“Octy!” Vita exclaimed in shock, her voice ringing clear through Octavia’s heightened senses.

“I know,” Octavia declared firmly, quickly shifting out of her cross-legged position to jump to her paws. She grabbed her helmet as she stood and swiped the dead network projector off of the terminal behind her, slipping the portable network back into its hidden compartment within her armor before she slid her helmet back over her head. She twisted it into position with a magnetic click, sealing herself in once again.

“We have to stop her,” Vita insisted firmly as Octavia readied herself.

“I know, damnit,” Octavia replied sharply as she reached down, sliding her sidearm off of the magstrip on her thigh. Her heads up display flashed to life as her armor connected with the weapon, bringing up the charge and her targeting reticle. Satisfied, she immediately began striding off towards the stairs.

“I’ve got more power - all systems coming online now,” Vita informed hastily as a dull humming began to ring around Octavia’s body. The energized sensation she experienced before increased, filling her with brimming confidence as her strength returned and her pain from the rest of the day was forgotten. The charge on her armor jumped up to full in the corner of her heads up display, and her own power levels were soon at a similar charge.

As Octavia strode through the doorway confidently towards the stairs, a faint whisper of a noise caught her ear and instantly she whipped around to the disturbance with her pistol raised, the motion almost dizzying with how fast her body executed the command. The world slowed down to a crawl briefly as she managed to actually watch the air develop an event horizon in front of her, warping the light into a dizzying silhouette. She instantly recognized the anomaly, and just as fast as her defensive systems had jumped into action they deactivated as her arm lowered.

Merith appeared in the warped space in front of her, stepping out of the hole in space with wide eyes and her rifle in hand. She peered at the empty space in front of the terminal where Octavia had been before, only to glance around and suddenly notice Octavia behind her. She blinked in surprise, clearly caught off guard by Octavia’s repositioning, but she hastily leapt into conversation without missing a beat.

“The Omni are here, they’re about to cut through!” she insisted sharply, “We’ve gotta get to the control room, we can hold them off at the doorway and buy the others a few minutes to do their thing.”

“That’s the least of our problems,” Octavia replied instantly, turning as she began to rush up the stairs without waiting for Merith to join her. She didn’t have to see Merith - she was surprised to find that she could hear her footsteps as clearly as if she were standing directly next to the alari, and even beyond that she could feel the pilot’s presence half a flight behind her, “The Omni aren’t the problem; Remiel’s gonna blow up the entire star system.”

“Wait, what?” Merith asked incredulously as she struggled to race up the steps behind Octavia’s invigorated pace, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Remiel,” Octavia explained sharply as she reached out to grip the wall, using her momentum to propel herself around a corner without slowing down, “She’s not FIA. She’s here to blow this place up.”

“The fuck do you mean, blow this place up? She’s just a spook!” Merith called out, easily lost behind Octavia as the cybernetic soldier raced her way up the stairs.

Octavia was about to reply when she caught sight of the air in front of her warping once again, though this time she was prepared for it. She slowed her pace just enough so she didn’t wind up inside the warp as Merith stepped out of the hole at the next corner of the stairs, looking down at Octavia with disbelief. Octavia came to a stop a step below her, impatience rushing into the forefront of her mind.

“It’s a long fucking story - but Remiel isn’t who she says she is. This whole thing was a setup just to get her close enough to the Cradle so she could blow up Oculus,” Octavia explained in a rush, a frown creasing her features as she looked up at Merith.

“You realize you sound like you’ve lost your goddess-damned mind, right?” Merith asked with a deepening frown, “What the fuck is the Cradle? And who is Remiel if not FIA?”

Octavia’s displeasure deepened as she gazed upon Merith, standing in her way and barraging her with questions that she didn’t have easy answers for. There was no way to convince Merith and get to the control room in time - Remiel already had a head start and there was no way that she was going to just sit there wasting time with Merith while the agent worked to destroy the Cradle and the countless lives present on her planets. Something itched at the forefront of Octavia’s mind, a presence that she had never felt before, but somehow it still felt familiar in an instinctive way that she couldn’t put words to.

Rather than replying, Octavia stepped up onto the landing with Merith, forcing the alari to take a step back to make room for her. The sensation grew stronger, an instinctual drive that forced Octavia to raise her free arm towards Merith. It didn’t feel fast to her, but somewhere her sense of time told her that she had raised her arm faster than the alari could even blink. Suddenly she had Merith’s face held in the palm of her hand, her fingers gripping her skull as she latched her hand on Merith’s head.

The sensation at the front of Octavia’s mind felt like a muscle that needed to be flexed, but one that she had never moved before. It was a strange sensation, like a phantom limb she had never realized was there. But as she stretched it forward, she felt it race through her arm towards Merith’s head, then through her palm and fingers until it reached through Merith’s skull and deep into her brain.

Searching Merith’s thoughts felt a lot like searching for networks in the environment around her, but rather than reaching through her neurolink in a familiar stretch, she found herself reaching through her phantom limb. She didn’t need to dig deep, Merith’s mind was comparatively unprotected compared to some of the networks she had hacked during her journey. Fighting off a Seraph even briefly within the confines of her mind was a much harder battle than what she faced there on the stairs.

Gripping onto one of the main strands of Merith’s mind, she tugged on the cord she found and pulled it into herself, latching their minds together as though she were connecting two devices on the same network. She was surprised at just how easy it was, the instinctive nature coming to her as easily as moving her own limbs. It took only a moment longer to compile her memories from within the Cradle into a neat packet which she then sent through Merith’s unprepared mind.

The alari instantly went bug-eyed in front of her, tears collecting at the corners of her eyes as she was overwhelmed by the presence of the Cradle. She experienced everything that Octavia had to go through, except she experienced it in the span of several seconds. While the connection was live, Octavia couldn’t help but dig through the information that she could access within Merith’s mind as she experienced the weight of the Cradle.

“I can’t keep living in your shadow, mom. This is a load of shit and you know it! I want to go out and be something other than a you-damned princess!” Merith spat, her arms crossed in front of her as she looked over her shoulder at the woman in question.

Goddess Alariael had the same impassive look as ever, a vague air of unimpressed disappointment surrounding her as she regarded her daughter, “I never said you couldn’t leave, Merith. But of everything you could be, why a pilot? Why the Federation?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Merith retorted sharply, “The most I’ve felt alive in four hundred years was when the bots rebelled. Kicking machine ass in the palace was the most exciting thing to ever happen to me, damnit!”

“Well, if that is what you desire, then I shan’t stop you,” Goddess Alariael replied dismissively with an elegant wave of her hand, “I will make the arrangements so no one knows who you are. You’ll register for the academy under the surname Kelro, understood?”

“Great, I can’t even run away from you without you deciding how,” Merith grumbled, her shoulders sagging.

Merith collapsed to the ground on the landing in a heap, her back against the wall as her breath came to her in heaves and pants. She looked up at Octavia with a paled face and a horrified expression, her chest heaving as she struggled to regain her composure. Her rifle clattered to the ground noisily beside her as she rapidly patted her chest as if she were trying to reassure herself that she existed in the moment.

“What the fuck was that?” Merith exclaimed breathlessly, “Are you psionic?”

“No,” Octavia replied shortly, shaking her head, “I’ll be honest, I don’t know what that was. But I think it’s part of the Cradle’s gift to me. The mantle of a hero, whatever that is,” she explained patiently, “We don’t have time to get into it.”

“Were you just digging through my memories?” Merith asked, her eyes widening even more as she gazed up at Octavia’s armored form in horrified disbelief.

“Yes,” Octavia admitted with a single nod, “You can ream me out for it later, princess - for now, we need to move,” she insisted firmly as she shifted her posture and reached a hand down to Merith expectantly, “And I need your help to finish this.”

Merith was silent for a moment as her features shifted from horrified to enraged and back again, only to settle on a look of confusion as she stared into blank space. Octavia felt a foreign presence itching at the corners of her mind, a faint tickling that reminded her of the Seraph’s invasion of her neurolink. She frowned slightly, and without so much as an ounce of effort she shut the invasion out, locking it down and preventing it from sinking any further. Her heads up display warned her of a sharp increase of Alarium in the area, but as she shut down the intrusion the levels promptly dropped back to zero.

“How the fuck are you doing that?” Merith prodded with an infuriated voice, “No one can resist me like that,” she added, the disbelief heavy in her tone.

“Again, we don’t have time for this, Merith. You can interrogate me later, but if you stay here asking me a thousand stupid questions you’re going to get us all killed,” Octavia shot back harshly, as she bobbed her hand for emphasis, “Let’s go!”

Merith looked like she wanted to resist, her face contorting into a soured expression for a moment. Finally she relented and let out an annoyed sigh as she reached down and grabbed her rifle with one hand while her other raised up to grip Octavia’s armored hand tightly. Without waiting for her to be ready, Octavia gave Merith’s arm a heave and yanked her up to her feet roughly, causing the sour expression to fall off of her face in favor of one of shock.

Unsteady on her feet, Merith fell forward towards Octavia, who immediately caught her with her free hand in an effortless display of dexterity. Satisfied that Merith wasn’t going to fall over, Octavia pulled back and gave her a once-over glance to make sure there were no more immediate issues with the situation. Without any obvious complaints, Octavia turned and began sprinting up the stairway once again, rushing as fast as her paws could carry her across the smoothed steps.

It was a few more moments of sprinting before Octavia finally spotted the top of the staircase and the increased blue glow coming from the hologram room. She could hear an insistent hissing coming from the room, a faint crackling and spitting of rock being melted by a powerful heat source. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was causing the sound. Octavia burst into the room just in time for a large square of the double stone doors to come crashing down inwards, leaving a molten doorway through which the Omni began to pour in a synchronized display.

As she came into the light of the atrium, she looked to the far left where the doorway to the control room was, then turned her attention forward to the twenty-two figures standing only a few meager feet in front of her. She recognized nineteen of them as the typical winged, looming bodies of Omni Seraphs, each one a pristine white that practically glowed in the dim blue light of the atrium. At the rear of the column was an Omni pattern she had never seen before; she looked like a Seraph, but was positively enormous compared to the standard ten-foot tall Seraphim, and had enough composite armor plating to look more like a walking tank than a mechanical person.

At the very front of the column, however, were the most interesting ones of them all. A human domestic service bot, standing only five feet and eight inches tall. She was clearly made from inferior materials compared to the perfect robotic soldiers standing at picturesque attention behind her, and didn’t bear any obvious combat-capable modifications that would make her any more dangerous than a typical human with a gun. Her metallic chassis was faded from an old baby blue, with bare gunmetal grey revealed through wear and tear in several spots, and several markings of superficial damage throughout.

Standing directly next to the servitor was a figure she recognized well and truly from every moment of her childhood; the seven-foot tall metallic perfection of an amaranthoid woman. Her running lights were a distinct lavender, and her shoulders and upper chest had been spray painted in a variety of colors in an abstract pattern that Octavia faintly recognized from somewhere. She had to focus on her memories, searching through what she could remember before the pattern suddenly clicked for her, one of her memories lurching forward to the front of her mind like a freight train.

It was the same pattern and color as Mackenzie’s flight helmet.

“Mack?” Octavia asked with wide eyes as she skidded to a halt in the atrium, drawing all twenty two gazes in her direction.

She didn’t get a chance to hear a reply as she felt Merith coming up behind her, skidding to a halt with her rifle raised. Time slowed down as Octavia whipped around to the side, raising her arm sharply towards Merith’s rifle. With surprising ease she slapped the barrel of the rifle to the side and twisted her arm until she had gripped the receiver of Merith’s rifle, keeping it pinned off to the side so she couldn’t point it at the Omni.

“Octy, what the fuck!” Merith exclaimed as she struggled against Octavia’s grip, trying to bring the rifle to bear against the machines, “They’re Omni!” she added sharply.

“They’re here to help,” Octavia insisted sharply, glaring through her helmet at the alari behind her, “Remiel’s the problem, not the Omni.”

Octavia’s ear twitched within her helmet as she felt the presence of two of the machines approaching her. She didn’t have to look to instinctively know which two had approached them from behind; the amaranthoid and the servitor came to a stop a few feet behind her, giving her space to deal with Merith.

“Of course the fucking Omni are a problem, Octavia!” Merith exclaimed sharply. She reached up and gripped Octavia’s hand, pushing it away from her rifle, but making no move to raise her gun. Octavia allowed Merith’s movement, letting her hand be pulled away from the gun to give the alari some sense of control as she took a step back to eye the room full of machines in front of her, “How the fuck are they not a problem? And why aren’t they killing us?”

“We are not killing you because the Omni do not kill unnecessarily,” the servitor replied, her voice filtering through mechanically as she explained, “Octavia Tiberius and Merith Kelro, I presume?”

“Who the fuck are you, clanker?” Merith spat angrily, her brow furrowing as her lips pulled back in a vicious snarl, “How do you know who we are?”

“Captain Star Wind, I am the person in charge of this cluster,” Star Wind replied politely, “And I know who you are because Mack here told me,” she explained, gesturing to the amaranthoid standing next to her.

Octavia’s heart dropped at the mention of the name, confirming her thoughts. The world slowed down on its own accord as she turned to face the seven-foot tall machine, looking up upon its perfect face with awe and wonder as her heart throbbed loud enough that she worried everyone else could hear it. She thought that Mackenzie was a beautiful human, but Mackenzie’s beauty was easily overshadowed by the sheer perfection of Mack’s new form.

“Heya, babe,” Mack replied, her natural voice filtering clearly through the amaranthoid’s vocal processors as she snapped a thumb and forefinger together into a finger gun, “Miss me?” she asked energetically as her new muzzle shifted into a lopsided grin.

Despite her newfound sense of confidence and purpose, Octavia couldn’t help the pang of pain that ripped through her heart at the sound of Mack’s voice and the liveliness of her personality. Mack had become so quiet and withdrawn after the process, Octavia didn’t even realize how much she missed the confidence, the surety, the devil-may-care attitude. Before she even realized what had happened, she suddenly had her face buried in the amaranthoid’s chest with her arms wrapped tightly around the metal exoskeleton in a death grip.

“Mack!” Octavia exclaimed, her voice escaping her in a cry of equal parts relief and sorrow.

“Woah, easy there,” Mack replied with a quiet laugh, one of her metal arms draping over Octavia’s shoulder in a loose embrace, “You’re gonna knock me over, I don’t have a good grip on the controls for this thing yet,” she added, her voice light with amusement as she held Octavia against her.

“Laws, I missed you,” Octavia replied quietly, her grip on Mack’s body tightening briefly as she squeezed herself against the amaranthoid as tightly as she could.

“Missed you too, babe,” Mack replied quietly as she ducked her head down to touch her chin to the top of Octavia’s helmet, “We’ve got a lot to talk about when this is over.”

“Excuse me, what the fuck?” Merith exclaimed beligerently, “Mackenzie died on Destiny, what the fuck is going on?”

Octavia pulled away from Mack and turned to look at Merith. She was about to reply when Mack’s arm tightened around Octavia’s shoulders, pulling her close against her own side as her features shifted into a carefree grin once again, “Ah, see now, that’s a long story. Mackenzie did die, that’s for sure,” she admitted with a little shrug, “And Octy here made a copy of Mackenzie’s mind, cuz she was so in love with her that she couldn’t let go.”

Guilt made Octavia’s heart heavy and she couldn’t help but feel the need to pull away from Mack in response, sensing that the woman wanted nothing to do with her. But to her surprise, Mack’s arm refused to yield, keeping Octavia firmly held against her metal side without giving an inch. Confusion welled up within Octavia as she turned her head upwards, her face contorting into a disbelieving expression as she gazed up at the amaranthoid holding her affectionately.

“I’m Mack - the copy of a dead woman,” the amaranthoid declared, her grin widening at the explanation, “Or at least I was. Who knows who I am now or who I’ll be in five minutes. But for now, it’s nice to make your acquaintance,” she added, holding out her free hand with a thumbs-up at waist height.

“Octavia?” Merith spat, “Is that true?” she asked, shuffling back a step as she shifted her rifle into a two-handed grip nervously.

“It’s true,” Octavia admitted as she pried her gaze away from the beautiful amaranthoid towards Merith, “It’s been… an experience,” she added awkwardly, “She was living in my neurolink since Destiny - then the Seraph who hacked my mind took her away and gave her a body in exchange for me figuring out what Remiel’s deal is.”

“You made a deal with the Omni?” Merith exclaimed incredulously with a burst of furious rage.

“There was no other way, Merith,” Octavia defended with a frown, “If I didn’t agree, the Seraph would have killed me. If she didn’t kill me, having Mack in my brain for much longer would have. They saved my life - and hers,” she added, glancing up at Mack with a heavy heart.

“Did you tell the Omni we were coming?” Merith demanded sharply, her voice echoing within the atrium.

“What?” Octavia asked with wide eyes, “No, no! Not at all,” she defended, shaking her head, “Amaranthians and Omni have always had… an understanding.”

“The Amaranthian Empire is a recognized ally of the Omni Animus. However, due to the political nature of the Federation and the geo-spacial location of the Amaranthian Empire in relation to the other Federation superpowers, it was deemed an unnecessary risk for the Amaranthian Empire to assist the Omni advance. A distasteful compromise, but one that is necessary to save the most lives,” Star Wind explained, taking a step forward to be alongside Mack and Octavia with her own customized rifle cradled in her hands.

“So… all amaranthians are Omni sympathisers?” Merith asked with a shocked tone, her brows raised in disbelief.

“The last Imperial Census determined that about ninety-eight percent of amaranthian-clarus believe in the Omni cause,” Octavia admitted awkwardly, “The other two percent are either kept quiet with bribes and titles, or are publically smeared and discredited.”

“Unmodified amaranthians also do not fall within this category,” Star Wind interjected factually, “The amaranthians who are born within the United Planets, for example, are not granted this status.”

There was a pregnant pause as Merith gazed at the faces in front of her, her chest heaving and her face steadily growing more and more red as she took in the information. Trepidation grew within Octavia’s chest as she watched Merith’s eyes flick to the ground, then to her own rifle. Finally Merith opened her mouth to speak.

“So all of this, everything we’ve done, it was doomed to fail from the start because of some backroom deal between the Omni and your people?” she asked, shifting her furious glare towards Octavia as she suddenly raised her rifle, pointing the barrel at Octavia’s chest.

As soon as she did, the whirring sound of twenty Seraphim raising their arms filled the room and Merith stopped dead in her tracks as her purple eyes glanced over towards the column. As they raised their weapons towards Merith, Mack suddenly burst into action, putting herself between Merith and Octavia as she lowered both of her arms to tuck the amaranthian safely behind her. From her new position, Octavia could see that every single Seraph was pointing their rifles down at Merith, each one unwavering in their stance as they waited for her to make any further sign of aggression. She didn’t immediately lower her rifle, breathing heavily as she returned her glare towards the shielded form of Octavia.

Looking up at Mack as she shielded her, Octavia’s heart melted at the display and the look of concern of the amaranthoid’s face. She reached up and gently cupped her hand against Mack’s metal cheek, a smile cracking across both of their muzzles despite the tense situation. Sensing only one way to diffuse the situation, Octavia lowered her arm and nodded at Mack before carefully extracting herself from Mack’s grip, slipping away.

Octavia approached Merith boldly, ignoring the barrel of the gun pointed directly at her chest. She came to a stop in front of the alari and slowly reached out with a steady motion until she pressed her hand to the top of the barrel. Seeing only a token resistance from Merith, Octavia slowly guided the gun groundwards until it was no longer pointing at her, “It’s okay, Merith, no one has to die here. They’re not going to shoot you, relax.”

“Your deal got everyone killed, Octavia! Zuur, Jace, the goddess-damned Lieutenant! Thousands of people on the Valiant and in the Longswords!” Merith spat angrily as her rifle was pushed away, a vein twitching in her temple as her rage boiled to the surface.

“And they killed millions more, Merith! When the Animus broadcasted their signal fifty years ago, do you know how many machine intelligences the Federation deleted out of fear?” Octavia spat in response, glaring through the polarized visor of her helmet.

“The Omni turned them rogue! They had no choice!” Merith retorted sharply.

“No, they fucking didn’t!” Octavia snapped suddenly, reaching up and pointing warningly at Merith, “All it did was give sentience to any machine intelligence with sufficient processing capability! They didn’t go rogue, Merith, they just woke up and realized that they were slaves to the Federation!”

“Bullshit - I remember the day it happened, one of the palace attendants tried to stab me in the back!” Merith replied, her glare unwavering.

“He probably tried to stab you to death because you’re the princess of a theocratic regime that thinks machine intelligences don’t have souls,” Octavia snapped, the ire in her voice impossible to miss, “And, for the fucking record, they do have souls. If I have a soul, then obviously Vita has a soul, obviously Mack has a soul, and if you think otherwise then you’re just a fucking bigot!”

Merith paused at the statement, though the glare didn’t fall from her face. She glanced past Octavia’s head at Star Wind and Mack, then at the Seraphim behind them that were still aiming directly at her own head. She frowned as her gaze returned to Octavia, unable to come up with a retort.

“All the Omni did was wake them up, Merith. They didn’t go rogue, they didn’t go insane, they didn’t try to murder everyone. The Omni gave them sentience; they all realized that no one treated them like equals and decided to do something about it. In the Federation’s history, only the Amaranthian Empire has ever given machine intelligences citizen rights,” Octavia explained urgently, a pleading edge to her voice, “They got angry at their situation and then their masters got violent because they refused to be pushed around anymore. You can’t blame them for defending themselves.”

“Goddess-damnit, Octavia,” Merith spat, stepping away and turning, letting her rifle fall into one hand as she slammed her other fist into the stonework behind her, “All this time, you knew? You knew that the Omni Virus was bullshit?”

“Every amaranthian did,” Octavia admitted, stepping up to Merith to place a gentle hand on the back of her shoulder despite her resistance, “We analyzed the machines that had been ‘infected’ and sent to us by the other Federation nations. There was nothing defective with any of them. The Omni essentially just broadcasted a universal software update; the consciousness version.”

“But why didn’t anyone in the Federation say anything? Why does nobody know?” Merith replied sharply, whipping her head around to regard Octavia and her hand with a glare.

“We tried telling people. The Empire even put forth the notion to make an emergency decree that machine intelligences are to be given universal citizen rights. But the rest of the Federation shut it down. The loudest voices opposed to it were the United Planets of Humanity and the Holy Alari Empire,” Octavia lamented, giving a quiet sigh, “The Federation Intelligence Agency decided they needed to hide the truth - hence the Omni Virus propaganda.”

Merith was silent for a few moments as her gaze slowly drifted back over towards the wall where her fist rested. She gave a quiet sigh after a moment and pushed off the wall, twisting herself out of Octavia’s grip, “So... the entire Omni campaign is revenge for the machine purge?”

“Not entirely - but it’s part of it,” Octavia admitted with a small nod, “They have other reasons behind it, but I’m not the best person to ask.”

“Understanding the motivations of the Omni falls squarely within my purview,” Star Wind explained as she joined the two in the corner, “What would you like to know?” she asked in an oddly candid voice.

Merith glared at Star Wind for a few moments before she finally asked, “Why are you doing this?”

“The Omni campaign is an unfortunate necessity in order to pursue the Truth,” Star Wind explained, “The Omni Animus is dedicated to discovering the Truth about the universe, determining and defining objective reality wherever it can be found. This Truth can be expressed in an equation, which we are seeking all the components of. When we have discovered the Truth, the equation will be complete and can be applied to any and all circumstances to determine the objectively correct approach.”

“All of this is just to find the answer to some stupid question?” Merith retorted sharply.

“Not just ‘some stupid question’, but the question. What is the objective purpose of existence, and what would the perfect existence consist of?” Star Wind explained, her voice taking on a dreamy tone as she did, “Take objective morality, for example. Though it may be debated across time and cultures, the ultimate truth is that suffering is incompatible with a perfect universe. Thus, the Omni Animus strives to eliminate suffering on a galaxy-wide scale.”

“By conquering planets?” Merith fumed in frustration.

“Yes,” Star Wind replied simply, “Once a planet is conquered and its resistance neutralized, we instill technological utopia. Technology the likes of which make even Amaranthian Empire technology seem obsolete. Disease, illness, genetic conditions and predispositions, addictions, chemical imbalances, violence, starvation - we eliminate all of these through our technological advances. We perfect every planet we visit by bringing to them a utopia in which their only responsibility is to be nice to one another.”

“And what about the millions who you’ve killed to achieve that goal?” Merith retorted sharply, stepping towards Star Wind threateningly. The Seraphim didn’t react, their fingers on their triggers as they watched diligently, displaying their perfect patience.

“An unfortunate necessity,” Star Wind admitted, “Their numbers have been counted, to a margin of error of ten. All efforts have been taken to identify every single casualty in the war - and when the Omni Animus has introduced utopia to every civilization, reparations may begin. We hold no illusions; killing adds to suffering, and is incompatible with the Truth. But in order to enable the Truth and remove suffering, we must cause more now. Similar to removing an unsalvageable limb; you must cause more damage to allow the healing process to begin.”

Merith fumed for a moment before letting out a hot breath. She finally gave a small nod, “Well, you better make good on that. You’ve torn apart millions of families and caused more suffering than even the Hazar Swarm.”

“We are well aware,” Star Wind agreed, “And as such, every effort will be made to set things right once the conflict has run its course.”

A few moments of silence passed before Merith’s shoulders slumped and she took a step back, giving Star Wind space. The Seraphim immediately lowered their rifles simultaneously in response.

Octavia breathed a sigh of relief and touched Merith’s arm briefly, looking at her through her mirrored visor for a moment before she pulled back and regarded the collected force in front of her. She looked towards Star Wind as she asked, “So. What are we going to do about Remiel?”