The Shahanai Nomad Clan's beliefs, according to an unknown Floridian Gulf Refugee.

I have spent months here in these frozen wilds. Months, where my life had only been allowed to remain thanks to the benevolence of the Shahanai Clan. I do not wish to call my savior's odd, but they certainly have unconventional beliefs.

Once, I was an anthropologist for SynTec, I collected scattered information from the OldNet's archives and created a living tapestry to repiece the Old World's history and culture. It appears now, that my view had been so focused on the past, that I missed out on the new cultures of the present.

I have never been spiritual, yet, life in these wilds seems to require a belief in a higher being — or at least, in the magnificence of Warp Energy as a spiritual medium. Shardware is not favored here, for it's heavy maintenance and tendency to grow dysfunctional in the cold, but Mutants and Espers prosper. Albeit, those that are Shard Adapters are sometimes venerated if the conditions are right.

They believe that Implants are vessels for their souls to each to the beyond, that the wind sweeping western air from the Pacific to the east is a trial, their sacred animal in the caribou, and that all souls are bound to the Shah.

The Great Nothingness. The Great Everything.

October 24th

6:58 PM

Ripley

"Don't come any closer." Quartz's voice rose as a shadowy echo from under his garbs, he was certainly dressed for the cold this time of the year. But the weather wasn't why he covered his skin. I could feel an intense pull of my awareness towards him.

It was psychic manipulation, a form of thought control. Not whatever this Soul searching bullshit Topaz mentioned. Not that Psykers made much sense, either. Despite his warnings, Topaz stepped closer to Quartz and placed a gentle touch on his brother's arm.

Like an imploding bubble, the draw on my consciousness ceased. Diana eased the tension in her body too, turning an incredulous eye to the twins. "Okay, what's going on? One of you, I can sense from several kilometers away, the other I can't feel even when he's in the same car as me."

Quartz stayed still, the visor concealing his eyes honing on Diana. "You're… Silvereye?"

"I- yes?"

Quartz turned away, pulling out a small device that displayed a holographic… poster of her. "Could I… could I get an autograph? Just scribble your finger over it."

Diana's eyes squeezed tight. "What?"

Topaz kept a hand on his brother, but the other waved at Diana. "Just… just do it! He doesn't get a lot of personal interaction, he saw your interview and really liked it. It's nothing weird, he just… needs it."

I'd never seen Topaz so… focused. So serious. He didn't spin any joke out of it.

Diana pinched her eyebrows, walking up to the device and signing her name on it. "Okay, now can I get some explanations?"

Quartz looked at the signed autograph with what I could only call a tenderness, before finding recluse back in his corner. "You're after Soul Killer, correct?"

"Yes."

Quartz' voice dimmed. "I need a Soul Nexus Mutagenized Implant for my research."

"Research for what?" I took a seat on a… log. Did he cut trees for warmth around here? "Since when did you and Topaz dig into Soul Killer? I thought Missy was handling that."

"She is a very distracted person. Her focus lies on Mr. Skeleton right now." Quartz never directly turned his gaze to anyone. "Soul Killer, on the other hand, is someone we have… history with."

I leaned in, this one of those rare moments where a bit of decade-engulfed gossip got shed. "How so?"

Quartz looked up to Topaz, who nodded with a quiet solemnity, before breathing. "We were subjects of his."

"Subjects… like kept in one of his Nexus' labs?" Diana found her own log, maintaining a healthy distance from Quartz. "How… were you infected?"

"Not anymore, Missy had her methods to cure us." Topaz said with a dim light in his eyes. "We… we were located in a Nexus lab located in what was once a building-ground for a Siege Capital in the Eastern Wilds."

Siege Capital. Recruitment for them was surging, and they'd accept anyone suicidal enough to go to one. Effectively, they were outposts capable of housing a hundred-thousand to several million volunteers for the Swarm. It was a way to draw the MAL's attention off from the main Free City, and to establish forward ground during the MALswarm.

"Where?" Diana said with concern.

"Texas. Old Texas." Topaz said quietly. "Missy broke us out a little more than a decade ago. A year or two before Mirage's induction into the group."

"Soul Killer is all the way in… Texas? How is that possible? Even with Golds, I don't see how their range could extend so far?" Diana said with wide eyes.

"It doesn't work like that… at least, I think it doesn't." Quartz opened up another projector, displaying a map of America. A Golden dot was present in what I recognized as Texas, and a series of branching lines extended to other states like Arizona, Wyoming where the Yellowstone District was was, Colarado… and a thick web over Utah… where most of Westbrook was located. "Each Nexus is a node, a chain in a web of linked souls… and they all connect to the East."

Diana looked nauseous. "You're telling me… Soul Killer's Titanium Nexus isn't even in New California?"

Quartz shook his head. "If they were, they would have been detected long ago. Instead… they're hiding among the Astral Presence of other Soul-stealers."

What did any of this mean? Astral Presence, Soul-stealers?

"You mean…" Diana seemed to have put things together. "MALs? He's hiding his true location by hiding in territory where the MALs are more prevalent?"

"Precisely." Topaz shrugged. "Uh… Ripley, you following?"

"Uh, yeah?" I shook my head… okay, so it was a Psionic network, numerous minds branching out signals all while bound to a central origination of Titanium somewhere to the East, masked in interference of the MAL's Warp Energy. "It's sort of like a…"

"Psionic Proxy Protocol? Titanium controls Golds, Golds control Silver… they control everyone else." Starlight chimed in my head and I regurgitated it.

"If that's what makes it easy for you to believe, then sure." Topaz side-eyed me. "Now let my brother finish up his explanation."

"Souls, even separated, are bound as one." Quartz said that like it made sense. "To consume his Mutagen, is to accept a piece of their corruptive Soul into you… to replace it, should the Mutation Soul-Forfeit reach 100% Development. Your mind might be retained, but your spirit is forever tainted."

"And Soul-Death?" Diana asked, sweat on her face.

"Is for The Revenant to sacrifice a piece of his being to call forth from the Astral Plane." Quartz said, like this was how the world worked.

"Okay, now you lost me." Diana said.

"How about we start from the top?" Topaz said to his brother. Quartz nodded, still not moving his body an inch towards us.

"You have Implants correct?"

"Duh." Diana and I answered at the same time.

"Where do your Implants draw power from?" He asked.

"From Warpcode." I said confidently.

"Mutagen." Diana replied in kind.

Topaz crossed his arm dramatically. "Wrong! At least according to what we think…"

"Warp Energy?" We both corrected at the same time.

Topaz nodded. "Closer… but where is that Warp Energy coming from?"

I sighed. "From our metabolism, it's produced as a byproduct."

Quartz addressed me without directly looking at me. "You are a scientist, correct? Then you should have some formula for it. Conservation of mass and energy and whatnot."

"Well, there's a whole lot of variables for it. If anyone knows the formula, it's Founder Beauregard Mazhyr." I defended myself.

"Or maybe she does not understand it, as well." Quartz sighed. "Warp Energy is not of this world… in fact I doubt it can even be called 'an energy'."

No way was I letting that slide. "Bullshit, it can do work."

"Work?" Diana eyed me with that glint in her eye that made you feel like you were stupid and weird.

"It's the scientific term for… you know what, Quartz? Explain. What is Warp Energy according to your guru-ass?"

"It is a form of governance over the world through thought, conscious and subconscious. Originating from a realm separate to ours… the Astral Plane. Our world lives on the rules matter and individual thought, everything lives with a unique presence. Wheras the Astral Plane is a world of immaterial bound by a collective consciousness — a universal presence." Quartz declared in a muted tone.

"Uh huh." I gave them both the stink eye. "Another plane of existence that has never been reported on. Where's the proof?"

"Us." Topaz smiled. "Soul Swirl and Soul Spill. Mine and my brother's respective Deviant Mutations."

"Swirl… and Spill." Diana muttered under her breath, those names were ridiculous. "I- I think I get it."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Okay, then explain it to me." I breathed.

"To explain this… theorem of the nature of our powers." Quartz said quietly. "We will accept the assumption that Implants are a bridge between this Material Plane, and the Astral Plane — allowing an Adapter to access abilities using the Aether they derive from the immaterial world."

Oh great, and now he's calling Warp Energy that pseudo-scientific term, Aether.

"Effectively," Quartz continued, "Topaz's Soul Swirl creates an inward draw on his unique presence, his Soul is constantly being confined and pulled into the Astral Plane's universal presence — thus creating a phenomenon where the world's consciousness of his existence is lessened. Whereas my Soul Spill has the opposite effect, drawing from the Astral Plane's universal presence in large amounts and forcing my unique presence to extend beyond my physical form. Effectively, I place myself into the collective consciousness of other people."

"Alright, alright." I folded my arms. "So if I'm getting this right, one of you is a generator for endless supplies of Warp Energy, and the other sucks it dry."

"Ripley." Topaz' teeth gritted. "You should really learn to shut your mouth sometimes. Because that's exactly what Soul Killer used us for."

I seethed in some air, turning my eyes away.

Diana's mouth urged on, however. "You mean… the Revenant used your powers to create Gene-Limiters and Boosters?"

"He used our… bodies." Quartz shuddered, Topaz' grip getting a little firmer on his brother. "For those with SIMs… the body — or the physical apparition of our presence — utilizes Aether. A blood sample is still inebriated with trace aspects of the combined effect of Aether upon the physical body… Mutagen. To take from a Mutated Adapter's body is to take a piece of our presence, severed and gifted to others."

Topaz pointed a finger to himself. "And considering my Soul constantly dries itself out in the sun, you can imagine how close I come to dying. The only way I could survive was quite literally by taking from my brother… we're synergistic. Our Implants came from the same MAL."

Now that he mentioned it, it was a lot easier to focus on Topaz right now.

Diana and I glanced at each other, but I shook my head in confusion. "Wait, I thought a MALformed only ever produced a single SIM. How could one produce two?"

"That… admittedly… is something I do not have a concrete answer on." Quartz sighed. "We were children. I only remember a monster. A monster with two heads, bound to a single body… presumably, it would be safe to assume it had two cores as well. As for why they refused to become one, I can only draw conclusions from the nature of the Source-Shards that Topaz and I were touched upon by."

"Containment, is what I think the Shard that touched me is called. Don't know which corporate it belongs to, however," Topaz said quietly. "And my brother has been touched by the antithetical Source-Shard of Release, in grasp by the MALtitan known as The Typhoon. Two polar opposites, the MALs, they couldn't converge their Cores together because they were of opposite 'frequencies' as Ripley would say."

"I- yeah." I sat still as he caught me in my tracks. "And then you both were likely chosen because you had high compatibilities?"

"No… we were chosen for our low compatibility." Quartz said, unflinching. "We were chosen, because we had exactly the same compatibility as the other. Forever kept unable to control these powers, but never at risk of losing ourselves to the madness of the Astral creatures threatening to breach through the bridges of our Implants. At 29%… we are cursed with survival, but lost to a life."

"What my brother wants…" Topaz took a deep breath, "is to find a way to spread his Aether to others so that he doesn't constantly live as a massive screech to everyone's senses. Like how Soul Killer does, but obviously that has risks. He can't just take SK's Mutagen and inject it into him, that would only bind him to the hivemind… instead…"

"He wants to be able to create his own." Diana gazed deeply into Quartz. "It would spread his… presence to others? Empowering them, but… wouldn't that mean you would gain the ability to control their bodies and minds?"

"That is what I seek to remove from Soul Nexus." Quartz clarified. "I do not… want to spread my curse to any others, but I do want to remove it from myself. It may sound folly, but perhaps I could even turn it into a gift."

I raised my voice, hoping to make something right for my prior misspeak. "Nothing wrong about wanting to turn a shitty situation into something good. And what about you, Topaz?"

"I…" Topaz rubbed his head. "If I become a part of Quartz' network, he'll be able to remove my whole never-being-on-anyone's-mind thing. Otherwise, if we don't get our problems solved soon, then… well… I might be forgotten permanently."

"How?" As much as I had my issues with Topaz, I didn't want him to be… forgotten.

"By what I'm doing now." Topaz pointed to the hand holding onto his brother. "By holding onto Quartz, it does two things. I'm absorbing his Warp Energy and not dying… but it also makes my Mutation stronger. Because that's what his Mutation does, it constantly pulls in Aether from that other dimension and empowers him if he doesn't let it loose into another vessel occasionally. I can also try to draw from others by touching them, but it would be unstable due to my low Compatibility and… affect me. Quartz is the only one I can safely draw Energy from."

"Similarly…" Quartz looked at his brother. "If I touch someone else, it sends an unstable surge of Aether into them, causing their Mutations to grow in strength but also… out of their control. It doesn't physically harm me, but I can't touch anyone else without damaging them."

Diana's teeth gritted. "Soul Killer, that fucking bastard. Okay, how would we kill them then?"

I also added something. "Wait, can I get some clarification… how Developed are you both?"

"I'll answer Ripley's first." Quartz decided. "My constant draw of Warp Energy is directed towards two Mutations, the first is Soul Spill whereas the second started from a simple Light Absorption Mutation I thought would… help conceal me. It has grown immensely more powerful since, allowing me to create illusions… but is also evidence that I cannot control my Mutational Development. Over the last decade, I have become a Tier IV Adapter, but not as strong as one should be in my Tier — given my Grade."

"And I'm Tier III… since I have to keep absorbing Energy from my brother." Topaz answered in turn. "Really hoping I don't get any higher, otherwise I'll never be on anyone's mind. And if you're wondering about our stats? My Energy is at rock bottom, Iron I, similar Integrity and I can't even take any other Mutations since I render them ineffective upon contact. Quartz, on the other hand, has Titanium Tier Energy — his body produces a fuck ton of it — a similar Integrity… and a high Capacity he doesn't want to touch for fear of it going haywire. I'm Bronze and he's iron. Good thing, otherwise we would have been killed by our Mutations a long time ago."

They weren't even Silver?

Quartz spoke next. "As for eliminating Soul Killer… there are multiple options."

He pulled up the projector of the map with Soul Killer's approximated Nexus locations. "We don't have the location of their original Titanium node, but they should be located either in central or eastern America. Eliminating that would be… problematic, because then his Gold and Silver Nexi would lose the cohesion of being bound to a singular mind. While the Silvers would still be under control of the Golds, the Golds would likely wage on each other to create a new Titanium Nexus to restore balance and become the true Soul Killer again. The same would happen if we were to eliminate all of the Nexi bridging the Titanium Nexus to the ones in Westbrook… either they would wage war or Soul Killer would send more Nexi westward to restore balance."

"Doesn't sound… very killable." I added, while Diana frowned.

"Effectively, the best way to kill Soul Killer would be to… connect to the hivemind." Quartz said. "Theoretically, Topaz could do it, draining Aether from the hivemind but they could easily just as easily kill him during the process. We would need to create a poison for The Revenant's Soul, a hostile Mutagen capable of… eliminating all of them at once by injecting it into their Titanium Nexus, spreading it down the chain to the rest."

"That…" I had no idea what to say. That still sounded impossible. "Good luck, Diana."

She sliced her glare at me before turning to Quartz. "I… maybe I could do it. I've removed his Mutation from those he controls. Haven't been able to sever the control of a Nexus yet, but… I can burn him from the inside."

"Can you burn through thousands at once?" Quartz said, knowing the answer. "You would need to be Tier IV, maybe even Tier V to systematically have that power to spread your will through an entire country, a few dozen Golds, hundreds of Silvers, and thousands of lower Grade soulless. While I don't doubt that you could cause significant damage, all it takes is one of them to live — and Soul Killer remains alive."

"Besides…" Topaz sighed. "Soul Killer knows Implants best. They'd have so many safeguards in place, I wouldn't know where to start."

Lightning shattered into the air around Diana. "I- I don't care. I'll find a way, even if it means burning myself or…"

Her breath spilled into the air, manic and cold. "I- Fuck!"

She kicked her log and clawed at the sides of her head, her appearance shifting as something inside of her seemed to be turning her powers inside out. "Fuck… fuck…! I need a moment to myself."

With quick strides, she paced out of the tent, and I was left alone with the twins. Coughing, I gave them a quick look. "You two… uh… catch up. I'll check on her."

———

Diana was seated outside, electric sparks dancing off her and striking the ground, leaving little molten shards that cooled under the wind into crystal. Her breath shivered, every inch of her shaking wildly as her hands clenched so deep that blood trickled down her hands. "This is impossible. How did one human get so much power?"

Lifting my hand, I put it against her shoulder, knowing my Water Tendency would cool her down. "Hey… it just means… now you have a concrete way."

"A concrete way," she coughed bitterly, "all I know now is that killing that bastard requires a fucking nuke in terms of psychic or soul energy or whatever! And how on earth can we do that, without killing everyone whose lives they've stolen!"

"No, not a bomb… a scalpel." I muttered. "It's like Shard Operating, a fine scalpel moving quick enough to sever hundreds of nerves at once. Mutagen, it's just genetic code modified by Implants under Warp Energy to become more than human. A poison… if we study them, we can kill them. One Nexus dead is huge progress, from body to Implant we can dissect information and create a countermeasure. The Mutation's the same across all Nexi, it's only the Grade that matters. A few Golds, we take them out… you can build something strong enough to eliminate a Titanium. That many minds under his control, there will be fractures to exploit."

"Yeah…" Diana sputtered, hope heavy in the sound. "Yeah… just… how do I figure that out? I'm not a fucking geneticist, I doubt I can do anything within these next three years before Soul Killer turns the fucking Swarm into a buffet. So many bodies under his control, he'll have endless supplies of Ae- Warp Energy to work with. Forget Titanium… he could go to Platinum. Like The Founders."

"Well, better get our asses moving now, then." I muttered. "You brought the Revenant Vial sample?"

She pulled out a thin syringe, a single stalk of a flower and some petals within the crimson liquid. Not quite thick like blood, but invoking a similar eyre. It was exactly how I remembered it from the memory I witnessed in that homeless thrall a few months back, the key to turning a human into a MAL.

"If we figure out all the uses of that vial…" I cupped my hand over hers, gently taking the vial for closer inspection, "…we'll know what Soul Killer is up to. What Skeleton is up to… and then you can strike."

"Gonna leave it all to me?" Diana took the vial away, her voice didn't hold anger but rather… disappointment.

"There's a part of me that… really wants to go to war with The Uncaged," I sighed, "but I have my mother to worry about… I'm worried about Skeleton and Dogwhistler. They know too much about me. Yet, they're not… so far they haven't directly hurt me or anyone I know, not like how you were hurt. I get why you're doing this, but… I don't want to drag my mother into these monsters."

Diana sniffled, holding back her emotions. "That's… you're right. It's unfair of me to… expect you to put those around you into harm's way. Thank you, Ripley, for bringing me here. It's… difficult, but it's been necessary."

"Hey, I needed this too." I leaned my head back against the tarp. "I don't believe in half of what they said, but some parts… could be useful for me. Soul Killer is an expert in Implants. If I get my hold on their research, I can do a whole lot. I'll share my findings and… help you. Just keep my name out of your mouth."

"Oh…" She turned her silver eyes to me. "I should probably warn you… your name came up, by a SIO… friend. She, uh, she has you on a suspect list of being Dreadwire."

"Fuck." I swallowed. "How? I was careful ever since I've been Dreadwire!"

"That's the thing. She wasn't looking into your activities while you were Dreadwire… I mean, yeah, it helped her figure stuff out. She just created a rough idea of who you would be prior to the Implant, figured you were at the club and likely a Shard Operator… and… know she's thinking the Snake Fangs could help her find you."

"Crap… one of them knows." I sighed. "Hoaqin, that meathead friend of mine who you met."

Diana took a deep breath. "I'll see what I can do to… deter her from finding your identity."

I looked at her, surprised. "You'd do that?"

She averted her gaze away from me, putting a distant affront. "I don't want my damn researcher getting arrested."

"Ever so cold, you just can't admit it." I nudged her with my elbow.

She snapped her arm away. "Can't admit what?"

"That I'm a little endearing."

"Shut the-"

"-fuck up. I know, it's like your catchphrase. Hey, I can say I've taken a fondness for you, y'know. I just have the balls to admit it."

"Sure… fine, Ripley Donovick… you're not that bad of a guy. Just… try and commit less crimes every once in a while?"

"Ah, sure… guess I'll have to cancel tomorrow then. Can't go breaking into a food plant with you. Especially a corporate one. That's a bigass crime."

"You're the worst." She breathed, but her lip curled into a smile. Just as quickly as it came, it faded as she reached into her pocket and pulled out two Implants. One was a Silver SIM, the other was an Iron BUG.

"A Soul Nexus Implant," I muttered, "and a BUG injected with the Revenant Vial. I'm sure of it, whatever alliance The Uncaged has is fracturing… Skeleton and Dogwhistler made that BUG without Soul Killer's permission."

"How the hell did it come to this?" She swept her hair back. "I'm not sure if they're more threatening while united or divided."

I took a deep sigh. "I think I have some theories about everything. What do you say we go in there and tell those twins what we're thinking?"

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