Sensation returned to Gabriela in a sudden rush as her head reformed into its original state, good as new. She blinked and her vision quickly gained clarity, revealing the same familiar tent that she’d become so familiar with the past season. Normally she would spend at least a minute or two staring up at that fabric roof in quiet resignation, wallowing in the melancholy that came with one more failure, but not today. Today, rage replaced that sadness—a scalding rage towards her enemies, her allies, and herself.

Quickly jumping to her feet, Gabby seized the Blade of Eternity and propped it up onto her shoulder, making sure to keep the edge of the blade away from her neck. The crystalline blade remained as sharp as ever, no matter how many robots she sliced with it. Sure she could always heal any nicks she might accidentally inflict upon herself, but just because she dealt with pain all the time didn’t mean she liked the experience. Wasting no time, Gabby strode out of her tent, a woman on a mission.

“Oh!” a voice to her left called out. Gabby turned to find Chitra walking up to the tent, a small bag in her hands. “You’re up earlier than normal.”

“I’m going to go have a chat with the Emperor,” Gabby informed her.

Chitra blanched. “Not looking like that, you’re not!” she firmly replied before dragging Gabby back into the tent. “Did you even look at yourself? You look like you haven’t slept in a week and your hair is an absolute mess and-”

“I don’t care how I look!” Gabby hotly retorted.

“Well I do!” came the stern response, Gabriela’s mood having little effect upon the unflappable Ubran. Chitra’s steely grip on her arm remained firm despite the squirming and she quickly set about stripping off Gabby’s rumpled clothing. “Following protocol is important for the rest of us you know. I don’t want to be judged harshly just because the only person I’m serving can’t be bothered to try to look decent when making an appearance before the Emperor.”

“We’re in a war and you still care about appearances,” Gabriela snarled.

“Gabby, what has gotten into you?” Chitra asked with concern.

“I’m sick of this, that’s what!” she yelled back. “I’m sick of going out there day after day and fighting and dying and then getting back up and doing it again for nothing! I’m sick of that smug bastard sitting in his palace or wherever, safely far away while he fills me with holes! I’m sick of this lack of progress! Every day I’m here is one more day that... that...”

Her voice drifted off as she found herself unable to finish that thought. Quickly two slender arms wrapped around her waist and she felt the soft touch of Chitra’s amber hair against her shoulder and neck.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to say anything more,” a soft voice assured her.

“He’s laughing at me now, did you see?” Gabby continued, her voice quieter but no less harsh. “He knows where I’m from and he’s decided to rub my face in how I’m stuck here instead of back home with my children, flying parodies of Mexican flags and mocking me with terrible Spanish.”

“He knows where you’re from? Are you saying he’s another person from your world?” Chitra asked with concern.

“Of course he is! He must be!” Gabriela asserted, her tone dripping with venom. “Who in this world would be able to make robots with guns and chainsaws? From the first moment I saw those things, I knew their creator must be from Earth. It’s not like this is the first person from home that I’ve met. Remember that jerk back in Gustil that I killed?”

“How could I forget? You wouldn’t stop harping about him for days!”

“He laughed at me for wanting to go home,” Gabby spat. “This asshole’s no different, living in luxury with a robot army. If he wanted to talk, he wouldn’t have killed me seventy-two times first. No, this is some plot of his. He’s trying to hurt me mentally. Well, I won’t let him get away with any of this. I’m going to hunt him down and flay him alive if it’s the last thing I do!”

“Well, it’s good to see you motivated at least,” Chitra allowed. “Let’s just finish combing your hair and get you dressed and you will be good enough.”

“Only good enough? What happened to being judged harshly?”

“Well, as you said, we are on a battlefield. Surely the Emperor will understand.”

*     *     *

The stone rings stood solemnly near the rear of the western camp, standing in stark contrast to the fabric city surrounding them. For some reason, whenever Gabriela looked at a ring she was reminded her of the pictures she’d seen of Stonehenge in the United Kingdom. The comparison wasn’t even that apt, since Stonehenge was a largely open ring of stone slabs, while these rings were entirely solid other than the several small man-sized passages that led inside.

Gabby and Chitra entered the middle circle of the three, passing by a series of soldiers standing guard. The soldiers all saluted and bowed to them as they passed by. Even after so long, Gabby still found the worship the members of the Ubran Army had for her unsettling. It wasn’t as if she was some sort of inspirational leader or anything. Being the center of attention usually made her want to run and hide, and so that was what she basically did, spending the vast majority of her conscious time in the camp sheltering in her tent.

The inside of the stone shelter looked much as she remembered it the only other time she’d visited: a lavish and ostentatious throne room that in her opinion seemed wholly out of place anywhere near a battlefield. The entire floor of the interior was comprised of large stone tiles instead of the grass and dirt found inside everybody else’s tent. Large stone pillars rose up towards the sky, forming the corners of a square in the center of the ring. Bright lit torches were set into the pillars, bringing light to the various tapestries hanging from the outside wall and casting stark shadows all around. The light of the moons was largely blocked by the heavy canvas stretched out above to form a roof of sorts, largely to block the sight of the enemy’s hovering spy drones.

The display of absurd wealth even in the face of the enemy was a sort of flex, a demonstration of the Emperor’s untouchable power—or at least that was how Chitra had explained it. Gabby didn’t agree; to her, it just seemed like a huge waste of time, money, and resources.

The one difference from the last time was that this time the room was largely empty. Several more soldiers stood inside and saluted as soon as they saw Gabriela emerge from the passageway, but the various ministers and especially the Emperor were nowhere to be seen.

“Where is everybody?” she asked.

“The Emperor is not holding court now, it is too late. Follow me,” Chitra replied, leading her behind a nearby pillar. There, the Ubran woman reached down and pulled aside the stone tile, revealing a hidden tunnel in the earth. Grabbing a nearby torch, she lowered herself into the hole and beckoned for Gabby to follow.

“Oh, I get it,” Gabby stated, more to herself than anything. There were three rings for a reason: to prevent the Eterians from knowing the Emperor’s exact location. To keep the enemy from being able to follow the Emperor from ring to ring, the Ubrans had created tunnels leading between them, allowing for the Emperor’s easy relocation without anybody knowing. Chitra had led her into the middle ring so that nobody could use her arrival to better guess his location—a wise decision, given Gabby and the Ubrans’ conviction that she was being watched from above at all times.

“How much further do we have to go?” she wondered as the tunnel stretched on.

“Shh. We’re almost there,” came the reply.

Soon enough, Chitra’s words rang true. Gabriela’s ears caught the muffled sound of voices that became clearer as they approached what appeared to be the end of the tunnel.

“...sure that they will be ready for tomorrow’s attack?”

“I assure you, the Unified Manys will be ready for battle every day. As long as we take care to avoid overextending them, they will be fine with a full night’s rest.”

Gabby and Chitra came to a halt beneath a small wooden door set in the roof of the tunnel. Unaware of their presence, the voices above continued.

“Excellent. The destructive power of your creations is even greater than I was led to believe, and so I will forgive you for the tardiness of the delivery.”

“Thank you, Your Eminence! I told you I would deliver you victory where the Champion could not.”

With a growl, Gabriela threw open the door so roughly that she nearly ripped it from its hinges. Before her eyes could even adjust to the light, she felt the cold touch of a blade against her neck—a sword held by Taras, the Emperor’s blind bodyguard. Doubtless, he’d heard the two of them coming before anybody else. Gabriela wasn’t in the mood for any of this. She reached out and clamped her right hand around the weapon, holding back a hiss as it bit into her palm, and squeezed. The metal creaked in protest as it crumpled like it was made of wrapping paper.

Sending the bodyguard a murderous glare that he couldn’t even see, Gabby climbed out of the tunnel and turned her ire towards its original target.

“Say that again,” she growled to General Luki Arrino, the source of the obsequious voice that had dared to demean her.

“Ch-Champion!” the sniveling general stuttered, turning white as a sheet. Even though he stood more than a head taller than her, he began to back away, his eyes darting about in search of an escape route. “I assure you, this is all just a big misunderstanding!”

“I have sacrificed myself every day to keep those robots off your back,” Gabriela continued as she advanced. “For weeks and weeks, I have been the only thing standing between you and a gruesome death! Go on! Say it again! Tell me how I’m not doing enough!”

“I would never-”

Gabby grabbed the general by the front of this shirt and pulled him down to her eye level. “What have you done that gives you the right to talk? All you did was create some sort of nightmare out of a horror story. Are you really proud of that? Maybe you’re the one people should call a monster.”

“Champion Carreno, how nice of you to visit,” Emperor Haidar Batra’s smooth voice cut in. “I know that General Arrino, myself, and all of our citizens are tremendously grateful for everything you’ve done. We still value your contributions immensely, it is simply that we no longer need you to carry the burden of this war on your own. Our newly formed Unified Manys Corps will be able to help you finally take Crirada once and for all. They are the product of decades of important research that is now finally bearing fruit.”

Gabby unceremoniously released her grip on the general’s front, causing him to stumble back a step. “Research? You call that research? What sort of unholy stuff are you people doing?”

“Your Grace, I humbly apologize for this intrusion,” Chitra cut in hurriedly. “We meant to ask for an audience, but-”

“Fret not, my dear,” the Emperor reassured her with a warm smile. Gabby could clearly see how much the old man enjoyed the company of the young woman, no doubt in large part due to her excessive beauty. “It is always good to see my favorite Batranala again. And I do believe we owe our Champion some sort of explanation for her efforts.”

“Yes, of course,” the general immediately agreed with feverish nodding. He cleared his throat while Gabby stood in front of him, her arms crossed and an expectant look on her face. “I assume you are familiar with the basics of observational mechanics?”

“No,” she flatly replied.

“I see...” he gulped. “Well, to put the relevant matter simply, Observers cannot jointly manifest a phenomenon. If two Observers, even those of the same specialty, try to create in the same space, their observations will interfere with each other, causing the intended result to manifest poorly or often not at all.

“This is the basis behind the generally accepted fact that the most powerful Observations can only come from the strongest of individuals, those rare few blessed with not just a large well of soulforce, but also the talent to understand their field to the finest degree and the ability to wield that experience to the fullest. For millennia, it was common knowledge that this was the limit of Observation.

“Even with extensive training, multi-person Observation just does not work. Though each individual is working towards the same outcome, their internal conception of that outcome will be different because their understandings are unique. But! What if each individual is working from the same experiences, and doing so through a linked consciousness? Wouldn’t they be able to bring multiple minds together to observe in perfect harmony, since they are separate and yet whole? That was the beginning of our research. And as you can see, the results of our efforts are profound. A three-part Many can observe with speed and power many times greater than the combined output of three normal observers. They are truly a wonder!”

“‘Wonder’ is not the word I would use,” Gabby growled. “You did this by sewing people together. Live people.”

“N-now now, let us not jump to conclusions. These are Manys we are talking about. I would argue that my procedure allows them a superior existence to that of the standard Many life.”

“You can’t seriously expect me to believe that!” she spat back. “You’ve heard the way they moan and cry out! They’re in pain all the time!”

“Do you know what it is like to be a Many?” General Arrino returned. “A Many’s life is a pitiable one. Their consciousness is constantly bombarded with sensations that they can barely comprehend. They spend your entire life in dark rooms doing nothing more than existing because to do anything more is unbearable to their already overwhelmed mind. They are separated across vast distances from not just their family, but the rest of their bodies. It is the dreariest existence I could imagine. One would be hard-pressed to even call it a life at all!

“My Unified Manys, however, are a different story. The aim is to make them into something as closely resembling a normal single-bodied being as possible, unlocking their power for a whole new frontier of possibilities! Yes, it is necessary to take away the outer bodies’ ability to see, hear, and smell, but lowering the total sensations means their mind can be clear enough even for things like simple conversations, something a regular Many could never hope to accomplish! I can only see the pain as a price worth paying for the ability to live a life, no matter how basic.”

“Make all the philosophical arguments you want. All I see is a butcher who thinks he’s Frankenstein,” Gabby bluntly replied.

“Now, now, there’s no need for my two best assets to bicker so,” Emperor Haidar cut in. “I value both your contributions immeasurably. Now, my Champion, what finally brings you to see me? It has been a long time since we have met face to face.”

“I wanted to talk about a new strategy,” Gabby informed the elderly man. “I’m through fighting robots every day. It’s time for me to take the fight to the enemy. I’m going to attack the Otharians to shut them down once and for all.”

“Absolutely not!” the Emperor immediately declared. “We would be open to attack without you to stop them! Your leaving is out of the question!”

“What, weren’t you two just talking about how strong your new Unified Manys are? Let them hold the line for one day! Those Otharian bastards probably won’t even do anything if you just halted your attacks for a day or two.”

“Nonsense! The Eterians defenses will collapse any day now. Their sudden use of chimirin proves they’re at the end of their rope.”

“And what happens after Crirada?” Gabriela contested. “Do you think those are all the robots they have? This is about more than just this battle, it’s about the rest of the war! And if the city is really falling, are you going to give them the chance to cook up something truly crazy? They’ll make whatever the Eterians do seem like child’s play!”

“I said it is out of the question and that’s final!” Emperor Haidar roared like a father dealing with a defiantly misbehaving child. “I will not expose my forces on a foolish whim!”

“Foolish?” Gabby snarled, her ire peaking. “You and your vaunted armies can’t even take a single city without me.”

“Listen and listen well,” Emperor Haidar Batra said, his voice low but filled with cold, indignant anger. “I am the Emperor. I command, and no one else. Need I remind you that without the assistance of me and my people, you have no way to return to your children?”

Gabby clenched her teeth so hard that it was a wonder they didn’t shatter. Furious beyond belief, she turned away and stormed towards the exit.

“STOP!” several voices cried out at once. Only the fact that one of those voices was Chitra’s caused her to heed the cries at all.

“Champion, please! We must leave through the tunnel,” Chitra begged softly as she gently steered Gabby back towards where they’d first entered. “If you walk outside, you’ll reveal our position. Have you not realized where we are?”

“What?” Gabby looked about and for the first time noticed that something was indeed off. She’d been so angry that she’d tunneled in first on General Arrino and then on the Emperor and never actually had the presence of mind to look around. Now that she did, she saw an abundance of canvas and a startling lack of stone.

“What are we doing in a tent? Aren’t you supposed to be hiding inside the stone bunkers?” she snapped towards the elderly man nearby.

The Emperor scowled. “The Eterians are desperate enough now to use chimirin, a rare drug that gives one incredible power for a short time at the cost of their life. It is their final card, and means that they know their days are numbered. They will try something soon. Their most likely gambit will be an attempt to take my life. The last place I should be is where they believe me to be.”

“...oh. I didn’t think of that,” Gabby reluctantly admitted.

“Nor would I expect you to. Now go swing your sword elsewhere and leave the thinking me.”

Seething with contemptuous fury, Gabriela slammed the trap door shut so hard that it splintered into mulch.

*     *     *

“Gabby, you’ve been pacing back and forth all night. Come eat something. It’s very tasty,” Chitra advised her companion, taking a large bite from a massive drumstick to demonstrate and letting out a loud hum to demonstrate the meat’s deliciousness.

“I’m not hungry,” Gabriela replied, glancing at the large smorgasbord arrayed on a table at the side of her tent. The food had been sent by the Emperor as part of an attempt to soothe her feelings. It hadn’t worked. Knowing that it was from him made the otherwise enticing food unpalatable. She looked over the spread, noting the mostly consumed servings of various meats and the untouched bread, vegetables, and fruits. “You seem to be doing a fine job finishing it yourself.”

“It’s been a long, stressful day, thank you very much. If anybody else were to disrespect His Highness like that, they’d be executed on the spot. I was afraid for my own life just for being nearby. It shows how much he values you.”

“Why are you trying to patch things up between us? Whose side are you on?” Gabby suddenly snapped.

“What has gotten into you?” Chitra wondered with worry in her eyes.

Gabby hesitated for a moment. She’d done a lot of debating in her head these last few hours and had finally come to a decision. “Do you remember when you told me you would always be with me, as long as I needed you? Is that still true?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, Gabby,” the Ubran assured her.

“I’m going to attack Otharia,” Gabriela informed her friend, her voice steady and firm.

“You will defy the Emperor?!” Chitra hissed in shock.

“I will. I’m leaving tonight. Are you going to help me? Or is your allegiance to that man worth more than our friendship?”

Chitra looked away, avoiding Gabby’s eyes, her gorgeous face marred by a conflicted frown. After a while, she sighed and turned back to meet Gabby’s gaze, her concern apparent. “You can’t leave tonight,” she said.

“What do you mean? Are you choosing him over me?” Gabby bristled.

“No, listen,” the Batranala quickly said, grabbing the shorter woman by the shoulders. “We know the enemy has their flying drones watching for you. If you leave as it is now, they will know you’re coming, and they’ll be ready. Also, they’ll know that we’re vulnerable and they will attack while you’re gone. You don’t want that, do you?”

“No...”

“Then wait for a little. I have an idea that can help you get out of here. I’ll call in a few favors, and then in maybe two or three days, you’ll be able to head for Otharia without the Otharians or the Emperor knowing you’re gone. Sound good?”

“Thank you! I knew I could count on you!” Gabby beamed, wrapping the larger woman in an enthusiastic hug. She sniffed, as tears welled in her eyes and threatened to fall. “You’re the older sister I always wished I had.”

The other woman sighed and returned the embrace, affectionately patting Gabby’s back. “You know I want what’s best for you, Gabby. I just hope you know what that is.”