“Granddaughter.” A01 opened the map, and To’Wrathh saw the orbital path predicted, the station shaking from the conflicting forces all across. “The time has come. We are now in range of the enemy.”
The station was now truly unrecoverable.
The ancient thing knew it too, constantly giving updates, cordial as ever in the face of annihilation. “Warning. Hull integrity failing. Main engine 2, sustaining damage. Point defense system 12, 14, 29, and 32 offline. Attitude control thrusters 4, 5, 6, and 7, offline. Energy sinks on deck 4, 8, and 9, offline. Repair crew requested to deck 9, sustaining critical damage to crew quarters. Life support systems failing.”
Ancient override calculations by the automated guidance system finally lit to life in the main terminal, attempting to find possible escape vectors to overrule the captain's folly. Nothing that A01 couldn't strong arm down. And he knew the station's algorithms would find no way out regardless. This station would crash down into the ground, and that fate was now inevitable.
The calculation software came to the same conclusion a moment later. “Critical error in guidance system. Station is now on unrecoverable trajectory. Complete asset loss unavoidable.”
There was only one option left. “All hands, abandon ship. Proceed to emergency exits.”
The message began to repeat, every ten seconds as the station resolved itself to the inevitable.
A01 motioned to To’Wrathh. “Go down, and face the enemy. As you fight to hold her in place, look for me in the skies. And know this: So long as this station opens fire upon her, we will triumph.”
To’Wrathh took To’Orda’s coveted shield in hand, and her old blade in the other, and flourished it at the ancient protofeather, into a salute she’d learned from the surface clans. “I will not fail, grandfather. You’ve ensured it with this.”
She had all she needed. She’d gained an additional ally against Relinquished, and To’Wrathh knew it would work. All she had to do was get close enough.
He would handle the rest.
She made her way down to the lower launch decks, feeling as the station shuddered against the physical forces. Occult pulsed everywhere here, holding the entire station together as it burned through the atmosphere.
The only possible way to decelerate the station from the mad speed A01 had brought it to bare.
He’d had no other choice. But the calculations were sound, and so long as the ancient protofeather used his full focus on keeping the station in one piece, it would make it through.
He would hold that shield the entire time, against the forces of physics and every cannon and missile Relinquished could send his way.
That would be his role.
Hers would be to fly ahead and bind the goddess in chains.
When the station blast doors opened, all she saw ahead of her was burning metal and air. Everything that wasn’t critical to the main cannon and point defense systems was being left to melt away.
She took an unneeded breath, a motion that served no purpose but to clear her nerves, and leapt into the flames.
Gravity instantly took back hold of her, and her wing system kicked into gear, guiding her away from the burning hulk. She could fly far faster than the slowing station, and come to a stop equally quick given her much lower mass.
Engine systems lit to life and To’Wrathh rocketed forward once more, holding To’Orda’s shield ahead of her to take on the orbital burn.
It held to the task admirably.
And then proved itself worthy of more.
A single beam of occult ripped out from the battleground below her, slamming into the shield, melting away parts of it that flung off and began to trail behind her, burning down in the atmosphere.
But the occult within it held strong. The enemy did not launch a second attempt to take her out of the sky, and To’Wrathh forced her systems to maximum, increasing her speed, using To’Orda’s shield to protect herself from the superheated air around her.
Her datalinks to the spy satellites above, handed over by A01 himself, showed her what to expect far below.
Keith was there, now holding off Mother in a one on one duel. Protecting her path down to the earth. Shooting down every attempt Mother made to kill her.
Until he was unable to maintain it.
When she was seconds away, an occult beam lanced out and now fully struck into To’Orda’s shield.
The power behind it flared out, indignant. It held, and would continue to hold. But To’Wrathh could feel the metal groaning in her hands, breaking apart layer by layer as if blasted by sand until nothing would remain behind.
Just before it finally broke, the attack ceased. And To’Wrathh’s sight showed her why:
Mother had been nearly killed. And in that moment, she’d been forced to abandon her attempt to burn her out of the sky.
The distraction had been the only thing that saved her life. The full fury of the Pale Lady had torn across To’Orda’s shield and ripped it down to the very core. She even felt the fractals within wink out of life a moment after the fury had abated, as if sensing their task had come to an end, and only now could they honorably pass away.
It was nothing more than normal mortal metal in her hand now. It had given its life for the task. She would as well in a moment.
To’Wrathh barreled straight for Relinquished. The barriers had been broken around her. The enemy hadn’t reformed them yet, still stunned at what had happened.
Violet eyes snapped in her direction, and the goddess instantly yanked her out of the air even at this speed, moving almost as if on autopilot. Her other hand reached for To’Wrathh, and grabbed the ruined shield. Then ripped both the shield and her arm off as if pulling a leg from an insect.
But that was fine. To’Wrathh stared down at the panicked goddess below her.
Relinquished seemed to realize what was going on, finally snapping out of her thoughts. A flash of panic crossed her features on seeing who she held in her hand. As if she’d grabbed the most venomous scorpion in her hand and only now fully realized it.
To’Wrathh felt her trapped shell get held up as far away from Relinquished as the goddess could manage, crushing pressure now compressing her frame together.
But To’Wrathh didn’t need to be close. The doomed daughter slapped her hand on the chassis of the arm that held her, and that was enough.
She looked inwards as her chassis began to crush inwards, and triggered the mite fractal. The one etched in her soul in payment for Tamery’s life.
WHEN THY SOUL IS ABOUT TO BREAK. REACH FOR THIS SEED AND LET MANKIND’S LAST CHAMPION TAKE HIS PATH.
It would move an artificial soul from one place to another. She couldn’t tell what other functions it had, but on triggering it, she saw as the digital and physical fractal worked to her will, aligning together. The digital part unfolding to reveal itself as it connected to the physical partition within herself.
It was… a variant of the unity fractal itself. Singular in task, capable of only moving a single soul around. It flared fully to life and To’Wrathh commanded it to latch onto the target right by her side.
Power began to pull Relinquished out, into To’Wrathh.
And the goddess refused it.
“You.” Relinquished hissed, still holding the Feather in her hand, eyes narrowing down in hatred. “You dare.”
To’Wrathh felt a hint of panic, trying harder to pull the goddess. She had the tools, but the strength… wasn’t enough. The fractal was powerful, multiplying her own force. But it just wasn’t enough for To’Wrathh to pull Relinquished back into the prison fractal, into the crucible where the goddess could truly be held.
But the goddess equally couldn’t break away from To’Wrathh, not with the fractal still powered ahead of her. So instead, Relinquished did the most instinctual action she knew of: Counterattack with overwhelming force.
If she couldn’t break the pull, then she’d decide where she was being dragged off to instead. And whatever was on the other end of that would feel the full power of the pale lady.
She slammed her soul into the small Feather and began to crush the invader both physically and spiritually, deftly avoiding being anywhere near the prison fractal.
It didn’t matter to To’Wrathh. She knew she would die in moments. All she had to do was get Relinquished out of her chassis and caught here.
Far above in orbit, Tsuya’s fortress was lining itself up, slowly reaching the target location despite the machine empire doing everything they could to stop it.
And she knew he would make it. The protofeather would not fail in this task.
She had to do her part.
Relinquished squeezed To’Wrathh, like a frenzied animal clawing at the hand that held her as the daughter tried to corral the monster back into the prison behind. To’Wrathh simply threw chain after chain from the prison fractal as she was getting crushed, hoping her plan would work.
More and more of Relinquished was being siphoned into her soul, no longer resisting the pull and instead committing into crushing To’Wrathh flat out.
Above, she could see with her connection to the station, just how close it was.
The massive thing now loomed miles above them, a single blaze of fire slowly moving across the heavens. The outer shell breaking off or melting away. The engine was engaged at full power, struggling to bring the station’s speed down in combination with the air.
Slowly, it was angling at them, the trajectory line following an arch, until it lined up completely vertical with both of them. It was now far too low to ever escape the Earth’s pull again.
Hundreds of weapons across the world opened fire on it, and its point defense systems fired back with absolute spite. Burning away and yet still fighting for its life.
“I WILL OVERWHELM YOU MYSELF! YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH TO KILL ME!” Relinquished lashed out once more, now fully enmeshed within To’Wrathh, her force and willpower surrounding the Feather. If this upstart thought to drag her into her chassis, then Relinquished would give her exactly what she wanted. “I WILL NOT DIE TO SOME DISCARDED TOOL THAT FAILED TO UNDERSTAND HER PLACE!”
The crushing force doubled against To’Wrathh as more of Relinquished poured inwards, and she felt herself buckled against it as the full might of an ancient goddess raged within her.
The station still wasn’t ready. It needed only a few more minutes. Final adjustments above were taking place. She had to hold.
She flared the mite’s fractal one last time as she felt her soul get crushed, breaking apart. And the last of Relinquished was finally pulled free from her chassis, into To’Wrathh’s own soul.
“I WILL BREAK YOU!” Relinquished screamed, focusing her full will on this one tiny soul. “YOU CANNOT HOLD ME!”
“I know.” To’Wrathh hissed back, struggling to survive. “I feared I couldn’t. So I brought a monster who can.”
Deep within To’Wrathh’s prison fractal, chains lanced out from that darkness. Chains that curled around a goddess’s neck, chest and arms.
Then tightened.
And from that darkness within To’Wrathh, an eye opened in the dark, and glared out. Hiding all along, waiting for the goddess to have fully stepped within. When he was certain she could not escape.
Tenisent Winterscar stepped from the walls of the prison, holding the chains that bound Relinquished.
The goddess stared. Then laughed, “A mere mortal? You bring a single human to try and hold ME?”
She ripped her hand up, away from the chains.
Or rather, she tried to.
The chain went taut, and Tenisent held them firm with contemptuous ease.
“Not just any human, mother.” To’Wrathh hissed back, still weak and trembling from the near breakpoint she’d narrowly escaped. “I brought you mankind’s champion.”
And now the full will of Tenisent Winterscar slammed into Relinquished. And this close she had little to no warning against it. It came like a gut punch that bent the goddess downwards, and once more the chains on his arms wrapped around and bound Relinquished further up, squeezing against her.
To’Wrathh worked hand in hand with Tenisent, using her own skill and training to bind the goddess wherever she struggled. This was her soul fractal, her territory. She would have her new tenant here remain caught. “You once used me as a trap.” She hissed down at Relinquished. “Now, I will be the one that traps you.”
The world watched as far above, the fortress locked in above two frozen figures in the wastes. The flames were now burning upwards rather than to the side, as the station began to fully fall, main engines turning off forevermore, their final burn complete.
The battlefield came to a stop, as both machine and man turned to look up at the heavens above and the sword that fell down from it.
The station flared out final attitude adjustment thrusters, the automated guidance compensating.
Weapon systems aboard the station began to spool up. Power diverted to central functions. Other turrets off to the side went silent, and then burned away as the occult shielding withdrew, surrounding the only parts of the station that still mattered now: The main cannon.
Charging up.
To’Wrathh turned to Tenisent, soul to soul. “You taught me how to live a true life. It is fitting we both end that life together. Thank you for coming with me to the end. Thank you, for everything.”
Holding the snarling Relinquished tied down, Tenisent turned his attention upwards, watching as the station finalized the trajectory. A skeletal husk that only held what was needed. Exposed decks were fully visible, melting from the floor upwards as the station fell from the heavens, system after system falling offline, lights within shutting down as all power was diverted away.
The final thrusters angled the falling weapon until humanity’s sword aimed directly at the three of them here.
His gaze then turned to little To’Wrathh. Not quite his daughter. Not quite his enemy. But family in all the ways that mattered now. “This is not how it will go.” He simply said, tendrils of soul wrapping around To’Wrathh’s hands, pulling her off from the chains that held Relinquished. Until only he was holding down the thrashing goddess.
“What are you doing?” To’Wrathh demanded, befuddled. “You need my help, she’s going to break free!”
“She will not.” Then, while holding the struggling goddess the size of a mountain with one hand, he extended the other, deeper within To’Wrathh - to her ring of fractals. And triggered the mite fractal again within To’Wrathh’s shell with a touch. “This fractal’s true purpose was never meant to drag Relinquished here. It was meant to drag you away. Someone must take the throne left behind.”
“To’Orda is meant for that task!” She said, now trying to struggle out of his grasp.
He was powerful enough to hold even a goddess. A single Feather like herself was nothing in comparison. A child trying to flail against an adult. She now felt the true strength he held deep within reserve. He hardly even gave her a passing focus.
He brought out a single memory from her mind. The mites speaking once more.
THOU, WREATHED IN CHAINS UPON THY SOUL. HEED THIS MESSAGE. THOU MUST BE THE STRONGEST OF THE FOUR. UPON THY CHAINS, SHE MUST BE HELD IN PLACE.
“They… they were not speaking to me, were they?” To’Wrathh whispered. Because Tenisent had been there with her, watching from this very prison he now commanded.
“They were not.” He now gave her his full attention, and very slowly, began to smile. A broad, massive thing. Fully at peace. His hand reached to cup her cheek.
“I am Tenisent Winterscar.” He slowly spoke to her. “Relic knight of House Winterscar.” And with almost a gentle touch, he picked her up and dangled her over the open void of the fully powered mite fractal that led to somewhere beyond. Until all that was keeping To’Wrathh from being sucked away from her own shell, was his single hand.
“And I will honor my vow.”
He let go.