Chapter Text
The pain of the tip of Tessa’s sword slowly pressing into Uzi’s core was an intense one. To Uzi, it felt like a white hot drill boring into her chest that she was powerless to stop.
“W-why the h-hell…d-do you want m-me dead?” Uzi asked, her voice glitchy.
“Look…this isn’t anything personal.” Tessa said, a small twinge of regret in her tone. “It’s just either you die or the universe does. And between you and me, we both know what the preferable option would be. I’m pretty sure your mom would agree.”
Uzi became surprised upon hearing that. “…H-how did you know my m-mom?”
Tessa raised her sword slightly off of Uzi’s chest before speaking again. “I was around in this very place during our original attempts to keep the Solver contained after…y’know, what Cyn did. Real shame about Nori, she seemed like a sweet woman.”
She sighed and paused for a minute before continuing. “It broke my heart to send that Disassembly Drone squadron after her…”
Uzi completely froze. This human girl, the one about to kill her, was who sent the pods to Copper-9. She was responsible for the death of her mother…at that moment, her mind completely broke.
“…What?”
Almost immediately, Tessa realized what she just said.
Shit. That wasn’t supposed to come out.
“O-okay, mate…I know that sounds bad, but-”
Sadly, she couldn’t finish her sentence before Uzi ripped the sword out of her hands and stood before whacking Tessa in the head with the handle, knocking her to the floor as her helmet fell off.
“H-hey, easy! There’s no need to fly off the handle!” She said, trying to quell the situation.
“YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!” Uzi shouted, her Absolute Solver now out in full force.
“You don’t understand! It needed to be done, it was for the greater good!” Tessa protested.
“AND LOOK WHERE THAT GOT YOU, HUH?! CYN’S TRIED TO GET TO ME NOW, AND YOU THOUGHT KILLING ME WOULD JUST MAGICALLY FIX EVERYTHING!” Uzi yelled again. “Well, guess what? You got your chance…but now I’m gonna take control. And this time, I’ll ensure Cyn never comes back…”
With that, she dropped the blade of the sword directly into Tessa’s arm, slicing it clean off as she screamed in pain.
“Be happy I’m sparing you for now…” Uzi snarled as she walked out of the room, leaving Tessa to bleed out.
As she laid there, the regret inside her grew and grew even more. If only her stupid decision making didn’t rear its ugly head. Sure, she did know about the patch, but her frenzied state of mind led her to believe Uzi had to die for the Solver to be stopped. It had been the same mistake she had made with Nori all those years ago, the very same one she had nearly made now, perhaps at an even bigger cost.
Someone landing in the cathedral soon made Tessa lift her head. From her spot on the floor, she spotted V rushing up to her, apparently having survived her confrontation with all those Sentinels. Yeah, she had a few scratches on her, but she was more or less okay.
“Tessa, what the hell happened?!” V asked as she helped her stand.
“V, it’s…it’s nothing, I’m fine.” Tessa tried to dismiss.
“No you’re not! Your arm is freaking gone!” V said. “We need to get you back up to the ship. Are there any prosthetics still onboard?”
“There may be a few…” Tessa said a little more weakly. Not wasting any time, V flew off carrying Tessa.
Back in the tunnel, N had been trying to get away from Cyn for what felt like hours. These lower hallways felt like a maze, and he never knew which direction he had last gone in. But no matter what, Cyn always managed to find him.
Soon enough, he found an abandoned research lab and hid in it, as Cyn seemingly dashed by not seeing him. Leaning against a wall and slumping to the floor, he tried to catch his breath.
Too close a call…way too close a call…
Truth be told, he didn’t even know how many brushes with near death he could handle. He was already grappling with the need to potentially kill Uzi, having to deal with an eldritch abomination was too much for him.
“[GIGGLE] Get snuck up-on.”
The sudden voice made him stiffen up as Cyn’s form rose in front of him. “H-heeeey, Cyn…listen, can we just talk about this whole ‘blowing up the universe’, thing? Surely there could be something else you’d like to do, right?”
Cyn feigned thinking for a moment.
“Hmmm…nah.”
With that, Cyn threw out a hand to strike N. He immediately braced himself…but the impact never came.
Opening his eyes again, she saw Cyn’s arm stopped mere inches from his head, restrained by wire constructs, and an Absolute Solver symbol on her chest, both of them purple. Peering behind Cyn, he spotted Uzi standing behind her, not letting her move. And she looked mad.
Cyn turned around to face Uzi, annoyed. “[GROAN] Why do you persist in ruining my fun?”
“You call what you did ‘fun’?” Uzi snarled. “Do you even know all the pain you caused my mom?! She died because of you and this stupid Solver! AND SO MANY OTHERS DID, TOO!”
The purple Solver symbol on Cyn’s chest suddenly sprouted small tendrils, boring directly through her body and into Uzi’s fingers.
“Just for all that, you shouldn’t even have this power! SO I’M TAKING IT ALL AWAY! EVERY! LAST! BIT!”
Instantly, Cyn fell to her knees in unbearable agony as the tendrils turned yellow. It felt like her energy was literally being drained out of her, as well as her own life force. It seemed to last for an eternity before she was finally released and Uzi kicked her to the ground.
“Piece of tin…”
Irritated, Cyn forced herself upright and held out her hand to use the Solver again…but nothing happened.
All her power was gone.
She looked at her hand horrified for only a second before falling back down.
As she did, N finally got a look at Uzi.
Her form had somehow changed. Her usual hoodie and boots had vanished somehow, leaving her body covered in what looked like a black ash material from the neck down. A mutated Absolute Solver symbol adorned her chest and purple and yellow lines that looked like veins lined her body. Her eyes, however, stood out the most. They were blood red, and a huge reservoir of rage was hidden behind them.
He wasn’t lying, he was relieved to see her, but…she looked kinda scary right now.
“What…what did you just do, Uzi?” N asked.
“Finally got that stupid virus out of her.” Uzi said coldly. “But may as well put it to good use if it’ll be in me for the foreseeable future…seems like my chance to finally cleanse the rest of this horrible universe.”
“…What do you mean ‘cleanse’?” N asked again, more shakily. “You’re…starting to scare me.”
“All those planets out there, everything Cyn touched…it’s all corrupted, far beyond saving…I’m gonna burn it all down so it can start anew, beginning with Earth and those stupid humans…” Uzi said. “Don’t try to stop me, you’ll thank me later.”
Uzi then suddenly warped away before N could say anything. He just stood there for a moment, unable to process what he heard. Did…Uzi just turn evil?
A coughing sound caught his attention moments later. Peering down, he saw Cyn curled up on the floor, her eyes barely illuminated on her visor and oil leaking from her mouth.
She was dying.
Panicked, N scooped her up into his arms. “C-Cyn! What’s happening?!”
“T-the Solver…” Cyn said weakly. “It was…the only t-thing…k-keeping me alive…I don’t…think I have…very long.”
“D-don’t say that! I-I’ll take you to Tessa! She’ll find a way to fix you up!” N said frantically as he rushed out of the room still holding Cyn. He had to get her to Tessa now.
J had spent what felt like hours keeping watch over the ship per Tessa’s orders. So much time had passed that she was more or less convinced they had died. She was on her 57th round of Solitaire when the ship’s main door opened and V ran in holding Tessa. Her eyes widened in fear when she saw a bloody stump where her arm should be.
“Wh-what the hell happened to her?!” J asked.
“U-Uzi…she cut off my arm…” Tessa replied.
“Ugh…I knew she was trouble…” J grumbled. “V, get her to sick bay and fit her for a prosthetic, now!”
As soon as V rushed into the ship’s medical area, N was the next to rush in. The first thing J saw was Cyn in his arms.
She was gonna yell at him for bringing her onto the ship until she saw Cyn’s condition. She knew at that moment that the Solver had been taken out somehow, but Cyn was barely alive.
“S-sorry, J! I-”
“I don’t have time for an explanation, moron-bot. I’ll see what we can do for her.” J said, N rushing Cyn into the medical area a moment later.
A few hours would go by before Tessa got her prosthetic arm on, and she had returned to the captain’s chair. Despite being patched up, the guilt of what she did was still fresh. She should’ve just done something differently...
She failed her friends…she failed everyone…
“So, Tessa…” V piped up. “You never told me why Uzi dismembered you.”
“She…” Tessa forced out. “She found out I was responsible for her mom’s death…”
V’s face seemed to drop as she grumbled to herself before speaking again. “Well, no wonder she did that! And on top of that you tried to kill her! Is is that hard for you to find even a semblance of a middle ground for anything?! This has to be the most selfish thing you’ve done so far…”
She paused her tangent when she saw Tessa was crying. The frustration was washed away in that moment, replaced with mild sympathy. Tessa had meant well, but…her judgement left a ton to be desired.
“There’s…more to it.” N said.
“How so?” V asked.
“She…she saved me from Cyn…took away her Solver. But…she said she was gonna destroy everything Cyn corrupted, and she’s going for Earth first.”
Tessa became terrified at the last part. She had broken her more than she could ever realize, and she was gonna kill everyone because of her.
She wasn’t gonna let it happen, though. Her objective had changed, now being to save Uzi from whatever darkness engulfed her.
“Get to your stations. We’re gonna save her.” She said, determined. “No matter what has to be done.”
With that, the ship took off directly to Earth, now on a mission to save the universe from the end.