Chapter Text
Blue and red shooting stars raced across the sky, colliding and crashing with one another in short starbursts. A greatsword like sunlight met a lance like the moon. Each clash could be felt even as far away as the deck of the Hyperion, and by the small crowd gathered there. The bolt of blue reared back in a loop, met in motion by blazing red, both sides held a sparking clash.
"Kiana... you will submit yourself to Schicksal by demand of Overseer Otto Apocalypse." Durandal let far more aggravation escape her usually unshakeable facade than normal.
"I won't! And I won't let you go back there either!" The girl let her guarding blade drop, luring Durandal in close enough to hit her with an air-splitting kick. The valkyrie quickly righted herself, throwing Hler's Serenity squarely at her, warping herself back to its side the instant it had sped past the Kaslana girl.
"Your determination is admirable." She started in a whisper, close enough to Kiana's ear to send a shiver up her spine. She stabbed with her lance once again, meeting a spiral of subspace material shielding her target. "But I have been given a mission!" With her declaration, she tore through the makeshift shield, forcing Kiana to warp back several paces.
"You don't have to listen to him!" A wave of flame arced for Durandal.
"I picked a side." She knocked it away easily. Not even worth dodging.
"He's only using you. Think about what he did to your memories! You're not-!" She had to duck under the razor point that swiped the space her head was in only a moment ago.
"That doesn't matter in the face of fighting for an ideal!" Next, a ray of light gathered and blasted the girl cleanly away. She bolted down, as fast as she could to meet with the falling Kiana. Something was falling off of her.
Feathers.
In an explosion of Fenghuang Down's power there was suddenly a red eye mere inches away. Fu Hua- No, the Herrscher of Sentience's.
You let me fight for her, Durandal. You knew back then, didn't you? It was about more than just fighting for an ideal, it was about saving a life. Not even Otto's tricks could make you hurt someone you care about. Because you're a-
She grit her teeth and clashed once again with Kiana. Durandal looked to the dot on the horizon speeding for them. She felt like she could see the immortal phoenix looking back at her, even from that distance. The specter of the Queen, part of her battlesuit, manifested and shoved Kiana from her. Then she sent the King to fly at her. A glint of orange, though, and suddenly some kind of robot sped forward, meeting spear with fist in a cataclysmic eruption.
Project Bunny, and the Herrscher of Reason's power.
Kiana is Kiana. No matter what name she uses, she will always be Bronya's friend. Bronya will protect her, always. Just like Kiana will fight to protect y-
Durandal felt like her head might split. She was trying so desperately not to think of what had been said, what had been revealed. None of it mattered, she had a duty to fulfill and that was that, that's all she knew. She pushed off of the air itself, then she heard it, the rumble of thunder.
Electricity arced up and down the blade as Kiana's left eye became violet. But how? Durandal was certain she left the Herrscher of Thunder far behind after their fight.
Kiana is the one most dear to me. I will do anything to make sure she's safe. No matter who you are, you will not take her back to the man who caused all this in the first place!
She fully expected Kiana to strike her down, then and there. Instead, a rippling bolt shot past her, making enough of a thunderous shockwave that it threw Durandal from her path. She grit her teeth and righted herself, even as the last memories of her last battle with Mei played out The name she had called Durandal at the end of it. She didn't care any longer, she dropped one spear and called another one to hand, the famous Divine Key. She needed to end this quickly.
"I... Will... Take you back!" She called out against the flash of memory. Damn all this nonsense! She would do this, even if it needed to be with her impaled on her weapon. Kiana didn't seem to want to dodge. Instead, she rested, from floating to standing on a pink circle in the air. The tip raced straight for her stomach...
Then it stopped. The weapon stopped itself, and the entire might of Durandal, as though it were nothing. The razor point a mere inch away from impaling the other girl. She strained, pushed with all her might to cross the final threshold.
"...Abyss Flower was with Cecilia in the Second Eruption." Kiana said. "It carries some of her wishes with it. Can't you see? You can't hurt me with that because Mom wants her daughters to live."
Daughters. The word only worsened the splitting migraine, flashes of some few, vague memories of a white-haired woman carrying her. A shadow in some glass tank a large man wanted?
"Shut UP!!" She dropped the Divine Key and roared, calling up a power that would obey her. She pulled from the bubble universe within her, white and blue armor shattering for gold. Kiana was blown far, far away. Durandal called up celestial blue lances, sending them flying after her. They were suddenly met with several subspace flechettes, detonating on impact. Durandal wasted no time, however, weaving around the small explosions to levy a wicked downward kick.
Kiana let her sword drop into imaginary space, blocking with her arms, holding herself up on the platform she made.
"Kiana!!" Durandal growled. This girl had to be who she was, or else everything, every single memory she had was nothing more than... Then that would mean Otto..!
"I'm... Not... Kiana!!" She strained, pushing Durandal off of her with a mighty heave. She gathered her might and tackled her assailant, and they became comets once again, hurtling to the earth. The white-haired girl clutched the fighting Durandal close as they cratered into the land below. The ruined Saint Freya. When the dust was clear, Durandal was looking up from her back at the other.
"I'm... Sirin. Your sister." She took Durandal's hand and placed something into it, even as the girl in the golden armor lost consciousness.
A hair clip, shaped like a chameleon.
---
Kiana, or Sirin, left the medical bay of the Hyperion alongside Fu Hua. Durandal, or Kiana, was still unconscious when they brought her there. Kiana- Sirin, pinched her brow. This was going to get difficult quickly.
"Kiana." Fu Hua broke in. "Take it from my experience, it's best not to worry about what to call each other right now."
"...Thanks, Class Monitor." She shuffled her feet and held one arm behind her back. "And thank you, again, for listening to my selfish request."
"Even if it weren't because of what Otto had planned for her, we would have helped. I only wish I could do more." A few feathers floated in her palm. "Her memories have been severely tampered with by Void Archives. I can undo things like illusions, or broken pathways between memories, but if any were taken then we'll need that feather to get it back."
"Like when Bronya and I saw your memories?"
"Precisely. Even then, we may be able to do something. If the memories are gone, their effects on the soul can still last."
Memories of how her own soul had crossed over the void came to mind. The girl who wanted a family. The elevator stopped, Kiana nodded for Hua to go first, and the pair spilled onto the bridge.
"Kiana." Mei greeted her first. She was in comfortable-looking white clothing, eyes a mix of blue and violet. "How was our new patient?" The others were all waiting. Theresa, Mei, Bronya, Seele, Einstein, and Tesla were all present. The red-haired scientist was, of course, the first to speak up.
"She better be good after all the trouble we went through to get her away from Schicksal."
"Come now, Doctor Tesla. I would think you would be the first to condone kidnapping one of Schicksal's own after your deluxe stay there."
"Shut up, Mophead!"
"Both of you!" Theresa warned. "Go on, Kiana."
"She's stable, at least. But it might be really hard to get her memories back." Kiana started. Bronya took up the next line.
"At least she isn't in Otto's hands. You saved her, Kiana."
"More than just her. If what we discovered really was true, we might have seen another full-scale eruption." Mei added.
Another Kaslana family staple. Both daughters decimating humanity, great.
Both daughters. It still felt strange to think of the distant, aloof Durandal as a Kaslana. It wasn't like she were against the idea. Far from it, but it was just another reminder that Siegfried had spent time with her. He had to choose between them and the fallout was presented before her on the platter of a hospital bed. At any moment she could wake, rip her way through the decks with the power of a universe, and-
Well, this was what the others had already dealt with. The difference being that Kiana had been dear friends with them all, she was beholden to them long before Saint Freya. Hopefully the past weeks of trying to get through to Durandal meant something, anything.
If not then Tesla would really let them have it for saving and housing Rita on board.
"Kiana? Are you okay?" Mei's voice broke through the fog.
"Ah, Mei. Sorry, I was just... thinking."
"Thinking. Are you unwell, Kiana?" Bronya asked. The pair traded a smile before the Kaslana girl wrapped her arm around Bronya and rubbed her knuckles in her grey hair.
At least they were together. Sirin had a family. People she loved. A father, somewhere. A sister, the innocent girl who welcomed the odd one in the laboratory. Perhaps she was still there somewhere.