Risen: Shatterverse

An Alternate Alternative

"Well?" Hannibal tautly asked, his eyes narrowing. "An explanation is in order, soldier!"

I nodded as I began gathering that explanation together. Only to find my mouth wouldn't open to issue it. I slowly sank to a knee as I visibly fought to speak.

That brought several sets of rifles back up to aim at me. Including Hannibal's.

"What's going on, General?" Korisahnt asked, clearly puzzled by the actions of the veteran ghost and the rest of the Risen.

"Two said he had made another trip into the past while we were traversing the security perimeter," the venerable Carthaginian replied, his aim not wavering one iota even as I looked at him, my eyes silently trying to tell him that something was wrong. "He picked up some sort of passenger while he was back there. Something that was giving him some control over the functions of the spire!"

"Passenger?? To what point in the past exactly did he go?" she wanted to know.

Hannibal shook his head.

"And I can't get him to explain himself. Leading me to believe that ..."

"Whatever entity he brought with him has taken control?" my T'sang passenger's voice said out loud without opening my mouth.

"By the Mother!" Hannibal grated as he leaned forward slightly after wiping a quick expression of shocked surprise off his face. "Vacate my soldier or I will put a shot into his chest to dispel you!"

"Tch, tch, General Hannibal," the T'sang quickly replied. "That's no way to speak to the entity that got you off Garolan's control spire with all its captured essences in your possession!"

"Two was right," Hannibal said in a quiet voice filled with no little amount of dismay after his eyes initially flew wide with surprise. "You were interfacing with the spire. But only a T'sang can do that. Which means ..."

"That I'm a T'sang?" the voice interjected to say. "Quite right. I am. But one that has a different agenda from my ... comrade."

"Which is?" Naveaia asked from where she and her team also had me targeted as they shielded the entities from me. "And make your answer good, stowaway. We don't value the clone so highly that we wouldn't end him in a heartbeat to terminate your existence!"

"To stop Garolan from destroying your universe, mecha," the voice replied, its tone matter-of-fact. "Hopefully without killing my fellow T'sang in the process." It paused. "But time is crucial. As I explained to Two, I weaken every moment I exist in the scattered quantum state I currently occupy. Only via my interface with him and his techno-organic body have I survived to this point. If you wish my assistance in defeating Garolan, then you need to allow me to go to work. Now."

I watched as Hannibal sucked in a quick breath, his eyes hard as he stared at me. Then, as abruptly as he had targeted me with his weapon, he was stepping back a half step and lifting his rifle to rest it against his shoulder.

"General?" Naveaia asked tightly, she and her team keeping their weapons trained on me.

Hannibal favored me with a thoughtful look before he was speaking over his shoulder.

"A good commander looks for opportunities to defeat the enemy with as few losses as possible, Naveaia," he said. "We've neither the resources or opportunity at this time to present even a token resistance to the Collector's efforts to destroy us and our home universe. If making an alliance with Two's passenger affords us both, granting us a real chance to defeat the T'sang and save us all, I am obligated to take it." He looked over at the grim mecha and her Risen team.