On December 20th, Aimee & Mia stood together in her mansion. A cold feeling had sat in Mia's stomach all morning. Her hands shaking a bit, she followed his instructions to fill a glass of water and say her name in to it.

"FTL." they heard him say, and in the next instant -

- he appeared ahead of them, only one right arm left.

"She's not coming with me." said Mia, patting Aimee's shoulder. "I'll fight alone, as you asked."

"Good. Are you prepared?"

"I am." she said, and turned to kiss Aimee.

Magnus hadn't realized she had a girlfriend, and the seconds they kissed made him wonder how they had gotten together, or if Rayaka had missed something in his tracking. He remembered his own love for Worldwide's host, and now realized that he didn't know as much about Mia as he thought he did.

These unknowns of little details began chipping at the casing he had built five years ago after digging her grave, and by now he could not ask, and Mia wouldn't have told him anyway. She thought he was a villain like he planned, and he knew, to an objective viewer, he was, but could not feel this himself, as the bacteria on his first heart worked by ways of a science that at one time had not yet become a trauma for him. As Scourge's last thousand killed themselves, he still wished to ask her what she thought of Aimee, but couldn't until his hand tapped her shoulder and FTL triggered, putting them at the start of an abandoned street whose burnt husks cleared the swirling mist from his mind if only because he had practiced the speech.

"Walk with me, Swarm. Mia." he said. "Your final test will come after. I will not use Scourge on you, and it will only be myself."

They began through the streets.

"Seventeen years ago, I attended Urasaria, just as you have, and was assigned underneath a second-year, just as you were. I was attracted to her, and she to I. Our love came later. We fought together for four years, but we were forced to go separately in our professional lives. I studied Revenant research, and no professional agency wanted to take on the burden of Scourge. I was contracted as a researcher, and my…"

He paused.

"…she became my wife. Ryumi. It's been five years since I see her, but I recall her appearance as a photograph. A project was assigned to me, as I believed I would be a good fit for it. Scourge allows me to examine Revenants while still beating. My goal was to create a method for a host to sustain multiple Revenants.

Twelve years after we met, she was struck by a grievous wound and fell in to a coma. It was not known whether she would awake, but I felt she would, if she were in my care. I had planned this, carefully, but … some of it was outside of the realm of science. It wasn't an empty hope that filled me.

Those we worked with did not agree. Her Revenant was beginning to rot. They would not listen to my demands. I have never taken refusal well, and despair became desperation. She was kept in the hospital that became these ruins. I planned to take her by force, and transplant her heart with one artificial, to transfer her Revenant with it to nullify her shock. If my procedure was done correctly, her health would return.

When I arrived, her Revenant had been ripped out from her. Her agency had not wanted Worldwide to go to waste, and it was kept in this hospital when I arrived. Her health worsened. I remember her body. She was disfigured - her eyes. Every limb - nearly every part of her was turned in to metal."

"…the twenty heroes you killed." said Mia. "It was nineteen?"

"I did not kill Ryumi. I slaughtered every person in this hospital and tortured the nineteen responsible. With only a month before her Revenant would be lost, and the last of her with it, I split in to four its components, and implanted each on the conduits I invented. But these conduits, they're imperfect. Scourge has begun weakening from having to sustain them. Worldwide's colonies have begun rotting recently. They'll die without a proper host.

But even weakened, there is no loss of life that exceeds my goal. I have no trust in my sycophants, Scourge or otherwise. I captured you and gave you Worldwide's remnant, and ensured Doppori would lead you to the rest."

"…and the rest was to motivate me." muttered Mia.

"My advice was sincere, but the fable - the persona I adopted - was only motivation for you. Worldwide was stolen once by greed and once for vengeance, but your heart will sustain her - your existence will ensure her's. The final piece lies here, within me. The blood that tethers her to this world. Within you and I. I am only a medium, but there will be no mercy or hesitance any longer. If you cannot best me, I'll take Worldwide from your corpse and find someone who can."

"Come, then." said Mia, raising her teeth of steel as they separated, her blood-red voice. "I … shall prove I am worthy of what lies beyond your corpse."

"As I have before, then." said the dreadnought, the two at opposite ends of the street. "Worldwide!"

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The final piece formed in his final hand and she gasped. "The - the only material that can withstand it. My - the experience."

"There is no fourth element, Mia."

The sword was the color of her scarabs, with a triple helix of blue, white, and red down the unnatural metal. Three scarab-shaped insets were drilled in to the blade.

"It was her weapon." said the dreadnought, as the two began to circle. "I no longer possess the scarabs to use it properly."

"And I will." grunted Mia, rushing forward with blade outstretched -

- and at the center of the streets clashed blade and blade, sparks lighting the deadened town as the combatants clashed with their final might.

She'd never felt a more durable material in his mangled sweeps; her steel blunted the first & second, and she didn't think about what'd happen if she were struck directly. In a whirlwind of blows and obsidian tatters they clashed along the buildings, her scarabs swarming the dreadnought's neck -

- but a whirl of golden blade went through the golden swarm, chopping to bits the insectile pincers. Inch by inch, the pressure of his strikes forced her further and further along the walls, and in a sweep seeking her neck -

- that caught only a pillar of ice for his troubles -

- and Mia swept back in to the diner's door at her back, swarm swarming his legs as she rushed back, and as his sword smote through the scarab cloud -

- a stalactite of ice impaled his wrist to his legs; some confidence now, Mia surged forward with blade drawn, another dozen strikes carving through his torso -

- but his hand ripped right through the stalactite as a stomp shattered the ice and their blades clashed again, steel against unnatural metal and bloodied figures with some wounds. She swept back further, kitchen and exit approaching at her back as he rushed forward -

- and the keen end of one thrown sword impaled clear through his chest, Mia pilfering another blade from a table that she'd left over one visit over the break. With no time to waste, she started her rush back across the enclosure, and as she came up to the back wall -

- a swift sweep of fire scarabs burnt a hole; and out to the next street she swept, rushing down the sidewalk as she remembered her next blade's location. Sheets of ice formed as she slid & slid, walls of ice forming behind, Dreadnought stomping through.

She was nearing one corner when she glanced back -

- and saw no sight at all, the dreadnought having vanished behind.

"Of cou-"

- his sword slashed open the wall at her right, and as the second sweep sought her neck -

- a pillar of ice burst up at her feet, launching her up in to the air, eyes wincing as she saw her next fall to the flat roof below, and as she fell fifty feet down -

- a geyser of water burst up to catch her -

- but her body smashed a crater as she landed regardless, cleverness only ensuring pain and not death. Behind, she felt the Dreadnought leaping up to meet her -

- and she threw a dozen icicles back as she leaped across the roof & away again, keen ends piercing through his four fingers as sheets of ice slowed her fall. Ranged weaponry found, she kept her rush going as she rushed across the street, seeing her backup blades left as she came up to another building. A ladder of ice formed on the building ahead, and up she climbed, and as her eyes turned back -

' - of fucking course -'

- she saw with aghast eyes the dreadnought stomping each open, Gamage's steel failing against that horrific might - she landed back on the sidewalk.

And he was among her with a rush and a gigantic bound. Her steel blunted the first, and the second slashed her chest in a shower of crimson; agony staggering her back and pressure of his blows forcing her further and further back, her sword's desperation increasing as she blocked, and as the entrance of the town approached behind -

- one swift golden blade smashed her own in a shower of steel; one option left, she rushed back and up the road, veering left and on to the dirt clearing beside, Dreadnought still rushing in pursuit behind, no weapons left for her but her scarabs -

- and as she turned, Dreadnought only feet away from her now -

" - Worldwide - Tri-Swarm Raid!"

- the dirt rumbled at the dreadnought's feet, and in the next instant -

- a geyser of steaming water shot up from below, entire geyser claiming his entire body; she threw every last fire & ice scarab she had in to it, and as her electrical scarabs swarmed -

- a current like a million volts went through him, flood of electrified water charring his torso, and as the agony unclenched his grip -

- she was among him with a rush and a gigantic bound, scooping up the blade that was rightfully her's.

Again and again, she attacked at the hideous torso, cleaving in a wave of blood as the geyser of water faded, her body crackling with the fury of lightning as her sword impaled clear through his chest; his armor's top layer fell in a shower of orange flames, and a wall of white fire erupted at his back -

- and Mia shoved him right through, rage claiming her as she rushed in to the blaze.

Again, and yet again, she hacked at the hideous torso and arm, and with frozen spikes growing from her blade, threw him through a final frozen wall, which cracked with a sound of a thunderclap.

A final choked cry left him as he fell back to the ground. A surrendering wave of his right hand, and Mia knew that she had won. A score of wounds were streaming blood, pain that she didn't yet feel, and the dreadnought's armor was cracked, grisly, and mangled.

She crouched over him, and his voice began to fade as he spoke.

"The final piece."

The spectacle repeated. She accepted with some tears the fourth heart, and the dreadnought's final arm began to crumble as new strength claimed her.

"C-Can you tell me about her?" said Mia.

"T-The moment with h-her I most remember w-was in my second year at Urasaria, during a summer afternoon. I-It was a summer afternoon. I was reading through research papers at my desk, and I had a-a presentation to work through for the start of the semester. She came over to me, and I thought of how beautiful she looked.

She told me that she couldn't wait for winter, and asked me what my favorite season was. I-I replied that it did not matter much, as I was always indoors. S-She prodded me, b-but I eventually said fall, for how the leaves change, and that it's n-neither too cold or too hot.

And when I turned to look at her, she was smiling a little. At that moment, I realized her trait of always asking small questions of me, and why she asked them. I-I can't explain why that simple moment moved me so p-profoundly.

Goodbye, Swarm."

"Goodbye, Magnus."

His armor cracked, then crumbled to reveal the black fog that filled it, scattering overhead.

For a long while, she sat there. She listened to the crickets grow in the evening as she extended her right hand, and Ryumi's bacterium made its reason in a blade reflecting the grass that her eyes saw slightly damp.

[END OF ARC 1: SCOURGE OVER URASARIA]