After surviving the Tribulation, he alternated his time for the rest of the day. At first, between the Assembler and the bot. Repairing one, feeding the other. He found the simplest method of feeding was to simply open the bot up, exposing its processing units, and carefully nestle Oma crystals around it in reach of its Soul. As its Soul continued to spread, this became easier and he was able to safely reseal the delicate processors. Meanwhile, he progressed quickly with repairing the Assembler. After only a few hours it was done.

The first job he gave it was creating a replacement door for his Cultivation cubby, since the spirit had melted his original. In the meantime he checked inside and found some of the walls were damaged and would need to be repaired. In fact, it would be simplest to just strip the metal panels with the rituals scrawled into them, which were set into the walls of the cubby, and replace them with new ones.

Looking at the cramped cubby, he decided, at last, that it was too small. He ordered the bots to start work on a newer, larger cubby. A room, one might say. One big enough, in fact, for both him and the bot to fit in. Right now it wasn't making many ripples and they were all minor, but he didn't know what the future might bring. If it started pumping out ripples he wanted somewhere to put it.

After giving the orders, and making some very quick, patchwork repairs, he settled into his barely-serviceable, cramped cubby, which he'd have to use until the new one was finished. He wanted to restore his destroyed Nodes as soon as possible, and would occasionally emerge only to replace the bot's dusted Oma crystals with fresh ones.

###

'So what was it Nicolai stole?' asked Kleos of Jo. 'What did he steal from Vikrum?'

Jo shrugged. 'Don't know.'

'It was a Symbiote,' put in Beth.

'Yep, a little glowy thing,' said Azure. 'He did this crazy move when he got in close,' she added excitedly, and looked to Beth with entreaty. Beth nodded and waved her on. 'Like, they both moved super fast and Vikrum was faster, but Nicolai kind of twisted and reached and managed to smash this thingy and meanwhile Vikrum got his arm and he was grabbing and dragging and it seemed like Nicolai couldn't get away but he pulled this little shotgun—and it was actually just around then, right before he pulled it, that he got the glowy thing, like it shot out of where it'd been in Vikrum's case and into his hand—but he pulled this shotgun and he put it to his arm he shot his own arm off!' She panted for breath, continued before she'd got it fully back, 'And dropped the shotgun when Vikrum kicked him and he went spinning away. But held onto the glowy thing!'

'That's right, yeah,' said Beth, nodding knowingly. 'All of that is exactly how it happened.'

Azure glowed with pride, and shot an adoring gaze at Beth.

'So, Nicolai fought Vikrum but as soon as he'd stolen this Symbiote, he stopped and focused on defence while seeking to teleport?' asked Kleos, feeling the need to check.

'That's right,' said Jo. 'It's possible that if it weren't for that he wouldn't have fought Vikrum at all.'

'Nah, nah he would've,' said Azure. ''Cuz he had to. Otherwise it couldn't have ended properly, right? You need that big climactic finish.' She nodded knowingly to herself. 'That's how it's gotta be.'

Kleos considered Jo's words thoughtfully, feeling that at last he'd heard something important. He glanced at Maric who nodded back at him, felt his own thoughts reflected.

'Whatever that Symbiote was, it must have been crucial for the plan he'd made,' said Kleos. 'It might be what he used to save himself.' He was trying to remember if he'd felt anything of a new Symbiote from Nicolai, in those final moments. Alas, his Spirit had been so broken back then that he'd been all but incapable of sensing anything. He glanced at Maric who only shook his head, and he knew that as a too-old undead that'd been avoiding the Castle Core, Maric's Soul Sense would have been almost as bad, if he'd even had one.

'Regardless, just make sure you don't bring it up outside of here,' muttered Jo, glancing at the door. Suddenly she strode over to it, and he saw her send her Soul Sense tendril out underneath, checking around.

Kleos looked back to Beth. 'Is what he did truly so bad?' he asked, uncertain. 'In my recall, he seemed to be quite interwoven in the Coalition.'

'He doesn't deserve all the hate, but since he's left, various factors have led him to be painted as the cause of… well, pretty much everything,' said Jo, coming back.

'Yep, don't get any of 'em started on Nicolai,' said a grinning Beth. 'He's the boogey-man as far as these people are concerned. Anytime something goes wrong just wait and see, it'll be Viper this, Viper that. Been doing it the whole time. Half of them think he's living in the jungle somewhere nearby, and constantly comes in to—get this—steal food rations and batteries!' She burst into crazed laughter. 'They don't have a clue! They just want someone to blame! Lucky for us they have him, the easy scapegoat,' she added in a dark mutter. 'Otherwise they'd probs pin it all on me.'

'It's just the trend that was started,' said Jo, shrugging at Kleos. 'Back when the castle fell down, once everyone got in here and they were all freaking out… well, a lot of them were coming at us, us and John and all the others, and we just blamed it all on him.'

'Best thing for it, really,' added Azure, 's' what he told you guys to do, anyway, right?' She looked to Beth.

'Pretty much,' said Beth.

'Then Vikrum did the same,' continued Jo. 'He was really big on that, and Maxine joined in. Started saying they think he's the reason this whole place fell down, that it was only because of their work that we found out about the Trade Link being safe, that Nicolai was trying to keep that secret… all stuff like that.'

'I mean to be fair I don't think he gave a shit about any of those people, he'd have been fine with them all dying. He was alright to those of us he was with, I think so anyway, but he didn't care about the rest of 'em,' said Beth. 'Don't get Cait started on him, though. She's got this whole thing, goes on like it's this great shame that she didn't do something sooner, saying she saw through him since the start.'

'So now, whenever something goes wrong people just say it must've been him,' finished Jo.

'Like last week a generator broke, and immediately they were all like it was him, he did something to it before he left.' Beth started cackling like this was the funniest joke she'd ever heard.

'So… just around you three, it's fine?' asked Maric, and the man shot a somewhat doubtful look at Azure.

Azure bristled. 'You don't need to worry about me! I'm Beth's girl!'

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'That's right,' said Beth, nodding. 'She's my girl.' She put a hand on Azure's shoulder, smiling.

Neither Kleos nor Maric were sure what "she's my girl" meant exactly, but it seemed that Azure was on their side. Kleos could feel Maric's dismay that it seemed there were sides and especially that the side they had been automatically sorted into was so very small.

Before any more theorising or guess making could occur, a heavy knock sounded on the door.

'Hey!' called a voice. 'Maxine wants to see you! Anyone in there?'

'Yes! Give us a minute!' Jo yelled back.

'She wants you now! Is Azure in there with you?' Kleos felt he might recognise that voice. John? The door handle rattled, rattled, and began to turn.

'Block the fucking door!' hissed Beth furiously.

Jo responded as though primed. She lunged across the space and slammed into the door just as it began to open, shoving and holding it close.

There came a flurry activity. Beth was shoving all the guns under the bed, aided by Azure. Jo was snarling 'Give me a minute!' through the door, Kleos and Maric just did their best to stay out of the way.

Kleos could feel that Maric's current main point of consternation, was that they were still wearing the same rags as Jo had given them at the start of all this.

'Alright.' Beth held her hand out, fingers in a fist, thumb raised. 'We good.'

With a shake of her head, Jo at last opened the door, just a bit, and Kleos saw John outside and then Cait, too.

'We heard you two have some visitors,' said Cait, craning to peer through the door. 'The heads? The heads are back?' Her eyes fixed on Kleos and widened.

'That's right,' said Jo.

'Well, Maxine wants to see 'em. There's news, by the way.'

'News?' Jo frowned at her.

'Vikrum's back from that place he went with Katnin, they say—'

'Are they coming out or what?' broke in John. 'Come on, stop pissing around. Azure is in there, isn't she?'

Leaving at last—with everyone crowding so the doorway to impossible to look through—they emerged.

Kleos found that indeed, John was here, with Cait beside him.

He frowned at Beth, then at Azure. 'Again?' was all he said, irritably, to Beth. She just shrugged and moved swiftly past. Azure attempted to follow only to be snagged by John, who tugged her out the way, muttering at her.

'I told you to stop spending so much time with her,' Kleos heard him saying. 'Azure, you—'

He lost the voice as Cait spoke to Jo and Beth.

'Vikrum saw Nicolai, that's what he's saying. In this new place—the Phantom City,' she was speaking to Jo, with just a glance at Beth. 'I thought you'd want to know, since, well.'

Jo's eyes narrowed. 'Well what?'

'Well. You know.'

Jo snorted. 'Okay.' After a moment she chewed her lip, sighed, said, 'Thanks.'

Cait just nodded, smiled in a way Kleos decided was sympathetic, and they got moving. They left the small building and came out into the main area of the Trade Link, with the half-busy seating areas around the thing and the shanty-town style lean-to constructions.

Cait and Jo took the lead, John and Azure the back, leaving Kleos and Maric in the middle and that was when Beth, who'd moved off to one side, slithered up from behind them. She thrust her head between him and Maric, and began to whisper.

'You wanna know what's really fucked up?' she hissed. ''Cept for the people from the group, those in the know, those with a brain, everyone else here thinks I'm the one who fucked him! Yeah! They heard one of us did, and immediately decided it must've been me!' They were walking now through the tabled areas and her finger jabbed out between them, pointing at an outside kitchen area with a few women, half busy, half standing around chatting, and around it were people sat at tables eating. 'Those old ladies, those fucking bitches doing the food, they all decided I'm "that type" and now there's no convincing them!'

Those "fucking bitches" were now looking in their direction and they saw Beth's pointing finger and scowled at her, and at Kleos and Maric, too, and he knew he and his unlikely companion had just received some of Beth's dirt.

'They love Jo, though,' she added in a dark murmur. 'Everyone's totally taken in by her good-girl routine, my god, it's just like back at home. I swear my whole life whenever she does something I'm the one who gets the blame, it's ridiculous…'

'Good girl routine?' asked Maric, puzzled.

'Yeah! That she's all, I don't know, determined and selfless and heroic and the rest. But you know she just wants to hook up with a bad boy, get some dope Symbiotes and boss it in the new world with a tech'd up sniper rifle… and lie in the sun drinking cinnamon iced lattes. I know, anyway. Trust me on this.'

Kleos and Maric exchanged glances, and the same thought.

What strange, what mysterious thing, was a cinnamon iced latte?

###

Nicolai sensed that something had changed the moment he emerged from his cultivation cubby. His eyes settled immediately on the robot. It was from there that the sense of change pulsed out. Whatever it had been doing, it was done.

With a brief effort of will and a flare of spiritual power, he formed a spectral claw beside him and held it ready as he approached the bot. One hand reached for the Angelic Blade on his back, drew it and held it ready. He had no idea what to expect from this thing.

However, as he came closer and reached out with his Soul Sense and touched upon it, he found… nothing.

The bot's spirit was non-reactive. He pinged it and spoke to it in code. He told it to stand ready, to present itself for inspection, but the bot did not respond. It simply stood, still and silent.

Like a vegetable, he thought, sheathing the Blade. Had the creation of its soul, the infusion of its body, simply broken it? Coming to stand above it, frowning down at the silent bot, he put a hand on its chassis, felt at it spiritually. It had a Soul, but that Soul was quiet and silent and empty.

When it had first been created and its soul had been forming, the Modules had checked it and found then that its software was a broken mess, senseless. With its refusal to answer any pings, that appeared to remain the case. He'd hoped that finishing its Soul would somehow smooth it out, make it functional again.

There was only one thing to do, and the Modules were quick to do it.

Cyberwarfare and Psychology ranged out to investigate the bot. Via Local, they reached into it and felt its coding. The pair reported it was still broken, no different from before. Suddenly, all the Modules were reaching out over Local, fiddling and feeling at the bot, and Nicolai reached with them.

The bot's software had been rendered completely senseless. The Modules were working to try and fix its coding but discovered this was very difficult. Its Soul caused the code to resist any changes. It was broken, and its Soul, so empty and still, was useless.

However, Nicolai, feeling at the bot's empty Soul, began to feel it was quite… manipulable. He simply sent a spiritual pulse, and the bot's soul shivered in reaction.

It was then that the Mask, interested, extended its own tiny spiritual tendrils from his face toward the bot, and he recalled how he'd once pulled it off and thrown it away, to trick Paxolnaz.

Where his hand and his Soul touched on the bot, the outcropping of his Soul that was Cyberwarfare moved, slid, detached, and pressed spiritually into the bot.

Cyberwarfare cried out with glee, and observing the bot's software, Nicolai saw the reason for its excitement. The moment Cyberwarfare had entered into the bot, the code began to shift strangely, coming somehow alive. And Cyberwarfare, though spiritually only a small piece, seemed to have "fit" perfectly into whatever was missing in this bot.

Cyberwarfare had become the heart of the bot, and now the bot functioned. It began to move. As Cyberwarfare, crowing with victory, clattered by, the other Modules cried out that they wanted to try, too.

Nicolai didn't send them all, but he allowed Aiming to detach. He had to catch up and touch on the bot, and from there Aiming flowed from his Soul into it.

With the pair working together, the bots movements actually improved. In only a moment the bot was moving exploratively around the room.

Nicolai observed it, interested, but also somewhat concerned. Aiming and Cyberwarfare were no longer with him. Their hardware was still and silent, but somehow active. A sleeping piece, a piece apart, a kind of seed of themselves. The majority of the pair seemed to now be within the bot, and separate from him.

This was a new experience for Nicolai. He had not been truly separate from any of the Modules since the creation of Zero-Twelve. They had always been a part of him, even during his first weeks in this castle, where they had slept silently. But as he watched the pair move the bot around the room, he knew that this thing could be tremendously useful. A way to split himself apart from the Modules so that they may work separately but together.

If this bot could build a complete Node system there were a great deal of interesting possibilities. Would it be better for it to be big, or small?

A large part of his mind spun as he considered the possibilities. Separately, a smaller part of his mind which he knew, or at least he hoped, was invisible and unseen by the Modules, wondered: had perhaps the Modules sought to create this thing out of a purpose?

To create it as a possible new home for themselves?

He put the paranoia to rest. He told himself that if he could not trust the Modules, then he could not trust even himself—for they were as close to being himself as anything else was. That being the case, there was a great deal of testing to be done.

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