A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, Aerie Flagship***

***Magnus***

Nobody replied to Zach's invitation to 'start the party', which seemed to bum him out for a moment before he gathered himself.

“Okay, if you must be serious about it, let me enlighten you on the truth of our situation.” He drew in a deep breath as if he was about to reveal a big secret. “I am not your enemy.”

I took a sip from my bottle. “Of course not. You are just a small gear in the great machine who only follows orders. Totally innocent.”

“No, no, you don't understand. I am not your Zacharias, well, I am Zacharias, but not the Zacharias you are fighting.” He tried to look serious with his slightly insane claim.

I surveyed the room, studying the various expressions of disbelief on everyone’s faces.

Zach cleared his throat. “I admit this plan of mine sounded a lot better while still in my head. Walking right up to my enemies and expecting to be believed. I suppose I was lucky you decided to listen to me instead of executing this clone on the spot.”

“Not this again.” Felix rolled his eyes. “Another multiple personality trip? Zach, I believe we sorted out that nobody buys that bullshit from you. You pulled that one during the last war already. I am not completely clear on how your clones work, but I am fairly certain that at the end of the day, they are all 'you'. However, you call yourself.”

“True. At least until I found an ancient research facility beneath Thich City and encountered a mind-bending alien who twisted most of my clones and people to then built a supremacist cult bent on world domination at all costs. At least that's what they believe they are doing.”

“An alien?” Gunner raised a questioning eyebrow.

“I call it the mindwarper,” Zach clarified.

Mary massaged her temple. “Zach… I know I hit you as hard as I could the last time we met but…”

“This has nothing to do with me being touched in the head. I am not messing with you. At the end of the clan war, my people found a facility of non-human make beneath our capital. When we unearthed it, I encountered this… thing… and it was stronger than any psychic I ever met. All my defences were nothing against it. The only reason I managed to partially withstand it was that its range seemed limited and some of my clones were outside the capital at the time. It nonetheless messed me up and I have been fighting a war for control with my corrupted clones ever since.”

Felix snorted. “Your naming sense aside, there are no aliens.”

“Then call the thing I encountered one of Tirnanog's monstrosities. You guys know as well as I do that there is intelligent competition in this world. I don't care.” Zach shrugged. “Anyway, as you can see, the alien had some trouble taking me over completely. An undisclosed number of my clones escaped the thing's control and are currently in hiding. I hope you understand I won't tell you any definite numbers. And don’t tell me any secrets you don’t want to get out. There is still a connection between me and my corrupted selves. Anyway, the reason I am here is to tell you that the corrupted Zachs are fixated on opening a doorway or wormhole to meet this entity again. The last time I got information on them they were close to succeeding.”

He shook his head. “Although, I don’t completely understand the reasons for their actions. There was no communication between me and this alien. As I see it, their actions are providing the entity with research material in the form of human test subjects. The corrupted Zachs believe their actions will get them full access to the thing's facilities and technology, so they are happily 'sacrificing' all the test subjects they can get their hands on. Unfortunately, it seems like only twins who mutated with the mindwarper's DNA can control the transportation device.”

So my sisters truly had an alien mutation. Well, this only confirmed Gaia’s story so far.

I wondered whether this was the right moment to involve some more people in our little cabal of those who were in the know, but after a moment I decided to talk it through with the others first.

“Transportation device?” Felix asked and narrowed his eyes.

“The one the mindwarper used to leave their facility once we discovered it,” Zach explained. “They can control the humans around them to a degree, but there must be a limit. So they left with some sort of teleportation device. To my knowledge, the mindwarper hasn’t shown itself to more than a handful of people since it left the facility’s management to the corrupted humans.”

“What’s this mindwarper supposed to look like?” Gunner asked.

“Violet skin. The torso is on four three-jointed legs with hooves. Four human-ish arms. Two with claws and two have hands with six fingers. There are two oblong heads with three eyes on each. About two and a half metres tall.”

Mary scoffed. “I can’t say I ever saw or heard of such a creature. And I have seen a lot on Tirnanog. Even the things which go bump in the night.”

“If it's gone for most of the time, then where would its Thich servants get more mindwarper material for their mutations?” I asked.

“From the growth tanks in the facility,” Zach provided the answer happily. “My people don't understand a smidgen of how it all works, but we understand enough to tell that the entire complex is dedicated towards genetic research. Some of the equipment is automated to a degree that even we stupid humans can press a few buttons to have a new monster cooked up. My counterparts provided some of the tech to Earth in exchange for assistance and a steady supply of subjects.”

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I glanced at the others, wondering whether they made the connection to the psyling which attacked the flagship. “So they cooked up the shapeshifter which attacked the flagship in this facility?”

“Ah, probably yes? I don’t know which creature exactly you are talking about. They are trying for new ones all the time. I only know of a squid-thing they send after you once Earth sent the message they needed you handled.” Zacharias grinned.

“How many can they make?” Gunner guided the topic to a more practical question. “Do we have to expect more of those things?”

“Oh, not many,” Zacharias assured us. “The monsters grow fairly quickly once they add the required genetic material. Two or three weeks. Thankfully, they can’t control most of the monsters coming out of those tanks. It’s like the creatures are pre-programmed to hate humans or see us as food. The ones who don’t go nuts killing everyone around them upon waking up are the failures as I see it. In my honest opinion, the mindwarper isn’t too fond of humanity. It did its best to keep things running without the risk of being revealed to the clans.”

Mary shook her head, looking horrified. “I have never heard such a load of bullshit, Zach. If that's an insane attempt at inserting a spy into our ranks by pretending to be an ally, then forget it. When did this supposedly happen? Shouldn't you have had years to warn someone?”

“But we have encountered people whose minds were quite obviously manipulated by a powerful psychic,” Vanya pointed out.

“Ah, please don't mistake a whim of altruism for me trying to join your little community. I said we aren't enemies, but we aren't friends either. Whatever the alien did to split my collective, it doesn't mean the other Zachs are acting completely against my wishes. Their intentions and desires are warped to the extreme, but on a fundamental level, I don't disagree with what they are trying to achieve. Uplifting and uniting Tirnanog’s humans is an inevitable necessity, and if the Thich become the monsters who force all of you to see reason, then I am all for it. I nonetheless dislike my clones going rogue and I believe now that you all have been shaken awake, there is a good chance to put an end to my problem.”

Felix shook his head. “Let’s say for a moment that all of this is true. I would still have you strung up for not warning the other clans immediately.”

“Don’t pretend to be dumber than you are, Felix,” Zacharias replied with a sneer in his tone.

“And you are here to...?” Vanya left the sentence unfinished, an obvious question.

“Obviously, to warn you of the mindwarper.” Zach smiled. “Can't have even more clan leaders fall victim to the thing. If you just walk into Thich City to loot the remains after a hard-won battle, that's exactly what would happen. Can’t have that. I need you to kill my corrupted selves.”

The other ancients looked at each other.

“And we are supposed to believe there is something capable of influencing an ancient's mind?” Felix prodded further. “Gurney went to extensive lengths to safeguard us against psychic influence once he discovered the existence of such mutations.”

“Gurney is a genius, but he isn't perfect. Nor can he anticipate every little detail about an ability which is still not understood to this day.” Zacharias snorted. “The thing I encountered down in the ruins is on another level when it comes to psychic power and I had a long time to think about it. In my humble opinion, I believe it might even be one of the architects behind Tirnanog's monstrous nature, given the facility's purpose. This whole planet is one giant petri dish for the mindwarper.”

Zacharias shrugged. “I also have to say, back in the day I had little hope of someone believing me if a few of my clones came up to the clans and spun tales of growing corruption in Thich while my people denied everything. And given the threat’s nature, there would have been little chance of some emissary finding out the truth without being corrupted themselves. Would you have started another war against Thich right after the clan war? Because that’s what it would have taken to prove my claim since we were already on bad terms back then.”

“What about Nisha Dawson and the Vier?” Vanya asked.

“Some of Vier’s diplomats were corrupted. Nisha is clean as far as I know. She has never been to Thich City,” Zach replied and allowed a cruel smile to escape him. “And since I manipulated things to have Vier’s troops at the frontline of your last engagement, most of that particular problem should be gone. Not that Vier could muster another fleet of mentionable proportions after taking such losses. No, I believe they will surrender once you show up at their gates. Though I cannot say what Nisha will do for certain. She was always a feisty one.”

“You still haven’t explained your interest in Magnus,” Gunnar pointed out.

Zacharias pursed his lips in thought. “To be perfectly honest, neither I nor my corrupted counterparts were aware of him until Earth sent us a message that he must be dealt with. They were also very interested in acquiring his unique mutations. Something about him had their scientists mobilize all the resources and enticements they could to make us do their dirty work. As far as I understood it, he was also a personality of great renown back on Earth. It was only natural for us to acquire all the information we could get about him.”

Gunnar clicked his tongue. “So I was a little too late after all. I thought I cut those strings before it would get troublesome.”

Zach looked at me. “I must admit, the story we got told was a spicy one. To go to such lengths just to get revenge for your family. You are almost as bad as me when it comes to your methods. If it wasn’t for my unique ability, I would almost be worried about becoming your next target. Tell me, Magnus, how many more people do you intend to kill for hurting your family? Will you kill me too?”

I took a sip from my bottle. “Everyone who was involved in the decision to eliminate them. Everyone who knew about it and did nothing to stop it. I am not overcomplicating things.”

“You killed plenty who just stood in your way,” Zach pointed out. “People who didn’t even know your name.”

“Ah, but they were part of the system supporting those who made the decision,” I clarified. “You might claim there were those among them who never intended me or mine direct harm. When you are shot, are you worried just about the bullet? It was the bullet which harmed you after all. The gun was only the mechanism firing it. Or are you blaming the one who pulled the trigger? The same way I see it with people and organisations like Earth’s government. There are those who signed the kill order on my parents, who I blame. There are those who supported the decision and looked away, who I don’t particularly care about but who died nonetheless if they stood in my path. And there are those who support the system and uphold the power, who can be collateral damage.”

Zacharias tilted his head. “If so, you forgot the scientists who were involved in your sisters becoming a part of the experiment.”

Gunnar shook his head. “The research assistants suffered an unfortunate accident and were infected with their own creation. A containment breach while they were working on their modified nano-machines. According to protocol, they were immediately euthanised. And as for the dear head of research, I paid him a visit in his cell. Last time I checked, the men and women replacing them should have a far more conservative approach to handling their research and the exiling of unwanted people.”

“Ah, so that’s why Earth suddenly went silent.” Zach nodded slowly. “I must admit, this organisation of yours is hard-working.”

“We have centuries of experience under a government controlling far more resources than we do.” Gunnar took another note.

I groaned inwardly as the questioning continued. As things were going, I expected it to be a long day.

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