Dark Hunter's resolution.

Chapter 55: Cost and ruin, the forced path to redemption.

15th June 2902

Tarihhis, Eru'lindi city, royal palace.

Waiting in his prison cell, Alex felt his chest yet again.

The familiar hardness of his micro fusion reactor and blood pump remained, but it now operated at much lower levels unless he was equipped with technology to use more power.

His throat no longer was scratchy, the surgery healing his lungs and throat scars. His vocal chords had been repaired, but his voice wasn't ever going to be quite the same as it had one been. He could no longer yell quite as loud, his voice was deeper, but sounded wheezy if he wasn't speaking in a harsh tone. He felt ashamed when he spoke in non angry tones now.

His internal cancer cells had gone, and he now had a new lease on life. The surgery had been in a narrow window, with only 1.5 days left until a predicted catastrophic organ shutdown.

Truthfully, Alex wouldn't have cared if he'd lived or died then. But now, he was doomed to 15 years of servitude alongside the last person he had ever wanted to spend the war's aftermath with.

The door to his cell opened, and a Kro'nogri guard in medium armour gestured with a rifle:

"Move it. You're headed to the throne room."

Slowly, Alex rose to his feet, his cybernetic legs carrying his defeated form effortlessly through the door. He felt as if he was being marched to his death, despite him being granted life 15 days before.

If he truly was Alex Damien through the two prior bodies and this one, which he doubted still, he had been alive for just about 23 years, not including the 5 months he had been 'out' between his first and second bodies for too long to be healthy.

At least he thought he was 23, but at the same time, he thought Alex was 23. He didn't truly know how old HE himself was.

To his anger, he was certain that 15 years of servitude was going to be a long time. And he'd be damned if Kal'sik got off before he did.

Royal Palace, 5 minutes later,

Main throne room.

Closed session

"Understand this, you two work directly for me, and no one else. And if you disobey any order I give, the ruling states that you will face execution. So, either serve me for the 15 year sentence, or feel free to act out as a last hurrah before your death."

Sha'krii's harsh tone at her opening statement surprised both individuals standing in the centre of the throne room. Kal'sik, standing strong and tall, only sporting physical cybernetics now, meekly nodded in understanding. As powerful and loyal as he was to the rightful ruler, he had a great deal of guilt still over what he'd done in the war to the side Sha'krii had been leading.

Sat on her throne, Sha'krii's cybernetic leg still showed prominently, though she was feeling better about it now that she had an organic replacement being grown for her.

It would still take a month to be ready for a surgery to replace her leg though.

Beside Kal'sik, Alex was more stiff, boring a hole directly into Sha'krii's eyes as if willing her head to explode. He didn't take kindly to individuals exercising a large deal of enslaving authority over him, even if he knew them.

Seeing Alex's evident anger, Sha'krii matched his stare: "Knowing you, its useless to point out how disrespectful your behaviour is right now in the face of a monarch."

She sighed a bit, and said: "But, if it weren't for your acts, and your plan with Shockwave, I wouldn't be here to warn you."

"No, you wouldn't. And yet, I'm being punished and Shockwave isn't." Alex noted.

"Your acts when you went rogue within the KI and stole all that fleet technology, along with Varya and your holding an entire city hostage did that. The bottom line is that the end justifying the means only goes so far."

She turned to Kal'sik: "For that same reason, though I'm sure you're not blind to it, your too great loyalty to the Alliance has placed you in the same situation."

"Yes your highness." Kal'sik responded.

Alex violently charged Kal'sik, before he was caught by 3 guards around the shoulders. Alex shrieked for the hall: "YOU ENSLAVED ME AND MIR'MINSK AT VARYA, AND SHE DIED BECAUSE OF THAT! YOU FUCKING BOMBED MY HOME! YOU LEFT ME TO ROT IN THAT PRISON! YOU HAD ME BROUGHT BACK WHEN I SHOULD HAVE DIED!"

Backing away, Kal'sik rebuked: "At the time you were a valuable asset. You had just assassinated the UIP president, you'd proved yourself worth saving. And I thought you'd have appreciated being given a second chance, as few do."

"I had my memories restored like my clones did! MEMORY IMPLANTATION! I think I'm Alex only because I was told I am. I don't know if I really am him, whether I'm even that clone that you sanctioned of him!"

Interrupting, Sha'krii stood up quickly: "ENOUGH! Settle down Alex!"

"NO! Because of him, I have nothing! BECAUSE OF YOU, I HAVE NOTHING! I don't know if I'm Alex anymore, and I don't care! I can never go back to the UIP after what he did, his clone did, even after the things I've done. The Alliance was my only hope for a peaceful life, but YOU SCREWED IT OVER! I wished you'd sentenced me to death instead of giving me 15 years slavery. I'll be ruined once its over."

"And frankly, Sha'krii, don't be surprised if you wished you'd killed me once my sentence is over."

Alex's last statement carried extreme undertones to it. The Kro'nogri queen was stunned into silence. This was definitely not the human she had come to know during her NKI time. What had happened to him since New Cybertron?

In her deeper thoughts though, she remembered how he'd seemed shaken already, and was getting more and more desperate. Especially around Kal'sik. But was it all simply a farce, a mask of morality that hid the potential raging creature inside him?

Resigning herself to what had passed, she decided that keeping him for the 15 years would be a good way to analyse his situation.

And when those 15 years were up, she could easily make him 'disappear' if she had to.

Ahead of her, the guards sensed the human had calmed down, and released him. One of the guards kept his stun setting rifle levelled at the human though.

Kal'sik now bore more shame, as he remembered exactly some of the KI agents he'd seen on reports. To him, they'd all been names and numbers.

Resources that if useful were preserved like Alex, or were expendable.

Now the guilt ate at Kal'sik, thinking of all the others affected by death alternative drafting of agents, like Alex had been. Not to mention the Varya slave units, the ones that lived and died.

The resources had gained a face, an individual and a metaphor for all he had ruined in his service to the Alliance.

Resolute, Kal'sik would gladly serve his time. He had a debt to repay. And if his sentence was extended, he would do the time just as gladly.

On the throne, Sha'krii stated sadly: "We have an understanding then. Guards, escort these two to their designated quarters."

The guards moved to lead them out of the throne room, her voice following them: "You'll get mission reports directly from me and me only."

Kal'sik left first, but Alex cast a look back at Sha'krii. To her second surprise, it was an empty look.

His defeated expression hurt more than his anger.

It would be a fair while, a few weeks, until Sha'krii saw either of those two faces again. Not until their return from their first mission.

Slumping in her throne, Sha'krii lamented the loss in one of the friendships she'd built in the war near its end. It seemed that acquiring this throne had taken one last token from her as a price, despite her standing improving with the Alliance.

5 hours later.

Kro'nogri royal palace, Queen's main office.

Paperwork on her desk distracted Sha'krii from the near fiasco a few hours before. Alex's ringing words wouldn't be silenced unless she buried herself in her work.

Documents on reconstruction, and importantly, reports on death warranted war criminals on the run, would help numb the hurtful words.

A call suddenly came in on her desk based computer, which she brought up for contact ID.

Leg'hrul monarchy, Private contact line.

Hesitant, as she knew who it was, she swallowed any memories and bore a masking scowl. This had been coming, as they hadn't talked properly at all since she was revealed to be innocent. The war restoration had needed setting in order, and a great many changes needed doing.

The holo-screen formed in front of her desk, showing an image of King Rho'kis's office, with him staring right back at her from his seat.

The last 16 years seemed a greater chasm than the light years that separated them:

"I'm in the middle of important work Rho'kis. This new position comes with its share of problems I've inherited from my brother's rule."

"And from mine alongside him."

Pausing for a moment, she honestly said: "Your mistakes weren't entirely yours. The war had been set in motion when I was banished, it was inevitable."

"But I went along with it. I believed the forged evidence when they presented it all those years ago."

"Everyone did."

"But at the time, I should have supported you. You looked to me as your last hope for support, and I turned on you. I didn't trust you enough, which is now shameful since we were betrothed at the time."

She saw Rho'kis's feathered face fall at his remark slightly, but she didn't care. The wounds were too deep to heal quickly:

"Your Queen wouldn't want to hear you talking about our past relationship."

"She knows I'm doing this call. I'm not asking to repair our relationship, too much time has passed. I moved on, found someone else. You should too."

Evidently, he was trying to say this as delicately as possible, but in reality, no words used could numb the pain they caused. Scowling, Sha'krii growled at him:

"Did you go to her for political reasons? The need for a successor? Or was there actually a genuine history between you two before you joined?"

"Don't drag Ye'reski into this! This is our issue, and it needs to be solved if we're to collaborate to restore the Alliance, and help the UIP in turn as they help us."

"Believe me, its solved now. What sliver I had left of feelings for you were discarded when you came to me in that prison first time. They were always shrinking in my time as an exile and NKI leader, but never truly disappearing."

Rho'kis's face now showed a great deal of sadness, to which he made one last plea. Not for political reasons, but as an attempt to salvage a past relationship to at least an amicable level.

"Isn't there any chance we can at least be friends? For old time's sake?"

"Those times are long past Rho'kis. And tell your wife that she should closely test the level of trust between the two of you, for her sake."

She disconnected the call, sagging in her office chair slightly. Immediately regret began creeping into her mind.

She shouldn't have been so harsh, but what did he expect? 16 years of lamenting over her exile, and everyone abandoning her, wasn't a quick fix.

She diverted her attention to the document datapads on her desk, detailing the first target allocated to her newest agents. A cluster of war criminals not captured, but guaranteed for execution.

Alex was an unknown quantity, but 15 years, provided he didn't try anything, was enough time to fully evaluate him.

Despite his fanatical loyalty to the Kro'nogri monarchy and government, Sha'krii saw a potentially highly trustworthy individual in Kal'sik. Unlike Alex, she saw Kal'sik's actions as impersonal, a consequence of fighting a war a little too effectively.

And Kal'sik had been quick to change allegiances once the evidence was revealed, and gladly took his punishment. Blindly loyal he might be, but he seemed truly sorry for what he did.

Also, Kal'sik's inflicted injuries on her and the UIP/NKI had been war acts, whilst her brother and Rho'kis had hurt her on a personal level.

She found it ironic that she trusted a formerly feared Alliance grand admiral and downgraded cyborg over her brother and former lover.

The way things can change.

1 Hour later

From atop a balcony, Lo'rath conversed with a UIP engineering representative. The middle aged Klingon was pleased to report that the vacuum mag train tunnel section damaged or destroyed by the bomb had been fully repaired, and scrubbed of radioactivity. Radiation fallout had been as expected, but it would be easy to place a quarantine zone for 5 years whilst the radioactive material was cleaned by auto drones.

"And how are the downtown areas damaged in the battle faring so far?"

"It was mostly some skyscrapers with damaged windows, and one or two totalled city street corners, and damage to a few shopping areas. We've been lucky in that very few bodies are being found." The Klingon commented.

"Good. Well keep up the work, and know that our engineering corps are doing their part in the UIP."

"It will take time before they reach the homeworlds though, travel distance and all." The Klingon commented. Remorsefully, Lo'rath dismissed the Kro'nogri, before walking off to find Va'kara. His Leg'hrul wife had been corresponding with the Leg'hrul officials and the reconstruction efforts within the Alliance outer colonies via comm channel.

Passing by towards the doorway, Lo'rath saw a flash of his sister's scales on the floor beneath the balcony.

Peering over, Lo'rath saw Sha'krii striding down the hall, an uneven stepping motion as she staggered ever so slightly on her artificial leg. Before he could even form any thoughts of his guilt concerning her return and history, her eyes wandered upwards.

Locking eyes, Lo'rath's shook a bit, whilst hers simply gazed in a steely way at him. Frowning slightly, Sha'krii strode on, obviously on the way to important business.

While it was an improvement, in that she was actually acknowledging his existence since he handed the throne to her, Lo'rath couldn't help but feel miserable.

His mind wandered to an alter, out in the rooftop palace garden.

Palace rooftop garden.

30 minutes later.

Staring down at the engravings on the stone alter, Lo'rath sat on the dark grass, ignoring the possible stains it might leave on his attire.

In front of him, a pair of stone carvings embedded into a 2 metre squared, upright black quartz slab, showed his father, King Le'krio He'rensk on the left, and Queen Hei'reska Cathoras on the right.

While the ceremonial graves of the Kro'nogri monarchy and royal family all were kept in the official royal mausoleum, many chose to be buried, or have their processed remains spread over areas of their choice, or if needed, their heir's choice.

His parents had always liked the gardens, so Lo'rath had them buried in the best viewing garden in the palace.

In his difficult times as King, Lo'rath had come here, hoping for some type of guidance, or reassurance that the war he was waging was just.

The irony of him being here now was gargantuan. He had been far from just, but he knew he wasn't entirely at fault. Those two scouts had fooled everyone. It still hurt him though, what had driven a wedge between his sister and him.

Lo'rath recalled the open minded, amicable but passionate female that Sha'krii had been. Many remnants of that female were still there even when she led the NKI.

Now, he didn't recognize her.

A warm breeze seemed to tickle his rear neck, and he felt a reassuring presence somehow. The twin slabs with the carvings of his parents seemed to be gazing right at him.

For once, the figures didn't seem judgemental, but reassuring.

What's more, there was hope for Sha'krii yet. Lo'rath had asked the guards to tell him if she ever came up here to see their parent's true graves.

There hadn't been a day yet when she hadn't visited.

An hour later, Lo'rath would meet again with Va'kara and Ara'kai. Ever since the war's end and their reunification, Lo'rath had been much more attentive to his family.

The bitterness installed by the war was leaving him, but he feared it might not ever leave his sister.

That same bitterness had already been seeded by his mistrust 16 years ago.

Vae'rakin, 16th June

Signing the last of the data pads for the day, Rho'kis stretched his wings and flexed his clawed fingers in relief.

Today marked more reconstruction progress reports, and requests for transfers of funding from non critical areas of the economy to more needed repair work. Already profiteers were trying to squeeze a quick sum of money from reconstruction demands, and hoarding resources.

Rho'kis was more than pleased to sign a universally agreed law, by the Alliance council and Sha'krii, to make it illegal to hoarde more than a certain number of set out units of certain resources when requested. The penalty would potentially be imprisonment and forced labour for war recovery for as long as was needed to rebuild.

Very few would end up being persecuted by this law, but it was one that nobody sane or selfless would disagree with. Only the truly greedy would be caught by this law.

A comforting presence walked in, as Leg'hrul Queen Ye'reski strode in, finished with her own meetings with Alliance officials representing trade unions willing to establish temporary emergency trade routes.

"I just finished up, but that last one was, well, not completely honest with the legitimacy of his organization's trades."

Confused, Rho'kis suddenly remembered: "Ah, the NKI former leaders, Kirth and La'kias, they contacted Alliance leaders to tell them that certain branches of the Underworld Guild are willing to offer services to help get supplies in."

"I don't like it, cooperating with criminals. And their group wasn't entirely cooperative during the Eru'lindi occupation, didn't some try to make a profit off the needed resources?"

"The NKI leaders have cut ties with those branches. In fact, the war seems to have fractured the Guild into numerous smaller groups. The one willing to help us is the largest branch left, but they know that things will be harder on them once recovery is much further along." Rho'kis explained the necessity of former criminals aiding the Alliance.

"And Sha'krii is alright with this then?" Ye'reski probed him.

"She, was one of the first to agree. She has a knack for determining who can be trusted." Rho'kis's idle comment on Sha'krii's ability to read people allowed Ye'reski to get right to a concern she'd had since yesterday:

"What happened between you and her yesterday? On that call?"

"I, tried to explain myself. Things I had to atone for, after so many years."

"You tried to what?" Ye'reski's tone raised slightly, which Rho'kis immediately picked up on:

"She was a great friend of mine before we were engaged all those years ago, and I wanted to at least set things up to be that way again. Believe me, I'm not involving myself beyond friendship with anyone other than you."

His head sagged a bit then: "Sha'krii, wasn't in agreement. She still held feelings for me until relatively recently."

"How recently?"

"Around the time after I first visited her jail cell on this planet, looking for intelligence on the NKI, and told her how she was a traitor, and that I was right to distance myself from her. She told me that she understood why I didn't trust her, but she couldn't ever forgive me for doing so. I wanted us to be friends for political, and sentimental reasons."

Ye'reski's face then fell slightly, realizing the sadness that her husband was in due to the bitterness that had infiltrated Sha'krii. And despite her distrust of her husband's former lover, she knew her distrust was purely for maintaining her mate.

A part of her truly felt sorry for the now hard edged Kro'nogri queen, the first cost of the war. She'd lost her father, was exiled, and mistrusted by everyone. And now, when everyone wanted to make amends, she was too embittered to let anyone in.

It wasn't the Sha'krii Rho'kis had fallen for, and Ye'reski was not selfish enough to wish the real Sha'krii never came back. But truthfully, little evidence showed to promise the original, kinder Sha'krii's comback.

17th June 2902

Ki'ristalis, shared apartment.

Footage of the Eru'lindi city crisis and uprising had been understandably limited during the war trial investigations. However, some that had recorded their own footage were now uploading their recordings to the data net, as the embargo was gradually lifted as war trial investigations carried on.

Eventually, footage reached across the UIP and Alliance data nets.

As it turned out, there had been a massive video footage collection released only recently, recorded by a collection of numerous civilians present inside Eru'lindi city during the crisis.

Once such civilian was a female Kro'nogri youth, Hu'nura, who bore witness to a very close quarters combat situation.

The other was even more surprising, as no one knew Soundwave had access to every public security sensor in the city at the time. Apparently the Decepticon had a penchant for online videos, and liked to complete video collections of events to present the full picture.

On screens across the galaxy, where it was widely known the fate of certain involved individuals, the public watched the last minutes of the war in a mostly abridged format. All the while, the UIP CIB were analysing the events of the Eru'lindi battle to establish the truth across the multiple fronts, and the fates of certain people.

The footage of crowds either fleeing or fighting the rogue Decepticons was patchy and rough, but other footage was clear. A distant, but zoomed in view of the southern mag train freight yards showed Starscream facing Incinerator, whilst Fracture engaged the NKI members Xale, Azula, Ja'hail, Kirth and La'kias, along with Zir'leth.

The more interesting fight however, was involving Tyrania, Blackout, Aru'san, some Decepticon drones, a mass shifting Alex, and Kal'sik and his forces.

On screen, the Deceptico femme reeled and fired her cannon, trying to hit the fast moving human. But all the while he kept up, though her greater size made it more equal a fight.

In other footage, Konurich station was eventually regained control of by the non rogue Decepticons and NKI members.

A later footage reel showed the incapacitated Tyrania being murdered by Alex, when Kal'sik had secured her. For public censorship, the pictures were often blurred to the public in places, but not to analyst groups. Immediately, it was obvious that Alex wasn't in a right state of mind. At blinding speed, purposefully uncaring of his fate, he attacked Alliance soldiers left and right, but not before Kal'sik finally disabled his mass shifters, and knocked him out with a stun blast.

Sure enough, the 4 friends, with Lanver having being sent an uncensored version by Krith and Jarothes, right from the CIB analyst archives with special permission [benefits of stopping Zoran's final attempt on their lives].

A news article outlining the punishment due for the ones convicted during the Ga'drak war trials was highlighted by Trion, whose 13 foot, largely unchanged yet smaller frame was still a novelty after just over 3 weeks.

"15 years? And with Kal'sik? I don't believe it." Qui'rinth commented.

"I think he got off easy, I'm actually surprised they didn't execute him." Lanver commented.

"Why would they? Sha'krii came to power because of his and other's actions revealing Zoran's dealings. Plus, the Alliance wouldn't want their poor reputation ruined by executing a war hero." Sru'sky countered.

"But what about his public opinions? They don't fully trust him, given his proven mental instabilities." Trion reasoned.

"The public knows he did good, and in ending this war, he's got nothing left to prove to anyone." Qui'rinth was only now realizing the extent to which Alex had been willing to go, and appreciated him for it.

Though she would forever be among those that didn't fully trust him, and with My'kris, she had good reasons. He may not have been fully in control, or following his own will, but how he acted wasn't justified there in her mind.

It was a bridge not just between him and her, but from him to the others in the room with her that would never truly be fully rebuilt, even under the best of lives after the war.

Looking around, Qui'rinth remembered how she had met the other 3 here, and their one friend thousands of light years away in the Alliance's galactic arm fringe territory. Sru'sky and Alex had arrived in those underground gladiator pits in fear, while Trion had been there with her. Lanver, and Mir'misnk as Qui'rinth painfully remembered, had joined them at the Fro'sian academy.

Now, 8 years and 4 months after the 6, now 5 had met, and 6 years 6 months after the war first started, they had a more peaceful future to look forward to, all 5 of them having distinct reputations to carry with them into the foreseeable future.

Deep down though, and Qui'rinth knew that Lanver understood more than they did, and Sru'sky was most pained by this, she wished that Alex had never been dispatched on that lone mission 4 years and 3 months ago. He may not have been captured and turned into a KI recruit, and did all the things he did.

A UIP President killed, a Pirate base massacred, her torture and team's murder on My'kris, his own stepfather's death and Eywa's torture. Then, the bombardment of Mars. Now, the questionable actions of fleeing with a large portion of the KI fleet, sabotaging and destroying much of the rest of the fleet in the Teranthos nebula, the Varya insurrection, and during his NKI days he began to truly lose his grip on identity, morality and self control.

While things may have been worse had Alex not been captured and turned, Qui'rinth knew for a fact that he, their friend, had perhaps never come back that day, nor in any of his clone bodies. A more secret document released to them personally by Krith and Jarothes showed his outbursts in the Ga'drak trials showing his self identity in tatters, as he had been given memories of Alex like Xale and Lexa, but only thought he had been Alex because he was told he was, and that he no longer knew.

Knowing this conflict he himself was going through, the 4 of them had all personally been considering, as they looked to the future, whether Alex had actually survived the war, or whether he had actually died before Mir'minsk had.

It would remain a deeply personal, unanswered question of the war to them, even as they explored their future careers, relationships and an era of rebuilding and cooperation.


Ki'ristalis

From the desk of the head of statistics analysis of the CIB.

Date: 20th June 2902

Addressed to: CIB Head [Former Chief Zoran's replacement], to be released galaxy wide in conjunction with Alliance statistics reports.

CASUALTY REPORT AT WAR'S END

Note: Reports have been cross referenced with Alliance reports for accuracy.

Data compiled suggests the following projected statistics of the war, with a 4% average margin for error:

Casualties:

UIP: : Casualties/% of pop/original

[billions]

Cybertronian :2,309,010 / 2.124% / 0.108 b

Grey :25,439,920 / 0.022% / 115.636 b

Human :158,537,435 / 0.180% / 136.118 b

Klingon :190,068,900 / 0.210% / 90.509 b

Na'vi :80,040,400 / 0.110% / 72.764 b

Predator :44,328,240 / 0.096% / 46.175 b

Sril'sask :10,440,000 / 0.060% / 17.400 b

Romulan :45,022,800 / 0.040% / 112.557 b

Vulcan :25,731,720 / 0.036% / 71.477 b

Alliance:

Leg'hrul : 158,924,400 / 0.12% / 132.437 b

Kro'nogri : 507,611,600 / 0.19% / 267.164 b


This isn't the final chapter, one more is to come, wrapping up one plotline/character that appeared right at the very beginning of this 4 story arc.

It shall also set up one last plot checkpoint where I can pick it up a few years later if need be.

Stay alert for the last chapter of this story.

As usual, I would appreciate reviews/feedback, especially as I'm planning a different story [different intellectual property] after this one.

If not, enjoy reading if you are. I know crossover fictions don't get the same volume of traffic as other, more normal fares do, so I make do with what I get.