Lights in a Starless Sky - A Honkai Impact 3rd Fanfiction

Act 9: Babylon

6:30 AM: Durandal's Room, Shicksal HQ

Durandal stirred from her sleep and pulled the covers further up on to herself. Perceval was still fast asleep, his face plastered with a look of almost childlike innocence. She smiled and brought her hand to his cheek and whispered quietly. "With him like this, I find it hard to believe that he's a year older than me." Perceval groaned as he brought a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, Durandal chuckled lightly. "Morning, Perceval." He yawned and smiled lightly at Durandal. "Good Morning, Durandal." He looked into Durandal's sapphire eyes and adjusted his arms around her shoulders. "Thank you. You know, for looking after me during the night." She shook her head. "Don't mention it. When I saw you in a nightmare for the first time, I wasn't going to let you suffer like that again." Perceval blushed slightly. "It really had that much of an effect on you?" Durandal turned her head away in slight embarrasment. "Y-Yes. Seeing you in that sort of pain... Hurt me." Perceval's hair stood on end for a moment. "It hurt you? H-How so?" She turned her head back to face him. "You're a dear friend to me, Perceval. I can't stand to watch someone close to me suffer. When I saw you in that state of pain, I couldn't just leave you like that." Perceval's cheeks were stained deep red but his face bore a gentle smile. "Thank you, Durandal." The Valkyrie brushed some of the golden blonde hair from her face and smiled kindly. "You don't need to thank me. It's only natural I look after you, as your teammate and friend." Perceval shook his head and sat up. "I'll repay you for this. One day." Durandal sat up and put a hand on Perceval's shoulder. "You don't have to do anything for me." He chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't do anything crazy." Perceval stepped off the bed and stretched his arms. "But I will do one thing. If you are ever out of your depth, I'll be there to help you." Durandal smiled. "I wouldn't mind that. Thank you, Perceval." The Knight shook his head, then smiled kindly. "I haven't done anything yet." Durandal stood up and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Think of it as an advance payment." Perceval nodded sincerely. "I will." 

9AM: Command, Shicksal HQ

Otto stood in front of the large screen at the front of the room, Durandal and Perceval assembled behind him, both in their 'Bright Knight: Excelsis' and 'Spirit of Ash' battlesuits respectively. Otto turned to face the two. "I have a simple mission for you two today: you are to infiltrate Babylon Labs in Siberia." Perceval raised an eyebrow. "Babylon has been dormant since the Second Honkai War. What's the problem there?" Otto brought up a feed from the cameras, displaying a large room covered in shelves of server computers and database archives. In the room, stood Kiana, kicking and firing her pistols; as if she was fighting the air. "Ms. Kaslana here, is in a simulation of Siberia during the Second War. She is here looking for something, albeit, through restricted files that only trusted Shicksal staff would have access to." Durandal took a step forward and pointed into the corner of the screen. "There. Your granddaughter is assisting her, Overseer." Perceval's eyes widened. "Theresa?" His eyes glanced over to the short, silver haired Principal and spotted Mei beside her. But there was no sign of Bronya, it worried him, giving him that churning feeling in his stomach. Otto cleared his throat. "However, we've found something more worrying that thieves." He pointed to a graph noting the concentration of Honkai Welt within the room, the scale tipped off at three-thousand HW. Durandal gasped. "That's more than enough Honkai to create a Herrscher!" Otto's expression turned grim. "There already IS a Herrscher." He turned his attention to the screen. "The Herrscher of the Void: Sirin. She has somehow been forcing illusions into Kaslana's mind, she is attempting to form her into a vessel for her spirit." Perceval nodded. "So we are to stop that before it happens?" Otto turned with a smile on his face. "Exactly. But, you are to extract Kaslana and bring her here. In order that we may prevent a full scale awakening." Perceval raised an eyebrow, bring Kiana to the Overseer? It didn't seem right, he knew Otto was up to something. Then again, he wouldn't know for sure until he saw it for himself. The Overseer gestured to the warriors. "Good luck. Sieg Shicksal." The two fighters saluted. "Sieg Shicksal."