Chapter 19: New Beginning (end of 1st arc) Alpha Zero is from the species Jun and Gladia named Reapers. They are bipedal beings of humanoid form, a little more than 2 meters tall. These beings all have very long limbs and an extremely long reach. In the ancient days, they were used as spec ops because of their skill to blend into the darkness. They were created to fight extremely powerful dimensional creatures and entities by the same ancient race who created the hangar, the flagship and everything else inside, at the time when the Singularity and the Void were just born from the big universe collision. They all had access to an arsenal of abilities, skills and weapons each more lethal than the other. Although they can be considered extremely powerful for the current era, during the ancient era the reapers and battle drones were among the weakest soldiers in their army, that is why these ones were abandoned in this place. The ancient beings who created them surely did not deem it necessary to recover them when their outpost on Kar'goth fell to the enemy, and decided to just abandon them and the entire hangar. The Reapers are masters in the art of dimensional displacement and camouflage, their innate ability allows them to transfer their bodies between dimensions ; Alice's invisibility is child play compared to the reapers' stealth skills. It makes them extremely dangerous and perfectly suited for assassination and reconnaissance, they are the embodiment of what a spec ops group should be: silent, invisible, fast, and above all possessing very high firepower with all their deadly skills and weapons. Although Jun and Gladia were only able to free one of them before the ship's core was fully charged, this single reaper they named Alpha Zero was more than enough to hold off both Kat and Jerome at the same time. 'Jerome, cover me until I can charge up my skill.' 'Understood.' Even though Katarina was a genius and progressed at breakneck speed, she still couldn't take on this reaper who threw her like a sandbag. Even with Jerome at her side, they are unable to pass this reaper and follow the order they received from the scyllas to capture Jun. After the two of them were being played with for long minutes fighting Alpha Zero, Kat decided to use her skill at full power. The Scyllas' orders were absolute, and even if she must kill any organic beings still present in the hangar, as well as her squad, she will not hesitate if it allows her to neutralize the reaper and capture Jun. Jerome is also aware of this, and although deep down he felt like he was acting against his will, something in his mind made him unable to refuse this absolute order either and he was ready to give his life so that Kat would have time to charge up her deadly skill and could succeed to kill this reaper who was stronger than everything they encountered so far. After the two rifters mentally agreed to each other, they both attacked alpha zero again. While Kat was firing her laser rifle, Jerome closed the distance in a single bound and hit the reaper with all his might. Although Alpha Zero had no trouble blocking, the blow was so powerful that just the resulting shock wave between Jerome's huge dark sword and Alpha Zero hand palm destroyed everything behind it. When the reaper started moving again to counter-attack, Jerome lunged forward instead of dodging and grabbed the reaper firmly. Alpha Zero, having been ordered not to kill any of them, could not deploy his full force and decided to change tactics and fight seriously instead of harming them. The advantage of sending reapers on a battlefield was their ability to kill their enemies stealthily in one powerful attack, this was more or less the same strategy Alice used but many times more efficient and lethal. When Jerome grabbed Alpha Zero and thought he was holding him tight, he suddenly felt a vacuum between his arms and realized that Alpha One had simply disappeared. After cautiously checking his surroundings, he quickly understood the reaper's plan and tried to warn Kat. "Be careful Katarina !! The reaper will..." It was already too late. When Jerome turned to warn Kat, she was already lying motionless on the ground, Alpha Zero standing behind her body. 'You. Shall. Sleep.' After Jerome heard the voice of Alpha Zero in his head, he didn't have the time to see the reaper attack before everything went black. After testing their resistance and overall capabilities, Alpha Zero decided to become serious and end the fight. In just a few seconds, he managed to neutralize Kat and Jerome without even giving them time to react. Even if they were not perfectly fused rifters and they have been able to train and progress only for a year, they were still Void Rifters and Kat was a high lethality vector. Even the Giant Ants leader outside the door would have been unable to end the fight so fast ; such was the true strength of the reapers. Although Jun and Gladia were only able to free one of them before the ship's core was fully charged, this single reaper they named Alpha Zero was more than enough to hold off both Kat and Jerome at the same time. He took care of them like a dad would put his children to sleep, and this reaper is from one of the weakest races existing in the ancient era... That is how frightening the ancient armies and conflict were. Once the fight was over, Alpha Zero picked up and carried everyone back to the flagship. When he arrived inside, Douglas was surprised to see him carrying Kat, Jerome and his Leader as if nothing had happened. Douglas didn't see them fight, but he rapidly understood the situation : his Leader was right to be so cautious as Kat and Jerome finally got controlled like Jun predicted ; and Alpha Zero was able to beat them without receiving the slightest scratch, once again like his Leader predicted. Alpha Zero went to the containment area and placed Kat and Jerome in cryo capsules, then he teleported to the infirmary and deposited Jun in a recovery pod near Alice's capsule. The last few hours were terrible for the squad, out of all of them only Douglas remained still operational, although very tired from the previous long days of combat. Being the only rifter still awake, Alpha Zero warned him. 'The. Master. Needs. To. Recover. As. Soon. As. Possible.' Surprised to hear the reaper's voice directly in his head, Douglas nodded then added. "We must, above all, make sure that nothing passes through this door. I detected significant movements of swarmlings nearby, I don't know what the leader did with this weird egg before closing the door, but it seems to have worked well as all the surrounding swarmlings are now rushing to the Giant Ants location." Although Jun knew that the egg Alice had managed to steal during one of her missions was important, he could never have imagined how important it was. Swarmlings are a mix of different bread, and they are all very hierarchical. The role of each swarmling is known at birth ; a newly hatched swarmling already knows what to do in the hive until its death. The egg that Jun tortured to provoke the Hive was the egg of an extremely rare swarmling bread, that is meant to protect their queen. These swarmlings are born very weak, much weaker than a regular swarmling, but they have a unique ability that allows them to grow stronger by absorbing organic matter with the genetic code of their victim. If these swarmlings are so well guarded and protected until they can be powerful enough to join their queen's royal guard, it is because they are the only ones out of all the swarmlings capable of evolving and improving. All other members of their species are born at their peak strength already, alpha or omega swarmlings are nearly as strong at birth as they are in adult form and so their battle capabilities will not progress during their lifetime. Although the Hive has, until now, avoided approaching the hangar for fear of waking up the ancient army sleeping there, the agony and death of one of their rarest members before it could even hatch was extremely effective in stirring up the hatred of the surrounding swarmlings and to force them to take their revenge. 'The. Core. Only. Needs. A. Few. More. Hours. To. Be. Fully. Charged.' "Alright, we are the only ones left so I hope for the golden door to be sturdy enough and to not break before Gladia can activate the flagship." Douglas looked at his Leader and Alice inside the recuperation capsules, then he went outside the flagship and took a highground position to guard it in case the golden door couldn't resist. Even if he was the most silent in the squad, Douglas was also the one who understood his leader the best. He is also the one who shared his hatred for the Scyllas the most. No matter what, he would never let his squad be destroyed by the Scyllas. If there is someone who has the power to harm the Scyllas, Doug was certain that it would be none other than his Leader. He is ready to give his life to protect his Leader, until he can achieve his vengeance. ___ I was in a completely dark space. I remember losing consciousness after joining the hangar, and since then I was floating in an unknown place where everywhere I looked I only see pure darkness. It was a rather strange feeling, I was unable to see properly. It was as if a veil was covering my eyes and I was looking inside this dark place through this veil. 'Does that mean that I'm not unconscious but...dead? N-no no no, that's impossible.' Although I was seriously injured and I was terribly tired from the consecutive days of intense fights, my injuries were not fatal and thanks to the black matter I should have been able to survive and recover with some time. 'In this case, where am I ? How come I can stay conscious when I'm supposed to be unconscious ?' 'That's because I woke you up from your slumber.' As I struggled to understand what was happening to me, a strangely familiar voice sounded around me. 'Who is here ??' 'You.' 'Uh ?.. But you, who are you ?' 'You.' 'Me ?' 'Yes, you.' Although what that voice was saying sounded absurd to me, I understood why it sounded so familiar…it was my own voice with a slightly lower pitch and a little metallic tone. 'I don't understand what's going on...am I dreaming?' 'No. You are simply deep in your own sea of consciousness.' After the voice said these words, I felt a strange connection to this place. As if it was part of me. This feeling was far too weird for me to describe it, I felt like I was at the same time asleep and awake inside myself. The first time I felt this sensation was when I tried to stabilize the black matter after absorbing Gladia and the Netherite gem, it seemed that at that moment I accidentally joined the same space where I am currently. 'Stop calling me dark matter as if I was just a kind of inanimate object. Would you like it to always be called organic matter ?' 'Hum…so you really are the black matter ?' 'I just told you that I am you...and to stop calling me like that, ape.' 'How should I call you then ?' 'Tassadar was my name, before we became one.' 'Wait a minute, you do have a name ? And how is it that we can discuss as if everything is fine ? Although the feeling of talking to myself is quite strange to me, it's still amazing to be able to communicate with you ! I tried many times before, but I've never heard you answer me so I always thought you were devoid of intelligence or you couldn't communicate.' 'Yes I have a name, just like all those of my kinds who were subjugated and used by the Scyllas to merge them with miserable organic bodies.' The other me seemed just as wrathful against the scyllas as I was, although not for the same reasons. I was still happy to confirm some of the doubts I had for a long time : the dark matter could understand me, and they too were used as specimens by the Scyllas. Even though the Scyllas call them 'Holy Children', in the end they still use them as mere specimens as they did to us, humans, and all the other races they abducted from their home-worlds. 'Why can we discuss freely now? When I tried to contact you earlier, you never answered me.' 'Because what you were trying to contact was just a tiny part of me. Until your body completely absorbed me, I myself was devoid of my own consciousness.' 'I see...so if I understand everything correctly, in addition to having Gladia in my head I now have another Me in my 'sea of consciousness', which is also in my head ? I'm really going to believe that my body is a sort of five stars luxury hotel for aliens...' 'You should rather worry about what's going on outside and wake up. If I showed up in your sea of consciousness, it was simply to force you to wake up. You stood unconscious for too long. Although we are different, we are also the same entity now. Even though being absorbed by an organic body like you disgusts me, we are bonded and your death means mine too.' 'Aren't you supposed to survive if I die ? All the rifters I've seen die so far had their dark matter survive and run away by warping space when they died.' 'Because the other rifters were absorbed by my brethren, while in our case you're the one who absorbed me. Anyway, we don't have time to talk anymore, you absolutely have to regain consciousness and get us out of here. The Singularity is extremely vast, in fact, its only known border is the one separating it from the Void, everywhere else it is endless. If you want to hide and be able to fight the Scyllas later you should go to a sector close to the Void invasions and try to sneakily join a Legion. Although I don't like the Void natives, I hate the Scyllas more and the Void Legions are able to help you in your mission as you and they share the same goal.' 'Understood. Before you go, if I want to talk to you again how...' Before I could finish what I had to say, I instantly felt my whole body again and my eyes suddenly opened, dispelling the sea of darkness that was surrounded me. I was struggling to breathe, my face hung an oxygen mask and I was fully immersed in some kind of purple viscous liquid, inside a very large capsule. [You're finally awake!!] 'Yes I am, Gladia… Uh, my head hurts so much... What happened after I passed out?' [I'll explain soon, but you first need to get out of this capsule and see something by yourself !] Although I felt better, my wounds hadn't fully healed and I still felt a little tired. I estimated that I had not lost consciousness for more than a few hours, and I could only remember being a few minutes inside my sea of consciousness. After Gladia told me to get out of the capsule, a mechanism clicked and all the liquid present inside was sucked through a hole, before the glass sealing the compartment opened to let me out. The advantage of being fused with black mat...with Tassadar, hum, is that I can change my black armor into whatever shape I want. Not being sure of the situation, but waking up in the ship safe and sound, I guessed that the giant ants had not entered the hangar before the core charged and we could escape. Or Gladia teleported us urgently. In any way, we were finally out of this hellish planet and not in imminent danger. I decided to form a light armor instead of the traditional heavy black armor that I wore for a year non-stop. I wanted to feel comfortable. When I exited my capsule, the first thing I noticed was the person inside the capsule next to mine. A young woman who without her usual black armor seemed softer and more harmless than a flower. Although she was small in stature, she was perfectly proportioned, whether it was the size of her face, her limbs, her breasts or her hips, she looked like a gentle princess coming straight out of a fable. I could never have imagined that Alice looked so beautiful without her black armor. While admiring her beauty, I couldn't help but feel extreme sadness and guilt as I inspected the many wounds that still haven't been healed even after staying inside the capsule which Alpha One said were recovery capsules for reapers who were seriously injured in battle during the ancient era. Deep holes are strewn over her entire body, from her limbs, torso, abdomen to her legs. The biggest wound was not a hole but a deep cut mark running from her cheek to her hip, it made her look like she was a doll that had been torn and cut before being thrown in the trash. Although she is extremely beautiful, seeing her wounds which seemed so serious under the little black matter remaining on her skin gave me a little twinge in my heart, especially when even Douglas and I didn't get beaten that much by the Giant Ants. 'Gladia, Alice she...' [Do not worry, her condition is not critical. Although she still looks unwell and she may stay in this pod for quite a while, her vitals are not engaged and she should survive.] 'Thanks, that takes a weight off my conscience. I don't know if I could have forgiven myself for losing a squad member just before I could escape this damned planet.' Relieved to know that Alice will be able to recover and just needed time, I started to approach the teleportation platform to leave this room which was the infirmary. 'Gladia, what happened after I passed out ? Did you activate the emergency jump ? How long have I been asleep ?' [Hm…about this, I have good news and bad news to tell you before answering your questions and explaining to you what happened while you were unconscious...] Gladia seemed weird today, although nothing major seemed to have changed, I still had the impression that she was speaking differently than usual. I had gotten used to her character and her touches of sarcasm, but when I asked her a question she always answered first before letting herself talk to me more lightly, a bit like an AI would prioritize the admin command before doing everything else. She has always seemed to be closer to an AI than a human intelligence to me and I always thought it was her race that induced this behavior. Now, on the other hand, she seemed slightly closer to how a human would have answered me than an AI. 'Start with the good news, I need some cheering up.' [The good news is that we managed to escape from this planet, which is called Kar'goth by the way. We were also able to wait until the core fully charged up, the giant ants couldn't open the door and they got slaughtered outside the golden door. That gave us enough time to teleport the flagship out of the hangar before the Scyllas who were in orbit and actively trying to force their way in the hangar could catch us.] 'I knew the Scyllas were not far away, that is why I didn't let Kat and Jerome join the fight outside the hangar. Even if they still got manipulated, in the end it was once we were out of the battle which reduced the risk.' Although Kat and Jerome succumbed to the orders sent by the Scyllas, I had complete trust in Alpha Zero to neutralize them. After releasing Alpha Zero, I asked him to fight me in the hangar. What I thought was going to be a tight sparring fight was actually a crushing defeat for me and my ego. Alpha only needed a second after I gave the go-ahead to disappear and reappear behind me, with his long hand gripping my neck. If it was a real fight he could have killed me as easily as that, and the scariest thing is that I couldn't have done anything to stop him from doing so. I was the only one who knew the true strength of the reapers, I did well to leave him behind to watch over Kat and Jerome. [and we come to the bad news that may not please you...] 'Please, don't tell me Alpha killed them ?' [No, but right now he wants to. After you passed out, he managed to beat them without much difficulty. However, since Kat and Jerome received this order from the Scyllas, they have simply become uncontrollable. They tried to sabotage the ship every time we released them to see what they would do. They are clearly determined to carry out their order unless they receive a counter order from a Scylla, even now that we escaped the planet. We had to cryogenize them until you wake up and we can find a solution.] 'So to resume our squad état : Kat and Jerome are cryogenically frozen, Alice is still at death's door in a healing capsule and I am seriously injured. If a battle breaks up, only Douglas will be able to fight... By the way, you still didn't answer me. How long did I stay unconscious ?' [You've been in the recovery pod for almost a month...] 'A month ?? Impossible !!' [And yet it is the truth, Jun…Douglas and Alpha Zero planned to forcefully wake you up very soon if you couldn't wake up by yourself. You should go meet them, they are waiting for you in the grand hall. I hope you're ready for what you're about to see...] Without giving me any further explanation, Gladia teleported me to the control room when I stepped on the teleportation slab. Once I arrived in the grand hall, I was directly teleported right in the middle. Although she warned me, it was impossible for me not to be speechless at the scene that presented itself to me.