âI already said it, did I not?â
Would it truly be better for them if they had never met? Such a judgement was hard to make. It was true that because she had met him, she had been caused more pain than she had ever had cause to imagine, because she had come to view him as someone precious, someone more important to her than anything or anyone else. Doing so had, in the end, caused her immense distress, and a great deal of suffering. Perhaps even more suffering than happiness.
But the thing was, Darcia decided, feeling the bulletâs technology begin to go to work on her systems, even what little happiness she had gained had been profound. She remembered now, in this moment, with dozens of bullets hovering in front of her, not the pain that she had suffered, but the happiness. She remembered her initial confusion with it, her inability to understand why she had chosen to stay when told to leave. How the confusion had seemed to melt away into a feeling of rightness when heâd discovered her lingering presence and chosen to take her hand.
The bullets flew for her, but she did not move, nor resist. Many of them simply ricocheted off her armor, unable to penetrate the technology, so she shed it, the plates retracting until she was simply wearing the black-and-blue suit from which she summoned them, and then instead of pinging off the metal that protected her, they tore through her flesh, tearing parts of the suit and causing her to bleed in multiple places. She never stopped looking at him, nor did the soft smile fade from her face. It didnât matter. Pain wasnât consequential.
He would hurt her. She knew that. She had hurt him, too. None of it made her want to be anywhere but here. She could feel the sensation of blood sliding sluggishly down her arms and legs, her synthetic flesh parted in places to expose the organic and mechanical parts beneath. A cut just beneath one of her optics bled down her cheek like a crimson tear track, curving over the tiny little smile.
âI told you, didnât I?â she murmured softly, raising a hand to the largest wound, still the one on her abdomen. Carefully, she placed her hand over it, but the blood ran between her fingers anyway. âWhen the time comes, I will be happy to be destroyed by you, if that is your wish.â He was his real self again, and so if this was his choice, she would not resist it. As a matter of fact, destroying her would take a very long time, even if she did not resist, and so she would still be doing what she needed to do in order to help the others. But she would also be keeping her word, and that was important to her.
But never as important as he was.
âI refuse.â
Fortunately, the men were shortly instructed to depart, which was good because she really didnât desire to hurt any more of them than was necessary. She would, if she had to, but she did not desire it. She would never want to do something like that.
She was not, perhaps, expecting him to move as quickly as he did, and so the blow caught her, not as hard as it could have, because she did move with it, but enough that whatever strange synergy was occurring between herself and the energy of the area was disrupted. Everything was catching on fire, and Stella knew that while it wouldnât really be able to hurt herself or Cass, it may well spread to the area outside of Central and harm civilians. So she dug into that power she could feel around her, wresting enough from what was obviously Solla to take command of the gardenâs emergency sprinkler systems, which she set off at maximum capacity, beginning the process of dousing the flames.
The power flared and surged, and she felt more of it enter her systems, setting her eyes alight with what was almost a fire of their own. Glancing to the side, she noted that Cass had recovered quickly from whatever damage the Supreme General had dealt him and was cracking his neck back and forth, the smoky air around him starting to swirl and crackle. Probably, heâd cause some rain and deal with the fire the rest of the way anyhow.
She was surprised, however, when the mysterious woman with the Supreme General stepped forwards, her glance flickering from Stella to Cass and settling on the latter. Raising a hand, she made a beckoning gesture by crooking her index finger. âThe Seed who bloomed. Your opponent is me.â She didnât seem to be leaving him much choice in the matter.
He looked with concern between Stella and the Supreme General, clearly loath to leave her on her own. She resisted the urge to snort. So protective, like an older brother or something. It was undeniably the role he occupied in her life now. âCass,â she said, gaining his attention. âIâll be fine. Show her whoâs boss.â With a playful grin she wasnât really feeling, she nodded firmly at him, and he shook his head, but turned his attention to his foe, leaving her to deal with the General Abernatty.
The smile fell off her face, and she sighed. She really didnât want to do this. Heâd mentioned having kidsâshe didnât want to leave them without a father. So⊠she wouldnât. That didnât mean she couldnât fight him, though.
Taking a deep breath, Stella generated a heavy field of gravity right over him, quite suddenly at that. She then launched several barriers in succession, each of which would hit with force something like being thrown into a brick wall. Nothing fatal, but definitely debilitating. Her goal was to render him unconscious, but she wasnât so stupid as to believe that it would be too simple. He was a human, yes, but he was smart and resourceful. That was not to be underestimated.
This woman was definitely a strange one, but in truth, he was glad sheâd tried to attack him rather than Stella, because he wasnât sure what to expect from her. Solomon had called her the Fragment of Creation, which he took to mean that she was indeed the third of the three daughters of Pandora, as his friend sometimes chose to refer to them. Though, that other name⊠well, it hardly mattered.
Stella appeared to have gained control of the sprinkler systemâthe least he could do was contribute to the effort as well. Overhead, the sky rapidly darkened, the low rumble of thunder rolling in even as the first drops of rain began to fall. Some of them were violet-red, but he didn't notice. He couldnât noticeâhe had to pay attention to what was going on in front of him.
Helena stretched out a hand, palm-up, to catch the raindrops. A small smile adorned her face, even as the water started to dampen her hair to a slightly deeper green. âIt really is impressive, how youâve evolved,â she murmured. Her hand closed over the drops of water, and she fixed him with a soft look. âNot even I could have expected that one of the first Seeds would do that.â The typical scales for the measure of a Seedâs power were simply inadequate for this one, and his restraint was impressive.
Lowering her arm, Helena focused, and across her forehead, a symbol Cass did not recognize shimmered, the air taking on a palpable hint of electric current, in part from his storm, in part from the fight between Stella and Solla to contain the Domesâ power, and in part simply from whatever she herself was doing. It caused her hair to stand on end, flow as if levitated by some force that he could not see or feel.
âI am sorry, Mikhail. I used to think that the White Knight would be you, but it never was.â From Helena, a blast of pure concussive force issued forth, slamming into Cass faster than he could react to it, and throwing him into the nearest tree, which cracked under the pressure of the collision. Cass felt several of his ribs snap into pieces, and it was only by reflex gained form long years of training that he managed to land on his feet, coughing until he spat a globule of blood to the side.
Dietrich was evidently quite amused by the situation. One could argue that he was just enough of a sociopath that fear wasnât really possible for him. And maybe that was true. Either way, it was indeed something he was unfamiliar with, and eve the prospect of facing down the Prime Minister, the Emperor, the First Seed of EDEN, was not enough to induce it. Perhaps there was simply nothing that would ever do the trick.
Perhaps that was why sheâd asked him. He wasnât here because of his auntie, though admittedly, it was she whoâd made him receptive to the idea. But she was not the source of this particular one. No, that was someone closer, someone who knew how the game must be played and how the pieces must match up and move to garner the ending that each and every one of these people needed.
The portions of the room that flew towards them did so with quite impressive speed, and admittedly, Dietrich was still trying to accustom himself to the mechanics of the power he had gained, so he was a little slow in dealing with the problem, and one piece of shrapnel edged his shoulder when he was too slow to prevent it, the bloody gash it made was ultimately less consequential than it could have been, and he snapped into the frame of mind he needed in enough time to vanish the rest, causing them to reappear too far away to be of any use to the Prime Ministerâin the Supreme Generalâs wing of the Central building, actually. Ah, that was good. He needed an idea of how far this power would extend.
âAnd failure is information,â he replied. Any scientist knew that error was a vital part of success, after all.
But the thing was, Darcia decided, feeling the bulletâs technology begin to go to work on her systems, even what little happiness she had gained had been profound. She remembered now, in this moment, with dozens of bullets hovering in front of her, not the pain that she had suffered, but the happiness. She remembered her initial confusion with it, her inability to understand why she had chosen to stay when told to leave. How the confusion had seemed to melt away into a feeling of rightness when heâd discovered her lingering presence and chosen to take her hand.
The bullets flew for her, but she did not move, nor resist. Many of them simply ricocheted off her armor, unable to penetrate the technology, so she shed it, the plates retracting until she was simply wearing the black-and-blue suit from which she summoned them, and then instead of pinging off the metal that protected her, they tore through her flesh, tearing parts of the suit and causing her to bleed in multiple places. She never stopped looking at him, nor did the soft smile fade from her face. It didnât matter. Pain wasnât consequential.
He would hurt her. She knew that. She had hurt him, too. None of it made her want to be anywhere but here. She could feel the sensation of blood sliding sluggishly down her arms and legs, her synthetic flesh parted in places to expose the organic and mechanical parts beneath. A cut just beneath one of her optics bled down her cheek like a crimson tear track, curving over the tiny little smile.
âI told you, didnât I?â she murmured softly, raising a hand to the largest wound, still the one on her abdomen. Carefully, she placed her hand over it, but the blood ran between her fingers anyway. âWhen the time comes, I will be happy to be destroyed by you, if that is your wish.â He was his real self again, and so if this was his choice, she would not resist it. As a matter of fact, destroying her would take a very long time, even if she did not resist, and so she would still be doing what she needed to do in order to help the others. But she would also be keeping her word, and that was important to her.
But never as important as he was.
âI refuse.â
âNo matter what, I have resolved to do this.â
Fortunately, the men were shortly instructed to depart, which was good because she really didnât desire to hurt any more of them than was necessary. She would, if she had to, but she did not desire it. She would never want to do something like that.
She was not, perhaps, expecting him to move as quickly as he did, and so the blow caught her, not as hard as it could have, because she did move with it, but enough that whatever strange synergy was occurring between herself and the energy of the area was disrupted. Everything was catching on fire, and Stella knew that while it wouldnât really be able to hurt herself or Cass, it may well spread to the area outside of Central and harm civilians. So she dug into that power she could feel around her, wresting enough from what was obviously Solla to take command of the gardenâs emergency sprinkler systems, which she set off at maximum capacity, beginning the process of dousing the flames.
The power flared and surged, and she felt more of it enter her systems, setting her eyes alight with what was almost a fire of their own. Glancing to the side, she noted that Cass had recovered quickly from whatever damage the Supreme General had dealt him and was cracking his neck back and forth, the smoky air around him starting to swirl and crackle. Probably, heâd cause some rain and deal with the fire the rest of the way anyhow.
She was surprised, however, when the mysterious woman with the Supreme General stepped forwards, her glance flickering from Stella to Cass and settling on the latter. Raising a hand, she made a beckoning gesture by crooking her index finger. âThe Seed who bloomed. Your opponent is me.â She didnât seem to be leaving him much choice in the matter.
He looked with concern between Stella and the Supreme General, clearly loath to leave her on her own. She resisted the urge to snort. So protective, like an older brother or something. It was undeniably the role he occupied in her life now. âCass,â she said, gaining his attention. âIâll be fine. Show her whoâs boss.â With a playful grin she wasnât really feeling, she nodded firmly at him, and he shook his head, but turned his attention to his foe, leaving her to deal with the General Abernatty.
The smile fell off her face, and she sighed. She really didnât want to do this. Heâd mentioned having kidsâshe didnât want to leave them without a father. So⊠she wouldnât. That didnât mean she couldnât fight him, though.
Taking a deep breath, Stella generated a heavy field of gravity right over him, quite suddenly at that. She then launched several barriers in succession, each of which would hit with force something like being thrown into a brick wall. Nothing fatal, but definitely debilitating. Her goal was to render him unconscious, but she wasnât so stupid as to believe that it would be too simple. He was a human, yes, but he was smart and resourceful. That was not to be underestimated.
âThe human will is truly the most impressive force in the world.â
This woman was definitely a strange one, but in truth, he was glad sheâd tried to attack him rather than Stella, because he wasnât sure what to expect from her. Solomon had called her the Fragment of Creation, which he took to mean that she was indeed the third of the three daughters of Pandora, as his friend sometimes chose to refer to them. Though, that other name⊠well, it hardly mattered.
Stella appeared to have gained control of the sprinkler systemâthe least he could do was contribute to the effort as well. Overhead, the sky rapidly darkened, the low rumble of thunder rolling in even as the first drops of rain began to fall. Some of them were violet-red, but he didn't notice. He couldnât noticeâhe had to pay attention to what was going on in front of him.
Helena stretched out a hand, palm-up, to catch the raindrops. A small smile adorned her face, even as the water started to dampen her hair to a slightly deeper green. âIt really is impressive, how youâve evolved,â she murmured. Her hand closed over the drops of water, and she fixed him with a soft look. âNot even I could have expected that one of the first Seeds would do that.â The typical scales for the measure of a Seedâs power were simply inadequate for this one, and his restraint was impressive.
Lowering her arm, Helena focused, and across her forehead, a symbol Cass did not recognize shimmered, the air taking on a palpable hint of electric current, in part from his storm, in part from the fight between Stella and Solla to contain the Domesâ power, and in part simply from whatever she herself was doing. It caused her hair to stand on end, flow as if levitated by some force that he could not see or feel.
âI am sorry, Mikhail. I used to think that the White Knight would be you, but it never was.â From Helena, a blast of pure concussive force issued forth, slamming into Cass faster than he could react to it, and throwing him into the nearest tree, which cracked under the pressure of the collision. Cass felt several of his ribs snap into pieces, and it was only by reflex gained form long years of training that he managed to land on his feet, coughing until he spat a globule of blood to the side.
âOne only need look at how much has been accomplished to understand that.â
Dietrich was evidently quite amused by the situation. One could argue that he was just enough of a sociopath that fear wasnât really possible for him. And maybe that was true. Either way, it was indeed something he was unfamiliar with, and eve the prospect of facing down the Prime Minister, the Emperor, the First Seed of EDEN, was not enough to induce it. Perhaps there was simply nothing that would ever do the trick.
Perhaps that was why sheâd asked him. He wasnât here because of his auntie, though admittedly, it was she whoâd made him receptive to the idea. But she was not the source of this particular one. No, that was someone closer, someone who knew how the game must be played and how the pieces must match up and move to garner the ending that each and every one of these people needed.
The portions of the room that flew towards them did so with quite impressive speed, and admittedly, Dietrich was still trying to accustom himself to the mechanics of the power he had gained, so he was a little slow in dealing with the problem, and one piece of shrapnel edged his shoulder when he was too slow to prevent it, the bloody gash it made was ultimately less consequential than it could have been, and he snapped into the frame of mind he needed in enough time to vanish the rest, causing them to reappear too far away to be of any use to the Prime Ministerâin the Supreme Generalâs wing of the Central building, actually. Ah, that was good. He needed an idea of how far this power would extend.
âAnd failure is information,â he replied. Any scientist knew that error was a vital part of success, after all.