The collection of soldiers around her had no answers for her. What could they even say? The Omni knew that Remiel was a threat, but there was no earthly way that Octavia could explain to them exactly how much of a threat she was. Merith had seen what happened to Octavia within the Cradle, but what sane person would recover from everything that had happened to her in the past two minutes? And Mack was an entire matter altogether. Octavia was alone in the decision.

So she did what any hero would.

“If no one has any other ideas, follow me,” Octavia declared firmly, her voice amplified through the mechanical filters on her helmet. Without waiting for a response, she hefted her plasma pistol and rounded on her paws, striding across the atrium with determination in her step.

Octavia didn’t need to look behind herself to know that the entire contingent was following her lead - she could hear their mechanical footsteps perfectly well, and she could feel the faint vibrations in the stonework beneath her, but that’s not what tipped her off. She didn’t know how to describe it, but she could feel their presence within her very bones. She could feel every footstep, every shift of their weapons and armor, and she knew exactly how far away they were from her.

Reassured by the presence of the small mechanical army, Octavia crossed through the far side of the atrium and entered the stone doorway, stepping out onto a path of flat stone tiles floating in the endless void. Just as before, there were no walls, floor, or ceiling for her to gaze upon - but none of those mattered. There was only one thing in the room that mattered.

The tree.

Its magnificence was incomprehensible to Octavia as she fixed her real eyes upon it for the first time. The way the light refracted and shimmered off of the crystalline surfaces caused a familiar and beautiful light show on the stone path in front of her, guiding her towards the platform at the edge of the bridge where the three humans had gone. The light shining off of the Cradle wasn’t resisted by the automatic polarization of her helmet, causing a faint stinging within her eyes as the light assaulted her - despite the sensation of pins and needles in her eyes though, she didn’t find the sensation entirely unpleasant, as though she were gazing upon her very first sunrise.

A memory assaulted Octavia unbidden, a rising sensation from within the back of her mind. The Cradle had destroyed her and formed her anew from the ashes of her previous self - in many ways it was her first time seeing light so bright. Though her whole life had led up to walking across that bridge, simultaneously she felt as though her life had only just begun mere moments ago. The Cradle had welcomed her the moment she had landed on Erillia, and though her mind had been adrift in an ocean of thoughts and misty memories, there had been something nagging at the back of her mind since she had arrived.

It was the sensation of coming home.

And now something was threatening that home. She felt her grip tighten on her pistol as she picked up the pace, striding across the bridge towards the platform at the end. She could clearly see Remiel and Cody pouring over a control terminal that looked similar to the one she had used in the previous room, and Alex was curled up on the ground near the edge of the platform with her head tucked between her knees.

“Remiel!” Octavia screamed, her voice echoing in the endless chamber, “Stop right now!”

Remiel and Cody turned their heads at the same time, and immediately the human male recoiled at the sight of the Omni squad approaching from behind Octavia. Remiel on the other hand appeared unphased, her arms crossing in front of her chest as she watched the approach impassively. Alex didn’t even raise her head from her fetal position on the floor.

“Miss Tiberius!” Cody exclaimed, shuffling with wide eyes, “What are you doing? Why are the Omni here?” he called out, coming to a stop when he was half behind Remiel for protection.

“Your reign of terror ends here, Remiel,” Star Wind proclaimed as she came to a stop at Octavia’s right side, her rifle rising sharply as she spoke, “You will not be responsible for the deaths of all who live here!”

“Cody shut the fuck up and get away from her,” Merith called out hoarsely as she planted herself to Octavia’s left, her own rifle rising hastily, “That psycho bitch is gonna nuke Oculus and kill everyone in the system.”

“And lemme tell ya, anyone within five feet of that spook is gonna have a bad time,” Mack declared playfully as she pulled up behind Octavia, hands on her hips with a cocky grin on her mechanical muzzle, “You might wanna back up.”

“For crimes against the Truth, the Omni Animus demands your surrender,” the enormous Omni rumbled, planting her feet down and angling her form to take up the entire width of the bridge as she raised her vehicle-sized cannon towards the control platform. The tip of the lance sparked to life, flickering with the same superheated plasma that their space combat forms used but at a much smaller scale.

Simultaneously the entire flight of Seraphim spread their wings and the void was lit up by the sound of their wing jets roaring to life behind the small group. With impressive synchronization they formed a semicircle above the bridge, surrounding the control platform as they raised their rifles and aimed them down at their target. With their wings spread and flying at equal distances away, Octavia couldn’t help but admire the beauty of their formation, and despite their differences, she was glad to have the contingent at her back.

The room was silent as the combatants spread out, blocking the only exit from the endless void with their bodies and weapons. All the while Remiel remained still with her arms folded and an amused expression slowly growing on her face. Cody didn’t move from his position hidden half behind her body, his eyes bulging out of their sockets behind his archaic glasses as he eyed the procession with increasing fear.

“All of this for me?” Remiel asked, one corner of her lips turning up in a smirk, “You shouldn’t have.”

“Quiet!” Octavia exclaimed sharply, “Step away from the terminal and put your hands on your head!”

“Octy, Octy, Octy,” Remiel spoke in amusement with a shake of her head, “You really have changed, haven’t you? There’s something different about you now.”

There was the briefest of pauses before Remiel’s eyes lit up and her expression shifted from one of bored amusement to one of genuine interest, “Oh! So that’s what it is,” she remarked with a gasp, “Oh. Oh, my. And here I thought today was going to be a run-of-the-mill sabotage mission.”

“Miss Remiel? What do you mean? What is going on?” Cody asked rapidly, facing her with his bug-eyed expression of horror.

“Don’t you see, Cody? Octavia here was embraced by the Cradle of Creation. She’s a wildcard now,” Remiel explained, displaying the first genuine excitement that Octavia had ever seen from her, “That makes things so much more interesting!”

“I… I don’t understand!” Cody exclaimed in confusion, glancing from Remiel to the congregation and back again, “What is happening here?” he pleaded pathetically, his voice rising enough that Octavia could all but feel his panic setting in.

“Oh, it really is quite simple,” Remiel declared as she unfolded her arms casually.

Without looking she pointed towards the terminal and a bolt of iridescent purple energy lanced from the tip of her digit into the terminal with little fanfare. Instantly a small purple bubble appeared above the terminal, an otherworldly energy swirling and coalescing within it as tendrils of ghostly purple latched onto the terminal and the uppermost leaves of the great tree itself. The edges of the crystalline leaves began to shift into the same shade of purple as the orb, the color beginning to spread through the white light emanating from within.

“In two minutes that orb will reverse the flow of Erillium and destroy Oculus,” she explained with a disinterested, matter-of-fact tone.

Octavia’s heart dropped like a rock at the sight, her eyes shooting wide as the foreign energy lanced through the air. As much as she could see it, she could feel it as much as she could feel the presence of her comrades around her. It was powerful and carried with it a spreading sensation of pins and needles as Octavia’s mind struggled to process what it felt. She recognized the same vague gestures that Enya had made, but the energy she felt from it was all wrong, it felt alien and unnatural.

As Octavia processed the overwhelming sensation of the energy Remiel controlled, the agent’s gaze slowly turned towards her as her grin widened into a wicked scar across her face.

“Isn’t magic wonderful?”

Octavia was about to leap into action, but to her surprise, Cody acted first. The shy human darted forward from behind Remiel and gripped at the pistol on her hip, struggling to remove it from the holster. Remiel noticed the attack and spun around, gripping him with one hand by the shoulder and the other hand on his wrist to prevent him from aiming at her with her own pistol. The agent of fate turned around on her heels, putting Cody between her and the congregation of soldiers as a body shield as they struggled.

“Cody!” Octavia exclaimed as she rushed forward onto the small platform, the people immediately surrounding her joining her as Cody and Remiel grappled.

Octavia was mere feet away from their position when a single gunshot echoed through the void, a dull flash of light illuminating between their two bodies. Octavia’s heart stopped as she skidded to a halt, her claws digging into the stonework beneath her for grip as her eyes went wide behind her mirrored visor. The pair’s struggles came to a stop, neither moving for a moment.

Then in a single heartbreaking moment, Cody collapsed to the ground at Remiel’s feet with a sickening hole in his throat. Rivers of thick blood poured out of the wound, staining his pale flesh and the white lab coat he wore. His eyes bulged and unfocused as he collapsed into a pile, his hands grabbing at his throat in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.

“Whoops,” Remiel remarked with an impassive expression, the pistol held aloft in her hand as she gazed down at Cody’s dying form, “Well, you win some you lose some.”

“You fucking murderer!” Octavia screamed, her rage boiling up from within her as she raised her pistol, fixing the targeting reticule of her heads-up display on Remiel’s head.

Remiel let out an audible sigh of irritation as she breathed, “Oh, please. Spare me the-”

Whatever monologue she was about to begin was immediately cut off as a bolt of superheated plasma struck her in the face, immediately melting through her skin, skull, and the brain behind. The streak of bright lavender left a hazy trail in the air leading from the impact all the way back to the A5 plasma pistol in Octavia’s right hand, a trail of steam still wafting out of the barrel from the superheated projectile.

Remiel’s headless body fell first to its knees before slumping down to its chest, the cauterized stump where its head used to be facing Octavia as she huffed for air, panting heavily in fury as she clutched her pistol with a death grip. There was silence in the void for several moments as Merith looked to the side at Octavia in astonishment.

“Holy shit, Octavia,” Merith remarked in disbelief, her wide eyes glancing between Remiel’s corpse and Octavia’s heaving form.

“Holy shit, Octavia, indeed,” Remiel’s voice rang from around them, followed by a staccato of laughter, “I did not suspect you had it in you to do that! Very impressive. I underestimated you, Octavia,” the woman’s voice admitted amusedly, “Do not worry - it shall not happen again.”

“Where are you, you Laws-damned psychopath?” Octavia screamed to the heavens, brandishing her plasma pistol to the void, “Show yourself, I’ll fucking do it again!”

“Oh of that I have no doubt,” Remiel’s voice replied smugly, “Now, before we begin, tell me about your friends! I am positively dying to hear all about how this happened,” she teased, a phantom giggle emanating from the void around them.

“You have perpetrated crimes against the universe, Remiel,” Star Wind declared, “The Omni have declared you an enemy - we are here to stop you, at any cost.”

“We are here to stop you. At any cost. Why my dear, I do like the sound of that,” Remiel remarked followed by a low chuckle, “You sound ever-so noble. I am certain that your battlefield speeches are something to behold.”

“Why are you doing this?” Merith called out with a frown as she glanced from point to point in the void, searching for any sign of the phantom agent, “Who are you?”

“If you expect me to monologue about who I work for and what my purpose is, you are gravely mistaken,” Remiel remarked amusedly, “But I will give you one iota of information; the universe is far more vast than just the petty conflict between the Startide Federation and the Omni Animus.”

“Enough with the games, you sick bastard! Show yourself!” Octavia demanded, crying out at the void in rage.

“As you wish,” Remiel remarked simply. As she did, a burst of phantom purple energy burst through the void, arcing in the air like a blade. The arc cascaded through the air in a wide turn, lancing through the Omni units hovering there.

Without so much as a hint of resistance, the energy cleanly sliced all nineteen Seraphim in half in one uninterrupted slice. Pockets of explosions and secondary explosions began to erupt from the compromised Omni chassises, illuminating the void in a sudden cacophony of bright lights and loud sounds. Pieces of shrapnel exploded outwards, peppering the room in sharp slivers of metal.

“What the fuck?” Vita exclaimed in Octavia’s ear as the shrapnel rained down around them, explosions rocking in every direction.

“I gotcha!” Mack exclaimed as she ducked over Octavia’s form, using her own body like a shield. Pieces of shrapnel pinged harmlessly off of her back, keeping Octavia safe from the worst of the shower of sharp metal.

Octavia gasped as she was pulled against Mack’s body once again, turning her head up briefly to look at the amaranthoid in awe and gratitude. Forcing herself to focus, she turned her attention to Merith who had her hands up above her head, a barrier of alarium protecting her unarmored form from the rain of metal, “Merith! Go protect Alex!” she exclaimed sharply.

“On it!” Merith exclaimed as she sprinted across the platform towards their incapacitated crewmate. Alex hadn’t moved a single inch since the combat began, still tucked into a fetal position with her head between her legs. A few pieces of shrapnel impacted the ground around her, but even then she didn’t move to protect herself, evidently catatonic to some degree.

“Blackstar, run advanced energy analysis!” Star Wind exclaimed as she took a knee, raising an arm to protect the exposed connections at the back of her neck from the raining shrapnel above.

“Element Omega levels are already higher than we’ve ever seen and still climbing, ma’am,” the walking tank named Blackstar concluded, her voice rumbling in a deep baritone as pieces of shrapnel pinged off of her armor without making so much as a scratch on the starship-grade alloy.

“Element Omega. Atomic element Deltium. Erillium. You all dance around it so quaintly, it really is rather cute,” Remiel’s voice droned in a droll tone, “Where I come from we call it mana. Magic, you simpletons. If you’re going to try to stop me, you may as well use the correct name for what it is.”

“Shut up!” Octavia exclaimed as she slipped out from under Mack. Her eyes settled on the swirling purple orb steadily injecting its energies into the uppermost crystalline leaves and she immediately recalled the Cradle’s words.

Touch the source.

“Cover me!” she declared in the same breath as she suddenly kicked off the ground with her powerful legs and dashed across the platform as fast as she could. The orb grew larger and larger in her view as the last of the flaming shrapnel peppered the ground around her, some pieces dinging harmlessly off of the damaged carapace of her armor.

“Oh no you don’t!” Remiel’s voice exclaimed, no longer phantom and echoing from all around her. Octavia barely had time to readjust her course as a blast of iridescent purple energy lanced directly in front of her, forcing her to duck and tumble to avoid taking the blast to the face. She huffed heavily as she rolled on the stonework, her armor clattering noisily against the floor.

“Watch out!” Merith exclaimed from her position near Alex’s prone form, raising her rifle into a readied position. An explosive burp of gunfire escaped from her rifle, sending bullets flying directly over Octavia’s head towards something directly behind her.

"Oh, you cheeky bugger!" Remiel exclaimed defiantly, an almost smug look crossing her face as a rush of purple mist visibly raced over Octavia’s head in Merith’s direction before reforming into Remiel’s body in mid-strike.

Remiel’s fist impacted with Merith’s rifle and a brief flash of iridescent purple lit up their corner of the platform - as the light dimmed, Merith’s rifle crumbled to rust before their very eyes, its constituent parts clattering to the ground noisily in front of Alex. Merith barely had time to raise her arms defensively as a second fist came pummeling down towards her, the fist wreathed in vibrant purple energy.

Before her fist could impact Merith’s kneeling form, a high-pitched whirring drone echoed in the void and suddenly Remiel disappeared from view just as a beam of superheated plasma lanced through the air directly where she had been, scything through the void in a short arc like a cutting beam. Darkstar called out as the beam faded from view, “Watch out, she could be anywhere!”

“I’m going for the source!” Octavia exclaimed as she scrambled to her paws, rushing towards the terminal while Remiel was distracted. There were only a few feet to go, she could feel the crackling energy radiating from the swirling purple orb.

“You know it’s terrible etiquette to declare what you’re going to do before you do it,” Remiel’s voice proclaimed from directly next to Octavia’s head, “Takes the fun out of it.”

Before Octavia even understood what had happened, she suddenly found herself on her stomach on the ground once again, back where she had started before scrambling to her paws. The orb was so close, and yet so far. Between her and the orb Remiel stood with her hands on her hips and a bored expression on her face.

“Head’s up!” Mack exclaimed as she sailed into view with her fist bared. Remiel actually looked surprised as the titanium fist rocketed towards her, forcing her to quickly lean back to avoid taking a fist to the face.

“Really? You’re going to punch me?” Remiel exclaimed indignantly, “I liked you better when you were dead,” she snapped as she brought her arms up, catching Mack’s followup punch in her hands.

“Now that’s not nice,” Mack retorted sharply. Taking advantage of Remiel holding her fist in both of her own, Mack suddenly lurched forward as the microjets hidden in her exoskeleton burst into action. She rocketed the short distance between them, slamming bodily into Remiel with a solid thunk of metal against flesh, “Have some of this!”

“I’d rather not,” Remiel replied through gritted teeth. In the exact moment that Mack barreled into her, Remiel’s body evaporated into a puff of purple smoke which swarmed around Mack’s body and reformed on the other side. Mack’s rockets sent her over the edge of the control platform, causing her to call out in surprise before the microjets compensated, shifting her into a hover over the void.

Octavia’s breath came to her with surprising calm as she watched the smoke shift around Mack, the world slowing down into a crawl as she watched every last strand of smoke in high definition moving in slow motion. She knew exactly where Remiel was going to show up. Raising her pistol as fast as her enhancements would allow, she squeezed off a lance of superheated plasma at the place where Remiel would show up from her prone position.

The purple lance of plasma impacted true, burning through cloth, flesh and muscle until it sizzled out somewhere within Remiel’s deep tissues. She cried out in agony and surprise at the sudden burst, her eyes going wide. Octavia was about to pull the trigger a second time before a lance of iridescent purple jumped from Remiel’s outstretched hand to Octavia’s pistol.

The weapon in her hand instantly became too hot to hold, even with her armor providing insulation. The screen at the back flickered before indicating that the weapon was dangerously unstable, the plasma containment unit leaking the dangerous energy around Octavia’s fingers. She hastily dropped the weapon to the ground and rolled away from it as fast as she could, fearing a plasma explosion so close to her head.

“You little twat,” Remiel spat, “Look at what you did!” she declared indignantly as Octavia rolled to her paws in a low combat stance.

Octavia didn’t have the chance to reply as a sudden burst of gunfire came from over her shoulder, filling Remiel’s space with a deadly barrage of lead. Remiel raised her hand as the first of the bullets raced over Octavia’s shoulders and an iridescent purple barrier erected between them. The bullets flattened harmlessly against the glimmering shield, plinking to the ground pathetically as the storm of bullets continued from their source.

“Darkstar!” Star Wind declared sharply as her rifle clacked empty, prompting the servitor to instantly reach up and drop her magazine. Before she had a chance to reload, the same droning hum reverberated from overhead as Darkstar’s plasma lance raced through the air over the Captain’s head.

Octavia had to shield her eyes as the plasma impacted with the iridescent barrier, exploding directly in her face with an overwhelmingly bright flash of dissipating energy. Her heads up display flashed, warning her that the light was more than its polarization could protect from. Before she had a chance to do anything else about it, the light dissipated as quickly as it had begun, leaving the platform in comparative darkness.

As Octavia turned to face the spot once again, she was briefly treated to an enormous cloud of dissipated plasma and glimmering iridescent sparkles in the air. Then her breath caught as Remiel raced out of the cloud with her arm outstretched and a furious expression on her face. The burn wound had healed over, not even leaving so much as a scar where there had been a mortal wound not moments ago, though her uniform remained burnt and damaged.

Octavia was swept off of her feet by the neck as Remiel picked her up off of the ground in one hand. Her eyes bulged in her head in surprise as she was effortlessly picked up, and before she even had an opportunity to react she was flying through the air over the edge of the platform. As she was thrown over the edge, she saw as Remiel turned her attention to the two machines on the bridge and violently thrust her arms towards them with her palms out flat.

A wave of iridescent purple energy raced across the bridge towards Star Wind and Darkstar. There was nowhere for them to retreat or dodge to, leaving them no option but to take the impact. Star Wind was swept up by the energy first, sending her flying backwards as her rifle was tossed from her grip into the void. The servitor slammed into Darkstar’s chest heavily, only for the wave to catch up to her and hit them both.

Despite her weight, Darkstar was just as effortlessly tossed by the wave of purple energy as Star Wind was, sending them both sailing across the bridge. Darkstar slammed backwards into the bridge and skidded several feet, sparks grinding out from beneath her as her armor scraped against the stone. She finally skidded to a halt with Star Wind still plastered to her chest, and to Octavia’s relief the wave of energy dissipated before it hit them again.

“Octavia!” Merith called out as she stretched her hands towards Octavia. Her retinal display warned her of an increase in the ambient alarium, and suddenly she was enveloped in an event horizon that bent the tree’s light around her. Her momentum came to a halt as she was held aloft in mid-air by Merith’s mental prowess.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Remiel snarled as she wheeled on her heels towards Merith. She raised her hands waist-high in front of her and a small orb of twisting purple energy began to coalesce, reminding her of Enya’s trick with the water.

“Oh shit!” Merith exclaimed in horror. She kept one hand out towards Octavia but moved her other in front of her and Alex. A shimmering distortion appeared in the air in front of her, warping the light unnaturally as she psionically shielded herself and her charge.

Remiel thrust her hands out towards Merith and the ball sailed out of her hands with the speed of a bullet. It impacted the shimmering shield and imploded, the energy drawing dust and shrapnel inwards before a shockwave exploded outwards, enveloping Merith and Alex in their entirety. Octavia’s retinal display informed her that the alarium had dropped back down to zero, and instantly she was overcome with the sensation of falling once again.

“Merith!” Octavia screamed out in a panic, her eyes wide as the burst of iridescent energy cleared. Merith and Alex were still there in the exact same position as before, but they were no longer moving so much as a fraction of an inch.

Octavia didn’t have time to contemplate their situation when she felt an impact against her back, suddenly killing her momentum. Her breath was forced from her as she rocketed upwards, only barely noticing the metal arms wrapped around her torso from behind.

“You’ve got one shot at this, babe!” Mack’s voice shouted directly behind her as they raced over the lip of the platform.

Remiel was facing them from the center of the platform, another ball of energy held between her hands as she visibly calculated where to throw it. Mack and Octavia raced directly towards her on a collision course, the growing source directly behind her. She felt Mack shift her grip on her from behind, and simultaneously Remiel and Mack threw their payloads towards the other.

Octavia watched as the purple orb sailed towards them, only to gasp as her momentum shifted once again. She sailed upwards while Mack collided with the orb, her eyes widening as the ball of energy imploded against Mack’s chest. The resounding shockwave propelled Octavia forward with the force of a grenade while Mack came crashing down to the ground in a heap, her limbs awkwardly frozen in the exact position they had been when she threw Octavia.

Octavia sailed over Remiel with her arms outstretched, the orb directly in front of her. She was so close she could feel the static energy racing between every individual strand of fur on her body, her armor buzzing with power as she approached her destination. Suddenly she cried out in pain as something incomprehensibly heavy slammed into her back.

She hit the ground faster than she had even thought possible, the laws of physics broken as she slammed into the stonework hard enough for it to crack beneath her. Her breath was forcibly expelled from the impact and her head slammed into the inside of her helmet hard enough to make her see stars. Her ears rang and her chest burned, and every single muscle was crying out in agony from overexertion.

Still, Octavia forced herself to look up from the ground and found herself staring at Remiel’s leather boots. She was at the very base of the terminal, the source only three feet away. The only thing that stood between her and her objective was the woman.

“So close, but so far,” Remiel remarked in a pleased hum, “Care to try one more time?”

Octavia didn’t give her time to gloat. Her muscles ached, her lungs burned and her head was swimming in a sea of ringing and throbbing, but still, she persisted. Trusting in her own strength, Octavia pushed off of her floor as hard as she could as her own microjets activated, sending her a foot off the ground as she flipped in midair.

Time slowed to a crawl as she reached over her shoulder mid-maneuver and drew her amarkai. She hadn’t grasped her blade since Destiny, but it was a familiar touch, one that brought with it a swarm of memories. She had failed once before, but she wasn’t going to fail again.

Her jets launched her forward as she swung down wide at Remiel as fast as she could, every single ounce of her programming and training coming to the forefront of her mind. Remiel ducked back, narrowly dodging the swipe of her blade. Rather than stepping backward, she kept her feet planted and brought her fist forward, glowing with iridescent energy on a path directly towards Octavia’s gut.

“The problem with you wildcards is that you always act without thinking!” Remiel exclaimed as she struck.

Octavia’s jets shifted, tossing her out of the way of the punch as her paws desperately gripped at the stonework beneath her. Claws digging into the stone, she killed the motion and her jets blasted in the opposite direction, launching her towards Remiel with single-minded determination. The source glowed behind Remiel’s head, taunting Octavia, drawing her inwards.

“You push and you push, never understanding why!” Fury bled into Remiel’s tone as Octavia approached.

Octavia slashed sideways and Remiel ducked, she slashed the other way and Remiel bent backward. She dashed forward with an elbow strike, only to have to dodge to the side to avoid another magic-infused punch. Her jets were heating up, her heads up display warning her of the overheating. Still, she persisted.

“You think this is some game? You want to be a hero?” Remiel all-but screamed, her face contorted into an expression of pure hatred as the shadows deepened on her face.

The purple was spreading further down the leaves, slowly taking over the white glow to replace it with an eerie purple blacklight. The dancing multicolored spectrum slowly dimmed until the room was cast in shadow. The only light Octavia had to go by was the sickening shade of purple emanating from the source directly behind her target.

“I’m the hero in this story!” Remiel spat, her fists clenching tight as her lips curled up in a maddened expression of furious glee.

Octavia swung, Remiel dodged, she swung again, another dodge. Remiel was laughing, her grin cracked so wide across her face Octavia feared her head would split open to reveal an eldritch abomination. The shadows cast scars across her vision, every imperfection highlighted, everything cast into an unforgiving contrast. Remiel took half a step back.

“I will save the world from Occulus’s wrath!” Remiel’s maddened voice cracked painfully.

Octavia lunged forward, sensing an opening. She was so close, she wasn’t going to let Remiel take it all away. Her blade rang true, screaming through the air as it raced towards Remiel’s exposed stomach.

The world lurched to a halt as Octavia felt a vice-like grip on her wrist, killing her momentum immediately. She locked eyes with Remiel, who had Octavia’s hand immobilized in her impossibly strong grasp. Suddenly the woman raised her other arm and Octavia’s world exploded into horrendous pain.

Her amarkai dropped from her hand and clattered heavily to the ground as her elbow bent the opposite direction, broken cleanly with one strike. Octavia screamed out in pain and found herself sinking to her knees as Remiel pulled on the broken arm, guiding the amaranthian to kneel in front of her. As Octavia dropped and coiled in on herself, Remiel let go of her arm and let out a short bark of laughter as time began to flow normally once again.

“See, your problem has always been that you’re too immature,” Remiel began breathlessly as the world came crashing down around them, an overwhelming silence deafening Octavia save for the woman’s voice, “You should have known I wouldn’t give you any ground unless it was bait.”

Running a hand backward through her disheveled hair, Remiel took a moment to straighten herself. There was a brief glimmer of energy around her form as her hair snapped back into place, her uniform repaired itself and the sweat of exertion on her brow disappeared. Much to Octavia’s displeasure, she looked as she did before the fight had even begun.

“If only you’d see reason,” Remiel began, her voice back to normal as a smug look crossed her expression, “I could have used your help. Given you an escape from the system before destroying Oculus. Taught you how to use your magic. I would have explained it all to you - but you’re too wrapped up in being a hero to ask the right questions.”

Octavia breathed heavily as her eyes trailed down to her broken arm, bent awkwardly at an opposite angle. Her arm was on fire, every single one of her nerves crying out in agony as she stared at the wound. That wasn’t possible - she was so close! She grit her teeth so hard that her mouth hurt, her rage boiling more and more with every word that came out of Remiel’s mouth.

“You know, it’s a shame to let something so beautiful be destroyed,” Remiel remarked with an almost sad sigh. Octavia watched as the human slowly knelt down in front of her, their eyes meeting through Octavia’s visor.

Remiel reached out and grabbed Octavia’s amarkai, picking up the heavy crystal blade as though it weighed nothing. She twisted the sword in front of her, eyeing it with a degree of admiration, “Yes, I think this will make a fine trophy,” she declared, her sickening grin returning to her face. The inky shadows looming in the concaves of her features gave her a monstrous appearance, revealing the true nature of the agent in front of her.

“You can’t have that,” Octavia spat weakly, her chest heaving as she struggled to get her breathing back under control from the overwhelming pain in her arm.

“Oh?” Remiel asked, her gaze turning towards Octavia, “Still have a little fighting spirit in there, I see,” she remarked as she slowly turned the amarkai until the blade was resting against Octavia’s shoulder with the edge pressed against the magnetic seal between her helmet and neck covering, “That’s the problem with you wildcards. Free will is a double-edged blade. Once you get a taste of it, it’s hard to know when to stop fighting for change.”

“We all have free will, damnit,” Octavia replied, her teeth snapping together as her arms slumped weakly to her sides, “Everyone would fight-”

“Wrong!” Remiel interrupted sharply with a hyena-like bark of manic laughter, “Every choice ever made was determined when time itself began. How can you claim to be free when you’re just a consequence of all that came before?”

A thought crossed Octavia’s mind. An image. A memory of a friend.

“I was born with free will, so I’m gonna use it to die on my terms,” Octavia quoted Jace through grit teeth, digging deep as she sought his natural defiance within herself.

“Oh? Then I hope your terms are negotiable because I intend on killing you for the trouble you’ve caused me,” Remiel remarked, emphasized by a single laugh that escaped her.

The amarkai slowly lifted off of her shoulder, rearing back in a wide swing aimed directly at Octavia’s neck. Her eyes trailed up from the blade and locked onto the glowing purple orb hovering directly behind Remiel, the human’s head haloed in the unnatural light. Her world slowed to a crawl as Remiel’s face contorted into a look of effort as she began her swing as hard as she could.

Instantly Octavia’s healthy hand gripped at the hilt of the curved dagger on her left thigh, drawing it in a backwards grip as fast as physics would allow her to. Her muscles strained and she could feel the air resisting her motion, but she pressed on, pouring every ounce of determination into the strike. The air gave away and her fist swung out even faster than she thought was physically possible.

The glowing dagger effortlessly cut through Remiel’s throat in a single swipe, separating flesh and muscle as easily as cutting through butter. Blood sprayed obscenely from the wound, following the arc of Octavia’s swing as the unnatural speed dragged the fluid with it. Remiel’s face contorted into a look of shock and horror, her eyes bulging wide as her brain slowly caught up with reality. The amarkai fell from her hand, tumbling in slow motion through the air towards Octavia.

Without waiting, Octavia keyed the microjets on her back to propel her at maximum speed towards the orb. She was surprised that she never impacted with Remiel in the course - her body exploded into a puff of thick purple smoke before Octavia’s weight could slam into her. She didn’t know if the strike was enough to kill the agent, but it was enough to get her out of the way.

Following the momentum of the strike and the burst from her jets, Octavia reached out with the hand holding the dagger, stretching as far as she could to close the distance between her and the orb before time ran out.

Static crackled up her body, every single one of her displays lit up to their full brightness, hundreds of warnings flashed at her, taking up her vision. All she could see was a tiny angle of the purple orb in front of her and her outstretched hand. Feet turned into inches, inches turned into centimeters, centimeters into millimeters. Time stretched out infinitely in front of her as the distance between her and the orb closed.

“Do you think I’ll ever be a hero like you, mama?” a young Octavia asked, staring in wide-eyed wonder at the sight of her mother, her entire chest decorated with countless metals and ribbons for her efforts.

“You’re already a hero to me, baby,” Cassia reassured as she swept Octavia up into her arms effortlessly, pulling the young amaranthian close with a wide smile, “And one day, I just know you’ll be a hero to everyone else too. Just never lose sight of who you are.”

Octavia’s world exploded as her knuckles sunk into the orb.