XCOM: Ranger

by Wanderer D

Chapter 96: FMP pt. 6 - Sisters

"That went better than anticipated," Sunset admitted, watching the city as they drove. It was amazing. So different from the ADVENT cities she was used to. This was where Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom and the others had grown up. It had… personality. It was imperfect. The buildings were all sizes, with all sort of designs and colors.

Compared to ADVENT's streamlined and unforgiving design, it was striking just how far the Elders had gone to remove the history of Earth out of their citizens' memories on all levels. They had destroyed art, music and architecture… and despite the… medical benefits they had brought with them to the clinics, there was just something underlying that… made Sunset's skin crawl, and she'd never even met an Ethereal.

Seeing this, it made her wonder just how much had been sacrificed. This is what Central and Chrysalis and the others were fighting for. For those kids at school. For the people living their lives without overseers making them second-guess anything. Without street-level analyzers that constantly streamed data of scanned citizens.

"Enjoying the view?" Bradford asked, rather curtly.

"Yeah," Sunset said, "The last time I was here, on this street... I was being chased around by the Berserker Queen, and I had the Elder's Assassin and the Hunter all in the same battle." She leaned on the window, looking outside. "We ran all the way down the street. Elena stuck to the rooftops, and spotted an abandoned gas truck. She planted a bomb and told me through the comms. I led everyone past it on both sides, so that the Queen would take the middle… then Elena shot the explosive. It blew up along with the Queen…" she snorted. "We haven't seen her since, but there's no way that stopped her at all."

"It makes our missions sound tame by comparison," Galahad commented, looking over his shoulder. "Most of the time, we only have to take care of stray UFOs… and there's few of them."

"I hope it stays that way…" Sunset sighed. "In my world we lost… and this… all of this outside was abandoned or destroyed. Civilians that stayed behind were mutated. And the only way to live in relative peace and safety was to comply to the new government forced upon us by ADVENT."

Chrysalis sighed. "How did we lose?"

"You were betrayed," Sunset said. "It's a long story, but I'll tell you what I was told by my world's Galahad."

The trip took a bit over an hour, but by that time, Sunset had told Chrysalis and Bradford most of what she knew history-wise of the original XCOM's fall.

To say that they weren't happy with their future in that alternate timeline was an understatement.
"We should make sure to track them more carefully, if they have started infiltrating the government already…" Bradford muttered, trailing off.

"Yes… but I think our circumstances are different," Chrysalis said, "Whatever is happening beyond the galaxy, we're just getting stragglers. And that worries me. Especially if the forces we should apparently be fighting against are so… formidable."

They eventually made it to a normal-looking airforce base, well outside of Canterlot City, and once they had been cleared at the gate, their car went into one of the large warehouses, and down a ramp into the depths of the earth.

XCOM really liked subterranean bases.

"This is central command," Chrysalis said, "the North American base. We have another base in Europe, one in Asia and satellite bases in both poles, consisting mostly of monitoring equipment and the occasional interceptor."

The base design was similar, but slightly less advanced at first glance, than the one in the XCOM base from her world. Sunset frowned. "You have more than one base? Our universe had the single one… I was always confused about that."

Chrysalis shrugged. "I'm still in control of the whole operation, but ever since the aliens arrived and the government was made aware of… your original world a few years back, we've obtained more funding. The other bases are not quite as large, but we're hoping to populate them soon with more teams. As you can imagine, with Vahlen and Chen working here, as well as myself and Bradford, a strike to this one base would still be devastating."

"However, someone could take over and command from another secret base," Sunset pointed out.

Chrysalis smiled. "Exactly. I'm not sure what constraints my counterpart had to deal with, but if she's anything like me, she would have been very frustrated by this fact."

The car slowed to a stop and Chrysalis guided Sunset into the base. "I hope you don't mind, but I recorded our conversation. Let's head over to Vahlen, she has some friends of yours with her."

Sunset blinked. "Who? I don't really know anyone here."

Central cleared his throat. "You mentioned the Sirens, remember?"

Sunset's eyes went wide. "For real?"

Bradford nodded. "We agreed with Equestrian authorities to extradite them, but while those agreements are being processed at the highest level, they are our… guests… and Vahlen has permission to perform non-intrusive tests on them."

"Huh," Sunset muttered, shaking her head. "That's… insane. In my world they did far too much… so wait, you guys know all about me—I mean, my counterpart being originally a unicorn… and you didn't freak out?"

Bradford looked slightly uncomfortable. "I was informed of a strange occurrence in the area… when I arrived to investigate, I saw a young woman, unable to walk or make sense of her surroundings. Suspecting something strange, I… took her in for a bit, pretending that my interest was solely for her well being as a citizen… you—I mean she—grew on me.

"You were smart, decisive and ambitious, even if a bit forceful. Once Vahlen's tests revealed that you-she was human, and finding no records of her existence, we registered her into the foster system, then I proceeded to adopt her."

Bradford smiled. "Thankfully my credentials, my service history and the fact that you were old enough to decide and seemed to like me, all factored into it. Sunset now has a social security number, full dual citizenship, and a future to look forward to." He sighed.

"When we managed to communicate with the Equestrians, Princess Celestia and I had a long, long talk about it, but she approved, and eventually filled out the paperwork for Sunset to be considered my daughter on that side of the portal as well."

"That's amazing!" Sunset was grinning ear to ear, and Bradford cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed."No, no, I'm not making fun… I'm…" she laughed, "I'm jealous of her good fortune. I can tell from how her friends reacted to you and how they had her back that you're doing a fantastic job."

They stopped at a heavily guarded and reinforced door. "Vahlen is inside," Chrysalis said, "Central, make sure she doesn't take too much of Sunset's time… if the Sirens are also operating in that other world, with the information she's given us, I'd call it a fair trade."

"Yes, Commander," Bradford said, saluting.

Sunset followed her 'dad' in, discovering a large laboratory, the likes she had only seen in the other XCOM base. She stopped however, when she saw something peculiar. She approached a glass display where the body of an obviously post-autopsy alien… it was bipedal, but its whole body was covered in chitin. "Wait… what's that thing?"

"That, would be a "Chrysalid," a terror unit we have unfortunately encountered in the field on a pair of occassions," a familiar voice said. "But I am unsure as to why you're here, seeing it, miss Shimmer."

"Dr. Vahlen." Bradford nodded. "I see that the commander neglected to inform you of what was happening. Lieutenant Shimmer here is an alternate version of our Sunset."

Vahlen's eyes widened, and Sunset could swear she was salivating, so she quickly changed the subject. "Oh… so this is a chrysalid? It… um, looks very different from the ones we fight… ours are more… arachnid from the torso down."

She succeeded. Vahlen turned her attention to the display again, clearly intrigued. "Is that so? I wonder where the change occurred? Do you have snake men?"

"Vipers… but they're all female. Except for the king and I um… killed him. So no more baby vipers."

"Floaters?"

"We had some… biomechanical monstrosities that had a propulsor for legs?" Sunset elaborated. "Then, twenty years later, they were replaced by Archons, which look… well, like angels."

"I see… and what abou—"

"Doctor," Bradford interrupted, "the Lieutenant might have a limited amount of time here… she would like to see our three guests."

Vahlen didn't look too pleased.

"If it helps… I could draw some of our aliens for you?" Sunset said, "I'm not sure how long I have, so if I'm still here, I'll do that."

"Very well," Vahlen said, slightly mollified. "Our guests are in their room. Do you wish to interrogate them all at the same time, or individually, Lieutenant?"

Sunset bit her lip. "All. I can't risk getting too little information."

Vahlen nodded, and picked up a small radio. "Sergeant Harris, inform our guests they are about to have a visitor." She looked at Sunset and nodded. "This way."

The trio made their way to the end of the lab, past several creatures that looked like nothing Sunset had fought, and even a sectoid, although it looked half the size and almost cute in comparison to the ones that infested the world she lived in.

"Oh, it's Matt!" Sonata sang, observing the soldier approaching the entrance to their cell. "Quick, Aria! Fix your hair!"

"Stop that," Aria muttered, although she blushed a little, and straightened her dress. "You know what that means. Vahlen has more scans for us. When will that woman be done?"

"Not until we're packed and sent back to Equestria, I imagine," Adagio grumbled. "I know Chrysalis explained that we had too many crimes through history to just be let go, but this is ridiculous!"

"Maybe it would have helped if you hadn't started the whole thing by swearing you would tell them everything we've been doing since three hundred years ago."

"Aria," Adagio placed her hand on her sister's shoulder. "If you like having a face to smile at Matt with, you will drop that, right now."

It looked like Aria wanted to say more, but instead turned around and huffed.

"Girsl! Girls! It's Sunset Shimmer! And her dad!" Sonata said.

"What?"

"Get away from that door, and stop jumping up and down! How old are you? Three?"

There was a knock on the door and Matt opened it, looking inside. "Girls. You have visitors. Hope you're decent."

"Oh! I bet Aria hopes you're not!"

"Shut up! He's a soldier in a base during guard duty, you jackass! Of course HE will be decent!"

Matt cleared his throat and stepped to the side, allowing Sunset Shimmer to step in. She looked at them oddly, walking around the room and turning to face them. "Huh. You're shorter than I imagined."

Adagio rolled her eyes. "Har-har, miss 'Never Break Down'. What are you doing here?"

Oddly enough, Sunset glanced at her dad.

"Sunset beat them at a singing competition, Lieutenant, I believe those were part of the lyrics," Bradford said.

Sunset then looked from him to them and back, clearly incredulous. "A song?! We beat them by singing?!"

"Um…" Sonata stage-whispered to Adagio, "are we missing something?"

"No mortal combat? No bloody dismembering? No shotguns to the face?"

"Sorry to disappoint you?" Aria said, and Sunset turned around, frowning at her.

"Now that's a voice I would recognize… you look so different though. Almost… innocent."

Aria narrowed her eyes, marching up to Sunset and grabbing her arm. "Now you tell me wh—"

A flash.

Blood.

A tall, blue-skinned woman with serrated teeth.

A twisted smile.

Voices. 'I have no sisters!'

A sense… betrayal.

Imprisonment.

Torture.

Regret.

Grief.

Smugness.

She blinked. She was on her butt, on the floor. Matt was at the door, gun drawn, being ushered out by Central. Her throat felt raw. Had she been screaming?

"What did you do to her?!" Adagio shouted, moving on to attack Sunset.

"Stop!" Aria shouted in a panic, "She's a blood witch! And she's made contact with my—a siren gem!"

Adagio's eyes widened and she stepped away from Sunset carefully, keeping her eyes ready for any casting. "Since when are you a blood witch? We would have noticed before…"

"I'm not the Sunset Shimmer you know," Sunset said, "And I need your help. I don't know how, but I ended up here and—"

"Kill her," Aria said to Sunset, halting all possible conversation. All eyes turned to her, but she kept her eyes steady on Sunset. "You have to. That's… she's not me. She's not—whatever they did… whatever she agreed to… to be converted into something like that…"

Sunset stared at her as if she'd grown another head. "You... saw? Twilight was trying to get through to her an—"

"No. You can't," Aria said, hugging herself. Sonata went over to hug her as well. "She's not me anymore… all that remains of me is regret and pain… in the gem." She looked up slowly. "If you defeat her… the last of me in her is in the gem."

Sunset frowned. "But what does that have to do with… how is it that you—"

"She's me… or used to be," Aria said, "we owned those gems for all of our lives. Through centuries… our only loyalty was to each other. What she did… is unspeakable." She looked from one sister to the other before looking back at Sunset. "Your word, witch. On your blood."

Sunset frowned. "I'm not going to do a blood oath for this."

"Your word alone then, if you're not that far down the road," Aria insisted. "Kill her. Kill her and punish her for what she's done. Whatever twisted honor she might have, whatever regrets—it will never be enough."

"Tell me… if your powers and the gem—"

"Kill her. Keep the gem…" Aria struggled, forcing herself to say it. "Keep all of them. Kill me and Sonata in your world. Don't pity us."

"But I—"

"Go. Please… just go."

Sunset seemed to want to say something more, but sighed, and nodded.

Aria watched them leave the room, and once they were alone,  she couldn't hold it in anymore and pulled both her startled sisters into the tightest hug she could muster.