The impact left stress fractures in the steel wall. Flecks of paint fell from the burnished metal where it contorted against the Valkyrja's body. Dropping to her knees, Mei tried to remain conscious. Heavy breathing left her bruised ribs aching. She took the few precious moments to gather herself, leaning on her blade as she gulped down air.
'A little longer. I just need to buy time. Himkeo-senpai will deal with the dragon and then come to support me.'
It was meant to be the other way around. Mei had plead her case to follow Himeko after their reunion at the Hyperion. Theresia had of course been against it. Bronya too. It was ironic that the two Anti-Entropy representatives had backed up Mei's plan. Dr's Einstein and Tesla thought it important to have backup just in case something went wrong.
'So much faith placed in me. I cannot fail.'
Finely tuned senses recognised the danger. A honkai lance clipped her brow as she rolled to one side, blood in thin rivulets coating her left eye. Two more honkai lance punched through the evening gloom, Mei on her feet and dodging as they struck the steel floor. Eyes scanning the darkness, the Valkyrja tried to sense her foe. Ever since entering the Helheim labs she had been on her own. The Honkai beasts seemed intent on keeping Mei her away from any allies. Once the bloody dusk had ended the blanket of night had cut off all sense of time. It could have been minutes, hours or days since she had been separated from Himeko.
'But Kiana found me. It took everything I had to run.'
Mei had been purely on the defensive. Barely seconds after locating her dearest friend, Mei had been forced to withdraw. Leaping from structure to structure, dashing between gas pipes and cooling towers, vents of steam obscuring her vision. All along the way she had been harassed and harangued. Kiana had been relentless in her assault. In the haste of her escape Mei hadn't realised she was standing atop a gas storage structure, a honkai lance penetrating the structure and detonating the chemicals within. The blast had seen her hurting away, crashing into the wall of the rooftop she now stood upon
More lances punched out from the shadowy sky, Mei dancing left and right, another clipping her right arm, carving a bloody gash down its length. Hissing with pain, Mei switched the blade to her left hand. The faintest blur of motion announced the arrival of Mei's opponent. Kiana hovered in mid-air, hands casually gesturing in her direction, lances following her directions. Fingers curling tightly abound the katana in hand, Mei consciously directed the latent Honkai energy coursing through her battlesuit. Feinting left, she dashed to the right, time dilating down as the spacetime distortion activated. Using the fractured moment Mei dashed behind Kiana and swept her katana in a wide arc. As the blade swung toward her target Mei looked up. Her eyes locked with the Herrscher already looking over her shoulder. With a contemptuous smirk Kiana disappeared. Instincts on overdrive, Mei adjusted her swing, bringing the katana flat over her back. A second later the honkai lance struck, impact sending Mei bowling forward—
[NO. NO. NO. We've already been here. There is no point to exploring this memory again]
Mei landed in a bloodied heap. The attacks ceased. The sounds of combat absent. Her world was still.
"Wait. What is this?!"
Mei looked all around. The smoke in the sky had frozen. She glanced back toward Kiana. The Herrscher of the Void remained frozen, the condescending smirk on her face unmoving, stilled void lance already launched from the spacetime portals she casually summoned. No heat radiated from the fire around her, the cold of the night did not press against her flesh, the air tasted not of bloody copper.
The only thing Mei was certain that she could feel was the bubbling of Honkai energy inside her.
'Is this the Herrscher's doing?'
[I'm not the Herrscher of Corruption. The one you hold in your hand is]
Mei was startled by the announcement. It came both from inside her mind and echoed all around her. Worse still the entity could read her thoughts.
"What is going on?" Mei asked aloud.
[I can give you the short or long version. You are going to die in less than a second. Please choose wisely]
The bubbling in Mei's stomach picked up. She reached down and touched hand to gut. Lifting it back up, crimson stained the digits.
"None… of this is real."
[Finally thinking for a change. No, it isn't. I've been racing back and forth through your memories trying to find a way to get out of our current predicament]
"So this here is…."
[When you faced the 2nd Herrscher. Well that isn't quite true. This is the memory you would have liked to have made. The dream you had in Singapore. Facing her down, some tearful acknowledgements and all that pap. Honestly when you did fight her it was a one-sided curb-stomp. She tore the Domination of Thunder literally from your chest and left you to die. Most embarrassing fight of our life]
Mei walked over to the frozen Kiana and touched her cheek. The woman crackled, turned to black before flaking away into nothing. Mei remembered what that was like. She recalled how anyone she touched disintegrated. She had been unable to hold anyone, to seek comfort in their arms or feel warmth of their presence. Until Kiana.
Pain pressed against Mei's mind. Her world blurred. An unpleasant sense of nausea. Images flashed one after another. Emotions flooded in hard. All manner of thought and experience pressed hard against her eyeballs. Mei choked out a sob. Through it all she tried to piece together some semblance of coherence.
"They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die."
[So, you think you're dying?]
"I'm in a building. Some sort of cafeteria. I found Kiana and—"
The nausea dropped Mei to her knees. A sharp feminine hiss echoed in her ears.
[Moron! We cannot go back yet. Not without an answer]
"There isn't one."
[You just give up then? Right now, a large bore bullet is pressed against your armoured gut. You're going to have a hole in your stomach that not even the Herrscher of Death can repair. So don't just say there isn't one]
"I'm not dying?"
[Really not paying attention, are we? As I said, I've been going back and forth through your memories. You're the Herrscher of Lightning, remember? That means electricity, that means electrons, that means charged particles and by extension all chemical bonds. Adjusting the speed of your neural processes as well as accurately reading all your memories is child's play]
Mei slowly picked herself up from the steel floor. Rubbing her head she tried to make sense of the melange of memories and experiences that permeated her consciousness. In that moment she had suddenly recalled in crystal detail everything she had ever done. That insight began to fade quickly.
"All those times. I recall you speaking to me. Each memory that bubbles up, you are there. I thought that was you speaking to me in that moment. But you were peering in from the here and now. The present assessing the past for possibilities."
[Finally using that mind of yours. It took you long enough]
"How long have you been doing this?"
[There haven't been any locomotives crashing through your mind. But it has taken far too long to get this far]
Mei stared up into the frozen sky. She wondered on the most recent set of memories that the Herrscher had replayed.
Kiana's golden eyes. That meant she was able to control her Herrscher power.
Tesla's inferiority complex. Even when she was incredibly talented.
The conversation with Kiana on the rooftop. What the responsibility between Honkai and Human regarding killing someone truly meant.
Her time with the kidnappers. She had become passive and submissive to save her life.
Fighting the Honkai in the woods during one of their first missions. She had continually refused to call on the power within her, even if would assist herself or others.
The slaughter at her middle school. She had wanted to make everyone disappear and had gotten that wish.
Mei took a deep breath and centred herself, exhaling slowly. When she opened her eyes, a double stood before her. The only difference was their eyes. Mei's pale lavender-blue compared to the double's distinct scarlet and vertical slit pupil.
"You haven't called me coward."
[Huh?] the duplicate responded.
"You call me coward. Everyone else are filth, worms, vile, scum and so on. But I'm always a coward, I'm always THE coward."
[I fail to see your point]
Mei smiled. It was a genuine smile. Simple and sweet. She extended a hand, holding it just short of her double, readied to gently stroke her face.
"We share the same brain and memories. You cannot lie to me. You called me a coward constantly in the past. But when I chose to fight the Herrscher of the Void, you were impressed."
The double's eyes narrowed. She smirked. The sort of smirk that mocked everyone with how little they truly understood. The double extended her hand, ready to affectionately touch Mei's face.
[I like the way you think]
"Of course you would. You're me."
The double burst out laughing. Genuine tears formed at the corners of her eyes.
[Finally tired of being a repressed little goody-goody?]
"I owe you an apology."
[Oh don't go all soppy now. You were so close]
Mei flicked the nose of her double. The woman winced, rubbing her face with her spare hand.
"Just shut-up and listen. For all the time's you did what I would-not or could-not, thank you. Now let's go back and beat some sense into that girl."
[For once you have a backbone and it's when we're gambling with our life]
Mei touched her double's face, the twin mirroring the action. They looked into each other's eyes. It was respect. It was pathos. It was love. Twins long separated. They fell into a passionate embrace. Chests gently rocking with either laughter or sobbing. It was anybody's guess which.
[Your master plan, not-coward?]
"What was the fourth thing I never got to say to Kiana in my dream?"
The double gripped Mei tighter as their world turned to humming electrical static.
[You beautiful beast. It's about time we tore this fucking rotten world apart]