Xenotober 2022 11 Chain attack (Family cont.)

a/n: Eleonora explains everything, step by step. Let's just call her a one-woman chain attack.

Editing? Not so much.

All the good things belong to Monolithsoft.

Lila had her eyes closed now, her hands covering most of her face, the fingers touching her eyelids gently. The only sound in the room was the rustle of paper on the examination bench as she swayed gently, a breath forwards, a breath back. Eventually even that faded. Lila let her hands drift down to fold themselves neatly in her lap. She looked at Eleonora.

The BLADE administrator smiled supportively at Lila. "Maybe it's best if I rattle through the timeline. Three days ago, you alerted us to a suspicious interaction. As events progressed, it had all the earmarks of an assassination attempt. The desire to meet with specific officials, the lure of technology. We've seen it before, and have handled it worse. Not this time.

"We predicted that any object the target brought to the meeting was likely to be dangerous. You agreed with this assessment, I believe?" She checked on Lila, and finding no questions, Eleonora continued. "Hence the case. I won't pretend to be able to explain to your satisfaction, but the plan was for it to contain any large energy signature."

"Not really Orphe tech's expertise," Lila said softly.

Eleonora beamed. "I knew you'd spot that, but I was hoping the target's handlers wouldn't, provided they were even listening in. Misdirection, the same as the elevator ride and the puppets in the conference room. All to let them think we had once again fallen for the bait. I won't deny we're hungry for technical advantages, so it makes sense they keep using that as a wedge. That and friendship. We really are predictable."

A whisper from Lila. Eleonora looked inquiringly. "What did you say?"

"I said, it's not a bad thing."

"No-oo," Eleonora said slowly, "but it is getting tiring to have this obvious flaw in our society. However, that's not really today's problem. You arrived, we neutralized the object, the target wasn't alarmed, everything as planned. What we hadn't expected was ... " She stopped. "Lila, dear, are you ready?"

"How bad is it?"

"Not bad at all! But we did run a scan on the two of you on the way down, checking for weapons and so on. It showed ... by the way, what did you have in your pocket?"

Lila blinked and didn't answer.

"Not your comm device. The other pocket," prompted Eleonora.

"Multipurpose tool," Lila said uncertainly.

"So that's what they're calling it now. Of course it was." Eleonora nodded. "Well, the target..."

"Avery."

"Excuse me"

"Her name is Avery."

"Dear, she doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. It never did. The target was a remote controlled animatron with limited self-activating routines, and more importantly ... Lila, dear, you won't start acting up again?"

"I'm fine."

"Of course. Back to what I was saying: More importantly, the target's body was housing a large amount of explosives. A very large amount. I'm rather surprised she could walk and talk at all."

"No. No!" Lila said firmly. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, to block a blow, to block this statement.

"I'm afraid so. I'm rather relieved she didn't trigger earlier, in NLA for example."

"I talked to her. I had lunch with her." But Lila was starting to understand. She folded her hands in her lap again, gripping them together.

"A limited set of routines and an extensive vocabulary, that's all it was. Don't take it too hard. I wasn't expecting it either. When the information from the scan came through, I assure you I was sweating myself."

"No." Lila was speaking to herself, staring at her clasped hands.

"And that's that. Do you want to know if we discover anything else?"

"No."

"Very well. I won't take any more of your time. The staff says you're cleared to return to work." Eleonora stood up, tugged her skirt with exactitude, and headed for the door. When she reached it, it didn't open automatically. She spoke into the flat surface, not looking at Lila. "One more thing. Next time: follow my instructions better. I wouldn't have kept the elevator for you." She tapped the control panel on the door frame and left Lila alone.

a/n: X doesn't have chain attacks, therefore it can't be a real Xenoblade. Question settled, moving on to more fan fiction.

Next up: Eternity, and probably the last chapter of this set.