Harsh, wailing screams drifted with a shattering reverberation as the sound traveled down the steel, empty corridors, only broken as the owner of the voice ran out of breath. The quiet would settle for a few seconds, maybe a minute, accentuating the emptiness of the ship until a new wave of hoarse, straining cries broke through once more.
Sister Grey could only watch helplessly as her guardian, her friend, floated in the large, round liquid chamber that held her. The weak force field that held the liquid in place seemed to offer no shelter between the nude woman inside and the harshness of the outer world. But Iczer-1's suffering was not caused by what was outside, but what remained inside, a battle that had been coming to a head slowly these past years, and now threatened to overwhelm everyone.
Iczer-1's screams finally subsided, her face worn and tired from the strain of her fight, the pain that inevitably came with it. But where the blond woman's face, and even body, showed the signs of her fatigue, her clear red eyes held the same sharp-eyed, but sad determination of her goal. No matter the cost, no matter how long it took, she would fight to her last breath to protect her people, and indeed, the universe outside, from the evil she held inside.
Her body and face contorted with a new wave of pain, drawing her into a tight fetal position as she futilely fought the pain in her abdomen, where her link to Iczerio lay. Her voice had long ago turned to a loud, guttural sound, somewhere between a croak and a moan. Her cry drew out a short while longer, then she shivered fiercely and all at once collapsed, her body falling lifelessly limp, heavy lids drooping shut.
"Iczer-1!" With a sharp cry, Sister Grey ran to Iczer-1, leaning her weight onto the containment chamber, hoping fervently to reach her friend. But to do what? Please, Iczer-1, don't be-- No, we would know if you had died... She rested her head wearily against the force field, the prickling of localized scattering energy toying gently with slate green hair. All we ever wanted was a home... Why does it have to be so hard? Even in the one place we can call home, there is the strain of war... She wanted to clench her fists, to cry, to scream, to share her friend's pain. But she could not afford to show the weakness she felt. So here she stood, watching quietly as Iczer-1 rested for the little while she had, and offered her unwavering support, the only thing she had to give.
Iczer-1's eyelids fluttered, the effort slow and languid, her strain reaching even here in the little involuntary movements. Her eyes opened, tired and drained, expelling only a dull light. She raised her head to look at Sister Grey, flowing with ethereal movements, the liquid's buoyancy her only strength left. A soft smile spread across her lips as she placed her hand against the force field, spreading her fingers to match those of her leader. There were no tears from the Iczer with that sad smile. Although she had gained human emotions in her time on the Earth, her focus did not allow such excesses of the spirit. Her strength had to be used for other things, for more important battles. Sister Grey let a smile escape her, even through her worry, allowing herself to be caught up in Iczer-1's confidence. What else could be done? What was left to do but stand here and wait for the inevitable, and hope that they all came out alive?
No... there is something... With her determination set, to try one last hand, Sister Grey took a step back, a soft smile and tender gaze on her face, her hand never leaving the untouched grasp of the Iczer. Sister Grey stepped back completely now, knowing what was to come from Iczer-1's momentarily blank, confused expression. she called out in a clear voice, letting her intention be known. "Iczer Liros, please come to the resting chamber." Horror quickly overcame Iczer-1's confusion as realization set in.
"NO!" Iczer-1's shout came out as a roar. "Sister Grey, I won't allow it! I will not risk--"
Sister Grey whirled around to face the Cthuwulf guardian, long grey, silken robes swishing to follow slippered feet. "Not risk what? Certainly not your life," Iczer-1 did not even flinch at the retort. She had been created to fight, and even if it meant her death, she would not regret a single decision she had made.
"Big Gold will escape you no matter how hard you fight. We both know. It is only a matter of time. At least this way, Iczer Liros's talent--"
"I forbid it! If she tries that now, Iczer Liros will be destroyed!" Iczer-1's breaths fell out as ragged breaths, but she would not let them hamper her, the burst of strength she felt, even if it was from panic. "She is not ready, whether she can do it or not! I will not risk her!"
"Would you martyr yourself, then, Mother, and let Big Gold win so easily?" Both heads turned to meet the newcomer, a tall woman very much the darker version of Iczer-1, thick black hair to counter the thick blonde, a smooth, untarnished veneer to rival her mother's emotion-wrought features. She stayed a long pace's distance from entering, only moving with an acknowledging nod from Sister Grey. "You can hardly expect to fight alone. That would make my existence rather pointless, wouldn't it?" The questions held no mockery or suspicion, just a question in the purest sense, a quest for information instead of pointed rhetoric.
"There are fights you have no way of winning yet. Not as you are. Even with the knowledge you have, there are still things you need to learn, things I can't teach you." Iczer-1 faced her daughter, created from her very cells, her very link to Iczerio. Iczer-1 had been amazed, and relieved, to know that she had not been tainted by Big Gold's presence. Untainted, but not untouched.
"Your talent now, the way you are, makes you too vulnerable; and too dangerous."
Iczer Liros watched her mother blankly. She suspected she knew where her mother's train of thought was going, and it still confounded her. "Mother, I hardly see why emotions are so important--"
"You don't know--won't know--until you truly acknowledge them!" Iczer-1 strained as another wave of pain hit her, the pulsation of energy that fought to break free. No, not now, not yet... I won't let you... Her eyes clenched shut to fight it. She had to. She could hold out a little longer.
Iczer Liros felt every muscle in her body tense. She felt the energy in the air around her pulse rhythmically, each glowing beat more and more insistent as the previous one died out. The cries of Iczer-1 seemed to be blocked out by a poisoning silence. She watched as Sister Grey rushed back over to Iczer-1 with a silent cry. She felt Iczerio pulse with the air, within her, from the writhing Iczer-1. She could hear her own breathing echoing in her ears, a quickening rasping noise to keep up with her quickened heart beat, beating to the pounding of Iczerio.
rip
A small lurch, a break from the omnipresent Iczerio. But what was to break away from it? What was so removed and alien to Iczerio that it didn't belong there?
rip
A longer sound, drawn out as the process continued. Not so much a sound as a feeling. A very strong feeling. Iczer Liros's eyes widened with recognition.
rip
"SISTER GREY!" Sound returned in a furious flood and Iczer Liros launched herself forward at the Cthuwulf leader.
Sister Grey jerked as her name was cried, and turned her head to look to the younger Iczer. "Wha--" With a cry her body was lurched back away from Iczer-1 as arms swung around her and a flowing force field constructed itself around her and her protector.
The room bathed itself in a blinding gold light.
Iczer-1 felt herself fall with a splashy thud, rolling to meet the floor off the raised platform as the field collapsed. Every part of her ached, a dull emptiness that actually seemed worse than the sharp spasms she had been subjected to before. Her eyelids twitched as she opened them and slowly propped herself up on her hands. The light around her hurt her, bright, loud, and powerful. Not yet. Please. But she knew. Where she had kept a part of herself locked away, kept herself a prisoner in self-made chains, was broken and empty. But there was a strangeness to that emptiness, like more than that one part had been ripped away. She knew what had caused it, but what had been left afterwards?
"Iczer-1," That voice, a high, masculine, monotone, seductive and mechanical, and always mocking. "You are a fool and once again you have failed." The light energy began to slowly coalesce, gathering near the high ceiling, the familiar small body still only a fuzzy shimmer, only barely recognizable. Big Gold.
Sister Grey gasped as she took in the scene before her. She had never actually seen with her own eyes the enemy that had once almost destroyed everything. The anger from the entity was almost palpable, a giant and overwhelming fury. And that maelstrom was now focused on a weak and defenseless Iczer-1. She stepped forward out of her protector's grasp, and in the same moment found herself blocked once again by Iczer Liros, who now stood ready in front of Iczer-1, bathed in the bright blue glow of Iczerio.
"Her failure will not remain for long." A statement of fact from the younger Iczer, never a brag. She was simply not capable of it. Sister Grey only hoped that her certainty was not mistaken.
The laugh, cold and unyielding, and always mocking, froze Sister Grey where she stood, sending a blinding chill through her body. She had been afraid for Iczer-1 before. She was terrified, for everyone--everything--now.
The blast jolted her from her torpor. Iczer Liros held both clenched fists out, pointed rigidly at Big Gold, and fired a powerful blast which shook everything but focused precisely on the golden entity. Another blast, equally precisely placed, but the only sign of any effect was the mocking laughter, echoing in its own multiple voices, bouncing darkly throughout the room.
Iczer Liros dropped her hands. Her fight in this room would be futile. As well as a danger to those around her. She made a careful glance to Iczer-1 on the floor. She was still weak and on her knees, but now tended to by Sister Grey. What was once her mother's fight was now her own. And she would not fail.
"You will die like your predecessor and everything else on this ship, and your precious little planets." Big Gold smiled wickedly, the small, child-like face distorting with the hateful gaze. Big Gold slid smoothly through the metal of the ship, out into the black of space outside, unhampered, as if one were not different than the other.
Iczer Liros stared cooly after the being. "Mother is not dead. But you will be soon enough." Liros felt a hot wave brush over her, an unfamiliar touch that was quickly brushed aside. Common, but minor distractions, and quickly forgotten.
"Iczer Liros-- you can't-- not now-- not this-- way..." Iczer-1 gasped as she spoke, her body weak and spent. She looked up at her progeny fearfully. She could not--would not--lose the next hope of the Cthuwulf. And her child.
Iczer Liros looked to her predecessor silently. Another wave blew over her, warm and cold equally, but brushed that too aside. She could not afford distraction, however minor, now. Finally meeting the eyes of Sister Grey, she disappeared in a flash of blue light.
Iczer-1 dropped her head defeatedly onto Sister Grey's chest and closed her eyes.
"She will be back. She will not fight foolishly. Iczer Robo will fight with her as well." Sister Grey cradled Iczer-1 protectively, offering a soothing smile she didn't altogether feel.
"I know." But it did nothing to comfort the elder Iczer.
Iczer Robo stood staunchly in the starkness of the ship's liquid holding bay as it took in its pilot, sending nerve-like tendrils to connect to the Iczer as the two linked under Iczerio's power.
"Let's go, Iczer Robo!" Iczer Liros exclaimed, her voice turning strangely husky. Both giant warrior and diminutive pilot disappeared in an explosion of light and were gone.
Big Gold wanted to laugh at her new found freedom, floating in the quiet of space.
So long, I have waited and fought for this day. Too long. Iczer-1 would dare to imprison me. She will pay for her pride. They will all pay.
But the goal, her revenge, was still far. Not only in distance, but in strength. She had fought equally as hard as the Iczer had, and it had taken its toll on them both. But Big Gold had now won her freedom and more. She had taken with her something the Iczer could not live without, the lack of which would ensure the destruction of the Iczer at last. The new Iczer would merely be a trifle. But she would take no such chances. She herself needed to rest and regain her strength, and call her daughters to her, before facing any new real battles. So she would make her way as far from her captive's ship as she would, and closer to her revenge.
"Big Gold, you go no farther than this!" The voice pulled at her rudely, forcing her attention back to the ship she no longer wished to see. And to the giant robot which floated in front of it. Big Gold wanted to smile. She could sense the other as if the Iczer and robot were a part of her. Apparently what she had taken with her would be of some definite use. And so she smiled.
Iczer Liros watched Big Gold uneasily, watching the confident smile grow on her face. Big Gold would be just as weak from escaping as Iczer-1 would be from finally losing the battle with Big Gold. So why would she be so confident? It didn't matter. It didn't change what needed to be done. The pair grabbed Iczerio and let it flood them. There was no point in holding back in this battle, there would be no lesser way than destroying Big Gold altogether. Iczer Robo threw it's hands forward in clenched fists, sending the thick stream of deadly power in a concentrated rush at Big Gold. The power fully enveloped the golden entity in a giant blue sphere, crushing and tearing at Big Gold with a cold certainty of purpose.
Big Gold laughed.
The thick beam turned on itself and hurtled back in an angry rush towards Iczer and robot. Iczer Liros screamed as the predator turned into prey and felt her own ripping jaws surround her. Both robot and pilot strained under the tremendous pressure, and fought back with Iczerio. Iczer Liros could feel the metal of Iczer Robo's body begin to collapse on itself. A few more seconds and both of them would be destroyed. Iczer Liros could not-- would not-- desert her partner in the mech. "Iczer Robo! More power!" Iczerio flared and the power binding exploded away from the pair.
Big Gold laughed again as she watched the giant robot, and the unseen pilot inside, reorient themselves. She had not expected such an advantage as she had discovered, but now that she knew, the feeling was exhilarating. But in her weak, newly released state, she wasn't capable of doing much damage, much less destroying robot and mother ship. She only smiled now. There was so much more possible than just destroying them now. Even if she could. No, she had a much better target first.
Iczer Liros and Iczer Robo let Iczerio flood them once more, shooting off smaller, staccato blasts at the aloof Big Gold. Each blast returned to them in an equally powerful hit, crushing metal shell, exposing wire and fleshy insides, and pushing the pair back roughly in their space arena as Iczer Robo took the brunt of the inevitable hit. Each impact dragged a throaty scream from Iczer Liros, feeling both her own pain and that of her companion in the giant robot.
Iczer Liros tried to get Iczerio to gather in Iczer Robo once again. All she felt was the emptiness of a severely weakened mech. The robot had given its last for now to fight off it's own Iczerio. To have it come back at them, as if Big Gold had not been affected at all... There was little comfort in knowing that Big Gold was too weak herself to do much. If Big Gold were capable of more, she doubted that laughing would be the only thing the giant computer would be doing.
"Daughter of Iczer-1, you are weak if not weaker than your mother. This will not end here, but it will end." Big Gold began to fade teasingly into the black surroundings.
"NO!" Iczer Liros let Iczerio take her over, but not to shoot out at the computer. That would be useless. If Iczer Robo could not gather the symbiont energy, then it could focus the vacuum she was creating. Iczer Robo turned black with the energy surrounding it, turning darker than their surroundings.
Big Gold felt the urgent, inescapable pull on her, bringing a momentary panic with a thought of what was impossible. There was no way it was possible. She was wrenched back to the vicinity of the ship with a cold violence. Life force and energy clawed desperately to get away. It just couldn't be. Nothing had that power over Iczerio. Nothing.
Iczer Liros felt the dangerous call to her own self as well, Iczerio's hunger throbbing, close enough to devour her as well if she were not careful. She steeled herself and tried to pull harder. It would be so easy to fall to that hunger. But she would not risk losing Big Gold. She would not risk Iczer Robo. She fought on.
Big Gold screeched as the pull turned to a crushing call, the waiting jaws of the beast biting and grabbing at her. To be destroyed this way was unthinkable. That it was happening was unthinkable. Then she saw it. The source. She followed Iczerio to the dark shape where her opponent used to be, the angry throbbing of power, and the link that held it. Energy weakened and she knew she could not hold out for much longer. Only one chance, if she herself survived it. But it was all she had. Disbelief continued, even through determination and panic, all an unbound deluge of emotions. She turned and rushed at the beast, pushing it with her, back on itself and at its source. Only one chance.
Clear red eyes widened at the backlash, the energy of both predator and prey falling back on her in a wave that began to drag her into a dangerous undertow. With a cry she fought back with a strong hold on her leash of the dangerous power, then knew the same instant in her state, that fight was futile. Any more time out, and she would quickly be overrun and taken as fodder by the very thing she had let loose. She reversed Iczerio's flow and it all came through her in a rush, the darkness rushing back into her and back from where it came. Spent, she floated helplessly.
Big Gold felt the hold on her loosen, and wasted no time. In an instant, she was gone, as far away as she could go in her weak state. The panic stayed, the uncertainty lingered, but a sense of triumph penetrated her emotional state, something she owed to her captivity by Iczer-1. The ability to feel emotion, a link to the soul of her life force. But that didn't matter now. She was free. After so long in a smothering, omnipresent prison, she was finally free. And she reveled in the feeling, swirling it about her like a rich cape. She would call her daughters, and as one being, they would crush the Cthuwulf, Earth, everything. Everything that had made her entity of pure hatred what she was. But anger and revenge could come later. Now she was free.
Big Gold had figured her out, and had won. Iczer Liros stared blankly at her heavily damaged mech counterpart. It would be a while before Iczer Robo could fight again. So much damage.
"Thank you, my friend. You have always been a faithful companion." Only silence returned her sentiment, but that was always the way it was. The giant robot never spoke, but she always knew its feelings. Iczer Robo was her other half, and she understood it as well as she did herself. Their only difference was Iczer Robo had no internal conflict as she did. Her emotions had been born with her, but she still did not understand their true nature, or their usefulness. They added a richness to situations that might be bland or confusing otherwise, but they made a dangerous ally when she could ill afford one, just as likely to turn on her as help her. But that was her own private battle for another day. Whatever her mother's faith in them, perhaps one day she would have as well. But now, in the fight she knew would come, she could not afford such a luxury as that trust.
The whole fight still confounded her. Big Gold had felt her presence, known Iczerio's power as if it were her own. Big Gold had held Iczerio once, manipulated it as if one would a puppet. She had taken control of it, but it had been an external control, one that was as easily lost as it had been gained. But now... Now it was different. Big Gold wielded Iczerio, used it against an Iczer, as if she had been throwing herself at the Cthuwulf warrior. Big Gold was no longer just wielding a weapon with Iczerio. She herself had become the weapon.
Iczer Liros shook her head. That was impossible. Big Gold had no link to Iczerio, no possible way to have that strong a hold as she had shown. Clearly something had gone wrong. Something. Perhaps a short-lived fluke in her escape, a reaction to having been held in Iczerio so long.
Her body went rigid as coincidences linked together like well-fitting puzzle pieces. She spun out of her position on the wire-framed platform, desperate footsteps making an echoing clang on the metal floor as she broke into a breakneck run to the resting chamber, Sister Grey, and Iczer-1.
Sister Grey watched uneasily as a sleeping Iczer-1 rested in the new bubble chamber, her breathing a little shallow, but for the most part steady and calm. The mess of suspension liquid still lay in scattered puddles across the floor, but for the most part cleaned up. Sister Grey turned to look at the other end of the room, towards the ceiling, past the other resting chamber platform. She's out. She's truly out. The thought sent quaking chills through her body. It was a scary reality, to know that Big Gold was once again loosed upon the universe. She had been there to see what had been done to Sir Violet and the Cthuwulf when Big Gold had first arrived. It had not been pretty. Indeed, far from it. Big Gold had brought with her an ability to create the destructive parasitic bedems, had turned a peaceful, if helplessly nomadic people into ruthless warriors who now had a dangerous means of securing a home. That was not the way of the Cthuwulf, and she was glad to have seen it ended, if unfortunately, at the expense of losing a good leader in Sir Violet. She had only reluctantly taken that role, if only because there had been no one else to do it.
And now that threat had returned again, and now, worse than ever. Big Gold's hatred must have done nothing if not grown while merged with Iczer-1 and held unwillingly within Iczerio. She would not strive this time to take over the Cthuwulf. She would destroy them. Destroy everything. Big Gold's revenge would know no boundaries. And now, Sister Grey knew, Big Gold had an advantage that none of them could have ever dreamed, a means to an end that was even more frightening than just the idea of Big Gold being loose at all. She looked over to Iczer-1 again. And where would that leave Iczer-1? Even the very idea of what had been thrust upon the warrior had never been dreamed.
The entrance whooshed open with a rush of air, Sister Grey's reverie broken with a slight jump. Iczer Liros hovered at the entryway with trepidation, the uncertainty on her face there for all to see. Sister Grey could have smiled at that point, had the thought occurred to her. Iczer Liros was so young, still without the real, hard lessons that had made the Iczers' gaining of emotions so momentous. To Iczer Liros they were still a mystery, although in times of peace, Sister Grey noticed she seemed to allow herself moments to dabble in that "weakness" as Iczer Liros called them.
Iczer Liros took a tentative step forwards, followed by another, slowly leading herself towards her mother. She knows... Sister Grey felt for the Iczer, she herself equally unsure as to what the reality left behind would mean for Iczer-1. Iczer Liros just watched the chamber and her mother quietly, her face turning unreadable. Sister Grey wanted to say something-- anything, that might soothe the pain of the reality that had been left behind. But there was nothing to say. What things that could be said did nothing to calm her own fears, and she knew would do even less to calm another's.
"Big Gold took her link to Iczerio. I don't know how. But that changes everything." Sister Grey couldn't help notice a slight strain to the Iczer's voice. She betrayed no emotion, no weakness to lose her the fight of the moment, but there was definitely a fight.
"Yes." It was the only answer she could give. "What will you do now?"
"I will fight. That is all I can do. I will fight as I have been created to do." Conviction escaped her quiet, cold wall, as she turned to leave once more, but it was an emotion that she allowed herself. It gave her strength, and now she would need all of it.
"Robo is badly damaged, but I cannot allow Big Gold to remain free as she is. I will destroy her."
"Alone? Is that wise?" Sister Grey turned to Iczer Liros. "You have no idea what Big Gold is capable of. Gain your strength back, let Iczer Robo be repaired." Perhaps Iczer Liros had been losing that fight with herself after all.
"No-- not-- alone--" The voice was soft and strained, but ripped the attention of both Iczer and Cthuwulf leader towards the speaker. Iczer-1 was too weak to move. She knew her own strengths and right now she had none left. She doubted she would ever get it back. But what was done was done. "There is someone-- who can synchronize with you-- and fight with you. She will be your only way to destroy Big Gold."
"Synchronize-- another Iczer?" The idea didn't seem possible to Iczer Liros.
"No," Iczer-1 had so loathed the idea of doing this, of being forced this hand. After Nagisa, she had never wanted to use a human for that kind of war again. She had hoped that her merging with Big Gold would allow for that. But as always, what was done was done. There was no other way. "Go to Earth. You will find your partner there. She will help you defeat Big Gold. But know that Big Gold will go there too." Iczer 1 knew that, with all her being, to the very core of Iczerio that made her, but could no longer reach. Big Gold hated Earth for what it had made her, and even more for defeating her through Iczer 1's synchronization with Nagisa. It would be the first place she destroyed. "It is Earth that created her, and she will unleash her anger upon it." She fought to hang onto her speech as her breath gave out. "Go quickly, you have little time."
"But Iczer 1, Iczer Robo has been badly damaged, Iczer Liros cannot possible leave now." Sister Grey had feared such a command. Both would fight with all their strength until their dying day, and so she would fight equally hard to keep them alive.
"No-- there is a way," Iczer Liros finally spoke, her voice showing not even the slightest bit of shakiness of spirit that it may have betrayed before. With her path set, she would destroy Big Gold once and for all, and hopefully, save Iczer 1 as well.
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