A sensation not unlike an electric shock filled Eruaqs as he stepped through the rippling portal. Then was in darkness so total that it engulfed his senses, drowning him in nothingness. He felt like he was floating. Up and down... it didn't matter. Space and time... they no longer had any meaning. Did he even have a body? Maybe he was dead. This wasn't so bad... he wouldn't mind an eternity of this...
Then he was gently returned to his feet. He blinked. Shapes were appearing in the blacnk space. Glowing a neon dark purple, they looked like an enormous complex of glass tunnels, alcoves and chambers, some cuboid, some pyramidal or spherical. It reminded him of the plastic tunnels in a hamster cage he had seen on the Battle Fortress Chronicle. He figured this was some kid of artificial environment as well, probably a space station. He appeared to be standing on a floating... platform in the middle of outer space. How was he breathing? Panicking a little, he felt a sudden urge to be inside the space station. Silently, the platform glid through space towards the glass structure. A panel slid open on the side, allowing him in.
Inside the space station, it was dark, cold and empty. Nobody had been here in a long time. Thick layers of dust were forming, cracks appearing in the glass, discarded office machines were breaking down due to disrepair. Walking down the corridor, he soon found a dome-shaped room where a television still showed a flickering picture, an advertisement for Eternal Sphere on continuous play. Piles of leaflets, their once bright colours faded, lay strewn on a broken table. A child sat on a beanbag in the corner of the room, waiting... waiting...
A splitting headache forced Eruaqs to his knees. He let out a scream of agony. A roaring noise thudded against his skull. He felt as though the red light in his head was tearing him apart. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to keep on looking, looking at the face of his past self.
The boy waited, reading the leaflets, watching the television, taking a nap, rehearsing in his mind what he would do and say. After half an hour, the man came out. Luther. Luther from Human Resources...
Finally, Eruaqs could bear it no longer. Clawing at his skull, he screamed over and over.
"You told me to apply! You came to me in a dream! I remember everythin' about the dream! Then... you rejected me! You even refused to tell me why! People at least get told! They always get told why! At least tell me WHY!"
He snapped open his eyes, breathing heavily, sweat streaming down his face. Through the blackness, he could see the charred mass of molten glass and metal where the corridor now ended abruptly. A single leaflet lay on the floor. He knelt down and peered at it.
ETERNAL SPHERE IS NOW HIRING.
"Why, Tria?" he whispered again.
You'll never stop asking, will you?
Eruaqs looked around but could not locate the source of the mechanical female voice. He shook his head.
"Nevah. Fo' as long as I live."
It's not because you're a bad person. I have full faith that you could do the job. There's a reason why I can't tell you. To know why would only hurt you and its nothing you can change. Do you still want to know?
He nodded, his eyes burning with grim determination.
"Okay. its because..."
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Chisato screamed as a large human figure shot through the portal right on top at her and bowled her to the ground. It was Eruaqs. He righted himself, blinked and brushed himself down.
"Did you find what you were looking for."
"Everything, Chisato, everything!" he gasped. The look in his eyes, though wild, held none of the terrible insanity that gripped him just five minutes ago.
"Chisato, I'm from Styx! I'm native to the planet Styx!" he yelled, the reporter hastily scribbling down everything he said.
"But Styx is abandoned!"
"Only on the outside! There's more in the gates! The gates lead to all different places and times! Coming to Styx doesn't send the natives crazy, Chisato... only leaving! Inside the gates, everything's so much bigger than outside, I got claustrophobia inside your tiny galaxy when I was forced to come here!"
"What forced you to come here, Eruaqs?"
"A job interview." he bowed his head, looking like he had been caught shoplifting, "Wh... when I didn't get the job, it pushed me over the edge. I was so crazy I couldn't even get it together enough to come back! But now I'm home... I'm home... thank you, Chisato..."
He hugged her tightly. She blushed and tried to wriggle free. Then his face went serious again and he whispered something in her ear again.
"Chisato... there's somethin' you really need ta know..." he said, "The reason I didn't get that job, was..."
"HOLY SHIT, LOOK AT THE SKY!" screamed Commander Revorse. Chisato looked up and began screaming as well.
The sun was blotted out by a swarm of XINE ten times the size of the one that attacked the Chronicle. Thousands upon thousands of razor sharp wings and beaks, a rain of feathers and energy bolts, a digital chaos of grating warbles. A few group of a hundred of so were already diving towards the planet in arrow formation.
"It's the end of the world." said Commander Revorse. Then she turned to Chisato and began yelling orders again, "The Gate! Run for the Gate! FOR TRIA'S SAKE, STOP TAKING PICTURES OF THEM!"
Chisato jumped and ran after the retreating form of Commander Revorse. Then she stopped.
"Eruaqs, where are you going?" she asked.
"Jus' go on without me." he mumbled. Then he raised his hands and walked towards the XINE.
"Eruaqs, are you surrendering? I don't think they observe the Geneva Convention..." before she could run after him, Commander Revorse grabbed her by the collar and dragged her towards the portal. Chisato punched her in the face.
"ERUAQS!" she screamed.
Before her eyes, she saw every single XINE swoop down and fall upon the man like a storm cloud. There was a deafening chorus of distorted bird cries, a whirlwind of blue feathers, then...
An explosion of blinding damson light threw her to the ground. The XINE screamed in unison. The ground shook and new cracks began forming. Dust, rock and ash spurted from the cracks, choking her. Then, with a flutter of wings, the XINE retreated back into the skies, leaving only...
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Chisato and Commander Revorse just stood and stared in horrified fascination at the thing that Eruaqs had become. Two pairs of purple wings spread from his back. Long claws grew out of his fingers and toes. His wild hair was thrown back, revealing his eyes. Those eyes were wrong. They glowed dull crimson in a bottomless, raging inferno. He turned to the two, his gaze unrecognising, and spoke in a voice not his own, a booming, grating voice.
"THIS IS A HOSTILE TAKEOVER!" he said.
Chisato walked forwards with her dictaphone, trying to hide the fear in her eyes.
"Who are you?" she whispered, "And what have you done with Eruaqs?"
"WE ARE THE XINE OVERMIND." he said.
"The XINE... you're a hive mind? You're intelligent?" gasped Commander Revorse.
"Now listen here! You can't just take over Eruaqs' mind like that! Give him back!" demanded Chisato, "I'm happy to enter negotiations with you, but not in Eruaqs' body. He's already troubled and you'll destroy his mind if you abuse it like that!"
"THIS IS THE ONLY MIND THAT WORKS. THE OTHER MINDS ARE NOT COMPATIBLE."
"What do you mean... not compatible?"
Suddenly, the thing turned around and looked up at the sky. The XINE were screeching and moving around, attacking, some dropping from the sky. Laser fire - very heavy laser fire - rained down upon them relentlessly. There were antimatter cannon rays, clusters of neutron bombs, even a gauss cannon beam. Ships and battle fortresses were appearing on the horizon, a whole fleet of them.
"Commander Revorse, what in Tria's name is going on?" demanded Chisato. The merchant was typing on her laptop manically.
"I've just had a broadcast from the Chronicle." she said, her face white, "Stop press news. Every automated defense system in the galaxy is converging upon Styx, even the ones in orbit around other planets. They've chosen their battleground, Chisato."
"Holy shit..."
"Just get your ass through the gate, Chisato, NOW. We're all going to die."
"Commander Revorse... look up..." Chisato began shaking as she pointed to the sky. A ship was moving close to the planet's surface and a single humanoid figure beamed down from it. Eruaqs sped towards it, half-flying.
"Isn't that..."
"DIRECTOR!" yelled Chisato, running after Eruaqs towards Marietta. She floated slightly off the ground, her hair flowing upwards, both laser pistols drawn. Her face was as expressionless as ever as she fixed her gaze on Eruaqs, "Director! What are you doing here? Who's watching the control room?"
"I'm not your Director any more." she replied calmly. She aimed both her pistols and fired at Eruaqs. She had gotten in twenty shots before Chisato could even react. Eruaqs dodged most of them, moving lightning-fast and retorting with a cluster of energy bolts. None of them hit, so he dove in, shock waves erupting from his powerful wing beats. Marietta raised her hand and a meta-shield appeared from nowhere, absorbing the waves. A meta-blade appeared in her other hand and she slashed at him with it, drawing a thin cut across Eruaqs' cheek. Unfazed, he retreated and started firing again. She returned fire. All this happened in a matter of half-seconds. Chisato had neevr seen combat so fast or so deadly. She could do little but sit on a rock and record the battle. Eruaqs... Director... what was happening? Was she hallucinating it all? Had Styx finally claimed her sanity?
After a few minutes, Eruaqs began to tire. The android did not. While Eruaqs' movements slowed down, Marietta pressed her advantage, slashing furiously, easily deflecting the waves with her meta-shield. Her relentless assault had left Eruaqs with slashes across hias face and chest, one of his wings almost sheared through, feathers dropping like bloody petals. He grimaced, swiping with his claws, a maelstrom of dark energy swirling around him. He's going to die, thought Chisato. The Director's going to kill him.
Them suddenly, he threw her off him and flew far back. He then fell to his knees and began clutching his head. He yelled nonsensical words to himself in both his distorted XINE voice and his own, as though he were having an argument with himself. His wings were dropping off in heaps of bloody feathers, his claws retracting. Marietta gave him a curious look, confused by his retreat, but she soon recovered. She jumped over to Eruaqs, raised her sword above her head and...
Chisato jumped back. She ahd been following the action from behind a rock, fully aware that only her protected status as a reporter was keeping her alive, when a man just appeared between the two combatants. Weaponless, he just stood and stared at Marietta, a sad frown upon his face.
"Mr. Deguares, you have three seconds to step aside before I terminate your existence." said Marietta.
"I won't let you let you kill a helpless, injured man!"
"That, Mr. Deguares, is the XINE hive overmind."
"It looks like a wounded unarmed man to me."
"The perfect host body." she said, looking down at the terrified-looking man, "Where better to hide while directign an army through the Tria galaxy than inside the gate of Styx?"
"Eruaqs, is that true?" asked Chisato.
"Mrs. Madison, I want to thank the Chronicle for locating and repairing me when my own creators would have had me destroyed for my faults." said Marietta, "But now I have regained my memory, my full functionality... and my mission. That mission is almost complete. There is no need for interference."
"So..." Lionel tapped his feet, "Let me get this straight. You're going to kill a wounded, unarmed man in front of all the reporters."
"I thought I told you to... what do you mean, ALL the reporters?"
Lionel pointed up. Chisato followed his hand. From out of nowhere materialised around fifty ships bearing the Nede Chronicle standard.
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