Private The Aftermath

[Vera Mina]

Wearing: Lawyer Suit

Armed With: Charm, "Appeal"

Current Form: Alice (See Bio)

Lady Alice Bloodscrawl, better known in her civil guise as Vera Mina, strode through the halls of her private castle on Atrisia. It was 24 hours after the wedding. The stilettos clicked daintily on her marble floor and she found Nathan in the repair bay, working on one of the castle droids. He couldn't stand to be still. She was starting to love that about him. Always busy. She was in the slender athletic red headed form she had married Nathan in, and the Form she used when acting in an official capacity as the Matriarch of House Bloodscrawl.

"Need help?" she asked as he used a welding torch on certain servos...

"Uh, yeah, actually..." Nathan Bloodscrawl said, his tall, chiseled appearance seemingly unbreakable like the grimace that never seemed to truly leave him. Alice hoped it never would. It was part of what had gotten her fascinated with him.

"Could you grab that flex-steel cable there? The rolled up bit there?" He asked, still working on welding the internals. The cable was on a nearby worktable

Alice got it, and handed it to him. They both knew he could have teleported it to him, but he was trying to involve her more in his activities, while taking an active interest in hers. And even he had to concede his Android wife would like the idea of an army of Killer Robots. After all, she had helped his biological daughter to create one...

It was a bonding process.

Alice stood a healthy distance back as he worked before he pulled off the Welding Goggles.

"What are you trying to do?" Alice asked her husband.

"Trying to increase the damage rate. New company product I'm developing. Want to test it with me?" he inquired.

"Sure..." Alice agreed, wanting to see something get blasted. It was part of her nature to enjoy destruction and violence. Admittedly, Nathan was feeding that nature a bit, but it was their Honeymoon. If he couldn't indulge his wife's proclivities on the Honeymoon, what was the point?

Especially considering last night...when she had done some indulging of her own once they were finally alone...

Vera's hand entwined with his as he ordered the reactivated Droid to walk to the indoor shooting range.

"So Alice..." Nathan began. "What do you want to do, after this?"

"A stroll through one of the markets would be nice. Not to buy anything, but it's been such a long time since I actively walked Atrisia's streets." Alice answered as she walked the great halls of the Castle, tapestries of her family hanging on walls and archways.

"Same here..." Nathan admitted. Alice had suggested just the thing after a weapons test.

"By the way...did you sleep well?" she asked lasciviously.

"Heh..." he chuckled, before pulling her close and kissing her. She returned it eagerly, feeling her processors warm up in her brain slightly as it haphazardly processed the Love emotion. Then they continued their leisurely stroll through the castle.

Soon they arrived at an indoor testing range and got behind a Force Field enhanced safety barrier as the Droid was then ordered by Nathan to go to the holographic target with blast shields behind it.

"Just how high were you trying to increase the damage?" Alice asked as they sat together.

"Extreme levels..." he answered. "Alice, as I have gotten used to this era, I find one maxim still rings as true today as it did a millennia ago..."

"What maxim would that be, my dear husband?" Alice asked sincerely.

"Always try and make something powerful enough to make the other dude die on the first shot..." he replied, giving the Droid the signal to fire on the target.

The Droid did...and it's upper half completely exploded, it's remaining lower half comically walking and stumbling before it fell down, metal leg twitching once.

The pair stared...and then burst out laughing at the site, their chortles carrying across the entire chamber. Nathan himself was in tears from how much he was laughing alongside his wife.

"Must have missed something..." he chuckled, being completely unguarded emotionally with Alice in a way that might have seemed shocking to others

"No chit!" Alice laughed, almost cackling. "I think it's dead..."

The pair laughed even harder together. It was easy for them to forget they were killing machines in moments like this...

A half hour later...

Alice had switched to a red minidress and matching heels as she walked with Nathan through the streets of her Mother's world, having taking an armored speeder.

"Been a long time since I've walked this world..." Nathan muttered, his artificial green eyes scanning the sights and smells. Their was some sort of parade in the streets, The Atrisians playing out scenes from their ancient epic romances.

"It's nice to see it in this state." he added stoically. He rarely smiled. Which made the moments he broke this pattern more memorable. More precious to her, filing away her memories of him in a separate back up database. Her processors got warmer whenever there was even slight physical contact now.

"Even I can't be cynical about my Mother's world." Alice admitted.

"So, now that we are married...what happens after you take down the Cult?" Alice asked quietly.

"My plans have changed, if that is what you are wondering..." he replied clinically. "Obviously I intend for House Bloodscrawl to continue. Whether it can do so legally is another matter?"

"You're willing to be held accountable? By the Jedi?"

"With Power must come Responsibility..." Nathan replied. "If I don't surrender after I've gotten what I want...what true difference is there between House Bloodscrawl and House Io?"

"We're not psychopaths wiping out isolated colonies." Alice replied dryly as they approached what looked to be an antique shop.

"Maybe...but to paraphrase something Moya told me once...just because Laertia Io is the villain doesn't necessarily make us the Hero. It's more like we're just aggressive disaster relief most times. And we occasionally have a sulky attitude about it."

Alice mulled over. "I'll still take that over those freaks she's with."

She chuckled as she said it. "I know, I'm one to talk, right?"

"Yep..." he replied without hesitation. "But the same goes for me..."

They both entered the shop and took a look at the interior. The Shopkeeper, an elderly, thin man with a long, pointy beard, dressed in the rich silk robes of a merchant, crimson in color.

"Greetings...how may I help you, honored customer?" The Merchant asked.

"I have a fancy towards antique portable computer systems... anything more than a hundred years out of date but in working order." Nathan said.

"Ahh, very nice! I have many such models, all in tip top preserved condition! And the young lady?" The Merchant acquired.

"Knives." Alice said with a smile. "Atrisian Knives."

"Very good choice! Please, follow me..." The Merchant said, leading them into a section for electronics...

Nathan inspected one of the older terminals...a lap top type model with Atrisian symbols.

"Ah, I see you have spotted the Akuma-7 Series Military Field Computer!" The Merchant boasted, retrieving it. "Synthetic Gibonna Memory Crystal Chip, full tactical analysis software, interactive wireless slicing module and secure hyperspace transceiver with full encryption protocols. Banned on Corellia after it interfacing with a city computer caused the city computer to become a rogue A.I. ..."

Nathan's interest peaked. "I could do a lot with this...how much?"

"Given it's rarity...and the fact I barely managed to purchase it myself, I could not part with it for anything less than four hundred thousand credits..."

"Deal...and an extra twenty thousand for your silence..."

The Merchant bowed. "You are most generous, Honored Customer..."

"Excuse me..." Alice said, stopping in front of a display that held a strange, iridescent memory chip that looked terribly familiar.

"What is this?" she asked.

The Merchant went to it.

"That was recovered from an ancient ship wreck close to Mount Muspelheim, amidst a pile of dessicated corpses. Precious metals and crystal was used in it's forging. I do not know it's function, unfortunately, despite numerous investigations into its back ground so I can only price it by its content of precious materials. I will sell it for five hundred thousand credits." The Merchant answered.

"Sold...and an extra hundred thousand for your silence."

The Merchant bowed. "You are most generous, milady. I thank you for your patronage."

He went over to the key ring on his belt to unlock the display. "Shall I wrap them?" he asked them both.

"Yes, please..." they said in unison.

While The Merchant took the items to wrap them, Nathan went over to his wife.

"Is that chip what I think it is?" Nathan asked.

"Like the one we retrieved from the Cannary..." Alice trailed.

"Meaning it's Force Imbued..." Nathan muttered quietly in a whisper. "Best to get it off the street..."

"Agreed..." Alice replied.

Just then... a petite figure in Dark Robes entered.

"Excuse me..." came a voice that sent a chill down both their bodies, for they both recognized the voice instantly...

"I was told you had acquired a rare memory chip..." the woman said, revealing herself to be the grinning psychopath known as The Amalgam , hated foe of Starlin Rand , Syd Celsius, and too many others...

"I'm here to purchase..."

Nathan teleported the old man out of the way and caught him, but her purple lightning blast was so powerful sent them flying when it exploded the wall behind them...

 

[Vera Mina]

Alice somersaulted over The Amalgam's lightning blast, retaliating by launching finger spears from her nails, which were blasted out of the air by her opponent.

Vera and the Amalgam had once fought each other decades prior. Vera had been overconfident in those days and it would cost her repeatedly, culminating in her original death at Eshan.

Things were different now.

Alice bounded towards The Amalgam with predatory aggression, flipping over her lightning bursts, flinging more Finger Spears at her, her Repulsir Cells helping her launch ultra fast kicks and punches that forced The Amalgam on the defensive once Alice closed the distance.

Elite Combat algorithms met centuries of experience, the pairs blows intricate, their strategies devious. Both were surprised at how even the fight was.

"Why, Vera, you've gotten stronger!" The Amalgam praised, before her eyes turned the color of glowing sulfur.

Alice shrieked and clutches her face as it started to burn, but she got her revenge almost immediately after, a stream of Fire Jelly erupting from her throat and bathing a screaming Amalgam's arm. Her audio sensors allowed her to track The Amalgam, map out her exact position and posture as she stumbled back, blinded, and flung more Finger Spears, which forced the evil sorceress to duck...and that was when Nathan teleported in from behind, swinging one end of his saberstaff for her head, and she blocked one handed with a red lightsaber.

"Mister Bloodscrawl! What a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance!" The Amalgam said with the voice of every personality inside her.

"I heard my daughter killed you."

"A copy. I'm the real deal, not the airheaded version I sent into Darth Phyre's tomb so long ago."

"Convenient that I have no way of knowing whether that's the truth or not..." Nathan replied.

The Amalgam snarled and flung him back with a beastly strength that surprised him and he retaliated by launching bolts of green lightning that made her hold up her red blade to catch it...

The Amalgam snarled as Vera, her face healed from the dark sight, launched a small black, smooth seed at her enemy's feet from her mouth.

The pod burst on impact and The Amalgam screamed as the Dovin Basal within activated and her flesh, bones, and skeleton were violently drawn to the center, crushing it into a baseball sized sample of flesh that still actively writhed with the Dark Side.

"Get back from it..." Nathan said as the ball of tissue glowed purple.

Realizing it was built to detonate, Nathan teleported him, Vera, and The Merchant across the street, as the shop exploded, Nathan using his pyrokinetic abilities to prevent the fires from spreading. Every electronic in a seventy meter radius went dead.

It was soon joined by a gathering of clouds, localized among the flames of the ship, which began raining on the flames in a heavy downpour.

Nathan looked at Alice, saw the creature he had had made a deal with to try and strike a blow to House Io, the price being the creature was now forever bonded to her. (Events of which are covered in this thread)

Arianna Belasko , in Alice's clothes, held out her hands, putting out the flames.

"No way that was the original." Arianna said, pale skin even brighter in the sunlight to an almost unnatural degree, ice blue eyes surveying the damage as she approached, heels clicking across the ground.

"A Detonation Copy. Designed to go off even should you only render it unconscious..."

"MY SHOP!" The Merchant cried.

"You'll be compensated..." Nathan promised. Only for the Merchant to run off having an emotional breakdown. They heard sirens in the distance. He looked around. Thankfully, no one else had been hurt.

"Arianna..." Nathan called out, teleporting the merchant back to them.

Arianna walked over placed a finger on his forehead, whispered something, and he was knocked out cold.

"I've wiped his memory. We should leave, immediately." Arianna said.

Nathan teleported them both to a completely different block as the police showed.

They reappeared on a rooftop, Arianna in Nathan's arms.

"Way to make a girl feel welcome..." Arianna joked.

"I thought you said The Amalgam was obliterated." Nathan noted.

"She was! I was there when Percival Io helped Laertia kill her!" Arianna said, gently sliding out of Nathan's grasp like water flowing through fingers.

"Strange...she never seemed the type to make copies..." Arianna said.

She blinked.

"The chip...do you have it?"

"No." Nathan said.

They both blinked as they realized they had been tricked.

"CHIT!" They both yelled.

Arianna's flesh and mind retreated back into Alice with a horrific bubbling and warping of tissue across the whole body.

"How the hell did we fall for that?" Alice complained.

"We got too comfy. That's what happened. Can't let your guard down except in a stronghold, and maybe not even then..." Nathan complained quietly...

"Bet you a cool mil that a Cultist snatched it while we were busy..." Alice remarked, displeased at falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Nathan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"The most troll fethin' move possible and I fell for it... sometimes I wonder if I learned anything from my resurrection..." he muttered.

"Let's head home...we can figure out what she wants here, because she damn well didn't come here just for that chip." Alice replied confidantly...

 

[Vera Mina]

"Well, Husband, it wasn't a total disaster..." Alice said after she had gotten home to her Castle and Nathan had kicked back on a couch to ruminate about the day's events, while Alice grabbed a vial with an attached IV feed from a stasis chamber, attached it to her wrist, inserted the feed needle into her veins and sat on the couch opposite him.

"We learned we can at least take on a copy of her..."

"Seeing Syd's face on her is disturbing. I wonder...which came first? The Amalgam? Or the Creature I bonded Syd with?"

Nathan spared a glance at whoever was reading this.

"Trust me, buddy, I'm as confused as you are by the Lore at this point." he said to the reader.

"Don't get tied in knots over it, Nathan...I never do..." Alice replied, not noticing how her husband's latent mental instability had allowed him to break the fourth wall. "The key now is to figure out what she wants on Atrisia..."

"The Cult had an ancient stronghold here, once. Sealed off centuries ago by Zabka..." Nathan thought, grimacing. Zabka was a background supporter, but rumor has it that during all that time he was protecting the mother of Starlin Rand he was also building up his power base again, in between sending his son secrets of the Force, slowly opening up to his son more and more about a strange history. Zabka was atypical for absentee Father's, in that he was trying to this day to make up for having been one.

"We should find him..." Nathan said. "Where is he?"

"Helping the locals at Jakku anonymously..." Alice answered. "I have him on speed dial."

"In a little bit. The more time I can go without having to speak to the scheming bastard the better." Nathan said, still blaming him for sparing Syd Celsius during the tail end of the Gulag Era. More than anyone else, at least from Nathan's perspective, Zabka bore the single greatest responsibility for Syd being alive in the modern era, and was thus one of the direct instigators behind his daughter Laertia's downfall and damnation, even if he hadn't meant to be. To say that he was still sore at him over that was an understatement.

"Oh, I'll do all the talking, Nate. I promise, you won't have to lay eyes on him." Alice said.

"Thanks..." he said. "Where's Sera?"

"In Orbit, conducting high level negotiations with local corporations...I've alerted her to what's happened. Told her to be on her guard."

"My...'Sisters'?" he asked, tentative in his use of the description for the custom biots Vera had crafted from captured Nuetralizer bodies.

"Conducting combat exercises with the clones. They're already on their way back home..." Alice said. "This is looking like it's going to end excessively violent...*

Nathan caught the natural excitement his Android Wife had at the prospect of death and destruction.

"As long as Civilians don't get harmed in the process..." was all he said to her.

"But of course, Nathan..." Alice agreed pleasantly, knowing he was giving her leave to rip and tear her way through Atrisia's underworld to find The Amalgam...

Suddenly, she felt a nudge in her artificial subconscious.

"Nate... Arianna wants a word..." Alice said.

Nathan blinked.

"Let's hear it..." he replied, sitting up...

Alice's flesh and mind violently warped into that of Arianna Belasko once more.

"Husband, it occurs to me, that now that I am 'in the club' so to speak, I think it prudent to start deploying some of the defectors at my command...a few Advanced Model Nuetralizers to start. I also suggest putting a detail around the old Cult Stronghold..." Arianna, said pleasantly, daintily taking a seat next to Nathan.

"Your help might have been useful back in the Merchant's shop..." he muttered.

"I am honoring the agreement. Your Wife is in total control. Besides, I wanted to see if she could actually handle Amy without having to resort to me taking over. You both actually did remarkably well..." Arianna commented.

"Barring the explosion. And the fact that it took a bio singularity mine to kill a relatively weak copy."

"Mere details..." Arianna assured, placing a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "You both did great...barring the chip theft..."

"I wonder what was on it..." Nathan mused. "From what Neutralizers like David said, it wasn't like her to blatantly attack in broad daylight like that...it must have a monster of a personality on it, that chip..."

"But you'd need a Brain like Vera's to read it..." Arianna trailed, flesh bright and pale even in the dimmer lightning. "She must have such a body..."

Arianna frowned.

"Wherever the real Amalgam is, she's obviously put a lot of thought into her scheme. It must have taken decades to put this together, whatever it is..."

Arianna found herself reassessing Amy in that instant. All her clown antics and non-sequiturs. All a distraction. All to lead to...something...

"Alright, Arianna, get your defectors involved. But be subtle about it..." Nathan added.

Arianna smiled, planted small kiss on Nathan's cheek.

"I'm never not subtle..." she replied, standing up.

"I'll make the calls." Arianna said as she headed off to her Host's office while whistling...

 

[Vera Mina]

Arianna strode down the halls of Vera's Castle, heels clicking on the marble floor.

This new body was taking some getting used to. It felt supercharged, in comparison to a normal Force Spawn Body. Arianna felt she might actually be able to take on Syd herself and win.

If only Vera's flesh wasn't so vulnerable to flames...

Entering Vera's study, Arianna beheld clippings of all of her Host's most famous cases. She smirked, searching Vera's memories, her combat databases.

The Arianna Persona was a Master at Torture but this Android possessed a sadism that left her absolutely breathless at the creativity. She honestly took notes...

Arianna stopped herself. There was a reason she was trying to leave all of that behind.

She went to her encrypted Holo-Comm and typed in the frequency to call the anonymous defector ship.

"Dove Vessel Symbiote, this is Ice Queen, come in...over."

"Copy. This is Symbiote." said the heavily computerized voice on the other end...

"We have a problem...I need two Mercury Girls, and the Ebony Champions known as Adam and Burt..."

Arianna smiled at her next words, the flesh on her face shuddering between hers and Alice's for a split second before settling on hers.

"We're about to have us a party on Atrisia...tell them to report directly to these coordinates..."

Fifteen minutes later...

Alice strode out of the office in her Spy Gear, which resembled a series of strategically placed white bandages that also covered parts of her arms and legs.

"I'm going back to the site, dear. It wasn't coincidence The Amalgam attacked us just as we were about to purchase a Force Imbued Memory Chip. The Copy must have been a last minute grow. There is no way the real one would have froze like that unless she was meant to."

"Be extremely careful, Alice. The Amalgam might have left a copy of one of her personalities behind." Nathan warned, staring at her with steel in his artificial green eyes.

"I've killed my fair share of cultists. Even without Arianna."

"Even with Arianna, do not underestimate The Amalgam. That weak copy had an aura almost on the level of Darth Phyre. Besides, you just got those abilities. She has more experience." Nathan reminded her.

"I will heed your warning, Husband." Alice said, her ocular sensors and database registering that he absolutely meant every word.

Besides. It wasn't like he didn't have a point. She was a tad overconfident for her own good.

"Now, do me a favor and relax..." she encouraged.

Nathan nodded. He headed over to the mini fridge and grabbed a water bottle before he sat back on the couch and...just stared at the glass table.

Alice's hands went to her hips.

"That's how you relax?"

"I'm trying to remember how. I barely got through the wedding."

Alice went over to him, sensing a teaching moment.

"It's easy..." she trailed, stroking his face gently, picking up the remote.

"The Castle Database recorded our wedding..." Alice said, using the remote to go to the records.

"When I'm not here, and you find yourself staring into space in your free time... go back to this moment in your head and find something to do to occupy you while you do so. I replay the entire wedding in my own head, occasionally..." she said, stroking his chin.

He smiled very faintly.

Alice planted a quick kiss on him before heading out to hunt for clues at the blast site.

Nathan hesitantly turned on the projector, watching as the cake began to get cut. He felt a strange ease come over him that he wasn't used to.

But deep down, he was still considering the lethal danger of The Amalgam, even as he watched himself and Alice feed each other the first two slices of cake. Nathan had made sure Percival Io had gotten at least one slice...

One hour later...

The Spy Gear's stealth field barely had any tells as Alice moved through the streets to the remains of the ship. Which was already cordoned off by police lines. Expensive Probes with the latest in Forensic Scanning Equipment.

Nathan's warning to her was replayed in her head as she got closer. She took it very seriously, because she loved that he worried about her.

It honestly made her even more cautious than she would have been as she evaded the probes sweeping the blast site, plenty of genuine forensic investigators sweeping the scene in sealed suits, running scanners over it. The streets has been cleared.

Arianna suddenly appeared out of the corner of Vera's eye, seemingly in her garb as the Countess of Khemost...

"Figuring out how your brain works is a task in of itself..." The imaginary Arianna said. "Such a strange nervous system. F. Y. I. if I were still a Brain Demon Cultist, I would have left at least one surprise. Go expecting at least three. And careful...those surprises will be indiscriminate.

Alice said nothing at this, both to stay stealthy as well as the fact that there were a lot of people present. They were all in danger.

Alice decided that, just to be safe, the whole inspection team had to go down so they didn't accidentally disturb something that would kill them.

Alice had brought arms, non-lethal implements in keeping with House Bloodscrawl Philosophy.

Tranq darts, her own internal stun spore capacity in this form (Which already had multiple genetic and cybernetic upgrades), a Source Ripper modded to operate wirelessly, and a stun baton.

The invisible Android Vampire got close to one of the many small, spherical forensic probes and hacked its systems, making it go haywire with a virus as it spun off, knocking down other probes as it zipped about uncontrollably, to the consternation of the techs in charge, who ran after it while swearing in Atrisian. Next she made whistles to attract a curious investigator over to a tree, where she was able to get him in a sleeper hold that quickly rendered him out cold, before slinking to the next closest one just as started to turn to see where his friend had gone, a cloud of white stun spore gas escaping her throat and knocking him out cold even while wirelessly hacking the other Probe Droids to go completely haywire and smash into each other, before flinging three tranquilizer darts at the remaining investigators while they were distracted.

Arianna appeared out of the corner of her eye.

"Clean. Efficient. Bloodless." Arianna complimented. "But be warned. Cultists will escalate."

Alice dragged each body a safe distance away, resisting the urge to feed on any of them. Even with her current mutations and cybernetics, this form could be ravenous if you didn't keep a lid on it.

She then finally dared to approach the blast site itself, her molecular back track sniffer and enhanced micro optics detecting traces of Force Spawn Tissue. She honed in on it, getting closer.

Her audio sensors detected something rumbling underneath the debris and she sprang back as it exploded, revealing a fair skinned Blond Woman in a beige gown, with a cold, dead stare that reminded the Android of her own stare in the early days. The original had been slain by Percival Io .

She quickly backed away, not noticing shrapnel had hit her bare skin, drawing glowing green blood.

The Chorus sneered as she saw the blood, and hissed a very dark spell that sent swarms of explosive fireballs hurling in Alice's direction...

 

[Vera Mina]

Alice cartwheeled out of the way of the explosion retaliating immediately by launching poison tipped bio spears from her fingers, barbed on one end to make the difficult to remove. The Chorus dodged the spears but barely, flinging heavy amounts of purple lightning Alice's way.

Diving behind a nearby Tree, Alice released a cloud of stun spores from her mouth to obscure the Chorus's physical site, exuding pheromones that made it more difficult for the Chorus to detect her. The Witch closed in, dark spells protecting her from the effects of the stun spore cloud.

"The Amalgam suspected Bloodscrawl might send you!" The Chorus called out. "His little pet Android. Tell me, who did you merge with before he decided it was worth marrying an expensive toy?"

Alice didn't answer, already deciding to subject the Chorus to an especially brutal demise for the insult. Her pheromones made it difficult for her to detect as The Chorus searched for her in the remains of the crime scene through the stun spore cloud, randomly firing off bolts of lightning as Alice moved extremely quietly to get into position...

The Chorus is tough to try and take by a frontal attack, even by my standards. Fortunately, I've never seen an iteration of hers that was very smart. Arianna cautioned in her head as Alice moved, unused to thoughts she knew were not hers.

I also wouldn't try absorbing her if I were still you. Stupid though she is, she is... difficult to stop channeling by all accounts.

The Chorus whispered spell to disperse the cloud...and found Alice nowhere in sight.

Her eyebrow raised. She couldn't have vanished!

She began hurling fireballs everywhere in the remains of the shop as she methodically scoured it with brute force searching, hissing dark spells to try and reveal her location. But there was no reveal.

The Chorus began to get concerned. The only way the spells aren't showing anything is if whatever she merged with was so powerful it was still managing to hide her even when not channeled.

As Sirens sounded in the distance, The Chorus grew frustrated, passing by a Statue of a female Mandalorian...and too late realized it had not been there in the rubble of the shop when she had emerged.

She spun around too late as The "Statue" jumped and spin kicked her in the jaw, brutally dislocating it as the flesh on the statue receded behind her the bandage like suit and became the form of Alice, whom back flipped away from a fireball, only to be caught by a steady stream of purple lightning by the Chorus, who roared as she closed in like feral beast as Alice hit the ground...

...only for Alice's hands to shoot up and bury ten darts from her fingers, now filled with an utterly lethal poison, right into the Chorus's face. She fell dead, twitching, her body starting to break down into goo...

Alice shot up, sparks from fissures on her body. Her gear had taken an incredible amount of punishment, but fortunately it had been designed to absorb lightning at such intense levels. The damage was minimal.

In the time she had before the police swarmed the scene again, she quickly went back to where she had first found traces of The Amalgam, and spotted traces of flower petals from a rare Atrisian species of white rose.

She analyzed the genetic structure and then fled the scene, just as the Police Speeders arrived

Later on...

Nathan was sipping on coffee when Alice slinked back in, the last of the damage to her body fixing itself.

"Alice..." he trailed, standing up, shutting the recording of the wedding off and going to her.

"Your suspicion was well justified, Nathan..." Alice admitted. "Got attacked by a fragment she left behind. Barely defeated it before the Police arrived..."

"How bad are your injuries?" Nathan asked, all business.

"Minor systems damage. It's mostly fixed now. I'll run a diagnostic and that should spot anything underlying...care to go to the repair bay with me?" She asked, her psychological profile of him letting her know he would be more at ease mentally knowing she was taking no chances as well as trying to involve him in helping her in case there WAS a problem.

Nathan nodded curtly and followed her to the specialized repair bay built into the Castle.

Being such a specialized Android capable of such extensive modifications, Vera naturally needed a full suite of genetic and cybernetic repair technologies on hand should she suffer extensive damage even her already extremely advanced repair systems couldn't fix. She had acquainted Nathan with a number of them during their long engagement, and slowly expanded his knowledge of Androids and cybernetics by the day.

She stepped into a diagnostic pedestal in the center while Nathan went over to a console and typed in commands for a deep scan analysis of her system.

"Recent electrical damage. Minor neural damage that's starting to clear up. Marrow in bones is okay. Minor muscular strain. Midichlorian count in the cells is way up, but that is to be expected given recent events..." He noted more to himself than her. Whatever helped him sleep easier, she reasoned.

"Everything is looking okay...you might want to get a blood injection though."

"Excellent idea..." Alice said, stepping off and going to the refrigerator stasis chamber, taking out an injection hypo of preserved human blood and injecting it into her neck, feeling a rush of energy and then sighed.

"I gotta get outta this face for a while. Even with all the enhancements to it this form burns through energy kinda fast..."

The Android triggered her reversion protocol and in less than thirty seconds, Alice bubbled and melted away back into the default guise, that of the famed Coruscant Lawyer, Vera Mina, still in the revealing Spy Gear that was serving as her badge of office while in battle. Her systems balanced out, immediately ceasing to be so high performance, though this form, too, had enhancements active.

"What did you learn out there?" Nathan asked.

"I found traces of a rare flower that grows only on Atrisian mountain tops," Vera explained as she headed over to a privacy screen to change, whose height only went up to her neck while she talked.

"I believe The Amalgam has been to one of these mountains very recently. Like within hours before we encountered her." Vera mentioned. "I'll narrow my search to these locations. By the way, Arianna called in some of the heavy hitters among The Defectors. A pair of Advanced Model 1's and a pair of Black Knights."

"Can the Knights be trusted?" Nathan asked, knowing they had studied at the feet of Laertia.

"The two showing fought alongside her in the Avatar of War. Arianna found them to be among the most disillusioned with the aftermath. As one of them put it to her; "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." (Hockey Pads: 90 XP)

Vera stepped out, wearing a new, crimson Dress whose style matched that of the white one she often wore in court.

"What do you think?"

"About the quote, or the dress?" Nathan joked dryly.

Vera threw back her head and laughed a bit.

"Both." she giggled, slinking up to him, feeling strong arms wrap around her torso as she hooked her arms around his neck.

"I'm glad you are alright." Nathan said.

"Mutual..." she replied. "And I have a fantastic idea. Let's spend the next three hours discussing the most stringent security measures we can put in..."

"That does sound fun, admittedly..." he replied, staring into blue eyes.

Vera smirked before kissing him.

"I was thinking..." she said, clasping his hand again as they walked out of the bay.

"We should start with stun spore gas vents in the western entryway...and a lot more guards..." Vera mentioned, perfectly happy to get to work immediately on the problem. No reason they couldn't weave the Honeymoon into a good, decent black ops mission. Besides, once their other family arrived, it would be a party ...

 

[Vera Mina]

The wedded couple went over the castle plans, looking for every possible way in.

"Married barely 24 hours, and a ghost strikes..." Nathan muttered as he sat over looking the castle plans, the memory of his first wife's death playing over in his head...

"It is not a coincidence. She is very skilled at stealth. She could have been monitoring us all this time..." Vera theorized as she sat next to him.

"But what did she learn and when?" he mused. "We're going to have to take her alive..."

"What then?"

"I don't care about Cultists..." Nathan replied. "But I would rather you not corrupt yourself with torture. That isn't what House Bloodscrawl stands for. Find a creative method of extracting information if you must, special truth serums if possible, but do not draw out her execution. And if you OR Arianna are thinking of absorbing her, I strongly recommend against it." he said firmly as he marked down security weak points on the property blueprints.

Trust us, dear husband..." Arianna's voice said from Vera's mouth. "No force in this galaxy could persuade us to risk that monster in our collective. Other monsters, perhaps, but not that one..."

Vera's voice was suddenly her own again.

"I have files on how to dispose of these creatures. Nullification Resin should break her down quickly..." Vera said.

"Careful, that stuff also breaks you down, now..." he warned.

"The underworld...shall I apply the same approach?" Vera asked.

"Of course. However, if in the execution of your goals, you happen to get a tad...enthusiastic in your dispatching of her criminal connections...use your own best judgement..."

"Case by case basis, I assure you..." Vera replied smugly.

"So, how are you adjusting?" He asked.

"To being married or to being a Force Spawn? Splendidly if the first is your question. If the second, however...so far...I only hear Arianna's voice."

"That won't last. Force Spawn are inherently schizophrenic. They invent new personalities as a side effect of their abilities...and you already have a lot of stored forms BEFORE you merged with Arianna..." Nathan warned.

"I'm the boss of my own mind, Nathan."

"I believe you. But be ready when you stop feeling like yourself out of nowhere..."

"I'm sure I will be r-r-r-ready..." Vera's voice trailed off in a stuttering electronic tone as her face twitched from the glitch, features disgustingly warping with a series of pig like metallic squeals into a completely different woman with long, smooth, dark red hair wearing Vera's dress. Her face twitched, eyes rolling back into her skull as her face rippled for a few seconds before it reset.

"Perhaps we can knock over a few banks?" The red headed woman in Vera's place.

"Only if it's to steal something relevant..." Nathan replied, not missing a beat as he glanced away from the blueprints to her for only a second. "Name, please..."

"Theresa..." Theresa answered pleasantly, her nature as a fake personality unconsciously being created and now instinctively puppeted by Vera causing her to make up memories on the spot...

"Was it chocolate or vanilla cake at the wedding?" Theresa asked, confused. "Also, are we still on for House Break In tonight?"

Nathan stared at her.

Theresa gave a trolling smile.

"Just making sure you're paying attention, honey..." she said pleasantly.

"Y'know...we may yet need a home break in...Theresa..." Nathan said, trying to remember it was still his wife, adjusting to rapidly developing personalities...

Theresa leaned forward.

"Do tell, Husband..."

"If I wanted to smuggle the kind of alchemised processor onto Atrisia that we found at that shop...how would I do it?"

Theresa sat back, pursing her lips in deep thought as she clasped her hands together

"Kanjiklub has been making headways again near one of the coasts...My spies have reported frequent activity. Several alchemised items were traced back to that area..."

"Perhaps The Amalgam didn't even intend to hit us there. She may have legit been there trying to hit the Antique shop because she missed it getting delivered at the coast..." Nathan theorized. "Have your spies estimated the next time delivery occurs?"

"Three days from now..." Theresa answered. "Shall I pay it a visit dear? Fetch you some exotic contraband, perhaps?" she asked with a sly grin.

"Yes." Nathan responded. "I want you to look for any signs of where that chip may have come from. That thing looked like an antique up close. Didn't look local."

Theresa nodded, before her form and mind warped back to Vera's.

"...o-o-of course, dear husband..." Vera said, face twitching and rippling unnaturally for a few seconds before it reset.

"...oh no, did I slip away?" Vera asked in total surprise?"

"Yep." Nathan answered bluntly. "As time goes on, probably every last form you have will gain its own personality. That's not even counting all the ones Arianna had when you merged with her. From what I've been told, most of Arianna's stored personas are only accessible if you are Arianna beforehand. There will be very little 'crossover'.

Vera blinked, looked at her own hands in curiosity. Nathan teleported to her, drawing her into his arms to try and ease any distress felt...

"I'm here..." he said...