be the target during the talks of peace between Stormbreak and the Hollowed Grounds. He was here simply to support his husband.
Never did he imagine that of all of them, it wouldn't be he or Wessex most likely to break this flimsy parley, but Isla.

Ronin— He has time to think, though no doubt the Huntsman has seen the flash of blue as well. —Find me in the Greatwood. The thought is accompanied by a bright and furious pulse of regret, but it's all the alchemist has time for, before he vanishes.

---

Remi uses his capitol compass and leaves!

the lullaby

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes

Ronin does indeed catch the flash of electric blue, but given that he hasnt been present for any Voice-hijacking-Ascended shenanigans, he's mostly oblivious as to what it means. He doesn't trust it, of course, and there's suspicion in his eyes as he glances between Isla and Wessex, but before he can remark upon it, Remi peaces out.

Turning his head to watch the space where the alchemist once was, it's with a belated clearing of his throat that he turns back to those gathered. (Is anyone surprised that Sunjata and Ronin are the ones just vibing and not knowing what's going on? I'm not).

Part of him really does want to punch Wessex, because gods if it wouldn't feel gratifying, but Remi isn't even around to watch, so what's the point? Instead, then, he unleashes three starbolts to whip out at the Wraith, bracing himself for pain. And when it doesn't come, his shoulders relax.

"We're done here," he murmurs.

RONIN

I will stand by you forever; you can take my breath away

Yes, she’s a bull in a china shop, a battering ram, and she had intentionally tried to pull at Isla’s heartstrings on the matter, but at the end of the day when her sister says No, Wessex will (begrudgingly) abide.

Not only because it’s pointless if Remi’s isn’t permanent, but because she truly believes in the Voice’s core tenets. If Isla didn’t want her body used in that way, then so be it, and if they weren’t a united in any war decisions then it was also pointless; there had been too many pointless deaths lately for the Wraith to want to argue it. Okay, she agrees with a mental sigh, turning her attention back to their original task.

Which is mostly to just stand there and take it as Ronin whips three starbolts at her, sending her sensors clanging once more. "One would have sufficed," she snarls, fists clenching as the Huntsman declares himself satisfied. And with Nate in hand, Wessex, too, is satisfied. Without any further dramatics or moves to retaliate, she rises and pivots sharply, turning her back on Stormbreak and Ronin, to make sure that the Grounds team is set to take Nate back.

“Isla just saved Remi’s life,” she adds. “The Voice could have killed him, and she said no. You two fucking owe her.”

--------------------

Wessex has had the following upgrade removed:

Type: Defensive | Level: Basic
Signal Blocker | This chip blocks the biological signal from being sensed by the Spire Demon. While this chip is implanted the ascended is effectively invisible to the creature.

WESSEX