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Sindr had always considered herself as a moderately intelligent person. Her wit was often tempered by anger and sometimes by ego, but she could read long sentences, understood how her weapons worked and form battle plans with more steps than "run at enemy while screaming loudly and filling the air with metal". Such a mind was rare among grunts.
And this was also what made her current predicament very frustrating. After analysing her list of implants and cross referencing it with her current set-up, Ria and Sicarius had devolved into a garble of jargon and terms that she swore were made up by madmen. Sindr wanted to help. She herself wanted to understand what had happened to her, but by the Queens, how should she know what a parenchyma was and how it helped her do things? For all she knew, Ria was reciting some Tenno opera or a CORPUS cantina menu.

A part of her wanted to just get up and leave the two to their chattering, but she had offered to help Ria, and she kept her promises. Even if at present, that came down to nodding in feigned agreement when addressed or smiling when the Tenno gave her a pat. Still, sitting on her ass and looking at a screen full of numbers was about as stimulating as poking around in her eye socket. Her mind began to drift yet again. This time to the Snipetron she had left all alone in the other room. Weird how shiny it had been. Usually they were gunmetal grey, but this one was all bluish and even had that Tenno emblem on the stock. Could you get those customized? She wondered if maybe there was a way to make one for her… sure, she'd need a symbol or something first… or maybe Ria's name in Grineer cypher… would be nice to have a bit of her with you everywhere you went…

"Sindr?" A familiar voice asked carefully.

"What?" The Grineer yelped, yet again torn from her thoughts.

"Look, I appreciate that you want to help me, really. But if I also don't want to bore you." Ria said carefully "I'm sure there are tons of things that you'd rather do than hear me rattle on about-"

Sindr sighed and shook her head without looking up. "Nah, I promised that I'd help you and all."

"Yes, but… you know… I can always call you if I need your input." Ria offered gently "I wouldn't be mad if you went and did something else."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm fine. Honestly, I'd rather get bored here with you instead of stewing in my own doubts and questions alone…" Sindr answered and leaned slightly over so her side nestled against Ria's legs "I mean, I have no idea what you went on for the last half hour, so my guess if it's good or not is as good as any…"

The Tenno bit her lip. "Sicarius, can you do a double take on the silicates in the spinal line. That weave is pretty intricate. Double check with our Orokin archives. I think, I've seen this kind of lining before."

"Of course, Operator."

"While you do that, go into privacy mode."

There was the usual audible signal and for a moment, the room was filled only by the calmness of the slowly twisting minerals of the void crystals.

"Break time already?" Sindr asked neutrally and shifted a bit to stand up.

"Hey Sindr?"

"Hm?"

"How do you feel?"

"What?" Sindr turned and found a deep kind of worry in Ria's features.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine, I guess?" The Grineer answered with a bit of confusion "Did I miss something?"

Ria sighed. "No, I just… I'm sorry."

"Sure, be even more cryptic!"

"Is it so alien for me to ask you how you feel?" Ria groaned and her head dropped "Void! It is, isn't it?"

"Ok, stop! What the fuck is wrong now?"

"Nothing!" The Tenno moaned and threw her head back into her chair "I just figured that I am the most insensitive bitch in the whole solar system! Including both Queens and Cephalon Suda!"

"What? Just… WHAT?"

"Sindr, this is your body… and I've been digging around in it for hours now… without even addressing you!" Ria said with a scrunched up face "How do you feel? When I found you-"

"Don't!" The Grineer said quickly and firmly "Don't remind me."

"Look, if you're still scared-"

"Of course, I'm still scared!" Sindr interrupted again. She shook her head. "Look, I'm worried, but I also get that you probably know your shit and you'll do your best. Not much for me to contribute besides a nice ass."

"You know that you're much more than that." Ria said firmly. Sindr thought she heard a hint of desperation in it.

"Yeah, I know that." The Grineer said with a nod and a sigh. A wry smile danced over her lips. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like it though…"

The Tenno nodded slowly. "Do you want to talk?"

"Yes…" Sindr said and lowered her gaze "But I don't know what to say… Look, as much as I hate to say it, this is way beyond me. I have no idea what those fucking numbers even mean. But I do know that they are kinda important. And all I can do is trust you."

Ria nodded slowly. "I… sorry… I should have explained things to you. This is-"

"No." The Grineer said firmly and shook her head. "Look, I want this figured out within this decade. Teaching me advanced medicine on the side would just slow you down. I'm not educated enough and I never will be."

"Now you're just being lazy!" The Tenno groaned.

"What?"

"Seriously, you have more than enough brain to understand the basics." Ria said with a sigh "Sicarius won't have to do less calculations if I don't talk to you. And I want to include you in this. This is YOUR body after all!" The stopped for a moment "Even if I treated it a bit possessive…"

"Well, you found it and it is kinda yours, so let's forget that!" Sindr sighed and shook her head "So, what do you have so far?"

The Tenno pushed through a few menus and the screens changed. Suddenly, they showed a transparent representation of Sindr's torso with a few organs and details highlighted. "That's your cardiac system. You were cloned with a pretty good heart, so it shouldn't need the kind of improvement you got. You see, most nerves were basically replaced with a kind of silver-filament to make faster transmission possible. Especially between Sinus and A/V node."

"You lost me at 'good heart'…"

"Well, you have that and I accept no protest!" Ria said with a laugh and padded Sindr gently "But what this means is that your heart is capable of way faster and yet more rhythmic beating. Basically, you'd have all the merits of an adrenalin rush, but much calmer hands."

"That sounds useful…"

"Yes. Overall, several autonomic nervous systems were improved like that. Weirdly enough, most are less necessary and seem more like quality-of-life improvements."

"How so?"

"Well, you'll no longer have stomach aches or sore muscles or menstrual cramps or-"

"Wait? What are those?"

Ria stopped and shook her head. "Oh, right! You don't have ovaries. I was just reading down the list and all…"

"So? What are menstruals? Never heard that?"

"Menstruation. It's a roughly monthly occurrence where the female body expels an unfertilized egg together with a lot of tissue and blood." Ria said with a shrug "It's supposed to hurt a lot… I don't know. Mine were removed too. You don't get it without ovaries."

Sindr down at her belly. "Why bother with that?"

"The Grineer probably use the proto-eggs for future cloning and research." The Tenno mused neutrally "The amount a woman has is fixated at birth unlike the seed of men."

"Yeah, I know a lot about the latter…." The Grineer said with a grin.

"Sindr! GROSS!" Ria hissed, shaking her head in disgust.

Suddenly Sindr got serious and looked up. "What about yours? It's not a Tenno thing, right? That Lotus lady talked about getting pregnant and shit."

A wry smile spread over Ria's lips. "And you say that you're not smart…"

"If you don't want to-"

"No, it's fine." The Tenno interrupted quickly and sighed "My parents were poor… really poor. The Grineer workforce made it really hard for uneducated people to make a living. The Orokin lived in their high houses while we survived in hovels and under bridges. They had power and technology, we only had each other… so, you start selling…"

Sindr gave Ria a long and quiet look. "They sold your fucking organs?"

A dark laugh left the Tenno's lips. "Fucking organs…" she shook her head and her gaze dropped "Yeah, they did… and I was the lucky one. They just sold bits a pieces… my twin sister, they sold whole…"

Sindr's eyes went wide and her mouth gaped open. Almost instantly, she got up, grabbed the Tenno and lifted her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry for your loss! I'm sorry for bringing it up!" she said firmly "That's so horrible! I… I'm sorry!"

Ria let out a squeak at the sudden movement but was soon calmed and silenced by the tenderness of the embrace. "It's Ok!" she muttered, her legs dangling freely as she returned her hug.

"No, it's not!" Sindr said sadly and squeezed a bit tighter "You're not like me or my batch! They can't just make more of you." She sniffed audibly "You're like the Queens… and thinking of one of them losing the other… Fuck, Ria, I'm so sorry!"

The Tenno sucked in air. No matter how far she thought Sindr had gotten, there were these hints of the insidious brainwashing still lingering. The neural towers had removed the hard-coded fixtures but it would probably take months of deprograming to remove the emotional bridges. Even if she claimed it was just "being realistic", there was so much inducted subservience.
"It was long ago… and I can hardly remember most of it." Ria said slowly, nestling her head against Sindr's collarbone "Nothing to cry about… My sister is gone… and I had my revenge…"

"Did that fill the-"

"No! But it's more than most people get." Ria interrupted. The relaxation was shifting to tiredness. Being held like this… warm, safe and full of tenderness. "It's how it is… and it's a thing I've actually really dealt with… even if still stings from time to time…"

Sindr nodded slowly. "Ok… but… you know, I'm here for you."

The Tenno smiled and snuggled closer. "I know." The Grineer moved to release her bundle of content, but Ria stirred "Can you hold me a bit longer? I… this is just so…"

"What?" The Grineer asked carefully.

"I really like it when you carry me. Makes me feel safe." Ria mumbled.

"Lucky you that I'm so big and you're so cute…" Sindr said with a smile "I'll carry you whenever you want me to."

The Tenno pushed a little kiss onto the Grineer's neck. "If you turn me around, I can give you the rest of the rundown. You're way comfier than my chair…"

Sindr let out a giggle and moved Ria around until she was laying in her arms. The Tenno couldn't help but tremble a bit. Was this fluttering in her stomach how a newlywed bride felt when she was carried across the threshold or just the adrenaline?

"So, can I sit down at least?" Sindr asked while trying to ignore the goo-goo eyes she was receiving. It wasn't that she didn't like the fact that Ria liked her. But getting this kind of admiration from a person that was so obviously superior… it felt wrong.

"Sure…" Ria giggled and nestled her head against Sindr's shoulder after the Grineer had taken place on the blanket again. "So… where were we?"

"Mentruists, I think…"

"Oh right." Ria let out a laugh and continued "Your liver and kidney implants were completely replaced. You drug and poison resistance should be through the roof and your body should be able to survive with 3/4 of the water it used to need. Your spinal column had some small issues from birth. They fixed that with a metallic replacement. There is some strange silicate lining, but I've not found out what it does."

"Well, that's reassuring…"

"Otherwise, you're still pretty much as you were. The few other implants are mostly untouched or slightly improved. Sicarius whines about the documentation, but Void, you were not lying about Grineer doctors."

Sindr nodded. "So, why don't I have to hook up to my suit anymore?"

"Oh, that's because the implants are now getting their energy from and integrated Orokin cell and drainage is recycled in-"

"Ok, don't need to know that!"

Ria let out another giggle. "Sorry. Didn't mean to ruin the mood."

"We have a mood now? Why bother if we screw it up all the time?" Sindr asked with a wry smile "Honestly, we both are so fucked up, it's hard to believe we can get more than a sentence out…"

Ria let her head fall back and closed her eyes. Here she was, a post-human monster, held gently in the arms of a giant clone. "Yes… we really are… but you know… it could be worse." A bleeping sounded and Ria looked at her arm band. "Oh, Sicarius found a match!" she said with a smile and opened the hologram. Data flew by.

It had gotten worse!