Himeko
The air in the lower drainage sector of ME Corporation was thick enough to chew. It tasted of rust, stagnant water, and the chemical bite of industrial runoff.
Himeko wrinkled her nose, adjusting the rebreather on her collar.
Splsh. Splsh.
The only sound was the rhythmic trudging of boots through shin-deep sludge. It was so dark that they would have had trouble navigating without the flashlights they brought.
"Ugh," Kiana whispered, "It smells like a sewer and a battery factory had a baby down here."
"Quiet, Kiana," Mei hissed softly. "Voices carry in the tunnels."
Theresa chuckled from the side, "You're too tense, Mei. Don't worry, we are going to save them, so lighten up a little."
That got a conflicted look from Mei, as she faced the ground. "I-I'm just worried."
A hand suddenly landed on Mei's back, "Don't worry Mei-Senpai, I'm sure they are fighting hard to escape too! I'll make sure to beat up Cocolia extra hard for controlling Bronya again—"
"About that." Theresa cut her off, before turning to Kiana with an accusing stare, "You two knew that Bronya was capable of being controlled all this time, didn't you?"
Kiana and Mei stiffened, about to come up with excuses, before Theresa clarified. "Don't worry, I'm not mad… I'm quite proud, actually."
The two girls stared at Theresa with confused expressions. "Especially you, Kiana. You chose to lie to your superior to protect your friends… That is the Kaslana's way of justice, just like your idiot father."
"My dad?" Kiana asked.
"Yes, he used to say that seeing people get hurt makes his Kaslana blood boil. Then he'd go beat up whoever hurt those people."
Kiana chuckled, a soft look appearing on her face. "Yeah, that does sound like my dad… Seeing Bronya get controlled and Kenji getting hurt makes me angry, too. It's because of Anti-Entropy that they are suffering."
Mei nodded in agreement. But Theresa had more things to say, "Shicksal isn't exactly a beacon of justice, you know?"
"Huh?"
Fu Hua and Himeko turned their heads slightly, getting interested in what Theresa had to say.
"Schicksal created Valkyries from girls with Honkai resistance, but they would still suffer Honkai corruption, and those with poor adaptability will die young."
'Really laying it in to them aren't you, Theresa?' Himeko thought as she continued to walk forward. 'But I suppose, it's your way of saying sorry for hiding things.'
"But Shicksal… Oh…" Mei muttered, unable to come up with an answer.
"I don't know…" Kiana finally said, a confused expression etched on her face.
"Justice can be both objective and subjective. Anti-Entropy has its own goals, and there's nothing wrong with working towards one, but what's wrong is how they disregard who they hurt in the process."
She turned to Kiana, "Kalana justice is the best justice there is. Gladly sacrificing themselves to protect others. Don't ever forget that, Kiana."
Theresa ended her words there, but Himeko knew that she wanted to say more. To admit that she couldn't embody that very justice she spoke so highly of.
"And Mei," She suddenly said, making the girl flinch. "You also possess a Kaslana justice. Maybe it's because you hang around Kiana too much, but that isn't a bad thing."
Mei blushed slightly at the praise, "But I'm not a Kaslana though…"
"Not if the rumours have anything to say about it."
It took Mei a second before she finally processed what Theresa said. "Wait, what rumours?" She urgently asked.
Theresa smiled and walked towards the front, next to Himeko. "Principal, what rumours?!" She whisper shouted, but never got a response.
Himeko ignored the banter, her eyes fixed on the schematics projected onto her visor. She raised a fist, signaling a halt.
The team froze instantly. Theresa, Fu Hua, and the girls stopped behind her, blending into the shadows of the dripping pipes.
"We're here," Himeko whispered.
She stepped up to a massive, reinforced concrete pillar. It was slick with grime, but beneath the filth, it was one of the primary load-bearing supports for the western perimeter of the facility.
More importantly, it housed the main seismic sensor array for Sector 4.
Himeko reached into her pack and pulled out a device. It looked like a heavy, black disc with a single red light blinking on its face.
"A sonic lure?" Fu Hua asked.
"Partially," Himeko replied, magnetic-clamping the disc to the pillar with a heavy CLANK. "This little beauty is going to mimic the tremors of Chariot's burrowing up from the bedrock. But a little shaking isn't going to pull the elite guards away from the labs."
"…Do chariots even burrow from the ground?" Kiana whispered to Mei.
"Kiana… Did you fall asleep in lecture again?"
"...Forget I asked anything."
Himeko paid them no mind as she tapped her wrist console, bringing up a detonator interface.
Theresa stepped closer, the golden cross of Oath of Judah strapped to her back. "Himeko, what else did you plant during your scouting run?"
Himeko smirked. A wide and smug expression was planted on her face.
"A distraction," she said. "I rigged the fuel depot on the east side of the complex. It's the furthest point from our entry."
Kiana's eyes widened. "You rigged the fuel depot?"
"We need them looking the other way," Himeko said, her thumb hovering over the execute command. "And nothing grabs attention like a fireball."
She looked at the team.
"Brace yourselves."
She pressed the button.
BOOM.
The sound was muffled by the tons of concrete and earth above them, but the vibration was unmistakable.
The ground lurched violently beneath their feet. Dust rained from the ceiling, coating the surface of the sludge water.
Even from deep underground, they could feel the shockwave ripple through the facility's skeleton.
"That…" Kiana whispered, steadying herself against the wall, "was definitely an explosion."
Himeko didn't wait. She activated the second phase.
The sonic lure on the pillar flared to life. It began to emit a deep, percussive vibration.
Above them, the muted sounds of the facility changed. The steady, patrolling rhythm of heavy mech footsteps faltered.
Then, the alarm sirens began to wail, albeit muffled.
"Seismic sensors triggered in Sector 4," Bronya's voice would have usually chimed in here with an analysis. The silence where her voice should be was a sharp pang in Himeko's chest.
She shoved the feeling down.
"They're moving," Fu Hua noted, her head tilted toward the ceiling. "The heavy units are diverting to the east to contain the fire and the phantom beast."
The heavy thuds of Titan mechs faded, moving away from the drainage access hatch.
The path was clear.
Himeko drew her greatsword. The fusion cells ignited, casting an orange glow that pushed back the shadows of the tunnel.
She looked back at the team. At Theresa, whose face was set in a mask of grim determination. At Mei and Kiana, who were nervous but ready. At Wendy, who was floating inches above the muck, her eyes glowing faintly green. And at Fu Hua, who looked prepared as ever.
"Stealth is over," Himeko said, her voice hard. "From this point on, we are loud. We are fast. And we do not stop until we find them."
She turned to the sealed maintenance door ahead of them.
"Knock, knock."
She swung the greatsword.
CRASH.
The blast door sheared off its hinges, metal screaming as it crumpled inward. Light from the facility above flooded into the tunnel.
The rescue had begun.
/ — /
Kiana
The moment the maintenance door slammed into the floor, the world turned red.
The sterile white LEDs lining the absurdly large hallway flickered and died, replaced instantly by the pulsing crimson of emergency strobes. A robotic voice echoed from every speaker.
"Security Breach in Sector 4. Level 1 Countermeasures authorized. Lethal force engaged."
"Here we go!" Kiana shouted, the nervous energy that had been eating her alive finally finding a release.
The ceiling panels down the length of the corridor slid open. Dozens of sleek, spherical patrol drones dropped into the air, their optical sensors glowing angry red.
Behind them, heavy footsteps shook the floor as a squad of standard mechs rounded the far corner.
"Formation!" Theresa barked, her voice cutting through the siren's wail.
She didn't hesitate. The petite Principal reached behind her, unhooking the massive golden cross strapped to her back. She slammed it into the metal grating of the floor with a resounding CLANG.
The cross unfurled like a mechanical flower. Golden chains erupted from its core, shooting down the hallway faster than the eye could track. They lashed out like vipers, wrapping around the lead drones and the front line of Titans.
The mechs groaned, their servos whining as the Divine Key locked their joints, pinning them helplessly against the walls.
"Himeko!"
"On it!"
Himeko surged past the cross, spinning her massive blade acting as a centrifuge of destruction, and cleaved through the immobilized mechs
Titanium armor sheared like paper. The top halves of three mechs slid off their waists, sparking wildly before exploding in balls of fire.
"Don't get cocky!" Himeko yelled over the roar of the explosion. "That was just the welcoming party!"
She was right. The smoke from the destroyed Titans hadn't even cleared before laser fire erupted from the deeper shadows of the hall.
Kiana dove into a roll, bullets pinging off the floor where she had just been standing. She came up in a crouch, her twin pistols blazing.
Bang Bang. Bang.
She targeted the drones' optical sensors, blinding them before finishing them with a kick to their chassis.
"Left flank!" she called out, spotting a squad of stealth-camo mechs shimmering into visibility near the wall.
Fu Hua was already there.
The Class Monitor moved like water. She wove through the laser fire with minimal movement, dodging by millimeters.
She stepped into the guard of a stealth mech, her palm resting gently against its central reactor core.
There was no explosion, just a dull, internal impact sound. The mech froze. Then, its back plating blew out, the kinetic force traveling straight through its body to shatter the engine block behind it. It crumpled instantly.
Fu Hua pivoted, sweeping the leg of a second mech and driving her elbow into its 'neck'. "Clear," she stated calmly, adjusting her glasses as the machine sparked and died at her feet.
"More missiles incoming!" Wendy screamed from the rear.
At the far end of the hall, a heavy-artillery Titan had deployed its shoulder pods. A swarm of micro-missiles launched, trailing white smoke, aiming to saturate the entire corridor.
Kiana braced herself, ready to shoot them out of the air, but she didn't have to.
Wendy stepped forward, her eyes glowing a vibrant emerald. She thrust her hands out, palms open, and unleashed a terrifying gust of air.
The air in the hallway turned into a furious gale that erupted from her hands, creating a wind tunnel that caught the missiles mid-flight.
The warheads veered off course, caught in the turbulence. They slammed into the walls and ceiling, detonating harmlessly away from the team.
"Nice shot, Wendy!" Kiana cheered.
"I'm not done!" Wendy gritted her teeth, twisting her wrists. The wind currents shifted, picking up the debris from the destroyed mechs—shrapnel, jagged metal, broken glass—and hurling it back down the hall like a shotgun blast.
The artillery Titan was shredded by its own allies' wreckage, collapsing under the barrage.
"We need to move!" Himeko shouted, kicking a drone out of the air. "The Central Spire is past the next junction! If we stay here, we're just wasting time!"
They pushed forward, a wedge of destruction carving through the Anti-Entropy defenses. But as they reached the junction, a heavy blast door began to descend, threatening to cut off their path.
"They're locking down the sector!" Theresa yelled.
"I'll take care of it."
Surprisingly, it was Mei who stepped to the front.
Kiana watched, her breath hitching. Mei looked... different.
Usually, Mei fought with elegant restraint. She was a dancer with a blade. But today, with the bomb in her heart silent, she was a storm.
Purple electricity arced from her body, jumping to the metal walls, shorting out the lights. Her eyes were glowing with a violet intensity that mirrored the Herrscher within.
She gripped the hilt of her katana, not yet drawing it out. She crouched low, electricity pooling around her feet, cracking the floor.
"Be careful, Mei," Kiana warned.
Mei turned to her with a smile before completely disappearing in a bolt of thunder. Kiana's eyes widened as Mei reappeared instantly in front of the descending blast door.
She drew her blade.
A single, horizontal line of purple light bisected the air.
The heavy blast door stopped descending. For a second, nothing happened. Then, the entire door burst inwards in an explosion of molten metal.
Mei stood amidst the ruin, sheathing her katana with a sharp click. She looked back at them. Not looking even the slightest bit tired.
"Let's go," Mei said.
Kiana swallowed hard, "Reminder to never make her mad again," she whispered to herself.
But a part of her, at the very back of her mind, kind of liked the serious look in Mei's eyes— 'Nope, not now!'
"Move up!" Himeko ordered, retaking the point. "We're close to the Spire. Expect heavy resistance from here on out."
/ — /
Zero
Vibrations traveled up through the facility's foundation, rattling the glass walls of the containment pod.
Dust from the ceiling tile settled on the surface of the viscous green fluid.
Floating inside the tank, suspended by gravity clamps and titanium cuffs, Zero opened his eyes.
They glowed with a deep, malevolent crimson, cutting through the murky liquid.
He felt it. Not just the tremors of explosions. But some very familiar signatures are approaching closer.
He felt the chaotic energy of Kiana Kaslana. He felt the sharp crackle of Raiden Mei's lightning.
A lazy smirk spread across his face behind the breathing mask.
'So noisy,' he thought, 'They really do make a mess wherever they go.'
Outside the glass, the lab was in disarray. The lights overhead flickered as the facility's power grid diverted energy to the automated defenses in the lower sectors.
The researchers were scrambling, shouting into headsets, ignoring the monster in the jar.
"Director Cocolia has evacuated to the transport!" one scientist yelled. "Secure the asset! Initiate emergency stasis!"
Zero's smirk widened.
'Stasis?'
He tilted his head, watching a researcher rush toward the control console.
The corrosive agent was still pumping into his neck, burning through his veins. But Zero didn't mind the pain.
It was stimulating to him. His body metabolized the destruction, the cells dying and reborn in a constant, violent cycle of evolution.
He deliberately cut off all other power functions and focused only on his healing factor. So that even with the corrosive fluid, he would heal just enough to break out.
After all, his power did not only come from the body.
"I think I've healed enough," Zero murmured, his voice a low rumble that bubbled through the fluid, "I've had enough of this bath."
This was what Anti-Entropy failed to account for. They assumed his power was linked to his body, that disabling his body meant disabling his power.
They did not account for the possibility that his power came from the soul.
He didn't struggle against the cuffs. No, that would be undignified.
Instead, he closed his eyes and reached deep into the core of his being. He pulled on the thread of power that lay coiled in his chest.
'Wake up.'
Red lightning exploded from his skin. It arced through the fluid, boiling it instantly. The green liquid turned into a churning cloud of bubbles and steam.
The sensors on the tank screamed as energy readings spiked off the charts.
Zero prepared to unleash the signal. He would act as a beacon and drive hundreds of Honkai Beasts to his prison tearing everything apart.
And once one inevitably broke his tank, he would drain the life from the researchers and walk out of here to greet his "saviors."
But just as the red lightning reached its peak, ready to detonate...
A second flash of light cut through the red. It was a soft, crystalline pink color.
Zero's eyes snapped open in genuine surprise.
The pink lightning didn't surge outward. It coiled inward. It wrapped around the red arcs like a snake, tightening, squeezing, suffocating his power before it could leave his skin.
His muscles locked up. The smirk fell from his face, replaced by a snarl of annoyance.
"You..." Zero hissed, his thought echoing in the headspace they shared. "You're still awake?"
It was Kenji.
The boy should have been asleep. He made sure his prison was strong enough to drown his will. He should be dormant.
And yet, here he was. The pink lightning—the echo of that woman, Elysia, and Kenji's own stubborn will—was acting as a cage within a cage.
It strangled Zero's output, refusing to let him draw on the full power of OFA.
'I won't let you hurt them,' the will seemed to whisper, not in words, but in the crushing pressure of the pink energy.
"Pathetic," Zero spat.
He tried to force it. He pushed harder, demanding the Red Lightning to break the hold.
"Argh!"
The biological backlash was instant.
The war between the two energies turned his body into a battlefield. His nerves fired all at once. His heart seized, stuttering in his chest.
The fluid around him boiled, turning red with blood as his capillaries burst under the strain.
Zero's vision flickered. The lab, the panic, the researchers—it all dissolved into gray static.
He tried to hold on, to force his consciousness to stay, but the backlash was too strong. His body went rigid, arching back in a silent scream, before going completely limp.
The red light in his eyes faded, rolling back into the whites.
Darkness rushed in, dragging him down, deep into the recesses of the mind where the real battle was waiting.
'Fine,' Zero thought as the void swallowed him. 'If you want to talk, Kenji... let's talk.'