Reyna took the bloody dagger in hand, briefly she stared down at it before opening her left palm next to it. She looked at them both then glanced up at Sly as he held his hand forward to her. She put the dagger’s blade on her palm’s skin. (“Am I really…”) Reyna stared at the dagger as it’s blade pressed on her skin barely breaking to blood (“That far gone?...”) she asked herself.

Her hands shook and body trembled as she stopped herself through sheer willpower, her mind telling her to do it but her heart stopping her altogether “This…this is wrong.”

Sly looked at her with a raised brow, confused at her statement “Wrong?” he asked.

Reyna closed her eyes and forced her hand open to drop the dagger, as if fighting her own body. The dagger dropped to the ground but her hands remained open ahead of her, she opened her eyes and stared into them as she spoke.

“My real name is Carla Von Sweiss.” She mumbled out.

Sly stared at her briefly before his eyes slowly widened in surprise “Oh.” now it all made sense to him, he knew there was no way Scythe could accomplish all this without the colony’s military being involved somehow.

Reyna took a deep breath and looked up at him “You won’t tell anyone…about this…”

Sly shook his head as he continued to stare.

Her eyes dropped back down to her palms, unable to keep eye contact as she explained “The Von Sweiss, the ruling family of the last human colony in our realm, the mars colonies. Herald is the last remaining member of that bloodline, an aged man who’s body is incapable of producing heirs not simply out of age but due to being infertile.”

Reyna held her hands to her chest as her heart began to beat faster “Herald was obsessed with power, being born into his rule as a lone child and thought by his parents that the colonies weren’t just the family’s business but their kingdom. He couldn’t stand that he was the last Von Sweiss, that he couldn’t continue the family line so…”

She briefly stopped as her eyes began to tremble and tears began to form “So he focused his fortune and power over a single task as he left the ruling of the colonies to others, he wanted this goal complete so badly that he imprisoned those working for him until they came to him with results…Herald wanted them to create life.” A single tear streaked down her cheek “To create a human from another’s DNA…To create me.”

Sly stared at Reyna with an expression so baffled and full of disbelief that he forgot his hand was bleeding as he rubbed his eyes “Wait…wait so…you’re a clone or something?” he asked ignoring the patches of blood he left on his face.

Reyna nodded “Out of three hundred and forty two bodies, I am the lone survivor of his experimentation…”

“That’s…that’s it?” Sly asked as he regained his composure.

“What…do you mean?” Reyna asked as she sniffled and wiped the tear from her face.

“You’re upset because you’re a clone? Is that really just it?” Sly asked in disbelief “That is why you’re so paranoid!?”

Reyna took a step away from him “I…No I…I’m not real…I…I shouldn’t exist…I…” her eyes were swelling red.

Sly held his face with his other hand and took a deep breath “So what?” he asked her with a bitter tone, taking his hand off he looked at Reyna with cold resentful eyes.

“She’s spent 19 years alive fool! 19 years in isolation! Imagine that!” exclaimed Liliana “Alone with no one to speak to, eating the same thing every single day and only after 18 years she gained brief hours of freedom. Each of those hours, for every second she was watched and told what to and not to do.”

Sly glanced over at the demi-goddess “Again, so what?” before looking back at Reyna “What, do you think you’re not alive? Do you think just because you were made from machines that you’re not also human? Tell me what is there different between you and anybody else on Mars?”

Reyna stared back at him with swollen eyes and a half open mouth, unable to form words as her every being panicked.

When she didn’t respond Sly lost it and grabbed her by the collar, Lilith in response summoned her scythe and held it’s blade to Sly’s chest stopping him from getting any closer “Let her go” she hissed at him.

Yet Sly ignored the other Devil, his cold glare solely focused on a petrified Reyna as he spoke “As a child I lived in the border districts of the colonies, surrounded by crime at home, fearing for my life every day and night my only solace should have been school yet even there where the military itself keeps order I wasn’t safe. I was pushed around, kicked, spat at, insulted and thrown things at in plain sight but nobody ever did a single fucking thing because I was some rat from the border.

After completing the years of school forced on us I didn’t even try to continue further. To survive, to get the little credit I needed to feed myself and help feed family I did what every single person at the borders does and joined a gang. At the age of thirteen I robbed, fought and even killed to breathe another day.”

Sly pulled Reyna’s quickly paling face closer to his own “Six years ago the military cleansed the border. They wiped out every gang, group and collective that didn’t agree with their demands. I lay on the ground with a hole in my fucking knee as I watched almost every person I knew mowed down, blown up or just trampled over. I watched as people I considered brothers and sisters, people I looked up to and people I loved being butchered like cattle.”

Nobody responded to his story only Liliana who glanced away in shame “My..apologies…”

Sly snorted in disdain “We didn’t even get that, an apology. They just paid us survivors and the dead’s families off to appease us.” He said bitterly while glancing her way before looking back at Reyna who could no longer look him in the eye “Look at me!” exclaimed Sly as he mildly shook her, Lilith’s scythe pressed to his chest armour.

Slowly Reyna looked up, barely focusing she stared at his eyes steadily glaring back at her. “Consider your sheltered life lucky, that at least your hands are clean and that you didn’t have to struggle with death for a morsel of food.” said Sly as he let go of her collar, backing away from Lilith’s blade which she kept in between them.

Reyna’s eyes filled with tears as she fell down to her knees “I’m sorry…I’m weak…I’m…I’m a coward…” she said in between sobs, continuously she wiped the tears from her eyes when suddenly a hand holding the bloody dagger appeared in front of her. Reyna looked up to see Sly crouching down in front of her holding the dagger by the blade, forwarding the handle to her.

“If you really think that, then finish the pact.” He told her solemnly.

Reyna glanced at the dagger, between the blood that was already beginning to dry around Sly’s palm and the blade, at the black leather handle waiting for her hand to grasp it and at the person holding it out to her ready to make a pact that risked his life and another of pure torture. She stared down at the dagger, not even trying to reach out for it she just lay there looking at it as Sly pulled back his hand and sheathed it.

Sly stood up “You’re not a coward, else you would have taken the dagger. Cowards only think of themselves, cowards will always put themselves before others even if it means risking their lives. You’re not a coward, you’re just afraid and there is nothing wrong with that.”

Ending her sobbing Reyna looked up with reddened eyes, sniffling she asked “There isn’t?...”

Sly forwarded his uninjured hand to her “But you need to be strong, no matter how afraid you are, no matter how much it hurts your life isn’t all that’s at stake here.” Reyna carefully grabbed his hand with her own and he pulled her up, letting her hand go he formed a fist and bumped it lightly into her hand making it form one too “You’re at least allowed to join chat rooms right?” he then asked her.

Looking slightly confused Reyna nodded “Yeah but…they watch everything I do…”

Sly considered that briefly “But you can get me inside?” he then asked.

“Y…yes but then it won’t be long till they catch me and lock me out…I won’t be able to do anything else for weeks…” Reyna explained while retreating her hand and wiping her eyes.

“It will do, what is your username?” asked Sly.

“Reyrey0…why?” she asked back.

He nodded “You will find an invitation to a chatroom, I’ll let you know when I’m ready.” He told her before turning to face Liliana “All you need to do is get me inside, don’t worry about anything else.” He clenched his hands and took a deep breath “I’m ready.”

Liliana glanced between them and waited for Reyna to regain her composure, the Hero stood back up and anxiously glanced between her and Sly “I am…too.”

Liliana nodded “Stand in the circle with me then.” she told them and the stepped inside, she glanced at either of them briefly stopping to observe Reyna “I will bestow some magic into your soul before we start, Astral mana to be used whenever you find yourself in a pinch. It won’t last long though so use it as a last resort and don’t absorb too much else your body may suffer.”

“How will we come back?” Sly asked as he glanced around at the circle of flowers.

“I will keep a close eye on your souls through your bodies, once I detect the artefact through either of you I will pull you back. If I feel either of you closing death I will do the same.” Liliana explained.

“Fine with me.” Replied Sly “Shall we?”

Liliana nodded “Are you ready dear?” she asked Reyna who still looked downcast.

Reyna looked up at Liliana and nodded back wordlessly.

“Then prepare yourselves, not even I am sure as to what you will feel as you return to your bodies. Your memories may become jumbled, so be ready.” She explained before gesturing at Lilith and her Demons to move closer “I shall now begin.”

Sly clenched his hands on his legwear, his expression steady and calm but in reality he felt anxious and doubtful (“Can I really do this alone?...”).

Reyna simply stared down at the floor ahead of her where a few petals had found their way to, her expression sad and emotions reflecting it (“If only…I wasn’t so afraid…”).

Liliana raised her arms up ahead of herself as her wings shone multiple rays of colours including; green, blue and silver. She chanted “Souls of those that walk the mortal plane, show yourselves to this one of higher birth! Soul weaving!” her eyes morphed and changed entirely to blue as complex symbols faded in and out, she continued to chant several other spells as she moved her fingers around as if moving around invisible strings.

“My name is Liliana, daughter of Titania. By my power I bestow you with my blessing! Imbue Energy!” Out of her palms a white lightning struck out and engulfed Sly and Reyna, surrounding their bodies briefly before fading away. Like an artist weaving strings or a musician playing her instrument Liliana finished her first spell by opening her arms wide and casting a third “Veil that covers all, veil that surroundings reality from others. Tear open! Reality Cut!” she closed her hands and put her palms together.

Blue lines of fluorescent energy grew out from the circle of flowers and engulfed Sly, Reyna, Lilith and her four Demons, like bird cages they formed around them. “Farewell for now Heroes, please save this world from yours.” Said Liliana with a warm smile as the blue cages of energy entirely engulfed all seven of them and shrunk into nothingness.

Sly opened his eyes as if he had just blinked to find himself sitting down, glancing around himself he found he was inside a cubicle of some sort of large workplace. Reflective white walls surrounded him from each direction, a stone paved silver floor beneath him and no ceiling other than the room’s own white marble like ceiling up above.

Inside the cubicle with him was a blue glass desk with a green orb embedded into the centre, a black mug of something dark brown and hot and a white plate with a crushed silver paper on top.

Sly felt slightly confused for a brief moment before a head ache suddenly set in, with his mind feeling as if it was about to burst Sly groaned as he leaned onto the glass surface. Peaking through the severe migraine Sly saw his own reflection in the glass, light brown yellowish eyes with short dark brown hair shaved to zero on the sides.

Sly found himself back in his real body, a bulky and above average height twenty something. Closing his eyes due to the pain Sly’s mind went through the recent memories of both sides, body and soul. Setting aside his memories of Chaoz like a distant dream his mind focused on reminding his soul of what the body had been through without it.

Having no emotional attachment to anything, no feeling towards or against anything, Sly’s body had focused entirely on survival. Using basic common-sense Sly’s body had lived like a machine, working, sleeping, eating, shitting and showering while only interacting with others whenever it was required in a monotone voice and expressionless face.

Sly even clearly remembered himself auctioning off his video gaming set, willingly and without involving murder. He cried briefly inside, feeling a tug at his chest whenever he remembered that day. Moving on to his current situation Sly focused on where he currently was, before Chaoz he clearly remembered working as repair aid in a robotics store.

Now he remembered himself quitting that job and finding where he sat at right now, some boring clerk cubicle positioned as a customer care service for a large electronics company in a different district than the border where he used to live in. He remembered himself using the money he had set aside for emergencies to purchase a passport to move to this district and purchase his own apartment.

It was all strange for Sly, he knew these memories where his but it was so emotionless and monotone that he felt like he was looking through the eyes of someone…something else. As the pain subsided he reminded himself of what he had returned for, the war between two worlds he had to stop.

He glanced up from the glass as he calmed his nerves and retook control of his own breathing, waving his hand over the green orb several windows opened in his vision. Guide lines, search engines and customer lists he used to assist anybody that called in.

Sly swatted away each window other than the search engine making them disappear, tapping the search bar labelled ‘Bing’ a keyboard window opened beneath it. He typed in several searches and opening each on a different window that he moved with his fingers to lay around him.

The first thing he did was open the chatroom him and his guild used for communicating, an inbuilt chatting system that every computer had. As an administrator of the chatroom he selected the ‘Invite to room’ option and entered Reyna’s username. Seeing that she did not immediately accept he closed that window and moved on to the others.

Suddenly a call appeared ahead of him, beeping loudly only for him to hear the green bubble shook violently awaiting for him to tap it but Sly only swatted it away making it disappear. He remembered his body never queuing a call to another cubicle so he knew nobody would care if he did so a few times today.

Sly had another three windows open, one on recent news, one on a specific news story on the DVR and the game GAO and lastly a window with a list of news stories since. He started with the DVR story to appease his curiosity.

The story explained on how the video game’s launch had collapsed after the company’s main headquarters was hit with a massive hacker assault that ruined their servers and thrashed their gamedata. The hackers apparently were so set on ruining the company that human mercenaries were hired to infiltrate the building and connect offline storages to the net while also destroying any physical data kept aside for safety.

Sly stared at this first story in disbelief, checking their sources and looking through AR footage taken of the infiltrators he was left with no choice but to accept it as truth. Or at least the truth that was fed to the media to feed to the common citizens, Sly knew better. It was all a sham to cover for Scythe.

Secondly he looked through recent news stories for anything of interest and one story piqued it. The military had tripled the size of their manufacturing districts and were forcefully hiring workers from all over the colonies. Any that couldn’t be used as a mechanic, programmer or manager were drafted into soldiering.

Briefly he wondered why his body hadn’t been drafted into soldiering yet, being soulless would have fit Scythe’s plans perfectly but then he was reminded of something. Looking down at his legs he felt his left lower leg with his hand, feeling the metallic hardness beneath the pseudo skin that covered his robotic leg. He wasn’t suitable for combat by the military’s standards.

(“At least this came useful for once...”) he thought bitterly before refocusing on the task at hand (“So they are already drafting soldiers to command mech squads…And tripling their manufacturing. They are preparing for war alright.”)

He moved on to looking through any stories of note between the launch of GAO and today, swatting away any calls that came his way he searched for a few hours through the multitude of stories that were collected from the community’s districts.

The Mars colonies were divided into four kinds of districts. The main districts entirely controlled by the Military, the Community districts were controlled by several dozen large organizations who joined together to create the massive group called the Community, the border districts who were too far from the main districts to be fully controlled by the military and as such were full of crime and gang skirmishes.

Then there were the furthest districts, the Cold districts. Taking about 40% of mars these districts were once the same as the other side of the planet, an assortment of main districts taking into communities and then to the border. These districts were now entirely abandoned after a revolt took place against the military by the community-like group that lived there, this group was called GAIA.

Fed up with the Military’s dictatorship GAIA had taken combative action against them with the goal of taking over their side of the planet. GAIA had involved several gangs in their rebellion from the border districts tripling their numbers to face the several hundred thousand machine soldiers the Military controlled.

The rebellion did not last long, the military having moved all their resources and personnel to the other side of the planet using what GAIA had deduced to be tunnels taking from one main district to another on the opposite side of the planet. GAIA had thought they had won, that their face of Mars was finally theirs.

The Military thought otherwise as they invaded the border districts and mercilessly ‘Disbanded’ the gangs that lived there using the entirety of their forces. GAIA had no time to react as the military completely sealed off their districts from the border and turned off the oxygen supply suffocating 30% of the human population at the time.

This was six years ago, still fresh in most people’s minds it was even fresher in Sly’s as the travel between worlds made his mind feel light and focusing on memory felt clearer than usual.

As Sly stood up from his chair he moved around his robotic leg, getting himself reused to the feeling…or more so not feeling it. When suddenly another call appeared in his vision, an ember exclamation mark within the green bubble told Sly it was an urgent caller so he couldn’t swat it away.

Sighing Sly accepted the call as he turned to face the wall behind him “Sin customer care service, Justin here how may I help you today?” he placed his palm on the blank white smooth wall and it suddenly opened up by folding several times like a shutter from the middle.

“Ah hell-” a deep male voice responded sounding anxious but Sly interrupted the caller.

“Have you tried restarting it?” Sly asked before ending the call abruptly.