Chapter Text
The forest seems to eat up sounds and light, and Malos doubts that anyone else than him can even see in between the trunks of the trees. It’s night. He’s looking at trees because it’s the only damn thing there’s to look at , sitting in a wagon with a bunch of humans. A man is snoring. A couple women in dresses adorned with tassel are sitting together and smoking something that smells cloyingly like the bathrooms in the Praetorium. The driver takes no notice of either of them, simply stares lifelessly out into the night while his steeds trot mechanically forward. The lanterns on all the carriages behind them glow dimly through the branches, and Malos swears the caravan seems to get longer every time he checks.
Absentmindedly, he rubs his shoulder and looks at the road, the stone path disappearing into ever more darkness – and then there’s a light. Or something flashes up. A spark.
Malos startles but does not do anything like stand up or spontaneously leap off the wagon, the light fading as fast as it came, and you know what? Maybe he’s actually started hallucinating. He stubbornly keeps his eyes on the road, like he’s even gonna see anything, but then he does . He sees some dumbass standing right in the middle of the road, and barks out, “Stop!” and the idiot driver startles so bad he almost falls of the wagon, but then he gets the animals to trot off to the side of the road and at that point Malos is already jumping off.
The idiot on the road just stands there, head cocked as he lazily regards the wagon, but for some dumb reason Malos’s anger fades away the closer he looks at the man. Oh shit. He recognises the idiot. Malos has never seen him before, but the dark skin and floppy white hairdo and the crystal by his throat are just… familiar. Deep down, he knows… something.
Why.
“Hey,” Malos calls out, to which the man just starts walking away , out into the woods, and Malos can’t believe that he’s really fucking doing it, but damn it, he chases after the man anyway. He needs to talk to him. It’s not like the man goes very far either, no, he just stops there in the forest and stares at Malos with an unreadable expression, and Malos comes to a stop to glare at him. Unfortunately only two seconds after they lock eyes something clicks in Malos head, and then there’s a voice in his head saying;
‘Good evening, Logos.’
This isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to Malos, even though it’s up there on the weird list, and Alrest is a fucked up place. What the fuck, Malos died once already, this is barely anything. So Malos stares hard at the man and thinks, the name only coming to his mind by looking hard at the guy’s face and taking a wild guess, Ontos?
The man smiles.
Aegis-only telepathy, Malos figures, and rolls with it. Why are you here?
There are many things he’d like to yell at Ontos, but who knows what would happen then. He can feel Ontos’s power, if he concentrates on it, but it’s slippery and off and Malos can’t discern any element. Provoking Ontos could turn into one of those things that are really hilarious, but only in the exact moment it’s happening and never again (because after it you’re six feet under).
‘I wanted to see you’
Real sweet of him, isn’t that just. Malos’s scepticism must bleed through their brand new telepathy link, for Ontos gives him this look. Malos tries to ignore that the third and last Aegis is giving him a look that smug. It’s the middle of the night and they’re right in the middle of nowhere, Malos might as well take a chance here. He thinks, do you want to join me?
‘In what?’
For starters, Malos thinks bitterly, getting off this Titan.
They’ve just been taking each day as it comes, stumbling towards a goal so far away it’s laughable. It’s not. Malos feels the hate still churning in him, the cold anger that makes him stubbornly carry on despite the fact that he’s too weak to even summon forth his damned sword. This thing’s gonna have one hell of a body count if everything goes like it’s supposed to. But for now, nothing. Focus on staying alive. Malos may be full of hate and Jin’s gotten sharper and colder, but right now he’s sleeping back in another wagon and Malos is – is what? They’re traveling with merchants and refugees and vagabonds, hiding in cloaks, sitting up all night and keeping watch because everything could kill you when you have no power.
Ontos takes a moment to answer. He tilts his head like he’s amused and Malos hears, baffled and a bit sad, ‘ what in the world are you doing, Logos?’
Malos grits his teeth. Yeah, what? Is he gonna destroy the world now? With his cracked Core and Jin’s many issues? Is that what he’s doing right now? Is being on this Titan a step in their grand master plan , is there a grand master plan?
He says out loud, “…I don’t know.”
And Ontos steps forward, breaking their staring contest and saying out loud, “Alright. Lead the way.”
It’s quiet in Malos head. He turns and starts walking briskly to catch up with the caravan, Ontos trailing after him.
The rider in front doesn’t even seem to notice that Malos brought one person more back with him. Malos just pulls his hood more firmly up and takes his old seat, Ontos dropping down to sit next to him. For one blessed minute, Ontos doesn’t say anything, just hums a quiet tune. They stare into the woods as the caravan trots forward slowly. Then the thick canopy of branches above them starts to let up, and hundred-year old trees turn into small little saplings and bushes, and then they’re out on the plains again. Evidently that’s what the driver was waiting for, as he then makes the animals come to a stop, and the other wagons start slowing down too, spreading out over the grass.
People start to climb out of the wagons and carriages and carts and set up camp or something, and of course that’s when Ontos decides to start talking again. “So, Logos,” he begins.
Malos immediately interrupts with, “My name is Malos.”
“…Malos?” Ontos asks, and gives him a sad look that makes Malos want to punch him.
“Yes.”
“Well then.” Ontos smiles again. “I’m Ontos. What is it that you’re going to do, after leaving Skyldin?”
Malos looks out at the horizon. There’s a lot of sea. The Cloud Sea mist is thick above the water and the moon is just a thin slice in the sky. This part of Skyldin is just plains and hills and what looks to have been a marsh not so long ago, and he thinks he can spot Flamiis farther away on the field. He looks at this all and thinks, to himself since Ontos left his head, it’s really time to change the subject.
“There’s someone you should meet. Right now.” Malos doesn’t wait for Ontos to object, just jumps off the wagon and starts trekking over to three wagons parked in a cluster. Ontos follows him. There’s a red-white patterned fabric working as a ceiling and walls to one of the wagons, and Malos pulls back enough of it to awkwardly look inside. There’s a Gormotti woman with her two sleeping kids in one end of the wagon, and in the other Jin is curled up, halfway to sitting up, mask off, head lolling to the side and eyes closed. Malos can’t see his Core crystal, which means that nobody else has probably seen it either.
Malos climbs up in the wagon and puts a hand on Jin’s shoulder, shaking him as gently as he knows how. Jin wakes as gracefully as always, which is to say better than Malos, and sees Ontos. He rasps, “Who’s that?”
“My name is Ontos,” says Ontos serenely, looking over Malos’s shoulder. Jin gives Malos a flat look that he translates to, really Malos? “It’s nice to meet you.”
Jin looks at Malos. Malos says, “This is Jin.”
Ontos says, “I haven’t been here for long. If you two could get me up to speed on recent politics and such I’d be most grateful.” He smiles wryly. Malos’s eyes cut to his throat, and the white crystal on a necklace he’s got there. It’s large, and shaped like Malos’s own, and it glows with an iridescent lustre. If Ontos wasn’t here then where was he? And why would he come here at all? This world, this Titan – did it matter which one? He shouldn’t be on either. Malos sounds pissed even in his own head.
“So why come here?” Malos asks again, keeping his voice casually curious.
Ontos looks at him and then he says. “I’m looking for Pneuma.”
Malos shares a look with Jin (and there’s no telepathy this time. Seems it’s really just Aegis-only). The name Pneuma sounds familiar in a very irritating way, but really? In this world he’s never heard of anyone named Pneuma. Maybe that information was in one of his memory files or Blade data that got corrupted and destroyed. And Jin doesn’t seem to have heard of Pneuma, either, so no dice. Ok then. “Alright,” he says. And then he doesn’t get the chance to find some other topic to argue about before Jin says,
“I see. Malos, can I talk to you privately?
“Sure.”
Jin starts to get up but Ontos says, “Oh I can move, don’t worry.” He starts walking away, humming again, and Malos sticks his head out of the wagon to see as he goes to chat with some Urayans. Ooh, so he’s the chatty type. Goddammit. He’s standing far away enough that Malos knows he won’t hear anything, in case that’s the kinda discussion Jin is going for. The Gormotti family they’re currently sharing the wagon with is still asleep, and Malos doubts they’d glean much from listening to him and Jin talk, anyway.
He lets the fabric flap fall shut and turns to look at his companion. “What’s the matter, Jin?”
“Ontos,” says Jin in that polite tone he’s got when there’s some minor inconvenience in his way. “Who is he?”
Malos stalls. Then he changes his mind and says bluntly, like ripping off a bandage, “He’s another Aegis.”
Jin leans back, and puts his face in his hands.
“I’m not sure we can trust him though,” Malos admits.
Jin doesn’t even answer. Fair enough.
“He showed up out of nowhere. Like where the fuck has he even been all this time if not in Alrest?” Malos vents at Jin. “A third Aegis. Did Amalthus just leave him up in the World Tree?” If only Malos could remember a single damn thing from the World Tree… “…and who the hell is Pneuma?”
“Does Ontos…” Jin speaks up, “know about the war?”
“Don’t think so.”
“He could get in the way of our goal.”
They share a long look. Then we’ll get rid of him , isn’t exactly an option. As much as Malos curses and rages and pretends he can’t feel it, hides his Core away, it’s still broken. He’s broken. He can’t use his own fucking sword, for pity’s sake! Everything involving Ether is a goddamn chore to do, and reaching any Artifice is just impossible. And Ontos is an unknown variable. They’ve never seen him before – who knows what things he’s capable of? Even worse that he doesn’t seem to work for anyone, or have any specific reason to stick around, or anything very specific and easy at all. They don’t know a single thing about his motives or his stance on recent events.
Though if they’re fortunate, Ontos won’t know his own stance on recent events either.
“We could let him travel with us for a while,” Malos offers.
Jin takes it. “Alright.”
“It’s not like we can fight in the middle of a camp this size.” (he could’ve, before. He would have.)
“Keep the details vague. Don’t tell him more than necessary.” Jin says and stares intently at Malos, and even without fancy Aegis-only telepathy he knows that they’re both thinking, don’t tell Ontos about our goal . They can trust him not to kill them in their sleep, probably, but that’s only because he doesn’t know the full story. He’ll never know the full story. You just can’t get it unless you were on Torna, back before they sank it. So that’s not happening.
Keeping quiet about shit can’t be that hard, anyway.
“He can stay, but we won’t tell him about what we’re doing.” Malos summarises.
Jin doesn’t reply but tilts his head in that way Malos is starting to guess that means, I agree.
It’s funny, figuring out Jin’s mannerisms. Figuring out anybody’s mannerisms at all. Having anybody around at all who he’d make the effort with. The monks in Indol were blank-faced all the time, Amalthus’s only mood is variations of hate, and then there really wasn’t anybody else Malos even got close to having a civil conversation with. Malos didn’t ever need to bother with anybody else’s emotions before: if they got mad, so fucking what? Malos could destroy anything, so what did anything even matter? Literally everything was hilariously insignificant back then.
It’s… strange. That he bothers so much with Jin. It isn’t at all, really, but if he compares now to then it just seems weird.
It’s nicer than he thought to have someone on his side.
Malos figures, while taking a last look at Jin before dropping out of the wagon again to hunt down Ontos from whatever trouble he’s talked himself into, that all in all, he’s glad to have Jin here. Even if they’re both broken-down in their own private ways and mostly useless, at least they’re not completely alone in this terrible fucking world.