Before the World Broke — A Vegetaone Story
Supervillain saw the helm before he saw Vegeta's face.
The supply wagon came around the lower bend at Stonewake with a large armored figure sitting beside its driver. A larger figure walked behind it carrying a shield and a pack.
Envy stood.
Her ears lifted.
Super set down the route board.
“Well,” he said.
War came out of the storehouse.
Luvz looked up from the gate hinge he had been inspecting.
Vegeta climbed down with considerable care, since a dramatic leap in unfamiliar plate would have spoiled the moment beyond repair.
He took three steps into the yard.
Envy crossed it at a run.
She stopped against his leg and sniffed the new greaves, then stretched high enough to investigate his hand.
“You remember me.”
“She remembers you carry food,” Super said.
Vegeta produced the little pouch he had saved since the landing.
The hunter looked at it.
“I see you've come prepared.”
War walked around him once.
She examined the helm, the breastplate, and the newly fitted gauntlets. Then she stopped where he could see her.
“It suits you.”
Vegeta remained very still.
Super looked toward Luvz.
“We'll hear about this for years.”
“Probably,” the Tauren said.
Vegeta took the leather punch from his pack and held it out.
Luvz accepted it.
Their hands met briefly around the tool.
“Forty-one days,” Vegeta said.
“We counted.”
He had expected a joke.
The simple answer hit harder.
Behind him, Reddbull stopped at the gate and waited to be invited farther.
Vegeta turned.
“This is Reddbull.”
The two Tauren looked at one another.
Reddbull's smile faded when he saw the blue light in Luvz's eyes. The runeblade rested against the inner wall, within easy reach, and even at rest its owner carried a presence that made the driver speak more quietly.
Luvz noticed the change.
He did not pretend not to.
Vegeta stood beside Reddbull.
“He held a lift while we got people off it. Helped bring two girls home. Kept an armorer from burning because the armorer was being stupid.”
“Sarn,” Reddbull said, “would call that an incomplete report.”
Luvz looked at the repaired shield.
“Most survivors do.”
Reddbull met his eyes again.
Then offered his forearm.
Luvz took it.
The driver's voice returned to its ordinary volume.
At supper, Vegeta discovered his blanket had indeed been stolen.
Envy lay on it beneath the table.
Super declined to negotiate.
“You were away.”
“For six weeks.”
“Forty-one days, apparently. Plenty of time to establish ownership.”
Reddbull sat at the table's end, listening while the others asked about Blade's Edge. Vegeta began with the mountains, then Sarn, then the furnace and the people they had brought out.
When he described the lift, he looked toward the Tauren.
Reddbull gave his part of the account.
Nobody demanded the most impressive version.
War asked which choice Vegeta regretted.
“Going into the ash passage in anything I wanted to keep clean.”
She waited.
Vegeta put down his spoon.
“Not seeing how many people the water channel served before I thought about the armor.”
Super nodded once.
“You did see.”
“Eventually.”
Luvz glanced at the five pieces arranged along the wall.
“Looks like eventually was useful.”
The guild had stories too.
An escort caught in a landslide. A child reunited with an aunt who had moved twice without telling the quartermaster. Nali threatening to promote Super into paperwork if he kept correcting officers' route descriptions.
Vegeta laughed.
Then realized how much had happened without him.
The table had kept functioning.
Decisions had been made.
Nobody had waited to ask what their founder wanted.
For one uncomfortable heartbeat, he wondered whether that meant they needed him less.
Super slid the next convoy sheet toward him.
“The driver says the rear axle makes a noise only when he turns left.”
Vegeta read it.
“Does he turn right instead?”
“He suggested that.”
“Of course he did.”
The hunter leaned back.
“Look at it with me tomorrow.”
Vegeta nodded.
He understood the difference then.
They had managed without him.
They still wanted him here.
He found Reddbull outside afterward.
The Tauren stood beyond the lamp, looking toward the cold ridges.
“You don't have to stay,” Vegeta said.
“I know.”
“You can, though. There's work until the southern ships run again.”
Reddbull looked at the storehouse.
“Does everyone who comes through that gate become part of this?”
“No. Some complain about the food and leave.”
“It's good food.”
“Then you've eliminated one difficulty.”
Reddbull smiled.
“I'd like to help for a while.”
“Tell Sallin what you can do. Super will tell her what you shouldn't be asked to do.”
“And you?”
Vegeta looked toward the open doorway.
“I'll make sure you get a bowl.”
Later, he went through the armor once more.
The gauntlets bore a dark mark where the fuel rack had heated their edge. The greaves had a new scratch. The helm's horns made the old shelf useless.
It was already becoming something he wore rather than something he imagined.
Luvz passed the doorway on his way to watch.
He paused.
“How does it feel?”
Vegeta thought about saying powerful.
Complete.
Overdue.
He looked at the table where everyone had eaten.
“Good to bring it home.”
The Tauren nodded.
“Good to have you home.”
Vegeta watched him go.
Then moved the Battle-Helm to a stronger shelf and went to recover his blanket.
End of Chapter Seven