Rita Arsenico/History

## Early Life

Rita was part of the Arsenico Family, a mafia that gained power during the early aftermath of the Grand Purification War. It is implied that her Counter powers arose after her mother was killed in a car bombing attack perpetrated by one of the Arsenicos' rivals.

Despite their prestige, the Arsenico Family's' influence and power faltered rapidly following the assassination of Rita's father, who was the Don. When the family was on the verge of collapse, the Dark Council offered to postpone the due date of a debt the Arsenicos owed them and even help the family gain its lost power back if Rita assisted them in their own affairs. Rita stated the family will pay their debt as normal but refused to provide any help to the Council, prompting Rita's uncle, who served as the consigliere to her father, to try to kill her with the aid of soldiers sent by the Machine Collector. Rita effortlessly defeated her attackers and executed her uncle. She later met with Horizon and requested a massive loan so she can use to silence or possibly kill any other opponents of the Arsenicos. Horizon accepted but then made a counteroffer: the loan will be free of interest if Rita will work for her as a debt collector. Rita agreed but in the end could not save her family.

## Working for Horizon Finance

Rita became a notorious loan for her intimidating figure who sometimes resorted to torture and violence to get debtors to pay up. When a couple kept missing their monthly payments to Horizon Finance, Rita demanded they give up their daughter, Dash, to the company as collateral.

There were times when Rita was more forgiving, such as when she convinced Horizon to cancel the debt of an orphanage headmaster.

One day, Rita, to her chagrin, realized Horizon had gone through her wardrobe and is now wearing one of her outfits and a new jacket that was seized from a previous debtor. Horizon explains she is going to wear this new attire from now on because its "threateningly vulgar" appearance will make her stand out and look intimidating, though Dash commented that Horizon still looks adorable no matter what she wears. Dash gave her a gold-plated hair tie, telling her it will make her even scarier if she puts it on, and then pesters Rita into pretending to be intimidated to prove her point. Horizon found Rita's faux reaction amusing and decides that to commemorate the moment with a group photo.

### Dive with Wilbur

Dash and Rita rescued Wilbur from the Matchmakers, and Horizon demanded Wilbur Whateley pay his debt to the company. Wilbur pleaded Horizon to give him another day, explaining that he was scheduled to go on a dive the next day and offered to give up any Eternium he collects during the trip. Horizon had no interest in negotiations, but Dash was able to convince Rita to take the offer. Rita agreed under the condition that the entire Horizon Finance crew come along.

After getting onboard Wilbur's rented Dimensional Ship, Dash met a mysterious, armored figure named Mors and tries to strike up a conversation with her, but the mercenary captain told Dash not to bother as Mors was a notoriously quiet person and rumored to be a bringer of disaster. Soon after, the ship is under attack by Corrupted Objects, and Dash fights alongside the mercenaries despite Rita's orders to stay out of trouble. The ship's thrusters are destroyed during the fight, causing the ship to crash.

The mercenary captain examined the damage and determined that the ship was no longer suitable for further travel. Wilbur was adamant on pressing forward and suggested continuing on foot, but Rita called the idea suicide, pointing out how ill-equipped everyone (except Mors) was. Dash, however, persisted that they help Wilbur try to reach his goals and soon got Rita to begrudgingly repair the ship. The crew eventually arrived at the ruins Wilbur was searching for. Rita orders Dash to stay in the ship for her own safety, but Dash follows her anyway.

While gathering the eternium inside a ruined building, one of the mercenaries stumbled upon an instant camera that seemed to be broken. Wilbur hastily demanded that he hand it over to him, claiming it could be an artifact, and scolds him for dismissing it as junk. Wilbur then decided to test the camera on a curious Dash by taking a snapshot of her. A photograph was developed, and a Shadow greatly resembling Dash spawned out of it and almost immediately attacked the two. Dash held it off and Rita joined in the fight, but their attacks were fruitless. The Shadow seemed invincible until Horizon analyzed that it was actually an illusion projected through a medium, in this case the photograph it came from. Dash located and destroyed the photo, causing the Shadow to finally disappear. After seeing a wound on Dash's arm, Rita near-strangled Wilbur and declared she was taking whatever the crew collects, including eternium and artifacts (though this was only a partial threat to get Wilbur over himself). Later, she reprimanded Dash and ordered her not to leave her side from now on.

When she and Dash reached the bottom floor, Rita heard an eerie voice beckoning her and followed it behind a wall concealing a hidden laboratory. The lab is strangely neat and undisturbed, and Rita found documents detailing a Counter-cloning experiment involving Mental Printing technology while Dash picked up a crystal. The security system suddenly went off and deployed an endless wave of Corrupted mech units, forcing Rita and Dash to fight them off on their way out. Unfortunately, an earthquake occurs and crushes the two of them.

Rita and Dash survived the earthquake and learned that the crew was being attacked by a Tyrant and sent out a mayday signal. Rita defeats the Tyrant and ships from Daymine Mining arrive to rescue everyone. All seemed well until, Suddenly, three more Category 3 C.O.s appeared seemingly out of nowhere, destroyed the rescue ships and attacked the crew. The mercenaries hurriedly started up their ship and prepared to surface when Dash, carrying a heavily injured Rita, latched onto the ship's loading ramp. Wilbur took a gun and threatened to shoot the two of them off the ship unless they beg for their lives like they made him beg for a second chance. Dash naively complied only for Wilbur to cruelly fire them off anyway. Back on the ground, Dash is forced to fight off a Corrupted object born from the mercenary captain's body. She later takes Rita to a safe place.

After waking up, Rita asked Dash for the crystal she picked and destroyed it, hoping that doing so would keep Sollicitatio, who was apparently after Dash, away. As the C.O.s started closing in, Horizon detected a ship-guiding signal southeast of their position and suggested moving there to contact for help. They traveled and fought through the C.O.s until Rita hallucinated Dash as the Shadow again and passed out, her CRF now dangerously low. Dash laments how Rita never expressed how much she's been suffering and wishes she could be less of a burden to her. Horizon suggested the two of them visit a bar together someday so she could get Rita to share her feelings for once, and Dash agreed but doubted it'll happen given the current situation. She later rested alongside Rita while Horizon kept guard.

The team reached their destination, which turned out to be an exploration outpost. Once the building was cleared, they all made their way to to control room. Rita and Horizon examined the state of the communications system, and the latter volunteered to sacrifice parts from her drone unit so that the system could be repaired; she stated she would not "die" so as long as her memory unit was intact and later inserted into her original body.

The Tyrants from earlier, along with some other C.O.s, approached the building, so Dash, being the only one capable of combat, headed out to fight them off despite Rita's pleas for her to hide instead. Rita hastily repaired the comms and sent out a mayday signal but received no answer. Sollicitatio reappeared and reiterated her plan to take away Dash to make her a "sister", i.e. a Shadow subservient to Thagirion, so Rita desperately bargained herself instead of Dash to become Thagirion's subject. Sollicitatio accepted her plea and began transforming her using the crystal Rita thought she had destroyed; it becomes evident that Rita had been the Apostle's true target.

Outside, a severely-weakened Dash was about to be killed by one of the Tyrants when Rita, now a Shadow, arrived and saved from the C.O.s, taking them all down with ease. Dash was absolutely horrified at what Rita had become, and Rita, zealously ecstatic over her newfound powers, tried to convince her to become a Shadow as well. Dash attempted to fight back but was ultimately "reassembled" into a Shadow.

## Post-dive

At some point, Ministra was entered into the Administration database as an extremely dangerous Demon-type who reportedly killed at least five Counters.

### Battle against Coffin Company

Ministra was attracted to the scent of fresh rookie Counters to the Counterside, which happened to be the ALT Squad. Four fresh rookies made them an irresistable target to Ministra, as Shadows are more likely to appear in front of Counters diving for the first time, and the ALT Squad "reeked" of the Normalside. She started toying with the ALT Squad as soon as she came in contact with them, chasing them around and sending waves of C.O.s at them to slowly getting wear out, and then taunting them about their destruction and their reduction to nothing but playthings for her.

Impressed nonetheless by the ALT Squad's ability to survive her onslaught, she offered them a chance to become part of her "sisterhood" as "superior beings", offering them to undergo the same process Dash went to turn into Spira. The ALT Squad's refusal irritated her mildly, prompting a rebuke that she'll offer them a painful death instead. She was eventually intercepted by the Fenrir Squad and flew into a violent rage from Joo Shiyoon's taunting and at the knowledge of Spira's destruction, letting her power flow out. After experiencing how strong the Coffin Company was, she opted to retreat back into her subspace, and swore to destroy them if they ever ventured into the Counterside again. However, Joo Shiyoon managed to surprise her by cutting a tear and being able to access her shadow palace as he wanted, preventing her the ability to flee, and forcing her to stand her ground until her destruction. Ministra's destruction allowed the Counterside Effect to finally collapse from losing its core, ending the mission.

### Temporary revival

Ministra's and Spira's eternium crystal were later brought back to the Coffin Company and purified by the Replacer Rook. Rita was temporarily resurrected and had a long conversation with the Administrator about her life leading up to her corruption and eventual defeat by Fenrir Squad. When she sees the ressurrected Dash, Rita tearfully apologizes to her for being so harsh and unkind towards her, but Dash cheerily assures Rita that she was the best grown-up she could ask for. With the reunion settled, the Administrator has a drink with the former loan sharks before ending the simulation and putting their souls to rest.

## References

1. ↑ *Bottom of the Shade*, Act 4-1 solicitation
2. ↑ **Lena:** *Corruption ray energy signature confirmed via the Administration's datalink! Code Name: Ministra! It's an extremely dangerous demon that's slaughtered five Counters!*
-Episode 1/Act 4/Transcript#4-3. Hunting Again