Hekate's Call, Chapter 36

Ilina had memorized the shifts of everyone in mechanics. After she'd snuck into the foreman's office where Taitle had been taking a nap, she was minorly scolded for not having asked instead of resorting to her usual tactics. Asking for things had never really worked out that well in the past. But that meant she knew the one day when the bar would be full of the Hekate's mechanics and thankfully bare of the Gestalt's crew. They didn't mesh very well as groups, ideologically speaking.

She'd assumed that Manya was being thoroughly used to her full potential all week, so beyond payday she'd avoided visiting. What was one more pilot in the pile? Her brain shut down once they all started getting grabby, so if she got pulled into the wrong role there wasn't much she was going to be able to do about it. But if nobody was actively using Manya, she might as well get her own hand in.

Who was going to stop her?

She slid into the little barroom and looked to the darkest corner of the room to find Manya sulking and playing with her tablet. The devil-thing looked up for a second as she entered, but rolled her eyes and went back to her games or videos or whatever she busied herself with.

"Show me those horns," Ilina snarled as she approached. Mean. She couldn't pull off pretty and aloof like some of the others. Wasn't big and intimidating enough to mimic Vigil or Sethlan. But what she could do was be mean. Scrawny and mean, with the unearned confidence of empire at her back.

Like that imperial runt Tresst.

Ilina hated herself just a little bit for never forgetting that name or face. A curse of hers, really. She remembered just about everyone she'd encountered. Nothing worse than facing someone down in a dark little bar or back alley and not remembering who just pulled a gun on you and whether they were going to kill you with it or fuck you with it. Or both.

"I'm not in the mood," Manya droned without looking back up at her.

They'd all gotten so complacent. Ilina kept her head down. Ilina did what she was told. It was a survival instinct. If you fight back, you just get beat down harder. If you just play along, you get off easier. Maybe they'd all gotten too used to it. She could fight when she needed to. When she wanted to. And she really wanted Manya still. Manya was a prize.

She tapped the little dry-erase sign on the booth table Manya was tucked in behind.

"Hekate staff only. Scram, contractor."

Ilina rolled her eyes and looked around the room. She wasn't leaving without her fill of candy. It wasn't even such a preoccupation at this point. She was plenty busy with Krystyn and thinking about the things she had to do there. But Krystyn arbitrarily and one-sidedly decided she wasn't allowed to have any and that was enough reason for Ilina. Eventually she spotted Caenes through the crowd at one of the tables and felt an awful rush.

If you can't win a fair fight, don't fight fair.

She leaned on the booth table and let out a loud whistle and called Caenes over. She got up and came over, trying not to look directly at Manya. Cute little thing. Easy to push around. Seemed to be Manya's type. Always looked at the girl the same way she looked at Ilina.

"I didn't think we'd see you again so soon. I think everyone's still spent."

Ilina couldn't hide her little smile, caught like a cold from Caenes' little grin. One of the few people on the Gestalt that Ilina didn't have to look up at. She gave a nod over to Manya. "Free use, except for me. Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

"Miss Carie was a mercenary too, wasn't she?" A service-perfect smile and a little head tilt. Sly thing.

Manya groaned. "I said no. Velia already explicitly told me I don't have to do anything for you."

Ilina stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Caenes. "Give you a freebie if you help out."

"Movie night?" The thought send a shiver down her spine. Anything but watching another one of Caenes' videos. No. Ilina wasn't going to cuddle up with her, no matter how soft her skin was, and watch another disgusting snuff film while she furiously jerked it.

"I'll give you the next best thing." She couldn't do that bedroom sexy voice. But she'd at least been learning from Manya and Krystyn in how to navigate the talk at least. The best teacher was experience, after all. "I want you between her legs so I can have a proper talk with her."

Caenes licked her lips while glancing towards a disgruntled Manya, and back at the mechanics. Some noise of hesitation as she made eye contact with them. Some unspoken rules to stay away from Manya, which was why Caenes and Manya only ever had the briefest little kisses and touches in and around the WFH's internals. That wasn't going to do. It had to be her.

Ilina grabbed Caenes by the chin and jerked her head back to look her in the eyes. In a more hushed voice, hopefully threatening, "You can tell them I forced you to do it. I'll sell it real good, too."

"Just head back to your friends, sis," Manya sighed. "Falke's just gonna get you in trouble. She's real good at that."

Ilina's mouth turned up in that dangerous, fanged grin. "This thing isn't allowed to say no to you."

With only a little bit of force Ilina moved Caenes in front of Manya. How did Velia do stuff like this? Stay in the girl's line of sight, in the periphery, to make sure she doesn't forget you're there while she does what you want her to do. Ilina shifted just a bit to make sure Caenes was aware of her the whole time, and to put herself between all the other mechanics and her for now.

"Miss Carie," Caenes giggled nervously. "Please–"

"You aren't asking," Ilina emphasized into Caene's ear.

This time she stuffed the giggle down somewhere deep. "Strip. And I want to see your horns and tail, too." Manya rolled her eyes and looked at Ilina. "Miss Carie. Look at me." Steel in her soft voice. "I would hate to have to report your misconduct to your commander."

Manya shuffled and peeled everything off, layer by layer, unceremoniously. No cute show for Ilina. That was fine. She was naked, and the sight made Caenes tremble in excitement. Eagerly eating up every inch of Manya's perfect body with hungry eyes the same way Ilina wanted to but never really got the chance to. Too much of a haze during those moments usually, but the factory was off right now.

"I really never thought our first time would be like this," Caenes teased as she knelt down between Manya's legs. Manya had sat back down in the booth seat. Some vain attempt to hinder access for Ilina. That was fine.

"You two are really cute together, you know that?" Ilina stepped in behind Caenes and leaned forward to touch Manya's horn. The devil-thing slapped her hand away before she could. She expected that to be the response. Rather on the tame side.

Ilina drew her pistol and pulled the slide back to chamber the first round. The slightest jump from the floor-woman at the sound, and an utterly unwholesome noise when Ilina pressed the barrel to the back of her skull. She didn't have to see Caenes's face to know what it looked like with Manya's repulsed, fearful expression looking down at her. A little nudge with the pistol and Caenes gleefully dove right into the deep end, making some of the most hungry, wet noises Ilina had heard from anyone in that position.

"You like her, don't you?" Ilina taunted.

"Fuck off, Ilina," Manya half-moaned, fingers wrapping themselves in Caenes's hair. "I'm not giving you candy."

That wasn't an answer. Ilina thumbed the safety and Manya visibly flinched at the click.

"You'll give me candy because I'm going to shoot this stupid woman if you don't." Ilina could feel all the eyes in the room on her. She was the one with the gun in her hand. She was the danger here. "Let's imagine the consequences. I blow her brains out. Crater shunts me into some near-world's prison for it. Morian quits on the spot. Velia follows her. The Inertia and the Scandal both start to fail, and the primary service-woman for the heavy rails is meat for the wagons."

The color faded from Manya's face as she did the math. Crater would never allow for that. Ilina was untouchable now that she understood the breadth of the Necromancer's blessings. Hekate was so deep with Morian's rot at this point that there was no hope of removing it without everything that had been built atop it failing. Ilina was the single point of failure, and she knew it. Why Morian was so endeared to her, she'd never know. But she knew what it did for her here and now.

"We both know that wouldn't happen. What would happen is you would get her grey matter in your wet cunt and Morian would pick it out piece by piece while chastising you for letting this happen, and I get a cozy week or two in the brig, and everyone lives with the fact that I'm still worth more than you and her combined in Crater's ledgers."

"You were prettier when you were just doing what you were told," Manya snipped, defeated. "Krystyn's gonna beat the shit out of me if she finds out. And not in the fun way."

Ilina placed a knee on Caenes's shoulder to support herself as she grabbed one of Manya's horns and took a kiss from her. "We can stay with the mechanics for the night. Go back up together when it's out of my system. If Krystyn wants to pick a fight about it, I'll have a talk with her."

"They all hate me, you know?"

"But everyone loves me," Ilina bit at Manya's lips. There was no candy in the first few kisses. When Caenes tried to shift beneath her Ilina just tapped her in the side of the head with the barrel and elicited a happy little moan.

Oh, Manya. Even in all their little visits, the devil had never turned these shades of red. Sputtering little whimpers as Caenes worked, the gasp when Caenes started using her fingers too, and those frantic little moaning breaths she took between Ilina's deep dive kisses. Ilina knew just how to stroke those horns to get her weak in the knees too. She was sure Manya would have been used to this kind of attention, but apparently the galaxy wasn't as fair to her as it should have been.

They were so fragile, Velia and Manya both. Pride and confidence they could only wield like cudgels when they had control of the situation and how they were perceived. Velia had more power than ever now and was, by extension, feeling more confident and prideful for it. But Manya? She was more vulnerable than ever and it tickled the same part of Ilina's brain that lit up in the shadow of a sixty-foot tall mountain of steel and explosives. How far could she take this dance before her luck ran out?

Ilina had to rattle the saber at least once more before the candy-sweet honey started flowing from Manya's lips, but it was tricky to tell who was falling faster. Manya was bracing herself against the booth table to stay upright, and Ilina could already feel her own limbs getting sluggish and heavy.

"Tell me when you finish, doll." Ilina sneered. Doll was something that Velia had taken to calling Manya in those quiet moments they both thought Ilina was out cold. Didn't matter what it meant, it was something shared between the two of them that Ilina could use.

Manya deserved to get off here. Like this. With a growing audience that for the first time seemed content to leer and watch rather than get involved. Quiet chuckles and commentary. They weren't getting loud and cheering or shouting over each other like they did whenever they took Ilina. It had only happened twice, but if they had a week's worth of access to her? The poor devil, shaken and crying because some people she didn't have to interact with were a bit mean to her, was lucky she'd gotten it as easy as she had.

Eventually Ilina felt a light tap on her shoulder from Manya. Then a stronger double-tap. Ilina pulled away, dragging a long string of honey with her. "I'm done," the devil moaned, breathlessly.

Oh finally. Ilina fumbled the safety back on her gun moments before it slipped out of her hands and onto the floor. Both Manya and Ilina together kicked Caenes out of the way, and Ilina slumped over Manya. Her whole body was so sluggish at this point. That giddy haze had swallowed Ilina completely.

She should do this again. This was so much fun.

"Can we stay with one of you," Manya asked. Her voice was filled with dread. "I can't take her back up like this..."

Somewhere in the distance, very far away, seemingly an indefinite distance, Taitle's voice scraped in. "You can use my bed. Aril, can you pick up Ilina?"

Ilina felt herself picked up and cradled by Sethlan. Ogre of a woman, bigger than Vigil and Krystyn both, but not nearly as charming. Too rugged for Ilina's taste. She still found herself giving the big woman dumb half-alive grin. She mumbled something like thanks at her, though by the the look of her rolling her eyes she didn't manage to form any words.

No nightmare this time. Ilina stirred to the sounds of several mechanics talking, face still buried in Manya's chest. Instinct guided her before trying to process being awake. She started kissing Manya's breasts, tracing lines up to her neck, before finally being pushed away before she could start stealing kisses from her lips.

"Get off me," the devil-thing grunted.

Ilina rolled onto her back and looked up at the mechanics. Aegis's room. It was a cramped, four-bunk room assigned to Aegis, Caenes, Sethlan, and Sethlan's unnamed partner-ogre who worked exclusively on the reactors for all the machines. They were all nice girls, if a bit rough. The level of expertise in this one little room was so far above entire military bases and research institutes.

"Carie," Aegis was the first voice she actually heard and recognized. A strung-out, absolutely destroyed voice from years of screaming at full volume across large mech hangers. She still did the hanger-silencing whistle, but tended to rely more on megaphones to shout for her nowadays it sounded like. "I'm sorry about the last week. It was my call."

"What was?" Manya pushed Ilina away as she tried to latch back onto her, realizing that her clothes had been taken too. "Get off me. I swear to god if Krystyn or Velia get on me for any of this I will break you."

That sounded nice.

Taitle sat on the bed and pet the drowsy Ilina, pacifying her attempts to cling to Manya. "I mean the whole ignoring you thing. I told my team to keep their hands off you, and to pretend you didn't exist. I just wanted to avoid anyone getting singled out by the Gestalt crew."

"It doesn't matter now, does it?"

"It matters a lot," Aegis asserted. "We already have to close ranks around Caenes, and we can only really manage to keep her safe because they don't have reason to pick out anyone else. Those fucks see us enjoying you, and suddenly all of my crew are fair targets for harassment."

Manya let out a sigh. "So, you're sorry you didn't abuse me all week?"

Aegis's laugh was deafening in the small room. She was always loud, doing anything. Ate loudly, typed loudly, laughed loudly, fucked at a reasonable volume actually. But Sethlan slapped her in the shoulder to get her to quiet down a bit. The rooms down here weren't nearly as soundproofed as the pilot quarters.

"No, no. I'm sorry we didn't stand up for you. But your people should have done that, not us."

"But nobody likes Manya," Ilina giggled. "Her whole personality is built around being better than the rest of us and smothering us in that fact at every opportunity. None of us were ever going to stand up for her. She deserves what she gets."

Everyone got quiet after that.

"Aegis," Ilina mewled, pushing into the woman's hand. "I wanna invite Krystyn to the party next week. She's really mad at you though."

Aegis let out a sudden whine. "What did I do? I thought we were getting along."

"Ah, it was the alcohol." Ilina sat up between Aegis and Manya and tried to bury the image of the two of them tag teaming her. That was a silly fantasy! They didn't get along well enough and Manya didn't like Ilina enough for that. "Morian keeps telling me I have to stay away from it because my body processes it too fast."

"So, you're prone to alcohol poisoning," Aegis groaned. "Shit, are you okay? I figured you'd throw up on your own so you'd be fine. I was surprised you were able to keep it all down in the first place."

"Krystyn took care of me. I'm fine."

"What party?" Manya cut in suddenly. She seemed to be uncomfortable, hiding her beauty beneath a blanket as best as she could. She even retracted her horns. "You mentioned you two were planning something."

Ilina grinned and leaned against Manya. "I keep missing opportunities to take Velia on a date. I'm not being a very good girlfriend. I wanted to throw her a party for her promotion, but a bunch of stuff kept coming up. But everything should be ready for next week."

"There won't be any boys," Aegis announced with a smile. "Got it worked out the other day with Trine. The Gestalt's people, save the bartenders, are all going to be barred from the rec room. We've got music and everything ready."

"Hell yeah," Ilina fist bumped Aegis. She was always so reliable. If you asked her to get something fun done it would get done. If you asked her to get something boring done, it wouldn't get done until someone was about to be shot because of it. But that was fine. Aegis was charming enough to get away with it.

"I'll try to smooth things over with Krystyn," Ilina banked back to the original point. If she didn't, then Aegis would forget that was what they were talking about. "It'll be fine. You might just need to mind your distance at the party is all."

"Bummer," she was graced by that awful sleazebag smile that looked so good on Aegis, "Heard from Symeon you're going to be giving out dancing lessons."

The mechanics were nice people. Ilina liked them for the most part. They got a bit rough and scary sometimes, sure. But that was the point. It was rough and scary, but nothing they did was intended to be dangerous or cause harm. Krystyn was like that too. Accidents happened. She couldn't hold it against Aegis, really.

Ilina kept fidgeting as she and Manya got dressed and ready to head back up. It would be too much to ask for a kiss from Aegis, right? She shouldn't. She had too many commitments already. Between Velia and Krystyn she couldn't go courting anyone else like that. And there was the ever-looming threat of Vigil too. She hadn't stopped nursing her years-long crush on Morian either. She tried not to actively think about the last one. Her head was filled with an overwhelming fuzzy feeling and it was nothing Manya was doing.

Things were a lot better now than they used to be. A bit bumpy now and then. But things were overwhelmingly pleasant.

She kept bumping into Manya as the walked down the narrow hall to the elevator to return to the pilot quarters. Ilina had the remote in her pocket and was gripping it firmly. Would Krystyn be waiting for them at the elevator door? There was a little flutter in her chest as she thought about it.

"You really do make fast friends wherever you go," Manya muttered once they were reasonably sure there was nobody else around.

Ilina shrugged. "I'd rather people like me than put myself at risk."

Manya grumbled something and said, "You shouldn't make yourself smaller for other people. It's not a winning strategy long-term."

Ilina stopped outside the elevator, weighing those words. Manya had such a huge, uncompromising presence and identity. She could be a gossip and have her fun and she could be the nightmare inducing devil-thing. Apparently she still bared her fangs and lived in that persona when she was getting beaten into the floor, according to Krystyn anyways. Ilina believed it. Manya's unyielding Manya-ness.

It was really hard not to look up to that part of her.

"You'll keep Krystyn off my back, right?" Manya picked herself back up and put back on the snarky mean-girl devilness. "If you don't, you're never getting anything from me ever again."

There was no feedback on the remote, so as the two stepped onto the large elevator, meant to hold easily six or more people, she had to hope that Krystyn was waiting. It was a strange system. Krystyn knew where she was at all times with the remote, but Ilina didn't get any feedback if she couldn't see Krystyn physically. There was only the small pinprick of light peaking out of the black shell that let her know that the collar was being worn.

There was something in that. Ilina's little brain was trying to wrap around it and find the most meaningful angle. She wanted there to be a meaning to that. Ilina realized as she worried her thumb into the casing that she should check what kind of sensation that sent, if any. She'd been doing it more and more often when she was anxious.

When the elevator door finally opened, back in the pilot quarters, Krystyn stood in front of the two of them. Neutral until Manya and Ilina stepped out together and her lip turned up.

"I thought it was weird when Ilina didn't come back up," Krystyn growled. "What were you two up together?" Her eyes were fixated on Manya.

No. Wait. Ilina promised she's step in so that Manya didn't take the heat but that wasn't the feeling building up in her chest. No. Look at me. Ilina gripped the leash and gave it a tight squeeze to rip Krystyn's attention away from the devil. It worked, though she got a dirty look.

She hadn't thought about how she was going to keep Krystyn focused on her though. Whatever came to mind first would have to do.

"I fucked her in front of everyone in the rec room and made her feed me candy," Ilina smiled wide. It was the truth. Before Krystyn could snap like she was about to, she pressed. "It took a loaded gun and a helper to force Manya to give it up. It's not her fault, so don't you dare take it out on her."

Krystyn deflated in an instant. Was it Ilina's tone? She nodded at Manya to head back and waited until she was a distance away before pushing Ilina against the wall. Gentler than she usually did. "Care to explain why you did this? Just to make me jealous?"

"Why do you think?" Ilina huffed. Petulance oozing from her very pores. "I don't take orders from you and I can make my own decisions. Stop treating me like a child that needs your protection."

Krystyn took a step back. Some array of emotions on her face. A flat, forced smile. She scratched at the back of her neck like a smoke-less Morian. Eventually the tension left her and her shoulders dropped. Was it over?

"You could have died the other night." Her voice was quiet.

Ilina rolled her eyes. Right. "I know to stay away from alcohol, and I talked to Aegis. She knows better now." She really wanted Aegis and Krystyn to not be at each others throats. They would probably make great friends too, which means she could bring Krystyn down there more often. "Besides, I brought you knowing they'd all want to do something and that I could trust you to step in if things went too far."

Krystyn turned suddenly with some guttural noise. "I'm heading back to my room. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. You should check in with your girlfriend. She came to me when you didn't show back up last night."

She stayed beside the elevator until Krystyn disappeared into her room and she was the only one in the pilot quarters hallway.

Velia was worried about her? For once Ilina didn't like the feeling that gave her. The last time Velia did something out of genuine concern for Ilina, she followed Ilina to the meeting with the Corpse Eater in the third district. When Morian was going to put that needle in her neck and Velia took her place. Ilina didn't want Velia to be genuinely concerned for her. Her going between pretending to care and neglecting her was fine.

It was the way things should be.

The only person Velia should care about is herself.

Among all of the things that Morian had done to Velia over the years, whatever changes she induced to make Velia more directly affectionate was the worst one. Ilina could pretend she didn't see the cracks all she wanted, but when other people were seeing them it was a problem. Was she really going to have to ask Morian what she did to fix Velia? What was lost when she was put back together?

She didn't want to know.

Maybe she'd just forget all about all of this after the party and things would go back to normal and stay that way. Velia deserved to see the fruits of her labor, after all.