Chapter 35 - Rewind your kind

 

The next three days were spent with Jack, Nine and Becca recovering and healing up, while Meg attempted to talk to Astrid and convince her to lift the Psychiisyte from Becca's mind, but Astrid staunchly refused. Days of intense arguments and deliberations went nowhere ultimately. Meg met with the town's leaders and began to talk to them, making up a story about what had happened at Sigma Dolores, her testimony backed up by some of Astrid's more willing and favored collaborators in the guild. The following day after that, Megumi brought food for Celeste and Nine who were digging out the remains of the abandoned, destroyed guildhall. Astrid had been tied down by a series of magical vines, courtesy of Megumi. The group listened to Becca and Jack's recall of everything they'd been through, from Thatti's death to the new Dominus's takeover, to the godshards and their prison escape. "That's quite a story you two have for me." The Nebula said, looking at the burnt rubble and the guild members lying around. Many had broken from Astrid's control since and were helping rebuild the town. Nine listened with divided attention, finally pulling out a cellar doorway from the wood and debris. They pulled the hinges off and crawled inside, the others following down the stairs.

Deep down, a series of tunnels lead to a chamber where Astrid had stored everyone the guild kidnapped or kept captive, in high-quality cryopods. "Oh my god, I know them! The villagers who went missing!" The Nebula announced. One by one they were unfrozen and let go, Astrid soon dragged back down.

Becca cleared her throat. "You!" She slapped Astrid, held by Nine's vice grip. "Can you show me how these portable pods work?" She asked, the Set pulling one from the wall.

Astrid nodded, sitting in the ground as she took the spherical device, the size of a beachball on the floor to tinker with it. "Have it ready when we get back." Later that afternoon, Sandra sat in a cave filing her nails against her viney ropes, freeing herself at last when they cut apart. "Finally!" She ran to the front of the cave, blocked by a massive boulder. It slowly began to push to the side, the beams of light becoming a hostile flash when Nine and Becca were seen standing with a smirk on the other side.

"You broke me, Goliath. Your plan, your dream.. It's a fucking joke. This is it- after all I've done." She looked back at her daughter and the girl with no memories. Taking a shard of glass, she attempted to stab it against her wrists. Jack knocked it off immediately. "Quit being so dramatic, goddamn."

Astrid picked up her staff. "I don't need those shards to spank you, dear."Jack laughed as she clapped her hands and hit them, a rainbow of colors and light exploding from her palms and forming sparking flames. "Rather you playtime with me then weaseling your way out"

Nine's eyes twinkled behind her, smacking Jack's clenched hands with the glowing, flaming hand around her. She staggered, and then felt a heavy weight on her head. "No fighting your mom." Jack grinned at her. "Tch."

In her other hand levitated Sandra, whose legs were kicking and mouth muffled by the same potion slime Becca had used earlier, profanity could be heard through it. Megumi pressed a button in back the Crypod, opened it up and Nine shoved a defiant Sandra in. She could be seen struggling through the glass, throwing her weight and pushing at the sides as it shrunk to a size where she could fit in and snap the doors shut, a cold mist and sloshing fluid filling the pod.

Soon all went silent.

"So that's that." Becca said.

"If this is what it takes to get her away from Xi.. the Ximperium will fall swiftly without her.

It'll be chaos! And once it crumbles, I'll let her free to finish her off myself." Nine declared.

Jack frowned. "I don't know if that's a good idea. But I like chaos so.." The two Orchid woman shrugged, having no opinion or objections.

“Actually, it might not. This might concern you guys, you should watch this.” Megumi said, guiding the two to a Galanet holoscreen projection where there was some sort of press broadcast. The two looked at each other, then back.

“W-what the-“

Giving a speech, was what appeared to be Sandra.

Yes, there were some Incursions earlier today. We’re going over the usual suspects. Caldera. Set. Blackwind terrorists. Domestic abusers- they broke into a high-security prison facility and released over a million inmates. Most are being tracked right now as we speak, but the Enigma has caused substantial delays and the tracking technology seems to have been compromised by an unknown party. We’ll have more on this to report as time goes on, but know that we have the situation under control and you’re all perfectly secure and safe. Stay fervent, stay fashionable, be ready for the Redstar festival next week in the Oemu sector as we-

Megumi turned the broadcast off.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but its likely some stunt by the current government to save face or prevent panic. A holographic fake or some type of artificial footage maybe. If nobody knows the Xistress is gone than things can smooth over per usual, I’m sure they’re trying to retrieve her as quick as possible.”

Jack and Becca looked at each other, the two had barely even considered the implications of kidnapping that woman. They knew that she’s someone they should keep alive as a valuable prisoner, but they never considered the possibilities of what would happen if she were missing. Jack shrugged. “Nah, they’re going to be looking for her. We can stay here for a bit and relax, right?” “Yeah, we might have made them panic and all that but I don’t feel it’s important to make a big deal out of it.”

☆ ☆ ☆

 

The following day Nine began working on a nearby cruiser, fixing it for long-term travel and adding Writ inscriptions to avoid detection. Astrid was introduced the slowly-rebuilding town, which had a picnic to celebrate the Guild's destruction. The girl gingerly walked to the seat and sat down. She tried to smile, everyone hugging their loved ones, and putting plates out for the sorceress. "H-how can you be so kind to me? I destroyed all of this! We- we all know what-"

Megumi picked up a sandwich and placed it in front of her. "It's okay, Astrid. You were under Psi. They're not gonna hold anything against you. Defeating a rogue Psii user who brainwashed you and the entire town deserves admiration and kindness, riiight?" She winked. "You freed the entire town afterall."

Astrid looked at the smiling faces and simply sighed.

"It's not that. They were... my people. My guild. They.. They believed in me, trusted me. I.. I destroyed them. I was responsible for their fate. Do you know what it's like to lose those you love, have everything taken away, when all you want is to belong, to be loved and accepted?”

Jack rolled her eyes. "Moooood-mommy.."

The Nebula shrugged. "I guess the past is the past. But you and I aren't done yet." She sat down to face Astrid. "I know you still aren't over him."

Jack clutched her hands. "There is no such thing as forever. If you don't move on, you're wasting your time and everyone else's! Why are you so stuck on being Goliath's smoochy girlfriendmom? He made you lose your entire advisor position in Orchid you spent your life earning, do you really want to wait for him to fuck you up again and again and again? Just walk away and see what life can offer you without him."

"I.. I don't know, I.." Astrid looked at her daughter. "He loves me.."

Jack slapped her wrist. "No. It's not love! It's not. I- I don't know what it is. It's whatever he

makes you feel. He's using you. He's always used you. You've always been nothing but a placeholder for him. He made you feel needed, important, and safe with him.."

Megumi put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "It's going to take a long time, and alot of work with her. Luckily I don't have anywhere better to be right now with the state of Orchid and Xi, I'll using the basic mechanics of psionic therapy I learned in a class once.." She looked at the sorceress.

"What about you, Astrid? You were the one who was so strong on what it's like to be in a relationship with someone who isn't as honest or true as you wanted them to be. What would you suggest?"

Astrid was silent. She looked up and down the line of people, the townspeople and Ex-

guildmembers all smiling and talking and eating together, happy to be back to normal. The guild was destroyed, she'd been given a new start. She stood up. "If you really love someone, they aren't just someone you sleep with and then run away from. If someone isn't capable of loving you as much as they should, how can you love them back?"

The Nebula smiled. "From one daughter of Orchid to another, that's one of the most important things about love and about relationships, Astrid." She stood up and gave her fellow Orchid subject a gentle hug.

"I don't know.. I don't know.." Astrid began to cry. "I just.. I-I.." She looked at her daughter.

"I don't think I really know how to be without him."

"Well.. I think that's the start of it, atleast." The Nebula said.

 

Within the afternoon, the cruiser had been complete. Megumi with Astrid in tow waving behind them. Nine held Sandra in the cryopod tied around her back, most of her own injuries recovered. Jack and Becca hopped in the ship. The sun was beginning to set on the world when the cruiser's light beam hit the sky, it shot across the planet to space. A several hour flight went by in silence, before the group finally reached Earth. They evaded a series of patrols and flew down onto the surface of a continent formerly named 'Europe' now entirely trash and neatly decked Lots. After a bit of searching they landed in a cropfield with gigantic poles, metal coils overtop them and thousands of Lots in every direction. A fridge in the dusty corn field with dozens of cables attached revealed a cipher device within. Nine rang up the device as if it were a dial phone, then a luminescent beam lit up for 20 seconds behind them. The three followed the light, looking carefully at the Lot shacks, hangars and stacked crates until they came across a huge shack with a pitchblack sign, painted with a plus sign with cross-space in the middle vertically and horizontally, made up of four 90-degree angles.

"This one." Nine said. The door opened, the inside revealed to be full of shelves hanging off the wall in a messy lab, full of bottles, a strange machine, a soda machine with some centuries old drinks hanging in it. Becca and Jack's eyes grew wide as Nine tilted down and struggled to press the tiny buttons, punching in a three-digit code. The entire shack locked up with metal and shook, the lights turning on and the ceiling opening up to reveal hundreds of glowing orb- shaped lights. The Set girl pressed a button and the shack dropped, a tunnel revealing itself from the ceiling and glass windows.

"This is.. a Warp Station?" Becca asked.

Nine nodded. "Technically, everything Caldera uses is a Warp Station these days." Becca chuckled. "Everything?" She asked, looking around. "Like this whole lot?"

"Yeah." Nine said. "It's just.. you know.. a big Warp, now. Well, a lot of Warp Stations and drives congealed together to create a shared network of temporal-spacial facilities outside the boundaries of Xi, or any universe of that matter." She scratched her head.

"There are over ten million, two hundred and fifty-six thousand Warp Stations within this network, they call it collectively 'The Boltholes' or Boltheads if you’re oldschool."

Nine said, opening the gate and leading the others into the Warp Station. Inside, dozens of terminals and control rooms were set up in several rooms. "These go on for literally millions of miles. Some of the stations are no bigger than a portapotty, most are just tunnels and sewer-like passages, a few are towns and shopping centers, a few are as large as a city. Long as we're in here, we're outside Xi's jurisdiction or detection."

"Caldera are so busy dealing with everything these days they don't even use alot of this network much anymore, except for smuggling if they’re feeling lousy. It’s huge, hard to navigate and not really efficient for black market operations these days, especially with Black Nova proving more secure and profitable." She led the others to a room and began scribbling and typing on a control panel. "Alot of the terminals are abandoned and need manual input, but you'll probably still find a few thousand operators still around. It is, in a sense an organized labyrinth of pocket dimensions outside Universal space, abusing Warp-Station and cascade tech to create a shared locality. If we're lucky, the old coordinates still work, and so will your device. If your story is true, you'll find no shortage of those artifacts scattered here."

Becca looked at her Analemma.

"Ooh, how do you know all this?" Jack asked, scratching her head. "Also, why are you helping us? Are we not square back in town after freeing you?"

Nine continued to punch in numbers and pull levers. "They teach alot about Xi in Akura classes, mainly on espionage and subversion. As for why you have my assistance.. well that's a secret. I have my own motives. This is as much for you as it is for me." She said, reaching for something. "This should be good."

With a click, the Set put a finger to a touchpad and a loud static noise could be heard. The nearby hallways seemed to blur and glitch, before becoming a different set of tunnels completely. Becca gasped as she realized the whole station had moved. "That's.. That's... all thru Warp tech?" She asked.

Nine patted her head. "Essentially, yeah." The three started traveling through the tunnels, Becca looking at her device every so often for any reading pickups. They kept walking and walking, going further and further as they trekked through the hallways and walked for hours.

Later that day the three of them stopped, the tunnel around them full of empty containers, old food waste, and old decrepit copper door with a sign that read [BIOLOGIC]. They pushed on through into a concrete chamber. Nine looked around, a series of scavengers with knives, pistols, hunting spears and daggers, many with additional eyes, limbs, mutated hunchbacks and scalps, their fangs and claws couldn't be missed. Becca clenched her hands and gulped. "Well. Let's get breaking heads until someone recalls seeing a shiny gold rock." She said, trying to be brave.

Nine smirked. "They.. They're really easy to handle. They're basically just a lot of mutant Ximperium trash." The ragtag group began running at the trio, Nine licking her claw and then sticking it out to send thunderbolts in a series of flashes to hit a pair of the mutants running towards them. Jack laughed, clenching her hands and then blasting balls of brightly-colored rainbow light at another pair running up.

A third ran at Jack, attempting to slice her with a knife, Jack clutched the knife and stabbed the eerie mutant in the eye, green blood gushing out as they screamed. A fourth, a man in a military uniform and gasmask who looked like he'd lost his left leg ran at the Set with a sword, she swiped her arm and a telekinetic blow sent him flying into the wall with a splat. She extended her claws out and began tearing at the throats and chests of whatever mutated fiend attacked her, sizzling sparks and electrical shoots of lighting at everyone she vanquished.

Becca was running with her Analemma behind the others, scanning the ground for anything when something slimy tripped her legs from under her. She fell hard to the ground and then felt a cold slickness. Something grabbed her with tentacles, the woman was thrashing and struggling

as she tried to rip them off her, the tentacles tightening around her waist. "Beccers!" Jack yelled, taking out their crowbar and attempting to bash the tentacles. Nine watched as the entire floor rotated, it didn't escape her that the remaining mutants seemed to be kneeling and praying to whatever was shifting the floor. When the disc across the ground did a 360, the three were dropped into the lair of the reptilian creature, a massive 12 meter eyeless blob of flesh with spikes and a thousand tentacles writhing about and growing into a flooded cavern. It's spiky tail seemed to have a spear-like protrusion at the end of it.

Nine picked up a giant skull, crushed it into a baseball-like mass and with a charge of thunder, tossed it directly through the center-mass of the creature, it's gills flaring as the massive monster let out an agonized roar as it attempted to rebound from the hit. Meanwhile, the mutants continued to pray around the creature from above. Becca used her metal arm to rip apart the tentacle and break free, gasping and laughing as Jack ran over and tried to smash one of the mutant's heads in. Nine was busy using her powers to grab and electrocute several others, throwing a tentacle out to lasso one into a wall. She then grabbed Becca and Jack, leaping back through the rotating ceiling. "Let's move!" She said. They began to dash to the nearby tunnel out, when the creature let out a series of agonized shrieks and opened its mouth, a massive beam of black acidic light shooting through the tunnel towards them. The trio jumped and dodged, Becca falling to the ground, the beam only smashing apart the rocks around her. "Holy shit!" She yelled.

"It's a Warp-Demon. That's what they call abandoned experiments like that." Nine said, her eyes glinting as the creature's tentacles slammed the walls and burst from below, grabbing Nine.

The Set's tattoos began to light up, her muscles buffing out. She could see the creature charging another black acidic beam towards it and dived directly into its mouth.

Becca and Jack gasped as Nine was devoured, her hefty form caught in its throat and then centermass like a rippling bulge. With an explosion of thunder, the entire Warp-Demon imploded and was torn apart, Nine at the epicenter. They heaved their way back. "..It's... fine.. she's okay!" Jack said, reaching down to pull the Set's hand out. Her hue-shifting eyes went wide as she saw the gash in the Set's chest and waistline. "Uh... mostly."

Nine coughed and hacked, pushing herself towards a wall and feeling the blood. "They're usually not that tough I'm fine, you're fine, everything's fine. You... You can move now." She coughed. "I just need to rest up for a few hours." Her body began to detract, muscles and spine compressing, steam releasing from her body as the Set was visibly losing height and strength until she was only about 6-feet tall and skinny as a normal human.

Becca and Jack were silent for a moment, looking at the creature's corpse and back to Nine. "I.. I never would have guessed you were a shapeshifter." Jack said. Nine laughed. "No reason you should." She said. "I ran out of the cave on the last world we were on to hide this form from you.. I'm not exactly proud of it." She looked down at her hands, a layer of scars visible on her wrists and chest. "Those Warp-Demon were what we call "Shoggoths", they were some kinda abandoned experiments from Caldera that were released during The X-Event in the past."

"H-how the hell you know so much about Caldera? Do they just teach you that in classes?" Becca asked.

"They do when your espionage professor was an Ex-Runner and Bootlegger." Nine said, curling into herself quite abit. "Just go on, I'll sniff you out and be on your trail later."

The two girls looked at each other. "Well, let's get going. We still have a lot to find and not a lot of time." Becca said, getting to her feet and looking at her Analemma.

Jack scratched her head. "We should get out of here asap. This place is creepy.."

They swiftly started jogging away from the previous mutant chamber, making their way through tunnels and and chambers as they did. In one, they came across a hanger with spacecraft with spiky exteriors and antiquated scorched engines. In another, several broken down larval- tanks, with a metal bridge leading across. In another, they came across a trio of children playing, a small village within the labyrinth. In another, a couple making out. In another, they came across a chamber of hundreds of dead soldiers and civilians frozen in time, their eyes locked on the chamber. "Whoa." Becca said. "Are they all dead?"

Jack frowned. "Eh.. I think they're just timelocked." She sighed.

The Analemma finally began to give readings to Becca's excitement. "There's actually a shard! This way!" She lead Jack, guarded by the device towards another small town within the tunnels, this one quieter and less hectic, a man playing an electric guitar by an old rusted car in the town square. Jack ran her hand through the strands of her hair and looked at the townspeople, one of which was sitting down on a bench with their eyes closed. She gasped. "They.. look so normal. Weird to think so many people live here, outside Xi or space-time." She shrugged. Suddenly a belltower rung, and the townspeople gasping and heading towards a chapel. The two looked at each other and followed in.

"So.. there's a chapel.." Jack muttered.

Becca looked at the chapel, the congregation's eyes all closed, they all took purple robes from under the pews and put them on before muttering prayers and recitations. She looked at the Analemma, then over her shoulder.

The Analemma gave an audible readout. "There's something here! Get over here! Get over here!" She rushed over to the congregation and reached out to one of the religious figures. They all stopped praying, gasped, and looked around with confused looks on their faces. A woman came down in a purple robe with a golden circlet, a godshard embedded in the top. "Her!" Becca said, clutching her Analemma in front of the religious figure, holding it up in her hand.

The woman laughed. "Well, I suppose it's a miracle then. We don't have many guests here in our little town of Sainta Rosa.."

She said, a soft light glowing within her eyes.

"I don't.. I don't know what you're talking about. Could you tell me what this means?" Jack

asked.

"What it means.." The woman said, looking at Becca's Analemma. "..Is that you've come

to save us. This is our town. Our people. Our world."

"..our world?" Becca asked. "Your world." The woman replied, pulling her hoodie off her scalp to reveal cyan blue hair freeflowing.

She then pulled the golden circlet off her head, a glowing third eye staring through at Becca. Becca tried to pull away, the woman waggling her fingers and a psychic force pulling her back.

"Oh of course she had to be Psii, uggh." She began lowering the circlet on the girl's head.

"Yes, you're going to be fine here, my darling. You'll feel safe and have everything you need and want." The circlet started to spread a yellow-streak through the girl's veins as memories of the woman's life attempted to infect her. "Because you'll be me, the new leader, our Warpseer. My flesh grows frail and soon I'll be useless. No matter. With this shard you'll inherit everything I've done and be everything I've done."

Becca panicked. "G-GET OFF GET OFF! GET OFF THIS-!" Without hesitation Jack rushed in smashed her crowbar down, the current Warpseer using Psii to keep the weapon vibrating inches from her face.

"Get the fuck away from her!" She yelled, attempting to kick the woman away.

The Warpseer shook her head. "This is our world. Our way. You're a part of us now. We'll make you devoted to your new overseer."

"Get. The. Fuck. Off. Her." Jack's face went maniac and she tackled the woman, hitting and bashing at her with her weapon.

The Warpseer began crying and shrieking, her psychic powers starting to fade as she struggled to keep a hold. "I'm not gonna stop!" Jack yelled, smashing the back of the woman's head in. "Fuck your way!" The woman's crown of light faded, Becca dazed between her identity and her own. The rest of the church began taking out guns and knives, before a gigantic Set crashed through the ceiling and roared. Everyone screamed as she started tearing through the congregation in a wild massacre, Nine holding nothing back as she tore through people like paper.

Jack laughed at the Set's display of unbridled carnage as she tore apart the townspeople. "..God I'm glad to be with you and not them." She laughed, smashing a man's head.

Twenty minutes later, Becca finally recovered her lucidity, taking off the circlet with the Godshard inside it. She gasped as the scent of bile and blood filled her nose, red painting the insides of the church. Her heart sank, for reasons she couldn't begin to understand. On every pew or wall was another corpse, limbs thrown about, bodies tore up and brutalized. She started to shake abit.

"You good, Celeste?" Nine asked.

Becca turned around to look at the town. "Just too many people." She said. "They could've been just like us." She looked a little girl hiding under the pews, scared for her life. Her parents lay slain among the anonymous bodies, she sobbed while covering her mouth and shielding herself. "Is this where you grew up?" Becca asked the little girl.

"Please d-don't hurt me.." The girl replied.

"We.." Becca looked up, holy light from some sort of ethereal force of this realm shining in. "We killed this town."

"Well I still think they were kinda jerks." Nine said, her eyes shifting back and forth. The three walked out of the town and back. There were no signs of other Warp-Demon, mutants, cultists or other churches around them. The town of Sainta Rosa and its denizens were completely wiped out.

 

They continued on their journey through the maze of passages, silence among them.

Eventually Becca snapped. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS ANY OF THAT ABOUT?! THAT WAS INSANE!"

She screamed, flinging the Analemma towards Jack and Nine.

Nine was silent, Jack had only two things to say. "Sixteen years of living in Orchid will do that to ya!" She shrugged. "Now, what's gotten to ya becky? I didn't take you for the sentimental boo- boo crying hero type." Jack strolled around Becca. "Ain't you a killer? You attacked people back at the guild, remember? WE attacked, stabbed them!"

"That was self-defense!" Becca shouted.

"Yeah? You didn't have an issue when we were killing those mutants, huh Sugah. Now what's with the violent psychotic break? I thought you were supposed to be my murderbuddy?" Jack asked, putting a hand on her.

"I am NOT. Your murderbuddy." She slapped her hand away.

Jack sighed. "Fine, fine. You're the best in the game, I know that. You're always right. You're the smartest. The goody-two shoes. You always know best." The girl folded her arms. “Look these guys live in the middle of nowhere, whose going to miss them?”

Becca looked at her. "No, Jack. I'm not that good. I'm not. I never was good. When I was a runner I'd shootup whole busloads of people, but I thought things would be different." She looked at Jack who pouted.

"Sugah, they was gonna brainwash you. Your mission would be over then, gameover. Goliath wins, bad end. Becca who? Just a dumb deluded priest lady in the middle of fuck- nowhere, we saved you. You should be more grateful." Jack argued.

The girl shook her head. "All they wanted was to practice their dumb religion, even if I I became like them. And now they're.. dead."

"You didn't have to.. we could've.." The Set stepped in between the two, a paw on each shoulder. "..Could have talked this out with her. But she wouldn't talk. She had her own reasons." Nine said. "We didn't hear those reasons, we didn't hear her life story or have time to convince a crazy woman what she was doing was wrong. Trust me, I know all about religious fanatics, they love to talk about their, reasons." She paused. "If it'd come to it, do you think she wouldn't have killed us first?" Nine asked.

"Killed YOU? You're a billion-feet tall tiger woman with magic, no way in fucking hell she could've 'killed' you, let alone anyone in there." Becca shouted.

"Woops." Nine replied.

Jack rolled her eyes. "Are we really doing this? Sugah c'mon. I know you used to be a killer, those were literallywhos and you're a bloody shooty-boo. You're just like us, why you trying to take the high ground all of a sudden?" Her shimmering eyes fluttered.

"I'm not like.. ANY OF YOU. I'm not.. The same as.. Any of you. I just... I just wanted a life worth living." She said. Becca thought back to the town of patriot Merrigold, to the same argument she'd had with the Crystal Gems and Diane all the way back. The lecture she'd given, the preachiness she felt at the time. Eradicating an entire village through starvation, it seemed such an empty, fleeting crime, a possibility devoid of the gore and visceral imagery of what she'd just witnessed. Cognitive dissonance ran amok in her mind as she tried to manage her feelings and self-reflect.

"Just don't kill the whole damn world indiscriminately, okay? You two might be my chooms right now, but you still have a lot to learn. Okay?" Becca shouted.

Nine looked at Becca, before turning around. "I'm not like you either." She said, scratching her neck.

Jack giggled. "Ohhh, why? Cuz you're a shapeshifting magical tiger chick who can kick the shit out of people? You do realize that makes you the best in the whole world, right?"

"I'm not, alright?" Nine snarled. "I'm no special warrior, no hero." She looked up at them. "The reason I want to stop Goliath and fix Xi, and set Sandra free is so I can get back home, fix my mech and finish her off. I want a glorious execution on the battlefield by my own hands." She looked at her back, Sandra still sedated in the pod. "As is, she's too pathetic to simply kill now.

Not like this."

She looked up at them. "We all have things that drive us. Even the me I once was." She held up Sandra's pod. "I was once a soldier, I was once that religious crazy fanatic too. Now, I've turned my back on even Akura, and rejected the unit name my people blessed me with."

She smiled. "But it's been a long time." She turned to the two girls, a twinkle in her eyes. "We're gonna get back to Xi.. To the world.. To fix everything I want."

Becca looked at Nine, her eyes filling with tears. She took the Set in her arms and hugged her.

Jack looked on, a big smile on her face. "I just want to have some fun, and also keep my word for Goliath in protecting Becky. If you think I'm gonna go soft, you're wrong. Deal with it honeybuns."

The three took a moment to compose themselves before continuing onward, Becca staring off at her new companions with tears in her eyes. "We're the fucking worst." She said, before

marching off towards the Boltholes to wherever fate would lead them.

Back in the remote chamber within the Bolthold town of Sainta Rosa, a little girl laid in a covering of her parent's own blood. The child of a dead psionic warseer, she looked up as a figure with blond locks, flowing silver robes swishing out as she approached her and bent down. To this girl, the strange woman looking like an angel to offer her salvation. The girl looked up and sniffled.

“Who did this?” She asked, her beautiful golden eyes causing the young girl to cease her damnation on that day.