Emerald could only watch in horror as Vinyl tried to kill Twilight and Twilight could only defend herself. The fight wasn’t quiet by any means, and soon Spike was warning them about incoming Seekers. One of them was a target of importance, and so Emerald moved to intercept them.

“I’ll be fine, and I won’t kill her!” Twilight said to her while pushing Vinyl back. Emerald nodded and quickly made her way into the next room to intercept the newcomers. She had a single high powered magnum and it made short work of the drones, but there were agents and the target of importance was a Timberwolf. It seemed to almost be laughing as the sounds of the fight raging on in the other room came through the door.

“You know something about what just happened…” Emerald said to herself more than anything and glared at the Timberwolf. It grinned and the agents charged her. She was fueled by anger and determination now, though, she needed all the information that Timberwolf had. She had forearm blades of her own, and she put them to use.

She sliced one’s kneecaps, causing him to drop to the ground, kicked another in the chest and put a bullet into the first’s head. Jumping over an attempt to trip her she landed on the one she had kicked over and threw him at the one that had pulled out a firearm and the thing was knocked out of his hands. In one swift motion she picked the thing up and put holes into the two, leaving one agent and the Timberwolf.

She slid under a lunge from the Timberwolf and threw the taken firearm at the last seeker and put a bullet into his head with her magnum when he tried to dodge it and quickly slid around to face the Timberwolf. She could only brace herself as it tackled her through the door into the room where Twilight and Vinyl had their blades locked. Neither of them reacted as they exploded into action again as Emerald rolled over onto her feet and faced the Timberwolf.

Emerald and the Timberwolf glanced over for a second when they heard a scream of pain to find Vinyl missing her left arm. Emerald gasped, but quickly reacted as she dodged another lunge from the Timberwolf. She put a bullet into it, though it didn’t seem to slow down at all as it dodged the next and lunged at her again. She twisted over it and sliced at its back. She put another two shots into it before it dodged again.

She reloaded, antagonizing another lunge, and quickly twisted around the thing as it did as she expected. It was the Timberwolf’s turn to scream in pain as it’s front right foreleg was lopped off. Another three bullets caused the other foreleg to buckle and she removed all of the thing’s limbs. Vinyl yelled in pain again as her other arm was sliced off and Twilight pinned her to the ground. The timberwolf was laughing again as its eyes gained a cerulean tint and it matched its gaze with Vinyl’s. The struggling girl suddenly stopped and her eyes stopped glowing, void of all color.

“What did you just do?!” Emerald nearly screamed at the disabled thing. It only continued laughing before screaming for her to kill it.

“Guys, her brain still has some activity let but its fading fast. I don’t know what happened or why it happened but there was a sudden spark of activity and then nothing.” Spike’s voice came. There was a moment of silence.

“She’s dead?” Emerald asked as Twilight got off of the husk of biometal that used to be Vinyl. Spike didn’t reply. Twilight gained a horrified expression and Emerald felt like crying, but she couldn’t right now. Quickly she stepped up to Vinyl’s body. Twilight let out a yell when the girl stabbed the lifeless skull with her data leech.

“If there’s brain activity left then I can leech the data stored in her brain…” Emerald said coldly.

“Good thinking… I’m getting something.” Spike’s voice came. The Timberwolf on the other side of the room start yelling again as Emerald stood up. She gave it a cold look, her data leech dripping with Vinyl’s blood, and walked towards it. The thing must have realized what it was and went quiet. As she got closer it looked as if it was trying to get away, but without hesitation she stabbed the leech through an eye. It went limp almost instantly.

It was a few moments before she stood up again, but when she did she turned to Twilight. Twilight saw hope on the girl’s face as tears streamed down it.

“What did you find?” Twilight asked, looking back at Vinyl’s corpse.

“That… All this time… that… thing… that thing isn’t Veronica. That thing is a prototype in seeker cloning technology. The seeker she interrogated was really a drone with an advanced indoctrination virus planted here to indoctrinate her mind again. It would have been temporary, but that Timberwolf was the one controlling it and he initiated a permanent shutdown in her brain. We managed to get at it before her memories and personality were deleted- she only lost all of her body functions…” Emerald explained.

“I’ll get to work decrypting the rest of this information and compiling Vinyl’s mind. I’ll pinpoint where they’re keeping the real Vinyl.” Spike’s voice came.

“Thank you…” Emerald said softly. The girl was surprised when Twilight quickly pulled her into an embrace.

“We have to go now, before more Seekers come, but I promise you that we will get her back… I think I know what was off about her since that one day…” Twilight said as they quickly made their way out of the complex and onto their Spectres. Emerald took Vinyl’s.

“What is it?” Emerald asked.

“Maybe the information she took from the first Timberwolf showed her what you got from the one in there… Maybe she knew she wasn’t the real Vinyl, that she was just a copy…” Twilight answered.

“She was no copy…” Emerald said lowly. Twilight gave her a questioning look before they took off. “You should know this almost as well as she did… A person’s body doesn’t make them who they are. The information I recovered, the data, Veronica’s mind. Her personality. Her very being. That’s what I recovered, not just memories. Her body may have been artificial and replicated, but her mind was 100% Veronica. That’s why she wasn’t a copy.” Emerald continued. They were silent for a little while.

“You’re right… but I don’t think she thought the same way. She was always afraid she wasn’t the real her, and then she found out that her fears were technically true…” Twilight said, breaking the silence.

“You promised me we’ll get her back. I’m going to make sure in person and I’ll die before making either of us a liar.” Emerald said. Twilight nodded as they reached the mansion.

Author's Note

I had originally intended this to be a whole chapter, but that would mean I would have to come up with about four pages of filler at least.
and writing filler is the reason why I tend to lose my drive for this story.
so I'm just going to leave this here to satisfy the epic battle quota.
on a side note, I intend to write a spiritual successor to this when I finish it either next chapter or the chapter after. There will be no epilogue, remember that.
This spiritual successor will be in an AU of this AU and I'm debating what exactly I want to do with it. I'm thinking either cyberpunk crossed with medieval warfare or zombies. More details will come out as I update, but let me know