A.N. It's just another fluff-filled chapter with funny jokes.
"What are you doing here?" Einstein remarked at the red-haired who was now standing before her. Of all the reckless stunts her partner had pulled why was it this one.
"Hey, as it stands you said they weren't a threat, right?" Tesla argued. "Besides I needed to make sure you weren't in trouble mophead." She added.
"I never said they weren't a threat. I said they weren't following through on those threats for the time being," Einstein replied exasperatedly. "They are still unpredictable and prone to violence,"
"Yeah, yeah whatever," Tesla answered in annoyance. She had already almost lost Welt, she wasn't going to leave Einstein behind either. Besides it was honestly better to be here than anywhere else, the politics and fallout were giving her too much of a headache right now.
"Did you at least find anything in Schicksal's database?" Teri questioned. They needed some more information on Void and Thunder and the only clues they had pointed to Schicksal.
"Eh…that depends," Tesla sighed. "I did find something, but it was confusing as hell," Tesla noted.
"What did you find?" Einstein inquired.
"Well…the bastard Otto did in fact have plans to clone Kiana," Tesla explained. "However, the date and time of the project are what complicates it. He had only created those plans a few days ago, but they were immediately scrapped shortly after. The project never even reached past the initial conception phase."
"A few days ago," Einstein noted. "That was when the Herrschers appeared with the Kaslana family." She pointed out. Void had been on the nose about Otto's plan but that still left them without information on Void herself.
"Yes and apparently Void had broken into Schicksal's compound," Tesla noted as she brought up a security feed. It showed various parts of the compound, there were guards and robots patrolling about, and one even showed Kiana playing with Amber. Soon static filled the image before it displayed the aftermath of a rampage. Many of the personnel had been incapacitated with various puncture marks remaining on their body, machines being recked from aside, and even a few cameras had been permanently disabled. Amber had been mounted to a wall and impaled in all her limbs and Kiana was nowhere to be found.
"As you can see, there was no evidence to suggest who, but given Kiana was with them and the nature of Void's powers, I think it's safe to assume she was involved," Tesla noted.
"Indeed, she was subtle," Teri noted. Sirin had been all about making a show and demonstration of power. She had the ability, but in the end, she was just a child after all. However, Void was a different story, she knew what her powers could do and how to use them. They had been at her mercy from the start. She could contain a nuke, was just as difficult to kill as Sirin and was far more experience than the girl.
Teri recalled her encounter with the Herrscher the night before. One wrong step and she could have been impaled within seconds in that room. The mere fact Void was even giving her back Judah could be seen as a show of power right there. She wasn't scared of Judah. Or perhaps she was just overconfident and didn't know of Judah's true power.
"Where are the others?" Tesla questioned.
"Ziggy woke up a few minutes ago. Cecilia's explaining to him, their new extended family situation," Teri answered. "Thunder's with them but Void is off doing who knows what," She added.
"I think they should be finished by now," Einstein noted.
"Perfect," Tesla said. "Let's go,"
Upon arrival, the trio had to stop and marvel at the site. Siggy was currently being scolded by Thunder and Cecilia on one side. Meanwhile, Kiana, Void, and Bella were watching from by Sirin while eating noodles. Kiana in particular had been suspended on a floating throne of cubes while Void fed her.
"I'll never do it again," they heard Siggy swore.
"What happened here?" Tesla asked first earning the attention of everyone in the room. The Herrschers glanced at her but didn't move. Void merely lowered Kiana who ran to greet them.
"Daddy was about to say a bad word. So, Mommy and Thunder are punishing him," She explained.
"Oh really," Teri said as she started to brandish Judah. "Did he now?"
"Oh, come on, not you too," Siegfied sighed. "Haven't I been punished enough?"
"I'm pretty sure Teri, makes it a priority to find ways to insult you, old man," Void answered.
"That I do," Teri answered shamelessly.
After a few minutes, the room managed to settle down. For the most part, Cecilia, Teri, and Thunder had managed to calm down enough and now they were all on more…pleasant speaking terms.
"So…does anyone else know you're here?" Void questioned as she turned her attention to Tesla. "We've gone through a lot of trouble to stay hidden and if you compromise that," Void trailed off as a small portal opened right behind Tesla's neck. The woman in question could feel the tip of a lance gently touching her skin, right in place to kill her, but still out of view of everyone else. "Well…I don't need to say what will happen," She finished.
Tesla to her credit didn't seem deterred. She merely folded her arms as she stared at the Herrscher. "No, no one knows," She huffed. "I took special liberty to cover my tracks."
"Alright," Void closed her portal.
"Okay," Siegfied deadpanned. "Can we please get back to the topic at hand?" He questioned. The white-haired man turned to Void. "Like how you look like a grown-up version of my daughter and…" He turned to his wife. "Why aren't you as freaked out about this I am?" He questioned.
"I'm pretty sure everyone else was just scared to ask that or bidding their time," Void laughed. "Of course, you'd be the one to actually say it without hesitation," She chuckled. Yeah, that was her dad alright, straight to the point, no beating around the bush. She really loved that straightforward method he had, but right now she despised it.
"You still didn't answer my question," Siegfied noted. "You look exactly like the Kiana I saw in the dream world, save for your eyes," He explained.
"Wait dream world," Teri questioned. "What dream world?"
Cecilia and Siegfied gave a brief explanation of the dream world they had been in, how it was a trap made by Sirin, how Sirin had gotten trapped herself, and the older Kiana they saw within it. Cecilia also went as far as to explain how different Sirin had been within it. Suffice to say the trio, Thunder and Kiana was surprised by this.
"So, wait, I will grow up to look like Big sis Void?" Kiana noted.
"With any luck, you'll look even prettier than Void," Thunder added. Void rolled her eyes at the latter's comment before turning back to the others who were now more focused on her.
"Void…can you please just tell us, why you look like our daughter," Cecilia questioned. "I've avoided asking the question before, but now that it's out can you please just tell us, why." She pleaded. "We know you and Thunder meanwhile…but we can't trust you if you keep secrets. Family doesn't do that to family," She added.
Void looked on at them. The scientists she could ignore, she didn't have so much attachment to them. Cecilia, Siegfied, and even Teri were a different story.
"Alright," Void gave in. "I'll explain some of it, but we still wait for Sirin to wake up for the rest," Void reasoned. "This story is messy and complicated on so many different levels and I doubt I have the brain juice to explain it more than once without giving myself a headache."
"Believe her, it is," Thunder added. "I've had to listen to her practicing the explanation and I'm still lost on details."
"That's because you lack a brain," Void deadpanned.
"Can we please get back to the explanation?" Teri sighed. "You can go at each other's throats later,"
"Alright, alright," Void answered. "Let's start with the simple stuff first. Like how I and Thunder got here," She explained. "Tell me what's the most…impossible thing you can imagine?" She questioned.
"Siegfied improving his cooking. No, wait…Siegfied not being an idiot," Teri answered first.
"Teri actually growing and acting like an adult," Siegfied retorted.
"Why you," Teri huffed.
"Void also improving her cooking and acting like an adult," Thunder added with a sly smile.
"I will un-alive you," Void growled.
"Not serving, Master," Bella chimed in. Everyone turned to the dragon who just shrugged before slurping more noodles.
"How long was she standing there?" Tesla noted. She hadn't even noticed the Honkai Beast.
"She has mastered the art of standing so still, that she appears invisible to the naked eye," Void chuckled. "Good job by the way,"
"Thank you," Bella blushed.
"Alright, what about the rest of you?" Void questioned as she turned to Cecilia, Einstein, and Tesla. "What's an impossibility to you three?"
"Hmm…I don't believe there is much that is impossible," Einstein noted. "Just solutions and options we either don't know about or don't have the resources to explore." She answered.
"Likewise, I believe if given enough time and resources. Science can make all impossibilities possible," Tesla added.
"Well, that's good to know," Void said before turning to look at Cecilia.
"At the time…I had thought it would have been impossible to see and live with my family again…but you changed that," Cecilia explained. "Likewise, I had believed it was impossible to have a life beyond fighting, but Siggy changed that. I don't believe anything is impossible, difficult, and unlikely…but not impossible," Cecilia told the Herrscher.
"Okay…so tell me then…do you believe that…time travel is possible then?" Void questioned.
"Time travel," They all repeated. Void and Thunder could have sworn they heard gears clicking in everyone's heads after that statement was made. Unfortunately, they knew what conclusion everyone would draw and both braced themselves for the inevitability.
"Kiana," Cecilia, Siegfied, and Teri exclaimed. Void stiffened as she heard the name, knowing full well they were referring to her. Thunder likewise tightened her fist, aware that the mistake was easy to make to the uninformed. Kiana just blinked.
"Yes," the toddler answered. Void cast a silent glance at Thunder who understood immediately what to do.
"Kiana, I think Void is going talk about some boring adult stuff with everyone else and they want you to come and play with me and Bella," Thunder explained. Suffice to say the others read the situation and allowed the Herrscher and Honkai beast to leave the room while Void wished to point Shamash a second time to her head to avoid this discussion.
"Alright," Void said. "Now let's get back to this before I change my m-" She didn't get to finish before Cecilia interrupted her with her hug.
"Kiana…is it really you?" Cecilia choked. Her realization had left her in tears. That blast would have killed her. Her daughter would have grown up without her mother. It certainly started to put in perspective all her discussions with Void and the Herrscher wanting to be her daughter. It all made sense now.
Void stiffens at her touch and the mention of her old name. A part of her had been Kiana, once upon a time. Even then, the Kiana Cecilia was referring to and the Kiana Void had been, were two separate people. Void was tempted to lie; it would be so easy to lie now.
She could say she was in fact their future daughter grown up, but she knew she couldn't. Thunder would tell them the truth…and even if by some miracle the 3rd Herscher didn't, it would eat at Void. "I am neither Sirin nor Kiana, I am me, K-423, the Herrscher of the Void, no one else," She had once declared proudly to the world and her pride would not permit her to throw that away.
"No," Void whispered to her mother. "It's not Kiana." She muttered. "That's not my name and it never has been," Void answered. Perhaps she was a little roughr in her words than she needed to be, but she needed to squash this delusion they would have. Cecilia backed away when she felt Void gently push her back, breaking the hug.
"Kiana," Cecilia questioned trying to approach her once more, but Void held her at arm's length.
"I said that's not my name," Void said in her Herrscher voice. It came out as a growl, but it seemed to sink in this time as Cecilia backed away. "I am not your little girl. You never gave birth to me," Void explained. "So, squash that foolish notion," She told them.
"If you aren't Kiana, then who or what are you?" Siegfied question as he tried to comfort his wife, looking warily at the Herrscher. He wasn't aware of much of what was happening but if time travel was involved then he was sure it wasn't going to be pretty.
"The who is a question that will wait for later, as for the what," Not-Kiana answered. "I'm a clone of your daughter, Kiana's 423rd clone to be exact." She informed. "Made by Otto Apocalypse to serve as host for Void core and to be the successor to Sirin as the Herrscher of the Void," She explained. She wasn't ready for what happened next.
Without warning, Seigfied had gotten out of bed and had pinned Void to a wall. He looked at her dead in the eyes. "What happened to my daughter?" He questioned. The Honkai genes in his system had been barely suppressed, but hearing his daughter be experimented on by Otto had triggered something. Golden eyes met blue as he and Void stared at each other, a frown forming on one face and a scowl on the other.
"I don't know," Void said softly. "I never met her till I traveled to this time," Void answered. Siegifed seemed to accept it. She could spare him from the harsh truth of what happened for now. This was more than enough for them to know as it was. His grip loosened but she could still feel the tension from his being.
"Now it all makes sense," Einstein voiced, "how you knew everything, why you trusted us, why we couldn't find anything on you," She realized. "It's because you don't exist yet,"
"And I won't exist even in this timeline," Void answered. "Sirin has her core and Kiana has no clone. There won't be another Void," She admitted.
"So, wait, if you stopped yourself from being born, then how do you exist now," Teri questioned.
"And this is why I put it off," Void tried to laugh it off. This conversation was everything she dreaded, and she hadn't even reached the convoluted stuff…. okay the more convoluted stuff. "Time is a complicated subject, you think it's linear but really it's more like the branch of a tree, things may start from the same point, but as you progress things diverge. Just because I changed something in the past, doesn't mean I changed my own past. It just means I created an alternate future," Void explained.
"Okay," Teri spoke. "So, you're a clone of Kiana from a future that no longer exists." She reiterated. "You came back and undid your own creation…uh…why?" She questioned.
"My life isn't exactly the most pleasant in the future," Void answered. Seigfied's body turning to ash in her hands, Bella's death and enslavement to Thunder, the hatred of the world she grew to love, all weighing down on her. It had been a coward's move to run to the past, but Void didn't care at this point. It no longer mattered if it was cowardice, courage, wisdom, or stupidity. She told the few people that talked to her that she would disappear and then just left, Thunder followed her purely because she didn't trust Void and now they were here.
"I figured I'd come back, solve all the problems I could." Void explained. "I'd give Kiana and Sirin the chances they never got. I'd give Siegfied and Cecilia a chance at the life they were robbed of. I'd right the wrongs of the past," Void said.
"And how do we know you're truly righting the wrongs of the past," Tesla said suspiciously. "Even if we believe you're from the future, how are we so sure you aren't just playing us. It would be easy for you to deceive us and mislead us, and we wouldn't know about it till it was too late," She pointed.
Void resisted the urge to laugh. Past, Present, or Future, she always had to deal with this. Luckily she had gained enough experience for it. "Well Dr. Tesla, I suppose that's why trust is needed. You all said you couldn't trust me if you didn't know anything about me. Now you know, so now I'll just let you all make whatever assumptions you want."
"What about Thunder? What's her deal with this?" Einstein questioned. "Is she a clone too?"
"Nah, she's just a girl who ended up a Herrscher due to someone else. She isn't another consequence of Otto's existence mind you. She isn't even remotely involved with…this family…outside of being a student of St. Freya." Void explained.
"St. Freya!" Teri remarked. "She's a student of St. Freya." The conversation she had with Thunder, about her being a teacher, about where she learned to control her powers. Thunder had been one of the children she helped.
"Yes…she and…I…were classmates so to speak," Void answered. At least one-half of her was Mei's classmate.
"So those were battle suits you both wore," Cecilia realized. "You're both Valkyries." She had wondered about it. They looked like Valks but she had never heard of them, now she knew why.
"We were…not anymore," Void answered. "Let's just say becoming Herrschers wasn't exactly all fine and dandy for us,"
The Herrscher then paused as she glanced back at Sirin before turning back to the others. "That's about it for the questions and explanations. I trust that will satisfy your curiosity for now," She told them. She needed to end this now. She needed to get out of her.
"It's a lot to take in for sure," Cecilia noted. "I never expected it would be anything like this."
"Time travel, of all things why did it have to be time travel," Siegfied wondered.
"I'll let you all take your time to process this. When Sirin wakes up…we'll have even more to discuss and I assure you….it only gets worse from here," Void informed as she tried to joke about it. Humor that can diffuse the tension right? Maybe she wouldn't feel as stressed if she made some jokes.
"How much worse can it get?" Teri wondered. "Did the world end?" She questioned.
"I almost did it once," Void answered.
"That's a joke right?" Teri questioned.
Void said nothing.
"That's a joke…right?"
"Anyhow," Void said dismissing Teri's question. She then opened a portal and pulled out Siegfied and Cecilia's weapons. "I took the liberty of cleaning and polishing them. You're free to think what you want of me, but I trust this will put you at ease," Void told them as she handed over the pair of guns and the lance.
"Well good luck," Void told them as she teleported away. Part of her worried those weapons would be turned on her.
There was silence in the room before Cecilia fell back onto one of the beds. "I think I need a minute," Cecilia muttered. Siegfied rested an arm on her shoulder. He had only woken up a few moments ago and this was not what he expected. A part of him felt like he was still dreaming as his mind tried to accept what was happening.
"You're not the only one," Einstein noted.
"I should have stayed away," Tesla noted. Just what in God's name was this mess that she had gotten involved in. Time-traveling Herrscher clones. Suddenly the fallout of the end of the world didn't seem so bad.
Elsewhere Void reappeared in a forest, far away from the current base. She could feel her heart racing as her mind wandered to all the possibilities that may occur. "What were you thinking joking about ending the world," She cursed herself. They were suspicious of her. They had every right to be, and she just went and made things worse.
She always defaulted to making cynical remarks about her Herrscher side's desires. After her darker side's involvement in the fourth eruption, it had made her subsequent regaining a conscience even more difficult. People feared her and when she realized she couldn't change that, she defaulted to playing it up. Embracing the Void Queen of the Honkai persona. Now, that very coping mechanism might have doomed her once more.
As she continued to walk, tears began to form in her eyes. The haughty image she portrayed was slowly crumbling as it began to dawn on her what might happen. They had been fine with her being a stranger before, but now that she was a clone, she questioned if they would keep her. The doubts she always tried to suppress were now coming back full force.
Siegfied, her father, didn't treat her like a daughter when they first met. He was always distant. It was after she saved him that he was able to let go if only a little, but even then he still considered himself a failure. She couldn't do that to him again, be a reminder of his failure.
"Hey dad, you tried to save your real daughter from Otto, and manage to free me as well, but when you tried to escape with us, you lost your real one…but don't feel bad, you got over it with me eventually." She muttered to herself. Yeah, that was going to end well. He'd probably Shamash her right there and then.
"Maybe I should make it Mei's problem? Thunder can handle it better than we could." She questioned.
In her panicked state, the Herrscher failed to notice how she was starting to unravel at the seams.
"We can just leave. They aren't even my real family." Void continued.
"They will have Kiana and Sirin. Why would they need another?" She continued muttering. Her eyes began flashing multiple colors, cycling through blue then gold, then pink, mixing and matching her pupils.
Before long the Herrscher found herself in an arena of sorts hidden within the woods. This place was familiar, she knew it was, but the Herrscher couldn't place it. Her thoughts were becoming too loud. Void failed to notice the change in temperature of the world around her. Two eyes on the arena's wall glowed a vibrant blue as a voice spoke.
A.N. How the hell do you write a panic attack scene? I'm asking honestly. I tried writing one for Void if it wasn't obvious and I don't know how I did it.