Dash/History

## Joining Horizon Finance

Prior to being "hired" by Horizon Finance, Dash worked as a mercenary for her parents, who wasted whatever money she earned on gambling. She never received any secondary-level education. When Dash's parents failed to pay their loan debt to Horizon Finance, Rita Arsenico took Dash in as collateral. Dash took this as an opportunity to make enough money to pay off her parents' debt.

One day, Dash gifted her boss, Horizon, a hairband after the latter said she was trying to look more intimidating. Dash pushed Rita into pretending to be scared by Horizon's new appearance, and the three of them took a group photo afterwards.

### 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

### Battle with Coffin Company

 - Fenrir Squad's first encounter with Spira

As Spira, Dash turned into a Category 3 or higher Shadow, powerful enough to severely hurt Hilde and render her comatose. Her last moments in the Counterside were a desperate attempt to go back home, which became her shadow's obsession.

She was attracted to the scent of fresh rookie Counters to the Counterside, which happened to be the Fenrir Squad. Yoo Mina's first dive made her an attractive target to Spira, with Hilde explaining that "she reeked of the Normalside". Shiyoon remarked that Spira was probably quite strong when she was alive, due to the strong Corruption rays she was emitting.

Spira's behavior was characterized by moans, begging, explosions of anger and blood curling screams of pain. She kept deliriously asking the Fenrir Squad to help her bring back home and that she was cold, while she was attacking them and at the same time howling that they were rejecting her begging for help.

During an explosion of rage, she started emitting incredibly powerful corruption rays and high energy projectiles, enough to destroy the Coffin's force barrier, and decrease its engine power by 60%. Hilde shielded Yoo Mina with her body to prevent the attack from reaching her, and Spira's high-energy projectile attacks actually managed to wound Hilde enough she needed to be hospitalized within the Coffin's emergency room. This encounter forced the Fenrir Squad and the Coffin to flee the battlefield. Despite expending two major corruption ray energy explosions, Spira was still adamant on pursuing the Coffin, leaving the Fenrir Squad debating whether or not to flee the Counterside or reengage with Spira despite Hilde being comatose. Yoo Mina and Shiyoon decided to reengage with Spira.

Spira's last encounter with the Fenrir Squad made her ask if they were going to leave her again while she was in agony, while they were "all going back to [their] warm, cozy homes without [her]", making her have another bout of anger. She was agonizing over her pain, suffering and loneliness throughout the fight.

During her battle with Joo Shiyoon and Yoo Mina, Mina ordered the Coffin to activate the Coffin's Fusion Ray Stream to severely damage Spira, with Spira exclaiming that it was "burning" her. Mina then awakened her power of the Wolvesbane for the first time to destroy her in a finishing blow.

### Brief Revival and Reunion

After Spira and Ministra were defeated, their Eternium crystals were brought back to the Coffin Company. The Administrator later purified the Eternium and extracted their memories from them for Horizon in the events of *Bottom of the Shade.*

After the Administrator has a long conversation with Rita about the dive, Dash enters the bar much to Rita's surprise. Rita approaches and 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. ↑ **Joo Shiyoon:** *It may be weakened, but it's still at least a Category 3!*
-Episode 1/Act 3/Transcript#3-4. Wolvesbane
2. ↑ **Yoo Mina:** *W-what? What's this pressure... My skin... is tingling.* /
**Joo Shiyoon:** *That's one powerful Corruption ray. She must have been quite the beast when she was alive, huh?*
-Episode 1/Act 3/Transcript#3-1. Obsession