"Stray." Ciel whispered as she looked at the monitors that still observed the containment area. It was just barely possible to tell who the Reploid had been, although that would end soon. Whatever the gel and shrub growths used to tell what was going on around them, it was not normal Reploid eyesight. One of Stray's eyes had cracked, letting a tendril of gel ooze down his face. It was a particularly horrific effect. A few tears slowly slid down Ciel's cheeks at the sight of the Reploid she had created, not very long ago.
"Ciel…" Zero put his arms around her, hugging her from behind. The brilliant scientist huddled in his arms, as if she was trying to get warm. No one blamed her for that reaction. The growths were truly horrific.
"He was so… so good, so kind, so brave." Ciel whispered softly. "He didn't deserve this."
"Yeah," Fefnir said with rough sympathy. "The kid had balls." Ciel looked up, eyes bright with anger… but then her expression softened as she realized Fefnir was sincere. For him, that was a great compliment.
"Yes, he did." Ciel took a deep breath, and pushed away from Zero, rubbing her cheeks and gathering herself. "Do you have the results on the DNA analysis yet?"
"Not yet, even thought I gave them hell," Leviathan said sourly. The analysis had top priority, and should have been in. "They say it's got a quad helix, but they want to double check everything." Ciel's eyes widened at that information.
Everything in Earth's evolutionary history had a double helix. No exceptions. There was nothing on Earth that used a quadruple helix, and nothing native ever would… so…
"Someone engineered it, or it's alien." Ciel voiced that last thought in a troubled tone of voice. "Or the lab has had a processing error." That would have to be an interesting error, though. Leviathan nodded.
"That's why they're rechecking. I doubt it's an error, though." Her tone was sour. "We should only be so lucky." She didn't like the thought of alien DNA anymore than Ciel did. It spoke of a problem that might even overshadow Weil, and that certainly took some doing. Ciel winced, but nodded.
"So what, this is invasion of the body snatchers? War of the Worlds?" Fefnir said disbelievingly. Leviathan scowled, and smacked his arm. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Shut up, it's not funny right now." Fefnir looked startled, but closed his mouth. He could see Leviathan was serious. "Ciel, I think we should start doing some shotgun tests to see what kills this stuff. Come on, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the team." Leviathan led Ciel to the rest of the scientists, who were all hard at work in analysis and tests. Zero watched silently, and Fefnir finally shrugged.
"Well, yeah… I should get back to my unit. See ya later."
"Call me if you have another attack," Zero requested, and Fefnir nodded. Zero would be as bored here as he was, but he couldn't leave Ciel alone… unless the bushes showed up again.
"Sure." He would be glad to have Zero by his side. If anyone was agile enough to destroy the things without becoming infected, it was the red terror. Fefnir grinned sourly to himself at the thought, as he walked out.
He still wasn't the red terror, and probably never would be. But… he could live with it. If he had to.
It was a little known fact, in Neo Arcadia as a whole, that every unit had a dedicated server devoted to their processing needs. Each of these networks was integrated with the other units', and the result was a swift and excellent data sharing device. This networking had many legitimate uses, and could be accessed remotely from many locations.
It also had several not-so-legitimate uses. In this area, Fefnir's unit, the Jin'en, made up the core of this use. However, it would have been grossly unfair to blame just them. In truth, Leviathan's unit, the Meikai, was far more responsible. With higher computer skills than Fefnir's hard-core warriors, they had concealed the extra load from those who would have looked askance upon their activities. Aided and abetted, of course, by their own unit leaders. Neither of whom felt any need to worry Harpuia over something so minor.
And even the Rekku army, Harpuia's unit, was involved. The games were just too popular to avoid spreading, and no one would have breathed a word of it to Harpuia… or, before him, Master X and Phantom. So, even as the armies practiced hard and readied themselves for a fight to the death… the game went on.
"Oh damn damn damn… across the sunny plains of Marduk…" Fefnir glowered at the screen, rapidly tapping a key to achieve a rapid fire effect, as he danced his character back, away from danger. It was not going particularly well. "Why did I think this was a good idea?"
Because we need the Amulet. A calm, cold voice sounded in his ear. He was wearing a headset that connected him to a small party net. They were the green team, one of ten that was trying to complete the quests of the game and stymie the others at the same time. Nothing was outlawed, including outright assassination, and a few of the teams had already been annihilated. Fefnir's was still going strong. Hold still.
"Are you nuts? It's right on me!" The monster in question was known as a Damncroc. Thirty feet of ground hugging, well-swimming, outright mean, they had a mouth that was full of teeth and a fierce urge to use them. The constant, near-torrential rain of this region and the fact that they were in a swamp was not helping at all.
Do it! Fefnir reluctantly obeyed… and the screen went wild with damage readings as a grenade exploded in the Damncroc's mouth. The head was blown apart, but his character absorbed a great deal of damage from stray fragments.
"Muffy, you nutcase! That fucking hurt!" Fefnir complained, evaluating his character's condition. He was a dark skinned male Reploid, with swirling red tattoos and barbaric red armor festooned with gold beads. Little blood splatters stained his face and armor… the graphics were quite realistic in portraying the injuries.
I knew your armor is very effective against explosive damage. If that thing had caught you, you would have been crushed. Muffy explained calmly, her avatar coming into view. She had chosen a form that had nothing to do with her physical body… she was a large, powerful woman, with chocolate brown skin and black hair in dreadlocks. She was wearing yellow goggles and bright blue lipstick, and armor that was extremely difficult to see in the swamp, browns and greens. Fefnir briefly wished he had gone for camouflage… but he had preferred proximity alarms. Like any advantage, camo costed extra.
WOOT! Woot woot woot! Came a sudden excited voice. The bridge is out, the bridge is out! Hahaha, Hook's cursing us! There were ways to "shout" at other players. Hey, sir, does your penis really look like-
"I'd rather not know what she's saying, Gumbo, thanks. I take it you got some of her team?" Fefnir asked with a grin. For Hook to bring out the best insults, she had to be really peeved.
Yessir got two of them going across the bridge! Hahaha, we're coming back! Came the enthusiastic reply. Fefnir nodded, and started moving again, Muffy beside him. The other two remaining members of his team had the only hovercycle left. They would catch up soon. Fefnir ignored Muffy's abstracted monologue with ease… although he snickered to himself as she gunned down another Damncroc, and started to sing. You are my sunshine… my only sunshine… you make me happy… when skies are grey…! With croc blood splattered across her armor, it was nicely psychotic.
The Amulet! Muffy breathed reverently as they entered a clearing. The golden amulet they were seeking was on a pedestal, in the middle of the clearing. Fefnir started towards it… then abruptly stopped, alarm bells tolling in his mind.
"Muffy, stop." Fefnir ordered her sharply, and she halted, surprised. "Let's wait for Gumbo. He has the espionage skillset."
You think this is a trap? We fought so hard to get here! Muffy protested, but stayed where she was. She respected Fefnir's instincts. He grinned, watching the screen.
"Yeah and look at how inviting it is. Remember the rules, Muff. 'If your mission is going too well, you're walking into an ambush.'"
Ahh, too true, too true. Across the plains of Marduk… under the sky so grey… we blast and slash, we fight and bleed… will we die this day? Fefnir arched an eyebrow at that impromptu poetry.
"That's actually pretty good, Muffy. Write it down and post it on the forum." Another well-kept secret was the forums they used to discuss the game and plan sessions. That poem would be good on the forums.
Before the hovercycle could arrive, though, the amulet and pedestal abruptly disappeared.
AMBUSH! Muffy and Fefnir immediately opened fire as another team erupted from the brush. They had quite cleverly planned the ambush, but realizing their prey would come no closer, they had been forced to attack at a suboptimal position. But Fefnir and Muffy were outnumbered… until a hovercycle blazed up, with Gumbo driving and his partner, a young female named Shivani manning the laser cannon and firing into the enemy.
No one died, but everyone was injured before the other team broke off contact. Fefnir grinned as Shivani began using her skills to tend to them. She was the medic of the team, and still possessed several nano-packs that greatly enhanced the healing of their human and Reploid characters.
The game they were playing was called Eternal War. With literally hundreds of settings, it required immense memory to run, but the result was spectacular. There were several different settings, including Assault Run, Deathmatch, and several others, but the one they were currently using was Timed Quest. Each team was competing thought the same areas to gain certain items, each attempting to achieve the best time. Five settings had been randomly chosen, and the teams randomly distributed in them to fight it out. When they finished with one setting, they were randomly warped to another. Finding the items required good reflexes and cleverness, as well as a hearty dose of paranoia since with the proper gear, which every one of them had, they could pinpoint other teams. It took skill to hide, even for a moment, but they had that too. It made the game fun and perilous.
Right now, the setting they had landed in was Marduk, the swamp world from hell. It was inhabited by beings known as Scummies, extremely tall, bulky aliens with skins that seemed to be covered in mucus. The game ran some primitive AI programs, so they could be dealt with and bargained with. However, plenty of them were enemy drones, tribesmen who took any incursions by outsiders negatively. The environment of Marduk also tended to wreak havoc on their weapons and armor, causing certain pieces of equipment to fail in the damp humidity. Not to mention the trials and tribulations of attempting to move swiftly in a swamp. It simply couldn't be done, unless you were willing to slash everything with a beam saber, an action that attracted predators. The only setting that most of the players felt was worse was the Beirut setting. The bloodiest setting of the game, it was full of enemies with guns.
In Eternal War, interestingly enough, the players could play either human or Reploid characters. There were certain advantages to being human that offset the lower amount of damage they could take. They got to take a greater number of skills, reflecting the longer time they had been alive than their Reploid counterparts. That made them useful for the technical specialties. In their party, Gumbo and Shivani were both playing humans for that advantage. Gumbo to get the technical and espionage skillsets, while Shivani had the linguistic, electronic and medical skillsets that would heal both Reploids and humans. That was a pure necessity, when the team was limited to four people. If Fefnir had had his way, there would have been six of them to spread the skill load over, and prevent critical failures. If either Gumbo or Shivani bought the farm, they would all be in trouble.
There was a sharp knock on Fefnir's door, and he spoke without looking up from the game. "Who is it?" The other players would hear him, but would understand that his question wasn't for them.
"Harpuia. May I come in?" Fefnir winced.
"Sage alert. Good luck, guys." Fefnir muttered into his headset, and winced again at a chorus of aw's from his three teammates. He logged off anyway, aborting himself from the current mission. If he tried to come back, he would have to wait until they finished the Marduk setting to join them in the next one. And if they started on that one before he got back on, he would be out of the game… it was the final setting. On the plus side, Muffy might be able to cover his absence, since they were both heavy combat types. Fefnir pulled off the headset and shoved it into the desk drawer, standing up. "Come in."
Harpuia entered the room, and promptly came to a halt, eyes widening as he looked at Fefnir. He was out of his armor, wearing a very familiar green tank top and camouflage pants. It was jarring, especially given the reason Harpuia had come to see him. He had finally decided that the only thing to do was follow Leviathan's suggestion and confront Fefnir directly. He certainly had the right questions to ask now.
"Anything I can help you with, Sage?" Fefnir asked, tilting his head to one side, red eyes curious. He was off duty, and had put in a very long day of work, so it was unlikely this had to do with their responsibilities. All three Guardians worked basically the same shift, but being the ones in charge, they were constantly on call. It was possible Harpuia wanted to invite him to some kind of activity, but… that was fairly rare. Harpuia's tastes for his time off ran towards quiet reading and recreational cooking. An exceedingly weird hobby for a Guardian, but no one was at all tempted to make fun of it, since very nice cookies tended to grace the break room on a regular basis. Harpuia had tried to teach him and Leviathan once, out of sheer boredom, but it had degenerated into a fight with the flour. A ton of fun, but Fefnir didn't think Harpuia would be eager to repeat the experience. And the expression on Harpuia's face, as he looked at him was… strange. Fefnir wasn't sure why. He usually didn't wear his armor in his own quarters, and Sage knew that.
"Fefnir," Harpuia started, then took a deep breath. "Or should I call you Mark?" Fefnir's face went blank with shock.
"H-how did you…?" Fefnir winced, then squared his shoulders. "No, you shouldn't. I was the S. Maj., everyone called me Rockenzik. Only my baby cousin called me Mark."
"So you're not denying it?" Harpuia said coldly, but with an aching heart. He almost wished Fefnir would, despite all the evidence. He didn't want to believe it was true, and confront his own doubts. Fefnir shrugged, then gave him a lopsided grin.
"No. What would be the point? How did you figure that out, though? I'm curious." He had figured that Harpuia was close to finding out the truth about Leo, and the anomalies in their histories, but he hadn't thought the Guardian would be able to tie them to their actual pasts.
"Padrick used pictures of your faces and scanned through all the databases. Our networks can handle that kind of comparison, you know." Harpuia was a bit vague on the details of how Padrick had done it, but he knew that was the general gist.
"Clever bastard," Fefnir said in an admiring tone. He respected good sneakiness, even if it wasn't something he could do well, except on the tactical level. Then he looked at Harpuia very seriously, his red eyes meeting Harpuia's green. "So what are you going to do about it, Sage?"
"Do?" Harpuia chewed his lip for a moment, then sighed. "What am I supposed to do with you, right now? Damn it, Fefnir, I've been putting human lives in danger for years! And I find out about it at exactly a time I can't afford to do anything about it." It was maddening, but the last thing he could afford right now was to lose the services of a quarter of his forces. To his surprise, Fefnir's face suddenly hardened.
"Harpuia, we are not humans." His tone was cold, hard, and Harpuia blinked at him in surprise. This was unlike Fefnir. "We signed away our rights when we joined the Translation project. Our human bodies died when we did this, and there's no going back for any of us, ever. In every way, for the rest of our lives, we are Reploids. Period. So don't you fucking dare start trying to protect us!" Harpuia stared at Fefnir, startled by the passion… almost rage in his voice. Fefnir met Harpuia's gaze, his eyes burning.
"Fefnir…" Harpuia started, then stopped and shook his head. "It's not just that. Haven't you thought about what this means?" Fefnir's expression turned puzzled, and Harpuia almost smiled. Of course he hasn't, he's still Fefnir. Fighting Fefnir… he doesn't think about things like this. But Harpuia tried to explain anyway. "I've done what I've done, enforcing Master X's decrees and retiring Mavericks, because I believed that we are inferior to humans. We're just… just copies of you, inferior copies. But if humans can become Reploids… Fefnir, what if I was wrong? How can we be inferior when you can become us?" Harpuia closed his eyes, unable to articulate his worst fear. That he was nothing but a mass murderer, the tool of a genocidal maniac and an oppressive regime. Could the Rebellion have been right, all this time, to try and destroy Neo Arcadia? No. No, we have worth, for all our flaws. Zero and Ciel may have been right, but Elpizo went too far.
Fefnir stared at Harpuia, feeling very uncomfortable. He shifted from one foot to the other, trying to think of what to say. "Sage… I don't know about that. I mean, you've seen my human record, right? I was a Sergeant Major in the Marines. I worked my way up from a grunt, and, well… we don't ask questions like that. 'Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die.'" Fefnir grinned as he quoted the old saying. Then he sobered. "But I do know one thing, Sage."
"What?" Harpuia asked dully, not hoping for any real help. But strangely, Fefnir did have something that was not soothing, but felt true.
"You can't do anything by looking behind and beating yourself up over the past. If you think you're wrong, accept it and move on." Fefnir rested a hand on Harpuia's shoulder, face serious. "But don't tear yourself up over it. It won't do any good."
"That's easy to say." Harpuia said, then winced at his own tone. He sounded almost… whiny, which definitely wasn't fitting for a Guardian. But Fefnir only shrugged.
"Everything in easy to say, but you just gotta do it, Sage." Fefnir paused, and frowned, trying to recall something. "I was never a religious man, but my mama told me, when I was a kid, that if you want forgiveness you've got to do two things… repent and repair. Just asking for forgiveness is crap, since it's nothing but words, but actions speak loudly."
"That's the whole point, Fefnir. I can't fix it, they're dead." All the Reploids he had helped retire briefly flashed through his mind. A look of pain crossed Fefnir's voice.
"Believe it or not, Sage, I know exactly what you mean by that." Harpuia shot him a disbelieving look, and Fefnir gave him that same, lopsided smile. "Friendly fire isn't, and we all have our moments. If all you can do is make sure it never happens again, that's all you can do." Harpuia was silent for a long moment, considering that. It was almost comforting.
"…Thank you, Fefnir." Harpuia finally said.
"You're welcome," Fefnir replied, then grinned. "Go bake something, it'll make you feel better." Harpuia frowned at him severely, but there was a sparkle of amusement in his eyes.
"Are you just wanting some chocolate chip cookies again?" Fefnir was notorious for stealing half of those from the break room every time Harpuia made them. The red Guardian grinned, not at all put out by the charge.
"Could be. Please?" He asked in a wheedling tone. Harpuia laughed softly, then smiled.
"I'll think about it." He left Fefnir's room, amazed to find that he felt better than he had in days…
Harpuia and Fefnir were unaware that as they spoke, someone else was contemplating plans involving the very same issues they were discussing.
Padrick smiled to himself. It was not a nice smile. In fact, it was a particularly nasty smile, the smile of a man who was considering a particularly evil plan and finding pleasure in the contemplation.
In truth, Padrick was not an evil person. As Leviathan had observed, he was a joy to have as a commander, sensitive and attentive to the needs of his troops. He regarded those in his charge with genuine care, and they responded well to him, giving him loyalty. He also led fearlessly, when the occasion arose. And he was extremely loyal to Neo Arcadia as a whole and Harpuia in particular. Padrick had a deep need to have an ultimate superior, and had no designs upon Harpuia's position. Instead, he gave the Guardian his devotion.
The same could not be said for Fefnir and Leviathan. Padrick was merciless in his competition with peers, far worse than Leviathan actually knew. She hadn't spotted all the strategies he had used against her… some had failed, and others had been too well hidden to be traced back to him. Phantom had known about his tendencies, and taken steps to let Padrick know what would happen to him if Phantom caught him at his games. Unfortunately, Harpuia hadn't realized what a double edged weapon he was holding, and hadn't taken the steps to ensure Fefnir and Leviathan's safety from Padrick's slippery, status-driven mind. The Guardian's were peers, but… he wanted to be first among them. And to do that, he would seize upon any weapon available.
Right now, there was nothing Padrick could use against Leviathan. But he had a weapon against Fefnir readily available. How would the public react, when they learned about the Translation project? That thought intrigued Padrick for its own sake, as well as the possible discredit to Fefnir's position. Padrick was an avid observer of human and Reploid nature, and he would enjoy watching the media firestorm that was sure to follow disclosure.
Of course, he couldn't simply take his files public. Harpuia would know who had leaked the information, and would dismiss him, if not execute him outright. But Padrick knew how to handle that. A careful word here and there, through intermediaries, and the media could be led to the proper information on their own. Phantom had taught him all the techniques with which to manipulate people, and the press was made up of people. It would be easy.
Padrick smiled again, then sighed regretfully. That was a project for the future. Right now, the safety of Neo Arcadia itself was at stake, and he would not jeopardize that.
But someday… someday soon… there would be no more secrets.