Please (Do not) Give Me Wings - Part 2

A lone woman in elegant maid attire stood by a table as she basked in the warm orange glow of the sun. She had golden blonde hair, a half fringe and a long and slender ponytail. Her eyes were of a bright bluish purple with a face fair as the motherland’s bright white snow.

Her luscious silken hair danced with the rhythm of the wind like a tassel flailing around, carefree and full of freedom.

She held on her right hand a green porcelain tea teapot that she proceeded to lower towards the cup. Her eyes leered to the side with a cheerful yet smug smile.

“Tea? Or would you prefer coffee?”

“...”

Ana was unable to respond as she was preoccupied with her state of drunken lucidity. A fever dream painted in brushes of pink nostalgia and blinding orange and whites that seared her single retina. It was a place of finely crafted furniture with flowers of all types that scattered throughout the room. It was a floral jungle paradise with exotic scents that mixed through the air, a warm sweet and earthy aroma.

Ana felt around herself seeing the brown suit that was now on her. Her right arm was still missing though.

“I’ll go with Tea then.”

“Who are you? Where am I?”

The woman began to pour the tea. She looked up towards Ana and chucked to herself.

“Who else, silly? I’m you… as to where we are… I guess I could say that we never left.”

“The Space Station?”

“That's my cute self!”

Ana looked at her other self as she continued to pour nothing out of her teapot. She placed down the pot and began to sip elegantly at the empty cup.

“Come sit. Come join me.”

Ana reluctantly accepted her invitation as they both sat at opposite sides to each other. They were like mirrored reflections of a battered war-torn warrior and a calm woman whose smile radiated as bright as the sun above.

“So, what do I call you?”

“Ana is fine but I guess that too would be confusing. If you want, I can go by our proper name. The Matriarch… no that’s a bit much. Hmmm How about Atria. Oooh this is fun. I like this.”

“You, did it? Didn’t you? You controlled me, used me like some puppet and killed all those–”

Atria’s cheerful face turned stern with red eyes that glowed with murderous intensity.

“And? What of it? What do you really hope to gain with that measly alliance?”

“I–”

“The same with the Space Station? Do you even think before you act?”

Atria created an exaggerated voice of Ana as she flailed her body all around mockingly.

“I, Anastasia can save the world and bring peace if I control all the drones. I alone with my powers can destroy them all and… IT AIN’T HAPPENING!”

“...”

“Not considering how foolish of a plan to walk into an obvious trap laid down for you on a red carpet. Do you honestly think any of it would work if you did succeed? You tried to get rid of drones from this world thinking that it was the crutch of all our problems... but the real problem is humanity itself. When they are gone humans will find new ways to kill each other even if it means using sticks and stones.”

“If we don’t give them a chance….”

“There's too many chances already and they proved time after time that they would rather shed their own blood than do anything worthwhile.”

Atria took a sip from her empty cup once more, placing it down on the table. Ana looked down onto her cup seeing a red liquid in a once empty vessel.

“Hah, Alas I would love to talk more but don’t you think it's high time you wake up?”

“Huh? Wait you never explained who you are... what do you mean that you are me....”

“You don’t want to lose another arm now, would you? Tata my darling self… I’m sure we will talk later….”

“WAIT–”

***

In the deep black void of space, the Space Station stood in orbit as an ominous scrying eye that shone its overseeing gaze upon the encaged earth. Rings that orbited the station now all sat facing downwards with liquid like nanomachines that dropped down to make a fine point in the middle.

The many satellites that encased the earth were now slowly being merged with the station as black mass began to spread all around.

It was a sickness of black metal and glowing blue eyes.

***

“AHH!”

A sharp pain had hit her chest as she woke up from a quick rest that felt like an eternity of deep slumber. She turned around to see her cockpit in complete disarray. The right half had been completely caved in as a hole of molten metal gave a small window to the destroyed city beyond.

*Wrrrr*

Ana’s mech slowly got up with every gear sluggishly crying in pain as each joint did its best to move the battered machine. The large arms pulled out the feather sword from the corpse of the mech below. The hot searing laser sword pulled out melting the metal like soft butter.

*stssss*

“One. Two… no four. Two up top, both perched the skyscraper observing me. One to my front and another behind me.”

Ana looked all around and instantly knew that she was surrounded on all sides but before she could act a fifth mech instantly appeared flying fast.

“FIVE! SHIT!”

The unpainted grey humanoid mech flew with its yellow flaming jets at full blast.

*Clank*

The mech clashed against Ana’s mech as she was sent hurling towards a building.

*Crack*

*Fwooosh*

A storm of glass fragments shattered followed by a cloud of dust as Ana was quickly overpowered.

The mech had pinned her against the concrete wall with a cannon that was placed directly on her chest. This mech was much bigger than hers with a more clunky bulky design that focused on protection above all else.

*Wrrr*

Its singular red eye glowed as the cannon began to heat up.

"This is for Miyamoto San!"

‘I’m sorry!’

*Stsssss*

Tiny nanomachines emerged as it invaded the bulky mech.

*wrrrr*

The red eye of the mech slowly faded to black as the entire machine powered down. 

*Crash*

Its limbs buckled down to the weight as it fell down besides Ana’s feet.

Ana looked at the fallen mech with a face painted with endless guilt and regret but she mustn't linger on her thoughts.

‘What is done is done! It's up to you to finish this!’