"So what's it to be? IS THIS GO TIME?!"
Mad is right, Icy thought to himself. The fight with Fold is approaching. I'll be entrusting my life to every one of these people... And every one of these people will be entrusting their life to me. Icy wasn't used to teamwork. Like Rand, he either worked alone or as part of the Dynamic Commie Duo.
Saving Rand's life would be easy. Icy had done it hundreds of times before, and he knew he would not hesitate to do it again. He knew Rand would do the same for him, and for all of the other Expatriates, for they were his comrades. Even the ones Rand disliked were helping to defeat tyranny, so they must be treated as comrades as well.
There were other Expatriates, however, in whom Icy was less confident. Wolf, for example. He knew that Wolf despised Rand, and Wolf made it clear at every opportunity he had that he would not let Rand escape him after Fold was gone. Wolf was somewhat less hostile towards Icy, but nonetheless Icy could tell that his death would not bother Wolf in the least. None of the Expatriates mattered to Wolf in the end; he just wanted to defeat Fold. So Wolf was the outsider of the group; however, he was also a soldier, and like all soldiers, he did what had to to get a job done, disregarding his emotions. As much as Wolf disliked the Expatriates, Icy knew he would remain faithful to them until Fold was defeated.
Kitsune's problems were the opposite of Wolf's. Whereas Wolf was dedicated but uncaring, Kitsune was caring but undedicated. Icy knew that Kitsune cared about the other Expatriates; however, Kit was very easily distracted by his emotions. He had abandoned the group on several occasions. Icy could understand why; Kit's years with Hyperspace had obviously made him a very unstable person, and on top of that Kit was a teenager. However, the reasons for Kit's fickleness were unimportant, and Icy hoped that Kit could temporarily put aside his personal problems and fight with the team.
Then there was Kit's relation with Icy in particular. To a certain extent, they both understood each other in a way that none of the other Expatriates, aside from MiaoMing, could. They had both experienced first-hand the evils of Hyperspace; they both knew what it was like to be the product of a scientific experiment gone awry. The bond formed by this sympathy had been nearly broken by Kit's attack on Rand. However, Icy had forgiven Kit, more or less, and he knew that he could still count on Kit, and Kit could still count on him.
MiaoMing was a different matter. Icy had the same sympathy for MiaoMing that he had for Kit. However, Hyperspace had effected her differently than it had effected Kit. She was less fickle and less quick to anger. However, she was just as emotional as Kit, and just as sensitive, if not more so. She was not as aggressive and not as violent; perhaps this was because she was not nearly as powerful. Nevertheless, Icy knew she was faithful to the Expatriates, and faithful to Kitsune above all. His only concern was the fact that violence seemed to disturb her; he remembered what had happened in the parking lot with Rand and the cop. This might prove to be her downfall in the coming battle.
Then there was madadric. The problem with Adric was that he was just fucking nuts. Icy wasn't sure what was happening with him, but lately mad had been hearing voices, and he kept mentioning something about Dischord. Something told Icy that mad was referring to more than the guitar he carried with him. However, as insane as mad was, Icy knew, for some reason, that he would fight Fold to the death, and wouldn't abandon any of the Expatriates... for now, at least. It was clear from his speech that mad was now determined to destroy Fold by any means necessary, and adric realized the importance of teamwork.
Icy didn't know enough about Ezelek to determine how he'd act in the fight. However, if he was a friend of mad, Icy reasoned, he must not be playing with a full deck either. Hopefully, however, Ez possessed mad's determination.
Antenor and Trolius' relationship to the rest of the group was similar to Wolf's. Although they might trust the other Expatriates more than Wolf did, they loathed Rand with a hatred that even Wolf could not match. Their relationship to Icy was almost as bad. Whereas Wolf simply considered Icy a nuisance, the space marines considered him an evil mutant freak of nature. However, like Wolf, they were soldiers, and they possessed an even greater deidication to their mission than Wolf did. They were servants of the Emperor, and Fold was an abomination, a prideful menace who was attempting to usurp the place of God and the Emperor. Icy knew that, whatever their attitude toward him, they would come to his aid in the heat of battle.
And of course there was Actor. He seemed like a very shady character at first, and indeed his motives were dubious. Originally he wanted to kill Kitsune, but then it turned out that this was just a ploy, and his real target was Fold. However, somewhere along the line something had changed in Actor. It had happened some time between when Icy left the Expatriates at the Sherm's and when Actor appeared at the Hyperspace compound. He was no longer the cold-blooded assassin he had been at the diner; somehow, the fight against Fold had become personal for him; Icy could see it in Actor's eyes, and in the way he spoke. Icy remembered Actor mentioning something about his daughter; he wondered how she fit in to his sudden personality change.
Actor's relationship with Icy was not as deep as the one Icy had with Rand, or even Kit and MiaoMing. However, unlike Wolf and the space marines, Actor was not hostile to him (at least not openly), and Icy knew that he could count on the assassin.
I wonder where Actor went, anyway, Icy thought to himself.
Icy turned his gaze to Lifyre, currently helping Ez and mad. Lifyre had obviously been a great help to the Expatriates with his healing ability; and he had already saved almost every one of the Expat's lives at least once. He held no prejudice toward any member of the group; he would save the life of Wolf just as quickly as he would save the life of Rand. Lifyre had certainly been a vital component of the Expatriates up until now, as the the team tried to survive and regroup; Icy hoped that this would continue as they went on the offensive.
Riuku was a steadfast, loyal Expatriate; adventurous, though perhaps a bit naive. He didn't seem to bear a grudge against any of the other Expatriates, and certainly not against Icy or Rand. As long as he didn't get distracted, Riuku would provide a great asset to them in the coming fight.
Then there was Vandal. His powers were similar to mad's, and Vandal was cooperating with mad in creating some sort of weapon out of the guitar mad had; however, his personality was quite different than the insane Tasmanian. Vandal, unlike the other runescribe, was quite sane; he was a soldier, and, like the other military types in the Expatriates, he knew how to get a job done without letting his emotions or anything else get in the way. His feelings toward Rand were less hatred than minor annoyance; he certainly didn't hate Rand as much as Wolf and the space marines did. Vandal didn't seem to have any negative feelings toward Icy that Icy could detect, but Icy was a friend of Rand, and a radical as well. However, once again, Icy knew Vandal's sense of duty would prevail over whatever likes or dislikes he might have for the others.
And that was the group - the Expatriates. It is up to us, all of us, to destroy Fold, Icy thought to himself. The fate of the world is in our hands.
What Wolf thinks about Rand does not matter.
What Rand thinks about Wolf does not matter.
What Trolius thinks about Icy does not matter.
None of these things mattered. The Expatriates were bound together, not by any common love of each other, by their common hatred - a hatred of Fold, and a desire to guarantee that Fold would not do with their world as he saw fit. "Our world may be fictional," Icy thought, "but it's our world, god damnit, and I won't let some upstart Watcher-wannabe take it away from us." Perhaps the prophecy was true - perhaps Fold was the fire mage - perhaps it would be Icy who killed Fold, and perhaps Icy would die in the process. This was of no importance. The death of Fold should be the only thought in Icy's mind; the how, the why, the who - were all secondary.
As cheesy as it sounded, mad was right. It was, indeed... go-time.
[OOC] I think I mentioned everyone in this post. If I forgot to mention you, PM me. [/OOC]
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