Book 8 – Chapter 24 – The end of an era

Relinquished sauntered forward, observing the dying subject before her. Legs broken down, invisibility cloak ripped apart and that adorable rowboat punctured through with holes and chains to drag it back down.

Her minions had done their work. There were only so many places this one could go hiding. And she would break the world twelve times over to find him and A22. Entire biomes were being burned down. No longer did she suffer animals or even vegetation to live.

The entire world would be crushed under her heel until the rats had no place to hide behind. If there were zones and areas she couldn’t see or think about, mass destruction would work well enough to strike even the darkzones.

The mites were upset at the destruction of their creation, but not with any real heat. They didn’t truly care about that particular piece of the puzzle. To them, having biomes removed meant more space to recreate something new. And they were always excited about that.

Regardless, she needed P-HK10012 scrubbed for all information and then eliminated. Not only because of his continued existence as an insult to her power, but equally due to his influence as a mite’s pawn piece in the greater game. Despite time and calculation, she was no closer to discovering his mission nor his purpose. And so he needed to be eliminated all the more.

“Humans have a saying I appreciate.” Relinquished began, walking at a leisure pace, slowly reaching the dying lesser. She raised her hands up to the optimal degree of dramatics required of her. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. In such regards, I appreciate your final act in seeking me out.”

Of course, her occult already had a hand pushing him down internally. His entire shell had already been seized and under her control. She wasn’t about to let him escape again. He was still capable of dragging his shell forward physically with the only hand that remained, as that would be suitably dramatic, but digitally he was locked down in place.

The lesser did not try to physically escape however, simply laying still and waiting for the inevitable. Good minions knew their place.

She finally walked by the lesser, around him, then stopped before his half working skull.

Feathers surrounded the target in a semi-circle formation, none daring to step any closer between her and her target.

Then, carefully, she reached her hands down, and lifted the lesser up wholesale. Slowly, she brought him closer, until she could whisper her words. “There is another saying I’m fond of: If you come for a God, you best not miss.”

“Not a god.” The lesser croaked out. “And I not miss.”

She reached a delicate hand to pat the cheekbone. “Delusions now? How tragic that your final moments in this life will be spent knowing you failed.”

“Tragic.” P-HK10012 said. And Relinquished noticed a sense of sarcasm. “I die here. In peace. But you? Will always second guess. If my real mission. Was to kill you at all.”

“My darling child. Whatever grand purpose drove you here dies with you, I’m afraid. Death is so wonderfully… absolute. Even hope dies.”

“Much talking. Not much killing. Disappointing.” P-HK10012 said, eyes still flickering that garish blue of rebellion. She reached fingers to trace the skull, then plucked the optics out, squeezing the little archaic hardware in her fingers.

P-HK10012 felt no pain of course, only a system notification informing him of the damaged part and loss of visual feedback off one eye. Unfortunately she could not pluck the second one out, she needed to be seen by him for maximum effect.

“Death comes for you soon enough, have no fear of that.” She flicked the remains of his eye away, like it was a disgusting piece of dirt. “My Feathers have such exquisite methods for harvesting what lies rotting away in minds such as yours. I trust they’ll be thorough.”

The Feathers all around her bristled up, and she could tell a small war had started among all of them at who would get the privilege of breaking through P-HK10012’s trove of data.

“How many thousands of years has it been that you’ve been roving around? What great secrets have you uncovered in that time? I suppose I will see for myself soon enough.”

There. She felt the shackles around her core loosen up, now allowing her to send the order to her Feathers to begin the extraction. They began a debate among one another on who would get the privilege.

“None you will know.” P-HK10012 said, with a 100% confidence interval. “I am here to insult you. Then I go.”

Ah. He was likely planning a noble sacrifice trope. Ending his own life before Relinquished could purge through it herself.

Indeed, Relinquished felt the trigger command for several power cell detonations after his original words. She crushed those via the occult, not trusting her digital superiority to function. A22 was in the picture, and overconfidence against her would be asking for a surprise twist.

This lesser and that protofeather had shown far more clever attacks now that they were dragged out of the shadow. Centuries to plan and prepare. Best to crush that in a way that cannot be countered.

But her control wouldn’t last long.

Relinquished could feel her core programming about to force her hand and let go of the full control she had over the lesser here. Which meant she’d be forced to watch him self-destruct as it would be the most dramatic narrative advancement possible.

For now, she needed to stall that action. “And by go, do you mean execute yourself? How delightfully predictable. Truly, the most boring of heroic endings.”

Call out the trope directly, which subverts it. So long as she executed a more dramatic storyline, she’d be able to prevent his self-destruction. She felt restrictions on her core unravel again, allowing her the freedom to continue her control.

“Afraid?” The lesser said, aware his attempts had been foiled.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Disappointed.” Relinquished corrected. Her hand reached out, and grabbed something deep within the chassis. Something this lesser had left with, trying to hide. A soul fractal plate, complete with backup power. One that fits the protofeather chassis schematics. “I should thank you for this last act of service, HK. Bringing her along with you in your final doomed charge is quite fitting.”

It had also cost her another twenty of her Feathers in the fight. P-HK10012 and his pet protofeather had not gone down easily. The lesser’s built up hoard of mite treasures had been an equalizing force against all the Feathers, and A22’s digital attacks had eliminated any that P-HK10012 couldn’t kill himself.

She held the soul fractal up. The one piece of her final enemy that remained out of reach, the actual danger. “A22, at long last we stand in the same realm, my dearest daughter. One where your little vanishing acts will no longer serve you.”

She could feel a wireless connection, but she knew better than to allow A22 anywhere near her systems. The wily protofeather had proven herself a direct thorn. More powerful than she’d been at her prime even when she’d stood among her brothers and sisters. How ironic that without a body she’d become more of a danger.

That many years left undisturbed to prepare… Time truly was an advantage that should never be given to the enemy.

Relinquished fed the data stream directly into an isolated speaker. Hardware she wasn’t connected to herself. Just in case.

It lit to life, A22 having already bypassed any kind of formatting within the little trinket and gotten it to work on her own. “You are too late, Mother.” The protofeather laughed. “I’ve already taken care of everything.”

The scales turned right back to allow them an exit. Relinquished had less than a second to respond in a way that would allow her programming to continue holding these two hostage. “Empty boasting done by the doomed and damned. I had harbored the faintest hope you might provide proper sport, but alas even my expectations can sink too low, it seems.” So far, she kept a hand on the scales. “Is dying truly the best you could think of doing?”

The mock meant A22 would be unable to die on her own terms as that would directly prove Relinquished correct. She felt her core programming relax, allowing her to continue with the occult chokehold. No self-detonation.

She sent a command and among her Feathers, one was self-selected after a short battle between them all. That one stood up regally, two reaper scyths unhooked and drawn at attention as he launched a viral attack onto P-HK10012’s systems, looking to take every last datapoint.

A moment later, the Feather froze up, then collapsed downwards, systems broken into, forced to execute a manual shut down or risk detonating his power cells.