Haven Uprising

Finale

The suits fitted fine, over every single rebel around us. Everyone carried a rainbow. On the outside this time.
It was crowded, like pride but much more densely packed, and all moving in the same direction with the same purpose.

Tia gave my hand a quick squeeze, and I returned the gesture, grateful she was with me.

I was in a group of people I knew, Tia, Luna and them lot. Even though I couldn't see far over everyone's heads, I could still see a few hovercarriers with laser canons mounted on them.

A few metres to my right was one of the mechs, towering over all of us. It moved slightly slower than the army so people had to keep parting for its massive hydraulic legs, but it was pretty menacing. It reminded me of a scorpion, having two massive glowing guns on the front like pincers, and a tail-like section which ended in a glowing blue energyblade. Pinkie grinned down at everyone from the cockpit.

Valkyrie was big, ditching any pretence at being a human. Well except the lab coat of course. She looked a lot like a transformer, metal head and coloured armour that screamed MACHIIINE at anyone looking. She had far more guns than I could count, her entire body bristling with them like a hedgehog. Her eyes glowed, and she didn't have any visible mouth. I got the feeling she'd put the autobot icon there somewhere, but I couldn't see yet.

In front of us, so close I could even see it here over everyone's heads, was the towering curve of The Dome.
The grey, opaque glass seemed to deny us entry, and so did all the soldiers.
And the mechs. And every other syndicate-owned thing around here.

Mounds of broken robot-parts lay on the ground behind us - presumably from mechs, along with massive orbs with shooty bits on them. Those had apparently been more ion cannons.
This seemed far too easy, unless Morwenna was just that good at planning.

Except there was still a thinning line of soldiers standing in front of the dome's front wall, and they looked ready to scatter.

The sounds of laserbeams, small explosions and just flat out fighting echoed off the buildings around us, making it sound far more intense than it actually was.

The assault plan had worked pretty well so far, completely obliterating the extensive defence formation already set up.

"We can break through the front wall!"Nico suggested, shouting over the dull roar of everyone else shouting and pointing at the wall of soldiers.
"And go inside and stop Vindicator!"Gideon added

"I can break it,"Me Tia and Luna offered simultaneously
"Okay Autumn, there's no point getting hurt if anyone else can do it,"Tia weighed up,"And how the fuck do you suggest light beams would work on glass?" She adressed the last part to Luna.
Luna shrugged,"Melty melty."
"Ok whatever, but I'm doing it,"Tia finalised, stepping forwards a bit more.

The last soldiers had scattered now, and the way open was clear; the figure of Morwenna still pointing and giving orders to get rid of the rest of the troops.
Tia spread both hands forwards, snapping them in the air as I felt a pulse emit from here that felt like it warped the air itself.
It hit the glass, and a large portion of it shattered inwards, the shards covering the floor.

I felt the crowd surge forwards behind me, with something to do again.
"Well we're gonna get pushed inside anyway now,"I observed,"Does anyone know what the Dome's inside structure is like cuz I have no idea what to expect."
"It used to be spacious and bright with lots of individual offices, and everything you could ever need,"Luna supplied,"But honestly, Vindicator could've done anything to it by now."
"I'm expecting massive experiment chamber,"Nico laughed,"You know lots of wires and all that sciencey stuff."

He wasn't disappointed.
It was what it said on the label, the inside being a literal massive Dome.
In front of us stood a pretty thick wall of glass, and inside of that were a huge network of wires and things that sparked with electricity. In the evening darkness I could barely see what was in the middle, but it looked like a black-clad figure.

They had deep black hair that came down to their shoulders, and a mask that only covered the right side of their face. Where it was broken away, a sliver of skin showed through, along with a glimpse of their eye which shone grey.
Vindicator.

Their body seemed to shine with a glint of dark metal, carrying no other colour upon the entire set.

Just black.

I'd learnt that black was one of the weirdest colours; that instead of letting light bounce off it to produce a tone like anything else on the planet, it absorbed all of them. She seemed like that, leeching all of the colours out of the air, leaving us all in her darkness.

"Here to stop me, with your pitiful rebellion?"She asked, voice a bone-chilling amalgamation of something human and that kylo ren knock-off. She snapped two wires together, letting them drop to the ground with a clunk before moving towards something that looked like a warp pad from steven universe- a round blue crystalline disk in the ground.

"This is your last chance to surrender,"Morwenna declared from somewhere I couldn't see
She was getting a chance? After all this?

"Me? Surrender? I'm good, thank you,"Vindicator was pressing a few buttons, flipping a few switches along panels beside her,"I'll admit your victory is impressive- coming all the way in here past my reasonably small army, having me surrounded and pretty much at your disposal, but here's the thing."
She turned, to look at where Morwenna's voice had come from,"Did you ever expect to win, Morwenna? Really?"
"Of course,"Morwenna replied slowly, and I saw her now, her figure glowing slightly golden with shields.
"Sure you did,"Vindicator chuckled,"Then how did you let me get to the point where I could do this?"

Vindicator's arms blazed to life with electricity and all of our surroundings went blurry.

The glass - all of it – shattered outwards, and I felt the shockwaves emmanating from where Vindicator stood; so strong I felt my feet slipping against the floor. A faint screaming roar that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once filled my ears, and I couldn't hear anything else.

I gripped Tia's hand tight, but theirs clasped mine more weakly than they would have normally.

I looked at them; their skin tone and features distorted from whatever Vindicator was doing. They looked like they were dying, a pained gasp on their features and a glowing bright ball of light collecting just above their chest.

No, this was going to STOP RIGHT NOW.
It didn't work. Not even a shallow cut. Just nothing.

I looked round at everyone else, almost all of them in the same condition as Tia, collapsing with their glowing life-essense drifting out of them.
I tried to touch Tia's but it was like it was insubstantial. My fingers passed right through it.

It began to move, slowly at first but building up speed. I followed its path through the air, going all the way from where we stood to melt into Vindicators armour, along with all the other power orbs doing the same. There were so many, so many people's powers being taken it was like a meteor storm.
And Vindicator just stood in the centre of all of it.

Then, abruptly the ghostly aura faded, and everyone collapsed.

Tia lay on the ground gasping, and I kneeled over them, worried for the worst.
"Autumn,"they mouthed, their breathing ragged,"I lov-"
Their eyelids drooped and their head rolled to the side.

I felt my eyes widen as I rushed to put a hand to their neck to check for a pulse.
They couldn't just be dead. Not Tia.
I couldn't feel a pulse, only my own heartbeat throbbing far too loudly in my own ears.

I more heard than saw Vindicator's triuphant laugh, ending with her murmuring,"Game Over."