A/N: Everything has been edited now, but still wanted to mention GnomeBob because he has two great stories on the site.
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Just as I had predicted, a new character had been added to the improved holo-deck after we left the world. It was the Opec'atii that Raven had worked with going over the designs for the Crystal Distiller, who had a complete understanding of his people's mage-tech, though they called the devices Artifacts. Since then, Raven had become obsessed with the holo-deck and requested as many hours on it as Chakotay would allow. I insisted to him that she did not need priority over the rest of the crew, but with a request to B'Elanna to change her duty shifts, she was able to secure two to three hours every day, which translated to ten to fifteen hours with the settings set to full. If I was not careful, I could lose her to her obsession with creating new Artifacts, much like Zahe in my past life; she was still a long time off from that happening, but I just needed to keep the possibility in my mind.
I had only gotten a week after that event before the next episode popped up, and it was one that I had been fearing. While the challenges in 'The 100' had been much harder to avoid, we had time to plan for them, and I was quickly growing tired of the fact that so many different things could happen at such a quick pace in this universe. We barely had time to rest before some unrelated problem could spring up, and this danger threatened us more than the Q Continuum since it was not directly controlled by Tori's subordinates.
I had been working in the Aeroponics Bay, collecting fresh vegetables, when Katye, followed shortly by Janeway, called me through the comm system with the same request. Somehow, the remains of the Caretaker, the individual responsible for bringing the Voyager into the Delta Quadrant, came to life for a few moments. With Katye working in the Sick Bay, I told her long ago about the remains that the Doctor had hidden away in a storage cabinet and what it meant if the rock-like material started whistling and shaking. The female Caretaker was nearby, and nothing that I could tell Janeway would dissuade her from searching for her.
"...but before I could analyze them, the life-signs simply ceased," the Doctor was explaining as I walked into Sick Bay.
"I'm scanning the remains on all biospectral frequencies. It's completely inert. Dead," B'Elanna retorted then closed her tricorder.
"Somehow, I find it hard to believe that this rock suddenly came to life for several seconds," Janeway said.
"I concur. However, dead or alive, these are the remains of an alien entity we never fully understood. It may be prudent to place them in a level-three biohazard containment field," Tuvok suggested.
"Agreed, but now that Rebecca is here, I want her to take a look at..." Janeway started but was cut off by the sound of the remains whistling and shaking yet again.
B'Elanna quickly pulled her tricorder back out and started scanning it. "I'm picking up life-signs. They're sporocystian."
"The Caretaker was a sporocystian life-form," Janeway said.
"But, according to my readings, the life signs aren't coming from the remains. The remains are simply resonating in response to an external energy source... some other life-form," B'Elanna explained.
"Where?" the Doctor asked.
"Let's find out," Janeway replied then tapped her badge. "Janeway to Bridge. Mister Kim, begin scans for a sporocystian life-form."
"Aye, Captain. Stand by," Harry said through the comm system, and then a moment later continued, "I've got it, Captain. A sporocystian energy burst, approximately ten light-years distant, but I can't get a precise fix on its location."
The whistling stopped and B'Elanna tapped a few buttons on her tricorder then said, "The life-signs are gone."
"These remains could be responding to the Caretaker's mate," Janeway said with restrained excitement.
"If that's true, maybe we could use them to track her down," B'Elanna added.
"And if we can find her, she might have the ability to send us home," Tuvok continued the snowball of hopeful ideas.
I could not hide my frown which was out of place compared to the rest of the room, aside from Katye, but she was better at hiding her emotions than me. Janeway noticed, of course, but I managed to make my face neutral before anyone else did. She instructed B'Elanna to get started on coming up with a way to track down the female Caretaker then asked me to follow her.
Once we got onto the turbo lift and before she could instruct it where to go, I suggested, "If I may, Kathryn, I think this would be a conversation best held on my ship."
"Fine," she agreed, "computer, Deck Ten."
I led Janeway back to my ship, and we headed up to the second floor. I motioned towards the couches then walked over to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of Spirit Wine and ordering her a cup of coffee. She sat down while I brought over our drinks and sat down across from her.
"I believe that you are still on duty for another twenty-three minutes," Janeway remarked as she picked up her cup.
"I'll work a double tomorrow if you insist," I retorted then pulled the cork out.
She chuckled, "What's wrong, Rebecca? This is a little much, even for you."
"Is there anything that I can say to you that would convince you to not search for the female Caretaker?"
"Chiporofita?" she asked with a serious tone now.
"The greatest danger of knowing the 'future' is that you can only see one outcome, and that outcome is as if my crew and I were not a part of the events. I firmly believe that you and the ship survived because she looked down on you all and you were able to catch her off guard, and then seal her behind a force field. She was ready to destroy your ship and was expecting you to kill her, but instead, you released her. The compassion that you showed her was enough to convince her not to destroy the ship, but she won't be sending you back to the Alpha Quadrant.
"She blames you for the death of the Caretaker because of the lies that the Kazon have spread and is beyond reasoning with. Now imagine that she will take the Voyager as a serious threat because it is likely that she will be able to sense the power within me and my crew. Do you think that we can still catch her off guard, or do you think that she is going to come at us with her full strength to enact her revenge?"
Janeway sighed and took a drink of her coffee. "I can't let this opportunity pass us by. You said it yourself; you've only seen one possible future. If I gave up when things seemed difficult, we would have settled on New Earth when John Evansville offered."
"Which I know, and that's why I wanted a drink," I replied then took a sip. "The best thing for the ship would be to send us out and try to contact her by yourselves, but there is a space station filled with Ocampa that have full use of their mental abilities between you and her. I don't know if they can read your mind or sense your suspicion, but the chance remains, so I could have already ruined that vision by simply telling you. The best, real solution that I can give you is to have my group be restricted to our ship with the cloaking device active. It should hide us from the Ocampa, but I'm not confident that it will hide us from her because she should be much more powerful than them. Even cloaked, if I focus hard enough, I can sense the ship's core, and I've had thirteen years of practice while she has had hundreds."
Janeway sighed and took a few drinks of her coffee while she weighed her options. The smartest thing that she could do was keep the ship flying towards the Alpha Quadrant and ignore the (doomed) chance of finding the female Caretaker, but that was not her character. Like she said, if she was scared of challenges, we would have stayed on New Earth. She literally played chicken with the Borg, using only a medical treatment that the Doctor created to save Harry from Species 8472 as a proof of concept, and then demanded that they took the Voyager across their territory, which would have been a ten-year journey, for that information. Unless I promised that there was no way to survive the encounter, she would follow her gut instinct, and even if I did, there was still a good chance that she would ignore my warning.
"I'll have the duty shifts of you and your crew covered for the next few days and ask that you all remain here with the cloak on. After I discuss things with Chakotay and Tuvok, I'll return and tell you what our plan is," Janeway said after a while.
"Yes, Captain," I replied. "One last suggestion, you may only want to tell Tuvok the full story at the moment. If my fears about the Ocampa are correct, his Vulcan nature, combined with his position as Chief Tactical Officer, would explain why he would be suspicious of them."
"That's a good idea; I will," Janeway agreed, standing up.
We said goodbye and then I gave a heavy sigh once she was gone. I knew how this conversation would turn out; Katye and Raven were even betting on the outcome since we had gone over what could happen numerous times. This was the downside of us not being in charge because the final decision was Janeway's and going against her meant that we could lose our place here. I called back my group through the comm system and waited until they all arrived before I started to explain.
"So, who gets the ten crystals?" Raven asked as she sat down next to me.
"You do," I replied. "Sorry, Katye. I told her that the ship was nearly destroyed but saved because she managed to catch her off guard, and that our presence would likely make her far more cautious. I even told her that the female Caretaker had no intention of returning them to the Alpha Quadrant, but she did not change her mind."
Katye sighed, shaking her head, and said, "It's stupid. She's risking everyone's life on some futile hope that is far too dangerous."
I smirked, "It's a seventy-year trip back to the Alpha Quadrant, and ten years through Borg Space. The entire mission to get back home is a futile hope that is far too dangerous; we simply know that they make it back, so you don't see it that way. Janeway is doing what she believes is best and gives her people the best chance to get home. Unless Heda wants to challenge her for the role of Captain, we have to deal with her decisions and hope that we can handle whatever superpowered dangers she drags us into."
She crossed her arms with a huff but did not argue.
"So, what's the plan now?" Echo asked.
"We have the next few days off until all of this comes to a head. Janeway will be by later to tell us what she has decided to do after consulting with Tuvok, possibly Chakotay, but I did suggest that he be left in the dark in case the Ocampa on the station can read their minds or emotions. Those two can be suspicious for natural reasons, but anymore, and the Ocampa could get suspicious of Voyager," I replied.
"I guess that gives me some time to work on a few things in the real world," Raven sighed.
"Your toys can wait," I said, pulling her into my arms, "so that I could get some of your time."
She gave a sheepish chuckle, like she did any time I called her out on devoting more of her attention to technology than me, but she also knew that I was not mad about it either. We all had our own interests, borderline obsessions, so none of us could really complain when another was lost in something new as there were two other people in our relationship where we could get attention. I simply missed the brash mechanic that I had fallen in love with and wanted to spend some quality time with her.
The night went on. Katye made a wonderful dinner, and just as we sat down to eat, Janeway returned to our ship with an update. Katye and I, of course, insisted that she joined us for the meal which she agreed to after enough prodding. It took more work to get Janeway to talk about her decision and plan with the female Caretaker over the meal, but thankfully, Katye's ability with people was a natural one and not related to mana.
The plan was not too dissimilar to the episode in certain parts. Tuvok and the Doctor were going to develop a weapon that could paralyze her that anyone could use. She also wanted me to join her when talking with the Ocampa, but instead, I convinced her to have Katye join her. With her mana sealed by one of Tori's Pantheon, we figured that there was little chance that the female Caretaker could see through it, not that anyone told Janeway our logic and just said that she was better at concealing her true strength.
Katye could still sense other people's mana, so she would be able to get a read on the Ocampa without drawing too much suspicion to herself. It meant possibly putting her in harm's way, but by the time that Janeway had arrived, she had already used her twisted logic to convince me that she was right, like she had done quite a few times before in our past life. What I had the most trouble accepting was that I could only watch her through Fae's sensors while also keeping my finger over the button for a site-to-site transport that would switch us out within seconds.
The Voyager was able to track down the Ocampa space station about fifteen hours after the Caretaker's remains first reacted. Echo was training upstairs using the Mind Linker while Raven was building something in Engineering. I sat on our Bridge behind the science station with the screen changed to two different feeds, one of Katye and the other of the Voyager Bridge. Janeway would probably give me a long lecture, and possibly some disciplinary action, if she knew that I had tapped into the Voyager's systems to spy on what was happening, but I would deal with the consequences if she found out.
Things unfolded much like how they had in the episode, with the addition of Katye. Janeway tried to hail the space station, but they opened fire first before they opened a channel to basically say 'go away'. That was not enough to stop Janeway, of course, so she asked Kes to come up to the Bridge and try talking to them. She was successful and got the leader to agree to come over to the ship.
The nice part about using the ship's sensors to watch the Ocampa that beamed over, was that I could get quantifiable read outs on the strength of their mana, rather than having to go off my impression. Most humans would average between ten and fifty units while telepathic races like the Vulcans could have anywhere between a hundred and five hundred which was enough to cast simple spells like telepathy. Raven and Echo both started with fifteen hundred units of mana while Katye's and my personal reserves were over twenty thousand when we first entered the Voyager universe.
Tanis, the leader of the Ocampa space station, averaged around fifteen hundred and his companion around twelve hundred, but there was something strange about the readings that they gave off. The energy inside their bodies seemed to rise and fall like ocean waves crashing on a beach, while normally a person would stay at a constant level unless they were casting a spell or meditating, but they changed back and forth too quickly for that to be the case.
"Fae, do you have any idea what is going on with these Ocampa?" I asked.
::I am unable to provide a specific explanation as I do not have enough information to narrow down the possibilities.::
"Can you display a list of the possible reasons and a short description of them on the other screen?" I requested.
::Affirmative.::
A long list of spells, curses, and even poisons appeared on the screen next to the feed of Kes and Tanis, who were talking privately in the Briefing Room. I started reading through the list and was honestly surprised by the sheer number of possibilities, because it was the 258th possible reason that stood out to me, which also aligned with the episode.
The Všetci za Jedného spell could link a group of people together, allowing them to share a mana pool, but it required someone much stronger to create the initial link. Why this one stood out among the dozen other linking spells was because the practitioners of this spell would need to absorb the Life Force of outside forces. There was a scene where Tanis showed Kes how to 'know' the plants in the Aeroponics Bay then told her to 'bring the fire' which killed all of the plants. With the information about this spell, I could see that this is what allowed him to make the connection to the rest of the Ocampa, which she sensed when he tried to take her away from the Voyager. He had planted a seed within her during that moment, and if he had not underestimated her loyalty to Voyager and Neelix, he would have been able to subtly coerce her into joining them, but the female Caretaker was too determined to kill everyone which Kes was able to sense.
With the spell in place, the female Caretaker could take from the mana pools of every Ocampa that was bound to her, so I had no delusion that my group could match her strength, especially with Katye's mana sealed. There was nothing that I could do to disrupt the spell since it linked their Souls together unless I was willing to kill one of the Ocampa with a curse, but none of my group had any practice with curses. If it could not be pulled off perfectly the first time, it would undoubtedly cause a true battle between the Ocampa and the female Caretaker against us, and it was doubtful that we could win.
The next two days passed just like they had in the episode, though it did little to calm my nerves. Tanis showed Kes a number of things that he could do, and even what she could do with enough mana. I wanted to warn Katye or Kes about what I had discovered about the spell, but I quickly realized that this had been the catalyst for Kes's explosive growth throughout the end of the third season while dealing with Species 8472. Tanis had channeled a bit of his mana into Kes while he taught her in the Mess Hall, but what was unique about her was that by the next morning, her internal reserves had grown by the same amount that he had channeled into her. Despite the advantages that Raven and Echo had, channeling our own mana into them could only refill their personal energy, not increase it. I was not sure if it was something about the Ocampa as a whole, or just Kes, but I was leaning towards it being something special about Kes, since Tanis was so determined to recruit her.
The moment of truth came as Suspiria, the female Caretaker, manifested in Main Engineering, looking like a little girl in a frilly dress. Raven and Echo had joined me in watching the security footage and, if they had not been there, I likely would have teleported there when Suspiria lashed out at B'Elanna. Fae confirmed that B'Elanna was only knocked out, so I could not rush in while Suspiria's mana reserves were climbing by the hundreds every moment and were already over thirty thousand units. Tuvok entered a few minutes later, but she did not spare him a glance and knocked him unconscious just like B'Elanna.
Suspiria's attention was devoted solely to the remains of the Caretaker. She ripped apart the container that was holding the crystallized remains with her mind and picked them up. She held them to her chest as she started to cry in the corner. Part of me felt bad for her, but I was too concerned that she would hurt Katye and the others on the ship to have any true sympathy towards her.
When Janeway walked in, Katye was by her side with Filigree on her shoulder. Again, I nearly hit the button to transport into the room, but Echo stopped me, saying that we needed to give them a chance before we did anything crazy. With both feeds showing Engineering, I switched one to the Mess Hall, so that we could see what was happening with Kes as she had been the one to disrupt the linking spell in the episode from the inside which had given Janeway the opening to stun Suspiria.
"Who are you?" Janeway asked as she and Katye approached the young girl.
"Suspiria," she replied in a sweet, child-like voice.
"I've been looking forward to meeting you."
"Why?"
"Because I had the opportunity to talk to your companion before he died."
"Yes, I know."
"He told us that you were curious and went off to explore the galaxy. We're explorers, too, but your friend brought us to this quadrant against our will, and we haven't been able to find a way back."
"Is that why you killed him?" Suspiria asked, sounding angry.
"We didn't kill him."
"You destroyed the Array and you took his remains."
"I assure you..."
"No!" she snapped, standing up, and then her voice changed to that of an adult woman. "You killed him. And now, I will kill you." Her telekinesis locked around Janeway and started squeezing her.
"Please, stop. He died of old age, not by anyone's hand," Katye said, drawing Suspiria's attention.
She tried to turn her telekinesis on Katye, but Filigree threw out her hands and Katye was covered in a golden light.
"Do you think that will be enough to stop me? No, I will show you how frail and small creatures you truly are!" Suspiria growled.
The power of her spell doubled in strength which made the golden barrier around Katye dim, but she did not stop there. Her mana kept growing and she channeled even more power into her spell, wanting to break Katye, but even the Voyager was beginning to be affected by the amount of force she was channeling into the spell. Raven grabbed my hand just centimeters above the button to do the transport and pointed to the screen with Kes.
Tanis had just launched Neelix across the Mess Hall with his telekinesis. Kes screamed for him, but Tanis kept telling her to forget him which just turned her anger towards him. She used the same pyrokinesis spell that he had taught her on him. His blood started to boil, and he could no longer hold her as he collapsed to his knees with blood dripping from his nose and eyes. When he called out for Suspiria, the chain reaction of Kes lashing out against the linking spell caused a backlash that broke Suspiria's concentration, releasing all of the spells that she was using.
Filigree collapsed, completely drained from trying to fight Suspiria, but Katye caught her before she could fall. Janeway, now free, grabbed the device that Tuvok had created and stunned Suspiria. Tuvok and B'Elanna hit the ground then he quickly got his feet under him and rushed over to a nearby console, activating a force field around the child-looking being.
"So, now you kill me as you did my mate," Suspiria said without the slightest bit of fear.
"No. I told you; we didn't kill him. Please try to understand. We don't want to hurt you. We don't want to hurt anyone. We just want to get home," Janeway said then placed the device down. "Tuvok, release the force field."
"Captain..." Tuvok started.
"Do it," she ordered.
Begrudgingly, Tuvok did as he was told and disabled the force field. Suspiria was surprised as she stood up and took a few steps towards Janeway.
"You'd show me mercy after what I did to you?" Suspiria asked.
"Yes, I would," Janeway replied.
Her eyes turned to Katye and she asked, "And the others watching us, will they show the same mercy?"
"We only want to protect our people, and you have killed no one. If you stop your attacks against us, we have no reason to fight you," Katye replied.
She looked between Janeway and Katye for a moment before staring straight into the camera that let us watch them. The entire time she had known we were here but ignored us because we were too weak to pose a true threat to her. Now, her mana was only slightly higher than my own, so with Raven and Echo, we could probably take her, but we would likely destroy the ship in the process. She waited for a few moments before her body changed from a young girl to a purplish-blue translucent mass with small tentacles and then she stretched out, moving through the bulkheads like they were not there.
I sighed with relief, leaning back in my chair. Raven placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. Things had turned out just like they had in the episode, but if I had jumped into the fight, I likely would have pushed us into a fight because of my temper. Katye had been the best option as she was the calmest of all of us and also the least threatening currently. It was clear that not everything could be solved with violence or threats, which was not my specialty, but something that I needed to learn.
A/N: Becca is going to make a group of character that will help teach her and spar against her. Current list is below, but I'm looking for some more suggestions!
Joker and Harley Quinn
The Three Musketeers
Doomsday (sparring only)
Taskmaster/Wolverine
Deadpool
Hisoka
It had been about two weeks after Suspiria's visit and nothing 'show-wise' had happened, to my relief. The whole event had left my nerves more than a little frayed because of how useless I had been. If I had been the one out with Janeway instead of Katye, even from the beginning, my gut instinct told me that things would have dissolved into a fight when Suspriria and I met. I was so ready to jump in and protect everyone, but it would have only made things a lot worse.
Sensors had picked up some polyferranide in an uninhabited star system with three planets, so we had diverted our course to collect the rest of what we needed to repair the warp coils. While a few teams were sent out to mine what B'Elanna needed, I got permission from Janeway to take my ship to the asteroid belt to conduct a few more tests on the newest version of Raven's exo-suit. She had been able to cut the propulsion drain by half and the life-support system was a quarter of the cost of what it had been, but most importantly, we wanted to test what would happen if I used my Dusa form while in it.
"Here," Raven said, tossing me a silver ring with a tiny maroon mana crystal inlaid in the metal.
"And I thought I would be the first to propose," I retorted as I caught it.
Raven smirked and replied, "It has the exo-suit in it. You just need to use a bit a mana, and you'll be able to put it on with a thought."
"Nifty," I chuckled and put on the ring.
I channeled some of my mana into the ring and the gem turned gray. Suddenly, my mind was connected to this 'pocket of space' where I could 'see' all the pieces of the exo-suit. When I focused on any one piece for more than a couple of seconds, it would appear on my body, or I could focus on the thought that I wanted that piece on me.
"Nice," I said once I was fully decked out in the gear.
Raven geared up in less than a second and was in a matching exo-suit. "Alright, Katye, we're suited up. Beam us out whenever you're ready."
"Energizing," Katye replied through the comm system built into the helmet.
We were transported out into space, just off the port side of our little ship. Despite the screen hiding her face, I could practically see Raven's broad smile as she slowly turned around looking out at the asteroids and stars out in the distance. She had a love of zero-g, and that was the whole reason why she had been so obsessed with creating a perfect exo-suit.
"So, are you two just going to float out there until the cores run out?" Katye teased.
"Just taking in the view first," I retorted. "Ready, Raven?"
"Yeah," she agreed.
I shifted into my Dusa form, expecting the same draining feeling that I had experienced the first time that I had been thrown into space, but it was no different than when I used the form on a planet. What was really strange was that I could see the HUD read out despite no sign of the gear on my transformed body. I guess that I should not be that surprised since my clothing and artificial fingers would vanish while I was in this form yet was untouched when I changed back.
"How is it?" Raven asked, her voice ringing in my ears.
"Great, actually. HUD is still visible along with the comm system," I replied.
"Then the next test is the propulsion system."
Before I could say anything, she blasted straight into the asteroid field. I could only chuckle since I was not exactly sure how this would work, but with a flap of my wings, I launched forward with incredible speed, far faster than what I would be able to achieve on a planet. Just like the HUD and communication system, the propulsion seemed to be integrated into my Dusa form which meant that I would actually be able to fight in space at this rate.
I chased after Raven with a laugh and the Fae Dragon following behind me. She was able to easily maneuver around the floating rocks while I needed to tilt my wings like I was gliding through the air. Flapping my wings would also increase my speed, so I was able to catch up to Raven for a moment, but then she increased her speed further. I could hear her laughing in my ears as she swooped down close to one of the asteroids. I kept on her tail, but that only spurred her on even more as we raced.
"Watch out!" Katye yelled.
The danger of an asteroid field was that every now and then they would crash into each other. We could not see it from our point of view, but Katye could from the ship and tried to warn us. Unfortunately, we were just too close to the asteroid to be able to dodge, so we activated our shields though mine was different from hers. Unlike her dark maroon dome, a maroon shimmer covered my scales and then the asteroid hit us. Raven seemed to bounce off while I dug a deep, long gorge across the surface of the rock until my momentum was finally stopped and I was nearly half a kilometer buried under the rock, but thankfully, the shielding still protected me.
"Rebecca!" both Raven and Katye called out.
"I'm fine. That did more damage to my pride than my body; I didn't feel a thing," I grumbled as channeled my mana into the rock surrounding me and freed up my body. I could hear both of them chuckling at my misfortune, but I ignored it and asked, "Do you still want a few kilos of mage-steel, Raven?"
"Are you having to dig yourself out?" Raven asked, trying her hardest to suppress her laughter.
"Shut it, or you can do the work to convert the rock into metal," I retorted grumpily.
"Sorry, sorry... yes, about twenty kilograms will save me a lot of replicator work," she replied.
"Alright, I'll call if I need a beam out," I said. I spread out my Earth Domain through the asteroid and, while I could only cover about half of it, I found something that was not rock. "Katye, can you scan this asteroid?"
"Can't find your way out?" Katye teased which made Raven chuckle as well.
"Ha ha," I said, dryly. "There is something that's buried in here besides me. Can you figure out what it is?"
"Hmmm... I'm not sure. Fae's sensors can't pick up anything but you and the rock," Katye replied.
"Now, that makes me curious," I remarked.
Using my Earth mana, I bore a hole downwards to the object that I could vaguely sense. I could only see due to Dark Vision spell incorporated into the HUD, but when I uncovered it, I still could not see what the object was. Yang spells were not my specialty, but I could still cast a spell to brighten up the area which revealed a necklace which had a pendant that looked like a snake that was biting its own tail with a clear crystal on the inside of the circle. Despite the fact that I could sense nothing from it, I had the distinct impression that I should not touch it directly, so I created a stone box around it.
"You guys are going to want to see this. Beam me back to the ship," I said, shifting out of my Dusa form.
Katye beamed Raven and I back to the ship at the same time. The exo-suit vanished from around Raven's body with a thought, and she gave me a smirk since it took me another couple of moments to figure out how to store the suit inside the ring. Katye walked into Engineering while the two of us headed over to a workstation and I placed the stone box on the table. With a bit of mana, I removed the top and they both looked in with curiosity.
"A necklace?" Raven asked with surprise, reaching out to pick it up.
"Don't touch it," I warned as I grabbed her hand. "There is something special about it, even if the sensors don't tell us so."
"Can you identify it, Fae?" Katye asked.
::Please place the item in my scanner.::
I manipulated a bit of the stone to create a hook and used it to bring the necklace over to another bench. I carefully laid it down then sent the hook back over to the stone box. A couple of metallic 'arms' sprang out of the table, and one held up the necklace while another scanned it with a green light.
::An Ouroboros Pendant. It was wise of you not to touch it, Rebecca.::
"What is it?" I asked as the arms placed the necklace down and retracted.
::A powerful artifact that can save a person from death. It binds the moment that a person makes contact with it, but there is a limit to how strong of a person that it can save. If you had touched it, Rebecca, it would have shattered due to the strength of your Soul, as would it for Katye.::
"Then it's meant for Raven or Echo," Katye commented.
::They do have the ability to use it.::
"Do you think that if we destroy the entire asteroid belt that we can find another one?" I asked, knowing the answer anyways.
"That would be too easy," Katye replied.
"What was it doing out here buried in an asteroid?" Raven asked.
"Why was there a labyrinth under Eden?" I retorted. "Tori's specialty is Time, so this whole thing was likely set up by him before we even entered this universe."
::Voyager is hailing us.::
"Of course, they are; open the channel," I sighed.
"Rebecca, we've finished collecting the polyferranide that we need earlier than expected. Have you completed your tests?" Janeway asked.
"Nearly... we still need to collect some ore, but that should not take us more than a half hour," I replied.
"Alright, we'll come to you once the last group returns," Janeway said.
"Thank you, Captain."
With the connection cut, I rubbed my temples and tried to ignore the implications of what the necklace. I grabbed the stone box and used the hook to put the pendant back into it then sealed it. We would have to figure out what to do with it later, but nothing would be decided while Echo was on the Voyager.
I put the exo-suit back on, and Raven teleported me to the nearest asteroid. Thanks to years of practice back in Eden, I could quickly compress stone with my mana until it became what we called mage-steel but forming the twenty kilos that Raven wanted still took some time. The Voyager approached while I was finishing up the conversion and, once I was done, Raven beamed me back onboard while Katye flew us back to the Voyager.
I took the box with the necklace upstairs with Katye behind me. Raven hung back so that she could organize the metal bars and store them away. I placed the box on the coffee table between the couches then dropped onto my usual one with a sigh.
"Tori really is a piece of work by giving this to us. He's basically telling us to pick one of them over the other," I complained.
"Not necessarily," Katye replied, sitting across from me. "He can see the future, so maybe it will be clear which one needs it. It's not like Raven and Echo are identical with their strengths, so it could be a certain situation that one of them will need it."
"Which means that one of them is going to die before the end of this," I said, saying exactly what had been going through my mind since we discovered what the necklace was.
"Possibly," she agreed, "but, it could just be a safety net or even meant for someone on the Voyager. We might even get another one from one of his Pantheon, thanks to Sancu and his 'games'. Still, it's not like we had anything like this back in 'The 100', so quit your bitching."
I smirked and shook my head while chuckling, "Do you ever get tired of always being right?"
"Rarely," she retorted.
Echo came back to the ship an hour later, after her duty-shift was over, and we explained what I had found. She suggested that Raven go ahead and use it since she had almost been killed already in this universe, but Katye was the normal voice of reason and shut down her argument. We agreed that the pendant would remain unbound until we had a second one or a nearly impossible mission presented itself.
Similar to how Raven had become obsessed with the improved holo-deck, I had given into the dark side. Every moment that I could spend inside, I was there, sparring against whatever madness that I thought of that day. Some I kept around, either for love of the character or because I could see myself truly learning something from them, and the group had slowly evolved into what I called the Council of Chaos.
The first to join were Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, looking like my favorite actress version of them, Uma Thurman and Margot Robbie. I had always been a DC fan, so since this lesbian couple came out, I could not help but recreate them on the holo-deck. Thanks to an empowerment setting, they could be elevated to somewhere near my level while still being restricted to whatever fit their character. It could be as simple as boosting speed, strength, and vitality to giving them an unlimited goodies bag of items which Harley Quinn enjoyed greatly.
Fred and George Weasley were fun to have around, but unfortunately, the wizards were too squishy for me, losing almost instantly once I closed the distance. My next thought was to partner them with Wolverine and Deadpool since their main power was being unkillable. Those four, along with Harley and Ivy, would switch up who they teamed up with for fights with three to five people when I wanted a group fight.
As for those who were on my Council, yet forbidden to team up with anyone, the first person I wanted was Tsunade from Naruto, while it was for her healing ability initially, I had greatly underestimated her strength and the overpowered nature of ninjutsu and taijutsu. I had also thought of Eris, Greek Goddess of Discord, and, while the Olympian was not too difficult to fight when she was alone, the moment another person joined the fight, it became impossible to win against her due to the crazy changes that she could cast on her partner. From there, I jumped to 'Hunter X Hunter' to fight against Hisoka and lost miserably, but I had sparked the insane magician's interest, so he was happy to give me pointers to see how strong I could become. I also decided to spar against Loki and Sun Wukong, separately of course, and got my ass handed to me by both of them.
Any fight that I had, individual or group, those that were not participating were still present, so that they could watch or comment. Despite their character flaws, they were still holographic characters which could be programmed to help teach me, whether it was in their personality or not. That did not mean that I would just force them to sit around and watch me fight; I created a platform ship that looked like it was straight out of Star Wars, complete with a fully stocked bar and other things that they could enjoy. Most of the group had some fondness for alcohol, and since it was all holographic anyways, I had all of their favorites on the shelves, though I did make it so that no matter how much they drank, they could only get so drunk. There was also a large tree and some other plants for Ivy, a pool table where Deadpool, Wolverine, and Harley would often play a few rounds, and a wizard's chessboard, Shogi and Go boards that were often used by the Weasley twins, Loki, Sun Wukong, and even Tsunade. Hisoka and Eris rarely interacted with the others and would either read in the library area or drink at the bar.
After two weeks of fighting these characters for five to ten hours a day, with Tsunade healing me between fights, we had agreed on a roulette system of sorts to pick what would be my next fight. There were two wheels that I would spin, one to pick whether it was an individual fight or a group fight with three, four, or five people, and then a second wheel to pick who was the opponent. In the case of a group fight, the second wheel would pick the 'captain' of the group, so they could pick their partners and whatever would be our field of battle.
Somehow, I had been lucky and had not had Deadpool land as a captain for several days after coming up with this system, but when it finally happened, he had five people. There were a couple of groans from the group while there were just as many laughs since his antics were well known by everyone now. I could only sigh and pour myself a large shot of real Spirit Wine that I had brought, while he interacted with the console to make whatever diabolical plan he came up with.
"Opening bets!" Fred called out.
"Deadpool, seven to one, Becca, two to thirteen!" George announced.
The currency that they used was unique to the group, and hard to explain, but they used gold coins identical to the one that Sancu gave me. How they would use the coins were like dares, jinxes, or favors between the characters that would further impact my fights and make things even crazier. Sometimes it could help me, other times it could hurt me, but no one would know what tricks were being pulled until the fight was announced. I had to admit that it was fun, and I was developing my own unique fighting style by having to adjust to such random fights.
"That doesn't even make sense!" Logan complained.
"Our game, our rules," the twins said in unison.
"Thirty on Deadpool," Hisoka said.
"Ha! Fifty on Rebecca!" Tsunade yelled.
"God damnit!" I complained since she still held the title of Legendary Loser.
"He, he, I also bet twenty on Becca," the Monkey King chuckled.
"Twenty-five on Rebecca," Loki added, sounding uninterested.
"Planning something without me? Naughty boys, a hundred on Deadpool," Eris said with a smirk that made me sigh since I knew she would make this fight a lot more annoying.
"What about you two?" Fred asked, looking at Harley and Ivy.
The couple were currently snuggled together on a branch of the tree that was slowly rocking back and forth. I may or may not have tweaked their personalities to make them a little more lovey-dovey, but oh well, this was my simulation and reward, after all. It was a little bittersweet, since I did not get to spend time with Raven and Katye like we did back in Eden, though the relationship between Echo and me had not really changed too much. With this looming pressure on all of us thanks to the blue seal on half of my body and the pendant tucked away in our ship, I really could not complain; I simply missed when things were simpler.
"Ten on Deadpool," Harley replied.
Ivy shrugged, "I'll pass on this one. With those three meddling, anything is possible."
"Done!" Deadpool called out happily.
Before anyone could say or do anything else, the world around me changed, but this was not the first time that it had happened. My bottle was still on the counter of the bar, but I was now in a plane with only my cup in my hand. I downed the rest of the contents while shaking my head because of 'where' I found myself. I was on an empty commercial airplane with Deadpool in front of me and Wolverine and Harley Quinn behind me and, while I could not know for sure, I had a feeling that there were two brothers hiding somewhere nearby.
"What the hell you idiot?!? The bitch can fly and controls the weather! WHY THE FUCK ARE WE ON A PLANE?!?" Harley yelled.
"The monkey guy ordered a place in the sky and the green one wanted the weather to play an advantage, but we do have one advantage," Deadpool said.
"Do I even want to know?" I asked with a sigh.
Before he could reply, a person suddenly dropped from the ceiling and, instinctually, I caught the person. Unfortunately, it was Eris who slid her arms around my neck with a coy smile on her face. Like most Olympian Goddesses, she was absolutely beautiful with long sandy blonde hair, a large chest, wide hips, and wearing a Greek toga that left little to the imagination. In the first fight that I used my Dusa form, she had discovered that my Dragon side could be tempted out of directly fighting to put it mildly. With her here, I would barely be able to control myself if I transformed, which made things a lot harder.
"You have to protect Eris and can't put her down," Deadpool replied.
"My herooooo," Eris cooed as she traced a finger down my chest.
"God damnit," I complained, "I have a shift on the Bridge after this."
"You could always postpone the fight with the chumps and show me the stamina of a Dragon," she whispered in my ear.
She sent chills down my spine, and I gritted my teeth with annoyance. Of all of my weaknesses, this little minx had to pick this one to mess with me. This was the danger of using the 'interaction and reaction' command with their programming, which I had been warned about with the guidebook that Sancu had left me, but it promised much better results by using it for long-term characters.
A-ha's 'Take On Me' started playing which signaled the start of the fight. I always played music when I would spar against Indra and Anya to keep myself relaxed and it had continued on into this program. Most people would just use my playlist, but Deadpool and Harley had taken the time to make their own, so I took no ownership of the song pick, even if it was a good one.
Wolverine was the first to rush at me, extending his claws, but it was awkward to move around with all of the chairs around us. He had to slice through a couple of chairs so that he could throw a right hook at my side. I shuffled forward, ready to shift my body again since Deadpool was in front of me as he stood in the open doorway to the cockpit. He pulled off something from his belt and tossed it behind him then shut the cockpit door.
"Fuck," I cursed right before the grenade exploded.
"He never said that we had to stay in the air," Deadpool said happily.
As the plane took a sudden nosedive, everything not bolted down and anyone not braced started to tumble towards the front of the plane. With a thought, my exo-suit boots appeared on my feet and magnetized to the ground. Wolverine managed to grab a chair and wedge himself in a row, but Harley was not so lucky. She tumbled across the tops of the other row, but Deadpool caught her.
"How sweet," Harley said as she pulled out her pistol then shot him in the head and screamed, "NOT ALL OF US CAN SURVIVE A PLANE CRASH, YOU MORON!!!"
She pointed her gun at me next, but I enhanced my speed with Lightning mana since I could not teleport with Eris in my arms. I dodged the bullet, but Wolverine kicked me in the side of my head with my attention drawn away from him. I slammed into a couple of the chairs, but I twisted my body to make sure Eris was not hurt; the whole reason why this was an option was because there could be times when I had to fight and carry someone, but Eris was using it to mess with me.
Harley aimed her gun at me again while Deadpool also drew his two. There was just not enough room to keep dodging all of the bullets with Wolverine able to get in close. Without any better options, I shifted into my Dusa form and ripped a hole to the side of the plane because I was simply too large while transformed. I leapt out and thought I had a moment to breathe when my wings caught the air, but then two Stunner spells hit my back, causing me to roar in pain.
"So beastly, so powerful... you should hurry up with the small fries and then we can have our own battle," Eris said, tracing the edge of my silk top.
"Shut it, temptress. I've got enough women in my life," I growled as I tilted my wings so that I could turn around and see the falling plane.
The sky responded to my roar of pain as the clouds grew darker, but it was not fast enough for me, so I added more mana into the air as I casted my Thunderstorm spell. Fred and George were riding on brooms and had Wolverine and Harley behind them respectively. Deadpool had been left behind and was standing on the top of the plane, shouting at the others, though it was doubtful that anyone could hear him. The plane was getting closer to the ground, but it would not hit land, rather water, since it seemed like we were over the ocean. Flying not too far away from the action was the ship with the rest of my council, completely immune to the weather and anything else that might come their way.
Lightning cracked overhead as I aimed myself at the group. Instead of fighting me in the air, the twins shot down on their brooms and raced towards the water. They had a full set of spells that could rival Dumbledore as their boost, so despite the lack of land, they would be able to make some kind of platform for the others to fight on.
Seeing me approach, Deadpool tossed his pistols into the air and pulled out a pair of submachine guns from behind his body. I conjured a wall of ice that was growing with the rain, but bullets ripped through it quickly. The wall was only a distraction and a means to hide myself, while I twisted in the air to dodge. Normally, I would teleport myself in a situation like this, so he was ready for my move and chased me. I dove under the body of the plane while what ice was left in chunks shot at him with high speed. He was knocked off the plane as I hoped, but when I circled towards him, he threw a spread of grenades, so I could only back off to avoid the explosions.
The plane hit the water and made a giant splash. Deadpool hit the water a moment later and I lost sight of him which I knew would bite me in the butt later. I landed on the body of the plane and channeled my mana into the metal. While it would not be as strong as mage-steel, I had a lot of practice manipulating metal because of my artificial fingers. I did not create anything too complicated, just two small discs, which would act as my shields while my hands were full.
Harley and Wolverine were standing on a large platform made of ice with the twins hovering on either side of it. As soon as I leapt off the plane, the twins fired another Stunner spell at me, but I intercepted both of them with my metal shields. Unfortunately, that left me nothing to block the bullet that Harley fired, but I could tank high-caliber rifle bullets while I was transformed, so this just stung.
I manipulated the shields to come together to make a large ball and then shot it ahead of me. Wolverine had started to run towards my approach when I leapt off the plane, but he skidded to a halt and braced himself, seeing the cannonball coming at him. While I may not be as strong as Magneto, only Loki, Sun Wukong, and Eris could break my connection to a piece of metal that I was actively controlling, so he knew there was little point in dodging the blow. He was sent flying off the ice platform, and I was able to land safely. Before the Weasleys could throw another spell at me, I reached out to the thunderstorm above us and called down a few bolts of lightning.
"God damnit," Harley complained as she tossed her gun aside and pulled out her baseball bat then tossed her bag to the ground. "Why do you always pick on me first?"
"Honestly, grade school crush, and sorry to say, I can kill you quickly," I replied.
While I was not saying it directly, she was the weakest of the five since she was a normal human at the end of the day. Even with her boosted strength and speed, it only brought her to the peak of human capabilities. My Dragon form was just too tough for her to be able to do any serious damage to me, with her guns or her bat. I manipulated the cannonball to create a spear and aimed it at her heart, behind her back.
"Watch behind you," Eris warned with a smirk.
"Hey, no cheating. Anyone I would be carrying would be silent or helping me," I complained then I heard it. I turned my head and saw an RPG flying straight at me. I jumped into the air as I shouted, "A rocket launcher?!? Fuck you, Wade!"
I dodged the small missile, but Harley was not so lucky as it hit the ice and exploded. There was a flash of white light which meant that she had been killed. Before I could relax a little, I sensed the tingle of wizard magic below me, and a giant dragon head, made out of water, rose out of the ocean. I gathered up my Wind mana to launch myself out of the dragon's mouth, but right before I could cast it, Eris's hand 'accidentally' cupped my breast with the perfect timing that only a God could achieve. My spell collapsed and the dragon's mouth closed around me.
"Oops," Eris giggled innocently.
Instead of yelling at her, I just gritted my teeth and channeled that Wind mana into a different spell to 'solidify' my Wind Domain to prevent any water from coming inside. While one of the twins kept the spell in place, the other dove into the water, still on his broom. A moment later, he shot out with a very damp Wolverine behind him. George kept the water pressing against the sphere of Ice and Wind that I had created, and I was forced to stand on the bottom of it since I could not hover in the air like Katye could. My control over the elements was much stronger than the wizard's, but where he could grab a large chunk at once, I had to wrestle against his mana to take control of the water around me.
"I can't hold her much longer," George shouted when I had taken over nearly half of the orb of water that he had restricted me in.
I could barely hear George, so I certainly could not hear the reply, but it did not matter. My mana had reached the majority, and in one fell swoop, I broke the spell holding me. The ice sphere dropped, but I shattered it with my mana then conjured a gust of Wind to catch my wings. I was covered in a layer of snow, but I was able to get back in the air and flying without hitting the water.
Fred had been busy after he saved Wolverine from drowning. The remains of the plane crash had been transfigured to a metal Spanish galleon, similar to the Durmstrang ship without the sails. Instead of flying towards the ship, I climbed high into the air and fully connected to the brewing storm. While the Weasley twins could deal with a few stray bolts of lightning, neither could handle a concentrated attack if I picked one over the other. By the time that I had removed both twins, a good portion of my mana had been spent, but I was still confident as I landed on the metal ship since it was only Deadpool and Wolverine left.
"You pull out a single grenade or any type of explosive device, and I'll save you for last and burn you over and over before sealing you in ice to get the win," I growled at Deadpool.
"Scary," he mocked, coiling back for dramatic effect.
I rolled my eyes and threw Eris over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, so that I could have a hand free.
"Rude," Eris complained then smacked my ass which made my whole body tingle with excitement.
Both Wolverine and Deadpool chuckled, while I had to rein myself in from doing something stupid, right then and there, but they also understood that this was their best chance to attack me directly. Wolverine rushed forward with his claws fully extended and threw a flurry of punches that I only managed to dodge by enhancing my speed with mana. Deadpool pulled out a shotgun that was loaded with solid steel slugs which could leave heavy bruises despite not penetrating my scales, pretty much the only thing that he could use to cause me some damage in this form.
While Wolverine was intentionally targeting me and avoiding Eris, Deadpool was aiming solely for the Goddess of Discord. I had to constantly block bullets with my empty hand while dodging Wolverine's claws. There was an intentional reason why I always left these two for last in a group fight, aside from their unkillable natures. The two had a certain synergy against me that almost put me into a trance-like state while fending off their attacks as I read the flow of battle. Unfortunately, that trance-like state was the only way I could fully handle them without abusing my powers, so with Eris back in my arms, she interrupted it with another 'accidental' touch and was rewarded with a bullet to the head.
The world flashed with white and I found myself back on the platform ship with everyone else. Eris was no longer in my arms, but back at the library, though she was giving me a coy smile while I released my Dusa form and returned to my normal appearance. Normally, Tsunade would already be walking towards me to heal whatever damage that I had taken, but instead, she was at the end of the bar talking to someone with Loki, Sun Wukong, Hisoka, and Ivy; basically, everyone who had not been in the fight.
"Interesting characters that you've assembled," a familiar voice said.
The group at the opposite end of the bar opened up and revealed Katye at the center. She had a teasing smirk on her face and my bottle of Spirit Wine in front of her. I sighed but smiled happily and walked over to her and Tsunade.
"Would you mind?" I asked, holding out my black and blue left arm to Tsunade.
She downed her cup then made a few hand signs before she started healing my arm.
"Do I need to tell Raven about this?" Katye asked.
"Be my guest. I'll give up the holo-deck when she does," I retorted and poured myself a small cup of wine.
"True," she said, clinking her cup with mine. "So, care to explain?"
I swallowed my drink in one gulp, but I did not get to enjoy the aftereffects since Tsunade's chakra was purging my body of all toxins while also healing the tissue damage. I shrugged and replied, "A couple of people aside, these were the most chaotic people that I could think of, so who better to learn from and understand my own chaotic nature?"
"Then you should add the Scarlet Witch; she literally uses Chaos Magic as her 'mutant' power," she suggested.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of her. Good idea," I replied.
"You know that she's insane?" Wolverine said.
"Anymore than Wade or Eris?" I retorted.
He poured himself a glass of Fireball and agreed with a shrug, "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"So, not that I mind, but what brings you to my program?" I asked.
"I've been curious what you have been up to the past few weeks, and I needed a break from learning Tamarian; the whole damn language is based off of metaphors," Katye replied then refilled her glass.
"Then why bother with it?"
"It's worth the equivalent of five languages towards Sancu's punishment."
"Ah. Thanks, Tsunade," I said when my arm was fully healed.
"Now that you're better, you wanna help me pry Raven out of her workshop to enjoy our free hour before our duty shifts start?" Katye asked with a teasing smile.
"Only an hour? I guess we can make things quick," I chuckled and wrapped my arms around her waist. "I'll see the rest of you guys tomorrow. Computer, end program and transfer us to Raven's."