Metaldragon's Paraversal Haul, a Snippet Thread (Ft. Worm, Youjo Senki, and more)

[Metaldragon868]

Raising Hell

Youjo Senki x Neon Genesis Evangelion

1.0

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A/n: Given how well this has been doing on SB, I've decided to try porting my snippet thread over here to SV.

Also, you can blame @Readhead and @Sunshine for giving and encouraging the idea for Tanya in Evangelion. Also a big thanks to them and their Discord servers for helping to refine this fic into something postable, along with many others, for their help with editing, storyboarding, etc.

Honestly blown away by how many people chimed in to help with getting this thing off the ground. And by how many people on SB seemed to like it.

As one final note, while this is taking place in NGE, primarily in the setting of the 1st anime, I'll be bending some things into what one might call a light AU for the purposes of creating a story I actually want to write.

With all that out of the way, here's the fic, hope you enjoy.


Tanya

As I watched the incoming helicopter approach, distaste for those aboard and what their arrival signified simmered in my gut. I was less than eager to welcome the new arrivals aboard, though I would, if pressed, admit to a degree of reluctant thankfulness that the other shoe had finally dropped. Besides, considering the magnitude of the task entrusted to me, any backup, no matter how dubious, was welcome.

Of course, the task at hand was only the most surface level of the reasons that had taken me on this Pacific voyage. I was also here as a symbol, and as a warning. While I had no illusions about those I served, and fully understood that I would likely be cast aside the moment such an action represented a greater net gain for the puppet masters pulling my strings, I also fully understood what my presence represented. By sending me, by sending a tool such as myself, they were making their displeasure with how things were running in Japan known.

Whether the new arrivals understood that message was unknown to me; I was certain that, either way, the message wasn't lost on its intended recipient.

"Are you ready to greet your new colleagues, Asuka?" I asked, breaking from my reverie and turning to my niece.

Asuka, standing beside me in a pale sundress, was doing an admirable job of not looking cold. Unfortunately for her, the windy deck of an aircraft carrier underway on the cold Pacific was a remarkably difficult venue for such a performance.

"Of course!" she smirked, her predictable response almost managing to hide her chattering teeth and her nerves.

It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out why the sheltered teenage girl had decided to wear a sundress out on the carrier's deck, with winds whipping about every which way, to meet her teenage male counterpart for the first time. I might not have been the best at deciphering interpersonal and unprofessional relations, but I wasn't blind.

I rolled my eyes and gave her my coat.

"A-Aunt Tanya!" Asuka sputtered, half-heartedly trying to reject it as her pride warred with the goosebumps rising on the skin of her bare arms.

I clicked my tongue. "I'll not see my niece suffer because you, in all your teenage wisdom, decided to try and be 'cool' when you got to meet your new friends."

"I-I wasn't-I mean-what about you?!" Panicked burbling spilled from her lips as I wrapped the jacket around her shivering form.

"I will be fine, given I had the foresight to wear layers," I replied, unphased as I 'helped' Asuka into my coat.

I can also keep up a basic warming spell easily enough. I thought to myself. It takes up some bandwidth in my head, but it's been a lifetime since I had an actual Orb to lean on. I doubt I'll ever reach the kind of lofty heights I managed with the Type 97, but I've learned to manage these minor cantrips easily enough.

"If nothing else, perhaps you can use this as a lesson for the next time you meet new people, hmm?" Years of caring for Asuka had taught me to push the advantage when she was off-balance; those were the times when her death-grip on her pride slackened just enough to pound a lesson into her head.

"...Yes, Aunt Tanya," Asuka replied, surrendering to inevitability. She sounded suitably chastened, but the way she wrapped the jacket so tightly around herself…

"It's fine if you want to impress your new friends, but there's many ways of doing so without risking your health and wellbeing. Even if it's about looking good," I explained, ignoring the way her eyes widened and pressing forwards over whatever objection she might try to raise. "Now, I can't say that I am a fashion expert myself, but I know a few people who certainly would call themselves as such.

"With their advice, and with your newly granted expense account, which trust me, young lady, is truly absurd, I'm sure we can find you a set of nice, fashionable coats or whatever to impress all the boys. No need to sacrifice beauty for warmth that way. Besides, I think I heard something about sweaters being a thing, no?"

Immediately, Asuka's face went as red as her hair. "A-Aunt Tanya, t-that's not-!"

I glared pointedly at the sundress, and then down at her bare knees, which were still visibly trembling in the cold wind, before meeting her eyes again, brow raised and entirely unimpressed.

"I-it's not like that!" Her objection was more of a wail than an argument.

"Mhm." I looked back up at the approaching helicopter and noticed the way her eyes followed the movement and lingered momentarily on the vehicle. A second later, she realized she'd been spotted and blushed, purposefully turning her back on the chopper.

"I promise!"

"I see. So…you would not like to go shopping?" I sighed, heavily and, perhaps, just a touch theatrically. "A shame. I had heard that the malls in Tokyo 3 were truly spectacular."

"Wha-hold on! I never said that!" Asuka barked back, eyes widening as she realized the trap she had so carelessly waltzed into.

"I must say," I mused aloud with an utterly innocent expression, "I am getting some very mixed messages."

"Aunt Tanya~" Her whine was pitiful, a masterpiece of adolescent emotional blackmail.

The effect was undermined by the ghost of a smile on her lips. I considered that a sign that my mission was accomplished.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for the helicopter to land on the deck, so Asuka was not forced to endure too much more sea air as we waited. As my niece and I looked on, several figures disembarked from the craft with the help of the Enterprise's sailors. I wasn't sure why NERV couldn't just wait for us to arrive in person, but they certainly hadn't wasted time getting to us. Presumably, much like my own attachment to this mission to Japan, someone was sending a message.

I recognized Major Katsuragi from the briefing on NERV leadership I had received before leaving Germany. As the third in command of the First Branch of NERV, she was almost at the top of the list of persons of interest. According to the bio provided in the briefing materials, Major Katsuragi was an accomplished leader whose military career during the Impact Wars had led to her appointment as NERV's Tactical Director. There was also a rumor that she'd also gained an in through previous family connections, given her late father's role in the parent organization, but there was no way to confirm that. She had led NERV's command staff during the recent crises and had apparently played an instrumental role during several of NERVs victories.

That being said, the quality of those victories left something to be desired, in two cases coming down to little more than Unit 01 going on a rampage and hoping for the best. Furthermore, NERV's reluctance to cooperate with outside organizations was all but legendary, and despite the major's past allegiance to the JSDF, the degree of cooperation I could expect from her was unknown, as was the depth of her personal loyalty to her new employer.

The presence of the so-called Third Child, Ikari Shinji, was also expected. Unless I was very much mistaken, his presence was the reason for Asuka's uncharacteristic decision to play dress-up on the job, even if she denied the charge at length. Indeed, the strength of her denials only strengthened my suspicion. The boy himself was something of an abnormality; technically the most accomplished Evangelion pilot, my briefing materials had been far from flattering in their description. Reading between the lines, my superiors had been quite displeased in their assessments of the only pilot to score a solo Angel kill, and from what I'd found I couldn't help but agree with their dismay.

Seeing the boy in person, however, put my mind at ease, if only barely. At first glance Mister Ikari seemed little more than a typical Japanese teenage boy. Likely an introverted one, given how quiet and shy he seemed despite the impressive scenery, but he didn't look like he was going to shatter if I poked him too hard. Mentally, at least. Physically, however?

A second glance revealed that the boy was a twig, lost and forgotten in the woods. Stick thin with barely any visible meat on his bones to speak of, let alone confidence in his posture. On the one hand, ideally a child shouldn't be forced to endure the rigorous training needed to turn them into a human weapon. Ideally we wouldn't be forced to use children to fight inhuman giants from beyond the stars at all.

If NERV has the gall to throw child soldiers at the Angels, the least they could do is make sure that their lambs are fully prepared and well cared for before the sacrifice. I resisted the urge to scowl. Are they even bothering to feed him? Socialize him? Look after his mental healthcare?

But I'm sure they like it like that, don't they? I ground my teeth. A weak, shy, pliable child? Too small to fight back, too young to know how? He looks like they just lock him up in a room and pull him out whenever they need him to fight titanic abominations.

Even worse, I could easily envision my own niece in a similar state, had her welfare been left in NERV's hands as the Ikari boy's apparently had been. Neglected at best, abused at worst… And all of that ill treatment inflicted on a literal one-in-a-million child, one of the few who could pilot the god machines upon whose shoulders the survival of humanity rested.

The incompetence of it all rankled. The dereliction of duty on all levels, parental, social, and professional, was unacceptable.

Heads would roll.

"Colonel Zeppelin," Katsuragi saluted, eyes flicking between myself and my niece.

"Major Katsuragi, it's a pleasure to meet you," I replied, cordially returning the salute.

After all, I might have my doubts about NERV, but it would cost me nothing to be polite.

"Same to you, though I have to admit it is something of a surprise to see a bird colonel out so far at sea," Katsuragi replied, salute falling and a cocksure smirk taking its place.

The act spoke volumes about her, presenting the major as a confident, perhaps even arrogant, officer. One who was so confident in her abilities and accomplishments that she felt the rules were a suggestion at most. As far as first impressions went, I was unimpressed, but I would wait a while longer before making a judgment.

"Happy to see you held on to Unit 02 and the Second Child for us." she continued "I'll be happy to take them off your hands now."

…Ah, I thought, hiding a grimace behind a professionally bland smile. So she doesn't know.

Well, that will undoubtedly be a pleasant conversation.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Asuka giving me a puzzled look, the spark of worry clearly visible in her eyes thanks to my familiarity with the girl's masks. I considered having it out right here, but there was no reason to go spewing sensitive information out in the open for all of the fleet to hear. I knew exactly how gossip-happy sailors and soldiers could be, after all. Instead, I reached out to give Asuka's hand a gentle squeeze to silently affirm my presence and support and turned my attention to the boy by Major Katsuragi's side.

"And Pilot Ikari, a pleasure to meet you as well," I said, extending a hand to the boy on reflex in turn.

For a moment, he looked uncertainly at my offered hand, shooting a quick glance up at his smiling guardian before carefully reaching out to take it. His hand was thin, but strong, with a cellist's calluses. He used none of that strength in his handshake, his hand almost limp in mine, the gesture unfocused and utterly lacking in anything approaching confidence. Given how his body language all but screamed his shyness and reluctance to interact to all the world, I couldn't say I was surprised.

"T-thank you, Colonel?" Somehow, Shinji managed to turn the formulaic reply into a question.

"From the sounds of it, it is I who should be thanking you, Pilot Ikari," I replied pointedly, ignoring the way he almost recoiled at my thanks, not letting him escape from the conversation that easily. "If not for your successes in piloting Unit 01, we might not be standing here right now."

Moving just slow enough to not spook the thin boy, I patted him firmly on the shoulder. With my hand on his shoulder, I could feel him quivering slightly, desperate to flee. "If nothing else, take pride in that. When monsters pounded on the gates of mankind, you did more than hold the line: You pushed them back."

If anything, the tension in his shoulder only increased. The boy seemed almost unnerved by my words, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.

Perhaps it's still a confidence issue? Or he doesn't like the implications of a colonel telling him he's got a bright career…good work being rewarded with more work and all. I suppose I can't blame him for that.

Or… Another corner of my mind supplied, remembering other children elsewhere, perhaps someone taught him to fear… fear what? Fear recognition? Fear physical contact? No shortage of things to fear in the shadow of the Impact Wars, I suppose.

Internally, I sighed. Building up the young Ikari's confidence to a point where he wouldn't collapse under a stiff breeze would clearly be hard work. It was also not my job, but I always found it tiring how difficult it was to get irrational people to take a compliment. Ironing out that particular personality quirk from the Third Child would be as much a stress reliever for me as a benefit to him.

Baby steps, Tanya. Baby steps.

"In addition, my niece, Pilot Asuka von Zeppelin, has been looking forward to meeting you," I said, releasing Shinji's shoulder to grasp the teenager by my side and pushing her forward.

"W-wha-Wait! No-I didn't say that, Aunt Tanya!" Asuka sputtered.

I rolled my eyes and gave Shinji a knowing look, which clearly only baffled him. "Asuka's a wonderful girl, but she could use more friends."

"I-I don't want to be friends with s-stupid Shinji!" Asuka pouted.

Which was a blatant lie.

I could have called her out for being rude, but my experience raising the girl had taught me that there was a far more productive tactic than outright confrontation when it came to wrangling the prickly redhead. Asuka, after all, excelled at the headlong charge, but had never quite gotten a firm hold on the ambush…

"Did you hear that, Pilot Ikari? She's already given you a nickname." I gave the boy an encouraging pat on the back. "You'll be friends in no time."

Asuka's blush truly was a sight to behold.

Just as planned.

Less planned for were the two other boys stepping out of the helicopter after the duo.

"...And who are these two?" I asked, giving them a cursory glance. I didn't recognize either from my pre-voyage briefing, and nothing about them stood out to me, either visually or magically. Shinji and Asuka, on the other hand, all but glowed with the latent radiance of being an Evangelion pilot in my mage's eye. "Are they prospective Evangelion pilots, or…?"

"Oh, they're Shinji's classmates!" Major Katsuragi all but chirped as she swung around and wrapped her arms around their necks.

The boys, being teenagers in close proximity to a woman of considerable physical fitness and aesthetic quality, reacted predictably.

Shinji tried, and failed, to look away with a blush on his face.

Asuka scowled.

I… was very confused.

"...Do you mean, as in his understudies in the Eva program?"

"Oh, nah, they're just his friends from school."

"...So you dragged a couple of random teenage civilians onto a high-priority and possibly very dangerous military mission because…?"

"They asked!"

…Is this how you plan on making me turn to religion, Being X? I thought. Rampant incompetence?

"...Let's just take this inside."

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Within the confines of the ship, the seven of us found cramped but adequate seating in a free briefing room. Asuka and I took one side of the table while Misato and Shinji sat opposite us. Captain Johnston, the commander of the ship and fleet, sat at the head, facing Lieutenant Colonels Dufrane and Macmillian.

Shinji's friends had wanted to join us, but the Captain and I had vetoed that idea immediately. I could already tell that the man was displeased with the imposition NERV was making on his fleet and sensed that any further irritations would only lead to intransigence. It would be only too easy for him to stick to the bare letter of his orders, refusing to go beyond the bare minimum, if pushed much further. Pilot Ikari seemed to take that presence of ill-temper about as well as a damp sheet in a stiff breeze and looked very nearly ready to collapse in on himself on the spot.

"So, what's this all about, Colonel?" Misato started, lounging in her chair. "You wanted to keep this hush hush enough to keep the boys out, so…?"

"About the transfer" I said, and instantly I felt my niece tense up beside me. "Unit 02 will be placed into NERV HQ's custody when we arrive. Asuka von Zeppelin, however, will not."

At that, Misato's relaxed air disappeared, taking her languorous smile with it as her brow furrowed in consternation. "Will not? Wha-...Are you saying you won't be handing the Second Child over to us?"

"The Second Child is my niece, and my ward," I said firmly, a measure of heat slipping into my voice, "and I do not intend on relinquishing her custody any time soon, especially to a secretive research organization cum quasi-military group."

"What good is Unit 02 without its pilot?"

"Asuka may still pilot Unit 02," I replied, nodding towards Asuka. "But only with my supervision and authorization as her legal guardian."

Misato frowned. "So… will you just be hanging around town, acting as her chaperone, or will you be signing on with NERV? Lord knows we could always use more people to fight the Angels."

"Neither, I'm afraid." I tipped my head. "My presence represents something like killing two birds with one stone, at least for my superiors."

"Your superiors? What, the Bundeswehr?" Misato looked puzzled. "What do they have anything to do with this?"

"Other than Asuka being a German citizen and Unit 02 being built on German soil?" I prodded. "A limited amount, admittedly. However, NERV answers to the UN, of which Germany is a member state."

"Of which Germany is one of many member states," Misato pointed out. "Just because an Eva was built in your backyard doesn't give you special treatment. The German government gets just as much of a voice as anyone else."

"True," I admitted. "However, unlike NERV, the German government understands the importance of cultivating friendships."

I pointedly nodded towards Captain Johnston and the pair of lieutenant colonels.

It took Misato a moment to put the pieces together, but once she recognized the different uniforms, I could see them snap into place.

"The Western Bloc?" She hissed, incredulous. "You're all coming together to throw a hissy fit over the Evas when the Angels are trying to kill us all?!"

I sent Lt. Colonel Macmillian a look, one he reciprocated with an eager grin. "Well, we'd rather do it while we're still alive than after you've bungled it and we're all dead."

Misato scowled. "I think our track record speaks for itself. Three dead Angels, which is a damn sight more than anyone else in the world could hope to manage!"

"Indeed, three dead Angels," I agreed. "Of which, only one was killed in accordance with a NERV plan. The first of the three was killed by Unit 01 in a berserker rampage after Pilot Ikari took debilitating damage. Perhaps more notably, in the second battle, Pilot Ikari barely managed to kill the Angel with a desperate last ditch attack using his backup weapon, and only after you yourself ordered him to retreat after every other NERV defense measure failed."

"And even the one time NERV's plan actually worked, said plan was critically hinged upon resources taken from other organizations. Organizations such as the JSDF." I leveled the Major a stern look. "The UN is not funding NERV so that it can steal the fruits of others labor and gild themselves in glory for it."

That earned me a fiery glare from Misato, but I'd seen worse. I ignored her for a moment and instead turned to Pilot Ikari, who'd all but shrunken in on himself in his clear desire to not get involved with the heated conversation.

"Shinji," I began softly, "do you feel that you are properly prepared for your missions?"

"What?" He jerked, glancing around with wild eyes. "I-I mean, I guess? I don't know… it… works?"

"Does it?" I questioned. "Because, based on the reports, it sounds as though you have been thrown into situations you barely understood, with minimal training at best, and only managed to survive thanks to little more than blind luck and Unit 01's nature as an Evangelion."

I turned my glare back on the major. "Which is, I must stress, an extreme concern for the United Nations. Sachiel shrugged off nearly every form of conventional firepower with its AT field, and once Unit 01 went berserk it not only tore through that field as if it wasn't even there, it shrugged off a blast that rivals some of our most potent N2 bombs."

"Should Unit 01 go berserk again and decide to turn its wrath on mankind this time instead of the Angels, what, exactly, could we do to stop it?"

"I-it wouldn't do that," Shinji spoke up, a terrified look in his eye. "It w-wouldn't do that, r-right, Ms. Misato?"

"Of course it wouldn't," said Misato, attempting to placate him. "NERV has done everything in its power to ensure the Evangelions are safe."

I knew perfectly well she was lying. Far more than most.

Your damn experiments ate my sister, I fumed, doing all I could to reign in my temper, and they almost stole my niece too. Who are you to call it safe?

"We have no guarantees of that." I countered, maintaining my calm demeanor through decades of practice. "NERV has been frighteningly tight-lipped about what, exactly, an Evangelion is. What we do know is that they are organic entities with cybernetic control mechanisms integrated into their flesh, and capable of generating powerful AT fields. Man-made Angels, effectively, and whatever those control mechanisms are, Unit 01 clearly proves that they are not enough.

"The fact is that Unit 01 made its debut by defeating an otherwise unstoppable monster by going completely rogue. If it should do so again, and not deign to turn itself off when the Angel is defeated, what will NERVs response be?"

Misato bit her lip, clearly on the defensive. "...At the moment, to start, we'd have Unit 00 attempt to restrain it."

"...Unit 01 under Pilot control was barely able to handle any of the Angels in direct combat, and Unit 00 is the experimental prototype before it. When Unit 01 went berserk, it displayed combat proficiency far in excess of either, and tore apart an Angel in moments," I said slowly, trying to meet her gaze to see if she truly understood what she was saying. "What makes you think Unit 00 would last any longer?"

Misato opened her mouth, but hesitated, words failing her.

Suddenly, there was a retching sound in the corner.

I quickly turned to see Shinji bent over, hands clamped over his mouth, looking absolutely disgusted and horrified, like-

Well… like someone had just vividly painted the picture of him being forced to rip his own colleague apart limb from limb, I chastised myself. Splendidly done, Tanya. The boy could already barely stand to look at you, and you've decided to stab him directly in his trauma.

I sighed, going through a set of high-end computational arrays to re-center my mind as I let out a deep breath.

"Apologies, Pilot Ikari," I said to the boy, who still looked deeply unnerved, though to his credit he seemed to have gulped his bile back somewhat. "I did not mean to unsettle you. I merely wanted to point out several of the problems that the Western Bloc takes issue with, especially if we are to send our own children into this program."

"You don't trust us." Misato scowled, eyes darting between myself and Shinji.

"Not entirely," I admitted. "You have proven that NERV is capable of dealing with the Angels, yes, but the methods leave something to be desired. Hence, I shall be arriving as part of an oversight team."

"An oversight team?" Misato growled. "Just how many of you are there?"

"For the moment? Just myself and my staff, which will include Lt Colonel Macmillian, representing the United Kingdom, and Lt Colonel Dufrane, a representative of the Republic of France," I explained. "Unit 03's pilot will be Russian, and Unit 04's American, to help maintain a balance in power between the Eastern and Western blocs. As those units are brought online, their respective host nations will be bringing their own observers in."

"We haven't even found the Children who will pilot those Evas yet!" the Operations Director exclaimed.

"Then according to the new UN proclamation, you will begin your search in those countries," I replied.

"That's not how any of this works." Misato groaned.

"As NERV hasn't seen fit to enlighten the UN on how the selection process does work, we will have to do the best with what we have to maintain the tenuous balance of power," I said, unmoved by her protestation. "The last thing any of us wants is to re-ignite the Impact Wars, and NERV has just proven that the Evangelions have the potential to be the most revolutionary weapon put on the battlefield since the Atom Bomb."

Misato sighed, an exhausted look washing over her face. She sent an apologetic look Shinji's way, the pilot still looking decidedly green about the gills.

"...We don't really have a choice in this, do we?"

"The decision has already been made by the UN Security Council."

"Isn't NERV supposed to be administered by the Human Instrumentality Committee?"

"It's-"

"Politics, right, right." She cut me off the moment she realized the answer to her own question.

"Just so," I nodded.

I glanced towards Asuka, who in turn was fixated on Shinji with a worried look.

"I think that's enough debate for one day, don't you?" I proposed. "I don't know about yourself, but I believe I could do with some lunch."

Misato snorted, "Good enough for me."

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Asuka

As I examined the meal options layed out buffet-style in the carrier's wardroom, I couldn't help but shoot Aunt Tanya a nervous glance.

I loved her, I trusted her, and I knew she'd always be there for me, something she'd made abundantly clear over the years, but there were times when she could be downright scary.

This was one of those times. Fortunately, I wasn't on the receiving end of things and hadn't been since the Frog Incident. Still…

"Aunt Tanya did… did you really mean all that?" I prodded in German, hoping to give us some semblance of privacy as I idly picked up a slice of institutional pizza from the buffet.

"Mean what?" She asked, her tone absentminded and expression empty as her gaze locked on the dessert table across the way, but I could still feel a shard of her attention focused intently on me.

"I just…" I bit down a shiver. I was not a child anymore, and if Shinji had faced those things… "Is NERV really that bad?"

"NERV stole your mother from us, Asuka," Aunt Tanya reminded me, and I could barely hide the wince at the blunt reminder.

"Yeah, but… they aren't all bad. Mom was a part of them, right?" I pressed. "And Camila's support crew… they're pretty cool, right?"

Aunt Tanya let out a weary sigh, her eyes turning away from the array of desserts and towards me. Her blue eyes, identical to mine, were hard and guarded, but still just as emotive as they always were when the topic of Mom came up. "She was, and… they aren't. I might disagree with some of their methods and command decisions, but the people…No, no you are correct, Camila's support crew is indeed… 'cool'."

Her lip twitched.

I felt an impending sense of doom.

"One might even say they are the Cat's Pajamas," She said, speaking in perfect English as a sickeningly sweet smile pulled at her lips, all while an evil twinkle shone in her eye.

I cringed in almost physical pain at the outright ancient expression.

God, Aunt Tanya can be so old sometimes. It's like she came out of the 1920s.

Then I heard stuttered laughter behind me.

Turning, I saw the Shinji standing there, tray in hand, with his two friends who were trying, and failing, to hide their laughter.

"The Cat's Pajamas?" one muttered.

The other snickered.

I felt my soul die.

So uncool.

"Come on, Asuka," Aunt Tanya gently tugged at my shoulder. "You're going to catch flies if you keep looking like that."

I shot her a dark look, which only seemed to amuse her, but followed along nonetheless.

"Mean," I pouted.

"What kind of aunt would I be if I wasn't?" she teased lightly.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a slice of chocolate cake.

Aunt Tanya grabbed a matching one and shot me a more sober look. "You do, however, have a point about NERV. And, if we are to be working with them, may as well mend bridges."

"So…?" I asked, leadingly.

"Why don't we join your new friends for a simple chat?" She gestured towards where Shinji and his friends had sat.

I froze.

"Unless, of course, you'd rather if your 'uncool' aunt didn't join you," she added.

I sent her a tortured look.

She had the audacity to look both smug and innocent.

"Betrayed by my own aunt…"

"I've betrayed nothing. It's entirely up to you, I'll support you either way." Then she looked me in the eye, and with a straight face, raised a fist and said. "Ganbatte."

I did my best to set her on fire through force of will alone. Failing that, myself.

"Fine!" I did not pout. "I'll show stupid Shinji and his stupid friends!

I snatched up a bottle of water and stomped off to meet my fellow pilot. I arrived at the table to a company of stares, which I pointedly ignored in favor of slamming my tray onto the table top and forcing myself into my seat. When the stares continued, I glared back.

"What?" I growled in Japanese.

I looked each and every one of them in the eye, daring them to say something.

None of them did.

Good. I nodded internally, mildly appeased.

I turned my frustrations on my food, letting it wipe away my annoyance. Given our guests, the cooks had brought out the more palatable meals, hence pizza being on the menu today. Napoli's best it definitely wasn't, but it was pizza, and it was decent, and right now that was good enough for me. Washing it down with a long pull of water, I finally resurfaced back into the rest of the world, ready to attempt to socialize with my peers.

Something I'd never done before.

Don't panic Asuka! You've got this! I told myself as the spike of fear took hold. You're a super awesome Evangelion pilot trained by the coolest German soldier who ever lived! You're not going to let three teenagers stop you!

"Hi!" I forced a smile.

Smiles were how you were supposed to greet people, right?

Though given the looks on the three boy's faces, I got the impression I'd done something wrong. They were all just staring at me, wide eyed and jaws slack like my face was on inside out.

Did I already mess it up? I'm doing something wrong, aren't I? I thought. Then I pushed it down. No, no, confidence, Asuka! You can't give up now! And remember what Aunt Tanya says! Even failure is a lesson if you keep your head on straight!

…Although maybe I should tone down the cheer?

"I am Asuka von Zeppelin, the Second Child, and pilot of Unit 02, Camila." I greeted my fellow pilot. "It's good to finally meet you."

"Uh… it's good to meet you too?" Shinji eventually blinked. "And… Camila?"

"My Evangelion." I shrugged, already feeling more comfortable now that we were sliding onto a topic close to my heart. "Officially, NERV refers to her as Unit 02, but that's so… impersonal, you know? And something like her… she deserves a proper name, I think."

"Why do you keep calling it her?" One of the boys asked."I mean, it's just a machine, right?"

I scoffed, a smirk splitting my lips. "Just a machine? Hardly! An Evangelion is-!"

I stopped, remembering my audience. Namely, the fact that two of them almost certainly weren't cleared to hear the technical details let alone the… arcane details.

"Er, well, mostly classified," I admitted lamely. "But it is an 80m tall biosynthetic superweapon designed to defeat alien superweapons beyond human comprehension. If nothing else, that alone is deserving of enough respect to call it more than merely a machine."

My smirk returned as I met Shinji's gaze. "As I'm sure my fellow pilot can agree, when you're in an Evangelion, it's a feeling unlike anything in the world. It's something… more."

"Makes sense to me," The boy in glasses shrugged. "I mean, treating war machines as something more isn't exactly new. We've been calling ships ladies and giving them names for ages. Why not a giant robot?"

I nodded fervently in agreement. Perhaps this "socializing" thing wouldn't be too bad? Shinji, though, didn't look quite comfortable with the subject.

Probably because he just got done hearing about how his psycho Eva might go berserk and kill everyone, idiot, I chastised myself. Does he even like his Eva?

…I mean, he'd have to, right? If he can still get a decent enough synch rate to pilot it, right?

Right?

It was at that moment that I was once again reminded of how frighteningly little I truly knew about the massive weapon I piloted.

"What about Unit 01, Shinji?" I attempted a kind of peace offering, hoping that he did actually at least kind of like his Eva. "What's your name for them?"

"I… uh… they don't have a name," he admitted. "It's always just been Unit 01."

Nice going Asuka.

"W-well, we could think up a name!" I tried. "I mean, you've already taken down three Angels with Unit 01, if nothing else, that deserves a name, don't you think?"

"I guess." Shinji replied with all the vibrant energy of tap water.

For a moment, I felt the conversation die a slow, cold, death.

Think, Asuka. Even if he doesn't like his Eva for some reason, there has to be something you can talk about with him. I scrambled for anything I could talk about with my fellow pilot. I felt like my attempt to finally have some friends, someone who really understood, was slipping through my fingers, and I didn't know why. Maybe… maybe if he doesn't like that, I can focus on that? Aunt Tanya and her friends always like complaining about stuff together…

"So how's your Eva training been?" I attempted from another angle. "Have your 'tests' been as dumb as mine?"

"Eh?" He gave me a weird look, caught off guard by my words.

"You know, the training for the Evangelion," I explained. "I don't know about you, but NERV has some pretty dumb ideas for training, and their experiments?" I gagged theatrically. "If they aren't mind numbingly boring, they're either a pain or just plain gross! And that's not even getting into how useful they are, which is to say, not!"

"Oh…" Shinji relaxed a bit. "Er… well they've been training me on the Pallet Rifle a bunch."

"The Pallet Rifle?!" I exclaimed. "What the hell are they having you use the Pallet Rifle for?"

"What's wrong with the Pallet Rifle?" The boy with glasses said defensively. "It's got as much firepower as an entire tank formation!"

Oh, Glasses, I had so much hope for you.

"And how many tanks did the JSDF go through trying to take down Sachiel before they gave up?" I pointed out with an arched brow. "With an Angel's AT field, you're never going to be able to scratch them with anything as piddly as that. Besides, if all it took to kill an Angel was a Pallet Rifle, we could just put some on giant tanks and use those to fight them, no black hole budget for giant robots required."

"Yeah…" A hesitant smile slowly crawled onto Shinji's face. "I don't know why they always want me to use it, it never does anything."

"That's right." the other boy frowned, "You used the Progressive Knife on that one Angel, didn't you?"

"The knife? Ugh." I scowled, then shot Shinji an apologetic look. "I mean, it's pretty impressive that you managed to down an Angel with your knife. That's totally some cool as hell stuff, Ikari. It's just, well… you're running around in a who-knows-how-expensive-war-machine and the best weapon they gave you was the knife?"

"I don't think Ms. Misato expected me to need it, to be honest," Shinji admitted. "The training never went over it before."

"Never went over it? The hell are those clowns doing?!" I fumed. "First they can't even give you a decent weapon, then they can't even be bothered to train you on the one that actually works?"

"W-well, what kind of stuff have you been training on, Ms. Zeppelin?" Shinji asked.

"The Sonic Glaive," I preened. "It's based on the same vibro-blade principles of the Progressive Knife, but mounted on a polearm, making it far superior as a melee weapon."

"I've even been practicing the historical European martial arts to make the best use of it! Working with expert trainers, spending hundreds of hours in and out of the Eva exercising, making sure I know how to use the Sonic Glaive like an extension of my own body," I rattled off, fond memories filling me with warm pride. "I even won a few trophies from some of the junior tournaments in Germany, if you want to see!"

The reactions around the table were irritatingly tepid. The boy in the jacket seemed mildly interested, Shinji looked away, and the boy with glasses looked openly dismissive, the ass.

Of course they don't care.

"Sonic Glaive, huh? That sounds nice, but where's the firepower?" Glasses argued. "Angels can shoot particle beams of their own, right? What, are you just going to try and weave around all their lasers to stab them in the face? "

I tried not to bristle at the argument. Given how little he knew, he had something of a point. That doesn't mean he had to be so rude about it.

"I thought you were all over that Progressive Knife Shinji had?" the boy in the jacket remarked, with the flat tone and dull air of someone making the minimum contribution required to a conversation he didn't care about.

"That's cool, too," Glasses shrugged, "But that was before I saw Shinji nearly get disemboweled trying to use it. Not to mention Ramiel."

Shinji grimaced at that.

I, meanwhile, struggled to bite back a harsh retort and a bitter scowl. Nothing said I had to respond, I could just say "it's classified" and move on. It'd even be true, to an extent.

But I can't just let that go, I thought, wracking my mind to try and think over what I could and couldn't say given the company.

"Hmm…" I rolled some thoughts around. "Really, the Glaive's more of a defensive weapon for me. Most of what I'll be doing with Camila will be using advanced AT Field Manipulation."

"AT Field Manipulation?" Shinji asked as if he'd never heard of it.

"Yeah, you know," I rolled my wrist at him like it was obvious, "the whole reason we're using Evangelions in the first place? An Angel's AT field makes them basically invincible to all but the strongest weapons, and close range attacks that can push past it. Evangelions were designed to create their own AT field. That way they could not only fight on level ground to an Angel but also use their own to counter the Angel's, thus making them vulnerable."

"I… think I remember Ms.-er… Dr. Ritsuko mentioning that," Shinji stumbled hesitantly, as if he was trying to remember something he'd only heard once in passing. "She said something about me using my AT field to… disrupt the Angel's, then following it up with volley fire from the Pallet Rifle?"

I twisted my mouth around unpleasantly. "Hrm… I mean… that could work, but projecting an AT field is usually some more advanced AT field manipulation stuff. I recently nailed down the basics of technique myself. Are you even trained for that yet?"

"I, uh…" he glanced away, suddenly very interested in the remains of his lunch. "I haven't had any AT field training yet."

"You what?" I said, voice dead.

I take back anything nice I ever said about NERV.

Any further argument was cut down when an alarm ripped through the room. Red lights flashed and an announcement blared on all the speakers.

"-General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. An Angel has been spotted. Repeat-"

Everywhere around me, the wardroom was suddenly filled with organized chaos. I felt a frenzied grip of panic snatch at my heart for a moment, my breath tight and vision narrowing as fear flooded my veins. That was normal, Aunt Tanya had told me. I'd heard it from her and all her friends from the military, that even the bravest souls felt fear.

So what was this other feeling thundering in my chest alongside it?

"Asuka."

I jerked up to see Aunt Tanya standing over me, her hand on my shoulder. "Are you ready?"

To my surprise, the answer was already on my smiling lips. "I was born ready."

She sighed and shook her head, but Aunt Tanya didn't even try to hide the matching smile of her own.

"Good girl."

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A/n: Alright, and that's the 1st chapter.

The Overarching plans are to basically deviate from NGE canon, as I have no love for NGE's endgame. If you liked the heart of canon NGE, more power to you, @Readhead is certainly a fan and he's the primary reason I had this entire plot bunny in the first place. I, however, want more giant robot fights, teamwork, and wholesome vibes.

NGE may certainly be lacking in the latter, but I'm forcing it to have them anyways, because this is fanfiction and I can do whatever the hell I want.

And fuck you, people deserve to be happy.

As for the giant robot fights, well...rewatching the series has shown me that NGE didn't actually put as much emphasis in the giant robot fights as I'd thought, so expect me to take a page out a favorite of mine, the VS The World-type quests. If any of you've read those, you might be able to expect some of the kind of shenanigans I have planned in the future.

Hence the AU-light description. NGE canon is both vague and unforgiving on a lot of stuff, like the new world order and SEELE, so I'm basically reshaping it as necessary to make it more dynamic, less "all powerful shadow illuminati" + "everything must end in depressing", and something I'm more interested in writing, but all while trying to keep it reasonably within the bounds of at least the general setting of NGE canon.

As for the Snippet thread stuff in general, I have a large backlog of snippets on SB that I plan on porting them over in pretty fast regular intervals. Probably a snippet every other day or something.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Trilateral Symmetry
(Worm/Destiny)

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"Eyes up, Guardian."

I gasp.

Fresh air fills my lungs

My mind races, whirling through possibilities as I struggle to fill all the blanks in my cognition.

"Wha-?" I mutter, uncomprehending.

I look down and stare at my hands in shock. They're covered in some kind of gloves, an odd material that continues down to my wrists. Looking over myself, I see I'm wearing some kind of strange, lightly armored, black bodysuit. I can't remember what it's made of, or how I got it, or even why I'm wearing it.

"Guardian?" Another voice pulls me from my thoughts, and I jerks my head up.

I see another girl, one with dark brown skin, wearing another strange set of light armor. It's black like my own, but the style of it is completely different. It also includes a cape, unlike my own.

She's also staring at a strange floating light. It's hard to tell what's generating it, as we're all sitting in darkness, possibly some kind of cave given the uneven ground I can feel beneath me.

"Guardian? You called me a guardian, didn't you?" The girl continues, talking to the light. "What the hell is that!?"

Then, to my surprise, the light responds. "It's what you are now." the light pauses, and I can see its form twist in midair, "Well…technically you're just a freshly Risen at the moment, but… I'm sure you'll be an amazing Guardian in no time!" it cheers.

"Guardian?" Another voice says over my shoulder.

I start, whirling around to stare at another strange light. Up close, I can see that it's actually some kind of… leviting drone, or something. An odd angular thing made up of a bunch of black and green diamond-like shapes attached to a central orb. At the center of the orb is a glowing light, what I can only presume is its eye.

"Uh… H-hello?" I greet, unsure of what to do.

"Hello Guardian." The drone greets its voice more of a smooth baritone, as opposed to the chipper enthusiasm of the other one.

"Uh…" for a moment, I don't know what to say. "H-hi?"

"Hey!" the other girl shouts, and I can't help but jerk in place.

I turn around with a grimace on my face, only to see the dark skinned girl staring intently my way.

"Who are you?!" she shouts.

I open my mouth to respond on instinct, only for my mind to come up blank.

"I…" a pit opens up in my gut as I realize I don't even have that. "I… I can't remember."

I feel a lump climb in my throat as I realize just how little I have.

"I can't remember anything."

"...oh." the girl says in a suddenly small voice. She looks to the side, the wind stolen from her sails, and only something hollow left in its wake. "Well…I-I… me neither." She admits.

Suddenly, there's another flash of light from the other side of the cave. We both snap our attention to the source, only to see, to our shock, another girl emerging from some kind of strange, almost pixelated, light emitted by a third drone.

She's wearing some kind of white and gold dress, with long blonde hair and pale skin. For a moment, she just rests with her eyes closed as the light races up and down her skin. Then, the third drone says, in an almost matronly voice, "Eyes up Guardian."

Then her eyes flash open, revealing a brilliant kaleidoscope of power for a brief instant, before fading into a more mundane, yet no less vibrant blue. She gasps, her expression wide with shock and confusion.

"Wha-?" She mutters, staring at her hands in an eerie mirror of myself.

"Holy shit, there's three of us." The dark skinned girl mutters.

I glance at all three of our glowing drones. "...looks like." I can't help but agree.

The new girl startles at our words and sends a shocked look our way.

"Who are you?!" She yells, then stops and blinks, "I… wait… I… who am I? I-"

"You can't remember anything?" the dark skinned girl cut in.

The new girl starts to say something, frowns, and slowly shuts her mouth with a tight nod.

"...I don't think any of us can." I comment.

"That's normal!" I jerk again at the sudden comment by the cheerful drone.

Looking more closely, I can see that it has a black and white shell of a similar, yet slightly different pattern to the one near me.

"No Risen wakes up with any memories of their first life." The third one explains, this one with a white and gold shell that is once again slightly different from the other two. "It's just a fundamental part of being reborn in Light."

There were a lot of questions that the answer produced, but first on my mind was, "Reborn?"

Instantly, I could feel all eyes in the cave fall on me, and I felt the pressure weigh on my shoulders. Even still, the pressing question wouldn't leave me.

My throat felt tight as I spoke. "Y-you said our f-first life, and you called us Risen and… and reborn? Does…" I almost couldn't say the words. "...does that mean we were…risen from the dead?"

For a dreadful moment, the cave is choked with a terrible silence.

"Yes." the drone above me says.

In that moment of confirmation, something passes through me. I feel a distant pain in my chest, and I know, with bone deep certainty, that it's related to my death.

"All Risen are dead souls reborn in Light by their Ghost." The drone continues before it stops and swivels to look at all of us. "All of you were dead for quite some time when we found you."

"Bu-but I feel fine!" the new girl argues, but I can see the panic in her eyes.

The dark skinned girl immediately pats a section over her chest, like a phantom pain passed through her too.

"That's because we put you back together." The gold drone explains. "It just wouldn't do to resurrect our new Guardians, only for them to die on the spot from all the holes we left in them."

"Not that that would be a problem if you did!" the white and black one chirps. "Now that we're together, you won't have to worry about anything pesky like death ever again!"

"That is…something of a dangerous oversimplification." the green drone hedges. "...but not entirely inaccurate."

"Why the hell should we trust you anyways?" the dark skinned girl points out. "We could just ditch you guys and go our own way."

"But we're your ghosts!" the checkered one protests.

"Ghosts?" the blonde girl questions.

"It's what we're called." the gold one's shell shifts around the core in an expression reminiscent of a shrug. "Don't ask us why."

"Hmm," the blonde considers that with a careful eye, "...but she raises a good point. Why should we trust you?"

"You don't exactly have a variety of options to work with." the… Ghost, I suppose, over me answers. "You won't be safe out there on your own."

"Is that a threat?" The dark skinned girl said.

"Memories or no, we can handle ourselves." The blonde agreed.

"...I'd at least like to know what kind of options we have to work with." I added, if only so I wasn't left out.

At that, all three of the Ghosts gave each other an indecipherable look.

"No…it wasn't a threat." the gold ghost said with a somber voice. "...Where do you think you are?"

"And how do you think you died?"

A pit forms in my gut. Every instinct in my body screams at me to leave the cave, to not even try to look at my surroundings.

But I can't help myself.

I look down.

I look down and at first all I see are the dirt and rocks and stone walls of a cave. Then I start to see it. A few shoes here, the torn remnants of a shirt there, possibly even some pants.

Then I see the bones. Scattered all over the place, half buried in the dirt. Skulls and ribs and legs and hands everywhere I look. They're broken and fractured and gnawed on, and some are far too small.

I feel sick.

"H-how many-"

"Who could do something like this?!"

"...The Fallen." My ghost says. "And you're in the Cosmodrome, right in the middle of the House of Devils Territory."

"Fallen?" I mutter.

"What the hell are those?" The darker girl growls,

"The Fallen are a race of aliens, one of many vultures that have come to pick at the bones of humanity's golden age." the golden ghost explained. "And they're called the Fallen because of their own ungraceful fall from splendor. Where once was a great starfaring civilization is now a barbaric and cruel culture of piracy and violence. The House of Devils, in particular, are known for their fanatical hatred for mankind."

"In other words, the Fallen are big dangerous spider people with four arms who love jury-rigging tech together to kill more humans and grab more loot." The checkerboard ghost added with far less enthusiasm than before. "And the House of Devils are the red ones that like to make a habit of displaying their trophies."

"..and their meals." my ghost said pointedly, shining a light on a particular collection of bones in the dirt with large bite marks. "Fallen have been known to develop a taste for human flesh."

"...Fucking fantastic." The dark girl groused, "So we're stuck in the middle of a bunch of man-eating psychos from space?"

"That is not inaccurate."

"Why hasn't someone done something about this?" I asked.

The gold ghost shrugged. "They've tried. Saint-14 broke the leadership of the houses on his crusade after Twilight Gap."

"But mankind's resources are limited." my ghost explained. "Against the seemingly endless threats pouring out of the dark, it's all the Vanguard can do to keep the light of humanity from being snuffed out."

"Which is where new Guardians like you come in!" The other ghost chirped. "With each new Guardian to wield the light, the hope for humanity grows ever brighter!"

"But, to make a difference, you need to survive long enough to get stronger." the gold ghost cautioned. "If you want to have a hope of survival here, you'll need to get to the city."

"City?" I ask, latching onto anything other than the grim reality I found myself in. "What city?"

"The city." the black and white one answers.

"The Last City on Earth."

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Armsmaster glared at the display screen, willing it to give him the answers.

"Colin, you need to take a break."

"Later." He mumbled, eyes locked on the computer's analysis.

"Colin, you have been awake for over 48 hours."

"I've gone longer without sleep." He knew he was close to a breakthrough, he had to be.

"Yes, but only in emergencies."

His face twitched. "Are you trying to tell me this isn't an emergency?"

He shot an arm at the report on another monitor, clinically detailing the disappearance of dozens of innocents in one of the worst incidents of mis-used tinkertech in recent memory.

"Almost 50 people are gone, just like that, and over 50 more dead or wounded from those left behind. All just because two incompetent morons desperate for attention had to drag them into their petty game." he growled, staring at the image of the Brockton Bay mall.

Once, it had a gleaming image of consumerism and glass, but now it looked like some cosmic horror had taken a massive bite out of one of the sides, leaving nothing but a perfectly smooth spherical hole in its wake. From what they'd gathered, it was the result of a malfunctioning tinkertech teleporter.

"I would strangle Uber and Leet myself right now, if they hadn't already killed themselves with the damned stunt!" He finished with an angry fist slammed onto his reinforced desk.

"...I know, but… you're not going to do anyone any good if you run yourself ragged trying to find the answer. You need sleep, and fresh eyes to look over it."

"I can't just leave them, Dragon!" he shouted.

"Colin I… it's not your fault."

He scoffed, brushing off her concern and letting himself stew in his own self-hatred. "If I'd actually been there, I could have safely dealt with the device."

"You don't know that."

"I know I am the most qualified person in the city to deal with malfunctioning Tinker-tech. But, because I thought dealing with Uber and Leet was beneath me," He snarled, disgusted with himself, "I decided to take a little time to fine-tune my suit to get an extra 2.7% functionality. After all, Shadow Stalker and Glory Girl were already on the scene. They could handle it, right?"

"...You couldn't have known."

"I damn well should have!" He barked. "Uber and Leet's tech is as well known for its limitless potential as it is for catastrophic failures! Maybe if I'd actually done my job, they'd actually still be here!"

At the top of the long list of missing persons from the incident were two VIPs to the PRT. Victoria Dallon, and Sophia Hess.

"...Scans of the device indicate chronoton emissions. The teleporter could have displaced them in time as well as space." Dragon pointed out. "If that's the case, it might not matter how long it takes us to reverse engineer it, correctly back-tracking where it transported everyone could also lead us back to moments after they arrived."

"Or, every day we waste is another year lost for them." Armsmaster argued, "Or maybe it's longer. Or maybe they're already dead because I took too long."

"Colin, you can't know that yet, and just trying to beat your head against a wall isn't going to get you anywhere fast." Dragon pleaded with him. "Please, just get some sleep. Leet's device will be waiting for you when you get up, and no amount of stimulants can make up for a good night's rest."

For a moment, Armsmaster was silent. Then, in the privacy of his room, with only one of his closest friends to keep him company, he muttered, "...Dragon… how am I supposed to get a good night's rest with all this weighing on me?"

To her great shame, the world's greatest Tinker found she had no solutions.

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A/n: And here is the promised Worm.

The Synopsis for this is that Taylor, Vicky, and Sophia were at the mall when U&L did the thing and teleported a slice of it all into the Destiny-verse right smack in the middle of the cosmodrome.

The three parahuman girls, and a whole bunch of random civilians, lasted a bit before being captured and killed by the House of Devils over the span of a year or so trying to find shelter in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

A few years later, a trio of ghosts found three very dead girls with incredible potential.

After this chapter, there'll be a timeskip. Taylor, Sophia, and Vicky end up being basically The Guardian fireteam, the ones who do all the canon story stuff together. After all that canon stuff I'm skipping over, they'd end up teleported back into BB.

The next two chapters of this are already written and will be coming out soon.

There will be one more Snippet series I post here, and then I'll call it a day.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Victory Lap

Youjo Senki/Worm/Pokemon

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A/n: And here's the last of the Snip series I'm posting today. A triple cross about Tanya, Taylor, and Lillie exploring the pokemon world together.

This here's just the setup for them to get their start in Alola.


Tanya

"W-W-what?" The girl shivered, her brilliant green eye wet with unshed tears.

"You heard me." The boy, both older and larger, grinned maliciously. "If you want to find your doll, you'll have to go inside."

"B-but it's haunted!" The girl panicked, her youth and fear clearly audible in her quavering voice.

"Pft! What, you afraid of a few ghost Pokemon?" The bully scoffed, "Guess I should've figured that a girl like you would be chicken!"

The other older children around him laughed.

I, however, looked at the tears streaming down my younger sister's face and sighed.

"I'll go." I cut in, no longer willing to tolerate this petty cruelty.

Oh, the things I do for my new family! I grumbled without too much rancor as a stunned expression dawned on my sister's face. Not that walking into an abandoned building at night is particularly daunting, given the things I've seen.

"B-but big sis-!" My sister sniffled.

I brushed her objection off with a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't worry, Lillie. I'll get your doll back soon enough."

"So you're going to have your sister do your dirty work for you?" The bully sneered. "I guess you really are a scaredy cat, huh?"

I rolled my eyes and turned to face the toddler with delusions of grandeur. Credit where it was due, the irritant wasn't actually a toddler. Indeed, he was due to embark on his own Pokemon journey, just as soon as the season started up again next year.

And isn't that a headfuck in and of itself? I scoffed internally. Instead of sending children off to war, now they are sent off with magical monsters to roam the countryside.

Still, much as I found a child on a power trip trivially small potatoes compared to my previous childhood, he had made my little sister cry…

"And yet you are the one stealing from defenseless little girls and laughing at their tears." I cocked my hip and shot a pointed and unimpressed look at the tiny worm. "If all you can do is punch down on the helpless, who's the real coward?"

For a moment, I was worried that my words wouldn't have the intended effect; I hadn't really interacted with children much in…well…quite a long time, and I could very well have a poor grasp on typical childhood psychology.

Given the round of "oohs" as everyone turned on the bully, who suddenly stood all alone, I could see that my worries were unfounded. I'd clearly hit the mark.

The child's face got red, his lip trembled, and-

Is he going to cry?

Well, I almost felt sad about that. Picking on children wasn't really something I should take pride in, considering my hidden but deep well of experience. On the other hand, he had been tormenting my little sister, so as far I was concerned the little bastard could burn.

"Hmph," I scoffed at the display and turned to regard my sister again. "Don't worry Lillie, I'll get your doll and everything will be fine." I said, forcing a ricticus of a smile and giving her long blonde locks a comforting ruffle, "Just leave it to your big sis Tanya!"

The forced childish enthusiasm almost made me gag, but the brightening expression on Lillie's face made it all worth it.

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A few minutes later, I found myself wandering the halls of the abandoned building, naturally all on my own.

I knew exactly what I was looking for: My objective was a life-size Blissey doll that Lillie used to help her sleep. I had even managed to extract its location from the brat that had stolen it in the first place. The only problem was… the doll wasn't where the pissant had left it.

Of course it isn't, I groaned, No doubt this place is a nest for ghost Pokemon, who are notorious pranksters.

"Alright," I grumbled to myself, "If I were an impish ghost, where would I put a very large doll?"

After a moment spent tapping my lips in thought, the answer came to me.

"Where else? The bedroom, of course."

Given the size of the abandoned house, there were likely several bedrooms, and I didn't exactly have an exact floorplan to tell me where each one was. Still, there were a few obvious choices, and the house wasn't that large, so I doubted it would take long to find the bedroom where the phantom prankster had stashed the doll.

A new plan established,, I set off through the abandoned building, my search renewed. As I searched, I felt a mysterious gaze watching me from the shadows all the while.

In some ways, it was almost unnerving, that sense of being watched, of being in an empty house but not truly alone. Even the way I was sensing it was strange. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising. A faint tingle across my skin. A presence behind me. And…something else, something harder to describe. It was like my mage-born sense from my last life, but less…distinct, clinical, ordered. Instead of reading a mana signature and calculating the distance, I could just feel something tickling the edges of my new sixth sense.

If I was honest with myself, that phantom sensation was the most concerning part of this little expedition. Walking into a house infested with ghost Pokemon for my little sister's doll was one thing, but knowing I was changed, yet not knowing how? Feeling the strange and the familiar collide in such bizarre ways in my third life, still haunted by the shadow of a double-edged gift?

Scarcely being able to close my eyes without seeing the horrors of my second?

That is what really keeps me up at night.

After a bit more poking around, I discovered what had to have been a girl's bedroom, or at least a tacky interior decorator's imitation of one. The room practically oozed pink frills and lace, and pillows heaped up on every surface like glistening fungi after rain. Dust encrusted cobwebs dangled from the ceiling with all the grace of booted feet hanging from streetlights., Sitting at a small table in the middle of the room, complete with a grimey tea set, sat the Blissey doll.

I looked the scene over, carefully not paying any attention to the shadowy presence I could feel glaring at me from the dark corners of this husk of a home.

On closer inspection, there was less dust in this room than I would have expected to find in an abandoned dwelling. The fussy placement of the decorations also spoke of care, not neglect. Viewed from a different perspective, the draped cobwebs were almost decorative, and the tea set was carefully arranged for Blissey, and one other who had yet to take their seat.

…I don't think this was a prank…Looking at the way the shadows of the room seemed to darken, I realized this might be a bit more complex than I'd initially thought. …and I'm not sure they'll just let me leave with their "guest".

"You can come out. I'm not here to hurt you." I let my gaze linger on the Blissey doll, "And…I wouldn't want to disrupt your party. I'm sure we can come to a reasonable arrangement."

For a moment, I was met by nothing more than silence and stillness.

Then, abruptly, a shadow shifted, and melting out from the darkness was a…

"Mimic?"

…Well…I'm not sure what that pokemon is.

At first blush, the creature almost resembled a Pikachu, one of the more popular and famous Pokemon I've heard of. Yet, immediately, it became clear the facade was exactly that. Some kind of figure covered in pale yellow cloth, with the common markings and facial features of a Pikachu scribbled on in crayon. Like a child's attempt to make a doll.

One look at the two eye holes poked into the body of the doll, and the unnatural movements of its shadow, pointed to its true origins.

…I'd always heard that Pokemon were intelligent. I thought, looking at the room, and the Pokemon's attempt at a disguise, with a new level of appreciation. But all this?

Distantly, I realized that had I been a normal child I likely would have been scared out of my wits by everything going on. The disturbing attempt at a Pikachu disguise. The abandoned house. The tea party for dolls.

Yet, given the horrors that filled my dreams, compared to the nightmares that flooded my second life, all I could think was-

"Cute."

"Kyu?"

The strange Pokemon's sewed-on head bobbed to the side in a parody of a quizzical look.

I couldn't help but snort and shake my head in dry amusement.

"What oddities will this strange world have for me next, Being X?" I mumbled.

"Mimikyu?"

I sighed as I regarded the tea set again. The one with the doll I needed for my little sister.

"I'm willing to bet you won't part with the doll easily?" I ventured.

"...kyu." the Pokemon replied, a new tension abruptly present in its voice.

It hadn't moved, but its shadow seemed to expand into the room. I could feel an unsettling presence weigh on my shoulders, a feeling at the base of my neck tingling like magic was rising in the air.

For all I knew, it was.

"I see."

And, in a way, I did. Technically, it hadn't stolen anything, it had been given a gift, ill gotten or not, and it had already put it's newest acquisition to use. To hand such a prized item, so recently gifted, over to me without any compensation would be a net loss, with no guarantee of any kind of return benefit. I could argue for my sister's case, but no sob story would really change the fact that the Pokemon would be giving me something for nothing.

It just made sense for it to be displeased.

Of course, I would never dream of dealing with another individual without some form of compensation. And as much as Pokemon may resemble mindless beasts on the surface, Mother has been quite clear about their intelligence. I thought. Of course, that leads to one unfortunate question.

What could I possibly offer?

I let my eyes wander around the room as I tried to find inspiration, ignoring the disturbed Pokemon looming behind my back.

I realized I probably should have been more worried about coming to a potentially grizzly end if I mismanaged this, but…

Well…

It's hard to be terribly concerned about dying when I've just come to terms with my third life.

Throughout this most recent life, I'd felt like I'd been drifting more or less aimlessly. I was seven, and I'd only really gained enough cognizance to recognize my position again a few years ago. After losing everything I'd been attached to in my past life once more, I felt… adrift.

There wasn't even the same kind of pressure in this life as my last. This world was in a state of blissful, and seemingly perpetual, peace. No news of wars, no rumors of struggle or hunger or desperation that I could find. Not even a cruel taunt by Being X chiding me for being a 'nonbeliever' and faithless. All I'd been left with was a cryptic message half remembered from a dream.

[-Go Forth, Lost Child, And May You Find Your Own Happiness.]


I didn't know what that meant, and Being X didn't exactly seem the type to actually wish for my own happiness, but knowing the stubborn fool from experience, the words likely had double-edged meaning. At the moment, I could only wait to see what Being X had in store for me, whatever inventive tricks and harrowings he had waiting in the wings, ready for deployment in his quest to mold me into be his newest champion.

At the moment, however, I couldn't bring myself to care. I was sure the wannabe omniscient idiot would try something sooner or later; In fact, this strange Pokemon could already be a part of the bastard's newest scheme. But, still fresh off the loss of my second life even after half a decade, still reeling from the loss of everything I'd built up and everyone I'd known?

I felt… numb.

And… oddly enough, alone.

…Perhaps it's not so odd, I considered, Not too many centennials in a seven year old's body. Not too many in their third life, either.

"And it's not like there's anyone I can talk to about this…" I sighed.

Then I stopped.

I considered the room. Now that I was looking, I could see that it was filled with dolls, all placed with delicate care. The tea party with an open seat. The Pokemon wearing a crude disguise of one of the most popular Pokemon on the planet.

A Pokemon who seemed determined to keep me from taking their newest friend.

"...or can I?"

I turned to regard the Pokemon fully, some part of my mind still trying to decide if this was truly a good idea or not, but most of me was so utterly done that I couldn't be bothered to care anymore.

"Mimikyu, was it?" I began.

"...Mimik?" It replied warily.

I gave it my most winning smile and held out a hand.

"How about, in exchange for my sister's Blissey doll, I will partake in your tea party?"

The Mimikyu stopped. It seemed to waiver between displeasure and tentative hope.

It's suspicious, but not opposed to the idea. I wagered. Time to up the ante.

"No? Then how about regular tea parties with you?" I rankled at the idea of phrasing these as 'tea parties', but it seemed appropriate enough. "After all, I could use the charming company."

Was it sad that I wasn't even lying?

I'm not sure I could bring myself to care if I was.

"So what do you say, Mimikyu? One Blissey doll, in exchange for regular chats with yours truly."

I shook my open hand in front of it again, just to make my point.

It paused, eyeing my hand carefully.

Then it extended a shadowy tendril, and shook.

/-|-\
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Taylor

The pouring rain deluging down on me felt like the sweetest caress, like pure relief after a long and feverish sickness.

In the stifling heat of this tropical island, the torrential downpour almost felt like some ritual cleansing. It was as if the grime and dust of a thousand dead cities across a hundred worlds was sluiced away, leaving me behind, freshly reborn into another world. Another world, another life, another chance.

I knew I probably should have been worried about finding shelter or otherwise trying to stay dry, but I honestly couldn't find it in myself to care about exposure to the elements.

Why should I care about anything now? I thought, staring at my new hands, both of them, as water ran down my forearms, unburnt and intact, in rivulets. After everything I did in my last life… What do I even do with my next one?

After Scion, I'd died. I knew that with bone deep certainty. I vaguely remembered a conversation with Contessa at the end, if the exchange of half-spoken utterances and arcane gestures could even be called that. Relief and regret in equal measure. Two gunshots, brief pain, followed by darkness, then…

Nothing.

It was… like being asleep. Being aware that time has passed you by, but not of what actually happened. Then, like a distant dream slipping through my mind's grasp, I remembered… something.

[-Go Forth, Lost Child, And May You Find Your Own Happiness.]

Even now, the voice thundered in my mind. Not just deep or loud, but somehow more real than reality itself. Even after everything I'd lived through, all that I'd done as Skitter, Weaver, and more, the echo of that voice still made me shiver.

After that resounding din, my new life on this strange planet had abruptly begun. Of course, it hadn't been as smooth as all that; it wasn't like I'd just woken up here in the rain. There had been a kaleidoscopic jumble of memories, thoughts, nightmares, dreams, and more, all crashing together in this weird hazy existence that I could vaguely remember, but not clearly define. Then, one day, it had all just clicked

One day, I realized I was alive again.

"For a given value of alive, anyway." I muttered, looking down at the puddle at my feet to gaze upon my murky reflection for either the first time, or the first time in a long, long while.

A young girl looked back up at me. I raised an idle finger to my cheek, poking and prodding at the face that was ever so slightly off. In a lot of ways, "I" resembled what I'd looked like as a child in my last life, but distorted and changed in subtle ways. I had the same green eyes, long black curls, and wide lips, but something about my facial structure looked ever so different, and my skin was naturally more tanned now. Taken together, it was decidedly uncanny; so close, yet somehow so far away.

"Is this even real?" I wondered aloud, "or is this some kind of elaborate Master plot?"

"Or…" I raised a hand to prod my forehead, the phantom impact of Contessa's bullets still haunting me, "Perhaps this is some kind of deathbed delusion?"

"Dew?" [concern]

I looked up and noticed an insectoid creature staring up at me with big blue eyes. It resembled almost a child's idea of an arachnid, a bright green and blue color scheme with six thin legs, three of which were busy holding up a ball of water around its large head. All told, the creature stood up to my shin, which would have been what most would have considered terrifyingly massive for a normal spider.

I couldn't help but find it cute.

"Hello again, Dewpider." I greeted the familiar creature, a silver of a smile gracing my lips at its presence.

I'd seen many of his kind around the island. Along with a whole host of other creatures I might have called biotinker abominations if they weren't so well integrated into the ecosystem. Even the other people I met seemed to consider them just another part of life. They even had a proper name for them, Pokemon.

If that's not confirmation I'm not in Kansas anymore, I don't know what is. I mused.

"Pider!" he cheered, waving one of its little legs at me.

[Greetings!]

Then there's that. I thought.

Ever since I'd… well… come to my right mind here, if this can even be called that, I'd noticed that in place of my powers I had something… else. Instead of bug control, I seemed to be able to understand these bug-like pokemon. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't really in clear words or anything, but whenever they spoke, which was weird enough on its own, I could feel an impression of their intent.

It was only for the insectoid ones, and from what I'd gathered most people couldn't understand Pokemon any more than the average person could understand an animal.

Given everything that had happened to me, everything that had changed, everything I had lost, it was almost a comfort that at least I still had this, changed though it may be.

Are you still there, my Passenger? I wondered.

As ever, I got no reply.

"Dewpider!"
[Reminder][Concern]

"Hmm?"

"Dew-dewpider, dew dew!"
[Rain][Human][Wrong][Correct][Home]

It took me a minute to parse the impressions I was getting, but when I did I offered the spider a wan smile. "I don't mind the rain, Dewpider. Besides, I don't have a home to go back to, not anymore."

I couldn't remember what circumstances had brought me to this situation in this new life. Given how old I was, it's likely I wasn't aware enough to understand what was happening when I lost my parents. Even looking back, I can't say for sure if I was abandoned or they died. Maybe some mix of both? Maybe something like what happened to my first family, to mom and dad, but far worse?

It wasn't hard to picture.

Mom dead and dad driven to drinking the pain away, only to let it consume him without anyone to shake him out of his stupor. Maybe he gets tired of seeing the face that reminds him of his lost love, and dumps me on the street so he doesn't have to look at me anymore?

Perhaps the reverse happened.

I wasn't sure, but it didn't change where I was. An orphan barely scraping by to survive in this strange world.

Fortunately, the pokemon were surprisingly friendly. Especially when they found out I could talk to them, after a fashion of course.

"But it's fine." I said, "The Ribombee are always happy to share some food, especially if I help them out too."

It stared at me, and I got the impression it was skeptical about that being enough.

[Mother][Safety][Inquiry]

The question hit me harder than it had any right to.

"...no…no, I don't have any parents anymore…" what little joy I had left bleed out of me. Washed away with the cooling deluge of the rain. "...I don't have anyone anymore."

For a moment he paused.

Then-

[Self][Follow]

I frowned. "You want me to follow you? Why?"

[Safety!][Human!]

It took me a bit to parse that one too. "...you know a safe place for humans?" I asked.

That wasn't as helpful as it sounded. I knew there were cities on the island, and I had visited them on occasion. But those came with their own problems. It wasn't too hard for me to negotiate with the large population of various insectoid pokemon to stay safe and get what I needed to survive. Given my own life experience, I sincerely doubted that I could say the same of other people.

Especially since I seemed to be a little girl again.

Chances were that I'd get thrown into an orphanage, or a foster home, as soon as someone figured out I was on my own. I'd heard enough from Racheal and Lisa to make me more than a little leery of the prospect.

Dewpider paused, then shook his head.

[Human][Safe][Bug][Friend]

"You…you know a human who's friendly to bugs?" I guessed.

His cheers told me I'd hit the mark.

I was still a little suspicious, but…

If they've made friends with bugs, then they can't be that bad, right? I was aware that I was probably letting my own fondness for bugs influence my decision too much, but so far the bugs I'd run into had been strangely intelligent, possibly even sapient. After all, right now I'm having a conversation with one that's trying to make sure I'm safe.

But I reminded myself, that doesn't mean it won't be dangerous.

A dark thought rose up in response.

But what else do I have to live for?

I sighed. "Sure." I waved a hand in his direction. "Lead on, MacDuff."

He cheered at his victory. An unbidden smile slipped onto my lips at the sight.

Soon, we were off.

As we walked, the wind and rain seemed to get worse, and for a moment I was wondering if I wouldn't have been better off just sitting in a cave.

I might not have anything to live for, I grumbled as I tried to keep the rain out of my face. , but that doesn't mean I want to be miserable like this.

The wind and rain was getting so harsh I could barely even see where I was going. The only thing keeping me going was my grip on one of Dewpider's many limbs. Oddly enough, he seemed to enjoy the storm.

I had just thought, maybe it's due to his aquatic nature? When the wet ground slipped out from under.

I fell down, into the slick mud hard.

A pained gasp escaped my lips as a burning knife lanced through my arm.

Before I knew it, the fall had turned into a tumble, and the whole world rolled around me.

Then, vertigo. A world filled with wind, rain, and pain.

Then I crashed into a river.

I tried to swim, but the shock and agony in my arm meant I was barely treading water.

The current dragged me under and the air burned in my lungs.

Then Dewpider was there, panic in his eyes, a bubble of air pressed to my lips.

It was almost enough.

Then my back slammed into a rock, and suddenly I was drowning.

My head popped above water, and I barely managed a few desperate gasps.

In this distance, I thought I heard a voice shout over the raging waves. "-sopod! Ge-"

Then I was dragged under again, and it was all Dewpider could do to try to keep me breathing.

But I could already feel the fluid in my lungs. The ragged coughs stealing my breath.

As the light faded from my eyes, I thought, Is this how my second chance ends?

The last thing I saw was a massive shadow passing over me.

Then, darkness.

/-|-\
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\-|-/​

I gasped as awareness flooded into me.

Distantly, I heard a voice curse. "Arceus damn!"

My eyes flashed open, and I took what looked like a messy bedroom covered in graffiti. I tried to stand up, my mind still in a haze, a question on my lips. "Wha-"

"Whoa there kid!"

Suddenly a man was by my side, his eyes wide and frantic as he took me in. He had a pair of weird gold sunglasses stuck in his whtie hair, but he looked younger than my dad. An odd gold chain dangled over a white tee shirt, and combined with his baggy black pants, gold watch, and a weird decorative black and gold ball on his belt, he looked like a wannabe gangster.

"Hey, you need to relax, kid." He tried to push me back down onto what I realized was a bed.

I wanted to be mad, but my head was so fuzzy it was hard to think of anything. "Where am I?" Then I jerked up again as a memory hit me. "Where's Dewpider?!"

"Re-lax kid," the man pressed a hand on my chest and forced me back into the bed. "Your Dewpider has-"

"Dew!" came the familiar sound by the foot of my bed.
[Relief]

The man snorted, "-been waiting on you all night."

Dewpider quickly hopped up onto the bed right next to me, relief and joy radiating off his form.

"Dewpider!"
[Rejoice]

The man sighed and shook his head. "Much as I'm glad you're alright, the hell were you doing out in that storm kid? You're gonna make your parents sh-er, worry their butts off."

The dry pain returned to me like an old friend.

"I don't have any." I gave him an empty smile, "That's why I was out there. Dewpider was trying to lead me to a, uh-" I shot Dewpider a look, "a 'human bug friend', I believe he said."

At that, Dewpider wailed and wrapped a couple limbs around my arm.

[Apologies]

"Right…" the man shot Dewpider a look of his own. "...I'm probably that 'friend' Dewpider was talking about."

I blinked, "Huh?"

The man cleared his throat, and I could see the moment he forced himself to put on a Mask. It wasn't just a matter of putting on a costume, it was about turning yourself into something more than merely human, it was about becoming an image that projected something.

And in that moment, Guzma was trying to project unshakable confidence.

"You're looking at Guzma!" He bellowed, thrusting a thumb into his chest. "Leader of Team Skull, and the unbeatable Bug-Type Master Trainer of Alola!"

For a moment, I was wondering how the hell I'd run into such a faker.

Then the ball on his belt popped open, and in a flash of light, suddenly there was a massive, monstrous, bug looming over all of us. It resembled a bipedal beetle, but with slabs of armor like a tank and huge claws that could probably give Racheal's dogs a run for their money.

"And this here's my partner!" Guzma boasted, "Golisopod!"

"Gol! Sopod!"
[Greetings] [Relief]

Oh… I realized, so… maybe not so much a wannabe if he's got backup like that.

Then for a moment, the mask slipped from his face. "He's… also the one who saved you from the river. I managed to see you and sent him in and-" He stopped himself, taking a breath and forcing the mask back on.

"Well, I'm happy to hear you were smart enough to seek me out, kid!" Guzma said. "And I have to admit, Team Skull could certainly use a girl with as much guts as you!"

For a moment, I was wondering what his angle was. What could he possibly see in me that would make him want a kid to sign up with his gang?

Then I remembered what I'd seen of the man behind the mask. The man who went out of his way to save a random girl drowning in a river in the middle of a storm.

What does it say that a self-proclaimed gang boss is already a better person than most people I knew in my last life?

"So, what do you say kid?" Guzma held out a fist to me.

I looked at Dewpider, standing beside me, and saw him raise his limbs in a cheer.

[Agreement!]

I let out an empty laugh.

"Sure." I shook my head and tapped his fist, "Why not?"

"I'll join Team Skull."

/-|-\
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A/n:

Alright, finally the triple cross Pokemon fic I've been sitting on for a bit. It's actually essentially two separate ideas I smooshed together. I'd had a plot bunny for Tanya getting reincarnated as Lillie's older sister in Alola, and a separate one for Taylor reincarnating as an orphan in Alola who gets 'adopted by Guzma and Team Skull.

I ended up merging the two because they weren't mutually exclusive, but they shared 90% the same concept. I didn't feel like writing essentially the same story twice, so I just blended them. Plus, I've wanted to write a good fic where Tany and Taylor interact for a while now, but I didn't have the right setup for it. This way the two get to be on equal footing in a strange land, instead of one being inserted into the other's setting.

Plus I'm interested in exploring how the relative peace of the Pokemon World influences Tanya and Taylor given the trauma of their past lives.

Anyways, this is one of the snips I definitely plan on following through on more. I've got a whole outline ready for this story. Granted, said outline is a setup to have a bunch of episodic self-contained stories so I can play hopscotch with time, but fuck it.

Actually, that's the whole reason this is called Victory Lap. I plan on the meat of the story, so to speak, taking place post-game with Rich Heiress Tanya and Gang Princess Taylor exploring the world with Cinnamon Bun Lillie on her first pokemon journey.

In any case, this is the last of the snips for today, more will be coming later in the week, likely with one snip from the backlog coming every other day.

Hope you enjoyed.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Raising Hell
2.0


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A/n:
And chapter 2 is here, Complete with Tanya handing a Kaiju a NATO-brand ass-beating.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51kKxGgc9dg


Asuka

I took a deep breath and relaxed as life-giving LCL fluid filled my lungs. The instinctual fear of drowning in the breathable liquid had long since been eroded into near nothing by my many trials in the entry plug; the sensation now filled me with eager energy. My heart thrummed eagerly in my chest, the fluid immersion letting me hear my own blood thunder in my ears, letting me hear it climb with mounting anticipation.

I hummed, the thicker-than-water substance of the LCL making the vibrations sound intoxicatingly foreign in the entry plug as my heart thumped almost in time with the old theme. It was a song I'd sung a hundred times, a song etched into a specific corner of my mind, a song that of late had taken on new meaning.

The Evangelion responded to my call, holographic displays flashing into existence all around me, the advanced technology whirring to life sending an electric thrill dancing along my skin, a thrill echoed by the oh-so-familiar presence of something else lingering right beside me.

"Alright, Camilla…" I whispered as I went through the familiar activation sequence for Unit 02 by rote. "Ready to finally show the world what we can do?"

I felt something faint echo from within the bowels of Unit 02, something pulsing with agreement. Camila groaned, the beating heart of my monster pounding around me.

Excitement grew.

Passion rose.

The beast woke from her slumber.

[Synchronization]

Power flooded into me. My world exploded beyond the mere confines of mortal flesh. New eyes flashed open. Limbs of a titan reached out. The weight of Our soul pressed down on reality.

Unit 02 and I moved as one.

I held the control sticks in a white knuckle grip. A wide grin split my lips. Blood sang in my veins. I bared my teeth at the world. "Then let's bag our first Angel!"

Camilla roared around me.

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Tanya

I watched from the bridge of the USS Enterprise as Unit 02 leapt from her place of slumber, landing with a barely controlled crash on the deck of the USS Farragut, bracing herself with a long polearm in hand. Flashes of crimson peaked out from the rippling gray sheet that still covered the Evangelion's form and obscured its full glory.

But it couldn't hide the cocky stride in Asuka's every move.

"Asuka, focus," I transmitted over the headset. "Mission now, smug later."

"...Yes, Aunt Tanya," she replied, her voice dutiful if more than a bit sullen.

Still, sure enough, her posture corrected itself.

"M-miss Asuka's going to be a-alright, isn't she, Colonel?" Shinji asked by my side, anxiety naked on his painfully young and earnest face. "I-I mean, she said she'd been piloting for a while, s-so she's got this, right?"

"Well if she doesn't, we won't have to worry about it for very long," I said absentmindedly, throwing out the first thing that came to mind in response as the bulk of my attention remained fixed on the battle before us.

It was admittedly cute that the boy already seemed to be imprinting on my girl, but we could worry about teenage crushes later when there wasn't a giant sea monster trying to kill us all.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the boy and his friends blanch.

"Relax, kid, she's joking." Major Katsuragi assured him, shooting me a none-too-subtle glare as she patted her ward soothingly on the shoulder.

…I'm not that bad, am I?

"Is your pilot finally ready?" Captain Johnston pressed, his tone clipped but still on the right side of professionalism.

"Ready and awaiting the opportunity to engage the enemy, Captain," I nodded. "How much did it cost?"

He scowled, but I could tell his true ire wasn't directed at me. "Five ships." He shook his head. "Just make sure their deaths mean something, Colonel."

"We aim to deliver," I nodded.

I glanced out at the sea, taking in the still image of the naval battle still unfolding around me. Our escorts for this leg of the voyage were primarily composed of the impressive power of the United States Pacific fleet. It was built around a core of three American supercarriers and four Iowa-class battleships, along with an armada of auxiliary vessels, escorts, and even a submarine detachment.


They weren't alone, however. My more personal escorts for the entirety of the mission were the three European battlegroups. Two built around the carriers HMS Prince of Wales and the Charles de Gaulle, while the last was a squadron of Germany's own new cutting edge destroyers. Not to mention the legion of transports under their protection. Each one carried their own contributions to my team in our efforts to make sure that shadowy organization didn't get us all killed.

Even the Japanese had sent the JS Kaga's carrier group out to meet us in a show of solidarity. All combined, it was a fleet as fearsome in battle as it was an act of political theater.

I'm almost impressed.

Against any other military power in the world, this would be enough to send them running. If not from the weight of our arms, then from the political ramifications of trying to cross this many powerful nations working in concert. Especially in a post-Impact world.

Unfortunately, we weren't fighting anything so mundane.

Suddenly, the ocean erupted again.

A stripped-down thought acceleration formula ran through my mind, slowing the world to a crawl. Even still, the Angel launched itself from the waters with terrible speed. The massive beast, a pale leviathan unlike anything on earth, larger than even the Enterprise, seemed like it shouldn't be able to move so fast, almost like it wasn't quite real.

That didn't change the reality of it shooting towards Asuka, fanged maw open wide.

But I had taught her well. Much of her training had been outside of Camilla, which had given me the freedom to leave a personal touch on her instruction.

Unit 02 twitched, the shadows under her hood twinkled with the light of four stars, and the world went white.

Four brilliant flashes enveloped the Angel, momentarily blotting out all sight.

A fraction of a second later, a deafening clap of thunder slammed into us, hitting us with the physical force of a haymaker. A wave of heat rolled over us, hot enough that, even inside the shelter of the Enterprise's covered bridge, sweat beaded on every brow.

As the afterimage of the searing flash faded, Gaghiel fell back into the sea, its entire flank burning with the brilliant energy of a strained AT field. Four enormous cross-shaped stars marked its passing, illuminating the fleet with their ethereal light. Unit 02 stood on the Farragut, cloak billowing, and eyes twinkling as its AT field wound down.

"What the hell was that?!" One of Shinji's friends exclaimed, his teenage voice cracking with emotion.

Even Major Katsuragi seemed surprised by the weapon.

"Quite impressive, no?" I asked, turning to the NERV officer with a smile.

"Was… was that an Optical Blast?" Misato asked, stunned.

"Indeed." I allowed myself to savor a measure of pride in my niece. "In fact," I added, taking the opportunity to blast Asuka's horn, "Asuka has been able to produce salvos of significantly higher precision and fire rate than Sachiel observed."

"I thought only Angels could do that…" Shinji muttered, staring at Unit 02 with wide eyes. Like clockwork, Misato and the boys followed his gaze back out to the quadroptic titan, standing proud and unbowed atop the hull.

"Actually, Asuka managed a basic Optical Blast with Camilla before Sachiel ever appeared," I pointed out.

Four heads snapped back to me as one.

"Imagine our surprise when the first Angel in over a decade appears, only to show off what should have been our secret weapon? Asuka was fuming." I sighed and shook my head at the memory. "Still, it gave her the energy to improve yet further still. And the results, I think, speak for themselves."

"...Unit 02 was able to perform an Optical Blast before the appearance of Sachiel?" Misato asked through gritted teeth.

I blinked. "...Yes? But it's not like NERV was kept out of the loop; you were the ones running the tests after all. It may have been classified, but as the Tactical Director you would have been apprised of it, correct?"

Misato's face twitched like she just bit down a snarl. "Despite my… valued position in NERV, there are many things that Commander Ikari considers 'need to know'."

"...and the Tactical Director in charge of utilizing said Evangelions to defend humanity from the Angels does not 'need to know'?"

"Apparently not."

I boggled momentarily. I can understand a certain level of compartmentalization, but what kind of backward secretive organization thinks it's fine to bring unrelated high schoolers along on a strategic mission, yet also decline to inform their Tactical Director how to use their own weapons?

For a moment, I felt a measure of pity for the woman. However competent she may or may not be, it sounded like Misato was trapped in a truly Kafkaesque mire of secrecy and conflicting interests that made bog-standard intelligence agencies and their inveterate love of cryptic bullshit seem reasonable.

"I see," I said, choosing banality instead of vocalizing any of those thoughts.

"How did you even pull that off with her, anyways?" Misato pressed. "We've never even come close to figuring out how to do anything like that with Unit 01 or 00."

"It's an application of Advanced AT Field Manipulation," I explained. "Asuka's been training on it extensively for years. It is, after all, the reason why the Evangelions are needed in the first place. Why not make the best use of it?"

"And how exactly would we make use of it?" Misato cocked her hip."We've made no progress in getting any active conscious use of AT field manipulation."

I smiled and spoke nothing but the truth in reply. "Asuka believes in Magic."

The major rolled her eyes and focused back on the task at hand. "Well, however powerful it was, don't count the Angel out yet. It can always regenerate from any damage it takes, the only thing that matters is the core."

"Understood," I said, nodding acknowledgment, "but this does prove the effectiveness of Asuka's training. Perhaps it could be applied to the other pilots as well?"

Major Katsuragi nodded, staring out the window with narrowed eyes, likely already devising ways to incorporate the new weapon into a plan of her own.

I, meanwhile, had matters of my own to attend to.

"Asuka?" I transmitted.

"Did you see? Did you see?!" Asuka's voice all but brimmed over with cheer and youthful exuberance, as well as enough giddy energy to make her reply almost deafening.

"Indeed I did," I confirmed, "and it was a fine shot, and on any other beast, we'd be calling it a day. Unfortunately, this is an Angel, so we aren't out of the woods yet."

"What?!" She shouted. "I had that bastard dead to rights! The stupi-"

I cut her off with a click of my tongue. "None of that, Asuka. You landed a snapshot on a live target in your first bit of real combat, most soldiers can't boast such lofty achievements. Take pride in the accomplishment, note how you can improve for next time, and move on. Understand?"

"...Yes, Aunt Tanya."

"Good girl," I said, smiling into the mic. "Now, I am going to discuss with the others about coming up with a plan to help you take down this Angel for good. In the meantime, get over to the Enterprise so you can plug Camilla into her reactor, and keep your head on a swivel, Gaghiel seems quite slippery."

"Understood." Her reply was professional, but Asuka's tone was a bit… flat.

I frowned. Technically, I had said all I'd needed to in service of the mission, but something about the exchange felt unfinished.

…Beyond mere matters of survival, perhaps some additional motivation will help her morale?

"And, Asuka?"

"Yes, Aunt Tanya?"

"When you make it back, I shall make your favorite strudel to celebrate you surviving your first mission."

Instantly, her mood did a complete 180, her former enthusiasm flaring back to life with the fresh tinder. "You mean it?!"

"I do."

"He-ck Yeah! That Angel's history now!"

With that, I turned off the channel. A glance out the bridge's window showed Asuka leap across the fleet, using each ship as a stepping stone, with an eager bounce in her step. Yet, even still, I could see the caution in her actions, the alertness in Camilla's posture, ready to snap to action at the slightest sign of trouble.

I allowed a smile to slip onto my lips. Good girl.

I turned to Captain Johnston. "While we know that Asuka and Unit 02 can hurt the Angel, matters of naval warfare fall well outside our area of expertise. Any thoughts?"

The American captain huffed. "Unfortunately, Colonel, fighting sea monsters is typically out of mine. Besides, I don't know what you expect me to do with its AT field up."

"Hmm… about that…" I said, mind turning, "Major Katsuragi, any advice of your own regarding such fields?"

She scowled. "This should be a NERV operation through and through; none of you really know what you're dealing with."

"Then enlighten us," I pressed. "I am attempting to be a team player, Major. Until we arrive in Tokyo 3, NATO has jurisdiction over Unit 02's security, and good luck getting my niece to stand down. I can handle Asuka, Captain Johnston has command of his fleet, we need your help as an advisor, not a dictator. The world does not revolve around NERV simply because you successfully developed the Eva program."

"As you've been so keen to remind us," she glowered.

"Are you going to help or not, Major?"

She bit her lip. "...Fine. The Angel, once you bring down its AT Field, should be pretty vulnerable. Their physical bodies are tough, but not that tough, most of it comes from their barriers. Even now, after Unit 02's blast, it might be weak enough that another salvo of hers could break right through and crack open the core."

I shook my head. "She needs visual contact, and if Gaghiel stays underwater it'll vastly reduce the force, even if she does manage to spot him."

"Enough conventional force could do the trick. Like those big battleship cannons." She added.

"Same problem. 16in guns aren't exactly your standard anti-submarine weapons." Captain Johnston chimed in.

"...But could a torpedo hurt its physical body?" I asked.

Misato blinked. "...if you got past the AT Field, sure, but even with it weakened I don't know how many torpedoes it would take to bring down the field completely. Even then, if you don't break the core, all the damage in the world won't matter, since it'll just regenerate. "

I nodded my acknowledgment and turned back to the captain. "I assume that your fleet is carrying its full complement of Anti-Submarine Warfare gear?'

Johnston scoffed. "We've got plenty enough torpedoes to drown the whole silent service twice over, not that the bastard would give a damn with that shield of his."

"Then how would you feel about getting the opportunity to do just that?"

For the first time on the entire voyage, I saw Captain Johnston grin. "Ma'am, it would be my pleasure."

"Perfect." I smiled and tapped my headset. "Asuka?"

"Aunt Tanya?" she replied, a slight tension in her voice. "Hold on, I'm coming in."

I looked up.

"Brace!" I announced to the room.

Most of the bridge complied on trained reflex. Shinji and his friends, however, just stood around looking confused.

Another gold star on NERV's training report card.

Then the world shook as Asuka came crashing down on top of us with Camilla. 80 meters of biomechanical war machine slammed into the deck, panes of orange light vibrating around her form and rippling through the air, bleeding off tremendous amounts of force and speed. Deft control of her AT Field turned what should have been a meteoric impact that could easily have snapped the ship's spine into merely a massive shock that left the great vessel's decks shivering below our feet.

Thankfully, the carrier had already been prepared for the eventuality. It was why the USS Enterprise was carrying an Eva-compatible power cable on board, already pre-wired to its eight reactors. The deck had thankfully already been cleared of all aircraft in anticipation of her not-so-gentle landing.

"Next time, more warning would be appreciated, Colonel," The captain grumbled, though I could tell his heart wasn't in it.

"Just wanted to keep you on your toes, Captain," I replied. "Can't be letting my friends in the fleet be getting soft, can I?"

He snorted and returned his attention to his ship and his fleet, making sure everyone under his command was ready to take the fight to the Angel when I gave the word.

I turned my own attention back to my niece and thumbed the mic back on. "A bit of a rough landing, Asuka, but well done for sticking it on the first try. And for not snapping the boat in half in the process."

"Thanks!" she chirped. "But, uh… do you have a plan for what to do next? I haven't been able to spot Gaghiel since I hit him with the first blast, even if I did, with all the water in the way, I'm not sure how I'd finish the job."

I looked down, observing as Camilla took a knee, as practiced, to give the carrier's deck crew easier access to hook the Evangelion up to the ship's powerplant. "Indeed I do, Asuka. I've worked it out with the major and the captain. Focus on tearing down its barriers and exposing it for the fleet. Once the Angel is vulnerable, they can bury it under the weight of superior firepower."

"Superior firepower, hmm, Aunt Tanya?" Asuka chuckled.

Soon, she was back on her feet, sonic glaive at hand, four eyes gleaming under her hood, and powered directly by the heart of the oldest nuclear carrier in the world.

"Sounds like a plan to me!"

/-|-\
\/-\_|_/-\/
/\-/_|_\-/\
\-|-/​

Asuka

I breathed, centering myself as I centered Camilla atop the deck of the ship I was standing on.

Aunt Tanya's plan was ultimately quite simple, something she told me was more important than it sounded when it came to addressing tactical problems.

The first part of that plan, however, involved me doing something that I'd never been able to fully test, and certainly not against an Angel. Then again, considering the technique in question, there was only so much we could test, given the fact that Aunt Tanya had vetoed any NERV attempt to get me to continue testing on human subjects.

Not after one of the early volunteers had…

None of us could have known, I told myself firmly, shaking the cobwebs in my head. None of the other subjects were as badly affected. We thought it just knocked someone unconscious, not-

I stopped myself, unwilling to chase the thought further.

I should talk to my therapist again… I thought, mind wanting for comfort. And get more hugs from Aunt Tanya.

…Later, Asuka, I reminded myself, taking another deep breath of LCL. Right now, you have a job to do.

Besides, I didn't much feel like letting these sailors die due to my own incompetence. Soldiers dying in war may be a given, but Aunt Tanya taught me that such human resources were meant to be spent carefully, and with purpose. Not frivolously discarded.

Plenty enough have already died before I could get involved. I thought, firming my resolve. Their lives were spent giving us warning and buying time for me to get up and running. I have to make that sacrifice worth it.

I focused on my AT field, on my connection with Camilla, and on my core. The AT Field was an extension of the joint will of Camilla and me intertwined in a unified purpose. More specifically, the field was the soul exerting its influence upon reality. Ultimately, using an AT Field relied on flexing one's psyche. Part of that was figuring out the mental math necessary to shape reality just so, but the lion's share was in having sufficient mental strength and focus to exercise the potential of mind over matter made manifest.

Typically, it was used defensively in the barriers deployed by the Angels, and I myself had trained extensively in barrier techniques as well. Such things were equal parts hard calculations to determine the specifics of how the barrier functioned and strength of will to determine how powerful that barrier would be. There were offensive techniques too, such as the optical blast, but all of them had some particular blend of formula and fortitude involved in their execution, just like the barrier did.

But some of those applications of the AT Field went beyond the easily quantifiable equations I juggled in my head. Some leaned into the more… spiritual side of things.

Reach out…

I sank deep into Camilla, immersing my mind within the broad currents of her own and deliberately blurred the line between me and her. Then, as my identity barrier wavered, I pushed our AT Field out beyond the bounds of our skin. I pushed it further, further, and further still, creating a slowly growing sphere of influence around me. The larger it grew, the less control I would have over what happened within it, but I didn't need finesse right now.

I just needed to find the right target.

There!

I felt the Angel, swimming deep below the surface. Extended like this, I could feel all the souls in the fleet. Most of them were like tiny, flickering candles in the night. The Angel, by contrast, was an enormous bonfire, roiling with potential and rage. My attack had clearly hurt it, infuriated it, and I smirked at its outrage.

Burn in hell, you bastard, I thought, building up a wave of contempt and energy beneath my core.

Finally, I brushed the edges of my own stretched AT Field up against its own. The moment I made contact, I could feel it. The intent radiating off of it, bellowing a declaration to the whole world.

"I AM." Gaghiel announced, pressing raw psychic meaning into existence that made its thoughts something more than mere words could convey. Something more real than a mortal statement.

I could feel every aspect of its intent, of its identity, of its being wrapped around that simple declaration. Even still, I could hardly grasp the scope of it. It was so… massive, so inhuman, so wrong that I could scarcely understand what I beheld.

I'd touched humans' AT Fields like this before; I knew what another person's mind felt like brushing up against my own. I knew how to make sense of it, how to influence it, how to make it… hurt.

How to strip it bare.

But this…?

I didn't even know where to start with this.

What would Aunt Tanya say? I asked myself.

I breathed, life-giving LCL flowing into my lungs, tension flowing out with every exhale.

"When in doubt, harness a violence of action to achieve your objectives." I could almost hear her say.

The thought brought a smile to my face, even as I hardened my heart.

"Alright, Camila," I whispered, closing my eyes to better focus my will. "Let's make Aunt Tanya proud."

"I AM-" Gaghiel thought, the weight of its soul forcing the fabric of time and space to acknowledge its claim.

"-Nothing," I interrupted, slamming a spear of sharpened disdain right into the shell of the Angel's soul.

It stopped, its whole being twitching with shock as if it couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened. The lance of concentrated loathing stuck fast, having burrowed itself deep into some ineffable part of the creature's inhuman psyche.

Yet its barrier still remained, strained though it was.

That's fine. I grinned, ignoring the migraine already beginning to throb at the back of my mind. I have more ways to make you hurt.

"I AM-" The Angel repeated, more insistently and somehow at greater metaphysical volume.

I grabbed the lance and twisted, using it as a lever to burrow images of inferiority into its mind. "You are Nothi-"

"I AM!" Gaghiel boomed, retaliating with a powerful lash of psychic force, striking my own AT Field with a tendril made of something like arrogance and hate.

The impact sent faint whispers of its own perception bleeding into my mind. Parts of what it thought itself to be, of what it wanted to be.

It was beyond anything as simple as mundane language, even these bare scraps I could understand completely unlike any word ever written. The dreams of an alien mind creeping into my own.

Trying to understand that kaleidoscope of a message left my head reeling in agony. My mind burned as it was forced to comprehend that which had its source in the utterly inhuman. My head pounded from the Other thoughts shoved into my brain.

…But I know pain, I gritted my teeth, ignoring the taste of blood filling the entry plug, and you just made a big mistake, Bastard.

You told me how you think-!

I forced myself to work through the thoughts the Angel had given me. Knuckled down under the pain and turned its attack to my advantage. I didn't have everything, even now its AT Field was a shifting shell of monstrous tendrils, rather than anything familiar.

But now it was only nearly incomprehensible.

"You are-?" I pictured myself grabbing the tendril of its being that had struck me with a mental fist of my own. I pushed my mind into it, forcing its attack back, and picking it apart.

Every millimeter of information was like another dagger in my brain, but I was learning. I was beginning to understand.

Not everything. I knew I didn't have time for everything, I might never have time to unravel all its secrets, but I didn't need everything. I just needed to find its fracture points.

There.

I saw it.

I heard it.

I remembered it.

The Origin.

That was the single most important thing to Gaghiel. Seeking the Origin, merging with it, and attaining ascension. It didn't think it was complete.

It knows it isn't good enough.

I made a hammer of that knowledge, and struck at my Spear of Nothingness with the reflection of its own inadequacy.

"You are Nothing."

Its shell cracked. Tendrils burst, inhuman thoughts stuttering, alien feelings howling.

"I AM!" The Angel of the Fish rebutted, retorting with dreams of how it would ascend. How it would wipe the world clean with its own inevitable divinity.

I grabbed the Spear of Nothingness buried deep within it's core-

"You will always be Nothing."

-And tore it out with the unshakeable conviction that humanity would put the pathetic creature out of its misery before that ever happened.

Just like all the Angels before you.

The walls shattered, its mind spasmed in agony, and Gaghiel wailed beneath the waves.

I smiled, ignoring burning pressure in my mind and the cloying scent of iron that filled the plug.

"Aunt Tanya, it's weak! Gaghiel's shield is down! I repeat-!"

/-|-\
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/\-/_|_\-/\
\-|-/​

Tanya

"-Gaghiel's shield is down!"

"Captain!" I barked. "Asuka's done it, the Angel is exposed."

"Perfect." He gave a tight nod, a cold grin tugging at his lips as he spoke into the microphone. "This is Captain Johnston to the Pacific Fleet. Engage full ASW operations against the Angel Gaghiel."

At the word. The fleet came alive.

Powerful sonar arrays pierced the dark depths of the ocean, leaving nowhere for the Angel to hide. From there, I could see the horde of destroyers and frigates let slip dozens of torpedoes into the water in carefully measured volleys.

A veritable swarm of ASW-equipped aircraft filled the skies, hounding the Angel wherever it tried to go. No matter how far out it went, no matter how evasive its maneuver, no matter what undersea crevice it tried to cram itself in, the air fleet was there to place another volley of aerial torpedoes right on top of it.

For whatever reason it never tried to leave, possibly too angry, too stupid, or too alien to know when to run, but that was fine with us. We wanted constant pressure on it at all times, not to blow through our munitions in one go. Either the never-ending attacks would wear it down until it was finally convinced to leave once and for all, or-

"Gaghiel has changed directions!" Someone shouted. "The Angel is now on a direct intercept course for the USS Enterprise."

Or until it comes right for us.

"Prepare yourself, Asuka," I transmitted to her.

"I can feel him," she replied, a grin in her voice. "I'm ready."

The shrouded form of Camilla crouched down, Sonic Glaive in hand, her entire form tightly coiled like a spring. I could feel her AT Field shifting gears, my niece reeling it back in as quickly as she dared,

Around the fleet, every ship sat on overwatch, guns at the ready, waiting for the approaching leviathan. CIWS ran hot, orbiting air squadrons hung high, and every missile tube was loaded and eager to fire. Everyone was holding their breath now, just waiting for Gaghiel to appear.

Then it appeared.

The ocean heaved.

The Angel lept from the waves, its enormous form wreathed in a spray of seawater and blood.

Gaghiel's once immaculate form was covered in ugly, bleeding, wounds torn into its flesh. It lunged for Unit-02, fanged maw open wide to take vengeance upon the one at the heart of its misery.

"Predictable," I smirked.

Asuka pounced, wielding her glaive like a harpoon.

She darted under Gaghiel. Its maw snapped at the empty hood where her head once lay.

Her blade whipped through the air.

The edge blurred to the point even I could barely see it.

It buried itself in Gaghiel's soft underbelly.

A purple flood bleed from the wound that quickly flushed to crimson.

A torrent of ichor poured onto the flight deck.

The Angel roared in agony.

Asuka carefully planted her feet.

Camilla's muscles bulged.

Orange flashes of light rippled across Unit 02.

I could feel Asuka building up her AT Field again.

Gaghiel's jaws angrily tried to snap around at the Evangelion's head.

But slowly, inevitably, Asuka impaled Gaghiel on her Sonic Glaive, and with a push of effort hoisted it aloft in the air.

A hexagonal orange pane of light flashed into existence between them.

I could feel Asuka's attention shift. The last piece of her magical calculations finally slotted into place.

The air around her flickered. Then, panel by panel, her AT Field expanded. Before long, she'd wrapped her barrier around both Camilla and the USS Enterprise entirely. Bringing all of us under her protective aegis.

I could feel it, the strength of her soul wrapping around us all. The confidence in herself, the pain under the surface, the unshakable will holding it all together, and even the unconditional love she had for me. It was a protective shell built of her own iron-clad determination to keep us all safe. From here, we were untouchable.

But Gaghiel hung, writhing, on the end of Asuka's spear outside of her barrier.

Perfectly exposed to the guns of the Pacific Fleet.

"I'm ready!" Asuka confirmed.

"Captain!" I called out. "We are clear!"

"Pacific Fleet, open fire!" Captain Johnston bellowed, his hesitance at ordering friendly fire disappearing the moment Asuka had wrapped us under her protection.

At once, a cacophony erupted.

A wall of solid noise slammed into us.

Countless shells, missiles, and bombs slammed into Gaghiel's now vulnerable hide.

Lines of fire bloomed from dozens of ships. Rockets racing out with a fiery roar, each one carving burning trails through the sky.

Five-inch cannons punched staccato drumbeats of war through the air. Each thump signaling another armor-piercing shell biting into Gaghiel's flesh.

Brilliant beams of eye-searing light lanced out from the fleet's most advanced destroyers. Particle cannons cutting smoldering lines across the wailing beast with a keening shriek that set my teeth on edge.

Laser-guided penetrator bombs fell from swarms of varied aircraft on sorties from the other carriers of the fleet. The dark shapes falling like the devil's condemnation, burrowing into the Angel's hide before exploding in great plumes of thunderous fury that I could feel in my lungs.

Then the main guns of the battleships opened up. The Iowas, the last 4 battleships in the whole world, spoke as one. The sound and fury of all of their 16-inch guns opening up were like the world ending. A shockwave I could feel rattle my teeth. Shells as heavy as a car hurtled at nearly twice the speed of sound crashed into Gaghiel's hide with cataclysmic energy.

Through it all, Asuka's AT Field weathered the barrage like an unbreakable bulwark. Stray shells struck the shield. Flickering lights burst across its surface. The ship shook around us. The deafening cacophony rang our ears. I could even sense the starbursts of pain radiating from my niece's soul as they hit her AT Field.

For a moment, I was struck by a sense of helplessness. So often in my lives I was used to having a measure of my final fate placed in my own hands. I'd fought tooth and nail for my own survival, desperate to remain an active participant who had a say in whether I lived or died in so many battles I'd long stopped keeping track. As I watched Asuka fight for all our sakes, where I might have been in my past life, I knew that I had done all I could, and that now the fate of this battle was out of my hands. All I could do was put my faith in my niece and Captain Johnston and hope for the best.

Some part of me hated that, it wanted to take to the skies again, to have a say in my own survival again, to maintain my full agency right up until the bitter end, convinced that I could find some way to survive. Yet, another part watched as Asuka refused to waver, as the fleet tore the Angel apart, as we remained untouched.

That part brought a smile to my lips.

Good girl.

The same couldn't be said of Gaghiel.

The once-great leviathan wailed. An unearthly sound that rattled the bones and shook the soul, an almost unnatural cry of agony that sounded wrong on every level. Meat sloughed off the titan by the ton; the fleet's onslaught flaying the flesh from its bones while the helpless Angel could only writhe on Asuka's Sonic Glaive.

The enormous form of the leviathan pounded on Asuka's barrier, but compared to the rain of fire and steel from the ships around it, it may as well have been the ineffectual flailing of a child. With every impact, every wail, every second, her blade drew ever closer to splitting its core.

Until with one final, desperate, cry, something inside it shattered.

I could feel it. The second the last remnant of its AT Field disappeared. The moment its mana signature vanished. The instant its soul departed, Gaghiel died.

The flayed Angel fell limp on Asuka's blade, its corpse little more than a burnt and shredded slab of meat.

Countless gallons of its blood slicked the flight deck and Unit 02. Untold millions of dollars had been spent in munitions alone to spill it. Hundreds had died just to give us the chance to kill the beast.

But we had done it.

"Gaghiel has been defeated."

/-|-\
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/\-/_|_\-/\
\-|-/​

Shinji

I stood on the windy flight deck of the carrier, watching as the colonel knelt down to help her triumphant niece out of the extracted entry plug. I glanced up, taking in the image of the new Evangelion, crimson armor still covered by the gray cloak, and all but untouched save for the blood of its foe. The mangled corpse of Gaghiel lay on a cargo ship beside us.

I felt… relieved. Another Angel down, another fight over, and I was still alive. My friends were safe. That new girl, Asuka, had executed her aunt's plan perfectly.

Flawlessly.

Gracefully.

Like I never have.

A spike of frustration shot through me.

I buried it down as soon as it flared up. This wasn't about me. I hadn't even done anything. I was supposed to be happy for her. This was her moment, her victory.

I was happy for her. I just…

Some part of me I couldn't describe resented her victory. Hated what it meant.

She revealed just how pathetic you really are.

The unbidden thought made me sick. I took the feeling and shoved it into a well-worn box in the corner of my mind.

Shut up! I thought, frustration turning on myself instead. Why can't I just be happy like I'm supposed to? Why-?

"Huh, so they actually pulled it off?" Misato said beside me, shaking me from my thoughts.

"What?" I said.

"Those two." She nodded towards the von Zeppelins. "And, well, I guess the whole fleet really."

She let out a hefty sigh. "The Commander is just going to love this."

He doesn't seem to love anything. A bitter part of me whispered.

I frowned. "What's wrong? We won, didn't we?"

Misato snorted. "Sure, the Angel's dead alright, but NERV hardly had anything to do with it." She shot me a pitying glance. "It's politics, Shinji. Part of the Commander's whole pitch for NERV is that we're the experts at dealing with the Angels. That if the UN wants the Angels dead, they have to come to us and only us."

"But… we're all on the same side, right?" Part of me felt stupid for even asking, but it seemed so obvious that I couldn't understand. "I mean, the Angels are the real enemy, right? Aren't we supposed to be working together to stop from destroying humanity?"

"We should be…" Misato groaned, "but, like I said, Shinji, it's politics. The whole thing's a self-sabotaging shark pit. I don't know what the Commander is thinking here on this, but the colonel was pretty blunt when we were meeting earlier."

"Put simply? The colonel made it clear that the UN isn't exactly enthused about how NERV has been taking down the Angels," Misato explained, her voice tight as a fiery wisp of anger danced in her eyes. "They think we're doing a bad job, like they'd be so much better at fighting a completely alien foe unlike anything humanity has ever faced before."

Misato ground her teeth together. "Of course, it didn't even take the colonel an hour to give their case some credibility."

Because you aren't good enough. A bitter voice whispered. Who are you fooling? That girl is ten times the pilot you'll ever be. You were always a backup, a spare. If you were a real pilot you'd be training to do this for years like Rei or Asuka have been.

The one time your father actually had a use for you, and all you could be was a joke.

My gut twisted uncomfortably, my hand clenching to bite down on the sensation. I shoved the thoughts back down into the dark with well worn practice and tried to focus on the real world.

"Sorry…" I muttered and glanced away, trying not to think about the way my stomach writhed.

Misato winced. "Er… no, it's not your fault, Shinji. I-I mean, you've done great! Amazing, even! Asuka's been training for years for this! You only started piloting Unit 01 a couple of months ago!" She looked at me with a pasted-on smile full of false cheer.

"So what am I good for?" my mouth said before my brain could stop it.

"Shinji!" Misato chided through a forced smile, "Don't sell yourself short! Without you, we'd already be dead! Sachiel, Shamshel, Ramiel… all of those victories are because of you."

I knew objectively that was true.

But I also knew my father.

If he's got a fancy new pilot who can do so much better than me on her first try, why would he bother keeping me around? I thought. It's not like he ever actually wanted me around before.

I didn't say any of that though. Instead, I just nodded and mumbled a half-hearted, "Okay."

Turning from Misato, I saw Asuka stand up from the plug, her suit and hair still dripping wet from the LCL fluid. She took a wobbly step forward before her aunt came over and wrapped her jacket around the girl.

"Aunt Tanya!" Asuka shouted, sputtering as her face suddenly flushed despite her pallor, and trying to tear herself from the colonel's grip, not that it seemed to do much good.

The colonel said something I couldn't hear over the roaring clamor across the deck. Countless sailors, machinery, and the high winds of the sea drowning her out. But I could see Asuka stopping, her whole body freezing as something the colonel said drew her up short.

The colonel leaned in, pressed a gentle kiss to her niece's forehead, and whispered something in her ear. I saw Asuka's face scrunch up, her eyes water, and her lips twitch, before she let out a cry and buried her head in her aunt's shoulder. The colonel simply took it in stride, wrapping Asuka in a hug and gently brushing her hair.

I couldn't hear a word they were saying, but I didn't need to.

Why can't I have that? A bitter spike of cold agony ripped through my gut, suddenly leaving this gaping hole of loss and envy in me.

In that instant, I hated them for having something I couldn't. I hated my father for being the cold distant thing that he was. I even hated my mother for dying before I really knew her.

Then I hated myself even more for thinking like that.

What's wrong with me? I shoved the ugly spite down again, forcing the pain back into the corner of my mind with renewed effort. Why can't I just be happy for them?

Why can't I just be normal?

In the absence of the anger, shame filled me. I couldn't even look at a family being happy without being jealous and spiteful. I was disgusting.

"Shinji?" Misato glanced over, concern clear on her face. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Y-yeah," I managed, despite how sick I felt. "I'm fine."

She frowned, unconvinced, and glanced at the aunt and niece combo walking towards us. She opened her mouth, looking like she was about to say something, and I felt dread well up inside me. Fortunately, she changed her mind and shook her head.

"You're right, I'm being silly." She forced a smile. "Why don't we congratulate the lucky family on their win, Shinji?"

That dark feeling came bubbling up again. I ignored it.

"S-sure." I replied.

Even across the massive flight deck, and while all but carrying her niece, it didn't take Colonel von Zeppelin long to reach us.

From the overly-cheery smile Misato had slapped onto her face, I immediately wished that the pair never had.

"Colonel!" Misato waved, her overly saccharine expression almost nauseating. "You and Asuka did an amazing job taking down that angel."

The colonel just stopped and stared at Misato. For a moment, her face seemed almost dangerously blank, before the woman responded to Misato's smile by pulling her lips into a nightmarish interpretation of her own.

"Thank you, Major," she said, her bright blue eyes almost twinking under the sun. "But I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat. As you can see, my hands are a bit tied up."

"M'fine." Asuka grumbled in her arms.

This close, it was easy to see she was anything but. It might've been hard to look away from her athletic form in the slim suit before, but now I couldn't look away from her deathly face. Her skin was pale, white as a sheet, which made the blood dribbling down her nose stand out all the more, and made her bloodshot eyes look haunted.

"You need to see the infirmary immediately," the colonel gently rebuked her, unsettling smile softening as she spoke to her niece.

"Bu-"

"No buts" The colonel shifted her weight and, with impressive ease, outright hoisted her niece into her arms.

"Aunt Tanya," Asuka whined, her tone and eyes not quite there.

"Hush." The colonel pressed a finger to Asuka's head, and with a whisper of something in German, her niece fell into a peaceful sleep.

"That fight really took a lot out of her, didn't it?" Misato said. "I have to admit, I'm surprised, it didn't look like she got hit much."

That's a nice way to say that the Angel couldn't touch her. The corner of my mind whispered. Even by your third Angel, you needed someone else to protect you. She killed her first without a scratch.

Some guardian of mankind you are.

"I-is she alright?" I asked instead, pushing away the self doubts for a moment. "I mean, she looks…" I trailed off, not sure what to say.

For a moment, the colonel looked at me, looked through me, her piercing sapphire gaze seeming to cut down to the core of my being. Irrationally, some part of me screamed that she would see how worthless I was.

I ignored it.

Eventually, though, she seemed to find what she was looking for.

"...She will be fine. For the most part, it looks much worse than it is," the colonel explained. "Utilizing Advanced AT Field techniques is something like exercising a muscle you never knew you had. The results of a taxing session can leave one exhausted and sore, but with treatment and rest she will recover stronger than ever."

She sent an unreadable look down towards her sleeping niece. "...if only one learns to stick to doing so safely within their limits."

"Heh," Misato chuckled. "So what, something like 'magic has its price', eh?"

Tanya von Zeppelin looked up and met Misato with a loaded gaze as cold as a grave. "Everything has its price, Major."

Something about that struck Misato. I saw her expression pause, the painfully synthetic aura of her mask fading for a moment, letting something genuine slip out. A message I couldn't interpret passed between the two soldiers.

Then Misato gave her a smile that was a little more real, and far more somber. "...Right. I suppose it does."

The colonel nodded. "Good day Major. Pilot Ikari. My Brigade and I shall see you shortly in Tokyo 3."

Misato nodded along, moving to wave as they left.

Then she froze.

"...What do you mean by 'your Brigade', exactly, Colonel?"

Colonel von Zeppelin raised a brow. "NATO's 1st combined Evangelion Support Brigade. Were you truly not informed of any of this?"

I could practically feel the heat radiating off of Misato from all the anger rolling off her. I myself couldn't really understand the importance of what it all meant, but it did sound like my father was keeping more secrets.

Wonderful. I frowned. At least I'm not the only one getting dragged around by his cryptic schemes.

"No," she said through gritted teeth, her own brow twitching with menacing intent. "No, Commander Ikari did not inform me of this."

Colonel von Zeppelin blinked.

"...Oh dear."

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A/n: This was fun to write.

Except for Shinji's part, that was a pain in the dick. As a character, I don't hate him. Heck, @Readhead even brought me around to kinda appreciate him as a character. But as someone to write, fuck Shinji.

Huge thanks to @Readhead , @Sunshine , and all the rest from last time for their help with this one. Couldn't have done it without all that support.

Funnily enough, I actually wrote the first quarter or so of this chapter before I wrote any of Chapter 1. I also had to write the mind fight, like, 3 times because it was being a bitch. I do gotta give props to @Sunshine for encouraging me to punch it up to where it's at, though.

Finally, I hope you enjoyed. Chapter 3 is in the works, and writing the Von Zeppelins has been an absolute blast.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Trilateral Symmetry 2
Worm x Destiny


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A/n: Thanks to @Readhead for his help editing so I could get this out in a coherent state.



Looking at the tangled nest of wires, electronics, and high-energy gravitic generators, Bakuda indulged herself with a good cackle.

"Haha!" she crowed, "I am a genius!"

Her ace in the hole, her coupe-de-grass, the ultimate weapon that would make every two-bit-thug, wanna-be-hero, and government-stooge shake in their boots and back the fuck down was almost complete!

The bomb to end all bombs! she thought, mad grin behind her mask, Something so powerful it'll punch a hole in reality itself! Nobody would dare try challenging me with this baby in my back pocket!

All I need to finish it is cross these two wires and make sure the output is-

Bakuda blinked, a red light flashing in the corner of her vision as the sensors in her mask informed her that the dimensional membrane in this region was thinner than it was supposed to be.

…Huh, weird, but I can get around that, Bakuda thought, shrugging the matter off. Makes the bomb's job easier, really.

Without any further thoughts, Bakuda moved to cross the two wires that would finish her doomsday bomb. Just as she did, her sensors caught a sharp spike in the quantum wavefront underpinning reality. The same quantum frequencies that her bomb tapped into, not only to power itself but also to become that reality punching bomb her heart desired.

That inexplicable spike sent a surge of energy directly into the primary power bank of her bomb. The resulting harmonic cascade was as destabilizing in the intricate and delicate trans-dimensional circuitry as it was unstoppable.

"...Oh no," were Bakuda's last words, a fitting epithet for a tinker who specialized in new and innovative explosions.

There was, she realized in a sudden fit of clarity, really only way her story could have ever ended.

Then, abruptly, there was a flash of green and reality was torn asunder. For an eternal instant a swirling vortex of green energy flared through the room from the crack in the dimensional boundary, an impossible and vile geyser of not-light, made of unreal star stuff consisting of sterile neutrinos. Like the eye of an angry and drunken god, it obliterated everything in sight, atomizing the room in a flood of uncontained energy and smashing apart the rest of the building. Then, just as fast as it had burst into being, the man-sized hole in the fabric of reality disappeared, leaving naught but rubble in its wake.

A minute later, there was another flash of light, and suddenly three figures stood atop the rubble.

A woman covered in thick plates of advanced armor fashioned of polished silver. She noticed the old and unfamiliar, but impossibly nostalgic, look of the city around her.

A woman in flowing robes of gleaming white hovering a couple inches off the ground. She noticed the sterile neutrinos, a sure sign of interdimensional travel.

A woman shrouded in an obsidian cloak, all but swallowed up by the darkness of the night. She looked up and noticed the moon hanging far about, unscared and untainted by the hive.

The three looked together and spoke as one.

"Well…fuck."

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"Alright, Give it to me straight." The woman in shadows sighed, perched on the top of a building and staring at the moon that wasn't quite right. "Are we in the past?"

"No." The women in flowing white replied instantly. "Or, well, not technically? Sort of yes, sort of no."

The woman in shadows turned her shrouded gaze slowly towards her teammate and silently stared.

Her sterling silver plated teammate chuckled.

"Fine, fine, ok, you want it straight." The woman in white huffed. "We're in a past, but not our past…Probably."

"...Pray tell, what does that mean?" Her silver teammate inquired.

"From my readings, it's pretty clear that we crossed an inter-dimensional boundary when we hopped through that portal." The woman in white winced. "And, well, I already knew that there would be some interdimensional travel, but I never imagined it'd be this bad. Sorry about that,"

"It's fine. Better here than getting the Vex's paradox wielding boot crammed up our ass," the woman in shadows grumbled as she waved the matter off. "So where is here?"

"Basically, instead of sliding backwards in time, exactly, I theorize that we essentially slid into another dimension at a different point in the timeline." the woman in white paused and considered another possibility. "...Or this is the same moment in time on a universal scale, things in this place just happened a millennium or so later than ours."

"Is that how far back we are? A millennium?" The woman in silver asked. "Before The Collapse, clearly, but even before the Golden Age?"

The woman in white shrugged. "I can't say with any precision, really. Could be a thousand years, could be two thousand years. With the way The Collapse screwed up our knowledge of history, not to mention the Dark Age, the only reference I have for time is stellar drift, which is only so helpful."

"Lovely," the woman in shadows sighed.

"This could be an opportunity, however," the woman in silver ventured. "If we are in the past, perhaps we can change things for the better?"

"I told you, it's not our past, I have no idea if any of the same things that happened in our timeline will happen this one," the woman in white pointed out. "I mean, I don't even know if the Traveler exists in this reality."

"Of course they exist, in one form if not another. How else would we still have the Light?" To emphasize her point, the woman in silver flexed her hand, a ball of shining energy coalescing in her palm.

"...Possibly," the woman in white hedged, "but I am concerned about what 'one form or another' could mean. Not to mention that, if the Traveler is here, the Witness is all but sure to follow."

"And none of that matters," the woman in shadows cut in definitively. "We need to worry about the here and now. Planning for the next thousand years doesn't help us any if we don't survive the next five days."

"But if there's no darkness here, things couldn't be that hard, could they?" White asked.

"No, she has a point," Silver nodded, "Arrogance is a slow and insidious killer. Just because we do not know the Darkness is here, does not mean its absence is guaranteed. Furthermore, the lack of paracausal forces does not at all make us invincible. Such thoughts are a quick way to a sure end."

White hummed in acknowledgement. "Fair enough."

"Good," Shadow leaned forward, flipping out a knife from the depths of her cloak, "now we need a plan of attack for how we're going to-"

And then something in the city exploded in a massive fireball. The three women stared at the inferno rising into the sky. Each of their keen eyes, trained through years of war with alien and supernatural forces, catching flickers of impossibility for this supposedly mundane past. Figures flitting about in the air, shooting lances of light at one another. Shifting shapes towering over the buildings. Glimpses of something more on the ground.

"...Well, it seems we have our plan," Silver said, and they could all hear the smile in her voice. "We need to attack."

And with that, the woman in silver summoned a massive sword and charged off towards the fighting.

The woman in white laughed, her hands coming alight with balls of golden fire as she flew up to follow.

Behind them, the woman in shadows sighed as she watched her sisters in battle charge off for another fight, half-cocked.

"The things I do for family…"

And with that, she melted into the darkness.

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Jake Long stared at the fight unfolding before him on the street, and hated the sense of helplessness it gave him.

Living in Brockton Bay had always been a struggle. If it wasn't the damn Nazis, it was Lung and his half assed abomination of a gang trying to drag him out of school. The worst part to Jake was that barely even considered himself Chinese; he'd been born right here in the Bay, like his parents before him. He had to trace his history back over a century before he found the ancestors that came from the Mainland, but somehow that distant ancestry was all any of the gangs seemed to care about.

Not the fact his grandpa fought Nazis and the IJA in World War II. Not the fact his mom was a doctor. Not even the fact that his dad's side of the family was technically French, no. All they care about was the fact he looked Asian enough, and since the gangs fucking ran this city, no thanks to the useless fucks in the PRT, that meant living on the edge between getting dragged into a gang or shot by one every fucking day.

But he'd managed to deal with it. Got into Arcadia, had some good friends, was even on track to get a basketball scholarship. And now those gangs had brought their war right to his doorstep.

So to speak, at least.

He was helping his mom out as she finished up her work at the clinic when it started. The bombs going off around the city. The Empire pushing into the ABB's territory. With all the chaos, his mom had thrown the doors of the clinic back open and offered it as a shelter for anyone needing help or just trying to stay out of the way of the fight.

Somehow, despite that, the fight had come to them.

First they'd seen the searing beams of Purity's light, obliterating whole blocks of the neighborhood in one pass. Then they'd heard the roar of Lung's fury just down the street, the columns of his fire scorching blinding plumes in the darkness of the night. More capes flashed past, and they'd even caught a few glimpses of Oni Lee; it was like half the city's damn roster of capes had shown up right outside just to stomp their homes flat.

Then a few "heroes" had shown up, not that it had helped.

Some girl from the New Wave was dancing with Purity in sky, leaving their energy blasts to crash down on the rest of them. Dauntless was blasting Lung with his lightning, which only seemed to piss the wannabe dragon off more. A few other heroes were tangling with other villains, but all it really seemed to do was turn the gang war into a chaotic mess.

And all Jake could do was watch and hope they didn't step on him.

He hated that feeling.

Then he saw Purity's light shift again in that tell-tale sign of her charging up a blast. The New-Wave flier was already moving out of the way, and Purity had yet to hit her during the whole fight, so he had his doubts that would change now, not that he would care much if it did. What he cared far more about was the fact that standing in the firing line was his mom's clinic.

"...Oh." Jake breathed as he realized this was probably how he died.

He'd seen what that beam could do to a house, if it hit the clinic there was nowhere he could run, nothing he could even do to stop it.

He was helpless.

[Destination]
Jake hated it with all his heart.

Watching as the careless capes tore his neighborhood apart with their thoughtless violence.

[Trajectory]

All while he could only watch.

His mind bro-

[Agree-

He saw a flash of violet light in front of him, and felt a sudden and inexplicable sense of security.

Jake blinked, shaking a strange dizziness from his head, then looked back towards the beam, only to witness the unexpected instead of impending doom. A giant purple bubble shield encompassed the clinic, holding Purity's blast of searing light back without any sign of visible strain.

Standing just before him were two figures, a woman in a shadowy cloak and armor, and a towering cape in thick plates of some kind of silver tinkertech armor. The armored figure had their hands outstretched, looking like they'd created the shield as part of their power. The cloaked one, however, was looking straight at him.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Er," Jake shook his head, trying to push the lingering remnants of fuzziness from his brain and get it back on track with whatever the hell was happening now. "...Yes?"

He spared a moment to look between the armored pair. Neither of them looked anything like any cape he'd heard of, in or out of the Bay, but the quality of their tinkertech armor screamed at the fact they weren't new to this. That wasn't even taking into account the way they held themselves.

"Whew," The armored figure breathed, making Jake realize the towering knight was a woman. She lowered her arms and stepped back, but the bubble shield remained in place. "Cut that one a bit close, eh Bastet?"

"We made it, Weaver." Basted responded with a curt tone. "That's all that matters."

"Heh, fair enough, sister." Weaver chuckled.

"Who…who are you?" Jake asked, a mixture of confusion and relief filling him.

"Oho? A world where our legend is still unknown? A new stage for our heroics to be etched into the legends of time?" The armored woman summoned a giant sword in a flash of light and, of all things, started to pose with it. "You set your eyes upon two thirds of Fireteam -!"

"We don't have time for your grandstanding." Bastet cut her off, then turned back to Jake. "Look kid, all you need to know is that we're Guardians, and we're here to help."

Jake wanted to say thank you, it was the smart thing to say to two capes standing right in front of him who could probably kill him with a flick of their wrist. Instead, thanks to maybe stress, or exhaustion, or maybe just the relief from not having died, his mouth ran away from him.

"You can help by fixing that bullshit outside." Jake said before he could stop himself. "Ain't much point keeping the clinic running if those fucking capes flatten the rest of the neighborhood."

For a single horrified moment, Jake realized what he'd said and wondered if this was how he died instead.

Then the armored giant of a woman laughed, clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to crack his spine, and said, "Fear not, young man! For Gloria has set out to accomplish just that with a grand spell!"

Jake blinked. "...Wait, what?"

"What this hammy idiot means is that our third sister is handling it." Bastet explained.

Then, there was a flash of green, a sense of something twisting just at edge of Jake's perception, and cacophony of shocked cries from just outside the building.

"...Well…handled it, I suppose."

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A/n: For this chapter, it's shorter than I expected, but I think this is a decent enough stopping point, and it's about as long as the first one.

To be clear, Weaver is Taylor (Yes she is a Titan and being hammy), Bastet is Sophia (And is suffering the fate of being the sane Hunter), and Gloria is Victoria(Who, yes, is the team Warlock and agent of chaos). I don't know how much I like them having different names, but it makes more sense to me than them keeping their old names given the whole memory-loss different-world thing. That said, it could also be unnecessarily confusing, so I may have them just use their old names instead.

Taylor => Weaver => Titan
Sophia => Bastet => Hunter
Victoria => Gloria => Warlock

For those wondering about the green light, that was Gloria using Strand to tie up literally everybody involved in the fight outside. Something I'll show off a bit next chapter

Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Chapter 3 of Trilateral Symmetry will be posted next week, meanwhile Victory Lap is next on the list of snip series to be updated from backlog.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Victory Lap 2


Youjo Senki/Worm/Pokemon


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​

Tanya

"-and now Gladion won't talk to anyone about it," I grumbled. "It just feels like our family is breaking apart these days. Ever since my father disappeared, I just…"

I exhaled, forcing the stress to flow out with my breath. I turned my gaze to the window, my eyes tracing the raindrops sliding down the glass. The sky was overcast, a light tropical storm covering the sky. The world outside seemed almost as somber as I was.

Closing my eyes, I sucked in a breath and let myself sink into my senses. The bold scent of fresh coffee lingering in the air. The pitter-patter of rain tapping on the roof. The warmth of the cup in my hand contrasted with the gentle chill of the air tickling my skin.

"...I feel like there is something more I should be doing," I finally said, "but…what?"

Mimikyu made a thoughtful sound across from me, bobbing his puppet's head in understanding.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be shoveling all this onto you." I sighed, putting down my teacup.

Ever since I'd made that agreement with Mimikyu over a year ago, I'd been coming back to his little haunted house on a regular basis, usually once a month, but sometimes more frequently as my time allowed. Lately, my visits had turned into a practically weekly affair.

In the past year, I had felt increasingly adrift in my newfound family. My father had gone missing in some classified accident that my mother wouldn't tell me about. From what I've gathered, it involves the strange spatial phenomenon they'd been studying together. I didn't know much about it, but whatever it was, there'd been no sign of him ever since. In the wake of his abrupt absence, my new family had fractured.

Mother…just wasn't the same. She'd become distant and cold, burying herself in her work. In a bitterly ironic twist, she'd constantly thrown herself into the proselytization of the importance of caring for pokemon while she neglected her own children. My brother, Gladion, had become equally distant, his mood souring and his expression almost permanently dark and brooding. Whenever I tried to approach him, he'd brush me off and leave, no matter the topic. Even when I brought up common sense concerns like focusing on his studies or taking care of himself, he wouldn't listen.

Of all of the members of my family, it felt like Lillie took things the hardest. Rather than withdraw from me like Gladion, she could barely go a night without sleeping in my room now. On some level, I knew she felt embarrassed about having to rely on me, but she clearly felt so shaken and distraught that she couldn't bring herself to care. For my part, I didn't mind being her pillar of strength, I was the eldest sibling, it was my job to care for my younger siblings. That didn't make me feel any better about the way she would whimper in her sleep. Nor did it make me any happier the way I seemed to be the only one willing to look out for her.

Well…I suppose only is a bit much. Wicke tries, I acknowledged. Unfortunately, it's far from enough.

"Mimik!" Mimikyu protested, slapping a shadowy tendril on the table. "Kyu! Kyu-Mi!"

A soft smile found its way onto my face. "Thank you, Mimikyu."

Surprisingly enough, my little investment in the Pokemon had paid dividends for my sanity. A confidant on whom I could dump the invisible weights pressing down on my shoulders without any fear of judgment would have been worth their weight in gold; I counted myself fortunate that Mimikyu's trust had only cost a few scant hours of my time.

Mimikyu was far more intelligent than I'd initially estimated. He certainly couldn't speak the native human tongue or anything, which was hardly unexpected for a Pokemon, but he could seemingly understand it perfectly and was more than capable of articulating thoughts of his own via a variety of gesticulations and cries of "Mimik" and "Kyu".

Indeed, the more I 'spoke' with him, the more sense I was able to parse out of his odd vocalizations. While still not enough to replace the free flow of spoken conversation, we were still able to communicate, even though I frequently had difficulty understanding more than the general thrust of his responses.

I'd say it's strange that my first friend in this world isn't human, I almost laughed, but from everything I've seen, that's about par for the course.

I really have gone native, haven't I?

"Well, thank you for indulging me with my rambling as always, Mimikyu."

Mimikyu made a noise of protest. The image of the adorably creepy doll panicking at the idea of me inconveniencing him was enough to bring a chuckle to my lips. That seemed to mollify him to a degree, and he pointed a tendril at my cup with an inquiring tone.

"It's quite good," I admitted, taking the opportunity to sip from my teacup. The bold and bitter flavor lingered on my tongue as the heat diffused through my body. Every sip I took seemed to revitalize me in ways I couldn't easily describe. The warm, soothing sensation was a welcome balm for my soul, troubled as it was these days.

"It's certainly invigorating, and every time I come by, your blends always seem to improve," I continued. "I have to say, I've never had anything quite like it. You must tell me your recipe someday."

Mimikyu giggled and used a tendril to slide across the doll's mouth, miming his sealed lips.

I snorted. "Well, I suppose I can't begrudge you some trade secrets, can I?"

Mimikyu nodded emphatically, his doll jerking this way and that. It was, frankly, an adorable sight.

"But," I smirked, "perhaps I can interest you in another trade?"

Mimikyu paused at that, his doll's head cocked at an inquiring angle, and I could see the little shadowy stitches holding it in place. "Mimik?"

"You tell me what you're doing for this delightful coffee," I gestured to my steaming cup, "and in return, I do something else for you of commensurate value. That way we both get something we want, and we can both walk away satisfied."

"...Kyu…" he muttered thoughtfully.

A shadowy tendril scratched at the top of his doll for a moment as he pondered the suggestion. That was more than fine. So far he'd been a surprisingly pleasant host in our time together, and I wouldn't want to spoil our rapport by trying to rush him into anything. Besides, it wasn't like I needed the recipe or anything. It might be nice to have, sure, but mostly I wanted to strengthen my bonds with the curious creature.

As it turned out, Mimikyu were fairly rare Pokemon, and little was known about them. What little information I could find seemed more like a collection of urban legends than anything credible. However, taken together with what else I'd been able to gather about Pokemon and the oddities of this world, Mimikyu was, at the absolute least, a far better ally than an enemy.

To cross this Pokemon is to invite death, if the stories are anything to go by, I mused as I took another sip of my beverage. And yet, with but the barest courtesy and attention, he serves me delicious coffee and snacks for teatime?

I grinned behind my cup. Perhaps Mimikyu understands the basic rationale of cost-benefit analysis himself? "Oppose me, and be punished, but remain cordial and be rewarded"?

How delightfully clever.

"Mimikyu." He finally nodded, puppet bobbing in agreement.

"Oh?" I lowered my cup and allowed myself a full smile. "So you'll agree to an exchange for your recipe, then?"

"Kyu." He nodded again.

"Splendid!" I clapped my hands together. "In which case, whatever may I do to compensate you?"

He paused, hesitant, then slowly raised a dark tendril and gestured my way. I frowned, confused, and tried to see what, specifically, he wanted.

Is it something I'm wearing, or-

"Mimik…" His tendril moved closer, slipping past my legs, and tapping behind my feet.

…No, not my feet, it's-

"My shadow?" I gave him a confused look. "You want my shadow?"

His tendril retracted and wiggled in a so-so gesture. "Kymi". He paused again, then gestured to my shadow once more. "...Kyu?"

Some kind of request? I reasoned. But for what?

I consider his request for a moment. There were few things all the stories agreed on. The first was that Mimikyu could be extremely dangerous if provoked. The second? It was dangerous only if provoked. And given his otherwise polite, and even generous behavior, I was willing to extend another measure of trust myself.

"...Alright…" I took a breath, fortifying myself for whatever he had in store, and nodded. "Let's see what you have to show me."

"Mimikyu!" He cheered, and then collapsed into nothingness and-

Something on the edge of my perception shifted. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. A faint pain throbbed behind my eyes. A chill ran down my spine and the room felt so much colder.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to push the discomfort away. But something still felt off.

"What just…" I groaned through grit teeth. I opened my eyes, searching the room for any trace of the mysterious pokemon, but he seemed to have completely vanished. "Mimikyu? What's happening"

"Kyu!" came his voice.

But… I didn't hear it, I felt it.

My eyes widened. "Mimikyu, where are you?"

"Mimikyu Kyu!" I felt something tap my leg.

I looked down and saw my shadow.

It was grinning up at me. "Mimikyu!" my shadow smiled, its mouth filled with fangs, shadowy tendrils radiating off its distorted form.

On the one hand, it should be terrifying.

But on the other hand…

"Well…" I couldn't help my smile as thoughts raced through my mind.

"That's one hell of a tactical advantage, isn't it?"

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Taylor

"Hey kiddo," a distant voice called.

I wanted to wake up, but I was wrapped in a blanket of impossible softness and warmth. It called me back to the Realm of Morpheus, back to where reality couldn't hurt me anymore.

Then something poked me in the cheek. "Oy, kid."

I jerked, my instincts screaming of dangers at every corner, and I reached for a knife that wasn't there. As soon as I started to move, though, I was drowned under a wave of comfort and affirmation.

[Safe]
[Home]
[Friend]

My tired mind rewound my memories, struggling to recall just what was happening, and why I was safe, and-

"Brat." A finger prodded my cheek again. "Get up. Breakfast ain't gonna wait for you."

My stomach chose that moment to loudly grumble.

"Heh! Thought that might get your attention."

I groaned something inarticulate as I pulled myself from the warm covers. They writhed around me in an achingly familiar fashion. Countless limbs dancing across my skin in a myriad of patterns, soothing my anxieties away in a sea of stimulation. Wings thrummed against a sea of small bodies, their radiating body heat leaving my feet nice and toasty. Despite the chaos of their movements, their intentions were all in sync.

[Food][Food][Food]

With that, the last piece clicked into place, and I glared at Guzma with a gimlet eye. "...Fine."

He smirked, the bastard. "You sour 'cause the big bad boss is drag'n you outta bed?"

I'd known the self-proclaimed gang boss long enough to know that he was anything but big and bad. There was no denying he was the leader of Team Skull, but I'd done far more than my fair share of working on the wrong side of the law, and I certainly knew what a big bad boss of a dangerous gang looked like. Guzma was positively cuddly by comparison; he was closer to the head of a Salvation Army chapter than to Lung. Or, for that matter, to me when I'd been called Skitter.

Hand or foot, your choice…

I shivered at the memory. I suppose him being a big softie isn't a bad thing, I admitted. He could certainly be far worse. And besides, Team Skull doesn't do anything worse than be a nuisance. For all that they claim to be a gang, they don't really do anything I'd consider gang activity… And Guzma… actually seems to genuinely care about his crew.

That's a hell of a lot more than I can say about some people…

That said…

"...If you're the big bad boss, why are you getting me up?" I prodded as I collected my thoughts, reaching over for my glasses placed on a nearby web.

At my comment, Guzma scowled and huffed. "Because everyone else in the gang is too much of a screaming wuss to intrude on your kingdom of creepy crawlies, that's why."

Before my brain could catch up with my mouth, I said, "What's wrong with it?"

He snorted and nodded toward my bed.

Or, well… "bed".

In reality, it was more of a hammock I'd built from silk. Specifically, bug pokemon silk. Bug pokemon I'd convinced to fashion a kind of large waterproof tent from their webbing and string. Bug pokemon I was currently using as a blanket. I looked down at dozens of big bug pokemon eyes blinking up at me. Spinarach, Surskit, Caterpie, and even my Dewpider all piled on top of me in a comforting blanket of warmth and safety.

Some part of me felt weak and childish for latching onto them like this. Like I was a little girl that couldn't sleep without her teddy bear for fear of the monsters under her bed. But…

[Friend!]

They reminded me that I wasn't alone anymore. They helped keep the nightmares away. They told me that this was all real, that I was real.

"Dewpider?"
[Concern]

I looked down to see my partner staring up at me, worry swimming in those big adorable eyes of his, and felt my fears melt away.

Then I remembered how other people tended to react to dog-sized spiders in their face. As I looked around my tent, it occurred to me how it probably looked to most people.

"...Ah." I grimaced and shot Guzma an apologetic look.

He just waved it off. "Like I said, just a bunch of pu-wussies." he hastily corrected himself. Then he gave my walls of silk a thoughtful look. "That said… I might wanna get me a lair like this."

"...A lair?" I tried not to cringe.

"He-eck yeah a lair!" He grinned, "Just what every big bad boss needs, a menacing lair to rule from with an iron fist! Heh." He looked down. "What do you say, Ariados? Sound good?"

"Ari"
[Curiosity]

I caught sight of a yellow-striped limb prodding at the edges of my silken cocoon. A large, red, arachnid peaked over the edge, inquiring black eyes taking in the elaborate weave of it all.

"Dos." She nodded her head.
[Interest]

…Right. My mind caught up. He's-

"Anyways, brat," Guzma cut off my thoughts. "Breakfast, now. Get it while there's still something left for you." He pulled his head out of my spun hammock. "Don't come crying to me if you miss it."

"...Fine."


A few minutes later I found myself staring at a bowl of fruit-filled oatmeal with a side of sausage. I stirred the warm cereal and chopped up berries idly with my spoon, occasionally taking a bite. It wasn't bad, far from it, but my thoughts were weighing heavily on me this morning.

What am I even doing here? I sighed, spooning more porridge.

I'd decided to accept the fact that I was somehow alive again, and that this really was reality, cartoony monsters and all. This newfound acceptance was a step forward, but it only did so much for my feeling of aimlessness. I still didn't know what I should do with my second chance.

It wasn't that I had unfinished business. To the contrary, I'd finally accomplished the one goal I had dedicated myself towards over the last few years of my oh-so-short first life. The world had been saved, and it had only cost everything I'd ever cared about. Everyone I knew, Dad, Lisa, Brian, even if they survived the final battle, I'd never see them again. It had been a price worth paying; for the survival of the species, it was hard to say anything else. But…

What do I do now?

"Pider!"
[Delicious!]

I looked down to see Dewpider happily munching on his own breakfast, a bowl full of berries, and found his presence a balm on my soul.

I guess I'm not alone anymore. But…I still don't know what to do next. I turned back to my breakfast, allowing myself another spoonful of oatmeal followed by a slice of sausage.

"You're overthinking things again, aren't you?" a woman said.

I jerked at the sudden voice behind me, instincts flaring, mind reaching for senses that didn't exist anymore. A dozen frantic thoughts jolted through my mind before I could process them. Where's my swarm? How did she sneak up on me? Am I in danger?

"Dew!"
[Greetings friend]

Then recognition clicked and my incipient panic attack stalled out. My tension slowly diffused as I forced my breathing to relax, tried to ignore the pounding in my heart, and turned to give the unofficial "big sister" of Team Skull a welcoming nod.

"Morning, Plumeria," I grunted, eyeing the bright-haired woman.

Like pretty much everyone else in the "gang", she wore the typical dark clothes with white skull-like motifs. Her hair was done up in four long tails, two to either side of her head, in an eye-catching mix of bright pink and shades of yellow. Unlike most of the other members, though, she left much of her tan skin exposed with her cropped tank top, consequentially baring her pink abdominal tattoo of the gang's emblem.

"Morning," she replied likewise, her yellow eyes picking me apart.

Behind her, her Salazzle loomed in the background, doing much the same. When I'd first met her, her intent gaze had put me on guard; it made me feel as if she were sizing me up to use me or pick me apart, but…

"You're barely eating 'cause you're stuck in your head again, ain't you?" she prodded unmercifully.

I scowled, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it.

"You're still scrawny, kid. I'm not gonna have you keel over on us 'cause you were too distracted to eat breakfast," she continued.

"I can eat," I grumbled.

"Prove it," she said, or more accurately challenged. "I dare you. Eat that breakfast."

I groaned, but there wasn't much I could say that wouldn't come off as childish. Something not at all helped by the fact I was still a child. I wasn't sure when I was born, so I had nothing on my definitive age, but so far as I could tell I couldn't be any older than ten, and even that was pushing things.

I also had to admit, I hadn't been the best about… well… peopling since I'd joined Team Skull about a year ago. It was still hard for me to gather the energy to care about anything. Even accounting for my past life, I wasn't even thirty yet, but I had no idea what else I was supposed to care about. I had to be dragged out of bed and practically forced to eat just because I felt so listless. Considering I hadn't been eating that great before I came to Team Skull, it meant I wasn't looking like I was in great shape.

"Fine," I bit out, digging into my oatmeal and berries. By my side, Dewpider cheered at the little victory, and I even caught a ghost of a smile on Plumera's face as she watched me.

"Good." She nodded, satisfied with my progress. "When you're done, we're heading outside."

Why? I tried to bury my suspicion but still couldn't help the thought. What's her angle?

Unfortunately, I was learning that my swarm had given me bad habits;hings like having total local awareness, or being able to channel my tells into them. One way or another, it was enough for Plumeria to pick it up.

"You care about Dewpider, right?" she said.

I was immediately on the defense, my social shields raised by long instinct.

"...Yes." I scowled, worried about where she was going with this.

"Then it's probably about time we teach you about Pokemon battling," Plumeria explained, nodding toward Dewpider. "And it's about time we make your partnership official."

Part of me couldn't help but be more on edge with her words, but…

"Dewpider!"
[Excitement!] [Joy!]

I found I couldn't resist the enthusiasm of my only friend.

"...Alright."

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Plumeria

Being the unofficial "big sister" of Team Skull meant that there were many, many things that got on Plumeria's nerves. Guzma may be the "Big Bad Boss", but she was the one responsible for making sure the crew didn't fuck themselves over and stayed in line.

Granted, it was a duty she'd taken on herself, hence the "unofficial" part, and that was just something that came with the territory of being the second-strongest trainer in the gang. Being a strong trainer didn't necessarily make you a strong leader, but no one could deny that good trainers just had something extra. Some ineffable quality that made others more liable to sit up and listen, even other Pokemon.

But none of that philosophical nonsense really mattered to Plumeria. Team Skull was her crew, which meant they were family, and you always look out for family. Simple as that.

It's just that sometimes she wished her family was less of a rolling ball of chaos and mayhem.

Behind her, Salazzle giggled, guessing at her thoughts. Not that that was particularly hard given how long they'd been partners. It still earned her partner a chiding smack on the head.

"Quiet," Plumeria muttered. "New Kid's nervous enough already."

Salazzle rolled her eyes but grumbled understanding.

Regardless, this brought the newest issue on Plumeria's list of things grinding down her nerves back to the forefront of her mind. Taylor Hebert, the girl Guzma had brought in half drowned almost a year ago.

Unlike basically every other punk she'd had to ride herd on, Taylor wasn't a headache because she was a ball of chaos who ran around setting things on fire.

Or, at least, not yet. There was still time.

But no, Taylor was a headache for Plumeria because they practically had to force the girl to live. She wasn't suicidal as far as Plumeria could tell, thank fucking Arceus, but the kid barely seemed to give a shit about her own life. She'd barely eat unless prodded, she preferred to sit by her lonesome, and she had all the vibrant energy of a Komala.

About the only thing the brat actually cared about was her Dewpider, him, and other bug pokemon. Given that, and the fact he'd saved her from getting swept away in a river, it wasn't hard to see why Guzma was so attached to her.

Unfortunately, as the "Big Bad Boss", Guzma couldn't spend all day with the kid. Part of that was because the moron kept denying that he'd all but adopted her, but the rest was because he actually did have a lot of shit he had to do to keep Team Skull running. There was a reason he was the heart of Team Skull, and it wasn't just because he was the best battler in the gang.

And so it falls to me to make sure the kid takes care of herself, Plumeria sighed. Still… She's family, and family doesn't get left behind.

She caught a flicker of movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see the forms of Taylor and her Dewpider walking out of the Shady House and over to the training field she'd reserved. The kid's eyes looked just as empty and listless as ever, even as the exuberant Dewpider ran around her. It was an oddly cute dynamic, the lifelessness of Taylor matched with the energy of her Pokemon.

…Guess it's my job to try and give her something to live for too, Plumeria thought.

"Good, you're here," she called out to the girl by way of greeting.

"...Not like I had anything better to do," Taylor replied with a shrug.

If she was like most kids, Plumeria might have thought that was snark. Out of Taylor's lips, that was mostly just depressing. Rather than dwell on that, however, Plumeria decided to get the ball rolling.

"What do you know about Pokemon battles?" she said, starting from the very beginning.

"...They're a thing?" Taylor offered. "And Dewpider seems to be excited about them for some reason?"

By her side, Dewpider raised a couple of legs in cheer, "Dew!"

"I mean…I guess I've seen a few kids challenging each other to battles, but I haven't really had much interest in it," Taylor admitted.

You haven't really had much interest in anything.

"Hmm…" Plumeria rolled that thought over for a moment.

It was less than she was usually working with, most kids she had to deal with tended to be obsessed with battling, especially the ones interested in pokemon. Still, she wasn't that surprised by Taylor's admission. The girl had pretty much gone out of her way to avoid most everyone and just stuck to her little bug fort in the corner of Po Town.

Most of the kids thought it was creepy. Guzma would probably never admit it, but he thought it was cool. Plumeria was mostly happy she wasn't setting things on fire even though she was sad that Taylor had decided to isolate herself.

Hopefully that will change starting today.

"Well, to keep this short, a Pokemon battle is a duel between two trainers and their pokemon," she explained. "And a trainer is someone who catches and trains a team of pokemon. You get the idea?"

For some reason, this made the girl freeze. Then, slowly, a stormy expression made its way across her face.

"You mean to tell me… Pokemon trainers kidnap random animals and force them to fight for their amusement?" Taylor growled.

Plumeria had to admit, the girl had a good glare, and it was nice to finally see some signs of life out of her.

But I've stared down an angry Krookodile, Plumeria noted, lip twitching. It's cute, though.

And it's nice to know her boundaries.

"Nope," Plumeria said.

That seemed to give her pause for a moment, the girl blinking in surprise, but she rallied her anger quickly. "So what is it then?"

"Pokemon naturally seek strength, and they get that strength from battling each other," Plumeria said with a shrug. "Dunno why, it's just how it is."

She pointed to the girl's Dewpider, watching this all with rapt attention. "Your Dewpider? He's basically just a kid. When he gets strong enough, he'll evolve into his adult form, an Aquaranid."

The girl frowned. "How does that even work?"

Plumeria gave her a pointed look.

Taylor had the grace to blush. "Right…you don't know."

"Yep." Plumeria nodded. "You could probably talk to some Pokemon researcher about it for the details, but for a trainer? All you need to know is that most Pokemon want to get stronger, the best way to get stronger is to overcome challenges, like winning pokemon battles, and-" She held up a finger. "this is the most important part for a trainer-"

She paused to make sure she had Taylor's attention. "The best way to do that is to have a strong bond with a good trainer."

Taylor frowned again, and Plumeria had to admit it was a little cute seeing her brow scrunch up like that. "What does that even mean? A bond?"

"Like the one that you got with your Dewpider," Plumeria pointed out. "He's your pokemon, right? Even in a crowd of other Dewpider, you'd know him in a heartbeat, right?"

Plumeria's words seemed to bring Taylor up short. She looked at her Dewpider, eyes widening as she processed what all that meant. Dewpider, for his part, seemed to drink in the attention.

"Pider!"

Plumeria nodded. "He's more than just your pokemon, he's your partner. A good trainer knows their pokemon aren't just tools, there's a bond between you that can't easily be put into words. The closer your bond, the more challenges you overcome, the more both of you grow."

The girl seemed to consider that for a moment. "So…what, Pokemon are just drawn to conflict?" Taylor prodded with a suspicious tone, "It's in their nature to start fights to grow stronger?"

Plumeria was tempted to say yes, but something stopped her. This…feels like a loaded question.

She rolled it around in her head for a moment, before she came up with a theory. Given her lack of parents, and how Guzma found her… what are the chances her last caretakers tried to fill her with some kind of "survival of the fittest" nonsense?

There were people like that. Groups who saw Pokemon only for their power, and would do anything to make the most of it. It was uncommon for such people to think that the important part was the struggle, that being a Pokemon trainer was just about forcing your Pokemon to grow stronger.

Now… how to explain that to a ten-year-old. Plumeria paused at that thought. Then again… what kind of ten-year-old asks questions like this?

Maybe I outta give her more credit?

"...Kinda," Plumeria eventually supplied. "It's complicated."

Taylor looked distinctly unsatisfied by that answer.

Plumeria shrugged. "Long story short? A good trainer-Pokemon bond is more like friendship than ownership. But, some people are dumb assholes." She snorted. "Those people usually figure out why it's a bad idea to give a fire-breathing dog the size of a car every reason to hate you."

At that, even Taylor couldn't help but snort in agreement.

So she can smile, Plumeria noted. I'll have to keep that in mind.

"Now before you ask, I'm willing to bet your last question is about catching Pokemon, right?" Plumeria prodded.

At her question, Taylor sobered up and resumed her scowl. Before she could open her mouth, she cut the girl off.

"No, catching pokemon isn't supposed to be about kidnapping them from the wild. Remember how I mentioned pissing off fire-breathing dogs?" At that, Taylor's jaw clicked shut. Plumeria nodded and continued.

"Remember how I said pokemon seek strength?"

A nod.

"Good. Basically, most pokemon know the best way to get stronger is to pair up with a trainer who will lead them to it. As such, a lot of Pokemon seek out and challenge trainers, trying to see if they have any promise," Plumeria explained. "Then you have a battle with the wild Pokemon, and if you win, you've proved yourself a capable trainer, and they're usually happy to partner up with you."

Plumeria was about to continue when she realized this was rapidly becoming a far more complicated lecture on Pokemon training than she'd intended for a beginner less for a ten-year-old. With a weary sigh, she cut the burgeoning lecture short. "Honestly, it gets pretty complicated the further up you go. Diet, exercise, training… even with good intentions, there's a lot of ways to mess up being a trainer."

And didn't that just raise tons of memories? Plumeria shook the dark thoughts from her head and focused on the present. "We can save that for another day. For now?"

Plumeria held an empty Pokeball in her hand. "The only question that matters is if you want Dewpider as your first partner." She nodded her head towards the arachnid. "Because he sure as Arceus wants you."

"Dewpider!" The spider nodded fervently.

With that, she tossed the ball Taylor's way. The girl caught it and gave the red and white orb a careful look, her eyes more suspicious and wary than any ten-year-olds had any right to be.

The hell kind of life did you lead before you came here, girl? Plumeria wondered.

"Dew!"

Taylor looked down at her Dewpider, watching carefully as he eagerly raised his arms.

"...Are you sure about this…?" the girl muttered in a soft voice. "There's other people out there. Better ones. I'm not…" her voice trembled. "I'm not a good person. You shouldn't be so easy to trust me…"

Dewpider seemed to consider that for a moment, thoughtfully tapping the side of his head with a limb.

Then he jumped up, smacked the front of the ball, and disappeared in a burst of red light drawn into the ball. Taylor's eyes went wide, confusion and terror flashing across her face. Then, before she could so much as scream, the ball snapped open and Dewpider reappeared.

"Dewpider!" he cheered, raising his arms in victory.

"You… why would you trust me…?" An unreadable expression crossed Taylor's face, one that made Plumeria's gut twist for the girl in ways she didn't really want to think about.

It's gonna take a lot of work to get her to feel comfortable with people, isn't it? Plumeria realized a sinking feeling in her gut as every moment with the girl seemed to reveal some deeper insecurity or trauma. But hey, if Team Skull doesn't look out for the abandoned, who will?

Then Dewpider jumped into Taylor's arms and hugged her, and it looked like the girl didn't know whether to jump, smile, or cry.

Well, if I got my work cut out for me… Plumeria tapped the Pokeball she'd specifically chosen for this lesson, no need to waste time.

"Well, now that you've got your partner." She smirked, and in a flash of light, her Alolan Grimer appeared on the field between them. "How about a battle to kick things off?"

The brightly colored blob of toxic waste gave a curious look around before catching sight of the newest pokemon trainer pair and giving them an exuberant wave. "Grime!"

"Dew!" The arachnid jumped from the girl's arm, landing opposite the Grimer and giving Taylor an expectant look.

"Ready?" Plumeria asked. "This should be a good way for a newbie like you to get her feet wet. I'll try to walk you through the basics of battling, alright?"

For a moment, Taylor looked uncertain, but after another word from her Dewpider, she found her resolve. "Yeah."

"I'm ready."

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Lillie

Every day that passed made Lillie feel more and more isolated and alone, and it terrified her. The only thing worse than her growing isolation was her complete lack of any idea about what she should do to try and reverse it.

Her father was gone, and she didn't think he was ever coming back. Some people said he was dead, but they'd never held a funeral. She hadn't even got to say goodbye.

Her mother was still her in body, but in spirit she was… different. She was distant, barely had time for them beyond her work, and something about her just felt… wrong. Lillie didn't feel safe around her anymore.

Gladion? He was different too. Not wrong, but angry. It felt like he couldn't stand to be around the rest of them. He was never mean, just bristly. His rejection still hurt.

Lillie remembered the old days, so full of light and laughter. When she felt loved and cared for. Like she was a part of something. Now she felt like a burden. Her home felt cold. Her family wasn't dead, but it would never be the same, and she didn't understand why.

It terrified her.

Almost every night, she ran to her big sister to chase away the nightmares, but it always made her feel pathetic. Like she really was the baby she'd always been taunted as. Her big sister Tanya always made her feel safe, but what did Lillie do in return? Run and cry and hang on her like a limpet.

It's why she didn't try to cling to Tanya more than she had to. She didn't want to just be a burden, to just be a baby others were forced to care for. She wanted to be brave and strong like all the Pokemon trainers she always saw on TV. Like her big sister, the only one who was still there for her.

It's also why she didn't follow her sister when she'd sneak off on her own. Lillie couldn't blame Tanya, their home felt so cold and stifling these days, but she wasn't brave enough to try and go out by herself again. She was happy for her sister and proud of her, but that only made her feel worse about her own crippling weakness.

If only I had more courage. Maybe then I wouldn't run to my big sister every time I felt bad. Lillie looked around her sister's empty room. Tanya had given her an open invitation to come in, even if she wasn't there, and every time Lillie took advantage of it she felt pathetic.

What am I even doing? Lillie asked herself, shoulders slumping. Creeping around in my sister's room, just waiting for her to get back so she can chase the nightmares away?

With effort, she slammed the brakes on that thought, forcing herself to dive back into the book she was reading to avoid the wave of despair that threatened to drown her.

The book was one of her favorites, the first of a series her sister had gotten her about a human who had woken up to find they'd somehow become a Pokemon in a world without people. It was a fun story about adventure, friendship, and facing scary new things head-on. In the lonely uncertainty of her daily life, it was a welcome relief, even if it had a strange title.

If only I could be more like them, Lillie thought wistfully, the book's characters waving at her from her mind's eye. If only I could face my fears…

Maybe then I wouldn't be so pathetic.

She shook her head, trying to shove the painful thoughts out of her mind. I can't think like that. Big Sis always tells me to lean on her for whatever I need.

Just then, the door clicked open and a familiar face walked in.

"Tanya!" Lillie leaped from her chair and lunged for her sister.

"Greetings, dear sis-" Tanya huffed as Lillie enveloped her in a forceful tackle-hug, but she managed to power through the routine assault."-ter. How have your studies been?"

Lillie ignored her as she wrapped her arms tightly around one of the few lights of her life. She took in the familiar comfort of her sister's presence. The welcoming smell of family letting her know she was safe. The inviting warmth of her sister's body letting her know she wasn't alone, the-

Something was wrong.

Lillie froze, realization dawning that it was all wrong.

Tanya smelled sweet, impossibly sweet, and her body felt cold and there was something watching her-

And suddenly it was all normal again.

Lillie flinched, backing away from her sister, fear and confusion warring in her in a terribly familiar mixture. But not with her sister, never with her sister.

Is Tanya gonna leave now too? Lillie's gut twisted painfully at the thought.

"Lillie?" Tanya's voice broke Lillie out of her thoughts, but she could still feel the terror biting at her nerves.

Lillie tried to stammer an excuse. "I-it's-"

She caught a shadow shifting at the edge of the room. She knew something was watching her from the darkness.

But there was nothing there.

"It's nothing!" Lillie squeaked.

I'm just imagining things. She told herself. I-I can't scare off the only person I have left… It has to just be my imagination.

"...hmmm." Tanya looked unconvinced, and for a moment Lillie was scared she was going to push, but in the end, she shrugged. "Very well."

She turned around, taking off her rain jacket and putting it in the closet. "Will you be staying with me again tonight?"

Lillie almost wanted to say no. She could feel eyes on her, judging her, accusing her. M-maybe I shouldn't?

Then she thought of going back to the cold mattress of her room, all alone with only her nightmares to keep her company. "...I-if it's not to muc-"

"It's never a bother, Lillie." Tanya cut her off sharply. "I'm your older sister, it's my job to care for you. Your well-being will always be one of my highest concerns. Never doubt that, and never hesitate to come to me for any concerns." She paused, her lips pursed as her brilliant green eyes pierced Lillie's fragile shell.

"...I cannot promise I will always be able to help immediately, but I can promise that I will try." Tanya sighed and turned back to her closet. "You deserve at least that much…"

Lillie dipped her head, unable to meet her sister's gaze. "...Okay."

But despite the shame and fear and sense of helplessness, some part of her couldn't help but feel a little lighter.

"Thank you," Lillie muttered, a tiny smile tugging on her lips.

Then she felt that presence weighing down on her, the eyes glaring at her from the darkness. Lillie shivered, feeling the fear creep in as the shadows writhed at the edges of her vision and-

"Ah-" Tanya made an abrupt noise, pausing mid-way through changing into her night clothes. "That reminds me. I ask because something has come up."

Lillie jerked as Tanya suddenly threw out a hand, casting a long shadow onto the wall. "If you would, please, introduce yourself to my sister."

At first, Lillie didn't understand.

And then the shadow of Tanya's hand on the wall writhed.

Tendrils of darkness crawled out of it, darkness beyond what could merely be called black expanded outwards, somehow becoming more real. Lillie's gut twisted, her hair stood on end, and something behind her eyes hurt to look at it.

Then, suddenly, without warning, it was over, and a strange puppet resembling Pikachu was standing on Tanya's bed. It shifted, turning to her, stitches made of shadows animating the faded cloth as something burrowed deep within gazed at her from pits of swimming darkness.

"Mimikyu," it said, wispy tendrils shifting its false head to nod in greeting.

"Say hello to Mimikyu, Lillie," Tanya introduced her. "He's a Pokemon I've stricken up a friendship with over the past year, and now it seems he'd like to hang out in my shadow."

Lillie gave a stiff wave.

"Good." Tanya smiled. "I think the two of you will be able to become quite good friends."

Lillie gulped.

Ok… maybe I could stand to be less like my sister.

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A/n; And the 2nd chapter of Victory Lap is finally done.

It takes place about a year after the last one. The next chapter, chronologically, will have another timeskip and more firmly establish their motives in their Pokemon Jounrey. Chapters 4 & 5 should be about actually setting up and starting said journey.

Should.

None of this is terribly set in stone. Plans change.

Regardless, this was mostly an interim bridging chapter. Not much happened beyond setup, but I think it was important setup to really get things ready for the larger thrust in the main Alola plot. Chapter 3 of this should be out next week and I even have a little snippet providing a sneak peek of the future.

Anyways, a shoutout to @Readhead , Half Baked Cat, and @TheTraveler01 for their help in edits and beta-reading.

Finally, I hope ya'll enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Good Little Gunwitch
I
Icebreaker


Youjo Senki/ RWBY



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A/n: A sliver of a fun little project I'd been working on on the side.

Spoiler: The inspiration

Winter Schnee was 7 years old, and in a room full of strangers, she felt more alone than ever.

When she heard her parents were taking her to a party, some part of her had gotten excited. Yes, she'd had to sit still for an eternity while the staff made sure her hair, makeup, and dress were all perfect. Yes, she knew she was supposed to be on her best behavior so she didn't make her father look bad. And yes, her mother wouldn't stop talking about how droll the whole thing would be.

But she'd heard about parties. Read about them, and even seen a couple of shows about them. They were supposed to be fun, lively, and exciting. An adventure fit for a princess where memories could be made.

And maybe, Winter had admitted, maybe I'll finally be able to make some friends?

She'd never really interacted with anyone her own age. Her father hadn't wanted her to get distracted by interacting with "the wrong people" when she was supposed to be studying to be the heiress of the Schnee fortune, and her mother hadn't argued. Not anymore, anyway.

But this party is for the "right people"...isn't it? She'd thought. And it's a party, so I should be able to make some friends here, shouldn't I? And if they're "the right people", that means father can't get mad!

At least, that was what she'd thought.

Instead, she was met with a room full of cold adults, towering over her with masks of ice and greed. They'd crowd her parents, giving her a pat on the head, a smile, or even a treat, and then they'd move right past her and cozy up to her father. It was like she was just an object to them, something to use to get in close to her father.

And from the gleam in her father's eye, he knew it too.

I bet it's the only reason he brought me, after all. She thought bitterly. Anything to get an edge…

Now, however, she found herself with something of a reprieve. Her mother had taken her over towards the snack table and was currently sampling the wine, leaving Winter to herself, watching the crowd of strangers. She wondered if there were any other children out there like her. Lost and alone in a sea of adults who didn't care about them. The grown-up rules were always so confusing and weird and cold, but it was what she was supposed to care about.

It's not fair. Winter thought. All the stories talk about having adventures and fun and stories, but all I get are lessons.

Her tiny fist balled up the hem of her dress. She felt a wetness in her eye and a tightness in her throat. It's not fair. All I want is a frien-

"Do you want a cookie?"

Winter jerked in a decidedly unladylike fashion, head whirling to meet a startlingly intense blue-eyed gaze. Standing beside her was a girl, no taller than she was, with long golden curls and shining sapphire eyes. She seemed almost swallowed up by a black coat, the silver fur lining the collar rising up to engulf her cheeks.
She was, in a word, adorable.

It took a moment for Winter's brain to realize the girl had been speaking to her. "I, er, uh-"

Her mind tripped over itself and pulled the emergency reboot switch as she realized she'd been rudely just staring at the girl for a moment. She tried to recall the etiquette lessons hammered into her mind, how she was to speak with dignity and grace to uphold the Schnee name.

"I-I am… uh…. Wi-Winter Schnee?" She managed instead.

As an afterthought, Winter curtsied.

A lone brow rose from the girl's expression. "...cute."

Winter felt her face burn.

…Maybe I should've just stayed in my room after all.

"Winter Schnee…" The girl looked thoughtful for a moment before extending a hand to Winter. "My name is Tanya Goodwitch. A pleasure to meet you."

On the one hand, the girl, Tanya's, assured and composed demeanor despite appearing no older than herself made Winter feel even more embarrassed about her own flustered status. On the other…

…Maybe this is my chance? She hoped.

"Ah, yes, a pleasure," Winter repeated, accepting the hand and doing everything she could not to make more of a fool of herself. "My name is Winter Schnee."

The corner of Tanya's lip twitched up. "...You already said that."

Winter stubbornly ignored the heat of shame filling her face. "S-so I did."

She glanced away as she released the girl's hand. Maybe I shouldn't? Father would hate it if I made even more of a fool of myself.

"Did you want a cookie?" Tanya repeated, nodding towards the table behind them.

"I…yes," Winter hesitated. "But…"

But would my father get mad? I'm supposed to be patient about my sweets, not sneak them behind his back…

Tanya watched her silently for a moment, before reaching into the depths of her coat with a hand, rustling the bulky confines of her attire.

"...Here," Tanya said, withdrawing a napkin and wrapping an assortment of treats collected from the table.

Winter's eyes went wide. "I-I couldn't take yours!"

"I have more," Tanya replied. "It's a worthwhile trade."

"A…trade?" Winter wondered.

"A trade." The girl nodded. "I have something you want, and you have something I want, so with a simple trade we both win."

That wasn't quite how Winter had heard her father talking about trade before, but it did make sense to her. That said…

"I have something you want?" Winter said suspiciously.

It's probably talking to my father, isn't it?

"Nothing much," Tanya shrugged. "Merely your company."

That caught Winter by surprise, "My, what?"

"My parents told me I should work on my social skills," Tanya explained. "My father especially. He told me to find someone to talk to and 'have fun',whatever that means."

"As you can see, however," She gestured to the sea of towering adults mingling in their own little worlds. "I am not quite drowning in a sea of potential conversation partners."

Winter wasn't sure what to say. "That…"

That almost made sense? Winter thought. …Tanya seems weird. But…

She looked at the handful of treats and cobalt orbs focused solely on her.

…Maybe that isn't a bad thing?

"...Okay." Winter nodded, slowly accepting the handful of snacks like she was afraid Tanya would snatch them away at the last moment.

"Splendid!" Tanya smiled an ear-to-ear grin that seemed to split her face.

It looked so ridiculous that Winter couldn't help but laugh.

The girl's face pinched into a confused frown. "What?"

"I-I, my apologies, your face just…" Winter struggled to control her giggles.

Tanya shot her a pout with destructive potential Winter found entirely unfair. "My face just, what?"

"I-it-" Winter started.

"Tanya!" suddenly an enormous pair of hands lifted the girl up into the air.

Winter craned her neck back to stare at the mountain of a man who'd suddenly appeared. The first thing that struck her was that he was the tallest man Winter could recall ever seeing in person, not that it was an especially long list. After that, she noticed that he was wearing a trim Atlesian Military Dress Uniform, a clean white set of clothing perfectly tailored to match his firm physique and broad shoulders. Familiar cobalt eyes, neat onyx hair, and a handsome face that was lit up with joy as he lifted the comparatively tiny girl in his arms completed the image.

"F-father!" Tanya squeaked from her position in his embrace.

"Father? Come on, now, Tanya…" he shot her a disappointed look. "You're gonna make your old man sad like that."

Tanya looked down, face flushed, and muttered. "Could you please put me down…dad?"

A mischievous grin appeared on his face. "Nope."

To Tanya's protest, her father merely raised her higher, before plopping her on his shoulders. Winter watched the whole thing, torn between feeling lost and amused. Somewhere deeper, though, she felt a pang of envy. Why can't I have that?

"Rude." Tanya huffed with a pout.

"James?" A woman appeared by his side, a tall blonde with a large coat similar to Tanya's, black with silver fur trim, draped across her shoulders like a cloak. Beneath, she wore a long, sleek, purple, and white dress that hugged her slim figure and perfectly highlighted her mature beauty.

She shot the man a green-eyed glare from behind thin glasses, her expression utterly unamused. "Are you harassing Tanya again?"

"Yes." Tanya nodded.

"...No?" her father tried.

The woman huffed and shook her head. She whipped out a wand from her coat and, with a gesture, Tanya was enveloped in a green glow, lifted off her father's shoulders, and gently placed on the floor next to Winter.

"Thank you mother," Tanya said as she fixed the wrinkles in her coat.

Tanya's father sighed. "Always the fun police, aren't you, Glynda?" he teased.

"Someone has to keep you in line, James." She remarked with a raised brow.

"Oh?" an odd grin split his lips. "Are you going to tell me how naughty I've been?"

"Hmm…" Tanya's mother seemed to consider that for a moment, her eyes gleaming with something deep within. "...Perhaps I should? A boy like you will only learn discipline if he's properly punished, no?"

The woman leaned in close and grabbed the man's tie. The man met it with a grin, a retort on his lips. Then Tanya groaned.

"Really?" she said, shooting them both a long-suffering look. "In public? Again?"

Tanya's parents looked at each other, then the room, then their daughter, then blushed and stepped apart.

"Ah, well, I was just fixing your father's tie, Tanya." Glynda tried to explain. "It had gotten wrinkled.

"Yes, yes. Wrinkled." James nodded seriously, ignoring the fact that he was now having to fix his tie himself. Hurriedly, he tried to change topics. "Er…why don't you tell me about your new friend, Tanya?"

Tanya gave them an unimpressed look. Still, she acquiesced. "My friend is-"

Winter blinked. "Wait, friend?" She shot Tanya a lost look and dared not. "Are we friends now?"

Tanya blinked. "...Do you want to be?"

"I…"

Yes yes yes.

"I-It would be my pleasure." Winter confessed, her heart hammering in her chest.

"Ok." Tanya shrugged, then turned to her parents. "Mother, father, this is my new friend Winter Schnee."

And that was the story of how Winter found her first friend.

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A/n: Here's a fun little Tanya-in-RWBY fic I spent, like, all of November and half of December working on. Most of it is playing hopscotch across time, jumping to whatever scene I felt like writing at the time, so don't expect much in the way of a series of tight linear events. Still, had a blast writing smol Tanya making friends and having parents.

Technically, I only have one other proper chapter of this in the bag, but I've also got a bunch of unfinished stuff that could be turned into, like, 3 more chapters if I put in the work.

Hopefully ya'll enjoyed this little peak at what I have in store Tanya Goodwitch, and beyond the 2nd chapter on its way, I might end up actually having more in store later too.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Trilateral Symmetry 3
Worm x Destiny


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"They Kill gods for fun and turn them into guns for a meme... So, think about that before you tell us to bow to your sorry ass." - Lance Reddick




Crystal's skin itched with boiling rage.

Barely a week ago, she'd lost her cousin to some stupid attempt at a prank by the worst excuse of a fucking tinker in the whole damned world. That had been bad enough, and knowing that Uber and Leet would never face justice for it because they'd gotten themselves killed too didn't help, but then the city had decided to light itself on fire. Vicky's empty casket, because they didn't even have a body, had barely been covered with its six feet of soil before the ABB decided to bomb the goddamn city with whatever toys their new tinker had cooked up.

Then, of course, the Empire had decided to make things worse.

So now she was out here, in the middle of the night, fighting Nazis with blood pounding in her ears and a hole aching in her heart because none of these fucking villains had the grace to even let her grieve for her lost little cousin.

I'll make them regret that. She swore to herself as she'd flung herself towards Purity.

She could barely even keep track of her aerial duel with the Empire blaster. It was a blur of adrenaline, pain, and rage. Crystal had barely kept ahead of the other cape, darting out of the way of her blasts of searing light and responding with infuriatingly inaccurate crimson beams of her own. Purity's light-bulb trick meant that any attempt to look directly at her left her practically blind, so all Crystal could do was aim at the area generally around the Nazi. Fortunately, the woman's blasts were highly telegraphed, giving Crystal at least some room to work with in turn.

That had, unfortunately, left them in a knife-edged stalemate where the first solid hit would end the fight and they both knew it. It was the kind of situation that normally would make her feel alive, but tonight it was only an outlet for all the pain in her heart.

Then there was a flash of green light, a sensation in the back of her mind she couldn't quite place, and suddenly she couldn't move.

Crystal felt a mixture of panic and rage flood into her veins. Who would dare intervene? Was another villain showing their face, here and now? Was she even safe?

Then she looked across the rooftops and saw Purity hovering in the air, apparently bound just as firmly in place as she was. A green web of lights seemingly ran through her, emerald strands emerging every inch of her skin and trailing off into… nowhere.

What?

A figure appeared before them in an eye-searing burst of light. The new figure was swathed in white robes, with just enough substance to the fabric to hint at a subtle layer of armor just beneath, a connection Crystal only made thanks to her own extensive experience with the costume designers involved in the manufacture of New Wave's costumes. More interestingly, a cat's cradle of glowing green light twisted between the woman's hands.

"You!" Purity shouted angrily, doing her best to twist her body around to face the new cape.

"Don't strain yourself, there," the woman replied, her tone airly amused.

Her voice was muffled by her helmet, but… something about it was familiar. Impossibly familiar. Memories soaked in anguish and loss shot to the surface, boiling away all my rage in an instant of confusion and pain.

It can't...

"I had to work pretty hard to make sure this spell properly Suspended you all instead of Unraveling you," the strangely familiar figure continued. "I'm not nearly as good at this as Weaver, so it'd be a shame to put all our work to waste because you didn't like being put in time out."

"Time out?" Purity growled. "Do you think this is a game? People's lives are on the line! Every moment you waste getting the Empire's way, those damn chinks use to bomb the city!"

At that, the woman's presence became frighteningly intense, despite a lack of any apparent movement. "...Interesting that now you're so concerned about lives when you seemed not to care about them five seconds ago. Or, were you not just firing building-crushing lasers indiscriminately into a densely populated city?"

Even from this distance, Crystal could see the way the Nazi bitch's teeth ground in her skull. "That's… That's different. They started this."

"Mhm, I'm sure all those children buried down in the rubble really had a big say in whatever petty intra-city war you felt like starting," the woman scoffed. "If it was up to me, I'd have just killed you all and let the Traveler sort things out, but as Bastet was so kind to remind me, we're new here. No need to piss off the locals when we don't even know what the lines are."

With that, the floating woman in white turned to regard Crystal, and she felt a sharp spike of dream and anxiety she tried to bury. "And you? You've been awfully quiet. Feel like getting on a soapbox too?"

There were a lot of things Crystal could have said.

She could bring up how close the new cape was edging to the line into villainy by tying up heroes.

She could ask who the hell she was.

She could even comment on her taking the Nazi down a peg.

Instead, her heart jumped into her mouth, and before she could think, she blurted out, "Why do you sound like my cousin?"

The woman paused and cocked her head. "...Who?"

Crystal felt heat burn on her cheeks, and she opened her mouth to continue, only to be cut off by a massive blast of fire in the streets below.

"Huh, I thought I got all of you…" the woman muttered, looking down towards the growing chaos below.
Crystal could barely move her neck, but her eyes managed to catch sight of a behemoth of fire and steel straining against lines of green. "Lung" She grimaced.

"Pardon?" And suddenly the woman in white's gaze was on her again.

"Lung. Local gang leader. Asshole, human trafficking, drug running, smuggling, turns into a giant fire-breathing dragon that never stays down. Overall giant piece of shit." Crystal blurted.

Silently, the woman turned to regard Purity.

"He's a stain on the human race. Kidnapping girls off the street and selling their bodies for money, terrorizing the city like some two-bit Mongol warlord. He'd already be gone if the so called 'Heroes' actually cared about improving this city. Instead, they just let him rampage around and kill plenty of good men and women with his army of-"

"Okay, I already regret asking," the woman said, making a sharp gesture towards Purity and sewing her mouth shut with more strands of light. "Though… two-bit warlord, huh? Now that sounds like an acceptable target."

Instantly, the woman's previous words came to mind. "If it was up to me, I'd have just killed you all and let the Traveler sort things out."

Crystal moved to protest whatever the woman was about to do next.

The woman was faster.
A blink of light and suddenly she was before Crystal, arm on her shoulder. "First off, you two."

Next, a flash of light, a nauseating sense of being everywhere and nowhere for just a split second, then suddenly she was on the ground, still bound in green, and next to several other equally incapacitated capes. Instantly, Crystal felt a tug on something indescribable. Her body felt slow, her mind in a haze, and for a terrible moment she realized the faint presence that had lived with her ever since she triggered was gone.

No power at her fingertips. No second shimmering skin. No freedom just a thought away. Something had happened, and her powers were gone.

"Wha…?" She muttered, mind still reeling as she looked around in a daze.

The other capes around her looked much the same; Purity, Stormtiger, even Assault were all sitting on the floor, trussed up in green lines and wreathed in a purple sheen. Impaled into the road at their feet was an arrow of shimmering violet light, a ball of pulsating energy whirling around its head and sending tethers of energy out to all the captives sitting around it.

"Sit tight here," The woman in white said, passing through the four of them, untouched by the energy swirling about. "We'll get the police to come in and clear all this up. The good guys get to go home, and the bad guys… get whatever the locals figure is coming to them, I guess."

"...What if we don't feel like cooperating?" Stormtiger managed a low growl, even in his sorry state.

The woman in white merely cocked her hip, helmeted head scanning his bound and powerless form up in down with a clearly unimpressed look. "...Oh, I'm petrified."

"Let me outta these chains, bitch, and you'll see how scary I can be," Stormtiger snarled.

"Oh? Are you sure about that?" The woman said, her tone almost playful. A twist of light in her hand, and suddenly there was a very large, and very real, gun in them.

Then, as if on cue, Crystal heard Lung's roar again, his thunderous bellow almost drowning out the cacophony of chaos in his wake. She looked up to see him crashing through the walls of a building, his silver-plated form two stories tall at this point, the mangled remnants of wings sprouting from his back, curtains of white hot flames wrapping around him as he moved. She could see the green strands reach out for him, entangle themselves in his arms and legs.

So too did Crystal see as Lung tore his limbs from their grip, shedding muscle and meat and bone in his unstoppable rage. It was horrifying seeing that mountain of fire and muscle move. He was too fast, too powerful, too relentless to be real.

And then a blue meteor smashed into his face and sent him hurtling through the air.

"...Or, you know, I could always let Weaver take care of it." the woman remarked, a smile in her tone.

It was at this point that Crystal decided to give up trying to make sense of reality.

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Weaver

Pavement cracked as I planted my glaive at my feet, void energy crackling in its blade.

My armor rang as I pulled new plates of relic iron and spinmetal into place, familiar patterns drawn from storage transmitted onto my body.

My Light sang with burgeoning power, muscles trembling with the force waiting to be unleashed, heart pounding in anticipation of the battle ahead of me.

Across from me, I saw the titanic form of the one known as Lung still ripping his way out of Gloria's Strand Spell. I'd seen Ogres paralyzed by such things; I'd even bound many a Tormentor with my own Darkness, yet here he was, tearing himself free. He was bleeding for every inch of it, flesh and bone tore from his body as he fought against the threads of life energy weaving through his form. Had he been anything else, he would have either died or stopped long before now.
Yet, in that way, he was all the more fearsome. Every pound of flesh he lost came back twofold, every gallon of blood pouring from his veins raged in brilliant flames around him, every sheet of silver scales shed returned ever harder. The rage, the fury, the fire, the escalation, it should have been intimidating.

My mouth burned from the width of my smile.

"Lung!" I bellowed, summoning my Crownsplitter and raising it in challenge to him. "Answer me, if you still have the mind to! Or are you but a savage beast now?!"

There's a proper way this has to be done, after all.

Burning eyes on the man-turned dragon snapped to me. His twisted maw snarled against tendrils of Dark entwining it, a howl of rage splitting his many jaws as he glared right at me.

"Cease your rampage, Lung! The people call for an end to your tyrannical reign! They ask only for this madness to stop, and I am but a humble Guardian of mankind!" I called, sheathing my sword on my back and spreading my open hands in invitation. "Lay down your arms, great warrior, and I swear on my honor as Lord Weaver of the Last City, first of the new Iron Lords, Kingslayer and Rivensbane, that you shall come to no harm under my care.

"However." My fist wrapped around the haft of my glaive, Void light already soaking through the arcane metal until it shone with violet energy. "Should you reject my call, you will leave me with little choice but to stop you myself. What say you? Man or beast, will you lay down your arms in the name of peace and order, or fight until thine own bitter end?"

For a moment, Lung went still.

…Ah…perhaps too much ham? Did he even understand me? I wondered briefly.

Then the man in dragon shape exploded, blinding flames pouring off him hot enough to melt the street around him. A wall of sound collided into me as he roared, like a blast of raw force hammering directly into my lungs. His rage was so deep, so vivid, so explosive, that I could taste the soul-deep passion of it on the faint psychic threads weaving in and out of reality.

"KIR YUU!" He howled.

…Oh no, I smiled beneath my helm as I raised my glaive into the air. Oh, you can never have too much ham!

"Well then, in that case, Lung-!" I replied, gathering the Void within me, focusing on the shape of my will, tapping into the depths of my soul and crystalizing what I wanted in my mind. "-I say to thee, Nay!"

I took all the Void Light I'd gathered, all the power I'd focused on my body, focused it into the glaive, and then impaled the blade deep into the tarmac at my feet, right at the exact center of the intersection I'd planted myself in. The moment the blade burrowed into the street, I let my Light explode outwards. A wave of violet energy raced out, the power of my soul pouring into reality and shaping it according to my iron will. A sphere formed, made of something more substantive than anything so mundane as matter or energy. The power lying between stars filled it, saturating the area with its presence.

A massive Ward of Dawn formed around us, encapsulating the entire intersection and parts of the blocks around it. I'd chosen this place on purpose, knowing that the buildings nearby were abandoned, knowing that I could fight him here to my heart's content without fear of collateral damage. And as I finalized the last touch on my bubble, solidifying the shield until it became completely impermeable, I knew that our battle would be nice and contained.

The stage was set, and all the actors were in their place, all that remained was for the play to unfold.

I raised my hand and bellowed. "Have at thee!"

He answered with a wave of fire.

Instinct and preparation fell in sync as my body and soul moved. The Light-soaked air around me pooled around my arm, forming into the shape of an aspis. Just before the fire reached me, I threw my body shield first into the wave, slamming the artifact of light into just the right place in reality, weaving my will directly into the underpinning of existence with bands of void, and creating a Barricade of Light.

Pure heat slammed into me, a blast of energy so intense it felt like a tangible blow. It was a raging inferno, determined to scour me from the world. Standing in the blaze felt staring down the Sun from the surface of Mercury, all the impossible power of Sol incarnate before me. All that stood between the roaring flames and my frail flesh was my armor and my Light.

But I was a Titan.

My armor was my temple.

My Light was like iron.

My will was unbreakable.

I was The Wall, and I would not be moved.

When the flood of fire crashed into me, it broke upon my Barricade, the sea of flames parting around my immovable will and creating a narrow valley in the heart of the inferno. I knelt behind my shield, taking shelter in the coolness of the shade it produced, and reached out into the dimensional folds around me.

Atlas, I called to my ever-present ally.

Ready, came the ever reliable response from just off the corner of my mind.

A bow materialized in my hand, my fingers already falling into a grip made comfortable from long familiarity with its comforting curve and the quiet power that thrummed waiting in its span.

I breathed, feeling the ebb and flow of the battle of flame and Light surround me as I nocked an arrow to the string.

Despite the firestorm raging around me, there was tranquility.

Then the fire dropped.

The blinding heat fell away.

Lung, finally free of the last remnants of Gloria's Strands, stepped forward, the cement below his vast feet sublimating away, all traces of asphalt long since boiled into nothingness. Heat haze hung thick in the air as the glowing hot street cooled around us.

I rose swiftly, cleanly, my body moving in a smooth economy of motion born from years of experience.

Sight

Draw

Release

A distant slap against my arm as the string hummed with the recoil. The faint whisper as the arrow parted the air. The meaty thunk as the shaft struck the white of my target and found Lung's eye.

The shriek as Le Monarque's poison did its work.

Lung flinched, howling in agony as the purple tendrils of Le Monarque's insidious art took hold in his flesh. Claws tore at his face, trying to rip out the source of his new agony. It left him wide open…

Sight

Draw

Release

And he was down another eye.

He bellowed fury, fire pouring off him in waves, the street beneath him a molten pool of boiling lime. I was considering my options, trying to choose between taking another shot and hunkering behind my Barricade, when he made the decision for me.

He moved, lunging towards me like he'd been fired out from a cannon. I could scarcely blink before the hulking flash of silver scales and bleeding meat was right in front of me, a door-sized claw grasping for my head.

I ducked, superheated air a whistling shriek overhead as the limb whipped past me. I discarded my bow, Le Monarque's purpose served, and prepared myself for the fight to begin in earnest.

Ragnhild is ready, Atlas murmured from the backrooms of my mind.

I want to try something, I replied, body already in motion.

I twisted on my heel as another swipe of his massive limbs flew past, missing me by a hair. I planted my feet for just a moment, pooled my Light in my knuckles, and threw a void-enhanced punch directly into his knee.

I might as well have punched a mountain.

Something hit me like a freight train. Pain exploded across my left side and for a moment I was airborne above the volcanic battlefield.

The world tumbled as I flew by, my brief whirling moment of disorientation only resolved when I crashed into a building on the other end of the street and found myself half-buried in debris. A distant part of me considered just laying there in the shattered building, free to wallow in my fresh agony. From the pain, I could tell immediately that my arm was broken, and a glance at my armor's readout informed me that my entire left side was in fact only barely intact.

…A brilliant plan as always, Atlas commented.

I pushed away the exhaustion with practiced ease, ignoring the copper-tinged cough escaping my lips as I forced myself up from the rubble. On my feet once more, I looked back towards Lung, entirely unsurprised to find him already in motion, preparing to leap towards me again.

Which was when the Magnetic Grenade I'd attached to his leg detonated, pulverizing his knee in an implosion of Void energy.

"Yes…" I agreed with a blood drenched grin. "Yes, it was."

There were easier ways you could've done that, Atlas pointed out.

"But where's the fun in that?!" I laughed, my heart singing even as my lungs screamed.

I reached deep into the Void, plunging my spirit deep into the well of energy bubbling up from the chasms between stars and binding it to my body. Void Light poured into me, filling the holes and wounds in my flesh and armor like it filled the gaps in reality, fortified with the iron might of my soul. A simple patch job while Atlas put me back together again the slow way, but more than enough to get me back into the fight.

I don't suppose you'll play it safe until I finish stitching you back together?

Not a chance! I grinned, manifesting my shield on my left arm and charging right back into the fray.

My legs pumped across the ground, building up energy and momentum with every step, taking in more and more of the Void Light that saturated the air with every breath. Before me, Lung tried to stumble to his feet, one leg a bleeding, broken, mess, and his eyes little more than gouges into his skull soured with poison.

Despite his current blindness, Lung heard me coming, my thunderous charge into battle anything but subtle as my armored boots stomped on the pavement.

A blast of white-hot flames erupted from his maw.

I raised my shield and leapt into the approaching inferno, trusting in my armor and my Light.

A wave of pure heat met me, slamming into me in mid air, scorching my armor and searing my flesh for the briefest moment.

I ignored the pain, brushing away every instinct to run and hide, putting everything I had into my Thrust and my shield, pushing myself into an unstoppable force.

The sea of flames parted.

Cool air rushed in.

I was on the other side.

And Lung was waiting for me, clawed hand outstretched, ready to smack me down.

I grinned. Just as planned.

Just as his claw reached me, I pushed myself with another Thrust of Light, braced my shield against my shoulder, and slammed myself into his arm in a flying body-tackle.

The moment my shield met his claw, all of the Void Light I'd been building up within it during my charge detonated, right in his scaly face.

A burst of energy, the color of deepest violet, ripped through the air and smashed into Lung like a freight train, smacking him to the ground instead.

I didn't waste a moment, dropping to the ground beside him and ripping my glaive from where I'd rammed in the ground earlier and resummoning my shield. I lashed out with a flurry of attacks, probing his armored form for any possible chinks.

Unfortunately, the man-turned-dragon, even injured as he was, was no meek target. He was as swift as he was sturdy, rapidly collecting himself again under my assault and whipping himself back into another berserk rage.

What followed next was a whirlwind of singing blades and searing blasts.

Lung was a blur of teeth, claws, and fire. Every move had the power of a raging Ogre with the speed of a Bladedancer, and all of it matched perfectly with the starbursts of heat and seas of fire radiating off him in waves. It was like fighting a force of nature, a raging storm of fire and steel made manifest. One false move, and it would all be over.

It was glorious.

Every blast, every swipe, every hit I deflected, dodged, or outright blocked with the force of my will made manifest in reality. Every strike he made, I answered in kind, my own glaive flashing out and slashing across his massive form. His silver scales stayed true, deflecting most all my strikes.

But not all of them.

A jab at the wound in his knee opened up another geyser of blood.

A cut across the poisoned eyes earned me a roar of agony torn from his three redundant throats.

A solid thrust into a soft joint cut deep into the weakest scales, piercing the chink in his armor with ease.

Attack, counter attack. Thrust, parry, dodge, smash. All blended together into a beautiful dance of death and drama.

Each move flogged my screaming muscles. My lungs howled with aching breath. My bones moaned in anguish under every blow. Yet, with blood pounding in my ears, heart singing with my soul, and a smile splitting my face, I found myself truly alive.

Would this be enough to make Him proud? I wondered.

…You know, he'd be proud no matter what, Atlas replied.

I ducked under the swipe of a tail, turning the action into a shield bash against an incoming claw, and followed up with another slice at his injured leg while I laughed. True enough, Atlas.

Then, as Lung rose up to strike against me with still more fire and fury, the flames in his hands sputtered and died.

Perfect, I grinned. It's about time.

For the briefest instant, his power's failure had left Lung flatfooted, as visibly shocked as any near-dragon presumably could be.

I moved swiftly and seized the opening with both fists.

I smashed my shield into his good leg, the Void-enhanced impact knocking the limb aside and sending Lung to his knees. Before he could react, I flipped the glaive around in my hands, jumped up and Thrust down onto his wounded knee with all my might, blade first.

The glaive punched through shredded scales, mutilated flesh, and broken bone with all the ease of a harpoon piercing a devil-fish's slippery hide before embedding itself again in the still-molten asphalt in an explosion of blood and viscera. Lung howled in agony as I impaled my polearm through his knee, finishing the work I'd done earlier with the grenade. He lashed out, trying to strike me with his claw, but the blow was slow and clumsy and I easily leapt out of his reach.

I took a couple more paces back, catching my breath as I took in the view of the giant struggling with the spear pinning his leg to the street, letting the hooks of my plan sink in just that little bit deeper as I waited for Lung's wrath to lead him into one final mistake.

With another deafening roar of defiance and rage, Lung strained against the stuck limb, but my glaive was not so easily moved. Muscles bulged under the effort, just as they'd done when he'd torn himself free from Gloria's Suspension. Finally, with a disgustingly wet snap, Lung tore the rest of leg free of its imprisonment, a bleeding stump free of the shattered joint still firmly pinned to the earth below our feet.

The ground shook as he fell onto his claws, the beast of a man balancing on all his remaining limbs even as his stump bleed freely. For a moment, he seemed triumphant, even with his rage.

But I could tell the moment he realized something was wrong.

He froze.

Even with his blind rage, even with his draconic form, he was still a man, he could still think.

He could still tell that he was no longer regenerating.

"...nani?" He rumbled, a measure of something else flickering on his inhuman face.

"Your regeneration is quite the potent aid!" I called out, grinning as I allowed the orator inside me to take the warrior's place for a moment. "...So long as it functions unimpeded!"

His head shifted to me, sightless eyes trying to glare holes through me, but it would do him no good.

"I did not pick this fight blindly, Lung. I watched as you tore yourself free of my sister's spell, watched as you fought heedless of injury, fueled by bottomless rage and power, growing ever stronger with each wound." A wide smirk slipped onto my lips. "And in that moment, I knew how to defeat you."

He growled, shifting his posturing on his remaining limbs. The ragged wings on his back flaring and stretching as he moved.

"Poison." I replied, as if that revealed everything. "From the first moment I drew blood, my poison coursed through your veins. A most insidious killer, and a most relentless foe, my particular blend is taxing your regenerative abilities to the breaking point."

It was only half the truth, the other half was the Suppression and Disruption effects my Void Light had been applying the entire fight, but Lung didn't need to know that.

"You can feel it now, can't you? The aching fire creeping through your veins? Not the kind that gives you strength, but the kind that saps it? The tendrils of corruption eating through your body?" I pressed, setting a challenging foot forward as I spoke, taunting Lung with my proximity. "It's even gotten to your brain, hasn't it? Slowed your thoughts like a dull haze has come over your mind?"

He paused, a faint measure of hesitancy in his body language.

Must you play with your food so much? Atlas chimed in.

Allegedly he's a slaver, so I'd say it's the least he deserves, I replied.

Hmm…fair. IF they were telling the truth, which we can't yet verify, Atlas pointed out.

We can at least tell that he was being a rampaging asshole.

Oh, yes, because you're so good at not setting things on fire.

I had the grace to feel a bit sheepish at that comment. …I should probably wrap this up, shouldn't I?

Yes, came Bastest's tired voice over our comms. My sister in Light, the city is on fucking fire and you're dueling an Ogre on Dark Ether while I'm trying to organize S&R.

I winced, the heat of shame washing out all previous feelings of victory. Ah… Apologies, Sister.

Bastet just let out an exasperated sigh. It's fine, Sister. I pretty much expected this the moment the dragon showed up. Besides, we're playing to our strengths, and yours is wrestling bad guys setting everything on fire into submission.

Just… try not to get so carried away, alright?

Can do, I replied with a firm nod, already shifting my plan to trim out all the unnecessary fat.

With that, I skipped all the way to the end. Drawing Crownsplitter from my back, I pointed the sword straight towards the dragon.

"Lung! You stand battered and broken! You fought well, yet you are defeated all the same!" I called out. "I allow you one last chance to stand down, lest I be forced to strike you down in full."

"Surrender, Lung, and on my honor as an Iron Lord, I swear you will be treated with all the fairness and dignity you deserve!"

For a moment, it looked like he might consider it.

Then his wings pumped, and he flew.

His massive form scraped the top of the Bubble I'd established, wings allowing him kiss the sky, right before shifting and hurtling himself down.

Predictable, I thought, summoning my shield again and bracing myself. I gathered all my Light, every scrap of strength I had left in my battered body, and planted myself firmly in my ready position.

Lung slammed into me with the force of a meteor. Simple physics said I was the fly on the windshield. Beaten and powerless he may be, he was still several tons of muscle and bone crashing down on me from on high. He'd thrown everything he had into this one single blow, a final desperate attack to kill me.

It should have worked.

Bound by the limitations of reality, by the basics of cause and effect, it would have worked.

But I was paracausal.

I was a Titan.

I was the Wall, and my will was Iron.

The moment he hit my shield, the Bubble around us popped, and all the Void Light I'd filled the area with rushed back into me. In my hands, I held a Ward of Dawn, a wall of pure paracausal energy, a nexus of my will altering the fabric of reality itself. My Stronghold gauntlets, exotic artefacts with a history so strong they bent the world, wound themselves together with my shield and sword.

His attack stopped dead on top of me.

Then in a Flash, the Counter.

The Void exploded outwards.

My sword arm whipped out like lightning.

Crownsplitter sung, Void howling along its almighty edge.

Flesh split, muscles screamed, the air twinkled like a sea of stars, and the world drowned in a storm of thunder.

When the dust cleared and the shimmering stars in my vision faded, I was the only one left standing. By my feet lay Lung's unmoving form, his body sliced in two from shoulder to hip.

I breathed, letting the tension flow out of me. I planted Crownsplitter at my feet and clapped my hands together, using the action as a lever to pry my Light still clinging to his body. The Suppression effect faded, allowing his natural regeneration to slowly kick in and hopefully, to keep him alive, without allowing him to make enough progress to renew the fight.

As I watched his form carefully, however, making sure I was ready to put him down again if he tried to get back up, I realized he was actually shrinking. Scales were shed, limbs were lost, and meat sloughed off him into nothing.

"...Huh." I said, staring at him for a moment.

I wasn't sure whether I was impressed or disappointed.

Then I heard a pair of engines in the distance coming closer. I looked up to see Bastet on her sparrow racing across the street towards me, a figure in blue armor on what appeared to be a ground-bound motorcycle keeping pace just behind her. Soon enough, Bastet slid to a stop beside me, swinging herself out of her saddle with smooth ease and taking a stand between me and the newcomer.

Without stopping for even a moment, my shield-sister's mouth was moving to introduce us."Weaver, looks like you wrapped up everything, perfect. Finally found someone in authority who can sort things out for us." She gestured back to the man in blue armor walking up to us from his own ride. "This is Armsmaster, Leader of the local security forces."

As he stepped forward, I gave him a quick once over to see what I was dealing with. I had to admit, I liked what I found.

His armor was certainly well crafted. Thick plates of composite materials in strategically vital locations while a padded undersuit protected all the most vulnerable areas, creating a perfect blend of strength and flexibility. It wasn't an easy balance to strike, and I could already tell how many little tricks borne of hard-won experience had influenced the construction of his suit. Clearly, it was the work of a master.

The only real weakness of the armor was the exposed mouth, but I could see panels on either side of his helm that could likely slide shut over the jaw if need be. That he didn't think things were dangerous enough to need the full protection told me a lot already, as did the way he carried himself.

Most importantly, it cut a magnificent knightly figure while remaining perfectly functional.

"Well met, Armsmaster." I smiled, reaching into my storage and swapping my helmet for my glasses with a thought, and offering a hand in greeting. "I am Lady Weaver Rose, of Fireteam Lumina!"

He paused for a moment, perhaps taken off guard by my exuberance. Whatever it was, he brushed it aside without comment. "...Armsmaster, leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate." He accepted my hand with a firm shake of his own. "Though, to say I lead all local security forces would be inaccurate. There are several, the Protectorate is merely the force of parahumans dedicated to law enforcement."

"Parahumans?" I asked, curiosity raised. "Does that have anything to do with paracausality?"

"I…" His lips pinched in a slight frown, "...perhaps? I am not familiar with what you mean by paracausality." He seemed to force the thought aside and shift back on topic. "Regardless, I heard you were doing battle with Lung? He is a parahuman, a very dangerous one, and not one to be taken lightly."

"Oh, I know that well enough myself, good sir." I chuckled, leaning back and resting an arm on my sword. "As you can see for yourself, we already did battle in this very spot. T'was a glorious battle fit for the ages, but I assure you my victory was never in doubt."

That, if anything, seemed to deepen his frown even as he scanned the broken and melted surroundings. "...I see."

"Right, so, did you run him off or something? I don't think I'd miss his scaly hide lying around." Bastet chimed in, impatience in her tone. Then she shot me a glare. "You didn't disintegrate him, did you?"

"No!" I gaped, "I know how to control myself, Sister!"

She gave me an unimpressed look.

"In fact, he's right here!" I stepped out of the way and gestured to Lung's unconscious form.

Lung, who had once been a fire breathing dragon standing taller than a two-story building and covered head to toe in silver scales when I fought, before I'd cut him in half and knocked him out. Lung who was currently a very intact and normal, if large, human being. Lung who was also lying flat on his back, in the middle of the street, unconscious, naked as the day he was born.

I felt Bastet's eyes burning holes in the back of my head. Armsmaster's gaze did the burning heat on my bare face no favors.

"...I can explain?"

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A/n: For the record, this was originally written and posted on SpaceBattles a while ago.

I was already well into writing Taylor/Weaver's scene when news of Lance Reddick came, and after that, well...I suppose you could say I was inspired to put in that extra bit of effort. Hopefully it paid off.

As for Lance, mad respect to him, he'll always be the best Vanguard in my book. RIP.

Big thanks to @Readhead for his help punching this up. Couldn't have done this without his help. It was a blast writing, and if you can't tell I main Titan myself, going ham with Crown-splitter is kinda my bread and butter.

In any case, hope you enjoyed.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Victory Lap 3


Tanya x Worm x Pokemon



​

A/n: Thanks to HalfBakedCat for helping with this.

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Taylor

"Alright, what colors you want?"

"I…don't know?" I shrugged, "Just…what you think works best."

Plumeria squatted down in front of me to look me in the eye. "...you know you ain't gotta do this, right?"

I bristled. "I'm not scared."

Plumeria let out a long-suffering sigh, and for a moment I felt every inch the child I appeared to be.

She looked up and walked around the room, a master bathroom in the former mansion that was Shady House, set aside specifically for her to work her magic on new recruits to the gang. A panel of mirrors faced me, showing my face from every angle, and I was wearing a hefty smock in preparation for what would be coming next. On the sink in front of me was an arrangement of dyes, and Plumeria's Salazzle prowled by her feet as she paced, all of them on hand to officially make me a part of Team Skull.

"Didn't say that you were, I'm just saying you ain't gotta do this." She said. "Ain't no one making you put on colors, it's supposed to be your choice. An expression of your own individuality."

I scowled, and before I could stop myself, I bit out, "Then why do all the Skulls do it?"

Plumeria sighed, "Taylor, why do you think people join Team Skull?"

I gave her a puzzled look.

"It's to have somewhere to belong, Tay." She replied.

"I already knew that." I frowned. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Ok, I know you're hearing what I'm saying." Plumeria said. "But are you hearing what I'm saying?"

"What are you talking about?"

She let out a weary sigh and gave me a look. "Tay, just think about it, alright? I mean, really think. Why is everyone in Team Skull here?"

She nodded down to where Dewpider sat in my arms. "Why are you here?"

…Because I have nowhere else to go…I thought, looking down at my pokemon. This is the only thing I have. Dewpider, Guzma, Plumeria, and Team Skull. Without this I'd just be… adrift again.

…Is it like that for everyone else, too?

"...But everyone else seems so…happy?" I said, confused.

"Just 'cause we can smile don't mean we ain't hurt'n underneath." Plumeria pointed out. "I ain't gonna pry on the specifics of how you got here, but I guarantee you ain't alone here."

She looked out beyond me, her mind's eye no doubt cast onto Po Town as a whole.

"...Most kids here, they join up because they ain't go nothin' else. Some people, they go on their pokemon journey, their fancy little island trial, and it changes 'em. Then they have a fling with someone they think is the love of their life, and they found out havin' a kid ain't as simple as trainin' a pokemon team." She sneered at some unseen sight. "And when their kid don't measure up to their standards? If they don't 'keep up'? Pass the trials like they did?"

"Well, let's just say that too many trainers find out far too late that they ain't cut out to be a parent, so instead of tryna do right by their kid they just abandon the 'dead weight' and go back to that life of freedom and power they'd grown so attached to." Plumeria shook her head and by her feet her Salazzle spat some noxious concoction into a trash can, something that seemed to melt away the trash inside.

The thought made my gut twist in a mixture of sympathy, pain, and anger. Is that what happened to me in this life? My parents just… realizing they didn't want to deal with a 5-year old after all and ditching me?

"...That can't be legal, can it?" I asked.

Plumeria sighed, "It's… complicated. Alola don't really have a formal government ruling all the islands, nothing like the Pokemon League. Maybe if we had a Champion or something, they could change things, but as it stands?"

She shrugged. "Nothing stopping someone from ditching their kid on an island, then just hoppin' to another one. Ain't like anyone keeping track of it all between the islands. And if they jump to another region?" Plumeria let out a derisive snort. "You can forget about try'na track 'em down at all."

"...So they just get away with it?"

"Yep. Sucks shit, don't it?"

"...Yeah." I scowled, rage at the injustice of this apparent paradise simmering beneath my skin. "Yeah it does."

Looks like useless systems abandoning the people who need them most are a constant wherever I go.

"So the kids in Team Skull? They're here because they have nothing. They were abandoned by everyone, their parents, the authorities, society, everyone." Plumeria said. "The only thing we got is each other, that's why we're family. A family of outcasts nobody else wanted."

Slowly, carefully, she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and silently begged my attention.

"You're a part of that family too now, Tay." She nodded towards the dyes. "It don't matter if you got ink or you don't, it ain't about that. You ain't gotta prove shit, you're already one of us, and that's all that matters."

"...So the ink?"

"That's just people wanting to show off, to prove to themselves they belong somewhere." Plumeria shrugged. "You ain't gotta, but…lotta people like to show the colors. Say it out loud for the world to see that they're a part of team skull."

"...Representation, right?" I ventured. "Makes them really feel like they're a part of something bigger?"

"Yep." She nodded. "And to people with nothing else, that got abandoned by the world around them? That means everything."

"But" She pressed, meeting my gaze with a steady one of her own. "You don't have to do shit. This has to be your choice. That's the whole point of the colors, of showing the flag. We ain't tryna say 'we own you', it's you telling the world 'my family is team skull and I'm damned proud'. You get me?"

I swallowed her words, internalized them, heard them, and realized that on some level I wanted that too. I didn't quite feel like I'd been abandoned by the world, exactly, but I did feel like I'd left everything I'd attached myself to in my last life. I'd died, or near enough, to save humanity, only to find that it wasn't the end. After everything I'd sacrificed to defeat a mad god, what did I have now?"

"Dew?"
[Friend]

I looked down to see Dewpider resting a leg on my arm, offering his quiet and unwavering support as ever.

…I have this. I looked up and met Plumeria's patient gaze. And I have Team Skull.

"...Alright." I nodded eventually. "I know what I want."

"Oh?" Plumeria smirked, leaning back and bracing her arms on the sink in front of me. "What'll your poison be?"

At her words, I couldn't help but feel the sliver of worry slid under my thoughts.

"...You promise this won't damage my hair, right?" I asked.

Plumeria made an odd sign over her face and said, "May the Guardian Tapus strike me down if I do."

I gave her an odd look.

She shrugged. "I ain't a novice, Tay, and I ain't Guzma. I know hair care is serious business, and you got the best locks in Po Town. If I fuck 'em up, I deserve whatever Tapu Bulu has in store for me."

There was a lot about that that went over my head, but I'd learned enough about the Tapus for it to set my heart at ease.

"Well, in that case...." I looked down towards Dewpider, the first thing that had given me a reason to actually live in this new life.

"...What greens do you have?"

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Tanya

My siblings and I sat around the dinner table in silence, waiting for our last member to arrive.

Our dining room in the Aether Foundation was an elegant thing, an expanse of clean alabaster lines, gold trim, and onyx foundation. A crystal chandelier hung above the table, while recessed lighting banished the shadows from every corner. It was another representation of the pristine style that my mother was so fond of.

Mother… I suppressed a frown as I looked around the empty chairs at either end of the table. Will she even bother showing up tonight?

Soon enough, however, a maid arrived with a carefully concealed apologetic look and a letter in their hands. "Terribly sorry, young miss, but your mother asked me to deliver this."

She left the letter by my plate, bowed to the three of us, then left without another word.

Knowing what I would find, I pulled up and read through my mother's note.

…How utterly unsurprising. I sighed. While I can appreciate a good work ethic, canceling plans because of it is a clear sign of poor time management, not to mention unreliability.

"It seems mother will not be joining us tonight." I announced, sending an appropriately apologetic look to my siblings."In that case, we might as well carry on without her. The cooks work hard for our meal tonight, no use letting it get cold."

"...Is that it?" Gladion growled. "Just 'carry on'? Pretend all this is normal?"

"Unfortunately it seems that this is the new normal." I pointed out. "We must adapt to the changing circumstances and-"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Gladion cut me off. "Dad's gone, mom doesn't give a crap about us anymore, and all you can say is 'get over it'? What's wrong with you?!"

I frowned. "I understand this is unpleasant but-"

"Unpleasant? Mom and dad might as well be dead, and all you can say is that it's 'unpleasant'?!" Gladion shouted. "We're not heartless machines, Tanya! I actually miss when we were still a family! I actually give a crap!"

His gaze narrowed into an angry glare. "Unlike you."

"Gladion!" Lily cried, "Stop it! Tanya's trying her bes-"

"No!" Gladion snapped. "Tanya never really gave a crap about any of us! That's why she always talks about 'moving on', 'being productive', and 'fulfilling expectations'. She doesn't actually love anyone, she's just doing what some book told her to!"

That is…

Despite all the battles I'd fought, despite all the horror I'd seen, despite all the ordeals I'd overcome, something about my brother's words hurt.

I'm not really a child, I shouldn't be affected by this. I told myself. I need to be mature about this.

"I do care greatly about all of you, Gladion." I replied carefully. "I apologize if it may not seem like it at times, but I do truly care."

"...But you didn't love dad, did you?" Gladion says with harsh eyes.

"Of course she does!" Lily protested, turning to me with wet eyes of her own. "Right, Tanya?"

I open my mouth, but-

…I didn't. My new father was gone before I really got to know him, before I really got used to this life. I…

"...I miss him." I finally said. "I miss him very much."

Gladion sneered. "Is that it? Just a little 'I miss him'? You can't even try to say you loved him?"

"That is…" I tried to choose my words carefully. "...Complicated."

"It's not complicated! You can't say it because you don't love anyone or anything!" he pressed.

"I love all of you." I replied, making sure to look both of them in the eye. "I would do anything to help both of you."

Gladion scoffed. "What, you think you can just replace our parents?"

I frowned. "If they are not here, is it not my duty as your older sister to try?"

By the dark scowl on Gladion's face, that was the wrong thing to say.

"Your 'duty'?" He snarled, shooting out of his seat with rage pouring off his form. "You're not mom, you're not dad, you're not even human! You're just some heartless robot going through the motions!"

"T-that's not fair." Lily muttered. "Tanya is…is…she's trying."

"I apologize if I have wronged you somehow, Gladion." I said, desperately trying to figure out how to manage this. "If there is anything I can do to make this up to you, I will endeavor to do so."

"You know what you can do?" He said, glaring at me, eyes swimming with something I couldn't parse. "You can stay out of my life."

And with that, Gladion spun on his heel and all but sprinted out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"...I-I don't understand…" Lily whimpered, her emerald eyes wet with dawning tears.. "Why does Gladion hate you so much?"

"I…don't know…" I admitted, staring at the empty spot where my brother had once sat.

I don't know what to do…I thought, utterly lost. I'd always tried to hold tight to the principles of logic, reason, and good economic sense to guide my thoughts, but…It's not working.

I've tried to reason with Gladion, but he wants to be irrational. I'd call it childish, but…he is a child. A grieving son who's lost his parents before he even really knew them. And all my attempts at rational responses have been rebuffed as cold.

I let out a heavy sigh, taking in the dinning room full of empty chairs again. …Am I too cold? Am I doing this all wrong? I'm trying to hold this family together like a good older sister should, but…I don't know how.

I looked to Lily, the last person to stick with me, a small, frail, soul with a loving heart in an unloving world.

For a brief moment, I felt she deserved better than my heartless self.

Then I felt a comforting presence wrap itself around my shoulders. Thank you, Mimikyu.

"Well…I suppose if I don't know the answers, perhaps mother will?" I mused, firming my resolve.

"Mother?" Lily looked at me, confused. "But, she…she's so busy, and…"

"I know." I agreed softly, "But trust me, Lily. Mother cared deeply for us once, I'm sure that's still there."

"I just need to find it."

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Taylor

"-One of the other things you gotta worry about with Bug types is molting." Guzma continued, casually man-handling his Ariados, who seemed to be taking it all in stride.

I took in his demonstrations on his own giant spider, doing my best to ignore the new shock of green highlighting my otherwise black locks. Wrestling with a still far too energetic Dewpider helped.

"You see these ridges here?" He points out the various cracks between parts of the pokemon's exoskeleton. "You always gotta try and wash these out real good, especially when they're about to shed their skin. If there's all kinds of gunk caught in the cracks, it can screw up their whole ability to molt on their own."

"Now, you and Dewpider haven't had to worry about it too much yet, since it don't come up much in you average day to day life, but battles can get nasty." He explained. "Mudslap, string shot, poison powder, all kinds of moves getting all kinds of gunk on them. Gunk that's more of a pain than normal dirt and crap."

"If you don't keep a good eye on that stuff between battles, it can really build up. That can make things especially uncomfortable as they start work'n their way up to an evolution." Guzma finished, scratching the top of Ariados' head, nails digging into all the little cracks in her shell. "As Bug types heal and grow, they molt their old skin to make way for a newer, stronger, shell underneath. Which becomes damn fine pain in the poke-beans for 'em if there's all that crud in their cracks.

"Ain't that right girl?"

[Satisfaction]. Ariados practically purred through closed eyes. [Agreement.]

"Huh…" I thought, looking down at Dewpider's own exoskeleton.
I'd known something about this, given all my experiences in my last life it was impossible not to. However, that life hadn't given me an abundance of giant debatably-sentient para-bugs to interact with, not to mention the other giant friendly monsters that seemed to casually disregard physics as easy as breathing.

Evolution on its own…

[Bath!] Dewpider cheered, splashing his legs in the tub of water set aside for this. [Grow!]

"How frequently should I worry about cleaning him?" I asked.

"Eh, depends." Guzma shrugged, pulling out a brush and scrubbing Ariados' underbelly, much to her satisfaction. "Where you are, how much you're battle'n, who you're brawling, all that kinda crap. I'd say a basic rule of thumb 'd be like about once a week, or after any real dirty fight with, like, some ground types or something."

He gestured to Dewpider. "In some ways you got things easy with Dewpider, since the little guy's a water type, so he can give himself a good bath or a swim easy enough. But if you end up expanding your roster it'll be something to keep in mind."

This was something Racheal did all the time. I thought. Grooming her dogs to make sure they were always healthy.

Thinking about those days made my mind drift back to Brockton Bay and the Undersiders. So much history and pain, and for what?

I did it. I saved the world. But…

I felt that familiar void of aimlessness crawl up again. I'd already saved the world, what was I supposed to do now?

Plumeria's words echoed in my head.

"So the kids in Team Skull? They're here because they have nothing. They were abandoned by everyone, their parents, the authorities, society, everyone."

I should fix that. A voice whispered.

It was like an itch now. Whenever there wasn't that empty sense of pointless nothingness, there was that fire of injustice burning in the back of my mind.

"What's up kid?"

I startled, glancing up to see Guzma giving me a concerned look.

"It's nothing." I tried to wave it off.

[Liar] Dewpider poked me in the stomach.

I scowled down at him. "It's nothing."

"It ain't nothing, kid." Guzma pressed. "And I ain't blind neither. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but don't act like I'm stupid. Plumeria's told me about you hav'n problems too."

"It's not-" I stumbled over my words, equal parts annoyance and shame burning inside me. "It's not like you could help anyways."

"Hey," he said, voice softer this time. "Maybe not, but that's what Team Skull's about, ya dig? Helping each other out 'cause ain't nobody else gonna. Give it a shot, kid, and I promise I'll do what I can for ya."

I grit my teeth, a tumble of feelings welling up inside that I didn't like or understand, but could neither ignore.

"...I…" what was I even supposed to say?

I'd succeeded at burning my life down to embers to kill a god-like alien threatening all of humanity? That all it took was turning myself into a monster to do it? That I'd done everything I'd ever wanted, and I never wanted to do it again?

"...I don't know what to do." I finally admitted.

"Kid…you ain't gotta do anything. You're a kid." Guzma pointed out.

"I have to do something." I growled.

"You're not even old enough to go on the Trials." He argued. "You ain't gotta worry about crap. Just…have fun. Do kid stuff."

"So I'm just supposed to ignore all the other orphans around here?" I shot back.

Guzma reeled. "What-?"

I bit my lip. Dammit, why did I say that?

"Nevermind." I said, getting to my feet and moving to leave. "Just forget it-"

"Wait!" Guzma shouted, hurrying after me. "Hold up hold hold up. You wanna help the other kids?"

"Maybe? I dunno." I scowled. "I…mean…someone needs to."

"That someone don't have to be you." He pointed out. "You're a kid too, ain't no reason you gotta make yourself grow up too fast."

"So, what, I just sit around and wait for someone else to fix things for me?" I bit out.

Guzma opened his mouth, the answer "yes" on the tip of his, but he stopped at the last minute. He paused, eyes searching, gears whirling in his head.

"...where would you start?" He said instead. "If you were gonna help, do you know where you'd start?"

"...Yes. No." I huffed, "I don't know, why even bother? I'd just fuck it up anyways."

For a moment, something dark and angry flashed in Guzma's eye, but it was gone as fast as it'd come. Instead, he gave me a very serious expression and said, "Why do you think you'd mess it up?"

Because I became a monster the last time I tried.

"I know what I am." I said.

"What you are is ten." Guzma drily pointed out.

Despite myself, I flushed at that.

He let out a heavy sigh, then fixed an iron gaze on me. "You're a kid, Taylor. You know what that means?" He tapped a finger against my bony chest. "That means you're fulla limitless potential. Anybody who says you ain't good enough or you cain't do noth'n? They ain't worth listening to. Even if it's yourself."

He leaned in, steel gray eyes unwavering from my own. "Now that's a direct order from your big bad boss, ya dig?"

Slowly I nodded.

"Now, how 'bout we work through this again, 'kay?" He said, giving me an inquiring look.

"...Ok." I eventually conceded.

"You wanna help the other kids around Team Skull, right?"

"It's more than that…" I grumbled. "I…I was talking to Plumeria about this. About how common kids are just…abandoned. How fucked up everything on the islands are."

"Language." He chided.

I shot him a look.

He raised a challenging brow in response.

I scowled.

Guzma snorted. "So you wanna try and fix it all yourself, huh?"

"I can't just do nothing. I…I need to do something, I can't just pretend nothing's happening." I said.

"But you have no idea where to start?" He guessed.

I frowned, realizing in that moment just how little I knew about the islands. How could I fix things? I knew basically nothing about the local landscape, let alone how I'd go about changing it.

Then my mind struck on something else Plumeria had said.

"It's… complicated. Alola don't really have a formal government ruling all the islands, nothing like the Pokemon League. Maybe if we had a Champion or something, they could change things, but as it stands?"

"...What about a Champion?" I ventured.

"Alola ain't gotta a Champion." Guzma pointed out.

"Not yet."

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Tanya

…what is this feeling?

I stood before the door to my mother's office, feeling an unexpected level of trepidation. For some reason I wanted nothing more than to turn and leave. Something deep in my gut felt like there was something fundamentally wrong with what I was about to do.

…Surely it's nothing more than the limitations of this body. I reassured myself. While in this life I may only be a young girl intruding on her mother's office, I have seen and done far worse than intruding on a busy executive's inner sanctum.

Despite my thoughts, every instinct in my bones screamed at me as I raised a hand and pressed the call button on the door.

The automated bell rang once, twice, and for a moment some buried part of me hoped it would simply time out.

Then she responded.

["This is Lusamine, what seems to be the problem?"] Her voice wasn't unkind, but neither was it filled with the soft warmth my old memories spoke of.

"Hello mother," I spoke, for some reason struggling to find my voice. "It's me, Tanya. I was hoping to speak to you about Gladion?"

["Tanya? Wonderful! I was actually hoping to speak with you soon!"] The moment my name was on her lips, her tone lit up with the joy I remembered so fondly. And yet, something about it wasn't quite right.

The lock on the door clicked open, the massive slab of polished marble sliding open to reveal a long tunnel bathed in light leading down into the depths of her facility. Despite how well illuminated it was, looking down the passage felt ominous.

Or perhaps, it's because of it? I wondered. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, nothing but a perfectly clean corridor diving deep into the abyss of light.

I pushed such thoughts aside.

"Thank you, mother." I said. "I shall be down shortly."

And with that, I stepped into the light and descended into the deep.

When I reached the bottom, the corridor opened up into a massive expanse of alabaster panels, geometric shapes, and clean lines, all sitting above an indoor pool of crystal clear water. Numerous blocks of glass rose out of the ground, each containing various trinkets and oddities mother had collected, fossils, bones, evolution stones, and even rare meteorite fragments. It was at once a display of wealth, luxury, and pride.

I myself couldn't help but feel like it was a waste of money.

In the center of it all sat my mother, typing away on her computer, her office as sleek, clean, and decadent as the rest of her little palace. From my position before her, it looked less like an executive office and more like a throne room.

Was mother always like this?

I shook the thought from my head and approached her desk.

When my mother noticed me, she smiled and slid out from her seat to greet me in person with arms open wide.

"Tanya, dear, it's so wonderful to see you again." She reached out to hug me close.

If it's so wonderful to see me, why can't you be bothered to join us for dinner? Came the unbidden thought.

Still, I accepted the hug from the one who brought me into this new life. The warmth of my mother's tight embrace was a familiar feeling, almost comforting in the odd nostalgia it brought to mind, reminding of simple times before I was fully myself in this life, back when I truly was just a child. But beneath that familiar warmth was something else, the hint of a fetid scent lying just under the surface that I couldn't place.

Something is wrong.

I buried the thought as fast as it came. I'm being irrational.

Just the same, I gently pushed away and faced my mother. "It is good to see you as well, mother, but I came to talk about Gladion." I paused, reaching for the words to describe my frustrations, only to frown when I found nothing. "I…am worried about him. He vexes me, my every attempt to look after him rebuffed no matter how gentle or considerate."

"Oh, don't worry dear," Mother smiled, brushing aside an errant lock of my hair with a gentle hand. "Gladion is a good boy at heart, he's just going through a phase. He'll understand."

I scowled, "Be that as it may, in the present he is ruining his education with his behavior. I am concerned about his future if he keeps up this 'phase'."

"Do not worry about his future, Tanya." Mother brushed the concern aside, a hand caressing my check and begging my compliance. "I promise you, no matter how dim it may look now, in the end it will be bright."

"But how do you know?" I scowled, feeling lost. "And what am I to do with him in the meantime? Abandon him? I know he is hurting, I just…I just don't know how to help."

"Have faith, my daughter." Her smile was brilliant and inviting, but underneath it all the subtle scent grew ever more putrid.

My gut sank.

"...Faith?" I said, my voice faint, and it was all I could do not show my growing horror.

"Indeed." My mother nodded, her eyes shining with a wondrous light. "I have seen our future, Tanya, a glorious thing, if we play our parts right."

She crouched down, looking at me face to face, her expression enraptured with a vision only she could see. The stench had grown almost intolerable, the gleam in her eye a mad thing that defied the light of this world, and for a moment I saw something behind her. Just a flicker, just an instant, a glimpse of something not quite real, but I knew was all too dangerous.

"I promise you Tanya," she whispered, lips impossibly wide, eyes no longer even truly seeing me. "When my work is done, we will all be able to live happily in a perfect paradise."

She chuckled, "One might even call it the work of the Divine."

Being X…

My heart was gripped with indescribable horror, and it took every inch of my self control not to let it show.

He's already made his move. He's already taken my mother.

I looked at the fanatical shell of the woman who used to be my mother and realized the game had been rigged from the start. At first, I felt loss, despair, even grief. After all, when Being X was already so far ahead, how could I hope to win?

Then came the rage.

…It was you. I thought, fist clenched tight to hide the familiar fury bubbling up inside. All this pain, it was all because of you, wasn't it?

I buried that thought deep and smiled brightly at my mother. "That sounds wonderful, mother! Thank you!"

And like the ensnared puppet she was, the shell of my mother merely beamed at my response and gave me a happy pat on the head before sending me on my way, as if that pathetic attempt of an explanation could ever satisfy me.

Beneath the surface, however, I was boiling.

Being X… you gave me a family this time. A happy, caring, innocent, family that loved me, people I could grow attached to despite it all. You did it just so it would be all the more painful when you tore it apart, piece by piece, didn't you? I thought, jaw aching as I ground my teeth. You did it all because you wanted me to have something to lose this time? Something I'd be desperate to save?

In the depths of the Aether Foundation, I snarled.

Unfortunately for you, Being X, It worked.

By my side, my shadow writhed in enraged agreement.

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​

A/n:

An important note: BEING X IS NOT HERE

Tanya's on the right track, but she's got the wrong culprit, not that she could know that. I've just decided to make the extra-dimensional monsters a bit more overtly eldritch in nature.

Also, I'm about done with moving stuff, so I might become more active again. Maybe. We'll see.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed.

 

[Metaldragon868]

Tanya the Red


Chapter 1


Youjo Senki x Homeworld






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A/n: Note, Homeworld AU. Pretty obvious what the change is.


Kharak
Kiith Gaalsien Town, Great Banded Desert
1315 KDS
Tanya Gaalsien


"Are you ready to go, Tanya?"

I turned from where I was packing my bag, meeting the Head Priestess's gaze.

Dark red eyes, glittering in the depths of her hood, matched the vibrant crimson patterns of Kiith Gaalsien sewn into her shawl. The ebony skin of a life-long desert dweller peaked out from her dark, breezy, robes. Not an uncommon appearance for the people of my home, my clansmen having grown accustomed to the harsh climate of Kharak's deserts and the brutal star that circled vulture like above it, ceaselessly blasting the whole plant with intense UV radiation.

"I am," I nodded, shoving one last thing into my pack with perhaps more force than needed.

I'm more than ready to leave this place.

The priestess frowned softly. "You know, you do not have to leave us, child. Sajuuk has a place for all his children here."

"Sajuuk" is exactly why I'm leaving, I thought, holding back a scowl. If Being X thinks I'll dance to his tune and happily stay in this underground monastery, he's sadly mistaken.

I didn't voice any of that aloud. Instead, I merely said, "I have found my calling, Mother Kalia."

The priestess smiled and took my dark hands in hers. "I understand, child. We all enact Sajuuk's will in our own ways. However you answer your call, I know you will be amazing. Just know that, no matter what happens with the Sobani, you will always have a place in Kiith Gaalsien, child. We are all children of the Great Maker."

The last thing I intend to do is come crawling back here, I thought. Still…

"Thank you, Mother Kalia," I bowed, accepting her gesture for what it was.

Though I may have had a feud with their so-called "Great Maker Sajuuk", the priests and priestesses of the monastery had done nothing to earn my disdain. In all my sixteen years, they had only ever been dutiful custodians to my fellow orphans and I. Of course, for all their kindness in raising us, they had also filled our ears with all manner of religious propaganda.

Though, given the fact that I was being raised in a monastery by a clan, or "Kiith", that placed a high level of social importance on religion, I could hardly be surprised. If anything, I felt offended on their behalf, that such hardworking and kind people could be so easily swindled into singing the praises of a fraud like Being X.

The priestess sighed and stepped away, "In all your years under our care, I had always suspected you would find your destiny outside our little hole in the ground, Tanya. But to see you now, blossoming into womanhood and shooting for the stars…" Her smile returned, wider this time, but also fragile. "May Sajuuk protect you, as you protect us in the heavens above."

The last thing I need is His "protection"

"I will do what I can," I said instead.

"You always do." The Priestess gave my cheek a light pat and stepped away.

With that, I turned back to stuffing the last of my things into my bags.

Soon, I was finished and making my way through the weathered steel corridors of the monastery, all painted in the dark blacks and reds of Kiith Gaalsien. It was the single most well-kept building in the whole town, as could be seen in all the still functioning holo-emitters projecting various scriptures, holy imagery, and revered symbols of the Kiith along the walls. Even the cool recycled air was better here in the orphanage than in the rest of the subterranean town, the advanced climate control system breathing crisp freshness into otherwise stale air. Like a gentle breeze passing through the halls, rather than a stagnant cloud of barely tolerable gas in a can.

A few of the other orphans peeked out as I walked by, some giving me tentative smiles and waves, most shying away; I'd never been particularly well liked by the other children here. A few other priests and priestesses showed more vigor as I passed them by, sending me their well-wishes and how sorry they were to see me go.

Finally, I stepped out into the cavernous atrium of the town.

Well, we called it a town. It was really more of a vast underground bunker. Lights embedded in the stone roof provided some illumination, but much of the cave was shrouded in darkness. I'd grown used to the dimness of my home, though. The limited lighting on the ground level was more than enough for my eyes to work with.

The monastery dominated the center of the town, being the center of Gaalsien society, to the point it was built in and around the central support column for the artificial cave. From its place at the core, I could see the whole town radiating out around me. Everything of importance in the village lay within an easy walk or a short tram ride away from this nexus. Including the lift to the surface.

A brisk stride across cracked streets later and I was at my destination, the imposing gates of the exit standing before me. Waiting for me was a squad of soldiers in red armor marked with the white sigils of Kiith Soban, led by a stocky man with relatively pale skin and a prominent mustache. The soldiers stood around the entrance, talking amongst themselves and interacting with some kind of ruggedized tablet, or in the captain's case, smoking a cigar of all things.

The moment the captain caught sight of me, he brightened up and put away his cigar, shooting me a wide smile. "Ah! Tanya Gaalsien! Splendid timing! Are you ready to get going?"

I hiked the bag on my shoulder into a more comfortable place, and didn't shoot the monastery a second glance. "Yes, Captain Soban."

"Bah!" He waved me off, "You'll have plenty enough formalities once you're in the Academy. For now?"

His grin widened. "Call me Kurt!"

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"Alright, get settled in, we'll be heading out shortly," Captain Soban said after leading me to my small bunk aboard the craft he'd used to get here. "This little thing is just a baserunner, so don't expect the trip to be too long. Maybe a day at the most, depends on the weather. We'll be meeting up with the Academy soon enough."

"Little?" Slipped out of my mouth before I could help it.

The baserunner, as he'd called it, was nearly half as large as the monastery itself. It was an enormous bunker of a vessel, armored against the dangerous debris stirred up and tossed around at bullet-like velocities by the local mega-sandstorms, or haboobs. It was also the single largest vehicle I'd ever seen in person, in either Kharak or Japan, and it was hard to imagine something so massive as to have stories being called small.

"Hmph!" The man's mustache twitched as he chuckled. Apparently, my shock amused him. "Oh yes, a baserunner like this? Barely even a proper landship. You'll see the big girls soon enough, don't you worry." He gave me a comforting pat on the shoulder before moving back out into the hallway. "Oh, and don't be afraid to say hello to your fellow students. Not all of them will be going to take the Pledge like you, but we're all working for the same cause, so may as well make friends with them."

I nodded, seeing sense in his reasoning.

Just then, the intercom around us crackled to life and a woman's professional voice rang through the cabin.

[Clear skies ahead, Captain. Temperature is holding at 41 C, radiation levels are low, and satellites are tracking no haboobs in our path. Looks like we should make the rendezvous before nightfall.]

"Ah, wonderful news, Lieutenant!" The captain smiled broadly beneath his mustache and turned to me. "Then I truly must insist that you take in the views on our way to the Academy. Kharak on a clear day is a truly enchanting sight that every Kushan should see for themselves. It is good to know what we fight for."

I glanced around the cramped room, little more than a closet with a bed. "Thank you for the offer… Kurt. I suppose I may as well do something productive with my time."

If anything, his smile widened.

A few minutes later I was walking out onto the observation deck. With each step, I could feel the deck faintly vibrating beneath me, a tell tale sign of the landship's main drive in action beneath us. Looking out the window, I could see the desert pass by without so much as the slightest sense of turbulence.

The wonders of anti-gravity, I suppose. That was one of the many pieces of advanced technology baked into the foundation of this world. So many things that would have been considered the work of science fiction in Japan, technology beyond anything but the wildest imaginings, were all as basic to Kharak as the steam engine.

And I had to admit, the view itself was enthralling. I saw the landscape of my new homeland from one of the baserunner's observation windows. Desert dunes passing by beneath the craft's flying form, like waves in the ocean. It was little wonder the Great Banded Desert was often called the Dune Sea.

The sky was a rich, cloudless, blue that stretched unopposed from either end of the horizon. I could spot a few bird-analogues flying high in the distance. They soared, seemingly unburdened by the world around them.

For a moment, I felt a sense of envy for the distant birds.

Eventually, however, the natural beauty fell away, and became something… else.

"...What is this?" I found myself muttering, half in wonder, half in horror.

Where before the gentle sands had rolled along in waves, now plains of jagged glass clawed into the sky.

"The Glasslands," a soft voice answered beside me.

I jerked at the noice, causing the stranger to flinch back.

"I'm sorry!" She cried, waving her arms in a panic.

The girl looked roughly my age. The pale skin of her heart-shaped face was flush, highlighting the brilliant green eyes that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, and light chestnut hair tied in two intricate braids that fell down either side of her head.

"Uh…" I said intelligently.

"S-sorry, let me try to start over." She took a breath, calming herself, before extending a hand out to me. "Hello! My name is Mary Somtaaw!"

I eyed the hand briefly, baffled as to what was happening, but eventually accepted the offered hand. "...Hello Mary. My name is Tanya Gaalsien."

"Gaalsien?" She perked up."Would you be willing to talk about our Great Maker Sajuuk?"

I blinked. "What?"

Immediately her face went flush, her hands raised up in a panic. "Ah-! I-I'm sorry, that came out wrong I, uh, just…" She glanced away, wringing her hands for a moment before building up the courage to turn back to me.

"Hi, I was just, uh… well…" Mary's blush returned. "I wanted to know if you'd be willing to go to the Academy's temple with me. Er, together, I mean. That is, uh, if you wanted to."

…what?

Not for the first time, I found myself utterly lost dealing with the irrationalities of teenagers.

"...Why me?" I asked.

She blanched. "D-do you not want to? I can-"

"No, no," I quickly waved her off that track before it could get worse. "It's just…"

I certainly didn't want to go back to temple after finally leaving the monastery, but I also wasn't exactly eager to throw away my first chance at getting a friend at the Academy. Making connections was always important, and throwing one away now just because she reminded me a bit too much of "home" would be wasteful. She could be some puppet of Being X, or she could be a valuable resource for me to invest in.

"I've lived my whole life in a monastery, so I'm not particularly eager to jump right back in, if that makes sense," I tried, aiming for diplomatic tact. "But I would be open to talking more. What was it that brought you over to talk to me again?"

"Oh, it's because I thought you were cut-" Immediately she clamped both hands over her mouth as a brilliant blush overtook her face, likely because of whatever she was about to say.

What is with this girl? I wondered. Is this just teenager stuff?

…Still, I admitted to myself, she is the only person my age who seems to actually want to be nice to me. No need to make enemies I don't have to.

"...The thing about the Glasslands?" I asked, offering her a bone.

"Yes!" She blurted, face still a brilliant crimson. "That!"

"So…?" I arched a brow.

She coughed, clearing her throat, "Yes, Ah, the Glasslands. You probably heard about the Scouring of Kharak by the Tiidan a century ago, right?"

"Only about a thousand times. Kiith Gaalsien is oh so proud about being proven right about Sajuuk's punishment in the end," I scoffed. Then I frowned and put the pieces together. "So this is one of the scars left from their orbital bombardment?"

"Yeah…" Mary nodded, nerves leaving her and something somber taking their place. "Grim, isn't it? Over half the Kushan population died that day… If not for the grace of Sajuuk, Kharak itself might be gone."

His Grace, of course, I thought glumly. Even assuming Being X had done something to spare them, which I sincerely doubted, I doubt it was for any benevolent purpose. More likely he just thought only letting most of "his people" die would be a great way to get the rest to praise him more.

Still, saying that out loud probably wasn't the best idea, so instead I said, "Well that's what we're going to the Academy for, isn't it? To learn how to protect our people better?"

Mary brightened at that. "Yeah! Of course! To protect humanity and purge the unclean!"

"...The unclean?" I asked, almost dreading to know.

Mary blinked, rearing back in shock, "Wha-! You know, the Beast!"

I ran my mind through what on earth she could be talking about when it finally dawned on me. "Ah… that Hyperspace-borne parasite the Somtaaw defeated, correct?"

"Yep!" She nodded cheerfully. "Though, we only purged the biggest cluster. Space is vast, and we can't be sure we got all of it."

Her expression turned serious. "Kiith Somtaaw released the Beast, and so it is our responsibility to hunt it. It's why I'm going to the Academy. I want to take after my father and join the Inquisitor Fleets."

"A noble goal," I nodded, and I even meant it.

The generational responsibility they seemed to have felt like a bit much, but if even a fraction of the stories about the Beast were true then I was happy to see that the people who had caused the accident in the first place took it so seriously.

"I myself…" I leaned back into my chair and thought about what to say. After what Mary had told me, I felt the correct thing to do was reciprocate.

But how?

I looked up into the darkening, the beginnings of night creeping into place in the heavens above as the sun set on the horizon.

"...I want to see the stars," I admitted.

"I think that sounds wonderful," Mary smiled.

It was, I decided, a nice smile.

We passed the time talking amiably about this and that. Zealous though Mary may have been by most standards, compared to the Gaalsien priests in the monastery that had been my childhood home, she was practically secular. She was, I could admit, pleasant company.

Eventually, we came upon the Academy. I had expected something conventional, if built using what this planet considered modern materials. Perhaps a towering edifice of Soban red steel and concrete, or a sprawling complex of connected buildings, maybe even some underground bunker network to hide from the heat of the sun.

When I first caught sight of the Kapisi, I thought that was exactly what it was.

Then I saw the treads.

The enormous, city-block sized treads.

"Welcome to Soban Academy Kapisi, built in the retired Coalition Expedition Carrier," Captain Kurt explained. "This'll be your home for the next four years, boys and girls. Treat her well, she's a 200 year old living legend."

Ah… I realized with numb shock. So this is one of the fabled landships.

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Kharak
Soban Naval Academy, Kharak Orbit
1355 KDS
Tanya Soban

"Commodore Tanya Soban?"

I looked up from where I was grading exams, only to nearly startle at the sight. A dozen thoughts crashed together, distant days remembered fondly clashing with rigorous protocol and cultural expectations.

"Admiral!" I nearly jumped out of my chair, words tumbling out of my mouth a confused jumble. "I-I mean-."

"At ease, Tanya, at ease," my old mentor chuckled, waving me back down. "And please, we've known each other long enough. No need for that ceremonial camel shit; Kurt's just fine."

"I…yes, Kurt," I said cautiously, slowly lowering myself back to my chair.

Not that his statement had done anything for my heart rate. Sure, I may have still kept in touch with my old mentor, but that was through more distant channels, not in person. The old Captain Kurt Soban had risen through the ranks of the Vagyr war. Now he wasn't just Fleet Admiral Soban, he was the Kiith'Sa of all Sobani. Fond memories or no, surely he had better things to do than check in on a mere Academy instructor?

Why do I have a terrible feeling about this? I suppressed a frown and tried to ignore the icy feeling creeping up my spine. Haven't I already done enough?

"Wonderful," he said, smiling as he moved to take the seat across my desk from me. "Now… Tanya, you've had one of the most distinguished careers of any officer alive in the Navy. On top of that, your career as an academy instructor has been nothing but exemplary, churning out the best pilots Kharak has ever seen.

"It's no exaggeration to say that you, Commodore Tanya Soban, are one of the finest living military minds in the Coalition."

"Thank you, sir," I said woodenly, even as my gut dropped.

Why else would he be buttering me up if not for the other shoe to drop?

"I say that to say, well… The Powers That Be have a request for you, Tanya."

Ah, a 'request' is it? I'm sure being volun-told to risk my life once more is far more appealing than simply throwing me in the line of fire. I all but sighed. Still, at least they're being nice about it. Perhaps I can squeeze some concessions out of this?

"Oh?" I said carefully, expressing restrained interest as I reached for my resting coffee.

"Indeed," he nodded, his eyes turning grim. "Our nation's entry onto the galactic stage has been chaotic. We've had to claw out a place just to survive, we've had to sacrifice just to see another sunrise across the Dune Sea."

My jaw clenched involuntarily at the memory. Standing on the deck of the Saladin, desperately commanding the Ferin Sha fleet around me to intercept every missile inbound for Kharak. The flash as we almost succeeded.

All that waste. All that destruction. And for what?

"We have." I said with more tension than I'd intended.

It's in the past, and the fools that launched the strike are long dead. Kharak is safe, you are safe, you can move on, I tried to tell myself.

It never helped.

"Yes…" Admiral Kurt agreed solemnly "...and something else somewhat overlooked from all the chaos of all the galactic wars is the fact that, when we'd first gone into space, we'd had a goal in mind."

"The Homeworld mission," I supplied, then blinked as I put the pieces together. "You're making another attempt?"

"Well spotted, Tanya!" Kurt grinned as his whole demeanor brightened at the change in topic. "With the Vaygr war behind us and the Sajuuk-Khar's emphasis on discovery and exploration, our old desire to seek our destiny back on our homeworld has returned!"

"That…" I struggled to find a diplomatic way to put it. "...I'm not sure how I feel about lowering our defenses this early on."

"Oh, you're not alone in that fear," the admiral nodded. "I would prefer at least another decade or two to rebuild and rearm, if nothing else so we can get our manpower back up to snuff."

"If manpower is such a concern, shouldn't that be all the more reason for me to stay at the Academy?" I pressed.

"While I'd love nothing more than for you to continue to teach…" Kurt shrugged. "Unfortunately, politics demands otherwise."

I hid a grimace behind my mug. I could understand, and even agree with the sentiment, but it was a frustrating thing being beholden to a public that didn't truly understand the situation.

But such is the cost of living in a free and fair society. I grumbled internally.

The current form of government couldn't exactly be said to be a beacon of democracy and egalitarianism, but it made the attempt. The Daiamid itself was somewhat analogous to a senate, but the elected representatives were from the various Kiithid rather than provinces. The Kiithid that formed the Coalition were actually fairly independent, owing to its origins as an alliance of nations rather than a singular power block.

Each Kiith was led by a Kiith-Sa, originally something determined by bloodline and heredity; these days it was usually something of an elected position determined by merit and political acumen. My own Kiith, Kiith Soban, for instance, had no bloodlines or lands, as was tradition. It was a nomadic mercenary Kiith of the spirit, and it was customary for the Kiith-Sa to be nominated from and elected by the various military heads who found someone to have the proper "spirit" of the Sobani.

Leading the Coalition was the Sa-of-Sa's, who would be put in said position by consent of the Daiamid and Kiith-Sa's. Their direct hard power was originally quite limited, but the Coalition had grown more centralized from the various wars that had tested our people and forced emergency measures into effect. We were still far more decentralized than I could recall my home of Japan being when I died, but no longer were we merely a loose collection of Kiithid and competing interests aligned out of convenience.

Behind all that was the Sajuuk-Khar, Karan S'jet. By binding herself to the Great Hyperspace Cores, as well as the ancient Progenitor super-ship, Sajuuk, she'd become not only effectively immortal, but a revered holy figure almost overnight. The fact that she had led our people away from nigh-extinction twice in a century had plenty to help with that as well. She wasn't a part of the formal government anymore, not technically, but had become the de-facto head of our people's primary religion. She might not have any direct power over law, but she had unparalleled amounts of influence.

I'd probably take more issue with such a thing if not for the fact that I'd personally worked under her during the Vaygr war.

She was… strange. At times, I would say that her connection to the Great Hyperspace Core had cost her a degree of our shared humanity. That loss, however, had done nothing to make her any less the remarkable leader all agreed she was, possessing an indomitable will matched only by her canny mind. I'd never worship her, and I suspected she'd never want me to, but I'd certainly respect her.

She'd saved my life, even when it would have been more economical to leave me to die.

"The Sajuuk-Khar is forcing our hand?" I asked.

"To a degree," Kurt admitted, "She is pushing for more exploration, wanting this new age to be about discovery and growth, rather than more war. Quite the popular sentiment, and where better a place to start than the old Homeworld?"

"A bit of Manifest Destiny, hmm?" I said, shooting him a raised brow.

"Just so," he nodded. "And the whole Daiamid is tripping over itself to try and get credit for launching this Great Expedition."

All no doubt looking just to attach their name to a legend. The political popularity gained from being associated with the voyage that found Earth would be invaluable to any canny operator. I reasoned. Something made all the more dangerous when one realizes that most of the Representatives didn't have the experience to know how incredibly perilous such a mission is.

"But why now?" I pressed. "The last of the fighting died down years ago, and we had the Pride of Kharak back up and running again even before that. Not to mention, with the Sajuuk in our hands, it should have been the simplest thing for the Sajuuk-Khar to far-jump a fleet over to Earth and back in no less than a couple weeks."

The admiral let out a long and weary sigh. "…You really know how to ask the hard questions, don't you, Tanya?"

"You were the one who taught me that, sir." I pointed out without a blink.

"Heh," he snorted, a wry smile gracing his face. "I suppose I did…"

Then, abruptly, all mirth drained from his expression. "Unfortunately, your answers are classified."

Displeasure curled in my gut, and I frowned, but I couldn't honestly say I was surprised. "I understand sir."

"But," he stressed, "if you're going on this mission, there's something you need to know."

Kurt leaned forward, eyes as cold and hard as stone. "We have real, actionable, intelligence that Earth is in imminent danger."

Ice flooded my veins.

"W-what?" I stumped despite myself, my brain whirling in shock. "Earth? But who-"

"I can't tell you," he cut me off with the shake of his head. "All I can say is that the action pushing this mission is our recent discovery of a threat approaching the Homeworld. The rest of your briefing won't be happening until after the Expedition Fleet has completed its first jump.

"However, what I can tell you is that your job in the Expedition won't be to fight that threat, not directly. You'll be using the Gate network to jump ahead of the threat and beat it to Earth. From there, well…" Kurt sighed again. "Frankly, we don't know what to expect. All we know is its location from the old colony ship nav data, and that somehow no one has heard of it."

The admiral scowled. "...We're still not sure if that's a good sign or not."

I could see why, it was hardly something that I hadn't considered myself. In some respects, I could argue that Earth was more of a homeworld for me than any other Kushan. It may have been over half a century since my old life in Japan, but I still hold fond memories of those days. They may be faded and seen through rose colored glasses, but the idea of my old home being eradicated?

Being burned from this world, much like Kharak's twice averted fate?

Unacceptable.

"So then…how can I be of help to the Expedition mission?" I asked.

"You can take command of one of the new Khontala-class Battleships as your flagship of the fleet," he smirked. "Admiral Tanya Vos Soban."

It was all I could do not to drop the mug in my hand in shock. "I… what?"

Admiral Kurt chuckled at my slack jawed expression. "Is it so surprising I would want you as my voice amongst this expedition, leading a Sobani Battlefleet as a flag officer?"

"I…" My jaw worked silently for a moment as my mind scrambled to organize a defense. "...while I understand my reputation as a war hero, that's mostly propaganda. I was only as good as the men and women I fought beside."

"And those men and women repeatedly thank you for your ability to keep them alive and in the fight against impossible odds," he argued, stubbornly unmoved. "Say what you will, Commodore, but your war record speaks for itself."

"In the fight?" I resisted the urge to scowl. "Sir, I got myself and my men captured by the enemy."

"Only after pissing the Vaygr off so much with your merry band of frigates that they sent one of their best Battlecruiser divisions after you. A fleet you tied up chasing you for weeks, weeks that a premier front-line force wasn't attacking our lines."

"But I surrendered."

"You survived, Tanya. Not only that, you saved the lives of your fleet by swallowing your pride, and countless other Kushan by keeping those Vaygr occupied," he pointed out. "And even after you were captured, you were halfway through executing your own escape plan, which involved hijacking your second Vaygr Battlcruiser with your merry band of marines, by the time the Sajuuk-Khar arrived to pick you up with the whole damn Mothership Fleet."

"I… surely I am not your only choice?" I protested weakly. "I did my duty, yes, but so many others performed far grander feats than I."

"...Why do you doubt yourself so much?" Kurt asked frankly, his dark eyes borrowing into my own with a slight frown on his face. "Do you not believe yourself worthy of this honor? Or do you not want it?"

"I…" What could I say to that? I need to find some excuse, something that didn't have my Kiith Sa brand me a coward, but-

"Tanya, do you trust me?"

I looked up from where I was balling my fists and met his concerned gaze. I'd known Kurt Vos Soban for almost all of my life on this planet. Some part of me was still waiting for Being X to drop the other shoe with him, maybe killing him off in some freak accident at my worst moment.

But did I trust him?

"...Yes." I eventually nodded.

"I know you. I know you're winding yourself up in knots trying to think of ways the world is working against you, just like how you did in the Gaalsien orphanage, just like how you did in the war."

I bit the inside of my cheek to clamp down on any reaction.

"Do you trust me when I say this is an honest request? No strings attached?" Kurt pressed, ruthless in his advantage. "Not as your Kiith 'Sa or your Admiral, but as your mentor? Do you trust that?"

I took a long deep breath, my mind racing through all the worst ideas I could think of. Was it more irrational to be afraid or to hope? Was I being reasonably cautious and skeptical, or was I being paranoid?

"...I understand," I nodded.

"But…?" He pressed.

"...Why me?" I admitted.

That was the only thing I couldn't understand. Even in spite of all that Kurt had said, I just couldn't understand why anyone rational would honestly consider such a thing an honor I deserved.

Kurt half snorted, half sighed and shook his head. "As always, Tanya, you underestimate yourself. Why are you so easily able to see the value in others, but not yourself?"

At that, what arguments I had left were caught in my throat.

After a moment of tense quiet, with my thoughts a swirling maelstrom in my mind, Admiral Kurt gazing at me with that inscrutable fond smile that stoked memories of gentler days, he finally spoke up.

"Remember, Tanya, this is an offer. Think about it for a few days before you give me your response." With only the slightest strain, Kurt stood from his chair. "I'll send you what details I can for you to go over at your leisure. Please, take your time and think about what you truly want next in your life.

"Much as I would love to see your star rise to replace mine, I would hate to see such a talented student wallow in misery merely for my own sake."

"...What if I enjoy my work here?" I ventured. "Teaching is invaluable in and of itself, is it not?"

"Oh…" he chuckled. "If you so wish, I suspect you'll find plenty enough time to educate on the expedition. It's going to be a very long mission. That's why I want you as my Vos, after all."

He continued making his way out, but at the doorway he stopped and sent me one last look filled with meaning. "...Whatever your choice, Tanya, know that I am immensely proud of the woman you have become."

And with that, he left me to my thoughts.

My horribly confused thoughts.

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A/n: This has been in the works for a loooooong time. Big thanks to @Readhead and @Sunshine for helping with this. There was a delay in posting this chapter here because I am an idiot.

In case you're wondering about Visha, she'll be showing up next chapter.

There is a very big backlog Imma need to work through and chapter 1 was always the real stumbling block keeping me from getting any of it done. In case you're wondering what the point of this cross is if I've already skipped over all the game and are only now having them look for the Homeworld.

Well...it's to have Tanya go out and look for the Homeworld. In other settings.

Anyways, that's enough from me for now, I hope you enjoyed.