“Gods dammit!” Mori shouted, gripping with her left hand once more. The Long Ears on the ground remained still, dead, “What happened!? Do they not want to live or something?” she demanded.

“If you can’t raise them, then the answer is probably yes,” Eva replied. Mori turned to the woman, bemused, and saw how she was snuggled up against Desire’s dragon form, which was really a large, normal dragon. Eva noticed Mori’s foul mood and raised her hands, “Hey, calm down a bit. I’m not trying to be mean. Annoying, maybe, but not mean. But look on the bright side. VII can use these guys for her own project.”

Mori reluctantly nodded, looking over to the fallen Cyst as it laid upon the desert ground. The turrets that plagued their flight from Aekan were all torn apart, some from the battle and the rest from VII wanting to be safe with the ‘controlled unit,’ as she called the Clockworks under the Forgeheart. VII had run over to the Cyst upon its defeat with a sort of glee Mori had not seen in her before.

Mori shook her head, took a deep breath to calm herself, left the Long Ears for VII to find herself, and made her way over to the Cyst’s husk. Eva and Desire looked at each other, shrugged, and stood to follow. After a few steps, Desire caught the back of Eva’s shirt and threw her lover onto her back. Mori turned back to see Eva smiling with glee and hugging the top of Desire’s head.

Chuckling to herself, she continued on and looked up to find any trace of her other death knights. Avarice had opted to stay with Fara and the dwarven master mechanic while Crave explored the watchtower to find any scrap of knowledge he could find, but the others had decided to come out from the cavern to practice. In an instant, she found Mae, Ally, and Tisi flying races around the southern mountain range, and saw Jel, Pride, Idle, and Fury sparring, hitting with the blunt sides of their claws and using underpowered spells.

She saw Idle and Pride’s draconic forms as she emerged from the cavern, but she finally caught a glimpse of Jel and Fury’s dragon forms. Fury was, similar to Idle, bulky, but his wingspan and muscles more than made him a match to Pride in terms of speed. The only thing that differed his form from Idle was the spikes and other blades that literally protruded from his body. Jel, as was her wont, went in an entirely different direction from the other death dragons-- her provisional name for them.

She was a wyvern, which made her very different from her siblings in terms of flight, movement, and focus during their sparring. Instead of being an active fighter, she was closer to an assassin in fighting style, using her constantly-changing scale color, brought on by magic, to sneak away from her siblings and ambush them when her partner, Idle, distracted them. Jel reminded Mori of a bird of prey, but she had a feeling that saying such would insult not just Jel, but the other death dragons as well. She turned to Eva and Desire as she walked, “Do you two not want to join in?” she asked.

“Join in?” Eva echoed.

Desire reluctantly shook her head, “Mistress… I… don’t want to fight. I mean, maybe I should just get over it and be ready to serve you, but I just feel wrong doing something like that. Maybe I-”

“Desire,” Mori cut in, “I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Though, you will need to help with the destruction of the Hive. But, there are plenty of ways to do that without fighting. Bring ammunition to groups of soldiers, rescue injured soldiers from being slaughtered, or, hell, you could just be a psychologist for the soldiers, helping them get over their traumas,” she explained, “If you want my recommendation, then here it is: get good at finding out what people want, and how to do that. Because, honestly, you could become something of a genie if you play your cards right. You appear and offer someone what they want, getting a nice bit of power in return. You could also just disregard morals and convince a group of people to want something like death really badly, but if you do that as your first option, I will be disappointed in you. I did not raise a con artist nor a cult leader.”

Desire stumbled a bit, a much more impactful action for a forty foot dragon than for a normal human, “M-Mistress! I would never do something like that! If anything, if I needed to grow in power, I would become a freelance choremaid, doing odd jobs for people and things like that. Why do you think I would do something like that!?”

Mori shrugged, turning back, “Because sometimes power is alluring,” she explained, “But, sometimes things need to be done that may not be… entirely ethical. I understand that. I’ve slaughtered plenty of people, Desire, burned the pain I suffered into someone else. I never wanted to do it, but I did because I needed to. You can be nice all the time, grow strong the moral way, but…”

“No good deed goes unpunished,” Eva replied, shaking her head, “I get what you’re saying, but is there a need to assume that she would create a death cult just to become more powerful? I mean, I love you, Dessy, but I might leave you if you do that.”

“I’m not a psychopath! Why do you two think I’m just a push from starting a death cult!?” Desire shouted, shaking the sand with her voice. Mori and Eva both shared a glance and continued on, much to the dismay of Desire. “Do you really think I would do it?”

Mori slowed a bit, then continued, “No, not as you are, and I doubt much would make you change, but I just wanted to make sure. None of us are perfect, Desire. Eva, do you know the old adage about power?”

Eva huffed, “I’m not a quote dispenser, Mori. But the quote goes something like ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Mori, I hate to break it to you, but all of us combined is a far cry from absolute power.”

“I know,” Mori said, waving her comment away, “But I might as well make the point clear. I don’t feel like I’ve been teaching my children good enough lessons. I need to make sure you guys are more than just intelligent, but also wise. So, become powerful, but remember that doing so through kind means is a recipe to get punished. It’s not a bad thing, but it makes your journey longer and easier to stomach since we haven’t given up morals. That’s it, really.” Mori turned back and realized that they had already reached the fallen Cyst.

It was massive, being as wide as Mori’s forward outpost and taller than multiple buildings. There was no real entrance, but the docking bay was opened. Mori led the two of them into the Cyst, with Desire only needing to tuck her wings into her body to stand in her dragon form.

The hallways were very well made, with the whole thing seeming to be made by human, or at the very least non-Clockwork, hands. There were pillars and arches and other fine architecture, all things Mori was a fan of.. Mori continued down the halls, soon coming upon the husk of a massive armored Clockwork. Similarly to the walls, she found the design quite appealing. She decided to bring it to Fara to get her opinion on the armor and design.

Mori continued on her way, walking through hallway after hallway, until she found the dynamo room. There, she found VII, along with a ball of assembled metal. She poked and prodded at it, soon smiling and stepping back, “Alright, now, wake up!” Mori watched it with her soul sight as VII spoke, and there was a spark of magic, followed by a small, fiendishly complex ball of red yarn forming.

The ball whirred to life, raising a bit and ‘looking’ at VII, “Creator?” it asked blearily, “What… is my purpose?”

“Your purpose is to work for me until we can destroy one of your kind who went power mad and wants to kill me. Can you do that?” she asked, smiling to the core, “If you don’t want to, I can either build you a metal body or my friend can do some magic with her… magic.”

The core looked over to Mori and her little entourage, “Is that your friend?” it asked.

VII tilted her head for a moment before whirling around and seeing Mori. She smiled and rushed up to them, “Hey Mori,” she said, “Ah, this is great! I’m finally in the swing of things, making units and trying new things. It’s great!”

Mori nodded, “I agree that it’s great, but uh… I don’t want to be rude to the soul that existed for about half a minute, but didn’t you try to give a core sentience before and… well, power mad genocidal Forgeheart sums it up pretty succinctly.”

“Should I power off for this conversation?” the core asked, tilting its bulbous form a bit to mimic VII’s own movements.

VII shook her head, stepping towards the core, “No, you don’t. I mean, honesty works for her and her undead, so it might work for you and I. But, like I said, Mori, I saw how well you could control your undead-”

“I don’t think I am exactly ‘controlled,’ but I’ll concede that I am very willing to serve the mistress,” Desire cut in with a growl.

“Point made. But, instead of trying to entirely control a core, why not just do something like how Mother ‘controls’ us E-X models? Be a parent to our creation instead of expecting them to listen to us. Like you,” VII explained, “What about it, new core? What are your thoughts?”

The core stayed silent for a while, eventually, tentatively, approaching, “I believe that it feels weird for you to talk about how to make me loyal while I am right here, but… if you are willing to teach me, and love me like a child-”

“Which you are, by the way,” Mori said, “I guess I’m just the only one who realizes it,” she said, looking towards VII.

VII gave a huff, “Hey! First of all, I treated that forgeheart like an equal, not as a lackey. I might have asked a few things of him, like a mirror and a couch, but that isn’t that bad, right? And two, I didn’t even make him! That was Mother. So don’t treat me like I would do that.”

“In any case… what will happen after my purpose is fulfilled?” it asked, “What would I become? What will you do with me?”

VII and Mori shared a glance, Mori gesturing towards the core. VII nodded, “Well, what do you want to do?” she asked.

“What… do I want?”

“Yeah, what do you want?” VII asked, “I mean, I could just put you into another robot body and send you on your way, you could branch transfer from me to any of my siblings or even my Mother, maybe you could join Mori here and become an undead-clockwork hybrid for whatever she decides to do after this is all over.”

The core hung there for a long while, presumably thinking, before moving forward, “I… want to fulfill my purpose.” it said with determination, “May I… ask for something?”

“Sure. Unless I can’t actually give it to you, like, for example, the world. I can’t give it to you. It’s not mine,” VII said.

“May I have… a designation?”

VII nodded happily, “Of course you can,” she said, “But… I'm not good at naming things… I didn’t even realize that the Long Ears look like bats until they were being produced at a rapid rate. Mori… can you help me?”

“Of course, but I need some sort of… defining feature. Like, strong or wise, or determined. Something like that. Do you have something like that?” Mori asked.

The core shifted from its place, hanging from the ceiling, “I… do not understand the deep meanings of those words, nor do I believe that any descriptor applies to my personality.”

“Well,” VII began, “It’s meant to be a sort of military general, strategist, and, well, her own person. Do you have a name, Mori?”

Mori thought for a moment about figures that she knew that embodied battle, wisdom, and personality. It took Mori a mere moment to come up with an answer, “Alright, how about ATHENA?”