A New Hope Nier

Coming into Rennala's dark chambers I was soon accosted by these... Malformed things.

Rennala had the Elden Ring shard of 'rebirth' and its effects were more than apparent. As crawling on the ground were dozens... Literally, hundreds of child faced half-formed adults with lame legs that couldn't support their weight.

And floating in the center of the massive room was Rennala. She was tall, much taller than I was at probably eight to nine feet tall. But I could see her beauty as her eyes remained transfixed upon a glorious glowing piece of amber she hugged to her bosom.

I gently danced around her malformed children knowing that even in Rennala's madness she loved them as she considered them her own children and as I came closer to her form I used my magic to raise the ground beneath my feet to form a pillar that lifted me off the ground and brought me close to Rennala's silent glowing orb that of magic that she was surrounded by,

"Rennala?" I asked gently poking the sphere of magic and flinching as a small jolt of electricity arced and snapped into my finger making me wave my hand to throw off the stinging sensation.

I looked into her blue eyes that were tinged with gold from the glowing amber and the glowing sphere surrounding her form. And I sighed as my body was coated with my glowing purple Aura to cover my form from any damage. "Whelp... Let's try closing a Gap on a demi-god." 

I activated my Semblance of Gap manipulation and I could grasp the gap between Rennala and myself with the barrier between us. And with a flex of my will, I slammed shut the gap between us with the barrier shattering as Rennala was yanked towards me with her eyes widening.

And my heart tinged with pain as rather than defending herself or even attacking me, she just curled up in a ball around the ball of amber that held the Elden Ring shard of 'Rebirth.' The Elden Ring shard that she has been for years been using, to try to recreate her lost children.

"Now to just seal your magic," I whispered as I gently laid a hand on her shoulder making her shiver then using my Gap semblance I closed the gap that allowed her to expel mana from her body and I shivered with my body tilting forward with some exhaustion as only her complete disregard for anything that wasn't the amber egg was what allowed me to do that.

"Rennala, I can take you to see Ranni. Don't you want to see your daughter?" I asked gently as I sat down next to Rennala on the top of my landing I made so her creations couldn't attack me.

Dull eyes met my own as I managed to lift her head from staring into the amber orb and I took a breath as I realized Rennala's mental destruction with the events of the shattering wasn't going to be fixed with some gentle words. Nor would me slapping her do any good obviously.

So... When in doubt. Always use dubious magic, and probably creepy amounts of affection to fix mothers who had become either evil or all but brain-dead with the losses of their children!

It had a hundred percent success rate so far after all!

"This... Is going to fucking bite me in the ass I know it." I muttered as I took a breath and then I did the unthinkable, I rolled into Rennala's arms and pushed my body over the amber core forcing Rennala's dim eyes to be filled with my form and she had no choice but to focus on me.

And when her dull eyes almost seemed to focus on me, I grabbed her cheeks making her blink in surprise and then I hit her with it. I slammed my aura and Gap semblance into her as I sought to close the Gap in her mind about her mental issues...

Except such a thing wasn't so easy, as within the mind laid the very soul, and trying to mend a broken half goddess of their mental shattering wouldn't be so easy so I cheated. With myself between the amber orb her most important thing in the world. And as her natural desire rose to re-attain the sight of said golden egg.

I closed the gap between the egg and myself being separate things in her mind and my vision went dark as my aura drained out completely at having touched such a powerful thing within her mind.

-

"So, how long have you followed your master?" Melina asked softly as she appeared out of the mist next to A2 who was waiting with her great sword stabbed into the stone work beside her as she watched for anyone coming up the lift leading deeper into the main parts of this supposed magic school.

The long silver-haired android looked at the woman and knew something... Was wrong with her in some way. Like there was something in her eyes that meant she had already decided something and was just living her life until she met that purpose.

That look in her eyes fucking pissed her off... It reminded her all too painfully of her life running around on Earth killing machine lifeforms and the YoRHa agents that attempted to end her life for going AWOL after she learned the original humanity was dead on her world.

That dead-eyed look of having already accepted her destiny was the same eyes she had before she found Jake bleeding out from a gunshot wound and he got pissy and broke one of her heels... It brought back good memories of the bunker and the constant intimacy they shared.

But regardless A2's jaunt down memory lane of the simpler days where Jake wasn't trying to save worlds were cut short as she responded plainly. "Jake isn't my master... Even if I would happily die for him, but hmm. I have been with him all this life of mine honestly." A2 said with a rare smile crossing her face.

As from the moment, she saw Jake and knew he was human, knew her life now had a purpose. She had been reborn and from then she had spent as much time as she could in Jake's presence when she wouldn't interfere with his goals.

With A2 having answered Melina's question she decided to also say something even though she thought it was a pain... But she knew Jake had some thoughts about this girl, she knew Melina meant something to Jake even though they had met but days ago. So she decided to be blunt.

"Melina... I know that look in your eyes, you dying isn't worth it." She stated bluntly and a heavy tension filled the air as her robotic eyes met Melina's golden eye that stared at her coldly from under a hood.

And for a moment there was that tension before Melina broke it as she stated blandly. "Thou words are not applicable to my situation... There must-"

A2 loudly sighed and held up a hand to Melina's face making her go silent while a glare entered her eye at being silenced so rudely but A2 honestly didn't give a shit.

She didn't care about YoRHa's weird insane inner conflict between Jake having more white-haired or blond-haired babies. But she did care about how Jake felt. And once again she knew Jake had something going for Melina so she said with no space for argument.

"No Melina... No sacrificial play with Jake, that will just make him do something utterly stupid like pulling some kind of bullshit divine flame or fighting some dark god to resurrect you. And I won't let your stupid ass sacrificial play make him do something stupid when Jake can probably do whatever that would have required your sacrifice without you dying."

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