"Downfall pt. 2"

Earlier… Several days ago…

ATLAS MOBILE HQ…

Irons was looking at the detailed anatomical chart on the large table in the briefing room. This made him smile, as the chart was right beside other holographic windows.

Irons – I had to be sure that the research on enhanced augmentation was completed when we're already in the world, and it's like clockwork. With this research and the applications to it proven a success, it's only a matter of time until this comes into fruition.

Genie then began to appear on the holographic table in her glowing blue form. Before greeting Jonathan, she was briefly looking at the holographic files. "Looks like you're able to find comfort in that research. Four years and some time after the first KVA attacks in your world and what you've done was give the world a chance to bask in the technologies you've given."

Irons chuckled. "The augmentation research had a big branch completely separate from its core function. To make the ultimate soldier, while also having equal strength, he or she can be independent from the use of the exosuit. And now those applications are completed from theory, we just need our first official test subject. Question is…" He looks at Genie with concern in his eyes. "…would she be enough?"

Dana entered the room and looked at Irons and Genie. "She has to be," she replied, assuming she knew about the subject the two were talking about. "You know she is."

Genie giggled. "Miss Caulfield, Mister Irons is only concerned of combining the Neuroi integration gene that could be inserted into the subject. It's a feat of genetic engineering at its finest."

"I don't doubt that," Dana replied. "But she could also be the first death if those tested theories are combined… An augmented soldier… and a human-Neuroi hybrid. Your research combined with his. You had less time of doing that research behind his back."

"…the research I allowed." Irons interrupted Dana. "Your concerns are noted, but there's always risk. Nonetheless, the only option now is to move forward with the integration of Genie's research. If my augmentation operation succeeds, it'll be followed by her Neuroi integration operation. Assuming she's gotten to equal knowledge to her matrix for her brief amount of time, I think she'll succeed with this."

"Careful," Dana warned Irons. "…because you're putting faith on an AI who helped you gather allies in this world. Just because she's one of them and now higher than they are, doesn't mean she couldn't overthrow you."

Genie only glared at Dana for a short period before it faded and she smiled. "Your concerns are well placed. It would seem your loyalty to him is as high as mine. I shall not compete. We'll be having an interesting time."

And Dana sees Genie's holographic image fade, leaving only her and Jonathan there. "So… I'm also here to inform you. One-three has located Litvyak's parents… hiding out in the mountain ranges of Orussia."

"To hide out until the war is over," Irons replied eventually bringing out the holo-images of Sanya's diary and pictures he's recovered. "I'm authorizing the action. Give my regards to Atlas One-Three."

"Understood. And… the girl?" Dana replied, pointing out the test subject for the augmentation operation.

Irons then put the image of a brown-haired girl on one of the screens of the briefing room. She was sleeping on a medical bed with a mask on her mouth. "Miss Caulfield… relay this message to the team: 'Begin the procedure'."

Dana chuckled. "Understood. I'm sure her sister will be as broken as Sanya would be." She said it as she briefly looked over Christiane's sleeping form before leaving the room behind.

I still have the ability to reach out and break my opponents… something I didn't have the guts to do before.

Present time…

Sicily Base…

1932 hours…

Trude's eyes didn't lie, as well as how her instincts kicked in after analyzing the human-hybrid revealing herself next to Lida, the traitor who had her gun pointed to Trude's forehead. She was helpless as she was on her knees with no feelings to her arms and legs on that runway. With Lida acting as a traitor, she could only realize that it gets worse.

Her younger sister was right next to Lida. "Chris…?" Trude called out to the Human-Neuroi hybrid girl. "That's… impossible… How have you grown to-?" She then looked at Lida. "What have you done?!"

"I haven't done anything. My new hosts have." Lida said before looking at the hybrid beside her. "Christiane… Meet your sister."

And Christiane glared at Trude. "I know," she spoke in a combination of human and some type of robotic voice that's only heard partially. "And I wish I wouldn't be here to see her."

"What are you talking about? It's me, Chris!" Trude said this just as Lida pulls her pistol off her forehead. It was then she saw Chris put her hand on Trude's neck and squeezed to choke her. "Ugh-ack…!"

Christiane then lifted her sister up, feeling her anger was real as she grits her teeth. "I felt helpless in bed. And what were you doing all this time? Taking glory for yourself. It's hard enough to watch you fight. It's much harder I felt envy… especially when you got yourself a new sister." Then she lets go of Trude, seeing her sister hit the ground but still couldn't use her legs or arms.

And Trude only had the strength to look at Chris. All this anger Chris had didn't make sense to her. "Chris…! I… never replaced you."

"You sure about that?" Chris smirked at her, and used her enhanced senses to hear running steps from a corridor in the building that leads outside. Chris then sees who it was. Yoshika Miyafuji was surprised that Lida was with who seemed to be familiar. And Chris knows she never met Yoshika personally. "Ah. Speaking of that subject…"

Yoshika couldn't believe it. She had a brief time of looking at Barkhorn's picture of herself and Chris, and this was definitely the same appearance of Chris, only looking older and having Neuroi properties on her body. "You're her…"

Chris raised her hand, with her palm being human, but then turned into a scale of a Neuroi hexagon. "Hello, Miyafuji." A glow from the hexagon made Yoshika confirm it was a beam emitter, but the beam fired first.

Yoshika couldn't react that fast, so she deployed her shield. While it wasn't huge, she was able to pinpoint where the beam would hit. For a split second, she deployed her shield and it completely blocked the beam, though it pushed her into the entryway and onto a wall, giving that portion a crack while she collapsed on the floor taking the brunt of the damage. 'That was so strong…' She thought of that just as she grits her teeth, trying to get up with her arms first. Then she tried something unorthodox, but she needed to follow her heart when she looked at Chris, now approaching her. "Chris… Please… Your sister… She needs you."

And Chris stops walking, seeing that Trude was still on the ground. Then she heard another set of footsteps.

"MIYAFUJI!" Mio was sprinting towards an unsuspecting Chris or so she thought, with her katana equipped. "YAAAAA!"

Chris knew better and turned around just to see Mio slash at her. She raises her arm and fires another beam. It was a good thing Mio had her blade forward, so as to direct the beam to part. And this made Chris intrigued by Mio, surviving between the parting beams as she tried to keep her beam steady. It was damaging the walls while Mio was pushing forward. "Don't fight me. Otherwise, it's my sister who gets it!"

Lida then aimed her pistol right at Barkhorn's head. "She's right, you know."

Mio gasped and saw that it was real. The one she was fighting was actually an older version of Chris. "Wait… Impossible…!"

Chris stopped emitting her beam just in time to see that Mio was already tired and got on her knees to breathe while keeping her sword Reppumaru held with one hand. "I had a feeling you were getting tired. You're old… and obsolete."

Yoshika was surprised just as Mio is, but she couldn't understand. It was like the Chris that Trude was expecting was completely different. So Yoshika tried to reason with Chris. "Chris, please! Don't you remember her?! She's your sister, and we're her friends!"

"Perhaps. But that might change. I have orders. Make this place uninhabitable." Christiane said this, mostly not changing her flat tone while she aimed her palm beam emitter at Yoshika. "I have a life I cannot lose to. I hope that means something to you." She charged that emitter and attempted to release a beam.

Yoshika – I couldn't just ignore that sadness and anger she felt. Though this Chris was different in personality, her raw anger was real… How could I not show sympathy?

But it was also that sympathy that had one of us killed.

"NOOO!" Mio got up and got in the way of the emitter and a narrow blue beam was released. The beam went through Mio's chest and it exited out of her back. She collapsed, having felt backwards.

Yoshika catches Sakamoto and she started to shed tears. Mio wasn't bleeding out, but her internal bleeding didn't make things any different. "Major…! MAJOR!"

And Chris saw how this was going. Mio, an obsolete witch protected someone who Chris expected was strong. This made Chris smirk. Being wrong just made her pleased. And she aims her palm beam emitter at Yoshika and charges for another attack. "I thought you were better. Stronger. Waste of life. My sister doesn't deserve you."

Trude only saw this as she was helpless. While the effect on her paralysis was almost wearing off, she didn't take chances and tried to help by shouting at Yoshika. "YOSHIKA… SAVE YOURSELF!"

Lida grits her teeth and suddenly kicks Trude's head hard, knocking the Karlslander captain unconscious. "So annoying. Chris! Stop playing with your prey."

"Resilient and lucky pray, actually." Chris said it just as she heard steps on the corridor. A girl with orange hair accompanied by a shorter blonde was running. "This will be fun." She said this to herself before she charged beam emitters with both her palms and aimed at the two targets.

Shirley half-expected it and deployed her shield just in time as the blue beams came quick to her. "Gwa-! AAAH!" Shirley held on and almost slid. Erica wasn't as lucky even having deployed a shield as she was knocked back to the floor. And two beams focused on her shield. Holding both hands forward to focus, she sees Yoshika and Mio near the entryway leading to the runway. "Yoshika… You gotta move her! Move the Major away!"

Yoshika noticed Shirley was giving orders, and sees Chris moving forward towards Shirley who was unarmed. 'No… It's becoming a nightmare…!'

"Atlas Zulu 2-1 on approach." The radio transmission had been heard on Lida's earpiece.

And Lida smiled, seeing from afar in the darkness that an ATLAS Warbird had de-cloaked and started to open fire on nearby soldiers. And then another Warbird de-cloaked and shot up another direction where there was a machinegun nest that wasn't prepared. "You boys are right on time."

Eila was flying low and almost skimming the waters of the ocean while her eyes were forward that night when she gasped and widened her eyes, like she saw something she should fear. She hovered, and then looked back on where she came from. "No… No! It's happening now?! I can't just-!" She then looked to the direction where Sanya had last disappeared to, then looked back at where she came from.

Eila – I've been faced with hard choices before, but not something like this. Having seen a vision of all my friends back at Sicily dying, I felt as if I had to make a stand on only one way. But… Sanya… She wasn't deserved to be out of our family… out of my life… when it all mattered.

As Eila was looking at where she came from, she heard a drone of engines come from behind her. Turning around, she could see a figure flying at her altitude. And then she began to recognize it from afar… The magic antennae and the hair she couldn't forget. "S-Sanya…?" She muttered that to herself just before Sanya hovered just a fair distance from her. She noticed Sanya was only looking at Eila. So to make a move, Eila moved forward. Relieved that Sanya isn't moving from her spot, Eila flew faster.

Sanya's eyes were one of a primal black cat's. She was vigilant as well as concerned of Eila coming to her. But she wasn't aggressive, letting Eila near her again. As Eila got close and hovered to stop at a few feet away, Sanya spoke. "I hope what I thought would have worked."

Eila winced at it. "What would have?"

"My plan… or none if you didn't come. But I knew you were stubborn." Sanya glared at Eila. "And you'd be sensing it."

"Wait… Did you know about-?"

"I was looking at the bigger picture." Sanya spoke. "When I broke and I became the no-softie Sanya you see here now, I figured. They were playing mind games with me. And it's something they'd do to keep us apart."

"You're right. I've seen the vision. They've attacked Sicily."

"…without me there, they never would have seen it coming." Sanya continues Eila's statement.

"And you knew this?!" Eila glared at Sanya and became upset, hovered close and put her hands on Sanya's collar on her clothes. "You have such an ego that you put everyone at risk just for your hunch?!"

"I needed to know if they'd really take the bait and they have! That's the opponent we're facing!" Sanya shouted right back at Eila at almost the same intensity. "And now you know the lengths they'd stoop to just to be victorious. This is the world we're in. And I'm just getting started on adapting on what they think."

Eila grits her teeth, now much angry. She lets go of Sanya and for once was in Sanya's place for once as she lifted her hand with an open palm and swung it to her friend. It was loud and strong, and Eila couldn't bring it back now. She slapped Sanya and it was going to last in their minds. "I… I don't know you anymore…" Eila hovered back to get herself away from Sanya.

"Please stop," Sanya said that, now with her voice as less firm as it used to be. Turning her eyes to Eila, it seemed her eyes were back to its normal color and she had that sad emotion. "I'm sorry if things went that way, but I needed to be sure. Our enemy doesn't take lives for honor, but it's for their pleasure now. And with how I perceived them, I thought it could be how I could perceive the world." Sanya holds the cheek she slapped on and looked at Eila in sadness. "I'm stained… though not as Yoshika and Francesca… I know I wanted to taste their blood for myself. I can't change that."

Eila looked at Sanya in disgust and turned her head away, closing her eyes. "You know I can't follow you on that dark path… no matter what your intentions are, even if it is for saving us. Heck… You were trying to get us killed just to see if you were right-" Eila gathered her angered emotions and glared at Sanya again. "AND YOU WERE RIGHT, JUST AS ALWAYS! Now it seems you're happy our friends are getting killed."

"That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm saying you all don't deserve the likes of me when I think of revenge. And I WANT… REVENGE." Sanya was speaking while her eyes turned into her familiar black cat's eyes while shedding tears.

Eila then heard a sound of engines flying from behind. Noticing that Minna and Kathryn caught up, they stood behind her, staying silent while Eila and Sanya talk. "So… You wanna quench your thirst for once?"

Sanya winced. "What?"

"Put aside that quest of yours." Eila speaks, deciding to hold her emotions for a better time. "If not to save us, then do it to bathe in their blood as much as you want. We'll never take the lives of your parents back, so here's your chance for them to see you as you are now."

Sanya was surprised and chuckled. "You're such a tease, Eila. But don't you want me back yourself?"

"That's clearly not going to happen anymore." Eila shakes her head, solemnly knowing she can't take Sanya back… not at the state she's in. "If you wanna follow your heart, I'm gonna do the same thing. All I'm asking is… I want you to indulge in the revenge you're still seeking."

Sanya took that as a sweet statement to Eila and smiled. "You're speaking my language. That's a first that I'd experienced it this way…" And her smile faded as she slowly hovered to Eila. Putting her hand to Eila's cheek, she looks at Eila with her own black cat's eyes. "Nya…"

Eila didn't expect Sanya's finger to pinch her cheek and a nail to scratch down deep. "Ow…!" Eila winced in pain and felt that deep scratch turn into a scar and was slightly bleeding from it. "What's that for-?"

"Just something to remember me by… as I am. This is a kind gesture you're giving me. If you have to get it healed, don't. Yoshika or just as anyone can stitch it up. I want you to keep it there as a reminder that I've changed." Sanya glared at Eila. "If you don't, I'll just kill you where you stand."

"I'm not complaining." Eila smiled. "Now… Aren't you supposed to kill your prey?"

"Not without proper motivation to allies I trust." Sanya said that, eventually looking at Minna and Kathryn. "Sicily base has gone under attack. I'm quenching myself in blood while I can't expect leaders who ordered my parents killed to be there directly. It'll come in time. But what I DO want are the heads of my enemies on a stake."

Minna only looked at Kathryn, then back at Sanya. "Take point. I'll join from behind followed by Bolton and Juutilainen."

No further discussion was done just as Sanya started to fly back from where she came from, followed by Minna, Kathryn and Eila in formation. All four were expecting hostiles when they return to Sicily.

Earlier at Sicily… it was about to get messy. Shirley was knocked back to the wall on the corridor after having been overpowered by Human-Neuroi hybrid Christiane. Erica Hartmann stands and attempts to attack with her offense magic Sturm and it knocks away Chris, damaging her ribs and her single leg. She groans in pain while she regenerates lost pieces of herself.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO TRUDY?!" Erica asked in rage. "You're not Chris!"

Chris snorts and aims her palm emitter at Erica and fires a beam, hitting only Erica's shield. "I'm the angry side of her. Deal with it."

Perrine, Lynette and Francesca each had pistols. After realizing the base was under attack, they had to arm themselves with what they could find. And guiding themselves outside at the other end of the runway, Perrine ran into trouble: An ATLAS Warbird unloading mercenaries. Once they fired at her, she deploys her shield while Francesca and Lynette stay strong to return fire with their pistols.

"This is just unorthodox!" Perrine said this, holding her shield up as it was getting hit by rounds.

Lynette was firing and didn't let up. "I wish I had my rifle at a time like this…! Perrine… Too many of them! Please… Sword and Shield!"

"Good call." Perrine replied as her arms emitted some electricity. While the two understood it, they deployed shields of their own and Perrine drops hers and grits her teeth while releasing her offense magic. "TONNERRE!" Using both arms, she released bolts of lightning right at the squad of mercenaries. They get shocked, and their weapons get fried, while the grenades they carried started to go off one by one. Once the area was clear, she had to make another move. "Quick! Our strikers are still in the hangar!"

Yoshikawa and Kuhn were paired up and they each had submachine-guns on hand. After pressing against a two-man patrol, they noticed there was more gunfire near the car pool. They eventually find Maximoff firing two MG 42's at another squad alone, taking out all of them in one sweep.

Maximoff takes cover behind the parked jeeps while being joined by her teammates. "They're swarming in like they mean to kill us!"

"A shock tactic." Kuhn replied, commenting on what the mercenaries are aiming it. "We gotta fight them off and let them lose momentum! Michiko! I need you to cover! Maximoff, lay down fire!"

"Da!" Maximoff replied before seeing another squad of mercenaries fire at their position. She exposes herself, firing MG 42's at the hostile combatants while Kuhn and Yoshikawa flank and engage the squad from their side.

Paulsen who was just joining from behind her teammates, throws an unpinned grenade right at the squad. Seeing it too late, the squad gets decimated in an explosion. "Exactly! Watch your footing!" She said it just as she joins Maximoff in cover.

"About time," Helena Maximoff said. "Where's Kathryn?!"

"Still in flight, but I don't know if she'll be back so soon. More birds coming in for a sweep!" Paulsen said that, displacing to another position for better cover.

ATLAS Mobile HQ…

Irons was looking at the cameras the mercenaries have on their heads and a separate monitor from the satellite view while he had staff working for the operation. "They're quite resilient and I'm taking losses."

Genie had activated herself as a holographic image to accompany him. "My forces are about to arrive. Soon, the base will be nothing but dust."

"And our defector?"

"I just had word from our resident witch. She'll oversee the extraction personally." Genie replied, with her disdainful tone. "I sometimes get annoyed of her tastes."

"That's what makes her unique in a way. She doesn't think like an operator, but she has her uses." Irons said it and chuckled for a bit.

Sicily base… Under siege…

Trude was finally getting her bearings and was healing from her paralysis smoothly. Sitting up, she realizes she was in the mess hall. And she winced at something else. Right across her in the room, she saw Lida, holding a survival knife and had her familiar features out. Trude could see Lida's face of lust, and it felt disgusting. "I thought you you could have killed me to save the trouble."

"What good would that do if you couldn't fight?" Lida chuckled, walking to her target. "Removes the thrill. Doesn't do me justice on the goal I liked to achieve."

Trude deploys her familiar features herself, punching her two fists together to make the earth shake a bit and glares at Lida. "No wonder Sanya didn't like you at all. You're a stalker."

"That's how I act in front of my favorite Snowflake." Lida then walked faster and began to stab at Trude.

Responding in kind, Trude evaded the knife and hits Lida with her elbow, but she didn't expect she'd be hit with Lida's knee to her torso.

The next several moments involved both girls hitting and evading each other in close range. It flipped tables and chairs. It bruised and scratched them both. Trude showed her strength, and Lida shows her unwavering resilience to her likes of blood, even nailing a few scars at her opponent.

Shirley was thrown out the window of the building and next to the runway of the base. Two blue beams carved a hole between the wall and window before it collapsed down to the outside. Christiane walked out, glaring at the Liberion who was just getting up.

"When will you learn?" Chris said this just as she charged her palm emitters and aimed at the downed Shirley. She didn't expect someone to suddenly ride her. And it was Erica with her small body riding Chris and using her elbow to hit the head. "Ow-ahhn! GET OFF ME!"

"STOP… HURTING… MY… FRIENDS!" Erica said those words at each hit she made on the Neuroi hybrid's head, just until her arms were caught. "Whoa-OOOH!" Erica was thrown forward towards Shirley, and hits the Liberion, making them both crash down to the ground.

"ENOUGH!" Chris shouted in anger. "You two will DIE! NOW!" She aimed both her palm emitters right at the two downed witches and fired her blue beams. And both Hartmann and Shirley deployed their shields. "GRAAAAAAHHH!" She increased the intensity of her beams and they grew bigger. With Shirley and Erica weakened severely, they doubted they would hold their magic shields long enough. Then Chris noticed a drone of engines coming from outside the base, not expecting company. "What…?!"

Eila and Sanya flew next to each other firing their machineguns right at the humanoid Neuroi hybrid shouting their battlecry together as bullets fly. The sight of these two had other witches on the ground cheering for them, as the humanoid was pushed away from her position and brought to slam a nearby building wall.

Chris was damaged but she was regenerating, replacing her tissue and clothing quickly with the Neuroi cells that keep most of what she is. "Damn you… resilient… I'll give you all that…"

Meanwhile, Minna and Kathryn covered each other, paired to use shields and fire from different directions as they both engaged the Warbirds. "My Six!" Kathryn shouted this and they switched positions with Minna firing at that direction. "Shield! Our 3!" Minna would shout that out and Kathryn would deploy a shield on that same direction, as if their tight coordination was there for years. They were keeping themselves alive with the pairing technique they're using.

Finally, Perrine was able to find her weapon at the hangar along with Lynette and Francesca. "We're going in the air, NOW! Let's teach them who they're messing with!"

ATLAS Mobile HQ…

Irons was becoming impatient. The resilience was beginning to match the losses he's receiving and he's called the coordinator close to him. "Tell all of them they're pulling out. Reserve Echo 4-2 for the extraction of the principle."

"Yes, sir!" The coordinator replied and started to issue orders for most of the ATLAS units to evacuate.

"Genie," Irons spoke to Genie's holographic self in the room. "Show them you mean business. Unleash hell."

Genie chuckles evilly. "You don't need to tell me twice, dearest friend." Her holographic image then disappears.

Sicily Base… under siege…

The night was just about to get worse for the witches. Neuroi nanites fly through the air in a tight swarm formation. They look like very small insects from far away, but once they're together, they form a cloud of themselves that cannot easily be underestimated. The swarm then arrives at the end of the runway and each little nanite lands on the ground, just as they were all forming delicately into parts of a humanoid, forming and fusing together to make a singular humanoid which takes several seconds. The thickness of the swarm was disappearing as the humanoid takes form right in front of everyone. Genie was there to open her eyes, show her human skin with blue lines and hexagons on her body while having long golden blonde hair. But unlike Chris, she has the most majestic figure that isn't like any other.

Chris looks at Genie from afar while regenerating. And she laughs maniacally. "Hahahaha… All you witches are dead now!"

Genie looks solemnly at Chris who was still surviving. Chuckling, she spoke. "Yes. Perhaps you're right."

As ATLAS Warbirds began to fly away and retreat while de-cloaking, Sanya hissed like a cat, attempting to pursue but was stopped by Eila. "LET ME GO!" she demanded.

"No, look!" Eila said this to get Sanya to look at the new humanoid Neuroi that appeared from a swarm of Neuroi.

And soon as every witch had their attention on Genie, they realized it themselves. There was something very different from this Neuroi humanoid… like this one acted like a young mother.

Genie chuckled, having finally caught the attention of everyone in the base. "I'm glad you all noticed. I am… Genie. Everyone however from my same genus calls me… the Al-mother." Putting her arms in front of her and her palms upward, she releases two large beams up in the sky. Looking up with a smile, the beams extend upward for a certain distance. It took several seconds before she stopped.

What changed the favors of the witches to a grim level was the fact that there were a number of medium-type Neuroi vessels that appeared a distance from the base, and a few more Large-type ones coming from another direction.

What odds have the 501st faced in their impending doom before?