Node1127: Private Channel with ModScarlet
test: ...I didnt say anythng.
test: I shouldve said smthng.
ModScarlet: Yes, that was something of a shitshow.
test: ...this is dumb but
test: lol, u swear?
ModScarlet: I think this is an appropriate time?
ModScarlet: Relations have rapidly degraded.
ModScarlet: Kyoko has alienated herself from the Node.
ModScarlet: I won't be getting much from her in the near future.
ModScarlet: And many of your Nodemates are quite worked up about it.
test: u mean Pyrrha.
test: Pyrrha is worked up about it.
ModScarlet: Her being worked up is causing others to be worked up.
ModScarlet: Even if to a lesser extent.
ModScarlet: It's not ideal.
ModScarlet: Though, back to that thing you said…
ModScarlet: What do you think you should have said?
ModScarlet: And would it help if I copied you instead?
ModScarlet: I would welcome pretty much anything from you.
test: …idk.
test: smthng.
test: it just feels like Im
test: watchin history repeat itself.
test: can I go on a tangent?
ModScarlet: Sure.
test: I had this friend.
test: irl I mean.
test: valued strngth n bein able to protect urself.
test: who elses gonna, yknow?
test: thought u should always hold a mindset
test: looking down rather than looking up.
test: Im not sure if Im putting this right.
test: sum it up, tho
test: we live in a world of predators and prey.
test: better to be a predator
test: than to be eaten.
ModScarlet: Is this the exceptional individual you believe you know?
test: ya
test: she had powers.
test: we were partners for awhile.
test: we fought crime!
test… ha, u dont get that joke do u?
ModScarlet: …No?
test: anyway
test: Idk where everything went wrong.
test: like, ok.
test: that sounds stupid of me.
test: I can point at things I did that were dumb.
test: bad decisions
test: stupid impulses
test: mistakes
test: but like,
test: I dont get how it was possible to do all of them?
test: and not think
test: 'hey that's a fucking stupid idea'
test: 'hey you shouldn't do that'
test: 'hey ya'
test: etc.
test: point is
test: Sophias in jail now.
test: Id be in there w/ her if it werent for Dad.
test: and the worst part is
test: I dont think Ive rly changed that much.
test: I still agree w/ most of what she said.
test: strong, weak, predators, prey
test: like, she wasnt wrong.
test: I just realized I wasnt as strong as I thought.
test: thats all.
test: oh right.
test: Kyoko.
test: she and Sophia r the same.
test: same philosophy.
test: same braincell.
test: same jail cell, if she keeps this up.
test: and I still dk if Im wrong or shes wrong or if everybodys wrong and Im just talkin shit I dont get
test: but watchin here like a voyeur
test: I feel like shes going down a bad path.
test: …ya, ur right.
ModScarlet: I am?
test: I need to speak up.
test: Im gonna send her a pm.
test: I cant hide forever.
test: thx for the encouragement.
test: but I wont need ur help.
That was all she wrote.
In the wake of Kyoko's furious outburst and subsequent radio silence, the Node had entered a period of uneasy awkwardness. First had come the begging and pleading, for a response. Mostly Pyrrha's. Then came the strained discussion, the trailing threads. Much of the conversation made their way to the private channels, hidden and scurrying from the light of public attention.
Each of them had sent a private message to Kyoko, once again at Pyrrha's prodding. The child hadn't known what to say, but gave a token effort nonetheless, with a focus on honesty and sincerity. Well, aside from capping it off with a 'Senpai' note. It had made the child feel incredibly ridiculous, but she'd sent it anyway. She figured that, maybe, the young teen took that honorific seriously. She was ninety percent sure that Kyoko had only brought it up to mess with her, but who knew?
Privately, the child couldn't help but wonder if this was all an overreaction on their part. She wasn't a member of a Syndicate, but she understood territory and keeping it nonetheless. Offices typically wanted to keep an area safe in their direct vicinity, if only to protect from raids. And mercy was… frequently unwise. Kyoko wasn't
wrong, by her view of things.
She shook the unnecessary thought off. The child had greater things to worry about.
In her hands, she held a cheap wine bottle. She'd acquired it in a back alley, not far from the location of her Office. Struck a deal with a somewhat shady vendor, for lack of better options. Its contents consisted of a black liquid, darkened to an ebony hue. A blackness so deep, it seemed almost artificial. A synthetic shade of lightlessness.
This, supposedly, was a sample of a Singularity.
For the uninformed, Singularities are technologies. But not just any. Technologies so profound, so impossible, that they can turn the City, the world on its head. Seething crucibles of genius ingenuity, passionate rebukes towards the laws of physics, silken threads of gold and polymer that bind the book of human advancement… a Singularity is to conventional understanding as a television is to a caveman, playing with sticks and rocks. Wars have been fought over such technologies. Wings of the World, risen and fallen on the backs of their unique, coveted, invention.
To put it simply: they're a big deal. Even the commonplace ones, ones that have been disseminated to the masses.
Node1127: Private Channel with ModScarlet
Yuri: Hello, Moderator.
Yuri: I have another sample to submit.
ModScarlet: You're finding "samples" quite rapidly, Yuri.
ModScarlet: I appreciate the enthusiasm, but aren't you being a tiny bit…
ModScarlet: What's the word?
ModScarlet: Heartless?
Yuri: If you're talking about Kyoko…
Yuri: I can't say I'm happy with her circumstances and actions.
Yuri: But I can't let that get in the way of the task you gave us.
Yuri: …There isn't much I can do for her, anyway.
Ugh. Now this. The child knew that wasn't true, on some level. Of all the beings in any world, she was one of the only ones with direct influence on the life of Kyoko Sakura. One of six to have a pipeline directly into her mind. Claiming powerlessness was true, most of the time, for the child. But not this time.
She was being selfish, plain and simple. She cared less about the death of a human she'd never known than her own survival. Which, it should be noted, is perfectly fine! Survival and the desire thereof is human. It would be better if she would simply be honest about it.
Regardless of my opinion on things, the child withdrew the portal Relic from her jacket, placing it on her table. Next to it, the bottle of black Singularity-liquid. Finally, a small dish. The former two were placed into the latter. And so she waited.
Unfortunately for the child…
Node1127: Private Channel with ModScarlet
Yuri: I placed the Connection into the liquid sample.
Yuri: Are you picking up anything this time?
ModScarlet: No.
ModScarlet: I am not detecting any anomalous properties.
ModScarlet: There is no significant energy flowing through the Node.
I think I've been scammed, the child thought.
Again.
The history of tattoo-based augmentation in the City is quite an interesting one. The rise of old M Corp, the patent war fought over their profitable Singularity, and its subsequent implosion and replacement by the M Corp of today. The tale could fill a history book on its own! Very little of it, however, is relevant to the child's tale. We'll have to forgo going into it, in favor of the details of the Singularity pertaining to the child's goals here.
After old M Corp's fall, their Singularity became public domain. While the secrets of certain other Singularities might have been bought up by other Wings, this was not true of M Corp's. And seeing how it is quite versatile, stylish, and above all: cheap, it spread through the Backstreets like an inky flood. Those with knowledge of the techniques behind inscribing ink with power, and the dexterity to apply it became commonplace. The exact source of said ink, however, remains something of a mystery to the common Citydweller. After all, why concern yourself with the method of function if the method functions?
The child had hoped that she could acquire a sample of the tattoo Singularity's power source. For usage in reducing the Node's power allocation. However, all searching had done was open her up to opportunists and liars. Vials of useless, glowing liquid that did nothing of note besides stain paper. This particular one was only the latest in a series of failures.
A real shame, that the child had so easily dismissed Enkephalin. The substance extracted from my children. I speculate, though I cannot be sure, that it would suit her purposes quite nicely. After the fall of L Corp, it is admittedly something of a rarity in these parts of the Backstreets. But it would be a better investment than the false leads and snake oils she was currently chasing.
Pursuing these avenues was doing a serious hit on the child's finances. Every penny she earned from Fixer work that wasn't allocated to taxes or housing, was going towards the Node. It was a bad idea, in many ways. But she was desperate to chase the brilliant, scintillating light of Remnant. She'd do anything to escape the City. Throw all caution to the wind. Spend every Ahn she owned.
Node1127: Private Channel with ModScarlet
Yuri: Apologies for wasting your time, again.
Yuri: You'd think it would be easier to obtain the ink Singularity when the tattoo augmentation is so common.
ModScarlet: Don't worry about it. Checking these things is what I'm here for.
ModScarlet: And take care of yourself.
As far as warnings went, perhaps it was one she should have followed.
But when you've spent your entire life in Hell, only able to dream of a nebulous entity called Heaven… what is one to do when the real thing deorbits, tracing a blazing streak across the sky?
The child could only chase it like a falling star.
The thought wouldn't leave her head. The growing guilt that this situation with Kyoko was all Pyrrha's fault. Cultural differences, or perhaps personal differences, had driven the Node apart and possibly might even lead to the death of an innocent. Pyrrha didn't want to retract her analysis of Kyoko as a fundamentally good person at heart—she liked to think almost everybody
was, at the end of the day! But that was looking increasingly unlikely. So she was left adrift. Unsure as to the action she should take, whether she could take action at all.
Going for a walk to clear her head had seemed like a good idea, at the time. Beacon's campus wasn't exactly crawling with Grimm, nor criminals, a dubious Blake aside (forging papers to enter Beacon was probably also some kind of felony, but any judge that would be so heartless as to seriously prosecute Jaune Arc of all people probably didn't deserve the position). And it gave her some time away from her teammates, who, while curious, hadn't thought twice about her doing so. Only, now, she found herself desiring their advice more and more. Kyoko's dilemma was too much for a single girl to ponder. Perhaps, she'd overly gotten used to using the Node as an eternally accessible communication tool.
Her wanderings brought her to a small courtyard. Its centerpiece was a statue carved from gray stone, which Pyrrha went over with a critical eye. Two unnamed Huntsmen stood atop a rocky outcropping, posing heroically. Just below them, a Beowolf roared into the distance, as if to challenge the very notion of humanity's victory.
There was no explanatory plaque, no signposting. Only context and the knowledge that Professor Ozpin had been the one to order its installation. What was he trying to communicate to the generations of students passing through this institution? That Huntsmen must always be diligent, for the forces of evil were never far away? That there must always exist Huntsmen, to combat the Grimm?
A third possibility, one uncomfortably relevant. That Huntsmen—heroes, were ultimately doomed to fail. No small victory mattered, for the Grimm were ever-present. Even a lifetime spent pushing back the tide meant nothing if the ocean's flow could not be stemmed. Ozpin seemed like the optimistic type, and so Pyrrha wanted to think this was not the case.
…Pyrrha would like to think that she wasn't
wrong. She'd posted her piece, and while she clearly had something incorrectly, she did not think she'd said anything
incorrect. Anyone who fought was to be admired. Those who did not, could not, ought to be protected. It really was as simple as that. Kyoko Sakura was the one who'd gone astray, not her.
Right?
…Why did this have to happen? Why did it have to be Kyoko, of all people, to end up in such a disagreement? Pyrrha had nothing against Undyne or Yuri, don't get her wrong. They were tentatively fine people, as far as she could tell, though her doubts on those fronts continued to grow. But the relationship between her and them, it was tempered by
need. They
needed something from her. It was not new to her, but nor was it pleasant. Every interaction, every flattery, and every innocuous request had to be tinted with that lens. It was what she had come to Beacon to escape. The fact that the Node had forced two more such people onto her, despite her best efforts, caused her no small amount of consternation.
Kyoko was the only one that
didn't want anything from her. And while she was actively rude, held extremely different viewpoints, and was frankly arguably her complete antithesis for everything except their position on the color wheel, that single quality alone made getting along so much easier. Her silence could be felt.
…She couldn't let that stop her. The notion of Kyoko slaying a fellow girl coldbloodedly brought notions of mortality to her mind. A hand on the clock in her head turned. And she needed to bring something to her Nodemate's attention.
Node1127: Private Channel with Undyne
Pyrrha: Hello again.
Undyne: Yeah, what's up?
Pyrrha: Yuri once mentioned that she would be willing to… donate a human soul from her world, to help you and your monsters break your barrier.
Pyrrha: I doubt she would be able to obtain such a soul willingly.
Pyrrha: Blood would have to be shed, if I am correct.
Pyrrha: Have you discussed this topic in private? I don't want to make any assumptions.
Undyne: A little.
Undyne: Why?
Pyrrha: It would be unfair of me to…
Pyrrha: Shield Yuri from the act of killing.
Pyrrha: I would not be surprised if it even turned out to be unnecessary.
Undyne: Uh huh. And?
Pyrrha: This request is not for her.
Pyrrha: It is for me.
Pyrrha: I don't think I could live with myself if I watched, complacently, as someone died for a good cause.
Undyne: What, so you want me to refuse?
Pyrrha: Yes.
Undyne: HELL no.
Undyne: I won't give up our shot at freedom…
Undyne: …just to assuage your guilty conscience!
Pyrrha: Please, finish hearing me out.
She'd come prepared for this refusal. And while she hadn't talked this over with her team, Pyrrha was no idiot. She'd brought arguments in advance.
Node1127: Private Channel with Undyne
Pyrrha: First off, are you truly certain that there is no other way to break the barrier?
Pyrrha: That you will require a seventh person to die?
Undyne: Look, Pyrrha.
Undyne: We've been down here for millennia.
Undyne: You think we haven't TRIED everything we possibly could to escape?
Undyne: We've got sciencey stuff up the wazoo!
Undyne: None of it's made a dent.
Undyne: It's a soul or nothing.
Undyne: Nothing else has the power.
Pyrrha: Are human souls akin to a lock unto a key?
Pyrrha: Or are they simply necessary for their power?
Undyne: I mean, I guess…
Undyne: Anything just as powerful would work.
Undyne: But good luck finding a replacement!
Pyrrha: How so?
Undyne: I don't think you understand just how POWERFUL a single human soul is.
Undyne: According to Dr. Alphys…
Undyne: The souls of every single monster in the Underground…
Undyne: Thousands of monsters, even if we were all to suddenly die almost simultaneously, somehow…
Undyne: …would equal the power of ONE human soul.
Undyne: One.
Pyrrha: …
Pyrrha: That is admittedly daunting.
Undyne: Right?
Pyrrha: But surely the Node has created new options for you?
Pyrrha: The Connection Relic is explicitly a portal, even if it is too small to be of use right now.
Pyrrha: If you just wait a little longer…
Undyne: Don't yammer at me about WAITING.
Undyne: What part of MILLENIA did you not understand?
Undyne: Yeah, maybe you're right.
Undyne: Maybe we'll figure something out with the Node.
Undyne: Maybe we'll find some far-off happy ending where no one has to die.
Undyne: But my people deserve BETTER than a MAYBE.
Undyne: It is my DUTY.
Undyne: My RESPONSIBILITY!
Undyne: To free the Underground, at ANY cost!
Undyne: If Yuri gets us that soul…
Undyne: We won't have to wait any more.
Undyne: You get me?
Sometimes, Pyrrha reflected, she'd experienced a phenomenon known as 'her words getting caught in her throat.' It wasn't a pleasant feeling. An almost tangible blockage in the base of her chest, an internal struggle to force sound to emit from her mouth, to force her vocal chords to vibrate. It was all psychological. But it made it no less difficult to turn down Headmaster Lionheart's invitation to Haven Academy, to ask Jaune directly to accompany her to the dance.
The Node was not a physical medium. The speed of thought was not slow. Even though it should, logically, be equally psychological, just as difficult to speak such heavy words, instead her thoughts flowed like water bursting from an overwrought dam, a bullet from a smoothly oiled rifle. These words, once uttered, could not be taken back. They would change the trajectories of both of their futures, forevermore.
Posting the words to seal their fates was so easy.
Node1127: Private Channel with Undyne
Pyrrha: If that is the case…
Pyrrha: It obviously won't be relevant until we figure out a way to physically move between worlds.
Pyrrha: But when that happens…
Pyrrha: I still want you to refuse Yuri.
Pyrrha: In return…
Pyrrha: Take my soul instead.
Pyrrha: If any human's soul will work, then mine should be as good as any's.
Undyne: …
Undyne: Pyrrha.
Undyne: You're a good person.
Undyne: TOO good of a person, if you ask me!
Undyne: No.
Undyne: I'll take whoever Yuri's got lined up, thank you.
Pyrrha: Don't you fancy yourself a hero?
Pyrrha: That would reek of injustice to me.
Pyrrha: Even if Yuri believed that whoever she sent your way deserved to die…
Pyrrha: The judgment of humans is flawed.
Pyrrha: Especially when they are searching for someone to kill in the first place.
Undyne: I'm a heroine for MONSTERS.
Undyne: I couldn't care less about humans!
Undyne: If you didn't know, we plan on declaring war on them anyway!
Undyne: A great war, to avenge ourselves sevenfold!
Undyne: Millennia of our lives have been stripped away by humanity.
Pyrrha: I've heard this rhetoric before.
Pyrrha: And I hate to compare the two, but it sounds like a Faunus terrorist organization from my world.
Pyrrha: The White Fang has turned increasingly violent, as of late.
Pyrrha: I think that you would end up on the wrong side of history, if I may be so blunt.
Undyne: WHO CARES?
Pyrrha: I care.
Undyne: …
Pyrrha: Taking another person's life with your own blade is not an easy task, as well.
Pyrrha: Even for you, and even for Kyoko, I assume.
Pyrrha: Please, Undyne.
Pyrrha: I am offering you my life of my own free will. To my knowledge, I am not being coerced, misled, or self-interested.
Pyrrha: I will freely give you my soul.
Pyrrha: If Yuri were to have her way, she would be denying that same freedom to someone else.
Pyrrha: Does that not shame you?
Undyne: …
Undyne: I
Undyne: I need to think about it.
Pyrrha: Thank you.
Pyrrha: You obviously do not need to decide now.
Pyrrha: I still need to get my affairs in order.
Pyrrha: This includes, hopefully, transporting Yuri from her world to mine, where murder is illegal for the most part.
Arguing for her own death. It was… certainly an experience. One would think it would be harder.
…Did this make her suicidal? Gods, she'd like to think not.
…Her timetable had moved up. Perhaps she could squeeze in a trip back to Argus, to see her family? Hopefully she could avoid giving them any hint that anything was wrong.
She needed to spend time with those she cared about while she still could.