1:37 PM

Diana

"Skeleton hired you to…" My eyes opened wide in disbelief, was Ripley who Omen wanted me to ignore? "My boss wants me to let her die."

"They're in on this." His voice came out dimly. "In exchange for killing her, I'd be allowed an Implant that would save my mother."

I clenched my jaw, not sure what to think of him right now. But he was telling me the truth, rather than hiding this secret. "Are you going to do it?"

"Would you let me?" He asked, and I gave a firm shake of my head.

"You saw what happened to her, I could never let Dryder…"

"I'm not going to." He said, but there was wavering faith in his own words. As though he didn't trust himself. "Today, many people have tried to orchestrate deals with me, so I plucked my own with the Lieuten-"

"You told her you would kill-"

He interrupted me. "With her parasite."

My words stumbled in my throat, clogging it. "With Soul Killer?"

"That thing isn't Soul Killer, not anymore. It's an Anomaly. Starlight… I know I've been keeping secrets, but I won't keep this. Bridge our minds."

Starlight appeared, a worried look on her small face as she nodded. A connection built between us, motes of light that sang to the darkness that had grown within him. Normally, it was so easy for me to peer into his Warp Energy, this time it was muddled and… off-putting.

But, it was also calming. Like I'd been overstimulated and his Energy cast a shade on a sunburn. As the connection solidified, I found myself within a memory, a very recent one… just a few hours ago.

The morning sun was yet to rise, and blood was slick on Dreadwire's body. He landed roughly on the roof of the hospital building, throwing yet more discarded weaponry onto the pile that had been building up.

He wasn't alone. Anabelle Grazhe stood up top, her steel-gray eyes boring down on that mask without fear. "Your little girlfriend said you wanted to talk to me? Make it quick."

"Not you." His distorted voice led a claw to point at her. "That thing inside of you."

"What thing?" Anabelle took a sharp breath, like something was clawing out of her, and when she expelled it the color of her eyes changed as Soul Killer took over. "Dammit, you brat! Do you know how hard it is to keep her from poking into her own skull?"

"So she doesn't know about you." Dreadwire let out a low chuckle. "Or at least… she isn't consciously aware."

"You can blame her father for that, kept our minds apart." Soul Killer gritted her teeth, the anger appearing almost foreign on Anabelle's stoic face. "Not to mention, all of the medications we need her to have."

"We? By that I'm assuming it's you? Soul Killer, and the Police?" Dreadwire turned his head, looking across the labyrinthine towers of the Sixth Precinct.

"Correct on all accounts." Soul Killer chuckled. "Like it or not, I'm the government's best look into my greater selves and I help keep the peace between everyone, Anabelle's got the reputation to keep things together and-"

"I've been asked to kill you." Dreadwire pulled a gun from his holster, but didn't look away from the city skyline. "Skeleton's orders. They're phasing you out."

"They asked you to kill Anabelle." Soul Killer responded firmly. "Not me."

"The result is the same. Are you afraid of death, Revenant?"

"Why would I be?"

"You are. You're not actually Soul Killer. You're just an Anomaly of theirs, aren't you? A tool, to even yourself. How pitiful."

"Your words do not carry the sting you wish to-"

"What is it like, to be divided from your own mind? I'd imagine you have many memories, secrets… those of a hundred minds. But now you're trapped into one, you find the hardware lacking — unable to compute any of which you used to. It must be overwhelming to be so weak. You stopped being Soul Killer the moment Juliet cured you, you're now just an Anomaly. Yet you still work for them?"

"I work for myself." Anabelle said, gritting her teeth.

"Yet you seek their approval, Anomaly." Dreadwire laughed. "That's why you sent Diana to them at the auction, to prove you're still useful. You keep their secrets away from the police, but the truth is… you're no longer you. For the last twelve years, you've been nothing but an eyesore. Evidence of their failure, of their fears… that they can be eradicated."

Dreadwire plucked a vial from his side. "I have exactly such a cure, better than Juliet's. It would break you. You would disintegrate… and likely, the Lieutentant along with it. Because that's how you've survived, you parasite, you've ensured that your death would mean Anabelle Grazhe's?"

"Memories, personality, ego… they're all linked to me." She growled, Anomaly, her voice festering with the power of Titanium. "I can change her in a moment!"

"Yet, you haven't. Because the truth is… you would lose the person you know best." The gun stowed back into it's place. "All this time, you've probably been lonely."

"Are you showing me pity?!"

"Yes. I pity you, Anomaly. You and Anabelle both… you're fragments of two broken minds jammed into one skull." Dreadwire lifted the vial higher. "Whatever treatments you've gotten, they've only been purposed to keep you under control. To be used like the good dog you've been, and now you're ready to be put down."

"Your point?"

"I'll let you live." Dreadwire said calmly. "If you agree to be dead to everyone you know."

"The hell does that mean!?"

"That we're going to fake your death." Dreadwire answered. "Anabelle Grazhe… will disappear. In exchange, I'm going to give you an opportunity."

"An opportunity?"

"To be reborn." Dreadwire's gaze flicked back to Anomaly. "You're worth dead to my enemies, and alive to me — that's the fact. My offer is simple, I'll make sure those bastards who want you out of the picture get what they want, and give you the chance to achieve your goals, Anomaly. If that means reconnecting you to Soul Killer, so be it."

"Then I'd have Diana Ulrich as an enemy."

"You would." Dreadwire said plainly. "Or… alternatively, she'd be your only chance at claiming what you seek."

"And what is that?"

"To reclaim control, whether as Anabelle or Anomaly, I don't care… Soul Killer has always been the one capable of escaping death. It just meant a loss of an asset, of a body to control, now… you face the same fear present in all living beings."

"Of course I do, I'm a biological creature. Life and procreation of life is the basic code written in-"

"And fear is what controls you, that fear of death." Dreadwire had no hesitation in his voice. "I have no reason to manipulate you, you're already being manipulated by your own fear. The truth is, they're going to get rid of you one way or another. If not the police and skeleton, Soul Killer will… I doubt they really care for evidence of their failure. And you know that, because once… you were them."

Stolen story; please report.

Anomaly gritted her teeth, chewing her words out. "You're a bastard… but fuck, you're serious?"

"We'll topple what they've built." Dreadwire flicked his vial — a Soul Anchor — over to Anabelle. "Otherwise, I'd suggest you end it here and now."

At that point, my past self had reached the rooftop, and Dreadwire's voice came cold and hard as he looked down on the pile of weaponry. "I assume your kind would want these."

———

Blinking out of the vision, I was angry. "What the fuck Ri- Dreadwire. You made a deal with Soul Killer?"

"As have you, now." His mask showed no emotion behind his words. "Anomaly is our best weapon against The Revenant, it means an option for us to experiment with a live subject. To study. With her, we can improve these cures… and even find a way to segregate Anomaly from Anabelle."

That… made sense. It was enough to cool me down. Starlight appeared with a frown, but seemed to be a little relieved. "Well, at least now we have an idea of what to expect… uh, how do you plan on sending her off?"

"Crimson Soul. Mirage had been expecting they'd come, but with Bladefather's usage of Soul Killer, now it is confirmed. With them, likely Dryder will appear as well."

My eyes perked at that. "How did you know Dryder was wi-"

"I have my sources." He nodded. "Anomaly is a similar situation as the Crimson Heart, if one of their failed thralls can turn against them — many more can."

"And then… how do we fake her death?"

"We won't." He said easily. "We'll kill her, and bring her back to life."

"Excuse me?!"

Dreadwire

I ran the calculations with Warpweb, it was feasible. We had to kill her in a way her brain wasn't damaged, likely, oxygen deprivation would be the best method. Soul Killer's Mutation Soul-Death, as ironic as it sounded, had the ability to raise the dead as evidenced by Skeleton's usage of it. That Mutation was already present in the Lieutenant's brain, but had been severed from certain functionalities.

Once she was clinically dead, her Implant would crawl out, and that would be where Diana and Starlight had to come into play. I pulled out a vial of Mutagen, exposing it's contained red petal to Diana. I saw her eyes crackle with lightning as the crimson reflected from the silver of her irises.

"You want to put that Mutation back insi-"

"If it was that easy, she'd have been part of Soul Killer again a long time ago." I corrected. "Anomaly is entirely disconnected, Juliet's cure was a precise scalpel that left a wound unable to be healed by The Revenant."

Starlight gasped. "That's what this was for?"

Diana flickered between the both of us. "What do you mean?"

"It's how we were planning to cure Anthony… to… well… heal him."

"Huh?"

I put a hand on her shoulder, exposing her to Golden Water that dripped calmness down her brain. "This is… an incomplete, cruder, version of that. It's based on the Revenant Serum, but modified with my nanites and the Soul Anchor cure alongside Quartz's blood samples, and Bronze-Grade healing Mutations. Putting this inside of the SIM should give it healing properties, and the remnants of The Revenant's Soul-Death and Soul-Nexus Mutations should bring her back from brain death by entangling with the mutated parts of her nervous system. I need you and Starlight to ensure it happens the way it needs to. With your Mutations, her Synchronization and my Rewrite Protocol."

"How the hell-"

"I've seen you take Warp Energy from another person, now I need you to give it. Gold should kickstart the Implant into reactivating, I have no idea what the time window is going to be between her 'death' and her Implant being put back inside of her, which is why I need you to be there when she dies. As soon as she can be extracted and you two are alone, heal her. Starlight can disconnect her from the police network too."

"You're crazy." Her teeth clamped tight, as a smile crawled onto her. "You're fucking insane."

"I can agree to that." I responded. "I don't know if I'll be available at the time, given the Yuzhou interference, but this plan has evidence that it can work."

"And that a similar principle can be used to save Anthony." Diana held her breath, before leaning in.

And hugging me, her arms fastened around my armor with warm tightness. "Thank you."

"Thank me once we've done our jobs." I slowly pulled back. "And once Anthony is healed."

She sniffed away dry tears, pocketing the vial carefully and building a resolve inside of her. "You know… I'm glad that you're… actually a really nice guy. I thought, I thought that it would be easy for you to become bad, for that Gold to worsen us… You're proving me wrong, and I don't typically like that. But with you, I'm glad. It would've been much simpler for you to just kill her. Instead we're plundering from Skeleton to save your mother, I can get behind that."

"We both can… we're not letting either of them win." I left her to her own thoughts, satisfied with the way things had been orchestrated.

Now, I had two opportunities.

Diana would be distracted while she modified the Lieutenant's Implant, I'd sold her on a theoretical. She believed me, the theoretical evidence was there — certainly. But evidence was paltry in the face of hard, recorded truth.

If the Lieutenant died, it would be her fault. And even moreso, it would be my moment to disappear with the Implants Muramasa had stolen.

And if she lived, I'd still have those Implants, and I'd been proven to have taken an incredible leap in how an Implant could be modified. In what Soul Killer could do, ressurection. It would be something for me to study, to become invaluable, to take over Skeleton's importance.

An army of the dead was one thing, but if ressurection proved true… it could be expanded upon. Improved. And made perfect.

And I was the only one capable of doing it, Rewrite was mine to wield. Diana was only part of the methodology, one I intended to cut out.

"Your filters are back." Starlight appeared in front of me, a stubborn look on her face. "I can't synchronize with you properly if the filters are blocking me… what are you hiding, dad?"

I'll tell you once this is over. Ripley will.

"Will it hurt Diana?"

Not if she doesn't get in our way.

"Our?"

Starlight… go help your mother out. I promise we'll talk this through once we're done.

She pouted and disappeared, then in the next she was back and panicking. "Uh, mom's facing a full frontal assault from War-Watcher, but that's not the issue right now!"

What is it?

"It wasn't the Lieutenant who told us to stay put! That was War-atcher! Mom- she's in trouble, but… get out of this room quickly! Two of them are coming!" Starlight heaved. "I- I'll help her but get everyone out!"

She fizzled out, instantly drenching me in panic that quickly subsided as my voice boomed. "Everyone! This is a tra-"

The ground beneath us sank and erupted at the same time as it quaked, Diana and Kim Liyung were quick to grapple their telekinetic abilities to grab people, green ectoplamsic glows coalescing that bundled and piled up onto whatever was standing. Electrical wings blurred from Diana's back as she manifested serpentine streaks of voltage that sunk into her fellow Investigators suits to lift a few up, Archangel was slightly slower but managed to grab another two before they fell.

As for me? Two of my Arachnodyne limbs fastened to the roof, the other two hooking into a large chunk of stone to keep it from falling as my claws jabbed into the suits of others, preventing them from descending down below.

Where blue flame roared up, spitting ashes in our faces as a flame-feathered Princess of Muramasa rose up to meet us.

"Clever." She snickered, before blue flame boiled across her skin, charring it and came hurtling towards me a thick, miasmic glob of sapphire. Sabrina froze the air in between us, rendering a snarl from Princess Azure Phoenix before familiarity snuck in. "Oh, you're Daniel's sister? Well, that complicates things!"

"You bitch!" Sabrina yelled, as icicles formed in the surrounding air before corrupting with a green haze as Kim Liyung flung them into the Princess.

That was the last thing I could see before my limbs began to feel like they were being torn apart, I had just become able to maneuverer a few tons with my Arachne and so I reeled in all the Investigators haphazardly help up by my claws to toss them down onto the rock as I let Livewire slacken to let it drop slowly.

The situation was dire as I scanned through the dust and grit. Quite a few of us were injured from the fall, none dead, but taken by surprise as another man appeared. A Silver BUG resonated from his silhouette.

He was huge, maybe seven feet tall, and emanated strength from every metallic bolt. He shoved aside a massive stone pillar to step forward, causing distant foundations to tremble and fall. It was difficult to call this being human when, instead; they were carved from bone-like metal that formed intricately locked plates that emulated musculature. Covering his legs was a long, flowing skirt of shadowy cloth that draped over equally robotic legs that could easily stomp a car flat. His head was a dome of steel, solid, without even indications of eyes.

My eyes dissected his movement, fluid and graceful yet powerful. He treated scattered stone and rubble like water, drifting past ruin effortlessly. This man wasn't wearing an Exosuit. He was the Exosuit.

And I knew who it had to be. Prince Steel Vanguard.

"My apologies for the mess." His surprisingly light voice came from a solid red dragon mask as he bowed. "It is an honor to face you Dreadwire. My father seemed to have thought quite highly of you. As does my sister. Rest assured, I was cheering to see you escape from Yuzhou unharmed, but it's a shame we must face this situation like this. I will allow you to save face and join our cause just this once."

"I'm going to have to reject that." My Arachnodyne burst behind me, reaching into the unharmed floating armory as it pulled out scattered bits of cloth interspersed with beads and attached them to my suit, the reflective cloth instantly wrapped tight and bonded to the black of my armor.

In moments, Diana descended with me, three or so STRIKE investigators falling down but in pain from the electricity she'd subjected them to. Pained, but alive.

"He knows I'm worse than Muramasa to deal with." Lightning sparked around her suit, spitting dust into the air.

Steel Vanguard sighed, before a compartment from his arm sizzled and extended a rod through his palm. It was thick, and it expanded in moments to become just as tall as he was - a staff of some kind. "Apologetically, you have courted death."

He jabbed it into a large chunk of stone the size of several cars piled up one another — far bigger than the one I'd struggled to hold for just a few seconds — and lifted it with the staff. Despite its small circumference, something was keeping the stone in place and transforming into a terribly weighted warhammer.

With ease, he swung his staff and lobbed the humongous stone at us like a meteor.

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