Ashes to Ashes attempts to be a dramatization of Spiral Knights canon.

Rating: PG-13, some violence

I got rushed towards the end when I realized I wouldn't have as much time as I thought (been busy outside of SK!) So enjoy the story!

Ashes to Ashes
by Tyrelius (timanth)

Where did it all go so wrong?

Parsec looked at the broken bodies of his squad mates, strewn around the room like dolls discard by a world which had outgrown them. First Olms...and now this...As the titanic figure of the cursed king loomed up before him, his thoughts fell back to the day the band had struck their fate in the cogs of the Clockworks.
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Light streamed down into Haven square. A solitary knight leaned back against the fountain, tilting his head back to let the light sprinkling of water splash against his face.

"Still lazing around like always, eh Parsec?"

He looked unhurriedly up at the figure standing over him, her silhouette outlined against the warm sunlight. "Don't you have something better to do than bothering people trying to relax, Serl?"

The figure shrugged, taking a seat on the fountain's edge. Slowly, it resolved into the slim figure of another night, her worn-in armor splattered with globs of jelly and gremlin blood.

"Not really. Just finished another job for HQ. Although..." She leaned in conspiratorially, "It's rumored that they're cooking up a really big job, something larger than they've ever handed out before. Supposedly, this time, they're looking for people to go down after Alpha Squad."

That got his attention. Alpha Squad...the only group to ever make it down to the Core...and beyond. They were his lifelong idols, even though he had never met a single member, or even seen much of them in the media. For a chance to go down and follow in their footsteps, and be paid for it to boot? His azure eyes opened, looking up at Serl, "I'll get the others."
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The death cries of the Snarbolax deafened their ears as the creature staggered, XT's rapier buried in its heart. Parsec fell to the ground, his gloved hands clapped to his ears as the blood-curdling bellows filled the clearing. Even XT, who valiantly clung to his blade like a drowning man clings to driftwood, eventually had to release his grip to shield his ears as the great beast thrashed back and forth, crushing brambles in its wake. The sheer volume of the noise was enough to cause his vision to blur, the knight only able to faintly make out the dark shape of the great beast as it staggered from side to side, thick blood oozing from the multitude of puncture wounds that riddled its side.

Finally, it slumped down, dead, almost crushing XT with its bulk, bowling over the knight still crouched on the ground. A strange silence filled the clearing. It was eerie, in a way, as if the entirety of the Gloaming Wildwoods were waiting with baited breath, now that its ruler was defeated. Nary a sound was heard, not even the yip of a wolver, so prevalent until now. Cautiously, the four knights unclasped their hands from their ears, and dared to look around. The Snarbolax, with its great horned head, lay lifeless among the ruins of the central briar bush, the lacerations from the sharp thorns still oozing ichor.

But it was over. They'd done it. Parsec walked among his squad mates, offering quiet comfort to each of them in turn, but Serl's angry glare as she nursed her broken arm told him better than to try the same with her. Instead, the squad leader simply sat down beside her, saying nothing. Silence dominated the scene as the four combatants rested.

"It wasn't your fault, you know," Parsec finally said, just because something needed to be.

"It was damn well my fault, and we all know it," Serl retorted hotly, her voice cracking as tears welled up in her eyes. "Why do you keep doing that? Making excuses for me, trying to make it sound like it wasn't I who dropped the ball. If I hadn't screwed up, just maybe, MAYBE we wouldn't be in the shape we are now!"

"…" There was nothing to be said to that statement. At the crucial moment, Serl, whose aim was always impeccable, had missed the bell that would have stunned the great beast. Parsec could still hear Olms' cry of pain as the Snarbolax's powerful jaws crumpled his armor around him. But he had done the best he could; they had no choice but to press on. For now, though, he simply let the deafening silence of the Gloaming Wildwoods wash away his sorrows.
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"Everybody grab hold of something!" Parsec yelled as steam hissed and sparks sputtered from the twin gunpuppies. Project Roarmulus was no more, but its brainchildren were not going down easy. The clanking sound of gears no longer well-oiled clamored on the air, and the two massive constructs writhed to and fro as if alive, and dragging out the last of their death throes. Stray rockets spouted forth, smashing down against the platform, which warped and bent under the assault.

A panicked shout brought the squad leader's head whipping around, spying Olms sliding towards the edge of the platform, clutching a bit of broken block in his hand. The golden-eyed knight was sliding dangerously fast towards the staging area's lip, which now bent precariously downwards, revealing the grinding gears of the Clockworks below. Without a second thought to his own safety, Parsec leaped up from his safehold, skittering down the tilting platform towards the flailing bombadier. A laser shot by his ear, leaving the taste of ozone in his mouth as he dived forwards, his arms sailing over the edge of the platform to latch his hands firmly in Olms', who held him in a deathgrip as the two careened towards the chugging, clanking abyss.

"Don't let go!" He called down as he fought to sink his steel boots into the unyielding floor. Right when he thought they would both plummet to their deaths, he felt the toes of his footwear catch heavily on a steel beam, left exposed by the cracking of the floor. Pain lanced through his legs as he felt the weight of two knights suspended fully upon the tops of his feet. They hung there together, teeth clenched as they waited to ride out the storm. He could see one of the massive robots in front of him, its glowing turquoise eyes filled with an artificial malevolence as it fought to regain control of its servos, just enough to finish off the two helpless knights caught in its sights.

A faint white glow sputtered to life within one of the gunpuppy's laser emitters, the malevolent machine rousing itself for one last effort to eliminate the intruders on its masters' domain. But as the searing whine of the beam armament reached a fever pitch, a snap, followed by the shriek of metal on metal, cut the construct short as the supports propping its jaws open finally gave out, the great steel jaws slamming shut, neatly shearing its laser emitter in half. With a colossal groan, the massive head tipped forwards, the square jaw smashing heavily into the platform, tilting it even more precariously.

"Arrrrghhh!" Olms' cry of pain brought Parsec's head whipping back from the entrancing sight of the dying construct. The precariously bent edge had forced the duo too low, and one of the dangling knight's boots had been caught between two of the grinding gears of the Clockworks below. With an angry groan, they ground to a halt, their implacable movement slowed by Parsec's desperate grip on his squadmate.

"Hang on, we'll get you out of there!" Parsec told the pleading eyes the fallen knight. But even as he said this, he knew he wouldn't, as the relentless cogs winched his leg in deeper, sickening crunches emanating from between the powerful gears. Blood dripped from the bottom of the golden knight's helm as the Clockworks claimed more and more of his body. Parsec's muscles strained hard as he pulled back on Olms' arms, but even then he could feel his own legs tiring, straining from their fragile boothold on the steel beam. It wouldn't be long before they gave out completely and he, too, would tumble in to his death. But he couldn't let go...

The gunshot rang out loudly over the din of the crumbling remains of Project Roarmulus as the twins finally began to grow still. Olms' head snapped back, tensed briefly, before falling slack, a bloody third eye in his forehead. His hands lost their death grip on Parsec's wrists, and the knight fell backwards into the grinding gears. Another rotation, and all that was left was bits of flattened armor slowly flaking off down into the depths. Disbelievingly, Parsec slowly turned, to see Serl standing behind him, her Callahan still spitting blue smoke.

"There was nothing we could have done for him," she said levelly, although her hand was trembling when she holstered her gun.

"How could you say that?!" Parsec shouted, rounding on the female knight, his grief fueling his anger, "He was your friend too! And you SHOT him!"

"You think I don't know that?!" She yelled back, tears streaming from her eyes, "You think that that wasn't hard for me?! Olms was...he was...my..." She stopped there, unable to finish her sentence, looking away.

That stopped Parsec cold. "I'm sorry," he offered, "I...I didn't know."

"We didn't really make it a big deal," Serl answered hollowly, the strength seeming to go out of her legs as she fell forwards, leaning against her oldest friend. He put his arms gently around her, holding her close as she wept silently, "But he was always there when I needed him...I can't believe he's gone..."

Eventually the crimson knight pushed away from him, wandering over to lean against the elevator. Parsec looked around for XT, but the green-eyed knight had already recovered and was currently working the elevator's mechanism. Sometimes he could swear that XT was actually just a robot. Taciturn, skillful, and deadly, the fourth member of the squad was somewhat of a mystery. He rarely spoke, didn't make smalltalk, and to be honest Parsec didn't remember quite where he met the silent knight. But he was good at what he did, and the knight could always rely on him to take care of himself.

“Any progress?” He asked the fencer, who was currently fiddling around behind the elevator's display panel.

“I've almost got it. You won't believe how many places the gremlins have this going to; it was tough tracking down the original hacked rails down to Emberlight when the outcasts fled this place. But now that I've found it...ah, there.”

The screen fizzled for a moment, static hissing across the display before the icon of a house slowly resolved itself.

“I don't know how long it will hold. We should get going while we have the chance.”

He glanced sidelong at Serl, the two male knights thinking the same thing.

“We don't have to keep going, you know,” Parsec said, after a pause, “I'm sure it wouldn't take XT long to rewire the elevator to take us back up to Haven.”

She didn't answer for a long time. Finally, she raised her head, wiping the tears from her eyes, “No. We keep going. Olms...he wouldn't have wanted us to stop.”

“Alright then.” Parsec nodded, his expression grim, “We keep going.”

Together, the three remaining knights boarded the elevator, whose servos sputtered to life reluctantly before grinding downwards, leaving behind only the smoking husks of the Roarmulus Twins, and the ruined hulk of the Ironclaw Munitions Factory.
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They had descended into Hell. The moment the elevator cleared the darkness of the transition shaft, the stench of brimstone and the heat of eternally burning shadow fire had assaulted their senses. The entire landscape below was a blasted, blackened ruin of the once-proud castle of Almire. The tragic tale had been told many times over by Strangers to those willing to listen. Nothing could have prepared the three knights for what lay below them.

Barely had they stepped off the elevator before it sped off on its rails, shrieking like a tormented soul escaping damnation. The grim situation had deteriorated from there. Even before they had begun navigating the treacherous, trap-filled depths, they were assaulted by legions of the dead, risen from their graves by a terrible magic, flames of the inferno burning in their eyes. Grimly, the three soldiers had pressed on, delving into the bowels of Firestorm Citadel.

But for every undead they struck down, two more took its place. With the limitless horde of cursed Almiran soldiers at their backs, and yet more rising from their graves in front, the trio had fled, sprinting towards the elevator. They could still feel the searing breath of the skeletons upon the napes of their necks, the sulfurous stench assaulting their nostrils as the lift descended into blackness.

Had they known what had awaited them, Parsec mused painfully as he took another shaky breath, they would have chosen to fight the undead rather than to go down. He looked across at a nearby conflagration, the flames leaping up to consume what was left of XT. Not far away, a steaming pile of rubble marked where the ceiling had collapsed upon Serl, the molten blocks of stone crushing her under their weight. What had they done, to deserve such fates?

The squad leader let out a laugh, humorless and hollow as he watched the hulking form of Lord Vanaduke approach him, the former ruler of Almire now only a shell filled with a terrible desire for destruction of all who dared intrude upon his lair. If there was a God, He must have a twisted sense of humor. If there was Fate, the threads it wove must be twisted and mangled. If there was Justice in this world...it must be blind to those who needed it. The fallen knight watched as the undead king lifted his giant mace, its bladed head larger than his entire body.

The mace descended with crushing force, and then Parsec only saw blackness.

And then he saw nothing.

Nothing at all.