Sisters' Lane Part 2
Tester sized up the wild-haired woman who gave her a deathly glare. "I'm actually disappointed that you came," she said with a sigh. "However, this speeds up the process of things greatly," she said once she got over the human-like emotions of anger that seeded within her.
The doppelganger huffed her breath sarcastically. "When have I ever expressed that your opinions about me mattered? I'll say this once, release her or die where you stand!" E-2 raised her bow toward the Siren. Her dark eagle looked taken aback by her declaration of wanting to save the eagle union carrier but got into position nonetheless.
The yellow eyes of the Siren flared up with rekindled rage. "Why do you even care!? She's the sister of the one woman who you want to kill the most! You should have come here to find your purpose as you join me in ushering it along."
The confliction seeded itself into the mind of the carrier. To what end did she want as a conclusion? even though it was all going to end with the one singular ending she yearned for. "Step aside..." she dangerously accentuated her words like blades meant to cut her opponent down mentally.
Tester huffed and moved forward. "No, because I know that this isn't you. The real you... would never care about this pathetic girl. In fact, you would be the one doing the killing." She appeared to want to say more, but there would be time for that soon.
The doppelganger felt an uneasy feeling in her balance from those haunting words. "What does that even mean?"
"It means—Khh… let me ask you this instead. Why do you hate Enterprise?" Proclaimed the wicked Siren with arms crossed.
"Because she's the source of all my agony. I hate her almost as much as I hate you lot." Her heart resonated with that truth that made her steadfast. Some might say it was sickening, but to her, feeling sure of a singular truth made her strong compared to how unsure she felt with various other things like Hornet, her weapons, and herself as a person.
"Yes, that's exactly the reason but why?" Sinisterly said the Siren with a happy smile that boarded on sadistic.
"Because... because..." She made a sound of discomfort and her head started to ring with the pain she was all too familiar with.
Her eagle inspected his owner as she appeared to be in mental pain, unable to even keep giving the Siren the deathly glare that she was known for.
"Your memory is fragmented yet your body remembers all the pain, all the countless deaths. All because of her."
Something that the white-haired Siren had said had invoked the briefest of faded memories to flash across her tortured mind like lightning. "All the deaths...?"
The sadistic smile on Tester's face did not waver. "And I'm not talking about the endless culling of poor faceless pawns. I'm talking about your deaths."
The doppelganger widened her eyes and took a step back as her heart started to beat faster.
Tester smiled wickedly and joyfully continued. "What? Don't tell me you haven't tried making sense of your nightmares now?"
The doppelganger recoiled, showing visible anger and shock at Tester's knowledge about her. "I... shut up, I don't care!"
"But you do. It must eat away at you that these horrific nightmares plague your mind every time you close your eyes. But they are needed; they are, after all, your memories."
E-2 exhaled softly. While her emotions were like a whirlpool of mixed feelings, she found solace in that confirmation of the topic that she danced around. The reason for that was that she didn't want to face it head-on.
Tester turned her smile into a bored frown. "Hmm... by your expression, I can tell that you had your suspicions but chose to ignore them as they weren't relevant to what your desire is."
"It still isn't," boldly stated the injured carrier.
"I see. Well, then how about we discuss where you come from. Does a dark sea ring any bells?"
The white-haired carrier squinted her eyes in pure anger, and she gnashed her teeth. "Enough! What are you hoping to accomplish? Yes, you know about me as a person along with my past, so what? My past means nothing to me."
Tester rolled her eyes and lifted a pale finger toward Hornet. "Yet you cling onto it like a helpless kitten looking for her mother."
The doppelganger glanced at Hornet and softened her hardened gaze at the undeniable truth to the Siren's words. "Then tell me... isn't that what you want? For me to remember?"
The Siren took a pleading stance, feeling like she made some headway. "Yes, that is exactly what I want. I want you to understand. Understand that all your pain and sacrifice you endured had meaning—a purpose after all. You can keep up that jagged exterior, but I know that you yearn for an identity. That can only be given once you learn who you are... Observer."
A gasp was heard from Hornet that made E-2 insatiably curious to that name.
The lack of shock did not go unnoticed by Tester who looked displeased. "Really? That didn't invoke anything within you?!"
"Observer?! Did you lose a screw or something?" Aggressively shouted the blonde captive.
"Shut up! Your role in this does not extend to this topic, you maggot," she fired back with intense yellow eyes.
"Observer..." Uttered the doppelganger to herself. There was nothing but emptiness to those words that made her feel cautious about what sinister gain her enemy had before her. She had been lost in deep thought that it just reached her that the Siren had viciously insulted the blonde.
Tester ignored the dagger stare from the doppelganger and moved on. "No matter. That only means that the truth is only buried deeper. The reality is... you are a Siren, and not just any small fry but the Observer herself reincarnated."
"No... shut up. Stop making up things! I could never be like you!" Shouted the archer, clearly more offended than she's ever been.
"Yes... you are not entirely like us now, but you once were, and you can still be now. Think—how was I able to send the coordinates to this place to you? And how was I able to project my image where only you could have seen me?"
A scared horrifying pair of eyes now replaced the dagger stare as the doppelganger truly felt lost with trying to find a valid explanation.
Tester continued forward. "That… adorable eagle you got there. Was he the one that helped you spring your escape? My... I wonder how you two could have pulled that off... such miracle would have required a level of coordination and communication," she said audaciously.
A memory flashed into her mind, the memory of that loud swordswoman claiming that she saw her with yellow eyes. "Stop. Just stop..." she said as her head started to throb at the revealing calamity that was unfolding before her.
"Ask that bird of yours. While you may have forgotten your origins, that rogue AI sure hasn't. Well, former AI now that it breathes, sleeps, and craps now," she rudely stated.
E-2 and her bird viciously frowned at Tester's insult. However, it briefly stopped the more pressing issue that became evident when the archer gave her eagle an interrogating look. The dark eagle picked up on the spotlight that shined on him, and he lowered his head down without uttering a single cry. He didn't need to say anything as his docile reaction said enough. "Why aren't you shouting at me for believing this garbage?! I... I... "
"Embrace it, Observer. You traded tentacles for a feathered AI. Why? Well only you would know fully... and that pisses me off."
"Don't listen to her! Observer was destroyed during the last major Siren battle—my sister made sure of that!" Shouted Hornet.
"Ugh… you really do have such a loudmouth," Tester insulted. She turned her head back to the archer and lifted her hand. Within her hand, a yellow construct of light that looked to resemble a wisdom cube appeared. "Do us both a favor, do not fight the waves of the past while they bathe you in your rebirth." Tester's yellow eyes activated brightly that made the archer unknowingly flinch. A part of her felt like she should know what that meant.
Just then, a black and yellow stingray shot out from the water behind E-2 and latched itself around her body, completely ensnaring her.
Hornet's panic shouts were drowned out.
Her dark eagle detached himself from her shoulder before he too was trapped. Unfortunately, it didn't amount to too much as Tester created a transparent orb around him with the activation of her eyes again.
"Let's keep you grounded for now," she happily said as the sphere floated on the water like a beach ball while the dark eagle desperately attempted to claw out of it.
The doppelganger struggled to break free, but with the added pressure from the stingray's hug, her bandaged arm was being abused that kept her from using her full strength. Whatever this machine-like creature was, it also hindered her from giving the command for her fighter planes to launch.
The sound of water being split apart drew her attention as Tester had closed the gap.
E-2 was ready to evade any stab that she anticipated, however, whatever construct of light that Tester had shoved toward her face felt like an actual flashbang. Her vision turned white, and then a hot searing pain coursed throughout her head. All the blood rushed upward, and her knees grew fragile as if she was a puppet on strings.
What she saw next was hard to describe. It felt like a movie reel with various images flashing rapidly. They were either memories, visions, or nightmares. Regardless, they processed into her brain like data, invading all corners of her mind. All those fragmented memories that clawed at her mind and all the odd nightmares started to make sense as more and more images forced their way into her.
"Ah!" Her shouts pierced the sky, causing her bird to try even harder to break free from his spherical prison.
Hornet struggled with her bindings as she witnessed the doppelganger being in immense pain. "Stop!"
"Now why would I do that?" Said the Siren happily.
"Get out of my head!" Shouted the carrier with gritted teeth while also trying her hardest to break out of the iron grasp of the stingray.
"Hmph, no one is in your head. Nothing but forgotten memories being reunited." Tester leaned forward, intrigued at what would happen next.
E-2's eyes burned brightly yellow that even Hornet was able to see them beaming like a lighthouse light.
Tester glanced at Hornet who looked petrified in despair by the eyes she was seeing before looking back at the archer. "Now do you see? That you were always one of us from the very start? Even before you were given life and imprisoned in flesh and bone. You have always been one of us."
She had a brief window when the images ceased. Her stomach felt like it wanted to toss all contents out and she keeled over in the form of a crouch without fully hitting the water. It was that moment that she witnessed her reflection looking back at her with horrified yellow eyes. "I'm... I'm..." Her mind mentally shut down all her senses as they became numb to her surroundings and the world around her. Instead, they were channeled to the new onslaught of images that began to invade her mind that made her feel as if she was reliving them again.
Being burned, carved, pulled apart, bled out, dismembered, shot repeatedly… etc. It went on like a horrendous greatest hits of all her agony and torment.
The world around them grew calm again, including the dark eagle who had run himself spent trying to break free.
E-2 remained like a statue in a kneeling position, her head looking up into nothing. Only the sounds of her gentle breathing and her radiating yellow eyes were indicators that she was still alive.
Tester moved her hand across the archer's line of sight yet did not elicit any reaction. "Can you still hear me? Hmph, I'm sure you can—you're one of us after all. Allow me to add commentary to help push those memories along, my dear Observer. In the beginning, data was taken from different subjects. We wanted the best of our enemies' data—no… puppets. Yes, that's a better word. We wanted the best of our puppets' data to further the development of the Orochi. It's not a stretch to say that you were many beings rolled into one… a bit of Iron blood, Sakura Empire—pfft, we even gathered data from our own Siren pawns as well… but Enterprise's data was the riches. Far exceeding any other output in power. So rich that the black mental cube connected to the Orochi and mass-produced Siren ships prioritized her data, and suspended the data of the others for the time being. That's when version one was born, an unfiltered stream of ones and zeros that emulated Enterprise. Why you weren't even fully self-aware yet. Those enemies you faced in that dark sea, well… they were once a part of you, and you were a part of them, version zero if you like since you all resided in the mental cube. But there were complications… Enterprise's data was so rich; the black mental cube was overworking itself to the point of burnout. Not even powering the mass-produced Siren ships was enough to quell the surge of energy that was overheating it. Observer worried that if left unchecked, it would fry the black mental cube. Could you imagine the hilarity of it all? Our plans would be foiled by that Eagle Union's data before they could even comprehend the level of threat we were instilling."
Tester paused and sighed deeply. Her eyes gazed at the mentally far-away doppelganger with hate and sorrow. "That's when Observer had… the provocative plan of building a construct within the black mental cube to contain the sheer raw data of Enterprise. It wasn't enough for the black mental cube alone anymore. She used her shell, a fragment of her unique Siren profile… or soul… I guess, to create a living digital host to take in the data. That's you, version two—improved and repurposed as a Siren without a physical body, and only existing in a digital world. The host took in and optimally channeled Enterprise's data while the black mental cube reactivated the other data and recycled it into battle encounters for the new host within it. With that dynamic, we were able to generate power at a more relaxed level instead of having to rely on more puppet data farming. That's when version three was born, which is also you," she said the last part with mild annoyance.
Inside the mind of E-2, everything started to resurface. All the deaths, the countless days wandering the dark sea, and the lost hope for what motivated her to keep going were now back in center stage.
"Release her," commanded the Siren as the mechanical stingray removed itself from the body of the mentally scarred archer and vanished underneath the water. "Now do you understand? You are the continuation of Observer. I cannot fathom why she chose to use herself as a shell templet when any random fresh programmed Siren would have been viable. Version three was a mistake. Instead of the shell of Observer repurposing the data of Enterprise into her makeup, you fell deeper into the data of that Eagle Union. You quickly became the embodiment of her worst fears of herself; a pathetic self-proclaimed machine that only fights and fights. Yes, that was the plan, but you have forgotten the mission and fell into that role too deep that it started to alter you with every death."
The doppelganger choked up and immediately returned to a state of awareness. "That's... not how it happened!" She fired back out of the blue that caused Tester and Hornet to widen their eyes.
The damaged carrier raised her head slowly and her eyes that still looked hazy soon came back to life. They no longer had the yellow glow and were back to their purple. "It wasn't a mistake. It was inevitable for me to reach this state. My first memory... was of ... staring at the woman I despise the most... Enterprise... while she touched the black mental cube..." She looked crazed while her eyes twitched, and her body jerked ever so slightly. Every part of her body wanted to independently do its own thing as if they were trying to escape the bodily connection to her brain that began to fire traumatic memories.
Tester narrowed her eyes and placed a hand on her hip. "Makes sense, you were after all the black mental cube itself in one way or another. It was so early in your development, but I can see you retaining memories of that time now that it's all coming back. Keep in mind that the likely reason that your memory was fragmented is partly that an organic brain would have trouble processing… hmm… how many years was it that you were in that simulation? Pfft, time moved a lot faster in there compared to this time stream we are in, so don't try to overthink it, Observer."
She did not say it, but her eyes agreed with the Siren as she solemnly stared at her reflection in the water.
Tester made a face at looking at the defeated carrier in front of her. "Sister..." she began to speak softly.
Both Hornet and the white-haired archer looked at the Siren without any words.
The Siren let out a triumphant smile toward the carrier. "... yes, you are my sister. You're like us in the end. Please understand that all the original Observer did was for our master plan that is too great for these puppets to understand. Gaze at that girl over there. Do you not feel anger after regaining your memories? You were fooled into believing that she is your sister by the feeble memories of Enterprise. She's nothing but a mocking cruel reminder that will keep you shackled. Break free observer. Come back to us… to me," she said with a heartbreaking smile that would move the uninformed of people. She moved closer to the carrier while she produced a blue digital key fragment in her hand. "This will reconnect you back to the Siren network. It might hurt a bit considering you're operating as an organic pseudo-machine, but I guarantee that the pain will be worth it. And after that, you can kill this Eagle Union pest to complete your ascension."
"Ascension?"
"Yes, how else are you going to break free of that body? Isn't that what you truly want? To finally be your own person? You are tied to her data on a fatal level. Her dreams, her fears, her memories, personality, and… those she cares for the most. All of those are mere conditionings brought upon Enterprise's data. You must overwrite the conditioning by doing something so taboo for her data that you break away from it. You'll revert into a machine while retaining what ultimately matters; her power."
The doppelganger studied the words of her sister Siren with her mouth slightly open in awe, beyond that, it was hard to tell what inner struggles were going on in the mind of the archer.
"Sister, please. She is nothing to you. You feel like you are dissociated from Enterprise's mind and that's true. You were always self-aware that you are something more than her even when your memories were fragmented. That's because Observer resides somewhere in that mind of yours—just waiting to be reborn again. Don't let the mind of your enemy win, kill her…"
In her short time being alive, E-2 had never felt more understood than this Siren standing in front of her. All she was saying was true; no matter how much it hurt. The self-awareness that she was molded to look like the woman she hated the most, coupled with this nightmarish layer that Enterprise viewed herself in the deepest parts of her soul. The warm memories that were now confirmed to never be truly hers, merely stolen as a result of the allies of the woman before her.
"Here, reconnect to the Siren network. It will help you see why we had to keep you on that death and rebirth cycle. Once you understand, I promise you that you will thank me and the last version of Observer." Her hand was slapped away by the archer carrier who glared at her.
"I doubt understanding will make my torment go away. However, you're right about it all, sister. I'm not her and her memories are not mine. That girl over there truly means nothing to me." Her stern gaze landed on Hornet who felt like her heart was being crushed.
"Yes, perfect, dear sister. Kill her. The agony that It will bring upon Enterprise will be immense, and you will show her that you are your own person!"
"Don't do this! All she cares about is some stupid grand plan and not you!" Pleaded Hornet while she tried to struggle out of her bindings.
The doppelganger remained with an emotionless face, yet her eyes wavered with an internal struggle brought upon by the conditioning. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, her radiant yellow eyes stared the carrier down. "I'm sorry. Please allow that much to comfort you. I hated Enterprise just by the basic instinct that I went off from this body, and after regaining these cursed memories, my resolve to end her has only hardened. Her death will come soon, but first I must return to my original main goal." She raised her bow and glanced at Tester. "Release my eagle so that I may kill her, then I'll humor you by connecting with the Siren network."
Tester smiled evilly and agreed by dispelling the sphere around the eagle.
The dark eagle looked disoriented until he glanced up at his owner. Her yellow gaze and seriousness told him that she wanted him to get into position. He looked unsure while quickly glancing at the Siren, Hornet, then back to his owner. He was faithful to the end and unenthusiastically flew up to land on her left arm.
She trained her eyes back to Hornet for one last time and produced an arrow, clutching it firmly and placing it onto her bow.
The blonde eagle union had tears in her eyes while she gave a sad look to the woman that she considered a sister to her.
At that moment, the doppelganger softened her gaze and allowed those warm memories to bleed into her mind. An image of them during a much simpler time invaded her. They were walking down a road at the peak of sunset. Hornet's smile told of one that did something unfavorable that probably angered others, and her expression appeared to be one of disappointment toward the blonde. However, it wasn't one made to express hatred rather one to express that she could do better. An older white-haired girl walked with them as she placed a hand on her shoulder; a gesture that said that she was proud that she didn't give Hornet a hard time over what she did. That mysterious girl's face was unfocused, yet she could see a warm sisterly smile, and her hand on her shoulder invoked a warm sensation that was equal to what she felt for the blonde. The memory ended and she was back in this cold reality, staring down at the blonde. Her eyes then hardened back to mentally get herself ready for the kill. She did allow one quick glance to her eagle that was enough for both of them. "It'll be over soon." She fired her arrow as it tore through the surface of the water, splitting the waves apart.
Hornet gasped and closed her eyes for the burning impact of the arrow. However, it never reached her. Halfway toward her, the arrow turned into a fighter plane and pulled up, only allowing the strong wind from its speed to cradle her raft.
"What are you doing?!" Shouted Tester.
The fighter plane evened out and rotated downward in the sky. Within a blink of an eye, it turned back into an arrow that shot toward Tester at a devastating speed. She barely had just enough time to evade the arrow by ascending upward. It was that grim mistake that the archer was intending for the Siren to do.
While Tester was focused on the impact of waves that the arrow created underneath her, the doppelganger emerged from the splashed waves off to the side with her bow used as a blunt object.
The Siren murderously glared at her and initiated combat with the carrier. She quickly twirled in the air and thrust one of her blade legs toward the carrier.
The doppelganger countered that by doing a twirl in mid-air to avoid the fatal stab as well and using the momentum to deliver an even more devastating blunt attack at the face of the Siren.
Tester's eyes widened as fragments of metal flew across her eyes and she became blind in one. She plummeted into the water and then used her thrusters to gain distance.
She gained space from the archer while she assessed her damage. Cracks on her face trailed off from the deep puncture that resided where her right eye once stood. "Damn you!" Her eye flickered with a burning hatred.
E-2 received an image from her bird who took to the skies. Her eyes darted at the stealthy incoming invader from before. Unlike last time, she wasn't going to get caught like a fish in a net.
The mechanical stingray launched itself from behind her and she countered it with her bow used again like a blunt weapon. Metal pieces flew into the air and the stingray plummeted into the blue depths.
The carrier cautiously narrowed her eyes as the cracks in her bow were growing. Her yellow eyes transmitted another image of more incoming stingrays from underneath her. A whole insidious nest had been dormant under her feet this whole time. Her time being limited, she launched a fighter plane into the sky and jumped.
Her air fighter tightly turned around and became useful as a platform for the archer. The dark eagle then quickly regrouped with her arrow already in position.
Tester tried to create the sphere around the dark eagle again, yet she was unable to as her ability ultimately connected with her now damaged visual processing unit.
"Let's finish this!" Declared the carrier to her bird.
With her companion's assistance, she fired a powerful arrow that penetrated the ocean water with a drowned sound. The first stingray exploded, creating a chain reaction of explosions brought upon by the intense heat of the explosive capability of the arrow. With them all being clumped together as they raced to the surface, it was like the expression of shooting fish in a barrel. A large bubble of water ruptured, causing the area around them to simulate rain briefly.
She sighed briefly and painfully noticed that her bow had fallen to pieces upon her fingers.
Her attention was pulled back when a yellow laser nearly hit her, but with the heads up from her eagle, she was able to dodge. However, a barrage of more lasers fired her way where one managed to hit the tail of the fighter plane she was using.
Quickly springing into action, she jumped off the plane and launched more fighter planes toward the Siren.
Tester felt enraged at the turn of events that unfolded. While she tried desperately to take out the carrier, her challenger had summoned a large wave of planes against her. She still had the advantage of taking them out at a safe distance from their fire range. However, they moved as a unit around the carrier who was advancing on her.
No matter how many blasts she fired, her lasers would not reach the carrier as multiple fighter planes moved forward and took the hits head-on, leaving the carrier to maneuver around the destruction.
"This operation is a loss." She gritted her teeth and decided to aim at Hornet's raft.
A wave of fighter planes broke formation and guarded the blonde carrier against the attacks.
Tester had wasted her chance to escape as the fighter planes circled her like vultures circling a dying animal. She couldn't even shoot upward or fall back further thanks to the tight formation of the fighter planes. She tried swatting at them like the insects that they were to her, but her focus should have been somewhere else.
The doppelganger closed the distance and kicked her in the stomach.
Tester recoiled from the vibration of her mechanical body being pushed back and her balanced tipped. Quickly, she regained it and raised her blade leg to stab the betrayer carrier.
Tester froze when E-2 moved quickly and held onto the blade end once she had completed her initial thrust, effectively forcing Tester to maintain her leg raised.
Vibrant blood flowed out of the left palm of the carrier from where she was holding onto the Siren. Both of their yellow eyes made contact with each other with Tester feeling scared; a feat that she thought she was above.
"Observer, why?" She pleaded with frustrated anger.
The doppelganger denied her a response and continued desperately to hold onto her leg while more blood flowed from her fresh wound.
The roaring sounds of a fighter plane descended upon them and fired right between them. The bullets hit Tester's extended leg granting her freedom in the most undesirable method. Her processing capability fired at a rapid pace while fragments of her remnant leg flew across her one good eye.
"Ghaa!" The archer let out a breath of relief once she released her grip on the detached blade. The pain was great, and the wound would need stitches, yet she would worry about that once the fight was over. Continuing with her assault, she pressed forward and held her rail-like weapon that was her tool for launching her planes. The massive rail-like weapon connected with the stomach of Tester, and it created a devastating puncture similar to the one on her face.
Cracks were born from the barbaric ramming method of the archer. Another roaring sound from a plane was heard but this time from behind the carrier. A final stare of resentment was shot at Tester as the white-haired woman jumped into the air.
Tester's final vision was of an incoming fighter plane from behind the carrier that connected with her like a missile. The explosion rang all over the area like an echo as Tester and the Kamikaze-style plane both shot toward a nearby rock formation that resided out at sea with them.
Hornet was a witness to the carrier's gruesome tactics that invoked a sense of fear with her. If this truly was her sister, what had she endured to be able to fight so savagely.
Over where the fight had concluded, Tester was still alive, however, alive was subjective to the current situation. Most of her face had been shattered revealing mechanical components. Half of her hair was burned off, and her torso had a huge hole that allow various colors of liquids to spew out and mix. "This… how could my tormented fears come to pass? I… I… I…" Her head quickly turn once she felt pressure on her one remaining leg.
Looming over her with the fire and destruction serving as a hellish background on the small landmass that they resided in, E-2 looked down at the Siren with a disgusted stare.
Tester now looked broken and scared with a pleading expression on her face. "Observer… don't let her win, y-you can… kill her… still…" Her one eye widened once she felt the pressure come down on her remaining leg.
In that split moment, an intrusive flashback of someone that the carrier should have known struck her. The image was of the white-haired distorted woman from before as she spoke to her while confined to a bed. Their dialogue was muted yet that wasn't the focal point. What she briefly paid attention to was that the woman no longer had legs, a cruel comparison to make at this time. Shame and disgust with herself entered her heart for allowing herself to stoop to such a villainous level. The pain ate away at her slowly before ending, leaving her bloody left hand pressed against her face.
A mixed crazed laugh and haggard cry produced out of her mouth like a car wreck. Her emotions calmed down after a few seconds, and she brought her attention back to Tester. "You mentioned versions before, right? Version one was when I first laid eyes on Enterprise as you pointed it out. But it didn't stay that way. Version 2, I was a lot like her. For a brief time, she and I were almost a perfect mirror of each other, but then that sea... that titanic monster, and all the killing. You—the sirens... used me as a perpetual murder battery. Nothing more than to grow data to then be converted into power," she said it with scorn.
The Siren twitched and spasmed under the angry words of the carrier. The next set of words from her beaten face sounded more mechanical and primitive. "T-Typical. M-Memories have r-returned but not any from ob… server? An oversight on my part—critical error. P-Please, c-connect you… to the Siren network again… to fully understand all your d-deaths and—resurrections, Ob…server. They had m-meaning."
Anger seeped into every bone in her body, yet she couldn't bring herself to yell at anyone that was already half-dead and not all that there. "You could...it wouldn't help... Observer is gone."
Tester twitched a few times as if she was processing that statement. "N-now you are the one s-spouting such n-non—ssense," she said with her voice returning to normal.
"No... this is the reality. Did you forget? I'm the data of Enterprise, captured like a photo at the very moment she touched the cube, including all her memories, personality, and sorrows... and she had a lot of sorrows. The versions after one didn't erase those faults… more like pushed them outward."
Tester scanned the doppelganger with intrigue. "Are you saying?"
"Maybe it was the torment that you all set me on that made me into her nightmare... maybe it was her sorrow captured at that moment that shaped me. It doesn't matter. You and she are each side of a coin. My hatred for you all stays the same. No… it's cemented. Thank you, for giving me the conviction to stand firm with my hatred."
"You hate me... you hate me!?" Said Tester who looked dazed now.
"Yes, I thought that was obvious. Besides, did you really mean all that crap about you being my sister? Isn't that very human of you, Tester? Or was that another manipulation game to get me to comply with that Siren grand plan?
Tester lowered her eye in a human display of loss for words. She quickly brought it back up and stared at the carrier with an eerily smile. "Y-you… used to say that… a lot… 'Isn't that very human of you?'" She spoke like a broken record. "Kill me and another will take my place."
The carrier walked up to her and raised her leg over the broken face of the Siren. However, there was something in her that couldn't let her go through with it. She puffed her held breath out and turned her back on her. "I'm done with you and your mind games. I already got my payback from doing my own mind game and allowing you to believe that I would seriously consider being one of you. I'm already forced into an existence I didn't ask for. Why would I throw myself into another?"
"Kill her… to break the… ex… ex… ex…" Tester had lost it, and her body made all kinds of mechanical sounds as it tried to keep operating.
"Just swim away into your dark cave, Tester. As 'sisters' I'll allow you to leave with your life, but if I ever see you again, I will kill you, dear sister." She stepped back onto the water and made her way to Hornet.
A rush of air blew past her and when she turned her head back, Tester was gone as if she was never there.
Hornet stopped her struggling on the ropes when she noticed E-2 looming over her with those yellow eyes still active.
"Are you okay?" Said the white-haired carrier with a monotone voice.
Hornet held her breath, fear evident on her face as to which side this unlikely savior was siding.
E-2 made a worried expression as to why the blonde looked so fearful. One glance at her reflection said it all as her radiant yellow eyes were the cause of Hornet's uneasiness. Angrily, she shut her eyes. "Turn away and close your eyes," she ordered in a harsh tone.
Hornet did what she was told and silently made peace with herself for death was still something that felt all too real. She felt no force connect with her, instead, her bindings had gone undone by the help of the burning light from one of the doppelganger's arrow tips.
The blond jumped out of her position and turned her body toward the other carrier.
The injured carrier remained in a kneeling position on the raft with her eyes closed. She then slowly opened them that now held the purple eyes of Enterprise.
Hornet flashed a tense smile to her savior while she awkwardly massaged the rope marks on her wrist.
The injured archer didn't crack a smile, in fact, she tried her best to not stare at Hornet while she dawned a dejected face. "It's time for you to go home, Hornet."
The awkward silence continued to linger like an uninvited guest as clearly, both women had so much they wanted to get off their chest.
Since Hornet no longer had a rig, and E-2's rig was damaged from the ramming tactic, she was pushing Hornet on the raft while she acted like a propeller. With both her hands damaged, she mostly used her left wrist as the spot she pushed from while staying low to the water.
The white-haired carrier remained silent during the trip and soon, her eyes landed on the dark eagle that had his back to her. Her companion stood vigilant on the raft, but she could tell that distance had grown between them.
Hornet laid with her knees close to her chest and with a deep breath, she began to speak. "So what's going to happen now?"
Purple eyes darted from the dark eagle to Hornet. "I'm going to take you as close to the borders of the Sakura Empire that I can, and then I'll send a plane to reveal your location to them. I'll be gone by the time they reach you," she said stoically.
"Does your runway even work? That ramming move left it incredibly battered." Inquired the eagle union carrier.
"I'll think of something to get their attention," said E-2 with a tone of annoyance.
"How's your hand?" The blonde wanted to continue the conversation as best as she could, and she was genuinely concerned for the wound that she gained.
"Which one?"
"T-The left one…" Shyly spoke the Yorktown-class carrier.
"Hurts like hell, thank you for asking." She mentally kicked herself at how harsh she sounded. "But it was worth it…" She ultimately ended it off, her voice sounding genuinely gentle.
That kind comment had brought a small smile to Hornet's face, but it didn't last that long as the silence returned.
The frustration in Hornet's eyes was too great and she stood upon the raft. "Stop. Stop the raft," she ordered sternly.
The injured carrier halted and worriedly acknowledged the blonde. Even the dark eagle turned his head back once he got his balance back from the abrupt stop.
Hornet determinedly stared down the carrier. "I had enough of this suffocating silence. If we don't talk now, then I'll never be able to live with myself."
"Talk about what?" Said the carrier with evasive eyes.
"About the big metal Siren in the room—what else?!"
Her eyes connected with Hornet with determination. "There's nothing metal about me other than my armaments," remarked E-2.
"Those yellow eyes and the fact that she called you Observer..." Hornet chewed around her own words, feeling like they weren't real.
It was sudden, but E-2 bit her lip to force back a string of unsavory words from her mouth. "Enough! Enough! I don't need to explain anything to you. Be grateful that I came to save you and leave it at that!"
"How can you say that? What she put you through is not something you can brush off—dammit. If you need to talk about it, then I'm here for you." She wanted to let the doppelganger know how much she meant to her and hoped that her statement had gotten through to her.
"Your kindness is unneeded, and I can sure brush it off. It's nothing new that I already hated myself before finding out what I was. This is just more of that. It doesn't really matter in the end."
Hornet winched and her anger flared. "Please stop. Please stop hating yourself!"
The doppelganger angrily squinted at the blonde and then planted her weight on the raft. "Why do you care? I'm not your sister. You should be sleeping soundly at night now that you don't have this burden to bear as I'm just a Siren underneath all this. I don't even know what I am. I'm not Enterprise and I'm not this Observer that you and Tester were so knowledgeable about. The only thing I can say is that I'm some Siren hybrid in the shape of your sister."
Hornet stepped forward to challenge the self-deprecating words of the other carrier. "You and I know that's not true. You are my sister's data that's been given life. To be more precise, you are what she feared she would be if she continued to keep living her life the way she had. As if I didn't need more proof that you are my sister when we inspected the black mental cube projection that resonated with my sister's wisdom cube energy."
The white-haired carrier's face wanted to break down and allow herself to cry yet she swallowed her pain like she always did. "You're a fool then. My memories of you are all fake, which means whatever I feel for you is fake."
"You knew that... Yet that didn't stop you from rescuing me—twice, and it didn't stop you from facing off with Tester. So why? Why go through the trouble of suffering so much bullshit for someone that you know means nothing?"
"Hornet, just stop. Please... just stop." Tears were evident in the eyes of the archer as she tried her hardest to maintain her unmovable demeanor.
As if out of nowhere, Hornet wrapped her arms around the other carrier who now had widened eyes to go with her teary face.
"That's not your decision to make by yourself. I won't stop and I'm more driven than ever to pull you out of all your torment!"
The archer could feel the blonde shake with every set of tears that continue to pour out. With her memories restored from her time in the dark sea, she remembered the forgotten hope that kept her in one piece. Even after all her resurrections and memory wipes, that hope was her driving force that never went away. "Hornet... maybe I'm the fool after all. You have always been there for me, even though I never met you before until I was set free into this new existence."
"Huh?" whimpered the blond, curious to find out what she meant.
The doppelganger brawled with her mind to help her find the strength to surface her woes into words. "In my world, composed of nothing but death and darkness, I pressed forward every time. I did it for my basic instinct to survive and to find an end to my war. Maybe I was programmed like that from the start. But there was one lingering itch in my mind that motivated me. In time, I remembered that someone was waiting for me at a home that I can no longer recall. The memory of you was my light to guide me and press forward. I knew you were waiting for me to return home to be reunited with you. I pressed onward and onward through my dark sea hoping to reach you with every battle I fought, but you didn't exist in that world. Only in my fabricated memories, and that was enough for me. Enough comfort to at least keep me from falling apart. All I always wanted... was to see you, hug you, and never let go."
Hornet smiled teary-eyed at the sweet words that she heard from the white-haired carrier. "That journey has ended, sis. Please, allow yourself happiness... don't push me away. Please, hug me back."
It quickly dawned on her that her sister was instigating the sisterly affection while she remained motionless like a cold-stoned statue. A set of fresh tears cascaded down her cheeks and her heart could burst at how happy and swelled it was. "Hornet, I don't deserve this love from you."
"Just... enough. I understand what you feel, and I don't accept the fate you want. I wasn't there for Ent when she spiraled into a dark place. I had to put my faith in another for that. I'm not making that mistake again. You are my sister, too and I accept all the responsibility that it entails. I already lost one sister, please don't make me go through that again."
"I… don't think I can keep that promise," dispiritedly said the archer. She then hesitantly hugged Hornet back. She was expecting it to be awkward and forced, but the electrical surge of comfort and warmth felt familial.
Hornet laughed hysterically, a sign that her stress and emotions were high. She knew that it wasn't going to be easy to get through her new stubborn sister. Failure was not an option for her, and she welcomed the challenge for the salvation of her new sister. "Sis... can we leave that for later and just enjoy this moment?" She said softly.
The carrier allowed herself to hug her with all the overdue love that she had built up over her continued existence. "Yeah..." she said sorrowfully with a warm chest from understanding that this moment was her own and no one else except for the blonde that she acknowledged as a sister.
And done! I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hated that it took longer to make it. I wanted to make sure I could make this to the best of my ability. I don't get that much time to write for long periods of time and when I do, I'm either tired or have other plans. Now, before anyone asks, I have not forgotten about Enterprise. Right now, the story is more focused on E-2 as a part of her background has unfolded. I'll see you all in the next one!