Chapter Text
Scarlet sat down, wincing as she lowered herself to the ground. Everything hurt. It always did now. Ten years of adventuring would do that, she supposed, but now more than ever she was just tired. Her joints were stiff and the constant pain in the small of her back was flaring again now that there was a moment of peace. And all of this before she was at her equivalent to thirty. Lovely.
But now wasn't exactly the time to focus on that. Now was a time for talks.
Across from her Bat and Mellori took their seats. There was an uneasy truce between the three of them, attested to by the space between them. Mellori glanced between both Scarlet and Bat before finally deciding to speak. "We're not going to get anywhere if you two refuse to even talk."
Scarlet frowned, resisting the urge to facepalm. No shit. Bat remained silent as well, taking his time to survey the situation. Finally Scarlet gathered herself enough to reply at least moderately civilly. "That much was obvious. However, given the both of your track records I think we can all understand why I'm reluctant to make any sort of plan."
Okay, maybe not as civil as she had intended, but it got the point across. Both Bat and Mellori drew back a little at her comment. Thankfully they both at least had the decency to look a bit ashamed. "Now," Scarlet continued, "I believe we're here to do something about your - our - parents? Grandparents? And their frankly godawful plans for the Spiral. I don't know about you two, but I, myself, rather like living and would appreciate continuing to have a place to do so. So with that said - I have no freaking idea what to do about their plans. I don't even know half of what they have planned. So I guess my first questions are where do we start and what's the backstory?"
Bat relaxed a little. Now this he was familiar with. "You know about the Chaos Heart and how it binds the Spiral together? Father wants it back. And our dearest Aunty doesn't want him to get it back."
"Wasn't her plan for that to just destroy the Spiral before Spider could?" Scarlet asked. "Because so far I'm not really impressed with that plan."
"She never said it was a GOOD plan." Mellori piped up.
Scarlet giggled. Okay, point to Mellori on that front. But back to business. "That still leaves out how we stop them."
"Right." Bat replied. "If I may continue? Spider is undoing the Paradox Chains. You should know that - I believe that's around the time you returned to your group from your break. If we can undo his work we could bring the conflict to a stalemate. If Spider can't access his heart Raven should have no reason to continue with her moronic motions."
Scarlet nodded. It could work. It was a far-fetched idea, but weren't all of them at this point? Having a goal was better than wandering aimlessly. "And I take it you know how to repair one of these Paradox Chains then?"
"Not exactly, but I have an idea. It can wait until tomorrow morning though because let's be honest, does any of us want to be out wandering around collecting the components needed for the repair at this hour?" Bat said. As if to prove his point, Scarlet felt her stomach rumble. Mellori shook her head as well. Thankfully, if there was one thing Scarlet could universally count on, it was the need for lazy evenings.
"Truce? And break for the night then? I suspect Gareth will have supper ready by the time we get back." Scarlet suggested. Bat and Mellori were only too happy to agree to that.
The three of them stood up and began to set off for their camp, each starting to see the light at the end of their tunnel.