My Own Worst Enemy

**My Own Worst Enemy** is the third episode of the second season of *Another Life*, and the thirteenth episode of the series overall. It was released on October 14, 2021 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

Left behind but holding on, Niko and Cas each tangle with the Achaia in their own way. At the Salvare, the crew uncovers a key alien vulnerability.

## Plot

Niko and Cas are in shock that Richard left them and the former says that they need to get off the ring. Niko tells Cas that they need to go, but Cas is consumed by energy and enters a simulation.

Niko calls for Cas and is surrounded by energy as well, so she goes inside the shuttle and sees the Achaian shaped like her mother. She tells her to leave Cas out of the negotiations, but the Achaian tells her that they have finished negotiating and would give Cas everything she had ever wanted.

Cas looks at a kid, who asks her if she would go surfing, so Cas asks where they are. The kid hands her a teddy bear, and she turns around to see Anthony, which makes her realize it is a trick, so she tells the Achaia to stop messing with her head. Her brother tells her that he is really back and the Achaia had fixed the water city.

Niko tells the Achaia that their tricks would not work on Cas, but the Achaian tells her that Cas has an open heart and was more vulnerable. Niko realizes the Achaia were pooling up the FTL, which the Achaian tells her is due to Iara messing with their systems and they would now be going after the Salvare.

Erik is seated while Niko's mother helps out with Jana. Erik thanks her for coming and Ava criticizes him for letting Jana be helped by the Achaia, saying that she was worried for Jana's life. She apologizes for her outburst, saying that she had never been able to talk sense into Niko, but thought Erik had his feet on the ground. He tells her that he was trying his best and tells her that she had not lost anyone.

On the Salvare, William tells Richard that he is picking up a gravitational wave in the fabric of space-time behind their position, which Richard assumes to be the Achaia, but he says that as long as they were in FTL, they could not be attacked, saying that Niko and Cas still had a chance. He thanks Iara and tells them to meet him in soma.

In soma, William tells Richard he is confused as to why they were waking up a member of team three, but Richard says they need someone with field experience and he wakes up Dillon Conner, shocked that William would have them wake someone up who was not qualified. Dillon wakes up to hear things are not going as planned. He asks for his prosthetic leg, which Richard goes to get.

Javier tells Iara that he is trying to make them go even faster and grabs his leg, which makes Iara realize he is in pain. Javier says he feels like a thousand pins and needles are stabbing his leg. They talk about having a body and what it was like, and Javier asks if she could conjure up a different environment, but she says that travelling alone is not very fun. Javier takes off the thing on his head and tells her that he trusts her. She transfers some energy, and Javier says that he can feel her, which makes them smile.

Cas tells Anthony that she needs to find a computer so that she could tell USIC that they were alive. He says that he can take her anywhere, but Cas says that she does not know what he is. He tells her that he is a remnant and his body was never found, but when the Achaia brought his city back to life, he joined them. Cas wonders if it is actually real and he tells her that he is, thanks to the Achaia. She touches him, but hears Niko calling her; she tries answering and realizes Anthony is not real, calling for Niko as well.

Niko keeps calling Cas while the Achaian rips out part of the shuttle so that Niko would have to talk to her.

Cas turns around and sees that Niko is marrying Bernie and Zayn and tells the Achaia to stay away from her. Anthony assures her that they only want her to be happy, so she asks to be taken to the Salvare with Niko and also tells them to get the Artifact off the Earth. However, the Achaia tells her that they need her voice on Earth. However, Cas does not accept because of all the pain they had caused and wonders why they would ask her for permission to put an implant in her since they wanted to destroy Earth. However, the Achaian tells her that they wanted to restore Earth, but she reminds him of the Zakir. The Achaian asks her to imagine how Earth would have been without humanity's problem and asks her to imagine that version of Earth.

The Achaian tells Niko that they were trying to make Cas the best version of herself, but Niko knew that all they wanted was to get one of their things in her head. Niko wants to trust the Achaia and wants to reach an agreement without becoming a puppet and asks to start over, but the Achaian tells her that she had her chance, so Niko tells her that she had had hers as well. She starts the shuttle and initializes its explosion so that the Salvare could reach Earth. However, the shuttle shuts down and the Achaian rips the front door open; Niko tells her that that was not peace, to which she is told that peace with humankind was impossible. Niko tries hitting her, but is thrown back and is told that Cas would submit. However, she begins disintegrating as the Achaian ship receives a blow.

On the Salvare, the FTL drive is stopped and Javie feels a large amount of pain. Dillon tells them that it was due to a magnetar; Iara tells them that Javier was having a seizure, so Richard tells Zayn to go there. Richard asks if they could stabilize the FTL array, but William tells him that there was no time.

Javier tells Zayn that he felt like his brain was on fire as ze administers a nerve-blocker. However, after another Magnetar explosion, Javier keeps having his seizure.

Niko sees the Achaian is gone.

William tells Richard that an Achaian ring was 400,000 kilometers away from them and seemed like it was down, since there was a lot of damage to the exterior hull and many power fluctuations to the ring. Dillon and Richard realize that that meant that the magnetar affected the Achaia differently and William tells them that he was not picking any life signs up. Richard tells William to take them there.

In Cas's simulation, Bernie and Zayn's wedding was still ongoing, but Cas was not sure about the events. She turns and sees everybody dead, but she knows that it was not real. Anthony tells her that not everybody would go home alive and wonders who else she would have to lose if there was even an Earth when she got home. He tells her that she would never have to feel alone again if she just said yes, but he suddenly dies.

Cas's simulation ends when Niko rips the robot off of her. Cas is scared, but Niko comforts her and tells her they need to move.

Erik asks Singh what was going on and she wonders if he was absolutely sure that Jana had not brought the ring into the Artifact with her, but he is certain. She says that it has to be Niko's and the Artifact must be a portal which makes Erik realize that Niko must be alive then. Erik calls for Ava, but is kidnapped by someone with a mask on.

Erik wakes up in a cellar and asks what is happening. A man tells him to be careful since he did not want things attacking him. He realizes where he is and the man tells him that he works for the Achaia, but Erik tells him that he was only trying to communicate with them since he works for USIC. The man tells him to listen and mentions that the Achaia are not friends and instructs him not to help or engage with the Achaia. He asks them who they are and is handed a card.

As the Salvare heads towards the Achaian vessel, Richard tells everybody that the magnetar proves that the Achaia are not invincible. Dillon says that if they could weaponize it, they would have the best weapon in the universe. Richard says that they need to analyze it and Bernie points out that they have a piece of the Artifact on the ship, which meant that they could a real-time analysis of the molecular structure when the next blast hit them, which William says could be at any given moment. However, when Bernie and Richard reach the piece of the Artifact, they find it turned to dust.

Richard realizes that they could use Javier to analyze the next blast, but Zayn tells him that Javier is a member of the crew and Bernie wonders if the implant had turned to dust. However, Zayn tells them that it had not turned to dust and it appeared that the immune system appeared to be shielding it. She tells Richard that removing Javier's implant was criminal since he was not dead. Richard says that they could not play defense and Bernie supports him, saying that they could save lives. Richard says that it was not a discussion and tells Zayn that if ze did not do the surgery, he would wake up a doctor who would.

Bernie tries supporting Zayn, but ze tells him not to talk since ze was busy doing keyhole brain surgery. Ze starts touching the thing in Javier's head, which wakes him up and he starts pushing everyone. He walks up to Zayn, but Bernie distracts him until Dillon punches him from behind his back and they hold him down, while Richard removed the small bug. Javier instantly falls and Richard says that his sacrifice would not be in vain.

Niko tells Cas that the simulation was not real and Cas admits that she was about to give in. Niko comforts her and tells her that she needs her, so they keep walking. Niko tells Cas that the engine had been ripped out of the shuttle and they turn to see the Salvare, but Niko tells them that they could not use their comms; however, Cas says that they could.

William tells Bernie and Richard that the magnetar had unleashed another energy burst. The impact is big and William informs them that it had started to degrade their mainframe and they could not withstand another impact that size. They see that the Achaian technlogy had been turned to dust, but Bernie calls it neutrinos, which the Achaia were not resistant to. Richard realizes that they could make a weapon and tells them that they could jump. Bernie protests that Niko and Cas were on the ship, but William does not pick up any signs of life.

Cas tells Niko that the Achaia had not thought of everything and tries hot-wiring their signal using the helmet comms.

Richard tells William that Niko would do the same thing he is doing if she were in his shoes and tells him that he is ready.

Cas tries communicating with the Salvare, which William is able to pick up. William replies and Richard tells them that they need to get off the ship. Cas and Niko get ready to go back to the Salvare.

As Cas and Niko walk in order to fly, they see the Achaian waiting for them, who says she is not there to threaten them. She tells them that they need them to save them and Niko asks if she was really asking them for mercy. The Achaian tells them that if they really want peace, they should prove it. Niko tells them that if they want their protection, they needed to swear they would not harm Earth, which the Achaian does.

Niko and Cas make it back to the Salvare, where Richard tells them that Achaian technlogy is susceptible to high-density neutrino bursts. Niko asks how they could stop that so that they could save them in order to save Earth. She tells Richard that neither parties trusted each other, but if they saved them, then they would have earned the Achaia's trust. However, Richard does not know if they could even save them since each eruption had been stronger than the last one, so they needed to leave. Niko agrees, but says that they would not leave without the Achaia. She greets Dillon and William tells her that the only way to shield form neutrinos would be to use water, but they would need an enormous amount. Dillon suggests that they tow the Achaia out of range by rerouting the Salvare's artificial gravity, which Niko approves of.

Bernie looks at Javier, who is breathing. Zayn tells him that his respiratory system was working, which gives Bernie hope, but Zayn says that there was not a lot of hope for him. Ze tells Bernie that when the tech was ripped out of his brain, it was turned to pulp, but Bernie says that it was the best decision. Zayn tells him that they had sacrificed Javier's future and they do not even know if it was worth it.

William tells Niko that another blast was imminent as Dillon rerouted all the exotic matter to the back of the Salvare. They manage to start towing the Achaia and engage the engines, but the artificial gravity begins rerouting to the Salvare again. She tells them to start towing again, but William tells her that there is no time, so Niko makes a tough call and decides to take off, leaving the Achaian vessel to get destroyed.

In the Salvare, Niko asks what had happened and Dillon says that there was an override on the two. She asks Richard where he was and he simply says that he was not undermining the operation. Niko wants to know who did it because the Achaia punch back, but William tells her that the interruption to power was initiated by Iara, who was the only possible option.

## Cast

* Justin Chatwin as Erik Wallace
* Samuel Anderson as William
* Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Cas Isakovic
* Tongayi Chirisa as Richard Ncube
* A.J. Rivera as Bernie Martinez
* Alexander Eling as Javier Almanzar
* JayR Tinaco as Zayn Petrossian
* Kurt Yaeger as Dillon Conner
* Shannon Chan-Kent as Iara
* Parveen Dosanjh as Dr. Nani Singh
* Nathan Witte as Daeva
* Jarod Joseph as Anthony Isakovic
* Isla Sunar as Girl
* Helen King as Salvare Voice