The Commander's temples throbbed as he slowly scooped the dropped tablet off of the floor and callously tossed it back onto the desk. With a sigh, he dropped back onto his swivel chair, which let out a brief creak from the impact. The Commander leaned back into the chair, taking a deep breath before leaning forward over the desk, resting his hands on his forehead as he continued puzzling over the documents. Persica's words about Kalina's condition, the images he saw in Machlian's mind - all of these things gnawed at the back of his head as he tried to piece together some kind of plan.
Four potential targets, only enough manpower to cover two of them at a time, each of them liable to have a death count in the thousands if left unchecked...He wouldn't be fast enough to stop all of them, somewhere down the line, this was going to be less about stopping a disaster and more about containing it. Once again, he was stuck having to decide who would live and who would die, and if he does nothing, everyone dies. This was the worst part of this job, and for the last few months, it was the only part of it that he had seen.
A feeling of pressure mounted on the sides of his head as he let out another sigh and reached for the mug next to him. He knew what to expect when he felt the distinctly light weight of it, but he still glanced inside to find nothing but an empty cup, the inside stained from uncountable servings of coffee left to sit.
The Commander tossed the mug back onto the desk, causing it to rattle on the table as it briefly bounced around and settled into place, and leaned back in his chair. The light above buzzed oppressively as the Commander tried to get his thoughts in order, but his head was a jumbled mess. A few minutes ago, he was ready to fall asleep standing up, but now it felt like he'd be lucky if he got any sleep at all. Sleep deprivation - this was going to affect his judgment, slow him down, cause careless mistakes, all it would take is one mistake and he, his team, and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people would die. The thought of it made it feel as if his blood was going to freeze solid in his veins.
A sudden knock on the door-frame nearly caused the Commander to reach for the gun under his desk, but the sight of a familiar pink-haired girl quickly shut him down.
ST AR-15 stood in the doorway, her face still dripping wet from scrubbing off SOP-II's 'artistic masterpiece'. "Commander..."
"Star...was there something else you needed?" The Commander asked.
STAR's gaze shifted briefly, as if she was hesitating to say something. "I just...wanted to see if you were alright."
It wasn't often that STAR admitted that she was worried about someone, he must've been doing a really poor job of hiding the cracks lately.
The Commander sighed and shook his head. "This shit never ends, I'm starting to understand why Ange's so pissed off all the time."
STAR slowly walked into the room. "I heard something hit the ground a minute ago, and you look awful. What happened?"
"It's Kalina, I got a call from Persica. Her condition is worsening and she had to be transferred to another hospital."
STAR's eyes shifted downwards. "Damn..." She dejectedly replied.
The Commander's eyes turned to the mess of papers on his desk. "I'm going over the plans for if Griffin green-lights the Op to try to take my mind off of it, but with the people we have...we're going to be stretched thin no matter how we go at it."
STAR grumbled and shook her head. "You're really going to trust that cultist bitch?"
"She's our only lead, Star. I've sent the images we grabbed from her Neural Cloud to Griffin, if he can't find any matches for what we saw, we'll need to check it out."
"So, what? You think she can see into the future? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you're sounding?" STAR's frustration began to boil over.
"We know Paradeus is planning an attack in this city, and every piece of intel Ange acquired in Bremen points to Collapse Radiation as their weapon of choice. What we saw lines up perfectly with everything we know - mass casualties with Collapse-Based Weaponry to discover people with immunity, just like in Tallinn."
"And you think he doesn't know what we saw there? You think that Morridow didn't spill everything Ange learned when she went crawling back to him? Can't you see that this is some kind of trap?!" STAR pleaded.
"We don't know that for sure, Star. Paradeus fought tooth and nail to stop us from getting her out of Bohnsdorf, and both Dandelion and Persica have their own theories on how that memory you saw got there." The Commander reasoned.
"I still don't like it, Commander, it's all too convenient! I'm telling you, she's one of them!" STAR pressed.
The Commander sighed. "Star...what's gotten into you?"
"What's gotten into you?!" STAR fired back, the objects on the desk rattled as she slammed her hands on it. "You're letting some bullshit damsel in distress act manipulate you! You heard Ange's warning - Morridow's a spy, Commander! She specializes in manipulating people! Paradeus probably has a whole file on you by now and knows exactly how to get inside your head! And now - now, you're going to put yourself at risk over information she gave to you, because you think that she's some kind of fucking clairvoyant?! I can see that bitch's smug face right now, laughing her fucking ass off at you as she slits your throat at how fucking gullible you were!" STAR had never been one to mince words, but at that moment, any remnants of a filter she had came flying off the mounting.
"Star, that's enough-"
"No! I will not be quiet!" STAR's rage boiled even hotter. "This is fucked, Commander! I would follow you anywhere, protect you from anything, but you just keep pushing your damned luck! I can only do so much to protect someone who's always trying to find some new and exciting way to get themselves fucking killed all the time!"
"I can take care of myself, STAR."
The Commander's dismissive remark made STAR even more furious. "Can you really?! You could have fooled me - between that maid bitch nearly crushing your ribs into your spine, having those freaks drag you off and turn you into their little punching bag, and oh, let's not forget you trying to play hero and take on the military with that fucking peashooter! Come off it, Commander, you're more of a pain in the ass than Ange ever was!" By this point, STAR's head looked like it was about to explode.
The Commander lost his patience. "You want to lecture me about playing hero and getting myself killed?!"
STAR's eyes narrowed and her teeth gnashed together as she violently seized the Commander by the collar and pulled him up from his chair. "That's what I was built to do! I'm supposed to do these things so you don't have to! I'm a doll, Commander!"
"Not to me, you aren't!" The Commander snapped.
"So, what?! You think you're being some kind of valiant knight in shining armor by doing this?! Do you have any idea what would happen if I lost you?! What it would do to me if I failed to protect you?! You selfish bastard!"
Perosa let out an annoyed sigh as the muffled sounds of raised voices grew louder and louder, refusing to relent. Even Machlian had sat up from the sofa across from her, awoken by the argument transpiring down the hall.
"Robin and that pink-haired doll, are they...fighting?" Machlian hesitantly asked the authoritative doll keeping watch over her.
"Yep..." Perosa sighed out.
"Isn't someone...going to stop them?"
Perosa shook her head. "That kind of fight is none of our business."
"This is what humans refer to as a "lovers' quarrel". Just leave them be, they'll be ready to announce a wedding by tomorrow." Kolibri whispered playfully from the chair across from her, Perosa sighed once again in response.
"Star...I didn't come here to die." The Commander tried to reassure STAR.
STAR sighed in frustration "That's what M4 told me the last time I saw her, Commander..."
"We'll find her, Star."
"That's not the point...I can't lose both of you. I won't allow it." STAR's grip on his shirt began to loosen.
"I've made my decision, Star. I'm not going to ignore a lead, if things end up going wrong, we'll deal with it like we always do."
STAR scoffed as she let go of his collar - that arrogant stubborn bastard wasn't going to change his mind. "Alright, Commander, I'll tell you what - you think you can handle yourself if that bitch leads us into a trap? Prove it."
"Prove it?"
STAR nodded. "Beat me in a fight, and I'll drop it - for good. You won't hear another word of complaint out of me for the rest of this mission."
"Alright, Star - you're on."
Inside the "ring", the pink haired girl and the man faced each other, intensely staring each other down.
"Truth be told...I've been waiting for this for a long time..." The girl spoke.
The man cracked a smile in response and squared up. "Show me what you're made of."
The girl charged straight at him, before he could even react, she somersaulted and launched him in the air with a powerful kick. Before the man could finish falling to the ground, she quickly regained her balance and charged forward again, assaulting him with a flurry of punches and kicks, each one bouncing him in the air and preventing him from hitting the floor.
Following the flurry of strikes, she launched him further into the air with a powerful uppercut before she sent him flying across the room with a roundhouse kick. The man slammed into the wall, cracking and splintering it as he was embedded into it. The woman sprang forward and smashed her fist straight through his abdomen, and tore his stomach straight from his body.
Tossing the organ aside like a piece of trash, she then gripped him by the hair and tore his head straight off, and pounded the severed head against his body until the the head exploded into chunks of flesh and fragments of bone.
"Shit!" The Commander cursed as he slapped the controller down onto the small coffee table in front of the TV. Letting out a sigh of defeat, he turned to the pinkette on the couch next to him. "How the hell do you do that?!"
STAR laughed triumphantly before downing her glass of Scotch - the Scotch her and the Commander had raided from Griffin's liquor cabinet. "I told you that you wouldn't stand a chance."
The Commander scoffed and shook his head. "You were reading my inputs."
"What inputs? You mean the buttons you were mashing while I juggled your ass?"
The Commander grumbled and slammed back his glass to Star's amusement.
"You're really knocking that stuff back, Commander. You know, this bottle definitely isn't cheap." STAR commented.
"This is pocket change to someone with Griffin's money, he won't even notice it's gone."
"You don't like Griffin, do you?"
The Commander let out a brief chuckle. "Now what gave that away?"
"The raiding his liquor cabinet and playing his video games, for starters. There was also that first conversation with him - I've known you long enough to recognize your whole 'smile and nod while silently calling bullshit' act."
The Commander sighed and shook his head again. "Another megalomaniac that thinks if he waves around enough guns and bombs, he can make the world however he wants - just what this world needs. This world's the way it is now because of people like him, he's lucky that William's sat himself at the top of my shit-list."
"But you're still going to work with him?"
"For now. He has the deep pockets, the connections, and the resources, whether I like it or not, he's my shot at ending this. I just hope I don't end up making way for something worse..." The Commander poured himself another glass of scotch.
"For now?"
The Commander nodded before downing his glass. "In the time I was 'rogue', I've managed to build something of a network of my own...Persica, Havier, 404, You and the rest of the AR Team, Ange and her team...Sangvis Ferri - they may not like me very much, but they're at least willing to let bygones be bygones and do business."
STAR finished downing her glass and slowly turned to the Commander. "Commander...just what are you up to?"
"Just setting up a Plan B, Star...Let's hope it doesn't come to it."
STAR shook her head. "You've had too much to drink, Commander."
"I'm serious, Star. I keep hearing these words in my head, about the things M16 said to me when she pulled me out of that train, my conversation with Griffin, the warning Kryuger gave me, the way Kalina's being 'treated'...I don't exactly trust everybody at G&K. The things we saw in Belgrade, Tallinn, Paldiski, is Griffin really fighting against these things? Or is the only problem they have with them the fact that they aren't the ones wielding the power that comes from them? Is it really peace they're fighting for, or a monopoly on violence?" The Commander mused as he filled his glass.
"...And M4...You're worried about what he has planned for her."
The Commander nodded and downed yet another glass.
"It's clear that M4's a key part in all of this, and I don't doubt that she's nothing more than a means to an end to Griffin." The Commander affirmed.
"Persica would never allow-" STAR began before the Commander cut her off.
"Persica won't be useful to them forever, Star, sooner or later, we're all going to outlive our usefulness, and what happens to us when it does? People like Griffin don't like loose-ends. We need to be ready for anything, Star, this might not end with William."
STAR exhaled and downed another glass. "Is it really okay to be saying these kinds of things here?"
"I had RO sweep the room for bugs earlier, nobody's listening in on us."
STAR said nothing in response, instead she haphazardly slapped her glass on the table, and pulled out two training knives, tossing one of them over to the Commander.
"Star?"
STAR slowly stood up and faced the Commander. "I meant what I said earlier...I have been going through a lot of shit lately - and it's all because of you. Letting that Brain-Parasite stay by your side, recruiting all of those Sangvis Dolls, letting that Ringleader into your own office unchecked, letting that Nyto in here, and now this talk of taking the whole world on by yourself...You're really pissing me off with how much you're making me worry about you. Now get up."
The Commander grabbed the knife off of his lap and stood up.
STAR held up her knife and pressed down on a switch on the handle, causing it to emit a harsh buzzing noise. "Shock knife, Perosa keeps these around for training, they won't cut you, but you'll feel it if the blade touches you."
The Commander nodded affirmatively. "I'm familiar."
"I've turned my less-lethal inhibitors on too, I won't risk injuring you before an operation, but that means I don't want to hear any excuses when I kick your ass."
STAR and the Commander circled each other intently as they slowly moved into the center of the room, into the "ring" they had set up by moving the furniture off to the sides of the room before they had found the old console and gotten distracted.
"Alright Commander, no more distractions. I'm Morridow, I've come here to kill you - now defend yourself!" STAR shouted as she burst forward, charging straight at the Commander, knife in hand.
The doll closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye and stabbed at him as soon as she was within arm's reach. Even though the Commander was ready, he felt a jolt of adrenaline at just how quick the first attack came. He heard the swish of the blade flying past his ear as he jerked his head to the side, slipping out of the blade's path, only for her to slash at him again in an instant. The Commander jerked his head back, the air rushed against his neck as the blade swished less than a centimeter away from his throat.
The Commander quickly stepped off the X to get out of the path of the doll's relentless assault, and swiftly stabbed at her with an attack of his own, but she spun to his flank in the blink of an eye. Sensing an attack, the Commander ducked his head to feel a blade graze the top of his head. As he began to rise, he caught sight of a blade rapidly swinging towards him. The Commander reflexively slammed his wrist against STARs, his forearm screamed in pain as the attack was stopped cold.
The Commander quickly stabbed at her sternum, but STAR turned to the side and kicked his leg out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor on his back. He rolled to the side almost immediately, narrowly dodging the blade that swished into the floor right where he was less than a second ago. The Commander quickly slammed his boot into her torso, sending her stumbling backwards.
Taking advantage of her lost balance, the Commander jumped to his feet and lunged towards her, but STAR quickly regained her balance and seized him by the arm, and used his momentum to flip him over her shoulder and sending him plummeting to the ground once again. Still holding his arm, she stomped her boot on his chest and twisted his arm into an awkward position.
"What's the matter, Commander? Stuck, are we?" Star said mockingly.
The Commander gritted his teeth and grumbled bitterly.
"Oh, don't tell me Agent gave you a thing for this?" A sadistic smile formed on STAR's face as the spoke.
The Commander glared at her as he growled intensely.
"I can see it now. 'Oh, yes Morridow! Please step on me, mistress! Crush my head with your heels!'" STAR triumphantly mocked the Commander.
"Okay, now you're gonna fucking get it." The Commander grumbled out.
He slammed his palm into her ankle, knocking her foot off center, which gave him just enough leeway to roll his body and knock her foot the rest of the way off, and immediately oriented his body to relieve the pressure off his wrist. STAR's grip on his hand loosened slightly, which gave it just enough room to turn the blade onto her wrist and zap it, causing her to let go of it with a brief yelp. He then quickly shot forward, grabbing hold of her leg and locking her ankle in place with his weight while driving his shoulder into her shin, causing her to topple backwards.
The Commander quickly slashed his way up her shin and her thigh, and then, shielding his face and neck with his left arm, lunged forward up her torso and pinned her right arm to the ground. With her knife-arm immobilized, the Commander held down the shock-button as he swiftly slashed the blade down the right side of her neck, causing STAR to shriek in a mixture of pain and embarrassment.
"Got you." The Commander said triumphantly.
STAR gnashed her teeth and grumbled. "That was dirty."
"Oh, really?" The Commander asked as he sat up, STAR following suit and sitting up next to him.
"I had you, Commander, it was over! If I didn't have my inhibitors switched on, I could have crushed you right there!" STAR argued.
"So, what, it doesn't count?"
"No it doesn't count! If it was Morridow fighting you, you'd be dead!"
"I don't know, Nytos and ringleaders are pretty chatty from our experiences, maybe she's as arrogant as you are."
STAR groaned and shook her head. "I had my inhibitors on, Morridow won't."
"So what was the point then, if you're just going to say that you were going easy on me?"
STAR didn't answer.
"I think you're just sore about your face getting drawn on, and wanted to take it out on someone." The Commander hypothesized.
STAR shot a glare at the Commander, the same glare she'd always give when someone teased her - a glare that, unfortunately for the both of them, the Commander found to be cute.
"You really are still mad about that...Come on, Star, you got off easy, you know what would get drawn on your face if you fell asleep where I came from?"
STAR grumbled aggressively, poked her knife into the Commander's side, and held down the shock button.
"Ow! You fucker!" The Commander exclaimed as he jabbed STAR in the thigh and shocked her, causing her to shriek.
The Commander let out an amused chuckle at STAR's reaction.
STAR's eyes narrowed and her face flushed red as she bared her teeth. "That's it! You asked for it!"
The Commander was unable to harness a laugh after seeing her so flustered, and STAR quickly lunged straight for him, giving him no time to react.
"Oh, shit!" The Commander shouted right before the first of many stinging sensations peppered his body as she wrestled him to the ground.
The Commander wrapped his arm around STAR's and trapped her hand behind his back, but he could feel the constant jolts of electricity as the blade jabbed into his back. He quickly tried to follow up with an attack of his own, but STAR seized him by the wrist and bashed his hand into the floor until the knife dropped out of his hand.
The two wrestled on the floor, rolling around as they both tried to break free from the deadlock. Somewhere in the process, STAR lost her grip on her knife, and they were stuck going hand to hand. The Commander tried to grip STAR by the hair, but had only managed to grab on to her hairband and accidentally slip it off, her long, pink hair unfurled over her shoulders. Finally, STAR slipped free of the Commander's grasp and pinned his wrists to the floor, straddling over him.
STAR leaned over him, frozen in place a few inches from his face, her face slowly flushing red. The Commander felt it too - they'd both been drinking, it was no secret how close they had become over the years, how much they cared for one another, how they both trusted each other with their lives, even if they didn't always agree.
The two stayed frozen in place for a long time, the Commander silently gazing into STAR's violet eyes, her long, pink hair hanging over her shoulders.
"Commander..." STAR finally broke the silence. "The reason I'm doing this...Is because I wanted to show you that you need me..."
"Star..."
"You're an idiot, Commander...You're reckless, impulsive, stubborn, you let your emotions get the better of you...you always try to bear everything by yourself, and you always throw yourself into danger trying to play the hero...and that's why - I'll always be here to protect you when it bites you in the ass..."
STAR slowly released her grip on his wrists, in which the Commander slowly slipped his hand down and took her gently by the hand.
A slight smile formed on STAR's face. "I know you'll never change your mind, no matter how much I yell at you, so just...let me protect you, tonight, Commander...Let me stay here with you."
Something, something, fraternization, unprofessional conduct...He didn't care anymore, after everything they had been through, what they were going up against, the Commander felt as if he'd be lucky if he lived to see the end of tomorrow. There was no telling what was waiting for them or what could end up happening to them. In this new world, you learned to appreciate the things you had and hold on to them with everything you got, and in that moment - they had each other. For now, both of them just wanted to set it all aside, to show each other how they truly felt about each other, without any ranks or facades getting in the way.
"Just one condition, Star..." The Commander finally said.
When STAR's guard was down, the Commander quickly and forcefully rolled STAR onto her back, pinning her by the hands, their fingers still intertwined.
"Don't forget who's in charge." He said.
"For tonight? We'll see." STAR replied playfully and let go of his hands, throwing her arms around his shoulders and pulling him down to her.
She mashed her lips against his, their tongues battled for dominance as they aggressively kissed one another. Soon their bodies did too, their wrestling continued, and they began rolling each other closer and closer to the bed.
And so their "tiebreaker" continued. Whoever "won" was anybody's guess, but things were definitely settled between each other...
After cleaning up, the Commander and STAR lied down on the mattress, which had been placed a few feet from the heap of splintered wreckage that used to be the bedframe.
"Are you sure you're alright, Commander?" STAR gently whispered with concern, caressing his face.
"Nothing's broken besides the bed, I'm fine, Star." The Commander replied, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer.
"I think...we went overboard."
"Well, at least it wasn't my bed."
STAR let out a chuckle. "I think we're going to have to find our own safehouses after this."
"I can't say I'm looking forward to explaining this...Maybe we can say SOP-II did it."
"We'll figure it out later, Commander. Just rest for now, it's a big day tomorrow."
"Yeah..."
STAR moved in closer, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against his.
"Hey, Commander...don't...disappear on me, alright?" STAR whispered softly.
The Commander slowly nodded, leaning into her. "...You keep yourself alive too, Star...I want you by my side when we finish this...and afterwards too."
STAR gently took the Commander's hand and intertwined her fingers with his. "I'm never leaving your side again, Commander...I promise."
