"Hello, Dior... my dearest child," the woman said quietly, arms raised in surrender in front of the truck.

"You have no right to call me that, mother."

Dior spat out the honorific as if it was poison, her eyes filled with rage.

The woman's face became one of pure regret and sorrow.

Then she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Forgive me, my daughter..."

Dior stared at the woman; her breathing quickened, and she turned her head to the side. "You have no right to be forgiven. It was you. You who betrayed us. All of us."

The woman shook her head. "I am sorry, my dear child. I am sorry for everything."

Dior scowled, and her eyes glowed with a golden, orange flame to them. "It was you! Their blood is on your hands! You said you loved us!"

The woman shouted back at Dior. "I do love you, little one!"

"Shut up," Dior said, suddenly turning and glaring at the woman. "This one did not ask for you to appear. Would you speak these words to Yin? To Setia. To Cecilia. This one can see right through your lies."

I frowned as I watched Dior. I didn't know what was happening, but this seemed like an absurd and climactic scene from a bad melodrama. I turned back to the woman, and she continued to look at Dior with a forlorn longing.

"This one has no desire to talk to you," Dior went on. "You should have died with the others."

I raised my eyebrow as I stood there, looking at the two before me. Okay, I knew I was quickly becoming an expert on the bizarre. However, this looked like a family spat with many deep emotions involved. It was definitely way out of my league.

"We should talk, child, at the very least," the woman replied in a calm yet teary-eyed tone. "We will not be at peace until we do."

"Excuse me," I started. "Sorry to interrupt, but what exactly the fuck is going on back here in this truck? What were you doing raiding the research facility?"

"If you would believe us, we are — or rather were running a rescue mission. And, you would hand these children back to a horror show should you complete the warrant," the woman replied, her voice firm.

The woman looked at Dior and frowned with those same eyes. "Know this. I regret everything terrible that I have ever inflicted on you, child. I have long defected out of that regret and have always prayed for your forgiveness. I will only tell you the truth and pray for your forgiveness, although I do not expect it."

Dior was silent as she stared at the woman. I was growing increasingly uncomfortable as this scene played out.

"No," Dior said, turning away and shaking her head. "No more lies. No more deception. No more! You made your bed! You lie in it! This one has no more desire to listen to your falsehoods."

I was silent as I watched the two. I still had no idea what the fuck was going on and what the hell Dior was talking about.

Dior scoffed, her eyes flashing a fiery orange-gold color.

"This one does not have a mother," Dior said coldly, her eyes lowering to the floor, her body tensing. "This one's true mother died a long time ago."

The woman looked on sadly. "I understand..." the woman said, sounding defeated. "I am not surprised by your reaction to our reunion. You have every right to reject me. You have every right to loathe me. You have every right to despise me." The woman smiled sadly as she looked at Dior.

Dior glanced at her and looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.

As they had what I assumed was a weird sort of 'mother and daughter moment,' - I stepped past them and looked in the truck. There were about a dozen girls bound and gagged in the front of the transport vehicle.

They all were scared and confused and huddled toward the front of the truck together. I knelt down to get a better look at them. They looked like ordinary girls, although many looked terrified and looked like they were in a state of shock and confusion.

What the hell?

I pulled the tape off the mouth of a young Caucasian girl with raven black hair and red eyes.

"What's going on here?" I asked her.

The girl's eyes widened as she saw me; she looked petrified. "Please... got anything... get me out of here," she said through a dry mouth. Her eyes were glazed over.

"What did you guys do to these girls?" I said, turning to the woman. She looked at the girls and closed her eyes.

"They are victims of that facility," she replied, looking at the girls. "We took advantage of the Chaos Event to execute a long-standing plan rescue these children. We are taking them to safety."

"Do not listen to her lies," Dior said, looking at the woman disgustedly. "She's no different from them. She just wants to use them as weapons."

"No but really, tell me," I said as I gestured at the other girls. "Does this look like a rescue to you? They're bound, gagged, and addled out of their minds right now."

The woman grimaced and glanced between the two of us.

"We rescued them from captivity," the woman reiterated, pleading. Dior didn't reply, only gave a disgusted look at the woman. "We defected from Babylon and no longer wish to be culpable in these atrocities. That is why we did this today."

The raven-haired girl I was talking to shivered; she looked like she was in shock, and her eyes were wet with tears.

I frowned as I looked at her. Those girls back in the truck were in a state of stupor. I didn't know what was going on. I turned to the woman and shook my head.

"I don't know what the fuck is going on here, but these girls look like they have seen some shit," I said firmly. "They need to get out of here."

The woman nodded and looked at Dior. "I give you my word that these girls will not come to harm or exploitation under our care. I'm sorry for the way we conducted our operation."

Dior looked back at the woman, and her eyes flashed again. "This one is hardly convinced by your bullshit lies."

I pulled the tape of another girl, and she started to speak.

"Please - "

She shirked back from me and stopped talking, eyes out of focus. I pulled off the tape from the mouth girl next to her.

"Are... are you here to rescue us?" the girl asked.

"Definitely," I said with a frown. "What happened to you guys?"

"I...I dun wanner say," the girl slurred, tears running down her face. "He was... he was horrible."

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I looked at the girl and frowned. I turned back to the woman and looked at her. I couldn't determine whether she was telling the truth or not. And — I definitely had zero desire to turn these girls back to that facility. Still, this situation didn't sit right with me.

I heard footsteps approach and looked outside to Spencer and Violet Tempest walking up behind us. It looked like they'd successfully restrained the rest of the men in the convoy.

"Admin, we've got a problem. Uh, we've got a truck full of little girls over here," I told Spencer as I gestured to the truck.

Spencer looked at the car as he approached and frowned. He looked at me; his expression was unreadable from behind the body proxy.

"What the actual fuck is going on here?" Spencer said, his voice leveling a tense tone.

"Several companies and government organizations under Babylon's umbrella have been running experiments to artificially produce Magical Girl awakenings," the woman said. "I... I used to work on these projects."

"What?" Violet Tempest said, her eyes widening. "Are you serious?"

"I used to work for Project Messiah. We... we were doing experiments to try and artificially awaken Magical Girls. We've had varying degrees of success over the years. Mostly failures, and almost always for the worse," the woman answered.

"What kinds of experiments?" Violet Tempest asked, her voice shaking as she glanced intently at Dior.

The woman shook her head, but his question seemed to snap Dior out of whatever she was feeling. She glanced at the woman, her eyes flashing gold.

"This woman is not part of a rescue operation conducted in good faith." Dior said, her voice terse.

"Wait. Please, I understand you're upset Dior. However, let's put our heads together first," I said, stepping between the woman and Dior. I looked at the woman. "Why do you want these girls?"

"We don't want them at all," the woman said, shaking her head. "They hold valuable information in their bodies, so NovaGen will not stop their pursuit so long as they are traceable. We want to take them far, far away from them. We want to keep them away from the Messiah project, and bring them to the other side of the portal where they can start over, outside of Babylon's reach."

"Who are you, exactly?" Spencer said, looking at the woman.

"My name is Bathala," the woman said. "I lead a group called the Harbingers of the Dawn. We are aligned with Sisyphus, and we are ideologically opposed to the exploitation of children to fight our wars."

She paused for a second, glancing briefly at Dior.

"However, we are not free of sin ourselves. We have used children as tools in the past as a PMC utilized by Babylon. In many ways, we are just as much to blame as the ones who make them into weapons. We... we do have a history with Hana of the Dawn here."

Bathala's eyes looked haunted. "That very history why we want to help these girls."

Dior snarled at Bathala, her eyes flashing gold, but Violet Tempest held her back.

"What happened to these girls?" Spencer asked.

"We had no choice but to sedate them," Bathala said. "The girls were screaming and crying for their mothers. They were hysterical, and no matter how hard we tried – we didn't know what to do."

Spencer made an inscrutable expression. "And you drugged them?"

Bathala nodded and looked at the girls. "It was the only way to calm them down. They were in a traumatized state of shock and panic and could hardly comprehend what was going on. We needed to calm them down so we could help them."

"You know, you're not making a strong case for yourself," I said, observing the girls. "These girls definitely look like they've been on the wrong side of a bad trip."

Bathala sighed. "I know. I know what we did sounds terrible. We did it in an attempt to protect them from the researchers that had been abusing them. We needed to take them away from there, and it was the only thing we could think of to prepare them for transportation."

Spencer looked at Dior. "What do you think, Hana?"

Dior stared at Bathala for a few moments. Her eyes flashed gold again, but this time she seemed to calm down, her eyes quickly turning back to normal.

"Bathala has magic that could keep them calm. Her story has holes. Logic is flawed. She is hiding something," Dior said, but her voice was quieter. "There is a sense of sincerity in her words, but also deception."

"Look — this isn't really important right now, right guys? We all want to get these girls to safety, on paper at least," Violet Tempest suddenly interjected. "So, why are we even standing here? Let's get these girls back to the city."

"But, what if they're - " Spencer started to say, but Violet Tempest interrupted him.

"Look at them, they're terrified and drugged out of their minds. We're not helping them by fighting in front of them, Admin," Violet Tempest said, her voice emphatic. "We should hurry and get these girls out of here."

I looked down at the girls. Dior was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of taking these girls and entrusting them to Bathala. I'd have to talk to her about her issues and what exactly was going on here.

"We should let the girls decide what they want to do after," Violet Tempest insisted.

I looked at Violet Tempest and pursed my lips. I looked at the girls again; they all seemed to breathe deeply and were slowly coming to.

"Well, I can agree with that but let's not get into it here. That's going to take some time to sort out," Spencer said. "Let's help the girls first. We can definitely sort out what to do once we get them to warmth and safety."

"Exactly," said Violet Tempest. "Lets drive them back to civilization first. I'll make sure that they have a safe place to stay. I think every one of them deserves a little bit of comfort after everything they've been through."

"Right!" Spencer agreed.

Violet Tempest approached one of the girls, severing her bindings with a butterfly knife she pulled out of nowhere.

"I- I'm sorry," the girl mumbled. "I'm sorry. Please, don't hurt us."

"It's okay," Violet said, blinking back tears as she looked down at the girl. "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to take you back to the city."

"Bringing them back close to Babylon-controlled cities would be a mistake," Bathala suddenly said, making everyone in the group freeze in place. "You should take them away from the city. Even if you would abandon us to the side of the road If you bring them back to Shoreline City, they will all disappear without a trace in short order. The only way to save their lives is to get them out of the city."

"I- I'm sorry," the blonde girl mumbled shakily. "I don't mean to be ungrateful. I- I'm just scared, that's all."

"It's okay," Violet Tempest said, leaning in for a hug. "Don't you worry; we'll get you back home. You're safe here. You don't have to be afraid anymore."

She helped the girl to her feet and supported her by the elbow.

"Sorry miss, but we're bringing them back. All of you as well," Spencer stated as he forced Bathala down to restrain her.

"I see," Bathala said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Spencer. "You will not hear me out."

"Look, I want to trust you, but I have to be sure," Spencer said. "I'm sorry, but I can't trust you. Not yet. Not until we know what's going on. Not until we at least find some sort of backup plan. No offense, but I'm not going to risk these girls to someone who's definitely given a teammate reason to distrust her."

"I must apologize then," Bathala muttered.

The air around us started to shimmer and swirl, and suddenly a large magical seal appeared underneath our feet in the truck. "But I cannot allow you to bring these girls back into a lion's den."

I saw a whirl of motion, and I could briefly make out Violet Tempest moving to strike Bathala with the back handle of her scythe.

Violet Tempest yelped in pain as she was wrapped in a cocoon of golden energy and launched out of the truck like a cannonball with a deafening crash. I turned to the commotion, only to see an intricate Ba Gua diagram spinning in front of Dior as she clutched her scepter. Then, she screamed in agony, and a wave of energy surged out of her body in all directions.

I tried to move to help, but I couldn't. The proxy body's legs were glued into the floor of the truck. It became apparent that I'd become rooted in place somehow.

"B-betrayer! Murderer!" Dior screamed. It looked like she was fighting the magic as the seal glowed brighter and brighter, struggling to turn her scepter. "You promised Dior would never be a slave again! Bathala! You lied – to Yin, to all of us! You are less than scum! Heartless! You would invoke her seal! Hypocrite!"

I realized that I couldn't move my proxy body or even eject. I was only able to move my HUD and look at Dior. She was struggling against something. I wasn't sure what. Dior looked visibly distraught, crying hysterically as she fought against the spell.

I looked at Bathala again. Her expression was twisted into pure anguish and desperation. "I'm sorry. So sorry."

Tears were streaming down her face now.

"Hypocrite! Child murderer!" Dior screamed. She struggled against the seal and seemed to collapse to her knees as the seal glowed even brighter. "Promise… you promised! Nothing but broken promises and dreams."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Bathala kept repeating as she continued to work the spell against Dior. "Never again, never again, my beautiful Dior..."

Dior collapsed to her knees, and the panic came back into her face as she looked at me and opened her mouth to say something. She was fighting something and judging by her expression, she was losing. I saw a flash of gold in her eyes before they went glassy and empty. Her face fell flat, almost like her will was stolen from her.

"Dior!" I yelled mentally, desperate to get the body moving.

I looked at Violet Tempest, apparently unconscious in a newly-formed crater. I suddenly felt a sense of dread, like I knew what would happen next. The magic around the truck was becoming brighter and brighter as a bright golden aura began to swirl in the air around me.

My desperation to stop whatever was going to happen was starting to take over. I felt like my entire body was tingling, and I could not scream for help or even eject.

The golden aura became blinding as Dior's body rose into the truck's air. The energy felt like it was radiating out of her, and I could feel it start to consume me. I wanted to look away but couldn't; every part of my being was focused on this moment as a brilliant light shot out from Dior's scepter, disintegrating Spencer's proxy where it stood.

Then, Dior turned her scepter at me and mouthed something at me that I couldn't make out.

A golden light shot toward me, and I felt my body start to dissolve. In the last moment, I could see Dior's eyes twisted in a brief moment of horror and lucidity as she realized what she had done. What she was being forced to do. Then, she was rendered expressionless again in the blink of an eye.

The light consumed me, searing through my body like a hot blade. I could only recoil in horror as my proxy was reduced to mere ashes.