Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“If you do not need to connect to Rhodes Island, communication will be severed momentarily. I am sincerely sorry for having interrupted your party.” PRTS spoke in a tone that indicated more sarcasm than any flat voice should have been able to.

“Wait, wait! Don't hang up, I need your help still. Dobermann, Doctor still needs some assistance.” Amiya panicked for a split second, before regaining her normal expression.

“I know, but make it quick.” Dobermann continued to stare at Doctor, her eyes piercing through his mask.

“Doctor, PRTS is also one of our... partners. It will show you what to do next. Time is of the essence, so I'm going to reconnect you to the Rhodes Island backup system. This way, we'll have an edge in battle.” Doctor slowly maneuvered the tablet in his hands while Amiya spoke. He didn’t know how to really use it, but if it was that important, he had to try. “ It's different from giving verbal commands and might be a bit hard to get used to, but once you learn how to use it, the entire operation will be much smoother...Please trust me. Just like how you used to.” He didn’t even know who she was aside from her name, though that thought did bring some small pain. ”PRTS... Let's start.”

The tablet in the Doctor’s hands released a chirp of noise from PRTS “Identity verification required. Select verification method.”

“Ah, Doctor… Please say something.”

“I am not sure why you did not speak, but the action of touching the interface is sufficient. Fingerprint match found. Verification complete. Security clearance: 8. Welcome home Doctor. Notice: You have one thousand, one hundred, and seventeen priority pings from Modernia. Response requested.” He didn’t know who Modernia was, but based on how violently red the area where a small mail icon was, they had been pinging him plenty. “Note: All priority pings have been received in time since awakening.” Okay… that worried the Doctor. How did they know he was awake?

“Doctor, I don’t know who Modernia is, but if PRTS is able to receive something from them, they are probably an ally of yours.” Amiya looked pensive, but the Doctor pressed the mail icon. All of the messages looked the same, but all were from Modernia.

Deep underground, lost to time, or perhaps a new appearance unknown, a woman had been doing the literal only thing she could since she woke up.

“C’mon! I’ve been unable to move since I woke up! I wanna move! I can’t see shit through this visor! I can’t even feel anything for crying out loud! At least I can speak, but that’s not a consolation!” I keep thinking at the thing in my head. I don’t know why I can’t move or the rest of my body has no feeling, nor do I know why there’s something in front of my eyes that I can barely see the yellow glow of, illuminating it to be a visor. I had been sleeping at home before this! But when I woke up, I had found something in my brain, and immediately began to think at it. Since it responded, I kept doing it, over and over again.

“Lemme do something here dammit! Override so I can move, request release, activate request, I don’t know! I’m bored as shit here!” I kept yelling, the sound echoing in the hollow area around me. I didn’t even know why it was echoing, it wasn’t like I was in a cave. I kept yelling before I heard an audible beep to the right of me, with me still being unable to move my head. I heard a strange humming after that, before I heard some new voices.

“Um… why do they have their underwear on the outside? Ah! Sorry, are you Modernia?” The voice of a girl came from where the humming was. I had my underwear on the outside? Wait, Modernia? Was I in Nikke? May as well play that up a little, even if the voice felt familiar. But it wouldn’t be the commander since they didn’t recognize me, so I may as well use that.

“Yes. I am Modernia. Do you know where the Commander is?” I heard a bit of shuffling on the other end, before hearing a new voice from the other end.

“How have you been sending so many messages to the Doctor?” An older voice came through, belonging to a woman. The Doctor? Well that explains where I am… I think. I hope I’m not in Doctor Who, I don’t like that show.

“Yes. I want to move! And Commander can allow that, he can fix why I can’t move. Though I thought he just let Mary and Pepper be the doctors, but if he wants to be one!” May as well fish for more names, see if that works. But I heard a distinctive beep from the other side, slowly feeling sensation return to my body. A few more beeps came, more and more of my ability to act and move coming online. I could move my body! Great day! I turned my head towards where the voices were coming from, seeing a pale pane of light with the other three being seeable through it. I heard a very quiet whisper coming from the older voice.

“Are you sure she’s trustworthy? She didn’t know he was always Doctor.”

“I don’t know, but if she knew him enough to have access to PRTS, then we have to take the chance.” So those two were probably Dobermann and Amiya respectively if they were mentioning PRTS, which means Arknights, that could work! A few, final beeps came, and the area around me lit up at last as I felt it like an outer skin. So this was how Modernia felt in truth when she was in the mech! Alright! Why am I under a mountain?

“Ah… Sorry commander. This might take a bit. I’m under a mountain. How long will it take me too…” Ok, let’s ignore the fact that I’m currently heretic Modernia for now, do I have a computer that can get me through this? I do have that teleporter, but it’s short ranged. So if I do that… “It should only be four minutes before I arrive commander! Just wait for me!” Begin teleport spam through these caverns! I’ll get out in one minute, and this thing should be fast enough that I can beeline towards what I now know is the active signal of PRTS.

“Under a mountain? Nevermind, we need to get moving. Doctor, Amiya!” Dobermann spoke as the other two began to follow behind her, heading outside before the humming stopped and the communications ended. Only a few more warps… air! The sky! I can see it! Or at least, what I know is the false sky. Alright, Modernia mech, time to go as fast as possible to get to Doctor! Just got to remember to start the engines… was that the sound barrier? Alright then. Make that earlier statement two minutes to destination. I should probably run over what I remember. I can probably make this story a lot more believable if I do that. What’s relevant now… Kal’tsit was AMA-10, Priestess is doing something, those two and Doctor are Ancients, Friston is doing something with more coffins… bah, I’ll just think of it when it comes up, call it accessing data banks. Too much to go over, and I can already see the destination on sensors. Do I have a stealth system or something? If I’m working with him, I can’t just cause this much trouble with the other nations of the world. I do have an invisibility system after I checked, though it is to put it bluntly, shit. But it’s shit by Nikke standards, not by Arknights standards. If something doesn’t work against mechanical super soldiers, it might just work against the people of Terra. I toggle it on, causing a very noticeable slowdown of the mech. But a slowdown from faster than sound is still very fast. I arrive over Chernobog within the two minutes, checking overhead, before pinging PRTS again. I see the same teal window open up near me, Doctor and the others revealed again.

“I’m overhead. Mark your location and I’ll begin to attack any who attempt to interfere with your plan Commander. Keep your heads down!” I could find them, but my sensors don’t work well while invisible. No wonder this kept going unused in Nikke, this was worthless in fights like that!

“Miss Modernia? Doctor lost his memories… he has amnesia. I’m sorry.” Amiya’s apology sounded heartfelt, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use it. Besides, It’s more wrong to keep a person in the dark for so long, rather than hide information from them to do some strange form of protection.

“It’s fine. He wouldn’t change, not even with that. I trust him with that. I’ll just show him as much information as he asks for. So don’t hesitate to ask after this commander. I’ll help as much as I can. Now send me your location.” No time to waste, not when I could see the assault of reunion pick up in intensity, and I could see the catastrophe slowly forming. I could probably just disrupt that if I revealed myself, lasers tended to do that, but nobody likes cleaning up political messes. Another beep placed their current position on my internal map. The mech floats over to their position as I look at them properly. They’re all so small from up here. But no time for that. “I’m overhead. Mark targets if you want, or just let me choose. I’ll hear you.”

“I don’t see you. Are you above the cloud cover, or is there something else preventing it?” Dobermann's voice came in afterwards, piercing the silence of the Doctor and the apology of Amiya. She was sharp, which was good to know.

“Something else. Just let me demonstrate when you need it. I’ll come out in person later once you're all to safety.” I slowly floated along as they walked on the ground, before they’re path was blocked by reunion soldiers. “Heads down! Risk isn’t fun when it can lead to sudden death!” I poke at the missile button in my head, seeing six race from the shoulder wings of the mech. Targeting them right… These things have absolutely massive blast radiuses. I had to change their destinations to the outskirts of the reunion group away from the Doctor and his group in order to avoid hitting them, the sudden shockwave and blast liquifying the unfortunate reunion members instantly, before the blast rendered them naught but singular pieces of ash. Unfortunately, such a thing also caused an incredibly loud boom, and more than that, removed the entire area. There would be no moving through there now.

“Modernia! What kind of support was that! We need to actually move through!” Dobermann's shout came through the comms immediately. The lungs on her were probably enough to be louder than a full pipe organ with the sheer noise of that shout.

“Sorry! I’m not used to handling opponents where my missiles are enough! I’ll just hit anyone who approaches, commander can find another route!” I did feel bad for putting more work on him, but he wouldn’t have a single enemy to face if I could keep this up, so he’ll just have to suck it up. I felt the missiles return… I can select the code of the missiles? Nice!

“What kind of enemies aren’t defeated by being hit with explosives that strong?” Amiya’s question came a short while after. Reunion had congregated slightly onto the area where I had fired my missiles, but any time they tried to approach, I just fired one and rendered all of them very dead. Of course, it wasn’t long before a familiar face showed up. Crownslayer… Switch missiles to code Z.E.U.S! Actually, only switch one, and lower the payload to training. That’s probably low enough to not kill a human. Based on the code, it says it’s barely enough to not kill a human, tending to render them comatose via their electricity, and Human’s from Terra are more durable. You're still needed for the plot… I think. Launch! One missile streaks from my left wing, a normal missile heading for the back of the formation where she isn’t, while the Z.E.U.S heads for the front right behind her.

“Surprisingly many people can take the full payload which I used there. But at lower payloads, I might actually leave people alive. I’ll stay with full payload though, but I have detected a leader and sent a low payload at her and a full payload at her men. You want to grab her?” The shockwave of the blast had sent her men to their graves, and the electruction had left her lying on the floor, twitching, trying to stand but failing. She was clearly still conscious, even if I couldn’t hear her speak.

“We should get out. Let’s just keep going.” Amiya spoke quietly as they kept moving. Without Crownslayer to slow them down, I saw Mephisto and Faust catch up to her, seeing the paste her men had been rendered to and her slowly recovering form, slightly burnt from the shock. They spent a short time conversing while Rhodes began to properly escape. We were making good time to escape before the catastrophe. Nobody else could intercept… though Ace eventually joined up with them, and so did Nearl. But with me blowing apart another reunion group, it wasn’t long before they started asking questions.

“So you’ve been helping us, but what are you? We haven’t seen you, you apparently were beneath a mountain, and now you're blowing apart reunion squads. What are you?” Ace’s voice came in after they had regrouped with Nearl and the other squads. A full Rhodes force, extracting from Chernobog, with only a few stragglers trying to stop them… and probably W later but I could just shock her.

“Is this screen too small? Hold on, I can try to move it. But as for what I am..” I move the screen from my right to in front of me, revealing myself from a more frontal view to them all. “I am-”

“Why are you wearing your underwear on the outside?” Jessica’s voice came through the tablet next, before I just turned my head to stare at her. She backed off after that, and even if it was mean, that wasn’t important for now.

“Wings, light from above, Sankta. The way you're covering them is odd, and your halo isn’t in frame, but those are the right shape. Of course, the fucking machine gun also gives it away. Hey Doctor! When did you make friends with an apostolic knight?” He thought I was a Sankta? I could use that. It was an easy enough thing to say, especially with the fact that machine guns were limited to just them. But how would I falsify a halo… I could move my face mask and have it make the light behind me? I’ll handle it later when I get out of this. “Even with this, where are you? You clearly have enough machinery behind you that you're probably in the city itself or in a vehicle.” Huh, took somebody long enough to actually comment on that.

“I’m above you. It’s called being stealthy, and also enough light manipulation that this is beginning to hurt my head to be invisible. Maybe there’s enough room in here for a second person? But I can’t pilot this if there’s another person in here.” I bring my hand up to my head, feeling the bandages for a few seconds, before I move my mask to the back of my head. “In any case, I don’t actually know where your extraction is, so please tell me your close so I can disengage soon.”

“We should be only five minutes out.” Nearl’s voice came over the tablet as she spoke, her not being in frame. With another few missiles from me, they made it through fine, though that meant it was time for W.

“Commander, W is up ahead. Is she under you currently? She’s been working with various reunion forces.” If I was going to play as an old ally, may as well speak of things like that.

“W?” Oh yeah, Amiya wouldn’t know who she was either. She had last seen them when she was… probably only five or around there? Didn’t matter, she was approaching them with her reunion forces… sorry Adnachiel, but you aren’t getting your dramatic stand today, no matter how cool it was.

“She is on route with reunion forces, payload to minimum power, Z.E.U.S code. Firing. I will apologize later if you had a plan with her.” A Z.E.U.S missile streaked towards her as she tilted her head, trying to react in the split second since she was actually more aware, before she went down to the shock emitted by the blast. She was doing better, especially since the person in between her and the impact point was probably comatose or brain dead, but that still meant she was down. “W is down. Keep moving!”

“We’re on the helicopters! Go!” I watched as they slowly took off in their helicopters, all personnel of Rhodes on board. I didn’t detect any cameras excluding their own watching me… and they were beyond slow, so I flew near one in the mech. I fiddled with my headgear a bit, making it emit a strange glow that was apparently a slightly painful light to see before popping open the hatch.

“It’s good to properly see you all. I hope everything is going well? No injuries?” They all looked somewhat surprised to see me just floating there in the air while they were in the helicopter, but I didn’t drop my mech's invisibility yet.

But for the first time, I heard the Doctor speak. “Yeah… it went well. No operators were injured.” I smiled at that.

“That’s good to hear. I’ll tell you anything you ask when you get to where you're going. Speaking of which, I don’t actually know where you're going. Last I knew of you, you were at Babel. And I don’t see any of the symbols for it.” If I’m pretending to be a very ancient friend, I need at least some excuse for this. Can’t know Rhodes.

“We’re going to Rhodes Island, Miss Modernia. Do you know Kal’tsit?” Amiya’s voice was surprisingly loud, her shouting to be heard through the helicopter doors. I could hear them fine either way, but unlike the Doctor, it was clear she thought she needed to do that.

“Kal’tsit… yeah. That was one of the names AMA-10 used right? She has Mon3tr and is part lynx. Green hair?” That would probably ring major alarm bells if any of them knew the full truth, but me knowing it would be a serious indication of who I am. This should work fine.

“AMA-10? The description’s spot on, and few people would know about the damn thing. Yeah, It’s Kal’tsit your talking about. Though I don’t know why she would use that code as a name.” Ace spoke up with that, recognizing what I was talking about at least.

“It’s not surprising she uses a name rather than what Priestess gave her. They never did get along. But in any case, are there any other questions for now? Otherwise, I’ll just speak to you at Rhodes Island. And please, don’t mention me to the church. I would rather not be known to be gallivanting off, it means they give me menial work.” A good enough excuse. They would absolutely do that. It was how they operated after all.

“Miss Modernia? Why can’t I feel your emotions?” Adnachiel’s voice caused me to pause for a few seconds. That was a genuine problem… fucking Sankta empathy telepathy bullshit. How do I word this? That should do.

“First off, we’re too far away. Second off, you have to get very good at remaining neutral in emotions in order to do what I’m doing. If I was to feel enough emotion, my focus would probably drop even a single part, and then I’m caught. It’s surprised other Sankta before, and If I get emotive enough, then I start flash banging people. It’s not a fun thing to randomly get strobe lights in your eyes. Plus, my halo is bright enough. No thank you to my room being the brightest thing on the planet.” Emotions working with arts was unusual, but at least focus was a good thing to use. And several Sankta had complained about their halo’s brightness, so file in that, and I might just be able to do that.

“Fair enough. Is the flight part of that?” Oh yeah, with me having turned the mech invisible, it would just look like I’m flying. I guess that they could only see it through communications though, given I turned that off when we had begun to fly.

“Close enough to true that I’ll go with that. The only difference is practically academic. I did not blow up my school to go to it.” At least the law of Laterno was hilarious in what it allowed. Just file some papers and blow up your school! Perfectly legal!

“We’ll be arriving in Rhodes in ten minutes. Cut the chatter for now. Modernia, I trust you’ll be at training?” Dobermann sounded angry. That was bad. Even if I was a Nikke, and likely much stronger, she could put someone through their paces.

“I have to tell commander everything though.” My complaint fell on her ears, but she didn’t back down.

“You’ll be there. End of conversation. We arrive in ten.” I closed the hatch back up while I considered what to tell the Doctor. I was going to tell him as much as possible, but what way of wording it would make him understand?

“Is Modernia your name or codename?” Amiya’s question rang out, Dobermann looking at her after she asked. I may as well give her the names that would prove useful.

“I have two names, one codename. I was named Marian then. I am named Modernia now. I am codenamed the Ominous Cross.”

Chapter Text

“Why is everything so… orange?” Anis’s question came across with her own standard brand of dry statements, a tendency born from being the only completely sane member of counters.

“Geothermal levels are spiking!” Neon’s voice was still excited, though the commander could hear the tremors within it. She wasn’t a happy camper at all.

“It’s to be expected, even if that’s not the heat to worry about. This is Nihilister’s territory. Though the orange is quite unusual.” Harran spoke up, her scythe gun lying on her shoulder as she looked around.

Isabel spoke up next, her question unusually quiet. “Should I do an aerial survey?” She stared into the air, seeing the several large seemingly frozen in midair lightning bolts.

“No. We don’t know what you're flying into. No point in you going up and dying without accomplishing anything. Cecil, are you there?” Dorothy spoke next, her haughtiness not diminished at all. The burst of static from their communicators was the only response they received.

“Were on our own then.” Rapi stated simply, before she adjusted her beret. “Commander, any ideas?”

“Tremors are getting stronger!” Neon’s shout broke the squads calm, all of them readying for the fight. They had already had their weapons out, but now all of them were pointed to act. A cloud, orange and still, split in half with a sudden boom, an explosion echoing in the air. From the explosion, a meteor seemed to be catapulting itself down at simply immense speeds, shredding the air behind it, sending the Nikke and the humans scattering before it pulled up, the sound barrier broken by the sheer g forces of the turn as it raced by them.

Their communicators began to speak again, a voice they didn’t recognize coming through, completely clear. “You’re slaves to history. Even after calamity, you still choose to crawl out of the only places that can keep you safe. You still choose to fight against the only order that can guarantee the safety of your people.” A distinctly female voice came from the communicators. Johan simply turned his off, though nobody else did.

“Nihilister. One of the queen's elite soldiers. An ancient relic that should have been disposed of long ago.” Johan spoke simply, his mechanical arm tensing in what could only be anticipation from the stoic man.

“A heretic…” The Commander's voice was filled with a small, cowering fear that exposed his inner thoughts, yet he still stood tall. The radios all of a sudden cracked with static, leaving them alone in silence, the distant roaring of the engines of Nihilister fading for a few seconds… before communications opened again.

“Monarch… I would recognize that voice anywhere. Heh… I told you… when you heard the thunder, when the storm came for you… you would remember me. Round two.” Nihilister’s voice crackled over the radios, a clarity in her voice, absent from the rage for a few seconds. “And you still have nothing to show for it… no cordium… no country… nothing left for you to go back to. You solely, are responsible for this. How does it feel to be the man who sold the world?”

“Who is she talking to?” Harran spoke after another pause. The glare of the meteor barreling through the sky still hanging overhead, flying around in a circle, surrounding them.

The Commander spoke up next, an anger within him that none of the Nikke or Johan expected. “Crimson One… you fucker.” The normal calm that even Dorothy had failed to break had shattered upon Nihilister beginning to speak. “You’ll have your round two. I just need a jet.”

“What are you trying he-” Johan was cut off after speaking, the hiss of the communicators silencing him.

“I got back your old one… made sure nobody broke it, fixed it myself. I’ll drop it off at Eden. Chatterbox.. The queen… the black box… none of them matter right now. I’m doing what I should have done over Yellowstone. I will bury you so completely, the earth will turn a thousand times before your body is dug up, I will bury you so deep that even the ark will be considered on the surface compared to you. No more running for you… no more hiding. You have three days, I’ll drop off the plane today.” The meteor that was Nihilister soared away in a flash, another sound boom echoing in the sky as she left.

“Darling. What was she talking about? Were you two in a relationship?” Isabel’s jealousy flared up as she stepped close to the Commander.

“I’ll kill her. I just need my jet. I was a jet pilot before the ark, worked as a mercenary. I shot him down, well, her now. Maybe she was always a girl? The old helmets made it really hard to tell. It doesn’t matter. We go back to Eden.” The Commander's tone brooked no arguments, though Johan spoke right after.

“I expect you’ll be telling the full story during our trip back, correct? You knew her well enough that she didn’t just breach our communications, didn’t just somehow cut off Cecil, and then she both agreed to bring you your jet, and fight you in it.” Johan actually sounded somewhat surprised, and actually somewhat more respectful of him. Though it was still Johan. That man could make the ocean seem dry by how he spoke of it.

“I concur. You have much to explain.” Dorothy stepped up to him, looking him up and down again, before Rapi interposed herself between the two.

“Let’s just get moving. Commander can explain as we move.” Rapi stared down at Dorothy, the other Nikke huffing as she began to walk in the direction of Eden. After that, all of them followed her back.

“So, start talking Commander. I hope it’s a good explanation as well.” Dorothy spoke up once more, her head turning as she walked, before facing her front again.

“I used to be a mercenary pilot, back before the rapture invasion.” The Commander began his tale at her prompting, before being interrupted.

“Before even the rapture invasion? But that would leave you more than a hundred and fifty years old if you were of age to be in any military at the time. Unless you were a child soldier, that is.” Dorothy was the one who interrupted him, surprise in her tone.

“I’m probably even older to be honest. But I can’t be completely correct. After my dogfight with crimson one, I spent a while on the run from the law, Cascadia had a warrant out for me after the war. My memories cut shortly after that. I woke up in the ark, during the helicopter crash with Marian.” The Commander gently dusted off his coat, a few scattered pieces of rubble and dust kicked up by Nihilister’s passing falling from it.

“Was the orbital elevator in construction, complete, or nonexistent during your time?” Dorothy posed another question.

“I don’t even think we could build one if we tried. I didn’t hear a peep of anything similar being made. Plus, back then, couldn’t extend a person's life and there was nothing like splendamin. I’m pretty sure I was alive before any of you were even born.” The Commander’s response is simplistic, yet the raised eyebrows and surprised looks from the Nikkes around him gives enough of a response. “Yeah. Long time for me too. I still struggle to operate some of the things you lot can make so easily. None of it was during my time. Gah, I feel old again. Prez could have figured that out… oh, my codename was Monarch if you have any records of that time.”

“No. I do not even have a single memory of a place called Cascadia. Though there are some records of before we have saved. Currently, if those records and words align, you are a living piece of history. After we handle Nihilister, I expect you to head to Cecil. She might not be a historian, but she can write it down well enough. You will tell her the past.” Dorothy kept walking as she spoke.

“What was this cordium she mentioned? Was it another name for some kind of weapon?” Noah spoke, seeming actually interested in this conversation unlike her normal speech to the Commander.

“It was some kind of material, highly explosive, harvested from the depths of Earth’s mantle. If you needed a power source, it was one of the best options, but if you had a city on a seam… it liked to blow up. The ark should be just a little above an area where a deposit could be, so the fact it hasn’t exploded means there's none near it. You could also use it in weapons. Crimson one used it to make an entire city explode, used it in her fighter jet, used it to try and kill me.” The Commander actually looked nostalgic. But a hum from their communicators interrupted his speech.

“Hello? Is this working now? I’ve cleared through the interference. Has anything happened?” Cecil’s voice came over the communicators as they fully exited the orange area. “Because if you don’t have one, Nihilist just showed up at Eden, put a jet at its front entrance, told us to wait for its pilot and not touch it, and then said she would destroy Eden if he didn’t show up for a second round in three days.”

“That would be me. Does it have ammo?” The Commander Responded.

“It does. And she dropped off extra boxes as well with missiles and ammo within them. I’m not touching them for now, but after this, I want to study them. Some of it is made of an unknown material, glowing orange.”

“It’s made of cordium. It will explode violently if you mishandle it, and my old jet has enough to level the city if you do. Please avoid touching anything.” He heard a small gasp from Cecil, before he spoke again. “It might be one of the last instances of it in the world, what with the infrastructure to harvest it no longer being in existence. And I’m going to use it to turn the skies orange in a dogfight that will once more end up with me probably going down in history again.”

“I’ll hold you to that then. Now get back here. If we only have three days, you're making them count.”

Chapter Text

“Last day. She’ll be in the air any moment, then I’ll see if I can’t fly this old bird back to her territory while fighting her.” The Commander ran his hand over his jet, the ACG-01 Chimera. The old bird was probably in the best condition it could be, what with Cecil doing her best and the fact it came in at least decent condition. Of course, that didn’t stop some people from worrying.

“Darling, why not let me do it? I can fly too! I’m better than that jet, I can take it!” Isabel hadn’t stopped bothering him for the entire time of him getting the plane ready for the flight. She almost seemed jealous of its existence, offended by the fact that it would allow the Commander to fly without her.

“No. I’m doing it, I want this fight again just as much as she does. I wouldn’t back down even if she had dropped this jet off in the worst condition it had ever been in.” The Commander pushed her back a little, Isabel’s superior strength making it difficult had she not allowed herself to be pushed.

“This is really stupid. Seriously, this is beyond stupid! Just let us fight! We’re the Nikke’s here!” Anis hadn’t stopped complaining as well, acting as the voice for both Rapi and Neon’s own concerns. “You're smarter than this! There's a reason the military didn’t work against the raptures! Listen to any reason!”

“If he doesn’t, then we have to risk Nihilister revealing where Eden is, and I shall not allow that risk. She already revealed she knew about it herself by flying here and depositing the jet; she could simply reveal the true location to the other heretics. Her reputation speaks for itself, the filthy dragon, but it must happen.” Dorothy kept shooting down any attempts by the others to stop the Commander from his flight, uncaring about the risk. She valued Eden over the Commander after all.

“C’mon you bitch… I’m ready. Show up already.” The Commander kept his eyes trained on the sky. He did one final check of his jet, everything loaded, everything fueled, everything working. He got in his jet, watching their faces as he closed the canopy, all while awaiting the crimson meteor for his second bout with it.

Crackling over every radio, speaker, and every way of producing sound in Eden came a familiar voice. “Me and you now Monarch. No more distractions. Winners the best pilot, same as before. But it looks like second chances are in my favor this time. Even fate made sure you get another chance to lose. You use the name of a king, but here you are, fighting for a land not even your own, one that doesn’t even have the confidence to stand upright. It hides away, cowering, fearing its own demise, knowing that it comes for it.” A meteor in the sky, the sound of engines screaming overhead, the crimson comet that shattered the skies. Nihilister had arrived over Eden.

“Yeah. Me and you.” The Commander began to drive the jet out of the hangar, beginning the process of taking off. The people of Eden began to look up, staring at the comet as it hurtled throughout the sky, casually ignoring the camouflage which normally kept Eden safe. But the Commander ignored the slowly growing panic. The runway seemed to fly by in a singular moment when he turned his engines on, the takeoff proceeding as the jet’s wheels left the ground, furling up back into the jet. Time for action.

His radio crackled. “Look at them. They claim to strength, and yet the moment I arrive, the vaunted might of Eden fails them. All those Nikke, all those ready to fight… and the only one actually standing is a forgotten relic in a jet older than even the simplest piece of technology they have.” Nihilister seemed almost smug as she spoke, even as the comet kept burning around the city. “The moment they actually run into a fight, they flee and cower. At least the ark wasn’t filled with cowards, even if that meant it was filled with brainless fools.”

“Alright crimson one. All systems online. Round two.” Everything in the jet was green. All systems green, weapons ready, everything would work. Now it was just time to put it to the test with a foe returned greater than ever. The comet that was Nihilister bent in its arc through the sky, turning to face the Commander as air seemingly tore at the sheer force of the turn.

“No distractions. Time to die.” Nihilister streaked towards the Commander, the sound of a dragon's roar echoing before all of Eden heard a machine gun roaring overhead. It was a tight dodge, pulling up even before she had started firing. Leveling himself out and completing his loop, the Commander tried to hit Nihilister with missiles. One hit, but given he could barely even see Nihilister through the comet of fire around her, he couldn’t guess how much damage it did.

His radio chimed with a faint bell, Cecil’s voice coming through. “Try to take her away from Eden. While that will hopefully be possible, if it’s not, a few of the Nikke may be able to hit Nihilister if they’re lucky. I doubt even Dorothy has the speed required to keep up with this kind of fight and hit anything, so assume you’re on your own.” The Commander knew that Isabel would probably be even more useless than Dorothy here. A shotgun in a dogfight was the opposite of helpful.

His radio crackled, the voice of Nihilister coming through as well. “What did I say? No distractions.” The comet streaked down towards Eden as the Commander took the time to ready the railgun. A breath of fire came down upon a part of Eden as Nihilister passed, the earth scorched and area barren by just her breath, though luckily it seemed she didn’t kill anyone due to them all looking out for where she was going, even if the buildings and infrastructure would need repairs. Of course, the Commander made her pay for that, a shot from his railgun scoring into the comet, causing it to dip noticeably. But it pulled back up, attempting to loop around him, but he wouldn’t give her the chance. Even still, the roar of fire and guns forced him to keep dodging. They climbed higher and higher into the sky as they dodged around each other, before they breached the cloud layer.

He felt the g forces trying to rip his head off as he flattened out the jet, the sheer force barely being handled by the jet. A rocket soared from his jet, scoring a hit on Nihilister as he watched her burn the clouds chasing him. But it cost him, a machine gun shot from her clipping his wing, taking the tip of it off. It was a hit, no matter how weak, or how much his jet had the armor and could ignore the damage, and that meant nothing good. The sudden boom of a cordium detonation reached his ears even through his cockpit, the orange glow hanging in the air. Nihilister had missed, but any area risky for him to fly through was just as bad as damage, if not worse.

Down on the ground, the inhabitants of Eden were watching the battle above the clouds, explosions, fire, railgun shots, missiles, bullets, and the sound of engines and roaring in a brawl that revealed itself as the brawl shattered the cloud layer, the orange casting Eden in its violent glow. Harran stared at the sky, her weapon at the ready even if she knew full well that any of her shots would likely go wide. “Follower was hiding plenty of secrets himself, hmm? And here I thought that his limit was handling the common raptures in his trials, but look at him go! He’s no crow, but anything that flies can work for me if it flies this well.” Harran’s voice broke the still silence of the Inherit squad, all of them ready to sprint if the two in the sky dived down again.

“I don’t know if I can block one of those railgun shots. We should probably head underground.” Noah sounded uncharacteristically worried, ready to move her shields just as she was ready to head to one of the bunkers underneath Eden.

“Cecil. You’ll be looking at those weapons on that jet after this. Anything that could cause that much damage to a heretic while not being a Nikke weapon is worth acquiring.” Dorothy ordered calmly, before she spun on her heel, heading to the garden in the center of Eden. Isabel followed behind, not speaking as she walked with Dorothy. Rapi, Anis, and Neon followed behind, though not after taking a long look at the sky

Back up in the sky, things were brutal for the two who ruled the air. Nihilister had long since been pushed to dropping the comet of flame around her, revealing her mechanical draconic form with twin heads, damaged from blow after blow. The Commander was little better, his entire left wing shorn off, and a few pieces of his jet burnt or dented. The sheer orange of the sky had made it hard for both to see, cordium crackling in the skies as it broke the winds and caused clear skies to thunder with hate. Nihilister had remained deadly silent, a far cry from her speech during their old fight, back when she was crimson one. The Commanders breathing had escalated, his gasps wrenching as he fought through the g forces he had put himself under.

“No more… we end this here. No more playing crimson one. Head on. Dead on.” He turned his jet to face Nihilister. He wouldn’t be pulling up. Time for a game of chicken that would either be a victory via finishing the other off, or both dying in a blaze of cordium and fire. If any could hear the roar of his engines, they would hear the sound of a howling scream of air pressure and readied machinery. Nihilister’s engines flickered, her dipping slightly as she turned to face him. Her machine guns were broken, wings damaged, but her fire still worked, boiling in her throat as she readied to burn the monarch. The whine of a railgun came from the damaged jet, the Commander’s way to finish off crimson one.

The railgun shot first.

Nihilister felt dread in her heart as her fire went out, plummeting from the sky. Last time she had almost died, she hadn’t even really felt it, cordium exploding around her in a flash of death. But this time, she knew full well how much this impact would hurt. And with a glare in her eyes, she wouldn’t be taking it alone, her left head clamping around the jet as she began to plummet, the impact point far away from Eden.

“Fair enough. But this means I won.” The Commander’s voice was pained, the sheer impact of his sudden reversal in direction causing him whiplash. He seemed prideful almost even as he heard his jet’s systems finally begin to truly fail as they began to streak down towards the ground, rapidly accelerating. “Crimson one?”

Nihilister responded with her other head, barely speaking through broken machinery. “Ye-Yeah?”

“Fuck you.”

They impacted the ground. Carving a long tunnel through the land as Nihilister impacted first, absorbing most of the force as his jet impaled into her side, his head hitting the front of the controls, luckily not causing any bleeding, but causing him to fall unconscious as the force wrenched at him. He survived, much like Nihilister as her form was nearly destroyed, coming to a stop after they had finished their crash. The dragon’s still form had saved his life, before she turned back from a dragon to the heretic, back to a Nikke and back to being humanoid. Neither would awake for a long time yet.

Chapter Text

“All right, I need to introduce you to a new friend.” Mephisto’s voice was mocking, almost a sneer as he stared at the forces of Rhodes Island. “Ahem. Next up, put your hands together for the real star of the show! The nightmare of the northwest tundra, the master of the Yetis!” Mephisto swung his arms wide, like he was the star of a commercial rather than a member of reunion and hadn’t just been attempting to kill Amiya and the rest a moment ago. “Miss FrostNova! She will freeze every bit of your flesh, every drop of your blood. Bit. By. Bit!”

Another Reunion soldier spoke up, even as he had been knocked to the ground earlier. “If only she could win even a single fight…”

“Shut up!” Mephisto rebuked the Reunion soldier on the ground, even as the temperature began to truly drop harshly. The two bickering Reunion members didn’t notice as Frostnova approached in silence, who went unnoticed by Rhodes due to the distraction of the two’s argument.

“Mephi-” Frostnova was cut off moments into whatever she was trying to say. A bolt of black energy echoing as Amiya fired her arts at her in surprise. Whizzing past her ears over her head, nearly hitting her. She paused as she stared at them all, her eyes focused on Amiya.

Mephisto watched as Frostnova didn’t react for a few seconds, them all staring at each other. “Please no… I just told them who you were!” The operators of Rhodes Island quickly noted the fear in his voice, not in genuine fear, but fear of being embarrassed.

Frostnova put her hands forward in a strange gesture, one hand facing down behind the other hand, facing above as she spoke, a look of determination on her face. “With this treasure, I summon…”

“Why? You literally just arrived, why is this your first option?” Mephisto’s voice echoed as the entire city seemed to fill with the groaning of both the normal forces of Reunion and the members of the Yeti squadron facepalming. “Last time it was because you got hit you weren’t even this time!”

“Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila” Frostnova continued her chant, a strange thing appearing behind her, looking to be a massive humanoid bound in string.

“Well then! Toodles forces of Rhodes! I’m not going to be in the ritual!” Mephisto sprinted off, the Reunion soldier doing so as well as he scrambled onto his feet.

“We should go!” Frostleaf attempted to run after the shock wore off, the rest of the squad running with her. But the Doctor wasn’t fast enough, trailing behind.

“Divine General!” The thing in the string began to break them, the white tearing apart as a massive, hulking behemoth tore its way forth. “Mahoraga!” The beast had no eyes, but it had a wheel above its head, wings on its face, and strange black threads on its chest.

The Doctor watched as the beast reared up fully, Frostnova smirking at him as everybody else had already escaped the area. “So… why did you do that?” Her actions had genuinely managed to confuse the Doctor. This seemed like hellish overkill to fight only him. But as Mahoraga reared up fully, his fist ready to swing in a backhand, he chose to act. “Down!”

“This was probably a bad idea- shit!” Frostnova barely managed to pull her head down enough to dodge the blow, the blade scraping off some of her hair in a close call that most assuredly would have sent her flying had she not dodged by his warning. She had to scramble forward to dodge the next blow, the ground shattering from the force of Mahoraga’s punch.

“He’s targeting you too, why did you summon him?” His shouted words came as he helped pull Frostnova to her feet before she hauled him over her shoulder and began to sprint.

“I wasn’t thinking!” Frostnova’s panicked words came as she kept running, darting between the rubble of the area as Mahoraga continued his assault.

“If he’s attacking you as well then how do we beat him?” Frostnova’s hands were cold, and he was beginning to shiver, but that wasn’t relevant. The damn ten foot tall mountain of muscle that was treating buildings and walls as a suggestion was.

“He adapts to one type of damage! You need to keep hitting him with different types of attacks in rapid succession and in heavy enough damage to prevent him from simply ignoring it!” She shot an icicle spear at Mahoraga. He slammed his blade into it, shattering the blow from even hitting him. But if her words were correct, then he wasn’t adapted to that if it didn’t hit.

“Then we finish him off in one hit! How big of one of those icicle spears can you make?” A plan it was. It would have to do.

“As big as a small hill! He won’t give me the time though!” Running, dodging, hoping. It was all she could do to prevent herself from getting hit.

“Then I’ll distract him!” He had done stupider before. Being on the front lines at all when he could use PRTS to command his operators was already a bad idea, but he did it anyways.

“He goes for the bigger threat! He can’t speak, but he isn’t dumb!”

“How big of a threat is somebody who could call more allies?” Theoretically, he could call all of Rhodes as support. Practically, he might not be able to, but that would be very threatening regardless.

“That might work! I’ll set you down, start running! He’s not fast, but nothing here will slow him down!” Frostnova began to lower him off her shoulder, letting him move his feet before dropping him, separating as she sprinted to the left. That meant he was going right.

Meanwhile, over with Mephisto, he had finally run long enough to reach somebody who he thought could handle Frostnova’s brand of insanity. The large form of Patriot sat at a counter, reading through a journal written in a language Mephisto didn’t know. “Patriot! She… She summoned Mahoraga again!”

Mephisto heard the creaking of the old wendigo’s bones as he turned, his massive frame calmly putting down the book. “What. Was the cause. This time?”

“An arts attack from Rhodes Island barely missed her head! She didn’t even get hit this time! She just started summoning right after that!” Patriot kept turning as he slowly got up, his massive shield slammed into the ground as he put his hand through the damaged bars he used to hold it. He ripped it out of the ground as he grabbed his halberd from the counter.

“At least, it was not because, of unreasonable fear. A near blow to the head. Somewhat reasonable. I will handle this.” Patriot began to march, his steps causing the room to shake slightly as he opened the door, heading out as his head scraped the top even with him bending over.

Back with the Doctor, he had been running for nearly three minutes. Mahoraga wasn’t slow. In fact, Frostnova must have been a gigantic fucking liar in her off time, he had to use all the rubble and cover he could to survive the massive behemoth, sprinting fast enough to where he could see the wind pressure that his bulk moving created. But Mahoraga was big, and he had plenty of corners, and even if Mahoraga could break them, he had to deal with not being able to always see the Doctor.

“I’m almost done! Keep him moving, and get to the middle!” Frostnova’s voice echoed in the area, a massive icicle hanging overhead as the distraction on her voice caused Mahoraga to land the first blow. A single backhand to his chest. He was sent flying, literally skipping across the ground as he felt his ribs shatter. Mahoraga probably didn’t even intend for that to be a blow, instead targeting the cover and intending to knock down a building. It was pure luck then, that the blow had hit, and good luck for the Doctor, even if he knew recovery would probably take months. He was right where Frostnova needed him to be. He slowly got up, desperately trying to breath as he slowly pushed himself through the pain.

“Dammit… is it ready?” He could feel blood leaking from him. Had he landed on rubble? The concrete spike in his chest told him yes.

“It’s ready! He’s approaching!” The layer of ice on the ground and coating the broken city was thickening as the ice spear hung overhead like a strike from the heavens. A single blow that might just be able to end this. The steps of Mahoraga echoed in the whipping wind of Frostnova’s arts. Yet, even as he saw Mahoraga approach, the divine general did something strange. He rammed his hand into an icicle, the wheel above his head spinning as he did. “No… He adapted! He’s never bothered to hurt himself to adapt!”

That couldn’t be good. They would die at this rate… He had a knife. Sharp and small. Meant only for last resorts. This counted. Mahoraga kept approaching, standing right below where the ice spear was pointed. It wouldn’t do any damage… but he could still throw something. The knife spun in the air, barely a whisper as it impacted Mahoraga with the hilt. The wheel spun. “Now!”

Damocles fell. The ice spear crashed from the heavens to the ground, impacting the divine general. He couldn’t hear the crash as his consciousness began to fade. “I… Is he dead? He’s dead! We did it! Shit, are you okay? Alright… Escape rabbits! You're a part of Yeti Squadron now, and we can get you healed. For services rendered, after all.”

The sound of booming steps came as fast as they could, the noise of the Patriot’s march came. He had come as fast as he could, yet even at his fastest he was no longer nearly as fast as he once was, might stolen by oripathy and time. He arrived on the scene to see a massive, building sized ice spear impaling the hull of the mobile city, Yelena standing firm, and a man carried on a carpet of rabbits. “Yelena. Explain.” The thunder that was his voice dragged her attention to him immediately.

“We beat Mahoraga! Now I need to get my new recruit medical attention. I didn’t need to hear how loud the crack was when he got hit to know something broke from how hard Mahoraga hit.” Yelena managed to speak relatively calmly, though her voice was quivering with a mix of raw adrenaline and still present fear.

Patriot looked at the unconscious form of the Doctor, laying on the carpet of escape rabbits. “Very, Well. But this, means you failed, the trial. Correct?” Involving people in her strange arts seemed to prevent her from getting more of the summons as far as the Patriot knew. Though he wasn’t sure it was arts given she both controlled ice and had the summons.

Frostnova gestured to the rabbits as they hurried off towards the Yeti Squadron base, forming a small sigil of ice on the Doctor’s mask. They would know she sent him, and would know to give the injured treatment. “Ye-” She paused, seemingly dumbfounded at what she just noticed. “No. That counted.”

“Why? Never has, before.” Patriot kept his eyes locked dead on her own. He mostly did it by this point as a matter of habit.

“I don’t know. Mahoraga!” The divine general began to form behind her, before his form dissipated like wind, Frostnova nearly toppling over before catching herself. “I can summon him, though he is still too expensive for major use unless he’s my only summon. Maybe my new recruit didn’t count because he was so weak? His knife throw bounced off.”

“Like, you?” Patriot couldn’t help himself. Her expressions were too funny, and amusing himself nowadays was a task in of itself given his condition. “Shares, your, record.”

“Hey! I’m not that bad!” Frostnova’s complaint caused him a slight smile under his mask.

“Your first, win. I have, to tell, everyone!” He could always double down. She couldn’t stop him. It was a fatherly duty to embarrass his daughter in all but blood.

“Oh come on! I won against my other summons to use them!” Frostnova kept complaining, before she stopped seemingly on a dime. “Oh, rescue rabbits delivered him.”

“Look on, the bright side. They might, acknowledge, this win.” Patriot moved to put his shield on his back. He had put a hook on there after some time with Ursus, mainly because he was often needed to carry incredibly heavy objects and needed both hands. The fact that it had survived all this time felt like something laughing at him. “Let us, head back. I didn’t, finish my drink.”

“I’ve won plenty of times. It’s not my fault nobody seems to remember that.” She had won plenty of times, spars and various other occasions. It wasn’t her fault that the moment she tried to act she immediately went out of her weight class, these kinds of people were supposed to be rare! Not everywhere she went.

“Compared to, how many times, you’ve lost, it’s no wonder. At least, you know, how to keep yourself, alive. I don’t, have to worry.” It brought great relief to him to be able to say that. She couldn’t win consistently, but each and every time something threatened her life, she got away, or managed to get to somebody else, or pulled one of her few wins. It didn’t mean he liked seeing her injured, but to know that she was more resilient than some roaches? Relieving.

“I’m not dying. Never. I refuse.” Frostnova wouldn’t admit it, but she feared death. “Let’s just get moving. I’m tired, and I could absolutely eat something.”

Patriot’s steps shook the ground a little as he turned around. “Let’s.” He began his march back to the small diner he was using as a place to eat. Nobody else bothered trying to eat there. So it was a good place to hear her boast about her victory. She had finally pulled through when it mattered. It was a fathers duty to celebrate that.

Chapter Text

The helicopters containing the Doctor and the operators of Rhodes Island touched down on the mobile city, the occupants rapidly filing out of them as their blades slowly stopped spinning. On some level, on a level I wasn’t really sure of how to operate, I felt some kind of connection to those machines, an ability to make them listen. But I didn’t use it. I could test that later, when I wasn’t currently about to have to bullshit with the best of them. I spent a few seconds checking through my mechs functions, making sure that I could just leave it invisible after I exited. With a final beep, I hopped out of the hatch.

I realized my mistake a moment later as I fell onto the floor of Rhodes Island right next to the squad, causing a not small dent in the floor shaped like me. I wasn’t harmed, and in fact I was more shocked I actually jumped out of the mech without any fear. Maybe my body just knew that it couldn’t hurt me, and so didn’t give me the fear response? Worrying, but ultimately not currently relevant. I looked up at the group, who had all turned to stare at where I was, currently three feet into the floor. “Hello!”

Ace walked over to me, the least perturbed by the incredibly dumb thing I just did. “Hello to you too. Need a hand?”

“Sure. Just grab the metal if you can’t grab my hands, I can pull them out myself.” I was trying to do less damage to Rhodes Island after my burst of carelessness had probably caused the floor to need replacing. Or not, Arknights had some weird technology. Maybe they could just fix the floor or something, I didn’t know. I managed to pull one of my arms loose without pulling out more of the floor, even as Ace finally managed to get a good grip around two of the metal spikes.

“Damn your heavy!” It seemed even for an elite operator like Ace, a Nikke was still heavy, though he was still managing to dislodge me quite a lot, and with a final shove from me against the ground, managed to pull me out fully. “I don’t think you're going to escape Dobermann’s training now with that stunt.”

“I probably wasn’t going to anyways.” The other operators began to file out, including Dobermann, though she made a final comment.

“Training is ten minutes after you finish meeting with Doctor. I may not be a standout teacher of academics, but there is a lesson to be learned called restraint and not using too much firepower.” She stalked off quickly after that, the whip hanging from a hook on her belt.

I stood there for a second, before Amiya spoke up. “Modernia, Closure has requested us all.” The only ones remaining in the room were me, Amiya, and Doctor, so it was probably time for either a long conversation, or until I managed to annoy her enough. Amiya began to walk in front of us as we followed her out of the room. I glanced at the various signs, noting that even with the literal computer in my head that had the languages both written and spoken of Earth, I didn’t recognize shit from the signs. That was bad. Really bad. In fact, it was probably going to be the biggest failure point for me to deal with. Though, Dobermann had offered training… I could use that. It was going to suck, but I had a supercomputer as a minor component of me. I could do this.

“Why do you look so proud of yourself?” Doctor’s voice was quite level for somebody who had just been thrown into this situation, but that probably was because of how long he had lived, even if he didn’t know that.

“It’s nothing. Just preparing myself for something I’ll have to do later.” We kept walking as I checked through the files of both myself and the mech. The land ship was incredibly large, worthy of being called a mobile city. But my files had a secret weapon. A truly terrifying power. I could run BOOM on myself. Elegg must have ascended to a different plane of existence, she had gifted me BOOM in a different world! And I did have a connection to PRTS… and thus to Rhodes Island… I had an idea!

“Your grin has gotten wider.” I wiped it off my face as quickly as I could, trying to prevent everyone from surely seeing me grinning like I had crawled out of the looney bin at Amiya’s words.

“Ah, sorry.” We finally reached the door to the control center of Rhodes Island. Closure, or maybe somebody like Ascalon, would be beyond. “Commander, can I request you accept my connection to PRTS? I would like to check its records. I won’t delete anything.”

Doctor looked at me for a few seconds, before he clicked accept on PRTS. That he allowed me in so easily actually was somewhat concerning. Did he just trust me out the gate, or was he testing me? In any case, through PRTS, I checked the capacity of every machine I could. BOOM was small, very small in terms of how much memory space it took. I could install it onto the entirety of Rhodes Island. Perfect. Amiya opened the door to the control center.

Inside the large room stood Closure and Logos, with a few other operators hanging around and doing various pieces of work. Two people I really hadn’t expected to meet so soon. Had I really sped everything up that much with just those dinky missiles? Heh, missiles. Ingrid would laugh.

“Doctor.” Closure spoke up first. She sounded happy, but this situation was way too dramatic. Though based on Logos being on a stool, he was probably only here to check on whatever things he had done to Rhodes Islands filed still didn’t hurt Doctor. Or maybe he was here to check on me. Didn’t matter. Time to make my entrance.

“Hey Commander?” Doctor looked at me, his head tilting as he did. The others were looking at me as well, but it was time for the show! “Pulling an Elegg!” PRTS! Download BOOM onto everything! And then run it on all that don’t risk a person if they start doing it! Rhodes Island had surprisingly strong computers, which probably explained why the download took all of seven seconds, every screen in the control center loading up with the distinctive opening screen to Elegg’s favorite game. I also made PRTS download BOOM. May as well give Doctor something to entertain himself with.

“What did you just do?” Closure’s voice was somewhat shrill as she walked up to me, Logos actually having stood up after that, which probably wasn’t good.

“It’s tradition. In any case, I am Modernia. Nice to meet you!” I knew I probably wasn’t going to make the best impression, so I decided to go as extra as I could. Modernia had entered the fray, and now nobody knew what was going on, even me. “And I downloaded BOOM onto everything. It’s small enough that I could!”

“What- no. Okay. Amiya, please just give the mission report.” Closure let her face fall into her hands as she allowed Amiya to take control of the conversation. Though, wasn’t Amiya the CEO? Wouldn’t that mean she would give her reports to herself? Or maybe they just had a few people who would be able to receive mission reports no matter the rank, probably that due to the wackiness of the operators sometimes.

Amiya took a breath before she began to speak. “Alright. The mission began as planned, all Rhodes Island operators and squads heading into Chernobog on time, arriving at the sarcophagus where Doctor was located. During this process, we encountered Reunion as they-” I tuned out. I knew what happened. I ran one of the computers down in engineering as I did through PRTS. I had a perfect chance to fuck with everyone while avoiding as many bad ends as I could. The doro plushie was just a person's face and their hair, and maybe one or two accessories. If surprise would allow Behemoth to lose, then my flavor of bullshit could maybe confuse people enough for me to work unopposed. I wouldn’t be able to truly guarantee a victory, but I could do as much as possible. I had the chance to, and I had the power to. Couldn’t just let all of those people die without it weighing on me now, not when the option of saving them was open. The first doro left the engineering bay production. Kal’tsit would be surprised to see a plushie of Priestess. This would work.

“Modernia. I have questions.” The voice of Logos rather than Amiya dragged me back to reality. He was standing right in front of me.

“Ask away.” No reason to try and avoid this. It would simply happen later. Though I would be bullying him by making a doro of his mother, which I sent to be made by the engineering bay I had used to make the Priestess doro. It would probably do nothing, but it would at least make me laugh.

“What are your intentions here?” He was looking at me in the eyes, trying to avoid looking at the false halo I had. My visor was pulling overtime making that, but it was getting its pay.

“To help the Commander, and save as many lives as possible. Oh, and having fun. I was very much not having that under the mountain.” Having fun was the least important of my three statements. I would settle for enjoying my life.

“How did you know of Kal’tsit and Mon3tr?” He moved on to his next question, seemingly apathetic to my answers. It was scarier than if he had poked more at that.

“Because I knew Commander.” At least, I knew commander if I was randomly correct, and I also did technically know of Kal’tsit through Doctor, just through his eyes in the game.

“How do you know Doctor?” His eyes hadn’t even blinked! No wonder they just let him question me.

“He is Commander. I fought under him before you, or even Kal’tsit was born. Probably. I don’t know when he started his weird ass relationship with Priestess, so I can’t be sure on Kal’tsit.” Also true. Bending the truth was much easier than lying, especially when you were genuine about wanting to help.

“What do you know of the current situation?” That question was a bit too open for my liking. But I couldn’t be scared by this stool race winner!

“Anything and everything you have ever recorded on Rhodes Island! I have a direct link to PRTS back when I was asleep under the mountain and PRTS has access to all records on Rhodes Island. It was made by Commander, he used me as a backup drive back during Babel. Do you want to read Ascalon’s file?” While he probably didn’t care much for his own file to be read, he probably knew damn well that Ascalon might not enjoy that. At least, if I had read her personality right. I was kind of bad at that. And I was beginning to have to lie, but I was still a Nikke, or at least a heretic one. I didn’t have to change my facial expression for shit!

“Backup drive?” He sounded a little confused at that. Which was somewhat relieving.

“He saved any data that Rhodes Island gathered to me.” That was a fat fucking lie. I could probably back it up by repeating the dialogue of those times, including his own, but it was a fat fucking lie.

“Miss Modernia?” Amiya’s voice interrupted us both. “You said you knew more about Doctor’s past.”

“Yep. Though I would ask Commander to get some sleep before we actually begin the likely day-long conversation, but for a single statement, he used to cook instant food inside his mouth with boiling water at… four twenty six am on average!” I pulled the exact number directly out of my ass.

Closure’s grumble was the next thing I heard. “She wouldn’t have a way to know that without her words being at least somewhat true… fine. You’ll be talking to Kal’tsit though, meaning you’ll be accompanying Doctor to Lungmen tomorrow. And turn off BOOM!”

“Press the red x to close on tablets and the like, there’s a quit button on anything with a mouse, use the escape key when you have keyboards, or the touchpad that came with the game install on machines without any of those.” BOOM would be my revenge on Closure for her prices. She couldn’t escape me.

The others began to file out of the room with the meeting over. I moved quickly to the training room now that I wasn’t keeping pace with anyone, which meant several people saw a human shaped blur speed by them. Finding Dobermann was easy despite her not having told me where she was, I had camera access, though I did close my connection to PRTS. I wasn’t going to always be on it, and I couldn’t depend on it yet. I arrived at the training room as I slowed down, and opened the door.

“Nine minutes early. Good.” Dobermann had already set up a few targets in the training room. There were several on Rhodes Island, and this one didn’t seem special. “Target those targets with those missiles. Even a scratch out of line will result in me intensifying training until you get this right. You’re not an operator yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make sure you’re a good fit.”

I looked at the targets, a bunch of standard red and white bullseye targets that were very easy to hit with the machine gun on my shoulder. “I can’t use the missiles in an area like this. Its minimum power would still kill you from here, and even if it wouldn’t, I can’t fit my vehicle down here.” It probably wouldn’t, but it didn’t hurt to be safe about it. And I didn’t have the missiles without my mech. “But… I do have a different request for training.”

“Hmph. What is that?” She didn’t seem dismissive of my request at least, seemingly understanding of the fact that I couldn’t shoot a missile.

“I don’t know how to read the language used on the signs.” I knew there were cameras in this room, but I really didn’t care. I could just say that PRTS had a translator. “I can write plenty in the ones I know, but I only know this one via the sheer amount of audio saved to me, and any information Commander saved to me in writing was in a language I understood.”

Dobermann stared at me for a few seconds, before pinching her face. “There is no way I can get you started on that today. Just go.”

“Alright then.” I left the room quickly. The next thing to happen would be tomorrow. I could absolutely just spend the rest of the night simply standing somewhere strange for the rest of the night. I went to engineering, quickly going to where I had made the two doro’s. Two tools of absolute comedy. I grabbed them, and went to prepare for my brilliant plans. Tomorrow morning, revenge on Logos, and then to save as many as I could. At least, those who I didn’t paste using my weapons. I was worryingly carefree about that. I didn’t know why.

Chapter Text

Nihilister twitched slowly as she awoke. Everything she was either knew pain, or was too heavily damaged to be able to register that it should be in pain. She disabled said pain when she managed to slowly open one eye, and checked over herself. Arms were fucked, though not beyond use, legs were in a similar state. She was missing an eye, parts of a plane were rammed directly through her chest, she was pretty sure she was currently weaponless, and her connection to the queen was shot. She didn’t care for the last one, but even she couldn’t cut it, which begged the question of how it was cut.

The Commander awoke in a better state, though better was most definitely both arguable and irrelevant in the current situation. He was alive, and his plane had kept him from losing anything, but he felt the sheer pain of what must have been a broken leg, his left one. He was concussed, bleeding, had no way to get help in his eyes, was pinned by both his damaged cockpit and the heavy frame of Nihilister, and didn’t know how long it had been since he crashed.

The static hiss of Nihilister’s damaged voice barely managed to come through to him. “Mo-Monar-arch. Yo-ou li-li-ive?” She sounded like a badly broken radio, which she probably was at the moment, but the Commander couldn’t know given that she was a heretic.

“Unfortunately…” He squeezed his words out of his likely bruised lungs, taking a few seconds to breath just after that. “Means I have to see your ugly mug…” He moved one of his arms to try and push the cockpit off of him. He wasn’t dying stuck under Crimson One.

He found assistance in her though, the hand of Nihilister reaching up as well, creaking as it did to roughly shove the cockpit off of him. “H-Ha. Co-Cou-ouldn't e-even di-die fr-fro-om tha-at.” Nihilister rolled off of him, slowly trying to push herself up. “Lo-Lo-Look at y-you-rse-rself fi-first bef-bef-before y-you sp-spe-eak e-eh?” She slowly walked towards the parts of his plane, before allowing herself to fall into it, the sound of metallic crunching coming from where she fell into it.

The Commander tried to push himself up as well, before failing. He couldn’t put any pressure on his broken leg without causing it too much pain to function. He shouted over to where Nihilister seemed to be eating parts of his plane. “What are you doing? That isn’t exactly going to help the situation here!”

“Get-Gett-tting re-pa-pa-airs.” The crunching increased in both volume and speed. The Commander dragged himself over to his currently being eaten plane using his arms, careful to not agitate his broken leg. He knew he would have to see Mary and Pepper after this, and preferably get a break, but only the first was possible, so he would settle for that. He heard Nihilister’s voice once more, after a distinct crunch. Her voice was at least now definable as clear, even if it sounded like it came from one of those old radio songs that he loved so much. “Finally. Now then. What to do…”

“Bring me back to the Ark?” The Commander’s words were a complete joke, even to him. He might have won the battle in the sky, he might have proven that he was better, but she would be able to kill him easily if she wanted. But he saw the look on her face, the genuine consideration on her face, and immediately knew that her choice was going to make his life harder.

“Sure. But there’s a catch.” The smuggest grin was spreading on Nihilister’s face as she looked down on him. She emerged fully from the plane, still damaged, but in a far better state. She looked like she could actually fight again if needed.

“What’s the catch then?” He decided to at least listen to whatever she was going to try. No point in dying here when he still had so much to do, especially with the rest of the outpost’s inhabitants.

“First off, what you did to Modernia. You offered her a place in that Ark of yours, you're bringing me in as well.” His eyes widened at her words. That was a barely tenable proposition if mainly due to how the central government was. “I can be stealthy, so don’t look at me with those eyes. But my second requirement is that any time you want to fly again, any time you want to be in the sky… you're my copilot from now on. No more of you gallivanting up as a dog of war. You fly only behind me, your wings are mine now.”

He glared at her with that. “What, you went and got attached to me Crimson one? You decided you couldn’t beat me, so you had to prevent me from winning?”

“No.” Her smirk only widened as she walked over to the Commander, nay, Monarch as she hauled him over her shoulder. “I won’t deny getting attached though. Only person able to keep up with me, even now. I decided that if you're going to go ahead and keep flying, it may as well be by my side. Consider yourself married, if it makes you happier. You're mine now”

He stared at her with dumbfounded eyes as she began to walk. “The fuck? Are you sure you didn’t lose your mind when you crashed?” He was at a loss for any more complicated considerations. This situation had gone from dire, to easily the most confusing thing he had ever seen or heard in his life.

“Heh. I probably lost it over the sheer amount of years I spent after you won that first time, a body without the ability to feel, the ability to act, only able to think and seethe in my own hate. But eventually, I learned a lesson from that, a lesson that I brought with me when my brain was pulled out of my head. I wasn’t able to think in that jar they put me in, but at some point, my brain was lowered into a shell. I didn’t care for it. I left to go find a plane immediately, I needed my round two. Walked past a few raptures before they noticed I didn’t care for them. They fired at me of course, but I just kept walking to where I knew the prototype jet I had was made.” Nihilister had begun to speak, reminiscing of a past that Monarch barely cared for. But it at least gave context, and perhaps some insight into this sudden bout of madness.

“Was it there?”

“No. What was there were the raptures, having set an ambush. But once more, I didn’t care. Eventually, they stopped trying to kill me, and made me an offer. They wanted me to help them, even if I wasn’t sure why. I cut them an offer myself. Give me the ability to fly, give me the power of the jet’s I once flew, arm me with cordium, and let me fight Monarch when he takes flight again. They agreed, to them perhaps all of that was cheap, nay, it was easy. But look at you. Even with all the raptures could arm me with, even with me using weapons that they couldn’t put on any other rapture, you won.” She seemed almost reverent, almost praising. It was incredibly strange, even as she began to slowly up her speed. It seemed that she was beelining for an elevator of the Ark, one that led to the outpost.

Monarch looked at her, really looked at her. There wasn’t any hostility. She must have really had some screws loose. “What was the lesson? And what did you mean by weapon’s that other raptures couldn’t use?” He needed those final pieces of information. The wind and the force was pushing him up against Nihilister in a distinctly too close for comfort way, pressed right below her chest.

Her laughter was almost like a wind chime, too soft at that. “I’ll start with the latter question. They armed me with cordium. Something about it makes raptures act up, makes them break, an equivalent of what alva particles do to technology and to Nikke.” To him, that was a very useful statement. But it also probably meant that she was still the only one who even had cordium. At least she was doing something strange enough that she was maybe on his side? “But for the former? That we were meant to fight alongside each other, that we were meant for each other.”

“The fuck?”

“Still don’t understand? Two of the best pilots in the sky, nay, the two best pilots ever. What else were we made for except to be rivals? But you’ve pulled through twice now. So I figure that I’ll take those defeats and let you be the best. As long as I can have you, like it was meant to be.” Monarch could only call those words mad in his head, but he could also see where that strange thought had come from now. It seemed like she had managed to somehow twist literally all of their history in her head to form this demented combination. “So you’ll have me, and there’s no way for me to lose if I have you as well. Do you accept?”

He considered it. Nihilister was a heretic. He needed that kind of firepower, especially if the threats only kept ramping up and they kept fighting raptures like the Stormbringer. But he also really didn’t want to deal with another crazy woman in his life, and especially he didn’t want Crimson one in his life. But he didn’t really have a choice, did he? He wouldn’t be able to fly a plane like that again, Eden wouldn’t be able to get even half of the necessary materials, and without a plane that good, the raptures would simply shoot him from the sky. “I accept.”

She smiled at him, and to his shock, it was a genuine one. “That’s good to hear. Now then, back to the ark, to your outpost. Chatterbox told me about it. You can introduce me to those under you, and then I can consummate this fate of ours.”

He feared for his hips. And his pride, but he mostly feared for his hips.

Chapter Text

Novel stepped into Exia’s room as Exia was playing with Elegg and Maiden. Normally, she would be making her introductions loudly as she did, but today, she had something to reveal. Watson had dropped his phone, and now she had it. Normally she would just return it to him, but he was off somewhere, and she wanted to see if he was making any progress on the mysteries he was surely investigating without her. “Exia. I have Watson's phone.” Novel kept at least a little quiet. At least enough to keep Maiden and Elegg from hearing her over the mic.

Exia turned her head, looking at Novel as she did so. She didn’t speak, merely gesturing her on as she kept playing. Even without looking at the screen, she was still pulling her full weight in the raid the three were on.

“I want to know what mysteries he’s investigating without me. Can you get it open for me?” Exia nodded, grabbing a wire from her computer tower as she plugged his phone into it.

“One second.” She tabbed out of the game as she opened her files, dragging over one to the connection tab that had opened when she plugged into the phone. After it was transferred, the phone turned on. “Passwords been changed to one two three four.” Exia tabbed back into her game as she turned away from Novel, passing her the phone before she did.

“Thank you!” Novel nodded at Exia, before typing in the password, and heading out of the room. Watson had a bunch of apps on his phone, but none were important to her aside from two. His BlaBla, and his files. She checked the files as she moved through the outpost. “C’mon Watson, you need to label these, like I do! Every detective needs a case file!” Novel spoke as she made it to where she decided to check the files and texts. Delta had been the one who brought this up to her, the idea of Watson investigating on his own, so she would share her findings with her.

“I’m here! I brought Watson’s phone!” She knocked on the door of the observatory. After a few seconds, Signal opened the door.

“Watson’s?” Signal didn’t know who she was referring to.

“Ah. Commanders!” Novel figured she would clarify for this. Watson was Watson, but not everybody called him that, even as Signal stared at her, dead in the eyes. She looked unimpressed at her action.

“Come in.” Novel followed Signal inside, into the area where Signal watched her soap operas, and where Delta was as well, sitting on a couch.

“Right then! I brought Watson’s phone, you wanted to check it with me?” Novel noted the small blush on Delta’s face as the normally stoic woman shifted a little in her seat.

“Correct. I wanted to make sure everything was well with him. He’s been getting into enough situations without me where I want to make sure nothing is wrong.” Delta didn’t fidget, even as she spoke of something that worried her.

“Then should we broadcast it? Or read it off to the broadcast. Though at least the ones where it isn’t a one on one talk, or a talk between him and a squad in the outpost, for privacy at least. The rest of the outpost surely worries for him as well.” Signal, was in this moment, the voice of reason. But she too would also like to know what he was up to when he wasn’t with them. Though he deserved some privacy in her eyes. Privacy he most assuredly did not get enough of. So anything personal was not what she wanted them to check.

Delta nodded. “That is acceptable. We are not including Crow, Syuen, or anybody who would threaten him in that, like Sixo.” There was little point in her eyes to not knowing what those people had said to him. Not when one had shot him, one was very much his enemy, and one he had a strange love hate relationship with.

“Sounds good to me!” Novel nodded animatedly as she sat on the couch, to the left of Delta as Signal sat to her left, holding the broadcast settings as she did, turning the broadcast on to a lower power setting. Only enough that anybody in the outpost would receive. “Right! Here we are, reading any of Watson’s chats or files that we might want to know. No private chats, which means no squad groups, or one on one chats between him and a Nikke or person. Now then, let’s see… which one should we start with?” Novel leaned back, letting the other two see the phone and the open chats. The names currently on screen that they could check were definitely something, that was for sure. The lads, mook squad, why, dumbass containment zone, and another simply named ok.

“We’ll start from the top. The lads. Start from the most recent ones.” Delta watched as Novel tapped the chat, and began to read it off.

Johan: “Is full metal alchemist still alive?”

Commander: “Who?”

Signal looked over the chat. “Huh. He still uses Commander as his name, even in chat.” Novel continued to read off the chat.

Johan: “Liter.”

Anderson: “That's foul. But appropriate.”

Mustang: “She actually has the entire show in dvd form. Was she the one that told you to call her that?.”

Johan: ”Yes. She then promptly dragged me into watching it. I could not look at volt the same way again.”

None of them knew what they were referring to. None of them even knew what the show was about.

Commander: “Huh. She’s never done that with me.”

Johan: “Because your ass could get scared by a pin dropping.”

Commander: “You’re the one who says that? The one who gets no bitches and stacks no paper?”

Novel spoke up again after looking at the rest of the chat log. “It devolves from there. Even Mustang gets in on insulting the others. I’ll look up, see if I can’t find a better place to look.” Novel scrolled up, until she found a place where Signal put her finger on the phone screen, stopping it.

“Read there.” Signal loved drama. So of course, seeing a discussion about a squad called Inherit, she had to know what was going on. She couldn’t resist the sweet call of a good soap opera, how could she resist when one had her Commander in it!

“Got it.” Novel nodded as she began to read again.

Anderson: “So is every Nikke from inherit as… unstable, shall we say, as Isabel is?”

Commander: “Yeah. Except Noah. Noah’s fine. Seriously, she’s not just sane, but reasonable.”

Johan: “She’s a brat. Still better than the rest. Hell, she’s more sane than most of the Nikke you brought with you.”

Commander: “Sounds about right. Though Anis would like to contest that.”

Mustang: “She would. Of course, she can never get back that title. Her refusal to clean up, for as much entertainment as it gives, makes her smell… bad.”

Anderson: “Every time I have counters in my office, I have to clean out that smell later.”

Johan: “Y’know, that just makes Noah look better. She can actually clean. And cook.”

Commander: “She has the highest praise from me. I can leave her alone… and she won’t cause a single problem I have to deal with.”

Novel paused at that. She wasn’t worried about causing problems, she solved them! That must mean Watson had more to say about her! But she didn’t think she would be getting anything else from this chat, so she hit back, and went to the next chat as she began to read it off. Time to see what Mook Squad meant. Of course, her eyes widened immediately as she began to read off the chat from earlier that week.

Chatterbox: “I think I get excluded from that category by her being my boss.”

Commander: “You are a simp Chatterbox. What’s worse, you are simping for the person I consider a daughter. There should be some rule of the bro code that states you do not fuck a bro’s daughter.”

Chatterbox: “I don’t even have a dick, what are you expecting me to do?”

Commander: “STOP SIMPING FOR MARIAN.”

Land Eater: “He will never stop. His simping has only made him stronger.”

Novel’s voice got more and more confused as she kept reading. Was this chat filled with just Commander and all Tyrant class raptures?

Chatterbox: “I’m not a simp!”

Altesian: “You are a simp. I had to listen to your simpery even back when she was in that mech of hers.”

Chatterbox: “Is today bully Chatterbox day?”

Commander: “Yes.”

Chatterbox: “Fuck you. Are we still on for tonight?”

Commander: “Also yes. New maps, and new enemies. Should be a good session. Just remember to up your license level if you didn’t yesterday.”

Novel simply hit back once more, heading to the chat marked as why as her face began to turn blank.

Raptillion: “You know how I made friends with the raptures?”

Commander: “Yes. Where is this going?”

Raptillion: “What’s the term for having a kid with one?”

Commander: “I don’t know. I don’t think anybody has even tried it aside from you. So you can name it.”

Novel moved onto the next chat. She had so many questions for Watson when he got back. To the dumbass containment zone.

Material H: “Just eat enough metal I guess. It worked for me.”

Nihilister: “Or other raptures, preferably the smaller ones. They make better noises.”

Marian: “But spiders taste good.”

Commander: “I will find a way to get somebody who can repair you, or enough metal. Please don’t repair yourself with spiders.”

Novel moved onto the last chat. Even Signal and Delta’s faces had gone blank, and Novel’s tone was decidedly neutral.

Commander: “Can you lot please just stop bombarding my phone?”

Red Shoes: “Don’t really have anything else to do, so no.”

Commander: “And can somebody kill her? Please? Again? I know she keeps coming back, but can you please kill her again?”

Rose: “Sure. Actually, can we have a squad name or something by this point? We have fought under you.”

Commander: “I’ve just been calling you ghost squad if that helps. Considering your, well, ghosts and all.”

Pinne: “I’m good with that.”

Commander: “I still don’t get how this entire you all are ghosts thing works fully.”

Rose: “Not like I understand it either.”

Novel backed out of that chat, before clicking the Commander’s phone off. She spent a few seconds like that, before she spoke. “Well. I have questions. Where’s Watson!” Novel burst from the couch as Signal turned off the broadcast. They had an idea about how much chaos they had just unleashed. But even they couldn’t have predicted the scale.

Chapter Text

“By the power invested in me… go go gadget plushie!” Logos was asleep in his bed as I snuck up on him. Three days of waiting, finding a path that nobody would notice, slowly getting everything to even get into his room all just to acquire the picture of a lifetime. If I had this, I had the power to embarrass the elite operator in front of his mother. Not in front of anyone else he didn’t trust or respect of course, I wasn’t a monster, just a person with way too much time and power. I was fully capable of stealth, with all of the things being a heretic had given me. Floating a little, casually ignoring the strange arts letters he probably used as a defense given I was pretty sure I didn’t have a brain, and slowly, ever so slowly, moving the Laqerameline plushy into his arms. Just needed to make sure he didn’t wake up. His breath changing in pattern just a little caused me no small amount of worry, but in a few seconds, the doro of his mother was in his arms. Success! Saving the image internally, I quickly float back out of his room.

Thankfully, either nobody noticed me floating away from his room and beginning to roam Rhodes Island, or the only person who noticed was Ascalon, who I couldn’t detect. If I had the mech fully on, then maybe, but the fact she could hide from me at all was scaring me. Hopefully that just meant she was not on Rhodes Island. I roam all throughout the night, idling, watching the few people who had night shifts, or simply walking around in circles for my own entertainment. Or playing BOOM. I had one game, it was useless if I wasn’t playing it!

Finally the night came to an end, and finally, it was time for something to hopefully happen. I still wasn’t an operator proper, but if there was one thing that could be done about that, it was convincing Amiya I meant well, which I did, and bullying Kal’tsit. But I was startled by a sudden ping, causing me to almost faceplant into the floor in a somewhat crowded hallway due to the very fact I could be pinged.

“Sorry!” Best to be polite even if I caught myself. I checked the origin of the ping mentally, spending a second just finding out how to as I walked into a corner, making sure to not disrupt the crowds movement. The ping was from PRTS. That meant it was a two way connection, not one way. That could be bad, but it was a problem for later if PRTS was actually Priestess. The ping itself was a request for me to head to the location where I was pinged from, which was in the landship bridge as I hurried there.

“Commander, I’m here.” Opening the door, I found Doctor with a few squad members that he had gathered. These must be those who he chose for the assignment proper, or more properly the combat. And it was just Franka, Liskarm, and Amiya that we had with us.

“Morning Modernia. Would you mind joining this deployment with the rest of the squad?” He was definitely in better condition going by his voice, no longer bone tired. Finally, he had a personality!

“Nope. I’ll join. But I don’t think you would want me to use the machine gun unless needed to. I’ll just punch them if you want me on the ground. Or I could be overhead. Your choice commander.” I didn’t care much for using the mech, but I did want to actually talk to everyone, and not through a screen. Also, it was cramped in there.

“You’ll be with the rest on the ground. Drills are already over. We’re heading out.” Ah, I probably hadn’t been pinged until drills were already underway. It’s not like I needed them, but I was probably going to have to deal with more later because I missed them. Probably from Dobermann.

“Got it.” I followed with the rest of the squad, most of them giving me a berth due to my heavier weapons than them, and the context this world gave them. But of course, one decided to be bold. Franka.

“So, what do you do around here? Anything exciting?” Franka sidled up to me as she spoke. Liskarm did turn her eyes as we all kept walking, but otherwise seemed to mostly be ignoring the current activities of Franka.

“I just handle problems. Like hostiles, or walls. I also install BOOM onto literally anything that can hold it. Haven’t found anything small enough to where I can’t run BOOM on it though. Oh, and hazardous locations. Being durable enough makes that easy.” That should tell Doctor what I’m good at as well as Franka. I’m a wall due to being a Nikke, the power scaling is fucked. I have no idea how good my metal is against arts, but pissants couldn’t hurt me anyways. Wait, why did I call people pissants in my head?

Franka, unknowing of the strange thoughts in my head, continued on. “Huh. Well I worked in Biochemical Protection Response Staff. So that places us in roughly the same area of work then.”

“Nobody likes radiation or toxic waste, but it does nothing to me, so I’m the one who should be walking into hazard zones instead of anybody that needs gear. If they are needed, fine, but you can risk less by sending me in.” Normal Modernia had taken to eating literal insects and drinking like a fish. I would be fine. Actually, I should see if I can’t join the drunkard club.

“I’d appreciate that. Means I don’t get my hands dirty.” It was somewhat of a joke from her, but I could tell she meant it. Nobody liked handling something that could at any point up and decide to get worse, or go into a location where death was a major risk. It’s why machines were built to try and handle those things after all. Biochemical weapons… were horrible ways to die.

“Yeah. Also, Commander. Don’t hesitate to throw me into the worst here. I can take more damage than they all can.” I let my machine gun retreat back down onto my shoulder, hiding it behind my back. It would most certainly stop nobody from hiding it, so I had to maneuver it a bit and hide it under my clothes. It was a bit weird looking, but that’s acceptable compared to a machine gun in this world. We finally made it to the checkpoint of Lungmen after ten minutes, and met Ch’en. I promptly and immediately tuned out the conversation. I was not relevant enough, nor did I truly have a rank in Rhodes Island to be allowed into the meeting. Which meant I could simply ignore it.

I heard the commotion before anybody else did, the infected beginning to cause a commotion before it was stopped after reaching a near critical point. And with that, me, Franka, and Liskarm were on border security until Commander and Amiya came back. How boring. Even when we were told to keep the infected causing a problem out… boring. They weren’t worth my time. I still didn’t know why I thought that way. I… This couldn’t wait any longer. I had to find out why these people seemed faceless to me. Like they were irrelevant things I could butcher at a whim. Is this how Nihilister felt?

Chapter Text

//Boot Process beginning…

Why did it feel so dark? Why wasn’t I even panicking at that? I didn’t know. All I felt was the emptiness of the space I was in suddenly.

//Running Diagnostics…

But I knew of those lines running through me like they were me. I could feel something in me slowly running, like electricity through a wire as it slowly jumped from place to place.

//Initial Diagnostics Complete. Booting External Sensors…

I saw. I saw so much more than I ever had. I could see hundreds of hallways, rooms, and I could see a city around me. I could see a hundred blue screens, showing a figure In a movie I had watched kneeling. Yet still, I couldn’t panic. Even as I heard the screaming, the burning, the movement of the entire city, of hundreds of transformers running from the central tower.

//Booting Internal Sensors…

I knew. I saw inside of myself at last. Saw the machines that made me. I could finally tell what I was. A transformer myself. One that had been simply added to the city. The wires of buildings not me were connected to exterior ports as I watched electricity hop from machine to machine inside me.

//Booting Diagnostics System.

I was. I could feel the code that went through me. I could access databanks of memory, of events long past, of a million, nay, a billion transmissions and packets of data sent through me. And I knew what I was. I could feel the massive cog inside myself.

//Booting Weapons System.

I readied. I felt ancient weapons begin to slowly begin their own boot processes, beginning diagnostics that hadn’t been active for millenia. I felt rust and time and decay all slowly fade away as systems more advanced than the ones the new sparks had placed inside me began to spin themselves to full.

//Booting Emotions Processor.

I hated. I hated how far this had all fallen. Primus, what has become of your children, what has become of me? Your primes killed by a pretender, one who sold this world to the Quintessons. All of the wonder you meant, all that you saw, was decaying. But I also hoped. I couldn’t see it, not through Primus’s flesh, the metal of cybertron, but I could tell. Orion pax. He has chosen you. I do not understand why I was chosen to help. But to you, Optimus Prime, I heed.

//Booting T-Cog.

I understood. I would not have awoken for any other reason. I had seen it once, played the game even. Watched as the form so big it would have crushed any city on earth stood, watched as it prepared. I knew that power well. So I waited. He would have need of me. I heeded the awakening of the last prime.

Meanwhile, far away from where the city was awakening, in a plaza, a blue light had just finally broken through the ground. Knocking away Megatron as it shattered a glass roof, knocking away Elita-1 and B-127 off the Plaza’s structure as well. For them at least, they caught themselves, using the side of the structure to grab hold of, sliding down to the ground safely as Megatron was sent skidding across the floor.

The blue light landed in a cloud of dust, blue light glaring through the eyes of Optimus Prime, through the Matrix of Leadership. The two figures, Megatron and Optimus Prime, stood up, both facing each other. Megatron looked… dumbfounded, hateful, and had a mixture of emotions through his red eyes. “Impossible…” He reared up to his full height, clenching his fist as he did. “Primus gave you the Matrix.”

“We could’ve built the future together.” Optimus looked sorrowful. Here was his friend, standing against all he had believed in, having cast him down into the depths of Cybertron.

“I’ll build it myself. After I tear down everyone in my way!” His last words were shouted at as he charged at Optimus. The brawl between friends was a madhouse of fisticuffs, the two of them brawling in hand to hand, transforming, firing weapons at each other, a far cry from anything that would be called a duel. One was fighting to kill the other, while one could not have wanted this less. One would stand, one would fall…

//Boot Complete.

And one would rise.

The combat was interrupted by the feeling of the ground itself tearing. Of the city rumbling as a flood of steam erupted from one of the main buildings. Of the sudden sound of massive engines igniting, of metal clashing as it slowly began to transform. The sheer sound of a massive T-Cog caused hundreds of onlookers, including the two combatants for but a moment as they began to brawl again.

“Some trick of yours? Meant to distract me?” The battle between the two had taken them to the front of the plaza once more. But even still, Megatron and his followers were unceasing. Optimus was fighting with Soundwave, Shockwave, and Starscream all at once. He was still winning though. The three may have been a threat to many a Transformer, but the strength of them meant nothing versus a prime. He even caught one of Starscream’s missiles out of the air, using it to spear Soundwave over the head.

But even still, the city continued to transform. Guns exiting out of what were now revealed to be shoulders as missiles racked over said shoulders. Two massive hands beginning to form out of what once were entire other buildings. Finally though, the head exited. A dull roar as it all finished transforming, all locking together in its new form. The face of the mighty machine revealed to all as its eyes burnt with a red light, a sigil forming on its chest.

“Metroplex heeds the call of the last prime.” The words of the massive Transformer echoed across the entire city of Iacon. And its booming step as it began to move towards the center only echoed farther as it broke through unoccupied buildings and other decorations, stomping its way to the plaza.

Of course, that wouldn’t stop Megatron, who had begun to fire upon Optimus as he charged forward, his shots deflected by the spinning axe of the Prime. His charge met its end as Optimus grabbed his left arm's gun, bending it to the point of uselessness, and swung his axe. It cut through the top half of the tri barreled weapon on his right hand, sending the body of his friend flying backwards as he landed on his front.

A final step brought the form of Metroplex to the Plaza, brought my own body to the Plaza, barely avoiding crushing Starscream. The wave of dust kicked up by the step still coated his entire frame in it though at least. I simply watched from my own eyes, from the massive frame as Optimus Prime and Megatron spoke. I spun one of my shoulder mounted guns to face Megatron as he began to walk away, before a hand from Optimus stopped me. “No. He is banished. There… is nothing else to do.”

I stood by as he talked to Bumblebee and who I was pretty sure was Arcee. Or at least, the people who would one day take those names. And I could wait for him to turn to me, wait for him to give life back to Primus, to Cybertron. For he was the Prime. And the river of our lifeblood was all I needed to see to confirm it. The cogs flying back to everyone was just icing on the cake. Until at last, he turned to me, and I allowed myself to hear his words after not intruding on his earlier conversations.

“Metroplex. You called me the last prime.” Ah. I saw the problem now. I had introduced myself like I wanted too, not thinking of how it may have sounded. The reference was probably not worth risking my words this badly.

“That I awoke at all is signal enough that things are dire. No prime could awaken me freely. Awaiting your orders.” I did not know if I would have awoken at all if it wasn’t Optimus Prime. Not in this continuity of the show. And now when I could feel the might of the Matrix borne in his chest.

“Very well. Assist in the reconstruction efforts.” There he was. There was the voice of the Optimus Prime I had listened to as a child. There was the voice that Primus had chosen.

“At your will Prime.” I had zero idea how to repair things. But I could lift as much as they needed, and I could absolutely break anything they needed. I was the city that moved. I was Metroplex. I heed the call of the last prime.

Chapter Text

The Doctor had thought today would be normal. He knew that was a stupid thought given how every time he had ever tried to go on vacation something happened, but he had hope. His schedule was clear of meetings, he had little paperwork, and he had been planning to simply relax for the day. But fate was unkind. And right now he wished he could curse it without causing more problems.

Right before him, in front of his desk, stood two people. Two identical people who shared the same name, and yet who could not be more different in personality. One in her standard outfit, wearing and using the gear she had as an Abyssal Hunter. And the other in a singer’s outfit she had worn when she had gone to Iberia. Both of them were named Skadi. And both were currently making an absolute nuisance of themselves.

“Doctor. Explain. Please.” The Skadi on the left, the one in her Abyssal Hunter gear, spoke first. She had drawn her sword, but only had it by her side rather than any of the stances she would use to attack any of the enemies he would deploy her against. Her voice was confused, and almost a little scared, but her eyes were locked on the other Skadi’s face. Not on her staff, or on her clothes, on her face that was a perfect match for hers.

The Skadi on the right, the one in her singer’s outfit, was merely smiling widely. Unlike the other Skadi, she was staring right at him, right at his mask, no, she was looking through it. “Doctor… It’s good to see you.” He noted the tremor in her voice immediately. One of slight sorrow, and simply overwhelming love. He knew Skadi was in love with him, even with her normal cool attitude, the way she kept showing up in every squad he pulled together whenever she feasibly could and not have the Seaborn cause problems showed as much. And also the fact she was planning to ask him on a date, but he didn’t want to reveal he knew just yet. Being too far ahead of others was a curse sometimes.

“Alright you two, before anything else, I’ll just start with questions we should both feasibly know the answer to. If you can both answer correctly, then that will prove there are two Skadi’s, but otherwise, I’ll find out if I have an imposter, and the real Skadi can handle it.” Both Skadi’s simultaneously looked aghast at the suggestion that they could be the fake Skadi, but the sharp nods of both of their heads indicated their agreement. “Alright, question one. When we met, who was the Kuranta that I was with?”

“Grani.” Both Skadi’s said in unison, and not just that, in harmony. And, he thought to himself, he had given a relatively easy question.

“What are the codenames of every Abyssal Hunter working with Rhodes Island?”

“Skadi, Specter, Gladiia, Ulpianus, Adreana.” The two were still in unison. And it seemed both Skadi’s were now feeling that fear, no matter how slight. The idea that there were genuinely two of them seemed to be seeping in. And neither was quite comfortable with that.

“Favorite food?”

“Pizza. Not extra cheese.”

“I’m going to be honest, I’m running out of ideas. Last question.” He was convinced himself that there were two Skadi’s in front of him, but they didn’t look convinced, so he now had to convince them. Though he did tap on PRTS to get Mizuki to his office. Maybe he could help here, or if not, he would just grab the other Abyssal Hunters to show them they now had two Skadi’s. And Skadi had always gotten along decently with Mizuki, so at least a friend would help. “What was your previous job before you became an Abyssal Hunter, and which was your favorite power line?”

“Electrical Engineer, I managed the entirety of the power grids transmission in Aegir. I liked the one that was routed to the main train network.” Both Skadi’s were staring dead at each other, neither moving. It seemed they were beginning to understand there were two of them. Now was just finding out how this had even happened.

“Right. So the only feasible way for you to know all of that is to either be the most dedicated stalker, or to actually know them. Given you have both been responding not just the same, not just at the same time, but in harmony, I’ll have to assume I am currently dealing with two Skadi’s. Wait, actually, what did I call you to Martus?” He knew what this would do. But he both wanted to see it, and there wasn’t really a way to fake just how… devoted, Skadi was sometimes.

He got his response by two shockingly similar blushes, but also the first real difference in reaction. The Skadi on the left looked away from the Skadi on the right as she blushed softly, her hand not on her sword pulling down her hat as she did. The Skadi on the right on the other hand blushed as well, though her smile turned into a smirk as she did, staring at him once more. But still, they responded in unison. “One of my Cute Little Operators.”

“...Welp. I now have two cute Skadi’s. Victory for me!” Both Skadi’s glanced at each other as he spoke, before giving a singular nod. Even if they still weren’t a hundred percent comfortable near each other, at least they did have some confirmation that this wasn’t a situation where one was mimicked, only that there were somehow two of them. Both of them trusted the Doctor deeply after all.

The door opened with a small whine of air as Mizuki walked in. “I’m here Doctor, what did you…” Mizuki stared at the two Skadi’s for a moment, before turning his eyes at the Doctor. “Ok. I understand why you called me.”

“My room. Skadi’s, please stay put for now until we sort this out fully. Once we do, I should just be able to change an operator tag for one of you so people can differentiate.” The Doctor nodded to Mizuki as they walked into the rest of his office through the door behind his desk, closing it behind him, and then walked deeper into his bedroom, where the Doctor sealed the door behind him. All the Abyssal Hunters had great hearing, same with most operators though they were on a different level. This distance, and all the soundproofing, were needed.

“You know the one in the red singer’s dress is Ishar-Mla right?” Mizuki didn’t bother mincing words as the Doctor nodded. “Alright. Please tell me you have a plan considering that she’s just… there?”

“Based on everything I’ve seen and asked, Ishar-Mla and Skadi merged or similar. Even in the case that Ishar-Mla took over completely, Skadi’s mind influenced her, hard. They act too similar, and not just that, would Ishar-Mla even understand how to be uncomfortable?”

“No. But she was?”

“Yes. In fact, it seems to be that Skadi may actually have won out, becoming the dominant personality or at least the majority in a merge. And given all the questions I’ve asked were in the past, I think we have confirmation that all of her memories are there. And based on the blushing, both love me. So I’ll call that a win. The Skadi of today and the Skadi of tomorrow, both here in the now.”

“I’ll trust you on this, as always Doctor, but please be careful here. Even I couldn’t predict this, not on any level, even if the future sight thing has never quite been accurate.” Caerulea Arbor was certainly something in both of their eyes. Then again, after a point where they had both found out it wasn’t accurate enough to be reliable Mizuki just started using it to see what the most insane situations he could make were.

“I’ll be careful.” Both of them knew that was a lie. Even as the Doctor said it, they both knew it was a lie so obvious he may as well have told him the sun was purple.

“Don’t get yourself killed by dragging both into your bed. I’ve heard the rumors on how much noise you make with just the two of you, adding another Skadi will make it worse.” Mizuki couldn’t help but chuckle after he spoke, heading to the door as he unlocked and opened it.

“I make no promises. She’s worth it.”

“You realize they both heard that since I opened the door, right?”

“I meant for them to hear me. I welcome the challenge of two Skadi’s.” He could already hear both walking as Mizuki left the room. “But first, Pizza for you two.” Both pairs of footsteps stopped dead before he heard the quiet celebration from both Skadi’s. Even with how different the events leading to them may have been, even with the fact one may not have even been Skadi, they were the same. And that was how it should be. Though that meant he was now having to deal with two people with bottomless pits for stomachs. And he loved them for it.