2006, 28th January

The Labrador Sea

Hans had finally traced the mythical Grandfather of the monsters of the icy seas, encased as was fitting for it, deep below in the ocean floor.

A predator that powerful would be required to hibernate for prolonged stretches of time, or it’s appetite would wipe it’s prey clean off the map.

Vampires had clearly perfected the method of hibernation, as this creature did not seem to have broken it’s slumber for several centuries at the very least.

“I don’t see why it needs to be asleep. That vampire in Paris seems to be doing quite well for itself.” Victor mused.

“He’s adapted very well to modern urbanisation. But this one probably went under well before densely packed cities were a thing, especially in this part of the globe. Or perhaps it doesn’t practice restraint quite as well.”

“Couldn’t imagine only feeding once per year, though.”

“But what a fascinating system it was. A whole ecology built to accommodate one organism.”

The spirit-essence infused blood would diffuse through the sea water, eventually finding its way into the circulatory systems of marine fauna, which would then inevitably find their way to the predator’s lair to feed its hunger, led on by subtle psychic suggestions.

Following the movement patterns of the surrounding fauna was how they had zeroed in on its location in the first place.

“I don’t get it,” Victor continued. “Why didn’t we feel these psychic impulses at all.”

“The creature is unconscious for all intents and purposes. I doubt it’s impulses were strong enough to get through the Balandin effect.”

“What’s that?”

“Some Russian mage called Nikita Balandin. Apparently he discovered the soul’s innate property to protect itself from tampering and direct manipulation by hostile Horizon energies. It’s why turning lead to gold is easier than turning a man to gold, because lead has no soul to interfere with the process. Not that your average Hollow’s soul is potent enough to significantly hamper us. But matched up against a powerful creature with an active soul, there’s a chance that directly manipulating them with Horizon energies will outright fail if their soul overpowers yours at that moment.”

“You’re always ready with these lectures of yours.”

“More knowledge is hardly ever a bad thing. Admittedly, this little nugget really should have been common sense. It was only Nikita’s vanity that inspired him to attach his name to the phenomenon.”

“That’s a common thing among people, so I’ve seen.”

“Among Hollows. We are not Hollows. We must be better. Of course, many of my fellows refuse to rise above what they crawled out of.”

They looked over their trawler in silence into the depths of the water below.

“Do you have a concrete plan of action, Hans? Or are we just making things up as we go along?”

“It’s often a mistake to keep plans concrete in our line of work. But you didn’t need me to tell you that.”

“This seems more disjointed than many plans I’ve seen even still.”

“Because I don’t plan wars, unlike you, Victor. My aim is to transform ideologies. People must be made to see my point of view, organically.”

Hans paused in contemplation before continuing.

“And my earlier experiments with the process of forced evolution have been… discouraging. It feels like I’m near the end of this thread. And..”

“You’re afraid of what happens if this avenue fails.”

“Afraid? No. But my failure will cement the opinions of those that oppose me. And when I inevitably succeed in bringing this planet to its next era, those close minded ones will be left behind in the mud. I must save as many as I can, but I will cut down any that try and drag the rest of us down.”

Victor leaned back and stretched his muscles.

“So, do you think we should dive in right now? How do you want to retrieve Grandpa Sleepy down there?”

“Well, we don’t want him up and about and causing a commotion, certainly. I say we lift the entire part of the bedrock he’s currently inhabiting out of the sea. Apotheosis has the facilities to-”

“Down!”

A pale flash of light glinted on the horizon, followed by a veritable hailstorm of bullets, tearing through the steel railings with barely an effort.

Victor had moved Hans out of the way with superlative reaction speed, but the hail had caught his right arm, tearing it to tatters.

He roared as his flesh buckled, and took the visage of a large wolf man, arm regenerating at an alarming rate.

Hans had already begun to act, shadows around him taking on a solidity they should not possess, adhering to shoulders with liquid consistency and taking the shape of massive wings of black fog.

And he took to the air.

He recognised the means of attack; a volley gun from an android, firing nearly 20,000 rounds a second; bullets stacked atop each other in mid air, able to bite through nearly conventional fortifications.

Even an Ulfhednar in war-form would not survive a direct barrage.

But their assailant was close- these androids were for the purpose of infiltration, not war; they wouldn’t have the range of a true war machine from Apotheosis.

Hans felt the sea breeze beat across his face as he rushed to intercept the machine, and another pale flash gave it’s position away.

He let his soul flare, a field of his power rushing ahead and filling the atmosphere around him, and the volley of bullets turned to vapour, buffeting him with nothing but hot air, even that arrested by the field of death he clad himself in.

The android prepared to fire once more, hanging in the air with the aid of a gravity belt, but it was within sensory range already, and it was far too late.

Hans let a wave of raw matter modification wash over it, and it’s metallic components melted to liquid slurry, the thoroughly destroyed android falling into the water.

Unbeknownst to him however, another flew lower, flying closer to the trawler-

Only to be intercepted and dragged onboard by a massive clawed hand.

The android reached quickly, blade springing from it’s offhand palm, stabbing Victor through the gut.

Victor had already let the essence of the serpent-spirit he had devoured all those days ago unravel through his heart, the venomous essence pulsing through his blood, and his wound sprayed the android with corrosive dark liquid, dissolving its structure with hisses and snaps, and he finished it off by physically tearing it apart, then letting the remains drop into the sea.

His wound healed, and he was back to the form of man once more.

A gust of wind accompanied Hans’ descent as he too, landed back onto the deck, his shadow-cloud wings dissipating around them.

“So… What the hell was that?”

Hans frowned before replying.

“It seems our friends at Apotheosis have managed to sanction a strike against us after all. Which means they discovered our ally.”

“Not an ally, Hans. I told you before, you don’t understand these creatures like I do. The Fae don’t know loyalty to anything but themselves. I just hope you realize that before you get yourself in too deep with them.”

2006, 28th January

Space Station, Apotheosis

Michael had just returned to the canteen, when his communicator vibrated in his pocket.

It was Abas Khan.

“Sir.”

There has been a strike against an unsanctioned target in the Labrador Sea.

“The Labrador Sea. So that’s where Hans found the next piece of his puzzle.”

You expected this.

“Hans did not expect the Fae he allied with to turn on him so readily. But he didn’t even realise he was the one that had turned on it in the first place.”

So you expected this to happen. Or you orchestrated this.

“There was no physical Fae encounter in Anisha’s story, or we didn’t notice it at first glance. Imagine you’re an ocean of limitless dimensions, controlling everything in the water as one would their own limbs. Imagine you possess a Hollow to gain a foothold in the physical world; to Hans, a foothold into a plane of reality native to him, and the only one that truly matters, but to you, it’s akin to confining what was once an ocean in a teacup.”

An action innately hostile.

“Anisha has been looking through missing persons reports, local mythology, tracing bloodlines of local long settled families; all on my orders. I suspect the Fae knew Hans well enough to zero in on his location through tracking down his target. All that’s left is tracking her down.”

The attack was carried out by two of our infiltrator androids.

“What? But Hollows don’t have the clearance to-”

Precisely.

“What are you saying?”

That you may have been a step ahead of Hans, but the Fae was further ahead still. And it did not satisfy itself with a single vessel.

Michael inhaled deeply.

“There was no one else there with a mind to imprint on. That was why Hans had insisted on a solo mission.”

Truly? Noone else?

"The android... But even if you make the argument that it's intelligence isn't fundamentally dissimilar to ours, it was destroyed within the Astral Plane."

And the Voidcraft itself? What do you think powers its ability to autopilot?

"But that intelligence would be so rudimentary that-"

-It would slip under your notice. And allow the creature to infiltrate the space station at it's leisure.

Michael narrowed his eyes at the explanation.

"You knew. Wait- You. You pointed Hans' research in these directions in the first place."

Not going to ask me why?

"I'll find out for myself." Michael growled.

He closed his fist on the communicator, his power flaring and filling the air around him with static charge, causing Hollows walking around him to shy from him, wearing expressions of alarm.

He pulled the communicator to his ear once again.

"Aaron. Bring Ciara and Pierre with you. You're going to Iceland."

Shortly afterwards, he met the three assembled mages in front of the portal network.

“You’re going to Reykjavik. Our quarry has been traced to the Labrador Sea. No time to wait around, I’m afraid.”

“And as always, you’re staying behind,” Pierre said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Michael simply fixed him with a steely gaze, until the silence had grown sufficiently uncomfortable by his judgement.

Then he said, “I made a mistake. Fae have infiltrated this space station. Artificial intelligence is still enough intelligence for them to latch onto. It isn’t especially safe to stay here right now, at least until I get the place cleared up.”

“You can’t fight on here! The androids have far enough firepower to seriously damage the hull of this station.” Aaron began to say.

“It isn’t just the androids. The void crafts have possibly been infected as well” Michael interrupted him.

“That’s even worse! Anyone staying here is a death sentence! Even if you destroy the infected machines, you’ll rip this place apart! In the vacuum of space! You could die!”

Michael looked at Aaron, an odd expression lingering on his features.

“What does that matter?”

“What? I… You can’t be serious!”

“I am. Entirely. Get to work. Leave now. I have to clean up here.”

Pierre and Ciara stepped through the portal without much prodding, then Aaron glanced back over his shoulder at Michael, who merely stood there, calm, hands stuffed in his pockets, his eyes betraying a heated emotion Aaron couldn’t quite place.

So he nodded at him once, before stepping through the portal himself.

Michael turned away from the portals after watching them disappear through them.

And made his way to the central hall.

He examined the ivory statue of Alexander, sat upon his steed, blade pointed upward in the air.

He pulled in a deep breath, allowing his magic to amplify the sound of his voice, now able to carry sufficiently far within the space station.

“Attention. I am Michael Kane. Adept Mage of Apotheosis. And this is an emergency. A Fae has infiltrated our Space Station. Our home. It has imprinted on the intelligences of our androids, our void crafts. It has turned our possessions against us. We do not have precise knowledge which ones have been infected, but they are here nonetheless. It is time to act. It is time to drive this vermin from our home. It is time to take back what is ours.”

All throughout this speech, the Hollows milling around him hung on to his every word, growing more dismayed with each passing sentence.

But they would hardly make a difference in the battle to come regardless.

These words were not for their ears.

Somewhere, Michael’s voice carried all the way to Anisha.

And she smiled.

A short while later, Michael waited in the Hangar.

He heard the sounds of violence all around him.

How much of it was destruction fuelled by paranoia, he wondered.

But the die was cast, and he knew he would not have to wait much longer.

The Hangar was docked with three unused void crafts, and even a larger Carrier, mounted with weaponry that could surely severely compromise the hull, if not destroy it altogether.

Heavy footsteps sounded against the metallic floor, approaching his location.

The Hangar was lit up with brilliant flashes of light as a volley of bullets raced towards him.

Only to be intercepted by the energy vector modification field he had erected around himself, reversing course in mid air.

Bullets intercepted bullets and cut them down mid-flight, some veering clear off target, while thousands of projectiles still found home, crashing against the androids’ humanoid chassis.

Cut down by the power of their own weaponry, his first two assailants fell.

And Anisha stepped into the light before him.

“Hello, my Lord.” She injected the word full of sarcasm.

Michael did not reply in words, unleashing a wave of kinetic force at her.

The rancid smell of salted seawater and aged metal filled the air.

Anisha sailed through space, landing on her back, and her momentum caused her to flip back around onto her feet.

She bared her teeth at him in an unpleasant approximation of a smile.

Unharmed.

Michael used a shielding spell, and soon, light would not touch him.

To compensate for the consequent blindness, he resorted to his supernatural senses, and walked in a wide angle around Anisha, to catch her off guard.

The moisture in the air grew thicker, condensing against his skin.

And Anisha whirled around.

It was impossible for her to have seen him, but her eyes locked on him all the same.

She drew a sidearm and fired a shot, which was promptly reflected at her, catching her in the side.

Michael took the opportunity, pouncing on her mind, fogged by pain, in an attempt to bend it to his will.

Michael’s powers over the mind were not insignificant, but they paled in comparison to a true denizen of the Astral plane, and he was wrestled out of her mind.

Anisha had taken the moment and regained her composure; anything not composed of pure iron would not grievously harm the Fae, and it seemed this property extended to their hosts as well.

“Bullets don’t work. But you can hear me, can’t you?” She asked him in a sing-song voice laced with mockery.

Michael narrowed his eyes, and Anisha unleashed an ear splitting cry.

Michael could have attempted to dampen the sound, but it was impossible for the human mind to react faster than sound- so when the sonic weapon hit his chest and drove him back like a hammerblow, he responded by lashing out with a lance of force, concentrated across a smaller surface area, a piercing impact instead of a blunt one, and Anisha, too, was hurled back in a spray of blood.

Climbing to his feet, Michael resisted the urge to vomit, dropping the obviously useless invisibility.

They circled each other once more, more wary than they had been moments earlier, the floor creaking beneath their feet.

A sheet of metal gave way beneath Michael’s feet, eaten through by water damage; unnatural water damage, and that was all the opening the Fae needed to strike.

Not through Anisha, but the Voidcraft carrier docked in the hangar, its mounted railgun firing nothing as wasteful as a projectile, but a bolt of raw kinetic force at speeds upward of 50,000 metres per second-

-its vector turned away from Michael at contact with his spell-

-and blowing a hole clean through the metallic walls, exposing the hangar to the vacuum of space with a deafening roar.

Michael grunted with effort, sealing the breach with a wall of force, even as he saw Anisha bear down on him through his peripheral vision.

With another application of his will, he pulled the gravitational polarity of the carrier and amplified its velocity, a million tons of metal now bearing down on the woman at terminal velocity.

Some invisible force, eerily akin to waves in a boiling ocean seemed to fill the space around Anisha, battering Michael even through his force shields, its velocity low enough to bypass his vector weave, but telekinesis took him to the air, even as he concentrated on the breach in the hull.

Anisha ran, but not nearly fast enough to avoid a vessel of those dimensions bearing down on her, even the invisible waves around her not managing to slow its descent.

And she disappeared beneath a million tons of metal.

Michael did not look back, maintaining his concentration on the wall of force he had erected to seal off the breach.

Until he felt something, a tangible pulse of power, far greater than his own or Anisha’s, and Abas Khan entered the Hangar, inspecting it with a mild frown.

Turning his attention to the breached wall, he waved his hand, and his soul flared with power, great enough to make Michael’s eardrums throb.

The wall filed with more matter, akin to skin covering a wound, only instantaneous.

A matter shaping spell.

Michael knew the older mage was dreadfully powerful, but he had never appreciated the sheer amount of magical fields Abas had honed to near-mastery, even besides the one he was already a master of.

He then turned his attention to the wreckage of the Voidcraft carrier, and again with the power of shaping, he disintegrated its material, and the mammoth vessel was reduced to a cloud of metallic filings and dust, that rushed outward to engulf the hangar.

Michael erected another bubble of raw force around himself, not allowing the deluge to touch him.

Soon, it passed, and he saw Abas at the other end, standing next to Anisha- or what remained of her.

She had avoided the brunt of the metallic colossus bearing down on her, and yet, it was simply too large to be avoided entirely.

Her torso had been opened, its contents spilling onto the floor.

Some damage was beyond even the help of the physical changes she had undergone as a Fae host.

“You could heal her.” Michael said, as he approached them to stand at Abas’ side.

“I could.” the older man replied.

“But you won’t.”

“It would be counterproductive. And the Fae won't leave till she breathes her last.”

“This was a demonstration. To your peers, I’m guessing. Perhaps you grow frustrated with their pace, or you want to push forward on something in the Military Wing. You orchestrated this from the start, and you knew it would end this way.”

“Very good, Michael. You’ve widened your perspective once again. It’s imperative that you continue to do so. You’ve already been caught… lacking, by this Fae.”

“Could I have a moment with her? Alone?”

Abas paused.

“Sentimentality of that sort won’t get you anywhere.”

“This isn’t about that, sir. But it’s my actions that have led up to this. I must face them properly. That’s important for my perspective as well.”

Abas studied Michael’s opaque expression for a silent moment, then nodded, and left them alone.

Life had not entirely forsaken Anisha, broken though she was.

Michael sat on the metallic floor beside her as she gasped for breath, heedless of the blood soaking through his trousers.

“It occurs to me…. that you never really… knew me..” Anisha managed between laboured breaths.

“How so?”

“This thing… in my head… You never really knew..”

“Do you remember bringing me that text you found, written by the first Chief Librarian? What it implied about personhood, with even the microscopic parasites being able to influence their behavior? I don’t know as much about personhood as I would like. But I believe I know you.”

Anisha did not reply in words, letting loose a puff of air tinged with a sound of disbelief.

“When you stood at my side, proud of having survived an Astral plane, that was you. When you traded barbs with Ciara, acerbic tongue masking your fear as you felt something invasive creep its way into you, I believe that was you also. When you finally attacked me with the powers the Fae granted you, I believe it was your frustration at your treatment at our hands that boiled over, and you finally fought back with an opportunity to stand on even footing with me.”

“Why… still here…”

“My actions have led up to this. I won’t turn my eyes away now.”

They sat there for several silent minutes, the pool of blood around them growing, until finally, Anisha slumped over, and finally breathed her last.

Michael ran his palm over her face once, then pulled himself away.

He inhaled deeply, and exhaled in a forceful burst.

He had found himself in something far more complicated than he had originally anticipated.

It did not matter; there would be no turning back.