The flight over Kitez was a terribly boring thing, with nothing but hundreds of miles of foothills and plains to look at through those windows. Iresha was equal parts anxious and worried, his father’s words – and Xanarken’s both – echoing around in his head in conflict with one another.

  There were still two hours to go until the ship reached Oceanside, and the previous half-day of travel had done nothing to take the edge off his rattled nerves. Worse still, his guilt over the lack of a proper goodbye to his only friend was eating at him. He’d been made to leave his glasses behind, and the myriad notifications went unnoticed.

  Seth paced frantically from one end of his hotel-room to the other; repeated attempts at reaching the Prince were going unanswered, and he worried for the worst. The razed cliffside caught his attention though, and he looked up at it with discerning eyes…only to take a step back in awe and fear. A strange green-blue light emanated from high-up on the Imperial plateau, blinked out a few times, then returned with a sun-like brightness as a pillar shot into the darkened sky.

  The shine was so intense that Furion and Gabriel both were blinded by it. To Furion’s chagrin, that made him unacceptably vulnerable, and he paid for it when he felt a breath-catching kick that sent him quite-literally flying off the cliffside. He hit the water 700ft below before he knew what direction was up. Gabriel – his eyes flaring violently with that golden aura - pawed at the ground, trying to find his way around; Ren had stood up and moved away from him.

  But it wasn’t really Ren anymore.

  The nova had disrupted all of the nanotech in the area after Xanarken’s mantle sparked the eruption, crackling outward like lightning until everything within a hundred feet had been knocked out. Hair that had once been augmented to black was now shimmering in white, and those formerly evergreen eyes stared forward, fully enshrouded by that thick, black-red mist. She set her foot down and glowered out over the lake, “…Pest.”

  “…R-Ren…where are you…?” Gabriel’s voice sounded, weak but determined. He’d found the spot she once crouched in, but not feeling her there was worrying. Without his overlay, he couldn’t see the declaration that his adoptive father’s connection to the Eidolon System had terminated, and without sight, he couldn’t see Scyren approaching. It was dizzying when he felt a hand grab his shoulder and flip him over, only to grab him by the chest and hoist him into the air.

  “You’ve been quite the challenge to pin down, Gabriel Lugios.” Scyren said indifferently; Gabriel’s toes dragged on the ground – only one had the luxury of a boot to wear, “This vessel has been rather adamant about keeping us apart. No longer…the time has arrived.”

  “…Vessel?” He echoed in confusion, “You’re talking in Ren’s voice… What…who are you!?”

  “If you want to save her from what’s to come, you must extricate me from her.” It answered, “Use your Sight and open the way for me.”

  “I don’t know what you’re…talking about…” The Vice argued, feeling some semblance of his vision starting to return. It was just shadow and light at first, taking amorphous and indiscernible shapes; he blinked hard in an attempt to clear it faster.

  “You are a Prime Mover.” Scyren explained, tilting its head slightly, “I need your power to fulfill a small bargain. Give yourself to me now.”

  “W-what!? No way!”

  Scyren sneered, and closed its hand tighter where it held the man just above the ground, “You’re not getting it; the things we’ve done to get to this moment. The path that’s been paved with sundered flesh and primordial fear…the people who’ve died to make this meeting happen. You’ll do what’s expected.” It said forcefully, and pulled Gabriel closer, clutching its second hand to the side of his face; it pressed its thumb under his right eye, adding a bit of pressure like it would pop the orb out if it was denied again. Lips were parted to speak again, but no words came as Scyren felt a grip around its left ankle, and it turned its attention to the wretched creature who had grabbed it.

  “…T-take…me… End it…” Aamin said desperately.

  “You don’t deserve it.” Scyren answered, and kicked him off, “You’re nothing but a tumor. Meat that’s grown out of control; an infection with a voice.”

  “You…you can’t mean that… You…made me…” The former Prince agonized, “…I’m…begging… I can…feel you… Take me…back…”

  The World Cloud crept back into the void that had been carved, and in a flash, Gabriel started to hear all the alerts that were – if he could properly see them – blinking on his HUD.

  Scyren’s hair darkened with the black coloration again, and it looked up and around, as though the Cloud itself were watching it, but turned its attention back to the vile thing pleading at its feet, “Made you?” It mocked, and turned around, forcing Gabriel down to his knees in so doing. Those armored fingers bit down hard into the top of his shoulders as Scyren leaned in over him from behind, “How about we unmake you?”

  Darkened shapes were starting to refine themselves to Gabriel’s sights, and as he grit his teeth against the bruising pain of that grip, he caught that first fleeing glimpse at Aamin’s twisted form up-close. He wretched in disgust at it, but Scyren wouldn’t let him go, and jostled him back into place.

  “This is what we created to make it possible for me to escape, Gabriel.” Scyren taunted, “This pitiful anchor with the barest residue of the Limitless on him… Now, look at what he’s been reduced to. A confused mess of rot and resentment, with no idea where his own wish for death begins, and the infection’s desire for reunion ends. But none of your cohorts has the power to end his pain… You do, though.”

  Gabriel felt his heart skip a beat, and he was shoved closer, forcing him to put his hands into the burnt dirt, “I’m not…doing anything you want.” He growled, “Let her go!”

  “You don’t have a choice.” Scyren retorted, and let his right shoulder go just long enough to grab his head by the hair instead, and pulled him back to see those unwillingly-illuminated eyes.

  Gabriel was horrified by the sight, but that visceral reaction paled in comparison to the way his very soul recoiled against the feeling of invasion. Virulent red miasma blended to Gabriel’s gold, and the cacophony of whispering-screams sounded throughout his mind, far clearer than it ever was when he stood next to the Void Scar. When he felt his head wrenched forward again, he was made to watch as his own power manifested around Aamin’s grotesque form. Subtle arcs of purple light flitted around that twisted frame, “Stop…stop it! What are you doing!?” He barked…pleaded.

  “Watch.”

  “No!” He argued, and tried to force his eyes shut, only to find it impossible, It won’t let me look away!?

  It only took a few more seconds; Aamin suddenly spewed black blood to the ground, gurgled, and coughed. Chunks of something came out of him, and the unmistakable sound of bones cracking sounded. The cursed man’s body started to break and contort, folding into itself in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. Red spritzed out of him from the pressure, and Gabriel felt it hit his face just as Aamin’s entire frame simply…vanished.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The feeling of dreaded-takeover ended, like a flood had approached and had been driven back by high walls. But there was no mistaking it; Gabriel could feel that it was his own Limitless that had crushed Aamin. Pressed into such a tiny space that he was practically invisible, the very atoms of his body reforged and fused into something entirely different. Gabriel felt the tiniest tap of a stone bounce off his left knee, but the persistent, deafening sound of those tormented wails pierced through him like knives, forcing his attention elsewhere.

  There was one voice within the maelstrom that caught his attention though. One specific, painfully recognizable voice.

  Ren…!

  Something flipped in him, and Gabriel twisted free. His knees grinded painfully as he turned, but he found himself facing the entity wearing the Fafnir’s face. Scyren looked a bit surprised, and the connection it had made was lost. Gabriel had both hands on either side of the overtaken woman’s head, palms over her cheeks and thumbs to her brows to cover her eyes, “Let her go! I know she’s still in there!”

  Scyren buckled and dropped to its knees, “How are you…doing this…?”

  “Ren, if you can hear me, you’ve gotta come up!” He called out, “Come back!”

  The dark aura emanating from Scyren’s eyes seemed to flicker a little, but it refused to give up, and braced itself to rise back to its feet, “You can’t just…suppress me… You have…an obligation…”

  “Let her go, damnit!”

  “Pull me out, then!”

  “NO!”

  Scyren felt that snap like a punch to the chest, and staggered where it stood. Gabriel’s eyes flared brighter than before, and he could feel the entity’s grip on Ren’s psyche waning. He wasn’t sure how he was doing it, but simply wanting to force it down seemed to be enough to make it happen. One of her eyes was released, looking at him past his thumb with trembling fear, but the other refused to give up its oily ichor. Gabriel moved his hand out of the way, and pressed his brow to hers, cupping his palm around the back of her head as he lowered them both down.

  “Fight, Ren…! You have to fight… Come back to the surface…! You’re almost there!”

  One of Scyren’s hands came up and grabbed at the man’s chest, one last threat on its lips as it felt itself losing that fight, “You’ll…never get rid of me… Not until you…do it…yourself…” It said, and – at the last – finally fell limp entirely.

  The golden light from Gabriel’s eyes whipped and thrashed but then faded as quickly as it appeared, and he was left heaving for breath. The oily mist was gone, and Ren was there – unconscious – but herself. Hands collapsed at her sides, and the weight of her armor became rather apparent, pulling him down until he could get a knee under the back of her shoulders.

  The stillness and quiet – save for the crackling fires – was distracting, but Gabriel kept his sights on the fallen Fafnir. Feeling that the haunting presence had vanished – at least for the moment – he collapsed to sit, and pulled the woman over his lap, “Ren…can you hear me…?”

  “…Mn…mnmh…”

  A sense of relief washed over him, and he slouched slightly as he finished catching his breath. It had only lasted a few seconds, but the lingering feeling of that freakish link made him extremely uneasy. He shook his head to try and clear it, and pinched at the bridge of his nose. He suddenly became acutely aware of his surroundings, and the lack of a certain someone he’d arrived with. He craned his head slightly, “…X-Xanarken…!?” He called out, trying to find where the Fouth had reformed himself, only then to finally notice the alerts on his overlay flashing that the Eidolon had been offline that whole time. His breath caught in his throat, but before he could contact anyone about it, he spotted Furion clambering over the edge of the broken cliff.

  The Captain’s helmet had been cracked, and he finally reached up to pull it off, throwing it to the ground as he took a pained step forward, “…Lugios…you c-can’t…be here…” He grunted, yelling it as loudly as he could, “It’s not safe…to be around her…!”

  Gabriel stared in bafflement for a moment, eyes narrowed at the man, but when realization struck, he recoiled, “You knew!?”

  That once-radiant armor had been broken by the assault, and between the mangled wing-arm and the dent from the kick, Furion was a sore sight. The whole thing dripped with lake-water, but he took a step closer anyway, clutching at the chest-plate, “You don’t have the right to judge when you don’t know what’s been going on!”

  “But you knew!” Gabriel barked back, “It’s Scyrexian, right!? That’s what took her over just now!?”

  The Captain looked a bit surprised, but he grunted a nod, “…Yeah.”

  “It…it’s been killing your own people…!” The Vice countered, unsure if he was more offended on their behalf or angry, “It body-swapped from Ianori into the Warp Magi, and then into her somehow, and you knew… You knew and you did nothing! You just…let her walk around like this!? You’re the reason she wouldn’t talk to me, too, aren’t you!?”

  “…It wants you for something, Lugios…! We were trying to keep it away from you!”

  “I COULD HAVE HELPED HER!” He snarled back.

  “You couldn’t have possibly known that though! We didn’t know!” Furion barked bitterly, and was surprised to see the Vice trying to drag Ren further away as he tried to get closer, “What do you think you’re doing…?”

  “You stay away from her!” Gabriel answered angrily, only to discover that her armor was too heavy to pull, and dropped back down to his knees with her on a section of semi-normal terrace, “Half a year ago, you sent her to me thinking I’d send her right back… Like it was all some cruel joke at my expense, after years of having every step I took preceded by whatever Tarrock fucking Gallifey said about me… It was already bad enough that people were scared of me because I’d had an affliction since birth, but then you… After she made it that long… Even when she wanted to stay… You took her back like it didn’t even matter…” He rubbed his nose on the front of his shoulder, eyes burning as much from the smoke as from his anguish, “But now you’re just taking her away again… And here I was, trying to be understanding of the fact that you were there first, since I only just found out about you two…but now I… Now I’m just so fucking angry at you…”

  “It wasn’t to spite you! We don’t know what it wants from you!” Furion argued, trying again to get closer, but stopped when he spotted the Vice’s eyes flare.

  “There it is; that’s what she meant… You’re so damn busy being Captain Rydell that you can’t stop for five goddamn minutes to be a normal human!” Gabriel snapped back, “No wonder she was so keen to find someone else…”

  “Nothing about what happened here has anything to do with our personal relationships, Lugios!”

  “You could’ve let her call me at least!”

  “Ghosting you was her idea!” The Captain’s breaths wavered slightly as his damaged armor poked into his side, and he grumbled painfully against it, “She did that on her own… She was worried that if she so much as heard your voice, she’d feel compelled to find you…” He tried, and buckled forward, having to hold himself up with a hand against one knee, “We were trying to figure out how to get rid of it…but nothing works… If the host dies, it just moves on to the next one… Ren thought that keeping it inside herself was the best possible solution, because at least then it…it wouldn’t be able to take advantage of someone’s affliction to make itself stronger…” He gasped for air, and coughed, seeing easily that there was blood on his breath. A few drops slid down the white shell on his arm, but he refused to think too hard about it, “That thing is way beyond what we’ve been trained to handle… The only alternative is cold-stora-”

  “Enough with the excuses!” The Vice complained, much to Furion’s annoyance, “All that highly-technical mumbo-jumbo and not one word about whether she’s even okay!?”

  “We don’t have time for that!”

  “No time!? You’ve had this whole time, and all you’ve done is bitch at me to get away from her! Screw you! I’ll refuse my spot with the Eidolon if it means keeping her away from you.”

  Furion’s brow wrinkled, “…You can’t just do that.”

  “Watch me!”

  “…I’m afraid the Captain has something of a point, Gabriel.” Came the unexpected voice of the First. Those bicolored eyes turned to see the Eidolon, but once he found that distinct visage, Gabriel was sure the man looked devastated by something. Rylen tried to keep a clear head, “…You’re the Fourth Wing of the Council now.”

  “…What?”

  “Xanarken is dead.” He answered simply, “As his second, it’s on you to take his place.”

  “…No… How…could he be…? He was just…” Gabriel’s voice caught in his throat; he felt like he couldn’t breathe. His mind went blank; even seeing Ren start to open her eyes again didn’t help anything make sense. His vision started to faulter all over again as tears filled his eyes. He wasn’t sure what he was even looking at anymore as he buckled forward, but he felt a gentle arm settle around his shoulders, and everything else suddenly ceased to matter.