The next day, the Otherselves were talking separately from the Hemiteos Units and the Peacekeeping forces.
"So they might've forced young girls into becoming like Empress and the others?" Strength asked.
"Empress was unsure, but it is a possibility." Mato said.
"Fuck." Strength groaned. "But that still doesn't change the face there are still a lot of innocent people in this world, and we don't know what Artemis ultimately has planned."
"Okay, I will follow your judgement on this." Mato nodded.
"Still doesn't tell us how to get out of here." Strength sighed, looking up into the cloudy sky. "Has there ever been a clear day?"
"I do not think so, but I might have an idea about that. Once we are done we need to travel back to where we entered." Mato said.
Strength stood confused until her mind clicked.
"You think our entry point might be a weakness in reality?" She asked.
Mato nodded.
"I could feel the void even after the portal had closed, we would have to do it together but we can tear open a hole."
"That's brilliant!" Strength grinned. "Mato you genius!"
"I am more surprised you two did not think of it first." Mato said.
"I'm not really that scientifically minded and I think Yuu is still limited to the laws of physics." Strength said. "Anyway, let's get this done so we can leave this dump. I hate to say it but I understand where you're coming from, I'm done with this world too."
The Colonel interrupted them as he approached.
"The others have decided to follow your plan." He frowned. "Even Charlotte."
Strength and Mato looked at each other, the pale girl gave a slight nod and walked off.
"I understand your concern Colonel." Strength replied. "But we only need her to help get Mato and Strength to the elevator, I can take Empress and Dead Master. After that she doesn't need to be here anymore, she can leave if she chooses."
"That's my daughter." The Colonel said sadly.
"I know, why do you think I put Mato with her?" Strength replied. "She will keep her safe, as will I."
"Are you all ready?" Mato asked the Hemiteos Units.
"Yes." Strength groaned in frustration, sitting on the floor. "Can we get on with this? I've got a score to settle with that Lunatic bitch."
"Soon." Mato smiled. "We do this, it should severely cripple her."
"Finally!." Strength said, standing up.
Minutes later, all six girls were racing through the sky above the thousands of robot drones still remaining as the Peacekeeping forces follow from behind on the ground. Strength and Charlotte hurtled through massed anti air fire and energy blasts from beneath them, weaving erratically as they were forced to dodge.
"Does everyone remember the plan?" Strength shouted into her earpiece.
Everyone responded positively.
"It's going to be draining, Mato will be pulling our life force out and using it to overcharge the machine!" Strength yelled. "Only hold on as long as you can, do not kill yourselves over it!"
"But if there's not enough power, how can this succeed?" Dead Master asked.
"If this fails and everyone is dead, who's gonna protect humanity?" Strength countered.
"Any who reach their limit will be needed to defend the rest of us." Mato added. "The longer it takes, the more vulnerable we will be. No one is going to shirk their duty.
"Ready to drop, Empress, can you make a hole near the bottom?"
Empress nodded and summoned her coil gun as Strength tried to stay as level as possible, a blinding beam of light spat out of her cannon, causing the air to shriek as it was torn apart.
"Charlotte! Drop!" Strength bellowed. Charlotte and Strength dropped their passengers as they sped towards the elevator, Charlotte pulled up at the very last second, her legs scraping against the vast tower. Strength dove down, holding out a large metal hand and pushed it against the metal and stone, slowing her down. She hit the ground with a shockwave that caused the narrow ring of rock at the elevators base to crack. As the dust cleared she have a thumbs up to Mato who was staring at her and joined the rest of the girls as they placed their hands on Mato's back. With one smooth motion, Mato activated her energy sword and thrust it into the hole created earlier by Empress and took a deep breath.
"Is everyone ready?" She asked.
Strength looked at the Hemiteos Units as they nodded.
"We're good." Strength said comfortingly. "This isn't gonna feel like before, is it? This is gonna hurt."
Mato turned her head slightly and gave the tiniest nod before starting. Immediately, a collective grunt of pain came from the group.
"Fuck!" The Hemiteos Strength cried. "You didn't say it was going to hurt this much!" The pain intensified as the minutes dragged on for each of them, the tanned Otherself lifted her head enough to see Mato's skin start to smoulder as she shook.
"Mato?" Strength asked, her voice whisper quiet.
"Keep. Going." Mato demanded shakily. "Do. Not. Stop."
Dead Master and Empress screamed in agony with the two Strengths following soon after. Bullets suddenly ripped through the group, causing them to fall and lose contact with Mato. Only the Otherselves remained connected.
"Oh no!" Dead Master cried, looking behind her over the Iron Ocean and seeing Lunatic in the air, floating towards them.
"Go." Mato said with great effort as her skin slowly burnt away.
The Hemiteos Units formed a loose semicircle as best they could on the tiny island and prepared to fight.
"When. I tell. You. Get. Them. Away." Mato said, barely audible in Strength's mind.
Strength could only nod in agreement, her body shaking as well under the pain.
"Now!" Mato yelled as loudly as she could a few moments later. Strength immediately grabbed the three Hemiteos Units as her extra arms opened and transformed into jet engines, with one last burst of energy, she rocketed them all into the sky across the Iron Ocean.
Gritting her teeth, Mato forced all of the barely contained energy within her into the vast space elevator, her muscles and skin burnt away as she combusted from the inside. The huge machine roared and clunked as the extreme power overloaded the internal mechanisms, an intense magnetic field was generated around the base, drawing the Iron Ocean up around her.
A clumsy and erratically moving Strength landed next to her prone, weakened form.
"C'mon, shitlord, you ain't dying here." Strength coughed, picking up the slim, pale girl and cradling her in her massive hands and boosting the pair away.
A deafening warning siren came from the huge machine as the entirety of the Iron Ocean surrounding the elevator got forced into the air and the material inside the structure was accelerated to a fraction of lightspeed, punching through the containment structures on the moon a quarter of a million miles above them.
"It's okay, shhh." Strength cooed as she clumsily stroked Mato's hair.
"What is happening?" Mato asked, still in Strength's arms.
"Well, whatever the fuck you've done has destabilised the base, the tower's collapsing, look." Strength said, turning Mato's head gently in the direction of the immense structure, slowly toppling to the ground, eaten away by the corrosive metallic liquid.
"We need. To leave." Mato said, trying to stand. "How are the others?"
"Huh? Oh, they're fine." Strength said, turning Mato's head. "Look." Amidst large explosions and trails of tracer rounds, stood the Hemiteos Units, Empress, Dead Master and Strength, fighting as hard as they can while the tower slowly crumbled in the distance.
"You did good Mato." Strength said proudly. "Now get your skinny fucking ass into gear before they steal all the fun!"
"I ripped most of the energy from us." Mato said, as she forced herself to her feet. "I was not sure if our counterparts could take it."
"Should've fucking warned me, I nearly crashed and burned getting them away." Strength smiled.
"I am sorry." Mato apologised, shaking her head clear. "Does it make a difference?"
"Not really." Strength admitted. "I'm almost good, how're you doing though?" Strength asked. "You look like you're about to die."
"Piss. Off." Mato groaned. "We are ending this fight, now."
"Stubborn bitch." Strength smiled, ignoring the spray of bullets ramming into her.
"Fuck you." Mato laughed, coughing up blue blood. "Let's end this shit."
"Right," Strength nodded, opening all her arms and turning them into rotary cannons. "Let's go fuck shit up." Mato met her friend's smile with an evil grin of her own, exposing her small fangs. Activating her energy sword and skating into the fight on the glowing buzz-saws at her feet. She laughed silently as robots turned to shredded metal around her, falling to broken scrap as she sliced through the cold metal forms. The Otherselves spotted Lunatic in the distance, flickering as she struggled to keep a coherent form. Without warning, Strength picked Mato up and hurled her towards the floating A.I. avatar which was approaching the Colonel. Landing with a crunch as a robot got torn to shreds below her.
"You are not dead yet?" Mato asked aloud.
"It won't be long for this form." Lunatic admitted. "You've caused some serious damage up there." She said, pointing towards the moon.
"I believe we are done?" Mato said, looking at the tired and bloody form of the Colonel.
"I dunno what you've done but Artemis is fucked, we'll handle clean-up from here." The Colonel nodded.
Mato turned to Empress.
"I am glad to know this world is safe with you and the other Hemiteos Units." Mato said, ramming her sword through a nearby robot soldier. "They will need your protection in the future."
Empress looked at her strangely but nodded her acceptance. "It was good to meet you."
Strength bounded over, crushing robots with each landing.
"You ready to leave?" Strength asked. "I heard Artemis say we've fucked her over." She added, tapping her earpiece.
Mato nodded. "Lets go." She said.
Hours later, Mato and Strength landed back at their original entry into the world.
"Wow, this place is still a shithole." Strength said, peering into the iron container that imprisoned Mato. She grabbed the reality anchor and looked back at her friend uncertainly.
"What is wrong? Do you not want to leave?" Mato asked, tilting her head.
"It's not that." Strength said, shakily breathing out. "We've been talking and I think we are ready."
"Ready for what?" The pale girl asked.
"The merge, we want to become awakened." Strength clarified.
Mato stared at Strength with a serious, deadly expression.
"Are you sure? There is no going back, neither of you will be the same." She said coldly.
"Yuu? Do you want to talk to her?" Strength asked herself. A few moments passed as the pair switched bodies.
Yuu shrank back slightly from the glare Mato was giving her.
"We're ready, it's already accelerated to the point where we're going to change anyway soon." She said, her tail waving behind her. "We want it to happen on our own terms."
"You will not be yourself any more, the two of you will become one consciousness, one mind. It will be very quiet." Mato warned.
"Why are you saying this?" Yuu asked nervously. "You told me you wondered why you ever feared it, I'd have thought you'd encourage it."
Mato shook her head slowly.
"I love you both, and I will help and support you but after the merge you will not be the same. I do not want to lose either one of you." She said sadly.
"So you're going to stop us?" Yuu questioned.
Mato shook her head again.
"No, if both of you agree then I will help. I am going to miss you both however." She whispered.
"You make it sound like we're gonna die." Yuu said.
"It will be different, you will be more you." Mato tried to explain. "It is hard to put into words, I guess I am fearful of losing you."
Yuu choked slightly.
"You? Scared?" She coughed.
Mato nodded.
"It is a recent emotion and I am not fond of it." She said with a small smile.
Reaching out, she took Yuu's hand in her own.
"If you are truly ready, activate the reality anchor. You will experience time in the Void as normal. The merge will do the rest."
"That's it?" Yuu asked, looking down at the fist-sized brass orb.
"Only time can do this and in the Void you will have all the time you need and more. When it is complete, turn the anchor off and we will travel as before and you will have no memory of what happens." Mato explained.
"I don't know why but that sounds even scarier." Yuu giggled nervously.
"It is not pleasant, but I will defend you as best I can. Just remember to keep your eyes closed." Mato replied.
Yuu looked up and locked eyes with her friend.
"Thank you." She whispered, a tear in her eye.
"Swap bodies with Strength, your human form will not survive so long without sustenance." Mato told her.
Yuu nodded and swapped back. The pale teen lunged forwards and caught Strength in a hug.
"Err, Mato?" Strength asked uncertainly.
"Sister." Mato said simply. She released the tanned teen and looked into her eyes.
A long moment passed before Strength nodded slightly.
"I will, thank you." Strength replied.
Mato looked around briefly before focussing on a certain point in the air.
"What is it?" Strength asked. Standing next to her.
"There." Mato said, pointing at empty air. "That is where we entered."
"I don't see anything." Strength replied.
"The Void is there." Mato insisted. She summoned her cannon and fired it. Thick tendrils of blue/white energy erupted from the Rock Cannon, blasting through the air until it hit an invisible barrier, it snaked around the obstruction, wildly lashing around as the slight aberration in space-time weakened. Mato's face grew strained as she focused, attempting to control the unleashed insane energy of the Otherselves. A large metal hand took Mato's in hers, the pale teen glanced over with gritted teeth.
"You don't have to do this alone." Strength smiled, adding her own energy and releasing it through the fingertips of her free hand.
Mato gave her an appreciative nod, with their energies working together, a small rip appeared, a tiny ball of ever growing unreality.
"Fuck." Strength said in disbelief. "I can't believe that worked, at least not this quickly."
"I have dumped a vast amount of my life into that tear, enough to rip it open." Mato said softly.
"Next time tell me, dickhead." Strength groaned with effort as the tear widened. "I'd help you."
"Next time." Mato agreed.
The portal raged against reality in full, a sphere nearly two metres in diameter tried to push itself into the world.
"It's pissed." Strength shouted over the roaring that grew ever louder.
"It is time to go." Mato said with effort.
Strength nodded, activating the reality anchor and scooping up her friend in a single giant hand. Then she jumped up into the pulsating ball of madness.