"Oh, I think you have much more immediate concerns" Morando purred as he appeared in the same golden glow as the siblings from behind the trolls, swinging his serator without much care for the children nor the memory before him.
"No!" Krel & Aja chorused, both upset at the loss of yet another memory, but also upset at the prospect of fighting the dictator within their parents' own mindscape. The memory they were within vanished in a haze of blue as Morando wrought havoc, and they returned to the endless cavern upon which they had first arrived.
"Be careful, my royals!" Mother called as they ran, dodging wayward memories as they went. "If Morando kills you inside the Totality, you will be lost!"
"You're only saying this now?!" Krel exclaimed as he jumped aside, away from the gunfire that now rained down upon them. "Wake us up!"
"No! If we run away, Morando will destroy Mama & Papa's memories and cores!" Aja refuted as she gripped her serator in hand and spun on her heel to return fire.
"Great talk! Glad we talk the time to weigh all our options!" Krel snarked as he too turned to follow after his suicidal sister.
"I s'pose I should thank you" Morando leered as he easily danced around Aja's attacks, only occasionally parrying her blade when it came a tad too close. "If you hadn't fled to this miserable planet—"
"YAHH—" Aja prepared to fire a blast towards the disgraced General with her rage fuelling her intent to form a canon like the one Mama had in her previous memory.
"Aja, no! You might damage a memory!" Krel cried as he was easily tossed aside.
"—I never would have learnt that Gaylen's core actually existed or where to find it" Morando continued as if they hadn't spoken. Instead, he reeled back his blade and tossed several of the orbs back towards them, making Krel dive for the orbs in an attempt to save them from being destroyed.
"How did Mama do that…?" Aja wondered as she curiously inspected her serator like it held all the world's answers.
"—Why settle for being a king, when I could be a god instead?" Morando stalked towards her with his serator cockily hefted over his shoulder, leaving him wide open.
"You're no god, you're no king" Aja denied as she forgot her serator dilemma for a moment & placed herself between her brother and the General. "You're a traitor!"
With that war cry, she charged forth with her blade barely hanging perpendicular to the ground. Behind her, she could hear her brother's cries for her to stop, to quit trying to hack off the General's head when it clearly wasn't working, but she ignored him. Instead when she was no more than a hair's breathe from the traitor, her blade transformed into a large shield which she dove into, knocking his feet out from under him. Of course, her success against Morando did not last long as expected and she was quickly blasted away, in favour of Krel who had charged in to try again only to be caught by his throat and dangled high up in the air.
"Still trying to save Mama and Papa?" Morando taunted as Aja pushed herself back up to her feet. Their parents' titles rolled off of his tongue like molasses and it sounded like acid in their ears; it was clear that there was no love lost between the two parties.
"No, no, no!" Aja surged forward without a real plan in mind when she saw what was happening to her brother. She was met with the muzzle of a rouge serator, stopping her in her tracks with Mother's warning ringing in her head.
"When are you going to realise that they died on Akiridion-5?"
"N-no!" Krel choked out, struggling in his grasp as the General raised his blade to end them all. Or so they thought. Every orb, every memory, song, dance, fight, tantrum and dream suddenly whirled to life, creating a tornado in which they were all trapped together.
"This cannot be possible!" Mother breathed as the orbs moved of their own accord and smashed themselves against Morando with enough force for him to drop Krel & back away from Aja.
"What's happening?!" Krel exclaimed as Aja dragged to his feet and the pair scrambled to get clear of the murderous traitor at their backs.
"It's Mama and Papa" She said it with such certainty that he almost believed her. She didn't know how she knew, but there was something deep down inside that told her it was so. "They're fighting for us!"
Unable to speak for themselves, the orbs played extracts from their memories instead as they fell from the sky and battered themselves against the weathered General without restraint. "Mama! Papa!" Krel cheered in glee, more than happy to know that Morando's taunts about their deaths were untrue. Here they were, alive and protecting their children without the care for their own sanity. Soon enough, echoed incarnations of the king and queen flickered to life amongst the falling orbs and whilst not as durable as their vessels, the memories were more than enough to hold back and overwhelm the General.
"Mama and Papa saved us!" Krel beamed as they blinked rapidly against the golden light which showed Morando had been expelled from the programme.
"My royals! I'll protect you!" Mother cried when she saw what he was about to do. The Tarron siblings suspected that Mother had not intended for them to overhear her, but they did and it was what came next that pulled they worry back to the forefront of their minds. "Nngh! Nngh! Ah—AAAAAHHHH!"
"Huh? Mother? What's going on out there?" Krel panicked as the memories continued to fall even with Morando gone.
"Morando is…attacking the…royal cores!" Mother grit out, the pain evident in her tone. "The stasis chamber…is…failing—AH!"
"Mother!"
"What's going on—?!"
"…Aja, we love you" Mama briefly flickered to life in increments, separated by their father who said much the same to Krel.
"Aja, Krel…"
"…Aja…"
"…Aja, Krel—!"
"…Aja…"
"Aja?"
"…Mama?" Aja asked hesitantly, her golden fingers just barely grazing the pixels of her mother's face.
"I cannot…protect them…for long!" Mother warned as electricity crackled through her vessel and Dan's memory of dying by electrocution superimposed the fear into her core. Fear, that she had never quite felt before and battled with the need to protect. Fear and protect, protect and fear; round and round they went even as the Omens beat against the door and Morando unrelentlessly pounded against the healing pods. She could only hope that her vessel would hold out long enough to retrieve the siblings from the Totality. "My royals…you need…to get out…of there!"
"How? There's no way out!" Krel retorted, eyes narrowed to find any sort of escape amongst the raining orbs.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" The pain was too much—the fear too much—and Mother soon found herself crumpling beneath the weight of it all. Luug, forever worried, nudged at her heavy limbs but she could barely raise a finger let alone move to release the siblings. Hopelessness swam within her core and beat against her ribcage like a tidal wave.
"…You are extraordinary, Aja" Mama murmured even as she glitched horrendously. "You could leave this palace, fly far away from our world and your destiny would follow you…"
"You…n-need to…get out…of…th-there…" Mother croaked, her voice sounding far away. "Get out…get o-out…"
"Krel!" Aja gasped as Mama flickered once, twice, thrice and then was gone for good. Standing in her place, the queen-in-waiting found the exit she and her brother had been searching for. "Krel! There's a way out!"
"Run!" Krel gasped as he scrambled up from the floor where he had knelt at his father's feet and grabbing his sister's hand, booked it for the golden light which had expelled Morando from the programme only moments before.
Returning to the mothership with much the same fanfare as when they had departed, the two siblings dropped the short distance from the core readers to the floor and scrambled to their feet, intent on making it their parents before Morando could do too much damage. "We gotta get to Mama & Papa!" Krel rushed out before a low & painful groan from across the way caught their attention.
"Morando's forces…are outside…waiting" Mother grunted, barely able to push herself up onto her elbows as ectoplasm leaked from her vessel like sweat.
"Kleb!" Krel cursed as he quickly hurried over to support the weakened vessel. Mother's head lolled against Krel's shoulder as a trail of ectoplasm trickled from her ear and down his arm.
"I got this!" Aja declared as jumped to her feet with serator in hand and a look of determination set in her features as she faced down the door that had warmed considerably with the Omens' attacks. Several puddles of water gathered about the door where Mother had tried to use Dan's ice to reenforce the door, but it only held for so long.
"C'me on Mama, help me out" Aja pleaded as she cocked her serator with eyes squeezed shut as if she were trying to picture the weapon in her mind. "RAH!"
As the war cry left the queen-in-waiting's lips, Mother inhaled sharply when she felt Dan—the original halfa—draw near. She grew stiff in his arms, vision tinted green and the feeling of concern mixed with worry and panic soon flooded her. "Mother?" Krel cautiously asked as her eyes became ignited in the green of the halfa she inhabited. But she was unable to answer because in her weakened state, the link between original and duplicate finally clicked back into place, allowing her to see what Dan saw. Blinking rapidly, she soon found herself diving across the threshold of the front door as the last of the Omens were scattered across the lawn like garden gnomes. She blinked again and she was back in Krel's arms, tinted vision titled up towards his concerned gaze as her vessel called for the safety of its original's core.
KABOOM!
The implosion from Aja's blast easily blew the door off of its hinges, the Omens that had gathered behind it and anyone else who had the misfortune of getting stuck in the crossfires. "Most impressive!" Vex complimented as he peered around the corner to find only a blackened Omen leg or two still standing and Aja's shocked face beyond that.
"Varvatos! We need your help!" Krel cried as he hauled himself to his feet with one of Mother's arms slung over his shoulder whilst Aja rushed back to take the other one. "Mother's hurt and our parents' cores are failing!"
"We need to hurry!" Agreed Aja as Mother was transferred to the Commander's arms as they headed for the infirmary.
It was only once they had arrived that they saw just how much damage Morando had done to the healing pods, and in turn, the royal's cores. Krel immediately set to work trying to fix the pods, but no matter what he tried, he was forever hitting a brick wall. "…Did you reroute the biometric capacitors?" Vex tried as Krel fiddled with his father's pod.
"Of course" Krel hissed as Mother let her head fall back against the wall that Vex and set her against upon arrival. It wouldn't be long now before she would have to evacuate from this vessel, even at the rate it was healing.
"…What about unplugging the pods and then plugging them back in?" Aja tried desperately.
"That isn't the answer to every technical problem, Aja!" He hurried over to the control panel that flickered with many alerts and warnings in blinking red. "No! No, no, no! No, no, no…! I don't think there's anything else I can do. We—we're losing them"
Mother watched as the Tarron siblings clung to each and wept, how the sorrow filled the room like water in a tank, how even the stoic Commander appeared solemn as he placed a hand upon the glass of the closest pod. With the knowledge that her vessel was close to collapse, a crazy stupid idea came to mind just as Dan—the original—appeared in the doorway, looking slightly flushed under the wet hair & clothes that clung to him like a second skin. Her eyes met his and he nodded minutely. Through their link, she could feel the wariness at the idea of more electrocution beneath the overwhelming need to protect, to help and save. It was these qualities—these feelings—she noted absently as she stumbled to her feet, that were likely what had made him a good hero.
"I—I may have an idea" Mother croaked, her voice hoarse from all the screaming.
"Huh?" Aja broke free from the hug, though tears still glistened in her eyes.
"I still have some energy reserves. They are scarce, but they should be enough to power the stasis chamber"
"Mother, if you do that, you'll be erased" Krel whimpered. "Forever"
"And if I don't, the king and queen will die. This is our only option"
"Mother! Please, no!" Aja wept as she threw herself down in her lap. "Krel! Fix this!"
"I—I just—I c-can't…" Krel choked.
"What—what about your vessel? What about Dan? Won't this hurt him?"
"It's okay" Dan replied softly, surprising them as he stepped from Vex's shadow. "It's just a duplicate, I won't feel it" Both Dan & Mother knew he was lying, but neither were about to say otherwise.
"I have seen you endure everything during your time here on Earth" Mother soothed with fingers carding through Aja's hair as Krel came to join them. Her other hand came up to mirror those actions but Krel simply held tight to the limb, refusing to let go. "And I've learnt so much. What it means to be a family, what it means to love. I've watched you truly sacrifice for those that you love. I will go, and you will remember me. Isn't that what a mother does?"
"Mother…I'm scared" Aja sobbed.
"I am scared too, but I also feel love, and pride, and peace" Mother pulled the two to her and hugged them close. In the background, Dan prepared himself for the immense pain he was about to feel when Mother extracted herself rather painfully from his duplicate. "I gather this will make a good bedtime story, one day"
"I—I'll promise to tell it" Aja chuckled sadly as Mother gently pushed them off of her and rose to her feet. The walk up the aisle between the two pods felt like it took an age, even as she paused to glance back at those behind her. Again, Dan spared her a tight-lipped smile and a nod as he braced himself against the far wall.
"I—I never though a glorious death could hurt this much!" Vex wept as he swept up the siblings into his arms.
"We—we'll miss you, Mother" Krel sniffled from where he was tucked into Vex's embrace.
"And I'll miss you, my royals" Mother farewelled one last time, before she turned back to the core of the healing pods and placed her hands either side of the damaged wires.
KRR~WHIR! WHIR! WHIR!
Dan grit his teeth together until he felt like his fangs were going to fall out as a familiar pain rippled through him. Unlike last time when he had been electrocuted, he was prepared for the sensation (although can you really be prepared for that kind of thing?) and as Mother's energy surged and travelled down his duplicate's arms into the ship, he fisted his hands tight enough to draw blood & ectoplasm. Tears prickled at his eyes as he forced himself to keep them open, as his low moans were drowned out by Mother's wailing screeches of pain, as the Akiridion's sobs turned to wails, as lights surged & sparked, as his senses whited out to static and Mother eventually, fully assimilated with her ship.
Without a consciousness to keep the duplicate upright (and with his own buried deep beneath the sudden pain they had just experienced), the vessel collapsed at their feet, no more than a puddle of green gooey ectoplasm and congealed blood. In turn, Dan leant heavily against the wall behind him, hands still clenched tight but now more so to hide the shaking of his limbs than to avoid crying out in pain. Part of him knew that he should retrieve the excess ectoplasm and reabsorb the duplicate which he had lost, but he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a decade.
In the end, biology won out as the ectoplasm which had once been host to the Akiridion AI crept along the ground like a giant green slug, and over towards Dan. "…Mother?" Aja whispered, quietly, hopefully as the halfa, who up until this point had kept back and out of sight, pushed himself upwards with a grunt of effort and hobbled over to greet the odd green slug. Shaky and moon-indented hands cupped together as another quiet grunt fell from his lips, this time in favour of the reabsorption process which felt like he was sweating in reverse. The entire process could've taken no more than a few minutes but it felt like forever as eyes burned into his back and stifled sniffles played in his ears.
Above his head, the red lights that had been blinking alerts and warnings suddenly flickered back to their original blue as all read better than they first thought. Both sibling rushed forward to check on their parents, Aja towards their mother and Krel towards the control panel whilst Dan eventually hauled himself back upright and retreated for the far wall to care to the sudden headache brought on by the duplicate's feedback. "She's…gone" Krel bowed his head in despair. At least until a few more beeps and clicks caught his attention. "Seklos and Gaylen…! She did it!"
"My royals" Vex bowed to the king and queen as their healing process was rapidly sped up.
"Mama?"
"Papa?"
Morning had come and gone by the time things had settled down enough for everyone to get something that resembled rest. Following Mother's death, both of the Tarron siblings had bedded down together in the infirmary; likely something they hadn't done since they were young, but they were far too upset to sleep alone. Vex had retreated to the backyard where he mercilessly thrashed the life out of a secondhand punching bag (a gift from Nana Domzalski when they went thrift shopping) whilst Luug had taken up his usual post on the couch in front of the TV which played reruns of daytime soap operas. As for the other mortals, they had all gone home after sparing misty-eyed condolences to the Akiridions, which left Dan as the last person awake in the control room where he had spent more than one occasion with the Akiridion AI over the passed couple of months.
Tears welled up in his eyes as he crooned and whimpered to himself from one of the chairs that hovered close to the walkway. One of Mother's lullaby playlists played in the background as he grieved both the loss of the AI and the new knowledge that he had gained when he had reabsorbed the remnants of his duplicate & Mother. Amongst the regular headache that came with the onslaught of prolonged feedback, there was also the added tidbit concerning the Tarron's parents. He couldn't even whisper it aloud, afraid that someone would over hear.
Through the feedback he had discovered that the royal cores had been far more damaged than first suspected, if not in the memory search but in Morando's temper tantrum afterwards. Chipped & cracked, the halfa didn't know if they would ever be whole again and he knew, no matter how much he wished he didn't, that if the siblings knew what he did it would kill them. Even now, he could see whispers of their departed souls (or cores) starting to form. So he kept quiet, locking this dark secret deep inside alongside the others of the same nature. He pushed it down, bottled it up and put it on a shelf where he never would have to see it again.
Instead, Dan titled his tear-stained face upwards to face the glow-in-the-dark constellations that they had stuck to the ceiling earlier in the year and smiled wetly at them, These little plastic stars which held more than just his own memories inside. "I'll keep your secret, Mother, I promise. Fare thee well" He whispered, hoping that even though he had not ferried her soul (if she ever had one), that she was at rest. "May the Ancients watch over you in this life & the next"
