Salem cursed and jumped to the side of the mountain and began sliding down. As she slid down along the rocks. Her boots kicking up dust, she sheathed her knife and pulled out her modified revolver. She took aim and fired a few times. But then she stopped as she was out of range.
She jumped at the end and rolled, while making sure her new hat was still on. She was at the base now, near the entrance to the mine. She walked through looking for where Jebidiah had been hidden. But as she looked she noticed something else.
Mirror Jace was bleeding from a chest wound while leaning up against a barricade. He looked over at her and flinched before relaxing when he realized that she was not her mirror counterpart.
"Sorry- kargh-" He spat up a mouthful of blood. "This wound won't kill me as long as I do not move. But that means she is going to get away." He told her as he adjusted herself. "Give me a few moments and-"
"Just get yourself patched up," Salem told him as she whistled and a horse came out from around a corner and over to her. "I will bring her body back. But there is no point in you leaving this mountain." Salem informed him as she walked over and slid up onto the horse easily enough.
She turned the horse around and started riding it out of the compound. She looked over to where the horse came from. "Jebidiah! Follow me! Bring both of those horses!" She yelled at him as she dug her heels in and the horse sped up. Just as dawn began to break out in the sky she could see her counterpart riding quickly in the direction of the village.
Salem raised her revolver for a moment but then decided better of it and just took the moment to reload the gun while she rode. Then as she arrived at the edge of the town she could feel her horse slowing down as her Mirror counterpart came into view.
She was dragging herself across the village while her horse laid panting on the side of the road. It could not go much more. Which was probably why Salem was able to catch up to her broken reflection.
Salem dismounted and quickly followed the bandit version of her. She was dragging one of her feet as she moved while one of her arms was limp. The shielding unit at her hip had exploded already.
In the shoulder of the limp arm was a bloody bullet hole. While her leg was slightly twisted almost like she had landed on it wrong. She slowed as she could likely hear Salem approaching. "You know… before you showed up I thought this might have been an opportunity of the gods." The bandit version of her spoke as she turned around.
Salem noticed her bandit version had a hand near her pistol. Salem holstered her own revolver but kept a hand tapping the grip, ready to draw it at a moment's notice. "That was false hope, you should have known better." Salem told her coldly as she watched amusement grace the bandit's face.
"False hope… I suppose in a way you are right. But I have been doing my research on this reality when I could. You stand against a group similar to the Faction… do you not?" Her bandit version asked. "That is all I wanted to do… stand against the faction who had become too corrupt and greedy for its own good. They preferred taking bribes than caring about law and order." Her bandit reflection seemed to be ready to start ranting. "It was originally created to bring peace and order to an otherwise lawless space!"
Salem sighed as she saw her reflection wave her one good hand through the air. "Then the Faction expanded, because of the Android Wars. The sentient systems fought and wiped out entire worlds of people. Jace and I joined together! We ended up becoming its best soldiers! We were the picture perfect members of the Faction. Their poster children."
"Then they made a peace deal. Not because we had forced them to. But because for the Androids they had determined culling sentient organics was enough. Enough now, but what did the Faction do? They propped themselves up and started ruling over those who were left. Like a bunch of tyrants they used assassination and promises to keep their chain of corruption going." Salem flinched as she was seeing parallels to her own reality, but everything was still different. "What did I do wrong? Was it because I defied my betters? Was it because I tried to make a difference?" She was heavily breathing as she finished speaking.
Salem shook her head. "Your fault was in trying to seek power when you should have sought hearts and minds." Salem relaxed as she could feel this discussion was coming to a close. "Even if your intention was pure, it looked like simple greed to all others."
"Ha… so at the end of the day… I am just a simple bandit…" She looked around. "But you know what… a quick draw duel sounds like the right way to go out." The bandit version of her quickly drew her pistol and fired.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Two shots were fired simultaneously while a third sounded through the air. The first two shots collided in the air while the second one that Salem fired went right through her bandit version's chest before she could even process that the first two bullets collided in the air.
"Ha…kahf!" She coughed up blood and the light left her eyes as she fell to her knees, then she fell face down into the sand of the middle of street. Salem could feel her mind dissipate as she died.
Salem sighed as she looked at her own corpse. She heard footsteps and turned around to see Jebidiah riding up. His own horses were not as exhausted. Now that everything was done she noticed a message from the nanosystem in the corner of her vision.
[System Reconnected. Updating information to include alternate realities. More information needed. New physical update required. Pending upgrade…]
The message stayed for a few seconds before it disappeared. Then Salem turned to Jebidiah. "Let's get these horses packed." Salem informed him as she sent a quick message to her team.