With a hard press of metal against shirt-covered flesh, Quint found himself being shoved into the interrogation room by a sharp prod from the mechtoid's cannon. Looking around after he got onto his knees, the first thing he saw upon reentering the familiar room was the imposing shape of his viper interrogator. Seraffo reached a claw down and grabbed ahold of one of his handcuffed arms, helping him to his feet, before letting go of him, looking to the mechtoid at the door, and nodding to it.
Eighty-Four began to stomp away by the time Quint started to make his way toward the desk. Once he seated himself in, Seraffo pulled out a key. After unlatching the handcuffs and allowing Quint to stretch his hands out, she pulled out her data pad without a word and tapped on its screen several times before finally speaking.
"Are you ready for more questioning?" she inquired softly and coldly, shifting him an expectant glance.
Quint looked amused by the to-the-point gesture. "That's it?" he chuckled, sitting upright in his seat. "No 'hello, how are you doing'?, or 'how was your night'?, eh?"
"The only part of you that I'm concerned with is your information," she replied, her expression showing its trademark lack of expressiveness toward any plights he would have. "Now... shall we begin?"
This day's round of questioning was no more complex than the day previously. Just about every single one was harmless, and there seemed to be no shortage of them. It was two hours into it when a peculiar one came up.
"What relationship have you shared with your siblings, and how has it changed in the years since you've matured?" the snake-like alien asked. As with the other ones, Quint detected nothing major he could reveal in answering the question, and so conceded with replying.
"I'm the youngest of my family, so generally I got picked on from time to time, but it was never anything serious," he said, looking to the desk as his memory went far back, to before the war. "As we got older though, we all got along swell. Sure, when I last saw them they still treated me as the baby of the family, but no matter what, I'll always care for them, and I would never forsake them."
As he watched Seraffo casually input the answer into her device, his mind began to turn and form a question of its own. "Do you have anyone you ever cared about, Seraffo? Anyone at all?" was what he came up with, and it left his mouth before he decided to change anything with it.
She at first looked somewhat annoyed by his question as her face left the device and met his, picturing in her head just how reminiscent of yesterday's outburst this one was, but stifled an icy glare and instead raised her head in an overtly-proud gesture toward the human. "The Elders, of course," was what her response began with. Quint could almost feel himself roll his eyes at her answer, but wisely decided not to. "Their health, safety, and benefit is all my kind, myself, and the regime care for."
"Not sure if you exactly do know him, but an andromedon came by my cell last night. Said he was your personal guard. Know him?"
"A bit off-subject, but yes," the viper nodded, lowering her data pad upon knowing she was most likely not going to use it for at least a few minutes. "I sent him to you to deliver that meal you no doubt enjoyed over what the alternative was."
"And I did. For that, you have my thanks," he nodded halfheartedly with scant, barely-noticeable traces of sarcasm in his second sentence, before his expression became more serious than what it was. "I more than understand your devotion to your cause, you know. You were born into it, raised by it, and taught its beliefs in the same way I was with mine. But what's really picking at my brain is what your relation is to everyone else but them?"
A sly look overcame Seraffo's reptilian eyes, and her tongue flickered out again before retracting back into her mouth. "I'll tell you of my 'family' if you tell me all about yours," she hissed with a smirk, coiling her body up into a pile. "Including its interaction with that wretched organization you were a part of until your capture."
"Then never mind. I'm not going to delve that far." Quint's tone was still as defiant as the day he was brought in. "Nice try, though."
"If that is the case, then let us continue with the I have here," Seraffo smiled mirthlessly, bringing her pad up again. "Next question."
After the interrogation for the day had come to its conclusion, Quint was silently escorted back to his cell. He sat in the practically-empty box for no less than an hour before a familiar sound of metal steps began to echo outside of it, and lo and behold, it was Miskaton. The andromedon deposited another ADVENT burger into the prison as payment for what the human presumed was another day of good behavior, and which he promptly and quickly ate. After he finished the meal, the two entered into a deep conversation over the day's events.
"You asked her about her family relations?" Miskaton murmured, after hearing Quint's explanation of the specific query he gave to the viper.
"Yep. She seemed pretty vague about it too, before changing it in a way she must've known that I couldn't delve further with," Quint shrugged from where he sat on his bed.
The andromedon moved its leg slightly, changing its stance. "The only family Seraffo would have would be nothing but sisters, if it could even be called that."
Quint's curled face looked clearly surprised by his words. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"Her kind are not bred as humans are, you know," Miskaton spoke. Despite lacking most emotion in his dense voice, its ever so slightly higher pitch told Quint that he was (at least slightly) excited to explain what was on his mind. "All vipers you see are cloned. With no males of her kind around, it is the only way for their species to propagate."
"Cloned?" the human questioned. "I know I've never seen a male viper before, but I always thought that was because they hid behind the scenes, or there just... wasn't very many of them."
"It is indeed true, that they are without any sort of method to breed naturally, but that factor of Seraffo's species almost changed a short time ago," Miskaton continued. "I heard that a male viper was created at an old genetics facility, unaffiliated with the regime, by your race's brightest minds less than a year ago. He was dubbed a vusid, a king, among his kind, but no sooner had the Elder Ones heard of his birth, he was slain by XCOM shortly after maturing, leaving only a few handfuls of offspring that were killed soon after he was. A tragedy in its darkest form."
Quint's head perked up as he heard the tale, ringing a very large bell. "That was a top-secret mission that I heard of; one that required only the best in XCOM's ranks. The scientists referred to that 'Viper King' as 'Subject Gamma'. They never said anything to me stating that he was the last male of his kind, only that he had unusual, ice-related powers and was created accidentally," he slowly mumbled. "It must be devastating to lose your race's only male. How did... Seraffo take his demise? Surely she'd heard of him, right?"
The andromedon was silent for a good few minutes. The only sound to come between him and the human was the occasional bubbling noise of the acidic liquid in Miskaton's armored environmental suit moving and settling. Just when Quint was beginning to think that the behemoth of a being had fallen asleep standing up, or was suffering through some sort of stroke, the alien spoke again.
"I have been Seraffo's personal guard long enough for her to consider me a confidant," he began. "Long enough to know that she was one of the few vipers originally chosen by the Elder Ones themselves to become mated with the king, due to being of the proper age and desirable intelligence, among other traits. But, just before she and a great many others were to depart on their private pilgrimage, the news of the Viper King's demise reached our ears, and the voyage to the old facility was canceled no sooner than it was established."
"But how did she feel about it?" Quint repeated. Miskaton could've sworn he almost heard a trace of care in the human's voice, but passed it off as his slow imagination getting the better of him.
"Forcusa'shas, feros morss... She mourned for the loss, but quickly decided it was most pragmatic to forget about the incident altogether and refocus on her work," he sighed, stretching his gloved fingers as they rested idly by his sides. "She holds no ill will against humanity for the unchanging course of her kind's fate, only XCOM. I am being truthful when I say that I am surprised that she has such a calm attitude toward you, despite your background, Quint."
The andromedon picked his weapon back up from where it rested against the side of the cell, signalling to Quint that he was readying himself to leave. "You know, human, I am beginning to most thoroughly enjoy these conversations we are engaging in. Not very many others here are so talkative. I wonder if it's possible for the two of us to become somewhat like bex'os to one another, should this become a normal thing."
"And that means...?" knowing what he was probably going to say, but at the same time dreading that the word he used was actually some form of innuendo.
"Friends," Miskaton bluntly answered, ending the word with a slight roll of the 's'. "Or, the closest thing to friends I can imagine. Associates, perhaps?"
"Cute," Quint deadpanned, as he watched the alien turn about and used that strange call from last night to resummon the muton guard. After the broad-shouldered creature came back to resume its post, Miskaton started to walk away, and Quint, in turn, decided to crawl into his bed. Quite a few thoughts rolled through his head, many of which were centered on Seraffo and the revelation that Miskaton shared with him, but soon they began to fade, and he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Author's notes: I must say, it was a good thing I had writer's block/decided to start work on a dozen other stories before May 12'th, or I'd have never known about the Alien Hunter's DLC, and the 'Viper King' that was a part of it. Lucky guess by me about Seraffo's origins, in my opinion.
