Poem titled 'Final alignment', author unknown.

Life blossoms as it fades, oh, what a way to go. Minds break to see a future, that few have come to know. Insanity can be a gift to the two-eyed, but as easily become a curse to overflow. Oh, The Eclipse, the death of it all! When the Source is within only one control!

When the blood spills and builds blades, And steel is unraveled and unmade. When metal-made thunder echoes through the walls, And a scarlet web is where the secrets crawl. When the graves are brimming with ancient loss, And flowers bloom through the joys of rot, The sun will rise! The moon will fall! And when they align…

They will bring death to us all.

September 11th

Ripley

Missy's safehouse was cluttered, an absolute mess of machine parts that were scrapped up to make some sort of stabilizing harness that wrapped over the R0N1N as he sat over a matress. It was my first time seeing him without the mask, and he looked surprisingly normal.

His hair was a dark brown, shabby but cut short, and he had a youthfulness despite the age and sharpness in his jade-green eyes — one of which had a scar. Clearly, he wasn't that much older than me, definitely under thirty years old since that was when most Adapters tended to look like even if they lived on for a century.

R0N1N's Shardware, though, was a mess of broken bits next to him that he had an almost possessive look over. He had a different set on right now, but from the scraps Diamante had shown me… most of it was downright dysfunctional for his OverMind capabilities.

"So you secured Goliath within your own body?" R0N1N's gaze was sharp, not losing any fierceness despite the state of his body.

"I'm not exactly sure what the process was, but Himiko… she transferred the DataShield protecting Goliath into me. Mirage isn't picking up any of her influence, but… it was more than a shield. It was effectively the Nanoswarm's source code and it… made me inject the vial into myself."

"I see." R0N1N's blade was kept close to him, and I eyed the weapon every few seconds. Not just me, Diamante and Missy were here too. "Well then, it appears our mission was a success."

I focused my gaze on the weapon. "So I'm assuming you'll want to try and remove the nanites out of me?"

"No." R0N1N stretched. "That is impractical due to the fact that personalized nanomachines maintain a strong link to their owner that reduces their efficiency once broken... and is also unsanitary. I don't care where Yuzhou's weapons end up, as long as it's not in their hands."

He retrieved a band from within his blanket, tapping something in there as light pulsed out to form two Silver Shards, and fifty Bronze shards. R0N1N piled them up, and put them to his side. "One million and two-hundred-and-fifty Thousand Shardyne. You were exceptional Ripley, I look forward to working with you again."

"Oh." I stared at the pile of money, not quite believing it to to be true. Why was the R0N1N so… giving all the time? Nervously, I reached out to shake his hand. "I… it was a pleasure working with you."

I cautiously picked up the finger-width Shards, counting them and… holy shit… was this really my payout? "This is… more than I expected."

"You should see what Mirage earned." R0N1N sighed.

"Fuck them, you still owe me an extra ten mil for taking down the Wardrone!" Diamante shook his hands.

R0N1N nodded. "My coffers will require time to… fill back up. You'll get it before I leave the city."

Missy slapped the Gold mercenary's back. "You're not leaving in this state, your diagnostics are a mess. Not to mention your Shardware needs repairs."

"I can get to Imperial Africa with Bronze Shardware." R0N1N lifted his hands up infront of him, but there was a clear distaste in his eyes.

"Why go to Imperium?" I asked. "Isn't Yuzhou your target?"

"Not the Imperium states, but rather the Siege Capitals and Free Cities beyond them. Besides, it's the last known sight of your grandfather and I intend to get modifications from him before the Swarm starts."

Diamante tilted his head. "I thought you said you were going to see old Hammer?"

"I am." Came the simple reply.

Diamante stayed still, like his mind had left his robotic body so that it remained a statue, then he gazed at me, then at Missy, then at R0N1N and back at me. "Hold on, you all knew that?! His grandfather is they guy that saved my ass?!"

"Too many things lined up." I shrugged. "Besides, thought it would be fun holding a secret from you for once."

Missy chuckled. "Why else is Skeleton so interested in Ripley?"

"Well…" Diamante's teeth sounded like scratched metal. "The bastard's weird, you know that."

"That I do." Missy responded with a sad softness.

"So…" I counted my income. With the Silver Shard I found in the facility, I had 1.75 Million to my name now. Half of the estimated cost of buying a Silver Implant for my mother… assuming one was even found in time. "What do we do from here?"

"I will stay here as a mercenary for the time being… there are debts I intend to pay back. Especially towards… Muramasa." R0N1N responded. "Corporate contracts pay heavily, I should be able to pay off Diamante in time… and I suppose I will need repairs."

Missy said her peace too. "Swarm's coming up, I'm going to do more digging into The Uncaged, see if I can figure out what they and Himiko are up to before it's too late."

Diamante continued. "Right, I've heard through the wire that NeoCore's planning to stage the city up for something big."

Missy drawled on. "Siege Capitals will begin recruitment next year, heavy military equipment transfers means the gangs will make big moves, building up IMUs to gain power during the Swarm. Not to mention we're likely to meet up soon to discuss it at Saint Yorinobu sometime next year. Lot's of work… my old bones are already aching. What about you, Ripley?"

"Return to Anderson's… Research my Implant and work out all of this Tier II BS, figure out if it's wise to get involved with this Uncaged drama. And of course, I need more money for my mother, so if Dreadwire ever needs to return to business then-"

"We'll contact you." Missy nodded. "But you should also find other fixers to get you work, payout will be higher that way. You've gotten an explosive reputation from that swing out in the city, but you'll need a network to earn a steady flow. And remain wary of the jobs people will have for you."

"Gotcha. Mirage should be able to help." Founder, was I was going to have to start marketting myself? Hopefully the rumors would do it for me.

"Well, I actually got a job for you, Ripley." Diamante tapped my shoulder, his words coming out more shaky than I'd ever heard him be. "More of a… request really… I… want to try out the Arachnodyne."

"Oh," my eyes lit up, "is the great and fearsome Iron Devil so in awe of my design that he can't help but request one of his own? Sorry, but I already made up my mind that an Arachnodyne is a Dreadwire exclusive. Unless… you've got like, seventy million of Shardyne on you."

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"I know you're joking, but the Corporations would probably pay that much for the design after what you did with it." Diamante grabbed his hand away. "Whatever, it's niche at best. How many Shard Op's even fight in the first place?"

R0N1N nodded. "Don't neglect that aspect of your income too. Private orders for custom Shardware are pricey, especially now that you are more or less capable of steadily making Bronze-Grade Shardware. You've impressed me… remember how you said you could make Livewire reinforced limbs? I'd like a Bronze set, I'll triple whatever the manufacturing costs are."

Diamante looked at the man in horror. "This better not delay my payment, or I'll add interest onto it. Hell, I already am! 5% for every month!"

"Granted." The R0N1N didn't fight back.

Missy laughed, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. "This is what the big leagues look like Ripley, I bet you're real terrified of these pushovers."

"I'm more terrified of you." I commented. "How the hell'd you even manage to take out four Silvers at once?"

She shrugged. "That's Tier IV for you."

"Tier IV?" Her arm on my shoulder got slightly heavier, there wasn't much information available about Tier IVs… other than that you technically stopped being a part of the human species. You were considered Evolved. "Right, you were an Inquisitor."

"Though I'm still not close to ever getting to Tier V, Dual Adapters take much longer to develop. And I'm Bronze, so speed is not in my favor."

"You're… really Bronze?" I thought she had to be Silver, at least or Gold. Her suit was remarkable at keeping her signature under wraps.

"Long story, a bit too sad for me to say sober." She said while smiling, but I knew how deceptive a smile could be.

"Well… then I have to ask. What do the three of you know about The Source?"

———

To facilitate my question, I gave a brief explanation about what I'd heard from Amaterasu… even… even revealing that my Implant was likely from a descendant of The Infinite's. That secret felt necessary to share, it was the whole reason The Uncaged were so interested in me and Diana in the first place.

"I see." R0N1N leaned forward. "Amaterasu seeks independence from both humanity and the MAL. So her ploy with The Uncaged is business at it's core, a deceptive one where they lie to each other at every turn."

"How humanlike of her." Diamante scoffed.

R0N1N clutched his fists. "If only we could have retrieved her, but Mirage-"

He stopped, his gaze tearing into me. "Ripley, what you've heard is something that haunts this world. It's the supreme authority that makes The Founders and The MALtitans the assured monarchs of our societies."

Missy nodded in agreement. "It's half the reason I left NeoCore. Silvha, Mazhyr… their intentions aren't always the most pure. In the end, the politics of The Source and it's Shards are what keeps society both progressing, and halting. Each of the Founders and the MALtitans have complete access to… what's known as a Source-Shard, one key in each of their hands to a chest of unknown potential. Over time, it trickled down into other Adapter's hands as Fragments, like mine and R0N1N's — and of course, you, Ripley. Sole wielder of a Fragment originating from the Source-Shard of The Infinite."

"Other than Diana Ulrich." Diamante pointed out.

"What exactly does it even mean to have a piece of the Source in you?" I held myself back from asking too much. "To be touched by it?"

Missy sighed. "I don't even know where to begin, there's many aspects to it. But at even its simplest, it creates a Unique Feature or Deviant Gene. Unique Features are pretty easy to identify, given how there's only 12 normal Features… as for Deviant Mutations? Officially, they can't be identified up by a Genedeck since they start out relatively normal, but they can be singled out from the fact that they only occupy 1 Gene Capacitance."

She continued. "It's incredibly rare — almost impossible, really — for SIM Adapters to have multiple Deviant Mutations at a time and it is possible for a BUG Adapter to have a complete set of Unique Features. Stronger concentrations allow your other Features and Mutations to embrace the Source-Shard Fragment within you as well, though you typically only have one Unique Feature or Deviant Mutation for every Fragment within you."

I had two Unique Features now in Shardweave and Data Mimicry… was this a case of my Source-Shard Fragment being… especially potent?

Missy rasped from her lips. "It's really endless what The Source can do, some Adapters are able to control Warp Energy that isn't their own and affect other's connection to their Implants. It's all dependent on what Source-Shard they've been touched by…"

"And so… these have names?" I said with a heightened pitch, hoping they would elaborate.

The R0N1N and Missy stirred, before Diamante it as it was. "Yeah, every Shard in the hands of the Founders and the Titans has a name. They even pair up nicely too, one Founder for every Titan… some people think they might even combine."

"Might think?" I said in confusion.

"No Founder or Titan has died, thus so far." Missy said, her lips pursed tight. "But that… could change this Swarm. Thing are getting complicated."

"Yeah." I sighed with exasperation. "Alright, just… could I know the names?"

Diamante looked at Missy expectantly, but there was something in his gaze that led me to think he was waiting for an answer too. Did he not know?

"Fine." She clicked her tongue. "Twelve Shards, eleven of them known."

"Because there's only five MALtitans to six Founders."

"Yes." She concluded, before shaking her head. "I know the Shards of the Titans and only SynTec, Silvha's, and Mazhyr's Shards."

Cupping her hands, she began to speak. "The Typhoon has the Shard of Release, The Mother's is Division, The Terror has the Shard of Oblivion, The Allseeing uses The Future, while The Infinite…"

Her gaze landed on me, and I spoke with full confidence. "To Change."

"And The Founders?" Diamante asked, impatience growing in his voice.

Missy glared at him, for the first time it was serious and sharp in a way that left me on edge. It was difficult to think that she wasn't… she technically wasn't a human anymore. She had ascended it. "Nolan Trask wields the Shard of Connection, while Silvha possesses the Shard of The Past... and Mazhyr wields the Shard of Understanding."

I put things together easily enough. "So Silvha's Shard is antithetical to The Allseeing? While Trask… SynTec has sights on The Mother?" The Past and The Future; Connection and Division. "What about Mazhyr's... what's antithetical to Understanding?"

"Likely... the Shard wielded by the missing Titan." She said, her eyes boring into mine in a way that set fire to my soul, not as motivation but as a warning not to push further into the topic.

"The Source…" She took a moment to breathe. "Further concentrated Source-Shard Fragments can directly interface with Implants and their coded data, essentially the very essence of its functionality… this could also evolve into affecting another person's Implant. Damaging or Improving upon them."

I took a nervous glance at the R0N1N, who spoke.

"Yes, like how you reduced my Compatibility, which I'd assume is half the reason your Implant suddenly developed that habit of reading further into signatures of other Adapters." R0N1N said with a tiny hint of displeasure. "...If you and Diana are truly the only recipients of Fragments from The Infinite's Source-Shard, then I can only imagine it's quite powerful."

Missy spoke in turn. "Now, typically Fragments of a Source-Shard are tiered based on how many of these principal abilities exist. It's not like the Tiers for an Adapter's development, though, it's simply a measure of how encompassing a Fragment is of the overall Source-Shard. It's more of… loose subject of rules than any real concrete system."

A list of the various criteria opened up in my senses… I checked them as they came.

Source-Touched Tiers

Tier 0: Presence of a Unique Function or Deviant Mutation; +1 Tier for every other capability identified.

Increased Development speed of Mutations and/or Features. [Check]

Non-standard Feature Updates or Meta-Mutations. [Check]

Ability to modify the Warp Energy signature of The Adapter. [Check]

Manipulation of Warp Energy of other Adapters. [Nope.]

Ability to decipher Implant-Coded Data. [Check.]

Ability to manipulate Implants. [Check.]

Ability to manipulate another Adapter's link to their Implant positively. [Nope.]

Ability to manipulate another Adapter's link to their Implant negatively. [Check.]

"Tier VII…" If I was right, I encompassed most of these abilities.

Diamante whistled, while Missy just nodded as though he was expecting this. "As far as you've experimented for now… I'm just Tier III in terms of my Source Fragment. R0N1N's a Tier I, which might also explain why he his Implant had a negative reaction to yours."

Now that came as a surprise, for all of R0N1N's bells and whistles, he was barely even blessed by this power. To me, that made him even more terrifying.

"For all purposes, we classify The Founders and MALtitans with Tier X on the scale." Missy pointed out. "And I'd wager there are less than a hundred people in the world with Tier V or higher."

"So the value of my Implant keeps on rising, great." I cradled my head into my hands. "And here I thought, I already had a target on my head. Now you're telling me that I'm probably going to be hunted by The Founders themselves if this ever gets out?"

"More or less." Diamante said nonchalantly.

"Any more questions, Ripley?" Missy asked warmly.

I had too many to count, but my head was already on the verge of exploding with the weight of this. "I know where to find you guys, for now… I'm just going to focus on taking care of my mother."

"As you should." R0N1N agreed. "Get back to her soon, Warp Poisoning is a slow but deadly disease, savor every moment you can."

"Aye." Diamante tipped his hat, the same one me and Elsa had bought him and stuck to his Iron Devil suit. It appeared he actually took a liking to it.

Missy stared at me with motherly eyes. "Don't overwhelm yourself so soon, we need to stay low for the time being."

"Yeah…" I scratched my thumb. "Dreadwire won't be coming out soon for now. Anyways, I'll see you guys later."

"Oh." Missy caught herself. "And Ripley, we never got to properly induct you… but welcome to The Misfits."

"The Misfits?" I chuckled.

Diamante groaned. "You can blame Daylight for that one, Topaz went ahead and made sure it stuck at some point."

The Misfits… "I like the name."

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