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XCOM: Ranger

by Wanderer D

Chapter 109: Chapter 107: Resonance

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Ranger

Chapter 107: Resonance

By Wanderer D

*** Earlier ***

"Tracking bio-metrics," An engineer called out. "All green, teleportation was successful."

"Keep an eye on them," Bradford ordered, "We don't know how it affects anyone, and any information we get now will be useful in the future."

Twilight carefully made her way through the command center. Engineers were running from one place to another, Tygan was glued to a screen alongside Shen, both watching data fly through it, taking notes, and bookmarking parts of the flow for future reference.

"Alright everyone, eyes wide open, the Assassin might already be here." Sunset's voice came through the comms.

A series of affirmatives echoed across the room from Jane and the others. Twilight turned to face "The Mosaic"; a large screen that showed all the active cameras from the ground teams. Each smaller square had the name and title of each one of the members: Sunset's at the top left, followed by Annette and Jane's to the right of it, then right below her, was Angel's camera, followed by Laetitia's and Elena's. The names were all green at this time, an indication that so far they hadn't been seriously injured.

The comms once again shared Sunset's orders. "Spread; Annette, Angel, you're on the left; Elena, Jane, you take the right. Laetitia and I will go center and support as needed. We have bogies to either side. Take them down fast."

Twilight stepped back, allowing another Engineer to get past her, then decided that the ground level was not the best place for her. She could gather the data she'd supervise from a less hectic position as Annette and Sunset talked.

"Do we know what they are?"

"Mutons. And a Berserker. They're not aware of us yet."

From the staircase to the upper level, where Chrysalis was overseeing the whole thing, Twilight could clearly see the large screen next to The Mosaic light up with a picture of both types of aliens, and several data bits highlighted for reference.

"Then it's about time we make them aware."

High stakes missions. Even higher chances of death… but they were attacking a fellow Equestrian. 'How should I feel about this?' Twilight thought, eyes wandering over to the people milling about. 'I want XCOM to win, but… Aria seemed so lonely.'

Sunset's voice echoed in the room once more, waking Twilight from her daydream. "Let's play defensively for now. No point in rushing in and getting too much attention before we bring them down. I don't see any sign of the Assassin… but it doesn't mean she's not here. I can… feel the magic… somewhere undefined."

Sunset sounded so decisive. So sure of herself. Like there would be no regrets, ever. 'Could I ever… be so sure? That I hadn't killed someone, or somecreature that deserved to live?'

"Hello, Twilight," Chrysalis greeted her as soon as she made it up the stairs. She stood next to the commander, watching the screens.

"How do you want to do this, then?" Once more the decision would come to Sunset. Frankly, Twilight would hate to be there, if she was honest with herself.

The pair watched the cameras all turn to Sunset, who grinned.

"Oh no, she's going to do something stupid…" Chrysalis muttered.

"How do you know?" Twilight asked.

"She's always had that same, stupid, shit-eating grin when she's going to do something questionable."

They watched in silence as Sunset's team spread as ordered, and Sunset herself simply sauntered over to the bored-looking Mutons.

"Excuse me, I seem to have made a wrong turn. I was told the restrooms were this way."

"Oh my Celestia," Twilight shook her head, covering her face with a hand.

Chrysalis growled, and someone in the engineer area let out a very hysterical-sounding laugh. It seemed most people were not ready to deal with this kind of insanity. Even at a distance.

The fight started, and Twilight couldn't tear her eyes away from the screens. Sunset was ruthless, looking like she enjoyed this kind of thing. Even though they were their enemies, was it simply okay to be so callous about it? Take advantage of their confusion and just… kill them?

Annette and Sunset were conversing as if nothing had happened. What was it like, to be so callous?

Twilight's eyes lit up with interest when the massive pillar of psionic energy appeared and the Assassin spoke up. Aria was finally there.

"Of course!" Tygan shouted from below, quickly pressing a button and plugging into the comms. "Menace, that giant, rectangular thing behind the column of energy! It is the source of the column itself! I have no doubts left that destroying… that… sarcophagus… will put an end to the Assassin's regenerative abilities!"

Despite the circumstances, Twilight brought up her tablet. "That's where it comes from? But… how does it regenerate a whole biological being? The Assassin is not made up of energy! That container just defies everything we thought we knew!"

"You heard the man, Menace," Chrysalis growled into the comms, eyes fixed on the image of the distant device. "Whatever you want to call it doesn't matter. Destroy it!"

"Incoming!" an engineer announced, "The Chosen has summoned more enemies!" on the screen where the muton and berserker images were, a new image appeared, that of the deadly chrysalids.

"Half of Menace is down!" another engineer shouted, and Twilight's eyes went back to the main screen. Angel, Annette and Sunset's cameras showed the floor or the ceiling, rather than their enemies. Elena and Jane were firing desperately at rushing chrysalids and Laetitia's camera showed her running towards Sunset.

Angel recovered first, but she wasn't fast enough. The camera recorded the upcoming backhand from the berserker, and then it was spinning until it came to a sudden stop with a distant cracking sound.

Sunset's camera in the meantime showed the berserker, standing above her, ready to stomp down.

A shout echoed through the comms as Laetitia's view was suddenly in the air, rushing towards the berserker, with psi-blades charged.

Twilight braced herself as she watched the berserker being dispatched. She had a feeling this was going to be much more violent than usual. She was just glad her friends would never be exposed to this level of mayhem and violence.

"This is probably the best we could have hoped for, given her silence," Celestia said.

She was sitting at the end of a long table, where Twilight's friends also sat. She had received Twilight's short, but meaningful, reply earlier that day, but had been unable to find the free time to call them all over until then.

Pinkie Pie and Spike were the only two eating, while the others had taken some food for their plates, but were politely listening.

"Ah still don't get why it's so hard to write us back," Applejack sighed. "Ah mean, we're here for her! Ah feel like we're failin' her in some way."

"I understand how you feel, darling, but… let's face it, Twilight is far away and the only thing we can do at this time, is offer our distant, if heartfelt support."

"I never thought I'd say this, but… Rarity's right," Rainbow Dash spoke up, earning a glare from the fashionista. "Twilight now knows we're thinking of her, and that we have her back whenever she needs us. Right now she needs to talk to her therapist, but whenever she needs, us, we'll be here."

"Hear! Hear!" Pinkie grinned.

"It's still so scary that she lives in such a violent world... " Fluttershy said, "I hope she keeps in mind we want her to be safe and that she's missed."

They all jumped when Celestia slammed her hooves on the table, standing up worriedly. "Luna!"

She was gone in a flash before they could, react, appearing outside of her sister's quarters. The doors were enchanted shut, but even through the magical barrier, she could feel her sister's distress.

The sudden impact of her sister's magic had been unexpected, and now she was terrified of what could be possibly happening in there, that had her sister's defenses and magical signal so powerfully affected.

"Luna!" she called banging on the door with her hoof, but there was no response. Her sister was there, but there was no sense of recognition from within the room.

Celestia heard galloping and turned around, facing Twilight's friends as they gathered anxiously outside Luna's room.

"What's going on?" Applejack asked, her eyes wide with worry.

"I don't know," Celestia growled, "But I am going to find out!" She turned to face the door, whispering a request of forgiveness from her sister. "Stand back!"

The others did so as Celestia reared back on her hind legs, gathering magic from her horn and transferring it to her forehooves, she then slammed forth with all her might, splintering both the door and spell with a thunderous blast that shook the castle itself.

She glared authoritatively at the guards that had rushed to their location. "I do not want anypony else approaching this hall. It is off-limits until I say so. The Elements and I will handle this."

"Y-yes your majesty!" One of the soldiers stammered, saluting. A second later they had split into teams and were herding away curious onlookers, visitors, nobles, and staff alike.

Celestia looked at the others and nodded, motioning with her head for them to follow.

Luna's room was dark and cool, as usual, and surprisingly, the only damage was that which Celestia herself had inflicted on the door. Luna herself, sat—back straight and eyes closed—on her bed, with a calm expression, occasionally marred by the odd twitching of an eyebrow or eye.

"What's going on?" Fluttershy whispered, "I thought Luna was in trouble…"

"Everything seems so… calm…" Rarity agreed.

But, despite appearances, Celestia could feel the ongoing magical stress. What was her sister doing? "She's… in a magical trance."

That drew the attention of the others.

"I can feel the conflict going on, but… this is unusual, it's dream magic." Celestia considered her options. "The only way to wake Luna up is to go in…"

"Then we're goin' with you," Applejack's tone brooked no argument.

Celestia was touched, but she couldn't. "I can't risk you girls getting hurt by this and—"

"Please," Fluttershy said, her soft voice so loud in the silence that followed.

Celestia turned her head, looking at the shy pegasus, who flew over to take her hoof. "Please, princess… we can't do anything for Twilight right now… let us help our other friends."

'Don't tear up, Celestia.' She looked deep into the pegasus' eyes, and then at the resolute faces of Twilight's… no… her friends. They were her friends too. Finally, swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded. "Gather in a circle, and hold each other's hooves."

The girls quickly took their place and Celestia concentrated, feeling the flow of magic from her spell slowly touch the minds of the others… "Be ready…" she whispered, reaching their collective consciousness into Luna's dreamspell.

Fluttershy screamed.

The humongous, bipedal mass of muscle struggled to disjoint another bipedal creature… a human, which had ethereal blades made of pure mental energy embedded into it. Below it, a familiar human covered in something like orange, metallic paint rolled, grasping a device of some sort and then, with a deafening boom blew the knee of the large creature, making it collapse onto the other with a roar.

The psi-blade wielding human took several desperate stabs as Celestia slowly recognized that the supposed paint, was actually the same color as the blood of the creature they were fighting.

"Annette! Check on Angel!" Sunset ordered, and the girls gasped in surprise, Fluttershy shouting a weak "Angel!" and gasping in surprise when a human ran to check on, of all things, a giant, very-dangerous looking snake.

"What in tarnation?!" Applejack shouted, her frustrated confusion echoed by a scream of terror from Rarity when Sunset's weapon tore the large creature's head into small pieces. Shrill cries reached their ears as the Psi-wielder turned around to confront upcoming giant insects, but Sunset was running towards the middle of the room already.

Celestia ran after her, followed closely by the elements. Although they couldn't be seen, heard or touched in this place, they were horrified and scared… and Celestia couldn't blame them. She felt the same way.

"ARIA!" Sunset shouted, seeming to attack the air itself with her sword—a red glowing blade of some sort—that whistled as it hit nothing. Celestia gasped as she caught a shimmering form dodging the swing, but Sunset didn't relent, viciously swinging again, as a tall, very thin, blue humanoid slowly materialized in front of her.

"Holy—" Rainbow Dash shouted, instinctively jumping out of the way as Sunset fell back, barely avoiding being sliced by this… Aria's… blade.

The exchange was brutal, on her back, on the floor, Sunset fired her weapon straight at her opponent's chest, blasting holes entirely through her, but it incredibly… horrifically… the creature didn't die, snarling in challenge instead.

"Sunset!" Celestia gasped, as the creature stabbed down viciously with her sword, missing just when Sunset rolled out of reach and quickly stood up, blowing up her opponent while taking something from her.

"Princess!" Rarity called as the creature disappeared into psi-dust, "Princess! What's going on, why are we in this-this dreadful place?!"

"I-I don't know!" Celestia answered, looking in panic as Sunset and another human ran towards the large psionic device at the end of the room. "She should be here! But she isn't!"

They all flinched when the weapons unloaded once more, this time against the psionic device. If that was their objective, it gave her hope to know that the damage done would destroy it soon. Her hope didn't last long.

Materializing between Sunset and her ally, Aria gave the latter a kick so strong, it sent her flying back over the stairs and down, to land painfully on the floor. Fluttershy cried in shock and flew over to check on her, Celestia's gaze was on what was happening to her daughter.

She cried out when Aria shot her weapon, hurting her little filly.

"W-we need to leave!" Rainbow Dash stammered, horrified as Sunset was kicked in the stomach, rolling down the stairs to land in a pool of blood.

She and Applejack recoiled when Sunset threw up blood and rolled onto her back, trying to move away from the menacing creature. A futile attempt, as her strength was quickly fading and this Aria monster was barely damaged at all.

The creature twirled her own sword, slamming it down through Sunset's thigh, eliciting a painful cry that tore at Celestia's heart. "Sunset!"

Applejack and the others stared, as if finally recognizing who that was. They gasped in horror as the cruel creature stepped on the injured human, clearly pressing down to hurt her even more.

"Sunset!" Celestia cried again, hoping she could somehow… somehow... do something. Anything.

"Give it back!"

An explosion and shots shook the world around them, and Celestia turned to see that the other humans had taken the opportunity to practically destroy the psionic device, which was enough for Aria to step away from Sunset for just a second.

The psi-blade human attacked ferociously alongside the giant snake who shot some sort of energy weapon at the monster, managing to destroy her once more. Aria, however materialized in front of the device almost immediately, quickly disabling the humans above, and then, after maneuvering the psi-blade human and the snake into a compromised position, knocked them both unconscious.

The moment their craniums met and the pair collapsed, however, Luna was flung out of the human psionic, landing on a heap at the bottom of the platform.

"N-no!" Luna stammered, fighting to get up, but she was obviously tired. The world around them waved and fizzled, but Luna planted her hooves on the floor and growled, feeding more magic to the world. "I won't let you win, monster!"

"LUNA!"

The younger princess winced in surprise, looking over at Celestia, who stood over Sunset's body.

"C-celestia?"

"What's the meaning of this?"

"It'll have to wait, sister," Luna growled, trying, and failing to step back towards the fallen bodies. "Aria… the vile siren turned monster is about to kill Annette!"

"Princess!" Pinkie Pie called from where she was, looking down worriedly at Sunset. "It's Sunset!"

Fearing the worst, Celestia looked down at her daughter, who seemed to somehow, be looking up at her.

Her lips were cracked, and she was clearly in immense pain, but could she see her?

Celestia sighed. No. Sunset couldn't. Her gaze was not at Celestia, but farther beyond.

"P-princess…"

Celestia's eyes widened and she looked down at her daughter, as she pushed herself up, channeling magic—blood magic, no doubt—to heal herself a little. She leaned down, trying to listen to her daughter's almost whispered words.

"Princess…" Sunset repeated, leaning forth to grab the hilt of the sword pinning it down, "Princess please… mom… please… I can't let her…" she struggled, wincing in pain as she slowly slid the sword out of her thigh with sick, squelching sound.

"It has to end… she can't win… she can't… kill..." Sunset groaned, but the effort had cost her too much, and she slumped down, unconscious.

"Sister, no!" Luna's call went unheeded, and she and the other ponies with her disappeared into nothing.

The pain.

The pain was brutal. The body uncomfortable. Unknown. Unfamiliar. She used her magic to force it up and stumble, dragging the heavy sword with her. She stumbled, each step sending nerve-burning pain up her spine, her brain, her everything.

She could hear the Aria creature.

Bargaining.

Scheming.

It was distracted. She had to take her down now. Somehow, but… one attack? Could she do it?

Then she felt it. Sunset's consciousness as she woke up, staring at the back of her opponent. There was barely any confusion as the way they both viewed the world changed and suddenly Celestia could see the ruby-lit silhouette of the beating heart within the body in front of her.

She felt Sunset's hands rise… and thrust.

o.0.o End Chapter 107 o.0.o

Next Chapter: Chapter 108: Happy Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 22 Minutes
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