Work Text
Ribbons brings Tieria upstairs.He finds himself alone with a dangerous man. As deceptively urbane and unassuming Ribbons is, and on top of being the man behind the A-Laws, Tieria can sense something underhanded in Ribbons. He tells himself to stay focused, he’s here for answers, but the siren-like mention of Veda had thrown him off kilter. Knowing now that it wasn’t Veda who had rejected him, that it might have been Ribbons’s interference, was starting to send Tieria into a heady mix of doubt, indignance and aching want. Tieria had learned to live without Veda for four years, but how quickly he falls back to craving when a whiff is offered.Ribbons is an Innovator, too. He could access Veda the same way Tieria could, but… “How do you have control of Veda?”“How? Unlike you, I don’t wait to be given and taken from,” Ribbons says mirthfully. “You overestimate Veda’s capabilities. It may be omniscient but it’s still a physical machine and it still runs an operating system, after all.”So it’s true, Veda could be compromised. Tieria balks. “You hacked Veda?”“‘Hacked’ implies that I didn’t have rightful access.”“Rightful access… that I didn’t have…?”“Of course, you’re a combat-type, your access was purely mission critical. As an information-type, however, it’s natural that I would be privy to more than just Celestial Being’s affairs.”“That doesn’t make sense… Why revoke my access further? Veda would have helped me carry out the plan.”“There’s more to the plan than just the first phase. In fact, you’ve far outlived your usefulness now; Celestial Being was meant to be destroyed four years ago.”The conflict roiling inside Tieria is on the verge of turning into a tempest. He had come on this mission so convinced that all he needed to do was look into the eyes of this beast they were up against. Ribbons was supposed to be the answer to all of Tieria’s questions about who his true enemy was, the thing that would put his creeping doubts to rest, but his forthrightness was disorienting.This all felt like walking into a trap. But everything Regene and Ribbons had told him so far was true. Not withholding anything, yet still leading him along by the nose. Tieria was here, clearly, because they wanted him here– to what end?The truth was Ribbons knew about Aeolia’s plan and Tieria didn’t. Even when he had access to Veda, when he thought that had afforded him knowledge that nobody else possessed, it was limited– because he was a Gundam Meister.Tieria shakes his head as if to clear it. “No… It can’t be true,” he tells himself more than he addresses Ribbons.Ribbons answers anyway, “Why would I lie? You’re an Innovator, too.”You’re an Innovator, too. An Innovator and a Gundam Meister. An angel and a human. Innovators who are supposed to guide humanity. Didn’t Tieria once think he was better? But hasn’t Tieria been learning to be human?Tieria is left with yet more questions. If Celestial Being was to have been gone by now, does that mean things are still going according to the plan? Had Aeolia Schenberg not accounted for Celestial Being’s survival? And since Celestial Being did survive… what was the state of the plan now? Questions Veda would have the answers to, answers that were practically within Tieria’s grasp.If Celestial Being was really created to be destroyed then Tieria was clinging to his own selfish desires instead of the plan. Like a human would. And since he was being selfish, all he wanted was to crawl back to Veda, to get off this planet and float in the Ptolemy’s gravityless terminal again, to restore the part of him that was lost– lacking.He doesn’t want to beg, but his eagerness gets the better of him. “So you’d give me Veda access? Complete access?”Ribbons narrows his eyes for a moment. “Of course,” he says, with a slightly strained edge to his voice, but he lets his eyes glow, and after a moment, Tieria feels Veda’s presence, first at the edge of his consciousness then rushing back into him as he reaches out towards that feeling.Tieria falls to his knees, overwhelmed by this sudden return to a state of grace. Information floods his synapses. Every nanomachine inside of him seems to sing with ecstasy. And Ribbons’s quantum brainwaves feel palpably loud as they collide with Tieria’s own, mingling and passing through each other.Veda probes him with a handshake, which Tieria shiveringly, unthinkingly acknowledges, letting the date flow upwards from him. Distantly, he can hear Ribbons’s wry, childish chuckle, and then words almost distorted: “How weak, Tieria Erde. I thought you’d put up more of a fight.”Immediately, he thinks, I’ve made a huge mistake. This was worse than revealing Nadleeh too soon, worse than anything any member of Celestial Being had ever done that Tieria would have cast them away for. His fellow pilots, if he even deserved to call them that– bad enough for Lockon to have died for his mistake once, now the rest would, too.The initial comfort of reunion with Veda gives way to cold dread. If Tieria had ever thought himself worthy of being a Gundam Meister, worthy of being connected to Veda– its child, its prophet– that feeling was gone now.He’d just given Ribbons everything he knew about Celestial Being’s location, technical specs, operations, for what? Hastily, he tries to shut Veda away again, but it’s already too late. Tieria is once again a living terminal for Veda, one of many, no longer one of one.“It doesn’t matter. We already knew you would be here, after all. I knew.” At some point between Tieria’s heaving gasps, Ribbons disappeared. In his place, now, Regene Regetta. “Tieria Erde. You came to me.”Regene kneels by Tieria’s side. He rests a hand between Tieria’s shoulder blades.We already knew– by which he means Celestial Being would be wherever the Innovators wanted them to be, with or without being linked to Veda, simply by their stated goal of reacting to A-Laws aggression. Or by laying bait through Wang Liu Mei, another compromised source. Did Celestial Being ever stand a chance against the Innovators? Did they anymore?Surely, Sumeragi Lee Noriega could maneuver her way out of this. Surely, Setsuna could–Sounds of shouting outside mean Setsuna’s cover must be blown.Tieria tries to stand and make for the window, but Regene’s hand on his back presses to keep him down. When he reaches for the pistol tucked into his garter, Regene catches his arm.They grapple a bit then Regene pins Tieria to the ground. “It’s okay,” he says in his unerringly light, unplaceable tone.Tieria struggles against Regene’s grip. “No, I have to–”“Your boy will be fine,” Regene says. And then, in Tieria’s mind, I’ll let you in on a secret. Ribbons doesn’t know everything.“What–?”“I told you, we’re the same type.”Tieria stills. He reaches out with quantum brainwaves, keys in on Regene’s wavelength, the thing they share as 0988-types. Just you and me?Regene, hovering over him, nods.This was something that Tieria never had to contend with when the highest level access he had to Veda was Level 3, the everpresent links to every other information-type. His connection to Regene was the only place in the mesh as private as his own mind, and unfocusing from it brings back the awareness of Veda constantly updating itself. Tieria can remotely sense Ribbons’s movements nearby, as well as Hiling Care’s, the other 0026-type.It occurs to him, despite his attempts to consolidate power, Ribbons was just like them: a living terminal. His control of Veda gave him an advantage, but he was still drawing on the same massive bank of data. What Ribbons knows, Veda knows. What Veda knows, Tieria could in due time. Even what he knows now about the Innovators is more intel than Celestial Being had prior.Regene’s voice inside his mind cuts through his thoughts, Doesn’t it feel good to be connected?And it does feel good: the comforting wholeness of an absence he had never realized. Tieria had been alone and disconnected– sure, he had Veda before, but this is different… Regene is another of his type, his counterpart, his double…Regene’s hands move from Tieria’s arms to his waist. One lingers there while the other moves further down, sliding in past the slit of Tieria’s dress. Suddenly, the skin to skin contact makes him jolt.Tieria feels his body heat rise, radiating out from his now molten core, as Regene continues onwards between Tieria’s legs.Regene cups Tieria’s groin in his hand and stops. “Did that man touch you, too?”“Who?”“The human you…” Regene sighs. His voice doesn’t change, but a furrow appears in his brow. “Lockon Stratos.”It feels weird and confusing to hear Regene say his name. Tieria shakes his head. He’d never even known to want this from Lockon.“Okay,” Regene replies, smiling. “I’d get jealous.”He leans down, still smiling, to kiss Tieria. His hand continues to press against the flimsy fabric of Tieria’s underwear, rapidly growing damp.Tieria doesn’t make any noise, and the wave of heat crashes over him and subsides as quickly as it came.Regene pulls his hands away. When he leans back, Tieria can see a bulge at the front of his pants. Regene palms himself perfunctorily with a contented exhale then says, “Let’s save that for later.”Compared to Regene in a suit, Tieria feels self-conscious in a dress, especially now that it’s not mission relevant. Now that the mission has gone completely sideways. As if Regene can tell exactly how he feels, he wordlessly conveys the image of Tieria in the same clothes Regene was wearing when they first met. Tieria cringes, but the background thrum of his link with Veda reminds him that he’s something more like Regene and Ribbons than he is like Setsuna or Allelujah.For four years, Tieria had indulged the foreign intrusion that was humanity. It’s all slipping away from him now.I got what I wanted, Regene says across the telepathic link. What do you want?Could a living terminal want anything?