Divergence: Branch F-93-2.
MSN04_007AC4.
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This timeline begins as a deviation in Branch EFGXYZ, or the "Family Reunion" Branch. Under normal conditions, the five Intoner siblings defeat Zero and use a special magical compound designed to make the flower in her eye rapidly spread its roots through her body and take over her mind. Five rests Zero's head in her lap and brushes the hair away from her vulnerable eye while whispering suggestive pleasantries. Four nervously administers the compound from a tiny eye dropper, as all of the sisters agreed such a delicate process required a "virgin's touch." Three is responsible for developing all of the complex mathematical formulas and forbidden spells that create the compound. Two just sort of watches and acts weird like she usually does. One oversees the entire process with a careful eye and a stern nod. The ceremony succeeds, Zero inadvertently turns herself into a "full Intoner" the next time she tries to regenerate, and the six sisters proceed to bring about the end of the world as a single loving family.
Things go a bit differently in Branch F-93-2. We commonly refer this as the "Symbiosis" Branch. Everything is almost the same up until the moment the Zero's flower is fertilized by the eye drops. Rather than accelerating in growth and attaching itself to Zero's mind, however, the flower converts the compound into a concentrated Intoner-killing toxin and releases it as a defense mechanism. The toxin attacks the nervous systems of Zero, One, Two, Three, and Five, killing them all within seconds.
In this specific Branch, in the days leading up to the ceremony, Four secretly tried to convince the flower it only needed one loyal Intoner under its control and promised to use all of her resources as an airship captain to carry out its will. She had lost hope in bringing Zero "back to her senses" and decided her only choice was to replace Zero entirely. She saw her other sisters as a bickering, dysfunctional bunch who were the entire reason Zero had turned against them to begin with.
The flower must have decided Four's brain would provide it abundant fertile soil, as it accepted her invitation and aided in her plot. It caused Four's body develop a natural immunity to its toxin just in time for the ceremony. The only thing Four asked for in return for her full devotion was a moment to scavenge Zero's undergarments after she sprung the trap. She now keeps these in a small shrine along with a portrait of Zero, a lock of Zero's hair, and a shard from Zero's broken sword. She has been known to sniff them from time to time. This apparently serves as a source of inspiration for her.
With the rival Intoners gone, there was only one remaining obstacle in the flower's path of conquest. This issue was resolved when One's clone brother ended up impaled on his own Dragonbone sword while a group of air pirates danced around him singing "Haul on the Bowline." Four's soprano notes made for an interesting female accompaniment.
Shortly after becoming this Branch's dominant Intoner, Four rechristened her fleet as the "Flying Garden." The ships were redesigned and infused with Intoner magic so they would be used in long-distance trips to locations outside of Four's native planet. They now resemble an army of giant floating flowers.
When left unopposed, the flower will consume everything around it like an aggressive network of weeds. It travels from world to world on the vehicles Four provides it, leaving nothing but a trail of corpses and flower blossoms in its wake.
Rather than having an unsightly flower growing out of her eye, Four's symptoms of complete parasitism are relatively subtle. Both of her eyes are marked with the small but distinct shape of flower petals in her pupil and iris. She appears to be acting under a combination of the flower's will and her own when deciding which world she should pillage next. That, or the maddening effects of the flower just cause her to ramble to herself occasionally. If her crew shows sign of reluctance or resistance to her orders, she will immediately release pheromones that render them as mindless thralls to their "blossoming goddess." She is able to use a much stronger form of the same pheromones when she feels like bringing entire worlds to a quick and peaceful surrender. Of course, she still slaughters virtually every living being in those worlds. The flower allows her to spare the strongest men in each world only so they can serve in her growing slave crew. She refers to them endearingly as her "Legion of Thorns."
Chastity was Four's defining characteristic when she was an individual being, but this changed completely once she offered herself to the flower. Whether this was simply a case of delayed Intoner libido (we call this the Late Bloomer Theory) or a direct result of the flower's influence is not currently known. Whatever the reason, Four's increased sex drive has caused her to develop some unique dynamics with her Disciples.
Yes, that is correct. Disciples.
This Branch's version of Four has two primary modes of regeneration. In both cases, her new body will grow out of cells from one of her fingernails and she always regenerates as a virgin. If her current body is forced to regenerate before she has a chance to lose her virginity (such as last week, when she became reckless during one of her otherworldly invasions), she will respawn in a new body identical to the previous one. However, her first priority is almost always to find a new Disciple and consummate their Intoner-Disciple union. In a process we refer to as "cross-pollination," her body processes genetic material from that Disciple and factors it into her regeneration cycle. The next time she regenerates, her new body will have a combination of physical traits and magical abilities from both her previous form and her Disciple. In simpler terms, every time she allows herself to be deflowered, she is conceiving her own reincarnation.
Four will release her previous Disciple and conjure a new one each time her appearance changes. When selecting her new Disciple, she will generally give him a human form that is a variation on the same basic theme: A male version of Zero. We have come to give her various Disciples easily identifiable code names such as Beefcake Zero, Pretty Boy Zero, Scruffy Zero, Lanky Zero, Goth Zero, and so on.
Four's ultimate goal is to find to the exact genetic combination that will cause her to regenerate into a body that perfectly resembles the original female Zero. She claims she will then return to protecting her chastity so she can live as Zero for the rest of eternity. She has gone so far as to obsessively scribble her own family tree several generations in advance, picking and matching the most desirable traits one at a time. Based on her statements, she still doesn't like to get "dirty," but she feels it is a necessary part of becoming just like her "sister." She can sometimes be sporadic about this, however. After several failed cross-pollination experiments in a row, she suddenly became frustrated and summoned a completely different Disciple just so she could distance herself from Zero's likeness in her next incarnation. After spending a few weeks in her new body, she became regretful and went to her shrine to beg for Zero's forgiveness. Her optimism returned and she used her next Disciple to start her plans over from scratch.
In all likelihood, she will never actually accomplish her goal. Genetics simply do not work the way her fickle mind believes they do, and there is a high probability the flower has been deliberately leaving each of her incarnations with minor imperfections (the wrong hair color, bushier eyebrows, a slightly smaller nose, a couple centimeters of difference in her BWH measurements, etc.) as a way to encourage her to constantly evolve.
The nomadic nature of Four's Flying Garden and her own changing appearance makes it incredibly difficult to keep a complete record of her actions. We can only make rough estimates on how much damage has been caused by her existence in this Branch. We will continue to monitor the situation if only out of morbid curiosity. We have recorded several different timelines where only one of the Intoners is left as the flower's living vessel, but this Branch seems to be the most persistent. Four will surprise us all if she manages to create some new form of stability out of all this death and insanity.