As Mark had decided to focus on getting his ship done, he tuned out other distractions, having fed more in the last two weeks than he had previously in his entire life he didn't have any biological distractions either, so he made swift progress and by the end of the week the scattered parts and assorted commercial electronics had actually turned into something that looked like a ship
'Alright, only thing left I need to do personally is the tuning of the maneuver thrusters and main thrusters, but I'll need to wait for the armor plating to get delivered to take her out on her maiden flight to do that'
Measuring around 20 meters long, 8 meters high and 18 meters wide, the ship Mark had made looked like most other medium-sized ships from the outside, however considering the grade, size and quantity of weaponry and maneuver thrusters, the ship itself appeared as a weird mix between a military ship and a millionaire's joyrider
'20 or so hours until the first of the armor panelings is getting delivered… I could go to sleep…'
Eventually however Mark decided against going to sleep (or at least the closest he could get to it) and materialized some clothes before he flew over to the airlock and set the hanger to repressurize
"Oh right…"
Remembering he had to turn his personal console back on Mark casually punctured his own stomach and reached in where he grabbed the console he had swallowed and pulled it out of his body before he switched it back on, as the pressure were gradually restored Mark browsed the local SubNet to check if anything major had happened while he had been busy with building his ship
"Hmm…"
What Mark was seeing wasn't anything out of the normal, which in of itself was a problem
'No way the Iron Snakes' information control is that good'
The lack of bad news were worrying Mark because of what should logically have happened, having set up the Iron Snakes to gobble up all of the station's underworld, some unrest would be expected
'...'
Instead of dismissing his own paranoia like he usually would Mark crushed his console in his hand before it finished booting up and dropped the pieces on the floor
'Right… bolting without the armor paneling isn't ideal, but I might have too'
Stepping out from the private hanger Mark saw neither Nathan nor Erika waiting for him, in fact no security officer were anywhere to be seen
"Hmm"
Locking the hanger up behind him Mark walked towards the metro while keeping alert, a tense ride, Mark stepped out of the station near Carol's bar, walking down the familiar street Mark found it strangely unfamiliar. Even when he stepped into Carol's bar Mark found the whole scene before him subtly different, scanning the bar guest for a few moments. Mark eventually zeroed in on the source of his discomfort, a woman in her mid 20's sat at the bar, she had short platinum blonde hair and wore a white crop top with a large leather jacket laid over the the chair next her
'...'
Silently slipping his sword out from the palm of his right hand Mark grabbed the hilt before he walked over and sat down in his usual booth, as he kept a close look on the woman at the bar
"Hey Mark"
Mark gave Carol a nod as she sat down a glass of water on his table, Mark took a sip before he gestured discreetly towards the woman at the bar and asked
"Is she a local?"
Carol shook her head
"She showed up 4 days ago and have been occupying that seat half a day at a time since"
"What about Nathan and Erika?"
"I've not seen them around since you were here last… Should I go out back?"
"No, I'll draw her out if it comes to it"
Carol nodded
"Alright"
Mark presented his hand and Carol took it for a few moments to lessen her negative emotions before she walked back to the bar. That was when the stranger spoke up
"Mind if I join you, Mark?"
Mark tensed up internally as his sword began vibrating silently as he used it to begin to build a current of annihilation, however, as the stranger stood and turned around to face Mark he froze, He recognized her face, it was one he had seen many times before. It was the face of the mortal Mark was most familiar with
'No, it's not Lisa… However the similarity is definitely there, most likely familial…'
That's when it finally clicked for Mark, the cadence and slightly flat tone of voice had masked his memory of this voice. It was that of his oldest friend
"...Luna?"
The stranger picked up her jacket and tilted her head slightly to the side as she asked with a slightly puzzled look on her face
"Yes, what is it Mark?"
As a daze overtook Mark's mind Luna, in the flesh, nonchalantly walked over and took a seat in front of Mark that continued to stare blankly at her, Luna took this as a silent question and answered
"We decided to use sister's DNA as a base for my body, however as a direct clone had some adverse psychological effects on the both of us, I used a double-scrambled algorithm to change the XX and XY genomes while conserving the original biological donors, effectively producing a genetic offspring of her parents, which I now inhabit"
"...So you are real flesh-and-blood sisters now?"
A small smile showed on Luna's face as she nodded, she gave off a mostly proud, timid, and slightly embarrassed scent
"I see you didn't skimp on the emotional capacity either"
A light blush spread over Luna's face as she gave a wide smile
"It took some getting used to… Do you mind if we head somewhere more private to talk?"
Mark was about to answer when a loud, deranged voice echoed out from the street outside the bar
"YOUNG LORD!"
Mark ignored the obnoxious scream of a deranged lunatic, however, as he noticed a distinct tick clear annoyance on Luna's face he realized she knew the lunatic
"Who's that?"
Luna clicked her tongue
"Just some crazy stalker, it also insists it's my eldest sister"
A moment later a pale man in his late teens stumbled into the bar, his eyes were bloodshot with deep shadows under then, he looked frail bordering on malnourished and didn't wear any shoes and when he laid eyes on Mark, Mark's vision disappeared, it took him a moment to recognize why, the 'scent' this young man gave off was so strong it drowned out his other senses
"Young lor— Agh…"
The sound of the pale man did enter Mark's ears for a moment, however it was quickly stifled along with any further sounds as Mark entered a feeding frenzy, he didn't know how but he reckoned he had properly closed the distance between himself and this most delicious-looking meal, not that he cared at the moment
"...Hmm"
Mark regained his senses, it appeared the meal was over, and looking around he realized why
"Ah… Sorry about that Carol"
The immediate area around him was caked in blood and viscera as he still held onto the mangled remains of the young man
"...You are paying for that, Mark—cleanup up and lost revenue"
"Sure thing"
Mark followed Carol with his eyes as she unlocked the door behind the bar with a keycard
"Lock up when you're done, I'll call in for a deep clean in half a days time"
As Carol closed the door behind her the front of the bar closed down and was sealed from the outside
"...Well, we got our privacy in the end"
"Well, not quite"
Luna gazed at the mangled corpse that laid on the ground and reached into her jacket where she pulled out a ballistic pistol and shot once, hitting the fractured skull of the corpse breaking a bionic neurointerface
"Now we're alone"
"Right… Is it a machine spirit like you?"
Luna shrugged before she explained
"Well, not quite, they loathe biological bodies and life in general… Yet the attachment to the Scourge that created it drives it to search for its 'New lord' quite obsessively"
"I see, how did he, it, get so attached to me?"
Luna fired another shot at the mangled corpse once again, this time out of clear spite before she spoke
"They are the one that helped us out when we were trailblazing in the deep void"
"...Right, thank you for reminding me, my memory have been better"
Luna remained silent for a bit before she finally asked
"Is that why you disappeared?"
Mark shook his head
"No, I didn't disappear, I switched places with the giant eyeless snake"
Mark raised his right hand and began building a current between his fingers
"It was a strange land without a horizon, just endless terrain… When I tried to fly into the sky this lightning, heaven's wrath, stuck me and annihilated most of my body and mind"
Luna gazed at the white lightning current with slight trepidation until Mark closed his hand and dispersed the current
"I don't believe the exchange was meant to be that long, however the heaven's wrath extended it far further, when my mind snapped back, decades had passed"
Luna nodded before she swallowed hard and muttered
"I… I see"
"From there you know the rest, right? I woke up in a prison, escaped, and came here"
Luna nodded
"Yes, the old encryption key is what originally drew our attention, however sister wasn't convinced… She missed you terribly in the first years, however she soon resented you for disappearing… She's stopped believing you would ever return"
Mark nodded, it had been a long time, far longer than he would have wanted. Even upon returning and lighting the beacon that drew Luna to him he hadn't expected her to come find him
"I wasn't sure you would come"
Luna showed a sweet smile and spoke
"Of course I would, I am your oldest friend"
"...Right"
More than a little bashful from the clear familial love that shone from Luna's blue eyes Mark quickly changed the topic
"Oh right, I visited the guild managed to drive them out of the system"
"How did you manage that?"
"I taught it fear"
Mark showed a rather sinister smile as Luna remained silent waiting for him to continue
"You know how you can tell a young child to not touch the oven doors because they are hot?"
"...I don't like where you are going with this analogy, but sure"
"Well, you can tell the young child many, many times to not burn their squishy fingers on the tempered glass, but they still do it, but only once, after that they know to fear the oven until they become old enough to reason it was heat that burned them, not the oven"
"And this relates to the guild androids, how?"
"Well, the eyeless snake likely used the white lightning to fry the guild android that had captured me along with a large portion of its networked units, right?"
"Right"
"So as I began building the current of the heaven's wrath, a very familiar smell began wafting off the guild android and once I connected the dots for it, it bolted. Child met oven, so to speak"
"...I see you haven't changed too much Mark, that is reassuring at least"