MLP: Albedo's testament

by CitrinePiazzolla

AU: Dream the shiest pony in all of Equestria and the most abused has stumbled across a rather interesting individual, one that was once human now turned pony, and that human is none other than URTV 667, Albedo Piazolla. Will Dream be able to help Albedo and save her country from a tyrant or will she fall into dismay once again.

1. Prologue: Just Another Day

Ahh...well, new story is here and oh boy is it a big one...sorry for being gone for so long had life issues a lot of them, so me and my boyfriend have been working on a lot of different stories so yeah. Oh and this is an AU of mine that is well, you all will see in the next chapter, for I don't write small anymore not with the help of my boyfriend, so enjoy. I dont own Xenosaga or MLP: Friendship is magic, I only own my OC's and AU.

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Prologue: Just another day.

It was a fairly normal day in Ponyville, no clouds in the sky, a perfect summer day. Except for a blue and red pony with her young dragon "pet". The pony was on her way home while also trying to remain hidden from the green pony looking for her, the black dragon that is with the blue pony spoke softly,

"I think she's gone…we can move on Dream."

Dream nodded her head and began to walk in the shadows, advoiding any place where that green pony might be. Dream was becoming tired of having to be careful every time she stepped out of her own home, she was tired of not having any friends and most of all, She was tired of being alone on that day, the day when her mother died. As Dream and the black dragon continued on their way back home Dream's ears detected something, that all too familiar crunching of boots on gravel. Dream slowly turned around to see a green unicorn looking at her with venom and hate in her eyes.

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Meanwhile, in a space-time anomaly…

Albedo had obviously died, it was ever apparent to him, what was not was why he was still alive… floating in what he could only assume was a red purgatory without strippers… as he kept scanning he noticed Wilhelm standing in the distance… seemingly arguing with a man in a red cloak. Oddly albedo managed to hear something… which was odd, because that had to have been the first time he had ever heard Wilhelm say "FUCK!" much less yell. As the two bickered senselessly over who knows what, Albedo saw a light, a rather bright one. Then Wilhelm turned around and his expression turned to sheer horror, Albedo did not know it, but he had just mutated. Kevin, the annoying lovesick testament somehow managed to blow chunks through his mask. This incredibly unusual reaction from the two normally quiet and calm individuals was beginning to worry him, so he tried to speak… nothing came out. It was only when he tried to move his hand did he realize something was very… off. He had no fingers… in what was the usual and instinctual middle finger gesture, he had somehow, became deeply unhinged. Instead of his usual numbered hand, he saw a hoof. Rapidly growing across his right arm as his whole body shifted form. It got worse, quickly. Suddenly he felt gravity… then wind… suddenly he managed to scream… as loud as he could while he began to see the world shift from red to blue and white.

As he realized he was falling, his screams of agony turned to terror as he realized just how high up he was, and specifically, if he lacked regeneration, how bad this was going to hurt. As he fell for about 2 minutes, Albedo realized he had been dropped from orbit. He was now in a mutated body and the ground was approaching quickly, alongside something that was tiny, and the most disgusting puke green color he ever saw. He wasn't sure if he was hallucinating or not, but that quickly was disproven, with a loud scream he landed on the oddly soft puke green colored object before passing out, seeing only red as he did.

Dream saw what happened to the green unicorn and let out a breath of relief, but that was quickly replaced with concern for the other pony that fell on top of the green unicorn. She quickly ran over to the two ponies despite what her dragon friend was saying. As she neared the two, she saw that the pony who fell from the sky had an odd cutie mark, which was in the shape of a shield with two crisscrossed rifles, as well as an overlay of a bird of prey, in its talons were three arrows on the right, and a lightning bolt on the left respectively. Above the birds head was an odd symbol shaped similarly to a golden cross of some kind, in its center was an aquamarine gem, along with various ancient inscriptions. On the top part of the cross were three red letters, "667" and on the bottom was the letters, "U.R.T.V" Dream quickly examined the other pony and noticed a trail of blood coming down from the other pony's head, which she quickly noticed was male. Her eyes then followed the blood trail to its source and noticed a horn fragment imbedded in his skull, but from what Dream saw, it had almost penetrated through the bone, luckily though it didn't or he would be dead.

She quickly made the decision to take the male with her and leave the green one there since she didn't have the strength to carry them both and the male was in a much more critical condition than the green one was. Dream levitated the male off of the green one and onto her back very gently before turning back around. She then started to trot slowly back to her home as fast as she could while also being mindful of the male on top of her.

It did not take Dream and her dragon long to reach their home, as the dragon opened up the door Dream ran up the stairs and into her room, which also happened to be her library. Once inside she gently levitated the male off of her and onto the spare bed in the room. She then teleported her medical supplies near her and got to work removing the shard from the male's head. It wasn't easy for Dream due to how delicate the situation was. Brain surgery was difficult, even for her. However, as time passed by she was able to get the shard out of the male. Albeit she had to remove the shard slowly because of how close it was to breaking through the bone of the male's skull. Needless to say, he almost had been lobotomized. Nevertheless, once she got the tip of the shard out, the wound started to close on its own, which shocked her a bit, but not by much. She placed the shard, a jagged and sharp piece of hardened bone, into a plastic medical bag and put it into the medical kit that she was using. Once she was done she then looked over the male to see if there were any other injuries, but after what she saw, she found that highly unlikely. But she just had to make sure just in case, she noticed that he had a white mane and tail, but his coat was a darker shade of white almost a grey color but not quite.

For Albedo, his lapse into unconsciousness was but a short one, as he quickly awoke, but from what he could tell, he wasn't in a hospital. For some fucked up reason, he was in a library. This however, was not even registering on the sheer level of problems he was seeing, for one, he couldn't feel his legs or arms… nor most of what used to be where his body was. In fact, he was now surprised he could even open his eyes, to him, he almost wished he hadn't. As he looked he noticed his limbs starting to regain feeling, which only terrified him more, of the first thoughts he had, he wondered why his dick was attached to his head.

Then again, he could say the same about where the fuck his fingers went. Until he saw quite literally every single thing that his mind could not hope to comprehend. It was like his worst out of body experience nightmare. It did however provide an answer as to what body he now inhabited. Before him was a somewhat busy looking… blue and red haired or furred creature. It was very short and oddly doing something with a tool of some kind. It looked cute, feminine and oddly, very intelligent.

She didn't seem to be aware of his sudden awakening… but to him, it was already too much for his mind to handle. Ultimately he only stared blankly at the creature for about three seconds before screaming in the most high pitched shrill voice he had ever heard, and that was quite literally the only thing that could come out of his mouth. He just laid there screaming in absolute primal fear; to him this was worse than that day 14 years ago. When Dream was about done she heard the screaming and the frequency hurt her ears so much that she stopped what she was doing, ducked onto the floor, and had her front hooves on top of her head to protect her ears.

As Albedo panicked even more he accidentally set off an ether surge wave, which managed to have about a 3 foot range before being focused into a single cohesive beam pulse which happened to go in a direction he could not see. Before finally he managed to somehow pass out. Either from lack of oxygen or just sheer shock, he did not know. he quickly regained consciousness again before immediately shutting down most of his neural functions and deliberately slowing down his mind to calm himself down. it worked, barely. Through sheer willpower he managed to cease discharging latent ether energy and stop screaming at the same time. Only for the screaming to be replaced by heavy, if faint breathing. His panic and fear was still there, but he managed to at least shut off his self preservation instinct, again.

Dream on the other hand was trying to get her ears to stop ringing while also trying to find her glasses, again. They had somehow managed to fall of her face when she ducked down onto the floor to protect her ears. Dream could barely see where or what she was looking at which only made things harder for her when it came to finding anything that wasn't at the end of her nose. As Dream continued to search for her glasses, she didn't see the chair that was right in front of her and tripped over it effectively making her fall onto the ground hard. Meanwhile, Albedo quickly regained his composure before starting to move every joint in his new body, his survivability was not attributed to his regeneration entirely, rather his incredible ability to improvise in any situation. To his surprise, he found it relatively easy to figure out the new body, with a large effort, he flopped around a bit as he tried to regain his footing, before realizing he couldn't walk on two legs in this body.

For a brief second he contemplated how this might affect his ability to use his rifle or knife, as he finally got on his now four legs. As he stood upright, he stretched every muscle and fiber in his body, mapping the new controls so to speak. Before seeing the blue and red creature trip over a chair, which caused him to chuckle, albeit internally. Despite learning motor control, he decided that seeing as he didn't know how to speak yet with his new and extremely odd mouth and that laughing at her would be unwise considering that in all likelihood she tried to save his life. He decided to analyze his situation for a moment, realizing he wasn't on a human world, much less know anything about what even he was now.

So he then analyzed the creature before him. Her fur was blue, and she seemed to be reminiscent of horses back on Lost Jerusalem, her "mane" was blue and red in color, more anime looking than what should occur naturally. Coupled with the library, the two beds, and the fact that there were chairs, he quickly confirmed that the species was not only sentient but civilized as well. And this library clearly either belonged to this horse creature, he also quickly identified the creature as female, then again it didn't matter. He noticed a pair of glasses on the floor then slowly but deliberately walked over to them, nearly losing his balance several times in the process. However, he quickly realized that without hands or fingers, picking up the glasses was now impossible. He already surmised that by the existence of… well any crafted objects that this species was capable of holding objects and tools, he did not know how however.

Despite this, he couldn't help but notice one glaring anomaly with the horse creature, she had a horn on her head. Which was less horse and more mythical unicorn. And seeing as she wasn't a gnosis, it had to be the mythical type. Either that or he was completely bonkers. Which was a bit of a no comment for him to begin with. He decided that seeing as he couldn't grab the glasses, he would simply make a squeaking noise before gently kicking them over to her. Hoping that it wouldn't terrify her, or worse that she would step on them. Dream jumped a bit but not before noticing the fuzzy outline of her glasses near her. She looked up to see the fuzzy outline of the male that she helped before levitating her glasses back onto her face so that she could see again, once her glasses were back on her face she saw the male looking at her with a curious grin.

Albedo watched her intently as she somehow levitated the glasses onto her head; he took careful note of the method she used, as a bright blue light emitted from her horn then proceeded to somehow levitate the glasses. This both amused and confused him, he had no idea that such a thing was possible, as he watched her in both morbid curiosity and confusion he could not help but wonder just what kind of world he had landed in. Dream slowly got back onto her hooves and slowly stretched herself out from the fall she had and looked at the male with a million different thoughts. However, what got her away from her thoughts were his eyes, they were a beautiful shade of violet she had never seen before, in them were a brilliant fire of determination and confidence, as well as potential malice and unimaginable fury.

Albedo noticed that she was studying him as if he were an alien, with the same level of scrutiny that one might study microbes in a drop of water. Then her eyes became firmly fixated on his. Either she was incredibly brave to stare into his eyes like that or just wasn't afraid of him. Her eyes were interesting to him, they were a bright red color, similar to KOS-MOS' minus the focusing trick. Something that screamed to him that his senses were not lying. She was inundated with U-DO waveforms, generating them even. More so than his dad was, which was saying a lot. However, unlike Yuriev, she was very much sane. That much he could see in her eyes as well. He resisted the urge to want to try and either absorb the massive source of U-DO energy before him. With that much power, he could easily create a portal or some kind of spatial distortion to get home.

Yet, something in his mind told him it would be wise not to, and it wasn't the obvious fact that returning to Rubedo in such a body would scar him for eternity. Although, Albedo wasn't entirely sure who would be the more traumatized, himself for being in the body, or Rubedo having to face the grim reality that his brother whom he bawled his eyes out over came back to the world of the living as a fucking horse. Dream didn't feel any fear of the male before her, in fact she was more curious than scared, she then decided to speak albeit her voice was a bit soft spoken,

"Hi…how are you feeling?..."

Albedo was shocked, she spoke English, not even engrish… he half expected her to make sounds usually associated with horses. Instead, she spoke English, she had a soft tone, which reminded him slightly of MOMO, albeit only in the innocence of it. He did however note that it wasn't that sickeningly naïve innocent tone, more just sounded innocent. But he could see in her eyes that she was anything but. He then tried to vocalize, making odd chirps and noises before moving his mouth in various ways trying to form words.

It didn't take long before he figured it out. But he decided to take something he learned from Rubedo to at the very least poke fun at his increasingly disastrous situation. As he desperately tried not to laugh in his usual psychotic and hysterical manner he said in a squeaky and surprisingly well done, if faked tone, "Bah-weep-graaaaagnah wheep nini bong" before an almost malicious grin crept up his face, although he couldn't help it if he tried, it took all his willpower not to just laugh hysterically.

Dream smiled a little at the greeting that she remembered reading about in one of her books that she loved to read her in spare time. However, she hadn't had the time to finish the last book yet due to what was coming up in 3 weeks. Her face softened a bit, but not by much, she didn't like this time of the year all too much because of the memories that it brought up for her. Albedo decided that she most likely didn't get the joke, then chose to speak in English, a slight bit surprised that his voice sounded the same as it always did, if a bit higher in octave.

"So… where… am I? Who are you? What are you? And more specifically… how the fuck did I get here? And don't worry, I am not going to hurt you, I see no need to violently gut you where you stand anyway. Not that I could in this body anyway. Besides… you are so adorable it might just be a crime to do so… unless… well, just don't piss me off. I find rather… ingenious ways of dealing with problems. Now then. On to the part where you explain, hmm?"

Dream gathered her thoughts and spoke again in that same soft tone, "You are in my home, in the outskirts of Ponyville. The local town…"

Albedo sighed then said, "I know that I am in your home… then again, I can't say I ever heard of a place called Ponyville, if I did, I probably would volunteer for personality reconditioning. Still… go on, you have my… unabated attention." The way he spoke was typical of him, slightly egotistical with an undertone of the ever-present insanity he had, although he had to admit, he was feeling less full of rage than usual. Still, it surprised him that she wasn't scared of him, usually when someone heard him speak the response was instantaneous, fear mixed with absolute attention. His voice usually demanded both fear and respect, even if the person wasn't aware of it. He just had that kind of aura about him, people didn't dare ignore him.

Dream then continued, "As for my name…I'm Dream Writer…"

To which Albedo snickered and said in an almost condescending tone, "Yeah… and I am Angel of Death. Seriously? Your name is dream Writer?..." Albedo paused for a moment realizing she was in fact being honest and not sarcastic then said, "You… really are serious? Ookay… nice to meet you, for a second I thought you were making a bad joke. But, if that is your name, who am I to judge. Judgement lies in the hands of god, does it not? But then again… I have passed righteous judgement upon many, and never once has he told me I was wrong. Don't fret, I see no reason to pass such judgement upon you. In fact, I think I should be thanking you. If for no other reason than you haven't fainted in terror. Still, go on… I am listening. Sort of."

Dream smiled a bit as she picked up where she left off, "And as for what I am….I'm a unicorn…" to which Albedo's expression went somewhat blank in utter exasperation, still he continued to listen. Not like he had anything else to lose, the last thing to go apparently was his dignity. And it was now very… very dead. Dream's soft voice continued, "And how you got here….well….you…kind of fell from the sky…" Albedo then said with a slight annoyance, "Yeah… I fell from fuckin high orbit it seems. What fucking planet am I on? I swear to god if it's some kind of ludicrously horse themed Earth name… I am gonna try to kill myself again." A slight bit of sarcasm in his voice as he knew all too well that dying wasn't physically possible anymore… as usual. He also had a feeling that despite the names, everything couldn't be that bad. Besides, it's better than dealing with Gnosis, or so he told himself. However, he was worried deeply about something… his lack of canine teeth. That most likely meant that steak probably was forever off the menu. A thought that somehow cut so deep into him that his expression slightly changed to a depressed frown before returning to normal.

Dream paused for a moment trying to remember the name…but the only thing that came to her mind was the continent's name and that was all, "I….I…don't know the planet's name….I only know the names of the continents….and the continent we are on is called Equestria…." Her ears went down a bit for she felt like she had failed in giving out simple information.

Albedo heard what she said, however, the way she paused implied that it wasn't that she didn't know, more like forgot. Which was slightly disconcerting, but a continent was fine… for now. He then noticed her expression turn sad for a moment. Although he had no clue of their biology, he was not so foolish as to not be able to recognize what was clearly a physically human expression. He then said, "Well… shit. Alright… that's… wonderful. So, I fell… from orbit… onto a planet so fucking big that people usually only know of the continent they live on? That's… impressive actually. What is the gravity level on this size planet? Did I break the sound barrier at least on my way in? I mean, I know I can regenerate, but was I crispy when I landed? I can only imagine how badass that must have loo… never mind… um… lets move on shall we?"

Albedo realized part of how he landed was not badass at all, instead he landed whilst screaming in sheer terror. Something he prayed she didn't see. Or anyone for that matter. Though try as he might, his expression screamed sudden embarrassment as he quickly tried to change the subject. He hadn't fully comprehended the actual gravity of his situation yet. Still, this… unicorn had answers… more than he had hoped. At least she didn't automatically assume he was batshit crazy or something. Then again, falling from orbit generally disproves such theories in this case.

Dream was in deep thought about many things, things that she didn't want to think about, but this time of year always brough up those memories a lot more easily. Her ears were still down as she continued to keep those memories from rising to the surface. Albedo then realized that she was in deep thought, obviously, something was bothering her, though he didn't think it was the obviously alien person before her, which only confused him more. He couldn't help but wonder, what could be so bad that a clearly psychotic alien wasn't even fazing her? Finally he just decided to walk up to her and at least try to do something; he knew how to use a reverse link in a non-offensive method, although one of two things might happen if he did. One was that she wouldn't even know what he was doing until he found out what was bothering her and perhaps fixed it, or she would reject his intrusion with extreme force.

Of course, there was the third option considering her obviously U-DO laden waveforms, but that wouldn't be a problem for him. Therefore, it really came down to the two main possibilities. As he staggered a bit on three legs, he touched his left leg to her head and attempted to bridge the link.

Dream was too deep in thought to even notice what was going, nor did she care. Albedo was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked, until he actually bypassed her thoughts and found the cause. His mind was violently flooded with various emotions, colors, images and assorted information. It was as if he somehow triggered an emergency purge, one which caused all of the pent up pain in her to pour into him… he saw her mother die, abuse from various civilians, fear… various torments and a generally shitty life. As he processed it, he noticed something. A root cause of the memories growing strength… something he had only seen in MOMO before. As he realized it, he saw the all too familiar flash of red as he was hit with more U-DO waveforms than could ever be possible outside of direct physical contact.

Despite this, he saw something that she actually didn't remember, just how her mother died. She died in a similar way to many people who can natively communicate with U-DO, coma, and then death. Except in her mother's case, the body lived; the mind had gone somewhere else entirely. And what surprised him even more was that she went willingly. As the memories intensity dropped sharply he noticed something dangerous. They were quickly becoming active in a different way; they shifted into an all too familiar and ever-present manifestation of U-DO in physical space. Only… it was in her own mind. Something that would be fatal for… anyone. As they grew in amplitude, he ended up desperately attempting to shield himself from the overwhelming force they were exerting. Something… was using her as an actual contact. Unlike the others, she was sane; in fact, it seemed she had accomplished what he could not, a perfect link with the upper domain.

With a sudden surge of power, he was violently kicked out of her mind. Not by her, but by U-DO. He dropped his left leg and backed away slowly. Then said, "Well… holy fucking shit. That's… impressive. What are you again? I am not buying the unicorn pitch this time. Because even if you physically are one, that… isn't normal. It's… kinda scary actually. But of course… I respect that kind of power. Even if it scares me. Only because I know its true nature. So… you have been abandoned, abused… vilified by other beings… lesser lifeforms who cannot begin to comprehend the true meaning of what you are… a pure and unchained consciousness, free from the shackles of mortality and even reality itself. What are you I wonder? You seem less mortal and more… divine in nature. For someone to have such a connection implies that you are of the upper domain… not this one."

Dream was slightly surprised, after a brief pause she spoke again though her voice was a bit softer than normal, "My grandma said that I was born like this…just like my mother was…"

Albedo's expression hardened, he realized the gravity of the situation in an instant… then he spoke, more deliberately and more… intently. The tone of ego and slight psychosis was devoid, replaced with a more… knowledgeable and sincere tone as he spoke.

"So… you know not what you are? Interesting. Let me tell you what I saw. Your mother… was a Contact. Contact referring to the nature of her existence being merged with the will of god. She, could communicate with U-DO… a manifestation in the lower domain of the will of god… such contact usually ends up killing the individual. As you saw, she entered a coma… then died. However, of all the contacts I have met, none… ever, willingly submitted to such a thing. As such, before she died, she had already left your world. It would seem that U-DO had plans for her. I shudder to think what would require such a thing. Then again, think of it this way. She chose to serve god instead of live a normal life. That takes a lot of balls. And you… yes… you aren't like her in that regard. You too are a contact, but rather than be effected by it as all mortals are… you channel it. You are a living manifestation of the will of god. Whether you realize it or not, you can channel that power at will. For you, it is not an illness or death sentence. It is a power that no mortal could dream of having. The power to communicate and perceive the upper domain and not succumb to it." Albedo began to become slightly more enthusiastic in his tone as he continued,

"You are what would be called an angel. What kind, I have no clue. Especially considering you are the first one I have ever met. And I met Mary Magdalene and Yeshua fucking Nazarene in the world I was in a few hours ago. So… yeah. You are quite literally the single most powerful being in existence, or at least that I have met so far. It's no wonder people fear you, they cannot begin to comprehend your true nature. Humans… uhh, pretty much everything sentient fears what it cannot comprehend. In that respect, they naturally will fear you because they cannot understand you. Ignore them, that's what I do. Mere mortals cannot hope to understand what I have witnessed. And yet, you… a young, seemingly innocent being have that knowledge and power natively. To be frank… I find it attractive… and terrifying. To think… something that looks so harmless can destroy entire universes with the power of her own will. For you, you are a being above reality. You can manifest the power of god over the world around you. Lucky you, the person who understands it perfectly fell from fucking orbit… I guess god was sick of you suffering… well… Dream… tell me… why is it that you fear what you are? There is no reason to. What you must do is use such power responsibly. As if, that actually mattered. The problem is that you are causing most of your own suffering, unknowingly of course. Don't worry…" Albedo then grinned in a slightly malicious but warm manner as he continued,

"I actually can help in this. Still, I need hands. Or something to grab things with. In any case, I saw from your memories that despite your power, you really… don't know all that much about it. Probably a good thing. That kind of power takes a long time to understand… if you had it all at once, you might just end up killing yourself. I know I wou… fuck it… I did. That's how I got here in a nutshell… I died. I caved in to the pressure, whereas you haven't. I admire that. Still, it won't do much good for either of us if you are all depressed. So cheer up, you just found out you were a goddess. Be proud… something. Anyway… this… might as well just be another day for me at this point. Now then… seeing as its business as usual. I am hungry and no doubt, you are too. So, what do you have for food? I hope to god you don't plan on feeding me grass. If that's the menu though… I might as well go outside and find… oh… shit, no hands… means no shooting food. Fuck. Umm… please god tell me you have meat as food. Or at the very least, know where to get some. I want a steak so fucking badly right now. Or at least a cheeseburger." Albedo realized he derailed his conversation quite quickly as well as utterly let down his guard. Perhaps it was the fact that he was in the company of a fellow being who knew of the true nature of existence… or at least somewhat did.

Dream smiled warmly at the male in front of her, she, for the first time in a long while was happy. But she then realized that she didn't know the name of the male in front of her, "Umm…what's your name?... if you don't mind me asking…"

Albedo was in a bit of thought but then heard her ask his name, almost sickeningly polite too. Still, he did go off on a tangent about… the usual stuff he does, so he decided to say, "Oh… URTV Unit 667, in case the mark on my… " he held up his right leg and panicked a bit then continued, "Oh… well shit… guess I need a tattoo parlor too, but yeah, I used to have these things called hands… with opposable thumbs. I could grab things. And oh yeah, my unit number was printed on my right hand, or… now this leg. Can I have my hands back? Oh and uhh call me Albedo… everyone else does… I am a bioweapon just so you know. I was created to kill things… lots of em. But all my sheer superiority over lesser lifeforms aside, I looked just like any other human, well, except for my white hair and violet eyes. Except now I don't… hell, I don't even know what I look like now. All I know is that it's gonna be hard using a fork or a rifle. Now then, introductions aside… steak…." Albedo paused then said, "Oh yeah by the way, I didn't bring any credits with me, so you're paying the rent… just a heads up."

Dream liked the name Albedo, to her it rolled off the tongue very well. She then remembered the reason why she went out of her home in first place, to pass the time while her steaks were cooking. Dream then remembered her dragon friend Oliver that was down stairs, "Oh, before I forget…I have a young dragon named Oliver that lives with me… he's a friend of my family's…" Albedo then remarked, "if he's red I might just strangle him to death with his own intestines… otherwise… lead on… also, how the fuck did you put your glasses on? If you can't tell me how to get my hands back… I am gonna need a new trigger finger. Or ten."

Dream thought about it for a moment then noticed the horn on Albedo's head. She was about to say something, but then decided that he didn't know how magic worked or how to use it. So, she decided to give the explanation that her grandmother gave her on how magic worked, "Well… since you have a horn on your head that means that you are a unicorn too and thus able to use magic…" Albedo laughed and said, "Magic? Are you fucking shitting me? Wow… that's… yeah… no I guess it's possible. I thought that thing on my head was my dick… dunno why. Anyway, I can use all kinds of shit people often think is magic in my world… and we have ships the size of goddamned planets… that's… saying a lot. Anyway… go… go on…" Albedo did his best not to laugh by default… especially considering she was telling the truth, no matter how much it went against his beliefs… he had seen it when she picked up her glasses, and it wasn't ether based either.

Dream then continued though she chuckled lightly, "My grandmother told me that magic was our wills turned into power…but of course you would need something to focus such energy and that's what our horns are for…" Albedo then looked closely at her horn before quickly reaching two realizations… these weren't ethers, they were willpower and lots of it, and that horn was basically an extension of the brain used as a resonance amplifier, needless to say, she could mop the floor with him without much effort. This suddenly explained why she wasn't scared of him, compared to her, even with the ability to regenerate… he was completely harmless.

He then said, "Well, if that's the case… considering how much you shine in that area… remind me to NEVER piss you off… I would rather my soul survive if nothing else… so, I can use this thing on my head to focus my power into pretty much anything I will… right? So long as my willpower is… strong enough, right?" Dream nodded her head, whilst a massive grin crept up albedo's face. His ego was beginning to grow exponentially.

Dream smiled a bit more, she was happy for once and then she'd forgot to tell him what was on the menu for tonight for super, "I have 7 steaks cooking right now…" Albedo then bursted with slightly psychotic laughter as he realized he might as well be on vacation, a weird… out of body vacation… but vacation nonetheless. So with that he took a step forward, trying not to do a face plant, while also being wary of the fact that he was in no way used to being on four legs. He then said in exasperation, "How the fuck do you walk like this?! I keep trying to use my front legs as if they were arms to balance myself… and so much for a tail being useful for that… it's a limp noodle… I got better results from flaccid celery. For… the love… of Christ… can I walk on two legs again please?..."

Albedo kept trying to walk properly but failed spectacularly and groaned in anger. Eventually he decided to try walking in a more… bimbo style way, as the seraphim sisters did on stage. Alternating balance from one leg to another as if he was shitfaced. Surprisingly… it worked. As he finally figured out that he needed at least two legs on the ground at any given time, he found a most useful method… diagonal patterns. Whereas the seraphim sisters used that slutty gait of theirs… it worked even better in a four legged variation and most likely looked natural not overly slutty. Albedo then asked, "Am I walking straight or do I still look drunk off my ass? Or worse… like a total bimbo…"

Dream responded while looking at how he was walking, it looked similar to how she walked according to Oliver, "You're walking straight…" Albedo felt like he had all the grace of a drunk marine after last call. As he staggered his way to the door he was met with something he most definitely didn't want to tackle without bipedal walking… stairs. Albedo then screamed in anger… "WHAT THE FUCK! How in the flying fuck of a retarded cumslut are the designers thinking? These stairs are for fucking humans not… sentient animals… or… whatever the fuck I am now… this is gonna suck… oh well. tallyho!" Albedo didn't even bother to try… throwing himself down the stairs and tumbling down them, the sound of thudding and cracking bones was echoing through the stairwell as he met the bottom, surprisingly… only his right leg was broken. Which he promptly snapped back into place with his front left leg, which allowed it to heal in seconds. Then he yelled, "IM OKAY!" ignoring the small pool of blood on the floor, Albedo let out a nervous chuckle.

Dream just shook her head with a smile and then she heard another thud that came from the living room, which she knew was where Oliver was. She walked down the stairs and heard Oliver yell, "WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT?!" to which Albedo yelled in reply, "A HUMAN LEARNING TO WALK! WHY? YOU SPECIESEST? OR SOMETHING?" He then walked towards the living room, praying for at least a good TV or holographic computer. Still, as he walked in he noticed a black colored dragon, which was not like the Dragon Class Gnosis he had killed all too many of. In fact, he actually expected the dragon to be uglier… nope, it was actually quite fascinating to look at, Albedo then said with a grin, not noticing a major fault in his neck, "So, you're Oliver aren't you? Nice to meet such an… interesting specimen, still, I don't do vivisections on friends. On enemies… that's… a different story… depends on the tools at hand too. So, where is the steaks? I am so fucking hungry I could eat a h…." Albedo quickly silenced himself before continuing, "Just… show me where the food is… hey… why is my shirt wet?" Oliver looked over at Albedo, saw a bone sticking out of his neck, and said, "Ah…nice to meet you too…but I don't mean to sound like I'm panicking but…" Albedo then said, "Yeah, I get that a lot… I know, even in a quadrupedal body… I must still look good. Call me Albedo… Albedo Piazzolla. Anyway… why do you look like you are about to shit yourself?" Oliver then replied, "Oh, I don't know, maybe because there's a bone sticking out from your neck?!" Albedo paused for a moment then said, "Ehh… it happens. Anyway… food please?" not even acknowledging the severity of his injury… most likely due to his insane pain tolerance. As Albedo walked forwards he noticed a mirror, then he looked at himself… what he saw more than justified Oliver's reaction… half his spine was shattered and bone was sticking out of his neck.

Alongside the massive amount of blood draining from what he could only describe as the next best thing to an artery, he decided to say, "Well… shit. That's… worse than I thought. Uhh… well… funny thing… surgery takes too long… I don't have hands… someone… decapitate me from the shoulder please?" Albedo didn't bother to contemplate that that might be the single most insane thing either of the two here had ever heard. Oliver sighed and did as told, for this wasn't the weirdest thing he's done, Albedo wasn't expecting Oliver's claws to exceed the sharpness of his custom combat knife… one he designed to cut through armored clothing and bone in a single slash. And yet… he was now on the floor, his body staggering about as it figured out how to do what he needed… then, with a loud crunch, he stomped his head to bits… not a second later a bright purple light engulfed the room, as his head regenerated, this time with the bones where they belonged. Albedo did however notice one slight issue; the same light that lit up the room somehow caught a curtain on fire, which he quickly blew out before saying, "Yeah… don't question my abilities there. It doesn't help… now… sorry about the mess… umm… I get the feeling I probably am a homeowner's worst nightmare. Still, it's not like an alien like me should be walking around town. I might just kill everyone on the planet. Or maybe get myself killed. That would be a first. Still… I apologize for the trouble… I still… can't walk straight… now. Where did… dream go?" Oliver smiled and made the gesture to follow him as he walked out of the living room.

Albedo followed of course, still bothered by the fact that bloodstains are a nightmare on carpets and apparently the locals probably didn't have much in the way of robotic cleaning devices, and seeing as they didn't have hands… mops were a problem all their own. Still, he smelled steak and wanted to eat, finally he asked, "So, I am guessing that my fears of a strictly herbivore species were unfounded? Because god damn… those steaks smell better than boss' steaks… and… yeah that's impossible." Oliver answered while still walking, "Well, for most other ponies it's all herbivore shit, but with Dream, nope. She's an omnivore…though the other ponies look down on that practice…"

Albedo then sighed deeply and said, "Well… fun fact… did you know that of all planets that can be colonized, only 1 in 500 can support plant life in any agricultural capacity? So… that means… omnivores are successful space faring species, herbivores… starve. Plain and simple… well, unless you can actually live a whole life in space off fucking synth paste. Which, believe me… I would sooner eject myself out the nearest airlock than do that." Oliver chuckled for he agreed with that, it didn't take long until Oliver was in front of the kitchen doorway and said, "This is where Dream is, I'll be in the dining room if ya need me."

Albedo then remarked, "For fucks sake, I practically need my own medical team just to walk 10 feet safely… but oh well… just keep a bucket and a mop on standby… because whatever injuries I sustain always end up being unnecessarily messy… I hate my luck. Please… for the love of god… don't let there be Schrodinger's punji pit in this world too… I don't need to deal with shit covered spikes again." Albedo groaned and bitched his way into the kitchen as he noticed it was rather nice… no claymore mines for once. Unlike a certain red haired brother of his. Albedo, who was at this point amused by his environment, decided to try to open the fridge near him, it worked. Inside was all manner of things… food, stuff he didn't recognize… unfortunately though there was no booze. Albedo groaned and said, "Where the fuck is the Smirnoff ice? Oh never mind. So, how is the steaks coming?" As he glanced to dream, wondering if he had the luck to maybe find at the very least some whiskey. He figured that with everything else… corn had to exist… right?

Dream looked over at Albedo for a brief moment and said, "They are coming along fine…and I see that you met Oliver." Albedo chuckled and said, "Yeah… and myself too… Jesus fucking Christ… what the hell am I? At least I still look good. Then again, define good. Seriously though, do you know where I can find some whiskey or something similar? Just… no beer… please no." Dream then used her magic to open up a small cabinet off to Albedo's left. The cabinet had six bottles of wine in there. Albedo then said, "Whats this?" as he instinctively reached up to grab a bottle but realized that it wasn't going to do anything but make one hell of a mess. Then he finally groaned and said, "For the love of god! I miss my fucking hands!"

Albedo then said, "Fuck it! You said you can use magic right? And I can too? While you cook the steaks… I am gonna head outside. Might as well… safety first and all that. Be back once I learn how to pick up objects." With that… Albedo turned around only to be stopped by the simplest of things… a doorknob. To which he finally said, "Uhh… please can you open the door for me?" Albedo was starting to feel like the village retard. Dream then used her magic to open up the front door for Albedo, to which Albedo said, "Thanks…" why was he thanking people all of a sudden, in fact… why hadn't he just killed anyone in his way yet? It was beginning to bother him how astronomically soft he had become in under 2 hours. He walked outside and closed the door behind him… only to realize, unless he figures out how to open it again… he wouldn't be getting back inside.

As Albedo looked outside, he saw a most unusual sight. The whole environment was… different than he expected. It wasn't high tech, nor was it stone age. Something… in between. The sky was clear, unusually so given the temperature. However, he had fur so it was hard to gauge much of anything yet. So, he decided to ignore the world around him and instead focus on a stick on the ground. He used a basic tactic of his, using ether abilities, he wanted to see if they still worked. Sure enough, the stick somewhat exploded. So they did. Then he focused on what he could only describe as a log that had yet to be turned into firewood. Instead of using ethers, he tried to manipulate it directly. To his dismay, it didn't do anything. He then tried several other methods. None worked.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he tried to focus all his thought onto or through, whichever came first, his horn. For a split second he saw something, then there was a bright flash… followed by what he could only describe as what sounded like a hypervelocity cannon shot. When he opened his eyes however… it was worse… much worse… not only was the log gone… so was a good 500-meter area of the forest in front of him all in a tight 25 degree cone. Albedo then chuckled nervously then said to himself, "okay… that… just happened." Before looking at a piece of a tree limb. He wasn't sure if he wanted to try again or not, but he did anyway, this time, trying to limit the power he output. For a second… the branch lifted up, and then when he laughed… it shot up into the sky. Albedo stared upwards for a moment, contemplating the ramifications of how a tree branch just broke orbit, then tried on another… this time, he had dialed it in well. The branch came floating towards him then stopped before his face… then he decided to try something funny, he noticed an apple on the ground, which he promptly levitated into the air, then whacked with the branch, sending it flying into the woods.

Albedo laughed hysterically as he pictured the apple as a frag grenade. However… this proved to be an odd problem. As he heard an explosion where the apple landed. Albedo then laughed and said, "What the fuck? Fragmentation apples? Whatever." As he turned around, again contemplating how he turned an apple into a grenade and noticed that somehow, something was stuck to his left foreleg. He lifted the leg up to see that the object, a nail was not stuck but being held by something. Albedo then got an odd idea… he tried to mimic the signals to open a hand, even though he didn't have one…. Sure enough, the nail fell to the ground. Albedo then stared at the nail vacantly… beyond words or belief, he could have been picking up things this whole time would he have just tried to grab them anyway.

Meanwhile Dream was almost done with the steaks and was now getting the table in the dinning room set up for three not two. Oliver on the other hand jumped when he heard something exploded from outside, but he wasn't going to question it too much. It didn't take Dream long to finish the steaks and put them out onto the table, as she walked out to tell Albedo that supper was done. But when she walked out she saw him looking down at a nail and behind him some of the forest was gone and somewhat burning, as she asked, "What are you doing? Also dinner is done…" Albedo jumped back into awareness and came up with a rapid excuse for the destruction, "I farted… Its fine… I uhh… totally didn't flatten a forest and turn an apple into grenade. Yeah… just… go back inside and pretend you didn't see that… I will be right… behind you. Yeah…"

Albedo didn't even give a shit about the sheer level of BS spewing from his mouth… he was in too much shock that it was even possible to care. As he walked absentmindedly inside. Dream followed suit while closing and locking the door for the night. She walked into the dining room and took her seat at the table. Albedo on the other hand sighed deeply… even though he had just flattened a good 500-meter area of forest, something that would no doubtedly have him laughing hysterically… he was depressed, he was utterly clueless about this world and despite the hospitality being offered felt like he really didn't belong on this planet. Probably because he was an alien here. Regardless he tried his best to sit on the chair, eventually hopping up onto it before squatting into a crouch, then easing his ass onto the seat. It was about as graceful as someone having a seizure was, but it worked. Then he tried picking up the fork, remembering that just because he cant see or feel the fingers didn't mean they weren't there.

Sure enough, he grabbed the fork. However instead of feeling cheerful about it, he only sighed more deeply as the reality of his situation sunk in. whereas about 30 minutes ago he was egotistic and happy. Now he was already becoming a depressed mess. He already knew he was a burden on Dream and Oliver, he didn't belong on their planet at all. He also knew that there probably was no way in hell he would be going home, assuming there even was a home to go back to. He already was starting to miss Rubedo and for some reason… Margulis, if for no other reason than to antagonize him. But here, he was way out of his comfort zone, in a world he didn't understand. Living in a body he knew virtually nothing about. For Albedo, today truly was just another day in his already shitty life. He had come to expect such things to happen to him, and only him. He had the worst luck in existence… today, was just another day of that. Or so he thought. He wanted to believe that it could get better.

Dream's thoughts were running wild again, as she placed a steak onto her plate; she knew that tonight she would more than likely have another nightmare. Albedo managed to pry his thoughts away from his problems long enough to notice that if there were some kind of color swapped mirror in front of him, Dream was it… she looked like she felt as bad as he did. Probably for the same reasons, given what he saw in her mind. Finally he said, "You, don't look near as happy as I thought you would be, then again… I guess its mutual at this point is it not? I crash land on an alien world, in a body that I can't begin to understand… and despite your hospitality, I still feel royally fucked. As usual. Its days like this, I really wish I wasn't a bioweapon. I hate my life. So fucking much. I get dropped into the WORST situations imaginable, and everyone expects me to be fine. Well, Rubedo… I AM NOT FINE!"

Albedo paused a moment, then said, "Uhh… sorry, that… wasn't meant to be directed at you. I just… well… ahh fuck it… never mind" Dream looked at him and said, "its fine…I'm used to it…" Albedo then sighed and said, "yeah… but you shouldn't have to be… I don't think when you were born you asked for the life you have… all the bullshit, people fearing and hating you… I didn't ask for it either… and I sure as fuck didn't ask to be immortal. But I am… so catastrophes like this are pretty much an everyday thing for me. Not even four hours ago I was in fucking space time anomaly. I created it too, so that Rubedo would finally be able to kill me. And look what my sins have wrought… now such an innocent group of people have to suffer my existence. I don't know what to do… I wanted to die… to rest… this isn't… what I had in mind. Instead, I… don't know why I am here. But, I guess it doesn't matter why god decides to make people suffer. Still, I am alive. I might as well help you, seeing as you are quite literally the first being I have met in over a decade who hasn't tried to either use me or fuck me over, or even kill me. So, that's… a good start. Still, I don't know what to do now." Albedo took a bite of his steak and quite enjoyed it, but still felt depressed.

Dream smiled at Albedo, she knew all too well, just how that felt, though she always found it hard to express herself with words due to what happened in her past. Meanwhile, Albedo ate his steak and the rest of his food, doing his best to enjoy the situation; the food however was not in question, though he wouldn't dare admit it. It was the best meal he ever had. Albedo finally asked Dream, "so, Dream, what exactly… do you do? I mean, what's your job? Does it pay well? If so I might as well go try and get employed… god knows… I doubt I will ever be useful in my usual capacity. Also, do you umm… have a way to… shit how do I word this… make shit? I mean… items, tools stuff like that…"

Albedo figured he might as well get to using the vast amount of knowledge he sponged up from MOMO, given that he had to absorb all of it just to get to the Y-DATA, he might as well have an archive on every single bit of tech in existence. So, he decided he might want to start building a way out, no matter how long it took. Though there was always a possibility he might go native if he had to. Still, the prospect of having something to build with was enticing.

Dream thought about it for a moment. She did have a lot of stuff from her brothers that she didn't know what to do with, so she decided to say, "Well…I got a lot stuff from my brothers over the years that I don't know what to do with…and as for my job…that's a bit harder to explain what I do…" Albedo smiled lightly then said, "Look, I have been in enough black ops to know that look… if you can't tell me, I might as well file it under need to know basis… then again… after seeing parts of your memories… I might as well say, if that… Luna person is hiring… let me know. Otherwise, I might have to start filing applications. Also, your official job sounds a lot like what is done using Dive Simulations. It's often used for psychotherapy, but has military applications too. I specialize in the latter, then again… you have to start with the civilian ones first. No one is going to trust someone on a military op involving delving into one's mind if the person is gonna fuck it to hell. And lastly, well, I already proved that I can do that easily. I did it earlier. It did work, did it not? It's… something I was able to do since I was born. Regeneration is one thing… reverse spiritual linking is… well… complicated. Hell, Rubedo is the only one I know who can do it besides me, but he's too much of a pussy to try. Can't say I blame him. It's dangerous as all hell. Now, we can worry about employment tomorrow, for now, show me the giant junk pile… and for the record, I didn't access all your memories, only the ones that were violently crammed into me. A lotta confusion they're causing. It's like my brain's having a blue screen cascade." Albedo stood up then hopped off the chair before walking towards dream.

Dream smiled and hopped down from her chain having already finished eating, while Oliver was passed out on his chair, again. She then walked over to a door that lead from the dining room to her workstation in a garage. Dream opened the door with her magic and turned on the light, and what Albedo saw was glorious. On one side was a good 3 kilotons of raw materials, meticulously organized, and on the other was odd bits and stuff from various things… and some object that even he knew shouldn't exist in this world. Which only furthered his theory that he wasn't in fact the first alien here, though he might be the first that actually lived. Considering the fact that there was an Yautja helmet on the table in the corner, shattered and covered in old green blood. He didn't really care about fictional species, apparently neither did Dream… as whatever it was at one point… it was now a trophy. Or maybe a spare pair of lenses for her glasses. Who knew.

Albedo then said, "Well… shit. This… will do. Oh yeah. This is gonna be great. Tell ya what… you, go tend to Oliver who seems to be passed out. Oh and if you can, bring me the stiffest drink you can find… gonna need lotsa hooch. Jesus, when was the last time I relaxed like this? Fourteen… no sixteen years ago? Whatever. Albedo is now on break. And for the love of god… don't come in for about… an hour. Unless it's to give me booze. Wanna surprise all of you anyway. It may be hard to believe, but I work better and faster when I am shitfaced. I wonder if others are like that. Anyway… no offense… but uhh… piss off for now." Albedo already had ideas… plenty of them. He already surmised that magic mixed with ethers meant he pretty much could be a one man or pony armory production line… or apocalypse. He didn't want to test that last one yet. So he would compensate for that problem the old-fashioned way. Guns. Lots of guns.

Dream teleported five bottles of her strongest wine she had onto the table in the garage and left him to do his thing while she tended to Oliver. She levitated Oliver off of his chair and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where his bed is and placed him into it and then walked up the stairs and back into her room to continue reading the book she was reading earlier that day.

Albedo opened a bottle of the wine and sighed, muttering to himself, "Yeah, strong my ass… wine? No wonder she gave me five bottles." As he took a swig however, he nearly choked… it wasn't until he actually read the label did he realize it might as well be cognac… 80 proof, plain and simple… and this wasn't rotgut either. Albedo smiled widely as he got to work, he first tested a few things he would need on a steel ingot… when he managed to cause it to reach flash point he quickly flash froze it. The result was a frozen steel sphere. Then he decided to test superconductivity…, which worked perfectly. After a few moments he fashioned a mirror, then looked himself over… he needed clothes, armor, and some gear.

So he began to fashion a uniform, similar to the one he wore in the institute, albeit modified for his new body. He even added the Serial number and rank inscription. Once he was done, he donned his new Gal Fed uniform and made sure his new boots fit well. then he took the computer device that once belonged to a predator, he analyzed it before reprogramming it quickly for use with a new system. After about ten minutes, he had fashioned a new foreleg mounted command and control system. After re-flashing the BIOS and OS, he programmed it in real time to handle attachments. Making it as modular as possible. Then he put it on, with an audible click it worked. Then, he began to fashion a device, overlaying several belts and other harnesses. It took him a while to finish what he was already calling the VX2900 Equine Combat System, with four mounts for rifle or shotgun class weapons. He then added two mounts for heavy weapons on the rear half of the system, using a ballast system as well as 16 microscale gyroscopes for both maintaining balance and weight while also allowing auto-targeting systems.

He then took the lenses from the Yautja helmet and integrated them into a pair of eye covers. A HUD built in to the system, linked into the CCS and ECS system. With a few more tweaks, he managed to get the system optimized for ease of use. Then he added the laser-targeting interface onto his new visor. Then he set the harness aside while he began to choose a template for the first two rifles. Albedo sat there for a whole five minutes debating on what weapon basis he wanted. He could make anything he wanted… so he decided to go with both. He then took a good 10 minutes manufacturing two M41 Pulse Rifles and two M739 SAW's that would be attached to the ECS and supplied via an ammunition feed belt. The M41's would be fed via the same method. Then he attached them in a linked fire setup, making approximately 20,000 rounds for the M739's and 50,000 for the M41's. Finally, he began to construct two of his favorite weapons. The ones he gave the VIVE model Combat Realian prototypes. He constructed two particle beam cannons, collapsible so that they would be easily stored. Then he finalized the system by installing two 102mm Jackhammer rocket launchers, with a belt fed system for the rockets. He was worried that the launchers could explode under stress, but he ignored it. Albedo then added two sets of chaff and flare launchers on the back, each one weighing about a pound each.

Then he began construction of an advanced plasma core system to power the systems indefinitely when in use, as well as the modular flight system he had in mind. It took him a while to figure out a reliable flight system, but once he did, he built it quickly… adding it as a tertiary add-on to the ECS harness that would be powered by its plasma fusion cell. Finally, he integrated the various systems into the CCS code base. Once he had tidied it all up, it was ready, a suit of semi-powered assault armor. Something he always wanted but never had the resources to even attempt to build. Then he looked at the size of the garage, he got an idea. He then began setting up a large scaffold and laid the framework for a maintenance hangar. Finally, he noticed the time, it was getting dark outside. He decided to take a break for now.

Albedo then tried on the harness and watched as the HUD appeared in his vision, showing ammunition, heat levels and power levels. He laughed hysterically as he powered up the system fully, charging the plasma fusion core. Once it was done however, he disconnected the power cable. Then… the lights went out. Then… he heard scratching… a lot of scratching then howling. He then turned on the motion tracker as he took one heavy swig of the second bottle before seeing about 400 contacts within about 50 meters… all of em were closing on him. Albedo then said with a grin, "Well shit… it's about goddamned time… I was wondering when someone would try to kill me. Wait… why are there no thermal sigs?" Albedo realized the targets were invisible to his scanner because they were the same temperature as the environment, but their motion indicated that they were large, and fast. Soon they would be dead. As he primed the four rifles and activated the particle cannons, the dark garage lit up an almost pale blue color, contrast by the intentional violet glow of the eyepieces of his visor.

Meanwhile Dream set down her book when she heard the all too familiar howling of Timber wolves, lots of them.

Meanwhile, Albedo quickly manufactured several VX98C selectable lightweight attack munitions then wired them to the front door, he noticed even more pings on his motion tracker showing up. He was already setting the tables. He then set up a few improvised explosives, using one bottle of wine, a rag and of course, a lighter, if the enemy was not armed or sentient, fire was an excellent deterrent for wild animals. He had no illusions that this attack wasn't prompted by his prior leveling of a sizable chunk of forest.

Although he was vastly outnumbered, he was grinning maliciously.

Dream on the other hand was walking down the stairs, her eyes wide with fear. She and Oliver both shared the same fear of the Timber wolves ever since their not so friendly encounter with a small pack of them that left Dream laid up for a week in bed. Her breathing was fast and shallow as the memories of what happened that day came flooding back, but she knew that she had to push them aside of now. As Dream reached the kitchen the scratching sounds and the howls were getting louder that it made her squeak a bit in fear. But when she turned her head to look out of the kitchen window she could see the glowing yellow eyes of the Timber wolves, when she was about to turn away a small Timber wolf jumped up with its front paws on the windowsill scaring the ever living shit out of Dream which caused her to squeak again in fear.

As Albedo finished setting up the traps, he noticed a few heading out to the left of the doorway, he didn't know why but it was a group of six, which gave him pause. Wolf pack… was the first thought, given the motion and other information, coupled with the sudden breaking off a pack of six, he concluded that the targets were wolves. Which meant he needed another Molotov, he took a large swig of his drink before filling it the rest of the way with napalm, something he had made as a test initially, then climbed up to see an opening in the wall, a window. He saw the enemy for the first time, they were… different. Glowing yellow eyes being the first thing… wooden bodies being the next. Despite their obviously different bodies, they actually were now even more deadly than he initially assumed. Bodies made of living wood were very durable, and probably better at tearing flesh. But… one major problem… they were flammable. Albedo then switched the visor the sound amplification, he needed to know why they were clawing at the window. He heard why, dream. Obviously, the xenomorphs had located her and were trying to breach the glass window.

Albedo opened the small window and then lit the rag on the bottle, then nearly fumbled it trying to throw it out the window, even with regeneration, burning to cinders was a fucked up way to be injured. Especially seeing as he now had fur. Still, he managed to throw the homemade firebomb out the window, landing right near the larger one; he had aimed for its head… but missed by far. Still, the bomb exploded on impact and ignited the feral tree wolf combos… he heard howls and screams from them as they ran off. He knew they wouldn't make it far. Napalm was especially gruesome to things that were flammable… like people.

Meanwhile Dream was hiding inside of a cabinet shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. Oliver on the other hand was in deep sleep, nothing could wake him up at this point.

Albedo, having decided that Dream was secure for the time being, what with being inside a cabinet or something, then decided to open the garage door, opting to disable the motion triggers on the mines in favor of remote detonation. As he took cover behind a large table, he watched as the odd creatures tried to claw their way under the opening door. Then he triggered the mines manually. Suddenly a series of loud explosions rocked the house, reverberated through the building, and echoed into the night.

As the smoke and debris settled he could see through the visor, thousands of them. And about 60 or so dismembered and twitching all along the field. He then did one final systems test before disengaging the safeties on his weapons. Thanks to a combination of ethers, magic and science; he now had a fully neural operated weapons system. He primed the M41's and took aim, a trio of red lasers emitting from the visor and onto whatever he was looking at. Of course, whatever those lasers touched would surely die a most painful death.

The four rifles focused onto the laser's target before Albedo yelled, "Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone… we can waste as much as we want! Come on… face your deaths! I am the alpha and omega of perfect consciousness! I AM THE HAND OF GOD! I AM DEATH!" as he unleashed a barrage of linked fire, 10mm rounds at about 900RPM each on the creatures. Loud high-pitched barks of automatic weapons fire echoed through the building, accompanied by screams and howls of the nightmarish creatures being brutally torn to shreds by armor piercing shredder rounds. As he unloaded into the group he noticed that they weren't very smart… they kept swarming the obviously lethal source of bullets before them, as if he somehow were an easy meal.

Although part of him wondered just how the hell a tree could eat living flesh, much less why, he instead answered their idiocy with a new type of weapon, using 7.62mm FMJ incendiaries. Adding to the chorus of high-pitched pulse rifle fire was the deeper and louder barking noise of 7.62mm rounds. Of course, the M739 did more damage due to the cartridge-based nature of the weapon. As he quite methodically mowed down the creatures with alternating bursts from four different weapons, the calm night had become a symphony of death and automatic weapons fire. Oddly, it also had become a case of trimming a bunch of very unruly hedges. Albedo then remarked, "ALRIGHT ASSHOLES! IT'S PRUNING TIME!" as he charged the series 993 particle rifles, then fired two crisscrossing beams. The sudden ionization of the air ignited a few things as two massive blue beams of light carved through the night. Then, Albedo switched to the Jackhammer launchers, as he walked forwards, never keeping his eyes on a single target. As a nonstop fusillade of metal projectiles tore through them, he waited for the particle rifles to recharge. The ECS plasma cell was beginning to overheat, which could be a very real problem. Luckily, he had 40 rockets, 20 per tube. So he decided to make even more of a mess. With an evil grin, he braced himself as he walked further out into the yard, then, fired two rockets into a large group. Albedo watched as two blinding lights lit up the night, followed by extremely loud explosions. Albedo, never one to be stoic whilst brutally slaughtering his enemies, was laughing hysterically as he yelled, "that is 102mm of HEDP FUCK YOU!" as he kept firing, laughing psychotically as he mowed down the problem hedges by the hundreds.

He was beginning to run low on ammunition already, and it seemed that they were quickly losing their determination to eat him… many began retreating, but Albedo targeted them first, killing any that dared try to run. Albedo then fired two more rockets before switching to the now recharged beam rifles and yelled, "COWARDS! COME ON! DIE WITH FUCKING DIGNITY!" as he did a sweeping motion with the beam rifles at a lower power setting, effectively doubling the duration of the beam. As the beams fired, there was a sudden spark and the beams shut down… in fact… his entire visor crashed. The ECS plasma fusion core overheated. Luckily, it managed to reboot, but in that time, most of the survivors escaped.

Finally, he dumped coolant into the harness, as he walked through the front door, putting a burst through a still twitching creature as he closed the door behind him. The coolant caused a large amount of steam to be created at the point where the plasma fusion cell was. But, it prevented a full overheat and meltdown, one which could have WMD scale consequences. Albedo didn't want to become a nuclear bomb today. On the other hand, as he reached dream it was giving him that stereotypical sci-fi mist look. He didn't mind… or more specifically, he didn't care. As he knocked on the cabinet in a pattern, mimicking the oxen free tune. When Dream heard the knocking she slowly opened up the cabinet door still shaking, To which Albedo, covered in leaves, ash and what he could only was a sticky and kind of pus like sap, said, "It's all clear now… they are all very… very dead. I used about 12 thousand rounds. A bit excessive but oh well, I can make a lot more. Still, give me an hour with enough tools and resources… I can move Motherfucking Mountains.

Go on… take a look, I got a few flares anyway… I wanna see my handiwork myself. Oh, by the way, what the fuck were those snarling bitchy hedges? I fucked em up though. So maybe it doesn't matter seeing as they are dead and all." Dream slowly came out from her hiding spot still shaking, but when she looked at Albedo she had a flash of recognition, she remembered that her brother had something similar to what Albedo was wearing which made her feel a bit safer. Albedo then sighed and said, "Are you hurt? I can heal any wounds with Medica… an ether I use quite often… just… yeah don't ask what for. Anyway, fancy a look see? I pride myself in slaugh… defending people." Dream's soft voice was slightly laced with fear of the Timber wolves, "I….I'm fine….just a bit shaken up…"

Albedo smiled warmly, more so than he had done in a long time. He actually liked her, though he didn't want to entertain the thought so he slowly walked outside, cycling the excess heat and waste from the ECS systems, as well as detaching three spent belts of ammunition from the mounts as he opened the door, then aimed one of the micro flare launchers upwards. Then he fired two of them straight up. With a loud hiss sound, they lit up the area brightly. Reminding him a bit of Miltia in the the process, he surveyed the damage. There was a lot of carnage; a lot of the creatures were still alive, albeit not for much longer. He decided to let them die on their own. Their pitiful cries of pain did not faze him in the slightest, if anything, it enraged him. He enjoyed their pain and suffering.

But for once he had a person to protect, something that fueled his rage like the napalm he so happily started the battle with. As he scanned the horizon, he saw at least 3 thousand dead, or soon to be dead creatures. Albedo then laughed hysterically and yelled, "WEAK! YOU'RE ALL SO FUCKING WEAK!" as he laughed then said, "you all deserve worse… but I guess bleeding out in a pool of… whatever you frankenfuckers have for blood is enough."

As Albedo stood before the massive amount of dead creatures, bathed in the artificial light of the flares, it painted a grim and disturbing picture. Albedo was standing before a massive horde of mortally wounded and dead creatures, laughing at their pitiful efforts to kill dream and him. Although it was odd, that he put her before himself.

Dream saw the damage and was relieved that one of her nightmares was over, for now at least. The cries coming from the Timber wolves didn't faze her, though her shaking was now slight she was still afraid of the Timber wolves, something Albedo picked up on.

Albedo then walked over to one which was crawling away, only its upper torso remained as Albedo stepped on its back and then brutally curb stomped its head. Ending its pitiful cries and its life. Albedo then turned to face Dream and say, "welp… we got firewood for the next few years at least. Looks like I am the one gardener they will never want to see again. Don't count on them returning ever again. Even wolves can communicate a dangerous area. The ones who lived will no doubt warn their packs of this. Basically, its suicide to come near this place. Or me in general. Isn't that right… frankenfucker?" Albedo quipped as he snatched one by the neck with his right foreleg, and then decapitated it violently while laughing. Albedo then took the head and impaled it on a light near the front deck, creating an eerie jack-o-lantern effect.

Dream's voice wasn't fully back from what happened, but she smiled a little though still shaking a little. After a few seconds the last flare died out and the night became dark again, save for the scattered fires and burning corpses. Albedo then walked towards dream and asked,

"so… my adorable little friend… does this sight scare you? Are you afraid of my power? After all, this is what I was born to do. How can I deny such a wonderful existence? It's so beautiful, can't you see… look around you, a nigh invincible horde of alien monsters all dead. I can offer life and love in one hand, and death and damnation in the other. I do it of my own free will. Of course… I enjoy the killing. Especially… when the enemy wants to harm my friends. See them… watch… their pain is so exquisite… a beautiful crescendo of their final judgement. Of which, the punishment for trying to harm you is dealt swiftly and harshly… and I? I am the judge… jury and executioner! Is it not magnificent? I love my job. Obviously. Now… dream, we can collect the firewood tomorrow. It's late, we need rest."

Albedo then walked up to dream and kissed her cheek with a chuckle, then said, "oh… but do not worry… I shall never harm you of course… they… wished harm upon you… and look what they have wrought… you reap what you sow, do you not… by wishing harm upon you they have sown the seeds of their own death. One, which I was happy to deal to them. And that… was a kiss, in case your kind doesn't know what that is. I have no reason to believe you don't. But still, I enjoyed the… gift. Thank you. I really needed to blow off some steam. The perfect end to a beautifully orchestrated day. I actually might like my new life here. Hope you aren't planning on revoking my rent already. Because I get the feeling that trouble follows you like death follows in my footsteps. Thing is… whereas trouble follows you, I am death… and I follow trouble. Trouble… fears me. Just as they now do. For good reason. Come now, let us get some rest… if that show didn't wake up Oliver, then he is in for one hell of a surprise tomorrow. Besides… my prototype needs a lot of work. Its aim is utter shit, and it overheats like my ES did after I got it from those incompetent fools on Pleroma. Shall we get some rest? Oh… forgot, that wine… was the best cognac I ever had. As was the dinner. Today… was one of the best days of my life. I am eternally grateful. I could have landed in a shitty world. But so long as I follow you, I shall never be bored. Or lonely… I always like good company. Uhh… what is that one doing?"

Albedo noticed the strangest sight; one of them was trying to put itself back together. Albedo decided to fire a quick burst from an M739 at it… effectively blowing it to pieces. Then said, "Yeah… don't even want to know what that was. Those things are somehow creepier than gnosis… if that's possible. You done staring at my little… painting?" Dream was shaken out of her thoughts and nodded her head, for she was now very tired though she did smile at Albedo. Albedo then walked inside and detached the ECS harness onto the floor, not caring where. It was a prototype; he didn't care about it like a real weapon. However, he intended to turn it into something truly respectable later. He then climbed the stairs to dreams room, as he grinned he looked back to see dream right behind him.

His new uniform was a bit… uncomfortable due to the material… something he should have considered but could always fix later. It chafed on his fur a bit too much for his taste. Finally, he opened the door and chuckled, not two hours ago he couldn't open a door to save his life… now he had slaughtered a bunch of freaks. He was already back on top. As he walked in he asked, "Which bed is mine again? Because I sure as fuck am not sleeping on the floor. Also, umm, do you have a copy of Halo – the flood? If so, I want it tomorrow." Dream then said, "I don't really care which one of the beds you take….and yes I do have that book…." Albedo did his best not to nerd out over a paper copy of Halo – The flood as he contemplated, she said she didn't care which bed he chose… so he waited for her to choose her bed. Dream the walked over to her bed since she didn't feel like sleeping in her hammock tonight and crawled in while putting a book mark in the book that she was reading.

Albedo walked over to the book and was slightly surprised, it was a book labeled "Xenosaga Episode II – Jenseits Von Gut und Bose" which had images of him, Rubedo and the merry band of goody two shoes on it. Albedo decided that she most likely started reading that when she heard his name. It would be far more terrifying if she were reading that before he arrived. In fact, the thought was so unnerving to him that he walked away from the book and did his best to forget he even saw it. As he said, "Yeah, next time… be more precise in your words unless you want me to be a bit… opportunistic." As he climbed into the bed with Dream and laid on his side, which wasn't uncomfortable as he once thought. The bed was really nice too. Albedo then sighed and said, "Well… don't think I will take advantage of you… not into that anyway. But, you will make a great pillow or blanket. Something." Albedo didn't want to admit it, but he really just wanted to cuddle with someone… anyone. It did not matter to him all that much. He hadn't shared a bed with someone in over 14 years. Something he missed greatly. Finally he said with resignation and slight embarrassment,

"Good night, Dream. All in all, for just another day… this one was pretty good."

Dream smiled and snuggled closer to Albedo and said, "Good night, Albedo…"

Albedo was suddenly a lot less comfortable; he expected at least a little chastisement… not her to openly cuddle him like that. It was a good thing it was dark in the room, he was all but certain that his white color was now significantly redder. Eventually he fell asleep, wondering what tomorrow would bring. Suddenly he remembered something. He landed on a person… not a pile of trash. That puke green thing was too squishy and crunchy to be some pile of slime. He then asked, "Hey, not for nothing… what was that puke green thing that so nicely broke my orbital fall? Is it gonna live?" Dream's breath hitched as she answered, "Yes…she will live….she always does…" Albedo noticed the change in her breathing and astutely asked with a malicious grin,

"Well… do you… want me to fix that then?"

To Be Continued.