Alternative Stories

My work continued, I was currently focused on a small section of my Sanctuary, a section of grass land that boarded a forest to the North and lake to the east. The land was more flat and compact here, simple dirt roads had formed along with around two dozen or so rather crude looking wooden structures that resembled longhouses scattered throughout this seemingly makeshift town.

Not far from this small collection of wooden buildings, roughly one hundred and fifty meters away to be precise, did something appear. Within the span of a few moments two massive spaceships seemed to just materialize out of nowhere. The first one was larger than the other, it was around three hundred meters long and was covered in various weapon platforms, the second one however, well, it was smaller at around one hundred meters or so but it looked far more advanced when compared to the first.

"And done..." I muttered as I glanced over my handiwork.

[Good work.] Cyan hummed in the back of my head.

"Thanks."

Honestly creating the buildings was the hardest part of this entire process, mainly because the System refused to help in any way at all. What I truly found just down right annoying about this whole situation however, was the fact that it could help me literally alter gravity and tamper with the laws of physics, but the moment I wanted to build a house or a road? Oh no, I've suddenly started speaking an entirely different language that this god-like System can't possibly understand...

[Now that that's all done with and out of the way, all you need to do now is release what you want from your storage space.] She commented, causing me to nod slowly before asking.

"About that, do I need to be here to take things out of my storage space?"

[No, you can take anything out that you may need while you're physically within your Sanctuary, so you don't have to worry about that.] She explained.

"Got it." I mused as I turned back to the screens that were in front of me. "Oh and before I go, there's something I want to ask."

[And that is?]

"I know I could just buy a Gift or something for this, however can I heal those within my storage space by spending Reward Points instead?" I asked, after all I had promised myself to heal all of the injuries of Mel and the others if at all possible.

[Oh I see.] Cyan chuckled with what I guessed to be a soft smile on her face. [No, you can't spend Rewards Points to heal those within your Sanctuary, however...]

"Did you just...?" I muttered while taking a guess as to what she had just done.

[Indeed I did, considering it an apology present for having to deal with my brother's...antics.] she chuckled weakly before quickly adding. [However, it appears that one of them doesn't want his injuries to be healed.]

"Jonas?" I asked, knowing that all of his "injuries" were self-inflicted.

"Indeed." I just sighed and shook my head at that.

"Anyway, thank you for the help, I really appreciate it." I said genuinely.

[It is no problem at all my dear, now get going, I'm sure you have much to do.]

"Thank you again for the help." I waved at her before then turning around and preparing to leave.

Fortunately I had already figured out how to enter my Sanctuary awhile ago, after all it wasn't that hard to comprehend. There was a button that when pressed would immediately teleport me into my Sanctuary, my only fucking wish was that everything within the Nexus was this simple to understand.

(I just realized...how the hell am I going to explain all of this to Ashley, Conner and all the rest?) I thought to myself as I pressed the button in question and suddenly felt myself go completely weightless.

A second later I found myself in new yet familiar surroundings, thankfully this time I didn't feel like vomiting my guts out. "They shouldn't be too mad at me, right?" I asked but found myself unable to find much confidence in that idea "...Right?

"Who am I bloody kidding, Ophelia is going to kill me when she finds out..." I sighed while rubbing my head crest.

(Welp...here goes nothing I guess...)

                 _ _ _Ophelia Pov_ _ _

Dark...everything was dark...it was like I was dreaming, hovering peacefully in a blank void where nothing but myself existed. I should have been nervous, afraid even, but no, all I felt was a strange warmth, a calming and peaceful sensation that filled my mind and put me at ease.

I don't know how long I was there for, however before I knew it there was a flash of light and I felt myself jerk upwards, at least I think I was pulled upwards, after all I couldn't really tell which direction I was facing previously. Anyway, soon after I awoke in what appeared to be some kind of shabbily put together town made of crappy and primitive looking houses, and I wasn't alone either.

For a moment I just sat there with a puzzled expression, however a voice quickly pulled me from my thoughts. "Ophelia?" 

"Grandfather? Your...your scars..." I muttered when I noticed that all the old wounds on his body had disappeared. 

"I know, they're all just...just gone." He sighed in slight awe as he looked at his arms.

"Where exactly are we?" I asked after a moment of brief silence but he looked just as confused as I was currently feeling.

"I don't know...I really don't..." I muttered and I noticed that the small crowd of people with him, some I recognized, didn't seem to know anything either.

Taking a second to glance around once more I noticed something. Despite the rather shitty looking town that surrounded us I couldn't help but notice that the landscape beyond it was, well, stunning to say the least. (Beautiful...)

"Errm...Hey..."

Turning my head I was momentarily confused, after all there was no one there, that was until I looked down slightly at least. There, standing just off to the side, was one of those creepy black things, however considering the voice that had just come out of its mouth, well, I almost immediately understood who this was.

"Explain. Now." I growled, causing the creature in question to rub her head nervously.

"Y-yes ma'am..."

               _ _ _Carmen Pov_ _ _

"You...you all okay?" I muttered after finishing my explanation of the current events.

I had currently only taken a handful of people out of my storage space thing, mainly because I didn't really want to be berated with questions from dozens upon dozens of people right off the bat. I had also only brought out humans for now, deciding to leave the Yautjas and xenos for later. Anyway, I, of course, had left out a few things from my explanation, for example, the fact that they're entire universe was created just as a test for me and probably was erased from existence by Goldy the moment I completed the Trial.

"Okay...? Okay?!" Ophelia hissed in both frustration and anger. "With all of the unbelievable shit you just told us! How the fuck are we supposed to be "okay" with all of that bloody crap?!"

"F-fair enough..." I chuckled awkwardly.

"Do not talk to my Queen that way." Ashley snapped causing Ophelia to glare at her.

"Indeed, you should show her some respect." Roseanne hissed in agreement.

"Shut the hell up you obsessed bitchs."

"Honestly...I don't care." Harper sighed, causing everyone to look over at her. "What?"

"I'm kind of surprised, I thought that you'd think this was completely unbelievable." Connor said with his usual stoic expression.

Harper just slowly shook her head at that. "That may be true, however you can tell she's not lying to us." She shrugged with a blank look on her face.

(Thank god for the hive mind...) I muttered internally, honestly without access to the hive mind I doubt that any of them would have believed me.

"That's not the point, what about our old lives?" Ophelia huffed in irritation.

"It's not like most of us had anything to go back to anyway." That made Ophelia pause, she looked like she wanted to argue but couldn't find the words too. "We were all thrown onto that planet for a reason after all, well, except for those three but you get my point." Harper hummed the last part while gesturing towards Ashley, Connor and Red.

"Honestly isn't this better, I mean at least now we have a fresh start." Harper shrugged causing a deep silence to blanket the gathered group.

"Magnificent, absolutely magnificent!" Jonas laughed after a moment breaking the quiet atmosphere that had formed. "I must say you bring up several excellent points my dear, but yes, you are exactly correct."

He grinned at Harper before snapping his head in my direction. "I have so many questions to ask of you, however I will attempt to restrain myself for now."

"Thanks for that I guess..." I was genuinely surprised he could actually contain himself considering the look in his eyes

"In all honesty however, I must agree with Miss Harper on this one." Edward sighed after a moment of contemplation causing Ophelia to look at him somewhat betrayed.

"Fine...I'll drop it." She sighed in frustration before glaring at me. "You still have a lot of explaining to do."

"That's perfectly fair."

"Also by the way...why the hell are you so small? I mean I expected you to be massive or something, but this..." She said while motioning to, well, all of me.

"Even though it annoys me to admit my queen, I must agree with her, is this because you're a variant or something else?" Rosanna asked curiously.

Shaking my head slightly I quickly momentarily shifted back into my true size "Satisfied?" I asked, causing Ophelia to nod with a somewhat startled expression. "Good." Was all I said afterwards as I shrunk back down again.

"Damn..." Conner muttered causing Red to slowly nod his head in agreement.

Sighing to myself I continued while trying to ignore the fact that Ashley, Jonas and Roseanne were looking at me with stars in their eyes. "So...what now?"

"Preferably I'd like if we could create some better housing or something along those lines, after all, those pieces of shit over there don't look very well made to me." Ophelia muttered while gesturing to one of the houses behind her.

"Hey!" I hissed slightly offended by that little comment. "I tried my best okay...it's not my fault that the stupid fucking System makes no damn sense..." I grumbled before sighing slightly.

"You can always stay in the ship on the edge of town, at least until we can set up something better than the "shit" that I put together." I huffed causing Ophelia to roll her eyes at me.

"If we had access to any Synthetics our job would be far easier." Harper muttered with a tilt of her head.

Hearing that little comment Connor was quick to chime in. "The ship should have some on board I think." 

"We'd have to reprogram them though, don't want them turning violent because we are not a part of the company." He shrugged.

"I thought that Synthetics couldn't harm humans." Edward hummed, sounding a little concerned.

"Normally that is the case, yes, however those made by Weyland Yutani can be...well...rather volatile at times." Conner growled with a distant and annoyed look on his face.

"Let me check if we even actually have any first..." I mused as I pulled up the information on the things within my storage.

It didn't take me long to find the robotic beings in question. (They still creep me out even after all this bloody time.) I thought while glancing through the dozens upon dozens of images and descriptions displayed for me to see.

"There are far more than I was actually expecting there to be." I mused, causing Connor to perk up.

"Great, how many?"

"Around one hundred and eighteen or so, however only around seventy nine of them are completely intact while the others have been afflicted with various amounts of damage." 

"And their individual functions?" Harper asked, causing me to quickly check through the information once more.

"From what I can tell around forty or so have been programmed for maintenance and engineering, around thirty two were made for security and combat, as for the rest, well, I have no idea to be honest."

"Alright, now we just need to think up a proper plan for what we'll be doing moving forward." Edward added, causing me to realize that this little meeting of ours was going to go on for a while.

(Let's just hope Decker doesn't mind waiting just a little bit longer...)