Wendy
Promise.
The word echoed in the silence of Wendy's mind, a fragile, alien concept she had long ago learned to despise.
She remembered the first promise. It had been in that god forsaken white room that smelled of antiseptic and ambition. A man in a lab coat, whose face she can't even remember, blurred by years of pain, had smiled at her.
"You have been chosen, Wendy. This Gem... it will make you stronger. You will be the pride of Schicksal. With this, you could even be the next S-rank Valkyrie."
She had believed him. She had been so eager, so desperate to prove herself. She had let them cut her open. She had let them fuse the burning, screaming power of the Gem into her legs.
And then, she had woken up.
She remembered the moment she tried to stand, and her legs. Her strong legs, honed by years of training, had stopped responding.
The Gem hadn't made her stronger. It had eaten her nerves, devoured her future, and left her a cripple in a wheelchair.
And the man? The man who had promised her heroism? He had stopped smiling. He had stopped looking at her as a person.
"Subject is stable," he had said, writing on a clipboard. "Containment successful. Move the asset to storage."
An Asset. Container. A Broken toy.
That was all she had been. A thing to be studied, a battery to be drained. Promises were lies wrapped in pretty words, designed to make you compliant while they sharpened the knives.
For so long, she tried to suppress it. Her hate for them, for Schicksal. They were liars, all of them.
But then, this group of warriors arrived. Carrying a very peculiar person.
Kenji, Mei, Bronya, and Kiana. She never saw the look of indifference in their eyes when they looked at her. Bronya promised to make her walk again, Kiana fought for her right to walk, and Mei understood what it was like to be in her situation.
So why did only Kenji's words get through to her?
He was different. He looked at her with golden eyes that held no pity, only a fierce, stubborn understanding. He had stood in front of her, battered and bleeding, his arm shattered because of her, and he hadn't attacked. He hadn't tried to capture her.
Instead, he had extended a hand.
"I promise I'll protect you. You can have the happiness I found. You deserve it, Wendy."
For the first time in three years, the cold voice in her head—the one that screamed LIAR!—was silent. She looked at his hand, the one that she had broken and had now healed, and she felt something warm bloom in her chest.
It was a choice. Her choice.
She had reached out. She had decided to trust him. She had agreed to be saved.
So why...
"NO!"
The world had gone silent.
Wendy stood frozen, her chest heaving, her green eyes wide and unblinking as she stared at the figure lying on the grass.
It didn't make sense. None of it made sense.
She snapped her head towards Bronya's robot, its cannon still steaming from the shot it fired. After everything Kenji said, she was entirely caught off guard and didn't even move to defend herself.
She had expected the beam to hit her. But she felt nothing. Instead, there had been a shout, followed by a sickening crack.
And now, Kenji was on the ground.
He lay motionless, his body twisted at an awkward angle. Smoke curled from his chest, carrying the acrid stench of burnt flesh. The grass beneath him was already staining dark red, the blood spreading with terrifying speed.
Wendy took a shaky step forward, her mind reeling.
'He took the hit.'
The thought echoed in her head, loud and impossible. 'took the hit. For me.'
Why?
People didn't do that. People lied. They used her. They called her an "asset" and a "host." They smiled and promised her safety while they prepared the scalpel. That was how things worked.
But Kenji...
She remembered his words, "I promise I'll protect you." He hadn't been lying.
The realization hit her harder than any attack ever could. It shattered the cold, protective shell of rage she had built around herself, leaving her exposed and terrified.
He had promised to protect her, and he had done it. He had thrown himself in front of a cannon for a monster who had just tried to kill him.
"Kenji...?"
Her voice was a small whisper. She reached out a hand, her fingers trembling. She wanted to go to him, to check if he was still breathing, but her legs felt like lead.
A sound from across the clearing made her flinch.
"Target incapacitated."
The voice was cold, like a robot's. And it came from the girl who had promised to help her, Bronya.
Wendy's head snapped up. Bronya stood rigid, her cannon still smoking. Her eyes, which had been grey and kind just moments ago, were now glowing with a dull, lifeless red light.
"Proceed to secure the Herrscher."
Bronya spoke the words, but the voice wasn't hers. It was older, colder, dripping with a smug satisfaction that made Wendy's blood boil.
It was Her. The one who controlled the machines. The one who saw people as things.
Wendy looked back at Kenji's unmoving form, then at the smoking cannon in Bronya's hands. The shock in her chest began to curdle, transforming into something hot and violent.
She looked at Kiana and Mei, who were screaming, their faces twisted in horror as they rushed toward Kenji. She looked at Bronya, who was already turning her weapon, the barrel shifting to point directly at her.
'She hurt him.' The girl—the friend—who had promised safety had just put a hole in the only person in her life who had ever kept their word.
'Liar.'
The wind around Wendy began to pick up, no longer a gentle breeze but a rising, howling gale. Her hair whipped around her face, and the green light in her eyes flared back to life, brighter and more unstable than before.
"You..." Wendy hissed, her voice distorting, the Herrscher's power bleeding into her tone.
Bronya didn't react. Her red eyes locked onto Wendy. "Target acquired."
"YOU LIAR!"
Wendy screamed, and the air exploded.
/ — /
Kiana
Kiana stared at the scene before her, her mind struggling to process the nightmare that had just unfolded. Bronya, her friend, stood with a smoking cannon while Kenji lay on the ground with a hole in his chest.
"Bronya...?" Kiana's voice cracked, her hands shaking as they hovered near her pistols. "What... what did you do?"
She took a step forward, her instincts screaming at her to do something, anything. But before she could move, the air in the clearing screamed.
A shockwave of condensed wind slammed into her, throwing her back. She hit the ground hard, rolling to her feet just in time to see Wendy rising into the air.
The Herrscher wasn't looking at Kiana. She wasn't looking at Mei. Her glowing, hate-filled eyes were locked onto Bronya.
"YOU LIAR!" Wendy shrieked, her voice distorted by the storm raging around her. "YOU'RE JUST LIKE THEM!"
The wind around twisted and sharpened. Invisible blades of compressed air materialized, swirling around her like a deadly halo. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them screaming toward Bronya.
Bronya didn't even flinch. Project Bunny's shield snapped into place, blocking the wind blades. Sparks flew as the attacks ricocheted off the heavy armor.
Kiana watched, her heart pounding. Bronya was moving like a machine, far more than she usually did. Her red eyes flickered, cold and empty.
'Just like last time!' Her eyes widened as she finally realized that Bronya was being controlled. 'But why is she so much stronger?!'
"Target locked," Bronya stated, her voice flat. "Engaging Herrscher."
Project Bunny's cannon charged again, the high-pitched whine cutting through the chaos.
"Stop it!" Kiana roared.
She launched herself at Bronya, tackling the smaller girl just as the cannon fired. The shot went wide, blasting a crater into the ground. They tumbled across the grass, Kiana pinning Bronya down.
"Bronya! Snap out of it!" Kiana yelled, shaking her by the shoulders. "It's me! It's Kiana! Stop this!"
Bronya stared up at her, her expression blank. "Subject Kiana Kaslana. Obstruction detected. Removing."
Project Bunny's heavy metal arm swung down, aiming to crush Kiana. Kiana rolled to the side, dodging the blow. She scrambled back, drawing her pistols.
"Don't make me shoot you!" Kiana shouted, her voice trembling.
But Bronya was already up, hovering in the air. She ignored Kiana, turning her attention back to Wendy, who was gathering another storm.
Suddenly, three tornadoes fell from the sky and rushed towards them. Forcing Kiana to run away while Bronya countered missiles that were fired from Project Bunny's canons.
The missiles were caught in the strong winds, sending them flying all over the destroyed area. It was chaos. Wendy was attacking Bronya with lethal intent. Bronya was focused entirely on fighting Wendy. And Kiana was stuck in the middle, trying to stop them both somehow.
"Mei! Get to Kenji!" Kiana screamed over the roar of the wind. "I'll handle them!"
Mei didn't need to be told twice. She was already sprinting toward Kenji's fallen form, her katana drawn but held low. The wind whipped at her hair, stinging her face, but she pushed through.
"Kenji!" Mei slid to her knees beside him.
The sight made her stomach turn. The hole in his chest was gruesome, the edges of the wound smoking.
Blood pooled beneath him, soaking the white flowers of the garden. His eyes were open but unfocused, his breathing a wet, ragged rattle.
"Stay with me," Mei pleaded, her hands glowing with faint electrical energy as she tried to kick-start his regeneration, or at least make it happen quicker. "Come on, Kenji. You have to heal. You have to!"
A stray wind blade from Wendy's storm sliced through the air, aiming for them. Mei's head snapped up. In a single, fluid motion, she drew her katana and slashed, the blade humming with lightning. She cut the wind blade in half, the energy dissipating harmlessly around them.
"I won't let you touch him!" Mei shouted, her voice fierce. She stood over Kenji, her sword a barrier between him and the chaos.
Wendy heard her. She turned, her glowing eyes widening as she saw Mei defending Kenji. Confusion flickered across her face, warring with the rage.
"Get away from him!" Wendy screamed, raising her hand. A vortex of wind formed, threatening to swallow them both. "You'll hurt him too! Just like she did!"
"We're trying to save him!" Mei yelled back, not backing down. She deflected another wind blade, but the blades exploded on impact, sending her flying away.
Mei was about to run back to Kenji, but stopped when she saw him being covered by a ball of protective wind. "Wendy, please. We're on your side!"
But Wendy was too far gone. Her trust had been shattered. She lashed out again, this time at Bronya, who was charging her cannon for another shot.
Kiana intercepted Bronya again, shooting the cannon's barrel to throw off her aim. "Bronya, listen to me!" Kiana grunted, dodging a punch from Project Bunny.
She latched onto the mech's arm and twisted her legs, trying to break it. But she wasn't quick enough. Bronya sent a kick to her side and threw her away.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Kiana yelled, panting. She looked from the raging Herrscher to the possessed friend. "We're a team! We don't do this!"
Bronya's red eyes flickered. Her head twitched, a glitch in the smooth, mechanical movement.
"Target... Kiana..." Bronya's voice wavered, sounding small and terrified for a split second. "Run..."
Then the red light solidified, and Cocolia's cold control snapped back into place. "Obstruction persists. Engaging lethal force."
Project Bunny transformed, multiple missile pods opening on its shoulders.
Kiana's eyes widened. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
She dove as a swarm of missiles launched, exploding around her. She cursed as she realized that Bronya wasn't going to snap out of it like last time.
Kiana cracked her neck and readied her pistols. She was going to either knock some sense back into Bronya or knock her out.
The garden was a war zone. Kiana was fighting for her friend's soul. Mei was fighting for Kenji's life. And Wendy was fighting the entire world, alone.
/ — /
Miles away, in the humming heart of the Anti-Entropy command center, the air was calm and quiet. It was a stark contrast to the chaos unfolding on the holographic screens that dominated the room.
Cocolia sat at her central console, her posture relaxed and almost regal. The blue light of the monitors reflected in her eyes, but there was no panic in her gaze. Only a deep, predatory satisfaction.
On the main screen, the feed from Bronya's optical sensors played out in high definition. She watched as Kiana Kaslana threw herself at Project Bunny, shouting desperate pleas that fell on deaf ears.
She watched as Raiden Mei, the semi-awakened Herrscher of Thunder, tried futilely to stem the bleeding from Kenji's chest.
And she watched Wendy, now the Fourth Herrscher, screaming in rage as she tore the garden apart with wind blades.
"Beautiful," Cocolia murmured, a faint smirk touching her lips.
The researchers around her worked in a hushed frenzy, their fingers flying across keyboards as they cataloged the influx of data.
"Director," one of them called out, his voice tight with awe. "The anomaly's vitals are stabilizing. His healing factor is already knitting the heart tissue back together. It's happening a lot faster than we expected, and not because of Raiden Mei's intervention."
Cocolia's smirk widened. "Of course it is. He survived a direct hit from a heavy-particle cannon. He is a magnificent specimen."
She leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand as she studied the chaos she had orchestrated.
She had known. From the moment her spies reported the team's movement, she had calculated the variables. She knew Wendy, broken and betrayed by Schicksal, would be volatile. She knew Kenji, with his revolting, pathological need to save everyone, would be the weak link.
He was a hero. And heroes were so easy to manipulate.
All she had to do was wait. Wait for the moment of connection. Wait for the hand to be extended. And then... pull the string.
She hadn't even needed to ask Bronya this time. She had seen the hesitation in the girl's biometrics, the spike in dopamine when Kenji smiled at her, the dangerous attachment forming like a cancer.
How none of Bronya's reports ever mentioned the seemingly precognitive ability he showed in the Eruption. Bronya was hiding things from her.
If she had asked, Bronya might have resisted.
So she hadn't. She had simply taken.
And the result was perfection. Wendy was enraged, more alienated from Schicksal. Kenji was incapacitated, but his value as a test subject skyrocketed with every second he refused to die.
"Director," another researcher said, looking up from a secondary monitor. "The containment units are in position. The Aesir prototype is ready for deployment."
"Hold," Cocolia commanded, raising a hand. Her eyes were fixed on a small, pulsing readout in the corner of her screen. It was a status bar, labeled with a serial number corresponding to the tracking chip Bronya had so helpfully planted on Kenji's shoulder.
The bar was filling. 28%... 29%...
"Is the charge ready?" she asked, her voice silky smooth.
"Charge at 30%, Director," the researcher confirmed. "Once fully charged, it should be able to incapacitate the anomaly completely."
"Excellent," she said, standing up and smoothing her coat. She turned to the room, her voice booming with authority. "The board is set. The pieces are in place. Soon, we will deploy the Aesir."
She looked back at the screen one last time, her eyes locking onto the chaos she had created.
"I'll take them all," she vowed softly. "Two Herrschers and the anomaly. They will all be mine."