(Remaster) The Ship of the Tempest

Trench Wellfare

The wind whistled with a low howl in this newly formed Icy Trench, where the scattered ruins of the fortress now laid strewn about in various states of destruction. Some distance away from the general site of the rubble, ever so slowly, did some snow that collapsed from above begin to move and shake.

A pale hand broke through the layer, batting away the snow as Adapter woke up from her brief stint of unconsciousness, coughing up some of the ice that fell into her mouth and froze her tongue for some time. She felt horrible, some of her skin feeling singed and burnt from...the explosion...

She snapped to attention as she realized what had happened, and her single yellow eye scanned everywhere, only to see nothing but ice walls and fractured metal scattered around. She got out of the small blanket of snow that had covered her, searching around desperately for her compatriot.

...

'There!' She saw a flicker of black metal under the snow nearby, and she rushed over no sooner than after she spotted it. She went to work uncovering where her head must have been, soon digging up exactly who she was looking for.

Soon the snow fell away from the pale skin beneath, Z73 having been rendered completely unconscious after that last attack from Omitter. However, she was still breathing, a bit worryingly slow and light yes, but still alive.

"73..." Adapter slowly worked her out of the snow, picking her up and finding her...oddly light. It was almost startling how light the woman was, even if she already knew her enemy wasn't exactly the heaviest person around.

Of course, that was when she saw exactly why she was so light all of a sudden.

Adapter's lone eye locked onto Z73's left arm...rather, what's left of it after it took that final blast from Omitter. The gauntlet that once covered it was blasted away, with only flakes of it left on her skin and some even singed into the flesh.

Though the flesh itself was the worst part by far. Her hand was completely ruined, all but her ring finger completely missing, and even the ring finger looked ready to fall off at any time, from the slightest pressure to the appendage.

It wasn't much better once you start going up either, what with muscle and sinew in open air, sometimes blackened bones visible as well underneath. It was an unsalvageable injury and would need to have her cube removed and regenerated before 24 hours pass.

...

There was no way that was happening.

Adapter knew that some Kansen had permanent injuries thanks to going too long before regenerating, making those marks on them a new feature that can't be removed, like Scharnhorst's ruined eye. In this case, there was no way that she could get Z73 to one of the bases and healed in time to...

...

Why was she still caring so much for the enemy?

In her arms was the single greatest foe of her people, the root cause of all their current strife and complications...completely defenseless and vulnerable. Even if she was awake and moving, the pain of losing that arm and the actual loss of one limb might be more than enough for Adapter to kill her.

Yet here she was, cradling said enemy, and soothing the still hissing plasma burns with the snow. Was she turning traitor because of...of this Demon?

"...Can't believe I'm doing this..." She bay those thoughts away and sat herself down, laying Z73's head on her lap to begin stroking her hair as the ghosts of a smile came to her face. "To think that we share such a connection between one another..."

Of course, she did think of how to get out of this newly made trench, and there wasn't much options besides climb out. There's definitely no land bridge equivalent, and if there was, it probably wouldn't be long before the Ocean burst through the ice and flooded the entire trench and drowned both of them.