“Wouldn’t it be lovely,” Jasprosesprite^2 purred from the darkness, “If we had one of those time-whatevers, so I could hope to talk some sense into you. But.”
A flash of toothy grin shined for a fraction of a second in the darkness. A Dirk was already there, his Katana slashing through … nothing.
“We know you wouldn’t have allowed that.”
A Moon. Dirk would had wished this planet, prepped by Skaia for another session, had moonlight. It was more dramatic. Suiting. “We were in space for three years-“
“Yes, yes, that troll girl has wasted almost half her life on riding through void. Three times what you have, twice what Rose has. But that wasn’t her request.”
Rosebot wasn’t rebooting – if it could be called that – yet.
“Oh, no, it was before you felled her. By sword or convenient programming, you felled her. And even if she didn’t have time to struggle, she had time to realize it.”
“How long have you been here?” There was a pattern to the many angles the sprite’s voice came from – and he was not the focal point. There were at least two. And Rose’s disabled robotic form seemed to be the second one.
“I anticipated the request of her – ‘ascended’ I think you called it – form… what, four years ago? I am somewhat limited in my capabilities, I figured it was better to scout ahead.”
“Why not nip you antagonist in the bud? I wasn’t ascended four years ago.”
“That’s not how causality works, and you know it. And she needed to know it.”
“I won’t let you take my seer.”
“We also both know that’s not the goal. You’ve already unlocked PvP.”
It was a squished star pattern. Every “jump” would place the sprite’s path inbetween the robot and Dirk. He carefully stepped away from the robot, to optimize the height of his initial jump. The battle, if she survived the initial hit – which she most likely could, given the makeup of a sprite – would be a midair one. If he could take off the sprite’s head in the first swing, it’s would give it a perspective disadvantage – he might even be able to snarkily captchalogue her beheaded body. After which the head would be more easily managed. Perhaps even displaying it in his new, uncrashed, private study.
“Do you feel like more banter?”
“No.”
Dirk remembered Jasprose’s fenestrated planes, and his own extended journeys via them. It was no surprise that one appeared at the intersection point – one he was not going to be tricked into jumping through. It also would not have been a surprise that Jasprose appeared differently than she had, dollike, long jointless limbs, flashing pink and purple at various speeds. But as she flew towards him, her tunic was a darker purple than her previous color scheme merited.
There was no surprise. She had 4 years to implement one aspect of his plan. But, he would have expected a navy blue. Void. Not Rage.
She disappeared. Instead… that was him. His backside. He did a practiced jump to to left-
And found himself in the same place. Tunnel vision. Of all people, him.
His shoulder hit his shoulder in warped space.
~
Due to her nature, Jasprosesprite^2 could not truly breathe a sigh of relief – she had no lungs to do so. She brought the third set of fenestrated planes – the top and bottom ones – against each other.
It would not hold him indefinitely. But, Jasprose expected, Dirk didn’t realize the requirements of proper ascension.
No, it was foolish to think this as well. There was less room between those portals that it took to store a body – but he’d find somthing. Even if she could captchalogue it, he’d find something. But Dirk didn’t have the luxury of God-tiering twice. His ego would force him to keep his body for a while, trying to escape – and it would take time for a new one to manifest afterwards. But she would miss the use of her planes in the meantime.
Jasprose hovered over the still-disabled bot. Oh, this Rose survives. There are memories.
There was nobody saying she couldn’t play with them now.
____
I’ve been informed Jasprosesprite^2 wasn’t in the Epilogues.
Thanks to the recap, I never have to finish them.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187631
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