#mod's fics

Vanea knows she is integral to Alcamoth’s rebuilding. She and the Machina, their technology, it helps speed up so much. Including the technology of Alcamoth itself, reinstating self-defense and teleportation to homes…

Unlike Agniratha, where the Machina could simply walk into their homes from the main streets.

Vanea swallows down the memory and continues her work. Melia had made it clear how important she was to this, how key. Melia’s eyes had sparkled with hope, more hope than she had seen since the events in Mechonis Core.

She remembers when she pulled her away from Egil. The resolve and the hope sparkling in her eyes. Despite Zanza’s appearance, she had been filled with hope for the future.

And then, they had both lost their brothers.

Vanea had recognized the ever encroaching pain in her eyes. The one that never quite leaves once you lose someone important to you. One that never quite goes away, no matter how much you mourn for all that was lost.

But now, Melia needs not mourn as much. She has her home back and she has Tyrea -- a sister (though not connected by blood), should all go well Melia has told her. Vanea remembers smiling, telling her how happy she was to hear that.

And she was, she truly was happy. That did not erase the ache in her chest, though. It did not erase the whispers of jealousy sitting in her chest. A home and a sibling, the two things they had both lost, now back in reach for Melia.

Never in reach for Vanea.

She continues to program, and continues to bring Alcamoth back online as Melia watches in wonder. As her father chuckles and tells Shulk just how proud he is of her. Always such a sturdy head on her shoulders, this is nothing for her.

That’s her. Sturdy Vanea. Always able to handle anything that came at her, even when the brother she had been connected at the hip to died. Even when she watched her goddess she strived to assist perish like a mortal would against the onslaught of Zanza. Even when her entire home came crumbling down.

“I apologize,” she finally forces herself to speak, shutting down her screens. “I need a moment.”

She rushes off, kicking herself for being so upset about this. She should be happy for Melia! Should be happy she has so much returned to her. It’s not as if Vanea is without -- she still has Miqol, still has her father. Melia does not have that -- she remembers Fiora saying as much to her before.

So why is she so upset, why is her throat constricting? She rushes as far away from the group as she can, gulping in air. She is the sturdy one, the one who will march on despite it all. She can handle these losses better than Melia.

Young, fragile, Melia. Someone who should not have to take on the pain of her people at such a precious age. One who should not have to try and guide them into the future without help. She needs to be strong, needs to be that help, no matter how pain wracks her.

“Vanea,” she freezes at the sound of Melia’s voice. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she responds, forcing herself to smile as she turns to her. “I was just a bit overwhelmed, truly. It’s an honor to be given such a task.”

Melia does not return the smile and, for a moment, Vanea sees that pain they share again. Playing behind her expression, despite the hope that now mingles with it. She approaches, holds out a hand.

Without thinking, Vanea takes it. She allows the empress to lead her even further from others and to sit her down. She sits next to her, watching as Melia thinks deeply for a moment. As they sit in silence, the sounds of the city behind them fading into the background.

“It is alright to hurt,” she finally says, oh so quietly. “I still do, over my father. Over Kallian. Over all my people lost… It is alright for you to hurt, too.”

Vanea opens her mouth, only to close it. She is much older, with more than a thousand years making her Melia’s senior… And yet Melia is the one telling her something that should be so simple to understand. Something Vanea had refused to understand before now.

“I suppose you’re right,” Vanea replies. “But I do not wish to spread that hurt now. Not when this moment is such a joyous one for the High Entia.”

“The High Entia could do good to learn from your pain,” Melia grasps at her shorts, frowning. “We’ve already had the issue of High Entia speaking as if you Machina do not understand the pain of losing a home. As if you are to blame for the Fog that had leaked into Alcamoth… Remind them you and I, we are not so different despite it all.”

“I… is that so?” Vanea laughs a bit, staring up at the sky. “All this time I was worried that my pain would dampen the joy and the hope, but here you are telling me the opposite? That it may make the hope all the sweeter, make the understanding between us all all the stronger?”

Melia nods, reaching out once again to hold Vanea’s hand. She squeezes it gently as she does, rubs circles into the back of it. Something she could see an elder brother doing for a younger sister.

She wonders if that Kallian would do that for her when she was worried, the same way Egil did before it all fell apart.

“I suppose I was too caught up in myself to think of others,” Vanea says. “I apologize.”

“If anything, I believe you to have been doing the opposite,” Melia chides. “I have been guilty of the same, Vanea. I would hate to leave you in the thralls of pain alone. So, please, remember it’s alright to hurt.”

They couldn’t just leave Katarou in their wide-open living room-kitchen combo; Even if Jinx’s guess about him being significantly weaker without his necklace was true, the empty space would give him room to move around in, and they didn’t feel like dealing with him anymore than they already had to. They couldn’t lock him away in any of their rooms, either - he might break their stuff. So the only choice of action they had was to keep him in their medical bay, which was really just a back room with a spare bed and medical kit.

Gnarrk was sent off to lock the man in there and watch over him, with Jinx following behind him towards her room.

Fortunately, neither Hot Spot or Jericho needed immediate medical attention. Or at least, Hot Spot claimed that there was nothing that could be done for either of them.

“I had heat exhaustion for days when I first got my powers,” he explained. “This is just Jericho’s body trying to cope with my powers.” Noticing that his teammates were still looking at him, he quickly added on, “And I’m just reacting to not having them anymore, that’s all.”

“You don’t think your powers have anything to do with it?” Herald asked, directing the question at Kole.

Kole wasn’t much more help. “Dunno, maybe. I was a baby when my powers started so I can’t remember.”

Herald focused their attention back on Hot Spot. “I still think you should sit down with Jericho. Rest helps with stiffness, right?”

Jericho, for jems part, forced a thumbs up, if only because watching Hot Spot pace around was making jems dizziness worse. At least staying in one spot was helping with the nausea.

“I need to be alert in case Jericho gets new symptoms,” Hot Spot argued, only partially deflecting away from himself.

“He’s right,” Jinx agreed, returning with one of her old HIVE textbooks in one hand and Kataoru’s now-shattered necklace clutched in the other. “The rest of us will take care of our little problem.” She opened up the book to its bookmarked page. “This gem is literally a textbook Capture Gem. There are hundreds of them in the world. This one is just an imitation of the original, more powerful one-”

“Which is why Kataoru was only trying to take our powers instead of capturing us directly,” Hot Spot finished.

“Exactly. I think that’s why he needed to chant to use it, too. He doesn't have the natural magic skill necessary to use it properly.” Jinx then went into full leader mode. “Kole, you go back with Gnarrk and wait for Katarou to wake up. Once he does, get him to tell you what chant he was using, since we’ll need it to get our powers back. Herald and I will fix the gem in the meantime.”

“Your powers won’t be enough to override Katarou’s spell?” Herald asked. “Since he has no magic of his own?”

Jinx shook her head. “Once a spell has been started it must be completed. Oh, and before I forget-”. Closing the textbook and slipping it under her arm, she used her now-free hand to take an extra hairband out from her pocket and tossed it over to Jericho. “That should help with your bangs sticking to you. Now, let’s get to work.”

The other three Titans left towards their respective tasks, leaving Hot Spot and Jericho in the living room.

Jericho eagerly accepted the hairband. Je slipped it onto jems head, and then rewarded jemself for exerting that much effort by leaning backwards onto the couch, hoping that stretching out a bit would help with how sticky je was feeling due to the sweat.

Hot Spot continued to pace around. He knew that his teammates were right, that he risked the chance of hurting himself by walking on stiff joints. But he also knew himself, and that if he stayed still too long he would only start dwelling on what was upsetting him, let the cold feeling consume him. And nobody wanted that. So he walked instead.

Of course he made sure Jericho was all right, too. There was a legitimate risk of jem suddenly powering up again without jem causing it; Hot Spot remembered that well. There were no outward signs of that happening, no steam coming off jems body nor was jems skin reddening, so Hot Spot would have been content to leave it at that if he hadn't realized Jericho staring back at him.

Honestly, it hadn’t even bothered Jericho that Hot Spot was watching jem during his circuit around the couch - je was doing the exact same thing to him. There really wasn’t anything else to do. Je was going to start up a conversation about Hot Spot’s powers, since je assumed that’s what he was worrying about, but je got cut off before je even got jems hands in the air.

“You should roll up your sleeves,” Hot Spot suggested, avoiding eye contact. “It’ll help.” He then went off again, though his attempts to hurry just resulted in him dragging his legs a bit. He wasn’t in the right mindset to be having any important conversations at the moment, and frankly ‘I was staring at you to find minuscule changes in your appearance’ just made him sound like a creep.

Jericho return jems gaze to the ceiling, to try and ease Hot Spot’s discomfort. Je was secretly glad je wasn’t the only one that was having a bad time with the power swap, but that doesn’t mean je wanted to make it worse for him. Je did take his advice, though, unhooking the vambraces on jems arms and pushing up jems sleeves as high as they would go. It seemed to help, as it was more direct skin exposed to the air conditioning, but by the time the second sleeve was rolled up the exhaustion part of jems heat exhaustion kicked back in and je was back to square one. Je wondered if the rest of the team was doing any better.

Jinx and Herald were. The two of them were on the floor of her room, with Jinx explaining how she wanted her plan to go.

“It's said that binding magical objects to the magic itself will make it more likely to work with the user’s demands.” She held up the textbook page again. “If you use my powers while holding the shards together and saying this spell, the gem will come back together and you can control it easier. Now, summon my magic.”

Herald sat there for a minute, trying to figure out how to. They couldn’t even get their own powers to work instantaneously like that; they had always needed their horn to act as a conduit for them, and not only because it was considered too dangerous to open space rifts on one’s own. They tried imaging what Jinx’s powers were like. Evidentially that was all it took, as a hex shot out of their hand, tearing part of the necklace strap. They looked at the results, amazed. Jinx was able to have her powers work with just a thought and no outside steps? Herald would be envious if it didn’t make them feel so pathetic.

“No, no.” Jinx scolded. “You’re turning it into hexes. You need raw magic for this work.”

She was met with a blank stare. It clicked in her mind that of course they wouldn't know what she meant by that; the only reason she knew was because she had taken an Introduction to Magic class back at HIVE Academy. She tried to explain it in a simple-but-not-condescending manner, like how she would have wanted to hear it as a child. “Raw magic is what my powers are before I do anything with them. There should be a tingly feeling running through your body - bring that out.”

Those instructions were much clearer. Herald had noticed an almost electric feeling in their body, but it was faint enough they could ignore it. They imagined Jinx using her powers again, this time how she looked pre-battle, and immediately a soft, pink glow enveloped their hands. After briefly checking to see if Jinx was satisfied with this use of power, they then got to work putting the gem back together.

As Jinx watched them do so, she felt an emotion she was not expecting: envy. She was envious that they were able to use her powers in such a calm manner, especially since it seemed like their first time with magic in general. Sure, she appreciated them taking the situation seriously, but part of her wished that they had struggled just a bit more with them. She was horrified when her powers first developed, and many, many objects were destroyed in the process of figuring out what they could do. It almost seemed unfair how quickly someone else could adapt to them.

“Got it.” Herald held up the almost-fixed necklace. The gem shards fit neatly next to one another, but need the final bit of magic to be completed. “We ready?”

Jinx nodded. “Go ahead. The spell in bold.”

Herald put on the most authoritative voice they could muster. “Tcennoc Sdrahs Meg!”

The gem seemed to pull the magic directly into itself, and after a flash of light filled up the room, it was whole again.

“Not bad,” Herald complimented themself, admiring the necklace. After a few seconds, they looked back at Jinx and noticed she was stifling a laugh. They raised an eyebrow. “What are you laughin’ at?”

“Nothing, I’m just admiring your theatrics.” Jinx teased. “Very impressive.”

They frowned at her for a second to show his disagreement, but then relaxed again as they changed the subject. “You think Kataoru is awake yet?”

“I hope so,” she answered, standing up. “And I hope that Kole and Gnarrk have already gotten the chant we need out of him.”

Kataoru was still unconscious, and Kole and Gnarrk were bored waiting for him to wake up.

The most interesting thing they had done so far was use the extra bedsheets to tie Kataoru’s arms to the bed’s headrest so he couldn’t escape once he woke up.

Gnarrk leaned against the wall in frustration, wanting something to do. He felt left out of the day’s event, being the only one to escape getting his abilities swapped. That, and he didn’t know what to feel about Kole’s temporary powers. On the one hand, it made him smile that Kole was having such a good time running around and attempting to do jump kicks. On the other hand, the idea of Kole no longer needing him to fight made him feel empty inside, even if he knew that things would go back to normal soon enough.

Kole, unlike all of her teammates, was having no qualms about her current state. She was going to enjoy this while she could, and was even considering asking Herald to teach her and Gnarrk some techniques when everything was all over.

“Do you think I can walk on my hands now?” She asked aloud to keep Gnarrk in the loop. She easily got into a handstand position, but the moment she tried to move forward her arms began to shake. The answer was evidentially no. To avoid falling on the ground, Kole titled her body forward, until she was able to move into a somersault and back onto her feet.

Coincidentally, the moment she straightened back out, Kataoru began to shift around, groaning slightly.

Kole cheered at the development. “Finally! You remember our plan? Good Cop Bad Cop?”

Gnarrk indeed did remember, and hurried to the side of the bed, ready to wallop the man over the head at Kole’s command.

She positioned herself at the end of the bed, staring Kataoru down. After underestimating him before, she wasn’t making that mistake again.

Kataoru groggily opened his eyes and attempted to stretch out. His instincts kicked in the moment he realized he couldn’t. Looking around, he noticed that he was tied up with bedsheets, and that two Titans were watching his every move. He quickly figured that if he had enough time, he could wiggle his way out of the binds, even without his necklace. After that, all he had to do was escape the room.

He focused his attention to the end of the bed. “Cute mask, little girl. Is that meant to intimidate me?”

Kole ignored his statement. “We’ll make this easy for you, Kataoru. Tell us the chant you were using and we won’t fight you again.”

He scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh. You Titans only captured me because you got a lucky shot. You’d have to fight me for real to learn the spell.”

“Tell us the chant,” she repeated.

“You have to earn it. Show me you deserve to know.”

Kole held up a hand to prevent Gnarrk from acting. She didn’t want to rush it.  Instead, she gave the bed frame a firm kick, shaking it.

The bedsheets tying Kataoru to the bed loosened slightly. He could work with that. “Is that all? I barely felt that.”

“You don’t want to feel anything else.”

“Try me.”

Another firm kick towards the bed shook it even harder. The bedsheets began to slip, but Kataoru grabbed onto them so it looked like they were still tied.

“Tell us the chant!” Kole huffed.

“Let me go and we can fight for it. Perhaps then you could actually do something to me.” He was ready to pounce the moment the two let their guard down.

She waved her hand. “Fine.”

Gnarrk reached towards the bedsheets, only to suddenly stop, grin, and slam his palm against the back of Kataoru’s head.

Kataoru yelped a bit and dropped the bedsheets to hold the back of his head. His arms were then pulled back and tied again.

Kole had a matching grin on her face. “Did you really think we’d fall for that? I guess you lost your smarts when you lost your strength.”

He cursed under his breath. “Perhaps that was a foolish plan.” His smug look soon return, however. “But I have endured far worse pain than this. If you want me to talk, you’ll need a new plan as well.”

Fortunately, Kole and Gnarrk didn’t have to come up with one.

“Is our friend playing nice in here?” Jinx asked, pushing open the door. “We’d like to get this over with.”

“Nope,” Kole answered. “Any suggestions?”

Jinx shut the door behind her. “Yeah, one.” She was the only one on the team who hadn’t got to try her new powers, and she might as well get a shot at it. She didn’t know what Kole and Gnarrk had already tried to get him to give up the chant, but clearly it needed to get forced out of him.

Herald knocked on the door. “Hey, what’s your plan in there, Jinx? Did Kole and Gnarrk get him to tell them the chant? Jinx?”

She didn’t answer, and instead went straight to Kataoru. She grabbed his shirt and pressed their faces together, glaring into his eyes.

All that seemed to do was unnerve the man, and he lost the bravado in his voice. “What are you doing?”

“Are you ... trying to possess him?” Kole also questioned.

“Yes,” Jinx hissed, looking away from Kataoru. “I'm just trying to remember how Jericho does it.” She had made sure to imagine herself taking over Kataoru’s mind, but that didn’t seem to do the trick. Did jems powers not work like hers?

“Je like ... falls into people’s bodies?” Kole offered, unsure of her advice.

Jinx thought it was useful, though. She had forgotten about the physical aspect of Jericho’s powers. She turned towards Kataoru again, and noticing how creeped out he looked, gave him a wide smile for maximum effect. She stared at him again, this time remembering that she, in her physical form, was possessing his entire body. It wouldn’t be just reading his mind.

She began to fade from view, and Katarou’s eyes became washed over in pink as she did.

The scene was quiet at first, as nobody involved really knew how to react. Then Kataoru began screaming and thrashing around.

Herald slammed open the door to figure out what was going on. They saw Gnarrk holding down Kataoru and Kole clutching onto the bed frame to stop it from shaking, but no Jinx. Their first instinct was to go towards the group, but they had barely entered the room when Jinx suddenly appeared again.

Kataoru’s eyes returned back to their normal color, but his body slumped over in exhaustion.

Jinx wasn’t doing any better, Her body and mind felt light, almost empty. Except for her eyes. Her eyes felt heavy, like they were pushing into her body and cracking it open. She stood perfectly still, giving no indiction that she knew where she was.

“Jinx...?” Herald asked quietly, coming up and placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Did you figure out the chant?” Kole hoped that being reminded of what she was doing would help bring her back to reality.

“Ciro ... Enyawd ... Vasarix.” Jinx breathed out. She then covered her eyes and started shrieking. She spun around and darted out of the room, knocking Herald’s hand off her shoulder in the process. She needed to find Jericho, now; The feeling in her eyes was just too much for her to bare. Even though she couldn’t see, she knew that the living room was a straight shot forward.

Hot Spot and Jericho were both startled by the screaming coming towards them.

Hot Spot, already up, went towards the noise and ended up holding onto Jinx’s shoulders to keep her steady after she ran into him. “What’s wrong Jinx? What happened?”

Jericho had a sinking feeling je knew exactly what she was panicking about, and ignoring how weak jems body felt, got up and dragged jemself to jems teammates. Je gently nudged Hot Spot aside and took Jinx’s hands away from her face.

Jinx’s eyes were wet and almost entirely red. Jericho softly, and unfortunately slowly, wiped one of them with jems thumb and showed her the results. It was just tears, but je knew perfectly well that she was concerned about it being blood. It also made perfect sense to jem that she was too disoriented to be able to notice that herself at the moment.

Herald and Kole, who had chased Jinx out of the room, slid to a stop at the sight of the three of them bunched up together.

Kole was about to say something to them, when she spotted Herald pulling something out of their pocket. “What are you doing?”

They held the necklace in the air. “I’m fixin’ this while we’re all in the same place. That’s why I told Gnarrk to stay behind, him bein’ here might throw off the spell.” Before Kole could object, they again mustered their most authoritative voice. “Ciro Enyawd Vasarix!”

A light engulfed the room. Unlike when the gem shattered, the spell didn’t knock out any of the Titans, so they were awake to feel like something was being ripped from their bodies, and then something different being shoved right back in. It was a strange feeling none of them liked, but at least it was over quickly.

Once it was, Herald put down the necklace and looked around. “Is everyone all right?”

“I am,” Hot Spot answered, his voice no longer defeated. He stepped back from Jinx and Jericho so he could admire his returned powers. The coldness and stiffness in his body were gone, replaced with a warm energy, and the higher his temperature went, the more his mood improved. He was thrilled.

“I ... think I am,” Jinx agreed, though still hesitant. The sudden switch in powers left her still disoriented, but at least she wasn’t panicking anymore.

Jericho had also improved physically once je got jems powers back. Jems heat exhaustion was completely gone, and je could move without immediately weakening. To prove it, je took off the hairband Jinx had let jem use and handed it back to her.

“All of our clothes are back to normal too, so I guess that means it worked.” Kole chimed in. “All that’s left is to decide what to do with Kataoru.”

Herald thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “I mean, we can't really take him to jail, can we? We did agree to fight him in the first place.”

“Drop him back off at the park,” Jinx suggested quickly, ready for this situation to be done with. “I think I scared him enough that he won’t try us again.”

There was a general agreement with this plan, so Herald shrugged again and went back to the medical bay.