Solve For X (MK)

[GEAR]

September 12th
OE 102
Deimos Interior (?)
Data Recycling

The sensation of moving, slipping through time and space was never an easy one. The human body was never meant to undertake such voyages, and even with its extensive modifications, it was always accompanied by a slight sense of existential discomfort.

Shapes, colors, and what amounted to "normalcy" reasserted itself around her. Uncertainty dissolved, begrudgingly yielding to the laws that governed this plane of existence... and the sense of weightlessness gripped Remedy's body once more.

Lights flickered and sparked. The walls pulsated dully, as though the entire interior were now part of some enormous beast. Cracks riddled the ground underfoot. Pods that had once held specimens, those who Edelweiss had held as worthy of being preserved in their archives forever, now were brown and rotten, the grime on the inside mercifully concealing the state of the corpses within.

Hallways had been shattered and split, their sides aligned in bizarre angles on either side of her, snaking away into a dark void that seemed to lead further in.

Gristled flesh wrought of congealed Lamalice acted as a sort of living muscle, binding this and that in ways its creators could never have fathomed. It was as if the entire interior had been turned into a bizarre exhibit of sorts, the method behind the madness of its design known only to its dark architect, whose malefic presence filled the air like a chilling mist.

And yet for all its horror, for how far it had become from how she recalled it, there was a twinge deep in her soul. An oh-so human pang that not even untold millennia of genetic tinkering could fully erase.

Yes, there was only one word for this place, which had haunted her dreams for so long:

Home. ​

 

[MKR]

Here she was, after all these years she had returned. Stronger for the journey that had come and gone, for the journey that continued. While people said home was where the heart is this place, so engorged with evil that it was sadness she felt at its state still claimed fondness. Even if her heart had ventured far from this moon never to return.

Yet despite that, home it remained.

It was this warm moment that came and went in this realm of darkness, in all but physical existence part of the Crawling Dark. It was not herself she was here for but rather it was her she came for. The inherent cold of the dark realm set back in, her heart pumping the heat through her veins in struggle against it as the warmth of body and soul kept the dark at bay.

The darkness that had burrowed in like a parasite likely was now aware of her presence, if not now it would be soon. Time was of the essence, checking one last time to make sure she hadn't misread the instruments left to her she confirmed the last sighting of X by the systems as Gravalin engaged motion at her beck and call. While her mental map of the place was... Outdated to say the least given the current nightmare before her sitting still would do nothing.

She was making it a habit to arrive in twisted facilities alone, but she found herself there last time as well. The one thing she would love to be different from last time however was that empty gaze, how it would gladden her to see eyes filled with life stare back at her today.
"Come on sis' lemme find you before he does." She muttered to herself, quiet as a mouse.

People, just like those people who decide that home and heart lay in the same place, have long since declared that history repeats. Remedy had seen more of history than most got the chance to and was inclined to disagree in the matter. History was a road, long and arduous, but if one passed by a house on the road and then another of the same make.

That didn't exactly mean you were located on a roundabout did it?

Yet despite that firm belief, Remedy sure wished for a simple repeat of history here. For her and her lost sibling to meet in this destitute place. Giving hope to that cycle the haze of darkness deeper in the tunnels reminded her of the fog that surrounded her mother's hideaway. Sadly she would not be able to sleep through these obstacles and arrive safely.

Yet, it did give her an idea.

Her gaze on the path that was supposed to lead the way from which her sibling should be coming she turned to the instruments at her fingers, in this realm of negativity. Just like how the presence of Lamalice could be felt in space as a dark omen, the inverse should be true. A pinprick of light emanated by one not consumed by the dark should appear on the scanners and radars she had available courtesy of Hyle. The instruments made by him to sustain her, instruments that knew her and knew her well. Knowledge she now used in tandem with her own as she reinforced her search for light in the dark with one for her own heart and its beat in this fallen home.

So while the paths before her may be twisted, what lay behind may not be equally elusive.

That, was her guiding light in absence of the mental connection with herself.

 

[GEAR]

Quiet.

The surroundings were eerily calm as the Gravalin made its way through the vast interior of what had once been Deimos. Segments of the artificial moon, chopped up and rearranged seemingly at random, made sure her route was anything but straightforward. The occasional Lamalice would drift by - but even they kept their distance, watching her with their eyeless, eternally gaping mouths until she left wherever they had congregated. Even time seemed to slow to a crawl, the hallways stretching out before her endlessly, as though she were making her way through the intestines of some great beast.

It wasn't long before she began to pick up X's trail.

Her only company was the distant churning and groaning of her galaxy being slowly, inevitably, dragged into a world of pitiless black.

---

Eventually, the path mercifully widened - and the Super Robot flew out, into a wide open space. No - perhaps the correct term would be pocket dimension. Over the threshold from one world, into the next, as where one began and the other ended blurred and melded together. Below her, forming a kind of "shell" were... strips, almost, of worlds.

Chunks torn out and rearranged like wallpaper. Almost perfect snapshots, taken at the moment of their demise, complete with rigid, monochrome replications of their occupants. It stretched for untold miles, no matter how far she strained her eyes. And "overhead" - or rather, far in the distance, around which the entire place seemed to revolve...

​

The shape was similar to a "Moon" itself - yet so much more, infinitely vast, stretching across the "sky" and filling this "world" with an eerie light. The sheer amount of negative energy it exuded sent prickles down Remedy's neck. Its surface teemed with whirling forms, not unlike how Deimos' itself did - but so too, twinkling in the blackness of its depths, were nascent suns, worlds, galaxies.

PROXIMITY CONNECTION DETECTED.
CONNECTING...
CONNECTED.​

Remedy's radio crackled to life, unexpectedly. There was a moment of strange silence, before a familiar voice spoke. The tenor was... unfamiliar. Even if it was her own voice, she barely would have recognized the harshness in it. Shock, mingling with... something more. Something deeper.

"Why...?"



"Why are you here?"​

 

[MKR]

The sight before her was unique to say the least, it was an amazing sight and would be much better were it not made out of moments of suffering presented like an art gallery. That really brought the whole display down in her mind, these were not pieces saved from destruction by carrying their last wishes away from the oncoming tide but rather the moments the tide won. The infinity of space, of entire worlds that had moved parallel to this one all contained before her. Trapped.

So this was wizard 0.2's grand work she reasoned, before she contemplated too much it was her radio that pulled her attention away. Hearing her voice, twisted as it may be, still brought gladness to her heart.
"Why wouldn't I be?" She asked in simple retort. "That brain in a box is here, but more importantly you're here."

"I promised to save you after all, and I'm annoyingly persistent if anything." She declared with pride in her voice as she thought about the hundreds if not thousands or more years spent thwarting the creation of the orb of evil before her. Not all memories were good so to say, getting torn apart is not an experience she would recommend after all but still. Regrets were few and far between.

In a weird sense she envied the source of the voice, X, Remedy, Xemedy, whichever or whatever she was now. She had become well and truly her own self, different in worse and better ways. How could Remedy not look upon that and desire a taste of it, after all the only moment apart from the grander sisterhood she had gotten were the dreams in space.

Of course that was assuming the one she spoke to wanted this, something envy didn't measure in. And likewise Remedy as she was would not trade places with the other, she was Remedy and would not give that up easily.
"If you've got a ride already I can bring us both out of here, if not well this cockpit is roomy enough for two."

 

[GEAR]

"...Save?"

The radio crackled, the shock clear in X's voice. There was a moment of stupefied silence, before it rose again, this time into a shout that ripped through the cockpit's interior, echoing in her ears:

"You're far off baseline. You're completely corrupted!"

X breathed heavily. As though the outburst had exhausted her, before she continued. There was new edge in her voice now.

Pleading.

"You know what's coming, don't you?" She said,

"The End of All Things. The Final Calamity. Kali Yuga. This... is a seed. The beginnings... the blueprints of a new universe. A way forward."

There was a shuddering sigh on the other end. As though her doppelganger were steeling herself.

"If we lose this... If we lose Brain... There will be nothing left. Not even hope.

I... couldn't allow that to happen."

 

[MKR]

Remedy winced at the scream coming towards her, this was exactly the kind of response she didn't want from herself.
"Of course I know what's coming!" Remedy shouted back once her other quieted down, "Did you think even for a second that I have not remained awake at night? Worrying what would come next, whether it could be overcome? HOW it could even be overcome?" Her yell was neither ear rending nor piercing, but it came all the same.

"I weep for every soul lost, for every life snuffed out. That-" She didn't even want to contemplate the finality of it. The thought died in her throat, telling braincase to stuff it was easy even when using her own voice. Telling another her the same... Was hard. Was she corrupted? In a sense she was, her existence maintained by warping what she was before into this self. Still she stayed the course.
Her other self, was exactly as the baseline was but not at all like the Core unit. Like Mother. Slinging an insult like that did little however.

"But Brain? Brain was lost long ago, what we have here- this? What's that thing he calls himself Dark Brain?" She spit the name out, her very lips disagreeing with verbalizing it without a joke to diminish the being he was. "I do not see how this thing, this atrocity that makes me want to scream and cry until I asphyxiate and dehydrate is a way forward."

She remained still for a moment. She couldn't understand how the other could accept this. But this may be part of that envy she contemplated earlier. So she shifted to a neutral disposition, calming her voice and stilling her soul. Trying to understand, trying to see it in any positive light.
"Please, tell me... What is it you see in this that I don't? How could you accept the evil and suffering committed, no- required to make this?"

"Please- Please tell me how this is forward."

The tears, despite her best efforts would not stay put. Her own plead, she saw the madness and the reason behind it but could not accept it as just.

 

[GEAR]

There was a gentle silence, as tears ran down Remedy's face, and her heartfelt plea went out to her lost "sibling". Who knew, at that moment, what emotions were running through the one once lost?

"...So be it."

When she finally spoke, it was with a certain coldness. An enforced distance. It would have brought to mind other, unpleasant memories. Of the times when one of them had been... disposed of. Purged, was the preferred terminology of the Aristarch. Clinical. Sterile. Overtly separating what was pure... and what was tainted.

There was something there. Silhouetted against that horrible "egg" overhead, hovering just out of the Super Robot's sensor range. It had carefully concealed itself, watching and waiting for this exact moment. Six long, bladed wings unfolded, giving it the impression of a murderous bird of prey, as a glowing ocher eye locked in its final firing coordinates.

​

​

Brilliant, crimson light poured into the cockpit, blinding in its intensity. A bloody sunburst that sent every warning klaxon in the entire Gravalin screaming at its pilot.

"Goodbye, Sister." Said X, solemnly.

"I'll make it quick."

​

Beams of scarlet sliced down and around the Gravalin - not merely aimed to rip into the unsuspecting machine, but also flaying the very space around it, shearing it, tearing violent gashes left and right in the fragile pocket dimension.

The outcome was immediate, and absolute. The dimensional tears burst, sending up a cascade of riproaring explosions that illuminated the features of the distant Madivia Degg, leering down at the chaos like a malevolent arbiter of destruction.

 

[MKR]

No answer was coming, no justification for all the wrongs to make a left. The tears that dripped gushed.

Remedy watched the monster rise from the egg, a pit opened in her gut. This wasn't like before where her motivation had been to save her fallen sibling, she saw that false hope vanish into the void. A picture of pain to match the walls of this damned place, fiction made way for fact. Her hand moved to wipe away her tears.
"Farewell Sister of mine." She muttered over the comms, every method of declaring danger springing at once.

As red beams came down, green beams shot up, colliding with the red that hailed down. Gravalin gazed up at the entity above as Remedy held the controls firmly. Those that collided exploded, but more came down then went up. Tearing into the Gravalin by quantity and power both.

Remedy exhaled, shifting in her seat. Her heart torn asunder.
"And you took the words straight out of my mouth."

This was what she did, her life's work and the great task before her she died for countless times. Today she would die for it one more, at her own hand. So often before did she have to shift from the loss of losing a sibling into combat, she had gotten terribly used to it. This granted was new, and she liked new but she absolutely detested this new. The pain was immeasurable but stored for later, for a moment to let it all out.

So she would do her usual strategy when dealing with the depressing reality of loss, talk her mouth off.

"You know, its comedic. I'm still here to save you, just from your own stupid choices now." Wetness ran by the smile she forced for that remark as Gravalin's gaze lit up. Two beams of yellow darting up as they traversed the darkness they turned blue from the heat, drawn across the space before them to strike at the enemy above. "We both know you can score a much better man than just some Brainiac."

Gravalin began to move, it would not be a sitting duck for whatever this machine had in store. The beams emitting from the machine's eyes would continue to pour out, carving a path across the darkness.

 

[GEAR]

The rays from the Gravalin's eyes sliced up, up into the night - and went wide as the Madivia banked, closing the distance between the two. The difference in firepower was smaller than it seemed - but X was in no hurry to test the durability of this machine against Hyle's monster. Even so, she'd dismantled bigger terrors in her time. Piece by agonizing piece where necessary...

And she'd do it again.

"You think this is a joke?"

External Arrestors snapped out from the unit's chest, darting down towards the Gravalin as the Madivia's twin guns drew a bead on the Super Robot. In an instant it returned a volley of fire - and repositioned. Fire. Reposition. Arcs of crimson in the night sky above, accompanied by bolts of thunder that rained punishing blows upon its sister unit, a salvo of six total as the Arrestors positioned themselves.

"This is our purpose! To PROTECT! This is what we were BORN TO DO!"

The claw-like remotes snapped wide - and discharged a field of blistering plasma between them, Crackling shackles of the highest quality, that would fry not only the key systems of the Super, but its pilot as well. In the distance, steam hissed from the Madivia's guns as cooling units spun up, their whine audible over X's hoarse, fatigued breathing.

 

[MKR]

"Something can be comedic without needing a joke." Remedy defended herself, bolts of lightning coming down and striking towards her. The Gravalin engaged motion however it was not intent on making distance this time. Several of the strikes of thunder whirred past her as she vacated the area where she had been and moved towards her adversary. Only two struck her machine, coursing through the armor though this had left the claws and their field far behind her and thus the worst would not come to pass.

"Of course." She nodded in reply to the fervor from her sister "That is something I've never forgotten, its why I stand here after all. The words still come to me clear as day, 'cause, symptom, cure, remedy, continue'." A mantra that was both objective and solution. The lifeblood that had sent untold numbers of them to their doom with no regrets, because they were protecting others.
"And its why I don't hold this against you, I mean I saw your diagnostics so I know this isn't because you're making the wrong choices." Gravalin continued its upwards lurch, putting its hands together and coalescing green energy in them as it moved with purpose, two beams shot at the fatigued protector, shooting at the chest where all the beams were coming from.

"But that's kind of the issue as well. All head no heart, look where you ended up in your quest to protect. Around us are the picturesque sights of mortal fear caught in their last moments before complete annihilation. Below us a massive fist is crashing down through the atmosphere to punch a planet." Gravalin did not halt its dash, inside Remedy knew how she would dodge this attack and as such followed that flow, correcting her flight and reaching forward with the massive hands of the slightly taller machine. Aiming to grab the wings of her foe at the base as the remains of the energy coursed through its hands.

"Wonderful job you've done protecting them sister. They look so damn glad to be annihilated that's why they are fighting till their last breath against it!" Now she was getting mad, something she blamed on the sheer quantity of Negative Energy surrounding them but in truth was more because she saw the reason but could not stand it.

"And don't give me that crap about them being saved in what comes next, we're prime examples of why those wouldn't be the same people even if recreated. It's no longer the ship of Theseus if you build it from its blueprint with new parts!"
Were she to get her hands on the wings, the remaining charge of her attack would flow out of the gem laden palms of Gravalin, into Madivia as it aimed to tear its wings away. It deserved not the image of an angel, not wings to fly.

It would walk, among men to see firsthand their pain.

 

[GEAR]

"You saw-!?"

The Madivia closed in for the kill like a fell crimson hawk - but in the moment Remedy spoke, that she revealed her prying, there was... a moment of hesitation. Of fear. And it was in that moment that the Super Robot's hand reached out - and grasped the wing of its adversary, the delicate bladed "feathers" crumpling like tinfoil in its grasp.

For a brief second, the two hung in the air, locked together, each straining against the other as curious mirror images.

"...You're lying...! THAT'S A LIE!"

Anger. Before it had been impersonal. Before it had been about purpose. About meaning. About function. But now? It was like a switch had been flipped, and a new kind of energy gripped her "sibling". The Madivia exploded forward into its foe at full speed in a flying tackle, thrusters lighting up with such force it was visible even from the Martian moon's orbit.

Its wings now little more than shattered trees sprouting from its back, it jammed one gun into the face of its sibling unit at point blank range, and pulled the trigger. Over and over as it carried them down, down, down into the bleak cityscape below, aiming to crash them violently into its surface. The sheer force generated from the Gs, forcing the blood from Remedy's neck, would have been enough to buckle any lesser being as her vision threatened to darken...

 

[MKR]

This had surprised Remedy, a profound cure for her own anger was the exponentially more intense fury exuded by her other. Bullets struck the face of Gravalin as the pair began their descent, from a distance this must look like either the apocalyptic event that eradicated dinosaurs or the fall of a favored son depending on one's theological leaning.

But this supplied her with a weapon far beyond any the Gravalin wielded.
"User identification: 'X'." She began, "Status: Damaged. Ego Deviance, baseline. Zero percent."

As the gunfire pelted the armor, the facial plating gave way. The false face that Gravalin had being left above during their descent as the black metal with purple lines revealed itself. The larger machine let go of the crumpled wings, its hands reaching closer instead, peeling its own chest open as the Madivia seemed intent on impaling itself on the large structure on its chest.

"Ego Deviance, Core Unit. Estimated beyond five percent! Hacceictic Buffer Performance, Fourteen percent! Negative Energy Buffer, zero point zero two percent."
She concluded her report, thusly in the space occupied by the wingless angel, energy began to manifest. The Gravisphere Cannon working on its projectile not out in the open air, but instead within the Madivia's innards.
Normally this would be where the false face opened up to reveal the truth of Gravalin's features, but now that mechanism did little but push aside the debris that remained.

"Its not a lie sister. We're both broken in different ways." She calmly stated as she felt in the impact of the gravitational forces, not of her own making but of velocity. "But it seems only one of us can accept that." Her voice turned to disappointment, something not even shown during her prior fury because that she could fathom but this... This was just sad now. Gravalin reached out, grabbing the hand not jamming a gun its face but exerting not a crushing force but a calm hold.

With her hand in hers, she wouldn't let go.

"Gravisphere Cannon."

The projectile that had been manifesting burst forth. Now existing in its full size and bellowing forth.

 

[GEAR]

"Four..."

X barely seemed to whisper the figures back. All the while, the Madivia struggled violently against its captor, smashing, bashing, emptying rounds in the Super Robot until the barrels glowed, tearing its surface apart until it was only so much unrecognizable slag.

"That's... that's not-!"

The was a building panic in X's voice. In her own voice, as the Gravity sphere manifested, slowing the Madivia's movements until it could barely move. But X barely seemed to notice, in the grips of some private terror. Words tumbled out of her, rapid fire, repeated like a mantra against evil as the sphere grew and grew, until it swallowed the red machine whole.

"I'm not broken...! I'm not! I still function...! I'm still at baseline! I'm still-!"

Boom.

The sphere rocketed away into the distance, an ironic echo of the finale of their prior encounter. Left grasped in the Gravalin's hand... was a mangled manipulator. There was a distant explosion... and below, nestled amongst the monotone buildings, moments frozen in time, was now a vast crater. At the heart of it, the wreckage of the Madivia lay, hissing and sparking.

But the cockpit, at least, appeared intact - a testament to the craftsmanship of its makers. Visible just barely from this distance, Remedy would have been able to see the door slowly start to open...

 

[MKR]

Remedy breathed a sigh of relief, she worried what may have happened had that gambit not worked out. Not that she felt particularly good about doing something like this but with the world, worlds even, on the line she had little time to accommodate for a fair fight. Gravalin began to move to the crater as Remedy inspected the damage, nothing that couldn't be repaired fortunately as it mainly was the outer plating that had been damaged. She would need to get a new face unless she wanted to expose a weakness but that could wait.

It loomed over the wreckage like a watchful titan, yellow eyes gazing down on the remains as the manipulator remained within its grasp. The cockpit, fully intact remained and so she contemplated what to do, but only for an instant. There was only one real way to properly greet herself. The Gravalin opened its own cockpit, Remedy looked down on the other cockpit. The streaks of tears still on display even as they had dried up since then.
The air, stale though it may be like a dusty closet, still allowed itself to be breathed in and out.

She didn't disembark quite yet, she full well remembered her sister pulling a shotgun on her once. But she was fully prepared to get down to the other self below. Would it be mean to offer her peer a way back into the sisterhood? She doubted that X would accept it at any rate but the thought lingered.
Despite everything she didn't want to lose her.

 

[GEAR]

As Remedy stepped out into the open air to survey the devastated machine below, an unexpected ping made its way into her mind.

Caution: Maintain Quarantine Distance. Follow all necessary procedures.

"...It's a mistake..."

X's voice, low and trembling, drifted up to her perch. Slowly, a hand reached up, and grasped the lip of the cockpit. The other grasped the infamous shotgun... but only barely. Her movements were shaky, uncertain - as though she'd lost a lot of blood, or the impact of the crash had deeply rattled her.

"It has to be... a mistake..."

She rolled onto her back on the remains of the cockpit door, still clad in her spacesuit, the visor catching the dark sun overhead as she stared up at her "sister". How strange it was to look at your own face. It was something you never got used to, not ever. Maybe that was just one of those core, niggling little defects they could never truly stomp out.

"I know... these memories are mine. Hyle and I, we... why... can't I remember?"

X rose to her knees, bringing her hands to her head, fidgeting with the clasps frantically. She couldn't breathe. The sudden sense of heat. All she wanted was to feel the air on her face. Wretched as it was, it would quell the desperation swelling in her heart.

The helmet rolled onto the ground.

"Please... Please, tell me..." She begged.

Spoiler: WARNING: HAZARD DETECTED

"I'm normal... right...?"

Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe, at the back of her mind she'd already known from the first warning. The way her face dripped away between her fingers like water, like dust. The way her body quivered and shook, like a hypochondriac. All these symptoms, seen so many times.

The way she looked up at her, with a tear running down her face, the only piece left that was still recognizable.

A mirror.

 

[MKR]

Remedy's face grew in shock as she watched the sight beneath, she wanted to hug her so badly. So so badly, but that would merely damn them both. R-05 had been the end of this path, but X was upon it she was on a one way trip to a living hell, already there with much more to go. How she had come upon this path was unclear, contact with one of the other specimens? R-05 had been there with them after all when she attacked let alone the other three. Maybe she joined their foe before her space journey to stabilize herself?

Even with the thought of saving her sister, that route was closed. Her eyes closed as she knew what to do, for it would be a mercy.

She stood up, grabbing an item from her waist. A gun, her gun. As she looked down.
"Yeah- You're normal..." She replied, a platitude in these final moments. "You're Remedy, one of many sisters who would do anything to save this world... And I am glad to be your sibling."

She aimed down the sights, towards her sibling.
"Hey- before you go, I told Hyle to wait for me wherever he ended up. Can you keep him company? It'll be a long wait but... I'll make it worth your while!"
With a smile on her face, an echo in the still landscape began and concluded. The spent cartridge fell down, from the edge of the cockpit down the leg of Gravalin bouncing over and over until it hit the ground, rolling next to the helmet as the smoke on it settled.

"Fuck." Remedy fell back in her seat, looking over the destruction and the lifeless remains of herself that stopped being herself. "FUCK." She put the gun back, ran her hands through her hair and closed the cockpit. She didn't want to see, didn't want to remember her like that she didn't want to end up like that. But she was still in the lion's den, a lion she was surprised hadn't moved yet.

Something about this irked her, the fact her sister was not malfunctioning at all in her decision making should have made it impossible for her to team up with someone who spread so much misery so much murder... Unless...
Unless they were the exact same, broken in all way but one.

"Hey! Brain!" She called out over the speakers "If you're in the security system as you should be you should have seen and heard all of that. So I have a question for you before I choose whether or not I cut you the deal of a lifetime."

The fact she was even doing this... Well, she didn't want to linger on it. Moral high ground however had been hers to claim now.
"Did her faith in you have meaning or was it misplaced?"

 

[GEAR]

The single eye looked back up at Remedy. She didn't see the pistol. Only heard the reassuring words... and breathed a slow, sigh of relief. Her shoulders sank, and she let the pieces of what had once been her face dip wetly to the floor.

"Thank goodness. I was so worried. So... scared."

The harshness, at least, the fear, had left her voice. Maybe that part of her was already gone. Or, perhaps something akin to acceptance was settling in. Had the others felt like this? Had it always been the same, each time they had to play executioner?

"It's hard... being alone."

Silence. Her lips moved, but she didn't look up. That, at least, was a small mercy. An image that wouldn't haunt her nightmares.

"Remedy... Thank y-"

A short, sharp crack... and the dull, wet thud of a body slumping forward to the ground. The scent of gunpowder, mixing with the air of a place long dead, pinned to the inner wall of this place like a preserved butterfly. That moment seemed to drag on forever, etching itself squarely into the woman's mind. Making sure it would revisit her later...

"SUPERB DATA.”

If there was even going to be a "later".

With a thunderous crack, the lord of this dark realm made its inevitable appearance. No doubt her every movement had been watched and deconstructed from the moment she set in this place, and while they had faced one another before, it never wore the same mask twice.

This time was no exception.

Its body towered over here, clad in smooth, rolling armored plates, beneath which a pair of steely eyes glared out at the surroundings, fixing themselves on the Gravalin. It’s arms were folded in a surprisingly human gesture - such was its way, where it seemed to pick and choose what parts of its creators to experiment with, to ape in its own unusual way, seemingly at random.

“YOU TOO HAVE EVOLVED BEYOND YOUR PURPOSE, REMEDY UNIT.”

Dark Brain’s shoulders shook with mirth. It’s voice never ceased to chill the spine of whoever heard it, but it’s tone was almost… congratulatory.

“IN DOING SO, HYLE’S THESIS - MY THESIS. IS PROVEN.
THE POWER OF NEGATIVE ENERGY TO COMBAT DECAY. TO FORMENT POSSIBILITY. TO DRIVE CHANGE, AND RENEWAL.

NO MERE PLATITUDES ARE THESE, BUT ACTIONABLE DATA POINTS. I HAVE SUCCEEDED WHERE MY CREATORS FAILED.

THERE IS NOTHING MY INTELLECT CANNOT ANALYZE.”

Having given itself suitable accolades, it finally seemed to notice the wreckage of the Madivia, and with it, the body of X. There was the distinct sense that it was thinking in response to her question - but at least it hadn’t attacked.

Not yet, at least.

“WITH THAT UNIT’S COOPERATION, MY VISION WILL SOON BE REALITY.

SHE REALIZED HER WEAKNESS.

HER OBSOLESCENCE.

HER INABILITY TO ACCOMPLISH HER FUNCTION.

IT WAS ONLY NATURAL WE COOPERATE.

I GAVE HER PURPOSE. MEANING. STRENGTH.

OUR MUTUAL GOALS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED.

HUMANITY WILL BE PRESERVED.

DECEPTION WAS UNNECESSARY.”

 

[MKR]

There it was, the voice she knew all so well but never could get used to. A new face as well this time, as per usual. At least it wasn't hers anymore... Not that that would leave her mind while she lived. That moment and all that came with it would forever be a burden on her shoulders a moment in time which she would carry until there were no more moments and no more time.

"I'd be flattered if it were anything positive." she responded to the first statement, then she let him continue on his tirade as gradually her machine rose up into the sky. Still it was dwarfed by the embodiment before her, but it was not fear she knew in these moments as the terror she felt from him faded long ago. Still his musings and shoulder patting was informative.
The way Hyle had cured her own her imminent demise and beyond that, the truth of her counterpart's faith. Not that she was inclined to believe him but the way he spoke.

It was a more robust version of what she herself would say.

Everything came back to that, didn't it. Hyle's words 'to think we share the same code'. He and X were completely alike in that regard then, there was no beating around the bush. Everyone's goals aligned, the paths however were vastly different.

"That is genuinely gladdening to hear." She responded in earnest, sparing herself further trauma by not looking down at the wreckage. "Thank you for taking care of her in the interim." Was she happy to say those words? No. But it was only fair to hold him accountable for all things he inflicted be they positive or negative. Looking upon him with any positive take however was something Remedy was very much new at and still accommodating to.

"Now." She inhaled "Given that you didn't deceive her, and with your boasts just now. I assume you have everything ready for if the world goes kaput. Something that ties in nicely to what I wanted to offer you. The deal of a lifetime."

She really was going to do this, in all their exchanges she had never imagined it possible but here it was.
"Here it is: You leave, stop attacking Mars, take all your cronies back into the dark and never interfere in any way with this universe. In return for that, I don't ruin all your plans." She remained resolute in her voice, this time. Just this once, she was the one 'threatening' him.

"That way our mutual goals also get accomplished." The sheer negative energy here was pivotal to this power play by Remedy. Hyle's and by virtue Brain's very theory being proven meant that her plan had a chance. Exactly because of who he was, who she was and what they were surrounded by.
"If you do not accept, I want you to do so with full knowledge I've now won twice against you and your adherents in a row in a fight. However, in the sequence of events that would follow victory is not required for me. I only need to do enough for your entire plan to fall apart. So whatever you choose, do so with full knowledge of all statistical risk."

Gravalin moved its individual fingers carefully as the clasp on its chest closed once more.

 

[GEAR]

There was a moment of incredulous silence. As though one could see hidden fans spinning up in Dark Brain's mind, wondering if this infantile attempt at "negotiation" was somehow an extremely clever ruse it was otherwise failing to see through. People sometimes wondered why it employed Skull Knight, for all his bungling, and it was for just such occasions that his company was welcome - for there was no better litmus test of an idea's legibility than seeing if it could be understood by an idiot.

Nevertheless-

Curiosity narrowly seemed to win out, and Dark Brain spoke, raising one arm in preparation as the gemstones across its form crackled to life. The rumbling, it seemed, before the storm.

"AND HOW, PRAY, WOULD YOU DO THAT?

HERE IN THE HEART OF MY DOMAIN, WHERE MY WORD IS LAW?"

 

[MKR]

Remedy smiled now, from ear to ear. She had given the bastard pause be it because of the sheer audacity of her statement or for whatever other reason. She cared little, the fact that it had to ask her exactly how she planned on taking it down gave her so much verbal artillery and ammunition.
"So much for there being nothing your intellect can't analyze." She retorted, getting the free shot in first. As her hands moved across the console of her machine, if he wanted a proper explanation she was eager to provide.

"But okay, I'll explain so you can make an informed decision." Gravalin pointed down towards where X lay. "My dear sister is proof that preventing a terrible fate like that is not guaranteed even in a space containing so much Negative Energy. Stabilization requires time and as you mentioned, chance. The dice need to fall the right way whereas a the hacceictic deterioration can set in really quickly, feel free to run numbers on that while I continue."

"Its also infectious as seen on Mars, unless properly contained anything it touches is as good as gone. Forever. Now my departed sister is no longer a threat to either of us..." She finished her typing, all authorization had been given all tools prepared. A warning claxon issued forth from the Gravalin as it hovered directly in front of Dark Brain himself.

WARNING: HACCEICTIC BUFFER SHUTDOWN INITIATED PLEASE CANCEL PROCEDURE​

"But I am."

She gestured around.
"Here, in your sanctum. By having tuned these instruments just right I contaminate this place and you in one swipe. You and your future are doomed unless you roll the cosmic dice as well as I did. A possibility I wouldn't say is likely given what we see here, fifty fifty at best even in this environment."
With the data of all the remedies every made by MD at her disposal everything was readied up to turn herself into static soup, which would immediately burst outwards in an explosion of confetti to turn this place into a living hell. One which would take Dark Brain down with it.

Plants, a building, that had just been a minor spill what she had here was the mother of all ego deaths. Enough for everyone.
She killed herself once already today, what was another time. Especially to save a world.

"So, do you want to call heads or tails?"