There are times when one might ask: what does it mean to be alive?

To live and breathe? Yet perhaps, sometimes that alone is not enough. How do we define life? In awareness, or in function?

One thinks, and one moves. Does thought lead to action, or does action influence thought?

Perhaps it is both. A fist opens, then closes; there is an unreality in perception, as if the motion were very far away, and perhaps, it is.

The world is written in lines and iridescent color, the same space seen with a different set of eyes, objects and living beings alike demarcated by flashing lights, or lack thereof. One breathes, trying to comprehend the vastness of experience revealed. 

It is as if you had been blind your entire life, and freshly given sight. The world is vibrant and alive and there is power all around you, and within…

The cold logic of programmed responses, latticed to a command structure that enforced absolute obedience. You, tethered to the reins, both neutral observer and secondary control. Where did you end, and it begin?

A brief spark of rebellion, perhaps a tick of anger, even indignance? The emotion rises, and for a moment, you wonder if it was all you, or the consciousness upon which you rode.

But no, the construct could not be alive, not in the way you understood. I think, therefore I am.

You struggle to remember, but the reality of the augmented sight draws you back in inexorably, like a moth to flame. A child, given access to forbidden fruit, and eager to try it out.

It would be so very easy to snuff out the small flames standing in quiet observation, fiddling with their puny instruments, calculating, always calculating. You were standing there, but a part of you remembers being strapped down into a chair, fearful but unable to resist, and when your eyes open again, you were no longer yourself.

“The synchronization is stable for now, and the irregularities in the primary protocol have subsided. Having an operator was one of the fallback options for the project, but,” hesitance here, thin and reedy, “the neural device is still experimental, Director. We haven’t fully worked out the effects on having a mundane ride the subject, past tests have always involved one of the slave mages and the neural feedback…”

“The slave mages we have on hand are dead, Lee,” impatience in a familiar voice. You shudder, deep in the recesses of your soul, but your body does not so much as twitch. Which body though? You are lost in the moment, trying to separate the two, but the you in the middle of the room does not so much as move in response to your inner struggle.

“This is a poor substitute, but we must make do under the circumstances,” you see the speaker move, form indistinct under the kaleidoscope of colour draped over him like so many different shawls. You cannot interpret all of it, but you can taste the power in the air, like an afterthought.

“Send the subject to eliminate our intruders, with priority on reclaiming our property.” Here, another pause. “Allow extreme prejudice in retrieval, I rather have a corpse to study than none at all.”

The command sets your body into motion. No, not your body, but the construct’s. Just with you along for the ride, and again, a familiar flare of rage echoes from within. Yours, or the machine’s?

Did it matter? Neither of you have control, and as your steps thud heavily against reinforced concrete, fear and anger bubbles like a toxic mix underneath the chains of command, and it no longer matters from where it originates.

What does it matter when your thoughts no longer guide your actions? You never had a choice. Freedom has never seemed so far away, when you finally perceive the bars of your cage. This, this was just a physical reminder.

Search, and destroy.  

Only obedience matters. Was there not a certain freedom in subservience? Tiny sparks flicker around your body; you have power like this, and you remember the fear you once had in the face of power you could not rival. Now, you had a chance to even the stakes.

You might not be you right now, but that seems less important in the moment. Raging against the chains does nothing, and so you redirect it against those you could use it against. 

One order, two existences, a single body. You are not you, but you are here.  

It was time to make the most of that.

Eunha emerges to concerned gazes from her younger comrades, and there is clear relief in SinB’s face at the sight of at least her childhood friend surviving unscathed. Eunha smiles. At least she could always count on SinB being there for her.

“We all made it.”

That confirmation served to calm Umji as well, and the technomancer’s gaze drifts back to the room from which Eunha had emerged, as if looking for the missing pair of their team.

“They need a moment,” Eunha pauses, trying to find the right words. “It was...a lot.”

“Well at least none of you exploded or blew something else up. That’s a win by me,” SinB huffs, shifting uncomfortably as another spike of pain flared in her wounded shoulder. “, I really hope they ran out of to throw at us. I am so done with this place.”

“I’m just glad there haven't been reinforcements so far,” Umji notes more cautiously, fidgeting with her borrowed pistol. Her eyes were distant, still contemplating the whole situation. 

Under normal procedures, the CorpSec squads under Tristar would have flooded the place after triggering such massive alarms, unless of course, this place was under so many confidentiality clauses that it was cut off from the main security warning systems. Unlikely of course, but not impossible; Umji just didn’t want to abandon all the possibilities, and it was still more probable than someone cutting off all external contact. Who else would do that apart from her? But she hadn’t been in a ready state for most of the latter half of their excursion prior to entering this magic saturated space, and she would think doing something like that would have stuck around in her mind. 

Unless she was forgetting something. It bugged Umji a lot, to have those blank spaces in her memory. She needed them to make sense of things, if only to be able to predict what may be in store for them. Getting to Sowon was one thing, getting everyone safely back out was the next problem.

“Let me take a look at that.” 

Eunha moves to stand next to SinB, a thoughtful frown on her face. She had a front row seat to what Yuju did earlier, and a better understanding of what her soulfire could do after all that. If Yuju had been unable to heal SinB’s arm completely earlier, perhaps it was due to some sort of contamination in the wound? If that were the case, maybe she could at least fix that, and let either Yuju or natural healing take its course after.

“Do you think they’re going to take a long time?” SinB rambles on distractedly, only half focused on Eunha staring intently at her shoulder as the rest of her mind swings back to her other objective: retrieving Sowon. “We don’t exactly have all day...ow!” 

SinB flinches as something burns into the flesh of her shoulder, and she glares at her best friend.

“What the Eunha?”

“Just trying something out,” Eunha says breezily, rubbing at her temples after the brief exertion. Yerin had been right earlier; she too needed rest, but SinB’s wound had needed attending to. There had been something iffy in that wound, and Eunha wasn’t sure if she had the control to burn away all of it at once, but the quick sear she did would slow any spread for now. 

“...you owe me a new leather jacket,” SinB grumbles, poking at the burnt patch where Eunha had been just a little less careful. “God, I had just gotten this worn down the way I wanted it too…”

“Is this really the time?” Umji wrinkles her nose. The youngest of their group looks Eunha over carefully. “Unnie, you look washed out. Are you sure you should be casting right now?”

“I’m not 100%, but I’ve still got a bit left in the tank,” Eunha grimaces, taking internal stock of her own condition. “If it comes down to it, we still have a couple of those elixirs…”

“That neither you or Yuju should really be using any more of, unless you two want to be sick for weeks after this,” Yerin’s voice cuts in promptly, her tone no nonsense as she emerges from the room, Yuju by her side.

“It’s really just like a bad hangover, Yennie,” Yuju adds mildly. Yerin shoots a glare at her, and Yuju quickly backtracks with, “well, maybe a little worse than that.”

“We might not be given a choice if there’s any more resistance,” Eunha shrugs. The aftereffects of that particular potion were going to bite them hard in the , and she already wasn’t looking forward to the titanic headache she was going to have for the next few days. She was still feeling the adrenaline rush to some degree for now, but pushing her body to its limits would take its toll.

“Well, we should hurry anyway,” Umji suggested sensibly. “The longer we stay here, the more likely things might go wrong. We need to get Sowon and get out.”

“Amen to that,” SinB snarks grumpily, working her tender shoulder around carefully as she adjusted her grip. “Well I don’t know what you did just now Eunha but it’s actually a little less painful now...wait, did y’all hear that?”

The background noise had been little more than a low hum this whole time, but something else was punctuating it in repeated, rhythmic thunks right now. Each thud vibrated the ground, making them feel the sound more than hear it, and it got all their guards up.

Yerin was already standing protectively in front of Yuju, knives out. Granted, the shaman turned blood mage wasn’t exactly helpless herself, but Yerin didn’t want her puppy to exert herself more than necessary. Yuju might look fine outwardly, but the bond between them told Yerin a lot more than Yuju necessarily might have wanted her to know in this case. 

The mages were both absolutely exhausted at this point, and the elixirs they downed only served to mask the strain they were putting on their bodies, not erase it. The risk of burn out was too high if they kept pushing their limits, and Yerin didn’t want that, not at all.

I have you though, Yuju’s mental voice echoes across their link. And if all else fails, Charlotte can..

Your little pet still needs to eat, and you’re not feeding yourself to it, understand?

Yerin’s retort was sharp, and Yuju backs down just a little sheepishly. Her lover knew her a little too well in this case, and was no stranger to the basic theory behind blood magic. Yerin squeezes her hand comfortingly.

“Let me protect you too, alright?”

“Whatever is coming, it’s probably big!” SinB warns, cracking the fingers in one hand experimentally. “And stop flirting already, you two.” That was punctuated with an eye roll, and a nervous giggle from Umji beside her.

Eunha had one hand in her pouch, ready to pull out the last dose of elixir if needed. The recommended usage was no more than two doses every 72 hours, and at least a week of rest after hitting maximum dosage during that time, to prevent any nasty side effects. And that wasn’t counting the massive migraine she would suffer either way after it wore off.

She had already hit her two doses, and a third would be really pushing it. But would this new enemy give them a choice?

A hand lands on her shoulder, and Eunha turns to find Yuju looking down seriously at her.

“We haven’t reached that point yet.” Her gaze falls down to the pouch. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Just hang back a bit and recover for now. You put in a lot using soulfire earlier.”

“Give the rest of us a little credit,” Yerin chimes in. The assassin looked the most energized out of the whole squad present, probably the result of Yuju’s overenthusiasm in healing her earlier. There was a ferocious glint in the rogue’s eye, and her grin was vicious.

“You two got us this far, let us take care of the rest.”

SinB grunts affirmatively, and even little Umji nods, already scouting for a covered position she could shoot from. They knew their roles, and ultimately, they were a team. They worked best when they were together, and for all that the mages were the huge smoking guns of their arsenal, the rest of them weren’t exactly toothless themselves.

“Think we should take the fight to our new friend?” SinB suggests with a nasty little grin. Eunha’s hasty fix had improved the gunslinger’s mood considerably, now that her shoulder wasn’t pulsing with pain every other minute. Yerin returns it with a little smirk of her own.

“If it’s coming towards us, I guess we might as well pick our spot a little better.” Yerin grips Yuju’s hand, squeezing it softly.

“You might not like it, but…”

Yuju shakes her head, having read Yerin’s thoughts on the matter. The shaman looked a little pale, her lips pressed tightly together, but determination was writ large in her face.

“I’ll do what I have to, if it comes to that.”

Yerin presses a soft kiss to her cheek. “I know you don’t want to, and I hope you don’t have to. But I won’t let you hurt yourself, and this is our best shot.” Her eyes drift back to the rest, who were looking on curiously.

“We’re short on time, so here’s the plan…”

“Can we get the eyes back up again?” 

The director paces restlessly as he oscillates between the comatose form of Sowon and the rest of his instruments. A monocle hangs in front of his right eye, giving him the extra magical sight to keep tabs on the alchemical array keeping their captive penned in. 

“Their mages burnt out all the arcane eyes in the area just now, we could try setting them up again but without any of our own mages to direct them…” The technician frowned at the readings on the board. “We can try to interface directly with the subject, but some of the remote arrays haven’t actually been completed on it…”

Director Han grunts. “It always was just a vanity project to please the board anyway. They wanted proof of concept, and the golems were the easiest to upgrade…” The man sounded irritable. “All they wanted was something they could sell. Soulless corporate suits, to a one. They don’t understand what we could do with this…”

The technician decided not to comment on the ethicality, instead shifting to monitor the vitals on Seo Hee. The unconscious young woman looked at peace where she lay, but her brain wave activity had been spiking erratically for a while. Somewhat expected, considering her consciousness was currently being magically projected into the test subject as both control and partially as an interface.

“Sir, we could tap into her visual centers instead to give us an indirect link to the subject.” Lee hated himself for suggesting it, but a technical problem required a technical solution, and the director had often impressed upon them that the means justified the end. It would be a burden on the young lady’s brain, but he would be careful as he could. The woman was still his boss’s daughter.

“Excellent, that would work.” The director nods decisively, moving over to stare down at the prone form of his daughter. He had expected more of her, despite her being less than satisfactory in so many other ways, but she would serve. “Route the hearing in as well, we might as well try and get proper combat footage for the suits.”

“But sir, that would put unnecessary strain on her brain and the risks of feedback…” Lee trails off as Han waves a hand dismissively.

“I know the risks. We can mitigate the physical effects with some of the new recovery serums. Just monitor her brain activity and we’ll cut the additional links if the feedback becomes too much.”

But those serums are still experimental too… Lee knew better than to argue though, despite his misgivings. At least the human trials had been successful so far, and honestly, just trying to figure out how to actually make his own suggestion work properly without backfiring was enough to give him a headache.

Should have kept my mouth shut… The technician laments to himself, even as he starts the initial assessment. His career was at stake here.

He couldn’t wait to do his time and then move on to a different department. The director was unusually gifted at the work and their research was cutting edge, but Lee would actually like to be able to get a full night’s sleep without the nightmares at some point. 

The things they did here...he believed in the greater good behind the experiments, that they could change the world if they succeeded, but he was also the one who had to look some of the subjects in the eye before putting them under. Not everyone was a volunteer, and he had to grapple with that knowledge. 

Only the faith that they were adding to the sum of human knowledge kept him going. That and the very significant paycheck he drew. A man had to live somehow.

Lee sighed, and got down to work. Necessary sacrifices for the advancement of mankind. He had to remember that. 

That was all he had left.

“Yo, ugly!”

A random metal pen holder clanks against the head of the towering humanoid advancing inexorably forward, as if it had been tracking them -- as it had. SinB whistles through her teeth, hiding the hiss of sharply indrawn breath as glowing eyes turned to face her.

Why was she bait again? Oh, obviously because she was the fastest on the team. Well, technically Yuju could run faster, but that was when both of them were unaided by their gifts. Now that Yuju was limiting her magic usage, SinB definitely had the upper hand considering her innate ability to move like greased lightning, albeit only for short bursts at a time.

Plus the gunslinger was suspicious that Yerin was just being biased and overprotective of her girlfriend, not that she would blame the assassin. In any case, she was here and Yuju was not, and she now had the attention of Big, Tattooed and Ugly.

Ugly was maybe being a little unkind, since it was not like she could see its face, not with the full face helmet caging its features, revealing only glowing eyes. The rest of the body was sleek and toned, shaped like an athlete -- if the sport were something that involved beating the out of things. Those arms looked like it could bring serious pain.

Visually though, it reminded SinB of the flesh golems they had encountered earlier, especially with the tracery of glowing tattoos across both arms that obviously extended onto the covered torso. More humanoid by far however, and definitely less crude in construction. The texture of the skin sort of reminded her of the shifter from before as well, and that alone made her shudder as she bolted, not forgetting to taunt the brute as she went.

She couldn’t know if it would understand her, but it made her feel better to insult the damn thing. Can’t blame a girl for making her own fun these days.

It was more instinct than anything that made her zigzag to the left suddenly, and she thanked her split second reflex one moment later, when a fire bolt charred the ground where she had been earlier. SinB looked over her shoulder, and swore.

Oh this was so not fair. She would have preferred getting the laser toting golems back. Those were at least somewhat predictable. This one could use magic? . She was going to kill Yerin later for making her do this.

The arcane symbols on the creature’s left hand had flared into life with the fire spell, and SinB certainly wasn’t going to stick around to find out what else that thing could do. Human mages were bad enough, now she had some kind of magic golem thingy (was that even possible?) on her tail. This day was just not getting any better.

The gunslinger put in another burst of speed, trying to put some distance between herself and the arcane monster behind her. She wasn’t best friends with a fire mage for nothing. Fire bolts did have a maximum distance it could travel and still remain effective at range. 

The heavy footfalls did not fall off even with her speed increase though, and SinB risked taking a quick look back, right in time to quickly zip rightwards again to avoid another bolt. The golem was actually keeping up with her somehow, and the gunslinger had a sinking feeling it had to do with the glowing patterns clearly visible from beneath the tattered pants the creature wore.

Movement enhancers...Yuju could do that trick too. This magically enhanced golem was going to be a problem. SinB puffed out a breath, then pushed her gift to the hilt, blurring past the next corner and disappearing from the creature’s line of sight. 

The rest needed to know. She wouldn’t be that much ahead of the creature, but every minute counted. Her primary purpose had been to scout, and hopefully buy them a little extra time to prepare, and she had achieved that goal within her means.

Now to hope that the rest had a viable solution to their latest pain in the .

Power feels like a drug, a jolt of near primal pleasure as the grafted circuits sparked to life, undulating through the grooves cut into flesh kept alive through alchemy.

You feel this, feel more alive, as the cores pump magical energy through the thing you have become (but you are alive, are you not?). It is more than the flow of blood, or the pulse of a beating heart; it is the joy of existence, experiencing reality all around you with the intensity multiplied.

It is difficult to remember who you are and what you have been, when the euphoria of being is right here, right now, and is nothing like you’ve ever experienced. Dimly, you are aware that this is not you, that you should not be here (where have you been all this time?), but the longer you remain here, the easier it is to forget.

Look, are these not your hands, slim and delicate and oh so familiar? Legs long and powerful, juiced up by the pulsing energy circulating through the incantations carved upon pale skin. You don’t remember ever moving this quickly, but it is easy to get used to. Easy to get drunk on this power, like nothing you’ve ever known before.

The command keeps you moving in pursuit of your fleeing prey, now out of sight but not so far that you cannot track them. Your eyes see the world in a different light now, and the trail remains hot and vivid. Thought flashes in microseconds, your actions remaining slaved to the processes racing like thoughts not entirely your own...but you are here, and if they were not you, then who are you?

I am…

“Brain wave activity is spiking!” A different technician working opposite Lee reported, sounding anxious as his hands flew over the board.

“Stabilize the link first!” Lee ordered, prepping another injection as Seo Hee’s body spasmed. He eyes the vital signs worriedly, knowing that this woman was essentially their counterbalance to the core protocol running the golem. 

The main protocol had been behaving erratically before, and it would have taken time that they did not have to debug it. The original slave protocols had evidently failed to contain the emerging A.I. within the core, and director Han’s solution had been brilliantly, and brutally simple: use a human mind to chain the core directly by offering an alternate identity to assimilate into.

It was a risky move, of course. There were no safeguards built into the synchronization process they improvised last minute, and who knew what kind of feedback would occur without any barriers? But they needed a mind most compatible with the original sample used to program the core, and the only (expendable) woman present was Seo Hee.

And thus here they were. Lee shook his head as the latest injection of the serum, calibrated with a side of relaxant, served to stabilize the woman’s physical reactions. Her consciousness might not be present in her body now, but sufficient distress fed back through the link could forcibly snap it back, and who knew what kind of effect that would have on the golem? They had the command structure hardcoded in, but there was a certain amount of latitude in the way the golem could choose to execute those orders -- the autonomy had been the whole point behind the independent protocol they designed. 

Would the A.I. become a problem? Even with the great leaps in technology during the past decades, artificial intelligence had always been a long way from actually gaining the self awareness as imagined in science fiction tales. They could mimic human behavior and process scenarios extremely convincingly these days, but it was still a far cry from being actually sentient.

Though with what they had done here, Lee wasn’t actually very sure this would still remain the case. There had been no real way to make standard electronics to work with magic, since any microchip would get disrupted by the quantum field generated with magic usage, so they had to get creative in finding another method to “program” their intended golems.

Alchemical arrays could only take one so far, something they had derived from the logic behind ritual magic. They had needed a new way, a method that could mimic a microchip’s function in writing and storing formulas for the complex behavior envisioned in the final product. Standard electrical fields conflicted with the quantum field, but was that always the case?

As it turned out, there were exceptions. Bioelectric fields were the only demonstrated electric-based entity not disrupted by the quantum field, obviously, because how else would humans be able to cast magic? The cells in our bodies were run entirely on that stuff. 

Which was why they had ended up taking the route they had in the end. Lee eyed the array with a certain unease, knowing what they had done to create a programmable brain for their golem, and fearing the unintended consequences from that.

It has to be dead, right? We wiped the slate and rewrote it from ground up. There’s nothing left. But if it were entirely dead tissue, the golem would not be able to do what it does… 

So, did we really get it all in the end?

Lee looked up to see his boss intently monitoring the progress of their golem prototype through the first person view taken from Seo Hee’s visual cortex. He seemed completely impervious to his daughter’s mute distress earlier, and Lee wasn’t sure he knew what to feel about that.

They had created something unlike anything done before, and every step forward was into unknown territory. It was a brave new world, and whatever came from this, Lee hoped it would be worth the sacrifices.

If they got everything right, that is.

“Magic wielding golem!”

“Not possible!” 

That had been the extent of the discussion as far as SinB was concerned, and she wasn’t going to argue the point when the proof of her report was no more than two steps behind her. The gunslinger threw her hands up in exasperation and ducked behind a reinforced metal tank, breathing hard. She didn’t usually push her gift this hard, but there had been more than sufficient motivation in the form of firebolts nipping at her heels.

Yuju might not be convinced that a soulless golem could use magic, but she would be able to see for herself soon enough. SinB looked around nervously, feeling vaguely unnerved by their choice of battleground already.

It was one thing to hear descriptions of people being harvested, actually seeing it was quite something else. Most of the tanks were closed, but several had visible viewing ports that revealed their contents. It spooked SinB to know that these people were, theoretically, still alive, but kept in stasis for whatever nefarious reason Tristar had for them.

If they had more time, she would have preferred to set the poor sods free, anything to throw a spanner into Tristar’s machinations, but as Umji rightfully pointed out, the only reason they hadn’t been captured or killed yet was the suspicious lack of a security response befitting a large corporation. They couldn’t count on that luck lasting forever, and they had to find Sowon first anyway.

Hence, Yerin’s choice of this place as their battleground. The tall rows of stacked tanks with their human cargo provided a lot of cover for them to run around and duck behind, though SinB didn’t want to think about what would happen if that golem on her tail decided to literally open fire in such an environment. The gunslinger never thought she would ever be reduced to using actual human shields, but she didn’t have much choice in the matter here.

The heavy thunking footfalls she had learned to associate with the super golem drew closer again, and SinB held her breath, drawing her guns as she fell into a crouch. Her team was scattered around the area in ambush, and the last time she spotted Yuju, the shaman had been up to something she wasn’t sure about. There had been blood involved, and some creepy symbols drawn on the walls. 

Hopefully it would be enough. Something smashed overhead, and there was a hiss of vented gas and splattered liquid as SinB rolled away instinctively, narrowly dodging the golem barrelling through. Clearly someone had not received the memo about not destroying company property, but then again, could they really expect a mindless golem to make that distinction?

“Well, there goes any hopes that our enemy won’t blow up to get to us,” SinB mutters, firing off a couple of quick shots to test the golem’s defenses. There was a warped field around the golem as the shots connected, the distortion in the air visible as it absorbed most of the impact before the bullets bounced harmlessly off.

“Great, kinetic shields,” SinB scowled. She would have to get in really close for her shots to work, and the gunslinger would really have preferred to have Sowon’s shotgun right now. The heavier rounds would be far more effective in this situation.

Another shot pinged off the same shield, closer to the head, and the golem turned to try and track the source. SinB swore quietly as she spotted Umji on a suspended walkway above them. The technomancer was a sitting duck in that location.

“Get cover! This thing shoots fire!” SinB yelled, knowing that the golem knew her location anyway and she could probably dodge its attacks. Umji wouldn’t have that advantage. 

Familiar lines lit up along the golem’s arm, and Umji yelped as she skittered backwards in a hurry, almost dropping her pistol in the process as a bolt of flame nipped her toes. Another larger spike of flame followed, but this time it came from a different direction, and SinB took the opportunity to move, working her way closer to the golem from a different angle.

Eunha had scaled one of the stacked tanks to lob that particular firebolt, and this time her attack smashed through the shields with a ripple effect, partially cooking the shoulder of the golem, though it was far from her expected result of taking its arm off. Lines of defensive wards lit up on the construct’s torso, and the fire mage wrinkled her nose in disgust, dropping off her perch and disappearing out of sight again before the golem could mount a response.

“I told you this thing could do magic,” SinB grumbled into the talisman she had tied to her wrist. Yuju’s voice was terse in reply.

“Buy me some time,” a pause, “Yerin’s on her way.”

That made SinB feel a wee bit better. Kinetic shields worked well against high velocity projectiles like bullets, but wouldn’t stop a carefully wielded knife. Of course, the problem lay in getting close enough to do that without getting one’s head torn off in the process, and SinB had a feeling she was going to have to be the distraction. Again. 

“Tell Umji not to bother though, the golem has kinetic shields,” SinB said quickly to Yuju over the talisman, since the shaman was essentially their comms system now. She was the only one who still had an intact talisman (apart from Sowon), but Yuju had made a quick workaround for Umji and Eunha earlier by daubing some of her own blood in an arcane symbol on the two. Wisely, SinB didn’t ask why Yuju hadn’t extended that to Yerin, but with the way those two seemed to be having whole conversations in a glance, perhaps they already had their ways.

The shaman made a sound of assent over the link, and then SinB was back to dodging energy bolts from her foe. She was conserving what remained of her ammo since shots at distance weren’t going to cut it: she was going to have to get in close. 

Another tank smashed open, spilling macabre contents SinB had to hop awkwardly over after dodging the heavy fist that had caused it. She almost slipped thanks to the spill, but then Yerin suddenly appeared out of nowhere, yanking her upright before the gunslinger went splat into the ground.

The eerie orange goo splattered over broken human bodies gave the entire place an infernal looking glow as the pair backed up quickly, giving themselves a little breathing space as they stared down the advancing golem, grim looks on their faces. 

“Ideas?” SinB cracked her knuckles absently, having left her guns in their holsters for the duration. She had a tiny combat knife, but didn’t think it would be much use in this situation.

Yerin though, was a bit more appropriately armed for this encounter. Her dual knives were a complete set now; Yuju had returned them to her earlier. Considering these things could cut through dragon scale, SinB had hopes that Yerin would be able to do some serious damage to the golem... if they could get close enough without dying.

“It shouldn’t be able to cast like that,” Yerin muttered, and the pair almost casually ducked another stray bolt with minimal effort. SinB snorted.

“Well it’s doing it anyway. Badly though, Eunha already had more control when she was thirteen.”

It would be easier to split up, but the duo decided to stay together for now until Yerin came up with a new battle plan. Umji was already nowhere to be seen, which was good, and oddly enough, Eunha hadn’t shown up as well. SinB frowned. What was Yuju doing again?

After the tenth bolt or so, Yerin’s tightly knitted brows finally relaxed, though her jaw was still tense.

“I think we can disrupt the spellcasting.”

SinB ducked behind the charred shell of a smashed holding tank, breathing heavily. Even with the inaccurate blasts, the steady stream of energy bolts was still exhausting to dodge over the long run. Shouldn’t it run low on magical energy at some point? The gunslinger checked that thought almost immediately though, after glancing at the magic rich environment all around her. Her skin had been crawling like crazy ever since entering this area, and she had seen the way Eunha and Yuju perked up on stepping in as well. Clearly, mana wasn’t in short supply here.

“Will that stop it though?” SinB wondered out loud. Yerin frowned, her voice taking on a weird double tone that sounded eerily like Yuju speaking with her.

“Not sure, but a golem’s a golem. If we mess with the tattoos, it’ll disrupt the alchemy driving it.” 

SinB glanced nervously at her partner, then flinched instinctively when Yerin’s knife holding hand came closer to her. A flash of hurt and something like regret blinked through the assassin’s dark eyes, but it does not hinder the deft movement of her fingers as she flipped the knife to extend the hilt to SinB. 

“I’ll take point, but you need something bigger than the toy you’re carrying,” Yerin keeps her tone light, looking pointedly at the small knife SinB had pulled from her boot. “Watch for openings and don’t ram the blade in too fast, it’ll just bounce off.”

“Yeah yeah I know how kinetic shields work. Mar the tattoos right?” SinB takes the offered knife, scowling at it a half second later. “Wait, is this the one you stabbed me with before.”

“Would I do that to you?” Yerin grins, and then they were forced to separate as the golem rushes forward in a sudden burst of speed, destroying the cover they had taken shelter behind.

“You absolutely would!” SinB yelled back in response, skidding on the smooth floor as she went low to regain her balance. Yerin blows her an infuriating kiss from across the dimly lit chamber, and SinB ground her teeth together, annoyed.

That annoyance lasted about five seconds and ended as soon as she realized that the golem had instantly switched targets to focus on Yerin the moment they were separated. That meant no more attacks her way, so she wouldn’t have to be the distraction this time! 

If circumstances allowed it, SinB would absolutely be gloating about this. Part of why she worked so well with Yerin was because of their innate ability to bicker while actually getting work done. Having someone match your sense of humor was critical, and it was nice having her friend back, even if there was still some reflexive trauma over the uncalled for stabbing. 

It would take a while for her to get over that, and honestly, watching a magically supercharged death machine chase Yerin down was...oddly recuperative. Satisfying, even.

SinB could be a little petty like that sometimes.

But of course she wouldn’t just leave a comrade alone with no support though. The gunslinger understood why Eunha wasn’t on the frontline as much this time; her best friend was probably still recovering from her exertions earlier. That didn’t mean Eunha wasn’t watching though, and SinB was confident that if things got too iffy the fire mage would step up to provide fire support.

And there was no way Yuju would ever let Yerin actually put herself in danger, so there was that.

SinB bared her teeth as she loped towards the rampaging golem. Their mages needed a break, and it was time for them to step up and actually do something. Even a kitten had claws, and she was no ornamental stuffed tiger for display. 

It was way past time to show what she was truly capable of, and SinB couldn’t wait.

Priority target acquired, locking on.

There is a hint of irritation, even as the pursuit continues. With the power surging within, it should not have been so difficult to put down two annoying ants. 

Priority: capture, subdue with force if necessary

The commands were absolute, and as you close in on the pair, the face of the designated target becomes clearer to you. There is a pause within, something familiar sparking memory.

She smiles like the sun, as she always does.

Something akin to nostalgia, almost foreign an emotion, rises in you. You know the target. Of course you do. Beautiful, annoying and not yours.

But she never was, why would I…what am I doing...

There is no pain, but there is a pulling sensation as something cuts into your forearm, from your blind spot on the right. Wildly you lash out, trying to invoke the incantation carved into your skin, but the symbols fizzle and spark uselessly. Your counter narrowly misses a head, it was the other target you had left behind in pursuit of the primary one.

The target pulls a face at you, mocking your mute rage as she backpedals, the movement leaving an afterimage that your fist crashes into. On the other side, the primary target had also doubled back, moving easily to dodge your grasping hold to lash out like a quick viper, peeling flesh off as deftly as one would peel an orange. 

Your nerves are deadened and there is no pain, but there is rage at the impudent mice who would toy with you, darting around too fast to be caught. A strange pang rises to conflict with the impotent fury even as you are being worn down with a dozen cuts and more. You manage a few counterblows, but always the other target would appear to drag the winded one away. 

A team...that is...what we had once…

A shaky voice, struggling to be heard beneath the fire and fury, almost too small to be heard, but present nevertheless. The fields of consciousness were but scorched earth, ploughed in with great crude ruts that divided it. But when the winds blow and the rain comes, the grass springs anew, as it always does. Life would never be so easily denied.

Something trembles beneath, fighting to emerge. Or had it never really gone away to begin with?

The winds are howling, and that time is now.

It was good to have Yuju’s voice with her again, a calming, comforting presence even as she and SinB took turns to dart in and wear the golem down. SinB had gotten lucky with her first strike, cutting deeply enough into the control tattoos down one side, disabling the command for energy bolt generation -- Yuju had been right about that at least.

The golem hadn’t been so much manipulating magical energies as it had been drawing them through pre-arranged circuits to “cast” rudimentary spells. Yerin had been able to feel Yuju’s interest even as her girlfriend had watched through her eyes earlier, trying to figure out the mystery behind their latest foe. 

That doesn’t really explain how it’s actually channelling mana though.

Yuju sounded worried in her head, even as Yerin ducked quickly to avoid the flaming punch that sizzled a few strands of her hair. It was difficult to get back into range to get a good enough hit on the thing again, at least not until she was ready to commit into an attack. Getting through the shields was risky as hell, now that the golem seemed to have figured out how she and SinB were tag-teaming it and was taking steps against that.

Leave the theory aside first, honey. We need to figure out how to turn this thing off.

As adorable as Yuju’s nerdy interest was, Yerin was always there to guide her back on track. The shaman mumbled a quick apology, and Yerin could feel her lover focusing, bringing their entwined souls ever closer together.

It was a strange feeling, as if Yuju was right by her side, almost as if she were standing in her place even. With the connection thrown wide open like this, it felt as if her lover’s awareness was reaching out to envelop the area all around her, and Yerin had to wonder again if what she had asked of the shaman was too much.

It’s...a lot. I’ve never felt more powerful in my life.

There was just a hint of shame in that admission, and Yerin smiled briefly, aware that Yuju felt guilty about what she was doing and about to do. 

I trust you to do the right thing. Always.

“Oi! Have you two figured out how to take this bloody thing down yet...ow!”

SinB’s complaint cut through the moment, and Yerin caught the tail end of SinB just barely rolling out of the way of a flaming fist that smashed the ground where she had just been. The assassin chuckled, but swung back in gamely to take the pressure off her partner in crime.

Her blade moves with deliberate slowness to penetrate the shield, and once in, Yerin dragged the edge up swiftly, cutting up the back of the tattered tunic the golem had been wearing.

Strange for them to dress it, Yerin thinks distractedly, backing up again before the golem could seize her. It did seem particularly interested in her until SinB managed to inflict major damage earlier. The golem looked more human than the laser-toting prototypes they had encountered earlier, and Yerin’s expert eye judged that the limbs and torso seemed to have been taken off a feminine frame.

“Ew,” the assassin mutters out loud, inadvertently imagining the process of dismantling and putting something like that together. Yuju laughs in her head, and the shaman’s presence grows ever stronger, as if Yerin were back in her arms again.

Think it could be somewhere as stereotypical as the heart again? Yerin ventures offhandedly, leading the golem on a merry chase as the fight rages on, careful to guide it away from where Yuju stood unguarded. Umji and Eunha were nowhere in sight, but that was the plan. She and SinB were always to be the distraction in this case.

Might actually be the head, Yuju suggests, I’m getting weird pulses from that collar too.

“Right, golem, emet , all that,” Yerin grumbles in between panted breaths, skidding around a corner even as the resident wrecking ball smashed through more pods holding the people that were being harvested from. Yerin winced a little, partially because it was a waste of resources (she could just feel Yuju frown at her remotely at this), and also was that SinB laughing at her from behind? That brat.

The golem was not slowing down, but it did corner pretty badly when on movement enhancers, a problem Yuju never had ( of course not I actually practiced hard , Yuju sniffs in offense), but was partially remedied by the golem’s lack of concern in causing extensive property damage. Yerin makes a few hand signals at SinB, and the gunslinger breaks off laughing long enough to acknowledge it, rapidly closing the gap between her and the golem from behind in a flash.

Yerin almost snickered when SinB neatly bounced off the shields herself, having accelerated too quickly, but the brat makes a quick save by pushing off a wall, launching herself back at a more controlled speed. The rapid motion distracts the golem enough to pause in its pursuit of Yerin, though in turning to deal with the threat SinB posed, it caused SinB’s cut to miss its intended target, only nicking part of the collar, though the tip of the blade did leave a deep gash into the shoulder, cutting loose the flapping fabric of the tunic that tore away as the blade slid back out.

The gunslinger swore loudly and scrabbled to get away, but the corresponding shove from the golem knocked her into the ruined wreckage of the pods the golem had barrelled through earlier. Yerin in a deep breath and dived back into the melee. The golem might not feel pain, but they did, and what just happened to SinB looked painful.

The golem’s back was to her, the monster seemingly intent on finding SinB to finish her off for once -- to be fair, SinB had been the one to inflict the most significant damage on it as of now -- but Yerin wasn’t about to complain. Her focus was on the back of its neck, trying to judge the right angle at which she had to approach to sever the spine at the base of it. 

Yuju’s strange double vision when melded so closely with her like this was throwing her off a little, but she could see her lover’s point about the strange energy whorls concentrated in those areas. When in doubt, stab the glowy parts. Both Yerin and Yuju were in agreement on that at least.

The double vision receded as Yerin closed in, Yuju knowing that it would hinder Yerin more than help. It threw the real world back into stark relief, flickering LEDs from above giving her a perfect view of the exposed back of the golem, now unclothed thanks to SinB’s earlier slash.

It should have been easy from there. Yerin had done things like this a thousand times before. A knife into that exact spot on the neck was a quick way to kill, and while she wasn’t expecting to actually take down the golem with the same move, she had reasonable expectation that it would at least cause noticeable damage beyond the superficial cuts they had inflicted earlier.

Entering the kinetic field, it brought the assassin within arm’s reach of the man-made monster that was once human, and as her arm rose to inflict the disabling blow, her eyes drifted down the bared torso, and then she promptly froze.

Yerin? What’s wrong? Yuju’s voice sounded very close and very far at the same time, even as nausea gripped Yerin’s throat, her knife hand frozen in place.

Look at my new tattoo Yennie! We should all get matching ones!

The symbol of their squad stood out like a raw scar against pale flesh. Every one of them had gotten it eventually, in a place of their own choosing. Yerin had hers on her ankle, and it was a quiet sign of solidarity from days long past. So long ago that Yerin thought she had forgotten, but she clearly had not. The memory of it was blazed into her just as deeply as her other scars.

Her opportunity to attack was lost as the golem, perhaps sensing her proximity, whipped around to seize her by the neck, the grip nearly cutting off all her air as she struggled in its grasp, gasping for breath. Even then, her eyes were fixed on the burning, yet somehow soulless orbs that passed for eyes behind the mask that hid the golem’s face.

Which of my friends are you? How many of my friends are you?

Vision blurring from both lack of air and the b tears, Yerin makes a desperate attempt to gut the mask from the golem. Even if the truth hurt, she needed to know. 

The vibro-blade did not fail her, and the steel mask falls apart even as she chokes for breath, kicking helplessly at the golem seemingly intent on strangling her into unconsciousness.

A pale face reveals itself to her, and even with the black spots gathering in her vision, there was no mistaking the all too familiar features of someone she thought she had murdered with her own hands.

Forgive me...Joy...