File 404

Red, black, and grey. The colours that had made up Fulgur Ovid's life.

Red metal limbs, black clothing, grey hair.

Unlike her brother, Ovidia had the addition of more pink than grey in her IIs. Three years after The Second Fall, she looked even more like her brother than she ever had when he was alive. Like her brother, Ovidia had opted for red and black cynets. Her body had become toned like his as well. Not particularly buff, but defined by the tough battles she'd fought.

Despite how hard she'd worked, her body was reaching its limit as she scrambled over rubble and through the remains of her home. The trek was tough enough unencumbered, but on her back Ovidia heaved a backpack weighing twice as much as her.

Life after The Second Fall was rough even for a healthy individual. As one of the weakest and least dangerous, Ovidia had managed to gain entry to a biodome and survive the end of The Republic. There were few who were as lucky.

The Martyrists succeeded in killing most of the citizens left in the megacity, but during the fight their own ranks had dwindled to a few thousand. With most of the infrastructure already destroyed by the arbiters on their way out, and the damage that the apologists did in taking it back, many abandoned the cause, following Republic citizens to beg for refuge at biodomes.

Even less of them had been accepted, but the ones who had, seemed to genuinely appreciate life after having worked so hard to end it on a global scale.

With the ex-Apologists came news of what had happened at The Republic. Ovidia shook when she heard some of the stories of how Martyrists hunted down legati and auxilia. When she heard the stories of her brother, Fulgur, she couldn't hold back the tears.

Word had spread of him during The Second Fall. First, as a ferocious beast who tore Martyrists to shreds whenever they appeared in front of him. Then, as the cause of The Second Fall himself.

Vulpes had hoped to let the wolves hunt one-another and tried to breed conflict when he learned of the truth of the arbiters' passing. It might have worked, had Chroma not exposed the many crimes the arbiters and praetores had committed against the citizens including her own.

When Apologists heard that one of their own from the slums had gone on to end the arbiters, it shook their faith in Vulpes and the Martyrists. Suddenly it was he, rather than Fulgur, that was losing faith from his allies.

You would have laughed, Ovidia thought. Had you been alive to hear the "Apoloshits" as you called them refer to you as one of their faithful. That or swore.

The thought made Ovidia's face scrunch up. Despite being half-siblings they'd only spent a few months together. She couldn't figure out for sure if Fulgur would have laughed or swore. Everyone who met her since the biodome had first made some comment about her brother. Some of them, even the ones who only knew him by reputation, seemed to know him better than she did.

At first, Ovidia was content to simply help in whatever little ways she could. As soon as she was strong enough, she joined volunteers, assisting those trying to gain access to the biodomes. Soon, that wasn't enough for her.

When Fulgur finally fell, so too did The Republic. By that point there were few left under Chroma's command, and when Vulpes announced he had killed the man that took down the arbiters, it ended all hope of The Republic surviving.

The announcement came to Ovidia weeks after the fact, when she'd already settled in to life in the biodome. As she worked to help others in situations like her own, she was always sure that Fulgur would find some way to survive. He had to, after all. She'd never even said goodbye to him after the hospital.

When she heard her brother was dead, Ovidia immediately enlisted in the militia that was being formed to fight the Martyrists when Vulpes moved on from The Republic. In her mind it was a way to honour Fulgur's legacy. Some part of her saw it as penance for blocking him. Either way she wanted to avenge her brother when Vulpes ventured out of his den. He never did move on though, staying instead for reasons that no-one outside the megacity could decipher.

For months, Ovidia joined the militia taking on smaller targets. Cells of Martyrists hiding in refugee groups, packs of them searching around the biodome for weaknesses. Ovidia found that, like Fulgur, she had some skill as a wolf. She on the other hand thrived in a pack and as a leader. She hadn't meant to become a leader, only hoping to ease the guilt in her heart, but somehow others seemed to flock to her.

When Ovidia next got word of her brother, she didn't know how to react. The cold and rough legatus that she knew was suddenly a celebrity in a doomer boyband. She wouldn't have believed it, had she not seen the recordings on an Apologist's IIs. It had been years since she'd been told of his passing, and she thought she was done grieving. How could she even process the fact that he was alive and happily entertaining doomers?

There was no time for family drama, however. The more important information they'd recovered in that mission was the revelation that Vulpes and the Apologists had access to time travel. The small militia group which was formed by volunteers was assimilated into the biodome's military as they realized Vulpes was too dangerous to be left to his own devices.

They began challenging the Martyrists in earnest, whittling their numbers down over time. Of course, with each battle came costs. After losing a hand to an IED, Ovidia voluntarily traded all 4 limbs for cynets to match her brother. While they weren't as strong as Fulgur's, they made her much more effective in battle and felt right in her mind. She was going to eventually have to replace them anyway due to her condition, and they made all the violence easier. It didn't feel quite as real to strangle an enemy with cynets.

The physical toll was high, but it was the mental anguish that led Ovidia to really respect Fulgur's strength.

A rock she knocked away with her own foot. That was what caused Ovidia to throw herself back against a wall. Heart racing and vision blurry, she panted there for several minutes before getting control of her breathing.

Ever since the IED, life was full of these moments. The panic of death that set in just from a loud noise or flashing light. It wasn't the only time she'd almost lost her life either. Martyrists were skilled at guerilla warfare, and even better at infiltrating other organizations. Outside the biodome there was always a threat of ambush, but even at home it wasn't always safe, especially as Fulgur Ovid's sister.

Some nights, Ovidia couldn't sleep because she was sure there were people waiting for her to be vulnerable. Other nights, she managed to sleep only to wake up screaming at ghosts that couldn't hurt her anymore. Not physically at least.

"How far am I," Ovidia asked. She jumped up to a chunk of rock taller than her and pulled herself to the top, grunting as she did.

"Pretty much on top of the signal. If you can't see anything, then... O, maybe you should rest. You're already miles from the team and the sun-"

"Republic citizen, remember? Cut the cancer out of me when I get back and give me some skin grafts. It's daily life for us. Was daily life for us." Ovidia corrected herself, dropping the bag from her shoulders before following it down to the ground on the other side of the rubble. The voice on the other end of the line hesitated before responding.

"O, rushing is only going to get you killed. That area's full of traps and might have scum nearby. This isn't a rescue mission, you said so yourself."

Ovidia took a deep breath before putting the backpack on. Then another before she could reply.

"I know," was all she could get out once she did respond.

"The signals been dead for days. A neural net signal only dies when-"

"I know! You think I don't know that!? I'm the one who told you to stay behind! Just answer my questions and otherwise stay out of my way!" Ovidia tapped two fingers to her temple twice, ending communication. It only took her five more steps to reopen the link and continue. "I'm sorry. I'm going to go dark for a little while. If I'm right on top of him- it. ...If I'm right on top of it, then I'll need some time."

"Don't apologize. Just be careful, O. We need you back home."

"I know. I'll be careful. You look after the others."

Ovidia cut communication again, striding forward as she did. She felt better after the proper sign off, but now she was alone with only herself and the mission. Fulgur had always told her missions kept his mind occupied and were where he felt most calm. For Ovidia, it hadn't come so easy. She preferred conversation over silence, and these quiet moments made her hair stand on end in an uncomfortable way.

"How did you do this all the time," she asked aloud to nobody. "I can barely leave my house alone. This was how you did all your missions? You really were crazy, brother. ...Says the girl talking to herself."

She carried on through the remains of The Republic. The city was nothing like she remembered it. Piles of rubble scattered over the land without any life in it. Ovidia had been given IIs before she could walk. Even if she could recognize the chunks of buildings for what they used to be, she had no memories of The Republic without the pulse and shimmer of the duoverse.

That was another thing that they twisted into part of his legend. 'Fulgur Ovid who shunned the duoverse to see with eyes unclouded.' It wasn't true of course, Ovidia reminded herself. He was just deeply suspicious, almost to the point of paranoia.

Flashes of their first meeting ran through Ovidia's mind. She had been uncomfortable with her mother trying to manipulate him, then outright terrified when he snapped at her. It was only Gelu Canis' pestering that eventually led Ovidia to get in contact with him again, and it almost ended in a similar way.

He had tried more after that. Sent messages to ask how she was doing every few days between work. Always responded in a detailed list to all the silly messages she'd left for him, too. Most of which were just memes or photos of food.

Their last meeting had been so much worse. How would his fans react, she wondered, if they saw the mess he was after ending the arbiters. The stories casted him as an ally of justice stomping out corruption. Steadfast in his convictions and with a single purpose.

Ovidia had seen the truth. He was grieving to the point of almost losing his mind. There may have been some justice in what he did, but she knew it was just vengeance, pure and simple, for what they had done to him. He did care for her though. Not just her. She could tell that he felt responsible for all the death the arbiters caused. She had made that worse. Blaming him for her mother's sacrifice even though she eventually found out he'd tried to give his own heart to her.

Even then she hadn't been ready to reach out to him and talk. The wound was still too raw. By the time it had scabbed over he was already gone.

Fulgur had been a complicated man. A man that Ovidia wished she'd gotten to spend more time with. Wished that she could have at least said a proper goodbye to.

A little over four days ago, Ovidia received a message from her brother for the first time in three years. It was as simple and to the point as he ever was. Just an apology and wish for her to be safe. It had been blocked when he sent it originally, but automatically went through as soon as he came back to The Republic. Ovidia had begged the biodome to send a plane to collect him, but they wouldn't enter Republic airspace for fear of attack from Vulpes. It was a day later when Fulgur started broadcasting on the neural network that they realized Vulpes was gone and they could safely mobilize.

Ovidia had listened to her brother's whole life story as he poured his heart out without knowing how many people were listening. She had then listened as he finished the story and his neural network went down. She was already on the plane with a small team ready to rescue him, but it had been days since then. At that point the mission had been updated from a rescue to a recovery, and she was doing her best to keep that in her mind.

What a pair we make, she mused. Didn't know we had siblings for most of our lives, then you tried to push me away when I approached, then you tried to be there for me when I pushed you away. I've grieved you already, but somehow you managed to open the wound all over again.

He is dead this time, she reminded herself. A neural network only completely goes down when it can't feel any activity in the brain. He's been dead in my mind for years anyway.

Why then did it hurt so much when she saw the flash of red? Why did she almost collapse as she made her way over? Why did she just stand above him, unable to even kneel down and check for a pulse as she stood above his body.

A gust of wind tore through Ovidia's hair, pulling her toward her brother's corpse. If it weren't for the cynet legs, it would have brought her to her knees. An emptiness had formed in the pit of her chest. With a hole in her center, every other part felt heavy, compensating for the lost mass. She stared down at Fulgur, her vision blurring as tears filled her eyes.

"I'm sorry, brother." She couldn't bring herself to move any closer. In the daylight, dusty as it was, he still looked alive. His eyes were closed, but only gently. Each gust of wind made his eyelashes flutter as though he could blink them open at any moment. The smile on his face was one that she hadn't seen in life. No knitted brows. No mocking edge. No strain to try and hide pain or unease. There was nothing hidden behind this expression. Just simple joy.

"I wish I could have gotten to know this version of you."

Ovidia wanted to kneel down and wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. To preserve this memory of her brother as if he were really smiling at her in life, but she knew that as soon as she did, it would be over again. Her only family who she had already lost twice. Much as she told herself not to hope, she had still believed he would be here waiting for her.

"I wish I could have shown you what I've become. I'm not that weak little girl that you knew. I'm strong now. I made myself tough like you did."

Ovidia shrugged off the backpack she had lugged around for 2 days. The force of it dropping scattered a cloud into the air. It tipped over, cynet parts and tools spilling out.

Saying it now sounded silly. She had come this far hoping that she could show him. That she would be the one to rescue her brother. More than that, she just wanted to go back to the day of the evacuation and not block him. If he had been able to contact her. If she knew he planned to fight until he died, she was sure that would have been enough to make her forgive him. If not forgive him, at least put it behind her to ask him to join her at the biodome.

"I wanted to save you, brother. But I think I also wanted you to save me. Teach me how to sleep through a night after all you went through. Tell me that everything would be alright. If it came from you, I could actually believe it." He had that effect on her somehow. Perhaps it was their shared blood, the similar looks, or even just that she knew how much he'd been through, but when he told her everything would be alright she could actually believe it.

It wasn't like the countless others that just tried to calm her or say what she wanted to hear. He didn't sugar coat things. Why would he? He'd been through everything she feared and was proof that she could get through it too. Was, she reminded herself. He was proof.

Ovidia finally fell to her knees, coming almost face to face with her brother. Her hand reached out, slowly, then pulled back and slammed into the ground. Then again, and again. She let out a howl of frustration that had built up in her for years. When she continued speaking, she was hoarse from the exertion.

"I don't know how you did it. Kept going on after... after everything. How you learned to smile again despite everything in this world being so cold. It's so utterly pointless!" Ovidia shook for a moment without saying a word. Just let her feelings take control of her body in a way she hadn't allowed for so long.

She rocked back and forth, not crying or speaking, simply thinking about everything that brought her to this point. Suddenly she was still, and her hand reached out again. Not for Fulgur this time, but instead the netjack that he had clipped to his belt.

Her fingers trembled as she reached out, but she still managed to grab it without stopping.

"I'm not as strong as you, Fulgur. Every day it gets worse, and I- I just can't."

She brought the netjack over to her lap, twisting it in her hands. She pressed at the tip, red metal meeting red metal as her hand squeezed tight.

"I just don't know how."

Ovidia lifted the netjack, closing her eyes, and bringing it to her throa2 where it might bring an end to the pain. The sound of metal tapping metal could be heard as her hand stopped.

Art by The Drawn Legend: https://x.com/drawn_legend/status/1913871706575319411

Ovidia's eyes shot open. Her hand had barely lifted the netjack before Fulgur had grasped her wrist.

"I... I c-" Fulgur struggled to form words, barely holding onto life as he shook his head and pulled at Ovidia.

"Fulgur!?" The netjack fell, disappearing into a crack in the ground as Ovidia grabbed at her backpack and dug out a medical device.

"I c- can-"

"Shut up! Just rest you idiot! I'll get you back safely and then we can talk!" Attaching electrodes all over Fulgur's body, Ovidia gasped as the data began displaying on her IIs. "You should have been dead months ago! Idiot. Why didn't you change the cynet fluid!? Its been poisoning you!"

Her hands were fishing in the bag, then using a tool to remove a piece of his arm and plugging a tube into it.

"I can... I tea-" his hand found her arm again. Holding her wrist even as she tried to save his life.

"For the love of- here! Drink this before you try to speak! Slowly!" Ovidia took Fulgur's hand, prying it off her wrist and replacing it with a bottle of electrolyte drink, but he dropped it, grabbing her hand directly instead.

"Teach you," he gasped out. Ovidia finally met her brother's gaze and found the smile wiped from his face. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was hanging open as he desperately tried to say more.

"Teach me? Teach me what?" She took his hand with both of her own, letting the machine she had set up begin to replace the acids and cooling fluids in his left arm. "Fulgur?" Ovidia leaned down over his face, bringing her ear as close to his lips as she could to hear her brother.

"H-how to... to live." She sat up, staring at the man who by all accounts should have been dead. Had died, she reminded herself, twice. Even at this point where he might still pass away, he was desperate to say something so corny.

"Idiot." The word spilled out of Ovidia along with the tears she'd been holding back. "You really are an idiot. Too stupid to die even." She lifted the electrolyte drink he'd dropped and brought the bottle to his lips. "You need to live to teach me anything. Now drink."

Fulgur took the bottle in his hand and swallowed a few gulps. He coughed, his throat barely able to swallow from how close he'd come to death. As the first arm pinged to announce that the fluids had been changed, Ovidia repeated the process on the other arm, taking the bottle from him. She went back to the bag, searching for more tools and the IV she'd prepared when they thought they were on a rescue mission, but again Fulgur tried to take her hand.

"I... I'm"

"Seriously!?" Ovidia glared down at her brother who was coughing again as he tried to force words out. "Just, give me a second!"

She fished around in the bag again, pulling out a cable with the same input on either end. She plugged one into her own throa2, connecting the other to Fulgur's.

"There. A direct connection. Now you don't have to speak. What is so important?"

I'm sorry. The voice came out clear in Ovidia's mind. It was softer than she remembered, not so abrasive. It could have been the passage of time, or the fact that she heard it directly in her mind, but Fulgur sounded more gentle than she remembered. Looking down at him, he also appeared weaker. While she had become more toned and solid, he had grown thin and even started to get wrinkles around his eyes. He was staring at her cynet hands which both held one of his.

I'm sorry that I wasn't there to help you deal with this. I'm sorry I wasn't much of a help when you first asked. I'm sorry that I let your mother die, and that I wasn't any comfort when it happened. I'm sorry. I want to help you, just like you helped me.

Ovidia looked down at her brother, struggling just to hold onto her hands. His hand started to drop, but she caught it with both of her own.

"Idiot," she said again. "I never did anything for you. Just pestered you to take me out for meals and movies." When she looked away from his hand, she found that same smile on his face. It made the wrinkles under his eyes even more pronounced. He had gotten weaker. Older too. But this was the brother she had always wanted to meet. Not the unfeeling machine he pretended to be. The man who fought through so much pain just to survive. The one who preserved his humanity against all odds.

Human. Thats what he looked like. He'd become more human during his time away. A smile came to her own lips as she looked down at him, then a sound joined it, one that she hadn't heard in at least a year. She was laughing. A genuine laugh of joy.

"You got so old, brother. Weak too from the looks of it. Let me take care of you this time. You can help me once you're back on your feet, okay?" Ovidia laughed again, seeing the way Fulgur's face scrunched up when she called him weak. By the time she finished laughing he was back to smiling. In the reflection of his grey IIs, she saw herself beaming back at him with an equally matched smile.

"I'm sorry too," Ovidia said. "I pushed you away when you needed me the most. So, we're already even on that front. I saved your life today, so just teach me how to live again after all of this, and we'll call it even."

Fulgur grinned at Ovidia, a certain phrase coming into his mind that he had said often.

"What are you so happy about?" She asked, tapping him on the chest.

"Just a stupid thought," he responded through the neural network.

"Hit me. We're going to be working on these cynets for the rest of the day anyway." Fulgur let out a quiet chuckle, realizing he had never meant the phrase as much as he did right now.

"I was literally built for this." There was silence for a moment as he awkwardly looked off to the side away from Ovidia's look of pity.

"...when did you become so cringe?" In spite of herself, Ovidia couldn't help but laugh when Fulgur started laughing but then stopped from the pain.

"I always was, sister. Just not free enough to say it out loud."

"Ohhhh, I'm not sure about you calling me sister either," she joked, adding a pained expression. "It's cute when I call you brother. You calling me sister just comes across as trying too hard."

The pair laughed, ignoring the ping from the machine that told them his second arm was done. When they finally stopped laughing, they both stared into eachothers' eyes for a long moment before laughing some more at the absurdity of their situation.

"Welcome home, brother."

"I'm glad to be back, Ovidia."

The end.