Annabelle identified the telltale signs of an opponent’s mind control. The method was slightly different (using magic instead of psychic ability to initiate the contact), but it was still a familiar situation.

How did you- the intruder asked, panicked.

How did I know you were there? Annabelle replied. I didn't.

Wait, what? was the thought from Varos’ mind. At least Varos wasn't gone entirely.

I'm assuming that this individual was controlling your actions, yes? Annabelle asked.

Yes. She was using me as a sleeper agent to gather information on you. She forced me to destroy the power core.

You won't finish it in time, the intruder taunted. I've sent my Shades in to dispose of you, and your pet project.

I'll deal with them later, Annabelle retorted. After I make you my bitch.

The intruder made a last effort to break the mental link, but Omega had already infiltrated their mind, and jumped in to hold the link open from the other side, preventing all efforts to dispel it. Annabelle followed up with a standard psychic assault, and met a magically-enhanced defense.

You really think you can control me?

She found gaps in the defense, and penetrated through them, only to encounter more walls right behind. They were stalling, but she could push through.

Nyxl… hear… my...

She’s attempting to contact her god, Omega realized. If it goes through-

Annabelle forced the link open wide and dumped a massive burst of raw psychic energy through it. The effort created a brilliant explosion of purple light around Varos, dazing him just from having the energy run through his mind. However, the intruder got off far worse, their psyche shattered in an instant. If she had pumped any more energy through, it could have resulted in an exploding head.

With the intruder’s mind broken and unable to defend, Annabelle looked through their memories. They were a Shade Matriarch, one of only a few dozen females in their society.

Annabelle scanned through Cecilian’s memories. The first thing Annabelle realized was that she wasn't bluffing on the Shade assault. The base's location had been exposed, and she had called up several groups of warriors to storm the base to capture Annabelle. They would be arriving in about an hour.

Could she get the assault called off? She could have Cecilian claim that Annabelle was too dangerous to engage (which, if everything went right, would be true), but that would result in a more elite force being sent against them from the start. If she simply backed out, it would result in a loss of reputation (minor, but would impact their ability to use Cecilian’s body to manipulate and sabotage the Shades), and heavily increased suspicion (much more serious). And some of the warriors would likely commit to the attack anyways.

So, there's a small problem. Omega explained. This isn’t a standard telepathic link. We were still able to force psychic power through it, but we can’t sustain this.

Why not?

The connection isn't between you and Cecilian, it's between Varos and Cecilian, with you connecting to her through Varos. This isn’t something we can sustain without considerably inconveniencing Varos.

I'm not going to be going for manual control, Annabelle replied. I'm doing a full personality rewrite. Take the relevant memories, implant a sleeper agent mind, and then release her to tear down their empire from the inside.

Alternative proposal: let me handle it. I'll leave your mind, and inhabit Cecilian's. Same effects as a personality rewrite, but without the risk of the target returning to normal or going rogue.

You can do that? Aren't you a part of my brain? It would be like her arm detaching, wouldn't it?

I'm more of a mental construct, similarly to Daraken's mental barriers. In fact, his barriers were an inspiration for my emergence. I should be able to switch bodies.

Do it. As soon as Annabelle gave the order, she felt Omega leave her, and pass through the connections and into Cecilian’s mind. If what Omega claimed was true, she wouldn't even notice it.

I will do whatever it takes to defeat the Shades. Even if you die, I will keep up the fight in your stead.

Now that the enemy Matriarch was under control, Annabelle moved to the next priority.

We have an army of Shades arriving in an hour. Varos, can you repair the weapon in that time?

Varos was slow to respond. She discharged the power source, and I’m not sure we have enough time to recharge it.

I might be able to buy time, Omega offered. I can give you an extra hour, maybe a bit more.

And even if I was able to recreate the power core, Varos stated, I would still need to finish the rest of the weapon, including the ammunition fabricator and recoil mitigation.

Are you sure there’s no way to get the weapon working? Annabelle probed Varos’ mind and memories, in hopes of finding a solution that he had missed.

Wait. If I salvage the power cores and secondary systems from my existing equipment…

Varos levitated his staff in front of him, then split it apart telekinetically, exposing its power core. He grabbed the charged core, fabricating an uncharged core to replace it before collapsing the weapon back into shape.

I’m going to have to drop this connection, Omega said. I need to focus to pull this off.

Omega closed her connection to Varos.

Then, Varos went to work. After ten minutes, he fixed enough of the damage to the railgun to re-insert the power core. He spent ten more minutes connecting it to the weapon trigger, allowing a pull of the trigger to correspond to a discharge of electricity.

Then, he installed a dial on the side of the weapon, a power selector.

“Wait, don’t magic items have the capacity to respond to mental commands?” Annabelle asked.

“Yes, but that takes time to implement. Time that we do not have.”

The power selector enabled the railgun to be fired at 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% power. Higher charges would do more damage and breach wards more effectively, but would drain more energy and require more time before the next shot was ready.

Then, Varos did something unexpected. He took off one of his gauntlets, and extracted the conjuration apparatus from it to insert into the weapon.

“Won’t that impair-“

“Yes, it will impair my capability to create new items in the future, at least until I replace it. Although…”

He reconfigured the gauntlet before putting it back on.

“I think I’ve kept the core telekinetic functionality in this glove intact."

It took half an hour for Varos to reconfigure the apparatus to create metal rods to fire, and to get it to automatically create new ammo after the previous shots were fired. By then, they were dangerously close to a fight. Now they were banking on Omega’s diversion.

“It looks like an effective weapon core,” Annabelle commented. “Now, all we need is recoil mitigation, and ergonomics improvements.“

“I might not be able to do the recoil mitigation,” Varos realized. “Not without sacrificing my own protection.”

“Didn’t you say that no defenses worked against their shots?”

“Cecilian decided not to allow me to disclose the fact that my armor had a personal warding field. It’s not perfect, but it blocked a few shots before failing when I created the diversion.”

“Wait, how much of that information is accurate?”

“It’s accurate,” Varos said. “Cecilian wanted you to know exactly what you were facing in hopes of coaxing out your best strategies. I think she got more than she bargained for, hence why she's sending an overwhelming attack.”

Annabelle decided to test the recoil first. She switched Shadebreaker to 50% power, set it on the ground, then pulled the trigger with telekinesis.

The shot fired out, slamming into a wall with an incredible amount of force. The whole cavern shook from the impact, and the projectile exploded into shrapnel (which Annabelle barely blocked with a barrier) But, at the same time, the recoil of the shot caused the railgun to skid backwards half a meter along the ground.

That was manageable, right? At least if she braced for the hit properly.

She picked up the weapon, braced herself with a kinetic barrier between the weapon and her shoulder, and fired again. She held on to the weapon, and mitigated almost all of the recoil with only a moderate exertion of energy.

“My plan was to use a warding field to absorb the recoil, but the only warding field I have right now is my personal warding field, and I'm not losing it."

Annabelle thought what to do. “I can keep the weapon steady as long as I don’t go past 50% weapon power, and have enough energy to spare. But, if you inserted springs into the weapon to reduce the shock of the recoil, it would make it much easier to control.”

Varos quickly created a stock for the weapon, inserting several springs to absorb the recoil. Then, he worked with Annabelle to improve the weapon’s ergonomics so it was easier to handle and aim.

They were in the middle of installing a scope when a series of alarms went off.

The Shades were arriving, ahead of schedule. The diversion hadn’t bought them as much time as they hoped.

**********

Annabelle rushed to the center of the gathering crowd, as Diedre attempted to rally a defense. Or maybe it was an evacuation?

"-Shades appear to still be a few minutes out," Diedre was saying. "Evacuation seems unlikely.”

"Diedre! This raid is after me!" Annabelle shouted into the crowd. Diedre somehow managed to hear her over the crowd.

"So? They'll take any targets of opportunity they can get, and they won't play nice if we sacrifice ourselves just to let you get away."

"They won't take everyone," Varos said. "It would leave them nothing else to hunt."

"I know," Annabelle said, ignoring Varos. "I'm not planning on running, I'm planning on fighting."

"So, a noble sacrifice, giving yourself up in the hopes they won't take anyone else? It could work."

Apparently, Diedre was unaware of the recent weapon developments. "I've studied their tactics under Varos. And, I've helped him design a weapon to destroy them." She raised her new weapon.

"Or, a foolish sacrifice."

“This is Shadebreaker,” Annabelle declared, naming the weapon on the spot. “It will hit hard enough to wipe them out.”

Diedre looked at the weapon in disbelief.

"Where are they attacking from?"

Diedre was snapped out of her daze. "They're all around us, approaching slowly. It seems they want to encircle us before moving in for the kill.”

"I mean, there's only one entrance," Darius realized. "Why can't we hold there, assuming this weapon is capable of killing them?" Or maybe even if it wasn't, given Annabelle's potential to rip apart a large group of enemies in a narrow corridor with her distortion beams.

"The Shades have ways to manipulate the shape of the demiplane to gain an advantage. If we hunker down, they'll have time to open an alternate route into the cavern.

"In that case, I'll take the fight to them." She started walking towards the exit.

"Varos, if we punch through, could we escape to safety?"

"In the short-term? Maybe. It might take a few days for them to track us down, if we stayed away from our previous camps. We'd lose most of our logistics, but with a few days' time, I'll be able to finish Shadebreaker and begin work on replicating it."

"Well, I think this is the best chance we have. Everyone, follow me!" Annabelle led the charge, even though she wasn't quite sure which direction she was going through the caverns. The others were a bit reluctant to follow, but eventually organized behind her.

As they moved, she shared her engagement strategy. The rest of her original team had some options against the Shades, and some of the mages in the group had a few tricks up their sleeves, but with any luck, they wouldn’t need to come in to play.

After advancing for a minute, Annabelle spotted a flash of pink, as a Shade in concealment opened fire. Before it could hit anyone, she blocked it with a kinetic barrier. As several more Shades popped out to begin firing, she expanded the barrier to cover the whole front. Shots fired out from multiple assailants, but the barrier blocked them.

One of the Shades laughed. He stepped out of cover, and walked towards the barrier, ignoring any threat from the gathered survivors.

Annabelle levelled Shadebreaker, set to 50% power.

"You think you can hurt me?" The Shade taunted.

"No." Annabelle pulled the trigger. The recoil jolted her shoulder, as she had her psychic energy focused on keeping up the barrier.

A high-velocity metal slug hit obliterated the Shades’ head, painting the walls and ceiling of the cavern red. His wards were practically no obstacle.

"I know I can."

The rest of the Shades panicked, fleeing as soon as they realized the tables were turned. Annabelle rushed forward, keeping her telekinetic barriers in front of her to block shots. She lowered Shadebreaker's power level from 50% to 25%, and fired a three-round burst into one of the fleeing Shades. His wards managed to almost completely block the first shot, but the rest of the burst punched through, blowing two holes straight through his chest.

She sent out a Starsight pulse to track the locations of the others. There were three of them, one fleeing ahead of her, and two fleeing down a different cavern.

Annabelle launched herself forwards with a telekinetic burst, then used a second burst as she rounded a corner to changed direction and close in on the lone Shade in front of her. The Shade turned around just in time to see Annabelle smash him in the face with Shadebreaker's barrel, her swing boosted with the same technique she used to hit hard with sword swings. He fell down, and Annabelle finished him off with a shot to the head.

Behind her, the other Shades moved back in on her, potentially attempting to shoot her in the back. Without moving, she manifested a distortion beam, starting from a point a meter left of her head, and passing through both Shades. Their chests collapsed and turned to the approximate consistency of jelly, dropping them in an instant. Where the beam impacted the wall, a small explosion of multicolored light erupted.

Annabelle waited for the rest of the group to catch up.

She shared the news that the Shades in front of them were dead, and could almost sense the morale boost that gave. For the first time in months, maybe years, they would have a realistic chance to escape.

They kept moving. If the other groups had not decided to retreat, they would be attacking soon. One or two squads would likely not be able to take them out, but if they took down a few people in their attack, the rest of the group would be slowed down by having to carry them, giving the rest of them more time to keep up the chase and finish them off.

However, though Annabelle had expected further attacks, she didn't expect one to come through the ceiling. The ceiling above her suddenly opened up, and a stunner shot hit her straight in the head. Despite her warding charm, the effect still got through it, and despite her incredible mental defenses, she completely failed to stop the effect, and fell onto her back. Above her, she could see the hole in the ceiling expand, revealing eight Shades clinging to the walls like spiders.

The Shades had warped the cavern system to gain an advantage. But it didn't matter, since Annabelle’s psychic abilities should remain fully functional.

She attempted to create a spatial vortex to tear apart the attackers, only to have nothing happen. How was a physical stunning effect also nullifying her psychic abilities?

She tried several abilities, but nothing worked, with the exception of Starsight. But even though Starsight could be manifested to get a better picture of the ensuing carnage, something stopped her from using the telekinetic field that she was using for Starsight to perform any sort of telekinetic manipulation.

Around Annabelle, most of the group fled, as the Shades shot wildly into the crowd, stunning most of them.

Varos, in a foolish effort, dashed towards her. He activated some sort of augment in his armor to gain a massive burst of speed, and grabbed Shadebreaker. He was hit by a stunner, but he stayed upright, aimed up, and obliterated one of the Shades with a shot from the railgun before the rest of him took him down by overwhelming his defenses.

Once all of their targets were either down or out of their line of fire, the Shades dropped down. Lorso raised a ceiling of fire in an attempt to block them, but they passed through it, their wards protecting them from the heat.

However, when they landed, Silence immediately struck, taking them by surprise. One of the Shades was hit with a kick to their groin powerful enough to launch them several feet into the air, slamming into the cavern roof hard enough to cause brain matter to start oozing out of the hole. Silence then grabbed their corpse out of midair, stepped forward, and threw it into a second Shade, knocking them down.

He took a stunner shot in the flank, but at the same time, his body briefly glowed yellow. Annabelle wasn't sure what he had done, but it somehow negated the stunner's effects.

He rushed forward and slammed a third Shade with a devastating haymaker to knock them into the ground, then stomped on their head, pulping it.

However, though Silence resisted one stunner, he did not resist the second wave of attacks, and went down.

His diversion allowed several other mages to step forward and cast their own spells. A brief duel ensued between the mages and the Shades, but though they managed to overwhelm and kill one Shade with a barrage of arcane blasts, they were soon stunned as well.

With that, they were defeated. The Shades had won, and all that was left for them to do was to take their prize. Annabelle wasn't sure whether she wanted to be one of the victims.