When Monika wakes up it's already almost lunchtime, she was hugging Trazyn's arm the whole night. Normally Trazyn would get up when Monika fell asleep, but last time for some reason Trazyn didn't move and thus she got a great night's sleep. Today is more usually weird because even though it's almost lunchtime Trazyn is still on the bed. And seemingly to be… sleeping?
This little detail instantly intrigued Monika. She slowly moves her body making sure not to make any noise or any obvious movements. She puts her face next to Trazyn's cheek and listens to his breath quietly. Monika's heart is beating rapidly. She can't believe that Trazyn is actually sleeping. She's wondering what is Trazyn dreaming about, maybe sitting on the tree with her? Or maybe they are on top of a tall building and... Kissing? Monika gasped a bit when she thought about this, it's a bit too cheesy even for her.
The long Monika stares at him the more tempting she's going to do something. Monika pinches a strand of her hair and gently pokes it on Trazyn's face. Seeing Trazyn's face get slightly annoyed, she couldn't help herself but leave out a quiet giggle. Just as she is about to do more, Trazyn suddenly grabs her wrist: "How much longer are you going to annoy me?" Trazyn said while half sleeping.
"Were you actually sleeping?" Monika asks while looking entertained.
"Wait what?" Trazyn suddenly got up from the bed. He looks at Monika with surprise: "Was i sleeping?" he asks
"Looks like it." Seeing Trazyn has woken up her stomach also screams for food. It's time to get up.
"I thought I was out with you doin-" Trazyn suddenly stopped because Monika suddenly turned and approached him slowly while tipping her feet.
"Doing what? ~" Monika puts her face closer to Trazyn, she wants to hear about Trazyn's dream.
"We were going for a….'picnic'?" Trazyn doesn't know what that word is supposed to mean.
Monika's eyes are shining with light: "Yes!" She couldn't help herself but shout in excitement: "You were dreaming Traz!"
"That's a dream?"
"Yes! I can't believe you were actually dreaming! Was it beautiful?" Monika wraps her arms around Trazyn's shoulder. She looks really happy.
"It was realistic. And you looked happy in it." Trazyn is still confused why Monika is reacting that way.
Monika today is in a fantastic mood: "You know what we should do later? A picnic! You know with also Minka and Emilia."
"I'm not sure if Emilia wants to see me in any way," Trazyn told Monika about the problem Emilia has with him.
"I think it would be a good opportunity for you two to get along, no?" At this stage, Monika will not take no for an answer.
"Alright, maybe you should also bring Nova." Trazyn wanted someone to balance out the awkwardness, maybe he choose the worst candidate possible.
"I'll call her while we are on the way to buy food!" Monika is indeed in a great mood today. Even having Nova around won't ruin her mood.
Monika is constantly laying her head on Trazyn's arm while walking. For Monika, the more Trazyn became human-like the happier she gets. Ironically Nova told Trazyn to not be human while around her. This is probably one of the reasons Trazyn is asking Monika to invite Nova to the picnic. Just for the sake of pissing Nova off. Trying to piss off Nova is still a nice form of entertainment for him.
"Traz, I've been thinking about something…" Monika suddenly stops as if something is bugging her: "Why don't we just…. Disappear?"
"What do you mean?" Trazyn is curious about what interesting Monika has been having recently.
"I mean…. Well, I just don't care about anything else at this point." Monika isn't making direct eye contact; she knows her request is idiotic. But this is what she feels at this moment.
Trazyn paused for a few seconds. And holds Monika's cheek with his hands: "I always wanted that in my life. But ultimately what made me stop is… responsibility. I know it is hard to even believe that word coming from my mouth but what's been holding me up for all these years is the responsibility of recording events in this galaxy. You, my love, have friends that care about you and family members that would do anything just for the sake of your happiness. I envy you for that. That's why you cannot leave... "
Monika remained silent; she was ashamed of being so selfish about everyone surrounding her. She never even thought about the feeling of Trazyn about this.
A few roofs away, Emilia is spying on them with her sniper rifle. Her eyes are cold and emotionless. Trazyn's every move for her is well calculated and eventually will result in harming Monika. But she can't kill him, at least not yet. This is her purpose and why she's here. Seeing the couple leaving the street, Emilia also retrieved her sniper rifle and started heading back home. There's a picnic after all, whether she likes it or not.
In the afternoon, they gathered in a grass plain outside the city. Nova was there, but she looked more relaxed compared to having solo time with Trazyn. She even had a smile on her face from time to time. Minka was still an airhead like she always is, but her personality just charmed everyone. At the end of the picnic, Monika told everyone about Trazyn's dream. Most of them didn't really react as much as Monika. Maybe this is something that only Monika can understand.
At night when Monika has gone into her realm of dreams. Trazyn transferred his consciousness again. This time he's heading towards the tesseract chamber located in the C1 facility. It didn't take long for him to turn off the alarm and breach the initial barrier of defense which was only dozens of soldiers.
He sort of enjoys these little things like breaching the security protocol and solving mysteries. This is why he took his time while torturing the guards for the password. Of course, he can just hack it but what's the fun in that?
When he reaches the third barrier, the door behind him suddenly shuts closed with a loud noise. He pretended to sign with his voice amplifier: "I guess you got me." He didn't see anyone, but he loves acting dramatic.
"Hello." A man wearing silver armor, silver hair, and a pair of near silver eyes walks into the hall: "Let me introduce myself first, the name is inquisitor Leonard Terra."
"Terra? As in Nova Terra?" Trazyn is curious about this man.
"Indeed Mr. Trazyn."
"Trazyn would suffice, I am more amazed by your calmness. Either you are a warrior or a fool."
"Oh please. I am not here to fight. I am here to tell you a story." Leonard is unarmed. His attitude is somewhat similar to Trazyn's. They are both confident about their ability.
Trazyn stabs his staff and pins it on the ground, he's ready for the storytime.
Seeing Trazyn answer, Leonard leans next to a wall and starts telling the story: "In the far west of this world, we have created a facility called Ex Site-01. It is an installation constructed using a macro-version of the technology utilized similar to the realm projection weapon used by Minka Terra, which we commonly used to store sensitive documents and protect them from retroactive alterations. Via the use of this technology, Site-01 is a Site that effectively can be used as an anchor in multi-reality conflicted scenarios. Or in a simple way, it exists in all reality. "
"Why am I bored already?"
"Be patients. Two months ago, site-01 failed to broadcast its monthly confirmation signal. Mobile Task Force Qeztel-12 was dispatched to investigate. Upon arrival, MTF Qeztel-12 reported an absence of any site personnel. All records contained in site-01 had also been deleted. However, a large number of non-humanoid corpses were located within the cafeteria of site-01, analysis of which suggested their deaths were caused by ingestion of cyanide pills."
"Can you please just jump to the interesting part?"
Leonard then proceeds to take out a hologram device, and play a single recording, in the site, there has been a massacre, but everyone looks abnormal or downright mutated.
"Looks like you guys experienced an alternative realm invasion. Sadly, I know nothing about it." Trazyn then proceeds to stand up and start charging his arc lightning.
"Because it was done by the alternative you." Leonard grins slightly.
Trazyn stops his advance, he's inspecting this man in front of him. Nova radiates an aura of coldness and Monika radiates an aura of crimson power, a mix of energy and shadow. But Leonard has nothing coming out of him, it's like he's not physically being: "what are you implying?"
"I went to the site. All the archives were destroyed. But there's something they didn't destroy, a photo of a human. A human, unlike any corpses we found. From one of the label tags that are on the back of the uniform, it is written: Dr. Trazyn." Leonard projects a face but that's a face he doesn't recognize.
"I will not repeat my question again."
"I am not going to stop you from doing anything. In fact, I am going to let you take away the tesseract. But I just want you to know something: Every time you make a choice, you create an alternate timeline where the other you did not make that choice. Thus, time is parallel. If you alter a past, you incidentally did not change your future. Thus, you are creating a worldline where it changed because of your choice."
"What do you mean by… any of this?" Even with Trazyn's intelligence, he's still confused about what Leonard said.
"I'm sorry, but this is all I can tell you. I'm here because of a favor from an old friend of mine. I wish you good luck with Monika. Also say hi for me. If she remembers me that is." He waves and suddenly disappears while Trazyn looks away for one microsecond.
Trazyn then proceeds to break the containment and takes out the tesseract. Then with a flash of green light, Trazyn is on his way to the meeting point with Imotekh the storm lord. Before he leaves the planet's atmosphere, he decides to check on Monika. She's still sleeping quietly. Monika is wanted by many but at the end of the day it is Trazyn who captured her heart. She lost him one time already and she will not allow it to happen again. This is why she's holding Trazyn's arm like a girl holding their toy while sleeping. This is probably why Monika isn't acting as aggressive as before because she realizes there are more things that are important for her to lose, Trazyn, Noel, Minka, Emilia, and in the end Kira. She never worried about Nova because she would never expect Nova to be gone. She's always been with Monika and Monika probably sees it as a normal phenomenon. Like the sun rises from the east side of the Holy Terra.
Trazyn transfers his consciousness back and starts his engine. The night synth travels without a sound and disappears in a few moments. Then he activates the gateway and eventually arrives at this flagship of Imotekh: The Inevitable Conqueror.
"I thought your ship was destroyed by the black templar." Trazyn stands in the middle of an empty hall while Imotekh is sitting on the throne, looking down on him with a look of contempt: "You've aged well my friend." Trazyn adds.
"Did you bring it?" Imotekh has a short fuse while talking to someone like Trazyn.
Trazyn opens his dimensional pocket and takes out the tesseract. It is a black box-like item with some minor engraved details on it. Trazyn didn't really check it out because he's seen so many items like this, he just doesn't understand why Imotekh is so obsessed with gathering such futile items.
"Hand it to me." Imotekh orders a necron guard to retrieve it from Trazyn's hand. But Trazyn suddenly takes it away. Imotekh stands up from the throne and shouts in a tone where mortals will be terrified to death: "TRAZYN!"
"Before I hand it to you, may I ask if you will follow our agreement?" Trazyn was not scared of Imotekh, at least he needed to act like it.
"You mean leaving that human planet? Sure. " Imotekh has honor, unlike Trazyn.
"Great, now we have a deal!" Trazyn gives the cube to the guard and smiles.
Imotekh inspects the Tesseract carefully to make sure Trazyn isn't playing any tricks on him. He then puts it in his dimensional pocket: "What are you doing here? Leave before I change my mind."
"Come on old friend, we haven't met for a long time. Don't you wanna just chat for a bit before I leave?" Trazyn is always the one Necron that acts as a living being.
"We don't have that kind of relationship." Imotekh's tone is cold.
"That was hurtful, we've known each other for a long time. At least allow me to ask you: How are you doing?" Living with humans made Trazyn more concerned with these little things.
"LEAVE." Imotekh sounded extremely impatient.
Seeing this Trazyn walks backward while facing Imotekh and turns with a flashy style when leaving the Imotekh line of sight. He's on his ship again and leaving with a sigh, he wants to have a better relationship with Imotekh because in the long run it is good to know a great general or two. But apparently his bad reputation has already affected his work.
While Trazyn is re-entering the star system, he suddenly received a message from a private channel. He was a bit tempted to answer because no one had ever sent him a voice message before. At least in a long time. But at the end he opened it, the message was from Minka: Father since you have already given away the tesseract. It is my time to tell you about my true purpose coming back from the future. Meet me at the spot where you and mom first met.
First met? The bar? Trazyn thought. But the bar was already gone a long time ago, in fact, it was he who relocated the bar. With a lot of questions, Trazyn at the end landed outside of the coordinate where the bar used to be. The desert area is still the same, but the bar is nowhere to be found. All it's left is ruins and glass shards on the ground.
Minka decloaks in front of Trazyn. Unlike the purple dress she usually wears, she wears a tight army uniform, similar to the one Nova has. But this one belongs to the court of assassins, an institution that overwatches all Human government officials. A sword that hovers above them to make sure the government does their job.
Minka loses her usual comfortable smile, instead, it's a look of seriousness and purpose: "Let's jump straight to the point, I am from the alternative future. To put it more plainly around 40 years later. I've come back to lead this world to its potential world-ending events. "
Trazyn almost burst into laughter, but his mechanical body isn't showing it: "You mean to save the world? How ?"
"I am being serious here. Please, I need your help." Minka then projects out a small hologram about the incoming future event. But Trazyn covers it with his hand. Minka flinched a bit because she didn't understand the reason.
"When you've lived as long as I do, you don't really want to see the incoming future events. In fact, I can see it anytime I want. But I chose not to. Now, dear daughter. Why don't you tell me the things I need to do? Try to make it spoiler-free." Trazyn pats Minka on the shoulder. He can feel the stance of Minka, it's very firm. Seems like she's a dangerous person.
Minka chuckles a bit: "I always liked it when you did this. Anyways, our current mission is to disrupt some memories. Erin Flax and Nova Terra. I have the ability to change memory, but I need the target to be in a submissive condition."
"Erin is fine, but Nova? How can you make a being like her submissive?"
"Anything is fine, you need to either let her submit willingly or make her unconscious. This is why I needed your help." Minka starts to locate their first target, Erin Flax.
"Maybe I can use a mind-shackle swarm for it?" Trazyn proposed.
"Negative, it is impossible due to the lack of strength, and it will seem obvious to other bystanders, thus resulting in the failure of the mission." Minka didn't look at Trazyn while replying she's way too focused on the job at hand.
"By force maybe? I think me and Nova are on the same level. So, if we fight her together then change the memory afterward, maybe it would work?" Trazyn always uses the most direct method to approach things, just like Monika.
"I thought about it, but Nova has a weapon that can ensure your death, I don't want to risk it." Minka now is tracking the location of Nova.
"Damn, if you thought about it already then why did you even involve me in this?"
"Cause, I want to spend some time with you…." Minka's tone suddenly softens, this is her truth. She misses Trazyn. The dark grim future did not do well for her.
Trazyn kinda felt it, instead of dwelling on it. He made another suggestion: "Maybe we should just explain it to her… and then she will understand the truth... I think she's capable of thinking about the bigger picture."
"We can give it a try... Worst case scenario I can rewind back again-'' Minka suddenly acts like she bit her tongue.
"How many times have you tried to do this?" Trazyn turns towards Minka and drops his work.
"I… fine... I've tried to do it dozens of times myself before coming to this world, but I failed them all. She's just way too strong. But I haven't tried to talk to her normally." Minka squeezes out a smile: "But hey! This is why asking for your help is good, right?" Minka looks down on the ground looking zoomed out.
"How bad did it go?" Trazyn can sense something went horribly wrong.
"She tore out my arms... I had to use the last of my energy to rewind back." Minka's body is shaking a bit.
"I am sorry. You know you could've come to me earlier. As long as you explain it to me, I should understand it." Trazyn is somewhat proud of Minka. He kind of understands why humans are so dedicated to raising their offspring. Despite being in his metallic body, he still could somewhat 'feel'. The reason for it is even a mystery to Trazyn.
Minka loses all seriousness, she hugs Trazyn's metallic body. Some teardrops from her eyes, but it is not sorrow but happiness. She misses Trazyn too much, too much even travelling through realities and different times to just talk to him. Minka maybe is an assassin, but she has emotions like Monika. Maybe others will think it is a weakness, but for an assassin, it is a sign of strength, she can still retain who she is after all the things she's done.
"Well, let's get this over with and save the world?" Trazyn puts his hands on Minka's thin waist. She's only about two-thirds of Trazyn's metallic body. Just a bit shorter than Monika. Many moons ago, Monika hugged Trazyn like this under five suns above the sky. It was on that day, Trazyn had decided to stop whatever he'd been doing for a while, just for that silly human girl.
A few minutes later both of them appeared inside Noel's house. Noel was taking a shower, so she didn't hear the sound of Erin dropping on the ground. Minka quickly activates her ability, the room is glowing in golden light, after a short moment she's done with the work and puts Erin on the bed under the blanket. She didn't want to hurt Erin because Erin did a lot of good in her timeline. She just wanted to do this to stop her suffering. This is why she removed any memory about Erin's previous love, Jack. Noel doesn't have the memory of the incident of that day, so it is settled as long Erin doesn't remember it. Minka doesn't like changing memories like this, but it is necessary. Now Erin is just a normal girl who's with Noel at this moment.
Then they moved on to Nova, but just outside of Nova's house. Emilia suddenly stopped both of them. Her service weapon is reconstructing itself and she points it towards Trazyn.
"Emilia!" Minka pats down Emilia's gun. She knows the struggle of Emilia, but this is not the time for vengeance.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Emilia's face is grim, something happened to her that caused her to act so hostile towards Trazyn. Especially when Trazyn is in his Necron form. But Trazyn isn't scared of some punk, he steps forward and makes the gun aimed at his chest. Trazyn already knows what's the deal with Emilia, in fact, he knew the first time they met. On Emila's spine, there's a marking, a marking of Trazyn. He knew she was made by him, but he just couldn't tell the purpose of creating an almost perfect copy of Monika.
But one thing for sure is that Emilia was not built to harm. This is why he is so confident in his actions. Just as he expected, Emilia is grinding her teeth but at the same time her hand falls to the side and she starts stomping her feet due to the frustration.
"What are you doing here?" Minka asks.
"He started it." Emilia looks at Trazyn.
"He… yes, he did. But this doesn't mean that we can't accomplish what we are planning to do." Minka holds Emilia's hand, she looks really helpless at this moment.
"Started what? I don't get anything you guys are talking about." Trazyn doesn't like the feeling of lack of knowledge. But he said he prefers his life to be spoiler-free.
"It's not something you should worry about, just act normally when you encounter something," Minka said.
"Started what?" Nova suddenly appeared behind all of them. She's not in her armor but she doesn't look happy as well.
"Ah, Lieutenant-colonel. You've aged." Trazyn smiles.
"Cut the banters, now tell me what will happen? What did Trazyn do?" Nova crosses her arms.
"He gave the tesseract to Imotekh and it will cause a full-scale invasion from the other dimension." Emilia slips out the words.
Minka looks like she's almost crying, she can't believe Emilia would be so childish in this situation. Trazyn to be honest didn't know about any of this, he just thought this was a useless artifact from the past.
Nova's brain is quickly processing the information. She doesn't understand why she is the one that has to deal with all of this kind of crap: "I know about it. Trazyn said it would prevent Imotekh from invading this planet."
"Yes, but the threat from other dimensions isn't a bit better," Emilia replied.
"Minka, I think it is time to tell Nova your plan," Trazyn said seriously.
Minka sighs: "We wanted to erase your memory about Erin's ex-fiancée. We can't tell you the reason, but this little act might help us fight for whatever is coming."
Nova looks at Trazyn, this is someone she doesn't like. She then looks at Emilia, this is someone that reminds her of Monika when they were in a bad phase. Then she looks at Minka. This girl combined the good and the bad parts of both Monika and Trazyn. She wants to read Minka's mind, but she just drops it. There's something she shouldn't know and if her action will result in a disruption of timeline, Nova couldn't really be bothered to fix it. In the end, Nova finally speaks: "Fine… just do whatever you guys need. But remember Trazyn, you owe me one."
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Trazyn is suspecting Nova is gonna do something bad with this little favor.
"Don't worry, I am not going to do something that would make Monika unhappy if that's what you were worrying about." Nova smiles, it's fun to see some people like Trazyn feel uncomfortable.
Emilia isn't impressed with any of this, she just sits on a nearby bench while they are performing the memory alteration. Soon after a flash of light, Nova faints on the ground. And Trazyn carries her into her home. He's surprised that Maverick isn't waiting for her at home, but this also makes his work easier.
While Trazyn was doing that, Minka walked towards Emilia with a mad face: "Why were you being such a jerk?!" Minka pouts.
"I told you, I am here to arrest you and kill him. So, I wouldn't call myself favoring whatever you were doing." Emilia doesn't care about what Minka is on about.
"I... " Minka is at a loss for words, this doesn't happen often. Then she sees Trazyn coming out. She just runs in front of him and starts talking. It looks like she's venting about Emilia.
Emilia just sits on the bench while crossing her legs, she doesn't care. She cares about Monika but other than that, it isn't really her problem.
Trazyn walks in front of her, looking down. His aura is menacing but Emilia doesn't care. With her ability, she can kill Trazyn anytime she wants.
"You know you should be nicer to Minka. I don't care what you think of me, but Minka is trying to help everyone." This is the first time Trazyn has lectured someone.
"Your words mean nothing to me, Minka at this current stage is a criminal on the run, so I wouldn't listen to her words too much. You, however, better be careful of your every move. You are the worst thing I've ever se-" Suddenly a slap stopped her from talking. It was Minka, her eyes were shining because of tears. This slap hurts more in her heart than it is on Emilia's face.
"Don't... Please don't talk to our dad like this..." Minka wants to check on Emilia. But Emilia pushes her away. She covered her cheek with a hand, it sure was painful. Trazyn could see Emila's cheek turning red.
Without saying anything, Emilia drops a smoke bomb and leaves. Minka is just sitting on the ground sobbing. She doesn't cry much but when she's near her family, her true emotion starts showing. Trazyn picks her up in a princess-carrying way. He feels bad to let his daughter go through all of this. He can't do much but the least he could do for Minka is to support her at her back about whatever she's doing. He trusts Minka's ability, but it doesn't mean that Minka is invulnerable. He learned that from Monika. Instead of bringing her home, Trazyn teleports her to Monika's house. It is almost morning, so Monika has already woken up, she suddenly hears people in the house but just finds Trazyn carrying an upset Minka. Without saying a thing, Monika joins in and consults Minka. She knows this feeling too well. This feeling of the whole world seemed to be against her and there's nothing she could do. The feeling of strengthlessness in this cruel world. And the feeling of hurting the very people you love.
In the seven hells where the light cannot reach, there's only fire and endless suffering. Trazyn manifested himself from nothing, he could do it because of the advanced interdimensional technology the Necron race possesses and the way Trazyn can manipulate his ability making entering the deepest part of the hell-like walking in a park.
He's here for Lucifer, the queen of hell. He could just teleport directly inside the palace; it should be afternoon teatime for her. But Trazyn has his own plan, he's going to greet some of his old friends. As he approaches the main gate, a giant three-headed white dog grouts at him. All of the three heads look identical, and they all have the killer look in their eyes.
Trazyn didn't flinch at all, instead, he waves his hand: "Cerberus! Long time no see!" he sounded excited even in his Necron body.
Cerberus rushes forward and pushes Trazyn to the ground, one of their pawls pins Trazyn on the ground. Then all three heads start licking Trazyn and making happy noises while wiggling their tail.
"Alright, alright. Your saliva is going to stink me." Trazyn phased out from the ground and overheated himself to vaporize the dog spit: "How are you guys doing?" he asks.
"We are doing fine!" "You know you could have visited us earlier, right?" "What are you doing here?" All of them started to talk at the same time.
"I am here to see Lucie, you are gonna let me in?"
They suddenly become their human form: "Lucie is having her afternoon tea at this moment." "Besides, she probably doesn't want to see you anyways." "Because you killed Justice!"
"Ah." Trazyn almost forgot about it, he did not expect a demon to be that weak. All it took was just one blow and Justice became ashes: "That is something you guys don't need to worry about." Trazyn steps forward but Cerberus steps in front of him.
"We are sorry Traz but that's the queen's order." Various weapons start phasing out from their hands.
"Oh...Cerb I don't want to do this..." The glow in Trazyn's mechanical eyes is slightly brighter.
"You can just leave, and we will still be friends." "Best friends!" "Trust us, this is the best option here." One of them is taking a Warhammer, another one is taking a greatsword and the last one is taking a dual blade. All of them are magical weapons that can shred Trazyn's metallic body in pieces.
Trazyn let out a sigh, he doesn't want to do this. He takes out a baton, it's not very long, only about the size of his arm. But the arc lightning that's surrounding it makes it look extremely intimidating: "This is the last warning, there only can be one of us." Trazyn is about to charge.
"Alright! Alright!" "Jezz!" "We were just kidding!" Cerberus drops their weapon and opens the gate. "This job is not worth dying for anyways." "Are we still friends tho? You sounded serious." "I hate myself..." All three of them give out a different reaction to Trazyn's act.
"We will always be best friends. Now if you will excuse me, I have a meeting with the 'queen'." He marches in.
In the courtyard, a shadow appeared from nowhere, it is a form of magic that prevents people from seeing their true identity: "Foul intruder, you dare step into the very palace of hell?! In the name: Judgement, thou shall not go unpunished!" Judgment then takes out her hood, revealing her ebony skin and snow-white hair. Two grey horns on the top of her head mean that she's not as ancient as the kind of Lucifer. Her eyes are glowing in white silver light. Her expression is mad not because of Trazyn but the Cerberus behind him, she did not expect the guardian of the hell's gate would be so incompetent like that.
"You are new, so I will tell you what's going to happen if you are trying to stop me." Trazyn's baton is glowing in emerald light again: "Step aside or be perished and never be able to be reborn."
"YOU DARE?!" Judgment's hand suddenly phases out a chain, that metal chain is beaming white light just like her eyes.
Trazyn's reading shows that the chain's heat can melt his body in just one hit. But he doesn't care: "I guess you are like one of those idiots then." He releases the green arc lightning in his baton, the lightning hits directly on Judgment but she was not even harmed.
Justice charges at a speed that only a Necron can react to. She's trying to restrain Trazyn with her chain because this robot is the most arrogant being she's ever seen in her life. So, she wants to kill him bit by bit.
Trazyn slows down his Chrono sense, he could see Justice's every move, just about her chain touches Trazyn's body, he activates his artifact which allows him to choose an alternate timeline where he did not get hit, courtesy of Minka's time travel machine. But that is the maximum that an artifact can do. He suddenly sees an opening and swings his baton directly on Judgement's unguarded stomach. As expected, Judgement flies out like a baseball and sinks into the wall of the palace.
Just as Trazyn is about to retrieve his weapon back to the dimension pocket, he suddenly senses a fast-incoming object flying towards him. So, he activated his phase shifter ability in mere nanoseconds. It was Judgement's chain. And Judgement came out of the broken wall with a smile on her face. She wipes the blood off her mouth and looks at Trazyn intensely.
"I am sorry, but I do have a girlfriend." Trazyn takes out the baton again, he's busy and Judgement is an obstacle of his: "So quit your glare of affection and I shall grant you a quick death."
"QUICK DEATH?!" she cries out her laughter. Suddenly ground tramples, hundreds of chains coming out from the ground, and all swing at Trazyn.
Trazyn shakes his head, he activates his phase-shifter ability again, within expectation. All of those attacks mean nothing. But this little move triggered someone else.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Lucifer suddenly teleports in the middle of the courtyard with a tea stain on her pants: "Why are demolishing the palace while fighting this guy?!"
"Oh, hi, Lucie." Trazyn waves at Lucifer: "Mind we talk for a second?"
Even Lucifer's face is written all over of her discomfort of seeing Trazyn but she still said yes. But Judgement acted out without Lucifer's expectation. She charges up her power even stronger, making the ground under Trazyn is only endless chains. But he can float, so the attack is not really efficient.
"High prosecutor! I said stop!" Lucifer shouts.
"Shut up!' Judgment's power is doubling: "No authority can overrun the punishment!" white lightning started to strike towards Trazyn, but this time he didn't even block, because he's made of metal and mere lightning cannot even scratch his face. But if it is a normal human being, they should be dead like ten times already.
"Lucie, I see you didn't discipline your subordinate well." Trazyn taunts, he throws an orb of green lighting towards Judgement, but she blocked it with ease: "This is going to take a while."
Lucifer looks at the half-destroyed palace, her cheek is burning red, and her hands are shaking. Out of frustration, she shouts: "I am the goddamn queen of hell! Why isn't anyone listening to me?!" A red light started to glow around her, a faint feeling even Trazyn can feel as a result of a temporary disruption in his eye field.
It worked; Judgement stopped her attacks. She just realized that she had gone way too far. She quickly gets down on one knee and looks down to the ground: "I am so sorry my queen. Please punish me for my rudeness."
Lucifer is angry but Trazyn is here, she needs to retain her image. Even it was almost destroyed a few seconds ago. She cleans her throat and says: "Trazyn, you may sit." She then snaps her finger then a table and two chairs appear out of thin air.
Lucifer sips her tea and acts like nothing has happened: "What do you wish to discuss? You do know that I am not happy to see you because you killed one of my men. Justice." Her voice is full of the majesty of a queen.
"Let's put it this way. Your men, Beezelbub, have been messing with my people for a while now. I will propose a chance to capture her and bring her to you, alive. Then you can do whatever you want." Trazyn didn't sit, he's not here for tea.
"What about the fact that you killed justice? Did I give you permission to do that?"
"When your men tried to kill Monika, I already did you the favor of not invading your land. I'd say this is only fair." He takes out a small orb, it is full of self-replicating, flesh-eating nano scarab. For a place that's full of dead organisms, it can't be a better place for it to infest and eventually destroy the land.
Trazyn can feel the increase of tension in the air, but he doesn't care, mainly because this is not his own body anyways. He always has the last laugh in most situations. He tries to analyze Lucifer's vitality to predict possible answers. Her heartbeat hasn't increased after what he said. He's a bit suspicious that Lucifer might have some trickers under her sleeves.
The truth is Lucifer doesn't know about Beezlebub's location as well, that's why she proposed to Monika to search for the clues for her. Seeing Trazyn here, she knows that Monika hasn't gotten far as well, and it also means the only leverage she had now is gone. This is why she's more disappointed than actually caring whatever Trazyn was saying. An old god like her doesn't have a lot of power anymore. Therefore, she can't just draw her energy like she used to.
"I have nothing to offer to you Trazyn." Lucifer leans back from the chair.
Trazyn and Lucifer know each other way back. He doesn't want to embarrass her more than it should. Never push an animal into a corner too hard, is something he learned a long time ago. Or one of the lessons he will never forget.
CRITICAL ERROR DETECTED/:
CORRECTION PROTOCOL REQUIRED:/
MALACHITE PROTOCOL INITIALIZED:/
REALITY REROUTING…:
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After a fainting deep breath, Monika woke up. Her chest is hurting as if something is going to burst out anytime. Her vision is blurry, but she can see a campfire a few meters out. Which is keeping her body warm. She tries her hardest to remember what happened to her and the causes of the pain, but no one could recall it.
Monika felt strengthless, which is rare because her body is especially augmented and due to her all-time healthy record, she never even got sick before. But this time is different. She tries to support herself up with her arms, but it results in her face hitting the floor. This is also the moment she noticed that the floor is a bit moistened, it seems like she's in a cave.
Subconsciously she tries to feel the weapon, which is bound on the leg holster, but she suddenly realizes she isn't even wearing pants. Her heart skipped a beat, she quickly checked her body very thoroughly. After a while, she finally settled down and ensured that nothing bad happened to her. Which is even more strange because she can still feel the searing pain from her chest.
"Welcome back to the world of the living."
Monika got startled, she tried to pull out her sword, but nothing came out. She then tried again but also to no avail. She slowly turned and saw Ria who was wearing a taunting smile on her face: "What are you doing here...?" Monika got weirded out.
"You don't remember? I was the one who dragged you out of the river." Ria is carrying a full arm of dry wood.
"River? I don't recall any river... " Monika looks around, the cave is deep, and it looks like they are not close to the exit because she can't see the light coming from any side.
"Wait, did you have amnesia?" Ria drops the woods and puts one of her hands on Monika's forehead: " You don't seem like you have a fever. Or at least not now. Tell me, what is the last thing you remember?"
"We had a picnic... With Traz, Minka, Nova and Emilia..." This was the last thing she remembered.
"I think that was around three months ago. Wow, you really forgot any of the things that happened afterward?" Ria chuckles: "I mean, good for you. No one would want to remember the nightmares."
"3 months?! But it felt like it was yesterday." Monika suddenly stood up from the ground but the moment she realized that she was not wearing any pants, she immediately dropped and went back to the blanket: "Why am I in a cave with a military requisition pack? (All in one military camping equipment, it's only as big as a backpack but there's everything a person needs to survive in the wild for a month.)"
"Hurtful, I'm also here with you." Ria throws a few wood branches into the fire. She then pierced a skinned rabbit on a stick and put it next to the campfire: "It's hard to explain, but when you get back on your feet, I'll tell you everything about it."
"I'm already back on my feet, also can you give me some clothes to wear? It's really hard for me to stand up without pants." Monika's face is turning pink. She doesn't talk about these kinds of things often.
"Stop being a virgin." Ria throws the clothes from the other side of the campfire. They are Monika's old clothes, but some parts are sewed. It looks like Monika has gone into a sword fight: "Don't feel bad about wearing it, I sewed them myself." Ria sounded really proud of herself.
"I am not a- …. I mean thanks." She doesn't want to finish the sentence. It's embarrassing. Looking at the damage to the clothes, she wonders what happened in the past few months of missing memory.
"Here, catch!" Ria tossed a rabbit's leg on Monika. She tried to catch it, but it seems like her reaction speed is also off. The food successfully falls on her blanket.
"Don't toss the food around!" Monika pinches the burning hot rabbit leg: "You are so rude!"
"Oh, I'm sorry 'princess'. I don't have a silver plate for you and your food. You can either give it back to me or shut up and eat." Ria sounded a bit impatient.
Monika didn't say more, she quickly put on her clothes and laced her boots, then started eating. Even the rabbit was not seasoned but it still tasted good. Probably she was really hungry.
Monika stands up and does a hard stretch on every part of her body. The constant cracking sound tells her that she's been sleeping for at least the past few days. But she has so many questions to ask at this point: "Where is Trazyn?" she asks like a girl who lost her teddy bear before bed.
"Don't know, probably dead." Ria didn't look at Monika, it looks like she's been prepared for her questions.
"Wait… what?... dead?" Monika's voice is shaking, she then drops on her knees on the floor: "how did that happen…? He couldn't die, right? Right ? right ? " Monika kept repeating the same question.
Seeing Monika act like this, Ria realizes maybe her words are a bit too harsh: "I wouldn't say he died… but he surely hasn't been seen for a while. Well, at least for the past few weeks."
Monika's eyes are full of killing intent, she hates to get her emotions played like this, not from Nova, not from anyone: "Then we need to find him now!" Monika sounded mad.
"Hold your horses' princess. Maybe you want to take it slow." Ria sees Monika going to the exit, she immediately stands up and grabs a spare 'handcuff' with her.
Monika steps outside, the immediate bright light almost burns her eyes. She covers her eyes with her forearm and slowly opens them. She sees 3 suns in the sky, but the temperature is still fine. As she put her forearm down, she was shocked by what she saw. The sky is filled with unnatural orange color with some dirt yellow vortex. The trees next to her are made of metal and there's a trace of glistening oil. She's seen this before, it was in phyrexia.
Ria runs out and puts on one side of the handcuff on Monika. Monika tries to break free, but Ria holds her shoulder and pulls her into a bush. Just when Monika is about to speak, she puts her finger on Monika's beautiful lips.
Soon, they hear some dry screech coming from the place where Monika was. Through the bushes, Monika sees a few floating human-like figures, but they are all made of particles that look like lead. They are without form but still resemble human-like figures. They kept roaming next to the cave and after a few more minutes they disappeared out of thin air.
Seeing they are clear; Ria steps out of the bush and shakes her head: "Don't do that ever again."
"What… are they?" Monika is confused.
"We don't know, but I call them 'dust'. Your lovely boyfriend calls them: 'Remnant.' Apparently, most people just call them remnants these days. All I know is that with the handcuff we are wearing, they cannot sense our body signals, except of course, heavy breathing and talking."
Monika inspects the handcuff, it is black, and it's made of some kind of lead-like material, but Monika can't really tell: "So… we just need to put one part on us, and we are good to go?" she asks.
"Try putting it on the other part at the same wrist." Ria enters the cave, seeing that Monika has recovered. She knows it is time for them to move.
Monika did that and suddenly a hologram appeared on her wrist, it's Trazyn: "Hello my love! I can't wait to finally meet you!"
"Traz!" Monika is so happy.
"Sorry, love. This is a pre-recorded message. Please tell me that it got you. Haha"
Monika is mad: "U.N.B.E.L.I.E.V.A.B.L.E. This...guy..." She takes a deep breath. Monika is really worried about him and Trazyn is still bantering around.
"I made this handcuff just for you. And now we are 'linked' to this ruined world. No pun intended. I knew Ria was going to find you at last. Trust me, you don't want to hear the story from her perspective." Trazyn seemed to be in his human form: "Anyways, your handcuff is made of dark steel, so it's basically indestructible. Of course, not all the handcuffs are indestructible like yours, there I rebuilt Vegas. Can't believe you never mentioned it to me. Next time if you break something I gave you, just say it. As punishment, you are not allowed to hit me when we finally meet. My location is already activated, so… you know what to do…. I've missed you so much… I love you." The record stopped.
"That was cheesy." Ria packed her stuff and stood not far away from Monika.
Monika smiled, she would get embarrassed but this time she's just glad that she knows Trazyn is alive and well. She activates the map and checks for Trazyn's location. He's around 400km away from them. If Monika is alone, she can probably reach Trazyn within days.
"It's gonna take us at least a week. I've mapped all the remnant locations on my way here. But it will still take us a long detour." Ria combines their maps via handcuffs.
"Then let's get moving." Monika right now has nothing on her mind other than Trazyn.
"You know, you are taking this thing a bit too well. You do know that this world was kind of destroyed, right?" Ria can't seem to understand what Monika is thinking.
"All of those worries won't change anything, will it?" Monika talks a bit like Trazyn now: "I will not lose him again, no matter what. My destiny is with him, and I hold my own destiny."
Ria's scoffs, she just hopelessly shakes her head. Maybe a woman in love does resemble the mentality of a crazy person.
For a while, they haven't spoken a word. Probably because they were not on good terms anyway. The last time they met, at least from what Monika remembered, Ria tried to stop her from saving Trazyn. This is why she doesn't have a good impression of Ria. But she still has a lot of questions: "Ria... Do you know anything that happened with my family?"
"You don't want to know about it." Ria's voice is toneless.
"Why? I know Nova will be fine-." Monika's sentence got cut off by Ria.
"No, you do not!" She stops walking, her eyes are red. Seems like she's on the verge of crying: "Nova… she was the best among us...But it also means that she was the one that was taken as an example of."
"What do you mean?..." Monika's heart skipped a beat, she suddenly felt her knees getting weaker, and she's about to drop anytime: "What happened to her...?"
Ria didn't answer.
"What happened to her?!" Monika grabs Ria by her shoulder and looks her in the eyes.
"She died!" Ria pushes Monika to the ground: "I was there… she sacrificed herself to save the whole regiment...I am the last captain of this world."
"This can't be real…" Monika is saying it to herself: "She's Nova…this is impossible." For Monika, Nova has always been the most invincible present in her life: "Who did this…?" Her voice is very low.
Ria points her finger at the big banner on the side of the street: " Her."
Monika is shocked again, on the banner, there's a face she's familiar with: "Glissa." After her consciousness came back to her, she realized that her jaw dropped: "How is any of this possible? What happened in the past few months?"
Ria opens her cufflink and opens a video; it shows when a remnant got a grip on a human. It merges the human into a singularity. And it resulted in an antimatter explosion and the crater it left is about 20km wide: " We gave up after about 7 hours. When 5 of the major cities were completely wiped. They were summoned by magic and the magic type of theirs in this world is like a source of antimatter. Those 'remnants' you see are the lost souls summoned by magic. When they catch you and combine with you, it will cause an antimatter blast. Which results in the crater you see."
"But those craters… each one of those explosions can wipe a major city out of the map...?"
"Yes, this is why we gave up instead of facing total annihilation. We have lost contact with the imperial fleet, now we are… stranded." Ria lost all of her arrogance. In this doomed world, she's still a lost fighter, which is a humiliation: "I don't have any confirmation about your friends or your family, god knows I've tried..."
Monika holds Ria's hands: " Thank you… for everything that you did for us..." She couldn't help but have tears coming out of her eyes. The only thing that she's thankful for is that she did not have a bad last memory with Nova like she usually does. Monika clenched her fists and hit the wall, this time the wall didn't shake or make a hole, her hand was bleeding, but Monika's expression didn't flinch. She looked at the banner of Glissa again, this time, her eyes glittered with hatred.