All the life seemed to drain from Hessiah's body as he turned away from the crimson vat, but the fury in his eyes was undiminished.

His body changed as he moved, additional arms sloughing off and being reabsorbed, additional eyes sinking back into his skull. By the time he faced Marie, he was an utterly different man. A grey humanoid with slick and slimy skin, proportions stretched and warped like a child's drawing. This was not a form Titan Hessiah had put composure into.

"Why?" he asked, his voice deceptively dull. "Why have you done this thing?"

Slowly, carefully, Marie put her sandwich down and stood up. Hessiah's bloodshot eyes followed her as she moved, but he stayed still as ever. If Marie hadn't adjusted her biology, she'd have been sweating buckets -- it would take only the slightest stimulus for this to turn into a fight.

She did her best to explain.

"I saw it. Like you said, I calculated the future. What would have happened if you went ahead with all this." Her voice was calm and patient, with only the slightest quiver. "All those people, dead, burning, and…"

"People?" Hessiah interrupted. He took a sticky step forward, the light of the lab reflecting off his grey skin. "What people?"

Marie kept her eyes fixed on him. "I saw Azum-Ha. I saw it falling, the Enfant destroying everything. I could hear the planet screaming, everyone dying. It was…"

A hollow, croaking sound -- a long 'oh' -- crawled out of Hessiah's throat as he opened his mouth slightly. It went on for long seconds, his eyes sad as he stared Marie down. Through his open mouth, she could see gills and filters shivering.

Black tears trickled down his face.

"People…?" he repeated, like the word was the saddest thing in the world. "Oh… oh, no… they've contaminated you."

"I --"

Titan Hessiah was in the mood for no more conversation.

He was upon her in a second, mauling her, his grey skin and smooth features replaced with wiry black fur and the claws and fangs of a wild beast. He bit and gored, gnawed and eviscerated, buckets of Marie's blood and flesh spreading out beneath her.

She only realized he'd moved when he tore out her small intestine with his teeth. Immediately, she kicked him away with an impromptu hooved foot -- and he crashed up into the ceiling, cracks spreading along its surface.

Marie's body changed, tendrils sprouting from her back and drawing the expended blood and flesh back, replenishing her biomass. She rose to her feet, her limbs growing thinner and longer, her fingers sharpening into claws. Plates of bone and tooth sprouted over her joints and vital areas.

She looked up.

In defiance of gravity, Hessiah had not yet fallen back to the floor. Instead, legs like those of a spider had sprouted from his torso, spearing back into the ceiling and holding him in place. The fur covering his face shifted, and a new visage emerged -- a facsimile of a human skull, framed by darkness. It was the only trace of colour among his jet-black fur.

"It's not your fault," his hollow voice emerged without movement of his new mouth. "You don't understand the way things work. You're incapable of it. Reboot, and I'll teach your successor the way of things."

Marie scoffed, flexing her claws. "Fat chance."

"It isn't up to you."

Hessiah's throat swelled grotesquely, and when his jaw snapped open he spat out a massive green web that wrapped itself around Marie like a sticky blanket. She couldn't quite see with it covering her face, but she heard well enough -- and she heard the sound of Hessiah's stomach-legs detaching from the ceiling. He intended to continue his attack while the web rendered her immobile.

Trying to tear it off was a waste of time. Marie raised her internal body temperature as much as she could without endangering her life, her skin turning red and visibly blistering. As Hessiah slapped her with a tendril, sending her flying across the room, the webs encasing her burst into flame, falling away before she reached the wall.

Marie relaxed her internal structure, and as she struck the wall she splattered like a piece of chewing gum, features and organs distributed generously in an indiscriminate mass.

She pulled herself back together as quickly as she was able, taking on a quadrupedal reptilian form -- but Hessiah was wasting no time either. Before she could finish reconstituting herself, she felt his now-massive fist slam into her face, rupturing her eyeballs and shattering her skull.

With a hiss of effort, Marie converted one of her crawling limbs into a blade of bone and thrust it forwards -- running Hessiah's torso right through, but he didn't so much as flinch.

His bestial form had changed somewhat, shifted -- more great ape than wolf. As he kicked her away once again, shattering the consoles in her path, burning breath spouted from his nostrils, like twin kettles come to boil. He held one of his huge arms out to the side, and the hand melted and reformed into a mighty axe-blade of bone.

"I truly do not understand you," he said softly. Behind him, triggered by one of the consoles, one of the vats slid open -- red liquid spilling out copiously. Hessiah glanced at it out of the corner of his eye.

With a roar, he charged.

Marie's left arm became her new head, and the ruins of her former head became a new arm, her entire form shifting to accommodate the new configuration. Her legs fused together into a lengthy, girthy tail -- lashing out at Hessiah in an effort to restrain and constrict him.

But she'd underestimated his strength.

He brought the flat side of the axe down on the midsection of her tail as it approached, cutting it and severing the makeshift nervous system she'd arranged for it. Without an instant of hesitation, his foot stomped down on the wound and began to spread out like the roots of a tree, securing itself against the floor and holding her in place.

Hessiah brought down the axe countless times, each time aiming for wherever she'd created a new head, each time hitting his mark in a shower of blood and brains.

"You think you've ruined me? Ended me? Ended anything? This is a delay. This -- you -- are a learning experience."

Marie's eyes stretched out like those of a snail, hardened into spiked tendrils, but Hessiah's free arm became a thin sickle and sliced them off without difficulty.

"If you don't want to die, my dear," Hessiah snarled, bringing the axe down again. "I would recommend you reboot. Let this failure of a life end and give someone worthy a chance."

She grew thorns out from her constricted tail, intended to wind their way through the tree-foot on top of it, but Hessiah had hardened and bolstered it to such a degree that it was more like stone -- and her thorns shattered where they made impact.

Crazed eyes wormed their way out of Hessiah's empty sockets, and when Marie looked -- in the split seconds available -- she could see that tears were still streaming down them.

"We were meant to be together!" he roared in anguish. The axe came down.

Smash.

"You were meant to be on my side!"

Crack.

"It was destiny!"

Splat.

This was play fighting. No matter how much either of them bled, or were smashed or were burnt or were strangled or were disemboweled, it was irrelevant. Any lost biomass was nearly instantly scooped up again, and both of them had turned their senses of pain off before this fight had even begun.

No matter how much of his frustration Hessiah let loose on her, Marie would not die. She'd be reduced to a pile of broken bones and torn-apart meat, but she would not die.

Not unless Titan Hessiah was willing to use his venom.

She had killed the monsters he'd called his children, destroyed his future, shattered his dreams right before his eyes. Among humans, this would be more than sufficient grounds for a crime of passion.

But there were more than enough humans to go around.

Hessiah dashed her ribs with another swipe before taking a step back, panting with frustration. The skull protruding from his fur was more like a mask than a face, though, and Marie could see the clear white eyes and flat line of a mouth behind it.

The bone-axe swirled and softened like ice cream, solidifying into a three-fingered hand once again. It hung limp with the other.

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"Why, Marie?" The rage had drained from Hessiah's voice, and all that was left was exhaustion. "Why? I don't… you're… why?"

Blood dribbled from her half-formed mouth as she breathed through repairing lungs. When she spoke, she knew it was the truth.

"Even if I told you…" she rasped. "You wouldn't understand…"

As she quickly glanced towards the door behind Hessiah, she returned to her normal human form -- if a little battered and dishevelled. Hessiah's face hardened and his fingers sharpened once again into talons. His eyes and mouth vanished into the darkness behind his mask.

"You understand, of course," he growled, lifting his claws high above his head. "That now you'll always be alone."

Marie closed her eyes.

"I'm not alone," she said.

The claws came down.

White Aether crackled.

And.

"Full Throttle," Atoy Muzazi said.

It was a sneak attack, but it was still magnificent. Hessiah's hand and the top of his head were sliced off by Atoy's perfect slash, an injury sufficient to make him stagger backwards. With a screech of fury, the Gene Tyrant swung back around, his free arm morphing into a set of bladed tendrils to slice Atoy in half.

He stopped mid-slash.

In all of the chaos of battle, Titan Hessiah had not noticed. Of course he hadn't: how could he? He'd spent a thousand years hiding and skulking in the shadows. Marie Hazzard had fought.

Titan Hessiah hadn't noticed that the doors were open.

Titan Hessiah hadn't noticed Atoy Muzazi sneaking up on him.

And Titan Hessiah hadn't noticed the squad of security officers accompanying him, their eyes wide with terror.

For the briefest of instants, Titan Hessiah did not move. He simply stared back at the crowd of witnesses. His body did not so much as twitch, his face held no expression, but the horror he himself must have been experiencing was obvious.

He had been discovered, after all.

"Open fire!" one of the officers screamed -- and as one, the panicked crowd fired a hail of plasmafire at the hulking beast. It filled the air like a glowing orange waterfall.

With a roar of fury and a swipe of an arm warped into a bone shield, Hessiah swept the incoming onslaught away. Twelve armoured tentacles -- one for each enemy -- sprouted from his back and lashed towards the security officers, no doubt intending to decapitate them to a man.

But Atoy Muzazi was there.

He leapt between the tentacles and the officers, the shining blade in his hands dancing beyond human limits. He deflected the tentacles each time they struck, sparks exploding with each repelled blow. Thrusters like those of a rocket flickered across his body with each movement, tiny cuts opening over his form as it was pushed beyond biology.

The tentacles came instead for Atoy as their primary target, striking again and again each time they were repelled. As his speed increased, the sound of clashing bone and steel overpowering the space, Atoy let out a guttural scream of determination.

Ten seconds. Atoy Muzazi was one of the finest warriors Marie had known, but even so he was only capable of holding off that onslaught for ten seconds.

His stance was solid, but the force was overwhelming, and he was hopelessly outnumbered. For each six tentacles he deflected perfectly, the next six would be a second off, knocking Atoy off balance and making the next six even worse.

Deep gashes and wounds were opening over Atoy's body as he repelled the blows. His white Aether flickered and faded as he moved with all the speed he was able. His arms shook as stray droplets of plasma landed on them -- the product of the security team's continued fire.

And the determination in his eyes remained untarnished, as he fended off a god.

Ten seconds. That was all they needed.

As Hessiah turned away, concentrating fully on the attacks of the humans, Marie rose to her feet. Her legs were shaky, unsteady like those of a baby deer, but she couldn’t exactly let Atoy show her up, could she? She had a job to do here, too.

She charged, maintaining her human form even as she tackled Hessiah from behind, arms looping around his titan of a waist. A second face sprouted on Hessiah's back, staring her right in the eyes, but she paid no mind.

Instead -- making sure it was unseen by the officers -- she grew a long, thin horn from her forehead and gored it right there and then. And then she pushed, exercising all the strength this body was capable of producing.

Hessiah could not focus on her, because that would mean lessening the load on Atoy. He couldn't focus on Atoy, because that would mean ignoring Marie.

Because he was trying to focus on both of them, he hadn't realised where Marie was actually pushing him.

It had taken some sleight of hand -- or, really, her entire body -- but she had managed to get that vat open. Like she'd said, those vats were capable of many things: gestating, terminating…

…and freezing.

With a burst of animal strength, Marie forced Hessiah fully into the vat, his back thumping against the glass -- and as his barely visible eyes widened, she knew he'd rumbled her. But too late. As she leapt back, the glass door of the vat snapped shut.

That didn't mean Hessiah was harmless. Far from it.

He smashed his bulk against the glass once, twice -- each time cracks splintering across its surface. It wouldn't survive much more. Marie whirled around to look to Atoy, to signal him, but there was no need. He was already on his way.

His thrusters had sent him across the room, over to one of the surviving consoles -- one she'd pointed out to him during their preparations -- and like a lance from heaven, his finger tapped the waiting command.

"Cryogenic sequence in progress," a cool female voice resounded throughout the room. "Please wait patiently."

Hessiah hesitated, for just a moment, and that was what truly defeated him. White smoke scoured the inside of the vat, cooling him down to his utmost --

-- but he did not scream or rage or cry.

Instead, with unsettling calm, he placed the palm of his hand against the frosting glass -- and stared Marie down with murderously serene eyes. When he spoke, she couldn't hear him through the glass, but reading his lips was just as good.

For this, you pay forever, he said, even as his eyeballs froze. For this… onto you.

Then he was as a statue, and moved no more.

Marie let out a breath she felt like she'd been holding in for hours. Vaguely, she reached up to touch her forehead -- she had gotten rid of the horn, hadn't she? She hadn't messed up at the last minute?

Her hand felt only smooth skin. They'd done it.

"Marie…" Atoy grunted -- and as she turned to look at him, he collapsed onto one knee.

Hessiah had really done a number on him. Blood oozed from half-a-dozen wounds, some of them serious, and the only thing that stopped him from collapsing fully was the fact that he'd stabbed his sword into the floor as a support. Even so, there was the slightest smirk on his face. They'd accomplished a great feat, after all.

Marie managed to get over to him and hold him up before he fell over, his sword slipping from his grasp and clattering to the floor.

"No…" Atoy mumbled in the moment before he too slipped unconscious. "Lu…"

Marie carefully lowered him to the ground, one of her hands supporting his neck, before looking up at the frazzled guards.

"Medical supplies," she snapped sternly. "Bandages, stimulants, whatever you can get. Not Panacea." That last bit probably didn't need saying, but she'd learnt long ago never to underestimate human stupidity.

A couple of the guards ran off to execute her commands, but one -- a younger looking man -- stepped forward. His gaze was still focused on the monster locked in ice.

"What…" he whispered. "What the hell is that?"

Marie took a deep breath.

----------------------------------------

"Gene Tyrant," she addressed the gathered refugees. "Titan Hessiah was a Gene Tyrant."

After getting Atoy into the infirmary and making sure the doctor understood she wouldn't accept failure, Marie had decided to waste no time. She'd descended the building with the remaining guards and brought together the civilians in the warehouse. Once she'd explained to the tortoise behind the scenes that Titan Hessiah had been deposed, he was only too happy to cooperate.

She stood with her hands clasped stoically behind her back, framed on either side by security officers. It wasn't like she needed them here, exactly, but they helped project a sense of authority.

Someone near the front of the crowd, a burly-looking miner with tattooed arms, scoffed. "A Gene Tyrant?" he raised his eyebrows. "What, and I s'pose the Supreme was there with him, too? What's your angle, lady?"

"No angle," Marie explained, keeping her voice as steady and calm as possible. "Currently, we believe that the real Titan Hessiah was murdered and replaced by this Gene Tyrant at some point over the last few years. Since then, he's been acting to advance his own interests, specifically with the aim of mustering a force to re-establish the civilization of the Gene Tyrants. That plot has now been foiled."

Someone in the crowd laughed. Marie ignored it.

"However," she went on. "The danger is not yet passed. The Repurposed outside are still active, will still attack on sight, and are likely preparing their next move even now. I have instructed company engineers to scour the communications network for whatever sabotage the Tyrant used to stop the governments of the galaxy from knowing what was happening here. If any of you have experience with this field, we would be happy to have you."

A quiet murmuring overtook the crowd -- the possibility of rescue had now been raised. No matter how insane the rest of what she said was, that alone would hopefully win her some points. She took a deep breath.

"It's paramount that you listen to and work together with us on this," she said. "Repairing communications will take time, and the Repurposed will act sooner rather than later. We are in this together. If we --"

"Together?!" someone in the midst of the crowd snarled. "Like hell! You all ran up to the top and left us to the wolves!"

There was a wave of agreement, angry cheers from rightfully angry men and women. The discontent spread across the faces of person to person.

"Fat chance we're going to listen to you cowards now!"

"Who put you in charge?! Who the fuck are you, anyway?!"

"There are no more Gene Tyrants! They died a thousand years ago!" That one got an especially good reception, the crowd erupting into jeers and shouting.

Marie breathed in deep through her nose, and out through her mouth.

There was a good deal of genuine rage among the crowd, of genuine doubt -- but what was also there, creeping along the edges, was a cold and uncertain fear. What if she was right? They would do anything they could to deny that, would shout and cry for as long as it took, but --

"I believe her."

A clear voice cut through the babble of the crowd, so resonant that the vocal cords behind it must have been infused with Aether. The arguing hushed, and curious glances turned towards the person in the middle of the crowd. Someone in the way shifted, and Marie got a good look at the speaker.

"I believe her," Dragan Hadrien said again, stepping forward, brushing his silver hair out of his face. "I've seen him too."

Marie raised an eyebrow. It seemed she wasn't the only one who could come back from the dead.