Reach

Ah, cave exploration… Cygnus’ favorite part of the job.

Caves didn’t have a big, boring, ‘so classified you can’t leave this room’ file to read, and they can’t shoot at you… usually. Even when they do, that just means something cool is inside, be it valuable or at least nice to look at. And all he has to do is go to the middle of nowhere, walk around, and take lots of pictures and measurements.

Today’s cave is not of the shooty variety, and isn’t in the middle of nowhere, either. It sat at the coast of Britain, with a good view of France… and Cygnus was puzzled over how he didn’t run into any trouble on the way in. Tensions between the two nations were so bad that the airspace between them was taken as a “perhaps don’t fly” zone. Even if Cygnus came from Britain, which was on Atlas’ side, nobody would call the venture safe.

His earlier anxiety felt like a waste, because whatever the commander sent him out here for he wasn't finding. There’s definitely something here; the tracker he was given says that Mysterything was putting out… whatever kind of signal he was following. Usually he’d know at least a bit of information on what he was tracking down, but no, this mission came from Britain itself, and despite the apparent begging the commander had ranted about, they were very tight-lipped with any information.. 

It’s an abandoned mine, which leads Cygnus to think that there’s some kind of rare ore they needed- but then, what kind of rock would put out a signal?

Something trips Cygnus, and he falls on his face.

After cleaning the dust off himself, he turns to find that the something is not the rock he thought it was. It’s too polished, and something about it looks too... manufactured. It’s half-buried, though, and upon digging it out he finds himself holding a small metal rod. It has strange markings all over, none of which he can identify… Whatever it is, it counts as “shiny,” and shiny calls for getting it to a secure place for investigation ASAP. Thankfully, he had three days to get to whatever that signal was. Cygnus thinks of his void, and the rod pops out of existence and into the void of his mind. 

——

Getting out of the danger zone, oddly enough, is easy as getting in was. Usually when you’re this close to French airspace, you’d see at least a small squad of soldiers, but today… nothing… and that set Cygnus on edge. His arrival was early in the morning, so he figured the border wasn’t quite as tense as everyone thought, but it’s the early afternoon. His airship wasn’t exactly quiet, either, so even if nobody was there somebody should be showing up to question him.

He puts the ship on autopilot, and opens his phone to check Atlas’ private social media platform. While it was deemed too dangerous for people in Atlas to post anything on normal platforms- people took anything and everything members of atlas said in one way or another- the software technicians within the company organized a private one just for the agents to interact with one another. He hadn’t checked it since this morning, so there was bound to be some manner of insanity awaiting him, from either a groupchat or the main… feed…

There was no activity whatsoever.

No photos posted, no “good morning”, it was barren… everywhere. Atlas prevented wars all around the world, and if the entire world’s agents were too busy, something is very, very wrong. Immediately, Cygnus calls Commander Reed. There’s maybe a second between him pressing ‘call’ and hearing Reed’s clunky old AC on full blast. “Cygnus. Thank goodness. I have a new mission for you- it’s an emergency- but what did you find in that cave?”

“Well, I doubt it’s what we’re looking for, as I never reached that signal, but-” Cygnus is cut off by a screech he didn’t think someone with a voice as deep as Commander Reed could even make. “What… exactly happened, sir?”

Reed sighs. “There’s been… an attempt on the royal family of Britain’s life.” Cygnus’ heart sinks. “With the technological advancements they’ve made in the last few years and tensions so high, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened, but… we didn’t think it would escalate as quickly. At the family’s request, we’re splitting them up and evacuating for the time being. I need you to get there now to escort Princess Abigail to the safehouse in Missouri.” 

Missouri? Moving people to other continents meant they wouldn’t be back for months… What the hell had happened? “Understood, I’ll head there immediately. In the meantime, please get some rest… it sounds like you need it.” 

------

The area Cygnus is given to land is well outside of the city, a small cottage within a forest- which makes sense, he’d be shot down otherwise. As he gets off the ship, he’s getting ready to offer comforting words, utmost compliance, and assurance of safety, just like he’d been taught. At first his eyes are on the cottage, because naturally she’d  be inside- except she isn’t. He notices the sun reflecting off of something outside, and there Abigail stands… and she appears relaxed? Looking upwards at the canopy of trees and enjoying the fresh air.

But that isn’t remotely the strangest thing. First of all, the thing the sun was reflecting off was her hair… her black hair. She’s extremely tall, a head or two above Cygnus, and what he can see of her arms and legs has a pattern of lines that make him think he’s looking at skin-colored metal panels. And her eyes… they aren’t green like his mother’s, like a human’s--they’re green like a stoplight, and even seeing them sends a shiver down his spine.

Then they snap to him, and it takes all his composure not to pull a weapon out of the void.

She smiles, but it’s like the corners of her mouth dragged themselves up. “Cygnus, I presume?”

Her voice is human, at least, and it eases Cygnus ever so slightly- enough for him to hold his composure, though he doesn’t smile as he gestures at his airship. “Indeed… r-right this way.” The embarrassment at his slip-up is very quickly drowned out by the fear that comes about when she instead stops directly in front of him and simply… looms over him. Her gaze is unwavering, and he feels frozen in place. 

There’s a moment of silence as Cygnus gains the courage to speak again. “Ma’am, we-”

“I must thank you,” She cuts him off, “For saving me and the rest of my family a few years ago in Morocco.”

The mention of that mission throws him off so much that all he can get out is a “Huh?”

Her smile drops. “Do you not remember? It was a few years ago-”

“Er, I remember, but- you’re who we were defending that day?” The mission happened so quickly that Cygnus was given no information except who to attack. “I was never informed of who we were protecting. Everything about that mission was quite slapdash, and at the time I wasn’t high-ranking enough to be given much information.”

“Ah.” Her gaze finally shifts from him as she stares off into space, as if reminiscing. “So that’s why you looked so frantic…”

‘“You saw me?”

“Er, no.” Abigail’s gaze is on him again, but this time he expects it- it’s not quite as disturbing. “We’ve reviewed the attack to get what information we could on the attackers, and…” The smile pulls itself back up, but this time her eyes crinkle with something that tries to imitate mirth. “We always laugh for a bit when we see you, hastily taping together explosives and chucking them at the nearest cluster of enemies.”

Cygnus wants to hide his face in his hands. He settles for breaking her gaze by looking away with a sheepish smile. “There wasn’t much in my void at the time, as I’d just gotten back from a mission and-”

“Your void?” One second Cygnus is looking at the stump of a tree, and the next her eyes are so close to his that he nearly screams. He backs up, and sees that she bent over--and human backs do not bend that much-- but all that moves when he backs away is her head. Cygnus’ heart beats out of his chest, and something ugly is rolling in his stomach… he doesn’t know what look is on his face anymore. “Is that what you call your powers? The void?” 

“Y-yes, is it- yes it is!” Cygnus gestures to the ship,barely ignoring the urge to get in and fly away as fast as he can. “We can discuss its f-functions as I get you out of here.”

“Very well.” The second she says it Cygnus bolts onto the ship and gets in the pilot’s seat, and though it doesn’t ease the fear he at least has a valid reason to put some distance between himself and her. Thankfully, for all the wrong she exudes, she sits in the back as a normal person would. 

Takeoff is silent, and Cygnus can’t bear to look behind him, so he begins. “My void- perhaps a b-better way to explain it would be like my own personal storage space. It lets me put whatever I’d like in a pocket dimension-”

“Anything?” He can just feel her gaze on him. “Is there a size limit? Or perhaps, some manner of material or element you can’t?”

“N-not that I’ve come across.” Cygnus peers into the void to pick something to demonstrate with- today’s find will do. “And when I’d like to pull something out…” He wills it, and the rod simply pops into existence. “All I have to do is think and-“

She lunges forward and grabs it.

Before Cygnus can even take his hand off the controls, the tiny rod is 6 feet long and glowing. He looks at Abigail, and her eyes are crazed, and there’s a wild, toothy smile on her face.

Abigail plunges the staff into Cygnus’s chest, and everything goes black.

                          ——————

Cygnus can’t move. He’s still in the ship, he knows its ceiling, but looking is all he can do. The ship isn’t moving either, he can tell. His arm moves, but he’s not the one moving it. He doesn’t scream, doesn’t speak, because he can’t. His hand flexes, and turns around so it’s looking at the back. 

“Marvelous…”It’s Abigail's voice, but he can’t move to see where she is. “Oh, you’re probably confused, one moment-“ His head jerks to the left- and there Abigail sits, glowing with the same light as the rod. The rod sits in her hand, and she slides a finger along its length- suddenly Cygnus’ body sits up in his seat.

“Well, first and foremost, I’d like to thank you for the surprise! When I sent you to that cave today, I expected you to bring me back a small trinket I lost, but this…” She cradles it. “Is far superior. I’m guessing you have a grasp of what it does already… but let me show you the best thing.”

He’s calling the void, but he’s not calling the void. She’s controlling him, his powers- a gun is summoned, and Abigail skips over and plucks it out of his hand. She waves the rod and it goes back. “I’ve gotten myself an infinite handbag!”