Poem titled 'Final alignment', author unknown.

Life blossoms as it fades, oh what a way to go. Minds break to see a future, that few have come to know. Insanity can be a gift to the two-eyed, but as easily become a curse to overflow. Oh The Eclipse, the death of it all! When the Source is within only one control!

When Blood spills and builds blades, And Steel hearts are unravelled and unmade. When metal-made Thunder echoes through the walls, And a red-stained Web is where the secrets crawl. When the Graves are brimming with ancient loss, And Flowers bloom through the joys of rot, The sun will Rise! The moon will Fall!

And when they align… They will bring death to us all.

Ripley "What am I doing here?" Skeleton smirked in that weird way only his skull could. "I'm here to deliver what you're owed. Thought it would be fitting to dress for the occasion. May I come in?"

"May you-" I could have spat. "No!"

"And here I thought you would be a generous host, Donovick…" His smile dropped, before he looked almost dejected and hurt. "Very well, I suppose you don't want the payment you killed Anabelle Grazhe for."

"Wait." I said as he took a step away. "You can come in, nothing you probably don't know about already, but you sit where I tell you to sit. You don't touch anything!"

"Taking precautions for my Unique Feature?" He seemed almost happy that I was being cautious as he entered after me.

"You're not infecting shit with Soulbind." I scoffed as I close the door, never once letting him off my sights. "Already cleared everything once, don't be a pain in the ass and make me do it again."

"Relax." He got comfortable on my couch, putting both shoes on my coffee table. "Where's Mirage?"

"Busy." She was untangling the echoes of The Dogwhistler for the last few days, but I didn't want him to think he had an edge while we both tried to take a break from all this crime bullshit. "You can give me the Implant now."

"Oh, I will…" He reached into his suit's breastpocket, taking out a shiny silver orb. "But, don't you enjoy our talks together? I always find them so… stimulating."

I grabbed a spare seat from my work bench, dragging it so I sat opposite him and blocked his view of my…

Of my mother. I didn't like this. I didn't like him being in the same room as her, not one bit. And I didn't even have the Arachnodyne rebuilt yet! And these claws were far from my standard gear…

I sent a ping to Mirage, then to Twilight, but I left Starlight alone. She was with her mother anyway, apparently Twilight had something to discuss with our daughter.

Skeleton clicked his non-existent tongue. "You know, I really am here in only good faith, not just of my own, but of Corporal Diana Ulrich. She vouched for you, confirmed your kill even when I haven't gotten the body I longed for. It's a failure on my part, but you did the job, so…"

He lifted the Silver BUG between both of us, before orienting it over my shoulder to where my mother lay in a hospital bed. "You deserve it." Then, he dropped the Silver BUG, and it bounced off the table and into my hands. He seemed proud of that move as he leaned back and folded his arms. "It was never mine in the first place…"

"You're damn right it wasn't!" I kept myself back from truly shouting, he got this off my dad's corpse, and I was already having my doubts about how involved he was in that whole ordeal. This was my grandfather's… my mother's… rightfully.

Skeleton sighed, it was like he felt hurt. "You know, I didn't have anything to do with your father's death. And he was a drug user of 'Embrance, or do you keep on thinking that every single one of your problems has to be linked to some great conspiracy?"

Oh, with the things I figured out? Fuck yeah, I was beginning to think that!

Did he know my mom and I possessed The Founder Gene? It seemed like my grandfather's best kept secret, but I couldn't know if The Bladefather told Skeleton with how close they had been.

"Well, then… enlighten me, Skelly." My eyes were trained over each slight inch of movement he made.

"Your dad was a troubled man… Dominic Donovick. Born as the son of a Cradleborn who achieved many things, but your father was only… mediocre. A disappointment, really, disowned in all things but name by the time he met your mother. Still, one can't deny that he was a man with a hopeful heart…

"But hope can shatter, Donovick. You know it can." Skeleton's eyes lingered above my shoulder. "Having come across a cover up in the Yellowstone reactor's unstable seismic capabilities, linked to the earthquake some fifty years ago, he made numerous attempts to get the information out there. It never did, as you know, but by the great intervention of your paternal grandfather, SynTec didn't kill him — merely, abandoned him.

"And since then, he was a man who had lost everything twice. But he still had a way to get it back, in moments, all it needed was a vial…" Skeleton took out a white tube from his pockets. "Remembrance, a psychotherapeutic drug turned recreational and enhanced in black-markets to take you further and deeper into those happy times you could never get back. He kept it a secret from your mother for a long time, did you know they were planning a divorce?"

"I-"

"You didn't. Shaun of the Snake Fangs was an acquaintance of your father's back from when they were college roommates, but they didn't like each other much. Shaun was quite the party animal, got kicked out, and went through a few stunts in private security before he ended up where he was through brutal killings, pimping, and torture."

"When your dad lost everything, he came into contact with Shaun back when the Snake Fangs weren't as… mediocre as they were before they fell. They were honestly quite pitiful, Shaun was the only true Adapter among them, a man who refused to die. He just ate his own men if he needed to survive. And… well… that's what he did to your father, metaphorically speaking.

"It started with money for corporate secrets. That's how you got this apartment, how your mother got her Iron and your father his Bronze. Only… his was even worse, only thing worse than no Implant is a bad Implant. His Psyche wasn't quite… up to the merits, so he indulged in a one-time sample of your good boss Shaun's Remembrance. One time became two, to three, to… a constant blur between past and present, and then… your father sold secrets just to not be sober. That was when things got rough between your parents, where I can only imagine that young Ripley Donovick was caught in the crossfire and made victim of more than a few drugged rants."

I didn't flinch, I met every word of his with non-emotion.

"And so, comes the time he no more secrets to share, so he takes it out on your mother. On you and your future. He heads to that locker room of your grandfather, trashes it, and takes the Implant to sell… but he was clever this time, he didn't take it to Shaun — no. Shaun would just kill him for the Silver and be done with the nuisance Dominic was. He came to Little Requiem, and he came for me — a mere rumor at the time."

Air left my nose in a tight puff.

"I rejected him." Skeleton motioned with his hands. "Why? Same reason why The Bladefather never sought to use your mother, same reason why Missy hid your family's existence from any curious hunters of The Hammersmith's legacy. It was because your grandfather, my mentor, nicely asked us to leave her alone. And he's not one you want to play dirty with, and… I respected him. I still do.

"I regret that decision." He held his hands together. "I truly do. And your father soon used that last batch he had all at once, while at a bar, as Remembrance made him believe his gun to be a toy from simpler times, and waved it at Investigator Eric Flinn. He was shot dead, it was self defence, simple as that. And you know that, there was no need to silence him — any ramblings he had was that of a drug addict who was simply angry at his former employer. Made-up lies."

He tapped the table between us, his eyes looking down over the Implant clenched in my hand. "I had the connections to take the Implant into my custody, truth be told, at the time it was a lot of work. But I felt it was important to do so… it was my mentor's legacy."

"Then why didn't you return it to my mother!" I growled hoarsely.

"Because, Donovick, I was selfish." He admitted. "I wanted to understand this Implant, it's Unique Feature Technopath, before relinquishing ownership of it. Once I had it in my hands… well… it was quite difficult to let go, you must understand, as a man who mimics abilities he may never truly possess."

"How did you…"

"I watch, Donovick. I might not have as many eyes as The Dogwhistler, or as deep as an infection as Soul Killer, but I watch and learn in a way they can never comprehend. The pulsing skin over your carotid and dilated pupils scream anxiety, the motions you perform are false reflections you've lacked the time to master, the mere… tracking of your purchases from Little Requiem betray your motives."

He stopped for a moment. "But there is one thing I truly never expected you capable of doing… saving Diana Ulrich's life when I had the Snake Fangs shoot her in the head. You stumbled upon something, didn't you?"

"I'm just an Operator." I said. "I fix things."

"Is it to do with that new entity I've been hearing off… Starlight?" He smiled, and my teeth scraped against one another as he spoke. "You care for her?"

"I suggest you stop-"

"Ah, so she's like family to you? The mere mention of her turned your attention away from your mother."

"I-"

"An emulect, one you gained from your heist in Yuzhou. Created with the aid of Amaterasu, I take it?"

"You better shut the fuck up."

"…"

"…"

"I was merely curious." He chuckled. "I almost envy that you have such a connection to something so… delicate. You know, there was a time I also cared, albeit, too easily to things."

"Cool story."

"I'm serious." He leaned in. "I feel… comfortable talking to you. We're very alike."

"Alike in what ways? That the same man abandoned our asses?"

"That we both fell from grace." He said, and there was an excitement brimming in his voice, like he was sharing some big secret. "I was there, when Little Requiem was first formed."

"So you saw the Hanging Gardens collapse to the ground, congrats."

"No, Ripley." He shook his head, before pointing up with one finger. "I was there."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"You were…" I paused, Little Requiem was once a floating neighbourhood for the elite, "in the Hanging Gardens? While it collapsed?"

"Penthouse suite." He folded his arms and sank into the couch like he was lounging and talking to an old friend. "Haithama Corporate parents, alert came out, but well… who would have really thought a damn flying town would collapse?"

"But it did."

"I was just a child in a swimming pool, floating atop it when… the world sank beneath my body. I was in the air, free for the first time. For that brief, flightless, levitating moment, I understood the truth of this world…"

He sighed. "Everything built to rise, inevitably falls."

"You… survived that?"

"Miraculously, thanks to your grandfather. But I was a broken boy, barely able to move… severed spine, brain trauma, he gave me an Implant to survive it — and I adapted. He saw something in me, and from my broken bones, I began to thrive."

"…and that's when you joined with Missy and the others?"

"They were a lively crew back then, up to all sorts of hijinx. One, in particular, was stopping a convoy in which SynTec was transporting a secret weapon, turns out it was more of a… well… person. Seraphina."

"You killed her, right?" I hadn't pieced it all together, but I wagered that this Seraphina was a big part of the cleft between Missy and Diamante with Skeleton. Whoever she was... she was important enough that Maiden believed that Seraphim, likely an AI made by Seraphina, had to be guarded at all times.

"That's skipping ahead, and in a way, I was. Diamante was head over heels for her once she ingratiated her way into our circle, she fit right in… how couldn't she? She had a Unique Feature of Mazhyr's Shard of Understanding, Psychometry. A true bonafide clairvoyant, she was meant to be SynTec's counter to Amaterasu."

"But I never once trusted her, and Missy is… well, a figure with her own special cocktail of sins. One who was perfectly moulding Seraphina into a tool, and Diamante was too horny to care. Try as I might to convince Seraphina otherwise, she was born to be used by those with blood of The Founders."

He stayed silent, as though waiting for a reaction from me, before he hummed. "You knew?"

"Emizren Silvha. Foundling and one of the original members of The Uncaged." I confirmed.

"Fascinating." He smiled. "Then you know I'm not lying."

"The two don't correlate."

"Oh believe me, Ripley, they do. At that time, what different was I than you in your current investigations to the Uncaged? Diamante was a puppet loyal to Missy and infatuated with Seraphina, while I was slowly seeing the lies unravel before me, so I made my choice. To cleave that power from Missy before it would give her any more leverage, and to take it for myself. They just won, and as they say… it's the victors who write history."

"They thought you were dead."

"I might as well have been, the devil himself shot me through the eye — it was a stroke of luck that it only grazed my brain… but the effects were devastating due to the nature of the… ammunition." Skeleton shrugged. "I'm no different than Diamante now, just a brain in a body somewhere, this thing you see in front of you is comparable to The Dogwhistler's echoes, but unlike her — I have discipline. I know exactly what I need to do, every iteration of me does. We'll die if we need to, and believe me… we do die. If you were to shoot me in the head right now… that's a Mikail Almajali you've erased from existence. And I didn't have a Psyche Feature to erase my fear of death. I had to practice to erase that fear. I used a damn defibrillator, stopped my own heart, then forced it back to life. Again. And Again. Until I got used to dying."

"You're… insane."

"I'm an Adapter, Ripley." He smiled. "A damn proud one, one that refuses to die yet will gladly do so. Can even Soul Killer claim such a feat? No, they always know the ending of one body is just that — a body. Their mind will live on; mine don't. And believe me, once you do disconnect one from the light of the others, they fear the dark. Soul Killer may have stabilized me, but why would I ever chain myself to that entity? Even now, I seek ways to reclaim what I have lost…"

He sagged his head forward. "And I've lost a lot. My body. My dreams. My family. My skills. My home… but one by one, I'm digging them out of their graves, and tending to them like a gardener to his flowers — nurturing them so that one day, they'll bloom. And when the season changes, and they wither once more, I'll be there to plant the next seeds in a bigger garden. Again, and again. The Hanging Gardens fell, Los Diablos' Little Requiem fell, and maybe one day my own kingdom over it will fall — but I will always be there, waiting with a scythe in hand to reap the next harvest."

"But you fertilize that damn garden with the bodies of countless others!"

"I do." He remarked, not shameless at all. "Life is delicate, death is forever. I'm quite nihilistic, actually, I see humans as sacrifices, as products and resources… and I don't think I'm wrong for that. Not, when my motives are fairly… simple."

"Simple? What part about you is simple?"

"I want to be happy with my life, Ripley." The words… surprised me. "And… I suppose I'm cursed that my way of attaining that happiness is by creating things so many others have tried, but none have managed. Not even The Founders."

He sat silent, in thought for the first time. "A utopia, Ripley. Not this… fucked up cesspool of a city we grew up in, but a real, honest utopia. One where we can simply be… the things we dreamt of as kids. And yes, I'll do bad things to get there, horrendous things, but will that matter in the grand scheme of this warped world when the consequences will be… beautiful?"

I… didn't have an answer to that.

"I like you, Ripley. I truly hope I don't come off as… offensive to you. The way I speak and the actions I take are simply the nature of my very survival, with how silent death is… I'm loud in life."

As much as he… spoke of great things, there was the undeniable truth. "You work with the Sin, he's spoken to you, promised you things when all that lies ahead of us is a damned war between you, The Founders, and The MALtitans."

"Yes… he's a man who very much invites calamity." Skeleton muttered. "His goal of uniting the Source-Shards… will no doubt result in him being the sole victor of this multi-century conflict, but you seem to have the wrong idea of me."

Skeleton met my gaze with a deep intent in his stare. "If I can create just a moment of peace, and let myself truly pass on while I know I have managed it, I can pass on. It's one of few things I truly learned from Missy. She now sees me as a threat to her vision of peace, and is taking actions she believes… appropriate. She's just as involved in The Sin's plans as I am…"

He tilted his head, studying me. "As are you?"

"You've got to be kidding me, how the fu-"

"That was a bluff." He laughed. "He spoke to you?"

"Yes." I left it at that, I didn't want Skeleton knowing I could see memories through an Implant, but maybe he'd already figured that out. "He told me…"

Skeleton leaned in. "The Sin informed me I would lead this city to greatness, that it would stand united and brave the Fifth Swarm and the threats beyond. That it would be the city where the sun never sets."

"Huh…" I tensed at that particular turn of phrase. "And I was told I would deliver him… 'The Eclipse'."

Skeleton blinked, something I didn't know he could do, but his red dots flashed off for a second to imitate the action. "The Eclipse?"

"Yeah, I have no clue what that means, though."

"It means that I have to be quicker, then, in my pursuit of my ambitions." Skeleton's fingers rubbed… nervously. "The Eclipse is… an ancient myth, originating from a time where the SecondNet was in it's infancy, no one knows of it's true author, some believe it to be written by The Allseeing, but the tale surmizes the eventual end of this world as we will know it."

"Oh… great, world ending prophecy." I rolled my eyes.

"Two beings in flux, sharing one heart shall revolve around one another, harmony and disbalance fleeting in oscillating patterns as they embrace in unity, and fight for individuality. Only when one side wins over the other, will a convergence occur to spell forth the end." Skeleton began, before continuing in an almost trance-like state.

"It is said that when Blood has spilled to forge blades of still-beating flesh, the Steel that supports our hearts will unravel and be unmade under the name of conquest."

"And storms will thrash and Thunder through the four chambers of the heart, as each pulsing beat gushes forth to weave a Web upon which the secrets of the world will be caught and revealed, leading them to war."

"As hatred festers in the truths made known, endless Graves will be dug for those who succumb to the conflict, and from it will bloom Flowers of endless rot that the world will joyfully feast upon to relieve themselves of famine."

"Only when despair is truly known to the breadth of humanity, can the sun Rise for a glimmer of hope — but the moon shall Fall to reflect upon them their sins, and when those twin celestial bodies align… all that has ever been shall be consumed by the shadow of death."

"They will cry out in the darkness, they will be heard by the stars that turn away, by the earth which crumbles to consume the sinners and by the very sun and moon from which we were gifted life — now blanketing us in their dark silence."

"And that is all there will be at the end."

"Silence."

Listening to the whole story, I felt an… eerie and ominous feeling from it. The Eclipse was… way later on in the tale, but yet my mind clung to 'Blood has spilled to forge blades of still-beating flesh'.

That sounded like The Bladefather… but was I just attributing recent experiences to an old tale? I wasn't sure if I would be insane, genius, or an idiot to take such a deterministic stance…

But then again, the net had a thing with predicting the future, but if it was all correct… this was hundreds of years of calculation. Or hundreds of years of planning, in which I was just a minute variable all accounted for.

Skeleton grinned, clapping his hand. "Quite the story, isn't it."

"Are you not… concerned?"

"Why would I be?" He shook his head. "I'll carry on without the senseless worry of being part in some grand design, I do not move forward under the idea that the future will come to me — but that I will forge it."

"I get that… but…" I was beginning to regret ever getting this Implant, genuinely.

Skeleton moved, patting my shoulder, the moment of contact I initiated my Warpcode to sense for any transmission from him, and that only made him smile. "You've honestly made my holiday, Ripley Donovick. This conversation has been my liveliest in a long time."

"Glad you think so," I shifted away from him, "but I think it's time we said our goodbyes."

He stood up, but extended his hand out to me. "Ripley, what will you do once you cure your mother?"

"Fix up the people who need fixing." I said, believing it to be right.

"But will that satisfy you?" He kept his hand up, an offer, if I was right. "Will you ever be satisfied having to depend on others to carve out this city's future?"

"I'm willing to put my trust into some people…" I met his gaze. "But not you."

His hand dropped, and there was a distinct disappointment in how he looked at me, but not much surprise. "I understand."

He began striding away, those steps each echoing in my head much like that prophetic tale, but he stopped past the open door. "Remember Ripley, even inaction can have it's consequences."

He closed the door at that… but with a tight rush of emotion I followed after him. He turned around, just soon enough for me the punch him in the steel jaw and smack it right onto the ground.

Rising slowly, the dots in his eyes flickered as his voice came out with a low static timbre. "Now that was uncalled for."

"So was you coming over to my apartment, jackass." I spoke back, grabbing his skull and staring into those red dots. "Now listen, Skeleton. I'm done. DONE. With you, with Missy. With Diana. I'm done. But if I ever see you around me, Elsa, my mother or Starlight ever again… and worse, if you hurt any of them — I'll do what Diamante couldn't. I'll pry that Unique Feature right out of your skull, no matter how many MALs you make out of corpses to protect you. Because in this case, your inaction has good consequences, okay?!"

"Understood." The skull said as bony fingers took it from me. With a click, he fastened it back into place, before waving me off. "Goodbye, then, Donovick."

Satisfied with finally punching the bastard, I hurried my way into the apartment and closed the door. Inside, I looked back at the Silver BUG with a sense of disbelief that I finally had it, my Gold swimming over it's gleaming surface as information spliced and came revealed.

Features Identified: Technopath [Source-Shard identified: Connection]; Integration; Accommodation

Then I manually compared to my mother's genetic database. I'd done this enough with all the other six Implants I got recently, none had a compatibility above 35% for her. But this one…?

Compatibility: 87%

I took a step back, tears creeping through my eyelids that I had to rub away. I… had it? An actual fucking Silver that would work on her, even the other ones I'd gotten had abysmal Compatibilities to her, but this one… worked.

It was almost too good to be true. And I… felt some deeper primal voice screaming and echoing that sentiment to me. That the Implant was too perfect.

Collapsing onto my workstation, with a tap of a button, the other six Implants revealed themselves as panels slid back. I could cure her right now, I wanted to, but I couldn't trust Skeleton. I just couldn't. I had to test it out, study each fucking gene on it before I even considered giving it to my mother.

And most importantly, I couldn't rely on it. But it was the perfect model of what I needed… Silver, high compatibility. With it to examine as the perfect model, the other six Implants were in my grasp to change and improve — and I needed time to ensure there was nothing wrong with it. My mother still had time, February would be the deadline, but knowing Skeleton put his hands on this Implant… I couldn't trust it.

Skeleton put those Dreamframes in those kids, he tormented countless others and weaved lies into events for his profit. The entire Extermination raid was his fault. All those pretty words he said to me were just that, pretty words. Words of a man caught up in his bullshit…

And although Elsa and I had taken… retirement as a viable option, we weren't letting ourselves be taken advantage by the decision.

Even without her Dogwhistler network, she had enough clout as Mirage to remain informed on criminal happenings.

Skeleton had taken the Bladedaughter hostage, something I did not take into account when I discussed the potential of an alliance with her. She had seen proof of my ability to manipulate Implants, improving their Grade, and that information was Skeleton's to take now… I just had to hope she wouldn't break under his hold, she didn't seem like the type.

So, for a little bit longer, I needed my mother to wait…

Looking at her, guilt crossed my face, but I had to do what was necessary… for her, for me. For a chance of a future in this cesspool city.

I would overwrite our fucked up destiny. Just then, I received another rapping of knocks on my door.

Holding my breath and agitation at bay, I secured the Implants while grabbing a gun to open it once more. "Skeleton, I swear to the Founders-"

I stopped speaking, it was not Skeleton at my door this time, but instead a woman in crimson veils.

The Crimson Heart spoke with a delicate voice. "Greetings, Donovick. I have a business proposal."

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