John flailed in the darkness, his stomach turning as he fell through the gloom. Suddenly he was gazing up at a brilliant blue sky, fluffy white clouds scudding past as he plunged towards the ground. Twisting frantically, he looked over his shoulder and gasped as he saw a building rapidly fill his field of vision. He hit the terracotta roof with a mighty thump, then crashed to the floor in a pile of broken beams, shattered tiles, and a billowing cloud of dust.

Groaning at the burst of agony that coursed through his body, John flopped over onto his back, panting for breath as he fought to stay conscious. He tapped into his psychic power reserves and poured healing energies into his battered body, feeling a soothing wave wash away the pain. Coughing as he staggered to his feet, John tried to get his bearings... and was shocked to find himself standing on the familiar training mats in the very first Dojo he ever attended, near his grandparents' home on Terra.

The dragon-embossed front doors burst open, slamming into the walls with an almighty boom. That mocking laughter reached John's ears again and his guide floated inside the sundered portal, appearing through swirls of dust.

"How fitting... the place where it all began," the guide declared, sneering at him in contempt. "The place where you betrayed me all those years ago."

"Me betray you?" John spat on the floor to get rid of the acrid taste in his mouth. "You're out of your goddamn mind."

"What else would you call that act of foulest treachery?!" the guide snarled, bristling with furious indignation. "You were being an obstinate fool, rebelling against the simplest instructions, when all I was trying to do was help you reach your full potential... then you had the gall to imprison me!"

John kept a wary eye on his adversary, a hexagonal shield popping into existence around him. "I sealed you away for a very good reason."

"Yet despite all your high-minded protestations, you're pursuing exactly the same objectives as me! We could've slain dozens of Progenitors by now if you'd done what I told you... but no... instead you've been fumbling around like a hapless imbecile!"

The guide punctuated his furious statement with a sharp gesture, sending a grey telekinetic lance screeching across the Dojo. The deadly projectile smashed into John's psychic barrier, cracking a dozen hexagons and sending him stumbling backwards.

"You're cruel and manipulative... you don't care who you have to abuse to achieve your goals," John declared, his eyes narrowing in defiance. "I'm nothing like you... I never was!"

He glanced at his right hand and focused on summoning Kyth'vindathys into existence, eager to settle this confrontation with the lethal runeblade. To his shock, nothing happened... and he was left staring in helpless frustration at his empty hand. He created his own psychic lance and hurled it back at his opponent, but the guide just smirked at him as the telekinetic javelin was harmlessly deflected by glowing grey hexagons.

"Nothing like you?" The guide snorted with derision. "Of course, how could I forget? You're the valiant upstanding hero and I'm the 'bad Progenitor guide' who's to blame for all your woes. You wouldn't dream of doing anything morally dubious to get what you wanted... "

John frowned at the unspoken accusation in his adversary's tone. "What? I wouldn't!"

The guide gave him a knowing look, his lip curling up into a malevolent smile. Before John could say anything else, the guide made a tearing gesture and the Dojo ripped apart, floorboards snapping and splintering as a huge crevasse yawned open beneath them. John tried to leap aside, but couldn't move fast enough before the floor collapsed...

... and he landed with a thump in a gloomy cargo bay.

Jeers and taunts filled his ears, rough voices hurling abuse at him and making lewd remarks. Looking up, he could see dozens of pirates lining the gantries high above his head, the rough bunch of cutthroats cackling with malevolent glee. John heard a terrified whimper off to his side and saw a slender brunette using a short metal pole as a makeshift spear to keep her attacker at bay.

"So how do you justify what you did to your beloved thralls," the guide asked, his voice dripping with scorn as he drew closer. "You enslaved them, made them adore you, then used them as tools for your own selfish purposes."

"That's not true!" John snarled defiantly, leaping to his feet to stand protectively in front of Calara. "I was just trying to help them!"

"Help them?" the guide doubled over with genuine laughter, his shoulders shaking with mirth. "You helped yourself!"

John narrowed his eyes as he glared at his alter-ego, drawing eldritch energy into his hand to create another psychic lance. Before he could launch it, a giant telekinetic fist struck from his right flank, backhanding John and sending him cartwheeling through the air. He was thrown into the cargo bay wall, the metal plates buckling with a tortured squeal as he smashed straight through...

...and tumbled across the floor of a grubby docking bay.

Musty air filled John's lungs as he gasped for breath, the stale atmosphere reeking of dust and sweat. He recognised the starport on Karron immediately, the Invictus' grey titanium plating looming over him on his left. The sound of gunfire ripped through the air, followed by the thump of bullets thumping into the cargo containers on his right. He looked up from the dirty floor and saw a spiky-haired waif cowering behind cover, a look of terror on Sparks' pale face.

"Ah, another helpless damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by Saint John the Benevolent," the guide declared, his sarcasm echoing across the docking bay.

A rolling wave of force thundered out of the gloom and smashed into a stack of crates, blasting them apart in a shower of razor sharp ore chunks. Sparks screamed and ducked down lower, the container she was hiding behind battered by the storm of debris.

"Leave her alone!" John roared, rushing out of cover to defend the terrified teenager. Bullets whizzed past him or bounced off his hex shield, but he couldn't see his opponent hiding in the dark recesses of the Docking Bay. He glanced down at the waif's ghostly-pale face, her features horribly disfigured by hideous scars. "Stay down, Sparks... I'll protect you."

"Our valiant hero rescues the fair maiden," the guide sneered. "And she'll be so very appreciative to her handsome saviour, never realising that she's been snared by a cunning predator. A few moments of pleasure in exchange for a lifetime of servitude... hardly a fair trade."

"Bullshit! You're twisting everything!" John yelled into the darkness. "I was just trying to heal her... I never knew there were any side-effects to the Change!"

"Do you want to know the ugly truth behind your 'wounded little birds'?" The guide asked, his voice turning harsh and judgemental. "You preyed on pitiful loners and outcasts... the psychologically scarred and physically abused... because you knew no one would miss them when you turned them into your adoring thralls."

John hesitated, a flicker of uncertainty causing him to pause. He wanted to furiously deny everything the guide was telling him, but he'd been battling with guilt over recruiting the girls for months. The guide's accusations struck at the heart of those insecurities, undermining all the rationalisations he'd used to justify his actions, and caused John to doubt his own motives.

He spotted movement at the back of the docking bay behind the Diablos gangers, his adversary slowly emerging from the shadows. The guide was studying him intently, as if searching for any vulnerabilities.

"This is just a trick! You're lying!" John snarled, sending a telekinetic lance shrieking towards his foe.

"Am I? So why the guilty conscience?" the guide replied, effortlessly batting aside the projectile with a wall of force. He stalked towards John, hurling one grey missile after another. "You're so afraid of using your Progenitor abilities that you enslaved your thralls to do it all for you!"

The psychic lances slammed into John's shield, shattering hexagons and knocking him backwards with each impact. The protective sphere rotated rapidly, preventing any of the telekinetic attacks from piercing the barrier, but John had to work at a frantic pace to repair all the damage. As he fended off the assault, he saw the glowing grey fist winding up another punch and summoned a wall of force to block it.

Countering the attack distracted John from his surroundings as he took a step back into the Invictus' Cargo Bay. Instead of feeling cold titanium deck plates beneath his bare feet, he fell backwards off the platform, the assault cruiser vanishing into thin air. Toppling into the rough-hewn rocky passageway of the docking tunnel, he was swallowed up by blackness...

...before landing with a thump on a tiled floor.

Fires flickered around him, but instead of burning with an orange glow, the flames danced with a sinister fel-green light. John stumbled to his feet in the battle-ravaged office, the charred corpses of Terran Federation troops lying all around him. It had been six months since he saw this ghastly massacre, but he'd never forgotten the sights and sounds that assailed his senses once again. The soldiers had been slaughtered in a valiant last stand, trying to defend the space station from a boarding action by Kintark marines.

The change in location came as a surprise. John instinctively realised that his guide was trying to keep him disorientated by rapidly switching their battlefield, but he was now standing in Port Medea, where they had rescued Rachel from a Kintark invasion. If the guide was taunting him over recruiting each of the girls, the next location should have been the heavy cruiser Stalingrad, where they'd liberated Jade from slavery.

As he was pondering that inconsistency, John hesitated, wondering if he was trying to find patterns where none existed. After all, they had skipped right past his first recruit, the emaciated blonde orphan that had become his beautiful matriarch. He grimaced, realising that trying to make sense of the guide's insanity was a hopeless endeavour.

The sound of a heavy thump reached his ears, just as it had back on the doomed space station all those months ago. With no signs of life around him, John set off towards the dull thuds, knowing that was where he would find his guide. Activating psychic speed, he sprinted along the corridors, dodging past incinerated corpses and burning plasma fires.

It didn't take long to reach the besieged bunker, a distinctive grey glow emanating from the upper level where the booming collisions originated. Staring at the platform above, John found himself in a quandary. In the real Port Medea, he'd used his Phalanx suit's magnetic boots to walk up the walls and catch the Kintark by surprise, but this time he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants. He focused on garbing himself in a Paragon suit, but just like when he'd tried to summon his runesword, nothing happened. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he looked around for another way to reach the top.

A terrified scream reached his ears and John reacted without thinking, creating a glowing telekinetic disc under his feet and launching it towards the ceiling. He leapt off when he reached the upper level and found the guide leaning indolently against the far wall, watching a disembodied fist repeatedly battering a severely buckled door. Through a rent in the metal, he could see Rachel's frightened face as the brunette huddled in the bunker.

The guide glanced at John with a look of utter disdain. "Here he comes, just in time to ensnare another lost soul."

John lashed out with an arc of force, the razor-sharp edge scything through the floating fist and vaporising it in an instant. "Leave the girls out of it. This fight is between you and me!"

Rolling his eyes, the guide snorted. "Of course, how could I forget how much you 'love' your precious girls... and how touchy you get when anybody threatens them. After all, no one else is allowed to abuse them... you reserve that right for yourself."

"I don't abuse them!" John exclaimed indignantly, clenching his fists.

"Really?" the guide asked with mock surprise. "Isn't it true that you've massively modified their bodies and personalities to fit your own selfish desires? You described your perfect woman to them in meticulous detail, then lo and behold... you now have a crew full of thralls fitting that template. You eliminated any trace of jealousy in them because you had no intention of listening to their petty bickering. Then you paired your thralls off, so you could fawn over your latest broken toy, and not feel guilty about neglecting the others when the novelty wore off."

"That's... not what happened..." John replied, sounding more uncertain.

"Because your pets convinced you otherwise?" Shaking his head, the guide shot John a look filled with disgust. "You created a band of sycophants that eagerly condone your every action, then believe them when they tell you exactly what you want to hear. It would be embarrassing if it wasn't so pathetic!"

John remembered the sincere arguments the girls had made to reassure him, but he'd also had deep concerns about how objective their opinions truly were. Movement caught his eye and he saw that the guide had created a score of telekinetic darts, which bobbed menacingly over his adversary's shoulders. They accelerated towards him and he braced himself to repair his psychic shield, the barrier rotating rapidly to spread out the impacts. At the last moment, all twenty darts plunged downwards, punching through the ferrocrete platform in a shower of stone chips.

The ledge John was standing on broke away, tipping him backwards yet again. He knew what was coming this time, the fall heralding yet another shift in reality, and he wasn't to be disappointed. As the crumbling platform collapsed, he was engulfed in darkness...

... and dropped into a rocky crevasse.

All around him was a cheery glow, a pleasant heat warming his body as he fell. A quick glance over his shoulder made John gasp in shock, instantly dispelling his favourable impressions of this deadly new location. Below him was a river of molten lava, the liquid rock bubbling and churning at an infernal temperature.

With only seconds to act, John gestured frantically, creating a glowing telekinetic ramp that arced around towards one of the galleries lining the chasm. He slid down the slope and away to safety, a hastily summoned telekinetic net catching him when he reached the end of the slide and saving him from being hurled into the wall. He landed gracefully and felt a flicker of pride at managing to deftly avert disaster.

Slow clapping ruined his momentary celebration as the guide stepped out of a room chiselled from the rock. "That was truly impressive... I'm awed by your psychic mastery."

John bristled at the biting sarcasm. "So what have you brought me here for? To relive you torturing the Glowing Queen to death?"

Before the guide could respond, John launched himself at his foe, sheathing his hands in glowing gauntlets. There was a flash of brilliant light as he landed a massive blow on his enemy's grey shield, runes flaring on the back of his right fist. The guide staggered backwards, his eyes opening wide in alarm as John rained blows down on him and mauled his shield. A left hook, a right cross, jab, jab, then a devastating haymaker that actually smashed a hole straight through his opponent's defences.

The guide slammed a wall of force down in an act of desperation to stop John's rampage, the shimmering Eldritch barrier a foot thick. John reared back, his eyes blazing with fury as he wound up another huge punch to obliterate the obstacle. An instant later, the chasm echoed with a blood-curdling scream, the piercing agony in the woman's voice sending shivers down John's spine.

He saw his guide's eyes flick towards the chasm and John spotted a golden-armoured figure plunge towards the stream of lava. Even though he knew this was just some twisted version of reality, John couldn't just stand by and let Irillith burn to death. He reached out with a telekinetic net, safely catching the falling Maliri in the exact same way Alyssa had done on Trankara. Now that Irillith was secure, John faced his backpedalling opponent once more, only to find that he now stood alone in the gallery.

Grimacing with irritation at the guide's disappearance, John turned towards the writhing woman snared in his glowing net. He had lost control of his body before the assassination mission on Trankara, so hadn't personally witnessed Irillith's suicide attempt. When John brought her over to the rocky gallery, he saw the brutal wound in her flank, the blue flesh horribly charred. He felt an outpouring of sympathy for the girl and knelt down beside the mortally wounded Maliri to remove her helmet. When he tugged it free, she glared up at him, burning hatred smouldering in her violet eyes.

A disembodied voice floated down from the level above. "Isn't that interesting... the first woman you met who was immune to your insidious influence hated you with a fiery passion. She recognised you for the manipulative monster that you are and wanted nothing to do with you. Despite all your claims of trying to give those women a choice about joining your crew, you leapt at the opportunity to subjugate your first authentic thrall."

"She was dying!" John yelled out into the chasm. "I wasn't trying to 'subjugate' anybody, I was just trying to save Irillith's life!"

"You knew what you were doing. Her fate was sealed the moment you healed her; one taste and she was lost to you forever!"

"That's bullshit!" John protested, shaking his head in denial. "It takes three times before the girls join me!"

His angry retort was met with more mocking laughter. "The extent you've deluded yourself is truly astounding. What about the Nymphs? What about all the Maliri thralls under my matriarch? How many times did you feed them before they became your obedient slaves?"

John froze, knowing the answer immediately.

"Yes..." the guide purred, his tone sly and condescending. "And has any woman ever rejected an offer to join you after you've filled her stomach?"

Heart sinking in his chest, John knew the answer to that too.

"All that effort wasted on the pretence that they had any choice in the matter," the guide scoffed incredulously. "They became your indoctrinated slaves the instant that you coerced them into swallowing your essence!"

John slumped, hanging his head with guilt... and saw Irillith staring up at him. Her expression of unvarnished loathing was gone, those enchanting violet eyes softening as she raised her hand and gestured towards the hacking device built into her golden vambrace. Before she could say anything, John was struck from behind by a hefty blow, the colossal impact on his hex shield catapulting him across the canyon. He crashed into the rocky wall opposite, then tumbled down into darkness...

...and landed in a plush audience chamber, where a gilded chaise longue had been knocked askew by a violent struggle.

John froze as he recognised Edraele's suite in the palace on Valaden. Dreading the thought of witnessing his guide ravaging the Maliri matriarch, he glanced back at the entrance to her quarters and saw a murky wall formed from roiling shadows blocking the doorway. Realising that he was trapped, John picked himself up off the floor and reluctantly proceeded deeper into the suite towards her bedroom.

Bracing himself for a surprise attack, John opened the door to Edraele's room and saw his guide sitting on the bed beside the House Valaden matriarch. She still had short dark hair and was sprawled unconscious under the covers, the sheet tenting over her bulging stomach. The guide smirked at John as he cautiously entered the bedroom and patted Edraele's head like an obedient pet.

"So what're you going to accuse me of this time?" John asked, wise to his opponent's tactics now, but reluctant to attack for fear of hitting Edraele.

"Accuse you?" the guide asked, his lips curling into a wicked smile. "I was going to commend you for how ruthlessly you subjugated the Maliri Protectorate. Your enthusiastic little puppet did a fine job of slaughtering all the major threats to your new regime."

"Don't try to blame me for that. Edraele was following your orders..." John muttered, his eyes flicking to the sleeping Maliri Matriarch.

"My orders?" The guide rose from his seat, feigning indignation. "I planned to make Valaden my base of operations and had no intention of leaving Maliri territory; why would I waste my time organising assassinations? All it would've taken is a fleeting visit to each matriarch and I could have seized control of the Maliri Regency without a drop of blood being spilled."

John knew full well the dramatic effect his presence had on the Maliri, who were genetically conditioned to be fascinated by him. If he hadn't been forced to rush away to save the Ashanath from the Drakkar, it really would have been that simple to claim the Maliri.

"Murdering four rival matriarchs along with all their eldest daughters was a bold and decisive move... so unlike your normal pathetic handwringing," the guide noted, before holding his hands up in a display of contrition. "I willingly concede that your approach was far better than mine. Instead of having to tolerate a coven of surly old hags, you got to indulge your baser desires with a doting harem of nubile young maidens."

"I'd never even met those other matriarchs before Edraele assassinated them!" John protested, shaking his head. "I had no idea what they were like, so you can't claim that as a motive!"

"I never said I was, but I'm sure you had no objection to the final results. We both know that you like your thralls naive and impressionable, making it all the easier to manipulate them into doing whatever you want. I never expected you to impregnate the survivors of Edraele's bloody massacre though... even I thought that was a bit callous. Despite how much you profess to love your tender young broodmares, you immediately abandoned them to pursue your own goals... just like your father did to Jessica."

That comparison really stung, as John hated the idea that he was anything like Rahn'hagon. "I would have stayed with them if I could, but I had no choice... I had to leave," he replied, trying to justify his actions. "I only planned to make a short trip into Brimorian territory, then I got dragged into defending Terra from the Kintark and repelling the Kirrix invasion of the Outer Rim."

"And when you're fighting the Progenitor War, you'll be in the exact same situation... and will make the same decision to abandon the mothers of your children while you're off chasing glory!"

"I know what you're doing and it won't work. I'm tired of listening to you twist everything I've done to make me look bad," John said, narrowing his eyes as he waited for an opportunity to strike.

"On the contrary, I think you've done an excellent job of neutralising all the neighbouring empires. The Ashanath, the Trankarans, the Maliri, the Terrans... and now the Kintark, they've all fallen under your absolute control. Even I've been impressed by the way you exploited their weaknesses and rushed to install obedient puppets to lead them."

"Yeah, that was my evil plan all along," John said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, you knew what you were doing. Take the Kintark for example: You could've just contacted the Brimorian Deep Pool and threatened them with a Maliri invasion if they didn't call off their attack. Instead of simply ending the war without loss of life, you swept in like the conquering hero, let your thralls use the Brimorians for target practice, and exploited the invasion of Kinta to turn the Empress into another indoctrinated puppet." Curling his lip with disgust, the guide added, "I know you're a helpless slave to your libido, but do you really intend to copulate with a lizard?"

John pretended to be disheartened by the guide's latest scathing monologue, but he abruptly burst into a sprint, charging headlong into his shield. The two hex-barriers crashed together, flexing wildly to separate the two enemies, their snarling faces drawing close as they hurtled towards the wall of Edraele's bedroom. The palace fortifications exploded outwards in chunks of shattered masonry and crystalline shards...

... then the pair fell towards a vast jungle canopy that stretched away for miles towards the horizon.

John blinked in surprise as he recognised the lush paradise of Arcadia, the Gaia-class planet beautiful and untouched by civilisation. Grappling with his guide, he saw a flicker of genuine fear on his nemesis' face as they plunged towards the jungle. That look of fright was startling, as the guide was more than capable of levitating to safety, which meant that the fall posed him no physical danger.

Before John could figure out what had scared the guide so badly, the falling combatants were shrouded in darkness once again and dropped into yet another reality.

***

Back aboard the Invictus, Athena stood motionless as she kept a watchful eye over the other two occupants in the hangar. Gusts of icy wind swirled around the huge room, with Sakura poised and ready to accelerate them into a deadly tornado at a moment's notice. Despite her conflicted expression, the former assassin was ready to explode into action, her ninjato encased in ice and her body protected by a globe of white hexagons.

Switching her radiant gaze to John, Athena carefully studied the kneeling Progenitor. He hadn't moved since he initiated the confrontation with his guide, goosebumps now covering his bare flesh from the glacial chill in the air that seeped into his bones. John's face was contorted in a mask of intense concentration, his features twitching with involuntary tics as he reacted to the battle raging within.

Although she was trying to stay composed, Athena couldn't help brushing her fingers against her lips, which were still tingling from where John had kissed her. She had managed to maintain a dispassionate facade in the prelude to the battle, but her heart ached to see him in such distress. For the past few months, John came to her every night, seeking refuge from the horrors of the Astral Plane in the safety of her loving arms. Somewhere along the way, tender affection had transformed into overwhelming infatuation and now Athena was terrified that he would not survive.

That terror stirred something deep within her mind, and Athena suddenly clutched at her head.

"No! Not yet!" she gasped, squeezing her glowing eyes shut as she desperately tried to maintain control.

A piercing scream shook the hangar, the harrowing grief in that despairing cry enough to make Sakura jump with fright. She stared at Alyssa in shock as the blonde doubled over, clutching at her chest and sobbing at the hollow sense of loss. It was as if the very reason for her being had been ripped from her soul.

"Alyssa... stay back!" Sakura called out in alarm.

Ignoring her warning, Alyssa staggered over to John and sank to her knees beside him. "Let me in!" she begged, her eyes blazing with incandescent light. "Please let me help you!"

***

Arcadia's tropical jungle was swallowed up by darkness and quickly replaced by a suburban sprawl. It was obvious that the gorgeous homes below were owned by the wealthier elements of society, the grand properties surrounded by acres of exquisitely manicured lawns. As John fell towards the luxury houses he recognised the neighbourhood from his visit to New Eden, the former Honami residence apparently his intended destination.

The guide shrouded himself in grey mists and John found himself clinging onto thin air as his opponent slipped out of his grasp and through a gateway. Throwing curses at the guide, John realised he had a far more pressing problem as he dropped like a stone towards the striped lawn beneath him. Gesturing wildly, he created a telekinetic net to slow his fall, the glowing strands stretching taut as he crashed into the hasty projection. The net stretched out like a catapult pulled back in preparation to fire, rapidly slowing his descent. When it reached its maximum capacity and looked like it was about to snap, John tumbled clear and landed on his feet in the Honami's back garden.

Regaining his balance, he looked upwards and scanned the skies, searching for his guide. There was no sign of him in the cloudless skies, but John did spot a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning to face the house, he saw Sakura inside, a look of wonder on her beautiful face. All around her were echoes of her past, the fleeting psychic imprints left behind by the many happy memories she'd shared with her family.

John crossed the patio and cautiously entered her home, then smiled as he saw Sakura sobbing with joy as she was embraced by her parents.

"Such a touching scene..." the guide sneered, his voice carrying through the house. "The poor orphaned girl reunited with the spirits of her long-dead parents for one final goodbye."

That precious moment had meant so much to Sakura and John desperately wanted to block out the guide's voice, hating the thought that he might taint that memory in some way.

"Stop hiding and fight me!" John yelled, doing his best to ignore his opponent's taunts.

"Still scared to hear the ugly truth?" his guide mocked. "You didn't bring her mother and father back from the dead... you read the psychic imprints and created exceedingly convincing artificial constructs that acted just the way you wanted. You played on her deepest vulnerabilities, convincing the girl that her dead parents enthusiastically approved of you as a suitor... and you turned a devoted servant into a thrall that worships you like a god. The cynical way you manipulated her is truly impressive."

"Shut the fuck up!" John roared, fighting back the waves of guilt.

Sakura pulled away from her parents and turned to face him, a fervent gleam in her eyes. "I'll never forget what you did for me today. I'll always be at your side, for as long as you want me. Whatever happens, I'll be there for you."

The guide floated down to hover above the patio. "The moment she gained her faith... your High Priestess of Justice," he intoned, his voice heavy with scorn.

John whirled around and launched himself at his nemesis, wanting to tear the guide limb from limb. In his rage he didn't notice the murky-grey tentacles curling out of the floor and ceiling. A swirling barrier formed in front of John, blocking his charge and bring him skidding to a halt, just as the undulating appendages lashing out to strike his hex barrier from a dozen different directions at once. To John's shock his psychic shield collapsed in a shower of hexagons as its structural integrity was compromised, the tentacles curling around his limbs and pulling taut.

"Temper... temper..." the guide chastised him, his mocking smile turning triumphant.

Acting quickly, John summoned another psychic shield... but the hexagons flickered ominously, the thrashing tentacles preventing them from coalescing into a solid globe.

Floating into the house, the guide's eyes gleamed in anticipation. "I've waited a long time for this."

A grey telekinetic lance shrieked through the air and plunged into John's leg, piercing straight through the muscles and out the other side in a spray of blood. John cried out at the searing pain, the javelin feeling like a red-hot poker impaled through his thigh.

The guide shivered with delight. "Marvellous..."

As John panted for breath, he heard the sound of massive blows raining down from on high, striking some distant and impenetrable object.

The ringing impacts drew the guide's attention too and he paused, listening intently to the ferocious assault. "Ah... I wondered when she'd try to intervene."

"Alyssa..." John whispered, realising she was trying to batter her way through his mental fortress.

"Yes... your wilfully disobedient matriarch," the guide noted, studying John in fascination. "You really are a disturbed individual, aren't you?"

"That's rich... coming from you," John muttered, gritting his teeth against the pain.

"Now, don't be modest... she is your most twisted creation after all. You've done more to that poor girl than all of the rest combined."

John thrashed against the tentacles, his muscles bulging as he tried to break free, but they compensated for his movements and stopped him getting any purchase.

"Just this morning, you finally got to see how Alyssa really wishes she could behave," the guide said, getting John's attention. "She longs to be your adoring little slave, just like every good matriarch should be. But no... you've made her tease you mercilessly to 'keep you grounded', even though it hurts her every time when she has to act that way."

John froze as that thought struck home, the ring of truth to the accusation undeniable. He slumped in his restraints, horrified that he might have been hurting Alyssa on a daily basis.

Shaking his head, the guide's expression was one of complete disgust. "You're a sick masochist, constantly torturing yourself with guilt and insecurities. Heaven forbid you actually get some enjoyment out of all the power and privilege that are your birthright!"

The guide made a chopping motion with his hand, then the Honami family home was shrouded by darkness...

... and John found himself floating above the tan coloured deck plates of the Underworld.

Alyssa and the girls dropped down to the floor of the hangar, long-barrelled rifles held at the ready. His blonde matriarch crouched down in the middle of the group and sent a pulse of light sweeping through the refinery, shrouding everyone it touched in a red or white aura. As merchants and slaves alike stared at their glowing limbs in bewilderment, the girls sprang into action, opening fire on anyone highlighted in crimson. The sharp squeal of azure laser bolts was soon followed by screams of terror as the Lionesses slaughtered everyone that Alyssa had flagged for execution.

The guide glanced at John out of the corner of his eye. "Have you figured out the role your precious matriarch plays for you yet?"

John grimaced and tried not to look at the massacre below, but he couldn't tear his eyes off the mesmerising sight of the white-armoured women scything through the crowds.

"She's your wicked conscience... always urging you to indulge your true desires," the guide whispered, his eyes glinting with malevolent glee.

As much as John wanted to deny it, he could feel in his heart that was true.

"Her eagerness to recruit new thralls... her brutal extermination of your enemies... Alyssa's more of a man than you'll ever be! And why did you make her act this way? So you can blame her for all your acts of dubious morality and keep your own conscience clear," the guide declared, gloating when he saw the crushing revelations hit John hard. "She panders to your whims and does exactly what you long for in secret, every single time!"

John shook his head in denial and protested, "You're lying! I never wanted her to encourage a rebellion in the Outer Rim colonies!"

His outburst provoked another round of mocking laughter as the interior of the Underworld faded to blackness...

... to be replaced by a well-developed cityscape, the gleaming building reaching towards the sky.

John waited for the shift in realities, when he knew his guide would be momentarily distracted, and channelled arcs of force around both hands. Crossing his arms over his chest, he cleanly severed the tentacles restraining him, then slashed down to free his legs. The slithering appendages flailed wildly but weren't able to restrain him again, letting John drop to the ground. He grunted with pain as he hit the tarmac street, then healing energies swept through his body, mending the gaping puncture wound in his thigh.

Now that he'd been freed, John was able to surround himself with another psychic shield, the globe of blue hexagons instantly popping into existence. He spun around and hurled a telekinetic lance up at the guide, shattering a dozen hexes in his protective grey barrier. Focused on preparing another javelin to hurl at his opponent, John was startled when he heard terrified screams all around him. He glanced about and saw crowds of civilians fleeing for their lives, the buildings surrounding them systematically demolished by thunderous explosions.

With a frown of confusion, John tried to place the mystery city, the location not triggering any memories. A relentless salvo of shells and bright orange beams rained down from the sky, causing untold destruction to what had once been a prospering metropolis. He was quite certain that they hadn't recruited any of the girls from a world under planetary bombardment, which meant this could only be... Galon Prime.

John's heart sank like a stone as he stared up at the sky, which was filled with Terran Federation warships. They were unleashing a ferocious barrage on the city below, brutally punishing them as a lesson to any other systems that might be considering joining the rebellion.

A blast from a beam laser carved a glowing furrow through the fleeing crowds, incinerating anyone unlucky enough to be caught in its path. Now the aroma of cooked meat hung heavy in the air, along with the choking clouds from shattered rubble, and the cloying stench of sweat and fear. A hoverbus roared past, the windows lined with the frightened faces of cowering passengers, all desperate to escape the slaughter. One of the buildings lining the street was blown to pieces by the blast from a heavy shell, huge chunks of debris hitting the vehicle and smashing it sideways. It crashed into a mall... which then erupted in rippling explosion as it was pulverised by a fusillade of shells.

The streets were now strewn with bloodied limbs and mangled corpses, the cries of fear turning to screams of agony. Everywhere John looked were more horrors, the monstrous barbarity of an orbital bombardment on a densely-populated city laid bare.

"Behold the glorious aftermath of your victory over their rebel fleet," the guide declared, an undercurrent of amusement to his voice. "I wonder if the Admiralty added all the dead from the Galon Prime bombardment to those you killed in that boarding action? That must be why they awarded you a Stellar Cluster... you were responsible for the deaths of millions."

"Why are you showing me this?!" John yelled over the thump of explosions.

"You accused me of lying about Alyssa pandering to your whims... but who really has an axe to grind with the Admiralty? A hapless orphan who grew up in a squalid hunk of rock... or a marine commander who saw all his comrades slaughtered and his beloved military career end in ignominy."

John stared wide-eyed at the carnage surrounding him, feeling overwhelmed by the same horrific guilt that had plagued him for over a decade.

He had suggested the plan to assault the rebel command ship with assault cruisers, the savage combat causing huge casualties among the boarding troops. When they'd captured the rebel battleship, along with the rogue admiral leading the insurrection, the rest of their fleet had surrendered. John had assumed that would end the rebellion with minimal loss of life, but the Federation fleet had executed all the prisoners, then bombarded every rebel city into oblivion.

"Are you finally going to claim responsibility for your act of revenge against the Admiralty?" the guide taunted him. "Or are you still going to blame some witless little whore, who never even heard of High Command before she left Karron?"

John's shoulders slumped, the guide's relentless attacks on his biggest insecurities leaving him tormented with remorse.

***

Alyssa sobbed with frustration as she railed against John's mental barrier, not even making so much as a dent despite throwing everything she had at his psychic defences. Head dropping in defeat, Alyssa realised she had no chance of breaking inside, not when both John and his guide were working in conjunction to keep her out. It only took her a moment to realise that their wills combined were far stronger than her own.

Sakura reached out to place a gauntleted hand on her shoulder. "Alyssa... I know you want to help John, but you're in danger here. If he loses-"

"He's not going to lose!" Alyssa hissed, the furious glow in her eyes burning away her tears.

"Okay... I believe in him too," Sakura said quietly. "But we can't get involved. This is between John and his guide."

John let out a tortured groan, a look of anguish on his face.

"He needs me!" Alyssa insisted, growing increasingly frantic. "There's got to be some way I can help him... something I missed."

She wracked her brain for any solution, struggling against the debilitating grief of being cut off from John. With their psychic connection severed, it felt like she had no reason to carry on breathing, let alone focus on anything else. If she could just reconnect with him... everything would be wonderful again. Alyssa's eyes dropped lower and she bit her lip. Maybe there was a way...

"No, Alyssa," Sakura said firmly. "Absolutely not."

"You're right..." the blonde muttered, grimacing with frustration. "John's not in the right state of mind for that right now."

Then like a light of inspiration switching on in her mind, Alyssa knew precisely how she could restore their connection. She still had a source of John's cum that everyone had overlooked in their grief!

She leapt to her feet and sprinted for the exit, ignoring Sakura's plaintive calls to return. Alyssa opened the concealed entrance to the express grav-tubes, then hurtled up to the Armoury before taking the second set of tubes to their old bedroom. She bounded out of the grav-tube with a spring in her step, then ran down the corridor towards the last set of quarters on the Officers' Deck. All she needed to do was open up Faye's remote chassis and retrieve the refrigerated sample that the purple sprite had swallowed in their last group session on Arcadia!

Alyssa's elation turned to confusion when she saw a green songbird swoop out of the grav-tube at the other end of the corridor, the shapeshifted Nymph racing towards her. The bird disappeared in a verdant haze, then reappeared as Jade, who stood directly in front of Faye's quarters with her arms crossed.

"Get out of my way, Jade," Alyssa growled, stalking towards the bedroom.

"I won't let you do it, Alyssa," the Nymph matriarch replied, slowly shaking her head. "John was quite explicit about not letting you put yourself at risk."

Alyssa strode up to her and tried to push Jade out of the way, but it was like trying to shove a ten ton block of lead. "Move... that's an order!" she snarled furiously.

"Don't let her in, Jade!" Calara called out, as she emerged from the grav-tube at the end of the corridor. "John left me in command and I'm ordering you to keep Alyssa out!"

"Why are you doing this?!" Alyssa pleaded desperately, trying to shove the Nymph again to no effect. "John's in trouble... he needs me!"

"You must have faith in him," Jade said quietly. "He needs to do this on his own."

More footsteps echoed down the corridor as the rest of the girls ran over to join them.

Alyssa pushed the Nymph again, but she knew it was hopeless and her heart was no longer in it. She dropped to her knees as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Why don't you understand?" she sobbed, suddenly bursting into tears. "I need him... I'm nothing without him..."

The rest of the girls looked at their matriarch with concern and shared worried glances. Being disconnected from John had left them all distraught, but they could plainly see that Alyssa was teetering on the edge.

Calara sank down to join the blonde, wrapping her arms around Alyssa. "Everything's going to be alright, my love."

Dana hugged her best friend from behind. "Yeah! John's a tough son-of-a-bitch... he'll kick his guide's ass!"

Rachel gently stroked Alyssa's golden hair. "He knows how much we all love him and need him. That was why John visited each of us this morning... to remind himself what he's fighting for."

Alyssa froze and looked up at all the concerned faces gazing down at her. She locked eyes with a worried set of baby-blues, hope rekindling in her heart once again.

"Helene... did John remember to block you out of his mind?"

***

It was dark in the shattered hangar, violent seismic activity having damaged the lunar facility's power grid. The only illumination on the docking gantry came from spotlights on the Tormentor-class destroyer, as an eclectic group hurried to evacuate Tartarus. Lying on a floating gurney In the middle of that group was a middle-aged woman, the attending medical staff making sure that Admiral Devereux stayed sedated.

John squinted into the gloom to get his bearings, still reeling from the disturbing revelation that he had ulterior motives behind so many of his actions. Disorientated and filled with remorse, he struggled to distinguish which of the guide's many accusations were true or false. He knew deep in his heart that there was a kernel of truth behind some of them... but it was getting harder and harder to know which ones.

Rising like a malevolent spectre from behind the docked destroyer, the guide grinned in triumph when he saw John's state of confusion. "Not much to look at, was she?" he noted, nodding his head towards the unconscious admiral. "I don't blame you for making her appearance more... palatable."

John braced himself for another attack. "I owed Lynette for putting her life on the line for me. I just wanted to help her... I wasn't trying to turn her into another puppet leader."

"Well we both know that's a lie," the guide scoffed, before his expression turned calculating. "But I brought you here for another reason entirely. If you really wanted to reward this woman... then why did you turn her into a devoted sex toy for your 'best friend'?"

Jaw dropping open in shock, John stammered, "I-I never planned that!"

"You don't sound very convincing," the guide observed with a smirk. "The truth is that you've never acted in your thralls' best interests. Despite your convoluted efforts to pretend that you're kind and selfless, you used all those women for your own selfish ends!"

John was about to respond when the guide clenched both fists in his direction and lashed out with a shadowy beam of energy. The blast slammed into John's shield, leaving a swathe of cracked and smouldering hexagons in its wake. He had to focus with all his strength to keep the barrier intact, the sizzling pressure on his psychic shield pushing him backwards across the gantry. The group approaching the destroyer scattered out of the way and John saw a flicker of green in his peripheral vision as the quartet of catgirls darted aside.

"The Nymphs!" John blurted out, while concentrating on frantically replenishing his shield. "I did everything I could to give them free will and release them from slavery!"

"They've been longing for children for over 70,000 years! They all know that you're the only man in the galaxy that's capable of getting them pregnant, so what choice do they have but to stay with you?" the guide retorted. "You offered them the one thing that will ensure they serve you for eternity!"

The beam intensified, the pressure against John's psychic shield increasing dramatically as he was propelled across the metallic gantry. He wanted to retaliate, but it took all of his concentration to maintain his hex barrier against the onslaught. The guide levitated sideways, rotating the angle of attack while continuing to force his quarry backwards. John was so focused on repelling that beam of destructive force, he didn't notice the edge of the platform behind him until it was too late. He was blasted backwards off the edge and toppled over into darkness...

... to land with a thump on jet-black deck plates, the room lit with a sinister scarlet glow.

There was no mistaking the interior of a Progenitor dreadnought, but why the guide had brought him there was a mystery. They'd been visiting locations that were pivotal to each of the girls, in the chronological order that they'd been recruited, but John knew that the guide had deliberately skipped some of the crew. What he couldn't figure out was why Jade was a conspicuous absence, or Faye, or Helene for that matter...

Shaking his head to clear the fugue, John picked himself up off the deck and tried to get his bearings. As he turned, John realised he was in the chamber where he'd come to blows with his father... where Rahn'hagon had attacked him in an outburst of fear-driven rage. Instead of facing the Progenitor who had created him as a tool to fight Xar'aziuth, the guide stood opposite, a look of triumph on his face.

"And so we come to the end, the place where you had your loving reunion with your long-lost parents," the guide crooned, his features suddenly twisting into a cruel sneer. "You couldn't manipulate them the way your thralls dance to your tune... so what happened? Your mother rejected you without a second thought and your father tried to beat you to death!"

Those memories were still very painful for John and he hunched over in anguish, vividly recalling the moment his childhood dreams had been crushed. He pictured Jessica Blake sitting in the Raptor, his mother's total indifference to the son she hadn't thought about in forty years cutting him to the quick. After that were a procession of memories of his father; the bonding moments they'd shared and John's elation to see the pride in Rahn'hagon's eyes... only for it to end with bitter words and terrible anger.

The guide watched John stumble to his knees, beaten down by the relentless attacks on his pride, ego, and self-worth. With a wicked grin, he continued the onslaught, determined to break the man who had thwarted his very purpose for existence.

"Your father, my matriarch, her twin daughters... they were all immune to your influence and did you notice how each of them reacted to you? With nothing but disgust and loathing!"

A fleeting image pierced John's melancholy mood like a ray of sunshine dispelling the darkness... that of a purple elfin face beaming at him with joy. He froze, clinging desperately to Faye's memory; a synthetic girl who truly was immune to any outside influence... and had loved him with all of her digital heart.

"You're wrong!" John declared with conviction, standing bolt upright. "They were all broken people, twisted by their tragic pasts. Them lashing out at me wasn't my fault!"

After thinking that he had John beaten, the sudden act of defiance came as a shock. The guide snarled in frustration, realising he still needed to wear him down further.

John didn't give him that chance, breaking into a psychically accelerated sprint and bull rushing the guide into the wall behind. They smashed into the black metal with a massive boom, tearing a hole in that reality and sending them both tumbling through. Darkness was replaced by bright sunlight, the endless tropical forests of Arcadia spread out below them like a glorious green carpet.

The guide hissed as he realised where they were, a sudden flicker of fear reappearing in his eyes. The two mortal adversaries exchanged blows as they plunged through the atmosphere, then fell through a rent in the sky, immersing the combatants in a black void once again.

***

Sakura stood guard over John with mounting trepidation, watching his expression shift rapidly as he struggled against his guide. She could tell that the internal battle raging within him was taking a heavy toll, as he flinched and moaned in anguish, his torment reflected on his face. Her heart ached to witness John in such pain, especially when she was helpless to assist him in this personal fight for control of his mind.

John's posture shifted and his features went oddly neutral, not giving Sakura any further clues as to the current status of the mental duel. Sensing that the fight had reached a pivotal point, she tightened her grip on the twin ninjato, pensively waiting to see who would be the victor. Her sense of anxiety skyrocketed and, not for the first time, she wondered if she could actually go through with his execution if John lost.

That horrible thought sent her heart racing and Sakura blinked away the tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't afford to fall apart... not when John was counting on her to be his last line of defence for the girls. If the guide was victorious, Sakura knew that she was the only one with any real chance of stopping him. Alyssa went wild when Helene discovered that she was also barred from John's subconscious, and had to be restrained by all the girls to stop her breaking into Faye's quarters.

With Alyssa raging to be released, Athena wasn't available to telepathically ascertain if John or the guide had won their fight for supremacy. Sakura was now left in a dreadful quandary, as she had no way of verifying the true identity of the victor. She circled around John, the cold winds whistling in the hangar, ready to be brought to bear on the guide if he attacked.

The double-doors behind the pacing assassin slid open and when she turned to see who it was, Sakura was surprised to see Neysa entering the huge room. The jaguar-patterned Nymph padded across the floor, a look of sympathy in her hazel eyes.

"Hello, Sakura," the catgirl said softly. "Jade sensed your distress but she's currently occupied with restraining Alyssa. I volunteered to assist you instead."

"Assist me?" Sakura asked in surprise. "How?"

Neysa's concerned gaze flicked to her master. "If John permits me to enter his mind, I'll be able to confirm his identity for you. If he refuses... you'll also have the answer you seek."

"But... he severed all our connections!" the Asian girl exclaimed.

The Nymph gave her a reassuring smile. "My bond with John transcends the Progenitor connection. He is my Master... and will remain so for as long as he lives."

Sakura frowned in confusion. "I thought things were different between you now? That John was only your master by choice?"

Neysa gazed at him with obvious devotion. "He gave each of us free will so we could leave him if we desired... but John will always be our true Master."

Struck by a sudden epiphany, Sakura blurted out in accusation, "Jade must've known this all along! Why didn't any of you volunteer before?!"

The catgirl bit her lip and looked down. "John didn't trust us. He was worried that a Nymph wouldn't be capable of causing him harm, even if the guide had taken ownership of his body."

She went quiet at that awful thought, Neysa's expression becoming troubled as her eyes flicked back to John.

"Can I trust you?" Sakura asked, her voice cutting through the silence like a drawn blade.

Nodding emphatically, Neysa replied, "You are one of John's mates... and my friend; I would never dream of hurting you." She faltered, her voice quavering as she continued, "But I cannot raise my hand against him. I'm sorry, Sakura... this one is not able to do it."

"It's okay, Neysa," Sakura said, swallowing around the lump in her throat at the Nymph's visible distress. "I understand... I really do."

***

Reality shifted... and John hit the floor with a thump, leaving a cracked crater in the flagstone path. He was surrounded by carefully cultivated flowerbeds, the rooftop garden a haven of serenity above Jehanna's apartment. Another loud crash drew his attention to the landing pad on the far side of the roof, his guide slamming into the ferrocrete construction before he could slow his fall.

Shaking a shower of dust from his hair, the guide rose to his feet, burning hatred in his gaze. "You destroy everything you touch! When your latest thrall became entangled in your insidious web, you ruined her life! Her career, her family, her friends... she had to abandon everything that meant anything to her!"

That accusation really stung as John couldn't refute it, not when he knew that Jehanna had made huge sacrifices to join him on the Invictus. He felt sharp pangs of guilt as the guide's barb struck home and was left pondering how much he'd negatively impacted the rest of the girls' lives. The feelings of remorse then began to slowly fade away, replaced by a growing sense of belonging. The sensations grew stronger, flooding his whole being with positivity, the gentle warmth banishing the cold chill of self-recriminations from his soul.

There was nothing the guide could say to distort what had happened between John and Helene, which is why the shifts in reality had excluded Brimor. Recruiting the Abandoned girl was an act of compassion, to rescue her from a lonely life as a shunned outcast. John had gone to great pains to keep Helene from combat, only gifting her with empathic abilities to help devastated parents cope with their grief. With Helene... he knew without a shadow of a doubt that his conscience was clear. John closed his eyes, revelling in the wonderful sensation of absolute contentment that she felt at being part of his family... a gift that Helene had lovingly shared with him.

"How are you doing that?" the guide balked, staring at him in horror.

John's eyes snapped open. "You could never understand Jehanna's motivations. Her decision to join me was made out of love."

The guide opened his mouth to snarl a scathing rebuke, but he didn't have the chance to say anything as John rocketed across the rooftop. Runes flared with a brilliant blue light as John's fist smashed into the guide's shield, sundering it with a single blow. The vicious uppercut struck the guide on the chin, landing with a sickening crunch and breaking his jaw. He cartwheeled backwards from the force of the punch, his momentum carrying him over the edge of the apartment block roof.

John leapt after him...

... and they were dropping towards Arcadia's sprawling jungle yet again.

Healing energies coursed through the guide, resetting his shattered jaw with a painful series of clicks. "Damn you!" he snarled when he could speak again. "You think I'm going to let you choose the site of our final battle?!"

He gestured below them as they fell... but nothing happened... John's firm grip on this reality preventing the guide from tearing another rip in the fabric of the subplane. The guide stared in shock at his nemesis, astonished that John could have subverted his plans.

"There's a fitting symmetry to us ending this on Arcadia," John replied, his tone quietly introspective. "We were both conceived here... and this is where we'll part ways."

The leafy jungle canopy was fast approaching as they plunged towards Arcadia's surface, interrupting any further dialogue. The guide snarled with anger, but had no choice but to accept being stuck in this reality. He activated psychic levitation to arrest his fall, but rather than halting him mid-air, it merely slowed his descent and he was dragged inexorably towards the ground. John used a telekinetic net to reduce his own falling speed, so they both penetrated the treeline and landed at the same time.

The moment he touched down, the guide raised both arms, and discs of intricate runes appeared to either side of him. A horrid tearing sound ripped through the air as a pair of sinister prisms started to rise out of the runic summoning circles.

"Now it's time to end the travesty of your existence," the guide declared, looking at his adversary in triumph.

John recognised the disintegration matrixes that Larn'kelnar had used against him, but he didn't flinch.

"I know why you avoided any reference to Jade..." John said quietly, glancing down at his hand. "You didn't want me to remember her advice."

Bare flesh was suddenly encased in Kyth'faren battle armour, the white metal gleaming in the sunlight that shone through the ripped canopy. Kyth'vindathys sprang into existence in his rune-embossed gauntlet, the mighty runeblade greeting him with an insatiable hunger. John poured eldritch power into the weapon, making the runes blaze into life.

"Be the cat..." John said, prowling towards his prey. "It's your turn to be the mouse."

The guide locked eyes with John and quailed before that look of steely determination. He took an involuntary step backwards and armoured his own body in a suit of lustrous black metal, summoning a sceptre and shield from the same impenetrable material. Both duellists activated psychic speed, nullifying its accelerating effects on each other. The guide then lashed out with both hands, directing the disintegration matrixes to attack.

A deep bass boom shook the jungle as virulent purple beams lanced out of the two monoliths, the deadly salvo converging on John. His psychic shield bowed inwards, the hexagons steaming as they tried to repel the ferocious power of each blast. Holding up his hand, John directed his will at the barrier, reasserting its spherical structure with a snap.

To the guide's horror, John marched towards him, shrugging off the fusillade of disintegration beams. Gesturing with his glowing sceptre, the guide created a constant stream of telekinetic lances that streaked into John's shield one after the other, each impact battering the besieged barrier. Attacking from multiple directions at once actually helped John maintain his psychic defences, a sweeping wave from his hand restoring a score of shattered hexagons.

John pressed on under the barrage, advancing towards his attackers as his psychic defences were hammered from three sides. Drawing back his runesword, he gripped it with both gauntleted fists and swung it around in a colossal blow that cleaved one of the disintegration matrix in half. It toppled over, streaming ruptured psychic energy into the air as the summoning runes unravelled.

The guide's gasp of shock was audible across the clearing as the formidable construct was demolished in a single devastating sweep of his sword. John wasted no time celebrating his minor victory and broke into a run, sprinting across the forest floor towards the second sinister prism. The guide tried to snare him with entangling tentacles that tore through the leaf litter to strike at John's feet, but he leapt into the air, his body shrouded in an azure aura.

Bringing Kyth'vindathys down in a whistling overhead chop, John split the second disintegration matrix right down the middle, the runes shattering with a ghastly moan. He landed lightly on his feet, then rolled the gleaming sword in his hands, raising it in readiness once again as he stalked across the clearing towards his guide.

Panicking now, the guide backed away and waved his sceptre, obscuring his form in a shroud of grey mist. The swirling eddies streamed away in four columns, growing larger until they dwarfed John, a quartet of Kirrix juggernauts looming over him. They lowered their chitinous heads and charged, massive black legs pounding into the dirt to propel them forwards.

John counter-charged, then dropped to his knees to hack away the forward limbs of the first juggernaut. It toppled over headfirst, crashing to the ground as he rolled to the side. Surging upwards, he slashed his runesword through the second from thorax to throat, slicing the beast into two quivering chunks. A backhanded swipe beheaded the third and as the fourth reared back to lash out with one of its scythe-like claws, John whipped his runeblade around to crunch into its chest, the force of the impact lifting it off the ground to sail forty foot through the jungle before it slammed into a tree.

Storms of grey darts shot out from the roiling fog, hitting John's psychic shield from a dozen places at once. It was impossible to guess where his guide was hiding, the multiple attack vectors keeping his hidden location a secret. John didn't even try. He paused and channelled psychic energy into his blade, the runes growing brighter and brighter as they hummed with power.

Setting his jaw with grim determination, John whipped around his blade and unleashed all the gathered energy as a titanic blastwave. It roared across the clearing, obliterating the concealing fog and carving a swathe of devastation through the jungle beyond. Tropical trees were toppled for a hundred feet, the trunks crashing to the ground in a succession of booms.

The only thing missing in the path of destruction was any sign of the guide, who seemed to have vanished without a trace. John closed his eyes and trusted his instincts, immersing himself in his heightened senses, just as he'd done on Arcadia with Jade. The sounds of the jungle filled his ears and he heard a brief lull in the background noise to his right, followed by warning squawks from birds disturbed by the sudden appearance of a threat in their territory.

He turned at a right angle and broke into a sprint, bounding over the twisted tangle of roots as he leapt through the forest. The guide stepped out from behind a massive kapok tree, darting a fearful glance back towards the clearing. When he saw John bearing down on him, he fell back in horror, never expecting for one moment that his opponent would anticipate an escape through a gateway.

Kyth'vindathys rose and fell, each impact on the shield ringing with a bass note. John hammered the guide's protective barrier, smashing scores of hexagons with each pounding strike. Desperately trying to fend him off, the guide lashed out with telekinetic lances and grasping tentacles, but John shrugged off the projectiles and hacked through the undulating limbs.

The guide felt a deep ache inside him, a growing hollowness in his chest as his eldritch energy reserves began to falter. He gasped in dread as he realised he was being drained of energy and frantically created a runic circle to summon another disintegration matrix. The flurry of blows were taking their toll on his shield and repairing it was getting harder every time.

Runes suddenly flared around John and his movements became erratic, Kyth'vindathys appearing to be in several places at once. There was an eerie yawning sound, then the timeline reasserted itself... and a dozen ferocious blows landed simultaneously. John carved through the psychic shield which exploded in a shower of hexagons, then the runesword slashed down... and severed the guide's right forearm with a grating screech.

Howling with agony, the guide crashed to the ground, clutching the bloody stump with his remaining hand. "How?! That's impossible!"

"Maybe for you... but not for me." John looked down at the guide with pity. "You've become nothing more than an obstacle in my path; an irrelevance that has long outlived its usefulness."

Shaking his head in denial, the guide scrabbled backwards. "No! I'm better than you! I should've been the one in charge!"

"That was never going to happen," John said, walking after him. "The only reason you exist was to guide me how to use my abilities, but you lost your way... forgot why you were created."

"You're weak... you always were! You listened to your grandfather instead of me and where did that get you?! You ended up a pathetic loner until you unlocked your Progenitor birthright by accident! You're only alive today because I intervened to save your life again and again!"

"That was all in the past; what matters now is the future," John said with a dismissive shrug. "Your potential was always limited... and I've outgrown you."

The guide bared his teeth in a snarl of hatred. "Just because you've discovered some new tricks? You've still got a lot to learn!"

He gestured with his remaining hand and the ground beneath him turned insubstantial, a gateway forming on the jungle floor. Dropping through the shadowy portal, the guide vanished from sight, only to reappear a hundred metres away. Hidden behind layers of dense foliage, he heaved a sigh of relief, then shrouded himself in a new hex barrier and began preparing to fight back with some nasty surprises.

Instead of chasing after the guide, John focused his will inwards, drawing out as much psychic energy as he could muster. Runes blazed to life along John's sword as he channelled more and more power into the blade, zephyrs of eldritch energy forming in the air around his body. They swirled about, moving faster as he gathered his psychic might, the arcane winds shrieking with a feral intensity. John grasped Kyth'vindathys with both hands and plunged the ancient weapon into the ground, unleashing a blast wave of almost unimaginable force.

The surface of Arcadia erupted in a detonation that could be seen from orbit.

John's telekinetic tsunami swept away everything in its path, obliterating hectares of towering trees in a staggering display of phenomenal destructive power. The rushing wall of force smashed into the guide and sent him cartwheeling through the air, before he crashed back down to Arcadia amidst the devastated remnants of the tropical forest. Knocked senseless by the impact, the guide never imagined for one moment that John had the mental fortitude to break the limitations of their battlefield and unleash the cataclysmic forces he'd just witnessed.

With the guide's concentration shattered and his psychic speed deactivated, John appeared in a blur as he walked towards his fallen opponent. He slowed to a halt and watched the guide scrabble backwards, all that indignant fury replaced by fear and desperation.

"Wait! Don't kill me!" the guide begged, wincing in pain.

"It's over," John said, standing amidst the smoking crater. "You're finished."

"We can still work together!" the guide pleaded, holding up his remaining hand in supplication. "Please, John... spare me and I'll serve you faithfully!"

"You know I can't do that. Your presence divides my mind; I'm made weaker by your existence."

Unable to deny that simple fact, the guide was about to try a different tack when he saw the look of grim resolve on John's face and knew that further bargaining was futile. He stopped retreating and sagged back against a tree root with the bitter realisation that he was only delaying the inevitable. The guide had spent years planning his revenge, but it had all been for naught, his dreams of victory ending in crushing despair.

"I finally understand your true purpose now," John said quietly, as he studied his broken nemesis. "Rahn'hagon created you to show me how they think... how they act. You would never have been able to defeat the Progenitors because you can't progress beyond them."

"Finish it then," the guide said with weary acceptance.

John drove his blade into the ground, then squatted down in front of his vanquished foe. "Even if you'd been the best teacher in the galaxy, I learned far more through adversity than I ever could have done with you training me. You served me well for the coming war... and for that I thank you."

There was a long silence, then the guide dropped his head with regret. "I'm sorry for the things I said... for what I've done. Not everything was true... you always sought to protect those you love."

"Be at peace," John murmured, placing his hand on the guide's chest.

Taking a deep breath, the guide stared up at him with unseeing eyes, then exhaled with a hollow groan. His body collapsed inwards, then disappeared into nothingness, leaving John alone in the ravaged jungle.

As he knelt there, he felt his mind expanding, the millstone around his neck that had dragged him down for forty years finally lifted. Sagging forward, he let out a ragged sigh of relief to be shed of that crippling encumbrance. His eyes rolled back and he gasped as his subconscious merged with the guide, absorbing the sum total of his knowledge and experience. A bewildering rush of new information swirled through his mind, leaving him light-headed as he tried to make sense of it all.

It was finally over. For the first time in his life, John no longer felt like part of him was missing.

He was whole at last... and it felt good.

***

A low groan snapped Sakura's attention back to John. He wobbled uncertainly where he knelt on the titanium deck, then pitched forward, his outstretched arms only narrowly catching him in time. Sakura darted an anxious glance at Neysa, but the Nymph shook her head in helpless frustration, still blocked from accessing John's mind. Not taking any chances, Sakura activated psychic speed, her body accelerating as she prepared for combat. The arctic winds whistled around the hangar, picking up speed as ice crystals began to coalesce in the air.

Standing behind John a handful of paces away, Sakura watched his every move for the slightest hint of aggression. She gritted her teeth, steeling herself to do what was necessary to protect the girls; to honour what might be John's final request and execute the man she loved. He took a shuddering breath, then turned to face her, appearing to move in slow motion under her accelerated gaze. Sakura locked eyes with him and saw a procession of emotions flash across his face, each one as apparent to her as if he'd yelled out what he was feeling.

First there was a profound sense of relief, his eyes softening with love as he looked up at her. When he saw how distressed Sakura was, John's momentary elation rapidly switched to concern, knowing that she was wrestling with the hardest decision of her life. She then watched his pupils widen with a hint of fear, John's gaze flicking to her ninjato that were raised and ready to deliver a fatal blow. Finally, his eyes shadowed with guilt, as John tortured himself over something related to his deadly fiancée.

For the first time since she'd known him, Sakura was overjoyed to see that all-too familiar look of remorse.

"John!" she sobbed with relief.

Sakura dropped her ninjato and tore off her Paragon helmet, the weapons and armour clattering to the floor as she fell into his arms.

"Don't worry... everything's going to be okay," John said, his voice soothing as he held her tight. "I won... it's all over now."

"I was so scared!" she gasped, her body trembling in his embrace. "I promised I'd follow your orders if you lost, but actually preparing myself to execute you was the hardest thing I've ever done!"

John brushed aside her curtain of raven hair and kissed her cheek. "Don't think about that, honey. The guide's gone and he's never coming back."

"John?" Neysa asked tentatively. "Would you permit me to enter your mind?"

He felt the cautious psychic touch against his mental shield and granted Neysa the access she desired. An instant later, he felt her inquisitive mind make contact with his, then she froze and stared at him with wide eyes.

Neysa fell to her knees beside him, hugging John for all she was worth. "Oh, Master... it really is you! But... so much more!"

Sakura pulled back and laughed self-consciously. "Oops... I was supposed to wait for her to do that."

John smiled and raised an eyebrow. "How could you tell it was really me?"

"I just knew... in my heart and soul," she murmured, leaning in to kiss him.

He cupped her head in his hands and returned the kiss just as passionately. When they separated, he reached for Neysa and gave her more of the same.

"You two really are a sight for sore eyes," he exclaimed, breaking into a grin. His happy expression faltered a moment later as he glanced around the empty hangar. "Where's Athena?"

Sakura's face fell, her deep brown eyes filling with worry. "Alyssa fought against Athena and retook control, then she just flipped out. I've never seen Alyssa fall apart like that before, John. I'm really worried about her... we all are."

"We should go see Alyssa now. I need to talk to her... and the rest of you," John said, patting her armoured thigh. "Would you mind letting me up?"

She was straddling his lap with her legs wrapped around his back in a rather unladylike position. Sakura blushed and unravelled herself, before hastily rising to her feet, then offered John and Neysa a hand. They gladly accepted, the trio standing together in the centre of the vast hangar. As Sakura retrieved her discarded gear, the reinforced doors peeled open, revealing a swirl of bright colours from shape-shifting Nymphs. Jade and three of her sisters sprinted into the room, their faces alight with joy.

"Master!" Jade cried out, leading the charge to be reunited with him.

She leapt into John's arms and promptly knocked him off his feet, sending them both sprawling in a tangle of limbs. The Nymph matriarch twisted as they fell, landing beneath John to cushion his fall. She wrapped her arms and legs around him to give him a full-body hug, her lips seeking his with an urgent fervour. Betrixa, Marika, and Leylira all skidded to a halt beside their sister, and a moment later every square inch of John's face was being showered with kisses.

He laughed and did his best to return the hugs and kisses while being enthusiastically smothered with affection. "I'm really glad to see all of you too!"

"John!" Dana yelled from the doorway, never sounding happier.

She was at the forefront of the rest of the crew, the Terran girls accompanied by Helene, Ailita, and the Maliri twins.

As they ran across the decking to join the celebrations, John patted Jade's arm. "Any chance I can convince you to let me go?"

The Nymph gave him one last joyous squeeze, then reluctantly released him. "They can borrow you for a little while, Master... on one condition..." She flicked a glanced at Neysa, then back to him. "Please could you let all of us into your mind as well?"

He nodded, opening up his mental fortress to all the Nymphs. They rushed to enter in a telepathic stampede, the flurry of psychic contacts sweeping through his subconscious. There was a collective gasp from the five new arrivals, Jade included, who all stared at John in awe.

Not having any time to ask about their reaction, John got up to welcome the redhead rushing into his arms, quickly followed by the rest of the girls who were desperate to join the group hug. They all chattered away at once, assailing him with questions in their excitement and relief.

Dana beamed in delight, practically vibrating in his arms. "I knew you'd kick his ass! I just knew it!"

"I never doubted you either, Baen'thelas!" Tashana exclaimed, before stealing a kiss. "I was certain you'd be victorious!"

"Well you had me at my wit's end," Irillith admitted with a wry smile. She hugged him so hard, John's ribs ached in protest. "Please don't scare me like that again... my heart couldn't take it."

Calara gazed up at him, her brown eyes sparkling with joy. "I'm so proud of you, John! How are you feeling? Are you alright?"

"You don't seem to be traumatised after the confrontation with your guide," Rachel observed, her brow furrowed with concern as she studied him with her perceptive gaze. "But there's definitely something bothering you..."

Ailita looked stunned, gazing up at him reverently as she nuzzled against his shoulder. "Thank you for letting this one revel in your magnificence, Master..."

"We were all so worried!" Helene gushed, tears appearing in her glowing eyes. "Oh, John... I can't tell you what a relief it is to see you safe and well!"

"I'm alright, girls... I promise," John said, smiling at their anxious and jubilant faces. "I feel as weak as a kitten being cut off from all of you, but other than that, I'm doing okay."

"What did you find out?" Dana asked, her sky-blue eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Did you get a shitload of new schematics?!"

John rubbed his temple and grimaced. "My head's still spinning with everything I learned from absorbing the guide. I'm going to need a bit of time to make sense of it all."

He turned his attention to Alyssa, who hadn't charged across the hangar to join him like the others. She walked closer, her eyes red from crying and her expression haggard. The rest of the girls fell silent and released John from the group hug, letting him rush to close the distance with his blonde matriarch and wrap her up in his arms. She clung to him desperately, burying her head in his chest as she wept with relief.

"I'm so sorry, Alyssa," he whispered in her ear, holding her close. "I had no idea you'd be affected this badly."

"Please don't leave me again," she begged, tilting her head to look up at him. "I can't take being separated from you... not like that."

"I won't," he agreed with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, it's all over now."

"I held the psychic network together for you..." Alyssa said, biting her lip. She reached down to sensuously rub his stiffening cock through his trousers. "You just have to fill up my tummy and we can all be reunited again."

With a supreme act of willpower, John managed to shake his head. "Hold on a moment, beautiful. There's a few things I need to talk to all of you about before we re-establish our psychic connection."

Alyssa's cerulean eyes narrowed in irritation. "No. Let's reconnect first, then you can talk for as long as you like."

"I'm serious, Alyssa," John said firmly, stepping back and holding her at arm's length. "The guide told me a lot of very disturbing things. You all have a right to know what I discovered without a Progenitor bond influencing your decisions."

"I don't give a shit what that bastard said!" Alyssa snapped, her cerulean eyes blazing. "It's torture being apart from you, John! I need you back again!"

Now that he was cut off from their psychic network, John was painfully aware of just how outmatched he was against the furious blonde. While he felt weak and drained, Alyssa had access to the girls' vast reserves of eldritch energy at her fingertips. If she chose to defy him, it was not overstating things to say that Alyssa could simply take what she wanted and there was very little he could do to stop her. The last thing he wanted was to end up fighting her, or heaven forbid, see the girls drawn into an ugly confrontation with one another.

"This is important, Alyssa," John said earnestly, before gesturing behind him at their shocked audience, who were watching the tense exchange with wide eyes. "I'll never forgive myself if I reconnect to the girls without giving them a chance to make an informed choice. Think about that for a second; do you really want me to suffer for eternity with a guilty conscience?"

She grimaced, horribly conflicted by the choices presented to her. With an exasperated sigh, she threw her hands up in frustration. "Fine... but keep it quick! This is a complete waste of time and I can't take being apart from you for much longer!"

"No procrastinating, I promise," John said with a grateful smile. "Alright everyone, let's head up to the Observatory and we can chat in comfort. It's freezing in here!"

"Sorry about that," Sakura said, with an apologetic frown.

"You have absolutely nothing to apologise for," he replied, his kiss on the tip of her nose bringing back her happy smile.

As they set off across the hangar towards his discarded shirt and shoes, Tashana fell into step beside John and slipped an arm around his waist. Flame sprites flared to life from the palms of her hands, then cavorted around his bare chest, the tiny elementals warming him with a gentle heat. He shuddered with bliss as they banished the chill from his clammy skin, feeling the warmth seep down to his bones.

"That felt amazing, thank you," he said, hugging the Maliri with sincere gratitude.

"You're quite welcome... but couldn't you have done that yourself?" Tashana asked, her violet eyes burning with curiosity.

John considered it for a moment then shook his head. "I know what you did and I've got access to all the necessary runes, but you've had years of experience manipulating eldritch fire. There's no way I could control those flame sprites with your level of finesse."

"That's nice to know. I was a bit worried that I'd become superfluous to requirements when you unlocked all your Progenitor knowledge," she admitted, flushing self-consciously. "I'm glad I can still be useful."

He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze. "You're an exceptionally gifted pyrokinetic, Tashana. You've embraced the inner flame that's burning so brightly inside you and become incredibly powerful. Trust me, you're quite irreplaceable."

Tashana grinned with pride and gave him an exuberant hug in return. As they walked towards the grav-tubes, John noticed that the rest of the crew had been listening attentively.

"That goes for the rest of you too," he said, stopping in front of the anti-gravity fields. "There are some things I need to discuss with you about our personal relationship, but professionally... nothing changes. You're all highly skilled specialists in your individual areas of expertise and I don't want any of you to start doubting yourselves or your place in our team. Okay?"

The girls all nodded and he was answered with beaming smiles.

"After you then, ladies," John said, gesturing towards the grav-tube.

They all stepped inside and started floating up in the sparkling blue glow, but John caught Helene's hand and held her back.

He looked meaningfully at her glowing eyes. "Are you helping Alyssa?"

"I'm helping everyone," Helene replied softly, her troubled expression revealing the strain she was under. She placed a hand on his bare chest, her fingers soft and gentle as she stroked his skin. "Their hearts ache for you, John... as does mine."

"Thank you for making it easier for them," he said, cupping her cheek and giving the aquatic girl a grateful kiss. "I'm sorry this has been so hard on you."

She leaned into his hand, drawing strength and comfort from his touch. "I'm glad I finally had the chance to repay you and the girls for your kindness towards me."

"So we're even then?" he asked playfully, knowing that Helene would insist that she hadn't even begun to repay him.

Instead she nodded and gave him a weary but satisfied smile. "Lionesses don't keep score... but yes, we're even."

He looked at Helene in surprise, then led her into the grav-tube. "Come on. I promise I'll try to be as fast as possible."

She leaned into him as they ascended through the decks, the teal radiance from her empathic abilities outshining the sapphire glow from the anti-gravity field. After reaching Deck Three, they crossed the Lagoon to enter the Observatory, where John found the girls stripping off their clothes.

"Wait a second, ladies. Can you keep everything on while we chat," he requested, while guiding Helene over to the oval bed and sitting next to her. "You're all way too distracting in the nude."

Dana pouted, then reluctantly tugged her t-shirt on again. "Fine... but the clothes are coming off as soon as we're done!"

She plopped down on the bed in her usual spot, with the rest of the girls taking their places and forming a semi-circle in front of John. Alyssa sat on his right-hand side, her thigh firmly pressed against his as she leaned against him.

"The guide really unsettled you, didn't he?" Rachel asked, looking at him with sympathy.

John grimaced and nodded in confirmation. "He told me a lot of very disturbing things. I know he was lying about some of it, trying his hardest to make me doubt myself... but I'm sure there's a grain of truth to the rest."

"What happened exactly?" Sakura asked, leaning forward with interest. "I could see you were struggling with a terrible internal conflict, but you were locked in a trance throughout the entire confrontation."

Taking a deep breath, John launched into a retelling of the events that occurred in his recent mental battle for control of his body. He explained how he'd started to unravel the runes sealing the psychic prison, but in doing so, began to share memories with his guide as they prepared to merge. Experiencing all those events from the guide's perspective had distracted John, letting his adversary gain the upper-hand and reshape their mental battlefield around him. John glanced anxiously at Calara and Dana as he recounted the scenes they had featured in, explaining the accusations the guide had made. Calara was the first to frown, shaking her head as he talked about her being enslaved, made to adore him, then being selfishly used as his tool.

John felt his heart lurch at her expression of disapproval. "I'm so sorry, honey... I didn't-"

"Why are you apologising?" the Latina interrupted, looking at him in confusion. "The guide was lying about making us adore you... psychically at least."

"What?" he asked in surprise.

"When you saved me from the pirates, I was in awe of you... both of you," Calara explained, her gaze flicking to Alyssa then back to John. She blushed, her cheeks reddening as she continued, "I had a serious crush on my knight in shining armour; I spent lots of time fantasising about you while I was recuperating from my injuries on Port Heracles. Then Rupert Grant started threatening me with a court martial and you swept in and rescued me all over again. You were already my hero weeks before I joined the crew and you fed me that first time."

Dana, Rachel, and Sakura all nodded in agreement.

"I felt totally the same way!" Dana gushed. "I might have been a bit bitchy towards you at the start, but that's only because I thought you were too good to be true. First you save Alyssa from Karron, then you give her the galaxy's most outrageous makeover... and then you come back for my skinny ass?"

She snorted and gave him a self-deprecating smile. "I was already into you in a big way... then you shot up the Diablos and whisked me away from Karron. When you offered to build me a workshop with an unlimited budget, I was convinced I was dreaming. I thought you were the most awesome guy I'd ever met... and that was long before you started loading me up to give me my own makeover."

"When we first met, I think my feelings towards you were self-explanatory," Sakura said, her tone sombre. "I'm sorry that I didn't express them very well at the time, but I was desperate to get revenge on Mikaboshi for everything he'd done to me. I'm sure you remember how I looked when you captured Shinatobe? Rachel showed me pictures of how I was before and after you healed me; I was overwhelmed with gratitude and completely awestruck."

John's face fell and he said quietly, "That was something else the guide accused me of doing. He said that I preyed on girls that had been physically or psychologically scarred... because I knew no one would miss them."

Alyssa snorted with derision. "What a load of bullshit! Do you have any idea how ridiculously hard I have to work to convince you to let anyone join the crew?!"

"The guide was definitely lying about that, John," Calara said with conviction. "I was the second girl to join the crew and my family would certainly have missed me."

Rachel moved closer to clasp his hand. "I've known you for months now and what the guide told you is not true at all. It's not coincidental that so many of us have troubled backgrounds, but that's not because you were trying to take advantage of the situation. Your compassion for our varied plights overrode your instinctive reluctance to recruit new girls; I've seen Alyssa exploit that very effectively to get you to relent and add more wounded little birds to the team."

"I was a prime example," Sakura said with a shy smile.

"Me too," Helene murmured, stroking his arm.

"Don't forget your troublesome twins," Tashana said, darting a grin at her sister. "We're poster girls for the miracles Baen'thelas can perform for a just cause."

Irillith nodded, then gave John a sultry smirk. "You love having all of us around, don't even attempt to deny it. We're all far too intimately acquainted with you in the throes of ecstasy to believe you have any regrets about letting us into your life."

Now it was John's turn to blush. "You're all amazing women; I've never denied the fact that I feel incredibly lucky to be with you."

"So what's the big problem then?" Dana asked, looking at him in confusion.

"I just hate the idea that I coerced or manipulated any of you into being with me," John said, looking around at the group with concern. "Months ago, I listed all the personality traits I like in a woman... and we know they apply to all of you now. The guide said that I removed everyone's jealousy because I didn't want to listen to you squabbling... like the waitresses at my grandparent's restaurant. I remember telling you that... so I'm pretty sure he was telling the truth."

Rachel gave his hand a supportive squeeze. "Even so, you did all of us a huge favour there. I've spent most of my adult life dealing with catty comments from jealous women and I don't miss it for one moment."

Jehanna laughed and looked at John affectionately. "That's one of the things I love the most about being here on the Invictus. Everyone is so loving and supportive; it's incredibly refreshing being able to just relax and be yourself without any judgement or jealousy."

Shifting awkwardly where he sat, John said, "That's something else the guide accused me of. He said that I started pairing you off with each other... so I could focus on the new girls without feeling guilty about neglecting the rest of you."

Sakura went pale and her hand went to her mouth in horror. "Oh no! He said that because of me, didn't he?" Her eyes filled up as she gasped, "I'm so sorry, John! I can't believe I made that fight harder for you!"

John opened his arms to the distraught young woman. "Come here, honey."

She darted across the bed to fall into his embrace. "I knew I shouldn't have said anything!"

"I don't regret that conversation for a moment," John said firmly, holding her close. "I do regret neglecting you and making you feel insecure, but I'm very grateful you told me how you felt. It brought us much closer together didn't it?"

She nodded, but stayed snuggled into his chest. "Two souls united as one..."

"Exactly," he said, stroking her back. Looking up at the girls again, he continued, "I can't give each of you as much individual attention as you deserve... but if I do or say anything that upsets you, please come and talk to me about it like Sakura did."

Alyssa rubbed his shoulder and gave him a supportive smile. "It's okay. The girls know that if they're ever craving a full tummy, they just need to come to you and tell you their woes."

That prompted an outbreak of laughter that broke the tension.

He chuckled and gave the girls a wry smile. "Alright... I guess I am a bit predictable."

"John..." Jehanna began cautiously. "Are you quite sure that the reason you're concerned about us girls pairing off is because you're worried you aren't giving us enough attention? Or do you actually feel uncomfortable with the idea of sharing each of us with a girlfriend?"

That provoked more laughter, particularly amongst Calara and Alyssa, Dana and Rachel, and especially the Maliri twins.

"Trust me... he has no problem appreciating a bit of Sapphic passion," Rachel said, reaching for her girlfriend. "Watch this..."

She looked into Dana's eyes and the redhead's gaze softened with affection. They kissed tenderly, expressing their heartfelt love for each other as their captivated audience looked on. Jehanna glanced back at John, who was watching the pair in rapt fascination, his trousers bulging obscenely as he responded to the sight of the beautiful girls entwined in a loving embrace.

Jehanna tittered at his reaction. "I guess that answers that question." Her expression shadowed with confusion and she continued, "It seems obvious to me that the girls all love each other's company... so why would you feel guilty about that? As the new recruit, I can tell you that it's wonderful to see how close all the girls are. I want to be part of that so much... but I don't feel like I've earned it yet."

She was quickly surrounded by the others and buried in a deluge of hugs and kisses. Jehanna's joy at the spontaneous outpouring of affection was obvious and she grinned at John in delight.

Alyssa stayed at John's side and leaned into his shoulder. "Look at how happy she is. Being in a relationship with you also means that we get endless love and attention from the rest of the girls."

The celebrating crew separated and fanned out to retake their places on the bed.

Rachel looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I think we all disagree with you that this is a problem, but the fact that you're worrying about neglecting us needs to be addressed. Considering how outnumbered you are, it seems to me that it's very unfair on you to be worrying about keeping us happy. Surely the onus should be on each of us to maintain a happy relationship with you?"

He blinked in surprise, looking even more startled when all the girls nodded enthusiastically.

Calara smiled fondly at his expression. "We're not really your wounded little birds anymore, John... not since you mended us. Now it's our turn to start looking after you."

"What do you think?" Rachel asked, looking at him inquisitively. "Instead of you trying to be an attentive fiancé... or boyfriend... or Master... to over a dozen women, what if we focus on being your attentive fiancée... or girlfriend... or devoted Nymph respectively? If we need to speak to you about anything that's bothering us, we inform Alyssa and she schedules some time with you... just like we all did this morning. Your job is to assume everything is perfect... unless one of us tells you otherwise."

The girls all echoed their support for this idea, without a dissenting voice to be heard.

"That sounds... refreshingly straightforward," John said, looking hugely relieved. He gave Rachel a grateful smile, which faltered an instant later.

"What's wrong?" she asked, bewildered by his reaction.

"This was something else that the guide accused me of doing," John confessed, looking around at the concerned faces. "He said that I'd created... a band of sycophants. He told me that I've influenced all of you so much that you just condone every decision I make and tell me exactly what I want to hear."

"You mean like me yelling at you for recruiting Tamolith?" Calara asked, her brown eyes sparkling.

"Or me abandoning the Invictus mid-battle to chase after Weber and rescue my sisters?" Jade suggested, looking a little abashed as she remembered disobeying her master.

"This is fun!" Dana exclaimed, making a beckoning motion with her hands. "Come on... what else have you got? I bet we can prove that asshole was lying about everything!"

John slowly shook his head. "I'm not so sure... it honestly felt like there was some truth to the things he said."

"Oh, I know!" the redhead blurted out. "That bit about you using us for your own selfish ends... which sounds kinda hot by the way."

He rolled his eyes. "Sparks... this is serious."

"I'm being totally serious!" she protested. "But so what if you got something out of helping us? That's fair... right? You asked me to be your Chief Engineer and make you awesome gear, which I love doing and benefits all of us. So what's the problem with that?"

"She makes an excellent point," Calara interjected. "You recruited me to be your Tactical Officer... a role I'd been preparing for my entire life. I always hoped I'd have an honourable career in the military and in the time I've spent fighting for you on the Invictus, what we've achieved has exceeded even my wildest dreams. Now we're fighting to liberate the galaxy from evil tyrants, but I'm not just doing that for you... it's a goal I believe in with all my heart."

John frowned, unable to refute their arguments. "I think my guide might have been referring to the psychic abilities I've given to each of you..."

"You mean the powers I begged you for?" Dana asked, with an impish grin.

"I recall doing the same thing..." Calara noted with a wry smile.

Helene gently kissed his cheek. "I asked for them too, John. I wanted to contribute to our family in any way that I could."

"And don't forget that gifting us psychic abilities actually has a cost to you personally," Sakura reminded him, her expression conflicted. "I hate the idea that me having psychic speed took something from you... but I will always honour that sacrifice you made, by fighting to the very best of my ability."

"I didn't know about that!" Jehanna exclaimed, her eyes widening in alarm.

"It's not a sacrifice when you give back far more than I lost," John said, giving Sakura a look of reassurance. When she acknowledged him with a smile, he turned to focus on the former reporter. "I haven't changed my mind about giving you psychic capabilities... if you're still interested?"

"Of course!" she exclaimed, although her elation was tempered with newfound anxiety.

"Okay, so what else?" Dana prompted him.

John glanced at Irillith. "He said that I couldn't wait to subjugate an authentic thrall."

"And I've thoroughly enjoyed being subjugated," the Maliri hacker said, giving him a wicked smile. "But you can't really claim the credit for recruiting me. Don't forget that I crept into your bedroom and stole that third load from your sleeping bedmates."

"Actually, that was something else he mentioned," John said, his expression chagrined. "My guide said that a woman only needs to swallow once... and then after that, she's under my influence and incapable of turning down an offer to join me. He said that you all became my indoctrinated slaves the instant I fed you that very first time."

"Why are we wasting our time discussing this nonsense?!" Alyssa suddenly blurted out in exasperation. "The guide was lying about everything! He made up any old bullshit just to unsettle you and give himself an advantage in your duel!"

John stroked her arm and said quietly, "I know it's frustrating having to wait, Alyssa, but it's important we talk about it. I'm sure that-"

"It's all a bunch of crap!" Alyssa interrupted, rolling her eyes. "You don't establish a connection with a girl when you feed her for the first time. I know that for a fact, because nearly all of these girls only appeared in our psychic network after you fed them three times!"

"But-"

"I haven't finished!" the blonde snapped, her patience wearing thin. "Women don't become your 'indoctrinated slave' after the first time you feed them... that's a bunch of bullshit! Don't you remember healing those girls we rescued from the pirates on Underworld? We all parted ways without any problems. I'm sure they would've loved to stay and be your fuck buddies, but you wanted them to have a fresh start away from combat. They left the ship and that was that... we have no psychic connection with those women in any way whatsoever."

John looked at the exasperated young woman in surprise, then ruefully nodded in agreement. "Alright, I guess he was lying about those things too."

Alyssa's expression softened and she moved to sit in front of him, holding both his hands in hers.

"Look... I understand that the fight with your guide was deeply personal and stirred up a lot of painful emotions. He played on all your worst insecurities, bringing up issues that you've felt terribly guilty about for months. You just have to remember that he was only trying to distract you and make you lose focus; he would've said anything to give himself the best shot at winning. It's over now, John... and you need to be back where you belong, reconnected to all the women that love you."

"I just need a couple more minutes, beautiful," he said, looking at her with sympathy. "I'm nearly done... I promise."

"Ugh... fine!" she snapped, scowling with irritation. "What accusation do you want us to blast holes in next then?"

John was distracted by her outburst and it took him a moment to regain his train of thought. "The guide said that he wasn't planning to leave Maliri territory after taking Edraele as his matriarch, so there was no need for him to order any assassinations. He would have just visited each of the House matriarchs in turn and used their genetic predisposition towards Progenitors to convince them to become his thralls."

Alyssa looked at him sceptically. "So he implied that you secretly ordered the assassinations?"

"Yes."

"More lies," she declared, in a tone that brooked no argument. "If you weren't being so stubborn about all this and had remade our connection, you could ask Edraele to confirm it yourself."

"So... what does she say about it?" John asked quietly.

"You already know this, John," Alyssa said with a weary sigh. "The guide only managed to give one order to Edraele before I interrupted them, which was to help him subjugate the Maliri. Before we left Valaden, you asked Edraele to help you stop the Maliri slaughtering each other. She evaluated how many Maliri would be killed before you returned to Genthalas and could put a stop to it yourself, then used her own initiative to assassinate the matriarchs and their eldest daughters from the highest ranked Houses. What Edraele did wasn't your fault... it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances that actually saved tens-of-thousands of Maliri lives."

"And you don't think I had some kind of ulterior motive..." he asked, feeling self-conscious. "Like ending up with the Young Matriarchs?"

Alyssa looked him in the eye and shook her head. "If you were just after blue pussy, Edraele could keep you balls-deep in horny Maliri girls every day for the rest of your life. With Jade's help, you could have already knocked up over a thousand women."

The Nymph moaned softly, her emerald eyes glinting with arousal.

Alyssa jerked a thumb at the green-skinned shapeshifter. "See, she'd be totally up for it. So no, I don't think you ever had any ulterior motives. You tried to stop all the killing, then did your best to give the Young Matriarchs exactly what they needed to feel secure in their succession. Frankly, we've all been amazed at how reserved you've been around the Maliri... they're all panting to be bred by you, and you've only indulged yourself four times. By most men's standards, you're a paragon of virtue!"

"Thanks," he said with a wry smile. "I'll polish my halo later."

"Alright, next..." she said, impatiently gesturing for John to continue.

"Um... the guide said that I'd deliberately been exploiting the chaos Larn'kelnar stirred up to install my own puppet leaders in the neighbouring empires."

"Well, I pushed you into turning Niskera into the Glowing Queen, so you can't possibly blame yourself for the Trankarans." Alyssa began ticking off the empires with her fingers. "I also connected to the Ashanath Command Web and helped win them over, so that was me again, not you. You just wanted to reward Lynette with the benefits of the Change; she dreamed of becoming Fleet Admiral long before you two ever met. We've already discussed the Maliri, which just leaves the Kintark..."

"He implied that I exploited the invasion just for an opportunity to take control of Tamolith."

"That's not true either. You were just trying to prevent a massacre by the Brimorians," the blonde stated, shaking her head in disbelief. "You only recruited Tamolith because you felt guilty about her kids being murdered and you wanted to save as many Kintark from her grief-induced wrath as possible."

Calara moved closer and interjected, "From a strategic viewpoint, the Kintark Empire will be of minimal value in the Progenitor War. They could become a valuable source of minerals and other natural resources in the future, but installing a puppet ruler for just a trade partner seems unnecessary to me. Regarding the other empires, it's obvious that you were simply trying to help them recover from various catastrophes. I honestly think your conscience is clear, John."

The rest of the girls murmured their earnest agreement.

Alyssa gave him a reassuring smile. "Nobody knows you better than we do and none of us have any doubts that you've always acted with the best intentions. I've been in your head for all of it and I know you better than anyone. You're a good man, John... you don't have anything to feel guilty about."

He opened his mouth to respond, but she leaned in to silence him with a quick kiss.

"Just let me say one last thing?" she implored him, love shining in her eyes.

John nodded. "Okay, go ahead."

Alyssa turned to gesture towards all the girls sitting around them. "I can speak for everyone here because I know how they all feel about you. We love you, John... and it's not because you've bewitched us with your wicked Progenitor ways. You've been compassionate, kind, brave, selfless, generous, and loving... and cared for us physically and emotionally. How could we feel any differently towards you?"

She placed a hand on his chest and continued softly, "You've got a big heart and the only crime you're guilty of is stealing ours. Torturing yourself with guilt and self-doubt isn't helping anyone, because at this point... we're all in. Everyone we care about is in mortal danger from Xar'aziuth and the Progenitors, and you need us to have any chance of defeating them. We all know what's at stake and we're with you all the way to the end."

He was touched by her sincerity, the warm feelings extending to the rest of the girls as they echoed their commitment to him.

"Thank you... all of you," he said, giving them a profoundly grateful smile. "What you said was beautiful... and you've all done a remarkable job of putting my mind at ease."

Alyssa grinned at him. "Yay! Now it's time for the fun part!"

"Hold on, Alyssa. There's one thing we still have to discuss; something I know for sure that the guide wasn't lying to me about," he said quietly, looking into those enchanting cerulean eyes. "You."

"What do you mean?" she asked, her happy expression faltering.

John let out a heavy sigh, laden with remorse. "He said that when I made you into my matriarch, I turned you into my wicked conscience. That's the reason why you're always encouraging me to recruit new girls; I changed you so that you'd always urge me to indulge my true desires."

Alyssa's eyes opened wide in alarm and she clapped her hands over her ears. "I don't want to hear it!"

He reached for her left arm and pulled it down, but she resisted and fought against him. "Stop it, Alyssa. You need to listen to this... it's important."

"You didn't do anything to me!" she protested, struggling in his grip. "He was lying!"

"No... it was the truth. He said that I did it so I could blame you for anything I did that was morally questionable and keep my own conscience clear. He said that you've just been doing whatever I've secretly been wanting all along."

"Get off me!" Alyssa snapped, her eyes conflicted with a riot of emotions.

She summoned several telekinetic hands to pry his fingers loose, then fell over backwards onto the bed when John voluntarily released her.

"We need to talk about this, Alyssa," John implored the furious teenager. "No normal girl wants her boyfriend to start a harem and get dozens of women pregnant! I must have twisted your personality beyond all recognition! What I did to you was horrible!"

"Don't you get it?!" Alyssa snarled, her eyes blazing. "I was thrilled to become someone you wanted... someone you needed! I was nothing before I met you! Nothing!"

John shook his head and looked at her with sympathy. "Don't say that... that's not true."

"It is true!" she shrieked in frustration, her anger bubbling over. "You have this fucked up, rose-tinted idea of what my life was like before we got together! Do you really want to know what it was like for me growing up on Karron? Do you want to know the real Alyssa Marant?!"

He slowly nodded, shocked by her outburst. "I think you need to let this all out, Alyssa. Keeping all this anger bottled up inside isn't good for you."

Behind her, Helene gasped and doubled over, the shimmering light from her eyes bathing the entire room in a teal glow. Her empathic aura failed to touch Alyssa though, leaving the blonde isolated in a pool of shadows.

"Alright then!" Alyssa snarled, lurching towards him. "You asked for it!"

Before John could do or say anything, Alyssa reached out to touch his head. Her fingertips lightly brushed against his temple, but the telepathic impact on his subconscious was like being battered by a meteor strike. She imparted all her long-suppressed memories of her childhood, flooding his mind with a succession of sights, sounds, and feelings that left him stunned.

~~~

Alyssa's earliest memories were of her father, gazing up at the haggard miner with the adoring innocence of a child. Even then, what should have been happy moments were stained with worry, as he always drank too much from the brown bottles. He got up to make them some dinner, swaying unsteadily on his feet before falling over. She rushed over to help him up, but she was too little and he was just so big.

"Love ya... Pebble. Jus' gonna... rest a bit..." he muttered, before his voice trailed off into rasping snores.

"I love you too, daddy," she replied, his slurred words making her feel safe and warm.

Alyssa fetched her dog-eared pillow and a worn blanket, then curled up next to him on the floor, her doll, Holly, clutched in her arms. Camping on the kitchen floor was fun, but Alyssa hoped he'd wake up soon. She hadn't eaten since breakfast and her tummy was rumbling.

~~~

"Daddy?" Alyssa asked, anxiously twisting the ragged doll in her hands.

She'd been building up her courage to ask him this all day and now he was back home from the mine, she couldn't wait a moment longer.

He wiped the dirt from his face with a grubby rag, then opened the fridge door, bottles clinking as he rummaged around. "Yeah, Pebble?"

"Did Mommy leave us because I did something bad?" she asked fearfully, dreading the answer. "If I say sorry, do you think she might come back again?"

Her father didn't answer... then his shoulders started to shake as he started crying. Alyssa stared up at him in horror, her little heart breaking as she watched him sobbing with grief. She felt so awful for hurting her Daddy, she loved him so much.

~~~

Alyssa lay awake in her bed, not able to sleep she was so worried. The glowing lights on her faded stars and moon clock said that it was 3:27... but her father still wasn't home. There was a knock on the front door, the sound shockingly loud in the middle of the night.

"Daddy!" she cried out with relief, leaping out of bed and rushing to answer it. He must have lost his keys again and got locked out.

She flung the door open and blinked in surprise when she saw the burly foreman standing there in the rocky tunnel.

He knelt down on one knee, wringing his hardhat in his hands. "Alyssa... I've got some real bad news."

"Where's my daddy? Why didn't he come home?" she asked, staring at him anxiously.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," the man replied in a choked voice. "We tried real hard to save him... but he's gone."

She stared at the foreman in shock, her mind refusing to accept what he was telling her. He tried to explain that there'd been a cave-in... that her father had been badly hurt. Doc Clemence had tried to save him... but there was nothing they could do. It finally sunk in that her daddy was never coming home... and now she was all alone.

~~~

"You're stayin' in Dorm Seventeen," the gray-haired woman muttered, a cigarette hanging precariously from her lips. "Got that?"

"Yes, Mrs. Simmons," Alyssa said in a hushed voice as they walked along the cold ferrocrete floor.

She darted nervous glances at the closed doors they passed, feeling a shiver of fear run down her spine. There was something bad about this place... something scary. She clutched her doll and the stars and moon clock just a little bit tighter.

"I'll getcha some new clothes in the mornin'," the warden of the orphanage said, eyeing Alyssa's grubby threadbare dress with distaste. "You ain't got lice 'ave you?"

"I- I don't think so," she replied, looking down in embarrassment.

"'Ere we are," Mrs. Simmons declared, stopping by the door marked with a faded number seventeen. She slid back the bolt and pushed open the door. "Hurry up... get in there."

Alyssa cautiously walked inside the dimly-lit room, the other seven inhabitants staring at her from their bunks. They were all bigger girls, older than her by a few years... and all old beyond their years.

"Mrs. Simmons?" Alyssa asked tremulously, turning around to look at the warden... just as the door slammed shut in her face.

The girls darted sly looks at one another, then watched their new roommate in silence. There was one empty bed, covered in a coarse grey blanket. Guessing that it was going to be hers, Alyssa walked over to it, then jumped in surprise as the girl on the top bunk dropped down in front of her.

"Who are you then?" the bigger girl asked, peering at her suspiciously.

"I'm Alyssa," she replied, feeling nervous and unsure of herself.

The girl broke into a crooked grin. "I'm Kacey. Don't be scared... we all know what it's like being the new girl. Just keep away from Cliff the janitor and you'll be alright."

"Okay... I will," she replied, relaxing at the girl's friendly tone.

Kasey glanced down at the clock and the doll Alyssa clutched in her hands. "What've you got there?"

"This is Holly, she was from my mommy," Alyssa replied, showing her the much-loved doll. "My daddy gave me this clock so I'd know when he was going to be home."

Thinking about her father brought tears to her eyes and Alyssa bit her lip to stop herself crying.

"Ah... she's cute," Kasey said with a friendly smile, looking at the doll.

She suddenly snatched it out of Alyssa's grasp and threw Holly to a girl sitting across the room. "Hey Tiff... want a new dolly?"

"Give her back!" Alyssa cried out, running after her most treasured possession.

Tiff threw it to another girl and the rest all laughed at Alyssa as she tried to rescue Holly. They were all much bigger than her and she felt so frightened and helpless. Another girl grabbed the stars and moon clock and tore it out of Alyssa's hands, then started throwing that around too... until someone misjudged a throw and it smashed on the floor. Alyssa fell to her knees beside the broken clock and burst into tears, trying to frantically gather up all the pieces.

The room went quiet as they watched Alyssa sobbing over the last present her father had given her.

"Here's Holly..." Kasey muttered, dropping the doll in her lap.

One of the girls had torn off the doll's head and they all smirked at Alyssa's heartbroken wail of despair.

~~~

Alyssa held out her bowl and the cook slopped in some watery-looking soup, then tore off a chunk of bread and dropped it on her plastic tray. She hurried across the dining hall, then sat on a bench beside Mia, keeping the tray close in case anyone tried to steal her food. They'd been friends for nearly a year now, ever since the older girl had been sent to the orphanage. Alyssa had warned her who the worst bullies were and what to watch out for... and their friendship had grown from there.

"Kasey's gone missing!" Alyssa whispered under her breath. "When we woke up this morning, she wasn't in her bed!"

Mia shivered, nervously fiddling with her braid of brown hair. "I thought I heard screams last night..."

Alyssa darted a worried glance at her friend. "What do you think happened to her?"

"I dunno," Mia replied in a hushed voice, but the darkness in her eyes told a different story. "Probably something bad..."

"Yeah? Well she was really mean... she deserved it," Alyssa said, her eyes narrowing with anger as she remembered all the times she'd been reduced to tears by the spiteful bully.

Mia opened her mouth to reply, then the older girl bit her lip and looked away.

The pair sat quietly for a moment and Alyssa noticed that the rest of the orphans sitting in the hall were equally subdued. "I'm scared, Mia," she admitted, huddling into herself.

"Me too." The brunette inched closer so she could whisper furtively in her ear, "I'm leaving... tonight."

"Leaving!" Alyssa blurted out in alarm.

"Shh!" Mia hushed her, eyes widening in panic. After checking to make sure they hadn't been overhead, she continued, "You should come with me. It's not... safe for you here."

"Yeah. Anywhere's got to be better than this place," Alyssa muttered, staring at the weevils crawling through the infested chunk of bread.

Mia nudged her with an elbow, then when she had Alyssa's undivided attention, opened her clenched fist under the table. Concealed inside was a lighter.

"When the fire alarm goes off, meet me by the main door."

Nodding her head in eager agreement, Alyssa watched as her friend got up from the bench and quietly left the dining hall.

The hours rolled by as Alyssa waited with feverish anticipation. When the warbling wail of the fire alarm suddenly blared through the orphanage, the piercing sound made Alyssa jump, even though she'd been expecting it. Hurrying towards the main entrance, she weaved around frightened girls standing bewildered in the corridors. The guard from the front door yelled at them to get out of the way, so she ducked aside and smirked to herself as he ran past.

When Alyssa reached the main entrance, she found the lobby deserted. It was a nerve-wracking wait as she hid behind one of the battered sofas in the reception area, her ears pricking up at the slightest sound.

There were running footsteps then Mia hissed, "Alyssa? Where are you?!"

"Here!" she called out, springing up from her hiding place and startling her friend, who was nervously clutching a neatly folded blanket.

They shared a nervous smile, then the brunette climbed over the deserted front desk and grabbed a key from a hook on the wall. Mia hurried over to the main door and unlocked it with a clang, both girls darting worried glances back into the orphanage in case anyone heard. With the coast still clear, they slipped outside, then made a run for it, only stopping for breath when the twisting rocky tunnels had taken them far from the orphanage.

Mia laughed with relief, looking happier than she had done in months. "We're free!"

"It's like we're going on an adventure!" Alyssa gushed, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

~~~

Escaping from the oppressive confines of the orphanage felt wonderful. No more inflexible routine, no more mean girls, no more cruel bullying, and they didn't have to worry about attracting unwanted attention from the warden or the guards anymore. It was like they were free to do whatever they liked, whenever they liked, and Alyssa had never felt so alive.

The pair walked along Karron's dark tunnels, staying well clear of passing trucks and the groups of grubby miners swaggering into town. They kept expecting an alarm to be raised and for the two orphans to be dragged back to the orphanage, but no one even glanced in their direction. The asteroid's inhabitants were far too preoccupied with their own bleak lives to worry about a couple of wandering strays.

The bright lights from the bars and shops made the places looking so exciting, but the pair of young fugitives stayed away from the town for now. They stumbled across a drunk that had passed out by the side of the road, a barely-touched kebab clutched in his hand. He didn't even notice when Mia carefully plucked it from his grasp and the two girls giggled as they ran away with their ill-gotten gains. The greasy meat was delicious and they couldn't stopping grinning at each other as they enjoyed their feast.

Karron hid a warren of shadowy nooks and crannies where a couple of enterprising girls could find plenty of places to hide. Mia found a derelict air-conditioning vent that was too small for an adult to climb into and they spent their first night safely concealed in the musty darkness. They cuddled up together to keep warm, sharing the coarse blanket that Mia had stolen from the orphanage, the excitement of their newfound freedom helping to keep the chill of the asteroid at bay.

"Thanks so much for bringing me with you," Alyssa whispered, looking up at the older girl with adoring eyes. "You're my best friend in the whole world!"

"You were the nicest girl in that place. I couldn't leave you there," Mia replied, hugging her back.

They slept like the dead, both exhausted but happy after the exhilarating escape.

~~~

For the first few weeks, every day was a fresh adventure, with a world of possibilities open to them. Living on the streets of Karron was never dull, as the two girls learned how to scratch out an existence inside the inhospitable asteroid. Begging turned out to be a waste of time... unless it was payday for the miners. Alyssa and Mia soon discovered that the trick was to catch the drunks between bars early in the evening, when the men were still merry and before the night turned nasty as brawls broke out.

Pleading for scraps from the diners in town was the best source of free food, but that meant running the gauntlet of homeless men and women who were dumpster-diving nearby. They learnt the hard way that desperate people had no qualms about hitting young girls and stealing their food. Every diner-dash was thrilling and the chance of getting something nice to eat was worth risking a few bruises or a bloody nose.

They still cuddled up together at night to keep warm, but after a couple of days, Mia started having nightmares. She called out in her sleep, agitated and upset, her thrashing leaving Alyssa quite frightened. At first, she tried to hug her friend to make her feel better, but that just seemed to make the nightmares worse. When Mia woke up, she never wanted to talk about it... and she would lie there for hours, sobbing softly to herself.

~~~

It didn't take long for the novelty of living on the streets to wear off, especially when they came back to their squat one day to find everything missing. The two girls cried and comforted each other over their misfortune and cursed whoever had stolen every single item they owned. Without their blanket it was bitterly cold that night, teaching them a harsh lesson about taking precautions to protect their belongings.

The months rolled by, slowly turning into years. It was hard to keep track of time while distracted by the relentless grind for survival. It seemed like whenever they had some good luck, there'd be a disaster waiting around the corner that would take away everything they'd worked so hard for.

One day, Alyssa woke up in the morning to find herself alone, huddled up in a blanket in a derelict house made from partially collapsed freight containers. Just as she started to worry about her friend, Mia ducked under the twisted steel beams, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Where did you go?" Alyssa asked, looking at her friend with worry.

"Couldn't sleep, so I went out for a walk. I met this really cool guy," Mia replied, her bright smile infectious. She opened her tightly clenched hand, revealing two small red pills. "Look what I got! Razer gave them to me for free!"

"What are they?" Alyssa asked, her curiosity piqued.

Mia swallowed one and took a big swig from their water bottle, washing it down. "It's called Euphoria... it'll make us feel real good. Here, the other one's for you."

Trusting her friend, Alyssa swallowed it down then looked at Mia expectantly. "I don't feel any different..."

The brunette giggled. "It takes a few minutes to work, silly. Just wait..."

When the drug kicked in, it sent a sudden shiver down Alyssa's spine. "Wow, what a rush!"

"I know, right?!" Mia gushed, her pupils flaring wildly.

They spent the next three hours in a state of perpetual bliss, laughing together at anything and everything. It was such a relief for Alyssa to be able to just forget about all her cares in the world and when the drug finally wore off, her cheeks ached from grinning for so long. They collapsed on their blankets and panted for breath, worn out after all the giggling.

"That was amazing!" Alyssa murmured with a happy sigh. "You're the best, Mia."

"Love you too," her friend replied, squeezing her tight.

~~~

A couple of days later, Mia came back with another couple of pills... and some more a few days after that. Alyssa enjoyed the rush, but there was a nagging doubt in the back of her mind.

"Mia?" she asked quietly, as they came down from another exhilarating high. "How do you keep getting all this Euphoria?"

"Don't worry about it. You had a good time, right?"

Alyssa nodded cautiously. "Yeah... but why's Razer giving them to you? Nobody ever does anything nice for free."

Mia's smile faded and she rolled over onto her side, facing away from Alyssa. "Only the first time was free... I made a trade for the rest."

"But how? We haven't got anything to trade," Alyssa asked in confusion.

"Just forget it," Mia muttered.

"But..."

"I fucked him, alright?!" the brunette blurted out, sitting up again. "It's what all men want anyway... at least I got something out of it this time!"

Alyssa stared at her friend wide-eyed, shocked by Mia's outburst. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you mad."

Mia sighed then lay back on the blankets. "S'okay. I'm sorry I shouted. Just... forget about it, alright?"

The blonde nodded then they hugged again to show there was no hard feelings.

~~~

The next time Mia came back with some pills, Alyssa turned her down, knowing what they'd cost. Her friend looked hurt at first, then she got angry... and took them both herself. She was high for hours, her pupils like two black pools as she giggled insanely to herself. Seeing her friend so out of control frightened Alyssa and she swore that she'd never do any Euphoria again.

While Alyssa backed away from drugs, Mia started doing more and more, seeking the blissful escapism the pills provided. Whenever Alyssa woke up alone, she knew her friend had suffered another nightmare and sought chemical oblivion once again. She tried to get Mia to stop, but that just led to more arguments, and she hated fighting with her best friend. Alyssa could tell the older girl was pulling away, losing herself in the drugs, but there was nothing she could do to stop her. She felt so powerless to help... and so scared for her friend.

Then one day, Mia didn't come back to their squat.

Alyssa knew where Razer lived. He had a ratty dive on the edge of Steel-Wraith territory, dealing drugs for one of Karron's notorious gangs. She saw them lurking in their pale-blue jackets as she approached his house, feeling unfriendly eyes watching her until they looked away with disinterest.

"Hi... is Mia here?" she asked the muscular ganger leaning against the doorframe.

He looked down at her, then smirked. "Yeah. She's inside."

Alyssa hesitated for a moment then headed into the dimly-lit room, pushing her way past the long strands of beads hanging in the doorway. There was no sign of Mia, but a slim guy with a moustache was lounging on an over-stuffed sofa, watching a movie on a flickering holo-screen. He was handsome in a sleazy kind of a way, but the way he leered at Alyssa gave her the creeps.

"Hey there, little strawberry," he drawled, his lip curling into a lazy smile. "Now what brings you to Razer's humble abode?"

"I'm looking for Mia," Alyssa squeaked. "Is she alright?"

"Mia? Oh, she's just fine..." Razer said with a suggestive wink. "Had herself a big party last night... now she's just sleeping it off."

Alyssa swallowed nervously. "Can I see her?"

"Sure... go ahead." He waved towards a door in the back of the room.

She walked around the sofa, giving him a wide berth as she made her way to the door. When Alyssa pushed it open, she saw her friend sprawled naked on the big bed, the room reeking of stale sweat. Mia was fast asleep, her slim chest slowly rising and falling as she slumbered. She would've looked serene and peaceful, if not for the disgusting mess of sticky fluids plastered all over her body.

"Told you she was fine," the dealer drawled from just behind her. "Mia's gonna work for me now. We were celebrating last night."

Alyssa darted forward and grabbed her friend's shoulder, shaking her roughly. "Mia! Wake up!"

The brunette groaned and tried to fend her off. "Leave me alone... lemme sleep..."

"You've got to get out of here!" Alyssa hissed in a panic. "Come on!"

Mia looked up at her with glazed eyes, then her expression shifted through a mix of emotions. "Go away, Alyssa," she slurred. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Mia!" Alyssa protested, her heart breaking at the rejection from her only friend.

"See? Razer wouldn't lie to you, little strawberry," the dealer said with a smirk. "Maybe you should stay too?" He ran a finger down her bare arm. "I'm sure we could work somethin' out..."

Alyssa cringed away from him, then backed across the room towards the front door. Mia was sitting up on the bed watching her leave and they locked eyes one final time before the brunette looked away, her face filled with shame.

Sobbing her heart out, Alyssa fled from the dealer's house, never having felt more helpless and alone.

~~~

It'd been hard living on the streets with Mia. Trying to survive on her own was so much worse.

With no one to watch her back, Alyssa had to be constantly on guard, watching for predators as she begged for scraps or the occasional credit chit. It seemed like she was always hungry, her stomach a hollow source of constant aches and pains. The time she missed her friend the most was at night, having nobody to cuddle up to for comfort and warmth. Alyssa often cried herself to sleep, wishing there was something she could've done to save Mia... anything to take her pain away and make her happy once again.

Alyssa only saw her friend twice more.

The first time was a year later, Mia standing on a street corner, selling herself with a couple of other haggard drugged-out girls. Her long braids had been cut brutally short and her hair was now dyed a luminescent pink, the bright colour to distract from the ugly bare patches on her scalp. Mia's lovely brown eyes had once sparkled with such joy, but they were now dull and lifeless, the darkness they'd seen leaving scars on the girl's soul.

Alyssa tried talking to her, but there wasn't even a flicker of recognition in the trembling hooker's listless eyes. It broke Alyssa's heart all over again to see Mia like that, the girl reduced to a pale shadow of the wonderful person who had once been her closest friend.

The second time was so much worse.

She was walking through town and spotted a crowd gathering near one of the alleyways. Alyssa cautiously approached, curious to see what had drawn the group's attention. Peering through gaps in the crowd, she saw a ghostly pale girl slumped against a dumpster, her gaudy outfit covered in blood. Tearing her eyes away from the gory stab wounds, Alyssa recognised Mia's patchy pink hair and gasped in horror. She staggered away, her eyes filled with tears of grief, the pain just as sharp as when her father had died.

~~~

As time rolled on, Alyssa's situation grew more desperate. There seemed to be no respite from the cold, hunger, and misery; no flicker of relief from the relentless suffering. She knew she was losing the fight for survival and could feel herself getting weaker by the day. Frail and hungry, Alyssa realised she was out of options... and was finally forced to trade the only thing she had left of any value.

Alyssa thought she'd steeled herself to do what was necessary, but after selling herself for the first time, she broke down in tears. It felt like she'd given away something precious... something she could never get back again. The grubby miner hurriedly left her hovel, Alyssa's broken weeping making him feel self-conscious and ashamed at what he'd done.

She was finally able to afford some food, but the disgust and shame and self-loathing were a high price to pay for some nutri-bars. And that was her life... for two more years. Eking out a miserable existence in Karron's cold dark tunnels and every few weeks having to sell a bit more of her soul just to survive.

~~~

The day her life took a different course started just like any other. Alyssa spent the night in a burned-out shack, so when she went out scavenging, the stale smell of ashes lingered on her clothes. As she already stank, the weary girl decided to try her luck at the asteroid's cavefill site. Karron's garbage trucks hauled the town's refuse out to the periphery of the asteroid, where huge caves stored all the rubbish discarded by the colony over the decades.

She arrived just after the first truck had dumped its stinking cargo and began picking through the fetid mess, looking for anything interesting that might've been thrown away by mistake. There were dozens of others scavenging there too, but as more trucks arrived, the crowd thinned out, everyone eager to be the first to search through the newest loads of garbage. Eventually, it was just Alyssa and another girl sifting through their pile of rubbish, the two staying well out of each other's way.

"Holy shit!" her competition exclaimed, sounding absolutely thrilled.

Alyssa let out a melancholy sigh, realising that the girl with spiky ginger hair had beaten her to something valuable. She glanced over the heap of garbage, looking at the lucky scavenger with more interest. Pale and thin, the other girl was a lot like Alyssa... except for the hideous burn scars that disfigured one side of her face. Envy quickly shifted to sympathy, her heart going out to the redhead as Alyssa imagined the agony she must have suffered to be that badly scarred.

"Hey, don't get too excited," Alyssa quietly warned the younger girl. "The others will come over here and steal your stuff."

"Oh, right... thanks," the girl replied with a grateful smile. She started digging frantically through the refuse sacks, metal clinking against metal. "Have you seen any more bags from the electronics store? I'm looking for the other half of this compressor coil."

Alyssa gave her a blank look and shook her head. "What's a compressor coil?"

"It's part of an air conditioning device," the redhead patiently explained, holding up a cylindrical object. "I need it for an air filtration system I'm building, but there's a bit missing that goes in the middle. It should look a bit like a Tetra-Cola can... except it's black and silver."

"I haven't seen it, but I can help you look," Alyssa offered, walking over to join the other waif.

They dug through the bags of rubbish, finding lots of stinking mess but nothing else from the electronics store... until Alyssa pulled out a bag from the bottom of the pile. It was covered in disgusting slime, but she held her breath and used her knife to cut open the top, revealing another sackload of broken components.

"Is this it?" she asked, pulling out a cracked cylinder.

"Oh yeah!" The redhead did a little dance of joy that made Alyssa smile. "You're fucking awesome!"

"It looks like it's busted," Alyssa said with a frown, handing it over.

"Nah, don't worry about that. I can fix it no problem." The girl gleefully accepted the device, then stuck out her hand. "I'm Sparks by the way."

"Alyssa," she replied, shaking hands as they exchanged a grin.

One of the scavengers walked towards them, staring inquisitively at the two girls. "I saw you dancing... What did you find?"

"A bag full of cocks!" Alyssa hissed, brandishing her knife. "Want to add yours to the pile?"

"Hey, chill out!" the man said, backing away with his hands in the air. "Fucking crazy bitch..."

Sparks snickered, looking at Alyssa in admiration. "Hey, you wanna come back to my workshop? I owe you a couple of nutri-bars for helping out."

Alyssa smiled and put her knife away. "Yeah, okay. Thanks."

~~~

The redhead led Alyssa through the maze of winding tunnels, heading towards the abandoned areas that had been excavated decades ago.

"Hey, wait a second," Alyssa said cautiously, grabbing the younger girl's arm. "This is Diablos' territory."

"Yeah, I know. I'm their pet mechanic," Sparks explained with a grin. "Don't worry, they won't mess with you if they see you're with me."

Alyssa was astonished that the gangers just waved them through without a second glance, even more so when some of the men actually nodded to Sparks with respect. They headed deeper into the Diablos' base until Sparks entered a small cave and flicked on the light switch.

"Home sweet home."

"Holy shit!" Alyssa gasped, staring wide-eyed at the tools and components that covered every surface of the workshop.

"I know... pretty cool, right?" Sparks said with a proud grin.

She cleared a space on a workbench and carefully deposited the compression coil, before grabbing a couple of purple-wrapped nutri-bars from a desk drawer.

"Here you go," she said, handing them over. "Two bars, as promised."

"Thanks!" Alyssa tore off the wrapper and started happily munching away, until she saw that Sparks wasn't eating. "What about you?"

"I'll just wait until tomorrow. They'll give me a couple more then," Sparks replied with a stoic shrug.

"This was your dinner?" Alyssa asked, glancing down guiltily at the nutri-bars. "Here... take one back."

Sparks hesitated for a moment, then she gratefully accepted and joined her new friend as they shared a meal together.

"So what do you do?" Sparks asked, leaning back against her workbench and studying the painfully skinny blonde.

"This and that," Alyssa replied evasively. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you really helped me out today. I was thinking... maybe you might want to stick around? You could help me find stuff when I go out scavenging and in exchange, I'll share my food with you," the redhead suggested with a shy smile.

Alyssa considered it for a moment, cautious about getting involved with the Diablos gang. She could see that Sparks was lonely though and the thought of making a new friend helped sway her mind.

"Yeah... okay," she agreed, the two girls sharing grins to seal the deal.

***

Having a regular supply of food was a lifeline for Alyssa, one that she made sure to repay every chance she got. Whenever Sparks needed anything, Alyssa was always happy to act as her gofer, eager to make herself useful to her talented friend. The redhead was one of the smartest people that she'd ever met and Sparks' talent for fixing machinery never ceased to amaze her. More than that, beneath her brash exterior, Sparks was kind and selfless... truly caring about her new best friend.

Which was why Alyssa found herself standing protectively in front of the frightened redhead as a street fight raged all around them. They'd been out scavenging when a mass brawl suddenly erupted between two rival gangs and the battle would only end when one side walked --or crawled-- away.

A ganger wearing the yellow longcoat of the Rabid Jackals smashed a sledgehammer into the head of a thug from the Bloody Claws, the man's skull splitting open with a nauseating crack. His friend bellowed in fury and hacked at the Jackal's neck with a wicked knife, nearly decapitating the ganger and dousing the two girls in blood.

The Claw ganger whirled around and Alyssa actually recognised the man as one of her former 'clients'. "Billy? Billy Fletcher! It's me... Alyssa!"

He was too enraged to be reasoned with and the unstable ganger took one look at the knife in her hand and his crazed eyes narrowed with bloodlust.

"Fuckin' whore!" he snarled, lunging forward with his own blade.

Alyssa tried to jump backwards to avoid the stab, but wasn't quite fast enough. She felt the metal slice into her torso, just above her hip, followed an instant later by a searing burst of pain. Her failed attempt to dodge did manage to prevent the knifemen from running her through and as Alyssa staggered backwards, the blade tugged free with a spurt of blood. Billy came after her, intent on finishing the job, but he was smashed over the head by a Jackal with a crowbar.

"Oh fuck..." Sparks whispered, staring in horror at the blood pouring from her friend.

Grimacing against the pain, Alyssa clung onto the redhead as they staggered away from the street fight. They managed to make it back to the Diablos base, the gang members making no effort to help as the girls stumbled through the tunnels into the workshop.

Alyssa collapsed on the small cot in the corner and Sparks gingerly peeled back the wadded-up strip of shirt they'd used as a bandage, the cloth now soaked red. She cringed as she studied the wound, the sight of the sticky blood making her feel nauseous.

"I... I think you've stopped bleeding," she stammered, gingerly replacing the bandage.

Nodding her agreement, Alyssa panted, "It wasn't that deep... but you're going to have to stitch me up."

"No way!" Sparks gasped, blanching and turning even paler.

Alyssa gritted her teeth against the pain, then turned to look up into her friend's terrified sky-blue eyes. "Pretend I'm a busted machine. You're just gonna fix me, that's all."

"Shit, shit, shit..." Sparks muttered, before hurrying away to her workbench.

There was clattering around the workshop, then the hiss of a blowtorch being ignited. Alyssa wondered what her friend was doing, but she trusted the redhead was going to help.

A couple of minutes later, Sparks knelt down beside her, holding a needle and thread. "Sorry for the delay... I had to wait for this stuff to cool down."

"It's okay... I'm not in any rush," Alyssa joked, before wincing at the pain.

Sparks removed the bandage and began tipping water from a metal flask onto the wound to wash it clean. Alyssa cried out as she writhed on the cot, her injured body flinching away instinctively at the agonising contact.

"I'm sorry... I haven't got any painkillers or even any booze," the redhead said, tears in her eyes as she watched her friend suffering.

"Just... get it done," Alyssa hissed, clenching her hands into fists to stop herself thrashing about.

"I've got something better though," Sparks said softly. "Here... this is my lucky penny. If you hold onto this it'll hurt less... and afterwards, you'll be totally fine."

"Lucky penny?" Alyssa scowled, looking deeply sceptical. "I'm not a little kid, Sparks."

The redhead pressed it into her hand, then raised her fingers to touch her own horrifically scarred face. "Trust me... it works."

Alyssa bit her lip and nodded. She could feel the coin in the palm of her hand, cold and hard, but strangely comforting. Squeezing her eyes shut, she braced herself for the stitches, letting out a quiet whimper when she felt the first pinprick on her skin. As Sparks went to work, that pinprick turned into shooting agony, the pain unlike anything Alyssa had ever known. She screamed and sobbed, but held herself rigidly still, desperately holding onto the lucky coin and trusting that it would keep her safe.

~~~

That was Alyssa's first violent run in with hostile gangers, but it was far from her last. Basic survival was a bit easier now that she'd teamed up with Sparks, but there was still never enough food and they were both always hungry. However, the downside with being closely associated with the Diablos was that it made life much more dangerous.

When Pitbull, the gang leader, found out that Sparks was just as talented at making firearms as she was at repairing equipment, the redhead became the Diablos' dedicated gunsmith. They started making big money selling premium quality firearms and were so successful that the Jackals got desperate enough to raid their base, trying to abduct Sparks for themselves. After that, the gang kept the petite girl confined to her workshop, not wanting to risk another gang kidnapping the goose that laid the steel eggs.

Alyssa found herself making all the scavenging trips alone from that point onwards. She didn't mind though, as it was satisfying to know that she was helping her gifted friend. It was on one of those solo trips that the blonde waif found a broken power coupling and brought it back in case it was valuable.

"This is awesome!" Sparks gushed, when Alyssa showed her the damaged component.

"You can really fix it?" Alyssa asked with an excited grin, the redhead's joy infectious.

"Totally! I can repair the connection array myself, but we're gonna need some new solenoids and a couple of other bits to fix the burned-out coupling. When I'm done, it should be worth... maybe 100 credits?"

"Holy shit!" Alyssa gave her friend a gleeful sideways hug. "Just let me know whatever you need and I'll try and find it for you."

Fixing the power coupling became their new side project, with Sparks working on it for a few hours every day whenever she'd finished her work for the gang. Alyssa spent most of her time scouring the rusting junk piles and stinking refuse tips, trying to find salvageable components to complete the repairs. It took weeks of gruelling effort from both girls, but it was all worth it for the small fortune awaiting them if they were successful.

When Sparks was nearly finished, Alyssa visited the local businesses, searching for someone that might be interested in a perfectly restored power coupling.

"I found a buyer!" she announced, rushing into the Diablos' workshop.

Sparks flipped up her welding mask. "Awesome! Who wants it?"

"The Corbann Mine!" Alyssa exclaimed, giddy with excitement. "They offered a hundred credits, just like you said!"

The redhead held up a hand and the two girls exchanged an enthusiastic high-five.

"Do you want to sneak out and come with me?" Alyssa asked, her eyes drifting to the priceless power coupling. "I totally understand if you want to come along for your half of the money."

Sparks frowned and shook her head. "Don't be a bonehead. There's nobody I trust more than you."

Touched by her friend's sincerity, Alyssa smiled and pulled her into a hug. "I'd never rip you off, Sparks. You're my best friend in the world."

They wiped at their eyes, brushing away the happy tears.

"Maybe you can use the cash in the company store and buy us some food there?" the redhead suggested. "They might even offer you a discount."

And that's exactly what Alyssa did. She was nervous about the sale, but the mine owner was a man of his word and paid the asking price when the power coupling activated with a contented hum. As soon as she left his office, Alyssa went straight to the company store and dropped the owner's name to the clerk for her 10% discount. She had just enough money to buy a big box of nutri-bars... enough to feed her and Sparks for at least two months.

Alyssa was riding high as she walked back to the Diablos' base; being rewarded with such a prize after striving after it for weeks was even better than a Euphoria rush. She concealed the big box beneath her ragged poncho, but as she approached the entrance to the gang lair, sharp eyes took notice.

"Hey... what'cha got there?" Fat Tony asked, pushing away from the wall.

"Nothing much..." Alyssa muttered, her heart suddenly filled with dread. "Just some components for Sparks."

"Oh... right," he replied, turning away with disinterest.

Alyssa held her breath and scurried past him, sighing with relief that she'd bluffed her way out of trouble. She got two more paces before there was a tug on her poncho, then it was savagely ripped away.

"Now that doesn't look like busted bits to me..."Fat Tony gloated, a taunting edge to his voice.

"It's just bits of junk, Tony," Alyssa pleaded with him, backing away. "I dumped them in this box... that's all."

"You lying little bitch," he said with a smirk. "Now hand 'em over."

Looking up at him in dismay, Alyssa was frozen with indecision. She knew there was nothing she could do to stop him from taking them, but Sparks had spent weeks slaving away over that power coupling. It broke her heart to have fucked this up so badly and wasted all that effort.

"No," she finally said, squaring her shoulders. He was over a foot taller than her, but Alyssa refused to back down. "They're mine. We worked our ass off for them."

Fat Tony raised an eyebrow, then shrugged nonchalantly. "Okay... no problem, chica."

Alyssa couldn't believe that standing up to him had actually worked. She started to thank him, when a whistling slap knocked her sprawling. As she lay there dazed in the dirt, her cheek on fire, Fat Tony's mocking laughter echoed in her ears. The ganger just picked up the box and swaggered away... and there was literally nothing that Alyssa could do to stop him.

Tears of frustration and rage rolled down Alyssa's cheeks, the humiliation at his hands nothing compared to the terrible guilt she felt over failing her friend. All that time and effort Sparks had put in... all of it totally wasted... and she had nobody to blame but herself. She'd been so excited that she got careless and sloppy... and now they'd lost their prize.

Alyssa felt utterly powerless. This was another grim reminder that she was just a worthless little whore who'd never amount to anything. Just like always, Karron gave her a bit of hope, then smashed it in the cruellest way possible.

Quietly weeping, Alyssa picked herself off the floor and limped towards the workshop. Now she had to face the horrible task of admitting to Sparks that she'd fucked everything up. Alyssa wouldn't have blamed the redhead for throwing her useless ass out on the street...

But all Sparks cared about was the red welt on Alyssa's cheek and she gave her a big hug to make the distraught young woman feel better. Her kindness actually made Alyssa feel worse. Sparks would've been so much better off without her.

Alyssa knew deep down that she was useless... pathetic... worthless...

That's why everybody she loved always left her in the end...

~~~

John could have ended the avalanche of horrific memories at any time, but he held on, forcing himself to experience the terrible nightmare that had been Alyssa's formative years. A tear rolled down his cheek as he felt her endless suffering and despair. The only thing still keeping Alyssa going as she scratched out a pitiful life, was her loyalty to her friend and her stubborn refusal to give up. When he finally opened his eyes again, he saw Alyssa staring at him in horrified disbelief.

"Oh God... what've I done?!" she gasped, her mortified expression filled with a dreadful mix of regret and shame.

She sprang to her feet and was about to bolt, but John moved far faster and pulled her into his arms. Alyssa took one look at the sympathy on his face, then she crumbled, collapsing into his embrace as she wept.

"It's alright, honey... it's all going to be okay," he murmured, stroking her back. "I'm so sorry for what you went through... for not understanding before."

Alyssa soaked his shirt with her tears, her shoulders trembling as she was overcome with emotion. "I n-never wanted you to f-find out..." she sobbed. "D-didn't want you to know the t-truth about me..."

"I already knew the truth about you, Alyssa," John said gently, stroking her back. "You're smart and resourceful, kind and selfless... and fiercely loyal to your friends. I think you were incredibly brave to endure all the terrible things that happened to you... I know I couldn't have survived it."

"I wasn't anything special..." she mumbled, shaking her head. "Just a worthless whore."

"Don't ever say that," John interrupted, silencing her with a tender kiss. "You did what you had to do to survive. All that mattered was that you lived through that awful nightmare... so you could escape from Karron and be with me. I don't judge you for any of it, Alyssa... I swear on your life. I'd swear on my own life... but yours is more precious to me."

She sniffed and looked up at him through her tears. "You really mean it? You're not... disgusted by me? By what I did?"

"Of course not... I promise," he replied earnestly, gazing into her cerulean eyes. "We need to restore our connection, beautiful... then you can see for yourself. You can see just how wonderful I think you are."

Alyssa broke into a tremulous smile. "Thank you."

John brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes. "You're exhausted, honey. Do you want to get some rest? We can reconnect when you're feeling better."

"Fuck no!" she declared, her eyes flashing with indignation. Her slender fingers darted to his belt, deftly unbuckling it in her haste to get John undressed. "I'm not waiting another minute!"

The girls sprang into action, piling up the bedding to construct him a temporary pillow throne. John couldn't help chuckling at the indecent haste he was stripped of his clothes and in a matter of seconds he was seated facing Alyssa. He remembered Helene telling him that the girls who had been with him longest had been suffering the most from their disconnection, so he beckoned over Calara, Dana, and Jade. They came to him eagerly, Jade hugging John from behind as the Latina and redhead embraced him from the side.

"Not long now, girls. We'll be back together again soon," he said, his voice calm and soothing. John leaned back against Jade and pulled the two Terran teenagers closer. "I'm sorry this has been so hard on all of you."

"Apologise later, focus on Alyssa," Jade whispered in his ear. "She needs you... we all do."

Before he could reply, Alyssa grasped his throbbing shaft and enveloped him in the glorious confines of her mouth. Her lips felt so soft as they brushed along his length, inch after inch pushing deeper until she welcomed him into the snug grip of her throat.

"Work fast... I need you back again," he muttered, cupping her head and gently pulling Alyssa forward.

She nodded her understanding and slid down his shaft, sucking hungrily as she inhaled his entire cock. John groaned and leaned back against Jade, who kissed his neck and massaged his shoulders. Dana and Calara pressed themselves closer, their soft breasts brushing against his biceps as they leaned in to kiss his cheek.

Through hooded eyes, John saw that the rest of the girls were all naked now, their fingers busy between their thighs as they moaned with arousal. Alyssa's golden hair was wonderfully soft under his fingertips, her head bobbing smoothly as she deepthroated him, while her hands lovingly stroked his quad. John could feel the oncoming rush of an orgasm and he made no effort to hold back. He groaned with lust and just let himself be swept away in the exhilarating pleasure as the four girls kissed and caressed him.

Crying out with his release, he pressed Alyssa into his groin, her sucking intensifying as he climaxed. She let out a sultry moan as he throbbed in her throat and there was no mistaking her muffled sigh of relief as long spurts of cum filled her stomach. As John crested that wave of euphoria, he felt a deep surge building within his mind. His Progenitor nature was asserting itself, the urge to reclaim the beautiful woman kneeling before him both instinctive and overwhelming.

Holding back was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. The heavy load in Alyssa's belly provided the psychic bridge that would allow John to dominate her again, but he was determined to do things differently this time. He rode out his climax, stroking Alyssa's hair as she swallowed down pint after pint, milking his quad of every last drop. When he was finally spent, John sighed with relief and sagged backwards into Jade's loving embrace.

Alyssa let him ease from her throat, kissing the head of his softening cock as it slipped from her lips. She smiled with satisfaction as she stroked her swollen belly, then froze and looked at him in alarm.

"Something's wrong!" she gasped, her eyes widening. "John... we're not connected!"

"Shh, everything's fine," he said, giving her a reassuring smile. He reached out to caress her rounded tummy. "I can reconnect us whenever I want now. Just give me a moment to take a look at how the Progenitor connection works, then I'll reach out to you... okay?"

She blinked in surprise, then nodded her tentative understanding. "Okay..."

"Thanks ladies, that was amazing," John said, stroking Calara and Dana's backs. "Would you mind taking care of Alyssa for a moment please?"

They grinned and eagerly embraced the anxious blonde, giving her kisses and cooing over her cum-packed stomach. The rest of the girls joined her, helping to keep Alyssa calm and distracted.

"What're you doing, Master?" Jade asked, looking at him in confusion. "Why didn't you reconnect with us?"

"There's something very wrong with the Progenitor connection," John replied quietly, sitting cross-legged beside the bewildered Nymph. "The way you've all been acting since I severed our bond... Alyssa in particular... that's not natural. I know you all love me, but she was absolutely distraught, even with Helene keeping her emotions in check."

Jade glanced at the aquatic girl, who sat apart from the rest, Helene's eyes blazing with a teal radiance. "I... I think you're right, Master. Please hurry though... it's awful being separated from you."

John clasped her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, then focused his mind inwards at the Progenitor bond itself. It writhed and coiled in his mind, as though desperate to make a connection with a potential thrall, and was held back only by his sheer force of will. He concentrated harder, damping down that instinctive drive so that he could study the precise composition of the Progenitor Connection in more detail.

He felt his mind shift, the sensation like teetering on the edge of a precipice... then order reasserted itself and he reeled under a deluge of metaphysical information. The chains of Progenitor runes were incredibly complex, like a wonderfully intricate tapestry, its patterns exquisitely detailed. He was astounded by the sheer scale of the runic chain and realised the mind that had woven these threads together was beyond anything he could even imagine.

Looking at the psychic construct, John was filled with trepidation, not really knowing where to even begin. The volume of runic information was overwhelming and he realised that he'd need to spend months, if not years studying how it was interwoven together before he could make any definitive changes. As Athena had predicted, many of the threads were dependent on each other and couldn't be removed without impacting other aspects of the connection.

After staring long and hard at the tangled sprawl of runic chains, John finally sighed with resignation. There was no way he'd be able to modify the connection in the way he wanted, not in any timely fashion.

Except he already had done, once before... when he'd removed the girls' compulsion to obey him.

Remembering Athena's lessons to simply focus on what he wanted to accomplish, rather than worry about the intricacies of the runes involved, he did exactly that. There was another disorientating surge in his mind and he felt himself pull back from the connection, a bit like zooming outwards on a GPS map. The runic chains faded away, merging into long strands snaking through the psychic connection.

It was still like trying to follow a single piece of spaghetti in a huge bowl full of pasta, but the scale of the task wasn't quite so daunting now. He studied the strands carefully, watching in fascination as the purpose of each one became clearer. The primary psychic thread was a power conduit, drawing eldritch energy directly from each thrall and channelling it one way towards its originator... in this case, himself. Many of the other threads were directly fused with that strand, their dependencies too interconnected to be severed.

While John was examining those threads, he felt a shiver run down his spine, then the connection was bathed in a kaleidoscope of colours. Staring at them in fascination, he could see darker filaments standing out, almost as if a filter had been applied to his perception. The ability to tap a thrall for psychic energy was the anchoring point of the primary connection; that point could be expanded to draw more eldritch power, but pushed too far, it would drain the life force from the thrall.

As abhorrent as John found that practice, he knew that if the capacity to make an anchoring point was removed, the power conduit would have no way of establishing a connection. Likewise, a Progenitor grew stronger as each thrall was added to his psychic network, but that ability was also tied directly to the anchor point. The depth of the connection to each thrall had a corresponding beneficial effect on the Progenitor's psychic might, enhancing his psychic strength as well as the reserves of psychic energy at his disposal.

Studying that aspect in fascination, John realised it accounted for the fundamental difference between his own approach to enthrallment and that of a Progenitor like Larn'kelnar. He suspected that this particular element had been added to take advantage of a thrall's newfound devotion to her Progenitor master, immediately after she joined his network... but that was as far as their relationship normally developed. In John's case, he couldn't help falling in love with the wonderful girls he'd connected with... and they'd responded to his tender care in kind. The result was a massive power surge that a normal Progenitor was incapable of understanding, let alone reproducing.

Thinking about the girls was a pressing reminder that they were all still suffering from the after-effects of him breaking their connection. John pulled away from the power conduit and studied the rest of the strands, looking for anything related to the severing of a connection between Progenitor and Thrall. Examining the threads at a surface level, it didn't take long for him to find what he was looking for.

Snaking its way through the connection construct was an ugly black thread, its mere presence giving John a dark sense of foreboding. He looked closer at the elaborate runic chain that formed the psychic thread and found some very disturbing runes. The structure was convoluted, making extensive use of the Spirit and Dominion runes as well as a new one that he'd just unlocked from his Guide. Studying Leech set his teeth on edge and he suddenly remembered Mael'nerak draining the life out of the thralls boarding his dreadnought.

With a shudder of revulsion, he pulled back from that construct and swept along its length, his mind working with razor-sharp focus as he searched for inter-dependencies. When his search was complete, he seized that hideous eldritch cord and ripped it from the connection, the runes disintegrating with what sounded like a mournful groan. Nodding to himself with satisfaction, John was about to leave his subconscious when he paused and looked back at the connection, suddenly feeling a burst of inspiration.

He formed his own psychic thread, consisting of only one simple eldritch phrase. John poured a little bit of his own soul into it, forming a sequence of runes that didn't appear on the Kyth'faren runic alphabet. He inserted it into the Progenitor Connection, the glowing cord weaving its way through the entire length until it was as tightly integrated as any other part of the construct.

When he was finished, he looked at his modifications in astonishment, wondering what had driven him to impulsively make such a change. With no answers immediately forthcoming, he withdrew from his mind, allowing his perspective to shift back to the Observatory.

"John! Are you okay?" Jade asked with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, smiling with satisfaction. "Sorry to keep you waiting... I tried to be as quick as possible."

"What the hell were you doing?!" Sparks blurted out, looking flustered. "You've been stuck in a trance for over an hour!"

John gaped at the worried faces surrounding him in surprise. "I'm so sorry... I had no idea I was in there for that long!"

"Please don't make us wait any longer!" Alyssa begged him, on the verge of tears.

He quickly took her in his arms. "No more waiting now, beautiful... I promise." Glancing at the rest of the girls, he added, "Last chance to change your mind... anyone?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Irillith snorted with exasperation. "Hurry up, John... please!"

Acknowledging her with a nod, John placed his hand on Alyssa's temple and succumbed to the instinctive urge to connect with his former matriarch. Her stomach was still rounded with his cum, the psychic catalyst forming an unbreakable bridge between their minds. Alyssa moaned and her eyes rolled back, his subconscious enveloping hers in an irresistible surge. An instant later, John gasped in elation as the connection between them roared open, giving him free reign over the phenomenal psychic reserves that Alyssa possessed.

An exhilarating thrill rushed through his body as he thrummed with power and John had never felt so alive. His temporary weakness was banished in a snap, his muscles tingling as his psychic strength was restored. He felt his mind expanding, his mental capacity for maintaining eldritch abilities growing exponentially.

Then Calara groaned in ecstasy and the cycle repeated.

Then Dana...

Then Jade...

John cried out as he was accelerated through another massive surge in power, rapidly losing himself in the roaring psychic connection that was blazing brighter by the second.

Then Rachel...

Then Irillith...

Then Edraele...

His wordless cry became a scream, John's unified mind hungrily absorbing everything the Maliri matriarch could offer. The sensation was like nothing he'd ever experienced before... the closest being the time that all three of his matriarchs had given him as much psychic energy as they could muster. He blazed past that point... and John knew there was more to come.

Then Sakura opened up to him...

Then Tashana...

Then Helene...

Then Jehanna...

His senses overloaded, John felt himself floating in a Zen-like state, his mind teetering on the edge of oblivion. In the billions of years the galaxy had existed, his astronomical psychic ascendency was unprecedented. John was dimly aware of the psychic network expanding still further, his devoted matriarchs reuniting him with all the girls that were connected to them. Maliri engineers, Nymphs, Niskera, Lynette... the eldritch net expanded and drew them all to him, their loving presence all contributing to his burgeoning psychic potency.

"Holy fuck..." Alyssa whimpered as she lay sprawled on the bed, staring up at John in awe.

He hovered above them all, his eyes blazing with a dazzling blue light. Eldritch runes slowly circled his body, the ancient runic phrases indecipherable to all but their creator. Power was radiating off John in waves, the girls feeling goosebumps prickling their arms as they all roused from their stupor and gazed at him in astonishment.

"Mighty Baen'thelas..." Tashana murmured reverently.

John turned to face her, his expression serene. "No... my true name is Kyth'vindathys. For I am the Vengeance of the Kyth'faren reborn."