Anisa was confused and exhausted, but knew that this fight was far from over. She drew her blaster to try and free Zwei and Narine only for a flash of crimson to fill the air, the white haired sword maiden escaping her prison, fury in her eyes. The nanites seemed to be retreating across the battlefield and finding homes with the various hosts that had already been converted, covering them completely in the liquid metal armor. The two women turned towards Narine, both worried as Narine seemed to be comatose but also in immense pain. Anisa looked to the shimmering gold streak through the sky and stated firmly, "Whatever Katsi is doing, we need to help her. I trust Narine. She will be okay."
Her helm comms lit up, Tai coming through but the signal was weak, "Mom will be fine. Keep Tak'Nasi occupied."
Zwei asked, unaware of the transmission, "What was the sword and where did it go?"
Anisa paused for a moment, unsure of what she meant before she remembered. Looking at her hand for a moment, she shook her head, "I don't know but trust me, I would be using it right now if I knew what it was." Zwei seemed almost irritated by the idea, but Anisa didn't have time to indulge or investigate. Right now, Narine and her sister seemed to have some kind of plan and for now it seemed to be more likely to succeed than brute force was doing. Her heart sank at the idea that she was next to useless right now, but saving everyone was always more important. She would just have to make herself a big enough problem to draw the villain's fire for now. "Let's go Zwei Valk. We've wasted too much time already. No rest for the weary." Zwei nodded with a sigh and the two charged into the ongoing battlefield without hesitation, knowing there was little left they could do but fight.
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Narine continued to free her sisters from the mental prisons that Tak'Nasi had put them in. The panic on the faces of everyone at the workstations was almost amusing to her, but it was too similar to a sinking ship for her tastes. She wondered if these were the actual scientist's minds or just a manifestation of Tak'Nasi's own madness. A mind so driven to control and dissect that it had even torn itself to pieces. Still, freeing each in turn, she was eventually surprised when one of them introduced themselves, "Thank you. I am Cero." Narine remembered the silent one from before and was about to speak when Cero quickly and quietly approached one of the stations. "Immaculate. Exquisite. I see what they were talking about now."
Kuntaret walked up to Cero, seemingly thrown by her ability to speak, "Nice to finally hear you, Cero, but what do you mean? We need to find an out. Now."
Cero nodded, "We have a potential opening, but even as fast as the mind is, we need to move quickly." Before anyone could ask her what she meant, she approached Narine and smiled at her, "I am so glad you were born, sister. I hope we can speak again one day." Before Narine could respond, a chute opened beneath her and she dropped into what seemed like a void until she awoke in the damaged remains of the lab she had been held in when they were trying to convert her on the Ziegfried. Running to one of the consoles, hoping to figure out what Cero had seen in hopes that it hadn't been a trick or betrayal, she was blown away at what she was seeing. Katsi was alive! She had figured out how to hijack the nanites for herself! What was more, she could see that there was one of Katsi's crystals attached to the system. Narine, sent a message to the console that Cero had been at trying to find out her plan. Her response caught her off guard.
Dear sister,
The Crystals are data storage as much as they are energy. An empty data storage device that can contain an entire people. Your body hasn't been remodeled yet. You have a chance to return to your life. Our bodies have not been so fortunate. I can save our personalities to the crystal. We can always get new bodies. You have fought her off before. Keep yours so I can thank you in person.
-Cero
Narine had never exchanged a single word with her little sister and yet here she was more considered and reasoned than even Gavin. Fine. It should be easy enough. Even as projections of the Tak'Nasi security force entered this mental lab, responding like antibodies to her message. That was fine. She took on her new appearance and laughed to herself, "You couldn't beat me before. So let's see if fighting me on my own turf makes any difference for you."
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As Katsi continued to wheel through the sky, she began to shoot transmitters into the swarm of turrets, converting the nanites in each impact site to her own tools. When she would hit a clone, she found herself increasingly disturbed. What should have lead to a liberation of their bodies lead to Tak'Nasi killing them out of spite and to keep their forms from being used against her. Katsi tried to remind herself that this wasn't murder. She wasn't killing these women she had been wanting to save. There was always the crystal. If she was right, they would have been fast enough and she was just pruning branches on a megalomaniac. Still, until she could confirm that they had all been evacuated onto that crystal, she felt the doubt picking at her brain. It was only as her next shot did nothing to the ongoing swarm that she realized the point of no return had passed. She tried to access the crystal for reference and felt a wave of relief. Not all of the count of thirty were here but who knows how many died in the crash or in a lucky shot during the fighting.
Tak'Nasi felt a cold grip in her chest. This wasn't supposed to be able to happen. She was the greatest mind the cosmos had ever seen! Why couldn't she have seen such an obvious design flaw? Who would have put such a glaring and stupid weakness into such a powerful weapon meant to overcome even the Shuians? As she cursed this interloper who dared to back her into a corner, she looked to the handful of herself that were still here, but she felt no connection to them. An extreme sense of vertigo overcame her as she looked at each one. Without the nanites to orchestrate their moves with her own, all she could do was assume they were on the same page as her. She would take point and they would fall in line. As Zora and the numbered one charged this group, she looked to her other selves in annoyance as they all seemed to be trying to take the lead position as well, not checking their timing or anything but charging in without a moment's consideration. While their layer of Nanite armor protected them from harm, the lack of coordination allowed the numbered one to deflect each blow sent her way with ease, launching each attacker effortlessly into the terrain. Zora for her part seemed to believe her blaster to the face was a sufficient tactic and embarassingly she wasn't wrong. Tak'Nasi's turrets had gone completely silent, her combat drones were most likely inert without her direction, and down to the last few of her bodies, she had been backed into a corner. She couldn't open the connections to form weapons without the golden one stealing what few resources she had left and while she could fight well enough, if she couldn't coordinate with herself then what good was even that?
The golden one landed nearby and said, "Stalemate." Tak'Nasi glared at her as the golden one played up how impressed she was. "We can't break that armor and you can't beat us with what you have left." She tapped her chin and then turned to a different Tak'Nasi. "Or, is it that we can't break YOUR armor and YOU can't beat us with what you have left?" She did this again with a third, "Or Is it YOU?"
Tak'Nasi snapped at the same time as the rest of herself, "We are all Tak'Nasi! The final evolution of life! The ultimate hive mind!"
Zora turned to the numbered one and asked, "I mean, they aren't really a hive mind right now, right?" The numbered one laughed derisively. Before she knew it, Tak'Nasi watched one of her selves attack the white haired clone and be evaded before getting shot back by Zora. "Okay, I think we found the real Tak'Nasi." The group turned to the one who had just been struck back and began to only look at her.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Tak'Nasi couldn't abide this. All of them shouted, "We are all the real Tak'Nasi!"
Zora waved them off and stated firmly, "A bunch of cheap copies. There can only be one original."
Another of her selves spoke up unprompted, "You Dare! I am the greatest mind in the cosmos! Even a cheap replica of me would be more than enough for the likes of your meager means!" She motioned to the rest of the Tak'Nasi as though she had control. "Leave me! Scatter! If you escape then we can always reorganize ourselves later!"
Tak'Nasi couldn't stomach this and watched as another of her cried out, "You believe yourself superior? Are you not I and I not we?"
Tak'Nasi could feel the thoughts eating at her mind. Something about this wasn't right. She then began to laugh like a maniac, much to the surprise of everyone there. "I see. This was your goal. Some first year psychological abuse. Sow doubt and division. Sever identity and wield the existential crisis as a weapon against my mind."
"Our mind."
Tak'Nasi ignored the clone. She was wrong to do this. She was always sufficient. This Hive mind arrangement was a total wash. If she was realizing this than she only had a moment before the others had the same realization. If that was true, they would kill her as easily as breathing air. Just like she was about to do to them. This may have been an obvious tactic, but only because it was the only one that made sense. She had made this prison of the mind for herself. The real question was if this trio of idiots were going to interfere or take the tactical choice of stepping back to watch.
Zwei thought to herself about the words she had heard from Master Phoenix all that time ago. That she saw the ending of a life as evil and that is what made her different than the original. She watched, waiting to see if what he said was correct. Was this long dead ego maniac more than a cold monster or were they all the guinea pigs that he claimed she thought of them as. Small animals to be sacrificed for her grand experiment.
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Hepta and Nava punched more of the tubes as they motioned everyone towards the exits that Ett and Kuntaret were motioning them to. Metaphysical or not, doorways meant something to the mind. A transition point. Easily processed by the minds of the scared and desperate as a means of escape. The countless clones found themselves funneled by The Count of Thirty to their means of escape. Their personalities and experiences being saved to the crystal as the system worked to isolate their nanites and eject it. Eventually, Cero shouted, "We are out of time. Everyone to the crystal!"
Hepta ran with the rest through the door, thankful this was finally over. It would be a hot minute before they had their bodies again, but what mattered is that they lived. That what they represented got to continue forward. As she ran to escape, she saw Shi run back in past her. "Shi, where are you going? We have to leave?"
Shi nodded, "Cero isn't leaving. I'm going to take care of that." Hepta hesitated at first but when Trinta ran out as well, smiling, she was reassured.
"Okay, but drag her quickly! We don't have a lot of time!"
Trinta smiled softly, "Don't worry. We've got this." Hepta laughed a hearty laugh and ran through the door. Once she had, something akin to a sheet of glass covered the entrance and she watched as the three girls huddled around the control console, completely ignoring as the rest of them escaped.
Trinta almost looked back, but Shi held her shoulder. Cero sighed, "I was hoping you two would escape with the others."
Shi spoke coldly, "I be in charge of this ship now, me matey." Her lack of accent or emotion of any kind caused the other two to look at her in amused confusion. "Batten down the hatches. We be securing these bodies for our own means now, lassies."
Trinta finally chuckled, "The rest of them are going to hate us for this."
Cero sighed, "I guess I don't mind doing this alone, but you know that if we are doing this, the odds are high we don't come back."
"Then why are you doing it?"
Cero sighed, "Master Phoenix used to tell me all the time that sacrifice was the most unstable form of power. That it was to have enough love for others that you courageously bleed yourself dry for their sake. I was always drawn to it through his example. And now here I am trying to have a moment where I give everything for my sisters and you two have to come and ruin it."
Shi stated firmly, "That be the way, wee lass. We be like she. Control freaks to the last. Why leave to others what we do weselves."
Trinta nodded, "I mean, isn't that the goal? To sow doubt? I don't mind risking this little life of mine for one final masterpiece."
Cero sighed, nodding slowly to herself. "Alright. But, Shi, you have to stop with the pirate speak. Seriously, when you don't use an accent or anything it is just very unsettling."
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Zwei saw Master Phoenix vindicated, the various branches of Tak'Nasi turning on each other and eating themselves alive. As one was flung near her, it used the last of its strength to touch her heel and before she knew it, Zwei felt herself crying. It was a quiet voice at first. A sad one, but not an unfamiliar one. She asked herself quietly, "Trinta?" As she watched all but the last Tak'Nasi fall, she heard the voice of the artist in her mind. How Cero and Shi had worked with her. How they had each taken a body. How each of them had sown confusion and how they had all died by this point.
Zwei felt her heart break a little, her mind reeling from hearing not only of her sister's sacrifices but also their deaths. Shi, especially, was a rather harsh loss for the girl who had been nothing but a burden to the group. She fell to her knees, trying to process this. Even Sabre was unable to break through the grief to the warrior beneath.
Anisa went to approach the kneeling figure, armed and ready to go, but her eyes were vacant. Her glassy stare revealing how completely broken this had left her. Recognizing that look as one she had worn before, she couldn't help but opine. "It is one thing to accept death as a part of life. It is entirely another to end your own life. Bad enough once, maybe even twice, but by the time you are as far down the self-destructive rabbit hole that we are, there is no heart left. No soul. Just a killing machine. To the point where ending our own life seems just as pointless as living it." Katsi watched her sister standing over what was effectively a living corpse, wondering if she would be okay. Sirens filled the air as an army of officers from the Cosmic Patrol arrived, clearly having taken time to arrive in force for such a grand event. Before they could apprehend the survivors, Anisa took a deep breath and snapped the neck of the mentally shattered Tak'Nasi.
When they came to arrest her, she offered her arms willingly to the cuffs. Zwei had vanished, Katsi unsure of where she had gone, and Narine was being carried on a stretcher. She seemed to be nanite free, which was reassuring. Katsi, following her sister's lead allowed herself to be cuffed as well.
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Tomas held her head as Katsi wrapped up the tale, "And that's how it happened." She tried to get a read on the officer and followed up with, "I mean, I know it sounds insane but-"
Tomas held up their hand and sighed, "So if we could contact this Zwei Valk they would collaborate your story?"
Katsi nodded, "Yeah. Absolutely."
Tomas tapped their pen on the desk and looked at their notes. "Honestly, in all my time as a member of the cosmic patrol, I wish this was more crazy. This is actually pretty standard fair for all the factors involved. An open and closed case." Katsi seemed worried but Tomas waved her off, "The charges in this case specifically are overblown. Frankly, this is basically how we would have handled it. In fact, it might have been better because a modified Class 9 Corruptor would have been able to turn our numbers against us." Tomas asked, genuinely at a loss, "If all of this is true, why did Zora tell us that it was genocide when interviewed?"
Katsi sighed, and looked away, "I don't know. I mean, technically it could be viewed as cultural genocide as we have wiped out the culture as everyone knew it."
Tomas shrugged, "Looks more like you aided a revolution against a dictator. More like helping a cultural shift and protecting a species to me. I mean, we don't encourage officers to participate in that stuff, but you guys aren't a part of the force."
As Tomas was about to wrap up, a scarlet and gold clad figure stepped into the room, "The Prince has given me orders. If I listen in and deem them as worthy, the prisoners are to be put under his protection and my supervision. Your investigation was through and exacting, Officer Tomas. Please make the records public and I thank you for your service."
Tomas hated the break in protocol and glared at the armored unsavory figure, but nodded and left the room. Katsi was on her guard. This was the same guy who worked with the lady who tried to set her on fire when she last visited the Tak'Nasi homeworld. He spoke softly, "Prince Visto the Fourth has heard your plight and is aware of your mission to bring back heroes from another time. He knows the Falos and you have no love loss, but he wishes to aid in the return of these great heroes. You can decline his offer, but his father has great sway and could have you all executed. Agree to our help and we will make sure your mission succeeds."
Katsi asked, "Why should we trust someone like you?"
He laughed a little and motioned for the door to be opened. Zwei stepped in, her nanites progressing a bit further than before, but the crystal that contained all of her sisters proudly displayed on her chest. Her eyes shifted to a soft shade of magenta and in a candor and tone she knew all too well, Trinta said, "Hey, Kat. I'm sorry for everything, but it's going to be okay now."