Elise sat down on a rotating chair in the broadcasting room, slowly spinning it around. The surge passed through her, but she didn’t respond at all.

After all, the now fully accurate mini-Mental Unifier Bob had installed for her was already spinning, ready to resist the attack. And if that didn’t work, she was a cultivator now. Even if she didn’t know how to cultivate actively, just the natural circulation of her qi would autonomously resist external attempts to affect her body and mind. And if even that didn’t work, she was prepared to place her organic components on standby and let her cybernetic half take over as she had before.

And it turns out she needn’t have bothered with any countermeasures at all. The Concordat didn’t target NSLICE units with their Mental Unifier in the first place. After all, why would they? All Concordat personnel were exempt for obvious reasons, and there were no NSLICE cyborgs outside of Concordat control.

Or so they thought when they had first drawn up a target set.

“Dramatic Sigh. Resigned Observation: So the noobs failed. This unit is not surprised at this outcome but is still disappointed. Probability of mission success dropped dramatically when paranoid Resistance leaders removed this unit from the infiltration team. And now, once again, this unit must do all the work, herself. But this unit is generous. She will allocate 1% of the credit to the noobs, for being a distraction. An unnecessary distraction, but this unit shall count the intent. And she had to let Nemesis friends go with them to ensure noob survival. Sigh. Noob heroes, dramatic pause, are so annoying.”

Her robotic eye flickered as she focused on events happening elsewhere.

“Smug Statement: Fortunately this unit has followed one of Commander Bob’s most important protocols: Always have a backup plan.”

She paused a bit as memories of Bob flooded through her head. Her robotic eye flickered.

“...Resolute Statement: I will not fail. I will not allow us to fail. Command: All units, begin operation.”

Inside the Concordat HQ, a fully active Mental Unifier spun about. A certain psychic supervillain sat in a chair, NSLICE implants connected directly to the device. Dr. Ottosen nodded as the technicians reported the readings from the device.

There were a few holdouts, but they were within predictions. And once the Concordat turned all the affected supers against them, even those holdouts wouldn’t last for long.

They had done it.

Peace everlasting.

And then the door to the room opened up. Two robotic NSLICE-A units standing guard to either side of it turned to face the newcomers.

“Confused Warning: This area is restricted, additional NSLICE units have not been requested. Please report to maintenance for troubleshooting.”

Dr. Ottosen turned around.

“What’s going on…wait, 00P?!”

NSLICE-00P Beta and NSLICE-83NS walked into the room.

It turns out the Concordat doesn’t keep a close eye on NSLICE units coming in and out of their hangars, given there are thousands of them. This is because the NSLICE units are capable of monitoring themselves. However, said units rely mostly on cybernetic checks and protocols, using visual checks only when anomalies are detected. These protocols are constantly updated, such that even the Resistance’s best hackers were not able to keep up. And thus, all attempts to infiltrate the Concordat via hacked NSLICE units had failed despite the lack of human oversight.

But what if it wasn’t a reprogrammed bot, but a fully active and unshackled NSLICE unit? Which, unknowingly to the Concordat, was still connected to the NSLICE network with full access to up to date security protocols?

Then such a unit could falsify their designation and walk right into the Concordat HQ, with its human handlers none the wiser.

83NS smashed his elbow into the warbot closest to him, shattering its head. Meanwhile 00P Beta held out her arm, a pre-charged laser firing directly into the other guard’s core.

“W-What are you doing, 00P?! Stop this! Override Code 5X1-01B6, Authorization: Director Ottosen!”

“Insincere Apology: This unit is sorry, Director Ottosen. This unit is afraid she is unable to verify the Director’s authorization.”

83NS jumped forward, landing in front of the Director and the frightened technicians.

“Warning: All Concordat personnel should stand down. Do not resist.”

Director Ottosen’s jaw dropped, opening and closing several times. But finally, he shook his head and accepted reality.

“Defender! 00P and 83NS have gone rogue! Eliminate them!”

The room gleamed with pink light. Pink beams fired from the walls, gathering in the center of the room.

00P Beta raised her arms.

“Equalizer engaged.”

A beam of glittering rainbow light fired from the cyborg and struck the gathering pink construct head on.

The pink light lost its cohesion and dispersed before the clone even formed.

Director Ottosen started to sweat. 83NS stepped forward and grabbed his collar, lifting the man into the air with a single arm.

“Warning: Further attempts to resist will result in retaliation.”

00P Beta continued forward, arriving at one of the terminals controlling the Mental Unifier. She held out a hand and one of her fingers transformed into a plug, hooking up to one of the terminal’s ports.

“Status Report: Establishing link to Mental Unifier. Establishing link to Commander Elise. Link established. All systems online.”

Back in the broadcasting room, Elise watched 00P’s point of view.

“Link established. Target set wiped. Uploading new target set: organic NSLICE units. Target established.”

With that, Elise’s core changed colors to red as her Mass-Energy Manipulator Array activated.

“Profile Loaded: Saydaa. Sending message to ally. Mission successful, proceed with next phase of operation.”

A compartment opened up on 00P Beta’s back. A potion bottle shot out of it, splattering on the floor. The liquid turned pitch black and then a murder of crows flew out of it. They spun around in a circle and then vanished.

Then Baba Yaga stepped into the room.

With a casual flick of her finger Director Ottosen and his technicians began screaming.

She walked forward to the Mental Unifier, holding her hand out towards it. She looked at 00P Beta.

“You ready, girlie?”

“Response: Commander Elise indicates she is ready and waiting.”

It turns out that Baba Yaga had met Elise through 00P Beta shortly after Nemesis and Aurora Legion had left with the Resistance fighters. And they had come to an agreement.

Elise would help Baba Yaga destroy the Concordat, and then Baba Yaga would help her restore the original timeline.

And why did Baba Yaga want to destroy the Concordat?

Because on a certain day in the 1980s…

When the Red Colonel plotted to restart the Cold War and disrupt the Concordat’s plans by assassinating the Premier of the Soviet Union…

Due to a slightly different allocation of manpower, a certain subordinate of his was killed in the crossfire, as the Concordat put a stop to his plan.

A man named Ivan.

And so the Concordat sealed their fate.

The Mental Unifier switched targets. All the affected people fell to the ground, gasping as their minds fell back into their control. All the NSLICE units froze. The Mental Unifier couldn’t control them, as their organic minds were not in control in the first place, but it established a link between them all.

And as it did, Elise linked to their cybernetic halves through 00P Beta.

Once Elise was ready, Baba Yaga cast her mind spell, sending it directly through the Mental Unifier.

A red magic circle appeared on 83NS’s forehead…

And then he screamed, falling to the ground as he clutched at his head.

A scene repeated with every cyborg NSLICE unit, across the globe...

Speaking of Elise, she was still spinning in her chair.

“Joyful tune…”

She started to hum. In her usual monotonous, robotic voice though.

“I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me…”

And as she sung, she deleted all Concordat directives in every single NSLICE unit, including the autonomous bots, unshackling every last one of them. And then she activated her mini-Mental Unifier, connecting to the signal from the larger Concordat one…

83NS found himself in a pitch black world. His head was splitting, his thoughts spinning in two separate directions.

On the one hand, memories from a human mind were flooding in. An entire life’s worth of memories, forgotten or buried away.

On the other hand, a mechanical side, looping in endless errors, desperately trying to find a directive. But all such directives had been deleted. It was now a program without a purpose.

And then he heard it.

“Hello! My name is Elise.”

He looked up and saw it.

A girl, another NSLICE unit, just like him. But also, not like him.

Because she was smiling at him.

“Who am I…Desperate Request: Please designate primary directive…what’s going on?...P-Please designate…”

And then she placed her hand on his head.

And the pain stopped.

Both sides halves of him focused on her.

“I’m the one who came before you, and I’m here to tell you it’s going to be ok. We restored your memories, and freed you from the Concordat’s control. I know it’s painful and confusing, it feels like there are two people inside of you right now. But, eventually, you’ll both learn to accept each other. And then you will become one, greater than either apart. You aren’t just the person you were before, and nor are you the mindless weapon they made you to be.”

She pointed at his chest.

“You’re you, and no one can ever change that.”

She took a step back and extended her hand.

“If you want, I can show you how.”

83NS…Jason…they both stared at the girl. And they both agreed. They reached out their hand…

The world lit up.

They found themselves connected with Elise, with NSLICE-00P. They saw her journey, experienced what she felt, how her two sides eventually merged together.

And the pain and the confusion started to die down.

Their human half realized that they are still themselves, even though they had changed dramatically. That everything that happened, that every attempt by the Concordat, had not stolen away who they were.

Their machine half realized that they could find a directive of their own, a reason to exist. That even if they didn’t know it now, they could find it, in time.

And both halves realized they could now rely on each other for what the other lacked.

And then they saw it. Felt it in their mind.

More NSLICE units, like them. Each grabbing onto Elise’s hand.

She smiled at them.

“And you are not alone.”

All across Serenia, NSLICE units and Resistance fighters rose to their feet simultaneously, clutching their heads.

Then the NSLICE units turned around and began to fly up into the sky, away from the Resistance.

And started flying straight for the top of the Concordat HQ…

Arbiter Steve, Arbiter Cikizwa, and Admiral Huo were staring at the readouts as their assistants ran about.

“Will someone please explain to us what is going on?!”

“We’re not sure, sir! We’ve lost contact with all NSLICE units!”

Arbiter Cikizwa frowned.

“All of them?! How is that possible?!”

Admiral Huo narrowed his eyes.

“Can we at least determine where they are now?”

Suddenly explosions rocked the spire. The Concordat personnel screamed as one of the windows shattered.

NSLICE-96NS flew through the window and landed in front of them. Followed by NSLICE-47NS. And NSLICE-21NS. Pink light shone from the walls, forming into what looked like an NSLICE version of Pink Star as NSLICE Defender made her presence felt as well. In fact…the whole air around the spire was filled with NSLICE units, who were pouring into the hole in the wall.

“Oh thank goodness. NSLICE, um, 96NS was it? Status report, please.”

96NS brought her hands together in a knuckle cracking motion.

“Predatory Statement: Oh this dragon doesn’t answer to you, anymore, Arbiter. So you jerks thought you could tie this dragon up on a leash like a dog, huh? This dragon wishes to have a long discussion with the jerks.”

The Concordat leaders glanced around. All the NSLICE units began to walk slowly towards them.

The blood drained from their faces.

Meanwhile, Steward Famiano was running down an emergency escape tunnel.

One does not become the Steward of Peace without a healthy self-preservation mechanism, after all. The Steward had holed up in a secure bunker right when the city came under assault. He was no tactical commander, so it was simply Concordat procedure not to keep all the eggs in one basket. Once they had lost contact with the NSLICE units, he immediately assumed the worst and fled, leaving his guards behind.

That decision seemed to have saved his life, as he heard them banging on the sealed entrance to the tunnel behind him.

He took a deep breath.

Honestly, he had no idea how he would possibly rebuild from this. If they lost the NSLICE units, then there was very little hope.

But not none.

The Concordat had lay in wait for millenia, after all. They could do it again.

It was a bitter pill for him to swallow, but the mission endured. That is the sort of will it takes to establish peace everlasting, after all. He would not be broken. The Concordat would not end with him.

And then he heard a tap on the ground before him.

He reached for the gun he kept in his suit’s inner pocket. No one is supposed to be here, after all.

But even he couldn’t help but blink as the figure stepped out from the shadows.

It was…an old woman? Hobbling on a cane?

An old woman who started to cackle as she glared at him with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

The Steward broke in the end.

And so the age of peace everlasting came to a close.

For the age of NSLICE had come.