Betrayal is a motherfucker
What happens when we die? Do we fall into the void? Live in an eternal paradise above the clouds? Suffer an eternal torment in the sea of fire? Or are we reborn into a world with a shattered moon, superpowers, and animal people?
Yeesh...
Maybe the old world was better than this...
/./
"We had a good run Master Integra," Walter closed his eyes as the raging inferno consumed him.
The fire felt refreshing against his icy skin. He smiled as the smoke entered his lungs and his flesh began to blister and blacken. The cigarette fell from his fingers and that was that. A spark flickered within the darkness, the spark began to grow, until it vanquished the darkness. Was this the light at the end of the tunnel everyone saw? Was it the purity of the Golden City? Or the fires of the Black Depths?
"Push!" A voice called out.
Push? Can't really do that only one arm...
"The baby's crowning!" The voice yelled.
No...
"Here he comes!" The presumed doctor kept yelling. Why do doctors always yell? The woman screamed as she was pushing a new life into the world. Oh yeah...
Well bloody hell, new life. I can honestly say: I didn't see this coming...maybe this time will be different. I wonder, what awaits me in this life.
"He's not making any noise," the mother tried to sit up and see her child, "What's going on, is he ok?!"
"He's breathing, he's just staring at me," The doctor wiped the baby clean and wrapped him in a blanket. The doctor handed him to his mother. She quickly took him into her arms and she stared into his red eyes. The baby smiled and leaned into his mother.
"Kline," she smiled, "Come look at our son."
"My word," the father smiled as he leaned over his wife's shoulder, "He's beautiful," Kline's eyes switched to red, "He even has my eyes." Even his voice changed when he said it.
Oh my, this is my father? I must say this will be an interesting life indeed.
/./
I always knew this is how it would end, actually going through it though...
Wilhelm fell to his knees, the hydraulics in his mechanical legs had finally given out. He used his mechanical arm to keep his body level while he shook off the loader extension on his human arm and ripped off his goggles.
Damn poison, I knew something was wrong, I hope these Vault Hunters shove that stupid mask up your ass Jack!
His vision was distorted as he looked at the sky. His robotic eye had shut down, Wolf and Saint were scraps behind him. The vault hunters left him for dead in the icy tundra. The train was still burning him. He found himself back in New Haven...
The cries of the wounded, the silence of the dead, the crackling of the fires. My first real job as Handsome Jack's Enforcer. He accompanied me on the raid, not like he did much, he stood behind me while I did all the work.
The vengeance cannon activated igniting more of the shacks these people called home. It was amusing seeing them run into their homes trying to keep him out. Apparently not remembering that most of their houses were wood. More fuel for his vengeance cannon.
"I LOVE THIS GUY!" Wilhelm shouted as he launched Wolf and Saint into the air. Saint set off his overcharge while Wolf sounded her battle cry.
I'm gonna miss you buddy, Wilhelm looked at his shoulder seeing the mangled remains of his vengeance cannon. Funny, always had more of a connection to robots more than people to begin with. Come on Death, you stingy bastard, want me to freeze to death first?!
Finally, darkness began to encircle his remaining eye. Wilhelm laughed as death finally embraced him.
No coming back this time, I wonder what the end is? It's funny, so many people have fallen before me...I've lived and died so many times...what's one more time?
Black, not blue. Then a spark, a blue spark, soon it enveloped his whole vision.
I guess this wasn't the end, a well, time to repair myself and hunt down those damn...
"Push!" The voice cut off Wilhelm's train of thought.
Haven't heard that one before...
"He's crowning!" The voice yelled.
Crowning? The hell does that mean?
"One more big push Mrs. Polendina, he's almost out!" The voice grabbed Wilhelm's head.
OW! That hurts damn it!
The babies cries filled the room as he was pulled out from his mother. The joyful noise that should have followed were replaced with horrified gasps. The doctors quickly rushed the baby to the NICU and put him in a glass chamber. It was hours before they were able to calm down the parents enough to explain the situation.
"I'm sorry," the doctor sighed.
Mrs. Polendina broke into sobs as soon as the words left his mouth.
"Tell me," grimly asked while holding his wife, "How did he die?"
"He didn't," the doctor looked confused, "That's the good news."
"So what's the bad?" Mr. Polendina asked, while the Mrs. stopped crying when she heard the magical words that her son was alive.
"He," the doctor stopped midsentence.
"Just tell us," Mr. Polendina shook his head, "Give it to us straight."
"He's missing one arm, both of his legs, and one eye," the doctor followed 's instructions, "We ran some tests, and he's got a mild case of Bone Waste, and a very weak heart, but..."
"But?" He asked curiously.
"He's one hell of a fighter," the doctor seemed relieved, "We calculated a 19% chance of survival, and that was being optimistic. But with the way he's fighting, we can treat the bone waste no problem, although he'd need cybernetic limbs, an eye, and more than likely implants as well."
"H-He'll be more machine than man," Mrs. Polendina gasped, "Can we really do that to him Geppetto?"
"But he'll live," Geppetto reasoned.
"He'll be an outcast!" Mrs. Polendina cried.
"But. He'll. Live!" Geppetto had tears in his eyes, "Outcast or no, he'll be alive, our son will live!"
Mrs. Polendina stared at her husband, she slowly nodded.
"Would you like to see him?" The doctor asked.
"Yes," Geppetto nodded.
The doctor exited the rooms and wheeled in the chamber where a sleeping baby thrashed as best he could, "As I said: "He's one hell of a fighter."
"Don't worry my son," Geppetto placed his hand against the glass, "I'll design you the best cybernetics ever conceived, nobody on Remnant will have anything like them." Wilhelm's one eye shot open and he looked directly at his father.
So you're my father, I love you already. I think I'm going to like it here.
/./
Mira, you fucking bitch!
Welke leaned against the wall, gunshot in her side, she slowly fell to the ground leaving a trail above her.
Marry a Dominion Admiral, then wipe out every mercenary group that doesn't join up with you!?
Welke dropped her sniper rifle and pulled out a stimpack. She looked at what remained of Hale's Commandos. Commander Hale's battle cruiser was blown out of the sky. LaGrave was shot to death in the bathroom. Murphy's siege tank was bombarded with magnetic mines. Welke was all that remained, and she was done for.
These inbuilt chemical delivery systems dose marines with a powerful mix of synthetic adrenaline, endorphins, and a psychotropic aggression enhancer. Marines on stims benefit from greatly increased speed and reflexes, but are subject to long-term side effects including and not limited to insomnia, weight loss, mania/hypomania, seizures, paranoiac hallucinations, internal hemorrhaging, and cerebral deterioration. Nonetheless, both commanders and the marines themselves stand by the use of stims as essential to their continued survival and effectiveness on the battlefield. What they didn't tell you was that these are extremely dangerous for ghosts.
Welke jammed the needle into her neck and her thumb hovered over the inject button for a moment.
I won't give you the damn pleasure Mira.
She pulled out a detonator.
You think I'm just gonna hand you our science vessels? Ha! Dumb bitch.
As Welke pressed the button on the detonator, she also hit the inject button. She slammed her head against the floor from the pain. Meanwhile multiple explosions rocked the ship she was on.
Enjoy trying to salvage a million pieces of debris floating across the Koprulu Sector!
She couldn't tell which came first. The green light or the orange light, either way the winner was darkness. The cold darkness, she was used to the feeling. Living aboard spaceships her whole life, Ghost Academy, even when playing cards with the other commandos.
Flicker.
Am I still hallucinating?
"Push!" Another doctor yelled.
Definitely hallucinating...
"Here she comes!"
Okay, never doing drugs again...
"It's a girl," the doctor pulled the baby from her mother, only to immediately start seizing.
The doctor and a team of nurses quickly stabilized the baby and took her to the NICU. The doctor came back and was immediately attacked by the angry father.
"What's happened to our daughter?!" He pinned the man against the wall.
"She had a seizure!" He gasped, "She's alright now."
"She's ok?" The mother asked from the bed.
"Yes and No," the doctor placed an x-ray on a nearby light, "It appears that her aura is unlocked."
"How is that possible?" The father returned to his wife's side.
"We think the seizure was traumatic enough for her aura to unlock naturally," the doctor then put an x-ray of her daughter's skull on the light board, "This is your daughter's brain, we found an anomaly. There's no damage, but we think that's what caused the seizure and her aura to manifest so quickly."
"So what happens now?" The father asked.
"We'd like to run some tests on her," the doctor recommended.
"No," the wife shot up, "You won't experiment on her!"
"Mrs. Belladonna, please," the doctor pleaded, "We need to know what caused her aura to unlock so early. This anomaly could be the answer we need."
"You're asking to look into my daughter's brain! She's not even an hour old!"
"I agree with my wife," Her husband spoke up, "Don't touch my daughter."
The doctor reluctantly agreed, "Would you like to see her?"
"Yes please," they answered.
The doctor rolled in the newborn and handed her to her mother.
"Blake," her husband held another baby, a few months older in his arms, "Meet your sister."
