Chapter XXXIV:

Crimson Eyes

The door was kicked down on the first attempt. A dozen Legionnaires poured in, wands armed and ready to eviscerate anything in their path. At the far end of the chamber was but a lone android. A woman dressed head to toe in damp tarps. She faced away from them, unconcerned by the breach of her chosen hideaway. An old conference room looming over a decimated street corner.

They all took up positions near the exit and aimed their weapons. A magical whistling was heard. The audible charging of their Maso-based weaponry. The android remained unmoved. She stood with her arms at her side. At last, she spoke.

"Took your sweet time, didn't ya?"

Jackass twirled around and greeted her guests with a psychotic smile. She cast off the tarp concealing her body, revealing a crude vest beneath. A vest covered in wires, ticking timers, and explosive packets.

"I WAS WAITING FOR YOU!"

She closed her eyes and embraced the warmth as suddenly engulfed her. It was accompanied by a bright light. A white radiance at the end of a grim tunnel. Her twisted visage turned to one of longing bliss.

The entire room was bathed in fire.

The torment of living in a dead world was finally over.

~O~

2B and Accord entered the building alongside their de facto leader. The trio met the lone android at the entrance. He stood alone, drenched in blood yet showed no sign of injury.

"Are you okay," was the first question Anemone asked.

"No."

"Do you need repairs?"

"No."

Anemone placed her hands on her hips. She eyed the android once more from head to toe in search of whatever information she could gleam. "Where's Jackass?"

His eyes darted to a window on the right. Several blocks away, plumes of smoke rose to the clouds from behind a skyline. He gave a somber smile that betrayed the coldness in his mechanical eyes. "She's dead."

Taking the hint, Anemone glinted at the faraway explosion. She let out a sigh but had nothing more to say on the matter. She switched subjects. "I have just one more question for you. Why did you do it?"

To that, she was finally given a lengthier response. "God guided us on a hallowed journey. Yet I see now, that there is no hope in fulfilling his mission. I choose instead to take my life into my own hands."

"A mission from God," asked Anemone. The second half of his ramble did not quite hit her until it was too late.

He pulled a pistol from its holster and aimed it just above his right ear. Anemone extended a thwarting hand but it was all she had time to do. All her brain could process before the trigger was pulled. A blast echoed in the room, and in a flash, splattering skull and gore alike across the walls.

Stray spurts of blood splattered across 2B's unflinching cheeks. She merely wiped it off. Her despairing eyes descended upon the corpse. She gawked almost in envy. How peaceful it looked to be at rest and liberated from this dimension of the damned.

"Dammit," exclaimed Anemone. "Accord! I want you to tell me exactly what we're dealing with."

"Gee, why do you think I know anything about this?"

The smirk on her face was coming dangerously close to enraging the Resistance leader. "Stop messing around! You know something. It's written all over that smug face of yours. Besides, you didn't show up here in this backwater for no reason. So spill it!"

The smile in question faded faster than that male android's life. "Not getting anything past you, am I? Look, I can't get into detail…"

"Why the hell not!?"

"Because I'd be here all day explaining it!" Accord stepped over the dead body and leaped atop a table at the front of the room. She took a deep breath.

"All I can say is that my job gives me access to information that most people simply don't have. The real pressing matter is the enemy at the gates, yes?"

Anemone nodded in begrudging agreement.

"They're called Legion. They're mutated humans reanimated by a deadly disease that swept across the world some 10,000 years ago."

Anemone's mouth went agape. "H-humans!?"

"Well, they used to be. I've never seen Legion that look anything like the ones we're dealing with. They seem to be pure forms. Being spawned entirely from the disease if that makes any sense at all. Uh, I'm getting sidetracked. The important part is that these are the monsters we now face. Understood?"

"No," admitted Anemone. "But whatever. The thing I want to know is how to beat them. Can we beat them? No matter how many times we shoot them, they won't go down. Yet 2B's pod managed to kill a couple."

"You need energy-based weapons. They're weak to the red particles that power those weapons. You can kill them with regular firepower but you need a lot of it and trust me, you don't have enough for an invasion of this caliber."

"How many are there?"

"Don't know, but if they are pure forms then that means they're being replicated somewhere."

She gasped. Her eyes bulged in terror. "So, they just infinitely spawn themselves!?"

"I think so."

"So, there's nothing we can do? We don't have any proper energy weapons and we can't hope to beat them with numbers."

"Never say never," Accord said with a nonchalant giggle. She pushed up her round glasses. "You can simply lop off the head of this invasion force."

"The head?"

Accord smiled deviously. "Her name is Angelus. The big skeletal dragon that flew over our heads earlier. She's the one controlling them. They operate on a hivemind. They organize based on her thoughts. If you can kill her, the rest will be in disarray. They'll still be infesting the streets but the coordinated invasion will end. Then, over time, we can wheedle away her disorganized army."

A thousand questions about the practicality of such a vague plan gave rise in Anemone's racing mind. One inquiry stood out above the others. "And how are we supposed to kill a dragon if we can't use our normal weapons?"

In the background, 2B listened. She analyzed everything that was said. Grim thoughts crept into her mind. An idea occurred to her. While Anemone and Accord continued to bicker over details, 2B opened her palm.

Held firmly in her right hand was a small box. A black box. Creases of gold lined each of the cube's faces. She eyed it as if it were a treasure to be coveted. Her blank frown came to life when her lower lip began to quiver.

"Hey," 2B spoke aloud. Her monotone brought the debate to an end. Both gynoids gave her their undivided attention.

"Accord," 2B continued. "A moment ago, you said that enough firepower would bring them down. Does that include their leader?"

"It does."

"…How much fire do you need?"

While Accord gave thought to the question, Anemone's attention traversed the length of 2B's arm and down to her open palm. Everything clicked. Her teeth clenched with dread.

"No," she said firmly. "2B, I know what you're thinking."

"It's fine," 2B bluntly muttered.

"Are you insane!? Do you even hear yourself!?"

"Nothing matters anymore..."

2B's depressive response was cut short by the whistle and explosion of Maso slamming into the ground outside. The entire building shook.

"No time to argue," exclaimed Accord. "They're here…!"

Anemone was the first to burst into the street. An inhuman-sized fist connected with her torso the instant she left the cover of her concrete shelter. She was flung across the road, slamming into the pavement.

A Legionnaire advanced on her out of nowhere. Its wings buzzed. Its claws clenched in murderous anticipation. Accord was the second to emerge from hiding. She stumbled at first. The ambush caught her entirely off guard. She drew her sword. A one-handed blade shimmering with enchanted heat. She impaled the lumbering undead. It exploded into a plume of white powder.

2B closed in behind Accord. She kept her head low and her eyes glued to the sky. She clenched the Black Box in her hand, waiting for a chance to use it.

A column of salty forms marched up the road. A white beam tore through the air. It cleanly severed Accord's right arm. Both her limb and her sword fell into a puddle.

She gawked at the limb in uncharacteristic horror. Her reaction to the inevitable pain was delayed by a few seconds. Warnings began appearing within her digitized overlay.

"That's it," she slurred. Self-preservation kicked in. "We lost. Seal the timeline. Just seal the damn timeline!"

She fumbled for her briefcase. Her shaking fingers probed for a certain device. Something to put a swift end to this lost cause. "Where is it!? WHERE IS…"

A colorless undead charged her. Claws ripped through her abdomen. Others quickly surrounded her. They ripped off limbs and chunks of flesh. Her ribs were plucked, one by one, from her sides. She let out a last gargled cry for help. One of the Legions grabbed a fistful of her hair and with two pointed claws, started sawing into her neck. Mortified screams warped and changed in pitch with every severed vocal cord until she could finally scream no more.

Her head was thrown to the side. It bounced across the pavement and rolled to a stop at 2B's feet. Horrified eyes shielded by broken glasses stared up at her. 2B stepped back. A cluster of Legion bathed in her blood as they fought over scraps of synthetic flesh. A turning sensation threatened to flip her stomach upside down. Anemone's sobering voice brought her back to reality.

"Fall back!"

2B did not need to be told twice. They sprinted away from the encroaching undead. They were immediately met with a new potential danger. Anemone slid to a stop, almost slipping into a shallow puddle. 2B very nearly met the same outcome. Across the road was a line of hunkered-down machines. One of them waved.

"Androids!"

Anemone shouted back, "What are you doing here!? They're attacking! You need to pull back!"

"Retreat if you want," called one of the bipeds at the head of this painfully ill-prepared defense. "But we're surrounded! There's nowhere to run! Not anymore!"

The two androids fled back to the main line of apparently friendly machines. Anemone stopped again once they came within range of the defense. She turned and pointed back toward the way they came. "They're around that corner. Fall back with me and we can meet up at the Resistance camp for a last defense."

"No," protested the leading machine. "We fight here!"

She gave up. The pitter-patter of salty feet was enclosing. There was no way to save them. "Fine then. Come on, 2B."

Explosions of white dust erupted on the other end of the road. 2B and Anemone darted through the crowd of machines. The aim of that magical artillery was soon corrected. The road lit up with pale light and the automated screams of melting machines.

Marching footsteps closed in from behind. 2B looked over her shoulders. Lines of pale infantry goose-stepped up the road. Wands in hand. Machines at the front, those who were still alive, held their shields out while others hid behind them. The very same energized shields they would so annoyingly use to block her pod's projectiles.

An initial wave of White Maso was sent their way. The bolts of ghostly magic sliced straight through the iron shields as though they were wet tissue paper. Machine after machine fell. They tumbled down like pins struck by a bowling ball.

"This battle is futile," Anemone shouted to anyone who would listen. "Fall back to my camp! We'll form a defense there! That includes machines!"

No one listened. She watched as the machines, big and small, all succumbed in a matter of minutes. The Legion sliced through them as they did any other foe. A decisive victory that was fought and won in the blink of an eye. Anemone dragged her forward by the arm. Along the rainy streets, they left a trail of footprints. A trail mixed with motor oil and Accord's blood.

Others tried to follow. To take Anemone up on her suddenly very tempting offer but they were slain faster than they could come to their senses. The battle was dizzying. Blood pooled with lapping rainwater. Nauseating screams haunted the crumbling streets.

Anemone released 2B and ran further ahead. An enormous, white blur tore across the sky, followed by a wrathful howl. Something massive slammed into the earth. Torrential dust was kicked up, blinding 2B. Suffocating her.

When it cleared, she and Anemone froze like statues. Stood tall in the middle of the road was the Dragon. She watched the battle unfold. She was either unaware or unconcerned by the two androids standing so close to her feet.

"That's her," muttered Anemone. Her tone was shaken.

2B focused on her target. She surveyed the battlefield for the final time. A one-sided slaughter in which both machines and androids alike were massacred with little means of fighting back. No hope of survival. She then eyed the one responsible for it all. The reptilian beast looming over her. Soulless eyes gazed onto the very same destruction with a fierce lust for more.

2B raised an arm toward the smoky, rainy sky. She waved. "Hey!"

The Dragon failed to notice her. Perhaps she simply did not care about the insignificant little robot. 2B took a step forward and sucked in the humid air. The Dragon had a name. 2B remembered Accord's words well.

"ANGELUS!"

She shouted the name at the top of her lungs. Employing an outside voice that the emotionless android was never fond of nor accustomed to employing.

Genuinely surprised, the Dragon gave the android on the ground her undivided attention.

~O~

"There! All finished."

The last bandage was tightened around Popola's neck. Half her face was veiled beneath aged linen. She looked down and peered at herself in a shimmering puddle.

"I look like a mummy."

Devola forced a chuckle. "Little bit, yeah."

Popola perked up. Her one eye fell upon 9S. He sat across from her. His head was hidden behind folded arms.

"How do I look, Ninessh?"

The android winced at the sound of his name being called. He mustered the strength to make eye contact. He tried his best to mutter some encouraging response. To praise the bandages wrapped around the wounds that resulted from his actions. Ultimately, he ducked his head and hid away in abject shame.

Popola reached out and gently ran her fingers through his soaked hair. It did nothing to quell the guilt.

"I'm sorry," he spoke in a whisper.

As Popola moved closer to offer more comfort, she spotted movement out of the corner of her only good eye. Half a second later, she pounced on 9S, pulling him and herself to the ground. "Get down," She shouted.

The scanner hit the ground hard. The back of his skull slammed against a tile of broken concrete. His vision blurred. 9S narrowed his eyes, trying to refocus them. He caught sight of Devola. She was lying flat on her belly. Her hands covered the top of her head. She dodged the onslaught without injury. Popola was still on top of him as if pinning him down to keep him from making the fatal mistake of raising his head. Streaks of Maso soared above them.

Stone barriers blocked his view of the attackers. He could only assume a line of Legion troops stumbled upon them. As he searched desperately for a way to see them, he noticed Devola squirming around nearby. She inched like a worm to Red Eye's sword that was left propped against a concrete divider.

"Fall back," Popola exclaimed. "We need to pull back!"

"Nowhere to run," muttered Devola, teeth gritted in resentment. She pointed to a hill toward the south.

More ghostly beasts marched down the elevated ruins and into the fray. It would be only moments before they started making use of the wings on their back.

Minutes before their fates would be sealed.

Instead of listening to her, 9S simply laid his head back down. His already diminished will to live drained away. Amos alone was almost impossible to fend off. How were they supposed to escape an entire fighting force of his salty kin?

He snaked an arm around Popola's waist. She looked down at him, first in confusion, then the realization hit her. Her face, what was left of it, morphed from a look of fear to sorrow. With his free arm, 9S reached out for Devola. His hand rested over hers.

Devola froze. She looked back, knowingly. Her attempts to reach the sword slowed to a gradual end. She huddled closer to the two.

9S was mortified. He expected Devola in particular to forcefully, and perhaps somewhat violently, drag him back to his senses. Force him and Popola to pick their weapons back up and engage the deathless foes.

Were the twins truly this exhausted? Already defeated from tragedy after tragedy unleashed upon them by him?

Undeserved determination pulled him from the mud. 9S brushed the idea of death's sweet release aside and reached for his sword.

~O~

The Dragon stared 2B down. Her wings perched atop the concrete like a pair of front legs. Her tail writhed back and forth, shifting in wretched anger. Her teeth bared while her eyes somehow came dangerously close to watering.

"Who," the Dragon exclaimed. "Who told you my name!?"

"A girl your soldiers beheaded just now."

Angelus hissed. "I never entrusted a single mortal with the knowledge of my name. Not even him. My love."

"Is he the reason you're doing all this?"

The dragon bobbed her head like a territorial iguana. She looked to the heavens as if physically searching for the object of all her grief and longing. "He was slain! Taken away from me. Without him, without my partner, life itself is an agony."

"Then we at least have some common ground," said 2B.

Angelus looked down with mild surprise. 2B's face remained as straight and lifeless as ever. Anemone glinted at her in confusion, waiting for 2B to do something aside from perpetuating this staring contest. Eventually, 2B pulled her sword and took a step forward. The obvious challenge needed no words. "Feeling suicidal? Then come closer. I'll sever your head like I did to your friend."

The android rolled her eyes. "…Whatever."

She vaulted forward. Her opening advance was cut painfully short. Angelus twirled her entire body. Her tail swiped across the road. 2B very easily dodged it. Anemone was not so skilled. Debris was kicked up by the giant lizard throwing all of her weight across the road. When it was all cleared, 2B scanned the road for Anemone.

The Resistance leader was found lying on the concrete, twitching. Half of her body was crushed underneath Angelus' foot. She gargled up heaps of blood. Her body convulsed. The light in her eyes dimmed. They fogged over like glass.

2B was left with no time to grieve. Angelus swayed her head from left to right, enveloping one side of the street in white fire.

Desperately, she charged Angelus. A leap into the air saw her land on the reptile's back. Angelus hissed and death rolled as though she were a crocodile. She tumbled across the street. The earth trembled beneath her weight. 2B was almost crushed. She fell off the dragon.

Angelus rose from the rubble. Smoke seeped from her maw. Boundless rage came to a boil. She arched her back. White Maso clouded around her into a fog. 2B stepped back and studied the shifting mist forming around her opponent.

A painful howl exploded out from behind the ghostly veil. Six heads sprouted above the mist. Long, skeletal necks stretched far above Angelus' body. The heads were fleshy and did not at all resemble the dragon they were spawned from. The heads were that of androids, or perhaps, even humans.

One of them stretched towards 2B at a rapid speed, giving her no chance to ponder over this horrific transformation. The head of a human male with short blond hair. He opened his mouth, prepared to swallow her whole. His eyes were sealed as though he were blind, yet remorseful tears poured from his closed lids all the same. 2B held up her sword, sharpened blocking his teeth.

She slid backward from the force of the collision. The head thrust itself toward her again without hesitation, shouting as it moved.

"Death need not be the end of hope!"

Another head circled her flank. The head of an aged, bald man with ritualistic tattoos etched upon the crown of his hairless head. He cried with the same grief as the first. Possessed lips parted, reciting a final recollection. "May the gods bless us, their poor children!"

The two abominations launched themselves at 2B. She leaped high into the air, causing them both to plunge into decimated concrete.

2B was given not a moment to rest. A third head. That of a woman with short, black hair, and knife-shaped ears advanced on her. She smiled with wicked intent. Not a single shed of sorrow was to be found behind her lustful gaze.

"Did someone say children," she cackled. Drool dripped from her dangling tongue, ever in search of fresh flesh. "Ohhh! The precious children!"

The elven woman's cheeks bulged suddenly. A new head exploded from her mouth. A smaller, childish head. A short-haired boy. Small, tendril-like arms spawned from his Maso-encrusted cheeks, reaching out as if grab 2B.

"Forgive me, Manah…"

Beams of anti-magic launched from the boy's eye sockets. 2B vaulted between them before she was set upon by yet another head of this seemingly endless hydra. Another man. Longer hair that reached down to his neck. A charming smile settled over his face. It was oddly blissful.

"Fu-ri-ae," he chanted like a priest reciting a mantra.

"Fu-ri-ae! Fu-ri-ae! Fu-ri-ae! Fu-ri-ae!"

2B deflected his advance. A swing of her sword cut through the Maso. It regenerated instantly, but the force sent him spiraling in the opposite direction. As the bones of his neck creaked and realigned themselves, another head came at her from a blind spot.

She had not time to see it. It advanced until it was mere inches from her face. Then it simply stopped. Everything, in that one minute, froze. The fight for her life was put on pause.

The last head belonged to a woman. A young, beautiful woman. Lavish hair flowed down either side of her flawless visage. She smiled at 2B with the benevolence of an angel. She spoke in a whisper so soft it could scarcely be heard. Her voice, so soothing it tickled the android's spine.

"Embrace me, Caim," she pleaded. Each word brimmed with lustful need. "Sweet brother. Defile me!"

On the verge of being cornered and consumed, 2B retreated. She dashed down the road. Clearing vital distance between herself and the body of the hydra. Distancing herself from the head that controlled the others. The path between her and Angelus seemed so far but it at least gave her room to breath.

The respite did not last.

Angelus flapped her wings. The subsequent gust sent 2B stumbling even further back. Multiple heads swirled in the air, salivating at the chance to take a bite out of her. Their voices echoed in her mind as though they were her own thoughts. Recollections of regret, desire, and miserable memories from another world. They swirled in the air like a mental tempest.

All around her, 2B heard a distinct thumping. She realized that she was surrounded. On either side of the open street stood hundreds of Legionnaires all watching her. Ghostly faces melded into a wall of spiritual presence. A miasma of genocide. The conquerors of humanity and renders of the world stood with android heads freshly severed and stuck on the tops of pikes. Broken machine bodies were hoisted in the air by ropes and poles.

Each horrifying visage stared back at her without a sliver of regret. Soulless abominations with bared teeth and empty eye sockets. They bashed their wands triumphantly against the ground over and over again. The sound resembled the drums of a victorious army preparing to march home.

None of them advanced. None of them dared inject themselves in a fight between their master and her newfound foe. 2B focused on the real threat. The brain of the masses that stood on the other end of the road.

She ran straight at the hydra. Virtuous Contract glittered against the swirling rain. Wind and fire worked to keep her at bay, but 2B advanced and dodged as needed. All of the heads adorning Angelus' mutated body fired beams of anti-magic. Angelus herself breathed a wave of fire that nearly consumed the road.

2B jumped and darted between street lamps to avoid the flames below. When the stubborn android drew too close, Angelus relented in her assault. She flapped her wings again, this time leaping into the air. The force caused 2B to flip over. She skipped across the ground like a stone on water.

By the time she came too, the white-haired woman was beset on all sides. Angelus dove straight back down. She opened her maw. Fire flooded out from her throat. Orbs of white flame generated from thin air and descended with her. They landed early, hammering the ground before Angelus could reach her target. The entire road quaked.

2B dodged left and right but could not get out from under the hydra in time. The monster fell upon her, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and mud.

"Caim," came Angelus' mangled voice in a whisper. "I miss you so much…"

The dust settled. Angelus rose from the shattered earth. 2B was caught. Her luck had at last run out. The android was ensnared in the Dragon's maw. Pearly fangs dug deep into 2B's torso. Every motion of her jaws caused the helpless android to wail in agony. Her artificial organs moved unnaturally. Her bones broke. Wires snapped. Her metal hull bent sharply out of shape.

Virtuous Contract fell from her grasp at last. There was nothing left for her to do.

The myriad of other heads coiled around and bit into 2B's limbs. They eagerly chewed on her flesh, shedding salty tears that rolled off her bloodied skin. Perhaps it was just rainwater. 2B possessed not the ability to tell the difference anymore.

She gazed at a little box in her left hand. It was barely in view. One of the heads chewed on her elbow, all while muttering the muffled name, "Fu-ri-ae!"

In the polished sheen of the box, 2B saw the semblance of two faces. Two identical red-headed women. Women she held no small amount of hidden disdain for up until this final moment. She smiled at them. Smiled at the glowing box that grew brighter with each passing second until it consumed her hand in blinding white light.

"Take care," she whispered with a blissful, painless grin. Her eyes slowly narrowed before closing forever.

"…Take care of 9S…"

~O~

A protective ring of red fire surrounded 9S and the twins. It created a modest defense that would be overwhelmed in time. They sought shelter behind a barrier of concrete. The Legion was advancing, but they moved slowly. Taking cover and changing positions. They moved with the same Old World tactics that Amos utilized. As if his ancient training lived on in these faceless hordes.

9S dared to poke his head out of cover. Devola yanked him right back down right as a bolt of Maso whistled past. How she managed to see this and react in the span of half a second, would forever be a mystery to the scanner.

"I," 9S stammered, seeing the scornful glare plastered Devola's gaze. "I just wanted to check for…"

He was cut short. His thought died on his lips before he could finish verbalizing it. A huge blast shook the entire ruins. A boom that deafened the group in an instant. Their ears were left ringing. Were there not a barrier of concrete shielding them, they would have been flung to the ground from the force.

They came to at around the same time. The buzzing of their ears softened. The world returned to them. Their five senses recovered. 9S looked to his lovers for any sign of injury. They both appeared unharmed. Both were lost in a confused daze as they each tried to assess the situation for themselves.

The howling and marching of Legion soldiers had also fallen immediately quiet. It sounded like they had stopped in their tracks. 9S looked up again. More cautiously, this time.

The cause of that blast was the first thing 9S could see. It was so bright. An orb of radiant, white light that consumed the entirety of the city center. It consumed buildings and scraped the sky. The distinct sight of a very specific detonation.

"A Black Box," 9S mumbled.

"What'ssh happening," cried Popola.

"Someone," 9S stammered back, still gawking at the explosion. "Someone out there. In the city ruins. They detonated a Black Box."

Devola worked up the courage to see for herself. She nudged 9S to the side, peering over their cover. Popola tried to do the same, but Devola shoved her head back down. She was no longer taking any chances with her two companions and eventually did the same to 9S.

"The Legion," she said aloud. Unable to see what she was talking about, 9S and Popola waited for an explanation.

She observed the enemy combatants. Pale visages of death dotted this concrete beach. Their march had indeed stopped. They made no attempts to attack. They too were staring blankly at the explosion in the background. They almost looked confused somehow.

Devola gave no thought to this change in behavior. She saw an opening and took it without hesitation.

"We need to move, now!"

"What," exclaimed Popola. "And go where!?"

"This is our only chance to escape," Devola shouted back. She grabbed them both by the wrist and yanked them out of the mud with all her might. "FOLLOW ME!"

They did as told. The trio bolted out in the open. They ran between Legionnaires whose blank eyes were still fixed on the burning cityscape. None of them tried to stop the androids. None of them so much as noticed that their prey was getting away.

9S took another look at the explosion. It reached as big of a size as it appeared it was going to get. Like a star having achieved supernova.

He dared not stop running, but he could not help but let a concerned thought slip from his lips as he fled for his life.

"2B…?"