Miriam drew her rapier. The blade and guard were longer, more jagged. Rather than a sleek and slender weapon it had been, it seemed now to be almost an extension to her body. The sleek shell blended perfectly with the cracked carapace of her gauntlet-hands and fingers. And was it... moving? The blade seemed to shudder in her hand. Or perhaps that was only the haze reflecting off the hot sand.

She stood with a surprisingly level guard, as much as her body trembled. The ripples beneath her carapace released in cracks and fissueres that traced their paths across the outer shell. Raw flesh peeked out from between each gap, sinew and tendons shifting rapidly to rearrange her body. And yet she seemed, at least outwardly, perfectly still, her blade held out to counter Nep’s potential strikes.

“Nep, please.”

Nep started a swing, but stopped short; Miriam’s blade had swivelled to strike back and nearly struck her in the chest. It stared back at her with a face so familiar, yet unknowable. As an Angel, she’d gotten quite used to the unblinking visages of her fellow Imagos, despite their approachability. She’d come to associate those faces with friends. Now those same unblinking eyes now masked a violent killing intent. The superposition made Nep dizzy. But she couldn’t sit idly by.

“Nep, I’m here. I’m fine. You can go. But you must leave me alone. Leave us alone. We’re fine.” As she said those words, Nep heard another crack, the sound of bones breaking and reforming, changing their structure and arrangement to suit the whims of who- or whatever was in control now. It must have been excruciating. Even watching it was painful.

“I will not leave Miriam like this.”

“I want to be left like this.” Miriam stepped forward, her thrust just missing Nep’s torso. The blade was bending; it twisted and turned as if seeking a target. Nep stepped back, and again as Miriam pushed forward again.

“You are not Miriam,” said Nep, slashing again. “Not anymore.” The blades clashed. Miriam’s blade bled. The edge cracked and broke, leaking blood that ran in long stripes down to the hilt.

“Am I not?” With a shake, the carapace broke free, leaving the blade active, squirming, a mass of legs and teeth that writhed in the air like a whip. “Despite everything, Nep, I’m still in here. I know you can’t believe me. But I am.”

“I refuse.”

“Let me show you, then.” The head of the Imago split open, cracking down the middle to reveal Miriam’s still-very-human face beneath, raw and bloody and scared, eyes open wide in horror at the sight.

Nep froze for a second, startled. The thrashing blade slashed at her body, bladed legs and mandibles slicing even through the hardened carapace. Caught by surprise, she staggered back, checking the wound. The uneven, writhing edge had cut a deep and jagged wound, leaving bare the vulnerable internal parts of her Imago. “It’s not Miriam.”

“I am.” And the voice was indeed hers, coming from the bloody face. But the movements were so erratic now they couldn’t be hers. The wild lashes of the blade whipping around her body bore no resemblance to Miriam’s calm duelist’s stance. No, they were the outbursts of a wild animal. Though even the face was Miriam’s, Nep could see right through to the shadowy figure beyond it all, the darkness that had been lurking in the corner of all their minds until this point.

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“I will not give Miriam over to you.” She stepped forward with her scythe, coming in close to slash and tear even as the coil wrapped around her body, cutting through the carapace and into the softer flesh beneath. She struggled against the weapon, struggled to take her scythe and drive it into Miriam’s vitals. But the claws and teeth ate away at arms and armour alike. The scythe gnawed down to nothing, Nep slumped to the floor before her adversary, preparing for the final blow. Instinctively her hands clasped behind her neck, to the delicate piece anchoring her to Gaia. How long would it take to regenerate? A week? A month? Would she even be allowed to get that far? She closed her eyes for a blow that never came.

Instead, Kei’s blade pierced Miriam through the back. She ran in close, holding up the crescent blade and slashing again and again. The blood gushed out with each cut, splashing out and coating everything one, two, three layers deep.

Miriam’s imago clawed and shuddered, but couldn’t shake her off. She hissed and screamed and wailed. But the words that came out of her lips confirmed that she was nothing more than a vessel at this point.

“You cannot kill me. We are in all of you.”

The voice was inhumane, the scraping of sharp metal against vocal chords. It pierced through Nep’s very being. But it wouldn’t stop her. It couldn’t stop her. It was the dying ghost of the escaped possession leaving her. Moments later, the Imago lay lifeless on the ground. The shuddering stopped. Her eyes closed as if she were sleeping. But the mangled mess of a body remained, caked in blood and broken bits of carapace, with bloody flesh beneath.

To Nep, the sight did not trigger the same sense of wrongness that an Echo did, but only because it was something far more repulsive and abhorrent. She couldn’t bear to look, and there was no time, anyways. Kei tugged on her hand and led her onward, up to the surface. They emerged onto the sun-blasted plains. The sky was clear and blue. It’d have seemed beautiful, if it weren’t for the sounds of screaming that could still be heard echoing from within Sanctuary 1. Few others were out here waiting for them, and those that were were broken, lying against the rocks or curled up on the ground. Had they seen the same sights, or worse? What could remain?

“How did this happen?” Kei asked.

“Don’t...”

“How did this happen, Nep? Who—”

“It’s not the time to worry about that, Kei. There are more things that need to be done.” But who was she kidding? The thoughts still lay heavy in her own mind too. To see Miriam become... that thing. It was unbelievable. And to think that such a thing could even occur...

“The traitor has already won. There’s nowhere to go from here.”

“There is.”

“There is?”

Returning to her human form, Nep reached into her bag, rummaging through the pockets until the pulled out a battered old phone. The screen was cracked, but it still worked. Mostly. “Kei, you know what my purpose, was.”

She nodded. “To think that you still had secrets.”

“I was told to do anything necessary to keep the Angels alive.”

Kei began to understand. “You can’t mean... you really did? How did you find out? How did you—”

A secret that only the Archangels had known. Or so they’d thought. “I wish I could take credit, Kei. I mean, I pieced together the pieces, sure. But I didn’t have a way in. I couldn’t figure out how to possibly get in contact. And it would have ended there.” She dialed the number that she’d saved. “ But I was lucky. He came to me first.”