Part 1: New Life, New Rules

It was another seven years before Faust IX died.

The elder Faust had been showing his age even when Faust the Tenth had been born, so he wasn't surprised when the grey-haired old man finally couldn't get out of bed. He knew how he was supposed to behave, he'd read about it in the histories - there was always a period of mourning when one clone died and the next took his place, and everyone in the nation was supposed to wear black armbands for at least a month. Like most things dealing with Gartlant's ruler, the mourning was enforced.

Faust the Tenth found it very, very difficult to care.

He stood over the old man's bed, watching him breathe with the help of some machine one of Hess's earlier clones had dreamed up. The two Fausts glared at each other. That was nothing new; it'd been the majority of their communication for the past seven years. Once the elder Faust had realized that his heir didn't plan on continuing the traditional leadership, he'd threatened everything from exile to execution, but hadn't actually gone through with any of it. Young Faust guessed it was because the old man didn't want to risk having another clone around without Hess's memory machine. Either that, or Faust IX thought he might end up with something worse.

The past seven years had been difficult to say the least, young Faust thought as he looked down at the elder version of himself, making a mental note to get more sun so he wouldn't look so pale when it was his time to die. He'd made no secret of his plans to run Gartlant differently, and after the elder Faust had tried every threat he knew to get him to change his ways, he'd resorted to having Tiger tortured again.

Young Faust remembered that day with a grim smile. After finding out what the old man had done to the only person - he hardly thought of her as a marionette anymore - who was kind to him, the only person whom he had a reason to be kind to, Faust had walked up to the Ninth and punched him in the jaw. He remembered standing there, watching the old man reel back, and telling him that if anyone ever touched Tiger again, there'd be hell to pay.

"I'll destroy the records you have for us, all the genetic samples and stored memories," he had threatened. "I'll make sure there can't be a ruling Faust in Gartlant ever again. Then, when you die, I'll leave."

"Boy," the elder Faust had grumbled after regaining his footing, "you're a fool. I should have had you killed and another clone made a long time ago."

"Kind of late for that now, isn't it? I think even your people might revolt after learning about that, no matter how much you beat them down."

Thinking back, young Faust realized that it was probably one of their more pleasant conversations.

"Boy," the elder Faust wheezed as the two of them stared each other down, "I hope you know . . . I'll be watching, when I'm gone. I'll be watching . . . and I'll be laughing."

"Maybe you will," young Faust said, a cocky grin on his face. "But only because you'll realize how badly you screwed everything up. You won't be able to keep yourself from laughing."

Faust IX actually did laugh at that, a hoarse, rasping sound that echoed faintly in the medical room. "You still don't understand, you never did. You don't know why the memories are . . . so important." He squinted up at the younger Faust. "You don't know why you have to make--" He coughed, and his whole body shook. ". . . why you have to make the marionettes grow." He started coughing again, and clutched at his chest.

"Marionettes . . . grow?" Young Faust drew back, confused. Marionettes? He only had one, if he had to think of Tiger that way. The others were just the servant and combat drones, but they weren't much more than background in the palace. And even if he had more than one, how could marionettes grow? Tiger seemed to be alive at times, so Faust usually did his best to forget that she was a machine, but she'd always been the same height and everything. "What's that supposed to mean, grow?"

"It's the last thing you have to know, boy," the elder Faust said, spitting the last word, "so listen and make yourself good for something. Go to Hess's lab--"

Young Faust shivered at the idea. Even after seven years, Hess still gave him the creeps.

"-and find the others. They've been ready for years."

"The others?"

"Stop questioning me and promise you'll do it," Faust IX rasped.

"And what if I don't?" he asked, more out of habit than anything else.

The elder Faust paused for a moment, still glowering. His next words were soft, without most of his usual harshness. "Do you remember her, boy?"

The younger Faust blinked down at the elder, surprised at the change in tone. When he didn't say anything, the Ninth continued.

"Do you remember Lorelei? The woman that we've spent the past two hundred and ninety years trying to save?"

"Lorelei. . . ." Young Faust whispered the name, and let his mind trail back to the few images he remembered, the bits and pieces of time spent with a woman who looked just enough like Tiger for there to be a resemblance. There was something very important about her, he was sure of that. But when he tried to think of what, everything fell apart. "I remember her, sort of," he said after a moment. "What's so important?"

"She's the key," the elder Faust said quietly. "She's everything. Go to Hess's lab, and find the others, find the records from the First and Second." He coughed, his whole body shaking. "Promise me, boy."

The image of Lorelei flickered in and out of young Faust's mind, teasing him, making him want to know what her story was and why the Fausts before him had been so obsessed with her. He looked down at the old man, and nodded. He could do this, if only to satisfy his own curiosity. "I promise, Ninth," he said, trying for once not to sound contemptuous. "I'll find out what's going on."

He watched the older man sigh, and his breathing became shallow. "Wait," young Faust said. "About the marionettes growing, what did you mean?"

The elder Faust looked up at him, and for a moment, it looked like he was going to speak. The corners of his eyes crinkled up in what might have been a smile. He then closed his eyes, and a moment later he stopped breathing.

Young Faust hardly noticed as the machines around him stopped beeping and started shrieking, and paid no attention as a group of doctors rushed into the room. All he waited for was the pronouncement of death. When the doctors gave him the word, he turned and strode out of the room.

Tiger was there waiting for him; he wasn't surprised but was glad for her presence. She fell into step beside him without saying a word. The time when she'd walked behind him was long past, he'd asked her to walk by his side years ago and she always seemed glad to do so.

"He's dead," Faust said.

"I'm sorry, Faust-sama," she said.

He turned and grinned at her. "Don't lie to me," he said, and watched as she smiled back at him. "I need you to take me to Hess's lab, the old man said there's something I need to see there."

"Yes, Faust-sama."

"Any idea what it is?" he asked.

She nodded, and pushed her cap a bit back on her head. "Yes, Faust-sama," she said again. "But you have to see it yourself first. Will you forgive me for not telling you?"

"There's nothing to forgive, Tiger," he said, still grinning. "I told you, you're free to say what you think. And now that the old man's gone, you don't have to worry about being punished anymore. In fact," he said, putting a hand to his chin, "I think I'll make it a law that nobody can hit a marionette. They should have rights too, even if they're not programmed like you."

"I'd like that, Faust-sama," Tiger said, "but nobody outside the palace owns marionettes."

"I know," Faust said. "I'll work on that."

The two of them walked into one of the dark elevators, and Tiger tapped in a code once the doors closed. The elevator went down, down, down into the bowels of the palace, down past the bottom floor and storage levels. Faust was just starting to wonder how far down Hess kept his labs when the elevator finally came to a stop.

"How far below the palace are we?" he asked, turning to Tiger with an unsure look on his face.

"Seven floors, Faust-sama," Tiger said. "Hess requested it that way."

"Freak gets what he wants," Faust mused. He then glanced over at Tiger. "Don't tell him I said that."

"Of course not, Faust-sama," she said, stifling a chuckle. Faust made a mental note: now that he was in charge, whoever had programmed her to be more human was getting a promotion.

The elevator doors opened, and Faust looked out into an area the size of several of the palace's meeting and dining halls put together. The room was large enough for a fleet of tanks to drive through it, and considering what he knew of Gartlant's armies, it might have been used for that. Bizarre mechanical devices were set up all around the room. Some of them looked like new kinds of weaponry, others Faust really wasn't sure if he wanted to know. In one corner, what looked like a giant crab leg was sticking up from the floor.

Hess walked toward the two of them, heading over from one corner of the lab room. He looked the same as Faust always remembered him - tall, bald, and clad in a black coat, with strange mechanical sunglasses that he wore no matter how dark it was. Faust suppressed a shiver. Hess still creeped him out, that had never changed.

"Lord Faust," Hess said formally, coming to a stop a few feet away from the new fuhrer. "Welcome to my lab."

"Greetings, Hess," Faust said, also formal. "Faust the Ninth is dead. His last words were for me to speak to you, to find 'the others' and some notes from the first two Fausts."

"Ah," Hess said with a nod. "You choose an interesting time to start obeying him."

"Don't push it, Hess," Faust said, glaring at him. "I'm fuhrer now, you obey my orders or you get out. Take your pick."

"Very well, fuhrer. Please follow me." Hess turned on his heel and headed into the lab, Faust and Tiger behind him.

He led them to a blank wall, then pressed his hand against a certain place. The wall slid back, then opened to the side, revealing a hidden room. Bluish light shined from inside, and in the near distance, Faust saw two glowing ovals. For a moment, he was reminded of the cloning tank where he'd been born. Hess stepped into the room, and a few lights came on from the ceiling. The room was mostly empty, though a database computer sat against one wall and there was what looked like some kind of operating table in the back.

"There's much you don't know, fuhrer," Hess said as he walked toward the back of the room. "Had you the memories of those who've come before you, you'd know all of this."

Faust frowned. He'd avoided the subject of the others' memories ever since he'd told Tiger to destroy the machine, and he tried not to think about it too much. "Maybe if your machine hadn't broken," he said with a shrug, hoping to remind Hess of his place. He strode toward the back of the room, and came to a stop next to Hess. After letting his eyes adjust to the dim light, Faust looked at what was there and blinked in surprise.

Two marionettes lay in the pods, looking like they were sleeping peacefully. One of them had short blue hair that covered her eyes, and wore a suit similar to Tiger's, though with a higher cut to the coat and a very short skirt. Something about her face suggested a bizarre kind of wicked innocence. Faust wasn't quite sure how to reconcile that, and so looked to the other pod.

The marionette there was blonde, with hair mostly short except for one gigantic lock that stuck up nearly a foot above her head before falling down over her right eye, which had a blue star-shaped patch over it. She wasn't wearing a coat, but had the same overly large shoulder pads that the blue-haired marionette wore, and the pants she wore stuck out oddly to the sides. As he looked at her face, Faust thought she seemed somehow rough around the edges, and had the odd thought that she was the type to snore while she slept.

Faust glanced over to Hess and asked, "Who are they?"

"Marionettes that the first and second Fausts made," Hess said. "They've been down here for centuries, waiting until Faust felt it was the right time."

"He thought I was the right one?" Faust asked, trying to hide the doubt in his voice.

"I'm not sure," Hess said. "Perhaps the fuhrer before you was getting desperate." He stepped over to the computer terminal and pulled back one of the chairs in front of it. "It might be best, fuhrer, if you go through the information contained here. It can explain things more fully than I."

Faust nodded, and sat down at the computer. Tiger, of course, was by his side, standing and keeping an eye on things. Hess disappeared into the shadows, though Faust had a feeling that he'd be back as soon as he was needed.

The database looked much like the ones Faust had gone through as a kid, a massive index of historical information and so forth. He'd liked them better than the libraries, as the movies that the databases stored were usually more interesting than the dry texts. He opened the first menu, and saw a list of topics, some of which he'd never seen before.

'Mesopotamia' was familiar, of course; he knew of the spaceship that had brought his predecessor and five other men to Terra II. 'Lorelei' wasn't as familiar, but he had a few thoughts about what he'd find there. 'Maiden Circuit' was completely new to him.

"This could take a while," Faust said, partly to himself and partly to Tiger. She only nodded. Faust opened the first directory and started reading.

Five hours later, Faust leaned back in the chair and let out his breath all at once. He almost wished that he'd had Hess explain it all; things might have been more confusing until he got the whole story but at least he'd have been able to wrap his head around it slowly. It wasn't that he couldn't believe that his predecessor had been in love with Lorelei, he couldn't really blame him. The fact that the Mesopotamia had taken her hostage was a surprise, especially considering that she'd designed the computer in the first place. If she was such a genius, shouldn't she have put in some kind of safeguards against the machine taking over like that?

What he was having the hardest time coming to terms with was the concept of the maiden circuits. Based off of Lorelei's idea of three parts of her personality that had given the Mesopotamia life, the circuits were supposed to give marionettes emotions, make them able to feel and think for themselves. So, he thought, it wasn't some kind of programming that made Tiger so much more human than the other marionettes around the palace. The other goal of the maiden circuits was to make marionettes into something almost like humans so that they could, as the file said, 'assist in bringing Lorelei to Terra II.' Faust wasn't sure just what circuits were supposed to do for that, and something in the back of his mind - perhaps more of the clones' memories? - told him he didn't want to know.

That, of course, left Tiger and the other two marionettes. Their names hadn't been given, but he'd figured that GSM-01T was Tiger. GSM-02L and GSM-03P had to be the others, and all three of them were equipped with maiden circuits. However, the database also said that they had been programmed to be servants to Faust, and so would not have the same mindset that Lorelei's original design intended.

He had to wonder about that. If they were supposed to be human, or almost human, then why not let them act how they wanted, instead of programming them to follow someone else's whims and orders? It sounded a little too much like how he'd nearly had memories forced into him. Whether there was anything he could do about it, he wasn't sure.

Faust turned to Tiger, and asked, "Did you know all this?"

"Yes, Faust-sama," she said. "I was told everything about the maiden circuit, but told not to reveal it to you until you found out for yourself."

He leaned back in the chair, pushed his long blonde ponytail back over his shoulder, and put a hand to his chin. He had the sudden urge for a glass of wine, but shook it off, as it was something he'd always seen the old man do whenever he had something big to think about. It was all starting to make sense, he thought, but there was still one piece missing.

"Do you know," he asked Tiger, "what's meant by making the maiden circuit grow?" Despite the importance that the elder Faust had put on it, none of the notes had anything about what could make that happen.

"No, Faust-sama," she said. She paused, then put a hand over where her heart would be. "There are times, though, when I feel something inside me move, like something had. . . ." She trailed off, and looked down at Faust, then gave a small smile. "I'm sorry, Faust-sama, but I'm not sure what it is."

Faust didn't say anything, but nodded. She might be on to something. He'd have to be sure to have her tell him when it happened again. "Hess," he called.

"Yes, fuhrer?" Hess said, appearing from just over his shoulder.

Faust nearly jumped out of his chair. It took some effort for him to remain composed. "First, don't ever do that again. Second, awaken the other two marionettes."

Hess paused. "You're sure about this, fuhrer? There may have been a reason that your predecessors kept them--"

Faust stood and glared down at him. "Do it," he said through his teeth.

"Yes, fuhrer."

Some kind of vapor poured out of the two pods as Hess hit a switch that opened them both. Faust watched as the two marionettes within rose and stepped out. They stood in the room's perpetual shadows, and he could see their eyes glowing as their internal systems were fully activated. At his side, Tiger looked startled for a moment, but said nothing. After a moment, the two marionettes stepped forward, and they both fell to one knee.

"Faust-sama, I am Panther," the blonde one said. Her voice was much as he'd expected it to be, deeper and more mature than Tiger's. "I am here to serve you."

"Faust-sama, I am Luchs," the blue-haired one said. Her voice was lighter, and again the sense of some kind of dark naivete was there, along with a hint of mischievousness. "I am here to serve you."

Faust looked at Luchs, then at Panther, and felt his lip curl. So this was what his predecessor had programmed them to do, this was how they thought they had to be. Well, he'd have none of that.

"Stand, both of you," he said, doing his best to have a commanding voice. He'd seen the old man use it, and knew that people tended to listen to it. When the two marionettes had obeyed, he looked them in the eye one by one. It took some doing, as Luchs's hair mostly covered her eyes and he could only see one of Panther's, but he managed. "My first order to you both," he began, "is to stop with this 'I am here to serve you' crap. You both have maiden circuits, right?"

"Yes, Faust-sama," the two marionettes said in unison.

"I know you care for me," he said, more quietly than before. "So treat me like someone you care about, not someone you have to obey because you think you'll get punished. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Faust-sama." He thought he saw something like relief on their faces, but he couldn't quite be sure. The next thing he saw was a rather fierce expression on Panther's face as she leaped forward and hugged him so tight his ribs hurt.

"Urrgh!" he grunted, and took a step back so he didn't fall over. A moment later, Luchs stepped forward and latched onto his arm, while Tiger put her arms around him from behind.

Faust glanced over at Hess, who looked as surprised as Faust himself felt. It seemed the other marionettes' maiden circuits had certain things set a bit higher than Tiger did. He started to smile. He was sure he could learn to live with this. And, according to the notes, each of them had their own specialty, so they would be able to help him run Gartlant.

This could all turn out very well, he thought. Provided that he didn't end up with any broken ribs.