Kiyosuke drew his blade and slashed the air before the crowd could respond. The four jumped into the hole in space, appearing in an alleyway further down.

 

“Wait!”

 

Oh, and the other Saydaa had jumped in after them.

She quickly took distance from them, her hands glowing red as she brought up her magic. She glared at them.

 

“Who are you people?! How do you know me?!”

 

The original timeline Saydaa let out a sigh.

 

“I’ll handle this. You all figure out what to do.”

 

She stepped forward. The other Saydaa lifted her hands.

And then the original Saydaa dropped all illusions, returning to her normal appearance.

The other Saydaa gasped, jaw dropping open.

 

“Who…wha…how?”

 

Original Saydaa smirked at her.

 

“Isn’t it obvious?”

 

She grinned and spread out her hands.

 

“I’m a better version of you, obviously. Or more accurately, you’re a worse version of me.”

 

Alternate Saydaa stood still for a second before her face twisted and she grit her teeth.

 

“SCREW YOU!”

 

She thrust her hands forward. A massive cyclone appeared, tearing through the alley.

Original Saydaa yawned and lazily swung her hand, lightly backhanding the cyclone. Spots of red light shone across it before it dispersed harmlessly.

 

“Please. You can’t touch me with such shoddy magic.”

 

“I’ll show you shoddy magic!”

 

Alternate Saydaa ripped stone tiles from the road behind them, launching them forward. Original Saydaa formed a magic circle in front of her.

The tiles turned into glowing red butterflies on contact with the circle.

 

Alternate Saydaa thrust her hand forward, shooting a blast of fire.

Which gathered into a small ball of light on original Saydaa’s finger.

 

“You can stop now. Please stop. You’re embarrassing both of us.”

 

“SCREW! YOU!”

 

Alternate Saydaa lifted her hands high. If she couldn’t stop this imposter…then she’d expose her!

Original Saydaa took a single step…and red winds carried her all the way across the alley in an instant.

 

She grinned.

 

And tapped alternate Saydaa on the forehead.

 

---

 

Alternate Saydaa found herself surrounded by pitch black on all sides.

 

“Where am I? What’s going on?!”

 

“Inside your mind.”

 

Original Saydaa’s voice whispered into her ear, like an eerie wind coming from all over. Alternate Saydaa spun around and thrust her hands forward.

 

But nothing happened.

 

“Let’s take a little look…”

 

“Screw you! Get out of my head!”

 

Memories flashed before alternate Saydaa's eyes. The memories she had tried to forget.

 

“Little Saydaa, all alone. Abandoned by her parents. By her friends. By her guardians.”

 

“Screw you! I made it alone! Me! I survived! I took care of myself!”

 

“Because you had to. Because everyone abandoned you…”

 

“SCREW YOU! You don’t know me!”

 

“Oh but I do. I know everything about you, Saydaa. Like how you grew up never knowing your parents. How you were jealous of all those happy little families, so you convinced yourself you didn’t need anyone. How you wanted to pull one over everybody, to get back at them, prove you didn’t need anyone. But you do. Oh how you do. There is nothing your heart wants more.”

 

“S-Shut up!”

 

“And yet you will never find it.”

 

She started to tremble.

 

“Y-You…Y-You’re wrong!”

 

“And that’s why you hide. Why you hide your appearance. Why you hide your powers. Why you hide your pain. Why you hide what you truly want.”

 

“T-That’s not…”

 

“And even now, when supposedly you don’t have to hide anymore, still you do. You pretend to have the Sacred Light. That you are one of them. And pretend that they like and accept you for who you are.”

 

“No…stop…”

 

“But you know the truth. You’re afraid. And you are right to be afraid. They don’t like you. They don’t accept you. They just think you are mutated like they are. But you are not. And you know, deep down, what will happen next.”

 

Alternate Saydaa wrapped her arms around herself, trembling.

 

“One day you’ll screw up. You’ll let it slip. They’ll see through the illusions. They’ll see through the lies. And do you know what will happen?”

 

“No…don’t…”

 

“They’ll tear you apart. They’ll hate you. You deceived them. You’re not one of them. You never were.”

 

She shut her eyes, covered her ears.

 

No.

 

Not like this.

 

Not in front of this jerk.

 

But the voice still entered her ears, all the same.

 

“And then where will you go? The Concordat will butcher and enslave you. The normal people fear and hate you. No matter where you go…”

 

“...please…”

 

“You will never belong.”

 

Alternate Saydaa fell to her knees.

 

And the tears began to flow.

 

But, as she sobbed, a light began to shine in the darkness…

 

She heard the voice once again, no longer an eerie whisper…

 

“But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

 

Alternate Saydaa froze. She slowly opened her eyes.

 

She gasped.

 

“It shouldn’t be that way.”

 

And she saw…

 

A man recruiting her, knowing full well who she was. Accepting her.

And then she accepted a place with him.

Unknowingly breaking the curse that haunted her all her life.

And surrounding her with others.

Others who were different.

Who didn’t fit in anywhere else.

 

Others like her.

 

The machine trying to become human.

 

The girl who just wanted someone to believe in her.

 

The man running from his fate.

 

And…

 

The boy like her. The boy who lost everything. Who pushed everyone away in rage and hurt.

 

And she saw herself…

 

She was smiling.

 

Laughing.

 

Crying.

 

Shouting.

 

Hurting.

 

But not hiding.

 

A version of herself who could be herself, truly and completely.

 

A version of herself who was happy, from the bottom of her heart.

 

Who was not afraid.

 

Because she had shown them everything. She had lied. Failed. Screwed up. Hurt people. Got them hurt. Abandoned them.

 

And yet…

 

Still they hadn’t left her.

 

Still they called her friend.

 

Still they called her family.

 

And then…

 

She even met her father. Learned the truth.

 

That she had never been alone. That there were people who loved her, though they couldn’t stay with her.

 

Tears streamed down her cheeks for a different reason. Her heart pounded and she felt her body heating up.

 

She felt a deep longing. A deep desire.

 

And it was then that the Saydaa whose life she saw appeared before her.

 

Tears streaming from her eyes.

 

But a deep, sincere, honest smile on her face, one that this Saydaa had never made before.

 

She held out her hand.

 

“Come with us. We can make it happen again. We can make it right. And…”

 

She looked into her eyes, a soft smile on her face.

 

“If you come with us, you won’t be alone. Because I’ll be with you. You won’t be able to drive me away.”

 

She smirked.

 

“After all, I already know everything about you.”

 

Alternate Saydaa just stared up at her, eyes wide as they could go.

 

And then…

 

Slowly…

 

She lifted a trembling hand.

 

She touched the hand extended to her…

 

And it wrapped around hers, filling her with warmth.

 

And then everything went white.

 

---

 

Alternate Saydaa found herself back in the real world. Tears were streaming down her face.

And the other Saydaa was holding her in a hug, rubbing her back.

There was a brief flash of light around alternate Saydaa as Sadid's spell finally faded. She had found someone the spell could whole-heartedly approve of.

 

“It’s really hard, isn’t it?”

 

“...yeah.”

 

“But it’s all right now. You’re not alone anymore.”

 

She just started crying harder.

 

Chronolock cleared her throat.

 

“Um, not to ruin the moment, but we still have a whole town of angry mutants searching for us at the moment. Apparently the others are saying we should regroup with them now, so maybe we should get moving soon?”

 

Original Saydaa patted her alternate a few times more and then released her from the hug, grabbing her hands instead.

 

“How about it, me? Ready to go save the universe?”

 

Alternate Saydaa smirked at her.

 

“Sounds fun, me.”

 

With that, Kiyosuke cut another hole in space. Chronolock and Voidspeaker stepped through. Saydaa led her alternate through by the hand. Kiyosuke raised an eyebrow and heaved a sigh.

 

“This is definitely going to be annoying...”

 

He sighed, and stepped through after them.

 

---

 

Everyone stared at the two Saydaas standing side by side.

 

“Resigned Acceptance: This is not the strangest anomaly encountered in this timeline. Saydaa doubling increases the number of friends. This unit is happy to have a new friend.”

 

“Oh, um, right. Happy to have a new friend, um, friend?”

 

“Pleased Confirmation: Happy to have a new friend, friend.”

 

Nana slowly raised a hand.

 

“Um, hi. I’m…Ueno Nana. I, um, already know who you are.”

 

“Oh, um, hi. I’m…Saydaa…but I guess you already knew that…um…”

 

Arvid smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

 

“Fear not, new Saydaa. You are among friends here. You are welcome here.”

 

Her eyes widened a bit before she smiled. Arvid then grinned at her.

 

“Besides, it is always a joyous day when we add another fair maiden to our number!”

 

Original Saydaa immediately blasted him away and held alternate Saydaa, moving her away from Arvid.

 

Kiyosuke also found himself stepping forward, placing himself in between Arvid and the Saydaas. Then suddenly he looked confused, and then frowned, his brow furrowing.

 

“...what am I doing? This is weird…my body moved on its own…”

 

“Ew, you creep! Don’t go creeping on other me! I thought we were done with that! Elise, there was a proposition!”

 

“Acknowledgement: Propositions are to result in immediate termination, as per Commander Bob’s orders. Activating termination protocols. Creep Arvid, please prepare for justice.”

 

Arvid knelt back up, still sitting on the ground. He sheepishly held his hands up.

 

“Sorry, sorry! I meant no harm, j-just trying to, as you say, break the ice?”

 

Nana looked over at Aurora Legion.

 

“Um…about breaking ice…”

 

Arvid glanced over. Icy Rose was glaring at him. Frost was growing on her clothes, and spreading along the ground around her.

He quickly stood up, waving his hands about.

 

“My friend Rose, I believe you are under a misunderstanding.”

 

“Oh? Is it just me, or do you call every girl you meet a fair maiden?”

 

“I-It’s not like that, it’s um, just a greeting.”

 

“Really now. So it’s just a greeting, huh? Something you tell everyone, huh?”

 

“Um…you see…”

 

Chronolock sighed and held her head.

 

“Not that this isn’t all important and stuff, but shouldn’t we be figuring out what to do?”

 

“Smug Reply: We already determined the next course of action. We are simply waiting for the next stage of the operation to commence. What, the noob didn’t know?”

 

“How am I supposed to know if no one told me, you stupid bot?”

 

“Insincere Apology: Oh, this unit is sorry. She thought she informed everyone important. Allow this unit to correct the oversight.”

 

Elise turned from Chronolock.

 

“Sincere Apology: Friendly Kiyosuke. Friendly Saydaa. New friendly alternate Saydaa. Occasionally helpful ally Voidspeaker…”

 

Chronolock’s face contorted in ways no person’s face should.

 

“Don’t you dare…”

 

“...allow this unit to explain the plan. Then all important units will be informed.”

 

“DIE YOU STUPID BOT!”

 

Chronolock flickered over and punched Elise, and started beating the crap out of her. Voidspeaker raised a trembling hand.

 

“Um, Chrono…”

 

Elise’s real body placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Recommendation: The noob has been accumulating stress with no means of relief over the course of this operation. Please allow the noob to vent all stress before proceeding to comfort. She has not even realized that regular fists should not affect this unit’s armor, after all. Commander Bob did recommend allowing the noob an occasional cathartic victory.”

 

Voidspeaker was about to point out that Elise is the primary source of Chronolock’s stress in the first place, but in a rare flash of insight he decided he should hold his tongue. The stars warned him of inexorable stress along that route.

Fortunately, Elise had filled her ninja clone with some qi to give it a bit of substance, so Chronolock wouldn’t notice until after she had finished her satisfying beating.

As that occurred, the two Saydaas stared at each other.

 

“So, we have something important to figure out.”

 

“I agree.”

 

Original Saydaa crossed her arms and nodded.

 

“Fortunately, killer robotic girl has already established a precedent. So I’ll be Saydaa, and you’ll be Saydaa Beta.”

 

Saydaa Beta froze.

 

“Nah ah. No way. I am NOT ‘Beta.’ You be Saydaa Beta.”

 

“I came first! Fine, you can be Saydaa, and I’ll be Saydaa Alpha then.”

 

“No way! If anything, I’m Saydaa Alpha!”

 

“Oh come on. We both know who the alpha Saydaa is.”

 

“Over my dead body!”

 

“Ok, hold still.”

 

Despite such inspired suggestions as ‘Old Hag Saydaa’, ‘Little Baby Saydaa’, ‘Stupid Jerk Saydaa’, and ‘Cancer Cult Saydaa’, they never did come to an agreement.

 

Until Kiyosuke suggested original Saydaa go by 'Annoying Saydaa' and she decided to torment him instead.