A.N. Due to overwhelming support on here and ao3 I decided to update. Keep in mind I have no plans for an actual plot so this will be shenanigans at most with a somewhat coercive story at best. I'll just try and work through this mini hospital arc before devolving into something more decent.
Dr. Einstein had lived a long life, working alongside the First Herrscher. It was why she and Tesla had even entertained the off helping the two. While yes, they had been threatened to do it, there was still something off. For starters the mere fact that they were asking for medical attention for three individuals who had fought against another Herrscher and the Herrscher herself was confusing. After all what kind of a person would go and heal their enemy, let alone go and threaten said enemies' allies into healing said, enemy.
The threat hadn't even been the first choice. When she had arrived back at the base, she had found the little girl waiting within her office with the 'True Void'. 'Thunder' had already gone to the medical bay to apply as much first aid as she could to stabilize them. HOV had made the offer of the core first as a show of good faith while she explained their situation. It was only when Einstein questioned refusing did the Herrscher decide to resort to threatening them.
"If you don't tend to their wound, then I'll show you what Hell truly looks like mophead," HOV had threatened. Surprisingly she did this while covering Kiana's ears, an attempt to let the girl keep her innocence, Einstein theorized. So, she agreed to tend to the group. Now she could only watch in intrigued at the two, hoping she made the right choice, wondering what Welt would have done.
Her observations of the two over the past two days while she tended to the injured allowed her to glimpse at certain aspects of them, that left her baffled to say the least. The Herrscher of the Void or at least the one calling herself that, was camped out the medical ward the whole time. Einstein expected it, she clearly was wary of the doctor even if they had wanted his help. What Einstein hadn't expected was how the Herrscher would entertain young Kiana.
The Herrscher would play games with the child, using the powers that once threatened the planet not too long ago, for her amusement. The lance and cubes that had previously been used as weapons were now operating to make a jungle gym of sorts for the girl to play on as a distraction. If the little girl was a ploy to get Einstein to save her parents, it was a damn good one. She already did owe Siegfeil and Cecilia, this was just icing on the cake.
The Thunder Herrscher was an oddity on her own. Off all the things Einstein expected the Herrscher cooking meals for her while she tended to the wounded was not one of them. She had even made snacks for Kiana who greatly enjoyed them. The only person who didn't seem to desire to eat the Thunder Herrscher's food was HOV.
For whatever reason, the two Herrscher though sharing some common goal seemed to be at odds with one another. Einstein noticed it whenever Kiana was absent, whether it was because she was in the bathroom or asleep. They would constantly shoot glares at one another, HOV even once deciding to shoot a lance at Thunder who got too close to Benares at one point. Einstein had actually been bold enough to question her action only for HOV to mutter, "Dragon stealing wannabe," under her breath.
Lastly and this one is what set Einstein off the most. It was the one situation that had left her with a million questions and no reasonable answers. Both Cecilia and Siegfied had been severely injured requiring some…delicate procedures such as bone marrow transplant and blood transfusions. Einstein had questioned if it would have been possible to contact people outside of the base for such procedures. She was shot down when HOV had volunteered to be the donor in both cases. What's more was that HOV had matched both, which brought a whole slew of other questions to Einstein, all of which was met with a resounding, 'You tell anyone, you record this anywhere, and I will make sure humanity ceases to be," The good doctor could only hope there was some rational reason behind this development.
Now with Cecilia regaining consciousness, Einstein was able to glean some more information on these bewildering individuals. Not directly but through their body language. The Herrscher of Thunder had been hesitant to tell Cecilia her name, opting to just go with her title. Additionally, upon observing the 3rd Herrscher, Einstein noted how she had stiffened, and her expressions had changed upon hearing the True Void's reveal. She had appeared disappointed before suppressing her emotions. Now the Doctor could only watch as things played out.
"What do you mean by 'True' Herrscher of Void," Cecilia questioned. Her tone was stern, not raising in volume in the slightest, to scare Kiana. The look Einstein saw her give the Herrscher though was anything but subtle. "Are you saying, Sirin was just supposed to be a decoy, some sort of scapegoat?" She questioned.
To Einstein's surprise, the Herrscher that once threatened to destroy humanity, to burn them to the ground. The Herrscher who had threatened her into silence with the power of nuke that was being contained on her person. The Herrscher was now backing back and seemed to start sweating under the glare of a bedridden woman who had only regained consciousness five minutes ago.
As if to has insult to injury it seemed the Herrscher of Thunder also realized her ally's distress and instead of helping decided to fan the flames. "Yes, K423, what did you mean by True Herrscher of the Void," She chuckled.
HOV glared at the Thunder if only briefly, Einstein feeling the murderous intent herself. Yet HOV didn't act on it. She didn't show any bravado or make any threats as she had done before. Instead, she seemed to stutter to try and rationalize her claim before the woman.
"Well…you see," HOV trailed off. Einstein assumed the Herrscher was trying to think of a good lie, or at least a good, twisted version of the truth but it seemed like her brain had been fried by Cecilia's gaze. "You know what…I'll answer these questions when everyone else wake-ups. Okay? Okay." And with that, she teleported out of the room in haste.
There was an awkward pause in the room as the trio all stared at the spot where the Herrscher had been. The silence was then broken as the Herrscher of Thunder broke into a fit of laughter. "I'd never thought I'd see the day," she said in between breaths.
Cecilia turned her attention to the Thunder Herrscher, her glare still as intense as before. The Thunder Herrscher's laughter seemed to die down, but she still seemed to fair better than her counterpart. "Can you answer my question then?" Cecilia asked.
"If you want to full story, you'll need to wait for her to tell you. It's not my place to say, ma'am," The Herrscher said respectfully. "What I can tell you though, is that the only real difference between Sirin and her is their age and power. Sirin is weaker, less skilled, and younger but other than that they are more or less the same." Thunder answered. 'In more ways than one'
"I assure you; we mean you no harm." Thunder informed "Well unless you either following Otto or Cocolia, then we mean lots of harm," she added.
"You saved three warriors who followed him, one of which was his granddaughter," Einstein pointed out. "Forgive me but it seems counter-intuitive to harming Otto,"
"Hey, Principal maybe his granddaughter but she's still a better human than that monster…and she's part honkai beast," Thunder answered defensively. It was only after she finished did Thunder realize what she had said. Before either could question her further, Thunder bolted out of the room. Not by running, she literally turned into a stream of lightning and zipped out. Once again, the room was left in awkward silence only for little Kiana to start clapping happily.
"Again, Again," She cheered expecting the two nice ladies to reappear.
"Cecilia," Einstein whispered. "Do you know those girls?" She asked warily. They buckled under the Valk's gaze. Despite having enough Honkai to blow up cities, they were instantly shut down by a single question and a slip-up. "They sure seem to know you and your family," One of them could potentially be a daughter of yours, ridiculous as it may sound.
"I've never met either of them," Cecilia answered honestly. She never met these girls but the familiarity the Herrscher of the Void had. She looks like Kiana, she sounds like Sirin, she seems to be an amalgamation of Sirin and Kiana's traits, but that didn't make sense. Cecilia had only accepted Sirin has her own a couple of days ago at most, and Kiana was only a year and a few months at best, why would this suppose stronger Herrscher be connected to them.
"Are you sure?" Einstein questioned.
"Positive," Cecilia answered. "I don't know them,"
"Very well," Einstein answered. She would need to contact Tesla about this.
"Where are we exactly?" Cecilia asked.
"We're in one of AE's more secure bases, that being said it's all but vacant except for us," Einstein informed. There hadn't been many people, to begin with, but it was easy to evacuate them with a few little lies.
"Are we hidden from Otto?" Cecilia questioned. She knew the Overseer must have been watching, so surely, he was aware of what transpired. The mere fact that the missile launch had been stopped and the Herrschers had rescued them should raise some alarms.
"As far as I know, he shouldn't have a reason to find us," Einstein explained. She brought up a tablet and showed a satellite feed of the base. Despite there being three Herrschers and a powerful Honkai Beast, the Honkai radiation was almost non-existent. The only explanation he can think of was two Herrschers absorbing and suppressing it.
"And Sirin?" Cecilia asked as she looked over the injured girl in the bed to her right. She was sleeping peacefully but that didn't ease her mind. She would have loved to hold her alongside Kiana right now.
"She's stable. Her cores are stabilized, she there is no risk of her overclocking," Einstein informed. "I've had special orders, to make sure nothing bad happens to her less I will be 'gutted and fed to the dragon'" The doctor informed.
"Which of the Herrschers made that threat?" Cecilia questioned.
"Both," Einstein answered. "Void threatened the gutting and the Thunder threatened to feed me to the dragon," Einstein informed. "After which, Void then went to put on some cartoons for Kiana and Thunder cooked dinner for us."
"Wait what?" Cecilia gasped. "Did you just say the Herrscher cooked for you?"
"And baked sweets for Kiana," Einstein added. "I don't know why, but whenever she's around they change. Void becomes far less threatening and just acts like a grumpy teenager. Thunder however becomes a doting sister and spoils the girl a lot. I even saw the two ready to fight each other because Kiana wanted sweets but didn't finish her dinner, Thunder was ready to give her, but Void said she had to eat dinner first."
"Okay," Cecilia answered suddenly feeling a little guilty for intimidating the Herrschers. A feeling that felt strange given that they seemed so content with threatening Einstein into submission. As if to further add to the confusion, the two Herrschers returned a couple of hours later….with Pizza boxes.
"Kitchen's out of stock, Doctor so we went and bought some pizzas with some…change we found laying around the base," The Herrscher of Thunder explained. "I assume you like Pepperoni," She questioned.
"If she doesn't then she can starve," The Herrscher of Void added.
"I could always give her your noodles," The Herrscher of Thunder retorted.
"I'll mount your cor-" HOV stopped when she saw Kiana looking at her. "I'll take your share if you do,"
Einstein cast a glance at Cecilia. The Valk realized as well how quickly the Herrscher's aggression faded when in front of Kiana.
"Oh Kiana, we also brought you this," The Herrscher of Thunder spoke, her tone had shifted to a lighter and softer tone, more befitting of an ordinary girl as she brought out a homu plushy for the child. Kiana's eyes widened as she took the toy and hugged it.
Cecilia and Einstein could have sworn they heard HOV mutter something. Thunder did as well as she turned to her fellow Herrscher. "Don't worry I didn't forget Sirin," Thunder muttered as she brought out a second plushie and rested it near the youngest Herrscher's bed. "There. Better?"
"Marginally," HOV answered with a huff.
"Forgive my rudeness," Einstein injected. "But how was the kitchen out of stock?"
The two shared a glance, knowing fully well what happened after they panicked. They had underestimated how ravenous their appetites had become and how much they would eat to also ease the stress of everything going on.
"Rat infestation, don't worry, it's taken care off," Thunder lied. Hoping the two women would not know she was lying. Einstein and Cecilia knew, but to avoid antagonizing the Herrschers anymore they'd drop it for now. They had issues to worry about like how to explain the situation to the others in the room when they woke up.
And unfortunately for them, the next patient to wake would cause a lot more violence when they woke up.