Months after the initial explosion that rocked One Police Plaza, in a palace compound outside a large city...
BASTION received an emergency order directly from Ministry-12 on the next target of the Warriors of Light and deployed to the palace to wait in ambush. Disguised as a Trueborn, Aurelia personally led the entirety of BASTION alongside guard that are too well-armed and too numerous to be normal.
Despite the preparations, Aurelia remains uneasy. Images of her officers dying around her continues to intrude her thought. Worse still, she remembers the gestures and the flow of magic that killed them in her body clearly.
Just as Aurelia returns her focus to setting up the ambush, the crystal statue next to her lit up and out comes a single Warrior of Light.
Unlike the previous Warriors of Light, this one shrugged off gunfire and ignored attacks from the rank and file like they don't exist.
The lone Warrior of Light instead focused all his attention on attacking Aurelia with magic she vaguely recognize. She dashed from cover to cover until she was surrounded by smoldering ruins and cornered by the Warrior of Light.
Facing certain death, with nothing to stop him, she begins to copy the chant and gesture of her enemy hoping to cast the same strange magic and buy time.
Just as a wave of light rushes forth from her foe, Aurelia unleashed her wave of light. The wave clashed and annihilated each other and burning everyone and everything else caught in the blast.
Aurelia immediately tried her attack again to make sure it's not a fluke, but was met with one from the Warrior of Light. The two continued to spam their wave of light, fearing the first person to move or stop will be scorched by the wave like everything else around them.
After what seems like hours of stalemate, the Warrior of Light finally collapsed from exhaustion. As he hit the ground, his body shattered into light particles before vanishing entirely. Aurelia surveys her surrounding, the only two things standing are her and the singing crystal statue.
With all her gear charred or melted and no survivor in sight, Aurelia left the massive palace compound on foot. On her way out, she found no usable vehicle or bodies, and no working phone.
Once outside of the palace gate, she was greeted by a flickering blue moon and the buzzing of roadside street lamps.
There is not a soul anywhere to be found, not animal in the woods by the road, no rustling of leaves at all. The air is heavy and stale. Aurelia found it difficult to breathe, and lethargic in her steps.
Suddenly, t̪̃̒ḧ̪̙́̓e̡̡̿̒ ̞͙̀̐m͇͚̈́̃o̙͈͛̋o͔͖̾͡n̛̜͈͡ ̧̟̂̑f̦̤̓͊l̠̪̔̐ĩ̧̟͘ċ̜̎͟k͛͜͢͠ȅ͉̣̏r̟̳̊̈e̠̻̓̋d̳̩̈͂ ̱̰̔͐ȃ̠̳̚ğ̻͕̀a͉͈̒͂i͖̘̎͝n̹̞̏͡. She feels her chest constrict as an impending sense of doom washes over her. For a brief moment, the world begins to spin as her peripheries darkens and closed in around her.
"L̢̒v̡̘̦̘́̒̓͌n̢̈4̲͉̻̩̓̇̓͠t̢̫̣̝̣͑͆͆̚͠1̙̝͆͘͘͢c͖̯̮͖̒̋̒̔͟͞ ̡̫̹̪̟̿͗̋͊̄9͍͕̻̎̇́4̞͓̲̼̇̿̈́̉n͚̰͕̉̋͐̈ͅd̡̺͓͌̋̑0͔̘̋͡r̭̆4̢̹͇̪̉́̓̕͢͞..."
"Luna..." She quietly mouthed the words as she falls forward.
As her helmet collided with the pavement, a jolt in her neck shocked her awake.
In theory, this unpleasant shock must be the Stim-Guard resetting body chemistry against serious external influence.
Again, a jolt in her neck as the moon flickers. Something is going on up there. Is it just her feeling the effects or is it more people or perhaps... everyone.
Hours Later, on the outskirts of the nearest city...
The familiar city lights gave her only a moment of respite. There were crowds of dead everywhere. The ones alive all stared at Luna. With its every flickering, more collapsed to the ground. She surveys the city, street by street, and spots only a handful of survivors. They almost all share her face, no doubt the Stim-Guard preventing the moon from affecting them.
Her first priority is to secure a transport, cross the ocean, and return to BASTION HQ to check on her people... who has all perished at the palace... except the administrative staff... none of whom came with Stim-Guard or equivalent. A string of jolts surged from her neck. Too many resets in one day, is Stim-Guard going to run out on her at this rate.
Lunatic Pandora, these are the words that came to mind as she determine her next step. Her best course of action is to head to Luna, there is nothing left for her at BASTION. Little can be done for the survivor in the short term, nothing at all in long term.
Aurelia sighs at the moon. For a brief moment, she could hear it beckons her. Whatever is going on, the answer lies on on Luna.
The Golden Spire on Luna
Aurelia's shuttle pierced through the airspace above the Golden Spire on Luna without crossing a single patrol. Behind her, much city lights on Earth have extinguished. She wondered if the domed cities of Luna shared the same fate.
Although she has never been to the Golden Spire, she somehow knew where which clearing in palatial gardens surrounding it to land her shuttle.
Waves of nostalgia washes over Aurelia as she walks into the splendor of the Golden Spire. Letting the sense of familiarity guide her, she eventually came across bodies of guards. Following the trail of blood, she encountered another Ingram-Kassandra, carving through hordes of guards with a sword.
The moment their eyes met, the woman swung her blade at Aurelia, generating a shockwave at her that pulverized guards that were caught in it. "YOU!"
The woman charged at Aurelia! She's a Warrior of Light!
Aurelia barely had time to pull out her gun before the blade swung through the metal barrel.
With the lethal swing coming, Aurelia pushes the woman back with a wave of light. Immediately, Aurelia realized her mistake and dove to her side as a shockwave roared past her. It was weaker, slower, but still lethal.
Expecting certain death near or far, Aurelia chose death up close and sprint at the Warrior of Light with her attack. The Warrior of Light countered, but was a split second too late and was hit by Aurelia's attack and her blade was sent flying behind her.
Risking total vulnerability, Aurelia dove at the blade and grabbed it just before the Warrior of Light and stabs her in squarely in the chest.
"Brina..." The woman uttered as she begins to dissipate into particles of light. Only now did Aurelia noticed stab wounds all over the Warrior of Light. It was odd for an Ingram-Kassandra to not regenerate such minor wounds.
That's when Aurelia noticed that the surviving guards never stopped shooting at her. She wanted to ask, "Why?" Instead, she felt a jolt from her Stim-Guard right as she swung the blade in her hand at the guards, sending a pulverizing shockwave that finally silenced the guns.
"Enough already." She takes a deep breath to cool her body temperature. "Enough already." She repeats herself as she stepped over the scene of carnage and headed to the summit of the Golden Spire in hopes of answers.
"No one interrupts L̢̒v̡̘̦̘́̒̓͌n̢̈4̲͉̻̩̓̇̓͠t̢̫̣̝̣͑͆͆̚͠1̙̝͆͘͘͢c͖̯̮͖̒̋̒̔͟͞ ̡̫̹̪̟̿͗̋͊̄9͍͕̻̎̇́4̞͓̲̼̇̿̈́̉n͚̰͕̉̋͐̈ͅd̡̺͓͌̋̑0͔̘̋͡r̭̆4̢̹͇̪̉́̓̕͢͞."That was the first thing Aurelia heard as soon as the elevator doors opened, right before the shooting started. "Enough already." Aurelia muttered to herself and swept the guards away and blasted open the doors sealing the hall.
Inside, a small cabal of cloaked human in grey robes gathered around a giant glowing crystal in magical ritual in subdued murmur. They were led by a greying man in black robe who looked vaguely inhuman. These would be the ruling Trueborns, a cut above even the rest. Every pulsing of the crystal ignites the surface of Luna with a brilliant but ephemeral blue fire.
This was the answer she sought. How will she proceed? Do her creators have the right to kill her as they pleased? Are they above their own laws? Why is she here?
She didn't know how long she stood there unnoticed by the Trueborn as her mind raced. Then, they glanced at her dismissively before returning their attention to the crystal and murmuring.
In that moment She made her decision. Gripping her blade, she paced forward and stabbed through one of the Trueborn. Their slow reaction surprised Aurelia, but only avails her the opening to cut down the rest before they began to scatter.
"You shouldn't have told them the truth! Warrior of Light! You did this to them! You did this to yourself!" The Trueborn leader shirks away from Aurelia in fear.
"I am not a Warrior of Light. I am here to kill you all the same." Aurelia raises her blade at Trueborn, who sudden stopped running away. Instead, he pulled out a small white crystal and points it at Aurelia as if expecting something to happen.
The Trueborn's destainful sneer melts into fear then shock when the unblinking Aurelia walked close and shattered the crystal with her blade swing, tearing away at the Trueborn's hand.
"You haven't won! You are not allowed to live without our permission!" The man howled as he falls to the ground clutching his arm. "YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED!"
Aurelia looks over her dying world from atop the Golden Spire. Stopping the crystal makes little difference now, even if she can.
The survivors will live, but the infrastructure will fail. They are all sterile, without any infrastructure to replenish the population, her civilization has already ended on this day. There was no jolt from her Stim-Guard. Maybe this is for the best.
The last words of the Trueborn still stings her. She will walk these halls till she is dust, even if only as an act of defiance and she is built to last. For days she walked, till at least she arrived a library overlooking the hillside garden. There, she lingered to read. She read through her thirsty, she read through her hunger, she kept reading the knowledge hidden from the world.
The crystal is not of her world, wherever it came from, they called it an Aetheryte. And from these crystals, endless worlds are connected. Once again she found herself atop the summit of the Golden Spire, overlooking her once dead world.
Though her world fell, her kind's memories lived through her. So long as she lived, their stories will live on, through a thousand worlds, a million worlds. They need no permission to live.
As she walks toward the Aetheryte off-world, she looked back at the empty Spire and the silent world below one last time. For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of orange light, but it was just the dying glow of the lights around her.
This is the last of Kass Aurelia. As her kind renews in her, she would be reborn with a new name.
"Vona... Sion" These two words suddenly came to her, and smiled before placing her hand on the Aetheryte.
