"There you go, the parts and resources you requested."

"T-Thank you so much! Now our Force can get back on its feet!"

"Happy to help. See you later."

And so the kid left, running back to board his Medea transport plane freshly loaded with the materials to return to his friends. Moments after he boarded, the aircraft's engines flared and raised it into the sky, soon making it be nothing but a small dot in the clear dark blue expanse of the night sky above.

With a sigh, Serena walked back inside her little cove base, making sure to signal for her machine guards and Automatons to follow with a quick flash of her quantum brainwaves. As the large group crossed the threshold that was the stone archway, the holographic chameleon unit hid away the hole and with it her base entrance. A short walk through a rocky tunnel, and soon she came upon her hideout.

Even after so long playing GBN, it was always good to see her little corner of the world: a large room carved from the rock, surrounded by multiple lights to keep it lit, and with everything she thought would help give the appearance of a proper hideout: furniture, food stocks, a rack of personal weapons for self-defense, workshops and repair stations for the Machine Soldiers and automatons to be attended by what few Haros and Karels she had, and even a large holographic display unit with a map of the explored zones of GBN. Her two greatest prides, however, had been placed much further into the cave, yet still visible from the entrance.

One was the large Veda Type-B terminal, connecting directly to the GBN network in real time and allowing Serena to monitor a grand part of the server easily, a big help in her usual job.

After all, the famed "Phantasm Broker" Serena Durandal couldn't really use all that information if she couldn't get it.

And yet still… It all paled in comparison to the other object inside the cave, kneeling upon the cave floor and surrounded by as many floodlights as possible, with a metal shaft leading up to the hangar exit.

Almost unconsciously, Serena walked the entire way towards the Mobile Suit, her steps echoing softly on the metal floor as she approached the Gunpla and laid one hand over one of its feet. Just as expected, the feeling of cold metal graced her fingers, shooting up her arm and all the way to her chest.

The Gunpla itself was proof of her growth, of her skills as a builder. Long she had spent building and re-building the kit, adding and removing parts from so many different Gunpla until she reached the current form, the one she had decided to keep for four years now. She remembered how she had scrounged for those Kimaris Vidar' shoulder shields out of a parts bin box, how her friend had gifted a few upgrade parts that she had yet to install and now were stashed away on a container inside the base, and even that the white-and-black paintjob had come as a suggestion from her mother to keep it simplistic but striking… All of it cobbled together into the very first Gunpla she had ever purchased to celebrate her first birthday alone: a 1/144 High Grade IBO Gundam Hajiroboshi.

This… Was her Gunpla. Her Gundam. Her trustworthy companion and symbol of strength in the world of GBN, who had seen her through so many trials and tribulations, even the Coalition War so long ago…

And yet… It had remained nameless. She had yet to grace it with a name of its own, a word to call it. It forever remained simply the Gundam Hajiroboshi… It was a thought that irked her so much.

A sigh escaped her lips, and Serena turned pace away from the Gunpla, only to catch her… No, her avatar's reflection on mirror off to the side. Just like her Gunpla, her hair was white with black highlights, with two horns peeking just lightly from underneath the bangs of the large mane on her head. The well-toned figure of the digital construct was just slightly hidden by the black A-LAWS uniform she had taken to wearing, the artificially created muscles pushing the fabric tight by the slightest amount. From her back jutted the three Alaya-Vijnana whiskers she had chosen to integrate into her avatar, a dangerous risk considering the myriad of permanent debuffs she could have been saddled with had the RNG failed her. And of course, the nebula-like eyes marking her as an Innovator still shone, though she quickly blinked away their glow and returned them to their "natural" red color, their natural shine only slightly undercut by the large X-shaped scar upon her face.

She still remembered the time she met a veteran Force who had requested intel from her, and had voiced their surprise of the many stacked buffs she had gotten. And as politely as she could, Serena had made clear that it was not that great.

Sure, she had an Alaya-Vijnana system, but it was only after gambling on the 30/70 ratio of success/failure of her third implant that Serena discovered the Hajiroboshi did not have an Alaya-Vijnana interface. And though she had acquired herself an "Innovation" class buff, to her sadness it had been abysmal compared to what others got: while there were some pilots around making their Gunpla teleport through liberal quantizing or sometimes even pilot their Gunpla at long range, Serena had only the baseline telepathy of Innovators. And even then, to her dismay, it was limited to an admittedly short range, and only to either machinery with specific receivers or other Innovators. Ergo, frankly quite useless, bar the interfacing with the Type-B Veda terminal.

It seemed that in the end, just like her Gunpla, Serena's avatar was but a shadow. It carried her thoughts, past, actions and (if she could be a tad bit dramatic), maybe in a way, her soul… And yet Serena knew this was not her. She was sitting in a chair in her home, with all the equipment necessary to play GBN plugged and ready, connecting her directly to this digital avatar… Just as it had been these last 4 years.

"Honestly, where am I going with this…" she muttered in a voice she knew wasn't hers, one that held the contralto of a noble woman or high nobility. With a wistful sigh, Serena removed her hand from the Hajiroboshi's foot and paced back to the living area of her base, grabbing a can of soda from the minibar on the way before moving towards the holographic table. Once she had opened the can and taken a long sip from the digitally-simulated soda, the Diver pressed a few buttons along the side of the table and brought the hologram to life, showcasing a dizzying and complex map comprised of text boxes and images all interconnected by many, many different lines.

An old hobby of hers, made in her free time when she didn't feel like running missions and had already completed whatever requests sent her way: Her very own Dark History chart.

Only, unlike the one that ∀ Gundam, this one had been tastefully updated to the current modern shows and iterations. Every piece of chronology, technical data, history, character information, all of it neatly organized, catalogued and compiled… Alongside the other half of it.

The Dark Theorem Tree.

Admittedly, she had been quite drunk with power when naming this part of her pet project, but its purpose was honestly fitting of the name. Whereas the History was meant to be a massive guide to all things Gundam, the Theorem Tree was instead based around alterations to the Gundam timelines.

It had begun when one day, during the monotony of not having any work to do on GBN, Serena caught herself thinking, 'what if Lalah had never died in the original show? What would have become of the rivalry between Char and Amuro?'

Several hours later, Serena found herself staring at a veritable maze of digital schematics, all of them covering potential ramifications for changes in the timelines of all the different universes.

What if Orb had never joined the Atlantic Federation forces in the Cosmic Era? What would have happened if Celestial Being had been allowed reprieve from the annihilation it had suffered at the midway point of 00? Could the Steel Seven somehow had been saved during their suicide run against Zeus' Thunder?

Day after day, she poured her thoughts over these many, many variables, putting to use her own slice of GBN's network plus some of the… "borrowed" data stream from other Forces. And with each passing day, the Dark Theorem Tree grew, until she finally reached the most recent shows.

"Still… Why did I put that much thought into this?" asked Serena aloud as she stared at the (comparatively paltry) branches related to the Reguild Century. "This is all so… Pointless. It's not like I could actually use all of this…"

"Never say never, kid!"

If this had been the real world, then Serena certainly would have had a heart attack from the sudden chorus of voices echoing just next to her. Yet when the Diver turned to its source, the most confusing and curious sight met her eyes.

Because rolling from side to side on the floor, acting as if it simply belonged here, was a large black Haro with glowing rainbow eyes, staring directly at Serena with what she could swear was an infinite amount of amusement.

"W-What… Who are you?" she asked dumbfoundedly, watching the Haro roll around the holo-table and hop onto the table, its small arms and legs popping out from beneath its ear and bottom flaps. "How did you get in here?"

"Eh, it wasn't really that hard honestly," continued the Haro as it stared at the Theorem Tree, even placing its hands on its inexistent hips for that extra touch. "Granted, it's me we're talking about here, so there's not much comparison!"

"That still doesn't answer my question. Who are you? And you better answer me, or I'm contacting the Game Masters." And as if to prove her point, she materialized the game's control interface, her finger hovering the EMERGENCY CONTACT button. "I don't care how important you think yourself to be, even you can't stop them from kicking you off the game."

Yet she didn't expect the Haro's reaction to that threat. Because rather than looking concerned or even slightly intimidated… The black Haro laughed. It laughed aloud, boastfully, and Serena could swear up and down that it seemed to echo with a dozen different tones. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Haro finally stopped laughing, and pinned Serena with its gaze.

"Hoo boy, that was great. Hilarious! But see… There's one little problem with that."

"And what's—"

That's when her voice stopped. Her entire body froze. The control interface disappeared, the power inside the cave hideout flickered violently, even her Machine Soldiers and Automatons shut down.

And standing there, with a finger pointed at Serena, the black Haro seemed to glare at her in a way that if she could move her body, would have sent violent shivers down her spine.

"You're talking like if I played by your rules. But as you can see… I'm way, way above them." With an almost flippant wave of the "Haro's" hand, Serena found herself shoved into a chair and dragged to in front of the holo-table, still unable to move her body. "Now, we're gonna talk like two civilized beings, without any empty threats you couldn't follow through on in this aeon, hm?"

If she could have replied, Serena would have. But her voice was still leashed by whatever it was the "Haro" had done. Still, the little robot did not seem to want a reply, instead simply tapping its feet onto the table, shifting the hologram of the Theorem Tree from timeline to timeline, and from assumption to assumption. "Now, let's get to this point of this little visit, shall we? See, I'm someone who loves a little chaos, an itty bit of mischief, sometimes even the slight dash of mayhem. It helps to keep things interesting most of the time, especially when you get the domino effect going. But it gets pretty boring to see your own plans doing results, you know. The surprise is supposed to be half the fun of it!"

As the tiny robot continued speaking, it raised one hand into the air, and to Serena's surprise a small black radio-like box appeared from nowhere and dropped onto the "Haro's" palm, which it then began bouncing up and down. "Then one day I thought 'Wait a minute, I can have WAY more fun if I make the chaos come from somebody else!' So I went up this scrawny blondie, tossed him over in the middle of nowhere and watched him try and survive every day. And wouldn't you know it, it was amazing! Even when I started screwing around with him a bit more, he still managed to wriggle out of it, even made it entertaining to watch!" As the "Haro" continued talking, it put the radio thing atop the table and gave it a few gentle pats, giving a seemingly affectionate stare as he turned back to Serena. "So in the end, I decided to be nice and give him a reward for actually surviving, as a little incentive to cause more chaos. And let me tell you, the things he's been doing… Hoo boy, I haven't had a laugh this good in quite some time, it's been great."

"That's where you enter, girl. See, the kid's on a break for now, and while it's fun to see him squirm for survival every day, it's not the same… Oomph as having him tell the world to go take a flying leap into chaos. Thus, the reason I'm here talking with you, hun… Oh right, your voice. Here, have it back."

And indeed, when the little robot snapped its fingers, Serena felt whatever grip had kept her vocal chords paralyzed ebb away, something that brought a modicum of relief to the Diver, even if she still couldn't move her body itself. "That… Still doesn't explain anything. Who are you, why are you here? And what does any of that have to do with me?"

"Oh look, you're just as impatient as him. Well kid, if you wanna know the 'why'… Well, I'm here to do a repeat of what I did with blondie. Aka… I'm sending you on a trip."

"… What?"

"Yup! You're gonna get to put that head of yours and this thing here to some use!" piped up the "Haro" happily as it dismissed the black radio and slammed its foot onto the holo-table, making the Theorem Tree stop cycling timelines and settle on one… Though on which, Serena couldn't tell. "Now granted, I'm being a lot more generous with your baggage for the trip than with blondie's. Because unlike with him… I'm giving you the resources up front! Everything inside this cave here, I'm letting you bring along! Because trust me, you're gonna neeeeEEEEEEEEEED them where you're going!~"

As she kept her eyes locked on the mystery invader, Serena's mind raced with thoughts. All the information the tiny robot had offered her was disjointed, like empty platitudes meant to sound like explanations while withholding the truth. It was a common tactic when Forces battled one another, making sure that you held far more intel than your opponent, misdirect them and lead to their defeat… So time to pry a bit more. "Then what would the catch be?" she asked as calmly as she could, blowing some stray hair locks away from her face.

The chuckle that came from the Haro did not fill her with confidence.

"Hehe, you catch on quick huh?" replied the bot before rolling forward towards her, giving the girl a pat on the cheek. "The 'catch' is that like the first kid… You're not getting the easy escape~ See, if you die… Well, let's just say you better be careful with your steps out there!"

And the chill of fear that dragged itself across her body after hearing that comment only made things worse. "… W-Wait…Are you saying that if I… If I die in the middle of this… I'll—"

"Be on the ground for good, no continues and no resets!" laughed aloud the intruder, the "Haro" body rolling and spinning around in eternal glee. "And sure, it might SOUND generous that I'm giving you all this stuff… But once you actually get started with your adventure, I expect a few shouts of praise aimed my way!"

If Serena had been wary or scared before… Then now she was terrified. Here she was, stuck inside a computer game, apparently taken hostage by something she only now realized was not a player or hacker, saying they'd drop her off in an "adventure"… And no sign of GM or the moderators arriving to interfere.

What would happen if she refused? Would this… Thing try and kill her? Would it simply leave her alone?

… Would it seek someone else in her place?

… And why should she refuse?

Serena didn't know why these thoughts kept looping inside her mind, but no matter arguments she tried to come up with against the "Haro's" words, none of them truly settled.

Her parents? Long she had lost touch with them, something she thought about with sadness more than once.

Work? She worked from home, chatting with her co-workers once or twice through online calls, or the rare get together they organized.

Studies? School had been done with years ago.

And GBN… She had been alone. For as long as she could remember. No Force to call her own, no allies to go on missions, no friends… Just herself, running a one-woman information ring and helping random players…

It was the clicking of metal on metal that drew the woman's attention back to the unknown intruder inside her base, who was now tapping its foot impatiently against the table. "Well, what's it gonna be kid? Time's ticking, I got places to be!"

"… I'll do it."

If only by a bit, Serena surprised herself with how fast she replied, all things considered.

Then again, more than once some of her co-workers said she was impulsive.

"Took you long enough, huh?"

"Alright then… So how am I getting there?"

And for what was to be the last time for a long time, Serena heard the "Haro" laugh aloud.

"Oh, you silly girl… You're already there~"

The lights of her hideout died immediately afterward, at the same time she regained control of her body.

With her pilot instincts blaring in her head, the Diver shot upright and scanned her surroundings, just as the emergency lighting kicked in and bathed the entire cave in red, her Machine Soldiers coming alive and quickly grabbing rifles from the weapons rack—

… Wait a second… Those were simply cosmetic. How could they…

…

With sweaty palms and the echoing of her heartbeat in her ears, both of which she quickly realized were impossible for GBN to simulate, Serena slowly paced towards the exit of her cave, her steps echoing through the darkened tunnel as she approached the mouth of the cavern… Which was no longer hidden by the holographic camouflage, and from which heated air was wafting into the cave.

And when Serena crossed the threshold, she found herself blinded by the glare of sunlight beaming down from on high and buffeted by surprisingly hot and arid winds, both of which she knew weren't possible in the mountain surrounded by forest that her base had been hidden on. But now, as her vision cleared, Serena saw what her surroundings had become: Red deserts and mountains as far as the eye could see, with blue and yellow skies above, and the faint image of twin deformed moons hovering above.

The sight of which drove Serena to drop to her knees, even as the now-armed Machine Soldiers thundered towards her with rifles at the ready and surrounded her in a tight perimeter.

"… M-Mars? I'm on Mars?"

-O-

Two hours later, Serena was sitting inside her cave once again, head resting on her hands and staring down at the deactivated holo-table. The emergency lights were still on, leaving the insides of the base still bathed in red while the Haro-piloted Karels worked diligently to connect power cables and coupling to the only power source available inside the base: her Gunpla… Though in hindsight, it would be more appropriate to now call it her Gundam.

Those two hours following the Machine Soldiers ushering Serena back into the cave for her safety had been spent as productively as possible, considering the entire thing regarding finding herself in Mars: Activating the automaton units for extra security, deploying the Karels to run a check on the hideout's current state and perform necessary maintenance, try and establish some kind of connection with the wider world…

The lack of power proved to be quite an obstacle to most things, however. Thankfully, a message brought forth by a Haro presented a solution to that problem quite quickly: use the Hajiroboshi's twin reactors to power the base.

Hence, her current situation: waiting for the Karels to finish setting down the cabling from the mobile suit onto the base's electrical system, and finally get it operational again.

Still, that left time to think… Primarily, on the rest of her situation.

First was that while Serena was sure she had landed on Mars, and the fact the Ahab Reactors were still running perfectly (not to mention the "Haro's" comments about surviving being good pointers) was a fairly good clue that she had been thrown into the Post-Disaster Era… She still didn't know when she had arrived. For all she knew, the thing had sent her off to the middle of the Calamity War, or past the show's timeline and into the post-revolution period. The latter was manageable, provided Ride didn't start some kind of terrorist war against Gjallarhorn or the governments. The former… Well, she didn't look forward to trying to survive an event that erased a quarter of humanity in all of Sol.

Then again, her base hadn't been attacked by a horde of Plumas or a giant sentient machine of death. So at least there was that as a good indicator.

With another weary sigh, Serena turned to stare at the ceiling. "God dammit, how long until it's all ready…"

FLASH

"FUCK!"

"All done, all done! Lights on, lights on!"

"I NOTICED!"

Taking a moment to rub away the violent attack on her retinas, Serena growled a few times before opening her eyes again, blinking a few times to get rid of the black spots in her vision, until finally the sight of her once again fully illuminated base came to focus once more, something that brought a faint smile to her face. In the back, the Karels climbed down from atop the Hajiroboshi, now sporting dozens of cables linked to its torso, skirt armor and back, which then flowed onto the ground and around the base to power boxes and breakers.

"Home sweet home," muttered the Diver as she moved towards the kitchenette and opened the fridge, once more powered and working, pulling a sandwich and soda from within before closing the door. With food and drink now in hand, Serena moved next to her immediate goal: the Type-B Veda terminal. It was time to get some answers.

The terminal was surprisingly simplistic to utilize, provided your Diver avatar either had been given ELS enhancements or Innovation buffs, or had been made as an Innovade. Otherwise, you'd have to be a computer whiz-kid, or supplant it with something else, lest the data flow overwhelm those unprepared or unaccustomed with it.

Thankfully, this is where even her low-level Innovation came to be useful.

"Alright you lot, who's plugging in this time?" she called out aloud to the passing Haro horde as she sat down (an action that caused a jolt of pain across her back when the whiskers on her spine pressed against the metal chair), earning excited calls of "Me! Me!" from four of them specifically: an orange, a purple and two blue models, who quickly rolled over to the terminal and leapt onto it and onto the four bowl-shaped docks surrounding the translucent blue sphere that was the Veda imitation. With a nod of approval to their action, Serena closed her eyes in concentration, placing both her hands onto the Veda sphere…

And when she opened them once more, their natural red replaced once more by golden swirling nebulas as the Type-B came alive, circuitry briefly glowing rainbow as the six large monitors of the terminal turned on and ran all necessary system checks.

-ERROR. SERVER NOT FOUND. RE-CHECK GBN CONNECTION-

"As expected… Alright then, let's get to work. Your four, start searching for any kind of large network. Keep out of military-level encryption, but try to find public stuff. That's the kind of intel we need right now."

"Roger, roger!"

As expected, the GBN connection attempts were halted, replaced instead with general probing for open signals. And to Serena's surprise, she actually felt the impact of the connection on her mind.

"Guess things really ARE real this time around…" she half-muttered- half-growled under her breath as her brows creased under the stress. Thankfully, low-level as it had been, the Innovation helped with lowering the strain, and the connected Haros seemed to be doing their best to filter out the heaviest part of the digital load. Regardless, it was as if her head was being pounded by a rubber mallet, with the feeling growing stronger by the moment as she attempted to force a connection with something…

-SYSTEM LOCATED. ATTEMPTING ACCESS TO ARIADNE NETWORK-

"Come on…"

-… CONNECTION FAILED. NO ACCEPTABLE ENTRY TERMINALS DETECTED-

-SUGGESTION: UTILIZE NATIVE SYSTEM FOR COMPATIBILITY-

"Dammit…"

With another growl, Serena let go of the terminal, the headache lowering to a softer thumping in the back of her head once she did so. The Haros remained at their station however, peering at their owner with that same innocent curiosity they all apparently had programmed by default.

"Boss, boss! Are you okay, okay?"

"Yeah, just fine…" she replied as she slunk back onto her seat and turned her gaze to the ceiling. "Of course things wouldn't be this easy… Still, Ariadnes mean I was right. This is the Post-Disaster Era… Question is, where the hell am I gonna find a… Native… System…"

As her words slowly died, and the answer dawned on her mind, Serena once more sat upright, only this time her gaze turned to said solution.

Namely, the new energy source of her base.

Twenty minutes of commanding the Haro horde once more later, Serena now had extra cables running from the Hajiroboshi. Only unlike all the others, these ones were far thinner, and instead were plugged onto the Veda terminal.

With preparations made (again), Serena sat in front of the glowing blue orb once more, that she realized now seemed to faintly pulse rhythmically… Almost like a heartbeat…

She was not the only one to notice, however, considering the way her four assisting Haros also stared at the Veda orb, before turning back towards Serena, who kept eyeing the terminal with no small amount of trepidation, until finally she heaved a long sigh and reached towards the orb. "… Well… Flip of a coin, here we go again…"

A second later, she touched the terminal.

-NATIVE SYSTEM DETECTED, CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. ACCESSING ARIADNE NETWORK-

The next, blood poured out of her nose and her head felt as if it was splitting apart.

It was like a floodgate had been opened, both into the Ariadne network and into her mind. Data poured freely, only this time not even the Haros and her Innovation could help stem or control the flow, forcing Serena to grit her teeth and do her best to survive it… And unfortunately, it was a losing battle to her.

Connecting to GBN with a normal human brain and utilizing perfectly safe equipment for a fully simulated digital environment kept safely in a server was one thing. Connecting to an extra-solar information network with thousands of relays and no filtration of what to do bar brute-forcing their way in and using only their (admittedly enhanced) brain was another thing all together.

"Boss, boss! Please stop, please stop!" cried out the Haros worriedly, their ears flapping furiously as they stared at their owner, who was too busy twisting and turning out of sheer informational overload to her brain.

"Just… A bit… More…" she growled as she forced herself to remain still, her teeth grit so hard one could even hear them grinding together if they stood next to her Diver. Unfortunately, that was not the end of her problems.

-WARNING. ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURES DETECTED. POSSIBLE CYBERWARFARE ATTACK INCOMING-

"Dammit… Dammit…"

Cursing was all Serena could do, unfortunately, even as blood began trickling down the corner of her eyes and the pain in her head reached an apex that made it seem like it would explode. Like a disease, the security measures of the Ariadnes began breaking down her connection, her vision blurring and darkening as little by little, she was pushed away from the digital pipeline…

-…-

-C̸̢̛͎̠̞̪̼̞̙̱͗̓́̓́̈́̔̒̂̽̕Ō̷̡̨͇̯͈͕̟͎͓̬̪͕͌̏̆̇͆̿͐́̒̆͒̈́͐̏̍͠͝ͅU̶͍̬͗͛̽̔̾̌̃̀͘͝Ṋ̴̬͇͙͎̺̝̯̖͎̣̭̬͇̮͐̂͑̓̓̓̚͝T̶̨̝̣̖͚̹͈̬͓͖̠̀͋͆̊̿̇͒͌͐̾͌̌̉̑̄̕̕͝ͅË̸̡̘̩̹͓̣̠͒̔̔̽̚ͅR̸̛̗̯̼̼̞̓́̽̿̾͆͒͑̌̍̚̚͝Ḿ̴̡̹̳̻̰̦̩̪̦̫̖͉̤̱̓̃̈́̈́̀͆́̒́͘͝ͅE̵̠͙̫̯̾̏̋̅͋̓̀̌̈̈͘͘A̴̡̫̰̟̽̈̀̈́̏̀̋͋̍̃̆̏̕͝͠S̸̺͑̏̀U̶͖̹̙͙̔̓̓̈́͂̎̂̊͋̋R̴̬͍̮̆̎̈́͗Ę̸̰̪̺̟͚̰̍̑́̄̔̿́̂̆̆̇̓̔̀̔̿̕S̴̢͙̭̎͊̀̿̈́̽̐̀̂̃̏͛̿̀̌̕͘͠ ̸̢̡͍͉͈̬̝͌̆͐̐̾͂͒̿͐͘͝Í̸̹̹͔N̸̨̪͈̪̞̥͚̯͈͒͊͒̊̌̎̈́̎͠Į̸̛̘̜̦̦̥̼̹̑̌̆̍́͑͂͒̀͆́̈́̚͜͜T̷̢̛̝̙̤͗̀͛̐́̇́̈́̈́̂̀̎̒͝Ỉ̴̡̛̜̖̟͙͎̅̏̐̈́̿̃̆̋̎͆͑̚̕͠ͅA̷͔̲̪̿̈́̆̈͂̑͘̚T̶̡̛͔̱͍͉̔̌̐͊̑̓͒͘̕E̵̢̨̨͈̬̩̬͎̙̙̜͇̻̥͍̟̣̾͆̄͋̆̎͋͒̌͂̍͑̋Ḑ̷́͊̔̑̀̈̍̋̕̕̕̕͠͝.̷̧̨̧̛̺̝̤̳̖̤̩̍́̄̒̏̓́̚̕̚͜-

-S̴̨̨̨̺͔͉̪͎̟̝̘̆̊͑̅̑̆̄̂͐̈́̕͘͜͝ͅẢ̶̛̛̭͍͎̖̻̘̲̤̪͖͔̼̺̑̓̋̓̿̎̏̉̄͜F̸̨̧̖̲͈̳̳͚̲̞̝̗͍̟̲̜̜̋̏͗̈̔̀̐̓̚͜Ẻ̸̛͇̗̺̘̬̪̘͋͐̄͑́̓͋̔̿̑̓͜͝G̵̡̛̯̻͉̣̣̟̞͉̰͌̋̈́̏̆̉̅̃͐́̂͐̾̚̚͘͘͘͝͝Ų̸̣̘̘̗̔̈́͝A̵̛̭͇͈͚͋̎̾̏͛̾̍͒̒͛̒̑̀͝R̵̢̻̗̈̀̎́D̶̨̛͔̦̟̹̩̮͈̼͕̦̘̦̤̋̇̃͑̽̂̌̇͒͆̋̄́̇̉̚͜͠͝͠ ̸̣̮̠̓̾͌̄̀̍̌̆͛͆́͂͠T̸̢̧̧̛̗̖̟̺͎̼̥͚̩̝̯̾͛̍͛͛͆̐͒̏̈́̾̚H̶̢̪͖̦̜̫̱̞̮̲̖̯͍͓̪̯̖̃͂͐E̷̘̩̣̳͑̇̓̾͌̓̔̾͗̀͘̕͜ ̴̡̺̗̄̏̐̀̃̊̀͊̍P̷̳̝̠͋̓̉͋̓͌́̔͗I̷̡̦̮̦̠̜͚̦̼͉̫̱̤̼̣̓̀͊͒̍̿̃́̀́̋̉ͅL̶̢̦͙̬̖͉̯͇̱̤͖̟̮̭͎̀̏͊̔̇̈̓͋͒̐̄̃̓͒̓̓̊͜͠͠ͅͅƠ̴̠̊́͗͛̎͋̎̔͌̅͝Ţ̸̪̯̹̹͉͍̦͎̯̮̤͓̮̖̫̞̂̿̈́͊̉̈́́̃̇͊̕͜͠ͅ-

Only for it to end in an instant.

Like a jolt of electricity ran through her body, Serena was throw away from the Veda terminal, a gasp escaping her lips as she tumbled to the floor, chair and all. Her head was spared any blows, thankfully enough, but the jab of pain from her Alaya-Vijnana whiskers hitting the ground compensated well enough, unfortunately. Still, such a thing had a mostly fortunate side-effect: drawing Serena's attention away from the splitting headache she was suffering, and onto the real world once more.

"Gah… Fuck, that… Hurt…" was all the Diver could mutter through the lingering haze of pain as she wiped away the blood from her face and eyes, the latter slowly losing their nebula glow as she forced her Innovation to recede and helping the lower the pounding in her brain.

The biggest question of course was, had it worked…?

"We did it, we did it! Mission accomplished!"

And indeed, when Serena finally stared up at the screens of the Veda terminal and to the now-undocked Haros who had lined the edge of the terminal to watch over her, what greeted her was not empty monitors or texts detailing failure, but instead scrolling lines of code, mapped trade and shipping routes and even dozens of different news articles and channels.

Chief of which was the main newsreel, proudly showcasing a young girl with cascading blonde hair and brilliant violet eyes as she performed an impassionate speech to a gathered crowd of protesters amidst the streets of a rural-looking town surrounded by red mountains.

To the many citizens living in this planet, Kudelia Aina Bernstein was a beacon of hope and a symbol of change. Truly, a maiden of revolution.

But at this moment, to one Serena Durandal… She was more than that.

"… Heh… Heheheheh… Hahahahahah! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

To the woman whose words would soon echo like thunder and gunfire across Sol, Kudelia was a sign that the iron flower that never wilts had yet to bloom, and could still be saved.

And yet still, as the ex-Diver collapsed laughing into unconsciousness, and was quickly tended to by medical Automatons, Haros and Machine Soldiers, one thought had yet to cross her mind.

Namely… Just what had saved her amidst the Ariadne network.

Had she been awake still, she would have seen the screens of the terminal flash a strange, arcane sigil for the briefest of moments… And would have heard a low, humming groan from the back of her base.

-O-

Two months later…

It was a day like any other in Mars. Yet again protestors had gathered upon the streets of the capital, carrying placards and megaphones as they shouted their wishes to the impassive wall of police officers and Gjallarhorn troops standing guard all around them, Mobile Workers parked in their midst with their guns menacingly at stand-by, alongside news vans with their crew covering the entire event. Even giant monitors and TVs had been set up to allow the leaders of the protest to speak to all corners of the mob at once, while in homes both in Mars and Earth, civilians and military alike watched as yet another demonstration rose, one of many ever since the Noachis July Assembly.

That is, until across Sol, monitors and TVs began flickering, the image they displayed distorting and breaking… Before being replaced with a lone figure sitting in front of a metal table.

A figure draped in a black cloak with runes embroidered in gold around its edges, heavy black leather gloves, a featureless ebony mask with two long horns rising from its forehead and two eye holes… That allowed all to see the golden, swirling nebula-like eyes of the figure.

"Greetings, to all of Sol," spoke the figure, their voice distorted and garbled into a deep electronical bass. "Apologies for this interference. Let it be known that I stand in solidarity with the wishes of those who fight for freedom to Mars, but to use the coverage would be the best way to have my words reach all of the people. But alas, let us proceed to introductions."

"My name is Solomon… And I come bearing wisdom to all."

~O~

Here we go, delivered.

So indeed, first chapter of that IBO fic I mentioned brainstorming with Xomniac, and will be replacing "Meister of your Future". This one will have a brighter tone than the far more dour and dark one "Meister" had… But well, this is still IBO, so expect the usual brutality c:

And as a result of such brainstorming, I ended up asking permission to borrow a certain someone to have ourselves the isekai-ing justification.

In case you haven't seen it yet (something that I'd find surprising considering how much bigger they are compared to me in the community), do go check out "This Bites!", the One Piece SI fic that inspired me back into writing. Here's the link www. /s / 11515678 /1/ This-Bites (Hopefully the link doesn't get blasted into oblivion). It's where our ROB came from!

Or well… Where our BROB came from. *dabs*

… I'm gonna be struck by lightning any second now.

Anyway, this done, time to work in Titanomachy! And the Militia gets to interact with the GAR and aliens. What could possibly go wrong!

Spoilers, the Coliseum is appearing c:

'Til then, everyone, stay safe!