Chapter 181: Friends and Loved Ones.
Chapter 181: Friends and Loved Ones.
"It's been ten years combined since I was dragged over to Arkadia by that summons." Usami spoke perfect Arkadian as she sat on a rooftop with a drone floating just before her and observing her every action.
Her hair had been cut again and she was wearing pink highlights from the roots which made it look a lot like Dina's natural highlights, it barely touched her shoulders, and she was wearing a modified variant of the Atlas military uniform, personally tampered with to look like her the armour she used to wear on Arkadia.
In one hand she had a small flame playing with like Ikaris used to do all the time; a habit she had developed when she started missing the flamboyant goddess, and hovering above het other hand was a very small ball of cackling energy that reswmbled Dina's [origin explosion\\s].
She was in the middle of the lake watching the sunset, on top of the only building that pierced the surface of the water, reaching the height of a skyscraper.
"I wonder if they found a way back?" She sighed and leaned on the wall behind her.
"What language is that?" One scientist asked through the drone, watching her summon a tiny spear and stabbed her arm with it and then take a vial from the drone's mechanic arm and scoop up her blood.
"Does it matter?" Usami retorted, healing her cut and giving the vial to the drone.
"It matters that you cooperate, of you started remembering anything you should be telling us, for our sakes, yours and your brother's." The man answered her lazily.
"He's in his last year of college now, twenty-four years old, right?" She looked at the drone. "How is he doing?"
"Your brother has tried a total of five times in the last three years to contact you, if you truly wanted to know you'd respond to him instead of asking the staff, we aren't responsible for him, that is another division."
"I don't deserve to see him after the things I've done, the things you've made me do." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the warm lake air. "Nevermind, as long as he's safe and alive I don't care, I'm long passed caring." She deadpanned, blocking the sunlight with her right hand and staring at her hero's sigil.
"It seems like even if I didn't come he'd be living a good life without me." She spoke Arkadian again, and then froze when her sigil dimly flickered.
"Are you okay, there was a sudden spike in your vitals." The scientist asked.
"Miller, mind your own business, focus on your bald spot and stop worrying so much about me..." She snapped and stared at her sigil again as it flickered brighter. "Say...
How is she doing, since you don't want to talk about Uriyu?" She asked and the man sighed and relaxed in his chair, gesturing to an assistant behind him and the girl quickly brought her tablet over and opened up a file with live footage of a little girl with black hair playing with a nurse in a large white room.
"Everything looks fine she's playing with the nurses again, do you want to meet her today?" Miller answered. "I heard she's been asking for you a lot recently."
"... She may be my daughter, but I've been constantly reminded that she's also Atlas property, don't pretend like you give a fuck about either of us, especially after you put that damn chip on her spine." Usami lowered her gaze staring at the sigil on her hand as for the first time in seven years a steady glow appeared on it, raising her hopes."
"Please." She hid the sigil with her gloves and closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter who it is, please find me, I need your help...!"
"Your suit is registering high levels of cardiac stress again, and you're visibly sweating, Usami are you sure that you're okay?" Miller sat forward and began running tests as the blood sample was returned to them, while he did this, Usami on the surface closed her eyes as a figure blocked out the sun from her, her sigil burned the gloves off her hand and she lowered her head and wiped her tears clean.
"Yes, I'm okay." Usami answered as Dina grabbed the drone out of the air, turned it around and stared into the lens causing Miller and most of his staff to go still as the scanners quickly identified her as one of the other six missing people from day zero.
"Hey there, Hero." Dina smiled at her, and as she did she heard alarms starting to go off beneath them in the building. "You don't look a day older than I remember you."
"And yet it's already been ten years." Usami answered, opening her arms wide as her friend sniffled and landed on the rooftop, grabbing her in a hug after she crushed the drone. "You came back, how?"
"Master brought us back." Dina held her tightly. "Why are you in an Atlas facility?"
"I need your help." Usami opened her eyes when Arla arrived next, smiling at her, and then she saw three more silhouettes approaching on the horizon.
"You don't look like you do, you could clear this small lake with a single leap-"
"They have my brother... and my daughter." She closed her eyes again and sunk causing Dina to go down with her. "I can't do anything without harming them, so I've been forced to do terrible things, as a hero, as someone who's supposed to protect, I've done horrible things for them!" She cried.
"Okay, Usami, tell me what I need to know and save the details for later, how do we help?" Dina pulled away from her as her eyes and sigils lit up upon Sol's arrival.
"What's going on up there, wasn't that Dina?" Miller scurried to send messages on his computer raising alarms and contacting the higher-ups. "Get our sleepers to retrieve the boy immediately and put the girl under maximum-" He yelped and stumbled about when the facility shook and their systems started failing.
"Fuck, start an evacuation, if the facility collapses not a single one of us is gonna survive-"
"Oh, I don't think a single one of you deserve to live after what you did to her." Sol was seated in the man's chair spinning lazily with Usami going through the door with Dina while Ikaris had one unconscious guard's device tapping and scrolling and Sara with Arla stood on the observation deck staring down into a large white room full of household items.
"I didn't plan to get involved, I didn't even care at first, seeing giant mechs running around was pretty cool, but you crossed the line when you not only blackmailed my friend, but also forced her to have a kid against her will and then used that child to further blackmail her."
"The death penalty is easily a mercy for them." Ikaris showed Sol a file that left him frowning with his eyes exuding golden mana.
"You didn't artificially fertilize... You made her unwillingly have a child through natural...!" Sol stood up and grabbed miller by his throat. "Who's in charge of Atlas, I want the names of every CEO, every named and unnamed partner, every branch director, every manager, every government funder, every military unit, everything, every hairpin and paperclip, down to how they wash their ass!"
"I'm the branch manager here, I.. if I do that, will you spare me?"
"No... Miller." Sol looked at the name on his jacket. "You're all dying, every single one of you, fuck your families and fuck your friends, fuck any kind of life any of you have outside of this organisation, you signed your death warrant the moment you made her do that, how dare you, to a hero, she is supposed to be a hero, and you turned her into..." Sol paused and hissed through his teeth.
"You fucking pigs, how could you do that to her so many times?" He paused and took a deep breath. "I said I want names!!"
"We didn't know!" The man screamed and shuddered under Sol's wrath. "Please-"
Millers assistant screamed when the man's head went flying after Sol lost patience.
"You... Ren, start talking." He looked at her. "The last thing I imagined doing when I was supposed to be enjoying my honeymoon is this, so believe me, I won't budge, you're dead anyway, so give me a reason to make it painless." He stared at her, and she shakily raised her tablet to him. "System."
"Yes, master." She appeared next to him and took the tab from the terrified woman.
"Download every bit of data Atlas has, hack into everything-"
"Done." She answered before he even finished speaking. "Compared to the technology of Zola-Prime, earth is thousands of years behind." She scoffed and threw the tab back at Ren who shook with her forehead pressed against the ground begging for mercy.
"We have her!" Dina barged back through the door, with Usami holding an unconscious girl at least six years old.
"What about the implant?" Arla asked.
"I already removed it." Dina opened her palm revealing a small bloody chip with dozens of tentacles at least a foot tall.
"Is she hurt?"
"I've already healed her as well." Dina replied again and then looked to Usami who was carefully holding the child. "Is there anything or anyone else here that you care about, think carefully."
"No, kill them all." Usami held the girl securely and closed her eyes. "Every last one."
"Gladly." Sol clasped his fist and her along with everyone else vanished, leaving him standing before the Atlas employees. "I don't usually preach morality, in fact I'm usually an immoral person, but I draw the line at my friend's and loved ones, and you trampled all over that line, fuck, you spat in my face."
"W-we don't even know who you are-"
"Of course you don't." Sol looked down at her as she raised her eyes to ask again for mercy.
"And you never will." He vanished, and in his place magma started pouring from a portal, and then in every room, in every hallway, more magma began emerging from nowhere, within just a few minutes the sealed facility was erupting with magma from the top like a volcano, having incinerated everything and filled the insides completely.
Dina rested her hand on Usami's shoulder as they stood on the waters watching the building slowly sink and then raised her eyes when Sol appeared next to them.
"Let's find your brother."