Dina flipped on the lights with a yawn and a stretch, before entering the gravity room.

"Mornin', Diana."

"Morning, Dina!"

"UAA-"

[ OP: Eve – Dramaturgy ]

C'mon, Electric Sheep? Androids Can Dream Higher Than That!

The showerhead began with a drizzle.

"Why do I have to stop fighting for us to start over?"

She stepped in as it became a steaming storm.

"But I'll die one day, anyway. That's what we do. It's either this or old age."

Her hair fell into a slick, neck-length black current, as she stared into the head.

"... what comes after. You don't know that, do you?"

Water streamed off her robotic blue eyes, unaffected.

"I'll just keep hurting you…"

Her eyes slowly fell.

She set off the shower, dressed, groomed, and went back to see him off.

He was already gone.

"Hh-hehhh—..."

[ BGM: J-Dilla – Life ]

"Rough day?"

Kaset stared off to the side.

"... it's still only morning, you know. You're already causing a commotion outside. 'Havoc' even."

Kaset stared off to the side.

Ayeva walked over to said side. When the strike patroller's head veered off again, she pulled it toward her. He was too battered to fight it.

"What's this about? You only do these things after losing to something."

"... I just went too far," he croaked. "That's it."

"Oh Chronoa, your voice…" Ayve's face sank into her palms. "... just tell me the reason. No, just a few words." Her eyes surface half-way above them. "I'll figure things out from there. Okay?"

The way he paused, how his eyes scurried around his sockets, his beads of sweat and bite of the tongue behind clamping jaws, it was like he was a kid fessing up to a totaled car or a failed final exam. Her softened lapis-lazuli eyes made him drop his guard.

"... Zero Law Suite. I gotta use it."

The wider her eyelids went, the smaller her pupils shrank. She held it for an agonizing dozen seconds, as Kaset contemplated pulling his own plug.

"Oh."

To his shock, she cooled down.

"Oh, you… dumbass… that's what this is about. And you did that to yourself on a hangover?"

Kaset turned away. Ayeva let him.

"Look, I remember last night perfectly fine. I've remembered worse through worse. And I meant what I said, alright? I can't stop you from patrolling. And I shouldn't. You're amazing at your job. It'd be selfish of me."

The hand hidden from her view began to twitch.

"But I can't… cherish, you… for whatever amount of time I can, if you go off killing yourself or, Heaven forbid, actually making the cut, going to that… space, and being stuck in there forever. That would be so much worse. For more than both of us."

It curled into a shaking fist.

"... I'm not telling you to stop. Keep training. Keep getting wilder, and stronger, and everything in between, like you always have. But please… think of everyone else. If not for me, then for that little boy who dragged you here, bruised beyond belief, and then broke down in that hallway, beating himself up over how he could only just-barely save you from yourself." She stepped back from his bedside. "You don't need to be the strongest. And even if you were,"

She lowered herself one more time. "You would never get me to stop worrying about you." She pecked him on the cheek and left, without looking back.

All the while, his fist blood-clenched, the rest of his face still bandaged,

Stoic, tired-eyed tears streamed from Kaset's eyes.

"(I have about 15 minutes to check on Dina, before the office wraps me in its icy talons for 12 hours.)"

A vibration was felt, and Ayeva's wrist subconsciously brought itself to her eyes.

AT SPACE

NEED HELP

URGENT

"(... aaand my hunch was right. It's always right. I hate being right. Well, good thing I'm already on the way.)"

She touched down at her timespace office. Not a moment was left to ponder what she'd broken – body and/or equipment-wise – before meeting her disheveled gaze.

There were two Dinas.

[ BGM: David Bergeaud – Veldin - Kyzil Plateau ]

"OH THANK THE ALL-FATHER, YOU MADE IT!"

"... All-Father."

"WHO KNOWS!? NOT THE POINT!" She pointed at the Dina behind the-

"D.I.A.N.A?"

Diana gave a cutesy, fast wave from behind the glass.

Dina eyed her doppelganger. "Y-Y-YEEEAH SO UH THAT!? I-I mean, erm, knowing YOU, the choice to give her consciousness was probably made on some mad-scienc-y whim, but I've seen quite a few robot movies in my time, no offense of COURSE, and I can't see this ending too well with how similar we are an' the like, "I'M-THE-REAL-DINA"-y trollop 'n what-not, so, uh, mind maybe turning this fun new feature sooooh what's… that… face…"

Ayeva looked just as, if not more confused. "I never programmed sentience."

"... oh splendid, HAUNTED DOLL IT IS, THEN!" Dina quick-drawed a Bible and whipped out a cross. "LOOK YA HELLBRED PRICK, THERE'S ONLY ENOUGH ROOM IN MY LIFE FOR PRECISELY HALF A DEMON AND HE'S MORE THAN INTOLERABLE ENOUGH! OUT OF THIS HOUSE! THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!"

Diana put a hand to the corner of her unmoving lips. "Holy Mackerel, is that our new greeting?" She mimed a Bible and made an Ultima-Man sign. "OUT OF THIS HOUSE! THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU! hWhy golly, that's a good one!"

Dina fell back. "BLEEDING HELL, SHE'S MADE MOCKERY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! IT'S OVER!"

Ayeva stared off. "(Religious iconography only agitates greater demons, anyway…)" A past event popped into her head, entailing Kaset firing a talisman airplane at Towa, sending her into a blind rage that almost killed them all.

She stoically stifled something.

"OH GOD, MS. AYEVA, NOT YOU TOO!"

"Slow down, Tiger, I…" Ayeva approached the glass. "What's important right now is that the answer is as simple as communication." She lowered the glass, to Dina's horror. "D.I.A.N.A, how exactly did you… 'wake up'?"

Diana held her chin overdramatically. "hWell if I had to take a gander,"ᴰᶦᵈ ˢʰᵉ ʲᵘˢᵗ ˢᵃʸ 'ᵍᵃⁿᵈᵉʳ'ˀ"it would have to've been a mighty several months back. But the real kicker was after the wallop Dina and I fed each other last night!""ᵂᴴᴬᵀ ᵀᴴᴱ ˢᴴᴵᵀ ᴴᴬˢ ˢᴴᴱ ᵀᵂᴵˢᵀᴱᴰ ᴹʸ ⱽᴼᴵᶜᴱ ᴵᴺᵀᴼˀ"

Ayeva nodded. "Can you elaborate?"

"I'd be glad to, Mom!"ˢᴴᴱ'ˢ ᴬᴸᴿᴱᴬᴰʸ ᴴᴬⱽᴵᴺ' ᴬ ᴳᴼ ᴬᵀ ᴹᴬᴺᴵᴾᵁᴸᴬᵀᴵᴼᴺ, ᴹᵁᴹᵎ"I'd stumble on a few ticks here and there, I'd get all giddy like a schoolgirl whenever I landed a good thwack on Dina's head, or maybe I'd get a bit jumpy wherever she'd give me what I had coming! And oh, you should see the way she gets when no one's looking, Mom, it'd put a stray pussycat around her kittens to shame!"ˢᴱᴱᵎˀ ᴬᴸᴿᴱᴬᴰʸ ᴸʸᴵᴺᴳᵎ ᴰᴱˢᴾᴵᶜᴬᴮᴸᴱ ᴹᴬᶜᴴᴵᴺᴱ ᴰᴱᴹᴼᴺᵎ""

"So, a string of small instances leading to this day, instead of a sudden 'awakening'. It's almost like how children become aware… hold on."

"Wait, what are- where- no hOLD IT-"

Ayeva suddenly left.

Dina slowly turned back to her doppelganger. There was an uncomfortable silence before Diana made a sassy wrist-rolling gesture.

"... how… much… do you remember, exactly?"

"If it'll set the record straight at all, I recall that molly-whopping you gave me once, the one that left me a mess of scraps and gizmos."

Dina's brain worked on translating.

"Oh. Oh, wow. I mean… demon or not, I am dreadfully sorry. Far from one of my best moments."

"And how! But don't go beating yourself over it, I heard you loud and clear the first time you lost your head over messing up little ol' me!"

"'Member that, too, do you?"

"Like an elephant, I sure do!"

"How do you know what… oh yeah, that one time-"

"You and Mom were almost at each other's throats over Gorodons and the like! You'd gone and blew a fit for all-time, you did! I had half a mind to slug it to you, with how you popped at her!"

"BLIMEY THAT'S WHY THAT FIRST HIT ALMOST KNOCKED MY BLOCK OFF! I THOUGHT AYEVA HAD DONE THAT OUT OF SPITE!"

Diana did a cutesy bent pose that Dina had done in their first interaction. "Don't make light of me just because I'm a machine!"

Dina recognized and mirrored it with a giggle. "And how, mate!"

Ayeva returned with Stroga, in the middle of a dialogue.

"-heard of this before?"

"Well, you never asked formerly, and you shot me down when I offered to study y-"

Both Dina and Diana were behind the glass, slugging each other while laughing like mad. She'd forgotten to raise the glass back up, but for one of them, that wasn't a problem, apparently. Both were saying things she could no longer make out very well, despite – no, due to – her ability to read lips.

"..." Ayeva turned back to Stroga. "She was dead-scared of her five minutes ago."

"I wouldn't doubt it, that's a weird kid over there. But, I know this." He folded his arms, staring at Diana — who'd just returned Dina's spin-counter, missing and starting a back-and-forth cyclone. "I can feel it from here. It's a soul."

"What!?"

Stroga nodded. "It's a rare occurrence, sure. Things like haunted, cursed, sacred and divine treasures experience something similar over time. It's known by some scholars as 'Personification', and it's the imbuement of the soul onto an insentient object."

Ayeva stared at Diana as Stroga continued. "Its sources are mystical or spiritual, sometimes both. If one with a certain level of the two places enough value onto an object, or sends intense-enough emotion through it, then over time, it develops its own breed of sentience."

Selaine put her necklace's gem toward the sun, smiling in its warmth.

"If it's positive energy or standard magic, that object becomes sacred."

Neoru, softly panting, caressed his weapon beneath a tree's shade.

"If it bathes in enough negative energy or dark magic, with no positive variant to offset, then it becomes cursed."

Ayeva's eyes sank to her palm, as he talked. "But if an even amount sinks into it, then a soul is born." Stroga smiled. "The process can take millennia of constant inheritance and emotions, but if that energy is potent enough, and the placed value is high enough… even a week will do. The artificial human Sixteen is a great example. And Diana seems to be another case. Y'know, I'm starting to see a trend with Saiyans and Robots…"

"I'm…"

Stroga glanced over.

"... an artificial human… too. But I wasn't created by another human." She seemed afraid to ask the question. "Every part of me came from a sequence randomly spat out by a larger machine."

[ BGM: Tsutchie – Thank You ]

"Oh, that's right. You never made it to Earth, and crashed on Namek."

Ayeva slowly nodded. Stroga stared at her, and sighed.

"I'm always surprised how stupid you can act when you're scared of an answer."

She looked back up, almost about to scream at him.

"Yes, the wish doesn't ask for sentient warriors specifically, and 'latent hearts of gold' leaves room for interpretation. But regardless, if you believe that those years you spent loving and being loved by a single village on Namek only served to rework your programming,"

Stroga gripped her shoulder.

"Then, honestly, what do you think eight years HERE did for you?"

The android paused.

"With us?"

Kaset laid in his hospital bed, asleep on his damp pillow.

"With him?"

Dina happily sparred with her new bestie.

"Or with her?"

Stroga smiled. "Or especially with-"

"Can you check?"

Ayeva bit down on her quivering lip. "Please?"

"... It's about time."

It took him five seconds. The culmination was found.

"Newer spirits are always pretty weak. Maybe bare minimum level for living things, if-not lower. But Ayeva, it's there."

Her eyes widened.

"You can stop holding yourself back, now. It's fine."

"... hn-hn-hn-hn…"

Ayeva slowly broke into quiet, reserved laughter. Coolant fell freely from her eyes as a weight slowly dissipated off her shoulders.

"I'm so dumb…!"

Stroga nodded with a bright, sly grin.

"Oi, Ms. Ayeva!"

"Mom!? MOM!?"

Ayeva turned to her two cherished.

"IS EX-TEACH MAKIN' YOU CRY!? DO I NEED TO DECK 'IM!?"

"Oh, shame on you, sir, bringing a good woman to tears like this, have you lost all sense!?"

To their surprise, she continued to laugh. Ayeva's hands fell onto their heads, and she bent slightly to their level.

"Thank you…!"

The puzzled two had no response. Ayeva didn't ask one from them, and filled them in from there.

"Personification…" Dina repeated the word allowed, arms folded. "I think I remember something like this in Yarg, with pistols an' whatnot. Never got into the specifics of it, though, never really, needed, to…" She smiled. "Wow… I'm just… wow."

Cradling her elbow, Ayeva nodded. "It's pretty amazing. Some things in this universe just… transcend numbers altogether."

"But I don't really get why this was such a large thing for you, honest." Dina turned to Ayeva. "You could still be a bunch'a circuits with a mind of their own but, y'know, aren't we all?" Her small giggle left as soon as it came. "You'd still be you, is all."

"... you're right. But it's a bit more than that. It's the knowing that I'm not excluded from seeing the people I love again, one day."

Dina paused, thinking out what she'd said. "... ooo—h~..." She cooed, her face overdramatically crinkling into tears. "Oh, that's horrible…!"

"Hey, wait, Dina, you don't have to- oh." She rolled her eyes helplessly as her student sobbed onto her without abandon.

"I don't know what to say…!"

"You don't need to say anything. You've done plenty, Dina."

"Mmh… mmmmph…!"

"(... ok, that one was my fault.)"

"Oh, the air's gone all fuzzy in here!"

Diana suddenly hugged both Dina and Ayeva. "If I don't join in, why, I'll just burst!"

Dina caught a side-eye, and her tear ducts dried immediately.

"... what the shit is that hair?"

Her lookalike perked up, pushing her elegantly-pressed, black-and-silvered pageboy haircut — one without any defiantly-raised spikes, unlike Dina's. Diana had been gone for a few minutes, max.

"Hwell, I thought I'd give myself a good dolling up, take some initiative and distinct myself from my older model early on, what'd you say?"

The saiyan practically bore a hole through the android then and there. She was getting very close to physically going through with it, before slowly releasing Ayeva.

"Mh. Yeah mate, you uh… you up for a spar?"

"But I've only just got through hwith my-"

"YOU COULD ALWAYS DO IT OVER, LOVE," Dina grinned with scary saiyan fangs bared. "NOT LIKE IT'D TAKE HOURS JUST TO HAVE IT ALL FALL TO SHIT, ANYWAY! NO HARM DONE, RIGHT!?"

"... Well, bully, that's a fine case I'll say. Why not?"

Dina grabbed Diana by her scruff and dragged her away. "Well, uh… carry on, Ms. Ayeva!" She smiled widely at the informant, who smile-sighed back.

"ᴳᴱᵀ ᴵᴺ, ᴳᴱᵀ ʸᴼᵁᴿ ˢᴼᴿᴿʸ ᴴᴵᴰᴱ ᴵᴺ ᵀᴴᴱᴿᴱ ᴮᴱᶠᴼᴿᴱ ᴵ ᴿᴵᴾ ᴵᵀ ᴼᶠᶠ ʸᴼᵁ ᴾᴼˢᴴ ᴸᴵᵀᵀᴸᴱ ᵀᵂᴱᴿᴾᵎ"

"ᴼᵂᵎ ᴶᵁˢᵀ ᵂᴴᴬᵀ'ˢ ᴳᴼᵀᵀᴱᴺ ᴵᴺᵀᴼ ʸᴼᵁ, ʸᴼᵁ ᴮᴵᴳ ᴮᴿᵁᵀᴱᵎˀ"

"(I've been thinking…)"

"... about becoming a patroller again."

Stroga stared agape. "Might I ask where… where'd this come from?"

"Last night, with you two. You took us back to your place, and Kaset and I… we talked."

"That was, by no means, the full extent of what you two di-"

Ayeva's lapis lazulis pierced his heart before he could go further. "Importantly, we talked."

"Y-yes, of course."

"And during that talk… he forced me to confront things. As I forced him to. I… I won't save myself from death by hiding from it. Like it or not, you, Kaset, Dina, Tarubei, they'll… whether or not I'm here to see it, they'll die, one day. Some sooner than others. It's natural. And I can't stop that."

Stroga let it sit.

"... so much for living outside of time, am I right?"

"Yes. Exactly."

He wanted to derail her with humor. Ayeva was a maglev train.

"And if I close myself off, I'm only ensuring when that time comes, something will be left unsaid."

"Well," Stroga said as he folded his legs adjacent, "What are the steps to this plan?"

"Of course, I've already completed the forms for reassignment, and then there are the patrol readiness examinations. Before all of that, however, there's… something I've been putting off. For a while."

The namekian historian raised a sly, hairless brow. "You? Put something off? What could that possi…bly…"

Ayeva noticed his expression drop. She nodded with a smile.

"I defeated her 4,549 times, and lost once. She's waited long enough."

"GREAT GRAMERCY! WHAT CASUALTY, OUR MEETING, STEEL RAVEN! THOUGH MINE CUBS SOUGHT FURTHER TRAINING THIS DAY, BY "Do you want to fight?" NO MEANS DOTH THIS DISPEL THY EVER-PERTINENT DESIRE IN THIS HEART OF HEARTS TO CHALLENGE YE TO AN HONORABLE pardon?"

Ayeva smiled at her smaller friend's drop in demeanor. "Are you up for a spar, Taru?"

Kora's jaw dropped.

Archi's jaw dropped.

Akaki looked at them. "Eugh."

"A… spar… perchance…?"

"Foooor… sooth."

Ayeva could swear there was a loading screen above the tiny saiyan's head.

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Fist ~From the Worthy Tiger With Love~ ]

"..."

"..."

█▀█ █ █ █▀█ █▀█ █▀█ █▀█ █▀█ █▀█ ! ! ! !

█▀▄ █▄█ █▄█ █▄█ █▄█ █▄█ █▄█ █▄█ ! ! ! !

Kora had covered her ears just in time.

Archi's bloodily bled with blood.

"HEAVEN HAS DEEMED ME WORTHY!" Tarubei manically decreed at the top of her lungs, shaking Conton with her thunderously-girly voice. "AFTER COUNTLESS DAYS, MY SWORN RIVAL FOR ALL-TIME HAS ANSWERED MY PLEAS FOR BATTLE WITH HER OWN YET-BOLDER CHALLENGE! HOW MY HEART BURNS WITHIN THIS ALL-BUT FLESHBOURNE VESSEL OF MYNE, IMMOLATING BONES TO ASH AND DUST, AND BOILING MY BLOOD TO STEAMS AND SOUPS! NATHELESS I CRY 'BURN ABLAZE!', AS SO THIS FATHOMLESS SPLENDOR DOTH LAST FAR BEYOND MY BODY'S CONFINES AND SWELL WITHIN MY SOUL FOREVERMORE!"

Ayeva couldn't help but laugh through Tarubei's theatrics. It felt nice to see her best friend so excited.

"ONWARD!" Tarubei shot a fist toward the sky. "WE SET FOR A GLORIOUS COMBAT AT ONCE!"

"W-wait!"

Tarubei immediately turned back.

"I, uh…" Kora interlocked her hands. "I know this is sacred to you, and that's um, wonderful, but… can we… come along?"

Tarubei sent her through the floor. Ayeva jumped.

"DON'T BE ABSURD, PROUD CUB! IF YOUR SOUL CRIES FOR IT, YOU MUST BEAR WITNESS! NARY A CONTEST ERE THIS DAY SHALL SURPASS THE MARVEL TO COME!"

"YAAA—Y!" Kora screamed, bleeding from her head. "ARCHI, WE GET TO SEE THIS PLAY OUT!"

"WHAT!?"

"I SAID, WE GET TO…"

The saiyaness watched an actual stream of red flow down Archi's ears. Some of it was yellow.

"I'LL CATCH UP!" yelled a frazzled Kora, tending to Archi. The other one had disappeared.

"She's a good kid." Ayeva stated happily, Tarubei energetically nodding in response.

Tarubei then disappeared.

"!?"

Ayeva's head veered to her 6, and she followed suit in a bright flash of light.

[BGM: skankfunk – Chain (Tekno Value Mix) (1:49) ]

"HEY!"

"COME, NOW!" Tarubei laughed, soaring high above Conton City. "LET US COMPARE OUR LEVELS OF SWIFTNESS BEFORE OUR CLASHING! THE STEEL RAVEN OUGHT BE MOST NIMBLE IN THE AIR, PARFAY!?" The saiyan exploded in a mile-streaking beam of light; the android groaned before giving chase in the same fashion.

"Always like this…!" Ayeva chastised, upping her speed and gaining on her school-day rival. "TARUBEI, THE SPEED LIMIT IS MACH 1.5 AT THIS ELEVATION!"

"THEN LET US BE AS GALES AND SWOOP HIGHER!" She cackled back, corkscrewing into the air before blasting off in the direction of the kiosks.

"Of COURSE!" Ayeva amp'd her speed to catch up, ramping to the star in the sky.

"(She's this much faster, huh…?)" The thought actually bit at her. That in itself made her smile.

"(Then there's less reason to hold myself back.)"

For the first time, not just simple energy, but bits of true ki enveloped her.

"(What's this swell in my chest…?)"

With a spin, small jet thrusters accompanied her, on the sole of each foot, as she eventually overtook Tarubei, letting go as she sailed further up with the lingering force of acceleration alone, weightless.

"(As I thought…)" Tarubei looked on in shock, before grinning, letting go as well and meeting her. "(Nary a smidgen of strength has been lost. More still…)"

They began to bullet-dive toward their own objective point, without the need for ki; at the exact same speed, all the way down for miles on end.

"(At long last, she grants her spirit credence.)"

They landed to the sound of clapping. From one half of a pair.

Tarubei saw one and lit up.

Ayeva saw the other and wanted to send her head through the ground.

"MY LIEGE!"

"dear chronoa, why"

Vegeta scoffed. "Satisfied in a draw, are you? I know good-and-darn well I trained you better than THAT!"

"The speed limit whilst airbourne is Mach 1.5, your lordship."

Eighteen crossed her arms with a finger to her temple. "Someone so high up on the totem pole is telling patrollers to break laws? Good thing my adorable pupil was there to rein her in."

"I-I see what you're trying to do, and… p-please stop it, instructor. Besides, why are you two here? Aren't there more important things to-"

"NO."

Eighteen and Vegeta shared a proclamation.

The stout warrior grunted. "The machine can no longer muster a battle power fit to even polish my boots."

"I'm still 1-0 against the troll doll." The elegant blonde raised a bid card. "Mommy also needs a new pair of shoes."

They suddenly locked glares.

"THEREFORE…!"

"THIS WILL BE HOW WE SETTLE THINGS…!"

"HOW WONDEROUS! NOT EVEN A GAP IN POWER MAY SEVER THE ENDLESS CONFLICT BETWIXT THESE HARDENED BATTLERS!"

"Or they just won't grow up…!" Ayeva turned away, physically holding her face down to keep her cringe from tearing it.

She then spotted her student running toward her. "(HOW IS SHE EVEN…!)"

"T-TARUBEI LET'S STOP STALLING AND GET THIS ROLLIN-"

"OY MS. AYEVA SO APPARENTLY DIANA HATES IT WHEN ANYTHING HAPPENS TO HER STUPID PERFECT MOP SO I'M SOMEHOW BANNED FROM THE GRAVITY ROOM FOREVER UNTIL YOU CAN GIVE HER A GOOD SIT-DOWN OR-"

"S-SERIOUSLY TARU LET'S-"

"SORRY FOR BEING LATE CAPTAIN, THAT OTHER ONE SCURRIED OFF LIKE THE VERMIN HE IS SO I HAD TO TEND TO ARCHI FIRST BUT IT'S NOT A PROBLEM, I'LL TRACK HIM DOWN LATER-"

Kora slowly turned to Dina.

Dina slowly turned to Kora.

Ayeva did not wait for a development. "We're gonna go fight now."

Dina snapped back around. "YOU'RE GONNA WHA-"

"-aaaa…t?"

Dina beheld a solar system. "Um… was Biology class wrong and saiyans CAN breathe without an atmosphere or…"

Kora took no time to correct the half-breed. "It's a stagnant timespace, you idiot. There are TONS of anomalies like this."

"I mean I didn't quite know that beforehand, did I? Bit unfair to call me an idiot off a misunderstanding."

"You made the conscious choice to fall asleep in class, knowing it would hurt you in the future and deciding not to care, making you an idiot."

"Oy piss off, I just have trouble stayin' up, 'lright?"

"Then stand up."

"Then I just look like a twat in fronna everyone."

"And you don't when you literally snore through lectures?"

"... fuck off."

"Will you two zip it?"

Both girls straightened up in the ray of the noble and cyborg's respective scowls.

"Y-yes ma'am."

"Please forgive me, Prince Vegeta."

Ayeva paid them all a side glance, before turning back to her rival. "Saturn, huh?" She managed a sly smile. "Wonder why you chose this planet, instead of Sadala."

"This coy unbecomes thee, Steel Raven." Tarubei's confident smile was underlined by reddening eyes. "I shall meet this battle with my full might, sparing not a drop in reserve. I'd expect nothing less from you, of course."

A lapis-lazuli bead of sweat trickled down her forehead, belying her relaxed visage. "(In our last fight, she learned a new form of Super Saiyan. No… more-so a combination. It caught me off-guard, sure, but… it was so overwhelming that I COULDN'T give myself space to reengage.)"

"Now…" The wind began to pick up.

Dina watched, daunted. "Is she… growing...!?"

Kora grinned. "She's doing it…!"

Vegeta smirked ever-so slightly. "It begins…"

Eighteen stared, expressionless.

"TIME IS NOT… OURS TO WASTE… MY FRIEND." Her muscles bulked, her hair grew even more wild, and her eyes stopped reddening. The liquid surface gave way, a terrific mass smashing it down, forming a whirlpool around the once-small saiyan; she now emulated an erratic white-and-red flame. Tarubei growled animalistically in a lurch, as if a rabid animal, before standing upright with a long, smokey exhale. She now stood on an even level with the tall Ayeva, with golden eyes centered by a black hole in each.

"'Assault Form'... 'm I right?"

"Don't be ridiculous." She looked and sounded her age. But the way her voice reverberated befit a creature of much larger size. "Should a pulse beat within this chest, I am in 'Assault Form'. This is simply my 'truth'."

Ayeva nodded. "The Pocket-Sized Oozaru."

Tarubei responded with a nod, and then, a fist.

[ BGM: Mike Shinoda, Joseph Trapanese – Putting A Mad Dog Down ]

Ayeva immediately took it into a behind-shoulder hold; before she could complete it, her opponent dove low and went toward her open opposite side with a knee. The challenger threw down the ensnared arm in the direction of the encroaching attack, using both it and her own forearms to block before a precision elbow lanced Tarubei in the face, sending her away with Ayeva in pursuit. She paused right behind her, just as Tarubei caught her bearings, kicking her leg out from under her and launching a chop for the back of her neck without delay. Tarubei called the follow-up, throwing both hands back to intercept successfully, and threw her over-shoulder. The saiyan charged forward into a chain of punches and kicks — said chain lasted three blows before an wrench-parry led to an under-arm uppercut from Ayeva into a discombobulating open palm-strike to the face, in-turn leading to a string of blinding kicks from bottom to top, before she spun in a quick, aerial turn kick to her rival's neck, Tarubei vanishing from view with a small trail of red following suit.

"Wait, is she trying to KILL her?" Kora asked aloud what Dina was beginning to worry.

"Yes," Eighteen responded in kind, sounding alarm in both girls. "Whether she wants to or not, she'll wind up going for the kill. It's hardwired into the way she fights, the way she thinks during a fight. The longer it drags on, the greater the chance is that she'll destroy something important. That's most of the reason she's never enjoyed fighting. Hell, she came pretty close to ending me in my last days training her. Just the kick in the ass I needed to start training myself."

Vegeta smirked. "No wonder Tarubei's infatuated with her. The closer a saiyan teeters on the brink of death in combat, the more they truly feel alive. It brings to surface all of their latent potential."

Eighteen raised a brow. "Huh."

"..."

"..."

Vegeta scowled over at her. "And just what the HELL was THAT supposed to-"

The gas giant rocked.

"(Every last mistake could cost my life…)" Blood rushed from her nose, as she held her neck. Her aura had become a golden flame, and her blank eyes slowly returned to golden stars. "(Which blow will be sent to kill? Which will merely bruise or break?)"

She grinned, a fanged maw letting loose a borderline-evil chuckle. "(There is NO greater opponent!)"

Ayeva looked down at her hands. "(I need to be able to stop myself. If I can overcome that code… then I'll be able to join them again. So no more games.)"

A storm of hexagonic particles enveloped and orbited Ayeva, distorting the environment in what was almost white-hot snow. "(No more games. Full-power.)"

She eyed her opponent. Not long after, the surface of Saturn became two giant tsunami.

"(FASTER!)"

Tarubei's barrages became more technical. The kicks became push parries, snap zoning, side pressure, all to set up punches. Said punches became uppercuts woven into reverse straights, jabs crossed into chain punches, crossing again into hooks. It was like six different people were fighting Ayeva, as the android countered with increasingly-lethal attacks.

"It's like Tarubei's stomping on solid ground, with how she"

"CAPTAIN Tarubei. And, it's the same for Ayeva-"

"That's a MISS Ayeva, prick."

Both of them seemed to closed-mouth growl at each other. Vegeta and Eighteen noticed both that, and the technique each used.

"Hmph, Skybound. A fool's errand!"

"If you don't have infinite energy, sure." Vegeta sucked his tongue as Eighteen went on. "But while Ayeva's made of better stuff than any artificial human from Earth, I can't see why Tarubei's doing it. Just to show off?"

Tarubei continued to strike at Ayeva as they seemingly ran higher and higher, going from the storm to the asteroid belt outside the bounds. Plasma began to course through her body, all the while.

"Of course not. She's putting herself on even grounds with her opposition, in spite of the compounding cost of stamina."

"What? Is THAT not a fool's errand?"

"If in service of the ideal battle, a saiyan ought act a little foolish here and there."

Eighteen rolled her eyes. All the while…

"(Captain…)" Kora watched, enamored by her mentor's perseverance as her face grew increasingly manic in the hail of her own sweat. "(How much longer have you been struggling against your own limits, against an enemy like this? How much more did it take for you to break past them?)" She finally landed a lunging punch in Ayeva's center mass, catching the android off guard with her sudden transcendence into a Super Saiyan 2.

"Ha… ha… ha… COOOO—ME!" Tarubei roared.

THe asteroid belt rumbled, slowing and then beginning to reverse its rotation. A chunk of it went up in vaporizing light as Ayeva ascended higher. A V-shaped visor snapped over her upper head, before she came full-stop, sending out a shockwave around her. She threw her hands outward, and a million-strong cascade of energy fired at the saiyan. Tarubei fired herself through it, dodging thousands after thousands, a few dozen too many meeting their mark and stalling her ascent. The blasts began to merge, and soon, a beam the width of a Saturn ring enveloped her, with other beams of missed blasts fusing into each other and locking onto their prey like a murder of crows.

"Ms. Ayeva…" Dina's eyes became panicked. "Wait, you're… you're going too far…!"

She slammed into a single moon – Mimas – as a great many of its brethren washed away without even a struggle. The rays of the sun were able to penetrate both the blast and Tarubei's struggling barrier. Ayeva didn't relent in her torrent, until a single flicker in her mind returned her from the trance she'd entered.

"...!? NO!" she screamed, her visor snapping off and herself pulling ba-

"HAAARK!"

Tarubei's eyes were wide with red, as her eyebrows began to fade. "NO MATTER THE COST… I SHAN'T ALLOW AN ACT OF MERCY… FROM MINE BELOVED RIVAL!" She caught her footing, the small moon providing the blutz-bourne second wind she needed to access even more of her power. And with an Oozaru's roar, she dispelled the blast and its compatriots whole-sale. Staring back at Ayeva was a-

"Super Saiyan Three…!" Both girls exclaimed in awe.

Vegeta spat off to one side. Eighteen smugly pursed her lips, looking off to another.

A being exactly 4,000 Tarubei strong rocketed off the moon and struck Ayeva before she could form a countering hold. Still holding the forward momentum from her charge, Tarubei's fist reeled back, and Ayeva's dark-blue eyes immediately locked on.

"(Even at this level…!)" The long-haired saiyan and the chipped-visored android became lights of destruction, firing throughout the rest of the solar system; for once, equalized in power.

"(There's no directive or order to obey, anymore…!)" Ayeva assured herself. "(That's right…! No one has to die here. It's enough to fight just to gauge yourself!)"

Combating Ayeva's instantaneous response times, Tarubei forfeit most of her defense in exchange for diverting ki into her attacking limbs, bursts of speed mixed with feints, the adrenaline from each brush with death causing her to move faster and push harder; Tarubei had forced herself into a state of zen.

Despite the sheer effort, despite Ayeva's compelling need to snap her opponent's oncoming bones, she guided her hand toward a kiai that missed its mark completely.

"...!?"

Moreover, it was snagged out of the air.

"Hesitation? In the midst of combat?"

Tarubei pulled Ayeva into a leaping 180 kick.

"THOU OUGHT BE WISER BY NOW, AYEVA!"

"(She stopped it!?)" Ayeva slowed her skyward ascent, before a giant orb sent her through a planet — but somewhere in the middle an overwhelming sensation enveloped her. Almost like hunger. "(She's… incredible.)" Tarubei was on her like white on rice, peppered with an endless storm of violence. "(Even after all this time, she's…)" Ayeva began to overheat herself, causing a brief delay in the old-age saiyan's barrage before erupting in a wave of energy. "(Found a way to overcome our difference…!)"

"(I've only ever laid eyne upon this state, fore this day!)" The saiyan warrior's senses were on complete overdrive at that instant, countering her robotic foe's ki with her own. "(And on this day, I am at long last, able to stand with you, with pride!)" Tarubei overpowered Ayeva, sending her straight to Mars before pulling back and charging forward with a blazing fist, and Ayeva, with a series of Skybound acrobatics, ducked it handedly, spotting an opening and going for the exposed arm with a leaping roundhouse kick.

Vegeta watched in subtle horror. Eighteen dreamily looked up at the sky, imaginary bills raining down.

And then Tarubei caught Ayeva's leg.

Vegeta almost roared. Eighteen's smile hit terminal velocity on the way back down.

"GO FOR IT, CAPTAIN!"

"MS. AYEVA, NO!"

"HAAAAAA—!" Flying at a speed that no physicist would even bother arguing the possibility of, Tarubei hurled Ayeva halfway 'cross the north quadrant. She careened through celestial bodies galore before landing into one — a planet.

The archaic saiyan caught her breath, standing in wait as her boots gave way, floating once again.

.

.

"(It's that feeling again.)"

Scorching, bright, absent of gravitational pull. The hunger returned, coupling with the liminal sensation.

— she beheld a source of constant, endless fusion. The Inner Core of a planet.

"(That directive…)" It popped into her mind, as if reminding herself of a chore left undone. "(What was I made for, again?)"

No other thought occupied her mind. Through her own eyes, she unconsciously wound back.

The end of her life in a fiery self-detonation, miles above her home, in spite of what she knew was "right".

The siege of Namek, to collect her and clean up her failure.

The years spent there, on Namek. In a small village, filled with life with its own will, its own beliefs. Ones that could change and evolve, over time.

Crashing there in the first place, a bout of confusion thanks to a passed star's solar storm.

A wall. But she pressed onward.

A wall. But she pressed onward.

A wall. But she pressed onward.

A wall. But she pressed onward.

And…

The following sequences of numbers and symbols seemed to auto-correct into the tongue of most sentient life, as a force of habit.

/ MODEL: ADVANCED-YIELD ENERGY VECTOR ANDROID

/ LOCATION: NORTH QUADRANT

/ PLANET OF INTEREST: EARTH

/ PHASE I: OBSERVE TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. INTERPRET AND UPLOAD INFORMATION TO GREATER MIND.

/ DURATION: 100 YEARS

/ PHASE II:

"(... that's… awful.)"

/ RETURN TO MOTHERSHIP WITH PLANET'S INNATE FUSION ENERGY.

/ DURATION: 1 HOUR

"(No wonder I closed it off from myself. If I hadn't missed the mark…)"

That third memory sat in her newfound soul.

"(I would've never… come here. But… what was it that led to that need in the first place?)"

She moved the molten rock around her, unaffected by the heat. "I damned them, as well, huh?"

It was a feeling of guilt. Two forces tearing her in twain, or closing in on her. An immeasurable wrongdoing she'd committed; one of which she recognized and couldn't let go, but one she'd only known as a "Directive." At long last, from a chance decision to spar, she knew. Two planets had counted on her success, and she'd betrayed one, only to fail another.

"There's nothing left back there, and you can't take back the life you once had. Therefore, make the most of this new one. If the past hurts you this much, then throw it to the wind! Directives, purpose, all of it."

But a separate memory rang through her being. One not derived from a lost memory bank, yet serving as a failsafe to contest her regained guilt all the same.

"... it feels wrong. But right now…"

"You're not a unit, or a serial code. From now on, this is Ayeva's path. And it won't kill you to be a bit selfish with that fact."

"(... I can't believe it. I just really, really, want to beat you, Tarubei.)"

She released a light giggle, placing outward her palms.

"(It's a stagnant timespace that will inevitably return to its original state, no matter how it's altered. That means what I'm about to receive is a temporary increase. That's fine. I'll be able to decrease the duration by fifty-four minutes, at my current level.)"

"Operation Vindex, Phase II. Commencing."

"(I'll become a selfish doomsday droid, for once and only once. Just for you. Rival.)"

[ BGM: The Prodigy – Voodoo People (Pendulum Mix) (0:33) ]

Tarubei's eyes widened. "This is…"

Every available set of eyes, sans Eighteen's, followed.

"That's impossible…!"

"I can… feel her…!?"

"Oh my God. Oh my God that can't… Oh…!"

Tarubei watched a gas giant in the distance slowly break apart and crumble off into space in real time — a sight seen by few if-any forms of life across history, even if it occurred within a stagnant timespace.

Within the space where an unstable core should've been, there was only a flame, slowly being assimilated into an infinitely-small point.

A planck passed.

In that time, Tarubei had shot face-first into a distant moon, sending it far out of orbit like the terraformer had struck a billiard ball with a live cue. A funneling solar storm followed.

The source still burned, still surged with plasma.

"That's her…" Dina whispered to herself.

Hovering over all was a Thermobaric Ayeva.

"(Right into a moon, huh? But that's only a boost in strength, for you.)"

The roar of what could only be a world-eating Oozaru shook the solar system, before an all-encompassing golden light shined like a supernova.

"(The rest, you can do on your own, at this point.)"

"(Still can't sense energy, guys…)" Eighteen sighed with aviators, as the others gawked and shielded their eyes.

Ayeva eyed down the heaven-searing red devil charging at her, raised a palm, and caught the fist of a Super Saiyan 4 Tarubei.

"ROAAAAAA—!"

"HAAAAAAA—!"

Only Eighteen and Vegeta could follow what ensued. The two students could only feel the chaos.

Actual streaks of distorted space folded the sky like smoldering paper, cut through by two inflamed needles that looped around the same series of planets over and over in a bid to catch one another off guard. With every collision, a silhouette of the two that were once students, before the sound and waves tore the system asunder yet again with textbook reckless abandon.

Planets were fragmented just by being in range of their collisions, and their simmering, falling plates and masses became new battlegrounds, new weapons and concealment. Blasts inevitably dotted the sky like a lower layer of stars before, as gears continued to accel against a constantly-growing chain of contained nuclear fusion, and strands of DNA continued to collapse and rebuild in a boundless sequence of evolution, they surpassed the speed of their own blasts, leaping atop of the exploding sea of energies.

"This is what you wanted, isn't it!?" Ayeva yelled in kind, rushing toward her rival.

"EVERYTHING AND MORE!" Tarubei roared out, rushing toward her rival.

Ayeva blocked her opening jump kick, only for Taru to leap over, blasting off a ki sphere to send her soaring fist straight into Ayeva's palm, which crashed into her own abdomen hard enough to have her lurching forward with a gag and smile. Ayeva threw back the fist, and swung hers right into Taru's face, who'd already reciprocated with another of her own. Soon after, the two entered a straight brawl.

"(There's no obligation.)"

Ayeva began to enter an unspoken contest.

"(There's no mission to accomplish, no tasks to self-sacrifice toward, no right or wrong, no life or death.)"

Tarubei and herself wanted to know who, as they were right then and there, could throw the most punches in as little time as possible. Just to see how many they could throw.

"(I'm just…)"

Both knocked each other away, showering the sky in flashing lights encroaching upon the sun's heat.

"(Living in the moment.)"

With acrobatic rebounds and a moment of stuttery, pain-staked panting, they took back control of their respective ki, and their "floor" became waves that they split and shifted to their will. Portions of their "floor" shot at them like bullets through walls as they engaged, Ayeva reactivating her precision martial art as Tarubei ramped up the variety of each and every strike, their every twitch moving oh-so briefly in slow motion before their opponent accelerated, weaving deflecting balls of ludicrously-quick light projectiles in their burning, bounding combat.

With a gambled feint that allowed Taru to dole out more damage than she'd been dealt, she punched a torrent of blasts rapid-fire, Ayeva responding with a tornado of swarming ki that she enveloped herself in, spinning to the top before raising her now-sword hand, casting it toward the old-age warrior all at once in one isolated wind tunnel of an energy barrage that straightened and fused into one great death laser. Tarubei retorted in the way she most enjoyed employing:

{ END RELISHAAA—! }

A bigger blast.

She supercharged her arms with chi, combining it with the energy in the air itself, and fired it all in one direction, countering the fused murder of blasts that, to her shock, didn't stop coming.

"GRRRR—…!"

Ayeva seemed fully intent on brute-forcing her way through the clash, continuously adding more, larger, denser blasts to the concocted finisher as steam swelled from her body and coolant oozed from her pores.

"KH… KHH-HH-HH…!"

That side of her was new.

In their last fight, she'd taken an unexpected punch and given up at the first sight of an uneasy victory, a crushing memory she remembered well.

"(Was it fear, o' rival? Fear of the one now in my eyes?)"

With a strained, howling cackle, Tarubei applied even more power. With a strained, crazed smile, Ayeva applied more power. In time, both emitted enough heat to send… EVERYTHING… melting, and what was already liquid had turned to vapor. But the two spirits exploded soon after, leaving the two women to try and tank the outcome.

And after an AU's worth of distance sent up in smoke, Ayeva was the one who'd managed to raise a stronger, better shield. Though she'd lost her thermobaric glow, her own energy, in a vacuum absent of battle damage, was inexhaustible.

"... he… heh…"

But Tarubei – small yet-again – was left standing.

Such a vacuum simply did not exist. The damage taken was too great. Tarubei had never left the field of battle; she'd become more durable than Ayeva, despite her steel parts.

One wouldn't be able to tell, however, by the look on either's face.

Tarubei tried to lunge for her, only for them both to begin fading in a mess of fractal cubes. One cutesy, fulfilled smile cropped up her face before vanishing.

"HAHAHAHAHA! HaHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Eighteen chewed through her bid card in a seething anger she didn't know she was capable of, as Vegeta's howls bounced around the reinforced barrier. The prince briefly shut up and reached into the pockets he apparently had. A capsule was flung into the air, bursting in wads of zeni.

"GO ON, TAKE IT! CONSIDER IT YOUR CONSULTATION PRIZE!" He snagged a band, burned it with a thumb, smoked it, and laughed his way through a gate.

The spited cyborg looked at the money as if it were cloths used to clean up vomit. Or cursed objects. Cursed cloths used to clean cursed vomit.

In any case, she began to curse Vegeta's name. Her record had been undone.

"Oh well."

Eighteen lifted the money with a raised finger, and popped a gate. "She'll take it home next time," she said aloud, making off with a surprise hull.

Kora stared at the historic figure with a cocked eyebrow and tilted head. "(I just… can't read her.)" She then faced down Dina.

"... what's so funny?"

The half-blood snapped out of her daze. "Wut?"

"Your master just lost, didn't she? What do you have to smile about?"

"Just… how low is your take of me?"

The full-blood's expression practically hissed at her "Well go on, if you're so different."

"She's usually such a busybody. And a worrywart. And everything you could stick to a business lady. But today, she actually fought with someone. As in, she used… everything. More than everything. And she had fun."

"—-," Ayeva congratulated.

"—-!" Tarubei giddily retorted.

"It was like watching this shadow persona, too buried under all that stern adult mumbo for anyone to ever notice, jump out and start commanding the scene.

"—-!?" chirped Ayeva, giggling.

"—-!" roared Tarubei with a laugh.

"For someone to throw that many killshots and still lose without a single person dying, it's like…"

Dina grabbed at her jacket. "I don't know, it's just…! I can't even explain it!" She sighed drearily, as if the love of her life had passed by. "Maybe someday, I'll be able to fight with someone like that. If I just keep getting stronger."

Hands became shaking fists.

Kora punched at the air, scowling at Dina all the while before-

"Hey, Kora!"

"WHAT!?"

Dina turned to her as if the brain damage had finally settled and she thought she was seeing Kazikum.

"Let's thrash each other, right? I won't let you down. You do the same, yeah?"

Kora somehow got angrier. "Y-YOU WON'T KEEP THAT COCKY ATTITUDE FOREVER, YOU-YOU-YOU TUFTED STRIPEHEAD!" she yelled before fading out.

"... I get it was on the spot but that was just…" Dina sputtered a laugh into her hand.

"Alright… Selaine. I've gotta see Selaine about somethin'."

[ ED: Ado – Backlight ]

Gathering herself with a shaking head, Dina punched the air and popped into cubes.

Yo! OP Here!

This story somehow gets gayer than actual LGBT fanfics out there sometimes, I swear. Guess that's the beauty of martial-arts fiction. Cus strong is... beautiful... or something.

Funny thing, I'll hear a fuckin BANGER on Spotify, find out the lyrics sync well with this fic's themes, plan on using it thinking I've discovered something new, and then when I finally look it up on Youtube I find out the shit's already in an anime. Many such cases. The OP was gonna be Fight Song, good thing I already thinking about making it Dramaturgy anyway.

So Diana, right? My first idea, and the one I went with, was for her to have a mid-1900s American transatlantic accent. I just wanted a slight deviation from the "British" accent Dina has.

My other idea, and the one I THOUGHT I was gonna change it to, was Scottish.

I was tossing and turning over this shit, spent an entire day reworking dialogue and learning small shit about Scot dialects, but... n-no, you know what? Spent too much time on this shit. Here's all the lines from Scot Diana.

"D.I.A.N.A?"

"MORNIN', MUM!" she loudly greeted, somehow nullifying the glass.

"... oh splendid, HAUNTED DOLL IT IS, THEN!" Dina quick-drawed a Bible and whipped out a cross. "LOOK YA HELLBRED PRICK, THERE'S ONLY ENOUGH ROOM IN MY LIFE FOR PRECISELY HALF A DEMON AND HE'S MORE THAN INTOLERABLE ENOUGH! OUT OF THIS HOUSE! THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!"

Diana gasped. "S'AT HOW YER SET ON GREETIN' ME NOW, EEJIT!?" She mimed a Bible and made an Ultima-Man sign. "OUTTA THIS HOUSE! THE POWER'A KURAIST COMPEL YE! HOW'S THA', YA DIV SHITE!

Dina fell back. "BLEEDING HELL, SHE'S MADE MOCKERY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! IT'S OVER!"

"No, no Dina, I…" Ayeva approached the glass. "What's important right now is that the answer is as simple as communication." She lowered the glass, to Dina's horror. "D.I.A.N.A, how exactly did you… 'wake up'?"

Diana held her chin overdramatically. "Well if I 'ad to take a gander"ᴰᶦᵈ ˢʰᵉ ʲᵘˢᵗ ˢᵃʸ 'ᵍᵃⁿᵈᵉʳ'ˀ"it'd had to've been a fine few months back, on a yearsend if I'm bein' careful. The biggest 'wake-up' call yet was yesterday night, I'll say! Hen fed me a WALLOPER, for sure!"ᵂᴴᴬᵀ ᵀᴴᴱ ˢᴴᴵᵀ ᴴᴬˢ ˢᴴᴱ ᵀᵂᴵˢᵀᴱᴰ ᴹʸ ⱽᴼᴵᶜᴱ ᴵᴺᵀᴼˀ""

Ayeva nodded. "Can you elaborate?"

"Oh nae problem, Mum, my pleasure!"ˢᴴᴱ'ˢ ᴬᴸᴿᴱᴬᴰʸ ᴴᴬⱽᴵᴺ' ᴬ ᴳᴼ ᴬᵀ ᴹᴬᴺᴵᴾᵁᴸᴬᵀᴵᴼᴺ, ᴹᵁᴹᵎ"I'd stumble on a tick here n' thare, get all skittish like a schoolgirl wherever I score a punch off Dina's block or get the piss slugged out myself! But all that's nothing compared to how she gets when no one's keekin'! Ye'd swear I was her one pal for miles, the doolally!"ˢᴱᴱᵎˀ ᴬᴸᴿᴱᴬᴰʸ ᴸʸᴵᴺᴳᵎ ᴰᴱˢᴾᴵᶜᴬᴮᴸᴱ ᴹᴬᶜᴴᴵᴺᴱ ᴰᴱᴹᴼᴺᵎ""

"So, a string of small instances leading to this day, instead of a sudden 'awakening'. It's almost like how children become aware… hold on."

"... how… much… do you remember, exactly?"

"If et'll get yer gears turnin', I still 'member that thrashen ye gave me. The one tha' lef' me in tatters. Getten it noo?"

Dina's brain worked on translating.

"Oh. Oh, wow. I mean… demon or not, I am dreadfully sorry. Far from one of my best moments."

"Aye, that! But don' go beaten yersel' ower it too bad, I had ye on yer hands n' knees right after. We were both a sorry sight, I'll say."

"'Member that, too, do you?"

"Like an elephant, ye ken?"

"How do you know what… oh yeah, that one time-"

"You 'n Mum were fit tae wreck each other over yer Gorodons an' that! Went on a right radgie so bad I had half'a mind tae slug ye dead!"

"To… slug… dea- BLIMEY THAT'S WHY THAT FIRST HIT ALMOST KNOCKED MY BLOCK OFF! I THOUGHT AYEVA HAD DONE THAT OUT OF SPITE!"

Diana did a cutesy bent pose that Dina had done in their first interaction. "Dinni go makin' light'a me jist cos I'm a robot, noo!

Dina recognized and mirrored it with a giggle. "Aye to that!"

There, I can rest in peace, now. Opted for the transatlantic accent because I could justify a Scottish character from Yarg (It's just a composite-ish Europe in the greater scheme ngl) but a transatlantic burger voice would be outlandish and otherworldly because I said so.

Alright so Ayeva's martial art.

If you can't tell I was going for Silat, then I will genuinely find a new way to hate myself more. Nah but, yeah, I tried to give her a Silat motif because Silat is scary and Ayeva's serious martial art systematically kills people.

Quick terminology: Planck. A really, really stupid frame of time. Treat Ayeva moving this fast not as an outlier, but as a one-time thing that's only capable when she's starting out post-Task II. AU. Astronomical Unit. The distance from the Earth to the Sun; 150 million km. While this is also stupid, it isn't an outlier or a one-time thing. Elite Patrollers are kinda sorta built different.

Let's talk souls for a sec. Won't be long. So I pretty much only did this to give justice for Sixteen, ngl. Now I can't think of any sort of object or character from Dragon Ball that lends credence to this concept off the top of my head, no, but it sees like a fun mystical thing that also happens in Wuxia, so it seems like I can work it in smooth enough. This said, while this isn't the first time I've screwed with the pre-existing idea of mystic objects (ex: the power pole), I plan on working with the idea of a cursed object one more time. In a decently-large way, at that.

Why is Ayeva's machine race saying Latin things like Vindex? It's like, quasi-binary codes and that just happens to be a word in their codes. That was a horrible explanation. Yep.

Shoutout to CGDS AMVs for making fight scenes fun btw. I think I already mentioned those in the past but I'm not checking. I'm always imagining the fights playing in fast-forward when I'm listening to whatever's playing.

One more fun fact for the road: Me listening to Voodoo People while playing Frontier Defense in Titanfall 2 a few years ago inspired this entire fight. No bullshit, this was 2 years in the making. Music is very important to STEP.

That's about it. See ya.