Day 68

I'm close. Half an hour away from the ape city and the healing stone.

That's when the big quake hits.

The steam engine is thrown off the ground and slams into the wall, sliding sideways on the ground. Components are broken, I shut off the power supply from my chest to stop us. The electric motor stalls in an instant without power.

We grind to a halt, bodies falling over each other.

That can't have been good for the critically injured Niala.

Outside only two of the golems are still functioning: the big power-armor version and the railgun. Dammit. The others are broken into wreckage. Mangled steel parts. I guess I went too light on their armor and reinforced skeletons? At least the steam engine is mostly whole. I did build the damn thing anticipating collisions, but not from the side.

Now... how do I get this stupid lump of iron upright again?

The golems are strong, but they're still the hollow body types. They'll break before they budge this nine ton armored monster I've built.

What am I thinking about? I've still got the gravity cube.

Easy... easy... gently does it...

Crunch.

Well, not a brilliantly soft landing. But hey, normal gravity and no angry dog girl sitting on my face, now.

Not that I could or would enjoy it, with my current state of worry. But I'm feeling quite zen about it right now.

I check on Niala and freeze.

My breath catches. She's bleeding out. The gaping injuries where her thighs used to be are gushing. That's her femoral artery. She isn't even conscious. She can't heal herself like this. She can't do anything but die. She has... maybe a minute or two and then her life is over. Even if I stop her bleeding, she's already so far gone she'll need a blood transfusion. I have no clue what her blood type is.

I don't even have blood in my body any more.

This is all bad news.

But I'm not ready to accept it.

Sis, I'm sorry you ended up like this because of me.

I snatch her up, tearing from the crying little cat girl hugging her, desperately. Sorry Kitten, that only works when she does it.

Still I have my own little tricks.

Yes, like how I remodeled myself. I tear our the wrecked golems and use their steel as materials for my sister's rebirth.

Sorry, this bit hurts. I'm glad you passed out.

I fuse the steel with bones and flesh. Enveloping her skeleton, entwining wires with muscles, connecting nerve-endings.

Her life-ending wound is first, her left femoral artery and severed limbs. I cap off the wound with steel, shutting the blood vessel.

Her back was broken, spinal cord torn in three separate areas. Above the hips her vertebrae cracked, just below the ribs her spine was shattered and in her neck a minor tear appeared from a whiplash injury. Best case without treatment: paralyzed lower half. Her healing probably even fixed some of this already, so it was likely twice as bad when she received it.

Nerve connections communicating to prosthetics is already something I have learned about, by experimenting on myself to create my eye. So I can fix her nerves with effort.

A few of her bones are malformed... I see. She was beaten so badly as a captive slave they shattered her bones and her accelerated healing joined them incorrectly. Her left shoulder and three ribs. I fix these problems with steel, snapping them and reconnecting them correctly.

I don't skimp with the materials, because nothing is more important than this.

I look into the helpless face and see the little girl that I saved from being eaten by a giant carnivore. Asleep she looks so much more innocent.

“Minke, I have a question. Do you mind?” I ask as I fuse my sister's skull with the metal.

“Of course. Anything.” [Minke]

“You saw all of this coming, didn't you?” I ask, I'm past anger by now. Too busy for it.

“I'm sorry.” [Minke]

“Was it necessary?” I ask sighing. I suspected her power was further reaching than she admitted.

“It was.” She's crying. “I don't want it like this, but it has to be this... or...”

“It's fine. Stop your tears. I don't mind. No. I probably do, but I'm past the point where I can act on it.” I shrug as I manage Niala's blood-flow and organs, suspending her death by diverting blood to critical functions.

I move to her lost legs. I fashion for my sister legs of utmost power. Without restraint I give her power beyond a golem. To the absolute bleeding edge of my power, I craft her legs out of Damascus steel, carbon-nanotubes embedded in the metal of her legs and body to add flexibility and sheer durability. I add extendable blades to her feet, retractable spikes to her knees. So that if she cannot kill a threat, she can outrun it.

“So I guess this is goodbye. The times we had together were good weren't they?” I ask the seer.

I look at my sister. I have given you all I can. So I can only ask for you... live out the remainder of your life well.

Then I rip the ring from my chest.

Because there is no other source of power I can use to complete her. The gravity cube isn't a valid alternative, as much as I hoped it would be.

The antimatter generation device whirs as if alive in my fingers. I suppose it is. You carry the power to evade death.

My life is faltering, I'm as much machine as living being, perhaps less of one than the other. Still the organic takes a minute or two to decide. The machines are still going, but with the reactor gone, it is just a matter of time.

With the ring implanted and active, Niala is immortal to a point. Her eyes open and she looks at me, fondness welling in those eyes. I tweak her nose.

“Remember what I told you when our brothers died? Don't miss me. No goodbye is forever.”

And so I died again. Third time's a charm, right?

I hope so.

(Kitten POV)

The noise! It's deafening.

The whispers... I can almost understand it.

Then silence.

Not the silence of an audience. Not even the silence of terror.

No.

This was the quiet of a death tunnel.

The silence that exists only where they do not.

“Who are you?” I asked the silence.

“I don't have a name.” [Darkness]

“What are you?” [Sara]

“I don't exist as anything beyond being myself.” [Darkness]

“Are you the Whispers?” [Sara]

“No. I am just a broken plaything of theirs. Something slightly dangerous.” [Darkness]

“Are you going to hurt us?” [Sara]

“No. I came for the one that made all of that noise.” [Darkness]

“Who are you talking to, little one?” [Myna the Alcemist]

“Will you save my big sister? Please? She's hurt.” [Sara]

“Huh?” [Myna oblivious to the other party]

“No, look the one you want saved has been restored already.” [Darkness] “But the other, I want it. The male. It's parts are new and interesting.”

“Ah! Please keep him alive!' [Sara, noticing the change, with Rick dying]

“I'm sorry. That is not possible. I do not possess the skills or access to do that.” [Darkness]

A second voice, weakly talked from the darkness.

“Then let me! Let me save Father!” [Homunculus trapped inside the Darkness] “Please.”

“Can you? Convince me. Why should I let you?” [Darkness]

“Father is not a being of this world. I have been with him since his earliest days (as antimatter in a ring). I have heard of his origins. He knows much that is not native to this trap of the creators.” [ Homunculus]

“Consider my curiosity to have been piqued. Save him, if you can. But you will come with us.” [Darkness]

“I don't mind, provided you guarantee I will have my freedom at some point.” [Homunculus] “It does not need to be soon, I do not think my life will be short.”

“You feed every action with a minuscule amount of yourself. You will not last forever.” [Darkness]

“I'm aware I'm finite.” [Homunculus replying drolly.] “Father more so.”

“Yes, I'll agree. You will be allowed to leave at will... but do not do so too suddenly, you will regret it in the long run.” [Darkness]

“Just save him!” [Sara]

“I'm sorry I can't...” [(misunderstanding) Myna softly replied]

“Not you, the old man.” [Sara pointing at empty air]

“Old man? I guess that might be a reasonable description of me.” [Darkness]

(Rick POV)

Day 83

I wake up, bright burning light in my eyes.

No... that isn't artificial. That isn't like that of Earth either. Not the gentle warmth of the sun, the cold gleam of the moon or the glittering of stars and galaxies...

No a single blue star sits filling the entire horizon in every direction. Incredibly close. Terrifyingly close. What the fuck is this?!

What we learned:

Rick gave his sister her ring back. (Took him long enough).

Something overwhelmed even the Antimatter Goddess?!

In the end, the healing rock was unnecessary.

The labyrinth takes a new turn into the bizarre as it's true nature will be revealed!