"Why should we help you?," Matrix growled, suspicious of the
stranger and everything she represented. AndrAIa gave him a Look. He held
his hands up defensively, and AndrAIa gave Phylaina an encouraging nod.
"I'm asking you to do what you should be doing. Don't you have any sense of duty, Guardians?"
She looked from Bob to Matrix and back.
"After all, that's what you are. Someone needs to stop that supervirus, and soon. You can't honestly believe that you'll stay safe and hidden in this bubble forever. I mean, admittingly, it would take those bumbling idiots that Daemon uses infinitely longer to break in here than it took me, but they still will eventually. You have to understand that, at least."
She crossed her arms across her chest.
"I thought that if you weren't compassionate enough to save my family, you'd at least have the decency to protect your own."
Phong sighed.
"Phylaina, my child. It is not so easy as you make it seem. Such an undertaking would -"
She cut him off, her voice low and flooded with tears.
"Phong, she has my little boy. She has my husband and my little boy in cages like animals. She took the only two people who ever wanted me away."
She wiped her eyes with her fingertips, the tears cascading silently onto the tabletop. She took a deep breath, attempting to regain some semblance of composure. This was not the way she had planned on dealing with these people, and the image she imagined she must be presented to them made her shudder. She was not any kind of blubbering anything. She let the breath out, turning back to face the people she had so painstakingly tracked down.
"I am not some kind of helpless victim begging for your compassion. I am by no means powerless, but I have learned the most difficult way of all that I am not powerful enough to face her on my own."
Without waiting for a response, she ducked her head and moved lithely through the sprites comprising her audience to exit the room.
"I'm asking you to do what you should be doing. Don't you have any sense of duty, Guardians?"
She looked from Bob to Matrix and back.
"After all, that's what you are. Someone needs to stop that supervirus, and soon. You can't honestly believe that you'll stay safe and hidden in this bubble forever. I mean, admittingly, it would take those bumbling idiots that Daemon uses infinitely longer to break in here than it took me, but they still will eventually. You have to understand that, at least."
She crossed her arms across her chest.
"I thought that if you weren't compassionate enough to save my family, you'd at least have the decency to protect your own."
Phong sighed.
"Phylaina, my child. It is not so easy as you make it seem. Such an undertaking would -"
She cut him off, her voice low and flooded with tears.
"Phong, she has my little boy. She has my husband and my little boy in cages like animals. She took the only two people who ever wanted me away."
She wiped her eyes with her fingertips, the tears cascading silently onto the tabletop. She took a deep breath, attempting to regain some semblance of composure. This was not the way she had planned on dealing with these people, and the image she imagined she must be presented to them made her shudder. She was not any kind of blubbering anything. She let the breath out, turning back to face the people she had so painstakingly tracked down.
"I am not some kind of helpless victim begging for your compassion. I am by no means powerless, but I have learned the most difficult way of all that I am not powerful enough to face her on my own."
Without waiting for a response, she ducked her head and moved lithely through the sprites comprising her audience to exit the room.