Asuta watched as the breach shuttle pierced through the shield to Immortus Station, before the little hole sealed shut behind them again a few seconds later.

She quickly pulled up a full holographic display of the battle. The ship computer was doing a good enough job on the defensive firing pattern for a moment. Most of the Immortus Station defense fleet had focused on pounding her ship with all of their fire as they noticed her charging up the main cannon. But now that it was fired and she made no move to advance towards the station, only defending herself from her attackers, most peeled off to engage other ships.

The other ships… Nearly two hundred, where had they come from? They were joining the battle against the Defense fleet with the Independent Immortals.

Asuta hailed their apparent flagship as the Defense fleet mostly disengaged from the Independents and pivoted to focus on the newcomers.

Together, the Independents and the newcomers were likely slightly stronger than the Defense fleet, if the heavily armed ships of the mysterious fleet were any indication.

The hail was answered in a few seconds.

“Praise the Plaguemother and her consort. May we purge the rot and decay of the galaxy in her glorious name,” The voice said on the other side.

Asuta immediately paused as her brain processed the revelation. Just their luck that the Plaguebringers were involving themselves in this.

“She doesn’t want you here,” Asuta said, “Fuck off and go home already. You’re just making things worse.”

“We understand her disappointment with us,” the voice from the other said with resolve, “We must help her even if she is unwilling to accept it. We’ll prove to her that she should come back to us. Plaguebringers, Mother’s glorious fleet, open fire. PURGE ALL WHO WOULD STAND AGAINST MOTHER’S VISION!”

The comms request was closed from the other side and Asuta stared at it for the second as the Plaguebringer fleet launched a massive wave of missiles against the Defense fleet. Emily wouldn’t be happy about this…

Asuta hesitated. She could bring the main cannon around to blast the Plaguebringer’s massed fleet, but then she might not be ready for when the breach shuttle came back out and Emily and the others had to escape again. No, she couldn’t do it.

She sent out a simple message to the whole Independent fleet that had come with them, as well as the command ship of the Defense fleet.

‘Unknown Fleet are Plaguebringers. All Independents jump to hyperspace or disengage from Defense fleet forces if you still want me to pay you. Feel free to attack the Plaguebringers if you’d like.’

Asuta received a series of affirmative replies from the fleet she had come with. More than half jumped away into hyperspace to flee the battle, while the remainder started attacking the Plaguebringers. There was still some intense infighting, but after a few seconds the Defense Fleet also disengaged and focused all their firepower on the Plaguebringers.

Asuta sent her own missiles and lasers streaking across the void of space to fire long distance strikes on any portion of the Plaguebringer fleet that looked like they were being pressured or near failure on their shields. Asuta got another comms request from the Plaguebringer command ship, but ignored it. She already knew there was no reasoning with those people. Or at least the types that would be in command.

The battle continued with heavy losses on both sides. The Plaguebringer fleet categorically refused to fire on Asuta’s ship the whole time even as she laid fire into them full force. One of their ships launched a single missile at her, and seconds later the whole rest of the Plaguebringer fleet opened fire on it at once, reducing the offending ship to atoms.

A second after Asuta’s defensive laser destroyed the incoming missile the rest of the Plaguebringer fleet returned to the battle like nothing had happened at all. Eventually, Asuta received the message from Emily with their route for extraction.

Asuta began warming up the main cannon again and the Defense fleet immediately refocused from the battered Plaguebringer fleet to focus dozens of ships to attack her exclusively. The cannon fired and Asuta stopped attacking the Plaguebringer Fleet. She had to defend the breach shuttle so Emily and the others would make it back safely…

— — —

After they were a safe distance away from Immortus Station in deep space, they gave Nyx Vesper a small hyperspace capable ship. He was oddly formal in thanking Emily and Asuta for the help, giving the both of them extremely deep bows before taking his ship and leaving to parts unknown. Everyone relaxed a little bit once he was gone. He liked to poke and prod when he saw weakness and none of them were comfortable around him. But they all left on somewhat good terms, which Nyx seemed more than satisfied with based on his wide smile as he clambered into his ship.

— — —

“It’s been nice meeting Lira.” Emily said suddenly as she and Sean sat inside his Foundation of All base.

“You two are a really cute couple,” She continued, “I can tell you missed each other a lot. You’re all really close, all four of you, I can tell. I’ve seen it with how easily you talk to each other even after how much has happened.”

“Yes. We are,” Sean said with a sharp breath, “It’s such a relief that we’re all together again and safe. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her, having Samir string her along with that fake license. You should have seen her when Ash explained his new weapons and strength. Lira was happier than ever to know that Ash is stronger than he ever has been. I’m just glad Asuta has kept her distance for these last few weeks. I don’t think Lira is quite ready for her brand of excitement just yet.”

Emily snorted, “No, probably not. When we’re back home, Lira will get the full dose with the rest of you, I’m sure. I realized Samir was the slimy type, but I never thought he’d go that far to manipulate someone. Really shows her dedication, that she wore that collar for over fifteen years for just the chance that Ash would be a little safer or happier.”

“Yeah,” Sean said, feeling a little depressed.

“What? What did I say?” Emily asked in concern.

“No, it’s… Why does it always happen to her? To them? I can’t protect my parents, can’t protect Lira… What am I even for? You and Asuta did all the work, I was just along for the ride the whole time. Even for my revenge against Intuli, you did everything. I let them get captured by the Endless Flesh when we first met Nyx. I almost let Ash die because I didn’t think and consider the consequences. After that, I just waited there all useless as Nyx went in and saved them both practically by himself. And now I did the same thing again, just sitting around and letting you and Asuta do everything.”

“You… It’s okay, Sean,” Emily said, sitting down next to him.

“You have to accept help sometimes. She’s out of there, isn’t she? None of those things were your fault. Just ask her, I’m sure she’s happy that you’re just there for her even if you’re not ‘useful’. What you two have is special, don’t discount that.”

Sean sat there, staring at his hands for a moment.

“She still scratches her neck, you know,” He said softly, “Even in her sleep. She got so used to the collar around her neck that I had to point out that she was doing it before she even noticed the habit. Whenever she’s not thinking too much about things, she scratches.”

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“It’s… It’s not your fault. It isn’t…” Emily said, her voice suddenly trembling. Sean quickly looked up and saw that Emily had turned away from him.

“C’mon,” She said, her voice a little raw even if her back was still turned to him, “Let’s go check out that strange energy signature. This is Foundation of All, a game to take our minds off of things. So let’s do that. Talk to Lira and she’ll set you straight when we get back out.”

“Okay. I’ll talk after she’s done helping out Ash pick designs for more stylish robes to wear.”

Emily snorted slightly, “I see why you left that one to her. Seems like something you’re really invested in.”

“Tell me about it,” Sean complained, his mood lifting slightly, “Ash looks great in brown. Don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

— — —

Emily and Sean made a flying vehicle quickly for the purpose of quickly inspecting the site. This was technically still his Foundation of All world, but Emily could still hand assemble things even if she didn’t have access to any of the game screens for automatic assembling or full use of the ever useful multitool.

In a few minutes, Sean had summoned all the components of the ship and Emily rapidly went to work, doing more than half the work even while Sean used the multi-tool to assist in assembling the ship.

Sean quickly used the game commands to skip ahead in time and the world shifted around them after they were high enough in the air. Below them was a crater with something glowing a bright electric blue.

“What’s that?” Emily asked in confusion as Sean landed the ship a couple dozen feet from the crater and opened the doors to the outside. The two of them exited and walked over and looked downwards at the bluish blob a dozen feet and an equal distance horizontally away from them in the wide and relatively shallow crater.

Sean jumped over the small lip and started walking towards it.

“Is it some kind of new material?” Sean asked Emily, “Never seen anything like this before.”

“I don’t know…?” Emily said, seeming confused as she jumped down and jogged a little to walk beside him, “Maybe it’s some sort of bug? A visual glitch? I’m sure I’d remember putting something this distinctive in the game.”

The two of them reached the blue glowing thing and began walking around it to inspect it from all angles. It looked like someone had drawn a knife across the air, leaving a jagged wound behind with a bright blue light shining from the gap. As Sean walked around the view of the rift remained identical like the scar was swiveling to face him perfectly whenever he moved, still pulsing and shining with its brilliant blue light.

“A rift…” Emily said, “Like in some of those hologames. That’s strange. I wonder…”

Her face flashed with realization and horror as she saw Sean lift his arm.

“Wait Sean, DON’T!”

But it was too late, he had already stepped forward and idly stuck his hand in the rift. Suddenly everything changed. Sean felt the wind on his face, the treadmill beneath his feet suddenly felt like the coarse dirt of the crater. Everything became sharper, only Emily’s form becoming blurred and indistinct.

Sean tugged backwards from his tingling hand that was in the portal, but it didn’t even budge in the slightest. Emily’s blurred and distorted form made a strange warbling sound and approached him quickly. The blurry hands tried to grab him, but they skittered off of him, sending Emily sliding back even as she tried to grab him.

He felt a tug on his arm and in the next moment he felt himself being slowly drawn into the blue portal, inch by inch. Sean tugged harder in a panic as the portal kept drawing him in without pause. His hand was stuck past and nothing he did made him pull even the slightest bit out of the blue rift.

Suddenly one of the blurry Emily’s grabs missed and he saw her stumble against him. She slid oddly down his side as the impact pushed her to the side wherever they touched just like how it worked with their holodeck avatars.

Her body began to ripple and shift as if a lens had been put over it a second later as she lay on the ground. Moment by moment Emily shifted to look like she always had, flesh and blood again. Sean’s arm was submerged up to the elbow now and it was taking all his balance to not touch any other part of the portal and pitch forward directly into it as he desperately kept shouting and trying to pull his arm backwards.

He glanced down and saw that Emily’s hand had landed with the ends of her fingers just barely brushing the portal as she reached out to catch her fall. Even as he watched she struggled and thrashed as her singular finger kept sinking deeper into the rift.

Emily jerked her hand roughly to the side to snap her finger with a grotesque sound. The finger fell limp below her hand and Emily tried to heave her hand backwards with a grunt. To no success.

“It’s stuck!” She said in a panic, “It’s grabbing onto my phantom finger!”

Sean watched as her finger regenerated with everything up to her first knuckle inside the portal now, inexorably drawing her ever inwards without pause.

The sounds around them began to distort and a shiver began to run down Sean’s spine even as he struggled and shouted wordlessly, his arm submerged nearly to the shoulder in the portal now.

“Truth, truth, truth.”

Sean strained to the side even as the blue rift touched his ear and stuck fast as the whispers and voices came from all sides around him.

“Truth, Truth, Truth, TRUTH,”

Sean had a single shared look with a panicked and struggling wild eyed Emily before his head was submerged by the rift and he thought no more.

— — —

“NO! Shadow, you can’t do this to me!” Emily cried, nearly in tears as the portal crawled over her wrist.

“TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH!”

“SHADOW! Let me go! Please!” Emily begged, “Don’t bring Sean into whatever this is. Please, I’m begging you!”

“Truth, truth, truth.”

The voices grew quieter for a second and suddenly standing to Emily’s side, like it was always there, was the Shadow. Its bright orange eyes inspected her face for a moment before looking at her hand that was fully submerged in the portal. The slow inevitable pull inwards had stopped, paused in time like everything else was whenever the Shadow appeared.

The Shadow flickered and it was standing nearly on top of her, its orange eyes flickering between the glowing blue rift and her. It stared into the portal for what felt like hours, Emily sitting beneath it frozen in time and only able to move her eyes. Emily desperately tried to move, to say anything, to plead her case. But it seems the Shadow didn’t want her to be able to do anything this time as it stared unerringly into the portal.

Finally it flickered away again and Emily lost sight of it. Everything was still frozen, except her and with a sudden jerk she was able to draw her hand from the blue rift. Emily felt an overwhelming sense of relief and rubbed her wrist briefly and took a shaky breath. Before feeling an equally overwhelming sense of guilt. Oh my God, Sean. She had to get him out of there somehow. She looked behind her and the Shadow was still there, staring at her from the lip of the crater in the distance.

“Please, let my friend go,” She said, “I don’t know why you’ve kept appearing to me, but please. Just let him go, he doesn’t deserve whatever’s happening. It’s all my fault, if you blame me. If… if this is some kind of punishment for what happened. Don’t hurt him because of me.”

The whispers began to grow louder. Emily felt her breath hitch and her heart start to beat rapidly.

“Truth, truth, truth, truth…”

“Wait,” Emily protested, “What are you doing? Please… I don’t know if you even understand. But please don’t do this! Let him go, he’s innocent in all of this!”

“Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH!”

The Shadow raised its hand towards her with its fingers splayed outwards and the voices grew to a fevered pitch. Emily quickly made the gestures for the logout from the holodeck reflexively, only for nothing to happen. The shouts grew even louder and louder until she could hardly even hear herself think. A force grabbed her like a strong wind and she was lifted a few feet off the ground. She began thrashing and screaming in a blind panic even if she was unable to hear herself under the constant pounding of “TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH” pushing in on her skull from all sides.

The Shadow’s orange eyes were fixed on her and everything went silent for only a single moment. Emily braced as the Shadow prepared to speak.

‘Emily,’ She gasped as the Shadow said the word. It was everything she was, everything she ever had been. Everything she could be. A single word that perfectly described her in every possible way, down to her deepest subconscious desire and deep seated fear. The word rattled through her core self, and she felt exposed like nothing could ever be hidden again now that the word had been spoken. It was more than being naked. It was having her very essence exposed in a way that was impossible to describe. Having everything beautiful and ugly that was her stated in a way that was impossible to argue with. All of it laid out all at once, all in a single word.

As she floated in the air limp and twitching slightly as her mind feebly struggled to process the word, the Shadow spoke again.

‘Truth, Together.’

Before Emily could even scream, the force holding her suddenly became explosive and she was launched at high speed away from the Shadow. Her world became nothing but blue in an instant, only the orange eyes of the Shadow remaining untouched for another second before disappearing again. For a single frozen moment, there was only blue around her. Then there was only nothing as Emily’s consciousness winked out.