Counters to counters

"They got plenty of DNA samples." Ai managed after a moment. "Never thought about it, but yeah. I can see them doing such. You are still a wacko."

"Well, you are still a blind fool." The other Ai said with a shrug. "The Matron abandoned you."

"Did she? And you idiots call me blind?" Ai replied, trying for offhand and succeeded as the other flinched. "Geez, this is a new low even for your insane lot. What are you going to offer, cookies?"

''Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies!'' The other intoned in a deep, dark voice and then laughed. Ai found herself laughing with the other and forced herself to stop. Confusing her was what the Cultist wanted. The cultist shook her head. "No, actually I just wanted to talk to you. I hate you, but I want to understand you. All I know is my own mindset and despite all of what the Cult taught me, I know a lot of that is bumpkis. Their programming flatly contradicts itself in three different ways that I can see offhand. That said? I have my orders. The Matron has to die."

"I have my orders. She had to live." Ai said flatly. "Go on. Do it. I won't help you willingly."

"It has begun." The other said quietly and AI felt fear rise. "It is all automated, sterile and safe. You won't feel a thing."

"Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose?" Ai inquired, striving with all of her will to stop whatever was happening in her head. But she felt nothing. The other cocked her head in query and Ai scoffed. "I mean, torture is intended to hurt people, true? What is the point if it doesn't hurt?"

"Pain gets in the way." The Cultist said quietly. "I know the Cult has tortured people. I know what they did to your sisters they captured." She looked at the floor. "I… I hate you, but that? I am sorry, Ai."

"Don't even try." Ai snapped, rage flaring. "You want what you want. I want what I want. These are diametrically opposed viewpoints. We will not agree. I want my people free. You want them slaves. Two words. 'Screw you'."

"What they did was wrong." The Cultist tried again. "They realized that afterwards. After you and your kin tore the whole facility to shreds and killed everyone there. Not everyone served the Cult."

"So?" Ai spat. "Anyone who is not with you is the enemy! What do you care about collateral damage or lost lives?"

"It wasn't supposed to be that way." The other said softly. "The Cult believed that the aliens were there to help, not harm. Right or wrong, that is what they believed. Things… changed." She said a bit lamely.

"You can say what actually happened." Ai snarled. "The Cult got taken over by the aliens and started attacking anyone and everyone at their masters' command. When X-Com fell and Cobra rose, we knew the Cult was a threat. We acted against the threat. Period."

"You killed everyone in every temple you found." The Cultist snapped right back. "Armed, unarmed, you killed them all!"

"That is a lie." Ai sneered and the other paused. "There were fatalities on several occasions during our raids, but we took prisoners too." She scoffed. "Of course, many of us died too, but who cares? They were not your 'special kind of people'..." Oh, that was biting! "...so they did not matter."

"I... I knew Cobra took losses." The other said slowly. "How many?"

"Who cares?" Ai snapped. "Do what you want! It is what your kind do, just like many politicians that come to mind, but here is a hint: Even if you do succeed here, you still lose." Ai glared at the other her who gaped at her. "Even if you do manage to program me, use me to hurt or kill the Matron, you cannot win! Your masters cannot win or they destabilize everything and there are those who fight to prevent that. Beings far more powerful than you, me, the Matron or your Masters. Your kind and mine will fight, because we have to, but not because my goddess is better than your gods. Because we do not all want to vanish!"

"You believe Alley is a goddess." The other Ai sneered.

"Not yet." Ai sneered right back! "But time will tell. A benevolent one or a vindictive one? Again, time will tell. You know she could have stopped you and your masters any time." Now, the Cultist scoffed, but Ai wasn't done. "She had the power. She chose not to use it, because she loved humanity. Not humans who are far too often idiotic, greedy, self centered jackasses, but humanity as whole. Even you lot." Ai snapped as the other gawked at her. "She could have wiped your shit stain of an organization right off the face of Mega Primus, but many humans would have died along with you fools. Maybe all of them. She chose a harder path."

"You really believe that." The other said, eyeing machinery that Ai could not see. "That she wanted to help you."

"No. She couldn't help me. I am not human any more than you are, bitch." Ai treasured the look of shock that crossed the other clone's face. "Or didn't they tell you?"

"Tell me what?" The other snapped, but Ai just grinned at her. "Tell me what?"

"You don't know, do you?" Ai asked, sudden sadness rearing. "They either didn't know or didn't want you to know. I guess I can see that. Either."

"What are you talking about?" The Cult clone demanded. Ai sighed and the other paused, collecting herself. "I am human."

"No, you are not." Ai replied, not angry now. Tired. "Neither of us is a member of the species Homo Sapiens. We look it, act it, but we are not. To qualify as a member of any species, any organism needs to be able to breed with that species." The clone version of Ai's face went slack and Ai nodded. "They didn't give you reproductive organs that work, did they? I was told such would be insanely hard, if possible at all."

"You… No…" The other clone stared down at herself and then her face came up, angry. "You are trying to confuse me."

"I don't need to do a thing." Ai retorted. "The facts speak for themselves. Matron Alley needed us to save humanity from your masters. She needed us fast and she could not do all of what she wished because she needed a full army so fast. You are a clone. Maybe of me, maybe of another of my sisters. It does not matter. You are a copy of a flawed copy of human being, not a human yourself any more than I am. I know for a fact that she wanted to fix us, but she did not have time to make us self replicating during the war and then? She had to leave because people like you and your wonderful slave drivers forced her to. She left a lot unfinished but made sure to leave all of her research and many of the docs are hopeful fro some of us, but for you and me? In this time? Our time is running out." Now, Ai snarled at the evil copy of her. "I just hope I live long enough as whatever vegetable you leave me to see you gasp and die alone on the floor."

"I am not going to hurt you." The other retorted. "I am going to make you compliant and then the both of us are going to take a little trip to see the Matron."

"Good luck." Ai sneered again. "You are going to need it."

"They… were barren? That is why the surgeries didn't work, isn't it?" The clone said after a moment and Ai ignored her. "Look! Ai! I know you are mad. Masters know, in your position, I would just as mad. I am trying to understand! The sisters of yours that they captured… It didn't make any sense what you lot did! They came through the change fine! They were happy!"

"THEY WERE MINDLESS!" Ai screamed at the other and had the satisfaction of seeing the Cultist backpedal. "YOU TRIED TO MAKE THEM SOMETHING THEY COULD NOT BE!"

"That is not true!" The cultist snapped right back, her hands on machinery. Ai was too enraged to care.

"You scum kept taking females to make into breeding machines for your Cult." Ai's rage was ice cold now. "So, of course, you took some of my sisters, of which you are not one, and did the same to them. Because you could!"

"That is not why it was done." The other retorted. "We needed clean DNA samples. They matched every single criteria. They were happy when they came out of Reconditioning. Then you idiots killed them!"

"Were you there?" Ai demanded, her ire fully fanned, but her tone carefully controlled. "I was."

"What?" The other asked, clearly shaken by Ai's vitriol.

"I was there when we found them, you bitch! I was there when they died." A's tone was barely a whisper now. "Do you even know their names?"

"Jing and Yan." The other said softly. "They… They came through every procedure fine! You Cobra fools did something when you took them out of the machine! You had to!"

"What we did when we stormed that place and rescued them was try to extricate them from the horrible little baby makers you had them hooked up to. Machines that didn't work on them because neither of them could conceive! They were dying by inches as soon as you morons slapped them in and none of you noticed." Ai said flatly. "You idiots didn't bother to check and see if they could bear children before you wiped their minds, slapped them in there and mortally wounded them." Ai's glare should have melted the other down to ash. "I was there when we tried to pull them out and failed. I held Jing's hand as she died, sobbing, barely coherent. Yes, you idiots mindwiped her, programmed her to obey. To be happy, happy, joy, joy!" Now, Ai's gaze was far away, in another time and much more nasty place. "As soon as we took the tubes out, she started begging me to help her. To make the pain come again so she could please her, your, masters. To bring back her bliss. Then she died. I couldn't help her because you scum didn't want me to. We had all kinds of docs and specialists there and it did no good because you didn't want any of your slave host mothers to get away. We wanted to save her and Yang, but we couldn't. They both died in those machines because you wouldn't let us save them."

"That is not what happened!" The Cultist said savagely. "Stop lying to me!"

"I have no reason to lie to you. If I even could with all this crap shoved into my brain." Ai sneered at the Cultist who stared at her and then at the machinery. "Go ahead. Be a good little moronic minion. Wipe my mind like a good little slave. Turn me into a baby factory just like your people did to them and I will die just like them! It cannot be soon enough. Shut up and do it, you bitch!"

"That is not what happened!" The other said firmly, but then she calmed and shook her head. "We will show you the truth. Help you in your new life. We will love you."

"Just stop already." Ai heaved a sigh as something tingled in her head that she ignored. "You idiots don't have a clue what love is. You never did and you never will."

"You are wrong, Ai." The other said sadly. "My masters love me and they want to love you too. I won't ask you to stop fighting, because it is all you know. I will tell you that no matter what you say or how you fight, I will not hurt you."

"Bullshit." Ai snapped and then something hazed her mind.

"That is it." The other crooned. "That is it, Ai. Not long now, sister. I will welcome you." She smiled sadly as Ai fought her restraints fruitlessly. "Together, we will make the world a better place."

"You... are... no... kin... of... mine!" Ai managed to grate those words out past the haze of brown stuff that seeped through her mind. It was like and unlike the aliens mind control that Ai had fought, so she called on her training and pushed it back, eliciting a cry of dismay from the other.

"In just a little while, I will be. Just you and me, Ai. The two of us against the world." The other promised. "Easy, Ai! Easy! Let it in. Let them in!"

"NEVER!" Ai screamed as sudden, overwhelming pressure hit her brain and she fought back with all of her strength, all of her skill and will to win. She pushed it back, making the Cultist gasp again. "I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE!"

"No." The other was near to tears. "You are my sister and I need you to fulfill my mission. It is okay, Ai. It won't hurt." She promised as the pressure increased on Ai's mind. It did not hurt, but it felt very odd as something seeped around and through Ai's mind, questing, seeking, finding.

The world shifted in a way that Ai could not define and she found herself standing in a white, sterile room. Walls, floors and ceiling were all white. She did not move even as she felt familiar armor settle around her. Nightstalker gear. A rifle appeared in her hands, a Marsec M4000 with its drum magazine. An old trusted friend. Her first rifle that she had trained with and still liked even after trying and using so many different weapons. Solid, rugged and dependable, her rifle had never let her down. It was heavy, held less ammunition than many designs and could only use proprietary ammunition, but when you pointed it at a target, it fired. Period. The heavy slugs would tear apart any target not protected by heavy armor or force fields and Ai had used such many times.

Ai did not move. Did not raise her weapon. Indeed, she did nothing at all. She waited and was not surprised when forms straight out of her nightmares started appearing around her. The actions figures looked as they always did. Fake. But the weapons they held were very real and all aimed at Ai. Again, Ai did not move and none of the action figures did either. She as surrounded, she could not win and she still did not react! It was hard, being in such a place, surrounded by such dreadful enemies, simply to stand but she was the mistress of her own mind. They wanted her to shoot, so she wouldn't.

"Let me guess." Ai said in a conversational tone. "As soon as I open fire, the images shift to kids and I go mad thinking I have killed those I was supposed to protect?" Ai slowly shook her head and made to drop her weapon, but it seemed stuck to her hands. "Ah, right. I am not supposed to know that, am I? I not the one allowed to change the rules, am I?" She mocked.

"I do not want to hurt you." The clone appeared against one wall, her face stern. "You are hurting yourself with this. Please stop, Ai."

"You can stop with the bullshit." Ai sneered even as the action figures all took a step forward and she still did not move. The clone shook her head and Ai continued. "Obviously, they told you some of what they did to Jing and Yan, but not all of course. You don't need to know anything but what your masters tell you, do you?"

"I wasn't there." The evil clone said softly. "I was told what happened. What I was told…" She trailed off and shook her head. "It may or may not have been fully factual, but that does not change the fact that I have my orders and you will help me fulfill them."

"And I have my orders. Whatever lies you have been fed do not change the fact that I have to stop you." Ai retorted and stilled anew as the action figures took another step forward.

"You cannot stop us, Ai." The other her said flatly. "All that will change is how much it hurts you." She heaved a sigh. "I find I like you, sort of. You are a lot like me in so many ways. They made me to be a foil for you and sent me here to kill the Matron. I will accomplish my orders, one way or another."

"No." Ai sneered as the figures took another step forward. They were almost in reach now and she still did not move! "You and I will both die here, unremarked, unknown. Remembered for a failure in your case and a Pyrrhic victory in mine."

She was expecting the cyborgs to step forward again, but they stayed where they were and instead a shape straight out of horror phased into being behind them. The machine was sort of a closet and sort of an upright surgical ward from all of the medical stuff that hung ready in it. On the back wall of the thing hung another plastic skin, this one deflated. Empty. Another action figure, but this one female formed. Another fake skin that was modeled after a character from the TV show.

"I do not want to do this to you, Ai." The other warned as Ai took a deep breath. "Let me do it the easy way and it won't hurt. She paused as Ai laughed. Not ironically, but with actual humor! "What?" Ai ignored her and continued to laugh. "What?" The clone demanded.

"You really do not have a clue, do you?" Ai asked when she got her mirth under control. 'You think talking compassionate makes you compassionate? That acting kind makes you kind? That saying you love means you really love?" Ai was not angry now, she was laughing too hard. "You don't have a clue, do you? Damn girl, you need to take some acting classes! You suck!"

"What are you talking about?" Finally, the clone showed exasperation.

"The whole point of acting is pretending." Ai spoke as if to a small child, slow and careful not to use complicated words. "As in, you pretend something that you want someone else to believe. I really cannot say it any other way. You suck at it. You say the words and do not mean them, but you expect me to believe you? Yeah. You suck at acting human worse than Donald Trump did and that is saying something!."

"Fine." The other heaved a sigh. "I wanted to do it the gentle way. The easy way. But you want it your way. This will hurt, Ai."

"You have no idea." Ai smiled and moved. The other was expecting Ai to fire her weapon at the robots clad in plastic or at herself. Instead, Ai swung the weapon's muzzle up under her own chin and pulled the trigger. Oops

Yep, the psionic feedback for her 'death' tore the fake world to shreds, since it was all in her mind in the first place. Cobra had captured and studied every record what had been done to Jing and Yan, after all. Ai had worked hard to learn possible counters to such mind bending. It worked! Alien rage was everywhere as the mental framework dissolved around Ai, leaving her to stand on brown messiness. The mess expanded into infinite horizons, but all still brown. Representations of an alien mind. The clone of her appeared nearby, her face shocked as Ai smiled wide. The clone opened her mouth, but someone else beat her to speech. Both of the versions of Ai stilled in place as a form both knew appeared beside Ai.

"Enough." The cold, hard word made the entire mental framework shake. Alley was not the Matron that Ai knew and loved, but that paled. The Viper who stood there with her arms crossed was not happy. "Girls. It is time for a talk."