Once Cree reaches the top of the stairs, he has to dodge a stray bullet that soars past his head. He growls and looks into the Command Chamber, seeing a lot of things happening all at once that he struggles to keep track of it all.
Elder Haegen is dead. He's laying motionless on the floor in his full centaur form with a bullet wound in the center of his forehead. The sight fills Cree with grief. He may have had an extreme way of dealing with things, but his heart really was in the right place.
He sees Regan also on the ground, leaning against the metal wall and he's holding his neck, but he's alive. However, he looks like he's in pain.
Then he brings his focus to the fight in front of him. Flashes of lightning zipping through the room, bullets countering it.
He doesn't recognize who Fritz is, but then his eyes fall on the other person.
That woman.
Jane.
His rage boils to the point of screaming in his ears, drowning out the sounds of any possible common sense he may have had. He ignores everything in his mind that might be telling him 'no' and lets his heart rule his actions as he brings his knives to his hands and sprints at her without a single thought.
He grabs her and throws her back, but she effortlessly slips out of his grasp and whips around to face him, and her face twists into a sickening smile.
"Aw, look who it is. Wow! I had no idea I was so popular! So many old friends coming to visit me!" she hisses, causing the fury in Cree's heart to grow until he's almost certain he's busted a vein from the rage alone.
Regan shakily looks over to see him, and at first he feels relief, but once he sees the unbridled anger plastered across his face, his fear returns. He tries to understand why he's so upset, when it clicks in his brain.
He remembers hearing Peace and Data talk about the woman known as Jane Harvey.
The woman who killed John.
"Cree..." he whispers and shakes his head, but his voice is hardly registered. Seems only Fritz heard him, as he points at him with a smirk and causes the terrible jolt to run through his body again, burning him at his neck and he screams against the pain, collapsing forward and making a futile attempt at blocking it out.
Cree sees the agony Regan was just put in because of this man, so he now turns and directs his blade at him, but Fritz flips to the side and grabs his wrist, shoving his hand and knife away and punching him across his face. Cree returns it by jabbing him in the throat with his metal elbow.
He got Fritz to release his hold on Regan, so he returns his strikes towards Jane, dodging out of the way as she sends a bullet his way and it hits the wall behind him. He sprints at the woman and takes a stab at her chest, but she ducks to the side and Fritz grabs her arm, yanking her towards him and knocking her back, but she flips to the side and slams her elbow into his cheek.
While Fritz's disoriented, Cree lunges towards Jane again with his blade held backwards, slicing it towards her face, but she grabs his wrist just as Fritz had done and she slams him down, slamming her knee into his face.
He grunts again and turns his head to burn his glare up at her, but before he can strike again, Fritz leaps onto her back and pulls her away. She growls and grabs him by his arms to pry him off of her and throw him forward, at Cree.
Fritz merely laughs as Cree ducks out of the way, letting the man hit the wall before he charges at Jane. He grabs her bicep, pulling her to turn around, but she wriggles free and grabs his arm instead, twisting it and pulling it behind his back with her arm hooked around his neck.
She holds him in front of her as Fritz takes his next strike. Cree grits his teeth and glares over his shoulder at Jane, throwing his legs up to kick Fritz and disrupt the attempted strike before he forces his metal arm to press his fist to Jane's stomach behind him.
He clicks the metal limb and Jane watches in question, when she feels a sudden sharp pain stabbing her in the stomach, forcing her to let him go.
Cree stumbles away and raises his metal arm to his side, there's a golden-bronze blade jutting out from his wrist, dripping with blood.
Jane holds the wound and hisses against the pain, but she quickly starts to chuckle, then laugh as she charges at him again, but Fritz grabs her arm and spins her around to face him instead. Without missing a beat, she slams her gun into his stomach, and he grunts, slicing at her head and she rolls out of the way, leaving his grip.
In the chaos, Regan tries crawling his way to the console, but Jane sees him and growls, running at him and kicking him in the face which makes him yelp and drop back, holding his jaw.
Cree grabs her from behind and pulls her away, slicing his bladed wrist at her stomach, but she jumps to the side and kicks him back.
He stumbles to the side and feels a second set of arms steady him, pulling him back to his feet. He looks over to see Fritz smiling wildly at him and he winks.
"You seem to have a little bit of a grudge, yeah?" he asks casually as if he's not in the middle of a fight.
Cree growls and dodges another bullet from Jane, and Fritz laughs.
"I can help you take 'er out," Fritz offers.
Cree stands with his attention divided between both him and Jane, and as he stares at Jane and feels that bubbling rage consume his heart, he's thrown back to that moment in the forest outside of Mortal. To the night before.
He remembers John's smile.
Sharing drinks and laughing together at the Free Watchman.
He nods to Fritz.
The Hex laughs before charging at Jane at the same time as Cree. He grabs her braid and pulls her head pack, giving Cree an opening to take a stab at her chest, but Jane aims her gun back and pulls the trigger.
Fritz yelps and follows it with a laugh, turning and slicing at her just as Cree attempts to do the same, but Jane rolls forward and turns around to face them both.
"You're not taking this away from me!" she screams and sprints at Fritz, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground.
Cree grabs her by her hood and yanks her back, but she merely keeps holding Fritz with one hand while the other aims at Cree with her assault rifle.
She pulls the trigger, but Cree is shoved out of the way.
Regan takes the hit, dropping to the ground with a shrill cry.
Cree sees Regan writhing in pain, and he feels himself become engulfed by the rage in his heart.
Jane throws her gun to the side and returns her hand to Fritz's throat, keeping him suspended in the air, tightening her grip. Feeling him squirm and gasp for breath.
She sees his struggling and his wild smile, but behind his eyes, she sees his fear.
She smiles as well and starts to laugh, never breaking her stare from his eyes as she tightens her grip even more, watching his face turn purple.
"I am nothing to the world. Nothing to society. Nothing to The Director..."
Her grip tightens a little more.
"I'm not destined to be a failure..."
She smiles wider.
"I am destined to be the Queen."
From her pocket, she pulls out a small black device.
The Augmenter.
She stabs it into Fritz's neck and the red light blinks green. She rips it out with a trail of blood and smiles blithely at the device before tucking it away in her pocket again.
Fritz goes limp in her grasp.
Jane sighs complacently and lowers him to the ground, standing over him and softly chuckling. The chuckle slowly escalates into laughter.
She turns around, just as Cree grabs her and grips her throat, just as she had done to Fritz. She provides no protest aside from grabbing his wrists and she smiles down at him, seeing the furious burning flame behind his eyes.
Then, she kicks him in the center of his chest and he's knocked back, stumbling over the body of Elder Haegen and landing on his back.
Jane stares down at him merrily and picks up Fritz's knife, slowly approaching him.
"I was going to be nice... But I can't let anyone stand in my way," she giggles and raises the knife, but she stops when a bullet shoots in front of her, widely missing.
"Get away from him..." a shaking voice demands from the top of the stairs.
Cree and Jane turn and look over to see Jewel standing there, pistol in hand that's aimed at Jane. Her hand is trembling so violently that it's unlikely she would be able to successfully land a hit. She's holding her other hand over her stomach, and the blood seeping through her shirt.
She's leaning against the metal rail to keep herself standing, but she never breaks her tear-filled glare from Jane.
The woman sighs and turns, now approaching her instead. She drops the knife and smiles as she sees Jewel's shaking worsen. The gun is aimed directly at her, but it looks like the sheer terror she's feeling has made her hand incapable of moving by her command.
Jewel swallows back tears, but more quickly come. "Leave... leave my friends alone..." she chokes out painfully.
Jane chuckles and stands directly in front of her. She grabs her wrist that's holding the gun and without much effort, pries it away. She sees the sheer terror in the girl's eyes as she cries even more, and it only adds to her state of bliss.
She wrenches her wrist back and slowly angles it towards the girl's head, the violent trembling worsens as she feels the barrel press against the bottom of her jaw, making her let out muffled whimpers and try to fight to move her hand away.
Jane smiles serenely. "Night night."
She pulls the trigger for her and lets Jewel's body drop to the stone floor.
She takes a deep, contented breath in and turns back to face Cree, who is pushing himself to stand up on shaking legs with more of that rage on his face.
Just as she locates the dropped knife, she's hit over the back of her head and her body goes slack, collapsing amidst the bodies scattered across the floor.
Cree looks forward to see another person who's dressed in an Imperium uniform, a Cogency Elite uniform at that. Another Hex. They're holding a metal pole and taking deep breaths, staring down at Jane.
Their eyes meet Cree's, but he pays them no mind and sprints to Regan's side, rolling him onto his back and holding his head in his lap. He's shaking as he feels the adrenaline die down and his eyes sting with tears.
"Regan... Regan, are you okay? Regan!" he cries.
Regan breathes shakily, but his eyes are closed and he seems to be slipping out of his conscious state.
Frantically, Cree pulls the Syringe from his pocket and unbuttons half of Regan's shirt, sticking the needle into his chest and holding. He's using his right hand, so at least he's able to keep it steady while the rest of his body fights to resist breaking down.
Once the Syringe is empty, he tosses it aside and waits with his breath held.
After a moment, Regan starts coughing and gasping, bringing his hand up to his chest as he jumps awake, sitting up with Cree's help.
Cree lets out an audible sigh of relief and pulls Regan into his arms, holding on tighter than he ever has before. Regan's arms wrap around his back and he takes deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
While they're distracted with each other, Kylen drops the metal pole and steps around Jane to approach the body of Fritz. They kneel beside him, seeing that he still has the ghost of a smile on his face, but absence in his eyes.
They sigh with a heavy heart, bringing their hand up to drag it across Fritz's eyes.
"You can finally rest... The screaming is gone..." they say softly.
Cree leans back and holds Regan's face in his metal hand, brushing his thumb over his scarred cheek.
"Are you okay? What happened? Did they hurt you?" he can hardly breathe with his shaking and fighting the urge to cry.
Regan shakily nods and holds his hand, mirroring Cree by holding his face as well.
"I—I'm okay... I'm okay... I'm okay..." he takes deep breaths.
Cree sighs and they press their foreheads together, trying to calm down together and get their panicked breathing under control.
Once they've gotten a moment to compose themselves, Regan lets out a faint chuckle, keeping his forehead against Cree's.
"I guess you were right when you said that between you and me, I'm the one that's more likely to die," he says breathlessly.
Cree says nothing and just pulls him into a kiss, not caring about his lack of breath as he just needs to feel Regan and know that he's alive. He's okay. They're both okay.
They break apart, and at the same time, they turn to look at Kylen. They have stood up from Fritz's side and are now leaned back against a wall with their eyes closed and they're rubbing their temples in circles, seeming to be having a small breakdown of their own, only far more composed.
"Who are you?" Regan demands shakily.
Kylen sighs and opens their eyes to look over at them both.
"My name is Kylen Windsor. I'm... an Imperium officer, part of the highest league of the Val'Guard."
They hold up their hands when Cree instinctively grabs his pistol and aims it at the person, shielding Regan against him.
"Give me one good fucking reason to not kill you right now after all the bullshit that just happened," he demands.
Kylen sighs and keeps their hands up. "Because I want to help you," they take a deep breath. "Up to this point, I've been trying to keep my assistance unnoticed, but this time... I had to step in before Jane could make matters worse than they already are..." they glance over at Fritz's body.
"I only wish I could have gotten here sooner..." they say and slowly lower their hands.
"What 'assistance'?" Cree snaps.
Kylen returns their focus onto the two men. "I helped your friends escape capture on two separate occasions now. I merely provide subtle... 'nudges' in the right direction, and it typically works out. But sometimes..." they kick the metal pole. "Sometimes more... direct interventions are necessary."
Regan and Cree exchange a glance.
"You're... the person Lucian said that spared him and his husband?" Regan says.
Kylen nods. "Yes, but that's not what's important right now. I need you to just please hear me out. I need your help," they state.
Cree glares at them. "Do you know where Edith and Colin are?"
"I do. I have to in order to keep the Imperium steering clear of them, but we'll get to that. First—"
"No," Regan states. "Tell us where they are, and then we'll hear you out."
Kylen sighs and nods once again, seeing no other way to earn their attention.
"Fine. Your friends are laying low in the city of Nerawin. Underground, in an old abandoned train station. Now, will you please listen to me?"
Cree nods once sternly and narrows his eyes at them. "What do you want?"
Kylen pulls their bag from off their back and holds it out to them. "I managed to snatch this when I was positive no one was looking. I had hoped to find a more calculated way of doing this, but calculation takes time, which we're running out of," they start and walk over to them, setting the bag beside them.
"Open it, then you'll see exactly how big a risk I'm taking here."
Cree gives them a full glance of suspicion before opening the bag and taking out its contents.
A darkened orb.
A rift.
Both he and Regan stare at it in terror, and Cree looks back over at Kylen, who nods.
"That's the rift that leads to Aramora, but it's depleted. I need you to destroy it. Now," Kylen states, their hands starting to fidget anxiously.
Regan stares at it in shock. "Why... can't you break it?"
"That goes against my restrictions. The Director would know," they explain. "Once you destroy it, the barrier surrounding Aramora will collapse. Aramora – or the five remaining minor continents surrounding it – will be open to Eutria," they stop and look at Regan.
"And once that's done, you need to send out the broadcast."
Cree nods slowly as it starts to make sense. "With the force of the power that's being used to light the Beacon, the signal would extend to Aramora as well... We could call for help."
Regan bites his lip and looks over at the console panel. "...And you're positive this will work?"
"No, but it's better than sitting around and waiting for the end of the world," they sigh and get on their knees, staring pleadingly at them both. "Please, you're my only option. I know I've given you no reason to trust me, but I'm going to need you to, at least for this. Please," they practically beg.
Regan takes another deep breath and shakily nods.
"I suppose we all have to take a gamble at one point or another..." he nods once more to himself. "I'll do it. I'll destroy the rift, then send out the broadcast... With any luck, help will come," he says and stands up on unsteady legs, offering his hand to Cree and helping him up as well.
"But Cree, I need you to go find Reela and make sure she's alright. I will meet you both at the docks once I'm done here."
Cree's eyes soften with concern. "But, Regan..."
"Go. I will be out shortly. There is no time for delay," Regan states.
Hearing the commanding tone of his voice gets Cree to silence all forms of protest and merely nod his understanding.
Kylen sighs with relief and stands up as well. "Thank you... While you're doing that... I'll give everyone who fell here the respects they deserve. I'll lay them to rest here on the island."
Regan nods and gives Cree a tight hug and a tender kiss before they break apart and he watches Cree slip away down the stairs, hurrying off to find Reela while Kylen starts bringing the bodies outside, and Jane to their boat.
With a deep breath, Regan grabs the dark rift and brings it up over his head before using all of his strength to slam it down on the stone ground. The orb shatters with a breath of shimmering green magic that disperses into the air.
He turns and approaches the console, and on his way over, he scoops up and places his fedora back on his head, then bringing the microphone to his face.
And on the panel, he hits 'broadcast'.