NEW NORMAL

Nya woke up in a hospital bed, her entire body felt sore and tired.

"What happened?" she wondered aloud, rousing someone beside her

Astrid was resting at her bedside, but now she looked up sleepily, her azure blue hair strewn over her face, "M-mom?" she asks groggily

"Hi sweetie," Nya smiles, "how was your nap?"

Astrid wraps Nya in a tight embrace.

"Don't ever do that again." Astrid demanded

For a second, Nya had no idea what she's talking about, then it all comes flooding back. Vulcan, Providence, the Ragnarok, Apalapchere, Rias, everything up until Merlin turned her off… which she didn't know her jinn could do.

"I promise, sweetie," Nya says returning the embrace

[It's good to see that you're back Nya] Merlin greets, materializing beside them

"Thank you for stopping me before that bitch did something truly terrible." Nya says, her eyes watery. She had almost killed her family, the sheer horror of it only just catching up to her.

[It had to be done,] Merlin shrugged, [You were pretty banged up from what we had to do to you.]

"Well you did you anti-me battle tactics, I'd expect no less," Nya said, "Where is everyone else?"

"Resting," Astrid said, "They're pretty banged up as well."

[What do you remember?] Merlin asks, [On the beach?]

"Well, Rias… I, was about to kill you all, then you linked back into me and shut me down.

[Anything else?]

"No, not really," Nya said, "What's wrong?"

[Nothing, don't worry about it.] Merlin said, shaking her head then grinning, [I may need debugging; I appear to have developed a glitch.]

"Can that happen to a jinn?" Astrid asked

[Hey, as amazingly superior as we Jinn are, we're still just lines of complex advanced coding.] Merlin shrugged acceptingly, [We experience the same pitfalls as even the lowliest of UIs. Me more than the rest of them.]

"Why?"

"She's an aberrant; a defective jinn." Nya explained

[I prefer unique,] Merlin said, [I still have all the fun bits, plus I can exist outside of my crest or origin. I was floating around Hyperion as ghost transmissions for centuries even before I met Nya.]

"Independent action," Nya nodded, "You told me about your flaw –or in your case, skill— before."

"Well, I should leave you to recover," Astrid said, "It is pretty late. The others will probably stop by tomorrow."

"Goodnight sweetie," Nya said as she left.

Now alone with Merlin, she spoke again

"Where is Rias?"

[Back where she belongs; in your head, locked away in your subconscious.] Merlin said, [She's dangerous, I've never seen a fragment so self-aware.]

"She wasn't the only one," Nya informs Merlin, "when she had me trapped in our head, I got to meet a few of the others."

[How many are there?]

"A few as far as I know," Nya answered, "But there are four that I really need to watch out for."

[Who are they?]

"Firstly there's Rias; my selfishness, you've seen how much fun she can be." Nya said, "Then there's Lena; my ambition, she's pure intellect and reason with no emotion or ego."

[Sounds like a heartless bitch,] Merlin said, [I think I might get along with her.]

"Aliya; my innocence, she's harmless for the most part; no access to my memories or abilities, the me before I was me."

[Why's she so special then?]

"Because she's the only one who can access Nyx; my wrath and apathy; she lives for only destruction, mayhem and chaos, she cares about nothing but complete anarchy." Nya warned

[She sounds very dangerous,] Merlin said [I can get back in your head, make it so that none of them can get out, especially not Nyx.]

"I was going to ask you for that," Nya said

Her body collapsed, and Nya felt a tingling sensation run up her spine as Merlin settled back inside her head.

[This is odd.] Merlin said,

"What?"

[I've found the fragments you spoke of, but they all seem somewhat inert, even Rias' fragment has become inactive.]

"What did you do?"

[Nothing…] Merlin replied, thinking back to the beach, the hand that ripped something from Nya's head. It couldn't be…

"So what do we do now?"

[Just to be safe, I'm still going to put up some mental defenses.] Merlin said, [It will take a while so I suggest you get some rest.]

* * *

Nya might not have been a fan of Rias or her frequent attacks on her family, but she did make some good choices every once in a while, her designs for the new Black Excalibur were exceptional, this new model would surpass the original in almost every way, and she was also an avid collector of curios, as Nya had discovered.

She had taken the time to properly apologize to Eli for his arm, and Aria for threatening to kill her, she had been far more emphatic when apologizing to Morgan and Valla for stabbing them with her sun sword. She even sent an official apology to the families of all those Spartans she killed as Rias. She also sent a personal message thanking Ryla for her assistance in bringing down Rias, the reply to which was a selfie of the Regis in sexy lingerie with an added note that read; for next time.

Merlin materialized in Nya's Vault, where she found the red-headed vampire by an operating table.

[What are you working on?] Merlin asked, curiously

"This," Nya revealed.

Merlin studied the creature on the table intently; it was a primate, roughly ten feet tall at the least, and covered in thick shaggy grey-brown fur, it was burly, with a muscular physique yet possessed a lanky frame. It had elongated arms that reached past the knees of the creature, its hands and feet were massive, at least three times the size of a regular human, and still notably large for its size. It could easily hold a human head in its palms, and each of its five digits was capped with claw-like fingernails. Its hands, feet and face were the only parts of the creature not covered in fur, and the hide of the creature was dark and rough, its face was vaguely humanoid, but more akin to a Neanderthals than a human. At its groin was a patch of matted fur, but the large tip of the creature's beastly penis was still visible. The creature's head was surrounded by a large mane with several large braids. The torso of the creature had been cut open, exposing its innards and the top of its skull had been removed to access its brain.

[Is this what I think it is?] Merlin asked taking a step forwards

Nya nodded, "A sasquatch corpse, Rias picked it up on that planet she razed, along with about three dozen others in specially built stasis pods."

[What would those people be doing with sasquatches?]

"Dunno, but I have them now," Nya said, "Wanted to learn as much as I could about them before I woke up the rest of them,"

[Its brain is unlike anything I've ever encountered before] Merlin commented, [must be to accommodate their impressive psychic abilities]

Sasquatch were unlike any other omen, instead of a unique phantasm, they all possessed heightened psychic abilities, along with limited psionic control on their immediate environment, although they couldn't perform magecraft, their belief was still strong enough to bend local reality. They were an all-male race of omen and only reproduced through females of other races, and although they were technically a sapient race, they were regarded by most of the wider cosmos as barbaric and primitive.

[So what are you going to do with them?] Merlin asked

"Tame them, train them, and employ them," Nya said, "they are the ultimate muscle,"

[Only you would seek to tame savage brutes that do nothing by eat, fight and fuck anything with a pussy.] she chuckled,

"I like a challenge," Nya said, "plus I've already thought of a few things they could do for me."

[I bet you have,] Merlin commented snidely, [by the way, what happened to all those Nya clone corpses?]

Nya just gave a smile, "Oh, I found another use for them."

One day, she called Morgan, Astrid and Eli to her suite. It was an oddity in the middle of the day, so they came to make sure everything was fine.

When they opened the door, they found someone standing naked in front of them, the tan skin, pink hair and eyes made it clear that it was not Nya.

"Surprise kiddies," Rias greeted grinning,

"How they hell did you come back?" Morgan ordered drawing her blasters as Eli and Astrid also assumed battle stances

"Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?" she mocked

"Maybe this will answer your question." Astrid snarled as she launched a psionic blast at the naked intruder, knocking her to the wall.

"Hey, stop, don't hurt her." Nya called as she walked out of the bathroom.

"Mom?" Morgan asked, looking between the two dissimilar twins, "what the fuck is going on?"

"Rias kept all the clones of me she killed in the lab, it was unsettling looking at my murdered copses, so I consumed them, and in doing so learned a new ability; clone." Nya explained, "With it I can create a number of copies of myself."

"Then why was it speaking like Rias?"

"I synthesized another skill; [puppeteer] using [clone] and [hive mind], with it, I can project my consciousness through the clones and control them remotely, they're pretty much mindless."

The Rias clone stood up, then her eyes became dull and she stood motionless, turning back into an exact copy of Nya. Nya approached her and rested her arm against her shoulder,

"I was thinking I could use a body double, ne in multiple places at one." Nya said as clone transformed into blood aura and was reabsorbed into Nya.

"Impressive mom," Astrid said

"Yeah, I've always wanted to fuck myself," Nya purred to herself, "now I can."

"Okay, this just got awkward," Eli said, "So I think that we should leave."

As they left, Nya looked at herself in the mirror. Ever since Merlin built up those mental blocks that locked Rias, Aliya, Nyx and all the other fragments away in the deepest recesses of her subconscious, she'd felt more at peace, but there were still other voices in her head, growing. And even if they weren't a threat now, they could become a hindrance later down the line. Her typical method of suppressing them all had proved ineffective now, so she needed a new approach.

She went to the zero room she'd had installed within her suite, it wasn't as big as the original, but it still served its purpose. Settling on her meditation seat, she crossed her legs and closed her eyes, it was time these freeloaders learned who was boss and started contributing for the headspace.

Accessing the minds that she had assimilated, plus her own locked fragments, she began putting them to work. Lena was the first fragment she coerced into supporting her, reasoning that this was the only way she'd get to offer her insight, the other fragments quickly followed suit when Nya threatened to delete them, not even realizing it was a lie.

Then she focused on the other fragments in her head, her victims, using her ability to manipulate souls, she gave several of these fragments semi-sentience; they could think, but served as only secondary minds for parallel thinking. With this, she could perceive and process information at a much higher capacity.

After that, she started on reconsolidating herself, Rias hadn't meditated once in the three months she had been in control and her body was not the finely tuned machine she liked it to be. The abilities she had assimilated from the Maja like [take over] and [hive mind] were immensely powerful and potentially dangerous, so she worked on breaking them down and reintegrating them into other skills.

With her mana core, she now had a new level of cosmic awareness, she could sense even the most minute of energies within 'empty' space. Hyperion was so crowded, which was why the move to Vulcan was so sensational, hardly anything ever happened this far out.

By the time Nya exited her zero room, 63 hours had gone by, and she realized she was hungry.

"Must've taken more outta me than I thought," she mused to herself as she held her rumbling belly.

With nothing else to do at the moment, she walked out of her suite and vanished.

Before, when she got hungry like this, she'd go to the cafeteria, but now, she teleported herself outside the complex, onto the barren surface of Vulcan's moon. Facing the local sun, she sat down on the dusty ground and bathed in the starlight, the lack of an atmosphere didn't bother her in the slightest as she steadied her breathing and let the solar rays feed her hungry soul. When she felt thoroughly saturated, she stood up, dusted herself off and teleported back inside.

Her soul nourished, it was time to feed her palate. She teleported outside the cafeteria and walked in. the cafeteria was by far one of the largest new areas in the complex. In a place where almost ten thousand people lived, slept and worked, the cafeteria always saw a hive of activity, open at all times, service was broken up into four shifts; breakfast shift, lunch shift, dinner shift & graveyard shift. There were a dozen service stations where food dispensaries dished out nutritionally balanced meals while chefs and galley officers prepared a host of authentic foreign or homegrown cuisine.

Even if she'd lost the need to eat, she still enjoyed the notion of it, plus she still had an experienced tongue with taste buds, and starlight didn't satisfy those. Getting in line with the queue for one of the more popular chefs, Nya chatted up her line mates, she swapped funny stories and dirty jokes with the lot of them, listened to their tales about family drama or relationship troubles and gave advise and opinions on life issues. Ever since her days at the Excalibur, she had been famous for these impromptu drop-ins with the troops, not only did it help keep her humbled it also familiarized her with the people under her command. She didn't just command their respect, she earned their trust.

"…and then he sticks it in the wrong hole, and she screams, 'I knew you were going to be a giant pain in the ass!'." She said, delivering the punchline to her latest dirty joke, the people at the tables around her roared with laughter, some even spitting up their food.

"I gotta say, Director," an older Spartan sitting beside her chuckled, "we lowly grunts down here in the trenches missed hearing your stories."

"I wasn't really myself the last couple of months," Nya said, "I really missed this too, Major"

"Also, you shouldn't feel bad for Jores squad; they went out like the soldiers you raised them to be."

"Yeah, but I was the one killing them," Nya huffed, their deaths still weighed on her, they were her soldiers and they died by her hand.

"Well if I wanted to go out, 'death by Director' seems like a surefire way." A female Taurus opposite them quipped

"I'd make it so quick, you wouldn't even notice you just died," Nya smirked

"Unless we pissed you off," another officer said, "then you'd make it hurt."

Nya just shrugged as she took a sip from her cup. As she continued to socialize, a young kobold approached them, carrying his food tray with him as he stared nervously at Nya.

"H-hey, Director," the kobold called, his voice trembling,

"Yeah," she asked

"I've been hearing rumors about your daughter,"

"Morgan's really famous." Nya said, "Of course there'd be stories about her,"

"Not her. Her sister, the adept."

"Astrid?" Nya asked

"Yeah, they say she's the biggest nympho on this side of quadrant."

"Boy," the elder man snapped, "that's her daughter you're talking about, show a little respect."

"It's alright," Nya said nonchalantly, in truth she'd heard those stories herself. During her twelve-year absence Astrid had become a first-class nymphomaniac, she wasn't going to rebuke Astrid for such behavior as Nya also saw herself as a bit of a slut, she just wished she's been around to help her how to properly control these rampant urges. As long as nobody crossed any lines and no one got knocked up, she'd let Astrid be.

"My daughter is a slut," Nya admitted to everyone, "but hey; so am I. I've had sex with a number of people in this hall right now."

"Aye, and it was truly a night to remember," the taurus woman cheered raising her cup

"As long as it's consensual, I see no problem with it." Nya shrugged, "and it's not like we have any prudes here who'd turn down a good fuck."

"That is true, you Crimson women are great in bed," another officer noted, ignoring the playful glare from Nya

"Are you saying you laid your hands on my daughter, sir?" Nya asked playfully

"Oh, your girl was the one getting laid," the officer retorted, "At a point, I was scared she was going to drown in jizz,"

Nya laughed, finding the anecdote oddly amusing.

"T-th-then," the kobold said, getting their attention again, "w-would you mind i-if I…"

"Slept with Astrid? Not sure why you're asking me, she's the one you should take it up with though I don't really think she'd object."

"N-not her," he said pointing a trembling finger at Nya.

"Oh," Nya said with wide eyes and an agape mouth, the rest of the table bellowed at her reaction.

"Private Draes," the old man laughed, "you are without a doubt one of the bravest men I've ever met; to ask the Director for a fuck, right here in the open? That takes balls of steel,"

The private was red faced, obviously swept up by the moment, he looked ready to run off the next moment.

Nya stood up, marched towards the young kobold, grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him into a deep and passionate kiss. The utter surprise on the private's face was dwarfed by the shock of everyone within viewing distance. Nya decided to make a spectacle of it by loudly moaning and groaning, playing with his tongue as he awkwardly tried to keep up with her while they made out.

Once the kiss had gone on long enough for those watching to start feeling awkward, Nya let the poor kid up for air. A trail of saliva stretched as the only link between them as their lips parted.

"Not that bad a kisser, for a virgin," Nya mused to herself,

His blush deepened, "H-how did you…?"

"Know you were a virgin? It's just something I can tell." she shrugged, "Well, rest assured, you won't be a virgin for much longer, keep yourself free tonight; I'll send for you."

With that, she finished the last of her lunch, dumped her tray in the recycler and teleported out of the cafeteria, leaving multiple eyes on the bewildered young kobold.

* * *

After securing a booty-call for the later night, Nya wandered the complex for a bit before going down to her Vault.

After clearing up all the clone bodies and other twisted paraphernalia Rias had horded in her lab, she had further reorganized thing. For instance, the central core containing the Black Box that used to be in the control room had been moved here, and she had a large primary work area with three stations dozens of screens oriented around a single chair.

[I saw your little spectacle at the cafeteria,] Merlin commented

"What can I say; I haven't had a virgin in a while, plus, I found his innocent naiveté kind of cute, I've never had cute." Nya said as she looked at a screen showing the specs of the World Eater [Ragnarok], "so what's the verdict about the Orb?"

[Can't be recovered without dismantling the chimera Rias created, impressively so I might add.] Merlin said, [a living weapon's platform with shapeshifting tech, fueled by the Orb of Thassah? I wouldn't have come up with that by myself.]

"I agree that we should leave the orb where it is, less chance of another Regis trying to take it from me that way." Nya said, "And what's the status on Vulcan's primary core?"

[Those Praxians were truly gifted; the Stellar Drive we use to power the Excalibur is nothing compared to what's below us.] Merlin said excitedly, [I've taken to calling it the 'Eye of Eternity', and I suspect it should be able to power this whole complex –and likely everything in this quadrant of space indefinitely.]

Nya raised an eyebrow, obviously skeptical, "Really? That's a bold claim,"

[It's a white hole, isolated in a sustained slice of 5th dimensional space-time!] Merlin exclaimed, [They literally trapped a cosmic singularity in a whole other dimension just to leech of its energy! How did they even do that?]

From what Nya knew, white holes were the antithesis of black holes, they were perpetually ejecting matter and energy. Even in Hyperion, they were rare, only early space travelers had ever documented encountering one before, the fact that one was locked in their power generator was a little weird.

"Those Praxians knew how to make a battery," Nya commented

[And how! I don't know how they did this, but I can't wait to figure it out.]

"Any response from any other Praxian installations?"

[Nothing yet, I've sent probes out into the farthest reaches of known space, but this appears to be the only remaining bit of the Praxian civilization in the universe.]

"Maybe they left the universe?" Nya theorized, "I mean, they obviously had the means to construct a way to leave,"

[Then why did they build this ark?] Merlin wondered

Nya looked over at the birthing pods still in the lab, it had once been intended to loom new Praxians, but for whatever reason, the genetic template in all the pods had been erased. Nya realized that Merlin was right, this place may have been originally intended to be an ark, to recreate the Praxian race, but that attempt had ended in failure.

She pressed her hand against the rough surface of one of the birthing pods.

"You grew my clones in here?" Nya asked,

[I repurposed it, yes,] Merlin said [I have a sample of your DNA on record, from there I just needed the damned thing to accept the new template, since it was programmed to only extrapolate key traits that were only present in Praxians. And even after all that, the clones were inferior copies, riddled with all sorts of deformities and imperfections, consuming them all may actually make your MARS worse.]

"Now you tell me," Nya grumbled,

[Hey, I wasn't the one who just had to swallow every last bit of the clones,] Merlin retorted

"Anyway, what if we repurposed the pods to grow other things?" Nya asked

[Well, the ones I used to grow your clones were irrecoverably compromised, so we'd need to start with a default one,] Merlin said, [And from there we'd need a very concentrated genetic template, and even then it might not work properly, but it would be possible.]

"Could we –say— create an even more advanced body for you," Nya said, "maybe even an actual living body,"

Merlin laughed, [And why, in the frozen hell, would I want a flesh body? They break easily, they need constant refueling, they have all these annoying requirements to function, not to mention the need to pass waste… ugh!] she shivered in revulsion,

"It's just that when we first got this place, you used to improve on your android body constantly, finding new configurations to make it work better, but now you're still stuck in the same configuration you used before I was taken." Nya said "Your current form is kind of obsolete."

[Rude, but true.] Merlin sighed, [I've also been thinking that, as amazingly versatile as the bytes are, they're pretty limited in terms of adaptability; there's only so much that they can actually do.]

"Well, this level of nanotechnology is still millennia ahead of everyone else in Hyperion," Nya said,

[You're probably right,] Merlin said, [but we shouldn't get complacent. surtr technology is on par with what we have,]

"I'm never complacent," Nya reminded her, "sooner or later, I know we'll have to deal with the surtr, so we'll need an edge. But for now, we can take it slow,"

The rest of the day went by rather quickly, and Nya found herself back in her quarters. She had made a comfortable apartment for herself in the executive residence. She had waited long enough, now she had a promise to keep.

True to her word, she looked up the young kobold from the cafeteria, private Draes, and called him to her suite. When he got there, he had been nervously pacing around her door for about ten minutes before Nya finally decided to let him in.

"So, do you want to start, or should I?" Nya asked as she took of her top and let her breasts bounce free.

"Um… uh…" he blushed, trying to hide the hardening member between his legs,

"Aw, that's so cute," Nya said, "let me take the lead."

Normally Nya was a selfish lover, prioritizing her own pleasure above all else, if her partner also felt good was always secondary, but something about the young private before her made her break her usual pattern. She taught him about how to please a woman, and he was a surprisingly quick study.

Two hours later, as they laid in her bed, naked, he was passed out while she looked at him. Nya giggled as she looked at him sleeping contently in her bed with a cute smile on his face, why was she being so considerate to this one kobold? It had honestly been very fun training him in sex, more fun than she had anticipated. Teaching him all the little things he could do to drive his partner wild and watching him try it on her had filled her with a sense of accomplishment she hadn't had since she first met her kids. It was different from training Spartans how to fight, or her lessons with the sasquatches. Weirdly enough; it made her feel like a mother again.

"Honestly, who'd have thought taking this kid's cherry would make me feel so sentimental?" she whispered to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Astrid caught the young kobold as he was trying to sneak out of her mother's suite.

"Have a nice night?" she asks, startling the private

"M-miss Astrid?" he stammers

"So my mom takes your virginity, and you try to sneak out of her room the morning after?" Astrid asked, "shame on you!"

He blushed, not meeting her eyes

"Shame you let her have you, I would've loved to have been your first," Astrid purred as she came invasively close to him, whispering into his ear, "I would've done things to you that you wouldn't believe!"

The private jumped back, startled,

"You're scaring the poor man," Valla said stepping out of the suite on the opposite side of the hall, "can't you see he just wants to quietly leave and have a shower."

"Maybe you should have one too? You're starting to smell like my sister," Astrid said, letting the private scurry off towards the elevator. "So how are things going between you and my sister?" Astrid asked

"Why? Want to see what sex is like with me instead?" Valla smirked

"No, I'm not into chicks," Astrid states, "I prefer dick,"

"If I knew my latest conquest would cause this much stir so early in the morning, I'd have gone somewhere else." Nya says from her doorway

"Oh, hi mom," Astrid greets

"Good morning, Director," Valla greets

They both ignore the fact that Nya is completely naked.

"Ah, Valla, you and Morgan should get ready, you're going to be very busy with me today," Nya said

"Why? What's going on?" Valla asked

"Vampires," Nya revealed, "It's time we figured out how you work."

* * *

Valla and Morgan found themselves in the Vault, Nya's personal lab beneath the Obelisk, they were both stark naked and laying on examination tables wired up to all sorts of odd looking machines, the nature of which they'd rather not know. Their wrists and ankles were also bound, securing them to the tables and adding to their discomfort,

"Uh, mom?" Morgan called, "This is safe, right?"

"Of course," Nya said, "Would I put you through this if I knew you were at risk?"

"Well, you did stab me before," Morgan shrugged, since her mom was back, she'd gotten over the experience, but would still use it to guilt her every now and then, it's why she kept the burn scar just below her right breast.

"I've been wondering about this since I discovered that Valla had turned; why don't we make our own vampires?"

"So you want us to make more vampires?" Valla asked

"You're living proof that Morgan is a full-blooded vampire, venom and all… even I had my doubts." Nya said, "It makes sense that you could also create new vampires. And I've been wondering about a vampire-lykan hybrid using Erin, but I'll table that for when she's older."

"I don't think I have it in me to attack people just to create new vampires" Morgan said, "I didn't even want to make Valla into one,"

"No, the procedure would be voluntary, of course. I'm sure I can find a few willing volunteers who wouldn't mind the drawbacks, I should also come up with a counter for those. Which reminds me; how does vampirism affect victims of different physiologies? How would it affect kobolds, or surtr?" Nya said, talking fast. With her added brain power and secondary minds, she could now hold parallel lines of thoughts simultaneously. "First think I would need to do is synthesize vampire venom, but to do that, I need to know definitively where the venom is produced within the body. So I'm gonna need to probe you both a bit."

"I knew I should've stayed in bed," Morgan groaned

"It'll be fine," Nya reassured her as floating discs hovered over both naked vampires, "you might feel a slight tingling."

A multitude of light beams shot from the discs over different parts of their bodies, as Nya had warned, they tickled and not in a good way, but both vampires were restrained so they couldn't move much. The process of the discs mapping out their bodies lasted for an exhaustive three and a half hours, and when it stopped, both Morgan and Valla were squirming.

"I did not like how that felt," Morgan complained

Both discs retuned to one of the workstations around Nya and projected the results of their invasive full body scans.

"So, what did you find?" Valla asked as the restrains came off

"Too soon to tell," Nya replied, looking at another screen entirely, she was also mumbling to herself, "factoring in for light diffraction, adding a filter layer would be the most practical solution…"

"Mom?" Morgan called loudly

"…new energy matrix needed to factor in extra layers… hmm? Yes, sweetie?" Nya replied, still lost in thought before she focused on her daughter.

"Are you feeling alright?" Morgan asked, "You're acting stranger than normal."

"Oh, sorry, I've got like a dozen secondary minds in my head right now," Nya said, "it helps with parallel thinking, but I can get lost in thought."

"Anything I can do to help?" Morgan says, looking at her concerned, she didn't want her mom to go off the ropes again.

"No," Nya said finally looking at their scans, "but the two of you seem undernourished."

"Haven't had much time to feed," Valla shrugged

"As a reward for putting you through this, you two can feed off me." Nya offered

"Are you sure?" Valla asked, Morgan was already licking her lips in anticipation.

"Morgan's done it before." Nya said as she took off her coat, and opened her top, exposing her neck and shoulders, "dig in,"

Not needing any more convincing, both their eyes glowed red as the thirst took over, they lunged at her, sinking their fangs into her flesh. Last time Morgan tasted her mom's blood, the taste was indescribable, but now, after evolving into a cosmic being, her blood tasted like divine nectar. From the first drop, both vampires felt her immense vitality wash over them, raging through their veins and saturating ever cell. Valla now understood why Morgan never felt satisfied with synthetic blood, Nya's blood was instantly addictive and they were hooked.

Nya let them feed off her for a good ten minutes, any other person would have been sucked dry at that point, but she quickly replaced lost blood with reserves she had in her Crimson Void. When they finally released her, they were both panting heavily.

"Mom, you taste amazing!" Morgan exclaimed, with a look of pure bliss on her face "even better than last time."

"So that's what a cosmic being's blood tastes like?" Valla said licking the last traces of blood from her lips, "magnificent."

"I take it you like my blood," Nya quipped,

"I don't think I can go back to ordinary synthetic blood anymore." Valla admitted honestly

"I'll keep a few blood bags for you two then," Nya said

"Really?"

"Yeah," Nya said, "I have a lot reserved in my Crimson Void."

Then, a window message prompted her attention;

[ALERT! DUE TO CONSUMING YOUR BLOOD, YOUR COURT MEMBERS [MORGAN CRIMSON] AND [VALLA NEPTON] NOW HAVE A DEEPER CONNECTION TO YOU! AS SUCH, THEIR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN INCREASED BY YOUR POWER!]

[NOTICE! DUE TO CONSUMING THE LIFE MATTER OF A COSMIC BEING, [MORGAN CRIMSON] AND [VALLA NEPTON] HAVE AWAKENED INTO BLOOD LORDS; A HIGH LEVEL SUB-SPECIES. THEIR VAMPIRIC ABILITIES HAVE BEEN ENHANCED BEYOND THOSE OF TYPICAL VAMPIRES.]

[ALERT! OTHER BLOOD LORD VAMPIRES HAVE BECOME AWARE OF THEIR EXISTENCE.]

"What?" Nya demanded reading the message scrawled on the imaginary screen, she then looked at the two women before her, they didn't look any different, but their power level seemed to have gone up. What concerned her was the last bit about other blood lords being aware of them, from what she remembered, the blood lords were also considered Apex by Providence.

"Mom, is that true?" Morgan asked,

"You saw that too?" Nya gasped

"Yeah," Valla said, "other blood lords are aware of us now, what does that mean for us?"

"Nothing yet," Nya decided, "for now proceed as normal. If the vampires make a move, we will make our own."

"Yes ma'am," Valla saluted

"I trust you, mom," Morgan said

"Alright, now go get dressed; I'm tired of looking at your naked bodies." Nya ordered

As they went to changed, Nya felt Merlin in her head

"Should I be worried?"

[Not yet; the vampires haven't made a large scale move in three thousand years.] Merlin replied, [but the sudden birth of two new blood lords outside their homeworld is not a trivial matter, they're considered vampire royalty. so the others won't stay quiet about this.]

"Watch them," Nya ordered. She created bio-drones, made from manipulating her own biomass the same way the Maja did, they looked like floating red marbles with a vampiric blue eye. she tasked the newly born drones to monitor the two vampires.

She then turned her attention back to the window in her mind, which had one more message that those two had not seen;

[VALLA NEPTON'S EPIC [WINTER SOVEREIGN] HAS BEEN ENHANCED BY [SHE WHO FUCKS WITH FATE]!

[MORGAN CRMISON'S EPIC [ALPHA & OMEGA] HAS BEEN FORCEDLY UNSEALED AND ADVANCED BY [SHE WHO FUCKS WITH FATE]! HER DESTINY [EPIC STEALER] IS NOW IN EFFECT!]

[NOTICE! THE EPIC OF MORGAN CRIMSON HAVE COME INTO CONFLICT WITH ANOTHER BLOOD LORD!]

A conflict of epics didn't sound like something that ended well. She then tasked one of her secondary minds solely to prepare anti-vampire defensive measures. Whatever was coming for her daughter, she'd be ready to kill it.

* * *

With the influx of new projects that Nya suddenly found herself with, she became increasingly busy around Vulcan, she even created a clone to take on some of the workload, controlling it through her puppeteer ability.

The sight of two or more Nya's roaming the halls quickly became an everyday thing, except to Terror who was seriously freaked out when he came over for a visit and encountered the two of them at the same time.

"Can you ever be normal?" he demanded after calming down from his initial fright

"This is normal form me now," the two Nyas in front of him said in perfect sync, "you just haven't been around enough to acclimatize."

"Don't do that, it creeps me out." He said

"Fine, I have work to do anyway," one of them said, walking out of the lounge, "bye Terror, bye me."

"Make sure those budget projections are done by the time the other me gets back," the other Nya said before turning to Terror, "So what's up?"

"Well, the Primark asked me to bring a proposition to you," he said

"Can't Morag come here and bring it himself?" Nya said

"His expansion plans have come to a halt because of the elves," Terror said, "They've started to push deeper into the sector, estimations say they'll be in our territory within a couple of years."

"Plenty of time," Nya said, "I sent you the schematics for that new defense platform, right?"

"He thinks it's not going to be enough," Terror says, taking a seat, "The elves are a superpower for a reason, they even took out the Excalibur,"

"Hey, they only damaged her a bit," Nya protested, "I was the one who took her out."

"Yeah, but the invulnerability of the Excalibur class was what he hinged this entire thing on. When two Excalibur ships went to engage the elves advanced fleet and only one came back, it sent a pretty clear message. Support for his expansion plan has been dying down. Some junior councilmembers have even suggested uniting under another stronger nation."

"That's a terrible idea," Nya advised, "Right now Avalon is a treasure trove to other nations due to its mythril mines and access to Praxian technology, if we admit that we're at a disadvantage we'll be subjugated and extorted."

"We, huh?" Terror noted

"Do you forget the years I spent building up Avalon, it's as much my home as it is Morag's," Nya said

"I'm happy you feel that way," Terror said, "Because the High Order would like you to fulfill your patriotic duty,"

"I already pay my taxes, what else does the government want from me?" Nya asked,

"He wants you to take your old job back," Terror said,

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, he wants to reinstate you as Grand Marshal,"

Nya took a full minute to laugh at the declaration, "No; I like being retired, and I have all these hobbies to occupy my time. Besides, the office of Grand Marshal is only to be invoked in times of great national crisis, to take over the government when a centralized head is needed. So far, that has not happened."

"Nya, you don't know this because you lost your tier 1 credentials, but the situation is worse than you think." Terror said heaving a tired sigh. "every day, long-range probes detect movement in elven controlled territory, our farthest probes are being attacked and disabled. Star Command is in a mess since Dax was demoted and his replacement took over, and I'm floundering trying to keep Cerberus together, not to mention laisse with the Providence garrison stationed here," Terror said, "it's too much,"

Nya didn't like to see Terror like this, she had come to consider him as her first and closest friend and confidante. Even if she didn't show it, she valued his insight and opinion as much as she valued his phantasm. He's been her ally from the very beginning, when she had nothing, and had still chosen to follow her.

"Terror, contrary to what anyone may think, I consider you to be my closest friend; why didn't you come to me sooner if you needed help?" she asked tenderly.

"You built the government on your own for like ten years without cracking from the pressure," he said, "what sort of partner would I be if I couldn't even just handle running the military?"

"You're a real dumbass, you know that?" she snapped,

"Yeah, I do," he chuckled

"You aren't my partner," Nya clarified, "you've never been my partner,"

"Okay, ouch," Terror replies, "then I guess you should reevaluate our relationship then?"

"Terror, you've always had my back; you took care of my kids when I couldn't be here for them, you rush to my side or offer to aid at the first hint of trouble. You never needed to be my partner, you're my right hand, literally." Nya gestured to her burning right shoulder,

"Thanks," Terror said, "I appreciate the sentiment, and the pun."

"I figured you would," Nya shrugged, "Since you are clearly lost without my guidance, and I refuse to take my old job back, I believe I have a solution for you." the blood aura flame at her right shoulder suddenly flared outward, separating from her body and forming another clone of Nya, newly born and bare-ass naked. Nya then pulled some clothes out of her Crimson Void, a Cerberus Command military uniform, which the new clone quickly put on.

"What is this?" Terror asked

"What does it look like, a sex doll?" Nya scoffed, "Meet your new assistant,"

"I already have an assistant, Paige, she's quite good at it too."

"I'm not a personal assistant," the clone said, in a monotone Nya voice, "I'm your military advisor and consultant. My purpose is to help you alleviate some burden you've found yourself under since my retirement."

"What's wrong with it?"

"She's not an it," Nya defended, "and I really don't have time to focus on my shit and your shit at the same time, so I diverted one of my secondary minds to do it; she can advise you and carry out simple tasks, but that's about it. Also, I'd advise keeping her to yourself, she had absolutely no filter and could blurt our whatever random though passes through her head."

"Odyssey into the Unknown, epic parameters unspecified. current holder; Te…" the clone started to say, but Nya snapped her fingers and the clone's head drooped as she went to sleep.

"See what I mean?"

"What did you just do?"

"I just turned her off," Nya said, "she is just an extension of me,"

"But what was it saying about epics and an odyssey?" Terror wondered

"Never mind that, just a random string of words that was passing through my minds," Nya said dismissively, "you should get home; you look like you need a decent week's rest."

"Can't, need to get back to the office." Terror said, "With this new helper in my possession, I need to start reviewing some proposal."

He stood up to leave and finding himself frozen.

"It's a good thing Rias figured out how to do that," Nya said as she lifted him with her telekinesis,

"What the fuck are you doing?" he demanded

"Getting you home." Nya said, "And I'll hear no complaints."

"You can't do this," Terror objected, "I really need to get back to w-"

"Shut up." Nya said before she pushed him into a red fissure in space.

A short while later, Nya arrived at the front door of the penthouse apartment of Terror and Mari Quinn.

She knocked on the door and Mari answered, "Nya? Well, this is a surprise."

"Yeah, I thought I should return this to you," Nya said as she pulled Terror from the [Pandora's Box] and deposited him on the floor.

"Can you believe he hasn't been home in three days," Mari said as she checked on him. He seemed to be out cold.

"I also gave him a heavy sedative; he'll be out for hours… or days, if I got the dosage wrong in there." Nya said, "when he wakes up, tell him that I've revoked his ID for a week so he wouldn't be able to get into the office even if he tried."

"Wow, that's wonderful," Mari said looking down at her husband, "he's been stressed lately."

"I could tell," Nya said, "Well, I should get going,"

She was about to leave when she heard the stomping of small feet running towards her

"Auntie Nya! Auntie Nya!" Terror's twins, Erin and Noah called as they ran up to her, the last time she saw them they were barely up to her knees, now they were almost fifteen-years-old. In another year or so they would be legally adults.

Erin was a lykan and looked just like Terror, with her grey hair and bright eyes, while Noah was a taurus and took after Mari, with a mop of shaggy brown hair that covered his eyes and hid the two horns that grew from his temples. As their godmother, Nya was already acquainted with them. Besides her own kids, these two were the only children Nya had any interaction with.

"You've both gotten so big," Nya exclaimed as they almost tackled her in a hug, Nya reciprocated, using a blood aura tendril to hug them. Ever since she became a mother herself, she became fonder of Terror's kids. They were just so fucking adorable when they were younger that she couldn't help but dote on them. It's the reason they have such a generous trust fund.

"Auntie Nya," Erin said, "Dad said that your ship blew up, is that true?"

"Unfortunately it is," Nya said, "Your father should know; he was there when it happened."

"I really wanted to board your ship one day," Erin pouted

"Not to worry; I'm building another one as we speak, a better one. And when it's done I'll take you on a ride around Avalon."

"Promise?"

"My word is my bond," Nya said

"Um, Auntie Nya," Noah said, "Can I see Astrid?"

From how he blushed, Nya figured he probably had a little crush on her, so precious, so naïve.

"Not right now, she's very busy."

"Then can we come and visit you?" Eris asked

Nya turned to Mari, who just shrugged

"Uh, not just yet…" Nya said, "I'm still remodeling my new home."

"Don't worry you two," Mari said taking the kids from Nya, "I'm sure Nya will invite us over as soon as she's done with her new place."

"Of course," Nya assured

"Okay," Noah said as Erin led him back into the apartment.

"Those two are growing up strong," Nya noted

"They're teenagers now, always hyper or moody about something or other." Mari sighed, "prophets above, when did I get so old?"

"You and me both," Nya chuckled, "one minute my kids are still young and adorable, then next thing I know, they're full grown adults."

"Well that's to be expected, you were kidnapped by a monster," Mari said, "Y'know, back when I was a prisoner at the internment camp, I was sort of a cam therapist. I helped a lot of us out dealing with trauma and other mental or psychological issues,"

"Is this getting to a point?" Nya asked

"You went through a very traumatic experience, trapped in a waking nightmare for twelve whole years," Mari said, "that's enough to leave a mental scar on even the toughest person, if you ever want to talk about what you went through—?"

"No." Nya snapped, "I appreciate you trying to help, but whatever demons I brought back from that experience are staying right where they belong; in my head. That way they don't hurt anyone else."

"But Rias was a part of you, is a part of you," Mari said, "don't you think it would be healthier to confront whatever else might be lurking?"

"Honestly? No." Nya said tersely, before suddenly vanishing into thin air.

"Nya?" Mari called looking around for a few seconds, before heaving a sigh, "Sure, leave me to carry my unconscious husband to the bed by myself," Mari huffed as she started to drag Terror, feet-first, into the house.