Ripley

Diamante sat in silence as I explained to him, slowly, what had transpired since him, Missy, R0N1N and Maiden left. I started with Juliet Grazhe, of the hidden details that led to her death. Missy's involvement, and her awareness that Skeleton was alive, Dryder's erasure of his own self-worth, and Anabelle Grazhe's current unknown state.

"Ripley… you developed a cure to Soul Killer?" Diamante steadied his hands on my shoulder, his clunky voice not hiding what seemed like awe. It felt hollow to me, with how I spoiled it.

"It's efficacy is still debatable, but it was a start." I said, before leading into the slow web of lies tangled by Skeleton. How he'd inserted himself into the police as a necessity, how he manipulated War-Watcher into stealing NeoCore's shipment, how Bladedaughter went along with it to kill her father.

And then, I choked. "Diamante, Elsa… is…"

"Ripley." Diamante's solid eyes of red held warmth in them as he leaned down. "I know I'm a real hypocrite considering my taste in women, but Elsa, it's likely that… fuck, we kind of interrogated Daylight and Midnight and there's a very high chance she's the-"

"Dogwhistler." I confirmed, it looked like he'd figured it out anyway.

"She told you." Diamante's voice held emotion in there, I just didn't know what kind.

"She did." I reached for my frame. "She… tangled my memories. Made me fall in love with her by taking what emotions I had for Selene and… attaching them to her."

"Kid… she- what?!" Diamante's voice hardened. "Rip, if you're in danger, then-"

"It's wrong, I know it is." I clenched my fists. "I know I'm an idiot for staying with her... I'm not trying to make excuses for her. Look, I'm… I'm ready to break up with her… but she's… the feelings I have for her are genuine despite their demented origin and I can't change that! And she- she genuinely loves me, she wouldn't have done half of what she's done for me if she didn't."

I continued. "She's decided to stop being the Dogwhistler, to even… stop relying on her Personas. She wants to be Elsa for me, and as… stupid as it may be for me to ignore how it all started, she deserves this chance to be better. I want to give us an honest shot, without the lies, with that acceptance of our darkness and the hope that we can embrace that light within us… no matter how fleeting it may be. If she breaks my trust again, then that's it."

Diamante clenched his fist, and for a moment I thought he'd scream that I was being stupid. Then he eased a sigh out, before his hands cradled his own head. "If I called you the words I'm thinking in my head, I'd be a hypocrite. Seraphina, she was a SynTec sleeper agent. The Misfits, what we used to be, broke her out, and the entire time, she was feeding information about us to SynTec. Dated me the whole time as well… and throughout it all, we talked about the things we'd do once we were out of this hellhole. The places we'd visit, the food we'd eat, the memories we never got to make."

He glanced away. "Ripley, there ain't a single part of me that resembles a human. A long time ago, I had bodies that mimicked what a human-me should look like. Multiple. Some of what my original female body would've grown up into, others a fleshy version of this. Seraphina had this way of looking beyond the skin, beyond the blood and steel that make us, whether it was her Unique Feature or not, she saw me."

"Did you forgive her?"

"I did." He nodded. "Throughout a large part of our stints together, her and Mikail worked together to turn Missy in to SynTec. But in the end… even if she started out her life with us as a lie — she chose us, Ripley. Or well, she chose me, and then she sacrificed herself for me. I hated her for a long time, a part of me still thinks I'm stupid for finding... peace in my memories of her manipulation, but I'll never forget the way she touched my heart."

Diamante pet the kitten in his lap. "We raised a damn cat together, Rip, that shit bonds you. She… made me feel more human than anyone else, no matter what body I took. Laughed with me, cried with me, loved me. She became the blood in my veins and the steel in my heart. We just… were honest with each other too late, so Ripley… if you think you and Mirage have a chance of turning this around. To twist this web of lies into some… dreamcatcher for your future, I'm the last person to judge. Just be smart, and don't hesitate to run for help if you have your doubts."

He rubbed his robotic eyes, even though no tears came out, I knew he was mourning Seraphina. I whispered. "Thank you… I think I needed to hear that."

"I think I needed to say that." He chuckled.

"We're two fucked-up romantics, aren't we." I laughed with him through the tears, would I feel any of this if I let the Personality Editor have its way? As sad as it may have been… it was cathartic.

It felt like change.

Diamante swallowed, grunting as he tried to force some semblance of masculinity back into him. "Alright! Enough with this sappy shit! Tell me more about the damn Muramasa raid!"

I got into that long winding story. I might have side-stepped how the Bladedaughter beat our asses, but I was brutally honest about my intentions, about how I lied to Diana and got my ass beat for it. About how I… mutilated her.

"Shit, you almost fucking won!" He garbled into the air. "I just… fuck, I wish I could give Topaz his money."

"I… I don't know where Quartz went."

"If I had to guess, he went out to the Nomads." Diamante assumed. "And… if he got his brother's Implant, then he has the chance to… fix up his issues."

"Topaz's body…" I chewed on my words. "I think Skeleton has it."

"Fuck." Diamante whispered. "That bastard."

"He really is one… told me his whole life story. Falling from grace and all that, doesn't entitle him to the shit he's done." I hardened. "But he gave me a working Implant for my mother, long story for that, but… I'm not going to use it right now. I've been keeping this a secret, but I've been working on a way to improve the compatibility of Implants… been better at the opposite but I've made progress through using Mutagen. Though, without Topaz and Quartz's blood samples, I have to figure out another way."

Diamante met my gaze, nodding. "We have extra samples of their blood, rainy day extracts just in case."

"I don't deserve them." I said too quickly.

"You're trying to save a life, Ripley." Diamante's gaze sliced into me. "I don't see any greater cause to deserve them."

"Why do you make excuses for me?" I demanded to know. "Man, I got him killed!"

"No, you didn't. Way it sounds, Topaz protected his brother from the Bladefather, that was his choice. Not yours. Don't diminish his sacrifice with your own guilt, honor it however you can." Diamante advised, and it made me feel something.

"As for why I make excuses, Ripley." Diamante shrugged. "Because, kid, your whole life's been a sorry excuse!"

"Oh, you ass!" I kicked him as he laughed his ass off.

"Just messin' with ya'. I just happen to like you." He said nonchalantly. "If you ain't lyin' about doing right with all the wrongs you've done, both you and Elsa… then make sure it counts for something. One step at a time."

"One step at a time." I nodded.

"Great… now come with me, we got a place to go to." He waved his hand.

"Where?"

"A cemetery."

———

Diamante dressed in a trenchcoat and even had a spare cowboy hat identical to what me and Elsa had bought him. Hidden under all that apparel, he stood at the cemetery in silence. Unlike those reserved for corporates, we didn't have traditional bodies buried in the ground with actual headstones, all we had were long and tall rows of metal and glass cabinets upon which you could inscribe a holographic headstone.

After inputting instructions at an automated stall, Diamante was given a coordinate for where Topaz's headstone would be. And I made one as well.

We first went to visit Topaz, Diamante stuffed thirty Bronze shards into Topaz's cabinet, saying it was what he owed the bastard. I didn't have anything to give him, but I laughed as I saw the headstone's phrase.

[Crazy bastard got on my nerves everyday, I loved you like a brother. I owe you so much more.]

"I… we talked about getting me a piercing or tattoo a lot." I mused. "I guess I should get one, shouldn't I? As some sort of token of respect?"

"Yeah, get a tramp stamp tattoo with his face on it. He'd fuckin' love that." Diamante chuckled.

I sighed. "I'll stick to an earring…"

We paid our respects in silence, and it did relieve me, but I had more to be done. "Hey, Diamante, I'll catch up with you later. I want to visit someone."

Diamante gave an understanding nod, leaving me on my own. I found my way, body numb and mind unfocused, I wasn't dressed properly for this. I was in fucking club-wear from when me and Elsa went to the Hellfire Club.

But maybe that… maybe that was the perfect outfit as I approached the headstone I made for Selene.

"Hey." I started, mind clawing to those faded memories I had of her. "I just wanted to say sorry for taking so long, six months… fuck. I'm an asshole, and you've always been so patient. I mean, you waited years for me to contact you, and when you did… it was like you never left…"

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I caught my sob in my throat. "And… when you did leave, it was like you were never there."

I laughed, was that I really wanted to say to her? "I suppose, what I meant was… you're too good for me. Really, I mean, I'm so mentally unstable my mind decides to erase its own memories otherwise it'll collapse at the thought of not having you around anymore. Though, I think you always knew that, and you didn't need an Implant for it. You always knew the right thing to say to wake me up from my illusions, the one who made me believe my dreams could become a reality. You may be gone, your memory may have faded, but you stuck to me in ways that quite literally birthed an Emulect in your image. I think that speaks to the volume in which… I loved you, Selene."

"And you loved me, too." I touched the metal engraved with her name, a steady tear falling down my eyes. "Even if you never got to say it, you inspire me through Starlight. I know she's not you… but she's just like you and you would've loved her. For her. For you. I promise, I'll do better."

[The stars in your eyes shine brighter than Platinum, even from the beyond.]

"Goodbye, Selene." I tapped my head against the cold metal, but all I felt was warmth.

———

Diana

January 5th

I gave the memorial speech for those who had fallen at the Muramasa Extermination Raid exactly according to how the teleprompter in my eyes directed me to. The hangover from my last few days still hadn't cleared, a pain radiating across my eyes and nose constantly. I deserved it…

The public funeral was an affair of reporters and family members too grieving to give straight answers, but as the hours faded with the audience, the private funeral gave us a moment of peace to recollect and mourn everything.

But I saw it in the face of Sabrina's mother the loss of two children to this city. Belle and I talked to her for a moment, giving her our condolences before she hugged us both and told us that we were free to visit her anytime. I sorely did want to, but the future's schedule was looking… packed.

In the cold snowy day, I lit up a cigarette and offered one to Belle.

"No thanks." He shook his head, hands rhythmically clenching and unclenching. "Anthony didn't show up for his aunt, headlines aren't going to be nice to him."

"They've never been nice to him…" I muttered. "But how are you doing, Belle? Legs fine?"

"I mean…" He shuffled on his feet, metal whirring from his hips down to his toes. "Nah, it doesn't feel right, but it's the best a Mutant can get. Your hand? Eye?"

"Not right either, but it's me." I clenched my fist in my pocket, fingers wrapping around an envelope Sabrina's mother had given us. "What about… other than the leg."

"Hurts." Belle whispered, voice trying so hard not to tremble. "I… Sabrina was the one who helped me stop drinking, stop… being someone just from pissfuck Houstan Yards and an actual person who could see a future waiting for him. For this city. I know things changed for her after Daniel died, I knew… from Kim that she was in a bad place mentally, but she always seemed so happy — like she was right there and enjoying things and then…"

"I'm sorry." I rubbed his arm, he hadn't taken the news of Sabrina and Kim's alliance with The Bladedaughter well… I knew they'd broken up, but Kim was under my command now and… just obedient. Neutral. Sometimes I couldn't tell whether she cared or not.

The two of us stayed silent for a moment, before we looked over at Corporal Alex staring at the empty grave dedicated to her late husband Rick. One of many casualties to the string of events manipulated by The Uncaged. "Should we talk to her?"

"We've already said our condolences, she…" Belle faltered. "She'll carry this for a while."

"I know…" I exhaled smoke from the bitter puff, finding myself lost as I took a flower over to Sabrina's grave and laid it down. I exchanged one final look with Belle before leaving the graveyard, the flower was just an empty gesture after all. Most of these graves were empty, Sabrina's included.

Crimson Souls did their best to secure the bodies, but their convoy had been attacked and in the end they chose to protect the Bladefather over the rest. Skeleton had the other corpses… he had Sabrina's. How many of our fallen allies would become mindless, faceless soldiers in this war?

Cadavers.

A black-tinted car waited for me. I settled into the backseat, feeling heavy electrical rhythms from the driver as his red glare reflected from the rear-view mirror. "You look somber… everyone's visiting graves these days."

"I'd imagine you paid your respects to Topaz?" I looked back into the mirror at Diamante's glare as he drove me through the streets of New California. Twilight had informed me he'd returned, but I'd been surprised when she told me he wanted to meet up.

"That we did. Me and… Ripley." Diamante glanced at me again. "Would you consider-"

"No." I shook my head, knowing he wanted me to rekindle our partnership. He looked understanding, sympathy falling over his gaze as it followed my gloved hands and eyepatch, before he gripped the steering wheel.

"Can I show you something?" He took a sharp turn, away from the glittery and well-maintained hills of this neighborhood as we entered the ditches of a seedy patch of buildings with patchworked walls, stuffed in snow where hungry, dishevelled homeless people huddled around open fires.

"I ain't discountin' the great things you're trying to do." He whispered. "Twilight's informed me about the way things are, the current state of affairs are complicated to say the least… but you're a good gal. The Silver Heart Foundation's legit, and I've taken operations at Maiden's shelter to make use of it."

"That's the point." I stared through these tinted windows as a few rag-tag teens stared with barely-veiled disdain upon this vehicle, sturdy and long compared to the half-scrapped bikes and cars they used. Occasionally, I felt a flutter of longing from the souls that passed by us, a belief that they could get this as well. Sometimes that longing ignited into a desperation, a greed that would motivate them into doing whatever it took to get this.

"People deserve a chance to be more than what they were born as. They deserve…" I wanted to say so much, but it all died on my lips.

"I know, I know." Diamante smirked. "Save all that sappy shit. You're becoming a symbol of something, but you gotta understand what the people think of you beyond all the happy headlines spouted by the media."

He turned, and I saw a wide wall of graffiti pop up, holographic tagging that flickered to an image of Silvereye but my eyes had a bar of black on them and as a crown of red blood sat on my head — around me were countless dead corpses and a line saying…

How many will die, just for her to shine?

"They see you taking resources, you know?" Diamante clicked his tongue. "Look you up on the Net, and I saw a string of promotional media you're set to star in. Entertainin' the mindless masses, those comfortable, but it rings hollow for those who truly suffer. Why would you appeal to them? You're the daughter of someone who ran as mayor, a child of nepotism whose a little naive and could never really understand their struggle. Even if you do, they don't know that. Even if you tell them, they'll never really believe it."

"So, then, what?" I was already digging through the dirt as Lilian Rose.

Diamante stilled the car. "You got that helping hand thing down with your Foundation, it'll do its job to stop plenty of people from falling into crime. And you are a symbol. A symbol to those who… are about to fall. But what about those who have already fallen? Who are already in too deep? Those who pay their rent to mob-bosses, whose addictions are kept healthy by selling their body out, those who have been failed time and time again by the system you work in. Doesn't matter how pretty your steel is, it's that blood of yours that makes them distrust you. No amount of prattlin' on about how much you care, or how much we need to band together for the Swarm will change that. Your words will hit them through the screen one second, but then reality is what they have to look at for the rest of their lives. A reality where you're just a pretty girl given it all by her father."

I stayed silent, those words hurt but they were undoubtedly true.

Diamante got the car moving again, turning onto a street with another graffiti mural. "But then you've got Dreadwire."

The glitching image was a static blend of black and gold. His mask's design, and it held six words — one in each of the symbol's limbs.

Unravel. The. Lies. They. Tell. Us.

A right claw that was undoubtedly his had puppetstrings of gold pulling apart image of a Yuzhou's Founder — Xiaomang Baizhe — to pieces. His left hand did the same to a destroyed Muramasa Black Dragon. And in between it all, his Arachnodyne stretched with more text written inside each four of them.

Build your own future. Dismantle what stands in your way. What tries to kill you, only becomes a part of you. Even insects can soar.

I made a bitter comment. "It's just mindless sensationalizing. He's flashy. Even… even badass, that's it."

"Yeah." Diamante nodded. "But that makes him impressionable. Right now, all they know is in August, he was a Vulture. Even then, that didn't stop him from attacking all four of the big gangs, before taking the fight to Yuzhou as a decked out mercenary. And then, next thing you know, he's saving civilians from MALs along your side while Yuzhou's making a sweaty press conference for collateral damage they caused while trying to assassinate him. What you two did in Muramasa, it's not incomparable to when I took out Metal Heavens old leadership, back then… I was hot shit. Still am, people worship me, and I barely even appear in headlines. Dreadwire? As long as you're mentioned, he's the follow-up question."

"As long as he stays quiet… that won't be the case." I argued.

"Like it or not, they see him as a figure worth believing in." Diamante's steel voice radiated. "They know a little bit about his history, and it's that he had to build himself up. From there, they theorize and speculate and before you know it, he's got a legend made for him. Do you know why your Omen and Skeleton are really keeping his identity a secret? It's not so that they have power over him and his mother…"

He spoke clearly and confidently. "It's because… if the public knew Dreadwire was a kid who got fucked over by the corporations when he was young, if they knew he was someone who dug himself into the criminal world to save his mother, if they knew that he built himself up to where he is when he started out slaving away in a gang-owned nightclub's shady basement…"

He stopped the car. "If they knew Dreadwire was Ripley Donovick. A nobody. He would be a symbol to all those who have been fucked over just as much. A hero. Those who suffered, whether from crime or corporate, will worship him. And with the Dogwhistler as a girlfriend? I wouldn't want to imagine the power they could earn together if they sold his image."

My knuckles turned white, my right hand crackling. "Is that why you want me to work with him again?"

"I'm telling you, that when he does inevitably get dragged back into this…" Diamante shook his head. "To give him the chance to make up for the bad blood between the two of you, don't…"

He choked, and I felt an unexpected lump of grief in his heart. "Don't forget that they're... that he's just a kid who didn't know what to do in this fucked up world to protect his mother. Or that Elsa... Mirage -- The Dogwhistler -- spent her early years of life as a mindless algorithm, and the first role model and teacher she had was Skeleton. They've both got… years ahead of themselves to change into-"

"I wish things were that simple, Diamante…" I took off my eyepatch, letting him see the twisted blend of flesh and metal that dwelled in my left eyesocket now. "If I need Dreadwire again, I'll go to him. But for now, just… we need time apart. I can't so easily forget the lies, the hurt, the… things that he's done. Especially what his girlfriend did. Let him… let them both prove themselves to me, then we'll see."

"I suppose that's as good as any compromise I can get." He started driving again, circling around till we got to a warehouse. "A crackhouse, but it's not just recreational drugs they got brewing in there…"

I leaned towards the window, my senses picking up faint… circulations of Titanium Warp Energy. Soul Killer.

"A Nexus." He pointed out. "I used to run like this with Juliet sometimes… back before Skeleton took my priority."

"Yeah, I found that out." I cocked a gun, one of Dryder's alternatives to the Magna Gresault that Ripley had destroyed. It wasn't as good, but… my form shifted — silver hair straightening and my right hand enlarging as the glove came off and blood curled around it. A faint red crackle pulsed out, heat igniting across it through Thermokinetic Catalyst — the favored Mutation of-

Lilian Rose

"Are we doing this alone?" I growled as my skin and hair changed color.

"Nope." Diamante said, almost with a hint of reluctance. "Twilight wanted me to… make some amends."

A second later, two others opened the car door behind me. Dryder and Anthony were both… hesitantly looking over Diamante. Dryder scoffed. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me? This guy?!"

"Who's he? Diana?" Anthony asked.

"The Iron Devil." I hissed, as the mere mention of my name from his mouth caused a sparkle of light to tear flesh of my cheek. "And it's Lilian Rose."

"Right…" He paled as new skin regrew to hide my sharpening fangs. Diamante threw gas masks over, his arm whirring as barrels rotated into a machine gun.

Anthony was quick to wear his, whereas as I got out of the car not needing any. Cracking my neck, I turned to the warehouse.

Lilian Rose was suited for work like this, dirty murder in the streets. Diana — Silvereye — was who I needed to be for the people… for whoever would let me into their hearts. Hero, monster… I was just human.

Whether our blood was tainted with mutagen, or our minds tortured to understand the language of steel. We were humans — each and every one of us.

And humans lived and died. I'd make sure the Uncaged understood that fact.

[End of Act II: Thunderstruck]

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