So many things had changed so suddenly in Liz's life that her head was still spinning. For one thing, these rogue Twintail Warriors had yet to insult or threaten her, which was a jarring change from the kind of leadership she was used to. Next of all, they actually risked their lives to save her! Liz glanced across at the untransformed Tailyellow, whose real name was apparently 'Erina', and tried to wrap her head around someone that would willingly throw themselves into harm's way to save an enemy. That wasn't something Liz imagined herself doing for an ally, let alone a foe who had tried to defeat her.
The strangest part was afterwards, when the twintail warriors didn't even try to take back the bracer she had! At any moment, Liz could transform into Antiwarrior Brown and attack them, and none of them seemed to care. Were they just that confident, or did they really trust her?
Not that Liz would be stupid enough to try anything. Tailwarrior Blue, real name 'Aika', was sitting right there. If Aika really had somehow defeated Yamato, there was absolutely no way Liz was going to try anything that might upset her. Honestly, it made her nervous just to be sitting at the same table.
All the main players from among the Twintail Warriors were seated at a table in the otherwise empty lunch hall. The other antiwarriors were being confined to their quarters somewhere aboard, though Liz doubted such means would be enough to contain Yamato, whenever she woke up. None of them were acting concerned, which was worrying and confusing.
Another surprising thing about the Warriors was the gap between how they looked while transformed and how they looked in person. Tailblue was flat chested and her eyes contained a poorly hidden savagery regardless of her form, but in contrast Yellow was tiny and immature compared to her voluptuous transformation, while Red was actually a man! Liz couldn't help but stare.
Being with the Elemerians for her entire life, she'd practically never had a conversation with a human male before. His face was strange, and his body had an odd shape. Liz almost wanted to ask him to take his clothes off, just to how else he looked down there...
Suddenly Aika cleared her throat. "Liz?"
"Yeah?" She looked across and froze at the angry look in Aika's eyes. Oh no, what had suddenly upset her? Not knowing how to make her happy, Liz shrank down in her chair, swallowing nervously. "I'm sorry." She blurted out, gazing down at the table. Usually the only way to placate Yamato was to go limp and submit. Hopefully Aika was similar.
"No need to apologise." Aika smiled, which would absolutely be a bad sign if Liz was dealing with Yamato, so she began to sweat nervously. "After each operation we try to have a debriefing where we talk about the mission and our future plans. Right now we're waiting for Twoearle so we can get started."
"R-right." Liz swallowed, even more confused. If they were doing a debrief, why did they have to invite her? If they wanted the brown twintail suit back they could have it.
They waited in silence for a few minutes, though Souji looked annoyed with Aika for some reason. Was he insane? If Liz ever shot looks like that across the table at Yamato, her eyes would have been popped like grapes before she could even blink.
Finally the door slid open, and a white haired woman with enormous breasts came in wearing a lab coat. Liz recognised her as Twoearle, the primary target of Fenryrgildy's operation.
"Sorry I'm late. I just had to make sure the resident mass murderer was properly sedated while we decide her fate."
"Too late, her fate's already been decided." Aika replied, and the two of them glared at each other.
Twoearle threw up her arms in frustration. "She's pure evil! She tortured Aisana!"
Oh, they were talking about Yamato.
"Wait, who are we talking about?" Souij interjected before Aika could reply.
"Antiwarrior Black." Twoearle answered him, sitting down. "The psychopathic psychic that Fenryrgildy sent after me."
"Along with Aisana." Aika pointed out.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Twoearle demanded.
"If we're going to give her a chance, then it's only fair we extend the same offer to others."
Twoearle rolled her eyes. "Those two things aren't even remotely comparable! For one thing, I'm the one who drove Aisana to do the things she did, so those are my fault, and two, Aisana's not a threat everyone on board this ship!"
"Is Black really that dangerous?" Souji asked.
"Yes." Liz blurted out, and all eyes turned to her. She shrank back in her chair, nervous at the sudden attention.
"It's okay, what did you have to say?" Erina smiled gently.
Liz swallowed before speaking up. "Yamato is really powerful, even without her suit. Maybe you can defeat her uh, Miss Aika, but the rest of us… She'll kill us before we can blink!" In her mind she could see various Marias and Almas and even another Liz getting cruelly dashed to pieces on a bulkhead or twisted apart. There was the sound of screams, limbs popping out of their sockets, and the patter of blood spraying against a hard surface. The scent of copper, of urine and vomit filled her nose. "...If we're lucky."
The room was silent, as they all watched Liz who for a moment seemed to forget where she was until Erina touched her. Liz jumped with surprise, staring down at where Erina was holding her hand and smiling up at her.
"It's okay." She squeezed her hand.
After a moment, Liz hesitantly squeezed back.
"See?" Twoearle waved a hand towards her. "We can't keep this monster around."
"Why don't you tell everyone what your examination found?" Aika asked pointedly.
All eyes turned to Twoearle, who sighed and took out her notepad. "I counted thirty-seven seperate scars, caused by slashing, burning, puncture wounds, friction from a rope, cuts likely from a wip, surgery and what look like countless insect bites. X ray shows a dozen different healed over bone fractures, mostly concentrated on her toes, but also on her forearms, fingers and calves. Undoubtedly the subject has experienced prolonged and sustained torture."
Liz raised an eyebrow at that, and tried to remember ever having seen Yamato bleed even once. Nothing came to mind. In the entire time Liz had been an antiwarrior, their leader had been in charge and nothing had been able to touch her. If those injuries were real, they would have to be from before Liz joined the team.
Aika spoke up. "Look, we're not here to serve justice, or punish wrongdoing. We're here to protect twintails, and Yamato is someone who I think I can help, and who I think can help us." She looked across the table at Liz, before directing what she was saying to the whole group. "I know that's not what you want to hear, but Yamato is as much of a victim of the elemerians as anyone else is, and she deserves a chance to make amends just as much as anyone else at this table does."
Silence followed her statement.
It was a while before Erina spoke up. "I don't want us to start executing people."
"...Yeah." Souji agreed, looking across at Twoearle. "Sorry."
The scientist sighed, seeing that she was outvoted. "Alright, well what's your plan for her?"
Aika shrugged. "I was thinking something a bit like an apprenticeship. Anyway, that brings us to the question of the rest of the antiwarriors. What do we want to do with them?"
They all looked to Liz again.
"We should give them the choice." Erina suggested. "They can join us if they want, or maybe they can start over on Earth, or Catyu if they like?"
"That might be a little tricky." Aika pointed out. "None of them are citizens of any country, so it's not like they can just join society like that. They'd be illegal aliens, no pun intended."
"Yeah, but if they want to, why should we keep them here?" Souji answered back, then looked at Liz. "What do you think?"
"Uh… I have a few questions."
"Yeah?"
"There were some words that were just used that I don't recognise. What's a 'country'? Also, what's a 'citizen'? And a 'society'? What does 'illegal' mean?"
All of the assembled twintail warriors looked at each other at once, similar expressions on their faces.
"What?" Liz looked around.
"...I think that answers that." Twoearle chuckled, shaking her head. "I'd feel bad if we abandoned them."
Souji nodded once. "Yeah… I guess it's welcome aboard for now."
The debriefing took a while longer to wrap up after that, but eventually Twoearle was able to get away. She returned to the medbay, pointedly ignoring the room where the battered Yamato was being kept unconscious. The worst thing about Aika wasn't that she was a violent flat chested little monster, but that she was a smart violent flat chested little monster. If the girl was just an idiot meathead she'd be much easier to trick or to work around, but Aika was both clever and observant, in addition to having a strong sense of justice. Obviously all their lives would be easier if they just got rid of Yamato right now, but ultimately that meant either executing a child soldier and a torture victim, or foisting that monster off onto an unsuspecting population.
Whatever. Twoearle decided not to think about it. If Aika wanted to try and reform that creature, Twoearle was determined to stay out of it. In the meantime she had her own former villainess to take care of.
Aisana was leaning back in bed, hands and feet wrapped in plaster droid that was substituting for her doctor was leaning over and adjusting the pain killers she was taking, though it was hardly a genius in regards to medical procedures. Twoearle had downloaded some basic autodoc software from the internet on Locale and fed that into the droid's database. At the very least it should be able to treat Aisna better than Twoearle could, with its perfectly steady mechanical hands.
"How are you feeling?" Twoearle asked, summoning up her best cheer.
"Um… The autodoc just injected me with something, and now I'm, uh… feeling kinda loopy." Aisana looked at Twoearle with a somewhat distant smile. "Can you scratch my face for a sec? I can't use my hands."
"Where?"
"Just under my nose, on the left."
Twoearle obliged, before pulling up a chair and sitting next to Aisana's bed. She had come here to have a more serious talk, but at the moment her old friend seemed almost completely out of it. Was that even the right thing to call her, 'friend'? Would acquaintance be more 'accurate', or maybe 'former lover'?
…'Abuse victim'?
She grimaced at the thought, though she couldn't quite shake it. Apologies could come later when Aisana was better able to understand what was being said.
"Wanna watch some TV?" Twoearle asked.
"Sure." Aisana answered, blinking slowly.
"It's voice activated, so just call out what you want to watch."
"Uh, TV. Play Love Idol High School, the Animation."
Twoearle's nose crinkled with a touch of distaste at the choice, but didn't voice her complaints. Idols were never really her thing, and she'd never been very interested in the more slice of life fantasy regarding close female friendships either. They sat watching the show together for a few moments.
"Uh, Twoearle." Aisana spoke up.
"Yeah?"
"Could you, uh, hold my hand?"
Twoearle looked down at where Aisana's hand was wrapped in a cast, and hesitated before reaching out to gently place her hand over it. Aisana smiled at her before leaning back against her pillow. By the time the episode had finished, Aisana had gone back to sleep, but somehow Twoearle couldn't quite bring herself to leave.
Princess Serena sat huddled in a bundle of blankets, stuffed into the space between some kind of boiler and the engine room wall. Pain gnawed at her belly, and she knew with every passing hour she was growing weaker from starvation. Unless someone brought her sustenance she would die here. It wasn't any mere food that she needed, but the much rarer and more valuable elemera orbs.
Orchidmantisguildy had clung to the exterior of the ship for dear life after being vented into space, barely managing to grip onto the docking tube before Red had severed it. With all his failing strength he crawled his way across the surface of the ship to an airlock, and had just been about to force it open when it had suddenly opened from the inside. What had greeted him was a strange robot that had stared at him for a long moment, before saying, "Protect the twintails."
That was how Princess Serenity ended up here, out of sight from any of the ship's CCTV systems and concealed from the twintail warriors. Even with the hunger gnawing at her belly, she dared not leave and risk discovery. In her current state, even the lowliest of gildies would defeat her easily. Eventually she would have no choice but to risk it.
Orchidmantisguildy weighed his options, trying to decide if he should try to sneak out now while he was stronger, or wait until all the crew went to sleep even if it meant risking being at his weakest.
Serenity's musings were interrupted by the appearance of a droid, bending down to look at her hiding place. It held what looked like a bar of rations out to her. Serenity had no need for food, but she smiled with gratitude before accepting it.
"Thanks. Do you think you could also bring me an elemera orb?"
The robot considered her request, the apertures in its eyes making sounds as they adjusted to take in the disheveled princess.
"Please?" Serenity fluttered her eyelashes. "You'll be saving my life."
"Protect the twintails." The robot intoned mechanically, before standing up straight and clomping away.
Orchidmantisguildy smirked to himself. "Don't count me out of this war just yet, Warriors."
Everything hurt. She had been defeated by the Clever Rat, and now she was suffering. Aches and pains, bruises all over her body. She also wasn't alone. Someone was in the room with her.
She had a lot of questions.
Why was she in a bed? Why hadn't the clever rat killed her? Had Ultimaguil saved her from the Clever Rat? She dared not open her eyes to find out. Whoever was in the room with her was breathing, so they certainly weren't an Elemerian. Which meant it was the Clever Rat or its friends.
She didn't want to fight that thing again.
With her many hands, she reached out to start probing her surroundings with touch, cold fear gripping her belly. Carefully, carefully, she searched the room for some kind of weapon and found nothing. No sharp object, nothing heavy to use as a bludgeon, not even a rope to bind someone with.
She felt terror. Fighting the Clever without even a weapon? She barely kept herself from shivering at the painful memory. There was no choice, though. She had to find out where she was.
The rat in the room with her was watching her sleep, so she didn't dare open her eyes to give it warning. She slowly stretched out more and more hands, surrounding it from different angles, preparing to strike.
Then the rat grabbed one of her hands, and crushed it.
"I thought you were awake." The Clever Rat's voice confirmed the worst of her fears.
She got rid of her hands, laying still and feigning sleep.
"No, it's too late for that." The Clever Rat stood up and walked over to her. "There's no use pretending you're asleep, Yamato."
She swallowed and opened her eyes, turning her head to look up at that dark red gaze that looked down at her without even a trace of fear.
That was never a good thing.
"Do you know where you are?"
She nodded quickly.
"Where's that?"
She had to swallow some saliva before she answered because her throat was very suddenly dry. "Your ship."
"That's right. Do you remember my name?"
It took her a moment to recall. Right at the start of their battle, Clever Rat had given a name and declared its intention to break her. Fearfully, she realised why she was still alive. She was not yet sufficiently broken. Terrified, she nodded.
"What was my name?"
Her throat felt dry again, and it took her a moment to whisper. "Aika."
"That's right." Aika answered and reached across to cup Yamato's chin with her hands who shrank away fearfully, but had nowhere to run to. "Now I need you to listen to me very carefully. Do I have your attention?"
"Y-yes."
"Good." Aika turned Yamato's head so she was looking straight into her eyes. "If you don't cause any trouble, no more trouble will come to you. Understand?"
"Yes."
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, I understand." The message was clear. If Yamato behaved, she wouldn't be punished, and the inverse of that was also true. "I won't cause trouble."
Aika considered her for a long moment, before releasing her and standing straight again. "Good. Now get up."
Yamato slowly turned her body, gently easing her feet over the edge of the bed and to the floor. Everything ached so she had to move slowly, feeling bruised in places she didn't even know she had. Carefully she stood up, shuffling around the bed while Aika watched.
"Come on, I've got stuff to do." Aika turned her back to Yamato, moving towards the door. "I don't quite trust you to be alone, yet. You're gonna be stuck with me for the foreseeable future, which is fine. I'm sure I can find some use for you."
Yamato shivered, shuffling along slowly behind Aika's more confident strides. She didn't want to imagine what horrible uses Clever Aika had dreamt up for her own amusement, but she couldn't think of an easy way out of it. Yamato looked around, realising she was in a med bay. Surely somewhere around here there had to be a scalpel?
With a bladed weapon maybe she could slay Aika before she was even aware. Yamato's gaze fell on a drawer, and she carefully reached towards it with an invisible hand to check inside it, when suddenly Aika reached out and grabbed the psychic limb.
Yamato gaped, as she felt the pressure of that powerful grip on her psychic powers, not quite enough to destroy the construct but clearly enough to serve as a warning. Those dark red eyes stared from under an arched eyebrow, and Yamato broke her gaze before dissolving the hand.
They stood in silence for a long moment, before Aika looked ahead and began to lead the way forward once more.
"If you have any questions feel free to ask."
"...How can you see them?"
Aika glanced back at Yamato. "My grandfather taught me to sense people's presence. By paying attention to things like changing air pressure in a room or how to tell when someone's staring at you, or recognising killing intent, you can never be snuck up on again. It took me a while, but while we were fighting I figured out how to apply the same skill on your powers. That's why I was better able to dodge your attacks at the end then at the start."
Yamato blinked at that, not quite believing what she'd just been told. She looked up at Aika, trying to find some sign of deception.
"I could teach you if you liked?" Aika offered.
Yamato opened her mouth, before closing it, not sure how to reply.
At the lack of response, Aika shrugged before facing forward again. "Feel free to think about it."
The entire exchange was so confusing that Yamato was left gaping at her back as she walked away. Who in their right mind would offer to strengthen their enemy? Only someone completely insane, or someone who wasn't even a little bit afraid of her.
Yamato shivered fearfully, and hurried to catch up.
AN: And we're back! Sorry about the hiatus. I was planning to take a month off, but then fell out of the habit of writing and I'm only now starting to get back into it. Now we continue things until the end of this story!
Thanks to Enid for editing. And also being super persistent about making me do stuff.