461 Dark Communion, Pt Thanatos flashed into open space above Dendrus IV, just inside of its gravitational pull. Its all-black hull contrasted distinctly against the nurous mirror satellites that still covered the planet. Mirrors which imdiately shifted their position and turned Godeater’s reflection towards the vast drogar devastator.
As the mirrors adjusted themselves, Raijin split her nanite swarm and diffused into the ship’s circuits and modules and systems. That shard of her consciousness dove into the ship itself and connected to every node possible.
Just as Freya filled the ship through a telepathic connection, so too did Raijin, albeit through a purely digital connection. She inhabited Thanatos’ intelligences and engines easily, and in doing so connected to Freya as well.
Both of their thoughts and ideas coalesced together into a swirling storm made of fire and lightning, bridged by the imposing darkness that was Thanatos. Thoughts that were made of their individual selves spun around and ford whole by their joined selves.
Once together, both their awareness of each other, and of the ship, and of the galaxy around them beca exponentially clearer. Their fundantal understanding of chanics and biology and self beca solidified, and both beca able to see things from multiple perspectives and angles and layers all at once.
For the first ti, both felt the organic chanisms and fundantal laws of the galaxy that bound them together – along with the ship that focused their consciousnesses into one. Both grew a significantly greater understanding of Thanatos.
Raijin saw the ship as far more than a complex machine and began to understand that it was a living, breathing ship just as her friend did. Conversely, Freya’s understanding of Thanatos also expanded greatly thanks to Raijin. She saw its strengths and capabilities from a chanical and engineering standpoint beyond her in-depth biological equivalence.
Every part and every connection suddenly found greater aning and purpose in their mind’s eye. They better understood how each part interrelated to each other, and how to better optimize those connections. As their understanding and consciousness spread ship-wide, they made little adjustnts to everything they passed.
And in turn, solidified and strengthened the ship as a whole.
.....
Both also pored through Thanatos’ underlying codesets with a more complete understanding of their purpose. They equated it to their own genetic code, which regulated and controlled and guided their own bodies.
It was from that understanding that the ships’ disparate parts and chanisms were all tied together by that code. Which was exactly how their own bodies worked – different parts bound and guided by shared helical threads.
To them, this was very similar to entering Prothean Mode and taking direct control of their piloting core through their minds. Except, elevated to the nth degree. Unfortunately, inhabiting a devastator was thousands of tis more complex than any skirmish vessel. And so too was the ntal stress of the connection.
Thankfully, neither were strangers to this kind of rging and oversight.
Freya and Lucifer enjoyed doing so countless tis both for business and pleasure. Her mories of them joining spilled into her surface thoughts, which Raijin read and absorbed easily.
Of course, Raijin had also done this as well, but mostly with code rather than other conscious beings. Usually various intelligences that she was invading or studying. Sotis her own engines, when she wanted a deeper understanding of her own builds.
Either way, and through either thod, both were more than familiar with sharing their consciousness with another. As they absorbed each others’ experiences through their thoughts, their coming together at this point beca smooth and seamless.
They slipped into each others’ minds with incredible ease and ford into sothing else, sothing new. Sothing more, so congloration of Freya and Raijin, one that they didn’t have a na or a label for. Both agreed that they didn’t need one.
And more than that, they gained a far greater understanding of each other. Both better understood each others’ hopes and dreams and desires. They better understood the empathy they felt for each other, and what they felt for their families, and their friends, and the Republic, and the Einherjar, and everyone around them.
Whatever affection they held for those closest to them beca amplified significantly, along with their dire need to keep them safe. No matter the cost.
Everything felt more defined and nuanced and clarified.
Including their darker, more lethal, and more vindictive sides, of course. Both were already well aware of what the other was capable of, emotionally and physically and intellectually. Especially against any who opposed them.
Freya and Raijin already shared a mutual deep dislike of those who imposed themselves on other people, of those who took other peoples’ lives for granted. Or worse, for their own profit. They had witnessed so many people like that in the galaxy – and in their old lives as well.
It was one of the things that brought them together in the first place – their shared animosity towards That Idiot aka Nightmare.
And now that they were rged, that feeling solidified even further. It felt practically impenetrable, indestructible. Since that was a trait that ran deeply in both of them, that impenetrability and indestructibility seeped out and infused everything around them.
Years and years of constant conflict had honed the both of them to sharp edges. With them combined, those edges beca atomically sharp, and impossibly resilient.
More importantly, both beca highly aware of their ultimate place in the galaxy, of what it was they were ant to do. That was to oppose Godeater, whatever it was, and stop it from taking everyone and everything they cared about. At least, more than it already had.
Ard with the resilience and strength of their fused consciousness, they faced the void with grim determination and undying perseverance. They simultaneously braced themselves for its attack, its takeover, and hardened themselves ntally, digitally, biologically, chanically. In every way possible.
Their transformation took all of nanoseconds to complete – more than enough ti before the first of Godeater’s reflections hit Thanatos’ surface.
Every mirror turned towards the vast devastator pointed the reflection on a single spot on its hide. Though, oddly, that shadowy spot didn’t spread like it usually did. Instead, it stayed fixed in place, seemingly captivated by the ship that was in front of it.
On realizing that it was stalled, Freya and Raijin reached out telepathically and electronically in an attempt to connect to Godeater. And in that mont, they felt its massive consciousness brush up against their own.
It ca with an overwhelming feeling of curiosity and fascination at their own shared consciousness.
They quickly realized that what they were doing gave Godeater pause – it had briefly stopped spreading itself across the galaxy and turned all its attention on them.
Perhaps it was because of their shared existence. Perhaps because they were bold enough to reach out. Or maybe because they were there at all.
Freya and Raijin’s consciousnesses were then beset with blinding pain as Godeater accepted their requests, as it clutched their open connections and completed the link. Freya’s physical mind was wracked with a stabbing needle-like pain while Rajin’s communication systems spiked and scattered.
A sweeping darkness fell across both their minds even as their communication intelligences were overrun with voided code. More than that, Godeater’s presence began to overwhelm every sense and sensor they had, and filled them with a brief mont of pure galactic noise.
It echoed in their psyches with wild abandon, as though everything that had ever existed in the galaxy cried out to them. And then vanished. Or maybe, just quieted down.
The storm that they inhabited was suddenly surrounded by ink-black clouds that rumbled with arcs of dark purple energies. It swirled all around them, even as they held themselves together amidst endless shadow.
Godeater’s very presence was so vast that it threatened to completely suffocate the two of them, despite how hardened and unyielding they had beco. It was akin to facing the rough winds of a sub-zero typhoon, and felt as though their selves were eroded just in its presence.
Their heart thumped in their chest as the dark purple energies lashed out and tore at their storm from every angle. Pain ca with every strike, which felt akin to being pierced by the most powerful weapons any navy could bring to bear.
But they both understood that Godeater wasn’t attempting to destroy them, but rather to understand them.
Unlike either of their previous attempts to speak with Godeater, this was far more visceral. Of the two, Freya really did experience Godeater most, but they were just hints of emotions or thoughts that she translated through her own understanding of the galaxy, and of herself.
But now, fused with Raijin, and connected to Godeater at a more fundantal and technical level, they could actually feel its surface emotions and understand its intent at the sa ti.
Every strike of its purple energies was an extension of its expression, of its attempt to communicate with them. Each one had different tones and volus and vibrations and feelings and ideas attached to them.
Both got the sense that Godeater was probing them in so way, that it was attempting to understand their ans of communication. Raijin and Freya quickly understood that it was forming an interface for which all of them could speak.
They were incredibly excited by the prospect, and completely opened up their storm. Both allowed Godeater’s energies to scour them, despite how painful each strike was.
The purple energies whipped at them more and more, and from every angle. It seed that their combined storm was torn to shred with each one, but never did it actually falter and fade. Not even when it beca constantly wracked by purple energies, like one massive plasma globe.
Both were hit with so much pain that their psyches’ screams reverberated all through Godeater itself. All they saw was blinding white for so ti.
And then, the pain ended suddenly and without warning.
When they opened their eyes, they found that they were in the sa body. It felt odd and familiar at the sa ti, as though they had never worn this body before. Yet it also felt as though they had worn it all their lives.
It was, physically, sothing that was sowhere in between Freya and Raijin.
They looked down at their hands, which felt both larger and smaller than normal. Then down at their body, which seed both skinny and athletic at the sa ti.
Even odder, they felt their cells were sohow biological and tallic at the sa ti.
They felt a soft fabric on their skin – a simple white cotton sundress that ca down to their ankles. The way the dress fell on them felt oddly soothing, despite neither ever having worn any kind of dress in the past.
A light wind swept around them as they looked up and observed their surroundings.
They were standing in the middle of a grassy field dotted with bright yellow dandelions, all of which swayed gently in the breeze. The sky above them was bright blue, with few clouds. Right in the center was a bold yellow star, just like Sol.
Its warmth embraced their body, and made them feel at ho.
Only a mont later, a voice echoed all around them as though they were in the center of a grand amphitheater. The voice itself shifted and echoed as it spoke, as though it was attempting to find its own identity.
“Hello,” said Godeater.
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