A/N: Shockingly, I haven't died or abandoned this fic! I just suffered from probably the worst case of writers block and general lack of motivation in my life for the last... year and a half or so. I can't promise any sort of regularity going forwards, but I will at the very least promise this. I will finish this fic. Anyone who was surprised to get this update, I hope you enjoy because hooo boy was it a struggle to write. Quality is not guaranteed but there are at least words on a screen for y'all to read.

Capital Wasteland Airspace, Near Line Ark Headquarters

17:35

23/08/2114

This battlefield was the first she had set foot on in over two weeks. This wasn't to say that the League hadn't tried to send almost a dozen mission requests in that time span. But she had simply declined to operate on their behalf anymore.

After speaking to her mother following the battle with Mary Shelley, she'd learned of the horrors committed by the League, by BFF, by her. How she had willingly danced to any tune the Corporations played, spinning intricate webs of lies to cover up any trace of atrocity.

As the CEO of BFF, her mother held considerable sway and was able to suppress any discontent amongst the League leaders regarding her situation. But the latest request was one that she couldn't overrule. It had come from the Chairwoman herself, Lorenza Capello. A direct order for all Lynx to prepare for an all out assault on the newly discovered Line Ark headquarters.

Lilium had tried to resist, she really did. But Lorenza had made a personal threat against the families of any Lynx that didn't participate. After everything that had happened, she wasn't willing to let her mother die just so that she could feel some sense of atonement.

So, with a metaphorical gun to her head, she put on the League's standard issue jumpsuit once more. Every inch of her body crawling as she did it, disgusted at the fact she was no doubt going to be forced to kill again. This time she'd be fully aware of what she was doing and who she was hurting. If that made it better or worse she didn't know, but it was like a rot in her gut, chewing her up from the inside, poisoning her.

The League hanger had been abuzz with activity, Lynx and support staff alike were rushing to and fro, check lists being ticked off, crates of ammunition carted between gantries, each with their own NEXT supported inside. Ambient had been transported over from the Queenslance the moment that Lorenza's order had been given. It stood alongside the other NEXTs for once, instead of being the usual bastion of isolation and safety.

She'd overheard several Lynx gleefully bragging about how many Ravens they had killed and if they'd be able to make a new record. They laughed, smiled, treating this like it was some kind of field trip.

Had she been like that before?

The thought made her sick, mostly because it was very well true. That she had proudly strode out onto the battlefield believing that her violence was making the world a safer, better place. Why would a child have any reason to doubt their parent otherwise? They raised you, taught you, protected you. Now she knew they lied to you, manipulated you, betrayed you.

The Lynx had been divided up between various attack paths, but Lilium had been ordered to immediately board the Venture after she was dropped onto the battlefield outside the Line Ark headquarters, to provide long-range sniper support to the League forces below.

That was where she was now, inside Ambient, standing behind a makeshift sniper position that had been built onto the Venture's main deck. It was crude, but at the end of the day it wasn't supposed to be a permanent addition to the Venture's features. Several armour plates had been bolted together and then welded to a reinforced framework to make a sort of shield that Ambient could stand behind and fire over.

Most of the enemy forces were far too busy trying to fight what was on the ground than bothering to turn their guns skywards at her, and the few that did had next to no effect against her. Even the larger bore guns on the Line Ark tanks lost the majority of their punch by the time the shell had climbed to her altitude, and HEAT shells were too slow to track a distant target accurately. So for the most part, she had been left alone, only a few shallow dents and scrapes in the shield's front facing plates indicated otherwise.

The reverse wasn't true though. While her rounds would still lose velocity due to air resistance, she wasn't fighting gravity. The laser rifle would have been too cumbersome to use in a position like this, so she'd gone with the conventional one that she'd used on her last mission.

It felt wrong to be so pragmatic even when she didn't want to do this. To be thinking, how best can I kill, when that was the very last thing she wanted.

But there were eyes on her at all times, and if there was any suspicion that she was deliberately sabotaging her mission, that would be it. So she did her job as ordered.

Lilium's rifle fire cut through MT armour and tank plating alike, their chassis not designed to carry nearly enough defensive capabilities to protect from the sort of firepower she wielded. The enemy ACs were a slightly different story. The faster moving frames were best left to the Lynx on the ground, however the large, slower frames that generally were used to carry heavy weapons onto the battlefield were much more viable targets.

They struggled to evade her fire and even if she didn't bring them down directly, she could suppress them for long enough that a friendly Lynx could eliminate them. Before, Lilium never would have gone along with such a strategy since the Lynx that landed the killing blow took the bounty on the Raven's head.

That didn't matter anymore.

It was then that the com' channel that connected her to BFF's handler crackled to life, the soft familiar voice filling the cockpit.

"Ambient, we've gotten a request from an Omer special forces team. They've encountered a new anti-aircraft battery that we didn't detect on our approach. We've already coordinated with the Venture's Captain, they will move the aircarrier to provide the correct firing solution for you. The target coordinates will be displayed on your HUD. Once you have a line of sight on the enemy, engage and destroy them. Is that understood?"

The handler words were harsh, detached, but the two of them had spoken in private and Lilium was fully aware of her situation. It was the same as her own after all. The handler was to provide operational support to her Lynx on the battlefield, if there was any indication that she was doing anything besides her job, then her family's safety could not be guaranteed.

"I understand."

She didn't need to say anymore, she didn't want to either. The less she thought about what she was doing the easier it would be to get on with it.

Beneath her, the Venture's main thruster engines rumbled to life, the slight sensation of lateral acceleration pulling her softly to the left as the aircarrier began to move.

The Venture was manoeuvering around the mountain that Line Ark housed their headquarters inside. She couldn't see what was happening directly below her, but she could hear the plasma beam projectors mounted to the underside of the Venture firing, their searing blue/white beams of light evaporating everything they touched, turning the dirt and sand into glass.

The fact that the aircarrier was even here, was a sign of just how serious the League was taking this. The Venture was their greatest asset in power projection, it let their reach stretch across the planet. Any time there was a risk of insurrection against the League, just the threat of the Venture and its legions of fighter aircraft, MTs and Lynx would be enough to stamp out any desire to rebel.

That they'd utilise it in what was likely the most risky military operation they'd ever organised? Lorenza was willing to stop at nothing to end Line Ark.

She hoped that this was a purely military installation. Lorenza and the field commanders would have absolutely no qualms in ordering their demise for simply being associated with Line Ark.

Moments later, a thermal signature flared up on her optics. Just as she'd been informed, several anti-aircraft tanks were making good speed through the dense forest around the mountain. It was likely that they'd been modified for the environment, reduced weight and higher suspension on the tracks.

Not that it'd give them any advantages in this situation.

The Venture was not a subtle presence, it's anti-gravity repulsors shifted the soil and trees below it, disturbing both flora and fauna.

In the magnified portion of her screen that displayed what her rifle optic could see, the turrets on the anti-aircraft tanks rotated towards her and a second later, the gun barrels flared as a hail of flak shells were sent her way.

Ambient didn't need Primal Armour to defend itself here. Even the metal shielding was overkill. Those weapons were designed to shred the thin skins of fighter jets and dropships, utterly ineffective in this situation.

The crosshair of her rifle drifted over the lead vehicle before she pulled the trigger, a dull thud informing her that the weapon fired before she watched the tracer sail smoothly into its target.

There was no resistance from the tank, it's armour entirely unable to stop the shell punching clean through it from top to bottom before it erupted into an explosion. The following procession stopped briefly before they started to scatter, hoping to throw her aim of.

False hope.

She fired again, and again, each shot a target confirmed destroyed. In seconds, her objective was complete, the barrel of her rifle giving off a slight heat haze, distorting the image from her primary optics.

"Handler, targets have been destroyed. The Omer special forces team can contin-"

In that instant, her communications were cut off and she was isolated from the League networks.

Before she could even make a sound in confusion, something crashed into her protective shield, ripping an enormous chunk out of it and sending white hot shrapnel scattering far and wide.

Lilium naturally recoiled back, combat experience taking over from conscious thought processes.

The shield was hit again, this time by something much more powerful and it wasn't just penetrated. It was obliterated entirely. The welds that held it together shattered under the impact and it broke away from the Venture's hull, scattering around Ambient with most of it falling over the side.

The voice that followed was unfamiliar at first, but the words it spoke betrayed the speaker.

"Nowhere to run now. I will make you take the responsibility you shirked before, even if it costs me my life!"

Mary Shelley, the former ace of BFF. The two of them had clashed months before, ending in something of a draw. Neither of them able to gain a proper advantage over the other.

But now she…

No time was given to Lilium for thinking, no time to dwell on the conundrum that she was trapped in.

The momentum of her earlier motion let her evade another shot fired at her, the shell passing through the space Ambient's head had occupied a fraction of a section before. Then she crashed onto the deck, tumbling before quickly getting to her feet in the same moment.

Her FCS had the time to calculate the firing line of her attacker, but it was unnecessary in the end because that attacker was coming to her. Making a beeline for her was the growing shape of Mary's AC, Prometheus.

Lilium didn't want to risk damaging the Venture any further. They needed its firepower to breach the hardened defenses of Line Ark's mountain base. A role, she was told, the aircarrier had played during the assault on Maxwell during the war with GA.

With that in mind, she lit Ambient's boosters and lifted off from the deck. Once she was up, she angled the boosters to propel her forwards, towards the approaching enemy.

"Then you're throwing away your life, because that was never my responsibility to carry!"

With those words she pushed the throttle as far as it would go, turning her advance into an outright charge.

It wasn't exactly standard battle procedure for two long range specialists to immediately throw themselves into each other. But the two of them had now abandoned the roles given to them by their commanders. This was a grudge match… Or perhaps, the clashing of a grudge against the rejection of injustice.

Lilium would never accept the blame for something that wasn't her fault, Mary would never accept that the death of her family was her fault.

They were both correct, both of them believed in something that was true.

Their enemy should have been the Corporations. Their enemy was the League, was Lorenza and everything she stood for.

They should have been bound by their betrayals and by the blood spilt by their hands.

They should… But that was a path not taken.

The two of them turned their grievances, their resolve, their violence against one another.

Lilium threw Ambient to the side, thrusters burning in a flash to avoid a shot fired by Prometheus' sniper rifle. She countered with a hail of rounds from her own but the moment the magazine was dry, she cast the weapon aside instead of reloading.

While this might be a battle between snipers, Lilium didn't see this turning out like some classical duel with eyes glued to telescopic scopes.

That was confirmed when Prometheus didn't back off for a following attack, instead evading her short fusilade and firing with the assault rifle in her other hand.

The two of them touched down on the ground at the same time, barely a hundred metres apart. Neither of them acknowledged the chaos around them now that they'd moved back over the main battle in the meantime. MTs shot and hacked away at each other, missiles screamed through the air, but the only thing the two of them could focus on was each other. Mary's voice was harsh as it crackled over the cockpit speakers.

"You're nothing but a coward! You can't even carry the weight of what you've done, yet you have the gall to stand here and say it's not your responsibility?!"

"I do! Bec-"

Mary didn't give her the chance to speak, her OB was lit seconds after Prometheus stopped falling. The AC flash stepped forward and struck her with the barrel of its sniper rifle as if it were a sword.

If Mary's aim had been worse, or perhaps Lilium's luck a little better, the barrel would have struck armour plating and likely done little more than dent it or the barrel could have shattered under the stresses.

Instead it completely bypassed Ambient's PA field and connected with the unprotected limb joint of the AC's right elbow. Obviously a sniper rifle barrel isn't a sword. It didn't sever the arm at the joint, but it had more than enough weight behind it to crush the intricate mechanisms that allowed the free range of movement needed to operate properly.

A primary powerline must have been crushed and shorted with another system as the small monitor to her right suddenly overloaded and blasted shards of plastic at her as the display had far more voltage driven through it than was ever meant to be there.

The smell of acrid, burnt capacitors and wiring filled the cockpit, making her eyes water.

Of course after such a blow, the rifle Mary had used was rendered useless at the same time, but Lilium had to assume that she didn't care. She'd come to the same conclusion but instead of casting her weapon aside, she just used it in a different way.

She felt stupid, but there wasn't any time for self-flagellation. Lilium threw Ambient into a full retreat, thrusters burning at their limit to put at least a little distance between her and her enemy.

"No more running, you face me here and now!"

Mary was on the offensive, unrelenting, unyielding, the manifestation of an intrusive guilt Lilium didn't believe in.

A random MT happened to cross Mary's path, Lilium didn't even have time to see which side it belonged to before the machine was cut down by a burst of assault rifle fire. No need to even wonder where the shots came from, the barrel of the weapon held by Prometheus was still smoking.

The Venture overhead threw the two of them into shadow as Mary opened fire, the muzzle flash giving her AC the appearance of moving in blinks.

Neither of them were equipped for fighting in these close quarters. At best the two of them could treat their off-hand assault rifles like submachine guns but it wasn't an ideal solution. Any rational pilot would have broken contact, done what they could to put distance between themselves and their target to better utilise the tools at hand.

But neither of them were rational at this point.

Lilium boosted forwards instead, throwing caution and common sense out the proverbial window.

Does defeating her mean that I'm right? Or that she was ever wrong in the first place?

She could spend the rest of her life deliberating that point but she would never have the time to find an answer that would give her peace. Instead she had to make do with the mere moment she was given to strike.

She didn't have nearly long enough to see if that moment was enough. The two of them collided with a deafening crash, metal grinding against metal as armour plating buckled and tore itself apart.

Everything on her monitor became a blur of sky, earth, sky, earth as Ambient went tumbling to the ground. The arm that had previously been disabled by Mary broke away at the damaged joint, spinning off into the chaos that still surrounded her.

Eventually everything came to a standstill. She sat in silence for a moment to catch her breath. The cockpit was intact, no breaches as far as she could see. The PA field had understandably collapsed but appeared to have done its job in mitigating damage from Prometheus' rifle fire. After a brief cursory check of core systems, Lilium was able to put Ambient back on its feet. But she knew if she was up, there was every chance that Mary was too.

Ambient's head scanned around, the rifle in its remaining hand following along, but she couldn't see another Armored Core standing with her.

Even the battle around them had died out to some degree. No longer the writhing, disordered melee that the two of them had landed in the middle of, but more a loose collection of skirmishes fought between 3 or 4 MTs and infantry squads.

It took her almost a minute to find Prometheus in the dust and smoke. It was motionless, lying on its back with the front of its core torn up and blown open.

Lilium kept the rifle barrel pointed at the fallen AC, but as the seconds ticked by, it became clear that there was no need.

The channel that had been opened between them by Mary had closed. She couldn't see into the cockpit, but she didn't need to.

The former ace of the Bernard and Felix Foundation was dead.

Her life taken by the person she hated most.

Lilium's mother was speaking but she didn't want to hear her voice. She didn't want to hear anything anymore.

She switched off her com' system entirely, cutting herself off from the world outside her cockpit. A familiar pain built in her chest and throat, one she wished she could stop but knew it wouldn't.

Mary never found justice or peace, she lived the life she could, the life that the world allowed her to live. When that was taken from her, she burned with such rage that she must have known how this would end.

Any chance of a future, understanding or resolution had died with Mary and now she was left alone in a world of cruelty and spite with the blood of thousands on her hands.

The tears falling from her eyes burned, a bitter combination of guilt and sadness rolling down her cheeks.

More than anything, Lilium wished she had fought harder to not fight. To not take the easy way out and lash out with violence.

Too late for wishes when your dreams are dead.