"Suddenly puts our problems into perspective, doesn't it?" Hook said softly, gazing into the monitor. Fefnir grunted.
"Does it ever." What they were looking at was not a pretty sight. Over the past day, the growths on Stray's body had become so thick, it was hard to see his face anymore. Fefnir was unpleasantly reminded of how Stray had described the creatures… as looking like shrubs.
Unfortunately, as it had turned out, they did need him semi-alive. They had discovered a solution of electrolytes that could be used to keep the gel and weeds alive, but it only worked for a short time and they would not multiply outside of a Reploid body. Courageous human technicians, using very long poles, had to harvest more of the stuff regularly. It was ghastly, but they took comfort in the fact that Stray was registering no higher functions at all. He was long past caring about his condition.
"What have you learned, Leviathan?" Harpuia asked calmly enough, but his green eyes blazed with suppressed anger.
"It's not really my work… Joanna here did most of it." The civilian scientist she'd pointed out raised her head, smiling at them shyly. She was a middle-aged woman with brown/grey hair, and had degrees in both chemistry and biology, with a side specialty in Reploid biochemistry. "This stuff is really weird, Sage. It's quasi-organic and seems to be composed mostly of nanites, in its goo form. The bushy things are made of the goo, but they seem more organic."
"Skip the details, please." Harpuia knew his own limits… he was an excellent General, and he wouldn't understand the nuts and bolts of how the gel functioned. "Have you found any way to get rid of it?" Leviathan looked thoughtful.
"We're testing things out… but Harpuia, if we had Ciel here she could really help. Maybe you should try to get in touch with her? We've prepared the information for her." Harpuia blinked, then gave Leviathan a small smile, pleased she hadn't forgotten the bargain he had made with Stray.
"How? We haven't got channels to the Rebellion." Fefnir put in, and Harpuia considered the problem for a moment before turning to him and Hook.
"Can you catch a Resistance soldier, alive?" He was slightly doubtful. Fefnir didn't have much experience taking captives. Fefnir and Hook exchanged a glance, then Fefnir gave Harpuia a lopsided smile.
"Oh, I think we can handle it, Sage. We've done it more times than you think." That jolted Harpuia, and he looked at Hook, seeing an amused, ironic smile. Harpuia's eyes narrowed… he had almost forgotten their peculiar histories, but now it was brought back to him. They know that I know about their extra memories… he shoved that thought away. It didn't matter… it was inconsequential, compared to what was happening now.
"Very well," Harpuia said, accepting Fefnir's assurance. "See to it." Fefnir nodded, and he and Hook departed.
It would take some work to find a Resistance soldier.
"Lord Harpuia?" Padrick interrupted his superior almost diffidently. He was aware that his investigation had been bumped to a much lower priority, and Harpuia was busy reinforcing various defenses and moving units to various small, vulnerable towns and villages. "Do you have a moment?"
"Not now." Harpuia said absently, examining a map carefully. "Meet me in my office at…" He mentally checked the time. "1800 hours." He still wanted to know what Padrick had found, but many problems were far more pressing.
"Yes, Lord Harpuia." Padrick gave him a crisp salute, and walked away. He had duties to see to, as well. Their break was over, and the HQ was a beehive of frenetic activity as they prepared for the worst.
At 1800, Padrick reported to Harpuia's office. Harpuia had only gotten there a few minutes before, and looked up as Padrick came in. The dun Reploid looked mildly concerned, and Harpuia felt a brief moment of amusement. Padrick was concerned about him?
"What have you found out?" Harpuia went straight to business, wanting to get this out of the way quickly.
"Not as much as I would have hoped," Padrick said. "I searched through the woman's past, and found many people who would want her dead, but most were human." A faint smile crossed his face. "It appears she was quite… assertive in her business and personal dealings. Particularly with her ex-husband, a human named Leo Morn, but he was killed a year ago in a car crash-" Harpuia tuned Padrick out, as his mind raced back to a meeting he had had not so very long ago, with a pair of police officers. Officer McIntyre, with her blond hair, blue eyes and bouncy voice…
"No, worse, I dated Leo Morn. Weird resemblance, but he died last year in a car crash. Favor to the world, if you ask me. The man was a brute."
"That's not possible," Harpuia said, face blank with disbelief. Padrick halted his report, surprised and realizing he'd lost the attention of his audience.
"Sir?"
"No one could give a Reploid memories from a human…" Padrick's eyes widened at that statement, and an even worse possibility occurred to Harpuia. The well-developed neural nets… adult humans were automatically older than most Reploids… if the entire mind could be translated… "It's just not possible!"
"I… wouldn't know, sir." Padrick said slowly. "But perhaps there is a way to find out." Harpuia blinked at him.
"How?" He was certain Leviathan wouldn't know of any technology that could do this. If it exised at all, the Council had obviously kept it tightly under wraps. But Padrick nodded.
"If what you think is true, and they've kept the facial features the same, there are ways to search by appearance through various databases. Perhaps I can match some of the soldiers with false pasts with their… human counterparts." Harpuia frowned, but remembered that Officer McIntyre had managed to ID the photo of Leo as looking like her ex-boyfriend, Leo Morn. If Padrick had the software to run the comparison, and the humans were on the database, perhaps he could do it.
"Very well. See to it." Padrick nodded, and slipped out. Harpuia stared away, quietly thinking.
If, somehow, Fefnir and the others had once been human… Harpuia felt almost sick as he considered it. Many, many of the Reploids with false pasts had died under his command. Had he been putting humans in danger all this time? Another doubt assaulted him. He'd always firmly believed that Reploids were inferior to humans, merely a copy of them. If humans could become Reploids, what did it say about that belief? What did it say about his own actions? Harpuia stood up, looking out his office window at the capital of Neo Arcadia. He balled one hand into a fist, against the window sill, and fought back the urge to slam it into the wall to express his confusion and frustration.
You don't have time for this, he told himself firmly, getting a grip on his emotions. You don't have time to worry about if they're human or not, and what it means. You have more important things to deal with. Harpuia took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Once he was certain he was in control and his expression was its usual, icy calm, he left the office.
He wanted to see what progress Leviathan and Fefnir had made.
"Bunch of goddamn idiots." Fefnir growled, rubbing a burn on his arm and glowering at the five Resistance soldiers he and a handpicked team of soldiers had managed to capture. They were all firmly chained, with shackles meant to stop any use of busters and foil any attempt to teleport. Another three had escaped, from this hidden cell, but that didn't much matter. All that mattered was that they had managed the capture without killing anyone, and with only a few severe injuries on both sides. A medic he had brought along was tending to the soldiers now.
Neo Arcadia had known about the presence of this cell for some time, but had allowed it to go unmolested in an effort to isolate other cells. They had been meeting with some success, but Fefnir had decided, with Harpuia's approval, that getting the message to Ciel in a timely manner was worth shattering that operation. So they had moved on the cell this morning.
Harpuia would have been dismayed, if he had seen the members of Fefnir's team. He had swiped two of them from Leviathan, and another one from Harpuia's aerial unit. And every last one was part of the Translation Project. Fefnir had done that deliberately. On one occasion or another, every one of them had gone on missions with strict instructions to take prisoners. Most of Harpuia's forces never had.
"Oh, not really Fefnir. You do have SUCH a reputation as a badass." She grinned. "I'd be scared if you showed up on my doorstep, too." The Resistance soldiers had put up quite a fierce resistance to them.
"I'm that terrifying?" Fefnir said with perverse pride, and Hook laughed, running a hand up his back. Although the armor did get in the way. "Good, I've always wanted to be known as the red terror."
"Sorry, boss, that's still Zero." One of the members of his unit, a black skinned male named Gumbo put in with a sly grin. Fefnir mocked snarled at him.
"Who asked you?" Fefnir eyed the Resistance soldiers, who were looking pale, stiff and very afraid. "Oh, calm down. You're not going to be killed." Several faces registered disbelief, while a few others held some hope. The whole thing was a bit out of the ordinary… usually, the Guardians didn't bother with prisoners, except for the occasional one they took for data extraction… so a bit of cautious hope wasn't completely unreasonable. "Which one of you is in charge?" There was a moment of silence, before a slight female straightened her shoulders.
"I am," she said stoically, and Fefnir tilted his head, examining her. She was a little unusual… she had purple cat ears, and her armor was dark blue and yellow, giving the appearance of a cloth shirt just covering her chest, and a poofy skirt. She looked very much like a typical Reploid citizen of Neo Arcadia, if you ignored the ears. And even that wasn't too strange… some people liked giving their Reploids little animal flourishes. "I'm Verrucca."
"Ah? As in the Verrucca gnome?" Fefnir said, and had the pleasure of seeing the Rebellion cell leader blush bright red. The rest of her soldiers, and his for that matter, just looked confused. Hook sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Y-you read Terry Pratchett?" Fefnir grinned at the tone. She sounded like she would have been less surprised if he had revealed a taste for small farm animals.
"Great books, a bit dated but still great," he said amiably. Then his expression turned serious. "Look, here's the deal. Harpuia needs one of you, or maybe all of you, to take a message to Ciel. So you really don't have to worry about being killed. As soon as he gives you the message, we'll let you go." There was still disbelief on their faces, but slightly more hope. And Verrucca looked almost interested.
"What kind of message?" she questioned, then her expression hardened. "We won't betray Ciel." Fefnir waved that away.
"It's nothing like that. Believe me, you'll understand when Sage gives you the message." Fefnir smiled grimly. "So, everyone up." Hesitently, the Rebellion soldiers stood, the chains rattling. They could walk and still be slightly dangerous, even with the chains on, but Fefnir's soldiers kept a very close eye on them as they escorted them out.
It took only a short time to get the Resistance soldiers to their HQ, and less time for Harpuia to explain the basics of the situation. All it took was replaying scenes of the town… then the tape of Stray's deterioration and 'death.' All of the soldiers looked sick, when they saw that.
"Stray…" Verrucca pressed a hand against her stomach, looking about ready to be violently ill. "He… he stayed with us for a month. He was such a sweet kid…" Harpuia tilted his head to one side. He wouldn't have called Stray that, but then, he'd only known the Rebellion soldier in an extremely stressful circumstance.
"He died as well as he could, trying to save others," Harpuia said compassionately, and Verrucca nodded, swallowing hard. "But our task would be easier with Ciel's help, and I promised Stray we would be giving her the data on this… substance in any case. So, we need you to take this message for us." He didn't bother to add that if they refused, he would no longer have any use for them. Verrucca nodded again, meeting his eyes. Her golden eyes were filled with unshed tears, at the fate of someone she had known and considered a friend.
"We'll do it. Ciel will want to know about this," then she hesitated. "Do… do you think Weil is behind this?" Harpuia's lips tightened. He'd already been asking himself that question.
"We suspect so, although we cannot be sure." It was stretching credulity to think that someone else had engineered this atrocity at this particular time. On the other hand, the world was full of weird coincidences. Stranger things had no doubt happened, even if Harpuia couldn't think of any offhand. "Whatever it is, whoever made it, we need to put a stop to it immediately." Verrucca nodded in agreement, then raised her chin with a firm resolve.
"We'll take your message as soon as you're ready." Harpuia nodded, handing over the chips and motioning for Fefnir to remove their chains. Because next, they would have to teleport away. And for that…
"We'll give you access to our satellite system for this one teleport." He instructed Verrucca and the others. Verrucca looked studiously blank, but some of the others didn't control their expressions quite as well, and Harpuia could guess what they were thinking. They no doubt already had a back door into his satellite system, a back door Neo Arcadia's technicians hadn't found yet. But he didn't expect them to reveal it right in front of him, so he wasn't going to ask. There were more important things to deal with. "Tell Ciel and Zero that if they want to make a reply, to meet me at these coordinates, 0800 tomorrow morning." Harpuia gave them the coordinates, then smiled slightly. "Their time." The Resistance HQ was in another time zone than Neo Arcadia's capital, and the last thing they needed was a mix-up over something so picayune as the time difference. Verrucca nodded again, committing the co-ordinates to memory and putting the chips away into a pocket on her armor. Harpuia watched as they teleported away.
If all went well, he would be seeing Ciel very soon.
The next day, at precisely 0800 hours, Harpuia teleported to the spot he had told Ciel and Zero to meet him. Glancing around, he immediately saw them standing nearby. His entrance had obviously interrupted a quiet conversation.
Harpuia stood quietly, regarding them for a moment as they looked at him. Ciel's blond hair was just a trifle lighter than Zero's, and quite a bit shorter. In his opinion, they made a very cute pair, standing together in the early dawn light. Harpuia smiled to himself, imagining how Leviathan would react if he mentioned that to her. With him, it would no doubt lead to a severe pout. If Fefnir said it, there would be a spirited attempt to toss the red warrior into a garbage can.
"Harpuia," Zero said without expression. Ciel's smile was polite, but cool. "What do you want?" Harpuia's eyes narrowed, and his lips tightened at the suppressed hostility in the air. Even if they had a common enemy, relations between Neo Arcadia and the Resistance were cold at best.
"I'm certain you can guess." His eyes went to Ciel. "We can use all the help with analysis of the gel we can get."
"I've already look over the data you sent to us," Ciel said with a troubled expression. "Are you conducting a DNA analysis on it?" That kind of test took several days. Harpuia nodded.
"Leviathan has already started it." He took a deep breath. "Ciel, I want you and Zero and anyone else you feel the need for to join us in Neo Arcadia's laboratories. Forgive me, but we have better equipment than the Resistance, and this problem could become critical very quickly if a cure is not found." Zero's eyes flashed at the thought of Ciel in the middle of Neo Arcadia. "I give you my word of honor, no harm will come to you."
"You can speak for yourself, Harpuia. But can you speak for everyone else?" Ciel said softly, and Harpuia hid a grimace. That was a good point, but…
"Yes. The Council is very concerned." That was understating the case. Harpuia had already given them his report, and they were afraid. If their Reploids could be turned against them, the effect would be horrible. "Fefnir and Leviathan agree." And as long as they were willing to behave, no one beneath them would be willing to act against Zero and Ciel. Zero and Ciel exchanged a glance.
"Well, that's… interesting. But we'll have to discuss it with the rest of the Resistance." Ciel said, and Harpuia nodded. They couldn't just disappear without scaring the hell out of the Resistance, and probably leading to a mission set on rescuing them.
"Very well. Do you want to meet here tomorrow, at the same time?" He didn't think it would take very long for them to come to a decision. Ciel nodded, her eyes troubled.
"We will… and, Harpuia?" She said as Harpuia started to turn away, and he tilted his head in her direction. "Thank you… for being with Stray." Ciel had seen the entire tape, and the Guardian's attempt to comfort him. She had cared deeply for Stray… she had made him herself. Harpuia shook his head.
"It was nothing." He didn't think it was anything special, only the kindness he would give to any honorable enemy. He teleported away before Ciel could reply, back to HQ. He still had a great deal of work to do.
"Sage?" Harpuia looked up from a map, annoyed. There had been a second attack, less successful but just as violent as the first. They had driven off the monsters and kept the town mostly intact, but… several members of Fefnir's unit had been destroyed after the battle, because of the nanite disease. That fact forced him to patience, as he saw the one interrupting his plans was Fefnir, and he was looking tired and stressed. He had terminated his soldiers himself, as gently as possible, but it had been a horrible ordeal for all of them.
"Yes, Fefnir?" He asked as gently as he could. Fefnir raised a hand, rubbing his forehead and looking like he would rather not talk about whatever was on his mind, but had to do it anyway.
"Um… Sage, I hate to say this, but there's a resource we need to use." Harpuia felt confused, and frowned at Fefnir's reluctance. What could he be talking about? "The human battalions are immune to this crap. We really should start coordinating with them." Harpuia's face went stiff and cold.
"We will not put humans in danger," he snapped at Fefnir, all his suspicions about his origins coming back to his mind. Fefnir grinned darkly.
"A bit late for that, Sage. The Marines are already moving out." Fefnir traced a finger along the map. "The 4th is already being moved to San Fernando, and the air troops are… what?" Harpuia wasn't the only one giving him a strange look… so was Leviathan, who had just stepped into the room.
"How do you know all this?" Harpuia asked, staring at him. Fefnir shrugged, then grinned.
"Oh, just heard it here and there- OW! Fairy!" Fefnir rubbed the back of his neck, where Leviathan had smartly smacked him with her spear. "What the hell was that for?"
"Stop being an ass and answer the question," she told him briskly. "Trying to be mysterious just makes you look retarded." Fefnir grinned, and shook his head.
"You really know how to pump up a guy's ego… okay, okay!" He mock cringed away as she threatened him with her spear ago. "I have some contacts in the human forces. I figured they'd be moving, since we're sort of part of the problem, and I was right."
"Part of the problem?" Harpuia grumbled, but couldn't really disagree. From the human perspective, that was correct. "What do they think they're going to accomplish?" Fefnir shrugged.
"They know they're not as good as us, Harpuia, but they know they won't get co-opted by sludge, either. So they're going to do what they can." Much like the human police dealt with human criminals, the human military forces tended to deal with problems that involved humans… or sometimes, common Mavericks. They had always left Reploids up to Master X, and now Harpuia. But technically, Harpuia was not in charge of them and could not stop them if they chose to become involved. "And it'd be easier on all of us if we at least try to take their positions into account, since we haven't got enough soldiers to protect all the towns anyway." Fefnir's voice was surprisingly tart, and Harpuia gave him a glare. Leviathan looked rather bemused.
"Wow, Fefnir, you're actually thinking! And I thought you only used your head for head butts." Fefnir grinned, and tickled her, making her squeal.
"Don't spread it around, Fairy, you'll ruin my reput-awk!" Leviathan grabbed him, dragging him down and trying to put him into a headlock. Harpuia sighed, turning away from the roughhousing and going to make a call to the commander of the armed forces. Fefnir did have a point, even if he hated it. His forces were spread unacceptably thin in areas, and the human forces could make that up.
But he didn't like it at all.
Padrick came in just as he finished getting the information on the positions the human military was taking, and arranging them to maximum advantage. The small Reploid was looking rather tired… he'd been pulling double duty, gathering information for Harpuia as he tended to his regular duties. He gave Harpuia a salute that was still very good, but lacked its former crisp edge.
"Sir, I have some interesting matches between deceased humans and the Reploids with false histories." Harpuia nodded sharply, taking the folder Padrick was offering and flipping it open.
The very first dossier struck him like a blow. Harpuia looked blankly at the picture of a grinning, dark skinned man with close cropped, spiked blond hair. His shirt was a dark green tank top, his pants were camouflage and he was wearing dog tags. And he was so achingly familiar, it was painful to see.
"Fefnir…" Harpuia shook his head slowly in disbelief. The man in the picture had hazel eyes, not blood red, but that was really the only difference between him and the Guardian, when Fefnir wasn't wearing his armor. Fefnir even favored camouflage, on his time off. "Mark Rockenzik," Harpuia read the name, then forced himself to look over the rest of the biography. It was an impressive record of a career soldier who had signed up at sixteen, and served until the age of thirty-three. At the time of his 'death', which was recorded as being from a brain aneurysm, he had been a Master Sergeant.
The second dossier in the pile had a picture of Muffy. It was impossible to mistake that thin, gaunt face and huge eyes, even in a human. The picture showed her in a flight suit, leaning against a custom painted fighter jet. A name was painted on the side of the jet… Stingray. Her dossier showed that she was as heavily decorated as Fefnir, but she had come up through the air force. And Muffy was actually her real name, although as a human, her last name had been Tamarisk. Muffy Tamarisk.
All the dossier's were like that… even Leo Morn's. They had all been highly decorated, competent members of the armed forces. A few had biographies that looked a bit edited, and Harpuia caught the scent of secret missions and covert ops. Phantom's human history was full of places that didn't quite make sense, but Harpuia wasn't particularly surprised.
"Thank you, Padrick." Harpuia took the picture of Fefnir, and slowly stood up. "That will be all. As soon as our current situation is over, I will begin training you to take Phantom's place." Padrick smiled, and snapped off another salute.
"Thank you, sir!" He understood why it couldn't happen now… there was no time for the technicians to upgrade him, Harpuia to train him and a unit to be organized for a new Guardian. When the soon to be Guardian left the room, Harpuia stared down at the photograph, thinking.
He had the information, and confirmation of all his suspicions.
Now what should he do with it?