Unity felt a small wave of relief as she stepped into the Citadel’s courtyard, but it was soured by the various complications she had had to deal with.

The revelation that two sapient suits of power armor even existed was an unpleasant surprise, and the fact that they had managed to escape with two Squires was irritating beyond belief. Add in the difficulty of keeping the Brotherhood of Steel, the crystal monsters, and the Rainbooms under control, and Unity was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t have just left the army at Raven Rock and conquered the Citadel by herself. On the plus side, now that all of her new subjects were gathered in place, it would be much easier to keep them on a tight leash.

Striding slowly across the courtyard, Unity looked around at each of her people, dipping deeper into each of their minds in turn to see what she could glean beneath the initial resistance. Most of it wasn’t particularly useful; flashes of loved ones, families, pets, minor grievances, friendly hangouts, alcohol, chems, sex, even radio shows. Some, however, were more productive, such as outpost locations, trade and water routes, settlement populations, and other nuggets of strategic information.

Much to Unity’s concern, she found several memories of Horrigan in real combat. The knowledge of what he was really capable of was disturbing to say the least. Defeating him would be simplicity itself if he could be mind-controlled, but Unity suspected that her mother would probably build another of those awful inhibitors to make his mind untouchable.

Scowling, Unity considered ways of overcoming Horrigan until she noticed a strange thought crossing one of her subjects’ minds. Fluttershy was staring intently at something as she obediently followed her master. Curious, Unity dove into Fluttershy’s senses and noticed a faint buzzing sound coming from an empty spot near the wall. It sounded almost like a tiny set of thrusters.

With a jolt, Unity realized that something was spying on her, most likely using a Stealth Boy or some similar technology. Whatever it was, she couldn’t sense its mind in the slightest. She quickly snatched up a nearby toolbox with her telekinesis and whipped around to hurl it at the hidden spy. The toolbox sailed through the air until it smashed harmlessly against the Citadel’s wall, but something invisible let out a surprised series of beeps and chirps. Out of nowhere, a volley of scarlet lasers flashed out and struck Unity in the torso. Her body was still crystalline, despite its appearance, so the lasers simply refracted off in dozens of directions without so much as a mild sting, but it was still a surprise.

Unity raised an eyebrow as the air rippled and an eyebot shimmered into view. “That explains why I couldn’t sense your mind. You don’t have one.” The eyebot beeped in what sounded almost like indignation, but Unity ignored it and concentrated her thoughts on her subjects. “Destroy it.”

Almost every being in the courtyard reacted immediately, but before any of them could so much as raise their weapon or take a step towards it, the eyebot disappeared in a purple flash.

“Going invisible again won’t hel-” Unity bit her tongue as something heavy and solid landed on her head with a loud clang. She immediately reached out with her thoughts and snared every mind within range in an iron grip, unwilling to risk anything breaking out from her control. Clenching her fists, Unity looked up just in time to snatch a glimpse of the eyebot as it rammed into her face at high speed, pitching her off her feet. Again, she was forced to redouble her efforts on keeping her subjects under control.

With a growl, Unity used her powers to launch herself to her feet, ready to grab the eyebot with her powers and crush it into a shiny golf ball, only to see it rocketing out of the Citadel’s gate far faster than any eyebot should have been able to move. Unity sprinted to the gate, but by the time she reached it, the eyebot had already vanished from sight.

“I think he got away,” Rainbow said sardonically.

Unity let out an angry snarl, subconsciously scattering snow and grit as her powers leaked out. The eyebot’s attacks hadn’t even been enough to hurt her, let alone actually cause damage, but she couldn’t stand the idea that a spy had been able to waltz in and out of her domain without any repercussions whatsoever.

Besides, getting beaten by an eyebot of all things was embarrassing in the extreme.

Several minutes passed before Unity finally managed to get her smouldering temper under control. At the end of the day, the spy wasn’t a huge problem. She would have to make sure that no others managed to sneak in, obviously, but Fluttershy could handle that, and she doubted that the eyebot had seen anything of particular importance. Sunset Shimmer had probably already warned the Enclave, anyway. What mattered was how to deal with them when they inevitably came.

Unity considered her options as she turned and stalked across the courtyard. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that making the Enclave come to her was probably the best idea. The Citadel was a fortress, after all, and any soldiers that managed to get close enough to be a threat would also be close enough for her to control. The only real threats were going to be Horrigan and Liberty Prime.

As she reached one of the doors to the Citadel’s interior, the sight of one of the dead Revenants made Unity pause in her tracks. She looked around, taking in the bodies of the few crystal monsters that had died during her brief lapses of concentration, then grinned as dark inspiration struck. The corpses were still magical, and they were made of the same material that Raven Rock itself was; material that a powerful enough crystal being would be able to reshape and absorb, granting them the power and mass of the deceased monster.

Unity nodded and sent out a mental command for her subjects to gather every dead crystal monster and pile them up together. Once that was done, she stepped into the Citadel and headed towards the stairways that led down to the incarceration cells. It had been far too long since Unity had had a chat with Colonel Autumn.

Next Chapter: Chapter 134 - Coping Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 41 Minutes